Hiromi eventually calmed down and we just hung out for a while as she recovered. Eventually she felt better and wiped her eyes and like a switch we were back to happy Hiromi.

Or at least Hiromi that pretended to be happy.

We were interrupted while Hiromi was telling me about how her online classes were when suddenly her bedroom door opened.

“Hiromi.”“Mom! It’s called knocking! I know you know how to do it!” Hiromi snapped as she sat up but didn’t let go of my hand.

“We are having dinner, your father is eating with us… Motoko. You are welcome to join us.” She offered to me her eyes hyperfocusing on me for a moment before she stepped in, approaching Hiromi and reaching down to wipe a bit at Hiromi’s face with her thumb. “You should wash up first. Never show them weakness Hiromi, a put together face is an armor all on its own.” She said before standing up and leaving without another word.

“Your mom is a little intense.” I whispered.

“Yeah.” Hiromi grumbled as sat up. “But she is right, I should clean up a bit.” She finally pulled away from me as she rose. Stomping over to a connected bathroom. The light turning on let me see the insides of her bathroom, and I could only roll my eyes.

It was very Hiromi.

Tyger Claw stickers littered her mirror, and there was a ton of hair stuff that let her wear her typical mohawk. Plus piles and piles of makeup. That looked mostly unused but stacked up like towers.

She didn’t do much, just washed her face a bit to get rid of the tear tracks and she was back out, looking…

Well like she had been crying a bit, but more firm. “Hungry? You can delta if you don’t want to deal with the ‘rents.”

“I’ll come. I haven’t met your dad yet.”

“Oh yeah, you don’t remember meeting him. That’s gonna be interesting.” Hiromi said, sounding like it would be anything but. I followed her out of her room. Adjusting my holsters a bit to settle more comfortably as I headed into the massive dining room. A steaming dinner was already set out, with four spots. As I walked in, a pair of men wearing suits were packing up a cart that they had brought the food in on, and were heading out.

I guess this complex was ritzy enough to have room service.

“C’mon Motoko, sit here.” Hiromi guided me to a spot and pushed me in as she took the next closest spot, scooting her chair and food over so she was closer.

“Ah there is Hiromi’s friend.” A slick voice called out from behind me as I turned, a man wearing a suit stepped out of an office, every piece of him perfectly in place as he walked in and patted Hiromi on the shoulder smiling in a way that seemed…

Fake.

Even Hiromi sent her dad a glare for it which he seemed to ignore. “It was… Motoko?”

“Motoko Kusanagi.” I introduced myself and he nodded.

“That’s right. That’s right, It’s been years since I last saw you. Well you certainly changed your style. My dear lovely wife tells me you have been working as a Mercenary? That’s a useful job.” He offered with a smile that was absolutely fake.

But he was also Hiromi’s dad. So I just nodded as he and his wife settled into their seats

“Yeah. I’ve been doing some work with Wakako. Mostly minor stuff, some bodyguard work and asset acquisition.” I told him. Earning a blink from Hiromi at my words, and then Hiromi’s dad started laughing.

“Asset Acquisition! An excellent way to put it! You should see what you can do for Arasaka, with that quick wit!” His smile didn’t reach his eyes but Hiromi’s mother asked Hiromi a question about her schoolwork after that and I was able to look down at the meal.

Looked like something I would have eaten in my past life. Even if the piece of meat that looked like a chunk cut off from a roast, was definitely not Pork or Beef. It looked like it, but the taste was wrong.

“What about you Motoko? Any school in your life? Education is important for young girls, You will need it to get anywhere in life.” Hiromi’s mother asked me suddenly as Hiromi did her best to not answer anything about her own education.

“Nothing official. I don’t go to school exactly, but I’m not sitting around all day. Netrunning, Tinkering, Gunsmithing. I dabble a little with everything.” I told her after swallowing a bite of Mashed Potatoes. Definitely not real potato. It tasted like the boxed stuff. Not terrible, and it was at least a familiar taste and texture.

“Oh? That’s a diverse skillset for a girl your age. I find people that try to do everything, end up failing to do anything.” Hiromi’s father cut in, with a smile.

I swear I think the guy just smiled through whatever he was saying or doing just out of habit.

“I think I focus on everything in a way. I’ve been interested in Robotics with my tinkering. I want to create a drone system for my… Job.” I admit. It was something I had in mind for a while, but it was… complicated. Drones in cyberpunk were amazing, but there was an issue with cost, to effectiveness. That and intelligence.

“Drones? Militech spends billions a year trying to come out with the next great Drone system. The problem always comes down to size. Make it smart enough to be useful, and the AI takes up too much room, and too much power, so their little drones always balloon in size. Or end up just another drone system needing a big truck to make it work.” He said with a shake of his head.

“True. I do want something closer in size to their Flathead, but that is hardly on the open market.”

I took another bite of mashed potatoes, something I hadn’t had since waking up in Night City, but it was the sudden silence that had me look up and notice the narrowed eyes of both adults.

Hiromi beside me had noticed something was up, but obviously had as much of a clue as I did.

“How are you aware of a Militech experimental Drone system?” Hiromi’s father asked casually.

I blinked. That’s right. The Flathead was an experimental item when you get one in 2077. That was why the quest was such a pain. Maelstrom stole one, from Millitech which is why you were trying to get it from them.

That was in 2077. Two years early? It was probably still in development. Maybe not even an actualized product.

“Came across it. It sounded useful, so I’ve been thinking of making something similar.”

“What exactly do you know about the Flathead?” Once again that voice of forced casualness, made me realize he was digging.

“It’s small, probably remote operated. To bypass the AI size issue. Something about a camo system.” I tell him using my hands to give about the size of what the Flathead should be. Honestly it was the size of a smallish dog.

“Interesting. If you find out any more, or if you happen to have any concrete data, I would be happy to be informed of a competitor's work. I would be happy to pay you for hard data.” He said his eyes locked on mine. He wasn’t smiling.

I nodded.

“Sure. If I come across any Corpo stuff on my jobs, I’ll make sure you can get a look at it. For Hiromi.” I answered and finished with another bite of my dinner.

Then that fake smile was back on his face. “Excellent. Looks like my dear Buttercup made a very useful friend indeed, excellent work Hiromi, and here I thought you failed your Human Resources course.” Her father said with a loud laugh as he swallowed a bit of his wine. Hiromi’s mother was quiet just with a small fake smile on her face as well, but her eyes were sharp like a hawk.

“I did fail it Dad.” Hiromi muttered, irritated.

Awkward.

—--

Hiromi and I hung out the rest of the day, never talking about anything serious, just playing games, or spending some time with Hiromi painting my nails.

“Even if you are full chrome now, still gotta look like a bad bitch Motoko. Besides Green an-”

“No Tyger Claw colors! I already have enough issues with Jun and where I am staying now.”

“Fiiine. Purple is more your color anyways.” She admitted with a grin.

But as it grew late I did leave. Hiromi, still stuck at home, forced me to promise to call and visit more, which I assured her I would. As I walked back to the Quadra feeling kinda normal I couldn’t help but smile a bit.

Today had been nice. I mean Hiromi having a meltdown wasn’t, but it was nice to be pulled away from Maelstrom. Away from the harsh reality I had been feeling since the Maelstrom kidnapping, and back towards the realization that just because bad stuff happened to me, didn’t mean I had to let it control my entire life, that…

That I wanted to be happy.

I wanted to enjoy my life. I just had to accept that even through the bad things.

I kept that little smile on my face as I made the circuitous route back towards the Dojo. Jun wasn’t in the apartment when I got home, and I was tired from the emotional rollercoaster with Hiromi, so I just decided to go to sleep.

Tomorrow would be a new day.

—--

“So do you have it?” I asked. I wasn’t going to hide in the apartment, nor was I going to only head out to murder people.

I still had a life to live. That meant going shopping!

“Hmm. Interesting request, sit tight for a few minutes, let me go through my private collection.” Yoko said as she adjusted her round glasses. I had traveled to the Dewdrop Inn in order to find a program, but not a netrunning one.

The thing was, Netrunners main job wasn’t just throwing out quickhacks or breaking into security.

It was data theft.

Data was knowledge.

And knowledge was power.

So since I had finally unlocked Engineering, I needed something specific, something I hadn’t run across.

Turns out the reason why, was because CAD, or design programing was almost always proprietary.

Every Corp would use its own private program, locked down, and hardcoded.

Not that a Netrunner couldn’t break into that and swipe data, but how often did they steal the entire program itself? Why bother? Netrunners aren’t engineers, and the people that want the data, have their own program that they use

So here I was, going to the only Netrunner cafe, that I really trusted. Yoko being someone at the very least that would hold data for V even after T-Bug died.

So she was at least semi reliable.

Hopefully.

I looked around the room the Netrunning chairs in the back were both occupied, but they weren’t anyone I knew, and I wasn't about to go poking them. So I just sort of hung around as Yoko disappeared into the back of her shop.

Thankfully she wasn’t gone for too long.

“I have something.” She appeared saying putting down a shard case. “Arasaka design software. Not a common piece of data, but I did have a copy.” She said as she slid it across the desk towards me. Hand pinning the shard case to the table. “This sort of stuff has plenty of protections. Arasaka won’t be happy if they ever find out you used it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Yoko, how much do I owe you?”

“No no, this data? Not something eddies can buy. You wanted to be a Netrunner? We don’t deal in just eddies. Information. Data. Something useful.” She slid down her dark sunglasses as she said it.

Her hand was still on the shard case. Waiting.

Fuck. I wasn’t a normal Netrunner! It wasn’t like I practiced by sneaking into corpo systems, stealing little bits and pieces of data!

I was a gamer! I just grinded! But then I remembered!

My hands instantly went to my pouches.

Pulling out bits and bobs.

Mostly ammo…

Okay like a lot of ammo.

One pouch for my Burya, another for my Unity… Lexington.

For my Lexington.

I even had some shotgun shells in another, but then in that pouch I found my goal.

A handful of shards without a case were spilled across the counter.

“There they are!” I said happily as I brushed the shotgun shells off the shards and pushed them towards Yoko.

All I got was an upturned eyebrow in turn.

“I klepped these off a Maelstrom Netrunner the other night. He was solid, full gear, full setup. His security was tight. I did check them, but they didn’t have what I was looking for. But it was full of his Net logs-”

“I’ll accept it.” She said, interrupting me, but I could tell it was more out of pity than interest. Her lips were twitching a bit despite the way she was squeezing them together a bit.

She was laughing at me!

“I’ll uh… keep an eye out for data you’ll like.” I offered. I didn’t really like when people thought I was a novice. I mean I was, but only because grinding Netrunner stuff was difficult, but soon I would be amazing!

“Good. Get out of here kid. Happy Netrunning.” She said as she gathered up the shards. Leaving me a moment to put everything back in my pouches.

I slipped the shard into one of my emptier pocket pouches. Tugging on it to make sure it was sealed.

Didn’t want to lose that.

As I stepped out onto the Kabuki Roundabout I took a moment to just look around.

It was emptier than usual, much emptier in fact, but even during a gang war Night City has to continue on. Walking around the structure to head towards where I had parked I passed some people still willing to go out and do their job, or just willing to shop.

In fact I slowed at a little food stand and had a cup of some noodle thing in a styrofoam cup to eat out of as I continued my walk.

Which was when I was suddenly stopped as a Mox girl stomped out in front of me. The Kitsch clothing, well what there was of it anyways. In pastel. The tattoos despite her young age, all told me she was definitely Mox.

The glare was weird though.

“You’re Nox’s ‘savior’ right? Purple hair, a Leotard, and plenty of hardware. That fits you to a T.” She said abruptly as she practically invaded my personal space.

I blinked looking around, noticing the girl had been at a table full of Mox, all of them looking curiously at what their friend was up to.

It took me a moment to parse out what she had said as she forced me to switch gears from relaxing to talking.

“Wha? Nox? Yeah I know him… I wouldn’t really say savior though, it was just some bullying.”

“Well, it was kinda fucked to ghost him like that. I know he is a bit of a pain in the ass, but you could at least tell him before you blocked him or something. He’s been hyping you up to the Mox, vouching for you and shit. But then you just vanish on him?” She hissed a bit, eyes narrowed.

What?

“What?” I blinked a bit at her words trying to make heads or tails of the sudden hostility, before it came to me.

Ah, I was being stupid.

“That’s right… It must’ve looked like I dropped off the edge of the world.” I spoke the realization before chuckling a little. “Listen, it's not like that… Nox is… well I’m not sure I would call him a friend, but he was nice enough. But with everything going on, I’ve been out of touch.”

“Yeah whatever. Not like I really care. I just agreed to stop you if I ever saw you.”

“Right…” I muttered as I opened my phone system.

I hadn’t really checked my stuff, but as I pulled up the system and actually looked at it, I noticed I had plenty of messages.

Missed calls, texts, even Voicemail alerts.

I winced a bit. My system had updated when I first ran out of the jammer to call Hiromi, but I had been hyperfocused on my gonk friend, that I had thought would be rushing around Night City looking for me. Then I had been too distracted with the desire to kill the Maelstrom fuckers.

I hadn’t bothered to actually notice all the other messages.

I had a few from Ichi, mostly just a few alerts on how his work had been going the first few nights of the war, but that trailed off not long after.

I guess my lack of response had meant he stopped messaging me.

But I had a ton from Nox.

He was a texter.

I had a barrage of texts that trailed off when he must have realized I wasn’t responding.

Most interestingly though was that the texts said he had a gig for me. I considered it. Would a gig from a kid that pushes BD’s really be worth my time? Then I remembered two very important things.

First, I was still mostly unknown. Wakako might have some respect for my skills, and maybe the Tyger Claws might realize I was pretty useful, but that was about it.

Second? Side quests are fun! It’s not always about the reward, or the money!

So I opened up a text message.

*Hey, sorry for being out of touch so long. I was under a jammer and recovering. What’s this about a gig?*

I nodded once that was done. Realizing I had been standing there right in front of all the Mox. I Waved at them trying to ignore that they were all looking at me, as I started heading back towards the car remembering to finish off my noodle cup as I went. I hadn’t even made it back to my Quadra when I got a response.

*Ringing*

Nox was calling me, I shrugged, it would be easier through a phone call anyways.

*Hey Nox.*

*Motoko! I’m glad you messaged me! How are you? Everything Preem? I’ve been trying to reach out, you said you were recovering? You alright?-*

*Yeah, I noticed sorry about not responding, I’ve been hanging out under a jammer.* I cut in, as Nox was also apparently a bit of a blabber mouth. *Just some Maelstrom issues. I just noticed your messages. You mentioned a gig?*

*Yes! I had this brain wave, a preem idea. The preemest! So listen, umm can you come by Lizzie’s? It’s way easier if I show you rather than try to explain it… I guess? Is that nova? Not too pushy?*

*Sure. I’m free, I can stop by.* I agreed, side quest, get!