The next morning I decided I needed some friend time. So I went over to see Hiromi.

While I made it up to their floor, it took almost ten minutes after I hit the button for the doorbell before someone came to the door.

“Oh hello Hiromi’s mom.” I greeted her with a smile as she opened the door. A scowl set on her face.

“Hiromi is in class right now.” She said as if that explained everything.

“Wait. I thought they closed the academy while everything was going on?”

“They have. Hiromi is taking her class right now.” Hiromi’s mom explained getting annoyed and I realized what she was actually saying, Hiromi would be in the middle of her Group BD class… Thing.

“Oh gotcha… Umm do you know how long that is gonna take? Should I wait in my car, or go grab some lunch before coming back or something?”

The woman sighed before stepping aside to my surprise. “You can wait in her room, just don’t disturb her while she is in class. Hiromi will be happy to see you.” The woman offered, sounding kind of stilted as I slowly walked in. Hiromi’s mother took a few steps before slowing. “Hiromi hasn’t handled the security measures we implemented well… Your last visit was… Well taken.” The woman offered a little awkwardly before she seemed to breathe in and out, and then that solid stone face was back. “Remember, don't disrupt her class.”

“I won’t.” I agreed, a little surprised. I guess Hiromi’s parents did care… They were just corpo. Which had its own issues.

I walked into Hiromi’s room, and there she was resting on a big comfy looking chair, a BD wreath on her head actively in the middle of her session.

Cool.

I decided not to bother her, instead settling on another chair in front of her computer.

I waited for a while before I realized this was going to be boring. So I looked at the computer she was hooked up to.

Obviously her class wasn’t a normal BD, in the show it allowed multiple people to all take part in a class environment. So it would need a lot of processing power. The fact they could even do this remotely was… Impressive. But considering how many Arasaka executives went to the school, of course they would choose the option to keep their kids from being murdered or kidnapped.

Still.. It was right there… I popped the cord out of my neck and pushed it into the computer's access port.

Oh! That was some strong security! I guess Arasaka execs wouldn’t buy their daughter cheap stuff… I could do this without sending any alerts up, since it wasn’t like I was actually looking to break through. So I started poking the security, touching the ICE.

It was tough shit!

How fun! Without any need to worry about time or anything it was like opening a puzzle game while I waited.

*100 Intelligence XP Gained*

I smiled happily as the alerts for upgrades came in.

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

Both skills were being tested with this security. But long before I would have broken through especially with how slow I was taking it, Hiromi moved.

I looked over as she sat up groaning a bit as she stretched her arms as she was taking off her wreath. I held up my hand.

“Hey Hiromi!”

“EEEeee!” She squealed, arms jerking and sending her wreath up into the air. I pushed on the floor letting the chair I was on roll a bit as I held out a hand and snatched the wreath out of the air.

“Safe!”

“MOTOKO!?”

“Hiromi!” I greeted with a smile that had her blinking a bit as she looked around like she wasn’t sure what was going on.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to come visit! Your Mom let me in as long as I didn’t bother you while you were in your class. Have fun?”

“A-ah. No. It’s boring… But I’m glad you’re here.” She said instead with a smile that I returned.

“Anyway! Let me unplug out of this.” I told her my neck cord was stretched to its limits in order to save Hiromi's Wreath from the floor.

“Wait. Why are you plugged into my system?”

“Mostly because I was bored! But you have really good security! I was practicing breaking through the ICE, it’s really good shit by the way.” I told her as I rolled back to the system and unplugged.

“Wait. You were trying to break through my ICE!? Motoko! That! I have private stuff on that system!” She said face going a little red.

“Oh I wasn’t gonna look at anything Hiromi I promise. I’ve just been working on my Netrunning stuff recently, and I was curious what the ICE would be like. It was really advanced Arasaka stuff. It was cool… I didn’t mean to make a pun there.” I admitted, Hiromi rolling her eyes at me, but at least she wasn’t mad anymore.

“Nobody says Cool anymore Motoko. Were you watching old shows or something?”

“H-Hey Cool is cool! You can’t just replace Cool!”

“Preem so much better.” She said, but she was purposefully teasing me I could tell.

“Anyway! Want to play some games? Or watch some TV? I’m taking a cool down day after last night.”

“What happened last night?”

“Well Jun invited me to another Kamikaze raid-”

“Whaaa! How was it? Was it amazing?” Hiromi asked looking so much like a kid wanting a fun story.

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “So I recently klepped this absolutely Preeeeem. Nekomata. Its previous owner came down with a case of ripped out throat, so I took her, and she is a dream. He might have been Maelstrom, but he did take care of his girl.”

“A Sniper Rifle? Do you even know how to shoot one?”

“Course I do! My arms make it super stable too! Anyway, So I-”

—--

“Jeez you’re out there doing so much stuff… I’m not even able to leave the house.” She sighed during the story Hiromi had cuddled up and was now looking up at me from my lap. “I… I’m sorry. You always tried to drag me into stuff, but I’m just a coward.”

“You’re not a coward Hiromi. If I had any sense I wouldn’t be running around with all the crazy shit going on.”

“But you are… You aren’t afraid.”

“I’m afraid sometimes! Just not like in the moment.” I told her being honest. “Besides fear is good. Fear is that little voice in your head telling you that you are being stupid. It just means you are smarter than me. Cause I don’t listen.” I told her, making fun of myself a bit to earn a chuckle from her.

“It still sounds so preem. So cool. You gonk.” She added poking me making me laugh as she used my slang.

I couldn’t help it! Even if everyone looked at me weird when I shouted cool.

“Well… Do you want to see?”

“Hmm?”

“I forgot to tell you, I made friends with some Mox a while back, saved him from getting jumped, but he offered me a job idea, and I thought it was a good idea. So I went to Viks and got a BD Recorder implant.”

“Motoko!” Hiromi jerked out of my lap. “You can’t! The Mox BD’s are-!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Hiromi’s reaction, it was just like Jun’s!

“No no Sorry sorry. Nox wants me to make BD recordings of my gigs!” I told her as I put my finger to her lips to keep her from exploding. “So I recorded the last couple of times I’ve been out. Including last night's raid… So do you want to see? I was planning on dropping a visit to the Mox’s BD editor today to drop off the recordings.. I don’t know how long it will take to edit them b-”

“Of course! I want them!” She assured me, Hiromi was sitting up now staring me in the face. “But Motoko. You should be more careful. The Mox aren't as nice as they like to make everyone think. How much are they even paying you for the Recordings?”

“Not much at first.”

“Ugh. Motoko! BD recordings are hot items! If you have an awesome recording you could sell it for a ton!”

“Hey! I’m not a complete gonk. Nox the guy that came up with the idea is our age, so I’m giving him a break to get started, but if it works out, you're right a lot of eddies will start flowing… Besides if he ever does fuck me over. I can always just hunt him down and kill him. I kinda do that for a living.” I remind her with a shit eating grin.

Hiromi looked at me for a minute before chuckling shaking her head. “You are such a gonk.”

—--

Hiromi and I hung out for a while after that until her next class was starting. I promised to see her again soon and headed out. This time I went to Lizzies.

The streets were more populated than usual, I noticed as I drove down the street. Every time I stopped at a red light, people were crossing the street. It felt more normal. Like the city was returning to what it had been before. Yet the NCPD were still missing. The effects of that meant I could visibly see crime as I drove down the streets.

Theft was everywhere.

Damaged buildings that had been looted, or in some cases tried to be looted only to end with dead thieves.

Night City took self defense seriously after all.

Pulling into Lizzies I wasn’t surprised to see the parking lot was packed. People were obviously still coming here, to a relatively safe place to get some distance from reality.

But I found a spot and walked through the few little groups of people hanging out, outside the bar.

Rita as usual was out front, her baseball bat at her side as she watched me walk up.

“Kid.”

“Hey Rita. Is Judy in?” I asked as I walked up to her. Honestly if I could not have to walk through the bar that would be best.

Rita’s eyes narrowed a bit at my question. Holding out her hand. “Why do you want to see Judy?”

“I’m dropping off some BD recordings to her. Part of Nox and I’s thing.” I told her honestly, this reaction was weird, and now I was a little curious about Rita’s weird reaction.

“Stay here.” She demanded nodding at another Mox who took her spot in front of the door to act as bouncer as she walked in.

Weird.

“Any idea what’s going on?” I ask the Mox who just kept staring at me without a word. “Good talk.” I snarked but decided to just back up a bit and wait. Finally Rita came back out and nodded for me to follow her.

Stepping away from the car I had been leaning against I followed with a quick jog to catch up.

“What’s going on? I’ve met Judy before, never had this much concern.”

Rita was silent as she walked me through the floor of Lizzies, and then into the back halls, leading me towards Judy’s underground lair.

“We had some Tyger Claws sniffing around for her. They always try to recruit good editors. They were a little aggressive about it the other night, so I’ve been ready to bust some kneecaps.” Rita finally said as we started down the stairs.

“Ah gotcha. That explains a lot.”

“Especially since you’re TC.” She said with a firm look.

“I’m really not… My brother is though.” I admitted as we wandered down but Rita didn’t respond any further just keeping an eye on me as she led me to Judy who was already free of her Wreath and waiting.

“Motoko.”

“Hey Judy. I got some recordings.” I greeted with a smile. “Rita said you had some trouble the other night? You okay?” I asked and she just kind waved her hand back and forth.

“I’m fine. Nothing Rita can’t handle, just some pushy bastards wanting access to my skills. Come sit here, I’ll pull the recordings.” She said as she pointed me at a chair and wandered over to her computer. Pulling a cord out with a connection port she rolled over to me as I settled into the chair.

“Alright go ahead and connect to this, and start the upload.” She says and I nod, pulling the cord out of my neck and slotting it into the port. Instantly the connection locked and I started transferring the files.

I had been recording at the start of all the gigs Wakako had given me, and the raid last night. So hopefully four missions would be enough, even if the Wakako gigs were pretty slow. I mean, I hadn’t even killed anyone!

“And four files? Four?” Judy asked, as she typed away at her system.

“Yeah! Three of them were acquisition gigs I got from Wakako. But don’t worry I asked her about recording them before I did. As long as a week passes before we release them we are all good. And the last one was… Well I was working with my brother Jun and the Tyger Claws. Maelstrom trap.” I offered, not wanting to side swipe her with the information I worked with the Tyger Claws.

“You’re TC?” Judy asked sort of tonelessly not looking at me.

“No. No, no I’m not!” I told her firmly. “My Brother is a member though. Well technically I’m a legacy. Both of my parents were in the Claws. But I didn’t join, I’m just a merc. I just back up my brother on Maelstrom raids.” I waved my hands a bit. “Mostly for payback for what they did to me.” I said kind of showing off my arms a bit. The chrome glinting in the dark studios light.

Judy didn’t respond but Rita kinda stepped closer and sat on the edge of the big chair Judy had sat me on.

“I’ve been forcibly chipped before… If you ever want to talk about it.” She offered suddenly and I blinked because Rita had never shown much interest in me before then. “Just don’t give me any reason to bust your skull in.” She offered and her words actually pulled Judy away from the computer to look in shock that I felt a bit as well.

Because Rita had just tried to be nice.

“I don’t plan too. I don’t have anything against the Mox.” I told her and she nodded a bit before rising up.

“Well Judy, you going to check the BD’s?”

“Yeah, I have some time, and Nox has bribed me to at least get the first few done first.”

“Bribe? Did that kid seriously sneak you some of that disgusting pure caffeine shit we banned?”

“Maybe!” Judy offered smiling, before she sort of glanced towards me. I was making her uncomfortable. She had a certain look on her face.

“Was it bad… The Tyger Claws that tried to recruit you?” I asked, I knew that look. It was fear. Judy had been freaked out.

I had never heard of Tyger Claws bothering Judy in the game, but… I guess it sorta makes sense. Tyger Claws were constantly trying to reclaim Mox business. In the game they owned Clouds, and if Judys crazy plan actually worked and you put Clouds under Mox control…

Well Tyger Claws didn’t react with grace. They sent a kill team.

“It’s nothing. Just they broke into my place. I’m sleeping here for a bit until a better security system is hooked up.” She explained and I frowned.

“Hey Judy. I know you don’t know me or anything, but we are… chooms? I guess? If the Claws ever snatched you. I promise. I’ll come find you, and kill any of them that get in my way. Okay Choom?”

My serious, honest, drama filled moment was broken by Rita snorting through her pretty plastic chrome nose.

“Sure kid. The Mox will have already hunted any fuckers down that dared, but I’m sure you’ll show up.” Rita offered joking, but it seemed to be the right thing to say because Rita was more relaxed than she had been before, and Judy wasn’t so tense either.

“So how long will it take to edit the BD? I uh… Have a choom that was interested in seeing them too.”

“Come back… around tomorrow? Yeah Tomorrow. These aren’t super long. But go on, both of you, I’ll need to focus on this.” Judy demanded waving us away which Rita was already standing to leave.

“Cool oh wait one more thing. When someone is in the BD, can they like… Not see my face? Or at least have trouble figuring out who I am? I just don’t want anyone to be sure who it is that is stealing from them, or killing them, or killing their friends, or-”

“Whoa whoa. Chill Choom. Your face would already be blocked by those Kiroshi of yours, but I’ll be adding a body filter in. Whoever is in the BD will feel like it’s them doing everything. It works way better on action BDs. Let everyone feel the motion and action through their own body, creates a deeper connection.”

Preem! You are amazing Judy. Thank you! I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then!” I chirped happily following the borg out of the room and up the stairs, but then she stopped me.

“Hey. I was serious before. I know what it’s like… If you ever want to talk to someone that went through it.” Rita said and it took me a moment to realize what she meant.

I couldn’t help but break out into a gentle smile. “Thanks Rita. I’m okay, well okay-ish. I’ll be okay.” I ramble at her earning a smile on the chromed up woman's face.

“Well the offer is open. It’s why we started the Mox in the first place. To help people.”

“Preem.” But I wasn’t really in need of someone to talk to. I was actually feeling loads better after the adaptation upgrade had opened up the floodgates.

Wait! I still had a perk!

I forgot!

I was smiling brightly as I followed Rita out and towards my car, I was gonna go home and pick a preem perk! Upgrades! Yay!