February 22, 1999 Tokyo

Setsuko Nagano - a 26-year-old investigative journalist got up from her bed in her apartment, she was to investigate the assassination of one of the politicians - Masashige Shimoda.

Shimoda was murdered with his family 2 years ago, the suspect was his own brother - Soichi Shimoda, who unlike Masashige was less fortunate in life - compared to his brother, he was a teacher, was divorced and had many debts.

The newspaper for which Setsuko worked struggled to get permission for an interview - there was a lot of ambiguity surrounding Shimoda's murder, but the blame still pointed to his brother.

Also, the public believed that Soichi Shimoda was innocent and had become a scapegoat, which indeed contributed to allowing a short 20-minute interview.

After a while, Setsuko entered an urgently guarded room covered with a Venetian mirror.

- Thank you for your permission, Shimoda-san to grant this interview, I hope the information you provide will help your case...

- Nothing more will help me... The verdict is already in, I could be dead any day.

- You were convicted of the murder of your brother, Shimoda Masashige, and his family, Shimoda Nariko, and Shimoda Megumi, it happened in January 1996, however, you keep insisting that you were innocent, I have read about your trial and what you said at the time.
According to your words, you did not kill your brother and his family, but were the first to arrive at the scene of the crime, according to the police, three people were involved in the crime, of which you are one of the accused.

Shimoda Masashige was a politician, so there is a good chance that you were not the one who killed him, do you remember anything about that night? Other than what you have already said?

Soichi held back his words, at his trial he didn't admit guilt, but he also didn't say anything about Masashige telling him about visiting an old friend from his high school days. Soichi was afraid that this would plunge him even further as he didn't even know the name of the person, and there were 2 people involved in the crime, including Soichi, according to the court.

- In fact, there was one thing I didn't say, but I doubt it would make any difference.

- Can you talk about it? Your life counts here, as long as you are indeed innocent.

Soichi Shimoda took a deep breath, and slowly with a slight apathy began to speak.

- The last time I saw my brother before his death, he was talking to someone on the phone, I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I heard him say "We haven't seen each other since high school," it was probably 5 days after his death, so I think this person may have been responsible for the death of my brother and his family.

But I doubt it will be possible to discover the identity of this person.

- What high school did your brother go to?

- From 1969 to 1972 he attended Hirei (Hireikan) academy, it was a high school designed to educate future elites, many of the students even had an aristocratic background, even though since 1945 aristocracy was abolished by law..
Upon hearing about Hireikan Setsuko stiffened slightly, her mother, who gave birth to her in 1973, at the age of 18 was a student at this high school, Sayaka Iwaita was expelled by her family after Setsuko's birth, she settled in Narita where she worked as a saleswoman in a store, they did not live in poverty or luxury, rather at a lower middle class level.

Sayaka was a good mother despite giving birth to Setsuko at only 18 years old, but one day in 1985 Setsuko found her mother dead - doctors determined it was poisoning. That same year, Setsuko was adopted by the Nagano family, whose name she took.

After a moment, Setsuko sobered up and returned to her conversation with Soichi, looked at the guards, and inquired about other inaccuracies in the murder of his brother and his family.

After finishing the interview, Setsuko realized that perhaps Hireikan could have been behind the killings; it was, after all, a very prestigious high school, and the potential corruption scandal that could have been linked to Masashige Shimoda, and the moral scandal associated with students including her mother could be a reason why they were killed, but also she felt that this could be ridicoulous at first thought.
A few days later, Setsuko went to Hirei Academy (Hireikan).

It was a prestigious men's high school with exaggeratedly strict discipline, the interior was richly decorated, unlike average high schools, even private ones, and the building was architecturally built in the Art Nouveau style.

The principal - a man in his mid-60s, serving as principal since 1985 - reluctantly agreed to an interview with Shimoda.

- Greetings, Nagano-san.

- Good afternoon, Uesaka-san.

Uesaka, with a fake smile, went straight to the point.

- Do you have questions about the Shimoda Masashige-san murder investigation?

It's a tough case, I personally doubt his brother's guilt, although he had a motive - jealousy, sometimes such uncontrolled jealousy can have lamentable consequences.

- How many people are still alive from the 3-E class of 1972?

Uesaka was shocked by this information, he felt that Hireikan might be facing some kind of scandal related to this.

-But what are you talking about?

You're not accusing us of ordering Shimoda's murder, are you? Your newspaper won't print that!

- Eiji Kujou, 45 - committed suicide on February 15, 1999, but his family completely rejected such a possibility, so he may have been blackmailed.

Shouya Hirabayashi, 45, died in a car accident on February 9, 1999, a large amount of sleeping pills were detected in his blood, in addition, his car was sabotaged.

Hana Matsuda-Montclair, 45 - her death admittedly did not take place in Japan, but in Canada, but like the previous deaths I listed
were connected to Hirei Academy's class 3-E from 1972.
In addition to them, Sayaka Iwaita, a former student of Class 3-E in 1972, was poisoned in 1984.

The principal felt uncomfortable, but had something to defend himself, took a deep breath and looked into Setsuko's eyes.

- You are right, someone is hunting for students of that class, however, my predecessor - Susumu Kano, also died, it was in 1984.

Hirei Academy is not responsible for the deaths of those students, if a text is published blaming us for Shimoda's death you, as well as your editors, can expect a lawsuit.

Setsuko felt the bitterness of defeat, she did not know about Kano's death, his death, however, could still be linked to that class.

- In that case, can you provide me with data on the 3-E class of 1972?

- Unfortunately, the students' data is confidential, even if I wanted to I couldn't help you.

Do you have any other questions? Which are related to the memory of Shimoda Masashige-san?

Setsuko wondered and felt irritated, there was no indication of Soichi Shimoda's innocence, but she was aware that these deaths must have had something to do with each other, some single event from the past that must have been covered up - most likely by Hireikan, but... - then an idea formed in Setsuko's mind that not only Hireikan might have cared about covering up the case, by eliminating witnesses.

- Did something happen between 1969 and 1972 by which these people might have been killed?

Uesaka felt sicker at the thought of what happened then.
He was sweating and felt something choking in his stomach, stared dully at the ceiling, then tried to maintain normal eye contact with Setsuko.

- Excuse me... I'm going to go to the restroom for a while...

In fact, Uesaka had not returned - this way he avoided the question of what happened then, the truth was that Uesaka had also witnessed the events, as he was a teacher at Hireikan during that period.

After Uesaka did not return after an hour, Setsuko decided that he had already finished the interview and left.

In the evening, while at her apartment, she took another look at Shimoda's case.

"It's impossible to defend him, if anyone wanted to frame him, he did it perfectly, everything points to him, even the motive agrees, and yet his lawyer still defended him – like he was geniuenly believing in his innocence"
Setsuko read more about the case, as well as about Soichi Shimoda's attorney - he was Touji Miyanaga, a lawyer with a good reputation - on common sense this case would have damaged his career but he decided to defend him, plus Soichi Shimoda was not one of the people who could afford such a good lawyer.
Nagano delved into more information about Toujie Miyanagi, and didn't find much about him on the Internet, but discovered that he was born in 1953.

"Impossible... could he... Could it be that he was also a student of Hireikan?"

At this point Setsuko found what she needed most - a living graduate of Hirei Academy's 3-E class, who was from the class of 1971-1972.

This was a personal matter for her - since there was a very high probability that the murder of her mother Sayaka Iwaita was connected to other deaths of Class 3-E graduates from the Class of 1972, finally, after 14 years there was any chance of finding out the truth.