Chapter 173

“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.

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—–

 

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.”