Cyberpunk: I'm Not Cheating Chapter 51: Don't Think About Him

Maine's crew stood frozen as Vito finished his words and put a round through Vance.

Vito turned and looked at them. His Kiroshi swept the group. Soone was missing. His optics moved to the body lying in the puddle.

The body's arms were long. Modified. Built that way specifically. It wasn't hard to understand what that ant.

Pilar was dead.

This was the first ti Vito had watched a genuinely decent person he knew die in front of him. He and Pilar had barely shared a handful of conversations, but every single one had made it clear what Pilar was. David talked about the squad constantly. Pilar was the one who kept the group's mood alive and knew everything worth knowing about chro. He and Rebecca both had the sa kind of heart.

He couldn't reveal himself to Maine's crew. That wasn't an option.

But he wasn't going to stand there and leave Pilar's body where it was.

Sothing in Vito, the part of him shaped by the understanding that when a friend dies you do sothing for them, even if it's only this, wouldn't let him walk away without moving the body first.

He crossed to Pilar's headless body and pulled it out of the stinking puddle.

Maine's crew ca out of their shock and rushed forward.

"Thank you."

Maine said it to Cube Head.

Vito gave a short nod. Then he left.

Kiwi stood watching Cube Head's retreating back, her expression sowhere between assessnt and sothing harder to na.

Maine's crew gathered what was left of Pilar and disappeared into Night City's shadows.

...

Vito walked back to the H10 building. Before going upstairs, he opened the old Thorton Galena and left three hundred eddies cash on the seat. He'd borrowed a stranger's car and left it in worse shape than he found it. Least he could do.

He went up, showered, and was asleep before he'd finished the thought.

Early the next morning, Jackie called.

"Hey, Vito. You up?"

Vito pried his eyes open.

"What do you think. This early. What is it?"

Jackie hesitated.

"Nothing urgent. Just sothing I think I need to tell you."

Watching him circle it, Vito asked:

"Did you crash my car?"

Jackie shook his head.

"No. Look." He exhaled. "You rember the girl we pulled out of that black BD operation? The one I took ho?"

Vito thought about it and nodded.

"Yeah. Was she getting better? I rembered she'd been badly broken up."

Jackie went quiet for a few seconds. Then:

"She's dead. Suicide. In her own apartnt. Neighbor called it in. Misty and I ran into the neighbor last night. The old woman told us."

Vito was quiet for a few seconds too.

"I really wish the call had been about the car."

Night City ran on tragedies. The most tragic thing about it was that the city kept finding new kinds.

Beautiful? Absolutely. The neon from the tower clusters in Heywood, Westbrook, and City Center had, for a lot of people, replaced whatever they used to imagine when they thought about stars.

Foul? Absolutely. On any given day the sll coming off the streets could drop you flat. The only defense was lighting a cigarette and hoping the smoke was stronger.

A city of death? Yes. If a day passed in Night City without blood, you'd start wondering if reality had broken. The official numbers were already staggering, and those didn't account for the ones nobody reported. So people died and nobody ever found out.

A city of hope? Also yes. Night City was a promised land for more people than it had any right to be. Opportunity. Its own rules. Everyone who loved it kept the sa line ready on their lips: in Night City, you had to...

Vito lay on the bed looking at the ceiling.

The thugs and the scavs couldn't be cleared out. That was the reality sitting in front of him. As long as the city itself didn't change, new ones would keep filling the gap. Different nas, sa garbage, endless supply.

Boop boop boop.

David.

Vito picked up. David's face looked rough.

"Hey, David. What's wrong?"

David stopped for a mont, then forced the words out. His voice caught at the edges.

"Pilar's dead."

Vito could see it. David was working hard to hold the grief in. He needed soone to talk to.

"I'm sorry. How did it happen?"

"A cyberpsycho shot him in the head. No reason. No grudge. No history between them. He just went crazy. And that was it. Pilar was gone."

Vito already knew how Pilar died. Hearing it described this way still hit him with the full weight of how absurd it was.

A person just stops existing. Not over money. Not over grudges. One person killed another, and for the killer it ant about as much as taking a piss in an alley.

"Has the body been taken care of?"

"Tonight. Rebecca and Kiwi already went to get an urn. Dorio bought a columbarium niche at the cetery."

Vito paused.

"Can I co?"

David nodded.

"I think Maine and Rebecca would want you there."

"Alright. Tonight then."

Night City funerals didn't stand on ceremony. People could leave this world for any reason and without any warning. What the living did was try to give the dead whatever small amount of dignity was still available to give.

Maine's crew placed Pilar's ashes in the columbarium. When the ceremony ended, a projected inscription appeared above his niche.

You are my family. My crewmate. A piece of my life. Pilar

Standing beside Pilar's niche, Vito noticed another niche nearby. The girl he had pulled out of that clinic. Her na was sothing he'd only learned this morning.

When you're caught in hell, death may be the only relief.

— Apollonia

...

While so people were grieving, others in this city were busy going looking for trouble.

"Cut. Stop. You are way too fake. You're supposed to be Cube Head, not so alley rat. Hold the gun right. Nobody is going to buy a BD where Cube Head can't keep his hands steady."

After Jotaro Shoji's Cube Head series went viral, knockoffs had started appearing. Knockoff black BDs. Which, when you thought about it, said sothing about the state of things.

A few young guys had worked out what they figured was a low-risk play: dress one of them up as Cube Head, go film a BD at so small gang outpost. Don't die, make money.

The one in the Cube Head costu kept huffing Flasher to get his nerve up. His partner handed him a modified Overture revolver.

"Listen. We got the shape close enough to the real thing. Go in, start shooting, take out whoever you can. Make it exciting. You hear ?"

The fake Cube Head hit the Flasher again.

"There aren't too many people in there, right? I can't stop bullets."

His partner grabbed the Flasher out of his hand and shoved him toward the door.

"Relax. I scoped it out. Five Tyger Claws, max. Move."

The fake Cube Head gripped the revolver, pulled open the hideout door, and went in.

Then he stopped cold.

Those weren't Tyger Claws. Those were Arasaka agents.

Dakdakdak.

One agent's HGSH18 service rifle put a three-round burst through him. The fake Cube Head's involvent in any future events ended right there.