<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/6/68/Red_Samurai.png)</div>Daisuke took his admonishment from Saiyako with good grace, and lay still until she had finished working. He smiled at them both when he sat upright, and his skin was flushed a little. His biomonitor showed a slight elevation in his heartbeat every time he looked at Saiyako, but that might just be a side effect of her surgical work.<br/><br/>The obsidian shard was definitely from a magical weapon. It bore the same astral signature as the wound itself had, so it must have come from the weapon that delivered the wound. The specific signature was unfamiliar, but Midori would recognize it if she came across it again.<br/><br/>Grandfather placed his hands on the girls' shoulders. "Well done, my girls. Again, you have demonstrated the honour and skill I have come to expect from you." He them bowed deeply to Daisuke. "Nakatomi-sama, you do us great honour by choosing our humble shrine as your sanctuary in a time of need. Your uncle is Nakatomi Shikei, Chairman of the Board of Renraku Computer Systems?" Daisuke nodded. "Then your mission must be of the utmost importance. What can you tell us, that we may assist you?"<br/><br/>Daisuke looked between the girls again, taking and releasing a deep breath. "It is a mission of great secrecy, given to me by Nakatomi-dono himself, and even I do not know the full details of the situation. What I know is that I was investigating a line of magical research performed by the<em>gaijin</em>magicians of Aztechnology. Of course they are known to perform blood magic, but what I was investigating was something deeper and more sinister, or so I believe.<br/><br/>"I was sent on this mission alongside my brother, Nakatomi Kazeyoshi. He was an adept in the Shinto tradition, blessed by the<em>kami</em>with speed and stealth that even the best augmentations cannot rival. I believed him to be as loyal to our corporation, and to our uncle, as I am, but I was wrong." He hung his head in shame. "I do not know what induced him to turn against us. We were children together, in our family home, in school and in the academies. We went through our<em>gempukku</em>together. I joined the Red Samurai in the same year that he became a Red Ninja, and we have been on many missions together.<br/><br/>"It was when we were deep within a hidden Aztechnology facility here in Seattle that he betrayed me. We had liberated a cache of data on the project, thanks to remote support from the hacker assigned to the mission, and I believe I was about to find a magic item that would unlock the secrets of their research, when Kazeyoshi struck me in the back with a hidden blade. If not for the titanium in my bones, he would surely have pierced my heart, but, wounded as I was, I fought him, and slew him." He sighed deeply, reaching his hand out for comfort. "My own brother."<br/><br/>"I had to escape, of course. The alarm had been raised in the facility, and I could not take time to mourn my treacherous brother, nor to investigate any further. I copied the stolen data to a secure datastore in my armour, and fled. I would have called for extraction once I was out on the street, but I realised that there was rot at the heart of my family, and the heart of Renraku itself. I didn't know who I could trust, save for my uncle, but he would not be able to act without risking retaliation from this conspiracy.<br/><br/>"And so I came to you, Sony-sensei. You would not be part of any conspiracy within Renraku, nor would loyalty to one of the great corporations competing with Renraku induce you to give me up. An honourable and learned samurai of one of the minor corporations, with granddaughters of resource and skill."<br/><br/>He stopped and took a deep breath, evidently exhausted simply from the long speech. "If you would help me, Renraku would be in your debt. The first thing I need is my armour. I hid it when I fled the Aztechnology facility, and it is hidden in an alley west of here, near Fort Lewis. My armour has the data from the facility, as well as being my personal armour, for combat and for my honour. If you could retrieve it, while I rest, then perhaps I can resume my duty."