Mai

When Juro woke me up with a phone call to say he might be able to briefly drop in for breakfast, I was up like a shot, quickly changing and rushing around to scramble eggs, make coffee and put other bits and pieces together. By the time I'd set everything on the table, I heard the key turn in the lock, so I smoothed down the skirt of the pink dress I'd chosen to wear today and went to the door.

"Juro, welcome back." I breathed out.

Juro gave me a soft smile and kissed my cheek.

"I can't stay too long, but I missed you last night."

I stepped back, clasping my hands behind my back as Juro slipped off his shoes and closed the door behind him. I noticed the bag in his hand.

"Are those last night's clothes?" I asked.

"Yeah, I need to take a new spare outfit before I leave." He said apologetically.

"I'll sort that out for you," I said quickly. "But for now, come and enjoy some breakfast."

Juro regarded me for a moment, and I regarded him back. I thought I could see new lines on his face, worry tugging at the corners of his eyes despite the easy smile he still wore. Me. It's all because of me. But then he smiled wider, and followed me to the dining room table, where we sat opposite each other and started eating. I made sure Juro had eaten a few mouthfuls and drunk a few sips before I asked.

"Are things…are things going okay?" I asked. "With the investigation?"

Juro's chopsticks paused mid-air, and then he put them down.

"There are…a lot of leads that we're following. We might be getting close to finding something, too, but there's a lot going on. Which is why I stayed, of course."

"Mhm."

"Though, I might be moved to another case soon."

I waited for Juro to elaborate, but he didn't, instead continuing to eat. I pushed around my food a little bit, and then ate a couple of mouthfuls myself. Juro was usually so quick to be reassuring, to not let any doubts settle. Then again, I was usually good at staying strong, of keeping the past behind us and not letting it have anything to do with the life that I was leading now. Sometimes, I even believed the edited version of our how-we-met story that we told to people we'd only meet once, who didn't recognise my face from those long-ago news stories. I believed in our more ordinary life, and for years I'd managed to make it so. And yet, in a matter of days, it had started to crumble, and I had done nothing about it. If anything, I'd crumbled with it.

"Oh."

Juro met my eyes.

"It'll be better this way, really."

"I…won't that look bad for you?"

"No, I don't think so," Juro shook his head. "There are other cases going on as well…"

I didn't ask about them, I rarely did. Instead, I asked:

"Have you talked to the kids?" I asked.

"Yeah. Nobu-kun told me that Sachi's having a whale of a time with Naomi-chan, playing hairdressers and princesses and…some other things. I forget. But Naomi-chan's starting to come out of her shell a little and Sachi's enjoying getting to do the looking after for a change. It'll be good for both of them when Naomi-chan starts school again, I think."

"It will be," I smiled fondly. "And Akio's just fine at his friend's, isn't he?"

"He's a good boy." Juro agreed neutrally.

I paused, wondering if I should tell him that Akio had been here while the other survivors had been, that he'd met them. But he looked so tired, and as he picked up his coffee cup he yawned. I had burdened him with my weaknesses so much already in the past few days, he did not need my worries on top of his. I was supposed to be the supportive wife. That's who I wanted to be.

"Did you manage to sleep?" I asked. "Those beds are uncomfortable, aren't they?"

It would have been more comfortable at home, wouldn't it? Or did you need to stay so far from me? But I couldn't think like that, could I? He'd come back this morning, to check on me, right? Of course he's tired, he's been stressed too.

I knew that. I knew all of that. Still, the thought he was trying to avoid me couldn't help but start to take root.

"Upupupu, I knew that you'd discover him sooner or later!"

Almost as if by magic, the little robot bear appeared, peering around the corner of one of the shelves, as if it was a mischievious child. I startled and scrambled back, as did a few.

"Hi there, beary!" Yuki exclaimed. "Hey, you gonna let me pick you up now? I wanna see how you work!"

"Yuki,no." Yuri cautioned, not now.

"For the last time, you overgrown manchild, I'm not a toy! Anyway, you have much more important things to figure out, such as which one of you killed poor, poor little Kiran Nanakai here."

"Oooh, it's time for us to figure out who is the culprit, like cops and robbers? No, no, it's…wait for it, it's 'whodunnito'!Let's play Whodunnito! Whoever finds the most clues gets a priiize~! Right, I bet Kiran would want to play too if he wasn't being the dead body, right? Right?"

"Whodunnito? You mean like a real-life Cluedo?" Eizo laughed, though the notes of it were jarring and awkward. "We're not like, CSI Miami, how're we meant to do that?"

Even as he smiled though, he swallowed when he looked over at Kiran sprawled over the floor. Yuki on the other hand had no such revulsion, and he prodded Kiran experimentally with his foot, pouting when that produced no reaction whatsoever. Yuki pulled a face.

"Man, you're no fun! But you make a great corpse! Hey, guys, you think I'd make a good corpse?"

"What the fuck, Fujimoto?" Sen'ya snapped. "Do you think Kiran's best friend would be crying if this was just some sort of twisted murder mystery night crap?"

I glanced over to Teiichi, who, even with the tear tracks on his face, had managed to remain remarkably composed, crumpling a tissue in his hand while flanked by Moeka and the Kishinami twins.

"Yuki, please, stop. You know that this isn't a game." Yuri pleaded.

"Yuri, you're booooooring."

"You're distracting us, too."

Eikichi straightened himself up and turned to the ebar.

"What do you mean, figure out which one of us did this?" he asked sharply.

"Yeah, exactly!" Ayuna glared from where she was kneeling right by Kiran. "It wouldn't have been any of us and you know it-especially not to Nanakai! It had to have been you, whoever the hell you are."

"No, it can't have been any of us, but if we keep our heads together we'll be able to find out who really did it, I'm sure." Moeka called over.

"Y-yeah, they're right!" Eizo said. "There's no way it was one of us, we're friends! Right, Fumi?"

Fumiaki looked over at him, and simply placed a calming hand on Eizo's shoulder. He didn't say anything initially, but then sighed.

"We have to hope that isn't the case."

"Weeeeeeeel, sorry to break your little bubble, but time's a ticking and I gotta disrupt that hope! Because the truth is, it wasn't me, nope, nope, nope. It was one of you, standing in this room right now, pretending that you're all sooooooo cut up by his death. One of you who took an….oops, don't wanna give it away, but either way you'd have to be blind to not see your precious classmate's head got all bashed in! And that was done by one of you, yet another precious classmate!"

I put a hand to my mouth and looked to Friede and Lilian, eyes wide. Their expressions mirrored mine, though Lilian was at least dry-eyed, and we huddled a little closer together as we continued watching.

"Why, you-"

"Ochiai, don't."

Though both Eikichi and Fumiaki had stepped forward to deal with Sen'ya jumping forward and getting in the bear's face, it was Seiko's soft command that had him pause and turn around, though he still remained half-crouching. He stared at her for the longest moment, and then abruptly sat down on the floor, exhaustion abruptly washing over him as he let out a volley of tired curses. The bear, for his part, just kept laughing.

"Oh, your reactions are so funny! Like, 'oh, we're so special, we're such a special class and we have THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP so we'd never kill each other'! Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're wrong, Upupu! It was definitely, 100%, one of you who offed him! In the end, you're not fucking special at all, so crack on with it! You've got an investigation to carry out….that is, if you have any intention of living."

With that, he disappeared again and for a moment we all stood there.

"Well, you heard him." Eikichi ground out roughly. "We need to crack on and figure out…"

"How to figure this out?" Fumiaki suggested helpfully.

"Yes, exactly."

The closer he got to the truth, the more he'd realise what we'd all been told-that we weren't special, that our friendships and shared history had had all their meaning shattered and scattered all over the ground, making our feet bleed as we tried to put them back together again. That despite our closeness, so many of us had managed to turn on each other. Even worse, that once, I had thought of doing the same in the so-called name of that friendship.

Even though the three of us were alone in the little alcove, Friede still looked around nervously before she dug in the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a small vial.

"It was in the storage room, I noticed it back in the beginning." She said. "There was a label, but I flushed it away once I got it back in my room. I didn't think I needed to know the small details, just that it would be fatal."

"Were you intending on using it?" I asked.

Friede shrugged and avoided my eyes, her knuckles whitening as she gripped the little vial.

"Better than someone else getting to me, right? Better for me, and better for all of you."

"Free-"

I startled as Juro pushed his chair back, looking apologetic.

"You haven't finished eating." I said, though I hadn't either.

"I really should be going, there's still a lot-"

"You finish eating, I can sort out your clothes for you, and by the time you're finished you'll be all ready to go."

Juro looked at me for a moment, the apologetic-ness morphing into something sorrowful, almost pitiful. But then he smiled and settled back into his chair. I got up, and left the room, trying to conceal the shaking in my hands as I headed upstairs. I dumped his clothes from the day before into the laundry basket, then went to our bedroom and picked out new things, choosing the most comfortable of his work clothes and packing a couple extra pairs of socks and underwear-including the goofy socks Akio had helped Sachi by for Juro's birthday a couple of years ago, the ones with rainbow coloured fish all over them. I smiled momentarily as I looked at them, and then on an impulse I swapped out the grey tie I'd originally put in there with a rich blue one from a set that I had given him as an impulse present a longer time ago. Making sure everything was neatly in the bag, I zipped it up and headed back down. Since Juro wasn't by the door, I left the bag next to his shoes and headed back into the kitchen, where he was washing his plates.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "You didn't need to do that, since you have to go in."

"No, it's alright, it didn't seem fair to leave it, and it's just a plate, cup and cutlery. I'm almost done anyway."

"Well, in that case, let me decant some of yesterday's leftovers into a box for you to take for lunch."

It would mean him waiting a few moments longer, and I waited for him to realise, hoping that he wouldn't realise. And thankfully, he didn't seem to, instead simply smiling broadly.

"I'd love that." Juro said. "What did you make?"

I described to him both what I had made for my friends, and what I'd ended up making for my own supper while I hunted things down, picked them out, and sorted them out in the bento box, making sure everything was perfect. By the time I was done, Juro had gone to put his shoes on, so I went back out and tucked the box carefully into his bag.

"Have a good day, alright?" I asked as we both stood up again.

"I'll do my best, you try as well though, okay?"

"Mhm."

I hesitated for a moment, for reasons I wasn't even sure of, but then I launched myself at Juro and hugged him tightly. Juro's arms wrapped around me and I closed my eyes, breathed in.

"Don't worry, Mai, my love. Okay?"

Mai, my love. The old endearment rendered joking in English, I loved it so much. It was a touchstone to me, that everything would be alright. It should have been enough for me now, but I could feel the knots of tension in Juro's back, feel the slight sigh that threaded through the words. I wanted him to stay here, with me, and turn back time. Please stay, please. Instead of saying that, though, I simply held on a little longer and then stepped back. Juro slung his bag over his shoulder, then gave me one more smile before opening the door and stepping out. I watched him go, and then I locked the door and turned back to finish my own breakfast, which now tasted of nothing. I forced myself to eat it though, mouthful by mouthful, and then washed up my own breakfast things and went to sort out the laundry, putting it all in the washing machine and turning it on. Then, at a loss for what else to do, I headed back up to my bedroom. Once there, I sat heavily on my bed, and put my head into my hands. It felt like everything inside it was spinning, flailing, and I wasn't sure how to sort any of it out.

But before any one memory could really take hold, the phone rang.

…

Ritsuka

I don't think Otsuka was best pleased that one of my trains had ended up delayed, but there was nothing that either of us could do about it except delay the meeting until I got in and managed to at least dump my things at hers and freshen up. Since I had already said I'd attempt to make my own way to her place, there was naturally nobody to meet me at the station, and irrationally, I felt a little peeved about this. No point standing around, you're already late. The sun shining so brightly already as I left the station, I sped through the ticket barrier and then went to a side to take off my hoodie and tie it around my waist before checking my phone again for the address and directions I'd looked up before and headed on my way. It didn't take me long to find the right bus to take, and as soon as it arrived I took a seat in the back, leant my head against the window, and resisted the urge to fall asleep.

The apartment block that Otsuka's flat was in looked a fair bit like mine-which was to say, grey, generic and nothing to really write home about. Her apartment was a few floors up, and once I had taken the lift up to the floor in question, I mentally counted the doors until I got to hers, and then rang the doorbell. I noticed a little screen above it, and a small camera above it, so I looked directly at it and waited. A few seconds later, the screen came to life and Otsuka's face loomed.

"Ah, here at last. I was getting bored-the extra time to finish my errands was a nice bonus, but still. Time is of the essence. Gimme a mo."

The screen went dark, and I heard latches being fiddled with before the door opened and Otsuka led me in. I kicked off my trainers and looked around-the hallway was very small, not helped by the sheer number of stylish shoes of all types threatening to spill out of the shoe rack. I idly wondered which pair Otsuka would choose to wear with her purple cold-shoulder top with rhinestones around the neckline as I followed Otsuka into her very small living room, dominated almost entirely by bookshelves and a large computer.

"I see you've bought your laptop, but you can use that too if need be." Otsuka told me bluntly. "I'm not telling you the password."

"You wouldn't need to." I returned.

Otsuka stared at a moment, then laughed.

"Fair enough. Anyway, that sofa will be your bed for the duration-trust me, it's a LOT comfier than it looks, so you're not that shafted."

"Thanks." I said drily, regarding the sofa which did indeed look a bit sad, though it was livened up by some fancy cushions, and a nice patchwork pillow and quilt set. I looked for somewhere to put my suitcase and eventually figured that between one end of the sofa and the bookshelf should do the trick. I knelt down and opened my suitcase and got my toiletries out and then followed Otsuka to the bathroom to put them in a spare holder above her sink. She then quickly pointed out all the other features of the flat, which took about five seconds, before we returned to the living room.

"Do you live here all the time then?" I asked curiously as I picked up my laptop bag again.

"Nah, nah, this is just my crash-pad, for when I'm deep in an investigation. Family and work aren't always compatible you know, especially not when the case is a thorny one like this. That, and it saves me having to get into arguments with my Dad."

"I imagine he worries about you."

"Yeeeeah, but also, he's a sensationalist. Celeb gossip and all that." Otsuka's curled her lip at that, then smiled and shrugged. "But we're cool as long as we avoid newstalk-which again, isn't going to happen if I'm knee deep in a scoop. So, this used to be my Dad's place when he started out, so he's given it to me, I stay here whenever I have something major to work on, and as long as I check in with my family so they know I haven't been abducted or whatever I get to move freely without nagging."

She grinned and looked across the room, and I followed her gaze to a particular shelf that had a cluster of photographs on it. The one in the middle was Otsuka, with a slightly older girl who looked like her and a middle aged couple. A sister and parents, I presumed. It was one of those super cheerful photographs where everyone seemed all cosy and happy, and judging by the cheesy paper hats everyone (even, incredibly, Otsuka) was wearing it looked like it was at a party of some sorts.

"From a couple years ago, when my sister turned 20." She told me. "Anyway, do you need to freshen up, eat anything? Or shall we head off?"

"We can head off." I said.

"Good."

Otsuka grabbed a sheaf of papers from a tiny photocopier, and put them into an envelope she had whipped off of her desk before tucking the works into her own bag, and then heading out to the small hallway. I re-laced my own trainers and idly noted that she chose a pair of open-toed, studded boots, then waited by the door while she set alarms of some kind (I made a mental note to ask her more about her security systems, and perhaps poke into them myself if I got the opportunity), and then we left.

I expected that we would be getting the bus from near the special school, the bus stop I had gotten off from. But as we approached it, Otsuka abruptly stopped and looked around. I followed her gaze, but didn't initially see anything special except young people of all ages, a few elderly people, and some straggling salarymen. But then, suddenly, she turned to me.

"You know what, I think we should get a coffee. "

"I-what?"

Otsuka ignored me, and started walking back the way we had come, before crossing the road and turning the corner to a road filled with cafes and little boutiques, and all the time she was still looking around, though not obviously. Her eyes darted here and there, and eventually, after a few moments she pulled out her phone, tapped something into it, and then tucked it back into her jeans pocket. Looking at it closely, I noticed a small light on it, but then had to scramble to make sure I didn't lose Otsuka as we approached a crowd of what looked like Western tourists. French, I realised as we got close enough to hear them. Not that that really mattered, though.

Otsuka picked a café halfway down the street, and entered it, striding straight to the counter.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"I, um…."

I looked at the menu and then picked something at random. Otsuka nodded, and then reeled off a complicated order for herself to the barista, all while leaning against the counter and scanning the café's customers and, it seemed to me, the outside too. I followed her suit, but again, as far as I could see, there wasn't anything particularly unusual for a July morning, except maybe a couple of those straggling salarymen. We had to move to the side while waiting, but Otsuka kept up her watch, and I watched her in return. Eventually, though, we got our orders, and she immediately shoved them at me.

"Here, make yourself useful, and make sure to keep up." She told me.

"Gee, thanks."

I rolled my eyes but grabbed the things and set off following her. I saw a number of different bus stops we could have taken the same bus on, but we went past them completely, taking what seemed to be a convoluted route. I barely had time to take a few sips of my coffee while it was still a decent temperature.

"Look," I hissed as we made our way through a busy shopping mall. "What, exactly, are we doing? I thought you didn't want to waste time."

"We're being followed."

She barely raised an eyebrow as she said this, grabbing one of her breakfast pastries as she did so. She chomped into it, coming to a halt in a busy courtyard, people milling all around. I gawped at her, not sure that I had heard her correctly over the hubbub of people and screeching electronic advertisements.

"I'm sorry, did you-"

"Specifically, me." She added as though there had not just been a pastry-related pause. "I suspect the reason why, but I'm trying to throw them off. But I'm recording my movements just in case. "

Okay, I did hear correctly. For a weird moment, I imagined Tasuku's voice telling me 'abort mission. Nerd' but I steadfastly ignored it, even though voice-in-head-Tasuku probably had a point. Or he would if he ever found out about this, let alone if he was the type to exercise such caution.

"Do you not want to call the police?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

Once again, Otsuka paused to eat, and I took advantage of the moment to drink more coffee. Oh well, at least it hadn't completely gone cold. After she swallowed, she grinned.

"Nope, not for now. This shopping mall is a stalker's nightmare, and the exit we're going through, it'll lead us to a station that's a pretty big hub-lots of direct connections to larger cities. Towa Central Main. Not the station you would have come from."

"Riiggght…."

As she said this, I realised that the light on her phone clearly was something related to how she was recording the incident. I also thought back to the people that had been around us, and immediately recalled the late-running salarymen. Thinking about it now, while most had looked harried and distracted as you'd expect someone in such a situation to be, a couple had been cool and calm. And if I remembered right, those same cool and calm salarymen had been outside the café.

"Okay, let's go. Don't look obviously like you're watching out, but keep your wits about you, okay? If you see them-I know you've figured it out, it's all over your face-let me know."

I nodded, and just like that, we were off again. Otsuka was clearly a lot more used to evading followers than I ever had been, and I had some trouble keeping up, but I was damned if I wasn't going to try. It helped that I had less food and drink to carry. I did my best to be watchful without being obvious about it, trying to see if those two men were amongst the crowds of people. I didn't see anything, and though naturally we went through the most crowded and convoluted routes, it didn't seem like Otsuka had seen anything. Eventually though, we reached the train station, and then suddenly, hearing a train announcement, Otsuka grabbed my hand and bodily dragged me to a platform just as the train in question was pulling in, and then onto the train.

We sprawled out on seats, gasping for breath and ignoring the looks of a slightly concerned elderly lady. I finished the remainders of my miraculously unspilled but sadly now cold coffee, and crumpled the cup into the bin, and then finally looked at Otsuka.

"We managed it?"

"Yeah, we did."

Otsuka took her phone out of her pocket and then turned off whatever she had had on, before fiddling a little more. Then she tucked it back in her pocket.

"You're probably wondering why all that happened, right?"

"You said you think you know why? How do you know for sure?"

Otsuka grinned, shark-tooth-sharp.

"Look up 'History of Neglect' and take a read. The rest, I'll have to wait to explain when we get there."

I narrowed my eyes at her, but then took my phone out and obliged. Straight away, I was taken to an article that Otsuka had apparently published to an online newspaper this very morning, while I was stuck on that delayed train. Damn. I raised one eyebrow slightly, but felt both of them rise further as I read through the article. Forming ideas and suspicions of my own, I decided to wait until we were all together to put them to her, and once I was done, I texted Tasuku and Koume, then just surfed the internet until Otsuka indicated it was our stop.

The small remainder of our journey was, thankfully, uneventful. As we reached Rieka's road, we noticed Akio, Akagi and Akemi coming down the road from the opposite direction, Akagi between the other two. Akio was the first to notice us, and he held a hand up and waved.

"Hi guys!" he called out. "Did you have a good journey?"

"Good morning!" Akemi called out. "Nishimiya-san, I hope your journey to Jihara-san's wasn't too bad."

"No, it was fine," I said cautiously as I joined them. "As for this journey…"

Akio's eyes widened in concern, and I noticed he looked tired too. Come to think of it, all three of them seemed tired, though Akemi was wearing make-up and for her it was only a slight feeling I had. Still, I suspected she wouldn't want anyone to know that she was tired, for whatever reason. Even her clothes, though so much more casual than yesterday, were pristine and perfect.

"Did something happen?"

"Ah, it was fine! I'll tell you all about it inside. Anyway, what're we waiting for?"

"We stopped when we saw you." Akagi pointed out.

"You didn't see me." Otsuka retorted.

"I know that." Akagi said calmly, raising an eyebrow. "I'm still allowed to use sight-based metaphors, you know."

Otsuka blinked at that, and I stifled a laugh. In that time, Akio decided to take the lead and ring the doorbell for us, brushing past Akemi, which made her jump slightly, blushing just a little under her make-up, but then her sleeve brushed against Akagi's side which made him blush. I wondered if Mitsuhide, Rieka or Otsuka had noticed this about them yet. I was sure they'd have an absolute field day with it. I, on the other hand, would stay firmly out of that nonsense, as there was enough to contend with already. Though I wondered why someone as popular and notorious as Akemi would have any interest in Akio who, as nice as he was, was basically ordinary compared to her.

The door opened, disrupting my train of thought. Mitsuhide grinned at us all, seeming unusually dressed down in a button-down shirt and slacks.

"Oh, you all arrive at once, like buses. Nice!"

"How come you're answering the door?" I asked.

Mitsuhide scowled at this.

"She made me."

"I CAN HEAR YOU!" Rieka yelled from somewhere deep within the house. "JUST LET THEM IN."

Mitsuhide gave a big, put-upon smile and then smiled beatifically, particularly directing it at Akemi and being obvious about it.

"Yes, yes, come in, come in! It's going to be an exciting day, isn't it?"

If the way it's started is anything to go by then yes, it is. Just have to hope it won't get any more exciting….

…

Ayuna

Any specific plans I had in mind for meeting with the others sort of ended up going out of the window after receiving a call from Detective Hirawa, telling me that there was an urgent breakthrough that we needed to be informed about, in person.

"Is this for all of us?" I had asked. "Or just some of us?"

"No, no, it's about all of you. How does a couple of hours' time work?"

"That should be fine? Can I tell the others what's happening?"

"We will be informing them, of course, but no reason why you cannot."

I had thanked him, and then hung up. After a few moments of disoriented staring at my phone, I went to text Eizo first, and found that he had sent me a message.

Eizo Amai: Hey, did you get a phone call from one of the detectives? Apparently they've found out something, but I don't know what.

Eizo Amai: I mean, they did cut our interviews short last night for some reason. Detective Arisato didn't mention anything, but he looked worried when he saw me and Azami out.

Ayuna Aozaki: Oh good, I was just about to see if you knew. What happened yesterday, anyway? Is everything alright?

Eizo Amai: Yeah, sort of. We had a run-in with Moeka's dad when we came back from the hospital, and they wanted to ask about that basically…

Ayuna Aozaki: Oh no, nobody got hurt or anything? And how come you didn't mention this before?

Eizo Amai: It was hard on Azami. And it'll be easier to explain when we meet up in person, though I guess that will have to be later on, right?

I stared at those words for a moment, and took a deep breath. Even over messages, that did not seem too good.

Ayuna Aozaki: Yes, it will be. I'll need to let the others know now, though it's going to be a pain sending the same thing four more times over.

Eizo Amai: Haha, you must miss the days of the group chat, right? Did you end up deleting the old one?

Ayuna Aozaki: I archived all the messages and then deleted it, yeah. Perhaps I should create a new one?

Eizo Amai: Ooooooh!

Eizo Amai: (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

Eizo Amai: (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Eizo Amai: \ (••) /

Eizo Amai: (｡◕‿◕｡) (｡◕‿◕｡)

Eizo Amai: (^̮^)

Ayuna Aozaki: I take that as a yes, then, haha. In any case, I'll leave you two to get ready. I'll see you there?

Eizo Amai: Yup, yup, ^.^ see you then.

I quickly sent messages to all the others-well, as quickly as I could-then finished getting myself ready. I made myself a cup of coffee and opened a packet of the biscuits that came with it for a quick breakfast, intending to get something more substantial either on the way there or later. But as I swept up my bag, checked my appearance in the mirror and then prepared to go, I paused. Then, I crouched by my bed and reached out for the suitcase. I curled my fingers around its handle, but did not pull it. Instead, I simply held onto it for a moment. Whatever Eizo was being circumspect about, I could hardly criticize when I was in a similar position.

Sorry, Seiko. Soon, but not now, okay?

I let go of the suitcase, got up again and then decisively left the room. It didn't take long for a lift to arrive when I called it, and it was empty when it did. When the lift reached the hotel lobby and I headed out across it to leave, I heard a couple of sets of footsteps follow after me.

"Aozaki-san, Aozaki-san!"

"Ayuna Aozaki, can you tell us about how the investigation is going?"

I sighed and turned towards the two journalists-neither of whom were Otsuka, I noticed much to my relief. Ah, well, it could be worse. At least it's not a horde. I put on my best smile for them as I addressed them.

"If you want to know the specifics of the investigation you should probably talk to the police or their press office."

"Yes, but after all these years of not talking about it, and then coming back to help with the investigation, there must be something you can give us." The first journalist said.

"You have always been more open to talking than the others, have you not? What's changed?"

"Nothing has changed, apart from the investigation being re-opened. It is true myself and my fellow survivors continue to refuse to talk about what happened in any great detail. Even now, everything that happened is just so… unbelievable. We are helping the police, yes, but that is because we want justice for our friends. There's nothing more to it, and we are not ready to share our stories."

"So you will not give us even a hint?" the second journalist asked.

I laughed mildly, but my chest clenched. The rest of them may not want to, but it'll be out of our hands soon, won't it? If they are able to make progress this time, then it won't matter if we share our stories or not. But still, there is the worry that…

"Even if I told you what happened, I doubt you'd believe me."

Before either journalist could ask me another question, I held out my hand:

"I do not wish to continue this conversation, and under the circumstances I am sure you understand why. If there is progress made and a culprit arrested then perhaps I may reconsider but for now I shall have to ask you to leave me alone. Have a good day."

I walked off, briskly, and didn't look back until I was well out of the doors. Luckily, the journalists just stood there, looking more than a bit peeved. I let out a breath, and then wondered if any of the others had had to suffer journalist harassment. I hoped they hadn't-I couldn't imagine any of them really being able to manage it. It was easier for me, since I had encountered them before, even if that had been more on my terms than this was, more controllable than this was.

Just forget it for now, I told myself as I made my way to the police station, just focus on what is happening right now. Even knowing that there had been no hint, my brain wracked the recollection of Detective Hirawa's phone call, but came up empty.

I arrived there at the same time as Takaaki, and I nodded at him.

"Morning," I told him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Who said I slept? Is the night just for sleeping?" he shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and let out a laugh, despite myself. For a moment, he grinned but then he frowned again, and tugged at some of his terribly-dyed hair.

"Say, I don't suppose you have any idea what any of this is about?" he asked.

"Not a clue."

"Nothing to do with Amai and Kishinami, right?"

"I don't imagine so," I said. "But depending on how long this takes, we can always meet up at mine afterwards and talk things through. I suspect we will need to."

Takaaki shrugged.

"Suits me. Nothing better to do, after all."

I reached for the handle of the door and then stopped and looked at Takaaki, who was still on the step below me.

"Say, what would you think of having a proper group chat for us all again?" I asked. "It would be a lot more efficient than sending messages individually."

Takaaki shrugged.

"Would it be full of memes?" he asked. "Or are we too old for that now?"

I laughed at that, thinking of Eizo's stream of emojis.

"Maybe not full, but sure, why not? Anyway, I thought you'd be the last person to think we're too old or young for anything."

Takaaki blinked, and then a grin stole over his face once again and he shook his head in amusement, wincing slightly and reaching up to touch his still-bandaged ear, but otherwise cheerful.

"True enough. Well, that suits me, then."

"Good, then that's two of us-well, three if you count me. Just have to ask the others."

"Add them anonymously, see how long it takes for them to realise it." Takaaki suggested.

He tried to remains straight-faced but failed, and I laughed at him again before I went to open the door. I saw Friede sitting on one of the waiting area seats, and despite feeling a flare of annoyance, the way she looked, sitting so carefully with her hands carefully folded made me want to cry. So, I made myself smile and call over to her. She looked up with eyes dark with sleeplessness and smiled slightly and waved hesitantly. Just as Takaaki and I went to sit down, Detective Matsu appeared.

"Hello there, you're the last three to arrive, but still right on time, not to worry. If you come this way we can get you settled quickly and then we can explain the situation to you all."

We were ushered through to a group interview room, where Mai, Eikichi and Eizo and Azami were all sitting, the latter two right next to each other. We were followed in by Detective Matsu and another couple of detectives-I glanced over and saw that it was Detectives Kurosawa and Dupont. I sat myself down a couple of seats apart from Eikichi, Friede went over to Mai, and Takaaki completely bypassed the seats to sit on the floor.

"Man, you really like the floor, don't you?" Eizo asked.

Takaaki simply shrugged at that.

"Anyway, now we're all here, can we find out what's happening?" Eikichi asked, snappish.

"Of course." Detective Kurosawa said, before gesturing over to Detective Matsu. "Gabe?"

Gabe cleared his throat, and launched into his explanation, and as he did, it felt….I didn't know how to define it, even to myself. There were lots of extraneous details, about other cases and other cities and things, but none of those things really mattered. Despite the temperature being just-right, I wrapped my coat right around myself, tried to take a deep breath.

"There's….there….we were being recorded?" Azami asked. "Not just watched?"

"Yes, that is about the size of it." Detective Matsu apologised.

"So you're saying that somewhere on the internet, where sick people like to look for these things, there's pictures of what's happened to us?" Eikichi demanded. "That they were there, all this time, and you didn't manage to find them for twenty year? Tha-"

His voice having risen, growing shakier with almost every other word, he cut himself off abruptly, and he clamped his mouth tightly. I stared at him for a moment, watching as he swallowed furiously, clearly trying to calm down again.

"What…..what are the videos of, exactly?" Friede asked in a whisper, the colour completely gone from her face.

"It appears to be limited to you in your bedrooms." Detective Dupont said. "We are trying to track down where the rest of the footage might be."

Eikichi looked up at this, his eyes seeming icier, but he said nothing.

"But could this mean that anyone could find it? Could my son come across it, my daughter?" Mai spoke up, bunching up the skirt of her dress.

"Oh, no, no, it was not on a website, it was in a private collection of an offender known to us in Fune City. It appears to have been a somewhat exclusive collection, meaning others will have viewed it, but they didn't want to let any old person see it." Detective Matsu clarified. "We are checking to make sure that it has not been put up anywhere anyway, but it is unlikely that it would be, and certainly not anywhere an average person, let alone a child could get to."

Mai let out a shuddery breath.

"But you aren't sure, are you?" I asked. "And besides, have these even been confirmed as being real? Are you sure they aren't some kind of deepfake?"

"Y-yeah, surely they can't be…they can't be real…." Eizo stammered out. "I mean, they can't be, can they?"

"I don't think they'd have called us out here if they weren't sure, don't you?"

Eikichi turned on Eizo with a vicious glare, making him shrink back.

"Ah, calm down, Ekichii."

This came from the utterly expressionless Takaaki, who was now almost reclining. Or more slumped, really. Eikichi glanced at him, forehead creased in perplexion, and then sighed and sat back.

"You're not Komiya." He said, bluntly.

"No, I'm not." Takaaki returned, just as bluntly.

Eikichi simply shook his head at that, and returned to glaring at the detectives who were looking at us, almost pityingly. But almost definitely also looking for our reactions. I wonder how many of us realised that if footage of us changing and showering and so on in our rooms existed, that meant that footage of everything else was around somewhere too. They hadn't found it, otherwise I was sure this conversation would have been happening differently. But they'd see us, going into that room to hash everything out. They would see all the other conversations, including the one I had had with Seiko about that script. And they would see Seiko killing Yuri, they'd see Katsuya killing Kiran, they'd see it all.

But not yet, they haven't seen it yet.

"We have confirmed that they are not deepfakes or any case of mistaken identity thus far, and we've also managed to get a few identifications of some of the deceased as well, so we are fairly sure that what we have a hold of is some footage of your captivity. However-"

"You want us to identify ourselves, too?" Takaaki guessed.

All of us stared at him, and he looked back, almost completely blank. Not even neutral, but just wiped completely blank. Then there were Eizo and Azami and Mai and Friede, all variations on trembly and pale, while Eikichi once again leaned forward, eyes all cold fire.

"I want to see." I blurted out.

"Aozaki-san?" Detective Kurosawa asked.

"One of us will be enough, right? If one recognises themselves back then, then it's reasonable that the others will too, yes? Then I'll do it. There's no reason why they all need to go through another violation again. I can do it."

"I-I can, too. Otherwise, Mum and Dad, they'd have to know that Akari…she got recorded." Azami spoke up, too.

"Aozaki-san, Kishinami-san, are you both sure?"

In truth, I wasn't. The person I would be seeing in that footage, or however they were going to show it…the person who didn't know she would grow up to be me as I was now. I had to do it for her. Because I knew that whoever had looked at those pictures for their twisted purposes, whoever they may have been, they must have known who she was and who she had grown up to be, and rather than respecting that, they no doubt would have found something to laugh about. To ridicule. To fetishize. Even if none of us had ever even thought that we were being recorded and not just watched, that didn't give anyone the right to do that.

And where I was concerned…the fact my journey to womanhood was not the one I would have had had my body been the correct one all along, that didn't give anyone the right to look at my body in that way, whether from then or from now. There was no reason for me to feel any sort of shame about who I was, but somehow, knowing about the existence of this footage, it made my skin crawl, viscerally. For the first time in ages since I had completed my transition, I wanted to hide.

So I had to do it for me now, for me before, as well as the rest of them. I had to face it directly, and remind myself that I was the victim here. I was the victim, all over again and that there was nothing wrong in that. I looked the detectives in the eye and nodded, grimly.

"I am sure."