The corridor goes still, the last vibration cut dead. The Lead Guard stands with his squad behind him, weapon holstered, eyes locked on Oni Sakurai. The Kid and the Mutated Creature hover near the open route out, listening.
The Lead Guard
Call it even. Let my people walk, and I tell you where they pull the extraction team in.
A few guards lower their chins, half ready to retreat, half waiting for a command that never comes. The air from the blast door stays cold and clear, a promise of escape just beyond the junction.
The Kid
He knows the way out.
The Mutated Creature shifts closer to Oni, wary but calm, while the squad edges back from the severed wall nodes and the darkened seam in the metal.
The Lead Guard
You take your people and go. We do not chase if you leave now.
His offer opens the next move, a path to the surface and a lead on who is coming to reclaim them. Oni stands at the center of the choice, the exit open at her back, the organization’s retrieval point somewhere ahead.
“I dont wanna kniw about your boss's other plans. My priority is getting this kid to a safe home and keeping his brother, the creature, with him”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Oni Sakurai
I am not interested in your boss's other plans. My priority is getting this kid somewhere safe, with his brother.
The words land cleanly in the cold air. The Lead Guard does not push back, he exhales instead, and the tension in his shoulders loosens by a fraction.
The Lead Guard
Then take the service stair past the loading spine. It opens above the alley, not the street. Safer than the front.
The Kid
You are giving us the route? Just like that?
The Lead Guard
I am giving you the route I can live with.
The Mutated Creature reaches once, tentatively, toward the Kid, then settles back at Oni's side as if deciding the choice is finally safe enough to trust.
The Lead Guard
If my people see you at the alley mouth, they stand down. If you see my extraction team, do not mistake them for rescuers.
Cold night breath spills in from the open door, carrying a thin slice of club music up from below. The path to the surface is no longer a question, only whether Oni takes the warning with it.
Oni Sakurai leaves Wide maintenance junction beneath Neon Viper club behind and arrives at the alley above the loading spine.
“I dhake the gaurds hand as thanks then mead the kid and creature to freedom”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
The alley above the loading spine is narrow and wet, boxed in by brick, pipes, and a weak spill of security light. Oni gives the Lead Guard a brief, careful shake of the hand, a thanks that feels oddly civil in the cold.
Then she turns, placing herself between the Kid and the alley mouth, and starts them forward with a steady, protective motion. The Mutated Creature follows close, keeping one hand near the Kid's sleeve.
The Lead Guard
Stay off the street. My people are watching the mouth, not the rooftops.
The Kid
You trust us that much?
The Lead Guard
No. I trust the route. There is a difference.
Above them, the club's music thumps through concrete in a dull heartbeat. The Kid glances at the Mutated Creature, and the Creature answers with that small reaching gesture again, tentative but certain.
The Lead Guard
If you make it to the service stair, the alley opens behind the fish market. Keep left. The team you do not want is coming from the right.
He says it like a warning he has already decided to live with. The open stair door waits ahead, cold air breathing out of it, and the alley's dark bend becomes the next choice.
Quest Complete
Reach the surface
New Gift: Surface Adaptation