Ghost in the City

I slept a full eight hours after that. Woke up to a warm sunrise over Night City that I could only just see outside the apartment window. Did the normal morning things. Had breakfast, watched TV, realized NC TV still sucked and in the end just didn’t do anything serious.

And in the end I was rewarded! Hiromi called asking if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Giving me something to do other than be lazy around the apartment.

Turns out she meant for us to meet up on her lunch break from the academy, but I wasn’t going to complain. Because Hiromi had a surprise when I picked her up!

I pulled in across from Arasaka Academy into a waiting area, and idled while waiting for HIromi to show up, that I was actually surprised when someone walked up to the car and only when I noticed her did she strike a pose.

Hiromi had chipped in some chrome!

She had new optics. It was the thing that caught my eye, as they were glowing in a hypnotic swirl of colors although mostly her eyes remained a neon green. Her favorite color. I was staring as she slipped into the Quadra. My scan was blocked as I was so interested in what she had chipped in. High end Arasaka Optics for sure, stuff that competes with Kiroshi definitely.

She also had some changes to her EMP threading as well, and her Neon makeup.

The threading was darker now. My previous assumption that I would end up with Goth Hiromi had been fairly accurate, as the lines were now a more matte black to match her other new chrome. She definitely had some sort of hand chrome now, with all the black plastic and metal that wrapped around her fingers and a bit over her knuckles.

“Preem chrome Hiromi.” I finally said after checking out all the changes for a moment and I could tell she was preening under the attention.

“Oh these little things? Nothing big. Just some minor changes!” She faux played down her changes and I couldn’t help but giggle at her attempts.

“How’s it all feel? Any issues?”

“No, it’s no big.” She denied instantly, but I wasn’t going to let it go with just that. I reached over and grabbed her hand with mine partially to catch her attention and also to examine the new chrome.

“If you ever have trouble. It’s not something to be ashamed of. My arms gave me trouble and I’m glad I talked to people about it.” I told her, eyes meeting her own and I could see the swirl of colors in them shift suddenly even faster.

“Bwuh! It’s fine! Minor alterations for the most part! Most of it is just some upgrades you know, new eyes with better scans, and some hand chrome that will help as an Arasaka goon… Executive. I should probably stop saying that.” She muttered and I laughed at her as she blushed a little.

I reached out then, tracing a finger down the dark EMP threading going along her cheek. “No more kitty whiskers huh?”

She was flushing a lot at me pointing out her old aesthetic. “It just felt childish! So I changed a little!... It looks okay?”

“Yeah, it’s preem! I like Goth Hiromi. She’s cute.”

“G-goth? What the hell is that?” Hiromi asked, and I had a moment of complete brain shut down.

Goth wasn’t a thing!?

“It’s… A thing. With stuff? Anyway! You look cute! I always did like the Arasaka aesthetic to be honest.” I told her, and while she didn’t look like she was going to let it go, she did preen again under my words.

“Well good! C’mon let’s get some food. I only have so long for a lunch break… So thanks for coming to pick me up. I wanted to see yo- to show off my new chrome!”

I nodded quickly, pulling out of the little park and really just heading a bit down the street to an area with some food shops. “The chrome is absolutely preem.” I continued to assure her as we pulled in and took a few minutes to order.

I ended up eating some weird fancy wrap thing. It had.. Lettuce? No I’m pretty sure that wasn’t actually lettuce but I was pretending. Really hard.

Thankfully Hiromi wasn’t just wanting to show off her chrome, and was distracting me.

“It’s so boring Motoko!” She whined as she stuffed her own wrap in her face as she sat with me in the Quadra.

“School is important.”

“I know! It doesn’t make it any less boring though.” She grumbled. “I saw your newest BD.” She said suddenly and I jerked as I realized the last BD I had dropped had been ‘that’ one.

“O-oh. You okay? It didn’t make you sick or anything right?”

“What? C’mon Motoko. I don’t entirely get why you hang out with the Mox, but Judy is definitely a Maestro when it comes to tuning BD’s no way I would get sick. It was fucking preem though. That first drop? I felt like my stomach was going out of my throat, but you just hit the ground in a roll and were off.” Hiromi made a few punching motions with her fists.

I didn’t really know what to say as I was a little embarrassed at how brutal that particular engagement had been. “It didn’t bother you? The whole…” I rolled my wrist as I couldn’t find the word.

“No way! It was exciting, and knowing it was you behind it all only made it way more preem.” She assured me. “I see why you wrote that song though. It really did fit way better with the action.”

“Ah… Yeah. It’s meant to be a song that plays during a brutal fight.” I muttered a little embarrassed that Hiromi had actually seen it!

She wasn’t supposed to see it!

“It was very preem, it’s getting super popular. All the rich kids are buying it. This one had so much brutality even the normal XBD watchers wanted it.” She informed me as she took another bite of her wrap. “The Only Thing They Fear is You. Preem title. That’s the name of your song?”

“Yeah… Yeah that’s the name of the song. It’s not too weird?” Ah! I was right! It was so awkward having my bestie see that BD! I shouldn’t have made it! Stupid past Motoko!

“Not at all! A lot of XBD’s have weird names! Seriously, I've handled so many weird BD’s over the last couple weeks. I only agreed to help Nox sell to the academy kids so I could make sure everyone could see your preem BD’s. But I’ve had to deal with a lot of trash. I even had to do a hostile takeover of this street kid that goes to the academy. He was selling stuff, but he was selling the BD’s like some weird corner hawker.”

“Wait. Some kid was selling BD’s in the academy?” And why did that sound familiar? I asked myself already knowing the answer.

“Yeah. Some street kid that got in on grades. Which is totally weird by the way. Anyway, you’d think some smart kid would know how to sell BD’s but he was hawking them like a back alley dealer. Barely anyone bought from him. I took his little attempt and turned it into an actual business.” She said flipping her hair with one hand.

“That’s really impressive Hiromi!” I chirped and I could see her face go red at my compliment even if she side eyed me a bit to make sure I was actually being sincere. Which I was.

I couldn’t set up a business like that.

“Ugh! I can’t look at you with your dopey smile! I have to get back to class anyways. Thanks. Motoko. For coming to spend time with me.” She said as she slipped out of the Quadra with a wave and then a little jog to run back to the academy.

I just laughed at her fleeing form as I started the car and pulled out of the little parking the food shops had.

It was too bad. I was pretty sure the kid Hiromi had taken over the BD business from was David. I still wanted to meet the gonk.

Eh, someday, I decided.

—--

“Heeey Rita.” I called, drawling out the greeting a bit at the look the older woman gave me.

“Give me one reason I should ever let you inside again?” She asked, arms crossing over her chest.

“Cause. I’m super duper sorry about causing trouble! It won’t happen again… I uh. Don’t drink for a reason you know?”

Rita kept the unamused look on her face for quite a while before finally it cracked and she laughed at me.

“Well at least a little trash dive hasn’t hurt your ego too badly.”

“Nah I’m okay… I only kinda remember that night. So I guess V and I singing on the table was causing some problems?”

“Oh please, that's barely a problem. The issue is you hacked our music system to play Samurai music on repeat. Judy had to come up and reset the whole thing to stop the ten thousand repeats of Never Fade Away.”

“Ooh. I don’t remember that… Sorry.”

Rita huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky we owe you one. Just don’t do it again.”

“Deal.” I agreed and Rita nodded, making a motion that I could enter, but I just blinked at her. “Oh I’m not here to party or something. I just knew I should apologize for causing trouble.” I said and Rita looked at me.

I looked at her.

She blinked.

I blinked.

“You came here to apologize… To me?”

“Well yeah! I caused you trouble! You even had to throw me out of the club… Drunk Motoko can’t have been easy to deal with.”

“You were actually docile once I got you off the table. I just had to tell you you were in trouble and you were kinda blubbering and going along with it.”

“I definitely didn’t blubber!”

“Can you say that for sure?” She asked and I had no real response to that one.

I huffed in outrage and Rita once again broke out into laughter. “So what are you doing just coming by?”

“Mostly! I just stopped to see Hiromi on her lunch break, and I don’t have any gigs or anything for the day.”

“In that case why don’t you come hang with me. I’m getting off soon. You can show me how far you’ve come with your hobby.”

“Oh that’s right! I do owe you for that… Why don’t you come to my place then! I can show you my music box! I just finished a few songs!”

Rita blinked and then seemed utterly amused at my offer bursting into a full body laugh. “Sure Motoko I’ll come over to your house and play.” She said cracking up.

I just pouted at her, because that’s not what I said!

—--

“Welcome to my home!” I introduced with a wave at the apartment for Rita.

“Huh.” She commented looking over all my junk still left out on the living room table.

“D-don’t just huh! Sorry about the mess though.” I muttered a little embarrassed. Dangit Rita was a cool older woman! It wasn’t fair that my place was a little messy! Dangit Jun! Aren’t you the responsible one!?

No wait. He almost went full Cyberpsycho.

I was the responsible one.

Fuck no wonder our apartment was a damn mess. No one should trust me with responsibility!

I shook off that horror filled realization as I gestured for Rita to take the couch.

“Want anything to drink? Eat?”

“I’m good Motoko. I had a lunch break about an hour before you showed up. So this is where you’ve been working on your hobby?”

“Yeah! Mostly! I mean. I could probably go find a better place for acoustics, but I’m using a high end mic I picked up for the vocals, and the rest of the tracks are recorded digitally, so I can tweak them if they sound off… Do you want to hear?”

Rita settled on the couch and gave me one of those cool smirks that told me she was totally humoring me!

I was just gonna have to blow her socks off!

I went over to my music box and took it from the living room table to set it on the floor and set up the song I was gonna play.

Then I grabbed my guitar. Doing a few test chords to make sure it was ready.

One good thing about the new guitars, no need to tune the strings. It was a digital guitar after all.

“So this is called Smells like Teen Spirit.” I told her and she huffed a bit at the name but I pulled my Personal Link cord out of the back of my neck and slotted it into the music box behind me, and started the song.

Instantly behind me two holograms slowly came together, obviously surprising Rita, as I went into the stuttered chords of the intro.

“Load up on guns, bring your friends.” I crooned the intro to the song, my voice wasn’t quite the honey of Cobain, but I could make it a more similar sultry croon with Sexy Motoko Voice!

And I jammed out. A one woman band. Showing off to the person to originally give me the idea to find a hobby.

“A denial.” I ended the last lyric letting the guitar finish humming out the final chord.

Then silence. The holograms that had been jamming out behind me went out leaving the room how it was before I started.

“So… What do you think?” I asked the woman. Rita’s face had gone kinda blank middle way through the song.

“I think that’s a bit further along than a hobby.” She said honestly.

I didn’t really know how to take that, so I just sort of smiled and probably looked a little uncomfortable.

“You got talent Motoko. I’m really impressed. I’ve never heard that song before either.”

“Ah. I like it.” I said, I never was very comfortable with taking credit for work others had done. Even if they didn’t exist in this world.

“I do too. It’s got a certain flair. Maybe we’ll have you come in and play at Lizzies.”

“No way!” I denied instantly. “I’m not interested in live shows like that! It would be so embarrassing if I messed up.”

“Pfft. You’re adorable kid.” Rita said, laughing at me! How mean!

I was definitely going to come up with an amazing retort and make Rita apologize when the door opened.

“Thought that was you playing.” Jun said as he meandered in looking tired.

“Jun-Nii!” I greeted, but there was a sudden tenseness in the atmosphere as the two older people noticed each other.

Rita was Mox, and Mox were not exactly on good terms with the TC.

“Oni.” Rita finally broke the silence. A simple greeting but using Jun’s work name. What is up with that? Does everyone know who he is now? How come they know who he is, but not me? This is unfair!

“Bouncer.” He greeted back, without any additions.

“Awkward.” I broke in instantly, cutting out the tension.

“Rita, this is Jun my older brother, Jun this is Rita, she’s the one that helped me start looking for a hobby, so I owe all the music stuff I’ve been working on to her. I brought her over to show her a song I wrote as a thank you.”

Jun blinked, seemingly stepping back from the semi-hostile edge.

“Motoko’s a bit of a gonk, but thanks for looking out for her. I know it’s not always easy.”

Rita took in Jun’s words and just shrugged, seeming to relax a little. “I’m used to helping out with the younger girls. Motoko’s no trouble… When she isn’t standing on a table and drunk singing her heart out.”

Jun blinked before a smirk popped across his lips. “She didn’t share that story. I’ll have to get it out of her sometime.”

“Rita! You aren’t supposed to share that!” But they both just ignored my offense. Jun wasn’t supposed to know I got drunk and thrown out of the bar! He would never let me live it down!

“Any of Motoko’s chooms are welcome.” Jun said breaking up the fact they were ignoring me by then patting me on the head as he moved past. “I was just bringing some food home, hungry?”

“No, but thanks.” Rita said back, sounding much more relaxed.

“Well if you need anything let me know. Motoko. You finished a new song? I want to hear.” He demanded and I glared at him Jun was up to something!

I knew that look on his face, the one where he got all smirky and pushed his chin up like he was looking down at me!

“Nope. You don’t get to hear my awesome cool new song.”

“Well that’s a shame. Rita right? What’s this about Motoko drunk singing-?”

“Right! A new song I finished Jun-Nii! Why don’t you just take a seat for the full experience and no talking while I sing! In fact no talking at all! Ever!” I demanded, forced to switch gears at my brothers evil vile blackmail!

—--

Despite my best attempts once I finished off my second rendition of Smells like Teen Spirit. Jun and Rita still got to talking about their one and only shared point.

“So she was dancing on the table?”

“With V, a corpo woman that comes in from time to time. Never seen her get so wild either.”

“It’s all Jackies fault!” I groaned into my hands, and Jun laughed at me, openly amused at hearing about my drunk escapades.

“I wish I had been there now.” He said with a sigh and Rita chuckled at the two of us as I glared at Jun in return.

“Well now that you both have had so much fun making fun of me! I’m gonna go hang out with cool people!” I told them both as I rose up and settled my guitar back on the stand and the Music box back off the floor.

Really didn’t want to deal with someone kicking it on accident. Especially since the only person likely to do that was Jun, and his stupid borg feet.

“C’mon now ‘Toko. It’s just a little teasing.” Rita said, while still laughing at me, so I didn’t give her the benefit of a response, just a huff as I crossed my arms and walked into the kitchen with all my dignity.

“Bathroom!” I retorted as I did just that, going into the bathroom to give myself some space and hopefully have the topic change when I came out. No fair for Rita and Jun to both pick on me!. I was just finishing up when I heard it.

A laugh.

No. That wasn’t a laugh. A laugh is more Hahaha. This was more. Tehehe!

That was a fucking giggle!

I poked my head out of the bathroom to peer into the living room with my wide eyes demanding explanations, because that was Rita.

Rita. Mox Bouncer badass, and all around scary woman, giggling like a schoolgirl with my brother.

It was impossible.

I refused to believe it, but my lying eyes showed me the truth.

Did… Did Jun have game? Was he actually good with women?

Because I was seeing my brother. The TC enforcer, flirting with the Mox Bouncer.

He must have scored some sort of critical. Because I refuse to believe my burrito obsessed brother who likes garbage like the Us Cracks actually has game!

“Uh. Motoko. What’s gotten into you?” Jun asked suddenly as he caught sight of my staring.

“Nothing.” I said firmly but I didn’t move my eyes. Instead I was kept them wide and locked on Jun and Rita. Refusing to accept what I was seeing. As I stayed half poking out over the kitchen counter.

Rita caught it after a moment. And I got to see the delightful look of the womans plastic looking Real Skinn flush a little in an actual blush.

“I should get going.” She said then to both Jun and I’s surprise.

“You don’t have to!” I argued.

“There isn’t a rush.” Jun said much calmer than my own response. “Don’t mind Motoko. She’s always like this. She’s probably just planning some petty revenge.”

“Petty!?”

“No. I appreciate the offer, and the show Motoko, but I should get out of here… This was a surprise, but a good one.” She finally said looking to Jun, and if I wasn’t a super secret mega hacker…

And the fact I had totally breached into Jun’s agent forever ago… Mostly for fun. Mostly.

Well I caught the shared deets.

Rita… Rita just gave him her number.

Jun looked as gobsmacked as I was as Rita flashed him a smirk, and then looked to me. “See ya around Motoko. Keep practicing. I want to see you up on stage someday.” She offered as she walked out of the apartment.

“Wait what ju-” Jun’s question was cut off as I leapt on him wrapping myself around his head and squeezing.

“WAS THIS THE IDIOT FLIRTING WITH GIRLS UNDER MY ROOF!?” I yelled, probably loud enough Rita would still catch it.

Details.

“I wasn’t flirting!” Jun yelped in surprise as he quickly startled wrestling me off him, unfortunately he was still much stronger than me, and he was getting used to my holds at this point. “Was I?” He asked himself after finally pinning me down.

“Gonk.”

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