GP Reference: Detective Hiyori's Case File

[tfy]

 

Note: These are his IC notes based on his own experiences and observations, plus information he's gotten from other characters and NPCs. Most of the information is factual, but there are some erroneous assumptions here and there (like his assumption that everyone got the same "You will play a game, you will benefit" message during the Springtime event; he never spoke to any rabbits, so he never learned otherwise). Then there are some baldfaced lies, but those all concern himself and the Enstars cast rather than the game setting. (He repeatedly insists that none of them have voluntarily played Game 52, for example, but he's just saying that to protect their reputations.) 

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RINNE-SENPAI'S DISAPPEARANCE

[tfy]

[This page is illustrated with an unflattering doodle of Rinne Amagi falling into a black hole, similar to the picture of Rinne he drew for his Network post.]

"On the first day of the month, Rinne-senpai disappeared! He stopped responding to messages, he wouldn't answer his door, and his laugh that sounds like "Kyahaha!" or "Gyahaha!" depending on who you ask couldn't be heard anywhere! He's just gone!

Or well, that was what I started to think after a few days. At first, I thought he'd just fallen down drunk in a gutter somewhere. But once we were approaching 48 hours of radio silence, I started getting worried, so I reached out to some people who knew him before I filed a missing person's report!

As a side note for Ibara - if you're reading this in the future and thinking, "How could you lose track of one of the CosPro idols?", let me just remind you that you couldn't really keep track of him over the summer, either! And anyway, I didn't mean to! On the first day of the month, I saw him in the Early Bird Hall, the same as ever! He offered me a bite of breakfast pizza in exchange for some chips, to which I said "No thanks!" And then he said he was feeling lucky that day, so he skipped off to the casino, presumably. How was I supposed to know he'd disappear afterwards?

I asked the Network, and no one else had seen or heard from him since the start of the month. But just when I was starting to get even more worried, someone proposed a theory: "I would guess he's lost somewhere."

They didn't mean the regular sort of lost. They were talking about another kind - falling into a "void," or getting stuck in a "time fluctuation." One person said that Rinne-senpai had found an "endless void" in a parking garage. Another said "one minute strolling down the hallway can be an hour to someone waiting on the other side." A third said he'd heard reports of people getting lost in the back hallways "for a month or so." And when I reached out to a fourth person and explained the situation to them, they also said he was probably lost in a hall somewhere.

I'm not really sure what being lost in a void entails. It sounds boring at best and unpleasant at worst. But I do feel somewhat relieved after hearing all that. His name is still listed in the guest directory as well, so he ought to be here somewhere. I'll only start to worry about him again if he doesn't turn up beginning of next month.

I am concerned for all of us, though. The idea that any of us could disappear at any moment is unsettling, even if it's only temporary. It seemed like just another awful thing about this place, and a way to instill fear in us. But as I thought about it some more, I started to have a breakthrough.

What if the "voids" weren't planned?

It'd be one thing if they were placed strategically - for example, in a restricted area. But if you can walk into one in any old hallway or in the garage, then that doesn't sound intentional. What if the voids aren't traps for us all to fall into, but chinks in the resort's armor, rather? What if those are spaces where the resort's magic stops working, or where it reaches its limits?

And then I started to think more and more about how that magic might work, and who might be casting it. Who has the power to design a place such as this, and kidnap so many important people? Who has the ability to abduct dozens of powerful magic users and limit their own abilities so they can't fight back?

Once I asked myself those questions, there was only one answer.