Big Mike's wasn't too far away. The restaurant was relatively small, though that tended to be the case these days. It had an old retro diner style to it. Light and none shined through the windows, lighting it better than the flickering overheads ever could.

Big Mike himself, according to the tag on his chest, sat behind the counter with a bored look on his face. The name fit the man. He was tall and wide, definetely deserving of the moniker 'big'.

The joint was almost empty, not that it was much of a surprise. It was a small hole in the wall on the outskirts of Bukicho, and Ichiban was far more of an attraction. Not to mention it was a bit hidden away.

Big Mike's food looked and smelled pretty good, though. The burgers themselves were interesting. They were the size of a pizza, but a burger. A few customers sat in their booths eating. From the slack-jawed brain-dead look in their eyes, probably corpo drones on break. There were two colorful people, though.

One, a man, looked absolutely terrified. He gaped at his surroundings like a newborn baby. I made a mental note not to approach him. He looked the type to pull a gun at any second, and the dilated twitching of his eyes was less than reassuring. Dark Ether by the looks of his nearly black veins. Real nasty drug. Expensive too… if he didn't look so jumpy I might've considered cleaning his pockets.

The other was probably the one Carone set me up with? She was the only woman in the place. Real tall, with muscles that had muscles. She practically radiated barbarian vibes. Maybe that image was informed by the way she ravenously tore into slices of burger with reckless abandon? She didn't seem to care about the mess in the slightest.

She had a mop of fiery hair, and half of her head was covered in circuitry. Every time she opened her mouth to take a bite of the burger, two long fangs glinted eerily in the ambient neon of the street of the world. Her body was covered in Light Tattoos, though I couldn't exactly tell what they were supposed to be. They glowed red and shifted and twirled like blood.

Her left arm was entirely chrome, with wires sticking out all over it. Looked like dummy wires though? A flash of neon caught her flesh arm when she reached for another slice. She had four notches between her knuckles. Looked like Tickler ports, maybe.

Her skin warped unnaturally, like what I'd expect from subdermal armor. It was subtle though, so it must be high end stuff. She wore a crop top, showcasing a six pack flashing with red. To be fair, I would showcase a six-pack if I had one. My stomach though? Barely even bones… Silage was barely enough to stay alive, let alone build muscle.

I headed over to the table, hesitating slightly. "Um- Carone sent me?"

She gulped down the rest of her slice. Her face cracked into a grin, fully flashing metal fangs. It didn't necessarily feel like an intimidation tactic, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a bit of fear. "I was wonderin' when ya would show up! Wasn't expectin' ya to be so… small? Take a seat!"

"Thanks?" Was that even a compliment? It felt slightly demeaning coming from her. I slid into the booth and set my bag down. "He didn't tell me much."

"One sec." She waved a hand at Big Mike. The guy immediately got to work. "Want a burger? Look at ya'! All skin and bones! There ain't a burger better than Big Mike's, trust me. He may look like he eats half his product, but he can make one damn fine burger."

"I-I'm good." Wow, she was a lot. Very, very high energy. Might even surpass Mira, if that was possible. Definitely not what I'd expect from a 'friend' of Carone. Thought she'd be a bit more… I dunno, edgy? "The gig?"

"Straight ta business! I like it! Unless I'm eating…" She frowned like she was faced with a serious dilemma. "Whatever, I'll make an exception.

"Thanks?"

"Introductions first? Mesa Moonlet." She stuck out a heavy hand. It was the one with the Ticklers… I didn't want to get near those things.

Still, I didn't want to irritate my employer. And she seemed like a rather up there merc. Even more of a reason to stay on her good side. Angry merc was a quick way to end up in a dumpster.

"Shiro." I took her offered hand. I felt my bones crunch against each other once her massive paw enveloped mine. "So, Mesa-"

"Call me Iris. Everyone else does." That… didn't make sense. How did someone get Iris from Mesa Moonlet? Also, what was that last name? Must be a fake name.

My annoyance started to spike. It was like she was actively avoiding talking about the gig. "Iris, then. What did you wan-"

"Order up." Big Mike dropped a heavy tray full of burger pizza. He nearly knocked me over the head when he turned and walked back. The guy was beefy, and not in the same way as Iris.

"Thanks, Big Mike!" Iris happily called and munched on a new slice. "What were ya' sayin', skinny?"

I looked out the window at the passing traffic. Deep breaths, Shiro. It wasn't worth getting in a losing fight with a chromed-out merc. Or a guy that looked as if he could tank a shotgun through pure blubber. "The gig. What is it?"

"Oh! I need help. Investigation and stuff. Normally I wouldn' trust someone so small, but Carone said you were acceptable. That's high praise coming from the fire fanatic." She said in between mouthfuls. She had somehow managed to eat a fourth of the burger already.

I glanced around superstitiously. It was usually a very bad idea to badmouth a fixer. "R-right. What is it you need me to do, though?"

Iris pulled a data slate and tossed it to me. "A chum of mine was… incapacitated. I wanna find the guys that did it. Simple, right?"

I looked down at the data slate. There was a single line of text—a location—and an image of a guy covered in bullet wounds. "Is this… it?"

"'Course! 'S why I need ya'! I tried ta do it myself, but uh… well, I'm good at smashin' faces, not other shit. So, what about it? Six hundred Rayn. Shouldn't even have ta do any heavy liftin' with those twigs ya' call arms." She smiled as if she didn't just insult me again. I got the feeling it wasn't a corpo 'I insulted you but then gaslighted you' type thing; more just optional synapses.

"I'll see what I can do?" There was barely anything to run on. Saying no wasn't exactly an option though.

She gulped down the last burger and waved to Big Mike again. "Nova! Where do we start?"

I frowned at the woman. "We?"

"Yep! Ya' do the fancy investigation bits, and I do the face-smashing parts. Seamless teamwork at its finest." Iris had a stupid grin on her face. Maybe that was just my thoughts on her IQ bleeding out, though.

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Seriously, how the hell did she survive as a merc? Or maybe being a merc required your brain to be missing parts. Wait- no- my brain was fine. Must just be her? Unless she received one too many hits to the head.

"I usually work alone-"

"Glad we came to an agreement! So, where do we start?" There was a bit more steel in her voice this time around.

"The scene." Considering she could bend me in half, I found myself suddenly less opposed to a teammate.

Big Mike came back with another heavy tray full of burger and vanished just as fast. Iris pointed at it. "Nova! We can leave as soon as ya' eat somethin'. Ya' look like ya' might fall over with a light breeze, tiny."

Did I have to? I watched her grin, flashing her fangs at me once more. I really didn't want to argue too much. I reached for a slice and bit into it- oh- oh wow… this was really good.

— — —

I pulled into the Trend Motel, suppressing a sigh. It was a rotting mess of a place, and apparently the scene of the crime. I half expected the place to fall down at any moment from how rickety it looked. There were neon lights of very… intimate actions scattered around the place. What else could I expect from this damn city?

Insight triggered. I looked up, meeting Iris's flaming eyes. She stood out front of the motel, completely conspicuous with her flowing blood-like Light Tattos. How did she beat me? I could've sworn I left before she did, and she ordered another burger.

To be fair, I went and bought some investigatory stuff on the way over. Most of my Rayn went out the window once more, but I would double it if I did this right. And with that money… well, my bike had been having troubles recently. I might need to get it fixed.

Or I could look at it myself, I guess. Who knows? Maybe that training from Tech's first level might be useful. The bike had simply been rasping a lot, like a dog that couldn't quite breathe.

"'Bout time!" She called from the door.

"Hey, s-sorry. Had to grab some stuff." I walked past her. I decided on the way over that it was probably best to just ignore her as much as possible.

I looked for an elevator- out of order. Only stairs for the motel. Fucking stairs. I really need to start doing cardio at this point. What was this- three times in a row? It was begging to get a bit ridiculous. For a city as technologically advanced as AC, why were all the elevators broken? Tech might be the best Skill purely so I could fix them.

Iris clomped up the stairs behind me, not showing the least bit of drain up to the fourth floor. Yes, clomped. With how much of her was metal and muscle, it was a surprise she wasn't falling through the floor. If only they could make elevators as resilient as floors… to be fair though, this motel's tech looked cheap. I had yet to even see a security camera.

"So! How does this work? Ya' walk in and then go all 'my senses are tinglin'? Or is there some secret to investigatin'?" Iris followed behind me to our motel room.

At first glance? The door handle had been blown off. Someone definitely made a violent entry into the place.

"'Course not." It was far closer than I would like to admit. Insight truly carried me during the last couple investigations.

I stepped into the room. It had a nice-sized hole straight out into the four-story drop of a back alley. It looked like a chrome dome had full body charged straight through the wall.

That was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of destruction. Bullet holes littered the walls like a full group had committed to spray and pray. At least one shotgun and maybe a couple of SMGs, based on the spread pattern. "Your chum- are they partial to a shotgun?"

Iris walked in behind me, crushing a fallen bottle underfoot. "Nope! He's partial to a-"

"Sword?" I guessed. There were trails of blood flung cleanly as if launched by a blade. I recognized it from scenes I'd seen in the past. The katan-toting Jade Fang were partial to flicking blood off. Especially common the few times I'd been Underground.

"Wow! Ya' really are good at this! Flame face didn't throw me a single-celled organism after all!" Iris chuckled and leaned against the doorframe, causing it to creak ever so slightly.

I set my bag down and slid on gloves to keep from contaminating the scene too much. This way I wouldn't leave prints or anything in case an actual investigator—or worse, an Inquisitor—rolled in. It would be really awkward to have the Blue Crusade raid my cargo container on suspected murder charges.

Insight tingled gently. There was something off in the air. A bit similar to the few times I thought I felt magic? It was off though? It felt weird against my skin. Couldn't quite describe it.

The spent bullets were the first thing I looked for. I grabbed every shell, casing, and bullet I could find and tossed them into my bag. I even found the remnants of a flashbang under a cushion.

Based on the markings all over the flashbang? Looked handmade instead of factory crafted. Wouldn't have noticed such details before getting Tech. I spotted a twisted tree mark near the bottom of the thing. Creator's signature, maybe?

I moved around the room, careful not to disturb it too much, and took in the details. From what it looks like, Iris's chum had been casually chilling when the attackers came in. They probably hit hard and fast based on the flashbang and state of the door.

The guy exacted a toll of blood for the attempted hit. There were chunks of flesh and blood everywhere, and most of them looked to be from a sword rather than the attacker's guns. "What's your chum's job?"

"Inquisitor." Right, the sword makes more-

Fuck, an Inquisitor? She had me looking into an attempted hit on an Inquisitor? I immediately pulled back, ensuring not even a piece of hair fell off my head. No way I wanted the Crusade to roll onto me for being even remotely involved in this. "You- you didn't tell me this involved a Crusader!"

"Chill, chum." Iris crossed her arms in the doorway. "Won' be an issue. A cleaner is on the way after we leave. Be like we were never here."

"Y-you sure?" I stopped my attempts to escape.

Iris slammed a fist into her chest. "'Course! Best in the biz, trust me. Ya' just do what ya' need to do."

Ugh- I really wanted to leave… but a job was a job. I turned back. The sword strokes made a lot of sense if the chum was an Inquisitor. They were basically the detective variants of Blue Crusade Inc. Still incredibly lethal with the longswords that the corp favored.

Why wasn't this place crawling with the Crusade though? They usually take hits on their own extremely seriously. Like, serious enough to pull a politician naked and screaming out of his apartment for a public execution. Seriously, it happened about a year ago.

And why the flashbang if they were going up against an Inquisitor? No way a power house such as that was even stalled by the flashbang. The Crusade's helmets and masks definitely had built-in flash suppressors.

I glanced around the room, but didn't find any luggage. Probably using this place as a meet up then. Or he was just dirt poor- no, not if he was an Inquisitor. "You know why he was here?"

"Ta meet a contact, I think." She shrugged. "I dunno. Just showed up at my door half dead."

Oh? He didn't head to a hospital? Or even go back to the Blue Crusade HQ? Very interesting. That, to me, screamed that he was extremely worried about a traitor or something. What was he working on that almost got him silenced? And who was ballsy enough to even attempt such a thing?

I looked around a bit more, but didn't find anything too important. Just bullets and shells. Whoever was here seriously lit this place up. "It's a wonder they didn't call anyone in yet."

"I threatened to crack the owner's skull if he did." Iris said casually from the door. "You figure out who did it yet?"

I shot her an icy look. "These things take time. I can't just walk in and instantly know what happened."

Insight was tingling though. I was definitely missing something… I looked around with a finer comb, checking everything again. The blood trails in particular caught my eye. The drawer was miraculously clean of shots. Almost as if the Inquisitor tried to protect it? Why go through the effort?

I looked a little closer into the drawer, noticing a small recording device taped up into it. Set by the Inquisitor maybe? Or the contact? Still recording, so it couldn't have been set up that long ago. I turned it off and pulled the chip. "When did your Chum show up?"

"I dunno. Maybe six hours ago?"

Damn, Carone moved quickly. Well, it was good for me. These blokes didn't just heal instantly, so they probably headed to a Medek or hospital after this... probably a medek. Hospital trips were damn expensive these days. And doubt they would go for a hospital trip after messing with a Crusader.

Hmm… first things first, I should look into the twisted tree mark on the flashbang. It was obviously handmade, so I might be able to get an approximate area of operation if I can find similar stuff. Might even be able to track it to a group if I was lucky. "I got what I needed. I'm going back to my place to go over the evidence."

"Nova! Where at?" The woman popped off the wall. That wasn't an invitation. She flexed her muscles slightly, making me rethink that sentiment.

"I live in a cargo container. You won't fit." Probably.

Iris smirked, flashing her fangs at me. "Then I'll just sit outside."

Ugh- she was like a dog! Just wouldn't give up. The Rayn though! It was worth it Shiro! Just work through the pain of having her follow you like a puppy. A very dangerous chrome puppy. A potentially psychotic death puppy. A-

I should just get out of here before I make myself feel even worse about this situation.

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