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At the turn of the 23rd century, one act of kindness will plunge humanity into interplanetary war. The price to end centuries of stagnation will be paid in blood of innocent and sinner alike.
Deep in the Martian underworld sits a bar with no name, where blinking neon lights clash against swirling smoke and a bass-heavy song permeates the bones of the joyless patrons sitting in the booths. They turn towards an old man standing on the stage as he clears his throat and raises the night's tenth glass of rum. He smiles, showing his last remaining teeth and a crooked nose, which he claims are a trophy, for he survived his encounter with a Feral Blade during the Final War.
An urban legend, but one any smart scoundrel pays heed. He clears his throat, and the music goes down. The man asserts there was once a group of cybernetically enhanced samurai working for a madman called the Daimyo of Death, a brilliant general and scientist of the Earth allied forces that helped put an end to the Final War, bringing a shaky peace to both planets. After his death, his children were left adrift, cursed with extended life and inhuman bodies. They roam the underworlds of both Earth and Mars, their faces hidden by animal masks, searching for dirty jobs to survive. Assassinations, high-value heists, and even monster hunting. Their white blades cut through anything, and their bodies are protected from bullets. It takes an army to bring one down, the man claims, for their strength is that of a hundred men, which is why a single punch from one shattered all his teeth and his nose, leaving him to bleed atop a pile of corpses.
Unbeknown to the storyteller, a lone man sits at the back of the bar, nursing a drink. A cat mask sits askew over the side of his head, a painted smile glistening under neon light. Cid "Kenichi" Days did spend his time roaming the underworld looking for jobs, since spending decades as a killing machine came with a terrible retirement plan, but the storyteller made it sound far grander than the truth. He had his own agency, Catblade, located in New York City, where he paid taxes and renovated his paranormal investigator and bounty hunter licenses when necessary.
It was supposed to be an easier life, with a lot less blood, but soon after leaving the bar, he will find a dying vampire lying on her face in the middle of the street, pursuers hot on her heels. The age-old question resurfaces: What does it mean to be human?
To find the answer, the Daimyo of Death's prodigal samurai must embrace his bloody past to cut a path towards the future, not just for the sake of his soul, but for other people discarded by the world. A runaway vampire sick of being used as a guinea pig, a tired hitman with a burning past seeking redemption, desperate farmers crushed under the thumb of giant corporations, human/animal hybrids victims of terrible experiments seeking meaning to the pain they hide, skeletons reanimated by ancient witchcraft, and even fellow Feral Blades looking to make a living by lending their talent for murder. Alien drug lords, cannibal entrepreneurs, corrupt politicians, and a shady retail conglomerate dealing in weapons and body parts all stand in the way of their freedom.
In the year 2199, demons hide in the shadows, afraid of the corporations hunting them. The twin planets endure a century of stagnation, but tensions keep climbing, and war looms over the horizons. Can a simple act of kindness truly trigger interplanetary war once again? Can a man with a metal heart remain human as he claims more lives? How many broken souls must he free to clean his hands of the blood spilled?
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