As I walked into the cafeteria I immediately spotted Tamamo and began to walk over. Though it definitely helped she was the only student always wearing a kimono. Even the other scions of the big Japanese Corps wore them only for special occasions. And I can understand them completely ever since She dragged us all to Japan for a fancy birthday dinner with her grandfather. Even with their servants it took forever to put the thing on.

That said, she looked stunning in them, especially when they were as fancy as the one she wore today, painted with a scene of a bright sunrise over a calm sea.

“Oh hi there Sepp.” She greeted me as I sat down opposite of her after putting down my tray of food.

“Hey Tsuki.” I mumbled back before sliding open a small compartment on my left forearm and pulling out a small flash drive. “Just what you asked for.” I said as I slid it over to her before opening my soft drink. “Just keep in mind that while it shouldn’t trigger any alarms, they will void the warranty the moment someone checks up on your car.”

“Oh noes.” She began as she grabbed the drive and cupped it in her hands. “What ever shall I do then?” Tamamo whined, eyes wide open, hands clutched to her chest. “I would have to dirty my finely manicured nails doing manual labor to take care of my car.” All while inspecting her lightly grease stained fingers, one of which was still bandaged up after she cut herself on some sharp edge the day before.

I of course had completely forgotten how funny she could be when she wanted to. leading to me snorting half a mouth full of orange soda all over the table and onto her. While her kimono, made from her family’s patented teflon-lotus-weave synth-silk just let the sticky soda run off the kimono straight to the ground, her crimson hair and pale face were not so lucky. While most of her hair was tied back in a messy braid, maybe even from the day before with how much hair had begun to stick out, her bangs were still sticky now. So with an annoyed groan, despite her amused smirk, she got up. “Well I’ll be right back.”

“Sorry. I’ll keep an eye on your stuff.” I replied between coughs before she headed to the bathroom to clean up. Taking a handful of paper napkins from the table’s dispenser, I began to wipe up the mess I made as best as I could.

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[Ibex: Hey, going to miss lunch with you and Tamamo.]

[Why? What’s happening?]

[Ibex: Nothing serious. Just bypassed the wrong securities while tinkering on my legs earlier. And now my left knee’s servos seized up.]

[Oh shit, do you need some help?]

[Ibex: Nah, don’t worry. Almost finished hobbling to the workshop. Going to take a while to disassemble the servos and make replacement gears though.]

[You sure?]

[Ibex: yeah yeah. You have fun with the speed junky.]

[You know she hates that nickname.]

[Ibex: I’ll stop calling her that if she starts obeying speed limits]

[Well good luck with your servos]

Letting out an exasperated sigh I finished my attempts at cleaning up, and quickly dropped the now wet napkins in a nearby garbage bin. A few moments later, Tamamo was returning.

“Stacy won’t join us today.” I informed her as she sat down again. “Messed up her legs.”

“Yeah, that’s her alright.” She replied, rolling her dark brown eyes. “Just waiting for when it finally bites us all in the ass.” Brightening up a bit, she leaned forward and continued more quietly. “Which reminds me, got wind of an interesting gig, you good to meet at Phil’s tonight to talk deets?”

“Was planning on finally finishing debugging my upgrades to the bot packages I am using atm.”

“Can’t you do that on the way there?” She asked resting her brow on her hand, the near floor length sleeve of her Kimono barely not benign dragged into her food.

“That good an offer?” I asked curiously. Usually she wasn’t so keen on us meeting for a job so soon.

“Mhm.”

“Fine.” I grumbled. “But you bring the food.” As she nodded eagerly I amended that. “And not some fake fungi-flesh filet. Actual dead animal meat in it.”

“Suuure.” She replied with a smirk, making me wonder what exactly she was planning to get for dinner.