Streetlights cast moving shadows across the pavement as block after block passed beneath his feet.
Anyone looking from a distance would have seen nothing unusual. The coat was correct. The pace was correct.
The silhouette belonged to Fujino.
The details were wrong.
Each step landed with the same force. Each stride covered the same distance. The countless unconscious variations that accompanied ordinary movement had vanished.
Four blocks later the body stopped before a high stone wall surrounding a private residence.
Its gaze settled on the gate for several seconds before shifting toward the wall itself.
Then it began to climb.
The hands found narrow cracks hidden within the stonework.
The feet followed immediately after.
The ascent unfolded with an unsettling certainty, the body moving upward through the darkness without searching for purchase. Each handhold appeared beneath the fingers exactly when it was needed.
