(no subject)
h i s t o r y
Whilst there is very little elaboration on Tomoo Manaka’s life before his brother was killed, there are several flashbacks throughout the series that allude to how his life was ― or perhaps more accurately, how he remembers it being ― and he does make mention of his childhood on several occasions, although it is rare. Anything that is speculation or assumption on my part has been mentioned as such.
1/7/1980: Tomoo Manaka, born.
5/8/1980: Ryou Naruse, born.
4/4/1982: Hideo Manaka, born.
2/4/1980～1/4/1983: Serizawa Naoto, Kasai Hitoshi, Ishimoto Yousuke, Souda Mitsuru, Yamano Keita and Takatsuka Kaoru.
First of all, Tomoo Manaka was born to Yoshimi and Kunihiro Manaka, the latter of whom is not mentioned by name in the series, although a document listing the individuals in the Manaka family reveals his name. Tomoo admits ― without difficulty ― that his father died when he was young, and is never mentioned again or, it would seem, thought of to any great extent. As such, given Tomoo’s later obsession with the deaths of his brother and mother, one could assume that his father had very little impact on his life and died of natural causes.
It’s implied, both by the sparse shots of the Manaka’s family life, Hideo’s desire to become a lawyer to help his family financially, and recompense sent by the Serizawa’s to the Manakas after Hideo’s death that they weren’t particularly well-off, but it’s not shown to be a matter that bothered Tomoo on any level ― in fact, he seems to care very little for money, although it is, of course, an added bonus.
On Hideo’s fifteenth birthday, the fourth of April, 1997, Tomoo and Yoshimi give Hideo a harmonica, which Tomoo later keeps as a reminder of his brother and a way to spur on his revenge. Shortly after this, Hideo is at school and Keita Yamano who is frequently tormented and bullied by Naoto Serizawa and his friends, brings a knife to school wishing to get back at the bullies. Hideo, who is shown to be one of Yamano’s only friends (or quite possibly, his only friend), sees him with it and takes it from him, telling Yamano that it using it would simply lower him to the bullies’ level. Later the same day, Naoto and company chase Yamano through the school, ending up at a warehouse nearby. Hideo discovers the bullies and tells them to stop, and Naoto and Hideo end up in a scuffle, with Naoto discovering the knife. He proceeds to threaten Hideo, and as the fight continues, the two fall over, with Hideo landing on the knife. The wound is severe enough to kill him. As an aside, the entire truth of the scenario was never revealed, and subsequently Tomoo believes the knife wound to have been a malicious attack whilst it was, in fact, an accident. It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that Naoto did appeal to his father to have the incident announced in court as an accident, but Eisaku disagreed, and prompted both Naoto and Takahiro Kumada, the Serizawa company lawyer, to opt to go with ‘lawful self defence’, despite it being a false claim.
At Hideo’s wake, when only Tomoo and Yoshimi remain, Kumada visits to give the family recompense for the unfortunate incident, but Yoshimi refuses. After he leaves, Yoshimi suffers a fatal heart attack ― presumably prompted by stress and grief, and Tomoo is left alone.
Several months later, on the fourth of July at the trial, Kumada represents Naoto and subsequently wins the case, with Naoto’s innocence being announced on part of ‘lawful self-defence’. It’s later revealed that Shiori Sakita, a young girl with psychometric abilities, had testified against Naoto Serizawa in favour of the Manakas as she had been able to see that it hadn’t simply been a case of ‘lawful self-defence’ as was being claimed. Whilst her claims don’t seem to have had any overall effect on the result of the trial, Tomoo nevertheless thanks her afterwards, and gives her his umbrella.
Approximately three days after the result of the trial, Tomoo vacates the flat he’d shared with his mother and brother ― I’m assuming this is related to a lack of financial support and an inability to pay rent, although it’s never revealed in the show. It’s also known that he dropped out of high school, and I’m assuming that this occurred at approximately the same time as when he became homeless. Attendance at high school isn’t compulsory in Japan and requires tuition fees to attend. In the late 80s, the Ministry of Education found that the average annual fees for a public high school amounted to about ￥300,000 (approximately £2271 in today’s currency). Thus, I assume Tomoo dropped out as a result of an inability to pay the fees; it wasn’t until 2010 that an act for free high school education and a support for funds was passed, so I don’t believe it to be an unreasonable assumption.
During this time, he met a boy of his own age ― Ryou Naruse ― who was also homeless; Ryou had no family to speak of with the exception of a blind, hospitalised sister by the name of Makiko. Takahiro Ikehata, a reporter who discovers the subsequent identity switch, remarks upon how convenient it was that Ryou’s situation was as such.
On the eighteenth of August, 1998, both Tomoo and Ryou are found by a police officer and are subsequently taken into protective custody, however on the following evening when the two are sheltering from a storm in a construction site, Ryou is crushed and killed beneath some steel frames that were knocked over in the wind. Due to the condition of Ryou’s body, Tomoo realised it would be impossible to identity and, sensing his chance, switched Ryou’s student ID card for his, making it appear as if it had been ‘Tomoo Manaka’ who had been killed, rather than ‘Ryou Naruse’. From this point on, Tomoo (referred to as ‘Naruse’ from this point on) lived as Ryou Naruse, entirely taking on his identity.
Thus, Naruse begins to work on his plan for revenge.
04/07/2008: This is the official start of the drama, as it were, and when we first meet ‘Ryou Naruse’. A trial has just concluded and the defendant has been proclaimed ‘innocent’. The defence attorney ― Naruse ― is thanked, and a group of reporters outside the court room attempt to get quotes and a photograph from him; Naruse declines the photograph, saying that he has business to attend to. We subsequently meet Naoto Serizawa, a detective in the midst of apprehending a criminal. We see him from the perspective of an unseen observer ― Naruse, of course ― who proceeds to photograph Naoto, as he has on the same day for the past ten years.
The following day, a red envelope addressed to Naoto Serizawa arrives at the police station containing only a tarot card ― “judgement”. There's no return address, and the name listed ― Amano Makoto ― is immediately pegged as 'strange'.
Shortly after this, Naruse arrives in person at the police station, having been asked to defend Mitsuru Souda who had been brought in on charges related to domestic violence, and he and Naoto subsequently have their first meeting. Naoto, for obvious reasons, doesn't recognise him, and Naruse, of course, feigns ignorance of his awareness as to Naoto's identity and his past.
Later in the same day, Naruse visits the library at which Shiori works and enquires about a book on architecture. Shiori recognises Naruse, but she can't place why or from where, and Naruse refutes the idea that they've met before when she asks him about it. When Shiori later discovers that Naruse has no family, she suggests that her recognition of him was perhaps based on the fact that she, too, is an orphan and she got a similar 'feeling' from him.
Earlier that day, Naoto had received a request from his brother, Noriyoshi, to come to a party their father was hosting that evening. When he arrives, he's told to greet Kumada, who is still the company's lawyer. Shortly after doing so, Kumada receives a phone call that is later received to be from Naruse. The snippet of the conversation we're shown involves Naruse thanking Kumada for a seminar he held that Naruse found 'very helpful' before mentioning that he has something he'd like to mention to Kumada. What he said isn't ever revealed, but whatever it was meant that Kumada left the party immediately after the phone call to return to his office.
Upon arriving at his office, it's clear that whatever Naruse had said to Kumada wasn't the truth, as a man named Kunio Hayashi is waiting for him. Kumada, having previously received a package from 'Amano Makoto' which had included the 'judgement' tarot card and a small knife, attempts to get Hayashi to leave before threatening him with the knife. The two scuffle and in the ensuing fall, Kumada falls on his own knife and is killed.
Naruse appoints himself as Hayashi's lawyer and chooses to defend him. When Hayashi is being questioned regarding Kumada's death, Kumada reveals that he had recorded the entire incident on a small dictaphone which supports Kumada's case and throws doubt on the charge of murder. The questioning is interrupted by Kaoru Takatsuka, Naoto's colleague, who had been helping conduct a domiciliary investigation. She reveals that Hayashi had received dozens upon dozens of letters from 'Amano Makoto', and Naoto questions Hayashi intently regarding his identity. Hayashi states that he has no idea who 'Amano Makoto' is, but he's grateful to him; he'd received the letters after being jailed when Kumada had used his case to propel himself in legal circles. 'Amano' had been the only individual to show support of Hayashi, although Naoto quickly realises that 'Amano Makoto' had been manipulating Hayashi in an attempt to have Kumada killed. As a result, he continues to disbelieve Hayashi's claims of ignorance regarding Amano's identity, before losing his temper and revealing his own feelings of loss as a result of 'an innocent person's death'. At this point, Naruse points out that regardless of whether a person is 'innocent or not', 'wealthy or poor', there are people who care about them, and as a result, a death of any kind is going to have an impact. As such, Naoto's loss of temper was entirely unnecessary and uncalled for.
9/7/2008: Naruse is present at Kumada's funeral service and offers his condolences to the Serizawa family. Eisaku, upon meeting him, remarks on Naruse being called 'the angelic lawyer', to which Naruse responds that it's simply a name the media has gifted him and that when needed, he can be a devil. Eisaku proceeds to mention that Kumada's loss was a great one, not just personally speaking, but because it left him and his company without a lawyer. He then offers Naruse the job; Naruse asks to think about it.
In the following days, Naoto receives a second tarot card: the moon, and realises he's being informed of murders in advance. Around the same time, Tae Shintani, an employee of Eisaku's hotel and a woman in debt, receives a tear gas based defence spray, whilst Tae's daughter, Sora, is befriended by an unknown man who gives her a teddy bear. This man is later revealed to be Keita Yamano, who also turns out to be Naruse's accomplice, although Naruse deliberately keeps him in the dark regarding various aspects of 'their' revenge, stating that 'ignorance can quite often save a person'.
When Sora goes missing, Tae assumes it was the work of Yousuke Ishimoto, a loanshark Tae owed money to, and who had previously threatened Tae with regards to Sora's safety if she didn't hurry up and pay back the money she owed. As such, Tae confronts Ishimoto as to Sora's whereabouts, ignoring his claims that he has no idea where her daughter is. Ishimoto had previously received a tarot card (the moon) and a teddy bear (identical to Sora's) in the post; when Tae spots the bear, she assumes that Ishimoto had been lying to her, and she shoots him with the spray gun after he hits her, which prompts an asthma attack. Doctors are unable to save him, and he's announced dead shortly after arriving at hospital.
Meanwhile, Sora was found by Naruse and Shiori, and the two take her to her mother's flat. Naruse later becomes Tae's defence attorney, succeeding in clearing her of the charges ('lawful self-defence', the same defence used in the case of Hayashi, and with the same wording Kumada had used eleven years previous).
During the point of time in which Tae's case and Ishimoto's death was being dealt with, Shiori receives a tarot card ― the empress. When Naoto asks her to use her psychometry on it, she realises she recognises some of the images and asks Naoto to take her there. It's worth noting that later in the series, Shiori realises that it's likely that the criminal is leaving the after-images deliberately, and subsequently manipulating and guiding the direction of the case as he sees fit. Shiori and Naoto thus arrive at a scrapyard near a middle school ― Naoto's middle school, and he soon realises the significance of the case as a whole.
At Ishimoto's funeral, Naruse once again makes an appearance, remarking on the sadness of a life being taken before it really has the chance to achieve anything; Naoto takes his words on face value, although considering Naruse's true identity, it's clear that he's not referring to Ishimoto by any stretch of the imagination.
Ikehata gets in touch with Naruse, and they meet for the first time at Naruse's office. He comments that whilst the media paint Naruse as an angel, Ikehata's quite certain that Naruse is a devil. He also reveals that he's aware of Eisaku's offer, and requests that Naruse not take it, citing that Eisaku is corrupt and will step on anyone that gets in his way. He states that he attempted to write an article on Eisaku's underhanded methods, but Eisaku pressured his publishers into having him sacked. Naruse responds, saying that he makes his own decisions, but remarks that it's interesting that Eisaku's son is now a detective; Ikehata is clearly unaware of this, and becomes extremely interested in the development.
It's revealed later that Ikehata wrote an article on the death of Hideo Manaka and about Naoto's trial, although the absolute truth of it is questionable, as Ikehata has a reputation as a journalist who will do ― and write ― absolutely anything. Thus, it's clear that Naruse's responses to Ikehata were deliberate, and he wished for Ikehata to go after Naoto, particularly as, after one of his employees attempts to warn him about Ikehata's reputation, Naruse states that 'he knows'.
On the basis of Yamano formerly having been bullied by Naoto and his friends, Naoto had started investigating into his activities. After asking for the Shintani's cooperation into his investigation, he set up a meeting between himself and Yamano for the Shintanis, Naruse, and Kaoru to observe, and Sora would inform Naoto of whether or not it had been Yamano that had taken her from the park when she'd gone missing. She lies and says 'no'.
After this event, Naruse accepts the position of Eisaku's corporate lawyer, harking back to the words he'd used when confronting Eisaku years previous ― that he would constantly be observing the Serizawa family, and that he wanted Eisaku to continue in much the same vein as he had up to that point, so that 'when it came for them to meet again...'.
After this, Ikehata, who had been observing Naruse and his actions, gets in touch with Naruse regarding his acceptance, and proceeds to threaten Naruse, saying that there must be things even he doesn't want people to know about. Whilst Naruse has kept a copy of the article Ikehata wrote on Naoto's trial, it's not clear whether or not he originally intended on including Ikehata in his revenge, however Ikehata's actions towards Naruse and later Makiko result in Naruse involving (and having him killed) regardless.
In the meantime, Naoto and the investigation team discover that Yoshimi had died shortly after Hideo, and that Tomoo had disappeared and died a year later. Naruse then goes to visit 'his' sister, Makiko ― it's revealed he's done this weekly since his appropriation of Ryou's identity. Whilst he's visiting her, Shiori and Naoto discover a red envelope in a copy of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' at the library. It contains a tarot card ― the Ace of Swords ― and a printed message written in English, stating: LIVE=EVIL.
When Naruse leaves Makiko's, he's followed by Ikehata, which he quickly picks up on. At the same time, Naoto has followed the various clues left by Naruse and Yamano and confronts Yamano. When Naruse and Yamano later meet, he comments on how Naoto's reactions are exactly as Naruse predicted.
Around this time, the investigation team realise the significance of LIVE=EVIL and subsequently work out the 'Amano Makoto' is an anagram of 'Tomoo Manaka', although they remain unsure as to what, exactly, that's meant to be pointing towards.
When Naruse returns to his office that evening, he discovers a red envelope amongst his post, having been prepared in the same manner his own are. It contains a tarot card ― 'Tower' ― and after opening it, Naruse is confronted in person by Ikehata, who states that he has something 'very interesting' to tell him.
It is from this canon point that I'm taking Naruse.
Whilst there is very little elaboration on Tomoo Manaka’s life before his brother was killed, there are several flashbacks throughout the series that allude to how his life was ― or perhaps more accurately, how he remembers it being ― and he does make mention of his childhood on several occasions, although it is rare. Anything that is speculation or assumption on my part has been mentioned as such.
1/7/1980: Tomoo Manaka, born.
5/8/1980: Ryou Naruse, born.
4/4/1982: Hideo Manaka, born.
2/4/1980～1/4/1983: Serizawa Naoto, Kasai Hitoshi, Ishimoto Yousuke, Souda Mitsuru, Yamano Keita and Takatsuka Kaoru.
First of all, Tomoo Manaka was born to Yoshimi and Kunihiro Manaka, the latter of whom is not mentioned by name in the series, although a document listing the individuals in the Manaka family reveals his name. Tomoo admits ― without difficulty ― that his father died when he was young, and is never mentioned again or, it would seem, thought of to any great extent. As such, given Tomoo’s later obsession with the deaths of his brother and mother, one could assume that his father had very little impact on his life and died of natural causes.
It’s implied, both by the sparse shots of the Manaka’s family life, Hideo’s desire to become a lawyer to help his family financially, and recompense sent by the Serizawa’s to the Manakas after Hideo’s death that they weren’t particularly well-off, but it’s not shown to be a matter that bothered Tomoo on any level ― in fact, he seems to care very little for money, although it is, of course, an added bonus.
On Hideo’s fifteenth birthday, the fourth of April, 1997, Tomoo and Yoshimi give Hideo a harmonica, which Tomoo later keeps as a reminder of his brother and a way to spur on his revenge. Shortly after this, Hideo is at school and Keita Yamano who is frequently tormented and bullied by Naoto Serizawa and his friends, brings a knife to school wishing to get back at the bullies. Hideo, who is shown to be one of Yamano’s only friends (or quite possibly, his only friend), sees him with it and takes it from him, telling Yamano that it using it would simply lower him to the bullies’ level. Later the same day, Naoto and company chase Yamano through the school, ending up at a warehouse nearby. Hideo discovers the bullies and tells them to stop, and Naoto and Hideo end up in a scuffle, with Naoto discovering the knife. He proceeds to threaten Hideo, and as the fight continues, the two fall over, with Hideo landing on the knife. The wound is severe enough to kill him. As an aside, the entire truth of the scenario was never revealed, and subsequently Tomoo believes the knife wound to have been a malicious attack whilst it was, in fact, an accident. It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that Naoto did appeal to his father to have the incident announced in court as an accident, but Eisaku disagreed, and prompted both Naoto and Takahiro Kumada, the Serizawa company lawyer, to opt to go with ‘lawful self defence’, despite it being a false claim.
At Hideo’s wake, when only Tomoo and Yoshimi remain, Kumada visits to give the family recompense for the unfortunate incident, but Yoshimi refuses. After he leaves, Yoshimi suffers a fatal heart attack ― presumably prompted by stress and grief, and Tomoo is left alone.
Several months later, on the fourth of July at the trial, Kumada represents Naoto and subsequently wins the case, with Naoto’s innocence being announced on part of ‘lawful self-defence’. It’s later revealed that Shiori Sakita, a young girl with psychometric abilities, had testified against Naoto Serizawa in favour of the Manakas as she had been able to see that it hadn’t simply been a case of ‘lawful self-defence’ as was being claimed. Whilst her claims don’t seem to have had any overall effect on the result of the trial, Tomoo nevertheless thanks her afterwards, and gives her his umbrella.
Approximately three days after the result of the trial, Tomoo vacates the flat he’d shared with his mother and brother ― I’m assuming this is related to a lack of financial support and an inability to pay rent, although it’s never revealed in the show. It’s also known that he dropped out of high school, and I’m assuming that this occurred at approximately the same time as when he became homeless. Attendance at high school isn’t compulsory in Japan and requires tuition fees to attend. In the late 80s, the Ministry of Education found that the average annual fees for a public high school amounted to about ￥300,000 (approximately £2271 in today’s currency). Thus, I assume Tomoo dropped out as a result of an inability to pay the fees; it wasn’t until 2010 that an act for free high school education and a support for funds was passed, so I don’t believe it to be an unreasonable assumption.
During this time, he met a boy of his own age ― Ryou Naruse ― who was also homeless; Ryou had no family to speak of with the exception of a blind, hospitalised sister by the name of Makiko. Takahiro Ikehata, a reporter who discovers the subsequent identity switch, remarks upon how convenient it was that Ryou’s situation was as such.
On the eighteenth of August, 1998, both Tomoo and Ryou are found by a police officer and are subsequently taken into protective custody, however on the following evening when the two are sheltering from a storm in a construction site, Ryou is crushed and killed beneath some steel frames that were knocked over in the wind. Due to the condition of Ryou’s body, Tomoo realised it would be impossible to identity and, sensing his chance, switched Ryou’s student ID card for his, making it appear as if it had been ‘Tomoo Manaka’ who had been killed, rather than ‘Ryou Naruse’. From this point on, Tomoo (referred to as ‘Naruse’ from this point on) lived as Ryou Naruse, entirely taking on his identity.
Thus, Naruse begins to work on his plan for revenge.
04/07/2008: This is the official start of the drama, as it were, and when we first meet ‘Ryou Naruse’. A trial has just concluded and the defendant has been proclaimed ‘innocent’. The defence attorney ― Naruse ― is thanked, and a group of reporters outside the court room attempt to get quotes and a photograph from him; Naruse declines the photograph, saying that he has business to attend to. We subsequently meet Naoto Serizawa, a detective in the midst of apprehending a criminal. We see him from the perspective of an unseen observer ― Naruse, of course ― who proceeds to photograph Naoto, as he has on the same day for the past ten years.
The following day, a red envelope addressed to Naoto Serizawa arrives at the police station containing only a tarot card ― “judgement”. There's no return address, and the name listed ― Amano Makoto ― is immediately pegged as 'strange'.
Shortly after this, Naruse arrives in person at the police station, having been asked to defend Mitsuru Souda who had been brought in on charges related to domestic violence, and he and Naoto subsequently have their first meeting. Naoto, for obvious reasons, doesn't recognise him, and Naruse, of course, feigns ignorance of his awareness as to Naoto's identity and his past.
Later in the same day, Naruse visits the library at which Shiori works and enquires about a book on architecture. Shiori recognises Naruse, but she can't place why or from where, and Naruse refutes the idea that they've met before when she asks him about it. When Shiori later discovers that Naruse has no family, she suggests that her recognition of him was perhaps based on the fact that she, too, is an orphan and she got a similar 'feeling' from him.
Earlier that day, Naoto had received a request from his brother, Noriyoshi, to come to a party their father was hosting that evening. When he arrives, he's told to greet Kumada, who is still the company's lawyer. Shortly after doing so, Kumada receives a phone call that is later received to be from Naruse. The snippet of the conversation we're shown involves Naruse thanking Kumada for a seminar he held that Naruse found 'very helpful' before mentioning that he has something he'd like to mention to Kumada. What he said isn't ever revealed, but whatever it was meant that Kumada left the party immediately after the phone call to return to his office.
Upon arriving at his office, it's clear that whatever Naruse had said to Kumada wasn't the truth, as a man named Kunio Hayashi is waiting for him. Kumada, having previously received a package from 'Amano Makoto' which had included the 'judgement' tarot card and a small knife, attempts to get Hayashi to leave before threatening him with the knife. The two scuffle and in the ensuing fall, Kumada falls on his own knife and is killed.
Naruse appoints himself as Hayashi's lawyer and chooses to defend him. When Hayashi is being questioned regarding Kumada's death, Kumada reveals that he had recorded the entire incident on a small dictaphone which supports Kumada's case and throws doubt on the charge of murder. The questioning is interrupted by Kaoru Takatsuka, Naoto's colleague, who had been helping conduct a domiciliary investigation. She reveals that Hayashi had received dozens upon dozens of letters from 'Amano Makoto', and Naoto questions Hayashi intently regarding his identity. Hayashi states that he has no idea who 'Amano Makoto' is, but he's grateful to him; he'd received the letters after being jailed when Kumada had used his case to propel himself in legal circles. 'Amano' had been the only individual to show support of Hayashi, although Naoto quickly realises that 'Amano Makoto' had been manipulating Hayashi in an attempt to have Kumada killed. As a result, he continues to disbelieve Hayashi's claims of ignorance regarding Amano's identity, before losing his temper and revealing his own feelings of loss as a result of 'an innocent person's death'. At this point, Naruse points out that regardless of whether a person is 'innocent or not', 'wealthy or poor', there are people who care about them, and as a result, a death of any kind is going to have an impact. As such, Naoto's loss of temper was entirely unnecessary and uncalled for.
9/7/2008: Naruse is present at Kumada's funeral service and offers his condolences to the Serizawa family. Eisaku, upon meeting him, remarks on Naruse being called 'the angelic lawyer', to which Naruse responds that it's simply a name the media has gifted him and that when needed, he can be a devil. Eisaku proceeds to mention that Kumada's loss was a great one, not just personally speaking, but because it left him and his company without a lawyer. He then offers Naruse the job; Naruse asks to think about it.
In the following days, Naoto receives a second tarot card: the moon, and realises he's being informed of murders in advance. Around the same time, Tae Shintani, an employee of Eisaku's hotel and a woman in debt, receives a tear gas based defence spray, whilst Tae's daughter, Sora, is befriended by an unknown man who gives her a teddy bear. This man is later revealed to be Keita Yamano, who also turns out to be Naruse's accomplice, although Naruse deliberately keeps him in the dark regarding various aspects of 'their' revenge, stating that 'ignorance can quite often save a person'.
When Sora goes missing, Tae assumes it was the work of Yousuke Ishimoto, a loanshark Tae owed money to, and who had previously threatened Tae with regards to Sora's safety if she didn't hurry up and pay back the money she owed. As such, Tae confronts Ishimoto as to Sora's whereabouts, ignoring his claims that he has no idea where her daughter is. Ishimoto had previously received a tarot card (the moon) and a teddy bear (identical to Sora's) in the post; when Tae spots the bear, she assumes that Ishimoto had been lying to her, and she shoots him with the spray gun after he hits her, which prompts an asthma attack. Doctors are unable to save him, and he's announced dead shortly after arriving at hospital.
Meanwhile, Sora was found by Naruse and Shiori, and the two take her to her mother's flat. Naruse later becomes Tae's defence attorney, succeeding in clearing her of the charges ('lawful self-defence', the same defence used in the case of Hayashi, and with the same wording Kumada had used eleven years previous).
During the point of time in which Tae's case and Ishimoto's death was being dealt with, Shiori receives a tarot card ― the empress. When Naoto asks her to use her psychometry on it, she realises she recognises some of the images and asks Naoto to take her there. It's worth noting that later in the series, Shiori realises that it's likely that the criminal is leaving the after-images deliberately, and subsequently manipulating and guiding the direction of the case as he sees fit. Shiori and Naoto thus arrive at a scrapyard near a middle school ― Naoto's middle school, and he soon realises the significance of the case as a whole.
At Ishimoto's funeral, Naruse once again makes an appearance, remarking on the sadness of a life being taken before it really has the chance to achieve anything; Naoto takes his words on face value, although considering Naruse's true identity, it's clear that he's not referring to Ishimoto by any stretch of the imagination.
Ikehata gets in touch with Naruse, and they meet for the first time at Naruse's office. He comments that whilst the media paint Naruse as an angel, Ikehata's quite certain that Naruse is a devil. He also reveals that he's aware of Eisaku's offer, and requests that Naruse not take it, citing that Eisaku is corrupt and will step on anyone that gets in his way. He states that he attempted to write an article on Eisaku's underhanded methods, but Eisaku pressured his publishers into having him sacked. Naruse responds, saying that he makes his own decisions, but remarks that it's interesting that Eisaku's son is now a detective; Ikehata is clearly unaware of this, and becomes extremely interested in the development.
It's revealed later that Ikehata wrote an article on the death of Hideo Manaka and about Naoto's trial, although the absolute truth of it is questionable, as Ikehata has a reputation as a journalist who will do ― and write ― absolutely anything. Thus, it's clear that Naruse's responses to Ikehata were deliberate, and he wished for Ikehata to go after Naoto, particularly as, after one of his employees attempts to warn him about Ikehata's reputation, Naruse states that 'he knows'.
On the basis of Yamano formerly having been bullied by Naoto and his friends, Naoto had started investigating into his activities. After asking for the Shintani's cooperation into his investigation, he set up a meeting between himself and Yamano for the Shintanis, Naruse, and Kaoru to observe, and Sora would inform Naoto of whether or not it had been Yamano that had taken her from the park when she'd gone missing. She lies and says 'no'.
After this event, Naruse accepts the position of Eisaku's corporate lawyer, harking back to the words he'd used when confronting Eisaku years previous ― that he would constantly be observing the Serizawa family, and that he wanted Eisaku to continue in much the same vein as he had up to that point, so that 'when it came for them to meet again...'.
After this, Ikehata, who had been observing Naruse and his actions, gets in touch with Naruse regarding his acceptance, and proceeds to threaten Naruse, saying that there must be things even he doesn't want people to know about. Whilst Naruse has kept a copy of the article Ikehata wrote on Naoto's trial, it's not clear whether or not he originally intended on including Ikehata in his revenge, however Ikehata's actions towards Naruse and later Makiko result in Naruse involving (and having him killed) regardless.
In the meantime, Naoto and the investigation team discover that Yoshimi had died shortly after Hideo, and that Tomoo had disappeared and died a year later. Naruse then goes to visit 'his' sister, Makiko ― it's revealed he's done this weekly since his appropriation of Ryou's identity. Whilst he's visiting her, Shiori and Naoto discover a red envelope in a copy of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' at the library. It contains a tarot card ― the Ace of Swords ― and a printed message written in English, stating: LIVE=EVIL.
When Naruse leaves Makiko's, he's followed by Ikehata, which he quickly picks up on. At the same time, Naoto has followed the various clues left by Naruse and Yamano and confronts Yamano. When Naruse and Yamano later meet, he comments on how Naoto's reactions are exactly as Naruse predicted.
Around this time, the investigation team realise the significance of LIVE=EVIL and subsequently work out the 'Amano Makoto' is an anagram of 'Tomoo Manaka', although they remain unsure as to what, exactly, that's meant to be pointing towards.
When Naruse returns to his office that evening, he discovers a red envelope amongst his post, having been prepared in the same manner his own are. It contains a tarot card ― 'Tower' ― and after opening it, Naruse is confronted in person by Ikehata, who states that he has something 'very interesting' to tell him.
It is from this canon point that I'm taking Naruse.