Chapter 71

Chapter 71

Ichinose

He wasnt sure what he was expecting when he slotted the BD in the wreath.

So he settled in and put the wreath on his head and fell into the braindance.

As he opened his eyes to the sights within the BD, he noticed it instantly. The feel of his body following along in Motokos footsteps was certainly

Different.

He had known the girl was off. He had known it since the first time he had met her again after the coma.

Normally he wouldnt have started some random BD handed out by a Mox, but there had always been that question.

How?

How did Motoko do what she did? How had she gone from the punk TC brat to what she was now?

He blinked as he felt himself take a deep breath and everything became

Sure.

There was no hesitation, no fear. He was jogging down a familiar alley, he had parked his truck right there, to load up stuff. But this wasnt after the raid. It was before. He walked up to the back door of the den, he felt himself quickly open the door without hesitation.

Then he was in. He snuck through the small vehicle garage checking the windows and noticing the scavs hanging around.

Still alive at this point, but none noticed as he walked through the room.

It was a little startling to remember that soon enough all of them would be dead.

He moved up the stairway, his feet not making a sound despite the fact he knew Motoko didnt have a Lynx Paw. She was just that quiet. The pull of the muscles in his leg so foreign as he moved just so, to reduce any noise of his boots hitting the metal steps.

He knew he would have shivered, but he didnt. There was no fear. No hesitation. Just a simple calculus. A confidence that he had a gig to complete, and people to flatline, but first he needed info. He followed in her footsteps around as he checked two closets, both full of junk some of which he had helped steal later, watched as he competently breached through the building's security system.

While he followed the movement, the actions. The actual knowledge of what Motoko had just done was beyond him.

Then, the room lit up. He could see them. Again Ichi wanted to gasp, but there was only ice in his veins, as he looked around. No, as Motoko looked around.

The ray of light leading to every Scav in the building.

Wow. He wanted to pause the BD there, just to look at it, he had never seen this himself. It was something new. Something Kinda preem. But he felt little as Motoko kept moving, walking the catwalk above the scavs without fear looking down on them, and he could practically feel the sinister amusement of her plans to murder them.

Of his plans.

He felt the confusion and then disgust as he watched a scav fail at a game.

Wow Motoko. That was kinda harsh, that game wasnt easy.

And then he felt her confidence as he moved leaping over the edge, in a move that should have caused his heart to flip flop.

Instead he felt pure confidence, landing with barely a scuff against the concrete in a low crouch all four limbs spread to reduce the impact. Then he was downstairs, but Ichi was backseating, as Motoko went through the computer gathering information checking an email that confirmed that Ripper knew exactly what was happening in his clinic, and then he smirked, did some more netrunning stuff that Ichi couldnt follow and turned right around.

A few moments later everything froze. It felt like his chest couldnt move without choice, like everything was completely 100% under his control.

But it wasnt him in control, it was Motoko. He moved and the scavs died, he felt nothing as he cleaved through them, knife cutting and ripping and when it was all done he pushed himself off the Scav he had just watched die face to face, and he felt.

Confident. Powerful.

This was Motoko? This was the girl that acted like a gonk half the time, and the other half like a cold blooded high end merc?

He was so shocked he could barely pay attention as Motoko moved him back down and then up into the rippers shop.

Hiromi and his face were blurred out as she confronted Charles. As he simply killed him, no fear or wavering, just a faint feeling of assurance. Of knowing he was doing the right thing.

And the BD ended, and Ichi gasped, pulling the wreath from his face as he suddenly felt his own body again, and the lack of that pure control left an almost palpable sense of wrongness as he reached for his beer and took a swig.

His heart was suddenly racing, as the Icy control was gone.

Malcolm beside him was doing something similar to him, his face telling a story.

So what do you think? Was the BD good? I never actually watched it after Judy did her editing. Did you like it? Motoko intruded into his space, asking while sounding almost a little shy.

Ichi opened his mouth and then closed it. What was he supposed to say to Motoko? His choom? His sorta boss?

That she scared the shit out of him? That he felt like his body was wrong, and he wanted to puke a little.

That he now understood why she didnt hesitate to solo a scav den, because they were never a threat to her?

It was cool. He said instead. Her little joke with the word the only thing he could think of.

Thankfully it seemed to satisfy her, with the way her face broke out into a happy smile.

Fuck she confused him.

--

I waved goodbye to my chooms. It was getting late, and both Malcolm and Ichi had been a little twitchy since leaving the BD.

I guess murder was still a bit too much for my chooms.

Anyways! At least Nox was happy! The Scav Den BD had apparently been super popular.

Lots of people had lost someone to scavs. Being able to watch a bunch of them get murdered? Apparently it was very cathartic.

But it was time for more net diving.

A short drive later I was sliding into my netrunner suit and plugging everything in.

Time to get some training!

The blur of awareness as I switched from reality to the net only lasted a moment, and then I was there, once more in the ethereal neon city.

This time it only took a moment for me to jump straight to the Dewdrop Inn server, since I had the IP. A momentary blur of fast travel, and I was there walking up to the roundabout.

I bypassed the netrunners outside and went straight for the club. Yoko would be inside.

The techno music, a rhapsody of all the noises a computer could make and more hit me as I entered but other than noting the song, and memorizing it. I ignored it.

Yoko was lazing in a private booth as I approached her, and her sensual smile was as dangerous as the woman herself.

Motoko, finally here?

I had some stuff to deal with, I spent some time with my chooms. But Im ready.

Excellent. You wanted this, don't forget. Come with me. She offered and another one of Yokos doors opened up beside her, she rose and walked through with me following.

Inside was just a large space, a lot of memory and data set aside on the server for it.

Alright. Lets get started then. She said and before a moment passed her tails twitched, and fire burst forth towards me.

The assault was something I recognized. It was a Breaching assault meant to burn through ICE to open up systems.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

I threw up a few of my ICE programs, before returning the assault with a Breach program, on my side a blade appeared beside me and shot off, rocketing right through the fire towards the Kitsune.

The sword was actually a representation of a hacking attempt. Seriously, Netrunning was so weird!

It stopped cold. A stone statue appeared in front of Yoko. It was a Komainu? The Lion dogs statues you would see around Japanese Shrines.

Yoko really stuck to her aesthetic.

I could respect it!

They were basically a form of ICE. Very tough stuff.

The fight continued. My agreement with Yoko had a few factors, the most obvious was information. Guidance, on the rules of the net, basic net culture and the like which we could cover mostly just by talking, but that was only part of it.

More importantly, I had asked her to fight me, hit me with everything she had so I could learn to react to combat on the net.

I had the instincts thanks to my skills. Quick Hack, and Breach both filled part of Netrunning combat, but having the instincts and knowledge was one thing. Doing was another.

She was going easy on me. I could tell, just her Cyberdeck alone would be a high end system because she was able to throw up multiple heavy RAM usage hacks back to back, while I had to rely on ICE shields to hold back her assault while my Cyberdeck did its best to keep up with my requests.

But I was learning.

So, so so so much!

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

I groaned and stretched as I sat up. Back in reality with all that entailed.

While I had a few moments of quiet I pulled open my stat screen and checked my perks.

I remember the last time I had looked at my Quick Hack perks I had mainly been focused on game stuff.

A perk to make quick hacking upload faster. A perk to make my Cyberdecks RAM restore faster.

In fantasy terms, the perks would let me cast spells faster, and let my mana regenerate quicker.

But Ive learned a lot since then. I had been wise enough to pick the defensive perk last time. The knowledge of how to defend myself had probably helped a lot even before this training with Yoko.

But I had gained a lot of awareness of what was useful.

So instead I started searching for something else.

And then I found it.

Hacking Wizard. Upload multiple Quick Hacks at the same time, to one or more targets.

I selected the perk without another moment's hesitation and shuddered as the knowledge slipped in. It wasnt an immense amount of knowledge.

It wasnt the plans for a program, or anything like that.

It was pure mathematics and multitasking.

It would more than double the RAM usage if I tried to send two hacks or more at once, but in the end, if I was in an emergency I could inundate someone with multiple Quick Hacks all at once, a surprise assault.

Or, I could use a Quickhack multiple times to target multiple people.

With the knowledge that some of the higher quality hacks could already spread through a crowd?

I could do multiple waves of net assaults on anyone that pissed me off!

Yeah, as always, perks were OP. Plz dont nerf. Too much fun!

I giggled as I rested back on the chair feeling lazy enough I didnt want to unplug everything right away

I sent a message to Jun letting him know I was gonna sleep in my new place, and decided to enjoy eight hours of sleep.

--

The next morning I went home for a shower and general cleanliness issues, stepping out of my room wearing a clean leotard and patting down my damp hair. I noticed my mess of stuff still all over the living room.

Ugh. I whined but nodded realizing that I really needed to do some cleanup. I wandered around picking things up and settling them into my room, basically packing away all my little projects so I could still get to them, but so they wouldnt clog the entire living room table.

Patting my HMG on my way back out of my room I looked over the

Cleaner? Tidier? Living room.

It was better, I would take it.

I settled in and reached over for my guitar, but before I started playing, I did something I should have done last night. I opened up my screen, and I slipped another stat point into Adaptation, and the feelings the sense of touch and proprioception that my arms gave me seemed to jerk a little as I realized the sense of touch had been just a tad off.

But it was better now! Of course before I could go down the road of playing with my sense of touch I noticed my stat screen.

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 4/8*

Wait.

WAIT.

When did my adaptation requirement go down!?

It used to be out of ten! I stared at it for a while without any point coming to mind and ended up just shrugging. I would have to keep a closer eye on it, but it was Interesting, that it could lower the max. I guess I had been mentally adjusting to the chrome pretty well over time.

My new sense of touch on the strings of my guitar had me smiling as it distracted me, and I strummed a chord.

Instantly a song slipped into my brain, and I started strumming the notes.

Shes so cold and human. I sang along to Lithium Flower.

It figured if I was going to play a song I should play a Major Motoko Kusanagi Theme.

The sound was different from my normal music preferences, but I jammed out to it, enjoying the way my chrome hands had no difficulty hitting the notes, that the song came out sounding good. My voice crooning alongside.

Yeah, this was fun.

Sure Night City was a nightmare. Sure I knew someday someone I knew would die. One of my chooms would end up murdered by the city. Because this city murdered everyone eventually.

But until then I couldnt help but admit. I loved it here.

I want to go surfing with her! I sang the last lyrics trailing off as I finished the last refrain.

I sighed when I finished.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

Alright Motoko. Pick a problem to solve today. I told myself.

I had so much that needed to be done.

I wanted to finish my Music box. Which meant Programming and Tech grinds.

I wanted to hunt more scavs. Which would bring in eddies to me and my crew, and potentially new chrome.

I should try to help the SLS guys with a gig, which meant information. Which meant I needed to dive into the net again.

I wanted to hang out with Jackie again. Had he still not finished that Gig Wakako gave him? Very disappointing Jackie. I might actually have to step in.

I still had other projects I wanted to get started on as well. My future desire for a Tachikoma to complete the cospla-I mean, for help on gigs. I had even taken the Robotics perk and never got to use it. Because robots were hard.

I also wanted to just hang out with my chooms, the other night was fun, and Hiromi had gotten left out.

Plus there was so much more to do!

As annoying as it was to have a bit of choice paralysis, the fact I could do all of them just given time meant it wasnt exhausting or making me angry. Instead it was just

Which did I want to do first?

Well considering I wasnt sure

I made a call.

*Motoko.*

*Wakako! Hows it going? Thanks again for the help, that netrunner gear is coming in super handy.* I told her cheerfully.

*Good. I hear you took over the street gang as well.*

*Eh that was more Hiromis doing. Im just glad I didnt have to kill a bunch of gonk kids.*

*Hmm. Well having lines you dont cross is fine, as long as you dont ruin a gig because of them. I take it by your call that you are looking for more work?*

*Not directly. Hows Jackie Wells doing? I expected him to have finished up by now.*

Wakako actually sighed over the line and there was silence for a moment.

I just knew she had lit up a cigarette and was preparing to complain.

*The boy is too cautious. The gig is still open, and nothing has been done that I have seen.*

*Want me to go poke him?* I asked and the line was silent for a minute.

*I will not pay you for completing someone elses gig.*

*Not something Im worried about. Besides, I told you before. Jackie has some talent as a good bruiser. I could use someone like that on my gigs. Me helping him out now will be a good foot in the door to convincing him to work with me in the future.*

*Very well. Ill send the details of the gig to you. Handle it however you want.*

*Thanks Wakako* And she already hung up. I said, realizing my agent was quiet.

Wakako you bitch!

Its called a goodbye! Would it kill you to say it every once in a while?

But a moment later I got a beep as a text message. Directly from Wakako. It was basically a copy of a message she had sent to Jackie Wells.

I read through the notes and I realized pretty quickly what was causing the hold up.

Jackie would definitely need some help on this gig.