Miki Sato pressed her hand against the cold concrete, the rain washing blood along the gutter, turning the alley into a river of rust. The corpse was fresh—a young man, jaw broken, throat carved open with almost clinical neatness. Someone had arranged his arms above his head like the angel of death. On his chest: a single card stamped with the outline of a bleeding hand.The city gurgled with night noise. Glass shattered a block away, echoing under the neon fizz. Miki's coat clung heavy and soaked. She'd known violence—her knuckles still bruised from last week's bar fight, her memories cluttered with screams in empty hospital corridors. But tonight's killing had a different smell. Intent. A message.Kenji arrived late, face ghost-pale, clutching a cracked notebook. "There's another hand, should be somewhere." His words barely reached her. They'd seen this before. Three murders in three days. No patterns, no mistakes, only escalating violence. Miki's mind mapped the city, tracing arterial streets to a ruined warehouse, seedy bars, and the last known address of the vanished pediatric surgeon, Yurei.As police tape flickered in storm wind, Miki crouched beside the mutilated body. She studied every detail: threaded wounds, the angles of broken bone, the strange serenity on the dead man's face. A hunter's satisfaction? Or resignation? She remembered her father's voice, soft and sharp as a blade: "There is no mercy for monsters."The medics stuffed the body in a black bag. Miki wiped rain from her eyes, and the city's lights blurred to streaks. A red car idled at the edge of the alley, its driver hidden. For one instant, the headlights flashed, then disappeared into the fog. Kenji scribbled facts, but Miki felt the truth crawling just out of reach.Three bodies. Three nights. Three hands, each missing. The killer was swift, careful, and all too close. Miki's own hands trembled, memories of locked basements and blood-heavy silence resurfacing. The first chapter of this new nightmare had begun, and she just hoped she wouldn't be its next victim.
