Ghost in the City

Working through the catalog of Samurai songs took me most of the night. Each song needed multiple playthroughs, just for the initial tracks, and then I had to add the holo emitter setup which now that I had done it once with my first song, did go easier. I just needed to add a few more move sets for drums and guitar, and then set up the keyboard and bass.

Jun didn’t come home that night, which was annoying. I still needed to get my shard back from him. But at least I was able to distract myself with rocking out.

Rockerboy was gaining xp again. And in the middle of the night as I finished Never Fade Away, I got a new level up!

Rockerboy 7!

I hummed as the knowledge hit, and took it all in. That was nice addition a bit more high end musical stuff, and some adjustments I could do while singing to bring more emotion into the song.

Of course when I heard the door open in the morning I was instantly on my feet and finger pointed at my idiot brother.

“Give it back!”

“No.” He responded as he walked stretching and yawning. “I like it. It suits me.”

“No! It’s my song! It’s meant to suit me!” I argued and Jun looked at me, and just scoffed.

Which is when I did the mature thing and yowled in fury and leapt on his head. And I do mean on his head. I nearly fell feet and hands first into his hair.

How dare he!

But my jump was stalled. His arms caught me mid leap… Had Jun known what I was going to do, or were his reflexes that good? He didn’t have a sandy or Keren… Right?

My thoughts were interrupted as Jun flipped me around and even with Street Brawler leveling I wasn’t able to stop him from swinging me around a bit and bombed me onto the couch.

Which creaked a little ominously but held.

Then he sat on me.

“What have we learned?” He teased and I punched him a few times near his kidneys only for it to not really do much. Stupid subdermal! “Ah. I guess nothing apparently.” He added as he reached down and started poking me. Which only made me want to punch him more.

“I swear I’m going to chip in some gorilla arms so you can’t just ignore my punches.”

“That would just make you more like a gorilla than you already are. Sure you want to do that?” He teased and I could feel my face getting red in anger as I struggled for a bit under him.

Stupid Jun and his… “FAT!” I yelled into his face. “GO ON A DIET!”

Jun just blinked at me before smirking. He reached into his jacket pocket…

“No.”

“Oh yes.” He assured me as he took out an XXL burrito and started eating it.

“You’re so disgusting.”

“They’re good! I don’t get why you don’t like them anymore.”

“They aren’t burritos! They are just sludge!”

Jun just shrugged. “Tasty tho.”

I looked up at the kitchen to where the radio was. I would have my revenge! The radio started playing Samurai music suddenly.

Jun frowned and looked like he was considering standing up to turn it off but just decided to ignore it. He turned on the TV to watch something turning up the volume to drown out the song. R̃ÂNỌＢËṦ

Wrong move.

I had complete control!

The TV Glitched.

It started playing the song as well.

“Motoko.”

“You will never know peace.” I told him firmly. He sighed and tried the remote.

Nope. Already hacked that.

“Motoko. No hacking the TV.” Jun demanded using his authority voice.

I gave him a deadpan stare.

“How about a truce?”

“Get your fat ass off me.”

“Fine.” He grumbled standing up as I could finally breathe normally again and I clambered up to stand on the couch so we were about the same height… No dammit Jun was still taller!

I put my hands on my hips and glared.

“Give me back my shard!”

“Make me a copy.”

“No! I already have the original. The reason I want the shard is so no one else can listen to it! Well I mean they’ll be able to once they watch the BD I guess, but I mean… Ugh! Fine keep it!”

“I will.” He said smiling and patted me on the head. “Gotta keep my Imouto’s first recording. It’s special.”

“Bwah!” I flailed, pushing his hand away. No fair! Cheating!

“Heh. You should play a live gig.” He said suddenly, smiling. “Fujimura-Sama was really impressed with the piano solo you did.”

“No way!” I argued instantly, returning to normal to cross my arms in an X. “That’s embarrassing, I don’t want anyone to hear my songs!” Except when they were the backing to an awesome XBD!

“Pfft.” Jun just laughed at me, which didn’t help! “I’ve already shown your song to some of the others. The Only Thing They Fear was a hit. They liked it.”

I gaped at Jun who was smiling at me. No!

“You didn’t!”

“I did! Akari was really into it. She bugged me for a copy, I didn’t give it to her though. She will probably come poke you for it… Be ready.”

“Noooo!” I whined at him, I was blushing! Stupid Onii-chan! Making me get all self conscious! “You aren’t allowed to show it to anyone! Give it back!”

“Nope. What else you got? Any other songs?” He asked his face in a proud smile.

“Samurai Songs!” I immediately offered, turning his smile into a disgusted look.

“Nevermind then. Let me know when you make something else.”

“I won’t! Ever! You shared it!”

“It was preem. Cool. I liked it, made me want to go murder something.” He offered and I nodded along. Yeah that’s true. That song did that to me too.

“That’s what I felt. It’s why the song is my theme song now! Motoko’s Theme!” I called out telling him why the song was important.

“Oni’s Theme sounds better.” I gaped at him.

“Never! You can’t just steal my theme! I made it myself!”

“Well you can’t stop me.” He said reminding me he had my shard with a tap of his hand against his neck.

Which was his mistake. It was reasonable enough. Jun still hadn’t quite fitted my netrunning skill into his mind yet.

My eyes blazed in code and half a second later his Neuroport ejected the shard sending it tumbling into the air.

Heh! Lucy wasn’t the only Picksocket around!

I leapt for the shard that had ejected, but Jun wasn’t giving up without a fight. We ended up wrestling and tumbling around the couch for a while.

In the end his stupid fat strength meant he kept the shard and I sulked at him in the corner as he very obviously played the song in his head.

—--

“I can’t believe you hit another Scav den without me!” Hiromi whined the exact second after almost kicking in the door and glaring at me from the entryway.

“Hiromi don’t kick doors that can break them.” I reminded her only to get a groan from her as I guess I ruined her outrage.

“Why! I could have come!”

“I wasn’t going to call anyone… It was a BD gig more than anything but Jun wouldn’t let me go alone. So I ended up calling Ichi and Malcolm after to collect everything.”

“But not me?”

“It was a school night.” I reminded her, earning a look of disgust from her..

“Stop using that as an excuse!” She whined before flopping beside me on the couch reaching out to grab me so I couldn’t escape. “I demand restitution! One Million Motoko hours of service will just about cover this insult!” She added in her most Corpo voice. It had me giggling at her act, but I pulled myself together to give her my most deadpan reply.

“Sorry, no can do, but I’ll pick up dinner.” I retorted and Hiromi giggled and seemed to relax.

“I’ll take it.”

—--

Hiromi dragged me to a more expensive sort of restaurant than I would normally go to, but considering how many eddies I had sliding into my bank account I just shrugged and accepted what she wanted, and ate the overpriced food.

It was making her happy.

We were in a dark little booth with an electric candle lighting our table and Hiromi was all smiles while she told me about her day at the academy.

“Seriously. They are so gonk. They think people will just listen to whatever they say without any care. I’m pretty sure the first time they try to hire a merc they are going to get shot.” Hiromi added with a roll of her eyes and I couldn’t help but be amused at how well she had scored on her “Workplace Reinforcement” quiz.

“I think you just have way more experience than most of them in dealing with solos… Not that I really count. I don’t think using me as an example is a good idea.”

Hiromi opened her mouth to retort but ended up closing it and bursting into giggles. “Probably not! Oh! Now I have this image in my head! Motoko! You have to record the first time some corp tries to hire you okay? I want to see the look on their face when they realize what they are dealing with!”

“That… Okay that does sound funny, but the way you say that makes it sound like I’m weird!” I argued pushing a piece of… Well it was supposed to be shrimp, but it was just scop made to look and sort of taste like shrimp.

Hiromi of course just smirked at me, until I looked away first. Meanie.

I suddenly perked up as a text came in, the chime jolting in my ear.

*Judy: JESUS. FUCK! What the fuck was that?*

Before I could even message back another came in.

*Judy: I’m glad you warned me, but still! Are you okay!? Did you go Cyberpsycho on me or something? DON’T MAKE ME CALL RITA!*

“Ah one sec. Judy just saw my BD.” I told Hiromi who was looking curiously as my eyes were obviously gold as I looked through my texts.

Before I could actually respond Judy sent another message.

*Judy: FUCK IT. I’m calling Rita anyways!*

*Motoko: Please don’t. I’m fine. Not a psycho!*

*Motoko: Cyber or otherwise! It was just for the BD. I do have a thing about Scavs after all. I’m actually at dinner with my Choom right now. Eating and doing normal stuff! Nothing psycho going on I’m okay! Don’t tell Rita I’m a Cyberpsycho!*

*Judy: Fine! Fine. I’ll chill. But seriously. You gave me a warning, but a bit more detail would have been nice! Fuck my heart is pounding! A bit more brutal my ass! You! I will never forget the feeling of sticking my thumbs in someone's eyeballs now thanks to you!*

*Motoko: Sorry.*

*Judy: Fuck, you better be! You sure you aren’t a fucking Cyberpscyho? No. You wouldn’t be this normal I guess? I don’t know I’ve never dealt with a Cyberpsycho before! Fine. Okay. Fine. As long as you aren’t a psycho I guess it’s all good. Sides, I guess it’s all good. Nox was happy to hear about a new virtu. Well as long as it isn’t going to be evidence for MaxTac… Well yet anyways. I’m gonna finish the BD, make it fucking sparkly preem. Just don’t drop something like this on me again. Fuck I do porn, I didn’t sign up to learn what brain feels like!*

*Motoko: Double super sorry. Anything I can do to make up for it?*

*Judy: Heh, some replacement caffeine to start. I had to chug half my stash just to calm down after that overload.*

*Motoko: Judy, I don’t think Caffeine is what you want if you are- You know what. Nevermind. Sure I’ll replace your stuff. Sorry.*

*Judy: It’s fine I guess. I’m just glad you read normal. But I’m expecting you to check in with Rita or something! Or just don’t do something like that again! Anyway I’ll have it done ASAP. I kinda want to see some reactions to this one..*

I shook my head at Judy’s reaction, taking a deep breath. At least Judy was okay with it. I mean… Just because it was me at my most brutal overlaid with heavy metal that no one had ever heard before that literally ended with Rip and Tear… Surely no one could misconstrued that in the wrong light…

Right?

“I may have gone a bit overboard on my last BD.” I admitted to Hiromi who only looked interested rather than concerned.

Yep. This may have been a mistake.

A fun mistake. But still a mistake.

—--

Apparently we were having a slumber party.

Hiromi had followed me home after dinner. She flopped onto the couch as we entered besides Jun. “Hiya Jun!”

“Hiromi. Taking care of my gonk sister tonight?”

“Yep! Motoko is all fed!”

“I bought dinner.” I grumbled at Hiromi going along with Jun’s teasing as I settled onto the armrest of the couch. Jun and Hiromi taking up the rest.

“Motoko! Play your song for me!” Hiromi demanded, leaning back like a queen surveying her domain.

“No.” My instant flat denial broke her facade, and the whining began.

“Motokooooo! I want to hear you play your new soooong! Judy got to hear it!” She begged leaning into me and being purposefully annoying.

“Judy is listening to a recording of it in a BD. It’s not the same!” I argued. I had explained after Judy’s text what I had done at the Scav den. And Hiromi to my surprise hadn’t said anything about wanting to hear ‘my’ song then.

I guess she just wanted a private showing.

“I want to hear you play it too.” Jun said, a smirk shot in my direction. Earning a happy smile from Hiromi as she met his eyes and both of then looked at me.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Motokoooo!”

“C’mon Imouto!”

They started cheering for me! Like actual cheers! They were even getting louder and I realized then if I didn’t do something… They were going to keep getting louder until I did!

FUCKING GONKS!

I felt my face heating up but pushed it down with cool, which was a mistake. Because if I was controlling my emotions, I wasn’t too embarrassed to actually play in front of people.

I did have to test my Music Box after all.

I glared at them both before walking around grabbing my music box and pushing my personal link into it.

I placed it onto the floor behind me as I grabbed my guitar. With a bit of finagling, I hooked the amp and speakers I had bought, up to the music box. While ignoring the cheers of my choom and stupid brother.

“You both better appreciate this.” I told them as I did a few tests to make sure the sound was coming out, and then walked around the apartment turning off most of the lights.

Then I activated the song.

The moment I started the first chords, behind me holograms began forming.

On my right a drum set formed and then I could hear Jun and Hiromi both gasp in surprise as a holographic me formed with it. The hologram unfortunately didn’t do anything fancy like twirl a drumstick or something. I would actually need to get pictures of me doing that and spend a lot more time improving the routine, but it did have me behind the drums and hitting all the notes on a drum.

To my left a double keyboard setup and a bunch of extra electrical equipment popped up. To represent me working on the more electronic sounds.

And then, suddenly the drop hit, and drummer me went to town.

Thankfully there wasn’t any vocals through the song, so I could concentrate fully on just making sure the notes I was playing were right.

The recorded version of the other instruments sounded fine, and I was actually doing it. I wasn’t fumbling, my notes were hitting, and I even roared along with the chant at the end.

Then it ended.

“Eeeeee!” Hiromi slammed into me once the song was obviously ended literally leaping on top of me that I had to balance my best choom with not breaking my guitar as she clung onto me. “THAT WAS SO PREEM!” She screamed and burst into laughter after.

I was just desperately trying not to fall and break something.

Jun thankfully came to my rescue, but not by lifting Hiromi off me, instead he grabbed my guitar and pulled it free.

Thanks. Jerk. I mouthed at him, and he just laughed at me.

“Hiromi. C’mon!”

“No way! I know an actual Rockerboy now!” She yelled so excited. “You have to give me a super pass to all your shows forever!” She demanded and I just laughed and nodded.

Because I was never going to do any shows! Silly Hiromi.

Besides, even if I did do shows she would have a super pass anyways. What a gonk.

“That was so amazing Motoko! I can’t believe you wrote your own song!” Hiromi said, still holding onto me like a monkey.

I winced trying to explain that I hadn’t written the song originally was… Difficult. I made an apology to the amazing Mick Gordon that I was taking credit for his work.

“Okay okay, time to climb off.” I grumbled at her as I pushed her until she had to let go. But Hiromi’s good cheer couldn’t be ended so easily.

“Motoko! We need to set up a show! We can sell tickets!” Hiromi was going a little crazy.

“No way. I’m not putting on any shows Hiromi. This is just my thing. My relaxing thing.” I tell her before realizing what I had just said.

Right. This was my relaxing thing. Or supposed to be… Turning it into another murder thing… Fuck.

Rita was gonna be so disappointed when she found out! This was supposed to be my zen thing! My hobby to pull me out of the routine murder I committed.

With that realization I exhaled in annoyance at myself. I reached out grabbing Hiromi by the shoulders and guided her back to the couch. “I’m glad you liked my song. Now never ever tell anyone about this. Especially you Jun. You traitor. Akari is going to be so annoying now.”

“Heh.”

“Nooo! Motoko you are so talented! You have to!” Hiromi whined at me, but I ignored her. No way. That was embarrassing.

In the end I ignored Hiromi’s begging, and eventually Jun just laughed at the two of us as he turned the TV on. Although he did give me a head pat for doing so well.

I ended up sitting on the floor with my back against the couch, Hiromi looming over me as she watched me work, as I worked on another song.

It was the only thing I could do to get her to stop bugging me about singing more. Of course I had to take my laptop and hook it into the network to let Hiromi see the visual of me putting the songs tracks together.

There were so many different songs I wanted to play, but since I had already started on the DOOM Soundtrack, I might as well continue with another of the songs I liked.

BFG Division was hilariously relevant in Night City after all.

—-

Jun ended up waking Hiromi up in the morning. He had gone to bed eventually, and Hiromi had just curled up on the couch with her head half way resting on my shoulder as I worked.

During the quiet night I had added most of a few other songs together, although I still wanted to actually perform the guitar sections myself to finish them off. Something I couldn’t do with Hiromi asleep.

I had gained a few Rockerboy alerts as well as I worked on the songs!

I guess creating digital music still counted as far as Rockerboy was concerned.

“Morning Motoko. Morning Jun.” Hiromi muttered groggily as was woken up by Jun opening and closing the fridge, the noise all it took to bring her back to wakefulness.

“Morning Hiromi.” I chirp as my choom blinks and gives me a smile in return as she starts stretching out and waking up.

I put my stuff away, considering I had been working through the night I wanted a break from tracks and notes for a while.

“Breakfast?” I asked my choom and she blinked sleepily and nodded.

Aww. Sleepy Hiromi was all quiet.

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