Chapter 199

I woke up the next morning feeling well rested and ready to take on the world. A full eight hours and I was ready to hammer life.

 

I hit the gym first. That final level for Body would mean I never have to stop at a gym again in my life. Which was a temptation that was too strong to put off.

 

The weights let me push and I found a good chunk of the morning disappear in a haze of aching muscles and willpower overriding my tired body.

 

No level ups, but it was all about the slow inexorable grind!

 

I spent most of the morning after that doing some clean up for the Tachikoma. Their brain was growing well, if slowly, but they were at the point where it was easy for them to follow a thought or assumption and come to incredibly wrong conclusions.

 

I considered calling for that meeting between my chooms that I had planned, but honestly we had been working for days straight.

 

Today was a rest day for sure. Plus Hiromi had school, which I really should try not to interfere with all the time. Better to give her some school time before I finish calling the meeting and get everyone on the same page.

 

Of course I wasn’t really feeling like putting my feet up and wasting the day. So instead I pulled out my laptop and started working on some design work.

 

The initial use of the Tachikoma had been an amazing success, but I still needed to get their mobile function working.

 

Getting them capable of climbing walls was going to be complicated, although the tech definitely existed out there already. I remember the Flathead was easily doing it.

 

But for now I needed speed.

 

Wheels.

 

Tachikoma were supposed to have wheels on their legs and that was a skill they would need to learn to use.

 

Adding wheels was easy. Adding wheels into their already packed together legs while somehow powering them was harder.

 

But it was the fun kind of harder.

 

—–

 

When the door opened and Jun wearily stepped into the apartment I was still a long ways from completing a working design.

 

So I happily pushed it away and looked over at my brother.

 

“You look tired.”

“Yep.” He muttered and stomped over to the fridge.

 

“Any reason why?”

“Been busy.” He finally offered after grabbing an XXL and throwing it in the microwave. But he wasn’t going to elaborate.

 

“Okay?” I mentioned realizing Jun wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

 

A minute later he settled on the couch and chomped into his burrito and life seemed to return to him.

 

“I’ve just been busy Imouto. A lot of issues came up, and I wasn’t able to handle them because of… Yuto.”

“Ah.” I looked away. We hadn’t really had a conversation about this yet. The room grew a little awkward and I considered what to do. For Jun Yuto was a friend, a companion, a brother in some ways.

 

And I had killed him.

 

“Hey Jun?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you want to set up a space in our shrine for Yuto?” I asked and Jun definitely wasn’t expecting that as he choked a bit on his burrito.

 

I patted his back a bit and he got himself under control again. “What?”

“You heard me. Despite everything… He was a choom right?”

Jun blinked and just looked over to our shrine.

 

We didn’t use it much, it mostly stayed in the corner and we just left it as is.

 

Finally Jun nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

 

I smiled as Jun’s mood improved and we made plans to head out to get everything we would need. I might have zero connection to the man, but to Jun… This might be the way to get over the guilt he obviously felt.

 

—–

 

As we left the apartment to head to some shops it was obvious that things had changed.

 

I was getting stared at. Normally when Jun and I walked around, he got all the attention with his reputation out there, but this time it was something more.

 

I was getting looked at, and people were whispering.

 

“Looks like I’m not going to be able to stay low key anymore.” I muttered as we passed a few TC gonks sitting on a set of stairs and all of them jumped for Jun but ended up flinching when they saw me.

 

“Well you did start working with Hayato Nakagawa-Sama.”

“Ugh. Don’t call her that.” I cringed, because it was hard to keep in mind Hayato was important when she was sort of a mess.

 

“You should start speaking about her with respect. It could cause issues.”

“Nah. I’ve punched her in the face too many times to do that.”

“Motoko!?”

“We spar together Jun. What do you think? I just didn’t touch her?”

“No! But… I forgot you sparred with her… Is she any good?”

“She’s a pain in the ass with that Keren of hers. Not as good at grappling though, but if she can set the pace of the fight she’s solid.”

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“Huh.” Jun muttered as we reached the street and headed down the sidewalk.

 

“Whatever happened with the 6th Street attacks?” I asked and Jun winced looking around a little before leaning in.

 

“Higher ups are spreading the word it was a false flag, and that 6th Street already apologized. They didn’t but they also don’t want to admit they were tricked. Apparently there was a big clean up among 6th Street so they are focused on internal matters.”

“Just like the Tygers then.” I muttered, and Jun didn’t comment, but it was what he didn’t say that mattered.

 

The reason the Tygers weren’t retaliating was because they were dealing with internal trouble just as bad as 6th Street.

 

So both gangs were apparently happy to just ignore the entire situation. Of course neither would admit weakness, and neither would actually apologize.

 

Gang Wars were bad for business though, and 6th Street had already long ago become a business rather than the protectors they tried to pretend they were.

 

Jun switched to more casual conversation after that, as we entered the store and bought some stuff for the Shrine for Yuto, mostly just new incense.

 

—–

 

I was driving to the gun range, planning on getting another session in when the radio started a new song that made me twitch.

 

My voice, singing This Fffire. It was so eerie that it kept happening, but I didn’t change it. Just letting the song finish.

 

“And that was This Fffire from Ghost in the Shell, been getting a lot of requests for that one. So I hope all you choomers enjoyed it.”

 

I heard Ash say over the radio before finally turning off the car. I was here.

 

So weird.

 

I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do about all that mess, but I did know that I would have to come up with something soon.

 

I can’t believe I was on the radio.

 

Shaking it off I headed inside and started shooting. I was focusing on my Handgun skill today, as it was pretty low for one of the skills I used a lot, and I could get a lot of work done.

 

As I was shooting I noticed one of the other shooters eyeing me and I stopped and shifted so I was looking them straight in the eye. They flinched and looked away and I glared.

 

Tyger Claw. So he was staring because he had heard about me.

 

Stupid rep. It was better when everyone just ignored me.

 

—–

 

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

 

*Handguns skill level up!*

 

Handguns just hit 8!

 

I cheered internally even as I groaned and stretched my slightly aching shoulders. I had been at it for hours!

 

But I really wanted that level up!