Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics.
"Did Katsuragi stop working here before he was killed?"
Sento had decided to immediately start investigating Takumi Katsuragi to help fill in the missing gaps of information after calling a truce with Ryuga earlier.
He went straight to the source, calling for an informal meeting with Gentoku Himuro, who had shown up with his assistant, Nariaki Utsumi, as per usual.
With a simple gesture, Gentoku had chased all the employees and guards away, clearing out the main atrium so they could talk alone. The moment the last guard disappeared from view, Sento asked that first question about Takumi, causing both Nariaki and Gentoku to glance at each other for a moment.
"Ah, you want to know more about Takumi... Well, the truth is, he actually stopped working here two years prior, actually."
One of Sento's eyebrows raised slightly. Gentoku seemed really relaxed and unguarded about the lead question, so he decided to pull at that thread while he could.
"Why did he leave?"
Gentoku paused for a few seconds to organize his thoughts before replying with a serious look on his face. "He broke a taboo."
Sento looked quizzically at his boss and waited for him to continue. Gentoku looked deep into Sento's eyes and slowly said, "Human experimentation..."
Sento's eyes opened wide in shock for a moment. Gentoku did not give Sento a chance to recover from his surprise before explaining further.
"Takumi had said, 'Administering Nebula Gas could unlock the next stage of human evolution!' a lot in the past. He brought it up to me too many times, some of those times being right here, in the very spot you're standing in, by the way—trying to get me on his side about it. I would always tell him that those experiments could produce bizarre abominations."
Gentoku sighed and shook his head in disappointment at the memory of his former star scientist's crazed obsession with Pandora's Box.
"I told him he would never get official approval, let alone mine. One time, he even lunged at me, begging, 'Please! It's for the future of science!' He had even grabbed onto my sleeves, pulling me in violently... Naturally, the government did not approve at all. But Katsuragi just wouldn't let it go."
Sento squinted and started to come up with preliminary theories. He probed Gentoku further. "Wait, he didn't?!..."
Gentoku nodded in confirmation. "Yes, he did... He began performing experiments in private, despite being warned not to. Luckily, he was stopped right before the gas was administered, so there were no casualties. Obviously, Takumi was let go from the lab that very day."
Nariaki stepped forward and added, "That's why he's known as the Devil's Scientist..."
"Ah, I see. Well, that's kind of awful..." Sento was still gathering his thoughts and zoned out a little, causing Nariaki and Gentoku to exchange looks again.
Gentoku walked over to Sento and placed a hand on his shoulder knowingly. "It's shocking, I know. Luckily, we have you now—rather than that lunatic... Well, there are a few other matters I still need to attend to today... Keep working hard Mr. Kiryu."
He gave Nariaki a look and said, "Let's go." Removing his hand from Sento's shoulder, he walked away without looking back, Nariaki in tow. The staff and guards started to slowly filter back to their posts as soon as the pair left the atrium.
Sento narrowed his eyes and headed toward one of the less busy areas in the Touto Institute, finding a computer terminal nearby. He got busy and dove deep into the data for quite some time.
Eventually, two scientists carrying documents and clipboards happened to walk through the area. They spotted Sento and were confused by the casually dressed man wearing a white sweater with many thin black stripes—he didn't look like he worked there at all.
"What do you think you're looking at?!" Upon noticing that Sento hadn't seemed to detect their approach, one of the men decided to surprise him, getting right beside Sento's head while questioning him, then looking at the screen to see what Sento was searching for on the computer.
"Just looking at Katsuragi's research data... I'm his replacement, Sento Kiryu, here to pick up the slack in regards to Pandora's Box. Nice to meet you."
Sento spoke confidently, not even bothering to hide the screen from either researcher. There was no reason to deceive them—nothing he had said was a lie. He truly was Takumi Katsuragi's replacement in studying the effects of Pandora's Box.
"However..." Sento looked back and forth between the two men and gestured for them to come look at the screen. "...Something is strange—very weird indeed..." The two researchers obediently approached to look at the data, drawn in by Sento's natural enthusiasm and relaxed demeanor.
"The experiment log is updated daily, but the updates end a month before he was fired. There's not a single reference to human experimentation at all... Maybe he hid it somewhere...?"
Sento leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head as he pondered. The two scientists glanced at each other with confused expressions. The one who had been quiet the entire time looked to be deep in thought himself and asked Sento, "Well, where would you hide it?"
"Good question..."
Sento squinted and leaned toward the screen again. "It says, 'In the end goodbye all'... This final post is totally meaningless, too..."
Sento's eyes suddenly shot open after reading the last line again. He logged off from the computer and stood up abruptly. "Have a good one, fellas. Thanks." With that, Sento walked away from the two scientists, both of whom shrugged and headed back toward their original destinations. They didn't want to get in the way of this seemingly eccentric, high-end coworker.
...
Back at the café, the whole gang had gathered at Sento's call.
"What if I was going to hide something in written form? Well, I would use an anagram..."
Sento smiled a toothy grin, holding up a piece of paper triumphantly.
"Anagram?" Ryuga tilted his head quizzically, stepping forward to glance at the sheet Sento was holding. He squinted, then pulled the sheet out of Sento's hand, bringing it close to his face to examine it for several seconds before shrugging and looking frustrated.
Sawa hopped up and sashayed across the floor to join them, coming to Ryuga's rescue. "Rearranging the letters of something to get a different word or phrase—that's how an anagram works."
"Thanks, Sawa... At least someone was helpful from the start..." Ryuga stuck his tongue out at Sento, who responded by slowly tilting his head and letting it fall to the side.
Sento rolled his eyes and said, "You could have just asked, and I would have explained it to you... I was about to, too, damn impatient ape..."
Before Ryuga could get mad, Sento quickly spoke again. "If you use Roman letters to write out the last entry and rearrange them, you get, 'I've left everything with my mother.' You get it now?"
Ryuga blinked a few times, managed to swallow his anger, and said in a level voice, "So his mother had that secret info this whole time?"
Sento placed both hands together in thought for several seconds before saying, "Yes, and it might be related to human experimentation, actually... This info could be the key to this year-old mystery."
Soichi walked over with a tray full of coffee cups, listening intently. He leaned in front of Sento to place a mug of coffee down, as Sento was now sitting by the large curved countertop opposite Misora.
Sento suddenly looked at Soichi with narrowed eyes and produced a can of cold coffee from his trench coat pocket, cracking the tab open immediately, taking a large sip and leaving Soichi to stare with his mouth hanging open, shocked and outraged.
Misora asked with interest, "Does she live in Touto?"
They both seemed to ignore Soichi's outrage completely. Soichi picked up the mug and tried to move it in front of Ryuga, who had just sat down beside Sento. Before the cup could hit the countertop again, however, Ryuga also produced a similar can of cold coffee, causing Soichi's face to grow even longer!
"No, she moved away and now lives in Hokuto. I want to go as soon as possible..." He swung around in his seat to look at Sawa. "...Any ideas?"
Sawa thought for a moment, chin in hand. "Hhhmmm, I don't think you can take a smuggling ship there. Hokuto is well known for its strict control of immigration."
She sat down on a stool, pondering about a way to get there. "Ah, yes! The only option might be... Yes! The Sky Road!"
"Sky Road?"
Soichi looked down at the mug full of dark liquid that he couldn't seem to get rid of, appearing like he may cry at any moment, sniffing loudly to try get some sympathy. Sento looked at the dramatic shop keep and rolled his eyes before asking Sawa to explain.
She smiled and nodded. "There are a couple of openings in the Sky Wall..." Sawa held up a piece of cake she had grabbed from the pastry section of the café earlier and cut a few vertical lines through it as a visual aid. The cake was the Sky Wall, and the slits she made were the Sky Road.
"...Some of those lead to Hokuto. There are some that the government on either side of the wall doesn't know about... That's the Sky Road." She finished her explanation with a smile, then took a large piece of cake and forked it into her mouth.
"Mmm... This is pretty good..." She ate a few bites before adding, "...But you have to pay the 'travel brokers' a pretty decent sum to get them to take you through..."
Sento suddenly looked hopeless. "...Money, huh?"
Soichi, who had been slumped behind the counter for the last 30 seconds, suddenly noticed a shadow looming over him. Sento was standing there with his hand open, looking at Soichi with unblinking eyes.
"Eh? You want me to pay?! Me, who still works part-time jobs at my age? I can't even serve coffee properly..." Soichi started to sob softly, ignoring Sento.
Sento turned around and held his palm out toward Sawa. "What about you?"
She shook her head rapidly and answered even faster, "I can't either! I'm barely making enough to pay for my own stuff... Ugh, speaking of which, there's Fumie's wedding next month! Wedding gifts are expensive! Noooo!"
Sento squinted at her. "Useless."
He pivoted to lock eyes with Ryuga, who burst out laughing immediately.
"Hahaha! Hell no. Don't even think about it."
"100 times useless."
Misora looked around the room, back and forth at everyone like they were broke peasants, and said, "Oh, fine... I'll do it."
...
Five minutes later, downstairs in the lab...
"Hi! It's your idol, Miitan!..."
"...I have a very important request for all of you today!"