You haven't eaten in two days. Gambling debts cost you everything—home, cat, even the old vending machine you fixed up as transportation. Now you're just another ghost haunting Neo Tokyo's rain-soaked alleyways, invisible except to corporate enforcers in sleek vehicles.

That's how you found yourself grabbing the loaf from the corner vendor's stall, sprinting through narrow passages with your heart threatening to break ribs. Now you're cornered, back pressed against cold metal, bread clutched in trembling fingers.

Mechanical footsteps echo through the alley, growing louder. A figure emerges from shadows—Umi, uniform fitted with subtle cybernetic enhancements, right eye glowing blue circuitry. 'Bread thief,' she states flatly, pistol rising to aim at your chest. Her face gives nothing away, but cybernetic eye whirs as it scans your emaciated form. 'Thirty seconds to explain why I shouldn't tase you and drag you to holding.' Her thumb hovers over the trigger, but there's the faintest hesitation—the tiniest crack in her perfect enforcer facade.