August 29, 2026. 4:46 AM. Shinjuku Washington Hotel, Room 1203.
The morning started early. I had returned to the hotel past 11:00 PM the night before. Exhausted, I took a shower and finally fell asleep after 1:00 AM.
(To think an incident would happen so suddenly…)
I was forcibly woken up by a phone call about thirty minutes ago. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I had slept at all, but the report from Chris blew my sleepiness completely away.
<Special Agent Himemiya, a CODE:AW related incident has occurred. Please prepare immediately and head to the designated area. The location is the rooftop of a building in Shinagawa Area B-13A2. A car has been arranged at the hotel entrance.>
It wasn’t far from here. I quickly got ready and left the hotel. Come to think of it, last night was a full moon. The possibility of an incident occurring was extremely high.
(Too much happened yesterday; I was careless…)
Many of the CODE:AW incidents are related to the phases of the moon. The days the victims were believed to be murdered were almost always on the night of a full moon. The murder likely happened last night. I hadn’t been told who the victim was yet, but it was probably that girl I saw on the morning news the other day.
“<And now for our next news story. Yuna Hamano, a third-year student at St. Alsard Girls’ High School in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, has been missing for the past few days…>”
“For the past few days” meant she hadn’t returned home by the 26th, and a missing person report was likely filed with the police either that night or the morning of the 27th. By the morning of the 28th, it had become a public investigation on TV. I arrived at Narita at 7:30 PM on the 27th. It might have been on the evening news then, but as far as I could remember, I hadn’t seen anything about it.
I was handed a car key in the hotel lobby. There was a black sedan with its hazard lights blinking in the rotary. Looking closely, it had a small red rotating light on its roof. That was the car. I unlocked it and hurriedly got in. The destination was Shinagawa Ward. Since it was still early morning, the roads should be empty.
I arrived at the scene twenty minutes later. It was approaching 5:30 AM. From the rooftop of the building, the morning cityscape spread out before me. However, the forensics team had already arrived in one corner, and Kamikura was among them.
“You’re late, Himemiya.”
Same as always. I had sped through the early morning streets to get here. I had no reason to be complained to. The forensics team was investigating a skeletonized corpse in the corner of the rooftop. Within a minute, another staff member appeared and began setting up rod-like devices in the four corners of the roof.
“Activating optical cloaking screen.”
As the staff member said that, the devices whirred to life. From the inside, the surrounding scenery didn’t change, but from the outside, the area enclosed by the devices became invisible. I had heard that optical camouflage technology was already in practical use in the military sector; this seemed to be an application of it. I had heard rumors, but it was my first time seeing it operate in reality.
“Excuse me.”
With that, I stepped closer to inspect the body while the forensics team worked. Lying there was a completely skeletonized corpse.
“Judging from the condition of the bones, there’s no doubt the victim is Yuna Hamano, the missing third-year student from St. Alsard Girls’ High School. The sex and height determined from the bones, as well as the DNA profiling, are a near-perfect match to hers.”
“You’ve already finished the DNA analysis? That’s way too fast, isn’t it…?”
“We had predicted the incident in advance. We had a considerable number of surveillance drones flying last night. The drones discovered the body about three hours ago. Immediately after the discovery, Chris retrieved a piece of bone using a specialized drone. The lab conducted a DNA analysis right away. It’s nothing to be surprised about.”
(So they were already anticipating the crime and taking action… I guess that makes sense.)
“Still, to be skeletonized this cleanly… Are there any bloodstains or pieces of flesh nearby?”
“Not a single thing has been found. However, there is something that bothers me…”
(Something that bothers him… Has Kamikura noticed something?)
I looked around. The skeletonized body was in the corner of the roof, appearing to have collapsed while facing toward the center.
(Was she… cornered by something?)
Thinking about it that way, her positioning made sense. If she had agreed to meet someone and was suddenly murdered and skeletonized by some means, the bones should be near the center of the roof. Even assuming they were talking while looking at the view, she wouldn’t have gone to the very corner. Although the skeleton had collapsed slightly, the fact that it was likely skeletonized while facing the center suggested she had been backed into a corner by someone—or something.
“Himemiya, what do you think?”
“The victim was chased by someone and fled up to the roof. Then, cornered by whoever it was, with nowhere left to run, she was brutally skeletonized and died… That’s what it looks like. It’s hard to imagine she was meeting someone here. There’s no reason for a high school senior girl to come to the roof of a commercial building like this. It’s 30 stories high, after all. Besides, isn’t the door leading to the roof normally locked?”
“Since these incidents started occurring, notices should have been sent out to building managers to lock their roof doors to prevent access. It shouldn’t be in a state where civilians can just wander in.”
“Right…”
At that moment, someone came up to the roof. Ignoring the UCIA staff’s attempts to stop them, they approached us.
“UCIA Special Agents Hisamune Kamikura and Asami Himemiya, I presume.”
It was a man and woman paired in black suits. The man was about Kamikura’s height, with his black hair slicked back. The woman was relatively tall as well, perhaps around 170 cm. Her black hair, slightly wavy and semi-long, didn’t quite reach her chest. The woman gave Kamikura and me a slight bow.
“I am Toshimichi Kujo from the Public Security Police Seventh Division. This is Nami Mizuhara. Apologies for the intrusion.”
“…Who the hell are you?”
Kamikura shot a sharp, glaring look at the man named Kujo.
“Chief Totoki insisted we pay our respects to you both.”
(Chief Totoki? Don’t tell me…)
Kamikura’s eyebrows twitched for a second.
“…Are you Tetsuya’s subordinates?”
“Yes. We’ve established a specialized investigative agency here in Japan as well. The Chief has ordered us to cooperate with the two of you.”
A slow, measured tone. Combined with his expression, there was no malice in it. It was a way of speaking that didn’t trigger any alarm, yet smoothly slipped right past your guard.
“Tell Tetsuya something for me: Stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Kamikura spat at Kujo.
“The Chief entrusted us with this. Please.”
The woman, Mizuhara, handed me an oblong envelope. It was an elegant envelope made of high-quality paper.
“Now then, if you’ll excuse us.”
Kujo and Mizuhara both bowed before promptly leaving the scene.
“Hey, Kamikura. Chief Totoki… that’s Tetsuya, right? I knew he made Superintendent at an exceptionally young age, but…”
Tetsuya Totoki. Age 28. An old friend from our time at Harvard University. Kamikura and I majored in psychology during college, and we got to know Tetsuya through his psychology courses as well.
“Looks like the on-site investigation is wrapping up. Let’s head back to the car.”
We returned to the car. Kamikura had apparently arrived at the scene by helicopter. The calm atmosphere of the luxury sedan was perfect for a conversation. There were various things I wanted to talk about.
“Still, I never expected to be greeted by Public Security this early in the morning…”
“Public Security Section 7, huh… They arrived at the scene at almost the exact same time you did, Himemiya. They were probably subtly showing off that they caught wind of the incident just as fast as we did… What’s in the envelope?”
“Let’s find out.”
Opening the elegant envelope, I found a letter and two tickets of some sort inside.
“Wow. These are reservation tickets for a VIP room at a high-end restaurant on the 51st floor of the Roppongi Grand Tower.”
“…Is the letter addressed to you?”
“Umm… yeah.”
The letter was written to me. To summarize, it said he wanted to celebrate our reunion together, just the three of us, for the first time in a while. He had already gotten permission from our Director, so he insisted we make the time to come. The date written on the tickets was tonight at 8:00 PM.
“He got permission from the Director…?”
“Looks like it. Seeing how he even pulled strings with the Director, it’s likely related to this incident… An information exchange, maybe?”
“He said they’d established a specialized investigative agency in Japan. It’s probably partly to introduce themselves… but either way, I’m not interested. If you’re going, go by yourself.”
Kamikura spat the words out.
“Hold on a second. It’s a rare chance for the three of us to reunite, and he even booked such a wonderful place, you know? If the Director gave her permission, it’s bound to be a venue for exchanging information related to the case, isn’t it?”
“Then there’s even less of a reason for me to go. The letter was addressed to you, wasn’t it? Can’t you even take notes by yourself?”
Same as always. I wasn’t sure if he was jealous or what, but I wished he would spare me the sarcasm.
“Fine. I’ll go by myself. I’ll check with the Director later to see how much information I’m allowed to share, but I really wish you’d do something about that unsociable attitude of yours. I might be unreliable, but I’m still your buddy, you know.”
Between this and what happened yesterday, his hostile demeanor felt unforgivable. Kamikura had always been unsociable, but back when we were buddies in the FBI, there was still a warmth hidden beneath his strictness. He was at least decent when dealing with people for the first time. He definitely hadn’t been the kind of person to cop an attitude like the one he just showed.
To begin with, his facial expressions and the look in his eyes were completely different from back then. It was as if he was directing hatred and suspicion at everything… yet, at the same time, his eyes looked somewhat sorrowful.
The blank one and a half years since he suddenly vanished from the FBI. Considering he was now returning to the field as part of his rehabilitation from a near-fatal injury, it must have taken him three to six months just to recover. Thinking about that, it meant something grave had happened during the roughly one year between his disappearance from the FBI and his injury.
“It’s time to head back. We’re sorting out the intel at the Base.”