"I think I can somewhat understand those East Borough residents under Passion's control. If I had to live in an environment like this, I probably wouldn't be able to hold fast to my faith either..."
Mike and Klein crossed from the East Borough through the docks and all the way to the factory district. Everything he saw and heard deeply shocked him.
Although he had investigated plenty of information about the East Borough before coming, some things could only be truly understood when seen firsthand—only then could he grasp what those few short lines on paper really represented.
He had thought five or six people crammed into one room was already extreme, but what he saw was ten people squeezed into a single bedroom. Such bedrooms even had separate usage rights for daytime and nighttime, while in particularly impoverished places, the divisions could be as detailed as hourly slots.
Mike recorded everything that stirred his emotions in his manuscript. As he did so, his expression grew increasingly silent.
"Ah-choo!" Klein sneezed, took out a handkerchief and blew his nose, then said in a slightly stuffy voice, "This is what the East Borough is like. If effective measures aren't taken, it may lead to a terrible tragedy someday."
There was much Klein hadn't told Reporter Mike, because even he did not know what he ought to say.
Logically, he should have immediately reported the fact that the gang called Passion collectively worshipped The Creator. Yet after seeing the living conditions elsewhere in the East Borough, he hesitated.
It was not because the gang was suspected to be under Mr. Devil's command, but because he realized that this organization, which prayed to an evil god, was the East Borough people's only hope at present.
Compared to merely praying to an evil god,