July 17, Saturday, Junes
The first thing I decide to do is go back to the scene of the crime. No doubt the cops would still be there, but I figure it would be best to get as good of a look as I can. And with Dojima at least slightly believing in the TV world, he might even divulge some info with me once they actually let him come home.
Plus, Junes is so popular that they're allowed to continue business everywhere but the sports section. Though I doubt the rest of the team is gonna want to come back here any time soon…
I have a bigger problem on my hands though; I have bonds with both Dojima and Nanako, which makes them potential targets. It's too much to drop on them suddenly but they need to know. Right?
I press the button on the elevator, and just as the doors begin to close I see a blur dashing at me.
"Wait! Hold the doooooooooor!" I hear, the shrill voice making my entire body tense up. I put my hand on the elevator doors to keep them open but this doesn't make the owner of the voice slow down. A cannonball dives into my gut, knocking the wind out of me. My eyes bulge out of my head until my spine folds on the metal bar lining the elevator wall.
I crack against the unforgiving wall. At least the little missile who just collapsed my intestines is perfectly fine. My vision's blurry, and I see someone worriedly fast-walk into the elevator as the door closes behind them. They look down at me, the light above them making it hard to discern who it is.
My vision begins to clear and the first thing I see is a forehead, then locks of wavy brown hair tickle my nose. Now that I think about it, the voice of the twerp who ran into me also sounds familiar.
The woman holds her hand out and I grab it, hauling myself to my feet with her help. "…Eri?"
"I'm surprised you remembered my name, Narukami-san!"
I'm staring face-to-face with Eri Minami, the Temperance. Her son, Yuuta, barely climbs to his feet for a second before his mother is scolding him to apologize, which he quickly does.
"Looks like you two are doing well," I say, rubbing my sore back.
"Ever since you helped us out those years ago we've been doing much better. But now that he's older he's having trouble actually listening to his mother," Eri says, hands on her hips. Yuuta hangs his head and I chuckle.
"I guess running head-first into an elevator is pretty dangerous. I hope he's learned his lesson," I say, making a mental note to check in with Eri regularly. Her son shouldn't be a target, but our killer is a brutal one; I wouldn't pout it past them to use him as a tool to get her alone.
"Probably not. He needs to make the same mistake a few times before it sticks. I can't put it past him, though, I would do the same thing back in my day." Eri pauses and puts a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm so sorry about what happened to your schoolmates, Narukami-san," she says, her eyes full of sympathy. "It's just such an awful thing to happen to children your age. I couldn't even imagine if that happened to my Yuuta." She speaks quietly so the boy won't hear, but he's too mesmerized by the panel of glowing, numbered buttons.
"Me neither. We all need to keep a close eye out in this town. Try to stay indoors after dark, if you can; we're certainly doing that ourselves. Especially with Nanako. Dojima's been pretty stressed about this whole thing." I don't bother to mention the TV world, but the stress is more coming from his suspicion of our involvement rather than the murder itself.
"Oh, that's a great idea. Hey, you should come over for dinner sometime! Me and a friend of mine were planning a bit of a dinner party before this whole ordeal. If you guys wanna come, we'll let you know about a date," Eri says as the elevator doors open on my floor.
"That sounds great! I ask Dojima about it when he gets home. Stay safe!" I say, waving to them as the doors shut once more. I see a few police officers walking around this floor, and watch as the boys in blue grow in number the closer I get to the crime scene. It's a bit unnerving to see this much law enforcement in one place, especially for such a small town. I didn't even think we had this many cops.
"We don't. They're from the next town over."
I practically jump out of my skin, turning to the voice that had apparently read my mind. It's Kanji, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a leather jacket. Seeing him without blonde hair is still super weird.
"Oh, Kanji! What are you doing here? School's on today, right?" I ask, taking a look around. Now that I think about it, Yuuta should have been in school, too, and I saw more teenagers than usual on the way here.
"They decided to cancel it for today on account of…ya know. A lot of students were real upset by the announcement and the fact that they were former students there didn't help. So they let us out early. I'm kinda grateful for it, honestly…it's kinda hard to focus after seeing something like that."
I remember his outburst the day prior and nod. "Yeah, it was pretty bad…but I'm here to see if I can get a closer look at the scene. They've almost definitely taken the bodies by now but there's gotta be something we can use…"
"That's part of the reason I'm here, Senpai. I really don't see how this whole murder business involves us. I mean, they weren't killed using the TV, and they didn't show up on the Midnight Channel. Why not leave it to the cops? I don't see how we can be much help." I notice just how much Kanji's grown these last two years and it makes me proud, in a way.
"About that…I was planning on calling a meeting after you guys got out of school. I have news concerning the murder, and our exact place in it. Didn't wanna stress you guys out during the day but I guess that's not a problem…what about Rise and Naoto?"
"I think Naoto said the cops already got in touch with her about getting in on the investigation. It's weird though…usually there wouldn't be this many around a murder. Even when Saki-Senpai was killed two years ago, they didn't swarm the place like they are now. Like I said, a lot of these guys aren't even Inaba PD. They're Okina badges."
"Okina? Huh…Chie said she was thinking about joining up with Okina police instead of here because it's a bigger place. She's even training at the academy over there. Maybe she knows something…" I say, deciding to ask her about it after the meeting.
"Sounds like a plan. I think Rise said she was gonna do some vocal training so I don't know if she'll show, but it's worth a shot. You've been gone for a bit but Rise's career has really been takin' off! All the people at her shows go crazy."
"I didn't know you were into idols, Kanji," I tease as I start walking towards the crime scene. Flustered, the former blonde follows along, trying to defend himself.
"I'm not! I'm just supporting a friend!" he sputters, his face going red.
"You sure you're not in the front row, singing along with Risette's amazing music? I'm sure the real fans behind you hate having to try to see over the behemoth taking up their view."
He looks like he's about to say something but just grumbles in response. He's probably ready to tear my head off…but I'm the boss, so I just leave him to simmer.
His anger deflates as we near the scene. Police officers and yellow tape prevent civilians from getting too close, shielding forensics as they take blood samples and bag things I can't get a good view of.
"If only Rise were here," I say quietly. "Kouzeon would probably be able to see this stuff from a mile away."
I decide to shoot everyone's favorite idol a text. I look up from my phone and see that Kanji's being grabbed…by Dojima! Another detective grabs me from behind, dragging us away from the crime scene.
"We don't need civvies trampling over the scene! Were the 40 cops on each floor not enough of a hint?!" I hear Dojima angrily say. I haven't heard him this mad since me and Yosuke got detained for waving swords around in public.
"Hands off, ya fossil!" Kanji yells, trying to get out of Dojima's grasp. Despite his age, Kanji is almost taller than my uncle, and just as strong. The rather slender detective handling me isn't treating me roughly at all. Probably because I'm not acting like a slug who just got covered in salt. Despite my cooperation, we're still being led towards the elevators.
Kanji manages to force Dojima's grip off his arms, and my uncle spins around to chase him, when he spots me.
"Yu? What are you doing here?!" he shouts, and I shrink back. I don't even think my own dad could get me to feel like I just got caught with my hand in the cookie jar.
I struggle to think of a response. I didn't expect him to actually be here, hoping he would be in his office or tracking down some kind of lead. As I rack my brain, I hear the detective behind me speak.
"Dojima-san, I believe Narukami-san was simply curious. You're aware of the events of two years ago and our involvement, correct?"
I see blue hair in the corner of my eye, and turn around to see Naoto! She's wearing a pair of black slacks, black dress shoes and suspenders over a dark button-up shirt. Her usual hat is atop her head, and she tips it to me in a pseudo-professional manner. She tacks on a subtle wink for good measure.
"I…have no idea what you're talking about," Dojima mumbles. It seems he's doing his damndest to forget about the idea of a TV world existing. "Your only involvement was getting Nanako back, and I'll always be grateful for that. But this is a crime scene, and a gruesome one at that. I just don't want Yu to see any more than he already has."
And suddenly I'm a child.
"I understand, Dojima-san. But he can help, believe me. He has a sharp eye, and Tatsumi-san here's been in his fair share of brawls. Maybe he can give us some insight on the perp."
Dojima pauses and pinches the bridge of his nose. It seems like he's seriously considering the idea. "…fine. But neither of you touch anything," Dojima says sternly. "You guys're lucky Naoto's a good talker. Stick close to her, I've gotta wrangle the new recruits and make sure they don't trample on something important."
Dojima walks off to a group of young men and women, some in uniform and other in street clothes. A new gaggle of detectives and officers, no doubt. I don't see Chie among them, but I'm dragged out of my thoughts when Naoto taps me on the shoulder.
"Earth to Leader, I just got you a free ticket to the scene. Let's walk and talk, yeah?" she says as she walks off, and I scramble to keep up with her as to not lose her amidst all the other people. Her height, or lack thereof, makes it easy to lose her in crowds. Kanji has no trouble keeping up with his giraffe height.
"What have you found out?" I ask, and she pulls out her notepad.
"The autopsies are being performed right now, and since there's two bodies, we probably won't get any results until at least six hours. Though there's still tests to run so we won't get anything for about twelve hours."
"That's…a really long time. The killer could be long gone by then," Kanji comments, and Naoto nods.
"But these tests give us a lot of information, and if we can identify even a single lead, it can tell us who the killer is. Once we have a face to the act, we won't have any trouble finding them."
"What if they skip town? That's what I would do," Kanji says, and Naoto wags her finger.
"Then you'd damn yourself. Inaba is small, and busybodies like keeping tabs on who comes and goes. If they have a car, there would be witnesses who could see them leaving. If they take the train or a bus, logs are kept of who, when, and where these people go. And after the events two years ago, civilians here are very on edge. The way I see it, our killer is effectively stuck in Inaba."
We approach the scene and Naoto flashes her ID, allowing us past the yellow tape. As I suspected, Daisuke and Kou's bodies are gone, leaving only two outlines of white tape that mark their exact positions as they were found. Splatters of blood surround the tape, and I watch a member of forensics grab a bone fragment using tongs, carefully sliding it into a plastic bag.
"They're still finding evidence, even after almost half a day. Whoever did this certainly wasn't trying to be clean about it," Naoto says, and me and Kanji silently agree. Our killer's vicious.
"They have to be strong, too," Kanji remarks, and I can tell he's recalling the image of their broken bodies. "Those basketball backboards aren't exactly easy to break, and the killer managed to take down two people, probably at the same time. Not just anyone can do that."
"You used to do that a lot, right? Fight a lot of people at once?" I ask, and Kanji smirks.
"Yeah, a lot of idiots my age. Not two athletes several years older than me. And I didn't kill them, I just beat them up. Besides…" he pauses, his eyes gliding over the pools of blood, "there's something I don't understand. They were killed without anyone even hearing their scuffle, in a big store, with people all around them. How did they do that?"
Naoto taps the eraser of her pencil against her notepad. "They might have been killed somewhere else and planted here to be found. But if that's the case…"
"How did the killer bring their bodies inside without being spotted?" I finish. "There's just no way. Unless our killer has the same power we do."
"You mean a Persona? But…no one else knows about the TV world besides us. That's the only way to get one, right? To be confronted by your Shadow? If that's the case, there's no way our killer has one. And Adachi's still locked up, so it can't be him."
Another possibility enters my mind, but it's quickly dashed as Naoto's cell phone rings. She answers, and almost instantly she turns and dashes off.
"What's her problem?" Kanji asks, and I hear my own phone ding. I check the text; it's Yukiko. They found another body…inside of her inn.