Asako Makimiya (牧宮 麻子 Makimiya Asako) is the ex-wife of Mikhail Pavlichenko and the mother of Shion Pavlichenko and Suou Pavlichenko. While living in Russia, Asako married Mikhail Pavlichenko and they had two children with him named Suou Pavlichenko and Shion Pavlichenko. When the children were still very young, she took them to the university where Mikhail worked to deliver him his lunch. While there, an explosion killed Suou and knocked Asako unconscious. When she came too, she found Mikhail using the M.E. Squeezer on Suou's corpse as he attempted to extract her memories. Disgusted by what she saw, Asako took Suou's body and fled. However, Shion choose to stay with his father. After cremating Suou, she and Prof. Pavlichenko got divorced and she returned to Japan. Asako spends the next few years working as a photographer, taking pictures of various buildings in Tokyo, with a particular focus on the building of the wall around Hell's Gate. Her photos are published in books
Darker than Black
It has been 10 years since Heaven's Gate appeared in South America and Hell's Gate appeared in Japan, veiling the once familiar night sky with an oppressive skyscape. Their purposes unknown, these Gates are spaces in which the very laws of physics are ignored. With the appearance of the Gates emerged Contractors, who, in exchange for their humanity, are granted supernatural abilities. In the Japanese city surrounding Hell’s Gate, Section 4 Chief Misaki Kirihara finds herself at odds with an infamous Contractor codenamed Hei. Called "Black Reaper" in the underground world, Hei, like his associates, undertakes missions for the mysterious and ruthless Syndicate while slowly peeling back the dark layers covering a nefarious plot that threatens the very existence of Contractors. From the mind of Tensai Okamura comes a sci-fi thriller taking the form of a subtle exposé on a war in which political positions and justice have no sway—a war waged exclusively in the shadows.
