Chapter 3: Gathering Evidence

The events of that night turned a possible theory into a very likely answer to our questions about the case, and the nagging sensation that my partner was a murderer became a persistent doubt.

However, investigations required more proof before action could be taken. Going in prematurely would be disastrous regardless of the case, as if Rune were innocent, it would erode her trust and damage our working relationship, and if she were guilty, it would give her an early warning to be more careful, or even slip away before being found out.

It meant that I would have more work to do before I could make any moves, but it also meant I would have more time to sort through my feelings.

Of course, this was entirely what my head was saying to me. In my heart, I liked Rune, saw quite a bit of myself in her, and appreciated having her input, her skills and her companionship on long and difficult cases. So I decided to ask her if she wanted to be my partner at the end of the case. I reasoned that if she were truly innocent, she and I would be a good fit as partners, as we were both highly skilled and worked well together.

Her response was noncommittal, but I didn't feel as though I was wasting my time by asking. She told me much about herself, having come from a bloody past to a more peaceful present, and being unsure of whether that place would be her home in the future.

Then, a part of me began to doubt my reasons for suspecting her. After telling me so much, how could she still be hiding an even darker secret? After suffering so much, why would she want to inflict even more pain on others?

I realized that the answers to those questions would not come from her direct admission, so I continued my research, and found out that she had, in fact been associated with Toredia in the past. But this further complicated the situation and raised more possibilities. Was she involved with what Toredia was doing? Was she responsible for hindering the investigation? Might she even be the mastermind herself? The information was enough to raise my suspicions, but not enough to provide me with the answers I sought. If any of these answers was "yes," her career would be over and she would be sent to prison, for hindering an investigation at best to murder at worst.

While she was doing maintenance on her gun, I placed a quick call to Ginga-san.

"Detective Nakajima speaking," she said.

"Ginga-san, it's me, Teana" I said.

"Hello, Teana, can I help you with something?" Ginga-san asked.

"Could you please let me know when Rune attempts to access information and try to keep an eye on her when you can? I looked into her background some more and she appears to be affiliated with Toredia."

"I understand," Ginga-san said. "She recently accessed some data about the former members of Mobile Division 6, but only had access to personnel. I think she might have been looking up you and Subaru."

"To what end, I wonder…" I said. "Ginga-san, I must be frank with you. Based on what I've uncovered, it's entirely likely that someone participating in the investigation is destroying evidence or otherwise impeding our progress. Runessa Magnus is our primary suspect."

"This is quite a disturbing possibility, to think we've been fooled by one of our own," Ginga-san said.

"And yet it might explain why we've been having trouble making headway," I said.

"Thank you for the warning, Teana; I'll do as you say," Ginga-san said. "I'm following up on some leads on Toredia; keep this information between us as much as you can."

The most painful part of reporting to Ginga-san was that I knew that my information was solid enough that I was no longer merely floating theories, but asking Ginga-san to consider Rune a possible suspect, and to act based on this information. It had come to the point where I could no longer deny or doubt my suspicions, but had to treat them with due seriousness.

From this point on, all my orders to Rune kept her within my sight or within the sight of someone who was to report back to me at all times. I kept her out of the more critical areas of the investigation, and limited the number of tasks she had that would take her elsewhere. Thankfully, with the number of people working on this, she was hard-pressed to notice how much her role was being reduced. Now the only step left was to find decisive evidence to determine what role she played in the incident.

Chasing Toredia was like hunting a ghost. Occasionally, we would see some trace of his presence or encounter some Mariage looking for him, but all of these paths led to dead ends. I began taking Rune's theories with a grain of salt, considering that she might have reason to keep us pointed in the wrong direction; if she were his mole, she would be winning as long as she kept us away from the truth while appearing competent. Of course, I had no reason to distrust Ginga-san, and she had no more luck. And while Rune was in a position to make things harder, there was no evidence to place her at the site of the killings; in fact, she often had an alibi. There were holes in the evidence that suggested tampering, but nothing to prove that she did it.

But if we captured Rune, what would she tell us? Would she lead us to Toredia? Was Toredia still alive, or did he even exist? And once we dealt with both of them, how could we permanently stop the Mariage?

Fortunately, the research of the eight-year-old Takamachi Vivio in the Infinite Library, combined with the efforts of Lutecia "Lu" Alpine, Otto and Deed yielded a surprising connection between Toredia and Jail Scaglietti, as well as the origins of the Mariage in the Dark King "Ixpelia". Ginga-san and Cinque, the latter of whom later became Ginga-san's partner, left to investigate what Scaglietti knew about this and find information that would lead us straight to the root of the problem.

The incident reached its climax before I could prove anything beyond Rune's affiliation with Toredia. A massive fire broke out at Marine Garden HQ, and Mariage were on the scene. It was in a class of its own and several times more dangerous and difficult than the prior incidents. At this point, if I was wrong about Rune being guilty, the true criminal- possibly Toredia himself- would seize the opportunity, with catastrophic results. And if I trusted Rune and turned out to be wrong about her, many innocent people would pay the price for my mistake.

Ginga-san contacted us from the orbital prison. According to her, Ixpellia had been found in Marine Garden, and was the producer of the control cores of the Mariage. If we controlled Ix, we could stop the attacks, but if Toredia seized control of Ix, he would have an army of Mariage at his command.

And then, the news I had been waiting for came in.

"Teana, I found out one more thing from Scaglietti at the end of our investigation," Ginga-san said. "Toredia Graze has been dead for four years; he cannot possibly be directly involved in this incident."

That single statement settled all my doubts and proved one suspicion that I had, one I had until this moment thought almost to be impossible. There had been no one else involved in this case. It had, from the beginning, been Rune who had carried out the killings by proxy, pretending to be Toredia while carrying on his plans. Playing both sides, she had advanced toward her goals, but now that we knew her strategy, it was time for it to end.

There was only one thing left for me to do: corner Runessa Magnus and prove once and for all that she was behind the killings.

Author's Note

Teana mentioned that her reason for realizing that Runessa was the culprit was because, after researching her background, she found her ties with Toredia. I personally believe that piece of information isn't enough on its own. She would have likely needed other proof, and I suspect that Ginga's finding out that Toredia was dead, which was uncovered around the time of the Marine Garden fire, would have been what Teana needed to confirm that Rune was not only involved with the killings, but was the mastermind behind them as well.

As for why Teana didn't act earlier, it's possible that she didn't have enough information to officially place Runess under arrest, but decided to minimize what Runessa could do on her own unsupervised until she could prove her guilt.