Begin!
~Normal POV
8/18 - Friday
When they returned to reality with Zenkichi, it was morning now. This was the first time they'd ever spent the entire night in the Metaverse, so all of them were feeling very drained as a result. There were no people outside the lab in reality any longer either.
"Oh man, it's finally hitting me…" Ryuji yawned.
"It's morning already? No wonder I feel so beat…" Ann whined.
"So, how did it go?" Zenkichi asked, excitedly. "Who was the Monarch? Was it really a local? Find anything on Madicce-?"
"We can tell you later…" Futaba interrupted, tiredly. "But now… I must sleep…"
Zenkichi took in their mood shift again and realized that going into the Metaverse must have drained all their energy. The fact that all of them had been awake for a full 24 hours likely didn't help either.
"Oh- looks like you guys had a real tough time in there. Wait here, I'll check out the route to the RV."
"We saw the Desires return so it should be safe," Akira said.
~...
Upon finding that the locals were back to normal, Zenkichi kindly allowed the gang to nap for a couple hours in the camper before they discussed anything yet. While they slept, he poked around the island a bit and asked around.
It was close to noon when the gang woke up again. Zenkichi hadn't returned to them yet. They set up their foldable table and waited outside the car for him while they talked.
"Why did the Desire manifest in the first place?" Yusuke asked. It was the first big question anyone had, so they may as well start there.
"Yeah- we never sent a calling card," Ann added.
"Actually, one was sent." Akira answered, simply. "Just not by us. Remember the tapes we found? Ubukata was told that his Desire would be stolen. That threat fulfilled the role of a calling card. And after Ubukata died, the Desire just… remained intact."
At this point, Zenkichi arrived. "Yo." He greeted. "You guys feel better now?"
"Very much so, thank you." Makoto answered. "How are the locals?"
"No worries." Zenkichi answered, smiling. "Seems like they all came to their senses. It's nothing but good times here again. Although, they all seem to have some pretty bad memory loss regarding the last few months…"
"So if we didn't find a Monarch here, why'd the locals treat the lab like that?" Ann asked. "Why'd they attack us?"
"The lab's experiments may be the cause," Morgana answered.
Zenkichi frowned. "Speaking of the Monarch- a body surfaced fitting his description. I stumbled across it myself, down at the base of the cliff near the lab. Name, Shuzo Ubukata. Some sort of bigshot A.I researcher- and director of the lab."
"Ah… I hoped I was wrong…" Akira said, frowning. "Cause of death?"
"Won't know until after the autopsy," Zenkichi said, "But based on where he was and what you told me about him on the way here… I'd say it was the fall that did it. It's very likely going to turn out suicide."
"That can't be…" Haru said, quietly.
"Another life ruined by whoever's masterminded this whole thing…" Ann added, sadly.
Zenkichi still seemed very composed. "Taking a dive to avoid Jail experimentation? Makes the most sense to me. Quite some time has passed since his death, but he still had some personal effects on him. I'll make sure they go with him when the coroner-"
"Dude, uh…" Ryuji interrupted.
Zenkichi turned to him. "What's wrong?"
"Gramps, you're… being pretty chill about all this heavy shit…"
Zenkichi re-examined everyone's downcast faces and nearly smacked himself. How could he be so tactless? He had momentarily forgotten that he was dealing with a bunch of kids. Kids who clearly weren't experienced with seeing or dealing with dead bodies. Such was the life of a cop…
"Oh… Ahem, good point. Well, it is my line of work and all. Anyway-" He tried to shift to a more uplifting side of the news. "I found the key to the facility on him. We can get inside now."
"But are you sure it's alright to do so?" Makoto asked, worriedly.
"It is now. Now that a body's turned up, that facility is prime investigation territory." Zenkichi explained. "No problem going in there at all. The only issue now is… there's a chance nothing's left. The locals told me about a bunch of trucks going up to the lab and outta there a while ago. It's pretty likely the scene's been wiped clean."
"Too bad they forgot the most basic rule of all: hiding the body." Akira said. "But let's check out the lab anyway. They might have left something behind."
~...
They searched through the lab high and low and all they found were piles of boxes filled with meaningless information. The only furniture left behind were lots of old desks and chairs. It wasn't until several minutes passed they finally got a lead. Futaba, with Sophia's assistance, found a treasure in the form of a USB drive in Ubukata's old office. While it was odd that something so valuable was overlooked, they chose not to question it. She quickly booted up her laptop to look through it.
"This is… a list of some sort?" Yusuke said, watching the screen over her shoulder. "Apparently, this drive holds nothing but people's names."
"Is it a list of the people working here?" Ryuji asked.
"No…" Makoto answered. "These names… These are famous- or otherwise- powerful people in all sorts of industries."
"Rich and famous people? Is it a list of sponsors?" Ann asked.
"Hm… I could have sworn I've seen all these names recently…" Futaba said, thinking intently.
Zenkichi perked up looking at one of the names. "Look- that one, Yoshikawa- he confessed to document tampering a few weeks ago!"
"And this one is the Sapporo Central councilman who confessed to bribery last month!" Makoto said, pointing it out for them.
"The person who had his heart changed by Mari-san? Then this list is…"
"A trail to the mastermind." Akira finished, "This drive contains the names of every person who's had their heart changed since this Jail thing started. Holy shit… ya gotta love it when the bad guys are so anal retentive they keep a list of their crimes."
"But why so many powerful figures?" Haru asked. "What exactly is being accomplished here?"
"That's still a mystery-" Zenkichi said, "I'm gonna need that USB for a while. I'm gonna snoop around the whole roster, from the bottom of the ladder on up."
"Ah, the tried and true method; find who benefits from the crime." Akira said.
"Bingo. It'll take time, but I swear I'll do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this," Zenkichi replied, firmly.
"That kinda swearing may be good and all, but you should probably go home to Akane every so often too," Futaba reminded him.
"I- I was gonna…"
"At any rate, you've helped us a great deal by now." Yusuke said, smiling.
"We got to crash at his place and he kept us from getting ambushed!" Futaba said, grinning.
"Nice work, Zenkichi!" Ann complimented.
"He seems like he's fitting in better too!" Ryuji added, slyly. "Whaddya say, feel like you're a Phantom Thief now?"
Zenkichi rolled his eyes playfully. "Why would I want to go from Public Security to national fugitive?"
He tried to ignore the fact that fitting in better with all these damn kids actually felt… kinda good. Was he going crazy or was it actually fun hanging out with a bunch of fugitives?
~End of Chapter
