149

I left the club after hanging out for a while. Afterlife was neat, but I had spent my social batteries. Instead I decided to focus on what I wanted to do next, having used the time at the bar to figure it out. Getting home, I wandered over to my workbench inside my room and plopped down into the chair.

I wanted to level my Tech ability more.

Between my work on the armor for Section 9, and the tools I had made I made a big advancement, but I still wanted more.

So I plopped down the bag of supplies I had bought on my way home, and went to work.

CAD first.

Connecting my personal link into the laptop, I was able to do a lot of work without even touching the keyboard or mouse now, just letting my mental netrunning work on what I needed, as my hands parted out parts for what I was going to do.

I had a lot of money so I was going to basically burn a lot of it for experience.

The parts I had bought were everything I would need to make rudimentary drones.

Design Wizard, A.I. Whisperer and Robotics Wizard all synergized extremely well with what I was doing.

On the laptops screen a very simple drone was coming together. I still wanted Tachikoma. I couldn't really cosplay the major without them!

So I was going to start. Even if a lot of the work would be wasted when I leveled up my tech, I could still start iterating on the design, start working on the AI. Of course at first it wouldn't be an AI. I couldn't possibly make something with AGI levels of awareness on what little processing power I had.

No, first it would all just be algorithms. A few learning scripts, to develop walking patterns, and things that my good little boys and girls would need.

But like all children, they would use the first steps of these algorithms to iterate from themselves.

But first, I needed a drone to start the process.

I basically was going to make something as similar to a full size Tachikoma that I could, just much smaller. Two feet or so across, maybe a foot tall at the head bulb. I likely wouldn't add the back compartment in yet. That would simplify it for the first iteration.

I just needed to make the drone, and then start filling in the details with programming.

The CAD program took up my attention, once I parsed out the parts I needed I focused fully on that.

My 3d printer would be getting a lot of work tonight.

I kept tinkering away at it, the legs were a lot of work on their own, they had to be capable of the range of motion needed, plus needed enough power to actually actuate. Power sources thankfully weren't too bad, although with the battery systems I could buy off the shelf, I would have some battery life concerns especially once I started running smarter and smarter systems to control the drone.

But for now it was a night of slowly building the internals of the drone, through the CAD program one piece at a time.

—--

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

*Engineering skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I blinked at the alert that came as I was working on the internal musculature of the drone. Multiple limbs meant, I either needed the electric motors to spread their strength, or have one for each limb.

I stepped back from the design to stretch, even and let my brain cool down. Working for hours on this design was definitely a lot of work, and I was only getting through because of my Perks.

My actual engineering skill was only just capable of keeping up with the exacting details of what I was working on.

Sure most people could kludge together a drone out of parts with a bit of effort, but I needed something capable of some pretty extreme performance.

It had four articulating legs, which had wheels, so I had to draw power for the drones to drive. They had to be able to jump. I wanted to work on a wall climbing function for their legs. Something to let them stick, or grab onto walls and climb vertically. I still wanted to do a stealth function, but I was leaving that out for a later design. I simply didn't know enough about Optical Camo to get it to work.

Anyways, it was hard!

So to get another perk? Well that was something truly useful.

I once again skipped the grenade focused perks, because I still had no idea why Engineering was so focused on explosives, instead I scrolled through the perk list to where I went into the design focused perks.

Last time I had picked Design Wizard, vastly improving the quality of my designs.

I ran down the list skipping more than a few before I found the one that caught my eye.

Robotics Engineering: The robotic form is as familiar to you as your own.

Since my main desire was to make Tachikoma it seemed to be the best choice.

The moment I picked it I knew I had made the right choice.

I already had Robotics Wizard from Crafting, which was all about putting a robot together. Now I had the opposite, a synergy immediately began and I gasped as I realized how many tiny things could be done to enhance a robotic form.

I went from someone that could put a robot together, to someone who could design something that was more than just a robot.

It honestly made me think of Battle Bots. That show on TV that was so popular in my last life. Before I would have been one of the gen 1 bots. The ones that half the time caused their own downfall or something.

Now I was fully aware I could make a bot that would have crushed the entire competition. It was that much of a difference. Understanding the nuances of physics on the robotic form.

How easy it would be for their body to exert the forces I would need.

I looked at my own chrome arm for a moment and realized how… inadequate it was. How badly they had restrained the power the arm could exert, to make it easier to quickly replace in a desperate situation.

I shook it off, although it did create that burning desire to make myself better again. The desire for more chrome. To grow stronger.

I shook it off. Tachikoma first.

I went back to the CAD design I had made so far, and started reworking large sections of it. I didn't need for each limb to have their own motor, I could use a muscle structure instead to make a single much more powerful motor supply the power.

Instead of each limb being fully robotic, I would just add synthetic muscles instead! It took up less room, which meant I could make the battery bigger! Fixing one of the supply issues!

Mwahahaha!

—---

As much as I wanted to really focus down and get the Tachikoma done, I still had other things distractions in my life, but that was okay. It was a good thing. Staying cooped up all day wasn't good for you!

That is why I was waiting on the corner around Arasaka tower for Hiromi to meet me for lunch.

She had called and wanted to vent about her classes.

So I was hanging out besides a 25/7 with food already waiting in the passenger seat for Hiromi to get out of class.

I was only pecking at my own meal while I waited so we could eat together.

Which is of course when I jerked up at the sight of someone I had only seen from afar.

"David Martinez."

The boy was walking over to the grassy section across the street and looked like he was both eating his lunch, and to my amusement set up a backpack next to him and started selling XBD's.

The first boy that walked up to him to buy was handed a compact tablet and after a few moments the boy poked away and then handed it back. David nodded, seemed to confirm payment, and handed out one of the condom wrappers to the kid.

I grabbed the food, and stepped out of the Quadra, heading across the street when I got a chance.

I really really wanted to see this for myself.

"Selling BD's?" I asked as I sauntered over, catching David's attention. The poor kid was half a second into biting into an XXL burrito and he gave it a look of yearning before turning to me.

"That's right. Best BD's in the city. None of that Scav scop. Mox work, and some really preem work that you can't get anywhere else." He offered as he once more reached into the bag and pulled out the tablet and handed it to me.

I was practically snickering at the situation, and there was no way I could end it here. I set the food down on the bench beside him and grabbed the tablet.

"First tab is all normal BD's good stuff still. Inner Universe is one of our top sellers, It'll make you think you can fly." He said and I nearly ruptured something as I kept myself from laughing at such a corpo sounding sales pitch.

David was a riot!

"I've seen it. The Parkour is a little kludged at times, but the music is amazing."

"What? No way! Inner Universe was perfect! The parkour, the death defying jumps!" He nearly jumped off the bench as he spoke. "The Ghost is preem stuff. Nothing else compares really." He offered and I felt myself smile happily.

See! They got my name right!

"Well it's preem that you like them. How's working with Hiromi? She isn't too bad is she?" I asked, changing the subject as I handed the tablet back.

"You know Hiromi?" He shot back surprised, and maybe a little suspicious.

"Yeah, she's one of my best chooms. I'm actually here waiting for her. Saw you selling BD's and wanted to come see."

"Ah well, she's great. Sure." He said in a way that left me with the opposite feeling.

"Ah, she's a bit too much?"

He just gave me a look and didn't say anything.

"That's fair. I hope she wasn't too mean to you. She can get a little hyper focused. I'll talk to her, make sure she is nicer to you and Nox."

"You know Nox too?"

"Yeah? We are… Sorta chooms? I'm Motoko."

David's eyes instantly widened and I realized if he knew Nox, it was likely that he knew who I was.

"You're the Ghost!" He said breathlessly.

"That's my Netrunner name, and I guess Hiromi used it for the marketing of the BD's too."

"Holy shit! You're nova! I've watched The Only Thing They Fear like a million times." He blurted out, and I just winced.

"Ah, probably shouldn't watch that one too much. I was totally agro in it. I just wanted to test out the song and stuff."

"No way! It was the best. Especially the end, with the Cut-o-Matic!"

"Heh. Chainswords do hold a special place in my heart."

"Yeah! You were like. Raaagh! And the Scavs were like Eeeee!"

I burst into laughter at the noises David was making. They had kinda sounded like that when I had the Chainsword.

Of course my laughter was interrupted a moment later by a Hiromi missile as I was slammed into.

"Motoko!" Hiromi called out suddenly as she instantly wrapped her arm around mine. "Did you wait for 'me' long?" She asked, emphasizing her sentence weirdly as she looked at David.

"Not super long, and I got distracted by David here. He did a good job trying to sell me the BD's."

"Which he doesn't need to do, because Motoko gets any of the BD's she wants for free. Obviously." Hiromi said, continuing to look at David who was looking more and more nervous.

Don't worry David! I'll talk you up to Hiromi! Make you look good to your boss!

"It's okay Hiromi, he didn't know at first, but he did a great job. I was actually tempted to buy some of the BD's even if they aren't my thing! He's a good salesman." I offered throwing a wink to David over Hiromi's head although for some reason he just kept looking even more nervous.

Ah, Hiromi, you are holding on pretty tight there. I reached over and patted her head, distracting her, enough to get free and then settling onto the bench.

"Don't forget your lunch Hiromi." I said lifting the bag and shaking it. "Why don't we hang out with David while we eat? I interrupted his lunch as well." I said as I settled onto the bench next to him and then pulled open the bag of food on my other side, so Hiromi could get access to it as well, although she didn't seem to want to sit down for a moment before eventually settling in.

"We should go eat somewhere else, let David get back to work." She almost hissed out the last bit, but I just laughed at her.

"It's lunch time Hiromi, let him eat. Besides I want to hear about how he's found working under you. I mean, since he is working for you, he is basically part of Section 9. Obliquely."

"No. No he isn't." Hiromi said, but she was finally starting to eat.

Poor Hiromi must be Hangry.

"So David. Have you been making good eddies? Any problems? Anyone bothering you or anything?" I asked, and the boy once more stopped burrito halfway to his mouth.

Which… On one hand, I'm sorry for interrupting his meal, but it was an XXL.

Realizing this I reached over and grabbed one of the cartons of noodles I had planned on eating myself and handed it over.

"Here, have this instead." I offered smiling, and he looked surprised for a moment before flashing me a boyish smile and taking the food.

"Hey, thanks."

"No problem." I offered, and he quickly started eating, which gave me time to look to Hiromi.

"So classes have been rough today?"

"Ugh! It's those brats in class! No one believes that I've managed a major Op for my father! They just scoffed at me!"

"Well you did, and it's probably on your record right? So no need to worry about what they think. They are your peers, not your bosses right?"

Hiromi just grumbled a bit but nodded accepting my words as she stuffed some Lo Mein in her mouth.

"Wait, you did an Op?" David asked, and Hiromi actually smirked looking oh so superior for a moment as she sat up straight.

"That's right! My father hired our group Section 9, and we not only recovered the data that he wanted, but we brought home so much loot."

"I'm still super excited to play with the Minotaur." I whispered with a sigh. It was so fun! You just put on the head set, click in the control shard, and suddenly you were a massive walker ready to stomp on anyone in your way!

It was like all my dreams come true!

Of course it wasn't my real body, so it was only a fun diversion. Someday I'd end up in a Dai-Oni, or something and then I would be the stompy bot!

"Really Motoko, what are we even going to do with that thing? It's almost too heavy to move even in Ichi's truck."

"I don't know, but I'm sure it will come in handy someday!"

"Ugh. I'll have to figure out something." She mumbled something after that I didn't catch as David interrupted.

"Whoa. That's so preem. You guys are like total edgerunners!"

"Nah." I instantly denied, scrunching my nose at the thought. "Edgerunners are idiots who just want to die. Trust me David, you might some day decide to do Merc work, but remember something super important okay? Going home to the ones you love after a gig, is the only way to plan things out. If your end goal ends with you dead, then you failed step one."

He didn't look like he quite understood, but I shrugged. I would do my best to guide the gonk away from leaping off the edge, but some people were just dedicated to killing themselves.

"Did you make a BD of this gig? The one that you did for Arasaka."

"No." I shook my head. "I thought about it, but some gigs you are dealing with things that are too dangerous. The less people that know about that gig the better. So no BD."

"Aw. I wanted to see it from your perspective." Hiromi muttered and I just laughed at her.

"I didn't say I didn't scroll the BD. Just that I don't plan on handing it to Judy. But maybe we can get it properly adjusted some time."

Hiromi flashed me a smile and I went back to eating. In the end, I hung out with Hiromi and David until they had to go back to class, but I think my task to raise Hiromi's estimation of David had worked, at least she had gotten real close to him on the way back to Arasaka tower. So they must have talked about something.

—--

I had a complete blueprint of the first draft of the Tachikoma.

It definitely wasn't perfect, but after realizing the supply and price of some parts would be… Difficult. I downgraded a lot.

This was a testbed.

But the CAD design was done.

Tachikoma Mk.0.1.

My system liked it when I completed a design, and I had gotten a nice Engineering, and Technical Ability alert as I finished.

Now it was time to put one together.

The 3d printer went to work. Piece by piece, but that takes time so I didn't want to just sit in front of the desk staring at it. Instead I switched to another grind.

"What are you doing?"

"Practice!" I chirped to Jun. He was sitting on the couch watching some TV show he liked, while I was practicing my Athletics.

Mostly I was just tumbling, Back Handsprings across the living room until I stopped at a wall, and then turning and doing it again.

Grinding!

"Alright… Just don't break anything." He rumbled but went back to his show after a bit.

"I won't!" I said, as I completed a circuit. It was kinda intense flipping around so much, but since it was a newish exercise. I had done something like this before after all, but I hadn't really grinded it like this much, but the alerts were coming in.

Mostly Athletics, although I did get a body alert on my tenth circuit, so that was nice!

I finally took a break, flopping down onto the ground to catch my breath as I felt my chest heave.

"Finally done?"

"For now!" I offered waving my wrist at Jun weakly.

"What are you practicing anyways?"

"Acrobatics! It's useful!"

"I suppose with those ankles of yours it would be."

"It's just useful in general! Never know when you might need to leap into cover or something. Plus it's good exercise in general!" I said, looking over to Jun and boring my eyes into him as I finished.

He of course swiftly turned away and continued snacking as he watched TV.

"You really need to exercise more Jun."

"I'm already strong."

"Only some of you! Chrome doesn't count! You will get all flabby if you keep relying on it."

"I'll just chrome out the flab. We got plenty of eddies, between Fujimura-Sama giving me more for gigs, the cheaper apartment, you no longer needing an allowance."

I grumbled at the last one. I had only needed a little money from Jun! Then I made my own! He was probably talking about old Motoko for the most part.

"You really shouldn't joke about that Jun. You need a lot more time before you can chrome up any more." I said quietly, more seriously.

This time he just grumbled at me. I snorted at him, finally standing up and walking over to sit on the couch beside him. Without hesitation I reached into the bag of snacks he was munching.

"So what are we watching any-ACK!" I choked as I threw the food into my mouth, instantly the taste registered and I spit it right back out.

"Motoko!" Jun yelped but I was too busy rushing to the bathroom.

Jun was snacking on Shwabshwab! It was ants! I had put ants in my mouth!

Hacking and spitting to remove as much as possible.

"W-why!? Why do they taste like ketchup!" I moaned as I rushed back out to get something to drink to wash the taste out with.

"I like the Ketchup flavored ones! Motoko! You are cleaning this up!" Jun yelled, pointing at the spray of spit and red colored ketchup flavored ants sprayed across the living room table.

"I'm dying!" I moaned desperately, popping one of Jun's Ni-Cola just to wash the taste out, which didn't really help as I was just replacing it with the horrid taste of cough medicine.

"Die after you clean it up!" He demanded grumbling at me.

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.