Chapter Seven – Lending an Ear

Chapter Seven – Lending an Ear

“Each Samurai’s personal appearance is, technically, owned by the Samurai in question.

As long as the Samurai never decides to question you, then you can expect to make a tidy profit.”

–Brian Jacques, CFO of the Coco-Gucci-Vouton Fashion Consortium, 2051

***

I picked up my invisibility jacket, shook it once or twice to get the gunk off of it, then sighed. “One sec,” I said before heading over to the bathroom.

The shower, a place that had recently climbed to my personal top ten, became host to my jacket which I flopped to the ground.

“Shower, on,” I said.

When I returned to the bedroom, the shower still running behind me, it was to find Lucy cradling Dumbass the First on her lap and patting its head. The robot had turned on its hologram projector again, making it look like a rather smug tabby cat, though the illusion did break where Lucy’s hand touched it.

“Okay, so things to buy,” I said.

The cat nodded. “Indeed. As I mentioned a moment ago, I believe your next investment should be a sensor suite.”

“And what would that entail?” I asked.

“Oh, entail,” Lucy repeated. “Big words, Cat.”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “I can use more complicated words too, you know.”

“Really? This morning you seemed to have a hard time articulating anything more complicated than baby seal noises.”

I felt my cheeks warming and turned my focus back onto Dumbass the First. “Sensor suites,” I said.

“I would suggest a Sun Watcher Twin Ear system. It’s a bit intrusive, connecting to your auditory cortex, but its uses are quite interesting. The Twin Ear comes equipped with ultrasound, laser microphones for hearing at long distances, a geiger counter, thermal sensor, radial sonar and motion sensors, selective sound filters, spatial recognizers. It even has a balance-assist system, and long-range wireless communications.”

“Alright, that sounds pretty cool,” I said. “How much?”

“Seventy-five points. The installation requires that your head be uncovered,” Myalis said. “You may feel a slight tingle atop your skull.”

I weighed the options back and forth for a bit. I didn’t feel that more sensory stuff was pressing, exactly, but on the other hand, it was probably something similar to armour. I didn’t need it until I did, and then it might be too late to ask for it.

“Alright, let’s do it,” I said.

New Purchase: Mark III Twin Ears
Points Reduced to… 8437!

My head did tingle, and I felt my… hair moving?

I was reaching up to investigate when the world exploded into sound. Not overwhelming noise as I might have expected. No, it wasn’t that. The world just became incredibly… clear.

I’d once switched from shitty in-ear buds to a proper headset, one that another orphan outside of the kittens had splurged on, and the difference in the sound had been wild.

This put that to shame. I could hear everything. The kittens fighting a ways away, the thumping of feet below us, air vents shifting above. The elevator was a low rumble, and Lucy’s heart was a steady twin-beat in the background.

“Whoa,” I said.

My voice sounded… well, it was still my voice, but it sounded more, somehow.

Lucy made a little squeaking sound, one that I heard loud and clear.

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I looked over her way, only to see her grinning like mad and pointing at me… and something above me.

I reached up. My questing fingers bumped into something, something that seemed quite firmly attached to my skull. Something that moved.

Turning, I rushed over to the bathroom, every step sounding very loud.

I didn’t need to, of course, I had a sort of sense of the world around me that I’d never had before, but I still had to see.

“Myalis, what the fuck?!” I asked.