AI The Somnium Files: Into the Abyssmare (WIP)

Chapter O2-3: Lemniscate

Date drives back home. Aiba projects her human form onto the passenger seat and pretends to look contemplatively out the window. Date drives silently, thinking about how he would present his findings to Iris, hoping it would be enough for her to drop the subject.

"What's on your mind?"

I'm thinking about how to tell Iris about our investigation results.

"I can call her right now if you want."

Nah, I think I'd rather do it in person. Aiba, where is Iris right now?

"Let's see... It appears her phone is over at Lemniscate."

Alright. I'll head over there.

Date drives over to the Shibuya District and arrives in front of Lemniscate Entertainment Offices. He walks in and immediately sees Iris waiting in one of the sofas. She hears the door opening and turns to see Date walking in.

"Date! How's your investigation going?" Iris asks excitedly.

"What?" Date says, slightly confused. "How do you know about that?"

"Your boss told me!" Iris answers.

"Boss? But, how does she know?" Date asks.

"She told me you were in Kabukicho!" Iris answers.

What the hell? Boss is tracking us? Why?

"Perhaps she was curious about whether we would investigate or not."

Even then, she doesn't know why I was in Kabukicho. For all she knew, I could've gone there for a drink.

"That is strange. We should ask her later."

"Yeah, I started investigating" Date tells Iris. "I still don't care about them, but I'm doing it because I don't want you to endanger yourself while investigating them."

"What do you mean?" Iris asks.

"You're not a detective" Date says. "Detective work isn't something just anyone can do. There's a reason we go through extensive training in order to become one. You never know what kinds of dangers each case brings to the table. You of all people should be well aware of this after the Cyclops Killer case."

"How dangerous can a DJ unit be?" Iris asks.

"More than you'd think" Date answers. "One of the members of Abyssmare is always followed by guys in suits. And you remember the last case, right? Can't exactly trust goons after that."

"Oh" Iris looks down. "But that's why you're investigating them for me, right?"

"...Yeah" Date answers. "So far, I haven't found any evidence of cheating. According to a witness, you were the only one acting strangely that night."

"A witness?" Iris asks. "How did you find a witness?"

"A girl went back to the club to look for something she'd lost" Date answers. "She apparently saw you, but didn't know who you were. But she says the person she saw was wearing pink. She even described the A-Set logo, so I'm pretty sure she was referring to you."

"That's amazing!" Iris says. "So what else did you find out?"

"They didn't use smoke machines, so that eliminates any possibility of using them to distribute any substances" Date says. "Besides, there weren't any traces of anything in your body this morning."

"What about the DJ equipment?" Iris asks. "Maybe there's mind control waves in there!"

"If there was, more people- including the girl I talked to- would've been affected by it" Date says.