"This is not my doing!"
"You are the head of Arasaka, the captain of the company. Arasaka's eyes and ears are everywhere. My inner circle is filled with your loyal men. Why would I do such a thing?"
Yorinobu's accusation ricocheted through the ruined suite, his voice sharp with panic and suspicion.
"Could it be you staged this yourself?" he sneered suddenly, as if a new theory lit in his mind. "Of course. What disgustingly twisted thing would you not do? Arasaka's wealth has always been built on plunder and blood. You are a demon, a monster. There is nothing beyond you."
Saburo's face darkened like iron under pressure. The old man had kept control for decades, but the moment the words touched the heart of his empire, something ancient and dangerous woke inside him.
"You think a staged sacrifice would fool me?" Yorinobu pressed on, frantic. "You flew all the way from Tokyo and only told me when you were almost here. You had to have prepared everything. Sneak killers into my suite, catch me off guard, then kill me, or fake your own death and pin it on me!"
Silence fell. It was a heavy silence that felt like a countdown. Saburo's expression tightened. The years of patience frayed at the edges.
"Yorinobu," Saburo said at last, the old courtesy stripped away until only cold truth remained, "you disappoint me."
"If I had known you were this useless, this rot underfoot, I never would have entrusted Night City to you. I should have given it to Kei instead."
He paced the suite like a tide, shoes whispering on marble. Then his eyes snapped to the wall where three swords had hung. One slot was empty. Saburo's breath hitched and the years of disciplined calm collapsed in an instant.
"Yorinobu!" he roared. "Where is the blade? Where is Unregistered Katana X? Where is the Relic?"
Those words hit like hammers. Saburo could be indifferent to wealth and status, but there were two things he would never tolerate being mocked with: Unregistered Katana X and the Relic.
The Relic carried hope, the promise of forever. The project had consumed half a century of Arasaka's blood, money, and secrets. Entire strategic plans had shifted around it. It was the sort of work only a dynasty would pour itself into, and Saburo had. He had devoted a lifetime to squeezing impossible science from the world. He had refused to accept the limits of medicine, biology, or faith. If gods did not exist, he would make himself one.
And then the Relic finally yielded a breakthrough. Just as salvation seemed possible, the impossible happened: his own son had taken the Relic chip and the Unregistered Katana X from Arasaka's top-secret Tokyo labs and brought them to Night City. If the thief had been anyone else, Saburo would have ordered the full annihilation of Tokyo. But the thief was his son. So Saburo had come in person to recover the stolen treasures. Now the blade had vanished.
Yorinobu froze. He had never seen his father lose control in that manner. The sight of Saburo's raw, almost animal panic left him dazed. He stared at the empty place on the wall, where the most important sword should have hung.
"Where is it? The Relic? The Unregistered Katana X?" Saburo shouted, hands slapping his son's face hard enough to sting.
"I don't know!" Yorinobu shouted back, voice ragged. "When I left yesterday it was there!"
"Find the Relic now!" Saburo barked.
...
Outside the suite, after Neo and Rebecca had leapt through the window, Arasaka's armed skycars locked on to their heat signatures.
"Suspect detected, initiate neutralization protocol," the automated voice ordered. Cannons spun up and the air filled with tracer fire.
Neo rode the storm. He held Rebecca with one arm, Wado Ichimonji in the other hand. When the hail of bullets and shrapnel closed in, he let loose a single, brutal technique.
"Voidless Strike, Great Black Rope Tornado!"
A tornado of wind and force erupted from his fist and sliced through the barrage like a living blade. Bullets ripped backward in shocked arcs. Some Arasaka operatives were turned into shredded meat by the counterblast.
Neo moved as if physics agreed to his will. He cut through incoming fire with a single slash. He severed an attacking skycar with the next. He found purchase on a ledge, kicked off the glass, and slashed through another armament vehicle's canopy.
Catching Rebecca's small body against his chest, Neo drove Wado Ichimonji down and pierced the hull of a skycar. Explosions answered, metal screamed, and the first carrier was rubble. He used the shock of the blast to spring to the next vehicle and struck again. It detonated beneath them.
By then the remaining skycars engaged full combat mode. Hatches split open and combat drones poured out, bearing heavy weaponry. Arasaka had many toys in reserve they did not show to the public.
Neo and Rebecca dove into the narrow belly of a third skycar. Blades sliced. Sparks shined. Within moments the robots were little more than scrap rained across the cabin. Neo set Rebecca down and, voice low, asked, "Can you fly this?"
Rebecca was still dizzy from the violence but managed to nod. The skycar had an auto-navigation system. Neo set the destination and pushed the drive into full thrust.
"Rebecca, go. Don't look back. I will follow."
She cried out at his retreat, "Neo, I'm not leaving you!" but the vehicle shot forward like a hunted thing, vanishing into the night.
...
Adam Smasher descended like an iron star, unleashing indiscriminate cannon blasts. Even Konpeki Plaza's defenses coughed thick smoke under the barrage. Neo did not retreat. He charged forward with Wado Ichimonji, the sword reflecting the cold night like a promise.
"One-Sword Style, Lion's Song!" he shouted, and the blade flashed.