Sabakareshi Mono summary: Two abandoned boys, Kyou and Toudou, were raised at an appalling orphanage where physical violence was a part of the day to day life. One day Kyou’s real mother came searching for him and took him away from this dreadful existence. The byproduct of a man and his mistress, Kyou’s mother was forced to give him away. Many years passed and Kyou Sugiura is now a successful prosecutor and pursing an investigation of government corruption involving a young parliamentarian named Tatsuki Toudou – the same Toudou that he grew up with in the orphanage. How the times have changed! Both men growing up in the present of uncertainty; to become, in the future, the height of success, and to stand on the opposite sides of the law. Kyou had never really forgotten Toudou, and Toudou had never really forgiven Kyou. The meeting between the two ambitious young men results in an unintended consequence that neither had been prepared for. In this stand off between the enforcer and the law maker, there is a past that binds them together. And it is the strength or weakness of this past that will determine the outcome of their duel. ***This volume contains the complete works of “The Judged” and “Spring Haze,” a short story involving Toudou’s assistant and ex-lover, Hachiko.***