Shizuka

Aware that this hospital still needed to run outside of our investigations, I had only commandeered a few rooms to be used for our interviews. But generally speaking, this had always been a good place to bring victims and witnesses if need be, assuming that they were not seriously hurt. The only worry was that the increased police presence would make someone antsy enough to go to the media, and leak what was going on. It was hard enough with the publicity and hype around the new Hope's Peak, but certain journalists were already putting a lot of pressure on the investigation. I had not seen Otsuka Jihara around, but I would not be surprised if an article about our presence here appeared in newspapers or online in the next day or so. Or more than likely she'd attend the press conference that I had already contacted Media Relations about setting up in the next few days.

Since Azami had mentioned she was hungry, I made sure to stop by a vending machine, and give her some time to select something. I observed her as she did so. Her movements were more purposeful, she was clearly aware and engaged with the world. But there was still some caution, and indeed, she seemed to be holding herself too steadily. A couple of times she looked at me askance, almost suspiciously, but whatever worries she had, she didn't voice them.

She ate the snack bar she had selected as we made our way to the room. I knew one was being used by Juro and Evalynn to talk to Eizo, and Nobu was with Ayuna and Eikichi while Gabe was waiting for Friede to arrive. I was not intending this to be a serious interrogation, as such, but just to be sure, when I passed a detective-Hirawa- talking to one of the doctors, I had him come in with me.

"Take a seat, get yourself comfortable," I told Azami. "There's nothing to be worried about, at this stage."

Azami nodded warily-she was not buying it. But yet, she did indeed sit down and appear to try and get herself comfortable. She put the water bottle she'd also bought down on the little table, and looked at me.

"What do you want to ask me?"

"Let's just go through the formalities first. I'm going to record this interview, is that alright?"

"Wouldn't you be doing so anyway?" Azami asked, more curious than belligerent, though her shoulders tensed noticeably.

I nodded to acknowledge her point.

"Yes, but again, it is for procedure's sake." I explained.

"Oh."

Taking that as consent, Hirawa and I ran through the formalities, and then I started.

"Do you remember anyone mentioning that their ears hurt, or that they felt something strange about their ears? Particularly when you all first woke up."

Azami frowned, thinking.

"I think Akari did, and I feel like some others might have, but I don't remember anything. Although…" Azami sat up a little straighter. "I felt a little fuzzy headed, and I remember Kazama-kun and Nanakai-kun also saying they felt like that. And not everybody could remember exactly what happened before…well, before we got there…"

"I presume you are referring to the actual abduction."

Azami nodded.

"I don't remember it anymore, either."

Despite the recording, I wrote notes. This fit with one of the theories that we had come up with in the previous investigation-that after the students had been abducted, they had been drugged in order to get them to the Shirohata High School building. Most likely in different dosages, depending on how cooperative they had been when abducted. Or possibly if they had needed to be sedated to treat whatever had caused some of the unexplained scars some of the students-both dead and survivors-had on their bodies. There'd been a number of theories about that, too, but nothing had been pinpointed, whereas with the drugging we had been fairly sure it had happened, despite the fact that their bloodstreams had obviously held no traces of the drugs after all that time.

"Nothing at all?" Hirawa asked her.

Azami shook her head firmly.

"Let's take a different approach then," Hirawa said. "Shall we, Superintendent?"

"Yes."

I could understand why the detective was checking-my duties these days technically did not warrant me being on the frontline as such. However, I did not want simply to be a paper-pusher. I needed to show my detectives that I knew the responsibilities they had. Besides, there were some cases that I could not just sit by and delegate to others-I needed to be involved.

And by far, this was the case I needed to do that the most.

It was not as if this was the only unsolved case that I had ever dealt with, not by far. But there was something about this one that I really needed to solve. There were so many people that needed answers, me being the least of them. And the thought that someone had managed to escape justice and had been enjoying that freedom for 20 years that rightly should have been the victims' 20 years to enjoy growing up in? I was not the only one who hated that.

Keep a clear head, I reminded myself.

"Right," I began. "The Electro-IDs that you were all carrying when we rescued you, what did you use them for?"

Azami blinked.

"I…there were…." Azami frowned, taking on a far-away look, before refocusing. "Why? Didn't you look into them?"

"If you could just tell us what it was that you used them for?" I responded, not wanting to give everything away.

With someone else, I would have more than likely bought up the menu categories that had been discovered, and pressed hard about their meanings. Most likely, I would with the other survivors. But Azami was a different story.

"Has Kishinami-san responded at all?" I asked the doctor.

The doctor shook his head.

"Nope, not at all. She is showing normal physiological responses, but mentally is a different story. She will occasionally mumble something, but she isn't present in this room, at least not in a way that she can engage with us. Basically, what I am trying to say is, she's catatonic. Most likely it is a trauma response."

He turned to indicate the girl, who, apart from appearing to rock slightly, was sitting perfectly still in the chair, staring off into the distance but clearly not seeing anything. I watched her for a moment. She was dressed in hospital pyjamas now, and her hair was undone and flowing over her shoulders. As she rocked, a lock fell over her face, but she didn't react to it at all. It may not even have happened at all, from the way she remained locked in wherever it was her mind had taken her.

"Did she change herself?" she asked.

The doctor shook his head again.

"No, the nurses had to do it for her, in the end. Those friends of hers offered to help-I get the sense they've been helping this young lady a lot in that sense-but obviously we declined that."

"Okay. But how come she is in this state, and the others aren't? Yes, they are clearly traumatised, but they aren't catatonic."

"In the first place, I'd have thought it was obvious people react differently to trauma," the doctor said. "But as for specifics, I'd say that it has something to do with the loss of her sister. Akari, was that the sister's name?"

"Yes, that's right. How did you know?"

"It's one of the only discernible things in her mumbling-"

The doctor stopped as at that moment, Azami stopped rocking, and looked around her wildly, though it was not in the way of an alert person.

"Akari….Akari…?"

Then, something unintelligible, before she stilled again, and kept on looking straight ahead. The doctor sighed, and though he had been brisk and cold all this time, a flicker of sadness stole across his face, before he looked at me again and composed himself.

"More than likely, once we've managed to get her to eat, she'll be sedated to sleep." He informed me. "Whether she'll be in a state to ask any sort of question-well, we shall have to see, but it is unlikely."

"We needed them to get into our rooms-they sort of acted as really big hotel card keys. And also our kitchen. It was one of the rules, that we had to tap in when using the kitchen."

-RULES, I remembered, was one of the sections. To the best of my memory, that had not been mentioned specifically, but the fact they had to use them to get into those places I knew was old information. Still, I nodded encouragingly.

"Were those the rules of your captor?"

Azami tilted her head slightly, as if trying to detect if there was a trick or not. Eventually though, she nodded.

"What else?"

"There was a map of the school-floor by floor." Azami began. "And profiles of ourselves."

"Profiles?" Hirawa asked. "What do you mean about that?"

Azami frowned at us, this time as if wondering how it was we didn't know this already. Hirawa picked up on this, and while pretending to write something down himself, angled the pad at me. I glanced down as I waited for Azami to answer.

Should we explain that we're looking into the IDs?

I pondered this for a moment. I still did not want to give things away, and the information exchange between witnesses and detectives wasn't supposed to be an equal one. However, this witness was also essentially a victim, and victims deserved closure.

"Just information about us….our names, ages, Talents and things. Also our status if one of us…." Azami trembled slightly, but pulled herself together. "Why are you asking anyway? I don't understand."

"We are looking into the Electro-IDs again. "

At this, Azami sat up a little straighter, and her eyes widened.

"You're actually looking at them? You've seen what was on there?"

"We are looking into them," I repeated. "But that doesn't tell us what you did with them. How did you work them, for example?"

"Work them?" she asked, tremulously. "I mean, they needed charging every so often, but really we just put it off of sleep mode and just opened it."

"No passcode?"

"No….."Azami tapped her fingers against the table absently, then paused and shook her head decisively. "No, there wasn't. I could just tap it and I was in."

Again, her fingers tapped, seemingly absently, but she looked off into the distance, and the tapping became a little harder. Perhaps, in her mind, she was imagining the Electro-ID in her hands, and how she used it.

"Did you swipe the screen, the way you would do with an iPad?"

Azami shook her head, but didn't respond. Her eyes cleared, and she looked at me in some confusion. She shook her head again.

"No, I pressed." She insisted.

"Are you sure?" Hirawa asked.

Azami nodded firmly. I made a note of this, then exchanged a look with Hirawa. It was time to change tack, and I would let him take the lead with this one.

"Alright, Kishinami-san," he began. "What else do you remember about your captivity? The others around you, how were they acting?"

"I mean….we were scared. We were all scared, I'm sure. I think some of us showed it more than others-"

"How do you mean?" the detective asked.

"I….Akari thought that everyone was suspicious, from the get-go, and I was worried too, but I still wanted to give people the benefit of the doubt. But then….but then everyone started dying….and Akari…."

Azami gulped, taking in big deep breaths, and she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering violently. She actively seemed to be trying to still herself, so though the detective paused, I jumped straight in with the question that had formed immediately with Azami's words.

"What do you mean, everyone was suspicious? What reason would your sister have had to believe that?"

In all honesty, there were very few things that I had been able to safely say that I was certain of in this case. But of those few, one of them I was certain of was that the ones who had survived were not guilty of being the culprits. Of knowing more than they were telling us, and holding that back-for sure. Perhaps even assisting the responsible parties under duress. But the actual responsibility? No, that was not theirs.

But that did not prevent the possibility that it might have been the responsibility of one of the others. Which is why it was interesting that Azami had now said this about the situation they were in.

The detective repeated the question, but more softly, when Azami did not respond. She looked straight at us, eyes wide as if the question had just sunk in for her. She put her hands over her mouth for a moment, and then lowered them, placing them on the table, seeming to concentrate on laying them flat. Her whole body tensed.

"Kishinami-san?" I asked.

Again, there was no response. For whatever reason, this question had hit at something that scared her too much to be able to tell us. And from past experience with the rest of the survivors who had been so much more able to be questioned, I knew that there was no way to get past that block. At least, not yet.

"What are you getting at, that it's our fault that this happened, because we didn't have an adult with us?"

The defiance in Ayuna's eyes was still bright, despite the haunted look to them, the bags that had formed, the paleness of her face. She tugged at her somewhat baggy jacket and glared.

"That isn't what I am trying to sugges-" I started to say, but suddenly, Ayuna leant forward, glaring.

"Are you really that dense? I know we're 'just kids' and all that, but firstly, while we did want to go on our own, we didn't refuse an adult. Secondly, do you really think an adult would have helped in the situation? Do you actually think that the dudes who forced us to pull over and held Fumiaki-kun at gunpoint so he cou-"

Ayuna stopped abruptly at that, eyes widening momentarily, as if suddenly realising she should not be saying what she was saying. She clamped her mouth shut, lips thinning as I was given a mutinous glare.

But even with that thought in mind, I knew I had to keep trying. Yes, they were clearly scared and scarred by whatever had happened. But none of them were the vulnerable children we had rescued twenty years ago. They were all adults, they had all built lives. Even Azami, though I knew she needed more careful handling, had clearly achieved that. I would not dismiss the need for a softer approach like Nobuyuki's out of hand, but I would not pussyfoot around. This second chance couldn't go to waste.

"Leave that for the moment, Kishinami-san. Let's go back to the reactions that you said everyone had. Was there anyone at all who had a particularly…unusual response?"

Azami was still shaking, but she managed to consider that question for a moment.

"From what I remember, there was Yuki-kun-he was really like a child, he didn't understand that everything was real. He just thought it was a silly game. Poor Yuri-chan, she was always having to make sure that he didn't get into trouble. Eizo, he was a little like that. Not exactly-he knew everything was real, but he joked about it at first, he thought that we'd be rescued straight away, that it'd be fine. He stopped believing that after Fumiaki-kun died, though. Hanamura-kun sort of kept things close to his chest, he could seem rather stern-he didn't have much time for Yuki-kun, but I think he really just wanted to keep us calm. Seiko-chan worked with him a bit, in that sense."

Azami stopped at that point, thinking about it. I supposed, depending on when exactly it was Akari had died, that she really only had a few days, a couple weeks at most worth of memories to draw from.

"Did you ever have any reason to suspect any of them might have known more about what was going on, particularly as your classmates started to die?" I decided to directly ask.

Azami shook her head cautiously.

"I don't understand what you are asking."

"You mentioned that your sister thought everyone was suspicious-was that because there was a possibility they were perhaps aiding your captor in the deaths of your classmates?"

"I don't…." Understanding of some sort suddenly bloomed on Azami's face, and she paused before shaking her head rapidly. "No, he wouldn't have. He wouldn't have."

He? I hadn't specifically been asking about anyone in particular, so it was interesting that Azami had straight away thought of someone specific.

"Who do you mean, Kishinami-san?" Hirawa asked.

Azami was trembling again, and she shook her head. She started to rock slightly.

"Aozaki-kun, what do you mean? Is that how you were taken to the abandoned building of Shirohata High School?"

The glare didn't abate, even as she straightened. Her hands trembled as she reached for her glass, but she didn't seem aware of it. Instead, as she lifted it off the table, it slipped from her hands, and shattered against the table, splashing water everywhere, shards falling to the floor. Ayuna pushed her chair back abruptly, covering her mouth with her hands, still shaking. She did not seem to notice the water that had splashed her.

"Detective, I think we need to stop there. He needs a break." Ayuna's father said.

I nodded at this, and stood up. There was no sense in continuing with things as they stood. The glass and water would also need to be cleaned too.

"Yes, that's fine. Interview terminated, 14:40."

Had Azami reached that sort of point, yet? I repeated Hirawa's question, and waited for Azami to answer.

"I know that Eizo didn't do anything. None of us did! I know it. I might not have been present enough, but I know it."

Since I had not been angling towards suggesting the survivors were suspicious, this took me by surprise for a moment. But of course, that had once been a possibility to be explored, and if the evidence did point that way, we would explore that possibility again.

But….she was saying, I know. What made her so sure.

"How do you know?" I asked her.

Azami was still rocking, her eyes looking far away. But she looked directly at me, face resolute, as she answered.

"Because we wouldn't be here now if we had. "

The rocking increased, and Azami wrapped her arms around herself even tighter, looking at us beseechingly.

"Can we go now?" she asked, before either of us could process or think of a follow-up question.

"I'm sorry, Detective." Eikichi muttered as he grabbed the tissues and wiped his face, and attempted to wipe his clothes down too. He then tried to do the same with the floor, but Amasaki knelt down and stopped him.

"Don't worry. We'll get someone in. Get a drink of water."

Eikichi started to get up, but then wobbled, and simply changed from a kneeling position to a sitting one. He looked down at his legs for a moment, then back up at us.

"May I try again later?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse.

I looked at Hirawa, who gave me a questioning look. I nodded, then turned to Azami, who was still rocking herself and looking more than slightly panicked.

"Alright. We'll take you back now. " I told her, before going to the recorder. "Interview terminated, 19:03."

…

Gabriel

As I waited, I decided to take out my phone and quickly send a message to my husband to tell him that I would more than likely be late home. Of course, this wasn't going to come to a massive surprise to him anyway, but still, it was always nice to let him know. Even though the more often I was late, the more elaborate the next date night we had was going to have to be. Oh well, on both ends of things-solving the case and enjoying my family life-it would be more than worth it. Or so I hoped.

It was strange, having seen most of the survivors gathered together like that, especially as with the exception of Mai, I hadn't really seen any of them for years. Sure, I had been the one to answer the call Eizo made when he wanted advice about helping a university friend who was being stalked, but apart from that, different cases had taken up most of my time, to say nothing of meeting and marrying Hibiki, and more recently, the adoption of our twins.

Nonetheless, Mai, Eikichi, Eizo, Ayuna, Friede, Azami and Takaaki had, one way or another, been haunting me for twenty years. Not least because the closure of the case back then had felt like a massive failure. I had come into the job to help people like them, and I hadn't been able to. So though this second chance had been a surprise, I was going to grab it with both hands.

I just hoped that I actually would be able to this time, that the help I would give would this time be meaningful, instead of just the little things from before.

"How can you actually know this isn't part of the ploy? Confinement wasn't getting the results that they wanted, so they decided to mix it up? Or something, I don't know, I don't claim to be a criminal mastermind now. For all we know we could just be frogs waiting to be boiled, or we could actually be being boiled and we haven't noticed." Takaaki challenged.

"Frogs? Why are we frogs?" Eizo wanted to know.

"Oh, knock it off, stop being ridiculous!" Eikichi shot out, glaring daggers at Takaaki.

"Am I being ridiculous? Or are you simply unable to consider the possibility?"

"Jinsai-kun, please." Mai said worriedly. "Don't be silly. We are safe now. We are, right, Officer Matsumoto?"

Mai looked at me pleadingly, and I did my best to smile reassuringly at them.

"Of course you all are, Sadie-chan."

"Can you provide an argument to prove that you are who you say you are?"

"Erm…." I wanted to laugh again, but Takaaki's gaze had gone dark, and he was rocking slightly in his chair. "I have my ID."

"In all fairness, anyone can offer an ID-but seriously Takaaki, why are you thinking like this?"

"Why aren't you?"

Eikichi, Takaaki and Ayuna all glared at each other, while Eizo, Mai and Friede all looked on with some worry.

"Now, now…."

I tried to be soothing as my mind scrambled for a suitable response to reassure. It seemed understandable to me that they were struggling to adjust to what was going on around them, but I couldn't think of how I could help with that. If Nobuyuki or one of the detectives were here, surely they'd have an idea. I looked around desperately, and then I looked at the window, and inspiration hit.

"Come over here, to the window." I said, walking over to it and opening it wide, looking out to make sure that there was nobody out on the small patch of lawn that it overlooked.

The six teens looked at me with trepidation, and I gave them a big smile, and beckoned them over with a hand gesture. Eventually, Friede stood and walked over, and then from that Mai followed. Then Ayuna and Eizo, before Eikichi did the same. Takaaki stared at them, and then eventually jumped off the chair arm he had been sitting on, and came over.

I stepped to the side, but still made sure I had full view of, well, the view.

"Lean out, breathe in. Don't lean out too far, obviously."

This earnt me a look from some of them, but all the same, with varying degrees of hesitancy, they did indeed lean out and breathe in. A couple of them closed their eyes, and they remained that way for a moment, the breeze playing with their hair, but most importantly tickling their faces, impossible to not feel. Friede was the first to lean back, and some tension had left her slight frame. But eventually, the others followed suit, and started to trail back to their seats, looking a great deal relaxed.

I sighed, and as my phone buzzed, I looked away from the doorway I was meant to be keeping vigil over for just a moment.

Hibiki: Okay, got it. I hope you know I'm tallying all your late nights ;) Also, the kids were asking why you weren't home-want me to tell them?

Me: No, call them over, I'll briefly video-call.

And so I did. Hibiki picked up immediately, and from the background I could tell that he was in the kitchen. He smiled widely, and I felt a warm glow inside me.

"Hey there," I said. "Sorry about not being home."

"It's fine. Just remember not to overwork yourself too much, alright?"

"I know, I know, but I definitely need to be here tonight."

"Coolio. Let me call them over. Tommy, Kara!"

There was a scramble of footsteps, and then Kara's face filled the screen first.

"Hi, Mr Gabe."

"Hey there, sweetie. Had a good day?"

Kara blushed and beamed, nodding. I heard Tommy complain, and then Kara shuffled over, and Tommy stared into the screen.

"Why're you not home yet?" he demanded, almost suspiciously.

"Tom, he's catching bad guys!" Kara said in a half-whisper.

"Are you really?" Tommy asked me.

"I am indeed." I said. Well, at least, I'm hopefully in the process of doing so.

"I guess that's okay then." Tommy decided after a moment, with all the haughtiness a ten-year-old could master.

I let the kids take the conversational lead for a few moments, and then I heard someone calling 'Detective Matsu', so I bid them goodbye and hung up, putting my phone in my pocket as a uniformed officer came striding to me, followed by a woman. I observed her appearance-blond hair, pale skin, somewhat tall, pink shirt, slim-leg trousers, neat and elegant, but not overly so. She looked around her cautiously, and then her eyes settled on me.

"I remember you. You were in uniform though." She stated.

"That's right. How are you, Heiwa-chan? Or I suppose I should call you Anabuki-san?" I said, before thanking the officer and dismissing him.

"Heiwa is fine." She said. "I got a message from Aozaki-san…are we really being….."

She touched both her ears cautiously, and I nodded as I took her into the room we had set aside and gave her a concise run-down, making sure she was sat down for it. But Friede seemed calm. Shaken, of course, but calm as she soberly nodded, clearly taking it in.

"In that case, please get it out. But first…."

"Yes?"

"May I see the others?"

"Yes, of course, I'll need to get someone her with you but the-"

At that moment, the door opened, and Nobu and Evalynn came back in with Eizo.

"Thanks for cooperating with us. We'll let you know when you can go back to where you're staying."

"I'm waiting to Azami anyway and-oh!"

Eizo stared at the both of us for a long time, and then he walked up to Friede.

"Hey there, Heiwa."

"Eizo-san."

"I, well, long time, no see, huh?" Eizo said, sitting down next to her. "You alright?"

"Yes. It looks like you've got your trackers out too?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah. A couple of us still have to…they aren't all in the exact same places in every person for some reason. But you should get id done soon, right?"

Eizo looked over at us questioningly, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll just go to get that arranged, alright?"

Friede politely thanked me, and then continued to watch us, and to watch Eizo.

"I'll join you, and Nobu can stay here and baby-sit." Evalynn said, cheekily.

"Babysit?" Eizo said, laughing where Friede just looked faintly bemused.

"Sure thing." Nobu said easily, sitting down.

"Alright then, Detective Dupont, let's do this."

"After you, Detective Matsu."

…

Otsuka

With the exception of a break for some chocolates, another for some pot ramen and a sandwich, and various toilet breaks, I had spent the evening in my crash pad so far researching and looking up new possible leads, as well as reasons the survivors would be in hospital. I had been careful not to reveal my hand too early to journalistic rivals, but I had tapped some for information, and found that there were whispers of a press conference to come soon. I supposed that I could wait for that unless something more interesting or relevant came up, and so I filed that information away, and focused on collecting enough background information about Kyosuke Munakata, and any of the new staff that were known to be there.

To my great surprise, with the exception of one of Munakata's close school friends being part of the security team, another close friend being slated to be a homeroom teacher, and the school's technology being run by the Fujisaki Corp, there didn't seem to be any obvious links to the old Hope's Peak's staff. It looked like Kazutaka Oomori, the latest head of the Oomori Foundation, who'd had links to the old Hope's Peak via friendship with Kazuo Tengan, had often expressed a desire to reopen Hope's Peak (and then, once Munakata had decided to, a desire to be involved in that project). But Munakata, as far as I could see, had not taken him up on this request. What publicity there was often talked about a 'fresh start', too. And that could mean anything, couldn't it? Hopefully I would find that out when or if I got to interview Munakata.

As well as this, I tried to get some information about those murders that Tetsuji had claimed were similar to what had happened to Class 78B. Even if it was only barely plausible, a lead was a lead. But since all the murders had seemed so different on the surface, it was hard. But, after going down many true-crime-sleuth-type rabbit holes and fighting off tiredness, I discovered a lot of cameras had been found on the sites, even if they had not been a part of the building before. And the causes of deaths of each specific person within the crime scenes had been different enough to seem like they could have been done by different people. It was still vague, still uncertain. But it was something. I didn't understand how the police couldn't even have been slightly curious about all this. Perhaps, when I had exhausted my own resources, I would share my finding with them, and they'd find the rest of the way forward. With that in mind, I kept on my digging.

Time went by, and I continued to collect and update all the information I had, backing it up and cross checking it, gathering potential clues and possibly filing in some answers-though I'd really need to analyse it. The night dragged on, and I started to flag, but I was determined to keep going for as long as I could, even as I yawned more and more.

But when I couldn't fight off the next wave of yawning, I decided, Alright, time to call it quits. So, with some reluctance, I did just that, shutting down and getting ready for the night. Or at least, for now. Who knew what lead might come in the middle of the night? And if it did, once it did, it would be like day.

But until then, I had to sleep, or I would crash, and then what would I do?

So, I clambered into bed, and reluctantly picked my phone up to put it in the drawer of my bedside table when I stopped, and stared at the screen. Wait a minute, of course. Tetsuji Kamiya had a medical background. It was entirely possible he'd know something about why the survivors would suddenly need to be summoned to hospital. So, quickly, I tapped out a text:

Hey, the survivors have all congregated at the hospital with some of the detectives on the case. Do you know why that could be?

After sending this, I realised it'd probably be useful to specify which hospital, so Ifired off one more message. And then, without a further thought, I shoved the phone in the drawer, lay my head on my pillow, and promptly fell asleep.

...

Tetsuji

I picked through the wreckage, following Kenichi, the other Forensics people, and the officers who had been tasked to keep an eye on us as the detectives went ahead.

"There's nobody over here. We need photographs though!" One of the detectives waved, and two Forensics rushed over.

I stopped, and looked around me, staring up at the steep incline that the van, and then more recently the car, had veered down. A check that one of the officers assigned specifically to the case had run had confirmed the plates of the van were the same as the one that'd been rented out to Moeka and her friends. And that was why we were here, I thought, as I knelt down. Because there was the strong possibility that at last, we would find them.

I was not technically meant to be searching properly myself. The only reason Detectives Onoe and Amasaki had allowed Kenichi and me to be here was to assist the rookies from our respective departments, and to help in identifying Moeka and Kimiko immediately. Whether that was alive or dead. But all the same, I knelt down, figuring that as I was booted and suited up appropriately, I would not be contaminating anything by trying to help, sifting through the debris looking for these teenagers. Or what was most likely to be their remains.

But I didn't want to think about that. Not yet.

"You're not meant to be doing that."

Shifting because my legs were starting to ache, I glanced up to see one of the officers-the bright, earnest one with the red hair and glasses-looking down at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I know what I'm doing."

"No, that isn't the issue, Kamiya-san, but-"

"Psh, I know. I'd call you over if I found her. Or any of them."

When the officer continued to look uncertain, I gave a heavy sigh.

"Besides, you need the scene processed quicker."

After looking around for a moment, the officer sighed and hesitantly nodded at that.

"Then, I'll tag along with you. Just to ensure there are no issues."

I grunted, since I wasn't going to get around it either way. Besides, now I was looking at him properly, I realised that this was the officer who had taken the call, and spotted the possibilities that had led us here in the first place.

Apparently glad with my response, the officer crouched down beside me, and we continued our work. Time went by, and a pile of assorted personal effects from all the students-clothes, books, various bits of teenage tech, toiletries, even a few stuffed toys-began to form, all bagged and tagged and ready to be transformed back. I fought the urge to grab ahold of Moeka's floral brooches that spilled out of her suitcase, or the pink ballet slippers that had presumably been on the floor of the van-now scuffed and dirty. I saw Kenichi linger similarly over a pyjama top and a keychain of some sort. Samples of blood were found on seats, as were strands of hair. Dozens and dozens of fingerprints.

The only thing missing, was them.

I remembered standing there, at the end of that long evening, slightly up the incline with Kenichi, banished to the side-lines as everyone else finished the work of processing that scene. Back then, I was relieved that my daughter had not been lying dead and unnoticed in a ditch for weeks, that she hadn't spent goodness knows how long dying from horrific crash injuries-but at the same time I had been annoyed that this, too, had proved to be a dead end as well.

Now, though, I wished that we had found them there. Because even though Moeka would have still been dead then, at least it would have been a simpler story. One of a tragic accident-teenage drivers, tiredness, bad timing and luck. I would have known what had happened to her, and how, and perhaps…well, perhaps life would have been different. Perhaps it would not have hurt so much.

But no. It couldn't work like that, could it?

Annoyed, I thumped down the box that I had been looking through. It wobbled and fell over, and papers strewed themselves everywhere. I cursed briefly, under my breath, and got up to gather them, mood lowering even more. Until I could figure out a game plan of some sort, I was completely stuck. I could not go to the station again, and I was sure Amasaki wasn't going to listen to me anymore. There was the possibility of trying to track down and talk to the Oomori family, but considering how stiff and overly loyal towards Hope's Peak they had been before, it was unlikely any of them would give me the time of day either.

And alright, I acknowledged with a yawn I steadfastly ignored, I could ask that young journalist girl, but I knew she wanted something from me in excha-

My phone beeped, and mid-gather, I stopped abruptly, then put down what was in my hand and shuffled over to get it. Huh, think of her and she appears. I gave the texts a cursory read-and then I had to stop and read again.

The hospital…

I thought of the woman again, the one I was sure was Azami. If what Otsuka had said was true, and all the survivors were at the hospital, then she would be there too.

So that was where I needed to be, too.