Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG-Chapter 335
“Hey, Shiro, what’s this?” Mira called from my bed in a drowsy voice. Sleep radiated from her sing-song, like she’d just stumbled upon something that startled her awake.
I looked up from the couch, fingers still hovering over my deck in frustration. The autopilot program I’d been trying and failing to work on blurred. My focus forcibly snapped away toward my mikata at her sudden call.
She was upright, blanket pooled around her waist, with a revolver dangling off her index finger. My new Revolver of Random Rounds was fully loaded right where I left it earlier this morning. “Oh, my bad. Totally forgot to pick that up.”
Mira stared at me. She didn’t blink or react in any other way, she just stared long enough for discomfort to crawl down my spine. “You forgot to pick up a loaded weapon from my bed.”
“Chek.” I closed my deck and stretched my arms over my head. My stiff muscles with the motion. I’d been at it for hours, and barely got something cobbled together that’d likely fail as soon as I stress tested it. “Sleep well?”
”What if I rolled over?” She completely ignored my question. “What if it went off?”
”It—it didn’t?” I said, voice weakening with guilt. She was such a gun-nut she could fire and hit the bullseye in her sleep. And sleeping with weapons really wasn’t that uncommon in this city. It wasn’t like I’d dangled her over a cliff while she’d slept. “I mean, you’re fine, right?”
She tossed the revolver onto the mattress and swung her legs out of bed. “I didn’t wake up fine.”
“Neither did I…” I muttered under my breath. She had a point though. I just had to be humiliated and strangled like I was a plushie, while she had to wake up with a big scary revolver left on the bed.
To be fair, the revolver actually was terrifying. I’d never be brave enough to shoot it. I did feel a bit bad about it, but I got side tracked by my talk with Luna, and the weapon completely slipped my mind. It wasn’t the end of the world though.
“You were so much cuter as a fox.” She grumbled and then sighed, shaking her head. Her hair was starting to come back now, and the motion shook her pixie length golden locks around.
She rummaged through her pile of dirty clothes by the heater, sniffed a hoodie, grimaced, sniffed another, then shrugged and pulled the first one on anyway. The sleeves swelled her hands up, and she quickly crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s freezing in here.”
”Heater’s out. Looks like they’re having some technical issues.” I’d already put in a request about it, and I was ensured it’d all be fixed up within an hour or so. “And you really should start doing laundry.”
”Okay,
mom
.” Mira smirked at my disgusted look. “I was going to do it last night, but didn’t really have the chance.”
”Fair…” Last night had been a bit of a shit show from start to finish.
“You get in touch with the others yet?”
“Luna’s with Iris. Saint’s… doing something.” I waved my hand and moved to tie my hair up into a loose ponytail just to get the locks out of the way. The silver highlights in my hair cut the light just right.
”Any idea what?”
”Some er gig, probably. Sounded busy.” I briefly touched base with him after Luna. He sounded like he was in a rush though, so I was really sure what he was doing. I could feel him near the heights with the Packheart Link.
“Figures… what about you?” She glanced at me. “You look like you’re ready to go.
“I’m headed to the speakeasy. Coding’s making me irritated, and I really need to blow off some steam.” I headed off to grab my weapons and get my gear back into place. “You’re free to come with, or do whatever.”
“I’ll hit the gym. Oh! And before I forget.” She pulled out her phone and moved over to me. She flipped the screen toward me, showing her bank account in glowing blue neon. 523,418 rayn, much more then I had. I was right around 40,000. “Saint got my bounty.”
My eyebrows rose. That was quite a bit of money to suddenly fall into. “How much of that is mine?”
She stared at me, and then burst out into laughter. It was a full-bodied, head tilted back laugh that seemed to shake the walls. “Ah, Shiro. You’re killing me! Should’ve been a comedian.
I snorted and looked away. Fine. It wasn’t like I carried the fight against Mind Freak. From start to finish, I was basically just a bystander while Mira took care of everything.
”How much do you want, though?” She pulled up a bank transfer.
”Nah, it’s fine.” I waved a hand. “Money complicates things. Besides, I’m not exactly hurting at the moment.”
“Still, if you ever need some, I’ll be your sugar mommy.”
A chill went down my spine. ”Don’t ever say that again.”
A silly chuckle broke out of her and she flopped down onto the couch beside me. “I’ve been thinking—”
”That’s dangerous.”
“Har har.” She flipped her phone to a map and zoomed in on a familiar block. “I’ve been thinking about buying an office space for my agency.”
My stomach tightened as she zoomed in closer and closer. “Oh.”
”Right around here.” She grinned and tapped on a particular building.
”My—my speakeasy?”
”Yeah!” She moved closer and showed me a bunch of calculations she'd run at some point. “There’s a listing. The guy wants eleven mil, which is hilarious because the place is—“
”Half condemned.” As someone who’d been in and out of the place repeatedly, I was intimately aware of the building’s many faults.
”Exactly! It’s not up to code, has foundational issues, the electrical system is ancient—“
”Why that building?” I asked.
She blinked at me in confusion. “Because it's perfect? Business in the front, party in the back, right?”
”I was going to buy that when I could afford it.”
“What?” The confusion didn’t fade from her eyes. “Shiro, you’ve been saying that forever.”
”Things like this take planning!”
“Or because you have commitment issues.” She said lightly like it was a joke.
“I could get the price down. Do Crusade things or dig up dirt. I’ve just been… I’ve been busy.” Really, I could’ve gotten the building a month ago if I really threw my all into it. It was just a lot, though, so I’d been focusing on other stuff.
Mira’s smile fell for a beat, though it quickly recovered. “Or—hear me out—we do it together?”
”Together?”
”We completely revamp the place. Make it something high-class and exclusive, maybe.” She flipped over to a blueprint of the building and laid out her grand, half thought through plan. “I take the top floor for my agency, and you get your basement. With some apartments in between, we’d be making passive income and have a base that’s ours.”
Ours… that word twisted tight and unpleasant in my chest. Something about it… Frustration leaked into my voice when I finally spoke up. “More like I do the work, and you reap the benefits.”
”That’s not fair.” Her brow furrowed. “We’d co-own.”
I rubbed at my face, feeling irritation rear its ugly head once more. It was my idea. My project. I hadn’t acted on it, sure, but it had been mine. And Mira just barging into it like this—I took a deep breath. “I’ll think about it.”
”Oh.” Her expression cracked and then shattered. Instead of the easy, cheerful smile she’d had on, she swapped back to that mask of a grin that she’d been wearing since the lab. “Of course. Take your time. I can find somewhere else to set up the agency. I was just thinking…”
Something about her tone and expression twisted in my chest even tighter, like I’d been stabbed with a knife. “C-can we talk about it later?”
Later. That word dropped between us, hanging in the air. Mira laughed, but the sound was wrong. It was too bright and fast. “Later… sure.”
”What’s that supposed to mean?”
She stood abruptly. “Nothing, nothing… it's just that everything important with you gets pushed to later.”
“That—that isn’t true.”
“It
is
!” She shot back, smile completely disappearing. “
Later
when you’re done scheming, assessing risks, and you’re sure I won’t screw it up.”
”I didn’t say that.” My irritation grew by the moment as this stupid, pointless conversation continued.
She gave me a disgusted look. “You didn’t have to. It’s been clear on your face since you found me. You measure every grain of sand against whether or not I’ll blow up.”
“This isn’t about you.” My irritation blew into full blown anger with her one look. “This is about you buying my speakeasy out from under me.”
“So I’m stupid now?”
”I didn’t say that either. You—you’re just reckless! Why do you think I have to plot and scheme so much?!” Sure, I’d always been focused on making plans, but that habit had jumped into overload after I started accounting for her. She—she was fragile. One wrong bullet, and she couldn’t heal back like I could.
”Oh, that’s just rich.” She laughed again, but it was completely different from before. Bitterness ate it, turning the once comforting sound into an icy blade.
“Coming from the girl who left a loaded gun in bed and always expects the world to stab her.”
“Because it will! I survive with that sentiment.”
”No, you hide.”
”Becasue hiding works! Always has, always will!” Stealth had never let me down in the sixteen, almost seventeen years I’d trusted it to keep me alive. Even before the interface, it was how I survived.
”Not for me!” Her expression contorted into one equal part irritated and exhausted. “I want something real, Shiro! An office, a name on a building, or even just a future that isn’t scurrying around and burning exits behind me.”
”Those things turn into leverage!” I backed away from her, staring at the ground. My voice dropped to a much quieter pitch.
“Ownership and roots make you visible. Co-owing—it’d just tie you into it, and I wouldn’t be able to cut and run when it all collapses…”
She stared at me, stunned. The halo atop her head pulsed with light. “So that’s it… you don’t want a future. You just want an escape hatch.”
”That—that’s not fair.” I was investing in getting Cold Moon Solutions back. Did that not count as a future? Having her name on the deed too, though, was different. “I just—I don’t want to drag you down with me.
Something would go wrong. Inevitably, it always did. And when that something went wrong, it’d start a domino effect that’d drag Mira into the abyss. She couldn’t just leave like I could. She had a dad—one that was in the military and could still be affected when something went wrong.
”You won’t drag me down with you.” Her voice also softened, losing its argumentative edge. “I just—I want to establish something like this. To start building a solid future beyond just job after endless job.”
I shook my head. ”You—you’re just rushing it. You’re not thinking about what happens after.”
“I have. I just don’t assume it will end in failure. That
everything
will end in failure.” She shot back at me, digging into the root of the problem.
”Beacue it does end in failure! How can you not see that?” I said before I could stop myself. “I hide because hiding
works
. Because every time I move in the light, I eventually ruin it.”
“Shiro…”
”I—I don’t want roots. Roots mean people get hurt. That I get hurt.” The last time I tried to lay permanent roots, my apartment exploded and almost all my stuff got burned up.
“So you’d rather never belong somewhere than risk getting hurt again?”
I had no answer for that. “Can we—can we just talk about this later? Please? I need to clear my head.”
”
Later
.” She laughed and moved for the door, shaking her head. Her tone wasn’t angry or irritated, just deeply sad. “Of course.”
I watched her go. An unprecedented sour feeling welled up inside me. Worse yet, I couldn’t even tell what the feeling was. Fear? Anger? Unease? It was all blended together into a confusing mixture. “Mira…”
She paused at the door, though didn’t turn around. An uncomfortable silence settled between us. Eventually, she spoke with her back turned toward me. “You’re different than you were back then, Shiro. How can you not see that? It doesn’t always have to end the same way.”
“But what if it does?”
Neither of us spoke for a long moment, each lost in our own thoughts. Mira sighed one more time and then stepped out of the room, leaving me in the freezing Blue Crusade apartment. Eventually, the flashing neon-banners of Blue Crusade corporate news around the crown molding drew me from my thoughts.
I left shortly after and got on my hoverbike. Instead of going to the speakeasy like I’d planned, I headed out to my overlook to clear my head.
— - —
AN: My bad guys. I completely forgot to upload here for some reason.
.
!
Chapter 335
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