Izumi stared at the message on his phone, his expression filled with doubt.
"I can't bring Sota… I don't want to scare him. Guess I'll go alone," he muttered.
Later that day, Izumi arrived at Narita Mall. Someone stood waiting at the main entrance. As he got closer, Izumi realized it was the pale red-eyed guy.
"What...? Is he the one who texted me? And where's the girl who's always with him?" Izumi thought.
He approached him cautiously.
"Are you the one who texted me to come here?"
The guy replied calmly, "Yep, that was me. Name's Kiyoshi—given by my parents, of course."
"Oh... nice to meet you," Izumi responded, then thought to himself, What a weird name for someone with such a messed-up and sadistic vibe.
"I'm Izumi. Tanaka Izumi. How'd you get my number, by the way?"
Kiyoshi didn't answer with words. Instead, he lifted a torn piece of orange cloth and a phone.
"I found these. I believe this belonged to your friend."
Izumi's eyes widened.
"That's Kenji's phone… and that cloth... Is this why you asked me to come here?"
"Well, no. There's more I needed to say, actually—about the—"
Suddenly, a girl's scream cut him off. It was loud and filled with anguish.
"What was that?!" Izumi asked, startled.
Puzzled, the two immediately ran to check it out. When they arrived, the area was empty.
"I swear the voice came from here…" Kiyoshi muttered.
Just then, a man in uniform appeared behind them.
"HEY! You two! This is a crime scene—high schoolers shouldn't be here!" barked the patrol officer.
Izumi quickly asked, "Did you hear a girl screaming just now?"
"Yeah, that's why I came. What happened here?" the officer replied.
Kiyoshi answered, "We don't know…"
The officer escorted both of them out and sent them home.
Scene shifts to Envy, back at the team's headquarters around the same time.
"Gluttony, what's the update on the tracking chip you planted on Raidon?" Envy asked.
"We've got his location," Gluttony replied, grinning. "Man, he looked so terrified when I fell on top of him that day. Thought I was a corpse—hahaha! Anyway, Wrath said we'll ambush his house on February 28th."
"So... that means we won't need to go through with Phase 2 of Plan B that we triggered on the night of the Narita Mall incident, right?" Envy asked.
Suddenly, Wrath appeared from the hallway.
"No… we will," he said coldly. "We can't risk anyone giving the police any information. Especially not about the animals that attacked them."
"What?? That's insane! Our job is to capture Raidon! Sending scouts to follow the survivors was already enough! Now we have to kill them too?!" Envy shouted.
Then, a large screen at HQ suddenly turned on. A single word appeared in calligraphy:
THE FIRST
Wrath stared at it solemnly.
"We can't let anyone know about our tech," he said quietly. "The plan continues. I have something to take care of…"
Then his voice grew cold.
"Go to Phase 2 of Plan B. Kill every survivor."