[January 29th]
While Kate loosened the wheels of due process, the Elite Four had gone back to the Telco. Every phone had a unique serial number, and they'd traced it back to the store it was sold, the cashier who sold it, and another day with the police had identified one man who had bought two phones. He had proved rather easy to track, and a single Mia burrow & erupt in his living room had sufficed to knock him unconscious and send him to the police.
They had found him to be a host, and once his Revenant was removed, Matoi & Samuel had interrogated him to little new information. His ability was spraying acid, the other phone was not with him, and four sat cold in their hotel afterwards.
"Is there anything else we can do with the phone we had?" sighed Marisa.
"…location, who bought them..." muttered Matoi. "They mentioned they can't track the other phone anymore, either. Whoever has it must have destroyed it."
"Can I see it?" said Mia. (Matoi handed it to her.) "I was just thinking that … this still has the time the texts were sent. And the man we captured was part of the attack on the facility. Correct?"
"Correct."
Mia nodded as she set her own phone down and called someone.
Charlotte's voice soon replied. "Hello, Timepact -- oh, you have me on speaker? You know that's the first thing you gotta tell somebody, right? What's up?"
"Charlotte." said Mia. "Do you still have the Revenant facility footage?"
"Yep. Can keep them until the end of the month, then we gotta destroy them. I don't think anyone'll check, though, so maybe we'll post them online and monetize it. It would probably be the cleanest thing anyone's ever monetized online in this decade. Did you need to check something?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I'm going to offload that one off on to Atori, so enjoy his whole... brooding emo twink act." She went off to call Atori, and soon he came on. "Yes?"
"I need you to check December 29th, 4:30PM. Who was the guard at that time?"
"I do not see Chimera, if that is what you are asking."
'Who does this fucking guy think he is? Use contractions.' thought Marisa, relevantly.
"Outside of the researchers, I see a man covered in green slime."
"When did Chimera leave that day?"
"…give me a minute." After a minute, he said: "He left at 4PM."
"What about January 5th, at 6:30PM?" said Mia, reading off the times of the texts.
"…he does not appear on that day until 8:45PM."
"January 11th. 8:40AM."
"This is a tremendous amount of fast-forwarding. … He stayed overnight, and left at 8:12AM."
"January 27th - 7:30PM."
"… He was at the facility at 7:30PM."
"Wait, that's the one where he said 'nevermind', right?" said Marisa and Mia nodded.
"Atori, can you look up his Revenant?"
Typing.
"Hayato Fujishita: threat level national. Revenant - Manticore. Allows its host to summon various animal parts, primarily reptilian. Extremely versatile. Supplemental information lists all observed uses. Full ability cannot be verified due to Hayato's Penxeno allergy."
"What's Penxeno?" said Marisa.
"I do not know."
"I'll look it up." nodded Samuel. "How do you spell it?"
"P-E-N-X-E-N-O." said Atori. "That is the end of his main profile. You will give me time to search through the supplementary information."
"Go ahead." said Mia, and Samuel's head rose as Atori's voice left.
"Says it's a type of anesthesia used for hosts. Not much information on it, though. I'd assume it's meant for surgery."
"He can't have his Revenant removed." muttered Matoi. "That's what they meant by it -- his Revenant can't have its ability verified."
"Right." muttered Mia. "…it isn't Tamer, but..."
Matoi glanced at the others. "Samuel, Marisa. Check the walking distance between the park and the Revenant facility. Don't use Boudoir or draw attention to yourself."
They left. Eventually Atori's voice came up again.
"His Revenant awoke in January 2007, presumably naturally. He has worked at various Revenant storage facilities since graduating in 2011. The rest is information on his Revenant's uses."
"Send it to us." said Matoi.
"I will, though I must copy it manually."
"… I believe that's everything, then." sighed Mia. "Thank you."
"Bye. I will call you when I have finished."
He hung up.
"I understand your logic, Mia." muttered Matoi. "And I agree -- if the park and facility are close, it's certainly possible. He likely walks to work."
"I know." Mia sighed. "But I don't understand how *his* Revenant could be behind this. And, admittedly, I'm worried I might be looking too far into it partially because I would love to fight him."
Matoi smirked. "I don't blame you. Regardless, if he's allergic to Penxeno, there's no guarantee Manticore is the name of his Revenant or its ability. It would never be verifiable."
"Right, but if we're looking for Tamer, then..." Mia frowned. "I just realized something. He would have needed Tamer transferred to him, and … obviously, a conversion Revenant would never be allowed to guard a facility. Even they aren't that desperate. But then, if we're assuming he is hosting Tamer, then there's also the fact that the video showed an ability that... seems in keeping with Manticore. No?"
"It might have developed a new ability. Wedding didn't initially have its ability to blind, or its shockwaves. If Tamer has the ability to turn other hosts into these beasts, it isn't implausible it would have grown to be able to transform its own host."
"It just seems very long and drawn out."
"Yet untraceable."
Matoi yawned as her phone vibrated.