Shizuka

When Gabriel came to my door, I could immediately see that he was concerned, so I ushered him in and urged him to sit down. He held himself stiffly, back straight and fists clenched and though he bit his lip in a manner more reminiscent of an anxious teenager his eyes were fiery.

"What is it, Detective Matsu?"

Gabriel spoke almost immediately, his words almost running into each other:

"I intend to take a formal statement about this anyway, because I'm sure there's something to it and I don't want it to slip through the cracks, but I have just been talking more informally to Friede Anabuki's younger brother, and he's convinced that she might have committed a crime against her son and possibly Juro-kun's son too."

I frowned at him.

"Could you go back to the beginning, and explain everything? How did you come to be talking to him? Why has he made this claim?"

Gabriel paused.

"Taiki Benbow, Friede Anabuki's younger brother. As you know, he is the one currently looking after her surviving son and has been for about two years. So they've built up a fairly good relationship and routine, and he knows for the most part what is normal and what isn't normal for Akagi-kun. "

I decided not to tell Gabriel that I hadn't meant that far back, but just waited instead.

"From what I have understood, Akagi-kun is usually pretty good about telling his uncle where he has been going and when he would be expected to be back. However, he left the house a couple of days ago and hasn't been in contact since. He was worried because of this, and thus came into see us."

"A couple of days? And why did he come here rather than to the police station in his town."

"Strictly speaking, he last saw Akagi-kun yesterday morning. However, there's been no communication since then, which, as I mentioned, is apparently unusual."

"And why did he report it here?" I asked again.

"Because he believes that he's with a friend, and that friend is Akio-kun."

I paused a moment, let that sink in. The name was popular enough in that demographic, but there was only one reason such a name would have bought Gabriel to my door like this. Nonetheless, I had to double-check:

"As in, Akio Arisato? Detective Arisato's son?"

"Yes, that's right," Gabriel said. "It seems they met on one of those tours that the school was doing. You know, the early look ones."

I nodded. In truth, I had not thought all too much about the New Hope's Peak. Despite it being the very reason this investigation was happening in the first place, with all the revelations that the actual process of investigating had thrown up it had seemed less important than everything else. That had been a mistake on my part. I should have allocated officers to keep digging into the past of both schools. But Gabriel was looking at me uncertainly, so I shelved my annoyance and gestured to him to continue.

"I am fairly sure that Juro-kun doesn't know this, because he's been talking about Akio-kun staying with a school friend, and Akio-kun doesn't go to the same school as Akagi-kun at the moment. But Taiki Benbow said that some days ago Akio-kun turned up at his house somewhat out of the blue, and as far as he could make out he'd apparently had an argument with his school friend and just left as a result. "

"Without telling Detective Arisato?" I double-checked.

Gabriel nodded.

"So," I asked. "Why is Taiki Benbow convinced his sister may have committed a crime against the boys then?"

Gabriel hesitated, and then explained it to me. I nodded and considered what he had said, asked a few more clarifying questions. But I was convinced as much as he was that there was certainly something going on. I wasn't too sure about how likely it was that Friede may have harmed her son, but certainly her behaviour raised some concerns. Most damming to me was how Akio hadn't told his father that he would be staying somewhere else. From what I remembered of him, he was conscientious and responsible, and it seemed strange that he wouldn't say anything, especially being aware that this re-investigation had both his parents in a fragile state.

Then there was the simple fact that not only were Akagi and Akio connected to New Hope's Peak, they were connected to the old one too thanks to their mothers. It was not clear how many people knew this, but it was not impossible that whoever had taken their mothers and their friends twenty years ago had been keeping tabs on the survivors' lives. What better way to intimidate them than to take their children, make them think history was repeating itself? Indeed, it was entirely possible that history was repeating itself.

I could not allow that.

"Taiki Benbow is still here, you said?" I asked.

"Yes."

"In that case, go back to him and conduct a formal interview, get one of the other detectives-perhaps Detective Hirawa and the-"

I was interrupted mid-sentence by another knock, this one a little more hesitant. I couldn't quite suppress my irritation as I called out:

"Come in."

A nervous looking uniformed officer poked their head around the door before coming in more fully. They blinked and said:

"Um, Superintendent, there are two people to see you, um…Ayuna Aozaki and Eikichi Hanamura. Oh, and Shion Arakawa. Hanamura-san's fiancée. They said it's very important."

"Alright, thank you. Take them to an interview room, and I'll be there soon."

The officer nodded and closed the door quietly behind them. I looked over to Gabriel and said:

"Alright, after you've got that statement from Taiki Benbow I need you to talk to Detective Arisato, check that he knows where his son is and then report back to me while I go to see Aozaki-san and Hanamura-san."

"Y-yes, Superintendent! Right away! Say, do you think this could have a direct relation?"

Despite my own thoughts, I didn't want to get too invested in one particular theory and didn't want the detectives to do so either. So, I said:

"To what happened twenty years ago? It is hard to say, but we shall just have to see. Nonetheless, if there are children in danger right at this moment, that takes priority regardless."

Gabriel nodded once, then dashed off like a shot. His motion was just as ungainly as it had been when he'd been an enthusiastic rookie, and I shook my head at it. I set off in a more composed manner, though still briskly. I was soon met by the officer who had come to alert me, and they took me to the room that Ayuna, Eikichi and Eikichi's fiancée were waiting in.

All three of them immediately stood up, and two things stood out to me. First, that Shion Arakawa was holding onto Eikichi's hand quite tightly, and secondly, that Ayuna was holding onto two envelopes, one which seemed rather full. They seemed rather nervous, but determined to do…well, whatever it was, I would soon find out.

"Please, sit down," I said. "I understand you have something important to tell me? Is it about the case?"

"Yes, it is," Ayuna said. "That is…"

Eikichi and Shion looked at her expectantly as we all settled ourselves on the chairs. She took a deep breath, gripping the envelopes tightly. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, then opened it again.

"Aozaki-san, what is it?"

"Sorry, it's just…now that I'm here, I'm suddenly nervous. We all decided it, you see. We all finally came together and decided to do this and I'm going to-that is, we're going to follow through and tell you."

"When you say we, you mean your fellow survivors?"

"That's right," Eikichi said. "We all met up yesterday, after we'd come here."

"Including Friede Benbow and Mai Arisato?"

"Yes…why?" Ayuna asked.

"Hold on," Shion demanded. "Is this an interrogation? They've come to tell you something! At least give them the time to collect themselves! Do you know how hard Eikichi found it last night, telling me all of it?"

"Shion-"

Eikichi tried to stop Shion, but she was clearly not having it.

"Do you know how hard it was to sit and listen to every gruesome detail? How horrible it was seeing the absolute state he was in last night when he came back to the hotel room? Let me tell you, it was the worst thing. But do you really think it was anything compared to what it must have been like for him to tell me after all this time? Or even compared to what it must be like coming in to tell you now? Don't take advantage of that!"

"Shion, it's alright."

Shion gave Eikichi a startled look, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, he stared at me intently, though not with the same calm that he'd had as a teenager. Yet, I didn't see the other extreme, the way he'd shattered into a thousand pieces once alone. It was something that softened his sharp edges, yet seemed to give him a resolve that, if I really thought about it, just hadn't been there twenty years ago. Yes, he'd seemed strong but that had been a façade, a fragile exoskeleton. What I could see now was something that radiated from within. I strongly suspected that some of that was thanks to Shion, and even if it was highly irregular that she was sitting here with them both I was glad of it. After all, didn't they all deserve that? To be strong again, supported?

Just as the children now need those things…

"Is this going to become a proper interview?" he asked.

"It might end up as such, yes," I said. "For now though, I'm just asking more generally, if that's alright?"

Eikichi exchanged a look with Ayuna, then looked to Shion, who leaned her head on his shoulder. He sighed and then nodded.

"Alright," he said. ""What do you need to know?"

I thought for a moment. Asking more about Friede's movements was something to be saved for a formal interview, so I decided to ask something more general:

"Have you ever met either of their sons?"

Ayuna answered, almost immediately:

"We have, actually. They came to Mai's house while we were all there, with a few other kids."

"When was this?" I asked.

"Um…"

Ayuna thought about this.

"Last week. The seventeenth?"

She looked to Eikichi, who nodded and then added:

"That sounds about right. I think they had been on a tour of the New Hope's Peak-I'm sure you can confirm the dates of that if you need to. Presumably, you need to for some reason."

I nodded, but didn't give anything away.

"What happened? What was Friede's demeanour like with her son?"

Ayuna pulled a face.

"Sheesh, that's…well. I mean, I'm not a mother and don't plan on being but like, that's not how you talk to a child!"

"Both of them-that is, Arisato and Anabuki, were startled by the children turning up. Arisato especially, I don't think she had been expecting him home for the whole day, and she wanted to shield him from what was happening, which meant she hadn't wanted him to meet us. It didn't help that one of the other kids was a pushy journalist."

That rung a faint bell, though I couldn't quite think why.

"Journalist?"

"Yeah," Ayuna said. "She gave us business cards, and she's been writing a lot of stuff about New Hope's Peak, and the old one….wait, I think I have it on me. Wait."

Ayuna searched in her bag, and after a moment found a purse. She peered in it, then grinned as she pulled out a card and placed it on the desk, pushing it towards me. I picked it up, and the name jumped out at me:

Otsuka Jihara.

The young woman who had published that 'History of Neglect' article, and sent us all of those reports. I hadn't been able to get ahold of her, though not for lack of trying. I'd been about to try again when Gabriel had come to me, as it happened, and now I wondered if something had happened to her, too.

One step at a time, I thought as I put the business card down.

"I may need to interview you formally about your encounter with Friede Anabuki and Mai Arisato's sons and the other children they were with, but for now, what did you want to come to me with?"

Ayuna immediately slammed the two envelopes down, wringing her hands. It seemed an unusual gesture coming from her, so I was startled. She seemed to twig this, so her hands stilled.

"One of those is a play script, written by Seiko. The other…the other is our written statement about what happened twenty years ago."

Ayuna pointed to each envelope when she mentioned the contents, clearly indicating which was which. Even if she hadn't done that, I could see that each had been labelled. I had suspected that it was something like this, based on what Shion had said earlier, but it still took me aback.

"Is it a statement that was written by all of you, or just the two of you?"

"I took responsibility for putting it together, but yes, it's something we all came together to do. We agreed to take it in together, on behalf of everybody else." Eikichi explained. "Shion is here to support."

Shion, who had long since lifted her head off from Eikichi's shoulder, gave me a stern look and said:

"Too right I am."

"In any case," Ayuna said. "This is it, what we have to say about what happened. It's late, I know, but…this is it. The full truth, of everything that happened."

"Alright, I get that." I said slowly. "This won't be the last of it though, you understand. We will need to ask you more about this, so we'll need you to stay while I read this. There's no need for you to stay in this room, however, so you can wait in the waiting area if you wish or get something from the vending machines. "

"No, I'll go and buy something!" Shion exclaimed. "But you, Superintendent, don't you dare do anything to them while I'm gone!"

"Excuse me?"

Shion's glare wavered a bit, then she sighed and rubbed her head.

"I apologise, that was out of line. Just…while I know justice has to be done and law has to be respected and all that, it's Eikichi's side I'm on. Not anybody else's."

Though she still looked bashful now, her eyes had regained their furious intensity, making the green of them seem brighter. Though I was irked by her still, I saw no point in drawing that out and instead just nodded.

"I understand. Apology accepted. I should be back soon, alongside another detective, and we'll be starting a formal interview soon."

I left before there could be any more arguments, and immediately heard Shion, Eikichi and Ayuna talking quite animatedly. I wasn't too concerned, as it'd all be recorded, so I didn't stop to listen. Instead, I headed straight back up to my office with the two envelopes and the business card. I sat myself down at the desk, then opened the envelope that contained the statement. Then, pulling the stapled sheets together, I began to read.

…

Kenichi

I'd taken the day off after watching the snippets of Kimiko's videos. It had felt weird to do such a thing, for even when Kimiko had been missing I hadn't taken a day off of work. When she had been found the only days off had been to sort her funeral and then hold it. After that, all I'd had was work and I'd thrown myself into it. But the re-opening of this investigation felt like it had thrown everything into turmoil. After noticing the tracker on Kimiko's skeleton's ear and then realising the pattern between deaths, I had tried to keep a low profile. Knowing that Tetsuji had caused a scene, even one that had ended up providing information, had made me conscious of not making too many waves. I wanted to, oh how I had wanted to. But I still had some sense of self-preservation left and knew where the line was between contributing and interfering. So I'd kept an eye on things and kept my head down. After all, it was not as if all other crimes had stopped in the wake of this re-investigation.

But then I had been told about the discovery of those videos, and all that had implied, and once I had positively identified my Kimiko as being in the so-called 'off-cuts' I hadn't been able to go back to my other tasks. I'd tried on that day, but my mind had been foggy and hands shaking and in the end I'd just told my colleagues that I was sick and gone home. The next day, I'd also called in sick. That time, I had spent first reading that 'History of Neglect' article, conjuring up scenarios of what Kimiko might have experienced during her time at Hope's Peak and wondering why she hadn't told me any of it. When I was completely drained from that, I then returned to all the mementoes I still had of her childhood and looked through every single one. I don't think I moved from my bed all of that time, except when basic biological functions demanded it. I don't think I had ever cried so much, not even when I had first said goodbye.

And all of this, stone-cold sober.

I knew Kimiko would not have wanted me to wallow, though, and so I'd dragged myself in today. I'd caught up on some of what I'd had to leave behind when I'd gone home and now I made my way up to the incident room. Just because I was keeping a low profile didn't mean that I had to be kept out of the loop. I didn't intend to demand information, just politely ask for some kind of confirmation that all this would be worth it. But as I got to the incident room, I heard raised voices.

"What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense?"

"Taiki-kun was able to supply photographs. He took one for Akagi-kun's sake-they've clearly been staying together."

"But Akio's said that he's staying with a schoolfriend, Sawayama-kun or someone…"

"That's clearly not the case now though, Juro-kun. I think you should try and call him, just to be sure."

I eased the door open carefully, and saw Gabriel and Juro sitting facing each other, both of them looking troubled. I stood in the doorway, watching as Juro took out his phone and looked at it as though it would bite him. He scrolled through what I presumed was his contacts list and very carefully made a call. I watched him hold the phone to his ear, gripping it so tightly that even from here I could see that his knuckles were going white.

"Akio? Akio, it's Dad. Look, I…there's some uncertainty about where you are, so if you could just call me back to let me know if you're still with Sawayama-kun or if you're not. I, um, I'm not angry or anything, I'd just like to know where you are…alright, bye now."

Juro hung up, stared at the phone. Then, he looked up at Gabriel.

"I don't understand."

"They're missing, Juro-kun," Gabriel said. "I'm sure there's an explanation but for-"

"Is it because they're New Hope's Peak students? Is someone trying to get back at me for investigating?"

"That is certainly a possibility that we will be considering."

Shizuka pushed past me, and I stumbled into the room before unsteadily righting myself. I watched as the superintendent walked up to Gabriel and Juro and asked:

"Do you have any photographs?"

"O-of Akio?"

"Taiki Benbow has sent me a photograph of the two of them, I'll go to print it. Hang in there, Juro-kun."

As Gabriel got up, Juro turned to Shizuka:

"What's…what's going to happen? I need to tell Mai."

"You do, yes," Shizuka said. "And afterwards, I am going to have to take you off of this investigation. However, please be assured that we have this in hand. Not only will we be getting onto the search for your son and his friends, but we have had a breakthrough with the original investigation. I'm calling a meeting about it."

"I…should I stay?"

"No, but you can."

Shizuka looked at me and I blinked, not realising that I had been noticed. I cleared my throat.

"What's…what's the breakthrough?"

Shizuka was about to answer, but at that moment others filed into the room, including Nobu and Evalynn. I decided to take a seat the way that they were, and waited. I watched as Shizuka went to photocopy a document a number of times, before gathering up all the copies. She then snagged one of the arriving officers and asked them to staple and hand out the copies, stressing that if there weren't enough then people should just share. I sat up straight, stared holes into the officer, practically willing them to come over to me. It felt like an age before they did, and they gave me an uncertain look as they held out the document.

"A…are you sure you want to read this?"

"Why wouldn't I want to?" I asked, a little sharply.

The officer opened their mouth, then shut it again. They repeated this a few more times as I stared at them, before lapsing into helpless blinking. I sighed, and simply tugged at the papers in their hands. They gasped, and then scuttled away. I was starting to regret not getting a coffee before coming up here, but I couldn't leave now. I held out the papers in front of me, prepared to start reading. From what little glimpses I had seen, there was a lot of text on the sheets.

But then I saw the title, and my heart stopped:

A FULL STATEMENT OF CONFESSION

This was it. Finally, I was going to find out what had happened to my daughter. I would discover if my theories had anything to them or if the truth was completely different. For the first time, I was swamped by the feeling of not wanting to know. But it was Kimiko that I had come in here for in the first place. Just as she wouldn't want me to wallow, she wouldn't want me to avoid the truth. It didn't matter how awful it was, she'd want me to discover it. She would probably tell me that it was better to know for sure than to let my imagination do the work. Imaginations had such a horrible habit of running away and dragging your sanity away with them. I knew that. I had experienced it. I couldn't fail Kimiko in that way, not after all the other ways I had failed her.

So, for her sake, I started to read.