175

"Late." Hayato snapped at me, her voice coming out too fast, in a rush. She was obviously getting antsy.

I nodded. "Traffic was slow." I offered, as an explanation, although it didn't satisfy her.

Hayato, like me, already had a layer of sweat on her forehead. A Shinai in one hand that she was still going through a slow, set of motions for.

"Sensei has you practicing super slow?"

"Yes." She snapped out, and I could see her face shift between irritation, before blanking. "I would enjoy a spar."

"Sure, want to do brawling, or Shinai?" I offered pointing at her blade.

She reddened and reacted instantly.

"Do not speak with such disrespect to the art of swordsmanship!"

"So you want to fight me with the Shinai?" I repeated and she pointed the blade at me.

I nodded, walking over and grabbing one off the rack. As I walked back I noticed Sensei watching us both, only once I stood across from Hayato did I shift into an actual stance.

If I remember right, she had seen me doing forms under Sensei's eye before, but hadn't seen me actually fight.

My Blades skill might not be as good as Street Brawler, but I wasn't a slouch.

Especially since Parry, my second Blades Perk was perfect for this sort of thing.

Nodding we both understood the spar was on, and she charged.

Once more relying on her Keren to be able to adjust to any incoming change I just breathed in and out, and started parrying.

Swing after swing, I guided Hayato's blade away from me. It wasn't easy. I think I was actually better skilled when it came to pure blade work, but she was so damn fast.

Still, I kept her back. The clack of Shinai that she continued to hammer against me, never reached its target.

I was really really good at deflecting blades. Parry coming in clutch, completely negating Hayato's speed and skill.

And she wasn't happy.

"Stopthat!" She yelled, speaking so fast her words blended in together.

So I did. Pushing her back after another parry, I activated my Sandevistan.

Time stopped. The warmth spread from my neck, and I moved.

I could see the moment Hayato realized what had happened, her eyes widening, but her Keren only gave her the chance to realize what was happening before it was over.

With a flick of my wrists her Shinai was launched out of her hands, and mine was thrust just past her head.

I turned off my Sandy, feeling everything go back to normal, even as the uncomfortable warmth continued to hold across my neck.

"Wha-You got a Sandevistan! You should have told me!" She broke out of her surprise quickly slapping my Shinai away and poking me. "If I had known I would have held back less! So you chose a Sandevistan in the end?"

"I needed to get used to it. And the sooner I started. The more experience I would have." I offered and she nodded.

"Good! Excellent! You have just become a useful sparring partner then! I need more practice against another using boosterware." She nodded, hands on her hip and nodding with an imperious look.

Honestly it just made me want to pat her on the head and give her a cookie or something.

"Yeah. I could use more practice with the same. More Shinai work, or switch to fists?"

"Hmmph! I will strike you before I allow this spar to end." She decided, turning and stomping over to her Shinai.

I nodded, and we got back to it.

—--

"I don't want to talk to you." She argued as I offered her a drink.

"C'mon don't be like that. Defense is something I'm really good at with a blade." I offered, but she refused to talk to me…

So I pressed the cold can against the side of her neck.

"Eeee!" She shrieked loud enough everyone in the hall jerked, and a man I noticed along the edges reached for a gun in his suit before calming as Hayato turned to glare at me. "Don't do that!"

"I don't know. That was kinda cute. I'll have to do that more now." I decided and settled in beside her, popping the can of my soda as well.

"You! Utterly outrageous!" She snapped but grabbed the drink and popped it open to drink from.

"It's your fault. I told you I was ambidextrous."

"Outrageous!" She repeated, and I had to smile. I had made a crack about how I was better with two Shinai and she had demanded that I did so.

Hayato hadn't done well after that.

"How is your Sandevistan? You didn't use it again." She asked, and I felt my fingers reach up to my neck. Chrome digits touching against the chrome. I felt a bit of the heat still there.

"I'm not really used to it yet. I feel like I burn myself each time."

"Hmph. That is normal." She offered and I nodded.

"I know, my ripper said the same, but it makes me uncomfortable.

Especially since when I used a maxdoc it went away, which meant it was some sort of injury.

"You will adapt, an-I have to leave." She said, her speech cutting off for only a millisecond as she changed what she was saying. Her guard along the walls was already moving over as well.

"Sure. Chat with you later Hayato."

"Motoko." She agreed and then hurried away.

I rested for another minute just to cool off before rising up. Time to head home.

—--

When I got home I made a meal and was humming a song, all while I was programming.

Hiromi had mentioned why I didn't just remote control the Tachikoma, and I couldn't deny it was a good idea.

While I wouldn't always be as confident in controlling their bodies as they would eventually become. I could show them how to do things it might take a while to develop naturally.

So I was working on the control interface. It wasn't simple tech, but I had the copy of the Minotaur system, and was basically copying Militech's homework while changing it enough the teacher wouldn't mind.

Progress was going pretty fast, as I was going through the code and setting it up. I finished eating, and even went and took a shower while I was working on it, just tapping away in my mental digital space as code flowed over my eyes.

Then, as I was drying off it was finished.

I looked over at the Tachikoma, and slipped the update for the control access, and then took it over.

I went to take a few steps and instead of moving it just sort of twitched and then fell flat.

Right. The Minotaur used a control crown to better handle the human to machine interface.

I sighed as I considered what to do. I could probably put one of those together? No, that sort of defeated the whole point of being able to use the Tachikoma stealthily.

I shrugged. I would just have to adapt the learning system to learning how to handle my own inputs now.

Not a huge deal, just another little thing I would need to work on… Unless I went and bought an off the shelf drone? No, I realized, it might help, but even then, it wouldn't have the same control system. The Tachikoma's unique design would make it a bit more complicated.

I shrugged, deciding to just open a new branch of the AI learning, for it to adapt to the new concept.

I looked at the laptop. It was doing an acceptable job of giving the Tachikoma the extra processing power it needed, but it was an issue that was going to become more and more of a problem.

Might need to actually go out and find some leads apart from Hiromi. Might lead to some fun gigs or something I guess.

I flopped onto the bed and continued working on the Tachikoma remote connection.

—--

The next morning I woke up and stretched. Ignoring the Tachikoma that was laying on my stomach I moved it over and set it on the ground as I left the room looking for breakfast.

"Motoko."

"Oh hey Jun." I muttered sleepily, as I stared at not just Jun but like. Four TC gonks all hanging out on the couch.

Eddies, drugs, and guns were all over the living room table, and I could tell from one look that Jun hadn't slept yet.

I blinked at him, and he winced as he realized how it looked.

"I don't want to know." I decided and Jun looked relieved, and sort of broken at the words.

"Hey! It's little Motoko!, heh! Haven't seen you in a while, kid! Why don't you come over here and say hello to Big bro Yuto!" He called out happily then turned to Jun. "When're you going to finally bring her in eh Jun? She's old enough now! Looking like a real woman already."

"Never. Motoko doesn't have much interest in this stuff." He said, with a bit of a growl in his voice as a warning. "So drop it." Jun snapped, and the man sort of flinched back at Jun's tone.

"Hey, no worries Jun-chan, no worries. But Motoko, not into the Claws? When did this happen?" The man asked, waving his hands trying to keep Jun's burning glare to calm down.

"Yuto." He snapped, but calmed down after a second. "I told you Motoko was in a coma."

"Yeah yeah, I remember just shit. She used to be the one pushing you into shit. Whenever I had trouble getting you involved, I'd just poke Little Motoko!" The man laughed uproariously at the joke.

Jun just rolled his eyes, but I noticed he was actually pretty comfortable with the guy.

I shrugged. None of my business. Wandering into the kitchen I threaded my chrome fingers through my hair, straightening it a bit as I pulled out a soda and started drinking it down.

Come to think of it, as I watched the men on the couch. I hadn't seen Jun bring over friends much.

"Chooms of yours Jun-nii?" I asked and he looked back towards me, as did the boys.

"Oh shit, you really don't remember eh Little Motoko? Come over here and sit down, Let big Bro Yuto see how much you've changed."

I continued to sip my drink as I threw a look at Jun.

"Yuto was my best choom growing up, Motoko. We ran together when we were kids."

"Hah! We still run together Jun-chan! Now that I'm out of the slammer!" He cheered and the boys around him cheered alongside him.

"Huh." I muttered wandering over. This wasn't entirely uninteresting.

"How long were you in jail?" I asked as I hopped over the couch settling in besides Jun.

"Three years, time served! More like time taken." Yuto muttered darkly. "But I'm out now! Jun-chan is a Kamikaze! Bozo and dipshit are still just shit-muscle."

"Hey! Fuck you Yuto!"

The other guy just flipped his choom off and they all laughed, even Jun.

Huh.

"Well boys and bitches, this was fun. Fuck I haven't had a real drink since they locked me up." Yuto offered with a tired grin as he stretched towards the ceiling.

"Heh. Fuckin' hell Yuto, it was never the same without you." One of the other guys mentioned with a grin.

Then Jun spoke. "Yuto. I'm glad you're out."

"Well shit Jun-chan you are going to get me crying if you keep that shit up. Although boys, there is something you can do for me, you know, as a favor to an old choom."

The three boys all looked curious, and Yuto smiled. "Help me flatline the gonk fuck that stabbed me in the back and got me sent to the slammer eh?"

I watched on as the three boys all reacted. Jun didn't say much. Just sort of frowning seriously, while the other two were a bit more argumentative.

"Fuck Yuto, we can't do that shit." One of them offered, and the other nodded along agreeing.

"Fuck you both then! No wonder you gonk fucks aren't anything but lackeys still. Jun-Chan. Bro. I need this."

"You know I can't. Kisaru is high up. The whole reason you got pegged with it, was because he had the power to get out of it." Jun said softly, uncomfortable at what he was saying.

"Exactly! He thinks he's all that hot shit! Made me take the fall for the drugs! Just because I was carrying them to the fucking buyers! If the fucker had just kept his mouth shut, that'd be one thing, but he fucking squealed. You know he did!"

"Kisaru was cleared of that. Besides, Kisaru is a Lieutenant now. We are honor bound not to touch him. You know what happens if we do. They'll kill you. Us." Jun offered weakly.

Very weakly.

"Don't fucking-No, you know what's up. Jun. I'm calling in the favor. You owe me for this! You come with, I can get to Kisaru easy as shit and flatline that gonk."

"Yuto."

"You fucking owe me Jun! You don't have a choice! So don't be a bit-Fuck!" He squealed when I came up behind him and stuck my knife right into his trachea.

"If you're dead, then Jun-nii won't owe you shit. Can't owe something to a corpse." I explained simply.

The room went silent, and I was getting looks from everyone, but I wasn't playing this game.

"Motoko." Jun said, but I ignored him, because was about to be talked into stupid shit by a fucking gonk ass old friend.

Shit like this was how everything always went wrong.

"H-hey, Little Motoko, we don-" I jabbed a bit harder.

"You shush. Listen to me now. Jun is doing better, but his life doesn't need this sort of shit. He is way too connected to the TC to go murder someone high up and not have some shit fall on his head. So no, Jun isn't going to help you get revenge. If you ask him again, I will remove you from the entire situation. Permanently."

"Motoko." Jun muttered, but I noticed wasn't actually trying to stop me.

"Do you understand Yuto?"

"Yeah, yeah I hear it." He said a little strained. For a guy that went to jail he wasn't really all that strong willed.

"Good. Jun, having chooms is good, but you aren't allowed to ruin your life because of revenge. We both… We both had to put revenge behind us yeah?" I told him seriously, then I let go.

"Fuck. Holy shit." Yuto muttered rubbing at his neck, checking for blood.

Which was silly, I didn't want to cut him, so I didn't.

"Then fuck was that?" He demanded, and I just stared at him blankly.

"A warning?" I answered truthfully wondering how that had somehow gone over the guys head. Deciding that my point was made I spun the knife on my fingers and then holstered it away before stretching out a bit. "Gonna do some more programming, have fun with your friends Jun… Just not too much fun."

"Motoko. Go to your room." Jun said grumpily and I nodded, yeah that sounded good.

I really wanted to do some work on my net hacks.

—--

I looked at the code as I did a final scan.

Overheat was a pretty common online hack. There were a few different versions. Some were a virus causing Cyberware to basically go crazy overclocking themselves, and some like this one, dumped a huge amount of junk data into the netrunners connection making their system overheat them and lag out at the same time.

The original one Yoko had given was pretty terrible. Large RAM cost, Slow upload rate, easily stalled out.

I needed a hack I could use on a netrunner so it had to be more than just a baseline hack.

So I had sat down and decided to improve on every aspect of the hack.

Reducing its size with a few alterations to the code. Massively lowering the RAM cost. I was pretty proud of that one.

Instead of sending a large packet of data over with the upload to lag the system, instead what this version did was alter some of the configuration settings of the enemy netrunner.

It caused their own system to fill with junk data on their own side. Much faster upload, much cheaper to do, and much more effective.

One small protocol alteration caused everything to come crashing down.

It was… Well it wasn't amazing. I wouldn't call it anything more than a middle of the road hack.

It wasn't as powerful or effective as my Hell Flame hack.

But it was also much much smaller, and more focused.

And I could rapid fire the hack without nearly as many issues as Hell Flame gave me.

It was an easy go to hold out weapon. I stretched out satisfied as it finished and I installed it into my deck.

[HEAT Bullet Mk.01] Installed and looked like it would work just fine.

Stretching out I wandered back out of my room. The living room was still a mess. Empty cans, trash, and some what I think was leftover drugs?

Jesus Jun, this is way worse than my firearms mess.

I wandered around cleaning most of it, but leaving the drugs alone. Can't say I was happy about it, but I was assuming the boys would be back to get their shit.

I finished cleaning up and decided to test out my new hack.

Down in the garage, sliding onto my Kusanagi, I hesitated. Forgetting something important. I had promised to be more careful.

So I sent out a text and when I got a response I smiled and gunned it. Heading out into the city towards my netrunning lair

"Okay, you had me at Netrunner Combat Zone." Malcolm said after I had gone on a long explanation of what I would be doing.

"That was easy." I muttered as I settled onto the net chair, idly grabbing the cooling cap I had hanging from the chair now. I had bought it before coming in, since this was my first time doing some real netrunning since I lost my Seacho Netdeck.

And maybe Hiromi's remarks about it being like armor had hit their mark, but I would never admit that.

"C'mon Motoko, netrunning is wild. I mean I don't have a Cyberdeck, for me, netrunning is just… Some weird thing some people can do. Getting to see it in action? That's pretty nova."

"Well you know what to do if something goes wrong, right?"

"Activate the disengage, and pull you out only once it allows… And if I have any issues, call Yoko."

"Great. See you on the web." I offered and flopped back. When I opened my eyes I was in my lobby.

I looked around and then stopped.

The Tachikoma data kernel was growing quickly.

The Tachikoma was wandering around, and as I watched it even did a little leap to climb up on top of the small table in the center of the couches.

*What is that?* Malcolm asked, as I was streaming my sight to the laptop.

"A digital form of the Tachikoma AI I'm developing. It's growing really well over here. I'm going to need to do something about that soon." If I didn't get some better hardware for the Tachikoma to run off of, it would slow down its development pretty soon.

Shaking it off, I disappeared into the net. A few quick hops and I was then walking down the dark corner of the web into the netrunner bar.

*Whoa. It looks like a normal club.* Malcolm chattered in my ear as I walked into the lobby.

"Yeah." I agreed, but this time I wasn't going to listen to Sasha that jerk! I walked up to the woman at the counter. "Hi. Umm. I've been here before, but I'll be honest, my… Choom brought me in without explaining shit to me."

The woman behind the counter blinked from her quad eye set up. Each one blinked in a different pattern.

"Saw your match. Surprised you are still alive, hell of a burnout." She said suddenly and then nodded. "Heard that you were new, and the Stray Cat dragged you in without giving you a heads up. Not supposed to do that. Talk to Admin. Follow the IMP." She offered, and opened her eyes, a small IMP Daemon appeared.

It looked like a hovering ball of light and spiraling data, but it floated around and then started into the club.

"Thanks." I followed it in, as it led me through the light crowd of the place before floating over to a man, alighting onto his outstretched hand and disappearing.

"Well if it isn't Ghost in the Shell herself." he greeted, a deep brassy voice, but not unkind. He sounded older than even his digital avatar portrayed though. "Surprised you are still alive, after you got Derezzed."

"I had some chooms keeping my brain from melting." I explained as I walked over, but hesitated before sitting.

"Slide in, slide in. You wanted some data on the rules and regs? Good idea. It was a real shock when you fried yourself for the win."

"Yeah well… I wasn't intending on jumping in head first like that."

"No, nor should you." He added, sounding unhappy. "Normally, I don't just offer easy answers. Young runners come in all the time and the usual path is for them to trade for info, but as an apology for what happened, let me give you a simple run down." He offered, flicking his fingers, and a Shard appeared in his hands.

Obviously a digital representation, but it got the point across.

I took it, and did a thorough scan before accessing the data. It was clear, but not entirely bug free. I wiped what I found and then did another pass just to be sure. Before accessing it.

"Heh, you have no idea how often kids just jam whatever data is offered to them right into their brain." Admin said almost wistfully.

Ignoring the old man's words I instead checked over the data.

It was a… Brochure? I mean that wasn't quite it, but it was close enough. Basically a spiel on what the netrunner Combat Zone was and how it worked.

The dive into the combat server had a protection system built in. Anything too bad would be stopped before it could reach a user, unless of course the user did something stupid and overheated themselves.

That part wasn't in there, but I read between the lines.

It also taught me there were a few access commands I could have used things like auto logout, and a few other features.

"This would have been nice to know." I snarked and the old man hummed in agreement.

Then when he spoke next he didn't sound pleased at all.

"What that Stray Cat did broke multiple rules. She isn't welcome around here at the moment." He said his deep voice sounded rather ticked off.

And for just a moment I felt some sympathy for Sasha. Sure, she wasn't my favorite person at the moment, but…

"It's not… Entirely her fault? I don't think she is handling her current situation very well. I hope it's not a permanent ban? Although I actually don't know how often she comes here." I admitted. Was this like a normal thing for Sasha, or just something she does to blow off steam sometimes?

I knew so little about the woman despite… Well despite seeing her die.

"It's not permanent. She was simply told not to come back until she cooled off." He replied firmly. "Does this satisfy you? Normally one would request more of a harsher punishment."

"No. That's more than enough." I waved it off.

If any punishment was going to be meted out, it should be from me, not some random guy I've never met.

"Thanks." I offered and rose up, receiving a single nod from the man as I wandered over to one of the other booths and settled in, a screen popping up as I settled showing the inside of the arena. It was quiet currently, no battles taking place, but there was an option to view past matches.

"You getting this Malcolm?"

*Fuck yeah I am." Malcolm replied back instantly, as I started the most recent match, settling in to watch how they fought, and generally how this whole thing worked…

You know without being dropped into it.

—--

Junichirou Kusanagi

"C'mon Jun-Chan!"

"Yuto. You know I want to help you."

"Then just do it!"

"Motoko will literally kill you." Jun offered, as he reached up and rubbed at his face.

Yuto getting out of jail was a surprise, he hadn't even remembered his old choom. Not with everything that had happened in his life.

Moving up in the TC, breaking out of the low level runners that he and his chooms had done for so long. The Casino. Kasumi. He stilled as the name ran through him. The white hot rage that had once consumed him, feeling like it was burning him alive was only embers. Still there.

Always there.

But it didn't fill every moment with rage and hate anymore. It couldn't. Lashing out at everyone around him, had almost… Almost hurt Motoko.

So he had let the fire dim, learned to keep it down, how to breathe and for the first time in his life, Jun had learned how to control his anger.

What was the point at getting angry with minor things? Not after he learned what true anger was.

It was why Fujimura-Sama had grown to trust him so much.

From kid drug runner, to Casino worker, to Kamikaze, to trusted lieutenant. And now, an old choom was asking him to potentially throw it all away.

Motoko was right.

Yet, Jun owed Yuto. The boy had saved Jun's life more than once. He owed him. Honor and Jun's own wants to help a friend.

But trying to murder the kid of one of the higher ups was suicide.

"Yuto, let it go. Fuck him. You're out now. You got the whole rest of your life ahead of you. Go find an output and live."

"Fuck that! He disrespected me Jun! You can't let that kind of shit go! You know that!" The boy, no… The man. Yuto and Jun were both men now.

One through death, one through prison. Both had changed, and yet.

Yuto wasn't being reasonable. His desire to flatline Kisaru Moritaka was shortsighted.

Jun sighed, looking around the bar. Thankfully while it was a TC bar, no one really knew who Yuto was yelling about. Yuto was pretty drunk at this point, enjoying his freedom.

And so quick to throw it away.

"Yuto."

"Don't fucking Yuto me Junichirou! We swore to always back eachother up! I know you couldn't do shit to get me out of the slammer, but fuck man! You're borged out! Fucking cold blooded killer now, help me kill this fuck!"

Jun just sighed, looking down into his drink.

Motoko was going to kill him. Or Yuto.

Probably both.

"Yuto. How about we do this the right way. We go down and talk to Wakako. Motoko has a good connection with her."

"Fuck man. What kind of bitch brings a fixer into this shit? I'm not some punk Jun-chan! I can kill a gonk fucker!"

"Yeah, but if you do, you spend the rest of your short life being chased around. Get Wakako in on it, and problem solved."

"I don't have that kind of eddies. Fuck man, you know that." Yuto snapped obviously frustrated with Jun's constant attempts to get him to calm the fuck down.

"How about we try it? I have eddies."

"Fuck Jun. I feel like everything is crazy now. Used to be, you would be the first to jump at a chance to flatline some fuck that crossed us. Now you are arguing against it, and… Everyone else already left."

"They have jobs Yuto."

Yuto looked at Jun with a look that would have killed if it could. "You gonks were my chooms. What happened?"

Jun flinched at the accusation for a moment before firming up.

Things had changed.

But Jun wasn't sure it wasn't for the better.

"We grew up Yuto."

The man exhaled like he was punched. Jun sympathized.

"Come on choom. Let's get out of here, get some sleep. We've been celebrating you being back all night."

Yuto was quiet, staring down into his drink for a long while.

"Do you remember Jun-chan, when we knocked over that Tino shipment?"

"Of course. Craziest night of my life until then. We stole a truck smashed into them, and flatlined them. Stole the drugs and sold it all. Made enough eddies we could buy our own rides." Jun said fondly. Motoko…

The old Motoko, had been absolutely awed at her brother's payday. Had been so proud of him for doing it, and proving he was worth something.

That was the start of his rise in the TC.

Yuto had been the one who planned it all. Jun had just been the muscle. A boy, gonk enough to climb into a stolen truck planning to crash it.

"We didn't used to think. We didn't used to let death scare us. We did it, because it was how we made the world see us." Yuto went on, and Jun frowned.

They had done it to be rich. To be famous. Back then Rep had been all there was.

"Rep is everything." Jun said and Yuto looked up and both men's eyes met.

Jun had believed that for so long. He still did… To an extent.

Jun had once believed nothing was more important. That rep was your life, and without it, you were nothing.

But Jun had come to a realization that he would have burned his rep to the ground to protect Motoko. That he would have left the TC in a heartbeat to protect her.

So rep wasn't everything.

"Rep isn't everything to me anymore Yuto. I found things in life that were more important." Jun stopped as he realized what he had just said.

What it meant for him. He had lost Kasumi, and thrown it all away, but Motoko had made him realize he still had things to live for.

Jun… Jun wanted more than to just burn out into nothing. When he was younger he had been too angry and brash to really live. Raising Motoko had been a constant struggle. But it was worth it.

He felt his lips tugging up into a smile. "I made a life for myself, Yuto. C'mon, I'll let you crash on my couch. I'll introduce you to my boss Fujimura-Sama. We can find you some work, and you'll realize there is more to life than rep too."

Jun tugged Yuto along, regardless if the man wanted to or not. Yuto was half Jun's size now.

Yuto was his choom. He would show him how to live his life too if he had to.

—--

Rebecca

"Any issues?" Hiromi asked, and Rebecca just stared at the younger girl like she was some sort of fucking Hydra.

"Choom, I thought Kitten was the weirdest of your little group, but I think you take that cake."

"I'm not weird! And neither is Motoko!"

"Sure." She replied back with a scoff. She looked down at the box of equipment that Hiromi had just dropped off.

"It's not as good as what we have of course. But I figure if there is an emergency gig over the next while until we get the full package, this will help. Let me know if there are any issues. We can send it to Motoko for alterations."

Hiromi had put together an armor kit. Actual armor, expensive shit even, just handed over. To her. Given to Rebecca who wasn't really a full timer in their group. She hadn't asked, or even known about this until Hiromi had called asking for a meeting.

Rebecca nodded, feeling a little weird. She wanted to thank the girl, and also she wanted to run away. So instead Rebecca fell back on what she always did.

"Thanks Choom! I'll pay you back."

"Why? It's part of our Section 9 funds, and Motoko wants you to go out with us. She… Is always happy to chatter about you coming with." Hiromi added, sounding a little peeved.

"Heh. Still can't admit your crush huh?"

"Shut up! Don't! Don't say that! Motoko might hear! You never know what she is doing, she could be testing a new listening bug or something!"

"I kinda doubt it."

"I don't! Just don't… Okay? Don't."

"Alright just teasing Crush, just teasing. What's this then?"

"Oh! Motoko mentioned she scrolls BD's of the gigs she does right?"

"Oh, yeah. This them?"

"Yep! And the newest one! Sorry to say, you only show up as a blur. You're a bit too distinct, but you are on that one."

"Wait, there's a BD of the raid?"

"Yep! But all of Motoko's BD's are in there. Anyway Rebecca, I need to go. I have class in twenty."

"Well shit choom don't let me keep you… Class? Fucking weird." She muttered as Hiromi jumped back into a sleek corpo car and drove off.

The fucking kid had a personal driver and shit. Some ganger kid Rebecca hadn't seen before. And Crush thought she wasn't the strangest of the entire group?

"Heh." She turned around and walked back inside. Her apartment was the same as always, quieter with Pilar still in hiding, but that was looking to end soon.

She dropped the box on her bed and grabbed her BD wreath.

What was Kitten up to?

She settled in and popped in the first BD.

Instantly Rebecca was staring at glowing letters.

Section 9

And then it started. Rebecca felt her heart calm as she settled into a new skin.

She was Motoko she realized, the thrum of her Quadra suddenly revving up.

She felt the way her arms shifted, her feet pushing the gas and brake, pressing the clutch and then they were sideways. Rebecca remembered it herself, but where she remembered being startled at the motion, to Motoko it felt…

Perfect. She knew exactly what to do. There was no confusion, no unintended motions. The entire drift had been perfectly controlled.

Rebecca felt herself already moving. The sound of gunfire, an Ajax, her Ajax going but only after Motoko had already left the seat and leapt, one jump taking her over the Quadra onto a broken wall, and then leaping across to another broken segment, letting her practically walk into the second floor of the destroyed building.

In her vision she suddenly saw a netrunner protocol, slipping into the Scavs system, and her own voice, husky and sexy slipping out.

*I plucked their eyes. Go.* Rebecca didn't remember Motoko sounding like that…

She was pretty sure she would have remembered.

Her rifle was brought up casually and fired, and the first Scav took three shots before Motoko walked over and casually kicked them off the edge.

No. Before Rebecca kicked them off the edge. She couldn't even properly keep herself separate, whoever edited this BD was a master. Rebecca moved, firing a few times and then seeing the Minotaur. Its twin guns spooled up and then the HMG fire got everyone's attention.

But there was no rush of fear, just excitement, as she leapt. The jump was intense, the feeling of her belly doing flips, but that was all Rebecca, because the BD just sent a sense of pure confidence.

No fear.

She landed, bounced, and then was on top of the Minotaur firing into the Scavs.

Fuck, Motoko was right. This was preem.

She watched through the rest of the BD ending before they even went underground.

Ending with another little message.

Section 9

Do you want to know more?

NETDIR://Section9.Web

"Fucking corpo!" Rebecca wheezed as the BD ended, laughing as she realized just how fucking crazy Hiromi was. "A fucking website!"

Rebecca continued to chuckle as she lay on her bed. Feeling the sensation of Motoko's movements still shadowed over her body.

Rebecca had experienced a lot of BD's. She liked the combat ones of course. To experience battle, feeling the adrenaline slam through her, shooting anyone and everyone.

Unfortunately they usually ended with the poor gonk who scrolled it getting flatlined.

Rebecca wasn't a fan of that.

So Rebecca had used a lot of BD's, she knew good ones. The ones that had a real Maestro editing them together.

Motoko had a serious BD editor working with her. "Holy shit." She muttered as she pulled out the BD and swapped it for another one.

"Inner Universe?" She muttered, wondering what this one was like.

Rebecca started it, and instantly wind brushed across her face. She opened her eyes to the city skyline. Far above the streets.

Her eyes tracked down to a shard in her hands.

Inner Universe. It was even etched in the same style that the BD came in.

Heh.

She slotted it and music started, an interesting song, but not really her thing. Yet she didn't get time to enjoy it, as suddenly she was moving. A shift in her muscles, that made her want to gasp even as her heart refused to beat out of rhythm.

Motoko had jumped off a fucking building!

She was free falling, motionless as the wind whipped past her, and then it was all action.

Reaching out to break her fall on a pipe, she grinded herself into slowing her speed and then once more into nothing. She landed in a roll and then leapt to her feet rushing across the top of one of the walkway bridges between scrapers.

Rebecca forgot herself. Lost in the motion of the world around her, being so unthreatening.

There was no fear, just a self assuredness that flowed into everything.

Rebecca wasn't there anymore. She didn't exist. Just the movement.

She didn't really remember herself until Ramen hit her taste buds at the end of it. Startling her a bit as the salty splash of broth pulled her out of the intense feeling of her body moving perfectly.

She pulled off the wreath with a gasp. Body shaking and shivering as she lay on her bed.

Malcolm

"You're actually going to take part?" He asked as he continued to look through Motoko's eyes.

*Yeah. I want to practice it a bit. They have an external connection here. So I'm going to disconnect and let you watch through their cameras. If you see me start dying or something you know what to do.*

"I'll watch your back." He assured her as he threw a few more Shwabshwab back. Blue was the best flavor after all.

*I know.* She replied back with a surety that would have made Malcolm blush if she was looking at him.

Motoko was pretty intense, but there wasn't anyone that Malcolm trusted more. When it came to a serious situation Motoko was the most reliable person he knew. Which still freaked him out sometimes but that was just life.

The video on the laptop shifted loading for a few seconds before it showed an arena. It loaded for a few seconds, terrain forming up until it became a desert space. Bushes and hills becoming the only cover.

*Ghost in the Shell Vs. Hamm3r.* A pop up appeared and then it was on.

A fucking netrunner match. Malcolm popped more ants into his mouth chewing as he watched.

Malcolm didn't even know you could see this sort of shit!

The arena started and Motokoed instantly started moving. Rushing forward, and to the side, once she was a ways away she kneeled down and started… Doing something?

He wasn't sure, but it only took her about thirty seconds before whatever she was doing was complete. He watched as the opponent was moving cautiously out of his spawn point. Looking all around him, and even behind him, as he started activating Daemons.

Glowing orbs appeared around him, and then set off. Seemingly searching around while stopping to scan anything and everything.

They didn't look very smart. He saw the same Daemon scan the same bush twice as it backtracked.

Motoko stood up and Malcolm now knew what she had been up to.

*System Breached!* Appeared on his screen attached to Motoko's half, and suddenly a Minimap was on the screen he could see.

So… Motoko had breached into the system? That was good, he guessed. It must be if Motoko had decided to do it, but it was still weird.

Then Motoko seemed to explode, from her form something hard to see popped out, and scattered, seemingly vanishing into the floor of the server.

It looked kinda gnarly, and there was no update about what Motoko had just done. Instead she started moving. Slowly circling around the arena, seemingly purposefully in the opposite way that the opponent was going around.

Malcolm kept expecting something exciting to happen, but…

It was slow.

Motoko was stalking around. She didn't seem to have any interest in attacking, instead she just seemed to follow in the shadows of the arena, not that there were any, but she seemed to keep a hill between her and the other guy at all times.

Then Motoko came across one of the Daemons. The orb literally floated right past her.

"What?" Malcolm had to wonder, because those things had scanned literally everything. Motoko seemed to be testing it. Walking around it, even moving in front of it, but the Daemon was stupid. When it bounced into her, it just shifted directions to wander further.

Motoko shrugged, something he had seen her do pretty often, and then in her hands a burst of fire slammed into the Daemon.

It melted. That's the only thing Malcolm could think of. The Data steaming from it, as it melted away.

Motoko was obviously pleased. She had a little smile on her face, the most amount of emotion he usually saw from her, when she was in serious mode.

But the attack had an effect. The other guy. Hamm3r? He must have been alerted to the Daemons attack.

Instead of wandering, all of the orbs started rushing straight towards where she was.

She obviously noticed it, as she looked over but instead of running she just took a step back and waited.

The Daemons all floated over a hill. Looking red and angry as they started scanning around, but to Malcolm's surprise they continued to just miss Motoko. Like she was a Ghost standing among them.

They floated towards where the burning remains of the other Daemon was, and it took a few moments, as Motoko wandered around them. Obviously preparing something.

And then it happened.

As the Daemons gathered closer to the flaming Daemon corpse she sent seemingly multiple bursts of her fire into them from different directions. The Daemons reacted, but it was too slow. Only one of them turned and actually started trying to attack back before they all burned.

The one attack was blocked by a wall of weirdness Motoko made, that took the hit and just seemingly fizzled it out.

The enemy runner obviously noticed what had happened, as he stopped charging towards where Motoko was and instead started summoning in even more Daemons. This time they weren't small orbs exploring. He instead took longer, slowly forming a Daemon that resembled…

A thug? It looked kind of like a gangster, but Malcolm realized why this was the Daemon that was summoned, as a moment later it pulled out a gun.

This Daemon seemed to be smarter, instead of running off, it stuck to the runner guarding his back. Satisfied, the runner started forming another one.

It took a while and Motoko was seemingly watching what was happening through the mini map, content to give this runner time.

So Malcolm watched as nothing really happened. Motoko seemed satisfied to wait, and the runner seemed content to spend time generating more and more of his Daemons.

*FlAm3r: Both of these n3rds need to get on with it.* A message suddenly popped on the side of the screen, and Malcolm almost freaked out wondering if someone was hacking him, when a second message happened.

*B/\it: Tell me about it. Ghost is acting weird, but Hamm3r is a fucking noob. Stop playing with the little shit. I saw her last match, she could easily wipe this kid.*

And Malcolm realized there was some sort of chat? He typed into the keyboard and the words instantly went into a previously invisible chat field.

Huh.

He noticed he didn't have a username, and just before he started trying to make one he realized he was literally talking about a netrunner system…

He decided to not respond and just continue watching, even as a few more runners shit talked about the situation.

Finally Hamm3r started moving. Groups of his Daemons gathered together and started hunting. Leaving four of them with him, while an equal sized group left.

He waited and watched as Motoko finally reacted. Moving steadily towards the Daemons.

*B/\it: Why is she focused on the Daemons? If she wanted to attack him, she should have done it while he was summoning. Fucking loser.*

*R0ck4tr3ss: Shitstain fuckin shut up. You always complain and whine about other people but bitch out and never step into the arena. It's obvious she is testing to see what Hamm3r can do.*

Malcolm nodded as he watched the fight continue. Motoko hunted the four Daemons down, murdering all of them with fire seemingly without any real issue. Especially since they couldn't seem to see her.

*R0ck4tr3ss: Why aren't the Daemons responding to her? Some sort of optical hack?*

*Admin: Ghost dropped a Daemon into the arena when she breached the system. I don't want to go poking too deep while she is actively battling, but it seems to remove her from the sight of digital constructs. It does seem to work on Hamm3r as well to an extent.*

*B/\it: The lord speaketh! Hail the Admin!*

*FlAm3r: I've never heard of a hack like that. You got any deets @Admin?*

*Admin: You don't have the funds to pay for such information. Best to leave it.*

*FlAm3r: Fuck off!*

*B/\it: LEL Flamer more like Flamed.*

Malcolm looked away from the chat as it was filled with people laughing and not much else, to focus on Motoko.

He looked over and she was still laying seemingly asleep on the chair. Completely calm. A quick check and her Cyberdeck was still just warm and not overheating her. Everything was fine.

She finished fighting the daemons, and then slipped away. Seemingly waiting to see how the runner would react.

Angrily it seems.

Hamm3r rushed towards where Motoko was. The wait seemingly getting to him as he reached the bubbling mass of his former Daemons burned into flaming puddles he looked around.

*Come out! Stop sneaking around!* He roared looking around but then. Nothing.

Motoko definitely heard him, but she wasn't moving. Pissed, the guy summoned up another mass of Daemons, the orbs again, appearing much faster than the guys in suits, and then they sent out again. Searching.

But it was obvious to Malcolm that Hamm3r was seething.

Once a dozen of the IMPS were summoned, he stopped and started creating the larger Daemons again.

Though Malcolm noticed summoning each one was much much slower than before.

He looked towards the chat wondering if anyone would talk about it? Maybe he could get some answers.

Nothing. They were all just arguing about some random shit Malcolm had no idea what about.

So he just settled in to watch.

—--

Hamm3r I decided was really easy to piss off.

I felt a little bad for Malcolm as he was probably a bit bored, but grinding XP was not for everyone.

I was settled in a corner of the map just letting my deck stay cool, as I watched Hamm3r struggle to summon more Daemons.

Which was weird? I hadn't done much with Daemons, besides the free code for the facehuggers that I got from the perk, but I knew the basics. Each Daemon took a certain amount of Space on your deck to summon. But in exchange you had a program backing you up. Usually with a built in hack of its own to attack with.

Some were of course specialized like my face huggers, or the IMPs that were summoned to search for me. And yeah there was a limit to how many Daemons you could run at once off a deck, but… Was Hamm3r already hitting his limit?

The last two guys hadn't had any issues, but they had both been way more skilled than this guy.

Hamm3r was sort of outclassed. I had realized it when he had tried to breach into the system, and I hadn't even needed to intrude for him to fail.

It was kind of embarrassing.

Still, he was angry, and doing exactly what I wanted. Summoning XP for me.

I followed an IMP as it wandered around until it was far enough away and killed it. Hell Flame ending deleting its data too quickly for it to start any hacks against me.

Once again this set off the IMPs, but I noticed instead of all charging at the last spot they gathered up with Hamm3r as he hurried towards the spot.

I considered leaving a trap, but he would see it, and that would just be a waste of heat.

It was funny but I had learned something from the last time I was here.

RAM might be mana, but the heat of your Cyberdeck was mana burn.

You can't just go all out constantly, or you'll burn yourself out. So I just had to balance my cooldowns, and adjust my mana spending!

Thinking about it like a game, or like how I would if I was playing a wizard or something in an MMO helped.

Besides, I had a different objective than poor Hamm3r. I was here to farm him.

When he reached the burned corpse of his IMP he found nothing.

And that made him even angrier.

The poor kid was already overheating. While he had tried to breach into the server to get the Minimap info. I had breached him back.

Something he hadn't even noticed considering how sneaky I had been.

To my surprise though, when I breached, a lot of stuff had been blocked off by a firewall, and instead I had been given a screen just like the Minimap.

Which had things like his Cyberdecks RAM usage, and current temp.

The arena was an interesting bit of code. I was gonna have to speak to Admin about seeing under the hood. It was kinda cool.

But regardless, each Daemon he summoned cost him a chunk out of his Cyberdeck's RAM to keep up, and it was heating him up constantly.

He wasn't overheating himself yet, but he was getting close.

But still I didn't approach.

I just kept poking.

His IMPs once more wandered around, this time in sets of twos, trying to track me.

He seemed distracted, instead of summoning more I noticed on the minimap the Daemons were moving with more intelligence.

I guess he decided to switch to an RTS?

Finding a pair of IMPs that were far enough away wasn't hard, and once again I snuck up on them, and then blasted them with Hell Flame.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

Smirking, I hurried away once again as all the Daemons rushed towards their death once again.

Poor Hamm3r.

I could hear him cussing at me through the entire arena. Digital shit talking that I just ignored.

Hamm3r tried. He loaded up more Daemons together. I killed them.

He tried staying with them, but after a while where I just didn't do anything he split them up and tried keeping them in larger groups again.

In the end, Hamm3r started absolutely raging at me. At the lack of my appearance, or doing anything.

I noticed he stopped summoning more Daemons.

Which was the moment he rang his own deathknell. If he wasn't going to give me more XP to farm? Then this match was over.

Slowly I came out of hiding, just approaching the man that was pissed and fiery, shouting expletives into the air.

Walking closer and closer, it was inevitable that he would notice me, even if he wasn't looking, the digital scape wasn't like the real world. You didn't entirely see with just your eyes.

He jerked away from me, shocked and startled, and that was when I moved.

Sandevistan activated. A Breach jumped, and a moment later he was down, and his Daemons were burning.

*Ghost Wins!*

—--

When I reappeared in the club I was met with looks of both amusement, and irritation.

"You sure took your time!" One of them yelled out and I just shrugged, but it was a curse from behind me that caught my attention.

"Bitch!" Hamm3r was there, red in the face and really pissed. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" He demanded as he charged forward, but he stopped when Admin was suddenly there hand in front of him blocking him from advancing.

"No fighting here." Admin demanded the older man firm and then he looked to me, and Hamm3r to make sure we both understood.

What could I say? What should I say?

I sighed, really wishing I could run a hand through my hair.

"Sorry, I was trying things out. I didn't think of the time it might take." I offered but Hamm3r just scoffed and flipped me off.

"Never going in a match with you again." He threw out as he turned and headed away quickly disappearing in a log out.

"That was rather cruel of you Ghost." Admin offered and I flinched.

"I didn't mean it like that. I was just…" I trailed off, because how do I explain that I was hunting his Daemons?"

Admin shrugged. "It was a competition, and you just showed how time can be an advantage netrunners often don't get the chance to take advantage of. If you continue to battle in such a way, just be aware of the effects it will have on your reputation."

"Right." I offered quietly.

Because honestly I probably was going to act like that as long as I was fighting someone that used Daemons.

The XP had been too good to ignore. Over 5000xp from all the Daemons in just one match!

It was a massive increase, and if not for the fact Malcolm was waiting on the line I would be tempted to throw myself into another match.

Which is probably why it was such a good thing he was here. I should cool off and take in what I learned.

"Thank you for the opportunity. This was actually very helpful." I offered to the older netrunner and I could see him react with a blink before he formed a smile.

"Well that isn't something I hear often. You are very welcome, Ghost."

I nodded at that and disappeared in my own logout.

—--

"That was kinda interesting, and kinda boring." Malcolm offered when I sat up, and I winced at the words.

"Sorry. You were really useful to have here though."

"Hey don't take it like that. I got to see a netrunner battle on the net, you have any idea how rare that is?"

"Is it?" I asked confused. "I mean, if that combat zone exists, then shouldn't there be recordings?"

"Never seen one." Malcolm replied with a shrug. "It was kinda cool though."

"Huh." I muttered, maybe I'd talk to Hiromi about it. Could be something interesting for the BD market? Or at least a video side of it.

I shrugged and got up stretching, feeling pretty good. A big chunk of xp always left me feeling better.

"Want to get some food?" I asked, and Malcolm nodded instantly.

"I could eat."