[Private] Faces Of The Damned

Nayumi carefully slid the door to the music room open and peeked inside. After noticing that Wilson and Veach were inside, she quickly made her way in, then shut the door behind her, hoping that no one had noticed her enter. The girl wasn't known as someone who often wandered around empty classrooms, so she didn't really want to create even more rumors about herself. "Is... that all of you?" she asked without really bothering with greetings.

((I don't really have a lot of time tonight, so I suggest we stick to shorter and more frequent posts so we can get this all done tonight))

Hm, I'm usually more aware of my surroundings. She's a quiet one, isn't she?

"All who are attending. Yes."

Nayumi nodded silently and stepped forward, barely even acknowledging Wade's presence at all. She pulled a chair from underneath one of the desks and sat down reluctantly. "So, what exactly do you want from me?"

I myself sit at the piano stool.

"We need information from you."

My attention moves.

"Wilson, alert me if I forget to ask anything."

'Gotcha!' Wade shows a thumbs up, then winks at Nayumi before pulling a chair for himself and taking his place, not really feeling the need to say anything further.

I pause for a little.

Best to not leave the elephant in the room and get to the point.

"...To start...Your father."

"You say he was gunned down three years prior to the current events. Can you..."

"..Can you explain anything further on the subject of him? Anything at all?"

Nayumi looked down as soon as her father was mentioned. "Well... I'm not exactly sure where to start... I don't know that much about my father. I barely even interacted with him when I was a kid! My parents were always busy, and I couldn't really get out much. I was..." she shared, wondering for a bit whether or not it was worth to elaborate a bit. "From what my mom told me, I was born prematurely, which means my body couldn't develop properly. My body was really weak - I got sick all the time, and I couldn't even climb up the stairs without going out of breath and needing to rest for a bit. And, since both of my parents were really busy, for the most part I was left home alone. That's why I don't know a lot about what either of them did at their jobs... I'm really sorry..."

Nayumi took a deep breath and closed her eyes, realizing that it was nigh time for her to explain about the experiment. "When I was twelve years old, my dad got involved with some strange people. He, um... He said he'd fix my body, but in order for that to happen I'd need to go away from home for a while. I said I didn't want to go, but he wouldn't listen. He dragged me out of my mom's hands and took me to some place. I'm... not entirely sure where. I was... a bit too upset to watch the road. It kind of looked like a hospital of sorts. It appeared to be new and well-equipped, but... I never saw any other patients besides myself. There were other people... They usually hid their faces, though. And, for the next three years, he was... fixing me there"

The girl sighed, then carefully pulled the knot of her bandana, letting it fall down from her face and fully exposing her cybernetic face.

It was expected but seeing the past work of the man known as Dr. T still brought a chill to my spine.

With cool eyes studying the work and my hands together in a light fist infront of my mouth. Arms resting on my knees.

"...Mmhm...and the rescue op.-which I assume took place."

"Police forces rescued you and your father was mortally wounded."

"From what I gather, he fought back and was put down."

Nayumi nodded. "Exactly. I saw him shot down though his chest and right eye. There's simply no way for him to have survived, no matter how much I thought about this. I haven't seen my father since... At least not... I..." 

The girl thought for a bit about whether or not she should reveal this information - after all, it could misdirect the entire investigation and was most likely untrue.But still, it was important information which wasn't supposed to be concealed, no matter what. "I think I saw someone that looked a lot like him at school. I was going to the teacher's room to get some help with my homework, and then... He just appeared out of nowhere - a tall man with white hair. His face... It was almost exactly like my father's, and the way he looked at me... I dropped my books and ran, then never met him again. I don't know what this was all about, but it was most likely just my imagination. I mean... My father didn't even have white hair, and his face didn't look EXACTLY the same... Not to mention, I saw him die, so make whatever you will of that"

This isn't getting us anywhere...

I suppose that's one person we could talk to. It would have to be with causion just to be certain but I have my doubts on if that would really be him.

...But if it was, I would be speaking to my ex-captor...sketchy..

*Sigh*

"Your mother..."

This out to be of suprise to her if this is true.

"...Would she happen to work as a nurse for a charity organization?"

Nayumi shook her head. "I don't know... As I said, I have no idea what my parents worked... And..." she turned her head aside. "I haven't really seen my mother in four years, so I have no idea what she's working on now. I'm sorry..."

"Dammit..."

That's troubling. Now we only have one lead again and it is small...

Unless Chris comes through for us we're practically damned.

I suppose I should take advantage of the opportunity of talking to a cyborg built by the doctor himself...

"Your f-...my captor let me look at files of older models of his cybernetics and I found some sort of neural implant is used. Do you know anything about that?"

"Like, do you have one of your own?"

Nayumi blinked a few times. "N-neural implant? I'm sorry, my science knowledge is kind of limited" she looked down, her cheeks flushing slightly. "What does that mean?"

Whoops!

"Oh, my apologies.."

"It's anything physical implanted in your brain or nervous system-anything like that."

"Usually it is a computer chip but in the case of your cybernetic style it should be some sort of relay near the back of your head by where it connects to your neck."

"Your's is quite fragile and it has something to do with how you move your limbs."

"From what I recall if you are hit in the back of the head just hard enough you'll lose all help with moving by the computer."

"His newer models have it integrated further into the brain as I was told but-this is a theory anyway-I think it can still be shut down with an electrical shock."

"I wouldn't say you should be afraid of hurting it since it is probably pretty durible but you should still be careful if you are injured to the area."

"Oh" Nayumi opened her eyes, suddenly realizing what Satoshi was talking about. "You mean like this?"

Reluctantly, she turned around and pulled her hair to the side, exposing the data port on the back of her neck. "They usually use that to shut off my body during maintenance, or to upgrade its firmware. I don't think it connects to my brain, though..."

"I read up on it myself. I may not have been able to understand a few of the individual words but I could understand the paragraphs as wholes."

"That would be something that allows access to it. The implant itself is more than just something to plug a USB into."

"Really? Well, what else can it do?" Nayumi asked, slightly confused, yet more curious about the functions of her cybernetic body.

"I just looked up it's main use. Your guess is as good as mine on secondary uses but I wouldn't recommend trying it alone."

Hm...One more question before I ask Wilson for anything I missed that could be of some use.

"I know you weren't exactly close with your father but is there anything that would of left some scars on his past? His sanity?"

He could be insane but...something told me he actually isn't. That he truly understands his actions and everything.

..It's a scary thought...

"Anything that could hurt him without physical measures?"

Wade, thus far keeping quiet and analyzing the information, suddenly speaks up. 'Dude, she already told you she didn't really know much about her dad! There's no way she'd know anything about him being mentally scarred or whatever! Just let her be, we got plenty of info anyway!' he grins.

[Since Nayumi isn't gonna be here till the weekend, which is when you leave, I suggest we wrap this up without her, if that's okay with you]

[I'm cool with it. Have Nor continue on the lead to that one teacher since Wade knows Setsuna and Shinto don't trust them or something. That way it still continues without me around to breathe down every arc participant's neck. ]

"Iye."

I gather Wilson has nothing further to ask if he's saying I don't need to ask anything like that. 

"...Well since you don't know much about your body and little about your father we can't really dig much deeper."

"Thank you for your information, Ms. Tachibana. I assure you that it will be put to good use."

I stand.

[Don't worry about it, I already have it all planned out, Kira-style. Just follow my lead]

Following the conversation, Wade stands up and follows Satoshi out.

'So, what do you think? The teacher she mentioned is most likely Toriyama-sensei. I've been thinking about this for a while, but if you think about it, everything matches out - her father was shot in the right eye, and Toriyama-sensei has an eyepatch on his right eye. Not to mention, the guy's chock-full of cybernetics, which could explain how he survived being shot so many times. Only problem is, the guy's a cripple and can't walk without a cane...'

[Kira style ain't no Near style. I want it to be Near style-figured out. L;]

"Cane?"

Simple.

"Don't underestimate the lengths some people go to. There are some who will fake an injury at a job to extort money from their employer."

"When you have as much at stake as Dr. Tachibana, it would be no surprise to me if he would fake a limp."

"It may be less than 50% chance he is who we are looking for but a cane doesn't lower the chances."

'Yeah, I suppose that makes sense...' Wade nods. 'Well, in any case, the guy's probably at the teacher's lounge right now. You think it'd be a good idea to visit him? I mean, even if he is Takeshi Tachibana, chances are he won't pick a fight at school. I'd say we should try to subtly interrogate him without him even realizing that he's being interrogated! What do you say?'

"I suppose we have no other option."

"I personally don't know the guy...or ever heard of him-for the matter so I'm out on this one."

My right pointer finger touches against my bottom lip while I speak.

"Nayumi we could at least reveal our motives to so it was proper for myself to talk to her but I think this next one will require someone closer to him."

"Perhaps one of his students?"

'Well, technically speaking, you ARE one of his students' Wade objects. 'Think about it - Toriyama-sensei is a science teacher. Only seniors study science. You are a senior. Ergo...' he makes a strange gesture with his hands and points towards Satoshi. 'You are one of his students! You can be all like "Yo, Sensei, I don't get that shit, and my teacher's MIA", and he won't have any choice but to explain it to you. Meanwhile, I'll be in the room pretending to wait for another teacher, but secretly I'll be watching your back in case things go really south! The plan is fool-proof!'