Book I:

Chapter 1

01

It was the half-hearted sound of words that weren’t real, words not meant for the man next to her.

City, over the noises that drifted in through the car windows.

She was floating along in a four-ton black jewel. It was the highest class of AirCar there was, its body

couldn’t see anything on the inside when looking in from outside. You needed special dispensation to

course, to get that special dispensation, the city needed to consider you a person of suitable standing.

through the city unconcerned.

was the jewel. Certainly, that was what her appearance suggested. The shimmering lights of the city lent

piercing ebony pupils and her fawnlike eyes, her shoulder-length black hair: all there to give the client the

Doll was just about right. That was her status in life. She might be treated better—well, she was

Seduction by Precocious Nymphette. Milk-Colored Lollipop Girl. But human desires are what they are,

uniform of her own: gaudy striped tights that showed off her not-quite-yet-developed thighs and calves,

Innocence Available Here in one of those creepy ads.

Senorita class of girls. It was spread open, and both her hands were stuffed deep in her coat pockets. She

It was just then, as she was thinking about herself, reacting to the bright lights of the city, that the

“I’d be better off dead…”

bit lighter.

a weaselly figure, with his smooth, swarthy skin and black hair slicked back in a ponytail. He was

shifting colors, settled on a sharp crimson tint.

When the young girl replied, the man curled his handsome lips into a smile and stretched out his hand

“It went well today. The deal at the Show. And it’s going to go well from now on.” As he spoke he

There were a number of diamond rings on the gambler’s hands. All platinum with Blue Diamonds.

gambling. One of the diamonds was conspicuous, brighter than the rest, and the man called this one Fat

my dead mother’s ashes turned into a diamond.” Motherly love was eternal, so he reckoned, and brought

The man had a great many other rings, and the girl didn’t know whether the diamonds on them were

“Open the fridge and make me my usual drink, will you?” In response to his request, the girl gave a

lime, dribbling its juices into the drink. The surface of the beverage was absolutely still thanks to the

drink to him, the man’s hand continued stroking her chin.

his lips.

proprietor of many of the city’s legal casinos. The girl was an underage prostitute—a Teen Harlot—

customers. On the contrary, the little runaway was treated as a valuable commodity—she’d even been

“Everything that you’ve lost, I’m going to give back to you.” That was what he’d said to her when the

authorities granting guarantees of safety—a new identity, name, and address—to informers who had given

girl was hardly looking for that.

smiled. His eyes were shining as he gazed upon her, his irises said to have been turned Emperor Green, a

“You’ve asked the perfect question. That’s exactly right. The definition of love is to give. And there

continue being loved.”

lived under all sorts of rule and misrule so far. Well, apart from when she ran away from the Welfare

stuck to the rules of the adult wonderland she found herself in. She’d done anything, dressed in any way

Nevertheless, one lingering doubt remained: Why me?

The question of all questions. Why is it me? Why do all the customers ask for me? Why does this man

life?

She could be loved by the man, or God, or fate. As far as she was concerned, all that mattered was to be

wanted fromthe man. But—

This rule meant that the girl had to endure a different sort of ordeal from the ones she’d suffered in the

“The recipient of love shouldn’t have any doubts. No need to trouble yourself with questions such as

In particular she was absolutely forbidden from touching on the details of the new citizen’s ID card

The result of all this was that she had no idea even of the name under which she’d been registered

≡

City was a red convertible. One glance at the convertible revealed that it came from the coastal quarter of

gasoline than to buy an AirCar (with its Gravity Device Engine that ran virtually for eternity without the

must’ve been at least something in the city.

An easygoing voice emerged from the driver’s seat. A tall, lanky slip of a man. His hair was tie-dyed,

popular with lab researchers.

to worry about, we should withdraw.”

“No way it’s going to turn out to be nothing. I’m the one who led the profiling on him, right,

steering wheel. “That man’s been ‘looking after’ six different runaway girls. Of those, four commit

Minors. It just doesn’t add up.”

“On top of that there’s the little fact that all the girls died or disappeared shortly after checking their

this girl has managed to access a Citizen Records Bureau. The way I figure it, all’s well and good as long

The location, speed, and orientation of the black AirCar in front was shown in precise detail on the

“Stop being so damn wishy-washy. We’ve staked our lives on this work here. You don’t want to be

usefulness? Nowhere. You’ll be useless—and the fate of useless things is to be disposed of.”

“Sure. Mind you, the real question in this situation is whether the girl is going to accept you. A

Presently a blip ran across the screen of the Nav and a dark voice echoed all around.

“Hey, I’m sure she’ll understand just what a good thing you are. Her life’s in danger. That’s where we

“Even if she does have her life saved, it’s not at all unlikely that she’ll reject us…”

“Stop being such a mope. Que sera sera, right? Oi! Hey, stop hiding away.” The man banged at the

“The target’s left the road. He’s faster than I thought.”

Park.

days.”

stopped him in his tracks. “Don’t follow straight after him, Doc. We’ll take a detour and intercept him at

No sooner said than a number of possible routes came up on the screen, and before long they settled on

“Why’ve we chosen this road, Oeufcoque?” asked the man as he turned the steering wheel again.

The man sighed—he should have known it—and responded, “If nothing happens, eh? Oeufcoque, my

what is there really that divides our little patch of earth fromthe fires of hell down below?”

“Ah, yes, and we’re stopping right there beside the lake.” The man slid both his hands over the girl’s

“Don’t forget to set the timer for our rest. The password’s the same as before.” The man’s hands were

the remote. The hands that never broke into a cold sweat even when a hundred thousand dollars was at

Shows—these long, slender fingers had now slid into the girl’s underwear, forced her legs apart,

swell of her breasts, squeezing and gently pinching them.

assisting him with his needs. Her coat had already been taken off, and the fingers moving about deep

shirt and inside her bra. Still the girl silently continued to programthe course into the AirCar, and the man

“We’ll do it as you’re programming the remote.” The voice from the man, now behind her,

As the girl closed her eyes and slipped out of consciousness, the sensation of the man’s hand inside

happening on the other side of a thin film.

Right now she was able to observe even her own reactions and physical responses from a safe place

Don’t stay hidden in your shell, someone would say.

That was the sort of response she’d always had fromthe myriad of people in her life—social workers,

But this city had a different set of needs for the girl’s special talent.

Clients who got off on the idea of girls who closed off their hearts, girls who acted as though they

“Balot…” the man called into the girl’s ear. Just as many clients had called her before.

the shell.

stuck and became her trademark. Just as word quickly spreads of a particularly special dish at a

away in her shell any longer. Instead, that became her job. To continue hiding herself away in a thin husk.

“Good girl. You’re an elegant little doll, like a figure in a painting. Now, open your eyes.” The man

eyelids was like a world viewed fromthe bottomof a lake, shimmering away in the distance.

Caught off guard—just as when he had asked her the question in the past—the girl just nodded her

“Do you know what happens to girls who forget the rules?”

realized that the glitter of the city had disappeared and that they were now surrounded by the gloomy gray

Behind the girl the man slowly took his sunglasses off.

came down on top of hers. The glint at the back of his emerald eyes was different fromany sort she’d ever

“You be obedient, Balot.” The girl stiffened slightly when she heard the sharp tone in his voice, but of

the same time the AirCar eventually came to a halt by the large lake in the park, resting still in the air.

Central Park was known as the Spot of Spots. It bisected the city, and it was the only place on the

coming fromand where they were going to—might ever cross paths.

drive from their homes in the purpose-built skyscrapers of the coastal district down to the pleasure

estates to the south. The slums sprawled out throughout the southern districts, kept in strict isolation from

In other words the red convertible wouldn’t be able to park right by the lake just because the black

a few hundred meters away fromthe path toward the Senorita district the AirCar would later be taking.

beating against the leaves on the trees.

the driver of the convertible nudged his Tech Glasses up with his finger and said,

He grabbed the Nav with his other hand.

distortion, and in a twinkle it was a pair of binoculars.

The man was looking over his glasses into the binoculars, a frown expressing his dissatisfaction. As

quicksilver, into a pair of night vision goggles.

“God damn, looks like that AirCar has a real expensive Gravity Device Engine,” said the man that the

“I’d bet the shock absorbers on that thing are so good that a gunfight raging inside wouldn’t even register

as I thought.”

detectors.” The goggles distorted again. This time only the lenses. As this took place a kaleidoscope of

“Nice one, Oeufcoque—however tricky the request, you deal with it in a flash, the All-Purpose Tool

“They’re violently entangled. Could be engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Doc.” The goggles spoke in

“Hmm…you could say they’re engaged in hand-to-hand combat, yeah. Right in the middle of it. Man

“Already recording. But these images aren’t enough to determine whether we have the right man?”

young girls—it’s flowing through his veins. I can see it.”

the fake footage about these days, recorded evidence has stopped counting for much.”

specific—any ailments, treatment scars—then a heat scan of his somatic cells will come in handy as

“According to an ailment scan we have a 72 percent chance of determining that it’s definitely him, by

“What about his brain? He’s had operations there. If you can identify those.”

“The Broilerhouse won’t even take a second look unless we’re talking over 90 percent. What about

“Rune-Balot.” This time the goggles answered immediately. “We can conclude it’s her with a 96

porn star.”

“Wait…something’s odd.” A quieter voice fromthe goggles. The Doctor’s face tensed immediately.

“The odor. I’mgetting smells fromthe car—not just pleasure, but something else mixed in there too.”

“There’s the marked smell of…fear. They’re both afraid of something.”

“No, it’s nerves…stress. Both people are subtly different but…similar.”

date, Oeufcoque.”

The Doctor was visibly stunned by these words.

“In a sense…that could indeed be the case.”

Okay, now that we’ve come this far our next step is to pay someone off, get them to turn this footage in to

coercion to commit suicide—whatever! Then we take over her case, offer the girl shelter—”

yourself an unresolved case, never to be closed. That’s one of the things her fake ID will be there for—so

“Well, what do we do then? Carry on playing Peeping Tom?”

man’s odor has changed. As if it’s oozing out. No suicidal tendencies anymore. It’s definite pleasure.”

≡

laughed a sharp, hollow laugh. He stared at the girl, a decision hidden deep in his eyes.

the outside world, whether it really was such a bad thing to try and work out her own position in life. It

another part—the heart fromdeep within—looked on, utterly indifferent.

embraced the girl with both arms as he spoke. He wrapped himself around her tightly. This was different

somewhere but had found something to hold on to in order to stop himself frombeing pulled away.

tough I almost want to die. In fact, I am, practically, going to die. Part of my memory is going to die. But

The man thrashed around furiously now, ranting and raving. As if he were delirious with fever. As

Eventually the man stopped moving, slowly peeled himself off the girl, and came out of her. He started

“Stay just the way you are, Balot.”

the man as he laughed his thin laugh.

more beautiful,” the man murmured as he moved farther away from the girl, pressing his back against the

“A Blue Diamond.”

“That’s the answer to the question ‘What becomes of children who break the rules,’ Balot.” Speaking

“Shell…?”

Instinctively she tried to open the door—no go. However hard she tugged at the electric inner handle

was just using the Magic Mirror windows to straighten his clothes and hair and adjust his sunglasses. He

speak. The world was distant, and she was overwhelmed by a terrible premonition.

everything had come to pass just as the man had planned right fromthe start.

“Murder! I smell it! The girl’s going to die!”

“Wait, there’s another car! Give me a head count!”

the body heat sensors turned back into standard night vision lenses.

seat—it’s Boiled. To think that he’s now working for Shell! This isn’t good, Oeufcoque. If they’re

her first.”

in the windows, and the Doctor could see the stocky man in the driver’s seat. Short gray hair and a white

—

“Calm down, Doc. I can’t smell any hostility coming from Boiled. Shell, on the other hand, is dripping

“How’s he going to do it? Shoot her? Hang her? Poison her? Is the girl already dead?”

The Doctor got back up and pointed the goggles at the two AirCars by the lake. The man who’d gotten

“He’s waving his hand as if to say goodbye.”

“Of course it’s not enough! He could give any old excuse for his actions. What the hell is he playing

“He’s keeping her trapped in the car. Shit! His murderous intent is starting to change to relief. There’s

“And do what?”

Up ahead the second AirCar, now with Shell on board, was starting to move away.

The tires of the convertible spun violently, letting off a piercing shriek as the car took off.

Stunned at such an incredible turn of events, the Doctor rubbed his eyes. Then more terrible,

bright red flames of an inferno. A roaring pillar of fire erupted along with the explosions, and the shrapnel

weird smell of roasting steel filled the air.

the Doctor said, despairing. Pieces of shrapnel rained down chunk by chunk on the hood and windshield.

and said:

As soon as the goggles spoke they changed—somewhat surprisingly—into the shape of a fire

that anyone in the back seat won’t have been killed by the blast.”

our little patch of earth from the fires of hell down below? Why not taste the flames for yourself, Mr.

“I’ll quench the fires of this world before they get a chance to burn me.” The fire extinguisher’s voice

03

You’ve questioned the status that you were given.

she’d been given. That was why—just the once, she’d decided—she’d secretly accessed the city’s

Why me? She’d just wanted to solve the mystery, learn the answer.

And, of course, as it turned out it was. Without realizing it, she was trespassing onto the dangerous

The man suddenly turned to look at the girl staring vacantly out of the window. Not at the window: he

A Blue Diamond…something he can truly love. That’s what becomes of girls who break the rules.

amid her confusion. Synthetic diamonds made from human ashes. The rings that had been entrusted to her

girls. She’d heard the rumors that he’d bought a number of girls and let them die. Those rumors were true.

deep in her chest.

The question emerged from her mouth amid the daze. Now the question was no longer about love—it

something burning…a disgusting smell. Sulfurous fumes filled the car, and the alarm in the driver’s seat

The man continued smiling and waving for a moment, then quickly turned around and jumped into the

to burn their victims to death. It made it easier to process the corpses…

Don’t shut yourself away in the shell of your heart. The words of the volunteer social worker from

The shell. That was what was supposed to have protected her. But right now, she was its prisoner—

that she had lost.

she didn’t even realize what she was doing. But of course she was trying to save herself.

Indeed…

Her hands kept on struggling with the door handle. She wondered again whether what she had done was

Balot, somebody called. Ironically. The chick was boiled to death in the shell before it was even

had become the pièce de résistance—no one would tell her not to stay holed away inside her shell

Before long the other AirCar started pulling away. As it did, the man in the front passenger seat turned

The nausea welled up inside her again. See you soon—once you’re a dead body. Would her scorched

Her chest clenched in dread thinking about this. The body that had survived so far by meeting the

“Die, you bastard. Die.”

away, but soon lost sight of it and was left only with her own translucent reflection.

And now she was directing an angry tirade at the man somewhere beyond the window: foolish, trash.

Her hands were yanking at the door as if her life depended on it. A lingering memory of the man was still

Foolish, trash, ash, cash.

that? she wondered for an instant and looked out, but only a sad reflection stared back at her. Even now

Josh, fish, gash, hash.

the thin layer of skin suddenly emerged.

At that moment the pressure inside the car suddenly dropped, and a high-pitched buzz sounded.

Flash.

flooded with a blinding white light.

That was the last sound the girl was ever to voice.

against the rear seat before the raging flames flared up and everything became a single mass of fire.

“Are you in pain, Mr. Shell?” the man in the driver’s seat asked of the man now sprawled in the front

“Just stressed.” The man—Shell—took his hand off his forehead and moved it to his breast pocket. He

two of the pills in his mouth, and then followed with another gulp of the whiskey, as though forcing down

“Heroic Pills, are they?” the driver muttered. Shell nodded and sighed a deep sigh. His Chameleon

“When I was a child I had A-10 surgery on my brain,” Shell said. “When my stress levels rise above a

Department’s crime prevention schemes they tried out in the slums. But when I was in my teens they

Shell looked at the driver, who nodded as if to say I’m listening.

his stress levels rose. The part of his brain that controlled his vision was destroyed in the chemical

plan. Absolute perfection. Take these and there’s no stress, no side effects. Right?”

driver. These weren’t words of consolation. His tone was devoid of sympathy. His pale, glassy skin

himas a revolver.

climb the road to glory in Mardock City.”

in. He glanced at the side mirror, noticing again how much contrast there was in the way the two of them

satisfaction that he was able to hire such a keen professional, get himto do the driving…

“And every time I take another step toward glory I gain another beautiful Blue Diamond.” Shell gazed

Boiled interrupted Shell’s euphoria. “I’mconcerned about something.” Shell shrugged his shoulders.

“Back there in the park I noticed a car that was…incongruous.”

“There’s a big baseball game at the dome at seven tonight. It’s strange that a car with tires would be in

“What’ve tires and baseball got to do with each other, Boiled?”

be able to pick up a radio signal. What do you think people of that class would be doing skulking in the

Shell smiled a thin smile and shook his head. “Whatever. There’s no proof of what I did today. No

after all.”

The girl was already unconscious fromthe impact of the blast before the flames enveloped her body.

narrowest of margins, dying of smoke inhalation. Even so, when she finally awoke in a dim haze the cells

her throat to her respiratory organs, forcing her lungs to breathe to an automated rhythm.

Rune-Balot, she’s alive!”

more leisurely voice:

this is horrific. She’s burnt to a crisp. Her skin’s lost, and her sense of taste and smell could go too…”

“Well, humans—females in particular—are such illogical creatures. They start to lose the will to live

with her.”

“Probably best not to let her know the latter option exists.”

The one called the Doctor: a tall, lanky man. Splotchy hair, Tech Glasses, a reddish-brown half-coat

of other contraptions hanging from the chest and waist. It was as if the lead singer in a psychedelic band

Even more bizarre than that. A golden mouse perched on the Doctor’s shoulder.

“Yup, though at the moment she’s more body than buddy.”

The mouse’s dim red eyes seemed to contain hidden depths, as if he were a mature, older man. The

hanging off his shoulders—seemed hilarious to the girl.

encountered before.

“She’s conscious. She looked at me.”

anything at the moment. Anyway, you’re going to be partners, right? You should at least be prepared for

“Generally speaking women aren’t too keen on mice…” The golden mouse’s eyes were a little

Balot tried to move herself in order to see them better, but could barely lift a finger and just lay there

of security, floating, surrounded by foam, steeped in liquid, in an egg-shaped portable pod designed for

that bulky egg.

The word drifted through her mind, suddenly with different feelings, associations…

While Balot lay half dreaming, the Doctor and the mouse held a curious conversation.

opened her eyelids a crack and looked out through the solution she was suspended in to see the back of the

“Yup, that’s my guess, based on the stress and pleasure levels that you sensed coming from him. The

gestalt. A sort of suicide of the memory, so to speak. That’s Shell’s dirty little secret.”

“And it looks like it was triggered by the murder of the girl. There’s some connection. Each time he

of ritual. Let’s see, something like those ancient Eastern religions that wouldn’t recognize the existence of

“What?”

objected and had to be doused with gasoline and burnt to death. I think this is similar to that.”

see the mouse perched on his shoulder nodding along to the conversation.

girl was dragged along as part of a ritual designed for stress relief?”

for sure in detail. But knowing that you’re about to lose your memories—that’d be incredibly stressful.

He probably sees it as romantic in his own way, killing a little girl along with his memory.”

This was the one fact that registered in Balot’s hazy state of consciousness. My Shell. The man that

to rise to the top in this city—what a pathetic way for him to die. She felt pity, which then changed into an

If there were ever a moment when her compassion for others could redeemher then this was it.

Balot’s feelings were shattered in an instant by the mouse’s words.

own, or even give solace to your own life.”

something to the mouse. But she couldn’t even lift a finger.

swirling around together.

the expenses. There’s lots of upkeep now, Oeufcoque: you, and the girl.”

unconsciousness.

depths of sleep. Each time Balot began to fade, she was assailed by incredible anxiety, only to be rescued

prospect of death was steadily fading away. Reality was coming back into focus, and she would now have

Make your choice.

The choice to choose your path—the choice of existence. You have that right.

swooping down on her fromabove. And her other self asked:

Her other self collapsed in a tangled heap, right on top of her.

I’d be better of dead—the magic spell that made the heart feel lighter. The words closed in on her,

along with the body at a cremation. That was the last need. And she had obeyed.

Why me?

There was no answer. When you realized this, truly understood that there was no answer to the

should I live? Such a person as me. The choice: one of two possibilities.

unconditional love. You were either crushed by that burden, or you lived in order to search for that

Balot’s heart was ripped to pieces, scattered, and sunk beneath the waves.

fromthe ruins of her heart.

The moment her heart—protected in its shell till the very end, not yet boiled to death—murmured these

…that became Balot’s choice.

Josh, crush.

Dish, wash, brush, mash.

Gosh!

An ultraviolet lamp flickered in one corner of the ceiling. Reflective mirrors were fixed above her and

She felt something moving on her back. The bed undulated slowly from left to right in order to prevent

her upper body.

The bed had become an easy chair. Almost like a cradle.

of machines. One of the contraptions was beating a pulse along with Balot’s heartbeat, and all the cords

or arms. Balot looked around the room, listening to the soothing rhythm of the machines pulsing in

The roomwas windowless, and disinfectant tiles covered the surfaces of the walls.

And then, all of a sudden, the realization—I am alive.

She wasn’t naked but wore a thin hospital gown made of insulating material. Protruding fromthe gown

Her hair was full of life, as if it had only just sprung up. Cut cleanly, just above shoulder-length, it was

She stretched her left arm out and slowly caressed the limb from her elbow to her wrist with her right

It felt like the white of a boiled egg, and—very faintly—there was a sort of spark.

There was no other way of describing it. Millions of little currents of electricity flowed down the

Not only that, they were in the shape of a complicated circuit. As if woven into an exquisite fiber.

instant Balot understood why she felt so calm.

little corner of the room, intimately.

apprehension. But now, because Balot knew the air that touched the skin, she could also feel all the

Even without looking, I know precisely the shapes of the things that are there.

those threads were connected to the machines in the room. Or rather coiled around them. And the bed, the

everywhere.

She felt the threads again, thin, unbreakable.

her mind.

been cut. Rather, the switches had all gone off simultaneously.

In the darkness she could sense the threads that extended fromher body even more vividly than before.

She let go of the threads, and this time took the mass of extending strings and stroked themgently.

ways.

and feet came loose on their own. After a while she didn’t need to check the threads anymore. Without

electronic device without touching it.

very definition of a nightmare that I can’t wake up from.

a different creature. Or, strictly speaking, her outer layer of skin had become a different creature. And that

vampire, awakes thirsty, aware for the first time of the new self that they have been bequeathed.

Balot discovered an old portable radio in the corner of the room. As if it were the only thing in the

As she lifted her hand toward the radio she noticed a slight resistance from it. Balot gave a little

An ear-splitting sound rent the room. A grating sound, as if a large crowd of people had all decided to

Balot searched for music in the air. She realized that her senses could extend beyond the confines of

Outside a multitude of radio waves were overflowing in a complex tangle of dissonance.

with the radio.

Broadway. Balot ensnared the volume control, bringing it to just the right level.

like crying. But no tears came. There was a gaping hole inside her chest, and everything inside it was all

As the black woman on the radio—with her husky voice and distinctive accent—came to the end of

had stopped outside, pausing. One man. The electronic waves in the air gave her a clear idea not just of

The door opened.

That instant Balot turned off all the lights and stopped the radio, as if by reflex.

started moving away from the door. Balot waited in the corner, achingly still, where the man couldn’t

“Uh…”

of repairing you… uh…or rather I should say I’m the physician in charge. Call me… Doctor, Doc, Duck

alive, making sure your life is improved… So, erm, that’s the way it is.”

room.

of numbers and displays that were up on his Tech Glasses had disappeared, and they now looked like

“Hey, take it easy. This is our little hideaway, our shell, or one of them, anyway. Used to be a morgue,

so it’s a perfect setup for surgery. Go down the corridor and there’s a huge room set up to store eight

dream come true. But then there was an earthquake in the area, the circuits went down, total blackout for
about forty-eight hours. That’s when the good citizens started ge