Surprise-chapter, cutesy of zero-damage of reddit who had time to do his thing early.
Thanks for the feedback, as always. It's getting darker and grimmer again, just hang in there while we watch poor Naoto obsess more and more.
September 11th, 2011
Naoto woke an hour before dawn the day after their excursion.
Considering the state of her bed - a pillow on the floor; one pillow crumpled behind her; her sheets and blankets tangled - she must have had very animate dreams. However, as she blankly stared at the ceiling, she could not remember a single moment or image of what her night had brought. Possibly for the better.
She slowly pushed herself up into a seated position, running her hands over her face and through her hair. Her still-packed bag was discarded by the bedroom door. Her clothes strewn carelessly between door and bed. She had barely pulled on her pajama top before crawling into bed.
They had not arrived that late yesterday, but she felt drained and exhausted after entering her apartment. Frankly, she still did.
Her rooms were still in the same unruly state they had been in before she left on her trip. Clothing, papers, files on disk, discarded food wrappers – everything was a jumble. But at least she had not slept in her clothing, and even made it to her own bed instead of passing out on the couch again.
Most of yesterday, when she had the time to herself and wasn't being dragged about by Kujikawa-san, she spent pondering. The biggest question to solve right now: Could the murderer come from this group of teens; and if so, who was the originator and who was a follower?
With an exhausted sigh, she pulled herself from her bed and put on the missing pajama piece. Picking a patch around the disorder in her rooms, she made her way to the kitchen to salvage a Mad Bull from the fridge. Down to three cans now. Shopping may be a necessity soon.
Turning back to her living room, she opened her can. And stopped.
Naoto still refused to call it a mess, but… well. All available surfaces were covered in files and copies, maps and pictures. The floor. The table. It had even started to creep into her shelves. Anywhere she looked, things seemed to pile up without any sense or order, but in truth, she had a very specific structure in all of this. She did. For her new theory she would need a new space to start.
She drank, then thoughtfully caught the corner of her lower lip between her teeth. Over there, by the wall near the hallway.
She stepped over copies, pulled her foot through a stack of files to move them away a bit and made enough space to sit down. She pulled a note pad and pen from a neighboring sheaf of papers and lowered herself into sitting cross-legged. After another sip from her can, she started to catch her thoughts on paper as they stampeded through her brain.
Amagi. Had access to first victim. Attended school with second victim. Quiet. Composed. Well-mannered.
She scratched her neck with the back of the pen.
Hanamura. Supervisor of Konishi. Goes to class with Amagi. No known contact to first victim.
After a moment's thought, she connected the two with a line.
Satonaka. Inseparable from / close friend of Amagi. Very fit, possibly high physical prowess. Executive of the plot? Attends school with Hanamura and Amagi.
Another line was drawn, from Satonaka to Amagi. Then she continued to connect Satonaka and Hanamura.
Narukami. Transfer student. Nephew of Dojima-san. Most likely to have known the announcer Yamano from television. Considerable if we go by 'foreign element'-theory. Attends school with H A and S
More lines were added, linking the four cluters.
She pulled a line to divide the paper up in two halves and went on.
Tatsumi. Very fit. Appears easily bullied or swayed by others. Volatile temperament. Could be cohered or could have lost temper. Known to Konishi family. Befriended? Access to second victim?
She tapped the paper with her pen before hesitantly starting to draw a line, stopping after a moment and removing her pen from the paper again.
Kujikawa.
Naoto laid her pen on the pad and frowned. Neither Tatsumi nor Kujikawa seemed directly involved in this. And the youth-icon only appeared in Inaba after the murders. She could not be directly involved. None of the previous investigations had turned up any connection bringing her into the picture. Adding her now was preposterous.
She drew a line through Kujikawa.
Teddy. Unknown factor.
No background. No police records. And he, too, had only recently started showing up. After a moment's hesitation, she crossed out his name, too.
She picked up the can and drank slowly, looking at her notes. Haltingly she added Kubo to the lower part of the paper.
Kubo. Different high school. Apparently not in the circle of friends from YH. Unknown connection to the teens. Teens were present at Kubo's arrest, however. Framed?
She should find out if there was any further connection between these students. So far, she had not tried to investigate into Kubo's friends, providing he had any.
Her eyes wandered over the paper, back to the entry about Tatsumi.
Kanji Tatsumi. She could not picture him actually harming a woman. He was rough and loud and had a quick temper. But in each encounter with him, he seemed quiet and almost shy. However, simply discarding him based on a mere faint feeling of esteem towards the youth was a poor investigative approach.
Still, that intuitive feeling remained. If he was involved… he would have been made a tool by someone else.
Who would this someone else be? She picked up the pen again and tapped it on the note pad. Well, she saw Satonaka and Amagi visit him more than once. Further, Amagi was known to the Tatsumi family and quite possibly a regular customer herself. He also had brought her up while she inspected his cut scalp, so she must be on his mind for one reason or another.
With a sigh, she quickly drew a line between Tatsumi and Amagi.
From what Naoto had seen so far, Satonaka seemed to have a very protective stance towards Amagi. If something had happened to put Amagi into a compromised position, she would have taken action. So that leaves me with… Hm. Narukami.
She raked her brain for anything at all that she could add to his side of the scales to make him a viable subject. But he had arrived only shortly before the first murder, had no access to the victims beforehand and was likely to be under supervision during his first fortnight while living with his uncle.
Naoto crossed out Narukami.
She got back on her feet and dodged some more piles of papers on her way towards the bathroom. Draining the Mad Bull and tossing it carelessly into the trashcan there, she turned on the shower. She still felt edgy and restless. Maybe a quick shower would help get her thoughts on the correct route.
When the shower did not have the desired effect, Naoto got dressed and went out to wander the slowly waking town for a bit.
Naoto enjoyed high places. The view overlooking an area one gets from them, such as when climbing on a tree, was the absolute of the meaning 'changing perspective' to her. It helped her think, and as such she located the nearest rise over Inaba and started to stroll up. The sun had yet to come up behind the mountains as she left her apartment and she cool morning air had the delicate tang of early fall to it.
Her thoughts were still on her new theory. Was the true murderer one of the teens here in Inaba?
She was certain that she had narrowed it down to the correct names. Either one of the three; Amagi, Satonaka or Tatsumi; could be the perpetrator, or be involved in knowledge of the crime. Or, indeed, all three were somehow involved.
Scenario. Amagi wishes to harm Yamano. She ensures the opportunity and security of the place where the deed can be done. And in doing so somehow manages to escape the police. This gives Satonaka an opening to-
No. The police reports on her and her interviews showed nothing that would allow for that line of reasoning. Further, there was no motive.
Lifting her eyes from the sidewalk, she gazed to the mountains bordering the town on the far side of her hill. The sun had still not capped the peaks. She pulled up the collar of her shirt and turned towards the stairs leading up to the lookout point.
Scenario. Amagi voices a complaint or concern to Satonaka. Satonaka, seemingly uninvolved and thus not under observation by the police, secures Yamano and strikes at first opportunity. Being unable to arrange the near-ritualistic location of the body, she brings in Tatsumi to finalize-
No. No traces of any one, much less two people were found at the site. At least according to the records provided by the Inaba police. She still had her doubts that this had been recorded properly. If Adachi had been in charge of this, no one was likely to ever know. Further, the Amagi Inn had been quite busy before the murder. Assaulting Yamano there would cause some form of commentary.
She wandered on, eyeing the gazebo at the hill top and realizing she was headed towards it. Ignoring the gazebo to instead stand by the fence surrounded the hilltop; Naoto pushed her cap back and leaned lightly against the fence surrounding the site.
Scenario. Amagi finds compromising evidence of further the ongoing scandal while working at the inn. She and Satonaka try their hands at blackmail; fail, and have to scramble to resolve the matter. As they move the body, they are seen by Konishi, and they bring in Tatsumi to…
No, no, no. This also fails on the point of no traces.
Naoto frowned, leaning heavily against the fence. She also still could not shake the feeling that Tatsumi had nothing to do with this. But why she felt that way, she could not say. She had no proof that could be used to provide Tatsumi with an alibi – yet. She intended to search each of the three she singled out for motives, police records, and possible favorable circumstances they could have used.
She just had this … vague perception that Tatsumi simply was not the kind of person to be involved in this. As much as she hated to think in generalized terms; maybe that police officer a few months ago was correct. Tatsumi was no killer. He was a loudmouth, he was brash, and he had a temper if provoked. But he did not appear violent or unhinged enough to murder anyone.
His police records also do not indicate such dangerous behavior during previous encounters or any cautions that they would expect it in the future.
This meant her investigation should start with Satonaka. So far both she herself and the police had ignored the teen, so this could be the piece that had been missing from the overall depiction of the case; the element she had been hunting for in the last months.
All of this had started when she asked for help – but was hindered by the very people she had wanted to recruit into assisting her. Each encounter that resulted in their dismissal of her questions; every talk that turned into an attempt to attack her instead. They added up in her mind to a very guilty conscience. The desperate attempt to hide something from her.
But they had since done worse. They had mocked her. She was even more convinced now then she was two nights ago, that 'being drunk' was an act put on by the teens involved, too.
Emerging from her reflections, she heard steps crunch to a halt and turned her head. Tatsumi. Had he followed her? Was this where her estimation of him would be proven wrong after all?
Wonderful, Shirogane. Paranoid now, too? It's the same hesitant teen you bid fare-well at the station yesterday afternoon, after convincing him you'd manage quite well to return to your residence on your own. Not only that, she was very aware of her surroundings at all times. When she had arrived here, there was no one else. All along the way here she had been alone. He had simply chosen to appear here.
"Tatsumi," she said with a nod.
"Uh...hey." While he had appeared like he wanted to walk away again immediately, he slowly came closer, stopping some five meters from her. He slid his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders against a brief breeze. "You... uh, enjoying the weather?" He sounded helpless as he asked. No wonder, the sky was hung thick with grey clouds. The only reason she knew the sun had passed the mountain range was that now the clouds looked a little brighter.
The weather, apotheosis of a failing attempt at small talk. She turned back to look over the town. "Not particularly."
He looked up into the clouds. "Oh. Right."
She wanted to be more cordial with Tatsumi. He seemed like her best chance at finding a way out of this whole situation; the one to provide the last missing puzzle stones. But how deeply was he in league with the others? And how much could she trust him, if he really was involved?
"That trip was kinda neat, right?" he said quietly.
Naoto considered another honest answer to this one, but shifted forward to lean ponderously against the fence instead. She directed her frown at the Samagawa valley. Inaba was quiet at this time of morning. She saw few cars, heard nearly no noise carry through the dale up to the hill.
She fought a sudden surge of bitterness. Right here was the one person she had hoped to engage with to help her solve the Inaba case; an insider who could have cleared the situation up for her. But he, too, had proven unhelpful. In a mix of awkward and unhelpful, none of the teens she had encountered so far seemed to actually want to solve anything. And despite the outburst of both Hanamura and Kujikawa, she only saw a group of regular teens, playing foolish games. She saw no 'investigation team' in action; she saw no drive to solve anything. Only children playing at being involved in the world of adults.
Suddenly, Tatsumi had one of his random outbursts.
"Dammit, why're you-" She tensed a moment, readying herself against what the shift in temperament would bring. But the moment he snapped, his mouth clicked shut again. She didn't move to look at him and was rewarded for waiting out the storm of his emotions when he subsequently muttered "What's wrong?"
What's wrong, Tatsumi, is you. What's wrong is your group of friends. What's wrong is, in fact, everything. She scowled at the thoughts that formed as an immediate reply and thanked her tongue for holding that counter back.
When Naoto had collected herself enough to reply, her voice was flat and quiet. Tired, too, if she were honest with herself. "None of you are willing to help."
She head him shift, as if he wanted to step forward. "Help with what?"
She ignored his question. "Nor are you willing to be honest. If you were-" She shook her head, and tugged at the collar of her carefully tailored shirt. "Personas, shadows, televisions. Diversionary nonsense."
She pulled at her cap, bringing the brim further down still. She had arrived in the Yasogami prefecture with one goal in mind. Assist in solving a murder case. Possibly also further preventing harm to the people living in this town. And below them lay that city. Peaceful, quiet Inaba. Where the police were focused on bringing in any suspect at all, so long as they could pin the problem on them. A scapegoat which could allow the true murderer to escape justice.
And with her… one of the other group who were trying to prevent her from this goal. These children did not fully grasp the gravity of this situation. It possibly went back to them thinking this was a game, despite their protests regarding that observation several weeks ago.
Both she and Tatsumi had seemed lost in their own thoughts for a while. He had his lips pressed together, staring at the ground, at her, at the gazebo. He sounded unsure when he replied finally. "It - it ain't like that, Naoto."
No denial from him. But no confirmation of facts, either. Was this enough to try and recruit his help, maybe one last time?
"Tatsumi." Naoto still could not look at him. She needed to get an endorsement to her gut feeling first and could not afford the distraction of seeing his reaction to her question. Her instincts rebelled at the thought that he was embroiled in her grim theories. She wanted him to be her key, wanted him to be trustworthy. But wishes made for poor proof.
She leaned back a bit, her hands tightly around the top bar of the fence. "What is your involvement in this matter?"
The reply came quickly, but thickly paired with his typical nervous tell. "N-Nothing. Yukiko-senpai, she, she was just messin' around. You saw how she was."
She let go of the rail with one of her hands and turned her upper body to face him. Her eyes bored into his. Generally silence was an effective weapon against Kanji Tatsumi, and she deployed it without hesitation once more against him. For a long moment, she just stared at him, willing him to speak; her gaze alone trying to demand of him to open up; confess; free himself from the shadow of doubt.
Anything. Help me understand you. Help me believe in you.
But this time, aside from helplessness in his eyes, he held his counsel.
She turned away again in silence, resting her elbows on the fence.
"Look, Naoto - if y'need help with something - then I can, yeah? Just...not about this."
Not about this. Which this? He knew and she knew. They spoke of the same thing. And yet he would not acknowledge further information on the matter.
She had no choice. She would need to re-check his alibi alongside Amagi and Satonaka. She also would need to surrender her hope that he was an ally. He did not behave like one. At best, he was not opposing her, and that was as good as it got. It was not enough to re-embrace him as an accomplice in her investigation.
As her one last chance to not be alone in her efforts.
"I want to believe you are not-" She started to speak to him, but when she turned to face him, he was already gone.