Ace Attorney Investigations: Haunting Memories

Chapter Twenty Four

April 3 1:35pm

Interpol Headquarters ~ Drew Self's POV

D and I arrived at Q Branch, the man himself soon coming into view. Q was waiting for us by a line of filing cabinets that were presumably filled with all sorts of case files. "You said that she was hiding here?" D asked.

Q nodded in response. "She hasn't moved, like you said. But I also can't seem to find the cats anywhere..."

"You mean those?" I asked, glancing under the filing cabinets. Kotoko was indeed hiding there, her yellow eyes illuminated in the darkness. At her side were two felines, who she was stroking and hugging for comfort.

"M-Mr. N...!" she gasped when she saw me. "Um... I can explain...!"

"No need," I replied. "I already know. But why did you lie about it?"

Kotoko hesitated, looking down as one of the cats nuzzled her hand. "I-I can't say... It's too dangerous..."

"Too dangerous?" D repeated. "What about that key chain is so dangerous?"

"Listen, Kotoko," I began. "I understand why you're afraid. I understand why you'd be intimidated by everything that's going on; that's normal. But... sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do. But... we have to, to make sure everyone's okay. So... if you know something - anything - we need to know about it."

Kotoko remained silent, now having curled into a ball with her knees below her chin. "... That chain..." she eventually whispered. "I-I've seen it before... But that's all I can say...!"

I looked up at the other two Interpol agents, watching their expressions. Q looked a little confused about the whole ordeal, but D had a small frown on her features. "... That's fine." she said. "That's all the information we need."

"It is?" Q asked.

"N, you take Kotoko home. Make sure she's alright." D commanded. I nodded, taking Kotoko's hand and leading her out of the building (as soon as I could drag her away from the cats). I'm technically a higher rank than her, but I don't want to make her angry, so I follow whatever orders she gives. I've heard that making D angry is one of the worst things you could do, and I didn't want to test if those rumours were true.

Kotoko was rather silent on the way back to her house. "Hey, where's your rabbit?" I asked, noticing that she didn't have the toy with her. "Did you leave it at home?"

The girl nodded. "Uh-huh. I didn't want to lose him at the place where you work, so I told him to stay at home. He's kind of all I have now, so I have to keep him safe. Now that Mommy and Daddy are gone, and I haven't seen my big brother in a while..."

"Do you have any idea where he could have gone?" I questioned. "He might know something about the incident, so it's essential that we question him."

Kotoko shrugged with a sigh. "I don't know... I'm starting to think he ran away... That he's scared and went to hide without me..."

"I-I'm sure he'll be back in no time at all." I lied, opening the front door to Kotoko's residence. "Just... the two of us will wait here and he could come back during that time, right?"

"O-Okay..." Kotoko nodded. She spotted her white rabbit plush on the couch and grabbed it, hugging it closer to her. "Mr. N... when this case is over, what will happen to me? I have no one else to take care of me..."

"I... I don't know." I admitted. "Right now... that's not really for me to decide. Half of it is really your choice."

Kotoko sighed and flopped onto the couch. "What about you?" she asked, turning to face me. "What about your family?"

I hesitated, the subject of family being a pretty touchy one. "Well..." I began, despite not wanting to talk about it. "I have my two little sisters. You actually remind me a lot of them. You have the same kind of personality type, so I think you'd get along with them."

"Really?" Kotoko gasped, a smile on her face. "That's so cool! When this is all over, can you introduce me? Please, Mr. N? Pleaaaaaaaase?"

"Okay, okay, I will. Promise." I replied with a smile. I watched as Kotoko skipped in celebration, but was quickly distracted from it when a voice entered my ears through my earpiece. "N, how is Kotoko?" the stern voice, which I recognised as D's, asked.

"She's fine. We got back to her house okay." I replied. "What about the evidence? Is the fingerprinting done yet?"

"Yes. You'll want to see it. But don't bring Kotoko with you, okay?" D requested. "She... She wouldn't agree with what we found."

"B-But I can't leave her on her own...!" I protested. "Not at a time like this...!"

"It's okay, Mr. N!" I heard Kotoko exclaim behind me. "I'll be fine on my own for a while! Just be sure to come back, okay?"

I nodded and left the house, bracing myself for what could be so bad about these fingerprints.

April 3 2:10pm

Interpol Headquarters

"So... you managed to uncover some fingerprints?" I asked as soon as I had entered Q Branch. "They're not Felix's, right?"

"No," Q shook his head. "But they also don't belong to Kotoko or either of the deceased."

"In other words, we have unidentified fingerprints." D sighed. "But that's fine. That finally tells us clear as day who the culprit is."

"It does?" I gasped. "How?"

"There's only one person who lives in that household whose fingerprints we have not been able to obtain." D explained. "Someone who fits the profile of the killer perfectly, given recent events."

"Are you talking about...?" Q asked, his voice trailing off into nothingness.

D nodded, her lavender fringe causing a shadow to fall over her eyes. "Yes. I'm talking about Kotoko's older brother... Kitoka Minami."

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Did anyone actually see this coming or at least suspect Kitoka before this chapter

I'm curious

AceAttorneyFan over and out!