Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI

Hiromi and I left Richard at the apartments, the two of us piled into my car and I was driving a few blocks over to a Tyger Claw front operation.

From what Richard had said it was actually a drug distribution center, but it pretended to be a tattoo parlor.

Considering how big tattoos were with TC members. I was sure it was also a fairly active tattoo parlor.

I pulled up into the parking lot and couldn’t help but shake my head.

There were times I could forget that the world I was in was a Cyberpunk world. When the sun was out and shining, and the streets weren’t covered in homeless squatters, and trash. I could think I was just in a big city from a century ago.

But then moments like this hit me.

The parking lot was full of bikes. Mostly Kusanagi, but not every TC gonk drove one, they were expensive after all. The neon of the entire strip mall was bright covering the slightly rain soaked pavement in a neon array of color, there were people sitting around outside. Some were TC, some were joy toys, or just girlfriends of the claws.

A wild array of colors, and skin. Cigarette smoke blew around them creating trails of gray across their bodies.

I found a spot and parked, but I had done it all on autopilot, because I was completely distracted at the sight.

I actually stopped and took a picture of the scene. That was how picturesque it was.

“Motoko?”

“I’m okay Hiromi, just distracted, let’s go find Carter.” I said, stepping forward and leading the way up to the open door of the tattoo parlor.

I could tell that we were getting plenty of attention, eyes from all along the street were on us. Some disinterested, some watchful and guarded.

In the end it wasn’t uncommon for teenagers to come to a tattoo parlor, but the fact we weren’t wearing TC colors, or gear set us apart.

I ignored the couple of gangsters that were hanging around on each side of the door as I stepped in and made sure Hiromi was behind me.

The insides were covered in smoke and dark lights, the faint noise of the machines that were used to install the neon tattoos the TC loved buzzing in the background.

“Yo Girlys, what can I help you two for?” A large man with a smiling face called out. The fact he was covered in glowing tigers made of fire, and Dragons swirling around on his skin, the neon tattoos actually moving on his flesh was a little distracting.

Thankfully Hiromi was the one doing the talking.

I was just the muscle.

“I need to find one of the boys that works here. Carter? Should be someone new.” Hiromi offered with her best smile.

Of course asking about a single member of a gang? Coming from two girls?

“Listen if you need to speak to your boyfriend, or Ex boyfriend, this ain't the place for it.” The older man offered, trying to keep a big scene from happening at his shop.

I could feel my own nose scrunch up and Hiromi looked about as disgusted.

“Yeah not what this is about.” Hiromi offered with a look of disgust. “He klepped something he shouldn’t have. I’ve been asked to get it back. Considering he went and joined up with the TC, I wanted to keep it above board. So can I speak with Carter, or whoever his boss is?” Hiromi asked, trying to sound professional and confident.

But I could tell she was nervous, there were plenty of TC guys all surrounding us.

“Huh.” The older man said after a moment. He reached up and rubbed his chin processing what Hiromi had said. “Can’t say I’ve ever seen something like this before.” He offered before shrugging. “But Carter is one of us now. If he klepped something, it's now ours.” He said with a shrug, and I could see some of the boys hanging around starting to loom over.

Hiromi of course noticed as well, and I could see her will wavering a bit.

Hiromi still wasn’t great with actual violence, even with me at her side.

“I just want to talk to the gonk, get the car back, and we can get out of here. I’m even willing to throw in some eddies or something else for the time. Not like we care about the weapons he also klepped.” Hiromi offered, trying to throw out a lifeline.

“No.” The man said bluntly with no wiggle room. “Now get lost. This ain’t the kind of place you two are welcome in.” He said giving us a chance to leave, and honestly I moved to grab Hiromi to bail, but Hiromi had other ideas.

“Don’t be a gonk ass! Just let us talk to Carter so we can get the car back. Then we can delta. No need to be such a schizo!” She cursed at him, her anger obviously overriding her common sense. Hiromi was quite used to yelling at gangsters after all.

“I don’t much like a couple of kids walking into my shop trying to cause trouble for my boys.” The man jerked his head and the door slammed shut behind us.

Hiromi went suddenly quiet, I realized what was off. These guys weren’t seeing Hiromi as she used to be. Covered in TC gear. They just saw some Corpo kid trying to cause trouble. She looked at me, obviously growing concerned.

I just frowned, confused as hell. Were these idiots actually going to what? Attack us for coming to have a conversation about a stolen car?

Fuck. The temptation to start firing was there.

It might even be the right choice, but I had multiple things I needed to consider.

Hiromi being right there next to me in the line of fire. Future dealings with the TC going pretty bad if I shoot up one of their drug distribution sites.

So I shook my head to her. “Just play it cool, Hiromi.” I told her, as I closed my suddenly golden eyes quickly sending a text. Once I was done the guys were already on us. “You’re joking right. What are you trying to do? Kidnap us? You have no idea who we are. We’ve been perfectly reasonable with you.” I interrupted, trying to put the focus from Hiromi onto me.

“A couple of arrogant kids walks into my shop and starts making demands? I should be asking you this bitch, who do you think we are?” The boss asked glowering as he stepped up trying to loom over me, his face bending down close.

“Some TC mid level boss. Hey. You’re gonna want to be careful here choom. We came in above board, you won’t like what happens if you do something stupid. Make sure y-” I was trying to tell the guy not to hurt Hiromi.

I mean Arasaka parents wouldn’t be happy to learn Hiromi had been hurt by some TC stooges.

But the man stepping forward and punching me in the face shut that up.

“Don’t tell me what to do in my own business. Choom.” He said, pausing and enunciating the last word mockingly.

“That was rude.” I told him, wincing as my cheek pulled. He hadn’t hit me super hard, I guess being a teenage girl did have some benefits, but he certainly wanted to shut me up.

“Put them in the back.” He ordered, but I cut him off.

“Just so you know. I have connections with the TC. You don’t want to do anything stupid.” I called out before he could walk too far away.

So he turned and slugged me again.

Okay fine. Play it that way.

Hiromi was looking a little panicked after I had been hit, but I turned and gave her a wink.

“I messaged Jun.” I told her and she looked a little dazed for a second trying to process what I meant, before it struck her.

She almost was able to smile at my words, although her nervousness won out.

Yeah.

They searched me, pulling out my weapons including my Burya.

I would be getting that back. Of course the sight of my handcannon got some looks as they disarmed me. Upping my threat from teen to what the fuck?

Then we were both pushed into a back room, which was basically just a storage room and thrown into a set of chairs. A couple of thugs hung around the room glaring at us, but we weren’t left alone for more than a moment before the leader stepped in with a younger teenager behind him.

“Ah there is Carter.” I said in greeting. Hiromi and I had been given a picture of the kid from Richard.

“The fuck are you?” He demanded glaring at the two of us. “I don’t know these bitches.”

“They said they came for your car.” The boss offered and Carter went from irritable to ballistic in an instant.

“Bitch! You won't touch my ride!” He roared, stomping up to Hiromi and I.

Instantly I got his attention to keep him from looking at Hiromi.

I really would have to start killing if they touched Hiromi.

“Technically it isn’t yours. It’s Morgans.” I said and got the kids' eyes to lock onto me.

The fact he had them glowing red to look more intimidating, along with a TC style jacket opened on his back, with a bare chest showing off a pretty complete lack of muscles made the whole situation more amusing than anything.

“Bitch! It’s mine! Fuck you!”

“How eloquent.” I commented which to my lack of surprise caused the boy to react. Fist flung back I breathed out and tensed my stomach as his fist slammed into my stomach.

It wasn’t too bad. I coughed and overacted, but it had barely done much to me.

“That’s what you get, fucking cunt.”

“Carter. You don’t know these two?”

“Nah. I thought they might be that prick Richards whores, but I don’t know these two.”

“Surprising.” I mentioned as I stood back up after fake coughing. “I guess you weren’t there that night I killed Morgan and V3LOCITY.” I told him.

Carter looked confused for a moment before it seemed to hit him. “Purple hair. That’s right. The bitch that fucked up the Shooters. That was you huh?”

“Yep.”

“Heh.” He chuckled before predictably punching me again.

“Motoko!” Hiromi called out in horror as Carter punched me across the face.

That… That hurt a bit. My cheek was already stinging from before!

“I’m fine Hiromi.” I told her firmly as I rose back up, to glare at the kid.

“That’s for fucking up the gang. I was making a ton of eddies there, you know?” He said with a glare but I looked towards the boss.

“A punk kid that jumps to a new gang the moment the eddies run out. I wonder how reliable he is?” I mocked a bit.

“Enough! I didn’t bring you here to fuck up the meat.” The boss yelled just as Carter cocked back to punch me again. “Well girls you wanted a chance to talk to my boy, are you satisfied with the conversation?” He asked with a laugh, and I just shrugged.

My lack of fear thanks to Cold Blood, was probably odd, and Fearless Chill was in effect.

I was kinda of curious what their mind was telling them when they realized how utterly unafraid I was of them.

That was when the boss got a call.

I could tell as his eyes lit up gold for a second.

Then his eyes flicked around as he obviously spoke internally.

Then he went pale. Looked to me.

I purposefully gathered some spit in my mouth and hawked the bloody spittle onto the ground.

Bastard cut the inside of my cheek.

The room was quiet for a moment as everyone was waiting for the boss to act, but things stretched on, as he seemed to be in a conversation.

Considering everything…

“If that’s Fujimura, tell him hello for me.” I called out interrupting the boss's conversation and the way the man jumped like I just stabbed him I was right. I relaxed back, crossing my arms over my chest and throwing Hiromi a big smirk.

Although the fact I was probably bruising up a bit from being punched diminished the comfort it brought. So instead I just walked over and put my arm over her shoulder.

That seemed to help, a little.

“Fujimura-Sama is sending someone to properly resolve this… Incident.” The boss says looking a little pale, and I nod.

“Probably Jun. My brother.” I tell him and that makes the boss wince even more.

“I would very much like my gun back.” I tell him with a bit of threat in my voice and he jerks his head, causing his goons that had mostly been watching with sinister smirks to slowly walk over with my equipment, and the stuff Hiromi had on her of course.

Holstering my Burya and Lexington I felt much better.

“I did warn you that I have TC connections.” I told the man and he nodded quietly before rising up to this full size and bowing his head.

“Apologies for this mistake.”

I just snorted. “Let’s just wait a bit. I’m sure Jun is going to be sooo happy seeing me all bruised up… You’re all just lucky I don’t go out of my way to murder TC gonks myself.” I grumbled although only Hiromi understood just how much danger my words actually represented.

—--

In the end, Hiromi and I were seated back in the shop in comfortable chairs, and the boss had even had some men go out and get drinks for us.

The whole atmosphere was tense, and I was just willing to wait for Jun to show up.

Seeing Jun tear these gonks a new one would be pretty entertaining. Hiromi was regaining her spark, and I made sure to keep an eye on Carter who was looking pretty nervous now that the situation had so completely altered itself on him.

Finally a vehicle roared into the parking lot, and it was moving fast enough I bet it was Jun. Looking towards the door along with most of the people inside, I felt my smile slowly disappear into an irritated frown.

“Hey Akari.” I grumbled out as the Kamikaze Borg woman sauntered into the tattoo parlor.

“Hey Motoko!” She called out with a big grin.

Dammit. I had wanted Jun!

“And you! Kato-San!”

“Yes!” The boss of the place greeted the borg woman as he rose up and bowed to her.

“You fucked up!” She said happily and then slammed a fist into his cheek.

Ah, that was Akari alright.

“Boss!” The men around us called out shocked at the sudden violence happening to them.

“You touched something that doesn’t belong to you. Motoko Kusanagi, works for Kamikaze. She has boss Okina-Sama’s favor as well… For saving his life during an assassination attempt.” Akari walked over and to my surprise kicked the man as he was trying to get up.

“The hell! You bitch, the fu-”

“Shut up!” The boss roared at one of his boys that was moving forward to try and defend him. “Don’t interfere. Moron!”

“Ah see you do have a brain in there after all!” Akari said, smiling with her plastic face. “Motoko? You alright kid?”

“I’ll live. They got a few licks in, but I’m mostly irritated that they tried to kidnap us or something. Plus they did this to Hiromi. Can’t just let that one go.” I said and Akari just nodded happily.

As usual the woman did things in her own way.

“You should all be really happy! The Oni was so angry when he got a text from his sweet little killer-I mean Imouto that he almost raced right over! I got sent instead saving all of you from having your heads ripped off!” Akari called out laughing a bit like it was a joke.

It was not a joke.

Jun had ripped that borgs head off after all. I had even been there!

Of course the room was chilled at Akari’s words, but the boss was still coughing as he slowly rose back up.

“Kotoniki apologizes to Ane-san.” He offers going back into a bow.

It took me a moment to remember that Yakuza used sister and brother to talk about each other sometimes.

“Pfft. It’s not me you have to apologize to. Motoko here is Kamikaze, you caused some serious trouble. Last I heard, Katsuragi-Sama is getting a ‘Call’ from Fujimura-Sama about this. Fujimura-Sama doesn’t like people touching things that belong to him after all.” Akari said and while I scowled at being called Kamikaze I would let it go this time.

“Katsuragi-Sama?!”

“What you think touching a Kamikaze wouldn’t get your boss involved?” Akari asked, sounding amused. “But that’s not important to me. Motoko you ready to go?”

“Not quite.” I said standing up and tugging Hiromi up too. Walking her over to Akari. “Hiromi, Akari. She’s a bit crazy but cool. Akari, Hiromi. She is my best choom, and her parents are Arasaka. If anyone so much as scratches her, I kill everyone in this room.” I say rather bluntly pointedly looking at Akari and her tendency to poke people. “Keep an eye on her for a second.”

Then I turned and since things were cooled off slammed a fist with all my might right into Kotoniki’s face.

The boss hadn’t expected my own retaliation.

Nor had he expected a five foot five girl to hit like a truck.

Thank you body 7, Street Brawling 6, and chrome knuckles.

He went down in a heap, and unlike when Akari hit him he didn’t get back up.

Then I took another three steps before anyone could react and slammed a fist into Carters stomach. The kid had been standing nearby obviously too nervous to do anything until now.

I wasn’t feeling very gentle at the moment. I grabbed Carter by his ears and slammed his face into my knee. A crunch echoing out as that dropped the kid to the floor.

I wasn’t breathing heavy. I wasn’t gritting my teeth. As far as anyone could tell looking at me, I was completely calm.

And in a way I was.

That didn’t mean I didn’t bend down and punch Carter in the face again.

“That’s for calling me a cunt.” I grabbed his stupid jacket, and wiped my knuckles free of his blood and stood back up. “One more thing.” I called out to the room. “Where is the car this fucking gonk stole? It’s mine now.” I demanded and the room went quiet as everyone sort of wondered what to do, most of them looking to Akari.

“I don’t know why you gonks are looking at me. Motoko asked you a question.” Akari said with a deadly smile on her plastic face.

“Out back… I can show you?”

“Good. C’mon Hiromi. Let’s delta.” I grumbled, following the man out behind the shop where there was a back alley that had a line of cars lined up.

I recognized the car that Richard wanted and nodded.

The Thorton Colby Butte wasn’t exactly what I would consider an expensive vehicle. But I guess it made sense. The back end of the normal Colby was removed and turned into a truck bed.

Probably how the SLS had originally stolen all the shipments that they were so proud of. I popped the door, not surprised the alarm was broken, and after a few seconds found that Carter or the other kids had already hotwired the damn thing.

With a roll of my eyes I got it running I didn’t even need to actually rely on my limited tech knowledge. The hotwiring job was obvious and shit.

But not my problem.

Hiromi slipped into the passenger seat quietly, but before I could take off Akari was leaning down into the window.

“Lot of trouble for a piece of shit.”

“Tell me about it… Thanks. I didn’t really want to murder a bunch of gonks.”

“Yes you did.” Akari said with a knowing smile. “Jun-kun will fuss over you, and Fujimura-Sama will want a meeting.”

“Great.” I grumbled and Akari chuckled.

“Go on kid, I’ll deal with the nonsense here. We’ll meet up again soon. Probably sooner than you’d like.” She said stepping back and I frowned but nodded as I drove back to the apartments. Sending a message for my Quadra to head there as well.