Chapter Twenty-Two – Shy-Rise Living

Chapter Twenty-Two – Shy-Rise Living

“The definition of hikikimori is… hikikomori, a Japanese phenomenon, describes a condition of extreme social withdrawal where individuals, often young adults, withdraw from society and remain isolated in their homes for extended periods, sometimes for months or years.

S-so I’m not one of those, because, uhm… I go out. Sometimes.”

–Shy, during her first and last live stream, 2056

***

I took a quick shower, with the water on cold. It was refreshing and I needed it to get my thoughts straight.

Almost as soon as I was done, I got into some clean samurai clothes, then jumped back into my power armour. The last thing I did before I was out the door was give Lucy a parting kiss. “Don’t be gone too long, we do have school in the morning,” she said.

“Yeah, alright,” I replied.

It wasn’t until I was in the Bastion that I realized I had something of an issue. “So… I’m supposed to check up on Shy, but where does she even live?” I asked.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. There are polite restrictions preventing me from divulging the location of another vanguard, even if you were to suddenly ask nicely. However, Deus Ex’s AI, Lynus, left us an itinerary but also a list of known housing locations. Some of the Vanguard have been informed that you’d be meeting them, including Shy.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s moderately convenient. I’m still on the fence about doing this. I want to show the little gremlin up by not following her script.”

That’s well within your rights. She doesn’t have authority over you.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “Well, except the authority that comes from orbital bombardment, but I don’t see her actually doing that. Like… fuck, I think I’ll go along with it, because some of the people on that list I actually care for, you know? Shy… eh, she was nice enough, I don’t mind checking up on her, but Crackshot? Tankette, even Princess and Knight? Gros Baton needs someone to kick him in the pants, and Hedgehog needs someone to remind him to live a little.”

Then do this as an excuse to meet with allies instead of as a chore.

I nodded. Yeah, that was a nice way of framing it.

“Okay. Shy’s address,” I said. “Can you punch it into the navigation thingiewhatsit?” I asked as I took a seat in the pilot’s chair. It shifted to accommodate my larger size in the power armour. The Bastion rumbled out of the parking garage and slowly rose up and over the city’s traffic. I glanced at the navigation screen to my side and hummed.

Shy apparently lived near the city centre, where a group of nine big residential buildings were clumped together. They were some of the older mega buildings in New Montreal, but also pretty nice places to live.

The upper quarter or so of those buildings were basically their own sort of high-end living space, with bridges linking them all together. There were luxury shopping things and hospitals and all sorts of shit.

I’d seen some Living in Luxury style reality TV with Lucy that covered some people living in the topmost floors, in the big penthouses.

The rest of the building was… normal megabuilding. Maybe a bit old, but there were only so many ways to cram ten thousand homes into one building.

I flew across the city, then started to look for a place that could accommodate the Bastion. It was a bit big, but there were some parking garages in and around the mega building that Shy lived in.

It wasn’t until I plugged in her actual home address that I realized something, though. Her address was in the single-digit floors. On a building as large as one of these, that was basically the basement.

Shaking my head, I moved to one of the top-floor parking garages. It was a high-end one, for the rich CEO types that lived in one of the penthouses. I flew the Bastion in past armed security and luxury super cars and found a spot not too far from an elevator bank.

“Alright, here goes,” I muttered to myself as I stood up. I wondered if I should go in armed but… this was a house call, and Shy presumably knew about it. So I kept it to just my Trench Maker. I even left the Void Terminus behind.

The ramp on the side of my ride lowered, and I stepped out to be greeted by an unarmed security guard who looked nervous, despite his armour and gear. “Hello, ma’am,” he said. “I’ve been told to welcome you to Parking Level Elite Premium Five. And also to ask if you’re here to kill any of our VIPs?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Huh? Nah, I’m here to visit the samurai who lives here.”

The man blinked. “There’s a samurai who lives in this building?” he asked.