A heavy fog is settling over the city─a rare phenomenon in the capital.
On a night like this, you shouldn’t walk alone. Especially if you’re a young woman.
Why, you ask?
Because he might make an appearance. The man who’s lately become the talk of the town.
Click, Click, echoes the slow and breezy footsteps walking down a backstreet.
Looks like prey is coming.
An unguarded woman is approaching him.
Choosing to walk through this dark and empty alley was her mistake. She’s probably just taking a shortcut home, but even still, she is being a bit too naïve.
The man is wearing a hat over his eyes. The lower half of his face is covered with a piece of fabric.
He’s wearing an unseemly long coat for the season, and the hand in his pocket is clutching a large knife.
Jack the Nameless Ripper, that’s who I am, he gloats.
He doesn’t care who his target is.
A young woman would be suitable.
He’s not picky about her appearance, but this broad is quite the looker even from a distance.
Had she been a feeble woman, he’d feel a little guilty, but the one approaching is voluptuous and would be quite a titillating experience.
But…isn’t she a little too indecently exposed?
Only her breasts and crotch are covered up.
Do prostitutes these days need to dress that provocatively just to get by?
Setting aside his sliver of uncertainty, Nameless Jack grips the weapon in his pocket and charges straight at her.
Head-on, no cheap tricks.
No word of warning.
That’s his policy.
The grand finale of the young victim’s budding life shall be embellished with his silence and her scream.
The woman stops in her tracks and squints her sharp catlike eyes. Her spine briefly shivers as if to distort her beautiful figure. That’s when…
Slam!
“Bfurgh!”
The man trips out of nowhere.
“Uaaaghhh!”
The knife in his pocket digs into the side of his abdomen─just a little, though. But the man writhes in anguish on the ground.
The lewdly dressed woman looks down in annoyance. “What the hell are you doing…?”
“Urg… Dammit…” The man wobbles to his feet.
He carefully takes out his knife and brandishes it at the woman, who doesn’t seem the least afraid of him.
Huh?
Her fair face clouds with skepticism and she asks, “Are you that indecently exposed flasher who’s been causing problems around here lately?”
“You’re one to talk!”
He certainly didn’t want to hear it from the woman dressed like one.
The man had already let himself get heated up; it was too late to go back to playing his cold and silent persona.
The poor woman is about to be offed; perhaps I should show her a bit of pity.
He decides to give her his name.
“I am Jack… Jack the Nameless Ripper.”
“Don’t you mean Jack the Indecent Flasher?”
“Stop calling me that!”
“Then what are you? I haven’t heard about any thieves or murderers around here.”
“……”
He shifts his gaze uncomfortably.
What she said is true. There’d been no news of thieves or murderers appearing in this area.
The man had recently discovered his thirst for murder, and it’s been two weeks since he started wandering the district looking to kill.
He’s already made seven attempts just like tonight─he conjured a mist with magic, sought out lone prey, and made his move.
But every single time, he tripped or dawdled with his knife and let his targets escape.
And now I’m being mistaken for a flasher… he mourned.
The woman says to the dejected man, “Never mind that.”
She approaches as she licks her lips.
“I can sense exquisite mana coming out of you. Looks like you’re the prey I’ve been looking for.”
Her red eyes begin to glow mystically.
“Agh?!”
I’m screwed, the man thinks.
Not in the sexual way, but in the threatening kind of way. Just as the man loses control of his legs and falters to the ground…
“Hiding in the fog to enact your evil deeds?” A little girl’s voice resounds out of nowhere. “To the villains who yearn for the darkness: on behalf of the moon, I’m watching you.”
“Who’s there?!” The she-devil recognizes the voice.
Her eyes dart in the direction it’s coming from─above.
“Very nice! I like that reaction. And since you asked, I shall reveal. Even if you didn’t ask, I would’ve anyway.”
The petite figure in the mist leaps up with a “Hi-yah!” and sticks a clean landing on the ground.
“It is I, the Magical Girl of Justice, Immortal Char. I’m here to annihilate your worries away!”
A young girl in a frilly pink outfit strikes a pose with her magic wand.
“You again, you damned brat─oh, whatever. I’m the one who’s gonna dominate again, anyway.”
“Oh, no, no. This time, once again, victory shall be ours.”
“Heh heh heh…” the devil chuckles.
“Tee hee hee!” giggles the girl.
The sadist and the angel.
The smiles on their faces starkly contrast with each other. The man─who’s never met either of them─does not understand what they’re talking about.
But he knows instinctively:
They’re not on the same page.
And little does he know that stuck to the inside of his coat is…a golden card.