The night sky over the Rust District glowed faintly red — not from stars, but from smog and firelight.
Old Gin stood at the edge of the market's slum border, tightening the strap of his worn coat.
The map flickered dimly on his old comm device, marking the path to the White Lab — deep inside Sector Null, a zone walled off by the Authority years ago.
"White Lab…" he muttered. "You bastards never change."
The last time Gin had heard that name, he was still in uniform — a soldier cleaning up the mess after one of the Authority's "biogenesis" experiments went rogue. Now they were doing it again, but this time, they had his student.
He started walking.
The roads grew emptier the farther he went. Broken lights blinked above, casting fractured shadows. Drones hummed overhead, their red sensors sweeping the streets. Gin ducked into an alley, his movement practiced — muscle memory from a life spent surviving behind enemy lines.
He reached an abandoned checkpoint. Rusted fences. A collapsed watchtower. But beneath the debris, a tunnel hatch still hummed with faint Essentia charge — the kind only old Authority networks used.
He crouched, pressed a finger to the pad, and whispered, "Still works after all this time…"
The lock recognized his energy signature — one he had stolen long ago — and clicked open.
The tunnel air was cold and stale. Pipes lined the walls, dripping condensation. He moved silently, boots echoing softly against the metal floor. The only light came from the faint blue glow of his Essentia pulse, guiding his way.
Halfway through, he heard faint static from his comm.
A voice crackled — deep, distorted.
> "You really going through with this, Gin?"
"He's my responsibility," Gin replied.
"You can't save everyone. You failed the last team too."
"This one's different."
A pause. Then the voice sighed.
> "Then may your threads hold."
The line went dead.
Gin reached the end of the tunnel — a massive steel gate marked with the Authority's emblem: a serpent coiled around an atom.
Two guards stood outside, armored and armed with plasma rifles.
He crouched, calculating.
A frontal assault was suicide — even for him.
He reached into his coat, pulling out a small vial filled with flickering blue mist: Essentia gas, a relic from the old wars.
He tossed it.
The vial shattered against the ground, releasing a faint shimmer. Within seconds, the gas spread — silent, invisible. The guards stiffened, eyes glowing faintly before they dropped, unconscious. Their Essentia flow disrupted, hearts beating in a false rhythm.
Gin exhaled. "Still works."
He dragged the bodies aside, opened the gate, and slipped through.
The interior of the White Lab was pristine and blinding — all sterile white walls and humming lights. He moved carefully, sticking to shadows, the soldier in him fully awake again.
Voices echoed from a nearby corridor.
> "Subject J-09 shows stable vitals." "Essentia reaction levels exceeding 300% baseline." "The triple-core synchronization is holding… for now."
Gin froze.
J-09.
Jiro.
He followed the sound, every muscle tight with focus.
Through a glass window, he saw him — floating inside a containment tank, tubes snaking across his body. His hair was longer, his face pale, but his Essentia glow was unmistakable — three cores pulsing beneath his chest.
Gin's jaw clenched. "Damn it, kid…"
He turned to the control panel beside the door. Access required a level-4 passcode. That would take too long. So he did what he did best — bypassed it the old way.
He ripped the cover open, crossed two energy lines, and pressed his hand to the circuit. His Essentia surged through, overloading the security grid. The door hissed open.
He stepped inside, silence broken only by the hum of the containment field.
For a brief second, he let himself look — really look — at the boy he had trained.
The kid who'd once struggled to hold a stance now held the power of three cores inside him.
Gin placed a hand on the glass.
"I told you to survive, not to become a damn weapon."
The alarms hadn't triggered yet. But they would.
He took a deep breath, scanned the tank's interface, and muttered to himself.
"Alright, Tensai… let's get you out before they realize the storm they've built."
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