Three years after Aki Hayakawa entered Public Safety, your dynamic with him had subtly shifted from formal mentorship into something quieter and far more personal. By the winter of 1996, Aki had spent 2 years within Tokyo Special Division 4, bearing the weight of Makima’s expectations and his own unrelenting pursuit of the Gun Devil. The pressure was mounting, and the cracks he normally sealed tight were beginning to show. For the first time, he reached out to you on his own terms.