Hello...?
Michael?
A strange corpse?
It's 4:20 right now. Be at the office by 5:00.
I feel like it'll disappear...
...the instant I look away.
I just kept counting...
...all the many traces of loneliness...
...that I'd vomited up.
In this time that seems so dry,
...my heart is thrashing around and drowning.
It takes those lies that make my head spin...
...and tears them to pieces.
And the place I lose my way in...
...is a dim, hazy world.
I just got confirmation from the top brass. We can't touch this case.
Why not?
It's officially under STN-J jurisdiction now.
Is the corpse really that strange?
It's all shriveled up like a mummy, apparently.
What the hell are they up to in there?
Geez, the Factory guys are sure taking their time...
We can't learn much from looking at a dried-out husk of a corpse.
Don't mess up the crime scene, Robin!
Amon.
I got the victim's personal effects from the policeman who was at the scene first.
This license was in the corpse's pocket.
Haruo Katayama, age 22.
That corpse seems pretty old for a 22-year-old.
Is it really the same man?
All we can do is wait for the Factory's investigation.
Hey!
I told you not to touch anything!
There's something here.
A bug...
I'll bet you anything that Dojima is skipping work!
I bet she's not even here.
Hey, she is!
She's fooling around again!
Geez, what are they doing? What an idiot...
What is it?
He says somebody's trying to hack into the STN computer.
It's all right.
My security program is perfect. Nobody can break in.
And if they do, they'll get a collar around their neck for life,
just like you-know-who.
You're always...
Say, Hattori, what happened to those files?
Huh? Oh, those files!
Let's see, um...
What are you doing?
Michael, we have a meeting.
He's such a pain...
Two other corpses in the same desiccated condition have turned up in the city.
The victims are a 33-year-old male and a 28-year-old female.
Furthermore, DNA testing confirms that this morning's corpse is the man on the license.
Their powers hadn't awakened, but they were all...
...descendants of witches registered with the STN-J.
Of witches?
Michael.
I found similar desiccation incidents in an old file left by the STN-J's precursor.
Roughly 120 years ago in Europe,
...80 years ago in Japan, and 40 years ago in the USA.
The victims were all witches or descendants of witches.
The organization at the time determined that they were the handiwork of some sort of witch,
and in the case 80 years ago, they even found a suspect.
A suspect?
Hey, not too shabby!
Kazuma Kurata. He was 30 at the time.
Unfortunately, Kurata was on a boat that vanished during a storm,
so the case was never closed.
And his corpse?
It was never found.
That was 80 years ago, right?
Even if he survived that, he must have met his maker by now.
All those past cases notwithstanding...
Why would a witch need to desiccate another witch?
In any case...
It looks like we need to investigate this man again.
It might be a witch of the same bloodline, or perhaps a descendant.
Ma'am, these people say they'd like to talk to you about your late husband, Kazuma.
Ma'am!
Kazuma...
She's always like this.
Please let me know when you leave.
We're sorry to bother you.
Come on, bow.
That man can't be dead...
He's still young.
I married him and lived with him for years and years,
...but he stayed as young as he was the day we met.
Of the two of us, only I grew old and turned into this old woman...
You will never change.
Just like the scenery at the lake that day...
What a waste of time!
We came out this way, but the old lady had totally lost it upstairs.
Wha...?
Got it. We'll head back to the office right away.
Another corpse has turned up.
Check the hotel's security cameras.
Roger.
Another bug...
Miho!
You're late.
Guess who showed up on the hotel's security cameras?
Kurata!
Kurata didn't die!
Impossible! Even if he was alive, he'd be an old man of 110 right now!
No two ways about it, this guy is in his 30s.
Dojima, maybe what that old lady told us was...
What?
That Kurata was always young, and he never ages.
Never ages?
No way! Is that even possible?
According to the hotel employee who saw the guy,
...there was a tattoo of something like a bug on the back of his hand.
A tattoo? You know, Kurata did have one on his hand...
Right, a tattoo of a scarab.
See? Even the tattoo is a match!
Assuming that this guy is Kurata, why is he only after witches?
To live forever...
If Kurata is a witch whose power is to absorb the life force of other witches,
...then maybe the cases in Europe 120 years ago...
...as well as the ones in America 40 years ago, they're all...
That's it!
He has to absorb the life force of other witches every 40 years!
The guy's like a vampire.
Michael, that hack this morning. When did it start?
Yesterday, maybe the day before. What about it?
The STN-J computer contains an enormous list of witches and their descendants.
If Robin's hypothesis is correct, Kurata must be itching to get his hands on that list.
So Kurata is behind the hacks?
Michael, if there's another hack, let them in. Give them the data.
Huh?
I have a plan.
Robin?
I bought some donuts.
I'll make some coffee.
Is this what's on Kurata's tattoo?
A scarab.
I know.
They're a kind of beetle that were sacred in ancient Egypt.
Reports say that there have been cases where witches channel their powers via a totem.
My guess is that that's the one used by our perp.
Can I ask you something?
What did she mean, "collar"?
You know, the one Dojima mentioned.
Oh... What did Dojima say?
Well, she said I should ask you directly.
She did, huh?
He's here!
The killer?
Probably.
This is one seriously primitive hack, but I'll let him in just like we planned.
Target confirmed.
Kurata!
The pipes...
Karasuma, shoot the water pipes!
Right!
Oh, hell...
And so he got away?
You didn't even bother to show up, so I don't wanna hear it.
So, why didn't your Craft hit him?
What do you think?
Robin's powers.
Does she just have no control, or are her powers...
It's certainly unusual for you to be so concerned about someone else, Amon.
Got some bad news.
The hacker from earlier was just found dead.
I'm pretty sure it was Kurata's doing.
I see.
As I suspected.
Looks like our investigation is back to square one.
Yeah.
I didn't order this.
Japanese miso soup warms you all the way down to your soul.
Go ahead. It's on the house.
Thank you.
Robin, we've got an emergency!
They say it happened early this morning.
Lemme see.
"June 10, lakeshore," huh?
What's the name of the lake?
Come on, that would make it too easy.
Wait a minute, this photo...
Maybe Michael can pinpoint the location!
Kurata!
Your face!
It's all over, Kurata!
Go to hell!
Robin!
Are you all right?
I'll manage.
Amon!
Thank you.
Huh?
We found him because you found that lake, Michael.
I bought some donuts.
I'll make some coffee.
I was a hacker.
But I wasn't a cracker.
I only snuck through high-end security...
...to get to systems that seemed impossible to reach.
I never attacked systems.
I just left little signs that I'd been there so that I get back in and play around again.
That was all.
Computer systems all around the world were my playground.
And then one day, I ended up inside the system of a mind-blowing organization.
STN...
I was amazed. Well, I didn't believe any of it at the time.
I couldn't get out of the system. I even tried to log off.
I didn't realize that they were tracing me.
Soon afterwards, guys came storming into my apartment.
I thought they were gonna kill me.
I really would have died, if it weren't for the Boss.
Zaizen...
In exchange for my life, I swore that I'd work for him.
The Boss has me on a leash.
I'm not allowed to leave this building without his permission.
Hello?
Impossible!
What's wrong?
Kurata died at the Factory.
His corpse turned into dust...
Just how far back do I need to go?
Tell me.
It's all so vivid that it hurts.
The truth is, nothing can be shared,
...so I never looked back.
...all those promises...
...inside me eventually...
...gave up on that light from some other time,
...like the light of a morning you can't return to.