The rain never stopped in New Tokyo Sector 9.
It wasn't real rain anymore — not since the Atmos Grid got hacked five years ago. Now it was a mix of acid, memory dust, and corrupted code falling from the sky, warping neon signs and ghosting reflections across the puddled concrete.
Under the flickering glow of a dying billboard that read: "Utopia is One Update Away," a silhouette moved — fast, low, careful.
Her name was Kira Sato, though on the darknet she was called Specter_07. Nineteen years old. Half-cyber, all fury. She wore a hood patched with sensor-scramblers and her eyes gleamed with aftermarket chrome — iris ports linked directly to the ExoNet.
She wasn't supposed to be out here. Not tonight.
Not with The Black Sun drones sweeping the district, scanning for dissenters, glitchrunners, and anyone not jacked into the Ministry's soulNet.
But Kira had a job.
And the data shard burning in her jacket pocket? It was worth more than her entire bloodline.
She sprinted across a skeletal monorail bridge, cracked and collapsed from some old corporate war, her boots clanging like gunshots. She reached the abandoned subway station — her drop point — only to find it already occupied.
A man stood inside the tunnel.
Or... something like a man.
He was built like a tank in a trench coat, eyes glowing red like dual targeting reticles. A black cyberkatana hung from his back, humming softly — not a sound, but a presence that made Kira's neural implants spike with danger warnings.
"You're early," he said, voice layered in synth distortion.
Kira didn't answer.
Her right hand slid toward her plasma pistol. Her left thumb tapped the neural emergency kill-code embedded in her wrist.
Then, from behind her — three clicks. Drones. Cloaked.
It was a trap.
She dove behind a rusted pillar as the first drone decloaked, screeching in corrupted binary. Kira fired — once, twice — clean headshots, sparks lighting up the tunnel.
But the man didn't flinch.
Instead, he stepped forward, face still unreadable under his half-mask.
"I'm not here to kill you," he said, holding up his hand. A blue light flickered across his palm — the symbol of the Ghost Protocol, a secret resistance believed to be wiped out.
"I'm here to save you, Specter_07."
Kira froze. She hadn't heard that name outside the Grid in over three years.
"Who the hell are you?" she hissed.
The man slowly removed his mask.
Underneath, his face was scarred, partly artificial. But his eyes… she knew those eyes.
They were her father's.
Her dead father's.
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End of Chapter 1