Deal done I fled from Yoko’s physical domain and headed home to get to work. Jun was in his room getting ready for bed as I flopped onto the couch which was perfect, giving me time to get started.

I quickly started examining the code for Short Circuit. I noticed its benefits and weaknesses pretty quickly.

The hack overloaded the microcircuits of anyone with chrome. Basically it tricked the safeties on the power supply to push everything into the system, which caused immediate electrocution.

It did have some weaknesses. First off, you couldn’t keep doing it to someone over and over. One Short Circuit usually drained the energy out of the chrome. Which meant after a single use, there usually wasn’t enough power in the batteries to do it again.

Of course it worked on basically anyone with chrome though. Unless you were equipped with a grounding system. Most people aren’t going to have that unless they work with high voltage in their day to day, but it was something to think about.

Another problem was as bad as it was to get electrocuted, it wasn’t directly lethal. You could knock someone out with it, and sometimes get their heart to stop, but in the end it was just a powerful electrical shock.

I pulled out the shard case that Yoko gave me and pulled out the shard containing the hack as I plugged it into my laptop that I gathered.

The code bloomed out and I nodded. Whoever made this wasn't Yoko. I recognized her coding by now having done a few debugs for her. This though? It was… corporate. It felt like the sort of rote coding you would see from a group of people all cleaning up a single hack.

It was impressive, but it was irritating, because someone had gone through and tried to black box the hack.

With a bit of checking I found the creator was Militech.

Thankfully I was intending on doing a complete rewrite anyways, but I still wanted to examine how people normally do it. Yoko was good at her job, she had picked a difficult to parse hack, but it felt like it was a little bit of everything. Multiple attack vectors were in the hack, and it had a dense targeting list for how to go about performing its duty.

The problem was size. Like almost every hack I had seen it bloated up with the quality of the hack.

I closed my eyes and hummed as I considered the information in front of me.

What did I actually want from the hack? How could I make it better? I could make it smaller, sure, but better? That needed something else. I had been pretty good at coming up with a gimmick for my hacks that made them exceptional in what way I needed.

This was my first true offensive hack. It was like… Learning lightning bolt for the first time as a wizard, when only having CC spells before.

What did I need a damage spell for? What was the goal?

In the end I wanted two things out of it. AOE, and disabling high end borgs.

Mass groups of enemies were annoying and being able to just take out a bunch of people at once was useful, but it was borgs that were the biggest threat to me, although I guess that meant I was still thinking of it more like a CC spell, than a damage one.

Plus I still remembered Kiwi’s use of Short Circuit from the anime. A single hack that disabled an entire room full of Maelstrom? That was powerful.

I want it.

So I dug through the code, finding interesting bits that I knew I could use, and started tearing away parts of the code that were just garbage.

As usual half of the code was seemingly downgraded. Even Militech kept the best hacks they made for themselves, while only selling a weaker version.

I fell into the rhythm quite easily. It wasn’t hard to just sit there and slowly build up a quick hack. Not anymore.

It wasn’t until Jun came stumbling out of his room the next morning that I looked away from the screen. Once again thankful for my Kiroshi, as my eyes would have been bloodshot after over eight hours of nonstop programming.

“Morning Jun.”

“Mornin… Wait, did you sleep?”

“No. I was working. I’ll get some sleep soon.” I lied to him, it wasn’t very often that Jun noticed I had pulled an all nighter, one of the reasons I did try to sleep often enough that he wouldn’t notice my lack of sleep.

“Well… Go to sleep.” He said blinking sort of blankly at me as he was still half asleep himself.

“Sure Jun.” I agreed not wanting to argue, as I turned back to my laptop. I had made good progress, but trying to work on the versatility of the hack was a time sink. I shook off the idea of just making it do one thing instead of both.

This wasn’t just for me, but hopefully a hack that Sasha could use to keep herself alive. I couldn’t half ass it.

—--

Jun left for work still side-eyeing me and I took a break from programming to do the rest of my attempt at daily exercise.

Downstairs at the gym it was quiet and I found myself doing some stretches with weights in each hand. It wasn’t working my arms, but I still had muscles in my shoulders, chest and back.

I was working through the reps counting the number in my head when John walked over.

“Still interested in that spar?”

“It’s tomorrow.” I agreed and he chuckled. “Deravaja in an hour work for you?”

“Sure. I’ll be there.” I grit out as I ended the reps and stood up. Might as well head over and give myself time to recover.

“Good. I know the kid is looking forward to it, don’t tell her I said that.”

“I’ll think about it.” I teased but figured I might as well head over. Sensei would probably give me that look and demand to see how my training had been again.

So I called for my Kusanagi, and started driving.

The city was as busy as always, traffic beeping and honking and making a mess as everyone tried to get to work.

But I wasn’t in a rush, and I did love driving my bike. It didn’t take me long to pull up to the dojo where an array of Mizuchi were parked, each of them more ugly than the last.

My march towards the dojo was cut off though as I smelled something pretty good and ended up instead sitting at a little meat skewer stand to the side of the entrance and chowing down on breakfast.

Eventually my belly was full enough and I tipped the older man running the stall, as I headed into the dojo.

It hadn’t changed much from the last time I was here. As I walked in, there was a man waiting behind the counter, but I ignored him walking right in towards the dojo proper.

I had a feeling Hayato would have already set up our little spar. She was the princess type like that.

Inside there were the normal sounds of sparring and the clack of shinai as people trained.

I was spotted instantly by Sensei who nodded to me and then jerked his head towards a corner. I looked over expecting to see Hayato or something but it was an empty corner…

Ah.

I looked back at him and he just quirked an eyebrow at me and told me with just his eyes he expected me to get to work.

I sighed as I walked over pulling off my jacket and adjusting my holsters so they wouldn’t get in the way as I threw my jacket over the Shinai rack that was the only thing in the corner.

With a sigh I picked one up and started practicing my forms as I waited. Under Sensei's stern eyes.

Dangit! I didn’t sign up for this!

—--

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“What are you doing?” A haughty voice asked me as I continued to work on my swings. Every time I had made to put the shinai away Sensei had noticed and given me a look.

Judging.

I don’t know how he did it, but I just kept going instead of stopping each time. Stupid sensei powers.

“Mostly? Getting judged really hard by an old man. Ready for the spar?” I asked, turning to see Hayato had arrived. The girl was wearing a gi, with pads on her hands and feet, and she was looking at me like I was weird.

“Are you? You look exhausted!”

“Nah. I’m fine.” And I was mostly. Finally Sensei’s look was more curious and not a demand to get back to work so I put the shinai back on the rack and stretched my shoulders a bit. Enjoying the stretching of the muscles in my back at the action.

Besides, even if I was a little tired, I had gotten a level up alert for blades just a few minutes ago, so that had perked me up more than any tiredness.

*Blades skill level up!*

Blades 7!

“Hmph! Don’t think I will go easy on you just because you have worked yourself over!” She demanded in a rush, her voice coming out almost too fast for herself to keep up with.

“Shall we claim a space?”

“I already have one. Come!” She demanded and hurried, literally almost jogging as she headed over to space on the main floor that cleared out at her arrival.

I shrugged, taking a moment to finish pulling off my holsters so I wouldn’t have any issues, and as I walked over Sensei handed me a set of pads similar to the ones Hayato was wearing.

The old man didn’t say anything else though which was par for the course.

Sensei wasn’t the type to say something when he simply expected you to know what to do.

I quickly threw on the pads as Hayato was looking impatient and then bounced a little to make sure everything was tight.

“Ready?”

“Yes! Now stop wasting time!” She called out in return and charged me.

I rushed her back remembering that leaving her time to act was the worst thing to do.

—--

“Ow.”

“You are fine! Stop whinging!” She demanded at me, but like she kicked me in the tit! It hurts!

The matches had gone pretty much how they had last time.

She had proven the power of a reflex booster in close combat, while I had managed to surprise her for some wins as well.

“Say that after I kick you right in the tit.” I snarked back and she gasped like I had said something absolutely outrageous.

“You! How dare! Do not say such things to me!” She finally seemed to settle on, and I just rolled my eyes. Half the time I said anything she was likely to explode on me.

Good sparring partner though.

I had actually leveled up Street Brawler.

*Street Brawler skill level up!*

Street Brawler 8. It felt good, although it hadn’t been enough to overcome her in the last match when she got her last kick in ending our little spar.

“This was fun. We’ll have to do it again.” I offered, we had a few matches, but both of us were pretty tired, her more than me. I bet if we had a few more rounds I would start winning a lot more. I was objectively a stamina monster despite how ganic I was compared to Hayato who had lots of chrome, but even that wasn’t enough to cover everything.

“Fun? Hmph, it was an acceptable match. You should get some boosterware. If you did perhaps I would have a more even opponent.”

“Nah. I can’t stand Kerens. They freak me out.” I admitted and she stilled for a moment at my words. Probably the most still I had ever seen her.

“You fear such simple chrome? How embarrassing.” She said, snooty and definitely a little rude but I just shrugged.

“I’ll pick up a high end Sandy eventually. I have some things in mind for it, that’s my goal, but no way do I want a Keren. I couldn’t stand how long everything takes.”

She was silent for a half a second which must have seemed like a long time to her. As she just nodded. “It is not for everyone. It is a challenge only some are capable of handling.”

I almost snorted at how arrogant that sounded, but on this one, I would give it to her. Yep, not everyone is capable of handling a Keren.

Like me. Fuck that.

“Well, that was fun.” I offered, as I made to leave before she scoffed.

“We still need to set up our next spar.” She demanded and I blinked at her.

“I gave you my number, just call me when you want?”

“That! Fine! I will not be pleased if you refuse!”

I threw her a thumbs up as I headed out of the dojo. She really needs to stop watching so much anime.

Too much Tsundere was bad for you!

—---

The call came in.

*This is Motoko.*

*Hey there Ghost. I spoke to a certain Kitsune and what do you know? She speaks very highly of a little programmer she knows.* Sasha spoke every word like she was going to giggle at any moment. The amusement in every word was something that came through even the call.

But! But she called! If I still had a handset instead of just a phone in my head, I know I would be clutching it with both hands as I felt actually nervous about this conversation!

*Well I’m glad Yoko is vouching for me. I’ve done enough debugging of her work, she had better.* I grumbled, but then refocused. *So I got all sorts. Already finished programs, and hacks, but I also do debugging, or commission programming when needed.* I said trying to sound casual at just how important this was.

Just one gig. I just needed her to get through that one gig. Let me help you!

*Well I don’t usually outsource. How about this? Let’s meet up. I want to get a look at what you have for sale, and I might have a program I could use some help cleaning up.*

*I’m free today. Where and when?* I prompted already standing up from the couch where I had been working on Short Circuit again.

*I’m already hanging around Afterlife.*

*I’ll head over now. I hope you have the eddies. I might give you a discount, but I’m not cheap.*

*Pfft. You’re hilarious! I’ll see you.*

The call disconnected and I let out a long breath. She had called! I had honestly not expected her to call, and Yoko hadn’t said shit!

I shook it away and rushed to get my stuff ready, grabbing my laptop to bring with me. I doubt she would need a direct visual for programming work, but you never know.

Everything on the way was a blur, as I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would say, or what I should do.

I couldn’t tell her, obviously.

‘Oh yeah you have a gig coming up to break into Biotechnica don’t do it?’ She was an edgerunner. If she thought for an instant that someone leaked info on a gig she would…

Well she would never do it…

Okay. Maybe I could use that in the most drastic of moments.

But I needed to make sure she was prepared, and not put in a position where her only option was death.

I wanted her to survive. To bring to light the fact Biotechnica had let her mother die, and be able to live after. For that weight of her past to be off her shoulders and to still live on.

I remember Johnny mentioning in the game once, about happy endings. There I stood at the stairs leading down into Afterlife. The groupies and wannabes that hung around took no notice of me.

Despite everything I had done, I was just another face in a crowd.

“Here, for folks like us? Wrong City, wrong people.” I muttered to myself. A reminder about happy endings in Night City.

About how the path would eventually go, but that wasn't set in stone.

Johnny Silverhand was wrong about most of the gonk shit he said.

Taking advice from him wasn’t something I planned to do.

Wrong City?

Wrong People?

I would just have to change the city. Change the people. One person at a time if I had to.

I walked down the steps with confidence. It was time to save the catgirl!

“You aren’t on the list.” The bouncer told me as he stopped me from moving forward.

“Dammit.”

—---

“Pfft! You should have said you weren’t a regular!” Sasha was laughing at me a while later. I had eventually gotten access after calling Sasha and being let in.

“I forgot how tetchy this place is.” I replied with a light blush and a shrug. It was kinda embarrassing to need to call for help to get into the club.

“Well that was fun. C’mon. I’ve got a booth over here.” She said sashaying deeper into the club as we left the bouncer behind us.

I ignored the music, and the bar following after the girl that I needed to save. As I walked in, I couldn’t help but notice she grooved to the music as she walked, hips swaying and even twirling a bit as the music pounded.

It was kinda cute, but a little distracting. Custom netrunner suits didn’t leave much to the imagination Sasha. You should be more careful with shaking everything like that. Even I wore actual pants over my leotard.

I followed until she came to a booth and to my surprise it wasn’t empty.

The catgirl turned as she reached it and smirked at me with a look that said she knew something I didn’t, which is weird because I have no idea what she was thinking. No, I was more interested in the fact that Maine was sitting in the booth resting back face covered in those shades of his and sipping something from a glass as he took me in.

I could practically feel his eyes scanning me, both literally and metaphorically.

“Hey Maine, don’t mind us, my cute little contact finally showed up!” Sasha called out as she slid into the booth and then turned to me, patting the place next to her.

“This your contact? Shit, is this a kindergarten now?” He grumbled, taking his eyes off me to focus on his drink.

The temptation to move, to act was there, but that was gonk shit. I don’t care if he insulted me, my skills would speak for themselves if it ever came down to it.

Besides… Maine talked big, but only his loyalty to his crew was something I could respect. The guy had over-chromed, and lost it in the end. So I wasn’t exactly giving much weight to his words.

So I ignored him. Sliding into the space, and then pulling out a few shards and setting the laptop on the table.

“Here’s a few examples of my custom work. Feel free to take a look, but no copies unless you want to buy it. If you have something you want me to check over, now's the time.”

“Oh! Goodies.” She chirped, snatching up the shards like an over enthusiastic cat.

I wasn’t sure how much of that was her real personality, or just her persona to be honest.

It was kinda cute though, especially when she flashed me a smile in turn.

“Ah netrunner shit. Why’m I here again?”

“To look big and tough for me!” Sasha replied shooting Maine a big smirk that he just sighed at and to my amusement decided to just stay quiet and drink in peace.

Then Sasah pulled out a shard of her own.

“Tell me what you think of this.” She asked and I shrugged, took the shard and slotted it into my laptop.

I checked it over and had to quirk an eyebrow as I read through her code.

It was good. Solid. She was obviously no amateur about what she did…

But I instantly felt my teeth grinding as I read through it.

“Why are there so many cat emojis!?” I demanded in frustration! Using Cat emoji’s as part of your code base was just gonk!

“It’s my signature work Nya!”

I looked at her. She continued smiling like the cat that… Never mind.

Instead I pointed at a segment of the code. “Your emoji here got inputed wrong. That’s why this section won’t compile.” I told her, and instantly the amusement on her face vanished as she jerked towards the laptop to look at what I was pointing out.

She might have gotten some laughs at me with this, but the look of relief on her face as I pointed out a problem meant I got the last laugh.

“You caught that so fast!”

“Debugging is a skill, and you have to practice it to be any good. That one was free...” I trailed off leadingly and she smiled in return.

“Well let’s talk deals then.” She offered with a grin. “I like this hack. I heard about it down the grapevine. Would have bought it from Yoko if I could get her to agree to a deal.” she said my Reboot Optics shard waved in front of my nose.

“I’ll have a Short Circuit done sometime soon as well.” I offered, but she didn’t seem very interested which was annoying.

“I’ll take a look at it when you finish it.” She agreed without really getting into it. “So how long would it take you to clean up the code here?” She asked, sounding much more focused on her task.

I ignored the question for a moment instead checking over the code scrolling through it, checking functions and basically just figuring out exactly what it was trying to do.

It was… Fuck I recognized this hack.

“Cyberpsychosis.” I muttered and I looked up to see her grinning in delight.

“You are quick!”

“What’s that?” Maine asked, but Sasha just waved her hand at him to quiet him down.

“Well?”

“If you got the eddies. I can get this done right now.” I told her, and it was true. The hack was basically finished. I mean, it was complicated. Definitely the most dense quickhack I had ever even seen, but it was still just a quickhack.

“Really?” She questioned after a moment like she didn’t believe me.

“You pay the eddies, and I’ll fix your work right here, right now.” I told her, and her usual smiling face was gone as if she was dissecting me before the edge of her lips quirked up and she fell into her normal smirk.

“I want to see that.” Instantly her eyes changed colors, and I got an alert for a hefty dump of eddies into my account.

Challenge accepted I guess.

I turned away from her, pulled my personal link and inserted it into the laptop, and then I went to work.

The noise of my chrome fingers on the keyboard was the only noise in the booth besides the bumping bass of the music playing in the club for a long while.