Juro

Nobu was waiting for me outside his home when I got there.

"Aha, there he is," he proclaimed. "Come in, come in. My wonderful Kanon has breakfast waiting, as well as a certain little girl…"

Sure enough, the moment I stepped through the door I was almost knocked backwards by Sachi coming at me full force, wrapping her arms around my middle and shrieking:

"DADDY!"

"Hello, Sachi!"

"Is Mummy here? Nii-chan?"

"No, they aren't today. But you've been talking to them on the phone, right?"

"I have…." Sachi pouted. "But I want to see Mummy. "

"I know you do, sweetheart. Maybe soon. Mummy's having a hard time, so we're giving her some space to get better."

I sensed Nobu giving me a look, but I pointedly ignored it as I bent down to meet Sachi's eyes. She blinked at me and then asked:

"Is mummy sick?"

"Not…exactly."

Sick suggested more than just stress and worry. Mai had sounded teary last night, when I had called her. But sick? I knew what Nobu's look had been telling me, and that he would make a point of actually telling me once we were at work. Even so, surely it wasn't anything like that. I was keeping everything away from Mai, as much as possible. That was what I had always been trying to do and what she had always wanted. She'd wanted the past to be distant from her, and now that I was knee-deep in her past, that meant I had to stay away to keep that past away.

It would be fine. It had to be fine. And surely now there were breakthroughs, it would be over soon, and I could go back to Mai. I'd already decided to book some days off, and take Mai away. The children too, since she'd want a family holiday, but after that when the children were in school again I'd fix something up for just the two of us too.

It would be fine soon. It had to be.

"She'll be fine soon, I promise," I told Sachi. "And she'll be looking forward to seeing you."

Sachi narrowed her eyes:

"Promise?"

"Oh, I promise."

I felt Nobu giving me another look, and I studiously ignored it as I tickled Sachi until she shrieked with laughter and then asked her about breakfast. She immediately dragged me to their dining room, where little Naomi was sitting, watching the doorway wide-eyed.

"Hello, Naomi-chan?"

"H-hello."

I blinked, not quite believing my ears. But when Naomi blushed deeply and lowered her head, I recovered myself.

"It's nice to see you," I said. "How are you?"

Naomi peered through her fringe, and then reached for the notepad by her placemat and wrote something carefully and held it up:

"I am fine, thank you, Juro-san."

"Ah, good, good." I replied, nodding seriously.

Kanon came over, and I exchanged greetings with her, and then we all sat down. After we gave thanks for the food, we tucked in. As we did, I looked carefully over at Sachi and Naomi. As I'd expect, Sachi talked nearly non-stop while Naomi mostly nodded along, occasionally writing in her notebook. But, Naomi talked too. No more than a couple words at a time and usually to read something she'd written when Sachi couldn't puzzle it out, but she was talking. I could not believe my eyes or my ears, but I had to be careful to not show my surprise as the breakfast continued, waiting until we'd finished and the girls had rushed out into the back garden to play before asking:

"When did Naomi-chan start talking?"

"Since Sachi-chan came to stay," Kanon said. "She's been so good to Naomi, not even vaguely fazed by the fact that she didn't talk at first."

"It's a slow process though, she still doesn't talk to anybody else, but she is happy to talk to Sachi even when others are around. So, it's progress."

I smiled at that.

"I'm glad that Sachi's being such a good friend. Mai will be pleased to hear it too."

Nobu gave me another look at this, but then called the girls back in so we could say goodbye. Sachi got a little clingy, but Kanon was able to distract her with promises of a game, and Nub and I left. He said nothing when we got into the car, concentrating only on driving us to the station and I used the time to call Mai. She did not answer, but I left her a message to reassure her that everything would be alright and making promises to see her soon. I then thought about texting Akio, and went as far as to open up my message history with him. One of the most recent messages, apart from general responses was one about going on a trip with friends.

Akio Arisato[24th July 2039 at 07:15]: Hi Dad, I'm off on a trip with Sawayama-kun and some of the others, to the beach. We've got a lot of stuff planned so I might not remember to look at my phone. But I'll send pictures soon-you can show them to Sachi.

Now, two days later, there were no pictures, and I could not help but think of the parents of Mai's friends, talking about their unanswered messages. Of the piles of unread texts and the full voicemail boxes. Kenichi's increasingly drawn, haunted face and Tetsuji's gradual falling-apart. But that was something that had occurred over a week, not two days.

I'll leave it for now, I thought, and then if there isn't anything by the end of the day, then I'll press it. But Akio'd had too much of the past weigh down on him, and it wasn't fair on him. Besides, he had always been so responsible and conscientious, I could allow him a day or so of being carefree. He deserved it, really.

So I decided not to reply.

When we got to the station, after dropping off our bags in our offices, Nobu and I went to the incident room, where Gabe and Evalynn were staring up at the pictures on the wall, animatedly discussing something. Their voices were so fast that I couldn't make head or tail of what they were saying, but the moment that Gabe spotted us he waved us over and grinned:

"Guess what, it took some doing, but you remember those thefts that took place in the months and weeks before the abductions happened? All the places that got broken into?"

"Like the home improvement place?" I asked, trying to remember.

"Yes, yes!" Gabe's eyes lit up. "And the-"

"Actually, hold onto that for a minute." Nobu said.

Gabe blinked at him, and Evalynn raised an eyebrow.

"What's up with you?"

"I need your help convincing him of something."

As Nobu pointed to me, he turned to give me yet another pointed look, and Gabe and Evalynn stared at me. I blushed, and he softened slightly.

"Sit down."

I grabbed the nearest chair and did just that, and then looked at my three colleagues. My friends.

"Um…what are we persuading Arisato to do?" Evalynn asked.

"To go home to Mai."

At this, Evalynn turned to me, mouth practically hanging open.

"Wait, you've not gone home to her for that long? Have you even talked to her?"

"That's…" I spluttered. "Of course I've talked to her…"

"Yes, but not nearly enough. Have you actually sat down and had a conversation with her?" Nobu asked. "Actually talked through what has been happening and what has been found out?"

"I…how am I supposed to do that?"

I spread my hands out, as if trying to hold the enormity of my dilemma, show them all the scope of it.

"I want to protect her from it. How can I do that now, in the middle of this investigation? If I come home, I'm bringing her past home. It's better this way for now."

Nobu sighed at me, and I knew he could hear what I had heard in my own words. The hollowness of it all. How could I convince him that everything was fine when there was something at the back of my mind telling me that it wasn't?

"My friend," he said slowly. "You do know that it has always been there? It's not something that would have ever left her. "

I didn't know what to say to that. Nobu smiled at me, though it was strained.

"I can tell that you're perfectly aware that one of the reasons Mai threw herself at you-no, don't look at me like that! This is not an attack on her or your relationship, but the fact remained that she did, and that was to distance herself from the past."

"Yes, I know," I said. "I'm her protector, but how can I be now? If I'd been taken off the-"

"Even when she was young, all she dreamed of was family life, right? She was always very…domestically oriented, yes? " Gabe said suddenly.

"Um….yes?"

"She was completely alone after it all happened, at least until you came along. She surrounded herself with you, with the children and I guess her job. But now they're staying with friends, you're avoiding her-"

"But she doesn't want the children exposed to it. She wanted them sent away so they wouldn't have to deal with it."

"I think the children are a separate issue, so we'll get back to them but…you need to go home to Mai. You're trying to protect her, I know that and we all know that, but avoiding her is having the opposite effect. You must know that."

"Yeah," Evalynn put in. "You're kinda taking this to extremes. "

"How, exactly, am I meant to do that though?" I said, starting to grow angry. "I shouldn't even be on this investigation in the first place!"

Nobu frowned at this, as did Gabe and Evalynn. I glared at them, wringing my hands as their words sunk in. They were right, all of them and yet I could not fully admit it, not even to myself. I was being pulled in two different directions-could they not see this?

Suddenly, one of the phones rang. Immediately, Gabe jumped up and went to answer it. He nodding nodded seriously and went 'mhhm' a few times before saying:

"Well, I'll come and talk to him-sure, no worries. Tell him that somebody will be down to see him in a moment."

Another pause and 'mhmm' and then:

"Alright then, thank you."

When he put the phone down, Gabe turned to us immediately and said:

"That's Taiki Benbow."

"Friede-chan's brother?" Nobu asked.

"What's he want?"

"He wanted to speak to a detective, preferably one who had been on the original case too and who knew his sister from then," Gabe said. "According to Officer Shirashi he sounded worried. "

"Did you want to head down, then?" Nobu asked. "I can come too."

"Nah, you're fine. I'll call up if needed."

"In the meantime, I can explain our great theory!" Evalynn grinned. "Then later once we're all back together again we can continue with you-don't think you're getting out of it."

Evalynn pointed at me, mock glaring, and I just sighed.

"Sure."

…

Gabriel

When I got down to the front, Taiki was immediately recognisable. This was not just because he was the only person sitting there, but from my memories of him as a middle schooler hovering behind his worried parents as we waited for news on Friede's location. Of course, the years had changed him considerably, but that middle schooler was recognisable in the skittish adult who jumped up the moment he heard my footsteps.

"I…I remember you. Though I think you were in uniform back then."

"Yes. I'm Gabriel Matsumoto-Fujioka, but please call me Detective Matsu. Did you want to talk to me about the investigation?"

"Sort of. What I want to talk to you about does relate to my sister, and might be because of her state of mind due to this investigation. It's a little bit sensitive, though."

"Not a problem," I said easily. "I'll take you down to an interview room. How are you today, anyhow?"

"I…I suppose I'm fine…"

As we walked to one of the soft interview rooms, I tried to keep up a cheery, distracting stream of small talk-asking him about his life and so on. However, I could tell he was too nervous for it and after a few questions, I stopped. When we got to the room and I'd signed into it, I ushered him in and encouraged him to sit down on a soft chair, seating myself opposite and getting everything set up to record. Once that was done, I leaned forward and asked:

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I…well, it's probably nothing."

Now that he was in the room, Taiki didn't seem any less nervous. If anything, he seemed more nervous. I smiled at him.

"No, no, I'm sure that's not the case. If there wasn't something, you wouldn't have thought to come."

"It's…I lied a little. It's not entirely related to my sister though, but her son. My nephew, Akagi. I've been looking after him for the last two years after the death of my other nephew…I'm not sure if you're aware."

"We are, yes."

A tragic story all around, that one. It seemed unfair that someone could suffer so after already having been put through the wringer. I was aware that Friede still held some animosity towards her son for what had happened, and of course I thought that that, too, was tragic and yet I could understand why she would not have handled the loss well.

"I…well. I've been trying to encourage Nee-san to talk to Akagi more," Taiki said. "Especially now with the New Hope's Peak, and the case re-opening. I mean, I know it's a difficult time for her and she's still recovering from the trauma of Lucius' death on top of that but…if anything, I think now makes it the right time. But even so…sorry, I'm rambling."

Taiki took a breath and looked down at the floor. He scuffed the carpet with his shoe idly and then looked up again:

"I haven't seen Akagi for a couple of days."

I blinked. This seemed like a change of topic, and I knew I had to proceed carefully.

"What do you mean?"

"I…well, really it will be a couple of days by the end of today, since the last time I saw him wasn't last night but the night before that. He's gone on a trip, you see, with a friend of his who came to stay. But he's usually very good about telling me where he is going and how long and other such things, but everything about this has been vague. I'm worried."

"Right, so are you reporting your nephew missing? I'm happy to do it for you here, but really you should do it at your local."

"No, you're right it's just…two things. First, that I know that one of the people he's with is a new friend, another student who'll be going to New Hope's Peak. Akio-kun, he's called. A good boy, to be sure, and I'm happy that Akagi will have a friend when he starts there. It's just that…actually, no, let me tell you the second thing. Yesterday, sort of late afternoon, early evening, I decided to call my sister to see if she had seen Akagi. He and his friend were both aware she was in town, see, and from what I'd gathered there had been sort of run in and Akagi…well, he blames himself more than he should. Everything Nee-san has said to him or about him he believes, and that's one of the reasons I've tried to push a little more than maybe would be right. But she was very vehement that she had not seen him."

It took me a moment to catch up, having been completely stunned by the mention of the name 'Akio-kun'. Does Juro-kun know about this? I wondered, because if he does he hasn't mentioned it at all. And surely he would if that was the case? Most of Juro's feelings about the new Hope's Peak opening were centered around trying to support Mai through her own anxieties, but even with that it had faded into the background once we'd hit this big break with the tapes. He had been struggling a lot with how to balance home life and this investigation and frankly Evalynn and Nobu were right-Juro throwing himself into the investigation more wasn't helping. If it turned out the existence of the new school was significant after all, how would he cope?

Alright, stop. You need to get all of the information first, I told myself. I replayed all of what Taiki had said in my head, well aware that I hadn't responded soon enough. Then, I answered:

"You yourself said that she hasn't wanted contact."

"Yes, I know, which is why I hesitated." Taiki said. "There's just something about the way she denied it. It's one thing to assume that there isn't anything to worry about, but it sounded like…oh gosh, maybe I should go, Detective. I…She's still my sister."

Surprise dulled into shock, the implications of Taiki's stuttered, incomplete confession eclipsing the revelation that had just happened.

"Tell me." I said gently.

"It sounded as if she didn't care at all. And I can't really imagine that she…you know…she knows what happened to her, and she must know that our parents worried so much and…I just…"

Looking everywhere but me, Taiki rambled on in this vein, as if his increasing nervousness had flicked a switch and suddenly allowed him to speak more freely. He was not saying anything particularly new, just the same looping circles about how he understood Friede's pain but that he was also trying to protect his nephew too, how he was sure that he probably just didn't understand but had a really bad feeling. But the main thing he circled back to was this: Friede had not just been harsh and shut off but cold and uncaring. So much so, that it was almost unnatural.

But no matter how much those circles looped and became all tangled, I could read behind the lines of them well enough. And while I did not like the idea any more than Taiki did, as a detective I had to confront it. Because even if Friede and the others were the victims of a tragedy and deserved nothing but support for that, they weren't children anymore. They had grown, and they were more than capable of inflicting tragedy now, of continuing that cycle. But Akagi was a child still. Akio was. My duty was to them, and to any other children and while I could still look after the interests of the children the survivors had once been, that did not mean letting the adults they were now get away with hurting children in any way.

So, I took a deep breath and said:

"Benbow-san, are you concerned that your sister might have done something to Akagi-kun?"

Taiki's eyes snapped back to me in horror, silently. But he did not need to say anything.

That look was answer enough.