Chapter 58: First Light

As the sun began to rise over Neo-Kyoto, it wasn't the usual sickly orange glow filtered through endless smog. Something was different. High above the city, where the perpetual atmospheric processors had once belched out their endless grey, a faint, almost imperceptible blue began to appear. It was a tentative, almost shy unveiling, but undeniably a sliver of natural sky, something most had only seen in pre-Collapse historical archives.

The air itself felt different – cleaner, sharper, carrying the faint scent of rain and distant, wild earth, unburdened by the constant emissions of the Architect's perfectly optimized world. It was a subtle shift, easily missed in the pandemonium, but for those who had lived beneath the oppressive shroud their entire lives, it was a revelation.