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April 27, 2025, Sunday; Shirogane Residence
Once the sun had dipped over the horizon, Naoto’s car came to park in their driveway. The usual showing of lights in the house were absent today, a sign that her husband and daughter had already fallen asleep. Still, she decided to call out as she entered their house. “…Yu? Chisato?”
No answer. She calls out again. “…Yu!! Chisato!! Neither of you have texted! Is there supposed to be some kind of surprise? Are you out somewhere? Are you not responding because you’re not allowed to? …Hello!? ”
Absolutely nothing. No sign of life, not even their dog Kento, the latter of which was naturally quite loud. Was even he part of today’s surprise…?
Naoto Shirogane was not an ignorant woman. She knew the reasoning behind this supposed secrecy. This was her birthday. In times previous, Yu had attempted to hide her present in a town-spanning mystery involving all of their friends which had taken up an entire week before the actual day of the party… And in others, he’d opted for something more traditional. Today felt more like the former, in execution at least.
“…If you choose not to come out, I will simply refer to my ultimate method of finding you.” Naoto threatens as she pulls out her phone, dialing her husband’s number in silence while awaiting his eventual giving up… but no such event transpired. “I’m not kidding, Yu! I will ruin your game right here!!”
…
After a final beat of silence, she follows through. Yu’s phone rings in the direction of her bedroom, which she travels to with haste. “This is it! I have found you—!!”
Pipipipipi!
But, to her surprise, she… hadn’t. Yu’s phone laid on the bed precariously near the edge, the only light in the room besides the one from her own phone blinking and buzzing and ready to fall onto the carpet.
“What…? This is…” Naoto reached out and grabbed it, declining the call and weighing the now darkened phone in her hand. She had only moments to examine it before another call came through, though not at all her own… Instead, an unknown number she felt the immediate urge to question as the lulls of a fabricated new mystery drew her in.
“Naoto Shirogane.” The other line opened right after she answered the call, startling her for a brief moment before it went into immediate explanation. “To have answered this call is to have accepted this mystery as your own. As you can tell, your husband, daughter, and loving dog are missing. Should you wish to find them again, you need only wait moments…”
“Who are you?” Naoto asks immediately as the voice finishes, eager to get as many notes as she can before the other end goes silent. “Are you the one who took them?”
“It doesn’t matter.” The artificial voice on the other line deftly dismisses, going back into what seems almost like a scripted segment. “In moments, you will need to look out the window, but don’t be close to it. Follow its instructions, and you shall find your family again. Be well.”
The window…?
CRASH!!
“Agh!! ” Naoto dove for cover behind their bed as the window to their bedroom shattered, the item responsible crumbling the moment it hit the floor. “Wh—What the hell is this…!?”
The call had already been ended, and she huffs angrily while standing and defiantly running up to where their window had been attacked. In the distance between their house and the forest, a man or woman in a black biker’s jacket dips between the trees, running without abandon in the fear that she would somehow catch them.
Instead of doing something as meaningless as that, she instead focuses her attention on the item left in pieces on her floor, ruined to the point that the message attached to it was almost completely shredded… But there was still a small bit of legible text. If the voice on the phone was correct, this would be critical to finding her family.
“…clinic…”
That was enough. Naoto slid her jacket back on, and retreated toward the car. She had a round trip to make.
…
Take Local Clinic
As always, the woman at the front desk welcomed her as she entered. This time, of course, came with reservations that Naoto noticed without so much as a second glance, and just a little bit of persuading helped her realize what exactly was being “hidden.” More persuading past that point was great in filling the gaps of her knowledge, and one final push had her meeting with the head doctor of the clinic during one of her many breaks; a familiar face, and perhaps a welcome one after so long.
“…Oh, it’s you.” Tae Takemi waves her in while yawning, her eyes fixed on her clipboard and a dozen other pointless things meant to draw away her energy until she could finally pack up and head home. “Make yourself at home, I know exactly why you’re here.”
“You’re not a big part of this mystery, I take it.” Naoto infers while following the doctor’s advice, clearing her throat as she takes her seat. “I promise I won’t stay long. May I ask you a quick question?”
“Might as well.” Tae dismissively accepts, still not sparing her a glance as she finishes up something on her clipboard. “Just shoot, I’ll answer if I can. I don’t owe anybody anything.”
“Did someone with silver hair come and bribe you to tell me to go somewhere else?” Naoto got straight to the point, shuffling forward with her chair to get into an interrogating position. “Did he tell you where the ultimate destination was?”
“That’s two questions, of three.” Tae informs her slightly late, the hidden smirk on her face giving away the fact it was probably intentional as she set down all distractions and faced her patient fully. “He did come, and with a bunch of other people. He told me to give you a bunch of hints to go to the local shrine, and no, he didn’t tell me anything else. Probably for privacy. You probably should get going before the sun sets, though.”
“Thanks. I’ll leave you to your business.” Naoto stands and wastes no more of the doctor’s time, exiting the room and passing another doctor with a familiar name on her badge who was going inside.
…
Local Shrine
“Here I am…” Naoto thinks aloud, doing her best to roleplay as she enters the mostly abandoned shrine. She checks every corner, plays it cautiously as if she’s about to get kidnapped. “The doctor told me to come here, but what else am I supposed to find…?”
click.
The telltale noise of a loaded chamber, and Naoto’s unable to turn before she feels the cold barrel against the back of her head, pressing against her cap. It’s the huff of a man behind her, gruff and unbecoming, not any one she thinks she recognizes… Though her friends have often changed their voices like this. She plays along still.
“Aha… It seems you’ve gotten me.” Naoto coyly drawls, lifting her revolver from where she’d reflexively grasped it in her left hand. “Don’t shoot. I’ll play nice… Take me to where I know you’ve taken everyone else.”
“Don’t play dumb, dammit.” The rough bump of the barrel against her head alongside the gritty nature of his voice has her rethinking the current predicament rather quickly. “Just... drop the gun…”
This was bad. If it was one of Naoto’s friends, she could rest easy and listen to his instructions, but if it wasn’t… She’d have to bail herself out. The more she heard from him, the more certain she became of the latter. The basic instructions for how to disarm a man who has a gun pointed at the back of her head rocket through her mind at a million miles per second, to the point she barely hears the instructions or lightening of his voice as her body goes into overdrive.
“…Gahh, did I overdo it? Sorry, man, I—OWW!! ” Yosuke shies away for only a moment, the bag over his head being lifted enough for his voice to filter through but not fast enough for Naoto to hear before she’s flipped around, broke his hand free of the gun, and pinned him on the ground.
“Wh…!? U-Uhh…” Naoto gasped sharply and removed herself from his body, leaving him groaning on the dirt as the guilt piled up for her. “O-Oh, no! I’m sorry, Yosuke-kun…! I thought the gun was real!”
“Ngh… Y-Yeah, that’s kinda my fault… ahaha…” Yosuke tries playing it off nicely, but it’s clear by the way he’s rubbing his hand as he stands that she’d accidentally gone too far. “Sorry, I was gonna lead you to a car, and that car was gonna take you back home. Everyone’s waiting there…”
“You'r… You’re giving up the game?” Naoto asked worriedly, the immediate concern that she’d hurt her friend intensifying even more now. “No, no… did I break your hand!?”
“G-Gahh… I-I’m fiiiineee…” Yosuke doesn’t hide his pain well, and gestures for her to walk ahead while he licks his wounds. “The car’s up the block, to the left of the shopping district… First turn you can make on the road, make it…”
“Th-Thank you.” Naoto bows half-heartedly, then rushes away from him out of shame for ruining the surprise. Yosuke can only sigh and lean against something as he massages his hand, hoping the bruise starts to go away sometime.
…
Shirogane Residence
Her own car was already back in the driveway as the mysterious driver of the car she’d been in for the past few minutes pulls close to the house, then signals for her to get out in silence. Naoto obeys for no other reason than the fact she still felt guilty, enough so that even when she entered the darkened house, she didn’t have the guts to tell anyone she knew what was about to happen.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” Suddenly, all the lights flicker on and all of her friends jump out with big smiles and cheers. Her daughter was first to crash into her leg, happily giggling and holding a present under her armpit. “Mommy! I got you a pwesent!!”
“Ho-Hold on there, little detective! Haha…! ” Yu Shirogane runs out next, only to pull her away and give his wife some space while flashing an apologetic smile. “We don’t give presents until after the party!”
“Nooo!!” Chisato pouts about that fact for a little while, before forgoing her father’s wishes and thrusting her present outward. “M-Mommy! Take iiiiit! Pwesents first!”
“V-Very well…” Naoto leans down and snatches the present before her husband can, tucking it into her coat so nobody can take it back. It isn’t long before everyone else has surrounded her, all with presents of their own.
“Hey driveeeer! You can come in now!” Rise shouts through the walls, waving in a certain position she hopes her wife can see. “Party’s staaaarting!”
“…I’m already here.” Marie pops out from behind her, startling everyone present to the point she chuckles. “…What? Did you really think I’d just wait until you were all done? Pssh. You’re all even dumber than I thought. Stupidmorons. ”
“‘Sup, Naoto-kun! Soooo, how was the surprise?” Kanji asked with a bashful expression about him, one he seemed to have because he hadn’t been told anything. “You’ve got a face that says yeah, but did we surprise you or what? Tell us straigh—OWW!! ”
“You can knock that off!” Yosuke chides gruffly, using his free hand to knock his husband upside the head, his other hidden in his pocket. “She has every right not to tell you, so leave it!”
“Hello, Naoto-kun…” Yukiko bows gracefully alongside her wife, a soft smile marring what otherwise seems like a face ready to melt from overworking. “I’m sorry we haven’t been able to meet so often, the inn and the kids are just so much work…”
“…Hey, I keep telling you to go to sleep!” Chie flicks the proprietress’s shoulder with something approaching mild annoyance, yet manages to keep her face focused and happy. “B-But… yeah! Hope you’re doing well, Naoto-kun! We didn’t really know what cake to buy you, so…”
“I made one, yeah.” Yu finishes for her, cupping his wife’s hands in his while leading her to their dining table in the next room over. “Hey, you can decide what to do first once we’re in there and you’ve seen it. Kento, come out here!”
Their corgi, as ordered, runs out of the bedroom with barks galore and quickly rounds the birthday lady as the group leads Naoto toward the dining room, everyone chattering so happily she can barely keep up with each inquiry. The moment she sees the cake, however, all the noise becomes static in her ears. It’s a massive thing, wide enough to fit the whole table and tall enough that she’s afraid it’ll fall under its own weight. It’s dyed light blue with white icing around every edge, with dark blue ribbons and decorations marking every vertical end of the cake so it isn’t so uniform in one color. At the very top, she can see a cake pop in her image that could only have been homemade.
Yu was a good cook, yes, but this seemed even above his paygrade. How did he do this?
Naoto had a sinking feeling she wouldn’t know. As she reached in and pulled out the present from her daughter, she chanced opening it as everyone was focused on sitting down and talking amongst one another. Whatever it was, she’d enjoy it, but… It was so small. What could it be…?
…
…Oh.
It was a set of watches. Not identical to the ones on her and her husband’s wrists, worn since they were in high school, but close enough that Naoto would be quick to assume her daughter had based it off of them. A little post-it note was attached to the glass on the front of hers, with her daugther’s elegant handwriting covering the entire page.
“ QUICK NOTE!!! READ!!!
Mommy and Daddy have been wearing watches that say ‘>10 m’, so I asked my teacher what that was and made ones that go up to 10000 m! Now you and Daddy can know where you are forever! I tried it with Uncle Kanji and Auntie Chie, and it went for a while before it stopped counting! Try it!!!!! Love you!!!!!!!!!”
“Ooh, what’s this?” Yu tilts the small present downward, having grown impatient of waiting at the table for her to sit. His eyes go wide as he reads the message, and he pulls out the one designated for him. “Wh… Wha…? There’s no way this…”
Intent on testing the truth of that message, Yu slips it on his wrist and starts backing away from Naoto, who was still stationary with tears pricking from her eyes. The moment he reached 10 meters, he continued one more step backward…
The watch read ‘11 m’ . He didn’t need any more proof beyond that.
…And neither did she.