Shangri-la

Kuniko Hojo is released from the girls' detention center. She is picked up by her friends Momoko, Moko, and Takehiko, and returns to her home in Duomo. Kuniko is being groomed to be the future leader of Metal Age, a resistance organisation, which opposes the government's drastic policies on environmentalism.

The black dots raining down on Duomo lead to everyone fleeing, including Atlas security and military. After the attacks stop, Kuniko and the other Metal Age members perform a search-and-rescue operation of Duomo's residents.

Kuniko has a strange dream of Atlas, and learns from her grandmother, Nagiko, that her biological mother lived in Atlas.

Kuniko muses on the vision of Atlas, and decides to finance a rebellion against Atlas by selling the community's graphite (which is rich in carbon).

Kuniko and Momoko bump into Kunihito, who masquerades himself as an otaku. He threatens them to stay away from the area, but both of them decide to follow him anyway.

Karin convinces the Japanese government to use Kuwait as bait to lure out Serpent, despite the fact it will destroy that country's economy.