Tranquility is an investigator for the Factfinding division of Consensus. Her job is simple: if something weird happens, something that went against the Agreements that form the foundation of civilization, she figures out what's going on.

Many investigators do not have the emotional stamina for the cases she investigates. She specializes in the worst of the worst. Most Melodians will never see or hear of a True Murder happening, unless they deliberate seek upsetting information about reality. (Which, to be fair, many Melodians do, if they have not kept up their Practice.) Tranquility has seen the aftermath of seven. But she is strong, and her Practice ingrained deep, and she remains an fairly happy, though grizzled, member of society.

Until now, apparently.

Where is this place?! Tranquility just went to sleep, and now she's... on a beach? With a mansion nearby? What on Earth happened?

But her Practice is strong, and she remembers her instincts. She takes a deep breath, and returns to calm.

She sees a storm bearing down on the beach fast, and doesn't see any immediate danger from the mansion, so she'll walk up to its doors and figure out if the locals have any idea what's going on.

Many voices can be heard within the mansion, which fall suddenly silent upon a knock on the door. After a few moments, footsteps are heard, and the door opens.

A tall, handsome man is the one to open the door. Surprise flickers on his face when he sees someone standing there.

He starts to ask a question, then thinks better of it when a gust of wind sends water flying into his face. It's a woman, and she's wet and unarmed, so there's probably no harm in letting her in.

"Get inside, and then I'll ask what you're doing here."

She nods and goes in. She's not one to question those giving her hospitality before she's negotiated a trade for their inconvenience, and she doesn't want to stay out in this rain much longer either.

There are a bunch of kids of varying ages inside, about fourteen or fifteen of them watching the intruder from a distance. Their ages appear to range from 10 to 18.

He closes the door behind her.

"I apologize for my indiscretion. I am Ohtori Akio, the chaperone of a school trip.

"Now, what are you doing here? This is a private island, and there's a storm outside. And what would your name be?"

How old does this new woman appear to be?

Tranquility passed her basic competency tests fairly early at 12, and refined her Practice sufficiently to handle particularly upsetting material at 16. She is somewhat experienced now, at 23, but looks fairly youthful aside from the composure with which she carries herself - she appears only slightly older than the oldest child, and would not seem out of place among them.

Uh. Hmmm. She would like to answer honestly. But she doesn't know an honest answer. Or have any idea what the honest answer could possibly be. And "I don't know" would sound very suspicious.

Well, the truth is usually the least complicated lie, but she still isn't excited about the possible results. (Also, "Ohtori Akio"? What does that mean? She knows some people draw their names from conlangs, but usually they'll explain it in their introductions, and "the chaperone of a skool(?) trip" doesn't seem like a name one would give themself on a permanent basis, and it doesn't match the phonotactics of any language she's heard before.) She bows slightly, and then speaks.

"It is good to meet you, Ohtori Akio, and I apologize for any inconvenience. I am Tranquility of Sunflower Creche. I am not exactly sure how I got here either - I just woke up on the beach - and apologize for this oversight."

Her attention is mainly on navigating the potentially risky social interaction, but fragments are still searching for any information about where she is. Does she notice out of the corner of her eye any symbols, statues, architectural styles, uniforms, or other distinctive things that might give her some information about whose mansion this is, or where?

The mansion is what Japanese people would call "Western-style." There are some couches and a fireplace. No one is wearing uniforms. The only symbol is a rose on a few various objects and furnishings.

'Ohtori Akio' she says??? Addressing someone by their full name, and with no honorific no less, is a pretty bizarre thing to do in Japanese!

Wow that is a hard to pronounce name. He would assume she's foreign if not for the utterly perfect Japanese (in every way except name etiquette?? she apologizes well and even bowed!) "Sunflower Creche" sounds like some sort of place, but he has no idea where that would be.

Her name comes out like 'Torankiritii' when he speaks.

"Goodness, Tranquility-san, you must feel quite confused. Did you fall from a passing ship in the storm? And where is Sunflower Creche?"

A ship? Tranquility doesn't remember being on any ships, but maybe falling out of one could've affected her memory... she casts her mind back, trying to remember her most recent case. An attempted murder that left a Consensus diplomat in charge of transportation policy in the hospital for weeks. She caught the culprit - he was a comms manager at a high-speed rail company that just barely lost the quality-adjusted auction for an important contract, and thought the quality-adjustment formula had been manipulated. (Three separate investigations led by separate Watchdog companies found there was no intentional manipulation, and internal review found no major deviations from the Agreements.) That case ended exactly nine days ago, and she has been off work since.

Which is to say - the problem is not her memory.

...'-san'.* Why is he using an honorific? She's not the one being hono- oh crud maybe this is a situation where one is supposed to use honorifics. Well, stating his name again would likely be even more impolite, so she will... use the honorific next time his name comes up, she guesses.

"I don't recall being on any ships recently, but I have no better explanation to offer and may just have lost that memory specifically, though that is not how memory loss works generally. Sunflower Creche is near the south edge of the Golden Capital. ...actually, speaking of locations, where exactly are we?"

*Tranquility doesn't literally hear "-san", but Mainline Melodian does have the general concept of honorifics.

"We're on Ikkenjima, in the Izu Archipelago. The nearest major city is Tokyo, and, in case it helps, that means we're in Japan. I'm not sure where the Golden Capital is, but it sounds major enough that I would expect to have heard of it if it was anywhere nearby?"

...yeah, she has no idea where any of that is, and she's fairly well-traveled. Combine that with the fact that Ohtori doesn't know about the Golden Capital, and the suddenness of her appearance here...

Is this an isekai?! Like, a real-life isekai?!

...

Did she die?! Did someone finally catch up to her after one of the really nasty cases?!

The prior on an isekai is really small though, given the current state of the forecaster aggregates on rescue sims. So she should probably keep open the hypothesis that she's somewhere in Melodia. Somewhere that hasn't heard of the Golden Capital...

The only explanation she can think of is a cult, and to the best of her knowledge, cults aren't this well-resourced. So either someone has infiltrated Consensus without tipping off any alarms internally or externally and never telling some of its members about the Golden Capital, or... yeah, she's got nothing off the top of her head.

Well, she will tread carefully and hopefully this conversation will make things make sense.

"The Golden Capital sits on the east* shores of the Big Ocean, surrounding the Golden Bay, in the Northern Hemisphere**, at a middling latitude where the weather is pleasant year-round. It is pretty prominent where I'm from, so I'm surprised you hadn't heard of it. I don't know any of the places you just listed - where is Japan?"

*lit. "sunrise-ward"

**lit. "more-land side-of-the-equator"

He turns to the students. "Did any of you get that?"

All the students in the peanut gallery turn to look at a light-blue-haired boy of about thirteen.

He speaks up. His voice is kind of feminine for a boy.

"...it sounds like she's talking about San Francisco, in the American state of California? I don't think anyone calls it the Golden Capital, though I would venture to say it's not terribly unlikely, since they have a bridge with 'Golden' in its name. San Francisco isn't the capital of anything, though."

"Tranquility-san, have you heard of San Francisco?"

"...I haven't. Can you show it to me on a map?"

If that's where the Golden Capital is here... that certainly answers her questions.

He addresses one of the older boys. "Mr. President, could you grab the atlas from the library? Top shelf, left wall as you enter."

A red-haired boy of about seventeen is the one to respond. He exits the room briefly, then comes back carrying the atlas. Before he hands it over, though, he needs to know one thing. There is a vitally important judgement he must make, and the consequences are certain to ripple throughout the rest of the trip.