Aoba wakes up in Scratch's hideout and quickly suffers a beating from Mink's men on his orders. As Aoba struggles to break free, his other personality briefly takes over and orders the Scratch members to stop before falling unconscious. When Aoba awakens safely in a bedroom with Ren and his bag, Mink states to Aoba that his aware of Aoba's special "voice" and will help him find Tae if Aoba obeys him in return. Although reluctant, Aoba agrees and heads back to his house, meeting up with Clear and Koujaku. Koujaku is distrustful of Mink since his group is made up of criminals, but relents once Aoba explains that Mink will help him find Tae. The group then discovers that Noiz is spying on them and recruits him to their mission. Despite some tension, the group is able to track down Tae's location and Clear guides them to an abandoned warehouse area. They are attack by hooded men, which turns out to be the missing members of Dry Juice. Aoba goes ahead and finds Tae and crazed Mizuki. Mizuki confirms to Aoba that Dry Juice had joined with Morphine and invites Aoba to be a part of it. Knowing something is wrong with Mizuki, Aoba refuses and Mizuki retaliates by putting a knife to Tae's throat. Distressed, Aoba suddenly pulls himself into Mizuki's mind and see his fears of Ribstiez being overshadowed by Rhyme. He meets the real Mizuki, who explains he joined Morphine in order to preserve Dry Juice, but was double-crossed and they were forcefully turned into mindless puppets. Aoba's other persona surfaces again and urges Aoba to "destroy", causing Mizuki to mentally break down in the real world.
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