Ghost in the City

Hiromi Mitsunashi

“So treat Motoko as if she was me.” Hiromi added with a glare. To find her Motoko sitting on a bench besides Martinez of all people! Martinez who even Hiromi could admit was good looking and had a tendency to attract attention even from the other corpo girls! Not that any of them allowed themselves time with a boy with no future.

Martinez was smart. Too smart. Martinez was also poor. Too poor.

“Yeah, I got it. She’s the Ghost! I can’t believe I actually met the Ghost, and she’s a teenager too?” Martinez still looked a little bewildered, and awed at the sudden meeting, something Hiromi could only accept.

Motoko had that effect on her-People. Motoko had that effect on people. Especially when she was being all cuddly and leaned in close with a smile, and she was sure that Motoko was going to press her lip-”Buee!” she nearly squealed, shaking her head and pressing her cool fingers against her cheeks to try and cool off.

Motoko was too strong!

“Hiromi?”

“It’s still Boss, Martinez.” She didn’t quite snap, but reminded him. It was important to make sure underlings understood their positions in any company.

“Sure. Boss.” He responded full of sarcasm.

Martinez was… a difficult underling. Some days he was completely out of sync, almost depressed, some days he was snarky, and those were the days that got him in trouble with the rest of the class.

Hiromi didn’t care though, because Martinez was a good salesman once she had gotten him to stop trying to sell BD’s out of dark corners, and constantly looking around like the NCPD were coming to collect his stock.

Fucking gonk. This was Arasaka Academy. There were no teachers or staff here that would disrupt a small business! We were the future of Arasaka NC! Of course we had to understand how businesses functioned, including success and failure.

Everyone had thought he was doing something creepy while selling his BD’s so despite having pretty good stock through his old source he had barely managed any sales.

Cause Martinez was the dumbest smart person Hiromi had ever met.

He had zero street smarts. Which was really shocking for a kid that was so poor.

Hiromi had only had to see Mrs. Martinez once, to understand though.

David was fucking spoiled.

If Hiromi’s mother acted even half as affectionate as Gloria Martinez, Hiromi was sure she would have died in embarrassment.

“Remember the eddies Martinez. Now. I have work to do. Excuse me.” She added and the mention of money jerked the boy's spine right up. Sure Martinez was a moody kid, but well…

Eddies got him nice and compliant.

It was chump change honestly. Even without Section 9’s cash flow the money for the BD’s and XBD’s was literally pocket change, but for Martinez?

It meant he had pocket change for a change, and Hiromi was very free with employee percentages.

Right now her goal wasn’t to pull every eddy to profit, but to expand.

Martinez was a part of it. Covering Arasaka Academy from the inside.

Nox was another, as both supplier of the Mox collection, as well as a pseudo partner, although she had long ago taken over the leadership position.

He still griped about it, but only until the weekly profits came in. That always shut him up.

Straight Lane Shooters acting as a third connection to her burgeoning XBD empire. The gang was still working on their income streams, but Hiromi had cut them in. Letting them sell her stock for a majority of the profit in exchange for another benefit.

Hustle. Hired Muscle.

Nox often had two of the bigger SLS boys guarding his ass, and it had worked extremely well.

The SLS were expanding in their area, not through hostile acts, but through being a supplier of easy entertainment.

Hiromi had even set up a local net site, where customers could order over the Citinet, and a SLS boy would drop off their desired BD’s right to their door!

Considering how many BD Junkies there were in NC? Oh yeah. Every new customer was a nice bundle of eddies on the weekly.

And all of the revenue streams zipped up the tree right into her hands.

“Heh… Hehehehehehe!” She burst in laughter at how well everything was going. Hiromi had used to think corpo shit like this had been boring, but that was before she had created a company underneath her!

Well her and Motoko, and even Malcolm and Ichi. In her mind the two boys were sub leaders more than anything.

Motoko of course was co-leader. Hiromi might be proud of her work building income streams, but Motoko is the one that made it all happen. That and the real income was from Section 9 duty, and Motoko was undoubtedly in charge there.

Ah! The sight of Motoko being all serious, and deadly serious, and utterly utterly lethal…

Hiromi cooled her cheeks once again. Hiromi had once been interested in Jun a little. Enough at least to use him to tease Motoko. Enjoying how the girl had always become outraged that Hiromi flirted with her older brother. Well before the coma anyways. Afterwards she hadn’t cared at all that Hiromi tried to flirt with Jun.

But Hiromi hadn’t needed to feign interest in the dangerous gangster boy. Not when Motoko had turned herself into such a deadly woman.

Hiromi still checked every Motoko BD, and was still thrilled every time at the casual lethal grace Motoko now moved with.

You wouldn’t notice it at first, or at least she hadn’t, but feeling every muscle shift and move as Motoko scaled a wall, or battered scavs to death was an intimate experience.

“Mistunashi.” A voice interrupted her daydream and she scowled.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s you Tanaka.” She confirmed. The boy wasn’t someone Hiromi usually would have needed to interact with. Being a year ahead of her, same as Martinez, but she had to for her employee.

That was how Hiromi had first interacted with Katsuo Tanaka. She almost wished she hadn’t had to.

“You’ve done an acceptable job handling Martinez. He hasn’t caused nearly as many issues since you took him under your wing. My congratulations.” The boy offered snootily, that ugly smirk on his face only making Hiromi want to punch him.

“What do you want Tanaka?” She demanded, not at all interested in dealing with this. Idly she reached up and adjusted her tie. The Arasaka academy uniform wasn’t the most comfortable thing. She almost envied Martinez and his casual disdain for dress code.

“Simply to request a meeting. Tonight? Dinner, my treat of course. Dark Matter? My father has an open pass of course. I figured we can discuss… Business.”

Hiromi was flabbergasted, caught completely flat footed.

“What?” She asked and then instantly shook her head, stupid question. “What are you talking about Tanaka, we don’t have any business together.”

“Not so. Not so. Father mentioned how impressed he was with your handling of the downed AV cargo. The fact you are already leading a mercenary strike team? When he heard that it was one of my peers. Well Father wanted us to have a closer relationship.”

You mean, your father realized how much of a disappointment you are for not being on my level. Was what Hiromi really wanted to say. To watch Tanaka crumble into the petulant child he really was.

The funny thing was, despite all the problems he gave David, Katsuo was one of the least respected members of the Academy.

He just couldn’t do anything without his father holding his hand.

“Listen. Tanaka. I’m busy with work, and I don’t have any interest in cutting you in, or joining up with you. You just don’t bring any value in my eyes for a merger.” Hiromi said, eyes looking down on the taller boy with every ounce of apathy she could bring.

Tanaka took it as well as he did any critique.

“You wannabe street rat bitch! You think I actually want to be around you? You stink like Martinez. My father was wrong. You have no value, and I’ll make sure you remember that!”

“Sure Tanaka. We done? Yes. We are.” She decided to not even give him the power to argue the point. She walked away.

She was surrounded by kids playing at being corpos. The thought made her scoff as she was practically one of them.

No way could Hiromi have done this without Motoko handling the difficult bits. But having valued personnel was a skill all on its own, something she had learned that had changed her world.

She might never rise as high as Tanaka in the company, because he would be pulled up by his father, but that was fine. Because Tanaka would never be more than just a company boy.

Hiromi? Hiromi would have her own assets, her own company, and her own projects. She would stay with Arasaka, but she wouldn’t be just another drone like Tanaka.

—--

We were hanging out on the couch together watching some TV, but it wasn’t a relaxing experience.

Jun wass purposefully ruffling the bag of ants! They were ants! Ants are ants! Not food! He was doing it just to watch me jerk away from them.

I didn’t even want to look at the damned things! They had been in my mouth! I now knew the texture of ants!

“Heh.” Jun chuckled as he grabbed a handful and tossed them into his mouth. He was doing it on purpose!

“I hate you.”

“Heh!”

I considered punching him, but Jun still had a nuclear weapon in his lap. What if… What if he chucked them at me or something!? I could get them in my hair! I don’t think I could mentally handle that!

So I just casually moved away from him, yep super casual. Not squirming and flinching at all. Nope!

“I’m gonna go do something! In my room!” I decided that a tactical retreat was in order and Jun just kept smirking at me as I flipped over the back of the couch, sliding into a tumble to let me land on my feet at my door.

Yep. Just going to avoid that whole thing.

Inside my room the Tachikoma piece was nearly finished, but I didn’t want to sit there and just look at it, so I grabbed my guitar and hooked it into my amp.

To get back at Jun just a little I belted into the opening strings to Chippin in.

Singing it at the top of my lungs just utterly belting it out made me feel better and probably annoyed Jun so there you go.

Then on my third repeat of the song my 3d printer finally finished, and I hurried over, quickly pulling out the piece of casing and putting in the feeder material for the next section, loading it up and then starting it up again.

Then because I wanted to be a little shit, I walked back to where I was grabbed my guitar and started the song back exactly where I had left off.

That finally got me a reaction.

“MOTOKO! CUT IT OUT!” Jun yelled from the living room, loud enough I could actually hear it over the song. That finally earned him some relief as I stopped playing and toned down the volume before jumping back into it, at a much more reasonable level.

I was trolling Jun, not trying to be an asshole.

But then as I was starting up, there was a knock on the door. None of my chooms were supposed to be coming over. I put the guitar down and grabbed my Lexington from the holster and met Jun who just rolled his eyes as he saw me come out of my room armed as he walked to the door.

At least grab the door gun Jun! The Tactician was for this exact thing!

But he ignored it and opened the door.

“Uh, hey.” Jun offered looking surprised and I concealed my lexington in the back of my pants as I wandered over to see.

“Hey neighbor. I was uh… Oh.” She remarked upon seeing me.

It was Rockerboy Neighbor. She was standing at the door, hand idly twirling a bit of her techhair that was flashing slowly to her heartbeat…

FLIRTING! RED ALERT!

I glared as I hurried over grabbing Jun’s arm and narrowing my eyes a bit at her.

“Can we help you?” I asked, making my point clear. She just looked a little awkward for a second before seeming to cool down and then flashed a smile.

“Hey I just heard you playing and stuff. Samurai? That’s nova, oldschool, but nova, we should jam sometime-” She started speaking and the moment I realized what she was going for, I instantly started laughing. Practically busting a gut because she hadn’t been looking at me while saying that.

Worse? Jun looked like someone had fed him something sour.

The look of confusion on the girls was great, and I just laughed and laughed in delight at the natural 1 she just rolled.

“I don’t play guitar.” Jun offered after a moment saving the girl a bit of confusion. “Motoko is nova though. She can play anything.”

I could see the flush go up the girl's pale cheeks at Jun’s statement, and even worse her cool confidence was a bit broken.

She had definitely come here for a chance to flirt with Jun about music.

“Motoko, it's rude to laugh at people.” Jun pointed out to me, because I was absolutely busting a gut.

I brought myself under control, as much as I wanted to just point at Jun and tell him the look on his face was forever my favorite thing. But instead I calmed down to just softer chuckles. “Sorry. Sorry. Yeah Jun.” I said getting myself under control.

I looked at the girl who looked a little lost and felt a bit bad.

She had been rude on our first meeting, but I could be the better person.

Besides that look of disgust on Jun’s face was never going to be forgotten. Mostly because I took a picture.

“That was you?” She finally asked and I nodded.

“Yeah Jun hates Samurai, so I was messing with him by playing it. Wanna jam together?” I asked, surprising the girl with my sudden offer.

“Oh? That would be nice, Motoko's never played with anyone else before.” Jun said, dropping one of his stupid big hands over the top of my head.

It took only half a second for the girl to realize that Jun was a good big brother, and that would be her way in.

“Preem. Sure, I have some time to jam a bit. Let me get my guitar.” She said walking away quickly, and I was pretty sure she needed a moment to reset her plan.

She had definitely come for Jun. I had no doubt she was going to want to play in front of Jun.

I rolled my eyes, silly Rockerboys.

Heading back to my room I grabbed my amp and equipment and hauled it out to the living room.

No way was I letting some random Rockerboy gonk in my room.

A minute later there was another knock at the door, and Jun answered it as I was setting up my stuff.

Rockerboy neighbor was there with a flirty smile for Jun.

“Huh. That’s not the Orphean you had at your gig.” I mentioned cutting in a bit. She was carrying an old beat up Washburn guitar.

She looked to me, and shook her head. “Course not. That’s not a guitar you use while playing around.”

“Gotcha! Well come on in, feel free to plug into the amp. Jun come sit!”

“Yeah yeah.” He muttered laughing as he walked over and flopped onto the couch, although since it was a big circle he had to sit sideways to see. Rockerboy neighbor instantly hurried over and plugged in, and the moment she did I could see she was actually plugged into the guitar as well. Her hair instantly shifted, and as she strummed a few chords to check the sound her hair shifted with her.

That was kinda nova. Should I get Tech Hair like that? Lucy had something like that too and I always thought it was cool.

I shook it off as she strummed a few chords and from the sound I knew she was all set.

So I instantly started into the intro to her own song. The one Violent Hemorrhage had opened their gig with although I didn’t know the name of it.

The look on her face as she jerked up at the sound as I played it perfectly made me smirk. I had to repeat the refrain twice before she shook herself loose and finally joined in.

Then we just jammed. I played the songs Violent Hemorrhage had played the night of their gig. Playing along from memory, and every time I kept up, Rockerboy neighbor looked more and more surprised.

Jun looked sort of meh about the song choices, but I could tell that she didn’t really notice that. Only that his attention was on her, and she strutted under my brother's eyes.

We took a break after a few songs and Jun was a good boy bringing both of us drinks.

“Thanks Jun.” I said as I drank my soda, while Rockerboy neighbor flirted, leaning in a bit as she took the drink.

“Yeah. Thanks.” She offered, and I think even Jun wasn’t dense enough not to notice that level of flirtation.

“Uh. Sure, anytime.” He offered back, and that only made the girl smirk even more wicked.

“So what’s… Okay seriously how do you know every song my band plays? You a super fan or something?”

“No? I saw you play a gig once. The songs were alright, not really my thing.” I admitted with a shrug. “I tend to like older rock more. Or more electronic stuff. I guess.”

“That’s…” She trailed off, glancing at Jun. Probably wondering how to call me a liar or something. It was pretty crazy.

“Motoko is a genius.” Jun said with a smile reaching out and ruffling my hair.

The girl looked like she wanted to argue. Which… Yeah I could feel that. I mean, I had just perfectly played her own songs having only heard them once?

Well I had heard them a few times vaguely, I supposed. She did practice in her apartment, but that was rarely clear enough to do more than vaguely recall the song she was playing.

But that brought me up to another issue.

“So what’s your name anyways?” I asked, and the girl nearly spewed her drink out as she was taking a drink as I asked.

“What you don’t know?”

“You never introduced yourself, and I only know you from the one time I heard you play.”

“Yeah but…” She shook her head. “Alice. Fujimura Alice.”

My eyes narrowed but Jun made an ‘ah’ noise as if it just dawned on him. “Fujimura-Sama’s niece. I remember now. He mentioned you lived on this floor too.”

“Yeah. Oji-san let me stay here while I get my band together. Since it’s closer to all the clubs.” she offered with a shrug.

My narrow eyed look eventually relented and I shrugged. The fact she was related to that jerk face Fujimura didn’t matter much. She was more like me than anything. TC connections but not actually a member.

Couldn’t really get annoyed with it considering that was very similar to me and Jun.

“Alice then, nova. I’m Motoko, since I didn’t actually say that, but you already heard Jun call me that.”

“Yeah. The Kusanagi siblings. I remember Oji-san told me about you when you first moved in. Said the Oni was a good underling, but his sister was difficult.”

“That sounds about right.” I agreed without hesitation. Earning an actual amused look from the girl.

“So know anything besides your own songs?”

“I know a couple songs.” She offered and started up something I had never heard before.

Thankfully with Perfect Musical Memory I caught on and on the second play through I was matching her tempo.

To my surprise, she seemed actually pretty happy to jam out with me.

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