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"Go."
One word, which I spoke with the Sandy already running at about forty percent. Thankfully, Becca was supposed to activate hers once she got behind Smasher, or Yorinobu, so I wasn't worried about her being too late...
Meanwhile, my Sandy hit one hundred percent power, and my helmet began unfolding from the "hump." But I couldn't just stand there and wait. I started moving even before the helmet enclosed my face, protecting it from air friction.
Smasher tried to stand, but the now-visible monowire that Becca had inserted pierced his body. More accurately, not his body, but it entered at a sharp angle near his neck, moving downwards. This made him freeze.
But all of this was still moving too slow for me. Although that Arasaka Security goon over there was moving at roughly my speed, just a little behind—he hadn't fully activated his Sandy yet, apparently. But me...
I took a step sideways and simply brought my fist down onto Yorinobu's head.
Chwak...
His head burst like an overripe melon that someone had dropped a sledgehammer on. Brains and blood splattered across the room, but I wasn't too concerned about that right now, as I'd noticed a pistol in a not-so-secret holster on him while I was still sitting. And I decided to take possession of exactly that.
The pistol was in my hand, and I immediately pointed it toward Smasher. Now next to him—and the monowire Becca had stuck into him clearly wasn't enough—I yanked the wire out and, pressing the pistol against the resulting hole, emptied the entire clip into it.
I shielded myself with a katana from the Arasaka rep who attacked me...
Shit.
I even had to squat and shift slightly, as he was clearly chromed up far more than me, and the katana he struck with was definitely top-tier.
The helmet finally covered my face completely, and now I could exhale with relief and start working without worrying about my health. Though, even before this, I wasn't too concerned about preserving myself. Not in this situation.
Rogue slowly reacted to what was happening and pulled a pistol from under the table, while Becca didn't waste any time and moved through the club, zeroing the Arasaka reps. But Smasher started sparking and trying to move... What the hell?!
I tensed my muscles and sprinted towards my opponent, immediately unleashing a flurry of blows. Hmm, he was a bit slower than me, after all...
But that didn't give me much of an advantage; the speed difference wasn't big enough for me to capitalize on it completely. Perhaps back when I faced off against Mystic, I wouldn't have been able to do anything to this Japanese choom, but now, after everything, my technique was significantly better.
A step to the side to meet the new attack with a glancing block, and then I nudged the opponent's katana right into Smasher...
Ha!
The blade pierced the Borg's chest armor and got stuck, forcing the Japanese guy to drop his katana. Now he had one blade, and I had one blade.
I froze, watching as the monowire—a different one—sliced out of the enemy's gut, cut upwards, and ripped free from his body near the throat. I slowly began to reduce the Sandy's acceleration...
"Ah…"
The acceleration was down to about fifty percent, and I looked around. Only after making sure everything was safe did I fully deactivate it.
"Y-y-y-y-you…"
I shook my head, looking at Smasher.
"You stubborn piece of work."
"T-t-t-this is n-n-n-not the en-n-n-nd."
"It's the end, you preem-gonk…"
Rogue walked up to him and emptied the entire magazine of her pistol right into Smasher's optics. Even when he clearly stopped moving, she reloaded and emptied another clip into him.
"Is that the end?"
"Yup…"
I nodded at Rogue's question and calmly placed the pistol on the table, then looked towards Claire.
"Claire, would you be a doll and make us something to drink…"
"Yeah, me too…"
Becca stopped maintaining her invisibility and collapsed onto the couch. I sat next to her, and Rogue sat opposite us.
"Go on... and call the clean-up crew…"
"Okay…"
Claire nodded.
"She's a good girl…"
I nodded towards the bartender.
"…I used to think she was only good as a bartender, but now... maybe you should take her on as your deputy? And in the future, maybe she'll be the new Queen…"
"Hmm…"
Rogue looked at the girl thoughtfully.
"…So you figured it all out?"
I smirked at the slightly embarrassed question from the Queen of the Afterlife, who outwardly remained completely unperturbed.
"Hard not to figure it out…"
I shook my head.
"…We usually talk in a slightly different tone. So it wasn't hard to understand that something was wrong. Though I'm sorry that I was the cause of your problems."
"Forget it…"
Rogue shook her head and looked at Smasher. The dead Smasher.
"…Killing that asshole was worth it…"
"Did you finally get your revenge?"
"Yes…"
She closed her eyes.
"…How many years has that... haunted me. And now, finally…"
"Got it. What do we do now?"
"Nothing... we'll clean up the club now and go back to our usual work... though you probably need to lay low for a couple of months. Sure, I have a lot of debtors, and everyone will assume Yorinobu attacked my bar, which he did, but that won't save you from his relatives' vengeance. And by the way, what was that Swallow he was describing?"
"No idea…"
I shrugged, while Rogue looked at me with interest. Great interest and distrust.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I'm serious... No, about two months ago, I ran into some types who were also demanding I hand over a Swallow to them... I even initially thought they literally meant a bird, but then I found out they call some girl that…"
"And you genuinely have no thoughts?"
Rogue was beginning to doubt that I knew anything, though I was sure she would check up on me again and again. But I hoped it wouldn't come to sending scouts to the Aldecaldos. Speaking of the Aldecaldos...
"Girls, how are things over there?"
I addressed this question over the link to the girls who remained in the clan territory. While I didn't doubt their abilities, going up against Arasaka operatives or Security is not the safest thing.
"Fine... they tried to push the clan around, but we're handling it... there are a lot of guys here, but definitely no one comparable to Smasher."
Panam answered me in a completely calm voice that lacked any hint of worry. Not the slightest.
"The Devil is not as black as he is painted."
"Huh?"
Kiwi joined the conversation, and the other girls asked the same question, sounding surprisingly synchronized. Maybe I should enter them into a synchronized a-ing competition... Ugh, that's what happens when you get too stressed out because of Smasher, Yorinobu, and the remaining nameless bodyguard; all sorts of stupid thoughts pop into your head.
"I'm telling you, just work. Smasher turned out to be a piece of shit... I don't know, maybe we were just lucky and Becca's first stealth strike damaged something really important, or maybe he was just an overhyped nothing... I won't know now. But we zeroed him."
"Will you be back at the clan soon?"
Lucy asked this question.
"I think so... I'll talk to Rogue now and then head out."
"Got it, we'll try to finish up by the time you…"
Panam tried to end the conversation for everyone, but I wasn't happy with that. Not the fact of ending the conversation itself, but the fact that they decided to try and wrap things up quickly. I didn't need them taking unnecessary risks. I warned them about exactly that.
"Hold on, just don't take any risks... Remember everything you learned from the training shards and what you locked down in the virtual.
"But we're not children…"
"Judy…"
That indignant outburst belonged to her.
"…don't play the wounded innocent with me. I know you well enough to confidently say you are quite capable of taking unnecessary risks. That's why I'm warning you not to."
My voice was absolutely serious.
"Don't worry…"
Triss intervened in our conversation, though I wouldn't have seen her image even if all the images were expanded, as she could only hear and communicate with us through her visor—a visor she also used as an aiming device.
"…Everything will be fine, I'll look after your girls."
"Ugh…"
I sighed and even in reality, shook my head.
"…They'll give me premature gray hair for sure. Thanks, Triss... I'm counting on you as the most responsible one."
"Hey! I'm not the only one who can look after your girls…"
"Yen, you look after your boyfriend…"
Triss allowed a drop of malice into her voice.
"Triss…"
A faint, barely noticeable, and I would say friendly threat could be heard in the raven-haired woman's voice. But I had no time for that and returned to the real world.
"What? Checking on the Clan?"
"Yup…"
I nodded a couple of times and frowned slightly.
"What?"
In response to Rogue's question, I shook my head and activated my optics in various modes, starting to look around. What caught my attention? What made me tense up?
Five minutes later...
"You resilient bitch!"
My voice held not only indignation but also admiration.
"Um... David?"
"Rogue, can you believe it, that asshole is still alive!"
I rudely pointed a finger at Smasher.
"What?!"
Shock and disbelief in my words. Although the latter was so minor that it could be ignored.
"I'm in the same state right now…"
I shook my head.
"He's currently in some kind of power-saving state. I wouldn't have figured out what was going on at all if I hadn't noticed a micro-movement in his wrist…"
I nodded towards his hand.
"…If he were truly dead, the energy would just be there and not directed anywhere, but here—either when you shot him in the head, or when Becca and I... we damaged something, so not all the energy directed at preserving his personality…"
I poked his left shoulder a couple of times.
"…in that location is being used for exactly that; it's leaking into other systems, which is what's causing this twitching."
"Hmm... and what should we do?"
I looked at Rogue.
"Well... he's your enemy. If you want, call a tech. Have them extract the data storage that holds the backup copy of Smasher's personality and memory…"
"You think there's a backup copy?"
"Well, considering that Arasaka has been heavily advertising those chips lately…"
Rogue's eyes widened in shock.
"You think they have the technology for full consciousness transfer?"
"More likely, full consciousness preservation. And then a copy of that consciousness can be loaded into a Borg, and he will be absolutely certain that he is the original. So you be careful; another Smasher could show up for you."
"For you too…"
A slight mockery was in Rogue's voice. However, her tone quickly became serious.
"…Will you help me put him to rest for good? I want to be certain that at least this part of his personality, if Arasaka really bothered to save it on some kind of medium, is completely destroyed."
"No problem…"
I shrugged, and Becca grinned with pleasure. Over the next ten minutes, we turned Smasher's body into a burning chunk of metal, destroying everything possible, starting with the redundant data storage units—which, as it turned out, were hidden in his body in a quantity of five—and ending with the backup power sources. So, when the clean-up crew arrived, we were completely certain that this particular Borg was dead and wouldn't cause us any more problems.
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