Teru was, through sheer luck, not dead. From what the bouncer had said, the electricity would have been enough to kill an uninsulated person. A person like Teru if she didn’t wear steel boots and their floors weren’t a mix of metal and concrete to ground the electricity.

She woke with a groan to see Gisela and Garret fussing over the attacker while James sat at the bar with a drink in his hands. Teru tried to stand, only for a large arm to gently push her back down.

“Todd? What?” she asked.

“You’re alright,” he said softly.

“And this is going to work?” Teru heard Gisela ask.

“Yeah,” Garret’s shaky voice said. “Yeah. I’m sure. Not even an integrated antivirus can stop the VR connection. Nothing in the code is considered malicious and he can’t get out since I hid the escape behind a timer.”

“If you’re sure,” Gisela said. “I still say we kill this guy.”

“Gotta get answers from him,” James said. “The guy was a cultivator and attacked you. Don’t you want to find out why?”

“Or he attacked you,” Teru said with a cough.

James took a sip from his drink. “You’re awake. Good to hear. Might want to get all those burns checked out.”

Teru looked at her arm. Black marks ran across it in crisscrossing patterns. She couldn’t help but snort. “I look like a shogi board.”

“I can’t believe you’re alive,” Todd said.

Teru gently grabbed his hand in hers. “I’m not about to die before you, idiot.” She looked back to James. “Sects only interfere with sects, meaning one of you is a cultivator.”

“A gang couldn’t be working with a sect?” James asked.

“They’re above interfering in mortal affairs,” Teru spat.

James highly doubted that. It was more likely that the gangs just weren’t worth a sect’s time.

“Seems like a jump in logic,” James said. He took another sip of his drink.

“You also moved too well for a mortal,” Teru said accusingly. “Got me in a hold before I could move.”

“Maybe I’m just skilled,” James deflected.

“And I’m a long lost son of the Iijima family,” Teru huffed. “Own up.”

James placed his glass back on the table and straightened. “I’ll answer if you can answer my question. Are you still willing to deal with us?”

Garret’s eyes flicked back and forth between the ganger and James. Both held looks of cool confidence, though Teru wore hers with a pained wince.

“We can deal,” Teru said after a time. Garret let out a breath. “But you have to pay for repairs. For both our cyberware and the floors.”

James nodded. “Simple enough.” He pulled out his handheld and checked his funds. Due to Nadia’s insistence on paying for almost everything, James still had a staggering amount of credits.

“What’s your number?” He asked. “That way you can just send me an invoice.”

“It’ll be five hundred credits,” Teru said.

James laughed. “Bold. We both know it likely won’t be more than a hundred.”

“One hundred fifty,” Teru said.

“You know I just took out that cultivator, right?” James asked. “What makes you think you’re in a position to negotiate.”

“I got nothing to lose,” Teru answered. Todd looked at her concernedly.

“One hundred and twenty five then, as long as Garret here gets an eighty percent cut of the XP chip sales.”

“That’s robbery!” Teru complained.

James shrugged. “That’s business, yeah? Garret makes you the chips, you sell them for a profit. We weren’t lying about them being from a pro Skateball player.”

Teru sighed, the effort making her cough in pain again. “Fine. Now get out of here.”

“Hold on,” James said. “What are we going to do about him?”

James pointed to the cultivator hooked up to the VR computer.

“Leave him to us,” Teru said. “We’ll make sure he won’t bother you again.”

James frowned. “I’m sure you won’t, but I want to see if we can get something from him first. Like, why he tried to kill me.”

James was fairly certain Osman hadn’t sent this assassin. The man was petty, but he coveted James’s ability. Death would prevent him from ever getting his hands on it.

Which meant it was someone else, but James hadn’t interacted with anyone outside Osman and Nadia in the sect. And the sect leader, but James dismissed that out of hand. Robert might not be the golden smiling buddha he wanted everyone to think he was, but he still kept order in the sect. Besides, the leader of one of the largest sects in the city wouldn’t send an assassin like this at him. The man had no cores and only a few cybernetics.

“Wow,” Garret said. “James, this guy is filled to the brim with all sorts of stuff!”

James looked to his friend. Garret had removed three talismans from the back of the assassin’s neck along with a series of canisters that were stowed away under his belt.

Garret looked confused. “This guy had nanogel? Why didn’t he use it?”

Garret caught James’s blank look. “Nanogel is a machine polymer that can take any form. Usually the user links to it with an internal device, thinking the shapes they need. If he used this you wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Why didn’t he then?” Gisela asked.

“Well, nanogel does have a problem of breaking down in the atmosphere over long periods of time. I think its a failsafe for the Iijima family, to keep people from stealing their formulas. They’re the ones that make this stuff. Maybe he didn’t think he needed to use it on James?”

“Saved by overconfidence again,” James chuckled. It made some sense, at least. James hadn’t been cultivating for more than a couple of months at this point. His foe likely thought he was easy prey.

“This stuff could easily sell for hundreds of credits on the street,” Garret said. “Maybe more if you find the right buyers.”

“And the talismans?” James asked.

“No way to know,” Garret answered. “I don’t have a good enough scanner on my handheld. You’d need a specialist.”

It sounded like James needed to pay another visit to Aliah. “Anything else on him?”

“Other than the net launcher? Nah,” Garret answered.

“Cool.” James walked over to the stores of nanogel, looking at the small cylinders before tossing the over to Teru. “This should cover what I owe you, yeah? The talismans are mine.”

“Sounds like an unfair split,” Teru grumbled. But she took the nanogel anyway.

“You have got to stop pushing your luck,” James chuckled.

“Wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t,” Teru said. “Now, get out. You aren’t going to get anything from that guy. We can’t take the guy out of the VR world and no one here, not even your techie, can get him to spill his secrets through the VR.”

“She’s right,” Garret said. “VR is hardcoded to prevent infiltrations like that. Otherwise no one would use it.”

“Alright, fine,” James said. “I guess the matter of who’s trying to kill me will stay a mystery.”

Before they left, Garret and Teru exchanged numbers.

“We’ll send a guy around for pickups,” Teru said. “I’m not letting the two of you back in here.”

Garret looked disappointed but James only shrugged. “Works for me. Just know that if you try to screw Garret here I won’t hesitate to come knocking.”

“Don’t worry,” Teru said. She held up an arm. “I’ve got a rather effective reminder.”

—

Tsukiko did not look happy when James returned to the vehicle. She hadn’t looked happy before, but this was advanced levels of unhappy.

“What happened?” she asked. Her eyes tried to stab guilt into James.

“Just a small fight,” James parried. “Asserting dominance and all that.”

Tsukiko attacked the weaker flank. “Garret?”

Garret was unprepared for the assault. “Um, well.”

James attempted to shore up his defenses with an attack of his own. “Hey, don’t give him looks you should reserve for me when we’re alone.”

She ignored the blow completely and intensified her assault on Garret.

“Another cultivator attacked,” Garret said quickly.

“James!” Tsukiko exclaimed.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Jams said placatingly. “He wasn’t even strong.”

A piece of paper jumped out of Tsukiko’s pocket, folding itself into a bird that fly aggressively at James.

“Hey! Hold on!” James said, ducking the attacks. “It really wasn’t a big deal!”

Tsukiko looked at Garret.

“They were trying to kill him,” Garret muttered.

James gasped. “You traitor!”

“I said no more hiding things,” Tsukiko said to James. Another paper bird appeared and attacked James. This one landed a peck on his earlobe.

“Ow! I was going to tell you later when everything cooled down,” James answered. “You know I would have.”

Tsukiko gave him a soul searching look. James did his best to look cute. Which was hard with two birds pecking his earlobes.

“Okay,” Tsukiko said. The birds backed off.

“How in the world are you controlling those so easily?” James asked.

“I made friends with my neighbors,” Tsukiko said. “They had a lot of tips and tricks for me.”

James would have to simultaneously curse and thank these neighbors. Better control over the birds was great for protection, but boy did it enhance her scoldings.

“We made the sale,” James said. “Even got Garret a good deal since we saved them.”

“Eighty percent of the sales,” Garret said happily.

“At least you did something good,” Tsukiko said.

“Good enough for a kiss?” James winked.

“Don’t push your luck,” Tsukiko said.

Well, that just sounded like a challenge to James. “I don’t know. I think we need to celebrate. Don’t you, Garret?”

“Yeah!” Garret said innocently.

Before Tsukiko could put up a defense, James rushed forward and scooped her up.

“James!” she shrieked. “Put me down!”

“Nope,” James laughed. “You’ll leave if I put you down. Can’t have a celebration without my girlfriend.”

Tsukiko hit him on the head as they walked to a nearby restaurant. It was a half-hearted hit, however. James had no doubt Tsukiko was trying to keep the smile off her face. Because for how much she said she hated James’s grand gestures of public affection, she never actually tried that hard to stop him. Case in point, her origami birds had once again stored themselves in her pockets.

They enjoyed the rest of their evening, James even went back to the smoke shop to pick up some pipes for him and Tsukiko. After they dropped Garret off, the two flew over to one of the isolated parks in the upper floors. Shimmering blue-green leaves reflected the artificial sunlight from above, creating a rainbow of color from the refraction.

“You really should get better about telling me things,” Tsukiko said as they smoked.

“You’re right. I know you are,” James said. “The hard part is that I don’t want you to worry.”

“I get that,” Tsukiko said. “We’re both private people, in our own way.”

James nodded. He put on a facade of friendliness while Tsukiko kept everything at arms length with her acerbic personality.

“Tell you what,” Tsukiko said as she admired the displays of greenery in front of her. “I’ll tell you my worries if you tell me yours.”

James looked surprised. “You know you don’t—“

“I know that,” Tsukiko interrupted. “But I was thinking while you were out. I can’t expect you to tell me everything while I refuse to. It’s hypocritical.”

“But I don’t mind you not telling me things,” James said. Besides, he was good at reading her.

She shook her head at him. “If we were back at the tower, I’d let things continue as they are.” A somber laugh escaped her. “It’s funny. The worries I had back then seem so small compared to now. Where to rent a house, where to work for the rest of my life.”

She looked back out at the rainbows of color. “How long we would do our little courting dance.”

Tsukiko looked up at James and entwined his hand with hers. “Now I wonder what I’ll do if you don’t come back the next day.”

James wrapped Tsukiko in a hug. “I’m sorry. God I’m such an idiot, aren’t I.”

“Only sometimes,” Tsukiko said with a small laugh. “But at least you care, you know?”

James nodded. He let the hug linger before pulling away. “Okay, let’s hear those worries.”

Some of them were simple. Worries that James would die in some cultivation business, mainly. Others were harder. Questions about lifespans, children, and a slew of topics neither had put much thought into before their lives were uprooted.

“I’ll talk to Nadia about it when she comes back,” James said.

“Careful, or I might get jealous,” Tsukiko teased.

“She is way too old for me,” James said. “I prefer people my age.”

Tsukiko giggled. Not because she found the joke funny, but because her emotional weights were lessened. She leaned into James. “I hope she has a good answer.”

“She might,” James said. “She might not, either. We could be stranded with this. Stuck to discover this all on our own.”

James watched the leaves sway as the artificial wind from the various vents blew. His mind wandered as they sat.

“You know,” he said after a moment. “I’m surprised the sects don’t get involved with the gangs here.”

“Hmm?” Tsukiko asked.

“It was something Teru said. She’s the gang leader we talked to today,” James said. “She said the sects didn’t get involved in mortal affairs.”

Tsukiko scoffed. “And I’m the son of an agriscientist.”

“That’s what I thought,” James said. “But you know, it might be true up to a point.”

“What are you thinking?” she asked James.

“I’d put money on the sects interfering in the merchant companies on the high floors,” James said. “But they completely dismiss anyone else. Seems odd to me.”

“How so?” Tsukiko asked.

James leaned back. “That’s a lot of people. A lot of people can bring a lot of influence. Influence that could be useful.”

Tsukiko laughed. “You’d make a terrible leader.”

“True,” James laughed. “I can’t stay still long enough to make a good decision. That’s why I’d leave all that day to day nonsense to you. What do you think? Want to become the most powerful woman in SeeSee?”

Tsukiko rolled her eyes. “No thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” James said. “The lower floors should still work together more, though.”

“Well, maybe you and Nadia can change that when both of you are great big cultivators,” Tsukiko chuckled.

James watched the branches sway. “Yeah, maybe.”