Saturday, September 17, 11:30 p.m.
To attend the wedding of his old friend, "Kitagawa Tomoya," who worked at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, Kaoru arrived at the hotel wedding venue with Ai.
"Eeeh-?! There are so many people!"
"Hah, I didn’t expect this many...."
The first thing they felt upon arriving was that there were really, really a lot of people.
In the spacious hall outside the ceremony venue, a huge crowd of guests was packed together like a marketplace.
Originally, since Tomoya came from a political family that had even produced a sitting prime minister, there would naturally be quite a few members of the clan, and if you added not only Tomoya’s own connections but also the bride’s guests, this number was understandable.
There were plenty of familiar faces too, including some high school and university classmates. Their high school homeroom teacher and the professor who had supervised them in college were there as well.
As the Kaoi couple arrived, the gazes of the groom’s guests and the bride’s guests began to quietly gather on them.
Guests from both sides, who had been watching nearby, gradually approached the couple to ask for a handshake or offer greetings.
But because of the culture of being very conscious of etiquette—if you put it kindly, or of being very mindful of others—most of them cautiously approached so as not to cause trouble.
For Kaoru, an introvert who had been debuting for nearly twenty years but still found fan service a little embarrassing and awkward...
"Yes, hello-★ Hehe, thank you for enjoying the drama!"
"Sorry, but no autographs or photos. I’m here as Tomoya’s guest, so I’m trying to be careful not to inconvenience anyone-★"
Having his wife there was truly reassuring.
In fact... most of the people here were approaching Ai, the eternal [idol] and top actress, with far more interest.
No matter how famous an actor he was, even Kaoru would rather greet his beautiful wife than some dark-haired guy.
For about ten minutes after that, Kaoru and Ai chatted with and greeted the guests who came up to them.
"Hey, Kaoru! Ms. Ai!"
Tomoya’s close friend Shoto arrived next, followed by Shohei and then Kaito.
As the only single one, Shohei looked gloomy the whole time, like a depressed frog, because even Tomoya was getting married.
The three friends soon shared a deep friendship(?) by warmly insulting and badmouthing each other like middle-aged women who had met in front of a supermarket.
"Kaoru, I need to step out for a moment..."
"Okay."
Kaoru nodded with a smile at Ai, reading the situation quickly.
He watched his wife head toward the restroom until she disappeared inside, then took out his smartphone.
"Shoto. Your bangs are getting a little too much construction work done."
"You really shouldn’t be talking to a baby who still can’t get married."
"What did you say, you punk?"
"Tch. Thirty-year-olds and this level of conversation."
After Shoto, Shohei, and Kaito spent a while trading blows, they agreed to a brief, tacit truce...
And then all at once, they looked at Kaoru, who had not joined the conversation and was instead holding his smartphone and watching some unknown video.
"......"
"What are you watching, grinning like that?"
"Something only I’m enjoying. That’s annoying."
"Hey, punk. I’m confiscating your phone. Time for you to taste some Metropolitan Police water from the dispenser."
Instead of feeding them, Kaoru quietly turned the smartphone screen toward his friends and looked at them with his usual indifferent gaze.
Wondering what on earth it was, the three friends frowned and stared at the smartphone screen Kaoru showed them.
"Huh? Whoa!? It’s already over 8 million views? It’ll hit 10 million in no time."
"Wow~! Aww, so cute~!"
"She really inherited Ms. Ai’s talent. So admirable, so admirable!"
Bright light flickered simultaneously across the dry, weathered faces of the men in their thirties.
The three friends stared at the screen with stupid, slack grins.
The video they were transfixed by was—
- The only one~
Ruby’s dance cover of VoA’s "The only one," which she had uploaded.
As soon as Ruby, Kaoru’s eldest daughter, uploaded the video to her channel in August, it shot up to the trending videos list the very next day.
It stayed near the top for almost a week afterward and drew huge attention, but Ruby did not get carried away and instead quietly kept focusing on uploading dance cover videos to her channel.
Even though she had inherited her mother’s personality and naturally enjoyed popularity, and even though at such a young age—only a third-year middle school student—she could easily have become even more absorbed in it!
With a satisfied fatherly smile, Kaoru’s blue eyes gleamed as he said in his usual indifferent voice,
"Subscribe, like, comment."
"Hey! What do you take us for!"
Shoto snapped and held out his phone.
Likes, subscriptions, and even heartfelt comments full of all kinds of over-the-top praise. Perfect.
Kaito and Shohei, not to be outdone, shoved their phones in front of Kaoru too.
Likewise, a perfect trinity.
Kaoru nodded, his blue eyes shining with satisfaction.
If there had been even one guy who hadn’t completed the trinity of subscribe, like, and comment...
As an example, he would have used every [skill] he knew to give them something spicy...
"Kaoru-★ Sorry, I’m a little late! Hehe—sorry to everyone else too~"
Ai, finally freed from the restroom, hurried over, clasped her husband’s hand tightly, and smiled apologetically.
The three friends waved it off.
"Not at all!"
"Oh, no, we’re fine. Don’t worry about it~"
"Hehe, thank you~"
Ai’s starry smile bloomed at her husband’s friends’ generosity.
Even though it was a large wedding hall, there were so many people that she had to wait a long time for the restroom, and inside there were many people who recognized her, so she had been flustered.
Noticing that, Kaoru’s blue eyes gleamed as he tightly took his wife’s hand and gently interlaced their fingers.
It was only natural that almost everyone standing in the vast hall had their attention gathered on him and his wife.
That, in turn, began to raise Kaoru’s vigilance beyond a certain point—an old [habit] from his past life.
Before long, the Kaoi couple and the three friends paid their gift money and entered the ceremony hall.
Soon after, all the lights in the ceremony hall went out, and the wedding began.
Tomoya entered, having removed his glasses and dressed neatly in a tuxedo, and then the bride, beautifully adorned in a pure white wedding dress, walked down the aisle holding her father’s hand.
Kaoru and Ai smiled and sincerely wished them a happy married life.
After the ceremony ended, the Kaoi couple and the three friends went downstairs for the reception and lunch.
"Looks like Tomoya wasn’t the only one having a ceremony here."
Seeing quite a crowd gathered in another reception hall a little farther away, Kaito said as he slipped his smartphone into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
Shohei shrugged as if it was nothing.
"The entire annex of this hotel is basically one big wedding venue. Tomoya wasn’t the only one who got the prime Saturday noon slot."
"Come to think of it, yeah."
"But... isn’t that a hanbok? Is she Korean?"
"Ah, if TV’s right, that should be a hanbok."
"Looks like Korean people are holding weddings domestically these days too."
"Wow—hanbok is so pretty...★"
Falling in love with the hanbok’s beautiful colors and design, Ai’s starry eyes sparkled even after she got off the escalator, unable to look away.
In Kaoru’s mind, a plan naturally took shape: someday, it would be nice to wear hanbok together.
Leaving behind the three friends, who hurriedly collected their meal tickets because they were hungry and went into the reception hall.
At his wife’s request, Kaoru took a photo of her posing in front of a metal tree-shaped sculpture placed outside the reception hall.
After receiving the smartphone, Ai admired her husband’s skill in taking such pretty pictures as always, then raised her index finger and pressed it firmly against his left cheek.
"Hehe, so you really are Ai’s personal photographer? Here—your stamp of praise!"
"Haha. Want to go in first? I’ll wash my hands and come in."
"Mm-hm~! Hurry up!"
Kaoru sent his wife into the reception hall first and headed to the restroom to wash his hands.
"Rion, don’t run! If you fall, you’ll get badly hurt!"
Then, a little girl running excitedly over from the neighboring reception hall while holding ice cream—
Kaoru spotted her just as she lost her footing and was about to fall.
Kaoru quickly ran over and stretched out both arms to scoop the girl up and lift her.
"Kyaaah-!?"
"Rion?!"
A middle-aged man wearing glasses and with gray hair scattered through his hair, who looked like the girl called Rion’s father, rushed over in a panic, looking stunned.
If Kaoru had not caught the girl as she was about to fall, she could have been badly hurt, so the middle-aged man clutched his chest as if his heart had dropped.
Then, after making eye contact with Kaoru, who was holding the child, the middle-aged man’s eyes widened as if he had recognized him, and he immediately bowed deeply.
"Th-thank you so much. Um, Mr. Kamiki! Rion!!! You mustn’t cause trouble for others so carelessly—"
"No. It’s fine. The baby comes first."
"Huff—waaah!"
Only then, as if finally realizing what had happened, the girl’s bewildered eyes lit up with interest.
Carefully setting down the girl, who was thrilled by the sudden change in perspective, Kaoru then gave the man a nod of acknowledgment.
"Well then."
"Ah, yes! Thank you so much, and I’m sorry. Rion! Say thank you quickly!"
"Hehe, thank you!"
"〔Dr. Kim! Dr. Kim!〕"
Kaoru caught one last glimpse of the overweight middle-aged man hurrying over and calling to him in Korean, then quickly resumed his steps toward the restroom.
"......Haha."
Now that he looked, some melted ice cream had gotten on the sleeve of his suit jacket.
It made sense that a tiny child would be thrilled to suddenly have her eye level raised by more than a meter.
Remembering the times he had held his four younger siblings, Kaoru let out a faint smile and brought both hands under the sensor of the automatic faucet to wash them.
Creak
Tap, tap
"......"
Kaoru’s blue eyes turned toward the mirror above the sink.
The man who had come out of the last restroom stall walked over slowly and washed his hands beside Kaoru.
Sixth sense.
In an instant, as if one second had been sliced into hundreds of thin fragments, the sixth sense sharpened through his past and present lives took complete control of his consciousness and body.
The sound of water flowing from the faucet, and the quiet breathing of both himself and the man hidden amid the noisy sounds outside, came through his ears with startling clarity, like a stethoscope.
At that moment, the blue eyes that had flashed wolf-like and sharp turned toward the man’s hands.
"Calluses on the first and second phalanges and the metacarpophalangeal joints. Left-handed. Short little finger."
Then the man’s suit, shoes, and watch.
"An ill-fitting, unpressed, worn-out suit. In contrast, brand-new shoes whose soles aren’t even worn down yet. He’s wearing a watch that isn’t waterproof, but he doesn’t seem to care if water gets in."
Finally, he moved to the scars visible on the face reflected in the mirror.
"Tiny cut scars around the eyes and mouth. Faint linear skin discoloration on the right cheek and jaw. A burn scar in the middle of the left eyebrow, and traces of treatment for an auricular hematoma on the right ear."
Swish
The man, who had washed his hands far too carelessly for someone who had just come out of a restroom stall, shook them off and walked behind Kaoru.
Watching him pull tissues from the dispenser placed at one side of the sink with his right hand, Kaoru lowered his gaze and rinsed the remaining soap foam from his own hands.
After observing in an instant the man’s stance with both feet planted on the ground, his supporting axis, weight distribution, ankles, calves, thighs, pelvis, and the alignment of his upper body—
"......"
Kaoru turned his gaze away from the man, who had wiped his hands with tissues and crumpled them into the trash can, and slowly pulled out a tissue to wipe the moisture from both hands as he finished his thought.
"Unarmed. Ambidextrous, and a man in his early forties of East Asian descent who has undergone advanced military training..."
Too strange a person to be a wedding guest at a Saturday noon ceremony.
Whether Kaoru—who was not recognized at all by the man, despite being the most famous actor in present-day Japan—was simply being ignored, the man remained calm, merely wiping the moisture from his hands.
At the very least, someone invited as a guest to the annex wedding hall of this famous luxury hotel would not be living a life so barren that they were cut off from the media.
Even if he were a Self-Defense Force member on a special mission, or a national operative dispatched overseas for a long-term covert assignment, the possibility would be even lower given the various external traits Kaoru had identified.
"......"
It was extremely difficult to infer objective truth from limited information, and it could even lead one to rely on absurd confirmation bias.
In truth, he might have been a retired Self-Defense Force special forces member, or just an ordinary person who didn’t care about appearance or grooming.
However, his sixth sense kept ringing a cold alarm.
"...If."
What if he wasn’t an invited guest?
Instinctively, unconsciously—the [experience] and intuition Kaoru had accumulated in his past life pushed at his back.
The moment Kaoru slowly stepped out of the restroom to tail the man who had left it—
"Kaoru!"
Ai, who had been waiting inside the reception hall and eventually came all the way to wait in front of the men’s restroom, shouted with her cheeks puffed out.
"Uu-!!! I kept waiting and waiting, and you still didn’t come, so I thought something had happened!"
Ai looked at Kaoru like a rabbit full of hurt feelings and worry, her starry eyes shining.
Realizing that, because of his own mistake, his wife hadn’t even been able to eat lunch properly and had been waiting here, Kaoru apologized with genuine remorse.
"S-sorry. There were a lot of people inside..."
At her husband’s apology, Ai touched her chin for a moment and said in a sly voice,
"Hmm... chea—"
"No. No, I’m not. Absolutely not. What do you take me for? I just, just washed my hands."
"Puhuhut—! Dummy Oru. Mrrp~"
If they hadn’t been outside, he would have immediately pulled in his mischievous wife, who stuck out her tongue, and teased her mercilessly without holding back.
Kaoru’s eyes twitched, and he barely managed to smile as he took his wife’s hand and walked toward the reception hall.
"......"
He gently turned his head back, trying to look for the man he had just met in the restroom, but...
"Hm? What is it, Kaoru?"
"...Nothing. It’s nothing. Let’s go quickly."
He had already vanished like a ghost.
Suppressing the rising sense of foreboding, Kaoru hurried his steps toward the reception hall.
-
Monday mornings are always awful.
Suga Natsumi, an employee working in the media strategy division of Stani-On, yawned repeatedly as soon as she got to work, while gathering the morning’s daily task information—public opinion trends about the agency’s celebrities reported in the morning newspapers and online articles.
Coffee didn’t even help with the sleepiness.
She had stayed up late last night drinking beer while playing with her young cousin, and the hangover was brutal.
"Fuaaaahhhn."
She buried her head toward the monitor and kept yawning insistently, trying to chase away the sleep.
"...Mm."
Had her life improved enough that she could complain like a spoiled brat about wanting to go home and collapse into bed as soon as possible?
【 Oh-ho. K&A Planning! That name sounds familiar somehow.... They’ve written quite a lot of unique and interesting articles, haven’t they?
Picking occult and urban legend topics is fresh too, and the quality of the articles is pretty decent.
Especially that "Sunny Girl" article.... Did you personally cover this one? Hmm, July 2020.... That was an absolutely... terrible rainy season. 】
Right after graduating from university, thanks to a favor from her uncle and a report(?) she had somehow scraped together and heavily seasoned with all sorts of supporting material, the benevolent and kind President Murakami Rentaro had taken a great interest in her.
Because of that, she was hired as a full-time employee at Stani-On, one of the major agencies representing the entertainment industry, and was lucky enough to make it her first and lifelong job.
Since joining the company, she had never lost her beginner’s spirit and had worked diligently in the media strategy division, one of the core pillars of corporate strategy.
But no matter what, a Monday office worker just wants to go home.
"Ugh... I want to go home..."
"Me too, Suga. There’s no cure for the Monday blues."
"Ah! D-director, you’re here?"
After finishing the morning executive meeting, the urbanly beautiful middle-aged woman who entered the office—Stani-On’s media strategy director, Suzumiya Minori—tapped Natsumi on the shoulder and smiled.
Natsumi sprang up, greeted her politely, gave an awkward smile in response to the other team members looking at her, then sank back into her chair and let out a deep sigh.
"I’m screwed..."
She painfully realized once again the harsh reality of a cold society where you had to watch your mouth no matter where you were.
But what’s done is done.
After patting her cheeks to wake herself up, Natsumi grabbed the mouse and clicked refresh.
"Hm?"
Natsumi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
< [Exclusive] Former executive of the "Association of Korean Residents in Japan" found dead in a car last Saturday >
A strikingly interesting and shocking headline, plus an exclusive report from one of Japan’s four major weekly newspapers, proving its credibility!
Drawn in by the fresh exclusive scoop, Natsumi clicked the article as if bewitched.
《According to our investigation, the identity of the man in his fifties who was found dead last Saturday evening in a private parking lot in Chiyoda Ward is former executive A, who belonged to the "Association."
...(omitted)... According to a government official familiar with the Association’s internal affairs, A, who obtained Japanese nationality in 2017, was in charge of important duties such as slush funds and recruiting domestic collaborators within the North Korean regime’s "Association."
...(omitted)... As international sanctions have intensified, the Association’s scale has increasingly become nominal only.
...(omitted)... Given the absence of any notable external injuries, investigators plan to conduct an autopsy on A’s body.》
"Wow.... That’s scary (こわい)."
For Japanese people whose fear and disgust toward North Korea lay deep in the background, it was only natural to suspect that something must have been involved in this death.
Pulling a face as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have, Natsumi shook her head and, to get back to work, instinctively pressed F5 instead of the back button.
< This article has been deleted. >
"...?"
Deleted?
Tilting her head, Natsumi stared at the monitor as the deleted article redirected her to the main homepage.
She had work to do, so it wasn’t really something to worry about.
"......Whatever. I’m tired."
Anyway, Natsumi was tired on Monday.
-
The nightscape of Tokyo’s Minato Ward, under a deep blanket of darkness, shone brilliantly as if unconstrained by time.
The conveniences of civilization, built by human hands, seemed as though they had always existed, completely unrelated to the human world.
The lights of Tokyo Tower reflected in blue eyes, glowing softly.
"......"
Beepbeep-beepbeep
When a signal sounded from the small satellite communicator in his right hand, Kaoru pressed the button and brought it to his ear.
After a brief burst of static from the other side of the small satellite communicator, a clear and familiar, mischievous American voice soon came through.
"Well, my friend. Am I disturbing you this late at night?"
"No. I was waiting."
The small communicator was equipped with high-security communication functions on the [Cosmos Grid] satellite channel, capable of defending even against advanced wiretapping.
The cutting-edge small satellite communicator, created by a world-famous eccentric entrepreneur, was more than enough to offend the sensibilities of the current U.S. government’s higher-ups, with the presidential election just over a year away.
Ironically, however, among [Cosmos Grid]’s major client list, not only current and former high-ranking officials but even former presidents themselves, or their families, proudly had their names on it.
In essence, this was a technological tool the company’s eccentric entrepreneur had personally prepared for anonymous VIPs, and the anonymous "instigator" who had invested an astronomical sum into the project had also done so to secure that purpose.
For people with plenty to hide, it was frankly a sweet and capable tool, impossible to dismiss in one stroke as violating the principles of democracy.
In the media, it was simply introduced with the agreed-upon line: "easy, fast internet anywhere, anytime via satellite connection."
The enemy of my enemy is my ally, and yesterday’s enemy is today’s friend.
Remembering that worn-out, childish saying, Kaoru—the "instigator"—switched the communicator from his right hand to his left.
"I looked into it. Brom, neostigmine bromide? What a terrifying name. Anyway, they said the poison was found when the body was autopsied."
At the voice on the other side of the communicator, Kaoru’s eyes sharpened with a strange glint.
Neostigmine bromide.
A poison used in poison-tipped needles, a silent weapon mainly used by operatives from third-world hostile states such as Russia or North Korea, it is five times more toxic than potassium cyanide, and just 10 mg exceeds the lethal dose.
Why is a bad feeling never wrong?
Thinking of the man he had met in the restroom, Kaoru touched his forehead and said in a quiet voice,
"...An assassination."
"99.9%. No wonder the government is keeping it quiet."
"Was the news blackout imposed right away?"
"This morning. Apparently the guy who posted the article got too greedy. That’s how those types always are."
The American on the other end of the call let out a hearty laugh, saying the people who took over the case had almost caused a major incident.
Given how unusually quickly the news blackout was enforced, it meant the government was already investigating the matter very seriously.
The former Association executive who died this time had obtained Japanese nationality in 2017, so legally he was clearly a citizen of the country.
As this was an unprecedented case of a citizen being assassinated on domestic soil by an operative from a hostile state,
from the moment the body was discovered, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, the Public Security Intelligence Agency, and the Public Security Police would all have been operating in a 24-hour emergency mode as a three-pronged intelligence and counterintelligence force, but the fact that they had failed to prevent it in advance was an undeniable mistake.
Since it was an assassination operation carried out in the closest ally after the Commonwealth, it was obvious that Washington would have received an immediate report as well.
"That surprises me. You asking me to look into such a sensitive matter. I wondered if it might be related to someone you know."
"...No. I just thought there were some suspicious points. And there were."
"Hmm... if you’re reacting this sensitively... could they be planning a nuclear test? From a third party’s perspective, that’s clearly an overreach... I can’t figure out what they’re scheming."
"Who knows, [Jason]. Who can really understand the affairs of the most isolated country on Earth?"
"...When the Cold War ended, I thought everyone would be freed from this tiresome ideological struggle. And yet this kind of thing is still happening even now."
"......"
With a bitter smile, Kaoru deliberately chose silence.
Ideology and belief are ultimately just tools.
Good and evil are determined in an extremely subjective way, depending on the interests and policies of those who use them.
David Webb...
Wasn’t the CIA that had lured him in by exploiting the patriotism of his soldier’s past life and used him as the first test subject of the [Treadstone] program an intelligence agency under the U.S. government that congratulated itself as the "guardian of liberal democracy" and its "vanguard"?
The reason they had bothered to send an operative to assassinate the former Association executive was also likely not some obvious pretext about punishing a traitor, but ultimately for the regime’s "interests."
What exactly those "interests" were that they sought to gain from such a horrific act was still unclear for now.
But at least, that was Kaoru’s prediction.
"Ah, and— the PMC security company paperwork will be finished registering soon. It took a while to persuade those haughty Delta guys, but... the rule that more money guarantees more opportunities still held true."
"Thank you. Good work, Jason."
"Haah... from this morning I’ve got another visitor coming from Chiyoda Ward, and because of the presidential election issue I’ll have to fly to Washington on that damn private jet again.
When you think about it, I’m the one taking the loss. If you convert it into bloody airline miles, just how much is this worth? The maintenance costs are a waste too. I’m thinking of just selling the private jet."
"Time is a resource whose value can’t be converted. One hour saved by using a private jet is worth more than airline miles."
Kaoru’s joke drew a loud laugh from the other side of the communicator.
"Hahahahaha! Right. That’s a neat bit of advice I can’t even argue with. Fine. I’ll contact you next time."
"Best of luck."
After turning off the communicator, Kaoru went into the study.
"......"
A troubled sigh escaped him.
If he had followed after him, could he have stopped it?
No.
Jason Bourne, in his past life, was the same kind of man who would accomplish the mission by any means necessary.
Now that he had belatedly realized he had come face to face with an incident like this, his mind was full of complicated thoughts about what he should have done and how.
He knew the culprit’s face and build, but he was just an unrelated civilian, and he had no way to prove how he knew any of it.
"..."
Even though his head no longer hurt, Kaoru unconsciously and habitually pressed his temple.
【 I killed... your parents. 】
Memories from his past life surfaced in his mind, moment by moment, like snapshots accompanied by flashes of white light.
In front of the daughter of Vladimir Nesky and his wife, whom he had assassinated in Berlin—
in front of her, as tears filled with shock and sorrow fell beneath her reddened eyes, he confessed the [truth].
The horrific pain of losing someone you loved to another’s hand, the moment when he painfully realized that they were carving into each other’s hearts like sharp awls.
"......"
Before he knew it, the innocent smiling face of the little girl who had almost fallen while running with ice cream kept coming back to him.
The face of the middle-aged man who had bowed his head to him and thanked him sincerely also kept coming back to him.
Was it simply human [self-reproach] for failing to stop a misfortune that he had witnessed right before his eyes?
Or was it the [guilt] rising up from his memories of his past life?
After having a family, after gaining someone precious he had to protect with his life...
He had become afraid of feeling the emotion of "losing." More than death.
"Huu."
After letting out a tired sigh and washing his face, Kaoru placed the communicator into a small safe the size of a desktop printer in one corner of the room and locked it.
Before he knew it, night had deepened.
He wanted to fall asleep while feeling the warm body heat and sweet scent of his wife, who was surely sleeping soundly in the bedroom.
As Kaoru left the study and closed the door—
Cawcaw
A crow flew over and perched on the terrace railing.
The crow’s eyes gleamed brilliantly in the moonlight.
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