Rain whispered steadily against the windows of a small editing studio on the edge of Tokyo. The clock read 2:17 a.m. Aiko Nakamura sat alone in the glow of her monitor — a documentary editor running on caffeine, deadlines, and curiosity. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, but sleep had clearly lost the argument tonight. On her screen, drone footage of an abandoned village drifted past — rolling fog, a shattered torii gate, and at the center of the frame, a strange red lotus-like symbol with reversed petals.