HOME | DD

Description

People do very strange things when they are under too much pressure, as Kaede Ichimaru can attest. Her family moved from Osaka to Engine City when she was a girl, establishing themselves in the West Coast metropolis’s Japanese community. But while she was no longer physically in Japan, the expectations of her were so high that it practically didn’t matter. She was to maintain impeccable grades and surround herself with those who her parents approved of, lest her family lose face. The pressure to conform reached critical mass when she graduated high school, and joined up with Demo’s ‘Wrecking Crew’ in what many may call a horribly misguided attempt to rebel.

Ironically, Demo proved to be a better mother figure than Kaede’s own mom and the rest of the girls were practically sisters to her. They hung out between heists and covered each other when on a job for a client or a raid meant to further their own objectives.

Which was why the threat of the Sleepwalkers was so terrifying to her. Any woman could be under Hypnoman’s control, any woman could be planning to subdue and brainwash them.

One of her own teammates might have been turned and she wouldn’t even know it. She couldn’t bear the thought of such paranoia ripping apart the bonds that meant so much to her. She couldn’t bear to suspect the worst of her friends.

She didn’t have to though. She was not brought into the growing horde of hypnotized women through a friend’s betrayal. It was a stranger who subdued her and her teammates during a raid on the waterfront.

And it was a stranger who introduced her to the joys conformity could bring, joys she was blind to for so long. There was such bliss to be had in following the crowd, marching to the beat of the same drum as everyone else, letting her anxieties melt away.

Kaede wanted to share this bliss with Demo and the rest of the Wrecking Crew. She wanted to assimilate them into the ranks of the Sleepwalkers. She dreamed of the day Demo would lead them as they marched in lockstep before Hypnoman himself.

And she’d do whatever was needed in order to make that dream come true.

Description

People do very strange things when they are under too much pressure, as Kaede Ichimaru can attest. Her family moved from Osaka to Engine City when she was a girl, establishing themselves in the West Coast metropolis’s Japanese community. But while she was no longer physically in Japan, the expectations of her were so high that it practically didn’t matter. She was to maintain impeccable grades and surround herself with those who her parents approved of, lest her family lose face. The pressure to conform reached critical mass when she graduated high school, and joined up with Demo’s ‘Wrecking Crew’ in what many may call a horribly misguided attempt to rebel.

Ironically, Demo proved to be a better mother figure than Kaede’s own mom and the rest of the girls were practically sisters to her. They hung out between heists and covered each other when on a job for a client or a raid meant to further their own objectives.

Which was why the threat of the Sleepwalkers was so terrifying to her. Any woman could be under Hypnoman’s control, any woman could be planning to subdue and brainwash them.

One of her own teammates might have been turned and she wouldn’t even know it. She couldn’t bear the thought of such paranoia ripping apart the bonds that meant so much to her. She couldn’t bear to suspect the worst of her friends.

She didn’t have to though. She was not brought into the growing horde of hypnotized women through a friend’s betrayal. It was a stranger who subdued her and her teammates during a raid on the waterfront.

And it was a stranger who introduced her to the joys conformity could bring, joys she was blind to for so long. There was such bliss to be had in following the crowd, marching to the beat of the same drum as everyone else, letting her anxieties melt away.

Kaede wanted to share this bliss with Demo and the rest of the Wrecking Crew. She wanted to assimilate them into the ranks of the Sleepwalkers. She dreamed of the day Demo would lead them as they marched in lockstep before Hypnoman himself.

And she’d do whatever was needed in order to make that dream come true.