Sending a report to the Kougami Foundation with Philip's analysis of Eiji's most likely current location as the bottom of the Sea of Japan was one of the more uncomfortable things Shotaro had done, on a professional level. His recommendation that the next step include inquiries of morgues on the Japanese side of said ocean, just in case, was as much to put the ball in the Foundation's court as anything else. Shotaro had no desire to start contacting morgues.

Shotaro later felt he should have seen Satonaka's presence on his doorstep coming; she looked even less pleased to be there than she had on the previous occasion. "You have a meeting," she said.

The tablet she'd used to contact Kougami was nowhere in evidence.

"With me," she clarified. "The Kougami Foundation does not accept the results of your investigation as entirely accurate."

"I don't want to think they are, either," Shotaro began, but Satonaka just kept talking.

"While Mr. Kougami finds contacting morgues in the specified range to be acceptable, he also feels that contacting hospitals would be prudent."

"Of course he does." Shotaro resisted the urge to throw up his hands. "Of course he does."

Satonaka was gone almost before he finished speaking, closing the door with more force than necessary. Shotaro made faces at it and went to start contacting the facilities in question, which meant shouting for his partner.

"Do you know what I've learned over the last week?" Shotaro asked, staring at the ceiling.

"How many unidentified men in their early 20s show up in morgues?" Philip asked. Shotaro didn't think he was being sarcastic, but sometimes it was hard to tell.

"That too," Shotaro said. "I was going to say that I don't like morgues."

"Nobody likes morgues," Philip said absently. "At least you didn't have to learn how to match dental records."

"I will forever be grateful to you for fielding that one," Shotaro said. The man in question had washed up on a beach, without identification, and had probably drowned. The body hadn't been identifiable through either fingerprints or facial recognition, but it had been similar enough to Eiji that Shotaro had had to hunt down Eiji's dental records for comparison.

"I'm glad it wasn't Hino," Philip said softly. "I'm glad it wasn't the last time I saw him."

"Yeah, me too." Shotaro sat up straight for a moment, stretching his spine, and then leaned forward to fold his arms on top of his desk. He rested his chin on his forearms. "I'm beginning to think you might be right," he started to say, but he hadn't gotten more than a couple of syllables out before the phone rang almost directly in his ear. "Gyah!"

Philip reached over and picked up the receiver, answering smoothly and professionally. Shotaro narrowed his eyes. Philip never answered the phone; the least he could do would be to sound awkward when he did so that Shotaro had some sense of satisfaction. That he sounded pitch perfect was oh so slightly obnoxious. "Shotaro?" Philip waved a hand in front of Shotaro's face.

"What?"

"Open the laptop. A hospital in Sapporo has a picture they want to send us." Philip poked Shotaro's shoulder.

"I am, I am." The machine booted up more slowly than Shotaro would have liked; then again, if it was just going to disappoint him, it could take as long as it liked. "Wait, did you say hospital?"

"Open it," Philip said impatiently instead of answering the question.

Shotaro threw him what he thought was a sufficiently quelling look, but Philip just made impatient motions with his free hand. Laptop finally responding, Shotaro opened the email with the attachment in question. "It's him," he said. The picture was undeniably Eiji, unconscious or asleep, covered up to the neck with a white blanket. "Tell them we'll come pick him up, or identify him, or whatever they need."

"There's, uh, there's a problem with that," Philip said.

The message Shotaro sent to both Detective Izumi and to the Kougami Foundation was not prefaced by the statement Well, there's good news and bad news. Shotaro had more sense than that, no matter what the temptation. The good news, such as it was, was that Eiji had been admitted to a hospital in Sapporo on May 15th, unconscious and unresponsive but not needing life support, with no identification and very few personal possessions. The bad news was that Eiji had apparently simply gotten up and walked out of the hospital ten days later, a bare few hours before the phone call Philip had taken.

Slightly better news was that at some point, Eiji had designated Detective Izumi as his emergency contact and next of kin; Detective Izumi thought that had happened while Ankh had been using his body, although he felt Hina would have been a better choice. The end result was that both Shotaro and Detective Izumi were on a plane to Hokkaido a few hours later.

"So," Shotaro said, a few minutes into the flight.

"So," Detective Izumi said. "Can I assume that your partner is reviewing available footage from the surrounding area?"

"Um," Shotaro said. He liked to think that Philip's ability to access essentially any information that had been or could be transmitted via an internet connection was a morally gray area, but he suspected it was technically entirely illegal.

"If that were to happen, it could be helpful," Detective Izumi said. "Of course, I have no idea where information regarding Eiji's whereabouts might come from."

"If anything like that comes up," Shotaro said, "I'd be sure to share it."

"Of course," Detective Izumi said, settling back. "He wasn't caught on camera in the hospital itself," he added, sounding more relaxed. It was an odd combination with the clear worry. "He did take his clothes and personal possessions with him." He reached in his pocket for his phone, glancing up and down the aisle for a flight attendant before powering up the phone.

"Did you get his file?" Shotaro asked. Sensitive information wasn't something that Shotaro himself would have had access to, as a private detective, but Eiji's official next of kin was a different story.

"Yes." Detective Izumi nodded and spoke quietly enough to avoid being overheard. "He was found unconscious in a national park last Wednesday. The OOO driver was next to him, and he had several Core Medals and some Cell Medals in his pockets, although neither the EMTs nor the hospital staff knew what they were."

"Of course," Shotaro murmured.

"The hospital started filing paperwork to make him a ward of the state a week later, presumably to make decisions on his behalf, as no identification could be found and no one came looking for him." Detective Izumi paused. "That's probably irrelevant now."

"So that would have been just this past Wednesday," Shotaro said.

"Right." Detective Izumi nodded. "He'd been unconscious since he was brought in, vitals normal but very little electrical activity in the brain. Then, this morning, he and his belongings were gone. The hospital staff has no idea how, since he hasn't been responsive, much less awake or alert."

Shotaro glanced over to see Detective Izumi staring at his phone. "That's in the file?"

"It feels wrong to hope for a miracle," Detective Izumi said.

"Hope is never wrong," Shotaro said.

He had news to share of his own, once the plane landed and he powered up his own phone; Philip had gotten a short and grainy clip of Eiji walking down the street perhaps half a block away from the hospital, but he'd appended a question mark as if he weren't entirely sure it was Eiji. After watching the footage, Shotaro understood. "Detective Izumi," he said, and showed him.

In the footage, Eiji was stalking – and that was the correct verb – down the street, a small bag over one shoulder. His body language was all wrong; it was different enough that Shotaro kept having to look at the face to confirm that it did match what he remembered of Eiji. As if that weren't quite enough, between having his photograph taken to be sent to the Narumi Detective Agency and walking down the street, he'd inexplicably stopped to dye his hair blond.

Next to him, Detective Izumi froze. Shotaro glanced over at him, and then gently pulled him out of the center of the walkway. "That's not Eiji," Detective Izumi said, expression unreadable.

"You mean we came up here for the wrong person?" Shotaro's heart dropped.

"Not exactly." Detective Izumi looked up at the ceiling and then started walking rapidly toward the train station. Shotaro jogged to catch up. "It's Eiji's body," Detective Izumi said after a moment.

"I don't follow," Shotaro said.

"It's not Eiji in control of his body," Detective Izumi said. "It's Ankh."