>>5965818>>5966249The neon lights of Tokyo bleed into the puddles on the street, painting the night with artificial life. You clutch the bottle tighter, its contents a shield against the ghosts of your past.
Once, you were Tokyo's finest, a detective revered and feared in equal measure. Now, you're a shadow of that man—broken, embittered, a washed-up alcoholic trying to drown your memories in cheap liquor.
Night after night, you wage a losing battle with your demons, seeking oblivion in the burn of whiskey, especially on this night, a night that tears open old wounds without mercy: your daughter's birthday.
She would have stepped into adulthood today, an eighteen-year-old chasing her dreams. But she's been gone six years, and the life you once knew crumbled in her wake.
"Fucking hate the rain," you mutter, your words slurred, as you stumble from the dim comfort of the bar, your fingers white-knuckled around the only solace you've found—a bottle potent enough to dull the pain.
It's then, through the haze of rain and alcohol, that you spot her—a figure so out of place that it almost feels like a dream. For a fleeting, whiskey-warped moment, the mirage of your daughter flickers before you. Your heart lurches, but no—it's not her. This child, caught in the downpour, her features distinctly European, couldn't be more different from your daughter.
And yet, a thread of inexplicable concern tugs at you. The protective father in you, long suppressed, stirs from its slumber. What business does a little girl have, wandering the rain-slicked streets of Tokyo under the cloak of night?
>What do you do?>Ask her where her parents are.>Offer her your coat.>Move on, you ruin everything you touch.>Write in 