Flashback!
One day, a boy saw a paper bird. It flew, somehow. It was alive, somehow. It entered some old mansion, so the boy followed along to see what that was all about. A guy was sitting in the garden he walked into, who smiled and welcomed him.
Space Onmyouji: Hello. I don't see the likes of you around here much. I saw you were coming to day and left the side door open. Haha, I see you think you've met a crazy weirdo! I get it. So, want to talk over tea? What's your name, my fri--oh, why are you crying?
Title Card: One Rumor, A New Case
Present
It's a pretty peaceful day, so only Mokdai and MC are around as a skeleton crew while everyone else is out on business or holiday. They've ordered lunch in and are watching the news.
News: Spring festival in Shinraku in Southern Kyoto!
MC: Where / Never heard of that place / Ooh, festival
---
(AB) Mokdai: Uhh...Shinraku's a town for aliens who moved to Earth. The festival's a yearly thing they do.
(C) Mokdai: Yeah! Think we can go there on paid leave? Kidding.
---
Ding dong!
Mokdai: Welcome back, Director! ...oh, you're...?
Huckle is with someone!
Huckle: Hello you two. Sorry to bother you guys on your break, but you have a guest, MC.
Gammei: ...hey, sorry for the sudden call.
MC: Gammei? / I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING / arrest me
(A) Gammei: Hey MC, it's been a while. But given my job, it's better we aren't seeing each other during work.
(B) Gammei: Yeah, I know. I'm not here for that.
(C) Gammei: Wait what have you been doing!?
Gammei: I'm here to ask your agency something.
Mokdai: You are? Huh, it must be bad...
MC: Can I bail
Huckle: Hey, you guys can't say that before even hearing him out. Solving big problems is our job
Mokdai: R-right...sorry Gammei.
Gammei: Eh, it's cool. Not like you're wrong. (looks at news)
Alien space weebs built up Shinraku in Kyoto and moved there several generations ago, and now they've researched all the Japanese festivals to throw their own festival called Shinrakusai. It's become a big money maker for everyone who's made Earth their second home.
News: There's less tourists coming in for the festival and less people getting it ready this year for some reason and the festival PR team is trying to do something about it!
Mokdai: wait what's that about there being less people helping set up the festival?
Everyone's moved into a meeting room to talk about things.
Gammei: ...spiriting away.
MC: We're suddenly in a ghost story!
Gammei: New rumor says you'll be spirited away if you get close to the ghost mikoshi.
Mokdai: Hey wait, yeah, Space ghost subreddit is talking all about that!
Gammei: Yeah, the rumors are causing less people to come visit. We've also heard no one over there's been freaking out about people going missing.
Mokdai: People disappearing but there's no witnesses or cases? Wait!
MC: what? / (wait) / A Monster attack...?
(C) Huckle: Ah, MC you've learned so much.
Gammei: Well we still need to investigate, but it being a Monster incident lines things up.
Mokdai: So...you here to file a request as a UEHA member?
Huckle: Well that AND as a police investigator. I just heard from him when I went to the police station.
Gammei: Yeah, apparently we got people AND Monsters behind this. But as a police member and a hero, I can't blab about that...
Huckle: I went because he could only tell it all to the one in charge of a civilian organization.
Gammei: There's stuff heroes and police officers can and can't do, so I was put up to this. They could stand to pay me more for it if so, sheesh.
MC: But isn't this in Kyoto? / Isn't Barrel coming?
(B) Gammei: Kyoto's outside our jurisdiction since we're supposed to be defending Orient City. Barrel's gonna hold the fort.
Gammei: The Kyoto Police and heroes have tried to solve the case, but surprise! It's been tough! The first few heroes who went in went missing, but STILL nobody saw any Monsters. Also the Shinraku people wanna hush things up and keep the rumors from getting worse.
Mokdai: Oh, right...it's not nothing if UEHA and the police are there.
Gammei: Eh, it's convenient in some ways so we're gonna go undercover and handle it like a normal Monster investigation and elimination.
MC: But why us? Wait... Did the director talk about--
Mokdai: Wait, MC, the director said there was a guest for you, so--
Huckle: Yes, UEHA specifically is asking for you, MC. They want a high class Observer.
Gammei: Yeah. So I don't know much, but you can pull out special transformations, right?
MC: Like at Muirauqa? / Oh yeah, like that time at-- / Uh, nope!
(B) Gammei: Yeah, the Hero Fest with Barrel and Victom! I saw those matches.
(C) Gammei: Hey, you can tell me. I see you think your power's special.
Huckle: Your work's gotten part of the populace to know about you, which is probably why the UEHA bosses have their eye on you for this case...I went ahead and asked them to not treat you like a handy tool.
Huckle: (Okitaka also told me the Defense Department half pushed them into putting this job through. But this is in Kyoto, and some of the bosses don't like hero or alien intervention...is there something else going on? Not that we can leave the citizens in danger.)
Huckle looks at MC again after thinking.
Huckle: That said, you can say no if you want.
Gammei: Yeah, we're enough to handle a little cleanup. Sorry to bring you into something problematic. If you say no, there's other ways of investigating this.
MC: Well you're asking Gammei, so okay / Let's talk payment...
(AB) Gammei: Thanks. I know you're an Observer, but I'd rather not put too much work on a civvie.
(C) Gammei: Haha, you got priorities! Can't guarantee it's big but go ask for the moon. Oh yeah, your boss got the police and UEHA to cover the trip expenses.
Gammei: So Director Huckle, I'll be guarding your employee like we've talked about.
Huckle: Yes, thank you. MC, don't do anything too crazy.
Mokdai: ...the special transformations happen through a hero's wish or that special plot device thing, right? Sounds like you want that second one, but it's still in development.
Gammei: Meaning I need to file for help with the developers? That sounds like it'll take a while.
Damn, I wanna hurry things up since the damage is adding up, even if it's not a big scene yet.
Huckle: I can contact the developers since one of them is our mechanic. It should be fine.
Gammei: Oh, Crowne? Cool, thanks! I'll get ready to go whenever, tell me if anything needs doing with that transformation device thingy.
Mokdai: I wish I could go and I'm sure Akashi would say he's going if he were here...but I guess we can't since they want to keep the number of heroes down.
Gammei: Yeah, I get it...they've planned the investigation to have as few people as possible.
Huckle: Mokdai, why don't we look for things to do without needing to go? You can be the backup support.
Mokdai: Right...be careful, MC. Call us if something happens!
Huckle: Okay, we settled? Good luck in Shinraku, MC.
MC: Okay! / Got it! / (nod)
And so Huckle calls Crowne who calls Hisaki about the job. They agree to help, and it takes a few days to make the device.
Later
Gammei and MC are on the train to Kyoto.
MC: I'm nervous about being alone... / So the Director told me that... / Yay, trip with Gammei-senpai!
---
(A) Gammei: What am I? Chopped liver? Then again I figured you'd say that, so I ~~filed~~ ask for one more person to help us over there. It'll be cool.
(B) Gammei: NO STOP DON'T MAKE THIS SOUND LIKE SOME BUSINESS TRIP! At least not until we actually get there.
(C) Gammei: Aww, thanks. Don't push yourself too much, I'm here too.
---
Gammei is pretending to be a coworker.
Gammei: I forgot to ask, you ever been to Kyoto before?
MC: Nope! / Tons / Where's that?
(A) Gammei: Oh. Well after we're done we could go sightseeing.
(B) Gammei: Oh okay. Maybe you can show me around, haha.
(C) Gammei: What? Oh wait right, amnesia.
Gammei: ...
Gammei: Uh, wanna eat lunch?
Gammei hands over a station bento and starts eating his own.
Gammei: (Oh no, this is awkward! I'm so used to talking work with Barrel, and I'd like to make MC feel more comfortable...)
MC: So what do you do on your days off? / What do you do at home? / You into anything?
---
(A) Gammei: Uh, I eat and sit around... what!? It's not like I have to have some huge hobby or something!
(B) Gammei: You mean like, after work? Eat, wash up, go to bed. Think about what happened, about the next day's plans, stuff like that. Like I don't really have much time for fun. I know it's physical work, but I'm working all day.
(C) Gammei: Like, a hobby? I used to, but not now...stop looking at me like some kinda boring loser!
---
Gammei: What about you?
And so Gammei and MC talk on the train ride over to Kyoto.
Later
Gammei and MC make it to Kyoto.
MC: It's our hotel! Ooh, nice room.
Gammei: Haha, don't get too excited. It's close to where we're going to negotiate.
Gammei checks out the room and puts down his bag.
Gammei: Okay, it's good. We can talk normally now, sorry for how pushy I was acting.
MC: What were you doing? / It was fun / Keep doing it!
(A) Gammei: Checking for listening devices, just in case.
(B) Gammei: Thanks. You wouldn't be saying that if you really were my kouhai though.
(C) Gammei: Come on, focus. There might be Monsters here. Then again things are different right now so I might actually do that. But focus on work now.
Gammei: Okay now that we're clear to talk, let's go over--oh wait, phone call.
click
Hisaki: Hey MC! Wish I could hug you, but I guess Space Zoom will have to do.
Crowne: Heyo, MC. I'm glad we got the thing for UEHA done in time, though sorry it was down to the wire.
Gammei: It's cool, sorry it was such short notice.
MC: Crowne! / Hisaki! / Thanks you two!
(A) Crowne: You sure seem busy, but that's life in a hero agency I guess.
(B) Hisaki: How's it going? I'm glad my product's helping again!
(C) Crowne: Don't sweat it. More research data!
Hisaki: Yeah, we should be thanking you guys for funding it!
Hisaki: Wish we had more time for small talk, but business time now.
Gammei: Right, the plot device explanation.
Gammei pulls out the thing from a box.
Hisaki: Sooo, we're assuming MC can see more than other Observers and we decided to try making a device to control what sort of parallel worlds they can see.
Crowne: Yep. It's been successful at getting plot convenient suits and powers, so we're calling the plot device the Parallel Cue.
Hisaki: We plugged this one in with info for investigation type suits in Shinraku. It should work to help infiltrate into the place while you go Monster hunting.
Gammei: But it looks like some festival tag you wear.
Hisaki: Maculata did that!
Crowne: Yep. But MC's the only Observer who can use the plot device for variant suits so far. Which leaves one problem if a fight breaks out...
Hisaki: Yeah, but after MC turns on the variant suit, any other Operator can keep it going.
MC: Business as usual then for me / What else is new / Oof, the pressure...
(A) Crowne: Yeah. We're counting on you again, but don't overdo it! Turn off the transformation if something totally different happens.
(B) Gammei: Well we are expecting Monsters. Sucks to be you...wait, sorry I take that back. Thanks again for doing this for us.
(C) Gammei: It's fine, if it doesn't work we'll think of something else. We're glad you agreed to come at all, so...tell me if you need anything.
Hisaki: 'kay, explanation's over. Call if anything comes up.
Gammei: Sure. Thanks you two.
Gammei hangs up and dumps stuff onto a table.
Gammei: Now to the case...you look surprised that I've got paper files. Turns out paper is easier for me to work with somehow. Also updating a big and old organization's junk is really inconvenient...but never mind that, sorry. Anyways, we're calling the case the Spiriting Away Case. We're like 90% sure Monsters are causing it, and we're gonna look for persons of interest related to it. And it's been hell trying to get anywhere with this.
Gammei pulls up a photo of Tsuneaki on his phone.
Gammei: This is Toshuku Tsuneaki. He's from and lives here in Shinraku, but we don't know if he's a villain, Operator, or civilian.
MC: Why? / How's he related? / Just arrest him?
(A) Gammei: Nobody's seen him transform, transform someone else, or be where Monsters were seen.
(B) Gammei: Dunno yet. But he's related!
(C) Gammei: We have no proof, that'd be abuse of police authority!
Gammei: But anyways, the town security cameras have been seeing Tsuneaki everywhere ever since the rumors spread. He's also been spotted around the time the heroes who came to investigate disappeared. Super suspicious, I tell you. But then again if he is the one doing it, it's weird how high a profile he's keeping.
MC: Hmm...
Gammei: ...have you ever heard of anyone controlling Monsters before?
MC: No / (shakes head) / Well, not CONTROLLING Monsters...
(C) Gammei: Damn, really?
Gammei: Well if it's just opening up Paths for Monsters to come in, couldn't someone sort of intentionally have Monsters attack people? And it's still possible Tsuneaki's just some passerby, but we have no other leads. So first order of business is talking to him.
MC: Okay / Nervous... / Roger, Investigator!
---
(C) Gammei: You copying Barrel? Ha, you sound just like him. Just don't run in like him too.
---
Gammei: I'm bringing you just in case I need to transform, but stay behind me just in case. Now let's go. There's actually one other person working with us here and he's already contacted Tsuneaki, so we'll go see him.
The sun is setting as Gammei and MC leave. Soon it is the witching hour. So ominous...and oddly late to be going out. Oh well.
End of Episode
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