CHAPTER 4 The Deleted Archive
Morning came without really bringing any light. The clouds hung low over the city as Akira entered the Investigations Division building. His steps remained calm, his expression unchanged as usual.
Only one thing had changed. He hadn't slept.
All night, the sentence from the anonymous call had kept circling through his mind. <you will find the reason you don't remember it.>
Akira wasn't afraid of threats. He was afraid that the person had been telling the truth.
A cup of coffee was waiting on his desk. Sota raised a hand from the desk beside him.
"Don't ask." Akira looked at the cup.
"I haven't asked." "I know. But you look like someone who's about to ask."
Akira picked up the coffee. "Thanks."
Sota studied him for a few seconds. "Did you sleep?"
"A little." "How many hours?"
Akira fell silent. Sota sighed.
"So you didn't sleep." Akira didn't argue.
He turned on his computer. Before he could open the case file, a notification appeared.
MEMORY CARD EXAMINATION RESULTS — COMPLETE.
Akira sat down immediately. "Sota."
"I know." Sota was already carrying his tablet.
"They managed to open part of it." "Part of it?"
"The data inside is encrypted." Akira furrowed his brow.
"How long will it take?" "Rina said maybe a few hours. Maybe a few days."
"Contact her." "I already did."
Akira stared at the screen. "What if she succeeds?"
Sota didn't answer right away. "She said there was one file they managed to open."
Akira turned toward him. "What file?"
Sota set the tablet on the desk. "A video."
The digital forensics room was two floors below their division. Rina Saeki sat in front of three monitors at once.
Her hair was tied back carelessly, and several empty coffee cups covered the desk. As soon as Akira and Sota entered, Rina didn't turn around.
"If you're here to tell me to work faster, you can leave." Sota smiled.
"We're here to offer moral support." "Leave."
Akira held back a faint smile. "How much did you manage to open?"
Rina finally turned around. "Not much."
She pointed at the screen. "One video. Two damaged documents. The rest are still locked."
Akira moved closer. "When is the video from?"
"That's the problem." Rina opened the metadata information.
The creation date couldn't be read. The modification date showed something impossible.
Eight years ago.
"Impossible," Sota said.
"Why?" "The device format is much older."
Rina nodded. "That's what makes me curious."
She clicked the file. "This video was created with a storage system that hasn't been used in years."
Akira stared at the screen.
"So?" "So someone took old data and put it into a new device."
"Why?" Rina looked at him.
"Maybe so someone would find it." The video began to play.
The screen turned black. Then a blurry image appeared.
A white corridor. Fluorescent lights.
A glass wall. Akira froze immediately.
His hand gripped the edge of the desk. He had seen this place before.
Not just in a dream.
Deeper than that. More real.
"Akira?" Sota's voice sounded far away.
The video continued. Someone walked past the camera.
A man in a lab coat. His face wasn't clearly visible yet.
Then the camera shifted. Two small children appeared behind the glass.
A boy. A girl.
Akira stopped breathing.
The boy sat on the floor, holding a sheet of paper. The girl sat across from him.
Then the boy folded the paper. A bird.
Akira felt something slam into his chest. "Stop."
Rina turned around. "What?"
"Play it again." Rina replayed it.
Akira moved closer to the screen.
The boy stood up. He walked toward the glass.
The camera caught his chest. There was a mark.
A-001.
Akira swallowed. Sota stared at the screen.
"We need to know who that kid is." Akira didn't answer.
Because deep inside... he already knew.
The video continued. The girl stood up.
She walked toward the glass. Her face came into clearer view.
Black hair. Large eyes.
A small pendant around her neck.
Akira whispered, "Reina."
The room suddenly fell silent. Sota looked at him.
"Are you sure?" Akira couldn't answer.
On the screen, the girl raised her hand. The boy on the other side did the same.
Their small palms met on opposite sides of the glass. Then the girl's voice came through.
Faint. But clear.
"When we get out..." The video suddenly shook. "We'll find the sky."
Akira closed his eyes. The sentence was the same one that had appeared in his dreams.
Exactly the same.
When he opened his eyes again, the video had stopped. The screen turned black.
FILE CORRUPTED.
Rina swore under her breath.
"The ending is damaged." "How long is the video?"
"Four minutes and thirty-two seconds." "And we only saw two minutes."
"Not enough." Akira stared at the screen.
"There's something at the end." Rina nodded.
"Yeah." "What kind of something?"
Rina pointed to the audio graph. "There's a voice." "Whose voice?"
"Don't know yet." She cleaned up the audio recording.
Sound waves appeared. Then a man's voice came through the speakers.
Broken. Heavy.
"Subject A-001 is showing increased resonance..." Akira felt his head begin to throb again.
"Subject R is experiencing an emotional response inseparable from A-001..." The voice stopped for a moment.
Then the next sentence came through. "If this relationship is allowed to develop..."
The recording broke up. Static filled the room.
Then one final sentence emerged. "They will become a threat to the system."
The video stopped. No one spoke.
Sota finally asked, "Who recorded this?"
Rina shook her head. "Don't know yet."
Akira stared at the black screen. "Who is Subject R?"
Rina opened the second file. "Don't know yet."
Akira looked away. But the answer already felt as if it were right in front of him.
Reina Aizawa.
Several hours later, Akira stood outside the autopsy room. He hadn't told anyone about the video except Sota, Rina, and Tetsuya.
Even Reina didn't know yet. Akira stared at the autopsy room door.
He remembered the woman's face.
The way she called his name. The way her hand always touched her pendant whenever she was anxious.
And now... a decades-old video showed a little girl wearing the same pendant.
Akira exhaled. The possibility that it was only a coincidence was growing smaller.
The door opened. Reina stepped out, removing her gloves.
She stopped when she saw Akira. "You?"
"I want to talk." Reina studied him.
"About the case?" "Partly."
They walked toward a quieter corridor. Akira stopped beside a window.
"Dr. Aizawa." "Yes?"
"Who did you live with when you were little?"
Reina looked confused. "My mother."
"What was her name?" "Airi."
Akira felt something move inside his head. Airi Amemiya.
The name from the old photograph. "Her full name?"
Reina furrowed her brow. "Airi Amemiya."
Akira said nothing. Reina looked at him.
"Why?" Akira pulled the Genesis photograph from his pocket.
He didn't hand it to her. He only showed it to her.
Reina's eyes immediately fixed on one woman in the photograph. Her expression changed.
"That's..." "Your mother?"
Reina nodded slowly. "I've seen this photo before."
"Where?" "At home."
She touched her pendant. "My mother kept it."
Akira looked at her. "Why was she at the Genesis facility?"
Reina shook her head. "I don't know."
"And you?" "I don't know either."
For several seconds, they simply stood there. Two adults.
Two different lives. Yet slowly...
fragments of the past began moving toward each other. Reina finally asked,
"Akira." "Yeah?"
"Why do I feel like..." She stopped.
Her eyes looked glassy. "...I've known you before?"
Akira didn't answer right away. Because for the first time, he didn't want to lie.
"I feel the same way." Reina looked at him.
And before either of them could say anything, Akira's phone rang.
Sota.
Akira answered it. Sota's voice sounded tense.
<Akira, we found something about Takumi Kisaragi.> Akira froze.
<And it looks like you need to see it yourself.> The call ended.
Akira slowly lowered his phone. Reina watched his face.
"What is it?" Akira looked at her.
"I don't know." He slipped the phone into his pocket.
"But it looks like our past just found a way back to us."
The archive room was in the oldest part of the police station. The lights were white and too bright. The air inside was dry, carrying the smell of old paper and dust that never truly disappeared.
Akira walked quickly down the corridor. Sota was already waiting in front of a storage room.
As soon as Akira arrived, Sota opened the door. "Rina found something."
"Takumi?" Sota nodded.
"Old data from the Genesis archives." Akira stopped for a moment.
The name still felt strange in the context of his work.
But his last name— Kisaragi—
couldn't have been any closer. His father.
The man he had known for years only through the few memories that remained. The man his family said had died when Akira was still little.
The man who had never spoken about Genesis. Akira went inside.
Several old documents lay on the table. One photograph.
One ID card. And a black folder.
Sota pointed to the photograph. "This was found in the Genesis fire case archives."
Akira picked it up. It was the same photograph they had found at Mizuno's house.
But this time, it was clearer. Seiji Amemiya stood in the center.
Beside him— Takumi Kisaragi.
Younger.
Far younger than the only photograph of his father Akira had at home. Akira stared at the face for a long time.
Something about it was strange. Not just the resemblance.
The eyes. The shape of the jaw. The way the man stood.
Everything felt like looking at his own reflection from the past. "This is my father."
Sota nodded. "Yeah."
"Why did he never tell me?" "I don't know yet."
Akira set the photograph down. "What else?"
Sota pointed to the ID card. Akira picked it up.
GENESIS RESEARCH FACILITY TAKUMI KISARAGI CO-FOUNDER / NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEMS DIVISION
Below it was a photograph of his father. Akira turned the card over.
There was a date. There was an access code.
And one handwritten note. A-001
Akira's fingers tensed immediately. "What is this?"
Sota didn't answer. Akira stared at the code.
A-001.
The same code as the boy in the video. He felt as if the floor beneath his feet had shifted.
"This isn't a coincidence." Sota shook his head.
"It doesn't look like it." Akira drew a breath.
"What did Rina find?" Sota pointed to the monitor.
"The last file." The screen lit up.
An old document appeared. Most of the text was corrupted.
But several sections could still be read.
PROJECT GENESIS — SUBJECT A-001 Status: ACTIVE Primary Researcher: Seiji Amemiya Secondary Researcher: Takumi Kisaragi
Akira stared at the screen. "Subject A-001..."
Sota nodded. "The boy in the video."
Akira said nothing. He simply continued staring at the words.
Then another sentence appeared.
Subject displays exceptional adaptability to Eclipse exposure.
Akira furrowed his brow. "Eclipse?"
"Don't know yet." "Rina's looking into it."
Sota scrolled down the page. "This is even stranger."
A table appeared. Two codes.
A-001 R
Between them was a line graph showing neurological activity.
"R." Akira spoke the letter slowly.
Subject R. Reina.
But before he could finish putting the thought together, a sound came from the computer.
ACCESS DENIED.
The screen turned black. Sota swore.
"The server cut the connection." Akira stared at the screen.
"Someone?" "Who knows."
Suddenly, all the lights in the room flickered.
Once. Twice.
Then they returned to normal.
Akira looked at Sota. "Turn off the computer."
"Why?" "Now."
Sota obeyed.
As soon as the screen went dark, Akira saw something behind the glass door. A person's shadow.
Faint. Too fast.
Akira immediately opened the door. The corridor was empty.
He ran to the end of the hall. There was no one there.
Only the sound of an officer's footsteps from the floor below. Sota caught up with him.
"Who did you see?" "A shadow."
"Who?" "I don't know."
Akira looked at the security camera in the ceiling. "Someone may be watching us."
Elsewhere, Reina sat inside her car. She hadn't started the engine yet.
Her conversation with Akira kept circling through her mind. "Why do I feel like I've known you before?"
She touched her pendant. It felt cold.
Her phone vibrated. A message from her mother.
[Come home. We need to talk.] Reina read the message twice.
Airi almost never sent messages like that. She started the engine immediately.
Airi's house was on the outskirts of the city. Simple. Quiet.
Not much had changed since Reina was little. When Reina entered, Airi was already waiting in the living room.
The woman looked older than the last time Reina had seen her. But her eyes were the same.
Sharp. Cautious.
As if she were always waiting for something to come back from the past. "You're late."
"Sorry." Airi studied her daughter's face.
"Did you meet someone?" Reina stopped.
"How did you know?" "Instinct."
Reina sat down. "I met Detective Kisaragi."
Airi's hand, which was holding a cup, stopped immediately. The cup nearly fell.
"Who?" "Akira Kisaragi."
The color drained from Airi's face. Reina watched her.
"You know him?" Airi didn't answer.
"Mom." Airi stood up.
"Stay away from him." Reina furrowed her brow.
"Why?" "Because he's dangerous."
"He's a detective." "That's exactly why."
Airi walked toward the window. Her hands were trembling.
Reina stood up. "There's something you're hiding from me."
"Reina..." "Who is Akira Kisaragi?"
Airi closed her eyes. The question had finally come.
Sooner or later. She had only hoped it wouldn't be now.
"He's..." Airi drew a breath. "...Takumi's son."
Reina froze. "What?"
Airi nodded. Reina stared at her.
"Takumi Kisaragi?" "Yes."
"And why do you know him?" Airi didn't answer.
Reina stepped closer. "Mom."
Airi finally turned around. "Because I used to work at Genesis."
Silence filled the room. Reina felt as if the ground had suddenly given way beneath her. "Genesis..."
Airi looked at her daughter.
"And you..." Her voice trembled. "...you were there too."
Reina couldn't speak.
At the police station, Akira was still standing in front of the investigation board. Names were beginning to fill its surface.
Seiji Amemiya. Takumi Kisaragi. Airi Amemiya. Dr. Haruki Mizuno.
And two codes. A-001 R
Akira took the photograph from the video. He stared at the boy.
Something made his throat tighten. He pulled the childhood photograph from his wallet.
The photograph he always carried without knowing why. A little boy stood beside a man.
Takumi.
Akira compared the two images. There was no doubt.
The child in the Genesis photograph... was him.
His hand slowly fell.
"Why..." A voice came from the doorway.
"Because there are parts of your life that were never told to you." Akira turned around.
Tetsuya stood there. His face looked much older than it had that morning.
"Mr. Hoshino." Tetsuya entered and closed the door.
He looked at the investigation board. Then he turned his gaze to Akira.
"I had hoped this day would never come." Akira stood up straight.
"You knew." Tetsuya didn't deny it.
"Genesis wasn't just a research facility." "Then what was it?"
Tetsuya looked at the photograph of A-001. "It was a place that destroyed a lot of people."
Akira clenched the photograph. "Including me?"
Tetsuya fell silent. That answer was enough.
Akira felt something collapse inside him. "Who am I?"
Tetsuya stepped closer. "You're still Akira Kisaragi."
"That's not what I asked." "I know."
"Who is A-001?" Tetsuya stared at him for a long time.
Then he said quietly, "The child who was never supposed to leave Genesis."
Akira didn't blink. "And me?"
Tetsuya swallowed. "You are that child."
The room felt too quiet. Akira stared at the photograph in his hand.
For the first time...
he was no longer searching for the past as part of a case. He was beginning to realize that the case
was himself.