A couple of pronunciation notes that will probably be helpful for the middle scenes: Ianto is pronounced something along the lines of Yan-to, and Ceri is with a hard C rather than a soft C.

Clio was not the first to arrive at the designated study room. Yuuto was already sitting there, with a sketchpad in front of him and a pencil in his hand. Curious, when Clio sat down she leant over and attempted to peer at what he was drawing without getting too close. She couldn't make too much sense of it, but she saw drawings of red roses, lipsticks, and a couple of those smiling and crying masks that were symbols of the theatre. There were also several scribbled notes in dense, illegible handwriting. She watched in fascination as he sketched out 'Seren' in bubble-letter hiragana but reared back when he seemed to sense her watching and looked up. She fully expected him to snap at her, but then he asked:

"Seren's a foreign name technically, right?"

"I think it's Welsh?" Clio said. "Her parents are Japanese but have connections to Wales, I think. I can't remember why or how."

"Right." Yuuto tapped his pencil against the sketchpad for a moment, then asked. "Did she have a favourite colour?"

"Um. Red, I think."

"Red, and black. Gold, sometimes. Lace and velvet."

With these words, Keiji made his entrance, striding in as he stared at his phone. Yuuto raised an eyebrow at him and said:

"Uh, hate to break it to you, but lace and velvet aren't fucking colours. I'll take it, though."

He then looked down and scribbled more illegible notes on the sketchbook page. He then continued to sketch, pausing only to look at his phone and search for something. Staring at the list of search results, he selected a few different results, read through them and nodded to himself before then drawing stars in different configurations.

Clio got the sense that as dedicated he was to what he was planning out on the page, he was also making a particular point of ignoring Keiji. If the pointed glare that Keiji was giving Yuuto was anything to go by, it was clear that he thought this too. But after a moment he returned to looking at his phone, still standing:

"Wow, the phonies have been coming out of the woodwork on the forums."

"The forums?" Clio asked.

"I'm talking about the school ones. Not the official intranet ones, but the casual ones. And our year group chats, of course. Hasn't yours been blowing up?"

Clio couldn't argue with that, because it had been. Too much for her to really cope with, and so she hadn't been looking. Before she could give him an answer, the door opened and Konoha arrived. Sitting down next to Clio, she asked:

"What are you talking about?"

"What people are saying about Nishiya-san, I think?" Clio tentatively replied.

Konoha nodded sagely at this:

"Ah. Yes. There's some serious victim-blaming going on there, isn't there?"

"The information is inaccurate, and that's really annoying," Keiji went on. "It's such irresponsible speculation. I also don't see how Seren's habits have anything to with how she died. I mean, she certainly bought attention to herself, yes, and that probably played into why she was chosen, but this wasn't a sex crime."

Apparently, this was the beginning of a tirade, because after a quick pause for breath Keiji went on:

"She certainly wasn't into BDSM or anything weird like that, and she definitely wouldn't have filmed anything. I mean, it's kind of convenient no videos have actually surfaced, not that I would watch them, because why would I need to? But she'd never turn on the main lights, so why would she film herself? And again, no BDSM. That was far too complicated."

At this, Yuuto looked up and gave Keiji a befuddled scowl:

"How'd the fuck do you know all that?"

At almost the exact same time, Konoha grimaced slightly and said:

"Uh, that's way too much information."

Konoha and Yuuto then proceeded to give each other confused looks before Yuuto rubbed the back of his head and went:

"Oh."

He grimaced, and then asked:

"Wait, you're telling me that you slept with her?"

Keiji, about to say yet more, abruptly shut his mouth and reddened. Clio felt horribly embarrassed for him, but also just horrible and so she just said:

"I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" he snapped. "It doesn't change anything. I'm just annoyed at all the inaccurate information going around. It's not going to help anything, is it?"

"The fuck are you going to do about it?" Yuuto snapped. "Wade in to defend your girlfriend? Think that's going to help anything?"

"Of course not, there's more important things to do!" Keiji snapped. "Like, you know, finding who did it. Also, she's not my girlfriend. Wasn't."

Yuuto looked like he had a cutting response all geared up for that, but Clio quickly interrupted it with:

"Nonetheless, it must be hard. I'm sorry."

"That's, well…."

Keiji looked incredibly flummoxed by this, sitting down heavily. He rubbed his eyes and then stared down at the table, before muttering:

"She's our only active data point at the moment, isn't she?"

"The only clue as to what happened to the others," Konoha agreed. "And she's definitely part of the pattern. I heard the detectives talking about finding a message on her, some kind of calling card. That's a thing serial killers do. Not every time, but sometimes they leave some sort of message or sign on bodies that shows it's their work. Right?"

This made Keiji look up and give Konoha an appraising look.

"Right," he said. "Is there anything else about the calling card that you know?"

Konoha shook her head, but Keiji didn't seem disappointed.

"That makes sense. They probably shouldn't have been talking about it in the open at all, but it's a good sign they were sensible enough to hold back specifics. That doesn't help us, but the official investigation isn't meant to help ours."

"Okay, so," Yuuto said. "What are we even doing here, then?"

"You can just slink off and snivel in a corner if you prefer." Keiji snapped at him. "If you've not got anything to offer."

Yuuto narrowed his eyes, and Clio worried for a moment that he'd launch himself across the table at Keiji. Luckily, he did not do so. Instead, he put down his pencil and closed his sketchpad, and reached for the large portfolio folder that was on the chair next to him, with his bag. He laid the folder out on the table, then took three sheets of paper out from it. After putting the folder back on the chair, he unfolded the sheets of paper.

The two larger papers turned out to be maps. One was a map of the school, and the immediate area that surrounded the boundaries of it. The second still had Hope's Peak in its centre, but turned out to be a larger map of the city (and beyond). Both maps had been annotated with small circles with numbers, though one circle on each map had the English letter 'S' inside instead. The third paper turned out to be a key, with the same numbers and letters in circles along one side, and a note explaining what each one was for. 1: Dax Haley. 2: Yori Miyagi. 3: Silas Jon Finsen and so on through the list of disappearances. The S was listed as standing for Seren Nishiya found,

"I didn't realise, looking at these, just how uncertain some of them were," Yuuto said. "A lot of these are estimates based on where and when they were last seen. Even Ena's…I mean, they don't know whether she disappeared first, or whether it was Ono. They were both captured on CCTV at the same time. It's just that I noticed first."

"But we can be certain they were all local disappearances. Well, apart from Luca Fontana." Keiji said, pointing at number 5 on the wider city map, one of the numbers furthest away from Hope's Peak on the map.

"He was on his way back from Haneda Airport." Clio supplied.

Keiji nodded at her, briefly, and then frowned at the map:

"So we had two disappearances within the school, two right outside the school…two on the surrounding roads. The rest are scattered and somewhat further away. But nonetheless, like I said, local. "

"So whoever it is must be local, especially if they've managed to drop Nishiya-san's body here." Konoha said.

"But it could still be almost anyone, couldn't it?" Clio said.

Before anybody could answer that, there was a knock at the door. Clio jumped, and then brightened when she realised it was Nazuna. She jumped up to open the door.

"You came!"

"Yes, I did."

Nazuna had been to change back into casual clothes since Clio had last seen her, and had apparently also combed her hair again, because her plait was smooth again. She still looked tired, but not nearly as frazzled as she had been in the café bathroom. Clio ushered her in, and as Nazuna greeted the others, she sat back down.

"What are you doing here?" Yuuto asked bluntly.

It was then Clio realised that she had not told the others how or why she had invited Nazuna. Hurriedly, she explained, leaving out the extent of her concern for the older girl, sensing she wouldn't necessarily appreciate that. Nazuna then said:

"I apologise for barging in, and I am not sure what I might be able to do to help. But I realised that I would rest easier if I was helping you rather than leaving you all alone. I had also been helping with an investigation before, although it did not get very far."

"Nabenashi's?" Yuuto guessed, unexpectedly.

Nazuna nodded.

"Makes sense. She's always one for asking questions, isn't she?" Yuuto snarked.

Nazuna stared at him, but her lips twitched slightly. She then reached into her messenger bag and took out a pink, sparkly, star-patterned folder. Clio immediately wished she had a folder like that.

"This is Kagura's," Nazuna explained, holding it up. "She didn't have much in the end, but she did make notes of everything she tried to look into. I haven't had the time to look through properly since she left, but before I came to you, I tried to put them into some order. Is there anything in particular you want to look at."

"We seem to be half-focusing on Nishiya-san and half focusing on the locations, at the moment." Konoha said.

Keiji looked like he had been about to answer, and when he was thwarted he scowled at Konoha. Not that the pilot seemed to care, particularly.

"Nishiya-san, right."

Nazuna opened the folder and started to flip through it. After a moment, she started to count. When she got to seven, she stopped and took out a plastic wallet that held a couple of sheets of paper, and a printed-out photograph paperclipped to it. But just as she was about to put them on the table for everyone else to see, Nazuna stopped.

"Wait."

"What is it?" Clio asked.

"Seventh disappearance. Nishiya-san was the seventh. So why did she die first?"

They all looked at each other. Eventually, Keiji frowned.

"That is a very good question. I assume it's because of what everybody thought of her, somehow. No matter how inaccurate-"

"Apparently they were together." Yuuto supplied, interrupting.

Keiji glowered at Yuuto, but Nazuna looked thoughtfully at him and said:

"Was this just after the summer break? Or towards the end?"

"Y-yes?"

"I don't know why I just remembered this, but Kagura said something back then. For a little while, Nishiya-san did seem happier. Or, less tense. A break from her always talking and thinking about her own death, I think Kagura said. "

"Did Nabenashi-san talk to you a lot about Nishiya-san?" Konoha asked curiously.

"I suppose. I would have interacted with her a few times, since Kagura would have dragged me to see her friends from time to time. But most of what I know about Nishiya-san I know from Kagura. And now, a little bit from Clio-san."

"What else, then, do you know about her mood?" Keiji asked curiously.

"Don't you know?" Nazuna asked curiously.

"Why would I?" Keiji snapped back. "It was only a few days. I'd come back from summer break a few days early, she'd apparently been on campus the whole time. I was bored. Seren was….Seren. Once school started in earnest, we parted ways. That's all. So why would I know?"

"You must have noticed her state of mind, though. Even if it was for a few days."

Keiji had no answer to this, instead reddening again and lowering his head, seeming to draw inwards. When he spoke again, it was another question:

"She didn't seem so bad, then. So how'd it get to this point?"

"Messages," Nazuna said immediately. "The same man who'd been tormenting her with graphic threats for most of her teenage years had ramped it up, reminding her that it was 'almost time' for him to have her. She became obsessed with making sure he'd be caught. Kagura gave me copies of the copies that Nishiya-san had made, along with these notes. I didn't bring them with me, because I thought it'd be too much. But there's a basic summary in here."

Clio had not been one of the ones entrusted with these messages. She felt guiltily glad for it, as she wasn't sure she could have coped with it. To cover this up, she asked:

"What if it's him? That man who scared her?"

"You mean, is he the one who kidnapped her?" Konoha asked. "But why would he leave a calling card? Why would he kidnap fifteen other students?"

"A smokescreen of some kind, perhaps? Or maybe he had been pursuing the others, too?" Yuuto asked.

"Hmmm, I don't think that any of the others received similarly threatening messages. Not that some of them didn't get threats, or otherwise inappropriate messages." Nazuna said thoughtfully. "Then again, Nishiya-san's reaction was very different to the reactions any of the others may have had."

"Whether it's him, or not, I'm sure it still had something to do with her capture and her death." Keiji insisted. "I mean, she was expecting something like this to happen. She was expecting to die. So she wouldn't have fought against it at any point. That's what would have made her the perfect victim for anybody, especially with how well-known her mindset was. Not any of the other stuff. Just that she saw herself as spiralling down one particular path, and the killer decided to follow her there."

"Easy victims…" Konoha murmured. "If Nishiya-san was an easy victim because of her beliefs about her death, then who else might be an easy victim?"

"That's easy," Keiji said. "There's Park, from Kurihara's class. She was quite a softly-spoken, eyes-lowered, polite type. And there was her hand deformity, too. "

"There's Suwasaka-san too, from my year group. She seemed very shy." Clio offered.

"Docile," Nazuna half-read from her notes, half explained. "Meek, obedient, focused on her studies."

She flipped back and forth amongst the notes, coming up with more suggestions:

"Then there's Miyagi-san, who has juvenile arthritis and sometimes struggled with mobility as a result. Fontana-san is strong, but sometimes struggled with coordination, memory and processing information, so that could make him vulnerable. Kagura…Kagura could be pretty impulsive, and she had just recovered from COVID, so that wouldn't had helped. Then…then, Haley-san often liked to be on his own, especially in nature."

"He's also quite slight, isn't he, Dax Haley?" Keiji interrupted. "And so is Ae-ra Park, and Chiara Kai. Kaida Adachi's tall, isn't she? But I don't think she was particularly strong from the looks of things, so she'd have been easy enough to overpower. And Kakeru Yanai was a bit weedy, and then…."

"Ena."

They all looked to Yuuto, who suddenly looked drained of what little he had left.

"Ena's vulnerable, too. She wouldn't have been able to fight. She's so…she's so small, and she gets nosebleeds easily, and she forgets to eat, sometimes. She did always try to be healthy, but then she'd forget stupid shit like that. And she only has one kidney, and she is the-she sees the good in the world. Or dreams it all up I guess, because there can't be that much good in the world without…without…."

He let out a wordless shout, and hit the table abruptly, making them all jump.

"Is that why, then? Because all she was to them was some 'easy victim'?"

Nobody seemed entirely sure what to say to that. Nobody, except for Keiji, who went:

"At least you're not in denial."

"I don't think that was quite the right thing to say here." Konoha remarked drily.

"The sooner he accepts the risk, the better!" Keiji protested. "There's no use living in a fantasy land just because of love or whatever-"

"Matsumoto-san, you're being insensitive." Nazuna scolded. "Yes, there is no use shying away from the worst parts of this. But you can do that without bulldozing everything unnecessarily! What purpose is there in being smug like that?"

Clio was surprised that Yuuto had not lunged for Keiji again, but it seemed as if he was too shaken by that. Too busy looking inwards, imagining an entire nightmare landscape for someone that was, to him, all the good in this world. She turned to her messenger bag, and fished out the packet of lollipops, and slid them across the table to him. The sound of the plastic rustling jolted him slightly, and he looked at them blearily.

"What's this?" he asked dumbly.

"Lollipops," Clio said. "For you to have instead of smoking. If we're lucky, you won't need to eat that many before Setsushi-san is back."

Yuuto blinked rapidly, then snatched the packet and stared at them.

"Pink."

He looked Clio up and down, then snorted:

"Go figure."

He then tore open the packet, sending lollipops scattering all over the table. He picked one up and unwrapped it before sticking it in his mouth. He then started gathering up the other lollipops, dumping them into his bag. When he got to the last one, however, he paused. Holding it up, he seemed lost in thought for a few moments before his gaze snapped back to Clio. To her surprise, he then held the lollipop out to her.

"F-for me?"

"Well, I'm not pointing it at anyone else, am I?"

"Oh. Well…thank you."

She accepted the lollipop cautiously, and then unwrapped it with equal caution. Putting it in her mouth revealed that it was the one of the raspberry ones that she'd been handed. She gave Yuuto a smile, but he was no longer looking at her. Instead, he had returned to his sketchpad, and the sketches he made for what Clio was now assuming would eventually be a plan for a memorial for Seren.

"Right, I know I'm the one who bought it up," Konoha said. "But thinking about it now, I am not so sure how working out the 'easy victims' will help us."

"I'm not sure either, but I guess working out why certain people were taken might give us a clue as to who did it?" Clio suggested.

"I suppose," Konoha said. "But there's such a wide mix of reasons, even amongst the ones we've talked about."

"I wonder if they could be in the woods," Keiji said, having taken one of Yuuto's maps, tapping the part that showed the woods. "They're quite easy to access from here, aren't they? Then again, the police already searched there, didn't they?"

"They did, I think," Nazuna agreed. "First when Haley-san disappeared around there, and then after Setsushi-san and Ono-san. It was theorised that the kidnapper must have entered that way to get them, and must have taken them out that way. If I remember rightly…"

"Ah yes, the haunted woods."

Even Yuuto looked up at this to gawp at Konoha. She stared back and shrugged.

"I've heard more than a few people claim the woods are haunted. Makes sense."

"The woods being haunted makes sense?" Keiji asked incredulously.

"No, the fact that people think that makes sense." Konoha retorted, relatively calmly.

This answer didn't seem to impress Keiji, particularly, but then Nazuna said:

"Here, watch this."

She turned her phone towards them, and then pressed the middle of the screen. A video immediately started playing, showing a close-up of a young teenage boy with messy, light brown hair that spiked at the ends, with some strands swept across his face messily. His eyes were also light brown, and his oval-shaped face was slightly freckled, with an overall sweet and friendly feel to it. He had headphones slung casually around his neck, and he waved at the camera briefly before saying:

" "Hey, everyone and welcome to my channel — Jay Files. I'm Jay and today is Wonderful Wednesday. Now, before we start this video, I'd just like to raise a few points that I – thankfully — took the liberty of writing down in advance before I could forget them. So first…thank you so much for everyone who has continued to subscribe and support me on this crazy journey. You're all amazing people and I wish nothing but the very best for you all as we start another week — and second — I'm sure many of you have heard about the Hope's Peak disappearances. We had two more over the weekend, and one on Monday…my notes say that she's a classmate of mine, and thinking about it, I do remember…but one of the weekend ones, he…"

"Okay, the introduction is a bit long, so I'll skip-" Nazuna muttered, doing so.

She fast-forwarded the video on a little bit, and when she did, the young boy was saying:

"It's caused a lot of shock that two students were kidnapped right on school grounds, even though there's been some extra security patrolling. Apparently, though, there were none in the specific courtyard where Setsushi-san disappeared and none around the…which one was it…ah, the specific Lab where my best bro disappeared. My notes say that it was a blind spot in the patrol shifts, from when specific guards swapped around, that might have contributed to those spaces not being monitored. However, that doesn't explain how a kidnapper and an accomplice may have ended up in there, though I'm sure the police are working super hard to figure out how. But I have an idea of my own…that is, the woods. The woods towards the back and the side of the school…uh, I'll have to remember to get a map up when I'm editing…hold on, let me make a note of that…"

At this moment, a map of the school did indeed show up on the screen. Although there were multiple physical maps on the table for her to look at, Clio scrutinised the map on screen. This had the woods highlighted in green off to the side, the nearest building being what was known as the 'Miscalleanous Building' that consisted of the Student Council's meeting rooms and a bunch of various classrooms and workshops that had no particular purpose but were often used as recreation rooms or club rooms. Apart from some of the school's race track cutting across some of the grounds to the opposite side, the woods were a fair distance from any part of the school. And most significantly, as marked by the caption with an arrow saying 'no fence', there was no defined boundary between the school and the woods.

The map disappeared off screen, showing the young boy frowning as he said:

"The woods aren't that big, really. It's believed that they're, uh, remnants of a much larger forest that was here before it was knocked down to make space not just for Hope's Peak but for some of the uh, residences nearby….and maybe some other things, too. Space for Towa City, I guess. And it's public land. There's no restrictions on going in there, and there's a number of places in town you can access the woods from. People sometimes went camping and foraging and things in there, although they don't now, not since…since Dax Haley disappeared there and everything started. In any case, um, so, what I'm trying to say is…most likely, the kidnapper would have come through the wood and snuck into the school grounds that way, and they must have taken them through that way too-"

"Okay, I'll stop that there." Nazuna interrupted, stopping the video.

"Who is that kid?" Keiji immediately demanded. "Is he a student here?"

"He's Ono's little brother." Yuuto answered.

"No, not quite," Nazuna corrected. "You're right in that that's the sort of relationship they had, but in terms of biology or law, they weren't actually related to each other. His name's Junpei Ito, and he's the SHSL Vlogger. He's in the first year, and he's been making a lot of videos about the disappearances."

"It sounds like he has also been looking into the disappearances," Konoha said. "Perhaps we could ask him for some help too?"

Keiji scrunched his face up, but then nodded.

"I mean, we might as well. But who's going to approach him? I don't know him, pretty sure none of you do-"

"I could try," Clio offered. "I know of him a little bit, through Luca-kun."

"Oh yes, of course!" Nazuna realised. "He would be a part of the Disabled Students' Network, wouldn't he? You're not though, right?"

"No, I'm not. I just helped them out, here and there. But, yes, I don't know if he'll remember me specifically, but I could ask to meet him and explain what we're up to, and then if he's happy to join us I could introduce him to you all? I think he might get a little overwhelmed if we all approach him suddenly, especially since he might not recognise you all."

"Why wouldn't he?" Keiji objected. "We're all in Ono's class. And he knows Ono."

"You didn't recognise him." Konoha pointed out smartly.

"…"

"But speaking of recognition," Konoha said. "There's been something really bugging me about Nishiya-san."

"You…recognise her from somewhere else?" Clio asked uncertainly.

When Konoha nodded at this, Yuuto snorted.

"You recognise her because her face has been plastered around everywhere. Plus, it sounds like everyone knew of her, so the few times you were actually here you must have heard about her 'causing a scene' or whatever."

"No. That's not it." Konoha asserted simply.

She then picked up her Electro-ID and fiddled with it for a few moments, frowning as she did so. After a few moments of swiping and fiddling and tapping, her eyes widened, and she muttered something under her breath before placing the Electro-ID on the table so that everyone could see its screen.

"That's not Seren." Keiji said immediately.

"No. It's not." Konoha said.

"But it looks like her…" Clio pointed out. "Who is that?"

"Ottillie Nylund, the SHSL Fashion PR Coordinator. She's in my class." Nazuna said immediately. "And I can't believe that I didn't notice it before. They're both completely different ethnicities, everything. But the resemblance is quite shocking, really. I don't know how it hasn't been picked up on before."

"There's no chance they could be half siblings or anything, right?" Konoha asked.

"The Nylunds have no links to Wales, and from the sounds of it, Nishiya-san's family never went to any other country apart from Wales for their holidays." Nazuna said. "Besides, the Nylunds are a fairly connected family in their native New York whereas the Nishiya family are just an ordinary Japanese family. I don't see it."

"No, I don't either." Keiji stated decisively. "But this is crazy. I mean…"

He fiddled with his phone, and then set it down. On his screen, there was a photograph of Seren. Casually taken, showing her wearing a white top with red lace sleeves and a headband decorated with little gold-coloured leaves, not exactly smiling but not entirely troubled-looking, either. Given it was a close-up, there wasn't much to indicated where or when it had been taken, but it looked like it could have still been summer, if only barely.

Oh, Matsumoto-sempai, Clio thought wistfully. Instead of saying anything to that effect, she studied both of the pictures carefully, and then asked:

"Do they have any connection? Nylund-sempai and Nishiya-san, I mean."

Keiji, Konoha and Yuuto were all equally puzzled by this question. However, Nazuna appeared to be putting some thought it, before saying:

"Clio-san, do you remember last year we held a fundraising event here? One of the significant events was a runway and a photoshoot. There were a lot of alumni here who had fashion-related Talents. If I'm remembering correctly, Nylund-san had a strong role in that. I remember liaising with her a lot. She was…efficient, certainly. Quite brisk. And as you'd expect for her Talent, she knew her stuff when it came to the fashion world."

"And from that, I'm gathering she wasn't very nice to work with." Konoha guessed.

"That's all well and good, but what does that have to do with Seren?" Keiji asked.

"I'd have to go back and check it, but I'm sure Nishiya-san filled in as a model during that event, and that she may have helped Nylund-san out here and there with other events. Certainly, fashion was something Nishiya-san had strong opinions about, given the way she dressed herself. Plus, she was one of the few people Kagura could drag out for extended clothes-shopping trips."

Nazuna smiled briefly at that, and for a moment looked wistful.

"This Nylund looks like the type to go to bars and not get seen as a minor," Yuuto commented. "And we know that Nishiya did things like that too, even if it was only to be reckless. They could have met in those spaces, too."

"So, they have a resemblance, and they likely had a prior relationship of sorts," Keiji concluded. "In that case, we should ask her about Seren, anything she might know that could be useful. Actually, let's make a plan! Right, anyone got any paper?"

Clio offered him some, as well as a pen, but he declined the pen since he had one of his own. After writing PLAN in big letters across the top of the page, he started a numbered list, narrating it as he wrote:

"Number 1, talk to Ottillie Nylund, if we can. Kurihara is best placed to do that as a classmate."

"I think we also need to keep an eye on her more generally." Nazuna said.

When Keiji gapwed at her, she said:

"Nylund-san looks like Nishiya-san. We don't know why Nishiya-san was taken but if her looks were a part of it, then Nylund-san could be in particular danger. Plus, I'm part of the Patrol Group, so that is something I can do."

"Why don't we all become part of the Patrol Group?" Konoha suggested.

"Why?" Yuuto asked.

"It's something practical we can do while we're investigating, and besides, is it not important to make sure people are safe, especially now we know there's a risk of turning up dead?"

"I don't mind doing that." Clio offered.

"Then, we'll do that," Keiji said. "It will be a good way of potentially collecting intel as well. So, again, Number 1 is talking to Ottillie Nylund, then Number 2 is become part of the patrols and use every opportunity to gather information from that. Number 3 is to approach Junpei Ito and get him onside. Number 4 is to take an opportunity to explore the woods-"

"Absolutely not." Nazuna interrupted.

Keiji's pen stilled and he looked up, scowling:

"Why the hell not?"

"Do you really think I can sit here and allow you all to do something so reckless?"

"The woods are a significant lead-"

"No." Nazuna said, steely-eyed.

"We should probably try and find out more about the woods first before doing anything like that, anyway." Konoha pointed out. "Besides, if we've identified it as a possibility, I'm sure that the police will have too. Even if we try, they'll kick us out again."

Keiji groaned but then said:

"Fine, I'll amend that to finding out about the woods. We might need to, you know, walk up to the boundary. I presume that's fine."

Nazuna gave Keiji an unimpressed look. He pointedly ignored this in favour of finishing his list and snapping a picture of it.

"I'll send this around on the chat, once I've added Kurihara to it. You're cool with me pulling your number off of the year group chat, yes?"

"Sure." Nazuna said, slightly mollified. "Shall we meet again after school tomorrow? Straight after classes, say?"

"Can we confirm once I've talked to Ito-kun?" Clio asked. "I'm going to message him now anyway, but it's quite late anyway."

"Yes, that's fine."

There didn't seem to be very much to say after that, so they tidied up and then left the study room. Keiji stayed in the library, wanting to find a particular book before the library closed for the night. Yuuto walked with them out of the library, but then said he was going up to the roof of the main building. He didn't explain why, but it was easy for Clio to picture him sitting there wistfully and gazing up at the stars, thinking of his Ena. She wondered if they'd ever gazed at the stars together. From the sympathetic look Nazuna gave him as she gently insisted on walking him to the building's entrance, she wondered if Nazuna and Kagura had ever been stargazing themselves, too.

When Yuuto was safely in the building, Nazuna checked her messages to see if anyone needed escorting. Since there weren't any, she decided to go back to the dorms, and since that was where Clio and Konoha were both going, they walked together in companiable silence. But as they walked past a side-gate, they saw a familiar figure.

"That…" Konoha whispered. "That's Nylund-san, no? What is she doing?"

"Potentially waiting for someone," Nazuna said grimly. "But she shouldn't be waiting alone. Come on."

Nazuna strode ahead, but Clio and Konoha quickly caught up as she approached Ottillie. The PR Coordinator looked as if she was dressed for a meeting of some sort. Underneath a soft white coat left unbuttoned, she wore a black pencil skirt with a matching blazer, and a ruffled lilac-coloured blouse. Her shoes were black with a staggeringly high heel, and her gold-strapped clutch bag matched her blouse. Although Seren would never have worn purple eyeshadow, and of course their eye colours were completely different, seeing the resemblance in the flesh hit even harder for Clio. It was far too easy for her to imagine this face as lifeless as Seren's had been, instead of sceptical as it was now, with one perfectly shaped eyebrow arching before Ottillie asked, in a clipped tone:

"May I help?"

"Would you like us to wait with you?" Nazuna asked.

"Why?"

"We're part of the Student Patrol Group," Nazuna explained. "and part of our activities can involve waiting with people while they're waiting to be collected for meetings, not just escorting them to places."

"That will not be necessary, thank you."

"It wouldn't be right to leave you alone, though. Not when the murderer is still at large!" Clio said.

Ottillie's eyebrow arched again:

"That has been true all of this time, even before Seren wound up dead."

"But even so…"

Before Clio could finish her thought, Konoha jumped in:

"Your resemblance to Nishiya-san is remarkable, Nylund-san. You must have noticed this yourself. Does it not worry you?"

"And why?" Ottillie asked very quietly. "Would that be any of your business?"

"You call her Seren," Clio tried again. "You two were close, right?"

"We had a business relationship. That is all." Ottillie stated.

"That's not what we heard." Konoha said mildly.

"And again, why would that be any of your business?"

But Ottillie's knuckles whitened slightly as she tightened her grip on her clutch bag. After a moment, she spoke, although still with reluctance:

"Her tastes were…sharper, than mine. Not as refined. Nonetheless, she did have a good eye for what looks good and what does not. From an industry perspective, debating the finer details of trends with her was interesting and stimulating. It is a shame she did not have enough self-control to avoid this situation."

Ottillie's expression was too mild to be called a glare, but nonetheless it was steely, betraying no other emotions apart from contempt. She looked at her diamond-studded wristwatch pointedly and pursed her lips.

"Now, if you don't mind, please do not bother me with your anxieties."

"But, Nylund-san…"

"Listen, Kurihara, I do not need your pedestrian level of protection. It was of no help before, so I don't see that changing. Besides, unlike Seren, I know how to conduct myself. There's no need for you to concern yourselves with me. Go and shepherd someone else who needs it."

Ottillie drew herself up taller-unnecessary, considering both her usual height and her heels-and turned away pointedly. Nazuna opened her mouth to protest, but Clio stopped her:

"We tried, sempai."

"That we did," Konoha agreed. "And if she thinks you're 'pedestrian' she is not going to show much interest in joining an unofficial investigation. Let's just go."

Clio thought she saw Ottillie twitch ever so slightly at this, but since Nazuna had agreed to go, she shrugged it off and started to walk away with the two of them. However, soon after they'd started to leave, they heard a car pull up to the gate. Clio stopped and turned to watch Ottillie approaching the car. She opened the door, and Clio caught a glimpse of the driver. Orange-haired, wearing a cyan waistcoat over a white shirt. His gloved hands gripped the steering wheel, and his face looked blank. Was he pleased to see Ottillie? Concerned? Angry? There was no way of telling. Nonetheless, Ottillie got into the car and closed the door behind her, and then the car drove off.

"Wasn't that one of the private detectives?" Konoha asked.

"Yes. That's Hirotaro Kuroki, he's a…I suppose you would call it a corporate detective. It's Izawa Pharmaceuticals that employed him, after all. Although my understanding is that he is also working directly with Hope's Peak." Nazuna said. "He came to talk to the Student Council briefly, and I've seen him in the staff offices a lot."

"So it's probably alright then, that she's going with him, right?" Clio said.

"Well…perhaps." Nazuna said. "Likely he's trying to look more into Nishiya-san's background, and whether Nylund-san could be at risk. I suppose she would be more likely to heed advice from a professional than from us."

"Let's hope so." Konoha shrugged.

"In any case," Nazuna said with a sigh. "Let me walk the two of you back to your rooms before I retire for the night."

When Clio was safely in her room, she immediately cleaned up and got herself ready for bed. But when she did finally turn off the light and climb into her bed, she found that she could not sleep.

…

"Right then, you said that the family were on their way?"

Shouichi felt oddly desolate as the medical examiner pulled the white cloth back over Seren's still face. Still staring at it, he answered:

"Yes. It seems they are all coming here right from the airport. Detective Hanaoka will ring down when they're about to come."

"That's fine, I'll have her ready for when they come. Who is it that's coming?"

"It will be her parents who are identifying her. The younger siblings are accompanying them, but an officer will be looking after them during the identification."

"Well, you'd hope so. They're far too young to be seeing their big sister like this…"

The big sister was far too young to be murdered like this, Shouichi thought grimly to himself. But he knew what the medical examiner meant and did agree with that too. So he simply bade them a polite farewell and headed upstairs. As he did so, he went over what he had found out from the medical examiner.

It appeared that wherever Seren had been kept, she had been fed and watered. However, the last digested food in her body appeared to be compromised of tinned foods and convenience snacks. For some reason, part of a multivitamin tablet had also been recovered from her stomach contents, although her body still seemed to be bearing signs of a vitamin deficiency. She had not been clean, but had made some attempt to wipe herself down, likely with wet tissues or a cloth. She had likely fallen from a height, possibly a short flight of stairs when she had been hit on the head, and although she hadn't broken anything she had bruised quite severely, and worsened the head injury that had sent her falling in the first place.

There had been no defensive wounds, or even any other injuries, but fingerprints had been found over her limbs. The medical examiner had suggested these could be from when Seren's body had been turned over, but she'd also noted that some of the places mirrored where she had touched Seren's body to examine this part or that part of her body. And as had been suspected, although her body had been frozen for a while, it had not been immediately after her death. Her body had been swabbed, and those samples, alongside her clothes, had been sent to the labs for testing, so he'd have to wait and see whether those would provide any further insights. For now, though, he wasn't sure what the information he'd been given told him, precisely, but it told him something.

Feeling his phone buzz in his pocket, he took it out to see a message from Detective Hanaoka. He frowned at it, but then changed his route. Rather than heading to the front entrance, where he'd been expecting to meet the Nishiya family, he instead went to the particular Family Interview room that Hanaoka had mentioned.

When he got there, he saw Hanaoka sitting with Seren Nishiya's parents. Their clothes looked rumpled, the bags under their eyes dark, and they stared at their three surviving children. They-a boy and two girls- were sitting on the floor next to the box of toys typically used with child victims or witnesses. They had not taken any toys out of this box though, and though that may well have been because they were all a little too old for those toys, it was also just as likely it was down to whatever had caused them such upset. Not just the news that their big sister had been found dead, but something else. Although the parents hadn't reacted to his arrival as yet, the three children stared at him. The youngest-one of the girls-immediately burst into tears.

The brother and other sister immediately hugged her and whispered to her, and the officer sitting on a beanbag near to them quietly said:

"Ceri-chan, this is Chief Inspector Kiyofuji. I think he would like to hear what you've just told Detective Hanaoka and myself."

Although he had been intending to introduce himself to the parents first, now Shouichi grabbed a chair and put it in front of the three children, sitting on it and facing them.

"As this officer said, I am Chief Inspector Shouichi Kiyofuji."

"You're like, the lead detective?" the boy, who looked to be about fourteen, asked.

"That's right, yes."

"So if Ceri tells you about this guy, you'll catch him?" the other girl-aged about 11 or 12-asked innocently.

"It's definitely the same person who nabbed Nee-chan, I just know it!" the brother said. "You should have caught him ages ago!"

"Ianto."

This came from Seren's mother, who then said:

"Don't speak so rudely to the Chief Inspector."

"What?" Ianto retorted. "It's your fault too! She was so scared!"

"Your sister told you about what was troubling her?"

This question from Shouichi apparently wrong-footed Ianto, for he blinked rapidly, then proceeded to gawp at Shouichi for a good few seconds before he then said:

"Well, not exactly. But I heard her and Mum and Dad arguing all the time, before she moved out, like."

"But she always told us not to worry about it," the older of the two girls added. "She used to say to me 'Nia, don't worry your head about it, cariad. You'll be safe, it's not you two he wants. And even if he does, I won't let it happen.' Except that was a lie, wasn't it, because Ceri…"

Ceri's crying had slowed down, but her eyes went huge at this and she nodded in agreement. Shouichi was struck by how much she looked like Seren. Her hair was the same colour and waviness, worn undone. Her eyes were the same colour and shape, every part of her looked like a scaled-down version of Seren. The only real difference was the style of dress. Ceri had a huge, purple sequinned Minnie Mouse-type bow tied in her hair, which matched her purple pinafore dress, which was worn over a pink and blue striped t-shirt and pink flowery tights. Her feet were clad in white Velcro-strap trainers with smiley faces doodled on them in permanent markers, and over her outfit she wore a rainbow tie-dyed hoodie which appeared to have a hood that had been decorated to look like a unicorn's head. In other words, she looked like the child that she currently was. The child that Seren quite possibly never had been.

"How come we don't get to see Nee-chan?" Ianto stormed. "Mum and Dad are going to, but we're not allowed?! That's nonsense! She's our sister too, and it's not like we're babies. Well, Nia and me aren't, anyway."

"Hey!" Ceri protested, lips wobbling.

"Ianto, stop this right now, please." Seren's father said.

"Don't worry too much about it," Shouichi said. "I understand how your son must be feeling. However, from my understanding, it appears that something has happened that may shed light on what happened to your daughter."

The parents exchanged guilty looks, and then eventually the mother confessed:

"I…well, we don't know. We were loading our luggage into the taxi at the airport, and the kids had gone to a vending machine to get drinks. They were in our sight, but it was quite busy and…"

"Ceri, tell them." Nia urged.

"The scary man…" Ceri began, before trailing off, lips trembling even more.

"Take your time, Ceri-chan," the officer reassured. "There's no rush. Right, Chief Inspector?"

"No rush at all, Ceri-san." Shouichi confirmed.

He had almost called her Ceri-chan instead, but then remembered how Ceri had taken offense at her brother's inference that she was a baby and took a gamble on that. He didn't know whether that was indeed what had done the trick, but although she hiccupped and sobbed her way through it, and Ianto and Nia both interrupted a few times, she managed to tell him the story.

It appeared that a man had approached the three children, offered to buy their drinks, and had paid particularly close attention to Ceri. It had not taken him very long for him to actively try and get her to come with him, and when the children had kicked off in response, he'd first tried to grab her but then once the parents had seen, had hared off pretty quickly. When asked if she remembered anything specific that the man had said, Ceri said:

"He said he should have just taken Seren-nee-chan the first time he'd seen her and grown her himself, instead of waiting. He had waited too long and he was sick of waiting on others to get him what he wanted. And he said I would…I would be better than Seren-nee-chan because at least I'd be pure for him. I don't really understand what that means, though."

Shouichi had the sickening feeling that he understood, though. From the looks on the faces of the other adults, it was clear that they did, too.

"That's alright, Ceri-san, you're doing very well. Is there anything else you remember him saying?"

Ceri's face scrunched up, and at first she shook her head before then she said:

"He said something about…she wasn't meant to die yet. He'd been promised that he could…he could keep her, I guess? Something like that. "

"He was kinda angry, like," Ianto interrupted. "He yelled a lot about being promised something. He sounded like a crazy man, even though he was all neat and tidy in a suit. Maybe someone kidnapped Nee-chan for him but then didn't give her to him? People do things like that sometimes, don't they?"

"Unfortunately, they do, yes." Shouichi said. "Ceri-san, would you be able to give us a description of this man to one of our artists?"

"Artists? What for?"

"Well, since we don't have a photograph of this man, if you give a description to one of what we call our Forensic Artists, we can send that photograph to the media and to the airport and anywhere else we can think of. Then, if anybody recognises him, they can call us and we can work out who he is and where he is."

Ceri pouted, and said:

"I could draw him."

"Ceri's very good at drawing, aren't you honey?" the mother said.

Ceri nodded earnestly.

"Be that as it may," Hanaoka said. "It's best if we could have an official police sketch. With that being said, perhaps Ceri-chan could draw us one as extra, while she is helping our artist."

"Yes, that should be fine. Ceri-san, you've been very brave and helpful, and I'm sure you will be wanting to go home now. However, we just need you to hold on for a little longer. You'll get to have a break now, while we arrange for the artist though, alright?" Shouichi asked.

Ceri looked up at him and nodded so earnestly it almost broke his heart, even through the beginnings of the thrill of realising that a significant lead had just been found. He indicated to Hanaoka that she should step outside with him. After she checked that the family didn't need anything, she followed him. The moment the door closed, Hanaoka immediately exclaimed:

"Could it be all this time that Seren Nishiya's kidnapping was a separate incident, and nothing to do with the others?"

"While we need to consider all angles at this stage, I'm inclined to say no. Possibly, but not likely."

"Eh?" Hanaoka looked astonished. "Why not?"

"Firstly, if this had nothing to do with Seren Nishiya being a Hope's Peak student, then why dump her on Hope's Peak ground which, despite the relatively relaxed attitude they've been taking, would not have been easy to do? Secondly, and connected to that point, actually, why would he not try and conceal the body instead, rather than dump it somewhere in the open?"

"He wanted the attention, obviously. Killers like this usually do."

"I'll concur on that one, possibly. However, think of what Ceri-san told us. Granted, she's a young child who went through a traumatic experience on top of her bereavement, but some of the things she's reporting are far too specific to not mean something. Waiting on others? Being 'promised'? Those imply that her kidnapping was a more complex affair than something that one man could carry out."

He wondered what the parents had seen, but knew that Hanaoka had had that all in hand, and he'd read the statement produced from that interview in due time. From what he understood, they'd ended up scaring the man off, so it was unlikely that they had heard or seen anything definitive.

"I suppose." Hanaoka grudgingly said. "But in that case, why not kidnap another Hope's Peak student? Why attempt to kidnap a child who is so much younger than them? She is literally a smaller version of Seren Nishiya, that's why."

"This doesn't necessarily mean another student won't be kidnapped."

After a moment, Shouichi sighed and decided:

"We can discuss this further in the team meeting this afternoon. For now, we need any other witness statements from the airport, as well as access to their CCTV in the relevant area. Once the identification has been done and we've gained an artist's sketch from Ceri-san's descriptions, we'll need to interview the parents about Seren Nishiya's state of mind, and see where we are with the investigation into the source of the threats she'd been collecting."

"On it." Hanaoka said.

They went their separate ways, briefly, to do what needed to be done. But Shouichi couldn't help but wonder: what if Hanaoka was right? What if this, in the end, had nothing to do with Hope's Peak, and everything to do with Seren Nishiya herself.

What then?

…

In the end, Ianto had been so insistent on getting to see his sister's body, that it had been decided that he'd accompany their mother Haruko to do the identification. He had been shocked, but considerate and patient with a devastated Haruko, who had immediately started weeping when Seren's face had been revealed. He'd propped her up and patted her shoulder the whole way back to the Family Interview room, but once they'd stepped back in, Ianto had turned on both Haruko and Hiroto-the father-so angrily that both Shouichi and the young officer had had to intervene. In the end, it was decided that the young officer stay in the room with Ceri, Nia and Ianto while the artist was there, and that Shouichi would take the parents to observe them in the room next door.

The moment he got them in the room, Hiroto said:

"He is right, technically."

Shouichi waited, and Hiroto waited:

"Ianto is right. I can't abide his rudeness these days, but he's right…in some ways, this is our fault."

"There was no reasoning with her," Haruko said, her voice still a bit stuffy from the crying she'd done. "We did try, but there was no reasoning with her, no matter what we did. But that doesn't mean…"

Haruko took a deep breath, dabbed at her eyes ineffectually with a crumpled tissue. Then, she starkly concluded:

"She was right, wasn't she? Someone was trying to kill her. And they succeeded."

"The thing is, when she first started saying these things…she was ten. Just a year older than Ceri is now." Hiroto said.

He glanced through the observation window, at where Ceri sat and alternated between drawing on a piece of paper herself, and by pointing at features on the screen of the tablet the very patient forensic artist was using. Shouichi couldn't see how the picture was progressing on said tablet, but on Ceri's sheet of paper, a face of a man possibly in his sixties was forming. Thin, clean-shaven with widened eyes that had a touch of lunacy to them. was surprisingly good, and Shouichi commented on this. Both parents gave him watery smiles, and Hiroto said:

"She's the artist of our family, our Ceri is. All our children are very creative. Seren…even as a kid, she liked to put on plays for fun. Whenever we were over in Wales, she used to rally around her siblings and all our friends' kids to organise a performance for fun. Haruko, you have the…"

"Oh, yes."

Haruko reached in her handbag and took out a small photo album:

"It's a little old-fashioned," she said. "But we had a photo album for each kid, and once they were old enough we let them stick their own pictures in. This is Seren's. She posted it back to us in…October, maybe? No, November. With a note saying that we should hold onto better memories of her. She didn't need them, because they were all in her head, anyway. And that no, she would not be coming to Wales with us for the winter break, because if he followed her there then it'd ruin our holidays…do you see, Chief Inspector? Do you see why we were at our wits' end? That's not a normal attitude to have!"

"Haruko," Hiroto sighed. "Show him the picture."

Haruko sighed and sniffed, but flipped open the album and opened it to a particular page. Shouichi realised that this album was more of a scrapbook than the type where photos were slipped into clear pouches, since the photograph on it had been stuck in, alongside little embellishments. Arrows had also been drawn around the photograph, labelling the many children who featured in both hiragana and English. In this photo, the children all stood or sat on a series of upturned wooden crates-a makeshift stage. Ceri looked to be no more than two or three years old, being carried by a foreign boy of about eight or nine who was labelled as being called Osian. The four- or five-year-old Nia had her arm slung around a girl of a similar age called Bethan. Bethan appeared to have a twin called Beca, who stood on Nia's other side. Ianto sat squished between two boys called Joe and Tomos, and two girls called Katie and Lucy, all of them between the ages of six and ten.

And in the centre of this cluster of cheerful, outgoing children, a ten-year-old Seren stood. She showed some of the early indicators of the sense of style she'd go on to have, in the black star-patterned tights she wore underneath black denim shorts, and the oversized red sequinned waistcoat she wore over her white t-shirt, and the gold necklaces she wore around her neck. They were costume jewellery, clearly, but she'd been strategic in pairing a slimmer, longer chain with a shorter one that had more elaborate pendants and details. She had also tied gold ribbons into her hair to match it and attempted to put on make-up. But that make-up had been applied with an unsteady hand, a little too enthusiastically, ending up looking more like face-paint than anything, given it was red and gold and glittery. And she also wore a witch's hat on her head, and grinned with the unselfconscious joy that only a child could have.

"That was the last good time we had with her," Haruko explained. "It was when we were coming home from that trip that Seren got upset that she had to sit separately from us on the flight, and made up that story…at least, that's what we assumed. That she'd made it up in retaliation."

"That was only at the start!" Hiroto hurried to explain. "Then, we assumed it was some sort of mental illness, some kind of delusion. She was very upset, and we knew that that was genuine. We just…well, I'm sure you've seen all sorts of depraved things, being part of the police and investigating murders, but we're just ordinary people. It didn't make sense to us that…well, it just didn't. What else could it be, apart from mental illness, combined with her tendencies for the dramatic? Chief Inspector, our girl…we know how she behaved. How that looked. Even we were tired of it. But she was still our little girl, our sparky first born….I'm sure you're wondering about all that, aren't you? Why the odd names? Why do we go to Wales for as many holidays as we can?"

Shouichi thought about how to address this, and then realised that there was a more immediately relevant question to ask that would also allow them to tell him the things they clearly wanted to tell:

"Seren refused to go with you for the last couple of years, didn't she? Not just this most recent winter break. Did she have concerns about being followed?"

"That is what she said, yes." Haruko said. "But she loved Wales, she really did. Ianto sometimes has a go at us like, ugh can we go to some other place for a change, nobody even knows where Wales is in my class, and blah blah blah but…well, the friends Hiroto and I made there, when we went to university there, they're like our family. To us, it's no different than the American family in Nia's class always going back to America in the holidays to visit their family there. We thought of moving to Wales, once, before even Seren was born, but it didn't work out. Hence, the Welsh names, the visits we made. A few times, some of them even came here. And Seren loved it, she really did. Our friends' kids were her friends too. Ah, but none of this is really relevant in the end, is it?"

"It is useful background," Shouichi said honestly. "It may not have immediate relevance, but it is good to get a wider picture of who your daughter was, and the things that mattered to her. I or one of my colleagues will need to sit down and interview you properly in regard to that. "

Hiroto and Haruko both nodded grimly at that, and then Haruko shoved the photo album at Shouichi. Too startled to do otherwise, he took it, still opened at the page with that photograph.

"Keep that, for now. Use that photograph. Please."

"Under the circumstances-"

Hiroto interrupted almost immediately:

"We have our own copies. But this is different. This is Seren's photo album. And it's Seren's murder you're investigating. So please, keep this."

And faced with that, what else could he do but accept the album?

…

Clio wondered what the point of having classes had been. A sense of normality, she'd supposed, but all anybody had wanted to talk about in all the lessons was Seren. Especially those of her classmates and yearmates who had realised that she'd been the one to discover Seren's body first. She had escaped it a little at lunchtime when she'd found Konoha and the two of them had resorted to signing out and wandering the town just to get a break. But she was pretty sure that she'd not learnt a single thing, and even the teachers had given up. That was why she'd arrived to her dorm building almost half an hour early, since the mathematics teacher had just let them go. She was meant to be meeting Junpei Ito outside of it, but since she was early, she decided to get changed out of her school uniform and then go to wait.

When she returned, she leant against the side of the building and watched the comings and goings. The side of the building, and most of the gardens there and towards the back were still cordoned off, with a couple of police officers patrolling while a few more white-suited investigators combed the ground. She'd seen quite a few of them around the grounds, particularly towards the woods, which made her very glad that Keiji had not managed to make them all go traipsing in there. Apart from that, and the patrols of some of the security guards, everything seemed fairly normal.

That was, until the man appeared.

Her first thought was that this lanky black-haired stranger was another detective, maybe somebody like Shouichi, but then she noticed that he had on the green lanyard that denoted he was a visitor to the school. Nonetheless, the black trenchcoat he wore (left unbuttoned) still gave her the impression of a detective. He appeared to be looking for something, or someone, and appeared puzzled when he came closer and only saw her.

Now, she saw that he was a great deal younger than either Sakichi or Hirotaro, being in his twenties or thereabouts. He had an angular face with some stubble on the cheeks and chin, and that his hair was actually tied into a small ponytail. There was nothing hard or cold about his features, not like the other detectives. Indeed, it didn't take long for the puzzlement to morph into a wide smile, and for him to wave at her as if he'd known her forever. Clio waved back tentatively, only to exclaim when he appeared to trip over his own feet. Luckily, he did manage to right himself without falling over, but she immediately asked:

"Are you alright?"

"Ah, me? Don't worry about it!" the man said. "I don't think I've met you before, have I?"

"I…don't think so?"

"No, no, that's fine. Thought so. Anyway, I'm Ichizo Izawa, of the Izawa Detective Agency. Hang, on, I have a business card here somewhere…."

Ichizo hunted in the pockets of his trench coat as well as his blue jeans for said business card. In the process, a packet of tissues, a pen, a broken bear-shaped keyring, a couple of crumpled up receipt and three wrapped sweets fell out. Clio quietly bent down to pick them up and held them out, waiting patiently for Ichizo to find the business card. When he produced it with a triumphant 'a-ha!' and held it out, he proceeded to stare at the items in her hands before laughing and rubbing the back of his head. Then, he dug into his back pocket and produced his wallet, showing her his driving licence, confirming his name. He then took back the things that had fallen out of his pockets, laughing sheepishly as he said:

"Ah, thank you there…what is your name?"

"I'm Airi Fujita, SHSL Kudo Practitioner. Although, I usually go by Clio. I'm a second-year student."

"Second year…not in…ah, never mind. So, you don't know young Junpei-kun, then? He's a first-year student, and I've been meeting him here before going to my offices, since he's not so used to the route yet and, well, being here is always a bit daunting for a mere mortal like me, you know?"

Clio blinked, and then carefully asked:

"Do you mean Junpei Ito?"

"Oh, you do know him!"

"Not precisely…" she said. "But I was also meant to be meeting him today, after lessons, with my sempai too. I'm early because the teacher let us out early."

Ichizo frowned at this, but then shrugged and said:

"He must have forgotten and double-booked, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a problem. It could be a good opportunity to see what I can find out about the circumstances of Seren Nishiya's discovery."

"I could…I could tell you, some things. I…I found her, you see."

Ichizo's red eyes flared, and then unexpectedly, he put a hand on her shoulder and patted a couple of times.

"Oh, that must have been awful for you! Did you know Nishiya-san well?"

"Not well, but we were classmates."

Clio bit her lip, and wondered, should I ask this private detective for help? I know the point of us investigating is that it's us, but wouldn't it also be good to have an adult on our side…

Ichizo was nodding thoughtfully and looked on the verge of asking her a question, when something caught his eye and he turned. He then smiled and raised a hand:

"Hey there, Junpei-kun!"

Clio immediately recognised the boy from the videos, but found herself idly thinking that he seemed taller than she'd imagined. For some reason, she'd imagined him to be a similar height to her, but he was actually a few inches taller. He was still in his school uniform, as if he'd come straight from his class, which Clio supposed was in fact the case. The boy had been looking at his watch, which appeared to be a smart-watch of some sort, but he looked up and smiled and waved, before he noticed Clio and frowned.

"I'm…I'm sorry," he said as he got closer. "Did we…have we met before? Sorry, it's my fault, really, it's my short-term memory-"

"No, it's alright, I know," Clio said during a pause. "I'm Airi Fujita, although you can call me Clio. Maybe you made a note of it? We were supposed to be meeting today at this time."

"We-we were? But my memory watch just says…ah, hold on, let me check my phone a moment."

He shrugged off his brown canvas backpack and placed it on the ground, crouching to open it up. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through it, and he started to redden. He tucked the phone away, put his bag back on his shoulders and stood up again. He shuffled his feet, sticking his hands into his trouser pockets-one hand clutching the black cat plushie sitting there-and looked away.

"Um, Ichizo-san, Clio-san, I'm so sorry, I think I may have accidentally scheduled to meet both of you at the same time, without remembering. I'm so, so, so sorry, I thought I was getting better at handling these things…"

He trailed off, voice hitching slightly as his eyes went wet. Immediately, Ichizo reached out to ruffle his hair and said:

"Hey, don't you worry about it, Junpei-kun, no harm done. It was nice to meet young Fujita-san as well, in any case."

"A-ah, really?"

He peeked tentatively at both Ichizo and Clio, before saying:

"But I've wasted both your times and, ah, I know that Clio-san is interested in investigating as well, but-"

"Oh, you are?"

Ichizo interrupted to scrutinise Clio more closely. Now it was her turn to redden, but she nodded to confirm what Junpei had said, before adding:

"There's a few of us," she said. "The sempai who is coming to meet Ito-kun too, she's one of them. Actually, all the others are our sempais, given they're all third years. And we've only just started to meet up, so we've not got much. Mostly just questions."

"Yes, that sounds about right," Ichizo said. "I'll be honest, it's much the same with me as well. Every lead ends up hitting a brick wall, every single one. I'm just hoping that won't be the case with Nishiya-san. Mind you, the fact I wasn't able to get here yesterday and take a look at things as they happened did not help much. Though I understand the other private detectives were here."

"Do you know them?" Clio asked curiously.

"Well, we're in the same field, so I know of them. Mostly, we just try to not step on each other's toes, you know. Or, I try not to step on theirs! As you'll have noticed, compared to them, I haven't been doing this that long!"

At that moment, Konoha arrived. Clio introduced her to both Ichizo and Junpei, and there was a momentary pause as they waited for Junpei to get out his recorder to make a brief note that detailed Konoha's name, class, Talent and a brief description of her. She didn't seem bothered by this, waving off Junpei's hurried apology over having to do so. But once it was done, she immediately asked:

"So, how do you two know each other? Could it be that you're the student who hired a detective themselves, Ito-kun?"

"Well, actually-"

"Ahaha, well, I suppose you could say that, yes," Ichizo interrupted. "But this is more of a mutual arrangement, you could say. Of course, I can't let a kid do all the work, let alone get into danger. That'd be pretty low of me, huh? But I understand the need to do something, and how hard it can be to trust that the usual processes will work out for the best. That's why private detectives exist, after all, because people need other routes to digging out the truth or getting justice, or even just closure."

Clio and Konoha exchanged looks, with Clio wondering if Konoha had caught just how eager Ichizo had been to interrupt Junpei just then. With that being said, though, she got the sense that Ichizo was genuine. Almost painfully so, in fact.

"In any case," Ichizo continued. "Don't they say, in regard to teenagers, that for some things like drinking alcohol, it's better that you let them do it in safe settings rather than being so draconian that they hide it and end up drinking themselves into a stupor at a party because of it being the forbidden fruit? It's easier to look after them that way. Not that I have any intention of being a parent, because I'd be awful for it. But I figure, Junpei-kun here was pretty determined to do some investigating, and I, of course, need to do the same. So it's the same principle, right? I guess most, more responsible adults, would lose the plot over a bunch of kids trying an investigation under these circumstances. But at least, since I know about it, I can keep an eye and make sure things don't get too out of hand. I hope. Plus, I can't deny it, Junpei-kun has been very helpful to me!"

"Well, I suppose it would be good to have an adult on side," Konoha said with a shrug. "What do you think the others would think?"

"I have a feeling that Kurihara-san would be glad to have an adult looking over us." Clio started. "The boys, maybe not so much. Kagematsu-sempai, maybe we should put it on the chat?"

"Sure."

Konoha did just that, and then Ichizo suggested that they head on over to his office and waited for Konoha to photograph the business card with the address and put that on the chat too. Then, they went to reception to sign out, and started walking. As Ichizo explained, the most direct route from Hope's Peak to his office was not via the closest bus stop, but one that was slightly further away.

As they walked, Clio talked a little about finding the body, and meeting Konoha, Keiji and Yuuto. Konoha also chimed in with:

"I have a feeling you'll end up getting a headache when you see them together for the first time, but don't take it personally. I suspect that neither of them are capable of being in the same room as each other without taking a swipe. It doesn't help they're both prouder than house cats. But the difference is that Oshiro-san has a heart underneath all his attitude. Matsumoto-san…well, the council's still deliberating on that one."

After a beat of confusion, Clio tentatively asked:

"Don't you mean 'the jury's still out'?"

"Technically, yes. But we're high schoolers, so I think council fits better."

"R-right." Clio said.

She then checked her phone, and saw that alongside Konoha's messages, there were a number of replies. Most were from Nazuna, starting off with shock and puzzlement and eventually devolving into a tired acceptance, ultimately telling them both to be careful and to make sure to let the rest of them know how it had gone. Keiji, on the other hand, had grudgingly conceded that they were probably going to have to talk to some adults to find out anything useful. But then, he'd sent a link to an article with the accompanying message:

If it has to be any adult, it's better that it's him.

The article link showed a preview of a headline, Private Detective Uncovers Serial Killer and a subheading proclaiming that 'high school boys written off as runaways and delinquents discovered to be victims of a cruel serial killer'. Clio was just about to click on the article and show it to the others when something made her stop. She looked up from her phone and glanced over her shoulder.

"What is it, Fujita-chan?" Ichizo asked, immediately noticing she had stopped.

Konoha, too, regarded her with some concern and Junpei, behind her, said:

"Have you seen something, Clio-san?"

"No, I mean, I don't know…"

Clio scanned the street they were own, noting a few passers-by here and there, and a couple of cars parked further along the road. She then looked across the road, and gasped:

"That's Nylund-sempai!"

She pointed to where Ottillie was standing near to the bus-stop, although Clio didn't think she was waiting for a bus. She wore the same white coat she had been wearing last night, but this time it was buttoned up, so Clio couldn't see what she was wearing underneath. She could see, however that this time the high-heeled shoes were dark purple with a jewel decoration on them, and that her clutch bag was a similar colour. She was staring straight ahead, but it didn't seem like she'd noticed them.

So, that's not why it feels like I'm being watched…

"I don't recognise that name, " Junpei said. "Is she a part of your group as well?"

"No, she's…"

Clio exchanged a look with Konoha, who quickly explained what had happened the night before, before then saying:

"Clio-san, perhaps we should go and check on her again."

"I was thinking the same thing," Clio said with some relief. "Izawa-san, Ito-kun, is that alright?"

"Sure, sure. Do you want us to come with you?"

Konoha blinked at Ichizo, looking him up and down before saying:

"No, I don't think so."

"Ah, that's fine. Then, the bus stop we need is just along there, so we'll go and wait there and we'll watch you this whole time, okay?"

"Yes, and good luck!" Junpei chirped.

"Thank you, Izawa-san, Ito-kun." Clio said, gratefully.

Clio and Konoha crossed the road and approached Ottillie, calling out. She looked up, irritation flashing across her features:

"Didn't I tell you no last time? Must you keep disturbing me like this?"

"Not necessarily," Konoha said. "But I'm surprised that you are comfortable with waiting out in the open like this, without any company or protection. Besides, I would have imagined that someone like you would have bodyguards or the like."

"Sempai, we just want to help-"

Ottillie looked down her nose at them both, and haughtily proclaimed:

"And I have told you before, I do not need your interference. Now run off and go play bodyguard with somebody else. I am doing important things and I do not need to be wasting my time with you."

"But-"

"Clio-san, come on. Let's just go."

It did not seem right for her to just let it be, but it seemed like that was what she had to do. So she nodded meekly at Ottillie, and turned back. But as she and Konoha crossed the road again, the feeling she was being watched persisted. Come to think of it, that car has been there a while, hasn't it, Clio thought, her eyes drifting back to the car that was parked a few blocks down from where Ichizo and Junpei waited. Even though she couldn't see if anyone was inside it, or even really tell the make of it, there was something about it that seemed familiar.

Her neck prickled, and she turned to her other side, but this time, she couldn't see anything that she could pinpoint as being the cause of the feeling. Just people, going here and there and everywhere. Nonetheless, even when looking this way, the opposite direction to the car, she felt as if she were being watched.

"Are you alright there, Clio-san?"

"Ah, yeah…."

They arrived back at the bus stop, and Ichizo gave them a rueful smile.

"No dice, huh?"

"Unfortunately not," Konoha said. "But there's no sense in arguing with her."

"I suppose not. Oh, I wonder if that is who she is going to meet."

Another car, this one brown and sleeker looking than the other car that had caught her eye, pulled up close to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road. A middle-aged man wearing a neat suit got out of it, and he strode towards Otillie with purpose. Even from this distance, she could tell his eyes were wide and bug-like, and that he was furious. Clio watched as Ottillie turned to him, frowning. Over the everyday sounds around them, there was no way to hear what either Ottilie or the man said, but a sick feeling started to brew in Clio's stomach.

Is this…is this another disappearance?

And then, almost as if her thinking the question had made it so, the man lunged for Ottillie, grabbing her jacket, and began to drag her towards his car. Ottillie screamed and clawed at him, but despite the man being thin and rangy, he was clearly a lot stronger than her. Even though she appeared to scratch him with one attempt to break free, he was not fazed, doggedly dragging her to the car.

Clio was aware of Konoha, Junpei and Ichizo all reacting behind her, but at first, all she could do was stare, frozen with the knowledge that this time she was seeing something. But then the man and Ottillie were at the car, and he was pushing her head down to force her into the car, and that knowledge came crashing down around her.

No, she thought. No.

I cannot be the one to watch another disappearance. I cannot.

And so, before anybody could do anything or she could think about it properly, Clio darted back across the road.

Characters Introduced this chapter:

Remaining Students:

Ottillie Nylund, SHSL Fashion PR Coordinator, third year (my OC)

Junpei Ito, SHSL Vlogger, first year (belongs to: Abitat Eco)

Investigators:

Ichizo Izawa, Private Detective (belongs to: Orlando Butler)