Kaito’s console isolates a delayed encrypted transmission, its route hopping through dead-drop relays instead of Vesper’s implants. The safehouse lights dim around the signal.
A grainy, rain-streaked image resolves above the console: Revenant, an adult man with pale skin, sharp features, narrowed dark eyes, and tousled black hair plastered to his forehead.
Revenant
Vesper. My name is Hiroshi Inagawa-kai. Most people know me as Revenant. I am your brother.
The image stutters, breaking his face into silver fragments before restoring it. Razor watches the doorway while Rosiya remains near the dead comms rack, unarmed and alert.
Revenant
Toritoma’s surviving network is searching for you because he prepared contingencies for blood relatives, not because you betrayed him.
Revenant
I can tell you what he wants and where the search will tighten. But this exchange must remain outside his network. No direct uplinks, no trusted channels.
Kaito Chang
The relay chain is clean for now. If anyone answers him, keep it verbal. I cannot guarantee this dead-drop route twice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn where Toritoma’s search will tighten
“Hiro?! *I go to speak to him.* Where did you want to meet? What does he want with me? And.. contingency? What does that mean?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
“Hiro?! *I go to speak to him.* Where did you want to meet? What does he want with me? And.. contingency? What does that mean?”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +0)
Vesper
Hiro?! Where did you want to meet? What does Toritoma want with me? And... contingency? What does that mean?
The projection steadies. Revenant’s face remains grainy, but his eyes sharpen as if the question reaches him through several layers of interference.
Revenant
Meet me at Saint Lazarus Station, beneath the abandoned surgical annex. Use the west service entrance. Come with no active uplink.
Revenant
Toritoma wanted control of every Inagawa-kai blood relative. Not loyalty. Access, leverage, and bodies capable of carrying what he built.
Kaito’s fingers move across the console, isolating the transmission into a narrower acoustic channel. The room’s green light flickers over Rosiya’s watchful face.
Revenant
The contingency was a copied consciousness. Toritoma placed himself inside me after his men captured me. It is a virus, slowly replacing my decisions with his.
Revenant
He prepared similar safeguards for others. I do not know whether you carry one, Vesper. That is why I need to examine the records before he finds you.
Meet Revenant at Saint Lazarus Station
Quest Complete
Learn why Toritoma wants Vesper
Skill Upgrade: Streetwise Great→Superb