Naoko Kaneta

Gemstone, the Mermaid's Scale, appears in a secret, underground auction. The queen of the underworld coerces Lupin into stealing the rock for her. Quickly discovering not only that the stone is a forgery, but that the real Mermaid's Scale is part of an unsolved riddle that leads to transcending mortality!

In an alternate version of the present, Tokyo has been decimated by a shocking terrorist attack, and the only hint to the identity of the culprit is a bizarre video uploaded to the internet. The police, baffled by this cryptic clue, are powerless to stop the paranoia spreading across the population. While the world searches for a criminal mastermind to blame for this tragedy, two mysterious children - children who shouldn't even exist - masterfully carry out their heinous plan. Cursed to walk through this world with the names Nine and Twelve, the two combine to form "Sphinx," a clandestine entity determine to wake the people from their slumber - and pull the trigger on this world.