Chapter — 27

"Bro! Tell me she's kidding!" The unknown man said to Ichiro.

"I don't think she is, Esmond," Ichiro responded, most likely sending the text to all three of them as Rei also got his response.

"Are you for real? I know you said her amnesia was bad, but I didn't think..."

Rei studied Esmond, as Ichiro had called him. He was around the same age as Ichiro and seemed to sport the same amount of cyberware — if of better quality than Ichiro now had.

He was a bit taller than Ichiro if Rei were to make estimations, putting him around 190 cm in height compared to Rei's 170 and Ichiro's 180. He had short, spiky purple hair and black cybernetic eyes that only separated the pupil and sclera with a thin gray circle. His limbs were mostly black plasteel with purple highlights, while his hands had synth skin covering them.

He was somewhat handsome but had nothing on her brother with his relatively weak chin and crooked nose. It looked to have been broken a fair few times and not healed correctly.

Why he didn't simply have that fixed was anyone's guess.

"Well, as my friend here said, my name is Esmond. I'm one of Ichiro's oldest friends, as a matter of fact. We've been together since what? A few weeks after you got kicked out on the street? Yeah, something like that." His voice wasn't too dissimilar to Ichiro's in pitch, but he had a rougher pronunciation of each word.

"I thought I could count you as a friend too, but..." He finished somewhat lamely, looking away.

"I think Esmond had begun developing a crush on you before the coma," Ichiro supplied silently. As the man in question didn't react, Rei took that as the text message having been sent to her alone.

Yeah, no. Even if I'm bi, which I'm still not entirely sure of, he's certainly not my type.

Rei found it extremely confusing that she couldn't tell if she was only lesbian or not. Her body kept telling her that she was, but her mind told her otherwise, creating an annoying dissonance.

Rei honestly couldn't say that she remembered Esmond, but if he'd been a friend of Ichiro's for as long as he claimed, then that must mean he was one of the people helping her family get in contact with the Fangs. Until recently, that had been a blessing, so she decided not to be too standoffish toward him, even if further engagement might ignite a spark Ichiro thought he held in his heart.

She also owed him her gratitude, so she set to get that off her chest.

"I might not remember you, Esmond, but don't take it to heart. I barely remember anyone, and if I do, it's only in vague outlines. The only ones I can honestly say I remember enough to not feel like strangers are my siblings," Rei said.

Ichiro smiled at that, but Rei noticed that River twitched slightly out of the corner of her eye.

"Anyway," Rei continued, as Esmond looked dumbfounded at the revelation, "I wanted to thank you. Sincerely. Without you there, this rustskull would have gotten himself killed," Rei send Ichiro a glare, "even with his two loving sisters' strongly worded desire to keep himself out of danger."

Ichiro winced while Esmond scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat pleased with the expressed gratitude.

"And you as well, Doc. Thank you," Rei said, looking over to the walking cybernetic in human shape.

"Of course. It was my pleasure."

"Wasn't there someone else who helped Ichiro from flatlining?" Rei asked bluntly, looking around before returning her attention to Ichiro, Esmond, and River.

"Yeah, Al'. I only knew that Ichiro had a ripper he trusted but didn't know where he was. Only Al' knew that River had moved here."

"Well, thank him for me, will you? And from Miyo as well." Rei asked before looking toward River. "If your name's 'River,' then what did you call yourself before you moved here? Where did you move from, anyway?"

"River's my real name," The ripper said, fooling no one, "and I moved from where you first met me, but I suppose you don't remember that, do you?"

Rei could only shake her head, and River frowned slightly. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter," he said.

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Rei said, creating a lull in the conversation as all four stood for a few seconds thinking in silence.

"Now, Esmond. You know what's been happening to the Fangs, am I correct?"

"Yeah..." Esmond said, looking angry and dejected at the same time.

"Can I take it that you're no longer a member?"

"What kind of question is that?" he asked, looking at her incredulously. "I'm not squeaky enough to dare call myself a Fang any longer, with the whole gang practically destroyed and the remnants being hunted down like they were part of a Scaver infestation."

"Good, then let me access your cyberware."

"What?"

"Just let her do whatever she wants to, brother," Ichiro interjected.

"Are you insane? Letting a Magi into your systems is like one of the stupidest things you could do!" Esmond said, hissing between his clenched teeth.

Rei rolled her eyes. "I only asked to be polite. I could breach your systems without trouble if I want to anyway, but if you ever want to see Ichiro again, then you will allow me access. Is that clear?"

Esmond looked at her as if she was mad, but seeing the steely resolve Rei's eyes held, his shoulders slumped a bit, and he nodded.

"Fine. Whatever. Can you at least tell me what you're going to do?"

"I'm going to make sure no tracking daemons or script is attached to you," Rei explained as she breached his cyberware. She got swift access as Esmond let her through his ICE when she prodded him for it.

"As a gang whose modus operandi are Meshmagi, information gathering, and asset retrieval, not keeping track of their members would be stupid. Yeah, there we are. You've got several scripts collecting data such as location, cyberware integrity, and even some from your med-chip." Rei finished as she located the code.

"Tracking scripts?" Esmond asked, alarmed.

"Yeah, no fully fledged daemon, but there is code keeping track of you, that's for sure."

Getting a sudden idea, spurred on by [Deception], she intercepted the data it collected before supplying some of her own, making it seem as if his cyberware suddenly had critical failures and puncture wounds tore flesh all across his body as if gunned down by ranged weaponry.

Only then did she remove the programming from his system, leaving Esmond as healthy as before.

To anyone monitoring the now scattered Cyber Fang members, though, it would most likely read as if he'd been killed in some back alley — a not-too-uncommon occurrence.

「Notice:

[Deception] skill level has increased.

Level: 5 → 6」

"I've made it seem as if you were gunned down by an assault rifle or multiple goons with handguns and then flatlined before removing the code keeping track of things. They should think you died in a non-descript back alley and not pursue it further."

"Are you telling me all the Fangs are being tracked by the Pistons? But how? I can see why the oyabun would want to keep track of us, but how the fuck does the Pistons have access to his systems? He's dead, so there's no way he'd give that data over." Esmond said, and seeing Ichiro's widening eyes, Rei felt her mind come to a halt.

Wait... Oyabun? Isn't that...

Rei staggered slightly, River's hand coming to her shoulder to steady her suddenly weak legs.

"WolfMosh is... dead?" Rei asked, feeling her head swimming.

"Yeah. It isn't on the mesh feeds yet, but a friend of mine swore he saw his head being cut off by some creepy fucker in white full-body armor."

Rei moved backward, plopping herself down on a stool as she held her face in her hands. She wasn't entirely out of it, though, thanks to [Merciless] emerging — now hidden from view by her hands over her face.

Why did that hit me so strongly? I knew there was a chance WolfMosh was dead. With all that happened at the facility and with his AI protecting me as I escaped, how could I not draw such conclusions?

Then why?..

Because I've already begun to suspect that he cared for me more than I knew and that the whole thing about me being a slave working off a debt caused by my betrayal was a farce.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She also realized that this was why she'd been putting off inspecting the data that had taken on the appearance of a puzzle cube that Silvia had given her with the key to escaping. The cube might hold the answers she wanted but also confirmation of the theories taking root regarding her master.

After all, how can I remain unaffected by his death if it turns out that all he ever did was to protect me? How can I stay unaffected if it turns out that I'm — the new Rei — is the reason he died?

How can I remain unaffected if it's true that he was more than my enslaver, but a real master who'd given me power and knowledge many dreamed about but only repaid with ungrateful, misdirected hatred?

"Rei?" River asked, concerned.

"Give me a moment," Rei said emotionlessly.

As Rei came to these realizations with her mind cleared by her perk, yet another perk was also being put to use.

[Parallel Thoughts #1] was working overtime. With the mention of friends, Rei had seen another possible future danger that her second thread of consciousness began to tackle.

Her body was heating up as her cyberdeck helped her write line after line of code before compiling it, checking for errors, and reiterating.

Even if Esmond was safe from tracking and Ichiro was likewise safe since all his cyberware had been replaced, their other friends previously in the Fangs could still be tracked, and their movements traced back to her brother by someone capable of intercepting their communications.

Through the clearheadedness given by [Merciless] and [Pain Tolerance], Rei kept track of the rapidly mounting heat damage she was inflicting on herself as data flashed through her mind like an orderly hurricane.

「Notice:

[Programming] skill level has increased.

Level: 8 → 9」

A mere script wouldn't do for what she wanted to accomplish. No, she needed something more. A program.

A daemon.

Rei could possibly collect the contact information of all Ichiro and Esmond's friends from them, but what about their friends' friends? Or the friends of those people?

As long as anyone amongst the Fangs had their data tracked and collected, it could always be traced back to Ichiro and eventually her. It was a long shot but not outside the realm of possibility as far as she knew.

"Is it just me, or does Rei's whole body seem to be giving off heat? Her face and hands are flushed red," Rei barely heard Esmond comment in the background.

New issues in the code kept appearing, and the program crashed before it could be compiled flawlessly. There were just so many aspects to keep track of, and even though [Programming] helped locate and fix potential issues as they cropped up, there were always more:

What model of neural link would it run on? What type of cyberware was connected to the neural link? Were the target code of the same version, or could some people have older variants while others have newer ones? How would she target only those variants of code without crashing their whole system and melting their brains?

「Notice:

[Programming] skill level has increased.

Level: 9 → 10」

Eventually, though, the program held all the variables and parameters to make Rei feel confident that nothing like the code Esmond had installed would slip by. It was finally free of errors and compiling without issue.

It was fortuitous that she'd just finished, as a moment later, a bucket of ice-cold water splashed straight on her, making Rei splutter.

She'd barely reoriented her mind toward the real world when she was doused in another bucket of water, her spluttering renewing.

"Fucking squeak," Rei heard River say as yet another bucket of water was emptied over her.

At least it doesn't stink, so it can't be from the canal outside.

Only then did Rei also notice the numerous messages Ichiro had sent her.

Without her realizing it, she'd let the thread of consciousness pondering WolfMosh's fate and keeping tabs on her surroundings join the first in its programming spree, completely shutting out her agent notifications.

"I didn't know either, Rei. Esmond didn't tell me."

"Are you alright, Imouto? I thought you hated him."

"Imouto? Talk to me."

"What are you doing?"

"Rei-chan, stop whatever you're doing. You're burning up."

"Rei! Stop it!

"REI!"

The messages continued in that manner, Ichiro having added more and more expletives as she'd continued unknowingly ignoring him.

"I'm fine," Rei croaked, her throat feeling like sandpaper from the rapid dehydration her body had gone through while overheating.

"Like hell you are," River said, returning with another bucket of what Rei now saw was water filled with ice cubes and dunking it over her, soaking the clinic floor in even more liquid that slowly drained out in a corner grate. "You nearly melted your brain with that much overheating."

It was a close call, alright, but I kept track.

Rei was growing dizzy as the target of her focus — her new daemon — had been completed, and she had nothing else to focus on. The cold water was helping, though, letting her body's surface rapidly return to temperatures that wouldn't leave her brain dead in a few minutes.

I kind of overdid it, didn't I? But this was important.

With a slight application of her cyberdeck and mind, she breached Esmond without his permission and did the same to Ichiro through the backdoor she had access to — due to the script already in place — before depositing her daemon.

"What the fuck were you even doing?!" Esmond said furiously, Ichiro concurring through text with even more profanity added to his question.

"Protecting you," Rei croaked simply and emotionlessly, looking around for something to quench her parched throat.

She spotted a bottle of something at a nearby table and snatched it before downing a few big gulps. She started hacking and coughing as the liquid seemed to be pure spirits and not mere water.

"Calm down, little panda; I'll get you something cold to drink," River sighed, walking out before coming back with a bottle coated in condensation.

Rei chugged the sparkly water down, feeling the cold seep out from inside, helping her cool down even better than the impromptu ice bath she'd received.

"What do you mean, 'Protecting us'?" Ichiro asked through text, making Esmond nod.

Rei took a few more gulps of the cold water before tonelessly explaining, "As long as any of your friends has that tracking software installed, you'll be at risk even if I help remove it from your systems.

"So to prevent that, everyone you call now will have their agents and cyberware searched for similar code before it is deleted. Then, whoever you called will keep spreading the daemon to people they contact, keeping you two and your friends safe from those around you who could have otherwise given you away to The Pistons — unknowingly or not."

"You infected them with a virus?" River asked.

"It may spread like one, but it's more of an anti-virus. A daemon targeted at removing any tracking software resembling what Esmond had installed. It will only work if their ICE isn't too strong, though, so it isn't foolproof. If it did anything harmful, even civilian-grade ICE would have picked up on it and stopped it from spreading."

The daemon will also remove itself when all of the host's contacts have been called or one month has passed without spreading to anyone new. I would have liked for it to work over text messages as well, but there's simply too little data being transmitted through text that slipping the daemon past would have been detected too easily.

She didn't voice that last part as it wasn't crucial for them to know.

"Esmond, call every one of your contacts, I'll do the same. If it works as Rei-chan says, then it might protect them from being hunted down by The Pistons," Ichiro sent.

Esmond looked dubious, the mesh magic apparently going over his head.

"Fucking Magi bullshit," he grumbled softly.

"If you want to remain friends with Ichiro, do as he says," Rei said, her soulless eyes meeting his and making him flinch.

"Alright, alright. I'll do it, just give me fucking second."

"Good," Rei said as she stood and started walking toward the exit.

"Where are you going?" River asked.

"I'm leaving. I came to check up on my brother, and it seems he's in good hands. I've got work to do, though, and lingering like a distraught relative at his bedside won't help anyone."

***

River watched Rei leave, his augmented mind working furiously in an attempt to decipher her suddenly changed mannerisms, voice, and persona. It had been startling to see her whole aspect shift as she heard of her master's demise.

He'd expected shock, grief, and perhaps anger from someone who apparently didn't know, but those had only been present briefly before she'd seemingly closed off.

Apparently thinking along the same vein, Esmond looked around before saying, "Bro, what happened? I've never seen Rei react like that. The look in her eyes..."

"Me neither. The only thing that came close was a few days after our parents died when the shock and crying had subsided to be replaced with hopelessness."

That wasn't hopelessness, though, River thought.

The look in her eyes had been close, but there was a difference. River had seen it too many times to not mistake it.

It was the eyes of a high-functioning cyberpsycho, someone who'd conquered the madness by making it a part of them and controlling it to achieve their goals.

They were some of the most dangerous people one could find, as the usual telltale signs were often hidden behind general apathy that could be mistaken for a character trait — or if they were even more terrifying — excellent acting skills or cyberware allowing them to blend in even better until something set them off and the killing began.

It wasn't well known, but all cyberpsychos could eventually conquer the madness. The problem lay in the time and advantageous circumstances needed for this to happen.

Time was often not something on the side of those who'd traversed the path of transhumanism too fast and ended up in that state, as anyone in their right mind would put such an unstable element out of commission before catastrophic damage could be done.

River was one of those who knew all this better than most.

What happened to you, little panda?

***

Rei slit the throat of one downed adversary before going for the following twitching form to do the same when she paused. Sheathing her dagger, she retrieved her Garland and put two bullets into his brain, waiting.

「Notice:

[2] Adversaries neutralized.

Received: 100 Experience」

「Notice:

New skill learned.

[Stealth, Level 1]

Governing attribute: Body, Mind, Ego

Description: Unseen, unheard, unknown. A dagger in the dark, silent social baiting, or invisible malware cursing through your enemy's digital veins. Stealth comes in many forms. This skill helps with mastering all applications of stealth.」

Oh? A new skill? Is it because I've performed so many stealthy actions these past days, and assassinating this duo tipped it over the edge?

It seemed like a promising skill for the future, and she planned on training it with all her other skills. Taking one's opponents down before they even knew you were there was generally preferable to getting into a head-on fight, after all.

She also had enemies to hide from; as long as she stayed covert in her operations, her siblings would probably remain safe.

Especially with the digital security she'd started implementing on them and everyone around them.

She'd hoped to get a ranged variant of [Melee Mastery], but simply finishing off her opponents after they'd been incapacitated with her mesh magic didn't seem to be enough.

There's always the next time.

She'd been moving away from The River Clinic for about ten minutes, navigating the dark alleys and approaching the closest street before coming across the two Pistons. They hadn't seen her, but that didn't stop her from finishing them preventively.

Searching their pockets, she found nothing, but looking closer, she saw a data shard in one of their neural links.

She slotted it into her own and easily swatted away the poor excuse for a virus trying to defend its cargo before opening it up and taking a look.

It was a credit shard with 134 credits on it, and she swiftly transferred it to her cVault before ejecting it and tossing it aside, moving onward.

She needed to get home. She had a [Mind] perk to pick, plans to put into action, and most important of all:

A puzzle cube to look into.