"R.D.?" said Marisa, wincing as she glanced over.

"Yeah." muttered Aimee. "Mia, can you compare them?"

One scarab appeared beside its two-dimensional sister. Marisa & Aimee's tablets vibrated, though they didn't take them.

"T-That man, the - his voice." said Mia. "When, when I was first attacked, I-I thought he said something, but - it, it was FTL."

"Sounds like what he said, yeah." nodded Aimee, tablet vibrating again. "Gotta be - FTL. FTL, FTL..."

"But why would he kill the guy who gave you Worldwide?"

"I-I don't think - he must be the one who gave me Worldwide." said Mia.

Aimee's tablet vibrated, and her phone rang. "I - sorry. One sec." She took both, and Marisa cursed as she checked her own tablet.

"What i-is it?" said Mia, glancing over. She didn't need to know the tablet's interface to know it was bad. She felt afraid as dozens of alerts came on-screen.

"Yeah." Aimee winced on the phone. "I'm - yeah, just… with Mia and Marisa, but I'll meet up with you, yeah." She set her phone to her chest. "Mia. I need you two to just head back to Urasaria.

"Are you sure?" said Marisa.

Aimee nodded. "Yeah. I can still handle a few of these, but - text me when you get back, okay?"

"A-Alright." said Mia.

Once they were out to the street, Marisa hugged Mia tight and a strand brought them up to a lamppost. If the stress hadn't made her want to vomit before, Boudoir's bumpy ride nearly did. Marisa's tablet kept vibrating until the two landed at Urasaria's gate, and the two went inside -

- to a man Mia hadn't seen before, the size of two men with a golden Urasaria badge. Marisa recognized Armstrong, and instinctively she hated him.

"Mia Schultz." he said. "Come with me."

"Why?" said Marisa and his head shook.

"Go deal with those Revenants."

"She's my protege -"

" - the staff needs to ask her about something. She'll be home by the time you return."

"Ask her about what?" said Marisa and Armstrong sighed.

"I-It's alright, Marisa." muttered Mia.

Armstrong led her to an office in the staff building, twelve seats on one end of the table & one seat at the other. She only recognized Hirogane out of the twelve across from her.

"Here, Armstrong." said a black woman, handing him a sheet of paper as he sat at the middle. "Another six."

He set it facedown. "Mia Schultz. Describe your day for us."

"…e-er. This morning, Aimee woke Marisa and I up, by knocking on o-our door."

"Marisa who?" said the black woman.

"Gwynvere." said Hirogane. "Hero name is Lavender Menace. Black hair, rainbow dress."

"Ah." she chimed. "Very fashionable, right? Very, uh, proud?"

"I… suppose." muttered Mia. She remembered how her father spoke of police, and felt some dissonance over being it now. She had always drawn a line between him & the scum students dealt with - maybe she could realign it there too.

"What then?" said Armstrong, and Mia relayed it. Once or twice a staff member would make a joke to try to endear themselves, but Mia didn't laugh.

"He had a scarab tattoo, you said?" said the black woman after.

"He did." murmured Mia, anxiety building.

"It was like one of these, right?" She flipped the paper over to six more like it, one with blue lines.

"I - where are these from?"

"Can you answer me first? We just wanted to make sure before we let you go."

"I - I need to know where these are f-from, first -"

" - answer her, Ms. Schultz." said Armstrong.

"…i-it - it was a golden scarab, yes."

"Can you show me Worldwide?" said the woman.

Tears were starting to come, and more leaks started to form the harder she pressed them back. "W-Worldwide."

Her scarabs appeared and the woman nodded. "Thank you. I still have a few questions." She read the paper, glancing between two-dimensional and three-dimensional. "Your Revenant has red lines. There's one with blue lines here. Can you explain that, Mia?"

"I-I don't know why. I'm - I'm not related to any of this."

"These began appearing very quickly after you said Doppori was stabbed."

"I-I - I don't know anything about - I can a-assure you that -"

" - is there a reason why you're so quick to deny, or why you didn't correct me on how Doppori died?"

"Give me the paper." said Hirogane, and it went down to him as the others kept questioning.

Hirogane had seen hundreds of students over his twenty years at Urasaria. He could call to mind the names of most of the high-ranks and even some of their mannerisms, and what he had remembered now of Worldwide's previous host was far different than the girl stammering here. Revealing his knowledge would've helped the staff's investigation, but it would hurt Mia worse. As they kept questioning her, he was reminded why he thought his co-workers as men & women who hadn't made it as professional heroes and took to judging a campus they had little involvement with anyway. Wasn't that different from the rest of the world, really, but he was the only staff member the students liked & he intended to keep it.

"Then maybe," sighed the woman: "You can go schedule your removal surgery -"

" - she's not getting her Revenant removed." said Hirogane, eyes rising on Mia. "She's been investigating on her own. Asked me when she was in the infirmary. Kept asking what she could do to help."

"It's a security risk to keep her Revenant like this. If they're using it at some sort of symbol -"

" - then they'll be even madder at me for removing it. The rest of you can defend yourself. I can't, and neither can she if I removed it."

"Keeping Urasaria safe is my job." said the woman. "Keeping her safe isn't."

"Mr. Hirogane." interrupted Armstrong. "What is your suggestion?"

Hirogane turned to Mia. "Mia. I assume you're planning on investigating with Aimee."

"…y-yes. P-Please."

He nodded, having experience reassuring Luna, though he'd been glad to put her in Saya's much gentler hands most of the time. "If she's going to keep investigating it - don't see any reason to remove it. She has friends here - she's not going rogue."

"…A-Aimee." murmured Mia. "Marisa a-and S-Sylvia. S-Saya."

Armstrong nodded. "Then I agree with Mr. Hirogane. Mia Schultz. So long as you continue to investigate - there'll be no reason to remove Worldwide."

"…T-Thank you." she sniffled.

"You may leave. Do not leave Urasaria without Marisa or Aimee. We have surveillance on you."

She walked out. She tried shifting herself back to the day prior as she went to her &Marisa's home, but realized in her pockets she'd lost her Boudoirkeys, and slumped on to the steps to wait for Marisa.

'…g-great.' she thought. 'W-Why does this have to be me? W-Why d-do I-I have to f-fucking be involved in everything?'

The door opened, and she turned, to Marisa with strand out.

"Hey, Mia-Mia." she smiled.

"I-I thought you were out fighting Revenants." muttered Mia as she went inside, Marisa closing the door behind.

"Not without my protege." she chimed, and Mia smiled weakly as she sat down. "What happened?"

"…they i-interrogated me." mumbled Mia. "T-They think I'm responsible for all the Revenants showing up, because t-they have Worldwide tattooed on them."

"What?" said Marisa. "That's - like, that's not because of you, that's…" She sighed. "…ugh. Staff are just - bunch of fucking dicks, ugh. They just get off on making us miserable."

"T-They threatened to remove Worldwide, b-but - H-Hirogane said he wouldn't if I k-keep investigating."

Marisa hugged her as her tears came again. "Yeah. I bet - there's no way he's gonna do that, like. They're just being a bunch of dicks and trying to scare you."

Mia nodded. "…p-possibly."

"Yeah, Mia-Mia. You've got me and Aimee, right? Like, Aimee's rank one, and I'm rank forty-six. They're not gonna do anything without - and especially Hirogane, too. Like…" Marisa sighed. "…ugh. I'm really sorry, Mia."

"I-It's alright." said Mia, sitting up. "It wasn't your fault."

Hoping she wouldn't follow her previous mentor's lack of support, Marisa nodded.

"H-Hirogane seemed to stick up for me, as well." said Mia.

"Yeah." nodded Marisa. "Like, Hirogane's cool, it's just everyone else sucks. People joke about that, like, if the staff building was on fire, we're gonna save the infirmary and pour gasoline on the rest."

"I-I could help with that, at least." said Mia and Marisa grinned.

"Yeah. Plus, like - Hirogane's the only person who can remove your Revenant, so just, yeah. Don't worry about what anyone else says."

Mia nodded. "Then we, er - should c-continue to investigate."

"Sure thing. It's gonna be okay, Mia-Mia. Like - we're definitely going in the right direction, so."

"I - I believe so, as well." nodded Mia. "There may be something about the… tattoos, to follow."

"Yeah, didn't that one say like, 'RD' on it? Maybe it's like, someone's initials or something?"

"Or whoever drew it."

"Yeah, exactly. We can start looking it up when Aimee gets back."