The rain over Hibiya Park had stopped, leaving the world slick and black. The crashed maintenance van sat smoking against the trunk of a ginkgo tree, its front grill crumpled like paper.
Kenji Sano stood by the driver's side door, the beam of his flashlight cutting through the steam rising from the radiator. He didn't touch the van. He was waiting for the bomb squad, his chest heaving from the adrenaline of the chase.
"Thermal imaging is clear.." Manjiro said, lowering the handheld scanner. "No explosives. No heat signatures inside. It's just a decoy, Kenji. He dumped the van and switched vehicles."
"It's not just a decoy!" Kenji murmured, staring through the shattered window at the passenger seat. "It's a mailbox."
Sitting on the worn fabric of the passenger seat, perfectly untouched by the violence of the crash, was a small, wrapped parcel. It was wrapped in indigo furoshiki cloth, tied with a precise, traditional knot.
Pinned to the cloth was a card.
To Detective Sano.
"He knew you would be the one to open the door." Manjiro whispered, a flicker of unease crossing his face. "He's watching us, Kenji."
"Clear the area." Kenji ordered the uniformed officers who were setting up the perimeter tape. "I'm retrieving the package."
"Kenji, wait for forensics...."
"Forensics will take two hours. We don't have two hours. The Judge is out there."
Kenji reached into the van, avoiding the glass shards. He carefully untied the knot, his movements slow and deliberate. The cloth fell away, revealing a book.
It wasn't a modern paperback. It was an old, leather-bound volume, the spine cracked from years of use.
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai.
Kenji picked it up. It felt heavy, substantial. Tucked inside the pages, wedged between the chapters on honor and death, was a sleek, black burner phone.
As soon as Kenji's skin touched the plastic of the phone, the screen lit up.
It began to ring.
The sound was jarring in the silent park. Brrring. Brrring.
Manjiro reached for his weapon reflexively. "Trace it. I'll get the tech team to..."
"No time." Kenji said. He stared at the screen. UNKNOWN CALLER.
He pressed answer and put the phone to his ear. He didn't speak. He listened.
For a moment, there was only silence. Then, a sound. The soft, rhythmic breathing of a man who was perfectly calm.
"Detective Sano." the voice spoke. It was deep, filtered through a digital scrambler that stripped away any identifying cadence, leaving only a metallic, ghostly vibration.
"You drive well. Aggressive. But you hesitate at the turns."
"Where is Judge Tanaka?" Kenji demanded, his voice echoing in the empty park. He signaled Manjiro to start the trace on his own tablet, though he knew it was likely futile.
"The Judge is currently reviewing his case," the voice said, sounding almost amused.
"He has been very... talkative. He admits to the bribes. He admits to the dismissed lawsuits. He admits that the law is a flexible thing for men of his stature."
"He is a human being." Kenji snapped.
"Bring him in. We can prosecute him. If he confessed to you, we can use that."
A low, dry chuckle crackled through the speaker.
"Prosecute? You tried that, Detective. And he dismissed the case. The law is a garden, Sano. And when weeds choke the flowers, you do not ask the weeds to leave. You pull them out."
"You're not a gardener." Kenji said, gripping the phone tight enough to whiten his knuckles. "You're a butcher. You boiled a man alive in a hotel room. You burned a man in a field. There is no honor in that. That is sadism."
"Is it?" The voice lost its robotic cool for a second, a flash of cold, hard steel bleeding through. "Was there honor when Kurosawa burned the barns? Was there honor when Takeda stole the tax money to buy his silence? You call me a butcher because I show you the blood. But they... they bleed the city dry in secret, and you call them leaders."
"I don't call them leaders," Kenji argued. "I call them suspects. But I don't kill them."
"That is why you fail." the voice said simply. "You believe the system can be fixed. I believe it must be purified."
"Who are you?" Kenji asked. "What do you want?"
"I am the Verdict." the voice said. "I am the consequence that they thought would never come."
"Tell me where he is.." Kenji shouted, losing his patience. "If you kill a High Court Judge, there is no coming back. The entire force, the National Police Agency, the military - they will hunt you down. You will not survive this."
"I died a long time ago, Detective. A Ronin does not fear death. He fears only a life without purpose."
"The sun rises at 5:14 AM." the voice continued, softer now. "The Judge has until the first light touches the earth to repent. But do not mistake my patience for mercy."
"Mercy?"
"He is already planted, Detective. The soil is packed. The saw is waiting."
Kenji froze. Planted.
"You're going to kill him." Kenji whispered.
"I am going to let the city kill him." the killer corrected. "I have set the stage. I have placed the tool. When the sun rises, the citizens of Tokyo will see the Judge as he truly is. Helpless. Buried by his own lies."
"Where?" Kenji demanded. "Which park? Tell me!"
"You are the detective," the voice mocked. "Read the book I left you. The answer is in the code. If you are fast, you might witness the verdict. But you cannot stop it."
Click. The line went dead.
"Did we get it?" Kenji spun to Manjiro.
Manjiro lowered his tablet, shaking his head, his face grim. "VOIP call. Bounced through servers in Russia, China, and Brazil. He's a ghost, Kenji."
Kenji looked down at the book in his hand. The Hagakure.
He opened it. The pages were filled with handwritten notes in the margins. Red ink. The handwriting was jagged, angry.
"He said the answer is in the code,"
Kenji flipped through the pages. "Flashlight."
Manjiro shone his light on the book.
Kenji scanned the highlighted passages.
Page 14: "The Way of the Samurai is found in death."
Page 32: "It is bad when one thing becomes two."
Page 65: "There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment."
"It's a manifesto." Manjiro said. "He's justifying the murders with philosophy."
"No." Kenji flipped to the back. A folded piece of paper fell out.
It was a map. An old, hand-drawn map of the Minato district. But it wasn't the modern layout. It was the layout from the Edo period.
"This is where we are." Kenji pointed to the spot marked 'Hibiya'. "But look at the red line."
A thick line of pine-soot ink was drawn from the crash site. It led south. It crossed the district line and ended at a specific location.
A park. But not just any park.
"Shiba Park," Kenji whispered.
"Shiba Park?" Manjiro blinked. "That's right next to the Tokyo Tower. It's huge."
"Look at what's next to it." Kenji pointed to a symbol on the map. "Zojoji Temple. The family temple of the Tokugawa Shogunate."
Kenji looked up, his eyes wide with realization.
"He's taking the Judge to the Shogun's graveyard," Kenji said. "He wants to execute him in front of the spirits of the old rulers."
"And the Tokyo Tower is right there." Manjiro added. "It's the most visible spot in the city. If he buries him there..."
"Then the whole city watches," Kenji finished.
Kenji looked at his watch. 04:15 AM.
"The sun rises in one hour." Kenji slammed the book shut. "He said the Judge is already planted. That means he's buried up to his neck, waiting for the saw."
"We can make it.." Manjiro said, already running for the car. "We can save him."
Kenji followed, but a cold dread settled in his stomach. The killer's voice hadn't sounded like a man who was gambling. It sounded like a man who had already won.
He is already planted.
As they scrambled back to the vehicle, Kenji looked at the eastern sky. It was beginning to lighten, bleeding purple into the black.
"Drive, Manjiro." Kenji growled. "Drive like hell."
The engine roared to life. As they sped away from the decoy van, Kenji clutched the burner phone in his hand.
The Shogun had made contact. The game of cat and mouse was over. Now, it was a race against the sun.
Chapter 10 Ends - Sunrise awaits!!