Well, when you’re an ageless super powered AI the size of a planet, you will know why I’m so confident in my abilities.

The craft had a ramp in the back that led into it; with a mental command I dropped it. It smoothly lowered onto the ground giving me the first view of its interior. It had four seats, two on each side, with five-point harnesses to hold in passengers. There was also space in the middle for some cargo. There was a small opening leading to the front where there were two seats side by side with a space between to get through.

The cockpit was just a single glass panel wrapping around the entire cockpit. I think the window was mostly for the human brains benefit of having a visual, and even that was mostly for the passengers. Same for the panel, the moment I stepped into the craft my augs started feeding me the status of everything related to the crafts operation, a quick glance at the panel confirmed it was displaying everything I could already sense.

Of course, Sending it now.

I moved through the craft to the front, between the hold and the cockpit in the wall, I notice a small storage cubby on each side, intentionally sized for my wand and staff. I go ahead and place both into their holders and sit in the pilot’s seat on the left.

The seat is perfectly molded to my body and is very comfortable!

Using my hive augs I command the craft to go through its startup sequence, while it’s doing that I think about my destination; home. It’s only like six in the afternoon or so, but I’m super exhausted and could use some quiet down time.

I lift off my new craft and point it towards home, I push up the crafts engines and get it up to full speed, it shoots off like a rocket hitting its top speed of fifteen hundred MPH in ten seconds, I can tell from my link that we hit 6.8g in that span. Thanks to my enhancements my body hardly even felt it. At this speed it should only take about four minutes to reach home with a gentler deceleration.

The trip is nice and quiet, I do some light reading of the crafts specs and performance characteristics, that Merlin provided for me.

Upon arriving at my apartment building an unforeseen issue became clear. I could absolutely park this thing in the parking lot with the other cars, but it might draw a lot of attention. I quickly flip through the crafts configuration options, one of them is a non-descript large truck, a perfect disguise.

I settle the craft down at the back end of the parking lot, quickly grabbing my wand and staff on the way out. Once I clear the ramp, I trigger the change. The crafts nanites quickly and fluidly slither around until I’m no longer looking at my sleek new toy, and instead a dumpy looking truck, albeit a large one.

Simple, they condense themselves closer together and in areas that a normal truck would need to operate. Since the truck never actually has to drive, not that it could, the nanites can pack themselves extremely densely.

I revert my own armor over to its casual wear before entering the apartment building. I cross through the lobby to the lifts and set it to take me to my apartment. My apartment is half the floor I’m on, so it’s fairly large. Once I exit the lift, it opens to a small waiting area where my door is, and on the other side is my neighbor’s door. My door is smashed open.

I convert my casual wear back into armor, and grab my staff, someone is about to get a rude awakening. I reach out for my drone’s controls to send it in to scout, and I realize I left the stupid thing back in Beatty! Frick!

Of course, I was wondering when you would remember it, it is on its way now, but at its speed will take a while to get here.

No matter, I have my sensor suite.

I look into its data and see that there are three individuals spread around my apartment. They are picking through my things, tossing drawers around, plates, silverware, my closet, everything is in shambles.

They even stabbed my couch looking for whatever they are after.

If I had to guess, people with ill intent.

Well, I’m not wrong.

Ah, perhaps your new Samurai status has gotten out and malcontents are after some easy Samurai gear that has been left unsecured. This is actually fairly common for corps, gangs, or some PMCs to try and lift gear off new Samurai who are vulnerable still. Or even abduct new Samurai to use as tech farms.

That may be very true, I pity the fool who tries to abduct you.

Indeed, it is, as is evident by the hooligans going through your underwear drawers.

By cleaning do you mean with violence or like cleaning your dirty floors?

Ever the efficient point spender. I have considered this already and have a solution. I can place a Class 1 AI into a nanite assembly that can perform basic combat functions, as well as cleaning your apartment while you are away. It is only a Class 1 drone but assembled with parts of your Class II catalogs it will still be fairly potent to all but the most heavily equipped invader.

It will have a sampling of your lightning in the form of a non-lethal stun, enhanced strength due to its nature, flight, and highly detailed sensory capabilities. In all it will cost two hundred and fifty points.

Loot inbound!

New Purchase: Class I Maintenance Nanite Kombat Yard Defender M.N.K.Y-D:

Points reduced to: 2,184

Before me a box the size of a dog shimmers into existence, surrounded by a glowing ring of runes and symbols.

Did I though? Nonsense, and I thought you might appreciate the summoning circle.

I just sighed and opened the box.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Within, sat a monkey with wings, but it did not end there; oh no! It was about two feet tall, had a prehensile tail, a sleek dark black mechanical look, no fur, purple runes circled around its skin in a shifting pattern. But the cherry on top? It had a little black fez hat and a black and white butler’s shirt.

I’m afraid not, this is how it comes.

You would think so, right? But nope, it is the way it is. Anyway it’s scampered off to clean your apartment already.

Indeed, while I was trying to keep my cool it had scampered off into the apartment.

Not a moment latter I see it engage the first intruder in the kitchen, it zooms in on its wings slamming into the person’s face. They get knocked over and they both collapse onto the floor. The person swears briefly, then I see a quick flash of light and the faint smell of ozone as it zaps the intruder. The monkey hops off quickly, leaving behind an unconscious idiot.

It quickly takes flight and wings its way into the living room where the second person is digging through my couch. It spears itself into the persons back like an angry cannon ball. The woman let’s out a loud oof and falls forward onto the shredded couch. Another zap, and they are knocked out too, I can see that they started to drool on the couch.

The little monkey, wasting no time, zips off into the bedroom where the last person is kicking around my clothing on the ground. The monkey flips over delivering a flying-kick to the guy’s gut. He lets out a grunt and folds around the monkey from the impact. One last zap and he is out of commission too.

I have to give it to the little monkey; it is quick and did indeed clean up my apartment! Guess I can’t be too mad at Merlin.

I’m glad you see the value in it! Now what are you going to name it?

Gary it is!

Gary grabbed the unconscious bodies and pilled them all up in the living room in a heap. It then started cleaning up the mess that was made by the invaders.

I provided Gary with a schematic of the apartment prior to the invasion. It will repair, replace, and clean everything back to normal. He will also keep the three interlopers from getting away until you decide what to do with them.

I set all my gear aside and draw up a hot bubble bath and relax into it.

Right, lets get into these emails. First up the school sent something, using my augs I access my mail and open the email.

Dear Samurai, Morigana Luxanna,

We are pleased to inform you that we have secured a more permanent teacher for the classes you have been subbing in for. We appreciate the time and effort you placed into educating these students. We hope that your new endeavors as a Samurai go well. Thank you for all you have done and bless your future fight against the Antithesis!

Sincerely Principal Dr. Penelope Bandreas

I sat there befuddled, they found someone else over the weekend. No way, they have been trying for a while now and now magically they have someone? No, I think the key here is the Samurai part, they clearly don’t want a Samurai teaching their class. I can kind of understand, Samurai are notorious for going to extremes to get what they see as important done. Anything from assassinations, murders, theft, or any other measure to get the job done.

That is hardly me though, I’m not some deranged sociopath using only violence to get what I want done. Sure, I did some petty things at the Corp office, but nothing to hurt or kill anyone, and no one was in any danger by intent.

What sucks is if I do something drastic like barge in, and force my way back in to teach, it will validate their belief to not let me teach the classes.

Stupid school, I let out a sigh of frustration.

I could very easily delete the emails existence and update the class rosters with your name as if nothing happened, Morigana.

Very well, but I could.

I ignore Merlin and start up a reply.

Dear Principal, Bandreas,

I am glad that you have been able to find a permanent teacher for the school. I have enjoyed being able to provide a stable education for the students. Should you ever find the need for my services please let me know. I would be more than happy to come back and teach any time! I have been in touch with Handy Hank, a Samurai of some standing. He should be reaching out to provide support for the school in the form of better food and supplies at no cost to the school. Thank you for all your support.

Vanguard Morigana Luxanna, Witch of the West

Okay, one down, two left. I open up the one from my company. In it is a massive contract with expectations and a list of the supplies that they have been able to secure. It looks like they have added my stipulations, and, oddly enough, everything looks on the up-and-up. My guess is that they did not want to try and screw over a Samurai that could dismantle them in moments.

I go ahead and sign the contract and send it back, looks like I will have plenty of time to design new toys for the company since I won't be going back to teach.

The last email from the Family proves to be the most interesting if not the least helpful.

It’s a collection of files from various Samurai that have had to deal with gangs in their local areas. There are more of them than I thought there would be. It could be that a lot of Samurai come from the lower end of society and live close to, or are even in gangs, at the time of initialization.

Samurai Morigana Luxanna, Witch of the West,

We are sorry to hear about your situation with a local gang in your area. Sadly, we do not involve ourselves in matters at that level unless it threatens vital infrastructure, or fighting the Antithesis. However, we do have several reports from other samurai that have had to handle gangs. We have included their reports, we hope you find this helpful. As always please feel free to reach out to us for anything.

The Family

Useless group of snobs, the lot of them!

Well, let’s see what they sent me. I open the first report.

Location: Japan

Gang: Triads

Samurai: Raikiri

Report: The Samurai known as Raikiri had his family murdered by the notorious gang called the Triads. Once he obtained the status of Samurai he relentlessly hunted down and slaughtered every member in existence. He then dragged every body into one location and used it as bait to draw out a large wave of Antithesis. He waited until they were all consumed before taking out the Antithesis and the hive they spawned from.

Holy suns, that’s brutal! I guess they take revenge seriously over there. But slaughtering an entire gang seems like a very time-consuming proposition, especially in a giant city like this. Next report!

Location: New New York City

Gang: Rafter Rats

Samurai: Risky Rhino

Report: The Samurai know as Risky Rhino was attempting to purge a large area of NNYC of Antithesis when he came across a building controlled by the Rafter Rats gang. They refused to permit him to save their “servants” and wanted only themselves saved from the advancing hoard of Antithesis. He ignored them and saved all of their servants. He then stood back and watched the Antithesis tear apart the gang members then razed the building by destroying the supports and collapsing the building on the Antithesis, killing them all.

Well, another case of eradicating the gang outright, I’m starting to see a trend here. Kill them and be done with it.

Next one.

Location: Calgary, Undercity

Gang: Void walkers

Samurai: Teddy

Report: The Samurai known as Teddy used her AI bear bots to invade the Void walkers’ compound, killing most of them and displacing the ones not killed. The samurai did provide aid to those who put their weapons down and surrendered.

This last one also had a transcript of an attempted interview of the Samurai.

“You want my advice on how to deal with gangs? Why the fuck would you want to do that?

Fine. Here's my guide in two easy steps. First, don’t deal with them unless you absolutely need to. Most of them are just a small group of people that gathered together to protect themselves. They won’t fuck with you if you don’t fuck with them.

if you absolutely have to deal with them, make sure you’re in a position of power. Establish your position early, because if they sense weakness, they’ll most likely take advantage.

Happy now? What do you mean ‘No’. Well fuck you, that’s all you’re getting.”

Clearly, they have some anger issues, or something against the Family or both? Who knows. There were a few more reports included, but I doubt they provide much else in guidance. It’s clear that the only way they have been dealt with is with force.

Your guests have started to awaken, how would you like to handle them?

Sighing, I get out of the tub and dress back in my armor.