Before It's Too Late

Investigation

Hina had been busy trying to piece together whatever she could about the guy. Since Sayo's death, she had been working nonstop on figuring it out. She was getting somewhere. She had managed to make a connection in terms of location. He only targeted people in certain areas. The ones far away from those areas were fine, even if they were popular.

She made the confirmation that he was indeed targeting people based on ranking for band and guitar. Now, she just had to figure out where he might be living. She knew he was in the area. He had to be. If he was going to target another here, he'd be somewhere nearby.

Hina hadn't made a connection to the other deaths, though. She didn't realize that he had an assistant that would help. Those deaths were just a separate case to her. That could prove to be her downfall if she didn't tread carefully.

Hina had ended up deciding she needed help with this. She could only find so much on her own. Maybe having another person on the team would help. Hina wasn't sure who to talk to about it. Who would be willing to help her out?

Later that day, Hina ended up telling Kaoru about what she was doing. It just slipped out of her mouth while they were talking one day. Kaoru was more than willing to assist her in finding out who was doing it.

The two of them met up and discussed what they had found. They researched whatever they could. It was a slow and tedious process, but it was paying off. Hina felt like they were getting closer to solving the mystery. It was only a matter of time before they found out who the guy was.

Unfortunately, neither knew they had made themselves targets. Well, they would've ended up as targets eventually, but now they had been put on priority. The assistant had caught wind of someone investigating and started searching. He had located the two of them and knew they were behind it.

He had to get rid of them before they found out. So, now he just had to plan how to do so. He knew he had very limited time. They were getting close to figuring it out. That was something he knew he couldn't allow.

Meanwhile, Rokka was extremely panicked. Moca and Sayo hadn't come to tell her what they had learned yet. Rokka tried her best to not let anyone else know what was going on, but she couldn't hide her nerves all that well.

She knew she couldn't tell anyone. That would just cause them all problems. She couldn't bring herself to risk anyone else's life. She had to figure it out on her own.

It was a few hours after Sayo had learned of the time. Her and Moca had gone back to see if there was anything else they could find, but that was all he had written. No matter how much they searched, there was no other information. They didn't know how he planned to do it.

After they finally admitted defeat, they went to tell Rokka what they knew. It wasn't much, but it would help her prepare better. That's what they thought, at least. Both had doubts. Rokka wasn't that strong. It didn't seem likely that she would be able to fight off the guy if it came to that.

They found Rokka hanging out with Poppin' Party. Neither knew how to approach her. How would this work? She'd have to make an excuse to leave. They decided to wait for a bit and see if maybe the others would leave.

After a while, they did. That was a relief to them. Now it was easier to discuss this. They were alone with her. Moca entered the room first. Sayo followed behind her. Rokka jumped slightly as they appeared. They did just walk through a closed door, so they couldn't blame her for being a bit spooked.

"So... you got more info?" Rokka asked quietly.

"Yeah. Not a lot, but a little bit." Sayo nodded.

"What did you find out?"

"He's planning to kill you in two days." Sayo stated.

"When? How?" Rokka gulped.