CHAPTER 1 — The Man Who Never Dreamed
5:17 a.m.
The alarm hadn't even had a chance to ring. Akira Kisaragi had already opened his eyes.
The sky outside his apartment window was still dark, decorated only by a thin streak of bluish light behind the city buildings. Last night's rain had left droplets clinging to the glass, making the streetlights glow faintly.
The first few seconds after waking always felt the same.
Silent. Empty.
As if his mind had just returned from somewhere he could never remember.
Akira stared at the ceiling without blinking. He tried to remember whether he had dreamed the night before.
As usual...
There was nothing. Only emptiness. He had lived like that for years.
People often told stories about the strange dreams they'd had—running without a destination, falling from a cliff, meeting someone who had been dead for a long time. To him, all of it sounded foreign.
He had never remembered a single dream.
As if someone came every night and erased them before he had a chance to open his eyes.
Akira let out a slow breath. Maybe there really were people who never dreamed.
Or maybe... He had simply never remembered one.
His hand reached for the phone on the nightstand.
5:17 Thirteen minutes until the alarm.
Calmly, he switched it off first. Habit.
For nearly ten years, he had always woken up before the alarm.
The apartment wasn't large. One bedroom. A living room connected to a small kitchen.
A bookshelf nearly filled with criminal psychology books, criminal law texts, and old case reports.
In one corner stood a snake plant that had begun to grow tall. The only thing in the apartment that looked truly alive.
Akira rolled up his T-shirt sleeves before filling the electric kettle. The sound of running water broke the morning silence.
A short while later, the smell of coffee began to fill the room.
He never added sugar. The bitterness made it easier for him to think.
While waiting for the water to boil, he opened the window.
Cold morning air rushed in, carrying the scent of asphalt still wet from the rain. Down below, the city was beginning to wake.
Store lights came on one by one. The first bus passed along the main road.
A few people hurried toward the station, their steps still heavy.
Everything looked so ordinary. So... normal.
Something Akira was quietly grateful for.
His coffee was still steaming when he opened a brown file on the dining table.
A theft case. An embezzlement case. A murder case that had been closed six months earlier.
Akira reread the old notes not because he was required to. He simply believed that people often repeated the same mistakes.
And a good detective didn't just study the perpetrator. He studied the patterns.
His hand stopped on a page covered in crime-scene photographs.
His eyes narrowed. "Strange..."
He picked up a pen and drew a small circle around the position of a chair in one of the photos. He hadn't noticed it yesterday.
The chair had shifted several centimeters compared to the first photograph.
That meant...
Someone had returned to the scene before the police put up the barricade.
A small detail. But important enough.
Akira wrote a brief note in the margin of the file. Check the CCTV footage from the back alley again.
He had just closed the file when...
A sudden pain stabbed his left temple.
"Ngh...." Akira squeezed his eyes shut.
The pain came on fast. Like a thin needle piercing from inside his head.
Then...
It vanished.
He gently massaged his temple. "Maybe I didn't get enough sleep."
Even though he'd slept nearly six hours. More than enough by his standards.
A little after six.
Akira put on a dark gray overcoat over a simple white shirt. His police badge was neatly tucked into the inside pocket.
Before leaving, he checked the entire apartment as usual.
The stove. The window. The lights. The drawer locks.
Everything was done in the same order.
It had never changed. He didn't know since when.
He couldn't remember.
The moment the apartment door closed...
His phone vibrated. The name on the screen lifted one corner of his mouth.
Sota Kanzaki.
Akira answered the call.
"What's up?"
The voice on the other end was immediately drowned in noise.
"What if I said I just missed you? Would you believe me?"
"No."
"What a shame."
Akira gave a small shake of his head as he walked toward the elevator.
"So?"
A faint siren sounded in the background. Sota's tone turned serious.
"There's been a murder."
Akira stopped walking.
"Where?" "Minato District. An old warehouse in the harbor area."
"What made you call this early? The local police should be able to handle it."
There was silence for several seconds. Then Sota drew a long breath.
"Because the victim was found in a condition that..."
He paused.
"Was strange."
Forty minutes later. A police sedan stopped in front of an old warehouse cordoned off with yellow tape.
The sky had turned gray. Heavy clouds still hung low overhead.
Several reporters tried to approach before officers drove them back.
The police cruiser's rotating lights cast red and blue across the warehouse walls, where rust had begun to spread. As soon as he got out of the car, Akira put on his gloves.
Sota approached him carrying two canned coffees.
"I knew you probably hadn't had breakfast." Akira accepted the coffee.
"Thanks." "See? I'm the best partner."
"You're just afraid I'll pass out from caffeine withdrawal." Sota laughed.
"Thank God. You can still joke." They walked past the police tape.
A young officer immediately saluted. "Good morning, Detectives Kisaragi and Kanzaki."
Akira gave a brief nod. "The victim?"
"Inside." As soon as they entered the warehouse...
The air filled with the smell of metal mixed with blood. The room was empty.
There were only a few old wooden crates and shattered windows letting in the morning light in thin strips. In the center of the room...
A man's body lay motionless. Akira stopped in his tracks.
His eyes immediately took in every detail.
The body's position. The blood spatter. The shoeprints. The distance between objects.
Everything was recorded in his mind without needing to be written down.
He slowly crouched beside the victim.
"Around forty-five," he muttered.
"Estimated." Sota nodded.
"That's what forensics said." Akira studied the victim's right hand.
Something was unusual. His fingers were clenched tightly.
As if before he died... He had tried to hold on to something.
"Was anything taken?" "No."
Akira didn't answer immediately. His gaze shifted to the wet concrete floor.
Then to the wall. Then back to the victim.
Several seconds passed.
"He wasn't killed here." Sota raised an eyebrow.
"You sure?" Akira pointed to the pool of blood beneath the body.
"There's too little." "If the fatal wound had occurred here, there should be much more blood."
He slowly stood.
"Besides..." His gaze stopped on a small scrape across the floor. "...the body was moved."
Sota gave a faint smile. "You just got here three minutes ago."
Akira didn't answer.
His attention was fixed on something almost impossible to see.
Behind the victim's wrist... There was a small mark.
Not a tattoo. Not an ordinary scar.
A symbol made with extraordinary precision.
A black circle. With a thin line running exactly through its center.
Akira narrowed his eyes.
For some reason...
His chest suddenly felt tight.
And for a fraction of a second...
The sound of a hospital monitor echoed inside his head.
Beep...
Akira's eyes closed reflexively.
The sound vanished.
Just like that.
Leaving behind confusion he couldn't explain.
"Akira?" Sota's voice broke through his reverie.
"You okay?" Akira nodded slowly.
"...Yeah."
But deep inside him...
Something had just been disturbed. Something that had been asleep for a very long time.
Reina Aizawa arrived when the rain began to fall again. Not heavily.
Only a light drizzle that made the road around the warehouse look like black glass. A dark-colored sedan stopped outside the police line.
The door opened. A woman stepped out wearing a dark overcoat, a briefcase in one hand.
Her hair was tied back simply. Her steps were calm, almost soundless.
An officer immediately approached her.
"Dr. Aizawa." Reina nodded.
"The victim?" "Inside."
She put on gloves before crossing the barricade.
There was no expression of surprise when she saw the body. No disgust, either.
Only a professional gaze that immediately sharpened into focus.
Akira watched her from across the room. For some reason, for several seconds he didn't see the victim.
He saw only the woman.
There was something about the way Reina walked.
The way she stopped. The way she lowered her head when examining the victim's position.
Something that felt...
Familiar.
Akira furrowed his brow. He didn't know her.
At least, he was certain he'd never met her.
"Detective Kisaragi." Reina finally noticed him. "Dr. Aizawa."
They nodded to each other.
No smile. No other greeting.
Only two strangers meeting in a place where they should never have crossed paths.
Reina crouched beside the victim.
"Give me some room." Akira took several steps back.
Sota moved away as well. The forensic pathologist began her work.
She checked the pupils, skin temperature, and condition of the wounds, then examined the victim's hand.
"Estimated time of death?" Akira asked.
Reina glanced at her watch. "Around four to six hours before discovery."
"So sometime between midnight and two?" "More or less."
She carefully lifted the victim's right hand.
"Detective." "What?"
"Did you notice this mark earlier?" Akira moved closer.
The circular symbol with the line through it was still clearly visible.
"Yes." "It's not a tattoo."
"I thought so, too." Reina examined the skin around the symbol.
"It was made recently." "With what?"
"I can't say yet." She took out a small camera and photographed it from several angles.
"But there's something more interesting." "What?"
Reina pointed beneath the victim's fingernail. There was a tiny white fragment.
Akira bent down.
"Paint?" "Maybe."
"Or?" Reina looked at him.
"Synthetic material." The answer left Akira silent.
"Like plastic?" "Harder."
Reina placed the sample in a small container. "I'll examine it in the lab."
Akira nodded. Then his eyes returned to the symbol on the victim's hand.
For some reason...
The symbol made his head throb again. Not ordinary pain.
There was something behind it.
An image. Very faint.
White. Lights.
Glass. And a child's voice.
Akira... He jolted.
His hand reflexively gripped the edge of the examination table.
"Detective Kisaragi?" Reina's voice sounded close.
Akira raised his head. The woman was looking at him.
"Are you okay?"
You.
Not "you" in the formal sense.
Just one word.
And yet, strangely...
The word felt so familiar.
Akira let go of the table. "I'm fine."
Reina watched him for several seconds. "You're pale."
"I always look like this." Sota, standing behind them, held back a small laugh.
"That's just how he is." Reina looked at Sota.
"Often?" "When he's thinking too hard."
Akira shot his partner a look. "Thanks for your help."
"Anytime." Reina almost smiled.
Almost.
A few minutes later, Akira walked around the warehouse.
He examined the walls. The floor.
The crates. The back door.
Then he stopped. There were scrape marks on the floor.
Very faint ones.
"Dr. Aizawa." Reina turned.
"Yes?" "Did the victim sustain an injury here?"
He pointed at the floor.
Reina approached. "Why?"
"Scrape marks." Akira crouched down.
"Like something heavy was dragged." Reina studied the marks.
"Then the blood really didn't come from this location." Akira looked at her.
"Why do you say that?" "Because the wound's position and the blood pattern don't match."
Reina pointed to the victim's shoulder. "If the victim had been wounded here, there should be more blood spatter around the body."
Akira nodded.
"We have a first location." Sota approached.
"And a second?" Akira looked at the back door.
"Not yet." He stood.
"But the killer carried the body through there."
The examination lasted nearly an hour.
By the time the victim's body was finally carried out, the rain had stopped. The sky remained gray.
Reina stood beneath the warehouse awning, looking at her digital notes. Akira came out a short while later.
They stood side by side again.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Reina said, "Detective Kisaragi."
"Yes?" "If your headache comes back..."
Akira turned toward her. "...get it checked out."
He fell silent.
"I didn't say I had a headache." Reina looked at him.
"Your hand was shaking earlier." Akira looked at his own hand.
He hadn't even noticed.
"Thank you."
Reina nodded. Then she walked toward her car.
Akira watched her leave.
Something was bothering him.
Not the case. Not the symbol. Not even his headache.
The woman.
As Reina passed through the car door, she suddenly stopped.
Her hand touched the small pendant around her neck. A spontaneous gesture.
Akira didn't know why... But his chest felt tight.
As if something inside him was trying to remember.
A room. A little girl.
A paper bird. And a promise.
Then everything vanished.
"Akira." Sota stood beside him.
"Do you know her?" Akira looked away.
"Who?" "Dr. Aizawa."
"No." Sota raised an eyebrow.
"You were staring at her like you'd just seen a ghost." "I was just thinking."
"About the case?" Akira said nothing.
Sota gave a faint smile. "Then it wasn't."
Akira didn't respond. His phone vibrated.
A message had arrived from the forensic laboratory. The sample had been identified.
Akira opened the message.
The material found beneath the victim's fingernail contained a synthetic compound not commonly used in ordinary industry.
Below it was one additional line.
There is a partial match with material from a research facility that is no longer in operation.
Akira read the sentence twice.
"A research facility?" Sota looked at the screen as well.
"Does it have a name?" Another message came in.
Akira opened it.
There was only one word.
GENESIS.
His heart stopped for a moment. Not because the name felt unfamiliar.
Quite the opposite. The name felt like something he'd heard before...
A very long time ago.
Somewhere he couldn't remember.
Then the sound came again.
Not from outside.
From inside his head.
The sound of machinery. The sound of a monitor.
A child's sobs. And the distant voice of a man.
"A-001, stay calm."
Akira closed his eyes. In an instant, he saw something.
A white corridor. A glass wall.
A pair of small hands pressed against the transparent surface.
On the other side... A little girl smiled.
Akira tried to approach her.
But before he could see the girl's face clearly... Everything shattered into blackness.
Akira opened his eyes, breathing hard.
Sota immediately grabbed his shoulder. "Akira!"
He looked around.
The warehouse. The police. The cars.
The rain that had just stopped.
Everything had returned to normal.
Except for one thing.
One name still remained on his phone's screen.
GENESIS.
And for the first time in his life...
Akira felt afraid of something he couldn't even remember ever knowing.