I grabbed at my side as I watched the man die, feeling warm blood flow down. It didn’t hurt, just felt cold. My entire body felt cool, an emotion brought about by my time enduring agony in the Fox’s Paw situation. The only warmth I felt was the spray of blood that clung to my skin.

I didn’t have time to lose. This guy was probably just the lookout. I bent over, feeling more blood come out of my side, and picked up my shiv, Sidewinder, and the guy’s knife. I also searched his body, finding a Sentinel Wasp-2. Probably didn’t use it in an attempt to keep this quiet. If he had…

I shook myself free of the morbid thought. Part of me just wanted to leave, but another part of me was furious. Furious that I had been attacked for just walking around.

I crept past the hall and found the Parker's apartment. The door was ajar with its lock busted off, and I could hear the clatter of voices. There wasn't a hint of duress in the voices. Hmm… maybe a TV? I eased open the door and slid into the entry with my Sidewinder raised.

The short entry hall opened up into a small living room space. A woman, wearing the same cleaning uniform as the other guy, was crouched over an unconscious man and a woman. The unconscious woman was Lynn Parker.

The cleaner standing over them, her eyes zoned out. A wand sat in a hip bolster like it was a pistol. I paused for a moment before doing anything. Adept.

I hesitantly raised my pistol. My only chance of surviving this is if I got the first blow before the woman could cast magic. The adrenaline was making my aim shaky, which was not a good thing when pointing at the two non-targets on either side of the woman. I stole my nerves, pushing off the weight of the shakiness as I locked in. My finger squeezed the trigger.

Unfortunately, only one shot actually connected from my volley in part due to my fear of hitting the Parkers. It would truly suck to do all this to save them, only to shoot them myself. The woman let out a startled shriek as she toppled over.

Insight triggered, and I felt a piercing chill slice through my chest. I dodged back behind the wall leading into the living room just in time for a literal sword of ice to crash right where I was standing. Adept then.

I peeked around, the woman was struggling to move behind the couch for cover, which meant she was away from the Parkers. I didn’t even hesitate as I launched the rest of the mag into her. I heard her startled cry, and then nothing but the TV playing in the corner. I waited a minute before peeking again to see her still form leaking out onto the carpet.

I let out a shaky breath and slid down the wall to sit down. That cool wrath that came over me when I was first stabbed disappeared, leaving me a shaking mess. I always hated it: that feeling of adrenaline running rampant. There was no denying it was damn effective though.

I grabbed at my side, the pain slowly starting to fade back into my senses. The woman’s face, stretched in a grimace of pain, caught my attention. A dull throb coursed through my heart.

Maybe once upon a time ago, I would’ve felt bone-aching guilt for such a dreadful deed. Yet, this city had taught me survival could only be clawed out. If I was attacked, it was only right to attack back. Course murder was never an act I idolized, like so many others. There was a certain… finality to it that never sat well.

If I had to kill to survive, I wouldn’t hesitate too much… Was this really for my own survival though? I coulda just left after fighting the guy… but if I hadn’t flatlined the adept, then wouldn’t the Parkers have died? They still might depending on Carone.

I shook my head free as I attempted to calm myself down from the combat-induced adrenaline spike. I could think about this later. For now, I needed to figure out what to do about this- this mess...

I left the apartment on shaky legs and grabbed the other body. Bile barely stopped coming up my throat at the feel of rapidly diminishing warmth as I grabbed the guy’s arms. Then began the slow process of dragging the corpse into the Parkers’ apartment.

It left a trail of blood, but it blended in with the other fluids and trash that filled the hallway. The twisting neon and overall dimness of the hall helped quite a bit with that. Even the scent of burning Tosta, the most common drug in Aythryn City, covered the coppery tang of blood. Hardly even noticeable. And those who would notice it likely wouldn’t say anything. This was the East End.

After I dropped off the guy’s corpse, I stared at the scene. Now what? I had two freshly flatlined corpses, two unconscious people, and a boatload of confusion. How did a simple investigation come to this?

After I calmed myself down, I glanced at the two still sleeping off to the side. I was directly handing over a suspected kidnap and brainwashing victim to a person who may or may not want to avenge his client… As if my shattered morality wasn’t attacking me enough.

Really, I shouldn’t even be thinking about it. It was the job, and the job was done. I should just leave it alone and then never think about it again… and yet I felt a pang of guilt gnawing at me as if I was doing something wrong.

What was the point of saving the Parkers from the adept if I was just going to hand them over? My usual justification for survival didn’t offer too many hints… rather it did, but I didn’t like them. It wasn’t my place to worry about the Parkers. All that mattered was my pay.

I tried to think back to how I dealt with this kind of thing in the past, but most of my jobs had been B&E for the Jade Fang. I never actually saw the people affected by the job, and, well, I tried not to think about it. It was the way of the world.

So I should just treat it the same, right? Just do the job and then leave. Don’t think about it. It's not like Lynn was wholly innocent; I was ninety percent sure she was the one who stabbed the client. This was Aythryn City after all; worrying about the damned would only damn myself. And yet I couldn't help but-

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“Did you find the… killer?” The annoying voice of Carone came from my phone as I wrapped a bandage I found around my side. For being close to the projects, the Parkers had a rather extensive medical kit. I should really look into getting one for my own home.

“Um… about that… yes, but there were some… complications.”

“Do tell.”

I hollowly stared at the flatlined cleaners. I had already searched them for all their valuables. I found ID badges for Build-A-Doll, which all but confirmed my previous assumptions. The Adept even had a Tornado Arms Gale-17, and I would bet my bacon it was the same gun from the murder scene.

They were probably the ones who went to the scene and shot the body to cover up the stab wound from Lynn. Build-A-Doll already had badges in their payroll, as evidenced by Lynn’s disappearance being covered up, so it wouldn’t be too hard to have it marked as a robbery gone south and the coroner to overlook the stab wound. Unfortunately, no one was currently capable of confirming or denying my theories.

I glanced at the sleeping form of Lynn Parker. She was probably only eighteen or nineteen, and yet I was going to potentially end her life with my next statement… Wasn’t I no better than her captors? Her tormentors that put her in such a- a terrible situation to begin with? I should’ve just gone to Build-A-Doll and not gotten caught up in this mess.

Damnit!

“I’m with the killers now, dead. The company that sent them after your client also sent them to clean a witness… The cleaners had an… unfortunate accident when I arrived on the scene. Do you want me to bring the corpses to you, or…” Stupid Shiro! Lying to a fixer was so dumb! All it would take is a look at the corpse to know.

“Interesting. Hm… flick me the detes. I’ll send over some… cleaners of my own.” There was the sound of a small explosion on his end. “Shiro Tsukuyomi, I don’t currently have a competent… non-affiliated investigator on my roster. That is, assuming you would like another gig?”

Was he trying to scare me? Good job, you know my full name. What a gonk. “Sure. Just flick a message whenever you need me, though I like more subtle-”

He hung up. Bastard. Well, at least I’ve got a new source of income. I watched my bank account and felt a bit of exhausted glee as 300 Boswan Pulas entered it. I now had… 312 BP. Still broke, unfortunately. And not sure if it was worth it? I mean, I did get stabbed in the side… and killed two people… but at least I hadn’t potentially damned the Parkers.

And, fresh loot! There was a pot at the end of every rainbow. The loot on the cleaners wasn't anything extraordinary. The Wasp-2 I could probably sell for some extra cash. It was a light pistol, so maybe I could fetch twenty or thirty for it? Hmm… maybe I should just keep it as a backup. Unfortunately, as with all attuned wands, the adept's shattered as soon as she died, or I would've taken that too.

「Melee Weapons 1 - Acquired」

「Firearm 1 - Acquired」

「First Aid 1 - Acquired」

「Evasion 1 - Acquired」

「Deception 1 - Acquired」

「Criminology 1 - Acquired」

「Brawling 1 - Acquired」

「Tracking - 3>4」

「Perception - 2>3」

Wow, that was a lot of messages. Has it been tracking my progress the past few days? Hmm… so it waits until I’m done with whatever it is I’m doing before giving me skill increases. Interesting… Also, I could’ve sworn I tried to do some of those things back during the data collection period. Did it only give me Skills if my 'level' was greater than one?

I put a note in the unconscious Lynn’s hand that Build-A-Doll killed Davis before I left. She might not read it and might end up becoming another corpse in the dumpster if she wasn’t smart, but by that point, it was out of my hands. And I trusted someone who lived so close to the projects to know how the city works even if they were sheltered.

I left the city shortly after and went to my usual spot in the Outskirts to calm down fully. Sure it cut into my remaining Rayn for AE3 costs, but the almost therapeutic nature of watching the city from the dunes, for me at least, was worth it.

As I sat on the still-warm sand, my back against the metal chassis of my bike, I attempted to put my feelings into words. It was hard. Killing was never fun, and I didn’t want to glorify it like others in the city do all the time.

Eventually, though, the itching wound on my side grew past the point of ignoring it, so I decided to go ahead and return home to sleep it off.

I tiredly awoke early the next morning. Sleeping had been a struggle… justification barely helped my subconscious. On the bright side, my side was flawless, as if I was never even stabbed. Such a thing made me wonder, what would happen if I removed my cybernetics? Would my body automatically produce another eye? Did I even want such a thing to happen?

Another part of me wondered if I could start selling my blood or something. It would be an easy, albeit painful, way of making money. Then I realized it was foolish since DNA cloning had reached the point where companies like Slab Co. could grow test tube limbs for reattachment. Even if I could abuse Quick Healing in such a way, I was better off just making Rayn some other less painful way.

I checked my phone and saw a text from Mira. I shot back a response before heading to my cabinet for some fresh Silage ExtraBland™. It was probably the only food that I considered worth paying for the blandness.

My phone buzzed and my PA automatically shot up the phone call onto my eye’s HUD. Mira was calling. “Hello?” I should really get an internal audio suite. I could answer calls and such without even having to verbally talk…

Hmm… maybe I should look into getting new earbuds before then? My new phone can do everything my last one couldn’t, including playing music… I kinda liked my handheld though. It had that retro vibe to it.

“Choom! Listen, I was thinking; why don’t we do something fun? I’m only going to be in town for so long, and… well, you know how it is.” Mira said.

I briefly thought about it. I didn’t have anything going on, other than the Sentinel papers burning a hole of incrimination at the back of my mind. Oh, and the Tracking Perk, but that could wait. “Sure. What do you wanna do?”

“Nova! Um… gun range? I got this new rifle I haven’t shot yet.” The excitement in her voice was palpable.

I don’t really want to stop that excitement. That, and this might be a good time to test out my Firearm Skill. Do I have to actually be in a firefight or can I just shoot at a target to level it? Oh, and I could try out the Sentinel “I’m down. Which one?”

The line was frozen for a moment. “Listen… I know you don’t like going near Blitz Base, but they have free ammo! All you can shoot!”

Going near the FSA base was… not my favorite thing to do. Ammo wasn’t all that expensive - food cost more these days - but getting free ammo… maybe I could even pocket some. “Fine… better not be like last time though.”

“Well, if you would’ve just stuck with me you wouldn’t have gotten locked in the stockade.” Mira used her snarky argumentative voice. Gah! It pissed me off.

“I had to use the bathroom!”