Mio and Hina Are Rivals

Hina kneels beside a burned office desk, and the ash tells her the same bamboo mark is back. She works crime scenes after strange events, so she knows the shape is tied to more than one case, even when the files say otherwise. At work, she keeps calm, speaks in clipped reports, and hides the way old shrine songs make her throat tighten. A sealed retirement-fund identifier in her locker, a card in the pouch on her left hip, and a calligraphy mark in her coat lining pull her deeper into the same locked path. Miu is always nearby, quiet and watching. Hina thinks she is leading the search, but every clue seems to lean toward the girl who never speaks first.