Ghost in the City
Chapter 58

Funnily enough we were all at the Ho-oh club that night.

Even Hiromi made it!

Of course the place was wildly different right out the gate. There were still a bunch of TC guys but the atmosphere had changed. It was more relaxed, and there were signs up, talking about opening of the upstairs areas.

Apparently the private TC second floor was opening up soon to bring more attention to the bar.

I honestly didn’t want to meet up here, but it was kinda the closest club to everyone's home.

And despite my knowledge about Jotaro most of the others had no idea. I guess since he was dead it was fine now.

“So here is the gig.” I whispered, sending everyone a text message with the details I had put together including the address and pictures of the building.

Both back and front. Ichi and I had driven around, enough that I had confirmed the scav base below as well. I let them read the little snippet I had put together and everyone was nodding along as they read through.

“So what’s the cut for everyone?” Malcolm asked before even finishing the brief.

“Fair split between everyone, excluding any Chrome that someone wants to chip. Just like last time, but this time we’ll be looting more thoroughly. There should be Ripper equipment we can klep for example.”

“Who are we selling to?” Hiromi asked, breaking in as Malcolm was practically bursting at the seams at the idea of all the eddies.

“I haven’t got that far yet?”

“Gonk. Nope. We aren’t doing that again. Fine. I’ll make some calls, and find buyers. Motoko. Send me your Fixers number as well. You know Wakako right? She might have some buyers as well.” Hiromi demanded as her eyes went gold and she sat back as she started calling…

Someone?

Wow Hiromi was pretty cool. I sent her a text with Wakako’s number and refocused on the boys.

“How much loot are we looking at Motoko?”

“Honestly? No idea. But that’s the thing. We clear this place, and if I do it fast enough, maybe I can pull some information on another den. I would like to be able to just keep hitting them.”

“That’ll piss off the scavs. Like seriously piss them off, they come after you. After us.”

“Not if we do it without anyone knowing.” I told him firmly. “I go in clear them as quietly as I can, if I do my job right, no one fires a bullet, no one finds out until the place is empty and we are long gone. I’ll trash any recordings of what happened. I got an upgrade.” I told him tapping the back of my head where my Cyberdeck is installed.

“Okay but what if you do get seen, and word gets out?”

I opened my mouth to assure him that wouldn’t happen before closing it.

“Okay. I don’t wear my normal gear. I’ll suit up in something new. We all will. Masks and everything. Your Villefort Columbus Truck isn’t exactly unique either.”

“It’s the most common moving truck in Night City.” He said, rolling his eyes. “And that was done on purpose… It was Jotaro-samas' idea, drive around in a vehicle no one would look twice at.” He said, sounding a little sad.

Ugh. Ichi don’t feel bad about that bastard!

“Well it works for us! So we go buy some gear first, and then we’ll be good to go.”

“I don’t have the eddies for that.” Malcolm said outright. “I’ve been out of work for a few weeks since… Well since the war and stuff.”

“Not exactly doing great either.” Ichi agreed, and I nodded.

“Not to worry chooms. This is a business expense, and will come out of the company expense account… I’ll pay for it, you can pay me back later, or not. I don’t really care.”

“Motoko. I’m not gonna just take-”

“I’m not gonna steal from a choo-” They both started arguing but I waved a hand at both of them to shush them.

“We’ll make ten times whatever I pay for the gear we need on the loot, and I can’t make much just by myself. You guys bring the truck, and the looting experience. So I’ll pay for this. You pay with your truck, and Hiromi I guess is paying by taking care of the least important stuff.” I add right at the end teasingly, as I noticed Hiromi’s eyes turn back to normal as her call ended.

The fact she kicked me hard in the shin a moment later was totally worth the look of outrage on her face.

“Motoko!” She snapped at me making me giggle up a storm as even Ichi and Malcolm started chuckling along.

“Sorry sorry! You finding buyers is super important. Find anything?”

“Not yet. I was talking to… I was calling my dad for advice. I hope that doesn’t bother you Motoko, I did tell him what we are doing?”

“I winced a little but in the end shrugged. “I highly doubt a small ripper doc and some scavs will interest your dad at all. So I think we’re good. What did he say?”

“He’s gonna give me a shard on marketing that I apparently need to study now.” She grumbled glaring at nothing. “But he did give me some advice on who to contact from Arasaka intel that he has access to. So yeah we have some options. He suggested I know what I’m selling before I start calling around though.”

“Great! So we go, clear it out, and then Hiromi can find us buyers! This is gonna be so much fun!” I cheered getting looks from everyone at the table.

They just didn’t understand why raiding scavs was fun because they were boring and afraid of ‘bullets’ and stuff. It’s fine. More fun for me!

—--

Obviously I wasn’t going to rush into this. So even as the sun was going down. We were all heading away from Ho-oh club towards a certain little shop I know.

We entered in through the front. The guard was still around. The LMG in his hands deadly but after we entered he went on to ignore us as I walked up to the little old asian lady that I had bought my Leotards from.

“Oh? Back again, and with friends?”

“I need some work done. Or at least supplies. I’m wondering if you can help me out?”

She looked over the little oval glasses she was wearing at the four of us before beckoned us into the back of her shop.

“Let’s talk what you need.”

—--

Three hours later we were actually getting close to being done. I had paid for a rush job since we were all here and had the time at the moment.

Between machines, the old ladies' incredibly fast stitching and machine work, and me quickly starting to help out which surprised her, I got my crew all specced out.

Hiromi had even headed out to grab some new boots and supplies for everyone to go along with it.

They weren’t netrunner suits exactly. More just heavily armored clothing.

But they were tight, dark colored, and looked pretty cool. All of us would even match!

I mean sure I had considered going for the three piece suit look. Can’t beat a classic look! But considering only corpos wore anything close to that we would stand out, and the goal was to try and stand out as little as possible while staying protected.

Even if we were in matching clothes.

“Done.” The lady mentioned pulling out a final jacket piece out of the machine looking it over and throwing it at Hiromi.

With that we were all done. Boots, armored pants and armored shirt and jacket.

It looked pretty generic, but it was armored clothing, and would give us some anonymity.

“Thanks Oba-san.”

“Bah. Pay me first then thank me.” She barked at me with a chuckle as I nodded quickly and did just that.

The payment was… Hefty. I was really lucky I had gotten Reginas eddies otherwise that would have broken my bank.

“Now I don’t know what you are planning. Nor do I want to. I never helped you. Get out.” She ordered, waving at the door and we all gathered up our leftover clothes and rushed out towards the cars.

Hiromi jumped in to ride with me in the Quadra as we all split off.

Preparation almost complete. Soon we strike!

—--

“What are you wearing?” Jun asked as I was standing in the bathroom looking at the mirror making some adjustments to my new outfit.

“It’s my new secret killer outfit… I found a scav den attached to a Ripper doc. We are going to clear the place out and loot it to the bedrock, but we don’t want anyone knowing it’s us.” I told Jun as I kept working on my stitching.

I needed to make sure it fit right. It would be really annoying if not.

“Okay Ninja girl.” he said and I quickly spun around throwing my hands into a ninja handsign as I did.

“Nin-Nin!” I told him seriously. What I had been working on was a face mask, a ninja mask specifically. I had spent a little extra at the old ladies shop and bought some really breathable cloth so I could make it.

“You look like a dork. What’s with the fingers?”

“My secret Ninjutsu!”

“Embarrassing.”

“Ehhh! Secret Ninjutsu! MOTOKO KICK!” I called out rushing towards him but Jun knew a bad fight and instead of fighting back turned and ran. My kick missed by a mile, but that wasn’t enough to stop me!

“Secret Ninjutsu: Burrito throwing knife!”

“Burrito wha-Urk” Jun in his haste to flee had left the wrapped XXL burrito on the kitchen counter, I of course made due with my improvised weapon that smacked right into my brothers face as he turned to see what I was doing.

“Motoko!”

“Hahaha! Pretty Princess Ninja Motoko wins ag-urk!” That of course was the sound of my borg brother tackling me onto the hard tile of the kitchen.

Lesson learned. Leave Juns burritos alone he gets touchy about it.

—--

Once I finally fought off the Oni I had nearly 24 hours before the gig was set to begin. Without any other prep I could get into at the moment. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

So I pulled out my guitar and started thrashing. Letting all the nervous energy flow into it.

Yeah I was a little nervous. It was one thing being on a gig solo, but even if I wasn’t planning on having my chooms involved until the end, that still meant they were there.

One wrong move and they would get involved trying to help, so I put the energy into the guitar.

It was nice.

“I'll burn it down!” I yelled out the last line. Franz Ferdinand isn’t usually my taste, but it was an official Cyberpunk song. This Fire, was an alright song. I didn’t hate it. Plus it fit the energy I was feeling.

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I caught my breath as I checked my stats. Rockerboy 5 huh? That was pretty fast, but then again. I was playing song after song whenever I wasn’t grinding something else.

I think mostly it was my general disinterest in most of the TV shows in the future.

They were weird! So I didn't want to watch them. One episode of just about anything was enough for me to burn out on it.

But I knew what perk to pick. My biggest problem with music now wasn’t song list, or playing.

It was singing…

Listen! I just never really learned how to sing! It’s more complicated than just singing along while driving down the road or something you know?

So I picked the perk I had almost picked last time.

Siren Song: You control your voice. You can sing. Croon like Sinatra, or Rock like Silverhand. You know how to get the most out of your voice.

I shivered. Rockerboy had given me some singing lessons, even if it felt like they fell behind the actual musical knowledge… It was like knowing how to sing a note, and knowing how to sing a song. They weren’t exactly the same.

I reached up to my throat, swallowing down almost like I had something caught in my throat, but it was just…

How I was holding the muscles in my throat. I knew how to actually modulate my voice now. How to sing, how to breath and exhale while singing…

Hell, I knew how to mimic voices now.

That made me blink.

Could I? I looked around the room there wasn’t a mirror anywhere so I hurried to the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror. A mirror of a mirror.

I had mirrored myself in a way. Motoko Kusanagi. A story book character that I had practically become. Similar eyes, same hair, hell same build, even if mine was meat and not chrome for the most part.

Honestly there were times I forgot that I was basically playing pretend.

But was I? It wasn’t any different than someone deciding to wear the same clothes as some celebrity, or the same haircut.

I just also shared a name, well and a burgeoning skill set, but that was going to happen anyways. But this?

Might be a liiittle too far. If anyone found out it would be so embarrassing…

“The net is vast and infinite.” I spoke, but it wasn’t my voice. Oh no. It was husky and mature, and I could feel my face flush in delight and embarrassment.

I cleared my voice and decided I could do it, saying a line I remember from the show. “Batou not more weight training equipment! Blowing your pay is one thing… Oh god I can’t do it. Sexy Motoko voice is too much!” I still remember that scene where Motoko makes Batou punch himself, it was one of my favorites! But to be able to literally copy her voice! Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. Sorry I took your voice for a minute!

I’m such a weeb! OMFRGL! I buried my head in my knees for a moment, trying to keep making any more noises of embarrassment.

I relaxed my throat letting my voice go back to normal. “Okay. I’m gonna have to put a ban on sexy Motoko voice. That’s a secret dangerous skill.”

“What is?” Jun asked having come out of his room at some point as he pulled open the fridge.

“Nothing! You didn’t hear anything! You can’t tell!” I screamed at him even pulling up my guitar which I still had strapped to my hip and pointed it at him.

Would I knock Jun unconscious if he knew…

Yes. Yes I would.

He blinked at me as he reached in and grabbed a drink pulling the can out and popping the tab in one motion before taking a looooong sip.

“Motoko. Imouto. You’re really weird.” He finally said, crushing me in a totally unexpected way.

I gaped at him as he walked away.

“You destroy your little sister's self esteem and just walk away!?”

“Yep.”

That bastard! Tease me will he! Fine, I will just have to release my new secret skill. For revenge!

I stepped out of the bathroom after him. Waiting for him to be almost into his bedroom when I spoke, but not in my voice. No, the Major's husky words poured forth.

“Jun, you should be nicer to your little sister. You never know when she’s going to grow up.” I pointed out and I enjoyed the way my words affected my brother.

First he had stilled at the unfamiliar voice searching around until he saw me and then he was left gaping this time!

“What the fuck?”

“Ah-ah Jun-boy. Those are naughty words.” I told him still in my Sexy voice.

“Motoko!? What the fuck?”

“What’s wrong Jun-nii? Is there something bothering you?” I asked my smirking growing wide.

Tease me will he! Make fun of me will he!

I have skills! All of the skills!

“Motoko, that's super creepy.”

“Hmm? Is that so?” I asked him before reaching up and messing with my throat a little. “That’s gonna take some getting used to.” I told him in my normal voice.

“Don’t do that again. That’s creepy! Where did you even learn to do that?!”

“What’s wrong Jun? Is your little sister growing up scaring you?”

Funnily Jun didn’t answer, just sort of throwing up his arms and then pointing at me and shaking his hand in my direction as if saying enough was enough.

“Sleep tight~!” I said, returning to my sexy voice which had Jun swiftly run away.

Victory is mine!

Now who's weird!? Huh!? Huh… Actually. Messing with my brother with a sexy mature voice…

“Fuck… I AM weird.” I muttered.

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