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Volume 9, Prologue

Welcome to Lost Angels, the city of freedom and disaster!

If you’re sick of your parents, teachers, childhood friend next door, best friend, lover, nuns, counselors, and everyone else who won’t quit nagging you, then come on down for some fun with only a sports bag under your arm. You’ll learn all too well just how much they were worried about you and just how much danger there is packed into the small box we call “the world”.

If you follow the whitewashed guidebook and visit all the famous sightseeing spots, you might just be stripped of all your possessions after twelve hours and shark food after twenty four, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. As long as you follow these simple rules, outsiders can enjoy themselves just fine.

1. Always pay attention to where the surveillance cameras are located and turn right around if you see one’s broken.

2. From 9 PM to 5 AM, don’t take a step outside your hotel no matter what happens.

3. You can’t stop yourself from happening to look at people with a sharp look in their eyes, but make sure you don’t take a second look.

That should probably cover it.

The first two are stupidly obvious, but the last one’s the tricky one. This city of two million has four violent gangs lurking in it and those are just what’s officially announced. And these gangs aren’t wearing black suits on the sandy beaches of everlasting summer, nor are they blasting hip hop from outdated boom boxes on their shoulders in this age of internet music.

They blend in to everyday sights, like the middle-aged man handing out tissues on the roadside or the bikini girl brushing sand from her ass on the beach. So here, you can’t cast off your shame, get a swelled head after drinking too much, pick a fight with just anyone, or hit on just anyone. But if you want to be stuffed in a wooden box and turned into a piece of living concrete artwork, then be my guest.

You can just run to the police? Your uncle’s a government worker, so you have connections?

That’s useless in this city.

The gangs lurking here aren’t like your normal “team” or “family”.

Will this be enough for you to catch on?

Watch out for those with an overly sharp look in their eyes. Watch out for those “soldiers sans uniform”.