This story is about all the members of ICPO Special Operations Investigation Group Three.
[Case One: The Hermit]
Blanche received a Christmas present.
"I am in a valley marsh. I am at the end of a street.
I saw your eyes in a mall storeroom.
I heard your whispers in a phone booth on the corner.
I once admired your sleeping face in your home.
I also felt your breathing beneath the bed."
Now, I have come before you.
[Case Two: Temperance]
The fish on the grass swim freely.
A swarm of ants is marching up into the sky.
The sun slowly rises from the mouth of the person sitting across the coffee table.
Look, countless snow-white eyes are watching you.
[Case Three: Death]
A brand-new piano stands in front of the mall stairs.
A melodious tune pours from beneath the hands of a passerby playing at lightning speed.
It is accompanied by gunshots and a mother's screams.
[Case Four: The Devil]
Fresh willow buds in spring, an orange sunset,
the noisy crowd of students after school.
Do they make you think of a warm childhood,
or an empty alley and a scarlet brand?
The hardest season to endure is the cold winter, but I died in the early spring of my eighth year, when the ice and snow were melting.
[Case Five: The Fool]
The Pope sits high atop the tower, with his faithful believers below.
"Let us raise our torches high!" he says.
"Let them fall!" they say.
And so darkness once again descends between heaven and earth.
Reading notes:
Both the top and bottom have had previous sexual partners; they start as fuck buddies and become lovers.
There is an eight-year age gap.
Theme: The night is about to end
