The next day, David stepped out of his apartment, dressed in his uniform, heading for his first day at the recently started Arasaka Academy.
Right outside his door, he literally ran into his neighbor, the woman, who was leaning against the hallway railing in a suit, drinking a NiCola Classic.
She gave him a bright smile, waving casually as she spoke.
"Hey there, morning, kid. Off to Arasaka Academy?"
"Huh…? W-well, yeah."
"Ah, I introduced myself to your mom, but not to you yet, did I? I'm Nate. Nice to meet you~"
"Nate… Got it. I'm David. David Martinez."
"David-kun. Pleasure to finally meet you properly? …Oh, hey, if you want, I can give you a ride to the Academy? I just so happen to have business in that direction."
"Huh? No, that's okay…"
"It's fine, it's fine! We'll take my bike; it'll be quick. I'm not gonna eat you or anything, so don't worry!"
Somehow, David found himself being rather forcefully offered a ride. Even if he tried to run, Nate had a firm grip on his right hand… There was no escape.
More than that, he found his heart beating fast from having his hand held by a woman other than his mother.
They took the elevator down to the ground floor and stepped out onto the main street. Nate's Kiroshi eyes glowed; she seemed to be summoning her bike. Soon, a red motorcycle came driving out on its own from the Megabuilding's parking garage. It looked like a bike he'd seen in ancient Japanese animations.
"Tada~! Cool, right?"
"Awesome… Did you build it?"
"W-well, something like that… Ahaha."
Anyway, he ended up sitting tandem behind Nate. The seat was narrow, forcing them into close contact. Nate produced a helmet from somewhere and put it on him, then instructed him to hold onto her waist.
"Squeeze a little tighter… There we go. Whoa, hey, your hands are right against my underboob there! Ah, well, good enough. Let's go."
"Ah, th-that's not what I…!!"
He instinctively tried to let go, but the bike accelerated sharply, pulling his body backward. Afraid of being thrown off, he had no choice but to cling tightly to Nate in a panic.
The bike sped forward, its motor humming as it rapidly picked up speed. It felt like he'd become a shooting star, watching the scenery get left behind in the blink of an eye.
Nate weaved the bike through traffic, flitting between cars like a butterfly, all while accelerating even more. For some reason, the red traffic lights ahead kept turning green, one after another, as if clearing the way for them.
Peeking at the speedometer past her shoulder, he saw it pointing to 150 mph (241 km/h) and still climbing.
'If we crash, we're definitely dead.'
Adrenaline flooded David's system; he could almost hear the blood rushing in his ears. He felt plenty of fear, but even more than that, he was thrilled. His life until now had been stifling.
Even at the Academy, commoners like him were made to feel out of place from day one—frankly, it was boring. For entertainment, all he had were standard BDs, and even those were all the same repetitive stuff.
He knew there were more incredible works out there, but they were mostly too expensive for a kid's allowance. But here, right now, was the real thrill he could never afford!
Nate's profile, seen from behind, was smiling.
"…Hah, Hah… AHAHAHA!"
Seeing that, a laugh escaped him before he could stop it. The distance was only about 1.5-2 km. The trip took barely a minute, but it felt like hours, as if time itself had stretched.
Then, it was over as they arrived in front of the Academy.
Plop. Nate took the helmet off David's head and quickly smoothed down his hair. The feeling of Nate's slender fingers running through his hair was ticklish.
"All good now. Go on, get going, kid."
"Hey, 'kid'… I'm already 16 this year…"
"Anyone who says that is still a kid. Well, I'm a fresh-faced 20 myself~"
"…People don't usually call themselves 'fresh-faced,' you know."
"Say something?"
"N-no, it's nothing!!"
A cold shiver seemed to run down his spine, making him deny it frantically.
'Women are scary…'
"Oh, right. I'll send you my contact info. If anything happens, just call me, okay? I've quit now, but I used to work as a Corpo, so I can at least give you some advice."
"Th-thanks…"
He thanked her, watching the notification for Nate's contact info appear in his UI.
"And… thanks for the ride. It was… fun."
"You're welcome. Anyone who can call that speed 'fun' has the makings of a merc."
"Me…?"
"Yep. Well, that's that~! Adiós!"
She gave a sharp, two-fingered salute, swung onto her bike with flair, and sped off at a breakneck pace.
David thought he caught a faint, sweet trace of her scent carried on the wind, tickling his nose.
A feeling of having dreamt it all lingered as David entered the classroom. As usual, he could feel annoying stares and hear mocking giggles, but today, they didn't bother him in the slightest.
Having just experienced something so intense—something these rich kids could never even imagine—a strange sense of superiority coursed through him. Right now, he felt like he could just laugh off any kind of teasing.
"Oi oi, get a load of this. The gonk's walkin' like he owns the place."
The dumb bonin—short for 'baka bonin'—Katsuo Tanaka was spouting his usual nonsense, his lackeys laughing with crude voices. Same old braindead crew.
They'd started hassling him ever since he'd scored higher than them on the entrance exams. Glancing sideways at the lame posers, David simply snorted in derision.
"Wha...! That guy!"
"O-oi, Katsuo! Not inside the classroom...!"
Held back by his lackeys, Katsuo's face was turning bright red.
'Serves you right!'
Maybe because he was on a roll, he even aced the pop quiz later that day, making it his first truly happy day at the academy. All thanks to Nate.
With classes over, David figured he'd just head straight home...
Just as he stepped out of the academy building, his mom called.
"Ah, David? I'm going to be home late today. Could you do the shopping for me?"
"Yeah, sure. But, I don't have much cash on me right now."
"You're being oddly agreeable today. Don't worry about the money, I just sent it. I'm mailing you the list, check it later."
Ping! 100 eddies transferred.
"You can keep 10 eddies from the change. I'll need the rest back later."
"Got it. Leave it to me, Mother."
"What's with the formality? ...Sigh. Anyway, for the second day in a row, there seem to be violent incidents all over the place. Lost count of how many gang members we've bagged today alone... Not that complaining to you about it helps. Okay, I'm counting on you!"
The call ended before he could really process it.
'Yes! I guess I'm lucky today after all!'
10 eddies just for stopping by the store on his way home? David was already thinking about what to buy with it.
The Arroyo supermarket was run-down and in a bad neighborhood, so it never had much in stock. If they were out of something, he'd have to go store-hopping, which was a pain. It'd be easier to just get everything at the big supermarket in Japantown.
It was a bit of a detour, but he figured it was good exercise. David headed from the City Center, across the bridge, towards Westbrook's Japantown.
Along the way, he kept passing NCPD cruisers one after another. Was there some major incident? He walked on, barely paying attention, until he reached his destination, then started tossing items from the shopping list into his basket.
"This is quite a lot... Detergent, this one. Ingredients for dinner, this and that... Ugh, Mom... Don't make your son buy sanitary products, seriously..."
Knowing it was pointless to dwell on it, David kept throwing things into the basket and got in line for a checkout. Whether the clerk was lazy or not, the line was snaking long.
"Ugh, I have to wait through this?"
Everyone else in line also looked thoroughly fed up. After ten minutes of waiting, only five people had moved.
"How long is this gonna take... Huh?"
It seemed unusually noisy outside. The other people in line and other shoppers in the store began to take notice of the commotion. Before long, what sounded like a full-blown firefight erupted.
The store's automatic doors were blown in as gangers tumbled inside, starting to return fire towards the outside.
Patrons began getting caught in the crossfire of bullets flying both from inside and outside, plunging the store into total panic…