107: Chapter 106 The Bird in the Cage

V asked that question after Lin Yi hung up the comms.

She leaned against the studio doorframe, arms crossed, tilting her head to look at him. Lin Yi was familiar with that expression—it wasn't an interrogation, but a "I know you already have the answer, spill it."

" What exactly is this surprise you mentioned? "

Lin Yi didn't answer directly. He turned his chair to face V, tapped a few keys on the virtual keyboard to pull up a file, and then swiped his hand to project all the data onto the holographic panel in the living room.

Hanako Arasaka's file unfolded in mid-air. Photos, curriculum vitae, personality analysis reports, and positioning charts within the Arasaka structure. Some were internal documents sent by Yorinobu Arasaka, and others were ones Lin Yi had dug out from public databases using Baize. Every item had been annotated, with notes he'd scribbled while reading left next to key information.

V glanced over the data without speaking. She was waiting.

Lin Yi stood up, walked over to the holographic projection, and tapped on Hanako Arasaka's curriculum vitae column. That column didn't record positions or achievements, but her entire "development plan" from childhood to adulthood—personally reviewed by Saburo Arasaka and executed by the family education department at the Tokyo headquarters, detailed down to weekly schedules and ideological assessment metrics.

" Hanako Arasaka is not our enemy. " Lin Yi said. His tone was very flat, as if stating a fact that had been repeatedly calculated by Baize, " Someone who has been manipulated by Saburo for over forty years doesn't qualify to be called an 'enemy'. "

V frowned. Not the kind of frown that indicated disagreement, but one of processing information.

" You're going to let her go? "

" Not let go. " Lin Yi dragged another file onto the holographic panel. It was an outline of a technical proposal, with a title consisting of only two words—"Reshaping". " It's giving her a new option. "

Then he explained the entire plan.

Step one: make a move during the parade.

That section had the highest foot traffic, and the security team's attention would be diverted to crowd control, making it the most vulnerable part of the entire route.

Step two: the three of them activate Optical Camouflage to approach the target.

Hanako Arasaka had two personal bodyguards, but their cyberware scanning frequencies were within the interference range of the digital camouflage plugin.

Step three: Lockdown and extraction.

Use Baize's neural signal override command to temporarily block Hanako Arasaka's conscious activity—not permanent damage, but putting her current consciousness into a dormant state, then extracting the target from the scene.

Step four, and the most critical step of the entire operation: launch the daemon, using Baize's super-high computing power in a short period to reshape parts of Hanako Arasaka's consciousness, removing those shackles that had been reinforced layer by layer by Saburo over forty-plus years.

" Reshaping? " V repeated the word, her brow not relaxing, " You mean... washing away what's in her brain? "

" It's using psychological suggestion to remove Saburo Arasaka's influence on Hanako Arasaka. " Lin Yi said, " Her core personality remains. Her memories remain. It's just stripping away those concepts that Saburo added—the things that turned her into a pawn in someone else's hands. Like defusing a bomb. "

V was silent for a moment.

She turned to look at the photo of Hanako Arasaka on the holographic panel—that photo was a standard headshot for internal corporate files; Hanako Arasaka was wearing a dignified kimono, with a polished, appropriate smile on her face, but her eyes looked as if they were behind a layer of frosted glass.

" When did you start preparing this plan? "

" When Yorinobu Arasaka first mentioned Hanako Arasaka in the private room. He said 'Let me think about it' back then. " Lin Yi closed the holographic panel, " During those three seconds he said 'Let me think about it', I knew he couldn't bring himself to do it. "

" You knew he couldn't do it back then? "

" He didn't hesitate when mentioning Saburo, not a single word. But when mentioning Hanako Arasaka, every sentence had to be carefully considered. " Lin Yi said, " Killing his father and killing his sister are completely different weights for him. "

V gave a soft " Hmm. "

That evening, Jackie Welles rushed over from Heywood.

It wasn't Lin Yi who called him—it was V who notified him.

It wasn't that they needed Jackie Welles to participate in the decision-making, but V felt Jackie Welles needed to know about this plan adjustment.

After Konpeki Plaza, there was an unspoken agreement among the three of them: any decision that might change the direction of the entire team required all three to be present.

Jackie Welles sat on the sofa and listened to Lin Yi's retelling.

Listened to it completely.

No interruptions, no habitual interjections asking "Is this thing reliable?". He listened until Lin Yi finished the last sentence, then he clasped his hands on his knees, rubbed his thumbs together several times, and looked up.

" Mano, " he said, his voice much lower than usual, " Are you sure we're doing the right thing? This sounds... like playing God. "

Lin Yi glanced at him.

That gaze didn't dodge, didn't hesitate, and held no offense.

He just quietly looked at Jackie Welles for a moment, as if confirming the weight of those words, then spoke.

" Playing God? Jackie, " he said, his mouth without a curve, his voice not heavy, but every word sounded like it came directly from deep in his throat, " My feeling is that I'm more like a monster. "

The room went quiet.

" The only difference is, before, to survive, I couldn't do it to this extent. " Lin Yi continued, " Now I have the ability to do it—why not do a favor for Yorinobu Arasaka? That guy's trust isn't so easy to get. "

Jackie Welles didn't answer immediately.

His Adam's apple bobbed, then he nodded.

Very slowly.

Not the slowness of being persuaded, but the slowness of someone who had spent over a decade on the streets, having weighed the gravity of every word on his own scale.

" Fine. " he said. Just one word.

V looked at Jackie Welles, then at Lin Yi.

She didn't say any superfluous words.

From the moment she leaned against the doorframe listening to Lin Yi explain the plan, her expression had been changing—from skepticism to contemplation, from contemplation to calmness.

Now that calmness had finally settled in a certain place.

" Then let's do it. " she said.

The time came to the day of the parade.

The route started from the north entrance of the Arasaka Night City branch, headed south along Charter Street, passed through Japantown, and ended at the Memorial Plaza directly in front of Arasaka Tower in the city center.

The entire route was eleven blocks, with an estimated time of forty minutes.

The middle section of Japantown was the part with the highest foot traffic—flanked by dense commercial districts and transport hubs, crowds of onlookers would pack the sidewalks, and the security team's pressure would be concentrated there.

Lin Yi chose that section.

At 4:00 AM that day, he and Jackie Welles split up to deploy three signal jammers along the Japantown route.

Not full-band jamming—once that kind of thing was turned on, communications for the entire street would be cut, the live broadcast signal would go black, the NCPD emergency system would sound, which was equivalent to telling the whole world someone was causing trouble.

Lin Yi used precise frequency shielding: targeting only the few encrypted communication bands used by the parade security team, forming an invisible dome within a two-hundred-meter radius around the parade float.

The parade's live broadcast signal was unaffected.

The personal terminals of the onlookers on the side of the road were unaffected.

Only the parade security team's internal network communication would be silently cut off.

At 2:00 PM, the parade float departed from the north entrance on time.

V and Jackie Welles were already in the crowd on both sides of the parade route.

At 2:15 PM, the parade float turned into Japantown as expected.

The cheers of the crowd could be heard from several streets away.

Hanako Arasaka stood on the upper platform of the float, wearing a black kimono specially customized for this memorial event, her hair pinned up meticulously, smiling at the cameras along the street.

Following the pre-prepared script, she alternated between Japanese and English, saying platitudes like " Arasaka will continue to protect Night City " and " Father's spirit will guide us forward forever ".

The voice was transmitted through the amplification system, drowned out by the noise of the crowd.

Status reports from the security team came through her earpiece every fifteen seconds.

" Everything in the vicinity is normal. "

That was the last report she heard after returning inside the float's room.

Jackie Welles fired a tranquilizer dart from within the crowd—the target wasn't Hanako Arasaka, but the personal bodyguard standing closest to her right hand.

The tranquilizer was a custom caliber, fired from a modified smart pistol, and the trajectory was almost impossible to track in the noisy crowd.

The projectile struck the bodyguard's nape, and he didn't even make a sound before his body slumped to the side.

V caught him within 0.5 seconds.

The moment Optical Camouflage activated, she seemed to appear out of thin air at the edge of the crowd, one hand supporting the unconscious bodyguard, the other dragging him into the crowd, her movements as fluid as if rehearsed countless times.

In reality, it had only been simulated once—V had run the process in the simulated environment in the villa's basement, but that was just a simulation.

The real street had a thousand more variables than the simulated environment.

Hanako Arasaka sensed movement to her side.

The bodyguard had just been standing to her right, and now that spot in her peripheral vision was suddenly empty.

Her head had just started to turn, and before she could see what had happened, the voice in her earpiece changed.

It wasn't a report from the security team.

It was the voice of a man she didn't recognize at all.

Young, steady, with clear enunciation.

" Ms. Arasaka, please don't panic. You will not be harmed in any way. "

Hanako Arasaka's body stiffened.

Not because of the content of that sentence—any kidnapper would say that—but because of how the message was transmitted.

This wasn't an ordinary technical intrusion.

The earpiece was the security team's internal network device, not interconnected with her personal system, and her cyberware security department had specifically customized an independent signal encryption protocol for her.

Anyone who could hijack an audio channel directly through that protocol either possessed the highest-level access keys within Arasaka or possessed hacking capabilities far beyond the conventional level.

Hanako Arasaka subconsciously glanced at the earpiece's control interface.

There were no error prompts on the screen.

The man's voice transmitted directly into her ear without any obstruction, as if he had been on this channel all along.

" Your father's body is already dead. " The voice continued, flat and straightforward, without any intimidating tone, " But before he died, he had already arranged for you to complete one last thing for him—using that Relic in your hand to possess the body of your own brother, Yorinobu Arasaka. "

Hanako Arasaka's pupils contracted sharply.

Not the shock of "How do you know?".

It was a deeper, instinctive reaction to something hitting the softest part of her heart.

Her lips moved, but she made no sound.

" You don't need to be shocked about how we know. " Lin Yi's voice came through the earpiece, still in that same tone—not an interrogation, not a threat, more like a doctor explaining a condition to a patient, " But you only need to think—when your father was alive, was there ever anything that truly respected your will? "

The float continued to move forward.

The float passed over the stone pavement of Japantown, crushing the cheers of the crowd on both sides, crushing the pre-recorded propaganda still playing through the loudspeakers.

All the sounds were still there, all the lights were still on.

In the live broadcast, Hanako Arasaka was still that dignified Arasaka lady, maintaining a proper smile for the cameras.

But her hands were gripping the railing at the edge of the platform tightly.

Her knuckles were white.

" Why you and your brother drifted apart later on, " the voice said, " You should know the reason better than anyone. "

Lin Yi paused for a moment after saying this.

He wasn't waiting for Hanako Arasaka to respond—he knew she wouldn't respond in this setting. He was giving her time to touch that answer.

The answer that she had been forbidden to touch for over forty years, the one Saburo had personally wrapped in layers of lies and emotional blackmail.

The float continued to move forward.

Hanako Arasaka stood on the platform, not calling for help, not giving a warning.

The security team's communication in the earpiece had been completely blocked; she couldn't hear any reports, only a quiet static background noise and the breathing of that stranger.

Extremely light, steady, as if he were sitting somewhere very far away from her.

There was a voice in her heart.

Very small, very light, as if coming from very, very deep inside, so faint that she almost missed it herself amidst the noise of the crowd.

A voice deep inside was saying: What he said is indeed true.