Chapter 23: Signal in the Veins
The rain hadn't stopped.
It soaked into Kaito's clothes, into his bones, as he stood motionless on the rooftop overlooking District 9. The city pulsed below, its glow artificial — like a dying star pretending to shine.
But something had changed.
The signal.
He could feel it now, not just in his head but in his skin. A low-frequency hum, like invisible threads weaving through the city's grid. The same pulse he felt back in the chamber, beneath the tunnel. Under his mother's name.
Aya's voice crackled through the earpiece. "Kaito, are you there? You went dark."
He touched the comm lightly. "I saw her."
"Who?"
He hesitated.
"Aiko."
There was silence on the other end — then static, like something brushing against the signal.
"That's not possible," Aya whispered. "She's... she's dead."
"No," he replied. "She's waking up."
---
The Static Takes Hold
He descended from the roof, each floor of the crumbling building humming louder as he passed. Lights flickered violently. Somewhere on the third floor, a vending machine shorted out, spilling cans across cracked tiles.
On the street, people were beginning to notice.
Not the monsters — not yet. But the tension. Radios switching on without touch. Screens blinking with glyphs. Subway doors refusing to open.
It was beginning.
At the next corner, Kaito saw a young boy staring up at a streetlamp, unmoving. His eyes were glazed over — not possessed, but tuned in, like a broken antenna catching something it shouldn't.
Kaito knelt beside him. "Hey, kid. Are you okay?"
The boy didn't respond — just whispered a phrase over and over:
> "The chain is cracking. The sky will fold."
Kaito's breath hitched.
Not a prophecy. A warning.
---
Aya's Extraction
A sharp hiss cracked through the earpiece again — Aya's voice strained. "Kaito, we've got a problem. The central relay just went dead. Power's being rerouted… but it's not us doing it."
"Where are you?"
"I'm at the M-Corp archives. They started auto-wiping the sealed files. Someone's trying to erase everything."
"I'm coming."
"No — meet me at the junction beneath Sakai Bridge. I have something... something your mother left behind. Something only you can unlock."
Before he could ask what, the line cut — swallowed in a burst of shrieking noise like claws across glass.
He broke into a sprint.
---
Under Sakai Bridge
The rain had carved trenches in the dirt by the time he reached the underpass. His legs ached, lungs burned, but he didn't stop.
A van sat idling in the dark.
Aya stepped out, soaked, clutching a sealed capsule. Her face was pale, eyes wide.
"They knew we'd come here."
From the shadows, metal scraped.
Figures emerged. Thin, twitching — not mutants. Worse.
Uplinked.
People whose nervous systems had been hijacked by the pulse. Eyes glowing dim violet. Walking antennae.
Kaito raised the crowbar instinctively, but Aya shook her head. "Don't fight them. Not yet."
She tossed him the capsule. "Inside is the failsafe your mother designed. But it won't work here. You need to go back underground — to where the signal is clean."
Kaito opened the case. Inside: a single glass vial filled with mercury-like liquid, and a voice recorder with one message file.
He played it.
> "Kaito... if you're hearing this, it means the breach has begun."
> "I couldn't stop it. But you might. The key is inside you — always has been. That's why they couldn't kill you. That's why they turned Aiko instead."
> "But if you use this, you won't come back the same."
> "Forgive me, my son."
His hands trembled.
The signal inside him pulsed — faster, clearer now. Like it heard her too.
Aya looked at him. "If you go back down there… you'll find answers. But not all of them will be kind."
Kaito nodded, slipping the vial into his coat.
"I'm not looking for kind," he said.
"I'm looking for the truth."
---
End of Chapter 23.