The focus shifted to the industrial cellar where Tanaka was being held.
The once-proud Arasaka executive was a pathetic sight: stripped to his undergarments, covered in bruises, and chained to a support beam next to the cooling tank. Kiwi was submerged in the ice, her neural links snaking out and plugging directly into the executive's head. She was deep in the digital trenches, fighting through layers of corporate ICE to find the data Faraday needed.
Outside the tank, the tension was thick enough to choke on.
"How much longer?" Maine's voice was a low, dangerous rumble.
"Kiwi's doing everything she can! You know how deep these Arasaka neural nets go!" Dorio snapped back, her own nerves frayed to the breaking point.
The manga shifted to Kiwi's perspective. The digital world was a nightmare of shifting icons and defensive firewalls. "The intrusion countermeasures are stronger than I calculated," she muttered, her pale face tight with strain.
Suddenly, the screen went black.
CRACK.
The next panel was a shock to the system. Kiwi's face was sent flying, the pink mask that had obscured her lower features for the entire series shattered into pieces. In its place was a horrifying, hollow void where a jaw and nose should have been, a brutal, high-utility prosthetic that looked more like industrial hardware than a human face.
Tsuruki Junsei caught his breath. Kiwi had always been a fan-favorite, her mysterious aura and slender, black-suited silhouette making her one of the 'waifus' of the series. Fans had debated for weeks about what was under that mask. Now they knew. It wasn't a beauty; it was a ghost in a machine.
The scene snapped out of the digital world. Kiwi was sprawled on the floor, her prosthetic jaw sparking. Falco was standing over her, his hands raised in defensive shock, while Dorio was doubled over, gasping for air.
Maine stood in the center of the room, his eyes glazed and vacant. He looked at his own fists as if they belonged to a stranger.
"Kiwi... Hiro... Dorio... what happened?" Maine asked, his voice shaking. "Did we... did we lose the signal?"
"Are you back with us, you bastard?" Dorio managed to say between gasps.
Maine looked around at the wreckage he'd caused, including the injured teammate and scattered equipment, and genuinely didn't remember doing any of it. "What? What happened to Kiwi? Who did this?"
Falco didn't wait for another episode. He stepped forward and delivered a heavy, decisive haymaker to Maine's jaw, knocking the leader unconscious before he could do any more damage.
---
The scene shifted abruptly to Lucy's apartment.
The cold blue light of the Night City skyline filtered through the window, reflecting off the bare shoulders of David, who sat on the glass ledge. His clothes were scattered across the sofa, and behind him, Lucy lay in the large bed, the sheets pulled up to her chin.
The silence spoke volumes. Aoyama didn't need a single line of dialogue to confirm what had happened. The intimacy was palpable, a brief, fragile oasis in the middle of a desert of chrome and violence.
David's reflection in the glass looked tired, almost haunted. The phone rang--Falco.
Hours later, David and Lucy met with the rest of the crew. The atmosphere had changed. Maine sat behind Dorio, his back turned to the young couple.
"I can't do it," Lucy whispered, her head in her hands.
"Why is Kiwi in the ICU?" David asked, his confusion mounting. "I thought she was handling the Tanaka link. What went wrong?"
"Ask the monster sitting next to me," Dorio said, her voice filled with a cold, righteous anger.
"Shut up," Maine muttered, his tone icy.
Dorio ignored him, explaining that Maine had hallucinated during the link and attacked Kiwi. David and Lucy exchanged a look of pure dread.
"What kind of symptoms are we talking about?" David asked.
"Cyberpsychosis," Dorio replied, the word hanging in the air like a death sentence.
David followed Maine outside, catching him as he slammed another dose of immunosuppressant into his neck. "Maine... Dorio told me. You... it's going to be okay, right? It's not like that psycho we saw in the alley..."
Maine turned. His eyes were bloodshot, his movements jerky. "Okay? What the hell does 'okay' mean, David? You asking if I'm going to end up as a stain on the sidewalk?"
He walked toward David, his massive frame looming over the boy. The ground seemed to shake with every step. David backed away, but Maine was faster.
"Wait, Maine, I didn't mean it like that..."
CLAP.
The sound of the slap echoed through the alley. David was sent flying, his body slamming into a brick wall with enough force to crack the mortar.
"Does that 'Sandevistan' make you feel like a God, kid?" Maine looked down at him, his voice a venomous rasp. "Don't you ever forget... that piece of chrome was meant for me. Don't you ever look down on me again."
Maine stalked away, leaving a bruised and shaken David in the shadows.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]