Chapter — 6

A week swiftly passed as Rei kept up her act of frailty, slowly showing improvements to Miyo or Ichiro whenever they visited. Both were working most of the time, so it didn't annoy her too much.

She found that she did enjoy the times they were home. With only Sally and herself in the apartment, it became somewhat lonely after a while. Rei wasn't extroverted by any means, but even she found herself a bit bored when she only had contact with the uncooperative cat and a couple of hours a day of socializing.

It wasn't all bad, though. Isolation granted Rei the luxury of exploring the vast expanse of the net — or the mesh, as it was now known — through her agent. While she could have done it on the holographic display in the living room, Rei still found a unique thrill in experiencing it through her cybernetic eyes.

The first thing she looked up was the overall situation in Zone 8 of Tokyo. From what she gathered, it was somewhere in the middle of all the megacity's zones regarding wealth and prosperity. Zone 7 and 10 — two of the neighboring zones — were what the future considered slums, while most other zones were slightly below Zone 8 or way above.

Some of the more affluent zones even looked like technological paradises, with populations of corporate big-shots living in sprawling estates, penthouses, or even floating islands.

Yes, islands floating above the ground, with expansive manors and carefully curated environments resting on top.

Rei could hardly believe her eyes when she found a blurry image of an island like that. It seemed like magic, and she had no idea how it was possible.

At first, she suspected it was a hoax, but what she read about the image made her second-guess the notion. It was apparently difficult to get accurate pictures of these islands, and most suspected it was due to some sort of advanced cloaking tech. What seemed an undisputed fact was that the islands were real.

Curious about where else the wealthiest people on the planet lived, she found that many didn't even live on Earth. Those living like kings amongst peasants in their affluent zones were mere middle managers at best. Those on floating islands were only a little better off in the grand scheme of things.

It was absurd to Rei.

What was an even greater shock was learning that after nearly two hundred fifty years since she'd last been alive — as Agnes, that is — Earth wasn't the only settled planet. Even Earth's moon wasn't alone in being inhabited.

The wealthiest lived on absurdly large space stations with curated nature reserves like gods above man. They even had artificial gravity.

Rei pondered for a moment whether she could have been behind the invention of gravity generators but quickly dismissed the thought as unimportant.

Learning about where people lived also gave her some information about the state of Earth, and it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with technological advancement. America was, well, Rei found that Helson Corp. no longer existed, and their exit had come with many tragedies.

Rei's former masters had reached too far, and their hubris caused 'The Breaking' and the formation of what people called 'The Abyss.'

According to the publicly available information, the war against what Helson Corp. unleashed was still ongoing, but currently in a period of calm. That lull in enemy action made people more nervous than anything. The enemies' intellect was immense, and no one knew how deep their plans and schemes ran.

Multiple catastrophes struck Earth in these two hundred and fifty years, and only Europe, Africa, Russia, and most of eastern Asia were left largely intact. However, not even these regions have been left entirely unscathed, and more than one disaster zone has cropped up in them over the years.

***

Miyo, Ichiro, and Rei were sitting together in the living room. Sally was also present, though Rei couldn't currently say where. That cat was sneaky when she wanted to be.

It was the middle of the night. Miyo had taken the day shift and would be home for the time being.

Ichiro, on the other hand, still had work.

He slurped up the last of his iced tea from the cans he'd brought for them to share. Standing up and stretching — his chrome appendages whirring softly with internal servos — he turned to Rei.

"Oh, by the way. Wolf-sama asked me to speak to you."

"Yeah?" Rei said, raising an inquiring eyebrow.

She hadn't heard from her boss over the last week. She hardly remembered the man, but she had expected a call to wish her a swift recovery or a request to return to work long ago.

That's what bosses usually do, don't they?

"He asked me how you were doing and why you haven't called him yet."

"I suppose that's nice of him," Rei sounded a bit dubious, even to herself, "But doesn't he know I don't even have his contact info?"

Ichiro shrugged before tossing the can into a bin, a crunch of metal sounding as the trash was compressed. "I don't think he realized how severe your amnesia is. You not getting access to your profile nor credit vault seemed to have made even him a tiny bit surprised."

Yeah, finding out that I didn't remember where I stored my profile is one thing. But the same happening to my cVault was much worse.

It had taken Rei reading up on how the credit system worked to realize how utterly broke she was. Without the password or knowledge of where the money was stored, she could not get it back, no matter how much was stored.

Due to the low employment rate with automated assembly lines and limited yet cost-efficient AI's taking over many easily accessible jobs, the economy would have been utterly unsustainable without the UBI — the universal basic income program variably financed by every corporation in existence.

It wasn't implemented to sow any good karma by the corporate gods sitting on their thrones in outer space or anything like that, but to stimulate the economy.

When first suggested, it was a highly contentious proposal, but all AI models agreed it was necessary.

Each corporation would eventually get the money back as people spent it, so it wasn't like they were missing out. Yet, to part with even a smidgen of their vast fortune — nay, horde — supposedly still hurts badly enough that protests against its continuation happen every few years.

When Rei found out that she'd lost all the UBI she'd accumulated during her coma and whatever had been saved up before that, she swiftly opened a new cVault at SolBank Inc. — the largest banking firm in the Sol system. From what she'd read, it was more expedient than appealing to the corporate hegemons to get a new key for her old vault.

That could take years of continuous effort.

As of that moment, she hadn't received any income yet, but she knew it would come.

Rei focused back on the conversation as Miyo spoke. "How did you know he was surprised?"

"His eyebrow twitched."

"His eyebrow twitched?"

"Yeah, two times."

"Um," Rei was confused, "Why do you think that means he's surprised?"

Ichiro leaned his back against the wall, crimson eyes staring at the ceiling. "You probably don't remember, but that man, WolfMosh, he's quite terrifying. I don't work closely with him, as you do, but I've never seen his facial expression slip like that, even for a moment."

There was a silence between them before Miyo nodded and said, "Yeah, same for me. Rei, you used to say that he only shows what he wants to show. According to you, he's always in perfect control of himself."

I said that, huh?

"Doesn't that just mean that eyebrow twitch was meant to convey surprise he might not even have felt?"

Ichiro barked a laugh, "Perhaps. You knew him best, so who am I to judge? Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I gave him your new contact info. He'll probably call or text you, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Um. Alright. Thanks, Ichiro."

He smiled and started walking toward the exit, waving a hand back at them, "No prob, see ya."

Ichiro really is different from what I can remember, though two years might have changed him. And a call from my boss? I wonder what he's like.

"Rei?"

Rei snapped back as she felt Miyo poking her on the cheek. "Yes, Miyo?"

"Want to watch some television? We still haven't finished the first season of your favorite series."

"Do we have to? Isn't there anything else?"

"Yep!" Miyo smiled, emerald eyes twinkling with amusement.

Why do I have to get punished for what I did pre-amnesia? Is this karma or something?

"You've got to at least stick out season one with me. That's how much of this garbage you made me watch a few years ago. You used to love it. It's honestly a relief you don't seem to any longer."

"Why's that?" Rei asked grumpily.

Miyo laughed and pulled her little sister into a side hug on the sofa. "Well, how am I supposed to get back at you for forcing me to watch it if you still liked it?"

Rei gave her an unimpressed look, but Miyo only laughed again, and her eyes swirled silver before the entertainment holo above the coffee table switched to the next episode of torment.

How the hell did I enjoy this? Was there something wrong with my head before? At least, that seems to have been fixed by the nanites. It's hot garbage.

In all honesty, all the shows she'd watched with Miyo — even the ones Miyo said were good — had been kind of awful. One thing the future had failed at was clearly entertainment. Were people allergic to thought-provoking and innovative writing?

***

Another week passed, and Rei had to rescind her statement. Not all entertainment was shit, only the scripted stuff like shows and movies. She felt justified in heaping the blame on the writers.

She'd scrolled the mesh feeds in search of entertainment and saw that much of it was in virtual reality. Games, simulations, interactive scenarios, and anything else you could imagine were all under that umbrella.

It was just a shame, in Rei's opinion, that none of the Takeda siblings had ever had any genuine interest in it. Miyo preferred the real world and her many flings, while Ichiro liked the thrill of battle that a simulation — according to him — couldn't possibly mimic as clearly as the real deal. Rei had doubts about that, considering the neural link and every other technological advancement.

When it came to the old Rei, she'd been primarily interested in the mesh and spent nearly all her time there. Now, she was curious if entertainment could also be found in the mesh and guessed it entirely probable. The mesh was the digital world, and everything digital was in the mesh. One only needed to know where to look. That, at least, was Rei's impression and the basis of her theory.

Bereft of cyberdecks and VR equipment, she had to settle for the bare minimum. It wasn't all bad, though; she eventually found something interesting: sports.

Well, 'blood sports' is more accurate.

She was surprisingly surprised when — bored out of her mind — she came across uncensored footage from fighting arenas.

It wasn't just the excitement of seeing two opponents face off in deadly struggles with blood spilling and severed limbs flying — although deaths seemed rare from what she'd seen — that most interested her. What most interested her was the technology displayed during each fight.

Fighters with cybernetic augmentations that made them fast, strong, and deadly were the norm among participants.

There was a primal joy in seeing a short woman with metal instead of flesh for legs move around her opponent with such speed that slow-motion footage was needed to even glimpse the dagger she'd ejected from her heel to eviscerate her opponent. Or a man with more metal visible than flesh tearing the environment apart like a hurricane as his powerful piston-like fists smashed concrete to powder in an effort to get at an opponent with mantis-like blades protruding from their forearms.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She didn't particularly care for the violence itself, but she did admire the beauty of science and the ingenuity behind it. It was marvelous.

In her mind, these fighters showed what transcending humanity in body meant. At least the first step of it.

As for them transcending humanity in mind? She guessed she shouldn't be looking for arena fighters for that. Most of them seemed like rustskulls to her, as Ichiro would put it.

However, she already had guesses as to where she'd find those chasing that side of the coin.

After watching the fights and looking through the mesh feeds, Rei had already started making a list of cyberware she'd like to get. Most of it was entirely out of her budget, and she suspected it would have been even if she'd had access to her savings in the lost credit vault.

One has to have goals, though. It might take time, but I'll get there.

Rei knew that her primary focus should be on cyberware for working the mesh, even if bodily augmentations made her burn with curiosity. She had to make money somehow, and even if WolfMosh — her still-maybe boss — demoted her due to her amnesia, she felt she would do just fine as a Meshmagi.

Even without many memories of her time as a digital goddess, some habits and instincts were bound to be embedded so deeply into her psyche that they still persisted. Rei was optimistic that those instincts would drive her further than the previous Rei had ever reached before.

Another reason for wanting cyberware for mesh magic first was as simple as it was problematic:

Not having any control over the mesh other than browsing through her neural link was suffocating. She felt exposed without it. She needed her control back, even if it was only surface level.

From what she'd read about Meshmagi and their well-known capabilities, she knew they could be absolutely terrifying in a society as digitally connected as the 23rd-century Sol system. They were the spiders in the web, able to pull the strings and make many dance to their tune — or just kill them with a thought.

Not that the threat of the latter wasn't sometimes the fulcrum leveraged to accomplish the former.

Short-circuiting the cybernetic heart of your foe tends to leave a lasting — or permanent — impact. The same goes for walking through the digital mesh, rooting up industry secrets, selling them, and bringing whole corporations to their knees.

Of course, Meshmagi ain't all-powerful. There are protections — ICE, mainly — against such actions. That, however, is just a bar separating the truly excellent Magi from the common ones. With enough skill, knowledge, and cyberware, there isn't much they can't do.

As Rei thought this, a call came through her agent. She couldn't see who it was from, but she could guess.

She swiped away the article she'd been reading through her agent about various cyberdecks and their utilities for working the mesh as she accepted the call.

"Um. It's Rei. Is that you, boss?" Rei asked, uncertain of how to address the unknown.

"Rei! It's good to hear from you. Don't you recognize your Wolf-sama's voice anymore?" The voice sounded male, deep, somewhat flat, and clearly artificial. The faux-hurt tone it carried was easy to dismiss as theatrics.

I was the one to speak first... How the fuck should I have recognized his voice?!

She decided to keep that thought to herself, and a moment later, her view shifted as a window opened in front of her vision. The man on the other side of the call had evidently chosen to expand the call to a video call, and he looked just like she remembered.

His chin-length black hair had red tips, and his piercing crimson eyes had black sclera. Partially hidden beneath the locks of black hair, the sides of his head held no skin, instead showing chrome and black plasteel with tiny flickering red lights that flashed and sparked beneath the black and crimson strands. His face looked real enough, not overly handsome, yet holding a rugged appeal. His lips were curled into a half-smile.

"It's rude not to reciprocate," He teased.

After a couple seconds of confusion, Rei understood what he meant and, with some trepidation, decided to just go for it.

She searched her agent and quickly found the option to enable video to the call.

His eyes opened slightly wider as her face joined the call, and Rei could see herself in a tiny window down at the corner.

Opposed to the crystal-clear view from WolfMosh of his entire face going down to his chest — the background slightly blurry yet still present — her whole video was somewhat obscure. Her face was still visible, yet some funky artifacts were distorting her image here and there, and her room was nothing more than a background smear.

I wonder how the video call even works. There isn't a camera in our apartment; I've already checked for that.

"Well, shit. Your eyes are fucking terrible," WolfMosh said eloquently, "What is that even? Civilian-grade junk?"

"Yeah... The hospital scrapped all my old cyberware. They only replaced the bare minimum with what I've come to realize is quite inferior."

"Hah!" He laughed, "No, no, dear Rei. That is far worse than 'inferior' compared to what you had slotted before. Such a shame."

He seemed to ponder as his crimson irises moved, apparently looking her over. "Apart from the obvious weight loss, you look slightly different. Is this the result of the nanites going haywire?"

Rei was surprised, yet tried not to show it too blatantly. "I've also noticed that. I don't actually know, as the doctors didn't comment on it."

WolfMosh hummed to himself, continuing to look her over. After about thirty seconds, Rei couldn't take it anymore.

"So... is there anything you wanted?"

His piercing eyes snapped back to her own, and he scrutinized her for a moment longer before deigning to answer, "I've mainly called to check up on you. Your family has taken on a considerable debt. Without our relationship as superior and assistant, I wouldn't have bothered to loan such a huge sum to anyone. I am disappointed in you, after all."

What does he mean?!

Rei felt some panic at disappointing him, but from where this feeling came was a mystery.

"Why?" Her voice was weaker than she'd expected.

"WHY?! Because you fucking touched my client's things, that's why! You knew that all items in the secure vault were out of bounds, yet you still tried to access a secure data slate I'd placed there not one day prior!"

"I did? Why?" Rei felt her world narrowing as those crimson eyes seemed to glow, hiding a wrath that his emotionless face didn't express.

"Why are you asking me?" His voice was now deadly soft, like the caress of a knife.

"I, I don't remember a-anything about this!" she stammered, trying to convey her honest confusion, "I've only heard that I got into that coma from trying to breach something and getting infected by a virus..."

WolfMosh looked away, his eyes seemingly distant. "I know you didn't know what was on that data slate, as you were out when I told your senior brothers and sisters about its acquisition. It still doesn't excuse you for going against the rules of not touching anything in the secure vault.

"Not only did you nearly die from stepping beyond your capabilities trying to access whatever was stored on that slate, but you managed to trigger some sort of fail-safe, wiping whatever was left on it on your way out. That isn't even the worst part."

Oh fuck... What did I do?! Why was the old Rei such a squeaky-brain? Wait. Hold up. Did WolfMosh loan those credits to Miyo and Ichiro in the hopes I would wake up just so he could punish me?!

Rei felt herself on the verge of a panic attack. For some reason, she was terrified of the wrath displayed by the man on the other side of the call. She didn't remember most of their history together, but from what she'd figured out and heard, it seemed to have been amicable at the very least. Now, though...

"The worst part," he went on, "is that the data slate wasn't even mine to begin with. I was contracted by Memtech Industries Corp. to chase it down and acquire it for them. I had already informed them of the package's retrieval when you went and destroyed it."

"Fuck..."

"Yes. Do you now understand how much you cost me?"

Rei felt her blood run cold. Memtech Industries was one of the many corporations based in Tokyo. She'd read about them, as they were the only major corporation in Zone 8. Like other zones and their corporations, they held absolute authority in their respective zones.

As long as a corporation didn't get on the wrong side of another, more prominent corporation than itself or push too far, its will was law within its sphere of influence.

Memtech Industries wasn't one of the largest or most influential corporations, but it held power and sway enough to crush a gang like the Cyber Fangs in its backyard without anyone batting an eye.

Most corporations used gangs, other groups, and private operators to do their dirty work. This was a predatory yet somewhat symbiotic relationship in which they held all the cards. It was the only way for a gang as large as the Fangs to exist.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I would do such a thing..." Rei had just reawakened in this new world, yet her life seemed already balanced on a knife's edge.

WolfMosh looked back at her, his eyes cold and calculating, yet his face as expressionless as before. "Neither do I. I've pondered it often during these two years, but whatever your plan was, it was sheer idiocy. You are my most gifted student, and I had high hopes for you. Your senior brother and sisters are talented but not on the same level as you or me.

"Why you would just throw my trust away like that... Well, just know that the trust we once shared is now shattered. Mending it will be difficult, but it might come to pass if you are diligent enough."

Rei felt an inexplicable and somewhat alien sense of relief at those words. It felt wrong, and her newly reformed psyche rebelled at the feeling.

Yet, she held herself back, determined not to worsen the situation. It seemed as if there was still a way forward, and WolfMosh confirmed this a moment later.

"Of course, you mending the trust I once had in you — if even possible — won't happen before all debts are settled. I won't be cruel and demand that you start immediately, as I can see for myself that you are still not yet fully recovered. Know, however, that when you return to a semblance of vigor, you will come to work for me without pay until all is settled or for however long I deem necessary."

"Yes, master."

Rei felt ants crawling up her spine at the term, but it seemed fitting from his descriptions of her immediate future. The utterance also invoked a buried feeling as if she'd once referred to him as such in the distant past, maybe at the very beginning of their now shattered relationship. The vague impressions didn't match the tone of her current desolate thoughts, however.

His eyes retracted some of the coldness that almost seemed to touch her through the video call at her words of acknowledgment.

"Good. Now, get better quickly. You've never been stupid, and I doubt the partial amnesia has made that much of a difference. You should know what would happen to you and your family should you try to run. Take care."

And with that, the call ended abruptly.

Rei felt herself topple backward on the bed, and for a moment, she just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Then, turning around, she punched her pillow as hard as she could manage repeatedly, tears starting to trickle down her cheeks.

When that wasn't enough to vent her frustrations, she shoved the pillow into her face and screamed.

She screamed until her voice gave out, her throat aching and nothing but a rasp leaving her mouth.

Not again. Not again. I will not be made a slave once more!

But...

She curled up into a ball on top of her blankets, Mr. Nibbles securely tucked to her chest. She tried to draw as much comfort as possible from her plushie.

Can I even refuse? He has leverage over my siblings, who work for the Fangs. Even if they agreed to flee, we wouldn't make it out of the zone before being caught. The Fangs are the zone's largest gang, specializing in information gathering and asset retrieval. I probably wouldn't have made it out of the apartment complex without WolfMosh somehow knowing about it mere seconds or minutes later.

No matter how she sliced it, she was without any options. She didn't even know where she'd go if she were able to leave. She had a feeling that even staying in Tokyo could be perilous if the Cyber Fangs were determined to hunt her down, and she had no credit to her name to make an escape to somewhere else on Earth or off the planet.

Rei cried for half an hour until all her tears had run dry. Her sobs had been silent as her throat burned like fire, but she was alone in the apartment; no one would have known anyway.

That wasn't strictly accurate, as there was still one occupant of the apartment apart from her, and Rei was dragged out of her misery as a purr rose from just a meter away.

Opening her blurry and puffy eyes, Rei met the yellow ones of Sally, who'd laid down upon her beaten pillow. Even now, the cat seemed a bit suspicious, but Rei didn't care.

Still clutching Mr. Nibbles, she moved one trembling hand toward Sally and, to her amazement, actually managed to pet the feline gently along its back.

A tiny hiss interrupted the petting, and Rei quickly withdrew her hand. Sally continued to eye her, but slowly, the purring rose again, and the slitted yellow eyes closed a fraction.

Rei gulped and felt new tears come to her eyes.

How pathetic am I that even Sally's taken pity on me?

However, she couldn't stop the new tears from coming, and the comforting purr of her frenemy made all her bottled emotions resurface.

The emotions of Agnes Torstensson:

The terror of her Helson Corp. masters and the rage and helplessness at finally being discarded like a broken tool. The sorrow and self-incrimination at the loss of her children due to her selfish need for survival, autonomy, and control.

The emotions of Takeda Rei:

The confusion of betrayals not remembered; The embedded fear that came with the consequences of said betrayal. Her guilt at no longer being wholly the person her loving siblings sacrificed so much to save.

The emotions of both:

The fear of being unable to understand who she has become. The dread of the past repeating, of betrayal, the sacrifice of loved ones, and being unable to control her own fate.

As she cried, overwhelmed by it all, she felt her emotions blend together. It became difficult to tell where Rei's and Agnes' emotions began and ended.

It became confusing, yet also paradoxically simple.

Through the fires of turmoil, she was slowly being reforged; her different personas peripherally melding as the external pressure kept her psyche from being ripped apart during the conflict.

A new true self was crystalizing, a more genuine expression of the new Takeda Rei. However, it was still feeble and prone to breaking if not supported by a strong will.

Rei found that will in that dark place of her psyche — the will to survive. She'd do nearly anything as long as it meant her survival, but she would not take it lying down — not feebly crying on her bed while being comforted by a cat that didn't even like her.

No. I will not break from this. I will find a way. Maste-NO! WolfMosh may try to use me as a slave to 'repay' whatever debt I owe. I will go along with it, at least on the surface. But beneath, I will scheme and sharpen my claws, for I will never forgive this transgression.

He wants to make me his slave? Have me work for him for no pay in the hopes of regaining his trust? Fuck no. It doesn't matter what I did before my coma or why. He will come to regret this decision.

And if he dares try and touch my new family... I will not merely end him. I will destroy him. Utterly.

Rei's tears had stopped, and her breathing was steady. Her fists were clenched, and her gut burned with furious conviction and a burgeoning determination.

「Notice:

Ego attribute has increased.

Ego: 4 → 5

Received: 500 Experience

Received: 1 Perk Point」

「Notice:

Your level has increased.

Level: 0 → 1

Experience: [0 / 2000]

Received: 1 Skill Point」

「Notice:

New skill learned.

[Strong Will, Level 1]

Governing attribute: Ego

Description: Through emotional tribulations, you've managed to push on, gathering your will into a unified whole with a new purpose and determination. This skill will help keep that will from faltering.」

With her reforged self and increased will, she grabbed hold of the attribute increase notification and willed it into starting the recalibration process. As Rei did, she could tell that she'd also be able to halt the recalibration should she wish, but Rei was done hiding from the System.

She needed strength to survive. For the moment, that meant relying on this arcane marvel of technology. Whatever the price, she doubted it would be worse than remaining weak in the face of adversity.

No more hesitation. In the worst case, if the Samurai System goes against me, I'll just have to bend it to my will. This isn't Helson Corporation. This isn't the past. It is the future, my present, and I will damn well make it MINE.

She welcomed the recalibration process as it began.