Chapter Text
10/21:
The sun was setting over the streets of Inaba’s Central Shopping District leaving me mellow and light, an increasingly rare sensation which I promised not to take for granted as autumn was in full swing. I was walking home from Yasogami High, munching on an apple and wondering how I was going to deal with final exams, part-time work, and checking in with friends and family.
Oh yeah and figuring out the culprit behind a series of serial murders. Can’t forget that one now, can I?
I’d been living in the small country town of Inaba for about 9 months, but you’d think I’d lived here all my life based on how rapidly I’d become this strange mix of self-help guide, resident handyman, and supernaturally powered private detective. Mom and Dad broke the familiar news I’d be packing my bags for the sake of their high-flying careers, and I expected it to play out like every other move I’d made before this one: A few months of keeping my head down and studying, from which I’d be snatched away just as I threatened to actually settle into somewhere for once. Rinse and repeat until high-school graduation, and then onto university back in Tokyo.
It was all meant to be so simple...
Knowing in advance I’d have a full year in Inaba with my uncle and cousin, the hope was I'd just be able to keep my head down without anyone making too much fuss. I should have figured that wouldn’t be the case after some long-nosed limo driver granted me, of all people, the power to do battle with gods and monsters. It would be hard to explain to anyone without them thinking I needed an extended stay at a psych ward but take it from me: whatever it was I had been gifted in that so-called “velvet room” was no joke.
"In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of sort, after which you will return here."
Not to mention that all of this was just the warm-up for something far more frighteningly grounded in the real world. I never imagined I’d turn up in Inaba right at the beginning of a series of killings which would shock this town out of its sleep. Not that these were just any run-of-the-mill murders either, since the perpetrator was using some sort of hidden parallel world populated by monsters which lurked inside your TV screen. The murderer didn’t even have to deliver the killing blow themselves, since if a victim was left in this “TV world” for long enough, they’d soon be killed by the monsters which lurked within.
And left the next day to be strung up on some telephone pole... grizzly stuff.
I sighed, worn down by the ridiculousness of playing both an amateur detective for some supernatural murder mystery, and an everyday exchange student from the big city mooching his way through till March. But, as I looked around at what few open shops remained in what must have been a charming little district back in the day, it dawned on me how protective I felt towards this town, and the lengths I’d gone to improve the lives of its people.
Hard to believe how miserable I felt when I first got here now that I think about it...
Maybe it was just the fact I was missing a real sense of “home” for so many years, not to mention a sense of actual family as I became far closer to my uncle and cousin in several months than I'd even been with my parents. But it was enough for me to know that tracking down the murderer wasn’t just some teenage fantasy at playing cops and robbers. It showed how Inaba and its people had taken me in and trusted me with their problems, problems which, I had to admit, felt good for me to try and guide them through.
Chief among these people were, of course, the close friends I’d made since I’d arrived: Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, and Rise, the members of our so-called Investigation Team. Each had earned their place by confronting their Shadows inside the TV world: personifications of the most self-loathing and repressed aspects of their psyche. In order to tame your Shadow, you had to acknowledge they were a fundamental part of who you are, with all the good and bad that came with it.
As the weeks turned into months, I’d come to see all of them as trusted confidants, our bonds strengthened by combat in the TV world, our pursuit of the real culprit behind the murders, and the every day ups and downs of high school life which we still had to somehow fit into the craziness going on around us. I'd arrived in Inaba as a loner from the big city, but the Investigation Team had morphed me into someone more fully formed: A leader, a fighter, a teacher, and most importantly...
...a friend. One that you could turn to and rely on whenever you needed them.
*ahem* “Excuse me…”
I turned around, caught totally unawares after being absorbed deep in thought. A well-kept older man in a suit and sunglasses faced me, his blank expression failing to mask the sense I was being closely studied behind his tinted shades.
“Hey, can I help you…?”
“My apologies; I was wondering if I might ask you a couple of questions?”
I looked up and down both ends of the street, wondering whether this guy had bought company with him and trying to work out how far I could run for help if things turned sour. It was hard not to feel on edge considering this might be some kind of carefully laid trap by the murderer waiting to bite down on me.
“Sure, go ahead then...”
I’ve gotta say, the last thing I expected after being stopped in the street by a mysterious stranger was an impromptu pop quiz on forensic science and detective work. Still, I’d done a fair bit of research in my off time as the investigation proceeded, and hey, if there’s one weakness of mine you can easily exploit, it’s getting me to show off knowledge on a subject I happen to like.
“Very good, very good!”, the mysterious stranger smilled while giving off a sense of quiet approval with each reply I gave. “Do you happen to be acquainted with Naoto-sam- uh, sorry, I mean Detective Naoto Shirogane?”
My guard immediately went back up at both the mention of her name and the poorly disguised slip of his tongue. Naoto was the most recent member of the Investigation Team and by far the most qualified for the actual job of, well, investigating. The fifth in a family line of distinguished consulting detectives, I had done a little background digging before we'd rescued her from the TV world which showed her talents were no exaggeration. Art forgery, kidnapping, and murder were just some of the cases she had brought to a resolution before she'd arrived in Inaba to help my Uncle who had been leadng the Inaba PD on the killings here without much success. With a record like hers, the thought crossed my mind that this man could very well be trying to settle a score on behalf of one of the several dangerous criminals she helped to convict.
“Sure do”, I said, readying myself into a combat stance I hoped Chie would be proud of after weeks of martial arts training. Sensing my flight-or-fight instinct (mostly fight by this point), the stranger quickly replied, “I know you know them, p-please, if you could just hand him this for me, they’ll understand.”
A thick white card was quickly shoved into my hand, and with surprising speed for a man his age, he dashed off down a side street before I had a chance to reply.
Ominous much...?
I turned over the card, both sides completely blank but with one bearing a scent of… citrus? Something fruity at the very least. I took the bold deductive leap that since I wasn’t frothing and convulsing in the street the card probably wasn’t poisoned and placed it in my satchelbag. Still, I couldn’t deny that the whole experience had bothered me, various competing theories bouncing around in my head as to what it all meant, and none of them good. The only thing I knew for certain was that I had to pass this on to Naoto, who’d be in a far better position to make sense of it all. I resumed my walk back home, working out in my mind how best to bring it up with her the next day.
10/22 (I):
The sound of rain on windowpanes leant a delicate charm to the corridors of Yasogami High. I’d just wrapped up my lessons for the day and breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Naoto just down the hall from me.
I wouldn’t say she and I were exactly… close by this point, though considering how much of a self-admitted introvert she was, I was glad at the fact she was starting to socialise with the entire Investigation Team outside of the case. When we weren’t investigating serial homicides, Naoto had proved willing to flex her piano-playing skills to help out in Yosuke’ little scheme to put on an impromptu show at Junes, and I’d even seen her become an unlikely study buddy to Rise, whose education had suffered after years of life as an idol.
Considering how her Shadow had tortured her over the lack of friends she had growing up, I appreciated how these small baby steps towards getting closer to people must have been difficult for her to make. Maybe that’s why I began to feel anxious as I approached her in the school corridor that afternoon…
I was just about to say hi when I found myself totally floored by Naoto carrying a deeply concerned expression, one which I hadn’t seen since we rescued her from the TV world. As I hesitated over whether to say anything, she turned around and let out a cry of surprise.
“Ah, Yu-san! S-sorry, I didn’t see you there. Is everything alright?”
I became uncharacteristically dumbstruck, unable to muster an appropriate reply at quick notice.
“Oh, yeah, e-everything’s fine; just wanted to see how you were holding up?”
That sure didn’t sound forced at all; nice one Narukami.
Naoto responded with an awkward half-smile. “Well, thank you for that… actually I’m not sure if I ever got the chance to properly thank you for saving me…”
Yet again, I found myself struggling to respond, settling with a slightly strained “Oh, you’re welcome; n-no need to thank me!”
Geez, you’d think I helped her find some lost stationary, why am I so off my game today?
She pulled her statchel bag over her shoulder and began to make for the exit. “I-I’m sorry, I hope you’re not offended by my brushing you off, but I have some things to think over, and…”
She slowly trailed off as the blank card I pulled out of my pocket caught her eye.
“What’s that you have there?”
I handed it to her and filled her in on the events of the previous day. Soon her expression of concern turned to one of investigative curiosity as she studied the card carefully, the pupils of her eyes expanding as she noticed its pungent citrus scent.
“Curious… he said I would understand? Understand what…?” She turned to look directly at me, her steely glare making me feel like I’d been caught with my hand in a till.
“Senpai, would you mind meeting me at the flood plain in about half an hour? I would like to know more about what happened when you received this card.”
I bristled a little, taken aback by the suspicious tone in her voice, though encouraged by her sudden shift away from despondency. “Yeah sure, I can meet you under the sheltered tables?”
She nodded in agreement. “Yes, that would be ideal. I just need to collect some things of mine, and I’ll head straight there.”
Naoto then moved off at a rapid pace, totally re-energised by the riddle I had placed in her hands. It was hard not to feel a little awed by the newfound confidence she exuded, which made me me wonder how exactly she’d left me feeling so… speechless a moment before. I peeked my head out of a nearby window, winced at the weather outside, and resolved to make my way to the floodplain.
10/22 (II):
It shouldn’t have surprised me that when Naoto said she’d meet me in half an hour, she literally meant 30 minutes and not a second less. I usually arrived at least five minutes before any scheduled plans and was leafing through a textbook to help pass the time.
“I’m glad to see you could make it Senpai, I hope the weather didn’t give you too much bother?”
I lifted my head from the pages and smiled, “No not really, I actually find it relaxing when not caught in the middle of it.”
She promptly sat down and took out a small notepad and pen, before looking directly at me from across the table. “To business then. In your own time, I want to hear exactly what happened between you and this mysterious man yesterday in the Central Shopping District.”
I went over every single detail I could possibly remember, with Naoto frequently interjecting with questions intended for her to create a mental and physical portrait of the man in question:
“What was the cut of his suit?”
“Did he have an accent?
"Did he seem like a local?”
“How did he physically carry himself?”
"How quickly did he run when he moved away from you?”
It was the kind of interrogation clearly honed through plenty of experience grilling witnesses and suspects alike, and carefully designed to help me recall tiny details which may not have seemed relevant to me at the time. But what really struck me was Naoto’s expression as I recalled the stranger's pop quiz on forensic science and detective work. As I went back over the questions and answers I gave on everything from footprint detection to blood spatter, I felt I detected not just surprise, but maybe a hint of… admiration? She'd been happy for me to continue as leader of the Investigation Team despite what I viewed as a gulf in experience between us as actual detectives, but I felt I'd caught her off guard with how well-informed I was on her line of work. After she finished her questioning, Naoto paused for a minute or two as she gathered her thoughts.
“Hmm… the fact that this man seems to know about us being acquainted with each other suggests he has been keeping me under observation for some time. It could very well be that he is trying to glean information on the murders or settle some past score. And yet… it’s interesting that he chose you of all people to give this card to me. After all, if his intentions were pure, it’s not as if Inaba is a big town or the Shirogane estate is difficult to track down.”
Whilst she was saying all of this, I noticed in the margins of her notepad she was drawing rows of tessellated triangles, wondering if it was some form of mental exercise that helped stimulate her thoughts. She stopped once it seemed she made up her mind on the subject.
“I’ll take the card off your hands if that’s alright. Whoever this man is, he is likely still in Inaba, and I don’t want you to get dragged into whatever this may portend.”
Suddenly, the nervousness I’d shown earlier in the school corridors was gone, replaced with a fire at being pushed away from this brand-new mystery that had been dropped into both our laps, especially if Naoto was in harm's way.
“Hey, I'm not going to back out of this now, not when we don’t know what this stranger has planned for you.”
The edge in my voice took us both by surprise, and I immediately felt guilty when I saw Naoto revert to that lost expression which had troubled me earlier.
“I… I appreciate your concern for me but…”
Just as I was about to apologise for my outburst I noticed a small twinge in her face.
“I'm sorry Senpai, I didn’t realise I was dismissing your own feelings on this matter… let me investigate this card in my own time, and I promise I’ll report my findings back to you. Would that be alright? I don’t want to have this take up too much of your mind considering how busy you must be as team leader.”
Her sudden shift took me by surprise, again leaving me at a loss for words. I managed to let out a faint “Yeah, sure, take all the time you need…” before gulping down on a bottle of water to try and get my mysteriously absent voice back.
Is Naoto… concerned about the impact the murder investigation is having on me?
I had a habit of bottling my emotions all up inside, and I rarely if ever talked about my own feelings with the Investigation Team since I was so busy working through their own problems. And so, the idea that someone was worried about my own wellbeing was…
Nice. It feels nice.
She smiled. “By the way, while we have the time, I had wanted to take the chance to ask if you’d like to chat? I had a few questions I wanted to ask about the case, given how much longer you and the others have been working on it than I have.”
I pulled out my own series of extensive notes on the murders from my backpack. The next few hours were spent by us going over as many details as possible, from the locations of the bodies to the backgrounds of the victims, helping each other fill in our respective gaps from both sides of the fence. It proved to be quite an education for me, as I found myself totally absorbed by her clarity of mind and keen investigatory instincts, making sure to return the feeling of respect she was now affording in me.
“I would say that about answers most of my queries for the present moment… I should really get back to the estate. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me Narukami-san.” S
he packed up her things and gave me a small wave goodbye as she bundled up the footpath, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
What the hell was that all about? You’re leading the hunt for a diabolical murderer, you’ve fought gods and monsters in parallel worlds, you play high-school sports damnit!
And yet here I was, left totally adrift when it came to stringing together sentences when alone with this shy blue-haired sleuth, who seemed she like carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. But she didn’t just leave me speechless either... in fact apart from my little cousin Nanako, I hadn’t met anyone who managed to bring out my protective side with so little effort. Not that I didn’t think “Detective Prince” Naoto Shirogane couldn’t handle herself when push came to shove. But the more that I thought about it…
Which was it that upset you more Yu? Being shut out of some brand-new mystery to solve? Or being shut out of spending more time with your new detective friend?
The rain began to pick up from a light drizzle into heavy sheets. I ran back home, choosing not to put up my umbrella in the hope that the downpour would wash away these strange feelings I had. I trusted that Naoto would eventually get back me to with her findings on the card and had plenty to do until then. But as I crashed face-first into my bed, soaking wet, I had to wonder where all of this discomfort inside me was really coming from...