If Genji was fire—
Then Kirika Mishima was ice.
Deep in the armored vaults of Mishima Core HQ—Level B99, beneath the old Osaka Arcology—a throne had been built.
Not a literal one. Not yet.
But Kirika stood beneath a platinum Mishima sigil etched into the wall, hands clasped behind her back, a sleek black uniform clinging like skin to bone. She stared at a holoscreen of Genji's face. The green eyes. The Maoshinara flame.
Her lip twitched.
> "So," she murmured, "the boy lives."
Around her, a dozen Board members sat at a circular table, each represented by a black pillar of light—anonymous, encoded voices vibrating with distortion.
> "He's rallying the syndicates," one voice crackled.
"Threat level: Reign-Class," another warned.
"He's gaining traction in the underzones. Blaze is with him. The Ash Spire could fall next."
Kirika stepped forward. "Let me be clear."
She lifted one gloved hand and snapped her fingers.
The room darkened.
From behind the pillars, Commander Kogarashi stepped into the light.
Broad, bald, with a synthetic jawplate and black mechanical armor humming with ion spikes. His eyes glowed blue behind tactical lenses. Beside him, four figures emerged—each cloaked in obsidian exo-frames.
The Warblade Elite.
A silent woman with magnetized chakrams. A twin-spear android with adaptive limbs. A poison blade assassin in a porcelain half-mask. And a mute brute with engine-piston arms.
Kogarashi bowed slightly. "Orders, Iron Lady?"
Kirika didn't blink. "Form a new division. Something permanent."
She turned to the holographic board.
> "The world's in chaos. Mishima cannot afford democratic illusion anymore. No more shareholders. No more debates."
> "From now on… Black Helix will operate with absolute authority."
One of the board members protested. "You can't override the articles of—
Kirika raised a hand, and the feed cut—his pillar of light vanishing like a snuffed flame.
Silence. Cold and absolute.
> "Genji Maoshinara is a rogue variable," she continued, voice sharpened with venom.
"As of this moment, he is declared an enemy of Mishima Corporation. All assets affiliated with him are to be neutralized."
"Alive is preferred. Dead is acceptable."
She flicked her wrist.
A holo-banner appeared above the table:
BOUNTY NOTICE — TAKASHIMA GENJI
REWARD: 100 MILLION CRYSTAL YEN
CLASS: FIRE HAZARD
STATUS: HUNT ON SIGHT
Kogarashi smirked. "You've just made every cyber-merc from Osaka to Neo-Singapore lick their blades."
Kirika's gaze darkened. "And that's the point. I want chaos at his doorstep."
Another voice emerged—calm, frightened.
"...What about Shin?"
Kirika's jaw tensed.
In a white sterilized room two floors above, Shin Mishima, her older brother and the company's former strategic director, sat in a soundproof chamber. Guards lined the hall. The windows were sealed.
He had once been the golden boy—charming, calculated, cold where it mattered. But now, after the fallout with Genji, the scandal, the AI leak—he was a liability.
He watched the newsfeeds from his tablet with a silent frown.
> "You should've killed him when you had the chance," he muttered.
His guards said nothing.
Inside, Kirika gave the final order.
> "Shin stays locked down," she said. "No visitors. No calls. He's not a threat. Yet."
Kogarashi raised a brow. "And if he decides to pick a side?"
Kirika turned to him. There was no emotion in her tone. Only surgical finality.
> "Then we amputate."
The Warblade Elite saluted and vanished into shadow—off to hunt Genji and anyone foolish enough to stand beside him.
---
Meanwhile: The Ash Spire Outskirts – Blaze's Workshop
Smoke hissed from the sides of a retrofitted hover-bike. Sparks flew as Blaze tossed down a wrench and chewed on a powerbar mid-sentence.
> "She's gonna throw everything at us. You know that, right?"
Genji sat on the hood of an old armored truck, sharpening the edge of a short crimson blade. His eyes were distant. His thoughts somewhere between Naomi's last breath and Kirika's cold declaration of war.
> "Good," Genji said quietly.
> "Good?" Blaze scoffed. "You've officially gone full Phoenix-head."
Genji slid the blade back into its sheath and stood.
> "The Iron Lady wants a war? Then I'll give her one."
Blaze whistled low. "I heard she's got Kogarashi on her leash now. Warblade Elite too."
Genji cracked his knuckles. His aura pulsed faintly with emberlight.
> "Let them come."
---
Elsewhere – Juliet Carl's Secret Hideout
Beneath the Ash Spire, a quiet flickering room glowed with reactor pulses. Juliet Carl, ex-Director of AI for Mishima, watched the bounty announcement in silence.
Her hair, once perfect and corporate, now hung wild and half-braided. One of her eyes flickered with synthetic lines—modified after a failed assassination months ago. Her fingers danced across a cracked tablet, decoding Kirika's security keys.
> "So… you finally made your move, Little Maoshinara," she whispered, smiling faintly.
Behind her, several rogue AI cores blinked awake.
She wasn't hiding. She was waiting.
> "Let's see if your ambition matches your bloodline."
---
Back in Mishima HQ, Kirika stood alone, watching a cold skyline of steel.
She whispered to herself—barely audible.
> "Naomi chose wrong."
She turned away.
And lightning cracked across the sky.
---
Final Line:
"Let the hunt begin."
---