Chapter 95

Working through the catalog of Samurai songs took me most of the night. Each song needed multiple playthroughs, just for the initial tracks, and then I had to add the holo emitter setup which now that I had done it once with my first song, did go easier. I just needed to add a few more move sets for drums and guitar, and then set up the keyboard and bass.

 

Jun didn’t come home that night, which was annoying. I still needed to get my shard back from him. But at least I was able to distract myself with rocking out.

 

Rockerboy was gaining xp again. And in the middle of the night as I finished Never Fade Away, I got a new level up!

 

Rockerboy 7!

 

I hummed as the knowledge hit, and took it all in. That was nice addition a bit more high end musical stuff, and some adjustments I could do while singing to bring more emotion into the song.

 

Of course when I heard the door open in the morning I was instantly on my feet and finger pointed at my idiot brother.

 

“Give it back!”

 

“No.” He responded as he walked stretching and yawning. “I like it. It suits me.”

 

“No! It’s my song! It’s meant to suit me!” I argued and Jun looked at me, and just scoffed.

 

Which is when I did the mature thing and yowled in fury and leapt on his head. And I do mean on his head. I nearly fell feet and hands first into his hair.

 

How dare he!

 

But my jump was stalled. His arms caught me mid leap… Had Jun known what I was going to do, or were his reflexes that good? He didn’t have a sandy or Keren… Right?

 

My thoughts were interrupted as Jun flipped me around and even with Street Brawler leveling I wasn’t able to stop him from swinging me around a bit and bombed me onto the couch.

 

Which creaked a little ominously but held.

 

Then he sat on me.

 

“What have we learned?” He teased and I punched him a few times near his kidneys only for it to not really do much. Stupid subdermal! “Ah. I guess nothing apparently.” He added as he reached down and started poking me. Which only made me want to punch him more.

 

“I swear I’m going to chip in some gorilla arms so you can’t just ignore my punches.”

“That would just make you more like a gorilla than you already are. Sure you want to do that?” He teased and I could feel my face getting red in anger as I struggled for a bit under him.

 

Stupid Jun and his… “FAT!” I yelled into his face. “GO ON A DIET!”

 

Jun just blinked at me before smirking. He reached into his jacket pocket…

 

“No.”

“Oh yes.” He assured me as he took out an XXL burrito and started eating it.

 

“You’re so disgusting.”

 

“They’re good! I don’t get why you don’t like them anymore.”

 

“They aren’t burritos! They are just sludge!”

 

Jun just shrugged. “Tasty tho.”

 

I looked up at the kitchen to where the radio was. I would have my revenge! The radio started playing Samurai music suddenly.

 

Jun frowned and looked like he was considering standing up to turn it off but just decided to ignore it. He turned on the TV to watch something turning up the volume to drown out the song.

 

Wrong move.

 

I had complete control!

 

The TV Glitched.

 

It started playing the song as well.

 

“Motoko.”

 

“You will never know peace.” I told him firmly. He sighed and tried the remote.

 

Nope. Already hacked that.

 

“Motoko. No hacking the TV.” Jun demanded using his authority voice.

 

I gave him a deadpan stare.

 

“How about a truce?”

 

“Get your fat ass off me.”

 

“Fine.” He grumbled standing up as I could finally breathe normally again and I clambered up to stand on the couch so we were about the same height… No dammit Jun was still taller!

 

I put my hands on my hips and glared.

 

“Give me back my shard!”

“Make me a copy.”

 

“No! I already have the original. The reason I want the shard is so no one else can listen to it! Well I mean they’ll be able to once they watch the BD I guess, but I mean… Ugh! Fine keep it!”

 

“I will.” He said smiling and patted me on the head. “Gotta keep my Imouto’s first recording. It’s special.”

 

“Bwah!” I flailed, pushing his hand away. No fair! Cheating!

 

“Heh. You should play a live gig.” He said suddenly, smiling. “Fujimura-Sama was really impressed with the piano solo you did.”

“No way!” I argued instantly, returning to normal to cross my arms in an X. “That’s embarrassing, I don’t want anyone to hear my songs!” Except when they were the backing to an awesome XBD!

 

“Pfft.” Jun just laughed at me, which didn’t help! “I’ve already shown your song to some of the others. The Only Thing They Fear was a hit. They liked it.”

I gaped at Jun who was smiling at me. No!

“You didn’t!”

 

“I did! Akari was really into it. She bugged me for a copy, I didn’t give it to her though. She will probably come poke you for it… Be ready.”

“Noooo!” I whined at him, I was blushing! Stupid Onii-chan! Making me get all self conscious! “You aren’t allowed to show it to anyone! Give it back!”

“Nope. What else you got? Any other songs?” He asked his face in a proud smile.

“Samurai Songs!” I immediately offered, turning his smile into a disgusted look.

 

“Nevermind then. Let me know when you make something else.”

 

“I won’t! Ever! You shared it!”

 

“It was preem. Cool. I liked it, made me want to go murder something.” He offered and I nodded along. Yeah that’s true. That song did that to me too.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

 

“That’s what I felt. It’s why the song is my theme song now! Motoko’s Theme!” I called out telling him why the song was important.

 

“Oni’s Theme sounds better.” I gaped at him.

 

“Never! You can’t just steal my theme! I made it myself!”

“Well you can’t stop me.” He said reminding me he had my shard with a tap of his hand against his neck.

 

Which was his mistake. It was reasonable enough. Jun still hadn’t quite fitted my netrunning skill into his mind yet.

 

My eyes blazed in code and half a second later his Neuroport ejected the shard sending it tumbling into the air.

 

Heh! Lucy wasn’t the only Picksocket around!

 

I leapt for the shard that had ejected, but Jun wasn’t giving up without a fight. We ended up wrestling and tumbling around the couch for a while.

 

In the end his stupid fat strength meant he kept the shard and I sulked at him in the corner as he very obviously played the song in his head.

 

—–

 

“I can’t believe you hit another Scav den without me!” Hiromi whined the exact second after almost kicking in the door and glaring at me from the entryway.

 

“Hiromi don’t kick doors that can break them.” I reminded her only to get a groan from her as I guess I ruined her outrage.

 

“Why! I could have come!”

 

“I wasn’t going to call anyone… It was a BD gig more than anything but Jun wouldn’t let me go alone. So I ended up calling Ichi and Malcolm after to collect everything.”

“But not me?”

“It was a school night.” I reminded her, earning a look of disgust from her..

 

“Stop using that as an excuse!” She whined before flopping beside me on the couch reaching out to grab me so I couldn’t escape. “I demand restitution! One Million Motoko hours of service will just about cover this insult!” She added in her most Corpo voice. It had me giggling at her act, but I pulled myself together to give her my most deadpan reply.

 

“Sorry, no can do, but I’ll pick up dinner.” I retorted and Hiromi giggled and seemed to relax.

 

“I’ll take it.”

 

—–

 

Hiromi dragged me to a more expensive sort of restaurant than I would normally go to, but considering how many eddies I had sliding into my bank account I just shrugged and accepted what she wanted, and ate the overpriced food.

 

It was making her happy.

 

We were in a dark little booth with an electric candle lighting our table and Hiromi was all smiles while she told me about her day at the academy.

 

“Seriously. They are so gonk. They think people will just listen to whatever they say without any care. I’m pretty sure the first time they try to hire a merc they are going to get shot.” Hiromi added with a roll of her eyes and I couldn’t help but be amused at how well she had scored on her “Workplace Reinforcement” quiz.

 

“I think you just have way more experience than most of them in dealing with solos… Not that I really count. I don’t think using me as an example is a good idea.”

 

Hiromi opened her mouth to retort but ended up closing it and bursting into giggles. “Probably not! Oh! Now I have this image in my head! Motoko! You have to record the first time some corp tries to hire you okay? I want to see the look on their face when they realize what they are dealing with!”

 

“That… Okay that does sound funny, but the way you say that makes it sound like I’m weird!” I argued pushing a piece of… Well it was supposed to be shrimp, but it was just scop made to look and sort of taste like shrimp.

 

Hiromi of course just smirked at me, until I looked away first. Meanie.

 

I suddenly perked up as a text came in, the chime jolting in my ear.