I awoke on a bed. Not just any bed, no. This bed was so soft and comfortable, not at all like my own. I could just sleep here all day-
I bolted upright, feeling myself tense up as I tried to remember where I was. The last thing in my memory was stumbling into the alley, laden with valuables and a burning headache. What happened? Where am I?
Calm washed over me as my eyes took in more of my surroundings. The room looked familiar. Very familiar. What was I doing in Mira’s room? The interface popped into my vision, distracting my line of thought.
「Stealth - 6>7」
「Deception - 2>3」
「Request - Eye of Avarice - Complete
* Crow’s Wheel of Wares」
「Use now?」
What? No, I don’t have time for this right now. I stumbled off the bed, my foot catching on the railing. My own ‘bed’ was just a mattress on the floor, so the rail completely took me off guard. I slammed face-first into the wall as my ankle twisted at an awkward angle. I could already feel blood beginning to pour from my nose.
The door opened quickly. "Are you-" Mira stood in the doorway in what I could only describe as heavily stunned. A second passed as she looked at me, before busting out into laughter as I held my nose.
It took several minutes for Mira to calm down her laughter and my nose to stop bleeding. Several very uncomfortable minutes as she just laughed at me, her hurt choom, with reckless abandon. What a gonk.
Now we were sitting in the living room, though a smile was still on her face. “How’d I get here?”
She sighed and ran a hand through her long, blonde hair. “That guy you've mentioned, Shinobu, brought you to us. You shoulda seen Pa’. He looked ready to strangle the guy when he showed up carrying you half-dead with delirium.”
Shinobu brought me? I knew he was a good guy, but damn. To think he brought me from a shitty alley across the entire city to Mira and Uncle Ezra. “How’d he know to come here?”
Mira smirked. “You kept calling out for me, and your PA brought my contact up on your phone. How sweet that I'm on your mind even when delirious.”
“Yeah well…” I got nothing. She was my best choom. “What happened to me?” I had a feeling it was due to part of my brain burning with Blackout, causing a severe lack of mental facilities. Then Quick Healing healed me while I slept, which brought me back. Quite scary.
“Pa’ thought it was a heatstroke-induced fever. Similar things happened with FSA troops all the time in the desert. Especially closer to the Eternal Sandstorm. He said he’d bring you to a doctor if the symptoms didn’t fade in a day.” She smiled brightly at me. “And now you’re fine! So, how’d it happen? Shinobu was chased out pretty quick, only mentioning being on a job. Oh, he said to call him when you get the chance! Was it with the Jade Fangs?”
Classic Mira, ever the spitfire. “Shinobu is a Fang enforcer, but it wasn’t a Fang operation. We knocked over a transport truck, and I overused some chrome. Caused me to overheat.” The overheating was a serious, serious flaw in the Avant Phantom. It was fine in almost all other ways, sure it could still use some improvements, but chrome that almost kills you is bad chrome. I shudder to think what state my brain would be in without the help of Quick Healing. Or what state the other beta-testers are in.
Mira frowned. “That’s some serious chrome if it puts you in that situation.”
“Experimental-”
“You put experimental chrome in your body! Are you insane?!” She shrieked and stared at me as if I was an idiot. “Do you want to glitch?”
I raised my hands placatingly, but she swatted them down. “L-look, it's based around Medtech stuff, and it’s mostly safe. The tech is even cutting edge. It’s just- just that its extra feature is not quite finished.”
“Oh my! I couldn’t tell!” She grabbed my arm and started to pull me towards the door. Easily at that. The girl worked out, while I definitely didn’t. Maybe that should change? “Let’s get that pulled out right now!”
I dug my heels in. “W-wait! I’ll have it removed and upgraded in two weeks for free! They should have all the kinks fixed by then. And it won’t be a problem as long as I don’t use the extra feature.”
She paused at the door. “Two weeks? And free service for cutting-edge tech?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Hmm…” She ran a hand along her hair, a sign I knew to mean she was thinking very seriously. “Fine! You better not use that feature again though!”
I sighed. “Okay, mom.”
Mira swept my legs and knocked me to the floor before I could even react. “Serves you right. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, young lady!”
She wasn’t the only one with a few tricks. I activated my Perks and sneakily snatched her leg, causing her to fall on top of me. And so began a wrestling match between two very unbalanced opponents. I lost. Terribly. She had the muscle and training advantage, and even with my underhanded tricks I couldn’t do anything thanks to ignoring Insight.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Though I’d say I won when Uncle Ezra found her putting me in an armbar in the entryway and nearly whipped her ass blue. Good times.
I stared at Uncle Ezra and Mira unwillingly as I put the call on speaker. They wanted to be around when I contacted Shinobu again. Something about checking his intentions? Weird, in my opinion. He obviously proved himself to be a good guy by bringing me across town. And it isn't like this was the first time they've heard of the guy. I've talked about him in the past, but maybe it's because they finally got a visual of the guy?
Anyway, they were both fully trustworthy. I saw no problem with it, or sharing much of anything really. Well, except maybe the interface. I think it would be best if I never mentioned it to anyone.
The call rang for a very short time before he picked up. “Shiro? You alive, mikata?”
“Nova. Just a heatstroke from my chrome." I ignored Mira's pointed stare. "How’d it end? I wasn’t all there.”
“Flawless! Well, except for the part with you wigging out. I was first to the alley, kept the vultures from snatching you and leaving. I was going to take you to Nael’s, but you kept saying Mira over and over again, and I wasn't even sure if you were injured.”
Across the table, Mira smirked at me. I shot her a glare as I responded. “How’d the loot go though? I take it they didn’t notice.”
“Like I said, mikata; flawless. According to my insider, they didn’t know till several hours after they arrived at their destination. And thanks to the uh, ‘extra step’, they aren’t on our trail at all.” He sounded excited, which I thought was a bit odd considering the big guy’s usual demeanor.
“So how much are we looking at?” That was the real question I was interested in. Rayn. More specifically, how much would go to me?
“Right! That's the best part. You managed to nab thirteen Daemons. Unfortunately, they were low-leveled ones so they’ll only fetch about five to six hundred rayn according to the fixer. The assorted bags of chips were all low-end programs, so each bag is only worth about two hundred. There were five Black ICE programs too, so that added another three hundred each. The insane part is that black briefcase you snatched. Even my insider didn’t know this, but it held an unbound Net Architecture. Guess how much?”
“How much?” The numbers already were making my head spin.
“That single device was level three, so it was worth three thousand Rayn by itself. We seriously made some bank, mikata. In total, we’re looking at twelve thousand five hundred Rayn. After splitting that extra cut, we are both going to walk out of this with three thousand one hundred and twenty-seven Rayn. That’s pretty damn good for how almost flawless the heist was. Word got back to the Matriarch, and she even promoted me for showing initiative.”
“That’s Nova! When will it come through?” I asked, already formulating plans for more heists. I've only done small-scale stuff in the past, and I didn't realize quite how lucrative it could be if I moved my sights a bit further up. Sure, the danger was far more... but the Rayn!
“As soon as the fixer sells the lot off. There might be some minute variability in the pay since she is running it through a Night Market.” I could practically hear the grin on his face. “Thanks, Shiro. I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”
“No problem. Just call me again if you need me. Oh, and consider that favor you owed me gone. Thanks for taking me out of the alley.”
“Of course! And Ishimaru-sama would’ve had my hide if I got you killed in a gig. You might think he's just joking when he says you're his favorite, but he really does have a soft spot for you.”
“Right.” Nonsense. “I’ll see you later.”
“Cya.” The line went dead.
…
…
I could feel both their eyes boring into me. The awkward silence broke as Uncle Ezra spoke. “So three thousand Rayn, huh?”
“I guess so.” I almost couldn’t look at him. I mean, they knew that I was a crook, but this was the first time they’ve ever been smacked in the face with it. Usually, we just didn't talk about it considering their connections to the government.
Uncle Ezra slapped me on the back. “Good job, kid. Your parents would’ve been proud of you, even if they wished you would’ve entered a different field. I still remember the gig where your father met your mother...”
A smile sprung to my lips. He rarely talked about my parents. Guilt, I think. He was on deployment when they were killed, and he couldn’t do anything to help me in the first seven months I was by myself. He didn't even know they died till he returned to the city. The Jade Fang truly pulled through back then. “Thank you, Uncle Ezra.”
“Eee! I'm so happy for you, Shiro! That's some serious bank! So, what are you gonna spend it on?”
“I dunno… maybe buy some parts and stuff and fix up my bike? It's been acting up. Then save for a drought I guess.” I said. I hadn’t thought of it. I could also upgrade my living conditions. Most studio apartments were around fifteen hundred Rayn a month…
But then I’d be moving out of my nice free cargo container. Hm… best wait and see if my current streak of Rayn and gigs keeps up. It would be dumb to start buying without making sure my income was secure. Of course, I’m not including the three thousand from the AT heist in my calculations. This kind of thing was a fluke at best. Unless...
So my income, assuming I got at least two gigs a week like I had was somewhere in the around twenty-four hundred Rayn. Then, if I added on the time I inevitably spent picking pockets and borrowing from people, I would be somewhere around thirty-six hundred. Silage is somewhere around three hundred a month plus the fifteen hundred from the apartment.
I would have around eighteen hundred Rayn left over to spend on other things. That was assuming everything went well though. And not including AE3 prices. So maybe cut off an extra one or two hundred. Yeah, I think it's about time I upgrade. No… maybe after a couple of weeks. I still need to make sure my income remains stable.
And maybe look at some alternative revenue streams. Maybe I should drop picking pockets entirely. It didn't pay all that well compared to the time it took, at least with my skill level. I was much better off going for something else a bit more lucrative...
“I’ve got an old tool bag I can give you. Might not be the best quality tools, but they'll be free till you upgrade. Oh, and I could send for a mechanic to check it out. On the down low, of course.” Uncle Ezra said.
“I’ll think about the tool bag, but definitely not on the mechanic. This'll be a good experience for me."
"You take the tool bag though. It's not like we need it.” Mira said, nudging her dad in the side.
“Right.”
I felt they were scheming something, but I couldn’t exactly deny their efforts. “Fine.”
And that's how I ended up in a cab ride the next day with not just a bag of tools, but a bag of medical supplies too. Oh, and a very high-end multitool that must’ve cost at least seven hundred Rayn. Yeah, they were plotting something. I couldn’t even stop and argue with them since my cab was waiting, which was even more annoying.
The cab dropped me off back by Big Mike's. It had been a bitch and a third to carry all of the stuff on my little, half-working bike and cart it back to my cargo container. It had been even more annoying to carry it up the welded ladder and into my home.
I collapsed onto my bed- even calling my mattress a bed felt insulting after sleeping on Mira’s. I stared up at the ceiling, as I tended to do these days. With just a thought, the interface appeared in my vision.
「Request - Eye of Avarice - Complete
* Crow’s Wheel of Wares」
「Use now?」