"Did You Know? I Actually Love You."

Bang!!

Sato gave Tozaki Yuu no more chance to speak.

He raised his foot and stomped Tozaki Yuu's head to pieces!

Nagai watched the thing that looked like a smashed watermelon, thick blood and brain matter even splattering across his face.

The slick sensation and the sweet, fishy stench invading his nostrils made Nagai feel as though something had clogged his heart.

It hurt!

It hurt terribly!

He knew Tozaki Yuu was not a good man. He regarded Ajin as economic animals, imprisoning them for inhumane live experiments.

His research into Ajin was not some contribution to society either. It was purely to satisfy the personal desires of those at the top.

Even the institute itself was involved in plenty of filthy dealings behind the scenes.

Yet during their time together, Nagai had felt that this man was not as bad as he had imagined!

At the very least, Tozaki Yuu had openly told Nagai that he would not use Eriko as leverage to threaten him.

He had even helped Nagai find a safe place for Eriko, allowing him to put his worries aside.

But now, this man had died right in front of him.

And in a horrifying manner!

If Tozaki Yuu was, strictly speaking, a calm and rational villain who placed greater importance on profit—

Then Sato was simply a mad, unreasonable lunatic!!

By comparison, Nagai naturally understood who posed the greater threat.

That was why he had been willing to work with Tozaki.

That was why he had resolved to get rid of Sato!

"—No!!!"

If Nagai's pain was the sorrow of a fellow creature mourning another's death—

Then there was someone whose grief was enough to tear her apart!

Shimomura Izumi, who had resurrected once more, rushed out of the nearly collapsed Safe House at top speed.

Yet she was still one step too late.

She looked at the headless corpse lying on the ground, its shattered gold-rimmed glasses not far away.

They identified him, making it impossible for Shimomura Izumi to deceive herself even if she wanted to.

Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face, and the scene of her first meeting with Tozaki Yuu surfaced in her mind.

Shimomura Izumi's original name had been Tanaka Yoko.

When she had been very young, she had followed her remarried mother to live with her stepfather.

And that had marked the beginning of her tragic life.

Her stepfather had been a complete scumbag. Every day, he only thought about getting something for nothing, relying on Tanaka Yoko's mother to work outside and support the household.

Whenever he got drunk and was in a bad mood, he would beat her mother as well.

So Tanaka Yoko dropped out of school early and worked outside to earn money, just like her mother.

Back then, although her sweet appearance often led the bosses at her workplaces to grope and harass her—

In order to save enough money to take her mother away from that scumbag, she silently endured it all.

Later, she met a decent boy. That might have been the happiest period of her life.

Unfortunately, good times did not last. One day, Tanaka Yoko happened to discover her boyfriend shopping with another girl. Unable to believe it, she secretly followed them, only to overhear words that hurt her even more.

It turned out her boyfriend had merely taken a fancy to her sweet looks and her gentle, easily controlled personality. He had only been playing with her and had never liked her at all.

He even spoke contemptuously of her poor family, smugly boasting about how completely he had her under his thumb.

Tanaka Yoko was so devastated that she did not even know how she made it home.

But misfortunes never came alone. Her scumbag stepfather had developed a gambling addiction and forcibly stole the one million yen she had saved over the years.

Having lost all will to live, Tanaka Yoko decided to slit her wrists the next day.

Wearing only her underwear, she lay in the bathtub and cut open her wrists with scissors, letting her blood drain away, taking the warmth from her body and all her hope with it.

At that critical moment, her stepfather happened to return home.

Seeing Tanaka Yoko in that state, he hurried into the bathroom.

Had his conscience finally awakened? Did he want to save Tanaka Yoko?

Of course not!

Seeing Tanaka Yoko wearing only underwear and soaking in the water, his beastly lust flared up. He ignored the fact that her wrists were still bleeding.

He wanted to do something worse than what an animal would do!

During Tanaka Yoko's struggle, the back of her head struck the edge of the sink.

That was her first death!

After waking up, she knew nothing about Ajin and was completely baffled by her resurrection.

Then she saw her stepfather telling her mother that they could use her body to make money, so they would never have to work again.

After hearing him, her mother silently returned to the inner room without reacting.

At that point, Tanaka Yoko's heart broke completely, and she secretly left home.

Perhaps Tanaka Yoko, after running away from home, had lost all hope. Perhaps she had lost the drive to live.

Most importantly, as an Ajin, she could not even die.

Before long, she went with the flow and fell into depravity within society's great melting pot.

For money, for survival, she began engaging in compensated dating.

In the end, she contracted a sexually transmitted disease and was admitted to the hospital.

That hospital was far from legitimate, and it was involved in countless illegal operations.

For example, some doctors had side businesses. They exploited female patients like Tanaka Yoko—women alone and without family—forcing them into prostitution for profit while they were unconscious or unable to resist or cry for help.

It was then that a tall man with a cold expression and glasses appeared before Tanaka Yoko.

Just as she thought she was about to suffer another round of abuse—

The man revealed his identity.

He was Tozaki Yuu!

Tozaki Yuu had actually been investigating Tanaka Yoko for quite some time.

The reason was that after Tanaka Yoko's stepfather discovered that she was an Ajin, he had harbored evil intentions and wanted to notify the government and sell Tanaka Yoko for a high price.

But Tanaka Yoko had been hiding nearby at the time and misunderstood what she heard. Not knowing what an Ajin was, she had thought her stepfather wanted to make her sell her body for money.

Moreover, after hearing her stepfather's proposal, her mother had turned and gone inside.

It had not been, as Tanaka Yoko believed, because she was indifferent and had silently accepted his suggestion.

Instead, she had gone inside, grabbed a pair of scissors, and stabbed her stepfather to death!

However, she herself had been killed in return by the stronger stepfather before he died.

Because Tanaka Yoko had fled home before that and never returned—

She knew nothing of any of it.

The moment she heard Tozaki Yuu explain everything, she broke down in tears.

Then Tozaki Yuu asked whether she wanted to leave with him.

From then on, the Tanaka Yoko she represented died completely.

Using her biological father's surname, "Shimomura," and her mother's surname, "Izumi," as an alias—

A new her was born!

And her name was—Shimomura Izumi!

As they spent more time together afterward, Shimomura Izumi gradually came to depend on the man who had given her a new life, even developing intense feelings of love for him.

But she knew perfectly well that there could never be anything between her and Tozaki Yuu.

So she kept those feelings buried deep in her heart.

Never once revealing even the slightest bit of them.

Yet in the dead of night, the girl had wondered whether she could throw herself into that warm embrace that made her feel so safe, then softly say, "Did you know? I actually love you."

Sadly—

She no longer had that chance.

Holding Tozaki Yuu's headless corpse in her arms—

Shimomura Izumi let out heartbroken wails, weeping blood.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

One Little Black after another appeared around her.

Torrent Phenomenon!

Catalyzed by extreme grief, Shimomura Izumi triggered the Torrent Phenomenon!