Night City.
Corporate Plaza, City Center.
Inside the elevator at Arasaka Tower, the electronic screen was playing a biographical feature on Saburo, the true power at the top of Arasaka. The black-and-white footage had the grainy texture of old film reels from the last century.
"Saburo was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1919."
"His father founded Arasaka."
"The Arasaka family line can be traced all the way back to the age of the samurai."
"Saburo grew up at the Arasaka estate on the outskirts of Tokyo."
"As a young man, he enlisted in the Imperial Navy Air Service and became a pilot. By the age of twenty-three, he had already earned the rank of naval captain."
"With twenty confirmed aerial victories, he would be remembered by later generations as one of the most accomplished combat pilots in history."
"But in 1942, during a routine mission, his aircraft suffered severe damage."
"And yet, despite his grave injuries and the condition of his plane, Saburo still overcame every obstacle and successfully returned to base..."
"After a short break, we will continue his story."
The screen then shifted to a title card bearing the Arasaka logo.
"Arasaka."
Kai kept his gaze fixed straight ahead the entire time.
As for Saburo's "great" life story, he had heard it so many times his ears were practically numb.
"No wonder everyone in the company calls you the God of Arasaka behind your back."
"Almost one hundred and fifty years old, and you still have no intention of stepping down. You even want to play the old body-snatching trick."
"This is getting ridiculous."
"Poor Yorinobu. He still has no idea he's about to become the vessel for his father's return."
Of course, those were only Kai's private thoughts.
Whether it was his identity as a transmigrator or as someone reborn, both would remain his greatest secrets in this life.
And the timing of his rebirth was delicate.
He had returned in 2076, a full year earlier than the last time he arrived in this world.
That meant anything that happened this year had a very real chance of changing what would happen in 2077.
While he was thinking, the elevator reached the thirty-third floor of Arasaka Tower. The doors slid open automatically, and the floor display indicated that Counterintel had been reached.
Kai stepped out quickly.
The first thing he saw was a spacious lobby in silver-gray tones, with the Arasaka logo mounted in the center of the wall.
Several Counterintel employees were seated on the black leather sofas in the lobby, discussing something among themselves.
One foreign employee noticed Kai by accident and immediately stood to greet him.
"Kai, good afternoon!"
The other foreign employees turned as well and greeted him in turn.
Kai gave them a brief nod without saying much and continued walking to the left.
As he passed the department reception desk, the receptionist stood and said,
"Mr. Kai, Mr. Jenkins is looking for you. He's in his office."
The direction she pointed to was the office of the Counterintel director.
Kai's dress shoes made almost no sound on the soft carpet.
Soon, he arrived at the door to Jenkins's office. The glass door opened after the AI confirmed his identity.
After stepping through it, he entered a silver-lit corridor. At the far end was a reinforced steel security gate.
Two electronic scanners on either side of the gate emitted blue waves and swept across Kai's body.
"Scanning."
"Visitor authentication complete. Access approved."
The security gate split open from the middle, revealing the full office of the Counterintel director.
Kai stepped inside.
A black carpet stamped with the Arasaka logo ran straight toward the desk.
Seated there was Jenkins, his eyes glowing red as he spoke with someone over a call. When he saw Kai enter, he waved for him to sit and wait.
Kai stopped by the desk.
The comm unit over his left eye began pulling up basic information on the man in front of him.
"Arthur Jenkins, 42 years old, no children, dislikes sports, preferred drink: bourbon whiskey // Counterintel has a new assignment for you."
Kai also noticed that the massive floor-to-ceiling display behind Jenkins's desk was playing a video while he talked on the call.
On the screen, more than a dozen NCPD officers armed with guns had surrounded a blond man in sunglasses in the corporate plaza and were firing nonstop. The scene was full of flames and gunfire.
But the blond man stood there without the slightest fear, calm and unmoving amid the hail of bullets, radiating something deeply unnatural.
One officer shouted in alarm, "Cyberpsycho! Call MaxTac!"
Bullets exploded all around him, but none seemed able to do meaningful damage. The man had subdermal armor implanted, giving him extreme resistance to gunfire.
As the officers kept up heavy fire from behind their patrol cars, the cyberpsycho launched his counterattack.
With a pistol in each hand, he aimed at one officer after another and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Each shot hit true, dropping officers one after another.
After taking down four of them, he raised his right cyberarm and fired an explosive blast into the police cars, then followed up with sustained bursts from a heavy assault rifle.
The officers were thrown into chaos, casualties piling up across the scene.
When the cyberpsycho finally emptied his ammo and paused to reload, several officers rushed him and opened fire.
A sharp Mantis Blade shot from his right arm, and with one slash he dropped the nearest officer.
Then a second blade extended from his knee, cutting down the officers charging in.
The cyberpsycho showed no mercy. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes seemed eerily calm.
After dealing with the officers in front of him, he turned to look at the ones still shooting from behind the line of vehicles.
Then his body suddenly jerked.
The spinal cyberware along his back lit up blue, and his whole body seemed to surge with electric force as his nervous system and muscles kicked into overdrive.
Whoosh!
His figure vanished from where he stood.
He moved like a bolt of lightning, leaving afterimages in his wake. The footage's frame rate could barely keep up.
It was as if raindrops and shell casings had frozen in the air.
In the blink of an eye, the seven officers behind the vehicles all collapsed.
"Bullet time?"
"He's running a Sandevistan, and not some low-end model either."
Kai frowned.
The situation looked ugly.
At that moment, Jenkins ended his call. The large display shut off and switched back to a window mode, opening up the view of Night City outside.
Jenkins turned away from his desk and walked to the liquor cabinet, wanting a drink to take the edge off the pressure of work.
"Kai, you're finally back. I know you weren't happy about being called in, but it was a decision made at the executive meeting. Even I couldn't block it, no matter how hard I argued."
Jenkins poured himself a drink and sank into the sofa with a relieved exhale.
Kai got straight to the point about the Animals attack.
He had no intention of swallowing that quietly.
"On my way back to the office today, I was attacked by the Animals."
At that news, Jenkins's relaxed expression tightened again.
"And who do you think was behind it?"
Kai knew Jenkins already had someone in mind.
"My route was absolutely classified. There's no way the Animals could have penetrated Counterintel and gotten hold of my movements on their own. Very few people in the company even knew I was coming back today."
Jenkins nodded thoughtfully.
"The only people who knew, besides me, were you and Susan, the Director of Special Ops, the bitch who issued the recall order in the first place."
"She's almost certainly tied to this. Everyone in the company knows you came up under me."
"She doesn't dare come at me directly yet, so she's trying to use people under me as a point of entry."
"We'll settle this with her sooner or later."
(End of Chapter)
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