Chase The Truth

Chapter 42: The Detective's Secret

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~Normal POV

9/17 - Saturday

Once again, they had to hunt for more information about Naoto before they could track him in the tv world. There was still too much they didn't know about him, after all. This part was a little uneasy for them too. As it involved talking with a few police officers. These were the only people they could find that might know something about the detective. They still didn't know where he lived, so they couldn't ask his family. Yu was concerned the cops might blab to his uncle. But Chie assured him that it'll probably be ok. As far as the police knew, they were just concerned kids looking for their friend. (Or at least, that's how they persuaded the cops to give them info.)

So today they were able to jump back into the tv world with everything they needed. Rise was quick to track Naoto's location and led the way. The basic gist they got was that Naoto was kicked out of the Inaba Police Department recently, and was being treated like a child by the cops. On top of that, he was stated to have an unusual obsession with solving this case. Like it was his personal responsibility to solve it himself. Which explained Dojima's comment about how he's always pouring over his work. Naoto was probably very stressed out and exhausted...

The place Rise led them to was unlike anything they'd seen yet. The entrance was sticking out of the ground. It looked something like a secret bunker of sorts. On one side of it was a noticeable painting of a phoenix. And there was some barbed fencing around the area.

"What is this place...?" Kanji asked.

"It's all sci-fi..." Yosuke commented. "Hey- doesn't it remind you of those secret hideouts in live action shows?"

"Oh yeah..." Kanji said, nodding. "I used to watch Featherman all the time when I was a kid."

"I hear those are really tough shoots," Rise said, "A lot of the actors do their own stunts, like jumping through fire themselves."

"Well it's every man's dream to do that stuff," Yosuke said.

"I can understand that," Chie said, "They're action based, like kung fu movies. And just the phrase secret hideout has this exciting ring to it!"

Yosuke smirked. "So this secret hideout came from Naoto's mind? I guess our proper boy detective isn't as grown up as he looks."

Yu was staring at the entrance silently. He was still hung up on what exactly it was about Naoto's Shadow that bothered him so much. It wasn't just the fact that he was kidnapped and thrown in here for them to even see the Shadow. It was something about the Shadow itself. It was hard to describe, but it seemed different from the real Naoto in a way...

"Senpai?" Rise said, quizzically, noticing how he didn't seem to be listening to the conversation.

Yu turned to the others and figured they might be able to help him. "Um... Listen- I know this is a weird time to ask, but... Has anyone noticed anything about Naoto that you thought was worth remembering, but maybe you would have considered... unusual? Anything at all?"

He was met with puzzled looks from his friends. For a few moments, nobody said anything. Until-

"Um... he's exempt from gym class," Kanji said, quietly.

"What was that, Kanji?" Yu asked.

Kanji shrugged. "Well, I don't think it's weird or whatever, but yeah. Before he left school, there was a day where his class had gym alongside mine. I came out of the locker room and saw Naoto walk up and hand over a doctor's note. Teacher said it was alright. So the rest of us had to do laps, while Naoto got to sit on the bleachers reading the whole time. He didn't even have to get changed or anything."