[X] Investigate the mysterious deaths
- [X] Talk to the students
You are no fixer, but you are still confident your investigative skills are up to the task. Your first step should be interviewing the people who might know something about this recent events. Although the authorities are likely to have a better grasp of the relevant facts of the case, they are unlikely to take kindly to a mere school teacher poking his nose in. The students, by contrast, can barely contain themselves, and the sound of whispered conversations saturated the halls and classrooms. There is a kind of nervous energy driving them; there is fear, true, but also a morbid curiosity that expresses itself in furtive glances and eager tones. In this environment, your own inquiries do not draw any attention.
You gather from her classmates that Konishi Saki was not the most popular of students. She had no true friends, on account of spending a lot of time on her part time work at the Junes department store. A lot of people took an ill view of her working for the direct competitor to her family's business, a small brewery, and one of the many local businesses struggling recently. The fact that she had been the first to discover the announcer's body on her way home led many to speculate that the person responsible might have targeted her in order to silence her. You, however, are somewhat skeptical of this conclusion—for one, the public placement of the body meant that its discovery was inevitable, Ms. Konishi was no more likely than anyone else to be the first to stumble upon it. In fact, there is a compelling argument to be made that whoever went to the trouble to hang the body from an antenna must have wanted it be found. Moreover, the girl had already talked to the police before being found dead, and even been interviewed by the media, so unless she had withheld some information there was no use in silencing her after the fact.
Aside from that, you again hear about this 'Midnight Channel' rumor, where some people supposedly saw the first victim appear on TV after midnight before her body was found, and now some are claiming to have seen Ms. Konishi as well. You do remember the television coming on by itself the other night, but as to whether that ghostly image was the girl herself or not it is impossible for you to be certain. Nonetheless, you make a note to look into this again when you return home.
You also take note of you absent students. You quickly leaf through the attendance roll to double check: Narukami Yu, the transfer student, as well as Hanamura Yosuke and Satonaka Chie. Of the later, it looks like the boy also moved here recently, while the girl is a local. Neither of them has stood out particularly during your classes; Mr. Hanamura makes a poor job of hiding his disinterest, while Ms. Satonaka gets easily distracted. After asking around the school's entrance, you hear from one of the groundskeepers that they saw them leaving early, talking about visiting Junes. You had considered the idea of asking around Ms. Konishi's place of employment for more information, and you might not have been the only one to come up with such an idea. It could just be a coincidence, the place is supposedly very popular with teenagers after all, but it is also possible the children are just playing at being detectives. Whether it is that same morbid curiosity or a search for closure you cannot judge, but you would rather they did not endanger themselves unnecessarily.
After briefly considering your options, you decide to head there as well. It is a long shot, but they may have some knowledge that you do not, something urgent, rather than typical teenage impatience. The Junes food court is as lively as before, meaning you will probably have a hard time interviewing any of the staff until the end of the shift, which leaves you wandering the department store looking for your students. You do find them, but not in the way you expected—while looking for computer parts you could use, you turn a corner and spot a familiar green jacket, belonging to Ms. Satonaka. The usually energetic girl is kneeling on the floor in front of an electronics display while holding a frayed length of rope with a despondent look on her face. When you approach, you can see tears barely hanging onto the corners of her eyes, and when she spots you, her voice comes out an octave higher than usual.
"Wha- Professor? Wait, this isn't... I mean, I wasn't..." She jumps to her feet and briefly loses her balance—she catches herself on the edge of one of the display screens, before recoiling away from it as if it had burned her.
"Ms. Satonaka, please, get a hold of yourself" you say, and it comes out more authoritative than you intended. Regardless, it seems to stop her runaway emotions for a moment, allowing you to interject. "Is everything alright? Where are your friends?"
"They went back into—" she says before cutting herself off, and you can see worry warring with something else as she hesitates. Before she can say anything else however, you feel a sensation of warmth from your side, and the briefcase you've been carrying begins to emanate a soft golden light. At the same time, the large display TV you are both standing in front of comes to life in a burst of static, and you can barely make out the image of a fog-covered street. The girl immediately lunges for the screen and places both hands onto its surface, but whatever she was expecting does not happen, and her expression falls again. You step up next to her, and the reaction grows stronger. You begin to sense faint, familiar whispers in the back of your mind, like you did when receiving guests in the Library. You reach your hand up to the screen, and it wavers, like the surface of a pond.
Ms. Satonaka sees it and lest out a gasp. "You can go in there too?" she blurts out, and her slip does not go unnoticed.
"What do you mean by "too", Ms. Satonaka?" you say patiently. She hesitates anew, and you give her space. It doesn't take long before she seems to come to a resolution.
"I know this sounds crazy, but Yosuke and Yu went inside the TV a short while ago. Yosuke was convinced it was related to what happened to Saki, and we didn't want to leave him alone. They left me a lifeline, but then the rope snapped, and I tried to go in after them but I couldn't go through the screen, and I didn't know what to do..." she trails off and gives you an unsure look, as if expecting to be laughed at or reprimanded. You do neither. there is clearly a strange phenomenon here that warrants further analysis, but as you speak, the lives of two young men might be in danger.
You should:
[] Examine the TV and the reaction from the books
- [] Attempt to wake up one of the abnormalities (which one?)
- [] Focus on the image on the screen, see what you can make out
[] Force your way inside
- [] Bring Chie along with you
- [] Go in alone
[] Something Else? (Write-In)
