Millennium City, right around midnight. While the rest of the city went about celebrating the new year, a certain Japanese-American spent the holiday sitting atop an old radio station tower that overlooked the East Side, or at least what was left of it. The tower was just outside of the quarantined zone and granted Chad a depressing view of it. Buildings had fallen into disrepair, the roads looked like they were starting to break apart, windows were smashed all over the place. And then there was the worst part of it all, the sounds of mutagen victims moaning and wailing in the distance, in pain and in sorrow. It was enough to make you want to weep for them. In fact, Chad's eyes even watered a bit at one point, but he wiped them and successfully prevented himself from crying. It was such a sad sight, even more so because Chad's childhood home had been in the East Side, and now there was a good chance he would never get to go see it again.

He watched in silent agony, feeling helpless. Despite the power his sword, the Ryuuken, gave him, there wasn't really a damn thing he could do to fix the problem in the Quarantine Zone, and inside that angered him. What was the point in having this power if he couldn't actually save those poor people with it? He shook his head, having now started to tune out out the sound of wailing victims when he heard a small, still voice in his mind and heart. It was Ryuunosuke, the spirit of his ancestor that haunted the blade he wielded.

[i]"Why do you mourn for those in the infected area? You can put an end to their suffering."[/i]

"By murdering them? I think I'll pass." Chad said aloud. Thankfully no one else was around or he would probably look like a weirdo that was talking to himself, "Just because you have no qualms about killing people, doesn't mean I shouldn't have them." he continued, now staring at the sword in his hand as if it were the face of his ancestor, "Besides, what if they could still be cured? I'd be killing them for no reason." Chad had only been using his new-found powers for just over a month. In that time, he'd taken down some criminals, but had yet to kill anyone, nor did he have any plans to. This was the 21st Century, after all, not the 12th Century where fighting to kill was considered the norm. Ryuunosuke still seemed to have difficulty understanding that, as the spirit always seemed to offer killing as a first resort, rather than a last one.

---

It was just after midnight, the new year had begun, but the people in YoshidaCorp were not celebrating. Instead, they were at work in the main building located in the western half of downtown. Within the research lab, Dr. Katsuo Yoshida and a team of lab techs were studying a dead specimen on a table. The specimen in question was the remains of a mutagen victim, and the researchers were hoping that by performing an autopsy they could discern a better understanding of the mutations and perhaps even develop a cure. A slow process, to be sure, but they had to start somewhere. The lab team went about the procedures, with Yoshida supervising from a distance. The man was involved in many projects, this being only one of them, so unfortunately he didn't have the time to be completely hands on here.

As he was marking things down on a clipboard of some kind, he finally decided that he had spent enough time in this lab and was likely needed elsewhere, so he handed the notes to an assistant and left to check on other projects. Many of the projects involved medicine, since YoshidaCorp was a pharmaceutical company first and foremost. They did, however, dabble in other areas. Specifically, they had a Weapons R&D Department from which a good portion of the company's government funding came. That was where Yoshida was headed, as he had a rather special project in the works there and wanted to check on its progress.

When he arrived in Weapons R&D, he was greeted by the lead tech in charge of the research, "Ah, Mr. Yoshida, perfect timing sir. I have a progress report for you on Project Guardian."

Yoshida nodded, "And that would be...?" he asked, slight impatience slipping into his tone.

The tech became a bit nervous but continued, "We've managed to reach the beta stage of testing, right on schedule. We should have a prototype ready for field testing in two weeks, three at most." he said, trying to sound proud of work. Yoshida only nodded.

"Good. Keep up the good work, and keep me updated. I want to know as soon as a prototype is ready." Yoshida instructed to the tech, who nodded and then went back to work. As for Yoshida, he left the department and returned to his office, where he would try to get some more progress done on various paperwork assignments before calling it a night. As glad as he was about Project Guardian's progress, there was still an inherent frustration with it. When his parents left their mystical sword to his son, Katsuo tried to persuade Chad to let the sword be studied, so that it's powers could potentially mimicked through technology. Unfortunately, Chad wanted no part in such an undertaking, and so Katsuo was forced to go through with the project without having the Ryuuken as a basis for the concepts. It obviously didn't stop Project Guardian, but it was slowed considerably. If Chad had agreed to the proposal, Katsuo had no doubt that they would already be in the field testing stages and perhaps on the verge of mass production. Oh well, with or without Chad he would engineer the ultimate defensive force for the city. It was only a matter of time, and fortunately Katsuo knew all too well the virtue of patience.