Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 105 (Patreon)

Freshly showered Motoko felt much better than blood coated Motoko. I did have to take a brush to my arms though. Vik was definitely going to give me that look next time I saw him if I let blood stains get stuck in my joints.

After spending a good while digging into nooks and crannies of my arms. I walked back into the apartment.

Of course nothing was how it should be. For one the windows were all broken. The metal guard was also ruined, a hole punched through a few blinds breaking the whole system.

The couch though was the worst. The bullet had smashed through the couch through the wall and continued on, but had caused what little fluff there was left in our ancient couch to balloon out.

It was totally wrecked. Gonna need to buy a new damn couch. I had cleaned up the glass before I took a shower, and now here I was.

I was on the couch going over the fingers on my left hand still cleaning out bits of grime.

I heard it before I realized what it was. The elevator came up and stopped at our floor. I glanced up. The door opened, I was on guard already reaching for my Burya that I still had holstered to my chest.

I guess I just didn’t feel very safe right now without it.

But then Jun stepped into the apartment, his feet practically slamming into the ground.

Which was unusual because Jun had his sneaky feet.

“Motoko!” Jun didn’t quite roar but I rolled my eyes. Serious Nemesis vibes Jun. I know you can say more than my name.

“Yes this is Motoko.” I replied flippantly, but decided not to leave it there. “Hey Jun. Showers free.” I told him looking over his own bloody state. He stilled as if trying to restrain himself from acting out at my casual tone.

Which now that I think about it was likely exactly what was happening.

Suddenly he was on me grabbing me by the arms and lifting me straight off the couch until we were face to face. The towel on my head flopped forward a bit, almost covering one of my eyes, but I couldn’t exactly reach it with how Jun was holding me like this.

“Do not ever! EVER! Jump off a building like that again! Are you insane!” He didn’t quite yell. Instead it was the noise of someone trying to stay quiet, but still wanting to yell.

“My BD recorder was on when I made that leap. I’ll make sure to give you a copy. It was pret-t-t-t-ty.” I stopped as Jun shook me like back and forth suddenly.

“DON’T PLAY DUMB!” He roared and I was silenced mostly because he had given me shaken baby syndrome.

“Okay first ow.”

“Why? Why are you like this! Why don’t you ever listen! Why don’t you ever just be safe!?”

Okay I was done with this.

My forehead bashed into Jun’s stupid face.

“Fuck!” He cursed as he let me go.

“Ow. Your face is hard as fuck!” I cursed back holding my forehead. Was I bleeding? I was! When did Jun get his face armored! Ow! But I shook that off. I had to focus on my brother. The last time I had seen him like this…

“I’m so FUCKING DONE WITH YOU!” He roared and to my lack of surprise swung at me. But I wasn’t going to let him hurt me whenever he was deep in the throes of Cyberpsychosis.

I leapt over him, and as I landed, kicked both of his knees out.

I rolled just barely avoiding his bulk as he hit the floor with an oof.

I picked myself up as Jun started to do the same. He was definitely heated.

“You know the last time you swung at me like that you didn’t actually aim for me. This time you did.” I said, trying to cut through his anger to reach him.

He did slow as he stood up he was huffing and puffing. Anger and adrenaline shooting through him.

“You were supposed to let me help! We were supposed to do this together! You throw yourself into danger over and over and-” He growled out but he wasn’t swinging at me anymore.“You never listen!”

I of course ignored his words. I listened to Jun all the time. Just not every time. I wasn’t his toy after all.

“You’ve had a rough night Jun. Maybe it was a bad idea to head out on my own, but not because it was dangerous. But because you aren’t handling this well. Being attacked at home must have really messed with you huh?” I asked and his blazing eyes jerked up to meet mine in a glare.

We both were silent. Jun was visibly holding himself back from whatever he was trying to yell at me.

Dammit... Fujimura. I leave my brother in your hands for one night, and he is back to practically full cyberpsychosis again. His rants about protecting me, right back to how he was before.

I wasn’t going to get kidnapped to shock him out of it this time either.

“Okay Jun. I’m calling an official cease fire. Go take a shower. Clean up. Get some clean clothes.” I demanded pointing at the bathroom.

“I’m not… Motoko I’m not taking a shower right now! You-”

“Will be here when you come out. Clean, not covered in blood. Look at yourself Jun.” I said and he blinked slowly looking at a near by mirror on the wall.

“It’s fine.”

“Your hair is like 90% blood right now. What did you do, hold a Scav over your head and rip him in half?”

“No.”

Jun that no was a pretty weak denial. Nope, not going to think about that.

“Take a shower Jun-nii. I’ll be here. Waiting for you when you are done.” Then carefully I walked up to him and pushed him.

He barely budged at first, but slowly the tension in him eased and he let me push him to the bathroom.

—--

“Feel better?” I asked, as he came out of the shower patting his damp hair.

“I’m fine.” He grumbled, but I didn’t argue about that. Jun was touchy right now.

“Come sit.” I demanded pointing at the couch and Jun nodded, settling into the couch in a single big flop that made the poor thing groan. I had grabbed some of his casual clothes for him when he went into the shower, so thankfully he hadn’t redressed in his TC outfit.

Sweatpants and a t-shirt was good comfy clothing, and Jun needed comfy right now.

“Motoko-”

“Yes this is Motoko.” I replied cutting him off. I should stop doing that. Konosuba probably doesn’t even exist in this world. That joke wouldn’t make any sense.

But having caught Jun on the back foot by talking I surprised him. Grabbing the comb and towel I had prepared beforehand I crawled behind him settling on the back of the couch.

“What are you-”

“Shush.” Then I started floofing his hair with the towel.

“Motoko.” Jun grumbled, and I proved myself the more mature one of us by resisting responding the same way again. Instead I pulled the towel down and started combing my big stupid Onii-chans hair. Making sure he got all the blood and guts out of it.

I had seen Jun eat his burritos. He was as messy an eater as he was a killer.

“What crazy thing is going through your head now?” He drawled, but I was smiling because that was Jun speaking and not the angry rage beast.

“Nothing you want to hear. But if you are asking about me combing your hair. It’s because you need a little bit of time to realize that we are safe. Everything is okay. I’m here. Not hurt. You are here. Only a few more bullet holes than normal… Looks like you actually went to a ripper though. So I won’t yell at you for that.” I told him, having pulled up his shirt to check and see that he had a few new holes in his chest, but they had at least been treated.

“I’m fine Motoko. I’m more worried about you!”

“Yeah I noticed that. With all the screaming of my name and everything.” I told him bluntly.

“You ran off to get into fights alone!”

“Which as a stealth infiltration specialist… I should get cards. Jun note for the future. I need business cards. Anyway, As a stealth specialist, going solo is actually pretty safe for me. Which you know. You saw me take out the Raffen that one time, remember? And the Scavs that night you were feeling overprotective again.”

“You should have someone watch your back! People don’t go solo like that for long Motoko. It only takes one mistake to die like that! When I said you could do as you liked! Piss off anyone you want. I wasn’t intending for you to go after them by yourself!”

“This isn’t the first Scav den I’ve hit solo Jun. You know that. And it only takes one mistake to die regardless Jun. But I was fine. I went in hard. Full optical blackout, and weapon glitch. Only then did I appear and start killing. But this whole thing isn’t about me hitting Scav dens. You only get like this when you don’t feel safe… I think that’s the trigger for your psychosis. So I’m sorry. I’m sorry what I was doing was making you feel unsafe.”

He didn’t say anything, but I could feel the tension still in him as I combed his rather silly hair. But that’s fine. This wasn’t entirely a rational issue Jun was having.

We had been attacked. We had been attacked somewhere that is supposed to be safe. Of course that would set off Jun’s psychosis.

It was something I had come to accept about my new lifes brother long ago. Jun wasn’t mentally healthy.

He was stable mostly. He was I think getting better, but he wasn’t good.

I doubt he would ever be good again. Not without a whole lot of therapy, and ripping nearly all the chrome out of him.

“You aren’t hurt?” He asked finally out of the blue.

“I accidentally tripped in some blood and bruised my butt.” I told him honestly and it took a moment but my brother's shoulders started shaking a bit and he snrrked and snorted and then broke out into full blown laughter at me.

Just as Keikaku.

Keikaku means plan.

—--

Jun was asleep. I had helped dry him off and ended up putting a XXL burrito into him, before making sure he got to sleep.

I couldn’t actually order him to sleep of course, that would just make him obstinate, but he had been up for a long time, and just letting everything go quiet, and calm belly full of warm Burrito he had slumped off into his room not long after.

Flopping onto the couch I stared at the ceiling for a while just processing.

Jun’s mental state. My own less than stellar mental health at the moment. Like the fact I didn’t have anymore god damned Scavs to kill.

I sighed. That was exactly the problem. That urge to keep hunting them. Killing Scavs was a good thing, but I wasn’t being calm about it. I was too emotionally disrupted myself.

But I… I wasn’t ready to stop yet. A little more. A little more murder and I would take a break. I just needed more dens to wipe out…

Hopefully Wakako would come in clutch. Or Yoko.

But it might actually be time to spread out a bit. Wakako only really took care of gigs in a small part of the city…

I could reach out to Regina for info. I wasn’t sure what our relationship was at the moment, but a free offer to clear out any Scav gigs, and eddies for info should at least clear up some issues.

But that was still only a tiny bit of the city.

I was going to need to reach out to Jackie. He knew Padre. That was another piece of the city.

That was how serious I was about this. No more. No more letting Scavs hide in the corners of the city.

They die. Or I do. That was where we were at, and I wasn’t about to let myself die to a bunch of scum sucking Scavs.

So I needed contacts with all of the Fixers.

And I needed more chrome. Even as I thought that I winced and wanted to punch myself for being a fool, but it was still true.

“Okay Motoko. One thing at a time.” I whispered and opened my system.

Time to see what I had gained last night. I didn’t even know how many people I had killed last night. I hadn’t bothered counting. It would be like counting how many cockroaches you squashed.

I looked at the alerts and only stopped myself from whistling for Jun.

That was a lot of XP.

It took a few moments to count it all up, but yeah.

23,500 XP… I did some quick math. 47? If everyone counted for the common 500 XP? I didn’t remember killing anyone super borged out or anything…  I shook it off. It didn’t matter.

I had gained two levels. Going all out. Not worrying about gathering chrome or loot outside of just reloading my ammo. It meant I killed a lot of Scavs.

I was level 14 now.

2 Stat point.

4 Skill point.

I also had a lot of fun points to play with. Adaptation, or push a stat?

In the end I looked at my full character sheet, just to give myself an idea of where I stood.

Level 14

7,500/15,000

Body 7(14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 7.

-Athletics 7

-Street Brawler 7

-Annihilation 5

Reflex 7

-Blades 6

-Handguns 6

-Assault 6

-Driving 7

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Breach Protocol 9

-Quick Hacks 7

-Programming 10

Cool 8

-Ninjutsu 8

-Cold Blood 8

-Rockerboy 7

Technical attribute 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Crafting 4

-Engineering 4

2 Stat point.

4 Skill point.

Perks.

Ambidextrous Blades 2

Quickdraw Handguns 2

Gun Nut Assault 2

Parkour Athletics 2

Grappling Street Brawler 2

Drive By Driving 2

Cat-like Athletics 5

Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2

Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2

Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2

Cyber Security Quick Hack 2

Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2

Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5

Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.

Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5

Parry Blades 5

Robotics wizard Crafting 2

Drifting Driving 5

Rapid Reload Handguns 5

Design Wizard Engineering 2

Rifle Ace Assault 5

Ghost touch Breach 5

Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.

Debug Programming 2

Siren Song Rockerboy 5

Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5

Inspired Programmer Programming 5

A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10

*Unused* Annihilation 5

Cyberware:

Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/8*

Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*

Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 0/2*

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 0/1*

So I had a few things.

Cool.

Despite Rockerboy giving me a few Cool alerts from time to time. Cool hadn’t budged in a while.

Cool which was super important, as Ninjutsu, and Cold Blood were absolutely integral. What would Ninjutsu 10 look like?

But I also had Reflex, and Body. Both had also been rather locked.

Reflex was hard to level as well. Needing dedicated time to slowly work on my reflexes, my speed. Something I hadn’t really done in a long while.

Body was easier. I just needed to hit a gym… Which reminded me I still had a Gym Membership. A membership I hadn’t used in months… Fuck cancelling that was going to get expensive huh?

Don’t get distracted, Motoko.

Did I want to adapt. Or get stronger?

It wasn’t as easy as you would think. I wasn’t even touching on Intelligence, and what going over 10 could do for me there.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

Okay what do I need? Long term and short term.

Long term I was going to need to save points for my stats over 10. And adaptation. Both were integral.

Short term? I needed… Cool. I needed even better stealth. Ninjutsu was too powerful to ignore and could potentially save my ass in way too many ways. Also I needed better information gathering, considering my main hold up now was finding the Scav, so I could murder them.

Okay.

I wasn’t going to use points to increase stats under 10 for now. As useful as it would be. Cool was pretty close to leveling, and I would be better off saving it for things I can’t get in any other way.

But Adaptation was too important to put off. I had already made that decision to worry about my mental health before.

So I went and dropped a point into my Ankles.

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

When I was done I blinked as I got a new alert pop up.

*Adaptation Complete: Serano Air-Groove Ankles*

It wasn’t a sudden thing. It wasn’t like an itch that just went away. Or something that just felt off stopping.

Instead it was just a surety, a comfort. Like… Like when you look at your hands and you know every inch of your skin. A comfortable knowledge that everything was as it should be.

I pulled my foot up into my lap to check. The Real Skinn that covered my ankle created a sort of seam over the top of my foot, and around my ankle. The skin color was right because Vik was a god among men.

But it had always felt weird. Like the ankle didn’t stretch to the same points as my old flesh and blood.

But now? There was no discomfort as I stretched my foot up and down past the points my old ankle would need to stop. Past the angles left and right it could comfortably move.

Because my ankle could.

My ankle.

I stretched out putting my foot on the table and just kinda looking at it. It felt… Right.

This was me. Part blood and bone, and part metal and synth skin.

I was Motoko. Cyborg.

Yep. As always adaptation was the maybe the most important benefit of my system overall. Others might not think so. They would probably just pump their numbers and borg out and then go crazy. But for me. Being happy was the most important thing.

Being happy… I shook it off. I would be happy when the Scavs were dead.

This was the first time I completely adapted to Chrome.

It felt right. This was who I was supposed to be. I forgot sometimes that I was basically trying to pretend to be a Cyborg.

But I wasn’t anymore. I was a cyborg now. Arms ankles, eyes and skin. Bits and pieces here and there were chrome. Were more than just flesh and blood, and that wasn’t a good, or bad thing. It just was.

“I kinda feel sorry for all the fuckers that piss me off in a year or two.” I whispered to the room quietly. Adam Smasher was a high functioning Cyberpsycho.

I was just Cyberpsycho immune if I took it slow. I had the same ability V did, with Johnny shouldering her chrome addiction. If I went slow and chromed out. I could go full borg while still being just as fun loving and happy as I was now.

Yeah. That was the goal.

I put my second stat point into my Subdermal. The slight shift in the way I slouched on the couch to keep the subdermal from getting itchy was by itself super useful.

But it was just another step into accepting myself.