Chase The Truth

Chapter 27: Surviving Finals

Begin!

~Normal POV

7/23 - Saturday

Painful as they often were, their final exams went by quickly. From the sound of it, it seemed only Yu and Yukiko had gotten out unscathed afterwards. At least it was a good temporary distraction from having to worry about the case. Yu had seen no sign of Naoto since their last encounter, not even around town normally. And no word had come from the news about any major arrests. The suspect must still be at large. At one point Yosuke even suggested that Naoto might have been lying to them, but Yu quickly dashed that claim. Naoto wouldn't have told them something so crucial as a joke. He wouldn't have had a reason to, and simply did not seem like a dishonest person. Plus, Yu had noticed how busy his uncle and Adachi were lately, which would have to mean they were on the suspect hunt too. For now all they could do was wait. After being let out of school, they all gathered at the special headquarters. (Minus Teddie, who seemed to have gone off somewhere.)

"I'm kinda bummed..." Chie said. "Not just because exams are over, but... the whole thing with the police finding a suspect. I mean, we believed that only we could solve this case. And now..."

"We still don't know yet." Yosuke said, "They haven't made an arrest."

"So... we gotta sit on our thumbs," Kanji replied, bluntly.

"Pretty much, yeah..." Yu said, shrugging.

"For crying out loud..." They looked and saw Adachi wandering the food court searching for something. He didn't notice them at first as he kept talking to himself. "It's nice to have a suspect but where the hell is he? We're at the end of our rope here..."

"Adachi-san?" Yu called out.

"Huh? Oh, you guys?!" Adachi replied, moving a bit closer to talk to them. "Did you hear what I said?" He didn't wait for them to reply before chuckling nervously. "This case is as good as solved! Don't worry, kids. It's only a matter of time before we bring in the suspect. I mean, the guy's kidnapping people at random and slaughtering them. We won't rest until we bring him to justice!"

They all gave him curious stares. It didn't sound like he was that terribly confident. He seemed more nervous and on edge.

"Ahem, well, I gotta get going...!" Adachi left them again quickly to get away from their scrutinizing gazes.

"...Now, I'm really worried..." Yosuke said, "On the other hand, if the police have a search warrant out for the guy, we should stay out of it."

"Agreed." Yu replied. "It's not like we can find him either. We don't even know who they're looking for."

There was a pause before Rise spoke up, trying to change the subject. "Oh, uh, I just remembered. There was a question on the exam that I didn't get. I think it was, 'The chemical formula HCHO, used for silver mirror reactions. Its 40% solution is known as formalin.' And the question was, 'What is HCHO?'"

"It's formaldehyde," Yu answered.

Rise looked a little disappointed. "Oh, I see. I chose acetic acid... Duh, of course it couldn't have been vinegar... Hey, you had that question too, didn't you, Kanji?"

"Shut up. Like I'm gonna remember," Kanji said.

"Wow, kinda harsh, aren't you?" Rise said, playfully. "I heard you got a nosebleed when you were around our senpai..."

"Who the hell blabbed about that?!"

"Anyways-" Chie said, quickly steering the conversation away from that. "Rise-chan, why don't you ask Yukiko to help you study?"