Thank goodness for having writing during these difficult times. Doesn't mean that I'll always have speedy/regular updates. But all the same, I have my writing. As much as I can, I will be sticking with it and seeing it through to the end, no matter how long it takes.

Juro

When Mai opened the door and peered around it, her eyes were wide and anxious, and she looked like she had been crying. I did a double-take, as she'd sounded alright on the phone. Concerned a little, perhaps, but not upset. I'd have to address this later, though.

"Can we come in?" I asked, gesturing to myself and Evalynn. "We won't be staying, of course."

"O-oh! Of course. Hi there, Evalynn-san."

"Yo." Evalynn flashed a brief smile.

Inside, we were met with another surprise, namely all the survivors clustered in the hallway, Eizo and Azami at the front, shoes already on.

"Ah," Evalynn didn't miss a beat. "Presumably you already know that it's you that we've come to collect."

"Yes." Azami nodded uncertainly. "Did something happen….have you found something out about A-Akari?"

She swallowed, hard, but was clearly trying hard to stand tall and straight. Eizo seemed to understand this too, instinctively looking over to her protectively. The other survivors didn't move forward for a moment, but then Ayuna spoke up.

"if you've found something out, we have a right to know, too."

"At the moment," I said cautiously. "I don't know what we know, precisely. But it relates to Amai-san and Kishinami-san, so that's why we are bringing them in."

"Why at the station though?" Ayuna demanded, undeterred. "Why not right here?"

"Are they in trouble for something?" Friede asked.

The question was unexpectedly young-sounding, and the looks the rest gave us-varying between beseechment, surprise, worry and suspicion-only served to further that impression. But is that any surprise, really? They were young when all of this occurred. I glanced to Mai, wringing her hands, having slipped back to join the others. It was strange, seeing her with these other people who had been her friends and yet were perfect strangers to me, apart from the case. Really strange.

"It's on our superintendent's say-so." Evalynn said simply. "So, can we get this moving? This is quite urgent."

"Wait!" Eizo blurted out suddenly. "Does it have to be both of us?"

"Eizo?" Azami blinked in confusion.

"What are you playing at, Amai?" Eikichi muttered, though he was studying the scene closely.

Eizo laughed awkwardly, rubbed the back of his head and gave us a winningly appealing smile.

"Ah, but does Azami need to come too? I mean…whatever it is you need to ask, surely one of us can step in."

"It's the two of you that we need." Evalynn answered.

"Yes, but you know what it did to her, right? How much worse it hurt her? It's hardly fair then for you to come in and insist on pressurising her like this. Please, can't you just rely on me-"

"It's okay, Eizo." Azami interrupted.

Eizo glanced over at her, eyes wide and mouth parted in surprise. Azami, for her part, was clearly putting in the effort to stand straight, to remain calm. But, she was doing it.

"I don't mind, going to answer their questions. It'll…it'll help, right?"

"Yes." I said. "It'll help."

"But-"

Now Eizo looked concerned. No, more than that, utterly anguished. He looked like he couldn't bear the possibility of this even slightly distressing Azami. But yet, she wasn't worried, or if she was, she was doing a better job of hiding it than Eizo was giving her credit for. However, to his credit, he nodded, absorbing this.

"Alright then," he said. "But if you can't, then you don't need to. Okay?"

Evalynn gave me a look, and I just nodded.

"Alright then," she said briskly. "Let's get you down to the station."

"When are we going to find out what is happening, though?" Ayuna demanded.

"When we are good and ready to." Evalynn responded, just as forcefully. "I take it that we'll be able to find you at the addresses you've all given?"

"U-um, yeah?" Ayuna shrugged. "We were just getting ready to leave anyway."

"In that case, as I said, when we are ready. Coming, Detective Arisato?"

"Ah, um, yeah."

"Wait, Juro!" Mai called out.

I turned to look at her.

"W-when will you be home?"

"Not until dinner, most probably?" I said, shrugging. "I'll try and call you later, though. Did you manage to tell Akio to stay at a friend's?"

"Yes, but that was one of the things-"

All too aware that I needed to get going, I shook my head at Mai, but softened the interruption with a gentle smile. This is hard. So hard.

"I'll try and call you later, okay?"

Mai closed her mouth, pursing her lips. She gazed at me for a moment, and then nodded slowly.

"Alright."

…

At the station, we led Eizo and Azami into separate interrogation rooms, and told them that someone would be with them shortly, once again trying to reassure Eizo that Azami would be fine. This was of course going to be true-at this point there was nothing to be gained in making them wait too long. They weren't suspects that we were trying to rattle. At least, that was what I believed, truly and deeply, and at the moment it did seem like everyone else was thinking like that, too. I wasn't sure what I'd do if that changed, especially where Mai was concerned.

"Alright," Evalynn said as we started down the corridor. "How'd you want to do this? Do you want us to pair off with one of them, then get Nobu and Takamoto on the other? Or did you want us to separate, so that you go with, say, Takamoto?"

"It depends? How hard-line are we going on Eizo Amai?" I asked. "I know the plan with Azami Kishinami at the moment is to go far more gently, accounting for the memory block. But it's not clear what we should do with Eizo?"

"He's playing the role of protector." Evalynn said. "Kinda like you do with Mai. It's something we can use-not as a threat, not at the moment. But as an incentive, perhaps."

Kind of like I do with Mai? I gawped at Evalynn, who simply smirked at me before going on.

"So I guess we need a balance of soft and spiky, going into his interview. And we're pretty good at that, aren't we?"

"That we most certainly are."

Soft. It was accurate, as a descriptor of me. But like Gabe, for the most part I was able to use it to my advantage, putting victims, witnesses and suspects alike at ease in order to get what was needed to solve a case. But this case…was that softness going to end up hurting me?

"Okay, so we'll do Amai-san, and then the others can take Kishinami?"

"Perfect."

We headed down to the incident room, talking possible interview strategies as we went along, and on the way we passed Kenichi.

"Ah, has anyone updated you about what happened?" I asked him as he walked past.

Kenichi stopped and stared at us, raising a brow.

"Updated?" he asked, slowly. "Regarding Kimiko and the trackers?"

"Yes, that's right?"

"Detective Matsu just sent me an email." He said, slowly. "Said there would have been nothing to worry about in the present-she wouldn't have been stalked or anything if she had been lucky to survive."

"That's about the large and small of it, yes." I said.

"Right. Well. I'd like to rebury her now."

There was no emotion in this, he just looked tired. So, so tired. Such a contrast to how Tetsuji was dealing with this.

"I'm sure the superintendent will let you know when that'll be." I said. "Anyway, we'd best be off."

"See you later, Tsukuda." Evalynn added as we continued on.

I turned back briefly, and saw Kenichi had paused, leaning against the wall, looking at his phone. I imagined photographs of his daughter on the screen, and felt a pang before I turned and kept going.

When we got to the incident room, Takamoto was on the phone and Nobuyuki was discussing something with Hirawa. Evalynn bounded ahead.

"Yo, where's Gabe?" she asked.

"There's a big case that's just cracked with Juvenile Crimes, crossover with Sex Crimes. Chief's ordered him to divide his time between that and here. So he's there at the moment."

Both Evalynn and I winced for a moment. Cases with children involved were hard enough, but those where Sex Crimes had to step in? Those were worse. Gabe would no doubt be having a hard time, too. Then again, nobody is having it easy with this, are they?

"Also," Nobuyuki added. "He's on the phone with Miyumi Sonoda's sister."

Miyumi Sonoda. The elusive homeroom teacher. I'd not sat in on any of the interviews with her, but I recalled she had been young back then-a similar age to myself and Gabe and Evalynn. She'd been a newbie in her profession, too. I remembered a skittish woman, though it was hard to be sure if it was the situation, or something more sinister. The fact that she'd been proving hard to get ahold of only served to make things more complicated.

"Well, what're we doing about interviews, then?" Evalynn asked. "Is anyone else free?"

Nobuyuki frowned and considered this.

"You know what?" he said eventually. "For now, the two of you go in with Amai-kun, like planned, and I'll take Kishinami-chan."

"By yourself?"

"Yeah, sure." Nobuyuki shrugged. "It's going to be a slower-going interview, after all. When someone else is free, they can join me. Or perhaps the superintendent will join, because I know she's going to come and observe."

Evalynn and I exchanged a look, and then I nodded.

"Sure," I said. "That sounds good to me."

"Alright then," Nobuyuki said. "Let's get to the bottom of this!"

…

Kenichi

I hadn't meant to eavesdrop, as such. I'd just been going to give information to detectives on another case when I'd overheard Juro and Evalynn, and Juro had stopped to talk to me before they'd continued on their way. But I'd been curious, hearing the names of Kimiko's friends, Moeka in particular. So I'd stopped in the corridor, bought up photographs of her, and listened until their words faded.

…protective of her…

…it was Eizo Amai who apparently made the claim, not her, so we need to…

…'It was Moeka who killed Akari', those were the exact words…..

…what evidence was there from the first time that could match that?...

…we have to allow for the possibility he misinterpreted, but Kamiya-san wouldn't have lied about something like that-

Even as I finally pocketed my phone and headed back down to Forensics, the words buzzed through my brain. It was only bits and pieces, sure, but it didn't seem to make very much sense to me. There were little details that seemed to suggest a connection-splinters from a cricket bat appearing both in Kiran Nanakai's head wound and under what was left of Katsuya Komiya's fingernails. Things like that. Not enough to suggest anything stronger though. But yet…

"What can you tell me about Kimiko's death?" I asked. "Did she suffer? I heard some of the others were tortured beyond recognition."

I had been trying to convince myself that I was prepared for this. That as an investigator, I was strong enough to hear this, even if it was about my daughter. But of course I wasn't. Still, I took a deep breath, because I had to at least try, didn't I?

"Yes, that's right." Matsuo nodded. "It's quite a terrible business. Inexplicable, too. But no, your child wasn't one of them. "

"Then?" I asked.

"It appears her assailant first attempted to stab her in the back, and then strangled her with a rope, also from behind. It's not too clear why, since the stab wound was enough to kill her."

"Did she suffer?"

Matsuo pursed his lips as he looked at me. I stared back at him. Don't lie to me, I conveyed, silently. I know what I want to believe, more than anything, but I needed the truth. Kimiko would want me to know the truth.

"She would have been aware of what was happening, yes." Matsuo nodded. "Evidence suggests she did try to fight back."

"When can I see her?" I asked. "To make the formal identifications? To arrange the funeral, as well-"

"Don't worry, Tsukuda-san, that will all be arranged soon."

Getting back to the office, I sat down heavily in a chair. There had been a pattern, I remembered. An 'ordinary' murder, then a torture, then another 'ordinary', and so on until they had reached the stuffed toy filled with pulverised remains that had had to be tested in order to confirm their identity. The only thing had been that Kimiko and Sen'ya Ochiai had somewhat broken that pattern, both of them 'ordinary' deaths before Lilian. Not that had been a comfort for Sen'ya's poor mother. I had never been as hopelessly optimistic as she had been about getting them back, but the blow when all our hopes had been proved wrong had been just as hard. Perhaps I could have been kinder. I hadn't been unkind, I was sure I hadn't. But I'd had to try and do right by Kimiko in her death, to make up for failing in protecting her, and there'd been Tetsuji to worry about to. I hadn't the energy left over for kinship with anyone else. That was the way it was with murders. Hurting so much more than the victim themselves.

But…anyway…..

Moeka had been one of those poor, unlucky ones. And what had apparently been said…..Moeka was the one who killed Akari. She wasn't mine, but it was with the instincts of a father that I wanted to dismiss this. Yet….the meaning of the order hadn't been discerned. Plenty of theories had been looked at, but none ever settled upon, and one of those had been that the deaths were paired. An ordinary, then a torture as one, then the next ordinary and torture as another, and so on. Kiran Nanakai and Katsuya Komiya, Rin Hatakawayama and Fumiaki Amai. And then Akari Kishinami and Moeka Kamiya.

"Could that be what it meant?" I wondered aloud. "Could it really be?"

But then that'd mean…oh, fuck. I leaned back, rubbing my eyes. It surely explained a lot, it tied up all those little disparate bits of evidence together, it gave meaning to the death order and the wide variations in causes of deaths. It looked as if there were multiple killers, because technically there were. It sounded ridiculous, but it couldn't be ruled out.

But I had to admit, I really wanted to rule it out.

I bit my lip, thinking for a moment. I pulled my phone out again, returning to photographs of Kimiko. This phone was not the same one I'd had back then-that would have been quite the miracle, a phone lasting that long when it'd already been old back then. But I'd made sure to transfer all the photographs I had, all the posed photos from special occasions and silly selfies with friends that'd been sent to me. And all the much older photographs, of her as a little girl, a toddler, a baby. Just her and me, against the world it had felt sometimes. And now it was just me, but having the pictures with me wherever I went was something, at least. I flicked through them, a backwards progression right to the beginning. I'd spent so long wondering what I could have done differently to have protected Kimiko from all this. Yet, I knew I wouldn't have been able to change a thing about Kimiko's life even if I had been given such an impossible opportunity. Kimiko had been who she had been. I loved her too much to be able to sacrifice that.

Focus. There'll be plenty of time for maudlin thoughts. Otherwise known as, any other moment of the day. With effort, I stopped at a photograph of Kimiko taking unsteady first steps and exited the gallery app, instead finding Tetsuji's number and calling it, the phone on loudspeaker so that I didn't need to hold it to my ear.

It rang and rang, and eventually kicked into voicemail. With a frustrated sigh, I hung up, then gripped the phone before making a decision. Getting up, I left the department, poking my head around the doors of the various labs and rooms to let my colleagues know that I'd be out for a little bit, but not too long. It wasn't as if I was doing anything wrong anyway-I still technically had not taken a lunch break, so even though I wasn't inclined towards them anyway I was more than entitled to do so now.

I tried Tetsuji's mobile once more as I strode to the place he was renting, but I got the same result. I supposed this was for the better. Asking a former colleague if there was the slightest possibility their daughter had died a murderer wasn't really a conversation for the phone. Too many ways for that to go wrong. Besides, seeing Tetsuji face to face, would be the best way of discerning if there'd been a possibility of misinterpretation on his end, or a clumsy wording on the part of Eizo's. Fully grown adult he may have been now, but how any of us could look at those fully grown adult faces and not still see a trace of the kids they'd been, I had no idea. No idea at all.

I stood outside the apartment, and unlike the last time I'd been here, I pressed the doorbell for the apartment he was in. A beat, and then another, but when all I got was radio silence, I tried again. Another moment, and then another ring. But once again, nothing.

Okay, and why do I have a bad feeling about this? Suspecting I'd get much the same result for a third time, I nonetheless attempted to call him. But just as I predicted, it went straight to voicemail once again. Rather than hang up though, I decided to say something.

"Listen," I said. "I think they've made some sort of breakthrough, and I heard you might have had something to do with that. Let's talk about it-I think I have a possible explanation for it. Possibly."

This wasn't exactly a lie. My mind was whirring and churning, trying to make sense of it. I had been hoping for this conversation to help align some of that though. I sighed, then continued.

"I hope you aren't doing anything stupid. You'd better not be, alright?"

I didn't bother with niceties, I just hung straight up, and then, after one last look up at the apartment, I walked back to work.

…

Later in the day, finding myself in front of the computer sending emails with various evidence reports and summaries to different investigations and departments, I found myself opening up a new email, and addressing it to Shizuka. Then, I paused, and thought.

Ordinary, torture, ordinary, torture. Kiran Nanakai and Katsuya Komiya, Rin Hatakawayama and Fumiaki Amai, Akari Kishinami and Moeka Kamiya, Sayuri Fujimoto and Seiko Yamamoto. Then Kimiko, with either Sen'ya Ochiai or Lilian Lao. Or, was it Kimiko and Sen'ya with Lilian? If the claim that Moeka had killed Akari was true, and thus it followed that Katsuya had killed Kiran and so on, who was to say that one person couldn't have been responsible for two deaths? But then, if that was the case, that only explained half the deaths. What about Moeka? What about Lilian? Why had they died? And in such a different way, too?

Hold on. Torture. Torture is used as punishment….could this be….? It was barebones at best, they killed, so they got killed in punishment. A twisted version of the death penalty. There were a whole bunch of pieces missing for this to make sense-who was punishing them? Why? Why would this class, who had been so close knit, suddenly turn on each other like this? Still, there was a sense to it, and it was an explanation. At the very least, even if this was eliminated, they'd still be somewhere. I had to suggest it, at the very least.

So, with a deep breath, I began to type.