1:45am, Friday the 10th October, 2132.

When the doors of the service elevator opened, Aiden stepped out into an abandoned corridor. It was dark and hadn't been cleaned for some time, and the high ceiling was shrouded in a darkness above him. He had to wonder if something lurked in those shadows; watching him, hunting him as Sarratt would be hunting him. There was no doubt in Aiden’s mind that Sarratt was still alive - his regenerative powers were just as complete as his own, if not slower.

But he had no time to ponder the man’s existence, or how it connected to his own. All he wanted was to get as far away from Hiromi’s hideout as he could; to get away from anyone who might wake the hunger that grew inside him.

Before he even realized he was walking, he reached a set of doors and pushed them open to find himself in a large, empty lobby; the bottom floor of a massive tower that was lost in a forest of them. A circular reception station was in the center, with a security station at the far end, a fleet of elevators against two walls and an open flight of stairs that led up to the floors above. Aiden looked up to see that the inside of the tower he was in was hollow, and that layer after layer of glass balconies rose up for hundreds of levels.

And yet there was nothing. There were no people, no lights, no dim flashing of electronics or the sounds of air-conditioning, or the low hum of power surging through the walls. There weren't even any signs, posters, or logos to reveal just who owned the building, or what it was used for. There was just Aiden, standing alone in a monument meant for thousands.

Several large, glass doors made the entrance of the place, and he walked over to them to try and leave. He tried one and then another to find they had been locked, but he did not want to risk drawing attention to Hiromi’s hideout by breaking them open. He turned and decided to try the security station, knowing that Yuji had likely gone through the building when he left, and that there was likely a side-entrance somewhere.

The security kiosk was open, and he passed through and into a back room with a small break room and a kitchen, and through that into a locker room filled with lockers that had been opened and emptied. He made his way down the aisles towards a door in the back, but as he reached out for the door, he heard a distinct clicking behind him. It was almost silent, and accompanied by a shadow that moved through the corner of his vision.

Aiden turned his head to find that Yuji was sitting on a seat in the corner of the room. His eyes were slightly red, as though he had just cried, and he watched Aiden calmly as he lit a cigarette and placed it between his lips.

"Didn't expect to see you here," Yuji said.

"What are you doing?" Asked Aiden, turning to look at him. Yuji had a handgun lying across his lap, and he was leaning back slightly as he slipped his lighter into his pocket.

"Me? Nothing. What are you doing?"

"Trying to find the way out," Aiden said, his eyes fixed on the gun.

"There's a security door through there, down the hall," Yuji said, gesturing to the door that Aiden had been about to open. "You abandoning our little alliance already? What about the corpo guy? Don’t wanna grab him anymore?"

"It's better for everyone if I left. Safer."

"Maybe," Yuji replied. "Guess you got some powerful people after you, right? Maybe people who would leave me and my crew alone if I delivered you." Yuji's hand began to slowly drift towards his handgun, and when Aiden took a step back, he suddenly snatched it and raised it at him. Aiden stopped.

"You don't want to do this," Aiden said.

"How do you know what I want to do?" Asked Yuji, cigarette smoke blowing out in front of him. "You know, it's strange. Back down there with Hiromi, I wanted to be on your side. You have a natural charm about you, you know. But once I got away from you, once I stopped breathing the same air… It’s funny. It’s like I can see clearly, now.”

Aiden lowered his gaze. "Do you know how many people have tried to kill me tonight?" He asked. "It seems every chance I get to find respite, there’s someone else who comes along and tries to shoot me. But none of them could kill me, Yuji. The soldiers at Fukaya General couldn't kill me. Sarratt couldn't kill me. And you won't be able to kill me."

Yuji shrugged and kept his gun steady. "I don't want to kill you," he said. "I just want to save my friends. Too many have already died tonight because of you, and more will probably die in the next few days. I know where you’re going - you're running away because you're scared, because you have no idea what you're doing. But I'm a leader to my gang, and they depend on me to make the right choices. So, you see, I don't have that option, the freedom to be a coward that you have. So why don't you just sit down?"

Aiden looked at him in silence, then shook his head. "You're trying to keep me here with the threat of violence but there are two problems with that plan, Yuji," he said. "The threat of violence doesn't scare me anymore, and you wouldn't have the heart to shoot me even if it did."

He turned back towards the door and reached for the handle, and Yuji fired his gun. The deafening sound of the shot filled the locker room, and the wall a foot away from Aiden suddenly had a hole.

"See?" Aiden asked. Then he passed through the door and shut it again behind him.

Aiden left the building through a side door that led to a narrow and almost empty street. He felt the pangs of hunger again, coming and going in echoing waves, but they were slowly lessening in both frequency and intensity. In the distance he could see dozens of people walking the city, and he made his way towards them and found himself at the side of a main road filled cars moving at breakneck speeds. Some of them hovered and hummed, and others sprayed great waves of water from the earlier rain.

Somehow, he felt safe again. He found himself surrounded by a crowd of hundreds, and lost himself in them as they walked around him as though he was one of them. In a crowd he was just another face, another man who was passed over by the eyes of every other. Blissfully ignored.

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Even so, he did not know where to go. He ended up picking a random direction and set off on a walk that took him at least an hour; turning corners and peering down alleyways, and looking out for anything that he might use to to take shelter. He felt secure in his explorations, and even when the occasional group of bikers rode past and searched the crowd, he knew they would not pick him out of it.

Those bikers must have been after the Centipedes. Hiromi had told him about their rival Spiders gang, and they wore the outline of a spider on the backs of their suits and carried metal bars like mounted knights might carry swords.

After some time, he found himself on an unusually quiet street consisting of mostly apartment buildings. He followed it anyway, veering away from the bulk of the crowds until, after several minutes, he once again found himself alone. He walked like this for a time, increasingly considering heading back the way he came the longer he went without seeing another, but something strange caught his attention. Something he had not expected to see.

Between two residential towers, a space had been cleared not for a road or an alleyway, but a garden. It was walled in an ancient style, with an open passage that led under a red, wooden torii and onto a stone path surrounded by trees and plants and flowers. Overcome by his curiosity he entered the garden, and found himself taken aback by the beauty of such a small and unexpected slice of nature.

He found a small pool on one side, with a cobbled path that looped around it. The path was lined by various small, stone monuments decorated with ribbons of red and white, and he recognized traditional Japanese characters etched into their faces and backs. As he reached the end of the garden, he found a small, temple-like building - the kind that were now relegated almost entirely to history books.

"It's a beautiful building, isn't it? Surrounded by, yet so far removed from the forest of metal that imprisons it.”

Aiden turned to find a man standing behind him who, though clearly the caretaker of the place, seemed as just as enthralled by the garden as his unexpected guest. The man wore a traditional garb of black and yellow, a multiple-layered robe that was wrapped around him, and wooden sandals that kept his feet above the ground on prongs.

"Sorry," Aiden said. "I didn't mean to trespass. Or, well, I did, but I don't mean any harm."

The man laughed. Beneath a shaved head, the man’s full, dark beard contorted with his amused expression. "Not to worry, stranger. Many people have never seen such a place - even the city gardens are artificial. Too… Perfect," he said. "But this place? It is perfect because it is imperfect. It is through the imperfections of things that the natural order finds its true beauty - that life is given chance to express itself."

"This is a temple, isn’t it?" Aiden asked him. "I didn’t think there were many monks left."

"You could say that. There will always be those who are drawn to the spiritual, but as for traditional, ordained monks? There are not many," the man told him. "My name is Shinran. And yours?”

"Aiden," he replied.

Shinran looked him up and down, then bowed slightly. "Would you like some tea, Aiden? I do not know your troubles, but I can see that you have them."

Aiden wasn't sure whether or not to be suspicious, but Shinran was already walking up the path to the temple so Aiden followed him. "Are you this trusting of all strangers?" He asked as he walked.

"Well, no,” Shinran replied. “But I try to look for the good in all, before the bad has a chance to show itself.”

Aiden realized that the temple was actually two smaller buildings connected by a wooden walkway. One was an area of prayer, while the other was little more than a living space. Shinran went to this living space where the sliding paper door - a shoji, Aiden believed they were called - was already open, and he stepped into a traditional room and placed a kettle on a small cooking platform.

"I apologize for saying this, but I'm kind of surprised your garden hasn't been vandalized," said Aiden.

Shinran laughed at the remark. "Oh, it has. Quite a few times, in fact. But most people don't care enough to bother. There is nothing of value here, and unlike a building, a bed of flowers can regrow without my aid.” The kettle had already boiled, despite being only being heated for a few seconds, and soon the monk was pouring the water into ceramic mugs and reaching for bags of tea leaves. "Come, have a seat."

Aiden found the situation so bizarre, yet he could not help but go along with it. It seemed outright rude to refuse the monk, who appeared to want no more than to be hospitable, and so he sat and slowly crossed his legs.

"What kind of tea do you like?" Shinran asked him. "Green? Lemon?"

"I... Don't think I can drink it," Aiden admitted sheepishly.

"Hm? You are allergic?"

"No, I just... I have a condition. I don't think I can eat or drink."

"Anorexia?"

"No. I'm just... Unnatural. Dark."

The monk had already poured two cups of tea, but when Aiden said those words, he stopped and looked at him closely. "You look normal to me," said Shinran.

"But I’m not," Aiden said. "In fact, I shouldn't be here. I'm putting you in danger."

Aiden made to stand, but Shinran shook his head and raised a hand to stop him. "Sit down, lad," ordered the monk, his voice surprisingly strong. "You're already here, so you might as well accept a cup of tea from an old monk. I'll be perfectly fine."

Relenting and lowering himself back to the floor, Aiden watched as Shinran slid one of the cups over to him. He raised it to his nose to breathe in the steam, but he found the smell sickening. As he recoiled, the monk carefully sipped from his own cup and watched.

"You aren't going to try it?" Shinran asked him.

"I can't."

"Because you're unnatural? I do not know what is wrong with you, my friend, or what you have been through, but I do know that you are certainly natural. You are breathing, are you not?"

Aiden realized that he was.

"And your heart is beating, is it not?" Asked the monk.

Aiden realized that it was.

"Then you are natural," said Shinran. "You are living. And all living things require water - life cannot be life without it. It is one of the ultimate, fundamental rules of the natural world, and this tea is little more than that. Drink."

Aiden knew the monk was right. He took the cub to his lips and, fighting against his own disgust, began to drink.

"That's it," Shinran encouraged. "Overcome your anxieties. Overcome your negative beliefs. You will not be sick, and you will not be harmed. It is no more than green tea. And if I do say so myself, it tastes delightful.”

Aiden wasn’t sure why, but Shinran’s words began to soothe him. The panic that originally rose in him as he drank began to fade, and soon he could feel it settling. The tea was hot, but his stomach had been empty for so long that filling it with anything was a welcome reprieve. And though he still expected to be violently ill, that illness never came.

"You were right," Aiden told him, shocked. “I’m fine.”

"I often am," Shinran said, smiling. "Though I cannot imagine what illness you must feel for you to think even tea would harm you. But it is my place to help, not to judge, and so I will only hope that you are not contagious."

Aiden found himself grinning. “No, I’m not. At least, I hope not.”

“Well, I suppose I’ll find out soon enough!” Said Shinran.

In the silence that followed, Aiden sipped his tea again and then placed the cup down in front of him. "I did not expect to find wisdom tonight," he eventually admitted. "Only violence."

"You run from it, don't you?" The monk asked. "Violence. Fear. Doubt. I can see from the blood on your clothes, from the fact you have no shoes, that you have been running for some time. What is it, my new friend? Gangs?"

"I don't even know," Aiden said, staring down at the unsettled water in his cup. "I don't know anything anymore."