41. The Stake in the Final Gamble

"Aketchi, pass down the order. Have every loyal warrior proceed to their designated floors and make thorough preparations."

"It has already been arranged."

"Good. Now, come with me."

Through a concealed passage and with the authority Arasaka Saburo had granted her before his death, Hanako Arasaka activated an elevator within Arasaka Tower that few knew existed. After issuing her final instructions, she gestured for Aketchi to follow.

The elevator doors slowly closed and began to rise. In the silence, Aketchi keenly noticed that Hanako Arasaka's body was slightly tense.

Though she maintained her usual majesty and composure as one in power, at this decisive moment, a trace of tension she could not fully suppress still leaked through her bearing.

Aketchi's gaze quietly swept over the golden fingers of her prosthetic hands.

Hanako Arasaka suffered from a condition known as Raynaud's disease—a vascular disorder more common in women, usually triggered by cold or emotional agitation. It manifested as intermittent whitening, cyanosis, and reddening of the fingertips, often accompanied by numbness and tingling.

Perhaps unwilling to expose any weakness others might perceive, Hanako Arasaka had chosen to completely replace her original fingers with exquisite golden prosthetics. It was a bold and resolute decision.

After all, not everyone possessed the nerve to discard every finger on their body merely to conceal a physical defect.

Yet as far as Aketchi knew, current genetic engineering should have been sufficient to cure Raynaud's disease completely. He had never understood why she would rather abandon her flesh-and-blood fingers than undergo a gentler form of gene therapy.

Even if Arasaka's capabilities in genetic engineering were indeed somewhat inferior to Biotechnology's, that was only when compared with an industry giant.

On its own, Arasaka stood at the forefront of nearly every technological field—so long as it chose to enter