Chapter 29

Meditating in the corner was… weird. Akari had walked me through a few steps and then zoned out on her own. But I wasn’t the type to meditate while sitting in a yoga pose.

So I didn’t bother trying. Instead I slowly shifted my arms. Feeling the differences as I waved them around quietly. Just… Processing. It was funny, I had so much knowledge in my head from such a vast array of topics, yet none of them could really help me with this. I had tried some of the martial arts I had gained from Street Brawler, and it helped. But it wasn’t a panacea.

Only time could truly help.

Well that or more stat points. I had a bet that Adaptation would help quite a bit. But that was for the future. I still needed to grow at least comfortable enough that I was able to gain those points. My accuracy was still off, my balance, everything.

It might seem odd, but it was true. While training my quickdraw the night before I realized that slightly different length arms. Fingers that were longer but stronger, and the phantom limb, meant my gun was ending up pointed in the wrong spot. I was forcing myself to untrain habits I had developed.

So here I was. Faking meditation as I ran through some of the Taichi kata with my arms. Just letting myself adapt.

Hopefully.

Sitting here doing nothing did have some benefits though.

Sensei wasn’t just helping Akari, and I.

While apparently most of the Dojo’s students were sent away, either too busy with the war, or simply not trusted enough to know that the dojo was in use. That didn’t mean there weren’t others.

I got to watch Borgs fight each other.

The Kamikaze group were more than the dozen borgs, I had seen so far. As they came in, usually in small groups I got to watch them relax around the dojo. Spar, or in some cases sit by themselves as they glared or zoned out.

Cyberpsycho. Almost all of them had some of the symptoms. Irritability. Blankness. Some twitched or shook.

It was interesting to see. I could see some of the same traits that Jun had picked up. But at least he wasn’t as bad as most of them.

He also wasn’t nearly as chromed out as most of them were.

But that wasn’t what all of them did. Some would meet in the middle of the dojo floor and spar. Considering the amount of chrome involved, it was nothing like a fight between humans.

So I watched. I learned. I noticed the ones with internal weapons, or augments. I watched how they used them. When, and what tells they had.

That guy and his mantis blades. He would alway twist his wrist before the blades deployed. A twitch, or part of the mechanism?

That woman with the same blade legs as Akari. Seeing it from the side I could see the way she had to shift her balance forward. Too far forward. Her legs were powerful but had little surface friction to work with. So she was either fully charging forward, or forced to stand up practically straight to keep upright.

I guess that explains why Akari learned to fight on her hands.

But seeing it from the outside? It meant next time I had ideas of how to fight against that. Well… Mostly. Whenever a Sandevistan or some of the other speed enhancers came into play…

Fine.

When fighting Borgs rule 1. Never let them realize they were in a fight. Until I had a sandy in order to keep up, I just wouldn’t fight them. Couldn’t fight them. My Burya would still be with me, but if I was in a Maelstrom den killing borgs then the moment I fired game over I would have to run, or die.

So I would assassinate them. I nodded to myself. Decision made. Fall back on what I am good at. So I would need to go quiet. And be better at it. Problem was. A blade wasn’t always good enough against borgs but I wasn’t the only person with that same problem!

Now I needed more information. Lucky for me. I was literally in a place for it. I rose up and started looking for my former sparring partner.

I wasn’t the only person with that same problem!

“Hey Akari?” I asked, finally finding the woman that had left an hour into her meditation downstairs in the breakroom, chomping down on something from the vending machines.

“Huh? Kid. What do you want? I’m not here to play with you.” She muttered her voice still electronic as she continued eating.
“You use blades right? Mantis, and your legs. How do you kill a really borged up gonk? I mean… How do you get your blades through their armor?”

“Stupid question kid.” She said and suddenly her arm shifted into a blade that looked as deadly as I am sure it was. “These babies are made for cutting chaff, Nano filament cuts right through, but sometimes it can get stuck. If I am against something a bit heavier? Gotta use the upgrade!” She laughed as her blade suddenly Started glowing. A harsh wave of heat washed over my face as the blades ignited to an incredibly high temperature. “Stab these babies in, and not even fuckers with thermal resistance Real Skinn will survive cooking from the inside. That’s how you kill borgs. Cut ‘em, and if you can’t? Boil ‘em!” She broke into a pretty scary laugh.

But I couldn’t help but nod along.

“Know where I could get a Thermal Katana?” I asked and her laugh changed to a different tone. She wasn’t laughing at her evil thoughts, she was just laughing at me.

Rood.

“I’m not your momma. Get it yourself.” She finally offered and waved me away.

Fine.

—–

I continued practicing while I waited for Jun to come back. Unfortunately every time Sensei would see me practicing he would throw a Shinai at me, or pull me into Tai-Chi, or whatever other exercise he was doing.

It was like he expected me to get into trouble the moment I was out of his sight or left unattended.

Which, okay teenager. Sure I could understand it, but it was still annoying.

That night Jun came home, and I couldn’t help but let out a breath of relief. “Jun-Nii!” I called out as I noticed him out of the corner of my eye coming in with a group of four.

All four of them had obviously seen a fight.

Luckily it looked like only minor injuries, and it was a bit of a shock to see Jun in full war gear.

He wore actual armor over his chest for one. Jun’s tendency to show off his chest had been something I had planned on teasing him about in the coming days.

But more interesting was the mask he wore.

I guess I know for sure now why they called him the Oni. He wore a japanese Oni mask across his jaw, giving him a sharp toothed grin.

At my call he slowed his walk and pulled down the mask showing his face and how tired he looked.

Seeing the rest of his little group all look to him, and none of them seemed happy I just waved him off to go with his little team.

We would talk after.

—–

“The Maelstrom broke as soon as we showed up. But they had enough heavy guns to keep us from doing much. We killed a few borgs and dropped them off at the rippers, and that’s about it.” He offered an hour or two later when he had finally come to find me. Apparently his little team had been doing an after action report of some kind.

Huh I guess Tyger Claws knew at least a bit about keeping everything running, even when dealing with a bunch of gangster kids.

“What about you Imouto. How was your day? How are the shoulders, any pain? Be honest.”

“Nope. No pain. I’m healing quick.” I told him as I bit into my XXL burrito and did my best to pretend it didn’t taste like refried sick.

I don’t know how Jun could seemingly happily take big bites of the meal.

“Good. Good. Just don’t go overboard.” He demanded pointing his burrito at me which I almost wanted to parry away.

What a powerful weapon.

“Anyway Jun-Nii. Where did you get your Katana? I’m looking to buy one. Probably a Thermal one.” I chirped at him suddenly, his chewing slows before he swallows his bite.

“No.”

I blew up my cheeks at him in offense at his instant denial.

“I’m not asking you to buy it or something. I have money! I just need to know where I can get one.”

“Still no. You are staying here. Safe.” He offered and I glared a bit.

“I’m not going to stay here forever. Another few days I’ll be back to fighting fit. Then I’m heading out.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“No.”

“You can’t just say no!” I shrieked at him pointing my burrito.

“No.” He said doing exactly what I told him he couldn’t!

I huffed at him as I took another bite and chewed it for a moment. I didn’t want to fall into sibling spat here. Jun needed to understand that he couldn’t huddle me into an apartment to hide away.

“Jun. I know you want to protect me, but I’m not going to live in this place. Once I’m healed up… I’m going to get hunting down The Bastard. And the Spider Ripper. Once I have both of their skulls on sticks I might chill, but that’s the limit of my chill at the moment.”

“Chill?” He seemed to ask himself as he was working out what I mean. “Still no.”

I stood up slamming my hands on the table which actually made a very sharp noise throughout the breakroom. We glared at each other for a minute.

“I’m not asking. If you won’t help. I’ll do it without you. I’m sure Hiromi caaaaaan! Fuck!” I cursed my anger disappearing. I hadn’t messaged Hiromi! It had been days! I had been completely out of contact. I instantly called her, only to get a noise in my ear and a “This call could not be completed.” message.

“Idiot. This whole place has a jammer up to make sure the Maelstrom can’t track us here.” Jun cut in my rising panic as my yellow eyes zipped to him. “Hiromi can wait. Unt- Dammit Motoko! Stop!” he rose up and yelled but I was already heading up the stairs.

I knew Hiromi pretty well by this point, we were best chooms. If she heard that I had gotten kidnapped!? If she couldn’t get in touch with me or Jun she might do something stupid!

I rushed up stairs ignoring Jun as I ran to the entrance of the dojo and then out onto the street.

Still no good. I turned and started running down the street. I could hear Jun running after me and he quickly tried to grab me but I slapped his hands away.

We both had chrome hands now. “Not now Jun!”

“Motoko! Stop being stupid! We aren’t supposed to make calls from here!”

“Then get your bike! Hiromi is an idiot Jun she will definitely do something stupid if I don’t tell her I’m alive!”

“Ugh.” Jun offered with a grunt as he realized I was right.

And because of that he realized I wasn’t going to stop.

“Fine. Come with me. Now!” he barked and I followed after as we headed back into the dojo, and then into the apartment. We actually slipped back into the car that we had used to move everything and Jun drove us out into the city.

Finally a few blocks away as we passed through the city Jun told me to try and call again.