The flickering lights reminded me that I had completely forgotten about the blackouts. I got a dead end when I was investigating them. Now it struck me.

Each blackout happened on the day of the cremation as far as I knew.

The government was turning a blind eye to the blackouts despite how outrageous they were, and the media was underreporting it. Everything in Tokyo runs on electricity, how wasn't this each political party’s talking point?

Someone pulled off traffic accidents with no one found guilty for twenty times. At least two times the municipal government took care of cremation, putting the body ahead on the waiting list.

The company that owns the crematorium is connected to the company which produces books and comics about people getting hit by a truck and they support a specific party “The Last Hope” which controls the municipalities where all of the victims lived. Neither Nakamura nor Hiroshi Watanabe saw the bodies in full. I considered this to be the case for all the victims for now.

An author of one of the “hit by a truck, transferred to another world” type of manga was hit by a truck. Most likely no one came to Yoshiro Tanaka’s funeral as he didn’t leave his home for around a decade.

It was not a spy program, it was not a suicide cult and it was not a serial killer. “THEN WHAT IS IT?!” I shouted in my mind.

I drank my tea under the flickering lights, while my eyes darted left and right as I was building the picture in my mind. It was a puzzle that I almost solved, just one last step and I will unveil a massive conspiracy right under everyone’s noses. I unknowingly was shaking my leg in frustration until I noticed my whole body shaking.

As I checked for truck accidents every day I knew that none had happened three days ago.

There was only one time a blackout happened when there were no truck accidents prior in the last two years. I was unable to find any clues on what happened around that time.

Every clue led to the crematorium. My intuition was screaming that I was missing something and that something was on the surface. Something I had to open my mind to comprehend. My mind didn’t budge as I became more and more tense.

I took out my backup phone with the satellite connection I used in Tingal and quickly sent the updates I wrote in my notebook to Josh with a tag.

RE: ASAP.

"Josh, I think I'm about to crack this case. It all leads to the crematorium. Something is off with it. Can you check the plans? Here are all the updates on the case. See pics attached. Call me. I'm wiping soon." Wiping meant that I was going to delete all data on me before proceeding aside from the encrypted paper notebook. It’s to avoid compromising the investigation if I get caught.

I felt there was something big happening. The crematorium was around 5-7 km away from here, I could still make it till the blackout ended. I had maybe 3 minutes before the lights would go completely out. I would have to either go into the fray or chicken out, and there was no time to think.

I jumped up, striding towards the exit quickly putting my backpack on. In the hall, I saw Ms. Miyako with a question on her face.

"Are you not staying for Extra-Curriculars?" she asked.

"Sorry, I have an emergency, I'll contact you later." My facial expression answered any possible future inquiries with "LATER!".

I strode, not breaking to a run which could raise suspicion. As I reached the gates I looked at possible places to catch a cab, but there were none. Instead, the traffic was jammed. It was about 15 minutes by car to get to the crematorium from here or an hour during the jam which promised to intensify during the blackout.

I looked at the side of the road. A student of T.E.A. was about to grab the last electrical bike on the docking station. It was the only bicycle around, so I got to him and asked in Japanese.

"I really need a bike right now, could you concede it to me please?"

He hesitated for a few seconds and looked at me. I had no idea what he was thinking about. He took his time hesitating and that frustrated me, but Adam Carter was calm on the outside.

"Fine," he finally replied before getting off the bike.

I hopped on, counting every second as a loss. It took twenty for the bike to unlock. As I rode as fast as I could, the lights went out completely, including the traffic lights. The usual hum of electricity faded, the one I didn't notice existed so much. I started to maneuver at the maximum speed this bicycle could possibly move as the wind hit my face and slight discomfort struck my chest wound.

I was adding reckless driving to the list of unethical or straight-up criminal things I had done during the last couple of weeks. Slander, information scraping including from high schoolers, break-ins, impersonations, and infiltration of a school. It was all or nothing.

Making it even more reckless, when Josh called me I shoved headphones into my ears while I drove between lanes in the jam.

"Uncle, there is another blackout here, I am riding to the crematorium, I know the answer lies here, and it's not secret services." I heard his breaking voice in response.

"Are you in… mind … you want… to … heart attack. Wind …mic " Josh probably questioned my sanity and mentioned that there was wind blowing into the mic of my headphones.

"Can you ask your hacker friend to check the floor plans of the place?" I repeated it twice.

"Already did, Wait." A few intersections later I heard Josh's voice again.

"Erika and Tom are looking through municipal files right now," Josh stated while I drove through a narrow gap between two cars grazing my leg with a rearview mirror.

"Fast work!" I shouted forward.

"Expensive one!" Josh grumbled.

I heard Tom's voice.

"George, that place doesn't make sense. The floor map in the database is 2/3 of the size of the satellite view. Pictures indicate that there is some unaccounted space behind it."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Send it over," I shouted.

"Compiling will take two minutes. George, be careful."

Distracted, I didn't notice a car door opening in front of me, hitting me on the side of my abdomen and leg. I almost fell on the ground, in between the traffic, but managed to regain my balance and continue on my unhinged tally.

“Konoyarou!” a driver shouted from his car, calling me a bastard, or something like that. Well, I indeed acted like one.

Overall, after twenty minutes of reckless driving full of pain and sweat, through 2 wards (Districts in Tokyo) I got 300 meters to the huge complex dedicated to the burning of human remains. Even from this distance, I could detect the faint, stench that always lingered around such places. I was dripping in sweat and my heart was racing. My best-looking clothes were not fit for such rides. At least I didn't feel the metallic taste of my blood.

I had around 15 minutes before the blackout was over.

I unlocked my phone, it had 2 new files. "FloorPlan" and "README!"

I opened Readme.

"It is 3 in the fucking morning, we were looking for the floor plan and Erika for the scarce pictures. You owe me 2k for hacker's services. Looks like the building has some extra space between the highlighted walls with the entrance possible only from the outside at the back of the building.

The hidden room is right next to the inner walls of the furnace which could indicate that caskets could be switched. There are no photos of the back of the building so we can't confirm if there is an entrance there. Just for the love of god, don't go there. And if you do, wipe. You have 24h to reconnect before I will call for aid."

I dove in a secluded industrial alley multitasking as a second nature. I sent the drone behind the complex at a high altitude to scout for cameras and entrances while I checked the maps they sent me. At the same time, I hid the USB drive which ran my computer in a pipe, and ran a protocol on my phone.

There was no back entrance at first glance. I looked around with my drone, scanning the area for any clues. And then a man emerged from a wall, revealing a narrow hidden entrance.

I called back the drone.

"I got what I needed, I will plan a break in tonight," I told myself. I wanted to enter the place, but doing so during the day was unwise, and I had less than 10 minutes before the blackout would finish. Too little time left for a good infiltration, so I decided to wait till the night.

When I was catching the drone mid-air I noticed something unexpected; a well-hidden CCTV three stories above me.

In a narrow alleyway with no one living in the area over 300 meters away from the point of interest.

When the drone stopped buzzing I closed my eyes to hear better, someone was approaching trying to remain silent, they were walking slowly from behind one of the corners, so I maybe had 10 seconds.

I quickly strode in another alleyway and when I looked up there was no CCTV there, I placed the drone in a cardboard box lying on the ground and hid a bit further behind a trash can.

The plan was simple - try to knock out the pursuers and try to flee by any means necessary.

I heard faint footsteps as someone was carefully walking down the dark alleyway I was in.

Reflection from the turned-off screen of my phone showed an Asian man with a gun. His movements were barely heard, but this part of the city was silent with no sounds of electrical devices.

I took a calm deep breath and gently pushed the stick on the drone controller. As the drone flew up from the crate I saw the man turn around aiming his gun on it, while I dashed towards his back. He tried to turn towards me, but I was already right at him, hammering my fist on his wrists, forcing the gun out of his hand and onto the ground. Lucky for me, no shot rang.

The man struck with an open palm at my neck with a rapid strike, but the initiative was on my side, as I barely blocked it with my shoulder. He tried to enter some kind of stance, but that was a mistake on his side, as I jerked my leg up putting myself off balance but able to kick him right between the legs.

“Sucks to be you mate,” I told him as I made a very clumsy roll towards his back, grabbing the gun from the floor. He was holding his crotch for less than two seconds, but despite me aiming the gun at him he rushed straight at me.

I jumped back and grabbed the flying drone mid-air instantly throwing it at him as a feint.

The buzzing machine stopped itself mid-flight to his face as he tried to parry it way closer than it was leading him to hit it with his face. But as the buzzing machine was doing its job I had an opening. I used the gun to hammer him to his chin from below, sending him flying to the dumpster.

“Good night,” I whispered.

Before he could react I smacked the lid on his head finally knocking him out. I quickly checked his pulse. He was alive, but now was missing some teeth. I shoved his body in the communal bin with a quick move, grabbed the bag and the drone in my hands, and started to sprint.

I ran through the alley, and another alley shoving my drone into the bag.

I checked the gun. Glock 17, its handle’s weight indicating it was fully loaded.

I ran so fast last time when I was in Tingal. Adrenaline was rushing through me and I felt neither the wound in my lungs nor any other injury.

I had to run away from the CCTV view if I wanted a chance to run away or win a gunfight if I would have failed.

I heard shouts way behind me, and ran out of the alley straight into the street. The next moment I was flying towards the ground, bracing myself and rolling down the street like a ragged doll.

I laid face down but didn’t feel any pain, I saw the truck that just hit me and tried to stand up, but before I could. Two men in utility uniforms jumped out of it and one punched me straight in the jaw making me fall again. They grabbed my semi-conscious body and tossed it inside the back of the truck.

“Hey, he is still conscious!” one of them argued to another in Japanese.

“What should I do about that, they usually all get knocked out, who is this guy.” responded another.

The truck started to move, and a hand from behind moved into my chest pocket and took out my passport and the gun.

"So you are George Yos-sar-rian." He spoke flawed English with a heavy Japanese accent. "Congratulations, someone wants to speak with you!" He put a bag on my head after that.

I smiled under the bag. I was in deep shit and my inner voice became a sarcastic narrator as my blood was pouring down my face from my forhead.

“Dear readers of my blog. I am George Yossarian, a military journalist with a short background in foreign intelligence. A few months ago I was shot in the chest and barely survived. My friends and family were very happy to have me alive and in one piece.

But I didn't learn the lesson of valuing my life and the feelings of people close to me. Today as I was about to unpack a huge conspiracy, the tables have turned and now a huge conspiracy is going to unpack me. My body will most likely be turned to ashes in the crematorium I am investigating.”