The Neon District wasn't supposed to burn. At least, not like this.
Smoke from overloaded circuits curled around shattered billboards, the city flickering in and out of existence. People screamed through streets that glitched like corrupted files. The sky itself pulsed with data waves, neon bleeding into darkness, static shimmering across the horizon.
And on the rooftop of a crumbling café, Kairo Vale sat cross-legged, headphones on, stirring instant noodles with a metal fork like it was any other morning.
"Man," he muttered, watching holographic billboards flicker. "They really don't know when to quit."
Below, chaos roared — sirens, gunfire, and panicked citizens caught between collapsing digital constructs. But Kairo? He didn't flinch. His eyes glowed faintly blue in the dim light, reflecting the Pulse network that hummed through the city.
His wristband buzzed. A tiny holographic window blinked to life:
[Incoming Transmission: Team Node 6]
"Kairo! Where the hell are you!? The Deletors are everywhere—half the District's gone!"
He slurped the last noodle.
"Everywhere, huh?" Kairo yawned. "Then I guess I should say hi."
"You're insane! Do not engage—"
The call cut off.
Kairo stood, stretched lazily, and tapped the side of his wrist console. The air around him shimmered. Pixels tore at the edges of reality, the world seeming to hesitate.
[ACCESSING PULSE: 45%… 68%… 100%]
[Shift Mode Activated]
A moment later, the noodle cup floated in front of him, disintegrating into glowing fragments of data. He smirked.
"Alright," he muttered, "time to remind them who forgot to play nice."
---
Far below, a Deletor emerged — tall, faceless, draped in shifting code that made the world warp around it. One wrong move and entire streets could vanish in its presence.
Kairo stepped off the rooftop. Not jumped. Not fell. He simply… stepped. The air folded around him, and he reappeared behind the target in an instant.
"Rule number one of deleting me," he whispered, "make sure I don't remember you."
The Deletor turned… too late.
White light engulfed the figure. When it faded, only static remained.
Kairo adjusted his headphones.
"Never learn," he muttered. "And I still didn't finish breakfast."
---
A flicker in the holographic air alerted him. Two figures had joined him.
The first was Rin "Lockdown" Hoshino, a sharp-eyed woman with hair pulled back into a tight braid. Her pulse rifle gleamed with custom code amplifiers. Calm, precise, tactical — the kind who calculated the outcome of every move before blinking. She was the team's sniper, their calm in the storm.
"Kairo, are you insane?" Rin's voice cut through static, calm but sharp. "Do you know how many civilians are exposed down there?"
"Yeah, probably a hundred… give or take," Kairo replied lazily, eyes on the city grid. "Don't sweat it, Lockdown. I've got it."
Rin raised an eyebrow, not impressed. "You always say that. Always wrong until… magically right."
The other figure stumbled over a stack of broken crates. Toby "Crash" Mendoza, a lanky, overly energetic hacker, nearly tripped over his own holographic gear. He had the kind of chaotic energy that made Kairo smirk.
"Dude! I just patched the south sector firewall, and—holy crap, Kairo! Did you—"
"Yes, yes, I deleted him," Kairo interrupted, waving a hand. "Relax, Crash. You're making my job look harder than it is."
Crash gawked, mouth open, then flopped onto the rooftop, panting. "Harder? You mean impossible! There's no way anyone survives that shift in real time!"
Kairo shrugged. "Guess I'm impossible then."
---
Below, the Deletors regrouped. Their faceless leader, code writhing like liquid darkness, surveyed the city with a digital coldness that made the air feel like ice. It wasn't the faceless mask that frightened people — it was that it knew everything about them. Their patterns. Their memories. Their fears. And now… Kairo was remembering.
"Subject 01 has accessed the Archive," a shadowed figure murmured through fractured screens. "He remembers. Activate Protocol Zero."
The city shuddered. Buildings flickered violently. A new Deletor dropped from a digital rift above, cloaked in black code and red glitches.
"Finally," Kairo muttered, cracking his neck. "I was getting bored."
Rin's pulse rifle whirred, scanning. "Kairo, we need a plan."
Kairo grinned, hands in pockets. "Plan? I don't do plans. I improvise… beautifully."
The Deletor leapt. Space seemed to fold, lights bending like liquid neon. Kairo sidestepped effortlessly, the enemy crashing into a wall that blinked in and out of existence.
Crash squealed. "Did you just—?!"
"Yep," Kairo said casually. "And they didn't even see me coming. Classic."
He tapped his console. Digital streams wrapped around his arms like glowing chains. Data pulses twisted reality itself. The Deletor tried to strike again, but every attack dissolved into flickering static.
Rin fired once, precisely. The Deletor staggered, glitched in midair.
"Time to finish this," Kairo whispered, eyes glowing brighter.
A pulse of neon light surged from his hands, enveloping the Deletor. When it cleared, nothing remained but scattered data shards drifting like ash.
"Archive mode: success." Kairo muttered, brushing dust from his jacket.
---
From the shadows above, another figure watched — code shifting, hidden behind a fragmented screen.
"Interesting," it whispered. "Subject 01… has awakened."
The city didn't know it yet, but the game had begun. And Kairo Vale? He was holding all the cheat codes.