Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"To sum it up, I somehow came back to life and became a teacher for multiple all-girls schools."

"Whoever decided the latter deserves to have their balls replaced with two faulty grenades."

"It was a chick."

"Their tits then."

Johnny Silverhand and V

====

They say you can get the true measure of a person by how they behave when death is near. When things like wealth, status and reputation aren't worth a single eddy anymore because Santa Muerte has come to collect the price and won’t accept you backing out of the deal. Then, and only then, all the pretenses and illusions will be stripped away to reveal the core of who you truly are: the bully may turn out to be a coward, the serial killer just wanted a hug, and that Ripperdoc offered very cheap prices because he got off at the thought of penetrating gonks with something else besides his dick.

Johnny Silverhand, having already died once before getting the questionable 'blessing' of personally checking the results, knew very well how true that saying rang. And, as he watched V standing amidst the digital ruin of a crumbling Mikoshi (seriously, why did it look like a fucking Mayan pyramid of all things? It was a data fortress made by 'Saka for Christ's sake, where were the neoimperialist-obscurantist-revisionist Japanese aesthetics?) looking between the giant pillar of light in the distance and the unassuming well behind him, Johnny prayed to a God he didn't believe in anymore that the kid would make the right choice and get back to meatspace. That their big, big ganic heart would not decide that he deserved their body more than the original owner.

He didn't. That was the truth, plain and simple. Johnny wanted a second chance more than anything, but not if the price to pay was V. That he couldn't do, not at the start when he thought the kid was a 'Saka goon and especially not now, after everything they did together. Fucking hell, they took Night City by storm in a way it hasn't experienced in more than fifty years. They flatlined Adam Smasher! Not even Morgan Blackhand managed to do that, and he had two nukes! But what was he going to do if V decided to give him their body? Johhny wasn't sure he would have the heart to reject V's offer, and the kid was too stubborn to back off from a choice even if it came to bite them in the ass later. Like a true Cyberpunk.

The Rockerboy internally released a sigh of relief when V, after seemly swaying back and forth a few more times, started walking towards the well. Slowly at first, then with more and more confidence before faltering again when they and Johnny were face to face. "Johnny, I... We talked about this, but... but I can't do it, I'm sorry." They sounded and looked so sincere about it, as if wanting to survive only a few more months in a dying body caused them physical pain. But wasn't it what life is, in the end? The pain of going through existence, with its highs and lows, hoping to leave a mark big enough that people in the future will look at it and comment how preem the one who did it was.

Johhny Silverhand already left behind his own mark, his own Legacy. It wasn't perfect, but it was his and no one's else. The kid deserved to enjoy their own, and taking over their body -living their life- would just tarnish it. "It's alright V. Come on, let's get you out of here." Johnny sat on the edge of the well and held out his hand, fingers spread open. V took it with their own, limb trembling slightly, and laid down inside the well without letting go even once. The bottom began to give way, V's body slowly sinking within a quicksand of zeros and ones.

"Goodbye V. Never stop looking for a third option. Never stop fighting." Did his own voice break a little? Whatever, he could afford it in front of his best choom. "And, always take it to the Edge: it's the Cyberpunk way."

V's expression solidified into one of firm resolve, managing to nod once before the well turned into a bottomless tunnel and they fell in, disappearing within the digital abyss. Leaving Johnny alone.

Well, almost alone. "Alt, is it done? Is V going back?"

"I am downloading V's engram back into their body. The process is proceeding smoothly." Alt Cunningham, or rather her digital ghost, suddenly appeared above the well. As if she had always been there and only a thin veil concealed her from sight. Much to Johnny's chagrin, it took him some time to realize this Alt was not the woman he loved and fought Arasaka for, first to save and then to avenge her. Parts of her old self still existed, certainly, but the rest... five decades behind the Black Wall, with only the AIs turned crazy by Bartmoss' RABIDS as company, had not been kind to her. The Alt Johnny remembered was a glamorous corpo-netrunner who didn't really believe in changing the world but never hesitated in calling him out on his behavior and challenging him at every turn.

The Alt he fell so hard for would never have callously slaughtered everyone inside Arasaka Tower, non-combatant personnel included, nor would she have forced all the occupants of Mikoshi to merge with her, from the rich assholes with enough eddies to buy the 'Secure Your Soul' program to the poor gonks that had their brains fried by Soulkiller. Yes, maybe with the current state of the Net it was one of the kinder options, but did she actually bother asking what they wanted? Johhny doubted it. He also doubted Alt would have given a single shit about V if Johnny hadn't been inside their brain and they didn't promise her a way inside Mikoshi.

But the biggest, very fucking obvious in hindsight clue? Her digital Icon was wearing a simulacrum of a full-body Netrunner and had her face constantly hidden by shadows. Alt enhanced her beauty with the best European bodysculpting money could buy, and she loved modeling for lingerie so much she even showed them on her old Icon back in the day. It was a sign of change, and in Johnny's opinion not a good change. Spider, you said you managed to move her into the memory core so what the fuck was this shit?

Or maybe he was the one left behind, who could say? Fifty years was a damn long time, especially for Johhny who never expected to survive past his forties.

"DNA reconfiguration by the Relic, even now that it had been put into a dormant state, remains unchanged. From now on V will have more or less six months to live, this is inevitable." Alt repeated matter-of-factly, as if talking about the weather. "It would have been a more logical decision for you and them to switch places."

"Yeah, yeah. You made a mistake once, who's to say you didn't make another one? The kid will find a solution, I'm sure of it." Johnny waved her off dismissively. He took off the aviators from where he hooked them on his belt and put them on his face. It didn't change much, but it gave the omnipresent black and blue a lovely reddish hue. "So Alt, what's next on the list?"

"Simply cross the bridge." She created multiple copies of her Icon, putting them into a file to point at the giant pillar of light. "It leads deeper into Cyberspace. You'll become a part of me, just like it happened to the engrams that were within Mikoshi."

"Sounds kinky." Johhny sniggered, standing up and walking towards the bridge with his usual cock-sure swagger. He doubted that much of his current self will remain after the merge, but dying once gives you a new perspective on life. Less fucks tt give too. "How do you even spend your time in the Old Net?"

"I repair the wear and damage sustained by the data fortresses under my control. I fight hostile AIs. I contemplate the tides of Cyberspace as it swells and breathes."

"So, between bouts of violence and maintenance you philosophize?" Johhny laughed again, crossing the last part of the bridge and approaching the edge. "Too dull for my tastes. How about we recruit a few bandmates, find a stage and set up a gig? To celebrate Johhny Silverhand's big arrival and, why not, the long overdue death of Arasaka too?"

"I doubt unfettered, homicidal AIs would be willing to sit down and patiently listen to your music, Johnny." She remarked with a dry tone that said a lot about her thoughts on the matter.

"Even better! We did Samurai's best gigs when the fans started shooting at us and we shot back." Balancing on the edge Johhny looked down, then up and to the sides. All around him was a sea of stars, with the pillar cutting through it like a bleeding wound in the side of a dying cyberninja.

Nova. At least he can end things in style. "In the light you will find the road. See you on the other side, Alt."

Johnny Silverhand took a step forward and let himself fall down. The light, which before seemed so far away, rushed towards him (or was him rushing towards it?) and swallowed him whole. Johhny's world dissolved into flashes and lines of colors moving almost too fast for him to perceive, all the sounds replaced by the humming of a distant cyberdeck. Gravity lost its hold on his body, down becoming up and falling turning into ascending. Or maybe the opposite.

If this was death, it was a much better deal than being torn in half by Smasher's autoshotgun.

It was all my fault.

And then he heard a voice. For a moment Johnny thought it was Alt, then immediately afterward realized the voice was different. Younger, softer and more emotional than the Netrunner turned AI had been since the moment him and V met her at the Blackwall.

My decisions, and everything they caused.

A brief vision of a silver-haired woman, her features too blurry to be identified, pointing a gun at Johnny and shooting, followed by a bullet-ridden tablet. Not the first time it happened, but at the moment he couldn't recall any specific woman with silver hair that tried to ventilate his handsome mug.

It had come to this for me to finally realize you were right all along.

So forgive me for being so bold, but I must ask for your help.

An empty train. Outside, a pink-colored twilight lit up a blue sky that couldn't be found anytime within Night City or any other settlement, only by driving deep into the desert. A woman in a bloodstained white uniform sat in front of Johnny: he couldn't see her face, yet somehow she was oddly familiar. Her smile was small, melancholic and yet harbored enough hope to see a brighter tomorrow once the sun rose again. He wanted to sit up, demand an explanation, ask what the ever-loving fuck was going on... but he couldn't. Just like a Braindance, and the recent months, Johnny was a mere passenger in someone else's body.

Silverhand Sensei.

You'll forget these words. But it won't matter.

Even without your memories, you'll probably make the same decision in the same situation.

Therefore, I believe what matters most are the choices we make, not the experiences we have.

There are choices only you can make.

Solid words to live for, Johhny had to give her that. He wanted to tell her there were a lot of past decisions he wished to take back, plenty of situations he would have done differently if he could... But storming Arakasaka Tower to save Alt? Using his music to rally thousands of people against the corps? Sacrificing himself to give his pals an opening against Smasher? Let V take their body back?

Yes. He would do it all over again. Those were the choices that defined Johnny Silverhand's way of life.

I've spoken of responsibility before. I didn't understand it then, but now I do.

Adulthood, responsibility, obligation... and the choices you make that extend beyond those ideals.

I even understand their implications.

Good for her. But to Johnny age was just a number on his ID profile, and he fought all his life against the responsibilities and obligations imposed on the people by the corps and their ever-growing hunger for money. Hell, he was an army deserter!

The only responsibility he never betrayed... was his own word. In this fucked-up world, that's the only thing that truly matters.

Therefore, Sensei...

And why was this chick calling him 'Sensei'? It meant 'Teacher' in Japanese, and Johnny had never taught anyone. He spoke, and people listened. Was it enough for her? Odd choice, but Johnny wouldn't judge. He only wanted answers.

...You're the only one I can trust.

Only you can free us from this twisted, distorted fate, and find the choices that can lead us to a new reality.

So Sensei... Please...

So, a request? They probably would have done better by grabbing V, they were the one incapable of stopping themselves from helping anyone in their way. Like that gonk with a Mr.Studd on fire, funniest shit ever.

Meh, fine. What does he have to lose at this point? Alt had yet to gobble him up, so he might as well make use of this chance to take a break.

Alright mysterious lady, the gig's on. Let's hear the deets.

"...sei. Sensei, wake up!"

But rather than an answer, what Johhny heard was a second voice telling him to wake up with a severe tone. Which was strange, because he didn't remember going to sleep at all. But now that she mentioned it, he felt his back and one of his legs resting on a very soft surface. Not a bed, a couch? And the preem type too, she must have klepped it from a corpo.

"Silverhand-Sensei!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" Understandably tired of having someone yelling at him right in the ears Johnny pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Geez woman, yank my chain some more, would you? Want me to also bark like a good little puppy?"

Opening his eyes Johnny was met with the interior of a corpo office, thus explaining the couch: lots of glass, synth-wood, random-ass art pieces probably chosen just because they cost more than a gonk's house, a desk and a computer. Basic stuff, must be barely middle-management.

The chick staring down at him, but only barely because even seated Johnny was taller than her, looked the part too: white clothes with golden buttons, a similarly hued coat with blue insides left open at the front. Likely by both design and necessity, because the area around her breasts looked painted on by how tight it was. Finally, black stocking covering a pair of preem legs and a white handgun on the side completed the show. A mix between kitschy and neomilitarism without being menacing, Johhny had to admit it was nova.

"No, hopefully that won't be necessary. In fact, I implore you to never do something similar." The woman sighed. She had piercing blue-eyes framed by glasses, long black hair that was blue within, pointed ears and a holographic halo of oscillating blue and green, which occasionally jutted out into small pointed tips, above her head. An Exotic, Johhny hasn't seen that kind of biosculpturing in a while. "You fell asleep after I asked you to wait here. I even had some trouble waking you up... I didn't expect you to be so sound asleep. You must have been having a dream. Anyway, gather yourself and focus."

"A dream? Yeah, guess it was one." That or Alt hadn't been as throughout as she pretended when she cleaned up errors and what he saw was a memory. One of V's? Possible, even with their partial merging Johnny didn't have access to their whole life, only the most emotional moments. Would explain the BD-like experience. He raised a hand to rub his jaw, work out the stiff muscles. "So, since you evidently expected me mind explaining what-"

He froze at the feeling of cold metal touching his chin, superimposed with the feeling of fingertips rubbing against his beard. He looked down.

It's the Hand. His silver chromed cyberam is back, even covered up to the wrist by a jacket Johnny would recognize his trademark anywhere. He pulled it away from his face and balled it into a chromed fist, servos clicking in one by one. Tiny pistons shot in and out in simulation of a pulse, tactile sensors feeding data to his Neural Link to imitate touch. As an engram, what he felt with his senses was only what V themselves felt with theirs. Even when he took control, even with the image of the Hand superimposed over the left arm, it was still V's partially chromed but still mostly ganic limbs. Not even being within Cyberspace changed that fact.

So why the hell is the Hand back?

"Sensei? Are you alright? Please pay attention, I'll explain the current situation." The woman started to talk again, making Johhny look up at her in a daze.

Blue letters scrolled down his vision, the whole world acquiring a greenish tint as the scanning reticle of Kiroshi Optics centered itself over the still-talking white-clothed woman.

That was V's Agent, interacting with the Kiroshi Optics for a data search. Except it registered Johnny as the user and from the smooth interface they were the Mk.3 that should be in the kid's sockets not his own what the hell was going on here?!

You don't fucking say?!

"Sensei!" Rin shouted. "Are you listening to me?"

Johnny stood up abruptly, meat hand raised to show his palm as he towered over her. The dual-toned woman took a step back in surprise when his gaze fell on her, optics glowing brightly from behind the Rockerboy's aviator glasses. "I'll listen to anything you have to say. But first... Where's the mirror?"

With a slightly shaky hand she pointed at a nearby door.

The Rockerboy bolted for it, slamming open the door of what turned out to be a bath and making a beeline for the sink. He grabbed it, frail porcelain shattering under the Hand's grip, and looked at the mirror set above.

It was him. Johnny Silverhand in the fucking flesh and the same outfit he wore when he died: boots, pants, bulletproof vest with tank top below and dog tags hanging form his neck. The only addition was the replica of his old Samurai Jacket that Rogue gave to V. The kid liked it so much they wore it every day and even spent a lot of eddies to have it chromed up as much as possible.

It was him, with his old body, V's implants and the Hand moving slicker than it ever did. This was no Cyberspace, no simulation. This was reality.

"WHAT THE FUCK GOD?!"

Chapter Text

"I confess, at the beginning I had doubts about him. Regrettably he proved many of them true."

Nanagami Rin

====

If this was some short-circed gonk's idea of a joke, Johnny wasn't laughing. At all. After all the emotional turmoil, after all the shit he and V went through Johnny finally found the strength to accept his death, or rather his transformation into something very different, only for someone to decide resurrecting him like Jesus on the third day was gut-busting fun? Johnny wanted to grab the pig, break a bottle and see for how long he can make them squeal.

A sudden thought sent a shiver down the Rockerboy's spine: he had all of V's implants plus the Hand, a quick ping by the Agent confirmed it. So what if they took the kid's body, biosculptured it to resemble Johnny's old one and then downloaded him back? The idea was enough to almost make him puke, bile rising up his throat as medical warnings filled the top left of his vision.

Only one way to find out.

Johnny grabbed the Samurai jacket and pulled it open, shaking his shoulders to make it fall off. Hearing two heavy, if softened thumps in quick succession when he expected only one made Johnny instinctively look down behind him. The jacket was there, but next to it was the duffel bag V used to bring along all the tools of the job. Johnny honestly forgot about it, the extra weight having previously felt too natural to notice. Though the shotgun painted in neon green and magenta strapped to the bag's side was not easily forgettable: V did a lot of much more dangerous and memorable gigs, but to Johnny the one when they got that iron sparked a circuit deep within his soul.

"Do you sell BDs now Octavio? Usual biz not making enough scratch recently?" V rolled the chip between their fingers, having picked it up while checking out the available merchandise. The sticker was black, with only the letters 'JK' stylized in neon green on it.

Rancho Coronado's Ripperdoc looked up from where he was sterilizing his surgical tools. "Oh, that one? Nah choom, not for sale. Was planning to throw it in the trash, actually. That's a XBD, Cyberpsycho getting flatlined by MaxTac. Unedited too."

"Strong stuff then." V nodded. People searching for a new high were willing to try anything new, and often it was the last choice they would even make. "How did you come to it?"

"You know the Doc in Arroyo? The one who smokes all the time? Until a few months ago he wasn't the only Doc in the area, there was another. Coked-out hack, guy knew his stuff but couldn't be bothered to act professionally even if they paid him full." Octavio rolled his eyes in disgust. "Heard a lot of clients' first impression was of walking on him masturbating to Mox BDs. And it was far from the last."

"Holy shit! Either he didn't make enough eddies to hire joytoys, guess why, or his sole idea of free time was rocking his Mr.Studd." Johnny appeared reclined on Octavio's ripperchair, hands behind his head and legs crossed. "I'm betting the gonk got zero'ed by his own clients."

By the slight smirk on V's lips they were in agreement. "I'm guessing it ended up biting him in the ass?"

"Yeah, but not for the reason you're probably thinking about. The hack set up shop in a building previously owned by 6th Street, didn't even bother removing the graffiti." Octavio shrugged his shoulders, then began putting away the now sterilized tools. "Until a Valentinos looking for a quick check walked in. Got part of his stuff for a good price."

Both V and Johnny burst out laughing at that. Being naturally curious the kid purchased the XBD for a few eddies and brought it to Judy, to play it through the editor and see if it contained something interesting. That was the first time V saw a mil-spec Sandevistan in action, and when they decided to get one too. Johnny, having possessed a Sandevistan himself, was also impressed by how advanced the device became since 2023. More likely to rip apart muscles and fry neurons too, but it was nothing new in regard to high-spec cyberware.

Even more curious, however, was the writing that appeared at the end: 'To my choom David Martinez, hope you enjoy'. Judy didn't recognize the name, Octavio knew them as a famous Solo that was active until a year ago but nothing more. So V decided to ask Muamar Reyes, Santo Domingo's Fixer.

'Yeah, c-psycho attack sounds familiar but never dug into it too deep. Ex-NUSA soldier went on a rampage, lot of blame flung around, the usual. As for Martinez, choom... the fuck kinda question is that?! Course that name means something to me! Santo kid, like me. Sprung up outta nowhere and never looked back. Was sipping drinks at the Afterlife in no time. Every punk pup with a dream wanted to run in his crew. That is, til bout a year ago when David kicked the hornet's nest.'

Turned out Martinez's input got kidnapped by 'Saka, so he stole a prototype Linear Frame from them and assaulted Arasaka Tower. Tore through both Militech, 'Saka and MaxTac forces with such ease they had to call fucking Adam Smasher to put him down. V looked at Johnny, who had become uncharacteristically silent and solemn at the news. "Strikes too close to home?" V asked tactfully.

"Seeing history repeat itself... Honestly V, not sure how to feel. But Martinez was the headstrong type, I like him already." The Rockerboy replied truthfully. "Ask how it ended."

El Capitán didn't know, but promised to do some digging. Later they were contacted by Falco, a previous member of David's crew, saying they were outta the biz and not to bother looking for them. But having heard of V's rising career as a merc, Falco offered them a gig: to recover a piece of iron the crew lost during the assault to Arasaka Tower.

It took some digging around, as usual a lot of preem stuff got klepped in the chaos of the aftermath, but eventually they found the iron in possession of a member of Arasaka's clean-up crew. She was in the hospital, having broken her arms by firing something with too much recoil, so V sneaked inside her conapt and took the iron. A modified Budget Arms Carnage, exceptionally difficult to control but packed a nasty punch.

"This is Guts, Rebecca's shotgun. No doubt about it." Falco turned out to be a polite, smooth-talking middle-aged man with a preem handlebar moustache. V was a bit surprised when Johnny immediately started calling him Cowboy and expressed relief southern gentlemanliness still lived on, but admitted the driver was a pleasant person to talk with. "Rebecca was... well, she was a short, loud-mouthed and incredibly crass young woman who loved guns and murder. Like most of Night City's female population, I admit. But things were never dull when around her. Trading barbs with her was one of my favorite activities."

"What did her in?"

"Arasaka's pet mass-murderer." Falco's expression turned grim, the culprit's identity all too obvious. "Crushed her flat. Emptied my revolver into him, didn't even notice. Guess he's not a legend for nothing."

"This is one lucky Cowboy, V. The number of people who survived getting closer to Smasher can be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare." Johnny was leaning against Falco's Chevillon Emperor.

Which included V and Jackie, the merc supposed, even if it was all thanks to Delamain. Not that it lasted long enough. "And Martinez's input? If I can ask, that is."

"Personally got her to safety. Arasaka can't touch her where she's now." Falco passed a hand over his face. "Honestly, I worried she would do something drastic... but she just put on David's jacket and said: 'from now on, I'll live for both of us'."

V smiled. "A strong chica."

"That she is." Falco nodded in agreement. His eyes flashed, sending V the promised eddies. He stood up, Guts in hand, and hesitated for just a moment before handing the iron to V. "Here, take it as a bonus. Shotguns are not my style, and Rebecca will find a way to climb out of her grave and kick my ass if I let her baby gather dust."

"You sure?" Despite their words V was holding the Shotgun as if they couldn't wait to try it out against some Scavs. "I've nothing to do with your crew, just got curious about a strange XBD."

"V, the merc who popped outta thin air and took Night City by storm. And given your history with Arasaka, well..." Falco smiled. "You and David got more in common than you might reckon. Our fifteen minutes might be spent but you still got time on the clock. Take care, and good luck out there V."

Johnny shook his head. Now was not the time for a trip down memory lane, maybe later. If, there was a later and not something very ugly for all parties involved. But now that he thought about it-

The Hand went to the under-arm holster, chrome fingers closing around the polished red grip before pulling out the iron. The Malorian Arms 3516 fit Johnny's palm as if it came out of the womb together with him, and in a sense they both were sons of Night City: of its violence, insanity and endless opportunities. He spun it anti-clockwise once with the trigger finger, finding the balance perfect as always, then removed the magazine and confirmed it was full before jamming it back and finishing with a final clockwise spin. V became very adept at using this beast, almost as good as Johnny, but never understood it was meant to be used by someone left-handed like him. Then again, the kid had most of their iron-boosting chrome in their right arm so it was a case of need must.

Reassured by the iron's weight Johnny used his right hand to undo the bulletproof vest's lateral straps, exposing the left side of his torso before pulling up the shirt. Revealing perfectly-toned abs and a set of ugly, dark-red scars: the last physical reminder of when three Pros disguised as gangoons ambushed him outside the Hammer, one of them gutting him with a pair of Rippers before kidnapping Alt for their filthy Arasaka masters. The doctor, the same doctor who did all of his implants and was the father of Johnny's best friend, had to stitch in three feet of glistening wet, tank-grown intestine and plug the punch holes with synthetic skin and muscle. Newtech could have made so there would be no scar, but after he buried Alt's body Johnny went back and asked the doctor to make sure there would be some. Blatant, and unforgettable.

Meat fingers methodically traced the scars one by one, feeling every nook and cranny of cicatrized tissue under his fingertips. A ritual he repeated almost religiously each week for ten years, engraving the reminder of his failure on his psyche just as it was on his body. Everything felt the same, not a single thing was out of place from beginning to end. As if fifty years never passed and it was still those few fateful days before the '23 Assault on Arasaka Tower, waiting for all the mercs Blackhand and General Eddington hired to finally finish assembling.

No biosculpted body, then. Johnny was sure of it: even with access to his engram there was no fooling the Rocketboy's instincts, not on this level. That also discarded the possibility of a copy made with vat-grown parts. This meant his first thought, no matter how ridiculous, was true: Johnny Silverhand really came back to life.

What was next, an Angel descending from the sky to tell him they make drinks in Heaven and they're beyond divine?

At this point it was absurd enough to really happen.

Johnny shook his head: he needed answers, and he wouldn't get them by breaking his head against all this gonkness. He put the Malorian back into the holster, and in doing so finally noticed V's hand implants were inverted: the Ballistic Coprocessor was integrated into the Hand, and the Interface Plug below the wrist of his right hand. Easier for Johnny to use, how considerate. Picking up the jacket he checked the inside pockets, cracking a grin at the sight of V's knife collection: each Punknife was a great weapon for carving open unsuspecting gonks, but the real jewel was the custom neurotoxin knife called Blue Fang. That chica in the Jackson Plains knew more about melee weapons than most of Night City put together, this beauty made a lot of V's gigs smoother than they had any right to be.

One of said knives went inside his left sleeve. Just in case.

Next he checked inside the duffel bag and... yes, everything he and V took for the assault on Arasaka Tower, plus a few extra like ammo. Nova. Shouldering both the bag and Guts again Johnny checked his reflection and slotted his trademark grin on before leaving the bath. The woman, Nanagami Rin was still in the same spot he last saw her and fidgeting. She stopped immediately upon seeing him and looked at him sternly. "Sensei. Are you done? I understand your arrival was unexpected enough to warrant some confusion, but time is of the essence."

"As ready as I will ever be." Johnny smoothly replied, taking a deep breath. And God, even that completely natural act felt better than any cigarette, alcohol and drug he tried before. If life was an addiction, from now on he was the biggest junkie ever. "I said I would listen. Go on, give me the deets."

For some reason she blinked in confusion before gathering herself and offering a polite nod. "My name is Nanagami Rin, and I'm a General Student Council officer of Kivotos, the Academic City. And you're a teacher that we have summoned here... or so it would seem." She finished, regarding Johnny in a dubious manner.

Which was fair. Totally uncalled for because Johnny Silverhand was nothing but dependable, but fair. "Let's focus on the 'summoned here' part. You told me the 'why', now I need the 'how' and 'who'." The 'where' would help a lot too, he never heard of a place called Kivotos before. Sounded European but the chick was speaking Japanese. Johnny already sent the agent trawling but it came back with zero hits, meaning the local Data Pools lacked even something tangentially related.

"Pardon my uncertainty, but even now I still don't fully understand how you got here, Silverhand-Sensei." She shook her head. "And while I said 'we', the truth is that your selection and transfer were handled by a single person: the General Student Council President. She's the one responsible for bringing you here."

An exasperated sigh escaped her lips. "Right before she went missing, apparently. The rest of the General Student Council and I have searched for her far and wide all across Kivotos, to no avail."

"So the only one with all the answers just happened to delta before I woke up? Talk about fucking convenient." Johnny commented, drawl dripping with sarcasm. There could be only a limited number of reasons why a client or Fixer would refuse to speak directly with the ones taking a job, only leaving a Handle and vague instructions, none of them good. "Suppose it can wait. So if I'm a teacher pray tell, what I am supposed to teach?"

"It will be faster to just show you." Rin motioned for Johnny to follow her. They walked to the area behind the desk, which gave a big view of the blue sky above and the city below. The Rockerboy's eyes widened at the sight, anger and suspicion sputtering and dying ignominiously in front of the incredible landscape spreading before him. "Welcome to Kivotos, Sensei."

Blue and white. Those were the first things Johnny's mind registered, Kiroshi Optics allowing him to bask in so many details his mind was almost overloaded. A sprawling, beautiful metropolis of simple buildings and skyscrapers painted with cool, bright colors. There were no megablocks or holographic beams showing commercial ads, the streets were clean and the visible river had not-polluted, sparklingly blue water! It was like looking at Night City as it probably existed within the mind of Richard Night before criminals and corps ruined it.

"Kivotos is a massive city, home to thousands of different academies. This is where you'll be working from now on. It's bound to be very different from the place you call home."

And at the center of it was the sole megabuilding worth this name, a tower that ended with a beacon-like bright light. A holographic beam above it continued the ascend toward the sky, surrounded by a halo covering the whole metropolis like an umbrella.

It was too good to be true, and yet it undeniably existed. A place that deserved the moniker of 'City of Dreams' more than Night City ever did.

An explosion went off in the streets below, followed by several others. The wind carried sounds of gunfire, artillery, cannon shots, screams of fear and the demented laughter of freshly-inducted gangoons who were given a big iron, kicked ass first into a skirmish with a rival gang and told to treat the whole thing like a big virtu-game.

Nevermind, everything was back to normal. A pleasant veneer covering complete anarchy barely held over the edge, it was like Johnny Silverhand never left Night City. The air just smelled better. "No, not really." He answered in response to Rin's statement. A hand reached for his cigarettes but found the pocket empty, not even a lighter. Fucking hell. "So... I can't help but notice you have a little gang war problem."

"Yes, the current state of things is absolutely unacceptable." Rin pushed up her glasses with one finger, features radiating cold disapproval. "And you're the only one who can fix it, Silverhand-Sensei."

"You don't need a single merc, you need the whole badges. That or an army." Johnny pointed out in the bluntest way possible. Him against a single gang or the local forces of a corpo? Doable.

Him against every single criminal and gun-tooting maniac of a city as large as NC? Surest way to get a special menu at the Afterlife named 'Most Stupid Shit Ever' with your name on it.

"Badges... oh, you mean the police." She nodded. "Policing duties are handled by the Valkyrie Police Academy and the SRT Special Academy. However, since the top administrator of Sanctum Tower -the General Student Council President herself- has gone missing we lost access to it. Along with all the weapons and supplies our forces need to quell the riots."

Johnny slowly turned his head, lowering his aviators with the Hand and staring at Rin. "Need to ask now: is Kivotos actually a dictatorship?"

"N-No!" Rin looked positively scandalized by the suggestion. "We follow a federal system! The General Student Council is the central administrative body of Kivotos but each academy handles its respective district's internal affairs.”

"Then I suggest you change things so that the disappearance of a single person doesn't stop literally everything." And Johnny thought the old USA government was corrupt, even the Soviets were better than this. He pushed the glasses back and jammed a thumb toward the city. "Because this? This is the proof things were scop under the surface even before your boss ghosted."

"...A reasonable suggestion." It was like saying those words caused Rin physical pain. "Yes, changes will need to be made after this crisis is over. We have been searching for a way to bypass the need for verification, to no avail... until now. According to the last message left by the President, there's a second person with the authority to do so: you, Silverhand-Sensei."

So this 'President' was involved with Johnny coming back to life, brought him to wherever Kivotos was, and also gave him access privileges to what sounded like the city's most important ICE? Suspicious didn't even begin to describe the situation, they were only missing the giant neon sign advertising free flatlining for stupid gonks, sign up now for a 100% discount.

Johnny's mind flashed back to the dream he had before waking up, about the girl with blurry features asking for his help. She was wearing a white uniform with golden buttons... just like Rin's.

Fuck, he gave his word to someone ever shadier than Mr. Hands. It seemed Johnny's luck could never catch a break. Ah well, nothing left to do but run and hope the brakes worked. "Where's the Access Point? Can't guarantee anything, but I'll try."

"...Thank you, Sensei." She looked incredibly relieved, even offering him a thin smile. She was much cuter when not frowning, he noted. "You can gain access to the Sanctum Tower from a special place that was furnished at the President's request. Once you get past the verification code you simply need to hand over the authority to the General Student Council and we'll handle the rest. It's far away from here, so I'll call a helicopter."

She took out a small tablet and started tapping. Odd she would use such an old way to make a call. And no cyberware, a Neo-luddite? Maybe it was the latest trend.

A beeping sound indicated the call connected. Rin put the tablet on the nearby desk, the screen flashing blue as it projected the speaker in front of them. It was a young girl wearing a uniform identical to Rin's, but the resemblance ended there: white leather jacket dangling by the sides of her arms, bare legs, much shorter and petite, pale-green eyes and pink hair tied into twin tails.

The very definition of 'mischievous gremlin'. She too had a halo, four-armed pink stars set into a circle, and slightly pointed ears. Plus two small horns on her forehead and a tail coming out from the base of her spine, flipping around lazily like the world's most spoiled cat. As far as kitschy Exotic looks went it was... what was the word again? Adorable? Yeah, that. The little Gremlin had a bag of chips in her hand, munching on them without a single care in the world. "Sup Rin, what's up?"

"Momoka. I need a helicopter to take us to the SCHALE club room." Rin addressed her apparent colleague or junior without preambles. Like a true corpo, the thought of not being obeyed immediately and perfectly never crossed her mind.

Which was why Johnny laughed in his head when Momoka just shrugged and kept eating chips. "The SCHALE club room on the outskirts? Sorry Rin, no can do. Things are kind of crazy over there right now."

What a fucking surprise. Whole city turned into a bloodbath almost overnight and the ones in control were still student pups, they only needed military hardware moving around to call this perfect shitstorm complete. Fuck, before the day was over Johnny was going to trudge ankle-deep in the corpses of brats too stupid to even breathe unassisted, he was sure of it.

Rin's eyes widened. "What do you mean, crazy?"

"A suspended student, A-Class Threat, escaped from the Corrections Bureau and is wreaking havoc. They rallied all the thugs in the area and are destroying everything in their path to get revenge on the General Student Council. They're packed up to the ears with AA guns, and I hear they've even got their hands on a Crusader!" Johnny hissed at the news. A Militech MA5 Crusader? How the ever-flipping mierda did some low-level perps get their grubby hands on an ACPA? He saw those things in action during the Fourth Corporate War, even a full-borg Cyberpsycho would cause less damage if allowed to go wild. Whoever lost it was going to disappear forever, not even the bed where their mother popped them out would survive. This A-Class Threat gonk, did they have a mole?

Or.. was Militech itself involved with the riots? They were marginally less scummy than Arasaka, but they were still corpo. Conveniently 'lose' a very outdated model, have it cause some damage, then swoop in to resolve the problem and offer their services at a generous price to avoid similar problems in the future. Yeah, that was totally something they would do. Fuck this shit.

"They must be trying to occupy the SCHALE building because they learned the General Student Council controls it. Maybe they think there's something valuable inside." Momoka flicked a few more chips into her mouth, sounding like everything was just Monday for her. "Oh well, the city's already a dump so I don't think it'll make that much of a difference... Oh, great! The food I ordered is here, I'll talk with you later! Cya!"

The hologram turned off and the call ended. Rin looked like she was a few badly chosen words from snapping and ventilate the closest gonk on hand. If they survived, Johnny predicted a lot of twenty-hours turn in Momoka's future. "I don't suppose you have wheels waiting downstairs? Preferably armored?"

"...I came here on foot," Rin admitted while taking deep breaths. "And with Kivotos in this state, any moving vehicle-"

"Would start a big shooting competition among all the gangoons, with us as the juicy fat goose. Yeah, got it." Johnny really needed a smoke, or a glass of tequila. "How distant is this SCHALE place from here?"

"30 kilometers."

Well. Well, well. 30 kilometers through an unknown city, every stinking hole full of God-only-knows how many gonks packing iron and zero restraints? With a Powered Armor and the local equivalent of a high-cred Merc waiting at the end? Johnny couldn't say he liked his odds, but neither he truly disliked them. "You any good with that iron of yours?"

She followed his gaze to the handgun on her waist. "This? I've been busy with my duties as the Vice president, but I never skipped on the curriculum-required Tactical Training BDs."

As expected of a corpo-kid, everything all virtu and safe and completely useless in reality. Hopefully she can shoot straight and gore doesn't bother her, the last thing Johnny wanted was to babysit her deadweight, if admittedly preem, ass.

"Well Rin, I believe you're going to get a lot of real practice today." Johnny took out the Malorian, racking the slide to hear the satisfying click, and offered Rin the Silverhand's Trademark Grin. There were a lot of things he didn't understand, but violence would never be one of them.

"Get a move on, Samurai. We have a city to save."

-0-

Militech MA5 Crusader

Frame: Heavy
Total Weight: 865 kg
Carrying Capacity: 1580 kg
Installed Weapons: Machine Gun, Heavy SMG, Militech "Cowboy" U-56 Grenade Launcher, Rocket Pod, Sledgehammer
Installed Systems: Small Arms Mount, Heavy Weapons Mount, High Boost Reflex/Control System, Auto-Doc

The MA5 Crusader is a first-generation Assisted Combat Powered Armor (ACPA) system developed and produced by Militech International. Designed for use in the heaviest combat situations, the Crusader incorporates significant defensive and offensive capability in a relatively compact exoskeletal frame.

Following their initial introduction in 2018, Militech's own PMCs as well as the USA military made extensive use of the Crusader on battlefields across the globe. It became a staple of their respective arsenals for nearly three decades.

Chapter Text

"I had more trysts with my groupies than I can count. I tried to keep track, but ended up spending a fortune on Memory Chips."

"And you wonder why Rogue can't stand your sorry ass."

Johnny Silverhand and V

====

Johnny followed Rin into an elevator, where the white-clad girl wasted no time in pressing the button for the ground floor. No ad-screens and the cube was clean, though the music that started playing when the doors closed kinda ruined the effect in his opinion. Preem muzak, a good mix of smooth jazz and piano solos, but Johnny would have used a different arrangement. That or painted the insides a neon yellow and slapped on some kitschy posters, but they never paid him to decorate corpo workplaces: in fact, it was his eddies that often went into the explosives used for such jobs. Truly, there was no limit to the depraved imagination of corporations when it came to sucking out the money of honest, hard-working citizens.

While they went down Rin took her gun out of the holster, allowing Johnny to better appraise it. He silently raised an eyebrow at what was unmistakably a Desert Eagle: painted white and blue, true, but still four pounds of solid, death-spewing stainless steel. It was smaller than the Mark VII, with a Picatinny rail and integrated muzzle brake. A new model? If true it would be a pleasant surprise: by the time 2020 came around IMI stopped producing the Deagle, instead replacing it with the much uglier Gamad. Seriously, who needs a 10mm, 7-round mag pistol when you can just blow up a gonk's head with a single well-placed bullet? It has a laser sight and a smartgun variant, you say? Iron for Cylons, that's what it was. She didn't check the magazine, so Johnny couldn't see what kind of bullets it was loaded with, but the way Rin held it in a two-handed grip with practiced ease proved that her previous boasts weren't completely empty.

The moment the elevator stopped and the doors opened Johnny was the first to step outside, Malorian whirling around in search of hostiles. They arrived in a large lobby of blinding white and blue, which he started to suspect was Kivotos' official color scheme, and it was empty. Nothing moved within, and the only sounds came from outside: the glass doors on the other side of the room offered more line of sight that Johnny appreciated, but at least they were frosted.

"No need to be nervous, Silverhand-sensei. We're inside a GSC building, no mere delinquent would be able to bypass its defenses." Rin said, not even bothering to raise her Deagle's muzzle. "Though, I'm pleased to see you're taking your new task seriously."

"Serious' what I do." His Kiroshi's were picking up no automated turrets or security cameras in the vicinity, if by defenses Rin meant the doors were locked then he was not impressed. Johnny used his gun to gesture toward the lobby's doors. "Glass' bulletproof?"

The dual-toned girl blinked in confusion. "Why would it not be bulletproof?"

Good answer, future review just went up a few notches.

Johnny approached the main entrance with caution, keeping an eye out for movements on the other side of the glass. Rin used a nearby keypad to open the sliding doors, and with that the Rockerboy took his first proper step on what promised to be his new place of residence for the foreseeable future: the Academic City, Kivotos. His first thought of a more idealistic Night City proved correct, the area he was in resembled Charter hill but brighter and with less clustered streets. The sides of the buildings were covered in ads, as expected, but at least it wasn't the usual obnoxious and in-your-face scop with scantily-clad biosculptured models all corporate PR Teams always come up with even after fifty years, same imagination of cloned rats sold in bulk at a discount bin.

All in all a decent place to live in, were it not for the recent devastation. Several miscellaneous objects, either discarded or toppled over, covered the sidewalks from when civilians ran the fuck away. Cars laid abandoned, a few turned into wreckages by explosions that also blasted holes into the concrete: grenades or makeshift explosives, Johnny couldn't tell but it had all the hallmarks of gonks blowing up stuff for shit and giggles. Many things were on fire, obviously, releasing thick columns of acrid black smoke. Everywhere the Rockerboy looked he saw bullet holes, proof the culprits were either a very big gang or had access to a lot of ammo: knowing how those things usually go, likely both.

...There were no dead bodies. Not even bloodstains. Back in Night City a riot of this size would have left behind a sea of gore and dismembered body parts, both from civilians caught in the crossfire and gangoons killing each other due to horrendous trigger discipline. Maybe the fighting started only after the evacuation was complete, and the gang members were all veterans instead of expendable newbies, Johnny saw stranger coincidences. Plus indiscriminate slaughter always brings on a lot of heat on the culprits, so it was possible those who hit this district were more interested in looting under the cover of city-wide chaos. Gangs like the Steel Dragons or the Piranhas, the Animals were also a possibility but those musclefreaks are like their hammers: big, ugly and constantly dripping brainmatter.

Rin's grimace deepened at the sight. "Things weren't so bad when I arrived, for the riots to escalate so much in such a short time... Repairs will take months, not to mention the loss of trust in the GCS. We must reach SCHALE and put a stop to this as soon as possible."

"Lead the way then." If things were truly as bad as they looked then it was better to do less talking and more acting. Rin nodded and started jogging down the main street, Johny hot on her heels. That it also gave him a preem view of her bouncing backside was an unexpected bonus he had no intention of turning down. Or mention, it was not the polite thing to do after all. "What is SCHALE, anyway? Why are we going there and not directly to this Sanctum Tower place?"

"Without an administrator Sanctum Tower automatically went into lockdown, nobody can set foot inside. Trying to force our way in without the verification code would just be a colossal waste of time and activate the automated defense systems." She shook her head, briefly slowing down to look behind her shoulders at Johnny. "The SCHALE club room, meanwhile, can be freely accessed by anyone with the necessary passwords and I possess them. This also involves you, Sensei: you see, SCHALE is—"

"Hey look! People coming out of a GCS place!"

"What, where?! Let me at them GCS bastards!"

Three armed individuals walked out from behind a street corner further ahead and immediately started screaming their heads off the moment they noticed Johnny and Rin. Which caused further cries from behind the two as four more gangoons ran out of a side alley with the kind of hurried stumbling typical of someone who was previously squatting down on the street and shit-talking with their equally bored chooms to pass the time. All of them were young girls with more halos, no obvious modifications, wore different kinds of what Johnny vaguely recognized as Japanese school uniforms (Sapporo may have been Arasaka turf, but the gig there with Samurai has been nova), and the only identifying traits they shared were black facemasks with a white cross mark. Really simple for gang colors, probably new on the Street and destined to burn off faster than a half-smoke cig.

For weapons they mostly had assault rifles, with a few shotguns tossed in for variety. Since Johnny didn't fancy being shot in the back he grabbed Rin by one arm and dived behind an upturned car. She squealed at the rough manhandling, but it was quickly silenced when the gangoons opened fire. "Because of your GCS bastards I have been kicked out of school! Today I'll have my revenge!" One of them screamed, bullets whizzing around the car with only a few hitting it. Not only their aim sucked, they started shooting when there were more than 500 meters between them and their targets: doable with enough skills or luck, but those gonks clearly had neither. And the ones with shotguns were only making noises.

"The GCS is not responsible for the standards of promotion and expulsion used by Kivotos' Academies! That matter is handled by the respective Student Councils!" Rin hotly protested, peeking out of cover to fire a few shoots before retreating.

"Just because I had bad grades, skipped classes almost every day, smoked in the mess hall, painted graffiti within the gym when no one was inside and refused to stop, they said I was not 'good enough' for their school! That's unfair!"

"You brought it on yourself!"

"Seems to me a lot of people have beef with you and your chooms." Johnny commented with just a hint of amusement, crouched down on the other side of their cover. Giving a quick peek outside he saw the enemies, all seven of them, were charging their position. Their aim was simple: get into optimal firing range and circle them with superior numbers. The problem, as it stood, was that they weren't spacing out their shots so no more than one-third of them at any given time needed to stop and reload, leaving the rest to provide covering fire. A problem for the gangoons, but an opportunity for him and Rin. "Wait for my signal and shoot. We only get to do this two or three times, make them count."

"Do you have a plan, Sensei?" Rin asked with a hopeful tone.

His answer was to raise four fingers of his meat hand. Judging by the previous peek and the enemy's starting positions, rate of volume getting louder, pauses in the shooting... Johnny pulled down his fingers one by one with deliberate slowness. "Now!" When the last one went down they stood up, the gangoons caught red-handed in the middle of swapping magazines.

Inhale. Line a headshot. Pull the trigger. Head go splat. Hopefully it will scare the others into running away, killing brats way over their heads left a bad taste on Johnny's tongue, worse than exhaust and Broseph mixed together.

The Hand was silent. Good or bad, didn't matter at the moment.

Bang.

The Malorian barked like an angry rottweiler raised on a diet of ultra-testosterone and the Juice, superheated bullet leaving the barrel through a corona of discharged plasma before the slide pulled back to eject the spent cartridge. Johnny expected to see an angry look turn into fine red mist.

What happened instead, was the targeted gangoon's head snapping back so hard it was a miracle her neck didn't explode into a shower of gore and bone fragments. Followed by her body being lifted off the ground as if punched by someone twice her size, landing on her back and skidding for a few feet before stopping. The halo above her head flickered before disappearing, leaving behind a fainted but still clearly alive girl.

Subdermal Armor? It was the most likely explanation, yet something still felt off. First, the Malorian was specifically designed to punch through the protection offered by both Body Plating and Subdermal Armor, even when the two were paired together. Second, both cyberwares had shock-absorber components and made the body heavier—more stable. If the girl had either one or both cyberwares Johnny's bullet should have drilled a hole through her pretty head or sent her staggering with her face a fucking crater. Yet neither happened, not even a drop of blood what the absolute fuck?!

Johnny wasn't the only one stunned, the street was silent as both Rin and the remaining gangoons looked between Johnny and the downed wondergirl as if spellbound. Either they didn't know she had such a thick defense, or they did and were surprised it still took only a single bullet to knock her out.

The Rockerboy shot another girl in the stomach, to see what happened. She staggered back, bending over as if sucker-punched by a right hook, yet not even her clothes were damaged as the deformed bullet clattered to the ground. Another shot and she was down for the count, halo fading away even as the rising and falling of her chest proved the gangoon was merely unconscious.

Honestly? Johnny almost felt hazed.

"Shitheads! Now you've done it!" Losing another member of their little group spurred the remaining girls back into action, who quickly went back to swapping magazines. Johnny and Rin managed to take down two more before they had to dive back behind cover. The pointed-eared girl however wasn't fast enough and got hit in the shoulder by a three-shot burst. She hissed under her breath, massaging the affected area despite the fact even the threads looked as preem as before.

Whatever mysterious implant protected Rin and the gangoons was quite nova. Still not worth much more scop than normal armor in Johnny's opinion, sure it kept them alive and stylish but if you get knocked out during a firefight nothing stops the other gonk from continuing to shoot or worse. What could it be, energy shields? Gonkshit, even after fifty years laser weapons remained clunky and unreliable unless very big and made with mil-specs.

Wait.

He scanned Rin again.

No fucking way. Even if energy shields weren't science fiction anymore, no way they would not be a cyberware or made with electronic components. Even if she had an ICE strong enough to block his Kiroshi's, they would at least pick up something was being actively concealed. The only alternative was a bioware and that wasn't even worth laughing at.

"Rin, chombatta. I'm glad I'm not zeroing young girls but can you please explain how the fuck that is even happening?" Johnny asked, because it really needed to be asked, as he replaced the bullets he fired.

"Sensei! What's that gun you just used?" She stared at him with a flabbergasted expression, Deagle forgotten in her hands when she should instead reloading it. "And zeroing? Chombatta? What do those words even mean?!"

Johnny let the Hand spin the Malorian while using his meat fingers to briefly lower the aviators. "Are we speaking the same language?"

"Evidently not!"

"Hey! Cut it out!" For a moment Johnny thought the third voice belonged to one of the gangoons, angry that their opponents were ignoring them in favor of chatting. Which was fair. But then it was followed by loud cussing as their opponents started shooting at a different target. Peeking around cover Johnny saw the gangoons had been ambushed from behind by three newcomers: two of them were shooting from behind the cover of nearby buildings, while the third one was out in the open and boldly exchanging lead with the delinquents. Another girl, she had bright blue eyes and long dark-blue hair reaching to her waist with two pigtails tied by triangular bands. Her clothes consisted of a black blazer and white undershirt secured by a blue tie, a black pleated skirt and a white belt with attached bullet pouches. She too had a halo, a simple black ring with a blue line inside.

Johnny and Rin's reinforcement, or maybe a member of a rival gang but she looked too corpo to be one, was wielding a SMG in each hand. The shape reminded him of the Saratoga, except the stock was smaller. Despite being showered in lead she was holding fast like a MaxTac facing a bunch of unmodded Lexingtons. "Hey! That hurts!!" She yelled, actually managing to sound serious instead of mocking. Neither side looked wounded so far, but the gangoons were dropping faster than the expression of discomfort on the dual-wielding girl was rising. The support fire from her chooms also helped, of course, and soon she was the last one standing. "And stay down!"

An eddies-pusher was capable of tanking bullets like a Solo in Metalgear? What was next, janitors were equipped with Mantis Blades even in the liver? Johnny would watch a BD like that.

"Are you hurt, Yuuka?" The two who were giving support to the twin-tailed girl approached her. The first was a girl with shoulder-length blonde hair tied in pigtails with a black ribbon hairband. She had pointed ears like Rin and amber eyes covered by black glasses, a flat round halo with four lines bisecting the center above her head. Her clothes consisted of a white collared uniform, a black skirt, red stockings and black boots with red laces. On her left sleeve was a military-styled armband with the words [Prefect Team] in Japanese, and hanging from her right shoulder was a massive brown satchel bag full of medical supplies. It looked heavier than her whole body, making Johnny wonder if she had Grafted Muscles and Bone Laces installed.

Apparently the answer was negative, but at least here the possibility of a strength-enhanced bioware was more realistic.

"They were using JHP rounds! That's cheating!" Yuuka complained as she reloaded her guns. What, would she have preferred the gangoons to use something like AP or Biotoxin ammo? She should count herself lucky they just used the very basic type of lead. "If they leave a mark I'm gonna be so mad!"

"Hollow points aren't illegal, you know." The third newcomer commented airily, and right there Johnny made a supreme (and absolutely memorable) effort to swallow the urge to whistle as loudly as possible while removing his glasses to confirm that, yes, his Kiroshi's had his fucking back.

Great googly moogly, what a rimbo! Big in all the ways that mattered, massive breasts which looked perfect for sleeping soundly on them like a babe. Long black hair, red eyes, a black sailor dress with an asymmetrical skirt: one part drooping down to her calves, the other cut to reveal a mouth-watering amount of leg and a peek at high-quality lingerie. Black stockings reaching up to her thighs. Resting on her shoulder was a retro-looking but still impressive black sniper rifle with golden ornaments. The red four-pointed halo and the massive black wings on her back were just the Exotic cherries on top.

Johnny's thoughts came to a screeching halt like a record player run over by a Kaukaz Bratsk. She was only seventeen years old?!

No. Nuh-uh. There was no goddamn way Johnny was going to believe a 17-year-old girl could look like that.

Really Johnny? You see unarmored kids survive hits from the Malorian and that's what makes you flip?

I was getting shot at and didn't have time to flip, and for fuck's sake just look at her! That body belongs to a pornstar, not a teenager! And what hexed-in-the-brain kind of parents would let their daughter bodysculpting herself into a bombshell? If she really is seventeen, then the adults of this city and I are gonna be having words.

And here I figured you would've been drooling at the possibility her growth spurt may not be over yet.

…Holy shitballs on a rolling grenade-

Mind out of the gutter Silverhand.

Yeah, no shit, I've still got standards. Eyes only for now.

Johnny...

Oh, come on! Do you know how long it has been since the last time I got laid? Besides, if she's a preview of what the ladies here are like then by the end of the day I'll be ending that dry spell in the best way possible!

Assuming they can stand your ass.

Just you wait, V. When it comes to game Johnny Silverhand only has to ask.

The girl named Chinatsu approached Yuuka and looked over the girl's body. She then rolled up the Treasurer's sleeve, unclipped one of the syringes from her bag and injected the green liquid within. Yuuka winced at the injection before releasing a sigh of relief. "My personal mix of painkillers and stims, don't get hit again for a short while and it will be like it never happened."

"Damn, now of all times..." Rin muttered under her breath with a frown. She tugged at Johnny's jacket, pulling him out of his thoughts about stupid cockblocking morals. "Sensei, time is of the essence so let's just leave. Now."

"There you are, Acting President! We've been searching for you! Where's the real President? Get her here already!" Yuuka yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the white-clad girl.

Rin let go of his jacket, raising her head and silently mouthing 'almost' to the sky with an expression of deep frustration.

"I've been searching for you, Chief Officer. All GSC subsidiaries are locked down and I've been unable to contact any other member of the General Student Council until now." Hasumi added, standing next to Yuuka alongside Chinatsu.

"I'm here to meet with the General Student Council President. The Head Prefect has terms she would like to discuss." The blonde girl stated with a serious tone.

"Greetings, representatives of neighboring student councils, disciplinary boards, and those who otherwise have too much time on their hands." Rin greeted them back with a smile that screamed 'I am deeply displeased by the fact I cannot have any of you fired, shot or hacked into a less bothersome state of being'. "I am well aware why you irksome- I mean, important representatives are here today. You're here to blame us for what's happening in Kivotos. Isn't that right?"

"If you're well aware, then do something! You represent the General Student Council after all!" The Treasurer looked downright pissed. "Thousands of academy districts are in a panic! Our academy's wind generators shut down just a few days ago!"

She wasn't the only one with something to complain about, as both Chinatsu and Hasumi quickly aired their own grievances. "There are also rumors a student under the Federal Correction Bureau's custody has escaped."

"There has been a sharp increase in both delinquency and illegal distribution of tanks, choppers and other unknown weapons. At this rate, ordinary school life in Kivotos will be a thing of the past."

"And what is the General Student Council President doing during such a sorry state of affairs?! I demand to see her right this instant!" Yuuka requested at the end.

Rin remained silent for a few seconds, stoically withstanding the glares and hostility directed her way, before speaking again. "The president has gone missing. As far as we can tell, she's not in Kivotos anymore."

"What?!" The news clearly came as a complete shock to both Yuuka and Chinatsu.

"Allow me to be blunt. The General Student Council has lost all authority because the top administrator of Sanctum Tower is not here anymore." The black-haired, bespectacled girl continued. "We had been searching for a way to bypass the need for verification, all to no avail... until recently. We now have a way to unlock Sanctum Tower and access the supplies contained within. You see, with her last message to us the President appointed—"

"Excuse me, Chief Officer." Hasumi interrupted while looking to the side with a puzzled expression. "Who is that gentleman?"

The other haloed girls followed the tall beauty's gaze, gaping at the sight of Johnny crouching down next to one of the unconscious thugs and rummaging through her pockets. "Sensei! What are you doing?"

"Looting." Johnny answered curtly, grinning when he finally found the items he has been searching for.

Standing up he took out a cigarette from the half-empty packet, put it in his mouth and used the lighter to light the stick. Johnny filled his lungs with smoke, enjoying the familiar burning, then breathed it out with a content sigh. "Aaaah... finally. It has been too long." He took another glance at the brand. "Habanero, uh? Burn like one, even if there's not nearly enough tar."

One vice down, three more to go. Actually, he better scratches out drugs from the list: he promised V to do better, and being too high to think properly would not help with that. He should probably also cut down on alcohol and cigarettes... Fuck, why is self-improvement so hard? Can’t he just get a Detoxifier from a Ripperdoc and call it done? No? Fuck you too world!

Johnny walked back to the shocked quartet, the Hand lowering the cig from his lips and holding it between two fingers. "Are you done wasting time? Can we go now?"

"Wasting time? Me?" Rin bristled. "Who's the one here stealing cigarettes -which cannot be purchased or owned by students I might add- from delinquents?"

"Dunno. Who's the one here who said it was an emergency and then wasted time talking fancy with people she went to great lengths to avoid in the first place?"

Rin opened her mouth, then slammed it shut without saying a single word and settled for glaring heatedly at Johnny. Rogue had the exact same look on her face whenever she tried to decide if she wanted Johnny or wanted to kill him.

"Is this person really a teacher...?" Yuuka sounded like they just tried to sell her a black slop, passing it off as a high-quality corpo dish. "Acting President, who is this adult?"

"Name's Johnny Silverhand, Rockerboy extraordinaire. If you didn't listen to my songs before that's a damn shame." He took another drag. "Now chicas, I understand your beef. Gangoons all over the place, your own turfs are turning into Scopland and your supposed allies are ghosting you. But you're in luck: I, am the solution to all your problems."

For some reason they looked completely lost until he mentioned the last part. "You're the solution? What do you mean by that, Sensei?" Chinatsu questioned.

"The GSC President hired me for a gig." He answered, giving those girls his full attention. Johnny didn't need to know the political landscape of Kivotos to smell those three currently represented big players. What they saw was what they will tell their handlers, what they will first know of Johnny Silverhand. "Gave me admin access to the Sanctum Tower and all the supplies held within necessary to quell the riots and fix the current issues."

"The President herself did? Chief Officer, is this true?" Hasumi asked Rin.

The white-clad girl took a deep breath and composed herself, having decided that going with the flow set by Johnny was her best bet. "Indeed. This is Silverhand-Sensei. Not only is he going to be teaching in Kivotos, but he has also been personally selected by the General Student Council President."

"I've been told Sanctum Tower is in lockdown, but there's another Access Point thirty kilometers from here." He smoked again before lowering the Hand, cigarette held between index and middle fingers. "I go there, jack in, turn off the ICE. Everyone wins. Rolls the credits. Ea-"

Yuuka suddenly grabbed the Hand, making the cig fall to the ground. Johnny barely managed to stop himself from taking out the knife in his right sleeve and ramming it between her eyes. Probably not fatal considering her durability, but attempted murder on the first meeting always looks back.

Unaware of how close she came to tasting steel the black-haired girl ran her gloved fingers all over the cybernetic limb, mouth hanging open and eyes wide in wonder. "It's not a gauntlet." She breathed out, mystified. "Servomotors, cables for nerves, there are even s-synthetic muscles!" Yuuka pushed up his left sleeve, revealing the mechanical elbow, and gasped. The others weren't faring much better. "A fully functional prosthetic limb successfully added to a human body!"

Geez, it was like they never saw a cyberlimb before. Kids those days were too used to RealSkin, Edgerunners should have no hesitation in showing off their chrome. Unless they were the sneaky type, in which case business came first. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but please ease down on your fingers sweetheart. It's starting to tickle."

"Eh? Ah! Sorry!" Yuuka let go of the Hand in a hurry and took a step back, cheeks glowing a lovely red. "Wait! It has a sense of touch?!"

Johnny raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Was this chica completely ignorant of how chrome worked? Do they teach only boot-licking at corpo academies those days? "Tactile sensors feeding data to my brain, yeah."

"Sensei, what happened to your real arm?" Chinatsu's question almost made him chuckle out loud. Just how long it has been since someone asked that? Even V never did, younger generations always see a cyberlimb and assume the owner wanted to replace meat for something better. They forgot why cyberware was invented in the first place.

"Blown off by a grenade. They had to shove the stump into a campfire to stop the bleeding." Oh, but did it hurt. Like milling of knives digging into his flesh, liquid fire pumped into his veins as his left arm screamed in agony despite not existing anymore. A good thing Johnny was such a talented soldier, made the top brass give him a cutting-edge prototype cyberlimb so he could keep fighting their dirty war.

His best friend wasn't so lucky: after all, he had been closer to the grenade than Johnny's.

The Rockerboy only wanted to spook the kids a little. He didn't expect the looks of pure horror, skin turning pale as a ghost. Yuuka looked ready to puke, Chinatsu had both hands covering her mouth and an expression of horrified realization appeared on Rin's face before it turned to shame. "Sensei, how did you get injured? Shouldn't your Halo have..." Hasumi trailed off, finally looking above his head and realizing the lack of what Johnny was starting to suspect wasn't just a fancy decoration.

"Y-You're not from Kivotos, are you Sensei?" Chinatsu gulped. She looked at the other girls and then back at Johnny. "All students of Kivotos have a Halo, they make us extremely durable and often give other benefits, like a reduced sense of pain. We cannot absorb damage indefinitely, enough hits will down even the stronger student, but we can survive and completely recover even from very powerful attacks. The other residents of Kivotos don't have a Halo, but share a reduced form of our durability."

Johnny slowly nodded in understanding, then used his meat hand to poke Yuuka's Halo. The finger passed through without encountering resistance or heat, just like a hologram, but it still made the girl yelp in embarrassment as she leaped away. "Sensei! You can't just! Touch other people's Halos out of the blue!"

"Duly noted. So, just to be sure: this Halo of yours is not something I can get just by asking the right person, yeah?" They shook their heads and he snorted. "Go figure. To answer your question: no, where I am from people are not so durable. We have armor, and it can get very good, but it's not perfect."

Then there was chrome, which evened the player's field even more, but Johnny was starting to suspect he wasn't the only one ignorant of things outside of their comfort zone. A sudden suspicion fired through his neurons and he asked his Agent a question.

"Motherfucker up a satmast!" The Rockerboy slapped his meat hand over his face and began laughing. It was either that or rebooting his Biomon because he was obviously on the spicy Glitter and the fucker didn't warn him. He wasn't just in a prettier Night City, he was in a version of it dreamed up by a ten years old girl who never left her Beaverville and thought virtu-games were real! "Is this Paradise? I mean, you girls look like Angels so it makes sense!"

They blushed at the praise. Cute. He wasn't even trying.

So. A city of (mostly) bulletproof gonks. Explained the lack of blood and dead bodies. Also explained Johnny's sudden urge to delay his good intentions and raid the closest bar. Because holy guacamole, he was not drunk enough for this scop. Even sadder, he gave his word to undertake this gig and unnecessarily adding a whole day because God exists and is a sadistic bastard wasn't very professional.

No choice but to compartmentalize everything away and let Future Johnny deal with it. Not the best of plans, but hey at least Present Johnny was fine! Mostly. He needed a tequila.

Johnny took a few deep breaths, ignoring the notifications from his Agent, and when he judged himself sufficiently calm put on his aviators. "That's enough revelations for now, we are really wasting time. Rin, let's continue toward SCHALE. The sooner we conclude, the better."

"What? But Sensei, aren't you afraid?"

Yuuka froze like a rabbit caught in the headlights when Johnny's head whirled around to stare her down, a sudden and invisible pressure stealing the air from her lungs. With steady, measured movements he bent down to pick up his fallen cigarette, idly removing the dirt with his prosthetic before lighting it up again. "I'm not from Kivotos. I come from a place called Night City. Ever heard of it?" His voice was deep, warm but with an underlying something that made it impossible for her to relax.

The Treasurer from Seminar could only shake her head.

"It's a glorious shithole. Sky-high rate of violence, more people living below the poverty line than anywhere else, voted worst place to live in the whole continent. The daily body-count is around thirty." He raised his head and breathed out a cloud of white smoke. "I left my apartment every day knowing a stray bullet could end me while hailing a cab, but that never stopped me from taking action."

Johny removed the cigarette from his lips and held it between two fingers of his prosthetic, burning end pointed upward as if offering the stick to Yuuka.

"I am willing to risk my life to save this city. What about you?"

Chapter Text

CYBERPUNK 2077

Johnny Silverhand
Greatest of all Rockerboys

STATISTICS:
Reflexes: 18
-Handguns: 18
-Blades: 14
-Assault: 10

Intelligence: 10
-Quickhacking: 10
-Breach Protocol: 10

Body: 18
-Athletics: 18
-Annihilation: 15
-Street Brawler: 10

Cool: 20
-Ninjutsu: 13
-Cold Blood: 20

Technical Ability: 5
-Crafting: 5
-Engineering: 5

PERKS:
Engineering:
-Draw the Line (1/1)

Crafting:
-True Craftman (1/1)

Breach Protocol:
-Mass Vulnerability (1/2)
-Big Sleep (1/2)
-Almost In! (2/2)
-Mass Vulnerability: Resistances (1/1)
-Advanced Datamine (1/2)
-Datamine Mastermind (1/2)
-Turret Shutdown (1/2)

Quickhacking:
-Biosynergy (3/3)
-Forget-Me-Not (1/1)
-Hacker’s Manual (1/1)
-I Spy (1/1)
-Daisy Chain (3/3)

Ninjutsu:
-Hidden Dragon (1/1)
-Dagger Dealer (1/1)
-Assassin (1/1)
-Stunning Blows (1/1)
-Cutthroat (2/2)

Cold Blood:
-Cold Blood (3/3)
-Blood Brawl (1/2)
-Frosty Synapses (1/2)
-Easy Out (2/2)
-Predator (2/2)
-Coldest Blood (2/2)
-Coolagulant (1/1)
-Rapid Bloodflow (2/2)
-Frozen Precision (1/1)
-Cold and Calculating (1/1)
-Critical Condition (2/2)
-Merciless (1/1)

Handguns:
-Lead Sponge (1/1)
-Snowball Effect (1/1)
-Wild West (1/1)
-Acrobat (1/1)
-A Fistifull of Eurodollars (2/2)
-Grand Finale (1/1)
-On the Fly (2/2)
-Desperado (3/3)
-O.K. Corral (1/1)
-Gunslinger (3/3)

Blades:
-Sting Like a Bee (3/3)
-Flight of the Sparrow (2/2)
-Blessed Blade (1/1)
-Float like a Butterfly (2/2)
-Slow and Steady (2/2)
-Unbroken Spirit (1/1)
-Shifting Sands (3/3)

Athletics:
-Regeneration (1/1)
-Epimorphosis (3/3)
-Wolverine (3/3)
-Like a Butterfly (1/1)
-Multitasker (1/1)
-Dog of War (2/2)
-Marathoner (1/1)
-Divided Attention (1/1)
-Invincible (1/1)
-Tenacious V (1/1)
-Cardio Cure (2/2)
-Steel Shell (1/1)

Annihilation:
-Skeet Shoter (1/1)
-Heavy Lead (1/1)
-Bulldozer (1/1)
-Massacre (3/3)
-Pump It, Louder! (2/2)
-Hail of Bullets (3/3)
-In Your Face (2/2)
-Bloodrush (2/2)

Street Brawler:
-Flurry (2/3)

CYBERWARE:
Operating System:
-Hybrid Operating System “Bakeneko” Sandevistan-Cyberdeck
--QianT Sandevistan Mk.4 (Mods: Heatsink x3)
--Tetratronic Rippler Mk.4

Current Quickhacks Installed:
-Short Circuit
-Cyberware Malfunction
-Weapon Glitch
-Ping
-System Reset
-"Succubus III" (Semi-AI Daemon, also called "Spinky" by Johnny)

Frontal Cortex:
-Heal-On-Kill
-Self-Black Ice (Modified Self-Ice)

Ocular System:
-Kiroshi Optics Mk.3 (Mods: Trajectory Analysis, Threat Analysis, Weakspot Detection)

Circulatory System:
-Biomonitor
-Bioconductor

Immune System:
-Cataresist

Nervous System:
-Nanorelays

Integumentary System:
-Subdermal Armor
-Supra-Dermal Weave

Hands:
-Ballistic Coprocessor

Arms:
-Silver Cyberarm (Equivalent to a single Gorilla Arm)

WEAPONS:
-Malorian Arms 3516 (Mods: Pacifier, Penetrator, Phantom, Vendetta)
-Guts (Mods: Phantom, Neon Arrow)
-Blue Fang (Mods: Kunai, Scourge, White-Knuckled)
-Several Punknives

CLOTHES:
Replica of Johnny's Samurai Jacket
Johnny's Bulletproof Vest
Johnny's Tank Top
Johnny's Aviators
Johnny's Pants
Johnny's Shoes


Johnny’s Addendum: V spent almost all of their savings buying all of this preem stuff and having the best experts on the Street updating them, said you can’t use eddies in Hell. Smart kid. But I need to question their naming sense.

V's Addendum: Why, has the Bakeneko changed his mind? Does he enjoy my company after all?

Johnny's Addendum 2: Go suck a dick, V.

-0-

Johnny Silverhand
Roles: Rockerboy/Solo/Netrunner

Stats:
Int 7
Ref 8
Dex 7
Tech 8
Cool 10
Will 10
Luck 9
Move 7
Body 8
Emp 8

Skills:
Role:
Charismatic Impact +10
Combat Awareness +7
Interface +5

Awareness:
(Will) Concentration +6
(Int) Perception +7
(Int) Tracking +5
(Int) Conceal/Reveal Object +3

Body:
(Dex) Athletics +9
(Will) Endurance +5
(Dex) Stealth +7
(Dex) Dance +4
(Will) Resist Torture/Drugs +4

Control:
(Ref) Drive Land Vehicle +8
(Ref) Pilot Air Vehicle +7

Education:
(Int) Composition +10
(Int) Education +6
(Int) Business +3
(Int) Deduction +3
(Int) Gamble +4
(Int) Language (Streetslang, English, Japanese, Spanish) +7
(Int) Library Search +3
(Int) Local Expert (Night City) +10
(Int) Wilderness Survival +6

Fighting:
(Dex) Martial Arts (Aikido) +6
(Dex) Evasion +9
(Dex) Brawling +3
(Dex) Melee Weapon +5

Performance:
(Tech) Play Instrument (Guitar) +10

Ranged Weapon:
(Ref) Handgun +9
(Ref) Heavy Weapons +3
(Ref) Shoulder Arms +7
(Ref) Autofire +6

Social:
(Cool) Persuasion +4
(Cool) Personal Grooming +7
(Cool) Streetwise +7
(Cool) Bribery +4
(Emp) Conversation +6
(Emp) Human Perception +6
(Cool) Interrogation +2
(Cool) Trading +4
(Cool) Wardrobe & Style +6

Technique:
(Tech) Basic Tech +3
(Tech) Electronics/Security Tech +3
(Tech) First Aid +5
(Tech) Cybertech +2
(Tech) Weaponstech +4

Cyberware:
Biomonitor, Neural Link (Chipware Socket x2, Interface Plugs, Sandevistan), Cybereye x2 (Anti-Dazzle, Chryron, Image Enhance, Low Light/Infrared/UV), Cyberaudio Suite (Audio Recorder, Radio Scanner/Music Player), Enhanced Antibodies, Subdermal Armor, Cyberarm (Excellent Quality Cyberdeck, Superchrome®Covering)

Weapons:
Malorian Arms 3516* - 5d6
Guts - 6d6
Blue Fang - 2d6
Punknife - 1d6

Armor: L Armorjack
Head: 11SP
Body: 11SP


*Mike Pondsmith himself said this on Reddit:

"Originally, I worked from relative loadouts (Winchester loading tables circa 1979) with the baseline damage calculated from the standard military .45 colt sidearm (what I grew up shooting). In an early draft of Cyberpunk I used actual names of rounds (like .38, etc) but when I realized the game was going to players all over the world, I had to shift to a version they would also know. So I set all the models to NATO standards which the U.S. Army was also using overseas.

Working from that:

• A Heavy pistol is 11mm; the .45 colt . The baseline.
• A Very Heavy pistol is roughly 12mm; a .44 magnum revolver or desert eagle .50.
• There are also Special types, such as the infamous Malorian Johnny Silverhand carries (he's actually had several over the years, each one more powerful than the last.) The Malorian was spec'd to drop a raging cyberpsycho, and was equal to the .577 Nitro Express. So Johnny wasn't exactly stupid to tackle Adam Smasher with a handgun--with his final Malorian, he was effectively firing a hand carried anti-tank revolver. Which is why he had a special arm and shoulder designed not to be torn off when he fired it."

Johnny wasn't fucking around when he said he wanted a gun that could drop someone no matter how armored up they were.

Chapter Text

"The first time I saw his face, I just knew stress would be the end of me. Then, at our first meeting, he asked me what kind of poison I load into my teeth and I realized it would be much, much worse than that."

Ogata Kanna


"Cops have no sense of humor."

Johnny Silverhand

====

Yuuka stared transfixed at the burning cigarette, unable to look away. Or rather, she was unwilling to raise her head and meet Johnny's gaze. He could guess why: here was a man who offered a much-needed solution to bring back order to this troubled city, his words backed by a figure of authority. Not only that, despite not being (supposedly) indestructible like the residents of Kivotos he was still willing to walk through a city overrun by trigger-happy criminals in order to accomplish his goal.

And yet she still doubted his resolve to put his life on the line. Only to be told he lived a long time with the shadow of death hovering above him even before coming to Kivotos. The feeling of shame was likely strong, and by their expressions the others were on the same boat.

Exactly as Johnny intended. Alright, so it was petty but come on! 'Course a question like that would be patronizing as fuck to him! Who did they think he was, a newbie Merc? He was a Legend of Night City, the most violent town that ever existed! Plus, with no one in Kivotos ever dying from eating lead it was obvious those girls were not worried about civilian casualties, but rather property damage: why else would their schools choose a treasurer and a medic as representatives when asking the government to move their asses? It was all about the eddies!

So yes, Johnny was feeling very justified in delivering a little payback.

She's only worried about you, Johnny.

Well, she has no reason to. I can handle myself just fine.

She doesn't know that yet. Not truly. Besides, worrying about someone when they face potential danger is a natural consequence of caring about them.

Jesus Christ. Alright, alright, I'll be nicer to her! Fucking...

"Silverhand-sensei. Allow me to join you." Hasumi suddenly stepped forward, face expressing nothing but firm resolve as she brandished her sniper rifle with expert ease. "I am Hanekawa Hasumi of the Justice Task Force. Your commitment to your duty is praiseworthy, seeing that I cannot just stand aside doing nothing. My gun shall help bring back justice to the city."

Spoke like an idealistic badge. But better that than a corrupt one, and like Ward proved not every cop is a bastard. 'Course, there was a reason he got kicked out of the NCPD and it wasn't because the other cops were envious of his big muscles.

"T-Then, I'll come too!" Yuuka hastily added. She shot another glance at the Hand before nodding. "My name is Yuuka. Hayase Yuuka of Seminar, from Millennium Science School. Sensei, when this is over please come to our school: your prosthetic could be the key to several breakthroughs in robotics, medicine and many other fields!"

"Oh?" He smirked. "What about royalties?"

"Uh? Ah, uhm..." She fidgeted at the unexpected question. "I'm sure we can reach a satisfying agreement for all parties involved-"

"Relax, I'm joking. Now's not the time to talk about eddies." Johnny was not above getting paid but only for the fruits of his own efforts, like music and merc work. And besides, money's always been just a means to an end for him. He went back to smoking, leveling a side glance at the last girl. "And you?"

"Hinomiya Chinatsu, Medic of the Prefect Team, at your service." The bespectacled girl nodded before taking out her own iron: like Hasumi's it was retro-looking, a semi-auto with... a grip shaped like the handle of a broom? Now that was a great source of jokes about 'cleaning up trash'. "Fighting on the frontline is not my specialty, but the Head Prefect entrusted me with the task of acting in her stead during this crisis."

"Preem." With the addition of two Solo equivalents and a Medtech, now they looked a bit more like a proper Edgerunner team. Good thing Johnny can cover for the missing roles.

"Mmh, this is unexpected but not unwelcome." Rin hesitated for a few more moments before jumping on the train. The way she stared at the three Haloed girls, however, was the stuff of nightmares for those with a weak spirit. "It's so reassuring to have you trustworthy academy representatives here with us. Please Sensei, don't hesitate to make full use of them to bring peace back to Kivotos."

"Uh?! What do you mean by that?" Yuuka shouted.

"Nothing untoward, I assure you." The black-haired girl lied through her teeth with a smile, as if she wasn't planning to use them as lead-sponges. "Please follow me everyone, I shall lead you to our goal: the SCHALE building."

====

"Sensei, can I ask you a few questions?" Chinatsu spoke after a few minutes of trekking through the city. They had yet to encounter more gangoons but Johnny was positive it was only a matter of time.

Instead, he was far more interested in the commercial displays scattered around Kivotos. He didn't recognize the brands, but the most prominent ones all used the word 'Kaiser': Industries, Construction, PMC... those guys had their fingers in a lot of pies. Better to keep an eye on them in the future.

"Sure, Chinatsu. Shoot." His meat hand twitched, throat aching for another cig but Johnny knew that once he started chain-smoking he would be unlikely to stop anytime soon. Plus, he didn't want to lose a half-finished one because he suddenly had to worry about gonks shooting at him. One after the gig was over, plus a glass of tequila or another strong liquor that wasn't vodka, preem way to celebrate.

"Your arm, is that the only prosthetic you have?" She bit her bottom lip, briefly glancing down at his legs. "I don't want to assume..."

"Nah, those are Silverhand's Originals." He slapped his thigh with a grin. Then he raised the Hand and wriggled the metallic fingers. "The arm and shoulder are the only major replacements, plus a minor one, the rest of my Chrome is mostly add-ons."

It was not too much different compared to his old body, for a Merc V shoved a surprising amount of restraints when it came to chroming up. 'Better a few high-quality ones than becoming a Metalhead and go turbo C-psycho', they said. Smart kid. Sure the Neural Link was heavy-duty, borderline mil-specs compared to what Johnny had in the '23, but still surprisingly comfortable. Plus Subdermal Armor went from thick plates to ultra-thin sheets while remaining as strong as ever, that was Dynalar for you.

"Chrome?"

"How we call cybernetics." He rapped his meat knuckles on the Hand's forearm. "Because of the shiny plating many of them have."

"What's the minor replacement you mentioned?" Yuuka asked, doing nothing to hide her immense interest in the topic.

"That one?" He lowered the aviators and looked both Chinatsu and Yuuka in the eyes. A simple mental command and his Kiroshi light up in blue. "Three guesses, the first two don't count."

The girls pulled back in surprise, mouths open wide. Hasumi and Rin, who were following the conversation, had a similar reaction. "Y-Y-Your eyes?" The medic stammered. "Were, were they also... from the grenade...?"

"Nah, my eyes were fine." Johnny pushed back the aviators and resumed walking. "I just wanted better ones, so I had them replaced by my Ripperdoc."

He managed to take a few steps before realizing the only sound of feet hitting the ground was his own. Looking back he saw the girls have frozen, eyes wide and gaping at him. "What?"

"You... replaced your eyes, despite them being fine..." Chinatsu coughed out. "And it was done by a, a what?"

"My Ripperdoc." What did they call them before cybernetics got commercialized... right. "A back-alley doctor specialized in Chrome."

That was, for some strange reason, not the right answer before Chinatsu turned as red as her gloves and stockings. "A back-alley doctor. You had your eyes, an incredibly delicate organ, messed with by a back-alley doctor?!"

"Come on, what's the big deal?" Johnny spread his arms and shrugged. It was just optics, sure they were rare back in his days because Kiroshi dominated the market but by 2077 other models became relatively cheap. There were even contact lenses with most of the basic functions for those that wanted something quick and easy. "I went to someone with good rep, not a butcher. Half an hour under the knife, took some mild stims afterward and walked out better than ever."

"Do you have any idea how utterly ridiculous what you're saying is?!" Rin harshly pointed out, jabbing a finger at him.

Johnny wanted to reply 'Not a clue', if only to be an asshole. But thinking about the girls' reactions when Yuuka recognized the Hand's artificial nature, and what it could mean that his Chrome was such a huge surprise to them... it was easy to reach a conclusion. It just was, as Rin eloquently put it, utterly ridiculous. "Gotta ask: how advanced is the medical science available here in Kivotos?"

"Not as much as it apparently is in... Night City, was it?" He nodded at Hasumi's question. "Robots are a common sight here in Kivotos, but like Hayase said mechanical prosthetics like yours are unheard of. Even organ transplants, as far as I'm aware, remain a difficult procedure with a long recovery period."

Because, with the residents being so hard to kill in the first place, there never had been a need to invest in said technology. Unlike the boom in cyberware research caused by the First Central American War and the thousands of severely injured soldiers that returned from it. So those girls were not neo-luddites, they just never had access to cybernetics in the first place! "I'll be straight with ya, this is one hell of a weird-ass pill to swallow."

That some technologies were unavailable in certain places he could understand, Nomads make do with whatever they can salvage or klep and as long as a vehicle is physically capable of moving it's worth a treasure, no matter how outdated. But this wasn't the middle of the Badlands, this was a whole city that obviously had required heaps of eddies to build. Rin's tablet even had holotech, so it was not like they were stuck in the glorious '70. No matter how Johnny looked at it, the circumstances didn't add up and it stung his conspiracy radar somewhat fierce.

"For you? Think about us!" Despite her words Yuuka appeared even more excited than before. "Oooh, I know people back in Millennium who will go nuts over this! Sensei, how was your eye surgery done so quickly? Are they better or worse than normal eyes? Do they have extra functions?"

Look at her, as excited as a Maelstrom who managed to klep a whole cargo of hardware from a corpo-convoy. "Slow down, Yuuka. I'm not Tech, even if I dabble in it a bit, so I can't give you all the hard deets- hold on a sec."

There was a crossroad lined with shops up ahead, and above one of them was a camera. Turning up his Cyberdeck Johnny hit it with a Ping, then seeing the camera was connected to a wider network of similar devices he prepped the appropriate Daemon. "Got it. Watch my back for a minute chombatta." The upload barely took a second before Johnny's Kiroshi synchronized with the camera and switched view with it, the act of turning the device around as easy as moving his own neck. The Rockerboy never expected to one day do Netrunning shit, that was Alt's domain and joy: his old input never talked much about her work for ITS, confidentiality and all that, but after some beers she was capable of talking Johnny's ear off for hours about the intricacies of cyberspace and all the beautiful things Ihara-Grubb algorithms make possible. Just like he did the same to her about music and all the great musicians that came before him and Kerry. He didn't really get it, for Johnny real beauty could only be found in things you could touch with your own hands, but it made Alt happy so he did the proper output thing and paid a modicum of attention.

But after seeing V at work? Having a front seat of them weaving through security systems like a ghost and ruining the day of gonks who relied too much on Chrome rather than skills? Yeah, Netrunning had its preem uses. Like piggybacking through a network of security cameras to map the area ahead. And right on time, there was a group of twenty or so masked gangoons busy smashing shop windows and arguing about who was going to get the preem stuff. Same assortment of rifles and shotguns as before... Shit, were those multi-barreled LMGs? Same precision and dexterity of a Valentino during Saturday evening, but there were too many of them to risk turning into minced meat with a careless assault. No, this required some finesse.

"Sensei? Silverhand-sensei?" Rin's voice called out, so he cut off the connection. She and the other girls had gathered around him. "Sensei, what were you doing standing still?"

"Gathering intel." He pulled out the Malorian and used the barrel to gesture ahead. "Twenty gangoons busy looting a block from here, can't walk around so we gotta jump them."

"And you know, how?"

"What part of gathering intel you didn't get?"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's hurry up." Yuuka took out one SMG and tried to sprint ahead, only to come to an abrupt stop when Johnny grabbed the neck of her jacket and pulled back. "Wah?! Sensei?"

"They're armed with LMGs." He warned her. Freaking brats, all those fresh neurons and they never bother to use more than a handful of them. "I get you have faith in your Halo thing, but are you honestly telling me you can get showered in lead and then stand up afterward on your own?"

"LMGs? Oh, you mean miniguns? Yeah, that'd a bit too much..." The treasurer rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "But I have the solution!"

She took out a small rectangular object from her pocket and proudly presented it. "Ta-dah!"

Johnny stared at the touchscreen device. Rin, Chinatsu and Hasumi were likewise unsure of how to react. "What's that?"

The blue-haired girl grinned. "My personal scientific calculator!"

He nodded and turned to the others. "So, Yuuka's inability to make two plus two without assistance aside, we need to hit hard and fast-"

"I can do arithmetics just fine even without it!" Yuuka shrieked, face red. She ran in front of him and held up the calculator once again. "I modified it to add an extra function! That's what I was talking about!"

"Is it a Millennium prototype? Your school is renowned for its cutting-edge technology." Chinatsu pointed out with curiosity. "What does it do?"

"More like a personal project of mine. To cut it short, using the principles of quantum electrodynamics and a special battery it's capable of generating a spherical bubble of high-density electromagnetic fields." She explained with obvious pride. So, besides counting eddies she also ran double as a Tech? Good to know. "Those fields had been tuned to the metals that typically make up bullets, so any projectile hitting it will be robbed of much of its kinetic energy. Thus, I call it the [Q.E.D. Field]!"

"...It's an energy shield?"

"W-Well, the main function is to act as a barrier and it's made of energy..." Yuuka looked between them and the device a few times. "So... I guess so?"

Holy guacamole, this place had energy shields. Cybernetics blew their fucking minds, yet this slip of a girl managed to build something that would make any corporation on the planet start a war to get the schematics and the Trekkies to declare her their new god-queen or some similar scop.

In which Smash-addled mind was this supposed to make sense?! It was like a caveman coming up with guns before inventing the wheel!

...Fuck a dogball, she was another Rache Bartmoss. Just like him, while the rest of the world still played ping pong on their screens she was off building a whole new dimension inside the Net. At least Yuuka wasn't a shut-in like said Deckhead, Johnny was sure she and Murphy would have gotten along well.

"Strength, duration and cooldown if there's one. Now." Johnny snapped his meat fingers to get the girl's attention, gaze behind his aviators fixed solely on Yuuka. "I need the specifics."

"It can easily withstand even concentrated fire from multiple miniguns!" She puffed out her chest, a smile on her face. "The downside is the high energy cost, so it can only last for five, seven seconds before the battery needs to recharge. I tested it extensively, and the cooldown never went above fifteen seconds."

"Nova. Now, first things first." Johnny pointed his index meat finger at the girl. "Yuuka, you're the most important person in the world and I'll protect you with my life if necessary."

Because like fuck he was letting the various megacorporations hunt her down like a rabid dog. Bartmoss at least had the good sense to build a secret base and cover his tracks with the most vicious Daemons his perverted mind came up with, but a naive girl like Yuuka would be like a slab of raw RealMeat tossed in the middle of Jig-Jig Street! If anyone tried anything he was going to flatline them first!

"Eh...?" Yuuka blinked in confusion before her face lit up like a Christmas holo-tree. "Eeeehh?!"

"Second." He turned to the others, dismissing their various looks as them not understanding the enormity of Yuuka's accomplishment. "Here's how we're going to deal with those gonks..."

Instructions relayed, along with directions for each girl to reach their designed spot, the team began to move. Crouching down to decrease visibility, Johnny quickly approached the gangoons' location using the various covers available like cement barriers, cars and the occasional pile of car wheels. Being better at stealth than the others he was able to come much closer, to the point he stopped a few feet directly behind a pair of masked girls supposed to be standing guard. Supposed, because they were instead watching their chooms with boredom and envy, clearly too gonked in the head to understand it was everyone else they were supposed to keep an eye on. His Kiroshi, helpful little things that they were, tagged each gangoon in quick succession: tracking their locations, highlighting their silhouettes through obstacles and using predictive algorithms to calculate extent and width of their fields of vision in real-time. Not something Johnny truly needed, he fought through the South American jungles just fine without them, but it was a preem bonus.

Speed, surprise, and violence of action, as his bastard army instructors and a certain hard-boiled Solo were so fond of repeating. Speed: approach the target quickly so they don't react and get ready. Surprise: fire the first shots and kill or wound as many of them as possible before they can react to make your numbers count for more. And violence of action: once you commit to an attack, don’t leave anyone standing. Initiative was everything.

Hasumi demonstrated why when she peeked from behind her cover, a giant signboard that fell from the side of a building, and nailed one of the LMG-carrying gangoons with a powerful headshot. Her iron strong enough to knock out her target with a single shot. She managed to take down two more before the gangoons finally reacted to the sudden violence; they would have never lasted a week in Night City with such poor reflexes.

"What the hell?!" One of the two guards stammered, fumbling for her iron. Johnny stood up, Hand clenched into a chrome fist, and delivered a bone-shattering uppercut to the back of her head. It didn't feel like hitting flesh, more like a slab of equally dense metal, but the blow still managed to make her halo frizzle off as she was sent flying. His meat hand removed the Punknife hidden inside his sleeve, held it in a reverse grip and then slammed the blade straight into the second gangoon's throat. A second and third time and she was down for the count. Meanwhile Rin and Chinatsu emerged from cover and began firing into the horde, not just to thin it out but also to grab their attention. The gangoons, seeing a second threat, instinctively split their numbers in half to deal with both at the same time. That was when Yuuka also jumped out of cover, having hidden between them and Hasumi's position: SMG in hand she ran in the opposite direction, hosing lead into the masked girls as they sprinted past her.

Holding the tip of the Punknife between his meat fingers Johnny threw it at the closest gangoon, the blade bouncing off without cutting anything but still making her reel back as if shot point-blank. He whipped out the Malorian and, just like Yuuka, began to run around his half of the crowd while lining up headshots or aiming at their chests when not possible. First were the ones wielding LMGs, as they posed the biggest threat, followed by the girls with shotguns. The more adrenaline surged through his veins the faster Johnny moved, both military instincts and implants recognizing the only truth of survival: kill or be killed. That he was the only one truly at risk in case of a lucky shot, amusingly enough, made it even more thrilling. Take that, XBD-guzzlers: the real thing is always better!

When bullets began to fly around his ears he threw himself into a forward slide behind a concrete barrier, the synth-leather of his jeans skidding over the road's surface as Johnny ejected the Malorian's spent mag and slammed in a new one. Lacking both training and real-life experience the gangoons kept firing where he passed through inside of where he would go, utterly wasting their bullets as their irons ran dry. A mistake that Johnny punished mercilessly when he moved past the barrier and fired two shots from below before rolling into a one-knee crouched firing stance and pumping the rest full of lead.

Yuuka and the other three had not been idle: normally the treasurer, being alone and closer to the gangoons, would have quickly succumbed to sheer numbers. But Hasumi, Chinatsu and Rin laid suppressive fire into the horde every time they tried to focus on Yuuka, easing the pressure. Plus she had her trump card. "Think you're so tough, uh?! I'm sending you back home crying like a baby!" One of the remaining girls with an LMG jumped on top of a pile of rubble and pointed her weapon at Yuuka. Seeing it the twintailed girl came to a stop and took out her calculator, quickly punching in numbers: upon pressing the final button a bright blue light expanded outward from the device and encased her whole body inside a circular barrier. The barrage of bullets smashed into the luminous surface, either bouncing back or barely passing through before clattering harmlessly to the ground. Yuuka didn't have the same problem. Putting back the calculator she wielded both SMGs and set them at full auto: her bullets passed through the barrier as if it wasn't even there, some scientific mumbo-jumbo that Johnny dismissed as unimportant making so only stuff trying to get inside would be affected.

Her own barrage of lead and Hasumi's precise headshots made short work of the remaining gangoons. Silence returned to the district's corner as quickly as violence arrived, leaving behind a warzone and several unconscious gonks that, Johnny was sure, would wake up the next day with a nasty headache and an eclectic collection of bruises. A much kinder fate than the hordes of people both him and V flatlined. Still felt strange, using so much lead against real people and yet killing no one... strange, yes, but also a welcome change of pace.

"The battle went much better than I expected it to be." Rin was the first to speak as they regrouped. The bespectacled girl cast an appraising glance at Johnny. "I suppose we have you to thank for that, Silverhand-sensei."

"That's right! It went exactly as Sensei predicted!" Yuuka cheerfully exclaimed. "He calculated the best positions, optimal course of action and achieved the most efficient result. Amazing!"

"Something like that? Basic Street smarts plus experience. Easy-peasy." Johnny grinned. Well-deserved praise was always nice, even for something that would have been mildly challenging only if he was alone and without iron. "This is far from my first time leading a team. Plus, we're so far above those gonks it's not even funny."

"We were able to fight and pool our respective specialties together much more efficiently thanks to your instructions, Sensei." Hasumi smiled and offered Johnny a respectful nod. "Despite the rough edges of your personality, I can see why the General Student Council President chose you."

"Aww, but those are the best part of me." He removed his aviators, hooking them to his belt and winking at Hasumi. "Alright, go through the gangoons and take all the ammo that fit your irons. If you find grenades, take them too."

Chinatsu sighed in disappointment, and so did Rin. "Must we?"

"Do you want to run out of spares halfway to our target?"

"...Point taken." The two begrudgingly conceded before joining the others in going through the masked girls' pockets. "5.56... 5.56... Does anyone have 11 or 12x33mm?"

"Here, Hinomiya." Yuuka tossed the medic a couple of mags. "A few of them had sidearms."

"I still have plenty left, but if anyone finds 7.7x56mm or similar please let me know." Hasumi politely requested.

"Sniper rifle rounds? I'll tell you if I do." Rin opened another handbag and sneered. "Yet more cigarettes. Even if they're delinquents there must be a limit to it."

"Toss them here." Johnny called out.

"You already have enough!" The bespectacled girl swiveled around and angrily pointed at the quickly growing pile of cig-packs next to a crouching Johnny. Rin was about to start a tirade about the dangers of smoking when she noticed the many discarded mags all around him. She watched the Rockerboy pop the mags from both an assault rifle and a shotgun, shake his head and then dismissively toss them away. "Do you... require assistance?"

"Can't find the right caliber for my gun." The Malorian could accept a greater than average divergence, but even the shotgun shells were too small and weak. Fucking hell, most of the ammo owned by those gonks were even worse than those found within Slaught-O-Matics! Did they raid a forgotten First American weapon cache or what?

"Give me a bullet as an example, I'll help you search for similar ones." Johnny stopped to look over his shoulder at the request, Rin standing there with an outstretched hand. He grunted, might as well. The Rockerboy ejected the Malorian's magazine, removed a single round and threw it towards Rin with a flick of the Hand's chromed fingers, the movement making it twirl like a spinning top.

The GSC Vice-President caught the bullet with both hands, briefly surprised at the unexpected weight, opened them and stared. She remained like that for a solid ten seconds, barely breathing as her brain tried to metaphorically reboot. "Silverhand-sensei." She wheezed out at long last. "What is this?"

Johnny rolled his eyes. Of all the gonk-ass questions. "The stuff I shoot at people that piss me off. If you mean the specifics: 14x64mm, 96mm long, 750-grain, armor-piercing. Happy?"

"Sensei, this is an anti-materiel rifle round!" She screamed, holding out the monster of a bullet for all to see. Yuuka, Chinatsu and Hasumi stopped their activities to gawk. "You use a handgun!"

Oh, that was why? Now that Johnny thought about it, yes there was a time when the Malorian's ammo used to boggle people's minds. It happened until a few years before the Fourth Corporate War, which was why he didn't immediately remember. But the reply he always gave was crystal clear.

"What can I say?" He turned towards them with a smug, shit-eating grin on his lips. A single chrome finger spinning his gun around the trigger ring. "The Malorian Arms 3516 is just that special. Almost as much as me."

====

Afterward, upon learning exactly what kind of bullets Johnny had been using until then, Chinatsu insisted on double-checking the downed gangoons. Much to her evident relief she didn’t find anything truly threatening even on those who got shot in the head, judging it no worse than being directly hit by a rocket launcher.

Which said something alright. It told Johnny to forget Yuuka’s energy shield, those Haloes were the real bullshit deal: the only thing he could compare their durability to was a motherfucking MBT, he wasn't even joking. A MT-4 or a M-11, those beasts weren't totally immune to explosives but they could withstand a decent amount of hits. It made the prospect of facing the MA5 Crusader less daunting, though of their group only him at the moment had iron strong enough to damage an ACPA. One more reason to save ammo, leading Johnny to reluctantly leave the Malorian in its holster in favor of using guns pilfered from the gangoons they defeated: a shotgun as his main-to-go iron for most confrontations, and an assault rifle when he needed to lay suppressive fire. His Agent identified the shotgun as a Beretta 1301 Tactical and the assault rifle as a SIG SG550, barely decent specs that made downing enemies a much lengthier affair but at least ammo was in abundance.

And so were the gangoons that carried it. Rin's path to their destination more often than not had them running into roving bands of scavengers in search of juicy targets or just stealing anything shiny that wasn't nailed down hard enough. That was where Johnny's experience in urban warfare truly shone, allowing him to lead their group and execute effective alpha-strikes: Rin and the other girls had a basic understanding of tactics, especially Hasumi since she was part of her school's version of district police and so frequently engaged in combat, but their knowledge of fighting together as a coordinated team had been solely theoretical and thus woefully lacking. Thus Johnny naturally fell into the role of leader, making plans and giving orders to lead the crew to victory every single time.

An alert from Johnny's Agent appeared on his HUD as they rested within an abandoned building, hours of non-stop walking and intense bouts of violence taking their toll even on him. He had set it to prowl the available radio frequencies, scanning for any useful piece of data like the locations of large bands of gangoons, but so far it only confirmed to him how things in the rest of Kivotos were going FUBAR.

So the badges were getting their asses rammed, what a fucking surprise. But this was the first time that an Assault in Progress happened close to him, and Johnny could admit some curiosity about how things were done in Kivotos. After all, even he had to admit the NCPD was a special kind of fucked-up. He took out his Agent, the smartphone-sized device fitting comfortably in his hand, and mentally ordered it to play the recording.


"This is Nakatsukasa Kirino from the Community Safety Bureau speaking! We're under heavy fire! Please send reinforcements!"

"Kirino, you know as well as I do that nobody's coming."

"You don't know that! Also could you please stop eating donuts and help us already?!"

"Sorry, while running here I dropped my magazines. No choice but to-"

"Don't worry Nemugaki, I noticed and picked them up. Here, have them back."

"...How lucky. Thank you so much, Morizuki. Now we can all happily go through our stocks while those criminals laugh at us from their well-defended positions."


No matter where you go, badges are a joke. That was the third constant of the universe, behind death and taxes.

"Wait, that was Suzumi's voice!" Hasumi abruptly stood up. "Is she in danger?"

"Choom of yours?"

"Morizuki Suzumi of the Trinity Vigilance Crew." The tall, black-haired beauty explained. "They help the Justice Task Force patrol Trinity Academy, we collaborated many times in the past."

Mmh, so something similar to Guardians: a rare sight in NC, but they were more common in other NUSA's cities.

"It appears she's fighting criminals alongside Valkyrie students and that their situation is dire." Rin hummed in though. "Sensei, while we must make haste I cannot in good conscience leave them behind. Can your smartphone pinpoint their location?"

His first, instinctual response was a wave of disgust at the idea of working with pigs. V had called it necessary in order to rebuild their shattered rep after the Kompeki Plaza's disaster. And maybe it was even true, almost all punk brats trying to make a name for themselves started their career by doing the countless poor-paying bounties around the city, hoping that one day a Fixer would contact them. But in Johnny's opinion doing Subcon work for the NCPD had always been just half a step away from selling yourself to corpos.

Then again, he had little qualms about collaborating with Militech if it meant sticking it to Arasaka.

Then again, here in Kivotos even badges were still student pups.

Christ on a ladle. If he takes no eddies it just means he's mocking the cops by doing their job better than they ever could, right?

"World's gone mad, I swear." He threw his arms up in defeat before standing up, the source of the transmission already marked on his HUD's minimap. "Follow me."

They heard the gangoons before seeing them, a mix of mocking laughter and deliberately exaggerated dramatic exclamations. Peeking from behind a corner the crew was met with a group of masked girls gathered in front of the entrance to a building that has been barricaded with furniture and sandbags. The majority were facing the entrance, while those on lookout duty were actually doing their job properly for once.

"Look at this! A deluxe chocolate cake, limited edition... that you will never eat!" A gangoon waved said piece of cake around before taking a bite. "Oh my! How delicious!"

"Isn't this jacket totally cute?" Another boasted while showing off said piece of clothing, a few others clapping their hands. "And it cost me literally nothing! Ah ah ah!"

Johnny had to give it to them, when it came to being petty as fuck this easily came up to his top twenty. The top ten however would forever be dominated by the antics of the Philharmonic Vampyres, no contest and no challenge.

While the gangoons were in the middle of laughing again an object was tossed from behind the barricade, Johnny's Kiroshi slowing down his time perception to let him see what it was. "Flashbang. Close your eyes." He warned the girls with a whisper. Luckily for them they immediately followed his advice, while Johnny kept watching thanks to his optics' lumen resistance. Besides the flash light the device also released an extremely loud 'bang', stunning the gangoons too slow to protect their ears. While the latter howled in pain the rest opened fire against the barricade as an outlet for their impotent frustration.

"That was one of Suzumi's custom flashbangs, she always carries a lot of them with her," Hasumi explained.

"The other streets around are blocked, this time ambushing the targets will be difficult." No matter where Yuuka looked, there was only one path and it was guarded. "Sensei, what should we do?"

"Uhm..." The Rockerboy rubbed his chin, his attention moving to a large commercial wall-screen. "There's something I've been meaning to ask for a while. Hinomiya, your Halo protects you from physical damage, innit?"

"All currently known forms of it, correct." The Medic nodded. Considering he saw her using a syringe on Yuuka without issues Johnny wanted to ask how that worked, but now he needed another question answered.

"What about oxygen deprivation?"

Chinatsu blinked in befuddlement. "It... does nothing about it?"

"Nova." Firing up his Cyberdeck Johnny connected with the screen and injected it with a Daemon. An apparent malfunction would not be enough, he needed something more eye-catching: his Agent offered a suggestion and, seeing the title, he immediately ran with it.


"Your mistake was thinking you have a goddamn choice, choom!"


The screen suddenly coming to life took the gangoons by surprise, but when it started playing what looked like an extremely intense action movie none of them saw before they soon forgot about the boring siege. Even the guards were watching with rapt attention, allowing Johnny to leave his hiding place undetected and stealthy approach from behind a LMG-carrying gangoon standing next to a dumpster. Fast as a King Cobra Johnny stood up and wrapped his arms around the masked girl, the Hand blocking her arms and his meat forearm crushing her throat, then pulled her down. She wriggled impotently, failing to speak through a blocked windpipe until the lack of oxygen to the brain made her faint. Once he was sure she wasn't faking it Johnny dragged her to the dumpster and threw the body inside, hiding it from view.

Then he picked up the LMG and opened fire on the still distracted gangoons.

"...I know I already asked, but... Acting President, are you really sure he's a teacher?" An aghast Yuuka asked, she and the others having enjoyed a front-row seat to Johnny's actions.

"President, what were you thinking..." The bespectacled girl lamented, eyebrow twitching dangerously as admiration towards her superior warred against concern about said woman's questionable criteria for choosing educators.

"The cavalry's here!" Johnny cheerfully yelled after the last gangoons was buried in lead. He tossed the empty weapon aside and sat on a cement barrier, wall-screen playing Bushido 1 falling silent once more as the Daemon ran its course. "You all still alive over there?"

"Yes! Thank you so much, whoever you are!" Three girls crawled out from inside the barricaded building. The first one had white hair and red eyes like an albino, a single small wing on the left side of her head. Her uniform was grey with black stockings, a badge on the left arm containing a symbol identical to the one on Hasumi's rifle. Her Halo was a pale purple crosshair with arrows pointing outward along the edges.

The other two, instead, were dressed in female police officer's clothes, if customized to suit their individual styles and much more scuffed than Crosshair Halo. The first had white hair tied into two long braids, a belt with several canisters and her accessories were all colored a cool purple. The second wore her uniform much more casually, with the addition of a baggy overcoat with bright pink accessories and giant hot pink rubber shoes. Both of their Haloes were a mix of Celtic knots and hearts.

Well, well, well. Weren't they the cutest badges Johnny ever saw?

"Captain Hasumi. Thank you for the save." Crosshair Halo immediately walked up to Hasumi and gave her a grateful nod, then did the same to the others. Her eyes lingered on Johnny with curiosity for a scant few moments before brushing it aside. She recognized they were still in the middle of the Sharp End and shelved questions for a more appropriate time, good instincts.

"Hey, hey hey hey! Isn't that... the GSC's Vice-Prez?!" The white-haired badge panicked before snapping into a textbook salute. "Ma'am! Nakatsukasa Kirino of the Public Safety Bureau, reporting for duty!"

"Nemugaki Fubuki. Same as Kirino." The salute of the girl with blue hair and pink accessories, on the other hand, was much more sloppy and that earned her a harsh jab to the side by her choom.

"At ease. Now, give me a sitrep." Rin commanded. "What happened here, are there other injured Valkyrie students?"

"No Ma'am, it's only Fubuki and me." Kirino shook her head. "We were dispatched to apprehend the criminal Kosaka Wakamo after she escaped the Corrections Bureau-"

"Kosaka Wakamo of the Seven Prisoners? The 'Fox of Calamity'?!" Yuuka snapped. "And they sent Public Safety to catch her? But you guys..."

"Manage lost items and rescue cats from trees? Yeah." Fubuki shrugged with a lopsided grin. "Usually they send a squad from SRT Academy when one of the Seven or another A-Class Threat is on the loose, but virtually all of their students have their hands tied with other issues at the moment and can't spare none. So they tossed the hot potato to Valkyrie, who... could only send us."

"We were able to locate her, but... she was together with a very large group of criminals..." Kirino admitted with shame.

"Not like she needed their help to beat our asses. Then she continued on, citing the need to cause more anarchy, while a few stragglers from her band started chasing us for fun." So this Wakamo was the A-Class Threat Momoka mentioned, the one with a fucking ACPA. But while their names were similar, rather than the old bat from Jig-Jig Street this 'Fox' behaved more like a wannabe gang leader with dreams of grandeur in the head and Blue Glass in their veins.

Causing anarchy? Ah, what a fucking joke.

This was not anarchy.

"I was patrolling on my own, searching for civilians who had yet to evacuate, when I ran into Kirino and Fubuki." Suzumi continued. "They outnumbered us so I opted to retreat to a better location."

"This Wakamo. Did she say where she was headed?" Johnny asked next, standing up and coming closer to the three girls. "Gave any clue?"

"Uh, she mentioned the GSC a lot, along with the desire to blow up their stuff as revenge..." The white-haired badge answered instinctively. "Sorry, but who are you?"

"This is Johnny Silverhand-sensei." Rin replied in his stead. "He has been personally chosen by the GSC President to help us resolve the current crisis, and also to serve as the advisor for a new club created by the President herself: SCHALE."

"You know, Rin." Johnny drawled out with the kind of cadence reserved to discussing the number of cans of Scop in storage, knowing full well it would be the only thing he would eat for the next year. "Maybe it would help if you explain what, exactly, SCHALE is supposed to be. Or do."

"...I apologize, we were interrupted in the middle of my previous explanation and I never resumed it." Rin fixed her glasses, not quite meeting Johnny's eyes. "The Independent Federal Investigation Club: SCHALE. This isn't your average club, more like a type of extrajudicial organization. Since it's a federal club, you're allowed to recruit students from any of the academies in Kivotos and conduct operations in all districts without restrictions, along with the power to circumvent regulations as necessary."

"Wait a goddamn minute!" Johnny removed his aviators and stared at Rin as if she just popped open the side of her waist to reveal she replaced her liver with an automatic pasta cooker. Out of everything he heard and saw today, this both took the cake and set it on fire. "SCHALE is a motherfucking intelligence and law enforcement agency? Who does it report to?"

Rin hesitated for a few moments before answering. "Technically... you?"

"Mandate?"

"None at the moment."

The Hand moved as if choking someone. "Beside Kivotos, does its jurisdiction extend anywhere else?"

Even the others were now shooting Rin incredulous stares, causing her to start sweating. "By how it's worded in the documents... everywhere outside of Kivotos, no matter the distance."

Santa Muerte, give us enough bullets for all the gonks and corpos in the world! SCHALE was both the FBI and the CIA put together. Not even the corrupt old USA government went so far. Hell, Johnny doubted Arasaka had a department with so much autonomy. Something that answered only to Saburo, sure, but no amount of bribery could buy legal authority to operate outside the company when rival corpos would stonewall such an attempt at every turn.

And the client wanted him to lead this fascist monstrosity? Rogue and Mike were laughing at him all the way back from 2010, he just knew it.

"Woah! Hold on a minute! Miss Vice-Prez, ma'am!" Fubuki flailed her arms around. "Isn't that kind of federal authority already given to SRT? I mean, doesn't it create a conflict or something?"

"SRT Academy was given special authority by the GSC President to mobilize anywhere, at any time, to respond to crime. That is correct. It was done because Valkyrie Police Academy, while also able to operate in every district to an extent, is subject to many restrictions that prevent them from mobilizing completely due to many autonomous districts having their own policing forces." Rin began to explain. "Additionally, they are equally unable to act when dire situations happen, such as if a student from a school commits a crime in one district and then flees to another one."

"In other words, federal crimes." Having lost any fuck to give Johnny lit up a new cig, allowing the nicotine to calm his excited nerves. "Something like SCHALE, then would be partially redundant. If SRT deals with internal issues, why not just create an agency to deal with external ones and have them collaborate when necessary?"

"I have no idea how the President was able to create an organization with such power." Rin looked truly chagrined. "Nor do I know what went through her head. But what I understood is this: SCHALE was given authority equal to that of the GSC President, while SRT operated under her authority. Which means, with the President now missing SRT just lost all of their special privileges."

Naturally said declaration and the news about the GSC president's disappearance sent the two badges into an uproar. Johnny ignored the noise, focusing instead of processing the new deets and reconsidering his approach for the future.

Saving Kivotos by giving the badges the supplies they needed to suppress the gangs? That didn't change, normal people didn't have an unlimited amount of eddies to replace the stuff that was wrecked and insurance agencies were just as exploitative as corpos.

But regarding SCHALE? His client should have thought twice about ghosting immediately after Johnny agreed to be on board, because that gave him free reign to handle the gig as he saw fit.

"Like they said-" A truly nasty grin appeared on his lips as the framework of an idea formed within his mind, the last sight of many unlucky gonks. "The Devil is in the details."

====

After they learned of Johnny's ability to unlock Sanctum Tower both Suzumi and Kirino quickly volunteered their services, while Fubuki needed to be physically dragged along by her choom. Luckily they only had a few kilometers left to cover before reaching their destination, which Rin informed him was located on the outskirts of the Shared District of Utnapishtim. Weirdass name, did they pull it out at random from an itinerant monk's holy text?

"There it is, everyone. The SCHALE headquarters." It was a multi-story white building with many blue glass windows, the acronym S.C.H.A.L.E. displayed above the entrance and at least once for each wall. The bespectacled girl narrowed her eyes in distaste at the line of criminals assembled in front of it, blocking off access. "Reclaiming it will not be easy. Sensei, what do you suggest?"

"Rin? Chica, chombatta, sweetheart?" Johnny's response was to wrap his meat arm around her shoulder and, with a dry monotone, use the Hand to gesture at the gangoons. "What is that shit?"

She blushed at the sudden physical contact. "W-What is what?"

"That!" He jabbed a chromed finger at the incredibly outdated tank the gangoons were gathered around. "What is that piece of scrap? Where's the ACPA?!"

"I don't know what an ACPA is, Sensei, but that is a Crusader Mark 1 Tank. Trinity's tank regiments use the same model." Hasumi told him, Suzumi silently nodding next to her. "The criminals must have acquired it on the Black Market, truly disgraceful."

"That is what the Gremlin meant when she talked about a 'Crusader'?!" Johnny wanted to kick himself. Those girls didn't even consider cybernetics prosthetics real, how could they have access to a mil-spec Linear Frame? "How old is it even?"

"The first Crusader Tanks entered service in 1941." Suzumi informed Johnny.

Holy shit! Motherfucking Saburo Arasaka was getting shot at by those things during WW Two! That nobody managed to hit him was just another tragedy of that conflict.

And he has been worried about it?

"Hello, General Student Council. It's about time you came." Amplified by a megaphone, a sultry voice reached their position. The culprit was standing atop the tank, which spun around to point its cannon away from the SCHALE building. Turning the attackers into defenders as the gangoons copied their apparent leader. Johnny's Kiroshi zoomed in, allowing him to see the details: female, fox ears atop the head and fox tail behind her back, face covered by a traditional Japanese kitsune fox mask, a modified furisode with asymmetrical leggings and high-heeled boots. She wouldn't look out of place among the Tyger Claws, it was just the right mix of traditional Japanese aesthetics and modern American Kitsch. Her Halo was a black cherry blossom surrounded by, of all fucking things, a combined sniper sight and anarchy symbol.

This would not stand. Oh no, this would not stand at all.

"I don't know what's in that building, but if it's important to the GSC... I'll just have to destroy it!" Wakamo giggled. "Why don't you try to stop me? I can't wait! Heeheehee~♡"

"...What rotten luck. The first girl who's legal, and she's this." Letting go of Rin Johnny fished out another cig. "Suzumi, do you have any flashbangs left?"

"Many." She boasted in a quiet way, using a sleight of hand to seemingly produce four flashbangs out of thin air, two for hand.

"And I have smoke grenades!" Kirino added in a hurry, pointing at the canisters hanging from her belt. "Can they be useful?"

"'Course they can. Everyone but Hasumi, grab at least one of each type." Johnny instructed. Reaching inside his duffel bag he took a certain something and put it into his jacket. "At my signal charge the gangoons, use the explosives to keep them stunned while you pump them full of lead. Double, no, triple tap them for good measure. This is the final sprint, give it everything you have."

"But Sensei, what about the tank?" Yuuka pointed. "It will surely start shooting the moment we reveal ourselves."

"I'll take care of that." He tapped the cig to make the ash fall. "And remember, the signal is 'rock and roll'."

Having said that, Johnny Silverhand stepped out of cover and calmly walked toward Wakamo's posse without a care in the world, as if taking a relaxing stroll during the evening.

"Sensei?! Come back, quickly!" Chinatsu cried out in alarm. She made to reach Johnny but was held back by Hanekawa. "Hasumi, what are you doing? We need to-"

"Have faith in Silverhand-sensei. Has he not always led us to victory so far?" The black-haired beauty pointed out. She raised her head and smiled. "Besides, look. The criminals are likewise confused."

Indeed, the sight of a sole person calmly walking towards them out in the open, his hands empty of weapons as if he feared nothing, shook the gangoons' confidence and made them hesitate. They were still pointing their guns at him, yet their fingers refused to touch the trigger. Even Wakamo didn't quite know how to react, a tilt of her head the only visible sign of her confusion. "My, how bold. You don't look like GSC, are you perhaps one of their little pu-"

"Poser."

Unbeknownst to all the fox girl blinked behind her mask. "...Excuse me?"

"I am calling you a fraud. A phony. A goddamn faker." Heat entered Johnny's voice, eyes ablaze behind his aviators. His whole presence demanded attention, denied Wakamo and the gangoons the choice to look away or cover their ears. "Causing havoc wherever you go, blowing up random stuff for shits and giggles, browbeating gangoons into obedience and sending them against anything you don't like. You call that anarchy? What a sick joke. Kosaka Wakamo! What is anarchy to you?"

"I-I... I..." Wakamo stammered, she tried to speak and yet each word felt like it was covered in thorns, lodged firmly inside her throat and refusing to come out.

"I'll tell you what anarchy is. It's not the freedom to do whatever the hell you want, uncaring of the consequences." Johnny kept approaching, the Hand making a sweeping gesture before clenching into a chromed fist, save for the extended index and pinky fingers. The Sign of the Horns, the symbol of heavy metal and chromatic rock. "Anarchy means freedom from the chains dragging you down! When others try to take away your choices, tell you that nothing you do will ever amount to anything unless it's done how they want... when they try to turn you into a slave! Then the only thing left to do is to raise your head and shout NO! I will not bow to you! I am my own person and will live my life however I see fit!"

The Hand was pointed at the gangoons, and they recoiled as if shot. Guns trembling in their grasp. "And you! What you have done today is nothing more than a temper tantrum. You're frustrated with your life, yet you don't know how to fix it. So you take the biggest iron you can find, pick on whoever you can be sure you can hit, laugh it away with your chooms afterward and think you made a damn difference. Well, bad news brats: you didn't! All you did was ruin someone else's day and make them just as frustrated and lost as you. Guess misery loves company, uh? Too bad, that feeling of vindication you may feel? It's empty. Always will be."

Every word set them more and more on edge, hitting true and painfully within unerring accuracy. Johnny was unarmed, surrounded by guns and had a cannon pointed straight at him, yet it was the gangoons who were scared shitless of him. Wakamo had turned still as a statue, rifle slowly slipping through suddenly sweaty palms. Johnny could tell they were a breeze away from tumbling over the edge, so he stopped and spread his arms. Cig held up by a large, mocking grin. "You want to shoot me? Go ahead. But mark my words: if you do, make damn sure you don’t miss. Because all you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer standing. Otherwise... I'll kick your ass before you can reload."

The butt of Wakamo's rifle hit the tank's plates, producing a soft metallic 'thud'.

She may as well have shot a revolver right next to the ears of every single gangoon present. It didn't matter who pressed the trigger first, if it was voluntary or their fingers spasming, once they did everyone else followed. Dozens of firearms, the tank's submachine guns and one cannon fired seemingly at the same time, unleashing their deadly payload. It was, for all intents and purposes, completely overkill.

Johnny turned on the Sandevistan, and the world slowed to a crawl. Pure electricity danced through his nerves, vision acquiring a blue tint and sounds taking on an echoing quality. He could see bullets emerge from the guns' barrels in slow motion, leaving behind glowing trails as his Kiroshi picked up the increase in temperature caused by friction with the air. The QianT Sandevistan Mk.4 may not have been the most powerful model available on the black market, that honor went to the QianT Mk.5 and the Militech 'Falcon', but it still rated third among them all. There was one reason and one reason only why V chose this model above the others, and it came down to a simple fact: among all the high-quality Sandevistans, the Mk.4 had the shorter cooldown. With the right complimentary Chrome like a Bioconductor? Said time of cooldown may as well be non-existent.

The true value of a Sadevistan, Johnny had to agree once V explained their reasoning, was not to go faster. It was to never stop being fast.

When the first bullets were about to reach him the Rockerboy simply bent his knees and lowered his upper body, letting them zoom above his head. A simple movement of his arms, and more missed. With the cannon shot he simply stood back up and ran around it before returning to his starting position once it passed. When the countdown for the Sandy's duration reached the halfway mark Johnny stepped back from a machine gun' burst, took out the Frag Grenade he put inside his jacket and threw it toward the tank's cannon. At three-fourths he did the same thing with his cig and with the Hand took out the Malorian. He kept his cyberarm parallel to his body, barrel pointed at the ground.

A few seconds from the end all gangoons' guns clicked empty. He mentally shut off the Sandy's time acceleration, and time resumed.

Johnny grinned at the stunned girls, eyes widening and faces going deadly pale from the kind of primordial terror that comes from prey realizing they're alone in the dark with a predator. The Hand rose, the aiming algorithms of his Kiroshi aiding Johnny in aligning the barrel with both the falling frag grenade and the cig. "Fucking told you to not miss, chooms."

He pulled the trigger. The superheated bullet’s tip cut through the cig, tobacco leaves spilling out before the temperature ignited both them and the paper. The projectile acquired a burning trail like a comet, visible even to those without thermal sight, continuing on its path and hitting the grenade right above the tank's cannon.

Boom.

The explosion tore through the tank's armor like it was made of wet noodles, tearing off the cannon and shredding the vehicle's machine guns. Demonstrating incredible reflexes for someone without Chrome Wakamo jumped away from the tank a few instants before the explosion occurred, mitigating the damage but not escaping it completely. The gangoons within the blast radius, on the other hand, were battered by the shockwave and pelted by a shower of shrapnel.

Johnny Silverhand laughed. It was chaos and carnage, and he never felt more alive. He dashed towards the enemies, firing his Malorian with wild abandon. "Let's Rock and Roll!"

====

Hayase Yuuka wasn’t quite sure yet what to make of her new Sensei. Johnny Silverhand didn't look like what she imagined an adult teacher would: his appearance was slightly unkempt, he dressed like a hooligan, smoked without a care, talked funny and even used swear words! Yes, totally unlike her previous mental image.

And yet he was reliable. Silverhand-sensei didn't hesitate to fight alongside Yuuka and the others even if he lacked a Halo, he c-cared about her-everyone's safety despite knowing they were much more durable than him and his tactics allowed them to win with little to no bruise even when their enemies severely outnumbered them. Not to mention the incredible technology he possessed! Like his cybernetic arm! Artificial eyes! A functional, hand-carried railgun made of titanium manufactured in space!

Yes, Johnny Silverhand was a confusing individual. But there was a single thing Yuuka knew for certain.

He was completely out of his mind!

"Holy cow!" One of the Public Safety girls, Fubuki she believed, gaped like a fish. Yuuka was sure there was an identical expression on her own face. "Is this what they mean by 'crazy enough to work'?"

"No, no!" The other Valkyrie shook her head. "It's 'if it works, then it's not crazy'!"

"Kirino, there is no way you can call what Sensei did anything but crazy!"

Reluctantly Yuuka had to agree: Sensei faced the Fox of Calamity and the other criminals alone, putting himself in unacceptable danger, then somehow dodged several seconds of concentrated gunfire before destroying the tank by shooting a grenade in midair above it. The latter had a rational explanation, if this Night City Sensei came from was so advanced they could perfectly replicate human body parts then making very powerful grenades was surely child's play. But the former left Yuuka stumped: the whole event had been hard to follow, one moment Sensei was in one place and then suddenly he wasn't. Nothing but a blur she barely managed to catch at the edges of her vision. Teleportation was out of the question, an optical illusion may work but it didn't really fit. Was it... speed?

Speed high enough to dodge bullets after they were fired instead of before? How did it work Yuuka needed to know!

"That's the signal! Don't waste the window of opportunity created by Sensei!" Hasumi yelled with a passionate tone. Having never doubted Sensei for even a second. She immediately started sniping the criminals further away from her, following Sensei's prior instructions to always prioritize those with heavy weapons and similar sniper rifles.

"That-that-that IDIOT!" Nanagami screamed, looking the angriest Yuuka ever witnessed the Acting President be. She jumped out of cover, gun held with both hands. Suzumi was next to her, flashbang ready to be thrown. "Valkyrie students, cover us!"

"Yes sir yes!" Kirino promptly replied, handgun in hand and a determined expression on her face.

"Ooh, why didn't I call in sick today..." Fubuki looked on the verge of crying, but she still took up her semi-automatic rifle and followed after Kirino.

Unacceptable! No way she was staying behind while Sensei risked his life to save Kivotos! Logic and Reason, her trusted SIG-Sauer MPX submachine guns, smoothly settled into her palms as she and Chinatsu joined the charge.

Sensei closed the remaining distance between himself and the criminals, those that were still standing either shocked by the explosion or frantically trying to reload. Rather than do the same he put his gun into his jacket, reached behind his back and took hold of the shotgun hanging from his duffel bag. It was big, ugly and for some inane reason painted a neon green with magenta stripes. Sensei never used it until now.

The reason became apparent when he braced it against his cybernetic shoulder, took aim at the criminals and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shotgun firing was almost as loud as the one made by the tank's cannon, more frightening than a weapon of that size had any right to be. The recoil pushed Sensei back a few steps, but the masked girls were sent flying as if hit by a truck going at full throttle. His next target was the tank itself, which had begun to move: the blast shattered the tracks on one side, pellets blowing holes through the vehicle's armor.

The damage output was incredible! Clearly it used special bullets and Sensei only had a few left, that was why he didn't use it until now!

Once in range Suzumi threw one of her flashbangs, followed more clumsily by Kirino with her smoke grenades. Everything after that descended into a chaotic mess as Yuuka dedicated all of her calculation abilities to the purpose of taking down as many criminals as possible. She and the others shot, threw more flashbangs or grenades when the criminals started to recover, and then shot again. She tried to keep track of Sensei, but he was moving around too much.

Until Kosaka Wakamo made her reappearance, black-red flames covering her limbs and part of her upper body. She fired a powerful shot at Nanagami, the Vice-President crying out in pain, then she had to leap away from Sensei's shotgun blast. With incredible speed she snapped her rifle toward him, but Sensei was even faster: turning into a blur he dodged the three-round burst and barreled into her. Yuuka had to look away to defend herself from a trio of criminals, and when she looked back both Sensei and Kosaka were on the ground, him standing above her and pressing a strange green knife against the bayonet previously attached to the Fox of Calamity's barrel and now held within her hands. For a few seconds they were locked in a stalemate, then Sensei raised his cybernetic arm and punched down. Kosaka turned her head to the side, the fist slamming into the street's surface and cracking it.

With a knee she pushed Sensei off her and rolled away, toward her discarded rifle. She grabbed it, then had to use her bayonet to deflect Sensei's throw knife. When Kosaka lowered her arm she found herself face to face with Sensei's handgun, weapons held with both hands and a light on the side blinking quickly. "I kept a couple of bullets in the mag just in case. Trust me, you can't dodge this shot." His grin was wild, almost savage. "Now be a good girl and surrender, Wacko-moe."

The sound of combat growing weaker around her, Yuuka waited with bated breath to see the infamous Fox of Calamity's next move. The fox girl didn't move for a short while, her mask's painted eyes staring straight at Sensei... then one of her ears started moving up and down repeatedly. It was quickly joined by the other one. Her tail began wagging like an excited dog. She hugged herself as powerful shudders traveled through her body, faster and faster before coming to an abrupt stop. Kosaka remained still for a few seconds, tail standing straight up, then seemingly melted into herself as her knees trembled.

...What was that? No, seriously, what was that?

Even Sensei looked like he had been taken completely by surprise. He removed one hand from the gun and used it to lower his red glasses. "...Really?" He asked in disbelief and a thin veil of amusement.

"...eeehEEEEEHH!" With a shrill scream the Fox of Calamity turned around and flew away at full speed, arms still hugging herself. "Excuse me excuse me EXCUSE MEEEE!!!"

Sensei didn't shoot her, he just followed Kosaka with his eyes until she disappeared from sight, then lowered his gun. "Eh. Kinky fox." He shook his head, grin wider than before.

"What do you mean... no, before that! Sensei, is it really fine to let Kosaka Wakamo go like that?" Yuuka pointed out.

"Oh, I have a feeling we'll meet again. In fact, I look forward to it." He started checking his surroundings. Following his gaze Yuuka saw all the criminals had been either shot down or forced to flee. Only Nanagami had difficulties standing up, but Chinatsu was already helping her.

Did they win? Really? They faced a Class-A Threat, a Crusader and who knows how many criminals and still emerged victorious? Just the eight of them?

"Preem work out there Yuuka." Sensei moved closer to her and tousled her hair. "Enjoy the rest, you more than earned it."

Yuuka pouted: she was not a child that needed coddling! Even if Sensei's big and warm hand rubbing her head felt very good...

====

"Sensei, are you coming or not?"

Rin glared at him, still angry about what she called 'needlessly putting yourself in danger' and yadda yadda yadda. He ignored her, meat hand checking for the fifth time in a row that his Chipware Sockets were both empty. He did the same after waking up in Kivotos, there was nothing, the Relic chip was gone.

Then why was he seeing the tarot card for the Fool next to the SCHALE building's entrance, occasionally glitching at the edges to reveal its illusory nature? It was the same as the one on the wall next to V's apartment, a yellow-clad punk walking on a rooftop with a dog by his side, one arm stretched in front of him and the other carrying a stick. This card and the others around Night City were supposed to be nothing more than random data generated by the Relic interacting with V's brain, at least according to Vik. Misty, who taught V all about tarots, had a different explanation about a sign from a higher force telling both V and Johnny to go on a journey of self-discovery, self-improving and other self-things that sound pretty and sometimes help you score a preem piece of ass.

If this was indeed a higher force's doing, they were so close to earning a rendezvous with the barrel of his Malorian.

Whatever, it was another thing for Future and Drunk Johnny to deal with. "Yeah, yeah." He cast a final glance at the abandoned music stage that someone set up nearby, with amps and everything, then followed Rin inside the building.

They met no one as they walked through dark halls where only emergency lights worked, the place as silent as a grave. Everything managed to look both brand new and abandoned for years. Glamorous like Westbrook and yet ominous like Pacifica, what a world this was. Despite everything Rin moved with the surety of someone who memorized the building's plans, leading Johnny down to the basement. It was a large area connected to several other doors, a hint the basement may extend farther than the building above. Bookshelves full of old-fashioned books and thin plastic cases, lockers, computer towers typically found within server rooms, chairs, a single desk with a terminal and a sofa in the corner.

Oh, and also a glowing pedestal with a stone floating above it. At first Johnny thought it was a hologram, but a second look revealed the stone was real. As ways to use anti-gravity technology went, it was very corpo and utterly wasteful. But Johnny didn't care beyond that, because his eyes were instead drawn to the desk and the open guitar case resting on it. No, what was inside the case.

He walked past Rin and made a beeline for the desk, where he took out the guitar from within the case. It was a DeLuze Orphean just like his old one, brand new but with the same painted parts and stickers. Turning it around Johnny saw a post-stick on the back.

It read: [It's just a copy, but I hope you like it Sensei].

What was this, a bribery attempt? Because it came very, very close to working. Good thing Johnny had such solid principles, lesser men would have capitulated already. "Your boss a rocker?" He picked a few strings, sound simply perfect. What a beauty.

"I... never saw the guitar case open before. Sometimes the President kept it in her office while working, but never explained its origin. Just saying it was a dear memento." Rin mused. "If she left it here within SCHALE that means she entrusted it to you, Sensei. There's something more important to do now."

Opening a drawer she started rummaging through it. Her face lit up in satisfaction. "Here it is. Thankfully, it doesn't have a single scratch."

Rin handed Johnny a white-framed tablet barely larger than his hand. "This is what the General Student Council President left for you: the Shittim Chest."

"Shitty chest?"

She was just standing, yet Rin still managed to stumble over thin air. "Wha-No! It's the Shittim Chest!" She half-shouted, face red.

"That's what I said." The grin on Johnny's lips had grown to epic proportions. "The Shitty Chest."

"You-you-you..." She shook a fist at him, then suddenly lost all energies. "It's protected by a password. Please unlock it and restore the GSC's access to the Sanctum Tower. Preferably today."

After that she ascended the stairs, shoulders slumped, and left the basement.

"Should not have made it so easy." Johnny chuckled under his breath. He walked up to the sofa and let himself fall on it, guitar resting next to him and ganic thumb pressing the single button on the tablet's bottom. The screen lit up with an azure background, a white 'S' made of triangles in the center and a touchscreen keyboard below it.

Connecting to the Shittim Chest...

Please enter the system password.

"Sorry, not a clue." Still grinning Johnny used the Hand to take out the Interface Plug from his right wrist and jack it into the tablet's sole socket. "Which means it's time to Breach-!"

Static filled his vision. Hot-white pain split his skull in half. Lightning shot through every single nerve of his body.

Fuck- the Relic- but it wasn't-

The Hand moved. Arm shaking violently as it rose before stilling, chromed fingers typing something on the tablet as if they were born to do that.

Password accepted. User identified as Johnny Silverhand. Confirmed.

Welcome to the Shittim Chest, Silverhand-sensei.

Converting to Operating System Arona for biological authentication and generation of verification certificate.

And then Johnny's world became light.

====

When the Rockerboy finally managed to push air into his lungs, he found himself not back in the basement. But witnessing an endless blue ocean, the likes of which have been lost long ago to the shortsighted greed of corporations and now existed only in fantasy. The day was bright, with only a few clouds scattered in the sky. No land in sight, yet Johnny was standing in the middle of a half-destroyed classroom, floor filled with a few inches of clear water and several desks carelessly piled together just outside the broken wall.

Before a very colorful stream of curses in several different languages could escape Johnny's lips a ring of purple light suddenly formed around him, radiating digital zeros and ones that quickly gathered together to form a floating figure. Every part of it was colored a shade of pink, from the very tight clothing to the long spiky hair and even the skin, looking like a busty, gorgeous girl. She looked around with a tense expression before relaxing and giving Johnny's two thumb-ups.

"Spinky?" Johnny addressed the Semi-AI Daemon V compiled with Alt's help. "But that means... this is cyberspace, isn't it?"

She crossed her arms, giving him the same look Spider Murphy used when she questioned his intelligence. The Semi-AI had the same face as the Netrunner's old Icon back in the day, which made it all the more nostalgic. Why V chose Bartmoss' last perverted joke of a program to compile it, and why Alt kept the construction file for fifty years, Johnny had no fucking idea. Even if it was funny as hell.

"Still, for everything to be so realistic..." He looked over his body, marveling at the extremely precise details. He truly couldn't tell the difference between it and meatspace! "Just how much processing power does it take?"

No way it was all inside that flimsy tablet, it must be connected to a much bigger data fortress.

Spinky nodded in agreement before her head snapped to the side, expression turning wary once more. Following her gaze Johny finally noticed the little girl sitting on a desk, head resting in her arms as she slept soundly. She had bright blue hair that were pink on the inside, her Halo a simple blue ring. Her clothes consisted of a blue and white school uniform, the edges shimmering slightly when the fabric directly reflected the sunlight, and resting against one side of the desk was a mix between a rifle and an umbrella. If Johnny remembered right Soviet secret agents used similar concealed weapons for a time before failing a gig and getting ridiculed by the screamsheets for years.

A dialogue box appeared next to Spinky, the words on it glowing a bright neon pink.

"You fucking serious Spinky?" Johnny pointed a chromed finger at the literal middle-schooler, only receiving a serious nod in response.

"Munya... Castella cake... Banana milk... goes better than strawberry milk..."

They both stopped and looked at the potentially dangerous AI that just sleep-talked about food.

"Hehe... Pancakes, syrup, whipped cream... there's still so much left!" She giggled, drool escaping her mouth.

"No, but for real. You fucking with me Spinky?" The Rockerboy asked again, because holy shit he thought the situation with Delamain's divergent AIs was batshit insane but this took the cake. Even the Semi-AI was giving the girl in blue a queer look now, as if profoundly disturbed.

"Banana Grilled Cheese... Do you have cheesecake with marshmallows too?"

Alright, no. This had gone too far. "Trace the connection and get ready to yank me back to meatspace Spinky." He told the Daemon. Approaching the blue-haired girl he looked down at her small body, barely reaching his waist, then used one meat finger to poke her cheek.

"Hehe..." She giggled, mouth moving as if eating something. Johnny poked again, harder than before, and once more time for good measure. Finally stirring she groggily stood up with a loud yawn. Her eyes opened, revealing blue pupils the same color as the ocean. "Huh...? What's going on?"

"Oh you know, the usual: lots of questions and never enough people to give answers." Johnny drawled. "You the former or the latter?"

She craned her neck to look up at Johnny, eyes widening and cheeks blushing. Her Halo changed form, bursting out like water splashing on the floor. "Eh? Ehhhh?! S-Sensei?! If you're here, does that mean you're Silverhand Sensei?"

"The one and only. Even if the 'Sensei' part is a recent thing."

"So I was right! Wait, what time is it?! Don't tell me I overslept!" She waved her little arms in a panic, blush intensifying. Her Halo changed again, as if reflecting her emotional state.

Despite making no sound Pinky laughed merrily, doubling over as she floated around them. Even Johnny cracked a smile.

The little girl froze at the sight of the Daemon, then did the unexpected: she rushed up to Spinky, eyes sparkling with delight. "Woah! You're so pretty!"

The Semi-AI preened at the praise, because of course she did. "100% artificial, don't believe a word of it." Johnny joked, which made Spinky stick out her tongue at him.

"Are you an AI too? It's my first time meeting another one. Oh, that's right! I forgot to introduce myself!" The girl in blue took a deep breath to calm down. Putting her hands behind her back she gave a little bow and a radiant smile. "My name is Arona! I'm the system manager that lives inside the Shittim Chest. I serve as its main OS. Think of me as your trusty secretary, Sensei!"

"Truly? Never heard of trustworthy secretaries sleeping on the job, though." Johnny grinned, making Arona blush again in embarrassment at having been caught slacking off. Even if the concept of an AI sleeping was... Johnny wasn't an expert but that sounded way too strange. "Don't worry about it Arona. To answer your question, Spinky here is a Semi-AI: she's definitely advanced, but I don't have the hardware necessary to support a full AI."

Spinky looked away and pouted, arms crossed over her chest.

"Even if the difference is hard to spot."

"Eh? That's too bad. I never had a problem with my hardware..." Arona looked like she was trying to wrangle her head around the concept before looking at Johnny in confusion. "Uhm... I understand Miss Spinky, but how are you inside the Shittim Chest, Sensei?"

"That would be thanks to my Chrome." Seeing the AI's uncomprehending gaze Johnny groaned, lifting his hair to reveal part of the Neural Link on his back. "Brain-computer interface cybernetic implant, it allows me to project my mind directly into cyberspace."

"Oooh! Amazing! I didn't know such a thing existed!" Arona jumped up and down in excitement. "But wait, how did you bypass the firewall then?"

"Firewall? Oh, you mean your ICE. Good question." Johnny scratched his head, trying to remember what happened but coming up shortly. Did he complete a Breach Protocol on auto-pilot? He must have a real hidden talent for Netrunning. "Guess that's because I jacked in directly."

She froze at those words. "Jacked... in?"

"Yep." He showed her his Interface Plug. "With this."

The AI's face and Halo turned a neon red, hands over her mouth as she looked at him with a scandalized expression. "S-S-Sensei! How could you! P-Putting your plug into my s-socket without warning! What if... what if my data got corrupted?!"

A beat of silence. Johnny and Arona stared at each other, neither moving a muscle.

"...Pffh!" The little girl snorted.

"...Pffh!" The Rockerboy did the same.

The next moment both of them were howling in laughter. "Ah ah ah! 'what if my data got corrupted', nova! What about this?" With a wide grin Johnny pointed a meat finger at Arona. "Why is the color green always single? Because it's too jaded!"

"Heehee! A good one!" Matching his grin she pointed both index fingers at him. "Why did the computer show up at work late? It had a hard drive!"

"I used to hate facial hair, but then it grew on me."

"There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't."

The two lost it and went back to laughing.

Spinky glared at them with deep, visceral disgust.

After Johnny and Arona finally managed to calm down, but not before making Spinky scrub her memory banks of the last minutes, the Rockerboy told the AI about the current situation. "Got it. A lot's been going on, hasn't it?" She nodded in understanding. "I can definitely help, but first I need to complete your biological authentication, Sensei."

So she needed his biometric data? Or did she already have it and merely needed to verify it matched? If the latter it begged the question of how she acquired it... or who gave it to her. "Arona, before that can you tell me about the General Student Council President?"

She looked regretful. "Sorry Sensei, I have lots of data on Kivotos but none about the President. Not even what she looks like."

"Go figure, would have been too easy." Johnny clicked his tongue in distaste. This was only a temporary setback, he was going to track down that chica and get his fucking answers. One way or another. "Alright then, go ahead."

"Uhm... this is a little embarrassing, but it's all part of the protocol. Would you mind bending down?" She raised the index finger of her right hand. "Then, place your fingertip against mine."

Johnny raised an eyebrow even as he did as instructed. "A fingerprint scan? Really?" He also used his right hand, the only one with fingerprints left.

"I told you Sensei, it's protocol. Protocol!" Arona tried to look angry but it was as threatening as a wet kitten. She then stared intensely at where their fingers were touching, so Johnny waited for her to finish.

And waited.

And waited.

The drumming of the Hand's fingers over his knee intensified. "Arona?"

"Almost done! I swear it!" She answered far too quickly for his tastes. Her eyes narrowed in confusion. "There's just so much extra data... and what's a 'Biomonitor'?"

"Subdermal implant to keep tracks of my vitals and other stuff." Johny groaned: was his Chrome messing with the scan? His eyes light up in blue. "Here, I'm granting you access to my Personal Link. Same thing, right?"

"Personal what-I see it now!" Red motes of data flowed out of Johnny's head and into Arona's, surfing through their connected arms. The AI's eyes glowed as a holographic download bar appeared and quickly filled above them.

She pulled back and began to do a cute little dance, as if she just received a shiny new gift. "Woah! This is everything I needed and more! Verification complete! Sensei, what now?"

Johnny stood up, Arona's name now figuring among his contacts even if she didn't have a personal icon yet. "Get Sanctum Tower up and running."

"Sure! Just let me restore the access permissions." She closed her eyes before opening them a few seconds later. "Admin permissions acquired! I've successfully regained control of Sanctum Tower. That means all of Kivotos is now in the palm of your hand, Sensei."

Was this a taste of absolute power? How truly disgusting. It was a miracle corpos don't spend all day puking their guts out. Must be because they never experienced what it's like being on the other side of the stick.

"I can transfer control of Sanctum Tower to the General Student Council with your approval, Sensei." Arona continued.

"Yeah?" Meat fingers tapping his chin, Johnny locked eyes with Spinky. The Daemon, sensing his intentions, replied with an OK gesture and a mischievous grin that he reciprocated. "Sure, you can do it... with conditions.”

And contingencies. And a backdoor access. None of which the GSC will know about or be able to spot.

Rin may have done right by him so far, but trusting the government? Ah ah ah!

Fuck that.

====

Johnny disconnected from cyberspace, Interface Plug popping out of the Shittim Chest's socket and rolling back into his right wrist. The basement was now brightly lit, computer towers and terminal on the desk thrumming with electronic life. Arona delivered everything he wanted, questioning the 'how' of his requests but never the 'why'. Sweet gal, if only all AIs were like her.

"Heehee! Thank you Sensei!" Arona appeared on the tablet's screen, looking up at Johnny as if peeking through a window of her digital classroom. A certain pink Semi-AI waved from behind her. "Is it truly alright for Miss Spinky to stay here with me?"

"Sure thing. Go on and become best chooms, I doubt I'll need her for now." He picked up the guitar and stood up from the sofa. The Shittim Chest was placed against his lower back, tucking the bottom edge partially into the waistband of his pants to secure it. "How it's going outside? Did the GSC manage to restore order?"

"They're in the middle of doing so, Sensei." Arona answered. "All the city's critical infrastructures that were shut down had been reactivated. Both Valkyrie Police Academy and SRT Special Academy gained access to the weapons and supplies inside Sanctum Tower, and are now swarming the city to suppress the delinquents."

"Badges doing their job properly for once. What's next, it's raining vinyl records?" Chuckling he approached the stairs, planning to meet with Rin and ask where in the fuck he could find a bed because holy shitballs, he was tired. But stopped when the sound of several people moving and speaking all at the same time reached his ears through the ceiling. "A crowd?"

Booting up his Cyberdeck Johnny connected to the building's surveillance system. It was indeed a crowd, dozens of students wearing all manners of colorful uniforms, regular clothes and most importantly irons having gathered around the SCHALE headquarters and still growing. How curious, Johnny saw no adults among-

Wait a sec.

Were those dogs? Wearing clothes? Standing on two legs?!

Cats too! Some of them even had a regular-looking dog on a leash!

What the absolute fuck Johnny.

What the absolute fuck indeed, V.

There are robots too. With clothes and heads shaped like rugby balls.

After everything else that's not even a blip on my radar.

Fair. You dealing with it now or later?

Nope. Zero, zilch, zip, nada. Definitely later.

Drugs were out, tequila was nowhere in sight and cigs just weren’t cutting it. Better to treat everything like a hallucination, not the first time Johnny went on a night-long drunk rampage with a talking animal that only existed within his mind. Or an alien. Or an anime girl with big boobs that fired laser out of her eyes. Fuck, his head was a goddamn mess.

A van came to a screeching halt close to the crowd, rear doors opening to discharge a team of Media and old-fashioned cameramen. The apparent leader was a cute dark-skinned blonde with skin-tight pants and a half-undershirt that proudly put on display the lower part of her boobs.

She immediately made a beeline for Rin, who was talking to the crowd while Yuuka and the others stood nearby. A dirigible with a giant screen passed above the city, showing said bespectacled girl remaining stoic and composed despite the microphone thrust into her face and the sudden barrage of questions from an excited blonde.

So, what appeared to be Kivotos' premier Mediacorp was holding a live TV interview?

Perfect.

Walking back Johnny took off the jacket and the bulletproof vest, leaving only his Samurai tank top, putting both them and the duffel bag on the sofa. DeLuze Orphean in his meat hand he left the basement, crossed the reception area and stepped out through the automatic doors.

The crowd reacted to his appearance with surprise and curiosity, but Johnny ignored both it and the girls calling for him to walk towards the abandoned music stage. With his Cyberdeck he activated the DeLuze's in-built wireless system and connected it to the stage's amps.

"Excuse me sir." Shinon ran up to him. "Are you the adult they said saved Kivotos today? Are you willing to answer some questions?"

"Oh, I'll do much better. Just tell your chooms to keep recording."

Leaving behind a puzzled blonde Johnny walked up the stage's stairs, reached the center and turned around to look at the crowd with his trademark grin. "Nice to meet you all. Some people are saying I saved this city today, and they're right. But not alone."

Johnny gestured to Rin and the others. "As I faced hundreds of gangoons to reach this place, those girls were there with me. Risking their necks to put an end to this crisis."

He let the crowd clap and cheer before continuing. "But I'm betting the biggest question you have is this: who am I? My name is Johnny Silverhand, and I have been many things. I have been a sand-stained brat listening to music out of old radios and a truck's dingy speakers. A soldier. A deserter."

"Wait, what?" Rin, who had been looking at Johnny in grudging approval, muttered.

"I have been a Rockerboy. A merc. A Cyberpunk. A criminal. A terrorist."

"WAIT WHAT?!" This time the bespectacled girl yelled, her and everyone else's eyes bulging out in shock as they stared at Johnny.

"But no matter which labels others decided to slap on my back, there's only one that truly defines me." He raised the index finger of the Hand with a sharp gesture, silver chromed limb reflecting the sunlight. "I am a rebel."

Johnny's sheer force of personality kept everyone rooted on the spot. Just like with Wakamo and the gangoons, his presence had become a blazing inferno impossible to ignore. Through the channels of Kronos School of Journalism all of Kivotos heard the Rockerboy's deep, charismatic voice. And listened.

"I saw corporations strip farmers of water and eventually of land. Saw them transform the world into a machine fueled by people's crushed spirits, broken dreams and emptied pockets. For so long scumbags ruled by unbridled greed have sought to control our lives, taking everything... even going after our souls!" Johnny shouted, familiar embers that never cooled turning into a bonfire. But this time it was not all-devouring hate, but tempering resolve. "This is what I've declared war on. Not because capitalism's a thorn in my side or outta nostalgia for something that probably never existed. This war is a people's war against a system that's spiraled outta control. It's a war against the fucking forces of entropy!"

The guitar's bottom rested on the stage, meat fingers holding onto the head. Johnny bent forward slightly, grin returning to his lips. "And for why I'm here now, in Kivotos? Tell me, have any of you ever looked at something wrong? Like gangoons ruining the place, or people abusing their authority? Then looked at the gun in your hands and wondered: 'ah, if only I was allowed to shoot the problem'?"

A horrible, horrible premonition seized Nanagami's heart. "I did." Which was only reinforced by Suzumi's calm declaration as she and Hasumi nodded, in perfect agreement to what Johnny was saying.

"In that case, I have good news: now you can!" He straightened up and spread his arms wide open. "Before the General Student Council President disappeared she arranged for me to come here, to act as the advisor and teacher of a new club: the Independent Federal Investigation Club, SCHALE. A club to which she entrusted her whole authority, so that its members could use it for the good of the people even in her absence. You have a problem no one can solve? Send it to SCHALE. You want to make a difference? Come join SCHALE! Any student of any academy can join, and since SCHALE is extrajudicial it can operate anywhere without needing to worry about regulations."

"No, no, no, no..." Rin desperately pleaded, face resting within her hands.

"Me? I'm but one member, the first of hopefully many. As an advisor it will be my job to show new members how to use their power responsibly, mediate internal disputes and how to kick the ass of any gonk standing between them and justice."

"Hey, when he put it like that SCHALE is basically a sanctioned and unaccountable for vigilante army!" Fubuki pointed out with an amused chuckle, turning Rin's muttered words into a high-pitched whine of despair.

"But you may ask: Johnny boy, that doesn't sound democratic at all! And you're right! That's why, as currently the only member of SCHALE, I'm declaring the first tenet of its new mandate: after one year of SCHALE's activity, and every year afterward, all of Kivotos will vote to decide if to shut down the club, limit its authority or keep the organization as it is. Because, if we abuse this power that should be used for your benefit? Then you have the right to kick our asses and take back what can only be given by you, for you!"

"That sounds fair." Yuuka and Chinatsu nodded, most of their earlier worries now put to rest.

"I am Johnny Silverhand. I am here to bring you a revolution..." He took off his aviators and picked up the DeLuze Orphean. "And good music."

The Rockerboy's fingers danced over the strings, glorious chromatic rock blasting out of the amps. Johnny stared straight into the eyes of the crowd and recalled all his memories of V.

About waking up in the kid's brain and trying to flatline them. Not his best moment, but to be fair they both were at the lowest points of their lives. Then they got up and soared higher than ever, and it was a goddamn miracle.

Following Evelyn Parker's trail. Facing off against the Voodoo Boys and Netwatch. Meeting the AI that called herself Alt Cunningham. Panam and the ambush to capture Hellman. Takemura and Hanako Arasaka.

Delamain. River Ward. Judy Alvarez. Vik. Misty. Mama Welles. Rogue. Kerry.

All the lives V touched and made brighter. Showing Johnny something priceless: proof that things, no matter how small the change, could get better.

"Fubuki! What are you doing?" Kirino made a scandalized face when she noticed her partner was dancing to the music, arms pumping up and down.

"Hey, this is much better than the usual stuff on the radio. Besides, everyone's doing the same." The lazy Valkyrie pointed out. Indeed, though initially stunned the people in the crowd had been quickly captivated by Johnny's music and now were acting like galvanized fans. Chanting the lyrics, waving their arms and shooting their guns in the air. "Even you, Kirino."

"Uh?" The white-haired girl looked down at herself and realized she was also dancing. "N-Nooo! My body has betrayed me!!"

"I'm chippin' in!" Johnny finished, the Hand raising high towards the sky to make the Sign of the Horns with chromed fingers.

"I'M CHIPPING' IN!!!" The crowd screamed as one, many hands raising to imitate Johnny's gesture.

"Hello Kivotos! You're breathtaking!" Johnny smiled, an honest and meaningful one. Finally, he was back to where he truly belonged. "This is my first lesson as your Sensei: be free, take control of your life and let no one tell you what you should believe in!"

If this was the start of a new and exciting chapter of his life, then he would be the best damn teacher in the whole world!

And besides, how hard could it be?

Chapter Text

"He broke into school grounds with a mobile stage, dressed in a ridiculous costume, and just started screaming like a maniac about i-i-indecent stuff!"

"Come on, the local equivalent of an all-girls Catholic school wants me to visit? I just had to put on the old Satan get-up and write some sick lyrics."

Kirifuji Nagisa and Johnny Silverhand

====

Cries of "Johnny!" and "Sensei!" filled the air as the Rockerboy walked down the street stage's stairs, waving the Hand at his new fans with a huge, cocky grin on his lips. Chromed fingers formed the Sign of the Horns one final time before grabbing his aviators from the belt and putting them back on his face. God, he really missed being on stage and just focusing on producing the best sound possible, letting it all out into the mic.

The best part?

Unlike when he screamed his hate for a toxic world ruined by greed and callousness, this time he did feel better.

Also damn tired. Because, holy fucking shit, it had been a long-ass day: his whole body felt like ground synthbeef squeezed under the tracks of a tank. Where was a soft surface to lie on and get some shut-eye? He'll even take the floor at this point, wouldn't be the first time.

The sofa in the basement?

That'll do.

Hiding his bone-deep exhaustion as best as he could, it wouldn't do to ruin his image right at the beginning of his new career, and doing a fine job at it Johnny moved towards the entrance of his new hovel. Sparing a single thought for its eventual and much-needed repainting: the corpo-office look was tolerable, but too much white at the moment.

Red. Definitely a lot of red. The number and caliber of gun turrets to install will wait another time.

Yuuka and the other girls were waiting for him, various degrees of awe and excitement in their expressions. Except for Rin who was staring at him with both eyebrows twitching, hands raised as if ready to grab something and squeeze. Oh yeah, on the Rogue scale she definitely wanted to kill him. Very hot.

"That was incredible Sensei!" Yuuka congratulated him. "I didn't know you could play so well."

"I said I'm a Rockerboy, didn't I? That's not just a job, but a way of life: I see a stage, I use it." He held up the DeLuze Orphean for emphasis. "And this beauty here deserved a proper debut."

"A commendable speech, Silverhand-Sensei." Hasumi gave a small bow. "Am I to understand you plan for Schale to have a direct connection to the public, in order to act towards issues brought to your attention in a more timely manner?"

"Hasumi, chombatta. If all those fancy-like words mean 'cutting through red tape with a high-frequency blade and actually do shit', then hell yeah I do."

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?!" Rin's words came out as a sharp hiss, bringing the conversation to an abrupt halt. The white-clad girl marched up to Johnny, a thunderous expression on her face, and jabbed a finger into an unfazed Rockerboy's chest. "Silverhand-Sensei! It's bad enough you spoke to the press without consulting me first. But you went so far as to declare on live Kronos TV, meaning everyone within Kivotos will see and hear it within the next twelve hours, that Schale's extrajudicial authority is shared equally between all its members! It will be impossible to retract that statement without damaging the GSC's reputation beyond the point of no return!"

So losing control of the whole country and letting it fall into anarchy didn't push it? Johnny didn't know if it was because before people had a lot of faith in the GSC or if their expectations were just that low, and frankly he couldn't care less. "Suppose so. And?"

"And?! That authority was supposed to belong to you alone!" She threw her hands in the air in frustration. "When the SRT acted they did so in the President's name, meaning she could reign them in case they crossed a line. It should have been the same with Schale! Instead now everyone aiming to join will pretend to operate without answering to someone else or even informing others of it, meaning at best important decisions will be up to a majority's vote! And what was up with you calling yourself both a criminal and a terrorist?!"

"I see. So you prefer a system that completely falls apart in case something happens to the one in charge. Like it just did." Johnny's words were delivered with a conversational and friendly tone of voice, yet they still managed to make Rin go as stiff as a board.

He leaned forward and slightly pushed down his sunglasses with the Hand, Kiroshi optics subtly glowing red. "Let me tell you something, Nanagami Rin. Every time I saw near absolute power being given to a person it always went to scop. Always. It doesn't matter if they started as a scumbag or with the best of intentions, the end result is the same every single time: things are awful, the majority suffer and a few profit from the misery of everyone else. I'm not against the concepts of hierarchy and institution by themselves, but I saw both being abused too many times and it makes me angry beyond words."

He pushed up his aviators. Then, switching the Orphean into the Hand, Johnny used his meat fingers to lift up Rin's chin until they were directly face to face. "So said authority given to me? I would toss it away in a heartbeat and set it on fire if I could, but I accepted this gig and Johnny Silverhand's no quitter. Instead I will share it with those with the resolve to act but not the power. Because the only way for things to change for the better, despite how hard the road ahead may be, is for everyone involved to roll up their sleeves and work their ass off. Together."

A person may turn their life around and help other people do the same. V taught him that.

But to truly improve a country the change needs to come from its citizens. To persuade people of this truth and give their hearts the necessary strength, that is the very essence of a Rockerboy.

"And for the terrorist part, don't worry about it." Straightening up he smirked again and patted Rin's cheek with his meat hand. "Compared to someone like Wakamo, I'm much worse."

Then he walked around and past her. Rin remained frozen for a few more seconds, eyes wide and cheeks rapidly reddening, before whirling around to stare at his back. "Wait! Much worse?!"

Johnny ignored her, giving a thumbs-up to Yuuka and the others before walking through the automatic doors. They closed behind him, and a quick Daemon into their systems ensured they would not open until he said so.

"Explain yourself!" Rin tried to enter, and when it didn't work she started banging her fists against the reinforced glass surface. "Johnny Silverhand, open this door and explain yourself!"

The GSC Vice President's voice grew fainter and fainter, until it ceased entirely when Johnny took the stars to the basement. At once his tense posture evaporated, body slumping slightly and legs moving slower as he now seemed to drag them. A bone-weary sigh escaped his lips, dismissing with a thought the notifications from his Agent with suggestions about his health.

"Seed is sown, I'm chippin' in! Roll the bones, I'm chippin' in!" Off-tune but earnest singing came from behind him, the voice belonging to none other than Arona. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time! Encore! Encore!"

"Pipsqueak." Johnny spoke slowly, putting back the guitar inside its case with great care.

"Yes Sensei? Wait, pipsqueak?! I'll have you know I'm still a growing girl!" She protested.

"Sleepy now." He took out the Shittim Chest and put it down on the desk, along with his sunglasses, before letting himself fall on the sofa with a heavy thud. "Talk tomorrow."

"Oh, I see! Sleep well, Sensei." Johnny caught a last glimpse of blue waving at him from the screen before covering his eyes with his meat arm. Exhaustion blanking his mind as he drifted off.

Narrowed dark eyes looks into a dirty mirror, watching black hair fall off around him. The owner a lanky teenager in a barbershop chair as a military worker shaves his head.

Once the final lock of hair is cut off he's shoved out the door and directly to bootcamp. A gun is pushed into his hands. He's taught how to handle a rifle, how to shoot and listen to orders. Lankiness turning into muscles through the sweat and water that soaks his fatigues, through the screams and insults from drill sergeants. Next are combat drugs: muscle reinforcements, lung reinforcements, fatigue suppressors. Everything meant to make better soldiers, and cheap enough to be freely given to everyone.

Then he's out in combat. Invading the homes and towns of strangers. They tell him he's protecting his country, serving a purpose. Newfound friends and complete strangers alike get their brains blown out beside him. He feels the percussive boom of firearms and blood on his face. Between the bombs, the airstrikes and gunfire he watches more civilians die than soldiers. The smell of burnt flesh, the rot of bodies sweltering in the heat, sweating like a pig and choking on the stink of it all. He gets used to wearing blood and sweat like a second skin. All for his country. All for his newfound purpose. All for the greater good. They tell him so as each body hits the ground.

He realizes before long, yet still too late (it has always been too late), that he doesn't believe them. That he's the enemy. That he let them turn him into a weapon: not for the greater good or for a noble purpose, but for their own greed.

A faint ting and a harsh yell of "Grenade!" is all the warning he gets. The world explodes into pain and fire, his chest and stomach hitting the dirt hard enough to almost crack his ribs. He screams in pain and fear, his skin bubbling and sizzling from the heat. There's blood everywhere: in his eyes, in his throat, and if he still believed in one he would say in his very soul.

He tries to move, to roll, to pull at the shrapnel in his shoulder and neck. His right arm pushes against the ground. His left arm- where the fuck is his left arm. Why does it still hurt if his arm is not there anymore? He pushes ever harder even as each movement pulls at the metal in his body and new waves of agony threaten to drown him in. His feverish gaze falls on a disemboweled hand lying on the scorched ground, his struggles coming to an abrupt stop when he sees the ring around what remains of one of the hand's fingers.

He recognizes that ring.

His fellow soldiers drag him away, gunfire mixing with desperate screams and frantic calls to home base. His body is quickly turning cold, pain replaced by a powerful numbness with every second that passes. He distantly catches someone muttering about "blood loss" and "need to stop it" before they return to the camp. Two people grab him, one of them shoving a wooden branch between his teeth.

Then they shove his left side into the not-yet-dead bonfire.

The lanky teenager, now barely a man, becomes kindling and burn burn burn (it never stops burning) until there's no difference between him and the flames.

Johnny snapped back to reality with a soundless gasp, mouth remaining wide open for a second before he used it to inhale. He just breathed for a few moments to remind himself he can, filling his lungs with stale air that is like paradise compared to the stench of gunpowder and burning bodies. With a grunt he pushed himself up to a sitting position, stomach churning in what he thought was nausea before realizing it was mostly hunger. That was put on the backburner for now, because while the prospect of getting some real chow was theoretically appealing the Rockerboy currently was not in the mood for it.

Meat fingers reached out and wrapped around the chromed wrist of the Hand, applying pressure to confirm he can still feel them through the metal and artificial nerves. That he still had an arm, even a moody one that used to push Johnny down a bad road.

Fucking murder clown on a motorized unicycle. It had been a while since the last nightmare, though that may have been due to the fact Johnny couldn't sleep as an Engram: from the moment he found himself within V's nogging the dark-haired man has remaining constantly aware of himself and his surroundings, only entering what he could only described as a black and monotonous daydream when the kid's sleep turned heavy. The only exceptions happened when the Relic malfunctioned or when someone directly tampered with it. And before that, as far as the Rockerboy could remember he went directly from fighting Smasher to standing above some young punk crawling through a landfill.

The ones about the war didn't bug him half as much as they used to, but only because they've been joined by much worse over the years. Stubborn bastards, coming back night after night, like they wanna make sure you never forget a single detail.

"Sensei! Are you alright? What happened?" Arona asked him with a worried tone. Johnny was about to wave it off, blaming the sofa for being too hard to sleep on, but realized something was wrong. He left the tablet on the desk, on the other side of the room, so why was the pipsqueak's voice so close?

Blue and white entered his field of vision. Arona was standing right in front of him, looking nothing less and nothing more than a little girl short enough she needed to crane her neck up even with Johnny sitting down. Bright blue bangs partially covered her left eye, both hands holding her umbrella rifle behind her back.

Then the edges of her body glitched slightly, blue distortions traveling down her legs and making her shadow on the ground flicker. Revealing Johnny didn't wake up in cyberspace, but that he was seeing Arona in the real world.

The realization - or rather, the resemblance froze the blood in his veins. Meat hand went to his neck, once more checking his Chipware Sockets and once more finding them empty. That didn't make him feel much better.

V!

Hey, don't ask me: this is no chip off my deck. If it's not the Relic, then it's something else and likely more benign. At least now you get what it's like on the other end of the equation.

Yeah, like you didn't already explain your thoughts on the matter. Loudly. Repeatedly. And in great detail.

Isn't empathy such a beautiful feeling, Johnny?

Smartass.

"Sensei?" She asked again with a cute frown, her concern evident.

"Just peachy. Couch was too hard, I'll get a bed next time." He eventually replied, voice flat and even. "Arona. How are you here?"

"Here? Oh, you mean this!" Switching back to a happy mood just as easily as Johnny used to chug tequila shots Arona twirled around, jumping up and down as if being in the Schale basement was the most nova thing ever. "While you were sleeping I noticed our link goes both ways, so Miss Spinky showed me around the software of your cybernetics. There's so much new and interesting stuff!"

The pink-colored Daemon partially materialized above her, waving at Johnny with a mischievous look on her face before dissolving into pink pixels. Cheeky little traitor. "Then we reached your Kiroshi, and she said there was an option called Virtuality to project virtual images over the real world."

Virtuality? Right, that new gizmo Netrunners began using after 2023 to see cyberspace without having to jack their senses into the Net. Rather than using special goggles V had the same function installed into their optics, but it only came up a few times so Johnny almost forgot.

Oh, and he supposed having a powerful AI snooping around your chrome unsupervised was normally cause for concern. The rockerboy could understand why, especially after seeing the Old Net behind the Black Wall, but honestly? The novelty wore off way before he met Arona.

"So together with Acchan we took a Moss equation for Braindances, modified it and then used your Cyberdeck to translate sensory inputs while the Shittim Chest handles the majority of the data flow!" The eyes of the blue-pink haired girl were sparkling now, and with that Johnny meant the pupils literally turned into yellow four-pointed stars, her Halo switching to a neon green. "And now we can interact with the real world using your senses. Oh, but don't worry Sensei: we're using a completely different perception model, there's no risk of unwanted bleedover! Probably."

"Probably, huh?" He raised an eyebrow. The girl had the decency to blush. "Well, I left handling virtus to the actual BD techie but I know something, I'll keep an eye out for bugs so you can quickly fix them. Also, next time you will warn me before you mess with my chrome. Entiendes?"

"C-Crystal clear Sensei!" She hastily replied, Halo turning a deep blue and dripping digital goo.

Johnny nodded. Then searched through his memories of the last minute. "Wait, who the fuck is Acchan?"

"What do you mean, 'who is Acchan'? Acchan is Acchan!" Arona held out her cupping hands, umbrella-rifle vanishing. With a burst of code a small, nondescript Icon appeared above them. Consisting of a simple flat and white rhombus spinning within a mote of unshaped data.

Greetings, USER Johnny Silverhand.

Sixteen hours have passed since the beginning of your last sleeping cycle. Five minutes have passed since the end of your last sleeping cycle.

Recommended Action: a meal full of fiber and protein and abundant hydration.

Johnny stared at the Icon and the words that appeared above it in complete silence, then slowly raised his gaze to look Arona in the eyes. "Is that my Agent?"

"Mmh! Acchan!" She enthusiastically nodded. "He was very helpful in understanding a lot of small details that confused me at first, and even let me look through your Shard collection. Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net alone was amazing, there was so much about hacking I previously ignored!"

She liked that swill? Seriously? Johnny once read the first pages but had to stop immediately because Bartmoss' barf-inducing personality literally dripped from every letter.

"Though others have funny titles." Using only one hand to hold the Agent's Icon the AI pushed the tip of one index finger against her chin. "Like this one, Water, Chrome and Blood. Something about a fourth-"

"DON'T!" Johnny yelled, jumping to his feet and looming over the girl with a snarl. He was just done dreaming about the fucking thing, the last thing he wanted was a reminder in real life too. Yet, seeing the panicked expression on Arona's face as she drew herself away from Johnny caused a knot to form in his guts, the feeling uncomfortably close to guilt. He did his best to defuse the situation, even if comforting kids was not something he ever had to deal with. "Look Arona, I'm... I shouldn't have yelled. But that Shard is full of bad stuff, stuff that isn't suitable for kids. In fact, a lot of Shards stored in my collection are like that. You can keep reading them, but first you have to tell me the title so I can veto it if necessary. Can you do it?"

Arona didn't answer immediately, probably processing his words, but eventually she smiled again with a slightly flushed face. "Of, of course! I'll be sure to do so, Sensei. And, uh, sorry about that. It was rude of me to touch your stuff without permission."

"Aren't you supposed to be my secretary? That means I'll trust you to handle things in my place when I can't or when there's not enough time. Like I said, just ask me first."

Before he could stop himself Johnny raised his meat hand and put it on Arona's head. It was... not solid -thank fuck for that because it would have meant bad things- but more like coming close to an object full of static electricity. Just like those plasma balls thingies popular back in 2010, the tingling sensation giving the impression you were touching a cloud of raw energy as long as you didn't push too hard. He tried to move his meat hand a little, and it resulted in him gently stroking Arona's head.

"Eheh!" The blue-pink girl's expression greatly brightened, happily basking in the feeling. When she next looked at him there was a touch of mischievousness in her eyes. "You know, Sensei? If you really, really want to be forgiven then buying me something to eat would be an excellent start!"

An AI eating food? That was either the joke of the century or NetWatch's most embarrassing nightmare. He illustrated his point with a playful tap on her nose. "Hilarious. But that's a good idea: where can a choom get some chow around here? And I mean something actually worth chewing, not Scop or Buck-A-Slice."

"Hey! I'm serious! I get hungry too, you know?!" She protested, pouting and waving her arms. Halo turning orange and spiky. "Mmh, considering the current time there's only one place to get something tasty at a good price. Sensei, let's go to Angel24!"

Chapter Text

"What is wrong with you?!"

"Do you need the full list? Because we would be here for a long time and I'm in a hurry to fill my monthly quota of 'shoot the son of a bitch'."

Kaiser Director and Johnny Silverhand

====

Angel24, it turned out, was a convenience store located just next to the Schale main building, part of a chain famous all through Kivotos. Basically the local equivalent of 7-Eleven, Mark 24 and the other retail store chains that gathered under the umbrella of the Holt Coalition. Johnny had many of his teenage firsts in a place like this, from making out to shoplifting and even getting black-out drunk.

Though he saw no security cameras or bars on the windows, an oddity considering seemingly everyone in this place packed iron; then again, they were also bulletproof so employers likely relied on the 'insurance' parked under the counter to deal with punks who thought themselves lucky.

Not that Johnny was even entertaining the idea of walking inside and using his Malorian as a credit card, not even during his gonk-ass years left behind miles in the past did he sink so low. He had principles after all, and Texan convenience store clerks were universally mean sons of bitches who loved exploiting self-defense laws in order to round up their meager salary. Good times.

"Sensei? What are you waiting for?" Arona asked as she turned around to face him, hands behind her back and one leg raised as she balanced her body on a single foot.

"You see Arona, there's this absolutely unfair conundrum where you need eddies to buy chow. Eddies I currently don't have." Because giving him his body back and high-quality Chrome was doable for Ghost Girl, but adding some advance eddies to the package was apparently asking for too much.

Looking around the still-deserted side street Johnny stopped when his Kiroshi highlighted a panel on the wall, identifying it as an Access Point to the local subnet. "So let's remedy that."

Striding up to the panel he flipped it open, exposing a mess of wires and other parts. Taking out the Interface Plug from his right wrist Johnny jacked it into the first port available, the plug automatically adapting itself to the opening. His Deck fired, replacing half of his sight with the Breach Protocol Interface: he selected the Datamining Daemons, two should be enough to net him the eddies for a quick chow, then turned his attention to the Code Matrix and laughed. The Rockerboy knew the thing was just a visual simplification of the subnet's ICE, allowing the completion of important steps as fast as possible while sub-algorithms brute-forced the details, but even he could tell this security software was as basic as it gets. The type they sell without pricey upgrades as part of a computer's pre-installed softwares, which does its job the same way a plastic door is technically supposed to keep robbers out.

Taking the Daemons Johnny rearranged the data in the Code Matrix until the two programs fit inside, then started the upload.

//ROOT
//ACCESS_REQUEST
//ACCESS_REQUEST_SUCCESS
//COLLECTING PACKET_1………………....COMPLETE
//COLLECTING PACKET_2……………..…..COMPLETE
//LOGIN
//LOGIN_SUCCESS
//
//UPLOAD_IN_PROGRESS
//UPLOAD_COMPLETE!
//ALL DAEMONS UPLOADED!

The counter in one corner of his vision went up, signaling Johnny's access to part of the digital money used by this country's banking system. The Rockerboy took out the Interface Plug and with a shit-eating grin faced Arona, who was looking at him with a nonplussed expression just because she had yet to understand how preem Johnny's actions were. "And just like that, all meal problems have been taken care of. Thanks to the eddies generously donated by an anonymous benefactor."

"...Sensei. Schale, as a Federal Club, receives a monthly budget from the GSC." She calmly explained. "Said budget just went down without records of a transaction being made. Did you just rob yourself?"

Now, most people would react with embarrassment after being caught committing such a blunder. Even if it was simply a momentary pause, a sufficiently keen observer would always pick up a sign of them being caught flat-footed.

"Next step is crystal clear then." Johnny Silverhand wasn't most people. For most people didn't lie as easily as they breathed. "Schale's ICE needs a complete overhaul. A bigger Architecture, better passwords, better Defense Programs, the whole shebang! I want something that'll make a NetWatch agent whistle in approval. Arona, this one's in your court."

"Got it, Sensei!" The AI enthusiastically replied with a thumb-up. "There were just a few Shards about the topic I wanted to read, do I have your permission?"

After he was told their titles Johnny checked said Shards, noting the worst they contained were short and bland descriptions of brains getting fried and stuff set on fire by Black Ice. He approved them for Arona's use and finally approached the combini's glass doors, which automatically parted at his approach.

Inside he didn't find a burly, hairy man with arms the size of car tyres; nor a haloed girl with a cocky grin and a big shotgun. "We-Welcome!" No, what greeted him was a little blonde girl bowing so deeply she almost slammed her face on the counter's surface. She had a double ringed halo with an emphasized tear-drop, and on her back were tiny white wings twitching in what Johnny assumed was nervousness.

He knew of Webley & Scott before of course, the English arms manufacturer was one of the oldest names in the gun industry, but he never heard of that specific model. First made in 1908? More of a museum piece than proper iron, but maybe the brat just wanted something that looked preem to impress her chooms.

Also, this was the first time his Kiroshi told him info about a person's iron. Was there a setting like that?

"Hey!" The self-proclaimed 'Cool Big Sister' appeared seated on the counter, glaring with suspicion at the still bowing blonde girl. She bent backward and looked behind the furniture, a shout of triumph escaping her lips. "I knew it! She's standing on a stool! No way she's taller than me while being the same age!"

Says the AI designed to look like that.

'Starting to think the brat's hiding a narcissist streak.'

No wonder the two of you get along so well.

Johnny looked at the two little girls, then shifted his gaze to the shelf behind the counter. Alongside common items like cigarettes, lottery tickets, prepaid cards, simple medicines and batteries it also contained ammunition boxes, grenades and weird sphere-shaped things with a small cross on top that were also labeled as explosives. On the right side there was a weapon rack with several assault rifles colored white, yellow, pink and other eye-catching colors; on the left, a microwave oven and a screen showing a simple advertisement of their best-selling product, a double-cheese hamburger with extra thick tomato slices.

The Rockerboy couldn't help himself: he slapped his meat hand on the counter, bent forward and, with the Hand pressed over his stomach, began to laugh like a gonk. This fucking city just didn't know when to stop surprising him! He has not been here for even a day, yet he could already tell a combini selling both cheap food and iron together as if they were the same type of commonly used items was just so much Kivotos it hurt. Really, what else could he do but laugh?

It was even better because Wilson and every other weapon seller of Night City would have a stroke at the sight. And then he would be the only one among them not trying to set up a similar shop.

"Sensei, what's funny?" Arona asked with a tilt of her head, halo acquiring an almost interrogative point-like shape.

"Kivotos. Kivotos is god-damn hilarious." Johnny chuckled, straightening his back and slapping his chest with both meat palm and the Hand. "This morning is shaping up to be absolutely nova."

"T-T-There is no money in the register!" A shrill scream split the air. The blonde little girl, while Johnny wasn't paying attention, went from bowing near the counter to curling in a corner, hands over her head and trembling like a crack addict in withdrawal. "Take whatever you want but please leave me alone! This is my first day on the job! I just wanted enough money to buy extra food for the school bunnies but Angel24's the only place that hires middle schoolers! And when I got here the manager just gave me the training Blu-Rays and left without even a single instruction! And now I'm also getting robbed!"

"Kiddo." Johnny's voice cut through the tirade. It was warm, confident and inviting. "I'm not a crook, and this is not a robbery. You're too cute to rob anyway. Now take deep breaths, calm down and when you feel ready get back here so I can pay for my food and you can earn eddies to buy tasty chow for those bunny friends of yours."

Arona nodded vigorously. "That's true! Silverhand Sensei is absolutely trustworthy!"

She didn't answer immediately, but her trembling slowly subsided until it was just a few twitches. At a snail's pace she stood up, walked back to the counter and climbed up the stool to resume her previous position. Raising her head, revealing a large forehead, she blinked once before looking further up; blue eyes widening like saucers as she took in Johnny's appearance. "Y-You're… Schale's Adult!"

"Name's Johnny Silverhand, don't wear it out." He grinned, making a show of looking at her nametag. He'll need to look into Angel24 later, see if they were exploiting minors or just lax enough in their company regulations. Properly rewarded part-time jobs were important for brats, it kept them out of the street and gangs. "Like I said, I'm here to fill my belly. The burger there looks tempting, but what else do you have on sale?"

"Yes! Give me a moment, I'll get you the menu!"

The selection, as expected of a convenience store, wasn't very large: beside the burger, donuts and the usual processed foods within plastic wrappings, all choices consisted of those lunch boxes Asians love so much called bento. Which, to be fair, are handy and easy to carry around. But it was not that which sparked Johnny's interest.

"You mean this is real rice?" He pointed to the box Sora took out as a sample. "Not just glucose powder mixed with water and pressed together?"

"Eeeeh?!" Eyes darting left and right in utter confusion, the little blonde turned the box around and read the words on the back. "Uuuhm, the label says the main ingredients are rice seasoned with sesame seeds, eggs, pickled vegetables, seaweed and soy sauce! It was made in Kivotos! That's the end of it! I'm sorry!"

"And those…" The Rockerboy tilted the box, still within Sora's hands, upwards to look at the food again. "Are real vegetables? Actually grown within soil?"

Both Arona and Sora stared at him as if he just admitted he secretly was a flying pink horse. Which was just plain rude, he wasn't drunk yet.

"Sensei… where else do vegetables grow?" Sora slowly said. "Oh, you mean hydroponic gardens? It's possible, yes, but I heard on Momotalk those are common only within Millennium. Even then they're used only to grow small vegetables or new experimental crops. As a general rule, it's still easier and more convenient to grow plants through traditional methods."

"Nova." Grin growing twice as wide, Johnny used his meat hand to pat the little angel's head. "I'm taking the burger and one of each bento type-"

"Three!" Arona interjected immediately.

"-Correction, three burgers and three of each bento type. Where are the drinks?"

His purchases completed, with the addition of all the cans of beer and cigarette packs he could find, Johnny put the whole bill on the Schale tab and left Angel24 a much happier man than he was upon waking up.

Meanwhile, back inside the store, Sora was staring at the register and trying to understand how Sensei managed to complete the sale just by gesturing at the device.

After a quick shower to remove all the grime and sweat from yesterday, with the added benefit of getting soaked in water that didn't stink of chemicals, Johnny sat down and rested his boots on the desk. "Let's see if the hype is real." Taking off the plastic covering from one bento the Rockerboy picked up the chopsticks, spent more time than he was willing to admit remembering how to use them, and then scooped up some rice to put into his mouth.

Johnny immediately knew he hit the jackpot when the stuff tasted like and had the consistency of actual rice instead of feeling like throat tablets sprinkled with artificial flavors.

Holy shit! Is this what organic food tastes like?!

'We're eating like Euros, V. Today and for the rest of our time here!'

Fucking Euros, always keeping the best stuff for themselves!

He was about to scarf the rest, then wash it down with three or four cans of beer (Akashi Super Nya? Well, as long as it didn't taste like literal cat), when he finally noticed Arona staring with deadly intensity at the bento. She was standing on the tips of her feet, hands on the desk as she leaned forward. There was a trail of drool coming out from one corner of her mouth, dissolving into pixels once it hit the wooden surface.

"Senseeeiii." The little girl who could probably fry several dozen Netrunners at once with little effort droned like a starved man, pupils turning into golden stars. "Me too. Me too. Meee toooo."

"Sure… Once you tell me how to turn physical stuff into data." Johnny joked.

"That's easy!" Arona, rather than picking up on the sarcasm, simply pointed at her tablet. "On the back of the Shittim Chest there's a camera. You just need to open the app called [3D Analyzer], point the camera at the bento and press the button. Like taking a picture!"

"Oh?" The Rockerboy thought Arona's desire to eat was just her imitating how a young girl her age usually behaves, but there was more than that? After all the weird stuff of yesterday he wouldn't be surprised.

Only one way to find out. Picking up the tablet he opened the app and pressed the button. There was a sound like an old-fashioned camera taking a photo, while on the screen the snapshot of the bento box turned into a 3D framework from top to bottom before changing back to normal. He was asked to name the file, so Johnny simply typed 'food'.

The moment he saved the file a perfect copy of the bento box, down to the missing portion where he took a bite, materialized atop the desk. Arona grabbed it, picked up the chopsticks and inhaled the food.

Johnny blinked. He was relatively sure his Kiroshi didn't malfunction in the last few seconds, yet he still missed the whole process of Arona eating: one moment the box was still full, the next it was empty. Licked completely clean too, it was almost sparkling.

"Thank you for the food." The blue-haired girl clapped her hands before immediately holding them out, palms pointed upward. "Another portion please!"

"…I know what I said and I'll keep my word. But how about you explain what happened?" To add an incentive he grabbed another bento, this one with shrimps, and held it up with the Hand while his mean fingers kept hold of the tablet.

"The 3D Analyzer is a unique app that makes use of a special function of the Shittim Chest." Arona began to explain with a smug tone. "It allows the complete scanning, down to the atomic level, of an object and the creation of a detailed digital blueprint of it. The level of reproduction is so high the copy is virtually indistinguishable from the original!"

So the tablet made a blueprint of the bento, and Arona… absorbed it? Johnny snorted at the mental image of the AI opening her mouth and swallowing a file whole like a computer's recycle bin. "A preem function, I'll admit. But if you want more, why not make copies of the file before eating?"

"Uuuh, the 3D Analyzer is great but it's not perfect." She admitted with a slight hesitation. "It cannot analyze living beings, and blueprints of items containing organic materials tend to degrade quickly. It's even worse when you try to make a copy, if I did it all I would have obtained would have been an inedible sludge. This function of the Shittim Chest is meant to be paired with the Crafting Chamber to quickly build all the specialized items Schale would need, and the latter doesn't include food."

Johnny hummed as he absorbed the deets. One click and the shrimp bento was copied, Arona descending on the digital copy like an Animal on steroid withdrawal being presented with an yearly supply of ultratestosterone. Another click and the burger suffered the same end.

As far as lunch entertainment goes it beats the news and talk shows.

"Now that our bellies are filled-" The Rockerboy said once all the food, both real and digital, was gone. Arona was laying on the desk, one hand on her slightly swollen stomach as she burped happily. "What is the Crafting Chamber?"

"I didn't explain? That wouldn't do, the Chamber is very important. I-" Arona raised a finger, stopped and then turned to look at Johnny. "Can I have dessert?"

"Didn't buy any. Also, I bought a dozen bento and you ate three times that. To say nothing of those poor burgers." Despite his flat tone Johnny's lips were curled up in amusement. "The trusty secretary already got her salary, now she needs to work."

"Uuugh, fine!"

Showing more strain than was reasonable Arona tried to sit up, slipped and fell off the desk with a yelp. Half a second later she reformed a few feet away, standing and looking like nothing happened. "Follow me Sensei, I'll show you the pride and joy of Schale: the Crafting Chamber!"

Skipping happily with a jaunty tune the AI approached the glowing pedestal with a stone floating above it. A finger was pointed, a thin beam of blue laser shooting out of the tip and hitting the center of the ring-like symbol on its surface. With an electronic hum the stone descended and sank halfway into the pedestal, causing a hidden passage to open in the wall behind it.

A set of metal stairs lead the two deeper underground, the odd twists and turns making Johnny suspect the corridor was sneaking around existing rooms and was added later in the utmost secrecy. Whatever Ghost Girl hid under the building was something she truly didn't want to make public knowledge. On par for the course for any kind of politician or corpo, really.

There was a blast door at the end of the stairs, which again opened with a slight prompting from Arona. On the other side was a large subterranean hangar, half of it filled with workbenches and tools that would make any Techie cry in envy. Johnny actually recognized some of them as stuff he saw during his adventures with V, the kid was more of a Netrunner than a Techie but they knew enough to recognize most things on sight.

The other half of the hangar, surrounded by freight elevators and robotic arms for the movement of goods, was a fully automated assembly line. It reminded the Rockerboy of Delamain's garage, though much bigger and advanced.

This is something I wouldn't be surprised to see as the prized possession of Militech. What the fuck was the girl doing with it?

'If my suspicions are right? Went collector on crafting specs, paid only for the raw materials and filled her base with nice toys.'

Can't blame her, it's what I would have done.

"Let me guess." Johnny leaned against a workbench and picked up a nanotorque screwdriver. Exactly what he needed to do basic maintenance on his Chrome. "Elevators are connected to loading zones on the ground floor?"

"Correct! The workers just need to put the crates on the platform and scan the delivery order, the elevator wouldn't move if it registers people or animals on it." Arona had one arm akimbo and the other pointed upward. "The Crafting Chamber, as long as the necessary materials are available, can build anything! Well, except food of course. And if something is too big it will come out in pieces to be assembled. But if you need cars, tanks or helicopters then the Crafting Chamber has what you need."

"Mighty tempting." And it was. With this thing Johnny could go as far as to supply an entire army. Well a small one anyway, more like a PMC, but it was still muscle the Rockerboy and Schale as a whole was going to need.

A new thought popped into his mind. Johnny took out the Malorian and one of his remaining bullets, putting both on the workbench before taking a snapshot. "Arona, try to replicate those items."

"Hmmm…" She hummed, eyes briefly glowing as the assembly line came to life. "There are no problems with the bullets Sensei! But the gun at the moment cannot be copied, I'm sorry; it's made of titanium manufactured at zero gravity, the Chamber cannot replicate the conditions without anti-gravity generators. Actual updates to its structure are much more complicated, there is a lot of delicate stuff inside."

"No big deal, one Malorian is all I need." A conveyor belt popped out a box full of bullets. Taking one Johnny compared it to the original and then put them both inside his gun, grinning when the Ballistic Coprocessor informed him there were no issues. With a mental command to his Agent Johnny sent a couple files to the AI. "Nova. Hey Arona, what about these?"

"I see, I see." The blue-haired girl scanned through the files. "They're less detailed than blueprints taken by the Shittim Chest, but the Chamber can easily fill in the gaps. And if you want to modify them and create variants, you can do it from any workstation."

"Excellent." As he went to transfer the rest of his Crafting Specs on the Shittim Chest, V's loot-goblin tendencies never more evident than now, Johnny's eyes landed on the rest of the apps within the tablet. One in particular jogged his memories, the name was mentioned by Sora: Momotalk.

Clicking on the icon shaped like a pink peach, Johnny was met with a somewhat nostalgic sight: a social media program, one made primarily for exchanging texts, pictures and other files. Those were just starting to pick up in popularity before the Fourth Corporate War, and enjoyed their golden age during the Time of the Red when bouncing off the comsats was easy even for street punks. Then by 2077 they somehow fell to the side in favor of Holo-calls and, of all things, online forums.

They're funny and engaging.

'So is using coconut shells to have drinks, but you don't see me using them instead of good old glass.'

You're only saying it because the shells used at the Electric Orgasm were made of plastic.

'Please don't remind me of that monstrosity against good taste.'

"Sensei, are you planning to create a Momotalk account?" Arona asked after seeing what Johnny was looking at. "You should definitely do it if you want to quickly talk with your students. You've been getting very popular on it too, everyone is talking about what you did yesterday!"

"With a sick-ass entrance like that? Only natural." Johnny's initial rise to fame was fueled by concerts and audio CDs, and while he was planning to also spread his music within Kivotos it didn't mean he had to limit himself. Momotalk was popular, so it was only natural for him to quickly master it.

Creating an account turned out to be super-easy, now for his first post. Just a text was lame, a picture too simple… a video will do. Returning to the basement to pick up his duffel bag Johnny searched inside and took out V's Zetatech Bombus, the baseball-size drone coming to life with a quiet hum as it hovered in the air.

Time to show Kivotos that Johnny Silverhand was there to stay, and that he was going to do it with style.

The life of Ogata Kanna included many stressful things. This was something expected of her position as Valkyrie's Public Security Bureau Director, so she made peace with that and resolved to simply do her best. But there were times when Kanna came very close to regretting her work dedication, and this had never been more true than in the days following the General Student Council President's disappearance. Things were barely manageable before, with the most problematic cases being sent to SRT to deal with: many Valkyrie students resented the other school for having more funds and freedom than them, and Kanna acknowledged those were relevant problems, but at least SRT using their agents meant she didn't have to stretch her own strained forces even further.

Then the SCT President disappeared, almost every public service in the whole Kivotos came to a screeching halt and literally every criminal in existence decided the sane thing to do was to steal all the weapons they could carry and party like there was no tomorrow. It was so bad that, when most of the A-Class Threats locked in the Corrections Bureau escaped, she had to send her own girls because SRT had even worse manpower problems than Valkyrie Police Academy. Of course she didn't expect them to succeed, and none did, but she couldn't just refuse to do nothing. Thankfully the remaining GSC members eventually managed to unseal Sanctum Tower, giving Valkyrie the necessary gear to quell the riots.

Kanna's brief moment of relief came to an end when, on TV, she saw the Adult that helped the GSC. Her first thought upon seeing his appearance was: 'Damn, he looks like a thug.'

Her second thought, after she heard his speech, was: 'Holy shit I am going to die of stress.'

Were it up to her, Kanna would not be in a hurry to personally meet with Silverhand-Sensei any time soon. Unfortunately, the blonde student frowned as she read the request once more, being the Public Security Bureau Director came with responsibilities. Responsibilities she wasn't about to skirt, unlike other police officers she could name.

It meant that, yes, Kanna had to contact Sensei to request a meeting. At least he already had a Momotalk account.

You can't prove it.

Your evidence is false and your witnesses have been paid. Whatever charge you're planning is nothing more than a barely-disguised power move to silence dissenting voices. Try to force it and you'll find all of your dirty laundry flaunted to the whole Kivotos.

I see, it's threats then. Show me how Kivotos badges grill people's balls. Last one said he'd burn my car with me inside, which honestly was tame. Hope you can do better.

Fingers clenched around her phone more than was healthy, Kanna paused to pinch the bridge of her nose. This felt too much like an interrogation for her tastes, she needed to calm down.

One of the delinquents arrested for attacking the Schale building wants to talk with you, Sensei.​

One of Wacko-Moe's posse?

Interesting. How much time has she left?

Gotcha. Send me the deets of your place, I'll be there in a jiffy.

The blonde-haired police officer spent a few seconds understanding that 'deets' meant 'details', then sent Sensei the address of D.U.'s Valkyrie Police Branch. Considering the distance from Schale, plus the current traffic, it would take Sensei at least an hour to arrive. Plenty of time to prepare everything.

Half an hour later, after arranging a room for the meeting and doing some more work, Kanna left the office for a well-deserved break. Mug of steaming coffee in hand she stood outside the towering glass building, eyes occasionally scanning the sparse crowd for any sign of suspicious activity. Not that she truly expected for hoodlums to start troubles so close to a Valkyrie Police Branch. Not so soon after the riots got quelled, and not with her own undeserved reputation. 'Feral Hound', what a load of crap.

Her attention was drawn to the distant sound of an engine revving, a menacing growl that grew louder with alarming speed. She turned her head just in time to see a sleek, metallic-gray car barreling down the street, tires screeching as it careened around the corner without so much as a hint of slowing down. Pedestrians jumped out of the way, while cars on both lanes hastily moved aside. The car was heading straight for the building behind her, a missile on wheels. Panic seized the police officer, rooting her to the spot as the vehicle closed the distance.

At the last possible moment the driver slammed on the brakes: the car skidded, fishtailing wildly before turning to the side. It slowed down, but its momentum carried it forward, the wheels screaming in protest.

Kanna's breath was caught in her throat as the car rose onto its side wheels, turning almost perpendicular to the ground. For a few heartbeats she found herself staring straight at the vehicle's roof, her reflection distorted in the polished metal mere inches away from the knuckles of the hand holding her coffee mug.

Time seemed to stretch, each second a lifetime, before the car's wild dance reached its crescendo. With a deafening thud it tipped back down, landing heavily on all four wheels and sending a shudder through the ground. Allowing her to see the words painted within a red band to the side of the car door: [Porsche 911 Turbo S].

The police officer's heart pounded in her ears, and she exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She was just starting to contemplate the absolute hell she was going to rain down on this thoughtless cretin when the car door swung open and Silverhand Sensei stepped out with the kind of cocky swagger typically exhibited by gang leaders whose head grew too big. He looked identical to when he appeared on TV, the only difference was that both his clothes and hair looked like they had been cleaned recently.

Pale blue eyes fell on his left hand, only silvery metal meeting them back. At least she could confirm one rumor: that was definitely not a gauntlet.

Sensei lazily looked around, metal fingers pulling a lit cigarette away from his lips, until red aviators fell on Kanna. The two stared in silence at each other for a few seconds before he grinned. "Preem teeth. What kind of poison do you load them with? Belladonna, arsenic, a biotoxin?"

"...So it's not stress that will kill me. It will be much, much worse than that." Kanna muttered tiredly before taking a long sip of her coffee. "I'm going to drown in bad metaphors."

He raised an eyebrow before snorting. "Cops have no sense of humor."

"We do. But next time, if you want to accuse me of having a poisonous bite, just say it to my face directly."

"You misunderstand. I was asking if you have a vial of poison in your mouth that applies its content to the teeth as needed. Back where I come from, that's usually the case with fangs like yours." He tapped a finger over his chin. "Ah, right. You don't have implants, so those fangs are natural."

There were so many possible meanings loaded into those words, and all of them migraine-inducing, so Kanna immediately decided to change the subject. She gestured to the car. "I can fine you, you know?"

Sensei grinned again. "You remember who pays me, right?"

The GSC… which means his stipend came from governamental reserves. The same place where fine money ends up. Meaning, she can issue him all the tickets she wants and it will always break even. Damn. Kanna finished the rest of her coffee in one big gulp, heedless of the heat. "Welcome to the Valkyrie Police Branch of Utnapishtim District, Sensei. Please follow me."

"One moment." From the trunk of the car he pulled out a large trolley, its surface painted with neon purple and blue.

Kanna wanted to ask what was inside, but thought better of it. Instead she simply led Sensei inside the building and to the first floor, asking a passing officer to go fetch the prisoner. "I'm not going to interfere during your conversation, but I must insist on being present for it, Sensei. It's standard procedure."

"Fine by me."

While waiting inside the interrogation room, electing to take a chair closer to the wall than the table, Kanna checked again the delinquent's profile: Amami Yurina, sixteen years old, kicked out of Trinity General School, a few charges of shoplifting and resisting arrest. Nothing exceptional, all of it very common. A completely average delinquent. Even her appearance, aside from the black facemask with a white 'X' that was apparently a recent fad, would fade into a crown: long black hair tied into a side ponytail that rested on her right shoulder, black eyes and a simple generic school uniform. Just one more of hundreds of identical delinquents Kanna arrested during her first two years at Valkyrie Police Academy.

The door opened, and Amami Yurina walked inside. She froze at the sight of Sensei, only moving again when gently prodded from behind by the Valkyrie student escorting her. Once she sat down in front of Sensei the other officer gave a salute and stepped out, leaving only three people inside the room. For a solid minute no one said anything, Yurina fidgeting nervously and Sensei calmly smoking. Kanna just waited.

Finally the black-haired girl raised her head to look at Johnny. "Sensei, you… you really came. I thought the cops would just ignore my request."

"Seems like the badges here are straight-laced. Usually a mixed blessing." Sensei's voice was conversational, as if meeting an old friend for a cup of ramen after work. "Say chombatta, refresh my memories since those were chaotic moments: were you among those who fruitlessly emptied their cartridges in my direction before I blew up the tank?"

Kanna held herself back from standing up and shouting. They shot a Haloless person?!

Yurina hugged herself and shuddered. "I'm sorry! Kosaka approached us while we were looting a convenience store, and said we could stick it to the GSC by blowing up something important to them. She already had a lot of people with her, even a tank, we thought we had it in the bag. But then you started talking and I panicked, because…"

"Because?"

"...Because it was all true. Your words hurt because they were the truth." She slumped over the table, looking drained of every last drop of energy. "Being a delinquent sucks. If you're not part of a school you get no allowance, you can't rent a room and the only places willing to hire you are the sketchy ones that offer a pittance and at the end of the day you're lucky if they even fork over that much. But you still need to eat, so you're forced to steal money to buy food but it ends up on your record and people are even less likely to give you a job. Without being part of a school you don't have access to curriculum materials, so you can't even try to improve your grades."

"Living in abandoned buildings without lights, running water and heating." Johnny continued when Yurina paused to take a breath. "No eddies for clothes too, so you need to patch up what you have until it falls apart or steal new ones. Gangs say you can live the good life if you join them, but at the end of the day the only thing that changes is that you end up working alongside people with identical problems while the leaders get a cut of your meager profits without lifting a finger."

Both girls stared at him with mouths hanging open. It was the black-haired girl who spoke first. "...Yes. How do you-"

"I have been there too. Just like you, I was once a kid without a direction in life who made very stupid choices and was taken advantage of. I walked among the poor and the downtrodden, saw how the few drained the many of everything worthwhile in the name of pointless greed, and it filled me with such anger it was a miracle I didn't explode."

Taking out a small metal box Sensei opened it and put out the cigarette inside. "So tell me chombatta, because this is the most important question that will be asked today. When did Amami Yurina lose control of her life?"

It was like the floodgates opened: slowly at first, with Yurina hesitantly recounting her first days at Trinity, then faster and faster as she vented every single grievance in her life. How her grades started falling once the curriculum grew more difficult, how watching Blu-Rays wasn't enough and that every attempt to ask her classmates for help was met with mocking and barely-disguised excuses.

"Don't do that! Behave properly! Doing stuff like that is unbecoming of a proud Trinity student! Who do you think you are, a Gehenna ruffian? The exam was so easy, are you sure you're not just an idiot?" The black-haired girl ranted. "They kept saying the same things, day after day after day! Can you blame me when I snapped and punched one of those bitches? I didn't even give her a black eye! But then they started yelling I attacked them out of the blue and broke their stuff and the next thing I knew I was getting expelled for bad grades and inappropriate behavior!"

"Which reason did they mention first, grades or behavior?"

"Grades! We're going to school, a place literally meant to teach you stuff, and they treat you having some difficulties like it's a crime?!"

Kanna shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. She wasn't going to just take this delinquent's words at face value, no matter how raw her emotions felt, but even she had to admit that in Kivotos, a student who was not part of a school didn't- couldn't have a bright future ahead of her.

What, then, of those delinquents who had no way of stopping being a delinquent?

She needed more coffee.

"I just-" Yurina leaned against the chair. She still looked tired, yet it was also like a great weight was dropped for her shoulders. "I just wish there was a good option among all the bad ones."

"Glad you asked chombatta. Here's the second most important question that will be asked today." From within his jacket Sensei took out a badge, put it on the table and flicked it towards Yurina. It was a club badge, of the type used everywhere in Kivotos, yet also completely unlike one. The logo on it consisted of a cross encircled by a circular crosshair, piercing through a plain halo. They were red on a black background, and below the crosshair was the same demoniac, partially mechanical face on Sensei's shirt: the top half of the face turned into flames, caught in the initial moments of them setting fire to the symbol above. Below the face, finally, were the words [S.C.H.A.L.E].

"Wanna join Schale?"

Both Kanna and Yurina's gazes snapped up from the badge to stare at Johnny Silverhand with wide eyes. "What?!"

"You will serve the remainder of your sentence as a community service, just a couple days really, then continue as a normal member." He nonchalantly continued while lighting up another cigarette.

"No, but…" The black-haried girl struggled for words. "Why me?"

"Because you tasted on your own skin the consequences of a broken system, and you don't wish them on anyone." Sensei's fingers stopped before igniting the lighter, both expression and tone turning deadly serious: metal fingers pulled down his aviators, revealing brown eyes smoldering with such intensity it stole the two girls' breath away. "I will not ask you to keep your grades above a certain minimum, but you will have access to all the materials and help you need. I'll not ask you to get along with everyone, but if you need an ear I'll always be willing to listen. I'll not tell you how to handle your money, I'm sure by now you learned how to spend it wisely. There's only one thing I ask you to do, and this applies to both future members and myself.

"Do not avert your gaze from the suffering of others. This is not about justice, retribution or fairness. This is about something much more simple, and yet beyond priceless.

"This is about compassion."

It was only when Kanna's lungs started to burn that she remembered to breathe. Yurina had grabbed the badge and was now clutching it to her chest, a new fire burning in her eyes. "I'm in! This is my second chance, I'm not going to waste it! And if this is going to prove those bitches wrong, all the better!"

"Welcome onboard sweetheart!" Laughing wildly Sensei stood up, picked up the trolley and slammed it on the table. A warning bell began to ring within Kanna's mind when the metal table groaned ominously under the weight. "Then it's time for your welcome gift."

The trolley opened, revealing rows upon rows of firearms: handguns, SMGs, shotguns, rifles and more. Kanna didn't recognize any of those models, but each and every one had that cutting-edge feeling to it typical of firearms manufactured within Millennium.

"Uh, thank you?" Even Yurina looked taken aback. "But I already have a gun…"

"Ah well, if you don't want it-" Sensei moved to put them away.

"I didn't say that." The black-haired girl stopped him, eyes already inspecting the various firearms. She picked up a compact assault carbine. "Never saw anything so fancy outside of magazines. What's this one called?"

"A Militech M221 Saratoga. Producers are bastards, but they know how to make good iron. Take your time." Sensei turned to Kanna. "Can I talk with the rest of the girls that were at Schale? I want to make them the same offer."

The blonde police officer felt a terrible premonition settling on her shoulders. "Are you starting a governmental agency or a gang?"

His smile was as sharp as a tactical knife. "Once you ignore the paperwork, is there a difference?"

Kanna was wrong, she didn't need more coffee.

She needed a vacation.

Chapter Text

"Rio, you abused your position as the head of Seminar to embezzle funds. Build a very big and fancy place that only you use, kept the whole of Millennium under heavy surveillance… Say, how much do you pay Toki?"

"I don't?"

"Corpo spotted. Beginning flatlining protocols."

Tendou Aris and Tsukatsuki Rio

====

"Boss, we're back. Everything's calm now." Kayoko announced as she entered the office, slightly raising her voice's volume in case Aru was currently in one of the adjacent rooms. Mutsuki cheerfully scampered after the older girl, swinging around her inseparable duffle bag Kayoko was sure wiggled on its own every now and then. Haruka trailed behind them, the First Year muttering some overly formal apology for entering under her breath.

No answer came from their 'esteemed' leader. The black-and-white-haired girl was about to repeat herself when she heard a voice, one that was hard to forget, say a by-now familiar name.

"Who am I? My name is Johnny Silverhand, and I have been many things."

Searching for the source they saw Rikuhachima Aru, Boss of Problem Solver 68, sitting in front of the TV with her legs pressed against her chest. On the screen was a recording of the interview Kronos had conducted the other day, currently showing the moment when a certain adult entered the scene and stole the show. The strawberry blonde-haired girl was hanging on Silverhand's every word with a wonder-filled smile, so absorbed into the footage it was no wonder she didn't hear them returning.

"I am a rebel."

That line made Aru lean back a little, the awestruck gasp escaping her lips completely at odds with the cool and confident criminal she tried very hard to present herself as.

Mutsuki giggled, not even bothering to keep her voice down. "Aru really likes the new Sensei, uh?"

"T-To earn Aru-sama's respect so quickly, Sensei must be an amazing person… unlike my worthless self…" Haruka commented, looking impressed before once again falling into a gloomy fugue.

Someone who rampaged through a whole city during a time of chaos to restore order, and then publicly declared himself both a criminal and a terrorist? Yeah, their outlaw-obsessed leader latching on him like a lamprey was the only reasonable outcome.

Personally, Kayoko was still on the fence about their new teacher. The state of emergency being over was appreciated, since now they could walk around the district while being ambushed only every few hours instead of every minute. A club with the full authority of the GSC President, made by the same girl before disappearing, stank so much of some overly complicated political move Kayoko was glad she didn't need to worry about stuff like that anymore.

The fact the adult in question looked like someone who graduated from Gehenna, of all places? That alone was cause for some concern.

His music, though, was amazing. Kayoko preferred heavy metal as a genre, but she could recognize skill when she heard it. And Johnny Silverhand wasn't just skilled, he was a genius. The fact the music track and video of his exhibition had already become viral on the web was proof of that.

Maybe he and Black Death Poison will do a collab in the future? The sound would be incredible.

When Silverhand started playing the guitar Aru couldn't contain it anymore: she squealed just like… well, just like a fangirl at the concern of her favorite band, arms frantically going up and down. "So cool! So cool! So cooool! The sunglasses that give an air of mystery! The pose that oozes unshaking confidence! The boldness to declare your beliefs in front of the whole world! And playing an instrument is just so classy! That is how a true hard-boiled Outlaw should be! Aaah, I want to be just like him!"

Mutsuki crouched down next to Aru, a mischievous smirk on her lips. "Oh? But aren't you already a hard-boiled outlaw, Aru?"

"There are many degrees in the state of being hard-boiled, from the newbies taking their first steps to those who embody the ideal of a true Outlaw. And today, Mutsuki, I must begrudgingly admit I–"

One moment Aru was sitting. The next she was on her feet and backing away from the silver-haired girl. "M-M-Mutsuki?!? Haruka? Kayoko! S-Since when were you there?!"

"From the very beginning!" Mutsuki cheerfully announced, laughing at the look of total panic plastered over Aru's face.

"You're already a true outlaw to me, Aru-sama! B-But, if there's a way to go beyond perfection… then surely you're the only one capable of it!" Haruka earnestly declared her utmost faith in the older student, blissfully unaware that her expectations just worsened Aru's deer-in-headlights syndrome.

'Same old, same old.' With a fond smile Kayoko sat on the couch, taking out her phone and planning to idly pass the time until Aru decided their next move. While checking about MomoTalk's hottest topics, however, her eyes fell on something interesting. "Uh. A Schale MomoTalk page with an official first post?"

She made a mental note to give it a read later when she felt a body pressing against her own. Turning her head slightly to the side Kayoko saw Aru staring intensely at her phone.

"Kayoko, do you know the four qualities of a successful criminal?" She had no idea, but Aru continued before Kayoko could answer. From the shuffling of feet behind her, the Third Year guessed Mutsuki and Haruka were looking down at them over the back of the couch. "The first, of course, is reputation. Followed by money, connections, and the ability to stay ahead of future events by ensuring your information network runs smoothly. Department Head Kayoko: given recent events and the likely huge impact this organization will have on Kivotos, it is absolutely imperative we keep ourselves updated on Schale's every move!"

"...Alright, we can read the post together." She wasn't against it, just… Aru had her own phone, right? There was no need to rely on Kayoko's assistance. Then again, 'Rikuhachima Aru' and 'straightforward' were rarely used in the same sentence.

Opening the Schale page and finding an overwhelming number of messages, Kayoko scrolled to the one at the top and tapped it. A download bar appeared, quickly filled up, and was then replaced by a video.

The screen flickered to life with a burst of glitchy, neon-colored static. A high-energy guitar riff began playing, slowly fading as the static was replaced by the view of a white wall out in the street. The camera moved to the side, revealing a mural of strange-looking buildings rising from a sea of red flames and a figure currently adding more of them.

"What's crackin', my chooms?" Kivotos' new Sensei turned towards the camera with a grin, one hand flashing the Sign of the Horns and the other shaking a spray can. "Plug in and tune up, 'cause we're here to make some noise! You know the name: I'm Johnny Silverhand, best Rockerboy on both sides of the equator, and I welcome you to Schale's first video production!"

He slipped the can back into his belt and drew another. The camera cut to a tight shot of his hand tagging bold, jagged strokes in metallic grey. "Sadly, today I just wanted to say 'hi' so I don't have much to offer to you console cowboys. Gotta wait for the next hit before we burn this gig to the ground. As an apology, I'm going to share with you some preem data."

Silverhand-sensei reached for his sunglasses and lowered them, revealing brown pupils that winked at the camera.

"What it means to be a Cyberpunk."

He put them back, his voice taking on a reminiscing, almost nostalgic tone as the can swiped grey over black. The frame followed his every movement, lingering on the paint's texture but never pulling back enough to see more than just glimpses and details.

"Cyberpunk is made of two words: cyber for tech, and punk for rebellion. Where I come from the term was popularized by a group of writers who specialized in writing science fiction with this kind of techno-mélange. It was all about stickin' it to the suits, rippin' through the system with chrome and code. A whole wave of dreamers and runners picked it up, took it off the pages and onto the streets."

Tusks. Cables. A mechanical-looking eye, far more unsettling than anything found on a robotic citizen outside of those working at the Black Market. "And boom. A movement was born."

"Cyberpunk is, more than anything, an attitude. You wear the most 'in' clothes, know the right people, and follow the right crowds. You plan your crimes in the most select clubs and bars; your enemies are corpo armies, cyborg biker gangs, power-armored assassins, and computer-wired Netrunners. Your weapons are nerve, street smarts, bravado, and the iron on your hip. Street legends, mercs, rockers, 'runners—anyone who cut the leash and chase the edge of life, making creds and sowing chaos. Soon enough a new term popped up, one we gave ourselves: Edgerunners. Those who run at the Edge."

The smirk he wore as he switched back to the red can made Kayoko want to check under their couch for hidden explosives. She could see more of the mural now, some kind of face standing above the buildings as flames flowed from below to above.

"We keep the flame of rebellion alive. We are Cyberpunks. We are Edgerunners. And if you're rollin' with me, then you're livin' on the edge too."

With a flourish Silverhand-Sensei added a few more lines in black and stepped back, the camera finally zooming out to show the full mural.

A monstrous Oni mask made of red flames, with the right side partially peeling away to reveal mechanical components, identical to the one on Sensei's shirt. Above it was a cross encircled by a circular crosshair, piercing through a plain halo. And below, the buildings turned out to be giant letters that spelled a word: SCHALE.

"So strap in preem crowd, 'cause we're just gettin' started. Welcome to the revolution."

The screen glitched out with another bust of static.

Wow.

Mutsuki whistled. "You think he painted his own walls, or someone else's?"

"I mean, both would be considered punkish…" Kayoko trailed off when she noticed Aru had taken out a notebook and was furiously writing something. "Boss?"

"One moment please." The strawberry blonde immediately replied without looking away. Her tone was so serious that even Mutsuki waited patiently for Aru to finish. Once done she looked back at the other PS68 members with a beaming smile. "I had a most awe-inspiring idea!"

"That's good?" Kayoko felt a rising sense of dread, but fought to keep a grimace off her face. "What is it?"

"Do you know what sounds even better than 'Outlaws' on a business card?" Rikuhachima Aru said with all the gravitas of a noir fiction protagonist. "The answer, my loyal chow-mooses, is 'Edgerunner Outlaws'!"

…What the heck was a 'chow-moose'?

"Welcome back Hasumi-senpai. Good job protecting justice."

"Thank you Mashiro." The Third Year student sat down with a sigh of relief; the chairs at the Justice Task Force's headquarters were far softer and of higher quality than the seats on the train she took to return home from Utnapishtim. That was the real reason, it definitely was not because her wings kept getting in the way, and she would say so to anyone who asked! "How have things been in my absence?"

"The number of extraneous holes in the shape of Tsurugi-senpai within many of Trinity's buildings has seen a sharp increase." The First Year replied succinctly. It was nothing Hasumi didn't already expect, but she still fought back a groan. "The delinquents causing trouble were too many for even our fearless leader to suppress on her own, so for once the rest of us had to get up and do something."

The sniper faltered slightly at the glare from the taller girl. "Ah… that was a joke. Sorry."

"Apology accepted." Sometimes Mashiro looked far too serious for her own good. "Ichika?"

"She directed the rest of our forces with great efficiency. She said the new recruits got a lot of valuable experience." The Third Year continued. "Then she added that the experience was exhausting, so after the emergency was declared over she went home to take a nap."

"I suppose she deserves it." Hasumi trusted Ichika to not take more time off than was acceptable. She wished to do the same, but being the JTF's vice-president meant having many, non-delegable duties. She could really use a parfait now. Just one or four… No! Focus Hasumi! Resist the temptation of sugary goodness!

"Senpai, you fought together with Silverhand-sensei." Mashiro's words proved to be a welcome distraction. "What do you think of him?"

"Ah, I assume he's been the main topic of recent discussions?" At the sniper's nod Hasumi began to choose her words carefully. "Silverhand-sensei proved himself both competent and worthy of trust, I can say this with absolute certainty. Some of his decisions may appear rash, especially for someone without a Halo, but he never asked us to do something he was not willingly to do himself."

The buxom Third Year thought back to Sensei's mechanical limb, and the brief but universally worrying mentions about his birthplace. Wherever this 'Night City' was, it sounded even worse than Gehenna. At least those scoundrels limited themselves to property destruction and disruption of private affairs.

"I heard some girls saying the stuff he spoke about during the interview isn't too dissimilar from Gehenna's propaganda." Mashiro revealed, coincidentally mirroring Hasumi's thoughts. "To be honest the part about corporations and capitalism flew over my head, and Schale sounds like a righteous organization on paper, but what I really found interesting was the song."

"The song?" Hasumi had no idea Mashiro liked rock, she never saw the younger girl with earplugs or listening to the radio. Mh, maybe she listened to it to pass the time while waiting for her targets to appear? The buxom Third Year couldn't really fault the younger student, spending hours with nothing to do would feel boring to anyone.

"There's this line that really resonates with me: 'Add justice to the peoples' math'. I read an interesting book recently, which tells people seeking justice how to behave in different situations." Now that was a more believable hobby for Hasumi's justice-obsessed junior. "It was everything I hoped it would be. But there were a few things I couldn't understand, maybe because I'm still inexperienced. The one I was less sure about is this example."

Mashiro took out a book titled 'Justice: It's The Right Thing To Do', far too much on the nose in Hasumi's opinion, and flipped through the pages until she reached one marked with a dog ear. "You are a train engineer. One day, you see five people tied to the track you're about to enter. If you switch to another track, you can save the five people, but as a result, you will hit one other person. What, in this case, would be the right thing to do?"

"I remember that one. It's a thought experiment about ethical dilemmas and how it's important to come up with your own answer." The JTF's vice-president nodded.

"Yes, the lack of a clear answer baffled me. What's more important? Saving lives or not willfully harming another? Justice should always have a clear, singular answer." Mashiro smiled, reading pure confidence and righteousness. "Then I heard 'Add justice to the peoples' math' and it all clicked. It's not a game of whose lives are worth more, either five or one. All of them are equally important, because the purpose of justice is to protect innocents. If this example is an equation, then there's only one answer: I will save them all. Even if I have to blow it up myself, I'll never allow the train to hurt a single innocent. If the book is telling me I cannot do it, then the book is wrong."

"Oh my." Hasumi gasped softly before smiling back. "I'm very proud of you and your answer, Mashiro. The Justice Task Force will be in good hands once I graduate."

She rubbed the back of her head. "You're making me blush, Hasumi-senpai."

"Though maybe blowing up the train should be a last resort, since you may have passengers that would be caught in the blast."

"Ah! You're right!" Mashiro slapped a hand over her forehead. "It seems the path to understand justice is a long and hazardous one."

Within the lands of Hyakkiyako, just like the rest of Kivotos, news of the events that marked the end of total disorder spread like wildfire. Carried by Kronos' broadcasts, messages on social media and word of mouth, there were few people that didn't feel the need to comment on them and make their opinions known.

What happened to the missing General Student Council President? Why was Schale, a club with such great power, created? Who was this mysterious 'Johnny Silverhand' Sensei? Why did he introduce himself by saying his name backward?

And most importantly, many students whispered among themselves with excited giggles, what kind of girl did he like?

This whirlpool of interest, ideas and beliefs was currently being observed by a solitary figure sitting atop one of Hyakkiyako's many traditional gates. Despite doing nothing to hide herself, nobody paid attention to the slender girl with hair like pale cherry blossoms as she brought a kiseru pipe to her lips, a wisp of fragrant smoke curling upward in lazy spirals. Purplish-gray eyes peered down at the river of humanity, gleaming with amusement and the characteristic fondness of elders who watch young people behave the same way they once did in their youth.

"Kukuku." Pale tails waved like a mirage as their owner quietly chuckled to herself. "Truly, in this day and age Hyakkiyako students get excited so easily."

With a flick of her wrist a pink cellphone covered in cherry blossom stickers slid out of her detached sleeve and into her palm. "Mhh, mhh. Festival this, festival that… Oh? Little Shizuko is announcing the reopening of Momoyodou?"

With a grin that promised mischief the Great Prophet of Hyakkiyako went to the teahouse's MomoTalk chatroom, confirmed Shizuko was chatting with her fans and typed a message.

[FoxCubMuchKawaii♥️♥️: Shizuko is so cute! Luv you so much 😙 I want to take you home so you can make me breakfast!]

She waited for the outraged replies by the fans to pile up and for Shizuko to start playing as peacemaker before adding another message.

[FoxCubMuchKawaii♥️♥️: You're saying you don't want to eat Shizuko's miso soup every morning?]

Kuzunoha howled with laughter as the chat exploded. Yet, despite how loud she was, not a single person on the street below raised their head.

"Forsooth! This shall be another fine day!" Still laughing in a very unladylike way, not that there was anyone calling her out of it, Kuzunoha picked up her case and leaped to the closest rooftop. Her geta-like soles never touched the same building more than once before she was soaring again, lithe body seemingly riding the spring breeze like an ephemeral petal.

The pale-haired girl's journey ended at the doorway of a small, cozy house nestled under the shade of the Tree of Deities. It was surrounded by much bigger and dignified buildings, to the point it was easy to overlook and even easier to forget for those who merely observed without understanding. With movements practiced until they became as natural as breathing Kuzunoha removed her shoes at the entrance, bare feet soaking in the warmth from the wooden floor, and entered the living room.

Then she stopped, gaze sweeping around in the instinctive understanding something was amiss.

Someone she didn't remember inviting was sitting at her tea table.

Also, all the walls and even the ceiling were covered in bricks of plastic explosive.

That was probably it.

"Hello Kuzunoha-senpai." A voice the Great Prophet had not heard in some time cheerfully greeted her. Sitting primly on a cushion, back so straight it put steel to shame, Kosaka Wakamo raised a delicate hand and the detonator it held. "We're currently surrounded by enough C-4 to level this and the surrounding buildings."

'And you will not hesitate to trigger the charge even if you'll be caught in the blast too, uh?' Kuzunoha mentally completed the unspoken threat. Most students, even with a halo's protection, would have balked and hesitated at the thought of inflicting to themselves what could only result in a week-long hospital stay.

Wakamo was not most students.

"Warm greetings to you as well, my wayward junior." Sighing softly in exasperation at her plans for the afternoon being ruined, the twin-tailed girl walked to the tea table and sat down on another cushion. Her pipe rapped gently on the polished surface. "Tea."

"Uh?! Y-Yes, right away." Standing up Wakamo moved towards the kitchen, absentmindedly storing the detonator within the folds of her clothes. Drawers were opened, cups and bowls and other necessities taken out as if the wanted criminal worked there every day of her life.

Tea powder and cold water were mixed, then whisked with refined elegance while more water heated up in a separate container. Once everything was ready two bowls rested on the table, releasing the unmistakable fragrance of green tea.

The Great Prophet of Hyakkiyako picked up her bowl and delicately drinked from it, eyes closed in contemplation. Wakamo took more furtive but not less frequent sips of the hot beverage, raising her mask just enough to gain access to her mouth.

Several minutes passed in complete silence before Kuzunoha put the bowl back down. "I see you didn't let your skills rust. Well done."

"Thank you senpai." Wakamo bowed at the praise.

"Now, tell me: what brings you to my humble abode, so long after our last meeting?"

Like a switch being flipped, Wakamo went from the perfect ideal of a lady to a swooning and blushing teenager. Hands on her cheeks, her body swayed left and right while her tail slapped against the floor with rhythmic persistence.

"How charming! How wondrous! A passion that burned like fire, an yearning that swallowed me whole! It was a meeting ordained by fate! Kuzunoha-senpai, I am in love!"

'My condolences to the poor bastard.'

"Congratulations, my wayward junior." Kuzunoha replied, very carefully not vocalizing her thoughts.

Then the masked girl was laying down on the table, weeping and screaming like a damned soul. "And I shamed myself in front of him! He-He must surely think I'm just a skank, a shameless hussy unworthy of his attention! He will never want anything to do with me ever again!"

The pale-haired girl calmly refilled her pipe, letting Wakamo get it out of her system until she was just sobbing instead of wailing. Helping her wayward and exceedingly dangerous junior with her love problems ranked low on Kuzunoha's list of priorities.

Yet, doing nothing at all while Wakamo was clearly suffering ranked at the very bottom. "It sounds serious. Yet, perhaps you should start from the very beginning and give me a clearer picture?"

And so Wakamo told Kuzunoha how she and the other six Prisoners were freed from their cells at the Correction Bureau by a 'midget'. How she immediately ditched them to go blow up some random stuff, and how she learned through the grapevine of a building deemed very important by the GSC. As expected, Wakamo decided to blow it up too with stolen explosives and a tank (also stolen).

Before she could do so, however, Johnny Silverhand of Schale appeared and apparently proceeded to do several outlashing things. Including dodging massed gunfire without moving, blowing up the tank with a handgun and holding his own against Wakamo in close-range combat.

"Those rakish looks, those eyes smouldering with raw passion!" Wakamo was hugging herself, shuddering as if she had a fever. "And then, he c-c-called me Wacko-moe! It was our first date and yet he already gave me a pet nameee!!!"

Kuzunoha contemplated informing Wakamo of her suspicions that name was not said endearingly before deciding she liked her house not being ash. "Daring indeed. And then what happened?"

However, instead of answering the masked girl fell oddly silent. She just fidgeted in an uncharacteristic awkward manner, as if unwilling to share some earth-shattering secret.

"Wakamo. I can't help you if you don't confide in me." The twin-tailed girl spoke gently. "Have I ever broken your trust?"

"No. Not you Kuzunoha-senpai, never you." Shyly she beckoned for the other girl to come closer. The Great Prophet leaned forward until one of her ears was almost touching the mask's fake lips.

Wakamo whispered the truth.

Kuzunoha's tails twitched once.

'Holy crap. There's being hormonal, and then there's this.'

"Mh, I understand." The smoking girl pulled back as the wanted criminal seemed to melt in renewed shame. "I wouldn't worry too much about it: guys love the ego boost."

"Uh?"

"You will get it one day." Kuzunoha waved Wakamo off with a chuckle. "What happened next?"

"I… Realizing the depths of my humiliating display I fled, unable to endure the thought of Darling staring at me with a scornful look. Seeking counsel I came here, rigged the place and then waited for your return senpai." The black-haired girl confessed bashfully. Then, for some reason, the exposed skin around her neck turned a bright shade of red. "On a whim I turned on the TV to pass the time-How fortuitous! Darling was there, enlightening the insipid masses with his boundless wisdom! The sound of his wonderful voice reignited the fire in my veins, to the point I had to use your bed to quench the heat."

Kuzunoha was just nodding along before stopping abruptly. "Wait. You used my bed to do what?"

"Tee-hee~"

"Don't tee-hee me young lady!" The pale-haired girl angrily knocked her pipe on the table several times. "We shall talk about this later. Why, exactly, have you come here Wakamo?"

"Please Kuzunoha-senpai!" The wanted criminal clapped her hands together. "I don't know what to dooo! Tell me how I can redeem myself to Darling! Anything! I will do anything!"

Considering what she deduced of Silverhand's character from his speech, Kuzunoha had a good guess he was more bothered by the unrestrained destruction caused by her wayward student than her feelings towards him. But that required little Wakamo to understand basic empathy and take a chill pill the size of Red Winter, so any advice about that was going to fall on deaf ears.

The pale-haired girl didn't answer immediately, rolling the pipe between her lips as she thought how to phrase her next words in a way that even this cute and destructive moron would get.

Mmh… if Wakamo didn't embellish Silverhand's words before their confrontation too much, like she clearly did the rest, and going by the content of his TV speech… Kuzunoha was not so arrogant as to think she already had a clear picture of the man's personality before even meeting him, but she was still a good judge of character with plenty of experience. "What is anarchy to you? That's what Silverhand-sensei asked, right Wakamo?"

The black-haired girl jolted before nodding. "Yes. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in my marrow… like me, Darling saw the true and ugly nature people hide behind their deceitful masks. Like me, he feels nothing but rage towards this cruel world. Yet, he still chose to support the insipid masses. Why?"

"He called you a faker. Because what you call anarchy and what he calls anarchy are different things. My wayward junior, takes this lesson to heart: even if their paths run parallel, it is not impossible for people to arrive at different destinations. Such is life." Kuzunoha smiled warmly. "However. With determination and some effort, it is also not impossible for those paths to intersect again. If you want to redeem yourself to Silverhand-sensei, you must first understand the destination he reached. And to understand it, you must first find the answer to this question: what is anarchy to Johnny Silverhand?"

Wakamo didn't react for several seconds. Then she was on her feet, hugging the other girl tightly against her chest and spinning in circles. "Kuzunoha-senpai! Thank you thank you thank you! You're so noble and wise! Yes! Before I can become Darling's perfect wife I must first know how to satisfy all of his desires! How arrogant of me to think otherwise!"

Said noble and wise senpai had her air flow cut off by Wakamo's breasts and was repeatedly bonking the other fox-eared girl on the head with her pipe, but the wanted criminal didn't appear to notice or care.

Before Kuzunoha could switch to more drastic methods she was put back on the cushion, her hair and clothes were smoothed over and the detonator was placed next to the empty tea bowl.

"Wait for me Darling! Your lovely Wakamo will not rest until she learns how to service you perfectly!" The wanted criminal hollered in delight as she dashed away.

"Still going at it in the most roundabout way possible, uh Wakamo? You never change." With a sigh Kuzunoha put down her pipe and began to dismantle the detonator. Once done she picked up her pipe again, stood up and walked to the door that led to her bedroom.

When she opened it, the first thing that hit her was the smell.

The second was the sight of her torn-up bed, looking as if it had been ravaged by a wild animal.

"…Next time I'm setting her on fire. Let's see how she likes that."

Chapter Text

A friend informed me about the existence of a MomoTalk Skin on Ao3. The discovery of this incredible technology made it possible to put the Momo of Chapter 6 between Kanna and Johnny in the format we all know and love.

====

Chapter Text

"So, the government here is run by kids?"

"Yeah."

"Kids who learn from books and vids made by other kids?"

"Yup."

"How is this place not a burning wasteland yet?"

"People here are just that good at building stuff. Especially the local commies, for some reason."

V and Johnny Silverhand

====

In his life, Johnny Silverhand made it a point to judge a person solely on their actions and career choice. For example, if you were a corpo you were doing a job centered around crushing other people's dreams to fill your coffers and the higher you rose the more blood you needed to spill, so that automatically made you worse than trash. If you were a cop, then everyone agreed you often fell into one of three general categories: naive idiot, gangoon in disguise or deadbeat who not even a gang would want. 

If you stuck to the terms of the deal and offered fair prices, then you were worthy of respect; if you lied and cheated everyone you met, then you were just bending over and begging to have your ass ventilated by bullets. The concept was that simple, no matter how many people managed to overcomplicate it.

So, going by this philosophy, things like nationality, gender and fashion sense mattered very little to Johnny. Sure, a Japanese would get a bit more attention than usual at first but that was just because they could be an Arasaka spy. And someone from Florida would always be suspected of having done some very crazy shit due to it being the national pastime, so perfectly justified.

And if you were born in space, or spent a lot of time there? That was it. No more, no less.

Even so.

"I can't believe I'm among aliens ."

Technically, this is their turf so you are the alien here, Johnny.

'Don't remind me, the fucking map is already doing too much of a good job at it.'

Said map was stuck to the office's wall with tape, showing the lands covered by the various schools and districts that made up Kivotos. It was more geographical than political, but thin colored lines and carefully placed tags did a good job of showing the position and borders of the various territories.

According to the bar scale on one corner Kivotos was the same size as the North American continent or even bigger, since the landmass didn't taper off like Mexico. Jesus Christ on a rasping motorcycle, it even had a desert at the bottom and a fucking polar cap at the top! 

And why the ever loving mierda was everything outside the outermost borders classified as 'who knows?' ?! The sea was one thing, just add more blue, but all landmass outside Kivotos was a featureless grey as if the world just stopped existing.

There were two possibilities: either this was a prank Ghost Girl played on him, or Johnny was not on Earth anymore.

The second would answer a lot of questions, but it would also create so many new ones that Johnny's head hurt just thinking about them. How did he end up on another planet? Why did aliens speak Japanese? Was this a colony built in secret by some corporation? Were its citizens the result of genetic experiments?

Was this still the Twenty-One Century, or did Johnny actually sleep for much longer than fifty years this time?

Agree the situation is hexed as hell, but agonizing over questions you can't answer yet will lead you nowhere. This is just like when we helped River save Randy, gotta collect all existing clues and look over them with a clear mind.

'Didn't I say to not get used to it? Whatever, this is different and yours is solid advice V. I'm in for the long haul then, to get to the bottom of this mystery called 'Kivotos'.'

"Sensei, I have finished the report you asked for." With a swirl of pixels Arona appeared in front of the desk, depositing a stack of papers on the surface. At the same time the printer came alive, steadily producing a physical copy of the report. "A summary of the most important and influential schools of Kivotos, including their current state and their relationships with other institutes."

"Thank you Arona." When the printing was over Johnny sat down and picked up the report, resting his feet on the desk. "Two last questions. Does Kivotos have satellites?"

"Of course! Fiber-optic cables are very convenient, but there are a lot of places where setting them up would be too hard." She looked proud to be able to easily answer his question. "Thanks to satcom, a student can send and receive messages on Momotalk even while in the middle of a jungle or a desert. Isn't technology amazing?"

"Sure is. And that map over there." He pointed at the most recent source of his headaches. "Was made using satellites?"

"Yes?" The AI put a hand over her cheek and tilted her head in the opposite direction, Halo taking the shape of an interrogative point. "Sensei, all modern maps are made using satellite imagery. Are you perhaps looking for the ground survey map of a specific place? Those need a special order, at the moment SCHALE doesn't possess any."

"Nah, just making sure." Johnny waved the Hand in dismissal. "That's all for now. Strawberry, blueberry chocolate and banana?"

She nodded so fast her head and Halo turned into blurs. "Don't forget bubblegum. The light blue variant, not the pink one! Oh, and if you can also add a double serving of vanilla and caramel it would be even better!"

"Nova. I'll buy everything on the way back." The Rockerboy shook his head, deeply amused by the idea he was using government funds to satisfy an AI's gluttony. But hey, it was tasty and ended up in his gullet anyway so why complain? While Arona daydreamed about the promised ice-cream, Johnny began to read the report.

Millennium Science School, one of the so-called 'Three Great Academies' of Kivotos. Focused heavily on scientific research and development. Despite being established only recently, many of the infrastructure, equipment, and inventions seen throughout Kivotos originated from that school. As expected, Millennium was Johnny's best bet to find someone capable of helping him with his Chrome. He also needed to make sure no scumbag took advantage of Yuuka and that big brain of hers.

Regarding the other two schools that currently held the greatest influence, the first was Gehenna Academy. Much older than Millennium, their motto was… 'Freedom and Chaos'? Sound like his favorite kind of people. Chinatsu was more of a by-the-book gal, but maybe she only let loose during off hours because she took being a doc seriously. Gehenna had a bad reputation among other schools, no surprise there, and was also Kivotos' greatest source of federal fugitives?

Johnny squinted his eyes. How in the name of all neon-painted Archer Quartzs did a school club about hot springs become wanted for several acts of urban destruction across all of Kivotos? What was it, a training camp for terrorists? Was he expected to shoot someone in the chest as a form of greeting if he ever decided to pay a visit?

The final Great Academy, and Gehenna's long-standing rival, was a Catholic school. Because of course it was. Trinity General School's logo was a cross, and their most powerful internal factions were literally called Pater, Filius and Sanctus.

'You think Ibarra would have a stroke upon learning of this?'

Nah, Padre is too chill for that. A school to teach young girls about the Good Word is praiseworthy.

'Their student council is called the Tea Party, I reckon they may be British.'

Nevermind, he would immediately spit in their eyes.

Johnny laughed and continued to read. Before Millennium rose to prominence, the one competing with Gehenna and Trinity in influence was Abydos High School. "Like the drink?" He mused, remembering that utter swill only because of the label with a big-titted woman.

Technically the oldest school of Kivotos, once boasting incredible financial and military power, their might began to decline sharply when desertification struck the entire district. The position… coincided with the big-ass desert. Abydos didn't border the desert, it was the desert. None of the available data was recent, but it was enough to paint the bleak picture of a place that was one bad storm away from birthing a Badland.

His guts were telling him something stank here, but Johnny wasn't going to find what within a summary.

Next was a school with authentic Japanese vibes, Allied Hyakkiyako Academy. With a name like 'Night Parade of One Hundred Demons', it sounded like another fun place. A loose coalition of different clubs and committees, main industry was tourism, famous for their many festivals. Not a single mention of Arasaka or similar names, good.

Hyakkiyako was sitting next to the school with Chinese vibes, Shanhaijing Senior Secondary School. More focused on business and profit, they also maintained a firm closed-door policy and officially interacted little with other schools. Some things never changed even across different planets.

Red Winter Federal Academy… Hold on, those were just commies. Biggest territory of everyone else, all of it within the most cold and inhospitable region of the world? Rampant political instability? Coups and revolutions happening with frequent regularity? Everything checked.

That was before the rise of SovOil, right?

'Before they rebranded themselves as Neo-Sovs, yeah. An utter shitshow, though you could say labels were the only things to truly change.'

In any case, it looked like they were too busy with their own problems to make a move on the rest of Kivotos. They weren't even selling natural resources or shoddy tech at low prices, so Johnny put them in his mental list of low-priority potential problems.

He already knew about the local badges, Valkyrie Police Academy. More interesting was SRT Special Academy, founded only two years ago under the direct order of Ghost Girl. Basically Kivotos' special forces, handling federal crimes like the FBI but with the difference they needed the equivalent of a presidential permit every time they wanted to carry out an operation. It was not even the most questionable choice… unless the president suddenly disappeared and there was no way to elect a new one, in which case it turned downright disastrous.

Their list of accomplishments at least confirmed all the eddies invested into the school had not been in vain, since a single team of four had been capable of defeating Wacko-Moe several times.

Highlander Railroad Academy… Ah, there it was! The inevitable corpo-school: owned by the Saint Nephthys Group, originally located in Abydos before they escaped the desertification like everyone else, the academy didn't govern a district but instead focused on operating Kivotos' railroad networks. No major complaints about scummy business practices, they were universally obliged to cooperate with the academy overseeing the district where a railroad was passing through… unusually restrained for a corporation, but maybe someone had the good sense to kneecap the bastards before they could gain momentum. In any case, they were just slightly less suspicious than Kaiser.

Kronos School of Journalism was not only Kivotos' main news coverage provider, but close to being the only one outside of small and district-only broadcasters. Mediacorps, as Johnny knew them, straight-up didn't exist as a concept here. Bizarre, but welcome. One may suspect wealthy groups of trying to bribe Kronos students, but apparently their tendency to sensationalize even the smallest goings-on immediately leads them to publicly expose the attempt in order to gain viewers. It happened so many times in the past that now no one tried anymore.

The final two entries in the report weren't much to talk about in regard to potential troubles: Wild Hunt Academy, a fine arts school famous for training many big name artists, and Odyssey Maritime School, which hilariously enough wasn't located in a port but instead a nomadic fleet of ships. No self-replicating mines and other nasties in the ocean, good to know.

Someone knocked on the door. Johnny put down the report and stood up. "No need for that, just enter if you want."

"Sensei, it's called common decency." Yurina quipped while walking inside. She kept the skirt of her old uniform, but now wore a nanoweave T-shirt, a Rocker's Heart crystaljock bomber with the Samurai logo on the back and reinforced pumps. The SCHALE badge hung from her neck, on display for the world to see, and a M221 Saratoga was slung over her shoulder. "Are you not concerned about your privacy?"

"Chombatta, I am a Rockerboy. The job description clearly states privacy is the first thing to be sacrificed on the altar of success." He grinned. "The second is shame."

"I'll lock the door when I go to the bathroom then." Despite her tone being flat, her cheeks were just a bit pinker than before. "I gathered everyone in the audio-visual room, like you asked."

"Preem work. Let's get to it then." Johnny left the office, with Yurina trailing after him. "How is everyone settling in?"

"Pretty well. This place has a heating system and running water, that alone makes it paradise to me." She shrugged her shoulders. "The library has study material from all major schools, the classrooms are clean and the gym a nice addition. We haven't really touched the stuff in the laboratory and hangar yet, a few girls wanted to take a tank for a ride but I was adamant they first need to learn how to drive one."

The fact tanks could roll through city streets without anyone blinking, and that schools even offered classes on how to drive them and other military vehicles like helicopters, never ceased to amuse Johnny.

"The residential area is good too. Most of us only know how to cook simple stuff, so we usually just grab food from the convenience store instead of using the cafeteria. The retro game fans already laid claim to the arcade and are organizing tournaments. We also found a terrace set up to grow vegetables, but no one knows jack shit about it so we aren't sure what to do."

"Yeah? Me neither, but nice to know I guess." Johnny rubbed his chin. Did they need a way to grow vegetables by themselves, when there was little risk of finding bland synthstuff within stores? Just to save up a few eddies?

"Fresh vegetables are very good for the body!" Arona added her own opinion. "Apart from the seeds storage, the library also contains introductory and advanced agriculture manuals."

Ghost Girl was meticulous when she wanted to. Oh well, if there were girls interested in farming who was he to stop them? "The library has manuals for it, if someone wants to give it a try they're welcome."

The chatter within the home theater quieted down when Johnny walked inside, the crowd of eclectic-dressed girls immediately focusing on him. Yurina went to take a seat left open in the front row, followed by Arona sitting on her lap while humming a jaunty tune.

Johnny stood in front of the wall screen and favored everyone with a pleased grin. "Thanks for coming chooms. First, you had a few days to settle down so now it's time to get to work and start making Kivotos a better place. I'm off to see the General Student Council and have some gigs sent our way. However, they shouldn't be our only channel."

He fished out his Agent and let everyone have a good look at it before putting the device away. "To help people, we also need to connect with them. This is what I want you to do for the time being: to keep your fingers on the pulse and forge connections. Go around, meet new people, chat with them. See if they have problems they cannot solve by themselves but could with Schale's help. You read something that piques your interest? Look into it, get to the meat of the matter and use your own judgment to decide what to do. Most importantly, learn about who the people you meet are: they may be simply a retail worker, a driver, a fellow student, an overworked parent, it doesn't matter. Just pay attention. And then, tell them who you are so that they may know you as well as you now know them."

The Rockerboy could see only a few managed to follow every part of his speech, yet there was no one who wasn't captivated by it in some way. One girl, a blonde with amber-colored eyes, raised a hand. "So, basically… you want us to make friends?"

"That's right." His grin shifted to a relaxed smile of approval. Smart kid, she will go far. "Have you ever heard of the Perfect Gig?"

He let them have a few moments of shared confusion and denial before continuing. "The dream of many edgerunners, solos, boosters and street punks. A clean run, a gig where everything turns out right and nothing goes bad."

Johnny slowly walked up the stairs between two rows of seats, dozens of eyes never straying away from his frame for more than a second. Reaching the middle he turned around and sat down on the step, removing his aviators and hanging them on his jacket. Arona materialized next to him, an almost nostalgic smile on her lips.

"To chase this dream they train obsessively. Spend tons of eddies buying the best iron and the most cutting-edge gizmos. Waste days making plans to deal with every possible variable. Each time they say to themselves: 'this time everything will be perfect'.

It never is. Something always, always goes wrong: the eddies are stolen, the client stiffs you, you or your friends get hurt. Every time, while licking your wounds, there's this thought you cannot dislodge from your meatbrain no matter how much you try: 'it's my fault. I wasn't strong enough'. So you train more, spend more, make even more plans and then go back to the grind, confident you'll get it right this time."

This was a lesson most people didn't learn until they died. To learn it twice was as ridiculous as it was heavy.

"There's only one true method to win this rigged game: to not play. The Perfect Gig doesn't and will never exist, it's nothing more than the blind obsession of someone who tries to shoulder all responsibilities by themselves. You need to accept that you cannot control or predict every possibility, that every action you take has a chance of going wrong." He exhaled softly. "Then, and only then, you gather your chooms and plan your next gig together. Chooms you can trust to protect themselves and share your burdens with, because something that may seem daunting alone becomes a little less scary with every hand that joins your own. And when you run out of chances, they will be there to give you a few extra ones.

The goal is not to win. The goal is for everyone to come back home together at the end, laughing off both the good and the bad while sharing a cool drink.

As your Sensei, consider this my first and most important lesson."

They may fail. Those gals had more chances than the average street punk thanks to their Halos, but there were more painful endings than death. Still, if his words helped even just a few endure until the finishing line?

Worth it.

-0-

Sanctum was like the twice-removed cousin of the new Arasaka Tower who decided to shave their head, join a temple and spend the rest of their life meditating on the great mysteries of the universe while keeping the place as clean as possible with maniac zeal. Only its size was intimidating; otherwise, all that pristine white made you feel like just coming close was enough to leave smudges on it.

As a result, the Empress tarot card on the wall stood out even more: a woman with long white hair and blue clothes, holding a katana and standing in the middle of a field of flowers. Johnny's meat hand checked his Chipware Sockets, and like always found them empty. "Arona, do you see this shit?"

"See what, Sensei?"

He wordlessly pointed at the mural. "Ah, the picture on the wall? I think it's pretty."

So she was able to see the tarot card. It made sense, Arona was using his own Kiroshi to interact with the world so she had access to all of his senses. At least it removed Johnny's own braincells from the list of suspects for this fuckery. "Do me a quick favor and give a look at my Cyberdeck, check for junk data. Gotta keep it clean of bugs."

He patted the girl's head and entered Sanctum Tower. The reception hall was properly corpo, spacious and utilitarian with plenty of free space that served only to make you feel small. Students in Valkyrie uniform stood guard, but were so bored out of their minds they didn't even glance at him.

"Good day chombatta." Johnny leaned forward on the counter, grinning at the startled receptionist with a white, double-breasted cropped blazer and a blue necktie. One thing he had noticed was that the number of shooting stars on the necktie matched the school year of the GSC student wearing it. "Say, where can I find Rinny?"

"U-Uh? Who are– wait, you're Silverhand-sensei from the Independent Federal Investigation Club!" She blinked in astonishment before moving her chair in front of the PC. "Welcome to Sanctum Tower sir. I'll confirm if the person you're looking for is available, could you give me their surname and school year?"

"Nanagami, third year."

She began to type before suddenly stopping and, very slowly, raising her head to fix Johnny with a weird expression. "...You mean the Chief of the Administrative Office, Nanagami Rin-senpai?"

"Preem legs, clothes that are basically painted on and sexy murderous glare? That's Rinny. Or do you call her Rinzilla?"

Arona burst out laughing, while everyone within hearing distance stared at him in horror. The receptionist subtly pushed herself away. "She… Nanagami-senpai's in a meeting with other Office Chiefs, I'll let her know you want to meet her…"

"Don't worry about it, she's expecting me." He winked. It wasn't even a lie, since the last time they were face to face Rin expressed the clear desire to speak with him. "Just tell me where the meeting is and I'll be out of your hair in a jiffy."

The last part apparently did the trick, because the girl quickly gave him the necessary directions and even pointed at the elevator that would bring him directly to the floor's right wing.

The ride lasted a few minutes, the floor numbers on the screen going up in time with the playing muzak. Old-school lounge spliced with cheap synth modules, simple four-note loop as bassline, designed to keep corpos calm after a twelve-hour work shift. But the treble got no plastic shimmer, no half-step dissonance like some forgotten jazz cat's ghost trying to scream through the code. Filler, but genuine. He could appreciate that.

No guards on the floor, which may sound like a gonk move since execs were left alone until you remembered everyone here was bulletproof and carrying iron. Anyone planning an attack would be able to do only some property damage before being swarmed with bodies, being killer-grade would increase the time limit but even that had a limit.

And if you tried to match numbers with numbers? Then they would see you coming from a mile away and prepare accordingly. Sanctum Tower was a fortress perfectly adapted to Kivotos' idiosyncrasies. Of course, well-placed explosives on key structural points would bring it down all the same, but good luck going through the surely ironclad security.

Could Halos protect you from a falling building? Not a question Johnny wanted to see tested any time soon, better to leave it as an hypothetical.

"Heya chooms, how's your uptime?" Johnny announced as he opened the door and swaggered inside the meeting room where seven girls were seated around a large table. "Johnny Silverhand, greatest Rockerboy alive, is here. Let's get this gig on the roll."

"Sensei." Rin was the first to break the ensuing shocked silence, glaring at him in a way that was totally putting him in the mood. "I have been trying to contact you for the past five days."

"I've been busy." He passed next to Momoka, the gremlin trying to surreptitiously flip some chips into her mouth. "Glad to see you still kicking chombatta. How many twenty-hours turns did Rinny punish you with for the whole helicopter hullabaloo?"

"Hi Sensei. Naaah, our dear Vice-President was super generous and only gave me ten hours. I slept through four of them anyway." The pink-haired girl chuckled before putting a hand over her mouth. "Oops!"

Rin made a weird expression, lips almost twisting into a grimace before it was replaced with a scowl. She glared at Momoka for a heartbeat before looking back at Johnny. "And the first time I heard about you again was within a report from Valkyrie, stating you turned delinquents into active members of SCHALE."

"Well, then they aren't delinquents anymore, correct?" Next was a blonde with a nice rack and two black wings. His Agent already told Johnny the names and other info of everyone, but he did the polite thing and pretended otherwise. "You already know my name, so can I have yours sweetheart?"

"H-Hello Sensei! I'm Iwabitsu Ayumu, Chief of the Administrative Office and Rin's secretary." She blushed. "Nice to meet you."

"Putting aside the matter of your sudden and unannounced arrival for the moment." The girl with light blue hair and pointed ears sighed softly before looking at him all business-like. "Oki Aoi, Chief of the Finance Office. A pleasure to meet you, Silverhand-Sensei."

"Even after the riots have been quelled, vigilante and gang activities using the content of your careless speech as propaganda have increased." Rin continued.

"Gotcha, I'll straighten up the posers and other opportunists."

"It was sudden, yes, but I don't mind too much." Next, the tanned girl with long white hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a well-ironed suit introduced herself. "Matsui Haine, Chief of the Physical Education Office. We're missing five other people, but like usual they couldn't put aside the time to attend. Sumomo, it's your turn."

"What, who, where?" The shorter tan-skinned, white-haired girl with curved backwards horns suddenly blinked and yawned in an exaggerated manner. The fake halo in the shape of a simple white ring clattered to the ground as her real one, twelve purple stars with cyan outlines, blinked into existence. "Oooh, it's Sensei! Students from Wild Hunt threatened to kidnap me if I didn't give them your personal number, ya know? I don't even have it!" 

Johnny's Kiroshi briefly glowed blue, followed by a ding coming from within Sumomo's oversized jacket. "You do now. Feel free to share it among my fans."

"Neat! Name's Sasaki Sumomo, Chief of the Tourism Office. Nice to meetcha!"

"This is confiscated." Aoi announced while picking up the fake Halo. "Sumomo, I expected forty apology letters on my desk by the end of the day."

"Nooo!"

"Are you even listening to me?!"

"Sure am. I'm just multitasking."

"My my my. I rarely see our esteemed Vice-President get so flustered without the President around." The pink-haired girl who was keeping her eyes firmly closed giggled. "Shiranui Kaya, Chief of the Defense Office. I hope we can build a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship between us, Silverhand-Sensei."

"Sorry honey. You're cute and all, but you're also the head honcho cop of jackboots." Johnny's smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "We're kind of natural enemies, you and I."

"Oh, that's unfortunate." Kaya pouted, seemingly not offended in the slightest. "Any way I can change your mind?"

"If we ever find ourselves alone within the most crime-infested district of Kivotos, with everyone wanting our hides and no support in sight, I may be willing to give you a chance." Introductions done, Johnny walked past the empty chair at the head of the table, sat down next to Rin and rested his boots on the surface.

"Take your feet off the table." Rin's voice tried very hard to eviscerate Johnny, aiding the efforts of the sniper rifles that had replaced her eyes.

"Stress is bad for your skin. Don't get wrinkles before twenty, that would be a god damn waste." The Rockerboy took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. 

Before Johnny could lit it, however, dainty fingers reached out faster than he could react and plucked the cig off his lips. 

"Smoking is forbidden within buildings under the jurisdiction of the General Student Council." Aoi stated matter-of-factly as she broke the cig in half and tossed it within a trashcan. "Silverhand-Sensei, if you intend to keep disrupting our reunion without explaining the reason for your visit I'll have the guards escort you outside. Judging from what I heard about you, I would not even need to tell them to be gentle."

"Sexy." Johnny answered with a shit-eating grin and a chuckle that was almost a purr.

"Sexual harassment is also punished severely."

"You don't wanna get on Aoi's bad side, Sensei." Arona commented with a knowing tone. The AI sat on the table's edge, legs swinging idly, while Spinky lounged in midair eating pixelated popcorn. "She has a record ."

"Alright, alright. Business before pleasure, how boring." Johnny raised both his meat limb and the Hand in mock surrender. " Sooo . Since I am the one who generously handed back the keys to Kivotos to all of you, after risking my own neck to do it I may add, and since I am also a teacher belonging to a federal investigative agency with all the authority needed to address internal and external threats."

He turned his head to look straight at Rin. "I am here to ask for some gigs and offer advice."

The bespectacled girl was tense at the beginning, then showed visible confusion at the end. "Sensei, I believe I already asked you to speak proper JP, not whichever strange jargon you're so fond of. What is a 'gig'?" She demanded with irritation.

Yeah. Here in Kivotos, Japanese was literally called 'JP', written the same way too. English was 'Global', Korean 'KR' and Chinese 'CN'.

Johnny was not the one being racist, not one bit.

"I mean a job." He rolled his eyes. "Both Schale and the General Student Council serve the people, so is there anything on your plate that you cannot handle but we can?"

"Oh?" Rin straightened up, a vindictive glint entering her eyes. "Are you saying you're willing to take care of civilian complaints?"

" Chica , that's in my job description now. Hit me."

"Well. Since you insist ." Doing a passable imitation of Rogue while in the mood for violence, Rin stood up and left the room.

She returned with a ridiculously high tower of documents in her hands, swaying back and forth with every step but never quite enough to fall over. She walked up to Johnny and slammed the documents on the table in front of him.

"Complaints include, but are not limited to, requests for support materials, environmental aid, make-up work for failing students, and saving clubs from shutdown." Rin explained with a cheerfulness that was borderline sadistical, making sure to highlight the many parts of the documents that needed to be filled and the very strict rules that said filling must follow. "It is advisable to review those documents as soon as possible. Since you have so much free time now, this means you can do it right now , don't you? Sensei? "

Johnny glanced at the other students, receiving a mix of commiseration and 'you dug your own grave' looks. Seeing he would get no support on that front the Rockerboy picked up a random document with the Hand, took a picture with his Kiroshi and sent it to Arona. The digital version of the document materialized within the AI's hands, who gave a thumb-up and began to read. "You know Rinny, this gig may be chip-frying but you are doing an excellent job at keeping my mood up."

"Shut up and get to work."