The silence at the Aegis HQ over those three days was heavier than any server load. Rina didn't just ignore Chano; she treated him like a bug in her system that required a total overwrite. Every time he walked past her desk, the sheer speed of her typing sounded like a suppressed submachine gun.
Chano, ever the stoic, just leaned into the quiet. He spent his evenings hardening his new BGC high-rise. He knew she was coming for him; he just didn't know how loud the front door would be.
The Ambush
It was 11:00 PM when he finally swiped his card at his unit. He expected the familiar mechanical chunk of his custom deadbolt. Instead, the door hissed open on its own, and a smooth, unfamiliar AI voice filled the foyer.
"Welcome home, Master Chano. Heart rate: 72 bpm. Fatigue level: Moderate. Shall I prepare a cold bath, or would you prefer to admit defeat first?"
Chano's hand was on his taser before the AI finished its sentence. He kicked the door wide, scanning for threats. The lights flickered on, revealing Rina.
She looked entirely too comfortable. She was lounging on his Italian leather sofa in silk pajamas, a mug of his most expensive roast in her hand. Her laptop was hardwired into his wall-mounted server, cascading data across his 80-inch living room screen.
"You told me I was 'too green' to track you," Rina said, her eyes reflecting the glow of the monitors. "You told me to build a code you couldn't break. Well, Chano-san... welcome to the audit. I own every bit of data in this room. Your move."
Chano glanced at his smart-panel. The UI had been completely rewritten. It was a beautiful, terrifying hybrid of structural logic and digital cryptography.
"You broke into my house to win an argument?" Chano asked, his voice low.
"I didn't just break in. I optimized it," Rina said, standing up and closing the distance between them. "I'm staying until you prove you're actually the legend they say you are. Consider this a 24/7 security stress test."
The Counter-Play
Chano sighed. He was hungry, tired, and now he had a squatter who could probably hack the air vents if he pissed her off. He walked toward the kitchen for a glass of water, but as he reached for a cabinet, it locked with a smug digital chirp.
CLACK.
"Denied," Rina whispered, following him like a shadow. "You want water? Solve the 64-bit logic gate I just sent to your watch. Otherwise, it's going to be a very thirsty night."
Chano looked at his wrist. A pulsing, complex mathematical puzzle was scrolling across the OLED screen. Rina leaned against the counter, looking like she'd already won the war.
"Fine. Let's play," Chano muttered.
He didn't touch the watch. He didn't even look at it. Instead, he pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped a sequence into a hidden terminal he'd buried in the apartment's firmware months ago.
Suddenly, the high-end sound system didn't just play music; it screamed a high-pitched Japanese children's song about dancing carrots at maximum volume. The smart-lights began a strobe sequence of blinding pink and neon green that made the room look like a bad rave.
"Wait—what?! Stop that!" Rina yelped, shielding her eyes. "You'll fry the controller!"
"I'm not hacking your code, Rina," Chano said, calmly opening the fridge, which swung wide for him. "I'm hacking your laptop's cooling fan. If you don't kill the strobe lights in five seconds, your five-thousand-dollar rig is going to melt. Efficiency is beauty, right? Let's see how beautiful a toasted motherboard looks."
"You... you monster!" Rina scrambled for her laptop, her fingers flying to kill his script before her hardware turned into a very expensive paperweight.
The Truce
The apartment went silent. The lights settled into a soft, warm amber. Rina was panting, her hair messy, glaring at Chano while he leaned against the counter, peacefully sipping cold water.
"One-one," Chano said. "You got in, but you couldn't hold the ground."
Rina pouted—a rare, human crack in her perfectionist armor. "You cheated. You attacked the hardware because you couldn't bypass my logic gates."
"In a real fight, Rina, there is no 'cheating.' There's only the person who's still online and the person who isn't."
Rina shut her laptop with a definitive snap. "Fine. But I'm not leaving. The guest room is already synced to my biometrics. Don't bother trying to change the code; I've set it to a rolling sequence based on the Tokyo Stock Exchange."
"Suit yourself," Chano replied, headed for his own room. "Just stay out of my tool kit."
As he shut his door, Elijah's voice giggled in his ear. "Master! Unbelievable! You're actually letting her stay? This is basically a rom-com now! I'm telling Ma'am Bella!"
Chano looked at his own terminal. He hadn't told Rina, but her encryption actually was impressive. It had taken him three seconds longer than usual to find the back door.
The "Normal Life" he'd wanted in San Pedro was officially dead. He was living with a genius who wanted to skin him alive, working for a billionaire who wanted to own him, and the shadows were only getting longer.