Yorinobu watched Rocky without blinking.
"Ambition? You are right. I am ambitious, but so is everyone who survives here." Rocky's voice stayed even. "Ascension Technology kept a low profile to grow without noise. We hid our strength until now."
He tipped his chin toward Konpeki's window and its distant lights. "And you, Yorinobu Arasaka, have done the same. You learned to grind down your edge, sit by Saburo Arasaka's side, and collect power while smiling."
Yorinobu did not deny it. Silence filled in for words.
"We are the same kind of people," Rocky went on. "We want the same result. That is why I came. Work with me and we change the world."
Yorinobu's eyes narrowed. "My goal is not just to destroy Arasaka."
"I know."
"I want to end every capital empire that grinds people down. Not one company. All of them. I want to break the system that lets them run unchecked. Call it what you want. I call it liberation."
"If all you do is help me hit Arasaka, that is not enough," he added. "If Ascension is just another ambitious company, then I am replacing one sickness with another."
Rocky nodded. "I understand."
"Not only Arasaka," Rocky said. "Militech. WCN. Any outfit that hoards resources and treats people like disposable parts. I do not plan to let any of them walk away."
That made Yorinobu smile despite himself. For a heartbeat, he looked younger, like a student who finally hears his own language from someone else.
"Is that true?" he asked.
"I have watched companies drain a village's water, then take its land. I have watched Night City run like a machine fed with broken minds, broken dreams, and sweat. Companies already control life. Now they reach for the soul. This is a fight with a runaway system. Stand with me and we declare war on all of it."
The name that lived in both men's heads surfaced without being said for long. Johnny Silverhand. The idea mattered more than the man.
Yorinobu breathed out. "Ideals are fine, steps matter more."
"Then we talk steps," Rocky said. "Because none of this happens in speeches."
Yorinobu emptied his glass and set it down. "What do you want to do?"
"First, I help you take full control of Arasaka. Then we use Arasaka and Ascension together. We go after every corporation that thinks it is untouchable. In the end, Ascension stands at the top and exerts control over the rest."
Yorinobu stilled. That was not the plan in his head.
"You were going to seize Arasaka," Rocky said, reading him cleanly. "Then use Arasaka to provoke wars, weaken every other corporation, and break them. But ask yourself if war alone can end them. Johnny put a nuclear charge in Arasaka Tower. The tower fell. The company did not. These structures do not vanish because you kick them once."
"To end corporate rule, you need something larger. A single force that can overmatch and coordinate every part of the system long enough to remake it. Then you lock the shape in."
Yorinobu stared at the glass and saw risk in both directions. "Ascension is still a company."
"It is my company," Rocky said. "I am a merc and a ripperdoc first. Ascension is me and a circle of people who share the same line in their head. Now and later, it will remain in my hands. It is a tool. It acts as my will. That is the difference."
He refilled Yorinobu's glass and lifted his own.
Yorinobu hesitated. There was no route without danger. There was also no other route that reached his goal while he was still alive to see it.
He raised the glass. "To our partnership."
They drank. The city outside kept moving.