I knew at once that we had reached the entrance to the slums. Walker was standing there, radiating an overwhelming presence in a black suit.

That entirely monochrome figure really...

He looked like someone you shouldn't go near. People gave him a wide berth.

"Sir." I bowed in greeting beside Shu, who was waving vigorously. "It's been a while."

"Let's go."

Walker offered no further comment.

We entered a secluded alley in silence. I could feel that we had crossed into a different district. Even the smells were different: a faint reek of urine and drugs, rusty metal and foul garbage.

Several people sat near the walls, their eyes glazed over from drugs. We passed them without a second glance, winding through the narrow alleys.

I followed quietly behind Shu and Walker. It grew steadily darker, and the smell of drugs intensified. Signs began lighting up in colors that hurt my eyes. Their flashing lights revealed the filthy ground: laundry draped haphazardly over metal railings, garbage and empty syringes strewn underfoot.

Beyond all that, a brightly lit shop appeared at the end of a dark, narrow alley. I stared blankly at its blue and pink neon sign.

[Game Over : restart?]

An unusual name.

Walker was the first to approach the ground-floor shop and open the door.

"Cramped as hell."

With his gangster looks, Walker was a complete visual mismatch for the garishly lit game store. Still, he ducked inside. Shu followed, her face slightly flushed as she darted in.

I understood exactly how she felt. Standing in front of a game store had suddenly set my heart racing too. I'd buy that series, and an armful of other games while I was at it.

I stepped happily inside. The place was so packed with games of every kind that I felt they might crush me to death. A transparent glass counter stood in the middle, with the owner sitting behind it in a tank top. An elaborate skull tattoo covered his left upper arm.

The tattoo's owner recoiled at the sight of Walker.

"Why'd you come back here?"

We all stopped at his words. Walker, who had been staring down at him, answered.

"Who are you?"

"What do you need to know for? I'm just someone who lives around here."

"Then what do you need to know why I'm back for?"

The owner, whose jet-black hair was cropped short, pressed his lips shut. That did nothing to dispel the fear in his eyes. Apparently, Walker had quite a reputation around here. I'd heard he used to be a famous back-alley fixer.

Electronic game sounds beeped at regular intervals through the cramped shop. Ignoring the exchange entirely, Shu approached the owner.

"Do you have the From alphabet series?"

The owner, who had been hugging himself and keeping a wary eye on Walker, turned his head. He narrowed his eyes at Shu.

"What series?"

"The games with titles that start with From, followed by a letter. I heard you had one here."

"Oh, that." The owner picked up the cigarette pack on the counter. "Sold it months ago."

"What?"

The question came out louder than I intended.

The owner didn't even startle as he put a cigarette between his lips. His eyes slid indifferently toward me.

"I said, it's sold."

"To whom?"

"What do you need to know that—"

CRASH!

With an earsplitting crash, the glass counter shattered. I gaped at Walker, who had smashed it. He loomed menacingly over the owner. There was no question he'd broken the counter to intimidate him.

Was he allowed to do this to a civilian?

"A B-B-Badger..."

"You said you lived here."

The owner hugged himself and stammered, but Walker didn't so much as blink. The enormous man bent forward, and the owner recoiled in terror, leaning back as far as he could. Anyone watching would have seen a thug threatening a shopkeeper on his turf.

Shouldn't we stop him?

As I wrestled with that question, Walker whispered in a low voice.

"You must know how to read a situation, to be running a respectable game store like this."

"What did I ever do...?"

"It's simple."

He took a wad of cash from his inside pocket and held it out to the owner with an ominous smile.

"This is for the repairs."

The shopkeeper's eyes went wide. Walker set the wad of cash down in front of the gaping man and patted his shoulder.

"I'm sure you can take a hint."

The game that had been sold was From A. It had sold in late August. More precisely, at eight p.m. on August 30.

We huddled around the security footage the owner showed us, his mood much improved by a payment that easily exceeded the cost of repairs. He told us that fewer than thirty copies of each From alphabet game had been released, and the series was popular with enthusiasts for its generally strong storylines.

There were five games in all: A, E, I, R, K.

A and E were the scarcest, rarities with perhaps not even ten copies still in existence. The owner here had slapped a ludicrous markup on FROM A. It was so outrageous that even most enthusiasts had left shaking their heads and swearing. Thanks to that, it had sat unsold in the shop for quite some time.

Then, two months ago, it had sold to the mysterious person on the security footage. The buyer wore their hood up and a mask over their face, hunched like a cat. They hadn't spoken, communicating instead by typing on their phone and showing it to the owner.

Suspicious.

"Probably a woman. Had long hair."

"Judging by the build, I'd say a man..."

"No point trying to work out their gender."

Walker cut off the owner and Shu's muttering. He narrowed his eyes at the screen, then straightened up.

"Can't tell from this. I'll remember the distinguishing features. I'll be able to pick them out if we cross paths."

"Oh, thank you."

I'd thought he wouldn't care about the game. I'd expected him to watch us buy games, then get down to his own business.

We hadn't even properly explained why we were visiting the game store. Shu said she'd never told Walker about the From alphabet games. He didn't know what was unusual about them. So why had he smashed the counter and spent his own money to help us find one?

In any case, when I bowed my head in thanks, Walker looked down at me, moving only his eyes. I met his gaze and elaborated.

"It isn't even anything important. I didn't expect you to go to so much trouble."

"It is important."

Walker contradicted me in a low voice, his eyes gleaming in their deep sockets.

"To you."

"Oh, yes. I mean, I like games, and I'd like to collect this series... But why did you want to see me, sir?"

After seeing him help like this, I couldn't hold back the question. Shu turned away from the security footage to look at us too. A few paces away, the shopkeeper hummed as he swept up the glass.

Walker was silent for a moment before he spoke.

"The Old Spider knows you."

The shopkeeper dropped his broom and dustpan. But neither Shu nor I understood what Walker meant.

"Spider?"

"Weird nickname."

"The information broker?"

It was the shopkeeper who supplied the explanation in a hoarse voice. Frozen in shock in the same position he'd been in when he dropped the broom and dustpan, he stared wide-eyed.

"That legendary information broker is still alive?"

"The Old Spider is an information broker?"

Shu asked in the same tone she might have used to ask what was on the lunch menu at work.

"Why would a famous back-alley information broker know my junior?"

Good question. I was touched that Shu had called me "my junior," but blinked as doubts crowded in. Judging by the shopkeeper's reaction, this was someone famous.

No one came to mind. Though that might have been because I'd heard a nickname rather than a real name. Walker studied my expression closely.

"Is the Old Spider looking for me?" I asked, meeting the former fixer's inscrutable gaze. "I have no idea who that is..."

"You'll find out when we get there."

A strange metallic edge ran through my senior's low voice.

"Since we can't find the game right now, today we'll go see the Old Spider—"

THUD!

An odd sound rang out. Everyone in the shop turned toward the bulletproof window that looked out onto the bleak, filthy alley.

Blood and flesh clung to the glass. Eyeballs and organs, too.

"What the hell?"

I stared at the corpse, blown to pieces as though by a grenade, and stammered.

"What is... What... There wasn't even any unusual noise..."

"A creature?"

Shu sprang from her chair.

But Walker and the shopkeeper weren't surprised. They made no move, merely looking calmly at the window. Astonishingly, the owner's eyes were indifferent as he regarded the corpse plastered across the glass.

The shopkeeper looked at the window, with its single eyeball, shredded skin, blood, and fragments of organs, and swore.

"Fucking half-baked things."

"An unofficial enhanced-body recipient," Walker explained gruffly. "Sometimes their bodies can't withstand the enhancement and burst like balloons."

Oh. So this was what Ro had meant by illegal surgery on my first day.

Dazed, I watched the remains slide down the window. The corpse was a gruesome sight. If I opened the door and went outside, the raw stink of protein would assault my nose. Even now, the rank scent of death was seeping in.

Why would people seek illegal procedures when the side effects were this severe? I couldn't help frowning at the corpse. Clearly, neither the people performing these illegal procedures nor those receiving them were thinking rationally.

I'd have to ask Yun or Ami about this later. About the back-alley information broker, too...

Just as that thought occurred to me, heavy footsteps shook the store.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

A mass of people rushed across the dark alley. The sound of their frantic footsteps battered my ears. I watched the terrified people scatter in every direction through the alley beyond the game store.

They were all dressed alike. Pale with terror, they were fleeing something.

Now what was this? Judging by their expressions and clothing, it didn't look like a Halloween event. And why were their footsteps so heavy?

Before the terrified crowd could disappear from view, Walker moved first. He was as agile as a black panther.

"Illegal enhanced-body recipients."

He flung open the shop door and stepped into the alley. Shu hurried after him, running for the door.

"Round them all up. Before they kill a civilian by running into them."

Walker vanished before my eyes. Hearing those last words, edged with that metallic rasp, I set my questions aside and dashed out of the game store.