Great Minds Think Alike

Prologue

Aika Akagawa: Age Ten

The heavy downpour pattered around me as the water-laden clouds wept, almost drowning out the pounding and slapping of my running footsteps across the roofs of the 3rd ward's buildings. The thunder drowned out my sobs and the raindrops merged with my tears until it was impossible to distinguish between them. They splashed into my already dripping blonde hair and left dark streaks on my clothes as they soaked through the soft red fabric. As I sped over the rooftops, memories flashed one by one to the front of my mind: My mother and her glaringly obvious contempt for my father and me, expressed through her total lack of contact and involvement with us; I neared the edge of a building and leaped to the next, still wiping away tears. My mother standing on the opposite side of a bustling city square from her husband and daughter, then turning away with an expression of glacial coldness and indifference; my feet landed lightly on the next structure and I resumed my desperate sprint onward. My proud father with a deep sadness constantly present behind his eyes teaching me to hunt and fight so I wouldn't have to rely on others for help; I made a sharp turn, slipping a little on the rain-slick surface, and continued my mad dash. My patient, forgiving teacher, my only parent, inviting me to come hunting in the rain with him. And me, watching from atop a building as his body was torn apart and mangled by a white-haired investigator with one wide-open eye. A monster, laughing as my father's last cry of anguish was abruptly silenced with a sickening crunch and a wet spatter of thick, dark blood. Laughing as screams tore from my throat as if it were I who had felt every slash, crack, and stab. Then nothing. My shallow breaths bordered on hysterical as they echoed in my ears, my heart about to burst and my body ready to collapse. I made one last abrupt turn, but this time my feet flew out from under me and my momentum carried me right off the roof and into a dark and empty alleyway. With no will to pick myself up, I just lay where I fell, arms flung open as if about to embrace someone who was no longer there.