Breakfast had just ended for the SSS. They were about to start their day doing some requests and continuing their investigation into the drugs, Gnosis. Before that, however, Lloyd had to discuss some things with his teammates.

"Everyone. I found something last night when I compiled the information we gathered yesterday. I want to get this over before we start our day because I personally think this is important," Lloyd started after Elie put the dishes away. He then brought out his notebook and opened the page from last night.

"What is it, Lloyd?" Randy asked him, leaning on his chair.

"You guys remember our talk with Dr. Guenter yesterday? When I took notes of that conversation last night, I noticed a glaring oddness in our talk. Elie, do you remember who brought up the D∴G Cult first?" He fired a question to the grey-haired girl.

"...It's Dr. Guenter. He said he heard rumors about the cult," Elie answered. From her expression, it seemed like she still couldn't grasp the point he wanted to make.

"And Tio began to feel unwell from that point on," Randy joined.

"Yes. After that, Randy, what was my response to Dr. Guenter?" Lloyd turned to the red-haired ex-Jaeger.

"Hmm... if I remember correctly, you mentioned you knew of the D∴G Cult. And Dr. Guenter continued talking about the rumors," Randy said after a few seconds of thinking.

"Yes, I deliberately kept out Juna's involvement and mentioned that I learned from the police report. Take notes on this, everyone. After he talked about the cult being a devil worshipper and made some drugs, I said that the D∴G Cult was a suspect, but we dropped anything because we had no evidence. Following me so far?"

Tio, Randy, and Elie nodded. Sergei inhaled his smoke while KeA looked at him in silence.

"Good. Tio, you still remember what you asked Dr. Guenter?"

"I asked him the name of the drugs. He answered that their name is Gnosis," Tio answered quickly.

"Good. Now that we have recreated last night, here's where I find something weird. After he answered Tio's question... Dr. Guenter brought up the secret society that was connected to that big incident in Liberl and how the cult might be related to them."

Lloyd finished his explanation. He looked at the others, absorbing the information from him.

"Secret society... is it Ouroboros?" Elie made the connection.

"You even know about them, huh? D∴G Cult, and now Ouroboros. What else did you hide from your superior, Lloyd?" Sergei sighed. "Never mind that. Please continue."

"Hm? But Ouroboros is..." Tio's eyes widened.

"Oi, oi. Isn't Renne an Enforcer of Ouroboros? But she's also a victim of the cult," Randy aired the thought that Lloyd wanted them to make.

"...Joshua said that he raided the cult's lodge and found Renne almost dead. But to launch a raid on the D∴G Cult means Ouroboros disagrees with the cult," Elie finally made the connection. "Then..."

"Dr. Guenter's action didn't make sense." Lloyd finished.

The table fell silent at Lloyd's inference.

"But that's... Dr. Guenter didn't know about Ouroboros like us, who unexpectedly met Joshua. There's a chance that ignorance played its part in his statement," Elie tried to rationalize. To find anything that can explain away the oddity in Joachim's action.

"Indeed, you could use ignorance as an excuse. But that's only if he didn't bring up the rumors about the cult in the first place. I had a night to contemplate what happened there, and my mind reached a conclusion." Lloyd closed his eyes for a moment.

His mind went back to all the possible motives Joachim could have.

"Dr. Guenter was trying to mislead us to seek out Ouroboros."

He would've succeeded in diverting their attention were it not for Juna involving the SSS with the search for Renne. If Juna didn't, then they wouldn't have talked with Joshua, a former Enforcer of Ouroboros. Because of that, they knew that Ouroboros wasn't involved with the D∴G Cult at all, and thus, Lloyd was able to notice the glaring oddity in Joachim's statement.

"That's... but why?" Elie questioned.

Sergei puffed out the smoke. "It's obvious what Lloyd wanted us to see."

Elie clenched her hands in frustration.

"Dr. Guenter is connected with the D∴G Cult," Tio finished. She closed her eyes before saying something. "...But is he really that good of an actor, though? If it were true, then he is fooling everybody, including everyone in the hospital."

"..."

"Hold on, Lloyd. You consulted him about KeA's amnesia, right? How did it go again?" Randy said, trying to look for more evidence before coming to the conclusion. But that meeting had also been part of his calculation.

"Elie, didn't you remember? Dr. Guenter wanted us to leave KeA to him. He strangely insisted before I stood my ground on account of Juna's warning. He only backed down after that," Lloyd elaborated. "I'm sure I've put it on the report. Tio?"

"On it," she immediately went to the terminal to look up for the document. Now, it wasn't a document they submitted to the police database. It was just a digitization of all the papers courtesy of Tio's proficiency with the Orbal Terminal. The purpose was to quickly look up something in case they needed to reference a past case. "Found it. You didn't remark anything about Dr. Guenter's insistency."

Tio opened the report and showed it to everyone, who stood up from their seat. Only KeA was left alone on the desk.

"No, I remembered it clearly. Maybe Lloyd and I didn't put it in the report, but Dr. Guenter indeed insisted on taking KeA under his care. He even offered to lower the fees," Elie shook her head.

She went back to her seat with a sigh.

"I still don't want to think that Dr. Guenter is malicious, but there might be a possibility that he is," Elie finished.

Lloyd nodded. If it weren't for Juna's warning that morning, Lloyd wasn't sure if he wouldn't allow KeA to be left there. Dr. Guenter's argument was very persuasive. He was almost convinced by that man's words.

"Yes. I didn't think much of it back then. But now, with the context of my suspicion, his insistence on getting KeA is questionable."

If his suspicion turned out to be correct, Lloyd had to thank the pink-haired cheerful girl for giving him a timely warning. He didn't want to think what could happen to KeA.

KeA...

Lloyd looked at the girl. "KeA. What do you think of our analysis?"

"Hm? I didn't understand much," she confessed. "But, Lloyd. Back then, I really didn't want to stay in that hospital. I was happy that I would still be able to sleep with you guys."

"I see..." Lloyd was glad that his decision aligned with KeA's own wish.

"Hey, Lloyd. Didn't you say that Junie doesn't like Dr. Guenter?" Randy nudged him, and Lloyd answered with a nod.

"Yes. But I believe that was unrelated to his suspicious behavior. Rather, it was born out of his carelessness as a doctor. But that's why I didn't want to ask for confirmation from Juna this time. If she knew, I feared what Juna would do with the information," Lloyd elaborated.

Yes. If Juna knew, she would definitely connect everything, come to the same conclusion as him, and then go to confront the man, and that was what Lloyd was trying to prevent from happening.

Randy sighed. "That's what Junie would do, yeah."

"Better to keep this away from Juna. At least, until we find concrete evidence of Dr. Guenter's possible involvement with the cult," Elie said to everyone.

"Yes. Keep in mind that this is still a suspicion, so we can't act without any evidence, so Elie's advice is good. However, when I think about it again, everything just fits," Lloyd reminded everyone. "This afternoon, Dr. Guenter would inform us if he could identify the drugs. Most probably, he would say that he couldn't find anything about the composition of the drugs."

Sergei put out his smoke. "With all that said, what do you want to do?"

Lloyd closed his eyes, imagining the correct action to take.

"We won't be able to arrest him without any evidence, so we shouldn't tip our hand about any possibilities of suspecting him. However, we won't just leave him alone, either. We must try finding more concrete evidence of his possible relation with the D∴G Cult. Only then can we put everything to catch him. Do you guys agree?"

"Yes."

"Understood."

"Sure thing."

"Alright. SSS. Let's go investigate the citizen about the drugs. Randy, our objective?"

"As of now, we wanna look into that stockbroker in the Residential District and that errand boy from the Saber Vipers. And finally, Arc en Ciel's new cast member," Randy answered sharply.

"They were all acting a little strange yesterday," Elie remarked.

"If you have time, you should go check in with Ian, too. Out of the two he told us about, it looks like the stockbroker is the same one from the First Division's records. And as for the trading company manager, it doesn't look like anyone has any substantial information on him yet," Sergei gave advice on what to do.

"Thanks for the advice. We'll make it a priority to stop by there."

Before Lloyd could continue, his Enigma rang. He immediately picked it up.

"Hello, this is Lloyd Bannings of the Special Support Section."

"Lloyd? It's me, Bickson from Mainz," the voice from the other side answered.

"Oh, hello, sir. This is good timing, actually. How's Gantz been holding up?"

"Y-Yes, about that... He, um, seems to have disappeared again."

Bickson then explained how Gantz was nowhere to be found in the morning despite Bickson staying overnight to look after him. The hotel and the casino staff had been contacted, and both did not see Gantz for quite some time. Lloyd told Bickson to stay in case Gantz came back.

He then closed the phone.

"Did I hear that right? Gantz disappeared again?" Elie asked for his confirmation, to which Lloyd nodded.

"Yeah. Apparently, he snuck out of the hotel this morning. Either by his own accord or..."

"In any case, we will need to check on the others' conditions as well," Tio reminded everyone.

"Man, I gotta bad feelin' about this..."

The four of them then left for investigation.

Gone.

Everyone related to the drug case was gone. Bond, the stockbroker from the residential area. Nikolai, the new member of Arc en Ciel. Dino, the member of the Saber Viper gang. None of them were there when they approached them.

The SSS left the Viper's hideout with more questions than answers.

"The hell is going on?" Randy aired out his frustration.

"Dino really is missing..." Elie trailed off, her mind wandering somewhere.

Just as everyone was pondering their own thought, somebody greeted them.

"Hey. You guys got a moment to chat?"

Everyone turned their attention to the new voice greeting them. It was the green-haired gang leader who helped them in the Schwarze Auction, Wazy.

"What are you doing here, Wazy?"

Wazy just gave Tio a smile. "I'm curious to see how the Vipers are doing. I heard their newest member went missing this morning. Well, I thought something might happen after that last thing..."

"Hey... You know somethin' we don't?"

"Essentially. Why don't we relocate first? You're all welcome to join me at Trinity. I'd be more than happy to tell you what I know, as long as you're willing to hear me out."

Wazy then left them to think over his offer. The other three looked at Lloyd.

"What to do?" Elie asked him.

"Wazy's the only person we can rely on for more information regarding the Saber Vipers right now. And besides... Juna did say to me that I should keep an eye on Wazy," Lloyd revealed.

"Junie did?" Randy asked in amazement.

"That's basically a guaranteed lead, right? I wonder why Juna said it," Tio mused.

They entered Testament's hideout and asked Wazy for information. Apparently, Dino was very aggressive towards the Testament members. It took Wazy a lot of control to hold back his gang member from being provoked. What was more, Dino challenged Wald, and supposedly, he matched his boss in power and speed. In the end, though, Dino still lost when Wald used all his strength. After that, Dino stormed away somewhere and hadn't been seen since.

"Things ain't lookin' too good," Randy sighed after hearing the full story from Wazy.

"Right. This is becoming quite serious. Lloyd..." Elie turned towards him. But Lloyd shook his head.

"So... Is this all thanks to that fancy new drug?"

Wazy's question snapped everyone into alert.

"Where did you hear about it?" Elie asked, trying to keep her voice even.

"Ah, I thought that might have been the case. I heard some strange rumor about a magical drug that grants your wishes or something. I thought that thing might have been responsible."

"So, you baited us with a leading question," Tio sighed.

"Hey, pal. Try not to run your mouth off about it too much. Don't need more people knowin'," Randy warned the gang leader.

"Heh. I'll try and heed your words. For what it's worth, I don't think anybody other than Dino's used that thing around these parts," Wazy assured the SSS. "Only problem is, I have no clue who would have even given him the drugs. I'd better keep a stronger watch."

"Thanks for the information, Wazy." Lloyd gave an appreciative nod.

When they left Testament's hideout, Dudley suddenly called them, hinting that something was happening at the Revache HQ. Even though Dudley told them not to butt in, it wasn't in the SSS's nature to ignore a request, even if it was a roundabout one.

They looked through the empty Revache HQ for clues of what was happening. However, the inside of the building was full of archaisms that they had to defeat to continue. In the end, though, they arrived at Don Marconi's office and found notebooks containing the shipping and delivery receipt of Gnosis.

(Lloyd also found a damaged CPD Badge, but that wasn't the most important thing right now, so he shoved any thought aside.)

"Each and every missing person is written on this list. We've found our decisive evidence that the mafia is responsible for spreading the drugs. We've also managed to confirm that Gnosis was concocted by that terrible cult..." Dudley remarked after overseeing the two books.

Lloyd went silent. According to the books, someone had been supplying the drugs to the mafia. That person even gave prescription of drugs to control the war hounds to manipulate them easily. No wonder they had lots of controlled war hounds, which Randy noted to be strange even back then.

"Does that mean a member of the cult has been in cahoots with them? But who could it be? We can deduce that it's someone living in Crossbell, judging by how frequently they're in contact."

Dudley's question had the SSS look at each other. The evidence they found strengthened their suspicions about the blue-haired doctor's identity. But there was still no proof of Joachim's involvement with the cult, so they didn't tell any of their suspicions to Dudley.

"The real problem is, how are we going to lure him outta his hiding place?" Randy mused.

Lloyd hummed. Right. Simply looking for the evidence would take a long time, and if Joachim was as smart as he was in the pharmacology field, he'd erase the trace linking everything back to him. So, Randy's approach of luring him out might be perfect. The problem was how?

Lloyd looked at his pocket watch. It was almost time for Joachim to give his report.

"Hey, Dudley. I have a suggestion. Why don't we request the help of the bracers?"

Lloyd, in the end, resorted to their rival, the Guild.

"Ah..."

"Oh yeah! They'd be a huge help right about now!" Randy clapped.

"W-What are you thinking, Bannings?! If we bring the bracers, the widespread corruption in the CPD will be completely exposed!"

Lloyd sigh. "I don't think we can avoid that. It is simply the price the CPD has to pay. All of us will have to bear the responsibility of sweeping it under the rug. Wouldn't it be best to accept the shame now, so we can begin to move forward?"

"Gh..."

"Worrying over the CPD's pride will only cost us more time. A time I'm not sure the missing people have."

"Not only that, but we still don't have a damn clue what the mafia's main objective is."

"This isn't an appropriate time to persist in holding on to your pride, Dudley."

The others also voiced their opinion on the matter.

After thinking for a while, Dudley let out a small smile. "Hmph. So these are the kinds of people Sergei has gathered for himself. Very well. I understand. I'll leave you all in charge of contacting the guild. I'll go and secure the First Division's help behind the top brass' back. I may even be able to enlist help from the Second Division, depending on the situation."

"Dudley... Thank you. I appreciate you giving us a chance."

"Hmph. Don't misunderstand me. It just so happens that we have no other choice in these circumstances," Dudley fixed his glasses. He then looked at a particular item in Lloyd's pocket. "More importantly... Bannings. Are you fine holding on to that badge?"

"Oh..."

"It's a damaged CPD badge..." Elie trailed off, arriving at the correct conclusion.

"You sure that's your brother's old badge?"

"Yeah, I'm almost positive it is. Tio, you might recognize this, too?" Lloyd nodded at Randy's question.

"Yes..." Tio nodded, losing in her memories. "I imagine it was damaged during one of the raids on the cult lodges... He told me it was his 'badge of honor.'"

"I see... No wonder he didn't bother to exchange it for a new one despite my constant pestering," Dudley let out a nostalgic smile.

"Dudley, you...and my brother worked together, right? Since my brother transferred to the First Division and all," Lloyd asked the older man.

Dudley nodded, eyes lost in his memories.

"Yeah, I suppose... To be frank, he wasn't the type of man to mesh well with the First Division. Overbearing and reckless, always acting independently... He stood out like a sore thumb. He hardly cooperated with anyone, especially me. We were constantly at odds during every case," Dudley revealed. A ghost of a smile graced his face. "However, everyone in the First Division acknowledged him for the detective he was. Myself included, of course."

It seemed like his brother was as amazing as Lloyd thought.

"When he was killed in the line of duty, it hit all of us in the First Division much harder than we ever could have imagined. Although we never really saw eye-to-eye with Guy, I think there was a part of us that depended on his rashness- his willingness to jump into action," Dudley continued reminiscing. "We all desperately searched for any leads to the culprit, but in the end, we were left empty-handed..."

It made him happy to hear about his brother. However, this wasn't the time to comfortably exchange stories about Guy.

"I'm sorry, Bannings. For all you had to go through," Dudley shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. It's okay. My brother definitely had a problem of running off to investigate cases on his own..." Lloyd sighed. When he said Juna's deduction reminded him of Guy a few months ago, it included his tendency to be reckless. Lloyd couldn't help but smile. Honestly, it seemed like Guy's spirit was inherited by Juna. "Honestly, just hearing about your reaction to Guy's death is more than enough for me."

"I see..." Looking at Lloyd's eyes, Dudley continued, "However, here we are on the verge of a breakthrough. We finally have a lead on who the culprit is. That being said, this is something the First Division suspected from the start. You might be able to settle your brother's old score for-"

"No. I'll worry about my brother later..." Lloyd shook his head with a smile on his face. "We've got a mountain of pressing issues to handle right in front of us already. I'll worry about Guy once we've solved these."

And besides, Juna had spoken. She said that the truth about Guy's murder would come to light. There was no doubting her now.

"Lloyd..."

"You really can't help but put others before yourself, can you?" Elie sighed.

"That's just Lloyd being Lloyd," Randy grinned.

"Very well, Bannings. We both have our tasks. Let's see to them. We can't have that annoyingly optimistic man outdo us from beyond the grave," Dudley said with a smirk on his face.

Lloyd couldn't help but smile. "Right!"

The five of them then went on their way to do their tasks.

A/N: Here it is! So the oddity that Lloyd noticed is Joachim's action of mentioning a rumor about cult - talk about Gnosis - suddenly Ouroboros. Now, in canon, the SSS is underinformed about so many things, so the fact that they didn't notice that oddity is understandable. In fact, I didn't notice it myself when I played the game. Why did Joachim suddenly mentioned Ouroboros after talking about the cult? It didn't make sense to the players, right? But I completely missed it the first time. But here? The SSS knew about the D∴G Cult before it was brought up by Sergei because of Juna. The SSS also knows about Ouroboros because Juna involved herself with Renne's search. Therefore, Lloyd couldn't not suspect Joachim. Though, as he said, there is no evidence pointing to Joachim so they couldn't arrest him yet. Thing is, even if Lloyd is very certain, he couldn't confirm it to Juna because he feared what Juna would do with the information. This is the girl who stormed into the Bracer Guild shouting 'Arios! Where is Arios?!' after hearing how his daughter missed him, after all.

By the way, it seems that Juna is nowhere to be found in this chapter. I wonder where she is.