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Ghost in the City: Early chapter 237
🕑 Added 2025-11-10 21:56:30 +0000 UTC“There, just perfecto! Just keep that look, no, don’t touch your hair, it’s falling perfectly, ruffled and teenage angsty! No no! No, talking you will shift your hair.” She demanded from me, as I almost opened my mouth to ask what teenage angsty was supposed to look like.
Fucking weirdos, and that was coming from me!
Thankfully, even with the bright lights setup, my Kiroshi were more than capable of adjusting to the glare of camera flashes.
“Ugh, look at this, even with the picture and my work at it’s best you are wearing such old chrome, worn! Do you never polish yourself?”
I pointedly only shifted my eyes to glare, because she was half a second away from telling me not to talk anyways.
“Ah yes you can learn, good.” She teased. She was lucky I hadn’t gone first. If I hadn’t seen her treat everyone this way, I’d have introduced my fist to her face at some point.
Whatever, just a photo shoot. Just part of the contract, just something tedious and stupid and uncomfortable I had to do.
I had actually said no at first, but well…
Agreeing to be a Rockerboy meant I should get used to this sort of thing. It was fine, besides there were some advantages to all this.
“Okay you are done. Very good girl, yes?” The woman asked, in that thick accent that I was still trying to figure out what it was meant to be.
Probably entirely fake just to make herself stand out. I was in that sort of circle right now.
“Good.” I grumbled, and rose up, adjusting myself. They’d absolutely coated my hair in some gunk to give them control, and already an assistant was rushing up to readjust my hair for another shoot I was sure.
I tapped my new jacket. Similar in style to my old one, but this one wasn’t an off the shelf addition. It had actually been handed to me out of a box when I arrived today. The fact they’d taken my current jacket style and just… Having an expensive shiny new one made was kinda a flex.
Also it was comfy as fuck.
I was pointedly not thinking about how expensive it no doubt was, cause I wasn’t going to just not roll around in blood and guts when in a gunfight because my jacket was expensive.
It would just have to deal with the stains of merc work, it would add realism to it or something, insert corpo buzz word here. Hiromi would know.
I looked over the others, Alice, Jared, and Klein had already started taking advantage of all the goodies MSM Records had provided. Most of their chrome had been adjusted, if not swapped out. The cheap garage band cyberware was now the expensive chrome of a made Rockerboy.
I was still sporting my normal stuff, but I was going to bring their catalogue to Vik, and ask for his advice. Hiromi had finally sort of convinced me that I should take advantage of the offer.
It’s not like I hadn’t already sold my soul to the devil, might as well get a benefit out of it. “You look like you’re planning to run away.” I glanced up, frowning a little at the well dressed man. He was wearing a suit sort of like what V wore, similar style. Black suit expensive, and chrome just hinted at, enough to show he had eddies to burn.
“Do I know you?”
“Not yet, but I’m Alex Angelopuoulos, just call me Alex.” He said, offering a hand. I took it warily and he smiled. “Welcome to MSM, I’ve been hearing good things about you Miss Kusanagi.”
“Okay?”
“Ah, my first impression isn’t doing so well huh? Well I’ve been assigned to you as an assistant.”
“I don’t need an assistant.”
“I understand, trust me, that’s a fairly common reaction, but let me be clear, it’s more that I’m a Rockerboy Wrangler.” He chuckled at his own joke. “I’ll be working with you, and of course Miss Mitsunashi. I’m simply here as a point of contact between MSM and yourself and Manager. Think of me as the one that is responsible for making sure you show up to the events, and handles any issues that arise.”
“Isn’t that just the manager's job?”
“Only unimportant managers, handling third stringers. We are MSM records, we only handle true talent.”
I frowned at the man's confidence, since I smelled some nasty trap here, but I shrugged. “Talk to Hiromi, I don’t care.”
“Of course Motoko, can I call you Motoko?”
“Whatever dude.”
“Excellent. I’ll be helping you with anything you need, are you thirsty? Hungry? We can get a table at Dark Matter if you’d like? I hear Kala Tsui from Watson Whore will be there tonight!”
“The fuck would I care?” I grunted as I decided now was a good time to walk away from this conversation.
Of course the man followed.
“Not a fan then? I’ll make sure to make a note about that. Still she won’t be the only one. Or I could order something in for you? Bleu is the finest restaurant in Night City, we could bring in a sample platter from the restaurant, or get a reservation. A few pictures and an endorsement would cover that.”
“I’m good, thanks.” I said, walking out the doors of the studio and back out into the sunny Night City afternoon light. I took a minute to break, it was almost suffocating being surrounded by so many people all of them treating me more like an object than a person. I ran a hand through my still styled hair.
Whatever.
“I was also supposed to talk to you about a Militech Showroom visit?” He spoke then, and I actually stopped. I turned to look at the man again, who was just a little too smug.
“Well?”
“We reached out to Militech, and set it up. There is some discussion about those Condors of yours.”
“What about them? I didn’t agree to swap my chrome.”
“Not yet you haven’t, and I understand, you’ve had that chrome for a while, solid work, but Militech is very interested in a sponsorship deal, their new Eagle Cyberarms. I have the data here.” He started sending me a file and I really did consider uploading something in reverse, but Instead just blocked the transfer, checked the file, and other than some corpo tracking shit, which I tore apart, I took the file and checked it out.
The image in my eye was of a new Cyberarm. They were of the more expensive Militech Eagle Cyberarms. The Condors, much more expensive and fancy brother.
If the Condor were excellent in their durability for standard troops, the Eagle was the fancy special forces version.
I looked them over. They were… Good, honestly. Not quite as armored as my Condors, but better flexibility and the sensitivity settings were way better. The sense of touch and dexterity was crazy high if the numbers were accurate.
Not even touching on the modifications pace.
These were next gen, easily modifiable for what was needed, more than enough space for the common cyber arm weapon augments. Even used a core of the Orbital Crystal to make the frame twice as durable at half the weight.
At least according to the blurb.
It was… Honestly, kinda tempting. They certainly looked good, and I liked the PSI grip strength, I could do some awesome movements with that much grip strength…
I looked up, pushing the files away to see the man. Alex, standing there with that smug little look on his face.
He was definitely that type. A devil offering goodies, but why?
Whatever. It didn’t matter, I’d let Hiromi deal with this, and if it got annoying, well…
A head in a box tended to send messages. That was probably not too over the top, killing overly annoying ‘assistants’ was probably like…Normal?
No, probably not whatever.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t think too long! The Showroom is holding an opening next week on Thursday, we’ll need confirmation at least two days before that so they can get everything they need.”
“Tuesday got it.” I waved him off as I turned and walked away. My Kusanagi was waiting for me in the secure carpark and frankly a nice drive to get away from all this sounded nice-
“Do you want me to call up a car for you? We have a few Rayfields in the carpark, if you want to get behind the wheel of something nice.”
“My buddy has a Caliburn, I’ve driven it plenty.” Well technically I had only done a few around the streets, Malcolm was a baby about his baby, but still. I preferred my Quadra anyways.
I made it to the Kusanagi and started her up, relaxing a little as her rumble filled the air.
“Ah, more of a motorcycle gal, huh? Well you know Yaiba could always be reached out to, there is a rumor they are producing something new.”
“That’s great. Bye.” I throttled up and took off, leaving the man in my dust, and the entire situation with it. As I managed to get on the main streets after flashing my credentials at the security stop I took a moment to really give her some throttle, feeling the wind in my hair and finally being free.
Only… My stupid hair felt weird with all the shit in it. So even as the wind flowed around me, it felt almost like I’d already been changed.
Stupid comfy jacket. It was probably made with evil too.
—--
“So after that I called Hiromi, she told me it’s a fairly common scam, well she called it a corporate playbook. They try to show an ‘assistant’ that can do things my old manager can’t. Set up deals, brand stuff, expensive food and all that.” I complained as I stared up at the ceiling.
The faint noises of whatever crappy show Jun was watching filled the living room, but I’d pointedly turned the volume down when I flopped on the couch so Jun would stop watching such terrible shows and stuff. That’s definitely why.
“I like expensive food.”
“Shut up Jun, I’m telling you about the evil corpo plots, it’s not something you are supposed to want.” Then I looked at him firmly. “Besides, you only want XXL Burritos.”
“Well yeah. The XXL is the expensive brand version. I don’t eat XL Burritos Motoko.” He responded as if I was stupid.
“I don’t… Jun they would try to make you eat like XXXL Burritos or something.”
“Do… Do they make those? Is there a triple XL Burrito? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“God dammit Jun, stop joking around.” I grumbled at him, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if he was actually joking at all, as he had a look on his face like he was considering it before shifting into a smirk at me. “Idiot.”
“Heh. XXXL Burritos. That’s funny.”
“I’m serious!”
“I know, I know. Go on, tell me about your crazy day.”
“That’s most of it. He’s going to be sickeningly helpful until I either kill him, or I switch from Hiromi to him as my manager, that’s the sort of plan.”
“But Hiromi knows about it, and you’re good.”
“I know about it, sure, but they might cause issues for Hiromi, if they think it’ll make me switch.”
“Won’t they not do that, now that you know?”
“I don’t think they care very much… But if they mess with Hiromi-”
“Head in box?”
“Head in box.”I agreed. Jun had taken my idea in stride and even agreed it was a good idea. I don’t think that actually meant it was a good idea, but I was willing to accept my brother's stupid advice if it was something I wanted to do.
I’d literally gotten texts from ‘Alex’ after I took off.
The guy was lucky I didn’t upload a virus that made his Agent scream at him constantly or something.
Maybe later.
“I think…”
“What?” I said instantly a little defensive as Jun had sounded like he was about to start critizing me.
I take criticism super well Jun, but you better not be able to tell me I’m wrong!
I think he understood my innocent and peaceful look that I shot him through narrowed eyes as he thought about it then seemed to just shrug.
“I think you take things personally a bit too much. You should just enjoy the benefits of what you have going, you earned it.”
“I enjoy things just fine, and I don’t take things personally! You moron!”
“Uh-uh.” He said flatly. “Listen Motoko… You’re stressed out, like more than you should be. You like music, so make music. You like food, so eat good food, you like chrome, so get some new chrome. Who cares where it comes from? If some chrome falls off the back of a truck, or you find it in the trash, you don’t complain about it, you go and chip it-”
“Jun please tell me you didn’t chip in literal garbage chrome?”
“What? No, of course not, I had my TC contacts… You though?” He uttered, teasingly and I sent him a look.
“I’ve never chipped in garbage Jun.”
“Mhmm. Sure.” He said slyly, and I felt my eyes narrow even more.
“I never chipped in Garbage Jun. Vik is the best, and he doesn’t get his stuff out of the trash.”
“I never said anything about Vik, but I do remember a few years back my little sister coming into the house carrying a thrown out Cybermatrix Holo Tattoo.”
“I did not!”
“In a bucket.”
“No!” I gasped horrified.
“Oh yeah. You found it thrown out behind Ryders clinic.”
“Oh god I’m going to be sick.”
“Yep. Got it chipped in, I mean sure you cleaned it for days, and eventually Ryder chipped it for you. Cost me a pretty penny for the work, but you wanted it.”
“I don’t want to live anymore.” I whispered as Jun took far too much pleasure in telling me what kind of Goblin Motoko Kusanagi had been.
“I don’t want to ask, but I think I have to… If Ryder threw it out, then why did he chip it, if it didn’t work then why throw it away?”
“Oh, it worked, but it was disgusting. Apparently some gonk had gotten himself killed and just rotted away, someone klepped it from the corpse and tried to sell it to Ryder.”
“Oh no. No no no!” I grabbed the couch pillows and threw them up to my ears. I didn’t want to hear this!
“Yep. So that’s how you got your light Tat. Well you don’t have it anymore.”
“I’m filthy. Unclean.” I whispered horrified, and Jun just laughed.
—--
I was definitely not hiding in my room doing some programming trying my best to forget any previous conversation, when I got a surprise call.
Wakako. Didn’t expect to hear from you.
I have a job that needs done. Now. I’ll pay extra if you will take it.
Okay I’m suddenly very interested.
Hmph. Don’t be. I need a gun recovered from a safe. It’s a murder weapon and must be removed before the cops arrive and search the residence.
I was already up, an excuse to get out and do something? I was there.
Send me the address, any other details I need to know?
The client is a Tyger Claw, he got arrested for killing his wife. He did it. I’ve been asked to make sure the evidence disappears. So now you get paid extra to do it in a rush.
Fair enough. Whispered, that was… Kinda dark for a gig. I loaded up, and was out the door, a part of me was asking if I wanted to do this, sounds like the guy deserved some justice.
The other part reminded me I was a merc that killed people, sometimes people that didn’t deserve it, for money.
A message popped up from Wakako with the address and info.
“Motoko?”
“Got a gig from Wakako! Should be an in and out, no fighting, I’ll be back in an hour!” I called out as I rushed out. Jun making an accepting noise from the couch.
Okay time to get to work. The place wasn’t far, taking the Quadra I headed out onto the streets and towards the Sakura Market. It wasn’t right next door to the old apartment, but it was fairly close.
I ended up needing to drive right past the apartment complex at first.
There were NCPD cars out front.
Suboptimal. Very not good. Shit was fucked.
Parking a bit away I headed over and in through the complex's back door, which didn’t resist me for more than a moment.
The guy wasn’t a top level executive, he only had a fourth floor apartment, and if the cops were already here, shit was not good.
In fact it was insane that the NCPD would be here this quick.
Maybe it was just for another incident. Maybe someone got into a fight, or a shooting or something, or-I had gotten into the elevator and was on the fourth floor.
And the cops were there.
Or maybe the cops were here for the client.
I reached over and hit the 5 on the elevator playing up looking annoyed before relaxing as the doors closed.
Okay. Time to do this.
The door opened, and I moved. The hallway was empty, but I just needed window access. I knocked on the first door and when I heard movement ducked back around the hallway. Not my entrance point.
Once the poor homeowner cursed me out and closed the door, I went to the next apartment. Then the third. That no one responded, so I just… Opened the door. The door that was open, that totally wasn’t locked, that I totally didn’t break into.
Moving straight through it I hit the outer patio the apartment had and just looked down. Let’s see it was… Five down the hallway. I flipped over the edge, landing silently on the next rows of patios and jumped snuck across until I was able to peak into the apartment.
Cops were inside.
Fuck.
Luckily they were in the living room checking the place, and the safe was hidden in the bedroom, now I just needed a way inside. The only patio entrance went into the living room, so that was a no go. There was a window, but…
I sighed. Leaping up and then across the upper patio, and then back down so I couldn’t be seen through the large apartment doors. The bedroom window was fairly small, and it had armored shutters, which made noise to open, so I was going to have to distract the cops…
I peaked over and after a moment found the TV.
Hacking into the programming it only took a few seconds for me to find the volume control that the remote control would access.
Dialing it all the way up, I switched the channel to something more loud, and just settled in to wait for a minute. Come on, just go close to the remote. I grumbled internally watching the cops wander around flipping the couch cushions or looking around.
Then it happened. One of them reached up and was searching through the TV’s internals. Right through the holoads that were playing.
“-UCK ME HARDER!” The scream from what I assumed was Watson Whore echoed loudly enough even I flinched, but it gave me a chance, as they were all deafened, I activated the shutters, and started getting the bedroom window fully open so I could slip through.
I hope it was Watson Whore, because that show was awful, and if I had to deal with copy cats, trying the same raunchy terrible ideas that Jun would inevitably watch cause his taste was shit. I’d probably break the TV.
Thinking all that I leveraged myself through the window, flipped in, and landed quietly, before hurrying and hiding behind the desk that was in the corner. As the noise of the TV cut off… Quiet.
Good.
I reached over for the safe, hidden under the desk pulling up the carpet that thankfully was already cut hiding the entire thing. Quickly tapping in the code, I waited a second.
Then the fucking safe beeped.
Loudly. As it opened.
My Sandy activated, as I pulled it open, found the Unity inside. Grabbed it and took off. My boots were just passing through the window in a full dive as I heard the door open. No time to stop, they would check the window.
I reached out, grabbed the patio bars, and used them to angle and control my descent. Doing it one handed was a pain in the ass, but I managed, jumping down a floor at a time, and then rolling away when I hit the ground floor.
I walked casually once I was up, and I just managed to appear normal when I heard a shout from above from the officers.
Gig complete…Mostly.
Fucking hell Wakako. You better pay extra for this shit.
Comments
Sloth
I hope Motoko uses the deal to finally get some cool new chrome that will finally raise her Cool stat beyond 10. I wonder if fashionware like technohair or chemskin would raise Cool
Bat
Fantastic chapter! Loving the rockerboy! Curios if she will go for the new chrome.
lizard King
With a small note attached towards it. If you piss me off this will be you.
Neferyti
The assistant wakes up to Scav head next to him in bed. Classics are classics for a reason.
