TK had left Byakuya in the dust while running after Hina, though he suspected the heir was not in a rush to check on Toko. This made Hina worried and frustrated. She impatiently tapped her foot as they waited for Byakuya to arrive.
"What's taking him so long? He's so slow!" Hina complained. TK agreed, a little bit. Hina was probably one of the fastest students in their class, so he wasn't surprised they had to wait for Byakuya.
"It's fine; we can fill him in when he gets here. Tell me about the emergency," TK told her as he tried to address the source of her concerns. Hina calmed down and worriedly looked at Toko's door.
"After I told Taka about what happened in the locker room, I went to check on Toko to see how she was doing. When I got here… It was weird," Hina revealed. TK arched an eyebrow and stared at Toko's door. How he would describe Toko during the short time he knew her would be weird. She didn't shower; anything minor would set her off, and she was weirdly obsessive over Byakuya.
If the way she's acting has Hina spooked, then Toko must be going through something horrible.
"She refused to come out, and she kept saying all this weird stuff," Hina continued, and TK quickly looked at her.
"Like what?"
"Try talking to her and hear it for yourself," Byakuya's rude comment signaled his arrival. TK was going to relay what Hina told him, but Byakuya's uninterested expression told him the heir wouldn't care.
What Byakuya said sounded like a good idea. He had faith in Hina and believed she would be honest with him, but nothing was better than hearing it from the source. He rang Toko's doorbell and waited. The door swung open, slowly and silently, shortly after.
It was dark, but TK could see Toko's quivering, fear-stricken face come into view. She looked horrible if he was being honest. She was paler than normal, her face was covered in sweat, and her eyes were bloodshot. He could feel a huge wave of negativity crashing over him.
Hina was right to be worried about her.
"...What?" Toko finally spoke. It was obvious to anyone that she wanted to be alone.
"Hey, we're just checking up on you. Hina's very worried about you," TK said softly with a friendly smile. He didn't want to scare her and put more stress on her.
"Leave me a-alone…" Toko said, her expression remained the same.
"Don't worry, we're here to help. All you need to do is open up a little and—!"
"Won't a-allow it…" Toko interrupted. TK gave her a puzzled look. He stepped forward, but Toko's eyes widened, and she looked more scared than before.
"I w-won't let Genocide Jack have control!" She screamed before slamming the door in his face.
TK felt his heart jump as he backed away from the door. He didn't expect Toko to react like that. He was glad he didn't consider putting his foot between the doorway.
Hina gave him a friendly pat on the back to see if he was alright. TK raised his hand to show he was fine, but she still looked worried; mostly about Toko.
"She's been acting like that the whole time. When I rang a little while ago, she was saying things like 'driving out the murderous fiend'. It doesn't make any sense, right?" TK nodded in agreement. This was the furthest from how Toko normally acts. "I was afraid to leave her in there alone, so I tried to bust down her door, but it felt like something was holding it shut on the other side. I couldn't even budge it…"
Hina hung her head, and TK placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. It wasn't her fault Toko was acting like this. What she saw in the locker room was the reason she was scared. Which meant she also believed that Genocide Jack was the killer.
"Whatever it is, I'm really worried about her. Isn't there anyone who might be able to persuade her…?" As soon as those words left her lips, they slowly looked at Byakuya. The heir looked uninterested in their current conundrum. TK knew it was a long shot, but he knew it wouldn't hurt to ask.
"Hey, Byakuya, do you think you could help?" TK asked while nodding his head toward Toko's door. Given Byakuya's silence, TK was sure this was a lost cause. Toko repulsed Byakuya, so he wouldn't be surprised if he wanted her to rot in her room with her crumbling psyche.
"Sure, whatever."
TK had to do a double take as he watched Byakuya take his position before Toko's door.
"Huh? You're gonna talk to her, Byakuya? Wow, I guess you can be nice when you want to!" Hina exclaimed with shock. TK agreed. He was sure Byakuya would've deemed this a lost cause and returned to the investigation.
Byakuya sighed and rang the doorbell. Moments passed, and there were no signs of movement. TK was sure Toko had closed herself off, but to his surprise, the door slowly creaked open.
"Leave me alone! You're all s-s-s-so annoying…" Toko choked on her words when she realized it wasn't TK at the door. Her eyes went wide as she screamed. "Backula!"
"It's Byakuya…" The heir rudely corrected her. Toko stumbled over her words for a few seconds. TK wondered if she was trying to apologize or compliment the blond.
"I-I'm sorry. I couldn't k-keep our promise. But don't w-worry. Never again…" Toko promised, which piqued TK's interest. "I…! I won't let Genocide Jack have control ever again!"
Toko slammed the door, leaving more questions than answers.
"Even Byakuya couldn't pull it off…" Hina said disappointedly.
"There's nothing else we can do. Let's get back to the investigation," Byakuya said, a little too fast. It made TK raise an eyebrow.
"Wait! What was that all about? She said something about a promise?" TK asked, making sure Byakuya wouldn't walk away from what happened. Byakuya scoffed at his attempt.
"I have no idea. Another one of her delusions, I'm sure."
"But it—!"
"If I say I don't know, that means I don't know. Just let Hina take care of her," Byakuya snapped. TK backed off, signaling his surrender. He turned to Hina and saw Byakuya's sudden anger took her off guard, but she regained her composure a little.
"O-Oh… yeah, okay. I'll stay here and keep an eye on her," she said, though she wasn't thrilled about the prospect.
"Well then, let's go," Byakuya said as he sped off. TK lingered for a few seconds to make sure Hina was fine. When he saw that she was, he raced after Byakuya before he got too far ahead.
The two blonds silently walked as Byakuya led TK to their next destination. Byakuya didn't bother telling TK where they were going or looking back to ensure he was following him. The heir only cared about reaching their destination, which was fine by TK. After his outburst, TK believed Byakuya was using this time to calm down.
The duo continued until they reached the library. TK wondered why Byakuya brought him here, but the heir didn't allow him to voice his question before marching in. TK went after him and continued to follow him into the back room of the library. Once inside, TK was bombarded by all the dust that covered the dark room.
"It's so dusty in here," TK coughed as he fanned the dust away from him.
"I would say there's enough value in this place to endure the dust," Byakuya smirked as he turned on the light. Now that he could see, TK's jaw dropped. Lining the walls and piled onto the floor were numerous books and files. TK couldn't believe that Hope's Peak could pack so many things into a small room.
Walking over to a shelf, TK saw how tightly packed the books and files were. He slowly pulled a random file out. He wondered why these were stored away and not with the rest of the books in the main library.
"Ah, you have a sharp eye indeed to select that file," Byakuya commented. TK gave him a puzzled look. "That's the report on a presidential assassination. The original is kept at the National Library. It won't be declassified for another thirty years. Are you sure you want to look at it now? There's no telling whose crosshairs you might wind up in for peeking at it…"
Speechless, TK slowly slid the file back into its place. If what Byakuya said was true, then that meant all of the files and books here held information he shouldn't know about. It was weird Hope's Peak had all this delicate information in one place for people like him to have access to. It was a little unnerving to think about.
Shaking away that thought, TK looked around the room to find anything to ease his mind. He only saw a desk lamp that he remembered seeing Byakuya use a few days ago. The only thing it was missing was its power cord.
"Do you have a problem with that lamp? It was here before, then I moved it over there. It's too dark over there, so I thought I'd put it to good use," Byakuya explained defensively. TK nodded and continued to look around the room. He found an empty box filled with dust and a weird outline. "There was an extension cord plugged in there. It proved very useful while I was in the library."
After that, TK couldn't find anything else to help them solve the case. The archive was filled with books and files, but if what Byakuya said was true, then this whole room was filled with information he shouldn't see. It also made him wonder why Hope's Peak had it residing in one place, easily accessible for any of them to read.
Classified government documents, police reports, names of the most important people in the world, all in one place. It didn't seem safe, and he wondered why the government would trust Hope's Peak to have it. What was stopping one of them from taking and leaking one of these documents to the rest of the world? Nothing, unless…
"These have to be fake," TK deduced. It's the only way for it to make sense. Hope's Peak has this room set up for students aiming for government positions, and this is their way of testing them to see if they can be trusted with private information.
"That's your guys' problem. Anything that doesn't fit into your preconceived reality, you label it a lie," Byakuya sneered. It was easy to tell Byakuya was looking down on him.
"I'm not denying that this stuff might've happened, but it's crazy that all of this is here for all of us to see," TK argued.
"I suppose it goes to show just how much power Hope's Peak truly wields. Or perhaps…" Byakuya said with a sinister glint in his eyes. "The mastermind may have wanted to provide us with enough entertainment to keep us from getting bored."
TK still couldn't accept it as he gazed at the bookshelves. It felt too unreal for him to believe.
"What's wrong? You still can't believe it?" Byakuya asked with a hint of vexation.
"Well, how could you believe in this? Just look at this…" TK said as he scanned the bookshelf for anything to support his argument. It didn't take him long, and he was shocked to see it here. "Monster attacks in the 90s. There's a whole section about what happened in Odaiba during the summer of 99."
Skimming to that section, TK wasn't surprised to see reports of a woolly mammoth stampeding down the street, a cybernetic dinosaur climbing Tokyo Tower, and ghosts kidnapping families all around Odaiba. If there was ever anything that Myotismon did that TK was grateful for, it was him messing up the technology around the city. He doesn't know where he or his friends would be if there were videos or pictures of them and their partners fighting Myotismon and his evil servants.
"This just seems impossible."
"Normal, ordinary, simple? Those things don't exist anywhere in the real world. If you don't understand what they actually represent, you don't understand the nature of anything," Byakuya said angrily.
TK wanted to argue but relented because he knew it would get them nowhere. Byakuya took the book from his hands, skimmed through it, and placed it back on the shelf.
"Besides, what you consider 'usual' is based on your common sense, right? But what makes you think your own 'common sense' applies to me at all?" Byakuya said as he looked around the room. "The documents gathered here are genuine. I have reviewed them multiple times, so there is no doubt."
"So this is what you've been doing these past few days!? Reading all of these documents while we've been looking for a way out!" TK exclaimed. Byakuya shook his head with a prideful smirk.
"No, that would take too long. My family has a reading room just like this at our home. Ours is bigger, of course. And not as dusty," Byakuya backhandedly remarked as he dragged a finger across a dusty bookshelf. "Members of the Togami family have access to any variety of government-related documents. That includes foreign powers as well as domestic."
"That doesn't seem possible," TK said. He felt dizzy from all this new information spinning around his mind.
"I already told you, there's a secret council that controls the world from the shadows. My family is a member of that council. And I have within me the bloodline that will allow me to one day bend the world to my will. But to become such a ruler, I must know all levels of this world backwards and forwards. So whenever I have time, I like to review whatever documents and materials that interest me. Which is why I can proclaim, without a doubt, that the materials gathered here are the real thing."
TK was speechless. He was a little nauseous after hearing that, and a little scared of Byakuya. He wanted to sit for a second, but since there were no seats, he leaned against the wall.
"And what always interested me the most were the 'cold case' police investigation reports. Reading through those reports has always been a hobby of mine, ever since I was little," Byakuya continued, oblivious to his companion's mental state. "It's an excellent mental exercise. I've solved more than a few of those cases just by reviewing the reports. And among all those reports, one of my recent favorites is the Genocide Jack case."
Byakuya finally noticed the state TK was in but didn't show any concern. He ushered the blond to move aside and grabbed a specific file from the shelf.
"This is the complete case file. Every single report surrounding the Genocide Jack case has been compiled in here," Byakuya said before summarizing everything he knew about Genocide Jack.
He said there were two characteristics at every crime scene: the word "bloodlust" written in the victims' blood, and the victims' bodies being suspended in a certain way. Byakuya said there was more relating to the second characteristic. Only the police and higher-ups knew about it. This meant only key officials and the killer himself knew what a Genocide Jack crime scene looked like.
It matched Chihiro's crime scene to a T. This meant the copycat killer theory wasn't possible. The killer had to be the real Genocide Jack. Not only that, but a serial killer was hiding amongst them.
TK felt sicker than before, but Byakuya wouldn't give him time to recover. He forced the file into his hands and told him to read it. He also said something about getting on his knees and begging, but TK had tuned him out.
Once he was feeling better, TK flipped through the file, becoming more nauseous with each passing page. He had to stop himself from throwing up when he reached the page where photos of the crime scenes had been collected. He saw the victims' headshots, close-ups of the stab wounds, and a picture of the murder weapon, which was a pair of custom-made scissors. Also, each page had the victim's name, age, occupation, and a description of the crime scene.
TK skimmed through each section, getting sick from every picture, and when he saw someone younger than him. He did his best to only skim through each victim's description. Just like Byakuya said, the word "bloodlust" was left in the victim's blood, and they were all suspended.
"Now take a look at the next page, and you'll find another interesting tidbit," Byakuya said with a smirk. He had flipped the page for him, and TK was grateful there were no pictures. Instead, it was the profiling results.
"All of the crimes took either on weekdays at night, or during holidays, either day or night. The most common time for the killings to take place was on holidays, in the afternoon. Based on these facts, it could be suggested that the suspect may be a student. Evidence suggests that the suspect lingered at the scene, but when they did leave, they were in a panic.
Because an eyewitness has never come forward, it's unlikely there was any external reason for this. This confused behavior suggests…"
"...that the suspect may potentially suffer from dissociative identity disorder," TK finished reading. It appears that Byakuya and the police had come to the same conclusion that Genocide Jack is a high schooler.
"The key point here is that the culprit may well have a split personality," Byakuya explained. TK thought the idea was a little far-fetched, but considering everything that has happened in his life, he couldn't disregard that theory.
"Alright, we are done here," Byakuya said. He took the file out of TK's hand and put it back on the shelf. He left the room, and TK raced after him before he could get too far.
"Wait, Byakuya!" TK called out to him as the heir left the library. "Where are you going?"
"I have some things I need to take care of before the class trial. Alone," Byakuya said sharply, which took TK off guard.
"Seriously? After what you showed you're going off alone?" TK said, and Byakuya scoffed.
"Did you really think we'd be together the whole time? Take responsibility for yourself and do something useful. Move the investigation forward on your own."
Just like that, Byakuya was gone. TK couldn't help but feel he'd been used, though he couldn't dwell on it for too long. He had to get back to the problem at hand. Genocide Jack, the murderous fiend was one of them, and they killed Chihiro.
He didn't know how he'd be able to figure out something that the police couldn't, but he had to try. For his friends, and Chihiro.