#📸 ⊱ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴄᴀɢᴇ ⊱ VERSE — FATAL FRAME.

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@heartsaligned​ -- akechi finds a scary book 📖

     Himino Fuyuhi, an ordinarily plain looking girl, had come to him requesting the aid of locating her missing friend. The police had been of no help to her, and Goro could have rolled his eyes at how much of a shock that came as. Useless idiots. All of them. It hadn’t taken him long into his work to realize the glorification of law enforcement was just that: GLORIFIED. And with them working in the pocket of a madman like Shido, it’d only furthered his ire and disdain.

       Private detective work was a stretch from the famed role he’d played as the Second Coming of the Detective Prince. Goro was a black hole instead of the rising and shining falsified star he portrayed for his fans, which had seemed to have moved on from him as well. But his new life had given him some benefit, after rehabilitation and being acquitted with society. Without having to fabricate cases to keep his prestigious appearance in tact and keep himself close to Shido’s side without arising suspicion as he sought his bastard father’s downfall, he’d always been gifted with a dangerous mind. He’d never needed to fake any of his celebratory successes.

       Momose Haruka had gone missing some time ago. She’d been last seen by someone in the Inaba region headed up to mountain. The forest surrounding the area was known as a famous SUICIDE spot. Goro was pretty sure with the information he’d gathered in his findings he’d be searching for a dead body either with her head crushed in from a fall or bloated from drowning.

       While collecting his data for the trip, he’d gone to Jinbōchō with the intent on finding anything he may have overlooked. He’d only gone to Inaba once before, on a brief trip to locate Yosuke when the ordeal with Maruki took place at the beginning of the year. Inaba was a quiet town located in the countryside, the type of place where everyone knew each other and nothing ever seemed to happen. He remembered having read case reports of the murder incidents that happened back then, sparking much attention on a town few recalled the name of otherwise.

       The antique bookstores along the district offered unique accommodations, new pieces were often displayed along the shelves. Old clocks, teacups and pottery sets, dressers, room dividers, and, of course, worn and exchanged books. He’d found a couple about the Inaba area, legends and folklore regarding the mountain and the shrines found along it. A tragedy had occurred there, aside from the massive amount of suicides, where the priestesses were brutally slaughtered.

       One novel, tucked in the back of the shop, had caught his eye. It wasn’t like him to entertain the notion of ghost stories and superstitions. But something about the old memoir had him making the purchase regardless. It’d been written by a detective Kirishima Choshiro, based on the events of a true story and the truth concerning the events of ROGETSU ISLE.

       ❝Something about that name...❞ Goro cracked the cover, the old binding and leather snapping open. The writing was remarkably detailed, with old photographs attached to the pages.

       If no one remembers something, does that mean it never happened?

       The first few pages of the prelude explained the events of Choshiro finding five kidnapped girls with no memory underground in an alter room beneath the Haibara Hospital. Ten years after locating the missing children, they’d returned to the island hoping to restore their forgotten past. The island, along with the Sanatorium, had been abandoned in 1972, with no known residents having set foot on the island since the Day Without Suffering.

       Goro flipped ahead in the book. There was something so FAMILIAR about it all. As the details further explained about the five girls getting separated as they wandered the old corridors looking for answers, he felt his sharp gaze narrowing. There was a dull throb in his head, but he ignored it, too fixated on the material in front of him to entertain the pain. He could feel his unease growing, the events of the prelude ending with one of the girls being trapped and grabbed in a room made into a museum from an honored guest visiting for research purposes. He turned the page to the beginning of the tale, the first official chapter, or PHASE, starting with the girl who’d accompanied the first bursting into the room and watching her fall out of the open door unconscious.

        He reached up for his forehead, a deep, pulsating wave of pain firing through his nerves. It passed a moment later, the sensation ebbing away. But as Goro looked back down at the yellowed pages, part of him could have sworn he knew what events were to follow. Another part of him felt like he’d even WRITTEN the material himself. It wasn’t in his hand, however. The published date and the events concerning the book had happened long before he’d even been born. So, how...?