Neo-Tokyo Sector 3 — Forty-Eight Hours After the Greenhouse Massacre
It began with fire and ended in silence.
The wreckage of the Shizuma Botanical Facility still hissed with dying embers, and yet, within hours, the city had already begun scrubbing it from memory. News outlets speculated on electrical faults. Shizuma Medical issued a bland, corporate denial. No mentions of the crimson plasma. No mention of the blood-forged creature that had once been Shinji Taira. And certainly—no mention of the masked man who'd killed him.
But Yumi Kisagari remembered.
She had carried Rika's broken body through corridors still boiling with blood and smoke. She had seen Shinji's transformation—the gaping wounds sealing themselves, the Gate resonance pulsing from his core like a siren.
And she'd seen him.
The Reaper.
Moving like myth, a shadow among glass and ruin. Precise. Deadly. Inhuman.
He saved them.
But who was he?
---
Neo-Tokyo Central Authority Press Hall
9:00 a.m.
Dozens of news drones hovered overhead. Microphones blinked red and green, thirsty for scandal. Yumi's voice cut through the static like a blade.
> "There was an incident in the Shizuma greenhouse. Classified experimentation. Multiple fatalities. A cover-up is in progress by Shizuma Medical, involving unlicensed Contractor grafting and Spiriter fusion."
A hush fell over the room.
> "The perpetrator was Shinji Taira, personal servant to Rika Shizuma. He was a genetically altered subject of Project Helix. A failed human. A successful monster."
> "He was stopped by an unregistered operative. Black-clad. Armed. Spiriter-level speed and agility. Codename surfaced in old South Gate archives: BKA201. Alias: The Black Reaper."
Silence.
Then, pandemonium.
---
Yumi's Office – That Evening
Her hands moved fast, scrolling through encrypted archives, tracing firewall-shrouded trails through a labyrinth of abandoned server farms and ghost projects. Her tea had long gone cold. The room was dim except for the white-blue flicker of old files coming back to life.
Subject: Black Reaper - BKA201
Clearance Level: Buried
Last confirmed operation: Melbourne—S.G.S. Collapse Site. Mission Parameters: REDACTED. Outcome: Survivor Disappeared. Presumed Dead.
She stopped at a grainy frame—security footage from the South Gate collapse, years ago. Smoke. Screams. Spiriter debris.
And him.
A blurred figure cradling a girl in a green jacket as she shattered into light.
The girl he couldn't save.
---
Formation: UNIT-ECHO | OFF-THE-BOOKS TASK FORCE
Sector 5, Underground Command Bunker
The room was circular. Steel walls lined with Spirit-suppressing sigils. A single flickering light above.
Yumi stood before five figures—each marked by shadow, each chosen for a different reason.
1. DETECTIVE KAITO MINOBE
Burned by his last case, when he followed the Eden cult all the way to the boardroom of Shizuma Medical. He had scars on his ribs and a vendetta carved into his bones. "I want justice," he muttered, "not peace."
2. LT. SARA HOSHIGAWA
Discharged from the Spirit Suppression Unit after refusing to fire on an innocent Gate-borne child. Her precision with a Gate-slicer rifle was unmatched. So was her guilt.
3. ASSETER REI SAKAMURA
Pale-eyed. Silent. Her contract was with a being older than the first Gate—a chained thing of ash and mirrors. When she stepped into the room, the temperature dropped three degrees.
4. ANALYST RICO NINE
Barely human. Chrome grafts along his temples pulsed like data streams. He spoke three languages at once, and sometimes, none of them made sense. "Shizuma coded my brain like a weapon," he said. "Time to return the favor."
5. YUMI KISAGARI
Still wearing the ring Rika gave her when they were children. Still mourning a world where innocent people died and men like Shinji were made gods.
She looked around the table.
"We investigate Project Helix. We expose Shizuma Medical. We find out what happened at the South Gate collapse. And…"
She activated the hologram.
A flickering image of the Reaper. Masked. Standing in fire.
"…we find him."
---
Meanwhile — Beneath Sector 0
Unknown Location. Status: Class-Black Lab Facility "Helix Root"
Inside the lab, the air pulsed with cold.
Dozens of stasis tanks stretched into the darkness, each holding a near-perfect girl. Black hair. Pale skin. Heart monitors pulsing green.
Each labeled:
> RUNE VARIANT X-13B
RUNE VARIANT X-14A
PRIME DONOR—RECONSTRUCTION PENDING
In the central tank, the real one slept. Not Rune. Not the girl Lin remembered.
But a copy.
Programmed. Wired. Awaiting activation.
Dr. Ryonnosuke Shizuma stood beside the tank, arms folded behind his back. He didn't blink as he watched her fingers twitch in sleep.
"We gave her back," he whispered. "Now let's see if her brother tries to steal her."
He turned to the guard beside him.
"Deploy the Ark-Hunters. If BKA201 enters the city again—I want his head. Or his mask."
The bloodred lights dimmed.
And in the darkness, the clone of Rune began to cry.
---
To be continued