Chase The Truth

Chapter 61: Confrontation

Begin

~Normal POV

12/5 - Monday

Today was a holiday off from school, since it was the anniversary of the school being founded, which meant they had the whole day to devote to investigating. That part worked out in their favor. But once they actually started asking around town, things stopped going so smoothly.

Naturally, it was a fruitless effort. Nobody remembered anything about the murders other than that they happened. And nobody had anything to say about a suspicious person, besides Namatame. Once it got dark out, the gang finally had to concede defeat. They all met up in the shopping district and went to Aiya to talk over their findings, or lack thereof. Thankfully, because of the fog, they were the only customers here tonight. So they could somewhat discuss things privately. Usually the diner was a lot busier.

"There was absolutely no talk about the case whatsoever," Yukiko said, sadly. "Let alone a true culprit."

"In my case, I kept getting bombarded with questions and couldn't get them onto the main subjects at all..." Rise whined, resting her chin on her palm, "The killer must be pretty good to have pulled this off without being seen by anyone in this small town..."

"What should we do?" Yosuke asked, frowning.

Yu looked around at all their dejected faces. It had been a long day of wandering all over town; and they came up practically empty. It was bound to make them a little upset.

"Well," He said, getting their attention, "I think we're all pretty tired from walking around all day. Let's eat first. It won't do us any good to try figuring stuff out while we're all tired and hungry. Order whatever you want, it's on me."

This perked them up a little. It was bound to help them think more clearly if they had more energy. After they finished their meals, they were feeling much better.

"Whew, now that our tummies are full, let's share what we learned..." Chie said, "Even if it wasn't much." One by one, they shared what little they had found. But as she said, it wasn't much at all. "So to sum up... There really was no new information... The end?"

"The police had an unusually large number of officers in their initial investigation of the first two incidents." Naoto said, "To find facts that even they overlooked would be difficult indeed, now that over half a year has passed. There wasn't a single report of suspicious persons to begin with... Ms. Yamano had ardent fans, whereas Saki-san didn't, but otherwise the conditions are the same."

"Ya know, every time I tried to ask about the case, everyone ignored me and kept ranting about the damn fog," Kanji said.

"Yeah, that or the Midnight Channel." Rise added, "I asked around about Teddie too... But no one's seen him. Gee... I wonder where he could have gone."

"Do you have anything, Naoto?" Yosuke asked, hopefully, "Any new... deductions?"

"Without any new data to work with, there isn't much I can do... But there must be someone in town who meets all the criteria for this case. The killer must have a connection to both Saki-san and Ms. Yamano... As well as be in a position to observe our actions periodically, to some extent... Finally, it must be someone who can approach senpai's house without arousing suspicion..." Naoto sighed and stood up. "I need some fresh air before I give it more thought. I'll be outside." She walked out the door.

Yu figured that he wasn't getting any further in thinking this over either. So he decided to join her and went outside. It was dark and even harder to see through it because of the fog. Even the streetlights planted around barely helped.