A pair of lights in the city of night

[blueayes]

It didn't take us long to realize that we weren't in the right world, no by the way that Aqua was acting this was Earth but it just wasn't our earth.

"No no no no." Aqua just kept repeating to herself as she moved her hands in front of her.

"What are you doing?" I said to her, as I tried and failed to ignore the skyscrapers that surrounded us.

"Everything is a mess, it's like the gods in charge of everything just gave up and left, hold on."

"No, this goes here and this here," Aqua said before the wind blew and cleared out the pollution that covered part of the sky.

"Okay it's going to be a while but there should be clean water and air in fifty years if another war doesn't happen now when do we eat?" Aqua said to me as she ignored the fact that we were lost.

I looked at Aqua for a moment before we began to look for something that seemed familiar thankfully we both found what looked like a burger stand that wasn't too far from where they were standing.

It wasn't the first time that either of us had left one world and ended up in another, granted our circumstances were different while at the same time the same.

Aqua was the goddess responsible for sending people that died to the afterlife and she also chose people that caught her attention to other worlds.

And I the great Kazuma was one of those people.

We normally don't talk about how we ended up together because Aqua always lies and tries to make me look bad.

And when I try to tell the story she will always but in and say that I changed the story to make myself look cooler than I was.

Anyway, none of this matters because we just arrived in this world and now we have to figure out three important things, what do people use for money here?

Where are we going to live and how are we going to live?

Since the two of us already did this before we know that the safest place we can be is also the most dangerous place we be.

The two of us walked towards the burger stand but we stopped waking when we heard the sound of engines on top of us and we both felt our mouths open when we looked up and saw not one but a lot of flying cars driving in the sky.

Our mouths hung open as we saw the giant screens that were a part of the skyscrapers and as we looked around we couldn't help but gasp at the holograms that floated in the sky.

Both of these things were nothing more but advertisements for something pointless that people probably didn't need but they were amazing to look at.

I felt my stomach grow and so we kept on walking.

"Hey." I said to the man who was selling the burgers.

"Welcome what will it be?" the man answered me.

"We're new here so I was wondering what you guys accept as money?" I said to the man who just locked eyes with me.

"Who sent you, I don't want any trouble." the man said to me as he slowly reached under the counter.

"Relax, we just got here and we don't know if what we have is any good here." I said to the man as I showed him a silver coin.

The man grabbed the coin before rubbing his fingers over it and handing it back to me.

"Your money is no good here, you need some Eurodollars or just dollars."

" I'm just a man that sells burgers for a living, I don't want anything to do with that." the man said to me before he stopped talking and acted as if we weren't there.

I turned to look at Aqua who had an uncharacteristic expression on her, if I didn't know any better I could almost swear that she was thinking.

"Can you show us what money everyone uses here? if you do we will leave." Aqua said to the man who just glared at her but after a second he let out a sigh and showed us what looked like two different dollar bills.

As we both reached for the bills the man quickly pulled his hand back and told us to go away.

There was nothing else we could say and it was obvious that we weren't welcome there so we just kept on walking until we found something that seems to exist in every world a pawnshop.

So since we have such few options we enter the pawnshop and I have to restrain both Aqua and myself from wanting to touch everything we can get our hands on because with Aqua's luck she will end up breaking something and we will have a huge debt hanging over our heads.

"Hey, how much can you give me for this." I say to the clerk who takes the same silver coin that I showed the man that was selling burgers.

I watch as the man puts the coin on some kind of machine that lets out a light, the machine is probably scanning the coin but I have no way of knowing if it's even doing that, or if the man is just acting as if he's checking the coins worth.

"Best I can do is fifteen thousand." the man says to me.

I look at the man and judging by his expression I'm certain that the coin is worth a lot more.

"Cant you give me anymore, it's my only one." I lied to the man considering that I still have a lot of gold and silver coins in my pocket.

The man glares at me before he turns to look at Aqua and smiles as she waves at him.

"Look I can give you more, but neither f you look as if you should even have this, so take it or leave it."

"Fifteen thousand and the rest is for me to keep my mouth shut." the man says to us before he puts a lot of what looks like memory sticks and paper money in front of us.

Aqua and I grab everything and stuff our pockets before we both leave the pawnshop.

We learned three important things, one people here use bills and electric money, two things like gold and silver are still valuable and three people are the same no matter where you go.

 

[blueayes]

The two of us walk until we see a restaurant and as we walk towards it I can feel my enemy detection skill activated, I quickly grab Aqua as both evasion skill and dodge skill force my body to move on its own so that we can avoid being hit.

The sound of thunder or maybe it was some kind of really loud firecracker makes us cover our ears as we ruaway from whatever the hell that was.

We manage to run into an alley and we hide behind a pile of garbage that I now realize is pilled up everywhere.

Did you see where they went?"

"Check the area they couldn't have gone far." I heard a pair of guys say to each other and judging by what they just said Aqua and I were their targets.

As I look around I notice that there's an old metal ladder hanging above us and so I jump to it and grab Aqua's hand and help pull her up when she does the same.

Because we were both adventurers before coming to this world we both got used to having to do things like this all of the time.

"Wow." we both say as we look at the city we're in and we can't help but gasp at the endless sea of lights that go as far as the eye can see.

I remembered the reason we were up here and as I looked down I could the guys that shot at us looking for us.

"Maybe we should look for a place to stay." I said to Aqua who immediately smiled at me.

'No." I quickly shot her idea down, it didn't matter what she was thinking I couldn't let her say it, because I know that she will just want to go somewhere expensive.

"Come on Kazuma, let's go to a hotel."

"You know one of those fancy ones that have butlers and people that make all sorts of food no matter how weird it is." Aqua said to me.

I looked at her for a moment and I didn't say anything as I turned around and began to look for a way off the roof we are on.

"We might be here for a while so we should look for an apartment or something that won't make us lose everything in one day." I said to Aqua who just pouts behind me.

Luckily for us, there's a door that isn't locked so I open it and we both go into this mysterious building, I'm forced to activate my dark vision skill so that I can see because there's no light here.

Because Aqua is a goddess she can see in the dark as clearly as she can see in broad daylight.

As we continue to walk we begin to see homeless people laying around or, there are bathrooms for that, god I hope I didn't step on something.

The glare of the neon lights forces me to turn off my dark vision skill and it's a good thing that I did because I can see that the area ahead of us is completely lit up.

I turn to look at Aqua who is walking behind me.

"Kazuma look out!" Aqua says to me but I'm unable to stop fast enough and I end up running into and knocking down a woman that's wearing a thick yellow jacket.

"Sorry." I said to the woman.

'It's okay." she answers me and as I look up the thing that I notice about her is her bright red hair.

I quickly stand up and help the woman to her feet, the woman doesn't say anything as she walks away.

"Hey I know that you don't know us, and it's weird that I'm asking but do you know if someone is renting a place around here!" I said to the woman.

"Turn left you'll find a heavy metal door, ask them!" she answers me as she walked away.

Two months later.

The sound of the alarm clock forced me to open my eyes as I press the button to turn it off.

I can hear Aqua singing in the shower, and I hope that she doesn't use all of the hot water again.

It was hard getting the apartment that we are living in because neither Aqua nor I have any identification, but considering that we had enough money onus the owner of the building rented us the apartment.

I grab the tablet that I was forced to buy because unlike everyone else that has some kind of implant, I'm not able to connect my brain to the internet and check my emails.

As I look at my emails I'm glad that at least someone is offering me work because I don't have any legal identification on me, I had no choice but to buy it for me and Aqua and unfortunately, everyone doesn't accept it.

So the only work that aqua and I can do are things that are off the books and low-level jobs that hardly pay anything.

So to earn some money we both went back to doing what we do best, we became adventurers or private contractors that do almost everything as long as the person hiring us pays enough.

As I get up and walk to the kitchen I can see the bottles of water that Aqua has filled up from the tap.

She uses some of her power to purify the water, meaning that when people drink it the water heals them or cures whatever is affecting them.

When she first started selling it we couldn't find anyone that wanted to buy it, now we have to carry a couple of extra bottles because there's always some crazy person that threatens to shoot us unless we give him\her one for free.

"Kazuma if you drink one you have to buy me some of the." Aqua began to say to me but I stopped her from talking as I pointed at my jacket which was on the floor and wet.

I've known Aqua long enough that I'm able to ignore that she is wearing nothing but a towel and her long blue hair is down, so I can see that it stops just above the floor.

"What I spilled some water and I needed to dry it." Aqua said to me.

"Then why didn't you use the mop?" I asked her.

"It was too far." she whined.

I wanted to yell at her, I wanted to tell her something but I didn't because of what I just read.

"Someone ordered a crate of your water bottles, so get dressed," I said to her as I look around and notice that her wrist computer is on the couch.

I knew that if I bought Aqua a tablet or some kind of machine that she could lose she would lose it, so I bought her something that she could wear and not lose.

Unfortunately, she throws it on the couch whenever she's not using it.

 

[blueayes]

As I enter the shower I notice that Aqua left a lot of her bottles open again on top of the sink and as usual I'm forced to close them and put them in the medicine cabinet.

In the past, the only thing that she would buy would be shampoo because she would claim that a goddess like her didn't need anything else.

And yet here she is cluttering the sink with all kinds of creams perfumes and scented oil.

"What does this say?" I said as I picked up a bottle that had what looked like some kind of flower on the label.

"Rose-scented shower oil guaranteed to make you smell like roses, don't mind if I do."

As I turn on the shower and get in I notice that the water isn't exactly hot but it's not cold either so I guess you can call that a win.

Night City is a place where you have to pay for everything, and when I mean everything I mean everything.

If you want to use a public bathroom guess what you have to pay,

What if you paid for your water bill and want to do the laundry well sorry to tell you this but your water bill only covers the parts of your house that are the bathroom and kitchen and maybe if you have a yard or something that's outside it covers out there too.

The thing is that if people can force you to pay for something they will, which is where Aqua and I come in.

One of the jobs people hire us to do is, fix their appliances so that they can continue to use them even after they are supposed to automatically turn off.

It's illegal and if we're caught we will be fined or taken to jail but it helps pay the bills and the rent.

As I turn off the water I hear Aqua putting the bottles of water in the crates.

As I listen to her humming to herself, I can't help but remember that the reason that we are even carrying the crates is that she insists on giving them away for free.

I tried to tell her that we could make a lot of money but she refused to put a price tag on her water and in the end, I had no choice but to give up.

Luckily for me, I can still charge people for taking the things to them, even if they come to pick the crates up from our apartment, it's a long walk to the door so they have to pay for making me walk so much.

As I walk out of the bathroom I see Aqua standing by the door waiting for me, the moment she sees me is the moment she opens the front door and starts to push the crates out of the door with her feet.

I follow her outside and use my tablet to lock the door behind us.

"Hie." Aqua cheerfully greets all of the homeless people that are sitting in the hallway.

The group of men wave at her and say good morning before they turn and nod at me.

"Ready ?" I said to Aqua who just smiles before nodding.

The person that ordered the crate of water is someone that lives somewhere between the rich side of the city and whatever area is that's between it and where our apartment building is.

As we walk down we're forced to kike the bags of trash that are blocking the stairs so that we can walk down and leave the building.

My legs burn after having to kike so much but at least we finally made it out and even as the light of the sun nearly blinds me I can't help but look at the city.

It's just as amazing as the day I first saw it.

Unfortunately, everything I see is just out of reach because unless I have a lot of money I'm never going t be able to pay for any of the amazing things here.

I watch as Aqua hands a bottle of water to a man that looks as if a train ran over him, after a little while she hands a pair of bottles to a woman and a little boy that look sick.

I watch as she hands one of several bottles to people who either look sick or injured until we reach the train stop.

Once we enter the train the two of us lean on the walls and watch the city pass us by before we have to get out again.

We finally reach our destination and we stop walking because the building is on fire.

I put my crate down and before I take out my tablet and try to call the person that ordered the crate but unfortunately the message that the tablet says is that the person I'm trying to contact is no longer available.

"Greate," I said to myself as I sit on the street and watch the police tell people to stay away.

"What's wrong?" Aqua asked me.

'I tried calling the guy that ordered it and not available anymore." I answered her.

"So he's dead." Aqua said bluntly.

"Yeah, so we came all the way here for nothing." I answered Aqua who sat next to me.

"So do we have any other jobs to do today?" Aqua asks me and I check to see if there's anything and to my surprise, there is one more message.

"Yeah, it says that" I began to say to Aqua but before I can finish the building in front of us exploded with a loud boom.

Because of the explosion mage, we both knew in the other world an explosion like this one wouldn't affect us.

"Let's get out of here, I'll tell you on the way," I said to Aqua before we picked up the crates of water and we began to walk toward our next job.

"The message says that someone needs us to take a box somewhere, it's a simple delivery job pick something up in point a and leave it on point b."

 

[blueayes]

Gloria Martinez
Gloria has all of her training as an EMT and as such, she has basic training in hand-to-hand combat as well as basic firearm training because of where her job sends her.

Because of how times have changed she had some Medtach training, so she can help stabilize any immediate injury or malfunction as well as build or repair certain parts of a person's cyber war.

Gloria is aware that her old life is over, but she now hopes to save her son before he ends up like every other edge runner she has seen.

Gloria is aware that something happened in both Kazuma's and Aqua's past, as they are both very skilled and at the same time ignorant of the world around them.

Due to the time she has spent with her team she has grown attached to them to the point that she considers them to be family but she knows that in their line of work any day could be their last.

Her weapons are an outdated tech Bracelet that she can upgrade and attach certain skills to

A heated knife that can cut through almost anything, and her old EMT jacket that can resist some bullets, the jacket she currently wears was replaced with the current one that her son uses.

She also uses a pistol that can fire almost any kind of ammunition that Aqua and Kazuma made for her with the help of Sasha who guided them while they were building it.




Kzuma
Kazuma has all of the skills that he gained during his time in the fantasy world.

He is aware, that the version of Earth he and Aqua are in, isn't anywhere near as safe as their version of earth or the world they have left behind, so he has tried to keep them from catching anyone's attention.

Unfortunately, that isn't possible, as he isn't willing to abandon Aqua.

Because of his experience in the fantasy world, he has learned that he has to take things slowly and learn what he and the people around him are capable of.

He knows that this world has technology that is capable of matching or surpassing the skills that he's gained over the years, so he knows that any job he takes could be his and his team's last.

He knows that neither he nor Aqua are the best, but he also knows that- that has never stopped them before.


Aqua
Aqua, since the moment she set foot in the world she began to try and save it, unfortunately, the planet is dying and she knows that she can't save it if she's alone.

She has been responsible for creating insects, plants, and bacteria that are resistant and take advantage of the pollution that's killing the planet, those creations can be eaten by the few animals and insects that remain.

Unfortunately, she is aware of the pain that the common people on earth feel, as she can both feel and hear them.

She considers the people that rule the world as barely any better than the Devils she has fought in the past, and if they have been revived by using technology she considers them soulless creatures that are even worse.

Aqua has all of the powers that were available to her during her time in the other world.

Because of her experience in the other world, she has learned to control her powers to the point that she doesn't cause widespread when she uses them.

Unbeknownst to Kazuma, she has used her connection to heaven to learn everything that she can about the world and as a result, she used her bond with Kazuma to bring the goddesses that are connected to him to this world's version of heaven.



Sasha
Sasha knows that she died doing something important, but what it was along with who she was is lost to her.

What happened or how she was revived is unknown to her and she doesn't want to know.

She learned the basics of living in Night City thanks to the Doctor who saved and later cared for her.

She knows that she is and was a Netrunner, due to her time spent with Aqua, Kazuma, and Gloria she has started making a new life for herself.

She knows that her old life will one day find her again and despite not saying or showing her her emotions she knows that her ties to her team will put them in danger.

She has seen both Aqua and Kazuma create the Axis Cult and only ask the people that are too poor or sick to take care of themselves while asking those that are in better situations to help the people around them.

She considers all of her team members important people that she could never betray, and she fears that she might one day have to, as that is a common thing in Night City.

Sasha can usually be found working alongside Gloria, as people who can't afford to pay to have their implants repaired eventually find their way to them.

She still has most if not all of her training from the time before she died, as such despite not remembering who she was and what some programs do, she is still a very capable net runner.

Recently she discovered that she has a Scratchers implanted into cyber arms, she discovered this while training with Kazuma and Aqua.

She also discovered that her body is agile and flexible but her lack of experience was shown as Kazuma was able to overwhelm her and Gloria who he ordered to attack him at the same time.

 

[blueayes]

As we walked we could feel the cool yet somehow hot wind blow on our faces, from the corner of my eye I can see Aqua trying to hide her disgust at the various smells that the wind is carrying.

According to her, this world was hanging at the edge when we arrived, and even if she is doing her best to deal with the problems it has there's no way of knowing if she can bring it back before the situation gets any worse.

Night City is supposed to be a place that's independent of every government and because in this world corporations control everything, one would imagine that it would be a place where everything is well maintained and looks practically new.

Anyone that imagines this is wrong.

The streets are broken everywhere, a person can turn in one direction or another and they will see trash and abandoned cars wherever they look.

The only clean and well-maintained areas of the city are where the rich live and even there I wouldn't even think about calling it safe.

If it's not someone that's working for a corporation that's doing something they shouldn't, it's someone they hired that's killing or- manipulating or blackmailing someone to do something that they normally wouldn't.

When we first managed to get our apartment and I bought the wrist computer and tablet, I began to look through the internet so that I could find out what happened.

Aqua for her part connected to the heavens and from what she said there used to be gods in this world, just like there were gods in my world.

Just like the ones in my world, the gods stayed out of the everyday lives of people and only kept things working, but something happened and something forced the gods to flee.

What I found out wasn't anything good either, most if not all of the world is in ruins and there are almost no animals left and those that are left are so rare that people are willing to pay millions for them.

According to Aqua, she had already taken care of that problem.

Worms and insects that ate away plastic and helped decompose all of the chemicals that ruined the world were being born and when they died they would help feed whatever animals were left so that the next generation would be stronger than those that gave birth to them.

But it would be years before anyone would see anything change, she even said that there were a lot of seeds that were still alive but that none of them would begin to grow until the ground was ready.

It's hard to believe but with all of the amazing technology and familiar architecture, this world this city is an odd mixture of our earth and Erise's world.

Aloud explosions makes us look up to the freeway and I pull Aqua aside, as I pull her away from the falling car she drops her crate of water, and as we both land on the ground we see what looks like an eighteen-wheeler burning.

The two of us watch as one of the flying ambulances that belong to the trauma team flies down and checks on someone that landed on one of the abandoned cars.

I don't know about Aqua but I didn't notice that someone had landed on the car until the paramedics showed u.

"She's not one of our policyholders, leave her." I hear the paramedic say before they fly back up to the freeway before stopping and flying away.

I watch as Aqua runs toward the person's body while completely ignoring the burning truck.

'Kazuma it's Gloria!" Aqua screamed and she begins to heal Gloria's injuries.

Because there are cameras everywhere, whenever Aqua or I use one of our skills we either make the screen on the wrist computer or the screen of the tablet begin to change colors, that way if anyone records us or sees us they just think that we have some sort of implant that lets us do what we do.

"That's enough, the guy that hired us is a doctor so let's get her there so no one asks any questions." I say to Aqua as I look around thankfully I don't see anyone, but that doesn't mean that there aren't cameras or drones watching.

I watch as Aqua picks up and empties all of the water bottles that she dropped when I pulled her.

As a rule, we both make sure that everyone that buys them from us either drinks them in front of us or the person\ persons that buy them from that person drinks them in front of us.

Because of what the water inside those bottles can do, if a single one gets to someone that works for a corporation it would end up putting a huge target on our backs, one that we will never be able to escape from.

I hand my create to Aqua before I pick up Gloria's unconscious body and we begin to run towards the doctor's location.

the doctor's office inside what looks like an old theater building.

The man opens the door before we are even able to knock on it.

He stares at us and miles.

"This makes things easier for me" he says to us as he points at one of the empty beds.

I lay Gloria down and turn to look at the doctor, but before we can ask anything the man points at a giant crate that's on the floor.

"Open it." he says to me and I watch as Aqua opens it.

as the lid on the crate opens I notice that there's a sleeping woman inside.

"Here's the deal, I fix your friend free of charge, no implants but I get her stable and make sure she lives."

'In exchange you take her." he says to us.

'What?" I ask the doctor.

"Long story short, this girl exposed the reason my little brother died, the corpos brought her back after she died."

'I found her before they were going to make her pay for what she did, but they are getting closer and I can't hide her anymore."

"I fix your friend, you deal with her."

"She has no memory of who or what she was, but I managed to teach her everything she needs to know and she still has all of her implants," he says to us.

I look at Aqua before I turn to look at Gloria, and back at the sleeping woman.

'She was the merchandise you want us to move isn't she?" I ask the doctor.

'The job was for you guys to take her and open the crate in some alley, and hopefully, she would start over, but here's an opportunity for all of us."

"You two take her under your wings and fix your friend and before you say that I'm asking too much."

'I'll even find the three of you some jobs, can't say that they will be safe but is anything in this city safe." he says to us.

'Deal." Aqua says to the doctor and as much as I want to say no, we owe Gloria a lot, it was her that helped us get the apartment and our IDs.

"Deal." I said to the doctor who walks up to the sleeping woman and injects something into her.

We watch as she lets out a mall moan before she opens her eyes

 

[blueayes]

enjoy

View: https://youtu.be/uS9A9lqd7-k

 

[blueayes]

..................New member Aqueiered Sasha................
"Perfect, from here on out she's your problem now."

"Now believe it or not bet I do have some jobs I had lined up for you two after you did what I wanted you to do, but considering that you don't have to do it anymore, it would be a shame to waste them." the doctor says to us.

I stare at the small sheets of paper that he picks up from a nearby table before handing them to me.

"Waite this doesn't make sense, why do you have to those already, we're not in the human trafficking business.' I say to him.

I watch as he smiles before reaching into his pants pocket and taking out a small mint candy.

"Simple, believe it not but people are talking about the two of you."

"The guy that's always wearing the green tracksuit and the girl that's always wearing the blue." he says to me.

I watch as he bites into the hard candy and judging by how loud the sound was when he finally manages to break it so that he could chew it, I'm surprised that he didn't break his jaw.

"The two of you are known for taking almost any job, no matter how lousy the pay is." he says to me, as he hands me the sheets of paper.

"I've gotta say the rumors were true."

"Neither of you have any chrome augmentations or firearms, and yet the two of you have been able to make a living." he says to me as he walks up to Gloria.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, but your friend is in bad shape. I'm going to have to operate."

"So the money I would have given you is going to be used for the medicine that I'll use on her."

"And no I'm not charging you, otherwise the two of you would owe me for my work."

A small thump catches my attention and as I turn around to see what's going on I see Aqua helping the woman out of the crate that she was in.

"So does she have a name?" I ask the doctor.

"Ask her yourself." the doctor answers me, but before I can say anything.

"It's Sasha." the woman says to me.

"Good with that out of the way, I need all of you to leave, this place has to be clean if I'm going to operate."

"Oh and Kazuma, word of advice the two....the three of you can't keep avoiding the fixers, sooner or later you are going to have to meet with one."

"I mean it, the only reason that the two of you haven't been in contact or forced to meet with one is that you aren't worth their time, but your names are growing." The doctor says to me as he stops talking and points at the door.

As we left the doctor's theater\ office we immediately felt the hot sun on our faces and smelled the unclean air.

"So Sasha since you're going to be with us for a while I'm Kazuma and the one next to you is"

"I'm the Goddess Aqua." Aqua interrupted me and introduced herself to Sasha as she grabbed Sasha's hand and eagerly shook it.

I watched as Sasha smiled at Aqua and returned Aqua's handshake just as eagerly.

"So do you have a place to stay?" I ask her.

"No, I 've been staying with the doctor, so I guess I need to find a place to live." she answers me.

"Greate you can stay with us until you find a place, but I'll tell you now."

"You can either sleep on the couch or sleep in the same bed with me and Aqua." say her and I listen to what I imagine are Sasha's footsteps briefly stop, before they quickly move again until they are right behind me again.

None of us say anything after that, right now the right thing to do is tell Gloria's son where his mom is, then either bring him back or go do one of the jobs that the doctor prepared for us.

I can feel a tingling sensation on the back of my head and it's because no one is targeting us yet that I can't tell where the people that are spying on us are.

The feeling started the moment that we left the doctor's office \ theater so maybe it's the same people that attacked Gloria or they're part of the group that the doctor told us about are after Sasha.

I reach into my pocket and take out my tablet before I begin to type in the addresses of each job until I find the closest one.

"Aqua, we are going to do some of the jobs the doc gave us." I say to Aqua while hoping that she doesn't say anything about my decision.

"Okay." she happily answers me before she stops walking and hands a water bottle to a homeless man that looks sick.

The work that the doctor gave us was nothing but a bunch of errands that people normally don't want to do.

Move trash out of an alley so that the door can finally be opened, clean the balcony of the twelve-floor ceiling, find kids lost\ stolen toys and bring it back to the kid's parents, and so on.

None of the jobs paid a lot but in the end, we had enough to pay the bills and our rent, but not for the week's grocery bill.

As we finally make it back home the first thing that we do is knocked on Gloria's door but no one answers, David is probably out looking for her.

Neither Aqua nor I have the guy's number so we don't have a way of calling him, so we have no choice but to give up for now and try and see him tomorrow.

As we enter our apartment I get an alert telling me that the rent is due, so I reluctantly pay it and I watch as our hard days' pay just goes away.

I don't want to do it but I pay the bills and I can't help but raise my eyebrows when I see that there just enough left to buy some food.

 

[blueayes]

"Guess what we have enough to either go out to eat or we can buy something that we can make." Isay to aqua who turns to look at Sasha.

"You're our new party member so why don't you choose." Aqua says t Sasha who is taken aback by the offer.

'I shouldn't I mean I just met the two of you and you are letting me stay with you already so." Sasha says to us.

'Go ahead it's no big deal, either way, we still have to eat." I say to her.

"Then how about we go out to eat?" Sasha answers us.

"Yes! I want some beer and fried chicken." Aqua declares as she walks towards the door.

"I think I'm in the mood for a beef bowl." I aid as I followed Aqua out of the apartment.

"How about you?" I ask Sasha.

'I don't know, I usually ate what the doctor made so I don't know." she answers.

There was a small pause between the three of us, Sasha was able to keep up with Aqua and me while we were working.

This means that the doctor taught her how to use the arms and legs that he either replace with the ones she has now, or she replaced them before whatever happened to her.

"Ms. Aqua." one of the homeless men calls out to Aqua as we are walking out of the building.

"I wanted to thank you." I hear the man say to Aqua before he stops talking when I stand next to them.

"Be careful you're a good person and this city doesn't have a lot of you."

"There's someone following the three of you, there on the roof of the building over there," he says to us before he smiles and waves at us while he says goodbye.

"Let's go." I say to Aqua and Sasha.

I didn't need the man to warn us, I can feel someone watching us but the person himself doesn't mean any harm, still, someone or something could be controlling them, so by the time my skills activate, it could be too late.

Unfortunately, there's nothing we can d, so we just walk o a nearby restaurant.

This city is strange its some sort of odd mixture between erotic fantasy and a dystopian future.

As we walk inside I walk past a woman that is wearing an open dress that only covers the important areas, but at the same time, she has a lot of loose cloth just hanging around.

Eating at a booth is a man whose entire face was replaced by machines and the only thing left of the person's face is his mouth.

Next to him is a woman with three kids who are all dressed like the people that I would see on my version of earth.

If the billboards or commercials aren't selling medicine- guns or some sort of hologram that's sent into a person's brain, they are showing some kind of porn.

"Welcome, I see that the two of you brought a friend." the waitress says to us as she hands us the menus, we have come to this restaurant more than once so the people working here already know who we are.

"Fried chicken." Aqua says to the waitress without bothering to look at the menu.

"The usual." I said to her as I hand her back the menu.

We all turn to look at Sasha who is still looking at the menu. "I'll have the cheeseburger please." she says to the waitress.

The woman stands in front of us and after hesitating for a moment she turns around and walks toward the kitchen.

After we ate it was time for us to get some sleep and surprisingly Sasha chose to sleep with me and Aqua, it was the first time that I felt prosthetics that felt like human hands and feet so it was easy for me to fall asleep.

The sound of the alarm woke me up as usual but this time I found Sasha sleeping at my side while the sound of Aqua's voice came from the bathroom.

Like usual, I turn off the alarm and look at my emails and I find six new names and each one has a star on it.

I don't bother opening any of the messages, when I first bought the wrist computer and tablet, I asked the person that sold them to me if they could install a program that marked the messages from people that I would rather not read.

Unfortunately, all of the messages that I have belong to Fixers, fixers are the people responsible for hiring and paying Edgerunners or mercenaries to do jobs that put them and the people around them in danger.

I remember that we still have to tell David about his mom and so I get out of bed and head to his apartment but no matter how much I knock no one answers.

The kid must have not come home last night and is still looking for his mom.

As I walk back inside I find that my tablet is ringing and Aqua is cooking breakfast while teaching Sasha how to cook bacon that isn't bacon.

"Hellow." I say as I answer the call.

"Kazuma, I just called to tell you that your friend had some problems last night, I managed to stabilize her condition when the two of you left her."

"Don't worry she's safe and she should be back on her feet in a few days, but you owe me for the work this time."

I was about to tell the doctor that he said that he wouldn't charge but a list of medicines and how much they cost appeared on the screen, followed by a bill.

"This is how much the meds I used on her cost." the doctor says to me before a set of numbers with the words labor appears on the screen.

"And this is how much I cost, you tell me which is cheaper." the doctor says to me.

I wanted to say something and even if I d have the money this was something that I didn't expect.

"What's the matter, you've gone silent on me?"

"Let me guess you don't have the money." the doctor says to me.

"I already gave you three the jobs that I could find, I suggest that you get in contact with a fixer before they force the three of you to meet with one of them." the doctor says to me before the screen goes black.

I put the tablet down and I see both Sasha and Aqua looking at me with worried expressions.

I look at the table and find a plate of not bacon and eggs waiting for me.

[][][][][][][][Timeline chages
After his mom falls off the freeway and her body goes missing David spends the rest of the night looking for her.

But because his door was locked because the rent wasn't paid he was forced to break in and searched their apartment for the money to pay the rent.

After finding his mom's separate account he pays the rent but he still owls the school the money for the things he broke.

It's then that he finds the Sandevistan and tries to sell it but he can't find a buyer.

So he gives up and goes to school. [][][]][][

 

[blueayes]

Hello readers I'm having problems with how to handle Gloria.

For example, she is a supporting character that has some connections to the people in Night City and she has some medical knowledge, and by that I mean she only knows what the lower classes would be able to afford.

The problem that I'm running into is her fighting style.

So do you guys have any ideas? to help me think of something.

 

[blueayes]

"So we're in debt again." Aqua says to me as she bites into a piece of bacon.

"After we eat let's go find some work and if we don't find anything I guess we could ask around and see if anyone is looking for help for the day." he says to Aqua and Sasha, but he can feel that maybe their time has finally run out.
][][]]
In the doctor's office, Gloria struggles to open her eyes.

'Easy there you were pretty banged up when your friends brought you." the doctor says to her.

"Where am I?" Gloria asks him.

"Safe." the doctor answers her.

"I need to find David." she says to him as she tries and fails to stand up, she feels the doctor's hand on her forehead, as he holds him down.

"Easy, if you try to get up now you'll die." the doctor says to her.

Gloria stops struggling and tries to remember what happened, she remembers how she was at work and received a call that her son had broken several expensive things at school.

She remembers driving with him and talking to him before someone started shooting at them and then she remembers a car flying toward her car.

As she lies on the bed she tries to call David, but for some reason, she's unable to, she can feel the fear inside her growing but she forces it down and tries to call her job and see if anyone there can look through the records and see if he was taken to a clinic or hospital.

She can feel the hot tears start to row down her eyes and into her ears as she reads the error message that says that the number given to the people that work as paramedics doesn't work anymore because she was already labeled as missing\ d.

Meaning that she went missing and was now considered dead because she was been gone for too long.

She felt a small sting on her arm and as she listens to herself breathe she begins to feel better and at the same time the pain in her head stops.

"Let me guess you're dead." the doctor says to her.

"How did I get here?" she asks him.

"I told you your friends found and brought you here?" the doctor says to her.

"Friends?"

"Aqua and Kazuma." the doctor answers her, as he fills a glass with water from a bottle.

'Here drink this." he says to her and she can feel the water burning her throat as she swallows.

She watches as the doctor pours himself a glass before opening another bottle and pouring her another glass before he drinks and finishes the bottle.

Gloria looks down at her hands as she doesn't feel the pressure that covered her entire body anymore a moment ago.

"Strange." the doctor says as he looks at her information.

"You're almost completely healed, guess they weren't just stories." he says as he turns to look at her.

"So what are you going to do now that you're dead?" the doctor asks her.

"I need to find David and I'll figure something out." she answers the doctor.

'And what if you don't find him?"

"You fell from the freeway, the fall alone should have killed you, but it didn't, I'll give you a moment to guess who were the ones responsible for that."

"Now as yourself, how are you sitting down if that body of yours should be broken or too injured for you to move?" the doctor says to her, and Gloria can't help but say Kazuma and Aqua's names.

"I'll call them to pick you up." he says to her.

"No, they already did enough for me, I can walk home." she answers him before she gets off the hospital bed and feels the cold floor on her feet.

As she looks around she sees her shoes are by the door. "Thanks, doc I'll pay you for what you did for me." she says to him.

"Pay those friends of yours, they're the ones that covered your bill, and Gloria a word of advice stick close to them they're your best shot at surviving this city now that you don't exist anymore." the doctor says to her as she walks out the door.

As she walks out of the theater building it takes her a moment to figure out where she is and thankfully she isn't too far away from home, unfortunately, she checks her bank account and finds that she's missing a lot of money.

"David must have used it to pay the rent." she says as she walks back home.

"Hey need a ride." a man driving a taxi says to her.

'I don't have any money on me." she answers him, she lies but it's too risky for her to get in.

She watches as the taxi drives away and for a moment, she regrets not getting in, but she knows better than to get in a taxi that conveniently appears out of nowhere, someone was watching the building.

After an hour passes she starts to regret her decision "Hey looks like you need a ride!" a man says to her but she ignores him.

"Gloria, you helped my mom when she was sick, so get in I'll drop you off wherever you need to go." the man says to her and she stops walking as she turns to see if she recognizes who the man is.

And she has no idea who he is, but a ride is better than walking by this point and he already knows who she is.

"Name's Jackie, Jackie Welles you helped my mom when she had a heart attack.' Jackie says to her as he shakes her hand.

'So where are you headed?" he asks her.

"Can you take me to Megabuilding H4, it's in Santo Domingo" she asks him.

'Not a problem."

 

[blueayes]

The Axis Cult.
It's unknown when the water bottles first hit the streets but what is known, is that the only people capable of giving them to you are the members of the Axis Cult.

When you go to their church and by a church, I mean any place that they are living in at the moment, a member of the axis cult will first ask if you would like to join them and hand you an application.

You can choose to accept or reject the application without any problems.

Everyone who isn't responsible for the deaths\ injuries of children or works for a corporation can and will receive a water bottle or more by simply walking up to one of them.

However, if you work for TRauma Team or are someone that works for a Corporation the members of the Axis Cult will destroy all of the water bottles before they fall into your hands.

Be advised that while most people won't dare attack any corporate bigwigs, they won't see anything either, as the Axis cult members are known for treating sick and injured people for free.

Please remember what I said above because as soon as you or anyone with you attacks them all of the gangs and Edgerunners in the city will mark you and those with you as someone that has to die.

If a member or members of the Axis Cult is\ are kidnaped the vehicle they are in no matter what it is will come under immediate fire, as the Axis cult would rather have their people killed before the corporations gain their secrets.

The benefits of staying on the Axs Cults' good side are that if you are critically injured they can and will save your life.

The water that they give you can bring a person that's falling into cyber psychosis back and if a person drinks it long enough it can completely reverse cyber psychosis.

The members of the Axis Cult worship a woman with long blue hair named Aqua that calls herself a Goddess.

Anyone that has ever met Aqua says that she is a cheerful and friendly person.

Some people in the Axis Cult have taken to wearing green and are widely considered the guards of the members of the cult.

Just like the man named Kazuma that is always watching over aqua, they guard the preachers of the axis cult, and there isn't a single person that's wearing white or blue that doesn't have someone wearing green protecting them.

The people wearing green are usually ex-gang members- edge runners and anyone that had a violent past that has had their life saved by members of the axis cult, but found that they couldn't just move past their lives of violence.

In recent times the cult has begun to leave Night City and has been seen pouring gallons of water in parts of the world that haven't recovered from the fourth corporate war.

Where the members are getting the water is unknown, but the effects in the areas that they go to can be seen by anyone as the area no matter where it is will soon have plant life growing in it again.

It should be noted that different countries have offered to take the cult members and protect them from harm if they help restore their countries.

The members of the cult always refuse as they claim that such offers are stuffed full of things that the person offering them isn't saying or isn't aware of.

It should be noted that the American government has started keeping a close eye on the cult and has started creating protected areas wherever the cult goes because they aren't willing to risk losing a single one of the cult members to any of its rivals.

These protective measures are creating a wide space where anyone that isn't native to the area isn't allowed.

The people that are native to the area are asked to not make contact with the cult members until they are finished doing whatever they are doing.

Anything and anyone that tries to enter the area will be either arrested or killed so that the cult can restore the area they are in without being disturbed.

 

[ZeroLink]

Maybe have her be a knife fighter since she was an emt and should know how to hurt people with that knowledge plus she knows how to remove cyberware without breaking it so that would help as well maybe with her getting a gun just incase.

 

[blueayes]

The green
People call them the Axis Cults' army\ bodyguards, but it's not like those nut jobs need an army to protect them.

They are everything from Netrunners-, ex-military, mercenaries, ex-gang members, and whatever you can think of that haven't or just plain can't get away from fighting.

They follow the way that Kazuma does things, hit hard fast, and get out before the enemy knows what hit them.

Even if this means blowing up a building or buildings to keep something important from falling into the wrong hands.

Unlike the Axis Cult who help people deal with their trauma by providing them with therapists that will listen and make them feel welcome.

The green would rather drink and reminisce about better times, even if those better times are recent because of their connection with the Axis Priests and Nuns.

Some people claim that most if not everyone in the green either joined so that they could hide and protect someone they cared about or joined because they messed up somewhere and wanted to leave their old lives behind.

Regardless of the reason, everyone in the green will give their lives to keep every member of the Axis Cult safe and if they fail, then they will make sure that the member or members of the cult die as peacefully as possible.

Those that have tried to infiltrate the group will either be found dead, betray the corporation or gang they were a part of or leave and never talk about what they have seen.

It's widely known that if anyone that works for a corporation so much as turns to look at a member of the Axis Cult they will have a member of the green looking at them.

It's widely known that the Arusaka Corporation and the green can not exist in the same area.

The moment that either group enters the territory of the other Arusaka guards start showing up dead and members of the green start disappearing before showing up again with either missing limbs or chrome prosthetics\ implants.

If a person were to ask around they will eventually hear about a war that was fought between Kazuma and Aqua with the Arusakas, no one knows who won, but Arusaka Family vowed to one day get revenge on Aqua and Kazuma.

Whenever you approach a member of the Axis Cult you will find one or more people wearing green, these people are usually hands-off and are either keeping an eye on everyone or minding their own business.

If you manage to make friends or can keep yourself from falling on their bad side, then the benefits of doing so grant you several things that aren't usually available anywhere else.

Access to several hidden gardens that have not only plants but insects and animals that have gone extinct everywhere else.

You can also find several Aquarians filled with fish and other marine life that is slowly being reintroduced to the world by the Axis Cult.

When you pass a week in the guarden\ gardens you can receive different jobs that the American government, these can extend from espionage to eliminating key people that would hinder the Axis Cults' restoration of America.

By taking these jobs the green has secured that the American Military never turn their weapons on the priests or nuns that they protect.

If you choose to get or upgrade your prosthetics\ implants then you can replace some of them with those that would normally only be given to people in the military.

Kazuma has little if anything to do with the group as he spends most if not all of his time with Aqua.

Those who have met him describe him as a laid-back person that doesn't hesitate to call people out if they are doing something dumb or are lying to him.

The green also followed his example and expose the priests and nuns when they are lying to people to make themselves and the Axis Cult look good.

They will also make sure that the members of the axis cult don't bite off more than they can chew.

In recent years there have been people that claim that they have seen members of the green appearing in the Republic of Texas and the United Mexican States preparing them for the arrival of members of the Axis cult.

If this is true or not no one knows as there hasn't been any proof of this.

 

[blueayes]

She can hear her footsteps as she runs down the hallway past the homeless and enters her apartment, unfortunately, she finds it empty and it looks as if someone has torn the place apart while looking for something.

Her heart sinks as she remembers the Implant but before she starts to look for it she remembers to check her messages to see if she can find any clues as to where David might be.

She lets out a breath of relief the moment that she sees that the rent was paid and she slowly begins to put the clues together.

David must have searched their apartment for anything that he could sell and it was then that he found her secret account, he must have used it to pay the rent.

As he was looking around he must have found the spinal implant and taken it somewhere to sell it.

She tries to call the edge runner that she sold the sandevistan to again the fact that she was recently declared dead meant that even this was impossible.

Unlike her messages that she can access due to her apartment's net connection, she isn't able to use her contacts and information.

So with little choice, she begins to listen and watch everything that David has seen and heard since he was left alone.

She could feel her blood boil, more than once their landlord called her son demanding that they paid the rent and his school was repeatedly calling him to tell him to either pay for the damages or transfer to another school.

She has three options now, she can either go to David's school and try to find him there, but if he does have the sandevistan then he has few reasons to go to school now.

She could go to her job and try to convince them to rehire her, but knowing them she would have better luck finding a pool of clean water in the desert.

And finally, she could wait for David to come home.

Gloria has no choice but to wait for David and so she begins to clean the apartment.

For a moment she considers going to Kazumas and Aqua's apartment and thanking them for their help but she dismisses the thought as she doesn't want to risk her son coming home and not finding her.

So picks up the clothes- sweeps, and mops the floors but no matter how long she waits her son doesn't arrive.

Gloria opens her eyes as she hears the sound of the alarm and she realizes that she had fallen asleep, she looks around but her son is nowhere to be seen.

She quickly gets up and runs to his room hoping to find him but he's not in there either.

She wants to cry but she stops herself, she knows what she has to do, she has to go look for him, but first, she needs to talk to Kazuma and Aqua maybe they won't tell her that she has to pay them back.

She knocks on their front door and Aqua answers it with the bright smile that she usually has.

'Gloria you're back!" Aqua says to her before she hugs her Gloria can't help but return the young woman's hug.

"Aqua the doctor told me that you and Kazuma were the ones that took me to him, did you see my son?" she asks Aqua and she watches as the mile on her face vanishes.

"You were the only one we found." Kazuma answers her.

She turns towards Kazuma and sees that there's a woman that she has never seen before with him.

"I know that he came back home but he hasn't come back." she says to him before her emotions finally break through the walls and she breaks down crying.

She feels Aqua's warm hands around her as the woman hugs her while trying to comfort her.

"He must be looking for you." Kazuma says to her.

"Is there anyone that you can call?" he asks her.

"No one, I was marked as dead after Trauma Team marked me," she answers him between sobs.

"Okay we will help you look for him, but we also have to meet up with someone so we will do it while we go there and while we're doing our job," Kazuma says to her.

She feels a third hand on her shoulder and she looks up she finds Kazuma looking at her.

'Gloria, I know how this is going to sound but it's better if you stay home, it might take a few days but your son will have to come back." he says to her.

She knows that he's right, but the city is dangerous and every night that David stays in the streets is another night that he might end up dead.

"I know but I can't just sit by and know that he's out there looking for me putting himself in danger." she says to Kazuma who just nods at her words.

"Okay... let's go." Kazuma says to her as he helps her back up.

Gloria can't help but continue to cry but she regains her exposure as fast as she can before she steps aside and lets the three of them walk out of the apartment and lead her out of the building.

[timeline change.
David goes to school but before he can get inside the bullies stop him and beat him up, causing him to go back home and take the sandevistan.

Due to the pain of having the operation done without anesthetic, he passed out and doesn't meet his mom who returned home and found their apartment empty.

When he finally wakes up he finds that an entire day has passed and so he goes back to school intending to get revenge, not knowing that his mom has made contact with Kazuma and Aqua because she is desperate to find him.

 

[M0rtimer]

it's quite interesting. although it's hard to believe that corporations can't find them.

 

[blueayes]

She follows Kazuma and watches as he follows the G.P.S to wards somewhere when she sees him stop walking.

"Gloria, you said that the trauma team marked you as dead and you can't contact anyone does that mean that you aren't able to connect to the net anymore?" he asks her.

"No, I can't." she answers him.

"Come on." he says to her as he turns and leads her toward a nearby pawnshop.

"Sasha, do you think you can hook her back into the net?" Kazuma asks the woman that's with him.

Gloria watches as the woman's eyes begin to glow purple before she sees an alert that says that someone is hacking her, and as much as her instincts tell her to run away she stops herself from doing so

Net connection restored, are the words that appear in front of her.

She tries to call David but finds that he has blocked her number, she doesn't hesitate and tries to contact the man that bought sandevistan but the man has put up the do not disturb function, meaning that he's either busy or is asleep at the moment.

She exhales a heavy breath and finds that her companions are all looking at her.

"Judging by your expression you can't call anyone." Kazuma says to her.

"No David's blocked my number, so that means that the scammers must have already contacted him claiming that they either have me or said that they are mem and I need him to pay for my freedom."

"I use to tell him about these scams, so he did the right thing, I just didn't think that they would act so quickly." Gloria says to Kazuma, as her shoulders become heavier.

'Sasha, do you think that you can look through the camera around here and find him?" Kazuma says to the Netrunner but the woman shakes her head.

"No, I can look for him by hacking the people around us, but I still need practice before I can hack anything in the net." Sasha answers Kazuma.

"Come on." Kazuma says to her as he opens the pawnshop's door and leads them inside.

Gloria sees the man behind the counter stand up when he notices them walk in.

"Kazuma, Aqua what can I do for a pair of old relics like you?" the man says to them.

"My friend here needs something to help her make calls and connect to the net, so we're looking for a wrist computer like the one we bought for Aqua." Kazuma says to the man who just nods.

'So are you making your harm? or is your team going to be a bunch of hot girls that you hook up with after every job?" the man says as he walks out from behind the counter and into the room, they are in.

Kazuma turns to look in their direction and Gloria can't help but use her hands to cover herself, she knows that if things become bad enough her only chance at making a living is.....no she doesn't want to think about it yet.

'Nah, that will be too awkward, you know what I mean if something goes wrong or doesn't work out." Kazuma says to the man as the man looks through the various devices that are on display.

"Found it." the man says as he picks up a bracelet.

"Word of advice for all of you." the man says to them as he signals for her to walk up to him.

"If you can find some happiness in this place take it, even if it's one guy with a bunch of girls or one girl with a bunch of guys." he says to them as he puts the bracelet on her.

A holographic screen appears but it's hard to see, luckily she can connect it to her implants so she is now able to access all of the functions of the bracelet without having to strain her eyes.

"Give it some time, it's not as advanced as the stuff people use now in days, but it does its job well enough." the man says to her.

"So how much do we owe you?" Kazuma asks the man but the man's smile vanishes.

"I won't charge you for it but only if you do something for me." the man says to Kazuma, as he points at the price tag that's still on the counter where the bracelet once was.

The man walks behind the counter and takes out a small stack of paper money before sliding it in front of Kazuma who looks at it for a moment.

"there was this girl sweet little thing, well she's not exactly a girl anymore more like a teenager, you know."

"She use to help the street kids around here, she went missing a few days ago, she was my niece." the man stops talking before staring Kazuma in the eyes.

"Find out what happened to her and if she's gone I want to know what happened to her or if possible I bring her back alive and if she's not alive anymore, bring her home anyway." the man says to Kazuma.

"So, half now half later." the man says to Kazuma before putting a bigger stack of bills in front of him.

"Kazuma turns to look at aqua- Sasha and finally her, she notices that by the way that Kazuma is acting that he plans on rejecting the man's offer before Aqua says. "Deal."

Kazuma takes the small stack of money before immediately separating it into four and handing them their share of the money.

"Before we leave, Gloria see if you can use the programs in that thing and if you can try practicing while we look for them." Kazuma says to her.

She begins to look through the bracelets programs and she is surprised to find a taser program that depletes the bracelet's battery but she can use it to defend herself.

There is also a program that helps her steady her aim when she uses any throwing weapon or uses a gun, the application is meant to help her aim and deal with the recoil.

Unfortunately, she has no idea what the rest of the programs do as she has never used or seen anyone use them.

............................Mission 1 Find Gloria's son David...................... Mission 2 Find what happened to the Pawnshop owner's niece..................

 

[blueayes]

No one says anything as they exit the store and for a long moment, Kazuma looks at the street in front of them, as if he was lost in thought.

"You know this kind of reminds me of back then, you know before Meguming and Darkness joined us."

'How we had to work every job we could find and then as if fate had finally had enough we ended up meeting them."

'Okay so it's not exactly the same, but" Aqua tried to comfort Kazuma, but she seemed to lose whatever train of thought she had at the end.

"We're going home, Aqua see if you have anything that fits Sasha." Kazuma says to Aqua before he turns to look at Sasha.

"Or are the clothes that you are wearing easy for you to move in, in case we have to run and climb over things?" he asks her

"I'm fine with this." Sasha answers Kazuma.

"How about you?" he turns to ask her.

As she looks down she realizes that while her clothes may be almost intact, they are torn in more than one place she was so worried that she forgot to change.

The reason no one has said anything is that it's not out of the ordinary to see someone in the state she is in.

'I have to get home and change, I have some clothes that will make it easier for me to move." she says to them before Kazuma and Aqua nod and says that they will wait for her.

She quickly walks back home and she can feel the hope inside her, maybe David come back, but as she walks into her apartment she finds that no one has come back yet, as nothing inside has changed.

The walk to her room seems longer and emptier than it truly is and as he changes into a black T-shirt and blue pants she is about to leave and rejoin the others when she sees her old EMT jacket, unlike the new one that's yellow that everyone work uses, the one that's in her closet is red with blue stripes.

She grabs it and puts it on, the jackets are given to everyone at work because they help people know that they aren't there to fight and if someone does shoot at them the coats can stop some bullets.

Her bracelet alerts her that the flashlights on the collar of her coat have synchronized with it and her implants so she won't be completely blind when she enters places that don't have any light in them.
]][][][
The sound of thunder makes me look up, it's going to rain soon, it's almost as if we're being warned about something that we aren't aware of.

I don't like it but it's not as if the job we just accepted was any less dangerous than the ones we have taken in the world we came from.

Hell had we not stopped to buy the bracelet for Gloria we would have probably been given an even worse job by the Fixer that we were going to meet.

I know that everyone in this city that isn't a part of those that are at the top, has to make extra money by other means, but for whatever reason, I can't help but feel as if we just bit off more than what we can chew.

My team isn't the best, but when has it ever been, if things go from bad to worse I can just teleport everyone out of there and if anyone dies Aqua can bring us back to life.

So why can't I shake this feeling?

"Okay.' Gloria says to us as she finally comes back.

Without saying anything Gloria sends each of us a picture of her son and with no clues other than what the man told us we begin to look for the girl that use to help the street kids.

"Okay, let's split up."

"Gloria you and Sasha will go that way while Aqua and I will go this way we will meet here by the end of the day."

"If you find any clues call us, and we will do the same don't go anywhere unless we are with you." I say to Gloria and Sasha.

"Waite where are supposed to look?" Sasha asks me.

"The girl use to help the street kids, our best chance is to ask them, one of them must have heard or seen something." I answer her before we go our separate ways.

We spent the rest of the day asking random kids and whoever is just standing around doing nothing if they have seen Gloria's son or the girl that use to help the street kids but everyone just insulted us or tell us to buzz off.

I was about to give up when Aqua stopped a kid with blond hair who was walking around with his head down.

"What's wrong?" she asks the kid who just keeps his head down.

"I miss my sister." he says to her and Aqua and I immediately look at each other.

"What happened?' she asks the kid.

"These guys took her somewhere and she hasn't come back, she use to help us but now she's gone and everything sucks." the boy answers Aqua.

"Can you tell us what she looks like, we might be looking for the same person?" I ask the kid who looks at me before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old folded foto.

The picture has a girl that can't be older than fifteen surrounded by a bunch of kids and the first thing that sticks out of the picture is how everyone on it is smiling.

I use my tablet to take a picture of the photo and ask the kid if he knows anything else, but unfortunately, he doesn't, so we let him go back to doing whatever he was doing.

We are about to walk away when the kids stop walking before he runs back to us.

"Here there was a woman with them and she dropped this." the boy says to us as he hands us a flyer for a strip club.

'Let's go see if her uncle." I say to Aqua.

'Why?" Aqua asks me.

'Isn't it odd that he gave us the job but didn't give us a picture of her, just that she helped the kids?" I ask her.

Aqua doesn't say anything as we walk back to the pawnshop.

"Hey found a clue, but I'm not telling you what it is unless we have something that tells us what the girl looks like." I say to him and the man just looks at me with cold eyes before he puts a picture of him and the same girl that's in the picture that the boy showed us.

I put my tablet on the counter next to the man's picture and I hand him the flyer.

"I'm not going to tell you who said this, but from what we found out she was taken by some men and a woman, from what we were told the woman dropped this." I say to the man who just grips the flyer tightly.

"I'm not putting my team in danger." I say to the man who continues to look at the flyer as if he wants to burn a hole threw it.

"You found out what happened to her, so here," the man says to u as he puts the money he showed us earlier, but he puts an even bigger of money in front of us.

"I didn't show you her picture because if you couldn't find anything with what I told you then you wouldn't be any good, but if you can bring her home, I'll pay you this much.": he says to us.

"I'm sorry." I say to the man.

"I understand, you want to keep your people safe." he says to me.

I call Gloria and Sasha to come back and when they return I split the money evenly between us, as I hand Gloria her share I shake my head as she looks at me with hope-filled eyes.

I can see the light in her eyes fade as her pain grows.

"Kazuma." Aqua says to me but I ignore her.

"Kazuma." she repeats again and again before I finally have enough and ask.

"What?"

"We have to help him." Aqua says to me.

"And then what have people that don't have any problems kidnaping people coming after us?" I ask her.

"That didn't stop you before?" she says to me as I'm about to walk back home.

I stop walking before turning around and looking at both Sasha and Gloria.

'If the two of you don't want anything to do with this go home now because I can't promise that you will be safe f you come with us." I say to them before I walk back into the store.

I can see Aqua smiling at me from the corner of my eye.

 

[blueayes]

 

[blueayes]

As I walk into the store I notice that the man is looking at the girl's picture and holding the flyer that I gave him.

'I'll do it, but old man you should know that even if I manage to bring her back." I began to say to the man who doesn't let me finish and walked into the back room.

After a minute he walks back out and hands me a gun with what looks like a scanner.

"I'll pay you more for everyone you kill.' he says to me and his voice has enough venom to kill an elephant.

"We're not killing anyone, we're just going to get her out of there and bring her home." I say to him and the man pushes the gun onto me while holding the scanner tightly with his other hand.

"Do you have anything else that I can use?" I ask him and the man finally stops trying to force the gun into my hands.

He opened the door that leads to the back of his store and before I go inside I call everyone inside, it's better if we all get our hands on something that we can use to defend ourselves.

I watch as Aqua and Sasha walk in but Gloria is nowhere to be seen.

"She said." Sasha begins to say to me but she stops talking when I put my hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay."

We follow the store owner to the back of his store and the room is filled with all sorts of weapons.

"I know that you said that you won't kill anyone, but please make them suffer," he says to us as he signals to us to look around and take what we want\ need.

I begin to walk around and find more than one ball of wire and I can't help but smile, it's strong and sharp enough to force anyone that hasn't replaced every part of their body to stop struggling.

Aqua being a goddess doesn't need anything but she takes what looks like different bottles filled with glitter.

I watch as Sasha walks around the room and I can see her eyes glowing purple as she scans everything inside, she stops waking and stares at a computer chip before picking it up and putting it in one of the slots that are in her neck.

'"Just this once." the man says to us as we walk out of the room and before we can reach the door he hands the flyer back to me.

It finally starts to rain as we walk out of the store and I don't know if Aqua's computer and my tablet are waterproof.

"Sasha find this place and I guess we have no other choice but to walk there." I order Sasha, as I walk towards the side of the store and mark the alley as one of my teleporting spots.

The flyer has the picture of a woman in her underwear hanging upside down while using her legs to hold onto something, above her is the club's name, and next to her are tiny words that say ask about our special service.

"Found it and it's not that far away. It's a day's walk from here and it only takes thirty minutes if we take a taxi." she says to us.

"Greate we just got paid and we already have no choice but to spend it." I say to myself before noticing that both Aqua and Sasha are staring at me.

"So where are we going?" I ask Sasha.

"Japantown a place called Jig Jig Street, we should be able to see the club when we get there." Sasha answers me.

'Okay call us a taxi." I say to her.

"Already did" she answers me.

Unfortunately, we have no other choice but to wait for the taxi to arrive even if it's raining, but at least we have the store's roof to stop us from getting wet.
[][][][
Gloria
She came back home hoping to find David, but again she found that he hasn't come back yet, so she decided to use her bracelet to call someone from work.

She can't help but smile as she finally mages to get some good news.

The woman she calls is the same one that introduced her to her side job of selling expensive cyberwar.

"Gloria holy#... I thought you were dead," she says to me.

"I wasn't, listen I'm looking for my son, do you know if someone has seen or heard from him?" I ask her as I try to not sound as desperate as I feel.

"......I have bad news for you, your son did call looking for you, so that's the good news." I cant help but feel the weight on my chest leave and I feel myself letting out a breath of relief.

"Now for the bad news."

"Gloria, your son has the Sandevistan, and I don't mean he's carrying it around. No, he has that thing in him."

"I didn't recognize him, he was with a woman crazy bit# jumoed out of the ambulance with him, when I was going to take him to a ripper to get the thing out of him."

I begin to breathe faster as I heard her talk, no wonder he hasn't come back home, but why did he put that thing on?

I hang cut the call and try to call Maine, maybe he's not forcing David to work for him and if he is, I'll give the money he paid me back.

I try to call him but he doesn't answer.

There's no one I can turn to now, no there is someone, three of them but if I do that I'll have to go deeper into that world.

I grab my jacket and run out the door hopefully I can catch up to them, I can feel the rain as I run towards the store and I find the three of them getting inside a taxi.

"I'm coming too!" I say to them as everyone inside including the driver stares at me.

The three of them move to let me sit down and as I close the door I don't even have the chance to say goodbye to the life that I am forced to abandon.

 

[blueayes]

"So Gloria do you know how to fight?" Aqua asks me.

"No, I never had to learn because I usually stayed away from any fights and" I explained to Aqua but as I was talking Sasha puts her on her neck and takes out a chip.

"here use this, it's not much but at least you can learn the basics." she says to me before I can go into more details.

I look at the chip and unfortunately, it hasn't been sanitized, I've seen the results of what happens when people just put things like these in, and as much as it pains me to do this the three of them are the ones with experience.

The moment I put the chip in I begin to feel its information spreading, I can feel my head itch as the skills are being downloaded into it, the nerves in my entire body pulse, as my muscles tighten and relax as they attempt to understand the skills that they've never done before.

I watch as the words, Basic hand-to-hand combat appear in front of me- it's not much but from the description below, I should be able to block and punch people as well as kike people if I have to.

I return the chip to Sasha before a warm sensation spreads over the top half of my body and it takes me a moment to realize that my jacket is reacting to what I've just done to myself.

No one said anything after that and so we just sat quietly as we listened to the rain fall as the taxi drove us to wherever we were going.

The taxi finally stops and unfortunately the rain hasn't.

As I look around I see the various street signs and holo-billboards come to life with the different lights of this part of the city, it wasn't because of the darkness that the storm caused then I wouldn't have been able to see this glimpse of this area's nightlife.

"Sasha, do you have the location?" Kazuma asks Sasha.

"It's right over there." Sasha answers as she uses her thumb to point at a strip club that's behind her.

"Good, let's go look around before we come back, we should get a feeling of this place for when we have to have to run.' Kazuma says to us before he starts walking ahead while ignoring the fact that he's already completely wet.

I follow after him as I ignore the smirks of the Japanese and whatever eastern people that live in this area of the city give us.

It's only when we reach an area that has the ceilings of the various shops and stores lined up one after another I hear Kazuma say something.

"Aqua.' Kazuma says to Aqua and I watch as Aqua places her hand on her wrist computer before its screen turns blue.

Aqua places her hand on Kazumas back and I can't believe my eyes as Kazumas clothes become dry, and not even his hair has any signs of having ever been wet.

Aqua turns and does the same to Sasha before she put her hand on my chest and all of a sudden I no longer feel the cold rain on me anymore.

I watch as Aqua turns off her computer and as I look back I see three poodles of water on the floor behind us.

This is just something small but I have never heard of something capable of doing this.

I know that it shouldn't be out of the ordinary considering everything that I have seen over the years, but I can't help but realize how much I don't know about the world I live in.

As we walk, we see different shops selling lingerie and toys for people to spice their lives.

We see casinos and people gambling outside in the street, as well as all sorts of restaurants, while in some windows women and men dance seductively.

On almost every corner there are prostitutes ready to sell themselves to anyone that's looking to spend their money for a few minutes or hours with them.

Yet as we walk I notice that Sasha's eyes haven't stopped glowing.

"Okay I'm ready, I won't be able to hack the subnet, but I'll be able to hack the people inside when things go bad." Sasha says to us.

"Gloria I'm counting on you to keep an eye on these two" Kazuma says to me before he turns to look at Sasha.

"Sasha you're the eyes on the back of my head." he says to Sasha before he turns to aqua who looks ready to charge in.

"Aqua, I need you to stay with them. If things go bad, I'll teleport back to you, but she might, no she will need you to heal her." he says to Aqua but its clear that he's worried about her, more than us.

"I'm sorry but I'll go alone, I mean think about it, if a guy enters any building surrounded by beautiful women everyone is going to notice, but if I go alone."

"I'm just another guy looking for a good time." he says to us, but he's only looking at Aqua who stares at him before nodding.

We follow Kazuma back towards the entrance of Japantown and we enter an alley, I watch s Aqua uses her computer to do something before Kazuma walks away.

I watch as he enters the strip club and disappears, the only thing we can do now is to wait.

"Don't worry I see him." Sasha says to us as her eyes flicker on and of.

 

[blueayes]

It's amazing how the world can become so quiet yet so loud at the same time, I'm suddenly are of the people on the street walking past us and the conversations that they are having either with each other or with someone I can't see.

As the wind blew and I realize that even though the alley we are in doesn't have a ceiling we aren't getting wet.

I can't do anything but listen and wait for something to go wrong and somehow the sound of the raindrops hitting the hot neon lights reaches my ears.

I turn as I feel someone pull me to the side. as a woman wearing leggings that light up from time to time walks past me, I turn to see Aqua who has a finger over her lips as she silently tells me to stay quiet.

What am I doing? I should be looking for David but instead of doing that I'm here.
[][][]
Kazuma
You would think that a strip club would be filled with half-naked or completely naked women, with drunk men sitting around buying all sorts of overpriced drinks but this place is clean.

The room is bright so there isn't a place I can hide unless I use my skills and the only loud music in here is coming from the different rooms.

"Welcome.' the receptionist says to me.

Just like everyone else that I saw while walking she is Asian, but I don't see any cybernetics on her.

I notice her eyes give a faint purple glow, so either Sasha is doing her thing or the woman's implants are meant to draw as little attention as possible.

"How may I help you?" She says to me.

"Yeah, a friend of mine gave me this and he recommended the special service." I say to her as I show her the flyer.

The receptionist smiles at me, but her smile isn't the same as the one she had on when I first walked in, her expression is strained as if she doesn't want to be near me right now.

"So what kind of dream are you looking for?" she says to me as her eyes glow and the counter becomes a screen showing the various girls that I can choose from.

This is going to be easier than I thought.

"I'll take this one, and I don't know if you have this option but do you have something to do with school?" I say to the receptionist as I see the girl that I'm looking for, long blonde hair- grey eyes, and light almost pink skin.

The receptionist clicks on her picture and frowns.

"That's odd, it says here that she." The woman becomes quiet before showing me all of the pictures again.

"Sorry but she isn't available right now, but we have other girls." she says to me as I feel the tablet in my pocket vibrate.

"Got it." is the message written on it.

I look at the counter and take a deep breath before I look back at the receptionist and I can see that three men are watching me from behind her.

They aren't a big enough threat to activate my skill, so they must be security, guess the people that come here must cause problems if they don't get what they want.

"So any idea when she'll be back?" I ask her, and I watch as her eyes flicker on and of.

'Tomorrow, are you sure that none of the other girls catch your attention?" she asks me.

'No, I came here because I wanted that fantasy." I say to her and she just nods.

"So do you have the address or know where she's at?" I ask Sasha as I walk into the alley.

"That's the problem." Sasha says to me, as my tablet begins to vibrate and I look at the address written on it.

"What?' I say to myself as I look at the three of them.

"What's wrong?" Gloria asks me, as I hand her the tablet and she sees the address that Sasha gave me.

"NC Police Station." Gloria says as she reads the address.

'Not only that but it says that the club's manager sent her there t keep her safe, but it doesn't say from what or who." Sasha says to us as her eyes glow brighter.

"So the owners or whoever in charge didn't kidnap her?" I ask Sasha who doesn't answer.

'Sorry, it's hard making her do things and making her think that it's her idea." she answers me.

"As in her, do you mean?" Gloria says to Sasha.

'The receptionist"

"No, she was brought here because she borrowed some money and she did work here so she could pay it off and I don't have to tell you what that means, but they let her go when she paid it, and the interest." Sasha says to me as her eyes lose their glow.

'That's it." she says to us as she looks at me.

"Okay, I guess that's where we're going, if shes there then we will just call her uncle and our job is done." I say to her.

"So what do you guys choose do we take the train or should we get another taxi?" I ask them

"Way ahead of you," Sasha answers me as she points at a taxi that's just arrived.

I don't bother saying anything, because she takes out some money and wordlessly says that she's the one paying this time.

In the end, everything turned out just fine, it turns out that the girl was handed over to the police after a client attacked her, and since she wasn't the club's problem anymore they weren't going to bother protecting her.

So we called her uncle and he went to pick her up, and because we were all tired by the time we were done we all went home for the day.

It's a good thing that things went so smoothly, Aqua and I have been doing everything to keep ourselves from standing out and so today we're going out to celebrate a job well done.

We all stop walking, as we hear the sound of the sirens and as we slowly walk closer to the sound, we see that the police have surrounded the pawnshop.

There's blood splattered on the door and the bodies of three women lay on the street, each of them has some sort of sword or knife that came out from under their mechanical wrists.

I try to turn around and lead both Aqua and Sasha away, but it's too late, as the paramedics carry the bodies of the clerk and his niece out of the store.

'Poor bastard" I hear a man behind me say.

'What?" I ask him.

"He's been looking for his nice for over a month, but everyone he hired told him to give up cause some big shot was after her."

"Guess he found her and they didn't like hearing no. At least they got to spend their last moments together, in this city that's all you can ask for." the man said to me before he walked away.

My tablet vibrates and the first time I answer the call without looking at it.

"Kazuma, the green of Blue and Green, or is it Green and Blue."

"You like to ignore people's calls, anyway I heard that you are now taking heavier jobs I have a few lined up, if you're interested." the man hangs up, and an address appears on the screen.

[Timeline change.
David meets Lucy and overuses his implant, which gets him marked by the woman in the ambulance, because he needs help with dealing with the effects he ends up going to the Ripper Doctor.

Then spends the rest of the day and night with Lucy, which causes him to not meet his mom again.

Gloria finally mages to contact someone thanks to a machine that someone bought her, and it's the same woman that marked her son earlier.

The woman tells her that her son has the implant in him and is now with a woman.

Believing that David could be in trouble she calls the Edgerunner that bought the implant but again he ignores her call.

Not knowing what else to do and having completely exhausted her options she joins Kazuma and his team, hoping that they can help her find David

 

[blueayes]

A heavy silence set in between the three of us, but after a moment Aqua began to walk in front of us, she moved her hips side to side so both her skirt and hair moved together.

It's at times like these when I can't afford or dare to look at anything or anyone else that I can see her beauty.

"Remember back then, how one day we would brink with someone or an entire party and they would go do a quest, and sometimes they never came back." She says to me and before she can say anything else I immediately say.

"No."

"Do you remember when we first arrived here and how we couldn't even find normal work because we didn't have anything." she says to me as she begins to hum to herself, but she doesn't bother to turn and look at me.

'It's kind of like back then, how we were forced to sleep on the streets and then in the barn, with all of the animals and everything that they dropped." she says to m and I can't stand to hear the pain in her voice.

I begin to walk faster and as I grab her hand before I force her to turn around and I can't help but stare at her when I see that she's crying.

"Kazuma I'm a Goddes, but this world is so broken that I can't fix it alone." she says to me as she puts her head on my chest.

"It's okay." I say to her as I see Sasha staring at us.

"It's okay" I say to her as I try to convince both myself and her.

"No it's not, Kazuma you're the hero I sent and I'm the goddess." she says to me as she tightens her grip on my shirt.

"No." I say to her, we can't afford to.....if we do what we did before, it's going to end with us versus the entire world.

"Hey get off the road you idiots!" a woman yells at us, as she honks her horn.

Kazuma"

"No"

"Kazuma!"

"No!"

"Kazuma!!"

"I said no!"

"We already lost Darkness and Meguming, there in that other world safe from this place and now you want me to risk you!" I yell at her.

Aqua doesn't say anything but her blue eyes are now red from crying and even as her tears continue to fall, I can see the determination in her eyes growing.

I notice that Sasha is covering her eyes and for whatever reason, she's crying too.

"But if the hero and the Goddess don't do anything then what hope do these people have?" Aqua asks me, and somehow I can feel the pain in her voice.

"But if I lose you too, what hope will I have?" I ask her, as I start to cry.

We look at each other and I watch as she lets go of me and walks back toward Sasha who is standing by the sidewalk.

I start to walk towards her and as a crowd of people that are no doubt recording our little spectacle she begins to repeat the same set of words that she said to me so long ago.

'Sato Kazuma, I'm the Goddess Aqua."

"Congratulations you have defeated the Demon King and have won your chance at starting over in another world."

No this is completely different.

"I as your Goddess and your friend have come with you instead of returning to Heaven."

"Shut up!" I yell at her, hoping that she stops her speech.

"So it's up to you, you can join me in one more journey or you can."

I start to run towards her as I try to cover her mouth before she can finish.

"Or you can leave me and live your life peacefully." she finishes as I knock her onto the ground with my hands over her mouth, I was too late.

I can see my tears falling on her face and join her own as they roll down her cheeks.

I slowly move my hands away from her mouth as I ignore all of the murmurs from the people around us.

"One more time." I say to her.

"One more time." she answers me.

I suddenly feel a shock of electricity flow through me as the images of the goddesses that I've met flash before my eyes, there's no going back now.

I stand up and I help Aqua to her feet, I turn to look at Sasha who is still looking at us and I signal to her to come closer before I help Aqua stand up.

I can feel the hairs on my head stand and I can't help but shake the feeling that something familiar is in the air, it's almost as if something important has changed.

"Come one, we're going to celebrate the good times we can remember and those we can't." I say to the two of them as the street light changes and we start to walk again.
[][][][]
Gloria
I can't help but look at the bracelet, the money I earned isn't near enough to pay for everything that the school is charging us, but I'm not worried about that right now.

I know that I should be, but what if things had gone bad yesterday?

And now I'm in even bigger debt than I was before, Kazuma said that it was a gift, but there's no reason for him to give me anything.

It's starting to get late and I can't wait any longer.

I know where Kazuma's team will be celebrating, so I'll ask them to come with me to the place where I usually meet Maine.

If he has David Ill pay him back everything he paid me, and hopefully, he will let David go.

I grab my jacket and head to the door and then I watch it open.

"Mom" David says to me, his eyes are filled with shock and before he can say anything else, I throw myself at him and hug him as tightly as I can.

Yet as I hug him, I can feel it in his back and as I slowly let go of him I look him in the eyes.

"Why?" I ask him, but I'm afraid of the answer.

 

[blueayes]

][][[
Kazuma
"Okay, let's start from the beginning, well not from the beginning but, you know what let me start over." I said to Sasha as she used a fork to eat her noodles.

"The truth is, that Aqua and I could have had a better life if we were less careful, but doing that would have made a lot of people turn to look our way."

I watch as she holds the fork with one hand and puts the edge of the bow to her mouth before drinking the broth.

"Waite then shouldn't we be having this conversation somewhere else, like your apartment?" she asks me.

'Why?" Aqua asks her, as a group of kids runs past us, and barely they avoid hitting our chairs as they try to avoid the crowd of people walking by.

"No reason." Sasha answers Aqua.

"So, I guess your done hiding?" she asks us and I can't help but turn to look at Aqua who has her face hidden by the bow.

"I'll get back to you on that, but if you don't want any problems it's better if we go our separate ways." I answer her.

I can see the conflict in her eyes, it's a combination of fear and loss I know that she doesn't have a lot of experience with the world considering her memories, but from what I've seen she should be able to live her life if she doesn't cause too many problems.

"Where will I go? I don't have anyone or anything." she answers me.

"Can I get what she's having?" I hear Gloria say to the restaurant owner, as she sits down next to Aqua.

"I thought that you were going to go look for" I stop talking as I see the Latino boy that's not that much younger than I am.

"Well look at you, you have a lot of nerve making your mom worry like that." I say to him, but the guy just frowns.

"I'll have the same." David says to the cook.

"So, now that we're all here how about we all go drinking." I say to everyone.

"Sure." "Yes!" Sasha and Aqua voiced their approval, while Gloria remained quiet.

"Kazuma.' she began.

"Not now, whatever it is, now's not the time." I place a finger on her lips before she can say anything else.

"Whatever problems you have will still be there by the end of the day, and we all need to unwind a little, so just relax and celebrate."

"If you need a reason, remember you just got him back." I look past Gloria and see David's angry face looking at me and I suddenly remember what I'm doing to his mom.

"That's right we're celebrating!" Aqua says before she slams her hands on the counter and stands up.

'People of Night city rejoice. I the Goddess Aqua have come to you!" she proudly announces but everyone either ignores her or does their best not to look at her.

I smirk as she sits down, both the pain from earlier and the embarrassment that she should be feeling are nowhere to be seen, yeah this is the Aqua that I know.

"Kazuma, I need you to come and meet someone with me, David he did something stupid, and I need your help." Gloria says to me as she takes advantage of I'm distracted by Aqua.

"That bad?" I ask her.

"No it's not that bad," David answers me and judging by his voice he's either angry because of how friendly I am with his mom or something else that I just don't know about.

"Alright, but if people start shooting, I will charge you this time." I say to Gloria as I order the first round of beers.

Even if we just got paid we don't have enough for a real party, so we have no choice but to drink as much as we can without spending everything we have.

"You owe me for carrying you here." David says to me as I wake up and as I look around I notice that I'm not in my apartment.

"Your door was locked so I couldn't get you in, mom told me that you helped her."

".....I'll pay you back for everything," David says to me, but I ignore him as I walk into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water.

"Hey wake up we're in the wrong house." I say to Sasha who is passed out on the floor next to where I was sleeping not too long ago.

I don't bother trying to wake Aqua up because she's not going to wake up no matter what I do, so I have no choice but to princess carry her out of Gloria's apartment.

As we walk out, I notice that David hasn't taken his eyes off me.

"If you want to ay me back, don't make your mom worry so much, but I guess it's too late for that now." I said to him as I walk out of his apartment.

Dai watches as Kazuma and his team leave and he only starts to walk to his mom's room when he sees the door close behind them, he doesn't have to walk long but he stands at his mom's door and stares at her sleeping form.

He thought that she was dead and he would never see her again.

It's no mystery to anyone what happens to people's bodies once they go missing, it doesn't matter if a person is alive or dead, as long as their body parts are still useful.

He closes his eyes and feels a naught form in his stomach before he makes the call.

"Hello, Maine."

"This is a bad time kid." Maine answers him.

"No, I have good news and....well my mom is alive." he said to Maine.

"I guess, those calls were real"

"Waite, you were getting calls from my mom?"

"Yeah, but those are usually scams people get when someone dies."

"So does that mean you're going to give it back? or are you calling me to say that you're backing down now?" Main asks him.

"No" David answers him.

"Then I'll see you in a week."

"I already told you that you didn't have to pay me back because I owed your mom, so if you want out now is the time." Main says to him

"No, that's not the reason I called you." David says to him.

'Then this conversation's over." Main says to him before he cuts the call.

With nothing else to do David walks away from his mom's room not knowing that Gloria accidentally used one of her bracelet applications and heard everything.

She didn't make a sound, nor did she bother to move she just closed her eyes and hoped that she could somehow bring her son back from the edge that he was standing on.

 

[Arimai]

Aqueiered

Click to shrink...

Acquired. From root word Acquisition

 

[zxzx24]

This was quite the read! Good work and I look forward to it!