Thankfully, Juna was at home. Her mother was keeping an eye on Ken and Nana at the festival, so Juna was asked to take care of the house.

"Lloyd? What a surprise. What are you doing here?" Her eyes drifted down to the figure on his side. "And... Renne, too? What a surprise!"

"You don't sound surprised at the slightest at my appearance, Little Miss Detective," Renne replied swiftly, though a sardonic smile was present on her face.

So Juna had met Renne, then? Was that why she didn't ask for help anymore? He did pointed her at Renne's direction, but it felt weird to have a case and not be involved.

"Ah, I see..." Juna grinned as her eyes switched between Renne and Lloyd. "Your time is up, Renne!"

Juna playfully made a shooting gesture at the younger girl.

"Hmph. This is just a coincidence," Renne denied Juna's accusation, whatever she meant by that.

"Anyway, Juna. The SSS got a case, and I hope that you can help us. We're looking for a missing child of Mr. Hayworth, and since you investigated Mr. Hayworth before..." Lloyd trailed off.

"Hold on. What do you mean by investigating?" Renne frowned.

Well, this was awkward. Lloyd couldn't help but sigh. Should he reveal it now? Or...

He glanced at Juna, whose eyes widened in recognition. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow as if saying, 'Really, Lloyd?'

"It's nothing, Renne. There is something more important than that," Lloyd decided to hold off telling Renne about Juna's deduction.

"Yeah... I'll help. And maybe we can talk as we walk. Wait a minute. I'll bring my wooden sword, and we can go."

Juna immediately went back inside and returned a few seconds later. "Alright, lead on, Lloyd!"

The three went to Central Square to ask around for people. After they went through all the people without any new lead on Colin's whereabouts, they decided to sit on the bench to rest themselves.

"Alright. We're taking a small break for now. Now, please explain what you mean by investigating," Renne hounded the pink-haired girl.

Juna glanced at Lloyd for a second before it went back to the other girl. Ah, Juna was asking if she was allowed to explain things in his presence. She wanted to keep Renne's privacy about her problems, after all.

"You've involved him before, right? It's fine. Detective can keep secrets, right?" Renne aimed the question at Lloyd.

"Ah, yeah," he answered.

And so Juna exhaled.

"Long story short, this is before I first met you, by the way. I tried to think about why you would be in Crossbell. The next day, I asked a certain someone we mutually knew about you, and he said something about your background. And then, I stumbled upon a theory. How did you end up in that place in the first place? There are only two possibilities. Either you're kidnapped, or your parents sold you out."

Lloyd saw that Renne was about to interject before she closed her mouth. "Go on."

"Then maybe, I thought. You are here because you want to take revenge on your family or reconnect with them. After all, the two of them wanted to adopt you, but you ran away from them. From that motive, I compiled a list of purple-haired people in Crossbell. It's... not an extensive list, though I had to work to compile them. A filter of age, occupation, and marital status later, only one person can be your parent. Harold Hayworth."

Renne glared at Juna. "How are you convinced about my 'motive?'"

"Well, this was before I met you, remember? I thought it was something along that line. But it turns out you're having that in maintenance, right?"

Renne was silent. "Did Maester tell you?"

"Nope," Juna shook her head. "It's an easy conclusion to make when he showed me his creation."

It seemed that Lloyd missed some context, but it was okay. Seeing that Juna didn't continue, Lloyd picked up where she was off.

"After that, Juna approached us, the SSS, to look up Mr. Hayworth's record in the police database. She wanted to know if he had filed a case for a missing person around ten to eight years ago. Unfortunately, we found none. So I informed Juna that it was a wrong conclusion. I'm sorry, Juna. It looks like your deduction is correct."

"Nah, it's okay. You told me that you met Renne afterward, remember? Without that, we wouldn't arrive at this point." Juna waved off his apology. It was nice to see that Juna didn't hold it against him. "Now, let's continue! I need a distraction from my training!"

"What's the matter?" Lloyd couldn't help but ask.

"It's Arios. Lately, he's been kind of more... I don't know, distant? Yeah, he's a little more distant than usual. Maybe it's a sign that he's taking me seriously, but I couldn't help but miss the fun times we had previously," Juna huffed. "But there's something more important here. We can talk about it later, Lloyd! Thanks for hearing me out!"

"You're welcome, Juna."

The three continued their investigation to Station Street, though Renne was more subdued than before.

Lloyd got a status report from Tio, who said that Colin's scent did not cross south of Station Street. He told them to check the other exit before he closed the call.

"Hmm. So she chose to tag along with the big bad wolf, then? Still... turning him into a police dog? You guys come up with some interesting ideas," Renne commented after Lloyd put his Enigma back in his pocket.

Lloyd sighed.

"Well, we didn't have much of a choice. He walked right into the SSS building, and that was that," He explained before he realized something important. "Wait a minute... How do you know so much about us, Renne?"

The girl only gave him a subdued smile, "Who knows?"

Was it related to Juna's story about Renne being a girl who had the means to safely cross borders in Zemuria?

"Come on, Lloyd. You guys know that the SSS is a hot topic, right? I'm sure all kinds of people pay attention to you," Juna explained.

"I see... Anyway, let's check around this area."

Lloyd led them to the entrance of the Geofront.

"Crossbell's very own den of monsters, the Geofront. You can't go inside without a key from City Hall, so you can scratch it off your list." Renne remarked.

"Good point," Lloyd nodded. He looked at Renne deeply. That was... "Someone could have told you about the monsters, but the thing about City Hall? A little girl like you shouldn't know about it."

"Heehee... I fail to understand your confusion. I'm no stranger to Crossbell, after all. It's just another one of my playgrounds, so I know every nook and cranny," Renne giggled.

"Another playground?" Instantly, Lloyd's mind went to a certain hacker. Could she really be...? It made sense, if a little unbelievable.

"You sure are having fun with him," Juna mused with a hum to Renne, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "But I can see the appeal, yes."

What? What appeal?

"Still, are you sure you want to keep doing it? Lloyd is a detective, after all. He's gonna piece things together at the end of the day," the pink-haired girl continued.

"I wouldn't do it if I'm not expecting him to," was Renne's short reply.

"Fine, then. Let's continue," Juna shrugged, accepting Renne's answer.

Lloyd still missed the context, but apparently, Renne deliberately threw breadcrumbs for him to follow. He stored all the assumptions about Renne inside his mind. It wouldn't do to jump to conclusions.

The three of them decided to go to West Street and asked around for Colin there. Though, in the end, they still haven't gotten any new info about him.

"Renne," Juna said suddenly, catching Lloyd's attention. "I thought hard about this. I was very sure that my guess was correct that you're Mr. Hayworth's daughter, so I was surprised when Lloyd said that there was no record of him reporting to the police. As aptly put by the SSS, he's not the type to abandon his family, as can be seen with Colin's case now."

That was a good question that Juna fired. Lloyd decided to air up his theory.

"About that, I wondered about that too when I confirmed that we were wrong just an hour ago. Renne, could it be that you were kidnapped when you were outside Crossbell?" Lloyd asked the purple-haired girl.

"...Now that makes sense," Juna nodded to herself. "I was thinking along the lines of him and his wife thought that you were dead."

"Yours is also understandable, Juna. But if it happens in Crossbell, there should be some report of her passing. No, I'm sure whether they think you're missing or dead, it happened outside Crossbell."

That was the conclusion that Lloyd came to after he thought about it for a while just now. Lloyd didn't know how Juna arrived at her conclusion, but now that he thought about it, it could be true if it happened outside of Crossbell, like his assumption.

Renne was silent for a while before she let out a sigh. "I heard about you from Maester Joerg, Juna. But Detective is certainly a sharp one too. I didn't remember much, but I remember it happened outside Crossbell, yes. Specifically in Calvard."

"Calvard... damn," Juna muttered under her breath. What did she think about Calvard? Lloyd wondered.

Their conversation was interrupted when Lloyd got another call. Once Tio said that Zeit smelled Colin's scent near the pier, but upon the stairs exiting it, his scent suddenly vanished.

"It's entirely possible that he entered an automobile," Lloyd aired his thought to the other end of the call.

"It's definitely a car," Juna doubled down. "There's no mistaking it. My... gut feeling says it's a car."

"I agree, Lloyd, Juna. With that in mind, the question now becomes, which vehicle did he enter?" Renne also voiced her agreement and posed another question.

"Damn, if only we could track the... Lloyd! Does the SSS have access to the list of cars parked around the Harbor District? Either camera or whatever..."

Lloyd shook his head. "I don't think so. However..."

He glanced at Renne. "I'm allowing you to borrow the SSS's terminal, Renne. Do what you can."

This was a last resort because if what Renne alluded to was interpreted correctly by him... then Renne was Kitty, the hacker who managed to elude Jona.

Juna looked between them. "Wait, you can also hack things? Whew..."

Renne nodded at Juna before turning to Lloyd. "Let's go, then. I'll be doing some crime."

She ran towards the SSS building.

"She's worried about him, huh? I guess you can cross the theory of her being jealous of Colin for replacing her," Juna observed as the two walked.

"...So you also keep that possibility in mind, huh..."

Juna blinked before staring at Lloyd. "Wait, you too?"

Lloyd let out a small chuckle. "We're both working with two different parts of information, after all. I saw her tensing up when she saw Colin's photo, so I thought there must be something she was hiding. I think it speaks well of you to come to the same conclusion as me without seeing that yourself."

Juna nodded.

"The moment you said that she's really Harold's daughter, I knew that I have to keep that in mind, even if I know that the possibility is small because I know her background. If anything, you're the great one to work it out without knowing her background fully like I am."

Suddenly being praised, Lloyd let out another chuckle. "Wait a minute. I have to call the others to go back to the base."

Once they entered the SSS building and saw Renne working hard on the terminal, Lloyd sighed.

"Do you know that at first, we thought Renne was the dollmaker's granddaughter?" He said to Juna. "It turns that she's much more than that."

The mystery that was Renne slowly but surely reached a conclusion. But Lloyd still needed several more pieces of evidence and information from Juna to get the full picture.

"Thank you for the compliment, Detective," Renne joined from the terminal. "As you have surmised, Gramps is just an accomplice of mine. He's a friend who repaired my dear Pater-Mater for me... And since I distrust the professor, I had to be discreet about asking for the fixes."

"A professor? Who are you talking about now? And what the heck is a Pater-Mater?" Lloyd's mind was working overdrive to decipher Renne's words. She was dangling so much free information but none of the context to make sense of them.

Ah, so that was what Juna meant about Renne having fun with him.

Lloyd let out a sigh.

Juna's mouth opened, but she didn't say anything for a while.

"Renne... as much as it is fun for you to see Lloyd's confused expression, I kind of want to tell him about it later if he hadn't connected the dots. Do I have permission to do it? Especially about you and Mr. Rosenberg," Juna finally said after a few seconds of silence.

"...Can we put that for later? I'm still busy looking for the car information," Renne refused to answer.

"That's fair," Juna agreed to the proposition.

Not long after, the other member of the SSS came and saw Renne. A short explanation later, they were all on the same page as Lloyd. Understanding some parts but was left confused about the others.

"Man, I don't want to believe that Renne is Kitty," Randy whistled.

Tio looked at the smaller girl with a complicated expression. Maybe she was feeling a little threatened that a younger girl was on the same level as her, technology-wise?

"I see..." Elie sighed. "And what's Juna doing here?"

Lloyd let out a sheepish laugh. "I wanted to ask for her help at first. But after I got a confirmation about Renne knowing the Hayworth, I couldn't not tell Juna about it."

"Found it," Renne declared, turning everyone's attention to her. "It looks like a Rhimes Deliveries delivery truck was parked there 30 minutes ago. And it was heading to Bellguard Gate. Now, for the truck's number... Ah, here it is. Try contacting the driver with this number. I'm all but certain that this will lead us to our missing boy."

"Awesome. Thanks, Renne."

Lloyd wasted no time calling the number and got confirmation about Colin from the truck driver. Closing his Enigma, he closed his eyes before he faced the others.

"We've got a bit of an issue."

Colin was indeed inside the truck. However, when the driver noticed him and called the company to report his probable delay, Colin ran away somewhere, and now the driver panicked.

"He what?" Renne said.

"Unbelievable..."

"This is bad news, guys!"

The others, including Renne, declared when they heard the situation from him. Juna, however, only sighed before she nodded, muttering something he couldn't catch.

"Everyone, we're heading to the west exit. And Renne... you can follow us. Juna, you'll keep her safe, won't you?"

"Roger!" Juna gave a thumbs up. "Though I'm sure she didn't need it. You're a good kid who knows how to avoid danger, aren't you, Renne?"

The girl only giggled. "Oh, most definitely."

After that, they quickly went to the West Exit.

A/N: Juna: You're amazing.
Lloyd: No u.
Juna: No u.
Lloyd: No u.

or, how two sharp-minded people praise each other's deduction ability.