The wait for me to finish putting on the pads, seemed to do Hayato absolutely no favors. She was tapping her feet on the mats at a fast speed. Her hands kept twitching up like she was going to start pointing and yelling or something, but she would bring them down as soon as the urge hit, so it meant her hands were jerking around a bit every few seconds.

Yikes.

Once I had gloves and the cool kicky foot pads I stepped back onto the mats.

“Try to keep it to pure martial arts.” John spoke out before backing off the mat, and that was all the signal Hayato needed.

She rushed me. Moving very fast across the mat, but it wasn’t Sandy like. No, instead as she drew close and started punching, I realized the difference between fighting someone with a Sandy and with a Keren.

The Sandy would move so fast you couldn’t react and you would be out.

The Keren though? They were just reacting to you as soon as you did something. Start throwing a punch? They already saw the motion and were prepared.

I went to block her first punch and a moment later was stumbling back as she shifted from a straight punch to an uppercut under my guard.

But Hayato wasn’t done. She charged right back in. Another blow, this time I did barely manage to get a guard up in time but she wasn’t stopping. Punch punch punch punch. A rapid series of attacks that she kept trying to slip in through any openings.

I threw a punch to make room and nearly got a blow across the jaw for it.

It was like fighting someone who was reading your mind.

In other words?

It was fun as fuck!

I had Street Brawler levels to grind here!

I lured her in, letting her focus on trying to punch my face in, when I bounced.

Suddenly she wasn’t punching my face but below my legs. She reacted instantly, trying to duck back, but just because her mind was sped up, didn’t mean her body was the same. I slammed a kick forward and she blocked it, but it still sent her stumbling back.

Then I landed and I had a singular moment where the initiative was mine!

I pounced. My legs launched me forward in a punch that she desperately tried to juke to the right to avoid, but I shifted from a punch into a grab, even as her arm was attempting to pull away from my move, even successfully managing to avoid my grasping hand.

Fucking Keren.

It didn’t matter because as I missed her, I was behind her, and the moment my feet touched the mat I launched myself back.

She couldn’t see me.

I was behind her.

She certainly felt it though when I pounced into a jump kick that sent her flailing onto her face.

I stepped back even as John moved to try and break it up and I got a nod for not pushing now that Hayato was down.

She stood up in a flash, her face in a rage.

We didn’t speak. Instead John stepped back and it was on. She rushed me again, but I had learned my lesson. If I stay on the defense, she beats me, because she could simply react faster than I could do anything. I charged in with a light leap, and then went straight into grabbing at her.

Grapples was my answer to her reaction time.

If I could get my hands on her, I would win. I was confident in my grappling with my skills so high, and with grappling perk boosting that.

Unfortunately. I think I made her angry. She was avoiding my grasping hands, and she timed me perfectly. One second I was bending down a bit to grab a retreating wrist when a fist smashed into my face, and I was off my feet.

I rolled and stood up shakily, completely surprised at what just happened.

She didn’t hit like a teenage girl. She hit me so hard I felt like Jun just took a swipe at me.

John had broken the fight again but was there this time seemingly waiting to see if I could keep fighting.

I twisted my neck and winced a bit at the crackle.

Ow.

Wiping my face I noticed I was bleeding even with the gloves softening the blow.

“Okay what biomods do you have and where can I get me some?” I asked joking, as I took a second for the room to stop spinning.

“Many, and that is unlikely. You do not strike me as someone with the wealth required.” She responded back cattily and I chuckled at that.

Fair enough.

Really wish I could grab a Maxdoc right now but that would be rather telling, instead I simply bounced around a second regaining my motion and nodded to John.

He backed up and my actions seemed to have surprised the little Power Princess here.

I had misjudged her because she had so little direct chrome. But the Keren I realized wasn’t her only upgrade. Biomods to enhance muscles and bones, and probably twitch reflexes. And it turned a normal looking girl, besides the Keren sticking out the back of her neck, fixed into her neural link and what were probably ECM tattoos into a monster martial artist.

But I was better.

Well through pure skill I was better. She was good though. Probably close to where I was through pure skill, she just had better stats.

Well the whole thing fell apart a bit there. What I was trying to say was that she was stronger and faster, but she relied on it.

I moved in again. Fists swinging to alter her pace a bit, make her react to me, even if she was really good at that.

I took a few blows as she weaved around avoiding my grabbing hands and she in turn attempted to slip blows around my arms, but I was pressuring her, and getting her rhythm. I feigned a grab and she struck.

My hand spun around and locking onto her forearm created a half millisecond of shock. I very rarely spun my hands around 180 cause it was kinda… Uncomfy.

Yeah let’s go with that.

But I was a grappler, and being able to grab with effectively the back of your hand was too useful to ignore.

Then she folded around a knee to the stomach and I was instantly on top of her. All of her power and reflexes were useless when she was face first into the mat in an arm bar she had no chance of breaking out of, even with her joints being more flexible than a normal persons.

My chrome hands didn’t get tired, and she simply couldn’t leverage enough force to push my entire weight off of her.

So for the first time in our little matches. She reached out and tapped out.

She was coughing a little as I let go and she rolled onto her back to breath, but she recovered really fast.

Faster than she should have from getting the wind knocked out of her and she rose up.

“You beat me?” She hissed, the question pulling from her with an almost stutter as she talked faster than she could seem to keep up with. I stood back up and prepped for her to strike at me, but she didn't. Instead she started talking in a buzz glaring at John, and it took a second for me to parse out what she said. “Did you hire some pretend teenager to humiliate me? Why do you always do this!? You always try to trick me!”

“I’m fourteen.” I offered after a moment realizing that John was taking a moment to answer. “And John just watched me exercise at the Gym outside my apartment. Asked me if I was willing to fight someone.”

“Shut up! I didn’t ask you!” She once more blabber mouthed at me, and I just rolled my eyes.

Whatever. This was fun I guess. I turned and walked back to my stuff. I pulled the pads off my hands as I flopped into the chair barely paying attention to the spoiled rich girl throwing an absolute temper tantrum.

My face still hurt, and I wanted to just get out of here.

I did get some good Street Brawling XP though. So it wasn’t all bad.

By the time I finished putting all of my gear back on, Hayato was finished her surprisingly quiet argument with John,

“Wait.” She called out as I turned to leave the gym. “It was rude of me not to acknowledge the bout.” I turned and to my surprise she did a cool martial arts pose, fist against flat palm and bowed. “Thank you for the match.”

I quickly took the same pose because that was polite, and not because I thought it was cool. “Thank you for the match.” I repeated and then Hayato stood and sniffed.

“Perhaps I will have John call on you in the future for another. You were… An acceptable challenge.”

Our eyes met for a moment, and I was surprised that the rage I had seen earlier was gone… Was that chrome? Some weird Biomod? Or did she just have good control over herself and knew how to push the anger aside?

I pushed the question away. It didn’t matter, but I could respect the apology for what it was.

“Sure, here.” I threw her my number which seemed to surprise her. “Feel free to reach out if you want to set up another spar. I don’t get enough practice with my fists, and that Keren of yours is something really useful to get some experience against.”

“Wise. Very well Motoko, I look forward to our next bout.”

I nodded at that. Hayato the Rich Girl. That had a fucking nasty right hook. Yeah I think we could be chooms.

—--

I headed home. As I was walking down the hallway to the apartment Rockerboy Neighbor was leaving. We each passed each other without a word, but my narrowed eyes must have signaled something because the woman watched me pass.

Then I pushed into the apartment only to see Jun and Akari still here. Both looked exhausted and sprawled out on the couches. I think Akari was actually sleeping face first into the cushions as Jun continued to work on whatever was going on with the two.

“I’m home. Got to spar with a girl with a Keren. I ended up winning, sorta.” I informed Jun but I only got a thumbs up in return as Jun continued working on the tablet.

Okay, fine then.

I grumbled as I went into my room, and just flopped on my bed. My face hurt, and my muscles ached a bit.

Time for a nap.

—--

I woke up and instantly slipped out of the bed feeling better with a lack of any pain on my face. I walked into the living room to see I was once more free from older brothers, but I wasn’t going to stick around to enjoy it.

I grabbed my equipment, and the big box of ammo I had bought for my Lexington. I hadn’t figured out how to carry the silencer yet, so I just slipped it into the ammo box and I headed out to the gun range I had found before.

Without Hiromi here, I could really do some work.

I had thought ahead and grabbed my copperhead as well. The gun range wasn’t clear this time. The old man behind the armored glass that ran the place gave me a lane, and when I went in two of them were filled with to my complete lack of surprise a couple Tyger Claw grunts.

Thankfully these guys were older than the normal teenagers I ran into, and they didn’t do more than pass an eye over me as I carried my equipment into my lane.

I settled the copperhead down for now, and grabbed my lexington. With a moment's effort I fitted the silencer onto the pistol and did some movement with it just to feel the weight difference. It would definitely change how I fired.

I hit the switch starting the electronic targets up and amped the difficulty.

Then I started firing.

It was silent. Other than the noise the targets made to indicate a hit. I went as fast as I could. Each shot firing into the targets with barely a hint of noise. The bullet smacking into the concrete wall behind the targets honestly was the loudest thing in my lane.

Something I would have to keep in mind. The noise baffler tech didn’t silence the entire shot even if it did cover a lot.

But that was half the benefit of physically taking my gun out and shooting it at a range. Experience.

And not just XP. I mean physical experience, on how my equipment worked.

That and the XP helped keep me focused. Getting a blip of an alert in my system every once in a while as I kept up with the targets made it all worthwhile.

Eventually though I had to stop, having run a few hundred rounds through my Lexington the poor pistol was heating up pretty badly.

I set it aside leaving the silencer attached for now. While the heat of the silencer couldn’t hurt my chrome hands. I wanted to let it cool down, and see how the silencer handled the stress I had just put it under before I messed with it.

Instead I grabbed my Copperhead.

Once again I fell into the rhythm of just firing at the targets. Trying to hit the center without hesitating just instant point and shoot.

The alerts came about as often as they had with the Lexington. The only thing that slowed me down was when I ran out of loaded magazines, and had to reload all of them. The Copperhead though was more resistant to overheating than the Lexington. Despite firing more than twice as many rounds through it, it was handling the heat pretty well…

Mostly because I wasn’t using full auto I supposed.

Then finally I felt it more than anything. I wasn’t checking the alerts, but instantly it felt like my body was moving faster, and my hits happened just that instant faster.

I stopped and pulled up my alert list and wasn’t surprised at what I found the feeling of my body altering, had become a pleasant experience.

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*100 Handguns XP Gained.*

*Handguns skill level up!*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

*Reflex Leveled up!*

Handguns 7, was nice.

Reflex 8, though was a massive improvement.

I hadn’t leveled Assault yet but… I paused and reloaded my mags.

Then I lifted up my Copperhead into the firing position and hit the button to activate the targets again.

It had been a while since I just grinded my combat skills. Relying on Cool and the synergy of everything to kill without really needing to push my shooting skills. Or my body.

It felt good to get back into grinding out stats. It felt… Right. Like I had forgotten something, and only now found it again.

“Damn kid. Not bad.” The TC grunts were packing up, although they had stopped shooting constantly a while back. Mostly just hanging out with each other and shooting the shit.

But I was absolutely drilling the targets. Pushing myself to move as fast as I could to get every target hit as soon as they popped up. If my shoulders were still meat they would be sore from handling the recoil and holding the rifle straight.

“Thanks.” I called back in return but didn’t stop my single minded task.

“Hah. You ever thought about joining up with the Tygers kid? You certainly got the ferocity for it.” One of the men asked, having moved behind me to watch, as the other two packed up.

“My brother is The Oni of the Kamikaze. Fujimura has been trying to get me in for a while.” I answered. I wanted to be clear where I stood.

I didn’t really like having an adult standing right behind me like this, and I was in no mood to kill a bunch of grunts if I could just throw Juns name around.

“Hoh! You’re the Onryo!” Another of the men suddenly called out and I nearly jerked my gun. Quickly I lowered my weapon and then looked at the bastards.

“What did you just call me!?”

“Onryo! I heard that rumor. When the Kamikaze were cleaning up the Scavs they kept hitting dens that were already trashed.” The man walked over and nodded to me showing me real respect. “A choom of mine is one of Fujimura-Sama’s gunmen. He worked with your brother that night. Told me they hit a few dens that were already cleared out, charnel houses of Scavs cut to pieces.”

I winced a bit as I remembered just how messy I had gotten that night with my blade. The Thermal Katana does a good job keeping me from getting covered in blood as it cauterized most of the cut as I made it.

But I had still been rough and quick. Half the cuts had been tearing the Scavs in half. My Thermal Katana was meant for fighting borgs and armored enemies after all.

“So that was you huh? Damn. You certainly don’t look like an Onryo, but I just saw that shooting you were doing. Nasty trigger time there. If you are even half as good with a blade I could see you earning that nickname.”

“I already have a nickname. It’s Ghost.” I grumbled, Fucking Onryo is dumb!

“Well there you go. Onryo is a ghost, so it fits just fine. More Claws like anyways. Look at your brother, we aren't calling him the ogre!”

“It would be less cringe if you did.” I muttered but thankfully none of the men heard my whispered grumbles.

“Well. We won’t hold you up Onryo. Good shooting.” they offered and I opened my mouth to argue that wasn’t my nickname, but they weren’t listening.

I turned insta raised my Copperhead and started firing.

The only way to make this better was more XP.

—--

I got home and instantly took my equipment to my room for cleaning and going over. I pulled open my Silencer to check on the electronics and winced.

Yep. That was some melted wires.

I ended up pulling out the entire baffler and after a few minutes of messing around replaced the wiring with a more heat resistant wire.

But that still left the main electronics board that was getting some heat scoring.

So I pushed the entire Silencer into my Printer to be eaten up and went to work on a different design. This one with a slightly longer profile. More of a rectangle, with some actual heat sinks scored into it, so that it can displace the heat a bit more.

I mean, it wasn’t as necessary, it wasn't like I would be firing my silenced pistol hundreds of rounds in a single fight, but… But if I could design the Silencer to have a bit of endurance, I wouldn’t have to worry about replacing it constantly.

Besides, it was kind of fun!

It didn’t take me long to make the changes in CAD and upload it into the printer, and with a bit more metals to feed the build, I set it to construct. Finished cleaning the Lexington and my Copperhead and then decided it was time to get a meal.

I was unpackaging a fried noodle dish I had grabbed from a cart downstairs and was back on the couch when the door opened.

I relaxed from nearly quick drawing seeing it was just Jun and Akari again, both of whom looked tired and worn out, and about half way to crashing.

“Okay what is up with you two? Who died?” I demanded standing up on the couch and pointing.

“About five of my men.” Akari answered instantly and Jun jostled her to get her to stop talking.

“Oh.”