Ikebukuro hasn't changed, but everyone in it has aged one step closer to the consequences of what they did last season. The plot moves sideways instead of forward, spending its time in the cracks between people who know too much about each other and can't unknow it. You're not waiting for the next explosion, you're watching them all pretend the last one didn't reshape who they are, and that pretense is what actually breaks things.

Six months of relative calm have settled over Ikebukuro. The high school crowd goes about the familiar rhythm of their lives, the city's strongest fighter keeps working hard, and an information broker quietly sets a new plan in motion. Meanwhile the police keep chasing Celty Sturluson, the Headless Rider, through the night, and a large bounty placed on her sends gang members across the city hunting for her. Mikado Ryuugamine is approached by Aoba Kuronuma, an underclassman with unclear motives who knows Mikado's secret identity. Then a killer calling themselves Hollywood appears, wearing a new mask for every crime. As these events prove to be linked, the city is pulled into a fresh conflict that threatens to spread chaos everywhere. Expect a supernatural mystery told across many characters, with action breaking out along the way.