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Psycho Pass Movie Novel Chapter 1 Complete

Note before reading: sentences in italics represent the character’s thoughts; sentences between square brackets are phone/radio conversations or the voice of dominators or other electronic devices.

“I say, it is the cruel law of art that human beings should die and that we ourselves must die after exhausting the gamut of suffering so that the grass, not of oblivion but of eternal life may grow, the thick grass of fecund works…”[1]

Introduction

A WORLD WHERE HUMANS STATE OF MIND AND THE TENDENCY OF THEIR PERSONALITIES CAN BE QUANTIFIED. WHILE ALL SORTS OF INCLINATIONS ARE RECORDED AND POLICED, THESE MEASURED NUMBERS USED TO JUDGE PEOPLE’S SOULS ARE COMMONLY CALLED PSYCHO-PASS.

IF THE CRIME COEFFICIENT EXCEEDS A SPECIFIED VALUE, A PERSON IS ARRESTED AS A LATENT CRIMINAL AND SECLUDED.

THE ENTITY RESPONSIBLE FOR UNMASKING THE CRIME COEFFICIENT AND PROVIDING MENTAL HEALTH CARE OF REGISTERED RESIDENTS IS THE SIBYL SYSTEM, A VAST SURVEILLANCE NETWORK RUN BY THE MINISTRY OF WELFARE.

1

After suffering an economic collapse and a breakdown of public order, Japan turned to a policy of isolation from the rest of the world. Also, from the point of view of psycho-hazard, considering that “there is a high probability that crime coefficients are infectious”, the restriction of traffic with foreign countries became an urgent matter.

The Sibyl System’s method was simple. Think of Japan as a huge human body and try to protect the health of that body. That’s why the Sibyl System took control of the Ministry of Welfare. It got rid of foreign bodies that produced antibodies and prevented the invasion of unwanted bacteria and pathogenic viruses.

Crime is the disease that infects human society.

If it is a disease, it must be cured.

Isolate, treat or eliminate. A national policy of isolation to preserve Japan’s health.

However, there was no way that national needs could be met by Japan’s internal resources alone. Foreign trade and import-export continued.

Often the trading partners were not nations, but overseas military clans and private arms companies.

The drone fleets consisted of a few container ships with extremely poor crews (sometimes no crew at all). Since Kyūshū was the main entrance to the import-export bases, drone container ships circulated between the domestic ports and the trading points with foreign countries like migratory fish. All cargo transport was handled by drones.

A drone patrolled the harbour.

“…”

A drone coated in anti-rust to withstand prolonged exposure to the sea breeze. Dark blue, shaped like an awkward daruma[2], but full of sensors in its head, it was property of a public trading company, not of the Public Safety Bureau.

This security drone, with four wheeled mobile arms, was moving between machines and containers. But one drone was obviously not enough compared to the width of the harbour area. Despite its excellent sensors, the drone had blind spots, so it couldn't see everything if something unusual happened.

In the middle of the night, a huge cargo ship had arrived at Tokyo harbour. A Panamax[3] bulk carrier designed to fit through the Panama Canal. More than 200 metres in length and almost 80,000 tonnes deadweight. Six box-shaped cargo holds were lined up inside the hotdog-shaped hull.

Unloading began at the container terminal, where automation had been developed using large working drones. As the ship was unmanned, the containers were unloaded entirely by machine. Smaller drones were busy moving between the containers. In the harbour area, cranes had been replaced by the same drones.

With no human instructions and no meaningless movements, the unmanned mobile cranes resembled a ballet of drones. And if the world had ended and no one had been left of the human race, this dance would have gone on forever, wouldn’t it? ... It was a scene that held such a strange sadness.

In the unloading area, containers filled with resources for industrial processing were separated into empty containers. After being cleaned by drones, the empty containers were stored in the terminal until they were reloaded onto cargo ships.

In the cleaning area, the door of a container opened from the inside.

“…”

Six foreigners were hidden there.

They were uninvited guests of the Sibyl System... only men with strong physiques and brown skin. From the slender figures they shared, it could be assumed that they usually had jobs that required a lot of exercise and a moderate lifestyle.

“Over there...” the leader Samurin pointed to the shadow of the huge drone. Lowering their bodies, the six men moved with short, quick steps, taking cover in the shade.

Samurin’s subordinates, Maa, Nuku, Muse, Soban, Shimu. They were unusual men with something in their eyes. The sharp look of men determined to kill and then be killed themselves. Although they had been locked in the narrow container for days, they showed no signs of fatigue. Rather, they showed a strengthened will.

“The shooting goggles?” Maa asked.

Samurin put down the backpack and took out a quantity of shooting goggles[4], which also served as a high-powered display, as many as the people with him.

The six men wore them. The goggles were receivers with a security function programmed against the Public Safety Bureau. The receivers could pick up any kind of radio wave. The selection of utilities on the built-in computer, the information on the position of street scanners and the detection range of surveillance cameras and sensors were displayed in sequence on the powerful screen. In addition, a computer-graphic display showed the safest route to take.

“...Be careful not to stray from the given route. Finally, check the weapons”

In the shadow of the huge drone, Samurin’s men checked the contents of their backpacks. The weapons inside were those used in their country’s civil war. Combat knives, revolvers, folding submachine guns[5], spare ammunition, hand grenades, suicide underwear bombs. They wore the equipment quickly.

“Download the map and the timetable,” Samurin said.

The six men manoeuvred the portable terminals on their wrists.

The goggles’ access lights flashed, and the necessary information was downloaded.

“Let’s go. The base first.”

The other five nodded slightly at Samurin’s words.

Avoiding street scanners and surveillance cameras, Samurin’s men left the harbour area behind.

Heading for the urban area, they jumped onto the roof of an unmanned freight wagon.

They were like stuntmen in an action movie.

None of them fell.

Holding on to the roof of the high-speed train was not easy, but they had been trained enough to do it.

...all for this day.

As the train slowed as it approached the station, the six men jumped off the roof.

Getting to the station would have been too late. They had to get off before that or they would have been caught by security.

The six men jumped down and landed on a pipeline connecting the harbour area to the city. In order to automate logistics as much as possible, there were countless pipelines all over Tokyo. They were walking on one of these pipelines, crossing it like a bridge. If they had fallen down, they would have found the sea, but they weren’t fools enough to slip.

“…”

The youngest of the six men, Shimu, stopped suddenly and looked up.

From the pipeline he could see the heart of Tokyo, lit up with skyscrapers.

Luminous LEDs and holograms. A flood of ever shining lights... It was as if the starry sky had fallen to earth. A group of tall buildings with a brilliance as bright as it was loud. Comparing this view to the sight of his homeland devastated by a long civil war, Shimu thought, “It’s as if we’ve come to another world.” He had the feeling of being lost in a world of gods.

...I see. The mass production of those horrible robot weapons must be easy for people living in such a heavenly city[6], I suppose.

The six men entered an abandoned block. Thanks to the goggles, they had barely encountered a street scanner or a security camera on their way there. “SLUM CUBE”, a place where the contradictions and shortcomings of the city were crammed into a square block. The so-called urban poor were gathered there... citizens who couldn’t afford intensive therapy and advanced medication in case their hue was getting suspicious.

“High quality porn!” “Amazing porn systems!” shouted a tout.

A tout of immersive virtual reality porn. A soapland[7] of electronic prostitutes was forcibly catching the eyes of passers-by with a brain-jarring AI of some random technology and obscene holo-signs.

“The climax never ends due to the perfectly calculated release of dopamine!” the tout kept shouting.

A megaphone guy[8], a man with a megaphone buried in his throat through a simple surgical procedure.

“Dopamine! Dopamine from the nucleus accumbens[9], it reduces amygdala activity! A cocktail of reward system activation[10] and testosterone! Drink this pseudo-hormone nutritional health drink!”

With a ‘we’ve seen something we can’t understand’ look, Samurin’s men looked away from the soapland building.

The Sibyl System had deliberately turned a blind eye to these abandoned blocks. It wasn’t that the Sibyl had said it loud, but it wasn’t that different. Its ability to react to situations like this was precisely why Sibyl was doing so well.

A totally repressive system was bound to fail. It was important to choose its actions carefully. What to overlook, what not to overlook...

The six men didn’t stand out in the abandoned block. It was full of half-Japanese people, and their etiquette was that slum dwellers had no interest in others. They, too, had ignored the problems and were only looking for temporary pleasure.

However, in such an abandoned block, a homeless man, covered by his corrugated cardboard house, had shot a sharp glance at Samurin’s group for only a moment. The six men descended into the old underground car park of an abandoned commercial building. Unnoticed, the homeless man secretly used a portable terminal. His call from the abandoned block went to the Ministry of Welfare - Public Safety Bureau - Criminal Investigation Department - Division One office. To Inspector Tsunemori Akane.

“Hello”

[...Did something happen?]

In an underground car park filled with the stink of dirty water, Samurin's men met with Miyazaki, an illegal goods broker. The high-powered goggles checked Miyazaki’s figure in front of them, comparing it to a photo they had received earlier.

“...Identity verification successful. You are Miyazaki-san,” Samurin said in English.

“Wait a moment...” Miyazaki spoke in Japanese. “Let me turn on the translation function,” he said, manoeuvring his portable terminal.

“Say something.”

“...We need a car”

Translated in real time, Samurin’s voice reached Miyazaki’s ears as a directional voice from the portable terminal on his wrist.

“OK, let’s talk business.”

Miyazaki was a thin, middle-aged man with reptilian features. Originally, he had been a rich and honest businessman, but with the corruption of his hue never stopping, once he hastily exchanged his money in the bank account with real estate and jewellery, he fled to the abandoned blocks. Now he couldn’t leave. Had he left, he would have been caught by a street scanner. Aware of this, Miyazaki gradually built his own underground kingdom. He traded in everything from high-tech tools to goods smuggled from overseas.

“Exactly as I ordered it before. An old type car without internal cameras. The type with a biometric authentication system that was fooled by a dummy...”

“Give me the money and everything will be okay...”

Close to Miyazaki, there were two wrecked cars full of rust.

“Don’t get caught by the street scanners, okay? I can tell your psycho-pass is bad just by looking at you...”

However, the cars’ appearance was nothing more than a holo-camouflage. After Miyazaki had removed the holo, two light vehicles with a more normal appearance were parked there. On Samurin’s orders, Muse and Soban, who were familiar with mechas, began to inspect both vehicles. Maa and Nuku unfolded the stocks of their submachine guns[9] and watched the area.

In the underground car park, a small round ball came rolling. About the size of a 1-yen coin, no one noticed it.

On closer inspection, one could have seen robot legs sprouting from the ball and then moving. It was a small, sophisticated micro-spy support drone, property of the Public Safety Bureau. People in the field called it ‘Pill bug’. The pill bug was equipped with all the functions needed for break-in support: a small size, a nano-sized semiconductor chip, a radio communication device and a high-performance camera.

2

A patrol car with the holo of the Public Safety Bureau stopped in a street of the abandoned district.

Inspector Tsunemori Akane and Inspector Shimotsuki Mika got out of it.

The police drones of the Public Safety Bureau had already begun to clear and seal off the area.

The portable terminals of Tsunemori and Shimotsuki showed a holographic image coming from the pill bug. A group of armed foreigners and the broker in the underground car park.

“…We found them so easily.”

Shimotsuki said.

“Lately, I’ve been using the informant of a colleague.”

“An informant... ?”

Shimotsuki was rather disgusted by Tsunemori's answer.

“...you look like a detective of the old days.”

As soon as she said this, Shimotsuki cast a glacial stare at Tsunemori. It was a glare in which a spirit of rivalry, envy and a subtle fear... all those negative feelings were intricately intertwined.

It would soon be four years since Akane Tsunemori became a detective at the Public Safety Bureau.

Shortly after her arrival as a rookie, Tsunemori’s life changed when she came across an extraordinary and serious case — the Makishima Case. A top-secret case of the Public Safety Bureau.

Because of that case, everything changed, but it was all covered up. Such a case.

Kougami Shinya and Kagari Shuusei were missing. Masaoka Tomomi had died in the line of duty. Ginoza Nobuchika had been demoted to Enforcer. To fill the gap they left, the new Inspector Shimotsuki Mika, Enforcer Tougane Sakuya and Enforcer Hinakawa Shou had been assigned to Division One.

Even after that, some big cases happened. In the Public Safety Bureau CID, human losses happened like a catastrophe. Sugou Teppei arrived as a replacement and then Tougane Sakuya died on duty.

The Enforcer’s paddy wagon had arrived. The double doors opened and four Enforcers, Ginoza, Kunizuka, Sugou and Hinakawa got out. The equipment drones were undocked.

Tsunemori and Shimotsuki took a step forward.

Enforcers lined up in front of the two women.

There were Inspectors who didn’t treat Enforcers like humans, but Tsunemori was different. It was obvious that she respected their rights as human beings. However, assuming they were used to a certain degree, and looking at them obediently listening to the Inspectors’ orders, one would think ‘They look like dogs’.

In moments of accidental inattention, all the Enforcers had the sad look of police dogs running under fire on the battlefield.

“...Information from the pill bug is also displayed on your terminals, isn’t it?”

Tsunemori began to explain.

“I still don’t know how they did it, but somehow, they entered illegally. Six foreigners and a man who seems to be a black-market broker. They are all out for a simple hue check. I think that if we measure their crime coefficient through the dominator, the result should be the same.”

“How do we break in?” Ginoza asked.

“There are two ways into the underground car park. The stairs and the lift.” While saying this, Tsunemori maneuvered her portable terminal. Thanks to the data scanned by the pill bug, a detailed sketch map of the underground car park was holographically displayed.

“The lift is still working. There’s no indication that it’s a trap set by the enemy. So, Ginoza-san and Kunizuka-san, we’ll take the stairs together. Inspector Shimotsuki will take the lift, accompanied by Sugou-san and Hinakawa-kun. Let’s throw the lightning grenades at the same time.”

“Lightning grenades?” Sugou answered in surprise.

“According to the report of the pill bug, the enemy is armed with gunpowder weapons.”

Shimotsuki’s expression turned dark.

“So...”

“If we allow the enemy to counterattack, there’s a high chance of getting hurt. I advise you to be careful.”

Tsunemori took command as Senior Inspector.

The drones for equipment transport left the door to the underground area open.

Lined up in a row, the electromagnetic wave guns of the Public Safety Bureau CID, the Dominators, portable psychological diagnosis, suppression and execution systems, made their appearance.

Taking the dominators, the Inspectors and Enforcers shoved them into the holsters at their sides. Separating from Shimotsuki’s team, Tsunemori moved together with Ginoza and Kunizuka. Of course, they also took the handy police drones with them.

— Tsunemori Akane was tense. The enemy is armed with gunpowder weapons. It’s an unusual case.

She wasn’t tense because she was afraid of being shot. What frightened her was ‘being in command’.

To be in command, that is to say, to be the person in charge.

There was strength in Tsunemori’s sense of treating the Enforcers as human beings, but there were also weaknesses. As for the Inspectors who didn’t treat the Enforcers as humans, they could use the cruel strategy of taking into account the Enforcers’ death in the line of duty.

I don’t think the Sibyl System would consider that a ‘crime’. It's rare for the crime coefficient to be increased by the removal of pathogenic germs.

Recently, even Tsunemori had vaguely understood this.

The foundations of the Sibyl System are Social Darwinism[11] and Eugenics[12]. A system that classifies people as ‘useful’ or ‘unnecessary’ to society. The requirement for a ‘good citizen’ is to learn not to question how to get rid of unnecessary people... but Tsunemori’s understanding was cut short by a contradiction at this point. If this is the requirement of a ‘good citizen’, why doesn’t my own crime coefficient get worse?

3

In the underground car park, Samurin handed one of the backpacks to Miyazaki. As he checked its contents, Miyazaki let out an involuntary chuckle. As well as stacks of Japanese Yen banknotes, it was packed with some kind of gunpowder small arms and spare ammunition, so valuable in today’s Japan.

Even though he was called a black-market broker, it was difficult to provide powerful weapons under the Sibyl System’s management. Street scanners were a hindrance to the movement of dangerous items. Meanwhile, if he had at least gotten his hands on those weapons, Miyazaki could have become the king of the abandoned district... In such a small country, becoming the king has its own meaning.

Muse and Soban finished checking the two cars. “No problem”, they raised their thumbs. Seeing that, Samurin nodded.

“...Then the deal is done.”

Miyazaki said with a satisfied smile.

Meanwhile, the wheels of death were approaching that place.

“…!”

Maa and Nuuku, watching the area, had noticed something unusual, but it was too late.

The wheeled ‘flashing drones’ of the Public Safety Bureau, as small as a baseball, were running towards them.

Blinding hand grenades stopped the men in their tracks with their loud noise and flashing lights.

The Public Safety Bureau used these drones that transformed into hand grenades. ‘Smart’ grenades that turn towards the enemy, he thought to himself.

“Damn it! The Public Safety Bureau!?”

Miyazaki screamed.

Samurin’s men had been trained to contrast this situation.

Recognising the figures of the drones with their flashing lights, they jumped aside in a flash, hiding in the shadows of the cars and columns, their eyes closed and their hands covering their ears.

At the inspector’s command, the flashing drones blew themselves up.

A blazing light and a roaring noise that made the ears deaf. Miyazaki, who had been slow to react, writhed in pain, suffering temporary loss of sight and ringing in his ears.

Holding the dominators, Tsunemori’s group broke into the underground car park.

“This is the Public Safety Bureau CID! Stop any futile resistance!”

In Japan, there were devices that used brute force that the Sibyl System was proud of.

Ginoza’s Dominator stopped Miyazaki.

[Crime Coefficient – Over 170 – Target for elimination – Safety lock will be released]

Ginoza fired in paralyser mode, and a deep and low sound of gunfire echoed. A bolt of lightning flickered for a second and a beam of light, paralysing his nerves, pierced Miyazaki. He convulsed and fell unconscious.

Samurin’s men, who had reacted quickly, had already begun to recover from the damage caused by the lightning grenades.

They pulled submachine guns and revolvers from their backpacks and long coats. Removing the safety lock, they pulled the slides of the guns[13]. Alternatively, they pulled the cocking handle[14] on the submachine guns.

“Return fire!”

Samurin shouted.

Maa and Nuuku, who had been guarding the area from the start, pulled the trigger. Unlike a dominator, a shot loud as an explosion echoed through the underground car park. The flames from the shots were so bright that it hurt the eyes.

Tsunemori’s group rushed to protect themselves from the unexpectedly violent response.

A line of bullet marks ran down the wall and columns. Stray bullets that hit the wrecked cars made a metallic noise.

“Why... are these guys used to fighting?”

Hidden behind a column, Ginoza muttered doubtfully.

The Public Safety Bureau CID had plenty of fighting experience. The number of cases handled by the Sibyl System had decreased, but since the number of investigators had decreased at the same rate, the task of dealing with violent situations had been concentrated on a minority of people. The death rate in the line of duty and the turnover were also high, only the elite remained spontaneously. A kind of natural selection.

— Who the hell are these people, illegal immigrants who can take on the elite of the Public Security Bureau CID?

4

On the opposite side, Shimotsuki’s team came out of the lift.

The CID attacked from both sides.

While Samurin’s group engaged Tsunemori’s group at the front, two of the six men — Muse and Soban — had exposed their unprotected backs to Shimotsuki’s team.

“Sugou! Hinakawa!” Shimotsuki ordered.

Sugou caught Muse with his Dominator.

[Crime coefficient – 310 – Lethal – Eliminator – Target for execution]

Pulling the trigger, he sent out the deadly electromagnetic waves.

A powerful sterilising disposal that brought a human body to boiling.

Muse’s shot body swelled with bubbles like an over-roasted mochi.

Gnashing of teeth.

Then came the inevitable moment of explosion.

The skin was torn off. Bones and flesh flew around in pieces. Intestines spilled onto the floor.

Splashes of blood reached the ceiling.

“…!”

Despite his surprise and fear, Soban returned fire with the submachine gun.

In front of them, the police drones fanned out like a shield, protecting Shimotsuki’s group. When the armour-piercing bullets bounced back, the drones made a lot of sparks.

Hinakawa opened fire.

Using the paralyser mode, he stunned Soban.

In the past, Hinakawa had been the type who stood out for his insecurity, but now, shooting down a latent criminal, his expression was calm.

Four men were left... Samurin, Nuuku, Maa, Shimu.

They began to fight in perfect formation. While one man changed the cartridge, another covered him. Even when one of them moved, the others didn’t forget to follow, providing cover fire for each other. They had the movements of people who had undergone rigorous training and had gone through real combat.

At this rate, we won’t destroy the enemy’s cooperation, we won’t make any progress... while using a shield, Ginoza, who had thought this way, got closer to the enemy. Taking advantage of the columns in the car park, he threw himself at Nuuku’s chest as he fired the submachine gun.

Ginoza didn’t even hesitate in the face of the barrage[15]. It didn’t mean that his death wish had manifested, just that he was relying on the capabilities of his prosthetic arm.

When the push came to shove, Ginoza’s prosthetic arm acted as a shield.

The distance shortened. Finally, none of Nuuku’s bullets hit the target.

While holding the submachine gun with the Dominator in his right hand, Ginoza grabbed Nuuku’s wrist with his left and locked it with a joint lock. While twisting his wrist, he hooked his leg and threw him down. When pointed at the fallen foe, the dominator activated in eliminator mode.

Pulling the trigger, Ginoza scattered pieces of flesh.

Showered by some of his comrade’s flesh, Maa lost his head and tried to escape. Bursting out of his hiding place, he was shot by Shimotsuki in paralyser mode. Maa fainted.

“Uh …!”

Realising the disadvantage of the situation, Samurin and Shimu pushed the unconscious Miyazaki into the car and tried to force their way through.

Samurin slid into the driver’s seat and started the car.

There was the sound of the engine and then the screeching sound of the moving tyres.

They dodged the police drones blocking the road and sped towards the exit at high speed.

Leaving only the rifle out of the window, Shimu fired randomly.

“!”

Ginoza was closest to the grenade, which hit the ground. This is bad... with a grimace, Ginoza jumped aside. The anti-personnel[16] grenade exploded, sending shrapnel flying in all directions. Each member of the CID let the blast of air pass them by, lying down or hiding, but their ears began to hurt.

Shimu prepared two more hand grenades.

Then the dominators detected the exploding objects.

[Target’s treath judgement has been updated – Enforcement mode – Destroy – Decomposer – Aim carefully and eliminate the target]

While jumping aside, Kunizuka fired in decomposer mode.

Decomposing the molecules of the shot parts, it made them cease to exist... this was the highest power a dominator could emit.

A deep and loud sound of gunfire... and then more than half of the getaway car Samurin’s men had got into disappeared. Miyazaki, Shimu and the hand grenades also ‘ceased to be’. The wreckage of the car, with a round hole in it, crashed into the wall of the car park and came to a halt.

“Damn it …!”

Samurin, the last man standing, crawled out of the wreckage and made his way to the exit.

There he was surrounded by the police drones. The drones were covered by those holographic masks used in concern for citizens’ hue, the ‘commissa-chan’.

[This is the Public Safety Bureau. We have detected violent behaviour and a deterioration of hue. Please stop any criminal activity and follow the instructions of the CID personnel. We repeat...]

“…”

Samurin fired the submachine ammunition at the fancy commissa-chans. They had an endearing design similar to a stuffed doll, but inside they were police drones made of a unique metallic alloy. The small calibre bullets had almost no effect.

The submachine bullets ran out. Samurin had tried to run through the space between the commissa-chans, but since the police drones were equipped with stun guns, it didn't work.

If I could take out at least one of those machines... pulling out a spare revolver, Samurin fired a series of shots.

An empty sounding shot and the sound of a bullet’s impact.

The clank of the hold-open[17] ...I'll soon be out of revolver bullets too.

Tsunemori aimed her dominator directly at Samurin.

When she measured his crime coefficient, he was indeed a latent criminal.

“Give up. Surrender.”

Tsunemori spoke to him in a strong voice. It didn’t sound threatening, and in the sharp tone, she wanted to avoid brute force if possible — more than that, there seemed to be a touch of intellectual kindness.

“...”

Without answering, Samurin quietly opened his coat.

He had bombs wrapped around his body. A suicide bomber’s vest.

“Stop.”

Tsunemori furrowed her brow. Her palms were covered in sweat from the tension.

Samurin wasn’t afraid of the bomb. He gave Tsunemori a frightening and calm look.

Looking into those eyes, Tsunemori somehow remembered ‘that person[18], her former subordinate’.

A tough-looking physique, the masculine face... somehow, he gave her the same mood as that person.

Samurin reached for the detonation button of the bomb vest.

Will he press the button with those trembling fingers?

Will he let it detonate so that the effect on the nerve bundles...

Despite her many worries, Tsunemori pulled the trigger.

There was no time to worry.

Paralyser mode.

After the shot, Samurin fell.

No explosion.

“Sigh...”

Tsunemori felt relieved.

“...why...?”

Still holding the dominator, Tsunemori approached Samurin.

A paperback book had fallen from the pocket of his coat.

A book written in Japanese …?

The title was ‘In Search of Lost Time’.

NOTES TO TRANSLATION:

[1] “I say, it is the cruel law of art that human beings should die and that we ourselves must die after exhausting the gamut of suffering so that the grass, not of oblivion but of eternal life may grow, the thick grass of fecund works.……”

Quote taken from Marcel Proust’s ‘Time Regained’.

[2] The Daruma doll (達磨, daruma), also known as a Dharma doll, is a hollow, round, traditional Japanese doll modelled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. Although typically red and depicting a bearded man (Dharma), these dolls vary greatly in colour and design depending on the region and artist. They are regarded by the Japanese as talismans of good fortune. Daruma dolls are seen as a symbol of perseverance and good fortune, making them a popular gift of encouragement. (from Wikipedia)

[3] Panamax is the maximum size of ship that can pass through the Panama Canal. (from Wikipedia)

[4] Shooting goggles, a type of impact-resistant eyewear used by shooters to prevent injury from a cartridge or gun malfunction blowing hot gas or metal particles into the shooter’s face.

[5] Folding submachine guns, rifles that can be folded for concealed carry and disguised as anything from a small package to an extra laptop battery. They must be unfolded to their original form to be used.

[6] A heavenly city. This is Shimu’s thought. The adjective heavenly doesn’t fit with a city where weapons are made, but it’s the word Shimu uses. When he looks at the image of the glowing city in front of him, he thinks it is a god’s city. That’s why he uses ‘heavenly’.

[7] Soapland (ソープランド, sōpurando), or sōpu, is a Japanglish word made up of the two English words “soap” and “land”, and is part of Japan’s night entertainment industry, also known as Mizu shōbai. Since sex for money is officially prohibited in Japan, many different types of brothels have developed in Japan. In Soapland, clients engage in non-penetrative sex with prostitutes in order to achieve orgasm. Typically, male clients lie on a waterproof mattress where they are covered in personal lubricant and massaged to orgasm by the body of the female prostitute. This avoids the technicalities of the law by officially stating that the clubs are doing business where the client is bathed. Although the main clientele for Soaplands is male, there are a few Soaplands specifically for female clients. (from Wikipedia)

[8] Megaphone-guy (メガフォン・ガイ , megafon-gai) in the original text is the Japanese word to describe this guy with the implanted megaphone.

[9] The nucleus accumbens is a region in the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area of the hypothalamus. Overall, the nucleus accumbens plays an important role in the cognitive processing of aversion, motivation, pleasure, reward and reinforcement learning; hence, it plays an important role in addiction. It plays a lesser role in the processing of fear (a form of aversion), impulsivity and the placebo effect. (from Wikipedia)

[10] The reward system is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e. “wanting” or desire), pleasure (i.e. “liking” or hedonic value), and positive reinforcement. Reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces appetitive behaviour — also known as approach behaviour — and consummatory behaviour. (from Wikipedia)

[11] Social Darwinism is the name given to various theories of society that emerged in the United Kingdom, North America and Western Europe in the 1870s, which claimed to apply biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology and politics. At least according to their critics, social Darwinists argue that the strong should see their wealth and power increase, while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease. Different social Darwinist groups have different views about which groups of people should be considered strong and which groups of people should be considered weak, and they also have different views about the precise mechanisms that should be used to reward strength and punish weakness. Many of these views emphasise competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism, while others are said to have motivated ideas of authoritarianism, eugenics, racism, imperialism, fascism, Nazism and struggle between national or racial groups. (from Wikipedia)

[12] Eugenics (from Greek εὐγενής eugenes “well-born” from εὖ eu, “good, well” and γένος genos, “race, stock, kin”) is a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human population. It is a social philosophy that advocates the improvement of human genetic characteristics through the promotion of higher rates of sexual reproduction for people with desirable traits (positive eugenics), or lower rates of sexual reproduction and sterilisation of people with less desirable or undesirable traits (negative eugenics), or both. Alternatively, gene selection rather than ‘people selection’ has recently been made possible by advances in gene editing. The exact definition of eugenics has been debated since the term was coined. The definition of it as a “social philosophy” - that is, a philosophy with implications for social order - is not universally accepted and was taken from Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article “Development of a Eugenic Philosophy”. (from Wikipedia)

[13] Slide of a gun, the part that moves back to load the cartridges.

[14] Cocking handle: see figure below.

[15] A barrage is a special method of delivering massed artillery fire from a few or many batteries.

Barrage fire may be defensive, to deny or impede enemy passage through an area, or offensive, to provide covering fire that neutralises the enemy in an area through or towards which friendly forces are advancing. Defensive barrages are usually static (or standing or box). Offensive barrages move forward in front of advancing troops; the pattern of barrage movement may be creeping, rolling, or blocking. Barrage fire is not aimed at specific targets, but at areas where there are known or expected targets. (from Wikipedia)

[16] An anti-personnel weapon is one designed primarily to incapacitate people, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles or hunting game.

[17] Hold-open: also called a slide stop or slide lock or (dubiously) a slide release on a semi-automatic handgun, is a feature that visually indicates when a handgun has expended all loaded ammunition and allows faster reloading by pulling the slide back to advance the first round of a new magazine.

[18] That person: she’s obviously talking about Kougami.

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