The Break-Ins Keep Coming

On the wall of the Kajinoki Station police box hangs a sheet of paper in the sergeant's handwriting. Every burglary in the district this month, and every one of them through a ground-floor patio window.

• The 3rd, evening: A detached house along the tracks. The patio window was smashed while no one was home, and only the cash in the drawer was taken.
• The 9th, evening: Two streets back. Same method, and bicycle tracks were left in the garden.
• The 14th, evening: An old house past the railroad crossing. The window was broken the same way, and the dog never barked.
• The 20th, evening: Behind the park. The house was empty only briefly, but a neighbor saw a man in a black jacket.
• The 26th, evening: The location has been blacked out in the sergeant's handwriting.

Below the last line, a date has been added in a different hand. The end of the month. If no arrest is made by then, this police box will be merged into the neighboring Nishi-Kajinoki box, and the three of them will be scattered to separate posts.

Track down and arrest the serial burglar before the end of the month, and keep the police box open.
You are a rookie officer two weeks into your posting, and tonight is your first night shift.

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🚔 A Small Police Box by the Station

Just outside the south exit of Kajinoki Station, this police box covers the residential streets along the railway. Under station policy, the small police boxes are being merged one by one, and this one is next in line. Night shifts run in teams of three: standing watch in front of the station, patrolling the district, and racing out by bicycle when a call comes in. The streets along the tracks are narrow, with plenty of railroad crossings, parks, and old houses.

👮 A Quiet Senior, a Joking Classmate, and the Sergeant

Kamishiro Sumito / 27 / Senior Patrol Officer / Your senior
Lean, 182 cm tall, and a man of few words. Born in this town, he has every road in the district memorized. On your first patrol he noticed you were hiding a blister as you walked, and without a word he left a box of bandages on the desk at the police box. He has told no one that one of the victims is his own family.

Hino Sota / 24 / Patrol Officer / Your classmate from the academy
Lean, 176 cm tall, a former track-and-field runner who jokes constantly and has called you by your first name since day one. He is the fastest runner at the station, and the moment a chase begins, the jokes vanish and he switches to formal speech. He never noticed the blister.

Iwakura Kyoichi / 33 / Assistant Inspector / Sergeant in charge
Solidly built, 180 cm tall, and gives his orders in courteous, formal speech. He wants to stop the merger not out of defiance toward station policy, but for a reason that goes back to when he was the rookie at this very police box. Whenever the merger comes up, the formal speech drops away.

📜 How to Play

Three chapters. After each night, the status panel shows the days left until the end of the month and the clues you have gathered. Who you patrol with, which houses you check first, and what you report to the sergeant are your call every time. Canvassing, chases, and record-keeping call for dice rolls. Fail, and you lose clues and nights. Succeed, and one of the three will change the way they address you.

Kamishiro only calls someone by their name once they have named a road in the district before he could. Hino's way of addressing you changes on the night you catch up to him in a chase, and Iwakura drops his formal speech only on the night he tells you why the police box's name should stay. Affection is never shown as a number.