Synopsis
Continues the story of Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
Rune Balot is a destitute teenage prostitute living in Mardock City. One day, she is taken in by an ambitious casino manager named Shell, who provides her with everything she could desire. Restored by a false innocence, a fabricated past, and now the fake life Shell has given her, Balot feels thankful. Yet she cannot shake her curiosity about why he has done so much for her, so she uses a computer to look into his background. This turns out to be a fatal error that will drastically alter her existence. When Shell discovers what she has done, he tries to incinerate her by detonating her car. Because of Mardock's high crime rate, a new statute called "Scramble 09" grants police unrestricted authority to take extreme and otherwise illegal measures to revive witnesses to crimes. Under this law, they permit a professor to save Balot from the verge of death by reconstructing her entire body using reinforced synthetic fiber. When she finally regains consciousness, her confused mental state gradually shifts toward vengeance once Shell is identified as her attacker.
In this installment
In "Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion," Rune Balot struggles to protect herself and the gravely wounded Oeufcoque from Shell's assassin, Boiled. Their escape is made possible when Doctor Easter arrives in the Humpty Dumpty, a specially designed militarized vehicle built to safeguard Welfare cases under threat. As they journey toward Paradise, the origin point of Scramble 09 technology and the site where Boiled was resurrected, deeper secrets about Mardock City's history and potential future come to light. These revelations heighten the tension, forcing Balot to choose between pursuing personal justice or ensuring peace in Paradise.
