Sawa observed with fascination as Ryuga was leering over top of Sento, while the latter sat down at a workbench in the secret lab, trying to concentrate. Every time that Sento moved a muscle, Ryuga would flinch and narrow his eyes in expectation. If Sento rolled around a little on his work seat, Ryuga would also move right with him, almost acting like a second shadow.
The reporter looked quizzically at Ryuga as if he were crazy.
"Banjo... what's wrong?"
Ryuga ignored her completely and kept intently drilling a hole into the back of Sento's head with his eyes.
Sawa shook her head, a little annoyed that she had not received any sort of response to her concerned question.
Soichi was also hanging out downstairs in the lab. He was shirking his duties today and had decided to see what the gang was up to. He sighed, got up from the chair he had been leaning back in and moved towards Sawa, offering an explanation, "He's been like that for a while now... don't take it personally. He's been like a stalker, following Sento's every move."
"A stalker!?"
Sawa was surprised and looked back over to see what the 'stalker' was up to, just in time to see him lean within inches of Sento's face to whisper, "You killed Takumi Katsuragi, didn't you?"
Sento rolled his eyes and answered without looking at Ryuga.
"That's the 328th time you've said that..." Sento finished doing maintenance on the little dragon robot he had made to keep an eye on Ryuga, letting it activate and start flying around the room. He stood up and walked away from Ryuga.
"How many times do I need to say it?" Ryuga started following behind Sento again, picking up his pace to confront him for the umpteenth time.
"Where's the proof I did it then?"
"It has to be you!" The dragon robot zoomed in the air alongside Ryuga while he shouted at Sento, both of them now loomed overtop of the once again sitting Sento.
Ryuga took a moment to gather his thoughts and then, looking like a lawyer who had achieved victory, said, "Oh yea, that right... Tatsuya said as much! Remember? He said he was the one that drove you to your new drug testing job there, on September the 5th... and Tatsuya also said it was Takumi's place."
"Hang on!"
Sawa suddenly interjected herself, her and Soichi had been watching this last interaction between Sento and Ryuga quietly this whole time.
"September 5th, a year ago..." Sawa pointed at a certain point on one of the blackboards in the room. This particular blackboard had the dates, times, parties and places of all the people involved with Ryuga, Takumi, and now Sento's case marked on it, with lines being drawn back and forth between clues and evidence everywhere.
"That's when Banjo showed up at the room of that scientist, Takumi Katsuragi, right?"
Ryuga finally paid attention to her, squinting his eyes and snapping, "Yea? So what?"
"Well..." Sawa kept her cool and continued on. "Takumi Katsuragi was already dead, at that time...Around what time was that?!"
Sawa suddenly rushed towards Ryuga with a fist held out in front of her as if she had a microphone in her hand, waiting for an answer from Ryuga.
Ryuga humored her and leaned forward as if he was speaking into her mic. "...Around 10 in the morning... And..."
He rushed from in front of Sawa and went to stand behind Sento, grabbed his shoulders and then Ryuga spun him around in the chair he was sitting on, so that Sento was facing everyone else.
"This guy dropped by one hour earlier, at 9AM..." Ryuga slowly started pushing Sento forwards in his chair towards Sawa, Sento just sat there with a deadpan look on his face, lifeless like a salted fish.
Ryuga got that cocky 'Gotcha!' look back on his face again as he continued, "Which means he was there first! So he had to have killed Katsuragi!"
His hands suddenly left Sento's shoulders and started coming down hard. Ryuga repeatedly slapped his hands down while saying, "You did it, admit it!" several times until Sento had enough of the beating and sprang up and away from the relentless Ryuga.
"Don't jump to conclusions!" Sento dusted off his shoulders, straightening out the top of the t-shirt that had just been beaten.
"He might have been dead already when I showed up..." He turned back to look Ryuga in the eyes. "Besides I can't rememb-"
"This again?" Ryuga snorted, cutting Sento off mid sentence while walking forward to meet him with a mocking grin on his face. "That amnesia sure is convenient, isn't it? I got locked up and called a murderer because of you!"
Sawa walked in between them and placed her hand on Ryuga's chest, trying to calm him down. Ryuga glared at her and twisted his torso, brushing her off.
"You screwed my whole life u-"
Ding!
Before Ryuga could fully finish spouting off and more fighting could happen, however, the giant bottle refining machine they were all currently beside suddenly dinged and let off a small flash of light and smoke.
At the sound, Sento's demeanor totally changed, with a huge shit-eating-grin plastered on his face he ran towards the little door where the new bottle would be waiting for him.
Ryuga cursed towards the interior of the machine, where he knew Misora was situated currently. "Stop blowing things up when I'm trying to talk here!"
Sento pulled open the door with excessive force and seized the new, bright white full-bottle that still had smoke rolling off it.
Sento squinted his eyes, looking at the design of the bottle and he smiled at it with adoration in his eyes, "Oooo, a panda, huh!? How cute!... Totally different from a certain obnoxious ape."
"Why you!... Who are you calling an ape!?"
Ryuga rushed to get next to Sento but right as he got near, the large man door of the refining machine hissed and opened. Ryuga barely halted himself in time to avoid hitting the emerging Misora.
Misora stopped right in between the two as Sento was lowing his finger to point at the fuming Ryuga, confirming he was the ape with a smug grin on his face.
"Tired... Sleepy."
Misora's eyes were half closed as she lazily gazed left and right at the two men. "Both of you dummies are still at it..."
She paid them no more attention, nodding at Sawa as she sauntered towards the bed in the other room.
Ryuga didn't even bother looking at Sento again before saying in a low, deep voice, "Admit you're guilty... turn yourself in."
Sento rolled his eyes and blew Ryuga a big dramatic kiss. "329...I will when you have some proof, ape."
"Oh, and for the record... No one thinks I did it other than your chimp-like self!"
Sento strolled away in the same direction Misora had headed while saying this.
Misora was passing by Soichi and when they heard this they both froze and suddenly turned around to look at Sento. Soichi lifted a fake mic to his lips just like Sawa had earlier and said, "What was Sento Kiryu like...? Or rather, should I say, the suspect, Tarou Satou?"
He dipped the mic towards Misora, encouraging her to respond as if he were interviewing her.
Misora smiled like a devil, a playful glint sparking in her eyes as a mischievous grin settled on her face. She deliberately raised the pitch of her voice, giving it an artificially high, exaggerated tone to add a bit of flair and theatrics to her words, as if she was putting on a little performance. "Well," she began, her tone light and teasing, "he was always going on and raving about being a brilliant physicist—like some kind of genius, or maybe a nut, depending on who you asked."
She paused briefly, a sly smile curling up her lips. "So, honestly, I kinda saw this coming, you know? It's just his style—always chasing after some wild theory or crazy experiment, thinking he's on the verge of discovering the next big breakthrough... Or crime!" Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she leaned back slightly, clearly enjoying the moment and the chance to tease Sento.
Sento ran over to the pair and pretended to grab and throw away the fake mic. "Hey! Don't say that kinda stuff!"
Ryuga rushed over and was immediately in the mix too. "A-HA! See, look! They agree that you killed Katsuragi! So admit that it was you already!"
Sento sighed. "There it is... the 330th time."
Sento groaned and pretended to stretch his weary body. "Somebody help me... The accusation counting meter won't stop rolling."
Soichi suddenly pointed at Sento and said, "May I?"
Sento immediately snapped back to attention with good body posture. "Yes owner of course, go ahead!" He then stuck his tongue out at Ryuga, causing to Ryuga to narrow his eyes and show Sento his middle finger.
Soichi winked at both Ryuga and Sento while saying, "Sounds to me like you just need to look into Takumi Katsuragi... He's clearly the common point here."
Both Sento's and Ryuga's eyes lit up, they simultaneously made finger guns at Soichi and said, "That's it!" at the same time.
Upon hearing each other say the same thing, they both grinned.