Chapter 114

I waited in Postmortem for the cleaners to arrive to clean up the club and to ensure Bestia's safety, and then I was on my way to the clan's territory. Naturally, I called Delamain again, who, for a small surcharge, drove us to our destination in a matter of minutes.

Well figuratively speaking in minutes, it was actually over fifteen minutes, but I was in constant communication with one of the girls the whole time, so although I was worried about them, that worry didn't cross certain boundaries.

"So how are you guys doing?"

That was the first question I asked after leaving the avi and this despite the fact that I was aware that they were doing fine.

"David, you already know we're fine..."

Panam sighed heavily and shook her head before uttering those words.

"Just because we've been in touch with you doesn't mean we're not worried about you."

Becca decided to back me up with a stern look at her friend.

"All right, all right!"

Panam sighed painfully and shook her head and raised her hands in surrender to the will of the despots, in my face and Becky's, who wanted to keep everything under the strictest control. But she couldn't maintain that image for long, and she lowered her arms and smiled at us sincerely.

"I'm glad you're safe."

She walked over to Becca and me in two strides and hugged us tightly.

The moment of tenderness passed quickly enough, however, and as she pulled away from us she waved her hand, urging us to follow her.

"Our family may be fine, but the clan itself is in trouble. Five people were killed, a dozen wounded, three of them seriously."

"We can call Vic."

"Kiwi has already contacted him. Avi from Delamain is on his way with him."

I nodded, approving of this approach from my girlfriends.

"Do you need my help?"

"Both yours and Becky's, good techs are worth their weight in gold right now."

"Did you collect a lot of tech from those corporations?"

"Yeah, and it needs to be inventoried right away. So now we're going to the place where all the equipment is being demolished and vehicles are being driven away."

"Okay..."

Becca and I nodded our heads and followed Panam's lead, so that in three minutes we would be at the temporary trophy storage area where we had started working...

"Hey get off work, you should at least get something to eat..."

When I heard a familiar voice, I looked up from another technical bullshit and stared in surprise at a girl I didn't know at all.

"Uh, uh. and you, uh."

"Hey! That's hurtful, by the way!"

The girl actually looked at me with a slight resentment in her gaze. So I started trying to remember where exactly she and I might have seen each other...

"Why don't you say something?"

"M-misty?

Pronouncing this name I was guided solely by the voice, as outwardly the girl was faintly similar to the informal girl I knew well, only her hair was gray and slightly disheveled...

"Naturally!"

There was genuine resentment in the girl's voice.

"Uh, uh. is that really you?"

"What kind of stupid question is that?"

Misty was slightly confused, and so the indignation and resentment was slightly gone from her voice.

"It's just that your style has changed a lot, making you very hard to recognize."

Becca came to my rescue, and I was very grateful to her for that. It helped me get my brain together and realize that it was really Misty in front of me.

"Don't, I haven't changed that much..."

I shook my head.

"You just don't realize how it looks from the outside. New hair, new makeup, new style of clothes... You're unrecognizable."

"Thank you... I guess. but it's not gonna change the fact that you need to take a break and eat. You've already gotten people to recycle their junk."

I looked around and realized that we had already gone through about two-thirds of all the trophies. Of course, not just the two of us, but all the technicians of the clan, so in general it was really possible to break for a small re...

"Brrrrrrrrr!"

I lowered my gaze confusedly to my stomach, which had made those sounds.

"I apologize..."

"It's nothing."

Misty shook her naked head understandingly, but Becca laughed. Her laughter didn't last long, though, as her stomach rumbled and it was her turn to scratch the back of her head in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry..."

"I'm telling you, it's no big deal. You've had nothing to eat all day but coffee and tea, so it's no wonder you're hungry. Come on, Judy's already made us some--

Becca and I looked at each other and got up from our temporary workstations to follow Misty.

Dinner was awesome...

And when I had satisfied the first hunger, I was able to think more calmly about everything that was happening now. And it appeared that we were not going to have a quiet life... Arasaka would probably not forgive us for Yerinobu's death, or the fact that they'd screwed up the attack on our clan and lost a lot of people.

"Panam, what's the status on the alert?"

"Level Red-- you never canceled it, so increased patrols and covert surveillance. Of course, I'd like to take some of these sentient beings down for recycling trophies, but...

The mulatto shrugged.

"...You haven't canceled the red level, so you can't do that yet..."

I nodded a couple times at her words.

"Uh, David?"

"What?"

"Why don't you lower your anxiety level?"

"Panam we just zeroed Smasher this morning, but more importantly, we zeroed Yerinoba. I'm not even thinking about how much of Arasaki's power you've wasted here... And as you can see, it's not because I think it's insignificant... It's just that compared to the nullification of Yerinobu..."

I shook my head.

"And you want me to downgrade the clan's combat readiness, given all the events I've mentioned?"

"Well, uh. huh?"

Panam looked embarrassed but did not want to back down from her idea.

"And why is that?"

"So Hanako wanted to hire you to deal with her brother."

Panam shrugged her shoulders.

"And I doubt very much that she would be very upset about her brother's death, much less seek revenge for it."

I sighed and shook my head.

"What? You think I'm wrong?"

I noticed Kiwi's crooked grin and decided to redirect the question to her, as I wanted to see how much our opinions coincided.

"Kiwi?"

"Uh... Well... Panam, it was Saburo who was the Emperor of Arasaki and ruled over it without distinction. But it's been years since his son, Yerinobu, muddied the waters. It was precisely because he was preparing for such an outcome that he was able to seize power so quickly. But even so, he didn't become the new Emperor. He had to maneuver between the factions that had raised their heads within the corporation..."

I raised my hand and the kiwi fell silent with a questioning raised eyebrow.

"A small remark, in time Yerinobu had every chance of becoming the new Emperor, his character is such that he would just leave power in the hands of others."

I fell silent and Kiwi nodded to me and continued.

"...thank you. Back to Hanako, first of all: it will take time for her to take power in the corporation, and secondly: even after taking power, she won't be able to become Empress immediately or over time. She has the wrong temperament. at least that's what it seems to me based on the information about her from the available sources."

"I see..."

Panam sighed sadly, realizing that she was not going to see any extra people at work. I shook my head sadly.

"Okay, let's wrap this up, Becca and I have a lot of work to do."

And I got up from the table to go back to dealing with the tech...

The next time I was pulled away from work was by Kiwi.

"What?"

"Come on. get some sleep or you'll start making mistakes. And we don't want that."

I looked at her and nodded a little absent-mindedly. I slowly realized what my girlfriend had told me, but I'd overdone the intellectual workload today and my brain was starting to slip...

When I came to that thought and finally realized what Kiwi had told me, I nodded my head more meaningfully.

"Yeah, gotta get some sleep...and Becca?"

"Judy's taking her."

I nodded again and walked with Kiwi to our room, where she helped me undress, but they wouldn't let me in the bed, so they took me to the shower and helped me wash up before sending me to the crib.

The shower had partially washed away the drowsiness, and I was in bed, cradling Kiwi thoughtfully in her ear.

"What?"

Her voice was tired, and how had I not noticed that before? She must have worked with the girls as much as I did!

"I was wondering, what's up with the guy I put the chip in?"

"Dead. burned his brains out, nothing important was in there anyway, so we tried to take out at least one intelligent one of your opponents."

"Thank you."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No... you did what you could do, and I'm sure if you could have done more, you would have. And besides, Becca and I did it."

"Uh-huh, you two took down Smasher...

"Don't exaggerate my part in his death, Becca did a good job here, she hit well, she obviously hit something important. Otherwise, we might not have survived, because that SBS was already a very serious opponent and we would never have been able to deal with Smasher."

"Well, uh. yeah, you're probably right."

Kiwi pressed her back against me.

"...I'll have to bake Becca a cake tomorrow..."

"Uh-huh. But when? I've got more trophies to dismantle tomorrow. Of course, we've dismantled the main junk, and we're almost done with the repair, but it's just superficial patching, but the normal repair is still to be done, and it will take much longer.

"Uh-huh? Why don't we order something tasty then?

"Come on..."

I snorted quietly in her ear.

"...I'll pay for everything, so you can order for the whole clan, we'll all still be busy for a long time."

"You..."

There was a touch of resentment in Kiwi's voice.

"What?"

"I was actually thinking of ordering something just for us. for our family."

I hovered for a few minutes and then realized that I'd blown the romance to hell. And the only way I can explain it is that I'm too tired.

"So for us, you can order something special..."

I was the one who started whispering in Kiwi's ear gently biting him after saying those words.

"Tell us you can order whipped cream, fresh berries..."

"What are you gonna do with them?"

"О... I know what I'm gonna do with them."

For the next twenty minutes I whispered to Kiwi, who was getting more and more agitated with each word, exactly what I was going to do to her, cream and fresh fruit.

"Will you take me with you?"

Lucy peeked into the room, interrupting me before my hand, which was already stroking Kiwi's thigh, moved to the secret spot hidden beneath her panties.

"Hmm?"

I cast a glance at her then regretfully dismissed thoughts of a little debauchery with Kiwi, she's not my kind of teevee enthusiast unlike Becky and Judy.

"Lucy, we can't take you with us, but you're quite welcome to make the same order and you and I will repeat everything I whispered in Kiwi's ear. But how did you know what I whispered in her ear?"

"I called her..."

Kiwi's ear turned slightly pink with embarrassment.

"I think by morning everyone will know about this idea, so get ready, you'll have a fruit table for the next week..."

I sighed sadly.

"Is there something you're not satisfied with?"

"I just hope at least some of you get creative and order meat as a pre-course... well-done.

"And after roasting the meat, will you roast us?"

I grinned.

"Yeah, uh. do you mind?"

"No... Lucy, come on over to our place, since you ruined the moment, get in, we can just sleep, the three of us..."

"Uh-huh..."