In a back corridor on the east side of the theater, Kagari hopped down a series of three, wide stairs to the next landing above a much longer staircase, which led farther down into a basement annex beside the stage. Having previously investigated this section of the theater for human stragglers, he was familiar with the corridor and the row of vending machines tucked away in a shadowy side passage.

Hands pressed against the glass, he looked over the sweets and tried to decide what was more appealing to him. His stomach grumbled in anticipation. Unable to make up his mind, he peered closer as if proximity might assist his choice. "Can't believe the Inspectors took the easy job of going through the preserved relics and sent the rest of us on a wild goose hunt," he complained on a secured channel.

"That's what hounds are for," Kogami replied. "I doubt they'll find anything. Someone would have noticed before those antiques were put in their display cases."

"Makes sense, but this is like looking for a needle in a hay field. Forget the stack."

"Kagari, I meant to ask you. That video game you played: Silent Redemption? How did it end?"

"Wasn't easy, let me tell you. I'm not one of those gamers who races through the quest content as fast as possible, just so I can finish the damn game. I'm a devoted completionist," he boasted. "If there's a side quest that pops up, I'm on it."

"I don't need a strategy guide," Kogami complained. "Did you ever finish it?"

"Hell yeah, I finished it. Once you knew what you needed to find in order to get your revenge, all you had to do was guide the living to the item to unlock the clue. Once you had all the items and the clues, justice was swift; revenge was sweet; and redemption was had. No more earthbound spirit. It was time to head into the light."

"Now that Gorou isn't here to hinder them, you'd think Asura Rai or Kazuya would have led us to whatever it is holding them here."

"Maybe they have, and we just weren't listening. It's very frustrating trying to get the living to understand your needs without scaring them away entirely. That's what made the game so challenging." His eyes widened in delight. "Ah, strawberry pocky—you are all mine!" He put his money into the coin slot.

"Are there any chocolate ones?"

"Yeah, want some?"

"Not for me. Akane must be starving. The call for this case came in at what? Midmorning? I wasn't paying attention at the time."

Kagari laughed at Kogami's subtle joke about being semi-unconscious in the medical bay. At Ginoza's insistence, the team physician had to use stimulants to bring him around to reality. Tucking the candy boxes in his pocket, he returned to the main corridor with a stick of pocky in his mouth and trotted down the final staircase to a back exit, but the security gate was down.

"Still not getting out through there. This whole nightmare is like being stuck in a video game where you have to beat all 100 levels before you can wake up and go home. Tsk!"

Grumbling under his breath, Kagari ran back up the steps to the landing. A young woman with black hair and dressed in a white gown ran passed him. She smiled pleasantly at the startled Enforcer and continued down the flight into the lower corridor. A chill followed after her, and Kagari could see his breath as a mist in the frigid air.

"Ko?"

There was no answer.

As he turned to follow her, Kagari tapped his wristcom. "Kogami?"

Still, there was no answer.

Kagari opened communication to all channels. "Can anybody hear me? I think I'm about to have a close encounter of the paranormal kind." He slowly started back down the stairs. "I should have taken that bathroom break when Ginoza suggested it. How embarrassing would it be if I wet my pants?"

Drawing his Dominator, Kagari descended the stairs into the exit corridor. It was a dead end, but there was no one, no apparition there. He brought up the floor diagram and switched to the temperature filter. He was standing directly inside the vortex of a mass of cold air.

"Well, isn't that my dumb luck," he whispered, chewing at his pocky. Head turned over his shoulder to watch the corridor behind him, he unholstered his Dominator and returned to the steps to make his way back up the stairs to the landing.

When he turned to look where he was going, Asura Rai was standing nose to nose with him. She smiled and gently tapped him on the nose.

With a scream that was an octave higher than his pride thought possible, Kagari fell backwards. He was fully airborne, four feet up, hands and feet flailing in the air as he hit the carpeted floor. The fall knocked the wind out of him. "Hide and seek with a ghost? How unfair is that?"

Kagari sat up and saw the pocky box sitting between his legs. As he reached for them, the floor creaked beneath him. "Oh, don't tell me!" It buckled under his weight, and he fell another seven feet to the dirt floor below.

With the wind knocked out of him for a second time, he gasped to catch his breath as he rolled in pain. Narrowly missing his head, his Dominator fell through the trapdoor behind him. He reached for the weapon and quickly waved it back and forth in the darkness, but the Dominator indicated no presences.

"Kagari!" Kogami yelled from above him.

"Get some light down here. I don't see any obvious power sources." Kagari groaned as he slowly sat up and crossed his legs.

"Gino," Kogami said, "Kagari found some sort of hidden room. Bring lights and a ladder." Kogami put his Dominator in its holster and jumped down through the trapdoor to check on Kagari. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, but my pocky isn't," he said. The opened box had dumped its contents on the dirt floor beneath him.

Taking out his flashlight, Kogami slowly surveyed the room. He coughed, his throat aggravated by the dust that had been disturbed by their intrusion.

"Thanks," Kagari said, as Kogami offered a hand to get him on his feet. Taking out his own flashlight, he scanned the darkness. A painted white face abruptly appeared in the light and frightened him. With a scream, he stumbled back onto the debris from the floor and tripped over Kogami. Both men fell to the floor in a tangled heap.

Kogami trained the Dominator and his flashlight on the elaborate costume swinging ominously from a hook attached to the low ceiling. "You have something against kabuki masks?"

"They remind me of clowns," Kagari whispered.

"You're afraid of clowns?"

"Isn't everybody!" Brushing the dust from his pants, he got to his feet. "So much for Akane's pocky." He shook the crushed box and tossed into a dark corner.

"Kogami! Kagari!" Akane shouted from the trap door. "Are you alright?"

"We're good," Kogami replied. "Just blind. And might need a clean set of pants."

"What!" Kagari quickly checked himself to see if he had accidentally wet himself in the fall and subsequent scare. Finding everything in order, he glared at Kogami for the rude comment. "I really hate you sometimes."

"Hate is such a strong word, Kagari." Kogami pushed the kabuki mask and costume from side to side to agitate the younger man.

"Kogami." Akane appeared at the trapdoor and handed a lamp to him through the opening. She handed another to Kagari. "Yayoi took these from the stage. That should be more than enough light." Turning around, she put one foot into the emptiness and got down on one knee.

"What are you doing?" Kogami asked.

"Giving us a nice view," Kagari said. He turned the light on and stared up her skirt.

"Kagari, you're incorrigible." Akane struggled to balance on the edge of the opening. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm coming down there with you."

"Don't you think it would be a good idea to let us clear the room first?" Kogami positioned himself beneath her.

"If nothing's jumped out at you by now," she reasoned, "I think we're safe." She gasped in surprised as she felt his hands on her thighs. The Enforcer carefully positioned her on his shoulder. "Kogami, be careful. Your back?"

"It's not like your falling on top of me this time," he replied. "Just don't move around too much."

Akane held onto his neck as he brought her safely to the ground. She frowned when he winced in pain and cautiously arced his back in response to the sudden muscle spasms. While he massaged the muscles in the small of his back, she gently ran her fingers over the cuts on his face. "I'm going to see to it that you get a well deserved vacation for this."

"On a beach. At night. Under fireworks?"

Akane blushed even as she smiled. She gently tugged at his tie. "I'll see what I can arrange."

"Hey, you two. Get a room," Kagari said. He set up the lights and turned them on, directing the illumination into opposite corners of the ceiling. "Have a look at this."

"This looks like the original basement." Kogami examined the wall and rubbed his hand across the black scoring that marred the top of the stone and mortar foundation. "Scorch marks from the fire that Gorou set?"

"This must have been where they stored their costumes," Akane said, looking over the racks of dully colored gowns, elaborate apparel, and accessories.

"This room is not on any of the floor plans," Yayoi said. After coming down the ladder, she stepped aside and held it securely for Masaoka. "I doubt Director Nagano even knew it was here."

"Like finding a treasure trove in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean," Masaoka said.

"This cellar is in an almost perfect state of preservation." Yayoi carefully thumbed through a leather-bound journal stacked on a pile of wooden crates.

"Find anything interesting?" Kagari asked. He was juggling a set of colorful balls that he had found on a shelf. Occasionally tossing one beneath his leg, he grinned until Kogami intentionally bumped into him, and he dropped them.

"The original theater director, Daiko Nagano, kept meticulous notes on anything that had to do with the Kurouma Theatre, or the Kurouma Inn and Playhouse, as it was known back then. He even saved newspaper clippings and bulletins from the era. These last entries are intriguing."

"What do they say?" Ginoza asked. "Any clues on how to end this?"

"Nagano documents what happened to his daughter and Kazuya after their deaths." She glanced up from the journal with a doleful expression. "The Emperor's men were not kind. Kazuya's body was hung on a wagon and paraded through the village as an example of what happens when you dare to steal the Emperor's gold or kill his soldiers."

"Go on," Ginoza said when she paused.

"As punishment for harboring a criminal, Nagano was denied the right to bury his daughter. The bodies were loaded onto the wagon and taken from town. The villagers helped Nagano search for them, but he suspected they were buried in a mass grave that was left unmarked and unconsecrated."

"Well, that's not going to help us," Ginoza said.

"Yeah, but this might. Kogami, give me a hand here." Masaoka moved aside some old boards and building materials. He gently picked up the corner of a dusty sheet and shook the white cloth as he pulled it from over the object it covered.

"Looks like a family altar," Kogami replied. "What do you have in mind, pops?"

"It's a butsudan. Unusual to find it here, as they are usually passed down from one generation to the next. If the Nagano clan was so into preserving artifacts, you'd think this would have gotten a place of honor along with the other historical relics."

"Not if they didn't know it was here," Kogami said.

"That's my point. Daiko Nagano was denied the right to bury his daughter," Masaoka said, "and the man responsible for putting his theater on the map. So he did the next best thing." Reverently, Masaoka opened the doors of the altar and removed two small leather satchels.

"What are those?" Kagari asked in wonderment.

"Pilgrim bags, usually placed with the deceased to help them on their journey to the afterlife." Masaoka handed one of the bags to Kogami.

Kogami carefully opened the beaded bag and removed a lock of long black hair and a bamboo wedding ring that were bound together by a leather cord. He looked over to Masaoka who held a shorter lock of black hair and a matching, more masculine style of the ring. "They weren't just lovers, they were married."

"There's a marriage certificate in the back of this journal to confirm it," Yayoi said. She tilted the journal up to show them.

"They were married in secret," Akane said, "and didn't wear their rings to keep the fact hidden. No wonder Gorou thought he had a chance."

"Kagari, how did you find this place?" Yayoi asked.

"I literally stumbled on to it," Kagari said, laughing. "Asura Rai led me right to it."

"This is what we've been looking for, folks," Masaoka said. "A way to put this case and the ghosts to rest forever." He turned to them with a smile. "We need to hold a funeral."

Ginoza's eyes narrowed sharply, his fury evident as he shoved the glasses sternly up the bridge of his nose. "And how exactly do you plan to have a funeral while we're trapped here in this theater?"

"Everything we need to do the rite is already here, Inspector. What can it hurt to give it a try?"

Ginoza sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes before he climbed the ladder out of the cellar. "We have nothing else, so get on with it."

"Kogami and Kagari, you take the butsudan to the stage. Inspector Tsunemori and Yayoi, there's a few items I need you to help me collect. With any luck, this will all be over in less than an hour."

# # #

Masaoka set up the ceremonial shrine on the stage and covered the back of it with a white sheet. The rest of Division 1 were busy scouring the theater to find the appropriate items to help complete the butsudan's re-enshrinement in preparation for the funerary ritual.

Akane brought a vase of red roses and water from one of the dressing rooms. Remaining in pairs for safety, Yayoi went with her and picked up a supply of candles, their holders, and incense.

Ginoza returned from the theater's small kitchen with a freshly cooked bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks. "Want to explain what this is for? Do ghosts eat?"

"You were raised better than that, Inspector," Masaoka said with a smirk. He took the steaming rice and placed the chopsticks upright in the bowl. "There's a reason people don't do this in their homes. It's bad luck. But to the dead, it is a sign from the living that their time has passed and that it's time to move on." Taking a warm cup of sake from Kogami, he placed it in front of the shrine beside the rice. "Good work, Ko."

"We're doing all of this to repay a debt," Yayoi said. "By respecting the memories of the dead and all they did while they were alive, we may be able to send them to their final rest. Mr. Masaoka, we're ready."

"Do you know what you're doing, pops?" Kagari asked.

"When you get to be my age, Kagari, you'll have been to enough funerals to know the ropes." He pulled the white sheet down over the altar.

"We just spent all that time getting it ready," Kagari complained. "You're going to just cover it up?"

"The sheet keeps out impure spirits." He laid the utility knife on top of of the sheet. "This will guard against evil ones." Masaoka pulled a bracelet of ojuzu beads from his wrist. "Now to begin. The first rite is Water of the Last Moment, where the lips of the deceased are moistened."

"Without the bodies, how do you possibly hope to accomplish that?" Ginoza said.

Masaoka turned to Kogami and Akane. "Our ghosts seem rather attracted to you two. Care to do the honors?"

Kogami frowned. "What hell does that mean, pops?"

"A kiss, you idiot," Kagari said, "and not just a peck on the cheek either."

Kogami bristled aggressively until he saw the coy smile that came to Akane's face. He resigned himself to do whatever she asked of him. For appearances, he pretended to resist the idea. After the abuse suffered over the course of the last 48 hours, a single kiss from her was payment enough. She took his hand and led him to the front of the shrine.

"You look nervous, Mr. Kogami." Akane held onto the collar of his jacket with both hands to keep him from escaping.

Bowing his head in resignation, Kogami cut his eyes in the direction of their colleagues who were watching them. "You sure about this?"

"I'm sure." Akane put her hand on his face to block them out. "Remember that night on the beach in Los Angeles?" she whispered. "We never got to finish what we started." She stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

Aroused by the touch of her lips, Kogami felt his back stiffen. He resisted at first, but there was no denying Akane's warmth or his feelings for her. Keeping his hands at his sides, he leaned into her and enjoyed the scent of her and the taste of her lips. The warmth of her breath on his face was intoxicating.

"Wow!" Kagari said as the two parted. "Wo-wow!" He went silent, his mouth gaping in a round o-shape as Kogami snatched the Dominator from its holster and pointed it at him.

"Crime Coefficient over 200. Target is a registered Enforcer. Status: Enforce at will. The trigger safety is now released. Aim calmly and subdue the target."

"One more syllable, if you even grunt, I will shoot you."

"Kogami!" Akane pulled his arm down and took the Dominator from him. Her tone was stern, but the smile on her face betrayed her genuine feelings. "Don't ruin the moment."

"That's enough of that." Masaoka handed Kogami and Akane the pilgrim bags. "Given the circumstances, I think the two of you should do the honors. This isn't the usual ritual, but we're in an unusual situation."

"What are we supposed to do, Mr. Masaoka?" Akane asked. "Burn them?"

"That's right, missy. Need your lighter, Ko. Light the pilgrim bags and place them in this urn."

Kogami retrieved the lighter from his pocket and lit one corner of the pilgrim bag. Satisfied that it would continue to burn, he dropped it into the urn and then gave the lighter to Akane. She lit the corner of her bag and dropped it in the urn with the other. Flames rose from the ceramic urn as the small fire consumed the items.

"Compassionate Ones, let not the force of your compassion be weak, but aid them." Masaoka respectfully took the urn back to the altar and set it down in front of it. "Let these spirits not go on in this miserable state of existence. Forget not your ancient vows."

Bowing deeply in respect, Masaoka pulled the whiskey flask from his breast pocket and placed it in front of the urn. With a final bow, he walked to the side of the stage and motioned for the others to follow his example.

"I was saving these for later," Kagari groused. Yayoi gave him a shove, and he reluctantly put a small bag of candy gummies beside the urn and bowed.

Yayoi bowed and placed a crystalline bottle of pink nail polish beside the candy. Following behind her, Ginoza bowed respectfully and placed 12 coins on the floor before the altar.

Akane reached for the ribbon in her hair. Reluctantly undoing the intricate love knot, she wrapped it around her fingers and placed it at the base of the urn with a solemn bow.

"Asura Rai spoke to me when she gave me her ribbon," Akane said. "Do you want to know what she said?" Tears shining in her eyes, she turned to face Kogami. "Death is inevitable. Every rose withers, then dies and fades away like dust, but never true love. She said true love was like drowning in fire." Wiping a tear from her face, Akane looked away from him. "She's right."

Akane lightly brushed against him as she walked by to join the others. Kogami knelt down and surveyed the gifts given in tribute to the dead lovers. He looked at the lighter in his hand, and quietly placed it among the offerings. Standing up, he bowed in respect for a love cut too short. Hands in his pockets, he joined his colleagues on the side of the stage.

The members of Division 1 stood in silence for several minutes. Looking between the shrine on the stage and the security gate in the back of the auditorium, they waited for some sign of success.

"So what happens now?" Ginoza asked.

"Isn't there supposed to be some flash of light or a gust of wind?" Kagari looked around the auditorium for some noticeable difference in the theater, but found none.

"Kunizaka, a report."

"There're still here," Yayoi said. "Or so these temperature radiants suggest. They're right here on stage with us. Both vortexes are centered on the shrine."

"Well, that was a complete waste of our time," Ginoza complained. "Get back out there. We've evidently missed something. Something important. Find it."

"Where do you go when you close your eyes?"

"Kogami?" Akane tugged at his sleeve. "You have a strange look on your face."

"Remember when Director Nagano mentioned something about a lost song? Kazuya did write one last song, a song for Asura Rai, that would have completed his play. He was supposed to give it to her the night that she died."

"Now that's what I call unfinished business," Kagari said. "If we can find that song, we can end this and send them to their final rest."

The ear-splitting report of a musket fire erupted in Kogami's head. Reeling from the psychic blast, he fell to his knees. Hands grasping at his head, he writhed in agony on the stage floor. The bruises on his chest burned as if the wounds were freshly sustained from the bullets that took Kazuya's life that fateful day on the road.

"Kogami!" Akane cried frantically. "What's wrong?"

The pain slowly subsided, but Kogami remained doubled over on the stage. On his hands and knees, head bowed to the floor, he could see and hear the last moments of Kazuya's life replayed before him. The gunshots. The fall from the galloping horse. Asura Rai's father at his side. The desperate need to fulfill a promise.

"Kagari, you are a genius," Kogami said.

"I am?"

"Asura Rai led you to the cellar, but not because she or Kazuya needed a proper funeral. It was a clue to lead us to what they really need to cross over."

"If it wasn't a proper funeral, Ko? Then what do they want?" Masaoka asked.

Kogami met the older Enforcer's eyes and those of his colleagues. "Kazuya tried to show it to me, but I wasn't listening. I didn't understand at the time."

"Was that the sign that nearly killed you when you fell off the piano platform?" Ginoza sneered.

"That was to get my attention."

"What was Kazuya trying to reveal to you?" Akane asked.

"The sword," Kogami whispered. Unsteadily, he got to his feet, ignoring Akane's commands to be still and Ginoza's inquiries for an explanation, and made his way to the back of the auditorium into Nagano's office where it all began.

Unzipping his jacket, Kogami shrugged out of it and wrapped the thick fabric around his fist for protection. He hesitated in front the display case housing Kazuya's rapier and recalled how the blade rattled against the glass just before Gorou attacked Akane in the auditorium. The manifestation was both a sign of what needed to be done and a warning. Focusing his strength, he punched the glass. It cracked audibly, but held against him.

"Kogami, what are you doing?" Akane demanded.

Kogami slammed his fist into the case again, this time leaning into the punch. The glass began to fragment. "The answer to this ghost story was here the entire time." He continued to strike the case until the glass shattered.

Using the protection of his jacket, he ripped out the jagged fragments until he had access to the rapier. He retrieved the sword from the ruined display case and examined the blade. The tarnish near the hilt slowly disintegrated beneath his fingers and revealed the etching beneath: Where do you go when you close your eyes?

Turning his attention to the hilt, Kogami laid the rapier on Nagano's desk. He used a letter opener to tear at the ornate padding around the hilt. Though aged, it did not readily give, and he was forced to apply more pressure until the fabric tore and came loose in his hands. Carefully unwrapping it, he rubbed his fingers over the exposed metal tang.

Showing the engraved phrase to Akane, Kogami read the line on the blade, "Where do you go when you close your eyes?" He pointed to the etching on the tang. "I go with you."

"What does it mean, Kogami?" Akane asked, as their colleagues joined them.

"You wanted to know what song has been running through my head. This whole time it was Kazuya's lost song. The one he wrote just for her."

Turning his attention to the ruined padding of the hilt, Kogami gently unrolled the weathered sheepskin and the fragile vellum preserved beneath it. He opened it and found the complete score of handwritten music and lyrics that Kazuya had written on the day of Asura Rai's death.

Akane read the title, "One Breath Apart? It's as if he knew what was going to happen to them."

"This completes his musical—"

Outside in the auditorium the distinct sound of the security gate retracting into the ceiling reverberated throughout the chamber. "You did it, Ko!" Kagari yelled.

Yayoi's lips showed the faintest hint of a smile as she checked the floor diagram from the first to the third floors of the theater. "Temperatures are normalizing throughout the theater. There are no pockets of excessive heat or extreme cold. No variations outside of a five-degree differential. Nice work, Kogami."

"Outside, everyone!" Ginoza ordered. "Before these so-called phantoms change their minds."

Kogami watched his colleagues eagerly fleeing the confines of the auditorium, but he felt no need to escape. Akane remained at his side, and he thought to tell her to leave with the others. Before he could say anything, she took his hand and smiled up at him as she laid her head against his shoulder.

Together, hand in hand, they walked down to the front of the auditorium, over bits of broken glass and quartz, to the piano platform. Kogami laid the vellum on the piano and sat down with Akane beside him. Looking at the music, he read the notes, but knew them by heart. He hummed the melody as his fingers moved effortlessly over the keys.

One Breath Apart was a defiant requiem to a love that death could not sever. Above the notes, he could hear Kazuya's voice: "Where do you go when you close yours eyes? Are you dreaming of me, while I stay behind? Lost in you, I am not afraid; but I cannot rise and fly on my scorched and broken wings, not without you."

Kogami felt Akane's hot tears falling on his shoulder, penetrating the fabric of his shirt.

"Until death, we are one breath apart. No matter the distance. Can you feel my breath on your face as I kiss you from a distant lonely place. Where do you go when you close your eyes?

Wherever you go...I go with you."

"So it's true," Nagano said from the center aisle. "When Inspector Ginoza told me that you had found the lost song, I didn't believe it."

"Director Nagano?" Akane hurriedly tried to dry the tears in her eyes.

"Please, Inspector Tsunemori, there is no more appropriate place for tears than here in this theater, especially given its history." He handed her a handkerchief with his initials monogrammed on the corner. "When my security alarms went off, I was alerted some hours ago. But for reasons I am only now beginning to understand, we could not get into the building. So I called the MWPSB. The street outside looks like a war zone. You've had quite the adventure, and I say that I am envious."

"Don't be," Kogami said. "It was an adventure, and I've got the scars to prove it." He pointed to his face. Holding Akane's hand as they stepped down from the platform, Kogami carefully handed the parchment to the director, who stood awestruck. "You'll be wanting this."

Nagano hesitated, hands trembling, and took the parchment from him. "Do you know what this find is worth?"

"To the man who wrote it and the woman he loved? There's no measurable price. Preserve it with the others. Now you can finally share Kazuya's play with the generations. The Kurouma Theatre curse is broken."

"There's also a hidden room in the back that's virtually untouched from the time when the theater was an inn," Akane said. "Who knows what other treasures might be uncovered."

"My family, both past and future, are deeply in your debt, Mr. Kogami." Nagano bowed in the greatest posture of respect.

Akane's wristcom alerted her to an incoming message. "Tsunemori."

"Inspector," Ginoza said, "I could use your help out here coordinating the scene."

"Right! On my way!" Akane quickly bowed to Nagano. "I wish you well with the production, Director Nagano." She hurried to the back of the auditorium. Kogami thought he heard her sneezing in the foyer.

"It's taboo to speak of luck in the theater business," Nagano said. "So I will call this sudden turn of events a good break." He smiled at Kogami's confusion. "I made a few calls about your offer to stand in until I can find a replacement for my pianist. When Mr. Kurosawa heard your name and that I wanted you to play for the production, he was delighted and volunteered to make the necessary calls personally. You have powerful friends, Mr. Kogami, and now you have another." He offered his hand in friendship.

"Good to know," Kogami replied awkwardly, accepting his handshake.

"Over dinner, my treat of course, you must regale me with the events of this evening." Nagano's voice was cracked and quivered slightly with emotion. "You are forever a part of this company, now, all of you, and you will never find the door closed."

Kogami left Nagano at the piano. The delicate notes of Kazuya's song could be heard softly played by the man until he was overcome with emotion and could play no longer. In the empty shell of the auditorium, the melody echoed through the room, but there was no audience to hear it. Asura Rai and Kurnan Kazuya were no longer present. When Kogami left, closing the door behind him, Nagano was truly all alone.

It was raining outside. The buildings and sidewalks were glistening. Kogami turned his face to the sky and let the cold rain run over his face. His sinuses were clear for the first time in hours, and he took a deep breath, savoring the pungent scent of the rain. It soaked through his shirt, which clung to his skin, but he didn't mind. After the night's experience, he had a much deeper appreciation for life, even as a latent criminal.

Nagano was right to describe the scene outside the theater as a war zone. Fire trucks and a dozen other emergency vehicles from the city authority and the MWPSB were on scene. Red and blue lights flashed intermittently with an intensity that was magnified by the rain. In the chaos, he saw Kagari, Masaoka, and Kunizaka coordinating the drones to set up a perimeter.

"Kogami!" Ginoza said. "We're all good here. Use my car and take Inspector Tsunemori back to headquarters."

"What's wrong with Akane?"

"Seems she's coming down with a cold." Ginoza glared at him, shoving his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I hope that's all you've given her. I'd hate to see her follow you down that dark path. Check her into medical and schedule yourself for a re-evaluation."

Kogami saluted half-heartedly and made his way to the car that was parked in front of the paddy wagon. He opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. Akane sat across from him, her head resting against the headrest. In the dimness, he could see the faintest sheen of perspiration shining on her skin. Her cheeks were flushed, and the tip of her nose was a brilliant red. He draped his jacket over her and reached for the seat belt to secure her for the drive to headquarters.

She stirred restlessly. "Kogami?"

The Enforcer leaned over her and softly kissed her forehead. "Where do you go when you close your eyes?" he whispered.

Akane smiled and laid her head on his shoulder. "I go with you."