Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI

[Seras]

I left Jun to brood over his playboy ways. I headed out of the apartment entirely to give him some space. He was totally freaking out on the inside at flirting with Rita, and I would normally stick around to calm him down, but he honestly needed some private time to come to terms with the fact he might actually still be alive and interested in girls.

I headed out onto the street with no real plans.

Did I want to go hang out with my chooms? Go netrunning? Shoot something?

That last one was pretty tempting, but I didn’t exactly have a lot of targets at the moment. I guess I could go find some scavs?

I shook my head, just because I was bored was no reason to get into a gunfight…

Even if it was really tempting.

So instead I should… I pulled up my agent on my eyes. I had a lot of money.

I should probably spend some of it? I mean that was what people did when they had disposable income right? Spend it on stupid stuff?

What did I want?

More Chrome? Probably not a good idea. At least until I get a few more points into Adaptation.

I already had a preem ride… I could go find a Kusanagi. I always wanted a motorcycle… I looked at my account.

I certainly had the eddies. Between the big scav raid, and all the smaller ones, Hiromi had been raking in the eddies with all the chrome sales.

I checked the time, Hiromi would be out of school soon, maybe enough time for everything to work out.

So I pulled up a number and made a call.

*Motoko, what do you want?* Wakako asked as soon as she picked up the phone.

*Do you have any info on a Kusanagi for sale?*

*I don’t deal in people. If your brother ended up on the market, I have no interest in it.* It took me a moment to catch what had just been said. Wakako spoke completely straight. No hint of the joke she had just made in her tone.

*Hahaha, I’m laughing so hard Wakako, Wow you should go work at a comedy club. So you got any info?*

*I do happen to have a few sellers for Kusanagi. You teenagers and your motorcycles.*

*They are cool Wakako! Don’t tell me none of your husbands ever gave you a ride on their bikes.* I teased right back and I knew I had got her as I got a scoffing noise through the line, but not an actual refusal. *But do you have any that aren’t the Mizuchi mod? I’m looking for something more standard.*

*That does lower the amount of sellers. I’ll send you the information.*

*Thanks Wakako!* I chirped in a rush, before she could hang up, and it was a moment after the line went dead.

Gotcha!

A few moments later I got a text.

Pictures of a pretty red Kusanagi, and a price that made me wince.

I sent the confirmation, and eddies, and a few moments later I got a location to pick it up, as well as a digital key.

I rushed across the street to get into my Quadra.

I had promised Hiromi a ride if I ever got a Bike afterall!

—--

The Kusanagi was everything I had ever wanted. It was also a smoother ride than Jun’s stupid over tuned Mizuchi. It was exactly what I wanted, if not for a few issues.

“Pretty sure whoever owned this thing last, fucked with the brakes.” I grumbled as I once again felt the brakes slipping as I came to a stop.

Good thing I drove so safely otherwise I would have crashed right into the back of the car stopped at the light.

Also one of the front head lights was out. Have to fix that before nighttime. I had already looked up a few shops where I could buy them.

Unfortunately discovering the brakes were bad meant I couldn’t race across the city to pick up Hiromi for the ride I promised her.

Had to do some work on my new baby first.

I pulled into the parking lot of a part store. It was sketchy to the eyes of my old life, but in this one, it was actually a pretty safe spot.

I pulled into an open spot in a corner far enough away I could do some work without anyone getting in the way and slid off my new ride.

I resisted the urge to squeal like a kid as I did a cool saunter into the store past a few of the gonks that hung around shops like this checking out the rides that came in.

This sort of place was popular with racing types. It’s why I had picked this particular shop while searching the city-net. Kusanagi weren’t cheap bikes, and they used high end parts for a lot of things.

One of the teens that were hanging around the entrance gave my ride a whistle as I passed him by. “Nice wheels kid.”

“She’s preem right?” I asked as I walked past, stepping into the shop and taking it all in.

Inside the smell of oil, grease, and steel filled my nose a nostalgic smell. I remember being dragged into shops like this all the time in my past life. I shook off the smell and began searching.

The head light was easy enough to find, and I went ahead and grabbed a replacement for all the lights as well.

Brakes though weren’t just out in the store front.

“What can I help you with Hermanita?” The Tino behind the counter asked as he looked me over wondering what I was doing here.

Not every day you see a fourteen year old in a shop like this.

“I need some brakes for my Kusanagi Yaiba. They’re dying bad.”

“Alright. Let me see what we got.” He stepped away from the counter and into the back that was covered in parts and boxes of parts.

After a short wait he came back with a set of square boxes that were definitely not factory standard, and he pulled out two brake pads for my bike.

Thankfully I had enough Tech Attribute that I was able to tell that while used, the brakes were still in good condition.

I did a few checks on both though just to be sure, chrome fingers sliding into spots to check that they weren’t just trash made to look normal. I could see the seller nod along as I seemed to actually know what I was doing.

“They’ll do.” I passed the eddies over for them and the head lights and carried it all out of the shop.

Once again I was glad my Body was so high, because the Kusanagi had big fucking brakes. They were heavy.

I walked out and set them on the concrete in front of my Kusanagi as I waited for my tool box to arrive.

I could drive it home and work on it there. But I didn’t really want to drive my bike with the brakes all fucked up.

Seriously, it was dangerous!

Unfortunately It wasn’t like I kept my toolbox in my Quadra. It was beside the couch where I had left it while working on the Music box, so that meant I had to call Jun.

To my surprise Jun showed up not on his own Kusanagi, but in my Quadra!

The black with purple Quadra was also getting some attention from the teens all hanging around. I guess it wasn’t every day they saw a Nomad custom Quadra Type-66. I could see the kids all perk up as Jun pulled in and into the space next to my Kusanagi. Of course all the attention they had vanished in an instant when Jun stepped out.

I could practically hear the whispers of “Oni” echoed between all the kids.

Okay seriously what was Jun doing that was spreading his rep around so much? I was fairly confident I had killed more people than him! I shook off the outrage as I waved to Jun.

“Hey Jun. You brought my Quadra?”

“It’s not exactly comfortable riding a bike with a toolbox in my arms. I didn’t figure you would mind.” He said and I just nodded. I had given Jun a key for my Quadra, but he had stuck to his bike even when it would be more convenient.

“Sorry for pulling you out of your brooding.” I told him and that earned me a glare as he offered me the tool box pushing me back with it a bit.

“I wasn’t brooding.”
“Sure. Sure.” I agreed without doing anything of the sort as I took my tools and went to work.

“Pass me the-” Jun said as he crouched down and looked like he was going to help.

So I immediately threatened him with a wrench. “Don’t even think about it! This is my baby.”

“Do you even know how to… replace the brakes?” Jun asked, noticing the parts I had bought. He ignored me for a moment as he walked over to the boxes of brakes to check them.

“They’re fine Jun. Used, but in good condition.” I told him, and he scowled a little.

“I was just double checking. Common scam is to fill the inside of the brakes with gunk to make them look new.”

“Already checked for that.” I told him and Jun had nothing to say to that as he nodded and to my surprise he took a seat and just let me get on with it.

So I did. I had done something pretty similar with Hiromi’s Kusanagi after she crashed it. Despite her Kusanagi being the stupid Mizuchi custom job. I had to figure out the paneling but once that was done. It only took me a few minutes to get the front wheel off, and check the brakes.

Yep. I whistled at just how bad they were.

“You drove on those?”

“Only a little. It didn’t take me long to figure out something was wrong after all.” I told Jun but he was still scowling as I passed the brake over to him as he motioned for it and he scowled as he looked it over.

“I’m surprised you didn’t crash.”

“I’m a safe driver!” I chirped happily as I pulled the fresh brakes out and got to work installing it. My hands deftly handled the whole task. Even the finicky parts that you were guaranteed to scrape the shit out of your hands trying to do were no problem, as my hands were chrome!

“Front brake done.” I told him, as I shifted the bike to get access to the rear wheel and worked on that.

“I’ll have to have you check out my Kusanagi.”

“Blegh! I don’t work on Mizuchi! Those things are-”

“Yeah yeah, I know. You think they’re stupid.” Jun said while rolling his eyes.

“They are! I’ll do my own custom job! And when I’m done they’ll call it the Motoko Kusanagi, and everyone will want one!” I told him firmly, waving my wrench at him for a moment to prove my seriousness.

Jun just laughed at me though, which was super rude.

At least he wasn’t brooding so much anymore.

—--

“And done.” I confirmed finishing putting the last panel on. I had replaced the brakes and the lights. While checking the lights there had been some wires that looked rough. So since I had the panel off already I had gone ahead and replaced those as well.

“I should ride it first to make sure it’s sa-” Jun tried but I quickly hopped onto the seat and glared at my stupid brother.

“Not a chance.”

He just laughed because the jerks teasing had gotten a reaction.

I was going to drop kick him in his sleep. See how he likes being messed with.

I slipped back off, and finished putting my toolbox away in the Quadra which Jun had settled into the drivers seat.

“Take it slow at first.” Jun warned, but I was in no mood for slow and steady.

I started her up. The engine roaring to life as I did a quick burnout to adjust my bike to face the street.

“Motoko No!”

“Motoko Yes!” I called back as I let go of the brakes and roared out of the parking lot. I could hear Jun cursing and starting up my Quadra right after as I cackled and roared down the streets of Night City.

I would go slow. So Jun could keep up.

—---


Instead of meeting up with Hiromi that night, I decided I would surprise her later instead. Since it had taken so long to fix the bike up enough to be safe. So after I drove back to the apartment so Jun would be off my tail I headed back out into the city free of overbearing Nii-chans.

It was a shame my Driving skill was already maxed out with Reflex. As testing out my new bike would have been a good chance to earn some XP.

But I didn’t mind. It was less a stat thing, and more just getting to learn the wiggles of my new bike.

Like whoever had owned her before had done some custom work on her. The engine was throatier than a normal Kusanagi, something I only noticed when I was able to really open her up now that her brakes were fixed.

I would have to take her apart and see what had been done.

But I didn’t mind the sound. It was better than the horrible Mizuchi that always sounded overtuned and tinny.

Which was a noise I soon noticed as I was stopped at a red light, a Mizuchi pulled up beside me. Sliding in between an old beat up Galena to stop beside me at the front of the light.

The kid on the back was definitely TC. He even had one of the Arasaka style Kabuto helmets on his head, not for protection, but just to look even more Japanese.

He revved his shitwagon and I winced at how horrible it sounded. I could practically hear the engine ripping itself apart as it tried to keep up with the overturning.

So I revved my bike. The throaty roar of my new girl rumbled out.

I could see it on his face. He was thinking the same thing I was just a moment before, just in reverse.

He thought his stupid Mizuchi was the better bike.

The light hit green, and for once I wasn’t following the laws. My Kusanagi roared as I gunned it the noise fighting against the ugly noise coming from the Mizuchi as we both raced off the line.

Night City wasn’t a safe place to street race without someone setting it up. The streets were filled with cars and pedestrians.

But this was also Night City, and other than me, no one cared about the laws.

We raced down the street, weaving in between the cars, he got an early lead, the overtuned first gears of his Mizuchi giving him just enough extra power to pull the lead.

Well that and experience slipping in between traffic, this was my first time on a full size Kusanagi, and my girl was a little bit wider than a Mizuchi.

But the road up ahead angled into a sharp turn. We both broke through the traffic with him in the lead, but as we hit the turn he had to slow down to make it.

I didn’t.

Whooping in delight, I drifted right past him almost completely on the side of my bike, just barely keeping it from sparking off the asphalt as I blew past him and then had to slow down as we came up to another red light.

A few moments later he pulled up beside me and gave me a nod.

“Not bad!”

I just laughed at his attempt to keep some tatters of his remaining ego.

“You should come race!” He called out and I surprised myself by actually considering it.

I mean. I liked following the laws when driving… But I had grown up in the Fast and the Furious era. I wasn’t going to go around screaming about family or something. But street races were inherently cool.

“Send me the deets!” I called back. The light was changing and it was time to drive. I got a text from him with an address just as I pulled away driving off into the city weaving in and out of traffic.

Just a little. It was important to be safe about it after all.

—--

I was pulling into the parking lot of the apartment when I realized we only had the two spots. I grumbled as I had to park my baby close to Jun’s stupid bike.

I slipped off and then looked back grimacing a bit at the look between the two Kusanagi.

The standard beautiful version, that did have some modifications but it was all under the hood so to speak and then the Mizuchi that was barely identifiable as a Kusanagi at all…

I felt like there was some meta commentary there about Jun and I, but I decided to ignore that entirely and instead just turned to head inside.

I had been driving around for a few hours and I had a lot of fun, but it was time to head home and put my feet up.

I stopped by the old man selling meat sticks to grab one happily scarfing it down as I raced up the stairs enjoying the bounciness of my ankles as I hit the fourth floor.

I slipped inside. “Jun I’m home!”

“About time.” He grumbled coming out of the bathroom and wiping down his hair obviously he had just gotten out of a shower.

“I was having fun!” I argued justifying my ride around the city.

Jun just ignored me and went back into the bathroom to finish drying his hair and so I flopped on the couch.

I didn’t really feel like music stuff at the moment. Plus I did have other projects I needed to work on. It took a few minutes but I went and found the Kang Tao armor I had stolen and left in the Quadra before coming back up to the apartment.

First I took some tools to remove the Kang Tao symbols and stuff. Mostly just paint, but some cutting was required as well.

Then I finished painting it. Removing the Kang Tao orange, and replacing it with a nice purple.

Yeah. That looked better. I ended up sitting the armor in a corner to dry and at that point I was actually feeling kinda… Lazy-tired?

so I made the mistake of turning the TV on to see what I could find.

 

[Seras]

“Future TV was a mistake.” I whispered after watching in horrified awe what passed for a popular action movie that only came out a few years ago.

It was horrible.

No wonder everyone in Night City was so violent. They had no good violence to watch on TV! I nodded to myself. I was gonna need to up the production quality of my XBD’s. The people deserved high quality violence!

“What are you doing?” I blinked, looking at Jun as he looked at me. I lowered my fist that had been aiming at the sky and wiped some imaginary dust from my leotard as I sat back down on the couch.

“Nothing.”

Jun gave me a look telling me he didn’t believe me for a second. Then he just walked past me to sit on the couch. “Your movie done?”

“It was so awful I’ve deleted it from my brain.” I assured him and Jun laughed.

“It was a good flick. The special effects needed work though.”

“What special effects? Whenever he punched someone it was obviously just a dummy full of blood. I literally don’t think they did any digital alterations on the entire movie.”

“Yeah why would they? The dummies were too fake. They should have gotten some robots inside them to let them move or something.”

“That actually sounds cool, but I know even if they did that it would still look like shit. I hate TV.” I grumbled and Jun just snorted and then turned back on the TV. Switching to a show he liked.

I faux gagged at him, but didn’t fight him for the remote. It wasn’t like there was anything else I wanted to watch.

Then I felt it. That prickling in my shoulders as my hindbrain noticed something. I moved instantly. No hesitation as something in my senses was telling me I was in danger. I barreled into Jun full bore knocking us both off the side of the couch Jun was instantly yelling in anger at me, thinking I was fucking around, but then the noise hit him.

A gun shot slamming through our window and into the couch.

“Sniper!” I yelled out, as I looked towards the window. Instantly the shutters closed. The safety shutters were meant to keep out stray gunfire and the like, but against a Sniper?

Fuck I even recognized the sound of that gunshot. That was a Nekomata.

“Stay down!” Jun yelled at me as I made to rise towards my room. I needed a gun, to counter snipe, but my Nekomata was in the Quadra!

Then we both heard it.

Boots on flooring.

“Fuck.”

“Fuck.” Jun and I both uttered and he let me go, I rushed for my room. I still had a Tactician Shotgun in there… Unfortunately my HMG wouldn’t be a good choice despite how much I itched to pick her up. Jun just grabbed his Katana from the stand on our family shrine.

A moment later I heard it even as I was preparing my Tactician. Another echoing retort, and metal failing to stop the railgun firing into our apartment.

It took a second for me to process, but I realized the sniper had to be on the road leading up to the city level above us. Probably just sitting there parked on the side of the road shooting into our apartment.

That meant we had no place we could hide in any of the main rooms.

I hurried out relieved to see Jun hadn’t been hit. The sniper must just be firing randomly.

I crouched down beside Jun who was hunkered down resting his back against the shrine facing the door.

“We should charge them. If we stay in here, the sniper will eventually get lucky.”

He nodded, not saying anything further, and I noticed his eyes were golden. Ah, he was making a call. Good.

“Ready?” He asked and all I did was reach up and grab my Katana too, and slipped it through my belt. Then nodding.

Tactician was already loaded. No need to wrack it just to show off.

He surged forward, the door opening instantly and surprising the group of gonks all formed up as one of them had obviously been trying to break in through the lock.

A tech guy not a netrunner huh?

Jun was faster than I was. Mostly because I didn’t have a clear shot with his stupid head in the way, but he slammed into the guys waiting ignoring SMG’s and pistols and simply ran them down like a bull. Two died instantly as one was skewered with a Katana and the others head was grabbed and he was simply thrown into his chooms.

Neck broken, the gonks body went floppy.

Then I was there. I leapt my feet hitting the concrete hallway wall. Sticking me for just half a second thanks to the friction. More than long enough to fire a shot into the arrayed group. My eyes already blurring as I worked to send a Quickhack through to shut off their weapons as well.

Then it was all hell.

They started firing, Jun starting swinging, I fired and hacked everything I could. Their weapon fire quickly shut off which caused them to freak out, as they had an angry Oni in front of them.

The fight only lasted a few moments. Jun’s absurd chromed out strength. Even with only being able to really stab with his Katana, he was still skewering the fools that attacked us, and breaking limbs or necks with his other hand.

“Down!” I yelled out, and Jun was in tune enough to do that. As a sniper round ripped through the concrete hallway.

I had caught the transmission one of the fuckers had sent out just in time. I turned and fired my shotgun into the ‘dead’ fucker and looked away only once his head stopped existing.

“Stairwell!” I yelled, leaping over Jun and down the stairs, Jun joining me as another round ripped through the hall.

We should be safe here though. A Nekomata can only shoot through so much concrete before even that railgun just can’t punch through anymore.

“What the fuck?” I asked aloud my heart barely moving as Cold Blood had taken over, but even with that going full blast the outrage in my head was making my blood feel like it was boiling, going hot and cold.

“Scavs.” Jun said and I blinked looking at one of the corpses.

I scanned his face and yep.

Record of working with Scavs.

Scavs had attacked us. Me. Scavs had attacked me, I realized.

“This is my fault.”

“Worry about that later. Focus on the fight. Our reinforcements are on the way so we just have to hold.”

I nodded already expecting that, from Juns earlier call, but still. These fuckers. They attacked my home.

I moved.

“Motoko!” I ignored Jun, as I raced down the stairs. Outside there were two vans. Both backed up to the entrance with the back doors open. I leapt into the first one sliding on the metal flooring as I slid right up to the driver's seat.

The driver there hadn’t noticed me until that moment. When I had a shotgun slamming into the side of his face and pushing him into the glass of the vans side window.

“Fuck!” he cursed at the blow but then stilled as the barrel of my shotgun mashed into his cheek.

“I want answers, asshole.” I hissed reaching out and slamming his head into the glass again to prove my point.

“Bitch! You think we are just going to let you keep killing us? You think we are that stupid? You and your brother are marked! We will-”

“You will die. All of you. Every Scav in this city. Even if I have to spend the next year to do it. Hunting every single one of you down. There is no hole deep enough. No place safe enough to stop me.” I said tonelessly.

I didn’t need to get angry with this piece of trash. What I said wasn’t some threat to get him to talk.

It was simply what it was.

They had come after me in my home. Had nearly shot my brother.

I had gone too far. There was no other option now.

It was kill or be killed. Wipe out the Scavs. Or they would eventually get lucky. So there was no other option. I saw Jun doing the same thing I was through the drivers window. The poor Scav in the driver seat of the second van had been pulled fully into the back and the entire van was rocking and echoing with the fuckers screams.

Good.

Jun was probably beating him to death.

“Your chooms you sent into my home are all dead. You and your choom over there are fucked. Unless you tell me everything I want to know.”

“Fuck you-Bitch!” He hissed as I slammed him into the window again, but he just glared, and said something in russian.

So I slammed his head into the glass again. “This is Night City! Speak English Motherfucker! Now tell me what the fuck the plan was? You think you are going to get away with attacking me at home!?”

“You won’t get shit out of me! Kill me and all the-”

“You’re right. I will kill you.” I pulled the trigger. Ignoring the mess I crawled back out, going slow and careful as the sniper was still around until I slipped into the back of the other Van.

Jun was still beating the driver to death.

Well no he was already dead, but Jun was still hammering the mess into the floor.

“Jun! Focus up.” I demanded. Now wasn’t the time for going Cyberpsycho.

He looked up at me, but still slammed his fist down one last time.

“I’m going to see if the sniper is still here.”

Jun looked constipated for a second like he wanted to agree, but eventually whatever was fighting against that thought won out. “No. Just wait for the Kamikaze. Fujimura-sama is on his way.”

“He might be gone by then.” I argue as I’m already climbing over Jun noticing he has a few bullet holes from our hallway battle.

Dammit.

I felt my teeth clench at the idea that Jun was hurt because of me.

I slipped into the driver's seat and the van was already on. So I quickly hit the gas. Ignoring Jun’s grumbling as I took off.

The sniper position was just around the corner. I drove down the road uncaring if the sniper saw me. He might have a good high position from the on ramp looking into our fourth floor apartment, but he was also dealing with a barrier around the road. He wouldn’t be able to aim at the ground floor as easily.

I practically drifted around the corner at the end of the street ignoring Juns cursing as he rolled around in the back. I could already see him.

A big Thorton Mackinaw parked on the ramp. Traffic just going around it, and doing their best to ignore it.

I couldn’t. I felt my stomach drop my mind fritz. Because the iconography? The symbols? Everything about it screamed only one thing. Something I knew.

“Fucking Maelstrom!” I growled, surprising myself at the rage I felt as I hit the gas. “Hold on to something!” I called out to Jun.

Somehow the sniper hadn’t noticed. That or he was high, because the truck wasn’t even moving when I slammed into it. The gonk was probably too scope focused. Shitty amateur hour sniper.

The Villefort Columbus I was driving wasn’t nearly as beefy as the Mackinaw. Which was basically a super sized pickup truck.

But slamming into it going as fast as I could get it to go, still rocked everything, smashed me around a little and ended up with the truck pinned against the side of the road.

He wouldn’t escape now.

To my surprise Jun was out of the van before I was. I guess I had to spend a bit more time untangling myself from the seatbelt.

I was trying to catch up when he reached the Mackinaw and ripped the door right off the truck.

A moment later he leapt back nearly landing on me as something big fired inside the truck at where he had been.

Then I was there. Rushing in and I found myself face to face with a Maelstrom member and his Nekomata. I was too fast though. He wasn’t in a good position. It was obvious he had been looking out the passenger window into the apartment when we hit him. So he was all turned around and holding the Nekomata awkwardly.

I bashed the end of the Nekomata out of the line of fire and then I was on him.

He was still Maelstrom.

He had chrome. He had a lot of chrome. My knuckles would mostly be hitting chrome if I punched him nearly anywhere.

But none of that mattered.

My fist slammed into his stupid optics and he was cursing throwing his own chrome fists at me.

I ripped into him. Uncaring about where he hit me. This fucker had sniped me in my own home!

I was going to tear out every piece of chrome in his worthless corpse with my own hands! Just so his stupid spirit-belief bullshit would leave him a normy in the afterlife!

I might have been screaming that at him as I went at him, because a moment later Jun grabbed me by the back of my Leotard and flung me right out of the car and onto the street.

The van blocking the entire road kept anyone from running me over, but it still hurt!

Jun you asshole! Asphalt hurts!

But as I looked up intending to continue with my murder. It was already over. Jun had gotten his hands on the Maelstrom gonk.

I was pretty strong, and I was okay with my fists.

But they called Jun the Oni, and I sometimes got reminded of why.

As he literally ripped the Maelstroms arm off and started beating him to death with it.

Okay fair enough. You do you Jun.

I groaned and winced as I noticed my nose was bleeding. Since Jun was occupied, I popped a MaxDoc, and instantly felt back to 100%.

Then it struck me.

I knew that Maelstrom.

I had seen him before. I recognized him.

“Stupid Fuck.” I whispered. That was the gonk! One of the fuckers that had come to the scav den. He had been with… Gear Shaft? Gear Slot? Whatever her name had been. The stupid one that had thought about stealing from me.

I recognized him.

“What the fuck is going on?” Why was a Maelstrom shit working with Scavs… No wait, that was a stupid question.

Maelstrom needed chrome. Scavs had chrome…

But then… His choom had been klepped by Scavs, rescued and he went and joined them against us? What fucking crazy shit was that? Or was he the reason she was there in the first place? Maelstrom politics. Fuck me,.

Oh well. Jun had already taken care of any chance for us to get any info from the poor fucker.

He was dead.

“Jun he’s dead, stop punching a corpse.” I told him firmly, earning a look back from my rage filled brother, but after a moment or two where he seemed to consider it he did finally let go.

“You shouldn’t have charged him like that! What if he shot you!” Jun snapped at me, growling and baring his teeth, as his anger at the Maelstrom and the entire situation didn’t just disappear like mine did.

With a single thought Cold Blood shut off all the rage and let me think clearly.

“Sorry Jun-Nii. I didn’t want this one to get away. Plus, I had you watching my back.” I told him with a smile hoping it would sputter out his anger, and while he did turn away from me, his fist slammed into the side of the Maelstrom truck showing he was still raging.

That was fine.

I was still pretty angry about it too.

But you know what? Even if this fucker was dead… That didn’t mean I didn’t have a lead.

“Natalie Desanto AKA GearSlot.” I whispered to myself. A reminder of the words I had spoken while choosing not to kill that Maelstrom girl.

Did my own mercy then lead to this?

I shook off the horrifying thought. It didn’t matter yet. I would find out. And if mercy was what led to this attack on our home. Then I would just rectify that mistake.

And the mistake of allowing Maelstrom, and Scavs to exist.

—--

Jun and I parked the van and the Maelstroms truck in front of the apartment, and waited.

It wasn’t long until the roar of Kusanagi motorcycles started flowing down the road. Followed by other cars all tuned up and painted in all sorts of things. Tyger Claw symbols, Japanese letters, anything and everything.

It looks like Fujimura hadn’t held back. More than twenty vehicles all parked in front of the apartment taking up much of the street. The mass gathering caused the people that would normally fill the street to all disappear, watching on from windows or store fronts.

“Kusanagi. You need a Ripper?” Fujimura asked as he stepped out of a high end Quadra Turbo-R.

I liked my Quadra Type-66 more. The 66 was a muscle car, while the Turbo R was like a japanese racer.

“No. Just scratches.” Jun uttered as he rose up. I had looked over his ‘scratches’ as best I could in the few minutes since we had headed back to the apartment, but I wasn’t a doc.

“Yes, he needs to get checked out and patched up.” I uttered without hesitation. “He still has some bullets in him.”

“I’m fine Motoko.” Jun hissed at me, but he was acting more like an annoyed older brother, than the furious rage beast he had been just before.

Fujimura of course only gave both of us a lifted eyebrow. The man was utterly uninterested in our sibling cat fights.

“What happened?” He demanded and Jun the dutiful little soldier answered, explaining what he saw from his perspective.

I kept quiet. It wasn’t my job to explain shit to Fujimura.

“Kusanagi.” He uttered, and this time he was talking to me. Our eyes met, and for once I actually felt a little softness towards the man.

Because he wasn’t glaring at me like he usually did. No, he actually looked rather sympathetic.

“You are unharmed?”

“They didn’t touch me. I had a good meatwall. Worst I got was a bit of a fist, but you should see the other guy… Jun ripped his arm off and beat him to death with it.” I explained and the man exhaled air out of his nose.

It wasn’t a laugh of course. Men like Fujimura didn’t do that sort of thing.

“Going after one of our people in their own home is unacceptable. Action will be taken.” He said to me, but I didn’t really care.

The Tyger Claws could do something, or nothing.

It didn’t matter.

This was now personal. Very personal.

“Ah, but I see you intend to seek your own revenge.” He said annoying me by actually being right.

“They shot up my home. I hated them before, but now it’s an existential threat. They die, or Jun and I do. So I choose them.”

Fujimura nodded, looking pleased.

“I agree. So you have a choice, Kusanagi. Do you head off into the sunset alone? Or do you let your family, and your friends assist you?” He asked, and it took me a moment to get what he was saying.

He wasn’t talking about Hiromi and my chooms.

He meant the Tyger Claws.

Do I go off to do this alone. Or will I accept gang assistance.

This was it wasn’t it? The path that people in Night City walk that leads them into a gang in truth.

I scowled, irritated, but I didn’t have a good response. I was too ready to do stupid thing to kill Scavs and Maelstrom right now.

He turned back to Jun. “Go get checked out. I will be reaching out to Ichida-Sama to put the Claws into a war footing with the Scavs… And perhaps the Maelstrom once again.” He added and Jun grumbled but nodded his head.

“Understood.”

“Kusanagi. Make your decision. We will likely begin assaulting the Scavs tonight.” Fujimura told me and all I could do was feel irritated. Like I needed them to find Scavs.

“C’mon Jun let’s get you to a ripper before you bleed all over everything.” I snapped at Jun doing my best to ignore Fujimura.

I needed time to think.

 

[Seras]

I ended up taking Jun to his ripper, who was not Vik. Which irritated me.

But in the end he was patched up and we drove back to the apartment.

The horde of Tyger Claws around the apartment had thinned but not dispersed. In fact many of them were settling onto steps, or in shop fronts across the street or in the area and just hunkering down.

I doubt many of the normal people in the area were very comfortable with this.

In the end though I was too focused on my own problems.

They had attacked me.

I had honestly known it would happen. Expected it in a way, just without being willing to admit it could happen again.

So like I said there was only one option left for me.

No, I shook away that Night City blindness. I could run. Leave the city. I was a Netrunner more than capable of keeping any records of myself off the web, and so I could disappear.

But on the same hand I fucking refused to run from Scavs. This was my life. I was going to live to be old and decrepit, but I wasn’t going to get there by hiding in fear.

If I let fear win, I would just as surely be dead. Fear was the little death after all.

So no. There was only one path. To fight back. Fighting wasn’t something I was afraid of. But joining the Tyger Claws was.

Being part of a gang wasn’t just something I could walk away from. So I had to decide. Would joining them today, would getting their help in destroying any chance of the Scavs fighting back be worth the shackles they would wrap around my ankles?

“Big thoughts?” Jun asked, breaking me out of my spiral of thoughts.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to… I don’t want to be Motoko Kusanagi. Tyger Claw.”

“It’s not so bad. You’ll have to start calling Fujimura, Sama.” Jun added and I snorted as I parked the Quadra.

“You’re such a gonk.” We didn’t say anything else as we walked back across the street to the apartment. There to my Surprise Fujimura himself stepped out of his car and joined us. Looking over Jun before nodding pleased that Jun wasn’t bleeding all over himself.

“Kusanagi. Are you fit?”

“Yes. Only scratches.”

“Then get your gear. We have a few locations we are hitting before the sun rises once again.” Fujimura said, noting the dropping sun.

A tension filled me as I felt my hands clenched.

They knew where Scavs were?

“No one not openly a member of the Tyger Claws will be welcome.” He cut in suddenly looking to me. I scowled in turn glaring. “Regardless of your feelings, Kusanagi. The Scavs attacked a member of the Tyger Claws openly at home. So the Tyger Claws must act firmly. And it must be the Tyger Claws who do it.”

“I’m not a Tyger Claw.”
“No you are not, yet you wish to join us in this regardless.”

“Motoko.” I turned to Jun and he reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll protect you no matter what. I’ll make sure the Scavs won’t bother us again. If you don’t want to join. Then you don’t have to, but if you do. I’ll be there too.”

Why did everyone want me to sign up for a fucking gang?

I turned away from the two bad influences and went into the apartment.

I had some gear I needed to gather.

—--

Unfortunately I was followed. As I entered my room, grabbing my spare ammo and things, I heard Jun and Fujimura enter the apartment. Fujimura’s deep rumble, words unclear through the wall, but still telling.

Fucker.

I looked up and walked over to my little dresser. Covered in old junk from the old Motoko. My stuff now, and hidden underneath it all?

A Menpo.

The grin of an Oni looking back at me.

Jun wore one. And he became an Oni for the Tyger Claws. I knew that was all he ever wanted to be. For Jun, that was his life.

I glared at the mask, at the collar that it represented.

My metaphors for prison implements were on point today I guess.

I pulled off my half jacket. Went searching for my gloves that I forgot to wear half the time now that my hands were chrome, and put them on.

Without the Jacket. My holsters were on full display. Normally I used the jacket to hide things. To show myself as less armed. Less dangerous.

That wasn’t the Motoko Kusanagi that I was planning on showing today.

I reached out for the mask.

And put it in the trash where it belonged.

Fujimura thought he could entagle this tiger by offering up bait. A few Scav dens.

Who the hell did he think I was? Did he realize how many Scavs I’ve killed?

I loaded up on my spare ammo pouches. Slipped an array of spare magazines I had gathered over the months of looting all over me. My Lexington would have plenty of ammo.

I checked my knife. Simple but clean and sharp.

I stopped.

I had put away my small half jacket, because it didn’t feel right wearing it… Plus I had a feeling I was going to get shot a lot tonight.

I could wear my Kang Tao armor? No, but there was my armored coat from my section 9 gear. It even had a longer tail, sort of like a trench coat…

I needed to buy a trench coat. The Major had a trench coat sometimes! The intro to Stand Alone Complex 2nd gig! She had a badass trench coat!

Or the manga! She had that cool white one.

I shook it off. Kill scavs. Buy trench coat later.

I stepped out, and I’m sure I surprised both men as I wasn’t wearing the stupid mask.

I reached out and grabbed my Katana slipping the sheath into my belt.

“I’m going to kill more Scavs, than your entire organization tonight. Just so we are clear about what is about to happen.” My blunt declaration didn’t faze the man who was sitting back on our couch like he owned the place.

“You could kill more with us.”

“Maybe. But if you are killing Scavs. And I’m killing Scavs. That’s just more Scavs.”

“Motoko… It’s dangerous! If they know to attack us at home, they are going to be more prepared for you! They will expect retaliation. You can’t just go out and hit them alone! Not tonight! Not after everything! Just… Just stay home. We can get you help and-”

“No Jun. They can’t possibly expect what is going to happen.” Finally everything was clear.

No more Tyger Claw politics. No more worry about stealing loot to pack away. Nothing to slow me down.

Just me.

And all the Scavs in the city that I needed to murder as brutally as possible.

Icy blood flowed through my veins, and for the first time since the attack. I had surety, a goal. And a path to follow without any confusing politics, or worries for the future.

“Dammit Motoko. I already told you, you can’t go alone! Just go put on the mask, and join us. We can kill them all together!”

But I wasn’t interested in playing this like Jun wanted. I wasn’t interested in playing at all.

“I’ll keep in touch Jun. I have to update Fujimura here with my numbers after all.” I said as I walked out of the apartment. Jun tried to stop me, but I was already gone. He was too slow to catch up.

I felt like everything was slow as I headed down the stairs. My boots didn’t make a sound. I sent out texts to everyone ignoring Jun’s growled words for me to stop as he chased after me.

I hadn’t even told Hiromi or my chooms what had happened yet! I quickly sent off a text to them all. Making sure they knew I had been attacked, and that they should batten down the hatches in case the Scavs came for them.

But that wasn’t the only one I reached out to. As I hit the street and stepped out among the Tyger Claws all looking at me strangely, considering how militaristic I must have looked to them. I walked over to the street as my Kusanagi came rolling out of the parking garage and met me on the side of the road.

*Motoko. I heard about what happened.* I nodded at Yoko’s voice. That made sense, Yoko would likely have a connection to the TC considering where she lived, and I would likely show up on her trackers.

*Yoko. I’m calling in all the favors and everything you owe me. You Gathered a bunch of information already, but I need every location of Scavs you can find. Dens. Homes. Businesses. Places being broken into. I don’t care. If a Scav is doing it, I want to know.*

*That’s a lot of work Motoko. Not something your favors cover.*

*I’ll personally work on some coding for you in payment. This is important to me Yoko. They tried to snipe me and my brother in my own home.* I slipped onto the Kusanagi. It felt right to be on a bike for this.

Jun was there reaching out to stop me.

I hit the gas, leaving him far behind. Heading towards my first target.

After all, I had gotten some leads already thanks to the netrunners. A few emails between them and some code debugging had given me some information already.

But I would need more.

I wasn’t planning on stopping.

*Alright Motoko. I’ll gather together what I can for the cost of the favors I owe you. And I’ll prep a few other things we can discuss the worth of after. Good hunting.*

The call ended.

Good. I made another call.

*Still alive I hear.*

*Wakako. How much?* I was blunt as I weaved through traffic. The Kusanagi roaring.

I wasn’t following the traffic laws today.

*Hmph. This is how you ask for something from me?*

*How much for the information I’m sure you already know I want?*

*You are in luck. I have a gig that I normally would not have taken. In this case, since it will already be cleared either by you or the Kamikaze, it costs me nothing to have claimed the gig. I’ll send you the details.*

*I’ll do it. The cost for additional locations?*

*Ho? You believe you will not have your hands full already?*

*All of them Wakako. I’m killing all of them. How much?*

*I will send you the costs per location. Do not overreach yourself girl. You are too useful to me to have you burn out against such trash.*

*I’m not dying. They are.*

I ended the call there, for once beating Wakako to the punch, and I sped off. Yet before I could do anything else. I answered a call that had been interrupting my call to Wakako for the last while.

*Hey Hiromi.*

*Motoko! You’re okay! What’s this about being attacked!? What happened?*

*I can’t talk long Hiromi. I’m a bit busy, but just what it sounds. Make sure Malcolm and Ichi are safe for me? The Scavs came after me in my home so they might go after them, and you as well.*

*Well I’ll be fine… I’ll tell my dad about the Scav threat. He’ll make sure everything is safe for me. I already spoke to Malcolm and Ichi both are okay, but Ichi is freaking out about his Grandmother.*

*Fuck. Just… Hopefully I’ll get all their attention here. Stay low, stay armed. Tell them that okay?*

*You should tell them that yourself! We should all meet up we can bunker down somewhere and-*

*Hiromi. I’m killing them. The Scavs. All of them I can find. I’m not hiding. They attacked me at home.*

*Fuck. Motoko. That’s so dangerous, they are going to expect you if you keep hitting them… Do you even have a information on places to hit? Do you need to do more netrunning. We can meet up at your basement and protect you!*

Why did everyone want to protect me right now? It was setting my teeth on edge.

Protect protect protect! That’s all anyone kept saying!

I didn’t want to be fucking protected right now! I wanted to fucking murder the bastards that threatened me! I bit it all back. Going cold so I wouldn’t snap at Hiromi.

*No. I’m not netrunning right now. No way to know how aggressive they might be on the web as well. I called Yoko just a bit ago. She’ll do the info gathering for me… Hopefully. You have some contacts as well right? Anyone that would know where Scavs might be hiding?*

*Doubtful… But I’ll check anyways… I’ll… Don’t… You can trust me if you need anything! So call me all the time with updates!*

*Sure Hiromi. I’m going to go. I’ll talk to you later.*

*Later! I’ll see you later! We will get some food! I mean it Motoko!*

*Okay. I promise.*

The call ended. Okay. No more playing. No more gigs. No more wasting time looting. Just the sort of murderous rampage these scum deserve.

I breathed out arctic air.

—--

The Oni

He was riding the edge all night. He knew it. Fujimura knew it. Akari knew it.

She just didn’t care.

She was a woman that was well over the edge herself.

But Jun couldn’t fall. He had to be there for Motoko.

“Kusanagi. Clean yourself. We will be at the next location soon.”

He nodded, grabbing a towel that was already coated in blood and wiped at his face. His hands shook. He couldn’t even remember how many people he had killed tonight.

Not enough.

It would never be enough. The look of shock on Motoko’s face. The horror that their home wasn’t safe?

He hadn’t had the heart to explain that they would have to move. Tomorrow. After he had satisfied the bloodlust in his chest, he would be Jun, and not the Oni. He would explain it to her then.. If she was alive. And not dying in some Scav den, coated in blood and oh so small in his arms-

He stopped thinking. That was something for Jun. Right now he was just the Oni. Just the killer.

The car stopped and The Oni stepped out. His Katana creaked in his hand as he gripped the hilt.

His mask was on. And he moved.

The entire squad Fujimura had put together moved. This wasn’t the first Scav den they had attacked tonight after all. They all knew what to do.

The Oni was the battering ram. Akari would move around and kill as she liked in support. Although he would have to be careful. She had used her Sandy a few times already tonight.

There were a few others. Guns that The Oni knew, but wasn’t close with.

It wasn’t like most of the Kamikaze during the war were still as chromed up as Akari and Oni.

No it was only the two of them that decided to walk the edge. The Oni because he refused to allow himself to not be capable of saving her again.

He couldn’t allow himself to be that weak.

Akari because she was already over the edge. Somehow keeping stable enough that the higher ups hadn’t forced her to dechrome, or called MaxTac.

The elevator opened and the Oni put all such thoughts away. His blood roared. A fire burning through his veins. The fact he was so close to more Scavs filled him with an endless rage.

He raced down the hall. There was no point in silence. The Oni was pure brute force. Except he stalled when the door was already open.

Instead of smashing through it he pushed it the rest of the way open and rushed in looking for his enemies.

“Holy shit. Talk about a Charnel house.” Akari whispered beside him. As she looked around.

The Oni had heard of things like that before when talking about Scavs, but so rarely about the Scavs themselves. The dead bodies, cut into pieces around the room meant there were no Scavs here.

He wanted to rage. Wanted to smash a fist through the wall to let out a bit of that rage that now had no outlet.

“Who the fuck did this?” He growled glancing at the corpses. Akari was already peering into other rooms and all she did was stick her head back around the corner and ran a thumb over her neck while making a choking noise.

All dead then.

*What is the hold up Kamikaze. I hear no gunshots.* Fujimura-Sama spoke into the group call pulling his attention away from the dead bodies around him.

*Fujimura-Sama! Place is already cleared!* Akari responded with a chirp. And a few moments later an image of the room was sent into the group call.

*Hmm. This place was known to the higher ups, but no one should have struck it yet. We move on Kamikaze.*

*Oh. I know who did it.* Akari chirped, The Oni looked over his eyes blazing in anger at Akari’s games.

*Akari. I want answers not games.* Fujimura-Sama coming in cutting through Akari’s games. She wouldn’t have answered without constant attention.

*Duh. It’s the lugs kid sister. Katana wounds. Big ass hole through this meat.* She offered kicking one of the corpses, something only Jun could see, but he noticed that there was a big hole in the corpse.

“What?” Jun-No, the Oni asked wondering what the fuck Akari was talking about.

“What, you think someone else came in here and cut down an entire Den? It’s your sisters MO isn’t it?”

The heat in his veins dimmed. So Motoko had done this? She had already gotten some revenge? Good. That was good.

He looked around suddenly with a surge of worry. Had she been hurt? Was she okay?

He quickly sent her a text. Asking if she was okay.

*Fine Jun. Busy.*

That was all he got back.

*Fine. Get back to the car. We will move on.* Fujimura-sama cut through and Akari sighed as she cartwheeled and spun over the corpses and headed for the door.

The Oni hesitated, but followed after. He kept looking over his shoulder for some sign that Motoko really had done this.

He stepped into the elevator in silence. His previous focused rage disrupted by thoughts of his little sister.

He knew Motoko could do some amazing things. He had been there when she cleared that Scav den after all. He had trusted her to manage as long as he was there watching over her…

But the idea of her going out on a one woman crusade terrified him.

One mistake. That was all it took. But he couldn’t stop her. He was going to break those stupid ankles of hers the next time he saw her. Stupid bouncy bullshit.

The anger was back by the time he reached the car with Fujimura.

“There are other dens.” He said simply as everyone slipped back into the cars and they took back off into the city.

They continued on. Another den was found. A small rest stop for a group of Scavs operating in Westbrook.

The Oni enjoyed destroying them. The fear in their eyes as he ripped them apart with his bare hands was intoxicating.

So they moved on.

A bigger location had been discovered. After all, every Tyger Claw now knew that the Scavs had attacked one of their own. Information was flooding in every sighting reported, both from the actual members, or just from informants all over the city.

The Oni had killed many of them tonight. He wondered how many Motoko had killed. She had confidently said she would kill more than the Kamikaze.

He would just have to kill so many that she failed. Then she would realize how foolish she had been and stay close. Let him keep her safe.

That’s all he wanted.

Suddenly the car braked hard and Jun rocked a bit from the back seat.

“Oh awesome splatter zone!” Akari chirped out. She had taken the front seat and so she could see what had happened. The Oni peaked out behind her head and saw that a car in front of them had jerked off the road practically onto the sidewalk.

A corpse smashed into the hood of the car.

“Huh. That’s a Scav!” Akari laughed in delight. He realized she must have scanned the corpse. A moment later The Oni did the same and confirmed it. Scav connections.

“I believe we are directly under the den we came here to clear out. Kamikaze. Move now. Ensure no survivors.” Fujimura barked and Akari was already out of the car running towards the apartment building.

The Oni followed slower, but no less urgently.

Could it be?

 

[Seras]

“Holy fuck.” I whispered. Staring as actual deja vu struck me.

I had gotten some deets from Wakako about this location. After I cleared out her gig location which was a waste of time. Only three Scavs working in a small cell, but she had at least started selling me more info.

Considering one of the places I hit had already been cleared out maybe an hour before me. I realized Wakako was being sneaky and selling me the locations the TC knew about.

Whatever. It didn’t matter to me.

But I had pulled into an underground parking garage for this apartment complex, stepped out and walked to the elevator, and it was only as it opened did it strike me.

I knew this place.

I had been here before. Many times. The elevator was old. Covered in graffiti. Old metal that looked rusted and stained.

But I knew where I was. This was the same Elevator that V and Jackie would walk into in a few years to rescue… what was her name? Sandra something?

The first gig.

And I was staring at the entrance to it all. I checked the information. Floor 15. I didn’t know if it was the same floor as V went to in the future, but it didn’t matter.

I pushed the nostalgia away.

I stepped inside.

The ride up was quiet, the elevator did stop on the fifth floor suddenly. The doors opened revealing a normal looking man that made to step in before stopping when he caught sight of me.

Our eyes met. Then slowly the door shut without him making a move to enter.

Kinda rude but alright.

It continued on ever upwards then it opened.

A very familiar hallway.

The room I was looking for was 1237, and as I approached I knew.

This really was the first gig. Somehow I was here two years early clearing out a bunch of Scavs.

Wait didn’t they come back to this place again after V cleared them? Was I going to have to go back and check on all the previous Scav dens to make sure they didn’t come infest the place again!?

Once again I shook it off. I stood before the door.

It opened with a look. The security far too weak to stop me.

The familiarity hit me. The first room was beaten down, but mostly used as a kitchen. A table and food left out. To my surprise the place was quiet. No pounding music, or anything. Just an eerie silence.

I moved to the doorway to the next room. Peering in. A ripper lab. But no bodies were left around. It was kind of quiet.

I nodded. This wasn’t the first den tonight that had gotten word of what was going on. That had realized that the TC were hunting Scavs dens. I had found one just before this den that had been completely empty. Whatever Scav group that had held it abandoning the merchandize at the threat.

I stilled before I entered the room. Something struck me as wrong. My eyes flashed into a scan and after a few moments I found it.

A laser.

Huh the Scavs had some brain cells after all. They had placed a fucking mine of all things in the little hallway.

I remembered the last time I had tried to defuse a mine and scowled a bit.

Fine! I leapt easily avoiding the trigger and landing in the next room. Old blood, but no bodies. Yeah they probably were a bit too busy to go klep some people. What with the whole territory searching for them.

I moved. Eyes flashing in scans constantly to make sure I wasn’t walking into another trap.

The next room to my disappointment was empty as well. But I knew this place. So I didn’t follow along. I moved towards the outside porch laughing as I followed the edge, and instead peeked in through the windows, uncaring that I was fifteen stories off the road far below.

The main room that I remembered had been secured up. Crates and couches set up to give cover. I quickly pinged the first gonk I could see, and hummed as the web of connections grew before my eyes.

The connections to what I guessed were mines at the entrances were ignored.

Not any danger to me.

I moved. Jumping along the edge of the building until I reached the second outer porch. To my delight someone was out there, smoking a cigarette.

I dropped a Weapon Glitch on the entire group as I leapt landing behind the gonk who was sitting in a crappy lawn chair. I prepped my leg bringing it really far back and then let it all out.

His scream echoed long and loud as he went over the edge.

Then it was on.

I moved both hands full of gun as I leapt inside. Gonk number one got four Lexington Rounds into his chest, dropping him. The next got a single shot through a wall. Burya as always dominating any lesser weapons as that one round was all I needed.

Then I came up to my feet facing the little main room that had all sorts of defenses set up.

The Scavs weren’t slow. Weapons were raised. Triggers were pulled. Nothing happened. And then their eyes went dark.

I tore through them. A monster gunning them down without hesitation. Their little pillbox of crates and armor turned into their tomb as I simply walked around the exterior and put bullets into bodies.

I reloaded whenever needed, hands a blur. Rapid Reload turning the act even while dual wielding into a blur of movement, and action.

This group of scum wasn’t even worth drawing my Katana this time.

I checked with a ping after I killed all the ones in front of me. Only the static mines and things registered back, but I wanted to be sure.

No survivors. So I started walking through the building checking every room, just to make sure.

As I came upon the back door to the little Scav den, only then reminding me that I didn’t have to walk through the ‘front’ entrance. I scoffed at myself as I opened the door and stepped out casually wiping some blood off of my arms when I noticed it out of the corner of my eye.

I blinked.

“Motoko?” Jun asked as he, Akari, and two other men I didn’t know were all piled in front of the main door to the Scav den looking like they were about to breach it.

“Heeey Jun.” I greeted, feeling a little weird. Was it weird to walk into my brother in the middle of something like this? I mean… It kinda felt weird.

“Motoko!” He roared and charged at me and I yelped, instantly my mind realizing that if I ran for the elevator Jun would catch me.

Well fuck it I turned back into the den and ran.

Instantly I realized the problem.

Mines.

“Fuck.” I growled, drawing my Burya and firing a single round ahead of me. Wincing as the explosion nearly sent me back a step, but that at least cleared the path.

“Motoko!”

“I’m fine! Just watch for mines! They thought that would be enough! Bunch of gonks amiright?” I called back as I broke out into a run.

“Motoko!” Jun roared and I was getting serious Resident Evil vibes. Was Jun a Nemesis now only able to yell out the name of his target?

I ran to the patio and skidded to a halt as I turned, seeing Jun approach.

“What do you want Jun? I’m kinda busy.” I called out and he stalled at my sudden discussion, his face twisting into confusion before he glared at me.

“This is dangerous! You are coming with us! We can- MOTOKO!” He yelled in horror as I turned and just jumped.

Nah Jun. I don’t feel like being babied right now. Scavs to kill and all that.

The patio was fifteen floors up. And it overlooked a street far far below. But across the way were more buildings, and apartments.

My leap took me out into the clear sky between them.

The air rushing past me was exhilarating as I leapt from the patio across the gap between buildings.

It was a far jump. Crossing an entire street in a single leap. But I could make it. My ankles gave me incredible hops and I still had Parkour and Cat-like to handle the landing.

I hit the ground and rolled skidding to a stop and then I turned.

Jun was across the way. And a few floors up.

Our eyes met.

“No.” I told him simply. Not that he could hear it. Then just to prove the fucking point. I walked up to the edge, and leapt off that too.

A single floor down I landed, and then bounced down to the next.

I was about thirteen floors up.

Thirteen jumps? That wasn’t exactly a problem.

I left Jun far behind. Even if he took an elevator I would still be on the ground long before he could catch up.

Down I went, Parkour’s instincts guiding me into a delightful drop down the side of a skyscraper.

I leapt, rolled, flipped, and slid down the building in a single natural movement that left me breathless in delight.

Then I was on the sidewalk. Startling more than a few people as I dropped from the sky to land in a crouch among them. I rose up, brushed myself off and walked to the crosswalk.

Unfortunately while that was cool my Kusanagi was parked in the parking garage connected to the first apartment building. So I had to hurry to ensure Jun wasn’t going to catch me.

I took a second to look at a wrecked car on the side of the road. That hadn’t been there befoooore. Oh. That was a dead Scav on the hood. I very quickly looked away and felt the urge to whistle innocently rush through me.

Honestly officer I have no idea how that Scav got there!

As I slipped into the garage I noticed to my surprise Fujimura was there. Leaning against a car another car behind him.

Huh. Well wasn’t my problem. I walked into the shadows and slipped over to where I parked my Kusanagi.

Only when I started the engine did Fujimura twitch. My head lights came on blinding him for a second but then I was off driving right past him.

Our eyes met. Then I was gone.

I had more Scavs to kill. No time for politics today. Politics was future Motoko’s problem.

—--

Akari

“Okay Jun-chan. While that is kinda annoying… Your kid sister is fucking preem, cause fuck that. I would not jump off a fucking building like that.” She chirped standing beside the big lug that had been standing at the edge of the building watching the tiny figure of his sister get smaller and smaller.

She meant it too. A long fall like that was a good way to kill yourself. Being heavier than normal, meant most borgs didn’t like heights. Too easy for something to give way and send you tumbling a few stories to your death.

No response? Can’t have that! She budged him with her shoulder not getting a response even then.

So she poked him.

“Fuck Akari!” Jun-chan snapped eyes blazing and growling. Ah good! That’s right look at her! Pay attention to her!

“Oh no Fujimura-sama! Jun-chan yelled at me!” She whined aloud not sending that over the call. Fujimura would just scold her after all.

“C’mon let’s go.” He growled stomping away although he didn’t get far. He checked out the main room and the little blood bath his cute little sister had left behind.

Akari smiled, despite being a little scared at just how far out on the edge little Motoko was.

Jun was stable enough. Especially with Motoko helping, but who the fuck just walked through Scav dens like this solo? Not just that, but did so as a teenager? Girl would be dead soon. She’d bite off more than she can chew.

Or everything in Night City would try only to find her too tough.

“Do you think your little sister is more like gristle or fat?” She asked Jun-chan only to get ignored.

Oh well, worse for him, she wouldn’t share her worry about his sisters death then.

Seriously, who jumped off buildings like that?

She poked her foot into the guts of a Scav nodding as he didn’t even shift. Dead for sure.

“So did she chip in a bunch of chrome or something?” She asked honestly. There was half a dozen Scavs in this room. In a little defended space, weapons littered the area. Enough stuff that Akari wouldn’t have wanted to attack without her Sandy ready to start up.

But she was already out of that for the night. Her neck still felt burning. Like when she burned her tongue while eating something hot and then even if you are eating your favorite it doesn’t taste right only like burning.

That’s how Akari knew she had pushed her Sandy too hard. It had stopped feeling good the last time. Now it just burned.

“Motoko is a genius. She can do anything if she puts her mind to it.” Jun said suddenly, with the surety of an older brother hyping up his little sibling.

Yeah Akari called bullshit. Motoko was kinda off. Had been since they first met. Not many kids are stupid enough to pick a fight with a Cyberpsycho. Akari had almost killed her that first time when she hadn’t lost fast enough.

Hmm. No even someone who could last with a Katana against her wasn’t enough to survive this. Too much experience was needed here.

The warning about mines was telling, but more than that.

A normal person, couldn’t walk against a defended position and just kill everyone. Akari looked at the numbers and decided instantly that alone this would have been dangerous for her. She likely would have been shot a few times.

“C’mon. We have more Scavs to kill.” He grunted not hearing her internal monologue which was totally his fault. Jun should really learn how to read her a bit better. He wouldn’t ever get into her pants if he didn’t… Well maybe even so. She followed after him, eyes firmly locked onto his butt.

—--

The sun was rising.

I noticed it in surprise as I let the Scav I had just killed was dropped onto the floor. Another small place cleared out. Only five gonks in this one. Just big enough to go kidnap a few people from time to time.

Well they were dead now.

“Until tomorrow night then.” I decided. Shutting off the BD recorder.

I wasn’t tired, but I was basically out of Scav dens.

I stepped out of the little shop the Scavs had killed the owners for and taken over. My Kusanagi parked not far down the sidewalk I walked over and slipped on.

What a night.

I didn’t even want to look at my system yet. I had a feeling numbers would have gone up quite a bit. I would need some time to look it over, and doing that while driving was dumb.

But I also wasn’t ready to head home yet.

I drove over to Lizzies. I had a feeling since the sun was literally rising Judy would probably be sleeping, if the club was even open, but I wanted to drop off my new virtu to her.

Scav Extermination: Night 1. Would probably be popular enough considering how many of the fuckers I had murdered tonight. Not that it was enough. I don’t think it would ever feel like enough.

I shouldn’t have been surprised though when I pulled up to Lizzies it was still open. Still busy.

That’s Night City for you. No Rita standing out front which is a disappointment, but I was stopped before I could walk in, the bouncer in Rita’s spot firmly standing in my way.

“If you are here for trouble turn around.” The bouncer said instantly, I could see the way she gripped her spiked baseball bat tightly that she was definitely uncomfortable.

I stopped.

Then I face palmed.

“Shit, sorry. I’m covered in blood aren’t I?” I asked rhetorically as I looked myself over and winced.

Yeah I had a few bullet holes in my Leotard. My right arm was literally rusty red from all the times I slit someones throat and got splattered. And I could feel some of my hair sticking together for the same reason.

“Just a bit.” The bouncer said warily, and I winced.

“Dangit. Sorry I was just here to drop something off for Judy. I didn’t even think… I’ll come back later.” I said instantly. Yeah I doubted the Mox wanted some crazy blood stained teenager walking through their bar.

“You do that.” The bouncer offered, but she wasn’t calming down.

I was probably throwing all sorts of Cyberpsycho vibes.

Which was totally unfair!

I turned around. I would bother Judy later. I think I just needed a shower, and a change of clothes.

—--

The moment I walked into the apartment I was irritated. The bottom floor had a couple of Tyger Claw toughs hanging around. Taking over the table that was usually used up by the old men to play their board games.

They noticed me instantly and went for guns, then visibly relaxed at the sight of me and settling back down.

“Morning! No one has gone into your place!” One of the men greeted standing up with a lazy saunter of a man trying to pretend calm.

I was still covered in blood after all.

“That’s good.” I muttered not interested in this entire conversation in the least.

“Yeah. So you’re the Oni’s sis huh? Hah you certainly got the same look dontcha. Coming home covered in Scav blood. How many of those fuckers you flatline tonight huh?” He asked casually with a smile, and a weird slouch.

It took me a second to realize the guy was trying to be friendly.

No. Something was off. He was smiling a little wide, and the way he was dressed…

Was this guy trying to flirt with me while I was covered in other people's blood?

Well I could certainly give him points for bravery. Yet. There was something still off. The way he moved. The way he looked. He was dressed nicely. High end. The sort of look you would take out to a party, but not one where you would be stuck guarding some gonks apartment. My nose twitched and I could even smell a bit of cologne.

Wait. Was Fujimura going at me another way? Was Fujimura trying to honey dick me!?

Nope. I refused to even continue to consider this. “I’m gonna go.” I said instead of answering his question. I raised my hand and pointed to the elevator. “Excuse me.”

“Whoa hey, you don’t need to delta so quick! We’re here to help out ya know? So you need anything? Some food. A run to the store for something? Whatever it is, we’re, you know, here to handle whatever you need!” He called out as he sort of walked after me, but nope.

I was not in the mood to deal with this.

I refused to look at him too. I could already practically hear the wink he threw at me, and if I saw it, I might just have to punch him.

“I’m good. Thanks.” I said and turned away from the elevator and jogged up the stairs. The elevator would definitely slow me down and end with me trapped in an enclosed space with him. My legs pumped as I hurried up the stairs. Leaving him far behind.

 

[Seras]

Freshly showered Motoko felt much better than blood coated Motoko. I did have to take a brush to my arms though. Vik was definitely going to give me that look next time I saw him if I let blood stains get stuck in my joints.

After spending a good while digging into nooks and crannies of my arms. I walked back into the apartment.

Of course nothing was how it should be. For one the windows were all broken. The metal guard was also ruined, a hole punched through a few blinds breaking the whole system.

The couch though was the worst. The bullet had smashed through the couch through the wall and continued on, but had caused what little fluff there was left in our ancient couch to balloon out.

It was totally wrecked. Gonna need to buy a new damn couch. I had cleaned up the glass before I took a shower, and now here I was.

I was on the couch going over the fingers on my left hand still cleaning out bits of grime.

I heard it before I realized what it was. The elevator came up and stopped at our floor. I glanced up. The door opened, I was on guard already reaching for my Burya that I still had holstered to my chest.

I guess I just didn’t feel very safe right now without it.

But then Jun stepped into the apartment, his feet practically slamming into the ground.

Which was unusual because Jun had his sneaky feet.

“Motoko!” Jun didn’t quite roar but I rolled my eyes. Serious Nemesis vibes Jun. I know you can say more than my name.

“Yes this is Motoko.” I replied flippantly, but decided not to leave it there. “Hey Jun. Showers free.” I told him looking over his own bloody state. He stilled as if trying to restrain himself from acting out at my casual tone.

Which now that I think about it was likely exactly what was happening.

Suddenly he was on me grabbing me by the arms and lifting me straight off the couch until we were face to face. The towel on my head flopped forward a bit, almost covering one of my eyes, but I couldn’t exactly reach it with how Jun was holding me like this.

“Do not ever! EVER! Jump off a building like that again! Are you insane!” He didn’t quite yell. Instead it was the noise of someone trying to stay quiet, but still wanting to yell.

“My BD recorder was on when I made that leap. I’ll make sure to give you a copy. It was pret-t-t-t-ty.” I stopped as Jun shook me like back and forth suddenly.

“DON’T PLAY DUMB!” He roared and I was silenced mostly because he had given me shaken baby syndrome.

“Okay first ow.”

“Why? Why are you like this! Why don’t you ever listen! Why don’t you ever just be safe!?”

Okay I was done with this.

My forehead bashed into Jun’s stupid face.

“Fuck!” He cursed as he let me go.

“Ow. Your face is hard as fuck!” I cursed back holding my forehead. Was I bleeding? I was! When did Jun get his face armored! Ow! But I shook that off. I had to focus on my brother. The last time I had seen him like this…

“I’m so FUCKING DONE WITH YOU!” He roared and to my lack of surprise swung at me. But I wasn’t going to let him hurt me whenever he was deep in the throes of Cyberpsychosis.

I leapt over him, and as I landed, kicked both of his knees out.

I rolled just barely avoiding his bulk as he hit the floor with an oof.

I picked myself up as Jun started to do the same. He was definitely heated.

“You know the last time you swung at me like that you didn’t actually aim for me. This time you did.” I said, trying to cut through his anger to reach him.

He did slow as he stood up he was huffing and puffing. Anger and adrenaline shooting through him.

“You were supposed to let me help! We were supposed to do this together! You throw yourself into danger over and over and-” He growled out but he wasn’t swinging at me anymore.“You never listen!”

I of course ignored his words. I listened to Jun all the time. Just not every time. I wasn’t his toy after all.

“You’ve had a rough night Jun. Maybe it was a bad idea to head out on my own, but not because it was dangerous. But because you aren’t handling this well. Being attacked at home must have really messed with you huh?” I asked and his blazing eyes jerked up to meet mine in a glare.

We both were silent. Jun was visibly holding himself back from whatever he was trying to yell at me.

Dammit... Fujimura. I leave my brother in your hands for one night, and he is back to practically full cyberpsychosis again. His rants about protecting me, right back to how he was before.

I wasn’t going to get kidnapped to shock him out of it this time either.

“Okay Jun. I’m calling an official cease fire. Go take a shower. Clean up. Get some clean clothes.” I demanded pointing at the bathroom.

“I’m not… Motoko I’m not taking a shower right now! You-”

“Will be here when you come out. Clean, not covered in blood. Look at yourself Jun.” I said and he blinked slowly looking at a near by mirror on the wall.

“It’s fine.”

“Your hair is like 90% blood right now. What did you do, hold a Scav over your head and rip him in half?”

“No.”

Jun that no was a pretty weak denial. Nope, not going to think about that.

“Take a shower Jun-nii. I’ll be here. Waiting for you when you are done.” Then carefully I walked up to him and pushed him.

He barely budged at first, but slowly the tension in him eased and he let me push him to the bathroom.

—--

“Feel better?” I asked, as he came out of the shower patting his damp hair.

“I’m fine.” He grumbled, but I didn’t argue about that. Jun was touchy right now.

“Come sit.” I demanded pointing at the couch and Jun nodded, settling into the couch in a single big flop that made the poor thing groan. I had grabbed some of his casual clothes for him when he went into the shower, so thankfully he hadn’t redressed in his TC outfit.

Sweatpants and a t-shirt was good comfy clothing, and Jun needed comfy right now.

“Motoko-”

“Yes this is Motoko.” I replied cutting him off. I should stop doing that. Konosuba probably doesn’t even exist in this world. That joke wouldn’t make any sense.

But having caught Jun on the back foot by talking I surprised him. Grabbing the comb and towel I had prepared beforehand I crawled behind him settling on the back of the couch.

“What are you-”

“Shush.” Then I started floofing his hair with the towel.

“Motoko.” Jun grumbled, and I proved myself the more mature one of us by resisting responding the same way again. Instead I pulled the towel down and started combing my big stupid Onii-chans hair. Making sure he got all the blood and guts out of it.

I had seen Jun eat his burritos. He was as messy an eater as he was a killer.

“What crazy thing is going through your head now?” He drawled, but I was smiling because that was Jun speaking and not the angry rage beast.

“Nothing you want to hear. But if you are asking about me combing your hair. It’s because you need a little bit of time to realize that we are safe. Everything is okay. I’m here. Not hurt. You are here. Only a few more bullet holes than normal… Looks like you actually went to a ripper though. So I won’t yell at you for that.” I told him, having pulled up his shirt to check and see that he had a few new holes in his chest, but they had at least been treated.

“I’m fine Motoko. I’m more worried about you!”

“Yeah I noticed that. With all the screaming of my name and everything.” I told him bluntly.

“You ran off to get into fights alone!”

“Which as a stealth infiltration specialist… I should get cards. Jun note for the future. I need business cards. Anyway, As a stealth specialist, going solo is actually pretty safe for me. Which you know. You saw me take out the Raffen that one time, remember? And the Scavs that night you were feeling overprotective again.”

“You should have someone watch your back! People don’t go solo like that for long Motoko. It only takes one mistake to die like that! When I said you could do as you liked! Piss off anyone you want. I wasn’t intending for you to go after them by yourself!”

“This isn’t the first Scav den I’ve hit solo Jun. You know that. And it only takes one mistake to die regardless Jun. But I was fine. I went in hard. Full optical blackout, and weapon glitch. Only then did I appear and start killing. But this whole thing isn’t about me hitting Scav dens. You only get like this when you don’t feel safe… I think that’s the trigger for your psychosis. So I’m sorry. I’m sorry what I was doing was making you feel unsafe.”

He didn’t say anything, but I could feel the tension still in him as I combed his rather silly hair. But that’s fine. This wasn’t entirely a rational issue Jun was having.

We had been attacked. We had been attacked somewhere that is supposed to be safe. Of course that would set off Jun’s psychosis.

It was something I had come to accept about my new lifes brother long ago. Jun wasn’t mentally healthy.

He was stable mostly. He was I think getting better, but he wasn’t good.

I doubt he would ever be good again. Not without a whole lot of therapy, and ripping nearly all the chrome out of him.

“You aren’t hurt?” He asked finally out of the blue.

“I accidentally tripped in some blood and bruised my butt.” I told him honestly and it took a moment but my brother's shoulders started shaking a bit and he snrrked and snorted and then broke out into full blown laughter at me.

Just as Keikaku.

Keikaku means plan.

—--

Jun was asleep. I had helped dry him off and ended up putting a XXL burrito into him, before making sure he got to sleep.

I couldn’t actually order him to sleep of course, that would just make him obstinate, but he had been up for a long time, and just letting everything go quiet, and calm belly full of warm Burrito he had slumped off into his room not long after.

Flopping onto the couch I stared at the ceiling for a while just processing.

Jun’s mental state. My own less than stellar mental health at the moment. Like the fact I didn’t have anymore god damned Scavs to kill.

I sighed. That was exactly the problem. That urge to keep hunting them. Killing Scavs was a good thing, but I wasn’t being calm about it. I was too emotionally disrupted myself.

But I… I wasn’t ready to stop yet. A little more. A little more murder and I would take a break. I just needed more dens to wipe out…

Hopefully Wakako would come in clutch. Or Yoko.

But it might actually be time to spread out a bit. Wakako only really took care of gigs in a small part of the city…

I could reach out to Regina for info. I wasn’t sure what our relationship was at the moment, but a free offer to clear out any Scav gigs, and eddies for info should at least clear up some issues.

But that was still only a tiny bit of the city.

I was going to need to reach out to Jackie. He knew Padre. That was another piece of the city.

That was how serious I was about this. No more. No more letting Scavs hide in the corners of the city.

They die. Or I do. That was where we were at, and I wasn’t about to let myself die to a bunch of scum sucking Scavs.

So I needed contacts with all of the Fixers.

And I needed more chrome. Even as I thought that I winced and wanted to punch myself for being a fool, but it was still true.

“Okay Motoko. One thing at a time.” I whispered and opened my system.

Time to see what I had gained last night. I didn’t even know how many people I had killed last night. I hadn’t bothered counting. It would be like counting how many cockroaches you squashed.

I looked at the alerts and only stopped myself from whistling for Jun.

That was a lot of XP.

It took a few moments to count it all up, but yeah.

23,500 XP… I did some quick math. 47? If everyone counted for the common 500 XP? I didn’t remember killing anyone super borged out or anything… I shook it off. It didn’t matter.

I had gained two levels. Going all out. Not worrying about gathering chrome or loot outside of just reloading my ammo. It meant I killed a lot of Scavs.

I was level 14 now.

2 Stat point.
4 Skill point.

I also had a lot of fun points to play with. Adaptation, or push a stat?

In the end I looked at my full character sheet, just to give myself an idea of where I stood.

Level 14
7,500/15,000

Body 7(14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 7.
-Athletics 7
-Street Brawler 7
-Annihilation 5

Reflex 7
-Blades 6
-Handguns 6
-Assault 6
-Driving 7

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 9
-Quick Hacks 7
-Programming 10

Cool 8
-Ninjutsu 8
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 7

Technical attribute 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 4
-Engineering 4

2 Stat point.
4 Skill point.


Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2
Drive By Driving 2
Cat-like Athletics 5
Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2
Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2
Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2
Cyber Security Quick Hack 2
Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2
Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5
Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.
Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5
Parry Blades 5
Robotics wizard Crafting 2
Drifting Driving 5
Rapid Reload Handguns 5
Design Wizard Engineering 2
Rifle Ace Assault 5
Ghost touch Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5
Inspired Programmer Programming 5
A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10
*Unused* Annihilation 5

Cyberware:
Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*
Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*
Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/8*
Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*
Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*
Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 0/2*
Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 0/1*

So I had a few things.

Cool.

Despite Rockerboy giving me a few Cool alerts from time to time. Cool hadn’t budged in a while.

Cool which was super important, as Ninjutsu, and Cold Blood were absolutely integral. What would Ninjutsu 10 look like?

But I also had Reflex, and Body. Both had also been rather locked.

Reflex was hard to level as well. Needing dedicated time to slowly work on my reflexes, my speed. Something I hadn’t really done in a long while.

Body was easier. I just needed to hit a gym… Which reminded me I still had a Gym Membership. A membership I hadn’t used in months… Fuck cancelling that was going to get expensive huh?

Don’t get distracted, Motoko.

Did I want to adapt. Or get stronger?

It wasn’t as easy as you would think. I wasn’t even touching on Intelligence, and what going over 10 could do for me there.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

Okay what do I need? Long term and short term.

Long term I was going to need to save points for my stats over 10. And adaptation. Both were integral.

Short term? I needed… Cool. I needed even better stealth. Ninjutsu was too powerful to ignore and could potentially save my ass in way too many ways. Also I needed better information gathering, considering my main hold up now was finding the Scav, so I could murder them.

Okay.

I wasn’t going to use points to increase stats under 10 for now. As useful as it would be. Cool was pretty close to leveling, and I would be better off saving it for things I can’t get in any other way.

But Adaptation was too important to put off. I had already made that decision to worry about my mental health before.

So I went and dropped a point into my Ankles.

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

When I was done I blinked as I got a new alert pop up.

*Adaptation Complete: Serano Air-Groove Ankles*

It wasn’t a sudden thing. It wasn’t like an itch that just went away. Or something that just felt off stopping.

Instead it was just a surety, a comfort. Like… Like when you look at your hands and you know every inch of your skin. A comfortable knowledge that everything was as it should be.

I pulled my foot up into my lap to check. The Real Skinn that covered my ankle created a sort of seam over the top of my foot, and around my ankle. The skin color was right because Vik was a god among men.

But it had always felt weird. Like the ankle didn’t stretch to the same points as my old flesh and blood.

But now? There was no discomfort as I stretched my foot up and down past the points my old ankle would need to stop. Past the angles left and right it could comfortably move.

Because my ankle could.

My ankle.

I stretched out putting my foot on the table and just kinda looking at it. It felt… Right.

This was me. Part blood and bone, and part metal and synth skin.

I was Motoko. Cyborg.

Yep. As always adaptation was the maybe the most important benefit of my system overall. Others might not think so. They would probably just pump their numbers and borg out and then go crazy. But for me. Being happy was the most important thing.

Being happy… I shook it off. I would be happy when the Scavs were dead.

This was the first time I completely adapted to Chrome.

It felt right. This was who I was supposed to be. I forgot sometimes that I was basically trying to pretend to be a Cyborg.

But I wasn’t anymore. I was a cyborg now. Arms ankles, eyes and skin. Bits and pieces here and there were chrome. Were more than just flesh and blood, and that wasn’t a good, or bad thing. It just was.

“I kinda feel sorry for all the fuckers that piss me off in a year or two.” I whispered to the room quietly. Adam Smasher was a high functioning Cyberpsycho.

I was just Cyberpsycho immune if I took it slow. I had the same ability V did, with Johnny shouldering her chrome addiction. If I went slow and chromed out. I could go full borg while still being just as fun loving and happy as I was now.

Yeah. That was the goal.

I put my second stat point into my Subdermal. The slight shift in the way I slouched on the couch to keep the subdermal from getting itchy was by itself super useful.

But it was just another step into accepting myself.

 

[Seras]

Stats decided for now, it was time to make some calls, and get some contacts. Information was crucial if I was going to send a message to the Scavs.

First I sent a text to Regina.

*Motoko: Been a while. Looking for any information on Scav locations. I’ll do any gigs that require clearing out Scavs for free as well.*

I didn’t get a response back instantly so I moved on. Considering what I was going to do, I sent a text to Wakako.

*Motoko: Going to be reaching out to more Fixers for more Scav deets. Don’t get mad!*

Good. Wakako can’t get mad now! Definitely! I definitely wasn’t going to get a weird shit assignment from her the next time I reached out…

Definitely.

Okay time to call a choom.

*Hello?*

*Hey Jackie. It’s Motoko. You got a second?*

*Oh sure Hermanita, what’s up?*

*Scavs attacked me and my brother at home. We’re fine, but I’m not taking it sitting down. I’m hoping you might put me in touch with Padre? I’m doing gigs that involve Scav hunting for free right now, and paying for any additional Scav dens he might know about as well.*

*Whoa whoa, hold up now Hermanita. You got attacked at home? Shit! You should have called me. You need a safe place to crash?*

*Jun has TC connections, so we have a few of their thugs hanging around keeping an eye on the place. But I’m looking to just remove the problem if I can.*

*Ah little choom, that’s not gonna happen. There are thousands of Scavs in Night City. If not more.*

*Well I cleared up half a hundred last night, so I think I’m making a good push for it already.* I said bluntly. Jackie was cool, but I was kinda sick of everyone treating me like a teenager.

Okay Hiromi. I get it. Maybe having a rep does come with some side benefits too.

*Jesus Hermanita.. Really?*

*Yeah Jackie. My brother Jun was running around with his group of killers and wiping out dens too. So Night City lost a lot of scum last night. But I’m not done. They attacked me in my home Jackie. So can you help me out?*

*Alright. Yeah I’ll reach out to Padre. He’ll want a face to face.*

*That’s fine Jackie. I’m doing prep for tonight anyways.*

*You need another shooter? I’ll watch your back if you-*

*No. Jackie. This is for me. Thanks though. If I ever run into some trouble or something, I’ll call you. But this is me working through the many angry emotions that being attacked at home has given me.*

*Heh, well can’t say I don’t understand that. You’re good Motoko, Solid. Even V thinks so. But don’t go thinking that makes you invincible. Be careful. Walk away if you have to.*

*I will Jackie. I don’t intend to get flatlined by these scum. Listen, I need to go. Let me know what you hear from Padre?*

*I’ll call him right away Hermanita.*

*Thanks Jack.* We hung up not long after and I sighed relieved.

Then I got a text.

*Wakako: I expected you would reach out for more. Just remember who your fixer is when this is all said and done. And don’t be a fool. Be careful who you take gigs from.*

I couldn’t help but snort. Statement of prescience. A threat. And a warning to be careful. Wakako had such a funny attitude to everything.

*Motoko I won’t forget, and I’ll be careful. Thanks Wakako.*

—--

I headed out not long after.

Stopped for a moment as I walked through the lobby as the flirt smiled and stood up when I walked by.

“Motoko! Hey. Going out? Need anything? We’re here to make sure nothing happens after all!”

“I’m good, thanks.” I said blowing past him. Since I was planning on buying some ammo, I called for my Quadra and not my Kusanagi.

“You sure! We all know how to shoot. I’m not bad! It’s always good to have someone watching your back yeah?” Flirt offered and I did my best to ignore him as I stopped to grab some lunch from my favorite Meat stick guy.

The old man gave me a stilted smile, mostly because of the thug looking over my shoulder.

Why was he taller than me? This was bullshit. I should cut off his fucking legs for being taller than me. Idiots are always taller than me! Wasn’t he asian!? He should be short!

Fuck I was asian too. Dammit.

“Thanks. Keep the change.” I told the old man as I grabbed my food and since I was getting used to all this future tech my Quadra was already pulling out of the garage and parking on the street nearby.

“Really Motoko, Fujimura-sama gave us this gig to watch you and your brothers back! You should rely on us- wait!” He called out, but I was already sliding into the car.

Not dealing with that right now.

I stopped at the gun store I had originally bought the holsters for my guns at. Picked up as much ammo for my Burya as I could.

It wasn’t exactly a common cartridge, and even with only the four round magazines I had been running low. With a new box I was topped up for a good while.

“Not everyday I see a kid using a monster like that. You be careful kid, that thing can break chrome just as easily as bone if you aren’t careful.” The owner offered as he pushed the ammo box across through the slow in the bullet proof glass at me.

“Been using the Burya for a while now. I know how to handle them.” I reply without any heat. This guy didn’t know me. I wasn’t going to get angry at someone just worrying about a kid running around with a wrist breaker.

I paid for my ammo and headed home to drop off the extra.

—--

I blew past the kids in the lobby, rushing up the stairs with my arms full of my ammo. I was going to really prepare for tonight.

Jun was right, getting shot sucked, and a lucky shot could hurt. So I was going to armor up.

The armored Section 9 suit was a good starting point. I know Night City gonks found wearing ‘too much’ armor on the streets was something to be made fun of for. What was it… Doughboy? Yeah Doughboy or Doughgirl if you were caught wearing too much protection.

But I didn’t care. I was here to murder a lot of people, and while going out in my normal outfit was comfy. There were times I should prepare for actual fucking war.

I slipped into my room, Jun still sleeping. I put on the armored pants and adjusted my boots. Slapped the longer sleeved coat over my leotard. But that was only half done. Going around the couch I grabbed my piece of equipment.

The Kang Tao armor had been painted to match my colors, and in less bright orange. I hadn’t done much to adjust it to my size fully yet, but it was still good enough.

I threw on the main chest rig. Securing it with deft hands as it tightened down more than enough to work.

A few minutes of adjusting my holsters to give me ease of access, and finally my Netgogs over my face to complete the outfit.

I checked myself out in a mirror.

Honestly the style might be different, but I certainly looked like the Major in some of her Black Ops outfits. It soothed me in a way. Even if I wasn’t just in my leotard and cosplay outfit. I still looked like Motoko. I still looked like me.

I stopped to check in on Jun. He was still asleep. Good. I would have some time to get shit done before he woke up then.

I headed out. Taking the stairs and walking past the thugs watching the door. Ignoring the way they startled when they saw me.

Just because I was armored up, and holding my Copperhead, clipped to my new vest.

The flirt didn’t follow me this time as I walked right past him. My Quadra was already waiting for me on the street outside the apartment.

I slipped in. Jackie had already pulled through. I had gotten an invite. Time to go see Padre.

I had received a message from Jackie telling me where to go. It was just surprising that Padre had agreed so quickly, and where I was going. I guess Jackie was pretty well known about the Heywood boys.

The location according to my map was a basketball court down in Heywood.

It didn’t take me long to drive through the city, and even less time to find the right spot. It was the graffiti that clued me in.

A giant picture of Padre on the wall was kind of a clue. There was a ton of it. Pictures on the walls of the building all covered in Christian iconography, or just Padre in some way. His name, his face.

Weird, but hey I live in a place covered in graffiti tigers so…

I had to drive down the road a ways to find a place to park, but unfortunately I stopped then realizing I had fucked up a little.

Everyone walking by, or hanging out around the area were wearing normal clothes.

I was very much not.

I was wearing a cyber soldier's outfit. Armor and weapons galore.

Dammit. It would be so embarrassing to have everyone thinking I’m coming to attack Padre. Or if they think I’m a doughgirl…

My resolve firmed. I had a plan.

—--

Padre AKA Sebastian Ibarra

Sebastian clapped quietly as another basket was made. The boys were having a good game today. The two teams competing against each other were friends. So there was no worry of bloodshed, or violence.

A rare thing indeed.

He checked the time in his agent for a moment. Jackie had reached out to him, a rare thing indeed. The boy was too independent, too set on his path. Yet the respect remained. Sebastian remembered when the boy decided to leave the Tino’s. Another rare thing.

But Jackie was so well liked, there wasn’t much trouble over it.

But he had agreed to meet this little tiger that Jackie had fallen in with. Mostly out of respect for her help saving Jackie during the gig the boy had fallen into.

Kang-Tao was still pushing into his territory in anger at losing the data. Unfortunately as most things, it had passed through his hands quickly, and straight into the hands of their enemies.

So he was no longer a threat. No longer worth spending the resources to kill. Not that it stopped them from sending a few kill teams after him to cause trouble. They just knew it wouldn’t succeed. It was the growling of an injured wolf after all.

But even an injured wolf could kill.

Which is why Sebastian was out and about acting like nothing was threatening him. Still. A tiger coming into the lair of the wolves of Heywood was always a dangerous thing.

Sebastian had of course pulled up the information he had on the girl. It wasn’t much, although some words to a netrunner he knew that sent him data gave him a fuller view.

A dangerous young girl indeed. Jackie had told him that she had destroyed an AV. Disabled an entire squad of Kang-Tao. And yet it was still difficult to believe.

But Sebastian was not a man who disbelieved what the information he had confirmed was true told him.

A dangerous tiger wanted to meet him, and he knew why. Wakako had been difficult as always, but she answered the question he wanted to know.

A Scav hunt. It wasn’t the first time some angry young killer had come up to him wanting all the information on Scavs.

It wouldn’t be the last. The Scavs were rats, but like all rats, when you corner them, they become vicious things, full of teeth.

This girl would learn as all young ones did.

Or die.

A noise came from behind him.

Directly behind him.

Directly behind him where no one had been. He was sure of it. Only a single row of the old bleachers he was sitting on, and a brick wall.

He always sat here. To ensure his back was protected.

A faux cough. As if someone was trying to get his attention.

He turned, standing behind him was a woman. Arms resting back on the guard rail at the top of the bleachers standing casually and trying to not seem like she was threatening him.

“The fuck-Padre!” Miguel his guard reacted, having done the same thing Padre himself had. It was only his hand rising up to calm Miguel that kept a firefight from breaking out.

Unfortunately the shout of his guard had caused a disruption to the festivities.

“Please calm yourselves. Just a planned meeting.” He called out to a few of the ‘Tino that were around him, they too reached for guns before slowly calming down.

“Sorry about this. I was trying to avoid notice.” She muttered, with a sigh and Padre realized why Wakako had described the woman as odd.

It wasn’t everyday Padre was reminded how easy it would be for a true assassin to remove him.

Impressive.

“Think nothing of it, child. You are Motoko?”

“Ah yeah sorry forgot about the gogs.” She said reaching up and pulling the tech gogs upwards showing off her very youthful face. Jackie had told him that the girl was young.

He had almost forgotten what with having someone actually appear behind him without warning.

“Motoko Kusanagi. Thank you for meeting me, Padre.” She introduced herself politely and he nodded, waving her forward to sit beside him for one, and so he wouldn’t have to twist his neck so much to look at her.

She slipped into the seat next to him adjusting the rifle she had strapped to her chest with an unconscious motion before her hands ignored it.

He had seen killers who could barely stop touching their weapon. It was a habit of young killers too nervous to stop adjusting the weight of a weapon, and old killers who were twitchy too ready to defend themselves.

It was rare he found a killer capable of being utterly calm.

Jackie? Where did you find this one?

“How can I help you?” He asked instead his eyes mostly returned to the game, although he never truly stopped watching her out of the corner of his eyes.

“Any information on Scavs you have, or can get. I’ll pay in eddies or work.”

“Yes Jackie said as much. You realize it’s a fool's errand? If wiping out the Scavs could be done. Someone would have before.”

“If you have an infestation you don’t kill a few of them and call it done. You don’t stop until everyone is dead, never to return.” She replied with a casual shrug. “They started it. Which is actually true.” She added quietly as if she had forgotten that for a moment.

“Then I will give you the information. Heywood Scavs have no function in our community. They take and steal and offer nothing back. But I will not assist you further. This war you are starting on, will only cause trouble if I move further.”

“That’s fine. Just the location of them is enough for me. And I don’t care if no one joins me, or if everyone rises up against them. I just want them dead.”

“I think it will be closer to the former than the later child.” He offered, almost wanting to laugh at the idea of the city actually acting to remove the Scavs.

Even when he was younger the city couldn’t work together to remove any of the truly vile gangs.

Sometimes they died, but it was usually the act of a single gang, or a few working in concert to remove them utterly.

The damned clowns for instance. Padre whispered a prayer to the almighty that the Bozos no longer haunted the streets of Night City.

“It’s my personal Crusade Padre.” She added suddenly as she rose up. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes. I won’t stop trying to remove them. I don’t think I can.”

“Take the wisdom learned from the crusades then child. Rarely do they end well for those involved.” He answered and she gave him a nod at that. “Very well. I will offer you a few locations I would like cleaned up. If you still wish to know more afterwards. We can talk price.”

He sent her the file he had on a few Scav locations here in Heywood. Perhaps he would send her a few gigs as well if she succeeded. She certainly showed her competency to him today.

Wakako had been holding out on him, he decided.

“See you around then Padre.” She said and disappeared into a leap that launched her to the second floor. The apartments had small overhangs, and she easily reached the second floor, and then with a leap and then another she disappeared over the building faster than Padre could have moved that distance on the ground.

“Padre? Do we do anything about her?”

“No, Miguel. She is not a threat to us. Some children will do whatever task is set before them. Some make their own. That young woman has created her own crusade. There is no point in getting involved.” He waved his man down and returned to the game.

An interesting child indeed. He would have to put together a meeting with young Jackie sometime.

—--

“Nailed it.” I told myself as I slipped into the Quadra to drive off.

I had slipped up the building next to my car and then managed to reach Padre with absolutely no one knowing. I had accidentally startled him a bit by landing behind him on the bleachers, but at least no one would think I was a dough girl!

I opened the file he had sent and felt a smirk crossing my face. Padre had certainly come in clutch. There were a few different locations, that he had some Scav information, and a few rumors put together pointing to some potential spots.

Looking out the window I glared. It was still the middle of the day. It was easier to hunt them during the night, but they also could be hunting themselves.

I shrugged. I had pretty good armor. A full magazine. And a location full of soon to be dead men.

My Quadra started up with a rumble and I was gone.

 

[Seras]

I was all prepped. I had found the little Scav den that Padre sent me the info for, in the basement of an abandoned building on the west side of Heywood.

I had broken their security. Pinged into their network, tracked their movements in real time as I hung out in the abandoned backlot of the building.

The only signs of use were tire tracks and the fact the old gate had a long curving path through the dirt showing it was still opened from time to time.

I was stacked up on the side of the back door, one hand reaching for the doorknob that I already ensured would open, and the other on my rifle. Ready to breach and begin killing.

Then I got a call.

I almost flinched. Took a single breath, in and out, and checked the caller ID. With a silent hiss of irritation I answered.

*Jun, I’m a bit busy.*

*Imouto. Drop what you are doing. Something has come up.*

I look at the moving figures through the walls outlined in digital glows.

*Bit busy, here Jun.*

*The Maelstrom have reached out to the Tyger Claws about the attack.*

I blinked. I hadn’t forgotten the Maelstrom fucker that sniped at Jun and I. But I had put them on the back burner to focus on the Scavs.

*What?*

*The fuckers… The Maelstrom aren’t happy about the chance of the war starting again so soon. So they reached out. They want a meeting to discuss the attack. They are apparently saying it wasn’t them…* Jun made a noise of frustration that actually came over the call.

But he wasn’t even finished.

*But they are saying they have information on who ordered the hit.*

I hesitated. The Scavs were right there…

But this was more important.

*Where?*

*You remember The bar? Fujimura is meeting the Maelstrom there. Fujimura said you don’t have to be here, but I know you.*

*I’m on my way. I have some questions needing answers as well. Thanks Jun.*

I was gone in a flash. Back over the abandoned lot. Over the wall with just a double hop to clear the barbed wire at the top.

I was slamming myself into the Quadra and taking off as fast as I could.

Answers on who had actually tried to kill me? Tried to kill Jun?

That was worth letting these Scavs live a little longer.

—--

When I pulled into the little market that held Fujimura’s bar. I was surprised to see Jun already out in the parking lot waiting for me.

He didn’t look happy.

I stepped out and I could tell my appearance surprised Jun.

Oh right. My outfit was pretty militarized.

I pulled my techgogs up out of my eyes as I walked up to him. Although I still had my Copperhead in my hands.

I wasn’t intending to show up casually after all.

Jun didn’t say anything as I approached, and I could tell he was partly furious and partly sulking.

“Fujimura kicked you out?”

“No!” He snapped back, but then went silent.

Yep.

“Hard to keep your cool around them huh?” I asked and Jun’s glare at me told me I had hit the nail on the coffin. “Yeah. Just seeing their stupid optics irritates me too. What’s really going on Jun?”

“They aren’t taking responsibility for the assassination. Blaming it all on the sniper. Saying the piece of shit reached out to the Scavs about our home's location without permission. They’re saying the Sniper was actually working with the Scavs entirely. So he was no longer Strom.”

“Yeah? Fuck that. They attacked our home… Twice.” I hissed out.

“That’s what I said.” Jun said, sounding kinda normal actually as he smirked at me. “Fujimura-sama asked me to leave after I said that to their face.”

“Sure.” I nodded. I'm sure there weren't any threats of violence or my gonk brother trying to strangle the Maelstrom involved in any way.

“Alright. I’m gonna go get some answers.” I said and Jun didn’t stop me, instead he just started walking to the bar. Creating a path through the crowd, although considering how armed I was, they were already splitting for me anyways.

Jun stopped at the entrance with an irritated grunt but he leaned his back against the wall of the building at the top of the stairs.

Ah right. He wasn’t allowed in.

I eased up my rifle, making it obvious I wasn’t literally holding my finger on the trigger as I sauntered down. Into the bars gloom.

Instantly I had eyes on me. The bartender. Men hanging out at the bar. Or in the booths along the walls.

Not all of them TC either.

Maelstrom optics locked on me, their twitchy owners already looking ready to start firing.

I took a few steps down, and forced myself to stay calm when it was obvious I wasn’t going to be allowed to pass into the back considering how insanely on guard the Strom were acting when I moved.

I stopped at the bar instead. Unclipping my Copperhead from my rig I placed it on the table moving casually so the Maelstrom I was standing next to would stop reaching for that pistol.

“Hold on to this for me.” I asked the Bartender who nodded slowly and took it to hide it behind the bar, and then I moved toward the back.

The small stairs leading up to the back area with the darkest most private booths were guarded on one side by a man I vaguely recognized. He was one of the Kamikazi Borgs. One of the men I had worked with on that gig so long ago.

Well sort worked with. They had run ahead like assholes.

The other was a big Maelstrom monster. Probably half a ton of pure chrome as he looked me over with his nine eyes.

“Private meeting.” He grumbled out, sounding more like an engine off its timing than a man.

“I’m aware.” I said, but the Strom shifted, putting himself in the way.

The TC guard tensed, but didn’t make a move to stop him.

Either he wanted to see how it went, or he just didn’t want to create conflict between the two factions.

“I said private. You ain’t on the list.” He rumbled at me, but I barely slowed.

I inhaled and exhaled through my nose for a moment. My first reaction was to give the fucker an ultimatum and then go through him if he tried to stop me, but this wasn’t my place. My gig. I might have been involved, but this was Fujimura’s place, and while I didn’t really feel like I owed him anything.

Jun still worked under him. I should still be polite to my brother's boss…

Polite-ish anyways.

“You just going to stand there, or are you going to tell this lugnut I can go through?” I asked, looking to the TC guard.

The asshole just shrugged.

“Pfft. Like I give a shit what this fucker says. You ain’t on the-Hey!” He grunted as his eyes suddenly went dark.

He made two swipes at me, which I easily avoided and just walked around him.

That was probably going to cause some kind of trouble later, but that was future Motoko’s problem. I heard a crash behind me but I didn’t bother to turn to look. I walked up the steps and over to the only booth that was occupied.

Fujimura. Another man I recognized from the Kamikaze gigs. Across from two Maelstrom.

A big guy and…

My eyes flashed as I scanned her just to be sure.

“Natalie Desanto AKA GearSlot.” I Introduced myself to the group by calling out one of them.

The woman was put together, chromed out and looking pissed and dangerous, nothing like what I had seen from her the last time we met.

“Motoko Kusanagi. AKA Ghost.” She responded back instantly.

I actually felt like blinking at that. That was the first time someone outside the net called me that. Did she look into me to get that name, I wasn’t exactly well known in the city. Maybe something on my NCPD rap sheet had update?

Now I was kinda curious. I would have to check my rap sheet later.

“The fuck is this Fujimura?” The question came not from the Maelstrom man who was looking on with a face I couldn’t pull any emotion from. It was so destroyed. But the Yakuza looking guy sitting next to Fujimura. The one that it only took a moment to gather was someone higher up the totem pole than Fujimura himself.

Mostly because it was the first time I’ve seen a Tyger Claw member not use -sama when saying his name.

“An unexpected guest. Azegami-sama ” Fujimura answered gravely, as he gave me a look that promised trouble.

For some reason the guy was kinda familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“Kusanagi. Sit or leave.” Fujimura demanded and I resisted snorting at him as I took a seat. Facing the Maelstrom fuckers only to be forced to blink again.

“Wait. You’re Brick? Aren’t you the Strom leader?”

The borg just shrugged. “I’ve been called that. So you the one huh? The Only Thing They Fear huh? It was a nice Riff. The BD was good. You’re a little too cold during your murders though. There’s some chrome that can fix that. Get you properly heated up.” He offered in greeting and I actually had to stop myself from twitching at the comment.

Disgusting. So digusting horrible utterly disgusting. Of course the Maelstrom would be the fuckers that knew about my BD. The idea of them watching my BD, of being in my ghost?

Disgusting.

Before I could say anything else the TC boss interrupted.

“Now that the interruption is ove-” The noise of someone smashing into something outside the booth interrupted the boss.

“Bitch you fucking blinded me! I’m going to rip your damn head off!”

Fujimura looked right at me, but I ignored him. That couldn’t have been my fault. I was sitting right here.

Fujimura looked at me.

I blinked, but after a moment, he didn’t stop. I relented, turning off the hack. “He can see again. Shouldn’t have tried to block me.” I mumbled the last part, but finally took a seat at the table.

“Heh. You got old EngineBlock good with that one.” Brick said with a rumbling chuckle.

“Good. Now without interruptions.” Azegami started again. His bald head and many tattoos gave him the look of an angry Yakuza, as he growled. “The Tyger Claws accept the Maelstroms' reasoning with this. Considering how recently we were at war it is the decision that this was a rogue act. As long as the requests we have made will be paid in full.”

I listened to the words without exploding.

I wasn’t Jun after all.

I never expected the Tyger Claws to actually protect us to start with. No, the only one that could do that would be me.

When I murder everyone that could harm us. I inhaled and exhaled. Letting the cold soothe back the feelings rushing through me.

“Glad to hear it. Fucking prick causing this kind of trouble. He was a little shit to start with.” Brick offered, but now it was my turn to interrupt.

“I would like to know why he was working with Scavs. Especially since just a few weeks before I rescued her, from a Scav den. Seems pretty fucked up for a choom to work with the fuckers that scaved a choom of his.” I cut in, the booth going quiet for a moment.

I was in luck. It seems Fujimura, and Azegami were both interested enough not to get involved at my question.

“Not a fuckin’ clue. You knew him, yeah? You explain.” Brick looked to GearSlot who just nodded a bit. But her hands were giving her away. Constantly clenching and unclenching, and nearly popping at how tightly she was squeezing her knuckles together. The fact they were some version of Gorilla arms meant she was squeezing tight enough to bend steel.

“CamShaft-”

“No.” Brick cut in, finger raised up so quickly and closely it nearly took off GearSlots head it felt like, as he jammed his finger into her face. “That’s not his name. Not anymore. Fucker betrayed us. He isn’t Maelstrom. Call him by his flesh.”

“Randall.” She offered instead and this time Bricks cut off was a laugh.

“Randall? Fuckin’ hell. Shouldn’t be surprised never met a Randall that’s not a piece of shit.”

“Right. Randall’s always been greedy. After he saw the Scav den he helped pull me out of… Well I can’t be completely sure, but we think he went looking for them. To get some chrome. That last time he spoke to anyone he mentioned he traded information about… You. For more chrome. He didn’t mention who he traded with, but I guess we know now.”

She was looking at me.

“So me saving your life, led to an assassination attempt. I guess I should be lucky that the dumbass was so completely incompetent he and his Scav buddies fucked it up.”

“Yeah.” She growled out looking like she wanted to say more, but she looked to Brick and then the others and instead just stayed silent.

“The failure of this attack is the only reason we are here talking.” Azegami said, cutting in as he put out a cigarette in an ashtray. “Kusanagi. Drop it. The only member of the Maelstrom responsible is dead. Consider this issue with the Maelstrom dropped.” The Boss said. Ordering me, as if I gave a shit at his order.

I could practically feel my neck itch. My hackles rise. Who was this fat bald fuck to tell me that something was dropped?

“Kusanagi.” Fujimura cut in suddenly and I realized that once again Fujimura was the guy they put in charge of all the TC Cyberpsychos. The guy that figures people out and learns how to get them to do what he needs, because he only took an instant to realize that his boss had said something stupid. “Go check on your brother. You will not find the rest of this meeting interesting.”

I considered telling him to fuck off. I was already pissed with this entire situation, but that wouldn’t get me anything.

“Wonderful. Well this has been completely fucking worthless. I guess it’s a good thing for you that I was massacring Scavs, and not hitting your people then.” I said as I rose up, throwing a final threat to Brick.

“Heh, we aren’t Scavs kid. You got some talent there, but you aren’t top shelf yet.” Brick replied with a deep chuckle.

I stopped my turn away. I had been about to leave, but…

I turned enough that I could look at Brick with a single eye. The thought struck me.

Brick was a good leader for Maelstrom. Kept them mostly out of trouble. It was that passivity that caused his usurpation in a few years. If I killed him right now, the TC would be pissed. They would definitely be forced into a war with them. A new Maelstrom leader might just mean they don’t know when to stop. Might not know how to stop another war.

I could pit two troublesome gangs into a war that might end in destroying or at least weakening both.

The thought passed. The positives. The negatives.

Brick knew. His ripped apart chrome face broke into a smile that told me, if I drew my gun he would react.

He might even be fast enough. Pretty sure that big chunk of chrome on the back of his neck was a Sandy, or a Keren.

Either way, he would be fast. Maybe fast enough to survive.

Would the TC help kill him, or try to stop me?

I turned away.

No. When I kill brick, it wasn’t going to be at a neutral meeting.

“See ya around Maelstrom.”

“See ya around Ghost.” Brick called out sounding completely amused at the situation. Used my Netrunner tag as well.

I stepped out of the booth around the very angry Strom borg who was glaring at me with his stupid optics… Only three of them were red.

Why were only three of his optics running? I turned off the hack, which would have removed the Laughing Man disruption and returned vision.

Then I noticed he had some of the optical wires revealed… Had he reached into his own head to try and check for hardware issues?

Gross.

I ignored him though, instead heading to the bar to pick up my rifle when I heard her approach.

“I’m not really in the mood for a chat.” I replied as I turned around.

GearSlot was coming up behind me. The woman was tall. Although most of that was a set of extended legs. I hadn’t really noticed before, but she must have taken being klepped by the Scavs personally. Her arms were Gorilla arms. Legs were some mish mash of combat mods for extreme strength. She was covered in surgery cuts for new Subdermal, and just armor in general.

If she was looking to go Cyberpsycho, she was well on her way… Well Maelstrom. So probably already there.

“Just… Gimme a sec, okay?” She said not quite snapping, but sounding angry. “Fuckin’ hate shit like this. Don’t like meatbags. They give me the creeps, but I owe you. So just… Thanks, alright? I’ve looked into you since that night. Know how you got that chrome. Know you hate our guts, and why. You still helped me get out.”

“Congratulations. Are we done?”

“Fuckin’ No! I’m not doing this well and shit, but listen Ghost, I get it… I’m Strom. Yeah? We got a rep with meat. Everyone hates us, and we know why. We glorify it even. But that doesn’t mean we don’t pay back what we owe.” GearSlot looked uncomfortable before sighing and then I got a text.

Contact information.

“Listen. Contact me if you want… If you ever like… need something from our side of the city. I owe you one.” The spider eyes of the Strom forcefully looked away.

I wasn’t sure what kind of face I was making, but I specifically cooled myself down to look at it clinically.

“Sure.” I finally said, not sure what else I could really do.

“Wrenched up!” She said suddenly her demeanor shifted, her mouth going into a happy smile full of razor sharp teeth. “Hey umm. I saw the BD you made of that night. Well I mean, I’ve seen like all of them by now! I just wanted to say it was hella ripper. Like just the preemest shit. That song that played? Do you like… buzz it anywhere or something? I kinda… Well it’s a good song you know? For me. It’s like the song of freedom! After that night. Everyone digs it, I kinda showed it around and all.”

I held back the shudder of disgust at the idea that my song was popular among the Maelstrom.

Please let this one just be a fucking weirdo. I might really have to murder them all if they actually enjoyed my hobby that I only picked up because of the damage they did to me.

“Not… Not yet. It’s mostly just a hobby.”

“Oh okay! I have a ripped copy from the BD. So I’ll just keep listening to that… The screams of the Scavs don’t bother me… Obviously.” She said her voice losing emotion at the last word.

“Yeah.” I muttered. “See ya around.” I firmly disengaged from the conversation as I made to leave.

“Yeah! Good luck! You know killing the Scav trash!”

I ran into Jun at the top of the stairs. My brother was still glaring at nothing, irritated at being sent away.

“So you heard?”
“This day is so fucking weird. I just had a Maelstrom fangirl over my BD work. Jun I’m going home… Fuck today.”

Jun blinked at me, and considered it himself.

“Fuck today.” He said as well.

We went to our Ramen bar.

Noodles and hot broth soothe difficult emotions.

 

[Seras]

I was sitting on the couch. Well laying on it more than anything. I probably should go kill those Scavs… Or play some music to let the hobby do what it was supposed to and soothe out these kinds of emotional issues, but I was just so done.

“Fuck today.” I reminded myself and that was good enough.

“Fuck today.” Jun called out from his room, obviously hearing me.

Then I got a call.

Fuck.

*Hey Hiromi.* I answered. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to my best choom. I just didn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

*Motoko! Tell this fucking ugly gonk at the front of your building to let us up! Otherwise Hiromi is gonna whoop some fuckheads ass!*

I sighed.

Fuck today.

*I’ll be right down.*

I climbed up and didn’t so much put on my boots as I just threw them on my feet. So I wouldn’t step on anything sharp lying around and headed downstairs.

I was so done with today I even used the elevator.

The door opened to arguing.

“Move aside already! I don’t know who you are, and you certainly don’t have the right to keep us from seeing Motoko. We’re Motoko’s gang! Her crew! Who the hell are you supposed to be?”

“The guard in charge bitch! No one bothers the Kusanagi’s! I don’t care what crazy shit you say! You’re gonna get your ass knocked the fuck out if you don’t-Motoko! Hey! Just getting rid of-”

“Hiromi, Ichi, Malcolm. Get in the elevator.” I demanded, not ready to deal with this.

“Ah! They are your chooms then? Had to stop them, and make sure you know? Can’t let some weirdos bother you and your brother Motoko! Do you need anything? I-”

“Hurry it up you three.” I called out and stepped back into the elevator.

“Finally!” Malcolm said obviously as irritated at the argument as I was. “Hey Motoko. How’re you holding up?” He asked, as the first one in the elevator.

“Fuck today.” I informed him and he just nodded along like I said something wise.

“It’s okay Motoko! Your chooms are here to make your day better!” Hiromi called out smiling and Ichi passed me an apologetic smile.

“She was determined to bring us all together today to see what we can do to help.”

“Ah. That explains Hiromi’s Hirominess.” I offered, earning a protesting noise from the girl. I threw an arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. “Thanks for checking in on me. I guess I could use a break from all the stuff going on.”

“Right! If my Motoko needs some relaxation, that’s what we are here for!”

“I thought we were here to make Motoko let us help kill Scavs.” Malcolm said to Ichi in a faux whisper.

Hiromi of course kicked him and the two would have broken into a fight if the elevator didn’t open.

“C’mon.” I called as I walked past the distracted HIromi with Ichi following.

“Oh wow.” Hiromi stalled out along with the boys when they got a look at the apartment. I mean there wasn’t any glass left lying around, but there were still big holes in the walls and the barrier blinds.

“Yeah it’s a little fucked up still. Jun and I need to call in an actual repair guy or something.”

“You are both gonks. I know someone. I’ll call them in to get everything fixed up.” Hiromi said and before I could stop her, her eyes flashed as she made a call and she turned and ignored me as I moved to stop her.

“Heh. That’s Hiromi alright.” Ichi said laughing as he ignored my ineffectual attempts to get Hiromi to stop.

She was stronger though! Did she get more chrome? I looked her over with narrowed eyes. Then I reached out.

“Eep! Motoko!”

“When did you get muscles?” I asked as my hands pulled away Hiromi’s casual clothes to let me check out her bicep, and then her stomach.

Yep those were muscles there.

“I-it’s a Biotechnica upgrade package! Motoko!”

“That’s so… Cool.” I said I was going to say unfair, but really I had absolutely no room to talk there. Biotechnica huh?

That was neat. I hadn’t thought much about Bioware since I kinda just wanted to go full borg eventually.

I shrugged and pulled my chrome hands free of Hiromi’s clothes realizing why Hiromi was wiggling and flushed at my exploration.

“Ah! Sorry were my hands cold!?” I quickly pulled them away and checked my chrome palm against my cheek for a second.

No it wasn’t too bad. Maybe Hiromi just has a high body temperature? She was always looking flushed after all.

“When did you get bioware work done?” Malcolm asked curious, and Hiromi shushed him as she was still on the phone.

A few moments later she blinked and her eyes were back to normal and then she leapt on me.

“Wha!”

“YOU! NOT WHEN I’M ON A BUSINESS CALL YOU GONK!” She shrieked as she pushed me down and tried to faux strangle me.

I couldn’t help but start giggling, because while Hiromi was pretty strong, I was still stronger, and her response was great.

“Sorry!”

“You aren’t sorry!” She said struggling and I only giggled harder. Okay maybe today wasn’t entirely awful.

“Ah that explains the noise.” Jun said as he poked his head out of his room and into the living room. “Hey guys.”

“Jun!”

“Hey Jun.” Malcolm and Ichi both greeted my brother while Hiromi focused on trying to stuff my face into the couch.

She was failing and it was definitely irritating her.

Relying too much on chrome, or mods is a bad idea Hiromi. Gotta have the skill to back it up, and my grappling perk made me pretty good at this.

“Ugh fine!” She eventually gave in as I kept her from achieving her goal as she sat up surprising me, by sitting her stupid fat ass right on my stomach, knocking the air out of me a bit.

“Oof! Hiromi!”

“I don’t listen to chairs.” She said to the air and then looked to Jun. “Hey Jun. You doing okay?”

“Heh. The day has come where my kid sister's little chooms are worried about me.” He uttered shaking his head and standing up straight flashing her a grin to my surprise. “I’m fine. Irritated about everything but fine.”

“Hmm. Motoko hasn’t talked about it yet. Anything we can do to help? I do have connections now.” Hiromi said partially preening at her own words.

“Nah. The Maelstrom basically said the guy that attacked them wasn’t one of theirs and the TC is going along with it. So we only got Scavs to retaliate against, but… It’s impossible to know which group attacked us, or if there will be more attacks coming.”

My chooms were quiet at Jun’s final words.

“I’m sorry.” Hiromi said, reaching over and grabbing my hand as she adjusted herself to not be sitting on my stomach. “I can’t… I can’t believe they attacked your home, and now you can’t pinpoint the ones responsible.”

“So we just kill them all.” I say with a shrug. “It’s been my solution since it happened. I’m just going to kill every Scav I find until there aren’t any more.”

Jun snorted, looking like he was going to agree, but to my surprise he ran a hand over his face and through his hair. “Maybe it’s time we settle it there too, Motoko. We reach out with our contacts and make a deal.”

“Hell no!”

“Motoko. We got lucky last time. You spotted the sniper just in time, but that guy was an amateur. What if they just bombed our apartment while we were in here. Or sent more than a van full of grunts… Honestly I’m surprised they sent so few.”

“I think Randall was the one responsible for that.” I muttered and everyone looked at me. “The Maelstrom sniper, apparently his name was Randall… I ran into him before. The night I recorded my BD for The Only Thing They Fear.” I explained sitting up pushing Hiromi to the side a bit so I was sitting up and not just half way sprawled across the couch.

Sitting up I ran through what I had figured out.

“So that night I ran into a Maelstrom girl in the Scav den. They had pulled her apart, but she was still awake… I felt sorry for her, so I helped her get help. Randall was one of the Maelstrom fucks that showed up. He was a moron. But he must have realized who I was after… Probably from the BD? According to GearSlot he seemed incredibly interested in all the Chrome the Scavs had. I think he found a Scav group and reached out to them. Set up the assault on Jun and I. Maybe Revenge for the war? Or he offered our location to the Scavs. I mean it’s not like my BD’s aren’t getting around. Maybe he told them he knew who was recording the BD’s and… I don’t know.”

Everything was just an assumption. Jun had made sure we wouldn’t be able to ask Randall, and the Scavs weren’t exactly chatty.

“Motoko… There is something else. Something Fujimura-sama mentioned to me. He assigned us a few guards, but they are just kids they can’t stop shit… He mentioned that we should move into a more secure location.”

“Fuck no!” I snapped outraged at the very idea, but Jun didn’t let my instant response ruffle him.

“I think we should consider it Motoko. There are plenty of locations we could move to that have more security. Fujimura-sama controls a floor of a building that he rents out to TC. It’s safe. Protected.”

“Jun I said no! We arent-I’m not moving! This is our home!” I denied but Jun moved away from the wall he had been resting against and walked around Ichi and Malcolm who were both being really quiet.

Shit that was the look of a couple of people watching an argument between family members and not being sure what to do.

Sorry guys.

Jun stopped in front of me and rested his stupid heavy hand on my head.

“Home is where we live. Not a place. I want you to be safe, Motoko. I want us to be safe… I try to protect you as much as I can, but you just do whatever you want anyways, so I can’t stop you there. But I think we should move. To a bigger place, a more secure place… Don’t you want a bigger room? One with your own space.”

“I like my current room just fine!”

“It’s a closet you gonk. You’ve never had a real room before. You could have a workbench and tinker with your stuff without me accidentally sitting on it or-”

“Wait, when did you sit on my stuff!?”

Jun blinked at me and then just mushed my hair. “We are going to look around at places… Maybe tomorrow. Keep an open mind, okay?” Then Jun disappeared and as I fixed my hair I looked up to see him disappear back into his room.

“I’m like 90% sure he just tried to distract me from the fact he apparently sat on some of my stuff and broke it.”

“You think so?” Hiromi asked, and I nodded.

“I’m honestly more curious than upset. I don’t remember finding anything missing…” I shook it off. I would tackle Jun in his sleep and demand my answers later. “Alright chooms, enough of this shit. Want to get some food, and watch some garbage TV or something?”

“Sounds good to me!” Malcolm said before anyone else could argue.

“Great. Malcolm, you are with me on the food run. Hiromi, Ichi figure out what to watch?”

—--

The next morning, long after everyone had gone home, Jun poked me as I was working on some programming stuff for Yoko in payment for the Scav locations.

“C’mon.”

“I already told you Jun. I’m not moving.”

“Come anyways.” He demanded and gave me a look.

Fine. If only because if I didn’t go with him he was going to lift me up and carry me like a sack of angry kittens.

I got up, got dressed, wasted some time taking a shower specifically in protest, and came out only to get whipped in the face with a towel.

Then Jun attacked me with the towel.

“H-hey! Sto-oooop!” I whined but my brother has no mercy in his heart. He ran the towel over my hair like a machine and when he finally released me I fell to the floor blinking as if someone had just mugged me.

“There, your hair is dry, c’mon.”

“You… Are you kidding me? I’m a girl you gonk! Now I have to do my hair! Look at it!” I yelled at him my hair was poofy I could feel it. Standing up more like an afro than my normal style!

“I look like I just got in a fight with an electrical outlet! And I lost!”

“Heh.” Jun just laughed at me, and made no motion to do anything more so I scurried back into the bathroom to battle my hair.

I ended up needing to wet it back down just to be able to style it again.

“You know it’s funny. You don’t really do makeup or anything, but you’re pretty protective of your hair style.” Jun said from the kitchen as he watched me wrestle my hair with a brush desperately trying not to get it stuck in the mess of my hair.

“I’m plenty girly!”

Jun just gave me a look of disbelief. Hey! That’s so mean!

“Motoko I’ve seen you wear the same leotard for days on end before.”

I paused in utter betrayal! I was programming then! I was too busy for things like… Showering… Or changing clothes…

“We never speak of this again, or I tell everyone about the bed burrito.”

He blinked. Considering. Then nodded. Turning around and walking away like the conversation never happened.

Good.

Some things should just be kept between siblings.

—--

“Wow. I’m totally impressed, Jun-nii! Truly this is the best place ever!”

“Your sarcasm isn’t really necessary.” He grumbled at me as we looked at the building.

Funnily enough, we were just down the street from the apartments that I cleared the other night. The same tutorial Scav den from the game. Just north, along the same road I had leapt over while escaping Jun was a bunch of apartment buildings all smashed together into a mess.

Of course the entrance was a big red Torri Gate. That and everything was covered in graffiti Tigers.

If you missed the fact this was Tyger Claw Territory.

“Just come look at the apartments, okay? They are big. Bigger than our current place, and they are safe.”

“I’m playing along for now, mostly because I love you, and want to spend time with you, but I’m not interested.” I informed him, which to my secret delight earned me a heavy hand ruffling my hair a little.

I swiped a punch at him in retaliation of course, but it was still nice.

“C’mon let’s see the place before anything else. You might like it. We’ll have neighbors that aren’t Ms. Kagura.” He offered and I blinked before remembering the old lady that was our neighbor on our floor.

“Oh right. I forgot about her.”

“Well there will be some kids our age here. So maybe someone you actually get along with. Someone to add to your little group?”

“Yeah sure Jun.” I agreed without actually agreeing. If they lived here they would be TC brats… Okay that’s not a good excuse considering most of my friends were just that, but they were probably gonks.

My decision not to like the situation I was stuck in, had Jun rolling his eyes as I shot grumpy looks at him constantly.

We walked into the building from a side entrance through a shop into a hallway that led to a dozen closed doors. Jun led us to an elevator and then hit the twenty-seventh floor.

Finally we hit the floor, and I had to admit. The moment the doors opened I did have to quirk an eyebrow. The elevator entrance area was clean.

Like actually clean.

It was actually a surprise I was so used to the decaying squalor, I barely noticed it anymore.

Yet here, there were clean carpets. White walls which did have Tyger Claw stuff on it, but it was paintings, instead of just graffiti.

“I told you Fujimura-sama owns this floor and rents it out to Tyger Claws. You think he would put up with a messy space?”

I scoffed but followed Jun down the hall. I noticed the security without a thought. Ninjutsu and Netrunning meant I couldn’t help but notice it.

Quality cameras, security features on every door. A hidden HMG turret in the roof inside the elevator entrance way.

Okay it was definitely more secure than our previous place.

There we only had security gates on the stairs which didn’t do much since the elevators were still open access.

“This is it.” Jun said suddenly as he stopped in front of a room. 2704.Jun looked to me like he was expecting some interest, but I had literally been in plenty of apartments over the last few days.

Mostly killing Scavs, but the point stood.

He looked a little bummed that I was remaining disinterested as he opened the door.

The apartment was actually pretty big.

It opened into a large living room. Something we didn’t really have in our place. It even had one of those round media couches indented into the floor in the corner.

There was a small inset nearby that had a fridge, and a pseudo kitchenette. Just without any of the normal stuff in a kitchen, because people don’t cook in Cyberpunk.

More like they were pushed to not cook, but that wasn’t something I was going to focus on right now.

The Bathroom still didn’t have an actual door.

Fucking Cyberpunk. I swear to god doors on bathrooms were normal! Why did no one have a damn…

I sighed letting the irritation go. I was still finding myself easily riled up since the attack. It was obvious the attack hadn’t exactly left me my usual self. I took a deep breath and let it out, feeling arctic for a moment, as I steadied my heart and then breathed normally.

Jun was wandering around looking around the place with a happy smile on his face.

Dammit. Jun wanted to move didn’t he?

The brush with returning Cyberpsychosis seemed to have washed off his back after everything. Which was good, but it did kind of piss me off, because it meant Jun was actually…

Jun was actually happy looking around this apartment. It wasn’t faked, or something he was trying to convince me.

This was something he wanted.

I forgot.

People in Night City cared about reputation. Reputation was important. And the way you showed off your rep was owning things.

Fast cars, fancy clothes, lots of chrome.

A big apartment.

Our place was kinda a shithole. I knew that. I just… I had grown comfy. It was security. Safety like a blanket.

I was going to have to be the mature one. Jun deserved that. Jun deserved to be able to have a nice big apartment with room to actually move, and fancy stuff.

He was a teenager taking care of his kid sister. His kid sister that shouldn’t be throwing a fucking tantrum like an actual teenager about moving into a bigger, fancier, more secure apartment.

Dammit. I hated when my face was rubbed in the negative effects of my own childishness. I mean… I wasn’t going to change, but at least I could acknowledge when it caused problems.

There actually was more than one room here. I guess I really would have my own room. Jun was distracted with checking out the entertainment system, acting like the teenager he was as I checked the rooms.

“I call dibs on this one!” I call out, knowing the reaction it would get.

“That’s the bigger room!” Jun yelped as he charged at me, and I broke the smile on my face before he could see it.

There would be a fight, I would likely be sat on for a while, and in the end Jun would ‘earn’ his master bedroom. But it was better this way.

Because as much as I was focused on my own happiness. I wanted Jun the big gonk to be happy too, and maybe… Maybe it was time to let him have that happiness without his needy, childish sister getting in the way.

 

[Seras]

We went home to the apartment after and the whole time Jun was being insufferable.

"I told you you would like it!" he teased, smiling like the stupid gonk he is.

My desire to punch him was rising. Just because I had accepted that moving was what Jun wanted, and I shouldn't hold him back didn't mean I really wanted it.

But he was acting like I was super happy with it all.

"Jun shut up." I told him simply as I walked around my room cleaning things up. Gathering up everything so we could start moving stuff.

"When do you want me to call Ichi with his truck? Wait, when does the lease and stuff actually go through?" How did leasing even work in Night City?

"What do you mean, it's already ours." Jun said as he popped his head around the corner from his room to look at me.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Fujimura already gave you the apartment before you ever tried to convince me to move didn't he?" I accused him, eyes narrowed as I prepared for the answer I already knew.

Jun blinked realizing he was suddenly standing in the middle of a minefield.

"Nooo?" He said and I chucked an old shoe at him that I had found in a corner. Unfortunately he was pretty quick and dodged it.

"Jerk." I grumbled as I continued to dig things out of corners. And finding bags and boxes to put them in.

I picked up another cardboard box that Jun had grabbed to stuff shit into.

Well it wasn't actually cardboard. It looked like it, sorta felt like it, but it wasn't. And I had long ago decided not to ask questions about what stuff in Night City was actually made of.

I should be killing Scavs right now.

Not dealing with moving.

I pulled out my little dresser, noticing a bunch of stuff that I had never seen before back behind it.

Motoko was kind of a slob…

Okay I was still kind of a slob, but I had a lot less knick knacks and junk…

Okay I still had a lot of junk, but it was all tech supplies!

"Huh." I muttered pulling out an actual digital photo display. I switched it on and blinked.

"So that's what I looked like before." It was a picture of Motoko… Well older Motoko sitting on Jun's Kusanagi. She was dressed up fully in Tyger Claw swag, hair done up in mohawk…

I guess HIromi and I used to share hairstyles? Although mine had been a shorter faux hawk.

I looked at it for a while. I had no real connection to it. Jun was younger. Probably fifteen? He looked hilarious with his tough guy wannabe looks…

No wait. That means he would be around Ichi and Malcolm's age! He was a wannabe too! Oh man!

"Hey Jun, look what I found!" I called out smirking as I walked out of my bedroom to see Jun carefully disassembling the family shrine.

"What'd you find?" He asked solemnly as he slowly took down the picture of our parents.

"Nothing that interesting. Need some help?" I asked as I threw the picture frame onto the couch and moved to help Jun pack up our family shrine.

I'd tease him about the picture later.

—--

"So you're really moving?" Ichi asked as I led him inside.

"Yeah. It was important to Jun." I admitted as I pushed a box to the side to clear up some room on the couch. "Take a seat."

"No I can help!" He offered doing the usual childish act of flexing an arm.

"If you want? But the guy who brings the truck can put his feet up if he wants." I informed him which earned me a chuckle.

"Crazy to think last night was the last time we'll ever meet up here." He muttered, and I did my best to keep cool, to not let that thought strike my heart.

For Jun.

"Yeah, but starting tonight, You'll be able to meet up and party at our new place." Jun said as he appeared from around the corner, holding a box in one under and a long bag that I realized was acting as his gun bag.

Huh, I didn't know Jun had a gun bag…

Wait fuck I don't have a gun bag! All my guns were stolen from gonks! It's cool. Just pretend I don't notice and it won't matter.

"Yeah that's true. We'll have a new meetup. Motoko's fancy new place."

"It is kinda fancy." I whispered to Ichi as I walked by arms full of boxes. "Grab that one?"

"Yeah sure." He hefted up another box and all three of us headed down towards his truck.

It was parked just out front of the apartment, and the guards were keeping an eye on it, so we wouldn't have to worry about anything going missing while loading it up.

Pushing my box in, I stopped and headed over to the meat stick guy. "Gonna miss my usual." I told him and he chuckled and passed me an extra large stick.

Thanks, Meat stick guy. You're the best.

I paid extra though. I definitely had more eddies than the poor old man.

As I took a break and ate my last meat stick skewer I looked around. Mostly because I was still on edge and expecting to see a Scav hunter group or something barreling down the road.

But there was nothing.

Just a quiet day on the streets.

In the end, despite my fears there hadn't been a second Scav attack. No bomb, or trick. It made me nervous because I thought there would have been and yet.

Nothing.

I didn't know why though. Then again what I had done could have been completely covered by the acts of the Tygers.

Considering how Scavs act. We could have killed the Scavs that knew about where I lived. Or killed all the Scavs that cared.

The whole thing was a massive mess, and unlike in a video game that would always have a helpful conversation shard sitting on the side of a table or something, there wasn't anything that helpful for me to figure this out.

I still really wanted to kill them. Just to make sure, but the whole thing was weird.

In the end the real world wasn't a game, or an anime. I wasn't the main character of Night City.

Well…

Not yet.

—--

"Well. This is it." Jun said as he dropped the last box of stuff into the middle of the living room.

We were completely moved out.

Our entire apartment, our entire life, had fit in the back of Ichi's truck. It had only taken one load to move everything over.

Our vehicles were now parked in a garage under the building.

Our stuff was there on the floor. Malcolm and Ichi were watching the truck to make sure nothing went missing while Jun and I unloaded.

"Yeah." I muttered before sighing and walking into my room. It had an actual bed. One of the weird future beds that were everywhere in Night city. Gently I pulled out a special object out of my jacket. Something I hadn't trusted letting anyone else mess with. The bed had little drawers along the side of it, and for now that was good enough. I slipped it in.

"What's that?" Jun asked, not quite startling me.

"A cyberdeck." I explained. I just didn't explain that it was Rache fucking Bartmosses deck.

"Okay?"

"It's rare, one of a kind, so I kept it on me." I told him and then shrugged heading back out to the apartment. "I'll go get the boys."

"Yeah, sounds good." Jun said looking at the pile of junk that we had stacked up on the floor. He sighed and grabbed the first box.

That's right Jun! Suffer at the knowledge that moving sucked!

I headed out. The hallway as usual was so fancy it almost made me uncomfortable. I kept checking my boots to make sure I wasn't tracking mud on the carpets.

But as I walked past the apartment right next to ours, I heard something that halted me in my place.

Music.

Not recorded sound, but someone actually playing an instrument. I stopped to listen for a moment as the tune came through the walls.

Huh. They were good! I hummed along for a moment as I let the song play through. I liked it. The musician had a recorded track they were playing with, a lot of recorded sounds, and a definite Japanese electronica groove.

Honestly I was just thankful it wasn't Us Cracks.

I shook it off, and decided I would say hello to my new neighbor sometime soon.

Until then I needed to head back down and let the boys know we had finished and they were now free.

I headed down taking the elevator that took forever to get down to the garage basement floor.

I walked out and had to frown.

A few Tygers were messing with the boys.

Around the front of Ichi's truck were a group of teenagers. They were obviously unwelcome as they were resting against the truck, one even sitting on the front of Ichi's hood, her legs swinging as they obviously were causing trouble.

"Hey!" I called out as I walked over catching the eyes of the group. "What are you guys bothering my chooms for?"

"Eh? Bothering? We are just checking out these weird gonks idling in our garage. Who the hell are you?" The one that had been hanging his elbow in Ichi's window called out, but didn't move away, instead a couple of his chooms were focusing on me.

"They were helping us move in. Twenty-Seventh floor." I called out, emphasizing the floor. Fujimura owned the entire floor? Then anyone in the area would know not to mess with anyone from that floor.

Their 'leader' slowly pulled away from the window as he looked me over.

"You don't look like the type to live on that floor."

"Fujimura and I have an understanding… And my Nii-chan is one of his men. Now stop harassing my chooms." I demanded.

I had learned from my lesson with Hiromi. Be blunt and direct with gangsters because they might not have the brain cells to rub together to understand a less blunt threat.

It still grated at me. To rely on Fujimura's rep. The stupid "Do you know who I am?" Statements always annoyed me.

I walked past the group, noticing the girl on the hood had slipped off, and tried to make it look like she hadn't just been sitting on Ichi's truck.

"Thanks for the help guys. Jun and I have it from here. Why don't you head out of here, We are just going to be unpacking for a while… Here, dinner's on me, okay?" I quickly sent a bunch of eddies to Malcolm and Ichi, despite Ichi's glare.

He had refused any payment for helping out today, but I wasn't going to let them help Jun and I move for free.

"Hey! That's the boss for you!" Malcolm called out more than happy for the payment.

"You don't have to… Motoko!" Ichi yelled behind me but I was already hurrying away, passing through the gangster gonks who were all watching me, their faces all showing their curiosity in who I was.

If I was important.

If I was lying.

If I was telling the truth.

But I wasn't here to satisfy their curiosity. I rushed back to the elevator and headed back up.

Time to unpack.

—---

Jun and I both flopped onto the big round couch.

"That was tiring."

"Yeah." I agreed with Jun. Everything was unpacked, or at least the boxes were put away in our rooms for later. Our family shrine was up. Our weapons were stored away, which had taken a bit longer than expected.

My armory had to my absolute delight put Jun's to shame, and we might have gotten into a wrestling match when he made a move towards my HMG.

Mine!

But now we were basically done.

All moved out.

All moved in.

"It's gonna be great Motoko. You'll see." He said and I didn't respond. He had been saying stuff like this to me all day, trying to hype me up for the new move.

"Aren't you the least bit excited? A new place? Bigger! Better!" I could try to explain to him that I knew what moving to a new apartment was like. It usually just ended with a month of getting used to it, before realizing all the new problems you had to live with that might not be the horrible ones from the last place, but were still shit.

But I couldn't exactly tell him that. As far as Jun was aware this was my first new place ever.

"I'm gonna play the entire Samurai Catalog at full blast right outside your room all night… Fair warning." I informed him and received a retaliatory pillow in exchange.

"You'll like it. It's better in every way from our old place." Jun informed me with a dreamy voice.

"You realize of course there isn't an XXL burrito machine outside the apartment door anymore." Then I let that tidbit settle in. A moment later Jun was at the door and then rushing down the hall.

I had checked as we walked in. No XXL burritos in the area that I had seen.

Good luck Jun-nii!

—--

Okay. We were moved in. Now back to work.

*Yes really. Why are you so confused? You sent the shard with the code over, and I just spent the last couple hours debugging it. It's done.*

*I expected you to take at least a week checking it over Motoko… Please make sure you are thorough.*

I sighed audibly and rubbed my face.

*I've already gone through it all Yoko. I'll add a file into the shard showing everything I fixed just so you can be sure, but I'm done. There isn't anything else that needs to be fixed unless you want me to start rewriting the code from scratch.*

The line was quiet for a while. *Very well. I'll have a runner come by your new place for a pickup. I'll confirm the work, and message you when I've found an issue, or written off the favor.*

*Perfect. Talk to you later then.*

I hung up. Wakako was right. Hanging up on people that were annoying you was great.

I groaned as I flopped on the couch. Between coding work and moving in. I was done for now. Jun was still bustling about his room setting things up looking happier than I had seen him in a while.

Stupid Jun. Being happy about this crummy apartment.

I wanted to go kill Scavs.

I rolled up and rushed to my room. Grabbing my ammo and MaxDoc pouches, I suited up. If I went fast enough Jun wouldn't catch me leaving and bother me again.

I geared up quickly, grabbing my Kang Tao armor and doing a full suit up.

Techgogs equipped I was ready for war.

Sliding the goggles over my eyes I slipped over to my door and peaked out.

No Jun in sight. Operation was a go.

I rushed out bare feet utterly silent on the carpet. Honestly it was a weird feeling since I was so used to the tiled floors that filled NIght City and the fact I usually just wore my boots around so I would be safe from any trash on the floor.

But this apartment was too clean, so I had to leave my boots at the front door. I quickly grabbed them and left through the door once the door was closed I slipped them on. Taking a minute to secure everything and then I was heading down the hall. Passing by music neighbor and reaching the elevator without anyone noticing beside the cameras.

I quickly sent Jun a Text.

*Motoko: Heading out for a while.*

Just as the door shut.

Didn't want Jun to try and stop me. I whistled fakely as I pretended to ignore the text he sent back in response wanting to know what I was doing.

Then I was back in the garage, and the city was mine.

I walked out stalking towards where Jun and I's parking spot was located. Ignoring the attention that the Tyger teens gave me as I walked around.

Don't call me a Dough Girl. Don't call me a Dough Girl!

I ignored them. I didn't even want to know what they were saying as I walked up to the Quadra and popped the trunk.

Inside my armory was ready. I grabbed the Copperhead from the roof of the trunk. I had spent some time adding additional weapon slots to the trunk over time. Honestly I had a few cutouts that I didn't even own yet, but more as future desires.

I patted my Nekomata a bit as I left it behind. I needed to work with Jackie and V and stuff more. I would get more sniper work with them I felt.

But I ignored that as I walked to the driver seat and laid my Copperhead in the passenger footwell. So I could grab it quickly if needed.

I had a few more places to hit tonight.

Time to get to work.

 

[Seras]

Second site of the night.

The first location hadn’t even been a real Scav Den. Just a small storage unit that three gonks that were definitely not official Scavs, just fuckers willing to do horrible things to people.

They were all dead now, and I had the XP to prove it.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

I don’t care if you were official Scavs, or just some assholes ripping people apart for eddies. They were all fucking trash in my opinion.

But that had just been on the way to Heywood. The building I was parked just down the street from was the bigger place I had ended up skipping to go to the Maelstrom meeting.

Once again. I accessed the system. Pinged them all, and had the entire place scoped out.

I was once again stacked up on the door. I waited half a second to see if Jun would call me to interrupt again, but it never came.

Go time. I surged through, rifle leading the way. I couldn’t just shoot through the walls this time. The basement they were hiding in was all solid concrete.. Unless I was using my Nekomata or my Burya I wouldn’t get any rounds through.

But I didn’t need that.

The first room was a garage. Two gonks inside. One working on a van. Obviously their meat wagon. The other was sitting in the driver seat obviously helping out.

Both were too slow to avoid my Copperhead as I unloaded on them both as I rushed them. The driver coated the windscreen in blood and the mechanic fell into his tool box very dead.

I didn’t pay attention to the noise of my system telling me I had gotten XP.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

I didn’t slow down. I still had half a magazine and more Scavs.

Obviously the gun shots would alert them. So I didn’t slow down. At the back of the garage was a door that led into the basement area itself. This building had once been some sort of shop. The top floor had big open windows and butted against the street. Obviously they didn’t use it, but this basement was basically a loading and storage area.

The next room now was just a big empty space full of Scavs, and dead bodies. And all their equipment to rip people apart.

I leapt into the room using all my strength and my chrome ankles bouncing well past the door where instantly a few of the Scavs fired trying to kill me.

They missed. Then their guns stopped firing as I shut that down with a toothy grin.

I loved being a Netrunner. One of them I noticed did respond. A faint effort to fight back against the hack on the digital scape, but he was far too slow to stop it as it pinged him, then his chooms, then him again and again and again.

I rolled along the concrete, until I slowed enough. I rose up. Lines of golden light already telling me where to aim.

I popped up and three rounds echoed through the room, The light I was using as a guide post vanished, along with earning an alert.

*500 XP Gained.*

I rolled, slipping out of view behind the plastic sheets they had hanging from the ceiling all over the place to section off Ripper chairs.

To keep the blood splatter down.

Yeah it would still be useful now.

I flipped around, lined up my rifle with the golden lights and just started plugging away.

I got another one, before the others ducked behind cover realizing their weapons were dead.

*500 XP Gained.*

“Who the fuck is attacking us!?” A voice called out sounding terrified and I could practically hear the noise of metal on metal as he desperately tried to get his malfunctioning gun to work.

“Some bitch! Watch out for more! They got a Netrunner!”

“Don’t worry!” I called out in return, using my sexy Motoko voice as well, I was recording after all. “I’m the one who is going to send you all to hell!” I yelled out excited for what came next.

I shifted back up to my feet still crouched and then leapt.

The plastic sheet kept me from view until the last moment when I hit it at the apex of my jump and then ripped through.

They freaked, leaping out of cover desperately pointing weapons that weren’t functional. Only one had a smart idea and grabbed a big fucking machete knife and charged at me.

I hit the ground, rolled forward and he reached me just as my rifle was brought up.

I unloaded on him, easily blasting him away from me with the remainder of my magazine.

*500 XP Gained.*

I dropped the rifle. Reload would take too long, and I had other options.

Lexington was quickdrawn to a position right against my chest as I turned and unloaded into another Scav that was trying to attack me from behind. He cried out as his chest turned into swiss cheese.

Then he died.

*500 XP Gained.*

I started chasing the rest, killing another one who was hiding under a table as if he could just disappear there, and then to my irritation two of them were smart.

*500 XP Gained.*

They delta’ed. I ran at a door that the two had slipped into and was brought to a complete halt as I slammed into it and it didn’t budge.

I slammed the handle again and pushed but the door barely budged.

They had thrown something heavy on the other side.

“Fuckers!”
I turned and ran. I would have to head out the garage and get around the building. They were escaping out the front!

Even with all my speed by the time I made it to the front of the store their car was already nearly down the street, their golden lines fading away as they got too far away from the building net, and already well past the range I could quickhack as I could see them directly.

My Quadra was parked around the back. It would take too long to get into it, and then chase them.

Two escaped.

Two Scavs escaped me.

I had done this because I wanted to practice going loud. But I let two Scavs escape!

I should have blinded them. I should have shown up with my HMG.

I should have stealthed the whole group.

I should have… I should have…

I stepped back and pushed myself against the front of the old boarded up storefront.

Cool.

Get cool.

I exhaled arctic air and suddenly the absolute fit I had been half way into stalled out.

“I’m okay. Mistakes happen, and we learn from them.” I told myself. I had almost just had a complete freakout over letting two Scavs get away.

Yeah that wasn’t a healthy sign.

“Fuck.”

—--

I ignored everything as I headed home.

I still had more Scav dens I could hit, but I was obviously not handling this whole situation as well as I thought I was.

The apartment was quiet as I stomped in flipping off my boots at the door with a few wobbling bounces as I then stripped out of my armor letting it just drop to the floor.

There was a ton of floor space. Plenty of space to leave things for later.

I stripped out of my Section 9 clothes, the armored weight feeling far too restricting right now. Both jacket and pants were thrown onto the floor leaving me feeling a lot cooler as I wiped some sweat off my head.

Then I flopped face first onto the couch.

The couch wasn’t right. It was too cushiony. It didn’t smell like home either.

I screamed into the cushion slamming my fist down into it over and over until I was out of air.

Then I rolled off the couch and stood up. Annoyed at the stupid inset couch I had to climb out of just to get back on the floor.

I ran into my room. There was only one solution to this frustration I was feeling.

I grabbed my guitar and my music box.

I could have stayed in my room, but I didn’t want to be in there right now. So I hooked myself into my Music box and dropped the box onto the couch as I paced around the back of the couch.

I wanted something angry. Something fitting, but I wasn’t sure what to play.

I felt frustrated. Burned on the inside because everything that was happening just…

“I’m going to burn this city.” I muttered the song coming to mind instantly. Not exactly my favorite band. Not even my favorite song, but I couldn’t deny that there was a reason it fit Edgerunners so well.

And right now I was feeling full of fire too. Franz Ferdinand’s This Fire… Yeah I could make it work.

I switched up my voice, I wasn’t going to try and copy the singer from Franz Ferdinand… At least I was pretty sure that was just the band name and not the artist…

Oh well. No way for me to know now.

And so my voice went huskier. Heavier. I wasn’t going to play the song with the almost joyful chaos feeling the original had.

I was angry.

So I let that out.

I practically growled out the first line. Letting the anger and frustration at the Scavs. At Jun and his stupid new apartment. At everything.

“I’m going to burn this city!” I roared, slamming the guitar to get the notes just right. And I just let it all out. Like Rita had said. A hobby was important. A way to feel the emotions I kept locked up tight with Cold Blood.

Catharsis.

“I’ll burn it down!” I said the last lyric, before rolling into shredding the guitar, Hyping the noise up louder and louder, faster and faster until it just stopped.

I exhaled and flopped onto the back of the couch, feet resting on the cushions as I just hunched over and exhaled all the fire in my belly.

I ran a chrome hand through my hair. The unique texture was always a weird feeling and I practically luxuriated in it for that moment. Sweat sticking to the metal as I breathed and cooled off.

I didn’t feel very calm even still.

It wasn’t that they escaped. That was just the trigger. The fact was I didn’t like change very much. I liked my routines, and any change that happened was okay as long as it was my choice.

I pulled my music box over. The vocal and Guitar track would both need some work, trying a brand new vocal and guitar style on a song was kinda new to me.

I went to work. Both as something to distract myself with, and also I guess I just wanted to hear it as well.

—--

I stopped as I heard something loud bonk into the door. I quickly pulled off my guitar and grabbed my Lexington aiming at the door, because that had been a really weird noise.

Then the doorbell rang.

I quickly stacked up at the side of the door and then in a flash I opened it, the pneumatic door popping out of the way and I was aiming before quickly yanking my gun into the air to keep it from aiming at who had rang the bell.

“Hiromi?”

“H-Hey Motoko…” She said and we both stared at each other.

Hiromi had a big red mark on her forehead.

It took me a moment to realize what had happened.

“You don’t have the door key here yet.” I reminded her and her semi pout turned into a tearful look as if demanding me to take back what I had just said as she held a hand over her forehead.

I quickly holstered my Lexington and pulled her inside and into a hug.

“That never happened.” She demanded and I made all the right noises of acceptance. “I wanted to surprise you! I got excited.” She explained and I just nodded and rubbed her back as she buried her face into my shoulder.

She was so used to having the key to our place that she had tried to rush the door. The door hadn’t opened.

Poor Hiromi.

I brought her over to the couch and settled her in. Ignoring her faux sniffle that she pointedly threw a look at me after demanding I don’t acknowledge it.

“How did you know where the new place was? I thought I would have to come pick you up and show you.”

She seemed to shake herself a bit and sat up straight. “I called Ichi of course. He helped you move, so I got the address and everything. I couldn’t use the elevator, so I had to use the stairs.” She whined at me, I actually blinked at that.

“You should have just called. I would have come down to get you.”

“I wanted to surprise you!” She whined and I couldn’t help but start laughing.

“You did!” I told her with a big smile and then she realized I was teasing her and whined at me in distress.

“Jerk! Gonk! You aren’t! Ugh! You have your guitar out! Play a song for me!” She finally demanded as she turned a bit red, but not as red as the mark on her forehead.

“Hiromi, I don-”

“Pleeeease.” She whined, putting her hands up to her chest and begging.

“Fine. I’m working on something new anyways, I could use a separate ear.”

“Yeeeees!” She hissed, wiggling and kicking. “Serenade me!” She demanded as she sprawled out on the couch looking eager.

“Not really that kind of song.” I muttered. I hadn’t completed the drum track just yet, but I could still just enjoy doing another vocals and guitar play through.

First I went into my room and came out with the speakers and Amp for the guitar. I had recorded everything digitally so I wouldn’t disturb my neighbors. Even if musician neighbor might not mind.

So I picked up my guitar plugged it into my music box, plugged that into the speakers and amp, and then I started another rendition of This Fire.

I played. I roared, and sang and slammed my guitar. The emotions hadn’t diminished, only been released a little and so I raged a little while I sang. I turned the almost peppy song into something darker.

A threat.

“This fire is out of control!.

I’m going to burn this city, burn this city!”

And so I played for Hiromi, but mostly I played for me.

For the Motoko that didn’t want to obsess with killing every Scav in the city and just wanted to do whatever crazy thing that came to my mind.

For the Motoko that as much as she wanted to fight and kill, didn’t like at all that others could turn it back on her. Could harm her. Could harm her friends. Her family.

I was breathing heavily when I finished the song. I closed my eyes, I couldn’t look at Hiromi. Because I couldn’t handle someone not liking the song at that moment. I pulled off the guitar and stood up, taking a moment to remember where the fridge was. I grabbed a can of… Whatever the hell this was. The logo and stuff was so artsy I couldn’t tell. I popped it and drank it down.

Eh. I’ve had worse, but I felt off. Weird. It took a moment as I pulled up my system to realize what had happened.

*Cool Leveled up!*

Cool 9. No wonder I felt… Better. Was it that? No, not better. Not exactly, but… Cooler. Like the stress wasn’t hurting me as bad.

Then I turned around running a hand through my hair, “So what did you-oof!” I grunted as Hiromi slammed into me and squealed.

“Eeeeee!”

“I guess you liked it then?”

“You are going to be world famous, I’m gonna be your super awesome manager and it’s gonna be the best!” She cheered in delight and broke into a few chuckles. Not exactly what I was hoping would be her response, but I guess as long as Hiromi was happy.

No wait. I don’t want to be world famous!

Dangit Hiromi!

—-

“So how long until the whole song is done?” Hiromi asked as she sat beside me on the couch. I had grabbed the laptop to once again allow Hiromi to see what I was doing on the Music box as I recorded the digital tracks to finish the song.

“Not sure… I’m sorta trying something different on this song. Originally.. Well it was supposed to be more upbeat almost? It sounds weird, but yeah. I’m just making it darker. More Samurai, less Us Cracks.” I explained and Hiromi giggled at my description.

“You should make an Us Cracks version! Jun would listen to it!”

“Ugh. Please don’t remind me.” I grumbled at her, but in the end I shrugged. “I think I’ve got most of it. I’m mostly just… fiddling now. Making sure I didn’t flub anything, and making sure all the tracks line up and actually flow.”

“It’s so crazy how good you are at everything.” She muttered, and I actually stilled a little.

This wasn’t the first time Hiromi had said something similar. Not the first time someone had noticed that I was picking up on things too fast.

“I… I just-” I started to stutter tensing up, but Hiromi practically leapt on me in response.

“Whoa. Ah. I didn’t mean anything by it Motoko! You’re so amazing. I’m just a little jealous! You can do basically anything it’s just a little… intimidating? I guess. Trying to keep up.”

I quickly shoved my guitar off my shoulder and reached over to grab at Hiromi to her surprise as I pulled her bodily into a hug.

A tight one so she couldn’t escape.

“It’s not a race… And I’m way behind in tons of things, but I don’t… Please don’t think you need to compete. I need my best choom.”I said burying my face into her neck as I used everyone lick of knowledge to grapple Hiromi in an unbreakable hug.

“Hey! No way am I going anywhere! You are stuck with me forever!” Hiromi responded and I nodded into her shoulder as I still refused to let go. Hiromi didn’t seem to mind just patting my back this time. “You okay Motoko? The song, and now this… You seem a little… Stressed?”

“I don’t think I’m handling all the stuff that happened as well as I would like.” I admit speaking into her jacket letting the texture muffle the words a little and create the disconnect that lets me share. “I hate that we got attacked at home, and now, Jun moved us here, and I didn’t want to move Hiromi. I miss home already.”

“Oh.” Hiromi whispered and then tightened her hug on me as well.

—---

“Sorry.” I ended up saying a while later when I finally pulled away from Hiromi. I hadn’t cried, but it was definitely a close call. Thanks Cool.

“You don’t have to apologize! I’m just… No, that's gonna come out wrong.” She said and then flushed at even saying that.

“What?”

“I just… It’s nice that you aren’t completely put together? Getting homesick after a move… I guess it just means I don’t have to be perfect yet either? Sorry that sounds stupid since this is obviously bothering you, but…”

“Nah. It’s okay.” I bumped her shoulder to add weight to my words.

Hiromi perked up, obviously deciding to change topics. “I like your new song! It’s very Rockerboy! Are you going to record it into a BD like the last one? Or are you finally ready to let your number one Manager Hiromi set up a gi-”

“Nope.”

“Aww.” She whined, but I was laughing.

“Number one Manager?”

“Hey, just being honest.” She said with a wink and we both broke into laughter.

“You gonna stay the night tonight?” I asked suddenly, and Hiromi nodded firmly. Good. I could use the company.

 

[Seras]

Was it weird that the strangest part about waking up with Hiromi gripped around my waist was that we were in a bed and not on an old couch.

“Unfamiliar ceiling.” I mumbled looking at the white plastic of the beds roof section, this being one of the weird all in one Cyberpunk beds rather than the couch or my old bed at the apartment.

I blinked as I realized I hadn’t set myself an eight hours like usual, but something had actually woken up, and it wasn’t Hiromi’s snorting snores in my ear.

“Ah. The Rockerboy is at it again.” I mumbled. The faint rumble of bass coming through the walls had woken me up.

After a bit of wiggling I managed to work my way free of Hiromi’s death grip, getting her attached to a pillow instead as I got up and stretched.

I hadn’t done the insta sleep so I was actually a little drowsy still. I grunted quickly as I stretched out my back.

Quietly I padded out to the living room and noticed Jun’s boots were by the door. I guess… Okay that was slightly useful in quickly determining when my gonk brother was home or not.

He must have come in pretty late. I hadn’t even heard him…

Okay, I was going to put some of my own security up. The old apartment had been small enough that if anyone entered I would notice even if I was asleep, but now if I was in my room. I might not notice at all.

I walked up to the fridge and then slammed it shut.

It was full of XXL Burritos.

Full.

“Time to cannon ball a fucking gonk.” I determined and headed to his room. His door swished open and I saw that Jun was passed out in a mess of blankets.

Jun was a messy sleeper.

He was about to become a whole lot messier as I prepped myself with a few stretches and then I leapt.

Elbow dropping onto him.

Gently. I didn't really want to hurt him.

The loud “Oof.” That burst out of him meant I had achieved my goal.

But Motoko was no fool! I had learned from my previous mistakes!

I instantly got up and delta’ed.

The angry Oni roared and rushed after me, struggling to free himself from his blanket bindings. I easily made it to the living room before him and I only had a moment to decide a strategy.

Couch? Not deep enough to hide.

Kitchen? Too full of Burritos.

My room? Obvious choice Also full of potential weakness with Hiromi. She would likely help Jun just because. Or Jun would use her as a hostage. Neither were acceptable.

The roar of the Oni behind me urged me on. I leapt across the room rolling and turning to see him rumble out of his room, red eyes bloodshot and angry.

“MOTOKO!” He roared, as he charged.

Unfortunately for him. I was a Ninja.

I charged back, leaping just in time to miss his grasping hands, and planting a foot right onto the top of his head letting me get just a bit more distance away as he spun in rage to catch me.

“Too slow! Nyayaya!” I taunted wiggling my tongue at him. The Oni raged and chased, but there was one benefit of our bigger apartment.

It had a higher ceiling.

I was able to continue to leap away as he chased, planting my foot right on top of his head as many times as I could until finally I tired out the beast.

Not that I wasn’t worn out as well.

“How… About a… Peace talk?” I offered breathing heavily as I rested against the wall near the couches. Jun was over by the kitchen where I had just left him once again face resting against the fridge.

“Motoko! Why!?”

“Why? You need to ask me that you gonk!? Open the fucking fridge!”

“What’s wrong with the fridge!” He demanded back opening it and looking around, seemingly making sure his burritos were still there. “Looks fine to me!”

“You fucking moron! You filled OUR fridge full of your stupid Burritos! You can’t even eat that many before they go bad you gonk!”

“XXL Burritos are good for three months, Motoko. You should know that.” He replied in a tone saying I was the moron for not knowing and accepting this as fact.

“Oh my god, how often have you eaten three month old Burritos!?”

“What?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick!” I mumbled at the idea. They already tasted awful, what would old XXL burritos taste like?

Of course that was my mistake. I took my eyes off the Oni.

A moment later two impossible to budge arms wrapped around my chest and held me tight against him.

“Caught you.”

“Yeah but you’re the one that eats those things. So I think I’m still the winner.” I told him.

Jun didn’t like that.

Jun will remember that.

“Hey. What are you doing?” I demanded as Jun started moving. “Jun? Hey Jun! Hiromi! My Brother has gone Cyberpsycho! Look at the fridge!” I demanded to Hiromi who we must have woken up as she was blinking sleepily at the fact Jun was carrying me across the apartment.

Then he took me into the bathroom.

“Hey! He-ey! Jun! Don’t you Da-Eeeee!” I squealed as Jun carried me right into the shower and hip checked the shower controls.

Jun didn’t seem to mind the freezing cold water as he held me right into the blast for a long while as I struggled to free myself.

—--

“You okay?”

“F-f-f-fi-n-ne!” I chattered at Hiromi as she rubbed a towel around my shoulders. Jun was a madman!

He stepped out of his room rubbing a towel over his own hair and looking like he had won a million bucks.

The grin on his face was something I swore to remove in the most annoying fashion possible.

“Y-o-ou kno-w-w th-this m-means war!” I snarled at him but Jun had won the battle despite my surgical initial strike.

“You okay Hiromi? We didn’t wake you too early with the roughhousing did we?” Jun asked and to my irritation Hiromi giggled.

“No Problem Jun! I got an interesting show out of it after all.” Jun just smirked at her, as he headed into the kitchen and to my disgust grabbed a burrito for breakfast.

“You want one?”

“N-NEVER!” I chattered but Hiromi shrugged and accepted breakfast. I couldn’t even look at her after.

That burrito probably gave her super cancer! Ignore the fact I’ve eaten them from time to time in the past! That was the past!

“What XXL burrito Corpo has you in their Pocket Jun-nii? Just tell me and I’ll make them disappear! We can buy you some new tastebuds!” I begged him but instead of answering he just chucked one of the burritos at my head, and I was too cold to dodge.

I glared at him as the burrito thankfully didn’t splatter across my face but definitely crumpled against me deforming around my face.

“That’s disgusting Jun.”

“Eat your breakfast you brat.”

—--

The doorbell rang not long after. Hiromi was already gone, needing to go to school today, and Jun was just eating his second XXL burrito of the day.

Disgusting.

I quickly put my laptop to the side. A slight push with my feet put me into a handstand on the back of the couch and then I was back on my feet and walking towards the door, room for doing cool gymnastic stuff was, I would admit another small benefit of the new place “I’ll get it!” I called to Jun who didn’t look like he was making any attempt to get the door anyways.

Jerk.

I for once wasn’t actually armed. Even I didn’t sleep with my gun holsters on me, but I had done some of the basic prepwork last night. Right next to the door was my Carnage shotgun, which I prepped with my left arm, gun pointing downwards but ready and opened the door with my right hand.

As soon as I saw who it was, I was tempted to raise the shotgun up. But Jun would get angry.

“Fujimura.”

“Kusanagi.” He greeted me in turn, to my surprise he was alone. Probably the first time I had ever seen him somewhere without at least one or two of the Kamikaze at his back.

“Fujimura-sama! Come in!” Jun said as he had stood up quickly. Probably realizing I had no intention of actually inviting the guy inside.

I didn’t grumble, but I thought about it real hard as I stepped away and put my Carnage back against the wall for next time.

He stepped in and walked over to Jun.

“Junichirou. How are you settling in?”

“Very well Sir! The apartment is perfect for us. Thank you again.” Jun replied, even offering a little bow.

“Good. If you have any problems you know I am down the hall.” He said and then took a seat on the couch.

But before I could get annoyed at him just sitting down as he liked, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Wait, you live here too?”

“I own this entire floor.” He stated simply. Hmm. He was kinda a dick, but I couldn’t deny that it fit. He could fill the floor with people that would protect him and offer them homes all at the same time.

Fujimura struck me as the kinda guy that would do one thing with multiple benefits.

“Kusanagi. Sit.” He demanded and I realized that he was talking to me.

Instantly my hackles rose up. I was going to give him exactly what I thought about him ordering me around in my own ‘home’ but I noticed Jun looking at me with a stupid pleading puppy dog face.

“Fine.”

I settled onto the couch. “What do you want Fujimura?”

“Your rudeness during the meeting you barged into has been noted. Kusanagi.” He said to me and I just ran an eyebrow up at him. Like I care? He seemed completely unbothered by my lack of reaction.

“Word was put out among our connections for information on who exactly was involved with the assault on your home. The Scavs that attacked you assaulted you with their entire group. They are gone. That should be the end of that problem.” He offered and I could see Jun relax with a sigh.

“Wait, why would that be the end? If the Scavs are willing to attack us once why not do it again. We obviously pissed them off… I pissed them off.” I acknowledged my own responsibility in this.

“You are young, and lack the understanding of why Scavs still exist in this city.” Fujimura replied back instantly. Then seemed to realize that Jun was looking to him wanting to better understand the situation as well. So the older man let out a faint breath that could be a sigh and continued. “You think of them like the Tyger Claws. Or perhaps the Maelstrom. That is incorrect. There is no leader of the Scavs. There are hundreds.”

“Right. They are fragmented to make sure if one group gets wiped out it doesn’t hit the rest, but that-”

“Incorrect. They are fragmented because many of the groups you call Scavs have no relation to each other at all, never have, and never will.”

“But then how do they work together? They all wear similar things! Act the same, hell most of them I’ve run into speak russian!”

“Many Russian immigrants find their ability to earn eddies in Night City difficult. So they group with like minded men and become another nest of rats. Similar to others but with no true connection between them.”

“Copy cats… You are telling me every group of Scav is just a copycat of the idea? They…”

“Not all. The Russian Bratva started the concept of the Scav in Night City many years ago, but since then? Yes. Even many who are born within Night City will call themselves Scavs. Will speak Russian even if they are not a native speaker.”

It struck me then.

I knew this. I knew what this was. The fact struck me like a fist.

It almost made me dizzy at just what I was dealing with. “Stand Alone Complex.” I whispered aloud.

Multiple people with no association, all working towards a common goal, copying a criminal.

That Scavs weren’t a gang with a leader I could murder and be done with it. They were the dispossessed looking to make eddies, and copying something scary to protect themselves. Putting on a mask to easily describe themselves…

“Hmm?” Fujimura prompted, hearing my whispered words.

“Nothing. Just an explanation that I wasn’t expecting. How do you kill a group that pops up without any central control? A completely random group of people all committing horrible crimes?”

“You don’t. You send out the exterminators from time to time to clear out the infestations and then move on.” Fujimura said, and I couldn’t help but look up because, the way he said it.

That wasn’t an irritating old man explaining things to a kid.

It was… Gentle. Or as gentle as a man like Fujimura could ever do.

“Let it go Kusanagi. Kill them when you find them. Exterminate them when you can. But don’t dedicate your life to something that will never end.”

“That’s stupid. Even if it's a Stand Alone Complex. There are ways to fight back! I just have to make the idea of Scavs so toxic that no one will ever use it again.” The words were out of my mouth before I realized it, but the truth of them made me nod. “I’ve already started a way to do it. I kill them and every time I do, I send out a BD. I can show the city. Over and over. That being a Scav will just get you killed. Quicky. Brutally.”

Fujimura didn’t speak for a while, just watching me with a flat face.

“I told you most Scavs are without leadership, but don’t think that means all of them are. The Bratva will not ignore you. They will destroy you swiftly, and without compromise.”

I had nothing to say to that. Bombing. Snipers. An actually competent kill squad.

I wasn’t invincible, and worse yet, my chooms were either.

Why was this so hard?

“Of course that is only if you continue to work as you have been. Alone. The Claws make it a point to remove Scavs from our territory whenever we find them. This is something the Bratva is already aware of, and they do not often settle in our territory for this reason. You’re path to be an edgerunner won’t bring you what you desire.”

I met his eyes and had to admit.

He was right.

If I tried to do this like a Night City Edgerunner. I would end up dead. My chooms would die, and likely everything would go to shit.

If I tried to join the gangs, my path would be different, but I would just be a disposable tool.

If I joined a corp, that’s just another flavor of gang.

I knew all the paths that someone in Night City could take. I knew the downward spirals they all inevitably fell into…

Could I avoid the same trap?

I stood up and just walked back to my room. I didn’t want to deal with Fujimura anymore. I had things to consider.

—--

I ended up taking a nap. Eight hours passed in a blink, but in the end it made me feel better. It made me feel more in control.

I walked out into the living room to an empty apartment. Jun obviously was at work or out, and I just didn’t want to deal with the quiet. I turned on the TV and ignored the stupid shows, but at least it created some noise.

The couch didn’t make much noise as I flopped on it. Not like our old one that squeaked, or poofed out air depending on where you landed.

Was it weird that despite this apartment feeling closest to something from my last life, that it now felt foreign?

The apartment had carpet. My feet tapped out an arpeggio as I thought.

I think I had to stop for a while. Too much had changed all at once, and between the Kamikaze and my own actions we had done a pretty good job of wiping out a whole lot of Scavs.

There would always be more.

Well there would be more until I killed them all and salt and ashed the very idea of being a Scav in Night City.

But until then. I needed to slow down. For my own sake.

Besides, I could use the time to gather more Scav den info.

No. I stood up then as I realized what I was doing. Obsession was something I had always had a… Well I wouldn’t call it an issue exactly. But it could be. And right now it was.

We were safe. The Scavs wouldn’t have any idea where we lived, and we had protection. I would do some work on the security today, and then… Then I would stop thinking about Scavs for a few days. Minimum.

I reached over and grabbed my Guitar. I wasn’t good with sitting and doing nothing. So I would just make music for a while instead.

 

[Seras]

The day had come and gone. Then the night. Jun hadn’t come home, and the sun was rising. I had taken a break after an hour of playing music, and gone out. Spending a couple grand on some additional security for the apartment. Then Installing it all. Of course it was just off the shelf junk.

It wouldn’t really stop anyone.

But I was currently programming out a bit of a trick. The thing with door locks is that they are never really going to stop someone. Instead I was going to keep the entire thing looking off the shelf, while inside the programming would have a bit of a trick.

Sure you can break into the apartment if you really want.

But I would know.

And knowing is half the way to avoid a trap, or a surprise raid.

I was still working on the code. Making the security system send an alarm if it was hacked wasn’t hard. But letting it work without alerting the netrunner breaking in was.

So I was fiddling with a few design options to sneak the alert through.

It was progressing pretty well with Inspired Programmer keeping me full of inspiration.

*Ringing* I blinked at the noise checking the agent view.

*Malcolm! What’s up?*

*Motoko I need help! Fuck! Cocksuckers shot me!* Malcolm gasped into the line as soon as I chirped my greeting.

Instantly I was moving, rushing for my room to grab my guns.

*Where are you? Tell me everything.*

*Fuck. Shit I’m bleeding bad. Okay okay. I’ll send you my ping. I'm on a train right now.. II lost them, they stopped chasing me when I got on the rail. Fuck. Oh god. I was buying a car! They were trying to jump me. Steal the money and those fucks! It was supposed to be my car! They fucking killed me over this shit!* His voice broke down into a quiet moan.

*Okay I’m on my way. I’m pinging everyone as well, in case someone is closer. We’re on our way Malcolm, just don’t pass out okay. Stay awake.* I demanded as I scooped up my boots as I ran into the hall and raced to the elevator. I hit the button requesting it and then again and again.

Too slow.

I turned and rushed for the stairs. I slammed into the door and fought my boots onto my feet. Then as I slipped into the stairwell I leapt.

I landed on the railing two stories down, then I leapt down again.

Again and again. I leapt past some people hanging out in the stairwell. Kids adults. Whatever. It wasn’t a concern.

*I’m still with you Malcolm, talk to me buddy.*

*Fuck it hurts. Never been shot before! Those assholes!* He whined and cried into the line, but I would rather him do that, then have it go silent. The last jump I dropped three stories to land in a crouch on the garage level. Startling some of the Tyger Claw kids that were smoking and hanging out under the stairs.

I slammed into the door and rushed for my Quadra. The door opened at a glance as I leapt inside from the passenger side.

Sliding into the driver seat, I gunned it backwards. My eyes instantly connected to the cameras on the Quadra to roar out of my space.

I didn’t bother to spin around. Tires screeching through the garage I slipped my Quadra into a reverse drift to make the entrance ramp and continued roaring backwards until I hit the top of the ramp absolutely maxing out the engine as it leapt into the air. I hit the ground and Spun, finally facing forward already in the street and ignoring the honks of people that I had nearly crashed into.

My Quadra roared. All 1000 horsepower roared as my foot hit the pedal all the way down.

*I’m on my way!* I said again into the phone as for the first time I really truly ignored traffic laws.

I raced the streets. Swerved through traffic, and ignored lights. The sidewalk was perfectly good for getting around traffic as well to my current estimation.

I had no care about anything because one of my chooms was in trouble.

Malcolm was my friend.

I wasn’t ready to lose a friend to this city.

*Talk to me Malcolm. Tell me about these assholes.*

*... Fuck. They… They were selling a Rayfield Motoko. It was a second gen Caliburn. Yellow silver. The best… The best paintjob. It was so beautiful. And cheap… It was only 70k. I wanted it so bad. I decided… I thought fuck it. It’s my dream car, you know? I… I have a poster of it above my bed. Dreamed about that car since… Forever. If I had it… that means I made it you know?*

*Yeah Malcolm, and you will. Believe me. Just keep breathing choom. I’m almost there.* And I was. Malcolm was still in Westbrook. Just farther south. Near Charter Hill. He had sent me an active GPS ping, and it wasn’t moving. *Did you get off the rail?*

*Yeah… Yeah they kicked me off. Bleeding too much I guess… Fuckers.* He mumbled.

Fuck.

*Hey Malcolm, listen to me. You keep your damn eyes open, and keep breathing! You hear me?*

*Yeah… I gotta listen to you right? Boss? Heh. Who would have thought I’d be working for your gonk ass. Fuck. It’s been great though…* He trailed off.

*Yeah it’s awesome, and your brain is amazing at noticing things! Couldn’t have done the yacht heist without you yeah? You were the one to figure out the Scavs. So stay alive Malcolm, that’s an order from your boss!* I gasped out desperately as I made a stupidly dangerous turn.

*Yeah…*

I skidded to a halt as Traffic was blocking me again and the sidewalk was full. I honked and revved into the sidewalk anyways. People scurried out of the way as I drove as slow as I could bear around the cars stopped at a light until I hit the road and revved to skid onto the cross street into the active traffic. Swiftly forcing a position and then accelerating.

Just gotta hope NCPD were busy right now…

At least I was getting responses from everyone. Vik had responded to my frantic text message and he was on his way with med supplies to keep someone alive. I just had to get Malcolm to him.

I was there. The sidewalk was a perfectly good parking spot as I nearly drove onto the escalators running up to the platform.

Driver side door opened, and I was off like a shot, Racing up the escalator until there were people in the way and then I jumped onto the railings and just raced up that.

Then I was on the platform, and it wasn’t hard to see Malcolm.. A pool of blood with bloody footprints leading to him slumped up against a sign and a small space in the crowd, but no one was trying to help.

Assholes.

I leapt. Landing beside him in a single movement.

“Hey Malcolm. Calvary is here. C’mon. Take this.” I offered him a MaxDoc, while I grabbed an Airhypo and jammed it into his chest.

“FuuuuUUK!.” He cursed his breath suddenly much fuller as the Airhypo oxygenated his blood.

Well as much as it could anyways.

“Take the MaxDoc Malcolm.” I demanded and grabbed some bandages out of a hip pouch.

Fuck the bullet hole was bad.

Through and through his chest, just below his armpit and out almost between his ribs on the front.

That was… Not good.

I wrapped a bandage around him as best I could and then hefted him up.

Malcolm was bigger than me, true.

But I was so freaked out, I didn’t even care that he was a bit heavier than me. I pulled him into a princess carry ignoring his cry of pain as I started rushing to the escalator.

*Vik! I got him. Sending you pics. I’ll be rushing to meet you!* I sent Vik as I finally didn’t need to be on call with Malcolm.

*Alright Kid. Just breathe, steady now. Let’s save your choom.* He whispered into my ear, and it was calming as I rushed down the escalator doing my best not to jostle Malcolm, or bump him into anything.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!” I roared at some fucking morons not idling in front of me, and it was only when I started to try and grab my Burya that they hurried out of the way.

My Quadra was still there idling, Although I wasn’t surprised to note some gonk kid was running off with an arm full of…

Okay stealing my homemade grenades was pretty ballsy. That’s a scary kid for the next few days.

I slipped Malcolm into the passenger seat, and strapped him in.

This was going to get wild.

“H-hey. You’re gonna have to not drive like a… Granny.” Malcolm joked at me weakly as I slipped into the driver seat.

“Yeah.” I agreed bluntly and then floored it again. Vik was heading this way, but it was still far. And Malcolm was bleeding.

I couldn’t tell exactly what I babbled at Malcolm to keep him focused as I raced through the streets, it was all a blur, and I was sure that without Cool Nerves I definitely would have gotten into an accident as I was sure my entire body would be shaking if not for that.

Thank you system. Thank you Gamer powers. Thank you whatever thing gave me the ability to actually act through my panic and try to save my choom.

I almost ran into Vik. Who was driving an old Villefort Columbus van. I slid into a screeching powerslide right beside him nearly startling him off the road as he jerked the wheel a bit, but braked after and then he was there. My passenger door opened and Vik instantly slipped some device with a big canister attached against Malcolms chest.

I heard the pneumatic sound as it activated.

“Fuck!” Malcolm hissed, but Vik was just chuckling, talking calmly, and a moment later. Instead of a reedy wet breathing coming out in a rush from Malcolm, it seemed to even out a bit. And some color very quickly came back to his face.

“C’mon lets get you in the van, and I’ll plug those holes yeah?” Vik said as calm as ever seemingly completely unconcerned about what he was helping with, and I could see how that calm soothed Malcolm who obviously was freaking out at what had happened.

Fuck Vik. You are truly an angel.

—---

Ignoring the traffic build up behind us, we got Malcolm into the van. The van off the middle of the road, and my Quadra out of the way, and Vik went to work.

I couldn’t even start to explain to you the Ripper doc magic that Vik did there on the side of the road in a beat up old Van, but within ten minutes Malcolm was breathing easy, resting in a stretcher and even cracking a joke with the old ripper.

Ichi showed up first. His own Van roared down the road and parked up onto the sidewalk alongside us as he jumped out, nearly leaping onto Malcolm to make sure he was okay.

“Hey, easy Ichi, easy.” Malcolm said, sounding tired, but amused at Ichi’s reaction.

“You alright? Dr. Vik? He’ll be okay?”

“Right as rain, kid. Not the first time I’ve patched up a bullet hole.” Vik joked back but he was doing something with the hole in Malcolms side, his face buried in a screen looking at Malcolms chest.

It took a second but Ichi breathed out and nearly slumped to the floor. “Hey I’m alright now Ichi. It’s okay. Motoko got to me in time.”

“I can’t believe you were gonk enough to trust Granny driver Motoko to come rescue you. Should have called me first.” Ichi said with an almost sob in his voice as he told the joke.

Which is the only reason I didn’t punch him for it.

I didn’t drive like a granny!

“Heh. Knew… Knew you were across town remember? Figured ‘Toko would be free.”

“Well you were right!” I told him firmly from the floor of the van. I wasn’t napping or anything just trying to calm myself. The relief at Malcolm not dying was just…

Too much.

“And I was right.” Malcolm said, waving a hand off his cot in my direction.

“I’m glad you’re alright Malcolm. Fuck. Can’t believe you got shot.”

“Me neither.” He offered and both boys went quiet even if I could only see Ichi looking down at Malcolm with an array of angry emotions across his face.

“Who did it?”

“Some assholes down near Santo. Supposed to be legit, car trade through a site. I checked it out with some guys on the site. Everything looked legit. They sell cars, boosted, damaged whatever. Got a hit for the car I was looking for… Fuck it’s my fault. They didn’t have a fucking Caliburn, probably heard about me looking for one. Thought I was probably some rich kid or something. Fuck.”

“Don’t worry Malcolm. We’ll find them.” Ichi said which surprised me because I was about to say that too.

Ichi looked to me and I just nodded. Both of us understood what was going to happen next.

“Malcolm!” A breathless cry pulled us towards the door, where Hiromi had just pulled up on her Kusanagi. She rushed in, and it was luck that Ichi grabbed her before she almost flopped onto Malcolm.

“I was in class! I’m sorry I didn’t even get the ping until now! Are you-”

“He’ll live kid, Don’t worry I’m patching him up just fine.” Vik said with a smile and Hiromi almost sagged.

—--

We filled in Hiromi on everything, and in the end an hour later Malcolm was at Viks clinic resting.

But I was going to go find some fuckers that shot my choom. I was almost up the stairs when Ichi grabbed my arm stopping me.

“I’m going with.” He said no hesitation in his voice.

He was pissed. Which is why I didn’t want him to come. Even at my angriest, I still had Cold Blood keeping my mind clear. Keeping myself clear to make decisions like shooting gonks rather than talking to them.

“Ichi-”

“Don’t Motoko. I’m coming. Or I’ll go alone. They shot my choom over a fucking car sale. Malcolm wasn’t even fucking with them, but they just- Fuck that.”

“I’m coming too.” Hiromi said as she walked up the stairs behind Ichi, patting him on the shoulder once as she walked right past us both. “What do you both need an invitation?” She asked as she turned and gave one of her superior looks at the two of us.

If it wasn’t such a serious moment between us, I would have leapt on her, pinned her to the ground and… Mess with her hair or something. I don’t know.

“Alright, fine. We all go! But, I call the shots.” I demand looking at the two of my chooms with firm looks.

“I’m fine with that.” Hiromi said and a moment later Ichi nodded.

“Good. First thing first. Go get suited up. These fucks have guns and obviously aren’t afraid to use it. So go get ready.” I ordered much to both of their irritations, but in the end they listened. Hiromi jumped onto her Kusanagi, and Ichi in his van.

I went home myself to grab my own Section 9 equipment.

I was going to make a point against these assholes.

—--

Suited up and ready we all met up near the location Malcolm had given us. “Stay close together guys, and keep your eyes open..” I demanded making sure they both understood before we walked down the block towards where Malcolms little meetup was supposed to happen.

I had my techgogs down blocking my eyes and face, as I wandered through the crowds of Night city people.

We were in Charter hill, just on the other side of the canal cutting off Charter Hill and Arroyo.

I followed the location GPS through a back alley, Through a small alley filled with old homeless tents, and then into a small inner court area for the apartments around me. The place had old shop spaces all closed down and shuttered along the edges. Each of the shutters now covered in years of gang tags.

Hiromi and Ichi both stayed close together, weapons ready and waiting.

But while there were some people here, it didn’t look like our people.

Not that we were sure what they looked like.

Dammit Malcolm. You walked into a deal with no backup, no information on whose these fuckers were!

I let it go as I searched around, trying to find a clue, or just someone I thought could answer some questions when I noticed it.

A puddle of blood. With a trail leading through to the street beyond.

I stepped low and touched it with a chrome finger.

This was where Malcolm got shot. I could actually see the rail line he must have run to from here. Straight through the gap he had escaped through. And the trail of blood.

“This is the right place alright.” I muttered as I looked around scanning the area, eyes flashing checking everything I could.

“Hiromi.” I called out and pointed.

A homeless man was in the courtyard. A little shack of cardboard and old benches in a corner.

She nodded and Ichi followed. She would ask questions, and maybe get some answers. She was better at that. While I was better at this.

The Courtyard didn’t have cameras. Any that might have originally been set up were long gone, ripped out of their mounts for whatever purpose their thief wanted. But that didn’t mean shit to me.

This was still Night City. There were only so many places one could move unnoticed to avoid all cameras.

I circled the building. Marking a map with every camera pointed in the direction I needed. If the people who had shot Malcolm had come, or gone into this set of apartments I would find them.

I met back up with Hiromi and Ichi Hiromi looking a little irritated, but her face shifted as she saw me return.

“Some moderate good news.” She offered with a shrug. “The old man saw the shooting. I had to pay him a chunk of eddies to get the information, but he blabbed quickly enough. Apparently he hadn’t seen the guys before. They aren’t from these apartments, probably came here to make sure they couldn’t be tracked after stealing Malcolms eddies… Wait, did they actually get the eddies from Malcolm?”

I blinked.

Ichi blinked.

“I’ll call him and ask. Keep filling Motoko in.” Ichi said and we all nodded.

“Right. So, they aren’t from around here, but I was able to get what direction they left in. No idea what vehicle they might have, but at least we have a location for where they went.”

“Which way?” I asked and Hiromi pointed me towards another alleyway on the opposite side from where we had walked in from.

“So they are going north… That alley. There’s some cameras at a few restaurants across the street. We’ll be able to ID them.” I assured my chooms and despite Ichi’s eyes glowing yellow he nodded along having been listening in even as he made the call.

“Alright. Let’s go take a look as well before we head out. I want to get some eyes on the area.” I told them and Hiromi and Ichi followed as we walked through the alley. This one didn’t have a tent city in it, but it was filled with doors and ways into the buildings around them.

Not good. Hopefully the homeless man was right, and they weren’t native to the area. I would really hate to have to try and track some gonks through this rat warren of hallways and back entrances.

I leapt to the side as a pipe rumbled and something foul smelling and just as disgusting looking poured out of it into the alley.

“Grooooss!” Hiromi whined, and all I could do was nod along.

“Yeah. Watch your feet.”I mumbled already knowing I would be washing my boots off before ever stepping into the apartment.

We wandered down the alley until finally reaching the street. It was bright and active. No signs of the rundown practically abandoned courtyard we just passed through.

“So what are we looking for?” Ichi asked and I shrugged my eyes scanning the street. I had already walked past this exact spot before, but now I was double checking. Sending out pings to any electronic devices I could see to find what they were connected to.

And slowly I got an idea of how everything was put together.

Of course I was still wearing my techgogs I realized which explained why Hiromi and Ichi were both wondering what the hell I was doing.

“Sorry. I’m scanning everything. I want to see what open systems there are in the area, as well maybe something more hidden.”

“Gotcha! How can we help?” Hiromi asked and I just reached out to pull her into a side hug to quiet her for a moment. I was tracking down a stray connection connected to the net from the cafe across the street but I ended up sighing.

Just some punk piggybacking on the cafe's TV connection.

“Nothing stands out. Unless we want to try and ask all the people on the street if they remember seeing our perps. I think it’s time to head to the net.”

 

[Seras]

“You guys don’t have to wait around. You could go check on Malcolm…” I offered as we entered the basement of the Straight Lane Apartments, where all my netrunning stuff was kept.

“Malcolm is asleep, and Dr. Vik doesn’t want us bothering him. Besides, we can help you like last time. Go through data while you keep up the hunt.” Ichi replied and I didn’t have a response for that.

I felt bad that my chooms would be hanging around me while I was basically sleeping, while leaving Malcolm alone. Especially with how antsy Ichi was to help.

“It’s fine Motoko. The sooner we find these fucks, the sooner we kill them and let Malcolm sleep like a baby.” Hiromi reminded me and I nodded as I clambered onto my netrunning chair. I pulled out the chair's connectors and fitted them into my leotard so the biomonitors would keep an eye on me, and the coolant could flow then rested back.

“Okay. I’ll see you later.” I told them and closed my eyes.

Only to open them in my blank lobby space.

It only took me a moment to adjust and then I was off. Zipping through the city in a blur as I used the IP address of all the systems I had been scanning back at the attack site to practically teleport there.

Then I set foot onto the netscape and went to work. First I accessed the cafe that was across the street. Breaking through their ICE with only a few moments of work since their system wasn’t especially well protected. I ignored the connection to the other netrunner I had noticed before, and instead accessed their camera.

Only five minutes into entering the net I got my eyes on the fuckers that shot Malcolm.

It was hard to miss.

The four street thugs all charging through the alley, one still holding a pistol in his hand as they clambered into a rust bucket Archer Hella.

Then they took off with a jerky motion as they seemed to forget to release the parking brake before slamming the gas.

Part of me was still furious at these fucks but…

Malcolm? Really choom? You trusted that these fucking gonks had a fucking Supercar for sale? They didn’t look like they had XXL burrito to their name.

I sent a note for Ichi to ask Malcolm for more details on why he trusted these guys in the first place. These guys were just thugs. Chaff.

I refused to believe Malcolm was that stupid…

Okay he had gone without backup. So maybe he was a little brain dead, but I refused to believe he was this stupid.

But they had given me what I needed. A direction.

“The Archer Hella we are looking for is heading East on Lele. Towards… Pardey? Yeah. Is there a freeway connection there?” I asked my team as I started going down the street, checking if there was a good corner store with a camera on the intersection.

*No freeway connection there They would have to go south and then get on from the Republic Way connection.* Hiromi replied after a moment and I nodded.

Okay Let’s cut down on what paths they could take, and track them home.

—---

Two hours later I pulled out of the net to take a break.

I hadn’t exactly eaten today and Hiromi and Ichi were both getting hungry.

We had tracked the fuckers through Charter Hill, Into Heywood of all places. I had thought they might be connected to the Tinos. But then as they moved through the area they turned east.

Into Arroyo. Then into Rancho Coronado.

6th St?

I lost them multiple times in the area. Unfortunately the industrial parks giving way to suburbs, cut out a lot of my ability to snoop.

“Oh. Thanks Ichi!” I Chirped as I finally opened my eyes to reality to see Ichi had obviously gone on a food run at some point.

“No problem. There wasn’t much we could do to help there at the end.” He said stuffing a piece of some noodle dish into his mouth.

“Yeah. Rancho Coronado is a bit of a dead zone.” I grumbled. Sure there were still security cameras in the area, but they were few and far between, and worse some were pointing just at the front door, or at places I couldn’t use.

“So what do you think?” Hiromi asked and I grumbled a bit as I sat and stuffed my own little meal into my mouth so I wouldn’t have to speak at first.

“Rancho is 6th St. If the guys fled there, they are probably 6th St. Or maybe they are an offshoot gang or something. We either go and start hunting them down, or maybe see if we can’t use some diplomacy? Reach out to 6th St. Might be able to find out who they are that way?”

“You think 6th St. Would give up info on one of their own to us?” Ichi asked, obviously skeptical, and I shook my head.

“No I don’t. Which means we are probably going to have to hunt them down, in the middle of gang territory… This is gonna be a pain.”

“We could try and lure them out?” Hiromi asked and I shrugged.

“I don’t think that will work Hiromi. However Malcolm contacted them, they aren’t going to respond through those methods. Especially if they suspect Malcolm isn’t dead. Think about it. They wanted his eddies. If they have even a single braincell they will realize a teenager flashing that kind of money probably has people that will kill them to get a paycheck.”

“Ah true… They’re gonna suspect someone is coming to kill them.”

I blinked.

“Yeah. They will. They will suspect someone is going to try and hunt them down… Hiromi you are very smart.” I told her, and she looked questioning at me.

People in Night City were pretty direct. Normally if something like this happened, and Malcolm was some Corpo kid. They would hire a merc. The merc would try to hunt them down, succeed or not, and that would basically be it. Once the merc failed to find them… Then the fuckers would be safe from retaliation. Wasn’t like a merc was going to get paid if they found them a week after pissing off the guy hiring them by failing.

Hiromi continued to look confused at my words. But while she hadn’t said anything genius herself, it was actually very accurate. If they suspected someone was coming for them… Then that’s what we would show them.

“We are going to trick them. They are probably hiding right now. Deep in some hole. It won’t be easy to find them, and even if we do, we will have to deal with 6th St. getting involved… But if we convince them that they got away with it? If they think they are all clear, they will stop hiding. Then we won’t have to hunt them down through 6th St. territory. We will just invite them to a nice little deal and remove them then.”

“So you go and pretend to look for them?” Ichi asked and I shook my head.

“No, I won’t be a good choice, I’m weird cause I’m so young besides, I was trying to take a break this week anyways. Better to get someone that looks like a merc, give 6th St. Exactly what they suspect to see. That way they won’t react strongly. Just another merc searching for someone for a bounty before giving up.”

“So we hire someone to pretend to look for them just to give up?” Ichi asked looking a little unhappy with it.

“Exactly. We hire a merc for an easy few days, of fucking around in Rancho Coronado, pretending to find our boys. And then he gives up, once he stops showing up. Obviously he couldn’t find them and so everyone in the area will know that he gave up and that solves the whole problem.”

“Wait but who? Are you going to ask Jun or Fujimura-sama to hire a merc?”

“Nah. I know a guy.” I said and grinned as I started making a call to Jackie. A week or so contract to hang around Rancho Coronado, eat on my dime, and make a half hearted attempt to find the four gonks? Jackie would probably be all for it.

Plus it was a perfect excuse to go home and relax for a while like I planned before Malcolm got shot.

I breathed in, and out. Yeah. I still needed that break.

—--

After making a call and setting up the whole situation with Jackie, he ended up agreeing, laughing the whole time at the idea.

I was just glad he was willing to do it, for less than normal merc money. I mean, sure I could pay him fully, but this should be a pretty safe gig. Although I did offer a hazard pay if 6th St. did try to jump him or something.

Until then we all went to Viks.

“He’s still sleeping.” He assured us patting Ichi on the shoulder as the boy had instantly walked over to Vik for an update about his best choom.

“Is there anything we can do?”

“Just keep quiet and let him rest. He’ll be fine. Everything is stable, and he is mostly just recovering blood and healing a bit. I shot him up with Quick Heal and everything. The boy’ll be on his feet in a week like nothing happened.” Ichi gave out a shuddered sigh at the words, his shoulders almost trembling as Vik patted the Section 9 jacket that we were all still wearing.

I mouthed a thank you to Vik as Hiromi and I braced Ichi. Hiromi pressed her forehead against the side of his head, while I reached over and ran a hand through Ichi’s dark hair.

“I’ll be okay.” He said a little grumpily a few moments later when he realized both of us girls were being gentle with him.

“We know.” I said and Hiromi agreed. Ichi stood straight. Annoyingly taller than I was and wiped our affection off of him like it was covered in cooties.

He would be okay, and so would Malcolm.

—--

I flopped onto the couch at home a few hours later.

Vik had eventually sent us all home to rest, agreeing he would text us when Malcolm woke up.

Rolling sideways I looked at the new holo TV and stared at it. It was too high up. The old TV was just on a table across the room and was a little above head height when on the couch. The Holo TV had the display way up towards the ceiling.

It made my neck hurt to look so high up while sprawled out.

Probably some corpo plan with Biotechnica to sell more Bioware necks to people or something.

I rolled my face into the couch.

Maybe a good eight hours of sleep would help?

I faintly felt a thump of bass through the couch. Reaching down I placed a chrome finger against the floor, even with the carpet I could feel the faintest hint of vibrations there.

Rockerboy neighbor was playing again.

My guitar was over there… It would be something to do. Get out some of the frustration I’ve been dealing with.

I fumbled across the couch without actually getting up until I reached my guitar and flopped onto my back so I could rest it on my stomach.

That didn’t really feel right either…

In the end I rolled off the couch. Laying back on the carpet, feet resting on the couch like I was sitting backwards.

Yeah, that felt better. Everything felt upside down to me right now. Stupid Night City. Stupid Scavs. And Jun. And fuckers shooting my choom.

It was an annoying fact that as much as I wanted to just play in Night City like it was a video game, if I did that people I loved would die. Or I would.

My hand strummed a chord. Then because I simply knew which chord to use I changed it and then strummed the beginnings to a song.

“You don’t want to hurt me.”

Edgerunners was right about one thing.

“We’re only here once. Why blame yourself?” Major Crimes, by Health. It suited my mood at the moment.

—--

“Motoko! I’m hom- Whoa!” Jun yelped as I poked my head over the couch. It had been a few hours of sad songs, and I was surprisingly feeling a lot better.

“Hey Jun.”

“Jeeze don’t scare me like that. Oh playing some songs?”

“Yeah I’ve been feeling a little down and stuff with everything. So I’m letting out the bad stuff. It’s going okay.” I chirped as I laid the guitar on the couch and flipped up to see what Jun was up to.

He had a bag of something that didn’t smell like XXL burritos in his arms.

“Yeah I noticed… How’s your choom?.”

“Malcolm will be okay. I got him to Vik in time.” I said, not mentioning how absolutely terrified I had been that I wouldn’t be in time. That despite everything I would make it. I was suddenly so incredibly grateful for my system once again.

I wouldn’t have to worry about nightmares.

“I’m glad… I uh… Got you something.”

He said and to my surprise he opened the bag and it was…

Ramen.

The Ramen we always bought from the shop in Sakura Market. The Ramen stand that wasn’t super far from here, but more than far enough you wouldn’t just stop by for Ramen that could get closer.

“Jun?”

“I noticed you’ve been upset, and then today happened too.” He said simply as he settled the Ramen bowls on the couch center table. “I know I pushed you into moving. I think… I wouldn’t have done it, if I didn’t think it was the best idea at the time. For safety, and just how big it is, but I know I pushed you on it.” He said, before closing his eyes and breathing in and out, as if calming his mind. “So I wanted to do something to make you feel… Normal.”

He pushed the Ramen over to me and I looked at it.

Jun was such a gonk I thought, definitely not seeing him through a bit of blurriness around the edges of my vision.

“You are such a gonk.” I told him as I walked over and threw my arms around his neck. I wasn’t crying Jun was crying! He had faulty chrome for his optic lubricants! It was raining inside! I got something stuck in my eye!

Ignoring the fact I could poke my Kiroshi and not really be bothered by something like that.

Stupid Jun!

“Thank you for going along with it, and just… I’m sorry it wasn’t what you wanted. Hopefully we can make this place our home. And you’ll end up loving it even more. It certainly smells better.” He muttered the end and I laughed, definitely not choking a bit on a sob.

“The carpet is nice too!” I informed him.

“The Fridge is bigger.”

“Oh the bathroom has better hot water!”

We went on and on telling each other good things about the new apartment, falling into the little game without even needing to discuss it, pure sibling comradery in action.

It was nice.

I even forgave him for the already cold Ramen when I tried it. Turns out his Kusanagi isn’t exactly great for keeping Ramen warm on the cooling nights of Night City.

I ate it anyway though.

—--

“What are you doing?” I asked Jun in the morning. I had slept, but Jun as usual slept in, but then to my surprise he came out of his room dressed in…

Well athletic clothes?

“Hitting the gym.”

“You?” I couldn’t help but ask in surprise. Jun was…

He was a lazy teenager given chrome muscles. He didn’t exercise. At least not that I’ve ever seen.

“I go to the Gym!” He hissed every bit the offended teenager, but then hesitated before admitting “Sensei told me I’ve let the normal muscles I’ve got left grow a bit weak. So I’ve been informed to workout until he is satisfied.”

I blinked. He looked away grimacing, because we both knew what was going to happen next.

“Pffft! Can’t be a big scary Oni if you are fat!” I mocked in delighted laughter making Jun’s shoulders slump at my words.

“I knew it. I knew this was going to happen, but I answered anyways. Why did I answer?” Jun muttered to himself but I heard him.

“So where you going? Is there a good Gym around here?” I asked because honestly… I could use my downtime to get another Body level…

That actually sounded like fun. I’ve been a bit in the dumps, but exercise was good for that!

“There’s a TC Gym, yeah. Want to come?” He offered and I instantly frowned at him. I really didn’t…

On the other hand, if there was a Gym in the building I wouldn’t have to pay for that corpo Gym anymore!

Wait… I haven’t been there in months! Shit I had to cancel!

Fucking Gym membership!

“Sure.” I agreed, heading into my room with a quick flip over the back of the couch to get changed.

—--

The Gym was actually just outside the apartment complex. There was a little path and then what used to be a basketball court? Or maybe a tennis court. I couldn’t tell, but now it was full of workout equipment.

And TC grunts using it.

Jun walked in without a moment's hesitation. Because to him these were his people. I took a moment to scope it out a bit first. Looking over the group. There were currently about five people using the equipment, all of which gave Jun a greeting as he entered.

I idly wondered how it worked. Were these guys Fujimura’s people as well, or just well aware that Jun was Kamikaze and so being careful?

In the end it didn’t matter. I didn’t get the greetings Jun did, but no one bothered me as I found some free weights and loaded some pounds on the pole, before settling into a corner to do some squats.

I started with squats mostly so I could keep an eye on the area. I would have to switch to something else eventually if someone noticed that I was going overboard. There were too many people around for me to just work through a single machine or exercise until I got my alerts.

“You a new kid?” A rough voice asked and I looked up into an old man's face. Greyed beard and old Chrome. It was the first thing I thought when I looked up into his eyes.

This was a man that survived in Night City. He was shirtless as he had obviously been exercising, the wraps on his hands reminding me that I had seen him on a punching bag a few moments before. Old Tattoos stretched across his chest and back.

This man would be a Yakuza if he wasn’t very obviously a Tyger Claw.

“Yeah, just moved in.” I informed him as I continued my reps up and down.

“Then you’re the Kusanagi girl! Well you got good form. Keep it up. I’m John, this is my gym. If you need a partner for anything ask me. I’ll help, or find someone who can. Don’t break anything, no fighting in the gym. Good?”

“Perfectly.” I offered the old man. As I continued up and down. I needed to push myself if I was going to get a Body alert.

Or eventually a level up. I was still a long way off. Not enough really pushing my body to the limit since I stopped actively exercising.

The older man watched for a moment before nodding seemingly pleased at my exercise and then turned to walk off. A few moments later he was critiquing a teenage boy for fucking around with his own free weights.

It always made me wonder what I should feel when someone among the TC treated me normally. These were the same guys that worked with Jotaro.

That committed horrible crimes.

I sighed. This was Night City I suppose.

 

[Seras]

I used Jun as a measuring stick. Switching to a new exercise whenever he did. Since despite all his chrome, my brother was a bit out of shape. Too many burritos.

My calves and thighs were burning but it felt good because I had gotten a few Body alerts as I exercised as well!

Then considering most of the stuff was already claimed I walked up to the punching speed bag. The small bag wasn’t my usual go to for exercises, but that actually worked to my benefit. I had done punching machines and such before, but never a speed bag.

Although with my chrome arms I wasn’t sure if I would actually get much out of it. I wasn’t exactly working muscles with my arms, but I wanted to try it anyway.

Plus it was free.

I stretched my legs bouncing a bit to work out the tired muscles as I walked up and hit the bag. It flopped fast, too fast.

I had vague memories of seeing people use the thing in the past, and I had even seen John use it as I walked in.

I held back and struck it again. It bounced and flopped much more controllably.

“Better.” A voice startled me and I looked back to see the old TC man himself. “Three count. Like this.” He informed me, walking up and striking the bag once, letting it three times before he struck it again, and instantly there was a balance.

He stopped right after. “Try again.”

I shrugged, a tap of my fist, and I waited. Then struck again. Then again. I got the pace down nearly instantly.

“Good. Now sw-”

I had already switched hands, starting to shift which hand struck the back, constantly changing the number of hits, and adjusting.

“Huh. You pick things up quick.” He complimented, and I shrugged as I moved.

“I know how to fight pretty well, used some punching machines before, just never a speed bag.” I informed him.

“Show me.” he demanded as he walked over behind the speed bag for a set of mitts. He slipped them on and waved me over.

I sighed. I was kinda just wanting to do my own thing. But I shrugged and walked over.

And then we started, I punched out and struck his mitts as he moved, and I moved with him, following him around striking the mitts even dodging his telegraphed swipes as I fell into the rhythm, and I could see him testing me. Starting slow before going faster and faster, telegraphing less and less to see where I stood.

Finally I had to block his mitt as I leaped back to keep from getting smacked in the face and he nodded. “You’re not bad kid. Who trained you?”

“No one really. For this anyways. Sensei at the Deravaja Dojo worked with me on some sword stuff.”

He scoffed at my words as he looked me over. “Well you either had years of training or you’re a natural.”

“The second actually.” Jun said suddenly as he walked over and pulled me in by the shoulder.

“Ew! Jun! You sweat beast! Gross!” I cursed at him as he had pulled me right into his stinky armpit.

Jun of course realizing what he had done just laughed at my horror as I wiped at my shoulder.

“Kusanagi.”

“John.” Jun greeted back, before nodding his head at me. “My sister is a genius. Most of the time anyways.”

“Gonk.” I retorted, flushing a little at being complimented. I mean. If you were going by how quickly I could learn something thanks to my system, I would be a super genius. But I also kinda wasn’t. So it was a bit embarrassing to be complimented for something that wasn’t really true, but something I couldn’t really argue.

“Huh. Well she gots some good hands.” John offered complimenting my punching skill.

But I couldn’t let that setup go. “Bought them myself.” I retorted a little sarcastically earning a blink from the older man before he actually let out a deep chuckle.

“Got me there kid. Got me there. You done already Kusanagi?” John asked and Jun shrugged. “I can’t wear myself out. I have work tonight.”

Both of us looked to Jun with eyes filled with disappointment.

“Don’t get fat Jun-nii.”

“I’m not fat!” He actually shouted and everyone looked at him. Jun had that moment of realization that he had spoken a little too loud. “I’m not fat.” He poked me with a finger, but in the end he did turn around and go work on a treadmill sort of thing for a while.

—--

“Have fun?” Jun asked as we both headed up on the elevator.

“Exercise isn’t really fun to me.” I answered. Sure, I had eventually forgiven John for bothering me when he pulled me into some more exercises that had pulled another Body Alert from my system. I enjoyed the results, but the act itself was mostly just drudgery, if not for Cool keeping me on task, I probably would have stopped long before even Jun.

Although… It was kinda nice though to get my muscles burning again.

“Heh. You had a happy look on your face though?”

“I did not!”

“Ah I see. John is married you know?”

“Wha? JUN!”

“What? You like olde-” I punched him instantly for daring to utter such lies!

“I do not like older guys!” I yelled as the elevator door opened and into the face of the woman that was standing there.

The woman was wearing a cool leather like jacket neon lights lighting it up in a strobe effect, her hair glowing to a musical beat that she was also nodding her head to. She had a guitar strapped over her back, and as I looked on she blew a bubble of pink bubblegum and popped it.

She was, in one word, cool.

And probably Rockerboy neighbor.

“Nice guitar.” I offered, unable to say anything else. I recognized the model from the music shop, although I couldn’t remember the name. I wasn’t exactly an instrument hound after all.

“It does what I need.” She muttered cooly, hip cocked to the side and looking us over. Although I noticed her eyes were mostly on Jun.

“Jun, right? You just moved in.” She greeted, her eyes practically flashing.

“Yeah. Nice to meet you.” He said, still fighting off chuckles at my previous yell.

“Preem. You should come see the show sometime.” She offered and reached into her guitar bag and pulled out a leaflet. “TC get a discount.” She added and Jun took the leaflet. I stood up on my tiptoes to take a look.

Huh. Apparently the girls band, Violent Hemorrhage was playing at a club not far from here. There was a picture of the girl herself obviously the lead on the leaflet.

“Cool.” I muttered, because it was pretty cool. I wonder what kind of music she played? Maybe we could jam together some time? I haven’t had the chance to play with someone else yet.

“I might show up.” Jun offered and the girl smirked, and I instantly realized she was flirting.

Gross! She was flirting with Jun!

Why were all of these girls interested in Jun!? He was a burrito addict! And he throws his socks everywhere!

“What kind of music do you play?” I asked, looking towards the girl, and she just scoffed.

“Should be fairly obvious, no? The Violent Hemorrhage play NeoRock Electrosmash.”

“What the hell is NeoRockSmash?” I asked instantly because suddenly I felt like I was in the mid 2000’s again and everyone was talking about New Rave Hyperpop Synth-Electroclash. Or something similarly gibberish.

The girl looked like she was going to say something biting, but Jun was right there, and she smoothed out and instead just spoke with the most syrupy sweet voice. “Maybe just stick with pop.”

Okay cool girl. First off? No one tells me to listen to pop music.

Secondly, this means war.

My narrowed eyes obviously spoke my intent because she just rolled her eyes and looked to Jun. “See you around Kusanagi.” She said, sounding very sultry and she sashayed into the elevator past us. Pointedly almost rubbing against Jun as they nearly jostled at the entrance, and then.

The elevator shut.

“I don’t like Rockerboy Neighbor.” I said instantly. To make sure Jun wasn’t getting any weird ideas.

Like sexual interest.

“She’s a bit rude, yeah.” He agreed and I smiled at him for saying what I wanted. Jun could find way better girls than her! Even if she was cool!

And she had that don’t fuck with me attitude that was pretty awesome. Stupid Cool Rockerboys.

But I would rather Jun get with Akari… Or Rita! Rita was a good choice! Better than Cool rockerboy girl.

I was gonna wipe that stupid smug smirk off her face. I decided right then.

“I’m gonna go take a shower and practice.” I told Jun and started for the apartment.

“Practice what?” He asked, following after as I stomped off.

“Music of course!”

—--

Of course it was only mid shower that I remembered that Malcolm was injured and I took a moment to cool my irritation at Rockerboy girl to put that to the side, so I could get ready and go to hang out with Malcolm. Because my choom was more important.

Of course I wasn’t the only visitor as I stomped down the stairs to Vik’s clinic.

Ichi had finally been told to go home that morning apparently, but Hiromi was there when I stepped down into Vik’s clinic.

“Motoko!”

“Hey Hiromi. Hey Malcolm, how you feeling?” I asked as I walked over to where the two were hanging out. Pulling off my Guitar and setting my Music box to the side so I could give some hugs to my chooms. Malcolm still rested on the Ripper chair Hiromi pulled up next to him with a tablet in her hands. It only took me a moment to realize the two of them were playing games.

Aww. Hiromi had come to play videogames with Malcolm!

I kept the laughter of delight on the inside as I pulled up a chair to watch the two playing the game.

And instantly wanted to die.

The game was shit. Garbage. Full of microtransactions, and the screen was at least 40% ads built into the hud.

I could feel my soul leaving my body as the two were happily playing as if this was acceptable.

I couldn’t make heads or tails of the actual gameplay. It looks sort of like a farmville clone? But there weren’t plants, instead I realized what it was when Hiromi pulled up a menu and I saw the name of the game.

“Corporate Commander?”

“Yeah! It’s fun. You run a startup corp and have to survive and grow and stuff. Malcolm and I play it sometimes, I figured with him stuck in a chair it was a perfect time to finally kill that bitch Excel Corp!”

“Hiromi, they are obviously more than willing to throw thousands of eddies into the game. I don’t think we are going to beat them today. Or ever.” Malcolm seemed to remind Hiromi who pouted and looked angry at the game.

Huh, Hiromi was pretty competitive.

“Motoko! Since you are here, you should join Mitsunashi Industries! We could use a few more Subsidiaries!” Hiromi said, smiling with a big grin.

A feeling struck me. I looked to Malcolm.

“Hiromi, are you using the fact Malcolm can’t run away to force him to help your video game company?”

“No! Never! Malcolm is a proud member of the Mitsunashi Industries Conglomerate!”

“That’s exactly what is happening.” Malcolm offered instead never taking his eyes off the tablet he was playing on.

Hiromi’s jaw dropped as she spun towards Malcolm. “Malcolm!” I couldn’t restrain my laughter as Hiromi looked absolutely offended at the reveal.

But the fact she ended up looking a little embarrassed after a moment told me it was probably pretty close to the truth anyways.

Malcolm looked up and threw me a wink though. So obviously he was cool with it.

“Hiromi…” I trailed off meaningfully and she flushed a little red at the disappointment in my voice.

Then I just smiled and threw an arm over her shoulders. “Silly gonk.”

“You’re the gonk.” She mumbled but left it at that.

“What’s with the guitar and stuff Motoko?” Malcolm asked and I smiled as I pulled away from Hiromi and grabbed my stuff.

“Well obviously with my choom laid up on a ripper chair he would need something to help stave off the boredom! So I figured I could play some music while we hang out. Any requests?” I asked him and he perked up a bit at the idea.

Then Hiromi cut him off. “Wait! You’re gonna play for Malcolm!? You made such a fuss when I got you to play for Jun and I! Motoko! No fair!”

“Malcolm is injured. He gets special treatment Hiromi.” I reminded my choom which she just puffed her cheeks at me pretending to be annoyed and then we both burst into giggles as one.

Malcolm mumbled something I didn’t catch, but it sounded like “These two gonks.” And then he spoke louder. “I don’t care. I just want to see you play something. You’ve been all secrety about it.” He told me and I laughed. That was pretty true.

Fine.

“Okay I have some a few songs I think you’ll like.” I said as I grabbed my music box and plugged in. Nirvana should be pretty on point for Malcolm, and I already had Smells Like Teen Spirit finished.

So I settled in and after a moment my hands hit the chords. I was doing my best to ignore my chooms both staring at me, as the emitters started up and the drums slammed into the intro.

As I played through the song Malcolm seemed into it, nodding his head, while Hiromi was fully engaged, eyes wide which I noticed as I finally looked up from my guitar and our eyes met, her face flushed in excitement as I sang for the crowd of two.

“Ow.” Malcolm said, suddenly hissing and wincing as he shifted and moved to hold his side.

“Malcolm!” The song ended instantly music box turned off, as I stood up, but he waved me off.

“I’m fine. I just jerked a bit! I’m okay. Heh. Good song Motoko. I was getting into a bit too much.” he replied and I sat back down with a sigh. Whew.

“Maybe something more low key?” I asked and Malcolm and Hiromi both shook their heads, Hiromi standing up and pointing.

“Finish the song Motoko! Better yet! Start again! Repeat! Put it on loop!”

“Pfft. Ow, Hiromi don’t make me laugh so hard.” Malcolm gasped struggling not to laugh so hard it hurt him.

“I wouldn’t mind hearing it from the start as well.” A new voice called out.

“Hey Vik!” I chirped, waving as the ripper finished walking in. He had been resting against the entrance way listening as the song finished.

“Motoko, I remember you mentioning picking up the guitar as a hobby, but that was good work there kid.” He said as he walked over and grabbed his chair rolling over to us once he was down.

“Well. I’m still learning and everything.” I demurred, but Vik’s dad energy wasn’t going to let me go that easy.”

“Nonsense, that was excellent. What song was that? Never heard that band before.”

“Ah… The song was Smells Like Teen Spirit. Uh… No band. I mean. I don’t have one.”

“Wait! Motoko! You wrote that yourself!?” Malcolm asked, gasping and I didn’t say anything. I mean, it wasn’t like I could say it was Nirvana.

They don’t exist here.

And saying I wrote it was… Yeah that made me uncomfortable. So I didn’t say anything.

“I’ll play it from the start for you Vik. But just… Don’t tell anyone okay? It’s embarrassing.”

Vik literally just laughed at me, but he had a big smile so I forgave him. Then I started playing again.

“Load up on guns, bring your friends!”

—--

It was still a little embarrassing to play songs in front of people, but Malcolm liked the music, and him being hurt was more important.

I had taken a few breaks from time to time working on making new songs to my chooms surprise, as I put together an entire song in just an hour or so before putting on a rendition of Lithium Flower.

But then I got a call from my current contracted merc. “Hang on guys. Got a call.” I told my chooms who were distracted with their games anyway.

*Hey Jackie! How goes?*

*Hoh. Easy enough Hermanita. An easy gig is an easy gig. Went around flashed pictures of your targets. Got a whole lot of run around stories, but I’ve spent most of the day eating burgers.* Jackie broke into a laugh at that and I smiled along with him.

Jackie had of course been the merc that I thought of first when I needed someone to be visibly snooping around Rancho Coronado. Jackie was the perfect fit. Big enough that no one would want to fight him while he was asking questions, friendly enough that the few that did would end up letting it go, especially when he would be very visibly lazily following the requirements to find the gonks.

Spending most of his time eating food and hanging out.

*You sure you don’t want me to actually try and find these gonks? I’ve had a few people hint they wouldn’t mind letting me know for a certain amount of eddies. Apparently your targets aren’t well liked. Even if one of them is the nephew of some important choom in 6th St.* He said suddenly and I had to frown at that.

I hadn’t considered that it might be easy to find them. That 6th St. and the people in the suburbs might not like the gonks. And one of them was highly connected. That did complicate things.

*Tempting.* I finally admitted but shook it off. *If you can get the info cheap, then I wouldn’t mind. I’ll even throw in a bonus, but I don’t want you to push too hard.*

*Yeah Hermanita I remember your plan. No problem. I’ll keep letting everyone think I’m just not that interested, and if I do end up with their location then I’ll let you know. How’s little Malcolm holding up?*

I smiled at Jackies question, he had been pretty mad when he learned Malcolm had been shot. I guess for Jackie just a single gig and then a bar trip was enough to make them chooms.

*Malcolms okay. Looking better already. Vik says he’ll be back on his feet by the end of the week.*

*Good. Glad to hear that Hermanita. Alright then. I’ll update you again tomorrow, but I got a beer and a burger with my name on it.* He said, sounding cheerful as the call disconnected.

—--

Eventually Malcolm's mother came into the clinic and despite Hiromi and I’s best efforts to stick around to enjoy the look on Malcolm's face, we did eventually have to leave.

Malcolm's mom was super embarrassing for him. I think if we hadn’t left he might have just finished himself off to save himself the trouble.

Unfortunately Hiromi needed to head home.

“I have homework I’ve been putting off, and well, Malcolm is a good excuse but my teachers won’t accept it, and then my ‘rents will be on my case.” She whined at me as we walked over to our cars.

“I get it. We’ll meet up soon! Once Malcolm is feeling better we should all go out and have a night to relax.” I offered and Hiromi seemed to perk up.

“Yeah! I’ll get through this week and then it’ll be a party night! I’ll find out if there’s anything going on this weekend! Be prepared Motoko! Because I’m going to drag you to the preemest places!”

I just laughed as Hiromi hopped onto her bike and drove off with a waving arm behind her.

I slipped into the Quadra and decided to head home.

I was still taking a break from anything, murdery related and so I was gonna go flop on the couch. Maybe do some more coding work?

No. I shook my head. I’ll go hit the gym some more. I could use some mindless exercise time. It had actually been…

Relaxing.

 

[Seras]

“Back again? Well you’re more consistent than your brother.” John offered as he noticed me working on a full punching bag. I was ducking and sliding making sure I was working my footing the best I could as I circled the bag. My legs getting a workout with how often I was shifting around and throwing hands.

“Jun’s lazy about exercise. Prefers to just chrome up.” I mentioned in short gasps as I backed off the bag, for a moment and then moved back in a few punches to the side as if I was up close and punching kidneys. I might be fairly out of breath, but I was close to a level up!

“Most kids prefer that. You’ve got chrome arms, but still practice, pretty unusual.” He said and then walked over holding the back so it wouldn’t bounce as much letting me start hammering into the bag even harder and faster.

“Skill and strength aren’t the same.” I huffed out dryly as I looked at the older man who was looking over my form and seemingly finding no issues over my motions as I went wild. Moving as fast as possible as I hammered chrome hands into the bag again and again.

I was just glad I had actually put on the padded knuckle gloves that had been lying around. Otherwise I would have punched right through the damn thing.

“You know how to box.”

“Boxing’s one of the martial arts I actually had someone work with me on. I know an old guy that used to be a pro.” I replied. Even if Vik had only given me the one lesson with Jackie that one time.

It was still the truth and a better lie than nothing.

“You got something driving you. Something on your mind kid?”

“Huh?” I asked as I backed off and did some stretches to cool down a bit. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been out here punching the bag for over an hour. Something is driving you. Need to vent?” The old man offered as he continued to hold the bag for me.

I blinked, checking the time on my system before realizing I had lost track of time.

Oops.

Sure I was tired. I was sweating up a storm and I was pretty out of breath, but that was all minor stuff.

A nap and I would be back to 100% and feeling fine. But no one else knew that.

I shook my head. “I’ve had a lot of stuff happen in the last week or two. But I’m not… I’m not letting it bother me. I just lost track of time.”

“Heh. If I could get half the gonks that I train up to lose track of time like you. My job would be a lot easier.” I didn’t have anything to say to that, and as much as I wanted to try and get that Body level up. I realized I had gone a bit overboard. I took off the gloves and set them to the side as I walked off.

I heard a chuckle behind me, but I ignored it.

Shower and then a nap. That was all I needed.

—--

Waking up refreshed that evening I crawled out of my new bed and looked around the apartment. Jun’s boots were gone. So I was alone.

I sent a text out to the group chat, just to see how Malcolm was doing, and then instantly got flooded by replies.

*Motoko: How’s Malcolm holding up?*

*Malcolm: Doing alright.*

*Malcolm: Ichi’s been smothering me and I just kicked him out of the clinic. So expect some whining.*

*Ichi: Malcolm kicked me out of the clinic!*

*Ichi: I’m not whining! I just wanted to make sure you’re doing okay!*

*HIromi: I’m stuck finishing homework! Motoko rescue me! Also Malcolm and Ichi have been whining about each other all day.*

*Malcolm: We have not!*

*Ichi: The hell we have! Hiromi shut up!*

*Hiromi: See?*

I laughed at the back and forth. It seems everyone was doing okay if Malcolm and Ichi could fight.

*Motoko: Preem. Reminder once Malcolm is back on his feet we are going to have a big party!*

*Malcolm: Yes! See this is what I wanted to hear!*

*Ichi: Yeah alright that sounds good. Know where you want to have it?*

I blinked at that. Then I remembered. I walked into the kitchen and found the flyer.

I sent a picture to my chooms.

*Motoko: Maybe? There’s a bar near where I am that does live music. Want to test it out? Or we could go hit Lizzie’s?*

*Malcolm: Eh. As much as I like Lizzie’s, they don’t like us much. Anyone been to this bar?*

*Ichi: Yeah. I made some deliveries there before the war. Harukiya was nice enough I guess. More of a music bar, than the BD stuff we normally hang at. They have an entrance fee though.*

*Hiromi: Ichi we have money to pay for an entrance fee!*

*Malcolm: You say that like we don’t have eddies. Hiromi beat me to it!*

*Motoko: Then I guess we get to try it out once Malcolm feels better!*

I nodded as the conversation flowed into background noise of messages popping in. I wanted to scope out how good Rockerboy Neighbor was anyways! Stupid cool jerk!

I’d show them! I’d show them all!

But first… I was so close to a new Body level!

—--

The sound of ‘The Only Thing They Fear Is You’ blasted through the apartment as I ran around.

I couldn’t rely on pushups to try and get the Body level so I had decided to use acrobatics. I was currently flipping around the apartment from one wall to the next, ending each set with a cool spinning kick, or a faux superman punch into the air, just to give myself something to do.

It was exercise and actually pretty hard work, since I was sweating up a storm and getting my muscles burning.

Then mid afternoon finally it happened.

*100 Body XP Gained*

*Body Leveled up!*

Body 8!

I stopped my routine as I felt the shudder go through my muscles. Breath in. Breath out.

“I feel amazing.” I whispered as I rushed to the bathroom and the mirror. It only took a few moments of checking my muscles to see the difference. Stronger. I felt stronger. I flexed my abs and grinned as it was definitely visible in the mirror.

Hell yeah! Superhero abs!

I exhaled in relief as I flopped onto the toilet for a moment.

“Sweaty.” I mumbled as I quickly stripped and fell into the shower letting the warm water wash it all away.

Heh. It had been a while since I had tried to grind out a Body point. I still wasn’t exactly the type to exercise all the time, but I had to admit it did feel good. Plus it meant I could grind out Athletics and Street Brawling again! I could go Parkour and get something out of it.

Well other than just fun.

That brought me up short.

Fun.

My system gave me incredible skills. Power. Talent. It let me do so many things… Like hunting Scavs down like the dogs they are.

But all of that was just what I could do. It wasn’t who I was.

Who I was… Was someone who took those skills and had fun with them.

I blinked as I wiped the water off my face. I got out of the shower. Quickly drying off, and getting dressed, adjusting my boots to make sure they were night and tight.

I loaded up my normal gear just in case but I could feel the beat of my heart urging me on.

Quickly running to the music box I copied a song to a shard. I had put together this song because I wanted it, and it had taken forever considering how many non-instrumental sounds it needed.

But complete it was, and now I had the perfect idea for what to do with it.

I headed up to the roof.

—--

The howl of wind blowing between skyscrapers. The stink of the city below me. And the California sky above.

I was on the roof, but I wasn’t as high as I could go. There was another section of the building that had almost japanese styled penthouses. I was sure some high end Arasaka, or TC guy lived up there. I quickly bounced my way up. Climbing along the side of the building, hitting AC units, and piping until I reached the penthouse.

I winced a bit at all the security, but I ended up just worming around it as I climbed over Japanese style tile roofing until I reached the very top.

Okay. It was time.

I blinked in between one moment and the next.

A BD recording began.

I had considered doing a test run first, to find all the right spots, but I trusted Parkour and my own mobility.

We were doing it live. It was just… Better that way.

I pulled a shard out of my pocket, flashed it before my eyes. I was getting call backs to Only Thing They Fear BD. But this wasn’t that.

This one Judy might actually like.

Inner Universe was scratched into the shard.

I pushed it into my port and let my agent play the song in my ear.

And as the notes began, I moved. I ran leaping off the roof to the short wall that surrounded the japanese garden, then leapt again. Completely freefalling into the Night City sky.

For just a moment. I was motionless. Perfectly still. Then I reached out. Snagged a pipe that I was falling past, pulling myself into the building so my boots could slow my decent, slowing enough until I hit an angled roof, where I was able to bleed the a bit more of the falls speed off, as I slid down and then once more I was in the sky.

I landed twenty feet below in a roll on a bridgeway between the buildings. Immediately jumping to my feet as I ran across the roof of the walkway. I could hear people below me wondering at the noise but I ignored them. Leaping off the side Another drop, another rolling landing and I was moving all the way across the street running along the roofing of the buildings across from the new apartment.

I leapt over bits and bobs, noticed the asian lanterns that hung down from the side of the building, noticed the wire they were hooked through and the idea flowed.

I drew my knife as I flowed into a powerslide. Grabbing the wire I slid off the roof. Falling a good three or so feet before the wire snagged.

Then I cut it with my knife. The back end of my blade had wire cutters and in a second I was falling again. Sheathing my knife I managed to wrap the wire around my chrome hands a few times so I had a good grip as I fell.

Above me the pittering noise of the studs drilled into the concrete that the wire had been hooked into popped loose one by one, and then it happened.

The wire at the end was attached to a much stronger cable tie.

And instead of falling, I was swinging.

My stomach flew up into my throat as I flowed through the air. For a second there I was spiderman.

Then of course because this was flying by the seat of my pants. I realized I was about to slam right into one of those concrete walkways.

I reached up, grabbed the wire and tugged myself up fighting the centrifugal force. Shifting my trajectory just in time so instead of slamming into the side I was able to bring my legs up and swing right into the open side window.

I let go of the wire holding on to it would only see me smashing into the roof as the wire caught, but I was still in trouble.

Too fast.

I slammed my boots into the concrete which sent me tumbling, but also pushed me up just enough that instead of slamming into the concrete barrier on the other side of the walkway I went through its window as well, sending me hurtling out the other side in a deadly tumble.

My heart was hammering in my chest. My breath was coming out in a rush. I couldn’t even hear the music over the adrenaline spiking.

But I moved using my chrome to come down on the roof first to protect myself I managed to get myself under control as chrome left trails of sparks across the concrete that I was skimming across

I was very thankful for my boots and pants. Because I could feel the road rash starting to build up where my pants weren’t as armored.

Then I was at the end of the line.

Still sliding. Still going too fast to stop, but the roof ended ahead of me.

So I stopped trying to slow down and instead once more used my boots to slam into the concrete and bounce me up.

I was in the air.

The music was there, and I knew what to do.

The flow of motions that were required to keep me alive flowing through me, and I moved. Reaching out I grabbed a pipe spinning me around it twice as I started falling then letting go. Sending me out once more, but this time at the right trajectory to reach an apartment balcony.

I rolled into the little concrete cube of personal space and then bounced up and into the next, and then again before my speed was under my control and then I was up on the guard rail along the edge of the little rectangular balconies running across them at full speed.

Almost there!

I had fallen quite far at this point. Only a few floors above the street level I was coming to the end of the street. Where it curved, but that was fine. I leapt out and this time I landed on the street lights. They shifted and swayed under my weight, but held and then I was running along the top and then to the light across the road, and then further. I was close to Megabuilding H8 now. I could practically touch it as I ran along, but that wasn’t where I was going. Instead I leapt down. Hurtling from the floor level I had been at, into the gloom.

The noise below me shifted from city streets. To back alley deals. To the sounds of pleasure and anger.

Jig-jig street.

I moved along the rooftops. Staying in the dark. Hidden from view from anyone not willing to look up. As I flowed through the area leaping from sign to sign, from window sill to corner apartment, that I actually rolled into and then out the window ignoring the scream of surprise from the john the Joytoy had been working over behind me.

Then I was just above the street level main entrance to the back alley, and there it was.

I leapt this time not landing atop a street light, but grabbing it and flipping around, then releasing, setting myself on a course, avoiding the giant eldritch statue that was above my target, and landing firmly on the sidewalk right next to the stairs down into Sakura Market. Then I was walking calmly, and steadily. Feeling my heart beating, and my breathing still rushing in and out as I cooled down, to my favorite place. I plopped down at the Ramen place, and since I was still recording didn’t say a word. Just pointed towards what I wanted.

A moment later the Ramen was rolled out to me, and I didn’t turn off the BD until the taste of the broth was on my tongue.

—---

“Ow!” I whined as Vik gave me a look.

“Don’t complain about it, if you are going to do it.” He told me and could only pout a bit.

“What did you even do to scrape down your chrome like that?” Malcolm called from across the room. He was still resting in the ripper chair although he would be heading home soon. His Mom wanted to bring him home to mother him. I had come to see Malcolm after Ramen.

Definitely just for that.

Not because my hands looked like I had run them against a grinder.

Most of the chrome was okay, but at certain points… Well the concrete hadn’t been kind to it, and it felt like I had an exposed nerve. So I had Vik looking it over.

“Nothing! Perfectly normal stuff! Not at all weird or strange!” I denied Malcolm who laughed once before wincing at his side.

“Most of the pads are okay, but I’ll need to replace a bit here.” He said sounding like he was mostly talking to himself, but saying it loud enough I could hear it. He pulled back and rolled across the clinic pulling open a crate and rummaging through it.

A few moments later he comes back with a sealed plastic bag. Inside were basically chrome pieces.

“Let’s see.” He muttered and then unsealed the bag reached in with his ripper gear covered hand and came out holding a piece of chrome. “There we are.” He muttered, resealing the bag and then leaned over my hand a moment later I felt a tickling sensation as he did something and a piece of my palm disconnected, revealing wires and sensors below. Then he placed a new piece of chrome down and had to keep from wiggling as the ticklish feeling surged up my arm.

Then it just soothed away and Vik nodded checking his little monitor device. “Connection is good. Test it out for me.” He mentioned and arm was released and I started poking at the cleaner section of chrome on my palm.

“Yeah. Feels… Normal?”

“Good. Be more careful, okay kid?”

“Yes! Sorry Vik.”

The old ripper laughed at me, before patting my shoulder. “Should be all good. Let me know if you have any problems.”

“Dr. Vektor, is Malcolm ready?” A voice called out and I turned towards the entrance to see Malcolms mom, the woman still looked a little tense after the shooting.

“Let me check his vitals one last time, but unless somethings changed, he’s all set.” Vik assured the woman his calm attitude did help. As he finished patting my shoulder and rolling over to check on Malcolm.

I ended up sticking around to help Malcolm out of the clinic and into his Mom’s car.

He hadn’t liked the fact that I had carried him up the stairs in a princess carry.

The pictures were worth it though.

 

[Seras]

I arrived at Lizzies not long after. The saved BD of my parkour performance should be pretty fun. Hopefully Nox would be able to sell it.

Or not. I mean the BD creation thing was more for me than anything.

Unfortunately I was stopped at the door by Rita. I waved a hand at her as I approached but was stopped instantly as she reached out and grabbed my shoulder.

“Mona take over for me?” She called out to another bouncer suddenly.

“Sure Rits.” The other bouncer called back and then I was pushed inside and into the side room by Rita.

“Rita?”

“I want to know Motoko, before anything else. Are you okay?”

I blinked.

“Yeees? I mean I had Vik my ripper do some work on my hands earlier bu-” She shook her head, cutting me off. The borg woman settled both of her hands on my shoulders, even bending down a little so we were at the same height.

“Motoko, I saw your BD. The one with the song, and with you going completely Cyberpsycho on the Scavs.” Rita said dropping a bomb and I winced.

Dammit. Was that still causing me trouble!? That was supposed to have been fun! Well I mean. It was.

Like super fun.

But that was besides the point. I hated when fun things I did caused problems later!

“I’m fine Rita. Honest. I was doing an experiment that night to go along with the song that I wrote and-”

“Motoko.” Rita cut me off sounding really serious. “You sound okay. You look okay, and you aren’t closed off or freaking out, but I’ve seen a lot of people I thought were okay with a smile on their face as they murdered people they loved and cared for.”

“I was just… trying something different. Letting myself get super angry, even forcing it a bit.”

“Kid, you were absolutely wrecked during that BD. If I had been hit half as hard as that Scav punched you, I’d be down for the count.”

“I’m pretty tough! Look.” I said, spreading my arms. “I’m not hurt. All healed up. Vik my ripper does great work. Took care of me. Yes I went overboard. I’ve even… I even admitted that to myself. I did the music and I thought it would be cool to be all brutal like that, but it sorta… The music wasn’t supposed to be that… it was supposed to be the thing that pulls me away from that sort of stuff. That was the whole point. So yeah… I fucked up.”

Rita continued to watch as I sort of rambled before sighing. And then to my surprise she pulled me into a hug.

She was pokey. All the spikes I mean.

“So you aren’t going Cyberpsycho? You mean it?”

“I’m actually doing okay. I mean I’ve been super irritated recently with the Scavs attacking my home, and the move to a new place, and the TC boss Fujimura keeps wanting to get me to admit to being his underling and it’s annoying.”

“If he is bothering you, we can take care of that for you.” She said then and I couldn’t help but feel warm at how quickly she offered to basically fight a TC boss for me.

Rita was good people.

“Nah. He’s Jun’s boss. And he got us a new apartment. Jun is over the moon about it, cause it’s all big and I have a much bigger room now and stuff… It’s just different and I didn’t want different. Fujimura, despite being a little pushy, hasn't crossed the line.”

“Hmph. Well when he does.” She offered and I smiled.

“I don’t think I would want to get the Mox involved in my trouble. But I appreciate it.” Rita scoffed but nodded, reaching out and resting a hand on my shoulder.

“If you need to talk. Don’t forget you have friends here. You aren’t the first young girl to show up here with family in other gangs needing help.”

“I don’t… I don’t need help… Not yet!” I added at her unconvinced look. “Jun is great, and Fujimura is annoying, but he hasn’t pushed past the line… Like I said, a lot of things have changed and it’s just making me uncomfortable.”

“Then remember I’m always willing to listen. C’mon then, you’re here to see Judy right?” She asked as she finally pulled away from me, and I noticed she looked a little uncomfortable herself.

“Yeah! I did a new BD focused around Parkour instead of other stuff. It was preem. I leapt off the side of the building I’m on and made it all the way to Sakura Market.”

Rita shivered a bit as I spoke as she guided me out of the room. “You leapt off a building?”

“Yeah! A couple times.” Rita shivered again and it made me realize something. Rita is afraid of heights. “Probably not a BD for you then.”

“No, no I don’t think so.”

—--

I dropped off the BD with Judy only after swearing this BD wasn’t some gore fest that would make her want to clean her fingers from brain matter again.

Then I was driving back to the apartment flopping onto the couch and wondering what to do next.

I once again heard the faint thump of bass through the floor and knew what I had to do!

I got up and grabbed my guitar and went at it.

I needed more songs. More music! I had to defeat the Rockerboy Neighbor! So I jammed out. Working on some Foo Fighters, because I was already doing Nirvana. Might as well.

But the idea hit me, and I stopped mid way through The Pretender to work on another song.

Think by Kaleida. “I’ll never! Break your heart!” I jammed out, having had some trouble getting the drums for the song right since they weren't normal drums, but I found the right instrument sound eventually.

Now I had a John Wick song!

It took a good couple hours to get the track done, and then I went back to the Foo Fighters.

More songs!

More music!

More levels!

Long into the night. After Jun had come home and gone to bed. While working on tweaking some of the hologram motions. Making me play through The Pretender again, for what felt like a millionth time.

It happened.

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

Rockerboy 8.

“Yes!” I cheered, leaping up onto the couch to celebrate I could feel even more musical knowledge flow into me.

At this point, it would be an actual surprise if I flubbed a chord while playing anything but the hardest songs!

—--

“What are you three doing?” I asked as I was brought into Malcolms apartment.

Around the TV laying around the couches were three teenagers that looked like they were in a full food coma.

“So many snacks.” Malcolm moaned from where he was laid up. His feet up on an ottoman and a blanket over most of him. The many many bags of chips and things that surrounded him told a story. “It’s all Ichi’s fault.” He moaned.

The boy in question didn’t say anything, just continued to stare into the ceiling with a dazed look in his eyes.

Hiromi was here too to my surprise and while she wasn’t as bad as the boys she looked like she got into a fight with a cake and lost.

I walked over and she threw me a big smile as she lay half on the couch and half off.

Leaning down I wiped the bit of frosting that was stuck on her cheek. “You three look like you got in a fight with your snacks and lost.” I told them as I stuck the bit of frosting into my mouth.

Huh. That was almost chocolate.

“Ugh.” Ichi moaned without shifting his dead eyed stare at the ceiling.

“What did you guys do?” I asked, laughing. I had gotten the message that everyone wanted to meet up in the morning but I had been…

Well I was napping after leveling Rockerboy. So after looking at the message and seeing it wasn’t an emergency I went back to sleep.

So I was late to this party.

“It’s Ichi’s fault.” Hiromi informed me, looking up at me with a big smile.

“It’s Hiromi’s fault!” Ichi retorted. “I said I would get snacks. So Hiromi dragged me to this crazy corpo shop. Everything was expensive but they had all sorts of stuff.” Ichi said in turn, still glazed out.

“Saka-Go is a very valuable member of the Arasaka conglomerate that ensures that traveling Arasaka members can always find their home town snacks even across the world.” Hiromi replied, speaking in a cadence that made me think she was repeating something she had heard before.

Of course Ichi and Malcolm both instantly started throwing whatever snack they had on hand at her, so I quickly backpedaled away to avoid the friendly fire.

“H-hey! You all enjoyed the snacks! Don’t give me that!”

“Some of it was good.” Malcolm agreed and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the look Hiromi threw at the crew.

A few chips stuck in her hair as she stood up with all the dignity she could retain and headed into the bathroom to clean up.

I walked over and after pushing some chip bags out of the way settled near Malcolm.

“How you feeling choom?”

“Hey Motoko. I’m actually feeling pretty good. I’m able to get up and walk around now without any pain or anything. Dr. Vector did tell me to just take it easy for another week or so, but that I was good to do normal things. I’ve got a checkup tomorrow to be basically cleared for light stuff.” Malcolm offered with a smile even as he tugged up his shirt a bit showing the scar on his chest and side. Both looked a little red still. But more like irritated scar tissue than recently damaged wounds.

“Healing nicely.”

“Yeah. Hey I… Motoko. It still feels like it hasn’t hit me yet you know? That I was so close?” He offered and I felt the light hearted conversation change as he went serious. “I just wanted to thank you, for saving me.”

“I was just glad I got there in time.” I said honestly. I was once again thankful I didn’t dream if I slept under the system. I really didn’t want to deal with the nightmares I would be sure to have.

“Heh. Yeah. I wasn’t getting through to anyone until I called you. I’m glad… I’m really glad you picked up.”

I nodded and then probably to Malcolms surprise I bent down and drew him into a hug.”We’re chooms! Of course I would do everything I could to save you.”

“Yeah. Thanks Choom.”

“Hey! Hugging Motoko without me!? I refuse!” Hiromi called out as she came back into the living room and instantly rushed over to Malcolms surprise she jumped into the hug pulling Malcolm and I tight.

“I am not doing a group hug.” Ichi called out from the other side of the couch.

“Group hug on Ichi!?” I gasped in delight and after a moment of helping Malcolm up to not jostle him too much, we all collapsed on our other choom much to his irritation when Hiromi just ended up sitting on him instead of actually hugging him.

While we all vegged out on the couch spending the rest of the day hanging out. I sent the text to Jackie to wrap up the gig.

Since Malcolm would be back on his feet soon it was time to put out some bait.

—--

That night Section 9 met up in my netrunning cave.

Even Malcolm was here. Although with some help from the Straight Lane Shooters above. I had found a nice couch and brought that in so Malcolm was able to be comfortable.

Even if his whining about us treating him like an invalid was getting old.

“I’m feeling fine guys. You don’t have to baby me!” He continued to harp as we had set him up with not just the couch, but a table close by he could rest his Laptop on, along with some blankets and things.

“Vik hasn’t given you the all clear yet.” I reminded him and he rolled his eyes.

“Only because I have the final check up in the morning. Really. I’m fine!”

“Here Malcolm, make sure to stay warm okay?” I said purposefully adjusting the blank around his feet so his toes would stay warm.

He faux kicked me that had me laughing, but I did stop bothering him then.

There was a reason we had all gathered here.

Malcolm had originally set up the car trade through a reliable website he went to for car trades, or at least he considered it reliable.

Either way, if the gonks that attacked him were using it, that meant they were just as likely to come back and use it again. So it was time to set some bait.

“Okay everyone. First thing first. Malcolm, let’s check out your car trade site. I’m going to slip in, so we can send the fake car trade out. I’ll be making sure our guys see it.” I grinned.

I smiled ferally as I thought about what was going to happen to these fucks.

“Alright. I’ll set up the actual offer since I know what they look like.” Malcolm agreed and Hiromi and Ichi would be working on backing me up.

I settled into my netrunning chair and took a moment to attach all the connections into my netrunning suit, shivering a bit as the coolant pump started sending ice over my skin.

Then I sat back and since I had it. I flipped the netgoggles over my eyes.

I didn’t really need them, but they were cool.

Then in a blink I was in the net. The entire digital world set out before me.

“Okay seriously Motoko. You need to set up a lobby.” I whispered to myself looking over the blank pillar that I stood on.

But I shook it off and stepped off and into the web.

Unlike when heading to Yoko’s I didn’t have the direct IP. So I had to actually look for the website. I walked along neon lights. The road nonexistent below me. In some places, bad connections. Or old wiring, caused the world to flicker or turn to static, and of course the figures that I walked past were mostly inhuman figures. Daemons, for search engines and things that normal people use.

This world was something I had only touched on the most shallow ends of.

I would have to explore down here more sometime.

But for now I followed along the lines towards the website. Using a Search Engine to basically create a path for me to reach the server I was looking for.

When I got there I had to roll my eyes.

So much spam.

The entire outside of the server was covered in Spam Daemons.

Little goblin creatures that would attack any Daemon or access request and try to flood them with their carried spam.

The first one that tried to attack me was melted with my [HELL FLAME Anh. 2.132] Hack. Watching the Daemon melt into digital sludge along with its spam funnily sent the rest of the pack hiding away.

It took me a moment to realize this was something their creator must have come up with.

No one wanted days of work on their Daemons to be removed because they annoyed a netrunner after all.

So they must have been programmed to ignore anyone that managed to destroy one of them. I would have left it at that but…

*250 XP Gained.*

I grinned and flames burst into my hands as I activated my ICE to slow the Daemons down, keeping the programs from being able to escape into the net as I cut them all down.

1,500 XP wasn’t something I was just going to ignore.

I walked into the server ignoring the flaming chunks of Daemon I left behind.

I stepped into the chipper bright lights of the Server.

It was kinda badly designed though. Instead of the white room having multiple exits to other sections of the server. It was like they hadn’t realized they could section off things and just plopped everything into this one room.

I bet this server lagged like hell when it was in use.

The different sections of the server were set up like… Stands? No, it was more complete than that. As if someone had just taken a massive room and just plopped square rooms in different places.

At least it told me something important.

If this place did have netrunner security. I wasn’t fucking worried.

I walked up to one of the rooms that had admin login on the door. It didn’t take me long to get the door breached open and let me in.

I wrinkled my nose.

“Fuckin Spaghetti code.” I grumbled aloud as I took in the mess of wires leading to different control options.

Definitely not a netrunner because any netrunner worth their salt would see this fucking mess of admin tools and just burn it all to the ground and start fresh.

I spent more time finding the user information than I did breaking into the admin side of the server.

Finally I was able to pull up Malcolms info from this side and find his request looking for a Rayfield Caliburn.

I spent a minute just arguing with myself about wanting to hit Malcolm after.

This site wasn’t a reliable car trade site. Malcolm you fucking gonk. You just searched car traders or something and found a random site didn’t you?

Regardless I was able to see the contact, the one that had confirmed they had what Malcolm was looking for.

Pulling up “NCAutoRepairRC” From the message he had sent Malcolm I noticed something pretty quick.

Assholes had been doing this for a while. About twenty different messages just like the one Malcolm had gotten were sent out from the profile. All confirmed the car they had on hand with pictures that looked normal.

Only the fact I was able to see all of them clued me into the fact they were all taken from all over the city and likely either something they had just noticed on the side of the street and snapped a picture of, or stolen from somewhere else.

Irritated at such a stupid scam, I dug in. They had actually been active a few times since Malcolms shooting. Although they certainly hadn’t sent out anything.

*Okay guys I’m in the site. Go ahead and upload that car trade.* I called out to the team as I settled in to get this crappy site to do what I needed.

A moment later a new advert was added into the sea of requests and trades.

Within a few moments I added a bit of code into the request.

Next time NCAutoRepairRC logged in, they would see the request we just added in right near the top of the new page. No matter how long it took, whether it was tomorrow, or a week from now, our advert would show up as if it was pretty new.

Okay I pulled out walking out of the server and back into the open electronic city. The bait was set. Now we just had to wait for a bite.


----
A/N
Had someone mention a playlist for all the songs Motoko writes/plays. So I made Motoko's Music Box!

 

[Seras]

Judy Alvarez

I let go of the wire at the exact moment it started flinging me up. Instead of being flung up into the ceiling of the pathway, it launched me across and I just managed to slam my boots into the floor to send me tumbling out the other end of the path, through the open window and into nothing.

Air.

Nothing but air.

Instantly Judy slammed the cancel code into the console and threw herself out of the BD. Rolling off her chair and grabbing for the trash can.

She panted, every inch of her body shivering, and sweating. She had already ripped off most of her clothes just so she could cool down.

“Fuck that kid. Fuck. Fuck fuck.” She moaned into the trash can, but thankfully she didn’t actually pop. Free from the sensation of falling with nothing to catch her she managed to slowly regain her breath.

She had finished editing the BD for the most part, but she couldn’t actually get all the way through it to call it done.

It was…

“Heights! Why did it have to be heights!” She moaned as she stood up on shaky legs grabbing a can of something with more caffeine than healthy and popped it, then chugged it down.

“Damn Judes. You alright?” She didn’t quite freeze, but she did jerk a bit at the voice looking over at the one that got her into this.

“Nox! This is all your fault! You introduced me to that little!” She growled clenching and unclenching her fists at him as if she was going to throttle him, or her.

Well. It would be him. Judy had long realized that Motoko wasn’t in her league. Out of shape, nerd that spends all her days in a BD is not comparable to a teenage cyberpunk super assassin.

She was still secretly putting money on the girl being some corpo experiment.

“Hey hey, don’t blame me!” He whined, shoulders slumped. “I’m not even in charge anymore… Fucking corpo bi-” He cut himself of and looked around as if expecting the girl in question to appear. Before relaxing and continuing. “Bitch.”

“I don’t want to hear you whining, I’ve already offered to speak to Rita about it.”

“No. She’s a turbo rusty lady but I can’t… I’m making more in profits now than I was before, despite her taking her cut.” He grumbled, retracing common ground.

One of Motoko’s friends had muscled in on Nox’s hustle, and had taken over. Nox was pissy about it, but the look on his face whenever the eddies he was making were brought up always shut him up.

“Don’t insult people with Midnight Lady. Rita will fuck you up if she hears you say that.” Judy reminded the boy and he scoffed, but did a mumbled half apology under his breath.

“So! Motoko’s new BD causing you trouble? She texted me, that she had dropped off another one.”

“I’m not good with heights Nox, and that’s all this one is. Fuck.” She hissed as she bounced a bit just to remind her brain what body she was in. BD skewing was something she had long since learned to cope with.

“Preem. Is it done?”

“It should be, but I can’t finish it without feeling like I’m going to pop.” She complained, throwing a hand at the headset. “Jump in, I’ll use you as a test dummy.”

“Uhh… This one is just heights not like, The Only Thing… Right?” He asked, hesitating.

Judy shivered. “I told you not to ever remind me about that. No. It’s like… Parkour stuff. She’s just a psycho.”

“Preem.” He called out jumping onto the chair and pulling up the Wreath.

A moment later he was in, and Judy walked over to her desk to track the program. Watching the information it was sending her, for dangerous highs, or lows.

Unlike her, Nox handled it just fine and in the end he jerked upright, hand grasping for something as the BD ended.

“Whoa!” He muttered eyes wide as he slowly came back to his own body. “That was intense… Jude! We got another preem experience on our hands!”

“Yeah.” She muttered. Motoko hadn’t given her much to work with in a while, Judy had honestly been relieved it wasn’t another massacre BD. “Any issues?”

“Nah, it felt smooth as anything.”

“Alright. I’m not seeing any issues either. Thanks for taking over.” She offered the boy who just smirked.

“Well, it’s my future merch! Gotta experience it to sell, even Hiromi thinks so.”

“Preem. Alright. Go ahead and take a copy, I’m taking a break.” She said, grabbing a cig and gathering up her clothes. She was still half naked after all, she was pretty uncaring, but it’s not like was going to walk around topside without wearing a bit more.

“Where you going?”

Judy stilled as she took a puff of her cig and then glared at nothing.

“I kinda want Ramen.” She explained and Nox’s eyes grew large as it stirred something in him too.

“Yeah.”

Sakura Market it was.

—--

“This is boring.” Malcolm muttered. We were all lying in different places around the room. Eating snacks, or in Hiromi’s case playing that game on her tablet.

Ichi had even found a TV and brought it down, with my help we had access to the building's TV channels, and so he was camped out watching that.

“It’s just a waiting game now Malcolm. Once they respond we will have them.”

“I’m still bored.” He grumbled and I couldn’t help but chuckle at his whining. He had claimed responsibility for getting the message but I guess it was bothering him as he kept checking his agent over and over for a response.

“Yeah I’m bored too.” I offered, standing up from where I had been sprawled over my netrunner chair. “Anyway, want some food or something? I want to stretch my legs.”

“I’ll come with.” Malcolm offered to my surprise as he stood up and I could see Ichi sit up at that wanting to deny him but after a moment he didn’t.

“Be careful.” Ichi called out instead and Malcolm just waved his hand.

We went into the elevator and thankfully Malcolm was walking without pain as we left the apartment and walked down the sidewalk.

“You know we might not hear from them for a few days. Or more. They will likely stay in hiding for a while.”

“I know.” He grumbled and I nodded at that. As I stretched my arms up to the sky.

“You gonna be okay?”

“I’ll live.” He offered with a bit of grump. “Thanks again… Motoko. For saving my ass.” He said suddenly and I couldn’t help but flash back to that day.

“You scared the fuck out of me.” I answered instead. I caught the wince out of the corner of my eye. Obviously it wasn’t the first time he had heard that.

“Yeah. My dad said that too.”

“Why’d you go alone? Something big like that? That’s a lot of eddies to throw around without backup.” I asked the question I had been sitting on since it all happened.

He was quiet for a long while as we walked down the road toward the diner.

“I just wanted to do something myself. I guess. I had my iron… I thought I could handle it.”He finally replied after a while and I frowned.

That was a tough statement to reply to. I reached over and slipped my arm in with his own to his surprise.

“We all make mistakes, and sometimes have to suffer the scars for them.” I offered squeezing his bicep with my chrome fingers.

My mistake led me to losing my arms. Malcolms almost cost him his life.

“So we learn from them. I don’t go anywhere without firepower to handle a borg. And I kept improving. My Netrunning stuff helps a lot.”

“I’m not like a weird super ninja like you are Motoko.” Malcolm offered sounding down.

“You don’t have to be. Motoko is a super ninja cause it’s what Motoko wants.” I said in third person for my own amusement. “So what does Malcolm want?”

“I want… To be something more than just some kid. I wanted to be…” He didn’t say it, but I could understand. He wanted to be what every Night City kid wanted. To be an edgerunner. A Street Samurai. A Gang leader.

He wanted to prove he mattered.

“Well that's easy then.” I offered, pulling free and walking ahead and then walking backwards just because. “You can very easily stop being a kid, Malcolm. Just live.”

Then I turned around and continued walking.

“Heh.” I heard a chuckle from Malcolm that was half exasperation.

Hmm. What do I want? Be a cool merc. Make money. I wanted to stamp out the whole Scav thing. Stupid Stand Alone Complexes.

Then… I had to laugh to myself.

I just wanted to enjoy my life. Whatever that meant. This was my second life, and I had been letting it drag me down.

Letting the dark nasty parts focus too much of my attention.

—--

It was getting late. Even with the dinner I had brought in everyone was crashing, and Malcolm was getting ready to head home to get some sleep and be ready for Vik’s meeting in the morning. I had been trawling through the net a bit. Mostly just checking on some Scav locations I had been sent by some netrunners when I got the message from Ichi.

*Motoko come out. They responded!*

I quickly disconnected coming back to myself in just a few moments before pulling myself free of the netchair.

“What did they say!?”

“That they definitely have a Mizutani Shion that they can sell us.” Malcolm called and I rushed over to check the laptop he had been working on.

The response was exactly what we had expected. A confirmation they had what we wanted, The price, and some pictures that since I had seen their other messages they used, I knew were ones they had used before while ‘selling’ a shion.

Somehow they just kept selling the same car! How lucky!

I scoffed at the request but patted Malcolm on the shoulder. “Set up the meeting. But make sure it’s after your visit with Vik in the morning. Wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun would you?” I asked and Malcolm shook his head with a glare, as he slowly started tapping out a message back.

—--

The next afternoon we were ready. Malcolm was declared completely healed from Vik. And we had set up the time for the car ‘traders’ to show up.

To my amusement they had picked the same spot they had ambushed Malcolm at from before.

I guess they figured they were in the clear.

So I had shown up in the morning while Malcolm was getting checked out, and prepped everything.

Considering I had already searched around the area it hadn’t been hard to find a good place to settle in.

I had picked an empty apartment that had a balcony looking over the inner courtyard on the second floor. Nekomata was resting against the old concrete and I was looking through multiple camera systems in the area waiting.

The ambush was set.

Hiromi was our bait this time. She had to my amusement pulled a bunch of her TC stuff out of the closet and had gone from corpo student with an edge. To full TC fangirl in an hour of prep.

Only the black chrome that all matched hinted at her connections.

The meeting time came and went and we were waiting. I could see Hiromi getting impatient, and through the conference call that all of us were part of I was hearing the anxiety building.

*Do you think they bailed? They wouldn’t right? We didn’t give them any reason to think this is a trap!* Malcolms voice came through, irritated from where he was sitting in the back of Ichi’s van that was parked around the corner in front of a shop as if Ichi was just grabbing a meal.

*Might just be traffic, or they might just be late. They aren’t exactly intending to be reliable you know?* Ichi added.

*Relax guys. Just relax. They’ll show. And even if they don’t it just means we hunt them some more.* I added into the line calmly. Thanks to Cool, I was more than content just waiting for them to show.

*Yeah but what if they don’t!*

*Malcolm relax already! I’m the one out in the open.* Hiromi added and then I saw it.

A camera from down the street.

*Show time.* I called out and the line went quiet as I watched through nearby cameras as the Archer Hella that the fuckers drove pulled up to the same spot they had parked when they attacked Malcolm.

Four gonks climbed out. All of them checking pistols, which were then stuffed into waistbands, just to hit the cliche of being a shit tier gangster all the more.

Temptation to just start shooting them through the walls right away rose, but this was for Malcolm, not my personal satisfaction.

They walked down the alley and then into the courtyard noticing Hiromi as she was casually sitting on a concrete bench already facing where they would come.

Nice work Hiromi! Very Corpo queen!

“You’re late.” She called out loudly enough for me to hear and I could see the brash gangsters' hackles rise up at the tone.

But this time Hiromi wasn’t needing to modulate herself. Or pretend. She knew what was coming.

I stood up still out of sight of these blind morons Nekomata pointed down at them. Of course I had already thrown a Weapon Glitch at them as they were walking through the alleyway. Ichi and Malcolm would be driving the van right into the alley. Just to make sure no one could run.

Not that I would let them. Kinda hard to run blind, and if something did go wrong, a nice Reboot Optics would handle them just fine.

“Just a bit of traffic, I’m sure you understand.” One of the gangsters spoke up.

So that was him. Aiden Michaels. The nephew of some 6th St. Higher up. He was also the leader of this little troop.

The fucker with his slicked back hair and expensive clothes. He looked like every rich kid I had ever met.

Idly my Nekomata’s crosshair inched over the back of his head.

“Sure. Where’s the car?” Hiromi demanded after a moment, sounding so sarcastic even the gangers couldn’t have missed it.

“Ah, see there’s a bit of an issue. I’m sure you can understand. We’ll need a downpayment.” He nodded and his gonks suddenly stepped around Hiromi looming over her.

“Yeah I expected as much. Mr. Michaels. You are far too predictable.” Hiromi added, without showing an inch of fear as she tapped away on her knee as if she was bored. “I’m afraid this meeting is no longer one you have any control of.” Hiromi added and suddenly there must have been that tiny hint in the brains of the gangers that something was wrong.

“The you talking about you little bitch, you think-”

“No Mr. Michaels, it’s you who doesn’t think.” Hiromi cut him off, sounding honestly angry. “You believed Mr. Welles, who we hired, was our only attempt to ferret you out? That we knew you would go to ground the moment he showed up? It was all a setup to make you think you were safe so we can bring you right out into the open. I’m not the type of woman to spend time hunting scum like you down.”

Aiden pulled his gun. A Unity that had some respectable amount of care put into it. But Hiromi didn’t even blink when he pulled, aimed, and fired.

The only sound was a faint clink that I couldn’t make out from here.

“If you would be so kind?” She asked aloud.

I fired.

Aiden's arm disappeared at the forearm. Nekomata roared for a second and the screams started up right after. All four of the gangsters suddenly realized they were in trouble. Two instantly ran, and the third made to grab Aiden to try and pull him away.

Ichi and Malcolm were there already, The Van blocking the path at the end of the alleyway. Having reversed up to it.

And Malcolm standing at the entrance.

Malcolm of course wasn’t unarmed.

His Tactician fired causing the first runner to literally stop cold as he slammed into the floor dying. The second one, had his leg blown off a moment later. Malcolm was obviously pretty angry about the whole nearly killing him thing.

“You cunt! You blew off my fucking arm!” Aiden was whining and screaming as his choom pulled him to his feet, but a second retort echoed out.

I matched Malcolm. The third choom lost a leg at the knee.

His screams intertwined with the others, and suddenly we had three disabled fuckheads to sort out.

Malcolm was still marching towards Aiden with a certain look in his eye, and I wasn’t going to stop him. I leapt off the balcony and landed with a nearly silent thump as I sauntered over to Hiromi who I could tell was feeling a bit jittery with all the blood splattered around her. But she was handling herself really well. I settled beside her, nudging her just a bit with my hip so she knew she was safe.

Malcolm walked up to the cussing gangster and instantly smashed the butt of his shotgun into his face.

Then he kept doing it.

Jesus Malcolm did you watch The Only Thing They Fear is You?

“Wait! Wat!” Aiden cried out after a few hits, his cussing turned into pleading. To my surprise Malcolm did just that. Letting the man talk. “My uncle! He’s powerful! A leader in 6th St. if you kill me-!”

“Aiden Michaels. Do you really think we didn’t know that before we came here?” Hiromi offered with a half amused half disappointed smirk on her face “Do you think we didn’t already delete ourselves from the cameras? Cover our tracks? Aiden your Uncle will never know who flatlined his gonk nephew.”

Hiromi’s cold statement made the fucker seem to realize just how fucked he was.

Malcolm took that as his cue and smashed his shotgun into the guy's face again just to prove his point.

The guy tried to struggle against him, but with one arm missing his struggles pretty quickly slowed down. Too weak to really fight back as Malcolm let out his built up pain by bashing the guys face in.

Yeah I know that feel. I walked around instead. Nekomata just held to my chest as I pulled out my Lexington.

The gunshots were loud as I double tapped the other two moaning bodies.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*Level up achieved!*

*One Stat Point Gained.*

*One Skill Point Gained.*

I blinked and then smiled happily as the alert came in. How cool! I hadn’t even realized how close to a level up I was!

I was now level 15.

Settling in beside Hiromi who hadn’t moved from her spot I waved to Ichi who had casually walked down the alleyway to join us. As our entire group watched on as Malcolm continued to beat Aiden Michaels to death.

Which had always sort of been the plan. To kill him I mean. Not beat him to death, but sometimes a message needed to be sent.

“Hey you know what this means?” I asked the group suddenly as they all looked at me.

“Congratulations Malcolm! You have a slightly used Archer Hella! Congratulations!” I said, clapping at him.

Hiromi, seeing that I was up to something, joined in and clapped for Malcolm as well.

It took a second for Ichi to join in but his sarcastic clapping made it all the better.

“I fucking hate all of you. Why are we even chooms?” Malcolm asked as he wiped his face a bit of some of the extra blood, although he was barely holding back his laughter.

“Cause you loooove us. Now don’t forget to grab the key shard out of him. Unless you want me to just hotwire your new car.”

“I don’t even want a Hella.” He grumbled, but did as I prompted, pulling the blood covered shard out of Aidens neck after a bit of finagling, then wiped it off on his shirt for a few moments to try and clean it up.

We split up after that. Malcolm went to paint and re-register his new car since he didn’t want someone in 6th St. To be able to track it.

Thankfully Hella were really common, and with just that, it would be just another Hella on the road.

Although we were all going to meet up later.

Rockerboy Neighbors music act was tonight!

It was finally time to scope out the competition so I could destroy her! I mean. So I could see what other Rockerboys got up to in Night City!

 

[Seras]

“So this is the place? Doesn’t look like much… Why don’t we just go to Lizzies?” Ichi asked and I think all three of us stopped to look at him at that admittedly telling request.

“Ichi-” I started to explain, but the way his eyes widened at all of us looking at him showed that he realized what he had just admitted to.

“Nevermind! Always nice to check out new clubs! C’mon!” He called out as he quickly power walked ahead of us. Hiromi and I both broke into quiet giggles at the tension in Ichi’s gait, while Malcolm just shook his head while smiling and went to catch up.

You couldn’t even tell Malcolm had been shot earlier in the week. He moved without any sign of pain or issue.

Cyberpunk medicine was so crazy!

“The name is kinda bad though. Think they are riffing off the Afterlife?” Hiromi asked and I nodded. As we both looked up to the club's neon sign above the dingy door in an alleyway in the middle of Watson.

“Yomi. That’s kinda lame.” I agreed as I ended up shrugging. It wasn’t like I was here for the club itself. I was here to gather information!

I pulled Hiromi along as we slipped into the entrance and found there was a little lobby, with a woman behind the counter. Ichi and Malcolm were at the front desk apparently paying for their entrance fee.

“Jeeze Motoko. This place is expensive.” Malcolm whined to me as I walked up and looked at the numbers listed out and had to agree.

Most of the clubs we went to were BD bars, where the entrance was free, but they expected you to buy overpriced drinks.

This was more like a concert hall. To get in you had to pay a fee, and then the drinks and stuff would also be outrageously expensive.

I rolled my eyes.

“Entrance for four.” I informed the pretty saleswoman at the desk. The fact she was wearing an old school punk rock style was pretty cool.

“You got it.” And then we were waved through. Down a set of barely lit stairs and into a large room. It was similar to most clubs I had been into, A stage straight across from the entrance, and booths all along the edges, with a dance floor in front of the stage.

Up on the stage there wasn’t a live band, but the large screen showed a previous live show that was pretty good.

We ended up wandering around trying to find a booth but all of them were taken.

Mostly filled with Tyger Claw thugs. I suddenly realized that for all the aesthetics this was definitely a place owned and operated by the TC. For the TC.

I sighed. Of course the girl that lived on the same floor as Jun and I had some TC connections. Of course she played at a TC club.

I shook it off, it wasn’t like Ho-Oh wasn’t just as bad, and we hung there a lot.

In the end we did find a table and not a booth that we were all able to fit around with some difficulties.

“I hope the music is good.” Malcolm eventually grumbled to us and I nodded. The seating was kinda shit, and I had noticed the prices at the bar as we were searching for a seat.

Expensive!

“Don’t worry about it Malcolm! This is a celebration! So get whatever you want I’ll cover it!” I told him and that earned me a happy smile and Malcolm going from being a little grumpy to looking around in a much better mood.

“Ichi what’s up?” Hiromi asked and I looked over to him. He was sort of placing himself behind a pillar. Almost hiding.

“Ah, just. I know some of these guys. Like that guy over there is Katana Hiroshi.” He said pointing to a man sitting at one of the booths with a Katana sitting between his legs ready to be used.

“Okay? Are they gonna attack you or something?”

“Well no… But I made deliveries for some of these guys during the war you know? I mean they might recognize me, and with Shobo-Sama getting flatlined and me leaving… I don’t know it’s nothing I guess I’m just being awkward.”

“You know Ichi. As much as I kinda hate it… If you want to join the TC again, you could always talk to Jun.” I offered despite how gross the words felt on my tongue.

Ichi was part of Section 9! I didn't want to give him up to some wannabe yakuza thugs!

“No.” He answered instantly firmly. “I won’t do that again. I’ll work as transport for myself if I have to before I go back in.” He said and I blinked in surprise at that.

“I didn’t realize you were so…”

“Motoko. After everything I went through during the war I was basically forgotten about afterwards once Jotaro died.” Ichi said and I could feel his frustration. “If it wasn’t for you dragging us into the Scav raids, I would have had to start as a fucking bottom rung shit boy again. Running drinks to people and stuff. No thanks.”

“Hey Ichi go get us some drinks.” Malcolm being the best friend that he was instantly chimed in. Hiromi and I were soon laughing as the two boys faux fought each other.

—--

An hour later it was time. The stage lights had shifted and there were some people up there setting up actual equipment.

Finally I would get to see Rockerboy Neighbors set.

I recognized her instantly, she was basically wearing the same style that she had when I saw her on the elevator. She stepped out with a pretty expensive Orphean. They made some of the highest quality guitars. I only recognized it because I had seen them at the music shop.

They were the ones behind bullet proof glass.

I was instantly jealous.

“This is Violent Hemorrhage!” She called out as her band all started playing and I nodded. It was good.

Her guitar skill was real. I grumped. She attacked the guitar. She opened her mouth and instantly I was kinda disappointed.

Artificial.

Of course. She had throat chrome. The voice that came out wasn’t real. It was a digital controlled autotune.

I could hear where the chrome altered her voice on the fly, pitch correcting.

I don’t think Rockerboy Neighbor was very good at singing. I think she had probably gotten the chrome to try and overcome her issue.

“Burn it all!” Malcolm called out shouting along with the song as she repeated the chorus. The crowd was enjoying it. Although as I looked around I noticed some people obviously noticed the issue and weren’t getting as involved.

I felt bad. She played well. The song was catchy. Her band was good.

Her singing just had some issues.

“What’s wrong?” Hiromi asked, pushing herself against me and speaking into my ear so I could hear her over the music.

I returned the favor leaning in. “The singing is artificial and the front woman is struggling. If it wasn’t for the chrome she would sound… Pretty awful.” I told her and Hiromi frowned, listening but not seemingly catching it.

Made sense. If it wasn’t for Rockerboy telling me so much about music I wouldn’t have noticed it either.

I shook it off. Being picky and not enjoying music just because it wasn’t perfect was something that always annoyed me. So I ignored it just getting into the rhythm and enjoying the lyrics for what they said.

“Hey Motoko! So when are we going on another raid anyways?” Malcolm asked, suddenly startling me. “I could use some extra eddies for the Caliburn when I get one!”

“Wait, you're still trying to get that super car?” Hiromi asked, sounding amused. “Are you sure?”

“Listen just because I got shot doesn’t change that it’s my dream car Hiromi.” He answered with a shrug. “I mean I had to spend some money on the healing that Dr. Vik gave me, so I figure an extra gig will help.”

“I… I don’t think I’m hitting any Scav dens for a while.” I admitted my voice was mostly cut off from the thumping of the next band getting up and starting to sing.

Annoyed, I quickly called my chooms throwing all of us into a conference call.

*I’m not going to raid the Scavs again for a while. I’m hoping that if I stop here, they will just assume it was all the work of the TC and let it go so they won’t retaliate.*

*Wait but what about our eddies!?* Ichi asked *We were using the raids as our income Motoko.*

*Forget that for a second! Why are we worried about Scavs retaliating! We’ll just kill them all! Right?* Malcolm added.

I shook my head. *I let my anger get the better of me after the apartment was attacked guys. It’s one thing to raid a new den every once in a while. The remaining Scavs won’t even care, but what I did was hit them really hard over and over. If they think I’ll come after them next, they will try to remove me… Or you, or our family.*

*Motoko… You don’t have to be afraid! We’ll beat them if they try it!* Hiromi offered and I smiled at her, but I shook my head.

*I can’t just think like a child about this. I do want to destroy the Scavs. Make no mistake. I’ll still raid them when possible, but I’m going to take a break. Give them space, let them think things have gone quiet… And all the while I’m going to plot how to completely destroy them. Utterly.* I said with all the conviction I could muster.

*Alright. We can take it easy from that then… But what about-* Ichi started asking, but I cut him off.

*Right. Eddies. I didn’t forget Ichi. I know how important it is for you to have some income! Just because I’ll avoid Scavs for a bit, doesn’t mean we don’t have other targets we can hit! I can still do some gigs for Wakako that might end up with lots of loot! I promise It’ll be okay. I just… Have to balance what we do so retaliation isn’t smacking us in the face constantly.*

*Yeah… Yeah that’s fair. I don’t want Scavs hitting my home or something either.* Ichi agreed, and I nodded.

“Right! That’s enough of that stuff! Let’s enjoy the show! We are celebrating tonight! To Malcolm!”

—--

“Well that was an interesting night.” I muttered as we walked out of the club. The live bands had all finished up and it was getting late. I was feeling sort of tense, but not tired.

Maybe I should go do some gigs? My week of peace was over… Even if with Malcolm’s shooting it hadn’t lasted the whole week.

“Going home?” Hiromi asked and I shrugged as I turned around. Hiromi was wearing more black recently. It was still Street Kid Chic in a lot of ways, but she had bought a new jacket that was all black with just some of her favorite green in lining around it.

Which now that I thought about it, was probably a custom job.

“Well we should go for a ride then! I’m finally free for the weekend. Motoko! Let’s go on a drive!” She called out thrusting a fist into the air.

“Sure.” I agreed easily as Hiromi smiled bright and happy as she ran over and grabbed my arm. “C’mon my Kusangi is parked over here you can drive since I know how tetchy you get about drunk driving.” Hiromi offered, and Hiromi and the rest of my chooms had a few things to drink tonight.

“It’s okay, we can take mine.” I offered, pulling her in a different direction.

Of course only after I heard Hiromi make a noise that was similar to a tea kettle overflowing did the two brain cells in my head finally connect.

I had bought the Kusanagi right before everything happened. I hadn’t used it much after the attack because I needed my gear and the Quadra was better protected.

I had promised to take Hiromi out when I finally got a Kusanagi.

I hadn’t told her I had bought a Kusanagi yet.

“Oops.” I whispered as I turned to my choom who was practically bouncing.

“Eeeeee! You bought one!” She called out happily, grabbing me tightly and refusing to let go.

“Yeah. It’s not a Mizuchi either so it’s-”

“Let’s go! I demand a ride Motoko! You should have told me you were buying a Kusanagi! After what happened to Malcolm as well! They probably over charged you too! You are so bad with money! I would have helped!” Hiromi rambled as she pulled forwards. Funnily enough we ended up walking past my bike in her rush since she didn’t know where it was.

I adjusted her course and dragged her over and she instantly started looking over the bike. Hands wandering as she checked things.

“Someone messed with the brakes!” She called out and I laughed.

“Yeah me. They were trash when I bought it. I had to replace them.” I told her, and she glared at me. “What?”

“That’s the sort of thing you can demand a discount for when buying something Motoko, did you haggle the price down because of the bad brakes?”

The urge to look away and whistle struck me, but I remained firm.

Hiromi noticed anyway.

“Ugh! You are the worst with money forever!”

“Yeah that is true. What did Motoko do this time?” Ichi said as he and Malcolm walked over

“Oh Ichi look! Motoko bought a Kusanagi! Without telling anyone, and she had to do repairs on it. I bet she paid full price!”

“I don’t want to say how much I paid for it now… Because someone will yell at me.” I answered mechanically.

Malcolm was just laughing a bit as Ichi and Hiromi both teamed up to yell at me for wasting money.

“Banned from spending money forever!” Hiromi yelled at me with a pointed finger.

—--

A bit later after finally calming my best choom down I was driving down the road with Hiromi gripped onto my back tightly as my Kusanagi took a turn.

“It feels so weird compared to my bike!” Hiromi called out. “The lack of a back seat isn’t as comfortable… But it gives me an excu-” Hiromi’s voice lowered at the end until I couldn’t hear her. I would have asked her to repeat it, but I was instantly breaking a moment after to avoid some asshole driver who cut into my lane.

A waved middle finger in his direction settled that matter as I put myself back into traffic.

Hiromi of course wasn’t done.

Practically standing up on the Kusanagi she was flipping off the driver and cussing at the top of her lungs.

I just snorted and took a gentle right on the next street to move away from the other car.

“Why’d we turn! Motoko! Take me back I haven’t finished yet!” She demanded, dropping back down from where she had been practically standing on the seat.

“It’s okay Hiromi. Besides, I'd rather spend the ride with you than dealing with some gonk.” I told her happily and she instantly settled back down and wrapped herself back around my back.

Hiromi and I drove around the city for a long while that night. Just enjoying the roads. Honestly my Kusanagi was a much smoother ride than the Mizuchi that Hiromi had. Without the overturning that came with that variant the much smoother and deeper rumble of the engine was nice instead of ear splitting.

In the end we ended up on the mountain paths in Westbrook. And there I let it out. Letting my bike roar over the roads with Hiromi hollering her enjoyment into my ear.

—--

I woke up the next morning with a grabby Hiromi gripping onto me.

We had a sleepover again at my place cause Hiromi didn’t want to just go home and be alone. I gently tried to escape her grip, but that wasn’t happening. So I was stuck.

With nothing to do but think.

No. I shook that away. I’d been doing that too much. Overthinking. I always had a path forward.

I just needed to improve my stats.

Body and Reflex first. I’d been napping on both of them too long, and both were easy enough to grind out. I just needed to dedicate the time for it. To stop coasting and start grinding out everything again.

So I relaxed and just waited a while. Dozing a bit as I waited for Hiromi to wake up and let me go.

“Toko?” Hiromi mumbled a bit as she finally started waking up a while later.

“Hey Hiromi. Morning.”

“Mornin.” She mumbled back again and then she just buried herself into my shoulder and mumbled something nonsensical.

I laughed a little at how cute she was being. “Hey I’m going to hit the gym, and then… A gun range, Yeah a gun range after. You want to join me? Get some exercise?”

“Hmm?” She made an interested noise before suddenly opening her eyes. “Yeah! I want to see! I mean go. I want to go!”

“Cool. C’mon let’s get up and get some good in us then.”

—--

“Hiromi you okay? You keep stopping your workout.” I called out as I did another squat with the weights on my shoulders. I was sweating like crazy at this point considering how much effort I was putting into the exercise.

I wanted that Body 10. Give me the perfect abs! I demand it!

But my choom kept stopping and staring. Hiromi, I wasn’t squatting all that much weight, you could do this even! Well at least a few times, and you don’t exercise. It wasn’t that surprising.

I grunted as I rose up again. My core burned from the crunches I had finished before, and my thighs felt great considering how long I had been doing this.

Sure I hated the pain, but the XP!

Do it for XP.

“Ah!” She said and that was all that came out of her mouth for a bit before she shook herself. “I think I’m done is all!” She offered standing up from bar bells she had been using for like… A minute.

Hiromi, you can’t get gains that way!

I shook it off though. I had sort of surprised her about all this after all.

“Okay. Let me finish this, and we’ll get a shower before hitting the range?”

Hiromi nodded her head up and down a little too fast. I didn’t know Hiromi was that into shooting. Maybe something we could do when we hang out now? Go to a gun range?

—--

So Hiromi didn’t like gun ranges? We had gone to a nearby gun range I found online. I had spent a lot of money on ammo so we could shoot as much as we wanted, and so I could train my reflexes.

The gun range had electronic targets, and difficulty modes. So I had ramped that sucker up and started training. My Lexington getting a real workout for the first time since I had picked it up. As I shot target after target, as fast as I could.

I had already started getting alerts. Simply from how many fast twitch shots I had been making.

Hiromi wasn’t having as much fun.

“You okay Hiromi?” I asked and she gave me a wilted smile. She wasn’t nearly as accurate as I was, and was struggling with the targets.

Ah. I knew exactly what was happening. Hiromi was comparing herself to me.

I canceled my targets, and walked over to her aisle. Moving up behind her as I pressed myself against her back.

“Like this.” I told her, as I reached up and overlaid my hands on hers. “You’re doing fine, but you are pulling the trigger too hard.” I helped her pull the trigger back and the bullet hit on target. “I think your chrome is giving you trouble.”

“Yeah, my hands feel a little different. I didn’t realize it was messing with my aim this much.” She said, sounding frustrated.

“It’s okay. That just means it’s a good thing we hit the range. So let’s practice those pulls so we don’t have to worry about it. Gentle pulls, there we go.” I told her as she managed to hit the target again with a smooth shot.

I didn’t get much shooting done after that, as I helped Hiromi work on a quick draw using my knowledge, but the way her face was lit up compared to how sour it had been at first was worth it.

Eventually good things had to end, and Hiromi headed home, her parents wanted to see her on the weekend after all.

I ended up turning around and going right back to the range.

I had thousands of rounds to pump through. I ran through the gamut of my skills to get more XP. Quick Drawing. Rapid firing. High speed adjustment using the electronic targets.

I did it all.

And Reflex XP started flowing in. It was actually a relief. I had done a lot of shooting on gigs, but hadn’t really been getting much XP for it, I guess I just needed to keep actually pushing myself instead of just doing a few shots and being done.

I worked through until I had to stop to cool off my Lexington. Then packing up all the ammo I still had and heading home.

 

[Seras]

“Hey Jun… Hey Akari.” I mumbled the second half as I got home, and was surprised to see we had visitors. Akari and Jun were sitting around the couch but neither were watching TV.

Jun threw up a waving hand for a moment, but Akari didn’t say anything, which was… Odd.

“Okay what’s going on?” I demanded towards the two very distracted people. Oddly distracted.

“It’s nothing Motoko. Why don’t you go to your room for a bit.” Jun said, while he very obviously cut off Akari from speaking.

I frowned but Jun looked firm and I nodded. “Alright. I’ll leave you to your plotting… Don’t get in over your head, if you need help just let me know.” I demanded, only when Jun nodded did I head into my room and flop on my bed.

I kinda wanted to do more Rockerboy stuff, but… If Jun and Akari were that serious I didn’t want to be annoying…

That meant I only had one more inside skill that I could work on.

I stood up and headed for the desk in my room, covered in boxes of my scrap and tools, it had been laying there since I moved in. Time to get to work.

While Jun would yell at me if I did any work on explosives. That wasn’t all I had.

I pulled out my Lexington and grabbed some tools and after digging around I found some gun oil.

Let’s do some maintenance on my poor pistol that was worked so hard today, and then I would see about doing some work on it in general. Maybe a silencer?

Maybe I should upgrade from a Lexington to a Nue, or something? Put a silencer on that?

I ended up shaking my head. My Lexington would do pretty well with a Silencer, but I liked the fact it was full auto.

I ended up pulling the shard that had Mitch's information on how to make his silencer goop for the Overwatch and refreshed myself with it.

“That could be a fun project.” I muttered as I finished putting the Lexington back together after giving it a full cleaning, it had needed that pretty badly. There was a lot of buildup in the barrel, and some of the parts were wearing down, but mostly the barrel. That ammo I bought for practice today was shit. Oh well. It was cheap, and it was good reflex practice.

I hummed to myself as I looked over everything I would need for a silencer, I had some of the stuff, but Mitches Nanite goop that would auto repair the Silencer as it was used was too useful not to want to mess with.

Even if this was going to be a silencer I could fit on and off at will unlike the attached barrel of the Overwatch.

I needed… Well a few additional tools. Making nanomachines wasn’t an easy job, as I started writing down what I needed I realized I really couldn’t do a silencer like Mitch’s. Like… At all.

I tried to figure out how to make the nanite goop, and despite my best efforts I just… Didn’t know how. Sure I had the instructions but what Mitch had written down considered someone already knowing how to work some things that I didn’t.

It had been a while since I had run into something that I just outright didn’t know.

“So I need to level Technical Ability first, I’ll make a more standard silencer to get by until later.” I decided with a mutter to myself, as I pulled out pieces and then had to sigh.

I didn’t have the parts for the electronic baffler.

Sure I could make a bog standard silencer, but it wouldn’t be silent. The fact Cyberpunk tech had nearly perfect silencers was something the modern world wasn’t even close to copying.

Okay I needed to go to an electronics store… And probably a tinker place too, because I could use some extra scrap metals if I wanted to make more than just one Silencer.

I needed more stuff to build if I was going to level tech after all…

Okay I was going to mod some of the rest of my weapons. I mean I couldn’t mod my Burya with anything. At least not with my current knowledge. But the Copperhead I’ve been using could fit a silencer…

Heh that could be pretty fun. Going into a gig all tactical and stuff? I had sort of done it with Jackie that one time we hit Scavs together.

Ah, that was fun. Killing Scavs with the chooms.

I quickly brought up a second CAD design for a silencer to fit a Copperhead. The Copperhead was easy, but the Lexington? I would have to modify the barrel, or make an entirely new barrel for it.

That just meant more work though. More work meant more XP!

After a few designs I had my list of parts I needed. I had even gotten a tech XP alert just for designing the parts!

I left my bedroom noticing that Akari and Jun were still chatting, a tablet in front of both of them that they were looking over.

I shrugged.

They would let me know if I could help, or not. “I’m hitting the store. Be back in a bit.” I called out as I left.

As I walked through the halls I heard Rockerboy Neighbor playing again. I hummed along to the music, actually recognizing the song that she was playing now as one from her set, and headed into the elevator.

—--

Tech stores were actually pretty common in Night City. So I didn’t end up having to go very far from the apartment to find a store that should have what I wanted. After a few minutes of browsing and filling up my arms with everything I would need I was back in the apartment. Ignoring Jun and Akari’s continued meeting in the living room, as I went to work.

First I set up the 3d Printer with steel feed to begin creating the silencers physical frame. Once that was started I rolled over to an empty section of the bench and pulled out the electronics I needed.

The Electronic Baffler was an interesting bit of tech. Using vibrations it basically countered the noise of the bullet leaving the barrel entirely.

Turning what should be a suppressor, into a true Silencer.

It wouldn’t silence the bullets themselves once they left the barrel of course. A piece of metal breaking the sound barrier was still a piece of metal breaking the sound barrier, but there were ways to get around that.

Close shots would keep it from making too much noise, and… Well messing with this noise baffle was giving me ideas for a quick hack.

Or maybe just an upgrade?

Noise Canceller? No, I would probably end up having to do the reverse. Noise Bang? I considered the name. Sure, it wouldn’t be stealthy, that way, but if I blind and deafen someone that would pretty heavily disable them.

I added it to the list of future ideas, and continued putting together the electronics of the small vibration dampener. Powered with a small battery, that was all integrated into the silencer.

I rolled my chair back over to the 3D printer, and pulled out the steel Silencer that was now finished. I replaced it with the barrel of my Lexington. Which was just having the tip of the barrel adjusted to let the silencer be screwed onto it.

With that being prepared I moved the Silencer onto the workbench and started sanding down a bit of the exterior where the steel was sharp. I painted it. Leaving it a matte black.

Then I popped open the small section of the silencer, and started putting in the electronics and battery.

Once that was done I sealed that up. And placed the completed Silencer on the desk.

“Cool.”

Yeah it was cool. Silencers were cool. I rolled back over to the 3D printer the barrel was almost done, and I just tinkered with my Lexington, getting it ready for the barrel as I let it finish.

Then as the noise of the printer ended I grabbed the still warm barrel, and slid it into place. Then grabbed the Silencer and screwed it on.

“That’s fucking cool.” I muttered. I made sure the lexington was empty before drawing it up, and then putting it down, getting a feel for the pistol's new weight.

Then I tried to put it into the holster and realized a problem.

“Silencer doesn’t fit.”

—--

I stepped out of the room deciding to take a break. I had an idea on what to do about the silencer, but that would happen later. I walked out to get a drink out of the fridge and noticed Jun and Akari were both gone.

I hope they were okay, but…

It created some good news, it meant it was Rockerboy time!

I ran back into my room and grabbed my guitar and Music box and dragged them out to the couch. Plugging my personal link into the music box, I was ready to do more music!

I actually had a pretty good idea for a song that I wanted to add to my collection!

This time it would be heavy electronica. I would barely need my guitar this time. A challenge. Like how The Only Thing They Fear made me push beyond just normal instruments.

But it would be worth it.

I went back to my room and grabbed the speakers as well, hooking them up so I could physically hear the sound instead of just relying on my agents Cyber Audio Suite.

Slowly the noise started filling the apartment. Thankfully this apartment was so big, the acoustics were much better than the old one. I wouldn’t disturb every person in the building like our last apartment, so I didn’t feel bad about doing some song writing.

I mean, if Rockerboy Neighbor did it, then I could too!

Yet even with the challenge of going far more electronic than my usual songs, I barely struggled in putting the song together. I already knew it after all.

I had listened to it at least once. So I knew every chord. Every beat.

“Rise… They will remember you. RIIIISE!” I recorded having finished the instrumental part, now I was just recording the vocals. Altering my voice for each different singer so it actually sounded like a team of people in the song.

Ah man. Rise was such a nerdy song! I was so happy no one would ever know I was remaking a fucking video game championship song.

It was so catchy though!

“Push through hell and RISE! RISE!” I belted out. Totally into it, as I listened to the song both aloud and through my agent. Checking for errors that I would need to adjust.

I finished another vocal track and turned only to instantly yelp and lose my balance from the couch.

“Jun! You jerk! If you were here you should have said something!” I demanded throwing an empty can of soda at him.

He just reached out and grabbed it out of the air before it could hit him. Akari standing beside him was looking about half as excited as she normally was.

“That was nova Toko! I like your other song more though.” She offered and I turned to glare at Jun again firmly pointing.

“You wouldn't know about any of the songs if not for this gonk!”

“If you were trying to keep it a real secret, putting it in a BD probably wasn’t a good idea.” He said as he pushed me aside with a gentle bump of his hip that still sent me stumbling. Akari and Jun both took a seat on the couch, a tablet pulled out that they both ducked their head into.

“Okay seriously what is with you two?”

“Nothing.” Jun offered but I wasn’t going to take that.

Both Akari and Jun were worried about something.

“Bullshit. What’s going on?”

“TC business Imouto. Nothing you want to get involved with.” Jun said cutting off the conversation and I hesitated. Because he was right. I didn’t want to get involved in TC business.

“Fine, but whatever it is, even if I don’t want to get involved, if you need help tell me.” I threw my hands up then and took a few steps towards my room, but I didn’t want to do anything in there right now…

I walked out of the apartment instead.

Time to workout a bit.

—---

“If only half the worthless gonks that come to me for a bit of muscle have half your dedication.” John offered as I was once more pushing myself.

“You probably say that… To all the… Kids that show… some effort.” I spoke in between squats and the old man barked a laugh at that.

“Yes, but that only makes what I said even more true. Haven’t seen your brother come back.”

“Jun… Is doing some work… Right now… I’ll remind him… Soon.”

“Excellent. Fujimura wanted me to keep an eye on his little chrome soldiers.”

“Rude.”

“Heh. Been around as long as I have, seen how many of those chromed out morons lose themselves and you stop feeling much sympathy.”

“Well… Jun is… Pretty solid now.”

“Yeah, I saw that. Kids got a good head on his shoulders. That won’t save him if he keeps chroming out. And he will if he doesn’t get some damn exercise. That’s one of the biggest excuses. Not strong enough.”

“Heh.” I couldn’t help but chuckle because I had heard that before. Maine. David. Both of those morons said the same thing.

“Still don’t blow out your knees, this is the second day in a row I’ve seen you belting out those squats.”

I sighed internally and nodded. Finishing my last rep before racking the weights. This is why I didn’t want someone trying to ‘train’ me. They might notice I didn’t respond to shit the same way a normal person would, my legs weren’t tired the day after exercise, because I healed completely with a nap.

“Thanks for the talk.” I offered, and reached over to grab my Burya and shoulder holster that I had removed while training.

“Hey hold up kid. I didn’t come to chat with you to talk about your brother or poor training methods. I have a kid your age that I’m training. But she’s getting a bit out of hand. She doesn’t have anyone her age bracket to challenge her.” John explained and I instantly felt my face flatten.

“You’re kidding right. You want me to what? Become her rival or something?”

“Heh. A rival would be good, but I don’t expect that, you probably won’t win. I just need a challenge. Something to push her. To make her realize she can’t just coast by on her talent.” John offered, and it was with absolute surety that the man pulled out the ‘I know you won’t win’ card, just to get me to agree.

But fuck it. I was bored, and I could use some Street Fighting XP. Not that I was going to make it that easy.

“What’s in it for me?” I asked, and the man smiled.

“Well for one. Access to a better gym than this place.”

“Meh.” I replied instantly as being watched while I worked out was kinda the problem.

“Heh, fine. Do this and I’ll make it worth your while with some eddies. Say three hundred?”

Three hundred eddies was pocket change. But I wasn’t going to try and squeeze blood from a rock. “Fine.”

“Alright. C’mon kid.” He waved me to follow but I didn’t.

“Motoko.” I informed him simply with a frown. Thankfully he picked what I was putting down a moment after.

“Fair enough, C’mon Motoko, let's go meet Hayato.”

This time I followed. Out of the Gym area, then down the red neon steps that led up to the buildings. I thought for a moment we would get in a car, but instead John just took a left and turned into a small section that had a bunch of elevators.

Then we skipped those too!

There was a path on the right that hugged the building and we went a ways down before he turned in and entered into a heavily inset door.

If I wasn’t fully armed and dealing with TC thugs I might have started to get a little concerned at this point, but the door opened into…

Well a little gym. A hole in the wall gym. I didn’t know this place was here, then again. I didn’t know a lot of shops in the area.

Gomorrah. Was the large name painted across the wall.

And as we walked in I noticed there was an area in the middle that had mats and standing on the mats was a girl around my age. At least I think she was my age.

She was about my height. Maybe a little taller, I realized as she was wearing pads for her feet rather than shoes and I was still in my boots.

But it was the tattoos that covered arms and back that made me realize this wasn’t just an average girl. No teenager with more Tyger Claw tattoos than Jun could be normal.

The pure asian features were interesting as well. Straight black hair tied up into a bun and ponytail was an odd sight, because it was natural.

Just normal natural hair was kinda weird in Night City. Especially one with the money this girl obviously had.

The quick scan I did told me she also had a lot of chrome.

Including a Kerenzikov.

She was obviously impatient. Her body language dripped with how annoyed she was. So when John rounded the corner and she saw him she instantly started speaking, almost too fast. Her words came out in a rush that sounded almost sped up.

And she was cussing in Japanese.

So I understood exactly zero of it, other than she was upset.

I think I heard a baka in there as well?

“Hayato.” John responded, cutting her off, and she went silent while glaring. “This is Motoko. She’s going to be the one you fight today.”

“You bring me to this trash heap, leave me for hours and then expect me to fight some…” The girl cut herself off as she took me in fully.

Sure I had been exercising, but I was still fully armed.

I went nowhere without my guns now after all. I looked her over as well, and made my decision.

I pulled off my jacket and threw it over a chair near the entrance letting everyone see how armed I was.

A few moments later I hung my shoulder holster over the chair, and placed my Lexington and holster on the seat as well. My knife was dropped on it as well, and then I took a moment to drop my pouches on the chair as well, ammo, ammo, Maxdocs, ammo. All placed on the chair leaving it rather full of my equipment.

I sat on the chair next to it, and started taking off my boots as well.

“Who is this?”

“Motoko Kusanagi. You may have heard of her brother. The Oni of the Kamikazi.”

“Huh those Cyberpsychos?”

“Jun-Nii is doing really well actually.” I offered as I was finally free of my boots and stepped onto the mats.

“I’ve never heard of her. I don’t care if her brother is famous. That has nothing to do with her.” The girl argued snootily and I couldn’t help but chuckle. So true. I wasn’t an Oni like Jun, always relying on brute force and stuff…

The fact he called me a gorilla was long erased from my brain.

“And I did not bring her here for her brother's accomplishments.” John replied and I got to watch a second of the girl basically going through emotions that would normally take a few seconds before she scoffed.

“I am Hayato Nakagawa.” She said, speaking as if I should recognize the name.

I didn’t of course, nor would I somehow feel dumb for not recognizing some random teenager. So I was just going to deal with this like I deal with everything!

“Nice to meet you Hayato-chan! Let’s beat each others faces in, until we both feel better!” I chirped as I started hopping around a bit to limber up as I brought my hands up in a boxing stance.

My words seemed to do the opposite of creating comradery as the girl’s face shifted into the look of someone stepping in dog shit.

“If I must!” She growled and I could tell she was about to charge before John raised a hand and stopped us both.

“Gloves first Motoko. Over there.” he pointed and I noticed a rack with spare gloves and foot pads. I made a noise of pleasure as I had never gotten to fight someone with pads before! I quickly hopped over and took out a pair for hands and feet.

This was going to be fun!

 

[Seras]

The wait for me to finish putting on the pads, seemed to do Hayato absolutely no favors. She was tapping her feet on the mats at a fast speed. Her hands kept twitching up like she was going to start pointing and yelling or something, but she would bring them down as soon as the urge hit, so it meant her hands were jerking around a bit every few seconds.

Yikes.

Once I had gloves and the cool kicky foot pads I stepped back onto the mats.

“Try to keep it to pure martial arts.” John spoke out before backing off the mat, and that was all the signal Hayato needed.

She rushed me. Moving very fast across the mat, but it wasn’t Sandy like. No, instead as she drew close and started punching, I realized the difference between fighting someone with a Sandy and with a Keren.

The Sandy would move so fast you couldn’t react and you would be out.

The Keren though? They were just reacting to you as soon as you did something. Start throwing a punch? They already saw the motion and were prepared.

I went to block her first punch and a moment later was stumbling back as she shifted from a straight punch to an uppercut under my guard.

But Hayato wasn’t done. She charged right back in. Another blow, this time I did barely manage to get a guard up in time but she wasn’t stopping. Punch punch punch punch. A rapid series of attacks that she kept trying to slip in through any openings.

I threw a punch to make room and nearly got a blow across the jaw for it.

It was like fighting someone who was reading your mind.

In other words?

It was fun as fuck!

I had Street Brawler levels to grind here!

I lured her in, letting her focus on trying to punch my face in, when I bounced.

Suddenly she wasn’t punching my face but below my legs. She reacted instantly, trying to duck back, but just because her mind was sped up, didn’t mean her body was the same. I slammed a kick forward and she blocked it, but it still sent her stumbling back.

Then I landed and I had a singular moment where the initiative was mine!

I pounced. My legs launched me forward in a punch that she desperately tried to juke to the right to avoid, but I shifted from a punch into a grab, even as her arm was attempting to pull away from my move, even successfully managing to avoid my grasping hand.

Fucking Keren.

It didn’t matter because as I missed her, I was behind her, and the moment my feet touched the mat I launched myself back.

She couldn’t see me.

I was behind her.

She certainly felt it though when I pounced into a jump kick that sent her flailing onto her face.

I stepped back even as John moved to try and break it up and I got a nod for not pushing now that Hayato was down.

She stood up in a flash, her face in a rage.

We didn’t speak. Instead John stepped back and it was on. She rushed me again, but I had learned my lesson. If I stay on the defense, she beats me, because she could simply react faster than I could do anything. I charged in with a light leap, and then went straight into grabbing at her.

Grapples was my answer to her reaction time.

If I could get my hands on her, I would win. I was confident in my grappling with my skills so high, and with grappling perk boosting that.

Unfortunately. I think I made her angry. She was avoiding my grasping hands, and she timed me perfectly. One second I was bending down a bit to grab a retreating wrist when a fist smashed into my face, and I was off my feet.

I rolled and stood up shakily, completely surprised at what just happened.

She didn’t hit like a teenage girl. She hit me so hard I felt like Jun just took a swipe at me.

John had broken the fight again but was there this time seemingly waiting to see if I could keep fighting.

I twisted my neck and winced a bit at the crackle.

Ow.

Wiping my face I noticed I was bleeding even with the gloves softening the blow.

“Okay what biomods do you have and where can I get me some?” I asked joking, as I took a second for the room to stop spinning.

“Many, and that is unlikely. You do not strike me as someone with the wealth required.” She responded back cattily and I chuckled at that.

Fair enough.

Really wish I could grab a Maxdoc right now but that would be rather telling, instead I simply bounced around a second regaining my motion and nodded to John.

He backed up and my actions seemed to have surprised the little Power Princess here.

I had misjudged her because she had so little direct chrome. But the Keren I realized wasn’t her only upgrade. Biomods to enhance muscles and bones, and probably twitch reflexes. And it turned a normal looking girl, besides the Keren sticking out the back of her neck, fixed into her neural link and what were probably ECM tattoos into a monster martial artist.

But I was better.

Well through pure skill I was better. She was good though. Probably close to where I was through pure skill, she just had better stats.

Well the whole thing fell apart a bit there. What I was trying to say was that she was stronger and faster, but she relied on it.

I moved in again. Fists swinging to alter her pace a bit, make her react to me, even if she was really good at that.

I took a few blows as she weaved around avoiding my grabbing hands and she in turn attempted to slip blows around my arms, but I was pressuring her, and getting her rhythm. I feigned a grab and she struck.

My hand spun around and locking onto her forearm created a half millisecond of shock. I very rarely spun my hands around 180 cause it was kinda… Uncomfy.

Yeah let’s go with that.

But I was a grappler, and being able to grab with effectively the back of your hand was too useful to ignore.

Then she folded around a knee to the stomach and I was instantly on top of her. All of her power and reflexes were useless when she was face first into the mat in an arm bar she had no chance of breaking out of, even with her joints being more flexible than a normal persons.

My chrome hands didn’t get tired, and she simply couldn’t leverage enough force to push my entire weight off of her.

So for the first time in our little matches. She reached out and tapped out.

She was coughing a little as I let go and she rolled onto her back to breath, but she recovered really fast.

Faster than she should have from getting the wind knocked out of her and she rose up.

“You beat me?” She hissed, the question pulling from her with an almost stutter as she talked faster than she could seem to keep up with. I stood back up and prepped for her to strike at me, but she didn't. Instead she started talking in a buzz glaring at John, and it took a second for me to parse out what she said. “Did you hire some pretend teenager to humiliate me? Why do you always do this!? You always try to trick me!”

“I’m fourteen.” I offered after a moment realizing that John was taking a moment to answer. “And John just watched me exercise at the Gym outside my apartment. Asked me if I was willing to fight someone.”

“Shut up! I didn’t ask you!” She once more blabber mouthed at me, and I just rolled my eyes.

Whatever. This was fun I guess. I turned and walked back to my stuff. I pulled the pads off my hands as I flopped into the chair barely paying attention to the spoiled rich girl throwing an absolute temper tantrum.

My face still hurt, and I wanted to just get out of here.

I did get some good Street Brawling XP though. So it wasn’t all bad.

By the time I finished putting all of my gear back on, Hayato was finished her surprisingly quiet argument with John,

“Wait.” She called out as I turned to leave the gym. “It was rude of me not to acknowledge the bout.” I turned and to my surprise she did a cool martial arts pose, fist against flat palm and bowed. “Thank you for the match.”

I quickly took the same pose because that was polite, and not because I thought it was cool. “Thank you for the match.” I repeated and then Hayato stood and sniffed.

“Perhaps I will have John call on you in the future for another. You were… An acceptable challenge.”

Our eyes met for a moment, and I was surprised that the rage I had seen earlier was gone… Was that chrome? Some weird Biomod? Or did she just have good control over herself and knew how to push the anger aside?

I pushed the question away. It didn’t matter, but I could respect the apology for what it was.

“Sure, here.” I threw her my number which seemed to surprise her. “Feel free to reach out if you want to set up another spar. I don’t get enough practice with my fists, and that Keren of yours is something really useful to get some experience against.”

“Wise. Very well Motoko, I look forward to our next bout.”

I nodded at that. Hayato the Rich Girl. That had a fucking nasty right hook. Yeah I think we could be chooms.

—--

I headed home. As I was walking down the hallway to the apartment Rockerboy Neighbor was leaving. We each passed each other without a word, but my narrowed eyes must have signaled something because the woman watched me pass.

Then I pushed into the apartment only to see Jun and Akari still here. Both looked exhausted and sprawled out on the couches. I think Akari was actually sleeping face first into the cushions as Jun continued to work on whatever was going on with the two.

“I’m home. Got to spar with a girl with a Keren. I ended up winning, sorta.” I informed Jun but I only got a thumbs up in return as Jun continued working on the tablet.

Okay, fine then.

I grumbled as I went into my room, and just flopped on my bed. My face hurt, and my muscles ached a bit.

Time for a nap.

—--

I woke up and instantly slipped out of the bed feeling better with a lack of any pain on my face. I walked into the living room to see I was once more free from older brothers, but I wasn’t going to stick around to enjoy it.

I grabbed my equipment, and the big box of ammo I had bought for my Lexington. I hadn’t figured out how to carry the silencer yet, so I just slipped it into the ammo box and I headed out to the gun range I had found before.

Without Hiromi here, I could really do some work.

I had thought ahead and grabbed my copperhead as well. The gun range wasn’t clear this time. The old man behind the armored glass that ran the place gave me a lane, and when I went in two of them were filled with to my complete lack of surprise a couple Tyger Claw grunts.

Thankfully these guys were older than the normal teenagers I ran into, and they didn’t do more than pass an eye over me as I carried my equipment into my lane.

I settled the copperhead down for now, and grabbed my lexington. With a moment's effort I fitted the silencer onto the pistol and did some movement with it just to feel the weight difference. It would definitely change how I fired.

I hit the switch starting the electronic targets up and amped the difficulty.

Then I started firing.

It was silent. Other than the noise the targets made to indicate a hit. I went as fast as I could. Each shot firing into the targets with barely a hint of noise. The bullet smacking into the concrete wall behind the targets honestly was the loudest thing in my lane.

Something I would have to keep in mind. The noise baffler tech didn’t silence the entire shot even if it did cover a lot.

But that was half the benefit of physically taking my gun out and shooting it at a range. Experience.

And not just XP. I mean physical experience, on how my equipment worked.

That and the XP helped keep me focused. Getting a blip of an alert in my system every once in a while as I kept up with the targets made it all worthwhile.

Eventually though I had to stop, having run a few hundred rounds through my Lexington the poor pistol was heating up pretty badly.

I set it aside leaving the silencer attached for now. While the heat of the silencer couldn’t hurt my chrome hands. I wanted to let it cool down, and see how the silencer handled the stress I had just put it under before I messed with it.

Instead I grabbed my Copperhead.

Once again I fell into the rhythm of just firing at the targets. Trying to hit the center without hesitating just instant point and shoot.

The alerts came about as often as they had with the Lexington. The only thing that slowed me down was when I ran out of loaded magazines, and had to reload all of them. The Copperhead though was more resistant to overheating than the Lexington. Despite firing more than twice as many rounds through it, it was handling the heat pretty well…

Mostly because I wasn’t using full auto I supposed.

Then finally I felt it more than anything. I wasn’t checking the alerts, but instantly it felt like my body was moving faster, and my hits happened just that instant faster.

I stopped and pulled up my alert list and wasn’t surprised at what I found the feeling of my body altering, had become a pleasant experience.

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*Handguns skill level up!*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*Reflex Leveled up!*

Handguns 7, was nice.

Reflex 8, though was a massive improvement.

I hadn’t leveled Assault yet but… I paused and reloaded my mags.

Then I lifted up my Copperhead into the firing position and hit the button to activate the targets again.

It had been a while since I just grinded my combat skills. Relying on Cool and the synergy of everything to kill without really needing to push my shooting skills. Or my body.

It felt good to get back into grinding out stats. It felt… Right. Like I had forgotten something, and only now found it again.

“Damn kid. Not bad.” The TC grunts were packing up, although they had stopped shooting constantly a while back. Mostly just hanging out with each other and shooting the shit.

But I was absolutely drilling the targets. Pushing myself to move as fast as I could to get every target hit as soon as they popped up. If my shoulders were still meat they would be sore from handling the recoil and holding the rifle straight.

“Thanks.” I called back in return but didn’t stop my single minded task.

“Hah. You ever thought about joining up with the Tygers kid? You certainly got the ferocity for it.” One of the men asked, having moved behind me to watch, as the other two packed up.

“My brother is The Oni of the Kamikaze. Fujimura has been trying to get me in for a while.” I answered. I wanted to be clear where I stood.

I didn’t really like having an adult standing right behind me like this, and I was in no mood to kill a bunch of grunts if I could just throw Juns name around.

“Hoh! You’re the Onryo!” Another of the men suddenly called out and I nearly jerked my gun. Quickly I lowered my weapon and then looked at the bastards.

“What did you just call me!?”

“Onryo! I heard that rumor. When the Kamikaze were cleaning up the Scavs they kept hitting dens that were already trashed.” The man walked over and nodded to me showing me real respect. “A choom of mine is one of Fujimura-Sama’s gunmen. He worked with your brother that night. Told me they hit a few dens that were already cleared out, charnel houses of Scavs cut to pieces.”

I winced a bit as I remembered just how messy I had gotten that night with my blade. The Thermal Katana does a good job keeping me from getting covered in blood as it cauterized most of the cut as I made it.

But I had still been rough and quick. Half the cuts had been tearing the Scavs in half. My Thermal Katana was meant for fighting borgs and armored enemies after all.

“So that was you huh? Damn. You certainly don’t look like an Onryo, but I just saw that shooting you were doing. Nasty trigger time there. If you are even half as good with a blade I could see you earning that nickname.”

“I already have a nickname. It’s Ghost.” I grumbled, Fucking Onryo is dumb!

“Well there you go. Onryo is a ghost, so it fits just fine. More Claws like anyways. Look at your brother, we aren't calling him the ogre!”

“It would be less cringe if you did.” I muttered but thankfully none of the men heard my whispered grumbles.

“Well. We won’t hold you up Onryo. Good shooting.” they offered and I opened my mouth to argue that wasn’t my nickname, but they weren’t listening.

I turned insta raised my Copperhead and started firing.

The only way to make this better was more XP.

—--

I got home and instantly took my equipment to my room for cleaning and going over. I pulled open my Silencer to check on the electronics and winced.

Yep. That was some melted wires.

I ended up pulling out the entire baffler and after a few minutes of messing around replaced the wiring with a more heat resistant wire.

But that still left the main electronics board that was getting some heat scoring.

So I pushed the entire Silencer into my Printer to be eaten up and went to work on a different design. This one with a slightly longer profile. More of a rectangle, with some actual heat sinks scored into it, so that it can displace the heat a bit more.

I mean, it wasn’t as necessary, it wasn't like I would be firing my silenced pistol hundreds of rounds in a single fight, but… But if I could design the Silencer to have a bit of endurance, I wouldn’t have to worry about replacing it constantly.

Besides, it was kind of fun!

It didn’t take me long to make the changes in CAD and upload it into the printer, and with a bit more metals to feed the build, I set it to construct. Finished cleaning the Lexington and my Copperhead and then decided it was time to get a meal.

I was unpackaging a fried noodle dish I had grabbed from a cart downstairs and was back on the couch when the door opened.

I relaxed from nearly quick drawing seeing it was just Jun and Akari again, both of whom looked tired and worn out, and about half way to crashing.

“Okay what is up with you two? Who died?” I demanded standing up on the couch and pointing.

“About five of my men.” Akari answered instantly and Jun jostled her to get her to stop talking.

“Oh.”