The appearance of unsanctioned Replicant technology in the Far East has forced the Tyrell Corporation to ruthlessly protect its monopoly on synthetic humans. Blade Runner Rumiko and a crew of hunters were dispatched on their behalf to aggressively eliminate any threat to their intellectual property. Rumiko travelled to Japan and learned that a shadowy research laboratory called Cheshire, financed by a powerful Tokyo Yakuza family, was behind the counterfeit Replicants.
Meanwhile in Tokyo, ex-Marine Mead and Replicant Combat Model Stix worked as unofficial Private Investigators while searching for the traitor who betrayed them during an off-the-books mission to Kalanthia. They had been testing a new neural interface codenamed Aurora, when the unknown traitor stole the device, killed the rest of their squad and escaped back to Earth. The stolen tech enabled a human operator to mentally sync with a Replicant combat model to enhance combat abilities of both, whilst simultaneously recording the brainwave patterns of the Replicant Combat Model.
A missing person's case ultimately drew Stix and Mead into a turf war between two warring families of Yakuza that they barely survived, and which left them indebted to Alura, the new head of the victorious Yakuza clan. It also brought Mead into direct contact with Rumiko who subsequently revealed herself to be an ally eager to find the Kalanthia traitor and bring them to justice.
Rumiko tracked Saitama Prefecture, guardian of the Aurora Yoke, down to the small rural town of Hikaa and set off to its Shinto Shrine to confront him. Mead refused Madame Nomura's direct request that she assassinate Alura for the death of her children in the Yakuza war, offering instead to investigate their death and bring him to justice. Meanwhile, Stix learned more about Cheshire's Replicant program from the two scientists who defected from Tyrell, and Alura met the man behind Cheshire: a man called Uldren, the Kalanthia traitor...