What time are we going to arrive in Kyoto?
After 11.
I think we can make it to Yamashina before 12.
I asked Officer Mitoni from Digital Forensics.
It includes information that the Special Investigations Team isn't authorized to see.
What, specifically?
Information about a certain individual.
Records owned by schools and hospitals, credit card information, and credit history.
For Ai Magase?
That's right. I found out that the doctor who Magase was seeing in middle school was actually her uncle.
His name is Kurauzu Sakabe.
He runs a clinic in Kyoto now.
To be honest,
I still can't believe it.
How she can enslave people and men.
I don't believe everything either.
But three people have committed suicide.
And all three of them had made contact with the same woman.
There must have been something going on.
She had the leader of one of the big voting blocs in the election twisted around her little finger.
Then does that mean that she was physically engaged with all three of them who died?
Even Officer Fumio and Officer Okuda?
I'm not sure.
I'm sure she did with Inaba.
But Okuda was with Magase for only an hour.
And Fumio spent even less time with her.
How much time was it?
Fifteen minutes.
Hold on.
Do you think that
that woman, Ai Magase,
abetted the suicide of all 64 of the victims all by herself?
You think she did with all of them?
That's crazy.
I'm just asking out of curiosity.
You interrogated Ai Magase yourself, right?
Yes.
What kind of a person was she?
Well...
to sum it up in one word...
The most evil woman in the world.
KYOTO YAMASHINA
SAKABE CLINIC PEDIATRICS - PSYCHIATRY
Thanks. We're fine.
So? What about Ai?
I can't tell you the details since the investigation is still ongoing.
Ms. Ai Magase
is currently a key witness in a certain investigation.
We wanted to ask you about her.
Ask me?
What do you want to know about Ai?
Everything.
Tell me everything you know about her.
What do I know about her?
She was...
well...
a bad child.
She's your brother's child, right?
Your last names are different though.
He married into his wife's family.
Magase is Ai's mother's last name.
But if you want to talk about her last name...
She was adopted.
Adopted?
My brother and his wife couldn't have children.
They met the child through an organization that supported adoptions.
That's why the first time I met Ai
was when she was 7.
I saw a glimpse of it even back then.
A glimpse? Of what?
Eight years ago,
I was running a mental health clinic in Tochigi.
The clinic was doing well.
But I was busy, and never had time to visit my parent's home.
One day,
my brother and a teacher at Ai's middle school contacted me at the same time.
They said the same thing. They asked me to conduct psychological evaluations on Ai and a few others.
-Psychological evaluations? -They're different from psychiatric examinations.
It's just for checking mental health as part of treatment.
Why did your brother ask you to do that?
My brother said there was an incident.
An incident?
I'm not sure if you could really call it an incident, though.
If you ask me whether an incident really happened, I'd say it's more appropriate to say that it didn't happen.
What do you mean?
I think you'll understand once you hear the rest.
Seven middle school students in their third year came for the psychological evaluation.
I began evaluating them immediately.
I'm going to get straight to the point.
All seven of the students had Generalized Anxiety Disorder, except for Ai.
In this disorder, the patient is unable to identify the source of their anxiety.
They were suffering from a vague feeling of anxiety?
But the students said that wasn't true.
Not true as in...?
All seven of them said the same thing.
They said they were afraid of Ai.
They said Ai did something horrible to them.
They said they were raped by Ai.
Are you saying she raped them?
As a middle school student herself, she raped her fellow classmates?
-She didn't. -What?
I asked the children the same thing.
I asked them whether she raped them or forced them to have sexual intercourse.
But they all replied the same thing.
They didn't have intercourse. Or anything close.
She hadn't even touched them.
Then I asked them what happened.
They said they had talked to Ai.
That's all.
That doesn't make sense.
Nothing happened, but they still said they were raped?
What actually happened?
I evaluated Ai in order to
find the answer.
It happened in an instant.
When I saw Ai for the first time in two or three years in the examination room,
what those male students were trying to say about Ai
hit me like an avalanche.
I knew why they couldn't explain it.
Of course they couldn't explain it.
That's right. When I saw her,
I was definitely, without a doubt...
aroused.
You got aroused by her when she was in middle school?
You think it's odd, right?
She was a child. And my niece.
It's definitely immoral, no matter how you think about it.
It's immoral and wrong.
But her whole body was telling me to do it.
Did she say that she wanted you to do it?
Ai didn't say anything.
She never even hinted that she wanted me to.
So it might all be just my imagination.
It's not something
that I can explain.
Why did the students say they were raped?
It's because Ai
was extremely, overwhelmingly enchanting when she was 15.
It wasn't only her body.
Her voice, her movements and her eyes. They filled the air everywhere despite her intentions.
It was like an excessive smell of strong perfume.
No. It was much stronger than perfume.
It was like a megaphone.
It was like she was shouting in my ear through a megaphone.
She forced herself inside me. She came inside me.
It was indeed...
rape!
But
there were no specific acts, right?
Then Ai is innocent.
Yes. Ai wasn't accused of anything in that incident.
But I felt it was dangerous to leave things the way they were.
I recommended that Ai go for counseling.
I told her she should get counseling at the hospital where I worked.
And she...
Accepted immediately.
Ai said that she wasn't good at talking to people.
Talking to people?
I thought to myself of course she can't.
No one would be able to talk to her like that.
And then Ai
said that she wanted to get better at talking to people.
She started counseling at my hospital.
Half a year after she began,
Ai said she was done with the therapy.
She said she wanted to focus on studying for her entrance exams.
I didn't have any reason to stop her.
That was the end of the therapy. I haven't seen her since.
That was eight years ago. You've had chances to see your niece since then, right?
When Ai said she wanted to quit counseling,
I noticed it.
That half-year wasn't therapy.
I just wanted to keep seeing her.
I noticed that that's why I had recommended she get counseling in the first place.
Then I closed my clinic immediately
and ran away here, where no one knows me.
You didn't do anything that made you have to run away.
I didn't touch Ai.
I didn't do anything illegal.
But the law doesn't matter.
Ai was inviting me. And I accepted her invitation.
Even if I didn't actually do anything, my heart did.
I was beckoned down the path of evil.
The thing that forced me to leave
was the poison that erupted in my heart
that I can never run away from.
That's right. It was guilt.
Could it be that...
Magase is really involved in Officer Fumio and Officer Okuda's suicides?
We know for sure that Magase has the power to sexually tempt people
and seduce them.
But
I don't think she could have made 64 people
commit suicide at once.
Let's set aside our investigation on Magase for now.
If we get Itsuki, we can get Magase too.
Understood.
8 DAYS UNTIL THE ELECTION
You wanted black coffee, right?
Thanks.
What are these red dots?
The locations of the suicide victims on the day of the incident.
They're scattered around within an area of 10 kilometers, on both sides of Route 16.
Now we know that the 64 victims weren't in the same place on the day of the incident.
There's no evidence that they gathered before committing suicide.
That means that the 64 victims gathered at the site of the suicide?
That's right. But...
You're bothered by the fact that they didn't really gather, right?
Yes. The suicide victims didn't gather in one place on the day of the incident,
but they were all within 10 kilometers.
It's not just a coincidence, right?
True. But I can't see any particular reason either.
Public Prosecutor Seizaki.
Yes?
You have a troubled look on your face.
You should get some fresh air, or else you won't work efficiently.
I know, but...
When that happens, go to the 17th floor.
Good grief. You win.
You surprised me!
You said you're only first-dan, but you have the skills of a second-dan.
But you're right. This definitely clears your head.
It's called "mindlessness."
Director, can you give me another match?
I could, but...
Thank you for the match.
What level are you?
I'm fourth-dan.
I'll buy us all something to drink.
I thought I was being asked to work on something bad.
I thought I was being forced to take part in the conspiracy behind the Shiniki initiative.
I thought I had to take part in illegal activities
as an assistant officer in the Special Investigations Team.
But now I feel
that maybe I was wrong.
You're not wrong.
Your understanding is correct.
We're taking part in evil deeds.
We're also involved in illegal activities.
And we're going to commit
even more evil deeds in the future.
What does
justice mean to you?
I'm not sure.
I'm still not sure
what justice is.
I still haven't found a guideline for judging what's wrong and what's right.
However, even though I don't know,
there's still something that I believe is right.
It's continuing to think about what's right.
Even if I arrive at the answer someday,
it's important not to stop thinking about it.
Even after you think you know what justice is,
it's important to keep asking yourself forever what justice means.
I think that's what justice is.
Itsuki's on the move!
The NHC received a message today before dawn from Kaika Itsuki, the mayor of Shiniki.
The message was signed by Kaika Itsuki.
We determined that it was from Itsuki himself.
I thought that the government had restricted NHC from broadcasting that.
I'm sure you're right.
After a discussion regarding the broadcasting laws...
But they decided that broadcasting it would benefit the people who made the restriction.
This is the message from Kaika Itsuki.
I'm Kaika Itsuki, the mayor of Shiniki.
The day of the election for the first parliament of Shiniki is fast approaching.
I want to propose an idea to you.
It's not difficult.
Let's have a public debate.
We'll hold it the day before the election.
October 19, at 6 p.m.
It will be held at the NHC studio.
I want the debate to be broadcast live to the entire country and the entire world.
I will be representing the supporters of the suicide law in the debate.
I don't care how many candidates
opposing the law participate.
Candidates from both the ruling and opposition parties who oppose the law can participate.
I have only one wish.
I just want the candidates to be able to communicate
their ideas accurately, and I want the voters to make the correct decision.
Everyone, let's open the door to Shiniki's new era
and the new world, together.
Is he really going to come?
There's a strong possibility.
He made it all this way himself.
It's hard to imagine he won't come.
But we don't have proof that he abetted suicide.
We cannot arrest him officially yet.
Why don't we just arrest him for something else?
I already thought of that.
He'd just get someone to bail him out.
We'll think of something while he's in custody.
The problem is public sentiment. We can't detain him if there are no public charges.
He made 64 people commit suicide!
But we don't have proof of that!
I'm shrinking the investigations team down to two!
Everyone else is on the criminal charges team!
Get proof that Itsuki abetted suicide before he goes on TV!
We still have 48 hours until the public debate.
Finish it by then, no matter what!
Yes, sir!
INVESTIGATOR TSUTSUI
Hello?
Hello? Mr. Seizaki?
Magase!
Where's Tsutsui? What happened to the owner of that phone?
TSUTSUI SMARTPHONE GPS
Hey, Mr. Seizaki. Do you like playing games?
What?
Games.
Like video games and games on your cell phone.
Why do you want to know whether I play games?
I play a lot of games.
Like RPGs.
Do you know about those role-playing games?
Yeah. I know.
In the game, I become the hero.
The hero rises up against the devil
who took over the world,
together with a small group of friends, or sometimes even alone,
in order to save the world and bring happiness to the people.
But none of the people the devil rules over try to rise up against him,
even though the hero is risking his life to save the world.
The hero still tries to save the world.
Even if no one helps him. Even if no one understands him.
Just to bring happiness to the people.
Mr. Seizaki, I want to become a person like that.
You can't.
If you want people to be happy, then the only way is for you to be arrested.
You're a murderer.
I miss you.
I miss you, Mr. Seizaki.
Wait! Don't hang up!
The story, names, characters, places, locations, and laws in this work are fictitious.
No identification with actual ideas or beliefs is intended.