I really should have stayed home tonight.

We had gone out to hit a Maelstrom attack. Apparently, someone had managed to get information that the Strom were going to hit a Tyger Claw business, specifically a little gun shop that supplied quite a few Tyger Claws with firearms.

So Kamikaze were sent to take out the attack. What that entailed was everyone piling into four cars in a nearby alley and being as quiet as possible as we waited.

Which meant putting a group of budding Cyberpsychoes into close proximity to each other with the anxiety of future conflict.

I was with Jun and Akari again and just with that, I was ready to kill someone. Akari was getting snippy. Jun was surprisingly handling his anger really well.

Honestly he was handling Akari poking him with her sharp feet, or continuously trying to turn on the radio over and over despite all of us supposed to be quiet really well.

I however was not.

Akari kept pushing her passenger seat back into me, and whenever I moved behind Jun she would start trying to poke ME with her feet blades.

I was half a minute away from bashing my Nekomata in the back of her head to get some peace, when both Jun and Akari stilled.

I glanced around the seat, both of their eyes were yellow.

I rolled my eyes at not being included and just leaned back Jun would tell me what the call was about.

“Alright, the Maelstrom trucks are a minute out. Get ready.” Jun said and I nodded.

Then I instantly opened the door to Jun’s shock.

“Motoko?” He whispered at me as I climbed out.

“I’ll be on the roof. I’ll wait for you guys to start attacking before firing.” I tell them, pointing to the old buildings we were parked between, I could get up onto the roof and have an overwatch position. If you were willing to do a couple of tricky leaps.

I stuck the Nekomata over my shoulder and rushed away before Jun could say anything else.

I was honestly needing my own space. Akari was fun in short doses.

Short doses.

I tightened my gloves as I started climbing up the building. Sliding from a dumpster to an AC unit, then along the window ledge to jump to the next floor, where I grabbed an overhand and climbed up with a bit of effort.

Parkour made it a simple process of just pulling myself up after a jump each jump and leap climbing me higher and higher in the shortest time.

Then I was on the roof, and I hurried to overlook the Tyger Claw shop. Crouching up to the edge, I pulled off my Nekomata and started checking it over. Gun Nut already told me it was fine, but knowing, and ‘Knowing’, are two different things. Loaded, with the safety off, I rose up, having already chosen the best place to keep myself completely out of view. A shade from a sign put me entirely into shadow, and the brick I was pushed up against was colorful from Graffiti, so I would be invisible without a lot of attention.

I eased my eye over the scope. I could hear them.

The Maelstrom trucks were old beaters, hyper tuned monsters, or just loud. Loud and driven angrily.

They came around the corner in a mess, two of them even scraping against each other as they took the turn too sharply but neither driver seemed to care. The cavalcade roared down the street stopping around the shop, the Maelstrom actually managing an okay semi circle around it, to isolate it.

I waited. Kiroshi already scanning the gangsters. My NCPD File Search letting my scan not just tell me what the Strom were using for weapons, and some of their Cyberware, but also their rap sheet.

The more I scanned the more I smiled.

Cleaning up scum was a duty to all lovers of Peace and Justice after all. I scanned them as I waited, nothing really surprising popping out.

Murder, kidnapping and illegal squatting.

But I waited.

The Maelstrom borgs were hollering as if they already won, as they stepped out, a few guns firing into the air, or into the front of the shop seemingly just for fun.

I waited.

And then finally as the door opened, it happened.

The first Borg to try and enter got ripped apart as an HMG began firing from within the building. Instantly the Maelstrom jumped for cover and started firing back into the store. The forceful response more than the borgs expected.

Which is when I saw them.

Kamikaze, rushing in head first from behind. I sighed as I kept both eyes open, one through the scope, and one without as I watched, waited.

The first Maelstrom to notice the enemies at his back and turn around, was my target. His shotgun was raised.

I exhaled, a stream of what felt like freezing air escaping my lips. It was so easy.

My scope was already adjusted for range.

My arms held perfectly still. I couldn’t design a better weapons platform than my own body at that moment. I pulled the trigger.

The borg lost his head, his Shotgun falling out of his hands as his body followed. Bleeding out across the pavement.

I specifically ignored the alerts coming through. Making sure they wouldn’t be caught on the BD I was scrolling.

I shifted, my firing had unfortunately caused a few of the Maelstrom gonks to turn around hearing the rifle, but Kamikaze were on them now. Jun just behind Fujimura. Katana blazing red as he leapt over the back of one of the pickups, cutting down the Maelstrom gonk that was standing up on the bed, and then putting himself into the group.

But I was overwatch and I saw everything.

The Kamikaze gonkhead that hadn’t properly checked his ass and didn’t notice the driver of one of the trucks step out and start aiming at his back. The Kamikaze was punching a borg into scrap despite the body being quite dead. Hazards of Cyberpsychos I supposed.

Then I fired.

The driver slammed face first into his truck's rear door, as my round burst through his chest, he slipped to the pavement without resistance.

I shifted again.

It was funny. I rarely tended to use rifles, but with all of my skills and perks. They did synergize well. I fired again.

The gonk that Fujimura was wrestling with, had been just as big as the angry Kamikaze leader. They had tangled on the floor each trying to rip the other apart with their cyberware and strength.

I had a clear shot and took it. The Maelstroms spider like head came apart in two splattering Fujimura in white borg blood.

I moved on, uncaring that I could see Fujimura’s angry glare looking towards me.

But instead of firing I dropped. A barrage of bullets slamming into my previous position, I rolled along completely unbothered by the stone shrapnel as I kept the Nekomata closed.

Chrome arms made rolling on the ground surprisingly painless.

The burst of automatic fire was pulled away, but that was all I needed. As soon as it stopped I sprung up. Jogging sideways along the edge of the rooftop, stealth no longer needed, lining up the shot, the gonk that had just shot at me, while still distracted as he was being shot at, noticed and started aiming towards me.

Too slow.

I fired.

The fucker ducked away just in time his own response wildly missing even when mine punched a quarter sized hole into the side of the truck he was now taking cover behind.

I didn’t wait. My hands already dancing, as I grabbed another magazine from a hip pouch, dropping the empty magazine, and slamming the new one home. I was already aiming in once I stabilized from the reload I fired. Punching through the truck, and the moron that thought a few bits of car siding would stop a tech Sniper Rifle.

I didn’t stop moving, instead focusing on my next target, but it was already over.

Kamikaze were tearing the last few Maelstrom members into pieces.

A quick look over the battlefield to make sure no one was playing dead, and I nodded.

Mission complete.

I threw the Nekomata over my shoulder taking a moment to scope out my path and leapt off the side of the building, landing on a sign, I slipped off that to another lower sign, and then onto a ledge of the building, then simply stepped off and landed on the concrete.

I exhaled.

That felt good.

I took a moment to glance at the alerts after I shut off the BD scrolling. Looking through the list of alerts, very pleased with what I saw.

*500 XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*Assault skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

*1000 XP Gained.*

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

A new perk! Yay! I would have to check on that later, for now I focused on the scene around me.

I jogged up, noticing the Kamikaze were twitchy, all of them looking for more bloodshed. I ignored their glares and wandered up to Jun.

“You okay Jun-nii? Get hit at all?” I asked already reaching for my medical pouch, but he waved me off.

“Nothing my Subdermal didn’t catch.” He mentioned, as I looked towards his plastic abs, a ragged scrape cut through the flesh, but I could see it was only skin deep. The bullet ricocheted.

Ow. That still looked painful.

“You sure? I got a MaxDoc, got some painkillers.” I mumbled pulling out some stuff I had picked up at the random pharmacy I had stopped at before all of this.

“I don’t feel it. I have a Pain Editor.” He told me with a shrug, and I had nothing on that, just nodding. Even if my fingers twitched to tie a bandage around it.

I looked around at the carnage then. The twenty or so Maelstrom borgs were torn to pieces. Blood dripped and ran down the road. A few of the Kamikaze were injured, only one seriously, a shotgun had clipped one of the female members. She was down an arm, but otherwise fine.

A visit to a ripper and she would be right as rain.

Funny how combat was in the future. Vicious bloody affairs.

A few vans roaring down the roads had me twitching but the Kamikaze around us waved them forward and they stopped.

Instantly Tyger Claw grunts jumped out of the back of the familiar moving vans.

It was like the ones Ichi had borrowed for the Scav raid.

No. I blinked, feeling the cool dryness of my Kiroshi. Not like the Vans.

The same van, because there in the driver seat, which I could only make out due to my Kiroshi was Ichi.

“Jun. I’m gonna go see how Ichi is doing, you alright?”

“Huh? Oh your choom. Go on, I’m fine. Stop hovering.” He ordered waving me off, but it was in a joking manner that made me smile as I threw him a thumbs up and ran up to the van.

Happily jumping up onto the door and sticking my crossed arms onto the rim so I could stick my head in.

“Long time no see!” I cried out instantly causing Ichi to yelp like a girl and scrambled around as he tried and failed to fumble a gun out of his holster.

“Motoko?”

“You should either practice that draw a bit more, or store a gun somewhere you can grab easily.” I informed him with a grin. As the boy sighed out all of his air and seemed to check his heart.

“Please don’t do that! These jobs are tense.”

“Why? All the Maelstrom gonks are dead.”

“Yeah maybe. They aren’t always, and reinforcements are a thing.”

“Well then you should definitely work on that draw. How you been Ichi? I haven’t heard from you since… Well.”

“Since the war heated up yeah… Motoko. Is that chrome?” He asked, blinking in shock as he took in my arms resting on the door.

“Yeah. I got klepped by the Maelstrom, they were trying to draw out Jun. Apparently he killed enough of the Strom to make a mark.”

“Klepped… Again!?” He asked, looking horrified.

“Yeah. Right outside the apartment. Shot me up, and cut off my hands.” I waved my hands a bit wiggling the fingers. “It really sucked, they took me to this pit fight thing. It’s… Well I don’t really want to talk about it. Eventually Jun got enough people together to come get me. I was alive… Mostly. I’m fixed up… Mostly.” I admitted actually feeling my voice go a little heavy at the end there.

He looked me over for a moment, nodding, “You’re strong. You’ll be okay. But if you need anything, we are still chooms.”

I smiled at that. What else could I do? I didn’t really have many chooms. “Thanks Ichi. Where is Malcolm anyways? I thought he was your co-pilot while you worked?”

“Malcolm bailed… We got shot up a few nights into everything, neither of us got hit, but one of the guys in the back got torn up. Malcolm tried to stabilize the guy but it didn’t work out. He took it hard. He’s been staying home ever since.”

I frowned a bit. I wasn’t really close to Malcolm, but he was part of our little kiddy gang. “I should call him, or visit maybe?”

Ichi looked surprised at my question. “You would do that?”

“Of course! We… I mean, I’m not really close to you or him, or Omaeda, but you guys are still my chooms… I mean, You’ve known me since before the coma right? And we were a little pack of troublemakers. I got to look out for you guys, or at least… At least offer an ear.” Honestly something I probably should have been doing before… I had been a little self focused, ignoring making friends or my old chooms.

Ichi was quiet for a moment before he smiled. “Malcolm would like that. Really.”

“How about you then? The Tyger Claw loot recovery job doing well?” I asked, putting on a teasing smile as he chuffed a bit.

“Honestly? You paid better.”

I cackled at that, both of us breaking into laughter.

“Well maybe I should hire you full time. I hit this Maelstrom place the other night, and with everything including Jun showing up tracking me down I had to leave sooo much loot. I was so sad.” I told him as I plopped my chin down on the door. “Leaving loot behind is wrong!”

“Well obviously you need to hire a professional loot recovery agent… Unfortunately I’m all booked.” He said giving the length just long enough to get my hopes up.

“Mean!”

“So you and the Kamikaze? You know those guys are..”

“Cyberpsychos? No, I totally missed that, and thought they were all perfectly reasonable people.” I said tonelessly, managing to draw a snort from him.

“Well, be careful. They are useful, and effective, but all the guys that work with them tell horror stories. Sometimes they go off on the retrieval guys.”

“I can see it. ” I nod thinking on the few times that they seemed to start losing it. “But I just gotta keep an eye on Jun. He… Well he wasn’t in a good place.”

“Well you gotta stick with your brother… I never would have thought they would let you in though. You have to be seriously chromed up for them to even consider.”

“I’m not… Joined, I mean. I’m more like a… ghost. That follows Jun around. That’s all.”

“Pfft. Yeah more like an Onryo.” He joked and it took me a moment to remember what that meant. “Hey! I don’t crawl out of TVs! And my hair is nice!”

He just shook his head at me smiling which earned him a light tap on the shoulder, that he winced and rubbed. It was only a baby tap… With my chrome knuckles.

“Ow… I’m sorry. I didn’t hear about the kidnapping thing. I just thought you were busy doing crazy shit again. I should have reached out.” He mumbled after a while of silence between us.

“I was under a jammer for a long while… But I should have reached out and checked on you too. I visited Hiromi, but I didn’t even call… Sorry. Not much of a choom I guess.”

“Eh. You’re better than you used to be. Scarier, funnily enough, even if old you was more interested in being intimidating, but you manage it better.”

Interesting! “Really? How would you describe old me?” I asked, I hadn’t really gotten much from anyone about how I used to be. Who I used to be.

He hesitated for a bit but shrugged. “Listen I liked you, we were chooms and we got into trouble together, but you were kinda a bitch. You got us into so much trouble that we could have avoided by just not starting shit.”

“Wow. Hiromi never mentioned that!”

“She wouldn’t… Hiromi has always been i- Ah never mind. Look, your brother is trying to get your attention.” He instantly switched topics pointing.

As interested as I was in what he had been about to say I turned and saw Jun waving for me.

“Well he is my current ride, so I better delta. Keep in touch Ichi. We are still chooms!”

“Same to you Motoko.”

I nodded as I jumped off and hurried after Jun.

—--

“Girl! You are coming too.” Fujimura demanded as we all piled out of the cars. I had been heading back towards the apartment to put up my equipment, and probably clean my Nekomata, but Fujimura had suddenly called out, specifically at me.

“After action report?”

“Yeah. Guess Fujimura-Sama wants you there. You must have done well.” Jun offered with a smile as Akari suddenly poked her head in between us.

“Or terrible! Maybe he’ll cut you up for messing up so bad?”

“I don’t think I messed up?” I told her as we walked but she was quick to run in front of me and walk backwards which seemed to take some effort with her feet blades.

“Ooh but you ran off! Fujimura-Sama haaates when people do something he didn’t tell them to. Motoko is in troooouble.” She mocked as we reached the window that let us into the Dojo area.

“Shut up Akari.” Jun grumbled at her, but then we were there, in the downstairs area of the dojo. With the couches and little plastic chairs arrayed around Fujimura that stood.

“Another injury, pathetic.” He growled out as he looked over the people. “Injuries are expected, serious injuries are not. If you are incapable of not losing a limb, then get better chrome, or die so someone more skilled can use yours.” He demanded pulling no punches.

Also wow. What an asshole thing to say.

“Girl!” He said suddenly pulled me away from my thoughts. I was standing behind Jun who was sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the circle.

“Yes?”

“You nearly shot me tonight.” He said bluntly and I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell he was talking about.

“No I didn’t.”

“Your bullet passed less then a foot from my head.”“Yeah? It didn’t come anywhere close to you. I mean, I’m not a crack shot or anything, but at that range? I could probably get the round to kiss you if I wanted.” I replied getting a little grumbly. This guy was such an asshole, and I was kind of sick of it.

He looked me over before nodding. “Kamikaze don’t have a marksman. That skillset doesn’t tend to come hand in hand with our purpose. Kusanagi! Your sister is acceptably useful. You didn’t waste our time having us save her.” He offered and then just…

Turned away and started squeezing everyone through the wringer on their fuckups. Jun and I both weren’t exempt. Apparently I fired too slow…

Well yeah. I only had Assault 5! I wasn’t going to shoot any faster. I might friendly fire!

Well… I could still level it up some more. It was fun.

By the time I settled onto the couch that night, blanket pulled up to my chin and ready for a sleep to get the muscle pain in my back to go away. I had a thought.

“Wait… Does he think I’m a member now!? But I’m not a Cyberpsycho!”