The sky of Neo-Tokyo 9 hadn't seen stars in decades. Ever since the megatowers devoured the skyline, the only lights above the city came from endless streams of neon ads and buzzing patrol drones—metallic mosquitoes feeding off fear and control.
Aiko walked with her hood up, eyes glued to the wet pavement reflecting flashing holograms of gene-surgery clinics and fake paradise simulations. The real world reeked of burnt oil, despair, and decay. Up above, the rich lived on elevated platforms, where the air was clean and the sun still existed. Down here, in the lower zones—what people called The Abyss—life was cheaper than a broken implant.
Seventeen meant nothing in this world. Aiko had been on her own since she was nine, when her mother vanished and her father was sold for parts. She learned to run, to hide, and if needed—kill.
But something was different today. The air smelled wrong—not just of rotting trash and hot metal—but sharp, electric. Like the world was holding its breath.
"You are in a restricted zone," came a robotic voice behind her.
She spun around. A police drone aimed a scanning laser at her chest. Her ID chip was fake—if they scanned her, she was dead.
She didn't hesitate. Pulled out a wave disruptor and tossed it. The drone sparked, crashed, and twitched on the ground, its lights flickering like dying eyes. She didn't wait to see if more were coming. She ran—through alleys, over rusted pipes, into a maintenance tunnel—heart pounding like a war drum in her chest.
Then she saw him.
A boy.
Sitting in the trash. Calm. Not hiding. His eyes didn't belong in this world. He wore a white coat—white, in the Abyss?—and held what looked like an old data book. But it wasn't the coat or the tech that made her freeze.
It was his smile. Like he'd been waiting for her.
"Aiko, right?"
Her blood turned to ice. Her name wasn't on any signal, any traceable net.
"Who are you?"
"Someone who wants to survive too. But not by running." He closed the book and stood up. "I need your help. And you're going to need mine very soon."
Before she could answer, the ground shook with an explosion. From above, metal and fire rained down.
And that's how it all began.