Chapter Text
Perhaps some things are better left undiscovered. Some facts left unknown. Some ideas left forgotten. Some truths left to be swallowed by the darkness. For as some powers would cause mere men to collapse through our nature, some truths would cause men to collapse under the despair they bring.
Ah. Where are my manners?
My name is Shuichi Saihara. Ever since I was a young boy, I have had an uncanny ability to investigate and deduce. Yet, even as a child, I understood that the power of understanding was both a blessing and a curse. Still, for reasons I still am unsure of myself, I have become a private investigator and a rather well-known one at that. Now, this tale began on the scheduled day of Joel Robinson's trial.
Joel was a member of PETA who had been arrested on the charges of kidnapping a dog and resisting arrest. Although dogs can walk, talk, and think like humans, the charge for the kidnapping would be much lighter than the charge Joel got for trying to run away after his car was pulled over by his victim’s owner. However, just before he was scheduled to meet with his lawyer, the cell in the courthouse he was being held in was empty. There had been seemingly no signs of anyone being able to enter or exit the cell. The police were stumped at Joel's disappearance and resorted to asking me for help. I investigated the cell myself, but as the police said, there were no signs of entry or exit. I was able to find a single blue feather. Nobody had brought in a blue feather, and there were no birds with blue feathers native to Babylon Gardens, the town where Joel’s trial would have been held. However, I suspected that the blue feather was not some kind of keepsake or dropping but rather a sort of calling card.
I investigated reports of blue feathers present around the town, and surprisingly enough, there had been a rumor of a blue feather in the forest near the suburbs of Babylon Gardens. The rumor lead back to an old man who lived in isolation. I interviewed the senior, and he asked me why I was trying to find what could produce a blue feather. My answer was to discover the truth behind Joel’s disappearance. He asked me in response, “Are you sure you want to know?” I firmly stated yes. He then told me my answers could be found deep within the forest he lived near. I was reluctant to investigate at the advice of a possibly insane senior, but the police still had no signs of Joel, so I nervously planned my hike.
Before I ventured forth, I had packed my supplies. I wore a thick winter jacket, for Babylon Gardens is known for harsh winters, and this was in December. My supplies included a camera, cell phone, and journal for recording any evidence I could find. I also brought a loaded 9mm pistol and a first aid kit since there had been reports of attacks from predators such as bears, and I was not going to take chances here. I hiked through the forest for about an hour, gazing through the wild, searching for any sign of whatever could have left the blue feathers. The wildlife was hiding in their shelters for the winter, so I thought interviewing them would be off the table. However, this changed when I heard a small cry from somewhere. I turned my head toward the cry's source and saw it came from a raccoon kit caught inside a long-abandoned hunting trap. I ran toward the kit, and as I set to free him from the trap safely, he began to claw at my hands. Despite the pain in my hands, the kit was freed, thanks to my efforts. He stopped struggling and just looked at me, curious why I decided to free him. Then he thanked me for not killing and skinning him and then said that my presence and his freedom were thanks to “The Opener of Ways.” I asked him who The Opener was, and he claimed that The Opener was a holy figure for the wildlife of the forest. He claimed that he had risen to power when he opened a mysterious temple in the forest, and to signal his coming, a massive blue bird flew into the skies. I was surprised when he mentioned the blue bird. I suspected that this opener was somehow connected to Joel’s disappearance.
I asked the kit everything he knew about The Opener of Ways. He claimed that The Opener was a rabbit who lived in the “really big dens” near the forest. I decided that my next move was to simply search across the neighborhood next to the forest for the rabbit. I left the forest and launched my investigation. Luckily for me, I was able to quickly find The Opener. He, as the kit described, was a pet rabbit named Zach Arbelt. He did not seem like a messiah or a cult leader, just an unassuming rabbit who was trying to find his place in the world. I interviewed him about the disappearance of Joel Robinson. He was simply confused about how I brought him up, and I judged that he simply did not know anything about Joel. When I asked him about his identity as “The Opener of Ways,” he said that he did not want to be The Opener and that he did not have any holy power. However, he tensed up when I asked him about the gigantic blue bird he supposedly conjured. I pressed him further on this matter, and he told me the story of how he became The Opener of Ways.
Before he first set foot in the forest, Zach had lived an unsatisfying life. Ever since he moved to Babylon Gardens, he had been unable to fit in or make any friends. That would all change the night a raccoon tried to break into his house and grab his garbage. Out of desperation and loneliness, he asked the raccoon to take him to a life in the wilderness. The raccoon agreed and led Zach to the wilderness, where he was introduced to the prey animals and was shown the mysterious temple, most likely the temple door the raccoon kit mentioned. The temple was said to hold the power to “equalize all beings and instigate a new golden age,” but the door was locked by a mechanism none of the animals understood. The door portrayed a strange bird and a creature that looked like a snake. When Zach stood before the temple door, he felt like he entered a trance where his paw pushed a part of the door like a button. He did not know why this happened, but this caused the ancient door to open. The animals hailed him as “The Opener of Ways” and forced him into the temple so that he would “usher in the prophesied golden age.” Still, he just stood in the temple for a while until a cat named Grape and a dog named Peanut also entered the temple, searching for Zach after he had been reported missing from his house. He pressed a button in the temple to demonstrate to the pair how he opened the temple, but this led to the structure rumbling, and then he heard a shouting that shook the earth. He thought that this incident would be over after he returned to the safety of his home, but he was wrong. The animals of the forest would occasionally come to pester their prophet, but worse, he had a recurring dream of a muttering blue figure. It was too hazy for Zach to discern what it was, but Zach did not want to know. He was afraid to sleep, to dream, and to know.
I stood silently as I finished writing the details of Zach’s tale. I chastised him for making up a story to a detective, but he insisted that the story was entirely accurate. I left the Arbelt house in frustration and called the police in hopes of Joel’s manhunt making any headway. To my disappointment, no sign of Joel had turned up. I briefly thought of consulting these Grape and Peanut characters Zach mentioned on the off chance his story had some truth, but that is when I saw the old woman and she approached me.