Slow Damage

The year is 20XX, and the declining nation of Japan has built the ultimate casino resort: Shinkoumi. This "special administrative region," once known as Tokyo Waterfront City, is functionally its own separate country under the complete control of a private managing organization known as the Takasatogumi. With the economy in turmoil, the masses flock to Shinkoumi with the hope of getting rich quick, or at the very least, venting the stress of their overworked, underpaid lives. With no restriction on who can enter, crime has flourished, and entire districts have decayed. Our protagonist, Towa, lives a life of indolence on the third floor of a small neighborhood clinic. For you see, he has a hobby: painting human desire. Specifically, the moment before those suppressed urges break free from their constraints. And to do so, naturally, he must experience it himself firsthand. In the art world, he is known as "euphoria". It can be dangerous to grant people's darkest desires – sometimes, even deadly. But in the spirit of avant-garde, Towa is willing to die for his art...

Year 20XX, Japan. Shinkomi-a special ward developed as the country's largest casino resort in order to bring them out of a debilitating recession. The land, formerly part of a landfill in the Tokyo Waterfront City Center of Odaiba, now essentially existed as its own country governed by the Takasato Group, a private investor of casinos, and continued to thrive despite the recession. Uncertain of what tomorrow may bring, people flocked to Shinkomi with the hopes of striking it rich, or at least getting a second of reprieve from their miserable lives. Taking in the masses, the city's public order was in a state of unrest, corruption coursing through every vein of the city, crime a common occurrence. Our protagonist Towa, a resident of this town, lived rent-free in the hospital of his doctor acquaintance, Taku, leading a self-indulgent and transient life, not thinking about tomorrow. Towa had a hobby. He drew people's desires. Creating motifs inscribed with oil, desires from the depths of people's hearts the moment before they burst. Allowing the desire to crush into him, the experience of this flowing freely from the brush. His artist name is "euphoria". Whether the two involved were damaged and injured to the brink of death as a result of fulfilling these desires didn't matter. Because to the recipient...this was "happiness"...