"Sometimes the most wonderful things are the things we don't expect."

--interview with Deatnite and how he felt being one of the first Samurai.

I slowly make my way back to the city wall, my halberd running out of nanite reserves for the second time now. Not that it is much of a concern for me. The nanites are not necessarily cheap, but compared to the amount of herbicide I can commit with a full tank, the price is negligible.

After I killed all of the big dinosaurs, the wall was still under the threat of the massive wave of smaller models that had gathered around the breach, so I was tasked with the important job of being a distraction. Which honestly was great. I am not much of a builder, and going on a killing spree is fun, especially now that the pressure of finding a way out of this situation has disappeared, and I can just relax and swing the polearm around until I get tired.

Once I reach the wall, I jump back up, landing with the balls of my feed just on the edge of the wall. A lot of the guardsmen look at me for a second before they start clapping. That is strange, I think, and definitely not what I was expecting. I guess it really was a nice landing. I do a small bow to properly thank my audience before I jump off the balustrade and land on the wall proper.

When I turn around, I find Snake Eyes running at me, lifting me up in an embrace once she reaches me. I put my arms around her and hug her closely. As she puts me down, she takes off my mask, which feels a bit odd as the needles are still out and connected to my skull; it is not a painful feeling but more of an unsettling one. As I contemplate the weird feeling, her lips find mine, and all thoughts immediately leave my brain. The kiss is way too short, and as soon as she pulls back, I already miss their absence. As my brain returns to reality, I can hear people cheering and dogs whistling all around me, making me giggle involuntarily.

Snake Eyes releases me, looking at me with a slight blush colouring her cheeks, “I am sorry! I got excited for a second there and lost myself.” She says in an embarrassed whisper

I give her a small smile. “It's fine, I really don’t mind. The only complaint I have is that it was a bit too short for my liking.” I say with a wink as I gently take my mask back, turning it into the bracelet.

“Right, cool! Uhm, should we go somewhere else then?” she asks, looking around a bit nervously.

“Yeah, that would be good, preferably a place with a shower and a bed.” I say; my weird holographic clothing means that I am not covered in goop, but that does not mean that I am not covered in sweat.

Snake Eyes turns even redder. “You want to do it right now? I thought we were going to talk first?”

I blink a few times before I catch her meaning. “No! I mean, maybe. Not sure yet. I just want to clean myself because I have been running around for a while and feel rather gross. As for the bed, I am a bit tired after all of that, so having a place to relax would be great. I guess a big, comfy couch would also work.”

Snake Eyes nods. “That makes a lot more sense. Do you want to come back to my place then?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

She nods and starts walking towards her home. I follow closely behind her, paying close attention to my surroundings. Everything seems to have slowed down again, as people are moving at a more relaxed pace now, as they fix their gear or switch out the guards on the wall.

“So you have a mech,” I say as we pass the mangled bit of machinery.

Snake's eyes also look at the machine and she winces slightly, “Yeah, kind of regret it now.”

“Why? You aren't enjoying it?” I ask, curious as to why; I have never really doubted my weapons all that much.

“No, I like it. It is just really expensive to fix and maintain.” she says.

“That makes sense, but I doubt you have to fix it that much, right? And if you are short on points, I am sure I can spot you some to fix up Miss Medusa over there.” I say, pointing my thumb at the mech.

“I know. It is just when I look at you, I just realise that what you are doing is way more cost-effective.” She says in a forlorn way.

“Yeah, but when you fuck up, your mech gets damaged. When I fuck up, I need to spend several thousand points replacing my bones, organs, and whatever else I got stuffed into my meat sack.”

Snake Eyes pauses, slowly turning around and looking at me. “Did that ever happen to you?”

“Only twice, once when my spine got shattered ,and the other time when my ribs were turned into shards that were sent into my lungs.” I say, recounting the events in my head.

“And you are still okay?” she asked, looking at me, perplexed.

“I mean, every time it happened, I upgraded my body to make it stronger and more resilient. So, I guess I am okay. I will probably still get hurt in the future, but I try my best to learn from my experiences so I can do better in the future.”

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“I guess, but that must have hurt a lot.”

“It was fine. I have a painkiller that is almost always active when I am fighting, so I barely feel anything. Getting shot in the head hurt way more.”

“You got shot? When?” Snake Eyes asks in surprise, looking at me with concern.

“Like 5 days ago, I think. Keeping track of time has got a bit beyond me at this point. But yeah, someone jumped me with a fancy samurai gun and got lucky.”

“You were attacked by a samurai?”

“No, I don’t think so. It was more a guy with samurai gear, something I fear we are only going to see more of as time progresses; I mean, lots of samurai sell blueprints or gear. And that is not even talking about the moments where they straight up hand out weapons in an emergency. It is only a matter of time before some bozo gets their hand on one. With a bit of luck, it stays like that, but it is more likely for the corpos to, at some point, reverse engineer them, and then we will see a lot more of them.” I say with a shrug.

“I guess that is true. Can’t we do anything to stop it?”

“Not really, that is the problem with Samurai being kind of above the law. There is no one to set rules for any of us, so we can do what we want, unless you feel like having a Samurai meeting and telling them all what to do?”

Snake eyes shivers. “Yeah, I think I'd rather go back to being a corporate slave before even considering that.”

“Yeah, that does make you wonder, how many samurai can you stack in one spot before something goes seriously wrong.”

Snake's eyes laugh. “What level of power are these samurai at.”

“I would say random spread out between class one to class five,” I say with a shrug, not giving it a lot of thought.

“Maybe twenty then; you kind of just need two of the stronger samurais that are arrogant enough to pick a fight with each other. Once the fighting starts, then the other samurai are forced to either pick a side or get the hell out of there because de-escalation is most likely not an option.” She says in a serious tone.

I nod, not having thought much about it myself, but that sounds about correct. “I wonder what it is like to fight another samurai?”

“That makes it sound like you want to fight one.” Snake Eyes says, giving me a joking elbow.

“I mean, if given a reason, sure. I am really curious what it would be like to fight someone else on the edge of humanity.”

“You really are a battle junkie.” she says with a small smile.

“Maybe a bit. Any chance I can get to fight your mech, at some point?”

“No, of course not. I have seen what you did out there; I can’t afford to let you wreck it.”

“What if I pay for it? Oh, I can even give it some fancy swords.”

Snake eyes pause for a second, looking at me intensely. “You’re willing to buy weapons for my mech.”

“Yeah, why not? I mean, I only have melee weapons, so there is a bit of a limitation, but the catalog I got it from, the stone hearts, are basically giants already, so I am pretty sure I can get a big sword if you need me to.”

“Well, I have to take you up on that offer then. I am going to have to buy a lot of new things so all the little things help. What about you? Planning to invest your points into something?”

“Maybe. Lyssa, do I have enough points now?”

You barely have enough points for the basic model, and you still need to find a surgery room where Lyssa can safely install it since you don’t have enough points for a field installation.

I turn back to Snake Eyes. “You don’t happen to have a surgery room I can borrow.”

“Well, technically, it is the twin’s Twice Reborn equipment, but I am sure you can borrow it.”

“Twice Reborn, that is an interesting name.” I muse.

“It comes from the fact that JoJo got his head smashed, basically dying in the first few minutes of the incursion, but Justin did some mind connection thing, saving his life, and now they are connected in this weird way, sharing thoughts and everything.”

I pause, thinking about it. “So, is only one of them a samurai or both?”

“I think they’re both samurai but with only one AI.”

“That is odd. I wonder if I can figure out a way to share my AI power with someone else, too.”

Snake Eyes gives me a weird look. “You would share your power with someone?”

“Yeah, with my best friend. She helped me a lot over the years, and we always said that we would share everything. Honestly, I feel bad that I have not bought her that many nice Samurai things yet.”

“That is sweet. I am kind of jealous. I wish I had a friend that I could share everything with.”

I shrug. “I mean, they are nice to have for sure, but just people who make you happy while being around them should be good enough.”

Snake Eyes gives me a considering look. “Do you have many friends?”

“I mean, it is a bit complicated to say since I am not sure if they're our shared friends, or just Evelin’s friends since she does all the social stuff.”

“Evelin?” Snake eyes ask me, looking at me confused.

“The other me, her name is Evelin. That's something I was not supposed to say, so can you please keep it quiet?” I plead with her.

She laughs. “Of course, I won’t tell her that you slipped up.”

“It is more telling anyone else, since she has my memories, so she will know about it regardless.” I say, hoping she won’t be too upset.

“Right, I forgot about that”

“I do, too, most of the time. Both of us are still adjusting to the situation as well, and we are living it. I can only imagine how difficult it is for others.” I say, trying to comfort her.

“Yeah, but I still want to try my best to understand the two of you, and your dynamic and personalities.” She says.

“Yeah, me and her should also talk, maybe tonight when I go to bed. Lyssa, can you give us the same concoction as before, when we fall asleep tonight.”

Certainly.

I nod with a happy smile. “That is good.”

“Well, since that got settled, do you want to come inside so we can clean off from the battle?” Snake Eyes says while pointing at the building.

I blink in surprise, not having realised how far we had walked already. “Yeah, let's go!” I say with a smile.