Tokyo Underground – 40 Meters Below
The darkness wasn't silent anymore.
Gunfire echoed through the tunnels. Muffled bursts. Suppressed rounds tearing through stale air. The fight had begun, but not in the way Division 9 expected.
Aiko crawled through the maintenance pipe, heart hammering. The echoes of combat behind her were distant, but she could hear the unmistakable sound of bodies hitting the ground. Ryoji wasn't fighting to escape.
He was hunting them.
She reached an open shaft and climbed down carefully. The underground stretched wider here—decayed infrastructure from a Tokyo long forgotten. Then she saw it. Rusted doors, government seals faded with age, and a broken sign barely legible beneath the grime.
SECTOR 17 – ACCESS RESTRICTED
She swallowed hard. This was no ordinary tunnel. This place held secrets.
A distant noise snapped her back to reality. Footsteps. Slow, measured. Not Ryoji's.
She wasn't alone.
Above Ground – Agency Headquarters
Hiragi watched as the main screens flickered, static rippling through the grid. Every surveillance feed tied to the underground was down. The blackout wasn't an accident.
It was Ryoji.
"Reboot the system," he ordered, but his voice was tight. He already knew it wouldn't work.
A technician shook his head. "He's in our network. He's shutting us out."
Then Ryoji's voice crackled over the speakers—distorted, but clear.
"You sealed the exits. Thought it would trap me. But tell me, Hiragi… what happens when you cage something that's more dangerous inside?"
Static.
Then the power cut completely. Emergency lighting flickered to life, painting the command center in deep red shadows.
Director Arakawa stepped forward. "Deploy the Omega Protocol."
Hiragi turned sharply. "That's not authorized—"
Arakawa didn't look at him. "It is now."
Tokyo Underground – The Kill Zone
Division 9 was elite. But tonight, they were prey.
Ryoji moved like a phantom, shifting between shadows. One agent checked his six—too late. Ryoji's knife found his throat, and he lowered the body silently. Another turned at the wrong moment, just in time to see the muzzle flash. One shot. Clean. Precise.
Two down.
Four left.
They adjusted quickly, switching to thermal vision. But the tunnels were old, filled with heat pockets from leaking steam lines. Their scanners lit up with false signatures. They were blind.
Ryoji whispered through the darkness. "You don't understand what you're up against."
An agent spun, firing into nothing. His heartbeat spiked.
Another voice joined Ryoji's on the comms. Arakawa.
"You're impressive, Takeshi."
He didn't answer.
"But this ends now."
Then the ceiling rumbled.
An explosion shook the tunnels as a massive bulkhead dropped, cutting off his escape. More detonations followed, collapsing routes behind him.
Ryoji exhaled. They weren't trying to kill him.
They were forcing him deeper.
Sector 17 – The Forgotten Truth
Aiko pressed herself against the cold wall as the footsteps drew closer. She clenched her fists, willing herself to stay calm.
Then the figure stepped into the dim light.
Not an agent.
Not a soldier.
A girl.
She looked barely older than Aiko. Pale, with jet-black hair, wearing a facility jumpsuit that hadn't seen daylight in years.
Her voice was barely a whisper. "You shouldn't be here."
Aiko swallowed. "Who are you?"
The girl stared at her. "The same as you."
Aiko's breath caught. "What does that mean?"
A tremor passed through the tunnel. The air was different here. Thicker. Heavier.
The girl's expression darkened. "It means you don't know why they want you yet."
Aiko felt a chill down her spine.
Then the alarms blared.
Ryoji's voice cut through the underground comms one last time.
"Aiko. Run."
To be continued in Chapter 9...