From here on, things will get a slight more tricky for me, as I will try to stick close(ish) to the source material I am drawing my inspiration from. You'll see me try to re-use the exact dialogue that zero-damage set in "Shortest Distance...", while adding or removing things to try and cope with writing from Naoto's perspective. (Truth be told, this is now entering the area that has me to most nervous.)

I'd also like to give a shout-out to zero-damage on reddit (not the same person as the author); who most kindly took on being my proof-reader, after I tortured his soul with some of my previous chapters. I very, very much appreciate your help.

May 17th, 2011

Leaning against a telephone pole just outside the shrine in the central shopping district, Naoto browsed her note book. She would possibly do so several more times, burning the prepared list of questions into her mind. Opening any kind of note book needed to be avoided in front of Tatsumi, as chances were that he might bolt if he felt she was working with the police on anything directly involving him.

Her preparation for today had actually started last night, when she had gone to bed early.

She wanted to make sure her day would not be fruitless, which involved her keeping an eye on Tatsumi Textiles in the early morning; observing Kanji Tatsumi leaving the house, and seeing him head towards the flood plains – a popular path to school which students of Yasogami High took.

Satisfied that he would be there at the desired rendezvous time, she had then returned to the shopping district, collecting her morning data on the shops. It was very much in line with all previous days. Business at Shiroku consisted of workers stopping by for a pick-me-up in the mornings and students grabbing a snack in the afternoon. Patrons left the book store with newspapers; drivers refueled at the gas station. The south end of the road was healthy as it had been. The northern side, well. As the previous days, it was not as busy by far.

Her watch vibrated gently on her wrist. Pushing her arm forward to pull the sleeve back, she glanced at it to confirm the alarm. Three in the afternoon. Time to go.

She had decided on the path she would walk to the school last night. Starting from where she could have an eye on the textiles shop, she would take the route to school Kanji Tatsumi had taken in the morning. If he had changed his mind, left early or skipped school, she would know at once.

The day was overcast and gray, few people were walking the streets. The flood plains of the Samagawa were nearly empty. No surprise there, the weather forecast had spoken of an 80% chance of rain towards the evening. As the sky only grew darker with thick clouds, she started to wonder if not bringing an umbrella had been a miscalculation.

Now and again Inaba surprised her. Walking with her measured, long strides, she caught herself twice slowing down, looking out over the river. The water quality was apparently outstanding, with many species of fish being able to thrive. She had seen an older man cast out when walking home in the evening about a week ago. It was… She disliked such words, but it was idyllic. There was a certain ideal of the classic rural Japanese countryside coming to life here in Inaba. Clean air, clean water. Rice fields and a traditional inn.

And even a place like this could be the refuge of a murderer or even serial killer.

Running her questions back through her head, she picked up the pace again, following the hill up to the local high school.

As she approached the gates, she noticed that a lot of students lingered around the gates, chatting with friends, comparing notes, playing around on their phones. Talking here was fully out of the question.

She also saw the tall frame of Kanji Tatsumi walking up to the entrance. If she had to pick, she would have pegged his expression as slightly lost and uncomfortable. Allowing him to rethink the situation needed to be prevented. She had to press forward and keep the situation's momentum.

Walking up straight towards him, she saw his expression grow more anxious as he noticed her. "I didn't keep you waiting, I hope?" she said as soon as she reached him. He was tall already, and she was standing on a slope. Wonderful. Pulling herself up and opening her shoulders a bit, she tipped her chin up to look straight at him.

"No, I-I just got here, too…" Distressed. Anxious. He was probably afraid of being overhead.

She gave a quick nod, turned, and walked away from the entrance to the school. Naoto swallowed the relieved sigh as she heard steps following her almost at once. He did not want to stand at the gates. She would simply choose a more secluded spot near the floodplain for the interview. As carefully as her partner in this activity demanded, of course.

They were being tailed.

Stopping once to retie her boots, she glanced back around her arm and saw two teens watching them from a little ways away. Possibly just curious, because she was an unknown face talking to an extremely well known face. Well, that could not be helped now. They were too far away to interfere with her questions.

Walking side-by-side in silence for a while, Naoto slipped her hand into her coat pocket again, feeling the coldness of the small gas canister against her palm. He seemed calm enough right now, so maybe she was simply overly cautious. Maybe there was a pattern to his aggression that the police had failed to identify. What she had learned yesterday may have simply been his reaction to being genuinely startled. Many people reacted with aggression to that.

She turned her head, looking up at the youth. He is way too tall.

She caught him glancing at her worriedly, and snapping his head back when she gazed at him. She would not fathom how someone who could easily physically overpower her could be so nervous around her. She needed to make sure to project her intentions clearly in her bearing. Soothing. Calm. Everything in her posture should say: I am not going to be a threat, Tatsumi-san. Well, let's start off easy.

"Has anything unusual happened lately?" she asked.

He gave a dismissive grunt. Or was it affirmative? She stopped to look at him. A commanding presence might make him more talkative, so she made sure her eyes caught his and held him.

Or… thinking about his mother, he may simply be used to more manners than she had so far displayed. And then it hit her – she had not yet even introduced herself! No wonder the youth was cautious.

"I apologize, I haven't yet introduced myself." She pulled the hand from her pocket and held it out towards him. "Naoto Shirogane."

Her offered hand was taken limply and held more than actually shaken. "Uh - Kanji. T-Tatsumi. Kanji Tatsumi."

"I know." She said, releasing his hand and placing hers on her hip. "After all, I came to see you."

"To - to see me? Whoa, I-I'm not like that, okay? N-nothing like it!"

Nothing like… what? Had he figured her out already? Did he realize she was addressing him due to his police records? Maybe his mother had spoken of her to him and now he was worried…. Or… Ah. Yes. The TV report. It must have been very unfavorable for him. It most certainly weighed on his mind still. But in all of his protesting, he did not appear threatening. If anything, he appeared threatened. Curious.

"Wh-what? What're you looking at?" he snapped.

And there was his quicksilver temper right back on the forefront. Reading him was not as easy as she had first assumed. Either he was easily flustered, scared quickly… or was a master at acting. "You are an odd person, Kanji Tatsumi."

He shuffled his feet. He actually shuffled his feet, rubbing the back of his neck. With a shrug he then mumbled. "Wh-whatever. Just makin' sure, yeah?"

If this was the worst she had to expect of his temper, all her previous precautions were overbearing. He came across as actually kind of sensitive. Another new fact to keep in mind when dealing with him.

"Now, as I was asking before, Tatsumi-san" she began, walking in her long, measured stride again, "was there anything odd?" Taking control. Directing the conversation. And in all of this, she had to keep in mind to not seem threatening to him. Hah.

A grumble was his only response.

"What I mean is, have you, with the recent events in this town, had any especially negative or outstandingly positive encounters?"

He shrugged.

"No one approached you, no one demanded any services of you or any of your friends, perhaps?"

"Huh. Friends."

She peered at him from under her cap.

"Maybe the events earlier in the week-"

He shook his head and interjected. "Th-they were jus' botherin' ma. Had to…"

"Who disturbed your mother?"

"Th'bikers." Always a mumble. But he was on the wrong track as it is.

She needed to pull back and re-assess her approach.

"Tatsumi-san, I have no interest in the bikers. As I had said initially, my interest lies in you."

She flung her arm out towards him as she caught from the corner of her eye that he stumbled. Catching himself, ignoring her outstretched arm, he shot her another one of the startled glances and flushed. Too direct, perhaps. She needed to open him up somehow, but so far her approach to put him at his ease seemed to not work.

"Are you all right?"

An affirmative grunt.

This conversation became quite one-sided. Possibly trying to pry information from him at their first encounter had been too lofty a goal. Perhaps starting the interview with the goal of gathering information could already be called a failure. Establishing a more mutual bond, in a manner she would with a fellow investigator, could perhaps prove more fruitful.

Changing her stride into a slower walk, clasping her hands behind her back, Naoto changed the direction of the conversation. "How have you been in the last two weeks?"

When they reached the train station, she decided to allow him more space and terminate the current exchange. It had not been very informative, as he seemed distracted and had little, if anything, to contribute to their conversation. However, his stance had changed. The shoulders came down, his glances at her were less fearful and more curious now.

It has not been a waste of time however, as she had brought forth some bits of information. Yes, he was friends with the Konishi's son. No, they had not spoken in quite some time. Well, yes, they had, but not really (whatever that had meant). Yes, he knew the daughter of the Amagi's and that had actually been the Yukiko-girl. No, he had not heard any rumors at school because he 'din' listen to that crap', as he so eloquently had put it.

This was an adequate place to halt their meeting for today. She would sort the information she had discovered thanks to this talk and she might re-schedule for another meeting at a later point. Though she should ensure next time that the teen had some time to actually gather information in the school and possibly with his friends. Most of his answers were not too informative.

"Thank you for your time, Kanji Tatsumi," she said, tipped her cap and turned about to head back to her apartment.

"H-hey! Wait!" Tatsumi called out behind her.

She stopped and turned about, her hand sneaking into her pocket. A change in his behavior. From non-verbal or short-phrased communication to actually initiating contact. Had he remembered something about one of her earlier questions?

"Uh...c-can I-" he stopped and seemed to grumble something to himself. "I-I wanna see you again, okay?" His hands flexed into fists for a moment, then relaxed at once. He flushed and stared at her, almost as if he wanted to put forth a challenge.

This was a fortunate change indeed. If their chat had managed to turn from feeling frightened into being open to the idea of conversation with her, then she might have managed to gain the access she had set out to gain to begin with. Having Kanji Tatsumi as a source, she could also possibly gain access to Yukiko Amagi.

She eyed Kanji as she considered her options. Exchanging numbers did not seem to be the next correct move.. And addresses needed to be absolutely avoided. He could still become a suspect, and relinquishing access to her private data was out of the question. She also did not want the teen to feel like this was the beginning of any sort of actual friendship, as she had a purely professional interest in him, after all.

He seemed to slowly grow anxious at the wait. Not knowing the correct reply just yet, all Naoto decided to simply give a tight nod and close out this conversation by leaving.

"Uh - that - that's great!" He said out loud behind her. He raised his voice. "S'great! I-I'll see you, yeah?"

A strange character. But he seemed absolutely the person she had hoped to find. She just hoped his social awkwardness didn't mean that he struggled to actually communicate as badly as todays' meeting had implied. Or that he was unable to form meaningful connections with others – though according to himself and his mother he had formed friendships with the people she wanted access to.

She would check in by the store tomorrow, when she had decided on her next steps.

May 21st, 2011

NEED ADVICE CALL ME WHEN POSSIBLE

Sitting on the corner of her bed, Naoto looked at the phone in her hands. She ended up sending the text to her grampa after all. Every fiber of her being resented asking for help… but then, he was the elder Shirogane. He would possibly be able to assist her in finding what she had overlooked so far; spot the moment that it had gone wrong.

Had it been the day that Kanji Tatsumi had vanished? She could still kick herself for that mistake!

Being so certain, so sure that she had managed to hook Tatsumi as a new source of information, she had decided he did not need observation. She had gone to the station the following morning, prepared a new line of inquiry, researched some things online and sorted through the data she had noted down last night before bed.

When she stopped by the textiles store in the early evening to arrange a new meeting with Kanji Tatsumi, his mother informed her that he had been gone all night. So at some point after talking to her, he had disappeared somewhere. The place they had parted ways (WHY had she not tracked his movements after this?) had been a little ways away from his typical way home. Had a gang fight taken place? Had he injured himself?

She had spent the night at the station after this, pouring over reports of accidents, missing persons, suspicious activities – nothing. Nothing at all had come to light. Checking with the local hospitals had also not brought forth any trail of Kanji Tatsumi. He had just vanished.

Without him, she had been stuck. No progress at all had been made in the last five days now.

On top of that she had received another case file to review in the mail this morning and she had been asked for her input. Work now officially started to pile up and she needed some direction. This was a new situation to her, something she had not yet dealt with before.

She gave a small jump when her phone suddenly buzzed, then started to ring. She saw the caller ID and smiled as she opened her phone. "Grampa. Thank you for calling." She got up from her bed and walked into her living room.

"You know I will always make time for you, my dear. What can I help you with?"

Naoto ignored her sofa and sat down with her back to the wall. "The Inaba case. I have hit an impasse. I had a source located, but he vanished and I have been unable to locate him. I have spent weeks here now and my one break seems out of reach. On top of that, it seems you have sent me another new case..."

She heard him lean back into a leather chair – possibly in his study – as she spoke. She had his full attention and she could only hope he did not think poorly of her for not being able to address the case fully yet.

"I see. Naoto, sometimes a case cannot be solved as swiftly as many of the other ones we have addressed together or the ones I gave you to work on separately. Consider all a murderer could stand to lose. If they are stupid, catching them is a matter of weeks. But the Inaba case offers very little to go by. You may need to let the case rest-"

"Grampa, no! I cannot pos-"

"My dear, let me finish, please." There was only warm affection in his voice.

Naoto shook her head, knowing he would not be able to see it. "I apologize. I should not have interrupted you."

"That's all right. Naoto, listen. Sometimes you need to let a case rest for a few weeks or even months to ensure you can re-approach your clues with fresh eyes. I actually had send you this new case to review to let you do just that."

"I see. So you suggest that I change tracks for a while then?"

"Exactly. Work a few other cases. Keep your notes and everything else you have assembled, check in on your source now and again, but refocus your energies on something new. I am not asking you to abandon your work. But I am asking you to make sure you do not become frustrated. I realize this is something new for you, but it is vital for you to learn, if you wish to be an investigator. Every investigation can hit such points. Sometimes you need to delay the solution in order to gain new information, a new perspective, or simply allow yourself more time to find the idea you are trying to find too hard right that moment."

"I am not sure letting go of this case will be that easy." She pulled off her cap and leaned her head back, staring at the ceiling. "After all, this should not have been a difficult case at all. And… I already feel frustrated, Grampa."

He chuckled softly. "All the more reason to take a break now. Let me know what you make of the new case I send and I will call you in a few days. I have quite a bit of work I could use your help with."

"Do you want me to return to the estate then?"

"Not at all. I think living on your own for a while will do you good. You have everything you need, dear?"

"Yes, Grampa."

"Good. I love you. I will talk to you soon."

"Love you, Grampa. Thank you."