Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 417

Mira and I sat at the diner in the darkness. Err—realative darkness. Vox sat on the table with her spotlights on, casting some light over the street. Power went out entirely just before we slipped into the place, and now the entire street was out. The only lights were from a few buildings with backup generators.Bikes roared down the streets, and lights illuminated the fog. Mira shifted in the booth across from me. “They sure move quick.”

I glanced at Mira, and then looked back out the window. The fog gleamed with the motorcycles’ lights. “At least someone does.”

Seth and the detective were supposed to meet us back up here along with Shinobu. I could forgive Shinobu. The power went out, so he was probably busy dealing with that. The other two, though? Maybe lost in the dark?

“What are we doing after this?” Mira leaned back in the booth and crossed her arms over here eyes.

“Sleeping.” My hand was starting to throb a bit once more. I ran my fingers lightly over the tightly wrapped bandages. “I’m about to pass out.”

”I mean, yeah. Tomorrow? Want to come by and do some Troubleshooter jobs with me?” Mira asked.

”… do you want me too?” Her job didn’t sound very fun from what I’d heard about it. Tracking lost pets was pretty far down on the totem pole of jobs I’d like to do… whatever paid rent, though. Probably would’ve killed for a job like that in the past.

”Not if you don’t want to.” Mira’s arm flopped off her head. She ran a finger around the edge of the halo, making it bob lightly.

“I was going to finish that project…” I looked around the diner, and carefully picked my words. “Maybe hop into the, uh, other place. You know, where I see my trainer?”

”Oh, nova.” She sighed. “Too bad I can’t come.”

”Why not?” Fox would probably love the company. Actually, maybe that wasn’t true. I had no idea how she treated other humans aside from me. I could ask, though, right?

| Request - New Friends - Received

-Bring Mira to 9 Peaks.

-Bring Vox to 9 Peaks.

-Reward: 10 EF |

Well, that answered that, didn’t it? The reward wasn’t very high, but I wouldn’t be bringing her along for one in the first place. A bolt of nervousness passed through me. Bringing Mira to meet Fox… it was an oddly nerve-wracking thought.

“Maybe after?” That should give me just enough time to finish my Nightshade armor. Maybe test out a few other things, too. Oh, and I had those Perk Points I needed to spend.

”Sounds good.” Mira sat up straighter, and nodded out toward the street. “Here they come.”

The bell over the diner’s door rang lightly. Seth King stepped in, followed by a Jade Fang holding an umbrella. The Fang looked particularly annoyed, though didn’t say anything and just shook off the umbrella.

”Ah, there you are.” Seth’s eyes lit up as he spotted Mira. “Sorry I’m late. Ran into a bit of an issue with the doors into the Arcade. The power outage flicked the emergency lock.”

”You’ve been at the arcade this entire time?” Mira’s expression twisted.

Seth didn’t seem to notice, and just laughed heartily. “Yeah. Otori and I lost track of time while playing games. Oh, he probably didn’t do it. Wrong place, wrong time. You know how it is.”

Why did it seem like he became buddy-buddy with one of the suspects for the murder? No, wait, before that—he was playing games at the Arcade this entire time? I should’ve tagged along with him instead of Mira. I ran a hand along the bandages. They probably had one handed games there, right?

She was doing just fine with the investigation part, anyway. She probably didn’t even need me. Her time looking for pets hadn’t been all for nothing. Her investigative skills were quite high, especially with five different trains of thought to work through things with. Or maybe I was just slow tonight. I was on way too many pain drugs.

Just as Seth sat down at the table, the door opened again and Detective Bradton slipped into the place. He shook out his heavy trenchcoat, and flicked water in every direction. “Coming down a bit harder, eh?”

”A bit.” Mira tapped the table idly. “You get locked in, too?”

”No. One of the bots went haywire and started attacking everything with a broom.” The detective pulled off his coat, and tossed onto a chair. He then grabbed the chair and dragged it toward us instead of just taking a seat in the booth.

“Oh. We lucked out, didn’t we?” Mira nodded to me. “We had no problems getting here.”

“Must be nice.” Bradton sighed, and ran a hand through his slightly damp hair. “Where are we?”

”Haven’t even started yet… you have your suspicions?” Mira asked.

”Indeed. Makoto lines up.” The detective crossed his hands in front of his chest. “Motive, opportunity, means—he had it all. He’s been digging around the elder’s files since we got here, too. Could be destroying evidence.”

”Shinobu put several Fang on him,” I muttered to Mira. The enforcer wasn’t an idiot. One of the Kage originally went with the chief of operations to keep an eye on him. It was highly doubtful he’d be able to destroy evidence under one of the elite’s watchful eyes.

Mira just subtly dipped her chin. “What about you, Seth? Or were you too busy trying to get the high score?”

”Trying? Please, I took several high scores.” The guy snorted, and crossed his arms. “Akane Misuridio looked suspicious. A lady like her—can’t trust them nearly as far as you can throw them.”

“What gave you that impression?” Mira’s eye twitched. “Her line of work, or was it just how she looked?”

”Oh… um—“ Seth froze like he wasn’t expecting to get any blowback. “Vibe?”

”Right. Vibe. That’s all you have to go off of, isn’t it?” Bradton seemed to feel similar to Mira. “‘Cause Lord knows you haven’t been actually digging around.”

”Hey!” Seth’s eyes lit up with righteousness. “I’m just slow. Slow and steady is usually how my investigations go.”

“‘Cause it takes a while for your bodyguards to do all the work for you?” Mira shook her head. “Whatever. I was thinking the doctor looked suspicious.”

”Not a bad call. He also stood out to me.” Bradton leaned back, and riffled through his trenchcoat. A moment later, he pulled out a leather bound book. “This is the elder’s agenda. Found it stashed in the corner of his office.”

“Is it okay to just take evidence from a scene like that?” Seth’s eyes went wide.

”Why not? Used to do it all the time when I was with the Crusade. I’ll just plant it on the perp if someone has an issue with it.” Bradton shrugged, and dropped the agenda onto the table.

That… that was about right, actually. I couldn’t even say most of the Crusade was upstanding and upright people that wouldn’t do that kind of thing. Not after spending so much time with the organization. Hell, I’d be more impressed if someone actually did things by the book by this point.

Mira opened up the agenda, and flicked through the pages to a book mark. She pushed it in front of her slightly so I could see too. “There’s his appointment with the doctor. Why’s it marked differently?”

“Maybe he was in a hurry today?” I offered. Unlike every time the elder had a medical checkup with the doctor, today’s note just said

”Maybe.” Mira tapped the time written down alongside the note. “Here, Vox. What time did the firmware update roll out today?”

”Early… could’ve hit here at any point, though.” Bradton shrugged. “According to a friend, they do rolling releases to control the updates and fix anything that goes wrong quicker.”

Vox tipped her nose down toward the ink, and huffed at it lightly. Her chemical analyzer could probably pick up how long the ink had been drying, but the timeframe would be wide enough it likely wouldn’t matter. I could see what Mira was trying to do, though. If he had the note before the firmware update, then that meant he went to Fugen for something other than just the corrupted update.

”He had a meeting with Makoto just after.” Mira tapped the agenda. “Then here’s dinner with Akane. The meeting with Hiiro. Finally, one last meeting with Otori.”

It matched what Hiiro told us about the time frame. He really was nearby since he had a meet-up with the elder, which just checked out another part of his story. The more clues that backed up what the two of them had said, the better.

The three discussed the clues for a bit longer. Really, it was Mira and Bradton bringing Seth King up to date on the case more than anything. By the time they started wrapping things up, the lights ahead flickered. A beat later, electricity washed back through the street.

”Power’s back.” Seth glanced out the window of the diner.

”No shit.” Mira nodded to me. “I think I’m gonna drop by the doctor.”

“Roger. I’m going to talk to Makoto. See if I can’t pull a confession out or something.” Bradton stood up and swung his chair back where it belonged.

”Don’t be too hard on him.” Pulling out a confession? With the Crusade? He wasn’t going to go torture him or something, was he?

”’Course. I’m not convinced its him yet either.” Bradton tossed his coat back on and eyed me weirdly. I bit my tongue. So much for just being the escort. “What about you, boy?”

”Akane.” Seth slid out of the booth. “Anyone know where she is?”

“The security cells last I saw. Go check the cat-maid cafe, though.” Mira said. “One of the workers there probably knows.”

“Thanks.” Seth grouped back up with his Fang escort, and slipped out onto the streets with the umbrella held over his head. Bradton followed him out a moment later.

”You gonna get me an umbrella too?” Mira playfully nudged my shoulder, and picked Vox up. The fox wiggled out of her arms, and jumped up onto her shoulder.

“I got you a poncho.” I pulled away from her. “Better than this shit Fang jacket.”

She shrugged lightly. “Well, you could always change back. It’s not too late.”

“I’m committed now.” ‘Sides, we were almost done here. I could feel it in my bones. Once we got back, though… hmm… I was going to say I wanted to take a shower, but sleep came first. Hot water pouring into my wound sounded absolutely miserable. “C’mon.”

”After you, little Fang girl.” Mira chuckled and easily dodged my retaliatory swipe. She did, however, open the door for me. I stepped on her toes while walking out into the street.

Doctor Fugen was exactly where I thought we’d find him. He hadn’t left his clinic, and sat cooped up behind a desk. White, clinical light poured onto him from above. The desk itself, if I could even call it that, was made by pulling out one of the morgue shelves.

“Fugen?” Mira stepped in a moment behind me, and squinted through the harsh light. It was so much brighter down here than anywhere else. He definitely had backup generators, too. It’d be foolish not to for a clinic.

“Ah, yes. Come in.” The man was so caught up in his work, he hardly looked up at us. He just kept tinkering with the piece of chrome. My chrome eye zoomed in on the piece, and I checked it out. Looked like some of the servos went out. It was a pretty easy thing to fix.

“We had some questions for you, if that’s alright.” Mira stepped further into the room, and looked around the clinic.

“About?” His head tipped to the side, and he glanced up at us briefly.

”About the murder.” Mira side-eyed me. “What else?”

“Sorry, my head’s been a bit of a mess lately.” Fugen finally finished fixing the chrome—only to grab another piece and start working on it, too. “Sorry about this, too. I’ve fallen quite behind on my work today. My patients can’t wait.”

“I get it.” Mira slid over to another open morgue shelf and took a seat on it.

While I watched the man work, I looked around the rest of his shop. It was fairly well stocked by the looks of things. His equipment was definitely newer than Nael’s. Wasn’t much of a surprise. Nael was independent all the way though, and this guy was backed by the Fang. ‘Course he’d be well stocked.

Still, the chrome he was working on looked like simple back-alley specials—chrome designed to be functional and nothing more. Most of them didn't even have frames or synthskin, and were just pieces of machinery.

Should I give my Foundry out to more people? Make a more limited one, ‘course. Smaller than Nael’s, and with only a fraction of the chrome. Even with those limitations though, it’d be a massive boon to plenty of people. Quality of life rapidly shot up if people just had better access to newer tech.

Did I even want to, though? I eyed the medek. I was a bit worried about who I’d hand it out too. I couldn’t vet everyone, and I didn’t want just anyone to get a hold of my tech. It’d be all too easy to use it to abuse desperate people. Maybe I just make the chrome myself and sell it cheap? That could go into the whole Better Tech, Better Future slogan I’d been thinking about for Cold Moon.

I shook my head and focused back on the conversation at hand. “… would have access to tetrodotoxin?”

Dr. Fugen rubbed at his chin. “The chef, definitely. Anyone if they really wanted it. That kind of thing isn’t exactly rare. Be easy to get a hold of it on the black market, even if just synthetic variants.”

“Interesting.” Mira’s leg kicked idly. “And the firmware update—about what time did the elder come in to talk about it?”

”Let’s see… would’ve been right before lunch, I think.” The doctor shrugged. “His biomon probably has an exact outage time.”

”Probably.” Mira frowned. That lined up with the time of the agenda. “Oh, right. Any idea why Hiiro would try to frame you?”

”Ah, you think he did it too?” Fugen’s expression eased up, and he tapped a chrome leg idly. “He never much liked me. I was the medek in charge when his brother was brought in… flatlined before I could even get a hold of him. Could be for that.”

”That’d certainly be a strong motive.” Mira glanced back toward me. I just shook my head. Hiiro didn’t seem to care much about his brother’s death. Didn't even bring it up. This could be a super long set-up to make Fugen take the fall, though.

“As the chief of security, he’d have access to all the codes for the street, too.” The man continued. ”No point telling a medek that kind of thing.”

”That’s… fair.” Mira’s eyebrows scrunched up. She’d been thinking it was him alongside me, but the man had a point. Our killer definitely got into the safe, so it had to have been someone who knew the code. There wouldn’t have been enough time to crack the safe unless the person was on my level. She whispered back to me through the Packheart link, “any other questions?”

I thought back through the conversation, and slowly worked through every other clue that’d been given. “No.”

“Then if that’s all.” Mira slid off the table.

Hmm… It could be that? I should totally go all in, shouldn’t I? I was ready for this to be over one way or another. I pulled out my phone, and turned on the screen. I put on a surprised expression, and fully committed to it with Honest Face. “I just got word from Shinobu.”

”Oh. Anything important?” Mira paused her steps, and glanced over her shoulder toward me. She looked a little surprised that I was taking the initiative to speak up this time around.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, though my eyes never left Dr. Fugen. ”Makoto finally managed to find out what the elder was working on just before his death.”

The doctor’s hands froze, and he slowly put down his tools. “Is that so? Do you think it's linked to his death?”

”I’m just the messenger.” I bowed my head, and backed down. Not to mention it was a lie. Something had to change, though. We weren’t gathering enough evidence quick enough, and the job was to figure out who the killer was by tonight.

Mira took the opportunity to press harder. She noticed the same thing I did even without me having to say something. “I think there’s a strong chance. Did you hear about the safe being broken into, doctor?”

”Indeed.” The doctor shrugged. “I figured it was for the money. The elder kept most of Kake Street’s earnings on chips there.”

“Oh? Did he?” Mira looked surprised. Her cues had a hint of subterfuge to them, though. “Most of the others didn’t even know what was in there.”

”Ah, yes… well… he talked under the effects of sleeping gas, sometimes.” Dr. Fugen stood up, and calmly cleaned up his workstation. “Shall we go check with the others?”

Mira glanced back toward me. I sent a quick text to Shinobu, and nodded back. “Why not? They should all be gathering soon. Maybe we’ll finally put this case to rest and find the murderer.”

”I sure hope so. We’ll all be much safer without that heinous criminal walking around.” The man grabbed an umbrella, and waved us toward the stairs up into the precinct. “After you.”