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Yusuke is hard to miss.
It’s not just that he literally sticks out a few inches above other people, it’s how he speaks, how he carries himself. It’s attention-grabbing, to say the least.
So of course, when they ask the shopkeepers and other people who hang around the subway, they’ve all seen Yusuke around, but they haven’t noticed he hasn’t been around the last couple of days.
Yusuke’s all but vanished.
Maybe someone else would panic at that, but not Ren. Most things can be solved by taking stock and going back to the fundamentals. Figure out what you know, and work from there.
And Ren knows a lot. He knows that Yusuke is easily distracted and can wander a lot of places. He knows Yusuke sometimes forgets to pay for his phone.
He knows that there are monsters and portals to other worlds that can open up in an instant and make someone disappear.
Possibilities that no one else would consider.
That’s why he and the others all agreed they would get back to Tokyo the first chance they got, because they knew the authorities couldn’t deal with it.
A week after Yusuke last sent a message to the group chat, They’re gathered in Leblanc and taking stock of anyone Yusuke’s been hanging around. The Metaverse proper is gone, of course, but there’s always parallels.
Sojiro and Sae can handle the traditional methods, their search starts with rumors and forums. There’s no thread worth ignoring.
“Hey, check this out,” Futaba says, moving her laptop so they all can see. The reddit page for Yusuke’s college dorm has a scattering few posts, but one mentions a creepy painting in the hallway.
I swear I saw someone touch it and disappear.
“As good a place to start as any,” Ren says.
He and Makoto go to the dorm and talk their way in by giving the security guard a version of the truth. Of course she’s noticed the weird art kid hasn’t checked in in awhile.
When they reach the hallway, they don’t find the painting. The plaque describing it is there, saying it was painted by an unknown artist and gifted from the Subaru City museum. It’s several decades old, but not much else is known about it.
Makoto asks a passerby about it, and they just shrug and say someone probably got rid of it.
Then they head up to Yusuke’s room, Ren picking the lock easily.
Yusuke’s new dorm is the same kind of chaos as his old one, but thankfully it’s much bigger and comes with an actual bed.
There are papers and notebooks scattered around, and it seems Yusuke had been very focused on drawing the shadows they encountered in their adventures before, and a couple Ren’s never seen before.
A notepad with the words BUY SIM CARD underlined several times is sitting on the table, along with several names to get in contact with and phone numbers.
One is Katsuya Suou, a private investigator, so Makoto gives him a call and puts it on speaker.
“Katsuya Suou’s office, how can I help you?”
Makoto nearly drops the phone. That’s Yusuke’s voice.
“Yusuke?” Ren yells. “Are you ok, what happened?”
“Ren? Oh boy, I’m very happy to hear your voice.”
“We could say the same,” Makoto says. “What’s going on, where have you been?”
“Wait, how long has it been?”
“A week.”
There’s a muffled groan on the other side of the phone. “I’m so sorry, the person borrowing my body didn’t know what a sim card was.”
At this point Ren’s not even going to question it.
“Do you need help? What does this have to do with the painting?”
“Ok, so that painting was a message,” Yusuke says, “I just can’t find the people it’s meant for.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s… difficult to explain concisely, I don’t understand it myself,” Yusuke says. “Something about that painting… you know what never mind. I wanted to have more concrete information before I called you all on a wild goose chase, but I’m getting concerned. How fast can all of you get to Sumaru City?”
“We can be there by tomorrow, why?” Makoto asks.
“Because I think a cult from the 90s is trying to end the world again.”