Chapter 74

Maiko left us with her emotions storming from side to side. She was still looking at us fearfully, waiting for me to kill her, but also with a kind of adoration for me... This adoration in her gaze had appeared during the meal.

Judy noticed it, of course, and so did the signs of attention that Maiko, even though she feared our company and my reaction, began to give me. She undid a couple of the top buttons on her blouse and sat in a more feminine pose, and tried to flap her eyes a couple times... but I wasn't interested. but I wasn't interested. And now leaving us, she was also feeling resentment and irritation in addition to everything else.

For in her mind she is gorgeous and irresistible, occupying a good place, was ignored!

"Well, uh. did we accomplish our goals?"

That was the question I asked Judy as the door closed behind her acquaintance.

"Yeah. warned. and destroyed. And not only by your cooking, but also by the fact that you ignored her hints ..."

"Well, it wasn't hard to do. I have more than enough female attention, and the girls who give it to me are much nicer to me both externally and mentally and spiritually."

"Ha, how he sings like a nightingale!"

"Becca, he's saying that about you and me, too."

Lucy looked at her friend disapprovingly.

"Then let him take responsibility and fuck us already!"

Becca pouted unhappily.

"Becca..."

Panam shook her head.

"...it doesn't work like that. You can't just say fuck me and then get a boyfriend."

"Is it?"

I looked at Panam in surprise.

"And I was about to start taking my pants off..."

Their eyes crossed on me.

"Really?!"

Becca immediately reached for her underwear she was sitting in.

"Sure... but since Panam said it doesn't work that way..."

I shook my head.

"...and I trust the Pans. So it doesn't work that way..."

Naturally everyone realized I was just kidding, their grins told it, but even after realizing that, Becca couldn't just stop.

"It's all working!"

"Freeze!"

Panam brought her fist down on Becca's head and twirled it a few times causing the girl to squeak painfully.

"I got it! I got it! You can't be so brazen! I'll just sneak into his bed and that's it!"

Panam sighed.

"At least this way."

"Seriously?"

I looked at Panam in surprise, and so did the others. She just shrugged her shoulders. She looked as if there was nothing contradictory in what she was saying.

"I don't suppose any of us doubt that Becca and Lucy will end up in David's bed?"

"Well..."

"No... they'll be there. but I doubt it'll be within the next week."

"Well, there's no doubt in my mind..."

Panam shrugged her shoulders and glanced snidely at the girls who hadn't been in my bed yet.

"...but I want to maintain some decorum. And I don't want to hear about you planning to fuck my boyfriend. And I don't want to watch it, either."

"Okay..."

Lucy nodded gravely.

"Okay, uh. now that we're done with this topic, what do we do now, huh, Judy?"

"Why me?"

"Well, uh. you know Parker and her planning capabilities, you know Myko... who's gonna outplay who, and should we get involved?"

"Nah..."

Judy shook her head.

"...we're not gonna get involved. Although I'll send out an e-mail to the dolls I know so they can get out of the clouds for a couple days.

"Well..."

I shrugged.

"...it's up to you."

"I don't give a shit about them. I did the best I could. More is really zeroing in on all the extras and becoming Queen of the Clouds myself. Except it means tying yourself to this town. And even for the near future, you had grand plans to fly to the moon..."

Judy shook her head and then the bell rang.

"Go ahead, Bestia."

"David, they found DeShawn here..."

"AND?"

"With a hole in his head..."

"I'm not surprised."

"You're not his, are you?"

"Does it look like it?"

"Well, uh. not at all. you wouldn't take it to the dump, you'd zero it where you found it."

"Dumpster?"

"Yeah, uh. we found him by accident. I still can't figure out what he was doing there."

"Well, uh. I can guess."

"Listening to you carefully..."

"V-- the day I went to Victor and he operated on her, she and that ex-jacket stank. Most likely, Vee after they put a bullet in her head was taken to the dump, and afterward, the jacket went to DeShawn and demanded the name of the perpetrator...

"Hmm. and when he found out he'd been shot in the head, he decided to see for himself. At the junkyard it turned out that Vee had miraculously survived, and DeShawn, as no longer being of interest, was simply nullified."

"Exactly."

"Sure it's a stretch, but for lack of other information..."

We were quiet for a while.

"Don't you want to know what I found for your friend?"

"No, uh. it's none of my business. Honestly, I've gotten too involved in this whole thing..."

I shook my head.

"...I'm not going to dive any deeper."

"Okay... although it's a shame."

"Hmm?"

"Well, if you did. you wouldn't have just done that and you'd be giving me a lot of useful and not-so-useful information right now. And now.

"Okay... over and out."

"Over and out."

The connection broke and I shook my head with a sigh.

"Is something wrong?"

"DeShawn's out. found it in a dumpster."

"Hmm?"

All the girls looked at me in surprise and I told them my thoughts on how it could have happened. And they were forced to agree that my version had a right to exist...

*** 24 hours later. ***

We reached the Aldecaldo clan's parking lot early in the morning and spent the day working. Ranershi on cracking wood chips, me on working with the equipment I'd gotten on order from Bestia and Regina's people...

But all good things come to an end...

Our good time came to an end when a very expensive car pulled up to the clan's parking lot and a Chinese-Japanese man, familiar to me, got out. I was just resting in the fresh air so I could watch everything that was going on and saw him walk with his head held up proudly towards the nearest clan representative.

A few words...

With this contemptuous look on his face and then he changes his face. It goes from contemptuous to displeased and he says something again. And again his face changes rapidly...

Sandy!

The world froze for me, but I realized that it was shortsighted to show all my capabilities in this situation, so I slowly reduced my acceleration. And I started to move only when this frame began to move in my perception.

Except going in his direction would have been foolish, as it also demonstrated my capabilities and instead I snatched up my dagger and flung it in the direction of that frame.

The truth threw it so that when he flew up he hit it with the handle, not the tip, but the second threw it so that its tip flew exactly past the nose of this frame leaving a thin cut on it ...

I'm shutting down the sandi immediately.

"Hey."

How the daggers performed their function a second before I started talking and that jacket didn't have time to attack my clan representative.

"...what do you want here, jacket?"

"You..."

He turned toward me and used the thumb of his right hand to wipe the droplets of blood from the bridge of his nose.

"...my mistress wants to speak to you."

"I don't really give a shit about that..."

I shrugged.

"...I don't do business with corporations."

"I think you better change your perspective..."

"Why would I do that?"

"We can pay..."

"Yeah, yeah..."

I nodded, showing him that I believed him. I really believed him, and they might pay, but I wasn't going to get involved in corporate shit.

"...I believe you can. Except I don't work for corporate."

"And yet you helped Vee. and she needs your help again."

"Helped..."

I nodded again.

"...but she's not corporate, even though she was. And my help was, uh. not so much. I just helped her stay alive, and then she had to work on her own."

"But she needs..."

"Jacket, I've already told V. I'll take it from here. I'm not going to get involved in a fight with or between corporations."

"Are you sure? Working for us could be very lucrative..."

"Yeah... very profitable."

I nodded my head.

"The benefit was especially well tracked on V when it was kicked out and on you ... you epitomized the word benefit."

"I mean, we can talk differently, right?"

"Here..."

I nodded my head.

"...typical of the corporate world. Anything that's not to your liking, it's a threat, though not formalized yet, just hints... but I think it's not too far off, so why don't you just attack? Let's get past the pointless talk..."

"I was ordered to deliver you alive and unharmed for a conversation..."

"Well..."

I shook my head.

"...you can't do that."

"You do realize that your fellow clansmen can have accidents..."

I shook my head.

"You know, it could happen to the top of the corporation, too."

"Are you threatening Lady Hanako?!"

"Only if your words of trouble to my clan can be construed as a threat..."

This frame clenched his fists until his knuckles crunched, but he remained silent, only his gaze grew heavy-looking.

"So should I take those words as a threat?"

"N-no...

"Well, in that case, don't take my words that way either."

I shrugged.

"You can just turn around and leave, because I'm not going to talk to your mistress. I'm not going to work for her. Nor am I going to work against her."

"Are you sure of your choice, mercenary?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Okay..."

He turned around on the spot and walked toward his car.

I knew he didn't like that answer, just as I knew his mistress, who was probably a spoiled girl unused to rejection, wouldn't like it. But I wasn't going with that jacket either.

"Tony..."

I looked at the sentinel, who had met this guy and could have gotten a good kick out of him if it hadn't been for me.

"Uh-huh?

"...are you okay?"

"I'm fine. but if it wasn't for you."

"It's good to be in one piece. We should go to Saul. to talk and prevent any potential problems."

I sighed and headed over to Saul's place...