(Kira's POV)
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With the chaotic blur of the plaza finally shrinking in my rearview mirror, a strange kind of silence settled over me. Not peace. Never peace. Just a quieter kind of unease—like the eye of a storm pretending to be calm. My hands tightened around the steering wheel as I followed the map's glowing directions with mechanical precision. The robotic voice guided me step by step, but it did nothing to ease the tension twisting in my gut.
I floored the gas pedal, the hum of the engine roaring beneath me as I wound through the serpentine backroads. Parallel City was no Silicon Valley. Gone were the wide, meticulously planned roads with their seamless traffic flow and gleaming medians. Here, the roads were tighter, narrower—like they'd been built as an afterthought and patched over a dozen times since. The buildings stood close together, casting jagged shadows that made the afternoon light feel colder than it should have.
