[h2]Sasegawa Hikaru, the Stalwart Lightning Detective of Yamamura[/h2]

The thoughts that swirled through the dark red-haired head of Yamamura High School's steely detective were remarkably disjointed. To her consternation, none of it made very much sense yet. At least, so far it didn't. The app was very nearly indecipherable, coded in an extremely complicated fashion. There were discernible patterns, but none of those patterns were indicating anything clear. Worse yet, any attempts to trace the videos went through multiple proxies before finally vanishing. It didn't make any sense. As for how to connect the app to the disappearances, it seemed to lack any way of tracking its users. To put it simply, evidence was quite a bit difficult to come by.

In spite of this fact, Sasegawa Hikaru was not shaken. Even if local law enforcement was struggling with the case, she was not referred to as the Lightning Detective for nothing. Her speed at discovering and analyzing evidence was not possible to deny. If it was nearly impossible to analyze the app itself, then perhaps Hikaru would be able to discern patterns in the disappearances themselves. Adjusting her hat, she proceeded down the street. There were a few of her fellow students she had been directed to question. Among them was one Umeda Maiko.

Umeda was, from the picture that Hikaru had been provided, a rather sporty girl who sported an energetic attitude. It was only a cursory analysis of the slightly older girl from a still image, however. Hikaru would have to meet her, first, in order to discover anything of value.

As such, Hikaru had decided to approach the girl's place of part-time work. It would be a simple questioning session, relatively unintrusive and a simple bid to gather information. After all, Umeda Maiko was hardly a suspect. Still, it was best for the interrogation to occur in a timely fashion with few delays.

What luck it was, then, that she intercepted the girl carrying a bag of newspapers.

Swiftly, Hikaru made her approach.

"Umeda Maiko-san?" the redhead began, "I'm Detective Sasegawa Hikaru. I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Of course, it was likely that the girl already knew of Yamamura's new detective... as a boy.

[@Mercurial]