Chapter Summaries

Goro Takemura waited for Santaio Oda to meet him and tried to persuade him to help expose Yorinobu’s role in Saburo’s death. Oda’s coldness softened when Takemura described the murder and Su Xiao confirmed their escape from Troy.

• Goro Takemura told Su Xiao that Hana Arasaka had come to Night City for Saburo’s funeral and suspected Yorinobu planned to have her killed during the festival.
• Su Xiao waited with Goro Takemura at an abandoned dock as Oda failed to arrive on time, then agreed to stay longer.
• Santaio Oda arrived alone in a black sedan and gave Goro Takemura one minute to explain why he should help him.
• Goro Takemura recounted how Saburo had died while alone with Yorinobu and how Troy later hunted him.
• Santaio Oda told Goro Takemura to continue after hearing about Saburo’s death, and Su Xiao confirmed that he had escaped Troy’s pursuit with Takemura.

Goro Takemura tried to persuade Santaio Oda that Yorinobu Arasaka had framed him, but Oda refused to get involved and prioritized protecting Hana Arasaka. Oda let Takemura leave Night City safely, while Su Xiao stayed alert to the threat of violence.

• Santaio Oda rejected Takemura’s claims and demanded to know why he should trust Su Xiao’s testimony.
• Takemura pressed Oda to believe him and help him reach Hana Arasaka, while Oda’s history and debt to Takemura weighed against his fear of being dragged into Arasaka’s political conflict.
• Oda considered killing Takemura, and Su Xiao quietly prepared to defend himself if Oda attacked.
• Oda warned Takemura to stop talking about the conspiracy, explaining that his main concern was protecting Hana during Saburo’s mourning ceremony.
• After Takemura said he would hand Oda’s head to Yorinobu if their positions were reversed, Oda refused to help him but allowed him to leave the city safely.

Su Xiao rejected Goro Takemura’s plan to reach Hana Arasaka during the Arasaka Soul Festival, warning that it would likely get him killed. After Takemura left in anger, Su Xiao offered to find him a place to stay and pay the rent.

• Santaio Oda refused to help Takemura meet Hana Arasaka and left, while Takemura identified the upcoming Arasaka Soul Festival as his last chance.
• Takemura explained his plan to obtain the parade route, tamper with Hana’s float, and approach her, then asked Su Xiao for help.
• Su Xiao refused, warned Takemura that Yorinobu would kill him and that Hana might not believe his story, and Takemura left in anger.
• Su Xiao stopped Takemura, learned he had nowhere suitable to stay, and offered to rent him a place in the Northside Industrial District and cover a year’s rent.

Su Xiao helped Goro Takemura settle into a cheap apartment, hoping his measured generosity would earn Takemura's trust. Meanwhile, David learned he had been expelled and discovered the military-grade Sandevistan he had taken from the hospital might be valuable enough to help him return to school for his mother's sake.

• Su Xiao rented Takemura a run-down apartment, bought him basic supplies, and helped him clean it before leaving.
• David recovered from the accident while Gloria remained hospitalized, then learned Arasaka Academy had expelled him over unpaid repair costs.
• David found his apartment locked for overdue rent and crawled inside through a ventilation duct.
• David identified the cyberware he had brought home as a Sandevistan and contacted the ripperdoc who had made his Braindance program.
• The ripperdoc implied the Sandevistan was military-grade, and David asked how much he could sell it for so he could try to restore his mother's dream of his education.

David sought to sell the Sandevistan he had taken from a dead cyberpsycho to pay Arasaka Academy compensation, but after a ripperdoc offered him only five thousand euros, he brought it to Su Xiao. He explained his situation, hoping Su Xiao could help, while Su Xiao considered whether the expelled student could return to school.

• David rejected the ripperdoc's five-thousand-euro offer for the Sandevistan and decided to approach the man who had paid his and Gloria's medical bills.
• Su Xiao raised Mitch and Skar's pay and had them begin training Jose while he waited for Rogue to call.
• David visited Su Xiao and handed him the Sandevistan, asking him to buy it because he needed money.
• Su Xiao recognized the cyberware as likely belonging to the cyberpsycho killed by the Riot Control Unit and asked David why he needed the money.
• David explained that Arasaka Academy had expelled him and demanded compensation, and he hoped the principal might let him return if he explained what happened.

David brought Su Xiao an experimental Sandevistan and asked whether he could sell it, and Su Xiao gave him two hundred thousand euros while arranging a ride back to the Arasaka Academy. After David and V left, Su Xiao showed Lucy the implant and explained that its former host had likely been used to collect combat test data through a hidden backdoor.

• Su Xiao gave David two credit chips totaling two hundred thousand euros, divided between the academy's compensation and David's expenses, and David reluctantly accepted both after initially trying to return one.
• Su Xiao asked how David had traveled to the construction site and arranged for V to drive him back to the Arasaka Academy to protect him from the Random Blade Society.
• Su Xiao offered David a job if he could not return to the academy, but David declined because he wanted to honor his mother's wish that he continue studying.
• After David and V left, Su Xiao took the Sandevistan to Lucy and identified it as an experimental model with a backdoor used by its manufacturer to gather data from its previous host, a war veteran.

Su Xiao asked Lucy to remove the backdoor from David's Sandevistan, while David failed to persuade Arasaka Academy's principal to reverse his expulsion. As V took him away from the academy, Tanaka Katsuo cornered and provoked him.

• Su Xiao gave Lucy the experimental Sandevistan and asked her to remove its backdoor so he could sell it afterward.
• The principal told David that the school board had decided to expel him and rejected his offer to pay for the system damage.
• V comforted David and agreed to take him back to Stone Ridge Mountain so he could look for work with the Dawn Society.
• David tried to avoid Tanaka Katsuo in the academy corridor, but Tanaka followed him into the staff passage and confronted him.
• Tanaka insulted David's poverty and his mother, then suggested that she earned money through illegal work.

V rescued David from Tanaka Katsuo, then brought him to Su Xiao, who offered him a place to stay and a chance to learn useful skills. David began a new arrangement at Stone Ridge Mountain, where Mitch and Skar would teach him alongside Jose.

• Tanaka Katsuo toyed with David in a fight until V kicked him away and mocked him.
• Tanaka Katsuo charged at V, but she shot both his knees, then stomped on his hand after he threatened her with his father's influence.
• V left Tanaka Katsuo unconscious and took David back to Stone Ridge Mountain to meet Su Xiao.
• David asked Su Xiao for a job, and Su Xiao arranged for him to stay with Mitch and Skar and learn to use a gun with Jose.
• V found David a place to stay, and later told Su Xiao that he was settled in.

After V explained that she had beaten Tanaka Katsuo to protect David, Su Xiao decided to deal with the threat posed by Katsuo’s Arasaka-executive father. The group reached the Tanaka mansion in North Oak, scouted its defenses, and began planning an attack.

• V told Su Xiao she had offended Tanaka Katsuo while protecting David, and Su Xiao said he would handle the fallout.
• Su Xiao sent Mitch and Skar to bring in twenty Aldecaldos to guard their base for forty-eight hours.
• Su Xiao took V, Lucy, and Panam to North Oak, where Panam objected to attacking an Arasaka executive inside the city before agreeing to join them.
• Lucy used a camouflaged Scout Drone to locate the Tanaka mansion and identify its guards, concealed sentries, roof turrets, and escape route.
• Panam chose a nearby hill five hundred meters from the mansion as a sniper position, and Su Xiao proposed disabling the alarm with a signal jammer.

Su Xiao, V, and Lucy infiltrated Tanaka's mansion while Panam took a sniper position outside. Inside, Tanaka berated and slapped his son Katsuo, then ordered him to stay home and reconsider his future, as the attackers prepared to disable the mansion's power.

• Su Xiao, V, and Lucy activated a signal jammer and climbed the cliff to reach the mansion unseen.
• Su Xiao mapped the guards' positions and led Lucy and V through a gap in the defenses toward the mansion's power supply.
• Tanaka listened to Katsuo recount his humiliation at Arasaka Academy and showed anger at his son's behavior.
• Tanaka scolded Katsuo, slapped him, and told him to stay home from the academy and think about what he had done.

Tanaka ordered Marcus to obtain David Martinez’s address so the Special Assault Unit could kill him, but Su Xiao and his team attacked Tanaka’s mansion first. Su Xiao killed Tanaka, and V went upstairs to finish off Tanaka Katsuo as security reinforcements approached.

• Tanaka told Marcus to get David Martinez’s registration details and pass his address to the Special Assault Unit for a clean hit.
• The mansion’s power went out, and armed attackers stormed inside, killing Marcus as Tanaka used him for cover.
• Tanaka’s call for help was cut off by a signal jammer, and he suspected Militech was behind the attack.
• Tanaka attacked Su Xiao at close range, but Su Xiao evaded him and beheaded him with Muramasa.
• Su Xiao sent V upstairs to kill Tanaka Katsuo while he and Lucy held the hall as a four-man security team approached.

Su Xiao and his team escaped after killing Tanaka and his son, and Arasaka’s investigation failed to uncover them. As Su Xiao prepared to help David, River asked to meet in person and appeared troubled when they met in The Glen.

• Su Xiao, V, and Lucy killed the guards at Tanaka’s mansion, set Laser Tripwires, and escaped with Panam in a Delamain Taxi.
• Arasaka sealed off North Oak for three days and investigated Tanaka and his son’s deaths, but the inquiry fizzled out.
• Su Xiao paid the Aldecaldos he had hired and sent them home after they had guarded Stone Ridge Mountain for nearly a week.
• River called Su Xiao for help and arranged to meet him in The Glen.
• Su Xiao met River beside his pickup and saw that he looked haggard and emotionally drained.

Su Xiao learned that River’s nephew Randy was among the missing boys connected to the child kidnapper Anthony Harris, and agreed to help River investigate. River led him to an NCPD laboratory to examine recordings of Harris’s dreams, but they had no authorized way inside.

• River showed Su Xiao a news report about Anthony Harris, a kidnapper nicknamed Peter Pan, whose car contained one dead boy and evidence linked to seven other missing children.
• River revealed that his nephew Randy had disappeared and that he recognized Randy’s shoes in the news footage.
• River said the case had been assigned to Gonagar and his superiors had barred him from investigating, so he asked Su Xiao for help.
• River explained that Harris’s damaged Cyberbrain was too dangerous to examine and proposed looking for clues in recordings of his dreams.
• River brought Su Xiao to the NCPD Laboratory, but admitted they could not enter through the main entrance because his badge was useless.

Su Xiao and River broke into the NCPD laboratory to find evidence about Anthony Harris, but discovered that Harris's file was full of lies. They were caught by Yavin, who revealed River had been suspended, and River explained that Harris had kidnapped his nephew.

• Su Xiao found a way for himself and River to enter the laboratory through a window after they could not open the side door.
• Su Xiao and River searched the laboratory and located the Braindance Editing Room for Autistic Children.
• River found Anthony Harris's file, then discovered it contained only empty lies and blamed Gonagar for failing to uncover anything.
• Su Xiao sensed someone approaching, and River stopped him from knocking out Yavin when she entered the room.
• Yavin revealed River had been suspended after reporting his superior, and River told her Harris had kidnapped his nephew.

River and Su Xiao investigated Anthony Harris’s missing-child case, persuading Yavin to try to induce Harris to dream despite his brain injury. As River headed to his nephew Randy’s mother’s home to search for clues, Su Xiao explained that Harris’s “Peter Pan” alias might reflect a darker version of the Neverland story.

• River pressured Yavin into helping by asking her to extract Harris’s dreams, but she revealed that his cerebral cortex damage had left only chaotic emotions and consciousness fragments.
• Yavin agreed to try using something Harris liked to stimulate a dream, and River left with Su Xiao, encouraged by the possibility of finding clues.
• River told Su Xiao that Director Jerry Furt had corrupted the police department, leading to River’s suspension and the confiscation of his badge and gun.
• River drove to Randy’s mother Jos’s home to search their messages for clues, since his search of Harris’s home had found nothing.
• Su Xiao explained the Peter Pan story and suggested Harris might believe he was taking children to Neverland.
• Su Xiao warned that an earlier Peter Pan portrayal kept children from returning home and killed those who grew up, leaving River stunned by the possibility that Harris identified with that version.

Su Xiao learned more about Randy’s troubled upbringing and heard that River had been suspended from the NCPD and was facing homelessness. He offered River a job at his military contracting company, the Dawn Society, leaving River stunned by Su Xiao’s sudden rise.

• Su Xiao connected Levar Martinez’s abuse to the hormones, anabolic steroids, and stimulants Harris had injected into him.
• River explained that Randy had a history of petty theft, drug use, and running away, and that Randy’s father, who had been with the Aldecaldos, died in a shootout years earlier.
• Su Xiao reasoned that Joss’s long work hours, financial hardship, and Randy’s difficult home and neighborhood circumstances had contributed to Randy’s behavior.
• River admitted that his NCPD suspension might mean he had effectively lost his job, salary, and place in the officers’ dormitory.
• Su Xiao invited River to work for the Dawn Society, and River pulled over in shock after learning Su Xiao was its chairman and president.

Su Xiao recruited River to the Dawn Society, and River agreed to join after Randy was safe. They went to River’s sister Joss’s trailer park home, where River reflected on how long it had been since he visited.

• Su Xiao offered River a monthly salary of thirty thousand eurodollars, and River agreed to work for him once Randy’s situation was settled.
• Su Xiao promised to help River rescue Randy and discussed whether Yavin could still be trusted.
• River explained that he and Yavin had once dated, and that he had leverage over her if she betrayed them.
• Su Xiao and River arrived at Joss’s trailer park home on the outskirts of Santo Domingo.
• River said he used to visit Joss every weekend, and Su Xiao asked why he had stopped.

River and Su Xiao visited Joss to investigate Randy’s disappearance, and Su Xiao stopped Joss from taking her fear and anger out on River. Joss apologized, agreed to let them search Randy’s mobile home, and trusted River’s belief that Randy was still alive.

• River brought Su Xiao to Joss’s house, where Joss had been waiting for news about Randy.
• River told Joss that Randy had been kidnapped, and Su Xiao explained that the suspected kidnapper was hospitalized and unconscious.
• Joss lashed out at River and Su Xiao, so Su Xiao confronted her and River asked him to step outside.
• Joss admitted she had been wrong to blame River and apologized, then asked whether Randy was dead; River insisted he believed Randy was alive.
• River told Joss they had come to search Randy’s belongings, and Joss agreed and asked River to apologize to Su Xiao for her.
• Su Xiao accepted Joss’s apology on the condition that she cook them a feast after they brought Randy home, and River took him to Randy’s mobile home.

Su Xiao and River searched Randy’s mobile home and found a locked game cabinet and a password-protected Alienware laptop, which they planned to take to Lucy for help. As they headed to Afterlife, River explained that Joss’s late husband had often neglected the children, leaving Randy’s disappearance part of a troubled family history.

• Su Xiao searched Randy’s bedroom while River checked the trash, and they found a locked bedside cabinet containing the game Great War Heywood.
• River found the cabinet key, then spotted a laptop under Randy’s bed and pulled it out with Su Xiao.
• Su Xiao and River discovered that the laptop was password-protected, so Su Xiao said his Electronic Warfare Specialist friend could crack it.
• Su Xiao called Lucy and Rogue, arranged to use Afterlife’s hacking equipment room, and River said goodbye to Joss before they left with the laptop.
• While driving through Chinatown, River told Su Xiao that Joss’s husband had once left their ten-year-old son Dorian alone in a bar.

River told Su Xiao how Joss’s husband had neglected Randy and how poverty had strained Joss’s family. At Afterlife, Lucy broke into Randy’s laptop, and the group began searching his emails for clues.

• River explained that Joss’s husband had left Randy alone at a bar, then blamed Joss after Su Xiao brought the child home.
• River said Joss had married her husband after he learned she was already pregnant with Randy, and described how money and family responsibilities had weighed on her.
• River drove Su Xiao to Afterlife, where Emmerich welcomed Su Xiao and directed them to a room Rogue had prepared.
• Su Xiao introduced River to Lucy, who connected Randy’s laptop and bypassed its password.
• River exclaimed when Lucy opened the laptop, and they decided to begin by checking Randy’s emails.