The light slowly dimmed, allowing Ren to perceive objects around him once more. He blinked and kept still for a while, unsure for a moment if the pain would return. But it didn’t. In fact, he felt nothing.
He sat up slowly, testing his arms and legs by carefully stretching them out. The pain he expected didn’t come. He pulled his shirt to the side and ran his fingers across the place where the wound should’ve been. But it was gone. There was no scar, not even a mark.
He looked around, trying to ground himself to something familiar, when he suddenly felt that subtle presence from before.
He looked up.
Kagami lay stretched out on what looked like a stone platform in front of him, grooming her paw like nothing around her was important. Her posture was elegant and relaxed.
"What did you do to me?" Ren asked with a sharp tone in his voice.
Kagami yawned and then stretched, intentionally prolonging the moment. "I gave you what you asked for," she said without even looking at him. "Everything else is just your body catching up to that."
He stood slowly, trying not to let the dizziness show. "What do you mean?..."
She turned her head towards him and finally looked him in the eyes. "Figure it out yourself. Or die, if not. It doesn’t matter to me."
Ren stared at her for another moment, then looked around the room. He hadn’t had time to do so before, but now, even with all the noise echoing so harshly in his eardrums, he started looking around. If the cat wouldn’t help him, at least figuring out where he was might give him a clue as to what to do next.
The room was old, and it looked like some kind of shrine. Stone walls surrounded it, but they were partially in ruins now, barely held together by the arch at the end. Glyphs were carved on the front wall, where the arch stood above, and a few others were scattered on the floor and side walls. Despite the mystic air around this place, a handful of rusted pipes and cables ran up the walls and crevices, like a small reminder that even this remote place still belonged to the city.
Ren then glanced toward the tunnel path that seemed to lead out of there. A few faint rays of light were entering through it, proving in a way that the city itself was still out there. Ren was still on familiar ground. More or less.
"Where the hell is this?" he whispered, in an attempt to ground himself.
Kagami slowly licked her paw.
Ren turned toward the exit since he figured there would be no useful reply. His thoughts were still foggy, but the idea of a hot shower and familiar walls felt like salvation.
"I’m going home," he said.
Kagami didn’t object to it.
Ren stepped out of the tunnel and immediately felt the rain hit him. The city looked the same, but there was something else layered on top of it. Like his senses had been enhanced. He saw symbols and glyphs on the walls that hadn’t been there before. Some were simply carved into stone, while others glowed and released energy around them. The people on the streets paid no attention to them, or simply did not see them. Ren decided it must have been the latter, since it was easier to understand than the alternative.
The streets buzzed as floating signs and ads ran everywhere. People swarmed, gathering near hovering shops and synthetic noodle carts. Ren perceived all of it as if running in slow motion.
He leaned against a light post next to him. Even the texture of metal under his palm felt different in an obvious way he couldn’t explain.
The building where he lived was close by. Just a few more alleys across two more blocks, he thought. But just as he was nearing the last corner, Ren heard a familiar laugh. He turned, then stopped towards the source of it.
Three men stood at the edge of the alley. Two of them had high stature, while the smaller one had some sort of reinforced armor running across his arms and legs. Enhancements like that weren’t unusual in those parts.
All three of them had markings on their bodies in the form of tattoos, so it was easy to recognize what they were. They were Hounds. Low-level gangsters who ran jobs for whatever Clan they belonged to. They usually functioned as debt collectors but had other, more violent uses, too.
They were the ones who had beaten him and left him for dead earlier that day, collecting on a debt he hadn’t paid, and probably never would. Of course, they recognized him immediately.
"Well, look at that," one of them said. "I thought you died out there."
"His debt might have just increased," said another, stepping forward.
The third one smiled and drew a knife.
Ren took a few steps back. Today, it seemed, he was unlucky in everything he did.
The first Hound lunged, in an attempt to grab Ren by the arm, but Ren moved before he could even think. He rotated in place, ducking under the Hound’s raised arm, and ran his elbow into the man’s jaw. As hard as he could. The Hound stumbled backwards and gasped for a few moments as he hadn’t expected that reaction to happen.
Another Hound grabbed him from behind and tried to drag him down. But Ren drove his foot into his ribs and broke free from the hold.
Then the Hound with the knife came in last. His blade hit Riven’s shoulder. Blood spilled instantly, but Ren moved anyway, faster than he himself could understand. He grabbed the Hound’s wrist, twisted it, which caused the armor to spark and the knife to fall. But Ren didn’t care about the knife. He had no use for it. Instead, he turned the Hound over his back, like all that metal weight meant nothing, and threw him hard to the ground.
Now they were all either on the ground or staggering to regain their composure.
After a few seconds, the tattoos on their skin began to glow, each in a different rhythm. Their bodies twitched, and their wounds healed. As they pulled themselves together, they exchanged a brief look, then they turned and ran.
Ren stood alone in the alley, breathing hard. His knuckles were bloodied, and his hands were trembling uncontrollably as he tried to process everything that had just happened in the last ten minutes. And for a brief instant, his eyes flashed with a golden light.