Adventure of Rizé Tanaka

You step out of Totentanz into Watson’s wet neon, red and black chrome catching the sign-light. A fully ganic young man in a cheap gray jacket barrels around the entrance and slams into you.

Leo, with close-cropped brown hair, a round face, and rain-dark jeans staggers back, pale and soft-looking beneath the rain, one hand raised defensively. Behind him, the Maelstrom lookouts turn from the doorway, optics and weapon housings fixing on the collision.

Three chrome silhouettes spread across the entrance, blocking the easiest path back inside. Their attention keeps flicking between Leo’s unmodified body and your mantis-arm silhouette.

The street seems to tighten around the four of you. Leo glances toward you, then quickly away, while the lookouts wait to see whether the chrome answer moves first.

Your voice comes out through the cyberjaw’s screen, flat and amplified. Chrome plates lock along your throat and mantis arms, making the warning sound harsher than intended, while your Maelstrom ties give it weight at the door.

The three lookouts ease their weapons and peel back from the entrance. Their optics still track Leo, but the path opens, and the harassment ends exactly as ordered.

For one visible second, your composure slips. The effort of making kindness fit inside your intimidating chrome leaves a hesitation in your posture, and Leo notices before stepping into the rain.

Your mantis hand clamps onto Leo's collar and yanks him back from the rain. Cybernetic strength turns the grab clean and absolute, lifting his heels just enough to end his escape.

The hidden blades stay sheathed beneath your forearms, but their mechanisms click awake as your manic edge surges toward violence. You force it down, leaving only the chrome silhouette and your crushing grip to speak for you.

Leo's raised hands reveal a thin access shard tucked beneath his sleeve, its Arasaka-red edge catching the neon. He had been carrying it concealed, and now it is plainly within your reach.

The lookouts hold the doorway instead of intervening. Leo remains pinned at arm's length, rain tracking down his frightened face while the access shard glows between his fingers.

You haul Leo away from Totentanz and into a narrow service alley, your cybernetic strength dragging him through rain-slick pavement before the lookouts can object.

Your hidden mantis blades click awake beneath your forearms. They stay sheathed, but the threat of their curved housings makes your intimidating silhouette enough to keep Leo stumbling instead of resisting.

Mania spikes with every step, urging you to enjoy the frightened pull of him against your grip. Cybernetic control reins it in, though your shoulder servos grind under the strain.

At the alley's dead end, brick scrapes your forearm plating hard enough to throw sparks. The impact jars your shoulder, but Leo lands contained in your secluded corner of Watson.

The access shard remains clenched in his fingers. You strip it from his hand and lock it between your metal fingertips, Arasaka red glowing against your chrome.

Behind you, the Maelstrom lookouts vanish beyond the rain and neon. No one calls after you. In the alley, only Leo's breathing and the shard's faint electronic pulse remain.

Your amplified shout crushes the alley flat. The chrome in your voice and the locked grip at Leo’s collar make your warning unmistakable, but your mantis housings twitch toward violence, making the threat reckless instead of controlled.

The answer does not come out frightened. Leo braces both hands against your forearm, not strong enough to break free, but stubborn enough to stop performing surrender.

His explanation gives you a reason, not obedience. The shard pulses between your fingers, its Arasaka-red light reflecting across his bare skin while his eyes stay fixed on the access port in your jaw.

You release Leo's collar and return the access shard to his waiting hand. The moment your grip opens, the urge to keep him pinned claws upward, but you force it down through a hard, visible pause.

Leo rubs his collar and closes his fingers around the shard. Your warning still hangs over him, sharpened by your chrome silhouette and the unexpectedly careful way you chose not to hurt him.

The last of your composure settles like a weight behind the jaw-screen, leaving you drained but steady. Leo watches for an answer, no longer trying to flee, the shard secure in his palm.

The offer lands awkwardly through your amplified jaw, too harsh for its intent. Leo studies the blades, the chrome, and the tired pause behind your screen before deciding the danger is not aimed at him.

Street ties do the work your presence cannot: a whispered Maelstrom route clears the wet blocks toward Kabuki, and no lookout challenges your passage. The kindness still costs you, leaving your focus visibly brittle.

You and Leo reach a shuttered clinic beneath Kabuki's neon. A young adult woman waits beside its service door, slim and sharp-faced, with copper braids, a yellow raincoat, and a fiber-optic cable clipped behind one ear.