Everyone has a secret. This rule applies everywhere, but even more so in Ikebukuro. Look at the girl next to you. What kind of past does she have? Walking through the streets, you might even pass by the leader of the Dollars. Maybe you're friends with the mysterious Headless Rider, who races down the roads of the city. Sitting in the park, you might see the General amongst his gang of Yellow Scarves. The strongest man might cast a glance at you, hands casually shoved in his pockets. And in Shinjuku, an information broker is watching.
Everyone has a secret. Mine? Well, it's called a secret for reason, isn't it?
Prologue
A Pounding Heart
No matter what I could have done, everything only led to one horrific conclusion. I know this now.
Nothing can stop fate at its worst.
I was always good at hide and seek. When my parents invited their adult friends over, they'd bring over their children and we'd all play together. Despite my skill at tag and cops and robbers, we all had fun. Even when it came to my favorite game, my playmates didn't mind my excessive prowess.
But that day, it didn't matter if I had hid or not.
I remember it clearly. Like all of my memories, it is engraved in my mind with a fiery pen.
Sitting outside, the sun let down soft, warm, afternoon rays onto my short locks of hair, which my mother had decided to do up in curls this morning.
By my feet I fiddled with blades of grass, content and quiet. Today was a lazy day, the sky full of drifting clouds and the neighborhood sleepy. My friends were home as well, not much in the mood to play as they were spending the day lounging around, as I was.
My thoughts wandered elsewhere, and excitement bubbled up in me at the prospect of tomorrow. Letting my happiness show, a smile blossoms on my features. Tomorrow would be my seventh birthday. My mother had promised all sorts of treats; cake, presents, friends and the like would all be there.
To my left the shadow cast by our house steadily lengthens and creeps towards me. The house itself gently creaks from the languid breeze flowing around its form. As I glance up into the crystal clear cerulean sky, I catch a glimpse of an immense cloud the color of ash approaching from the distance. The shadow beneath the billowing mass of moisture sweeps across the landscape, coming closer...and closer, until it hovers above myself and the house, cloaking the area around me in shadow.
In that instant, a scream rips through the tranquil silence.
I suck in a breath, the air scraping against my throat. Every nerve spikes with fear, and I slowly push myself up from my seated position. Against what little judgement I had, I proceeded towards the house on trembling legs.
Pushing open the sliding door, everything is dead silent inside the house. Then sudden scrambling noises are heard, followed by a thud. My quiet, stockinged feet carry me further until I finally round the corner and face the entrance hallway.
The front door is ajar, and stray, decayed leaves swirl around on the inner welcome mat. My eyes are then drawn to the real scene in front of me.
Sprawled on the floor are my parents' bodies. My father, shoved up against the wall, has bruises blooming on his exposed skin, and every limb juts out at inhuman angles. Blood trickles from his lips and a sickening amount pours from a rend in his torso and soaks into his shirt. Lying in the center of the floor is my mother, her eyes widened in pure terror and her mouth open in a never ending scream. Beads of scarlet drip from a single bullethole in the dead center of her forehead.
Every single part of me freezes. My mind draws a blank. I can feel the sharp, burning tang of bile rising up in my throat, and it leaps out, splattering onto the floor, only adding to the gruesome mess.
I gasp for air, trying to stifle my retching. Saliva rushes to my mouth in waves, and all I can do is swallow it all back down before I throw up again.
A sudden gust from outside wrenches the door closed with a startling bang. The noise makes me jump, and I squeeze my eyes shut with a shuddering breath. Shivering and with tears dripping down my cheeks, all I want to do is to run away, to hide, to curl up and shove the images out of my mind. The frantic beating of my heart throbs in my ears. It was all I could hear. It was so loud, so deafening, and my throat was so tight, I thought that my heart had suddenly leapt into my throat, pulsing with a hysterical ferocity.
With my eyes still shut, I take one cautious step backwards, only to hit something. Someone.
I open my mouth to scream. The killer was behind me. He'd kill me just as he did my family. An image of my own body discarded on the floor in a pool of crimson liquid seeped into my mind and wouldn't leave.
A hand whips out, clamping onto my shoulder like a vice. Still I refuse to open my eyes. Then a cloth is thrust over my mouth, muffling the scream building in my throat. With my mouth open and my eyes shut tight a fresh picture floats into my mind.
My mother, face a frozen image of death.
With my vision already dark, I couldn't tell if I was blacking out or not. As my breathing came close to a choking halt and as my heart slowed, there was only one thing I was certain of…
I was going to die.