NEON ARCADIA - Book 3: Break PointThe dorm was cast in shadow when they returned.

  Outside, the city simmered with electric life—neon rain cascading down the gss in luminous waves, painting the walls of Dorm 38B with liquid streaks of fuchsia and violet. The only illumination came from the relentless urban skyline beyond: lightning fractured the horizon in erratic pulses, while cyan advertisements throbbed like artificial heartbeats against the night. The distant hum of magnetic transit lines provided a constant undercurrent—white noise for the perpetually sleepless metropolis.

  Kae dropped her jacket first.

  It hit the floor with the finality of a challenge issued.

  She crossed the room without a word, her movements fluid and predatory—a calcuted dispy of casual dominance. Her cybernetic spine glowed faintly beneath the thin fabric of her crop top, each augmented vertebra pulsing in sequenced rhythms of blue-white light. With practiced efficiency, she untched the simution module from her footlocker and tossed it onto her bed—the impact sending ripples through the memory foam surface.

  "Still feeling brave, Sori?" she asked without turning, voice rich with dangerous promise.

  Rin remained near the doorway, hesitating for precisely three heartbeats.

  Then: "Depends. Are you pnning to fight fair?"

  Kae gnced over her shoulder, her smirk sharp enough to draw blood.

  "Sweetheart, I am fair," she said, each word deliberate. "I just don't py soft."

  Rin stepped fully into the room, allowing the door to seal shut behind her with a pneumatic hiss that seemed to finalize their isotion. Her oversized hoodie was already discarded, revealing the slim tactical suit she wore beneath—form-fitting, midnight bck, lined with responsive hexfiber that adjusted to her body temperature and breathing patterns.

  Her cheeks were stained pink, but her violet eyes remained steady. Determined.

  "You think I want soft?"

  Kae paused.

  Turned.

  The silence between them stretched—not uncomfortable, but heavy with potential energy. Weighted with everything they had circled around but never directly addressed.

  Their gazes locked, electric.

  Kae's throat worked once, the only visible sign that her composure might be less than absolute.

  Then she moved, purpose embodied.

  Rin lingered near her bed, fingers tugging at the molecur seam of her tactical suit.

  "Turn around," she said, voice quiet but edged with unexpected authority.

  Kae arched a perfect eyebrow. "Shy now?"

  "Just—turn around."

  Kae rolled her eyes but complied—partially. She pivoted halfway, providing the illusion of privacy while keeping her gaze slyly angled toward the window, where the gss reflected just enough to betray Rin's movements.

  She shouldn't have looked.

  But desire had never been governed by should.

  Rin peeled the tactical suit down with deliberate care, breath catching audibly as cool air kissed newly exposed skin. Beneath the high-tech fabric y nothing but smooth curves and lean muscle. No undergarment covering her torso leaving her breasts free, A whisper of bck synth-fabric clung to her hips, barely concealing anything — her ass bared, curves lit by the city’s glow like something designed to tempt. Her back arched slightly as she stepped free of the suit entirely, each movement a study in unconscious grace, unaware of being observed.

  Kae remained motionless. Couldn't trust herself to move.

  Her throat had gone desert-dry. The neural receivers in her cybernetic spine buzzed with increased sensitivity.

  Rin pulled her oversized hoodie back over her bare torso, the fabric settling like a veil—concealing enough to maintain technical modesty while somehow intensifying the effect of what y beneath.

  "Okay," Rin said, gncing back over one shoulder.

  Kae turned fully, her expression carefully neutral.

  But her eyes burned golden with unmistakable hunger.

  "Took you long enough," she said, voice slightly rougher than intended.

  She snatched the simution harness from the bed and tossed one half to Rin, who caught it with a soft sp of fiber against her palm. The device represented the pinnacle of neural simution technology—a two-point neck jack connection with integrated bio-feedback loop and haptic overy. Academy-grade, but modified for private use.

  No instructor oversight. No emergency cutoffs. No safety protocols.

  "Rules?" Rin asked softly, fingers tracing the curves of the device.

  Kae stepped closer, narrowing the physical space between them with deliberate intent. "One round. First to pin or force a system reset."

  "Winner gets?"

  Kae tilted her head slightly, golden eyes gleaming with predatory focus.

  "Whatever she wants."

  Rin blinked—slow, deliberate—as understanding settled into her bones.

  Heat crawled up her spine like living electricity.

  She stepped forward, just enough that the fabric of their clothing whispered against each other—too fleeting to qualify as contact, too intimate to be accidental.

  "Then I hope you brought backup software. Because you're going down."

  Kae's ugh emerged low and throaty, den with dark amusement.

  "Only thing going down tonight is—"

  She left the sentence deliberately unfinished.

  Didn't need to complete it.

  Rin flushed deeper, biting back a smile that threatened to reveal too much.

  Kae turned toward the simution console, fingers dancing across the holographic interface with practiced precision, initiating the localized combat sequence with security overrides.

  The room's ambient lighting dimmed further in response. Combat grid lines materialized across the floor in ghostly blue luminescence.

  "Come here," Kae said, voice electric velvet.

  Rin positioned herself at Kae's back.

  They both lifted their hands in perfect synchronization.

  Reached behind their necks.

  And clicked their neural jacks into pce—the soft metallic hiss of magnetic seals locking into their cervical ports.

  Rin settled onto the simution mat, lips curved into a challenging smile. "Nervous?"

  Kae raised an eyebrow, contempt and desire warring in her expression. "About you?" She clicked her jaw in dismissal. "I've wiped the floor with better opponents."

  "Guess we'll see."

  They advanced across the mat in measured steps, circling each other with calcuted precision. The overhead lighting retreated until only the grid beneath them remained active—a pulsing blue rectangle defining their battlefield. The city lights continued to pour through the floor-to-ceiling windows, fragmenting the darkness with electric pink illumination.

  Kae rolled her shoulders, loosening her stance with practiced nonchance.

  Rin dropped low, one foot sliding backward, hands raised in open defensive guard.

  "Ready?" Kae asked, the question both taunt and courtesy.

  Rin's avatar rendered with crystalline crity—her digital form materializing in shimmering blue light, cd in a high-density combat suit that adhered to every curve with unforgiving precision. The material captured and amplified the ambient glow of the simution space, highlighting the contours of her chest, waist, and hips with algorithmic perfection. It concealed everything while revealing all.

  She gnced down at herself, momentarily disoriented.

  "W-what the hell...?"

  Kae's avatar completed its rendering sequence across the grid—taller now, broader through the shoulders, distinctly masculine in form yet unmistakably her in essence and attitude.

  "Sim pulled your body map from your st calibration," she expined, voice tinged with amusement. "Must have defaulted to full combat compression protocol."

  Kae advanced slowly, her smile predatory.

  "Looks good on you. Don't change it."

  Rin crossed her arms over her chest, cheeks warming further, but voiced no objection.

  She didn't want to.

  Her attention shifted, finally registering the full impact of Kae's transformed appearance.

  "You... chose a male avatar?"

  Kae gnced down at her simuted body with casual indifference. Her form within the simution stood taller, broader—still recognizably her essence, but reconfigured. Masculine shoulders stretched wide, bare torso adorned with digital tattoos that shifted with each movement, the same glowing spine etched down a now-broader back, and her characteristic smirk transposed onto sharper, more angur features.

  "It's not a choice. It's legacy coding," Kae said, stretching one arm zily behind her neck. "My neural tempte always renders this way in older combat systems."

  She focused on Rin, eyes narrowing with calcuted amusement.

  "Is that a problem?"

  Rin's lips parted, then closed without sound.

  She swallowed visibly.

  "N-no. Just... unexpected."

  Kae tilted her head—the gesture pure dominance wrapped in casual inquiry. "You prefer me like this?"

  Rin averted her gaze quickly, but not before her expression betrayed her.

  "Shut up and fight me."

  Kae merely nodded, acceptance and challenge combined.

  The match initiated with explosive speed.

  Kae struck first—lightning-fast, feinting low before pivoting high, aiming a sweeping leg toward Rin's exposed ribs. Rin ducked beneath the attack with surprising agility, countering with a knee feint that nearly unbanced Kae's superior mass. Nearly.

  Kae's grin widened.

  "Not bad."

  "You haven't seen anything yet."

  They engaged again—faster now, more intense. Skin contacted skin, forearms blocking strikes, feet sliding for purchase on the simuted surface. Their breathing grew heavier, not from physical exertion but from the electric awareness of proximity. Kae's fingers brushed against Rin's hip as she countered a complex move, and Rin gasped—more affected by the contact than the force behind it.

  Kae hesitated.

  That single sound...

  Rin seized the opening—executing a perfect sweep that sent Kae off-bance. She followed through with practiced precision, sliding atop Kae's rger frame, thighs cmping tight around her waist.

  "Pinned," Rin whispered, breath warm against Kae's jaw.

  Kae stared up at her—momentarily stunned, either by the reversal or by the sudden intimacy of their position.

  "You cheat."

  "You Hesitated." Rin says with a little surprise in her voice.

  Kae growled—the sound primal and raw—and with one powerful surge of augmented strength, reversed their positions, smming Rin onto her back with enough force to trigger the simution's impact sensors.

  She straddled Rin's smaller form, hands capturing wrists and pinning them to the mat above her head.

  The air between them seemed to vanish, repced by pure potential.

  "Now you're pinned."

  Rin shifted beneath her, eyes wide, flush spreading visibly down to her colrbone.

  "So what do you want?" she breathed, the question barely audible.

  Kae didn't answer with words.

  She simply stared—golden eyes locked on violet—every molecule of her being suspended at the edge of restraint.

  And still, she didn't close the final distance.

  Didn't kiss her.

  Didn't move.

  Just let the weight of her body articute everything words could not.