Chapter 77

"Do good deeds and never ask about the outcome."

Indeed, Chihiro was no saint.

She had killed plenty of people back when she served in the New United States Army. 

Later, after leaving the military, she did dirty, grueling work for the Tiger Claws.

Her hands were stained with blood—far from clean.

But at the moment they decided to save her, Leo and the others hadn't spared much thought about any of that. If anyone asked why, it might have been as simple as:

—Night City already had enough orphans; there was no need for Ryoko to become one more.

Leo's answer didn't clear up Chihiro's confusion. If anything, it only raised more questions for her. But since she couldn't figure it out right then, she could only vow to remember their kindness.

"I'll never forget this debt. I'll repay you all one day."

"All right, you're still a patient—don't stand too long. Take a seat. We can talk after you sit down."

Once everyone settled, Leo glanced at Ryoko, who was clinging tightly to her mother. "Have you two thought about what comes next?"

Chihiro's expression darkened. 

"I originally planned to have someone I knew get me and Ryoko out of the city, but then…"

If not for the smuggler's betrayal, they might already have fled Night City, possibly on a plane to Europe.

Leo thought it over for a moment and spoke. 

"If you still want to leave the city, you can ask a fixer for help. I know a few fixers who are a lot more reliable than that smuggler you used. Don't worry—they won't sell you out. And you know how fixers can pull strings. Just leaving Night City is no problem at all.

"But if you also want legitimate documents so you can live legally in Europe, well…that's probably beyond what a fixer can do. After all, no matter how resourceful they might be, they're still just Night City fixers."

Leo suspected that the smuggler Chihiro had hired might never have been able to secure those legal documents in the first place. It wasn't simply a question of how resourceful one was—obtaining real immigration paperwork implied entire supply chains behind it.

He believed the smuggler could have gotten Chihiro and her daughter out of Night City, sure. But as for getting them genuine papers? Leo didn't buy it. That smuggler was most likely planning to deceive Chihiro and her daughter from the start. Even if he hadn't sold them out, at best he might have sent them out of the city—and that was all.

Clearly, the smuggler had counted on Chihiro being in no position to come back and settle accounts once she realized the scam. A neat little plan, indeed. And, as Chihiro had mentioned, she actually knew that smuggler personally. Proof enough that sometimes, the people closest to you landed the harshest betrayal.

What would happen if they went to Europe without proper documents or permits?

They would be illegals.

In every country, illegal immigrants were unwelcome and all but unprotected by local law. Forget about policies or benefits—those were out of the question. And as undocumented immigrants, they wouldn't dare seek help from the police. They'd have to hide. If the police asked for ID and they couldn't produce it, they'd be deported on the spot.

No papers meant no matter how educated or refined they were, they'd only be able to work illegally, under the table. And in the grim reality of 2077, even the corporate giants ran as they pleased. So imagine what an illegal sweatshop might be like. Forget the "eighteenth level of hell"—a black-market factory would be far worse.

…

Seeing Chihiro and her daughter fall silent, Leo had a sudden idea.

"Actually, if you truly have nowhere else to go, I have a thought. Maybe you don't have to leave Night City at all."

"Stay in Night City?" Chihiro repeated, looking stunned. But then she shook her head. 

"We've already offended the Tiger Claws. As long as we stay in Night City, Jōtarō will never let us off."

No one forgot the atrocities the Tiger Claws had committed. Back when Lizzie's Bar wasn't yet under The Mox, its owner, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Borden, castrated a Tiger Claws member and paid for it with her life. The gang wiped out her entire bar as revenge.

Now Chihiro had openly betrayed them, killed many of their men, and even caused the death of the "Dragon of Masafusa," Nantō, during the attempted capture. There was no way the Tiger Claws would let them go.

Leo had long considered all that. The only reason he still proposed an alternative was because he had prepared for it.

"The Tiger Claws are only one of many gangs in Night City. Their main turf is Japantown in Westbrook and Kabuki in Watson—they don't control the entire city. Even though Arasaka is behind them, Arasaka isn't the only big name in Night City. At the very least, Militech wouldn't stand by and let Arasaka run everything.

"So all you need to do is hide somewhere the Tiger Claws can't reach. Problem solved, right?"

His words left Chihiro silent. Seeing she was deep in thought, he went on.

"Sure, Europe might look good: no Tiger Claws, relatively decent social benefits—at least compared to Night City. But those benefits only apply to citizens. As undocumented immigrants, you'd never be treated like the locals.

"Think of twentieth-century America, when countless Eastern Europeans sold everything for a boat ticket there, believing the streets were paved with gold and that they'd become the upper class. Reality hit them hard. No skills, no degrees, nowhere to go but manual labor, living in neighborhoods plagued by crime. The gap between dream and reality drove many to drink themselves senseless.

"Of course the twentieth-century U.S. was strong—a developed country, untouched by both world wars. But did that mean anyone could achieve the American Dream? Hardly.

"The same logic applies to you. Europe might be great, but without the right paperwork, it has nothing to do with you. You're not from there, and you don't have legal status."

Chihiro looked visibly shaken by what Leo said. Indeed, without legal documents, she and Ryoko would remain illegals forever, forced into black-market labor. Even slaves of old were arguably treated better by their masters, who at least considered them property worth preserving. 

Illegal workers in a hidden sweatshop wouldn't even merit that much humanity—they'd be used like disposable machines until they dropped and were replaced.

Yet although her faith in "the European plan" had wavered, she seemed even more lost than before. "But if we don't go to Europe, where do we go instead?"

All this time, she had single-mindedly pinned her hopes on escaping Night City and heading to Europe. Now that Leo had poked a hole in her dream, she realized she had no idea how to protect herself or her daughter.

Leo wasn't the sort to raise problems without offering solutions. If he was going to help, he planned to see it through.

Counting on his fingers, he laid out her options. "Ignoring Watson, there's still Heywood, Santo Domingo, and—Pacifica is out of the question. Word is the mayor, to bring down the crime rate, basically wrote it off altogether."

Jackie touched the bun tied at the top of his head, clearly perplexed. "How does cutting off Pacifica lower crime? That doesn't make any sense."

Jackie was a Heywood native, but he didn't really follow politics and didn't get how these backroom deals worked.

Leo explained patiently, "If an area's crime rate is too high, you can either invest massive resources into wiping out the criminals there—which might not even solve the problem for good—or you can declare that area no longer under your jurisdiction. Which do you think costs less, Jackie?"

Jackie was speechless. "cut it off…"

Leo clapped his hands. "Exactly. You nailed it. Want a job as a press secretary?"

Pacifica was off the list—far too chaotic, practically a city of its own. That left only a handful of options.