Synopsis
Sae grew up leaning on her older brother Shimada after their parents died, and his support carried her through school despite the loss. What glimpses we get of her before tragedy strikes show a friendly, resilient teenager making the most of a hard situation.
That resilience shatters after she is assaulted by a stranger while a detective named Tatsumi watches from a distance without stepping in — a detail that convinces her, wrongly, that the two men were working together. The attack leaves her physically scarred and emotionally broken, and she tells her brother plainly that she wants her attackers dead.
Her few appearances at Quindecim come entirely through flashback, framing her less as an active participant in her own case than as the reason her brother's story unfolds the way it does — his devotion to protecting her, and his fury once she is hurt, both trace directly back to her.
