[LOCATION: YUKI-CLASS INTERCEPTOR – EASTERN SKIES ABOVE KANPUR MEGACITY]
[TIME: 04:09 A.M.]
"Repeat. No visual on the target. Black Reaper presumed underground."
Yumi Kisaragi stood in the cockpit of the stealth interceptor, arms crossed, her angular visor reflecting the ghost-lit cityscape. Wind trails from the collapsed CVRC facility still curled into the heavens like silent screams.
She hated the quiet after the storm.
"Recalibrate the spectral filter," she said, voice clipped. "Scan for Class-S Etheric signatures within a two-mile radius. He's still bleeding from the fusion."
"Ma'am," her lieutenant, Ishirou, said with a slow nod, "that'll burn the entire core net. We won't be able to mask ourselves from the Nexus Satellites."
Yumi's eyes flashed behind her visor. "Do it."
Ishirou obeyed.
In the corner of her screen, a brief flicker.
Red pulse. Corrupted Gatelight. Southern sector. Slums.
The Black Reaper had survived.
---
[LOCATION: LOWER KANPUR, SECTOR 8 – NEL'S MECHANIC DEN]
[TIME: 04:39 A.M.]
"Get him on the table!"
Sparks flew as Nel slammed the steel slab down and rolled Lin's limp body onto it. He was burning from within, skin flickering between human and something else — ghost-veined and radiant. The Reactor Ring pulsed on his chest like a second heart.
Nel, her face smeared with grease and panic, cursed under her breath.
"Hold still, you idiot…" she muttered, injecting a stabilizer compound into his bloodstream.
Lin flinched. Gasped.
Nel cupped his face instinctively. "You're safe. But not for long."
He opened his eyes.
"…You still fix broken things, huh?" he rasped.
Nel gave a strained laugh. "You never stopped giving me broken things to fix."
Their eyes met — and for a moment, there was no war. No Reactor. No Reaper.
Just the past. Just them.
Lin's breath slowed. His hand, shaking, found hers.
"I didn't want to come back."
"But you did," she said softly, brushing strands of black hair from his brow. "Because you knew I'd still be here."
---
[LOCATION: INTERCEPTOR – ORBITAL HANGAR BRIEFING ROOM]
[TIME: 05:01 A.M.]
Yumi Kisaragi stood before a three-dimensional projection of Black Reaper 's last known route. The Reactor Ring's pulse readings played in ghostly red across the grid.
"Status on CVRC?"
"Total loss," Ishirou replied. "Sub-Levels collapsed. Devika Ramaswami presumed dead. Omega Lockdown failed."
"Then he has the Ring," Yumi said flatly.
Her eyes narrowed. She turned away from the screen.
"Prepare the Task Force. I want boots on the ground by sunrise. No media. No military. This is a soul-class rogue with access to a living reactor."
"And if civilians are shielding him?"
"Then they're accessories to high Etheric terrorism."
Ishirou hesitated. "And if we find Nel Myrrha with him?"
Yumi paused.
That name still stung.
"Then she answers for her sins."
---
[LOCATION: NEL'S DEN – LATER THAT MORNING]
Lin stirred on the slab. The room dimmed, metal groaning softly as light pierced through holes in the tin roof. Nel sat nearby, wiping grease from her hands, her long white jacket half-open over her tank top.
"You could've died," she said.
"I should have," he murmured.
"Don't say that. Not to me."
Silence.
Lin slowly sat up. "You don't understand—"
"I do," she interrupted, voice tight. "You think I haven't been watching? Every Gate event. Every Contractor corpse. Every child who vanished like Rune."
He froze.
Nel stepped forward. "I remember her too."
He looked at her — really looked. And for once, Lin didn't feel alone.
But the moment broke with a knock at the steel hatch.
Three rhythmic taps. Military pattern.
They both froze.
Yumi Kisaragi had arrived.
---
[LOCATION: SECTOR 8 SLUM STREETS – TASK FORCE APPROACHING]
[TIME: 06:03 A.M.]
The Task Force marched in formation. Black armor. White visors. Each carrying a suppressor blade tuned to sever Ether resonance.
Yumi walked at the front.
Her mission wasn't just retrieval.
It was retribution.
---
[TO BE CONTINUED…]