Nakano Broadway: a shopping mall stocked with a vast array of capsule figures and anime-related merchandise, and a regular destination for capsule-figure enthusiast Tomoya. One day a figure named Kanako suddenly appears, and, speaking like a veritable human being, demands that he find her right arm. They find themselves at odds, but amid the squabbling a much deeper sort of interaction emerges. Will Kanako's arm ever be found? What does fate hold in store for these two?

This is a story about mystery solving and cultural cross-pollination, as played out on a chessboard—or a shogi board or a xiangqi board. Three people, one from China, one from the United States, and one from Japan, come together in the borderless realm of the Internet and discover a common affinity as each, despite occasional clashes, takes an interest in the others’ worlds. Eventually they agree to meet face to face in a fourth country, where what was hidden is revealed, and the power of imagination blows away the feeling of being trapped in reality.