I closed the door behind me, and heavily leaned on it. I didn’t think I’d get out of there tonight. No, like, seriously. I thought Yuki was just a cutesy princess with a sharp edge… I was right, in a way. I just forgot to factor in that she was the Jade Fang princess.
Thankfully, I survived her insanity this time. If there was one thing working in my favor, it was that she genuinely seemed to want to establish a friendship with me even if it meant ordering her subordinate to rip out his own eyes. I knew from first hand experience how absolutely horrid it was to have to do something like that.
The eyes… he left them on the table, by the way. Absolutely criminal that Yuki made me keep eating while they just sat there. I didn’t think I’d be able to eat anything more, and especially not the raw fish. I was hungrier than I thought. That, or I was starting to get desensitized to bloodshed.
I sighed, and pushed off of the door into my speakeasy. I’d already checked myself with a bughound, and triple checked my Roughrider to make sure it wasn’t bugged or anything. The last thing I wanted was someone like her knowing my place of work and business.
The bar, as per usual, sat entirely empty. I hesitated while passing by it for a moment, and abruptly changed my plan. Instead of working on the gravitic metal some more, it’d be nice to get a change of pace. I had all the parts to assemble the bot, and Shinobu had sent over the code from the diner’s bot back in Kake Street.
I dropped down the shaft—which was starting to finally look proper. My autominers were doing some seriously good work flattening and evening everything out for me.
Honestly… maybe I should also put those up as a Cold Moon product? I could imagine several mining or construction companies might want something like that. I’d have to code them to work around excavating materials instead of simply beaming everything down, but that might not be too hard.
My Drop Chutes activated, and I nearly silently landed just outside of my workshop. I took a step—and froze at an unexpected noise from within. Luna? I double checked my Packheart Ring just to make sure, and focused on the sound with Background Noise.
Soft sniffles slowly became louder in my ears as the clang of machinery and movement of my fabricators was drowned out. Illusive merged me into the shadows, and I slunk forward to find her curled up in a chair, weeping into a blanket.
Dragonflies buzzed around to keep a watch on the surrounding area. They didn’t spot me though—no, they couldn’t. I hadn’t turned off my Blinder since I ran away—ahem, tactically retreated from Yuki.
The drones buzzed around, and one of them moved just past me to check on the shaft down. It was all practiced, like she’d done this several times before. With her perimeter ‘secured’, she wept freely. I usually didn’t sneak into my own HQ, so it was no wonder I’d never seen this before.
… should I pretend I didn’t see anything and come down again? She obviously didn’t want to be seen like this. Right, I could just—no… no, I couldn’t just pretend. Not when seeing her weep so miserably like this. What if it was Mira? Luna and I—we weren’t exactly close. It was more like a subordinate-superior relationship. Still, abandoning someone I’d call a borderline friend didn’t sit right.
I hesitated a moment longer, and then deactivated both the Blinder and Illusive. “Luna?”
“Eep!” The girl flinched so hard she fell out of her chair. She tumbled to the ground in a mess of blanket, white hair, and misplaced limbs. For a second, she was entirely silent. Then she broke into even louder crying.
”I’m so sorry!” I Burst-Stepped to her side, and helped unravel her from the blanket. By the time she was free and could stand once more, the frail girl had managed to bottle away her crying once more.
”I…” Luna rubbed at her red eyes, and stared at the ground. “How much of that d-did you see?”
”Enough.” I lifted my hand to pat her on the shoulder, and paused. Were we close enough for physical contact? I awkwardly shifted the motion into pushing a strand of silver back into its place behind my ear.
“S-sorry you had to see that,” she mumbled.
”It’s okay to cry, Luna.” At least, according to Aaron, my counselor, it was okay. Everyone else in life said tears were a weakness. “I won’t judge you for it.”
“Mmm.” She made a small hum in the back of her throat, and sat back in her chair. She clicked around on a deck, and closed a bunch of programs.
”… Kaynis?” There was realistically only one reason she’d be weeping in private like this.
“Y-yeah.” She sniffled lightly, and brushed away tears from her swollen eyes once more. “I—I don’t know what to do, Shiro. I’ve tried almost everything.”
I hopped up onto the table, and let my legs hang freely below me. I should tell her. I was planning on keeping it to myself since it’d be crushing if it didn’t turn up anything. “I went back to the place he disappeared with Mira not too long ago.”
Her head snapped up, and she focused intently on me. Her blue eyes still glistened with unshed tears. “Y-yeah?”
”I didn’t want to say anything in case it doesn’t turn anything up.” The hope shining on her face was downright painful to see. Especially since I might very well be the one to crush it. “I took blood samples of the guys that nabbed him. They were heavily degraded.”
”A group like that wouldn’t just leave a clean trail.” Her face scrunched up, and she brushed her disheveled hair back. “They didn’t leave a trail at all.”
“Chek. I gave them to Nael to analyze. He said results would come back in about a week.” Last I heard from him, the samples were sent to a buddy of his who could do the analysis better.
“That’s… that’s something, at least.” She dropped her head, and scratched at her wrist hard enough to leave streaks of red. “More than I can do. I’m useless.”
”No, Luna. You aren’t.” I stretched out, and finally put my hand on her shoulder. She flinched at the touch, but didn’t pull away. “You’re the best runner I know.”
She shook her head rapidly, which made her white hair even more of a mess. ”You don’t know anyone, Shiro.”
”That—“ That hurt. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. How’d I end up taking strays at a time like this? “Still. If you, a technokinetic, can’t find him, then surely no one can.”
”Thank you, Shiro. For trying.” She said softly. I could see it in her rapidly darkening face, though. Her hope was steadily dying.
“Is there anything else we can do? All my avenues except Nael are exhausted, Luna.” I pulled at a stray strand of hair in frustration. “I literally have no idea how to proceed.”
I’d done everything I could short of selling myself to a Fallen. Even Viper couldn’t come up with a scheme to find him. I tried. Back when we came up with the Dorrin plan, I’d asked several times. The snake wiggled out of it saying something like investigations weren’t her domain.
I snapped my fingers, and straightened. “You said almost earlier—is there something else we can try?”
”Nothing, Shiro. I—is he just gone? Am I never going to see my brother again?” Tears welled up once more, and poured freely from her eyes. She was already fragile, but seeing her like this was downright heart tearing.
”…” I didn't know what to say. The grief radiating off of her stole my words. I couldn’t say ‘we’d find him’. That’d be like someone telling me my mom and dad would be totally fine after they were cremated and I held the ashes.
“I… I’d do anything just to see him one last time. I’ll never see him again…” We sat in solemn silence. Luna’s cries grew softer and softer as she tried to get herself back under control. Her tear filled voice returned with a slight up tilt. “Unless…”
”Unless?” I asked back.
“… we can earn a wish,” she mumbled softly. The words were faint enough it was like she was trying to go unheard.
”A wish?” Like, from an eidolon? I checked several times. They didn’t have something like that in their store. If I didn’t have access, then that definitely wasn’t a service.
She dipped her head, and her face was obscured by her silver hair entirely. Regret seemed to press down on her shoulders for even bringing it up. “I—I can’t ask you to help me with that. It’s too dangerous.”
”Danger is my middle name.” I smirked, and tried to show off pure confidence. I took a page from Mira’s book, and crossed my arms in front of my chest with my spine pushed up straight. It… only marginally made me appear valiant.
”This is different.” She toyed with her hands, and brushed her face on her sleeve. “It’s the domain of the DarkNet.”
“Oh…” DarkNet—it was something I’d managed to avoid my entire life. Even people who didn’t know anything about netrunning knew that place was dangerous. It was the Wild West of the net. It was the war torn and bloody side that made even Night Markets and underworld stuff look legal.
”I—I made an oath with Kaynis that I’d never get on the DarkNet again when we left the lab, Shiro. I…” She cut herself off. “He’d be so disappointed in me.”
“He’d have to be here to be disappointed.” I winced at how heartless that sounded. It was true, but still. “This wish thing—how do we get it?”
”An organization called Monarch grants it. Almost anything can be wished for, and Monarch will use any means necessary to grant it.” Luna shivered and shook her head. “Monarch’s scary, Shiro. They’re who go bump in the night even for BosSpace AI Marshals. If even they can’t find him, no one can.”
“Okay.” Monarch—first I’d heard of them, but I also wasn’t invested in the net to begin with. “I imagine they don’t just hand out wishes like that, chek?”
“No. The most realistic way is…” She went quiet for a moment. “Monarch holds an invitational competition every couple months. The winners get a wish.”
”Can you win something like that?” An invitational competition from the scariest DarkNet organization wasn’t something I thought I’d be worrying about today.
“Not by myself. It’s a duo's full-dive battle royal format. One runner and one operator go in together. The runner handles the code from beyond the map, and the operator does the fighting in map.” She said. “The last team standing wins.”
Battle royale, huh? I’d played a couple with Mira in the past. The odds were incredibly unstable in a game like that. Depending on how many people were present, the odds would be incredibly low.
The biggest concern was the full-dive aspect, though. Fully diving into the net gave unprecedented control, connection, and speed. It also opened up the door to getting fried and killed should things go horribly south. And in a place like the DarkNet, things could go out in an instant.
I drew my foot up onto the table, and leaned forward onto my knee while I thought things through. Our chances weren’t terrible, though. Luna was literally a cheat code to all things net with her technopathic abilities. “If I joined you, could we win?”
“Maybe…” She eyed me speculatively. “Cheating and playing dirty is expected in this kind of thing, Shiro. It isn’t just something we can go and do.”
I could definitely play dirty. And look at us—we were a scion and a technopathic kinetic. If anybody was cheating, it’d be us. I’d have to do a ton of research into this thing to formulate a good plan. From the sounds of things, it was basically a free for all with no rules.
“Even if we don’t get first place, Monarch rewards for knockouts, placement, and all sorts of things.” Luna pulled up a list on her deck, and showed me an extensive list of past rewards. “Assuming we survive being knocked out, anyway.”
I nodded. Right, in a situation like that, getting brain-fried by an opponent would be a very real concern. “How do we get invited?”
“That’s the easy part.” She sighed. “I-I’ve gotten an invite that last twelve times. The competition’s in a week.”
“Then send me everything I need to know.” It looked like we had a week to prepare then. If I planned and executed the Tornado hit in just a couple days, then I was more than confident given a week to scheme.
— — —
AN: I’ve been planning this arc since, like, chapter 100. So not how I thought we’d get here, but I’m pumped for this!