The next morning, Mia stood over Laura's corpse, dead of a brain aneurysm. Her microscopic scarabs had weakened the arterial wall just enough.

"Worldwide." she muttered, and her scarabs brushed against her neck once more. One finger pet them as they softly screeched. Over the year, she'd found Worldwide's presence comforting. "…I need to find her records, and her phone."

◆◆◆

She came back to Urasaria that afternoon, and Marisa hadn't asked if she'd gone to visit her mother. Sitting down on the couch, she checked Laura's phone for a reply from Aimee, and heard someone knocking at the door. Marisa glanced at her, then went over to open it to an exasperated Jakuze.

"Let - let me inside, please." he sighed, eyes on Mia as he stepped inside. "You could have - you could have at least fucking told me! Mia, they have cameras there!"

Mia felt afraid.

"I, I followed you from a distance." he groaned. "I don't know how the hell you even killed her, but you can't clean this up yourself."

Marisa spoke. "Uh, what the hell are -"

- Mia stood up. "I'll - I'll have to go back and destroy the cameras then, or -"

" - no, you're - the possibility of new witnesses…" He wiped his face. "No. I-I don't know why the hell I even warned you, but I had to clean this up for you, because - because…" He trailed off. "…god, I've already used Mesmer so many f-fucking times today, because you murdered Auctioneer at the Green-Inn Hotel -"

" - I - what?" said Mia. "It was the Blue-Inn -"

" - Mesmer."

Her eyes went limp.

"Jakuze, what the hell are you doing?" said Marisa.

He spoke to Mia. "When you recover, you will forget entirely the Urasaria student Jakuze Green Reidero, hero name Magician." He glanced at Marisa as she pulled Mia away. "Aren't you her protege?"

"I'm her fucking mentor -"

" - Mesmer."

◆◆◆

Mia's mind was a bit fogged when she woke up the next morning. Thorough as she'd been with Laura's death, she was still worried she had missed something. As she walked out of her room, she saw Marisa on the couch watching television and frowned.

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"…a student's gone missing?" she said.

Marisa nodded. "Yeah. I guess, like - they think he killed some professional, 'cause a bunch of people said they saw him go in to her hotel room. It's all over the news."

"They didn't see anyone else?"

"Nope. Just him."

Mia remembered killing Laura and her reason why, but didn't know how she'd known it. "…odd. Er, that he would do that."

"They asked people to call in if they knew anything about him." Marisa shrugged. "They'll probably ask all of his friends or whatever." She glanced at Mia. "Uh, is Aimee still in China? With that like, transportation Revenant?"

"Er, I believe so."

Mia stared at his picture on the television, and no recognition lit the holes of her memory.

◆◆◆◆◆◆

A few days later, Aimee, her three, and Mia stepped through the gate to Urasaria. Both had cried as soon as they saw each other; Aimee still had a few lipmarks on her cheeks now.

"I-I was so worried that something had happened to you.", said Mia, wiping her tears as they walked down the hall, holding hands with Aimee.

Makoto shrugged. "Uh, because something did -" - she paused as she saw Marisa walking towards them - ' - just us, right?"

Mia quickly nodded. "T-They think I visited my mother, correct. She'll also be my a-alibi, if needed."

Marisa came up, laughing as she embraced the short & tall couple. "What were you guys gone so long for? Mia-Mia's been super worried."

"I-I know." laughed Aimee. "Uh, just ended up fighting some transportation Revenant. Took us a while to even realize were in China, and we still had to find someone who spoke English, so…"

"R-Right." Mia nodded.

The six walked out of the hall. Marisa smiled, said she would leave the lovebirds to catch up, and peeled away from the group. After Makoto & Atori & Dmitri left, the two went to Aimee's mansion, and Aimee kept quiet until she closed the door.

"…so, uh…" She turned to Mia. "How did you know to, uh, deal with…?"

"…er." said Mia. "It's a bit difficult to remember, admittedly, but… I received a call from her when I returned to Urasaria, asking that I speak with her. I assumed it had something to do with January, and I had Nuiko shrink my scarabs - in case. She explained it when I arrived."

A bit of unease came up in Aimee. "Did you destroy her phone?"

"I did."

Mostly to herself, Aimee nodded, grateful that her girlfriend wouldn't see the photo of Ningsing rank #76's corpse.

◆◆◆

April 12th, Jeanne got out of bed five minutes before someone knocked at her door. She opened it for Nuiko, who brought her pouch inside. "Hey."

"Hey." Nuiko smiled. "Did you get your test results back yet?"

Jeanne shook her head. "No, um. They said it'd probably take a week."

"How are you feeling?"

Jeanne looked behind Nuiko for a few seconds, then nodded as she sat on the couch. Nuiko sat down beside and reached in to her pouch. "...well. I thought you'd rather have these than a cake, so…"

Jeanne laughed as Nuiko handed her two cans of cookie dough and frosting. "Did you steal these?"

"I still remember when they had to tell us to stop doing that." She handed Jeanne a videogame case. "And I figured you didn't want a wrapper for this. It's two-player. You still have your Switch, right?"

Jeanne glanced to her bedroom door. "Uh, probably somewhere in there. Haven't played anything on it for months."

"Do you want me to help you look for it?"

"No, I don't want you seeing how I live."

Jeanne smiled a little as she went back to her room. A real mess was still left inside, but she sprayed some of the trash in to powder before she went back to ask Nuiko.

[END OF ARC: FRENCH DEPRESSION]