Kobe, Japan. Autumn 202X. Professional photographer and newspaper journalist, the now twenty year old Alice Hamada is now on her second case for her next article. This time, her newspaper company has assigned her to write about the Hikikomori Murder...
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Kobe, Japan. 202X October 23.
Weather: Cold, breezy with rain
Temperature: 53
Twenty year old Alice Hamada shifted slowly in the restaurant booth, only picking up her fountain pen when absolutely necessary, or when her arm began to throb with pain from overuse. It's been nearly seven whole years since the last time she took a trip down to her hometown of Kobe, Japan. Ever since that one incident had taken place. Cautiously, she trudged out of the restaurant, a plastic bag of takeout in one hand and a leather bound journal and pen in the other.
Watching her step to avoid slipping, she climbed upon a transit bus headed to wherever she was designated to go by the brand new newspaper firm she had recently been assigned to work for. The Kobe Times, that was the new newspaper firm that had hired her. Nothing was seemingly out of the ordinary that day, and yet there was something ominous in the air. But to Alice, that was rather normal. After all, it's been nearly seven whole years since she first started her career as a photographer/ journalist. Last time, she was nearly killed on the job. However, she barely remembers what had happened since that incident had taken place. She now suffers from severe migraines caused by selective amnesia.
Alice, however, had absolutely no idea on what caused her brain to continuously forget memories from seven years ago. What could have happened that caused her to get selective amnesia? One can only wonder. After getting off at the proper stop, Alice was now face to face with her new workplace. Wondering what case she would be assigned to now, she smiled, thrilled to start a new career at such an acclaimed newspaper firm. With a rough tug, she opened those two huge glass doors leading to the building and was welcomed by none other than her new editor Haruka Nanase. For a guy, he had a rather feminine-sounding name. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "You must be Alice!" With a respectful bow, he gestured Alice to come inside. "Alice Hamada, am I right?" With an awkward, yet gentle smile, Haruka lead Alice to her designated cubicle. "This'll be your workplace from now on and I certainly hope that you'll enjoy working with us!" Haruka respectfully bowed at Alice once again, causing Alice to quickly tell him that he could simply call her by her first name instead of "Hamada-san".
"Haruka-kun," Alice began with a rather awkward smile. "Please just call me by my first name. After all, there's not much of a gap between our ages," Nanase let out a little chuckle and finally took his leave, leaving Alice to organize her stuff and take things out of boxes. Placing a couple notebooks and a jar of pens upon her new desk, Alice gently rested her head upon her arms. The bus ride to Kobe had put a certain strain upon her body, having to take another bus before reaching her destination. She also placed a small plastic bottle of ibuprofen upon her desk, just to make sure she wouldn't experience any major migraines at work.
"Ah, Alice Hamada, is it?" This time, an unfamiliar and more deeper voice called out to her. Before she was about to drift off to slumber, alerted, Alice shifted her composure and turned to the voice's source.
"Y-Yes! That's me!" Alice exclaimed, awkwardly tucking a fly-away strand of hair behind her ear.
"I'm Yamato Manaba, I'm the floor's supervisor..." the older man's voice trailed off as he adjusted his black rimmed glasses with the help of his index finger. "You're the new member to our team, I see. The big guy, our CEO, Nanao Irie has told me such great things about you. I hope he's right about that though. You ARE still a rookie writer..." Yamato let out a mocking laugh, caught up in belittling Alice. "Don't have too much fun here, Hamada-san... You might be shocked at which case they assign you to!" With a little wave of the hand, Yamato took his leave.
Alice, annoyed by Yamato's rudeness, let out an exasperated sigh. "I guess that's just the burden of being a rookie journalist, huh? Don't worry, Alice!" She lightly touched her cheeks, her hands cold from not wearing her favorite pair of wool gloves. "Don't mind that Yamato jerk! He may be handsome but he sure is a goddamn misogynist! I just know it!"
Suddenly, there was a cute little giggle coming from beside her. "Are you talking about Manaba-kun?" the older woman asked of her, raising a brow. "I'm Yukie Tsukishima, by the way. I'm a crime analyst here at The Kobe Times. You must be the new journalist slash photographer person, huh? Alice Hamada-san?" Yukie wore rose gold plated bangle bracelets and hoop earrings of the same color. Her jet black bob cut hair matched her dark brown eyes, almost void of any color. To Alice, she seemed like an okane mochi, a rich, well-to-do person. Or maybe, she was just very well-off. However, despite her seemingly high class background, Yukie-san seemed to be much more kinder than Yamato-san ever would be.
"Yes, that's right..." Alice's voice trailed off. "Was Yamato-san always like that?" She cupped her mouth, gesturing Yukie to bring her voice down to a whisper.
"I assume so," said Yukie in response. "He's been like that ever since he broke up with his girlfriend... Again," She then went back to analyzing a brand new case. "Hmm... This is rather odd!"
"Eh? What is?" asked Alice. She glimpsed over at Yukie's desktop monitor, seeing some gruesome, gory images of a crime scene. Unnerved, Alice was highly intrigued. "A crime scene, Tsukishima-san?"
"Why, it appears so!" Yukie exclaimed, suddenly closing the window on the monitor's screen. "Scary, huh? Who would do such a thing? And what makes it even more frightening, is that the sender has a weird email address..."
"What do you mean, Tsukishima-san?"
Alice glimpsed over at the small text written upon a Post-It note that Yukie had written on just a few seconds after the mysterious email was sent.
"The email address is: hitori_hikkiomori?"
"It appears so, Hamada-san,"
"Could it be?" Alice's voice widened in shock. "Could it be about the Hikkiomori Murders?"
Yukie-san simply stared at Alice, a look of horror drawn upon her porcelain white face.
