Chapter Summaries

Jin'en and Broken Rainbow prepared to kill Hermann Voss, a smuggler protected by guards and the sensory-type Mili, whose survival was tied to Jin'en's violent past. They infiltrated Hermann's private club, and Jin'en held a rift behind Hermann's neck but hesitated to strike.

• Broken Rainbow confronted Jin'en about taking on Big Sis's jobs and warned him that Porsette's stance training could injure her knees.
• Inanna assigned Jin'en and Broken Rainbow to kill Hermann Voss, recover the anomaly item Return to Zero, and avoid Mili's ability to detect spatial fluctuations.
• Broken Rainbow asked whether Jin'en could face Mili, the sole survivor of the Bridge District incident in which Jin'en lost control.
• Jin'en and Broken Rainbow entered Hermann's club, using Broken Rainbow's illusions to confuse guards and Mili.
• Jin'en appeared behind Hermann and restrained Mili with a narrow spatial rift, then opened another rift behind Hermann's neck but hesitated to kill him.

Jin'en used spatial collapse to erase Herman, then spared Mili, a survivor of his uncontrolled power three years earlier. As Jin'en and Broken Rainbow left the building, they discussed his ability and her memories of her sister and childhood; they drove away together.

• Jin'en collapsed space around Herman, making him disappear without a trace, while Broken Rainbow watched.
• Mili recognized Jin'en from the Bridge District incident and described sensing the room's spatial structure change; Jin'en told her she could leave.
• Jin'en and Broken Rainbow discussed how his folding ability pulled Herman toward the markings on Jin'en's wrist, though Jin'en did not know where Herman had gone.
• In the alley, Broken Rainbow said she found Jin'en's spatial folding beautiful and recalled being called a monster in the Eye-Carving Bird's dungeon and making an eyepatch after her sister wore one.
• Jin'en and Broken Rainbow drove away, and Broken Rainbow noted that he had spoken more while teaching Little Red Riding Hood than he had when teaching her.

Jin'en bought Broken Rainbow secondhand boots and cared for the cracked soles of her feet in her room. Broken Rainbow noticed the danger in his recent use of his power, while Porsette secretly watched them and fled.

• Jin'en bought Broken Rainbow a pair of secondhand boots in the Bridge District, and she wore them back to the Scarlet Letter Mansion.
• Jin'en brought hot water to Broken Rainbow's room, washed her feet, and rubbed Vaseline into the cracks in her soles.
• Broken Rainbow told Jin'en she had noticed he risked injuring himself when he folded Herman into his rift.
• Broken Rainbow reflected on her sister's lonely returns from missions and told Jin'en no one had ever asked about the cracks in her feet.
• Porsette secretly watched Jin'en care for Broken Rainbow, then ran away when Broken Rainbow noticed her.

Inanna assigned Porsette her first mission: retrieve an anomaly ring from a private collector, with Jin'en overseeing her and Broken Rainbow supporting the operation. After scouting the building, Porsette asked how long Jin'en would wait if she failed to come out, and he promised to stay until she did.

• Porsette told Jin'en that Inanna wanted him in the study and suspected she was about to receive a mission.
• Inanna ordered Porsette to retrieve the anomaly ring called “Devouring Pattern” the following night, with Broken Rainbow handling the perimeter and Jin'en watching over Porsette.
• Inanna explained that Porsette had to see her destination before teleporting, so Jin'en took her to scout Victor Lance's building and taught her how to assess the entrances and escape route.
• Porsette admitted she feared someone else might be inside the collection room, and Jin'en set a thirty-second limit for her to retrieve the ring and teleport out.
• On the drive home, Jin'en told Porsette about mistakes he made on his first mission, and she smiled before asking how long he would wait if she did not return.
• Jin'en told Porsette he would wait until she came out.

Jin'en and Porsette stole the Devouring Pattern ring from Victor Lance’s collection room, where they encountered two other thieves. Jin'en killed the thieves after they saw him, and he and Porsette returned with the ring.

• Inanna assigned Porsette to steal the Devouring Pattern ring while Jin'en waited at the back-alley fire escape.
• Porsette entered the Victor Building, took the ring, and returned after finding two thieves inside the collection room.
• Jin'en folded to the fourth-floor corridor and killed both thieves after one saw him.
• Jin'en met Porsette at the car, and they drove away with the ring.
• Porsette asked whether the thieves had seen Jin'en, and he told her he had dealt with them.

After Porsette’s first mission, Inanna assigned Broken Rainbow to train and partner with her, with Jin'en providing backup. Broken Rainbow explained how her illusions could become teleportation points and revealed she was helping Porsette because no one had helped her when she was young.

• Jin'en returned the ring stolen from Victor Lance’s collection to Inanna, who praised Porsette for passing her first official mission.
• Inanna assigned Broken Rainbow to lead Porsette on future missions and train her, while Jin'en would provide perimeter support if they needed help.
• Broken Rainbow warned Porsette that her teleportation depended on seeing a destination and explained that her illusions could provide temporary teleportation points.
• Jin'en told Porsette he chose to practice with her because he wanted to, then made her continue her stance training.
• Broken Rainbow explained that Porsette would need to escape her illusions within three seconds and admitted she was helping because no one had helped her when she was young.

Inanna sent Jin'en to take Porsette around Hethereau so she could record teleportation coordinates, and asked him to investigate reported spatial anomalies on Halfwidth Street. After finding only a fresh scrape, Jin'en helped Porsette memorize locations across the city and learned she also planned escape routes; they ended at Unheard-of Bay.

• Inanna gave Jin'en money to take Porsette around Hethereau, build her teleportation destinations, and investigate spatial anomalies near Halfwidth Street.
• Broken Rainbow told Jin'en that Porsette was waiting in the training ground and asked him to promise to do something for her when he returned.
• Jin'en drove Porsette to Halfwidth Street, found no spatial distortions but noticed a fresh scrape, and had Porsette memorize the abandoned building where he had once lived.
• Jin'en took Porsette to several locations in the Bridge District and Miguel District, where she recorded coordinates and explained that she assessed escape routes at each stop.
• Jin'en stopped at Unheard-of Bay after Porsette said she had never been there, and they stood together by the sea.

Jin'en and Porsette were pursued by two men hired to locate Poinsettia, and Jin'en subdued them with his black-tipped fishing rod. After learning a middleman named Zhou had arranged the job, Jin'en brought Porsette to 17 Halfwidth Street, where a woman waited in the doorway.

• Jin'en noticed a car following him and Porsette along the coastal road, then led it to an abandoned lookout.
• Two men confronted Jin'en and identified Porsette as Poinsettia, saying they had been hired to find her coordinates.
• Jin'en used his fishing rod to disable both men and learned that a middleman surnamed Zhou had sent them.
• Jin'en told the crew-cut man to warn Zhou to leave Poinsettia alone, then sent Porsette ahead in the gray car before rejoining her.
• Porsette noticed the fishing rod's tip had turned black, and Jin'en took her to 17 Halfwidth Street, where a woman stood waiting with a knife.

Jin'en visited Daffodil in the Bridge District and explained that a broker was sending people to spy on Red Letter, though he planned to handle the threat himself. During their conversation, a second, dark-attributed ability awakened in him, allowing him to create a fishing rod through Unity of Man and Rod.

• Jin'en met Daffodil at her bungalow and learned that she had found faint spatial energy leaks near Halfwidth Street but no clear anomaly.
• Jin'en told Daffodil that people working for a broker surnamed Zhou had followed him and Porsette to obtain her teleportation coordinates.
• Jin'en refused Daffodil's offer to help and said he would deal with the Bridge District's spies himself, while leaving his return to the mansion undecided.
• Dark energy appeared alongside the silver markings on Jin'en's wrist, revealing a second ability independent of his Space Manipulation.
• Jin'en formed a pitch-black fishing rod from his new dark power, which surfaced in his mind as Unity of Man and Rod.

Jin'en discovered that his dark-attribute power devoured whatever it touched and learned to send it through Porsette's spatial rifts. After Inanna ordered him to eliminate Zhou, Jin'en tracked the middleman down in the Bridge District and confronted him over Porsette's coordinates.

• Jin'en tested his black rod against Daffodil's blade and a wall, discovering that it devoured spiritual power and material.
• Porsette and Jin'en combined their abilities, sending the rod's devouring power through her spatial rift to damage a wall across the alley.
• Jin'en decided not to tell Inanna about his new ability, and he and Porsette returned to the mansion the next morning.
• Inanna ordered Jin'en to eliminate Zhou within three days after learning that someone was probing for Porsette's coordinates, and she questioned Jin'en about an unexplained spatial fluctuation.
• Jin'en found Zhou in a room behind the chess and card room and pinned him to a table, demanding to know who had bought Porsette's coordinates.
• Zhou claimed he had not sold the coordinates and only had information that Porsette had appeared in Unheard-of Bay.

Jin'en learned that Prism was secretly gathering information on Porsette and planned to investigate the group’s library drop. After Broken Rainbow urged him to teach Porsette to observe and asked him to share what he knew about his dark power, Jin'en tested the black rod and confirmed that it devoured matter.

• Jin'en forced Zhou to reveal that Prism was buying spatial ability users’ coordinates and collecting his reports from a Bridge District Library locker the day after tomorrow.
• Jin'en found Porsette waiting in the alley, and she said she had taken the bus after Broken Rainbow asked her to check on him.
• Porsette warned Jin'en that Prism had previously targeted Daffodil and urged him to let Daffodil help examine his new black rod.
• Broken Rainbow explained that she had sent Porsette to follow Jin'en so she could practice teleportation and learn how he handled dangerous situations, then told him to take Porsette to watch the library drop.
• Broken Rainbow told Jin'en that she and Daffodil should know about his dark power, which could absorb him if he failed to train it properly.
• Jin'en tested the black rod on a tree and watched it crumble the touched bark into powder, confirming that the rod devoured matter.

Jin'en and Porsette staked out Bridge District Library and traced Prism's material exchange to a nearby building, where they found a camera aimed at the lockers. They planned to return the next day, while Porsette raised concerns that Prism might be watching Red Letter and others too.

• Jin'en took Porsette to Bridge District Library to watch the lockers and saw a bespectacled man leave an envelope before a woman checked the area and a man in a black hoodie collected it.
• Jin'en and Porsette followed the man in the black hoodie to a building with three people inside, and Porsette inferred that he was Prism's regular pickup man.
• Jin'en and Porsette found an empty room opposite the library with a camera aimed toward the lockers, but its memory card was gone.
• Porsette suggested that Prism might be monitoring Red Letter and other people, and Jin'en decided to stake out the library again the next day.
• Broken Rainbow praised Porsette for noticing and sharing details, and Porsette later asked Jin'en what he would do if someone was in the building opposite during their next stakeout.

Jin'en and Daffodil found and raided a Prism storage warehouse, where Jin'en discovered that Prism had been tracking Porsette. He planned to use her as bait, but Prism only watched from the library and left behind a glove with embroidered initials, giving Jin'en a new lead to investigate.

• Daffodil told Jin'en that Prism had moved its collection route to a warehouse on Halfwidth Street, and she went inside while Jin'en and Porsette watched from outside.
• Jin'en stopped a fleeing errand runner and found new photographs of Porsette, while Daffodil knocked out the other man in the warehouse.
• Jin'en told Broken Rainbow that he planned to draw Prism out by using Porsette as bait, and Porsette figured out the plan and agreed to stand outside the Bridge District Library.
• After Porsette waited for ten minutes, Jin'en detected someone watching from the library's second-floor window and found a black glove with embroidered initials there.
• Jin'en decided to trace the glove through bespoke shops in the Bridge District and told Porsette to stay home while he investigated.

Jin'en traced a glove linked to Prism, but Porsette and Broken Rainbow warned that the trail was likely a trap, so he chose not to follow it. He later secretly entered a dockside container and found extensive surveillance records on Porsette, including a note saying she was bait and should be watched until she left the residence.

• Jin'en discovered that Prism's runners had ordered the glove and learned that a warehouse manager named Zhu handled the organization's orders.
• Jin'en followed a runner to a black van and overheard that Prism still wanted coordinates and knew Porsette was hiding in the mansion.
• Porsette reasoned that Prism had deliberately left the glove to lure Jin'en into a trap, and she urged him not to follow the lead; Jin'en refused her request to accompany him.
• Broken Rainbow agreed that the trail was suspicious and offered to investigate the van's license plate; she later found it was duplicated but traced the van to a dockside storage container.
• Jin'en entered the container alone and found photographs documenting Porsette's movements, including a note that she was bait and Prism should wait for her to leave the residence.

Jin'en traced Prism's operation from its dockside hideout to a logistics storefront while keeping Porsette inside the mansion. After Porsette asked to visit the storefront to save its coordinates, Jin'en agreed to take her there the next day, leaving Prism's suspected local contact as their next lead.

• Jin'en told Porsette that Prism had photographed her and was waiting for her to leave the mansion, so she agreed to stay inside.
• Jin'en told Inanna he planned to track Prism by letting its people move their files, and Inanna warned him not to confront them alone.
• Broken Rainbow revealed that a lookout had watched the mansion's back door, and Jin'en confirmed he had sent the lookout away to prompt Prism to move its hideout.
• Jin'en watched Prism's people move their belongings from the dockside container to a logistics storefront near the Bridge and Miguel Districts, then observed a dark-coated visitor inspect it.
• Porsette asked Jin'en to take her to the storefront so she could save its coordinates, and he agreed to go with her the next day.

Jin'en and Porsette investigated Prism's storage boxes and found a list of collected coordinates, including Daffodil's confirmed bungalow location. They escaped with one sheet of the list, and Jin'en planned to warn Daffodil to move.

• Jin'en had Porsette scout the storefront's back alley and discovered a Prism mark on a box through a gap in the boarded window.
• Jin'en trained Porsette to open a portal behind someone, and Broken Rainbow warned her to check behind herself before emerging.
• Porsette advised Jin'en to wait at an angle where the lookout could not see him, and Jin'en followed her advice the next afternoon.
• When the lookout left to buy food, Porsette teleported into the compartment, took one sheet from a box, and escaped with Jin'en as the lookout returned.
• Jin'en read Prism's list, which showed Daffodil's bungalow as confirmed and Broken Rainbow's Scarlet Letter Mansion location as unconfirmed, and said Daffodil needed to move.

Jin'en and Porsette traced Prism’s surveillance of Daffodil and the mansion to a warehouse building after Daffodil helped them follow a shipment. The chapter ended with Jin'en realizing Prism had also opened a file on Mandrake.

• Jin'en and Porsette visited Daffodil, who confirmed Prism had watched her bungalow and planned to leave that night; she agreed to check an abandoned loading bay before acting.
• Daffodil sent word that a silver van would load goods at ten, while Jin'en and Porsette retrieved a thick envelope of surveillance photographs and records from the logistics storefront.
• Jin'en and Porsette followed the van to an old building, where a man inspected the shipment before it was taken inside; Daffodil said the building received two scheduled deliveries daily.
• Daffodil told Jin'en she had cleared out her bungalow and was staying near the docks, while Porsette asked to enter the building the next day to save its coordinates.
• Jin'en noticed a note on Prism’s records stating that a file had been opened on Mandrake.

Jin'en uncovered Prism’s plan to track him through Porsette and recovered a note confirming its investigation. After Prism agents searched the alley crates, he learned that the old building’s regular shifts might be tied to Prism, leaving him preparing to investigate with Porsette.

• Jin'en told Broken Rainbow and Porsette that Prism had opened a file on him and arranged for them to watch the logistics storefront alley while he investigated the old building.
• Jin'en overheard Prism agents at the old building planning to track his movements through Porsette and delay his file until they confirmed her coordinates.
• Broken Rainbow and Porsette helped Jin'en intercept two people searching the alley crates, and Porsette recovered a note describing Prism’s plan for the Mandrake file.
• Jin'en questioned the captured lookout, learned he had been sent by the man surnamed Zhu, and let him go so he would carry a message back.
• Porsette proposed changing how she and Jin'en traveled, and Jin'en planned to vary his own routes instead of letting Prism learn his patterns.
• Broken Rainbow showed Jin'en a numbered Prism badge, and he agreed to teach Porsette an escape technique before they investigated the old building the next morning.

Jin'en tracked Prism's cargo from Old Zhou's deliveries to a warehouse near an eastern secondhand market, then questioned Old Zhou and arranged for him to leave a note about the route. Broken Rainbow also brought Jin'en an anonymous message pointing them toward Mandrake at Scarlet Letter Mansion, though the sender remained unidentified.

• Jin'en and Porsette watched Old Zhou unload Prism-marked boxes, then followed the van and its black sedan escort to a freight station where the cargo was transferred to a white truck.
• Jin'en chose to follow Old Zhou back rather than the white truck, and Daffodil later found the truck parked by a locked warehouse near the eastern secondhand market.
• Jin'en confronted Old Zhou, learned that he had moved goods for three years and that the jacketed man was called Old Zheng, then asked Old Zhou to place a route note in the third box the next day.
• Porsette asked Jin'en whether she could teleport to the freight-station vehicle switch and inspect the white truck, but Jin'en told her to wait until they received Old Zhou's note.
• Broken Rainbow gave Jin'en an anonymous message reading “Mandrake, Scarlet Letter Mansion” and reported that the sender had glanced toward a bare tree in the central courtyard.

Jin'en discovered a Prism marker hidden in the bare tree and arranged a watch on both it and the mansion mailbox. A messenger delivered Old Zheng’s warning that the old building was empty and gave Jin'en the location of goods in an eastern warehouse complex, which Jin'en planned to reach before the next night.

• Jin'en found a Prism badge without a number hidden in the bare tree’s bark and concluded it marked a place someone had visited.
• Jin'en and Broken Rainbow set up separate watches on the mailbox and the bare tree, with Broken Rainbow using a remnant of Eye of Bewilderment to detect anyone nearby.
• A woman approached the mailbox at night and told Jin'en she was delivering a second note from Old Zheng.
• The woman said the old building had been cleared and, after Jin'en pressed her, revealed that the goods had been moved to warehouses behind the secondhand market in the east.
• Jin'en learned that Old Zheng was waiting at the card and chess room behind Halfwidth Street and told the messenger he would go east before the following night.
• Broken Rainbow signaled that the thread had not moved, indicating no one had approached the bare tree.