Chapter 2: Beginning
"Here's your reward. Take it."
The white-haired woman in a kimono smiled as she handed over the mission bonus.
"Mmh. Thanks."
Ash accepted the five thousand eurodollars from Wakako Okada and casually passed it to Sandayu Oda, who gratefully received it. As one of the team's finance handlers—and someone who had grown up at the very bottom of society—she had an extraordinary sensitivity to currency.
With her enhanced touch and cyber-optic scanners, she could tell if money was real or counterfeit in seconds.
That mattered. In Night City, a lot of under-the-table jobs didn't go through bank transfers—especially not for someone like Ash, whose official accounts were company-issued. Any unexpected income had to be justified, and that's not easy to do when working for a megacorp like Arasaka.
He liked cash anyway. The scent of fresh ink on paper was comforting. He liked it even more after Oda joined the team—it lowered their chances of getting scammed. Not many would dare try to cheat someone under Arasaka's umbrella, but better safe than sorry.
For larger sums, ten thousand and up, they used encrypted credchips. Plug-and-play. Like old-school memory cards—simple, dirty, and untraceable. Sometimes they'd transfer funds through local net accounts using direct-link comms, similar to old QR payments.
"Heh, never thought someone from Arasaka would be doing side gigs like this," Wakako Okada remarked as she watched Sandayu Oda double-check the bills. Adjusting her glasses, she turned to Ash.
"Gotta make money. Nothing wrong with that," Ash replied with a faint grin.
That mindset was part of why he had joined Arasaka in the first place. The city might've looked futuristic and flashy, but under that neon sheen, it was rotten. When Ash first arrived, he was harassed by gangs, extorted by bosses, threatened by landlords, and even had stray dogs jump him for his synthetic protein packs—his so-called "nutritional meals."
The soft homebody raised in peace had long since disappeared. He became sharper, colder, more pragmatic. He had no intention of being anyone's victim again.
He trained. He got smarter. He signed up with Arasaka—not because he worshipped them, but because it was the easiest corp to get into if you knew how to follow orders. Even the lowest-tier Arasaka grunt got more respect than 90% of Night City.
But Ash wasn't your average grunt.
Smart, observant, calculating—his past life may not have given him battlefield experience, but it taught him how to survive people. In ten years, he rose through the ranks and stopped just short of management.
Because crossing that line meant stepping into another world—one he wasn't ready for. He didn't trust the corporate ladder that high up. He didn't want to be shackled to Arasaka forever, especially when he knew the "great quake" was coming. Arasaka would collapse from within. It was only a matter of time.
So all that time, Ash's real goal had been simple: stack enough cash to be free. Just in case his identity couldn't protect him when the corp finally fell apart. A man who doesn't plan ahead ends up dead in the gutter.
"You Dou, you having fun out there?" Wakako asked, turning to Arasaka Yuto, who was idly twirling a small chip between his fingers. Unlike the formal way she spoke to Ash, her tone with Yuto was soft, even indulgent.
"Eh, it's alright," Yuto shrugged. "Walking the streets, buying junk, eating stuff… sometimes getting into fights."
That pretty much summed up his daily life. His surname alone showed his pedigree—he never had to hustle for food like the rest of them.
Wakako nodded. As long as he was safe, it was fine.
Yuto had been added to Ash's squad by Wakako herself. With the name "Arasaka," it was no wonder someone like Nova Li, who fought her way to the top, looked down on him. Sandayu Oda was a top-tier netrunner and disguise artist. Takumi Kai was an elite sniper with stealth ops training. Yue Tanaka was a frontline breacher and demolition expert. Nova Li herself was a driving and mechanical prodigy.
And then there was Captain Ash—battle-hardened, strategic, versatile, honorable, and drop-dead handsome. A rare breed in Night City.
And Yuto? He clapped from the sidelines. He vanished the moment a fight started and returned only when it was over.
Why keep him?
Some suspected Ash only tolerated him because his presence opened doors—exclusive missions, corporate discounts, high-tier gigs. Wakako certainly made sure they benefited from having him around. Over the past two years, their crew earned serious bank.
Nova Li, just three years into her official career, had already bought a hundred-square-meter apartment near Concord Park in Heywood. Not bad for a so-called bottom-rank squad.
She'd resisted joining at first. Now she thanked her father for assigning her to Ash's unit.
Takumi Kai had gone through the same arc. A sniper from Arasaka's Tokyo HQ, he'd looked down on Ash's team until a mission forced him to fill a vacant spot.
On that op, he bagged a critical kill that completed the job before Ash or anyone else even moved. The reward was ten thousand eurodollars. Normally, the captain would take half, and the rest would be split.
But Ash only took five hundred. The rest went to Takumi.
"Captain, I don't deserve all of it."
"You earned it. We didn't lift a finger. Five hundred's already too much for dinner."
Takumi never forgot that moment. That grin. That leadership.
And Ash backed it up, time and again. No matter how complex the mission, Ash knew what to do. Knew what they didn't. Just follow his lead, and the cash came rolling in.
Now, with the money counted, Sandayu Oda gave Ash a nod—the numbers checked out. Time to leave.
But just then, Wakako's phone buzzed. She picked up casually—then froze.
She looked over at Yuto, who had just turned to go.
"You Dou! Hold up—I need to talk to you. Alone."
Yuto looked puzzled, glancing from her to Ash.
"We'll wait outside," Ash said, but before Yuto could respond, Wakako cut in.
"Sorry, Ash. Yuto won't be going on missions with you for a while."
Yuto's face fell.
"Okada—!"
"You Dou," she said sharply. "I'll explain."
Yuto bit back his words and lowered his head.
After all, he wasn't free.
"Mr. Ash," Wakako said gently.
Ash didn't answer. He just patted Yuto on the shoulder.
"You know how to find us."
Yuto hesitated, then nodded. "I will."
Ash gave him a final squeeze, then left the pachinko parlor with Oda.
"Captain, about You Dou…" Sandayu started.
Ash raised a hand. "He's part of our team. That's all there is to it."
He glanced at a nearby video store. The wall of TVs was all showing the same thing—an Arasaka anti-terror drone tearing through Konpeki Plaza.
Two tiny black silhouettes were sprinting ahead as bullets raked the floor behind them. One misstep, and they'd be gone.
"Anyway, we've got our own problems coming."
His eyes narrowed. After ten long years, the storm had finally begun.
---
Half an hour earlier...
"T-Bug, you in?"
V frowned at the bald hacker on the comms. T-Bug looked like she was staring down hell itself.
This wasn't their first run together. Last time, they extracted a Platinum-tier Trauma Team client, but that had been simple. Just the Maelstrom gang—V and Jackie brute-forced their way through.
This time, though, things felt different.
T-Bug wasn't keeping up. And without Flathead—their combat-ready spider drone—they wouldn't have even gotten access to Konpeki Plaza's surveillance net.
"Forget it. No time left—we move now," Jackie said, slamming the controller down and grabbing his pack.
V sighed and followed. The mission: steal the Relic chip.
Konpeki Plaza penthouse—Arasaka Yorinobu's private suite.
As the second son of Arasaka's top dog, Yorinobu lived large. They found the Relic inside a high-security, climate-controlled cabinet.
A sleek silver case.
"Let's bounce," Jackie said.
"Wait." V spotted something in the nightstand. A pistol. "Kongou?! Damn, this is a good one."
She wiped off the dust with reverence.
"If we don't move now, we're dead," Jackie hissed.
Just then, a door clicked open.
The two scrambled for cover behind a window panel.
A young man stormed in, followed by a towering older figure.
Arasaka Yorinobu.