>>45089447
That could very well be the case, which might explain his vehement refusal to say anything about him. Either way, the list of potential has been narrowed down from anyone living in Berlin to 'relatives of Kramers'. Because Yasu's daughter was the one to marry into that family, it's likely that her surname and the surnames of her children have been changed from their Japanese ones. Perhaps first names as well.

Along with the progress you've made, you've also found a need to hurry. Hisakawa Yasu is still alive and aware that Shinji is being searched for, and if he tips him off, you might be in for a lot of trouble. If the magician is still hiding controlled Hollows somewhere... It's going to be really hard to deal with more than one. You cut the man's phone lines, but something like that wouldn't hold him off indefinitely.

It seems that the thought hasn't crossed Moeka's mind yet. She stands up.

"So, it's all up to that reporter now, is it?" She asks. You'd like to check the address of that garage you've found the caged Hollow in - perhaps it's worth asking your human contact to find something out about that - but that's not difficult and shouldn't take much time.

...

>"Let's rest until our meeting with Melanie."
>"We need to keep a constant surveillance on Hisakawa Yasu."
>Ask Moeka something. (Write-in).
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45089447
The anticipation was killing me, how've you been!

>>45089482
Current Character Sheet: http://pastebin.com/JpBL1B5n

Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Shinigami%20Quest

If you have any questions related to the investigation, don't hesitate to ask me! I'll do my best to mitigate the delays between threads!


>>45089500
Everything's good! Sorry for the delay!

>>45089482
>"We need to keep a constant surveillance on Hisakawa Yasu."
He may lead us to Shinji since the phone lines are cut.

>>45089482
Ask if she has any ideas with the mansion hollow, since that's a loose end we need to tie up.

>>45089482
>"We need to keep a constant surveillance on Hisakawa Yasu."
Better not be careless.

>>45089482
>"We need to keep a constant surveillance on Hisakawa Yasu."

Either he acts irrationally and tries to contact him or he frets the whole night about what may happen.

I'm going to recommend out little red head keeps an eye on the old man hidden away while we go hit up a pay phone and call the reporter then check the house the caged hollow was in.

If anything happens, our temporary partner should be able to contact us on the ghost cell phone or stop him using kido if things escalate.

If it his his grandson or son, and we take him to /SS/ (i.e., kill him) we'lol need to off the old man too less he study up and come for revenge.

>>45089482
Ask if Moeka can think of any other relevant info from her past dealings with Yasu

>>45089482
>>"We need to keep a constant surveillance on Hisakawa Yasu."

>>45089562
I don't think being able to do kido is simply a matter of studying.

>>45089529
Like am I the only one still worried about that guy?

>>45089659
We have other things to worry about right now anon.

>>45089699
But not a lot we can do BUT worry.

>>45089732
And making sure that Yasu doesn't tell shinji that we're after him. Which is pretty important.

>>45089659
Look at it this way: it comes out, and it's no longer holed up in a house filled with its hidey webs where it's had time to prepare. If it doesn't come out then at best we can send someone else to take care of it once we deal with Shinji, and at worst we end up having to take care of it later. In that scenario we aren't much worse off tactically than we are now, but what we learn investigating gives us the full strategic picture and possibly a bit of leverage.

>>45089482
Voting over, writing!

>>45089659
Pretty much. Yes he will need to be dealt with and may still be a good lead source should we provide a victim, but he is not critical to the mission. Just an easy way out. All he ever was.

As for the human, she is non mission critical and thus of little concern at the moment.

>>45090053
There's been so few threads, why did you miss that concern from the hostage is the only reason we didn't burn the house down, so showing no concern for her now is contradictory behavior.

>>45090211
The mission takes priority over saving her right now. It's not complicated anon.

>>45090264
But are we really making progress towards solving the mission right now?

>>45090211
Ryouta also doubts he can actually save her since the hollow is so tough that burning down the house with her inside is the only feasible way to kill the hollow.

>>45090319
Yes. Observing Yasu might lead us to Shinji or it will at least keep him from telling Shinji about us.

>>45090319
Yes, have you not fucking read the op or the follow up or the commands anons have input?

Why are you so concerned with this random woman? We straight up let and watched a comrade be killed by a hollow our first mission. Why is this one life so valuable to you especially when she has no transit value to the case.

>>45089529
>>45089527
>>45089580
"We need to keep Hisakawa Yasu under constant surveillance." You say. Moeka spends several seconds in thought and sighs.

"Oh, right... He could give us away..." So she really didn't think of that.

"Is there anything else that you could tell me about Hisakawa Yasu?" You ask, forcing Moeka to think some more. It seems like a redundant question, but from your experience with her so far, perhaps a necessary one. She eventually shrugs and shakes her head. Well, if she can't think of anything, then there's no helping it.

"This is gonna be a looong night. I wanted to go crash in a comfy bed somewhere..." The short girl whines, sitting back down on the lamppost. Some time passes in silence. You decide to ask her something about a subject you've made no particular progress in so far.

"Moeka, what do you think about the Hollow in the Kramer mansion?"

"What do I think about him? I... dunno. I guess we'll have to get rid of him some time... We should come up with a name for him so that we don't have to call him the 'that Hollow from the mansion', though..." Moeka doesn't seem to think he's important, but he has a clear link to that magician; perhaps the key here is figuring out just what kind of link it is. Of course, the true face of the Hollow lies behind that mask of his, but... the face alone is probably not enough to figure anything out, and it might be out of the reach of your abilities.

Moeka suddenly springs up to her feet, smiling. "I'll go get us something to eat! I won't be long!" She darts off before you can put a word in. It's probably alright - you can keep an eye on a single human yourself.

(1/2)

>>45090508
The girl returns shortly, a small grocery bag in her hand. She tries to set it on the thin lamppost that you're using as your footing, but it keeps threatening to fall down, so she eventually places it on her lap. Two bottles of beer and two large bags of chips are the contents; not much for nutrition, but enough for a snack. Though, you don't know if alcohol is a good idea right now...

"Well, we gotta pass the time somehow!" Moeka laughs and tries to open a bottle. Her spirits suddenly droop again. "...I don't have a bottle opener..."

...

The hours go by out in the frosty wind. The curtains in the old man's house fluttered occasionally, probably looking out for stalkers like yourselves, but nobody leaves or enters the apartment until the arrival of morning - people have jobs to go to, but the old couple stays where they are. Moeka keeps yawning constantly, probably still awake only because of her frequent shop raids for snacks, the covers and remains of which litter the snow covered ground down below. The pair of unopened beer bottles is still by her side, completely untouched and probably frozen by now.

"What time is it..?" She mutters. The sun has been up for a while now. Checking your Denreishinki, you realize that it's almost time for your meeting with Melanie.

Yasu hasn't made any moves throughout the night. Should you leave Moeka here to keep watch, or could it be beneficial to have her around with you? Having more heads thinking over this should be good, but in this girl's case... she might be better off just doing this.

...

>Take Moeka with you to talk to Melanie.
>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu.
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45090568
>>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu.

>>45090568
>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu.
Why didn't we sleep in shifts last night? It's kinda common sense really.

>>45090568
>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu.
Get her some coffee first and encourage her so she stays awake

How did the wife die again? Is it possible the mansion hollow killed her?

>>45090649
Hisakawa Chizuru's cause of death hasn't been stated!

>>45090568
>>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu

Never abandon eyes on a prime suspect/snitch if you don't have to.

>>45090568
>>>Leave Moeka to watch Yasu

My assumption is that the former CEO-turned-hollow targeted people somehow related to shinji, who is the stranger in the pictures. He can't directly attack shinji due to his hollow slaves, so he goes after people shinji knows, like his wife.

The woman at the mansion, probly dead by now, most likely knows a great deal about shinji

>>45090568
Voting over, writing!

>>45090771
She's being used as a bargaining chip, the hollow probably hasn't killed her yet.

>>45090814
She's really just a minor bonus. The chip was his information for the shinigami. Hollows aren't really known for self restraint either.

>>45090615
Because we didn't specify to do so, I guess. I was a bit worried we'd be staying awake for nothing but I admit I didn't think it'd be this bad.

>>45090860
I just kind of assumed we would do it without needing to specify it.

>>45090748
But isn't the whole reason Yasu is here still because he can't find Shinji and bring him back?

>>45090934
Guess not. Which means that if Yasu is gonna contact Shinji, he'll do it when Moeka inevitably falls asleep.

>>45090954
Shinji is just unwilling to return as far as I can tell. It's possible he can't be found too though.

>>45090954
I think he was just still trying to convince him to support the company in Japan

>>45090954
That is an assumption. While that may be the case, there is no evidence that states he is simply here to retrieve him or that he does not know his location. We requested information from the old man, and he clammed up about him which to me indicates that he does know something or at least has an idea.
Therefor it is not a stretch to assume that he would attempt to communicate with him in one way or the other if the situation becomes dire enough.
He knows he is being watched and is powerless against us, however he is protecting Shinji by not saying anything.

We lose nothing by keeping an eye on him. If we abandon the post and both leave and he escapes and finds Shinji and warns him they will escape and we will fail or he will have prep time when we finally locate him.

As such, it is in our best interests and the missions, to keep one of us on that house while the other does the legwork and seeing as how we're the ghost detective, it's up to us to connect the dots while she acts as a glorified security camera.

>>45091039
I guess what I figured is Moeka stays over more or less at random right? And yet she never ran into anyone but the old man and his wife, despite there still being extra bedrolls.

>>45091100
I thought she only stayed there once

>>45091083
That's assuming Moeka can be trusted to stay awake.

>>45090600
>>45090615
>>45090643
"I'll go meet with Melanie. Keep an eye on Yasu, Moeka." You say, flipping the cellphone to a close. "Can you handle it?"

"Of course I can handle it! It'd hurt a lot if I fell asleep here, ahaha!" Moeka laughs. Is the situation really that dire for her? You still feel fine.

"If you needed to sleep, we could have kept watch in shifts."

"No way! I've gotta work for my share. Seriously, don't worry about me, I can handle it. We haven't even been awake for that long! I could go on for another day or three! It's just... you know, this is boring as heck, so I can't help it." The redhead laughs, shrugging off your concern. You nod, leaving her be. You probably won't be out for long.

...

The reporter's house isn't far from here, but before going there, you revisit the garages where you've found the caged Hollow and memorize the address. After that, you head directly to Melanie's house.

You phase in through a window and look around her apartment, quickly finding her in the living room. She's wearing a red sweater and a pair of black jeans; she's probably heading out after this meeting. You manage to startle her even though she should know about the arranged meeting. You get straight to the point.

"Have you found anything?" You ask. The shaky reporter nods nervously, gesturing towards an armchair.

"P-please, uh, make yourself at home." She reaches for her handbag as you take your seat. "Y-yeah, I found some things, but... I could only find so much in just a day..." She still seems to be afraid of you. "Um... Where is your scary-looking partner?"

"She's not here. Please tell me what you've found." You say. The fact that Moeka isn't here seems to calm her down a little bit.

(1/2)

>>45091435
Melanie begins. "So... First of all, to answer that question you've asked me before - it's still called the Kramer mansion because the owner, Anna Klein, is a relative of Martin Kramer, who sold the house to her, so it still sort of belongs to the Kramers... I guess. She's his aunt. I think he sold the house because he didn't need a big one like that all for himself, but it could be because his company wasn't doing well enough to support that lifestyle, either." Melanie explains with a small smile.

"So, Martin Kramer... His parents both died a few years ago, so he inherited the business pretty suddenly - might not be surprising that it's doing poorly. He's not an only child, but I couldn't find anything out about his siblings yet." The reporter rummages through her handbag, taking out that photo of the Fausts and a young man in the background, the one you've asked her to look into. "Please bring this back to their house. I've made some copies, so... I'd rather not get found with something like this on me. I'm having someone look into the identity of that boy on the photo, but I don't really know how long it'll take. Sorry..."

"Please continue." You say. The woman gulps and nods.

"T-the Kramers' company has gotten better recently, but that's because their competitors went under. You can't talk about Kramers anymore without bringing that up. Everybody seems to think that it's some kinda conspiracy theory, like, planned sabotages instead of just bad luck. I'm willing to bet that it was the supernatural, though!.. Uh, not that it matters, I guess... The thing is, nobody knows what happened, so I couldn't figure anything out about that..."

(2/3)

>>45091468
The room descends into silence. You keep expecting her to continue, but her nervousness seems to keep getting the better of her, her eyes darting around the room meaninglessly, trying to stay away from yours. She speaks up just as you're about to.

"Um... was all of that clear?"

...

>"...Is that all?"
>Ask Melanie a question. (Write-in).
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45091487
>"...Is that all?"

Ride the intimidation train

>>45091468
>"...Is that all?"
Ask if the Kramers had any involvement with a Japanese family, like a recent marriage?

>>45091487
What's Martin's current address?

>>45091487
>"...Is that all?"
I'm the one you should be afraid of if you're keeping something from me.

>>45091487
Ask her if she came across the address where the hollow was caged, during her investigations

>>45091560
Specifically the Hisakawa family, I guess?

>>45091650
Maybe also ask about the city our first case was in? We still don't know what Shinji(?) was doing there.

So is she still just scared at us from a harmless little magic spell, or is she deeper involved than we thought?

>>45091487
Voting over, writing!

>>45091529
>>45091560
>>45091578
>>45091650
"Do you know Martin Kramer's address?" You ask. The reporter nods and writes it down for you. You can't really carry the note around, but you memorize what's written on it and move on to your next question. "Has a Japanese family been involved with the Kramers?"

"Yeah, sort of. Martin's father married an asian woman. Her name was, uh..." Melanie scratches the back of her head, pondering.

"Hisakawa Chizuru?" You suggest. The reporter shrugs.

"...That was probably it. Yes, I think it was..." She rummages through her bag again, taking out and looking into a notebook. She nods firmly this time.

You take the note she passed you previously and write an address down on it. You ask her about the garage with the escaped Hollow, but the reporter shakes her head. "Please look into it." You say, and she nods a few times, securing the slip of paper in her pocket. You also ask her about Nordlingen, the town in which your first mission took place, but it, too, yields no useful reply. "Could you figure out who owns the property?" Melanie nods again.

"So was that all you've found?" You ask, a question that makes the young woman tremble.

"T-that's... yes. B-but look, there's only so much I could do in one day! I, uh, I'll keep looking, but..." The reporter swallows heavily. "I-I need to help Steward Faust, too. The police are still sitting on his neck, and I want to stop them... I think the detective there might not even care about the true culprit anymore, she just wants to get someone convicted."

That's the man who was accused of killing his own wife. The police obviously won't take Hollows as a suitable explanation, so proving his innocence must be a tricky affair.

...

>Pressure her to work harder on your case.
>Let her handle her affairs.
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45092158
>Let her handle her affairs.
Martin is the grandson? Then who the fuck is Shinji? I have no idea what's going on anymore.

>>45092158
>Other. (Write-in).
"By all means, collect any mundane information you find that could potentially clear Steward Faust. But any supernatural evidence comes straight to me, since the local police would just laugh you off anyway."

Need to make a mental note to figure out why so many people around here can see us.

>>45092252
He's not an only child.

>>45092158
Tell her the truth about there being a very powerful evil spirit in the Kramer mansion right now, with a human victim that may or may not be alive, and the evil spirit is probably that if one of the victims of the incident we're investigating. Ask her what she would have us do?

>>45092158
>>Other. (Write-in).
Let's go visit Faust in jail. Ask him about the young man, and perhaps the hollow?

>>45092339
Like right now the hollow seems like he'd be hard to take down without burning the house down or getting the hostage killed.

>>45092339
Why would we ask her what to do? Are you being serious right now?
>>45092345
It'd be smarter to visit Martin Kramer.

>>45092158
>Pressure her to work harder on your case
Get her to make an anonymous call to the police to have them investigate the mansion

They'll find the girl randomly suspended in the air and either free her giving us another witness(maybe) or the cops will die
Either way the suspect is freed. In theory.

>>45092339
>>45092370
Why would we do something about the hollow right now? Especially something that retarded?

>>45092158
>Let her handle her affairs.
Mushroom please give us something solid to act on

>>45092412
Describe why it's retarded.
There is no way to link our involvement and at best it would give us someone else to talk to and at worst it would free up our little agent moulder to work harder.

It's win win

>>45092459
The police would just be killed.

>>45092459
The hollow wouldn't let them free the girl. Obviously.

>>45092459
First of all it's Mulder, you twit. Second, it's a bad idea to get even MORE humans involved with an enemy they can neither see nor harm. Third, we have a mission to consider. If we jerk around trying to save one person at risk, that's time we're not spending taking care of something that may be vastly more dangerous in the long run.

Any seated officer should be able to fuck that spider sideways. But so far we've proven to be the only shinigami capable of ferreting out and dealing with the human sorcerer. Our time is best spent there.

>>45092158
Voting over, writing!

>>45092537
We sure don't seem very capable. We're hardly making any meaningful progress here. I can't tell if we as players are really bad at this or if it's just meant to take forever.

>>45092537
So why not just call in a tip with that specific hollow, and tell Moeka we'll owe her the bounty that hollow would have had.

>>45092628
It's both, I think. It's meant to be a gradual process but we're all morons (myself included) who keep picking the wrongest option.

>>45092537
You're gotta be an idiot if you still think the hollow has nothing to do with the case.

>>45092662
That's not true at all!

>>45092537
The point being, as stated, it absolves the imprisoned man making this reporter feel better and thus able to better focus on our task. And the best case scenerio, as stated, is that they DO free the captured girl and we get another potential lead.

We, and this case, lose nothing by sacrificing a few non essential humans.

>>45092690
The hollow has avoided human detection for a long time while the mansion has been under observation by the police. He's not gonna reveal himself by slaughtering people that can't even see him. And he can probably hide the woman very easily.

>>45092749
Then it's still an "everything to gain, nothing to lose" scenerio.

>>45092771
It's a dumb plan anon.

>>45092771
Not really. I like that you do recognize that dealing with the hollow will help our case if we stop being dumb, but that is not how you do it.

>>45092453
He is. How hard is it to grasp that the hollow isn't a fucking distraction you stupid fucks? He's part of the fucking case, but you guys are just ignoring it.

>>45092964
We fucking know anon. But we also know that we can't fight him right now and the only way to get the info we want from him is to sacrifice Moeka.

>>45092985
Not really. That's just what the hollow says. We need to figure out a way to outsmart and manipulate the hollow, which is where Mushroom erred because we're all dumb.

>>45093014
So figure it out anon. Your vague idea is worthless right now.

>>45093047
That's why I think Mushroom messed up a bit because he seems to expect us to be as smart as the character we're playing.

But, for starters did we learn what Moeka's Zanpakuto does? On the rare chance it's useful, maybe we could make a plan around it.

Also we never bothered to verify whether or not the hollow moves via the sewers, if not, a surprise attack from beneath could be a viable means of gaining entry. Also even though he seems like a cool customer, he's still a hollow, and thus driven by extreme negative emotion. If we remind him of who killed him in the first place, or even bluff and act like we already know everything, we might get him ranting into spilling more.

The point is I don't fucking know, anon, just like you. But unlike you, I don't think that means we shouldn't even attempt to try anything.

>>45093133
You're also ignoring the Martin Kramer lead.

>>45092252
>>45092282
>>45092345
>>45092453
There is actually not much that you can do to help Faust - odds are that he can't see or hear you. Deploying a gigai would take time, and then having to convince the police to let you meet with him would take even longer. Speaking through Melanie would be unwieldy in addition to making her face similar problems. If proving Steward's innocence is of any concern, it's probably best left to Melanie; and even if it's not, human-to-human information gathering is still her 'specialty'.

"If you get the chance to, could you ask Faust about the man in the photo?"

"It's going to be hard to get a chance to do something like that, but... I'll try." The reporter nods. You'll let her handle it.

Now that you think about it, you have two leads left that you could pursue on your own. The first one - and probably the most apparent one - is Martin Kramer, the current owner of the Kramer pharmaceutical company, and apparently Hisakawa Yasu's grandson... or one of them, at least. Whichever one is named Shinji is obviously your target. So is it just a question of learning their names..?

The other lead has been up in the air for a while - that Hollow hiding out in the mansion. Why does he know Shinji? Just who is he?

(1/2)

>>45093441
Some of the first suspects to spring to mind are Shinji's victims. They all have an obvious motive to hate him. The Hollow used 'business' to describe its attitude, so the owner of that collapsed company seems like a reasonable choice to settle on. But if it was Shinji's actions that caused that person's death... could he have ended up as a Hollow?

Is there something you could do to get that monster to spit something out? It's not hard to provoke a Hollow - the bigger question is whether that's a good idea or not. Going in there without a plan isn't going to end well: it's his territory, and to add to that, he still probably has that hostage.

The other option is to investigate Martin Kramer directly, look through his things, try to identify the other siblings. Though... what if he is Shinji? Other than the name, he fits quite well under the role of 'Shinji'. He has a clear motive - advancing his decaying company. Whether he has the means to do so in the same way as the magician... finding that out might get dangerous.

...

>Visit Martin Kramer alone.
>Reunite with Moeka, investigate Martin Kramer.
>Go to the mansion alone.
>Reunite with Moeka, head to the mansion.
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45093506
>Visit Martin Kramer alone.

>>45093506
>Reunite with Moeka, investigate Martin Kramer.

>>45093506
>Reunite with Moeka, investigate Martin Kramer.

>>45093506
>Reunite with Moeka, investigate Martin Kramer.
Martin Kramer could be dangerous. If he is Shinji then watching Yasu anymore is pointless.

>>45093578
>Tear Moeka's clothes to fake a struggle
>Pretend her arms are bound from behind
>Present her to the hollow
>Demand info before he does anything
>Moeka attacks him while you grab the woman
>Burn the house down

>>45093639
We don't need info from him anyway. We have a good lead with Martin Kramer.

>>45093506
>Reunite with Moeka, head to the mansion.
>>45093639
Yeah okay, he might be dumb enough to fall for that. And even if he isn't, that just means we can kill him before getting the info out of him. Which we might as well, because I can't think of any better plans than that.

>>45093693
You realize this is an absurdly intelligent hollow right? There's no way it would work. And Ryouta doesn't share your confidence in taking him on in a head on fight.

>>45093506
>Reunite with Moeka, investigate Martin Kramer.

>>45093713
I don't really think absurdly intelligent is appropriate at all! Plenty of hollows can make rudimentary plans, especially if they lucked out with a special ability.

The fact that the hollow thought we would agree to its deal shows it's not that smart.

Is that part of the problem, everyone's been overestimating the hollow?

what do you guys think of cutting a deal with the hollow? He tells us who he is and we deliver him to the hollow to do with as he pleases.
After all we were ordered to execute the human correct?

>>45093639
>>Tear Moeka's clothes to fake a struggle
>She gives a lewd comment in the process

Worth it just for that

>>45093771
Reread our interaction with him and tell me he isn't absurdly intelligent.
>>45093797
We've already got a deal set up with him. He won't agree to another one after we don't follow through on giving him Moeka.

>>45093813
I just did, and you're still wrong. He's not smarter than us, he just already knows who killed him and still has his memories of being a cutthroat businessman. That's literally it.

>>45093813
A soul reaper may be tasty, but the man responsible for his current situation and death? I think the primal instinct for vengeance is more palpable to hollows, but I could be wrong.

Just saw we're having trouble convincing her to come, but offer this alternative that would be beneficial to us both.

>>45093886
He was already gonna get his vengeance in our original deal. He knows what we will do to the mage once he tells us about him.

>>45093886
I don't really think that'd work because we have no incentive to follow through if he helps us, and he'd know it.

>>45093928
>>45093937
Fair point, fair point

>>45093506
Voting over, writing!

>>45093872
He doesn't have to be smarter than us to recognize a trick as obvious as the one proposed earlier.

>>45093872
>He's not smarter than us

He never said that.

And anyone with normal human level intelligence is likely to be cautious when dealing with things that make it their job to kill him.

what are the odds we resolve this tonight?

>>45094386
Pretty good if Martin is the culprit or leads us to him

>>45094386
Doubtful, there's not enough time left for more than 2 updates

>>45094446
Ya I forget how short these runs feel sometimes. Oh well, not much that can be done about it right now other than bumping to keep it alive.

>>45093594
>>45093599
>>45093614
"We'll meet again tomorrow, then." You declare, the reporter nodding fervently after a slight delay. There's probably not much more that she'll be able to find in just one day, but it's still helpful.

You take your leave and return to Moeka, only to find her squatting on the same lamppost you've left her on, her eyes closed. Both of the beer bottles have been opened, though you don't see an opener anywhere.

"Moeka?" You call out to her. The girl opens her eyes.

"Oh... Hey, Ryouta-kun. How'd it go?" She asks. When she doesn't get her answer immediately, she adds. "I wasn't sleeping. Just closed my eyes for a second."

"Did you drink?"

"No... It's frozen." The girl picks a bottle up and flips it upside down. She's right. It is frozen. ...Or already empty. "The old guy's still in his house... not doing anything... Pretty boring."

You explain the situation to Moeka. She smiles, nods, and stretches, looking pretty excited at the idea of working in a less passive manner. "Lead the way!"

...

Martin Kramer's apartment is spacious and stylish, totaling six rooms, each conforming to the latest trends in modern room design, some with an emphasis on art over just pleasing the eye; you never understood art, so the purpose is lost on you here as well. It's no mansion, but it was probably a poor way to 'save money', regardless. Looking at all of this, one wouldn't think that the owner of this was also the CEO of a company that's under the threat of going under. Well, perhaps Martin simply isn't good at managing money.

That's not really important, either way.

(1/2)

>>45095697
Nobody is here. It's afternoon, so he's probably out working.

You and Moeka look around. It seems that Martin doesn't live alone, but you really doubt that his roommate is a sibling. There are photos of him with a woman you don't recognize; probably a lover. The wardrobes are chock full of fashionable clothes, cabinets are filled with jewelry. No paper tags or occult-related books. There are some work-related documents here and there, the ones dating further back confirming the dire situation of Kramer Pharmaceuticals; judging by the calendar, he has plenty of scheduled meetings.

Tracking him down is possible even right now.

You find a couple of picture albums. One of them depicts Martin and his lover spending time together, generally on vacations or on parties. The second one, a clearly seldom opened tome with most of its pages empty, seems to be a family album. Here, familiar faces crop up immediately.

The young man you'd seen on the Faust family photo, as well as the girl dragging the boy into the frame in the photo of the youngest victim. The girl's eyes are closed in most of the photos. Judging by the date on some of them, she's probably around 20 now. The boy is a few years younger. Martin seems to be somewhere inbetween when it comes to age. You find the names Chizuru and Matthias, the latter no doubt the father, going by his interactions with Chizuru in the photos.

Chizuru, Matthias, Martin, Erwin and Maria. But no Shinji.

Does this mean that you're on the wrong track?

(2/3)

>>45095768
Maria's eyes are closed in most of pictures. Her eyes were closed in the first photo you've seen her in as well, but you assumed that it was because she struggled to get her brother into the frame. She might be blind.

You find a phone number dubbed 'Erwin', but not one for Maria. You could find the address using a phonebook. Do those two live together?

...There is the possibility of them having changed their names, but you don't know why any of them would do that. Even with your list of suspects narrowed down to three people like this, you don't have the proof you need to figure this out.

Going carelessly from here on out is a bad idea. The wrong impression could turn the initiative right around on you and result in your or your partner's death. Even surveillance is potentially dangerous on the off-chance that you don't manage to catch up to the fact that you're the one being observed instead. You need that final bit of info to proceed safely.

"I don't get this at all..." Moeka mutters, grasping her head in an exaggerated manner. "Let's just let that weird reporter figure everything out for us, Ryouta-kun. She seems to be doing a good job, right?"

The latest photo has been taken about two years ago. ...Could that be the time the parents died? If you go with that assumption, then they've died maybe a few months before your first mission. But what does that mean?

It feels like you're just one piece away from the full picture.

...

>Head to the mansion.
>Check out the other siblings.
>Request permission to kill all three siblings.
>Wait for Melanie; continue keeping an eye on Yasu.
>Other. (Write-in).

>>45095839
I honestly have no clue. Maybe circle back to the hollow house before the end of the business day and make it back in time to catch them at home if we don't find anything?

>>45095839
>Wait for Melanie; continue keeping an eye on Yasu.
Let our colleague get some sleep. Yeah she can probably keep going, but we dont know when were going to need to fight so.

>>45096217
All the choices are viable ways of getting the clue, but some are more dangerous than others!

>>45095839
Mansion means sacrifice shinigami for info. This will not go well for inter division relations

Check out other siblings means we put about and elongate the task while they have a chance to get away

Kill all three and papa urahara is disappointed in us for jumping the gun without a core culprit

Wait means we risk a confrontation with "blind" girl who is probably the one responsible as it would potentially explain why they were so sloppily drawn.


Fuck it, rolling the dice.
>Wait for Melanie; continue keeping an eye on Yasu.

>>45095839
>Check out the other siblings.

>>45095839
>Check out the other siblings.
Gotta be proactive. I still have no idea how our first mission fits into any of this though.

File: seriously, it will probab(...).png (595 KB, 1000x1000)

595 KB PNG

>>45095839
Alright! Ending thread for tonight, it's getting really late! Voting will stay up for 10 more minutes, and then the next thread will begin with the most voted action!

Next thread will be tomorrow! And that is probably when this mission will end! Keep an eye out on twitter in case of emergencies:
https://twitter.com/Mushroomgami

If you have any feedback or questions, shoot them my way!

Thanks for reading!

>>45096946
Thanks for running!

>>45096894
Me either. Maybe he was trying to make a bunch of hollows to control when he was making the hollow attack and slowly kill all those humans?

>>45096946
Maybe making a pastebin with a short entry for each bit of evidence we've collected as a summary would be helpful for future cases? It's a pain to switch between like 5 different archived threads to review all the evidence.

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>45095839
>>45096946
Rolling to break the tie!

1-3
>Check out the other siblings.

4-6
>Wait for Melanie; continue keeping an eye on Yasu.

>>45097336
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep it in mind, but I don't think I'll bug you guys any more than this. After this is over, let's focus on Ryouta instead!

>>45097428
I think you're doing a pretty good job with the mysteries, it seems a little complex though. I'm sure it's hard to make us feel like we're making progress in the investigation without giving us the answer too easily. Sorry some people keep getting frustrated though.

thanks for running. Actively solving mysteries is tough and running mysteries in a quest is even harder if you're not spelling things out. Without seeing the crime scene or being able to go through your own mental check list it becomes pretty difficult to figure out how to proceed appropriately if you're not there physically. At least for me.

>>45097428
another vacation? I feel like we'll need a lot of debriefing after this