“The Office of Reason has begun an unplanned widespread crackdown on criminal activity in sector one since late last night,” said a stern Fella, as she reported on the breaking news that was given to her and Kommy by the Office of Reason.

“Sector one has been a thorn in the side of Mother and Father for the longest time, mainly due to its ties with the criminal underground and the fact that it is a breeding ground for those sympathetic to separatists,” said Kommy.

“With this first day of raids, the Office of Reason’s plan to gather enough information to possibly start a major campaign in the future that would clean up the sector if things get out of control...”

Arron was watching the news with the other probationary members as well as the regular family members. Because of the current raids going on, everyone's job was on hold. Almost everyone was safely hiding inside their main bases since going outside right now was too risky for the well-known members.

“Why are they openly telling everyone their plans?” asked one of the probationary members.

“It's a challenge. They are letting us know that we can't do anything even if we know ahead of time,” said Fro.

“I heard from a friend in the Oni family that they got hit hard last night. It was as if they knew where everything was at their main business. Must have had an informant leaking the details.”

Arron was sweating, that building was one of the businesses he had put in his report to AS. There were several others that he reported on so far and when he checked with various people who were connected to these places, he found that most of them had already been raided.

The Office of Reason was definitely using the information he was sending them to start a clean-up of the families.

As the day wore on one thing became clear, the only targets in these raids were the yakuza families both big and small. Not a single gang was raided or shaken down. Arron was sure that he had provided more damning information about the various gang's illegal activities than any of the small tidbits about the families. It was not hard to learn all about the gang's misdeeds as Ox had a great hatred for them and talked about them nonstop.

Ping! Arron's NerViz system interrupted his thoughts as it notified him of a high-priority encrypted message waiting for him to accept. Such a thing only meant one thing, either A.S. or Kix was trying to contact him.

Arron silently stood up and went to the bathroom where he activated the privacy mode and read the message before its timed deletion was triggered. With all that was going on, he worried that this was a message warning him that his cover had been blown.

Despite all his worrying, Arron was able to let out a sigh when he read the message.

[From Kix: Arron I need to meet you. It is important. Let's have lunch.]

If it was any other day Arron would not be able to leave due to his daily work alongside Ox. Even now with everyone holed up in their rooms, Arron was unsure if he was allowed to leave the building because of the raids.

“Well, there's only one way to find out!” said Arron.

When he left the bathroom he started to tap on several of his Wrist-datapads holographic menu buttons bringing up his contact list that only had a few names. He tapped on one of the new entries and began a call.

A few seconds later the call was answered showing the stern face of Ox who was staring back at Arron. His strong piercing gaze made Arron shiver and feel as if he could see through everything Arron was thinking.

“What is it? We don't have work today, so why are you contacting me?” asked Ox.

“Ah... that's why I was calling...my friend that helped me out before wanted to meet with me for lunch. I am not sure what it is but he would not call me if it was something simple. Is it possible that I can leave for a short time and meet up with him?”

“You're not going to meet up with a Mother and Father agent or someone from the Office of Reason are you?” joked Ox as he continued to stare at Arron with a smile.

Arron fought hard to keep his face from twitching at the joke. It was not far off from the truth.

“He is just a friend I know and has nothing to do with them,” said Arron slowly as he tried to keep his voice calm.

“You know it's too dangerous for us to be outside with the current raids going on. But if you insist I can ask the old man for you and see what he has to say,” said Ox, not bothering to question who he was going to meet.

“Please do,” was all Arron said.

The call ended leaving Arron to wait several minutes and watch the news with everyone as more details of the new targets being raided was broadcasted.

Fella continued to talk in a cheery and upbeat way as if she was a cat that had just caught several rats that had been evading her for a long time.

Arron quickly accepted the call when he saw Ox's name pop up. He was restlessly waiting for Ox to give him the old man's decision.

“You can go meet your friend. But, this is not a free pass to do what you want while outside. Remember that there is a large presence of Office of Reason agents outside. If you get caught we will not help you and deny ever meeting with you and we will also deny any information you may give them in an interrogation.”

“It's just a meal, I doubt something like that would happen...” said Arron.

“It's just the way things are,” said Ox before ending the call.

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There was nothing for Arron to prepare so he said a few words to the others in the room and left the building to meet up with Kix.

***

“Has he left?” asked the old man.

“He has,” said Ox.

“Follow him. With the current state of affairs, it is best to be overcautious.”

“I will do as you say. With the Office of Reason out in full force right now, if anyone else were to go out, they would draw too much attention to themselves. I will make sure to take measures that hide my identity.”

***

Arron followed the directions given to him by Kix and soon met up with him at a slightly expensive restaurant.

There were many meeting rooms inside the building as well as large tables for large celebrations.

Arron looked around and felt a little out of place as he stared at the large synthetic diamond crystal chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling.

At the center of each large table, there was a large flat piece of metal that could be used for cooking meat next to it was a cold temperature plate with several raw synthetic pieces of meat.

Kix was sitting across from Arron as they both silently stared at the meat but did not touch it. They had been sitting like this for over 20 minutes.

Ox, who was monitoring them from nearby, was unsure what they were doing or why they were not eating when the food was right in front of them.

“Who is he?” asked the Old man who was watching everything that was happening thanks to the hidden camera in Ox's sunglasses.

“No one that I know of... the search of our database on the current known moles working for Office of Reason and Mother and Father has come up with a blank. He may be a new agent or pawn,” said Ox.

Ox was sitting across the large restaurant room wearing a large heavy hooded leather coat that looked rather suspicious on his large muscled body. The large hat to cover his face did not help his image but it was all done to stop the Office of Reason from finding him so easily.

The people that passed by him every so often kept giving him weird looks and many of the restaurant's guests that arrived after him purposely avoided the several tables around him. With all the commotion this was causing, the restaurant's security drones seemed to be taking a liking to him and continuously passed by his table making sure there were no issues.

Ox was unaware of all of this as he was focused on his undercover mission.

“Ah! Two others have arrived. Huh... I know them. They are from the small Upreme family,” said Ox when he saw two middle-aged men arrive and sit down at Kix and Arron's table.

“So he, or his friend, has a connection to the Upreme family. Keep monitoring his Wrist-datapad to make sure that he is not leaking any information or receiving secret orders. We can ask him about his relationship with them when he returns,” said the Old man.

As he was saying this, a privacy shield popped up around the table blocking the sound and view of what was going on inside.

There was little Ox could do without drawing attention to himself, so he could only wait to catch any conversation that they may have as they left the building.

***

“Don't look, but a creepy homeless guy is staring at us from across the room...” said one of the middle-aged men when he sat down across from Arron and Kix who were now sitting next to each other.

“Let's activate the privacy shield so we don't have to worry too many prying eyes and ears,” said the second man as he accessed the table’s holo-menu and tapped on a few options to activate the blue privacy shield which popped up around their table and its occupants.

Arron looked at the two men then back at Kix and then asked, “Are these guys the people we have been waiting for over half an hour?”

Kix nodded his head.

“And they are?” asked Arron inspecting them. They gave off the rough feeling he was growing used to when around the other members of the Ryu family.

“My older brothers.”

“....” Arron could only stare back and forth between the two men and then Kix.

“I'm Krux and this is Kronk,” said Krux.

“Sorry for making you wait. We had a hard time getting here with all the raids going on,” said Kronk.

“Ah... so were you hit by the raids as well?” asked Arron trying to confirm his suspicion.

They shook their heads, “No, we were lucky to escape so far,” said Kronk.

“Kix, you still haven't told me why I had to come here to help you,” said Arron.

Kix only looked at his older brothers and said, “Ask them.”

“Can he be trusted?” asked Krux.

“He is my partner. We have been in several life-and-death situations and come out alive together. There is no doubt about his trustworthiness.”

Kronk nodded at this but was still a bit wary of Arron.

“The reason we have come here is to tell you that Father is planning on retiring,” said Kronk.

“Father wants you to return, or at least not cut off your relationship with him and the rest of the family anymore,” said Krux, as he stared directly into Kix's eyes.

“Which family?” asked Kix coldly.

“You know which one,” said Kronk.

“We have also heard some unfaltering rumors that say you are working with the Office of Reason on an undercover case,” said Krux angrily.

“Who is spreading such a rumor?” asked Kix as he sat up straight and stared right back at his brother.

“Father.”

“... I am not able to comment on my work as an M1 officer, you know that. But what I can say is, I would not do anything that would get me involved with the family. I am trying to keep my wife and son safe. I don't want them to have to experience what we did when we were growing up. That is why I left the family,” said Kix coldly.

“Working as an M1 officer is far more dangerous than staying with the family! Things have changed since we were kids!” said Kronk.

“The danger from the family and the M1 are entirely different. As an M1 officer, I can help people each day I go out. But if I were to stay in the family I would be the one causing problems along with you. I will choose a different path so that my son does not end up like this,” said Kix as he held up his metal hand.

His brother's faces showed a slight sadness as they saw his hand and remembered a past event.

“Kix... trust me as your older brother. We are now high-ranking officers under Father. The past events won't happen again. Father has made sure that no one disrespects us like back then,” said Kronk.

Kix, seeing Arron's confusion, explained in greater detail what they were talking about.

“When I was 8 years old, a rival gang killed my bodyguards who were escorting me to school and then they kidnapped me. They continued to tell me that they were going to kill me if my father did not respond the correct way... and to make sure that he did, they cut my hand off and sent it to my father as a threat.”

Kix paused for a few seconds as he looked at his metal hand.

“My father was enraged and personally came to wipe out the entire gang. I, his youngest son, was drenched in the blood of my kidnappers that had tried to use me as a shield. Looking back on all that happened, I was rather lucky to have only lost my hand with such a chaotic fight happening all around me. This is why I decided to leave my 'family' and join the M1.”

In the end, Kix's brothers were unable to convince him to come back. They completely ignored Arron's attempts to back up Kix and instead left the restaurant angry.