Unfortunately not

He burst onto the roof to see...

Nothing.

Part of him let out a sigh of relief. He was upset he hadn't found her, but given that Ryuji could have literally said anything at all, he was concerned she could be up here thinking she was a traipse artist or something. But it looked like that wasn't the case.

Though this left him with another issue. She wasn't in the school. None of the others had reported as such, anyway.

He checked in with Futaba as he made his way back down to the front gate.

"Hey hey Ren! Sorry. No updates on my end. Which is both good and bad I guess, depending on who you're talking to. I've also been running police scanners and I haven't heard anything about her getting picked up. I'm trying to get into the city camera system but it's taking some time. After I hacked into the broadcast system *twice* they've upped security on infrastructure stuff so--"

"I get it, Futaba" Ren said with a laugh. He learned to cut her off early when Futaba was geeking out, otherwise he'd be listening to technobabble for the next hour. "I appreciate any help you can provide though."

As he exited the front gate, he was met again with Ann and Makoto... as well as another unexpected guest.

"Akechi?" he asked, seeing the brown haired detective there before him. After everything that had happened with Shido, and while the Thieves were on their road trip the summer after, Akechi had opened his own private detective agency.

"Why are you so surprised? Niijima-san did call and request my assistance, after all."

"I know. I just remember saying yesterday that you were too busy to come to the festival so--"

Akechi cut Ren off.

"I was too busy. Especially for something so public. Given that I don't exactly need to keep up my previous facade anymore I've become far less tolerant of large social gatherings. Aside from which, I've left my current work to my... partner, shall we say. At least for the time being. Helping to clean up your messes will always take priority" he said with a snarky grin.

"Partner?" Ren inquired.

Akechi rolled his eyes.

"A woman from a town called Inaba. She's a few years older than us. You two would get along. She's... sickeningly just." Akechi snarled "But even I cannot deny her detective skills. Either way, is it really wise for us to be standing here having this discussion while we're dealing with a missing person?"

"You're right. Unfortunately all we have to go on is the fact that we know she isn't on school grounds, and hasn't been for at least about 30 minutes" Ren stated.

Akechi stroked his chin

"In that case, we should focus on areas near to the school. Given the timetables of the subway system, it's impossible that she boarded one of the trains. She could theoretically be at one of the stations though. From the little I know of hypnosis, a hypnotized mind will still make choices on its own when no other input exists. Therefor, if she heard "go to Shinjuku" a rational mind wouldn't walk there unless that was feasible.

"So we have two stations in walking distance of the school. Would you mind taking one, we can send Haru to the other, have Sumire stationed here in case she returns..."

"And we can search the area around the school!" Ann chimed in.

"That's fine with me. I'll inform you if I've found anything. But remember, you owe me for this" Akechi added with a sly grin as he walked away.

"We have a few places to look." Makoto began "There's the business area just down the road. It's mostly a bunch of private offices. There's an underground area with some stores - but it's not like the underground mall. It's primarily just general goods stores all in one small area. There's a small gymnasium with an indoor pool. And finally, there's the little park down the alley a bit from the academy."