Late night. Izumi sits on his bed, still in shock, the room dimly lit by his phone screen.
"Argh... damn, I couldn't even talk with him for a second. And who screamed back there?"
Izumi clenched his jaw, still trying to piece it all together.
Then he remembered Kiyoshi's text.
"He said he had something important to tell me..."
He quickly grabbed his phone.
Izumi: "Hey Kiyoshi, what did you want to tell me earlier?"
The reply came fast.
Kiyoshi: "Oh right, I just remembered. So... before the shooting at the third floor, me and Aoshi were at the toy store on the second floor. We saw this guy—dressed sharp, suit and tie—stood out immediately. He whispered something to the cashier. A few seconds later, she went to the back. Then the manager showed up, shut the store down, and kicked everyone out.
Weird right? But that's not all. We went to another toy store nearby, then boom—gunshot. Everyone panicked. Me and Aoshi stayed calm near the back exit. The two stores are close to it.
Then I saw a hooded guy jamming the second main entrance with some kind of tool…"
Izumi: "And what do you want me to do with that?"
Kiyoshi: "Izumi… Investigate this with me. Don't you want to know why your friends died? And what they were really after?"
Izumi stared at the screen. He was lost—but he knew there was no turning back now.
Izumi: "Let's meet tomorrow. At your house."
Cut to: Villain HQ
The air is heavy. A screen flickers as THE FIRST's voice fades after issuing a new command:
"Kill every survivor."
Envy lowered his gaze, hopelessness creeping into his eyes.
He knew what that meant—Wrath would obey without question. And so would the others.
The screen went black.
Gluttony: "Where's everyone else?"
Lust: "Control room. If you're heading there, tell them the FIRST wants to execute Phase 2."
Gluttony walked into the control room. Pride leaned on the wall, arms crossed. Sloth sprawled lazily across a couch. Greed typed furiously on a keyboard.
Gluttony: "What are you doing?"
Pride: "Planning the ambush on Raidon Hiroshi."
Gluttony: "The FIRST wants Phase 2 of Plan B started."
Greed (smirking): "Phase 2, huh? Someone's not gonna like that."
Next Morning – Kiyoshi's House
Izumi: "So you're Aoshi? Nice to meet you—Kiyoshi talks a lot about you."
Aoshi sat beside Kiyoshi, eyes glued to her phone.
Aoshi (quickly): "Nice to meet you too."
Kiyoshi (grinning): "I invited another friend. She's a total IT nerd—she's gonna help us dig deeper."
Suddenly the front door creaked open.
Ana: "Nerd, huh? Lucky I'm not a softie."
Kiyoshi flinched in embarrassment.
Kiyoshi: "This is Ana, everyone."
Without saying much, Ana dropped her bag and opened her laptop.
Ana: "Here's the camera footage you asked for."
Everyone huddled around the screen as Ana fast-forwarded through the video. Kiyoshi pointed.
Kiyoshi: "These are the two suspicious guys I told you about."
Izumi squinted. Then—
Izumi: "WAIT. Look at that peanut seller. Right when the gunshot's heard, he vanishes."
Ana: "Could be a camera glitch."
Izumi: "No. Switch to Camera 4."
They did. And sure enough—the same guy calmly walks out through the back exit minutes later, unbothered by the chaos.
Everyone froze.
Kiyoshi: "Bro… you're crazy with this observation."
Ana: "Okay... that is weird. He's too calm."
While everyone was deep into the footage, Aoshi suddenly gasped.
Aoshi: "Guys—look at this."
She showed them an article on her phone.
"Last year, during a bank robbery, witnesses claimed they saw masked individuals wearing the same hood design as the Narita Mall attackers. But here's the thing—they didn't take hostages. Or money. They just… left."
Aoshi: "People started calling them THE REMINDER. Because no one could figure out what they wanted. It's like they were… warning us."
Kiyoshi: "Two events. No clear gain. Same hood. Same calm presence. This is connected."
Izumi's expression darkened.
"What's so good about them? Don't they know how many people they've killed?"
That thought looped in his head. The idea that people online were romanticizing mass murderers—it made his blood boil.
Suddenly his vision blurred.
His heart pounded.
Voices around him faded to static.
Darkness.
Izumi collapsed, unconscious.