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Tokyo Outskirts – Rainy Night – 11:48 PM
On the edge of Tokyo, where the lights of the city faded into darkness, stood an abandoned warehouse — broken by time, soaked by rain, forgotten by the world.
The sky above wept in silence, each drop slicing through the air like a whisper of something lost.
Inside, the silence wasn't empty. It was heavy. Alive. Breathing with every flicker of the failing ceiling light.
Arata stood alone.
He wasn't hiding. He wasn't afraid.
He was waiting — for something… or someone.
His shirt clung to his skin. His boots left trails of wet mud on the dusty floor. His dark eyes scanned the shadows not with curiosity, but with experience.
> "Everything changes tonight."
He whispered to himself, the words more for memory than for hope.
---
Inside the Warehouse – 11:52 PM
The room wasn't just dark.
It was hollow — as if it had once held something sacred, and now all that remained was silence and regret.
Lying on the concrete floor was a girl — barely conscious, drenched, bruised.
Her hair matted with blood and rain, her back arched painfully as if she'd been thrown or dragged.
Her name… was Yuiri Aisaka.
And she wasn't supposed to exist.
Arata walked toward her, each step slow, careful.
Not out of fear — but as if her presence itself might disappear if he moved too fast.
He knelt beside her.
> "You were inside NOKRA…" he murmured.
She didn't answer. But her fingers twitched.
A sign of life — fragile, but real.
He pulled off his jacket and gently placed it over her shoulders.
She was cold. Too cold.
> "I can't leave her here."
He didn't say it loud. But he meant every word.
---
One Hour Earlier – Tokyo Central Biolab
A place that didn't exist on any map.
No names. No signs. Only corridors lined with secrets.
NOKRA: Project ECHO Facility.
Arata had entered through a maintenance shaft.
Forged ID. Silent movements. Eyes sharp.
His mission wasn't destruction — it was retrieval.
He made his way to the secured zone.
And there… inside a transparent chamber…
He saw her.
Wires tangled around her arms.
Electrodes reading her brainwaves.
Her eyes were half-open, but not seeing.
> "Subject Aisaka-7 is stabilizing," a voice reported over comms.
And then he saw the name flash on the screen:
YU7 – Yuiri Aisaka.
He froze.
> "Aisaka…?"
That name hit like a thunderclap.
Professor Aisaka — one of NOKRA's founding scientists.
And this girl was his daughter?
> "They put their own blood in a cage…"
He didn't wait.
He moved. Shattered the glass. Sirens screamed. Lights exploded into red.
But Arata didn't stop.
He caught her falling body. Cradled it like something precious.
> "Don't die on me," he whispered.
Then he ran — carrying a girl the world was never meant to know.
---
Present – Warehouse – 11:56 PM
Yuiri stirred.
Her lashes trembled. Her lips moved, trying to form a sound.
Arata sat beside her now, alert but silent.
She blinked, slowly.
> "Who... are you?" she asked in a barely-there voice.
> "Someone who shouldn't be here," Arata replied. "But neither should you."
> "Are you one of them?"
"Not anymore."
> "Then why… why did you take me?"
> "Because cages don't belong around people.
Not even ones like you."
Her lips curled slightly — a smile, or maybe just pain twisting her face.
---
12:05 AM – Escape Begins
The rain was heavier now.
Arata helped her up — carefully, his hand behind her back.
She leaned on him. Trust wasn't there, not yet, but necessity was stronger than fear.
Two blocks away, a black car waited — old, dented, but fast.
> "You should've left me," Yuiri whispered, climbing into the seat.
> "I don't leave people who still breathe."
> "Even if they're not supposed to?"
> "Especially then."
---
Inside the Car – 12:17 AM
The city blurred past — neon bleeding into water, Tokyo looking like a dream on the verge of waking.
Yuiri rested her head against the window.
> "You worked for them… right?"
> "I was their weapon."
> "And now?"
> "Now I'm what happens when weapons break."
> "What did they take from you?"
> "Everything. My name. My brother. My sleep."
> "Your brother?"
He paused.
> "Riku. He was smart. Kinder than I ever was.
They erased him like he never existed."
Yuiri closed her eyes, but didn't sleep.
Silence filled the car like a third passenger.
---
Arata's Apartment – 12:41 AM
It wasn't a home.
It was shelter.
The walls were cracked, the fan didn't work, and the bed was nothing but a futon on the floor.
But it was quiet. Safe.
Yuiri stepped inside slowly, as if afraid the place might vanish.
> "You live here?"
> "I survive here."
> "That's bleak."
> "That's honest."
He tossed her a towel and pointed to the futon.
> "You should rest."
> "What about you?"
> "I don't sleep."
> "Why?"
> "Because when I do, I see his face."
She didn't ask who. She already knew.
---
1:03 AM – The Night Breathes
Rain whispered on the windowpane.
Outside, the storm was still raging.
Inside, two broken people shared a roof for the first time — not friends, not enemies… but something in between.
Arata sat by the window again.
Yuiri curled under the blanket, her back to the room, but her mind still wide awake.
Neither spoke.
But something had begun.
Not healing.
Not trust.
Just something real.
And the night — the night that hid their secrets —
listened quietly.
---
Chapter 1 ends.