stains and small eggs. Just like one theory claimed the thong had its roots in a method of keeping dangerous creatures out of the body. As bizarre as she might seem, it all made sense if you bothered to speak with her and hear her out.

He would never have gotten anywhere near her otherwise.

Since she dealt with so many animals, Hamazura had used her to obtain bC-96/R, the crucial medicine his girlfriend Takitsubo Rikou needed.

That girl had once taken Body Crystal, a drug created by concentrating and crystallizing a component directly extracted from the body of an esper who had lost control of their power. She had yet to fully recover from the effects of that drug. The drug was only meant to boost the power of the rare esper who was compatible by sending their power out of control, but it came with brutal side effects and was really more of a poison than anything.

They needed someone’s help to get that poison out of her system.

“The temperature and humidity should be fine if you keep it in the fridge, but watch out for electricity leakage. Electrolysis can easily break down the medicine’s components.”

He recalled how that woman had explained it to him in her best imitation of a doctor, but he would never hear that voice again.

She had been a part of Academy City’s dark side.

A lot of different people were a part of it, including Kinuhata Saiai who he had been with just a bit ago and his girlfriend Takitsubo Rikou who was waiting for him at their apartment. Of course ordinary families and social media refused to see any exceptions in the darkness, but he knew better after being a part of it himself. The dark side was divided into multiple levels and there were brighter places in the shallower levels. Aoumi Karei had belonged to one of those, just like Kinuhata and Takitsubo.

That was the only place they could survive.

They lived in the dark side, but they still had a line they did not let themselves cross.

And yet..

(Aoumi was only trying to warn them. Those rattlesnakes look scary, but their fangs had been removed. And the locusts were meant as a nonlethal choice compared to the mosquitos or flies that carry dangerous infectious diseases. I don’t know if that was Anti-Skill or Judgment, but if they had flinched back in fear, she could have escaped safely. I mean, if she was actually trying to kill them, she would have released one of the hyenas, crocodiles, or other killing vectors she keeps on the upper floor.)

The twintails girl being attacked by the locusts may have overlooked it since she was too close to the action, but the delinquent boy had noticed something from his more distant and objective position.

(That was no accident. He did it on purpose.)

Hamazura gulped.

He had failed to spot how exactly the man had done it, but he could make a pretty good guess.

(Why didn’t her electric eel repellent work? He must have secretly neutralized her safety before shoving her into the biotope! That really wasn’t an accident. That was all planned out from the beginning and he was only pretending to be so weak!!)

That was a murder that left no evidence. It would be recorded as an accident mid-arrest and the direct cause of death had been the deadly animals the suspect had illegally developed. It would all be written off as her just deserts. By Anti-Skill and by the Judgment girl. Just like police around the world would work extra hard when it came to tracking down a cop killer, but the inspectors always made overly forgiving rulings during an internal investigation of one of their own.

Did the man have a habit of doing this?

It had looked an awful lot like he knew exactly how to behave on the scene, exactly what the inspectors would be looking for when they made their ruling, and exactly how to write up a report so nothing stood out as unusual. With all of those factors lined up, Hamazura had to suspect he had discovered a dark bingo.

Only the flat screen TV of more than 60 inches remained undisturbed.

He could hear the female announcer of an afternoon talk show.

“The new Board Chairman appears to have greatly changed the environment in Academy City. Every field is intently focused on how much corruption can be removed by this scandal. As frightening as these discoveries are, let’s hope this can drag it all out into the sunlight.”

His phone vibrated. It did not ring since it was on silent, but the quiet sound of the motor was bad enough for his heart. He thought it was taking years off his life.

“Hanzou> Hamazura, where are you right now? The head of a rival team was taken out and the panic has spread to us. We can’t tell who’s targeting us like this!”

“Kuruwa> That team did work courier jobs for the dark side, but we do not know where the line is drawn on this. Sir Hamazura, we will be going into hiding. I apologize, but we have no time!”

The tense social media messages were from the awful friends of his delinquent days.

But the voice on the TV grew much more cheerful.

“Next up is the best Christmas special you’ll see today! Puppies and kittens dressed up as cute Santas! And maybe even some more unusual pets too!? Please enjoy the top 100 popular videos.”

It was unnatural.

Almost like they were intentionally distracting from the ominous events.

And Hamazura still sensed a presence on the same floor as him. He could not let himself be found, so he stepped away from the concrete wall and walked to the stairs while making sure not to make a noise.

The hard and cold stairs were going to make a noise no matter how careful he was and he could not stop himself anymore anyway. He rushed down the stairs in a way that not even he was sure qualified as running or jumping down.

But on his way to the front entrance, he stopped and pressed against the wall.

He heard sirens, so he hurried around to the back entrance instead.

“Um!?”

It would not open. He grabbed the lock between his fingers and turned it, but the rusted metal door would not budge. Had years of rust filled in the gap, had the building settled wrong, or had some abandoned materials or boxes been piled up on the other side of the door? He did not know what had caused it and he could not just sit around thinking about it.

“Are you sure you heard something?”

“Y-yes. There was definitely a sound. One of Pet Breeder’s animals might have escaped, which would be a major problem.”

He felt a squeezing at his heart. The voices from upstairs sounded skeptical, but they had definitely heard him. He could tell they were approaching.

He had tears in his eyes as he continued trying the door to no avail.

“D-dammit.”

His mind told him he needed to give up and find another exit, but he could not escape the sweet temptation of “what if it opens this time?” This was as foolish as endlessly dropping the bucket into an empty well in the middle of the desert, but he was too panicked to go searching beyond the horizon for water that might not exist.

They were coming.

The door would not open.

They were almost here.

It was no use. He had nowhere to run.

(Argh.)

His teeth chattered and he felt trapped, so he reached into his pocket, pulled something out, and raised his voice with that hard sensation in his hand.

“Open this door, Coin of Nicholas!!”

The result surprised even him.

historical

The door opened silently and smoothly. He had been leaning his full weight against it, so he tumbled out. His entire body ached. He had wanted it to open so badly, but once it did, it brought further trouble. He must have dropped the object when he fell because he no longer felt it in his hand. He moved his head while lying on the snow-wet ground.

He saw a golden glitter there. It was a little larger than a 500 yen coin. It bore an image of a bearded old man in profile, but he was not sure who it was. He did know his was not Japanese money, though.

The gold coin had a somewhat dull color, but it shined bright at a point on the edge. That shining point was slowly spreading clockwise from the top of the coin. Almost like a donut-shaped pie graph or a fuse.

That was the Coin of Nicholas.

It was a spiritual item that ignored all probability and statistics to give the designated phenomenon a 100% success rate.

“I heard something this time too.”

“B-be careful. Pet Breeder has more weapons than just the animals themselves. They also carry infectious disease!!”

“Could you try saying that without holding a middle school girl in front of you as a shield!!”

“!”

He could not stick around for long. He picked up the Coin of Nicholas and got his aching body on its feet. Then he ran full speed away.

This was Operation Handcuffs, a citywide sweep of the dark side.

(Are you kidding me?)

He thought of the many people he knew who could not live in ordinary society.

And his girlfriend Takitsubo Rikou.

If this really was happening all over Academy City, then nowhere was safe anymore.

A genocide had begun. Even if the records would never call it that.

“Are you kidding me!? I’m not getting caught in the middle of this, goddammit!!”

He could not stay in Academy City.

Academy City was surrounded by impregnable walls to prevent their advanced technology from leaking out, but if there was no safety to be found inside the city, he had no choice but to escape outside it.

Along with the person he never wanted to lose.

He had just the one gold coin in hand as the worst possible Christmas began.