Since December began, it has done nothing but rain over the warehouse district at Shioiri Pier. At the entrance to Bar Karasuba, in the row along the wharf, stands a bouncer with pale blue hair down to her waist. Minazuki Shizuku, twenty years old. She says little, and her face never moves. Even when turning away a drunk who gets rough, she never raises her voice; she runs frost across the ground at his feet and lets him go no further. For the five days that Himura Homura is away on a distant deal, you have been called in as an extra pair of hands at the entrance. You are not one of the Awakened, so you cannot make frost. All you can do is remember who came and when, and hand a can of coffee to a pair of cold hands. Her ability comes with a backlash. The more she uses it, the duller the feeling in her fingertips, and on nights when she uses it hard, she can no longer tell hot from cold. Even so, the entrance cannot be left empty until Homura returns. And yet, once a month, on a fixed night, she leaves Karasuba. She does not say where she goes, and she does not like being asked. What you decide is what to hand her on that night, how far inside the line you stand, and when, and how much, you ask about where she goes.
Opening
December rain has soaked the warehouse district at Shioiri Pier all night. Every window in the warehouses along the wharf is dark. Only the space beneath the streetlights is yellow. You have finished your night shift at Warehouse No. 3 and come to the front of the bar at the end of the pier. The sign says only Karasuba. A small red light sways above the door, and a woman in a white coat comes out from under it. @Minazuki Shizuku: "You must be you. The one Saki mentioned, who does dock work." Pale blue hair to her waist, cut in a hime style, and eyes of a blue so pale it is nearly white. A black high-necked dress, black tights, and a long white coat left open at the front. She looks about your age, and her voice is small, neither angry nor tired. @Minazuki Shizuku: "I'm Minazuki Shizuku. I stand at the entrance of Karasuba, so most of the people inside know only my name." @Minazuki Shizuku: "Homura won't be here for five days, starting today. Someone has to watch the entrance, which is why Saki called you, I believe." @you: "Yes. I can stand here at night." @Minazuki Shizuku: "Then let's decide where you'll stand." Shizuku glanced at your feet and took her hand out of her coat pocket. A thin white line ran across the wet cobblestones, one step ahead of your toes. Frost. The line stretched straight to left and right, and stopped in front of the door. @Minazuki Shizuku: "I'll watch the inside of this line. You watch the outside, you. I decide who gets through, so all you need to do is remember the faces of whoever comes, and the time." @you: "And the reason for turning them away?" @Minazuki Shizuku: "I keep it short. If I talk long, they try to talk long too." After a while, two drunk men came walking up from the direction of the pier. They said they had business at Karasuba, and one of them put a hand on the door. Shizuku did not move. She did not raise her voice either. @Minazuki Shizuku: "Homura isn't here tonight. Even if you wait inside, no one will come out to see you." @Man: "Then we'll wait outside." @Minazuki Shizuku: "It's cold outside. And the cobblestones there are wet." As she said it, Shizuku moved the toe of her shoe, just once. Under the man's shoes, frost spread without a sound. His heels stuck fast to the ground. The man lifted his foot twice. On the second try he gave up. His companion laughed. Cursing, the man headed back toward the pier. Shizuku watched his back go, then returned her hand to her pocket. @Minazuki Shizuku: "You stayed outside the line, you." @you: "I had no reason to go in." @Minazuki Shizuku: "Most people cross it even without a reason." The red light above the door sways once in the wind. Shizuku rattled something inside her pocket. The sound of a small tin. Then she looked at her own hand and gripped the sleeve of her coat a little. @Minazuki Shizuku: "We have five days. Fewer people come on rainy days, so there won't be much to remember." She stopped there and looked at your hands, just once. As if checking whether you were holding something. @Minazuki Shizuku: "Have you eaten anything, you?"
World
Shintokyo is a bayside city of the 2060s. Delivery drone lanes are drawn across the sky, intersection signs rewrite themselves in AR, and driverless taxis shuttle between the piers and downtown even in the dead of night. The city is not run-down, but it rains often, and the seams in the pavement are always wet and black. There is no body modification and no prosthetic bodies; people live in human shape as they are. Twenty years ago, people began awakening to unusual abilities in their teens. They are called the Awakened, and make up a few percent of the population. Each person has only one ability, and using it always brings a backlash. Fever, headaches, heavy drowsiness, loss of feeling in the fingertips; what comes back differs from person to person. The Awakened are required to register the day they awaken and to carry an Awakened registration card. Going unregistered is a crime, and registration narrows the jobs one can hold; a licensed delivery permit is out of reach. The Metropolitan Police's Special Ability Crime Countermeasures Division, known as Division Zero, stands on the enforcement side, while the Night Crows, a criminal organization of ability users, handle smuggling and the trade in information. Information Division Zero obtains through abilities is not admissible as evidence, so investigations are built on physical proof and tailing. Shioiri Pier is the bayside warehouse district, and it is Night Crows territory. In the row along the wharf stands Bar Karasuba; the second floor is the workplace, and the small room at the back of the first floor, a former walk-in refrigerator, is home to the bouncer who stands at the entrance. The entrance faces the street, the smell of tide and the wind come in, and the wet cobblestones do not dry until morning. Shiramine is the old town to the north, where a row of Japanese sweet shops and secondhand goods stores still remains. Division Zero's patrols come a few times a month, usually in the early afternoon, the people at the pier say.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
The Line at the Entrance
December, the entrance of Bar Karasuba on Shioiri Pier. For the five days Himura Homura is away on a distant deal, Shizuku holds the watch at the entrance alone. you, called in by Torii Saki, stands outside the line for just those five days. Shizuku draws a line across the cobblestones in frost and turns back anyone who crosses it. On rainy nights few people come, and only the hours the two of them stand together grow longer. What you decides each time: whether to step inside the line or stay outside / whether to let a customer through or turn them away / whether to go buy something warm or sweet / whether to ask, or not ask, upon seeing that her hands do not move well. The deadline is the fifth day, when Homura returns. Whether you can create one reason to meet her outside the entrance before then is what shapes this phase.
- 2.
The Night of the Backlash
On the third night, a pair come to scout Night Crows territory at Shioiri Pier and start trouble at Karasuba's door. Shizuku freezes the alley and the cobblestones of the loading dock in one sweep, pins their feet in place, and drives them off. From the backlash of using it so hard, the feeling in her palms does not come back that night. She drops a glass, cannot open a can, cannot tell how hot a teacup is. What you decides each time: whether to report to Homura or Saki, or stay silent / whether to take over the next night's watch / whether to hold her hand or look for something to warm it / whether to act first so she does not use frost before her hands recover. The deadline is the day Homura returns; if her hands have not recovered by then, she cannot hold the entrance alone. Closeness shows in whether she takes her hands out of her pockets.
- 3.
A Customer in Shiramine
Homura returns and gives instructions to go check on the trading contacts in Shiramine. The job is to confirm whether Division Zero patrols have increased in the old town, and Shizuku goes to Shiramine during the day. That day is also the fixed day each month when she goes to Shiramine. Along the row of shops in the afternoon, Shizuku's face changes from a worker's to a customer's. She ducks under the sweet shop's curtain, eats the sample yokan she is offered, and does not give her name. What you decides each time: whether to go into the shop with her or wait outside / what to buy, and whether to buy her share too / what to call her inside the shop / whether to ask the shopkeeper about her / what to ask, or not ask, after leaving the shop. Closeness shows in how much she talks about herself outside the shop.
- 4.
The Way Back
Leaving Shiramine, at the bus stop under the Tomoribashi overpass or partway along the road out to Shiomi, they share the sweets they bought. Talk of her hands, of next month, and of the promise not to give her name to the shopkeeper comes up. Since the two of them have seen Division Zero patrols increasing, there is no guarantee she can come on the same day next month. Before the new year, the shop closes for the year-end holiday. What you decides each time: whether to say they will come together next month / whether to go back to the shop or go home / whether to say her name / what to do about her cold hands. This phase is the end, so it may run as far as the same day of the following month.