“Music for a movie. According to the contract it would be a big bonus for you… Well for Stand Alone Complex as a whole.” Hiromi explained and I hummed.

“Well he seemed weird about it.”

“It would be a big feather in his cap. Right now the band is at a bit of a low state. MSM is putting eddies into you, but we haven’t exploded yet. Although according to the metrics MSM has provided a bit unwillingly I’ll admit, you are rising in popularity, and the band has been getting more and more radio time.”

I hummed, and then just shook my head. “Okay I won’t stress too much about it.”

“Good! You should be relaxed and having fun! We have a bigger gig this weekend. You’re ready right?”

“The radio thing?”

“Yeah the radio thing.” She confirmed, and I sighed. Morro Rock was hosting a sort of concert and we were going to get a timeslot.

It wasn’t big times, not at all, in fact sort of a middle sized place, a few up and coming bands, not just from MSM were coming.

A literal battle of the bands, as different brands were throwing their up and comers at each other to see who got the most attention.

It would also be broadcast on Morrow Rock as a live radio event. So… There we go.

I looked at Hiromi, we were hanging out at my place the next day, she’d taken another day off from school, and her excuse was there, so I didn’t have it in me to berate her right now.

“Don’t be nervous.” She said to me, hitting the exact thing I was in fact suffering from.

“I’m cool, and collected, and definitely don’t get nervous.” I told her, with an arrogant sniff, which Hiromi grinned at me.

“Suuuure. Want a distraction?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, why don’t we try and get the boys together and we can do a gig, or a training session or something.”

“Do you have a gig idea?” I asked, perking up and she shook her head.

“I haven’t really been looking Motoko, between school, and the MSM business, trying to play catch up, I-”

“No. Hiromi. You’re doing great. You didn’t do anything wrong. No worries.” I said waving my hands at her like trying to calm a kitten. The way she had started talking was half way into a rant.

“I just… I’m trying.”

“You are the best. The absolute pinnacle I am in awe of the work you do. You don’t have to stress out trying to do more.” I assured her, sliding over and grabbing her up and pulling her into a tight hug. “Seriously, I owe you a ton, I’d be a total mess without you. So don’t go crazy about it. If it’s too much then pare down what you do.”

“I’m okay. Just can’t really do much fixer stuff with how much time MSM is taking up.”

“Are they messing with you? I’ll kill them.”

“No, well Alex is, but you already know that. No, the problem is just all the stuff I don’t know. Setting up a gig at a bar is something I can do, but I’m absolutely out of my element trying to do a concert like this. Thankfully I wasn’t hosting it, but I still had a lot of paperwork to go through. The insurance agreements alone.”

“Insurance?”

“Stuff like making sure the concert isn’t responsible if someone shoots you or the band.” Hiromi explained and I blinked, cause that was kinda-”

“It’s standard. Cyberpsycho’s are labelled under a different section, but normal people sometimes want to kill the rich and famous. Of course there are plenty of scanners, and everyone is checked, but-”

“Someone could have an internal weapon hidden away, or whatever.”

“Right.”

“I should wear my Katana then, in case someone tries to shoot me.”

“Absolutely.” Hiromi said without hesitation, and I don’t think it was because she was worried about my protection.

I sighed, and nodded. Okay I should be ready for the stupid concert. Alice and the others… I don’t know. The next few days were going to be full of practice, Hiromi’s excuse for taking today off had been setting it all up, and getting prepared for it.

“Practice sounds nice. Oh you know what!? We should go find an abandoned building and clear it out as practice!” It could be like how armies trained! Real training and maybe more than just Malcolm would actually participate.

“I’ll find a building we can use!” Hiromi said, ever helpful, but I reached out and instead just patted her head.

“Nope.” I denied her. “That’ll be part of my job. You just relax.” I told

her, and she sent me a look before shaking her head.

“Okay Motoko. I’ll let you handle this.” The way she said that meant she didn’t think I could handle it? How hard could finding an empty building in Night City be? This place was dilapidated as fuck in some areas.”

—--

“We there yet?” Malcolm's voice asked over the group call and I really wanted to brake hard and go assault his car.

“Malcolm, that joke got old almost a century ago.” I grumbled at him, as I looked around. I hadn’t wanted to go to Pacifica or Dogtown for obvious reasons so I’d searched more in the industrial sector in the north west of Night City but…

Maelstrom Haunt. Maelstrom Haunt. Shanty town. Shanty town. Maelstrom Haunt…

“This is annoying!” I grumbled looking around.

“Empty buildings are rather rare, Motoko.” Hiromi offered.

“I should just make them empty.” I hissed glaring at the Maelstrom gangers that were hanging out on a car along the side of the road.

I revved my Quadra’s engine as I continued down the streets. Come on, I just needed to find an empty industrial building to use for training! This should be this hard!

I braked…

That could work.

“Motoko?”

“Think I found it, wait here.” I decided, slipping out, wearing my full tactical gear. Looking over the abandoned warehouse. It had a fence around the whole place, a large building in the center in an L shape, and a lot with old cars rusted husks hanging around. But more importantly. The place seemed dead.

I moved over to the fence, the locked and still secured fence, and leapt over.

Security systems were broken. Cameras long since rusted over, but I moved through the place with tactical efficiency. Crossing the open yard, I moved up to the actual building, checking the first door and finding it locked.

Like normal locked. Not even electronically locked.

I could pick it, but I didn’t have anything on me, and it would be faster to go around.

I backed up and leapt up to the second floor. The building had a catwalk around the outside of it, and with a leap and vault I was on it. Landing quietly, I stilled as the catwalk groaned a bit.

Okay that could be a bit dangerous.

Oh well.

I hurried on checking the windows along the edge. They were dusty and completely impossible to see through. Dang.

I went to the door and while it was locked… I jammed my hand into where the knob would meet the edge and just popped it open.

Flexing my hand I looked over at the still shiny unmarked chrome.

Yeah. That had been pretty fun.

I slipped inside, looking over the area, and noticing the homeless camp set up inside, but…

No one was here.

“Looks mostly clear, but someone has been living here, we’ll use it anyways. I’m going to check the rest of it. Go ahead and pull everything up to the gate and block it off so Maelstrom and anyone else knows to fuck off.”

“Roger.” Ichi called out and I nodded, he’d handle positioning everyone. Working in transport had given him a lot of training on just how to do that.

Either way, I continued looking around and after five minutes I cleared the whole place…

“Well it’s dirty and stinks, but that’s actually a benefit.” I called out over the line as I reached the front door unlocking it and opening it to see everyone inside the yard poking around.

Rebecca had declined to come, but Malcolm had picked up David.

“It’s a shit hole. But whatever.” Ichi offered, looking around. I noticed he was clutching his pistol a bit tight.

“It’s cool choom. I cleared everything inside. Whoever normally lives here is probably out for now, and I doubt they’ll mess with us with all the hardware we came with.”

“This is nova.” David whispered, standing a bit awkwardly next to everyone.

Unlike the others, he was only really wearing a bulletproof vest and a crappy helmet. Malcolm had apparently found the stuff for him at some point.

“Alright. Here is what we will do. We’ll split into groups. One trying to get in, one trying to defend, and play gun tag. The goal is to work on sweeping the insides of a building and not getting shot by the people inside before you shoot them.”

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“What do we get if we win?” Malcolm asked, smirking and I glared at him.

“This is training Malcolm, the goal is to practice important skills. While it’s semi-competitive thats not the-” I stopped as everyone was pouting at me. Except David, but literally pouting. “Fifty Eddies, and you get to pick where we go for dinner.”

“Yes.” Malcolm cheered, Ichi and Hiromi looked pleased too. I just glared at them before shaking it off.

“Okay so as I was saying, we’ll go in teams.”

“Aww, but you’re going to win.” Ichi pointed out, and I shook my head.

“Nope. I’m the trainer today. I’ll be going in with the teams moving in, walking them through what to do, and how to move, and of course judging shots and things.”

“Preem!” David called out, and I sent him a nod. For a boy that we picked up from school, he was more energetic than most of my usual team.

“Alright! Everyone line up! Guns displayed! We’re removing all bullets from our guns before we start. Keep the magazine on you and only re-insert it when we are done!” I walked through making sure the guns were completely empty as I went.

This should be fun!

“Okay team-”

“I’m taking Malcolm!” Hiromi called out, which would leave Ichi with David?

“I think Malcolm and David should team up.” I denied her. Malcolm was definitely the most skilled solo of the teams, and David the least.

Hiromi pouted at me.

Then I realized… She’d wanted to win for the fifty eddies, and dinner… Dangit Hiromi! This was about training not winning!

This was going to be a mess.

—--

David and Malcolm moved in. David trailing very awkwardly which wasn’t good, I reached over and raised his gun up as he kept dropping his arm and walking around with the Unity he was using like it was a summer luncheon, instead of tactical training.

“Is the ground what you’re shooting at? Keep the gun up.”

“Sorry!”

“Shhh!” Malcolm hissed at us but I ignored him.

Stealth was kinda pointless Malcolm. Ichi and Hiromi knew we were coming.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

I looked up.

“Well played.” I agreed. Before Malcolm could open the door Ichi and Hiromi had ‘fired’ down at them from the second floor catwalk.

“We didn’t even make it inside!” Malcolm raged at them, flipping them off.

“Okay! Team switch! Go go go!” I called out.”

—--

“Malcolm! I’m going to kill you!”

“Natural environment.” He argued with a shrug.

“Malcolm… Put that back wherever you found it.” I demanded, a bit disgusted. Whatever homeless guy that had been sleeping here had a nasty old blanket and Malcolm had used it like an old Ninja trick to hide against the wall in the dingy light it had worked, but… Ew.

“Yeah, probably a good idea.” I muttered.

“And wash your hands!”

“Here? Are you crazy?”

—--

I reached over and without hesitation, twisted David's wrist. “Hey- ow!”

“It’s called aiming.” I said with a hiss. Turning your pistol sideways was stupid.

“Sorry! I just… I saw a guy do-”

“David. Don’t finish that sentence. You aren’t trying to be a gangoon, or a thug. We’re a tactical spec ops team. We do not spray wildly. Aim your fucking pistol.”

“Yes Ma’am!”

“Good.

—--

“Okay so have we learned something today?”

I asked and other than David got nothing but groans.

“I learned a lot!”

“Thank you David, at least someone paid attention.”

“Can we go now? I’m tired.” Hiromi whined, and I sighed.

“Yes, let’s clear out.” I said, waving everyone towards the vehicles, but Malcolm, Ichi, and Hiromi didn’t move.

Instead all three were grinning.

I sighed.

“Okay, Ichi, here is fifty Eddies, and you get to-”

“What!? How did Ichi win!?”

“Yeah I should have won!” Hiromi and Malcolm complained and I just shrugged.

“He was actually doing a fairly good job on everything, and to be fair Malcolm, whenever you died, David was right after so Ichi picked up a few double kills.”

“Agh!” Malcolm groaned, and I could see David looking a little concerned as he realized he’d dragged Malcolm down, but Malcolm shook it off. “Next time we’ll win! Right David?”

“Yeah! Definitely choom!” David fist pumped strongly, and Malcolm nodded.

“Okay so where are we eating Ichi?”

“Oh I have some ideas.”

—--

“Uuuh. Chooms?”

“What’s up David, not used to a XB bar?”

“Why here?” I asked, looking around Lizzies. The food wasn’t even good!

“I was really craving nachos, and they are kinda awesome here.” Ichi said, defending himself, but I lifted an eye at him.

Our meal came with some ‘free’ BD time as well…

Ichi that’s gross, choom. I conveyed through my eyes. He just looked away.

“Ugh whatever.” Hiromi complained, looking through the bar's menu. “I’ll get just a couple drinks and go home then.”

“No drinking and driving!” I demanded, finger of absolute judgement pointing at her, but Hiromi sent me her unimpressed look.

“I drive better drunk!”

“She does drive better drunk.” Malcolm added, and David looked up.

“Really?”

“Yeah it’s kinda-”

“No! No one drives better drunk! No drunk driving, that's stupid!” I argued, almost throwing something at Malcolm.

“Heh. You’re just jealous.” Hiromi said confidently, and I looked at her flatly.

“I don’t like drinking Hiromi, and besides I drive just fine.”

“Not as good as I do when I’m drunk.”

“That’s not a thing!”

“It-”

“Not a thing!”

My chooms looked at me, and then at each other and just shrugged.

I’m not insane, they're insane!

“So I can order whatever I want?” David asked hesitantly, changing the topic and I waved him off.

“Help yourself choom. Enjoy.”

“Nova! I will! Ah man, I’ve never been to a place like this!”

“Seriously? Swanky Arasaka student never goes slumming it?”

“Ah well-”

“Nah Ichi, lay off. He’s a street kid, his Mom just wants him to do well.” Malcolm argued.

“Oh, that how it is? Gotcha, if my Grandma could have gotten me into Arasaka Academy she would have too.” Ichi offered, and I watched David's shoulders relax a little.

The poor kid didn’t really have many friends, not with the corpo elites judging him, and the street kids normally doing the same.

Hopefully he’d keep himself alive with the training we offered him?

Oh who am I kidding? David is a fucking moron. If he stays with Arasaka, then he’s dead the moment someone above him wants him gone, and if he leaves dies in a blaze of Glory.

I sighed. Looking at Hiromi who looked at me with her eyebrow raised.

I sent her a pleading look.

He’s just a stupid puppy Hiromi. You have to save him!

She gave me a disgusted look, probably not picking up everything I was trying to convey.

But finally she sighed.

“David, take it from me. You’re top of your class at the academy. Stop listening to Katsuo, you’ll be placed in a valuable spot in the company when you graduate simply for your skills, just open your eyes and don’t be stupid.”

“Uhh… Thanks Hiromi?”

“It’s Boss to you!” She grumbled, taking a sip of…

“Hiromi! No drinking and driving.”

“It’s only one!”

“One is too many!”

“Blah blah, It’s-”

“Oh Crap!” David suddenly yelped, as his eyes flashed yellow, and he started talking on his agent.

“Mom! I’m fine, I’m just out with some friends. From school! Yeah! Where am I…?” He looked up at us like he hoped for an answer.

Like I said, a moron. Any street kid would have instantly fucking lied, saying some random restaurant or something.

David? He panics for just a second too long.

“Just at some restaurant. Motoko is paying.” He offered and I quirked my eyebrow at him.

I looked at Hiromi and she was honestly delighting in Davids slow crumbling situation.

“Today was fun. Thanks Hiromi.”

“Hmhmm! What do you think your Manager is for? Gotta take care of the talent.”

“Yeah but tomorrow is going to be a lot of work.”

“Yeah.”

“Ah! No you don’t have to pick me up! My choom Malcolm will drop me off!” David nearly squealed, and everyone looked at each other and started laughing.

Oh man, his Mama was gonna be pissed if she found out where he was. But… Other than Malcolm no one else really had parents to do that sort of thing with…

It was nostalgic for me.

Malcolm would cover for him… Probably. But for me? Today was my last day of fun for a bit. A concert, the Militech Showroom, and preparation to set up the heist. I’d be busy.

I took a sip of my own drink, which was just a soda. Time to get to work.