I ended up riding with Yuki in a blacked out SUV. It was a shame to leave my Roughrider behind, but it was fine. I could remote pilot it over or set it to auto-follow and not have to worry about it.
The more pressing concern were the bodyguards all over the place. I felt like I was moving with the president. Our SUV just had two in the front seat, but there were three full SUVs following us. Most of them were, unfortunately, Kage. I doubted I’d ever be comfortable around the cyborgs.
”Thank you for coming with me, Shiro.” The SUV had a configuration so the middle seats were facing the back seats like a limo. “Have you been well?”
“Better now.” I rubbed at my arm. I’d been meaning to visit mom and dad again. It felt like a weight had been pulled off my chest. I should’ve come to see them much sooner.
Yuki’s eyes crinkled into charming half-moons, and covered the bottom half of her face with her hand. The sleeve of her jacket pulled back, showing off more of her dragon tattoo. “It’s been a while since I spoke to someone around my age.”
”I’m way younger than you, aren’t I?” I blinked, and focused back on her. “And there’s more than enough young Fang members.”
“Just two years.” She waved a hand, and sighed. Her shoulders slumped down, giving her a bit of a forlorn look. “The Fang lacks… maturity. It is difficult to converse with those who scrape and bow.”
I guess the entirety of the Jade Fang was technically in a subservient position. She wasn’t quite the new Matriarch, but it was only a matter of time. “I could see that.”
“Mmm…” She looked out the window, and rested her hands neatly in her lap. The car hit a bump on the road, and her long black hair swished around her sharp features.
I likewise fell silent. Sakurai Yuki and I had just about nothing in common aside from being part of the Jade Fang. Whatever friendship we had in the past had long faded with time. It was a bit difficult to speak to her, especially given her position.
That being said, we fell into an easy silence. I turned my attention away, and watched the lights of the city flash past while thinking about what I could try next to create my superalloy.
A flash of neon drew my attention back to the soon-to-be Matriarch. Her exposed chrome collarbone reflected the light of the city back. I glanced back up to find Yuki intently watching me. Her chrome eyes flicked with green light, and she coughed lightly. “Did you see the hit on Tornado?.”
”Um…” I was the Tornado hit. And are we just going to glaze over you staring at me? Although… I didn’t really want to bring it up in the first place.
”I’d love to have that kind of merc under me.” She sighed, and shook her head. “That team is like ghosts though. Nobody knows but Sentinel, and Sentinel isn’t spilling.”
“Didn’t they all die?” That was the end result of my perfectly crafted master plan. The entire city was supposed to assume we died in the explosion.
”You didn’t know?” Yuki’s green eyes flashed, and she pulled out her phone. She tapped around on it, and pulled up a video. “Check this out. It was posted a day ago.”
I leaned forward. The video was of a courtroom, though the courtroom itself looked like it’d been abandoned to absolute chaos. Spray paint covered the walls, and masked individuals stood around in the stands shouting and hollering. A large A was painted on the back wall where the judge sat.
”Mr. Gale, the Court of the People brings against you hundreds of charges.” A judge sitting at the top of a podium called out in a powerful voice. He, like the others in the room, was masked. “In our great Aythryn City alone, your crimes are innumerable. How do you plead?”
“Mmmph!” Dorrin Gale, in the flesh, sat bound to a chair in the middle of the courtroom with two heavily armored people in police uniforms standing on either side of him. He looked absolutely awful with a gag stuffed in his mouth.
”Ah, right, remove the defendant's gag.” The masked judge waved a casual hand to the guards like he’d merely forgotten. From the looks of things, it was an attempt to humiliate the once CEO.
The gag was ripped out of his mouth. Dorrin spat off to the side. “How can I plead if I don’t know my crimes?”
“Mr. Dorrin,” the judge started like this was an actual legal case and not something far more sinister, “if you’d please plead first. We’ll discuss your crimes afterwards.
“What else?” Dorrin glared at the judge. “I plead—“
“Guilty.” Speakers all around the room spoke up with Dorrin’s voice, drowning out whatever he was about to say. Shouts and jeers erupted from people all around the room.
”Order! Order!” The judge pounded his gavel loudly to get order back in the room. “Would the first witness please rise to the stand?”
A bulking figure stepped into the room, and my eyes widened. That guy was still alive? The giant brute of a man that’d been tearing through the facility back when I freed Mira stood in a bulging suit. The rage that he’d been immersed in last time was entirely gone, and his miniguns had been swapped out for giant chrome hands.
Yuki shut off the video, and pulled away from me with a smile. “The Court of Anarchy got him. If he survived the explosion, then the other mercs must’ve too.”
”Oh…” Sentinel—why’d they hand him over to another group? The Court of Anarchy, no less. Was it to try and salvage some of their reputation in the city after the whole Circle and AEZ fiasco? It was a classic PR move to make someone else look bad so you’re better by comparison.
“No one knows how they pulled it off.” She slid her phone back into her pocket, and adjusted her jacket. “Like I said, they’re ghosts.”
Ghosts… good. At least my plan was still mostly flawless. “What ended up happening to Dorrin?”
“He was hung from his own entrails.” She shook her head. “Tornado already took his body down, but it dangled on a building near their Savant lab for a full night. Anarchy doesn’t mess around.”
That was a fast trial. Could I really expect anything else, though? They weren’t called the Court of the People for no reason. The people’s sentiment toward the CEO was clear in this case.
The car lurched to a halt. A moment later, one of the Kage opened the door for the two of us. “We’re here, Ojousama.”
”Kay!” Yuki hopped out of the car, and stretched her arms over her head. “You’ll love this place, Shiro! They have a bit of everything.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t really expecting much in the first place. I was pretty easy to please when it came to food.
I followed her out into a small street-side restaurant. The entire place was empty, and reserved signs sat at every table. Yuki lightly spun around in the entrance to face me. “I booked out the entire restaurant when you agreed to come with me.”
”You didn’t have to do that.” What was up with these rich maniacs and expressing their wealth? Was booking out a restaurant something I’d have to do when I was rolling in rayn?
“Ah, but I wanted to. Only the best for my guests.” She smiled, and turned back toward a booth. A waiter quickly came around and handed us menus while the Kage took up posts around the room. Nobody sat down except us. “Do you know what you want?”
”Not really.” I glanced through the menu.
“Then… how about I order for us, and you can try a little bit of everything? The chef here really is something else! She’s probably one of my favorites.” Her excitement couldn’t have been more obvious. She looked like she might start bouncing around in her seat.
“Chek.” I closed the menu. It didn't really matter to me.
We made idle chatter about the goings-on around the city. Mostly, we talked about the Tornado job. More accurately, she talked about it while I just listened to my accomplishments being recited to me like I was totally unaware.
Soon, waiters came out with trays covered in food. There was so much I didn’t really know where to start. An entire feast was made and delivered just for the two of us. Seeing so much food laid out before made me a little uncomfortable. I would’ve killed for this kind of treatment a year ago.
“This is the Jade Dragon.” Yuki pointed out one of the rolls, and used a pair of chopsticks to skillfully deposit a piece on my plate. “It was always my favorite. It’s got a bit of a kick.”
We went through dozens of different rolls and entrees. I barely got a taste of each one before she was handing over some other type of food for me to try. It felt a bit weird, like I was a kid with her mother stressing out and giving me stuff to eat.
“And this is Fugu!” Yuki pointed toward a different dish. It blended in with all of the rest of the fish. “Have you ever had it before?”
“… no.” And I really didn’t want to, either. Not after just working a case where a man died to its poison. Didn’t she just come from Elder Toro’s internment?
“There’s a first time for everything!” She pushed the platter toward me. “Go ahead! It’s considered a delicacy, you know?”
”…” I grabbed a piece and popped it down before I could second guess myself. Worst-case scenario, Universal Donor would work the poison out of my system.
Across from me, my host did the same. Yuki frowned, and swallowed with difficulty. “Ugh, that was awful… did you taste that too, Shiro?”
Maybe? I wasn’t too sure. I didn’t really eat expensive stuff, so I didn’t know what to look for. Ramen, smoothies, and burgers were about as far as my diet went. I was too busy focusing on trying to keep it down to taste it. “I don’t know.”
“Fugu’s supposed to be more mild.” Yuki glared at the piece of sushi like it was an affront to her entire family line. Her eyes were narrowed, and her head was tilted to the side cutely. “Kinjo.”
”Yosh, Ojousama.” One of the Kage approached like a shadow, and bowed lightly toward the girl. He didn’t open his mouth to speak, and instead his voice was projected through speakers. Lights along his chin flashed in time with his words.
”Try this.” Yuki pointed at the fish. “Does it taste weird?”
The Kage smoothly grabbed a pair of extra chopsticks and downed the fish. It was pointless, though. The man didn’t have a tongue. He couldn’t taste anything to begin with. “Yosh, Ojousama.”
The young woman didn’t seem to care about that in the slightest. The joy and excitement from before totally melted off of her face. Her eyes flared with a dangerous light, and the entire atmosphere of the restaurant abruptly shifted. “Bring me the chef’s hands.”
A chill went down my spine. She went from all sunshine and rainbows to immediately ordering the dismemberment of a person in a split second. I’d almost forgotten just who she was for a moment. “Is it really necessary—"
“Yosh. It is.” Her voice was ice cold, and completely lacked the warmth from before. “How dare she prepare subpar food for my guest? What if her shoddy preparation let poison leak into it? Unacceptable."
”Didn’t you say she was your favorite chef?” I shifted uncomfortably across the booth from her. This was a person just doing their job that we were talking about. I couldn’t even tell the difference in the food.
“Was.” She glared at me for a moment. The intensity in her eyes melted a fraction when they met my own. “Why do you even care about her?”
I glanced around the room only to find most of the Kage and even waiters to be in total agreement with Yuki. Or they were too scared to speak up… Was I the only one here who wasn’t batshit insane? “Everything else tasted fine. It was just a little accident.”
”Hmmm…” She tapped her finger against her chin, and stuck out her tongue. The sharp, vindictive girl from before completely vanished back into her usual cutesy look. “Fine! Let’s say it was just stress that got to her. We’ll do it your way, Shiro.”
Kinjo sharply glared at me with naked disapproval. No—it was judgement. Like I’d somehow undermined Yuki’s authority by defending the poor chef. ”Ojousama?”
“I changed my—“ Her cheerful expression melted once more into a ferocious glare. “I don’t like that look in your eyes, Kinjo.”
The man’s spine straightened, and he looked away from me. “My apologies.”
”You dare glare at an honored guest of mine?” Yuki’s voice turned quiet. The entire restaurant was so silent I could hear the sound of water running from the kitchen. “If you can’t use them properly, then you don’t deserve them.”
”… yes, Ojousama.” The man reached up toward his own face. I looked away a moment before a soft squelch rang out into the room. Blood splattered across Yuki’s cheek. She wiped it off with her jacket sleeve, leaving behind a streak of red.
“Don’t let me see you again, Kinjo.” She ordered. The Kage turned into a blur and disappeared out the door of the restaurant. She turned back to me, cheek still bloody, and put on her charming smile once more. “Sorry you had to see that, Shiro. What would you like to try next?”