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In the Afterlife, I waited for the clean-up crew to arrive—the trauma team for the dead corpo trash—who were supposed to put the club back in order and ensure Rogue's safety. After that, I finally headed back to the clan territory. Naturally, I called Delamain again, who, for a small premium, rushed us to the destination in a matter of minutes.
Figuratively speaking, minutes. In reality, more than fifteen passed, but I was in constant contact with one of the girls the entire time, so even though I worried about them, that worry never crossed a certain line.
"So, how are things here?"
That was the first question I asked upon exiting the AV, despite already knowing that everything was fine with them.
"David, you already know everything's fine here…"
Panam sighed heavily and shook her head before saying those words.
"Just because we were on comms with you doesn't mean we weren't worried sick."
Becca decided to back me up, giving her friend a sharp look.
"Fine, fine!"
Panam let out a suffering sigh and, shaking her head, raised her hands in surrender to the will of the tyrants—me and little Becca—who wanted to keep everything under strict control. But she couldn't maintain the pose for long, dropping her hands and smiling at us sincerely.
"I'm glad you two are whole."
She took two steps, walked up to Becca and me, and gave us a tight hug.
The moment of tenderness passed quickly, however, and pulling away, she waved a hand, urging us to follow her.
"Though our family is okay, the clan itself has problems. The clash with Arasaka wasn't without cost to us. Five people dead, a dozen wounded, three of them badly."
"We can call Vik…"
"Kiwi already contacted him. A Delamain AV is already flying with him."
I nodded, approving of my girlfriends' forethought.
"Is my help needed?"
"Yours and Becca's. Good techs are worth their weight in gold right now."
"Did you collect much tech from those corpos?"
"Yeah, and it urgently needs to be processed. So, let's head to the spot where all the tech is being hauled and the vehicles are being parked."
"Got it…"
Becca and I nodded, and following Panam, we picked up the pace, arriving three minutes later at the temporary trophy warehouse, where we immediately got to work…
"Hey, drop the work, you two need to at least grab a bite…"
Hearing a familiar voice, I looked up from yet another piece of technical junk and stared in surprise at a completely unfamiliar girl.
"Um... and you…"
"Hey! That's seriously insulting!"
The girl really looked at me with a hint of offense in her eyes. So I started racking my brain, trying to remember where we could have met…
"Why so silent?"
"M-Misty?"
When I spoke the name, I relied entirely on her voice, as her appearance was only vaguely similar to the non-conformist I knew so well—just the gray, slightly messy hair…
"Of course! Ugh!"
Genuine offense was clear in the girl's tone.
"Um... is that really you?"
"What kind of dumb question is that?"
Misty was slightly flustered, which meant the indignation and offense faded a little from her voice.
"It's just that your style has changed so much it's hard to recognize you."
Becca came to my rescue, and I was deeply grateful for it. This let me gather my thoughts and realize that it really was Misty standing in front of me.
"No need, I haven't changed that much…"
I shook my head.
"You just don't see how it looks from the outside. New hairstyle, new makeup, new clothing style... You're simply unrecognizable."
"Thanks... I guess... But that doesn't change the fact that you need to take a break and eat. You've already driven everyone crazy hauling junk off to recycling."
I looked around and realized that, overall, we had already sorted through about two-thirds of all the trophies. Not just the two of us, of course, but all the clan techs. So, yes, we could probably break for a small meal...
Grr-rr-rrr!
I looked down at my stomach, which had just made those sounds, in confusion.
"My apologies…"
"It's nothing…"
Misty shook her head understandingly, but Becca laughed sarcastically. Her laughter didn't last long, though, as her stomach soon rumbled too, and it was her turn to scratch the back of her head, slightly embarrassed.
"Sorry…"
"I said, it's no big deal. You haven't eaten all day, just running on coffee and tea, so it's not surprising that you're hungry. Come on, Judy's got everything ready…"
Becca and I exchanged a look and rose from our makeshift workspaces to follow Misty.
Dinner was simply gorgeous...
And when I satisfied the initial hunger, I could calmly think about everything that was happening. It turned out that we wouldn't be given a quiet life... Arasaka would likely not forgive us for Yorinobu's death, as well as the fact that they completely fumbled the attack on our clan, losing a ton of people.
"Panam, what about the alert status?"
"Code Red... you never canceled it, so we have reinforced patrols and concealed surveillance. Of course, I'd like to pull some of those chooms off to process the trophies, but…"
The Latina shrugged.
"…you didn't cancel Code Red, so we can't do that yet."
I nodded a couple of times at her words.
"David?"
"What?"
"Maybe you should lower the alert level?"
"Panam, we just zeroed Smasher this morning, but more importantly, we zeroed Yorinobu. I'm not even bringing up how many Arasaka forces you guys took out here... And you understand it's not because I think it's insignificant... It's just that compared to zeroing Yorinobu…"
I shook my head.
"And with all the events I just mentioned, you want me to lower the clan's combat readiness?"
"Well... yeah?"
Panam looked confused, but she didn't want to back down from her idea.
"And why is that?"
"Well, Hanako wanted to hire you to deal with her brother. She wanted him gone."
Panam shrugged.
"And I highly doubt she'd be very upset about her brother's death, let alone try to avenge him."
I sighed and shook my head.
"What? You think I'm wrong?"
I noticed Kiwi's wry smirk and decided to redirect the question to her, as I wanted to know how much our opinions aligned.
"Kiwi?"
"Ugh... fine... Panam, Saburo was the Emperor of Arasaka and ruled it absolutely. But for several years now, his son, Yorinobu, had been stirring the pot. In fact, it was because he was preparing for this outcome that he managed to seize power so quickly. But even after doing that, he didn't become the new Emperor. He had to navigate between the factions that raised their heads inside the corporation…"
I raised my hand and Kiwi fell silent, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"Small side note, Yorinobu had every chance of becoming the new Emperor eventually; he had the kind of character that simply wouldn't leave power in the hands of others."
I paused, and Kiwi nodded and continued.
"…Thanks. Getting back to Hanako, first: she'll need time to seize power in the corporation, and second: even if she does take power, she won't be able to become Empress, not immediately, and not over time. She doesn't have the right personality for it... at least that's what I gather based on information about her from available sources."
"I see…"
Panam sighed sadly, realizing she wouldn't see any extra people for the clean-up work. I, in turn, shook my head mournfully.
"Alright, let's wrap this up. Becca and I still have a ton of work ahead of us."
And I stood up from the table to head back to deal with the tech…
The next time I was pulled away from work, it was Kiwi.
"What?"
"Come on... you need to sleep, or you'll start making mistakes. And we don't need that…"
I looked at her and nodded vaguely. It slowly dawned on me what my girl had just told me; I'd clearly overdone it with the intellectual strain today, and my brain was already starting to stall...
Coming to this realization and finally processing what Kiwi had said, I nodded more consciously.
"Yeah, I need to sleep... and Becca?"
"Judy will take her."
I nodded again and walked with Kiwi to our room, where she helped me undress. But she wouldn't let me straight into bed; first, she forced me into the shower, where she helped me wash, and only after that did she send me to bed.
However, the shower had partially washed away the sleepiness, and lying in bed, pulling Kiwi close to me, I pondered silently into her ear.
"What?"
Her voice was tired. How hadn't I noticed that earlier? She and the girls must have been working just as hard as I was!
"I wanted to ask what happened to that guy I stuck the shard into?"
"He's dead... fried his brain. He didn't have anything important in there anyway, so we just tried to eliminate at least one more sane opponent for you."
"Thanks."
"You mocking me?"
"No... You did what you could do, and I'm sure if you could have done more, you would have. Besides, Becca and I managed it, didn't we?"
"Ugh, you two took down Smasher together…"
"Don't overstate my part in his death. Becca's the real champ here; she struck well, clearly hit something vital. Otherwise, we might not have survived, because that Security guy was already a very serious opponent, and we never would have managed with Smasher on top of that."
"Well... yeah, maybe you're right…"
Kiwi snuggled up closer to me, her back against mine.
"…I'll have to bake Becca a cake tomorrow…"
"Yeah... but when? We still have trophies to sort out tomorrow. We've dealt with the main junk, of course, and we're almost done with the repairs, but that's just surface patching. Proper repair work is still ahead, and that will take significantly more time."
"Mda? Maybe we should just order something tasty then?"
"Go for it…"
I chuckled softly into her ear.
"…I'll pay for everything, so you can order for the whole clan; we're all going to be busy for a long time."
"You…"
A slight hurt could be heard in Kiwi's voice.
"What?"
"I was actually thinking of ordering something just for us... for our family…"
I froze for a couple of minutes, then realized I had completely ruined the romance. I could only explain it by the fact that I was overly tired.
"Well, you can order something special for just us…"
I started whispering this into Kiwi's ear, gently biting it after the words.
"Let's say, for us, you can order whipped cream, fresh berries…"
"And what will you do with them?"
"Oh... I know what I'll do with them…"
For the next twenty minutes, I whispered to Kiwi, who grew hotter and hotter with every word, exactly what I would do with her, the cream, and the fresh fruit.
"Can I join you?"
Lucy peeked into the room, interrupting me just before my hand, which was already stroking Kiwi's thigh, moved to the sacred spot hidden beneath her panties.
"Hmm?"
I glanced at her, then regretfully pushed away the thoughts of a small debauchery with Kiwi—she wasn't a fan of threesomes, unlike Becca and Judy.
"Lucy, we won't take you with us, but you can definitely place the same order, and we'll repeat everything I whispered into Kiwi's ear with you. But how did you know what I was whispering to her?"
"I called her…"
Kiwi's ear flushed slightly with embarrassment.
"I guess by morning everyone will know about this idea, so get ready—you'll have a fruit table for the next week…"
I sighed sadly.
"Does something bother you?"
"I just hope that at least one of you shows some ingenuity and orders meat for the appetizer... well-done meat…"
"And after the well-done meat, will you grill us?"
I smirked.
"Yes... and are you against it?"
"No... Lucy, come join us. Since you ruined the moment, get in. We can at least just sleep as a threesome…"
"Uh-huh…"
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