Night City, northern outskirts.
A few minutes ago.
Vela was flying high.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—
The wind howled, the storm stirred, and the fine particles and dust filling the airspace scraped against her streamlined armor.
The feeling of soaring freely across the sky—truly exhilarating.
It was completely different from piloting a Knightmare Frame; every sense felt far more vivid and alive.
Beep, beep.
Just as Vela was comparing the differences between her personal Warframe and a large mecha, her corneal HUD quietly displayed a notification window:
[6 pending notifications from the Northern Combat Zone Joint Command // All scheduled meetings have been canceled or removed // Night City 5.20 Crisis... Regional Communication Link [Night City — Connected]]
The instant she entered Night City's airspace, it was as though the Arasaka network had detected the activation of a high-level unit—countless communication requests flooded in like a storm of advertisements.
Vela accepted them all and took command: "This is Vela. All units, report. Keep it concise."
[Security Division [SP — Konpeki Plaza]: Mission failed. Yorinobu Arasaka has rebelled. The insurgents breached the building. Lord Saburo has been taken hostage. Goro Takemura is severely injured. The bodyguard corps is nearly annihilated. The surviving Martinez protection squad is retreating from the hotel ruins.]
[Security Division [2nd Section — Westbrook]: The community has been infiltrated. The enemy was long prepared—it's a rebellion! They've armed major mercenary brokers and coordinated with Militech infiltration forces to attack. The outer defense line has collapsed. Requesting reinforcements!]
[Arasaka Tower [Executive Board Office]: A rebellion has broken out, temporarily disrupting communications. Lady Michiko and Vice President Thomas are presiding over internal affairs. A purge of Yorinobu's faction within the tower has begun.]
[Security Bureau: Rapid response units have been mobilized, but road conditions are disastrous—traffic is jammed. All ground support columns are blocked en route, except for airborne assault units.]
[Northern U.S. Group Army [1st Garrison Division]: Currently engaged in firefight...]
[Michiko Arasaka: What took you so long?!]
[James Thomas: Mission accomplished... barely.]
...
Vela swiftly skimmed through the reports, issuing orders in an orderly manner.
There was no doubt—Yorinobu had staged this on a massive scale, striking with surgical precision.
Such chaos would not be easily contained. The longer it dragged on, the worse it would become. The news wouldn't stay suppressed for long; one misstep at the frontlines, and Arasaka's rising momentum could collapse entirely.
If Vela wanted to quell the rebellion swiftly, efficiently, and decisively—there was only one real option: decapitation.
At that thought, Vela smiled.
Yorinobu was baiting her—openly inviting battle.
He knew she wouldn't waste time, that she'd take the most direct path.
And indeed, she always would. Delay only bred disaster.
Yorinobu schemed against her—but she was scheming against him as well.
Saburo was already wounded; if Yorinobu died from his own recklessness, her path would be utterly clear.
The same held true for Yorinobu. Michiko was pliant, Hanako lacked the will to rule, and now that Saburo was in his grasp—if he could eliminate Vela, it wouldn't matter how long the fusion virus let him live. Before madness consumed him, as long as he held command over Arasaka's military power, he could set the entire world ablaze.
As for the future—he didn't care.
"Efficient and ruthless, huh? Fine, then." With a faint smile, Vela stopped midair, hovering between the city's northern industrial zone and the Arasaka Research District, gazing toward the coastal port.
Portions of the industrial complex had gone dark due to power failures.
Half the night sky was dyed crimson by fires and the glow of Konpeki-branded floodlights.
Drones and aerial vehicles fell from the sky in trails of sparks and lightning; the main traffic arteries roared with gunfire and explosions.
Tracer rounds, grenades, and guided rockets streaked skyward everywhere...
Taking in the entire scene, Vela quietly dialed a number.
[Contact: Yorinobu]
Beep—connected.
"Uncle, do you even know what you're doing?"
As she spoke, Vela brought up a 3D holographic map in her corneal display, her gaze sharpening.
"Arasaka Coastal District... southern docks, huh."
Murmuring under her breath, she turned slightly, glancing back at her squad. Her irises gleamed red as she activated the [Warframe System], deploying the vector thruster module for maximum acceleration—then shot toward the red-marked target on her map: Yorinobu's position.
[Vela [Airborne Assault Channel]: Follow my lead. We strike first and crush the traitors.]
The principle that "a wise man does not stand beneath a crumbling wall" did not apply here—what was needed now was the kind of dominance and resolve to shoulder the risk and crush the opposition.
Vrrrrmmm—
Blue-white shockwaves burst from her vector thrusters. A silver figure shot forward, accelerating continuously, slicing through the layers of air like a blade, heading straight for Arasaka Coastal Port, Sector A-7—like a comet striking the moon.
...
To Yorinobu, it all began the moment he smirked and answered, "I know. But that's exactly what I need."
A dim green glow flared—and BOOOOM!
The roar tore through the air, violent and thunderous like a storm.
A silvery-pink comet carved sharp zigzags through the sonic clouds, dodging left and right, tearing apart the metal storm, ripping through the short-range anti-air grid before crashing down just a few dozen meters away—the world itself seemed to explode before the eardrums caught up.
Clerks and technicians all around went pale, nerves on edge.
For those with only minimal cybernetic modification, she was simply too fast. All they saw was a streak of light descending from the sky—then a violent tremor underfoot as the reinforced concrete and polyurethane-coated composite floor shattered into countless fragments.
Crackle—!!
Dust and debris surged upward. From within the rising haze, a radiant figure slowly rose.
With a slash, she cut through the smoke. Hovering midair, Vela stood with Black Abyss V in hand, her eyes fixed coldly on Yorinobu's figure within the glow of his green energy barrier.
"Blaze Luminous shipborne energy shield... T-G-118-09 Fusion Virus... Uncle—so this is what you're relying on to face me?" Her voice was sharp as ice.
Truly, not something to underestimate.
So Yorinobu had hidden this trump card all along.
He'd dismantled a Blaze Luminous system from one of Arasaka's naval warships and secretly smuggled it into Night City under the guise of military reinforcement to North America.
Too careless—she had been far too busy lately, keeping her focus on nuclear and other large-scale weapons, neglecting this particular system.
Because of that shield's interference, her attempt to blitz him by exploiting the speed gap and striking first had failed.
Once a target exceeded a certain speed threshold, the shield's automated targeting algorithms—though manually maintainable at immense energy cost—classified it as a projectile and intercepted it. No choice but to slow down and break through at low altitude.
[Holy shit!]
Inside Yorinobu's neural vision, Johnny whistled. [That chick... what the hell did she do to herself? That armor's a goddamn masterpiece. Even I'm drooling here! No wonder Militech got their ass kicked into the pavement by your Arasaka freakshow.]
Yorinobu ignored him.
Wiping his mouth, he crushed the empty coffee jug in his hand, stepped forward, shattering the barricade underfoot. His split lips stretched into a grin. "So, you've come." Then his tone turned cold in an instant. "Kill her!"
A torrential storm of gunfire erupted.
Accelerating through the barrage, tearing apart the rebel troops and AI units in her path, Vela could clearly see through the flickering glow—inside the energy shield, Yorinobu tore off his cloak, his body erupting in countless bleeding cracks.
Around him lay shattered coffee jugs and fragments of Quinque littering the floor...
Coffee... no wonder he'd managed to suppress his bloodlust temporarily and keep his mind intact. Quinque... sharp of him, using it to replenish his Rc cells.
Behind her nano visor, Vela's eyes narrowed slightly.
A fusion-virus type ghoul kakuja transformation, was it?
"Interesting."