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[Smoke Mirrors]

Eighth floor, second door to the left, same fancy apartment building he had been at earlier.

He felt like shit, but emotionally instead of physically this time. Andras hadn't attacked them, but that just meant the tension he'd been feeling this whole time hadn't had a chance to release yet. He wanted to go talk to Kasuga but... what would he say even? Best to leave that to other people. He'd been hoping to get a chance to talk to the rest of the group, apologize and promise to be a better teammate from now on but... were they even actually a team? It was more like a scattered group of people who'd all been turned at the same time who kept bumping into each other.

Getting training from Mishima was the best thing he could do. Improve his own skills and be able to prevent Andras from being an issue the others had to deal with. Find information, discover the plan, and make sure no one else had to worry about it.

But first things first. Payment for services rendered.

He knocked on Kaname Mamiya's door.

[IamanElfCollaborator]

A very baffled Mamiya opens the door, a cup of tea in her hand.
"...Sawatari? I assume this isn't a social visit. Don't worry, Mishima isn't here, so you don't have to worry about...whatever it is you two are squabbling about."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"We've... settled that. For the time being at least." Mori replied, "Still, probably better she's not here. I'm here to discuss my payment, as agreed, plus hazard pay. May I come in?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

Mamiya moves aside to let Mori in.
"Get in."

[Smoke Mirrors]

He stepped into the room.

[LyfeldLesk]

Somewhere else, from the window of a shabby third-floor apartment, Franz Laera looked at the sunset hide beneath the buildings.

The noises of the city down below were only overshadowed by a humming noise emanating from the inside of his room - which abruptly cut to the ring of a bell: dinner was ready.

Or well, almost ready.

Franz steps back from the window, grasping the cord and pulling it, causing the blinds to come crashing down to cover the sky away from him. Tip-toeing in the dark, Franz reaches the hot stove in the other side of the room and plugs it off, as he brazenly grasps the cup of noodles with his hands.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, hot, hOOOOOOOOOOt." Franz leaves the cup of instant noodles nearby, blowing air at his hand in hopes that the tingling sensation of skin being scorching hot would subside.

With the food cooling down, he sits down in the lone chair in the whole room, the only other relevant furniture being an old mattress dumped on the ground and the table where the hot stove, the cup of noodles, a letter and a small kitchen timer rested upon. Yet his eyes were not focused in either of those, but on the corkboard hanging on the wall, littered with newspaper cutouts, post-it notes and crude photographies of both some students and some bizarre imagery - akumas, kaijin, many alike.

The clues were drawing him further to the truth. His hand scratched the pocket, frantically searching for his cellphone, the lamenting skin still sensitive to the touch.

The flip phone flips open, beep-boop-baap-biip, bee-boo-boop, bii-bup. And Franz then silently looked at the screen, the number he entered reflecting on his face in the darkness of the room.

Pressing the "call" button, Franz laid back on the comfy chair - his safe space - as he waited for the person he was calling back to pick it up back.

"I've got them in my grasp. I know it."

[Twinwolf]

Eventually, the phone picked up. There was a shuffling noise on the other end before the owner of the phone spoke up.

"Hello hello, Riko speaking, what's up?"

She'd clearly not read the caller ID, being otherwise occupied.

[LyfeldLesk]

Franz takes a short glance towards the corkboard, glancing at the photos pinned and tied with small threads, connecting each sliver of proof towards the identity of the Kaijin group.

"It's Gaikokujin." Franz spoke, his eyes turning to glance towards the steaming cup of noodles waiting for him on the table. His foreign accent was barely noticeable - but it was clearly on the way he pronounced some words - on its entonation.

"I've got intel on Kaijins." Shuffling on his seat, he tries to scoot up one of the backpacks littering the ground to no avail.

"Got the newspapers?" Then his foot hooks into one of its back-straps, allowing Franz to pull it closer to him. The pieces were almost coming together, but he needed to be completely sure before targeting the Helper's Club. Finding that at least one of them - a couple, even - were related to these incidents was the easy part, but Franz knew that this was much bigger.

But his information was incomplete. He needed to know from a local.

[Chevaleresse]

It was just after school, and as usual, Akari Shiro was in a bad mood. Something about yesterday just didn't sit right with her. She'd planned on just going to carouse with the boys as usual, but Father had been on her case more than usual lately. Just so, she didn't want to head home yet, either.
"What a pain in the ass. . ."

[Twinwolf]

”Ah, it’s you.” Riko said absentmindedly- probably working on another case. ”Of course I’ve got the papers, who do you take me for?”

[LyfeldLesk]

"It depends, pressgirl." Franz sighs, opening the backpack and pulling a small notebook from within. The pages open, revealing jotted down notes about the information he's gathered - both from his nightly escapades, and his personal experience.

"What answer gets me more?" He chuckled, as he passed the pages until finding some of the points he wanted to clear up for himself.

"I need all you've got." He then pointed towards the questions on the page as he begrudgingly stood up, approaching the conspiracy board.

"Anyways, I want to start from the beginning of this Kaijin situation. Make sure I haven't skipped a thing. Do your newspapers cover anything on the akuma events that have happened earlier within the premises? With the surge of these new Kaijin?"

[IamanElfCollaborator]

As Mori walks in, he sees nothing much has changed about Mamiya's apartment, except for a mess of folders and papers on her table.
"Right, payment. I owe you one for sorting that situation out. Knowing you, it'll be a favour or information, so. Which would you prefer?"
As Shiro sits down, she sees Kanade walking by. After the events of yesterday, she'd realised; Kanade hadn't been seen outside. She certainly hadn't been in school. Shiro also notices that Kanade is carrying herself a little less confidently as usual. She'd seen that gait before; usually, in one of the Myrmidons, after they'd taken a few too many beatings.
"...Akari. Surprised to see you."

[Twinwolf]

"'All I've got' is probably about as much as you do." Riko said with a sigh. "Besides, I'd rather talk about the new stuff anyway - more suspicious stuff about the Helper club. There was another Kaijin incident, and it's recent - and once again we've got Helper club members on the scene. Once or twice could be a coincidence, but this makes a pattern; basically every time there's been a hint of Kaijin activity lately they've been all over it." She shuffles the phone to her shoulder to free up her hands to look at some notes. "And recent massive spike in membership too - not long ago they were on the verge of being dissolved and all of a sudden they're practically full up."

[Smoke Mirrors]

"Information today, and... quite a lot of it, to be clear." Mori replied, "I would like all the information you have on kaijin, akuma, and related events and phenomena, now and in perpetuity."

[LyfeldLesk]

"Yeah, bizarre event." Franz ruffled around papers, grabbing a pen that was incrusted into the corkboard.

"A club nearing its last days..."
"Suddenly saved now."

"Sounds like the group increased just as the Kaijin incidents started coming, and likely I can wager why." He then started looking at the threads that were all connected to the center, which read 'Kaijin Granter'. One of the threads, colored red, lead to the new Kaijin group - which in turn was connected to the Helper's Club. "Yet, that would make it around five or so solid members of this group. There are outliers."

He then looked at the lines that involved the cases connected to the Helper's Club. "Who were they involved to this time?"