After the brief conversation with Shadow, and with both of us agreeing that we needed some sleep, I chose to inform Isia of a possible update on the situation. We quickly agreed to meet-up the following day so that she could be briefed in and help out with the plan moving forward. In hindsight, it had been a good call for me to try and get a few minutes alone with Isia before she met Shadow.

"You're telling me that the bitch that tried to kill you is now trying to be all buddy buddy!?" Isia was stomping back and forth the street, glaring at the ground. "Tell me you at least punched her." Isia growled, pointing a finger at me. "Because if you haven't, I swear-"

"Look, she offered to help us with the Banker problem," I said.

Isia immediately lit up. "Oh, so she's icing the bastard? What's this, like a coupon? Sorry to have tried offing you, as an apology, you get three free assassination targets?" She cackled. "Because there's this guy in third district that-"

"No killing." I spoke flatly. "Also, she's going to teach me some-"

"Assassin ninja super-training?"

"More like just broad monster-fighting stuff." I vaguely explained, not really wanting to elaborate on what that meant. "I'm not exactly happy about this situation, but would you rather I turn her down and we get to find out whether some elder megucas get angry at us over it?" I waved towards the little diner place where Shadow was currently waiting. "Look, we have a bigger problem in our hands, and she said she'd at least help with the planning and potentially the logistics."

That seemed to mellow Isia out a little. "Fine. Lead the way and let's get this done with." She visibly shuddered. "The sooner we get our funds back on track, the sooner I can stop hiding from Vesp."

With a sigh of relief, I led the way inside the food-place. It was fairly empty this early in the day, and yet Shadow still managed to appear inconspicuous in her corner as she ate a sandwich.

"Is this the companion you spoke of?" The meguca asked, and I had to imagine she was doing it more out of courtesy than anything else. She'd tailed me for days, so of course she would know Isia.

Still, I opted to play along to keep things from getting too awkward. "Isia, this is Shadow, Shadow, Isia. We'll be working together on this." I introduced. "One of the suggestions Shadow made was that we have no need to steal the server or the credits. Only something of high enough value to cover for what the Banker took from us." I glanced at Isia, who'd not moved an inch, glaring at Shadow for several more seconds before she finally sat down. "Now, the goal here is to hash out the details of the operation."

Isia's lips curled as she glanced at Shadow. "We'd need a trustworthy fence. Without one we might as well just give up."

"A fence?" I asked.

"Someone who'll take illegally obtained goods and sell them." Shadow explained with a stiff nod. "I know a few that can be trusted. The question, however, is what w-I mean, you, seek to take." She had a slight eagerness in her voice that she quickly hid behind a cough. "What is the relative value of what the Banker took from you?"

"A million credits." Isia declared with an amused snort. "Maybe two."

"It's closer to a hundred thousand." I corrected, shooting Isia a scowl. "I imagine that getting our hands on some low-brand luxury car would more than cover everything." It would also be the safer option, I seriously doubted there would be-

"What? Fuck that." Isia stood up. "He wanted to mulch us, and you're just thinking of taking some four-wheeled piece of crap? After what he did, we should send a message, make it clear you don't fuck with the Sewer Saints like that."

With a sigh, I shook my head. "I will not be complicit with some gang-war escalation. Besides, didn't you want to make sure Vesper did not find out?"

"I-" She sat back down. "I still think the guy should pay for the bullshit he pulled on us."

I scoffed. "If you wanted to hurt his pride, you might as well just steal that bio-weapon he was so proud of." Though my tone was thick with irony, I knew it was a mistake the moment the words had left my mouth.

"Bio-weapon?" Shadow straightened up as if she'd just heard the first three numbers of the lottery draw. "A gang member has a bio-weapon?"

"He has some sort of sound-suppression system that uses some monster parts to do so," I explained. "It's-"

"I have never stolen a bioweapon before." Something about the way Shadow said it oozed with a sudden sense of eagerness. Her normally stoic expression took a discreet smile that was a bit too… sharp. "I would assume such a thing would cover the losses you experienced, correct?"

"Oh, I like the way she thinks." Isia was grinning now. "But a bioweapon sounds like corpo shit, I bet there's a billion trackers on it, and no fence in NF would buy it. Who'd be crazy enough to try?"

"Now wait a minute," I said, standing up. "For all we know, the thing could be dangerous. Even trying to move it could potentially make it go off."

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Shadow nodded sharply, standing up. "And that is why you will have your teacher lending assistance." She turned to the other one. "Miss Isia, please go and prepare whatever you might need. I would suggest at least a transport vehicle, disposable."

Isia opened her mouth to say something, but clamped it shut. "Sounds like a plan, ma'am!"

"Ma'am?"

"Apparently your title of 'temporary meguca' doesn't hold up here," she said, and though she sounded eager, there was a chiding edge to it aimed at Shadow.

"He is a meguca, a special case," Shadow hurried to say. "It is merely that I am his teacher, and the expert voice in this situation."

"Because you steal shit?" Isia cackled.

"By income, most of my work involves acquisition of illegally obtained goods and assets. But it is a useful experience for my other duties." Came the reply, her steely gaze locked on to me. "We need to cover some basics for this operation."

I felt like things were about to get out of hand.

Once we'd hashed out some final details and Isia took off to do her thing, Shadow led me to a parking lot not too far away from the food place. "How willing would you be to use your full powers in this operation?" She asked as we walked.

"Not very?" I half-lied, quickly stamping down on the eager little voice in the back of my head. "Wouldn't some monster showing up basically complicate everything? The less people might know, the better."

"I've seen you take different shapes. Are any of them specialized in stealth?"

The question caught me slightly off guard, I turned my attention towards the system, and the screen-prompt just gave a "shrugging" sort of beep in response. Then proceeded to bring up the "obsidian" and "shimmer" traits to the front. "Not in any way that matters. An eight-foot tall monster that can make cameras a bit funky would not be very discreet."

"You're not a monster." Shadow replied immediately, keeping the tempo. "And as your teacher, I believe you should use your combat form more frequently than you currently do. It should feel as natural as your human body."

"There's just too much risk of tripping up alarms and drawing unwanted attention." I didn't mention that my human form had changed slightly with some of the skills.

She didn't answer, appearing pensive as we kept walking.

Movement overhead caught my attention, a dull-brown AV fast approaching towards the parking lot. Its thrusters hummed with power as it decelerated, stabilizing course, turning the meteoric approach into an almost feather-fall landing. Its engines quickly went idle, doors opening to reveal a wide, but empty interior.

I couldn't help but notice Shadow was walking directly towards the AV.

"This ride for us?" I stopped before we reached the vehicle, watching as she waited for me.

"We are going to steal the bio-weapon." She replied, setting one foot on the open vehicle.

"Right now? At this hour?"

"A nightclub is most active at night."

"I mean, yes, but you asked Isia to pick up a vehicle." I gestured at the vehicle.

"And the intention is for us to extract the loot on it." Shadow answered. "An AV would be too conspicuous as an exit vehicle." She gestured at me. "It also provides a cover, having her away from the action and therefore reducing the risk of your secret being exposed."

Moving closer, I met her gaze, trying to gauge what she was thinking. "We're rushing things."

Frowning, Shadow looked at me like she was about to say something, but stopped short. After a second or two, her hand did the twisty gesture from last time, and she pulled out the same tablet as the last time. She fiddled with the controls for a bit before the image of my fight came out, specifically the quick brawl with the heavily-modded cyborg. "Is this you?" She asked.

"...yeah?" I replied, confused.

"Which shows you, fighting against the most heavily modified individual within the Banker's employ, and winning. In your base form." She continued.

"Erm… yeah?"

"Would you assume that the threats you will face if you attacked this locale in your other form would be greater by a significant degree?"

"I don't know if there are turret emplacements, explosives, anti-monster response teams, meguca response teams. I don't even know what his forces would look like if they opted to take lethal action, as one should against a monster." I hurried to reply. "For all I know, there's a meguca that could just vaporize me with a thought from half-way across the city. And this is just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more risks I haven't even thought of."

"That is a reasonable assessment." Shadow nodded. "However, consider the context of the location of the target. They do not fight monsters, and the inner city barely sees any monsters to begin with. Their greatest concern are borgs and gangs, and their preparations would be for such." She raised a finger. "Still, your concerns regarding powerful meguca would be valid under normal circumstances. However, meguca do not involve themselves with other megucas if they can avoid it. Therefore, as your teacher, I believe it would be in your best interest to tackle the unknowns as they come."

I still didn't quite like the 'teacher' moniker, but there was no sense in arguing it at this point. "Ok, so alternate question. Why take the risk in the first place?"

She paused for a moment, stepping away from the AV and approaching me, her form shifted as she did, skin growing pale, eyes darkening until they were nothing but black pits, body becoming almost skeletal. Her clothes changed as well, becoming a dark shadow-like substance that clung to her body and turned her silhouette into something that became indefinite and irregular.

"Throughout the few days I watched you, everything you did, every fight you had, it was calculated. Even when you fought monsters in your human form, you did so with an innate understanding that you could turn into your combat form if things didn't go well. You operated under the assumption of having a layer of safety." Her presence had turned into that of an unsheathed blade, the hairs at the back of my neck stood on edge. "You never pushed beyond those boundaries. You only do so reactively. When you're cornered, when you find yourself with no alternatives. When you fought the stonereaver, when you fought Bear, when you fought me."

Her accusation gave me pause. I considered it for a moment, and couldn't help but find there was a kernel of truth there. "What are you trying to get at?"

"If you do not make it a habit to push yourself and further your growth in every aspect of your life, then you will stagnate." She replied. "And you cannot set up challenges if you do not understand the scale of what you can do outside of fighting monsters. You are not a simple human, you should not think of the walls before you as if you were one."

"I am-" I stopped myself before I could finish the sentence, swallowing through the sharp pain in my chest.

The memory of her stabbing me through my ribs was fresh, I could almost remember the sensation of my spine getting blown to bits. The edges of some of the sensations were fuzzy, but the certainty that any human would've died on the spot was something I couldn't deny. No human would've been able to survive.

No human would be standing here.

"Ok," I said after a second. "Let's try this your way."

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