Chapter Forty-Four – Jam and Drains

Chapter Forty-Four – Jam and Drains

“…About her tone, Samurai Stray Cat was exceptionally dismissive of protocols. I do not know if she was unaware or uncaring about them. Samurai Stray Cat assumed that the troops on site would act in the best, most professional manner, while herself carrying out whatever plan she had in place prior. Information sharing was not complete.

Samurai Gomorrah seemed more careful and precise before the arrival of Samurai Stray Cat. It might be worth noting that Samurai Gomorrah seems willing to work with Family personnel initially, but her real feelings are hidden by a layer of polite obfuscation which Samurai Stray Cat lacks…”

–Excerpt from field-investigation report of Officer Kennedy, 2057

***

I woke up early the next morning.

Then I promptly started to snuggle with Lucy, which turned into more than cuddling, which turned into a pillow fight, which then turned into a more physical, less dressed version of ‘more than cuddling’, and then that ended with me falling right back asleep.

So really, my day only really started the crack of eleven-thirty.

“What’s on the docket for today?” I asked as I lifted a shirt from the floor and gave it an experimental sniff. Eh, good enough.

You have a few things to address. First, your point count has been slowly dropping, even with your daily allocations. Some points have come in from Burlington overnight, from the equipment you left there.

“Not bad,” I said. “How many points?”

Seventy-two.

I shrugged. Well, it was something. “Enough to buy a dozen or so Foxteeth and send them over to be used. I can see that generating some point-income over time.

The price of Foxteeth-type handguns had been revised.

I paused, pants halfway up. “What?” I asked. “Wait, what do you mean by that?” Foxteeth were like, the cheapest shitty handgun I could remember buying. They were a whole five points, and just enough to take out the lower-tiered antithesis. They were an alright civilian-grade gun otherwise.

They were worth five points. As far as I was aware, they’d always been worth five points.

The point value was reduced to four per unit. You seem confused about the change in price?

“Yeah, no shit,” I said as I tugged my pants on fully and started with the button. “I didn’t know things could change prices. Since when?”

It’s always been the case. Though the market for Vanguard equipment is far more stable than any other market on Earth, mostly because it’s fed and influenced by outside sources. The value of an item is calculated from several factors. Its potency and level of danger, its material cost, the cost of transporting it, its technological level, and its perceived value. The Foxteeth’s technological edge was reduced by several recent initiatives pumping the civilian market with similar quality human-made guns. Therefore, the value was lowered.

“And that’s normal?”

If you had been alive in 2030 and were a Vanguard at the time, for example, the Foxteeth would be worth twice as much as it was when you first purchased one.

My mind was a little blown at the moment. I didn’t know that things could change that way at all. But I supposed that in hindsight it kind of made sense. What would happen in a hundred years when there was a new samurai and the only things they could afford were handguns that were a century out of date?

“Okay… well, alright. That’ll be something to wrap my head around later. So, uh, where were we? And where’s my belt?”

Under the bed. And we were discussing today’s agenda.

I got on all fours, then gestured for Myalis to continue while I searched.

There are three matters you wished to look into today. The state of your mech was the first. You also wanted to get into contact with See-Three over the matter of your prosthetics clinic. Finally, you wanted to observe the state of the repairs on the sewage system.

“Ah, that,” I said. “Alright, so… any idea of what I should do first?” I couldn’t find the belt, at least until Mister Tentacles slithered it over to me, the belt held at the end of a long tentacle. “Thanks.”

I would suggest looking into the matter of the sewer systems first. That is the project with the greatest impact and likelihood of causing lasting harm.

I fit my belt on, then nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. Let me grab breakfast before anything else. Or lunch? Whatever. Can you ping the Family, let Eric know that I’ll be driving over this afternoon?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Message sent.

“Thank you,” I said as I slipped out of the bedroom with just one final glance back. We… needed a cleaning person. Lucy was picking up as we went, and the place was brand-new, so it wasn’t like there had been much time for grime and messiness to build up, but still, things were getting a little dirty. Heck, I wouldn’t trust the water in the pool in the corner.

I found Lucy in the kitchen, leaning over the counter with a plate with toast in front of her and a pair of steaming mugs next to that. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” I replied before swiping a piece of toast and making my way to the fridge. I opened it and stared at all the food within. I was probably fine with just one piece of toast, but it was nice seeing a full fridge anyway. “You okay?” I asked.