The bustling streets of Tokyo had been silenced and subdued by the heavy downpour. Only a few scattered figures hurried along, sheltered beneath umbrellas, eager to escape the relentless storm.
In stark contrast to these people, a small child stood on the roof of a roughly 35-story building, looking down at the city. The boy, who looked about nine or ten, stood right on the edge of the 120-meter-high rooftop, gazing at the lights of passing cars and the advertisement billboards, which the heavy rain shrouded like a foggy screen.
The ferocious rain and wind lashed against the boy's frail and small body, like a relentless challenger, yet no sign of cold or any other emotion crossed his face. He simply stared down into the abyss beneath his feet, his gaze betraying a profound sense of having given up on everything, or perhaps having nothing left to give up.
The child on the edge slowly lifted his right foot and, just as he prepared to take a final step into the void, he suddenly sensed a presence behind him. He spun around. The silhouette of a burly man stood there. Seeing the figure, the boy instantly moved with a quick surge of desperation, attempting to leap down and throwing himself into the empty air.
Just as he began to fall, he felt the presence of a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to find himself suspended in mid-air, held by the burly, thirty-something man behind him who had gripped his shoulder with a single hand. With a subtle movement, the man swiftly pulled the boy back onto the rooftop. The child then scrutinized the man: over six feet tall, powerfully built, dressed in a black trench coat over a dark shirt and black linen trousers, his face set in a serious and frightening expression mixed with a hint of surprise.
The small boy, utterly unsure of what to do upon seeing this massive man, quickly scrambled to his feet. The man—whose silhouette had been barely visible 20 to 30 meters away at the other end of the roof just moments before, shrouded by the heavy rain—had instantly appeared next to him and caught him.