Subtitle: Missing Persons(人間消失)
Tsyoshi Morishima(森島 つよし), Inspector Ukyō's kōhai and fellow chess club member at the University of Tokyo, asks the inspector if he could drop by Tatsumi Development(タツミ開発) to look at a threatening note the company had received. Whoever sent the note wrote that Tatsumi Development has no future. A picture of Tacchan, the company mascot, was drawn on the paper,
When Morishima is called away by Kitamura, the executive director of the accounting department, the Tokumeigakari pair is asked to stay in the funds division meeting room, a smaller isolated room in the funds division room. A short time later, Inspector Ukyō realizes that something is wrong - the phones are ringing off the hook, but no one seems to be answering any of the calls. When the Tokumeigakari pair walk out of the meeting room, they are greeted by an empty office. Just then, Morishima comes back and is also taken aback by the situation. They then realize that all the money from the safe in the room, two hundred million yen, is missing.
Searching for the funds division staff, they are surprised to find that all fifteen employees from the room had gone outside to stand around and inside the company fountain, blissfully staring into the sky.
None of the funds division employees can explain what happened except that for some reason, they all suddenly felt like going outside and stand next to the fountain. To find a more concrete evidence, the Tokumeigakari pair and the two detectives from the third division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department look at the footage from the security cameras. The security camera inside the room captured Tacchan, the company mascot, walk in to the empty room and take the money from the safe. Later, Tacchan waved to the security camera near the building entrance as he or she left the building with the stolen cash.
Sergeant Kaoru wonders if the employees were subject to some kind of mass hypnosis. In order for so many people to be all hypnotized at once, they must have been conditioned beforehand. To find the source of this conditioning, Inspector Ukyō looks through the list of activities the fifteen employees did over the past month and finds something in common: an English conversation class. Investigating further, they find out that only one teacher taught all fifteen employees: Lisa Kirino(桐野 リサ).
Could she have committed this crime, and if so, why?
Other characters appearing/mentioned in the story
Tsyoshi Morishima(森島 つよし) - Inspector Ukyō's kōhai and a fellow chess club memberat Tōdai (University of Tokyo). He is the only person who beat Inspector Ukyō at chess during his university years. He asks Inspector Ukyō to visit Tatsumi Development(タツミ開発), where he is the general manager, to discuss a threatening letter the company had received.
Lisa Kirino(桐野 リサ) - An English conversation teacher who taught several employees from Tatsumi Development(タツミ開発) and also Sergeant Itami. She has a doctorate from Harvard in suggestive psychology. Her father passed away recently and she is planning to return to the States with his father's body in a few days. Sergeant Itami seems to be infatuated with her.
Junichirō Kitamura(北村 潤一郎) - Executive director of the accounting department for Tatsumi Development.
Sasaki(佐々木) - Fund division manager at Tatsumi Development.
Umezawa(梅沢) - Detective from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's third division in charge of robberies.
Nagaoka(長岡) - Inspector Nagaoka from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's third division in charge of robberies.
Rudi Kirino(桐野 ルディ) - Lisa's father who recently passed away. He worked recruited by Tatsumi Development fifteen years ago.
