Night Light

Finding the glare coming from Star getting heavier, Aki gulped and decided to tell her part of the truth. "My bastard of a father used to beat me, and I would take the punishments for my mom and sister on top of my own. One day, I guess he had a bad one at work, and I remember him being more violent than usual. The last thing I remember of that day was him picking up a chair and it slamming in my face, I heard some sounds afterward, like sirens, but that was it. Then I woke up with my sister outside Night City, and we had never even heard of this place before..."

Squinting yet again as she tried to get a read on Aki's words, Star played with the cigar between her fingers before speaking up. " You... never heard of Night City? What is your name, and where was your home, kid?"

"My name is Aki, as for home... we moved around a few times because that guy worked in both the US and Japan. Last I remembered, we were in Japan."

This time Star's eyebrows squashed together in a straight line, showing her consternation. "You're saying the last thing you remember was your home in Japan?"

Aki hesitantly nodded his head, "I can tell you my old address if you want, so can my sister."

"Kid, I'm confused as fuck right now. Do you know that? This isn't my forte; my shit is running braindance studios and keeping my people safe in my area. Trafficking children across the sea and dropping them outside Night City is beyond my level of planning. It sounds like a waste of resources to me, so I can't imagine why they would do it. Therefore we will come back to it later. Maybe. Anyway, Ray, take your money and get ready for the next meeting in three days. Bye." Star dismissed them with a wave of her hand and a nonchalant look as she went back to entertaining her cigar.

Grabbing Aki's head, Ray turned his head around to get him to follow her and lead him back out the building. "GAAAH, she is always so serious. I remember when she used to be fun and stuff." Ray commented while crooking her lips towards the side. " Alright, let's see where she plugged us. Damn, she did us a favor. I guess I will order us some takeout tonight, and we will talk about what you are going to do tomorrow."

Once out of the building, it was another thirty-minute ride, but Aki was looking around this time. This time, they were going to someplace called Wellsprings. Ray explained it as safe and boring for the middle class 'corpos'. Aki didn't know what those were, but he could guess from the name, but right now, he was too busy taking in the sites of the gigantic skyscrapers up close. Neon signs and billboards flashed all kinds of pictures, from advertisements to obscene pictures.

He watched the numerous vehicles of all kinds of shapes and sizes both skim across the ground and fly through the air, not to mention the people. The people came in shapes and sizes he never thought possible. It reminded him of a star wars movie... Aki prayed he didn't jinx himself.

With his eyes getting heavier, Aki was about to nod off when he heard Ray's door open. "Alright! We're here! Let's go!"

Blearily opening his eyes and finding everything dull and rough when he blinked, he just pinked up Aiki and followed Ray. At one point, Aki had fallen asleep standing up with his sister in his arms; the vibrations of the elevator had lulled him to sleep. Feeling a small shake on his shoulder, he looked up and saw Ray gently pushing his shoulder forward.

Giving up and following her directions, he was led to a steel door that opened up once Ray had her eye scanned. Walking into a dark room would put anyone from Night City on guard, seeing Aki walk right into it without a thought made Ray believe his story a little more.

Turning the lights on with a flick, Ray then led siblings into the left room, which had a pair of beds and a bathroom attached. Watching them flop down on the bed and instantly cuddle in the raggedy tarps made Ray want to laugh before she started ordering some takeout. Not wanting any sushi after getting it kicked out of her stomach this morning, she decided to go for some Chinese instead.

It was late in the evening when Aki finally woke up and not feeling Aiki next to him, so he had an initial burst of panic well up before he remembered where he fell asleep. Slowly climbing out of bed, he let the tarp cloak fall before heading outside the darkroom. The bright light temporarily blinding him, it took him a minute to notice, but he eventually saw his sister sitting at a table pigging out on some food.

Looking over at him when the door to the bedroom slid open, she took another bite of a massive something before she began speaking with her mouth full "Ohhh, you better hurry bro, I'm starving, and this food might not last much longer!"

A small smile touched Aki's face at how his sister was still super gluttonous, and he hurried over to try and fill his stomach as much as he could. Scooping as much as he could onto a plastic plate, at least he thought it was plastic, he started wolfing it down. Taking four eggrolls for himself and some of the waters just because he saw his sister reach for the eggrolls, he swallowed them as fast as he could.

Before long, they cleared the food completely, and after cleaning out the trash, they were lying in bed with slightly bulging stomachs and, this time, properly under the covers. Though Aki had made sure to put that looted knife, he got under the mattress and within easy reach. Before they could fall back to sleep, though, Aki filled his little sister in on what happened after she fell asleep.

Pinching his waist, she hissed at him, "Why didn't you wake me up! I missed out on all the fun!"

"I tried! You know how you are! You never wake up, also pinch me again, and watch what happens!"

"You know how to wake me up! Just tell me breakfast is ready!"

"I'm not going to lie, besides you know how angry you would get when there isn't food there when you wake up!"

"Grrrr, I missed out on all the cool stuff." Aiki started pouting

"Now, now. There will be more stuff in the future. I mean, we are already somewhere new, right?" He said after patting her head.

"Yeah, whatever. I got you back so that I can be happy about that."

Finishing up with that, Aiki wormed under the covers and went back to sleep, with Aki following shortly after. Darkness and silence laid like a second blanket over the siblings, Aiki holding onto her brother while she slept, afraid that he would be gone when she woke up. Meanwhile, Aiki's dreams were of heavy darkness, and in the distance was a stone house but tried as he might, he was never able to close the distance.

After a while of walking and getting nowhere, he gave up, turning around to see about going somewhere behind him. He saw a girl about his age a few feet away, with pink hair and raggedy clothes. She had a bokken and was practicing with it. All night in his dreams, he watched her practice that one swing, constantly and unendingly with maximum focus, she attempted to make that one overhead swing perfect.

The way she moved her feet to the way she moved her muscles and twisted her wrists. He watched the way she made that overhead swing evolve as she grew up into someone he recognized. Soon he watched that overhead swing split air, and as it sent shivers down his spine, watching her form, it was slowly engraved in his head.

She sheathed her sword and reverted to a child again. Putting the wooden sword against her hip, she prepared to swing it, but Aki was brought out of his dreams by some shaking. "Bro, wake up. Ray wants to talk."

"Ugghh..." Cracking his eyes, he felt the light sneak in-between his eyelids and burn his mind. "You didn't wet the bed, did you, Aiki?"

"ARGH!"

Aiki punched him with all the force she could muster at the moment, which wasn't much, and stomped out of the room. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he slowly made his way out of the room and into the common room. Seeing Ray and Aiki sitting at the table, chowing down on breakfast, Aki also took a seat and a plate before he started to dig in as well.

"Now, both of you have to go to school. So you'll be going to the church right across the street for classes, they start every morning at eight and end at twelve. Otherwise, you will do all the cleaning in this place and cooking. Ordering out so much is burning a hole in my wallet, so yeah, do the cooking as well." Ray began speaking without waiting for anyone's attention.

"Ah! Brother can cook! I will do the cleaning. Done." Aiki crossed her arms in triumph since she hates cooking with a passion; she likes to sample the result.

"Ok, that's fine, I guess. This area is pretty safe, but you always have to be careful of Scavs. They are a gang of people the kidnap and sell organs on the black-market, really anything dirty that gets them money. So keep close to each other and keep those knives on you. Use some tape and a piece of that tarp to make something to keep your blade in Aki. Keep it with you. I will pick you guys up from school unless I have some business to take care of, which is two or three times a week." Ray continued to go on. For someone who had loudly objected, she was getting into the groove of this extremely fast. She even went over the basics of Night city.

Which gangs are which, who owned what territory, what corporations did what around where, places where we shouldn't go (everywhere), and many other things. But the biggest thing she talked about was Tyger Claws.

Tyger Claws was a violent gang based on the Yakuza in Japan, they had pushed into Night City as a forwarding operating base so they could push into America more easily. Also, they were more heavily restricted in Japan, so it was two birds with one stone. Apparently, they have some conflicts with the Moxes due to an incident a few years back.

The biggest problem they have is their foot soldiers. While the top brass wants to do business and respect, the barrel's bottom acts like depraved thugs and is open to cruel murder and rape to set examples, just doing whatever they want in general. Even if you were to make an example of one of them, the brass wouldn't like you overstepping your authority since it would be seen as doing their jobs for them because they are incompetent.

Overall creating a vicious cycle, the Moxes are currently keeping to themselves, like usual, and watching them fight off the Steel Dragons and Maelstrom. Two other Gangs, but Tyger Claw has the numbers to back up the territory at the moment, so it's really just a shoving match, as she calls it.

Ray said they would continue their lessons on Night City one-on-one until the sibling started school next week and then started to stress being careful again. Rolling her eyes, Aiki asked what they could do for fun around her. Scoffing, Ray rolled her eyes and asked her what she wanted to do.

"You got some video games?" She asked with a cheeky grin.