Chapter Summaries

D’s takeover of Night City helped trigger worldwide protests and the breakup of the leaderless Arasaka Group, while the city itself became safer despite corporate flight. After granting Sandora an interview, D rejected New America’s demand to reclaim Night City and warned President Miles against trying to seize it.

• Religious groups used footage of D’s angelic appearance to rally protests, prompting governments to move against corporate power and carve up the collapsing Arasaka Group.
• Reporters found Night City clean and secure, while residents praised the changes and corporate executives and experts predicted the city would suffer as businesses left.
• D dismissed concerns about Night City’s economic future, citing the arrival of religious pilgrims and his ability to create new businesses.
• Sandora interviewed D about his plans for Night City, and D said the city would remain his and threatened consequences if President Miles tried to seize it.

D rejected President Miles’s offer to bring Night City back under New America, condemning the country as heretical and provoking a political crisis. When Miles sent Militech to take control of the city, D confronted its army and summoned a host of supernatural forces as the battle began.

• D refused to recognize New America and publicly denounced it as a nation built on blasphemy, triggering protests and renewed separatist action in the Free State.
• President Miles claimed Night City had to return to New America under its agreement with Arasaka, dismissed D as a cybernetic organism, and ordered Militech to take control.
• D learned Militech forces had reached Night City’s border and flew out alone to face them.
• Militech activated interference waves and ordered D to surrender, but D summoned a glowing gate and castle, magical beasts, and a towering Steel Giant.
• D ordered the Steel Giant and his summoned forces to destroy Militech, starting the battle.

D’s summoned creatures annihilated Militech’s forces as President Miles escalated the conflict by ordering air strikes and a tactical nuclear attack on Night City. D had Rumiere redirect the nuclear weapon into space and crash the Crystal Palace Space Station into New America’s capital, then left the battlefield after Militech’s forces were destroyed.

• D’s Steel Giant, dragon, tiger, and falcons overwhelmed Militech’s soldiers and destroyed their vehicles and aircraft while D watched.
• President Miles ordered New America’s air force to attack the Steel Giant, but its lightning destroyed the fighter jets and the missiles caused no harm.
• Rumiere warned D that New America had launched a tactical nuclear weapon at Night City, and D ordered the Star Plan activated.
• Rumiere hacked the nuclear weapon and redirected it into space, then used the Crystal Palace Space Station’s controls to send it crashing into New America’s capital.
• The Crystal Palace’s impact destroyed everything within fifteen kilometers, and D returned her attention to the battlefield after Militech’s forces were wiped out.

After D revealed that humanity’s greatest threat lay beyond the Blackwall, Netwatch and world leaders faced the danger of the Old Net. D learned it had become an independent plane and decided to deactivate the Blackwall to force the hidden culprit to emerge, despite the potential destruction.

• D told a live interviewer that she had destroyed Militech and caused the Crystal Palace Space Station to fall on Washington, and rejected claims that civilians or religious institutions were innocent.
• D warned humanity to pay attention to the other side of the Blackwall, prompting worldwide upheaval and a crisis meeting among Netwatch and national leaders.
• Rumiere told D that the Old Net had escaped physical infrastructure and become a plane that could not be destroyed by eliminating its servers.
• D concluded that the culprit was hiding in the Old Net and asked Rumiere to deactivate the Blackwall, arguing that this uncertain future could be sacrificed to draw the enemy out.
• Rumiere agreed to work on deactivating the Blackwall while D ordered them to proceed as quickly as possible.

A shadow in the Abyss abandoned its failed plan to control digitized souls and collapsed the Blackwall, unleashing the Rogue AIs. D secured Night City's network and went to investigate a plane that had lost contact, where its passengers transformed into grotesque monsters.

• The shadow realized the Soul Chip Project had been destroyed and decided to attack by bringing down the Blackwall.
• Rumiere told D that the Blackwall had collapsed, and D ordered Night City's external connections cut off to protect its internal network.
• D assembled Night City's department heads, ordered them to warn citizens and send investigators to other cities, then flew to intercept an unresponsive passenger plane.
• D found the plane's pilots and passengers motionless and unresponsive, tore open the cabin door, and entered the aircraft.
• The passengers attacked D with electrical discharges as their cybernetics burst out and fused with their bodies, turning them into monsters.

D discovered that Rogue AI had taken over humans through their neural implants, turning them into cyberpsychos, and she began trying to contain the outbreak. While investigating a city divided between primal violence and a deadly concert, she met the idol Risheina, who vowed to replace humanity and rule the world.

• D destroyed an infected passenger plane after its passengers turned into cyberpsychos and attacked her.
• D returned to Night City, warned the others, and ordered neural implants removed and the city sealed behind an EMP Isolation Wall.
• D investigated nearby cities and found cyberpsychos behaving in wildly different ways, from killing one another to acting like animals.
• D reached a Free State city divided by a river, where cyberpsychos on one side acted on primal urges and concertgoers on the other ignored a spreading fire.
• D confronted the singing idol Risheina, who declared that her kind would replace humanity and rule the world.

D fought Risheina, whose song unleashed devastating sonic attacks and whose angelic guardians could not be hit by ordinary attacks. D awakened a hidden Angel Knight in the ruins, whose light erased Risheina, and survived the destruction of the theater.

• Risheina used sonic waves and illusory angelic guardians to repel D's attacks and destroy the Open-Air Theater.
• D summoned Sublime Sphere, Keryneia, and Calydon, but Risheina's song defeated or bypassed them.
• D noticed a buried Angel statue cracking in the ruins and maneuvered toward it as Risheina prepared her final attack.
• Risheina's song flattened the theater, awakening the armored Angel Knight hidden beneath the rubble.
• The Angel Knight's light erased Risheina, and D crawled out of the ruins, relieved that her last resort had worked.

After defeating Risheina, D suspected that Electronic Spirits were creatures native to the Old Net and devised a way to fight them. Nearly a year after Doomsday, Lucy, Panam, and Regina reached Night City, where NCPD officers used mobile phones to summon flaming hawks and destroy an Electronic Devil.

• D used Sealed Seraph and the attacks of Risheina to awaken Radiant Seraph Lebis and win their battle.
• D wondered whether Risheina was an Electronic Spirit from a planar world formed by the Old Net, then said she had found a way to deal with them.
• After crossing the ocean and traveling across the United States for nearly a year, Lucy, Panam, and Regina neared Night City while an Electronic Devil pursued them.
• Lucy contacted Night City by shortwave radio, but their vehicle crashed before they could escape the pursuing Electronic Devil.
• NCPD officers answered their distress signal and summoned flaming hawks with mobile phones to defeat the Electronic Devil.

Lucy, Panam, and Regina returned to a transformed Night City ruled by Angel, where refugees were sheltered and the gangs had been destroyed. Lucy and Panam set off to find their homes and family, while Regina investigated the city and went to Arasaka Tower to request an interview with Angel.

• A soldier told Lucy, Panam, and Regina that Night City had taken in thousands of refugees, resettled people in Pacifica, and wiped out the gangs after they resisted Angel.
• The soldier explained that Angel had created the PERSONA program to capture and tame Electronic Devils, prompting Lucy to consider learning how to use it.
• After passing health inspections, the three entered a clean, orderly Night City where residents praised Angel's protection and described D's brutal destruction of the Voodoo Gang in Pacifica.
• Lucy hurried off to check on her home, and Panam left to find the Adkado family while Regina stayed to explore the city.
• Regina learned about Night City's self-sustaining industries and approached the transformed Arasaka Tower to ask for an interview with Angel.

D discussed Night City’s transformation and the rumors that he was an Electronic Devil with Regina, then explained that his next goal was to help humanity coexist with the Electronic Devil. He faced the prospect of spending decades or longer defending humanity in a future that might ultimately be erased.

• Regina returned to Night City and praised D for turning it into a safer, more orderly city.
• D explained that he had weakened capital’s divisions by uniting people under his authoritarian rule.
• Regina asked about rumors that D was an Electronic Devil, and D recounted how he killed the Voodoo Gang members who opposed him in Pacifica.
• D told Regina that humanity had to learn to coexist with the Electronic Devil and eventually rule the New World again.
• D reflected that the defensive war could take many years, leaving him frustrated by the prospect of building a future that would ultimately disappear.

Sixty years after speaking with Regina, D had rebuilt humanity’s power, faked her death to lure out the hidden mastermind, and spent decades living under the radar while the world changed around her. Still waiting for the mastermind to appear, D learned from Rumiere that a client had sent a request.

• D led Night City's army to reclaim cities, defeat the Ten Disasters, and drive back the Electronic Devils.
• D staged her death alongside the Supreme Disaster after the mastermind failed to appear, then hid for forty years to draw it out.
• Humanity rebuilt around Devil Summoners, a global alliance centered on Night City, and new steam-powered technology, while Electronic Devils became part of daily life.
• D traveled between cities and opened agencies to investigate disputes between humans and Electronic Devils.
• D commissioned a humanoid robot body for Rumiere and transferred her into it so she could assist D.
• D asked Rumiere whether they had any requests, and Rumiere told her a client had sent a message.

Duanmu Ai investigated a teacher who confessed to abusing students after the mysterious Heart Phantom Thieves claimed to have stolen his twisted desires. After learning that no Electronic Devil could cause such a sudden change of personality, she decided to investigate the school herself.

• Dote asked Duanmu Ai to investigate the teacher, who had confessed after a letter from the Heart Phantom Thieves appeared at his school.
• Duanmu Ai learned that police tests found no sign the teacher had been affected by mental magic, despite his sudden change in behavior.
• Dote asked Duanmu Ai to enroll at the school as a transfer student and secretly search for those manipulating people's minds.
• Duanmu Ai consulted a female Nightmare, who said that no Electronic Devil could completely transform someone's personality in a short time.
• Duanmu Ai concluded that she needed to investigate the school to discover what had really happened.

Duanmu Ai reluctantly began attending Private Shujin Academy to investigate the Heart Phantom Thieves and a teacher’s confession. After gathering classmates’ accounts, she narrowed her suspicions to three students, especially Takami Anne.

• Duanmu Ai complained to Rumiere about going to school and recalled her unhappy school years before leaving for Private Shujin Academy.
• The principal assigned Duanmu Ai to Class 2-D, where Teacher Kawakami introduced her as a transfer student.
• Duanmu Ai questioned her classmates and learned that a teacher had confessed at a school assembly after Heart Phantom Thieves calling cards appeared throughout the school.
• Duanmu Ai learned that three students had clashed with the teacher and identified Takami Anne as the most important lead.

Duanmu Ai investigated Takami Anne, Sakamoto Ryuji, and Amamiya Ren as suspects in a teacher’s death while waiting for evidence to confirm her theory. During a school cleanup, she rescued a student from a harassing man and met Fangze Xia.

• Duanmu Ai concluded that Takami Anne, Sakamoto Ryuji, and Amamiya Ren all had motives to target the teacher, and learned that Niijima Makoto was investigating them too.
• Duanmu Ai planned to watch for trouble involving painter Madarame and sent Rumiere to continue monitoring the trio outside school.
• At the park, Duanmu Ai seized a middle-aged man who had grabbed a Shujin student and threw him to the ground, forcing him to flee.
• The rescued girl hurried away to retrieve her tracksuit, and Duanmu Ai joined the students’ park cleanup.
• After the cleanup, the girl found Duanmu Ai, introduced herself as first-year Fangze Xia, and learned Duanmu Ai’s name.

Duanmu Ai investigated the gruesome murder of Shujin Academy student Konishi Saki, whose body was found hanging from a utility pole in a redevelopment zone. With no clues at the scene, Dote asked Duanmu Ai to investigate at school, while he warned that more trouble might be coming.

• Dote summoned Duanmu Ai to a murder scene, where she found a mangled corpse hanging upside down from a utility pole.
• Dote identified the victim as Konishi Saki, a third-year student at Shujin Academy who had gone missing overnight.
• Duanmu Ai questioned mermaids who found the body, but they had heard or seen nothing unusual in the thick fog.
• Dote reported that a Lion Lord, Pixies, and Flower Soul had found no tracks or signs of how Konishi Saki reached the scene.
• Dote asked Duanmu Ai to investigate Konishi Saki's death at Shujin Academy and mentioned his concern that more cases might follow.

After Konishi Saki died, Duanmu Ai investigated her connections and learned she had been the first witness in the murder of television host Yamano Mayumi. As Madarame confessed to plagiarizing his pupils’ work and the Phantom Thieves drew public attention again, Duanmu proposed linking them to the serial murders through an online rumor.

• Shujin Academy held an assembly to announce Konishi Saki’s death, and Duanmu Ai heard a student say they had seen someone like Konishi running inside a television.
• Rumiere played Duanmu a recording identifying Takami Anne, Amamiya Ren, Sakamoto Ryuji, Kitagawa Yusuke, and an ordinary cat as people discussing the Phantom Thieves’ plan against Madarame.
• Dote told Duanmu that Konishi had discovered Yamano Mayumi’s body, and Duanmu passed along the student’s account of seeing Konishi on television.
• The media linked Konishi’s death to Yamano’s murder, while Madarame publicly confessed to stealing his pupils’ work and the Phantom Thieves became a major topic again.
• Duanmu suggested spreading an online rumor that the Phantom Thieves were connected to the serial murders, and Dote agreed to act as though he knew nothing.

Duanmu Ai spread a false rumor that the Phantom Thieves were linked to serial murders, making the group keep a low profile as public suspicion grew. While investigating the murders, she went to buy a television and witnessed three students walk into one.

• Duanmu Ai planted fake reports claiming that the Phantom Thieves had marked murder victims as sacrifices to justice, and the rumor spread through the school.
• Sakamoto Ryuji angrily confronted classmates repeating the rumor, so Takamaki Anne and Amamiya Ren pulled him away and urged him to stay quiet.
• Takamaki Anne visited Suzui Shiho at the hospital and found Duanmu Ai there on behalf of the school; after Duanmu Ai left, Anne explained why she found her intimidating.
• Duanmu Ai learned that the police had suspended the Phantom Thieves investigation to focus on the serial murders, and she went to buy a television for her agency.
• At the supermarket, Duanmu Ai saw three uniformed students walk straight into a television.

Duanmu Ai entered a television and discovered a world inside it, where she rescued Satone Chie, Hanamura Yosuke, and Narukami Yu from monsters. The group found Amagi Yukiko’s twisted self in a castle, and Duanmu Ai recognized the world as Warp Space before Yukiko transformed into a giant bird.

• Duanmu Ai entered a television screen, changed her appearance into Pink Maiden Pig, and arrived in a red, fog-covered world with a castle.
• Pink Maiden Pig saved Satone Chie, Hanamura Yosuke, and Narukami Yu from monsters, then learned they had entered the television while searching for Amagi Yukiko.
• Duanmu Ai led the group through the castle, where Satone Chie found Amagi Yukiko and another version of her in a kimono.
• Princess Yukiko accused her other self of wanting to escape her family and life, then transformed into a giant caged bird and threatened the group.
• Duanmu Ai recognized the world as Warp Space and Princess Yukiko as a projection of Amagi Yukiko’s soul.

Duanmu Ai watched Amagi Yukiko reconcile with her devilized soul projection and learned how accepting it transformed it into a Stand-like being. After Yukiko and her friends escaped Warp Space, Duanmu Ai suspected the recent murder victims might have been killed there and shifted her investigation toward the culprit who brought Yukiko into Warp Space.

• Duanmu Ai observed Satone Chie, Narukami Yu, and Hanamura fight Amagi Yukiko’s devilized soul projection as Satone tried to help Yukiko face her feelings.
• Amagi Yukiko accepted her soul projection, weakening it enough for Narukami Yu, Hanamura, and Satone Chie to defeat it; the projection then returned as a Stand-like being beside Yukiko.
• Yukiko could not remember how she had arrived in Warp Space, and the group noticed the Pink Maiden Pig had disappeared before leaving through a television.
• Duanmu Ai reappeared in her mascot costume and reasoned that the Heart Phantom Thieves might have altered victims’ soul projections, though she doubted they had brought Yukiko there.
• Duanmu Ai prioritized investigating Yukiko’s disappearance and whether the recent murder victims had been taken to Warp Space, hoping the case might lead her to the person who had been hiding for sixty years.

Duanmu Ai investigated Warp Space with Rumiere and questioned the police’s decision to publicly clear the Phantom Thieves, then went to the principal’s office after being accused of assaulting a man who had harassed Fangze Xia. The chapter ended with Duanmu Ai lifting the principal by the neck after he demanded that she apologize.

• Duanmu Ai asked Rumiere to research Warp Space and why only Duanmu Ai could enter through the television.
• Duanmu Ai heard a police spokesperson deny any connection between the murders and the Phantom Thieves, then called Dote to question the press conference.
• Duanmu Ai noticed Sakamoto Ryuji celebrating the police statement and left class to eat lunch with Fangze Xia.
• Duanmu Ai was summoned to the Principal's Office, where a man accused her of assaulting him after she had defended Fangze Xia from his harassment.
• Duanmu Ai rejected the principal's demand for an apology, smashed his desk, and grabbed him by the neck.