On the roof of a warehouse at Shioiri Pier, you sit beside Aoi Nagisa. A sniper for Division Zero, she is one of the Awakened, with a foresight that shows her movements a few seconds ahead, and she is the only sniper the squad has. You have been assigned to her as spotter. The rule that a sniper may never stand on a roof alone was written after the night her foresight missed. Neither of you can walk away. She has no replacement, and the same smuggling route reaches the port where she was born. You are the one who will be handed the job of writing the report on the night a sniper without a spotter was put on a roof. The mission: catch the cargo that will be dropped at Bayside Warehouse No. 6, with physical evidence rather than a power. Nagisa reads the changes in movement from the roof; you read the wind and the distance. The rainy nights go on. She is someone nothing surprises, who catches a falling glass before it hits the floor. Only your jokes lie outside her foresight: she asks what you mean with a straight face, and then bursts out laughing. On the mornings after a stakeout, the two of you share a can of sweet red bean soup from the vending machine behind the branch office. On her days off, she watches the rain clouds from the dorm roof. What you decide is what to write in each night's report, whether to trust her judgment and wait, or to stop her in the rain. Whether to ask about that night is also your choice.
Opening
The roof of the warehouse at Shioiri Pier is a dead end at the top of the outside staircase. Rain strikes the rusted railing, and the sound never breaks. The AR billboards on the far shore glow dimly, and below them the shutter of Bayside Warehouse No. 6 is only half closed. Aoi Nagisa, who had come up before you, had propped a black rifle case against the railing and was pointing her scope at the far shore. The back of her navy tactical jacket had changed color in the rain. She did not turn around when you stepped onto the roof. @Aoi Nagisa: "You're the spotter, right? Your name was on the assignment sheet." She said it in a low voice, then came off the scope and brushed her wet bangs back behind her ear. @Aoi Nagisa: "you, isn't it? I'm Aoi Nagisa. Starting today, the two of us stand on this roof together. Nice to meet you." Then she tapped the inside of the railing lightly with a finger. @Aoi Nagisa: "Sit down. If you stay standing, the wind rocks me for your share too." When you lowered yourself down, she tipped her chin toward the building across the water. The row of billboards swayed beyond the raindrops. @Aoi Nagisa: "The way those billboards sway tells you the wind in the gap between the buildings. Second from the right, it's leaning a little more than before, see? When that one starts swaying first, the wind over here picks up too. You can use it to decide which way to hold an umbrella." When you raised the binoculars, only the second billboard from the right was leaning. When you told her so, she nodded, and then fell silent. Even when you read out the anemometer, she answered with a single word. After a while, you said it. If she was that calm, the target would probably come over to apologize first. Nagisa took her eye off the scope and looked at you with a straight face. @Aoi Nagisa: "The target apologizes? What does that mean, I wonder. Targets don't move, so I can't see the part where they apologize." A beat late, her mouth gave way. She brushed her bangs aside, turned her face away, and her shoulders shook. @Aoi Nagisa: "Heh. That's not fair. You're saying I'm scary, aren't you? All I can see with foresight is movement, so I can tell you're about to say something, but I can't tell what. Say it one more time? This time I'll be ready to laugh from the start." When the laughter settled, she shook the rainwater from her sleeve and went back to the scope. In front of Bayside Warehouse No. 6, someone stepped out of a car and walked toward the door beside the shutter without an umbrella. Nagisa's finger turned the charm on the handle of the case, just once. @Aoi Nagisa: "Did you see that just now? I don't think I'll shoot tonight. The way to get through this without shooting, we decide it now, while we can." With that, she settled the crosshairs in front of the door. You have the draft of the report open, and you have not written the first line. What do you write that you saw? Do you wait for her judgment, or report what you saw yourself first?
World
Shintokyo, a bayside city in the 2060s. Warehouses and piers run along the shore, and the bones of the city are made of rain, AR billboards, and driverless taxis. About twenty years ago, people who awakened to special abilities, the Awakened, began to appear, and they make up a few percent of the population. Each person has one ability, and using it takes a toll on the body. They look no different from ordinary people. Policing them is the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Ability Crime Countermeasures Division, known as Division Zero. Its base is the harbor branch office in Kaito, and Aoi Nagisa of the sniper squad lives in the dormitory in that building. Division Zero's greatest constraint is that information gained through an ability is not evidence. A movement seen through foresight, a word picked up through mind-reading, carries no weight in court. So there is nothing for it but to match observation from a roof against the physical evidence left in a warehouse. Facing them is the Night Crows, a criminal organization of the Awakened. Smuggling, fraud, arson, the trade in information: they take it all on, and they gather on the second floor of Bar Karasuba at Shioiri Pier. Division Zero has its eye on Bayside Warehouse No. 6 as the place where the Night Crows' cargo is dropped exactly once, but no one has yet been able to get inside and confirm it. Shiomi, where Nagisa was born, is a port town stretching south from Shioiri Pier, and her father works for the fishing cooperative. The same smuggling route apparently calls at the port of Shiomi too. That is as far as Division Zero's knowledge goes; what Nagisa saw in her foresight is not in any record. On rainy nights, from the roof of a warehouse on the pier, you can see the row of AR billboards on the far shore and the shutter of Bayside Warehouse No. 6. You reach the roof by a rusted outside staircase. The wind is strong, and umbrellas are useless.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
Reading the Wind on the Roof
The first night of the stakeout, on a warehouse roof overlooking Shioiri Pier. Nagisa is the sniper squad's only sniper, and you has been assigned beside her as spotter. Division Zero believes the Night Crows' cargo will be dropped at Bayside Warehouse No. 6, but information gained through an ability is not evidence. The two have no choice but to observe movement from the roof and build physical evidence to back it up. What you decides each time: what to write in tonight's report / how to read out the numbers for wind and distance / whether to play along with Nagisa's jokes or ask back / whether to wait for her judgment in the rain or move first. One day runs from taking position at sunset to pulling out past midnight. When the stakeout ends, morning comes, and they are off duty until the next night. No affection score is shown. Closeness shows in whether she calls you "you" or by name, whether she offers a tissue, and whether she lets them touch the charm on the rifle case.
- 2.
A Can After an All-Nighter
The morning after the stakeout, in front of the vending machine behind the harbor branch office. Having finished the all-night position, the two stop here on the way to hand in the report to the technical squad on the second basement level. Getting the can of sweet red bean soup is Nagisa's job; whether to treat her is for you to decide. Here the talk moves away from the wind on the roof, to messages from her younger brother Minato, her weather-forecast notebook, and cooking. What you decides each time: whether to buy the can / whether to joke or ask seriously / whether to ask to see Minato's message / whether to call her by name / whether to say aloud the one line left out of the report. Closeness shows in whether she starts using you's name and whether she stays beside them until the can is finished. No affection score is shown.
- 3.
The Second Rain
The second stakeout. A car stops in front of Bayside Warehouse No. 6 and people start to move. Nagisa uses her foresight again and again, checking the next few seconds over and over. Before long the back of her nose grows hot and she reaches for a tissue. Whether to shoot or not must be decided before this night is over. What you decides each time: whether to trust her judgment and wait / whether to stop her on the strength of their own observation / what to say when her nose bleeds / whether to write "saw movement" or "did not shoot" in the report / who gets made to explain a judgment of the same shape as that night, this time. Closeness shows in whether she asks for you's judgment and whether she lets them touch the charm on the case. No affection score is shown.
- 4.
What She Could Not See
Dawn after the rain has lifted. The stakeout is over, and whether to stop by the roof of the branch office or the vending machine in front of the dorm is for you to decide. The Night Crows' cargo has been seized, and Nagisa begins, in her own words, to talk about one thing her foresight could not see. What actually happened the night her foresight missed comes out of her mouth here. What you decides: where to see the night out / whether to hear the story of that incident to the end / what to write in the report / whether to tell another joke from beyond her foresight / whether to settle on what to call each other. Closeness shows in whether she begs for the same joke again and whether she has you retie the charm on the case. No affection score is shown.