Mika Mifune

On the 25th of November 1988, four youths abducted and held Furuta Junko in the house of one of the captors. Subjected to rape, torture, and humiliation, Junko had no hope of escape as the manhunt was stalled by the captors forcing her to tell her parents that she was ok. For 41 harrowing days, Junko had to endure unimaginable suffering at the hands of these four individuals. Finally, after losing in a game of mahjong solitaire, they beat her with an iron dumbbell and set on fire with lighter fluid. She died later that day from shock. In an attempt to hide their crime they buried her in cement and thus the name 'Concrete Encased High School Murder Case' was born as Japan had to confront the horrors of this crime. The perpetrators disposed the drum in a tract of reclaimed land in Koto, Tokyo.

There has been a surge in the number of people killing themselves; a mysterious DVD is found on the bodies of the victims... Nozomi falls under the spell of a deadly cult. Yousuke, the policeman she is dating, soon realizes that the cult has something to do with the DVD. Then one day all trace of the group disappear--along with Nozomi.

The day before his exhibition, world-renowned painter Tamura discovers that his own work contains a forgery. Meanwhile, the body of a woman with countless ukiyo-e tattoos is discovered at the sea. From the two incidents, the name of Ryuji emerges.

Izumi aims to be the first deaf creator of artificial limbs. One day, her senior co-worker, Kubo, goes to Afghanistan to help give aid to children as a member of an NGO. Izumi decides to go along. In Kabul, the wounds of war are still fresh and Izumi meets a girl named Parizatt who has lost a leg to a mine.