This volume involves Kubota getting mixed up in a murder case and taken in for police questioning whilst Tokito is told to stay away from the apartment without explanation. I was very happy to see the volume moving away from the 'Wild Adapter-related case of the week' pattern the series seemed to be starting with the last two volumes. Such formula can be used to make some very interesting things, but still are a bit lazy and can get stale if over-relied on.

The murder case is unlikely to have anything to do with the Wild Adapter drug at all, actually, but is instead the sort of plot used not for overall plot advancement but to force the characters into interesting emotional dilemmas and cause them, particularly Tokito, to reflect on their relationship. It doesn't completely drop our further search into things concerning the WA drug, either, since it allows us a look into how the police (outside Kubota's uncle) view Kubota and his connection to the drug. The police questioning scenes were also refreshing, displaying not a pompous-but-idiotic police questioner as it seem is the usual cliched default for this sort of situation, but allowed the questioner to be antagonistic, a bit rude, not even particularly sympathetic, but still smart enough to keep up with or even beat Kubota in his verbal games.

I do wish the tension in Kubota and Tokito's relationship caused by the incident hadn't been basically resolved by the end of the arc. Besides the fact I like a little tension in relationships (smooth ones being nice in real life, but not so interesting to read about), the series is already a tad in danger of having too much of the 'resent button' feel (in which, despite whatever developments may seem to have happened in a chapter/episode/arc, everything in it has to be 'reset' back to the status quo when the episode ends, allowing the series to go on indefinitely with little complication) in the plot area, with little panning out in the WA investigations. The emotional journeys the characters go through in the arcs are interesting and I will probably enjoy them regardless, but if it plans to press an emotional reset after each arc as well, it will greatly reduce the potential I thought the series had.

Still, the use of the episode 'reset button' is a choice of the author rather than a flaw exactly (though sometimes I suspect the use of it comes from a weakness in the author/lack of effort to brave the difficulty of following an ongoing, continuously developing thread in a character's emotions, which can be even more difficult than plot sometimes). And I'm not really sure they intend to keep using it, either. ( )