Chapter 71

Ichinose

 

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he slotted the BD in the wreath.

 

So he settled in and put the wreath on his head and fell into the braindance.

 

As he opened his eyes to the sights within the BD, he noticed it instantly. The feel of his body following along in Motoko’s footsteps was certainly…

Different.

 

He had known the girl was off. He had known it since the first time he had met her again after the coma.

 

Normally he wouldn’t have started some random BD handed out by a Mox, but there had always been that question.

 

How?

 

How did Motoko do what she did? How had she gone from the punk TC brat to what she was now?

 

He blinked as he felt himself take a deep breath and everything became…

 

Sure.

 

There was no hesitation, no fear. He was jogging down a familiar alley, he had parked his truck right there, to load up stuff. But this wasn’t after the raid. It was before. He walked up to the back door of the den, he felt himself quickly open the door without hesitation.

 

Then he was in. He snuck through the small vehicle garage checking the windows and noticing the scavs hanging around.

 

Still alive at this point, but none noticed as he walked through the room.

 

It was a little startling to remember that soon enough all of them would be dead.

 

He moved up the stairway, his feet not making a sound despite the fact he knew Motoko didn’t have a Lynx Paw. She was just that quiet. The pull of the muscles in his leg so foreign as he moved just so, to reduce any noise of his boots hitting the metal steps.

 

He knew he would have shivered, but he didn’t. There was no fear. No hesitation. Just a simple calculus. A confidence that he had a gig to complete, and people to flatline, but first he needed info. He followed in her footsteps around as he checked two closets, both full of junk some of which he had helped steal later, watched as he competently breached through the building’s security system.

 

While he followed the movement, the actions. The actual knowledge of what Motoko had just done was beyond him.

 

Then, the room lit up. He could see them. Again Ichi wanted to gasp, but there was only ice in his veins, as he looked around. No, as Motoko looked around.

 

The ray of light leading to every Scav in the building.

 

Wow. He wanted to pause the BD there, just to look at it, he had never seen this himself. It was something new. Something… Kinda preem. But he felt little as Motoko kept moving, walking the catwalk above the scavs without fear looking down on them, and he could practically feel the sinister amusement of her plans to murder them.

 

Of his plans.

 

He felt the confusion and then disgust as he watched a scav fail at a game.

 

Wow Motoko. That was kinda harsh, that game wasn’t easy.

 

And then he felt her confidence as he moved leaping over the edge, in a move that should have caused his heart to flip flop.

 

Instead he felt pure confidence, landing with barely a scuff against the concrete in a low crouch all four limbs spread to reduce the impact. Then he was downstairs, but Ichi was backseating, as Motoko went through the computer gathering information checking an email that confirmed that Ripper knew exactly what was happening in his clinic, and then he smirked, did some more netrunning stuff that Ichi couldn’t follow and turned right around.

 

A few moments later everything froze. It felt like his chest couldn’t move without choice, like everything was completely 100% under his control.

 

But it wasn’t him in control, it was Motoko. He moved and the scavs died, he felt nothing as he cleaved through them, knife cutting and ripping and when it was all done he pushed himself off the Scav he had just watched die face to face, and he felt.

 

Confident. Powerful.

 

This was Motoko? This was the girl that acted like a gonk half the time, and the other half like a cold blooded high end merc?

 

He was so shocked he could barely pay attention as Motoko moved him back down and then up into the rippers shop.

 

Hiromi and his face were blurred out as she confronted Charles. As he simply killed him, no fear or wavering, just a faint feeling of assurance. Of knowing he was doing the right thing.

 

And the BD ended, and Ichi gasped, pulling the wreath from his face as he suddenly felt his own body again, and the lack of that pure control left an almost palpable sense of wrongness as he reached for his beer and took a swig.

 

His heart was suddenly racing, as the Icy control was gone.

 

Malcolm beside him was doing something similar to him, his face telling a story.

 

“So what do you think? Was the BD good? I never actually watched it after Judy did her editing. Did you like it?” Motoko intruded into his space, asking while sounding almost a little shy.

 

Ichi opened his mouth and then closed it. What was he supposed to say to Motoko? His choom? His sorta boss?

 

That she scared the shit out of him? That he felt like his body was wrong, and he wanted to puke a little.

 

That he now understood why she didn’t hesitate to solo a scav den, because they were never a threat to her?

 

“It was cool.” He said instead. Her little joke with the word the only thing he could think of.

 

Thankfully it seemed to satisfy her, with the way her face broke out into a happy smile.

 

Fuck she confused him.

 

—–

 

I waved goodbye to my chooms. It was getting late, and both Malcolm and Ichi had been a little twitchy since leaving the BD.

 

I guess murder was still a bit too much for my chooms.

 

Anyways! At least Nox was happy! The Scav Den BD had apparently been super popular.

 

Lots of people had lost someone to scavs. Being able to watch a bunch of them get murdered? Apparently it was very cathartic.

 

But it was time for more net diving.

 

A short drive later I was sliding into my netrunner suit and plugging everything in.

 

Time to get some training!

 

The blur of awareness as I switched from reality to the net only lasted a moment, and then I was there, once more in the ethereal neon city.

 

This time it only took a moment for me to jump straight to the Dewdrop Inn server, since I had the IP. A momentary blur of fast travel, and I was there walking up to the roundabout.

 

I bypassed the netrunners outside and went straight for the club. Yoko would be inside.

 

The techno music, a rhapsody of all the noises a computer could make and more hit me as I entered but other than noting the song, and memorizing it. I ignored it.

 

Yoko was lazing in a private booth as I approached her, and her sensual smile was as dangerous as the woman herself.

 

“Motoko, finally here?”

 

“I had some stuff to deal with, I spent some time with my chooms. But I’m ready.”

“Excellent. You wanted this, don’t forget. Come with me.” She offered and another one of Yoko’s doors opened up beside her, she rose and walked through with me following.

 

Inside was just a large space, a lot of memory and data set aside on the server for it.

 

“Alright. Let’s get started then.” She said and before a moment passed her tails twitched, and fire burst forth towards me.

 

The assault was something I recognized. It was a Breaching assault meant to burn through ICE to open up systems.

 

I threw up a few of my ICE programs, before returning the assault with a Breach program, on my side a blade appeared beside me and shot off, rocketing right through the fire towards the Kitsune.

 

The sword was actually a representation of a hacking attempt. Seriously, Netrunning was so weird!

 

It stopped cold. A stone statue appeared in front of Yoko. It was a… Komainu? The Lion dogs statues you would see around Japanese Shrines.

 

Yoko really stuck to her aesthetic.

 

I could respect it!

 

They were basically a form of ICE. Very tough stuff.

 

The fight continued. My agreement with Yoko had a few factors, the most obvious was information. Guidance, on the rules of the net, basic net culture and the like which we could cover mostly just by talking, but that was only part of it.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author’s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

 

More importantly, I had asked her to fight me, hit me with everything she had so I could learn to react to combat on the net.

 

I had the instincts thanks to my skills. Quick Hack, and Breach both filled part of Netrunning combat, but having the instincts and knowledge was one thing. Doing was another.

 

She was going easy on me. I could tell, just her Cyberdeck alone would be a high end system because she was able to throw up multiple heavy RAM usage hacks back to back, while I had to rely on ICE shields to hold back her assault while my Cyberdeck did its best to keep up with my requests.

 

But I was learning.

 

So, so so so much!

 

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

 

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

 

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

 

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

 

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

 

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

 

*Breach Protocol skill level up!*

 

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

 

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

 

*Quick Hacks skill level up!*

 

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

 

Breach Protocol 8, and Quick Hack 5! Both levels had come in as I fought, and the new knowledge and skill was going to immediately be used again.

 

I grinned with an almost feral intensity as I fought back against a literal Nine tailed Fox throwing around magic and spells.

 

Fuck I loved my life.

 

—–

 

Eventually Yoko called an end mentioning I was showing signs of heat shock, and I had to take a moment to remember that there were repercussions on what I was doing.

 

My poor body back in the basement was overheating, and I purposefully had to lower all my inputs turning the world into a hazy 3d rendering, all monochrome lines to reduce the workload of my Cyberdeck, and try to keep it from overheating.

 

“Thank you Yoko.” I said looking at the blurry woman. “This was amazing!” I said with a thumbs up.

“You are a very strange girl Motoko Kusanagi.” She mentioned as her avatar approached. “I don’t usually accept requests to show off my hacks, but I’ll admit, throwing my programs around like this is rather refreshing. It’s been a while since anyone has actually challenged me here on my server.”

“Hah, yeah considering how much RAM you have access to, it would be kinda stupid huh?” I asked, earning a change in the avatar that I was pretty sure was a particularly fox like smirk.

 

“You noticed that? Not everyday some kiddy runner realizes that the entire server acts as a support for my Cyberdeck.” She giggled, reaching over and patting my avatar on the shoulder, although I didn’t feel anything, and it was more of an emote not actually touching me but looking like it was.

 

“So take a break from this for now? I still need to learn more about the net.”

 

“Of course. Come with me, I’ll take you around to a few of the common haunts.”

 

—–

 

Yoko did in fact do just that. We traveled through the digital Night City, walking to seemingly random places that had servers set up as meetup locations.

 

With Yoko guiding me she helped me get access and I got to see it all.

 

Her own Avatar had disappeared, turning into the same blank outline that everyone had besides their face and a general shape, and once we returned to the Dewdrop Inn she shifted back into her Kitsune avatar with an almost relieved sigh.

 

I got the feeling Yoko didn’t leave her server much.

 

And once again she brought me to that white room, but this time she didn’t fight me directly.

 

Instead she summoned up a Daemon.

 

Daemon were a mix between an AI, and a program. Not quite intelligent enough to be considered a true AI, but a bit more nuanced than a normal program. They were background programs often used to monitor systems, to make sure everything was going right, or to balance different systems.

 

If a Quickhack was a tool, like a knife. Then Daemons were pets. A rudimentary intelligence. A being capable of acting as a guard dog, or a simple button presser.

 

Of course this time, Yoko summoned the smallest Daemon.

 

An Imp.

 

It didn’t look like some fantasy creature, not at this level, instead it was an orb of light, with two almost cartoonish red eyes glaring at me, it made little noises, beeps and whistles as it glared.

 

“Begin.” She offered and the Imp attacked.

 

Daemons were capable of being uploaded with basic programs, quick hacks of their own, it’s why they were so useful as overwatch for systems, Upload a strong Daemon, give it some good offense and you don’t have to stand guard 24/7 against a Netrunner.

 

Well, you still did because as good as Daemons were, they weren’t able to match a person.

 

The Imp had two programs, and I saw them both very quickly. One was the Fire burning ICE program that Yoko had used before, although it was smaller, a weaker fire capable of corroding code.

The other was a screech that suddenly filled my ears, and made me wince and become disoriented, it wasn’t noise but junk data.

 

Like getting hit with a flashbang. My sight went jerky, and laggy with distortions and image sway.

 

In essence the Imp was flooding my connection to the server with junk, like a DDos attack, in a way.