The neon lights of Fuuto's South District blurred beneath the unceasing rain, diffusing into hazy patches of light.
Shotaro jerked the steering wheel. His car let out a piercing screech, skidded in a perilous arc across the slick road, and came to an abrupt stop.
He swiftly jumped out, casually hanging his helmet on the rearview mirror.
The freezing rain immediately pelted down, soaking his carefully styled hair and his signature black fedora in an instant.
Not far away, the glass doors of a pachinko parlor had shattered across the ground like fallen stars.
The crowd began to flee, throwing the entire shopping district into chaos—
"What the hell? Can't they let people have any peace even in weather like this—"
Shotaro muttered as he tugged up the collar of his hard-shell jacket. Pulling his hat brim lower to hide half his face, he walked against the fleeing crowd toward the center of the disturbance.
At the heart of the chaos, a humanoid monster emanating an astonishing chill was madly smashing a row of machines.
The moment he saw it, Shotaro came to an abrupt stop.
That stance, that ability to turn everything around it into an ice age—
He remembered it perfectly!
This was the ICEAGE Dopant that Ryu Terui had cleanly taken down when he first appeared! Why—
Why had it appeared again?!
Shotaro's brows knotted tightly.
A Gaia Memory of this grade was an expensive prototype into which Museum had poured vast resources.
Logically, once enough data had been gathered, it should never have been used again, much less mass-produced—
"Shotaro, be careful! Its energy reading is much higher than during our last encounter!"
At that moment, the calm yet urgent voice of his partner Philip rang out in his mind.
"Don't worry! I—no, we've grown a