I jerked awake to an aching numbness, my vision swimming until it finally settled on the fading glow of neon slicing through the darkness. My breath caught in my chest as I realized I was sprawled in some grimy alley, the cold pressure of damp concrete clinging to me. A question throbbed at the back of my mind—Who am I?—but I couldn’t form the words, not yet.

A soft, metallic flicker in my hand drew my attention. I clenched my fist around a small chip, its silvery edges glinting as if alive with inner circuitry. It pulsed faintly, like the feeble heartbeat of something that shouldn’t exist here. The instant I tried to recall how or why I possessed this odd piece of tech, a spike of pain jolted through my skull, as if my mind rejected its own curiosity.

“Initializing… Connection established,” said a calm, almost clinical voice. Startled, I whipped my head around. My gaze fell on a sleek earpiece affixed near my jaw. A swirl of neon-blue light rimmed its surface.

“I…what—?” I managed, forcing myself upright despite the dull ache tightening my muscles.

“Greetings, Tatsuya,” the voice continued. “My designation is Hidari, here to assist you.”

The words rocked me—it knew my name, even if I barely did. “Assist me with what, exactly?” I asked warily, brushing the grit off my clothes as I scanned the alley walls, layered with chipped paint and half-dead holo-ads flickering overhead.

“My databases indicate you seek your missing memories,” Hidari explained, each syllable betraying no emotion, only a faint mechanical warmth.

I rose to my feet with a shaky exhale. A swirl of neon lights from the distant main street poured in, casting the alley in ominous shadows. Though I couldn’t remember anything beyond the moment I woke up, my instincts screamed that this city—Neo-Tokyo, I somehow recalled—held answers…or peril. Maybe both.

Stepping toward the busy streets, I let the thick night air envelop me. Towering structures hummed, adorned with holographic banners that flared and fizzled, advertising everything from next-gen implants to questionable pleasure parlors. It was breathtaking and suffocating all at once, a tapestry of pulse and noise, as if the city itself lived and breathed in neon.

Before I could be swallowed by the crowd, I heard a measured, almost melodic voice. “You’re lost, stranger.”

I turned. There stood a woman with vibrant pink hair, standing statuesque at the intersection of two chaotic footpaths. Her gaze pierced straight to my core.

“Who are you?” I asked, my tone sharper than I intended.

“Rose,” she said quietly, stepping nearer so that the crush of people slid around her like water around a stone. “An investigator for the Guardians. You look like a man chasing ghosts.”

I swallowed, not sure whether to trust her. But the way her eyes didn’t waver gave me a flicker of hope—maybe she had answers. Or maybe she was simply good at pretending.

“Tatsuya,” I offered in return, voice subdued. The name tasted foreign on my tongue.

Rose studied me, her expression flickering with subtle empathy. “Come,” she said. “Let’s get out of this chaos for a moment. You’ve got questions. I might have leads.”

Despite my wariness, I followed. There was something about her direct, unflinching manner that drew me in. She led me into a café just off a narrow side street, a hidden pocket of quiet in this roaring metropolis. The dim interior lights glowed amber against matte-black walls, the subtle aroma of coffee and sizzling circuit boards blending in the air.

We settled at a small table while a robotic server whirred by, placing steaming cups before us. I cradled mine in my hands, letting the gentle warmth soothe my raw nerves. Outside, neon signs cast dancing specters of color across the windows.

“Let’s start simple,” Rose began, leaning forward. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

I grimaced, frustration rising. “Just this…this alley. Waking up with no memory except my name and this chip.” I revealed the small device, the Limit Breaker chip, letting its faint glow speak for itself.

Rose eyed it curiously. “That’s advanced, definitely Breaker-level tech. We see these…occasionally.”

A wry laugh escaped me, surprising even myself. “Occasionally? So you’re saying it’s not exactly standard gear?”

“Hardly,” she replied. “Professor Akira was the mind behind the original Limit Breaker technology. A genius—and a ghost. He vanished some time ago, leaving behind half-finished designs, cryptic research. It changed… well, everything.”

Professor Akira. The name resonated inside me, making my pulse quicken. I forced myself to remain calm, even as my gut told me this was a piece of the puzzle.

“Where do I find him?” I asked, voice intense despite my effort to stay composed.

“That’s the question,” Rose said with a small, humorless smile. “Nobody knows. And too many are hunting for him—or for what remains of him.”

A pause lingered between us. I sipped my drink, the sharp bitterness grounding me.

“People with your chip,” she went on, “they either become revered or…” She trailed off, her expression darkening. “Or they’re never heard from again.”

At that, I felt a heat behind my ribs, part anxiety and part determination. “Then maybe finding him is the key to unlocking who I am,” I murmured, mostly to myself.

She nodded. “That’s what I’m counting on. For now, we should be cautious. There are watchers in every circuit of Neo-Tokyo—lurking around every neon corner.”

Her gaze turned distant for a moment, and I sensed her weighing some silent debate. Then, she rose, beckoning me with one graceful motion. “Come with me. We’ll start in the place where secrets walk in plain sight: the Market of Shadows.”

We ventured deeper into Neo-Tokyo than I’d ever imagined possible, disappearing into labyrinthine streets that dipped below the glitzy façade of the upper city. Everything took on a darker hue, neon replaced by flickering bulbs and half-functional screens. Shadows thickened until it felt like stepping through a threshold into another realm.

The Market of Shadows was more a clandestine gathering than a market. Folks peddled hardware and info like they were smuggling intangible trinkets of lost dreams. The hum of whispered deals and coded phrases buzzed around us, enough to make me want to shrink back. But I forced my shoulders square, refusing to cave to the fear edging its way up my throat.

Rose moved with practiced ease, ignoring the curious—and at times, predatory—glances thrown our way. I followed her lead, stifling the instinct to spin around at every unknown flicker in the crowd.

Eventually, we stopped at a ramshackle stall illuminated by sputtering bulbs. The merchant behind it wore a surreal, full-head frog mask. Its bulging orange eyes locked onto me with unsettling focus.

“Delve in shadows, the truth you shall taste,” the masked figure intoned, voice like a rasp caught between dream and reality.

I felt a chill race down my spine. It was as if every nerve in my body suddenly stood at attention. “I’m looking for answers,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I expected in response.

“Memory—precious gift, concealed,” the frog-masked merchant croaked, lifting a hand in an almost ritualistic gesture. “You, the one who forgot, must unravel. Seek the serpent’s whisper.”

His strange words awakened something in me, a faint tickle of recognition. Or maybe it was the confusion swirling through my mind, forming illusions out of half-remembered truths.

“Seek the serpent’s whisper,” I echoed quietly. “How do I—?”

Before I could finish, the merchant bowed, stepping back into the shadows of his stall as if he’d never been there. The cryptic pronouncement hung in the air, unanswered.

Rose found me again among the scattered patrons, her eyes reflecting the same hush of tension I felt. “We won’t get more from him tonight,” she said. Then her lips quirked into a small grin. “But I think you’ve started down a path, Tatsuya. Ready to see where it leads?”

I turned, gazing at the twisted lanes of the Market as if they might vanish at any moment. A part of me quailed at the idea of pressing forward into conspiracies that dwarfed my memory. Another part was steeled by purpose—my identity was tied up in this.

My hand drifted to the Limit Breaker chip in my pocket. Its faint pulsing steadied me. “…I don’t see another way,” I murmured, a shadow of resolve lacing my words.

Rose nodded, placing a light hand on my shoulder in reassurance. “Then let’s keep moving. The shadows only get deeper from here.”

And so, we left that stall and pressed on, the neon glow behind us shrinking, but the tension in my chest still thrumming. I held one unshakable thought as we stepped back into the labyrinth of streets:

I will find out who I am—even if it means unveiling every secret threaded through Neo-Tokyo’s darkest corners.