September 14, 2011, en route to the client's school. Audio file 07220110914(1).wav.
"Miss Cao, Miss Sun, hello."
"Mm."
"Hello."
"Miss Wang should have told you about the progress of our investigation. Right now, we suspect that something went wrong with one of the anime characters you like, or that something used those characters to do something. Have either of you noticed anything unusual lately?"
"...No."
"I, I don't really understand... What you said on the phone just now, that Renaša killed Zhou Min and Yuanyuan... How could that be possible? Shouldn't they just be missing? Maybe they were kidnapped and sold... Zhou Min might have been trafficked, and Yuanyuan might have discovered something and gone looking for her..."
"Miss Cao, you're familiar with the character Renaša, aren't you?"
"..."
"It does sound similar. I mean, what you said... Renaša uses ice magic and likes to freeze people into ice sculptures. When the sculptures melt... water... It all fits."
"That's ridiculous! You might as well say it was a ghost! That would make more sense than... than this..."
"Miss Cao, we hope you'll keep an open mind about what's happening. Our first priority is to make sure you're safe. Have either of you seen anything unusual recently? Or has anything around you changed in a strange way?"
"No."
"Of course not!"
"Before Miss Zhou and Miss Cai got into trouble, did they mention anything to either of you?"
"No."
"No!"
"Before it happened, did they do anything unusual? For example, play any dangerous games or horror games, or go somewhere strange and pray or make a wish in some unusual way?"
"No!"
"Probably... not, right..."
"Miss Sun, did you think of something?"
"Uh, you mentioned making a wish... Yuanyuan bought an ema with Hero on it before. They're used to make