(Here's the longest chapter yet to make up for the long wait!
As always, thank you again for your faves, comments, and messages. They keep me going, and I promise you, I'm going to see this through to the end. I've spent entirely too much time thinking it over and talking it over with my proofreader to just abandon it half-finished.
Also, we're just getting to the good part.
If you want to follow me on tumblr, my writing blog is philwritesstuff and my personal is aflirtingaccident.)
Sae was back to studying the case files when Naoto walked in. Her entrance drew no reaction from Sae, not even as she closed the door and strode up to stand right in front of her, arms folded. Sae, it seemed, was intent on ignoring the rest of the world.
Try all you like, you can't ignore me forever - nor can you ignore the consequences.
Normally, this kind of 'screw-you-I-do-what-I-want' defiance was something she loved about Sae. The level of determination it took to plant herself in the ground was impressive, borne from the struggles of the past few years - struggles she'd confided some about to Naoto on their many dinner dates ( Were those dates? she briefly asked herself). Were Naoto not so determined herself, the sheer sense of "do not trifle with me" radiating from Sae would've chased her right out of the office.
That kind of attitude made doing what Naoto had to do all the more difficult. Sae fought for her beliefs, and she had a stronger sense of justice than anyone Naoto knew. Her convictions were solid, and to see her start to dive into the deep end because of this case disturbed Naoto more than she could say.
Someone had to stand in her way. Being a friend meant supporting her, but it also meant metaphorically knocking some sense into her when she felt that Sae was straying from the path of justice. Standing up to someone with such iron will wasn't going to be easy, and her feelings for Sae only made it more complex. Still, somebody had to.
Yu stopped us when we all wanted to shove Namatame into the TV world. I have to stop her.
Or I at least have to try.
Naoto stood there for a moment, silent. When it became clear that Sae was going to pretend that she wasn't there, she sighed and leaned forward, placing her hands on the desk.
"What on earth are you doing, Sae?"
"What I have to," Sae replied tersely, eyes fixed on her laptop screen. "You made your view on that quite clear earlier. Have you changed your mind?"
Naoto narrowed her eyes. "No."
"Then you can leave." Sae jerked her head towards the door. "I have work to do."
"No."
Naoto saw the small twitch on Sae's face, and the withering glare Sae sent her way was thus not a surprise.
" Leave ," Sae growled.
"No!" Naoto stood up, folding her arms in front her, a small act of defiance. "I'm not going to let you go down this path. This is wrong , Sae, and you know it."
The glare continued. Naoto glared back, refusing to bend. "It's worse to continue to let the Phantom Thieves mock us in this way. If this is what it takes to find them, I must do it." She looked away, at the laptop screen. "I have an oath to uphold. Criminals must be punished."
What?!
"You have an oath to the law , Sae!" Naoto insisted, voice rising. "It does not give you license to trample procedure and judicial due process when you are desperate, nor does it give you right to overstep your bounds!"
"I have no other choice, Naoto!" Sae stated, louder than she perhaps wanted. Naoto could see the cracks in her facade forming. "If they refuse to play by normal rules, than neither can I."
I.
Just her.
Alone.
How can she not see how stupid this is?
"Do you even hear yourself?" Naoto asked, her own frustration bleeding through. "We have to follow the rules! That's what makes us the law! We follow them specifically because they do not, and if we throw them away to catch a criminal, we have already lost."
Sae stood up now, temper flaring, anger aimed squarely at Naoto. "The point is to catch criminals, Naoto! A conviction is all that matters at this point. I will solve this case, by any means necessary."
None of this is making sense. If she's so desperate for a conviction, why would she risk one by going so out of line? "It must be solved right , Sae! If a conviction is all that matters, why would you risk methods that could throw…"
And then it hit her.
It never would be thrown out.
The Phantom Thieves were popular with the public, but no one else. The government hated them. The police hated them. The judicial system hated them. Even if they changed the hearts of criminals to be better people, it meant nothing to the people in charge.
The police would go along with whatever Sae told them. She was new, but by now, they were enough of an embarrassment that whoever they caught, they would try and jail.
It's just a theory.
But it fit.
Corruption in the justice system was not unheard of, especially for Naoto, who had seen firsthand that the rich and powerful tended to get their way. Her own personal struggle against it had scored her a few victories in the name of justice, but just as many defeats. It was a bitter war against the elites, fought by those with honest hearts and iron wills.
Sae, it seemed, lacked one or both of those. There's no way she could've missed the corruption from where she was, and here she was, speaking of using and abusing the system just like the criminals it was supposed to punish.
"You can't be serious," Naoto stammered. "We're on the side of justice. If you force a conviction, if you falsify evidence and break every rule in the book, that makes you no better than them."
"We don't have the time," Sae said, simply but firmly, putting a strength in her tone. "We can't afford to follow the rulebook as these thieves hurt innocent people and make a mockery of our justice system."
The conviction behind those words was what finally put Naoto into a stunned silence. Sae Niijima was willing to throw everything out the window to catch the Phantom Thieves, ethics be damned.
Why won't she listen to me? Was our friendship meaningless to her? What is causing this?
Naoto didn't know. She knew Sae well, she thought, but not well enough to figure out where this sudden desire to throw out the rules was coming from. It was completely against everything Sae had said before.
Or, almost everything. Naoto knew that Sae didn't like where she was - even without asking, it was easy to see that she was displeased with parts of her job, despite her stellar conviction rate. She was young, taken for granted, and underappreciated, all things Naoto could relate to easily. Even now, with a public following and an impressive caselog, she was still routinely dismissed for her age or gender.
If Sae was willing to resort to such measures, perhaps there was more at stake here than simply catching some thieves.
It's desperation, then. That must be it.
Unless…
It was worth a shot to ask. Naoto softens, anger giving way to some measure of pity, of empathy, of wanting to understand.
"Sae, where is this all coming from? Is this because of the weekend? Did something happen?"
Internally, Naoto was sure that nothing had happened - and that was, perhaps, one of the problems. They had nothing. Hunches, a few cards, and citizen reports that rolled in by the hundreds, each as unreliable as the last. The Phantom Thieves were Japan's most popular thing at the moment, and that meant hell on the police trying to catch them. With no evidence and her superiors breathing down her neck, it was no wonder Sae was fixed on this road, for better or worse.
Sae was silent.
"Sae," Naoto started gently, "If this is about Friday night, I-"
The mere mention of the event made Sae stiffen, and she flung her arm out to the door. "Get out!"
"No!"
The word leapt from Naoto's lips before she thought it. If this was the last shot she had at helping Sae off this path, she was going all in. She'd stood her ground once, and the wrath of Sae Niijima did not scare her enough to make her run from it. She was not some poor assistant or newbie cop. She was a detective, and more importantly, she was Sae's friend.
"You can't just decide to throw away everything we've worked for, give me a worthless explanation, and then tell me to leave!" She leaned on the desk once more, out of worry rather than anger. "This is what friends do, Sae. They help each other, they lend a hand, and if needed, they call each other out when one of them is acting completely crazy!"
She took in a breath, using that time to think. "If I did something on Friday, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, then or the next morning. I'm sorry if I broke some kind of rule or went too far, but I'm not going to stand here and let you use that as an excuse to jerk me around. That's wrong, and you know it."
Sae continued to say nothing. Naoto was staring at her, studying every muscle, every microexpression, every twitch for an indication of what Sae was thinking. What she saw was a mixture of melancholy and anger.
"We can either talk about this like mature adults - like friends - or you can shut me out entirely and keep going down that path. If you do, I can't stop you, but I will fight you every step of the way, because I'm not going to let you do this to yourself."
Sae looked away from Naoto's pleading gaze, seemingly bothered by it.
This was it. This was the moment.
"I care about you, Sae." Anger and hurt gave way to vulnerability, a desperate plea. "I can't sit by and watch as you destroy yourself and everything you've worked for. Please, talk to me. Let me help.
"Please."
For a moment - a brief moment - Naoto saw Sae's mask drop, and there was pain. There was pain, and anguish, and sadness, and worry, and all the things Naoto would expect someone in Sae's position to have. Hope flickered in Naoto's chest that maybe, just maybe, she'd gotten through to Sae.
Then, Sae's gaze hardened, and it was gone.
Sae stood, walked over to the door, and opened it up, staring expectantly at Naoto. The message was clear.
Shit.
There was nothing more to be said. Sae had chosen her path, and Naoto had been left behind. With one last longing look, Naoto stepped out of the office and walked down the path to the elevator, trying to contain the ache in her chest.
She was on her own.
Using work to distract herself was an old trick for Naoto, one she was eager to repeat in the wake of her sort-of break up with Sae. The few attempts at communication she made went ignored, unless explicitly case-related, and even then Sae's replies were short, terse, and all business.
There were now three people working on this case, and none of them were bothering to work together. No wonder they hadn't caught the Phantom Thieves yet.
It didn't help that Akechi preferred to work solo by his own admission, something Naoto could understand. He also had school and other cases to worry about. Sae was a dead end, not even bothering to nod in Naoto's direction when they passed in the courthouse halls, and she too had other parts of her job to do. Naoto herself was consulting on a number of cases - the Phantom Thieves had been one of many things she was doing, but she made it a priority now.
Naoto also couldn't afford to work with Sae, not if Sae was going to taint the case in some way. Part of it was Naoto's principles, and part of it was practical - she didn't want to be implicated if it all went south, as unlikely as that was.
The thought of Sae in jail pained Naoto, but there was little Naoto could do. In their time together, she'd seen Sae's stubborn, unrelenting side. Her best hope - her only hope - was to find the Phantom Thieves before Sae did.
It helped that Sae didn't have the power she needed to brute force an arrest - she was a prosecutor, and she worked with the police, not as one of them. No matter what Sae's plan, she still had to assemble a case, however forged it was.
Still, the clock was ticking. Naoto spent the next three weeks staring at computer screens, filing information requests, and collating as much data as she could manage. Coffee became her drink of choice and her trash turned from food scraps into takeout boxes as she immersed herself into her work, determined to push this case forward with what she had.
Sae's career, and their friendship, depended on it.
Kobayakawa's murder had changed little aside from provide another Shujin connection to the increasingly large web, so Naoto put that aside and instead focused on her three new leads: Okumura Foods, Sojiro Sakura, and cognitive psience.
First, Okumura Foods. Sae had been doing some research, and Naoto had spent much of her time since the fallout with Sae gathering as much data about the mental shutdown victims as possible. Published articles chronicling the sudden rise of Okumura Foods were cross-referenced with news [pieces about mental shutdown deaths, and the police reports Naoto obtained provided greater insight. Sae was right - there was a definite link between the mental shutdown victims and Okumura Foods' rising fortunes, one that Naoto herself had failed to notice.
Given that she was focusing on the Phantom Thieves over the mental shutdown victims, that made sense.
Second, Sojiro Sakura, an ex-government employee who left the position to live and work at Leblanc Cafe. While employed, he'd been the liaison between the government and a subcontracted research facility. What exactly the research facility had been researching was classified to Naoto.
But not Akechi , she mused. Admittedly, she had her own connections and could've easily found out. It would only make sense for the boy to have his own.
Sojiro had left not too long after the death of one of the lead researches, Wakaba Isshiki. Isshiki had allegedly committed suicide a little over two years ago, killing herself by walking right into traffic.
Not jumped, or pushed. Walked. Calmly, according to eyewitness accounts. Had Kobayakawa not died in a virtually identical way earlier this week, such an unusual detail would've been seen as just that - unusual, but not important. Once was strange. Twice was a pattern. Given the method of death, it seemed likely to Naoto that whoever had killed Kobayakawa had also killed Isshiki - and, potentially, caused every one of the cases linked back to Okumura Foods.
As for the the Phantom Thieves, they had only started operating in April of this year, at the start of the school year. If Naoto's hunch about them being high schoolers was correct, it was extremely unlikely that the Phantom Thieves were behind Isshiki's murder.
Following Isshiki's death, Sakura had worked exclusively at Leblanc. Sae's visit had not gone well, according to Akechi, and he had no reason to lie to Naoto. Perhaps Sakura would speak with Naoto, if she asked nicely, on the third of her three areas of interest: cognitive psience.
What Akechi said was true, as Naoto found out: Sojiro had been working with Wakaba Isshiki at the research center on this strange topic, one that Naoto could find no information on. The project, and any findings thereof, was nowhere to be found. The only way Naoto was able to even prove Sakura and Isshiki were at the building at the same time was by digging up tax and employment records. Everything else was classified or simply not there, and Naoto wasn't sure if she wanted to press her contacts for access. All she had to go on was what Akechi had told her - it dealt with supernatural phenomena involving a 'cognitive world' inside of human minds.
The Midnight Channel was more-or-less exactly that, formed from the latent desires of humanity, and the places inside of it were created from the psyche of the individuals who went there (or were forced to go there). These places were, in essence, the minds of their subjects - a sort-of cognitive world, one that housed the owner's Shadow. Given how heavily linked Shadows were to their owner's mind, it wouldn't surprise Naoto if they were involved somehow, as minds were being either shutdown or burdened with guilt.
The Investigation Team had never killed a person's Shadow, or done anything other than defeat one and have it be accepted by their owner (or, in Mitsuo's case, denied - at which point it merely vanished, leaving Mitsuo seemingly unharmed). What happened if they had fully defeated a person's Shadow, turning it into the same black dust as all the other, unconnected Shadows?
Naoto didn't know. But she had an idea.
The more she started to draw the lines between everything, the more a clear picture began to emerge. Whoever was causing mental shutdowns had began two years ago, starting with Wakaba Isshiki herself. From there, they had perpetrated a large number of mental shutdowns, propelling Okumura Foods to prominence and success.
If the Phantom Thieves were aligned with this killer, then they were some kind of PR branch, meant to curry goodwill and give the police someone else to go after. If they weren't, that lead to even more questions, such as how the Phantom Thieves were changing hearts, and if they had anything to do with cognitive psience.
Three avenues to investigate, but all of them eventually lead to the same two people: Wakaba Isshiki and Sojiro Sakura.
She decided to visit Leblanc on the upcoming Friday night, but not before sending off a quick email to a friend of hers. Surely, Mitsuru would be able to shed some light on this.
It was a clear, cool night when Naoto pushed open the door of Leblanc, ten minutes before closing. The cafe was empty at this late hour, something Naoto had been hoping for. Electronic game sounds floated in from upstairs, and Naoto guessed that was Akira - his school files had this place as his residence. Sojiro was watching TV, some kind of talk show panel on the Phantom Thieves. That was all anybody was talking about these days.
Sojiro turned his attention from the TV as the bell above the door jingled, and at the sight of Naoto, he put on a warm smile. "Well, if it isn't the world famous Detective Prince again! Can I get you anything?"
Naoto smiled as she moved over to the counter, taking a seat in one of the stools. "Yes, but before you start making it, you should know that I'm here tonight on business. I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you, if that's all right. It's about the Phantom Thieves."
The smile died a little, and his suspicion was written clear across his face. "I'm not sure how much I can help you out about those, Detective. I only know what I hear on the news."
"Well, to be more specific, it's not about the Phantom Thieves themselves so much as it is about potentially related matters." She hesitated for a second, mulling over her choice of words. "As I understand, Sae Niijima was here some time ago to speak to you. I also understand that she was somewhat belligerent and confrontational.
Sojiro scoffed, folding his arms and glaring down at Naoto. "You got that right. What are you, here to apologize for her?"
"No, I'm not," she said as she gave a short shake of her head. "We're...not really working together anymore. She can apologize on her own time if she wants. I'm here with my own questions, and I was hoping you could provide some answers."
Sojiro opened his mouth to speak, but Naoto quickly raised a hand to interrupt him. "Before you say anything, I heard about what happened, and what she said. I assure you, I will make no such threats, to you, your family, or your livelihood. All I ask is that you hear me out. If you still don't want to tell me anything after, I'll get my coffee and leave you in peace. I promise you, Sakura-san, I'm not here to start a fight. I'm only here to try and figure out the truth, and nothing more."
I have to take a risk.
Sojiro studied Naoto for a moment, searching her, mulling over her words. Naoto patiently waited, looking back at Sojiro, hoping he could hear the truth in her words. The TV spoke on, talking about how Okumura held the number one spot in the Phan-Site's rankings at this moment, and if that meant they would target him.
A small meow caught Naoto's attention, and she glanced down to spot Morgana by her leg. With a small smile, she reached down to scritch at his neck. He rubbed up against her leg, purring, before settling down against her briefcase.
With a heavy sigh, Sojiro moved over to take a coffee mug from the drying racks. "What'll it be, Detective?"
"House blend, please," Naoto said, giving him a gentle smile. "And some curry, if there's some left." Sojiro nodded, then stepped over to the beans to get enough for the coffee.
"What do you want to know?" His distrust was still clear in his tone, but he wasn't kicking her out. That was enough for now.
"What was Wakaba Isshiki like? Can you tell me about her?"
Sojiro paused, caught off guard by the question, and he looked back at Naoto. Naoto was passive, the smile still on her lips. It took a moment for him to answer her, and when he did so, he wasn't looking at her. "She was...brilliant. Sharper than a sword and just as strong, she was so...talented, and generous, and caring. She was always thinking of other people, on how to make their lives better. She could talk about anything and make it seem interesting to you."
A tiny smile crinkled the corners of his mouth as he slid the beans into the grinder. "She was someone I wish everyone had gotten the chance to know."
Naoto nodded. "She reminds me of my mother. I wish everyone had gotten to know her, too - I think you would like her. She had that same kind of stubborn streak as you."
"Stubborn?" Sojiro asked, glancing back.
"Keeping this place open as long as you have? It's admirable, Sakura-san. Most others would've closed down by now, but I can respect your desire to stick around and keep doing your thing," Naoto clarified.
Sojiro hmm d in thought, then gave a sardonic chuckle. "I suppose that's a nice way to put it. After my last job, I figured it would be nice to unwind in a small, quiet part of town. I like the big city, so I didn't want to go too far from the bustle."
"You were a government employee, yes? You worked with Wakaba at a government-funded research facility?"
He nodded. "Yep. I was the bridge between the facility and the government, so I got regular updates and took care of anything that Wakaba needed for her research. Why do you ask?"
"Because I can't find out anything about the facility. The only reason I know you worked there at the same time as she did was from tax and hiring records. Everything else about the facility has been redacted, classified, or simply isn't there." She leaned forward onto the counter, folding her arms. "The only other thing I've found out about the facility is that they were researching something called 'cognitive psience', that's P-S-I-E-N-C-E. Whatever it is, there isn't much on it. I was hoping you could tell me what you know about it."
Another suspicious look. "If it's classified, it's for a good reason. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I have a feeling that it's related to the mental shutdowns."
Another long silence. Naoto said nothing, occasionally glancing over at the TV, the panelists voices mingling with the sounds of Sojiro's brewing. The smells from the process filled the already aromatic cafe, tinging Naoto's nose as she waited. Sojiro seemed to be mulling over the idea in his head, letting the time pass until he was ready to talk about it. It made sense - the last time someone had asked about this, they had threatened his custody over Futaba.
"I never understood the details," Sojiro finally said as he set the freshly brewed coffee down in front of Naoto. "Wakaba understood it better than anyone. I believe it had something to do with...cognitive worlds. Ways about how the brain sees things and people, and ways to enter those places - and maybe even change them. To be honest, it always sounded like science fiction, but they kept writing the checks to the researchers so I never complained."
Change their cognition...that sounds like what the Phantom Thieves could be doing.
"Change their...cognition?" Sojiro nodded, then stepped back into the kitchen to get the curry. "Interesting. These...cognitive worlds, as you called them. Would everyone have one?"
The man shrugged. "I don't know. As I said, I never understood the details, just bits and pieces from what Wakaba told me."
Naoto nodded, thoughtfully rubbing her chin. "I ask because...well, I'm sure by now you've heard about what happened to Shujin Academy's principal, yes? Kobayakawa?"
"Yeah. Suicide, right? They talked about it on the news." Sojiro set the curry plate down, then got to cleaning up his mess..
"Correct. That's what it was ruled." She glanced to the door, then reached down into her briefcase and pulled out a file, sliding it onto the desk. "I'm showing you this because I trust you. It's confidential for the time being."
Cautious, but also curious, Sojiro set down his rag and picked up the file, flipping it over to read through it. In the interval, Naoto started to eat. After a single bite, she did so with enthusiasm - she hadn't realized just how hungry she was for something that wasn't take out.
Eventually, Sojiro looked up at her, eyes narrowed. "A mental shutdown?"
She nodded, swallowing her current bite, and washing it down with a sip of coffee. "I found Wakaba's autopsy report. I apologize for prying as much as I did, but the more I read into her death, the more I started to see the connections. She and Kobayakawa both died in the same manner, under equally odd circumstances - suicide-by-traffic from previously stable people who had shown no signs of it, both of them seemingly indifferent to their oncoming deaths. Someone walking into traffic isn't unusual enough to warrant an investigation, but…"
"But two people doing so under the same suspicious circumstances is." He set the report down, staring at it as he processed everything, connecting his own dots. "You mean Wakaba was murdered?"
Naoto gave a slow, clear nod. "It's my hypothesis. We know what mental shutdowns are - had Wakaba died a month ago, we would've known what to classify it as. Surely you had your suspicions immediately after?"
Sojiro frowned, but he looked more sad than angry. "I...yes. It was too sudden, and the suicide note blaming Futaba...it seemed wrong. It didn't sound like her, and it made no sense, and…"
He sighed, then looked away, out the window. "Wakaba...right before she died, we went out drinking one night, and she told me that she might die in an odd way. I laughed it off, of course - who wouldn't? That kind of thing was so...unlikely. So out of the blue. Then, when it happened…"
Naoto leaned forward, meeting Sojiro's eyes. "All the more reason that I need to find this killer, Sakura-san. I now believe cognitive psience to be at the center of it. This isn't just about the Phantom Thieves anymore - this is about a murderer running loose, killing people using that research."
And now, the key question. "If possible, I need access to Wakaba's findings. The government has classified everything from that facility. If I could get my hands on it, it could be the key to unlocking this entire case. Can you get me in, or do you have a copy somewhere else I can look at?"
Sojiro's gentle shake of his head sent a cold feeling through Naoto. "I'm sorry, Shirogane-san. I can't help you. That research was stolen from the facility, and I don't have access to the backups, if they even exist."
The cold feeling settled in Naoto's chest. "Stolen?" Shit. "How long ago?"
"Around two years now. Not too long after Wakaba died, right before I left. With no research and a dead lead, there was little point in keeping the facility open. They closed it and classified everything."
"Of course." Typical government response . Naoto's fingers tightened up into fists as the cold feeling turned hot with a spark of frustration, but she took in a breath and let it out slowly, and with it, as much annoyance as she could muster. She had feared that this would be the case, but expecting it didn't make it any easier to process. "A dead end, then. Thanks anyway, Sakura-san. I may have to look into chasing the Thieves more than this killer - they may provide answers."
Sojiro nodded. "I…to be honest, Detective, I've had my suspicions for a while now. Wakaba would sometimes talk to me about changing someone's cognition. That it could theoretically cause...changes in people, but that doing so was impossible - cognition couldn't be altered by anyone except the self, as it relied on how…'how one perceives the world, and those in it', to quote Wakaba.
"When the Phantom Thieves started becoming famous, I thought...it sounded so similar, but there was no way it could be the same. Just a coincidence, right? And yet now there's so many coincidences." He sighed heavily. "I've been running for so long from all of this. I guess it had to catch up eventually."
He glanced over at Naoto, giving her a rather father-like smile. "I'm sorry I can't help you more, Detective. That's all I can remember for now. Do you have a number I can call if I think of anything else?"
Naoto nodded, then pulled a pen out of her briefcase and scribbled a number onto a nearby napkin. "This is my personal cell number. Call me anytime, Sakura-san."
Sojiro nodded. "I will, but I want you to promise me something in return, Detective. If you find the bastard who did this...show him no kindness. Lock him up, throw away the key, and, uh...give him a good punch for me, will you?"
Naoto smiled up at Sojiro, frustration ebbed away by now. Sure, it was a dead end, but it hadn't been entirely useless coming here. The coffee was fresh, the curry was delicious, and she'd gained an ally who had given her theory more weight. "Of course, Sakura-san. Thank you for the help. Would you mind me staying a bit past closing to finish the meal?"
He shook his head, then got back to cleaning. "Take your time, Detective."
As Naoto finished the food and drink, her mind wandered to how she'd even heard about cognitive psience in the first place - Akechi had mentioned it. Why, then, did Akechi not make the same connections as Naoto had? He was surely a clever man, or he wouldn't be where he is. Had he bothered taking this lead to the end, as she now had?
He must have, and he must have come up just as empty handed as she had. No research, no access, no way to go forward. All she had now was a working theory - albeit, one aided by Sojiro's information.
Whoever had stolen the research had killed Wakaba and used it to cause mental shutdowns by altering cognition - something that was supposed to be impossible. How they got that ability, she didn't know, but the Phantom Thieves had it too. The Thieves were changing hearts and reforming criminals, while the killer was causing mental shutdowns and breakdowns.
She had to find the Phantom Thieves, and fast. The longer they stayed in the shadows, the more danger they were in.
It was time to set a trap.
(Hi! This isn't the end of the chapter. As in Chapter 3, there's a text message conversation that had to be cut because otherwise some incredibly egotistical hall monitors would've tattled! You can read the full chapter over at AO3, specificially: works/10931373/chapters/29353461 )