Follow My Lead

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Persona 4 Verdict AU (P4/Judgment Fusion)
Chapter Summary: Naoto is hired to find a missing teenager, but suspects the case isn't what it appears.
Word Count: 1095
Rating: Teen
warning: not graphic or in detail but does describe murders and a reaction to said murders

        Honestly, this case is very irritating.  Naoto is almost convinced that there is no case, just people who wish to waste a detective's time, but the Ibukas were insistent—this is a serial murder case, the real murderer of famous defense lawyer Hanamura Mineko and her husband was, in fact, still at large, and the son had been targeted for some reason.  They had very little standing or power with the local police, the usual factor behind the annoyance of outsiders who believed they had all the answers and wasted Naoto’s time on false leads.  Instead, they were slightly influential with the paper in the area and wasted a lot of ink on what the detective is convinced is mere conjecture conjured from the air.
        All signs pointed to the boy having ran away.  True, he hadn’t attempted to pack a bag with supplies, but the most important objects to him, his PSP, music player, and headphones had been ‘stolen’, according to the Ibukas.  He’d had delinquency issues since the deaths of his parents—an understandable effect—and had been getting in trouble due to fights.  Hanamura-san’s last case was…a troubling one, and the fact that the father of the victim had been found dead at the scene with his fingerprints on the murder weapon with no sign of the knife having been wiped or having any other prints on it would seem to be conclusive.
        It’s hard to watch the interviews with the teenager, the denial and anger and grief.  It’s possible he was the murderer somehow, having killed and framed the victim’s father as well, but…it hardly seems likely.  Any of the blood on his hands and face seems to have gotten there in his shock, as he tried to wake his parents and then absentmindedly pushed his hair out of his eyes (the last part, the detective knows, having watched the interviews, as he does so early on).  He’d called an ambulance, begging and pleading for them to save his parents; it being a small town, the ambulance was delayed, but to no ill effect, since the Hanamuras were dead before the call was even placed.  He’d denied it being true, cited his mother’s willpower, even as the denials fractured.  Some part of him was aware of the truth the whole time, but didn’t want to believe.
        The officers had attempted to be sympathetic, but he didn’t need much of a push to break down, begging them to tell him it wasn’t true.  To tell him the world was just as safe as it had been the day before.  Unfortunately, the officers had little such reassurances to give, only enough to indicate that, as Naoto believed, the original culprit was no longer at large and would not hurt him.
        As weeks stretch into months, though, it means resources, such as looking into a tape that would appear to be the boy entering an outbound train of his own free will, were being neglected, and the police were chasing ever wilder goose chases all across Osaka, with no sign of a ransom or body.  Kidnappers may potentially have forced him to liquefy his entire bank account, but given that no one followed him in, he would likely have informed someone of his situation if he was being forced to do so against his will.  Of course, the ones who allowed the transaction in the first place were fired, but the damage was done.  It’s October, nearly a full year later, nearly half a year since his disappearance, before the detective receives an important phone call.
        “I, um…hello?  Is this the Detective Prince?” a voice asks.
        It’s hesitant, polite.  Almost apologetic.  From the sound, the caller is calling from a barely working payphone.  They are probably local to the area, so they would know of one which would have enough static to try to conceal their identity and presumably at least a little of their location.
        “Shirogane Naoto speaking,” the detective responds neutrally.
        The rustle on the other end indicates the caller fidgets before continuing.  “This is about your case.  The one with Hanamura Yosuke?  He’s fine and he wasn’t kidnapped, so, uh…you can stop wasting your time?”
        The first interesting lead on the case so far.  However, “You are aware that I cannot merely take an anonymous caller’s word?”
        The tone sharpens, the first thing this caller has said that is certain.  “Even if I told you I’m Hanamura Yosuke?”
        “Even so.  Any may say those words without being truthful,” the detective counters.
        The grumbling groan is eloquent in its pain.  The next words are so quiet Naoto can barely hear them over the static.  “If, uh…If I agree to meet with you, will you just drag me back to the Ibukas?”
        Ahh.  The detective will give the caller this: he is good at keeping things interesting.  “That would depend on the circumstances.”
        Apparently he finds this encouraging, because he responds almost immediately, “They think my mom deserved it, seeking a career rather than being a dutiful little housewife.  They won’t shut up about it.  A couple days before I ran away I almost decked them.  They wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of me if I became a bother like that.”  He pauses and adds, “There’s also other stuff, like picking a job and a wife for me without asking me about any of it, but…”  It’s rather unclear whether ‘get rid of me’ would mean abandoning him in some strange city or strangling him with their bare hands.  Naoto doesn’t ask, though the detective is rather grateful that the truth behind the Detective Prince has yet to make itself known, given the previously observed sexist interactions with one of the local police officers match this story quite well.
        “I believe I could manage to only meet you and not return you to your aunt and uncle,” Naoto states truthfully.  It still relies on a number of factors, of course, but the detective could be convinced, and this is a good starting point.
        Naoto doesn’t rush the fellow teenager as he makes a decision to trust, nor raise an eyebrow at the time and place of meeting—broad daylight, a Café Alps (crowded, so a kidnapping is less likely; still, Naoto will come prepared) in Kamurocho (which explains the difficulty finding him; a good place to hide).  The next course even if the detective agrees to drop the case will be a difficult one, since that will depend slightly on appeasing the Ibukas, but the Detective Prince is nothing if not a professional.