Change the Ending

by TheRoseShadow21

It has been nearly a month since the last Hope's Peak student disappeared, and every investigation has reached a dead end. But when one of the students turns up dead, all parts of the school community find themselves caught up in a killer's twisted story. But will any of them be able to change its ending before it's too late? (SYOC CLOSED, rated M to be safe)

12. Third Time (Un)lucky

Ririka had meant to tell somebody about the list. She really had.

But when she had been interviewed by the police, it had been in close proximity to Alexis, and to the Motowaris, and so many other people. Then the media had descended, vulture-like as always, and she couldn't risk being overheard by the ones that Hope's Peak chose to let in. And then she had been called into a meeting with Principal Kirigiri, some of his Advisory Board, and Rin Adachi. They had expressed concern over the effects of her having seen Chiara's body, but then there had followed an odd conversation in which they had danced around the topics and never really said what they meant. But with the words discretion and reputation thrown around with almost every sentence they said to her, Ririka knew that they wanted her to keep her mouth shut. As much as that would be possible, in any case.

And she had nodded and smiled at that without any intention of really doing that, but the cold smiles and insincere concern kept popping into her head when she'd finally left the building and was making her way back to her own office. But she hadn't even made it to her office in the end, as first she'd had to deal with Rin confronting her in the corridor and claiming that if she'd just bypassed Alexis and let him look at the security footage following Seren's death then this wouldn't have happened, and then she'd had Alexis call her back down to the security building, insisting that they go through every single existing camera, as well as all the various alarms and sign in systems. Alexis had been rightfully and understandably upset by what had transpired, and still in shock that she had not picked up on anything wrong with Kiyomizu.

"He's supporting his family, and I think his younger sister in particular has some issues in school, so there are times where he can be rather on edge with the stress of it all," Alexis had told her. "But he has always been an exemplary member of the team. Even last month, when he came in with bruises that he'd claimed were from first walking into a kitchen cupboard door and then tripping over his cat, he'd just smiled and worked through it. But if even Kiyomizu can be bought by a serial killer, then who else in this school could be?"

Ririka had been curious about the admission that Kiyomizu had come into work bruised, and when she'd asked when that had been, Alexis had sighed and said:

"I mentioned this to the Chief Inspector as well, and it was January 22nd. The day after Ono-san and Setsushi-san disappeared. And Kiyomizu had been working that night, although not in the areas that they theorised that the two had disappeared from."

There had been no more talk about it then, but once Ririka had been done with Alexis, she'd then been approached by another teacher who was having trouble with a file they were preparing for a lesson they had to teach on Monday. When she'd finally made it to her office, Yuzuho had been waiting there for her. But it had been close to lunch by then, and when Ririka had discovered that Yuzuho hadn't had lunch or breakfast, she'd had to go with the girl to the café to buy something. She'd taken her own lunch with her, and the two of them had eaten outside together. She'd then left Yuzuho with other members of the school's Archery Club before actually getting to not only reach her office, but finally sit there. And when she plopped down in her chair, the thought of telling somebody once again proved too exhausting, too risky.

But, can I really hold onto the information for any longer?

She didn't think she could. With the revelation of Kiyomizu's involvement, the list was eating her up from the inside. She wished that she hadn't come across it in the first place, but what could she do now? Perhaps if one of the private detectives came to her…

Almost on cue, her door swung open and Ichizo and Benkei stepped in. They appeared to be chatting:

"-now, I'm still not over the day she called me an overgrown delinquent, either. That was just mean. But I can let that go, honestly. You saw her body, didn't you? It must have been horrible. But anyway, Ichizo my man, put your feet up for a moment-oh."

Benkei stared at Ririka and then laughed, rubbing the back of his head. Ichizo also looked embarrassed, but brazened it out by teasing:

"Benny, mate, I think we've just broken into Enjou-san's office."

"So we have. Uh, sorry about that, Enjou!" Benkei sheepishly said. "Do you, uh, want to come to my actual office and chill for a bit? I heard you were one of the people who found the body."

What an idiot, Ririka thought. But she couldn't stay annoyed with Benkei for long. Not least because she had other things on her mind:

"I was and…actually, Izawa-san. May I talk to you?"

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Ichizo said.

Benkei showed no sign of leaving, so Ririka elaborated:

"Privately."

"Ah," Benkei nodded sagely. "Got it. Hey, bud, I'll see you around."

"Sure thing, Ben." Ichizo said, giving Benkei a little wave.

Once the music teacher had left, Ichizo made sure the door was closed properly and then came to sit in the chair in front of Ririka's desk.

"So then, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Now she was faced with the prospect of actually telling, Ririka froze. Ichizo studied her, and then said:

"There's no pressure. Take your time. Is there something troubling you?"

"Well, that's…" Ririka hesitated again, and then said. "I'll need to show you."

She located her keys and went to the filing cabinet where she kept the list, unlocked it and retrieved the folder before letting all the scrap papers fall out and handing the rest to Ichizo. She watched him open the folder, but even before he had looked properly at the list, she launched into her explanation. With the meeting she'd had earlier still in her mind, she kept her voice low, and was well aware she was talking too fast, but she had to talk fast. She feared that if she stopped, she'd never have the courage to start again. So she talked and talked and talked, until she had run out of words to say.

Through it all, Ichizo nodded seriously, clearly considering every single word carefully. He'd taken out a notebook at one point and started making notes. When she was done, he didn't initially respond. Instead, he considered both his notes and the list, studying it carefully. Then, he looked up and asked:

"You said you found it here when you moved in, yes?"

"That's…that's right."

Ririka braced herself for the questions she was expecting: why didn't you bring it to anyone's attention back then? Why didn't you say something when you did realise what it could mean? Why have you been hiding it? Why didn't you just throw it out?

"Who had this office before you?"

The question didn't compute for a good few seconds, and even when it did, she didn't fully understand it.

"My…predecessor?"

"Ah, so you mean the IT manager who came before you?"

"Y-yes?"

Ichizo nodded seriously:

"What's that person's name? Do you know when they left and why? I heard you only got promoted a few months ago, is that right?"

"I…why do you ask?"

"If you found it here, then it might be this person came across it before as well. Quite possibly, they might have had the same reaction as you. I mean, there isn't much here that indicates the list's purpose, apart from hindsight, right?"

"Perhaps," Ririka said. "But I did come to realise it in the end. I should have taken it to the police as soon as I had, but I didn't."

"Well, that's-"

Ichizo broke off and turned his body, tilting his head slightly as if listening out for something. Then, he abruptly got up and went to the door. He still appeared to be listening for something, frowning intently, Then, he swung open the door and looked up and down the corridor. After standing there for a moment, he shook his head and then shut the door before returning to his seat.

"Sorry about that," he laughed in embarrassment. "I thought I heard someone standing by the door."

"Standing there….like, listening in?"

Ichizo's face scrunched up briefly as he admitted:

"I'm not sure. But I will try and work out if that was the case anyway. However, going back to what we were talking about. You know what, you are probably right about the list. But also, you shouldn't blame yourself. It's not on your shoulders to prevent this, not really."

"I'd disagree with you there." Ririka said.

"And I'll have to disagree with that disagreement," Ichizo said pleasantly. "In any case, the previous IT manager?"

Ririka felt a little bit strange about giving Tsukiko's name, but she did so nonetheless, adding:

"She's actually the one who got me my initial post here. We'd worked together before, she was my boss there too, it was her company. When it folded and she got the job here, she lined up one for me as well. And then when she left, she recommended me for her position."

"Do you know why she left?"

"Actually no, not really." Ririka said, thinking about it. "She said something about plans, but also about a family situation. I'm not too sure. We text from time to time, but I haven't seen her for a while."

"That's fine," Ichizo said. "In that case, I'll go and speak to Shinsato-san, see if she can shed any light on the matter."

"Should I tell her you're coming?" she asked. "Do you need anything else from me, to be able to reach her?"

"No," Ichizo said. "No need, on both counts. Let me take pictures, and then as for the police, I think you should give it to-"

He took the photographs, but then just as he was about to put his phone away, he suddenly froze, the same way he had when he had thought someone had been listening at the door. But this time, Ririka could also hear hurried footsteps, and soon after, a knock on the door. Then, came a voice:

"Sensei?"

Ririka immediately got up and went to the door once more, opening it. Yuzuho had her hand closed in a fist and raised as if she were going to knock once more, and when she was faced with the door opening, she seemed for a moment to not know what to do with it. After staring at her fist for a moment, she then let her hand fall back to her side.

"Sensei," Yuzuho gasped. "Sensei, I think…I think someone else has been found!"

"Someone…"

"Someone else has died! Right by the gate, sensei!"

"By,,,by the gate…by the steps, too?"

Yuzuho's brow furrowed, her panic momentarily disrupted as she asked:

"What steps, sensei?"

Ah, of course. There aren't any steps. Not anymore. The entrance had been completely redone, the ground levelled out as much as possible, and then a ramp put in to replace the steps. For accessibility, the school had said. But Ririka knew that was as much about removing bad associations as it was about ensuring wheelchair access. And she didn't need a wheelchair, so she didn't have personal experience of whether that kind of accessibility was successful. But memories weren't removed as easily as all that.

No matter how different the front entrance looked, she would always remember the way it looked eighteen years ago on that small television screen. The crime scene tape, the police and others swarming, lights flashing…and the shape sprawled across the steps, covered in a sheet…

"Enjou-san? Are you alright?" she heard Ichizo ask.

Ririka snapped herself out of it, but it was not Ichizo she looked to, but Yuzuho instead.

"Are you sure that's what's happened?"

"I…I think? I don't know. Everyone's gone to see, because it's ever so chaotic, but I came here."

Sure enough, Yuzuho was still wearing her archery uniform, and had her hair tied up in a ponytail the way she usually did for practices, although now it looked rather windswept. Ririka took a deep breath and did her best to give the girl a calm smile.

"Let us go and find out what is happening, Fujiwara-san."

"I won't be in any danger, sensei, will I? When they were all disappearing, you said I could be in danger, but not now, right?"

Ririka glanced at Ichizo and saw his eyes widen slightly as he looked from Yuzuho to Ririka. When he noticed her looking, his expression sharpened somewhat before he nodded, once. Ah, so he's worked it out, Ririka thought. Hopefully he doesn't mention anything to her about the list. I don't want her getting more worried. Since I kept her safe, she doesn't need to know about it.

"I don't know," Ririka told an expectant Yuzuho honestly. "But I'm sure you'll be fine. You're not going anywhere alone, are you?"

"N-no…"

"There you go, then. Now, let's go and see what is happening."

Ririka's voice rang hollow in her ears, stripped of the reassurance she wanted to give. But Yuzuho nonetheless gave her an eager nod as if she had been reassured. And so, together with Ichizo, they went to see what had happened.

…

Even on a normal day, not many students attended the half-day of lessons that took place on a Saturday. Clio did, only because it was not as if she had to go out of her way to get there. But as it was, following the announcement of Chiara Kai's death and the cancellation of said Saturday lessons, it felt almost like a ghost town. Given the absence of students, calling a full assembly hadn't been possible, and so a message had simply been sent out.

Apparently, the school had already been in touch with Chiara's parents, Satoru Kai and Giulia Bernadini-either that, or they'd been in touch with Hope's Peak. It wasn't clear which one it was, but Clio supposed that was a moot point. In any case, the Hope's Peak admin account had sent a message that purported to be from them, announcing the death of their 'sweet, beautiful' daughter and encouraging them to attend the memorial service, which they were currently organising. They made acknowledgements of the police and their hard work, explaining that when the 'light of their life' was finally released for cremation, they would be doing so privately, in Italy.

The school had added a note about remaining vigilant and cooperating with the police, but also exhorting students to remain calm and not feed 'baseless speculation and hysteria' so that they could carry on as normal and concentrate on ending the school year on a good note. Clio wasn't sure that it would be possible to end the school year on a 'good note', but she was just glad that there hadn't been another opportunity to force Nazuna or any other student to make the death announcement themselves. Sure, she had asked Benkei if he'd do it instead, but she had to admit that deep down, she didn't really know if that would have worked out.

Along with the note, most of the television screens around the school had been playing a hastily put together slideshow featuring photographs of Chiara, mostly a mixture of photographs from school events, and those from her various performances, interviews and album covers. Although no actual music had been played, she'd heard rumours that from Monday, they would be playing some of Chiara's recordings through the speakers. It was all so different to how they had handled Seren's death, and she hated it. She hated it so much.

Luckily, just as with Seren's death, the café had ended up as a refuge. With the number of detectives and forensic people and even the odd journalist being allowed in, the decision had been made to open the café anyway. All those visitors were potential customers. That, and it wasn't as if there were no students around. The canteens were closed given the lessons had been cancelled, so the only options were to either buy food from the Student Café, from one of the few self-service tuck shops, cook for themselves in the school kitchen, or to go off campus. Clio had started working there from lunchtime and would be doing so until they closed in the middle of the afternoon. She'd also been put in charge of closing it up, and so she suggested that they have their meet up there. It was not something that was done often, but there had been a precedent for doing things like that. In the past, she and Fukue had come to visit Luca after closing, chatting as they helped to clear up, or sitting together and catching up on studying. Despite Luca being the year above them, he found it helpful to recap second-year content.

I wonder, she thought, does Luca-kun know that Kai-sempai is dead? Or Nishiya-san, for that matter? Whether he did or not, she knew that he'd be sad to hear about them, especially Chiara, whom he'd known from childhood.

Gradually, closing time approached, and Nazuna and Junpei arrived together, the two of them chatting politely. Junpei looked around in amazement and exclaimed:

"Woah, I didn't know this was here. Or, did I? I'm not sure, but this is a nice café! This is the one that Fontana-sempai came up with, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Clio said.

"Right, right," Junpei said. "I do remember him talking about it a lot, in our meetings. He even asked me for tips for remembering things better! Me, for tips! I don't know if my advice was helpful, but I did my best!"

Junpei's cheeks were pink with pleasure at the memory, and now that he mentioned it, Clio herself had a vague recollection of Luca at the beginning of the year, talking about a first-year student whose memory problems, though more profound, reminded him a lot of his own struggles.

"Luca-kun was grateful for it," she told him. "I don't know what you suggested, but I'm sure they were good suggestions. Anyway, do you two want to sit down?"

"Ah, yes, sure." Junpei said, still blushing.

"Yes, thank you, Clio-san. " Nazuna replied.

They both chose a table and sat down, at which point Nazuna said:

"So the others, I believe, are escorting other students…"

She looked on her phone, but then paused and frowned briefly, before rubbing her forehead and then scrolling through the messages. Clio had been cleaning up, so she hadn't had the chance to read through properly, but she knew that there were new messages on the group chat. She was about to offer to go and check herself, when Nazuna seemed to finally read through:

"Alright, so Kagematsu-san is waiting outside the school with a student who is being picked up by a family member. Matsumoto-san is still waiting for a student's bus to arrive, but Oshiro-kun has just seen his student off onto their bus, so he should be here soon."

"Oh, that's good." Clio said. "Say, Ito-kun, is Izawa-san going to come?"

"Ichizo-san?" Junpei asked. "Ah, um…hold on, I recorded it when I bumped into him earlier today. Give me a moment."

"Not a problem."

Clio continued cleaning while Junpei looked through his recordings on his little hand-held recorder. Nazuna offered to help her, but when Clio turned her down, Nazuna ended up doing so anyway. Just as they finished, Clio looked through one of the windows Yuuto approaching, looking particularly formidable in a black leather jacket. She put down her cleaning cloth and went to the door to wave him over.

"Oshiro-sempai!" she called.

As he turned to her, so did someone else a little further away. Clio squinted, and then realised who it was and called to them too:

"Nylund-sempai!"

Ottillie paused, shoulders tensing before she turned fully. When she spotted Clio, she scowled.

"Oh. It's you."

"I, um…did you want to come and join us?"

"Who's us?" Ottillie asked. "And why would I want to do that?"

"Well, I mean, after what happened-"

Ottillie's face twisted in displeasure, and she opened her mouth to say something, but it was at that moment that Konoha and Keiji arrived together. It appeared that both of them had heard the exchange, because Konoha immediately asked:

"What did happen yesterday?" she asked.

Ottillie narrowed her eyes at Konoha and asked:

"You were also there, weren't you?"

"Yes, but I also saw that Kuroki-san was there all along, too," she said. "And it was Kuroki-san you went to meet before then, wasn't it? It was his car you got into. "

"And how do you know that?"

"I was also there, too, remember?"

Ottillie shook her head in annoyance and started:

"I don't need to hear th-"

"Just what were you doing there, anyway, all dolled up?" Keiji interrupted, taunting. " I heard that those two detective were tricking Tomioka into thinking he'd be getting to meet you, but that wasn't all there was to it, was there?"

"Excuse me?"

Ottillie's eyes flared, and she took a step back.

"I've been thinking about it," Keiji continued, blithely. "That type of set-up, it's the exact type of thing a Pinkerton would do. It's got a very…espionage-y flavour to it, shall we say? And yes, he's working for a corporation, not the government, but nonetheless. In any case, was there really any need for you to be there if it was only your identity being used? I don't think so. So, just how far were you planning to go, hm?"

Ottillie had no response to this. She held herself stiffly, but to Clio's eyes she vibrated slightly, as if she wanted to move but couldn't. A butterfly, pinned to a canvas but still just about able to flap its wings, uselessly. Keiji either didn't notice or didn't care (it was hard to say which one) for he continued:

"Were you, in fact, not pretending and actually messaging Tomioka yourself? Was it your idea, and not the detective's?"

"Be quiet, now." Ottillie hissed, able to move again.

"Or what?" Keiji challenged.

"Fine. I will indulge your nonsense for now." Ottillie said stiffly, after a brief pause.

Keiji shrugged at this, now looking bored:

"Good enough for us. Right, Fujita?"

"I…" Clio blinked. "Yeah, I suppose. Come on in."

Ottillie gave the café a horrified look.

"You're meeting in there? In Luca Fontana's café?" she asked, aghast.

"Um…yes?"

Ottillie grimaced, and then took a deep breath before her expression returned to its mildly contemptuous default. Clio wondered at that. She didn't think The Student Café was a particularly controversial place, and people liked it. Even Chiara had liked it, even though she also reminded everyone she was more of a fine-dining type of girl. And Luca had never mentioned having a specific rivalry with Ottillie, not as far as she could remember.

Maybe it's just that Nylund-sempai really doesn't like mixing with people who aren't all fancy like her, she thought. She does seem very solitary. Maybe in time, we can get her to warm up a little.

Or maybe not, Clio decided, for as they entered the café, she heard Konoha say to Keiji:

"You could have pointed out that technically, she owes Clio-san."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You didn't consider this? Clio-san stepped in first."

"Well yeah, I mean-."

"I never asked Clio Fujita to interfere," Ottillie interrupted haughtily. "And, I am here. Isn't that enough?"

"Let's not argue," Nazuna interjected. "It will not help anything at this stage. Nylund-san, thank you for coming, in any case."

This was met by a 'hmph'. Clio decided to pretend she hadn't really heard any of it, and went to join them at the table:

"Do any of you want something to eat and drink?" she asked. "I can't make anything, because all the machines and kitchen stuff has been cleaned or turned off, but a snack or something, maybe?"

"That doesn't seem like a bad idea." Nazuna said.

Clio quickly gathered up some bottles of juice and little packets of biscuits and set them down before taking up a seat herself. She then looked expectantly at all of them. In truth, having Ottillie there was a little off-putting, given that she sat apart from the rest of them, arms crossed, making it clear she'd rather be anywhere else than here.

"Right, so," Keiji started. "I suppose the first thing is-were we expecting Chiara Kai to be the next victim?"

"Well, it's not really as if we had any particular way to know who the next victim would be either way, right?" Konoha said. "First we got the seventh to be captured, and now we've got the eighth? That doesn't give us any way of predicting it."

"Perhaps something in Kai-sempai's personal life might tell us something?" Junpei said. "After all, with Nishiya-sempai, that guy was directly connected to her, right?"

"And he's connected with Inori Izawa." Keiji said. "Through her parents."

"What do we know about them?" Yuuto asked. "Chiara Kai's family, I mean? I'll know something about them soon, myself, but all I know at the moment is that she was their only child, they had her a bit later in life, and that they both work in the arts?"

"I don't know very much about her, but Luca-kun knew her. I believe his dad and Kai-sempai's mother were friends. Grew up in the same hometown or something along those lines, I can't remember exactly. So she and Luca-kun weren't friends precisely, but they were friendly…. ish? She called him a 'lout' but she also taught him Japanese before he got here, so he wasn't completely all at sea when he got here." Clio said.

"I want to know more," Konoha said. "But before that, Oshiro-kun, what do you mean that you'll know something more about her parents soon anyway?"

"They've commissioned me for a memorial. I think they're angling towards a sculpture, though I don't know where they're putting it. Here, possibly. So at some point, I'll have to meet them about that."

"That was fast." Konoha commented.

"Everyone acts differently to grief." Yuuto said, unusually matter-of-fact.

There was a moment of silence while they all absorbed this, and then Keiji came out with:

"Makes sense for a spoilt princess. That's basically what she was. Mummy and Daddy must have indulged her every whim immediately. Still, like Seren's folks, I'm assuming they loved her."

"Clio-san, were you going to say if you knew something else?" Konoha asked, quickly.

"Well, she was rather…highly-strun-"

"Spoilt. We might as well just say it." Keiji interrupted.

"This is true, as bad as I feel about saying it," Nazuna said. "She would often throw a fit if she did not get her own way, and often expected everything to bend to her. Very pampered, I would say. Haughty. She tended to look down on modern music if I remember correctly, Kagura definitely didn't like her but mostly kept her distance."

"Sounds wise." Konoha commented.

"That does…match what I'd see, when she came into the café. She used to demand that Luca-kun or somebody drop everything and make her usual order whenever she came in."

"Oooh, I know it's not really relevant, but what was her order?" Junpei asked.

"So, Kai-sempai's order on a good day was a triple venti half-sweet, non-fat caramel macchiato."

"Fucking hell," Keiji exclaimed. "What was it on a bad day?"

Clio had to close her eyes briefly to help her recall the order, but she was able to rattle it off with relative ease:

"An iced half-caff ristretto venti 4-pump, sugar-free cinnamon dolce soy skinny latte. If it was a really bad day, she'd add caramel sauce and chocolate sauce too."

"What the fuck's wrong with a straightforward black coffee?" Yuuto muttered.

"I know, right?" Keiji said in agreement.

The two boys exchanged a look in commiseration, before their eyes widened at the realisation they agreed with each other. They both turned away from each other so fast Clio wondered that neither of them got whiplash. She had to cover her mouth with her hand to suppress her giggles at the way they remained pointedly turned away from each other. Nazuna, Junpei and Ottillie looked baffled, but Konoha simply raised an eyebrow at them both before shrugging and turning back to Clio to ask:

"Is there anything else that you remember about Kai-san apart from her regular coffee order?"

"Well, she never ate very much from what I saw, bearing in mind that I didn't see her that often anyway. But she definitely had a sweet tooth. I don't think she liked savoury foods at all. But apart from her being, well, you know, I don't think there was anything particularly controversial about her."

"Apart from her parents being rich and pretty famous themselves. Satoru Kai runs and manages a series of theatres across Japan, and Giulia Bernadini is a fairly famous opera singer in her own right." Keiji said.

In the short space of time since he'd been outraged at Chiara's coffee orders, Yuuto had taken a lollipop out of his pocket and had been sucking on it silently, slouched in his chair. But he sat up sharply, as if a thought had physically struck him. He tugged the lollipop out of his mouth and said:

"Opera singer. Wait. Hold on. Didn't an opera singer die before?"

"Um….a lot of people die, genius. I'm sure some of them were opera singers." Keiji immediately retorted.

"No, you little shit. I mean here. Well, not here as in physically here, but…."

Yuuto got out his phone, and the lollipop returned to his mouth as he attempted to look up whatever it was he was thinking of, muttering to himself as he scrolled and tapped furiously:

"Okay, fuck, it was longer ago than I thought, assuming it is what I thought. But come on, someone else must have thought of it…or like, archives or something?"

"We could go to the library," Nazuna offered. "Their archives are pretty good."

"I'm not wasting more of my time by going somewhere else with you lot." Ottillie said.

"We are not going to the fucking library," Yuuto said, still looking at his phone. "I'll get it."

Nazuna's phone, placed on the table, vibrated. Clio startled, though not as badly as Junpei, who actually jumped. The younger boy immediately apologised, and Clio hurried to reassure him. She almost didn't notice the way Nazuna's face flickered as she stared at the phone's screen before simply setting it down without responding to whatever it was that had set it off. Clio wondered about that, but then decided to turn her attention to Ottillie:

"Nylund-sempai, you were in Kai-sempai's class? Her and Luca-kun, actually."

Ottillie's mouth twisted at that, and she snapped:

"I know nothing about him."

"She wasn't technically asking you about him, though." Konoha pointed out.

Ottillie turned her head to glare at her, but then sighed and said:

"I did not have many dealings with her, unfortunately, although I did coordinate an interview and photoshoot for a model who had forayed into theatre acting, and that took place at one of her father's theatres. I do not see what this adds to anything, though."

Nazuna's phone vibrated again, and once again she picked it up, stared oddly at the screen, then set it back down again. Clio thought to ask her if something was wrong, but then suddenly Yuuto exclaimed:

"I've got it! Fucking hell, that was way more difficult to find that it should have been."

Yuuto set his phone on the table, showing it opened to a page of a news website, though not one of the major ones. He had scrolled down to halfway through the article in question, where a photograph of a girl with light-brown hair cut into a bob smiled out at the camera. She was wearing a Hope's Peak uniform, but the cut of the blazer was boxier, the neck ribbon thicker. The photo itself was clearly a scanned copy of an old photograph, the quality not as sharp, something faded and faraway about the entire thing. The caption read:

Nana Tamashiro, the previous SHSL Opera Singer, who died in 1982 .

Beneath this, the text of the article read:

Despite Hope's Peak's famous "10-year rule", Chiara Kai was the first SHSL Opera Singer to be accepted into the school in 41 years, despite the fact that the previous Opera Singer technically did not graduate, given she was murdered-

"Eesh, that's cold," Keiji whistled. "Technically true, but cold."

"Given that's the type of thing you'd say, I'm surprised at that coming from you." Konoha commented wryly.

"Well, it's difficult to graduate when you're murdered, isn't it?" Keiji retorted.

"I'd say so, yes." Konoha replied.

"Right, so, Nana Tamashiro…."

Nazuna picked up her own phone, ignoring its' vibrating as she looked up the name on her own phone. Eventually, she said:

"It looks like it had been a kidnapping that went wrong on many counts, basically," she said. "But there's little to suggest that that kidnapping has anything to do with these ones. They'd been planning on asking for a ransom for Nana Tamashiro, after all. Nothing like that's come up with these."

"Plus," Yuuto said, now reading more articles on his phone. "That was solved and done and dusted, and it was over 40 years ago. Though it is interesting that nobody's picked up on the fact that that there's been such a long gap between acceptance of Talents. I know that obviously not every single Talent is going to repeat exactly every ten years, but even so. Would it have happened anyway, or did this older singer's death have something to do with it?"

"Older singer?" Junpei asked. "Sorry, I'm losing track, a little, I can't remember –"

"it's fine, don't worry." Clio reassured, before giving Junpei a quick summary.

He made a note, and then said:

"Ah, so I don't remember the details, but I have notes, but anyway. There have been other cases since then. Murders of students, I mean. There's one that I think, the student was found somewhere in the school, or on the school….I have notes about it, because I was looking for past crimes related to Hope's Peak to see if there was a link there, but I'd have to make myself a reminder to check."

"That could be a useful thing to chase down, yes," Nazuna said. "Kagura has some similar notes, I think, so I could check those. And I have a feeling that a visit to the library archives will be in order soon enough."

"For now, though," Konoha said. "Should we return to talking about the woods? I mean, the person who left Kai-san's body here entered through the woods and escaped through the woods. If there was any reason to doubt their involvement before, there sure isn't now."

"All the more reason to go into those woods ourselves." Keiji declared.

"But they're cordoned off now." Clio pointed out.

Keiji just huffed. Yuuto sneered at him, then reached into his portfolio folder and pulled out one of the maps. Clio moved the remaining juices and biscuit packets out of the way, and Nazuna pushed aside her phone as it vibrated once more, so that the map could be spread out. They all focused on the woods.

"So, there's that street there, it looks pretty empty," Nazuna said. "That's probably the main entry point into the woods, but there's also what looks like an alleyway between the houses on that street there. "

The two streets she pointed to were roughly at right angles to each other, the result being that it was almost as if Hope's Peak and the two streets made a rough circle around the woods. . Clio frowned at them, and then realised she recognised the street with the houses.

"Oh," she exclaimed. "That's Yama-san's house!"

"Yama-san?" Konoha and Nazuna asked at the same time.

"Mmm. She's this old lady I help sometimes. She's pretty much housebound, I think, and she's good online so she can order things, but she likes company sometimes, so she likes having people to buy her groceries and things from time to time. I don't know much about her, because it's only recently I've been going by myself, but she's nice."

"How did you find out about her?" Konoha asked curiously.

"Oh, I didn't! Fukue-chan did! I can't remember how, though, but before Fukue-chan disappeared, we went together, sometimes. And then I went to check on her a little while later, after Fukue-chan disappeared, to let her know. I mean, she already knew, because of the internet, but still…"

Clio trailed off, and then said:

"I should check in on her, actually. I meant to do so yesterday, but, well…"

"Does this lady not have family?" Nazuna asked, curious.

"No," Clio said. "At least, not any that look after her. I think one of them pays for her, you know, bills and things, and for a cleaner or something. So, it's not as if nobody else will check on her, but yeah…"

"Do you think she would have noticed any activity from the woods?" Keiji asked.

Clio shrugged at this, and then said:

"I mean, if I go to see her, I could ask."

"Not alone, though," Konoha said. "If you do go to see her, make sure you bring a couple of us along."

"Speaking of these damn woods, maybe we can't go into them, but we could wander around these areas and see whether anyone would actually spot anything or anyone coming in and out?" Yuuto suggested. "I mean, there's this park at the end of the street here, near to Fujita's 'Yama-san's' house, right? It looks like its boundaries sort of, I dunno, fucking blur into the woods? Kind of like here, actually."

"Why do the woods 'blur' into the school grounds, anyway?" Ottillie asked. "That's not the most prudent decision."

Clio blinked, not having expected Ottillie to say anything. Unexpectedly, it was Konoha who came up with the answer:

"It's something to do with Taro Enoshima, I think."

"The…previous principal?" Junpei asked.

"No, the one before the previous principal." Konoha corrected.

"But Hope's Peak doesn't own the woods, it just sort of generically belongs to the city." Keiji objected.

"But there's rumours that Taro Enoshima owned it briefly, but then because he didn't leave it to anybody, it defaulted back to the city when he died, Although, I didn't find anything substantive to confirm that, or anything."

"Oh, oh! Yes, I remember seeing those rumours when I was doing my own research. Apparently, the records aren't accessible in the town hall for some reason. Then again, a lot of the records relating to Hope's Peak's land are made private." Junpei said.

"How do you know this?" Ottillie asked.

"Research." Junpei and Konoha said at the same time.

"I figured I should learn a bit more about this school," Konoha added. "And the woods seemed as good a place to start as any."

"Good," Keiji said briskly. "Keep looking."

"I don't remember very much about the woods coming up in Kagura's notes," Nazuna said. "But I'll take a closer read-through to see if anything does jump out at me. Likewise, like we were talking about before, I can look at past incidents relating to Hope's Peak students. Nylund-san, is there anything you can offer?"

Ottillie stiffened, and then narrowed her eyes.

"All I would have to do," Keiji said with a forced pleasantness. "Is to make an anonymous tip to the newspaper to look closely into your life and actions leading up to Tomioka's attempted kidnapping and then-"

"I don't know what you think I know, but I don't know anything. Although, that detective definitely think that the Izawa family are heavily involved in this. Not necessarily the culprits, or they would've kept their daughter out of it. But involved. Tomioka's not the only employee of theirs who may have helped."

"Do you have proof?" Yuuto demanded.

"Do I have to show you?" Ottillie asked archly. "I'm not the detective, I don't know anything."

"Except you were working with him, in some capacity-"

Keiji's attempt to interrogate Ottillie was abruptly cut off by Nazuna's phone vibrating once more. Even though it wasn't the first time, it made Clio jump. Nazuna shot her an apologetic look, and then picked up the phone to glance at the screen. She frowned and unlocked it, then as she stared at the message her face flickered unreadably, before settling somewhere between worried and confused.

"I apologise. I'll put the phone back in my bag." Nazuna said stiffly.

"Why aren't you looking at those messages properly?" Keiji asked.

"W-wha-what?" Nazuna asked, befuddled.

"That's, what, five times that your phone has vibrated and you've just stared at it. What's going on?"

"Wait, has it really been five times?" Junpei asked.

"You jumped further than Fujita did the first time," Keiji said with an exaggerated eye-roll. "Do you really not remember?"

Clio noticed Yuuto respond with an eye-roll of his own, and he was clearly gearing up to say something to accompany it, only for Konoha to wryly beat him to it:

"Did you really just ask that?"

Keiji simply scowled and sighed, and returned his focus to a now very uncomfortable-looking Nazuna, who was still holding onto her phone. He pointed to it, and asked:

"Well?"

"Why do you ask?" Nazuna said. "It's not import-hey!"

Keiji had swiped Nazuna's phone from her hand, and with the screen still apparently unlocked, he began to scroll through the messages.

"Did you really just snatch her phone?" Yuuto asked. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Give that back!" Nazuna protested.

"Nazuna Kurihara-san, what do you think now that Chapter 1 has ended?" Keiji said, clearly reading out from the screen. "Do you think you would have figured it out if you had been part of the main cast? But as I said, you are still a part of the story. And Chapter 2 will be starting soon…what the fuck is this, Kurihara?"

"What does that mean, that you're still a part of the story?" Ottillie asked, her annoyance now apparently replaced by curiosity.

"I, well, that's…"

Nazuna stared nervously at Keiji, still holding her phone as he looked at other texts.

"Blimming heck, this person has sent you a lot of messages over the past day or so. Who the hell are they?"

"I don't know…" Nazuna confessed. "But these aren't the first messages…"

"No, you're right, they're not…you've not replied to any of these, have you?" Keiji asked.

"What are these messages, Matsumoto?" Yuuto demanded. "Are you going to fucking show them to us or what? Or are you keeping them all to yourself?"

"Please, like she wasn't keeping them all to herself as well." Ottillie retorted.

"I didn't want to make anybody worry unnecessarily!" Nazuna protested. "And actually, the first lot went into my spam folder at first, so I only noticed them after we'd met at the library the day Nishiya-san's body was found."

"When was the first message sent?"

Nazuna seemed to shrink into herself, but she did answer:

"The day before."

"The day before what?" Junpei asked.

"The day before I found Nishiya-san's body, I think," Clio said gently. "Right?"

Nazuna nodded stiffly, and then said:

"You may as well take a look. Matsumoto-san, but can you at least put my phone down, please? It makes me feel uncomfortable to see you handling it."

Keiji scoffed but did put the phone down. He then scrolled up until the top of the message thread had been reached. Clio, Konoha and Yuuto leant over the table, and Ottillie got up and stood slightly behind Nazuna to take a look at the first messages.

Unknown_Number [18:12 2023.02.22]: Nazuna Kurihara-san, how do you feel knowing you're the lucky one? Do you realise quite how lucky you are to have escaped the chance to be a part of my main cast?

Unknown_Number [18:15 2023.02.22]: You know what tomorrow is, don't you? The Emperor's Birthday. A most grand national holiday indeed. Will you be going to the Ippan-sanga?

Unknown_Number [18:15 2023.02.22]: I have a feeling you will not be.

Unknown_Number[18:17 2023.02.22]: After all, don't you know, Nazuna Kurihara-san? You missed your chance to be a part of my main cast, but you are still a part of the story.

Unknown_Number [18:17 2023.02.22]: And soon it will be time for the first chapter.

Yuuto was the first to react, with a simple:

"What. The fuck. Is that?"

"Well, that all sounds vaguely psychotic." Konoha said. "So this person is…what? Living in some kind of fantasy world?"

"They seem to think that whatever it is they're doing is part of some kind of 'story'" Keiji said. "Which I suppose would be a fantasy of sorts. What did they say when Seren was found?"

Clio watched Nazuna twitch when Keiji decided to scroll down her phone without asking, but then she read the messages herself and shivered.

Unknown_Number [17:30 2023.02.23]: Nazuna Kurihara-san, what did you feel upon discovering Seren Nishiya's death? It must not have come as a surprise to any of the world. But perhaps you felt relief. Relief that it was not your beloved instead.

Unknown_Number [17:30 2023.02.23]: But what will you do if she's next?

Unknown_Number [17:30 2023.02.23]: You do know that it would be your fault if it was, Nazuna Kurihara-san, don't you?

"That's so mean!" Junpei exclaimed. "Of course it isn't your fault, Kurihara-san! Why would this mean person say that?"

"Because they're a psychotic person living in a fantasy world, to quote your friends here." Ottillie retorted.

Junpei looked bewildered and looked to the rest of them.

"Did you say that? When was that?"

"Well, we suggested it, anyway." Konoha said with a shrug.

"What is this person talking about 'if the summer had gone the way it should have'?" Yuuto asked suddenly.

Almost everyone stared at Yuuto, who was frowning down at Nazuna's phone, his finger still pointed at the screen as if he were about to scroll down. Nazuna, however, exasperatedly exclaimed:

"Could people please ask me before touching my phone?"

"Sorry." Clio whispered, even though it wasn't her fault.

"If the summer had gone the way it should have," Yuuto read. "Maybe I would never have kidnapped your beloved instead. But you managed to slip away, so, here we are. Are you the praying type? Maybe you should pray. I'll imagine it, such a touching scene, juxtaposed with the grief your beloved is feeling as she goes back to sit by the place Seren Nishiya fell. She feels it, you know, this loss. She called Seren a friend, did she not?"

Yuuto then looked up, something troubled in his gaze, something shadowy. He stared right at Nazuna and asked:

"What the fuck is this person on about?"

Nazuna bit her lip, and then narrowed her eyes. Clio imagined metal shutters going up around the older girl, in an attempt to keep them all away. She held her breath as Nazuna reached for her phone, only to be stopped by Yuuto blocking her hand.

"What are you-" Nazuna demanded, only for Yuuto to interrupt, harsher:

"What is this person talking about? What happened in the summer?"

"Wait a minute, this guy is implying that you knew something was going to happen as far back as the summer?" Keiji asked, gesturing at the phone.

Nazuna pushed her chair back violently, almost tipping it over. Konoha reached out to grab it on time, and Nazuna flinched before standing up rapidly, fiddling with her plait with one hand while clutching at the lapel of her blazer with the other.

"That's not-I mean, that's…" Nazuna stammered. "I didn't know, not back then. But what is it to you, anyway? How dare you all look at my phone like this without my consent and-"

"Kurihara." Yuuto interrupted again. "What happened in the summer? What happened to you?"

Both Yuuto's voice and face had changed, though Clio couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was that changed. Whatever it was, though, Nazuna's eyes had widened and whatever anger she'd had seemed to leave her like air from a balloon as she sagged and sat back in her chair. She covered her face with her hands briefly and then sighed heavily. Yuuto watched her with a stillness that seemed strange for him, until Clio realised it rather reminded her of how he had been in the library while drawing memorial ideas for Seren.

"So, you seem to have a problem with me keeping my own counsel, but you don't have an issue with her-"

"Shut the fuck up, Nylund." Yuuto said, harsh again.

"Excuse me-"

"I don't really think now is the time for that," Konoha said mildly. "Do you, Nylund-san?"

Ottillie sniffed at that, crossing her arms as she glared at them, haughtily pretty. Nazuna looked around at all of them, and Clio asked softly:

"Are you alright?"

Nazuna blinked and then sighed:

"Well, I suppose I was going to have to mention it all to you. It's in Kagura's notes, anyway. I've just been trying hard not to think about it, because even now it's hard to do so. Especially now, if it's really true that Kagura wouldn't have been kidnapped if I had been instead."

"So, someone tried to kidnap you in the summer." Keiji summarised. "Is that it? Huh. I could have figured that out myself."

"Could you really now?" Yuuto said. "Then why not have just said something rather than make us all drag it out like this?"

"It's not me that was dragging it out," Keiji retorted. "It was you guys, taking so long to figure it out."

Yuuto gave Keiji the middle finger but did not say anything to him. Instead, he turned to Nazuna and said:

"I think you need to tell us about it now," he said. "Take your time, though. That guy's talking shit, so just take your time."

Keiji made some wordless noises of protests, but Yuuto made a big show of turning away and ignoring him. Nazuna looked helplessly at them all, and then turned to Junpei:

"I think it would be a good idea for you to record this," Nazuna told him. "So that you will be able to keep a track of it. I don't know how many times I'll be able to keep telling the story, and I'm sure that if it comes to it, I'll need to remind the police again too."

Junpei, looking somewhat bewildered, nodded and complied. Nazuna then held her hand out, waiting for the phone. Yuuto picked it up to her and handed it over, and she hugged it to her chest as though it was a small animal. Then, she begun:

"So, this was at the end of the term. I was going home to visit my family, and I wanted to avoid the rush hour in getting there. So I'd booked an early seat on the bullet trains going from Towa South Station-"

"Not Towa Central?" Ottillie interrupted. "That's by far the better station."

"And that fucking matters why?" Yuuto asked.

Nazuna's eyes flashed, but she answered the question before continuing:

"I would have had to change trains if I'd used Towa Central, and that's a much busier station. Going early that way wouldn't have made much difference. In any case, I was walking through the subways to get there, and I'd started to feel that somebody was following me so as I got closer to the platform I started walking quicker and then-"

Nazuna screamed, losing her grip on her phone as it vibrated loudly again. As it fell, Clio quickly shot her hand out and caught it, handing it back to Nazuna, who sighed in relief as she looked at her phone's screen.

"If I'd broken this phone as well, that would be really annoying." She explained. "I've only had this one since that day. It's a replacement for the one I broke trying to get away-"

She abruptly cut herself off, going pale. Before Clio or anybody else could ask her, what had happened, she turned her phone around so that they could all see the screen:

Unknown_Number [14:10 2023.02.25]: Nazuna Kurihara-san, now is a good time to bring the supporting cast into Chapter 2, don't you? Not that I am asking, actually. Why don't you venture out to the front gate? Or look out of the window, or make your way back, depending on what's appropriate. Do you think it might be your beloved?

As Clio finished reading it, she though she heard something. A clamouring, a sense of urgency. Frowning, she went to one of the windows and peeked through the blinds, seeing people rushing over to the front gates, some of them the detectives or crime scene people.

"Look!" she exclaimed, pulling up the blinds properly so they could all see.

Immediately, they all crowded around her and looked through the window with her. For a few moments, they watched crime scene investigators work to keep people away while they set up the usual tent and crime scene tape.

No, Clio thought, feeling far away from herself. Not again.

"Clio-san," Nazuna said, her voice strained. "Could you open the door?"

"Ah, yeah…excuse me."

Clio went to unlock the café doors, and Nazuna strode out of them, walking as fast as she could without breaking into a run. Yuuto bolted after her, showing no such restraint and quickly overtaking her. The rest of them exchanged bewildered looks before also going after the two of them.

…

"So, the autopsy has yet to be done, but the preliminary examination suggests that Chiara Kai's cause of death was very different to Seren Nishiya's. Namely, Kai-san bled to death from multiple deep wounds to the throat, one on each arm at the elbow, one across the waist and one across each leg, at the knee."

Shouichi listened as Detective Hirano talked the team through the discovery of Chiara Kai's body. The detective pointed to the photographs of the body pinned up to the wall, identical to the ones currently displayed on screen.

"The doc suggested they were made by a large, wide blade of the type you'd have to swing, like a machete or an axe, though she'd have to examine the wounds properly to be sure. "

"But the body wasn't in pieces, right?" Tsukasa asked.

"No, it wasn't," Hirano said. "Perhaps the person who did it was attempting to dismember her, but didn't have the strength to manage it?"

"But surely if dismemberment was the goal, they'd just keep hacking until they got there?" another detective asked. "Why just leave it like that?"

"Could it be the blows were all made at the same time?" Tsukasa asked thoughtfully. "I suppose you'd need a machine or something to do that, but if this body was frozen for a while the way Nishiya-san's was, then it's not that ridiculous."

Shouichi regarded the young detective curiously and asked:

"What do you mean by that?"

"A-ah, I could be wrong, I was just thinking that wherever they're being kept must have space not only to house all sixteen of them…or, well, fourteen now. But space to house multiple teenagers, a freezer or even multiple that will fit a body in it…well, surely a space like that would be enough to also fit some kind of device that could chop a body. More or less."

"Wait, so you're saying they're using torture devices?" Hanaoka asked incredulously.

Tsukasa gave an embarrassed one-shoulder shrug at this.

"Well, Doc said that this body was also frozen, but for a shorter period of time than Nishiya-san's, and it was unlikely it had been left out for a long time before that either. But why would the killer use two such drastic ways of killing? That doesn't make a lot of sense."

It didn't make a lot of sense to Shouichi either, but he asked Hirano:

"A note was left on her, correct?"

Hirano nodded, and changed the screen's display to show pictures of both side of the note card. As with the previous card, the front of the card was half black and half white, with the text being half white and half black depending on which part of the background it was against. The back was white again, with a hand-written message. The front read:

THE 'BLACKENED' HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AND PUNISHED.

CHAPTER 1 SHALL END HERE.

NOW, TIME FOR CHAPTER 2 TO BEGIN.

And the back read:

You didn't figure it out yet, did you? Perhaps it was unfair, as my schedule runs ahead of yours somewhat. Nonetheless, it is you on the outside with the forensics and the actual detectives. Shouldn't you be able to work it out? We shall just have to see what you can do with Chapter 2…

"'Blackened' as in sinned?" one of the other detectives asked. "But shouldn't that apply more to Nishiya-san, considering?"

"I mean, one could argue that Chiara Kai's reputation as being a spoilt princess could be a sin of some sort." Another detective pointed out.

"Either way," Hirano said. "I think this shows that in the killer's mind, there's a sequence to these things, and that there will be more. At least two more, if we're assuming two deaths per 'chapter'. Whatever that chapter means."

"Did we get any forensic evidence from either body that suggested others touched or handled it?" Hanaoka said. "I can't remember."

"There were fingerprints on Seren Nishiya's body," Shouichi said. "And they've been identified as primarily coming from Ena Setsushi, Inori Izawa, Silas Jon Finsen, Luca Fontana and Kaida Adachi. There were also some fingerprints identified as belonging to Kagura Nabenashi and Naruhito Ono as well."

This was met with an astonished silence, before Tsukasa stated the obvious:

"That's a lot of people who handled her body. But, at least that's confirmation they're definitely being held captive together. Do you think we'll find a similar set of fingerprints on Chiara Kai's body?"

"Well, we'll only find that out once the autopsy is done, but it's unlikely. Given the amount of blood, fingerprints would be more obvious. However, it appears an effort was made to clean up her body, somewhat. There's still blood smeared over body here and here and here…"

Hirano flipped the screen back to pictures of Chiara's body and pointed out some of the places where it was clear blood had been smudged rather than splattered.

"In any case," he said. "There's not too much more we can say about the body until we get more findings from the autopsy and the other tests, so I suppose the next thing we should talk about is our new suspect."

"I'll take over from here." Shouichi said, getting up.

He went over to the computer that Hirano had been using to put the pictures up on screen, and clicked out of them to bring up the file on Kiyomizu.

"This is Akira Kiyomizu," Shouichi said. "He is twenty-four years old and lives at home with his mother Hatsumi, his sixteen-year-old sister Fuyuka and a pet cat. There's another younger sibling, a nineteen-year-old brother named Kishio, who is a university student and thus only lives with them during the school holidays. The mother works part-time at a convenience store, but has health problems and can't work much more than that. The sister has mental health and behavioural issues, and had actually been expelled from her high school for getting into fights. The family have her seeing a psychologist, and they're working to get her into a special-needs school for the next academic year. All of this means that Kiyomizu is the family breadwinner and is under a great deal of pressure."

Shouichi paused before continuing:

"All of this information was volunteered quite eagerly by Kiyomizu, who appears to be shocked by the fact that he's been aiding a murderer. It appears that in return for not having to pay his sister's psychologist, he was asked to do favours for someone he describes as a 'mysterious figure' who would contact him by text, or occasionally a phone call with what he says is an altered voice. He states that at first, he was asked for information about security shifts and blindspots in the security measures at Hope's Peak. He was then asked to drop off various packages at a delivery locker in Towa South Station, although he was cagy about where he picked up the packages from."

"Gradually, this escalated to being asked to be deliberately neglectful of his shifts at work. He particularly mentioned January 21st, when he was asked to make sure he did not patrol the area near to the woods, the workshops or the library and to also encourage any of his other colleagues away from those areas. He states that he was not told why, and that he had no active role in the abductions of Ena Setsushi or Naruhito Ono. However, he quickly realised that his actions had likely facilitated these, and he attempted to extricate himself from the obligation, telling the person that he'd find another way of paying for his sister's treatment."

"Oh, hold on," Hanaoka said. "This tallies with Burton-san's statement."

Hanaoka turned to the others and explained:

"Burton-san line-manages Kiyomizu, and she stated that on January the 22nd, Kiyomizu came into work with a black eye, a split lip and what she assumed were other bruises. He insisted he was fine to work, however, and gave what she termed to be a 'feeble excuse' of having walked into a cupboard's door or tripped over his cat. She's well aware of the common convention that domestic abuse victims claim to walk into doors, and she assumed that he was simply embarrassed at having been on the receiving end of one of his sister's outbursts. As a result, she did not press it, not wanting to humiliate the young man."

Shouichi nodded at this and took up the mantle:

"Burton-san seems sincere in both her accounting of Kiyomizu's behaviour and her astonishment at it happening. She's cooperating with efforts to scrutinise the rest of her team, as well as herself and Tanaka-san. Nonetheless, we have to assume that Kiyomizu was not the only member of Hope's Peak staff who may have been aiding the kidnapper in one way or another."

"We also need to see if any other workers from IP may have had cause to aid the kidnapper too," Hirano added. "To say nothing of anyone around any of the more powerful students."

"I think it's safe to eliminate any contract workers, or anybody new." Hanaoka said. "Tomioka was a longstanding senior employee, and although Kiyomizu is young and junior, he's been working for the school since he turned eighteen and is permanent. And it sounds like the fact both have built up such connections is part of why they were selected to carry out the kidnapper's doing. Given the psychologists' fees were an incentive, do we know who that was?"

"I don't think so, but I'll get on that!" Tsukasa offered eagerly. "But, I did have one more thought. Should we look at staff members who recently left?"

Shouichi indicated that Tsukasa should explain, which he did:

"If someone left under bad circumstances or on bad terms with Hope's Peak, then they might be an easy target to persuade to work against Hope's Peak too. If we looked specifically for permanent staff who left in, say, the last year? And then dug into those who might have left on bad terms, or had particular reputations?"

"That's a good idea," Shouichi said. "I'll entrust that with you, then, Detective Tsukasa."

The young detective looked very pleased with that.

Shouichi then turned their attention to the matter of the woods, which had been cordoned off, with crime scene investigators and another team of detectives meticulously searching the area. Search dogs had been bought onto the scene an hour ago, according to one of his other detectives, so it was hoped that the trail of the culprit could be followed. The police were also following up on the people who lived in the residences near to the other side of the woods, as well as anyone who might have been in the park at the time. Nothing promising had come from what had been found so far, though.

"Should we put people on the delivery locker too?" Tsukasa asked. "After all, Kiyomizu reported that he'd been due to drop off some packages there."

"Where are these packages currently?" Shouichi asked.

"At his house, which has been searched, so those packages should have been found and will be here now, if they're not on their way already."

"Good. In that case, you follow up on that and see what it was that Akira Kiyomizu was delivering, and then find out who Fuyuka Kiyomizu's psychologist is. Hanaoka-san, you take on the backgrounds into the Hope's Peak staff, and if-"

Before Shouichi could name the officers he wanted to look into recently departed members of staff, his phone went off. At the same time, Hirano's did as well, the detective mouthing Its Tomita, before answering it hurriedly. Shouichi didn't recognise the number that was calling him, but answered the call anyway:

"This is Chief Inspector Shouichi Kiyofuji speaking, who is this and how may I hel-"

"Kiyofuji, is it Ena?"

"Oshiro-kun," Shouichi couldn't hide his surprise. "You were already informed it was Chiara Kai, weren't you?"

"I'm not talking about Kai!" Oshiro yelled. "I'm talking about the god-damned third body."

Shouichi went cold.

"The third body?"

"Shit, you don't know about it? Aren't you still around? I can't fucking see you anywhere."

In the background, Shouichi could hear raised voices, including what sounded like an argument and some sobbing, although the words were indistinct. At the same time, his phone started vibrating, indicating that another call was coming in, but he ignored that in favour of telling Yuuto:

"No, I'm currently back at the police station."

"Oh, shit, yeah, that fucker of a security guard. Did he tell you anything about Ena? And actually, shit, wait, what about Nabenashi? Kurihara's been getting texts, so she needs to know too-oh, for fuck's sake! You need to know too, don't you? That it's not Nabenashi?! You need to know. I need to know. I can't-"

Shouichi could tell that these last sentences weren't directed at him, but rather at Nazuna, whose voice he had heard hissing at Yuuto "What are you doing?" and another male voice he recognised but couldn't place saying "you're really just blurting it out like that?".

"Oshiro-kun, where are you?" Shouichi asked, firm and calm.

"We're near the front gate," Yuuto said. "It's…your people are sealing everything off anyway, so nobody can get in and out because it's by the front gate, but I mean, you'd get in anyway, but….oh fuck. It's not Ena, is it? For fuck's sake, please-"

Now, Shouichi decided to be the one to interrupt:

"Oshiro-kun, sit tight, alright? Are you alone?"

"I, well, no-"

"Sit tight, you and whoever else is with you. I'll be right there."

Shouichi hung up and looked at his team. Hirano was still on the phone, saying:

"Right, the chief's hung up, do you want to-no, I'll tell him. You go and sort it out. Okay, okay, bye."

Hirano hung up and began to tell him:

"Apparently a third body's been found. Not on school grounds this time, but outside of it."

"I know." Shouichi stated.

"Y-you do?" Hirano asked.

Shouichi nodded and asked:

"Did Detective Tomita mention the identity of the third body?"

"No," Hirano said. "But he did mention having to go and break up an argument between parents."

That makes it unlikely to be Setsushi-san, Shouichi thought, although it wasn't impossible. Perhaps Ena's parents had gotten a wake-up call. He still thought that was unlikely, though. They had shown very little interest in the fact their surviving daughter had disappeared, claiming they couldn't know anything since they'd stopped being in contact with her since she'd started at Hope's Peak three years ago. According to the detective who had visited the Setsushi parents back then, the house was full of photographs of the elder daughter, who'd died from a rare form of leukaemia a long time ago, but barely any of Ena. And the only photos that had featured Ena were ones that also featured the sister.

"Alright then, Detective Hirano, you're with me. Detective Hanaoka, I'll leave it to you to select some officers to track down former members of staff, and then carry on with whatever tasks need doing. If there are any problems, please ring me."

"Got it!"

…

It was not Ena.

It wasn't Kagura Nabenashi either. Rather, it was Kaida Adachi, the fifteenth student to disappear. Shouichi learnt this the moment he reached the gate, because Rin Adachi was there, standing straight and stiff and composed, with two security guards nearby watching him as though they were waiting for him to become rabid. Indeed, when Rin spoke to him, his voice was full of broken glass as he said:

"What have you police been doing?" he said. "Nothing, that's what. And now my daughter is dead. Dumped here, right under your noses for her mother to discover."

Shouichi saw that a brown-haired, smartly-dressed woman was waiting just inside the school grounds, with Alexis making an ineffectual attempt to comfort her. She looked up at Rin as he said 'her mother' and gave him such a vicious look that even Shouichi was taken aback. He recalled that Kaida's mother and father had been locked in rather volatile divorce proceedings, amongst which custody was one of the main disputes.

"I am sorry for your loss," Shouichi started. "I can guarantee that we are working around the clock to find out the truth."

"Meaningless." Rin hissed.

"I know."

Shouichi's straightforward acknowledgement seemed to disarm Rin for his shoulders sagged very slightly. He did not move, instead standing and staring at the tent that Shouichi was now standing next to. Shouichi knew that he should also go into the tent to look upon Kaida's face himself, but instead he found himself looking at the crowd that had gathered for Yuuto. Quickly spotting him, he then told Hirano:

"If you join the Doc in looking at the body," he said. "I will be back in a moment."

Hirano nodded, and then started the process of suiting up to go into the tent. Shouichi flashed his ID at the officers securing the gate, and then ducked beneath the crime scene tape to make a beeline for Yuuto and the students he was standing with. Shouichi recognised Nazuna, Clio, the boy who had been antagonising Yuuto, and Konoha. There was another boy with them, but Shouichi didn't recognise him. However, he was clearly a part of the little group they seemed to form whereas while Ottillie was also near them, she held herself apart from them.

"Hello there," he greeted them. "Were you the ones to discover the body?"

"No, I don't know, I think it was some random," Yuuto said immediately. "And then that lady turned up and started screaming the fucking sky down. But she's not Ena's mum, so…"

"Yeah, it's Kaida Adachi's mum, which we figured out once she and Adachi-san started yelling at each other, which means it's Kaida Adachi over there" the other boy said condescendingly. "I don't really know why you had to make a fuss about the Chief showing up. It was pretty fucking obvious after that."

"Because I need to know for sure, you dickhead," Yuuto retorted. "Besides, Kurihara needs to tell the police about those texts. And he's the police. Who else do you know in the police?"

Yuuto then turned back to Shouichi and looked at him expectantly. Alright, Shouichi thought, one thing at a time.

"You're right," he said. "It isn't Setsushi-san whose body has been found and obviously, given the circumstances here, you have already discovered who it actually is. Though I suspect it's too late to keep the news from spreading, I would ask you to be discreet when talking about it. Now, Kurihara-san, I understand you've been receiving texts."

Nazuna's shoulders hunched, but she nodded and held out her phone:

"I don't know if it's ever come up, but someone actually tried to grab me in the summer."

"Grab you…I assume that you mean an attempted abduction?"

Shouichi didn't know of this, although it pinged something in the back of his mind. A failed abduction from months before the disappearances had started happening in earnest would not have shown up on his radar. And given that all indicators were that Nazuna had escaped unscathed, it was unlikely that at the time, the case would have been pursued for very long. He only hoped that when he did look into the report of the case, any work done on it had at least been diligent.

Nazuna, for her part, was starting to look a little grey, but she answered him calmly enough:

"I, yes….but I escaped, and I didn't think anything of it until later….and until I started getting these messages."

Shouichi skimmed through them, nothing the language that resembled that of the messages on the notes, as well as some of the texts to Tomioka. He presumed that they'd also have similarities to the messages sent to Kiyomizu. Something he did note, however, was that the phone numbers were different. Different burner phones, he thought, to make it harder to trace them. He re-read the most recent text, and immediately turned his head to sweep his gaze across the grounds. Nothing seemed out of place, at least, not for the circumstances.

"Did you ever feel like you were being watched?" he asked Nazuna.

"I…well maybe, sometimes. I supposed for the most part, I assumed that I was just on edge, with everything."

"That's understandable," Shouichi said. "Now, I am going to have to ask you to come down to the station to give a full, complete statement of the correspondence you've been receiving as well as the previous attempted abduction. We will also need to take a look at your phone."

Nazuna nodded weakly, and Shouichi looked around for somewhere suitable for Nazuna to wait, when the arrival of three more people made him pause. The first, he recognised as Ichizo. The second was a student he didn't know, dressed in a crisp white and blue archery uniform. The third, an auburn-haired woman, took him a couple moments to place, but he did recognise her as Ririka Enjou, the IT manager. It was she who said:

"Has another body really been found, then?"

She didn't seem to be directing the question at anyone, but Clio turned to her and exclaimed:

"Enjou-san! Yes, there has. It's Adachi-san. You know, Kaida Adachi. Ito-kun's classmate."

Clio pointed at the third boy-the one Shouichi hadn't recognised, who seemed younger than Yuuto and Yuuto's rival. This boy looked rather embarrassed to be pointed at, going red and rubbing the back of his head.

"Enjou-san."

Rin had turned away from the argument that he had been having with his soon-to-be ex, and now regarded Ririka with a chilling expression. Indeed, Ririka shivered and wrapped her cardigan around herself.

"Adachi-san, I'm so sorry-" she started.

"I told you I'd hold you responsible, didn't I?"

Rin said these words quietly. Almost too quietly. But they seemed to suck the air out of the space around him, creating a bubble around him and Ririka. The IT manager blinked rapidly, seeming confused, and then she said:

"I couldn't have done anything," she said. "With the security footage, or even that day, if that's what you're talking about-"

"Well, yes, there's that," Rin continued, still deadly calm. "But I know, now. I know that you knew all along."

"I…" Ririka stammered. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"You know. I heard you confessing, after all. Chief Inspector, are you not going to arrest her?"

Shouichi was about to ask Rin what the hell he was talking about when Ichizo exclaimed:

"So it was you listening at the door!"

Rin flinched, and demanded:

"And how would you know anyone was listening at the door?"

"Oh," Ichizo said with a wolfish grin. "I know these things. But I don't think you know what you think you know."

"Yes, but I know full well that the police don't know, and that is damning evidence-"

"Rin!" Kaida's mother had come up to them. "You can't go around flinging baseless accusations for no reason-"

"You know nothing, Misa," Rin snapped at her. "Don't poke your nose into where you're not welcome-"

"Not welcome," Misa fumed. "Not welcome? She's my daughter too, not just yours, even though you'd prefer it that way! And, it wasn't you that saw her body being flung out of a moving car."

"I was not the one who didn't manage my time well enough to ensure that I picked up my daughter on time-"

Misa stumbled back, the colour draining from her. There was a flicker across Rin's face. Pain, perhaps. A realisation that he may have crossed a line. But then, he blinked and reached into his blazer pocket for his phone. He read it, and a slight smile tugged at his lips, even as his eyes remained heavy.

"And unlike you, Misa, I'm the one who has actually been trying to make up for the incompetence of all the investigative efforts so far, and I'm the one who has found something. Something to damn Ririka Enjou-"

"Wait, what?" Ririka trembled. "What do you mean? What…how, I mean-"

"Enough."

There was a shocked silence where the other adults gawped at Shouichi. But before he could even begin to untangle what was going on, the student who had been with Ichizo and Ririka stepped forward and earnestly said to Shouichi:

"Enjou-sensei wouldn't do anything wrong! She just wouldn't! Please don't arrest her."

"It is a bit premature to be-"

"Fujiwara-san, do not stick your nose into where it is not warranted-"

"I'm sorry, Adachi-sensei," the girl interrupted, bowing. "But you're wrong! I don't know what's happening and I'm sorry about your daughter, but you're wrong!"

"Fujiwara-san, it's alright," Ririka said, clearly trying to reassure her. "Let me talk with the Chief Inspector here. I have something to tell the police in any case. Shall we go to our office? Izawa-san, will you come as well?"

"It's her," Rin insisted. "I have access to the evidence now. Arrest her."

"No," the student said. "No, no-"

"Fujiwara-san," Clio called. "Come and stay with us. The Chief Inspector will sort it, don't worry. I'm sure you're right, but he'll make sure of it."

Fujiwara appeared extremely doubtful and looked to Ririka. Despite being very clearly afraid and confused, Ririka managed a smile as she said:

"Go on. You know Fujita-san, don't you? You two are classmates, right?"

"I…yes. Are you sure, sensei?"

"Yes, Fujiwara-san, I am sure."

Fujiwara didn't seem fully satisfied with this, but she did walk over to Clio and the others. Shouichi considered Ririka and Rin, then turned his head when he heard his name being called. When Tomita walked over, Shouichi immediately directed him to take a statement from Rin, despite the legal advisor protesting heavily. Another officer came to take care of Misa.

Shouichi then instructed Nazuna to go and wait where she had been waiting before until either he or another detective was free to escort her to the police station. She told him that she was in the Student Café, and she, Clio, Yuuto, Fujiwara, Konoha and the other two boys went back in there, while Ottillie strode off elsewhere, looking utterly fed up. Once he was satisfied they were gone, he turned to Ririka and Ichizo and said:

"Enjou-san, as you suggested, let us go to your office."

"Ah, yes, sure," Ririka said. "I may as well get this over with."

Shouichi refrained from asking what she meant by this, and Ririka did not offer anything. Ichizo attempted to start a mundane conversation with them, but mercifully stopped this attempt fairly early on, and they walked in silence through the main building to Ririka's office. But when they got there, Ririka paused and frowned at the door. Shouichi was not sure why, until she turned around to stare at Ichizo, her grey eyes widened with fear.

"I did not lock it."

"Shiiiiiit." Ichizo said in a long, low, whistle.

Ririka took a deep breath, and then pushed her door open and stepped into the office. She then gasped and stumbled back, putting her hand to her mouth.

"That's…someone's broken in! must have been listening at the door, then like you said!" she stammered to Ichizo.

Ichizo came into the room himself, standing by the doorway. He also gasped, and then turned to

"Hey, Chief, I reckon you should take a look. This is, uh, well, we sure didn't leave it like that, let's just say that."

He stepped back into so that Shouichi could come into the room, and he did so. And although he had never been in Ririka Enjou's office before he could tell that this was not how it normally was. With papers strewn everywhere, and drawers left open, it was clear that somebody had ransacked the place looking for something.

But whether they had found it or not, he did not know.