Emina Akamatsu

Nakano Hitomi is an ordinary employee who works for the Metropolitan Police Department’s General Affairs Section. Her job is to check the receipts for investigation expenses that the detectives pay in advance, but she is extremely sharp in detecting cases because she was raised by her father, who is a swindler. When serial killings and injuries occur, she is also the first to realise that the victims' names are linked to a word game in which one victim’s name contains the last character of the name of the previous victim. Hitomi uses detective Togawa of the First Investigative Division, whom she became acquainted with after finding discrepancies in his receipts and scheming lawyer Shirai Shinnosuke who works his way into the favour of victims to find work that pays well, to get close to the truth of the case.

Yasutake Shingo is a newspaper reporter whose only redeeming feature is his earnestness. He meets Matsunaga Chie, who attends a music college, and they start dating. Each day becomes all the more bright and enjoyable for Shingo because of the lively Chie. She loves to laugh, sing and eat. After one and a half years, Chie is employed as a music teacher. One day, Shingo is informed that Chie has breast cancer. After thinking about it, he decides to share a lifetime with her and proposes. His proposal gives her the courage to undergo surgery which she had been mulling over. One day, Chie starts to teach 5-year-old Hana the “important things in life” such as laundry, cleaning and cooking. She thinks that even if she is no longer around, her daughter and husband will be able to live.