A/N: Hey it's been a while lol, this fic is over a year old and we only have 4 chapters? So sorry about that, 2019 just… wasn't my year lol. It was especially bad at the end of the year. I don't wanna go into depth on my mental issues but I've made adjustments in my life, gotten some help, and have made some really supportive friends in this new year that have pushed me to write more. That is the only positive thing I can say about 2020 tho Jesus this year has gone to shit so fast lol. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy though! Anyway enjoy this very late update lol.

I was starting to get sick of trains. I was traveling so far from home, and as much as I had tried to stop thinking about him I couldn't stop myself from wondering what Dell was doing. Is he at work right now? Has he brought Aiko into our bed? He hasn't tried to contact me since I left. I should have realized sooner he never really cared about me. God Miku you are such an idiot.

I fiddled with my intern badge as I stared into space. I began to take note of my reflection in the window. My hair was up in pigtails like usual, what a childish style. I stopped messing with my badge to let my hair down. My long teal hair flowed all around me and I took some of it in my hands when this is all over maybe I'll get a haircut.

As I was lost in my thoughts I suddenly heard the conductor over the speakers, my platform was approaching. I grabbed my suitcase and purse and once the train pulled up at the stop I scurried off. I had to catch a taxi from the station to get to the Zatsune household. The taxi took me through the small town, the town where Zatsune Miku lived her life. I passed the high school Zatsune Miku attended, I saw a mother and daughter exit the ice cream parlor. The taxi then pulled into a neighborhood of cookie-cutter houses before stopping in front of one house in particular. I already saw a couple packing things into their car, Miku thanked the driver while handing him her payment. I then timidly stepped onto the driveway. The woman quickly noticed my presence and waved me over to where she was standing. The woman had a black bob cut, she looked fairly young but getting close I realized she was hiding her age behind a mountain of makeup. Her husband had short blonde hair that was starting to turn white and tired eyes the color of blood. He didn't really look my way as he hazily packed his belongings into their blue minivan.

"You're Ring, right? Thank you so much for house sitting! Do you mind if we pay you after the trip? We wanna make sure you don't steal anything," The woman dropped all this on me suddenly.

While normally this would be a huge red flag I wasn't here for the money. I just responded with a smile "Sure ma'am I don't mind!"

"Thank you! You are a lifesaver! Come inside let me give you a quick rundown on everything then we gotta go." Mrs. Zatsune grabbed my arm and dragged me into the house. Inside the living room, a toy poodle was sleeping on the couch.

"This is Snowy, she naps a lot so hopefully won't be high maintenance for you. You must be up at 6 o'clock so you can give her medicine." She thrust a pill bottle into my hands. "Just put some peanut butter on your hand and bury the pill inside. She'll lick it right up. You also need to refill the automatic feeder every..."

I just took mental notes of everything I was supposed to do before a key was plopped into my hands.

"Thank you again! We couldn't get any neighbors to housesit for us, they refuse to come over anymore," Mrs. Zatsune said with a sigh. I had a feeling I knew why...

"Have a safe trip ma'am," I said as she walked towards the entryway.

"Thank you, don't get into too much trouble!" Mrs. Zatsune gave one last wave before walking out the door. I waited until she heard the car leave the driveway before walking over to the couch and plopping down next to the sleeping dog. I began to absentmindedly pet Snowy while letting out a tired sigh. While I should go out to do some digging in town I was exhausted. I decided to just call Rin letting her know I arrived safely and go to bed. A futon had been set up for me in the living room, I wasn't allowed into any of the rooms (a rule I would probably break later). Once my body hit the futon I was out almost immediately.

I woke up early the next morning to give Snowy her medicine. Once that was done I decided to treat myself to a cup of coffee to energize me for the day. That coffee break was my only time to relax because soon after I began my hunt to find Miku Zatsune's bedroom. I opened every door I could find in the house. I found the master bedroom, 2 bathrooms, an office… and finally for the final room when I tried to open the door it wouldn't budge. Upon closer inspection I soon noticed that the doorknob to the room was different from every other doorknob in the house and this particular doorknob had a key on it. Fan-freaking-tastic!

This was either Zatsune's room or a storage closet. I assumed the former was true because usually when a child dies the parents will leave the room untouched. Maybe the room was dismantled however if the parents were involved in her death? I doubted it but I guess I would just have to find the key to figure it out. However as I began to look around for the key Snowy started to get in my way, with a very expectant look in her eyes.

"You have food in the food bowl already, what do you want?" I asked the dog.

She is a dog so she probably didn't understand what I had said, but her eyes had moved away from me and were looking towards something. When I followed her line of sight I saw a leash hanging up next to the front door.

"Do you wanna go on a walk?"

"BARK!"

I took that as a yes and hurried to get dressed so we could go out. Her tail began to wag rapidly as I grabbed the leash and attached it to her collar and soon we were out.

I wondered if I should head to town while we were out. That idea was kind of ruled out as I walked around the neighborhood. The few neighbors who were out would look away when they could tell I was looking in their direction. In the corner of my eye I saw two old ladies whispering to each other as they looked at me. People probably recognize Snowy as the Zatsune family dog so taking him into town as I ask questions about the dead teen probably wouldn't be wise. As soon as our walk was done I grabbed my fake reporter ID, made sure Snowy had food then began to head to town.

I had to use google maps to find my way to the high school Miku went to. It was a holiday so while there were no students at school there was a buzzer in the front so I pressed it hoping some staff would be there.

"Hello?" A high pitched voice cackled through the old device.

"Hello, I am Ring Suzume with Voca Press. I am here to write an article about the Zatsune murder case. My supervisor Gumi Megpoid said she would call in and I should be allowed to view your yearbooks here since they are considered public record." I was just repeating what Gumi told me to say when I called her earlier.

"Yes, we did get a call from Ms. Megpoid earlier… Let me unlock the door. You can come into the front when you hear the click."

I waited a few moments when I heard a click coming from the front door. I opened it and there were two doors, one that led to the rest of the school (and was probably locked) and a smaller one that led to a front office.

I walked in and I could see a young-looking woman at the front desk gathering some yearbooks.

"You can't take pictures of the inside of the yearbooks, you can't use the real names of any of her classmates but you can write down anything info you need for your article that doesn't break the first two rules," She said sweetly as she handed me 3 yearbooks. "These cover all the years Miku Zatsune was a student here. Also, this is my first year working here so you can ask me questions for your article but I probably won't be much help."

"Thank you," I said with a smile as I went to sit at a table in this little front office. I first looked in her first-year yearbook for my real target, Kaito. I know from the letter he was either in her grade or one year ahead of her. He wouldn't be younger than her nor too much older than her. I opened up her first-year yearbook, nobody older than her in her class with the name Kaito. I looked in the next yearbook for her classmates and the third-year students, no Kaito. I looked in her final yearbook, still no Kaito's.

Did he not go to this school? I know he lived in this town since the letter implied he did, did he take online school? Was he just wiped from all records for some reason? Was his name even Kaito?

I then turned my head towards the receptionist.

"Are you sure everyone is in these yearbooks? If someone never showed up for picture day would they still be in the yearbook."

"All the students should be in there. If you missed picture day they would just put your student ID photo in its place. Why do you ask?"

"I was looking for someone who might be connected to this case… Kaito. He was her boyfriend at the time and only a year older than her." I explained.

"Well... I can't look him up in the system for you because that's against the rules… maybe he went to the private school in the next town over? That school and our school do school trips together so maybe they met there? I'm not sure and you wouldn't be able to look at the yearbooks there since all their records are private."

"Okay thank you," I said, gathering up the yearbooks and handing them to the woman.

"I'm sorry we didn't have any helpful information here," the woman said. I just gave her a polite smile and said not to worry before heading out. Well, that was kind of a dead-end so I hoped the ice cream shop would be a better lead in my investigation. I put the address in my google maps before heading towards the parlor. I got there to see this was a very popular location in town. It was packed mainly with teenagers than I expected because a lot of young people were still on holiday. I got in line and to my slight annoyance, I found myself behind two teenagers lovingly holding hands. One had pure white hair and multicolor eyes while the other one with white hair with a black streak. I had to watch this for about 5 minutes before it was my turn to order. I just got a mint chocolate chip cone and found a quiet little place to sit while I ate. I initially decided to wait for the rush to die down and ask some employees for any information they had about Kaito. However, things changed when a white-haired woman walked through the door. I didn't pay her much mind, and she didn't even notice me at first. Something important to note was that I did put my hair back in pigtails, hoping my similarities to the deceased Miku would draw people with helpful information to me. This woman got in line initially but at some point, we made eye contact. Her red eyes turned into saucers when she saw me. I just tilted my head in confusion as a response to her and soon she shoved her way out of line and walked out of the ice cream shop. That was strange. I thought maybe I should follow her but I knew she already looked paranoid and would try to lose me. Surprisingly enough one of the teenagers from before who had found a spot next to me piped up.

"That's Tei, she usually comes here once a month." The white hair boy said.

"Really? Does she live around here?" I ask.

"She used to but not anymore," The white hair boy said.

"I usually see her at the cemetery," The other teenage boy chimed in.

"That was actually my next stop," I said as I got up out of my chair. I thanked the NPC's for the information and began to head towards the cemetery. I tried to take the less straightforward path so that I wouldn't run into that Tei woman on the way. I didn't want her to know I was looking for her.

Once I made it to the cemetery I began to look around for the woman. I hoped this was her destination and she didn't just book it out of town. My fears subsided when I saw a familiar figure taking care of a grave. I got closer and let out a little gasp when I saw what grave she was taking care of. It was Zatsune's grave.

My gasp alerted Tei to my presence. When she looked at me her face was so white, it was like she had seen a ghost. To be honest I would have felt the same way.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you. It seems we both came to visit the same grave," I said with a little chuckle, hoping to calm the girl's nerves a bit.

"Are you related to Miku?" She asked.

"Not by blood. But lately, I was drawn into her case. I never even knew a girl so similar to me had died until a week ago." I got a bit closer to Tei and the grave before continuing. "Miku is a common enough name for our last names to be similar too…"

"What is your name?" She asked.

"Miku Hatsune," I said.

It was Tei's turn to gasp.

"That is so crazy!" She said, her eyes were still wide but she was no longer pale and sweaty.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Tei Sukone," She said. That name seemed so familiar… like I had seen it recently.

"Did you go to high school with her?" I asked.

"Yes I did, she was my best friend," Tei told me.

"I moved away when I got married but I still come visit her grave once a month to take care of it and pay my respects," she explained.

Finally, someone that was close to Zatsune who wasn't too afraid to answer my questions! I decided not to beat around the bush any longer. She was gonna be my closet lead to finding Kaito.

"Did she have a boyfriend when she died?" I asked.

She got a bit pale again before responding, "Yes, she did… why?"

"I'll be honest with you, I found out about all of this because of a letter," as I told her this I pulled the letter out of my purse and handed it to her the faded blue envelope. She looked at me, asking with her eyes if she could read it. I gave an approving nod and she opened the envelope. I followed her eyes as they carefully read over the letter. She seemed to be retaining the information on it very slowly and had a serious look on her face the whole time. Finally she handed the letter back to me and we were left in silence for a few minutes.

"Is your goal to give this letter to Kaito?" she asked.

"Yes."

This was followed by another silence, Tei wasn't scared this time though. Instead she was calm, eerily calm. Finally, she broke the silence with shocking information.

"I know where he is."

A/N: I will try not to take like half a year to update again since I am leaving my like, 4 readers, on a cliffhanger. Also I am starting to throw logic out the window. Most dog sitters don't stay at the house, I don't think the yearbooks would actually be in the public record and the school structure with the front office is set up like my American high school front office. I feel like Japanese schools don't have that structure but idk I've never been. Also if it wasn't too obvious the teenagers Miku talks to are Piko and Vflower. Someone in the RinLen/KaiMiku discord server told me to put PikoFlower content in my next chapter so I did lol.

Anywho~ please leave me some reviews and I'll see you again in the next update :)