Ghost in the City

I decided to spend the rest of the day playing around with my new quick hacks, but I still had my chooms messaging and chatting with me throughout the day.

Hiromi was mostly complaining about school, but she had put out some feelers to her new ‘contacts’ about any Scav info.

Ichi hadn’t found much from the old TC guys, but they had apparently liked his gumption to clean up the scavs, and Ichi told me that they would start asking around.

Malcolm was just enjoying having some eddies and his parents were super happy with him coming home with thousands of eddies for a job. After they fussed and worried he had done something the NCPD would arrest him for anyways.

Well that and showing off his new Mantis Blades. Seriously, he kept sending pictures of him posing with them every half hour. It was funny but a little embarrassing.

But I was once more distracted happily with a new program to work on. I started with Weapon Glitch, mostly because being able to mess with someone's weapon in a fight was an automatic I win button.

And I wanted to make sure I knew how to use it, and defend against it if needed.

So I dug into the code, and instantly started figuring out how the program works, and how badly coded it was.

Another mess of programming. Although in this case I noticed something interesting.

The idea was so weird it took me hours of double checking before I was convinced.

Unlike Ping which was a rather simple program, and was just an extension of net infrastructure. Weapon Glitch had obviously been designed by someone really really smart to specifically do what it said.

But if I used my old metaphor for programming being the design of weapons. Someone had created a magical super sword for themselves, and then started making some lesser copies to sell around.

The only reason I noticed it is because of all the experience noticing bad code thanks to Debug.

There were sections of really smooth code in the program. Stuff that I didn’t have a chance of copying myself, but then they would be hampered with really horribly written code that forced memory leaks, or loops in the process.

So while I doubted I could reach the equals quality yet, I definitely could fix some of this nonsense.

The fact the program used so much ram to activate, could easily be lowered with a few fixes.

And that is when I realized what the original must have looked like. A program that could be used multiple times in a row to completely disable the weapons of an entire group. Instead of using a ton of ram to disable a single weapon.

Yeah I wanted me one of those. But the thought of walking into a group of gonks and just wiping their ability to shoot at me in a glance was pretty cool.

So I settled in to get to work. And very quickly I started getting XP alerts. A new program and problems to fix? Yeah that was all working towards a grind.

—--

I was a chunk through the next level to programming when I took another break when Jun came home seemingly in a rush. Barging in having obviously been moving fast.

“Motoko. Get dressed.” He said suddenly as he stood by the door and I looked away from the laptop screen I had been staring at for the last half dozen hours.

“Eh? What’s up Jun.”

“There’s a party. You’re invited. C’mon.” He said simply nodding his head towards my room as he rushed right past it into his own room, and I could hear him grabbing some junk.

“Party?” I called out curiously wondering what Jun was on about.

“It’s a big party to commemorate the end of the war. 6th St. agreed to the cease fire completely. So it’s over. Kamikaze are invited… And Fujimura-Sama asked me to invite you as well.” He offered and I had to blink a bit at that.

Did I want to go to a TC party?

No. Not really.

Did I care if Fujimura invited me?

No. Not really.

Jun must have seen the look on my face because he smiled. He had something planned for sure.

“There will be food. Good food. Just come, you don’t have to do anything. Just enjoy the food… Even if you don’t want to be with the Tyger Claws anymore, you are still one of us.”

I blinked.

Jun you sneaky bastard. You were trying to improve my opinion of the TC by having me eat their food.

I mean it was sneaky enough to work, but I doubt it will change my opinion of the gang.

“Fine, but only because free food sounds kinda preem.” I agreed and Jun smiled a little as he nodded, reaching over and fluffing my hair which considering he had on Real Skinn actually felt kinda nice.

Onii-chan headpats were pretty good.

“Let me get cleaned up.” I told him, waving his hand away. I couldn’t just let him think I liked it when he patted my head after all. I would have to mess with him soon to make sure he understood.

But I got dressed in my normal clothes and followed Jun out into the night.

What could go wrong?

—--

“And this is my sister Motoko.” Jun introduced me to another high up TC guy. Seriously I had seen so many Yakuza wannabes they were all flowing together into one Super Yakuza.

But none of that mattered.

Suuuushi.

Okay coming to the party was a good idea. I stuffed another synth-sushi into my mouth despite Jun trying to introduce me to someone.

Because fuck them. But Sushi tasted goooood.

The Yakuza guy nodded to me but turned back to focus on Jun. No one that Jun had mentioned to me had even taken a second look at me so far which was good. Because I was far more interested in the snack bar.

Which is a way to say I was basically just camping it forcing Jun to stand awkwardly next to me as I snacked.

He didn’t have to. I told him he could go hang out in the party, but he was acting kinda skittish. Apparently all of these yakuza types were ‘important’ and ‘powerful’ or whatever. I didn’t care. Free sushi.

But it wasn’t just TC guys hanging around.

There was a detachment of 6th St. ‘soldiers’ hanging around as they chatted with the TC leaders.

This was a party to celebrate an end to the open conflict between the gangs after all.

Open conflict anyways. Of course the gangs would still happily kill each other in the dark and deny responsibility.

But overall it was boring. The party was taking place in one of the skyscrapers in Japantown. Apparently it acted as a club that the TC owned when it wasn’t in use by the gang.

Of course tonight was a private event.

“Kusanagi. Kusanagi.” A familiar voice spoke up interrupting my snack and Jun was already offering a bow.

Fujimura to my surprise looked a bit different, he had definitely lost some chrome. He gave Jun a nod in return before looking towards me.

Dangit, he actually wanted to talk to me didn’t he? I sighed internally as I finished chewing my sushi and swallowed. “How’s it going?”

“It’s a shame the war ended when it did.” He suddenly said out of nowhere. “If you had been dragged into a few more battles, they wouldn’t be ignoring you. They’d be seeking you out for their own benefit like they do your brother.” He said suddenly surprising me as he looked around and took in the people around us.

“I like it this way. It would be annoying to be bothered by them. I mean I get to stand here and eat Sushi, so it all works for me.” I offered with a shrug.

He snorted unhappily. “You don’t have the burn for more. You lack of ambition… Disappointing. Kusanagi, try to drag your sister into her potential it would be a waste if she simply wallows as she is.” Fujimura says to my surprise. It was a backhanded compliment, but a compliment all the same.

What a weird guy.

“Yes Fujimura-Sama.” Jun agrees but I know my brother pretty well at this point. He was agreeing just to agree. But Fujimura wasn’t entirely done.

He turned to me again and gave me a long look over.

“Girl. I’m no fool. You may wish to separate from the Tyger Claws. I’ve seen many like you. Thinking that they don’t need the Tygers protection anymore. It won’t matter in the end. Someday, you will find yourself in need of friends, and we will still be there. Perhaps then you will remember who truly are on your side.” Then he just walked away.

I decided to just stuff more Sushi in my mouth. Crazy Cyberpsycho TC leaders talking nonsense at me.

—-

“I don’t feel great.” I muttered to Jun as I walked out of the bathroom.

“I warned you to stop eating so much sushi. You made yourself sick.” He told me without a hint of sympathy as he led me back into the ballroom where the party was taking place.

It wasn’t my fault! The sushi was so good. But now my stomach was really not happy with me.

Okay it was my fault. I’m adult enough to accept that I literally ate myself sick.

“C’mon we can leave early and head home.”

“Yeah… Sorry Jun-Nii.” I muttered struggling not to puke. Okay definitely my fault. Stupid Motoko. Real stupid.

But it was sooo tasty!

I shook that thought away my stupid brain not knowing when enough is enough. Jun guided me through the party, and apologized to a few of the TC higher ups as we passed. Jun covering for me, saying I just wasn’t feeling well, and not that I made myself sick by eating too much.

Eventually we entered the elevator down to the garage at the same time as another of the big TC guys.

Honestly I could see the Neon Yakuza tattoos crawling over his suit up the back of his neck and across the back of his hands.

He spoke to Jun while his date, a beautiful neon goddess that was definitely a Doll fussed over me. I could literally see the Doll chip Cyberware starting just behind her ear going down her throat. The gold engravings glinted against her pale skin.

It was pretty, if you know the fact it was literally a pseudo mind control thing didn’t make it kinda disgusting.

Although I was pretty sure it was the woman in truth and not the programming as she hummed over my back and even gave me a little back rub as I rested my head against the cool chrome of the back of the elevator.

Ugh too much sushi.

Stupid Motoko, acting like a child and overeating. Dumbass.

The elevator stopped with a jolt and the four of us walked out. Jun guided me along as the TC guy and the Doll both left arm in arm, an expensive looking car pulling up for them with a beep.

Which is when everything went wrong.

I felt it. That sense shooting up my spine. Danger Sense.

A glint in my periphery. The smell of blood. A noise of a heavy footstep on concrete. Too heavy to be normal.

“DOWN!” I screamed and kicked out Jun’s knee so we went tumbling just in time to avoid the barrage of machine gun fire above his head.

The TC guy was also lucky. The moment I screamed out, he had moved, jumping into the car with the instincts of a man who had heard screams to move before. And it had saved his life.

The poor Doll wasn’t as lucky, she went down with a cry and the splattering sound of meat.

An LMG was pumping rounds towards us aiming to kill us all. No, I realized thankfully, aiming for his target. The TC Leader who was now hiding inside his car and trying to get it started even though his car was getting hammered with bullets.

But Jun was going to get up soon, and no doubt Jun and I would be a target the moment we did.

Everything went slow. My mind focused. I only had one chance to survive this.

Jun only had one chance to survive this.

My mind blazed, my eyes burned. I attacked.

It had been a long time since I had done any Quick Hacking, and never with an offensive program like this.

I could barely see the man himself, just his hulking outline as he fired from the shadows of the garage, right next to a car that had an open trunk. The fucker had been in the trunk of a car. Probably just sitting and waiting for his target.

Smart fucker.

But in just a moment I was done. His ICE resisted but it only lasted a few moments before I was in. His LMG suddenly sparking as its electronics shut down causing a jam in the receiver as it tried to double load a round.

Stupid Jun! He was still holding onto me not realizing the attack was over. And the moment it took me to try and push him away was too long. Because I had quick hacked him, no way he didn’t realize I had been the one to shut down his toy.

I looked up Just in time to see the attacker just ‘appear’ in front of us.

Fucking Sandevis-

I didn’t even get a chance to quick draw before he laid into Jun and I with a kick.

No, it wasn’t a kick. A kick would just hurt. This was like being struck by a moving vehicle.

We were sent flying. While in the air I had a moment to be happy that Jun was mostly okay since he was mostly borged as well, even if he got rocked into the concrete wall beside the elevator.

I on the other hand was 90% squishy meat even if I had desperately tried to block the kick with my arms.

I went flying down the garage, rolling along the concrete. The fact he had kicked me in the stomach meant I had left a trail of my previous meal all across my path.

Gross.

I gagged and choked once I landed blood joining my meal on the concrete.

Fuck that hurt.

Jun was getting back on his feet. Looking more pissed off than I had ever seen him. I groaned as I wiggled my toes. Confirming my back wasn’t broken, just my insides as I forced myself up.

Fuck this guy, and fuck this night.

The borgs target was obviously the TC leader who was doing his best to get his car moving to escape this assassination.

Jun attacked him, because of course he did. Despite not having his Katana, Jun was relying on his Gorilla arms, slamming a fist into the borgs side to keep him from reaching into the car to grab the TC guy with his utterly massive hands.

Fuck this guy was as big as Maine. Like Anime big. Easily seven plus feet tall, and absolutely beefed out.

This wasn’t just some random fucker. This was an edgerunner level Cyberpunk.

Fuck. Jun and I were in the middle of this.

But fuck this guy even more for trying to kill us!

The noise of the car finally starting changed the battle. The Edgerunner was distracted.

Burya was drawn even as borg guy punched Jun back, and then with an almost casual swipe of his arm, he literally knocked the car off its wheels and onto its side. The rear wheels spinning helplessly as it was no longer able to escape.

But his attack thankfully opened him up to me. Jun was out of the way and the fucker was extended.

Burya barked, and Edgerunner went from completely ignoring me to focused entirely on me as a massive hole was punched into his back.

He shifted and I fired again and again, but to my frustration they all missed.

He had activated his Sandy after my shot and literally ducked and dived around the shots.

Okay speedware was on the list of stuff pissing me off now.

I met his glaring red eyes. Although this guy had a face, his optics screamed Maelstrom. He raised his arm.

Oh.

Fuck.

I jumped to my feet, ignoring the way my insides seemed to leak at the feeling, I was definitely hurting internally but that didn’t matter. I jumped, just managing to slide between a few cars as the rocket he shot at me exploded into the concrete where I had been standing. I coughed out blood again as I hit the floor, rolling a bit as the shockwave washed over me. I puked up some more blood. Not a good sign.

But I wasn’t done. I rolled onto my back and started reloading while I was out of sight.

Fuck Jun don’t die you moron. I couldn’t help but think as I could hear him yelling and fighting with the borg.

I reloaded in a blur. Despite every movement making my stomach spasm in pain as muscles that had just been tenderized screamed at me, Cold Blood, and Cool Nerves meant I wasn’t bothered.

Kill the borg.

Then make sure I wasn’t going to die.

Reloaded, I rose up and took aim but winced.

Jun was in the way. The two were wrestling and Jun was obviously losing.

But I couldn’t make the shot. I growled which only hurt me more than anything and instead ducked back down and started moving, slipping behind the cars I made it to the stupid TC’s car that was still on its side having been wedged up against the backs of a few of the other cars parked in the garage.

But that was perfect for me.

I quietly climbed up to the side of the car to get on top of it. Which put me right next to the two fighting away beating on each other.

The shot was perfect, his big stupid head was right there. Burya barked once more. Echoing through the lot as a massive hole exploded in the borgs chrome, but not into his head where I had been aiming.

He had noticed and raised his shoulder. I had been aiming for his head so instead of ending the fight all I did was put a big hole in his shoulder.

A shoulder that wasn’t disabled as I learned a moment later as he swept his arm at me.

I wasn’t fast enough to dodge. The back hand hit and I blanked out for a time.

It was only an urge to cough that ended up spitting blood all over my face that made me open my eyes and realize I had passed out at some point. I was smashed atop a car down the way, having hit it so hard I was indented into the roof.

The sound of Jun roaring brought me back. I reached down for my Max doc pouch, hands actually trembling as I brought it to my lips

The first puff brought me back to awareness, back to my focus.

I still hurt. A lot in fact. But I was alive.

I sat up and noticed my Burya wasn’t in my hand. Fuck, that borged out fucker had actually hit me so hard I lost my gun. Spotting my Burya on the ground right next to where the borg was beating my brother to death made me stand up knowing that I had to get involved. I popped my neck lightly, as I had the worst crick in my neck and then it was on.

Once again I was out of the fuckers sights. He probably thought I was dead. Hell Jun Probably thought I was dead too. Which probably explained why he was getting his ass beat so bad.

My eyes were open. My thoughts were clear. This borg needed to die.

Jun needed help right now.

I attacked again. This time Reboot Optics slammed into his system. The ICE just as ineffective as it was before. Suddenly his eyes shut down mid fight, and for just a moment Jun had a chance.

But Jun wasn’t alone.

I started running, moving as silently as I could as I charged in. Speedware was only effective if you could move.

So I just had to disable that first.

My knife was yanked out of its sheath, and I even grabbed one of the throwing knives I had taken from the Raffen. Burya was on the ground, and that was my only chance to really finish this. So I needed it.

Just as I reached the Borgs back I threw myself into a slide. Both knives held out and slammed into the back of the fuckers knees.

Both skittered and skipped, but even subdermal armor couldn’t protect the joints perfectly, the throwing knife skittered off but cut into the flesh before deflecting, but my main knife managed to slip into a soft patch and pierce through into the internals.

“Bitch!” The borg roared a bit, but not in pain. Just anger. Obviously his pain editor was active. Jun though was there with me. He reached out and grabbed the arm that had been aiming towards my general direction a moment before and started retaliating.

The borg tried to kick me once his arm was held back, but I was already tumbling forward dodging his weak blow and grabbing the Burya and then while on my back aimed upwards.

I didn’t hesitate and while the fucker obviously activated his speedware, trying to fight back against us both. But blind, stuck between Jun and I, and with a knee injury he couldn’t dodge. Burya hammered my shoulders into the concrete as I fired all three rounds punching upwards into him.

White borg blood poured out of him onto me.

This fucker was stronger than Jun. He was bigger than Jun.

But he now had three more bullet holes tearing up his insides. Jun was on him. Pounding his fists into the fuckers chest, Each time the borg started trying to retaliate Jun would slam a fist into the damaged sections of chrome. His first squirming and searching digging into the chrome and ripping out whatever he could grab.

It wasn’t completely effective.

Even injured. Even two on one, even with Jun hammering away the borg just wasn’t stopping.

I didn’t have another reload for the Burya.

I didn’t have my Thermal Katana. I didn’t have anything that could really scratch this guy on me.

But that didn’t mean I was going to let Jun have all the fun.

I drew my Lexington, and started taking potshots, trying to shoot into the holes that my Burya had already opened up. It was hard with Jun there, but a few went in and each time it caused the borg to jerk as something internal took a bullet.

The borg stepped back. Probably the first time he had been forced to retreat since the fight started, showing just how fucking scary this bastard was.

I stood up and kept with Jun. Dodging around Jun and popping off rounds whenever I could. As the two of us double teamed the borg pushing him back.

Teamwork!

It was surprisingly effective, the guys fucked up leg meant that even when he activated his speedware he couldn’t quite ‘catch’ us, although it did make his arms move incredibly fast, and the one time I barely got out of reach I could feel the wind blow past my face like a truck had just raced by at a hundred miles an hour.

But it wasn’t enough.

I could see it in his face as he realized he had fucked up. Blind and hamstrung he couldn’t escape. That he was too slow now to stop us from slowly tearing him apart.

If the fucker was a moose, Jun and I were wolves pulling him apart piece by piece. Sure he could kill us with a hit, but he was slow, weak.

In the end as much as I wanted it, Jun took the kill, instead of dodging a blow Jun grabbed the borgs hand before he could pull it back and tugged unbalancing the borg giving him time to leap at him, climbing up the fucker Jun wrapped his arms around the borgs neck and started pulling.

Sure the Borg reached up to try and stop him, but he was having some issues because that left his stomach open to me.

I quickly reloaded another magazine into my Lexington and pushed the gun straight into his open guts.

Lexington were automatic pistols.

I unloaded shifting the angle so bullets would be bouncing all around in the fuckers chest.

His arms went limp and Jun roared as he tugged.

The borgs head popped free with a nasty crunch, sending Jun falling off and onto his back, and then the borgs body crumpling as its will left it.

As its ghost died.

The garage was silent after that. Except for Jun and I’s heavy breathing. He slowly sat up and I winced as he looked like he just finished a ten round boxing match. His face was already puffing up and more purple than anything else.

“You look like shit.” I couldn’t help but inform him as I settled down on the ground. My legs felt weak, and my everything hurt.

“‘Uck you.” He said slurring, but he was alright if he had the energy to bring up his middle finger to flip me off.

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t help but ask, questioning the world because that was some serious shit.

I had fought Borgs before. Hell I had even fought Cyberpsychoes! But that guy was a walking tank. A monster that I wasn’t sure I would be able to kill even from the shadows. Hell I had shot him multiple times with my Burya, and he hadn’t gone down.

“You gonna live?” I asked Jun as he just flopped down on the ground and hadn’t gotten up.

Instead of saying anything he threw up a thumbs up and just laid there.

Fair.

That was totally fair. I glanced over at my alerts for the fight. I didn’t get the XP. Fucking Jun killstealing… Nah fuck it. I’m too tired to care.

Quickhack leveled up. Level 4. And I had gotten a Body level. Body 7! I guess fighting some edgerunner borg had some advantages…

The sound of men rushing up jerked me back to awareness. Had I just passed out again? I looked up to see an army of the TC guys from upstairs, all of them the guards that had been around the room rushing out of the elevator and the stairs. Immediately they started checking around, and even checking on the TC boss in the car. Turns out he was alive.

Yay.

The poor Doll wasn’t though. I noticed one of the guards checking and after a brief moment he simply stood up and walked away.

Yeah the big holes in her chest from the Edgerunners LMG would make living difficult.

Fuck that sucks.

I didn’t even know her name. But she had been nice.

“Kusanagi.” I blinked looking up towards Fujimura of all people who was now looming over me.

“Hey. We got him.” I mentioned nodding my head towards headless borg guy.

“I see that. You’ll live?”

“Yeah. My stomach is on the wrong side of my spine, but I’ll live.” I tell him, and to my surprise I get an actual huff of a laugh out of the cyberpsycho.

What the fuck?

A moment later a big coat was put over my shoulders, and Fujimura walked over to Jun to check on him too.

Huh. Did he go get counseling as well as dechroming or something?

Whatever this whole fucking night was a disaster…

Do you think they’d let me get some of the Sushi upstairs? My stomach was empty now…

I blinked at what I had just thought. Shaking my head with a long sigh that hurt my insides. Motoko you dumbass.

You won’t be able to eat it right now anyways. Better ask for a to go box.

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