While THINGS are going down for the Survivors and Investigators, lets see what the Prospectives are up to :)

Otsuka

To my great disappointment, after not only failing at managing to find out anything from that meeting with the survivors, we had ended up at Rieka's house instead. Still, she had the shoebox, so I supposed that was worth it. After we'd all said hello to her mother and endured Rieka introducing the others and negotiating snack arrangements (no little brother baking today, apparently), we trooped up to her bedroom.

"It'll be easier if you sit on the floor for this, but grab a cushion-not a pillow-or something to make yourself comfortable if you want."

"Sure, sure." Akio said easily.

They all settled themselves. I simply plopped myself onto the fluffy rug-it was soft enough, and besides, there were bigger worries. I had to stop myself from fidgeting like an over-enthusiastic five year old while Rieka went to get the shoebox.

"I didn't want to ask right out there, but are you alright?" Akemi asked softly.

It took me a moment to realise who she was talking to, but quickly realised that she was talking to Akagi. I turned to the red-headed boy, sitting cross-legged, posture almost at perfect as Akemi's (though she was sitting with her legs tucked beneath her in a perfect kneel, all traditional-like) and studied him.

"Yeah, are you?" I asked.

Sure, it was out of curiosity I asked the question, yet at the same time there was something about his face, not nearly as expressive as you'd expect but at the same time perfectly revealing what he was feeling. And I had to admit I had been startled too. I was perfectly aware that Akagi had lost a brother, that he now lived with his uncle, but I hadn't dug too deeply. Why would I have, when it had nothing to do with what I needed to know? All that had been important was the fact that he was a tangible link to a survivor, the rest had been background noise. I hadn't been prepared for the viciousness that would meet me, and that lack of preparedness annoyed me.

Have to admit, she annoys me too. God, trauma or no trauma, what a damn bitch. Still, I'd leave it to Akemi and Akio to do the consoling thing, since they were clearly the type for that.

Akagi sighed softly, but remained silent for a moment, before nodding.

"That was mild, don't worry about me."

"Are you sure?" Akemi asked. "I am sure that whatever the full story is, you don't deserve that."

Akagi's eyes widened slightly as he turned his head towards where Akemi was sitting. He blushed slightly, then inclined his head.

"Thank you."

"That was mild?" Mitsuhide spluttered. "Jesus, I don't want to know what your idea of severe is, but your mother was savage. Speaking of which, how come neither of you told us about your mothers being survivors?"

Ah, yes, another thing that I was annoyed about, and at least annoyance didn't come with frustrating side dishes of pity and shock. I turned to Akio and mock-glared. Well, half mock-glared.

"Yes, why didn't you tell us? I could have handled that situation so much better if I had known."

Akio's mouth opened slightly in shock, somewhat goldfish like as he clearly struggled to formulate an answer.

"I mean, I was going to, but…" he shrugged. "I…..well, I didn't know until recently, see?"

"How recent is recent?" Mitsuhide wanted to know.

God, finally, a vaguely sensible question coming from his over-groomed mouth.

"I guess when the news first came out about the re-opening of the investigation. Oh, and when I got my invitation in the post. Mum was really upset about it, and still is, especially because my Dad's on the investigative team."

"WAIT, WHAT?"

Both Mitsuhide and Ritsuka seemed surprised by this, though it was only the irritating one who had shouted this utterance of surprise. I rolled my eyes, and noticed Rieka didn't seem too impressed by the surprise either. It was mildly disconcerting to realise we had more in common, even if she was ridiculously frivolous with it.

"That's something we can worry about later, but Arisato, can you get your mum to talk?"

"I'm not sure. She's already upset that I know about all this in the first place, I don't think she ever wanted me to."

"That seems understandable to me." Akemi nodded thoughtfully.

"Does it?" I asked sceptically.

"No reasonable parent would want their child to know that they were kidnapped and almost murdered, and potentially watched their friends die." Ritsuka added.

Reasonable parents, huh? I supposed that made sense. I mean, I wasn't sure I'd keep any kid of mine completely in the dark about my history, but even I knew there was a big gulf between that and completely traumatising them with gory details. That of course left open the question of when and how Akagi found out about his mother, since there was no way that she could be considered reasonable by any stretch of the imagination. But that, I decided, could be shelved for now, as there were far more important considerations.

"So-"

"While I am at it," Ritsuka continued over me, sounding almost bored. "I may as well declare a relationship to a survivor of my own. Though, relationship is a stretch."

The silence that followed this statement was of the a-pin-could-drop variety. I stared at Ritsuka for a good long moment, wondering who it could be. Only two survivors had had children, and Eizo and Azami had both lost their only siblings-everyone else was an only child. So…

"Eikichi Hanamura is my cousin. But I'm fairly sure that he isn't aware of this, because my parents have been divorced for a long time, and I haven't been in contact with my dad since that time."

"Which was…?" I asked.

"When I was about three."

Right, well. That wasn't going to be much use then, at least not in the immediate term. I sighed, and nodded.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to move on?" Rieka asked.

I glared at her, any feeling of kinship duly shelved. Rieka just snickered and shook the bells on that stupid headband of hers.

"Yes," I said stiffly. "Lets. So, I think we can establish that there wasn't really any information of note to be gained from the tour."

"Maybe nothing in terms of specific information, but we can still compare the attitudes though, right?" Akio asked. "I read some stuff, there were a lot of complaints about the way the old school handled safety."

"Yes, that's right," Akemi nodded. "A few years before the students disappeared, there was a big campaign formed by two former students to try and tackle the issues of stalking, particularly towards teenagers. There was quite a big scandal, as the two named Hope's Peak as one of their specific reasons for doing so."

"And there were a lot of rumours that some of the girls were getting stalked." Rieka said. "But all the school higher-ups consistently denied or tried to minimise it…where's….."

Rieka whipped open the lid of the shoebox and dug through before pulling something out.

"Take a look at this 'we do need to get the young people back, especially as they had such a big role in the organisation….' Can you believe that, they straight up said that they were only worried about the inconvenience….and then 'the rules of society do not fully apply to such brilliant beings'….Oh, and there is this one…..'there are risks from being in the public eye and if people do not like it then really, they shouldn't aspire to it."

"Let us read them, for fucking crying out loud!"

Rieka pretended to think about this for a few maddening seconds, but then passed it over to me, then riffled through to pull out a few more and passed them around to the others.

"Do you need me to read it to you?" Akemi asked Akagi.

"Uh, oh, no thank you. My phone has a screen reader. But could you position it for me?"

Akagi looked surprised and pleased that Akemi had asked him if she could help, more than happy to have her attention. It was the weirdest thing.

"Of course I can, that's not a problem."

Even weirder was the fact she was so placidly happy to do so, despite having roundly defeated him so recently. Oh well. I concentrated on reading the interview transcript and scribbling some notes, while the others all read.

"it doesn't seem like the Principal knew very much."

I looked curiously at Ritsuka.

"What do you mean?"

"He mostly says the same sort of thing, and whenever Kazuo Tengan is present he tends to look to him."

"It is a bit weird that a retired principal still maintained such a big role in the school," Rieka said. "My uncle thought the same thing too according to his notes, but there wasn't ever anything to pin him down. Indeed, since he was in the school so often, that proved to be his alibi-he hadn't been anywhere near Shirohata during the estimated period Class 78-B were in captivity, or nearby any of the other locations that they stopped at on the way."

"You'd think though, he'd want to put more effort into finding them." Akio wondered.

"Yes, his reaction is a bit dodgy," Mitsuhide said. "I mean he probably had like some serious closet skeletons that he didn't want out, but even if all he wanted them back for was the party you'd think that he'd still put all into them being found. After all, in the end they had to cancel what would have been one of the biggest occasions in the world, because the students were still missing at that point."

"And at that point, some of them had probably already died." Akio murmured.

I gave him a sideways glance, surprised at his melancholy, but then I noticed Akagi had taken out his earphones and had been listening closely to us.

"What are your thoughts, Benbow?" I asked.

"I think he knew something. It's hard to say what, but he knew something."

"It's probably in here, somehow, if we can put it all together." Rieka said lazily as she gestured to her box.

"I think it might have something to do with the stalking complaints that some of the class were rumoured to have been making," Akemi said. "If it was the culprit, then they would have been staking out the class for a long time, and thus specifically chose them. They would have then taken advantage of the trip being unsupervised, and the road being isolated, to carry out the abduction."

"There's a witness statement from a worker at the inn the class stayed at in Yodoe as well," Akio said. "Apparently someone phoned the inn and claimed that they were the staff and asked for an update on what the kids were doing, and some neighbourhood kids remembered seeing a weird car around. But when the staff were questioned, they all denied having made such a call."

"Who did they specifically pretend to be?" I asked.

"Ummm….there were two phone calls, one claiming to be the homeroom teacher, one being Principal Kirigiri."

The homeroom teacher, huh? There was something there, too, since at first she had been one of the few people who came across as actually worried about her class. I'd have to think about that one.

"That's just weird, but you wanna know what I'm wondering?" Mitsuhide asked grandly.

"No."

Rieka and I both said that in unison, and though Mitsuhide pouted, he wasn't deterred. He just sat up straighter, and adjusted his fancy tie before launching into his question.

"Why that class specifically? What made them more special than the other classes? I mean, they were all kids with Talents right, so surely they were interchangeable. And though quite a few had something approaching a celebrity status, there were others who were a great deal more niche. It would have been a lot more attention grabbing to get a class with Coda Kanzaki in it, for example, especially with the controversies surrounding her family. On the other hand, Kiran Nanakai and Teiichi Kazama weren't particularly famous in the proper celeb sense, for example. "

"They had Seiko Yamamoto, for crying out loud." Rieka responded.

"Yes, but I do believe I still have a point." Mitsuhide retorted, his voice taking on an affected snootiness.

"Oh, I saw something to answer that…." Akio said. "I think Principal Kirigiri said something….."

Akio paused and flicked through his sheets. I decided to reply to Akemi instead.

"That makes sense," I said. "It's complicated by the fact that anyone could walk onto the grounds in those days, as long as it was for the sake of Talent, or publicising it."

"Ah, they were a representation of modern Japan!" Akio exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Because of there being a number of mixed students-including my mother-and a foreigner. Oh, and also three sets of siblings in the same class was meant to be special."

"Would that be enough to make them targets?" Ritsuka said, frowning slightly. "It seems a bit….thin."

"Well, attitudes towards mixed people were changing quite rapidly in 2019," Akemi said thoughtfully. "As a country we've come a longer way since then when it comes to our attitudes towards mixed and foreign people. "

"There were some far-right nationalist suspects, weren't there?" I remembered. "I think they were ruled out though."

"Yeah, even the most anti-foreign person was very pro-Hope's Peak, and particularly wanted the party to go ahead." Rieka nodded.

"Mmm….I guess the point here is more that it was just another reason to make them stand out, make them get a lot more attention…" Akio trailed off thoughtfully.

"Okay, so I guess for now we're focusing on the whole thing of them being special and therefore followed?" Mitsuhide asked.

"Ah! We should probably start writing this lot down!"

Rieka bounded up, went to her desk, and then grabbed some sheets of paper, sticky notes and markers. She scribbled some things down, and then leaned over and unpinned a large poster from a pin board I'd noticed the last time that I was here, but hadn't really paid attention to before. Though, now I was thinking about it, it was a lot emptier than I thought I remembered. Looking around, I spotted another pin board with stuff on it. So either this was new, or she'd switched them around. She then pinned up the scribbled sheets and pinned them in various places.

A few of these sheets were simply headings reading 'STAFF-IRRESPONSIBILITY?' , 'WHY 78-B?, 'TARGETING' , while the sticky notes were placed near and around the headings just contained summaries of what we had just been talking about.

"You're not worried about your brother seeing it, or something?" I asked pointedly.

Rieka glared at me.

"I have things to cover it with, it's fine."

"Well, if you say so."

"…"

Rieka took a deep breath, then smiled beatifically before flashing me the middle finger and grabbing a bunch of pens and the rest of the sticky notes. She then made a point of addressing the others.

"We may as well write some things so we can work out where to go, and I've got string as well, so we can go proper old-style incident board."

"Sounds good to me." Akemi nodded.

Rieka grinned, and bounded around handing sticky notes and pens before sitting back down. I frankly couldn't be bothered, so I just reached over for the box and grabbed it.

"He-"

"Oh relax, I'm not stealing it, for crying out loud."

"Oh, FINE. You're tidying though."

"May I also have a look?" Akemi asked politely. "I want to see if there are any patterns in the deaths."

"Oh, sure."

Of course, Rieka had absolutely no problem with Akemi asking for it. Of course she didn't. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Gimme a moment, I'll pass it over."

I briskly pulled a few things out at random, and then promptly did so and started looking through as the others talked.

"There was one already, wasn't there? The whole every other was a torture thing?" Mitsuhide asked unexpectedly.

"The…what now?" Akio asked.

"How do you not know that? I mean, the fact it was a pattern was held back, but at the very least it was known some of them died by more conventional murder means, while others had such violent deaths they seemed like tortures."

"And even those within the same broad category were wildly different to each other." Akemi added thoughtfully. "It was almost as if they could have been killed by a number of different people."

"What if they were?"

Once again, a pin-drop-type silence. We all stared at Ritsuka, who had stretched her legs out, seeming more comfortable. Seeming being the key word, because she gave nothing away as she gave a one-shouldered shrug.

"Perhaps the killings were so disorganised because there were multiple killers?" she clarified. "It isn't out of the bounds of possibility."

"That does make sense." Akemi agreed.

"Put it on the board." Rieka ordered. "That can be something we can dig into."

Ritsuka nodded slowly, and carefully wrote it on a sticky note she had been given. She seemed in no particular rush to do so, but once she had she reached over and snagged the box Akemi had left in the middle of our circle, and we spent some more time looking through and discussing possible theories that we had. After a little while, Rieka's mother called up, leaving Rieka to rush down to get the snacks. When she came back up, she decreed a break.

"But we've just started." I said. "We can't waste time."

"Refueling isn't a waste of time," Rieka said. "Besides, Rome wasn't built in a day, you know."

"I can't think it'll hurt," Akio said as he reached for a cookie and a napkin, nibbling thoughtfully.

Of course, Akemi, Akagi and Ritsuka also zoned straight in on the snacks, which meant that I probably wasn't going to get that much support in powering through. I had to admit they looked good though.

As I grabbed a tiny, unbearably pretty cupcake, Mitsuhide first took a napkin and laid it on his lap, then another one and tucked it into his collar, before then taking a cookie for himself.

"This is a bespoke suit, you know." Was his only eye-roll inducing explanation.

For a few moments, everyone concentrated on eating, but then after a few moments, we all looked at each other, apparently waiting for the others to say something of some kind. I was reminded that we had all literally met for the first time today, and it was a surprise that we hadn't fallen into the awkward type of silence sooner. Then again, we had just gotten straight down to business.

Oh, well.

I nibbled my cupcake and lamented a little, but as I did, I became aware of a phone going off. It took me a little while to realise it was mine. I quickly swallowed a mouthful and fished my phone out of my bag before getting up and looking to see who it was.

"Excuse me."

I moved to a corner of Rieka's room, staring at her walls as I answered the call.

"Kamiya-san?"

"My daughter's been accused of murder!"

What? My heartbeat quickened, and I quickly glanced over at Rieka's 'old style board' and at the little blue square that had Ritsuka's question on it. A number of different people. It was ridiculous on the face of it, but all investigations had to be conducted with an open mind. So I turned back and said.

"Tell me what happened."

…

Ritsuka

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the phone call Otsuka had just received had been one with good news. And considering she was a journalist, it was clearly of the good-scoop variety. Which is why I wasn't so sure why she was staring at us from across the room with a smug look.

"Um….what was the phone call about?" Akio asked after a couple of moments, sounding uncertain.

"Oh thank god, someone just asked!"

"You couldn't have just told us anyway?"

It was exactly what I had been thinking, but the comment hadn't come from me, but from Akagi. So it wasn't nearly as sarcastic a question as a result. Still, it earned him a redundant raised eyebrow, as Otsuka's smirk increased.

"I am in contact with Moeka Kamiya's father." She began. "I'm sure that you all know who he was, so I won't waste my fucking time with the details. The point is, he isn't happy with the way the investigation was run before, and isn't happy about it now. So he's enlisted my help-or rather, I suppose I've made the most of his wish to gain some more information myself. Oh, don't look at me like that, I don't intend to leave the man in the lurch, but you can't deny that we both get something out of such an arrangement. Mind you, the man's a bit of a loose cannon, which what happens when you tunnel-vision to avenge a murdered daughter, but he's just told me…"

Here, she stopped, and looked at all of us. Once again, I was surprised by who responded first-this time, Mitsuhide, letting out a groan as he face-palmed with an audible thunk. When he let his hand drop back to his side I was surprised he hadn't injured his face with all that jewellery he wore.

"Oh for crying out loud, you are just as bad at that woman over there. Please just tell us."

Mitsuhide's voice took on a pleading quality I hadn't heard in it since we'd met earlier today as his neatly trimmed eyebrows furrowed and he pointed over at Rieka. I resisted the urge to nod in commiseration-that, and the urge to roll my eyes. The way I was going, I'd probably completely wear them out between him, Rieka and the over-confident journalist who was clearly enjoying this situation.

"He claimed that he had a confrontation with two survivors, and that one of them claimed that his daughter was the one responsible for killing Akari Kishinami."

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Akio exclaimed, looking utterly horrified.

"Who were the two survivors?"

Akemi asked this at almost the same time, and startled, looking at Akio who just seemed a little sheepish, though his eyes were now worried. Akemi's own gaze was tinged with concern for him, and I could swear I saw her hands twitch a little, as if supressing the urge to reach out. I narrowed my eyes at this, not sure what to make of it. She caught my eye and her own widened a little, betraying shock. But all too quickly, she recovered herself, and was back to being oh-so-serene again. Hmmm….

"Oh, I'm sorry, Arisato-kun," she apologised, ever so contrite. "I didn't mean to interrupt. "

"Ah, it's fine," Akio laughed. "I wasn't even asking a question anyway. Just….no, it's okay. Go ahead, Koizumi-sempai."

Akemi lowered her head humbly in a gesture of thanks and then repeated her question. Thankfully for all of us, Otsuka directly answered.

"Eizo Amai and Azami Kishinami."

"Oooooh boy." Rieka said.

"I don't imagine that a teenager could have been responsible for such a large-scale tragedy though." Akagi pointed out. "is there a possibility that he was lying? Or perhaps misunderstood what was said?"

"I'd say misunderstanding is a possibility at least, " Otsuka said. "The old man does seem prone to that. But that doesn't mean the possibility should be dismissed out of hand."

"Oh, come on!" Rieka said. "She was a teenage girl. And while teenagers, present company almost all included, are awesome, and she was an SHSL just….this was something else completely, and there was no evidence any of them had such depraved inclinations."

Mitsuhide snorted at this.

"This is kind of rich from a girl who constantly over-sells herself by solving so-called 'mysteries' while badmouthing beloved books, but sure, whatever."

Rieka turned to glare at him fiercely, her nostrils flaring.

"What did you just say about me?"

"Oh, you heard."

Yep, I'm definitely going to wear my eyes out from too much rolling.

"I wouldn't really know about these things…"

Akio spoke up hesitantly after a few moments passed and all of us could be reasonably sure that the spat wasn't going to continue.

"But this doesn't seem like something somebody could have managed to do perfectly for the first time, right? Not just killing, but hiding them away for so long and stalking and abducting…either the culprits spent a really long time planning, or they've done things like this before."

"Wouldn't such events have been in the news?" Akagi asked.

Sure, if something exactly the same had happened with a different Hope's Peak class, or even with any other group of people in the public eye, I thought. But if I remember correctly from what I've read…

"Serial killers escalate," I decided to say. "Not that this is anything I know much about. But they start small, and then build up to more horrific crimes if left unchecked. It could be part of the same thing."

"Moeka Kamiya's father claims that too." Otsuka said, finally coming to sit back down. "He even had examples of crimes he thought might be by the same person, which I'll need to review."

"Well, maybe that could be our next task?" Akio offered.

"Hey, I'm starting to like you." Otsuka grinned.

"Um, thanks?"

"Yeah, there are a lot of amateur crime solving forums-I am sure you're familiar, Amasaki-san-and while a lot of it is drivel there are threads of truth in them."

"I don't mind doing that." I said quickly.

"Great, perfect, that'll be your task." Otsuka declared.

There was a pause. Mitsuhide started fiddling with his rings, while Rieka played with her own jewellery. Akemi looked through more of Rieka's documents, passing them between Akio and Akagi, and Otsuka read others. I just watched, yawning slightly. A couple of us took more snacks, but the silence stretched awkwardly.

"Riight, well, maybe we should wrap this up now. "

"I have another question though, if I may." Akagi spoke up after a moment.

"Sure, go for it." Rieka said.

"Who are the Oomori family, exactly?" he asked. "The name comes up a lot in the staff interviews, and the lawyer that sits with the Principal and Tengan has the surname."

"Oomori?" Akio asked.

"T-that's what my screenreader is reading it as."

"No, the kanji is right." Otsuka said. "They weren't staff though, they were-"

"How can you not know who they are? The Oomori family are old money, extremely old. They're the founders not just of Oomori Electronics but also of The Oomori Foundation and a large number of them have also had success in the creative fields. The youngest of Kazutaka Oomori's three children, Miyako-san, has actually starred in Hollywood films, alongside my eldest brother Seiichi who I'm sure you have all heard of-he's the next most attractive sibling after me, of course. Kazutaka Oomori himself has also always had an interest in directing films, though he is more interested in arthouse horror movies. His father Kazukiyo Oomori was a lawyer in his dayjob, but had a brief stint as an actor and he was best friends with my grandfather, the great Taichi Okita."

Mitsuhide smirked at us as he finished his little ramble, sitting up straighter and his brown eyes gaining a self-important glint.

"That…you actually know something. I'm impressed." Rieka snickered.

"What does that have to do with Hope's Peak though?" Otsuka asked, clearly not ready to be impressed yet.

"Kazutaka Oomori spent a lot of time at Hope's Peak, because his father was the lawyer for the school due to his extensive connections with Kazuo Tengan-he was childhood friends with Kazuharu Oomori, Kazukiyo Oomori's father and was essentially a godfather figure to both the Kiyo and the Taka of the family, and the three children that Kazutaka Oomori had-Kazunari, Kazuhiro and Miyako. And one of the first organisations that The Oomori foundation supported was, of course, Hope's Peak."

Otsuka's eyes bugged out, while Rieka's jaw dropped open, and the others all seemed various shades of astonished.

"Wait, you know things." Otsuka said. "But how come you don't know things?"

I had no idea what she meant by that, but Mitsuhide shrugged, looking sheepish.

"Well, until now, I just figured it was a part of the past, nothing more. Just something that my parents' illustrious circle gossiped about. But now…things are different and though my knowledge is lacking I will change that in order to solve this."

Rieka raised an eyebrow, but to my relief did not say anything.

"That gossip could be valuable though, especially if we're looking into the culpability Hope's Peak might have had." I decided to say, pointing my thumb at the pin board.

"Yes, yes….well, I think we can call it a day." Otsuka said. "Tomorrow, we can regroup and start to actually do things. Shall we meet at….8am? I am willing to come back here, to make things simpler."

"8am?" Mitsuhide moaned. "But that's so early."

"Not all of us are local though," Akemi said. "Won't that cause problems? I would offer to have people stay with me, but I do not think my parents will approve, unfortunately."

Really? There wasn't really any reason for me to doubt that, but all the same, that was my instinct.

"Alright, who of us are not local or at least in one of the surrounding towns?" Rieka asked.

Only Mitsuhide and I put our hands up, and when he realised this, he gave me one of those annoying flirtatious grins he'd been trying on all the girls all day.

"Right, that should be easy-I have space for someone in my crashpad, but the other one of you will have to go elsewhere. So, Nishimiya-san, think you'll manage kipping on the sofa?"

I stared at her.

"I don't have anything with me. And I don't think anything of yours will fit me."

"Who said I was going to offer?" she fired back with a grin. "Go back home and get some stuff, then meet me at mine."

Again, I stared, but this time I didn't bother refraining from rolling my eyes. Let them wear out.

"Do you know where I came from today?" I asked. "It's not exactly a quick trip."

Otsuka sighed heavily, and the others exchanged looks.

"It's not a quick trip for me either, but I'm used to keeping long hours, naturally, in order to keep the fans happy." Mitsuhide said self-importantly. "It shouldn't be an issue at all for me to get some things and come back to wherever I am staying, though I may be a little late in arriving."

"Pffft, more like sending them to sleep." Rieka snarked.

"Surely it wouldn't be that bad if she went back for the night and just came back each day?" Akio asked. "Or is that too much to ask on such a regular basis?"

"It would be ridiculous, and pointless too." I stated simply.

It's 2039, have you not heard of the internet? Still, screens were a barrier, weren't they? And this was the type of mystery one had to get all close and personal with, the way it seemed. All those different questions coming up, and the revelations. I just hoped I wouldn't live to regret this.

Because although it was kind of tempting to back out at this point, there were a number of reasons I couldn't. Firstly, I had been seen fiddling with the tablets, and even though I hadn't done anything and hadn't intended on doing so, that wasn't exactly a great start to my time at Hope's Peak. I really didn't want that to be spilled, and Otsuka was clearly a girl who knew how to use any and every titbit of information she gathered to her own ends. Secondly, I was actually intrigued and I didn't want to walk away from something that was going to make my summer that little bit more interesting. What else would I really be doing with this time, anyway, if I wasn't here? Just the same as most other summers, and while there was nothing wrong with that, well…why would I pass up a more tantalising alternative?

And finally, there was Eikichi Hanamura. Loath as I was to admit it, it didn't matter one jot that I had never met him until now, that he still didn't know who I was or that I existed. I didn't even care about getting him to know me. Yet that connection had been bought home to me in a weird way, despite the absolute shambles that encounter had been. Perhaps it wasn't my biggest priority, but all the same, it mattered.

It mattered. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that, and right there, was another reason.

"Would it be easier, maybe, for you to go back home for the night," Akemi spoke up suddenly. "Then come back tomorrow with things and then perhaps stay with Jihara-san for the next few days?"

"Of course!" Otsuka clapped her hands decisively. "That makes perfect sense now, doesn't it?"

I thought about this for a moment, considering the practicalities, but in reality I knew that even if the practicalities hadn't worked out, I would have found a way to do this anyway. So, although it was a heavy sigh and sense of foreboding, I nodded wearily.

"Sure, I'll do that."

"Perfect!" Otsuka said. "Having all of us together will make things a lot easier."

"Wait, what about me?" Mitsuhide demanded. "Where am I staying?"

"I'd offer, but I'm actually staying away from home at the moment, because of Mum's stress about what's happening." Akio apologised. "Normally she loves having my friends over."

"I am staying with my uncle, but he'd need a few days' notice first…."

"Oh, fiiiine. Just gimme a moment to ask."

Before anyone could react, Rieka jumped up and abruptly ran downstairs. We all exchanged looks, but then just as quickly she came back up again.

"You can stay in one of my older sib's rooms, okay?" she addressed Mitsuhide. "But this doesn't mean that I like you or anything. I still think you're an insufferable, pompous git."

"And I think you're raging and hysterical, but we can't have everything. And I will gladly accept the invitation because sacrifices must be made for the better good. "

"So, you'll be coming with me tonight, and you're going home but off to stay with Jihara-chan tomorrow night?"

Mitsuhide and I both nodded in agreement, and since that was considered settled we all chatted a bit more, coming to a consensus that we'd all try and read up a little more, particularly about the topics we'd discussed, so that we could start making a game plan tomorrow. I, of course, was going to try and pinpoint crime forum posts of use, and Akemi suggested that she try and make a tentative psychological profile since she had some kind of expertise in this. But finally, eventually, we were all getting ready to leave when-

"AHEM?"

Rieka had her hands on her hips, and she glared at us all.

"Um…." Akio asked a little tentatively. "What's wrong?"

"Did you all forget?"

She gestured to the floor, where the contents of her shoebox were all still strewed across. All of us exchanged looks, and then, we laughed.

"Ooops."