”Shiro!?” Mira appeared at the door to the bathroom in a flash, wide-eyed and ready to go. “You alright?”
”Ah- sorry… d-didn’t an to wake you up.” I glanced at my mikata, dipping my head without looking at her.
”What’s wrong- Oh.” Mira paused at the door, staring up at my hair.
”Yeah.” I forced a laugh and backed away from the mirror. I’d have to go buy so hair-dye now… at least it wasn’t anything too crazy. I just had a couple streaks of vibrant silver through my hair like I’d aged several centuries. So much for no side effects.
It looked like a little bit of Shiro got confused with a little bit of Fox in the whole shape shifting thing. Ugh- I felt sick. I hoped- I really, really, really hoped it was just the hair and nothing else got mixed up. I didn’t know what I’d even do if I suddenly sprouted a tail and ears.
“That happened in the Aether?” Mira carefully looked over from head to toe. “Is the rest of you okay?”
”I think so.” I ran a hand through my hair, pulling out a strand of silver to look at. It looked like normal human hair, at least… it was really soft though. Like, too soft. Not just the silver, but my hair in general. It hadn’t always been like this, had it?
Mira backed out of the way with a relieved chuckle. “C’mon, skunk-stripe, quit staring at yourself.”
”Ugh.” I pressed a hand to my chest. No way that was going to be a new nickna… Was there a skunk eidolon? What were you doing to , Fox? I felt pressure build in my chest. What would my parents think seeing drift further and further away like this?
“It’s cute.” Mira patted on the shoulder and tried to lift my spirits.
“I need hair dye.” I brushed the silver streak to the side of my face, staring at it uncomfortably from the corner of my eye. “Stands out way too much.”
She nodded her head almost subconsciously. “Is it permanent?"
“Knowing my luck? Probably?” The cost of power… or, at least, one of them. At least I didn’t have to go through extre pain during this mutation like I had to last ti. ”I’m- uh- I’m going to take a shower.”
“Right.” Mira backed out of the bathroom, giving so space.
I grabbed a change of clothes and tightly locked the door. Soon, steam filled the space.
— — —
I left the bathroom while toweling my wet hair. I was half hoping the silver would just rub out, but I had no luck there. I’d have to get used to the newest adjustnt of my body. As if I didn’t look enough like a freak.
I found Mira singing over the Aether Lavender with her eyes closed. The plant bobbed and weaved along with her singing like it was dancing in the wind. There was no wind in the apartnt. I stared at the plant in distaste, resisting the urge to go get my gun and put a few holes in it.
Almost as if noticing my glare, the Aetherial Lavender curled up on itself and noticeably sagged. It released a concentrated burst of its calming scent and then turned around, leaning against its pot.
Mira didn’t seem to notice any of this. She just continued to sing so song I’d never heard before. “Know-ing that it’s not true~? Our tis passes us through- ugh no, that wasn’t right.”
“Whatcha doing?”
Mira jumped to her feet and looked around with wild eyes. The halo atop her head bobbed around with the motion. “Oh- Shiro, it’s just you… scared .”
”Sorry… did you not hear the shower shut off?” She had a fairly high quality Cyber Audio Suite, so-
Oh no… has she heard crying in the shower? No way, right? I keep quiet… How embarrassing. I’d been keeping up a strong front this entire ti around her. She needed to be strong and reliable. She wasn’t saying anything about it at least, so maybe she didn’t hear? I- I needed to do better. Be more cheerful!
”No- I-I was focused.” Mira sheepishly rubbed at the top of her head. Thanks to the Mutant Hibiscus, there were so bits of blonde sticking up. It’d be a while still before it was all back, but progress was progress.
I moved to the kitchenette and scrounged around in the fridge for sothing to eat. “On?”
“P-promise you won’t laugh?”
I looked up over the top of the fridge door. She stood there, nervously rubbing at the crook of her elbow and staring at the floor. “Promise.”
”I-I was thinking about writing a song… just- you know…” She waved a hand and sat back on the couch. My ever confident friend covered her rapidly reddening face with her hands.
“Why would I laugh at that?” I leaned over the fridge door, completely unable to suppress the wide grin that spilled out. This was good! Really good. Art was a recomnded type of therapy. It could help nd the wounds of trauma by externalizing it, or sothing like that.
So of her nerves vanished. “You don’t think it's stupid?”
”Of course not!” I needed to be supportive here. The last thing she needed was for to down her budding passion.
“Really?”
“Um- do you need any help? I’m not any good with that stuff, but Saint used to be in a band. Could probably teach you to play an instrunt or sothing.” Honestly, I still didn't know much about the Sorrow band. I’m such a bad friend... I should go listen to so of their music soti.
“N-no, I’d rather just keep it personal… for now, anyway. Not like I’m ever going to publish this stuff.” She laughed it off and sank back into the couch. “New hoodie?”
”Oh!” I stepped out from behind the fridge and kicked it closed. There wasn’t anything in there anyway.
I twirled around and felt the hood flop around behind . It was the comfiest item I owned now, and I wanted to laze around for the rest of the day. I just- it definitely looks weird on , doesn’t it? I think it’s the fox ears. “What do you think?”
“It’s pretty… Decided to give up your Crusade grunge style?”
”Well…” I scratched at my face and headed over to the couch. Crusade grunge wasn’t really fair… I just bought the cheapest clothes from the Crusade’s store after all my other stuff burned up in my apartnt.
We chatted for a while. Mira was… nervous. About more than just the whole song thing. It didn’t take a genius to guess why. Tomorrow Uncle Ezra would be flying in. After that- well, who knew what would happen? Might head out with him to so hidden away base. Maybe she’d stay here in the city with ? Maybe they both would, even.
I knew what I was voting for. It was nice having her around. Every ti I felt like this though, it made self conscious. Was it selfish to want her to stick around instead of going off and exploring the world? I’m sure it was much better out there then it was here in the city.
By that logic though, why didn't I just leave? All my connections were here, but there wasn’t really anything holding down anymore. It might take a bit, but I could find work in a different city just fine.
Sure there was the whole Crusade thing, but I could technically kill Zuku off. Or maybe even just request a transfer to sowhere else? Oryoat, on the east coast maybe? It’d be a completely different change of pace. Or maybe even on a different continent? It’d be nice to get away from the desert.
Even saying all of that though, I knew nothing would co of it. At least, not anyti soon. Aythryn City was still ho, even if it was a shitshow most days. Once I had built up enough assets, I might think about it again. No matter where I went, I’d have to completely restart and set up anyway. Better I just stay here till I had enough saved.
Not to ntion I still hadn’t had my pound of at from Tornado Arms yet. I was watching the news and carefully biding my ti with that one. Although they’d been hit with heavy sanctions and their stocks had dropped, now wasn’t quite the ti. Soon though. I heard the CEO was even coming to the city to help clean up the ss. Might be sothing I could do there?
I stood up and headed for the door. “I’m headed for the speakeasy… you coming?”
”Uh- yeah, sure.” She followed out the door and up to the flyer parking bay on the top floor. The bay doors were open thanks to recent traffic, letting in frigid wind. Fox’s Fluffy Cloak did wonders at keeping warm even without the addition of my poncho.
We got on the hover bike and flew out down to street level. Flying through the hover lanes was fine, but the bike definitely felt safer down streetside. If there wasn’t an urgent need to get sowhere fast, I was better off moving with the normal traffic.
At a stoplight, I pulled out my phone and shot a text to Knight Winslow, the friend of Inquisitor Shilling who would be interested in a hover bike. Just as we were entering the parking garage near my speakeasy, they responded. ‘Definitely interested. Is pay upon delivery fine?’
‘Quarter upon purchase. Rest on delivery. 750,000 for basic model. Extra modules cost more. I’ll send the list.’ 750,000 Rayn was the price I ended up settling on. My mouth was practically watering at the thought of getting all of that.
The basic, mass produced and simple flyers usually sold for sowhere around two million a piece. Of course, armored or militarized variants like dtech’s LRAT or the Crusade’s Waymaker were way more. Even just the corpo ones cost so much more. The basic, bare-bones civilian flyers were around there though.
‘I’ll get the Rayn ready.’ A few minutes later, after the Knight looked through the list, I got another ssage. ’Specialty Armor, autopilot… Can you do sothing like dtech’s shock cannons? I see that’s not on here, but it’d be nice.’
My spring scale armor, now officially called Hex-Spring, wasn’t quite military grade. Direct hits from would tear through it, but it was better than civilian stuff. I priced it accordingly at around 150,000. The autopilot was sothing I had yet to build myself. Even more of a reason to work on it now than I already had. That was only a 5,000 up charge. It wouldn’t be runner proof, so I didn’t want to charge anything else.
As for the shock cannon… the blueprint for it was dredged up into my mind. I brushed up against quite a few flyers during my setup for the fight with Corvin. dtech’s flyers were in that list. I could make one of their cannons, sure, but it’d put a drain on the whole system. Hmm…
’I’ll talk with the engineering about it. 905,00 at least. We’ll talk paynt and contract in a couple days when I hear back from them.’ Of course, I was engineering. Had to make this look like it was a big operation though, right?
‘Contract?’
’This is experintal tech.’ I was planning on just mostly copying the contract that I signed with Advent way back then. I didn’t rember it exactly, but it was saved sowhere on my phone.
‘Will paint jobs be an issue?’ The knight asked.
’No. Make sure whoever you take it to knows it has anti-tampering modules though.’ I hadn’t designed any yet, but they shouldn’t be too hard to add in. It’d suck for soone to steal my tech. A bit hypocritical. That was just how thieves rolled though.
’Roger.’
I slid my phone back into my pocket and hopped off the bike. Mira was already off and leaning against the wall, watching with a brow raised. “Who was that?”
”Coworker.” I kicked at my bike lightly. “They want to buy one of these.”
”Oh? You built it yourself though, right?” She ruffled my hair, sending the soft locks of silver and black flopping all over the place. “Still crazy too you’ve gotten so skilled since I saw you last.”
I swatted at her hand, barely suppressing a growl. ”I was always skilled, okay? Just- just didn’t show it.”
”Whatever you say…” Mira chuckled and turned toward the exit of the parking garage. “How you going to sell it to them? They probably think they’re asking a corporation, right?”
”I was thinking about dropping by my uncle’s place.” It was really about ti I reclaid Cold Moon Solutions. If he didn’t want to sign it over… well, I knew all sorts of unscrupulous thods now, didn’t I?
”That bastard?” Mira tensed up like she wanted to punch a wall. “Are you sure you want to even go see him?”
I rubbed at my face, shivering slightly when a snowflake drifted onto my nose. The white flake imdiately lted away. “Not really… but he’s holding onto it with a death grip.”
I’d been watching Cold Moon’s situation ever since I blew up their underground labs. Although the corporation barely had any assets to its na, he was still trying to make a coback. Unsuccessfully, I might add. It was barely just him in the corporation now. Only the intellectual assets and na had any worth, and even then… he practically destroyed the na by himself, and since he’d been funneling money into that AI, Cold Moon’s assets weren’t nearly as valuable as they used to be.
It’s a good thing I was a Tsukuyomi. I could still get him to sign everything over without needing to go through a complicated buyout process. I’d need to get a lawyer though… hmm… the Jade Fang would definitely have one. I could give Shinobu a call.
Of course, I could just start up my own company or sell the flyers without the backing of a corp. I wanted to see Cold Moon rise again though. Sure it’d be complicated, but I had the ans to see it happen.
My mind drifted from one topic to another as we headed down to the speakeasy.
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