The storm continued to blow full swing outside, palm trees curling outside whilst a polyad and a human man began to frantically search their entire house. Between the cushions, under pillows, in the basement and attic and even the garden. But after an hour of searching, no laptop was produced.
"Okay, okay. Let's think." Lemon uttered to calm herself. "Was the laptop locked?"
"It was, I made sure it was locked," stated Tsumi confidently.
She put her hands on her forehead, relieved a little at that answer. "Right so they won't get in right away and Rika's tech will hold out long enough for us to get it back."
Tsumi laid back on a sofa and hung his head back. "Not unless they have someone whose superpower is hacking."
Lemon took a seat as well and hunched forward, "Well, at least we know they suspect us enough to steal from us."
"If they took the laptop we can assume they have our genetic data." the man reasoned.
"Then they know we're lying.." the woman agreed.
It was a difficult situation for both of them. That laptop, despite appearing physically normal, was in fact far more advanced than anything in this world. Polaris having it would be like giving a Victorian era coal miner a smartphone. The two remained in thought as they tried to map out how they were going to proceed.
"What if we delete their data?" suggested Lemon. "Just a huge massive crash."
Unfortunately Tsumi countered it. "We'd need to find their servers and destroy them and any backups they have. Likely they're more guarded than the laptop."
"What about editing our data?" tried the polyad again.
"Litis will probably be waiting for the results the second they become available, we'd need to interfere with the actual laptop." he stated.
A small spark appeared in Lemon's eyes. "Then the test?"
"We don't know where they will be doing it." he tried to argue.
"Do we not?" questioned the woman. They weren't arguing, more throwing ideas at each other.
Tsumi shifted in the seat and slowly raised his head whilst Lemon continued.
"If they have the genetic data of everyone in the academy, and have it stored on their system, it must mean they have an onsite lab to use and test that data, right?" she reasoned.
"Right.." Tsumi agreed.
"It has to be that underground space. Or at least somewhere in there." the woman arguably guessed. "We can do it tomorrow."
Then again the guess was likely true. A DNA testing site that is that accurate would need a large dedicated lab and there was none that are obvious on Polaris. Most of the city was tourist focused and even if there was a science building of some sort that they were unaware of, it wouldn't be out there in the public.
Because funny enough, people don't like it when you have information on them like their exact genetic heritage.
Tsumi looked for any problems with that line of thinking and there were none. Besides one thing. "No tomorrow's the meeting. If one of us isn't there, they'll be suspicious."
"Who says both of us will be there?" Lemon smirked at her own words as she looked out to her garden. Tsumi did too, realising what she was implying.
- - -
Dahlia came home just after the worst of the storm had passed. She was perfectly fine, at least physically when she was greeted by Lemon and Tsumi. The two talked with her about what happened and what they were planning to do.
"Can I come with you Tsumi?" asked Dahlia.
She didn't want to be alone right now. She was still feeling a bit down about a few things and not having the house full with the only people who might understand how to work through that were heading out.
Tsumi was putting on a long black coat when he answered, "Sorry Dahlia, this is a delicate operation. One wrong move and it could lead to you and me getting hurt. I don't think you're ready for that."
"I see," relented Dahlia, a bit glum.
Tsumi looked at the young girl. She was restless but not from being eager to prove herself.
"Look kid, it's not because you're young or what happened during the week. The issue is that some of us are better at some things than others." he explained, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Really?" she wondered, though a bit disbelieving.
He gave a slightly toothy smile. "Trust me kid, if we get into a fight, I'm always the first to duck and cover."
The words Tsumi said felt honest to Dahlia. Lemon then came downstairs, having put in more effort into her appearance than usual with a tie, button up shirt and suit pants being what she defined as 'more' effort. Despite the fact it was barely different from her Hencacount clothes.
Once the two were ready, the polyad took out a seed from her hair and dropped it on the floor.
"Ophrys Falleriusi", and with a twirl a bud formed on the floor rapidly sprouted a figure made of petals and leaves that looks nearly identical to Tsumi. Besides the lighter eyes and the softer hair, it would be difficult to tell the difference between the two. "There, that should work."
"Right then. You head out first and I'll leave next using the scrambler, in case they're monitoring us." the man reasoned.
Lemon only nodded as she turned her head to look at Dahlia from a side eye. "Wish us luck, sweets."
- - -
It was the first time Lemon was at the academy. She kept close to Tsumi, close enough to be reasonable for a husband and wife, far enough to not appear lovey dovey or formal to avoid attention.
I can't let the clone talk to anyone alone. she thought.
The ophrys falleriusi is a flower that mimics a humanoid's form and acts the part pretty convincingly. The only flaw with it was the fact that the flower does not have memory nor can it speak the language of those in Polaris, meaning that it must be controlled precisely using Lemon's polyadic abilities.
That meant she couldn't leave the plant alone with anyone ever unless she wanted to be asked why her husband was suddenly an unresponsive mute.
Entering into the mansion-like building that was the academy, Lemon heads up to the fourth floor by the elevator. There were other parents around but not for their meeting so Lemon avoided as much unnecessary chatter as possible.
Honestly it was times like these, feeling the clear privilege she did not earn, that she enjoyed her life choice of joining Hencacount. Seeing the fancy hallways and clean classrooms that get better the closer she got to the Highlights made her feel proud even though Dahlia, nor her even, had done anything to enter them.
Finally, she arrived at the classroom her 'daughter' goes to but this time compared to normal the room has been rearranged so as the desks are gone and there are only the chairs. Taking her seat she made sure to wave off anyone who would try to talk to her or 'Tsumi' and instead spent her time 'talking' to him.
She can't be having any conversations yet when she's a bit busy controlling the literal flower man next to her to not act like a flower man.
Before long, Professor Suzuki and Principal Daltis both entered the room which caused everyone to quiet to hear what they had to say.
"Ahem," coughed Litis as he stood in front of the classroom's whiteboard, "Hello everybody, it is nice to see most of you again, some of you being new faces both local and from abroad. I am of course your friendly principal Daltis but please call me Litis."
With the meeting underway, Lemon made sure to check who's here. There was Panoi's father, Mr Hambana. Officer Yunata who did eye Lemon as she entered and could feel her vision study her every movement. To the front of the room, contrary to his son, was a man as tall as Litis with swept back green hair and a tight fitting formal suit, Zanis Tillion.
Outside of in person, there were a few people calling in with Yume's, Tenha's, Burrus' and Tansol's parents not being able to reach Polaris physically at the moment.
But what had startled Lemon was that there was someone present at this meeting in person who shouldn't be and someone who isn't here at all. Sitting with his arms folded is a blond haired bearded man with the sternest eyes and a glare that puts her plant fibre's stick up.
That's Rolo's father, Robert Debore.. So he came to Polaris himself. Wonder why.
Of course that wasn't Lemon's immediate concern when scanning the room, what was is the lack of Suto Saeki's family. It seems that neither his mother or father had shown up, in person or by call.
- - -
Tsumi crept into the third floor bathroom, being sure to avoid any patrolling eyes. Looking around, he gathered his 'little ears' to hide any evidence of spy work and began to search each stall in case someone happened to be there.
All clear. Now let's see if we can find that passage.
Tsumi went to the stall where he heard the flushing and proceeded to flush the toilet three times as he heard in the recordings. Once the last flush happens, Tsumi is left there, waiting in anticipation.
…
What?
Tsumi waited and nothing happened.
Maybe it's in a different stall. He reasoned.
The man stepped out of the stall only to be met with an empty hallway with sterile white walls and a white linoleum floor, a complete contrast to the old mansion halls of the academy.
Nevermind, seems that I found my score after all.
Tsumi sneaked through what felt like countless halls with the same clean theme. All bleached white and shining with the also pale fluorescent lights glowing from the roof.
This place has 'secret lab' written all over it. The question is what they're cooking down here.
Making sure he is not seen, Tsumi snakes between corners, always making sure that his blind spots are clear as he keeps his eye out for any threats. There were a few cameras but the scrambler kept him nice and unseen.
Stumbling upon a small office, Tsumi quickly hops onto a computer and slots in a dongle made by both him and Rika that quickly gives him access to the local network after a minute.
"Let's see.." whispered Tsumi, keeping one eye at the door.
Going to their network it was certainly separate from the one in the school, with files and data that is completely unrecognisable to Tsumi, at least for the moment. Checking chat logs and messages, he eventually stumbles upon what his first priority was.
The laptop. So it was stolen by them. Have they been monitoring us? And for how long..
- - -
Lemon was groaning on the inside. Meetings weren't her favourite thing. Alice always got way too into technical language instead of just being frank and it was the same here. Thankfully it wasn't as if she had any worries about Dahlia, except maybe the Polaratus, oh and what happened during the week.
She knew a conversation had to happen about the girl. That was typical with every new member in Hencacount but this one felt a bit more immediate. Sure there's two of them that are also on the constant verge of blowing up in everyone else's faces but they have ways of stopping that from the get go. Dahlia seemingly had none of that.
She'd rather not run the risk of accidentally being torn apart like those tentacles almost did to those kids and that lady.
Suzuki had finished his talk about the students' performance and everyone was given a chance to talk and enjoy some confectionery. Something Lemon delighted in.
Before she could though, a gruff voice stopped her. "Excuse me, are you Mr and Mrs Novitin?".
Lemon turned and with a friendly smile said, "Why yes! And who are you Mr..?"
"Tillion." said the built man who looked down on the sitting couple.
"Well." said 'Tsumi', "It is a fine pleasure to meet you Mr Tillion. I have heard many things about you."
"The same except for I have heard very little about you, Mr Novitin." his eyes then narrowed a little. "But I have heard a lot about your daughter, especially as of recently."
Lemon and 'Tsumi' got up simultaneously so as not to seem intimidated and both smiled at Zanis. The polyad knew this was likely going to be an argument over how their 'precious baby' almost got skewered. Sure she'd be pissed too but she wasn't in the mood for a fight.
"Ah, yes." started 'Tsumi', "I would like to apologise on behalf of my family for what our Dahlia did."
"Well yes.. Apology accepted." A wave of relief. "My son can be difficult as well, especially with his genetics. Though that is not what I would like to talk about." A spike of annoyance.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lemon curiously, "What would you like to talk about?"
Despite both of them standing, the man still loomed over them. "Tell me, what is your choice for the Polar Eye coming up?"
Lemon squinted as she could already tell where this line of questioning will lead to but will push on anyway. She had an idea, much like anyone that there was likely to be a vote amongst the parents on who the Polar Eye would be.
"Oh, no one in mind. You honey?" Lemon turned to 'Tsumi'.
"I'm not one to think about those kinds of things. If you're asking about my daughter entering? She probably won't." he stated.
Zanis smiled a little at that response, "That's unfortunate to hear. But in the end it is her choice to enter or not."
"Yeah.." sighed Lemon, not liking how happy he seemed.
The green haired man then tidied his suit a little, his full attention immediately off the couple. "So ultimately, who will you decide to vouch for the Polar Eye?"
'Tsumi' took a short drink from a paper cup, "Don't quite know yet but I am split between two."
Zanis' focus shifted back, his eyes to a glare, "And who may they be?"
Can you be anymore obvious?
In that moment Lemon felt a pang of mischief itch up her back. 'Tsumi' smiled as he spoke. "That electrical girl Ms. Xumi and that young man Rolo Debore".
Zanis' smile became neutral again after he heard the names. "May I ask that you consider my son as well then?"
Lemon put her finger on her lip as she thought out loud, "But your son doesn't seem to want to be the type of hero who fits that… kind of attention."
The tall man's face shifted at Lemon's words. She loved winding people up. His lips creased and he was about to say another word before she continued.
"I mean, my Dahlia has told me about your son and how he is rumoured to be the one behind that poor young man's fall a week ago." The polyad made sure that her voice was loud enough to catch the ears of a few other parents, especially Yunata, who turned upon the mention of her son.
Zanis will have to explain that accusation and hopefully will reveal a bit more of their investigation of it. She justified in her mind.
Zanis had noticed the eyes of some of the parents drawn to Lemon and by extension him anticipating what kind of response he would give. Zanis then speaks, loud enough to not be a shout but clearly intending for everyone else to know his thoughts.
"My son has already been cleared of suspicion," he explained.
"First I'm hearing of it." she immediately followed with.
The green-haired man seemed to be thinking through what he had and was about to say; and Lemon took advantage of that and immediately fired another statement, intent on pushing him to explain. He sounded too confident for what should be a closed investigation.
"It sounds to me that you've been given more on this than we have." 'Tsumi' followed up with.
A slight growl came from the man during his response. "Perhaps it was only you who wasn't made aware of the footage that was found."
Lemon and 'Tsumi' both stayed perfectly calm as they pressed this new information. "What footage? It must be important if you are that confident."
Officer Yunata stood up, her chair scraping against the wooden floor as she quickly marched towards the three. Her face was a mix of alarm and eagerness but because she wanted to hear more or stop him from talking was something she couldn't tell.
Zanis responded to the couple. "Of course, after it had shown the moment that some vile rat had snuck into the equipment storage, the same one with the mat. Isn't that right Mrs Yunata?"
Zanis had turned to face the casually dressed police woman when she finally was about to speak. She froze a little at first but shook her head and answered with an order. "Mr Tillion, I ask that you refrain from speaking more about accident, it is-"
"Your son, Yunata, this is about your son." he stated. "And what was discovered was very helpful in proving my son wasn't responsible."
"I never heard anything about footage." called out Mr Hambana.
Everyone's attention was now fully on their conversation, the parents who were calling from afar projected at the front of the classroom also paying attention. Litis seemed a bit eager to know what Yunata would say but not for the same reasons as everyone else no doubt.
The officer's eyes glared furiously at the green-haired man who kept his straight face, never once backing down or flinching at the woman, nor losing attention on the two he was talking with.
- - -
Tsumi had finished going through and downloading the entire database for the lab, all the while reading through an investigation report about Shinji's injury.
The case file contained a timeline of the investigation so far and Tsumi could tell that at the very beginning they had no immediate suspects but after looking over the footage during the hours of one in the morning, the list collapsed to a specific few.
Footage. Did the faceless get caught on camera? No, we still don't know if the faceless is behind this.
On his screen there were several perspectives from several cameras for the ground floor. One of the perspectives however was in the equipment storage for physical activities, hidden and semi obscured of its view by a ladder.
Soon several of the cameras glitch and it becomes impossible to tell what is going on. The storage room door opened from the outside and stepping in was a cloaked figure, barely visible, not helped by the ladder making it hard to see.
The figure grabbed an errant plant of wood meant for obstacle courses and carefully slotted it into a mat set up for the then tomorrow's events. Shoving it and soon many others deep within, they completely covered the mat under the tarp with a solid wood floor, negating the cushioning.
It was a long process, making sure that the mat was completely unusable for its purpose and once done, the figure stepped out. Then after a minute the cameras return to normal.
I'm sure that narrowed things down…
For the lack of information the footage gave about the suspect, it did give a few big things
It definitely wasn't an accident. Someone set it up knowing which mat was going to be used and…
Tsumi scanned the figure. It was clear that they were thin and small by how their form looked despite the hoodie. He could already see a few people being unlikely as the culprit but then again, this person might've just been hired. Unless he got confirmation this was a student, anything was on the table.
According to the report, the cameras were glitching from a sudden lack of power. I've seen some faceless be able to mess with machines, a bio-electromagnetic pulse I think Alice called it.
As Tsumi read some notes that were made about the video, they had checked countless alibis of people around this time.
There's a lot of suspects still but if Dahlia's premonition was true, a couple people are knocked off the suspects list.
Zannos was the immediate one that stood out to him. Even if he didn't, his frame didn't match the figure in the video at all. The other is Suto. He was actually with Shinji during that night to train. The last one is Panoi though that was because of the recent reveal of her underworld activities.
She was already eliminated due to her condition. The faceless would never risk doing something like that unless it benefitted it and from what I can tell it doesn't.
That narrowed the suspects list down to five but again Tsumi had to be sceptical about this incident involving the faceless. Until he can figure out why the faceless would want Shinji killed or hurt, there was no link and this was all unrelated.
- - -
As Zanis summarised the footage to everyone in the room, Litis had finally taken his full attention away from the Harkin's, who were talking to him over call, and interrupting Zanis from speaking any further.
"May I ask you Mr. Tillion from furthering your line of answering and asking that everyone return to your seats so that I may explain the situation better." he instructed.
Zanis huffed at being interrupted by Litis and gave one more look to the Novitins before he returned to his seat.
Once everyone settled down, the tall bulky man began his explanation. "Now the investigation into Shinji Yunata's incident is still ongoing and we have yet to draw any definitive conclusions. But I can assure you that we are getting closer and closer to the culprit everyday."
"Is my daughter considered a suspect?" Lemon had her hand raised up, mimicking that of being in a classroom. Litis was unreadable as he turned his head towards her to answer her inquiry.
She was hoping for more of a reaction to that but either she really wasn't a suspect or he had a good poker face and honestly she was inclined to believe the latter.
"That I cannot say." he replied.
"So a yes?" Lemon tried again to get a reaction.
A slight look of frustration came over the normally cheery man. "Mrs Novitin, as I said we are still in the earl-"
"Yeah, yeah I heard." she said, her tone growing more and more defiant and strayed from her public disposition. "But what I mean is, why does Mr Tillion know that his son is cleared but not me?"
Lemon was feeling more confident being more aggressive, after all at home it was harder to ask the hard questions when it was just her and Tsumi. Here there were other people, some of which had to at least be asking the same questions as her.
"Is my daughter a suspect, Litis?" she repeated once more, fighting a smile from creaking on her face.
Litis, clearly a bit taken back but not offended (from what Lemon could tell), had raised his hand in a motion to try and calm down the rest of the parents who were starting to whisper to each other both in person and discussing over-call.
"Mrs. Novitin, Mr. Novitin, I have no doubt that you are concerned and worried about your daughter being suspected but I can assure you that this is all for finding justice." he explained. "So yes, some of your children are being suspected of causing the mat accident, some have proven themselves having an alibi.."
Litis explained their findings, making sure to exclude saying names specifically but for Lemon she could easily figure out who is out of the running and who isn't. But when she was told about the footage, Lemon couldn't help but to immediately think.
Why was there one camera that wasn't affected by glitching? Could it be an accident or on purpose.
Lemon repeated her question out loud, Litis seemingly ready for Lemon's questions at this point immediately jumped into why that is.
"All of the cameras in the academy are all connected to the same network excluding a certain few which are older and on a separate power network. We believe that some kind of power surge had occurred that led to the cameras shorting out for the duration of the culprit's visit." he explained.
So the camera that caught our culprit just happened to not be connected? Hopefully Tsumi finds something on that.
But with the news about an electrical surge, Lemon couldn't help but point out another issue if such a thing is true. "If there was a power surge then how did the keycard reader still work fine?"
There was a keycard reader that needed to be scanned in order to enter the storage, the fact that it seemed to be working fine at the time of the set up, seemed too specific. The man actually seemed a bit unsure how to answer that but attempted to anyway.
- - -
Tsumi was checking the card reader's logs and he was right to do so. It had been checked by the investigators to see who's card it was that opened the door to the storage. The name was one he recognised, but never would've suspected.
"Dr. Gias?" he muttered quietly.
She was mentioned by Litis when he had his first meeting. He had said that she was the one who terraformed the island to what it is and the hill that the school sat on was also formed by her. She was on the list of people he was thinking of breaking into the home of.
Dr. Gias… If she really did make the hill, then she might know about this space beneath it. Could she be the faceless? No, the faceless wouldn't be as careless too…
As Tsumi read on, a few words that were read made him realise why this situation is being treated as seriously as it was, and answered his question on if Dr. Gias is the faceless.
- - -
"Dr. Gias was found deceased in her home. Foul play has been suspected." said Litis, upon being asked about the old woman.
As the words were uttered, there was an immediate uproar by those not in the know, demanding how did she die, who did it and why wasn't this made public. In the midst of questions Litis kept silent until it all quieted down so he could continue.
"We are currently investigating this and as of yet we have yet to find a suspect however we believe that the two events are tied and have been treating Shinji's incident as a possible attempt at murder.
Please if you have any questions, please ask them here as this meeting was meant to be about the Polaratus and I'd rather not have us be distracted." he stated.
A series of questions were asked about Dr. Gias' death. She was killed on the same night as the footage, about two hours before. Her old keycard was found stolen, (the reason it's still active despite being retired is due to her frequently using the equipment for events.) and that she was seemingly killed in a struggle, meaning she fought her killer.
Once everyone's questions were answered, most of them Lemon's, Litis continued the meeting. "Now I know more questions might come up but I repeat to you that the investigation is still ongoing."
The polyad was satisfied with what she got but still couldn't shake off that he wasn't being entirely truthful, specifically about there being no surefire suspects.
- - -
Finishing going through the case file, Tsumi tried to see if Polaris suspected any connection between the two incidents and they had found a distant camera from a cafe across the street that almost saw the entirety of the confrontation.
The footage showed a dark figure moving around and entering Gias' house through the front door before eventually some lights turned on upstairs in Gias' bedroom. Though the curtains were closed, the silhouettes were clear as what appears to be a fight broke out in the bedroom.
Eventually, the bedroom light turns off and the dark figure leaves, stopping for a moment but for just enough for the camera to see their face, covered by a plastic bag which they threw to the side after turning away, a small fluttering of hair escaping the hoodie. It was too dark to tell the colour though.
Tsumi quickly searched to see if anyone found that bag and they had. And to Tsumi's, slightly inappropriate, excitement, the bag was clean of any and all traces of DNA despite the fact there should be hair samples.
There was only one way such a thing could happen. Either the person wore a wig under their disguise for some insane reason or their hair doesn't shed, and he knew of a creature that doesn't even like shedding blood.
That's the faceless.