Plurk paste

Kanji takes one look at the gathering clouds and sighs, then sends a text to the group conversation with Rise and Naoto. If they’re both free - and with rain on the way, they probably will be - today’s as good a day as any to actually pay Naoto back for giving them Kubo’s name.

They grab lunch from Aiya on the way, then head up to the hill, settling in under the gazebo just as the first drops of rain start to fall. Kanji doesn’t really start in on the whole explanation until after they’re done eating, and lets Rise chip in whenever she has something to say about it. Naoto doesn’t ask as many questions as he’d expected, which is weird, but he’s not complaining - he might not know how to answer all of them anyway.

Once he and Rise have gone through everything they can think of, Naoto sits back and nods. “So it’s the television this time.”

“Well, yeah, it’s - wait, what the hell do you mean ‘this time’?”

“Precisely what I said. I know of at least one other case that matches the general flow of this one.”

Rise’s eyes look about ready to pop out of her head. “Well, what happened then? How do you know about it? Why is it happening <i>again</i>?”

“I can’t answer the last question, as I don’t know. I know about it because Grandpa told me the story. He knows about it because he was directly involved.”

“Your - holy shit.” It makes sense that Naoto’s family would’ve taken an interest in this kind of weird shit no matter when it went down, but still. “I’m with Rise. What happened?”

“In the fall of 1944, a series of dead bodies began appearing around town after a string of rainy days. They all appeared to have been dropped from a great height, but each autopsy confirmed the victim was dead well before falling - their actual cause of death couldn’t be determined.”

“That sure sounds familiar,” Rise murmurs. “Except for the ‘just dropping on the ground’ part, but I guess there wasn’t as much to catch something on back then, was there?”

“Inaba was a very different town at the time, yes. Not just because of the lack of infrastructure - the local coal mines were still active, and this was the height of the wartime evacuations from the major cities. Not to mention, television wasn’t even all that popular in America during the war, never mind here.”

Naoto stretches and takes a deep breath before continuing. “Grandpa was too young to have to worry about conscription yet, and his older brother was deferring it on account of his education. They were planning to share the burden of the Shirogane family’s legacy, solving cases both together and separately, and they were both living on the family estate at the time. Other than the dead bodies, their first indication of something unusual happening was a rumor spreading about a radio program called The Theatre of the Mind.”

Kanji snorts. “Lemme guess, it only played at midnight in the rain?”

“In the static between properly identified stations, yes,” Naoto confirms. “Grandpa and Great-Uncle Katsu were able to determine fairly quickly that the program whispered about anyone who was currently the talk of the town, and that the shift from people talking about someone else to someone talking about themselves was a sign of imminent danger. Unfortunately, their test case for that theory came about when Grandpa went missing.”

“Well, you’re here, so I’m guessin’ they got him out somehow. And I don’t think you could jump in a radio, so… how?”

“There used to be a theatre across town - in fact, one of the people they rescued later was a member of a traveling troupe of actors that was stuck here over the winter because of the evacuation orders - and they’d discovered quite by accident that the stage door sometimes literally opened up to another world. Of course, before he could be rescued, Grandpa had to address his resentment over having to share the detective legacy and envy of Great-Uncle Katsu, but he was able to do that in due time.”

“Yeah, after it yelled at him and his brother fought it, I bet…” Rise trails off, frowning. “Across town? Not… not where they built <i>Junes</i>?”

“Precisely where they built Junes. I don’t know if that’s related, but I’m reluctant to call it a coincidence. In any case, much as you and your new friends are doing, they assembled a ragtag team of those they rescued after Grandpa’s kidnapping, and by the next summer they had identified the culprit - I believe he was related to the owners of the barber shop.”

“Explains why the barber shop closed so damn quick.” Most people chalk it up as another Junes casualty, which just makes Kanji want to ask if they’re completely stupid. Junes doesn’t even <i>offer</i> haircuts, and the barber shop closed before his dad died, and that was way before Junes was even sizing up the area. Probably nobody who was left wanted to keep the association with an old crime around.

“Okay, but if it’s come back, there must be something else behind it,” Rise says. “That was a <i>while</i> ago. I mean, is anyone else from your grandpa’s team even still alive? So it can’t be the same person stirring the pot again, unless they’re not human. And it’d take a lot for your family to drop any kind of loose thread like that.”

“There… was a recent funeral associated with the group,” Naoto says, after thinking about it for a while. “Otherwise, I think Grandpa’s down to one remaining comrade in arms, but another moved back to Kyoto at the first opportunity; I don’t know if Grandpa even knows what became of her. As for the loose thread, they suspected there was one, but… remember when our story began. Right at the end of July, Great-Uncle Katsu was contacted about a potential case in Hiroshima.”

“Well, fuck,” Kanji says, after the silence has stretched on just a little too long. “That’d do it.”

Naoto nods. “Quite. Great-Uncle Katsu had been serving as the group’s leader, and the circumstances meant there wasn’t even anything to bury. By the time any of them could face the idea of carrying on the investigation without him, the theatre had burned down, taking their access point to the other world with it. Grandpa has never forgiven himself.”

“For <i>what</i>?” Rise sounds absolutely incredulous, and she looks it, too. “None of this was his fault!”

“And yet, our family’s very good at internalised guilt. It’s eaten at him that this has gone unresolved for so long, only more so because it’s started all over again and he has two more deaths to feel responsible for.” Naoto waits until they both make eye contact to continue. “So I hope this helps you both to understand why I <i>must</i> get involved.”

Rise drops her head into her hands. “Oh my <i>god</i>, Nori, no. You don’t have to.”

“I do! For Grandpa’s peace of mind, for my family’s honor, and because the police are going to close the current case with the <i>wrong culprit</i> if someone doesn’t make them sit up and take notice. I cannot allow this to go unresolved. I’ve scheduled an interview for the middle of September, after the school trip to Iwatodai.”

“I’m with Rise on this one. You’re being a complete dumbass.” That won’t stop Kanji from being there to rescue and support Naoto anyway, but this is one of the stupidest ideas he’s heard in his life, and <i>his</i> ideas include ‘chase a biker gang down on a bicycle because Mom can’t sleep.’ “…Wait. ‘The’ school trip? Not ‘your’? Did you enroll?”

Naoto nods. “Grandpa thought it would be a good idea if I were to interact with more of my peers. Besides… they’re threatening to remove me from the case entirely, since I keep insisting their established conclusion isn’t the correct one. Enrollment gives me a legitimate reason to stick around for a while.”

“They went to all this trouble asking for your help, which you’re not even making them pay for, just to throw you off because you told them something they don’t wanna hear?” Rise sighs. “That’s really stupid of them. But we’ll just have to keep an eye on you at school, and - oh yeah! The summer festival’s coming up! Wanna go around the shrine stalls with us? It won’t be as flashy as Tokyo, but it should still be fun.”

“I…” Much to Kanji’s surprise, Naoto blushes. “All right. If it’s with the two of you, then I foresee no problems.”