Chapter Six – Armour Up

Chapter Six – Armour Up

“We spend a lot of time romanticizing the Samurai as a person of action and power, but this image is almost always framed with an incursion as the backdrop.

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–The International Enquirer ad, June 2031

***

I looked at the image on the television one last time before sighing and poking Lucy in the sides. “Lucy, I need to get up,” I said.

“Aww, but I’m comfy,” she complained.

I chuckled. “You’re not the one with a bony butt digging into your lap,” I said.

She gasped and half turned to face me. “My ass is not bony.”

“It’s practically nothing but bone,” I said.

Lucy jabbed an elbow into my gut, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to send a message. “Keep talking about it like that, and we’ll see if you get to play with it any time soon,” she said as she hopped to her feet.

Laughing, I accepted the hand she extended to help me up. “Maybe I won’t let you touch mine then,” I said.

She shook her head. “Nope. That ass is mine.”

I pulled her into a hug. Not a sexy hug, just a comforting press of two bodies together, holding her close so I could feel the tickle of breath against my neck and the hummingbird beat of her heart.

“You’ll be back?” she asked.

“Always,” I said. “I just need to go out and act the hero for a bit.”

She nodded. “Alright. Can you be safe?”

“I can try,” I said. That was the best I could do. I’d never been out on Samurai business before, or whatever they’d call going out to track some girl, but I had the impression that it wasn’t exactly the safest thing to do.

“You’re going to get changed?” Lucy asked.

I looked down at myself, at my very dirty pants and lack of a proper shirt. “I should. I’ve been thinking of buying some sort of armour too. Might as well do that now, before heading out. Maybe a few other things.”

“Can I see?” Lucy asked.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Sure.”

She would probably be a bit disappointed. The movies and games made the whole process where a Samurai got new gear out to be this big thing. In reality, it was a bit simpler.

Lucy and I headed over to the bedroom again, with only a few pauses along the way for a bit of kissing and groping. When we stumbled our way into the room though, we separated. Lucy bounced on the edge of the bed a few times, then brought her knees up to her chin. “Do the thing!” she said.

“I’m afraid,” Myalis said as Dumbass scurried into the room before I closed the door. “That the process isn’t nearly as amusing as you might think.”

I shrugged. “That’s pretty accurate,” I said as I started to undress. “Myalis, I need some sort of armour. Nothing bulky though.”

“Of course! I have many millions of options for you, though I believe I can narrow it down to a few choices that would suit you best.”

“Was that a pun?” Lucy asked.

Dumbass bobbed up and down, but didn’t answer the question. “I see three avenues you could take. Your Sun Watcher Technologies has a few decent armours at tier one that could be very useful. They tend to be slim and form fitting, with kinetic redistribution gels, nearly uncuttable materials, and the better options have in-built systems for regulating temperature.”

“Alright,” I said. That sounded neat enough. “And the other two options?”

“Your stealth speciality has some suits that allow for audio-ocular camouflage of the entire body. They can also serve as armour, though these wouldn’t do much beyond stopping some very low calibre weaponry. It would be more useful as a method to avoid getting hit, than one to prevent the damage of a hit, so to speak.”

“Ooh, invisible BDSM Cat,” Lucy said. “That could be kind of hot.”

I decided to ignore that, even if it was hard to keep my mind on track. There was no way I was still hot and bothered after our morning, but all signs pointed to that being wrong.

“And the third option?” I asked.