We needed evidence.

The team had held a meeting after Mitsuo's appearance on TV. After considering all of the recent circumstances, they had unanimously declared that Mitsuo was the suspect that we were looking for. It pained me to witness the seething rage that Kanji had reserved for him.

I didn't want to believe that Mitsuo was the killer. However, in light of everything that happened, I couldn't deny the possibility. I...just didn't know what to think anymore.

Regardless, I needed to collect information for Rise so that we could track him down and rescue him. Then, I would be able to ask him the things that I wanted to know.

Unfortunately, I was unable to contribute any information. I was amazed at how little I knew about Mitsuo considering the time we had spent together. What little I did know wouldn't help us much.

Kanji suggested I ask Dojima for information regarding the case.

"He's your uncle, right? Maybe he'd tell you something." Somehow, I didn't think that would happen.

Of course, Dojima refused to say a word about the case, which didn't surprise me a bit.

After some aimless wandering, I came upon Junes. To my surprise, I saw Adachi standing in the corner, mumbling to himself. I approached him, thinking maybe he knew something.

"Hm? Clues to catch the suspect?"

I nodded.

"If I tell you, will you keep quiet?"

I agreed. He looked around to make sure no one else was listening before speaking in a hushed whisper.

"He supposedly had a part-time job in the Shopping District."

I thanked him and was gone before he could say much else. I did hear him shout after me not to tell Dojima that he was here. Since he did give me some helpful information, I decided to honor his request.

I combed the Shopping District, stopping at every shop to ask the owner about any part-time workers. Most of the stores I visited insisted that they didn't hire part-time help, however.

I continued on without luck until I came to Souzai Daigaku, the "University of Side Dishes". I asked the woman at the counter the same question I'd been asking all day. She responded with surprise.

"W-Where'd you hear that? I told him not to tell anyone..."

He certainly hadn't told me. Regardless, it seemed like I had found the right place.

"...Anyway. Yes, he did work here for a short time. But that was a while ago."

I wondered exactly how long he'd been working here, and why this woman wouldn't want him to tell anybody about it. I listened as she reminisced about his time there.

"He said the person who worked here before him was his classmate during middle school..."

That caught my attention.

"I see that kid-his classmate-around here sometimes. Maybe you should talk to him when you see him."

It was fortunate that I'd come upon this information. I thanked the woman and started to leave.

"I don't know if you'll find him today," she called after me, "but he recently dyed his hair golden-brown, so he should be easy to spot."

I thanked her again as I left to resume my search.

I went back to the south part of the Shopping District, searching for anyone whose hair stood out. Then, in front of the Shiroku store, I saw someone who matched the woman's description. I approached the boy.

"Hm? You want to see my yearbook?"

He took out his yearbook and flipped through the pages, casually pointing out his friends and talking about how much his school "sucks". I interrupted him to ask about Mitsuo.

"Oh, are you looking for...him?" he asked me. "You wanna see his picture? You do, don't you?"

I nodded.

He gave me a huge grin. "Well, today's your lucky day, because me and my friends are going around showing it to everybody!" He took out the photo and handed it to me. "Want a copy?"

I took the picture from the boy and examined it. The person in the picture was indeed Mitsuo, and in it he was smiling vacantly. The boy had already begun to leave, but there was still something I wanted to know. I shouted after him, and he turned to face me with a questioning look.

I pointed to the picture. "Did you...know him?"

Suddenly, he had a guilty expression on his face. He looked around the area, as if somebody were watching him, then spoke. "Promise you won't tell anyone I said this, okay?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

I agreed, after which he let out a sigh.

"Yeah, we were friends, a long time ago. We used to go to the same school, and he would always be by himself. I thought it was pretty sad, so I would go and talk to him once in a while, and he turned out to be pretty cool. He had some neat stuff lying around his house, and he was actually pretty nice." The boy closed his eyes for a moment, as though he were experiencing a pleasant memory. "That is, until he started getting angry at everything."

That piqued my curiosity. I listened intently as he went on.

"He would start ranting about stupid stuff like the economy and the police and other stuff I didn't care about, but I stuck around out of pity. My other friends were always like 'Why do you hang out with that freak?' and eventually they just stopped talking to me. Soon, he was coming up with the weirdest excuses to be around me all the time. And then..."

He looked around again.

"...You swear you won't tell anybody?"

I nodded.

"...He tried to kiss me."

I was shocked. I had not expected something like that.

"Yeah, you can imagine that I was freaked out by that. So I told him that he was weird and that I didn't want to hang out with him anymore and just left. He started yelling after me, saying that he hated me and that I should go to hell. After that I refused to see him anymore. Figured he wasn't worth it. So we graduated, went to different schools, I got some new friends, and we never really talked to each other again."

I was silent. I didn't know what I could have said at that moment.

"Well, you've got your info," he said abruptly. "I hope you like that picture." And he walked away.

That was a lot more than I ever intended to find out. Either way, though, the picture would be more than enough for Rise to identify his location. Pocketing the picture, I headed back to Junes.