Ghost in the City
Chapter 26

I woke up, who knows how long later. I was still drugged up but not as badly. I could feel it making everything seem sort of muffled or fluffy, but I wasn’t having conversations with my wrist anymore.

Probably for the best. I could feel my cheeks heating up a bit as I remembered that fact.

Then it died when I remembered what had happened.

The medical bay I was in was pretty small, a back room ripper office like I expected. The many many pieces of Tyger Claw stuff strewn around told me a lot.

I guess Jun had taken me to his Ripper.

I was still strapped down, I noticed as I looked around the little room. I slowly raised my arm, which wasn’t easy.

Yep. Still there. Still chrome. I felt a shiver down my spine.

It wasn’t right. The feeling it gave as I slowly managed to form a fist and then spread ‘my’ fingers.

So that was it. I had been planning on some chrome arms. It had been my plan. Probably a set of Mantis blades, or a cool Monowire, or gorilla arms for the utility there had been so many options I hadn’t decided.

I guess the decision had come and gone.

“Oh finally up are we?” The woman from before the Ripper asked as she entered. She was an older woman. Not quite graying, but probably close to that. Her face lined in a few wrinkles, but the shining chrome lines up and down her cheeks showed just how much chrome she had.

“Yeah… Jun?” I asked, looking around and not seeing him.

“I managed to convince him to sit in a chair outside about an hour ago. He passed out nearly instantly. Your brother doesn’t sleep much even when his little sister isn’t in my clinic.

I nodded at that. Jun being too stubborn to actually sleep when he needs to didn’t surprise me at all. “And me? How… How bad is it?” I asked as I raised my arm… I shivered as it didn’t feel ‘right’ It felt like I had four arms. Or more, the feeling of phantom limb meant even as I tried to move my arm it moved slower than my expectations leaving me with a feeling of my limb being in the wrong spot.

“Better than you would expect.” She answered simply as she sat down in a chair beside me. “Considering what they did to you, I expected you to be brain dead. But you managed to keep from having an aneurysm. I pulled the connections as fast as I could, which is why your arms feel off. I wasn’t exactly gentle. Speed was more important. But that will heal. Give it a few days and your kinesthesia should feel normal.”

“Yeah. It’s a little off.”

“Nerve damage or sorts. Those… Things they put on you were overloading your nervous system. It will be tender.” She shrugged at that. “You are alive and not brain dead. It’s more than most could hope for.”

“Yeah.” I muttered as I looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling.

That had been some shit. It was probably the drugs I was on leaving me feeling sort of fluffy, but I could feel it. The anxiety and nervousness bubbling up under it.

I would probably be a little frantic for a while. I really hadn’t been expecting a kidnapping attempt in the middle of the day right in front of my home.

“Fuckin’ Night City.”

“A phrase I hear often.” The Ripper chuckled, as she reached out and without a word started poking her tools into my shoulder I would have flinched if I wasn’t feeling so mellow from the drugs.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking on the connections. The Condor is a solid piece of chrome, but your circumstances make it complicated.”

“Militech Condor. That’s what it’s called right?” I asked as I scanned the other arm she wasn’t working on. I had no idea what a Militech Condor was. Or what it could do. Unfortunately my scan didn’t tell me the things I really wanted to know.

Was it a good arm? Was it garbage? Would I have to worry about it failing on me? Or breaking?

“Never heard of them before? Not much of a Chrome head are you?”

“No. I know some things, but not a lot about specific cyberware.”

“Alright, I’ll give you the rundown. The Condor is a few gens old. It was popular before the Unification War, but Militech came out with the Orion at the beginning of the war as a surprise for Arasaka. The Condor wasn’t able to compete so they got sold off as work pieces. Lot of factories in Watson bought up the stock after the war and started chippin’ them in.” The woman spoke in a quiet voice which I realized she was probably doing to distract me.

But I kinda wanted to know this anyway.

“They do just fine there, but as you would expect a lot of factories sell off stock, or lose people over the years. They may be a decade old, but there isn’t anything wrong with them. They just don’t quite compete with the later advancements. Don’t worry. You won’t have any issues with them. They are better than your old fleshware.” The woman offered and I blinked.

“Fleshware?”

“Yeah. You’ve got Cyberware. And Fleshware.” She said, chuckling as she pointed first at my arm. Then she poked me in the stomach. “Sorry. It’s a Ripper joke.” She added afterwards as I just kinda looked at her blankly.

“Right.”

“Well you won’t have any issues. They are rated for combat, so they won’t break the first time you have to punch some Strom lowlife.”

“Good to know.” I whispered quietly as I looked them over. They looked. Utilitarian. The metal was a sort of polished steel finish. They sort of reminded me of Johnny's arm, at least in color. They were definitely more realistic than his arm though. A smooth contour between the digits on the fingers meant the whole thing looked more like a normal arm just dipped in metal and plastic.

I looked away. What else could I do? I wasn’t ready for this. At least not like this. I had wanted my first foray into Cyberware, into transhumanism, to be a momentous moment for me. Something that meant I took a huge plunge into the future. Into a dream I had since I was a kid.

Cyborgs were cool. Sᴇaʀᴄh the NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“I didn’t ask for this.” I whispered quietly. Yeah. I feel you Adam. I get it.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing important.” I responded quietly as I lowered my arm. I would just have to deal. Roll with the punches.

“Alright. This one looks good. The connections are healing well. Just make sure you take it very slow for at least a week.” She orders with a firm look as she spins around the ripper chair I was in, and she starts working on my other shoulder. Seeing her open up my shoulder the metal plates shifting letting her access the insides was… Weird.

I did my best to just ignore the feeling.

It was just another thing I would have to get used to… I guess.

The door suddenly opened, and I looked over expecting Jun.

Only that wasn’t Jun. The man and I used that term lightly that stepped inside, was more chrome than flesh. Legs, arms, chest, even his face was chromed out.

“So the kid lived.” He said his voice sounded robotic, and… lifeless.

“She did. Tougher than she looks.” The Ripper said as she rose up away from my shoulder instantly as he came in. “How can I assist you today Fujimura-Sama?” She asked with a bow after she stood before him.

“Leg is acting up again.” He stated simply, and the Ripper nodded gesturing for another chair in her little clinic that he swiftly settled into. As she instantly began opening up his right leg and checking things out.

She could have at least closed up my shoulder first…

The room was quiet for a while as I watched the Ripper work on the Borgs leg.

Suddenly the borg turned his head towards me. “Your brother used up a lot of favors to get you in here. Hope you appreciate that.” He suddenly spoke to me, his blazing eyes a swirl of color.

“Yeah. I’ll owe Jun a lot.”

“You owe the Tygers a lot. We take care of our own, but as much as we give, we expect just as much back.” He said his eyes locked to mine.

A promise, and a threat in one.

—--

Hours later, after the Ripper had checked over the borg who hadn’t said a word to me following his declaration, and after she had checked me over. Jun suddenly burst into the room.

“Motoko!”

“Present.” I responded as I looked away from the TV that the Ripper had kindly turned on for me. I would have just left, but she told me to stay resting. She didn’t want me walking around putting any pressure on the recovering nerves.

“I… Motoko. I…” Jun babbled a bit. The last time I had seen him he had been so cold, but now it was like all the frost had melted away.

Just leaving the terrified teenager beneath. Poor Jun. I would just have to be a good little sister and help him recover.

“Thank you Jun. For saving me.” I told him with a smile and a twitch of my arm as I instinctively tried to give him a thumbs up.

“Motoko. I didn’t save you. I got you put there in the first place! I knew I shouldn’t have come to the apartment! Everyone warned me to stay away. That if I went back they could track me to you! I should have listened!” He cursed his fist clenching and looked like he was going to punch something.

“Nah that’s dumb.” I told him firmly, cutting right through everything. “Avoiding someone to try and protect them doesn’t really protect them. Like ever. You should have just told me. We could have figured something out… but I’m not going to berate you Jun. What happened wasn’t your fault. You didn’t kidnap me, or mean for it to happen.” I shook my head wiping away that irritation at Jun avoiding me like the plague to ‘protect’ me.

I knew that wasn’t the full truth. Jun had been… Cold the last time I saw him, I was still really worried about how he was handling all of his new chrome.

I was feeling it too. The different senses. The way everything wasn’t quite right. That niggling on your brain as something foreign pressed against it.

I could see how people lost their minds

“They wouldn’t have known you even existed if I hadn’t…”

“If I hadn’t bothered you so much and threatened to run out in the gang war to find you? It’s funny if they had jumped me about a minute earlier things would have been different. I had just packed all my guns in the car.” I told him with a chuckle as I imagined those borgs faces if they had been facing me with a carnage and a bit more equipment.

“When did you get a car? No, I mean how?” Jun asked looking confused but before I could answer he waved his own question off. “Never mind. That isn’t important right now. Imouto. Just rest. I promise. I’ll find the ones who did this to you. I’ll kill them. You will never have to worry about them again. I promise.” He said his voice turned to gravel as he growled out his promise.

“Denied.” I immediately cut in. Jun was hot headed if I didn’t immediately squish his vengeful rampage he would really go do it.

“What?” He asked kinda surprised, and I really wish I had control of my arms because I would be crossing them in an X right then.

“I’ve already got a blood vendetta against them. So until I cut off like all of their limbs no one else can kill them. Denied.” I answered simply with a nod. Yep. I was hunting those borg fucks once I recovered. Especially that spider motherfucker. Cut off my arms? I’ll cut off all eight of your legs and your arms.

Jun sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in obvious irritation. “This isn’t… This isn’t a game Motoko. These men are dangerous. You should know that. You aren’t going to be able to just kill them.”

“Sure I will.” I told him, but it was then I realized.

Jun had no idea how much of an asskicker I was! I had done all these gigs, but Jun kept being Jun and not being around!

“I’m pretty cool, you know? I’ve done all sorts of cool stuff since you've been gone, I went on a gig for Wakako even!”

Jun blinked at that before wincing. “You bothered Wakako!? She hates Oka-san, Motoko! Why would you go to her?”

“Cause she was right around the corner… Really? She hates our mom? Weird. Do you know why?”

“It’s not important. Motoko. Imouto. I don’t care how many jobs you have done. We will talk about that later. But you aren’t going after the Maelstrom. They are dangerous!”

I had to bite back on my instant retort of ‘But you do it!’ that never works on people.

Ever.

“Jun. You remember how you left to go kill a bunch of Maelstrom because your choom died, and I kept trying to tell you to stop and come home so you don’t end up a Cyberpsycho or die?” I asked him describing all of his actions over the last while.

“No… That’s not what happened. Or how I would describe it.”

“Right. But that feeling you got whenever I told you to stop? Yeah. That’s what I’m feeling. I love you Jun, and I promise I’ll be safe.” And then I felt that coldness freeze my soul.

My hands were still wonky, more floppy than useful but I was able to do this. I reached out and wrapped my hand around Jun’s jacket and pulled him just a bit closer so he could see the surety in my eyes.

“But I will not be satisfied until I beat them both to death with their own limbs, and nothing, not even you, will get in my way of murdering those monsters.” I swore to him letting him see just how serious I was before I let go of his jacket, wincing a bit at the difficulty in getting my hand to actually release. I ended up sort of tugging on his jacket for a moment until I finally seemed to get the right connection across and the hand popped open.

“Sorry about that.” I told him as I settled my arm back on the Ripper Chair I had been resting on.

“No.” He said as he pulled me into a hug that felt crushing as I felt him bury his face into my hair, as he held me tight. “I won’t let you throw yourself into danger Imouto.” He whispered into my hair.

This time I decided not to say anything. Jun didn’t understand yet. But he would. A bit of time for my body to recover. Maybe a full night's sleep sometime soon, a bit of practice to make sure my arms… Well worked.

And I would go hunting. That dark sinister part of me that I kept pushing away when I considered my proclivity for murder rose up.

This time I didn’t push it down. This time I didn’t justify it to myself. Sure they were evil. They had done a great evil to me.

But in order to find them I was fully prepared to commit even greater evils against anyone that stood between me and them.

I felt no sympathy for all the Maelstrom gangers that I would soon run into.

Only eagerness.

—--

Eventually Jun’s hovering drove even the Ripper doc mad, and she proclaimed that I was well enough to not sit around here anymore.

So Jun decided to take me home.

But not our home. While Jun tried to force me into a wheelchair once I was finally released from the Chair I wasn’t having it. It was my arms that were floopy, not my legs. With a double set of slings to keep my arms from jostling my wounded shoulders I followed Jun out of the room, through a basement with a bunch of servers, and a large couch and TV to rest on, up a flight up stairs into…

A Dojo?

“This is Deravaja Dojo. Don’t tell anyone this is where we are.” Jun tells me as he shows me around the building.

“Why?”

“Because no one outside the higher ups in the Tyger Claws know this is where we are resting, or where we go to recover.” Jun says, sounding a little proud as he shows me around. He seemed… Irritated about having to do it, but then every time he seemed to be growing annoyed he would look at me, and suddenly, the old Jun would be back.

I guess having his kid sister cut up was cutting through his… Well I wasn’t going to deny it, his budding Cyberpsychosis.

“Who is we? I’m not important, and I didn’t think you were either… No offense.”

My hurried addition came too late, because Jun was actually looking a little offended as he puffed up a little. “We are the Kamikaze. The force that crushes a Maelstrom.” He answered, sounding all proud.

But I just couldn’t help but think it was some serious weeb shit, and coming from me that said a lot. So I just nodded and kept my mouth shut.

Jun sounded proud of his weeb club, so I wasn’t going to make fun of it.

Aloud anyways.

“So the Tyger Claws put together a group of people with heavy Cyberware to fight against the Maelstrom Borgs?”

“Exactly. This is our HQ and medical station. Which is why you can’t tell anyone where you are. Promise me Imouto.”

“Promise.” I answered simply, it wasn’t really a big deal for me.

“Good. Come. I will show you where you will be staying.” He said as he walked me out the Dojo through a side door, into an alley. There were food vendors sizzling things around the edge of the fence, but Jun walked in between two vendors who simply ignored Juns presence as if he didn’t exist. Behind the vendors was a small little nook between the large complex next door and the Dojo, mostly filled with trash, and nothing else.

No door.

But Jun didn’t slow walking up to the building he knocked on a window and after a few moments it opened. With a little help from Jun I made it through into a small break room for the building. The woman that sat at a desk beside the window was simply tapping away and ignoring our presence as Jun guided me out of the break room and into a hallway. Then he walked into an apartment.

“This is where you will be staying until Maelstrom are gone. I’ll go out to gather some clothes and things from the apartment later.” Jun informed me as I looked around the small mostly barren apartment that had a few of Juns things laying around. His jacket that he rarely wore was thrown over the coffee table and there was a mess of old food containers littering a small table.

“So this is where you’ve been staying?”

“Yes. C’mon I’ll get you settled in. You can take the bed.” He says simply as he guides me into a small bedroom that was equally barren besides a few pieces of Jun’s clothing scattered around.

“Home sweet home.” I told him as I looked around.

I just wanted to go back to the apartment. I had so much stuff to do. But for now I would go along with Jun’s crazy secret apartment hideaway.

—--

I didn’t get a full night's sleep. It seems dumb since I could literally sleep as long as I wanted instantly, but I chose specifically not to do that.

I would need to see a Ripper again probably very soon, and it would be fairly obvious if I walked in with new arms, yet not a single hint of the surgery still existing.

So I would deal with a bit of early rising grumpiness.

The few hours I had allowed myself did help. Washing out more of the pain meds that only made me fuzzy instead of really helping.

Although my arms were still floppy. That would take a few days more to recover from. I carefully put my arms back in their slings as I left the room that Jun had given up for me, only to find Jun resting on the couch staring at the TV whispering a news channel with a particularly blank look on his face.

He didn’t even notice as I stepped out. Just sitting there. Quietly. Alone.

“Couldn’t sleep either huh?” I asked him despite the fact I could have slept the whole day away if I really wanted.

He didn’t startle but seemed to blink a little as if he wasn’t sure where he was. It took him a moment of staring before he spoke. “Motoko. You should go back to sleep. You need to rest.”

“I think I’ve slept all I’m gonna get tonight.” I offered as I walked over and settled in next to him on the couch. “You should sleep yourself. Staring blankly at a TV isn’t going to make you feel better.”

“Don’t tell me wh-” He cut himself off as his voice rose in that cold way that I was becoming more familiar with.

“You back with me?” I asked after a moment and he really did twitch this time.

“I never left. I’m fine.”

“You can lie to me Jun. But you shouldn’t lie to yourself. It’s unhealthy.”

“I’m fine! I’m not going Cyberpsycho!”

“The fact you already know what I’m suspecting is a bad sign Jun-Nii.” I tell him, causing him to sort of glare and sort of cringe at the same time.

So instead of saying anything else I just scooted in, much to Jun’s discomfort. Ignoring whatever was going through his head I acted like all little sisters and just flopped against him.

Little sisters and cats. Very similar in many mysterious ways.

It took a while but eventually Jun relaxed and the tension I could in him slowly eased.

Eventually he spoke.

“It’s just the shakes, and I zone out sometimes. Nothing… Crazy.”

“Jun. Please don’t add in any more chrome. Not even one thing. Please. For me.”

My begging didn’t get a response for a long time as we sat there in the dark, lit only by the Newscaster.

“I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

“Good… Good.”

“What about you?” He asked suddenly, a little gruffly, but gentle as he reached out and poked gently at my chrome shoulders.

I opened my mouth to deny any issues. To tell him I was fine, and I would be ready to go kill some stroms soon.

But I had just told him, he shouldn’t lie to himself.

I couldn’t exactly go and instantly make myself a hypocrite.

“I’m alive.” I told him which earned me his full interest as something must have come out in my voice. “I didn’t… I didn’t have time to think about it while I was there. Too much fighting off the pain, or trying to survive. I don’t know if I’m really finished processing it… So maybe But I… I really hate that it happened to me… That, that it happened to me again.”

“I thought… when you got kidnapped again. I thought… I didn’t think I could get lucky enough to save you twice. I’m glad. That you aren’t dead. That you aren’t crazy… That I don’t have to meet you again for the third time.”

“I’m sorry I’m not the Motoko you originally knew.” I admitted quietly, a part of me well aware I wasn’t entirely his sister. That I was just playing pretend with the teenager who was going through so much.

I had felt sad for Jun from the first time I walked into our little apartment and realized that he was alone.

All he had was me, and all I had was him.

“Please.” He whispered quietly into the dimly lit room. “Just take care I don’t want you doing something… Like me, and losing you. I can’t.”

I leaned into him heavily for a moment taking in the raw… Fear. That was in his voice. But I didn’t respond. Because I knew I would recover soon. That I would be ready to get my own… Revenge. I wouldn’t lie to myself.

I wanted revenge, and with the gamer system pushing me forward I was gonna get it.

“Right now, I could just use a hug.” I told him instead, which meant a few moments later his arm was wrapped over my shoulder.

“Stupid Jun-Nii. Get some Real Skinn already. Your arms are the worst at hugs.” I told him, but I didn’t let him pull away.

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