Atsuko Asano

On the run from No. 6, Shion moves in with Rat in West Block. Though life outside the comfort of the city is a trial, Shion learns to survive. Meanwhile, back in Chronos, the elite core of No. 6, Safu begins to look into his disappearance only to find herself under arrest! And what can Shion possibly do from exile to help his lifelong friend?

For Shion, an elite student in the technologically sophisticated city No. 6, life is carefully choreographed. School, study, and the occasional visit with his friend and classmate Safu. One fateful day, however, he takes a misstep, sheltering an injured boy his age from a typhoon. Known only as Rat, this boy is a VC - a fugitive living outside the computerized tapestry of city control - and helpin...

Soldiers from No. 6 suddenly begin a massacre of unarmed civilians, hauling the survivors off to the correctional facility! The only way to get into the facility to save Safu is to get swept up in the dragnet. But once Shion and Rat arrive, what they find is a hell worse than they could have imagined...