**Chapter 4: Blood and Loyalty**
The interrogation room was sterile, cold.
Ren sat handcuffed to a metal table, the flickering fluorescent light above casting harsh shadows across Inspector Hasegawa's sharp features. She leaned forward, her voice a silken blade.
**"You don't understand what you've stepped into, Kuroda."**
Ren smirked. **"Enlighten me."**
Hasegawa's eyes flickered—just for a second—with something darker than authority. **"Your family didn't just build an empire. They built a** ***cage.*** **And some very powerful people want to keep it locked."**
Before Ren could retort, the door burst open.
A rookie cop stumbled in, face pale. **"Inspector! There's—there's a situation in the lobby!"**
Hasegawa's composure cracked. **"What?"**
Then—**gunfire.**
Not the controlled bursts of police rifles, but the deafening roar of military-grade weaponry. The walls shook. Alarms wailed.
**[Alert: Unidentified armed force breaching perimeter.]**
Ren's pulse spiked. *The Shadow Guard?* No—they wouldn't attack a police station outright. Not unless…
The interrogation room's door exploded inward.
Smoke filled the air. Through the haze, figures moved—black combat armor, red-lit visors. But these weren't his guards. Their insignia was different.
A **wolf's head**, snarling in crimson.
Hasegawa drew her sidearm, but a single shot from the shadows knocked it from her grip. She hissed, clutching her bleeding hand.
Then—**a voice.**
**"Pathetic."**
A woman stepped through the smoke.
Tall. Elegant. Lethal.
Her black trench coat swayed as she walked, her gloved hand holding a smoking pistol. Silver hair, streaked with a single slash of red, framed a face Ren hadn't seen in years.
**Aunt Mei.**
Ren's breath caught.
She hadn't aged a day since he was twelve.
Hasegawa's eyes widened. **"You—?!"**
Mei's smile was glacial. **"Yes. Me."** She turned to Ren, her gaze softening—just for a heartbeat. **"Took you long enough to wake up, nephew."**
Ren's mind reeled. *All this time… she knew?*
Mei didn't give him time to process. With a flick of her wrist, one of her operatives tossed Ren a pistol.
**"We're leaving."**
Hasegawa snarled. **"You think it'll be that easy? The entire—"**
Mei shot her in the leg without looking.
Hasegawa collapsed, screaming.
**"I wasn't asking,"** Mei said, stepping over her. She glanced at Ren. **"Unless you'd rather stay and chat with *Police Flower*?"**
Ren ejected his cuffs with a lockpick from the pistol's grip. **"Let's go."**
---
### **The Truth in the Fire**
The police station was chaos.
Mei's squad—**Wolfpack**, Ren's System identified—cut through Hana's forces with terrifying precision. These weren't just mercenaries. They were *elite*.
Outside, an armored VTOL descended through the rain, its engines screaming.
Mei shoved Ren aboard. **"Go! We're burning time!"**
As the VTOL tore into the stormy sky, Ren finally turned on her. **"You knew. This whole time—you** ***knew*** **what I was."**
Mei lit a cigarette, exhaling slowly. **"And if I'd told you? You'd have gotten yourself killed before the System even activated."**
Ren's fists clenched. **"Who the hell *are* you?"**
Mei's smirk faded. For the first time, Ren saw something raw beneath the ice.
**"I'm the one who kept you alive."** She tapped ash onto the floor. **"Your father didn't just leave you a fortune, Ren. He left you a** ***war.*** **And Hana? They're just the beginning."**
The VTOL banked hard, Neo-Tokyo's skyline burning below.
**[New Quest: Survive the Night.]**
Ren Kuroda was done running.
It was time to fight back.