Goro Takemura and Adam Smasher stepped into the elevator. As it descended, only Saburo Arasaka and Yorinobu Arasaka remained in the penthouse at Konpeki Plaza.
Saburo looked at his son. "Did you think I wouldn't notice something missing?"
Yorinobu had stolen the Relic biochip. That could never escape Saburo's eye. Even if Saburo had tacitly allowed it to leave the vault, it would not have reached Night City without his knowledge.
"Do you find that so important? I don't care what you think," Yorinobu shot back. "You're always arrogant, always acting like the world revolves around you. You said you wouldn't interfere in my affairs, and now you come to Night City. To humiliate me? To teach your son how to behave?"
Saburo's expression did not change. Whether it was the iron will that kept him calm in all things or long familiarity with Yorinobu's defiance, he answered evenly. "You do not know what you are doing. You would hand over what our family built to Westerners and bury our future."
Yorinobu pushed up from his chair and paced. He was angry, and under the anger, there was nervous energy he tried to bleed off with movement. He knew what he intended to do.
"I don't care about your future. And who says the future is yours?" he said, pointing at Saburo as he walked.
Saburo clasped his hands behind his back and approached his son step by measured step. "I knew this day would come. Your acts and your shamelessness would cross my line sooner or later. I have tolerated you many times, but betrayal I cannot tolerate."
When Yorinobu had once broken from the family, gathering his own forces to strike at Arasaka, Saburo had sworn he would pay for it. He had even considered killing him, then relented at Hanako Arasaka's plea. Saburo loved his daughter; he would not make her mourn another sibling. When Yorinobu returned to the corporation, Saburo put away thoughts of punishment and tried again to shape him into a successor.
Years passed. Yorinobu never settled. Saburo understood that his son had not abandoned his old goal; he had only changed methods. Patience thin, hope fading, Saburo watched Yorinobu's behavior tonight and felt the last of that hope leave.
"I am disappointed in you," Saburo said. "I am glad your mother did not see this. It would have broken her heart."
They stood face to face.
Yorinobu did not answer with words. He lunged, seized Saburo by the throat, and slammed him back against the partition wall, fingers tightening with relentless pressure.
"Now you don't have to be tolerant," he hissed. "Go to hell. Accept punishment for what you did."
Even Saburo was taken aback by the sudden attack. Age had hollowed his body; he had no strength to fight his son's grip. Air fled his lungs. He did not resist. Dying at the hands of his own son was bitter, but in that bitterness, one line of blood would be cut clean.
As Saburo's vision tunneled, he heard words that shocked him cold. "You want to take my body and live again to keep building Arasaka, right? I won't let you succeed. Watch."
Saburo's pupils widened. The sentence confirmed too much. Yorinobu's hands tightened. Saburo's body sagged; then fell.
Yorinobu checked for a pulse, calmed his breathing, and pinged the hotel AI. "My father. He's been killed."
Konpeki Plaza lit up with alarms. Red strobes flashed as sirens rolled across the upper floors.
Takemura and Smasher rushed back into the suite.
"What happened?" Takemura demanded.
"My father," Yorinobu said, face set in fear. "He was poisoned."
"Poisoned?" Takemura's first reaction was disbelief. As Saburo's personal bodyguard, he knew the old man's habits. Saburo accepted only food and drink prepared by his own team and never touched anything else. Now, Yorinobu claimed poisoning, when only the two of them had been in this room.