“G’day, lass! I heard that there was a damsel in distress! I am the Samurai Valkyrie and I am here to help.” She said, with a thick Old Zealand accent and a heart stoppingly beautiful smile.

She called you a damsel!

I’m old enough to be your… wait a minute!

“You look in one piece, my med scanners don’t detect any immediate threats to your health.”

“Uhm, thanks.” I said feeling like a low rent side chick compared to this woman. Not only did she take the Cthulhu monster on, she did it with a sword! There has got to be more to her than what is on the surface.

“How did you do that? That tongue attack speared through my class II shields, and ship like it was tissue paper. Then here you come and just grab it with your hands and then punch through its face with nothing but a sword!”

She grins, and lets out a hearty laugh, swinging her sword and slamming it into the dirt. She placed her hands on her hips, leaning into the side like a super model.

“I have invested heavily into personal upgrades for my body, I’m technically not human anymore.” She said patting her lean stomach.

“I replaced my entire body with a synthetic-metallic-carbon based alloy, that uses quantum tunneling to maintain the bodily functions required to run it. The tech is under a Class IV catalog, it also gives me the strength to dead lift one hundred and fifty tons or so.” She said in her adorable accent, while flexing her arms.

My jaw was stuck open, with a cheeky grin she reached up and closed it for me.

“Anyway, was there anything else that needed handling? You able to get back to the city on your own?” She asked, looking around at the piles of dead Antithesis rotting in the setting sunlight. “Or a hand with cleanup maybe?”

Give me a moment, I’m trying to establish a connection with the nanites, they should – Ah! Got them, assembling the Witchcraft now. Good news, I recovered 93% of the nanites, also your staff and wand!

Around me a fine black mist rose up from the ground, and by around, I mean several miles around! Evidently, they spread out over a wide area.

“It looks like I will have a way home after all, and I can handle cleanup with my ship, thank you.” I said to the Valkyrie. She nodded and watched along with me as my ship slowly rebuilt itself next to me.

“That’s a neat trick, I’ve always wanted to mess with Nanites but I always find myself preferring to punch things into submission instead of all that fancy stuff. Can’t disable my fist through their face with any EMP gimmick, yah know?”

“You’re right, and perhaps I need my own answer for situations that my normal gear and bag of tricks might fail me.”

She walks over to the Witchcraft, placing a hand on its hull and sliding it along the smooth exterior. “It’s a beautiful ship you have, don’t feel too bad. Everyone has a weakness, that under the right situations, can be exploited or taken advantage of.”

“Of course, I just like to be as prepared as possible, that’s why I like the nanites. They provide a very versatile weapon system that can be adapted to most situations. I will have to work with my AI, Merlin, to come up with a plan to prevent this from happening in the future.” I said, watching her walk around my ship in a circle.

When she came back around the front she was smiling. “I need to get back on station in case anyone else needs a rescue, sending my info over to your AI, should you need a rescue in the future.” She said, spreading her wings wide. “Oh and, here is the tracking data on your Hentai monster.” She said with a wink, my augs pinging with a message and the data. .

Why is everyone calling this thing my Hentai monster! I had no hand in its creation or its presence near me! Also, does everyone watch that stuff ?Good stars above!

Before I could comment on her accusation, she flaps her fiery wings and launches into the sky like a small star.

Well, okay then, looking around at the mess of flying Antithesis around me, I let out a sigh. Better get started cleaning up all the bodies before they turn into hives or seed into some other horror.

Climbing into the re-formed Witchcraft, I set it to hover, and using the scanner suite that was working again, I used it to find all the Antithesis bodies and blast them with fireballs to ensure nothing survived.

I fly around the battlefield and start cleansing the large swath of desert of every bit of alien goop that I can find.

After about twenty minutes I have an epiphany. Why am I doing this at all? I have catalogs for nanite drone swarms! Surely something in one of them could do this without my needing to be here, it’s not like this gets me any points.

Right you are, got just the thing, and I’m surprised it took you this long to think of it really.

Of course, best bang for the buck option we have the Antithesis Sanitation Swarm, they will scour the area and collect the biomass left and process it down to base elements and deliver it to your cauldron to use as raw resources.

Only two hundred and fifty points.

Righto, loot inbound!

New Purchase: Class Two Nanite A.S.S. Cleaner

Points reduced to: 5924

I have no idea what you’re referring to, do you not like your new swarm?

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

A box about the size of a motorcycle appears in front of me, without any ceremony I open the side to reveal the new swarm.

It’s nothing spectacular, looks like a giant mosquito, one of the most prevalent bugs in the world, and not even the Antithesis were able to kill them off.

It lifts off with a low buzzing noise and immediately zips out the back of the Witchcraft, before dispersing into a billowing cloud of chaos.

The drone will systematically search the area with a 10% buffer of expected over-search to ensure nothing accidently went out farther.

Pointing my poor banged up ship home, I set a leisurely pace back home, I’ve had enough fast-paced nonsense today.

On my augs I get a call from Devoy! A smile instantly plants itself on my face without me even realizing it.

I quickly answer the call.

“Hello Little Witch, I heard from Hank that you got in a spot of trouble today. I hope all went well? Since you are answering the phone, I’m guessing so.” He said sounding both concerned and confident.

“Since becoming a Samurai it has been nearly a daily occurrence to run into trouble.” I replied back to him, with a bit of a sigh at the end.

“So, yes, trouble, but I had a plan in place to handle it. It was quite a spectacle to see Valkyrie in action though. I’ve heard of her, but whoa, seeing her in person was something else entirely.” I said, fangirling a bit, it's not every day you get to bump into some of the big Samurai.

“I bet you did, you do think quick on your feet, taking out that turtle yesterday was quite impressive.” He said.

“I know, aren’t I just amazing.” I said with a cheeky grin that he couldn’t see.

“Hah, yea, that you are. Anyway, I just wanted to call and see if you were alright, and you did not need anything.”

“Nope, all fine, and other than needing a nice soak, I’m good.” I said.

“Okay, then how about…” He paused, taking in a breath, then let it out before continuing. “Maybe dinner, you know, to help you unwind?”

I was stunned into silence. Me? Dinner? With the mountain? Oh my, oh my, what do I do?

I can almost hear your inner panic Mori, repeat after me.

I would love to.

“I would love to.” I said sounding like a robot.

I’m a big blunder-faced goofball.

“I’m a… bit of a mess, so maybe tomorrow?”

It was worth a shot, hah!

With an amused sounding chuckle, he replied. “That sounds great, I will come and pick you up after you get off work then. Speaking of work, how was your first day in your new position?”

“Let’s save it for tomorrow, and then I’ll have two days of boring stuff to tell you instead of one.” I said back to him. Can’t dish out every bit of boring to him at once, or else we won’t have anything to talk about. Then again, I guess there is always Samurai type stuff to talk about.

He laughs. “Fair enough, I will see you tomorrow then.” He said, then the call ends.

Masterfully handled, you're welcome for the rescue.

I suppose for a simple carbon-based life form like your self I can see that.

Indeed, you are, but that’s not saying much compared to the rest of the universe.

True enough, well then let’s get you home then.

The trip home does not take too long even at the more leisurely pace that I took. Upon exiting the Witchcraft, I set it to its dumpy truck disguise and head into my apartment.

Gary is in the same place I saw him last, watching TV. The news is on, and it’s showing the horizon and a swarm of flying Antithesis. I see flashes of lightning and explosions covering the screen, and I can see a dark shape flitting around, occasionally lightning or fire explodes out from it. My Witchcraft, I know what it is because it was me doing it.

The screen flips over to a woman dressed in business casual, standing there talking.

“This was the scene not too long ago, we are getting info saying that the newly ascended Samurai known as “The Witch of the West” was fighting off a massive aerial wave of Antithesis, when a new, previously unseen model, emerged from it ”

The scene flicks back, and sure enough, the massive tentacle monster emerges and starts swatting at me. It follows the fight until I tried to run, and it unleashes the EMP blast and the footage goes dark.

“As you can see, the blast took out our cameras and it is unclear how the Samurai fared. We do know that the wave of Antithesis was turned back, cameras mounted on the weapons on the near mountains saw the wave flying away.”

It switches to some low-quality footage of the swarm retreating back out into the desert. Oddly there is no mention of the Valkyrie or any images of her in the area.

Gary looks back at me from the couch, sees that I’m there watching, shrugs and turns back around.

“Gary, why don’t you be a good helper monkey and make me some dinner?” I tell him.

He looks back at me, and with some reluctance, gets up and moves over to the kitchen where I can hear him banging pots and pans around unnecessarily loud.

With a sigh, I head directly to the bathtub, strip off my armor and underthings, and slide into a nice hot bath.

The hot bath triggers a question that’s been bugging me a bit that I had not really thought of in the moment. Merlin was about to unlock a Class III catalog for me, in order to kill off the Cthulhu monster, which not long ago he said he would not.

Would he still do so now?

Yes, Morigana?

Yes… and?

Well, you were in very real danger from that new model. While it is possible some combination of your current tech could have handled it. I concluded that the Class III tech would be more capable and more likely to succeeded, with a lower risk to yourself and the civilian populace.

I suppose I trust your levelheaded choices and believe that you are less likely to abuse higher tech levels wantonly. So, I was prepared to open those technologies to you.

I have spent several seconds thinking about it, and I have a question for you first.

Do you think you are ready for class III technologies? These catalogs are drastically farther ahead than what any human tech on this planet can reproduce and its misuse can cause lasting and sometimes subtle damage to eco systems, tech, economies, and have even made some Samurai power crazy.

I was taken back by his question and lapsed into silence. I considered the question from all sides.

I was already devastated by the use of the bomb in the mines and the un-intended side effects it had, and the risks that I did not consider in its use. What sort of things could I miss with using something strong enough to change the entire landscape for miles? A fire Tornado could cause a massive swell in heat, igniting air, causing spin off tornados, melting the sand into a glass wasteland. Destroying the environment of anything below and around it. Just because the desert looks empty does not mean it is. Creatures under the sand, the plants, birds, whatever, would all be potentially killed.

The Antithesis are doing enough of destroying our environment, we Samurai don’t need to help it along.

The tech itself is crazy advanced too, I would like to think I would use it for good, and not sell it off or incorporate it for corporation use and abuse. So, on that front I’m not too worried, nor am I worried about becoming power hungry.

Perhaps though, that’s how everyone thinks. No way that they could become corrupted with power, and that they would never abuse it. I have seen a fair share of Samurai losing their cool in several scenarios and taking things into their own hands. Everything from toppling entire corporations, to assassinations, to, in some extreme cases, bullying smaller countries into compliance in some form or another.

I just don’t know, maybe it’s best to wait until I have been around the Samurai community more and see how others do, and what sort of things I should consider.

Like, should I build up a strong base of understanding class II tech first? I know that’s what Merlin suggested before.

I blew some bubbles with my mouth into the tub.

This is too much for bath time, maybe food and a nap first, and then deal with these types of things.

I understand, and that is the answer I both expected and was hoping to hear from you. Think on it more, and when the time comes unlocking class III will feel right for you.

Don’t hold your breath, he’s a cleaning monkey, not a chef.

Sure enough, what Gary had made was essentially some canned soup and bread that he found in the pantry. It’s clear he heated it up in the microwave and then ran back to the TV.

Sighing, I sat down eat it anyway, and headed to bed, too tired to care.