Ryouji closed his fingers around the black envelope, crushing it into a tight ball inside his jacket pocket. He took a long, slow breath, forcing his facial muscles to relax until the cold, lethal edge in his eyes dissolved back into the soft expression of an ordinary father. He could hear Hana inside, humining a cheerful melody along with the radio in the kitchen. She was safe. For now, that was the only thing that mattered.He stepped through the front door, slipping off his shoes at the genkan with his usual calm demeanor. "Hana, I'm back. I'll grab the shopping bags and head out to the eastern district supermarket now."Hana peeked out from the living room, a soft smile lighting up her face. "That was fast. Did Sakura manage to get inside without crying today?""She was too busy telling her teacher about the pudding to notice me leaving," Ryouji replied, offering a genuine chuckle. He reached for the large canvas eco-bags hanging by the door, making sure his pocket didn't rustle. "Do you need anything else besides the tofu and green onions?""If you see those fresh strawberries on sale, grab a pack for Sakura. Thank you, Ryouji-kun," she said, before turning back to her knitting machine."I will," he murmured. He stepped back out into the spring sunlight, but he didn't head toward the local grocery store. Instead, he walked briskly toward the suburban train station, his mind already calculating the fastest route to Akihabara.The local supermarket was a cover. Ryouji needed answers, and there was only one person in Tokyo crazy enough to still keep tabs on a ghost like him.Forty minutes later, the quiet residential streets were replaced by the overwhelming sensory overload of Akihabara. Towering electronic department stores blared neon lights, giant anime billboards covered the sides of buildings, and the streets buzzed with tourists and tech enthusiasts. It was the perfect place to hide. Amidst the endless sea of digital noise, data bytes, and crowded alleyways, electronic signals got crossed, and surveillance became messy.Ryouji bypassed the main avenues, navigating through a labyrinth of narrow side streets filled with shops selling obscure computer parts, old radio valves, and second-hand circuit boards. He stopped in front of a cramped, dimly lit basement cyber cafe with a flickering neon sign that read The Grid.He walked down the steep concrete steps, the air growing thick with the scent of cheap tobacco and heated plastic. The interior was a maze of wooden booths, each occupied by gamers or hackers staring blankly into glowing monitors. At the back counter sat a young man with messy bleached hair, multiple piercings in his left ear, and dark circles under his eyes that suggested he hadn't seen the sun in days. His name was Jun, known in the underground simply as Cyber-Kitsune.Jun didn't look up from his triple-monitor setup when the bell above the door rang. "We're full for the next two hours, pal. Try the place down the street.""I'm not here to rent a PC, Jun," Ryouji said, his voice dropping into a low, resonant register.Jun's fingers froze over his mechanical keyboard. The clicking sounds died instantly. He slowly turned his head, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief as he recognized the man standing before him. His face drained of color, and he instinctively pushed his rolling chair back a few inches."K... Kage?" Jun whispered, his voice trembling so hard it barely carried over the hum of the server racks. "You're dead. The bureau filed your termination report five years ago. I wiped your database myself.""Someone missed a spot," Ryouji said calmly, leaning against the counter. He pulled the crumpled black envelope from his pocket and tossed it onto the desk in front of the hacker. "This was in my mailbox this morning. No stamp. No address. Just my old name."Jun stared at the black paper as if it were a live grenade. With trembling fingers, he flattened the sheet and gasped when he saw the satellite image of Ryouji's suburban home, complete with the red target over the children's bedroom window."Oh, man. Oh, no. This is bad. This is really, really bad," Jun muttered, his hands flying across his keyboard as he began pulling up encrypted data screens. Lines of green and white code began cascading down his monitors. "Do you have any idea who sent this?""That's why I'm here," Ryouji replied, his eyes tracking the reflection of the code on Jun's glasses. "The paper is heavy matte, custom military-grade print. The satellite angle is commercial, but the resolution is restricted. Only the government or a tier-one conglomerate has access to this specific orbital feed."Jun swallowed hard, tapping a final command into his system. A secure, highly encrypted database forum appeared on his central screen. It bore a stylized emblem of a digital eye wrapped in a traditional Japanese crest."It's the Amatsu Corporation," Jun said, his voice dropping to a panicked whisper. "They've been working with the new faction in the National Security Bureau, the Seiryū Group. They just passed a classified update to the My-Number public tracking law. They call it Project Izanami."Ryouji's gaze turned ice-cold. "What is Project Izanami?""It's a predictive AI surveillance network," Jun explained, pointing at a map of Tokyo lighting up with thousands of red tracking nodes. "It doesn't just watch people. It scans biometrics, facial micro-expressions, and walking gaits to identify unregistered individuals. Ghosts. People who changed their names or erased their pasts to disappear. The AI flagged your biometric signature three days ago when you walked past a new high-def camera near Shinjuku Station."Ryouji closed his eyes for a split second, realizing his mistake. He had been too careless, thinking five years of peace meant the world had forgotten him. "Who authorized the hit on my family?""I don't know the exact name, but the command routing came directly from the Zero-Unit," Jun said, sweat dripping down his temple. "Your old boss. He knows you're alive, Kage. And he's using Amatsu's new toy to hunt you down. You need to take your family and run, right now. If they deployed a satellite feed on your house, it means—"Suddenly, every monitor in the cyber cafe flashed bright red. A loud, piercing error tone echoed through the basement.Jun's keyboard stopped responding. "What the hell? My firewalls are collapsing! They traced the inquiry!"Before Ryouji could react, the heavy iron door at the top of the basement stairs was kicked open with a thunderous bang. The sound of heavy tactical boots began echoing down the concrete steps.
