Ninth Step Station is an original Realm Sci-Fi serialized fiction and audio drama created by Malka Older, written by Malka Older, Curtis C. Chen, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Fran Wilde, and narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. It was released on March 13, 2019. It has 2 seasons and 20 episodes.
Synopsis[]
It’s 2033. China owns half of Tokyo. First pummeled by a deadly earthquake and then suffering the ruptures of war, the city’s future was bleak. But the uneasy peace brokered by the United States has remained steady, despite underground resistance efforts. That is, until the murders begin.
Official synopsis
Premise[]
After China invades Japan, Tokyo is divided between American and Chinese control. Emma Higashi, an American Peacekeeper, is assigned to work with Miyako Koreda of the Tokyo Police to prevent international incidents.
Characters[]
- Emma Higashi
- Miyako Koreda
Episodes[]
Season 1[]
| # | Title | Reading length | Listening length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Faceless Body | 50 minutes | 90 minutes |
|
In a city divided by war, a Tokyo cop and a US peacekeeper are brought together by murder, missing guns, and politics way above their pay grades. | |||
| 2 | The Bodiless Arm | 50 minutes | 97 minutes |
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A severed arm leads Miyako and Emma into the world of extreme body modders, with a side dish of organized crime. | |||
| 3 | The Fallen Executive | 42 minutes | 81 minutes |
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A powerful corporate chairman crashes to his death on a Tokyo sidewalk. Is it suicide? Or murder? | |||
| 4 | The Blackout Killer | 44 minutes | 92 minutes |
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Power failures are a fact of life in post-war Tokyo. But now, someone is waiting in the dark. | |||
| 5 | The Deadly Defection | 42 minutes | 80 minutes |
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Miyako and Emma must untangle whether a man who shot a woman on the street is a defector, or a murderer. | |||
| 6 | The Stolen Xiǎohái | 43 minutes | 79 minutes |
|
The child of a Chinese diplomat disappears, and Emma and Miyako are on the case, with a little unwanted help from the other side of the drone curtain. | |||
| 7 | The Loud Politician | 37 minutes | 74 minutes |
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A politician is dead. Two of her colleagues were caught on tape saying they wanted to kill her. Case closed. Right? | |||
| 8 | The Clawed Limb | 40 minutes | 78 minutes |
|
When a man obsessed with body modifications attacks his girlfriend, he says his hand has a mind of its own. Yeah, right. Right? | |||
| 9 | The Assassin's Nest | 39 minutes | 80 minutes |
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A deadly attack threatens to tear Tokyo’s fragile peace to shreds. | |||
| 10 | The Foreign Mischief | 46 minutes | 85 minutes |
|
“Our job is to solve murders.” As terrorists and the Chinese army attack in Tokyo, Emma and Miyako must decide what really matters. | |||
Season 2[]
| # | Title | Reading length | Listening length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Spiked Cocktail | 36 minutes | 62 minutes |
|
Emma and Miyako race to solve a bizarre poisoning as the Nakajima-kai’s influence in Tokyo spreads. | |||
| 2 | The Absent Artifacts | 36 minutes | 66 minutes |
|
An old case returns when an invisibility cloak is used to steal swords. Meanwhile, Emma hunts for Santiago’s killer. | |||
| 3 | The Acid Detail | 37 minutes | 64 minutes |
|
Detectives Liu and Wong are back to help solve a series of grisly murders. Miyako takes her first job for the resistance. | |||
| 4 | Blood in the Water | 36 minutes | 65 minutes |
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Emma and Miyako take a relaxing hot spring vacation. Unfortunately, murder isn’t confined to Tokyo. | |||
| 5 | The Scarred Youth | 36 minutes | 66 minutes |
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In the midst of solving the murders of two young runaways, Miyako takes on a dangerous assignment from the resistance. | |||
| 6 | The Memory of Love | 40 minutes | 72 minutes |
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WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU. After a mysterious death, Emma and Miyako stumble into the strange world of memory recording. | |||
| 7 | Assassination Market | 30 minutes | 56 minutes |
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Assassins pick up hits from message poles in Tokyo’s night markets. It looks like Emma isn’t the only one after Charles Yardley. | |||
| 8 | The Masked Dancer | 35 minutes | 66 minutes |
|
A dancer is viciously murdered during a festival. Meanwhile, things are getting complicated for the resistance and the Nakajima-kai. | |||
| 9 | The Driven Bullets | 23 minutes | 44 minutes |
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Someone is killing off Nakajima-kai members with mini-drones. Emma suspects she knows who’s responsible. | |||
| 10 | Rain of Drones | 30 minutes | 59 minutes |
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After Emma is arrested for Charles Yardley’s crimes, Miyako races to stop his plan to plunge Tokyo into chaos. | |||