Ghost in the City
Chapter 3

“Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen.” I grunted doing pushups. I was so close to Body 3. Pushups were hard. They hurt, and I struggled even past a few of them, but it wasn’t like I had to worry about the pain after taking a nap, so there was a certain urge to just keep pushing in me.

“Home.” Jun called out as the door opened once more his favorite burritos in his hand.

I really need to talk to him about diversifying his diet.

“W-welcome home Jun-Nii.” I called out as I finished another pushup before flopping onto the floor with a grunt.

I really needed to clean up the apartment a bit. It was gross down here.

I grunted as I rolled up to my feet.

“Hey what’s that?” He asked, suddenly pointing towards the holster I was wearing in the small of my back. I was trying to get used to wearing it so I was going through most of the exercises while keeping it on.

“Holster. Went out to get it today. Wanted to be able to keep the gun on me while out in the city.”

“You shouldn’t be out there at all.. It’s dangerous. You still don’t know anything.” He practically growled at me.

“I can’t stay inside forever Jun-Nii. I can’t even stay cooped up for much longer.” I tell him with a sigh.

He growled seemingly wanting to argue that I definitely could but to my surprise he kept himself from snapping and instead flopped onto the couch with a groan as he stared up at the ceiling for a moment.

“You always gotta be difficult. You just got out of the hospital. Out of a coma! You don’t even know anything.”

“I know. But I won’t learn by hiding in the apartment until the outside comes in and drags me out. I have to learn, have to… do.” I tell him, which he grunts out sounding displeased.

“Yeah maybe.” He grumbles but instead of arguing further he grabs his burrito. “That holster can’t have been cheap.”

“50 eddies, for the knife sheath and the holster.” I tell him and he chokes a bit on his burrito.

“50!?” He sighed “Expensive. Probably worth that much but we could have found something a lot cheaper.” He chides me.

“Oh. Sorry.” I mutter realizing I probably had rushed ahead without actually bringing up the issue with Jun. I had just decided to take care of the problem myself… Gamer brain. I realized. I had thought of it like a quest almost.

“No, it's fine. Should have realized you would want something to hold them. Guess I was…” he trails off going from sounding annoyed to tired. “Guess I was trying to keep you inside longer. My bad.”

“I think we are all just a little bit afraid, Jun-Nii. You are afraid for me. And I’m a bit afraid in general. So thanks. For worrying about me.” I offer instead as I settle on the couch and decide to do something I hadn’t really done yet. I initiated a hug.

He relaxed and returned the hug for a minute before seeming to have enough and pushing me off as he thrust a burrito in my face. “Eat!”

“Ughhhhh.” I groaned but devoured my burrito.

—--

Now that I had a holster and sheath, I needed to get used to drawing from them. It was… different. The back holster wasn’t something I had ever used before, but it was natural after a bit of practice, and I had to admit, the holster itself made the practice a lot more effective.

That and I was getting Reflex XP a lot more consistently, as I kept practicing the draw.

*100 Reflex XP Gained.*

I nodded pleased. While I wasn’t gaining Handguns XP at least I was getting something out of it.

Finally after practicing my draw for a lot longer than I wanted too, I got the alert.

*Reflex Leveled up!*

I sighed in pleasure at the alert. Finally! I could train my Handguns and Blades skill again now.

I stretched a bit, my right arm was getting a little tired so I decided instead to switch to something else for a bit. I settled and started training squats.

I would be ready for whenever something crazy happened. I wasn’t just expecting it. I knew it would happen. Jun was in a gang. He would eventually run into trouble, and I was a cute young girl. Someone would make trouble for me eventually.

When they did, they would get a knife in the kidneys and a bullet to the head. At least that was the plan.

Gotta keep improving, gotta make sure I’m safe.

*Ringing*

I stumbled during my squat nearly falling on my ass as I looked around for a phone. Only to realize the noise was coming from my head.

“Unknown number?”

I shrugged. Hitting accept.

“Hello?”

“EEEEEeeeee! Moto! You really are alive! I ran into your cute brother today at a meeting and he let slip that you were awake! I can’t believe he didn’t tell anyone until now! And you didn’t call me? Your best Choom? Your sister!?” The girl's voice squealed into my ear and I quickly messed with the settings to lower the volume a bit.

Owe. It wasn’t my ear, but it still kinda hurt.

“Umm… Hello?”

“Shiiiit. Jun-Chan wasn’t kidding. You really do have amnesia. I can’t believe that’s an actual thing!” She sounded shocked before her voice picked up. “Forget that! I’m coming over. Jun-Chan refused to let us see you in the hospital but I have to see this. Bye-Bye!”

The call ended.

“That is my best friend?” I asked a little disturbed. She seems way way too high energy for me. I barely got a word in!

I groaned as I stood back up. If someone was coming over… I should probably clean up a bit. I was sweaty from my exercise.

—-

I was just throwing a hidden burrito wrapper hidden in a dark corner into the trash when the door burst open.

Seriously, did nobody knock?

“Moto-chaaaaan!” I was suddenly pulled into a hug by a shorter girl as she grappled onto me. Honestly all I could see was neon green hair because she had an actual full sized mohawk and it was basically bashing me in the face. It was full of so much hair spray, or whatever these people used to make their mohawks in the future.

“Umm. Hello?” Really what else was I supposed to say!? I didn’t know this crazy girl!

“Oh girl wow you are different.” She said, pushing me away to look up at me.

Her face was chrome and neon. I thought. Her cheeks were chrome, with neon etching on the chrome making her look like she had cat whiskers made of green neon.

Was she trying to be a cat, or something else? Because mohawks don’t really register cat to me…

“Wow, look at you. You look so… Standard. Has Jun not taken you out to get chipped, or at least a haircut? Your hair is so long!”

I blinked my hair had been down to my shoulder blades when I woke up. The nurses had cut it, while I was in the coma, but more just chopping it down. I had mostly just been throwing it into a ponytail.

“Is that bad?”

“Not for me. I like my hawk, but you usually keep it a lot shorter girl!”

“Did I?”

“Jeez! It’s so weird. Here. This is what we used to run around looking like!” She said and her eyes shifted color before I got a text including a picture.

I blinked because this was the first time I had seen a picture of myself from before.

Motoko was a street gang wannabe for sure. I noticed instantly how different we looked. She had been a lot more chromed than I was. I hadn’t thought I had lost that much to the scavs, since I had been rescued I thought I just had my standard eye system lost. But no, she used to have a lot of chrome on her face like… This girl.

“Oh… what’s your name?” I asked. And that caused the girl’s jaw to drop.

“Oh.” She seemed a little hurt for a moment before shaking it off. “I’m your bestie Hiromi!” She offered acting cute and throwing her fingers against her cheeks.

I just nodded and swiftly added her number into my system. “There I added your number.” I told her which did earn me an actual smile.

“Good. Now c’mon let's get out of here, everyone will want to see you are still alive!”

“Everyone?” I asked as I resisted her suddenly tugging on my arm as she attempted to drag me out of the apartment. Unfortunately, it was obvious she was stronger than I was and I was dragged out the door barely given enough time to grab my shoes as she wasn’t listening to my arguments.

This girl was definitely a force of nature. Then she dragged me out the front of the apartment and I did everything I could to stop her.

“You have to be kidding.” I argued instantly, but it was no use.

“What? C’mon you’ve ridden bitch on my bike plenty of times before. Get on.” She argued as she finally let me go to hop onto a motorcycle.

I knew this bike. It was a Yaiba Kusanagi. The coolest motorcycle in the game in my opinion, but of course she drove the goofy high backed version that made a sleek killer bike look like something stupid.

More importantly. I was fourteen and Hiromi was definitely the same age. Also crazy.

I didn’t trust her to drive me anywhere!

“Not a chance… Is it close enough to walk? I could use the exce-eeee!” I squealed as she hopped off the bike long enough to drag me the rest of the way and practically push me onto the bike before hopping on and starting the engine. Literally starting to peel out despite me only sitting side saddle!

“Hiromiiiiii!” I screamed as she cackled driving out onto the street and slowing at a light before turning to me.

“Better get situated Toko we are going!”

While the idea of jumping off and making a run for it ran through my head, the light was already changing and I quickly settled behind her gripping her around the waist tightly so I wouldn’t fall off as she started driving.

I was wrong, she wasn’t a crazy driver. She was a Cyberpsycho driver! I kept my eyes closed for most of the drive as she swung through traffic driving in between people and cursing and flipping off anyone that honked or got in her way.

This is how I die. Crying like a bitch on the back of a motorcycle.

Of course it didn’t happen, other than constantly forcing other cars and vehicles to swerve to avoid hitting her we made it to wherever she was taking me.

I shivered as we drove down deeper into the city. “Kabuki?” I muttered noticing the signs after I decided to be brave enough to open my eyes.

“Yeah! We are going to Ho-Oh! It’s a Tyger Claw hang out! I guess you forgot all about it huh? Well it’s great. Everyone will be glad to see you!”

I just blinked. Ho-Oh. Why was that name familiar? Other than the obvious Pokemon reference.

Hiromi slowed pulling down a small street and then slowing to drive around a pair of barricades that blocked off a small side street she slipped right through them and then drove through to a small open area full of Tyger Claw style cars and bikes. And a club.

I was twigging pretty hard. I had definitely been here before in the game.

I just couldn’t remember why.

“C’mon!” Hiromi called as she already slipped off the bike and was urging me to follow. I took a deep breath and slipped off the bike.

I wasn’t feeling very confident right now. I didn’t like this at all. I didn’t know any of these people but some might know me. Worse? I didn't exactly fit in. Sure I had on my Tyger Claw jacket, but the rest of me was more normal. I didn’t have neon or tattoos or anything that would show I was meant to be here.

Plus I didn’t really like bars.

I followed after Hiromi who burst into the bar. “I’m baaaack! And guess what bad bitch is back among us! Back from the dead!” I grimaced. I was pretty sure I never died.

I stepped in and interest in me was pretty light. Hiromi of course was chattering away like everyone was cheering and happy to see both of us.

But I realized the truth. We were fourteen. Most of the people in the bar were a lot older, fully Tyger Clawed out, and had no interest in a bunch of noisy kids.

I gave an apologetic bow to those that were glaring before hurrying over to Hiromi.

“Maybe less shouting.” I urged her as I tangled my arm with hers pulling her away from a brewing argument with an older guy that was complaining at her for yelling so loud.

She scoffed at him, threw him a finger but let me pull her away, and then instantly turned it on me. Tugging me towards a corner where I noticed younger teens were hanging out they were all dressed up like gangers but I could only see them as wannabes.

I realized that is probably what they were. Future chaff for the gang. If any of the real Tyger Claws needed something done, they could go grab a kid and have them do it.

Huh. Made sense I guess.

“Yo yo yo! Look who's back!” Hiromi called out here instead and actually got some interest as I was tugged toward the back table.

“Hey wait, is that Motoko?”

“Wait your right!” The teens called out in surprise at my appearance. “Thought you got Flatlined?”

“No, just a coma.” I told them as Hiromi pushed me into a seat.

“She also got amnesia like on the TV. Can’t remember anything. She didn't even know me!”

“Seriously? That’s hilarious! So you don’t know who I am?” A boy asked, wearing a jacket with tiger stripes and a set of clunky almost ill fitting sun glasses.

“I’m sorry I don’t know. I guess some of us were friends? It’s nice to meet you all… again?” I answered amnesia made it a little confusing.

“Pfft. This is great! Hey you really don't remember? You owe me $20 eddies, you know?”

“Fuck off Malcolm. She doesn’t owe you shit.” Another spoke up punching the boy in the shoulder earning a yelp from him. “She doesn’t remember shit huh? That’s rough.” The boy offered. He seemed the best dressed of the group. Everything seemed to actually fit him unlike most of the others.

“I’m Ichi, short for Ichinose. We’ve run together since we were kids. Bit wild you don’t remember. Anyway Malcolm is cool, just don’t listen to anything he says.. Ever.”

“Fuck you choom!”

“You already know Hiromi, our crazy bitch.”

“You know it!” Hiromi called out as she grabbed a drink from the table and downed it, uncaring at the yelp from Malcolm as it had been his drink.

“And that is-”

“I can introduce myself Ichi. Omaeda, we never met. I joined this crew about three months ago.” He offered. The boy was larger, but not from muscle. He was just a bit fatter than most of the others. He also had a Netwreath on his head. And a case that I recognized as a Netdeck. Mostly because I had seen one while channel surfing. The massive thing was old, massive and banged up, but it was a netrunner kit.

“Nice to meet you.” I offered simply which he returned with a nod. “Umm nice to see you all too?”

“Heh. Look at this Ichi! Our hellion Motoko is all demure and sweet now!” Hiromi mock cried as she pulled me into a side hug. “Next thing you know she is going to start talking about becoming a corpo and working in an office!”

That earned a chuckle from everyone but I shook my head.

“Probably not. I don’t think I would fit into an office well. I’ve heard about how cutthroat the politics are in those places.”

“Huh. Only got a few memories left but still remembers how fucked up Corpos are. At least you got some sense.” Hiromi tells me with a laugh.

Everyone settled in then and started swapping some stories about me from before. Apparently Motoko really was a hellion, the kind of girl that was fully on board with committing any crime to get her way and fully onboard the Tyger Claws.

I had actually been the one to drag Hiromi into the Tyger Claws orbit. Before she had been a girl that kept her head down.

Go figure.

Learning a bit about me was nice. Even if I refused the drinks. Instead just grabbing some weird carbonated drink from the vending machines in the back of the club.

I snorted into my drink in the middle of Malcolm talking about him klepping a Rayfield Caliburn with a tech jack he had klepped from a techie he had done a job for only to have to bail on the car and run for his life from a kill team of Arasaka ninjas come to kill him.

No one around the table believed him for an instant and I had to assure Hiromi I realized he was lying as well as she had started looking at me worriedly once he started the story.

“That is a new face.” A voice called out from behind me and instantly I saw Ichi stand from his seat and offer a bow.

“Shobo-Sama. This is Motoko, an old face actually. She just got out of the hospital.” He offered and I turned.

The man was wearing a white suit and a purple bowtie. I didn’t recognize him though. So I relaxed.

“Nice to meet you.” I offered with a small bow of my own from where I sat.

“Hmph? I don’t recall, Ichi. I have some work for you. Come along.” He demanded and turned to walk away, Ichi urgently slipping out from behind Malcolm to hurry after learning Hiromi grumbling.

“I know it’s important to help out Shobo-Sama and all, but it always annoys me that he only wants to use Ichi. We can all work, you know?” She offered before sighing and leaning back. “Alright I guess we should head out. I better take Motoko home before Jun-Chan comes and kills me.”

“Hell no.” I tell her instantly, pushing at her face as she moved to stand up. “You are drunk. You’ve been drinking for the last three hours.”

“Wha? I drive better drunk!”

“Somehow I don’t believe you… Keys.” I demand from her holding out my hand.

“What? I’m not giving you my shard key. I drive just fine drunk you gonk. Pfft.” Hiromi started laughing at me as I rolled my eyes.

“You aren’t driving until you sober up.” I tell her firmly. “Not letting you kill yourself in an accident.” I said firmly no give whatsoever. Something about what I said though made her start smiling. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Fine. You can just drive then.” She offered with a grin as she pushed into my personal space. “You haven’t had anything to drink so you are good to drive aren’t you?”

“I don’t know if I even know how.” I informed her calmly. Earning a wide smile from Hiromi.

“Perfect! No time like the present to learn! C’mon Motoko! Time to learn to drive!” She offered with a drunk grin.

“I don’t feel comfortable with this!” I told her as she dragged me out of my chair and towards the front.

—-

So driving a motorcycle was kinda… I mean it wasn’t that complicated. Mostly thanks to Hiromi practically jumping off the bike wanting to throw hands with anyone that looked at her funny. But I got the hang of it after a few minutes of driving real slow around the block that club was on.

More interesting than that. I got a new skill.

*Driving Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Driving Unlocked.*

The thing was driving wasn’t a skill in the game. At all. Which had thrown me off a little. I had been going along with the understanding that my system was Cyberpunk 2077. But if driving existed and to my pleasure it existed under the Reflex stat. Then what other skills could I try and pick up?

Testing would be required!

I pulled into the parking garage for the apartment parking the bike with a sigh.

Not too bad.

“You drive like an old granny.” Hiromi offered behind me as she laughed and hopped off the bike.

“You drive like a drunk. Even when you aren’t drunk.”

“Which is why I drive better drunk!”

“No one drives better drunk you gonk.” I sigh and then have to quickly grab her and pull her away as she made a move to get back on the bike. “Whoa whoa whoa! What are you doing?”

“Going home?”

“Not a chance!” I hissed. “You are drunk and you aren’t driving around on a motorcycle. C’mon you can crash at my place.”

“Aww a sleepover? We haven’t done that in ages! How cute.”

I threw her an annoyed look as I walked out of the parking garage and across the street to the apartment. We rode the elevator up with Hiromi chattering away about nothing in my ear.

Jun thankfully was home when I got there.

“Thought Hiromi would be the one to drag you out. Make sure you call when you are going to be gone so long next time.” He ordered instantly as I walked in which I threw him a thumbs up. That was fair.

“Hiromi is going to crash here tonight. She got drunk and I won’t let her drive home.”

Jun gave me a weird look. “But she drives better drunk.”

“No one drives better drunk!” I hissed at him even as Hiromi whooped at Jun agreeing with her.

“So she is going to claim the couch-”

“Nah, we can share your bed.” Hiromi countered, already sauntering past me throwing Jun a wink. “Unless Jun-Chan wants to share instead.”

“Nope.” He replied instantly shutting her down much to my relief, and to Hiromi's now displeasure as she pouted.

“Fine.” She huffed heading into my bedroom.

“Sorry Jun-Nii.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m used to her being around. It feels… Normal. Did you have fun?”

“Hmmm. Fun? Not exactly, it was nice to meet new people and former friends I guess? But the club wasn’t really my thing.”

He blinked at that. “Really?”

“Yeah alcohol kinda smells bad, and the cigarettes everyone was smoking made the club a little smoky. The music was okay… But that’s about it.”

“Huh. Another change I guess. Good.” He offered with a nod before I followed after Hiromi who to my surprise was already half naked.

“Do you want to borrow some clothes?” I offered only for her to laugh at me.

“Just climb in Choom. We haven’t had a sleepover in forever.”

I sighed. Doing just that after taking off my jacket and shoes. Sliding in I could smell the alcohol on her breath as she muttered sleepily to me.

Eventually she did pass out, and once she was snoozing on my shoulder drooling lightly did I choose to sleep and the timer for how long popped up.

—--

The next morning I woke up just like I had been since the hospital feeling great and ready to start my day.

Hiromi was not. She grumbled and groaned when I prodded her, so I just covered her in a blanket and left the room to start my morning exercise.

After a quick breakfast of hallway vendor burrito. Gross. I got to it. Using the 25% XP sleep buff to my advantage as I ran through my gun draw. Now that Reflex had finally leveled up I needed to get Handguns and Blades up there to match.

An hour later Hiromi came practically crawling out of my bed with tangled mohawk and tired eyes to see me staring out the window constantly drawing my gun from my back holster.

“Damn.” She muttered a bit blinking before walking over and grabbing a drink out of the fridge. At least it wasn’t alcoholic. “What are you doing?”

“Exercise!” I chirp back at her happily as I continued my work. I was definitely getting better at this, but the XP was starting to come in really slowly. There was only so much XP I could grind from drawing my gun and never getting a chance to shoot it.

Might have to talk to Jun about that. He did say to bug him about stuff I needed instead of running off and doing it myself.

“Looks boring.”

“It can be!” I offer as I finally decide to switch from gun to blade. Holstering the gun for the last time I took a moment to stretch out before my left hand went to do the same thing with my knife, Draw into stab. Thankfully I could train blades a lot easier since I didn’t have to worry about shooting holes in the wall with it. Letting me keep the XP grind coming.

I was almost at level 2 Blades.

“You are better with a gun than you were before. You were kinda hopeless, but you are worse with a Knife.” Hiromi eventually commented as she watched me practice for a minute.

“Really? I was good with knives?”

“No but you were good with a Katana. You taught me some things after all.” She mentioned which surprised me. I didn’t know Hiromi used a Katana, she didn’t look like she was armed at all really.

“Heh I don’t carry it around. I’m not part of the Tyger Claws yet. Some of the men don’t like it when people walk around with their weapons. I only use it when I want to show off.”

“Cool. I might have to get one.”

“Oh… right. You don’t have your Katana anymore.” She muttered looking sad as she thought about it.

“Was it special?” I asked as I continued to work through my stabs. “I don’t really remember it.”

“It was your mom’s. You carried it with you everywhere, used to piss off the Gangster claws, but you are generational, so they always had to leave you alone about it.”

“Oh. I guess the Scavs took it then.”

“Yeah. Probably hawked it at a dropoff too. Fuckers.”

I shrug “I’ll either find it again, or I won’t. Do you have a picture of it, or was it special in any way?”

“No. Sorry. It was a pretty standard Arasaka Katana. I doubt you will ever see it again. Or even know it from any other. Dammit.” Hiromi cursed sounding pretty upset about it.

“Don’t stress Choom. I don’t even remember it to miss it. I’m just glad I’m alive. The Katana is just a Katana.”

“Yeah… Yeah I guess.” She offered. “You are the most boring amnesiac I ever met.” She said, sounding amused.

“I’m just exercising! I got out of a coma a few weeks ago, remember? My muscles were all jello.”

“And a knife?”

“The city can be dangerous. I mean I was kidnapped apparently. I want to be able to protect myself. I’ll switch to pushups and other stuff soon.” I told her as I continued drawing and stabbing. I wanted that sweet sweet level up.

I grunted as I continued on, my arms tiring, but I was gonna push for the grind.

*100 Blades XP gained.*

*Blades skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I slowed to a stop. My hand on my knife had grown confident. I knew for a fact I could do all sorts of things with it now. My control and confidence in my knife work had gone up.

But what was a Perk?

Like in the game with the perk tree? I hadn't seen anything like that.

I quickly pulled up the Stat screen. And my Reflex stat was blinking. I clicked it, and then Blades was blinking. Clicking that I saw that I had an option.

There was a little icon that revealed a list of perks I could choose from. All had something to do with blades.

I read through a few of them. Concealed blade. Letting me better hide a knife on my body to bypass some scrutiny. Parry. To better deflect incoming blades, which I noticed had a greyed out Perk below it, and then another one below that. I followed the tree until it came to the end.

Bullet Deflection.

Cool.

But I kept reading for now. Wanting to know what other options there were. Lots of them looked interesting but a lot of them were very niche. What I did notice was a perk that actually had some use outside of me fighting with a blade.

Ambidextrous: Use either hand as competently as the dominant hand.

This was a perk that would buff anything. And could be pretty useful since I was training for a knife in my off hand.

I decided. Accepting that perk and a moment later my left hand felt like a wave of cold ran down it, and then as if it was waking up from falling asleep my brain seemed to read the limb as… Different. I blinked away the stat screen, and with a bit of a knife trick that I felt pretty confident with. I swapped the knife to my main hand and drew my gun with my off hand.

It was just as quick as the main hand even if the holster slowed me down a bit as it was designed for right hand draw.

I shifted using my left hand to aim and adjust and it all came naturally to me.

“What are you doing now?” Hiromi asked as she lay on the couch her chin in her hand.

“I’m ambidextrous.” I tell her, sounding a little surprised about it.

“What no you're not. You're a righty.” Hiromi says confidently.

“Maybe I was. But I’m not anymore.” I told her showing how firm I was as I continued playing around with aiming the pistol and knife in concert.

“Huh. I guess the Scavs messed up your brain… I guess that’s a good thing?”

“Yeah it’s cool.” I tell her smiling as I once more swapped knife and gun with a showy toss of the knife to switch hands before sheathing and holstering them. “You look bored.”

“You done?”

“Not really, but I can take a break. You’re my guest right now.”

“Pfft. We are chooms. I’m not your guest. But alright. C’mon I want to get some chow.”

“Okay.”

—--

After a brunch where we sat people watching as we ate Hiromi finally said she had to get home so her parents wouldn’t kill her. We shared a hug and I waved as she drove down the street.

I winced. She was still a terrible driver.

I went back inside and got back to grinding. Body was close to level 3! If I remember right, that was the starter score for V in the game. If I could reach 3. I would be at a baseline that I knew was fairly competent.

Unfortunately the morning workout didn’t push me into level 3 just yet. And I took a break to take a shower and head back outside for a while. I figured doing some aerobic exercise would be a good change. So I decided to start jogging around the block. The massive concrete stairway that led to the level above was used as part of the path. Jogging up the steps to the midpoint before going down on the other side spit back out on the same side of the block.

It was hard, my legs ended up burning, but it was great exercise.

Plus as I jogged I got another skill!

*Athletics Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Athletics Unlocked.*

I smiled. That would be super useful! Especially if I ever had to run away! It was also under the Body tree. So that was nice.

I kept it up. Jogging around the block once before I was too tired to do anymore. But I knew I would go take a nap and probably do it again right after.

Of course as I was heading in, I heard a word that stopped me dead.

“...Scavs again.”

I shifted. That was a word I had been hypersensitive to. Kidnap and try to murder steal my body once shame on you. Do it twice, shame on me.

I stopped but the two working class guys were just grumbling. “H-hey excuse me?” I asked, deciding to interrupt. I walked over to where they were both eating from a vendor. Both guys gave me a suspicious look as I approached.

“What do you want, kid. If you think we are easy marks, get lost.”

“No nothing like that. I heard you say Scavs… I had a run in with them a while back so I’m a little…” I trailed off while wiggling my hand. “They aren’t set up around here or anything are they?” I honestly couldn’t help the hint of fear that entered my voice as I spoke.

The two men kept a look on me for a moment before the one that said Scav to start finally spoke. “Not around here thankfully. I came across a nest while on a job fixing some apartment lights. Over in H2. You are plenty far away from those bastards girl.”

“H2. Megabuilding H2.” I repeated to myself nodding. “What floor were they on?”

Both men looked at eachother. “Listen kid, I don’t want to be responsible for you going off and trying something stupid. Those fuckers are dangerous.”

“I know some Tyger Claws. Might be worth it to them to hit them Scavs, That’s all. Not a fan of them. At all.” I said and the guy hesitated a bit before shrugging.

“Floor 24. A whole side of the building is blocked off by them. They had hooked into the power supply which is why the lights were failing. But that’s all I know. Don’t be stupid.”

“Thanks. Really. Thank you.” I offer them a bow and turn and start jogging off.

H2. Floor 24.

The gun in the small of my back felt heavy.

—--

“Hey Jun-Nii.” I call out as my brother gets home late that night. Oddly he usually stays out most of the night.

“Imouto.” He greets me back checking me over and seeming pleased with the sight.

“Hey Jun-Nii. Is there a place I can go to practice shooting this?” I asked nodding towards my back as I continued to do pushups on the floor. My question startling Jun for a moment as he thinks.

“We can go shooting yes. We will go tomorrow. Together.” I looked up in surprise at his words.

“Don’t you have work?”

“I can take a day off. And since I will be going to shoot, I can tell my boss that I am taking the day for training.” He offered with a smile. Looking pleased with himself about his plan.

“Nova. Thanks Jun-Nii.”

“It is what I am here for.” he assures me before heading into the room to relax.

He really wasn’t though. I wanted to say. That he didn’t have to be completely responsible for me… But I was still like a child even if I wasn’t actually amnesiac. Even if I still knew things this wasn’t my earth. This was Night City. The rules here were different. I mean I was still working on prices for stuff to make sure I didn’t overpay again.

I turned back to my pushups just a few more, and I should get Body 3.

Just a few more.

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