While Mira settled back into her own skin, I left the room to speak with Nael. I found the man sitting down on the edge of the clinic by himself reading a book. Doctor Cun was gone. Hadn’t seen her since yesterday she did so more final checks on Mira to ensure everything still went smoothly. I forced my steps to beco loud.
“Shiro.” Nael closed his book and looked up. “Is she up?”
”Chek. Getting used to the modified chro.” I stopped in front of him and shifted from foot to foot. “How much do I owe you for this one? Calling in a favor and all of that- it couldn’t have been cheap.”
“Nothi-“
”Don’t give that crap.” I cut him off and stared him dead in the eye with the most serious look I could muster.
Nael looked away and toyed with the book in his lap. “She- Doctor Cun usually charges high rates…”
I nodded my head several tis. Now we were getting sowhere. I was just shy of fifty thousand Rayn in my account. I could pay her with all of that, or- “Would she like Gravitic?”
I noticed how her eyes seed to sparkle when she worked with the substance. Although I helped in the design of the gravitic chambers for the halo and a bit of the modification, she took the lead throughout. She knew what she was doing with the stuff. She’d even showed so new techniques to gravitationally lock an object into place. The halo above Mira’s head wouldn’t be moving even if a tank tried to run it over. That, and Gravitic would be worth more than just so Rayn.
Nael paused for a mont, tilting his head in thought. “Probably. I doubt she’d accept paynt, anyway. She’ll see it as repaying a favor to .”
“Then I’ll give it to her as a gift. How much longer is she in the city?” It might take a couple hours to make so more Gravitic. That was fine though. I couldn’t exactly just let her walk away without doing at least sothing.
“She flies back to Loyalty City in a couple days.”
”Then I’ll go et up with my mikata and see what I can do.” I fell back into my cover story of knowing a guy.
”How’s the patient?” Nael dropped the book onto the counter and stood up, easily shifting the subject. I didn’t miss the fact that he once again tried to worm his way out of taking paynt. Although he used Cun as a sacrifice, he hadn’t said anything about his own prices.
“Awake. She seed better than I’d seen her since pulling her out.” The ExoCore still had worried though. It was the next thing I’d have to look at now that the Halo Cortex was much more manageable.
The dek nodded his head toward the surgery chair. ”Think she’ll be up for so final checks? Just simple blood work and all of that.”
“I’ll ask.” I paused for a mont, ntally waving the flashing interface out of my face once more. “Probably though.”
As for Nael’s paynt… I had a few ideas. He’d shoot down any kind of paynt that I offered, but I was thinking about a micro fabrication unit. It’d be a good experience for building an upscale version for my own workshop. I’d preset it with templates for simple chro so that he could just hit a button and start making stuff he needed.
I’d noticed in the past, but Nael was chronically running out of supplies. Part of that was his philosophy that no chro was better than bad chro. Unfortunately, that severely limited the man. Especially considering he gave most of his services away for free or only accepted the bare minimum. If it wasn’t for powerful backers like Athena, he’d probably be out of a shop.
If I set him up with his own chro fabrication unit, he wouldn’t have to stress about finding good chro for cheap anymore. I’d just have to co by every once in a while and give him so filant to keep it pumping… just as soon as I set up my own filant crafter in my workshop.
And before that, my workshop would need to move. To be honest, the speakeasy was a nice place. It wasn’t designed to be a workshop though. And to be doubly honest, I had all of my equipnt spread across several private booths and offices. I’d need to move it anyway if I was ever going to get the speakeasy up and running. I had so ideas, but they’d all take so ti.
I left the room and headed back to Mira. She didn’t need any convincing to take a couple hours for so additional scans and whatever else Nael wanted to put her through. She seed much more comfortable just existing now. The constant tension and anxiety was mostly gone.
While they did that, I sat off to the side of the room and finally checked out the interface. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to expect. My mory of the past while was hazy at best.
「Tracking - 9>10」
「lee Weapons - 9>10」
「Intimidation - 7>9」
「Firearms - 10>11」
「First Aid - 7>8」
「Explosives - 6>7」
「Driving - 8>9」
「Deception - 9>10」
「Criminology - 8>9」
「Cleaning - 4>5」
「Art - 1>2」
Most of those were about as I expected. Deception, Intimidation, Tracking, and Firearms definitely were going to go up after all I’d done recently. A few of those took a bit off guard though.
Art, specifically, was weird to . And a bit unsettling if it thought what I thought it did. Then again, there were so dented eidolons out there. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my actions were considered art to them. Panther, in particular, chomped at the bit to get out there and slaughtering.
Cleaning, of course, was also a bit of a surprise. Cleaning cri scenes counted. I’d scraped a few of my haunts to make sure I didn’t leave too much evidence behind. It was interesting that counted toward the Skill… unless they were saying I cleaned out the trash. And by that, I an the Savants.
Driving was also a weird one. It’d been almost completely stagnant since I first got the Skill. I thought it’d never go up. It just confird my suspicions that the best way to level driving was to drive vehicles that I’d never driven before. I’d have to go try with boats soti and see if that power-leveled the Skill.
There were two new Perk choices in there. Intimidation and First aid were ready for their second Perks. I was looking forward to the latter. Calming was nice, but I wanted so kind of healing hand spell like in one of those video gas. I doubted it’d be possible, but it sure would be nice. As much as I liked drugging people into stasis with Pervider venom, I wasn’t really healing them all that much.
I barely resisted the urge to go spend my Perk Points now. I was in the middle of the clinic, and they’d be finishing up soti soon, hopefully. It wouldn’t be a good look to fall into a coma in the middle of a dek clinic. Not to ntion it’d worry Mira. I’d have to figure out how to explain all of this before I spent the points so she didn’t freak out.
Instead, I started to search the Net. Specifically, I wanted to find soone to teach how to better use my Kinetic ability. I've been practicing in my free ti. Admittedly, not very well since the whole missing Mira fiasco started. My operation was super basic though. There was more to my ability then just zapping people and things. I just couldn’t see it yet.
Unfortunately, most of the ‘Kinetic Dojos’ advertised online looked like scams outright or hidden recruiting offices for major corporations. Going to one would be like putting a signboard on my back that I could control electricity. If an interested corporation ca after , at worst, I’d be turned into a living battery for so super weapon.
And I’d be leaving Mira behind. I couldn’t do that. Not when she was at her most vulnerable. Although she was recovering, I wouldn’t be satisfied until she had her easy going smile back on her face. If that ever happened.
I sighed and shook my head. That avenue was out. Maybe I could go ask the eidolons if they knew sobody trustworthy? It couldn’t hurt, right? As for Kinetics that I knew… well, Carone was out. Hadn’t spoken to him in a hot minute. There was soone else too, but I blanked on them the mont I tried to focus.
Oh! I could go ask Razorface. He’d surely be willing to tell little ol’ everything he knew. I wouldn't just go kill soone who proved themself so helpful to , but he didn’t know that. And what he didn’t know could very well hurt him-
“Shiro?”
I flinched, falling out of my thoughts. Mira appeared in front of with a soft smile on her face. “Ready?”
“Are you? You looked completely zone out.” She shifted from foot to foot. “Nael gave a clean bill of health.”
I looked around the clinic. “Where’d he go?”
”Fetching dicine.” She rubbed gently at the new hover modules on the sides of her head. “Supposed to help with Desyncronization.”
”Nova. Desync isn’t pretty.” I shuddered. Feeling like chro isn’t part of your body was the first step to glitching, and I knew for a fact how much that sucked. I still felt uncomfortable any ti I had to go by the evidence lockup of the Crusade.
The smile lted off her face. Mira eyed for several long monts. “I sense a story there.”
”What- you so kind of psychic now too?” I smirked and stood up. “I’ll tell you another ti.”
”Right. No rush.” She ran a shaky hand over her face and adjusted the beanie. It actually fit now, which was nice.
”Sa goes for you… talking about it is supposed to help, but if you don’t want to…” I should try to bring up seeing one of the Crusade’s psychiatrists soti soon.
She mutely nodded her head. We fell into a silence when Nael returned to the room with several bottles of dicine in hand. “Take this one three tis a day for the next week. This one is for if you suddenly start feeling existential dread, intense fight-or-flight instincts, or overwhelming suicidal thoughts. Only take one. And this one is for you, Shiro.”
I grabbed the last bottle from the dek on instinct. “For ?”
He glanced at Mira for a mont, only continuing when she nodded her head. “Her idea. It’s basically knockout dicine. Only use it if you need it.”
The bottle suddenly felt much, much heavier than when he handed it to . I looked at my mikata. If she insisted he gave these… I swallowed dryly. “I will.”
Nael sighed and clapped on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Call if sothing happens. Oh! And co back for a checkup in a week.”
”We will.” Mira looped an arm in mine, casually dwarfing . As if she wasn’t already tall enough, the halo gave her an additional height advantage that made feel absolutely tiny.
I let myself be dragged away toward the exit, waving a tired hand at Nael before I was pulled out the door. I heard a faint chuckle and the door shut behind us. For the ti being, we were finally out of Absolom Clinic.
The ground was chilling rapidly throughout the city. Small piles of snow were starting to stick instead of lting right away. When we left the clinic, we found several kids playing with the tiny amount of snow under the watchful eyes of adults. A cold breeze blew through the area, making pump up the heat of my thermal poncho.
Mira stopped at the edge of the courtyard, watching the snow fall down on the leafless tree. “This’ll be the first ti I’ve been in Aythryn City for winter.”
”Chek.” They were usually off on so grand adventure when the winter season rolled around. It made the city frigid beyond just its temperature.
”Any word from Pa?” She idly toyed with the Packheart ring, twirling the solidified lightning around her finger.
I checked my ssages. ”He got delayed again. If the weather holds out, he’ll be on a plane to us in a couple days.”
“I-“ She cut herself off and shook her head. The halo followed the movent and pulsed with a soft golden glow.
“It’ll be fine.” I patted her shoulder and then leaned on a pillar supporting the roof. “I’m right here with you.”
She nodded her head. We watched the kids play in the snow for a few minutes. Hopefully nothing insane would happen for a bit, and we’d have so ti to rest and relax. After that… Well, I’d see how she was doing and maybe let her in on the next job.
We headed for the roof and flew back to the speakeasy.
— — —
AN: Chapter 300!!! I didn’t think it’d ever co. It’s crazy everyti I look back and see how far this story has co. I still have several dozen arcs I want to write that I haven't gotten around to yet. So of them outside of Aythryn City and in the wider world, even. No need to worry about Outrun ending anyti soon!
I wanted to do so kind of Q&A for chapter three hundred, but I’m super busy right now so it’s going to be delayed. I’ll put up another AN when that cos around. Hopefully in a week to a month? Definitely before Christmas.
As always, thank you for reading and sticking around so long! You guys are the best!
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