The doors to Yashikata Clinic fly open and through bursts a girl, barely stopping to catch her breath before running up to the front desk. She leans on the counter, seemingly so exhausted she can’t stand on her feet any longer. Startled by Koharu’s sudden entrance, the receptionist jumps out of her office chair, quickly checking to see if there is anything she can do.

Receptionist: W-What’s wrong? Can I help you?

Koharu: (she clenches the reception counter, staring the woman straight into the eyes) Need to see the doctor. This is important.

Receptionist: Try to stay calm, okay? I’ll check if the doctor can see you as quickly as possible, but first, you have to tell me what is going on—

Koharu: None of your concern. I need the doctor to gimme—

Receptionist: Hold up, do you actually need medical assistance, or— Because there are no more appointments available for today.

Koharu: Then you look it up. Look up what you can find on the woman who—

Receptionist: I can’t just give you information from another person’s medical record, young lady. That information is strictly confidential.

Koharu: No. I mean… she’s a relative of mine, and I need… a thing for her. But she asked me to ask the doctor about a thing from her file.

Receptionist: … And this relative’s name is…?

Koharu: Doesn’t matter. She was here on Saturday night.

Receptionist: (despite a twitching brow, the receptionist miraculously manages to maintain her immaculate poker face) … I must apologize, but doctor Terashima has quite the busy schedule today. If you want to ask him something, you can make an appointment, or call in for a remote consultation over the phone, on Tuesdays between 4 and 6 in the afternoon.

Koharu: I’ll wait for him, then.

Receptionist: I’d like you to leave, actually. You’ll bother the other patients.

As soon as another patient enters the clinic, however, the receptionist immediately shifts her attention to the elderly woman. Ignoring the woman’s plea, Koharu takes a seat in the waiting area, picking a spot that gives her a good view on both the reception desk and the corridor leading up to the doctor’s practice. As she helps out the patient, the receptionist flashes an occasional glance Koharu’s way, but the aspiring journalist pretends not to notice. There are four other people in the waiting area along with her, and she knows this woman is too tactful to cause a scene by insisting on her leaving any further. Besides, as soon as her phone rings, the receptionist has other matters to attend to.

Unfortunately, doctor Terashima turns out to be the kind of doctor who leaves calling the next patient into his practice to his receptionist. As patients come and go, an hour passes without Koharu even seeing the man’s face, and she starts considering giving hounding the receptionist another go when the doors open once more and a familiar face walks into the clinic.

Yosuke: (as soon as he sees Koharu in the waiting area, he runs up to her) Oh, thank God, there you are.

Receptionist: (catching Yosuke passing her by, she calls out to him) Excuse me, young man. Do you have an appointment?

Yosuke: Uh, no, not exactly, I mean, I’m just here to pick up my, uh, sister. She, uh, told me she was sheltering from the rain here.

Receptionist: It’s not raining.

Yosuke: O-Oh, would you look at that! Guess that means we’ll have to get going, then.

Receptionist: (with a sigh, the woman holds up her hand as a young man in a light blue jumpsuit and assorted baseball cap walks into the building, ready to give him her full attention) Good afternoon, Mr. Sawajima. Is there a problem?

Sawajima: (the man in the jumpsuit speaks up, seemingly a bit embarrassed) Yeah, uh… I got a message you had some lab samples for me to come pick up—

Receptionist: — that is correct, yes. Doctor Terashima took some blood samples this morning—

Sawajima: — You usually leave them out in the entrance hall, right? But I can’t find them anywhere, do you have them here maybe?

Receptionist: (she frowns) No, I’m… fairly certain the doctor left them where he always leaves him. The blue cooler box, right?

Sawajima: Nowhere to be seen. Did someone else come to pick them up already, perhaps?

Receptionist: I would’ve gotten word from them if so, I think. Are you sure that— (she peeks over her desk, trying to look into the entrance hall)

Sawajima: You don’t think someone stole them, right?

Receptionist: No… Well, the doctor did express some concern about that the other day, now that you mention it. He might have left them in a safer spot, perhaps? (the woman gets up from her chair and out from behind the counter, urging the deliveryman to follow her as she turns to Yosuke) You wait here, okay?

Yosuke: Y-Yes, ma’am.

Yosuke nods as the receptionist and the deliveryman head into the entrance hall. As soon as they are out of sight, he turns to Koharu, who suddenly looks up and pulls out her phone as it signals a message coming in.

---

[06/04/2017 5:08 PM: hiyaヽ(o≧ω≦o)ﾉ senpai ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ username is YashikataClinic, password is yshC16829! (dont forget the capital letter + exclamation mark!!!) good luck!!! d(ﾟｰﾟ@)

---

After staring at the message for a few seconds, Koharu quickly looks around her. There’s no other patients in the waiting room anymore — just her and Yosuke. She immediately jumps out of her chair and runs up to the counter, sitting down in the receptionist’s chair and rousing her computer from its slumber.

Yosuke: Wh-What the hell are you doing?

Koharu: Distract them!

Yosuke: Oh, for crying out lo— (as soon as he sees the receptionist about to return, followed by the deliveryman, he runs into the entrance hall) A-Ah, sorry, but you don’t happen to be looking for a blue cooler box, right? I think I saw one when I got here. Made me wonder why someone’d just left it on the doorstep of a clinic like this.

As she hears the receptionist begrudgingly humouring Yosuke and walking out on to where he supposedly saw the cooler box, Koharu doesn’t hesitate to enter the information she received into the computer’s log-in screen, and is surprised to find that it is accurate. Within a few carefully considered clicks, she manages to navigate the medical record-keeping software towards the list of its most recent entries, scrolling down to find any that were added on the night between Saturday and Sunday, when Yosuke discovered the injured woman’s body. She hears the sound of the front door opening, and Yosuke’s voice.

Yosuke: — could’ve sworn I saw it. A-Anyways, I was actually here to come pick up my sister —

She grits her teeth, clicking every entry and glancing at its details, hoping to find something, anything about a pinprick-sized bullet hole. Concussion. Hypothermia from falling into the river during a drunken stupor. Stabbed during a robbery. Just how many people could this doctor have patched up in a single night? She checks the corner of the hallway. Still nothing in sight. A thud sounds out from behind it.

Yosuke: — I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t see where I was going, ma’am! A-Are you alright?

There it is. “Shot”. One word is all she needs. Koharu doesn’t hesitate and whips out her phone, taking a picture of the file on screen before quickly browsing back to the page the receptionist had left open and turning off the screen. She can’t make it back to her chair without looking suspicious. The toilet! The door is only a few steps away from the receptionist’s desk. As she dives into the bathroom and just as closes the door, she can see the receptionist — no longer poker-faced at last — passing the corner, headed back to her desk.

Adrenaline coursing through her body, Koharu sinks to the bathroom floor, panting, waiting for a sign that she’s been caught… but none comes. After she’s calmed down, she checks the picture she took on her phone, and it’s all there — a detailed description of the woman’s injuries, matching what little information they already had about this killer: a miniscule wound, as if she’d been pierced by a long needle, that had caused excessive bleeding, but missed any vital organs. A name: Ayako. Just Ayako. But most importantly, a mention of the place this Ayako calls home.

Yet as she stares up at the light on the bathroom ceiling, Koharu isn’t feeling the euphoria she expected to feel. They’d gotten one step closer to the truth, but in a way that can be called dubious at best. She has her suspicions as to who sent her that bizarre text message. But why did they know what they knew, and why were they helping her find this killer?

When she exits the bathroom, the receptionist is on the phone, seemingly showing no suspicion about the girl who’s been bothering her for an hour having taken a quick trip to the toilet. Sitting in the waiting area, Yosuke gets up and walks up to her.

Yosuke: Oh, there you are. Come on, let’s go already. You can’t just hang out here when you’re not a patient.

Koharu: I went to the toilet.

She takes her hand and all but drags her towards the entrance hall. As they pass the receptionist, she briefly puts the phone horn on her shoulder to call out to him.

Receptionist: Are you two going to be alright?

Yosuke: S-So sorry, ma’am. My sister’s a bit confused, you see, she came here to pick up our mother’s medicine, but she mistook this clinic for that pharmacy on the next block, right? She’s, uh… (he makes a subtle, but somewhat telling expression at the woman as he gestures at Koharu) a bit of an airhead, if you know what I mean.

Receptionist: I… see.

Yosuke: (he bows, and Koharu awkwardly follows suit) We sincerely apologize for the trouble we’ve caused, ma’am.

Koharu: … (she mumbles) Apologize…

The woman only nods before continuing her phone call, allowing them to leave. As soon as they’re outside, Yosuke clutches his head and sighs in exasperation.

Yosuke: (he groans) That was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve done in my entire life. What the hell were you thinking?

Koharu: The hell were you thinking? “My sister’s a bit of an airhead”? Seriously?

Yosuke: Look, I did my best, okay? I thought I was done trying to pull one over on people.

Koharu: Appreciate it. Well done. Got what we wanted.

Yosuke: (he blushes) … Huh? Wait, you actually broke into her computer and got the file?

Koharu: Someone sent me the password. Photographed the file. Have the victim’s name and address.

Yosuke: Someone sent you the—what?

Koharu: (she nods and shows Yosuke the mysterious text message) Probably that white-haired first year who sent this.

Yosuke: Does… sound like her. I… guess it’s not too much of a stretch that she’d know her uncle’s receptionist’s password. She might’ve helped out at the clinic before… but then, how did she get your number? And how did she know when to send that info? When there’d be an opportunity? Wait, did she steal the blood samples? What the hell is going on?

Koharu: … Too many questions. One at a time.

Yosuke: Says you!

Koharu: Woman lives in a homeless camp at an abandoned construction site by the river, near Mita North station. Let’s go see her.

Yosuke: There’s a homeless camp there? … Well, I guess it makes sense. They never did start building again after the lockdown was lifted. I think someone’s told me this before.

Koharu: Boy from your class? Basketball?

Yosuke: Shinomiya? Yeah, I guess that’s where his dad ended up when he became homeless.

Koharu: Probably where the killer is sourcing their victims, then. (she looks up at Yosuke) Yeah. Killer observes the camp, waits for someone to leave, follows them until they’re somewhere with no one else around, and strikes. That’s how they always end up killing homeless people. It’s deliberate. Killing people no one would miss.

Yosuke: What about the coins, then?

Koharu: Way of mocking the victims, maybe. Can’t think of any other reason for someone to specifically target the homeless than out of hatred. A belief that society would be better without them. So maybe the coin represents that. The fewer bums, the fewer money society has to spend on them, or something. 

Yosuke: That does sound like something an American would think. So, you think the coin was left deliberately?

Koharu: Could be. Maybe the killer’s humiliating them by giving the dead the money they didn’t have in life. Just a theory, of course.

Yosuke: Any idea on how we’re gonna prove those theories, then?

Koharu: We do what the killer does. Stake out this homeless camp. Follow them as they follow a potential victim. Catch them red-handed.

Yosuke: You’re not… going to not do this when I tell you not to do this, are you?

Koharu: You can come along if you want to.

Yosuke: That’s not what I mean! Why don’t you ask Hanako or Shinju, or anyone who would at least stand a chance against this killer if you intend to just friggin’ walk up to ‘em and call them out like it’s the goddamn Wild West! Is this about your pride? Do you want to prove you can solve this without any magical help?

Koharu: No. Magic is just a tool to help us get to the truth. It’s not an obstacle. We used your camera, didn’t we? We’ll use it again when we manage to get a picture of the criminal.

Yosuke: Then what even is the plan? Follow this killer and watch from hiding, doing nothing, as they put another body into the ground? So we have pictures of them in the act that we’ll do what with, exactly? Take to the cops? Or make sure that justice prevails?

Koharu: … you’re right.

Yosuke: Then by all means tell me how—wait, what?

Koharu: You’re right. I said you’re right. I should not rush to conclusions and we should get Hanako and Shinju involved at this point. It’s too reckless.

Yosuke: (he blushes again) Oh. Well, yes, I… I guess it is.

Koharu: … I’m not going to deny; I do have my pride. You know this is why I never made a contract, and never will. But this was never a case we were going to solve with logic and reason alone. The reasonable thing to do here is admit this is as far as we go.

Yosuke: (he sighs in relief) … O-Okay, then… So what’s the plan?

Koharu: We pay this homeless camp a visit tomorrow, the two of us. Do what we can do. See what we can learn. Talk to some people, take some pictures, maybe even interrogate the victim. Should teach us the best routes to stake out and watch if we wanna catch the killer. Share this info with the rest of the club, and we see how we can set up a confrontation between Hanako, Shinju and the killer.

Yosuke: What about Yamano?

Koharu: We’ll ask, but I don’t think she considers herself a fighter just yet. Not putting her into danger for our glory.

Yosuke: I’m… I’m glad to hear that. You were… so obsessed with this case, I was getting worried and… I started investigating on my own a bit, you know? Desperate to find something to help you. That’s how I stumbled upon that body in the first place. And I talked to Shinomiya about his dad a bit more. Though I guess in that case, I shouldn’t be lecturing you about waiting to do everything on your own.

Koharu: Thank you, Yosuke.

Yosuke: Better give our thanks to that white-haired girl when we see her, too.