The closing sign was hung on the window of cafe, Cat's Eye. Inside, a lone, tall man sat on stool, looking down the tumbler glass, half filled with amber liquid. His eyes were all vacant and lost. There were several empty bottles on the counter with the man. Sitting at the far corner of cafe, cafe owners, Miki and her husband, Hayato Ijyuin aka Falcon looked each other then the lone man on the stool.
"It has been almost three years since Kaori's gone. I still can't believe it." Miki quietly murmured to her husband. "Ryo...he is so changed." Her voice was laced with deep concern and understanding.
There were no more a lively man with shadowy past who vanished his demons in arms of true love. Just a shell, filled with bitterness, despair, and hopelessness. A desperate man hanging on the cruel and unfair world.
Miki still remembered the tragic incident killed Kaori, Ryo's partner, like yesterday. Ryo and Kaori were working with Saeko from the Special Unit of Tokyo Police Department to investigate corrupted police captain who supposed to have a tie to an international drug syndicate. The bust went wrong, and it ended up Kaori forcing to shoot the suspect, the corrupted police captain, in order to protect mortally wounded Ryo. The circumstance was self-defense, but unfortunately, the suspect didn't survive the ordeal, and more his father was a member of prominent politicians in Japan. Thing couldn't be taken care quietly, and Kaori was arrested instantly at the crime scene. There were nothing she or her friends could do. The system got Kaori, and they must use the system to get her out. In Japanese judicial system, such process was very slow and might take forever. Kaori in the police's custody and Ryo in coma, everyone was on edge. Next news Miki heard was that the police car met deadly corrosion with 16 wheeler truck during transporting Kaori from the detention center to the minimum security prison for women. All passengers including Kaori were killed when the police car explored in fire by the corrosion's impact. When Ryo came out from two weeks of coma, Kaori was taken away from him forever.
When Miki, Falcon, and Saeko gave Ryo the tragic end of Kaori, Ryo didn't say any words. Just sitting on the bed quietly, his face pale, his friends saw his light extinguished in front of their eyes. Since then, Ryo took off from Japan mysteriously, leaving no words to his friends. When Miki asked about Ryo's whereabouts to her husband, after a silent pose, Falcon only said to her, "He is looking for a place to die." Only every year, around the fateful day Kaori was killed, he came back to her grave and later dropped by Miki and Falcon's cafe to drown in his memory with bottles.
Falcon and Miki quietly kept watching the broken man. They knew the risk of giving heart to someone in the line of their work, living so close to death everyday. It could be a double-edged sword. The true love could save a man from the insanity of reality, but it could also kill a man. They had each other, but Ryo didn't have Kaori anymore. Ryo was already a dead man, but his body didn't let him go yet.
After the ritual visit to Cafe Cat's Eye and Makimura sibling's graves, Ryo said farewell to owner couple and slowly started to walk back to the cheap motel where he has been staying. As he arrived, unexpectedly a brown paper envelop was awaiting him in the empty room. Ryo looked around the room with sharp eyes. There are no evidence of force entry, but the establishment didn't have any high point in security. Any amateur with a right tool could get in and out like a pro. But, instead of taking something, leaving something was not like a regular burglary. He opened the envelop, glossy pictures of beautiful woman in short dark brown hair met his eyes. "Kaori...it couldn't be." Perhaps, the pictures were taken by high-power lens camera secretly, the woman in pictures did not acknowledge the existence of cameraman at all. Ryo quickly scanned mysterious pictures. Kaori walking down the street in sharp business suit. Kaori looking outside from some apartment. Kaori driving a beautiful sport car. Kaori jogging down the park. Together with pictures, there was a piece of paper in the envelop. "Chicago..." Ryo started to pack his bag. He had a plane to catch.