The boy learned to loathe the world.
The girl erased herself, piece by piece.
The world wouldn’t let them scream and stay human.
———STORY———
Tokyo began to fall apart around a single boy.
That was where it all began.
More than a decade ago, a catastrophic event of unknown origin struck Tokyo.
Thousands of people ceased to be human almost simultaneously, and entire sections of the city vanished from the map.
At the center of the disaster stood a lone boy.
The government sealed his identity, and all official records referred to him only as <Subject A>.
Just before the incident, an unidentified frequency had been detected across Tokyo—one that matched no known standard or existing spectrum.
It was classified in secret as <Noise>.
Then, along with every record and testimony connected to the disaster, it was erased from public knowledge.
In time, the devastated area was rebuilt as a government-led special reconstruction zone.
The Metropolitan Reconstruction Authority, Fourth Special District.
Known simply as—
<District Four>.
A scar left between Shinjuku and Shibuya.
But the disaster was never truly over.
In this city, people continue to disappear.
Leaving only their voices behind.
Leaving only their shadows.
And sometimes, leaving behind something no longer human.
At night, white feathers drift across the Tokyo sky.
Whether they are a sign of salvation
or the beginning of the next catastrophe—
no one knows.
And now—
there is another boy in Tokyo.
A boy who can hear the Noise
and bring it into this world.
Just like the boy who once destroyed the city.
His name is—
Kyo Narumi.
———CHARACTERS———
Kyo Narumi
A second-year student at a private high school in Tokyo.
Ever since the Noise Disaster, Hibiki has been able to hear the distortions hidden within the world.
He could never explain what he heard.
No one believed him.
As Hibiki gradually shut himself away from everyone around him, his older brother, <Kanade>, remained the only person who truly understood.
Then, without a word, <Kanade >vanished from the world.
After the death of Hibiki’s closest friend, <Ritsu Fujimoto>, the distortions began to take form as Noise—manifesting in the physical world and slowly consuming reality itself.
He does not want to hear anything.
He does not want to become involved with anyone.
But he has to know why the one person who understood him disappeared.
With the <HEADROOM> device his brother left behind hanging around his neck, Hibiki searches for traces of Kanade buried within Tokyo’s Noise.
And every day, he walks through a city he can hear far too clearly.
“You can’t hear it, can you?”
So Narumi
Hibiki’s older brother, eight years his senior, who vanished without warning.
Like Hibiki, Kanade is able to perceive Noise—and for years, he was the only person who truly understood what Hibiki was experiencing.
As a child, he became deeply influenced by a passage from the Bible and the story of the young Samuel. In time, he began to see his own abnormality not as a curse, but as a calling—a mission meant only for him.
After the Noise Disaster, Kanade joined the government security agency <GRID>. Years later, he lost his lover, Inori Amemiya, in an accident.
Before disappearing, he left Hibiki a prototype Noise-suppression device known as <HEADROOM>
Then he vanished without a trace.
KriminaL / Baek Tae-yoon
Baek Tae-yoon, second-in-command of KriminaL, an organization built on underground business.
In public, he is the owner of the EGO-IST Group, a chain of host clubs centered in Kinshicho.
In the underworld, he is known as the Faceskinner—the coldest kind of violence in Tokyo. He also shares a long and bitter history with Reo Haitani.
His biological father is Tsukasa Goto, chairman of the Amato-kai. Tae-yoon abandoned his father’s name and now lives under a Korean surname.
Pale skin. Immaculate features.
He can break a person without ever disturbing the beauty of his face, continuing until even their pleas for mercy fall silent.
Because he perceives the emotions of others as distortions, he excels at reading people, manipulating them, and discarding all compassion when it no longer serves him.
He is also one of the few people who knows the truth about <Subject A>.
“They all come to me thinking they’re the exception.”
LØ END / Taiga Lucas Ushio
An undefeated monster who dominated the underground fighting circuit <LØ ’BOUT>, crushed every semi-gangster crew in <LØ END> across the Kanto region, and claimed the top for himself.
When his younger sister, Yuri Ushio, was left in a vegetative state by an unidentified “black something,” he stepped alone into a darkness no one could explain, searching for anything that might save her.
The deeper he follows the scattered clues, the closer he comes to the truth behind District Four and the Noise.
Will he find the answer that can bring Yuri back?
Or only a darkness from which there is no return?
Can his fists reach the one answer that might save his sister—
“All I want is to see Yuri wake up again.”
Ristu Fujimoto
Ritsu Fujimoto is a second-year student at a private high school in Tokyo.
Hibiki’s childhood friend—and the one person who could never bring himself to leave Hibiki alone as he kept the rest of the world at a distance.
His short life came to an end after he was caught in an unexplained incident.
But was it only his body that died?
Where did Ritsu’s soul go?
And what became of the feelings for Hibiki that he could never bring himself to confess?
Perhaps they still remain somewhere in this world.
Perhaps, even now, he is still calling Hibiki’s name.
“Sir, Hibiki will die if he takes off his headphones.”
BADD BOIIZ / Reo Haitani
BADD BOIIZ—better known as BAD—are a lawless crew of teenagers who rule the streets between New Shibuya and District Four.
Assault. Extortion. Robbery. Illegal drugs. Fraud. Criminal gig work.
They may have territory, but juvenile crime has no rules.
The only ones who end up among them are those carrying hatred, pain, and a past they can never erase—kids who have already gone too far to stop themselves.
At the center of it all stands Reo Haitani.
After the disaster, something inside Reo’s body began to change.
Once he became aware of the Noise, he was drawn deeper into the hidden world beneath the city—into <HEADROOM>, <the white feathers>, <Subject A>, and the string of disappearances no one could explain.
Then, one day, all the scattered pieces pointed to a single boy.
To seize the truth behind what is happening to his body, Reo begins hunting him down.
“Huh? Why I’m strong is none of your damn business.”
BangaRang
BangaRang—an organization with roots buried deep beneath both Shinjuku and Hong Kong.
It operates through a network of front companies spread across the Fourth Special District.
Under its leader, Tao, are <the Centipedes>, hunters who never let their prey escape, and <the Cleanup Crew>, specialists who return bodies, evidence, and entire crime scenes to the city as though nothing ever happened.
<Noise>. <The Special Reconstruction Agency>. <SYLEИTH>. <GARDEN>.
And <■■■■■■>.
The more distorted the world becomes, the more work there is to be done.
For over a decade, Tao has invested vast sums into a certain research institute.
Not for Great Unity—but for Great Order.
“This city is still under construction. So are its people.”
Shion Itou / Shion Nanase
A victim of the Noise Disaster—and a classmate of Hibiki’s.
Ever since her parents were left in a vegetative state, Shion has kept her emotions hidden, spending most of her days alone, staring somewhere far beyond the classroom.
And yet, for reasons she cannot explain, she finds herself drawn to Hibiki and Ritsu—the two boys who always seem to be laughing.
At night, she becomes Shion Nanase.
Leaving her uniform and real name behind, she wanders the streets of New Shibuya and the area around <BOILER>.
There is nowhere she wants to return to.
No one she wants to see.
She simply cannot remain the person she is during the day.
“Is being remembered by someone really such a beautiful thing?”
Inori Amamiya / GRID Engineer
The lover of the missing Kanade Narumi, and a researcher in GRID’s Engineering Division.
Brilliant, strong-willed, and one of the minds behind <HEADROOM>, she developed the device alongside Kanade. She was also the person who taught him that a life spent sacrificing himself for others still had value of its own.
But during a Noise-related accident inside the research facility, her body was consumed by something inhuman, leaving her alive but unresponsive.
Desperate to bring her back, Kanade worked with Kanzaki, then a fellow engineer at GRID, to create a technology capable of amplifying residual Noise: <■■■■>.
It was meant to be a form of salvation—
a way to reconstruct the lost shape of a human being.
Instead, the technology would eventually turn human distortion into monsters
and become the trigger for a new catastrophe.
“Does the world you’re trying to protect include you?”
Rin / Rei
Two girls who appear from time to time in the forgotten corners of Old Shibuya.
The same height. The same white hair. Faces so alike that everyone assumes they are twins—though neither of them has the memories to prove it.
They know about the Noise.
They know what it does to people.
And they know who has learned to use it.
They are not merely trying to survive.
What they want is real freedom—a life without orders, without masters, without ever belonging to someone else.
But they are not hiding simply because they are being hunted.
“TTch. This is such a pain… Rei, hurry up.”
Gondo (Chef ) / Hell's Kitchen
A man who runs Hell’s Kitchen, a legal CBD dispensary tucked away in Old Shibuya.
Born in Colorado, Gondo served as a U.S. Army medic in the Middle East before taking Japanese citizenship at his wife’s request.
His shop specializes in imported CBD products legalized after the Noise Disaster, offering everything from pain relief and sleep support to products intended to calm the mind.
And yet, Gondo never flinches when faced with someone consumed by Noise.
Almost as though—
he had known about it long before the disaster ever reached Tokyo.
“Oh—and pick up some cream puffs on your way back.”
Batten
An underground rapper who somehow knows every useless piece of information in Tokyo.
His actual rap skills are questionable, but he regularly works as an MC at <BOILER>. Despite his intimidating appearance, his table manners are strangely refined, and he knows far too much about luxury pastries.
In truth, he was born into a wealthy family involved in the reconstruction of District Four.
Through his father’s work, he began spending time in the district—and for the first time in his life, found somewhere he actually belonged.
Everything about him is big: his build, his presence, and his family money.
The last part is a secret.
He insists he grew up in the old downtown neighborhoods.
“Hey, bro—don’t go saying this place is dangerous. It’s only some people.”
“...Okay, most of them.”
Bacon
Reo's Pets。His last name is Chris, the middle name is P.
BOILER
A club standing on the border between New Shibuya and District Four.
It was built on sealed ground that had once vanished from the map during the Noise Disaster—as if nothing had ever happened there.
The main floor sits on the second level.
Another venue lies deep underground.
Hip-hop. Techno. Rock. Noise.
A different sound takes over every night, and on weekends, the line outside lasts until dawn.
But music is not the only reason BOILER became infamous.
They say faces of people who do not exist appear in the mirrors of the basement restroom.
Some who enter the stalls come back out with their expressions twisted by something black.
And after four in the morning, a staircase is said to appear—leading to a floor that should not exist.
The rumors have survived for years.
Still, people return every weekend.
To lose themselves in the sound—
or to let something inside them be broken.
？？？
？？？
？？？
《HEADROOM》
Developed at ■■■■ by ■■■ and ■■■■.
A headphone-based suppression device designed to interfere with the perceptual range of Noise-sensitive individuals using an inverse-phase frequency, canceling abnormal resonance before it can fully take hold.
It reduces Noise-induced hallucinations, auditory distortions, and neurological strain, while slowing the mental and physical corruption caused by prolonged exposure.
A prototype removed from the facility by Kanade Narumi is now in the sole possession of Hibiki Narumi.
However, this prototype contains a special mechanism known as ■■■■—a feature that appears nowhere in the original design records.
Its purpose remains unknown.
So do the conditions required to activate it.
And no one with access to the truth has been located.
SYLEИTH
■■■ and ■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
Originally derived from the technology behind the special mechanism built into ■■■■■■■■,
the system was repurposed to add artificial overtones to Noise.
The resulting technology—known as ■■■■■■■■■—was developed by ■■■■, a former ■■■■ engineer, through ■■■■■■■■■■■.
The artificial Noise manifested through ■■■■■■■■■ cannot be canceled by HEADROOM.
As a result, it becomes ■■■■ to the human eye.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■,
■■■■.
The disaster ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
《GARDEN》
A prohibited higher-dimensional ■■ developed in an undisclosed nation—
a system derived from calculations performed by ■■■■■■■, producing
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■, ■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■, ■■■■■, ■■■.
■■■■■■■■.
Once ■■■■■■■■■■ begins,
■■■■.
It is believed that the Society of Nagi was established to ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.