Asakusa District, Haruto Pool Shop.
The shop owner Nakai Jouichi stood behind the counter, smiling broadly as he greeted and bid farewell to customers. The pool shop had become famous, and people loved playing "Bloody Pool" in the compartment where the Ratman’s murder took place, feeling that it was only there that they could truly enjoy themselves.
The sound of multiple Shuttle Machines landing roared around, causing Nakai Jouichi’s heart to thump nervously. Based on his many years of experience, he knew the authorities were closing in. The next second, he reassured himself, it’s okay, just stick to the same story he had used for everyone else, claiming that the Ratman killed those seven people should suffice.
Afternoon sunlight slanted into the shop, and soon this beam of light was blocked by a dark silhouette. Farosa’s backlit figure entered the shop, casting a frost-like shadow over the entire store.
On either side of Farosa, several armored Lower-rank Witch Battlers swiftly entered, wielding powerful Night Silver Weapons, silently crossing the shop. They blocked other corridors and compartments, preventing everyone from moving and entering. The customers initially shouted loudly, but in an instant, the pool shop quieted down.
Farosa’s gaze landed on the shop owner’s face, and Mizuiro Yoshioka walked past Farosa, showing a flat terminal screen to the shop owner Nakai Jouichi.
The screen recorded a boy about 12 or 13 years old, attending class at school.
"Ah—my son..." Nakai Jouichi was terrified.
"This is your son, Nakai Tarou, studying diligently at Harutsu City Ryousai Junior High School," Mizuiro Yoshioka said.
"I know..." Nakai Jouichi shivered.
"Who killed those seven people?" Farosa’s gaze fell on the shop owner.
"Ah... it was the Ratman..." Nakai Jouichi instinctively said.
In an instant, the boy on the screen looked as if his soul had been drained, his body limp, rapidly collapsing onto the table. The other classmates noticed this and quickly panicked, the screen recording the chaos in the classroom.
Shop owner Nakai Jouichi’s body also collapsed instantaneously, nearly crumpling behind the counter.
"Who killed those seven people?" Farosa’s gaze returned to Nakai Jouichi.
"It was the stamps!" Nakai Jouichi wailed, "They took too many stamps... overdosed themselves to death! You—please spare my son! I beg you!"
"Is it related to the Ratman?"
"No relation! The Ratmen are friends of mine... I would invite them over to play... No—Tarou is innocent, please spare him!"
"So you’re pushing the blame for the murders onto your Ratman friends?" Farosa said with a smile.
"I don’t know—I’m helpless... The stamps... making money... Tarou..." Nakai Jouichi muttered, his voice growing fainter and fainter.
"Somebody will arrange for you to reveal the truth publicly. You’ve earned about four million illegally from stamps over the years, an amount equivalent to your son’s medical expenses. Spend the rest of your life doing an honest job to raise money," Farosa turned and left the shop, leaving the owner of Haruto Pool Shop wailing in the shadow behind the counter.
In Asakusa District, on a large square usually used for festival celebrations, over a hundred Rat corpses were piled up, with three live Ratmen still caged.
"Look at those Ratmen!"
"They are so disgusting!"
"Ha, if they dare to make trouble again, we’ll bring out yesterday’s effort to wipe them out!" bystanders pointed and discussed.
In an instant, they felt the world change color, as if everything sank into a sea of blood, their vision covered by an ominous blood-red shade, resembling everything reinventing itself from the womb.
When they snapped back to reality, the more than a hundred Rat corpses on the square had all turned into living Ratmen!
The wounds disappeared, flesh reformed, and blood and plasma vanished without a trace, ash and dust all gathered together! The bystanders trembled all over, their scalps tingling!
"Wow! Wow!" The Ratmen, soulless, retained only basic instincts, almost like walking rat corpses, with only a few retaining a clear will.
Witnessing these seemingly insane, soul-lost monsters, the onlooking citizens lost their nerve, panicked, scattered like birds and beasts, rushing to escape. Thanks to the Witch Battlers dispersing the crowd, a severe stampede was avoided.
A Lower-rank Witch holding a player with songs of Saint Sally appeared. Although the Ratmen only had remnants of their souls left, their deepest desires followed the voice of Saint Sally.
Hundreds of walking Rat corpses staggered following the Witch, bewilderedly walking towards the wilderness, disappearing from the citizens’ sight, with Ratmen collapsing along the way, quickly reclaimed by the logistic troops.
Those extremely fortunate, resurrected Ratmen with intact souls tightly followed the voice of Saint Sally, believing it to be Saint Sally performing a Miracle, their hearts filled with immense admiration for the Rat Deity.
"There is no place for them in human territories," Farosa said with her hands clasped behind her back, watching the departing procession of stiff Ratmen.
"What should we do with the Ratmen after all?" Mizuiro Yoshioka asked.
"Send them on an expedition to the Four Wars Territory. If they earn their yeni homes there with claws, teeth, and anger, then they deserve it," Farosa contemplated.
"I thought the Ratmen could all reform..."
"At one point in the past, all Ratmen indeed turned back into humans, but there are still countless Ratmen around the world; this is a societal sickness. Humans will continuously enter the Ratmen’s state of living and slowly transform into Ratmen. We do indeed need Ratmen in this ecology because certain parts of the human group truly deserve a fate that matches their disposition. Ah—they deserved it," Farosa said with a smile.