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Maiko left us, her emotions a swirling storm. She still looked at us with fear, waiting for me to zero her out, and also with a certain adoration for me... that adoration had appeared in her eyes during lunch.
Of course, Judy noticed it, just as she noticed the signs of attention that Maiko, while still wary of our crew and my reaction, was starting to give me. She unbuttoned a couple of her top buttons, sat in a more feminine pose, and tried to flutter her eyelashes a couple of times... but I was completely uninterested. And now, as she was leaving, along with everything else, she was also feeling hurt and annoyed.
After all, in her mind, she was magnificent and irresistible, holding a good position, and she was ignored!
"Well... did we achieve our goals?"
I asked Judy this question after her acquaintance closed the door behind her.
"Yeah... we warned her... and we zeroed her out. Not just with your cooking, but with the fact that you ignored her hints..."
"Well, that wasn't hard to do... I have more than enough female attention, and the girls who give it to me are much more pleasant in looks, intelligence, and spirit."
"Heh, listen to him sweet-talk!"
"Becca, for your information, he's talking about you and me, too..."
Lucy looked at her friend with disapproval.
"Then he should take some responsibility and just fuck us already!"
Becca pouted in annoyance.
"Becca..."
Panam shook her head.
"...it doesn't work like that. You can't just say 'fuck me' and have a boyfriend right away."
"Really?"
I looked at Panam in surprise.
"And here I was about to take my pants off..."
All eyes were on me.
"Seriously?!"
Becca immediately reached for her panties, which she was wearing.
"Of course... but since Panam said it doesn't work like that..."
I shook my head.
"...and I trust Panam. So it doesn't work like that..."
Of course, they all knew I was just kidding. Their grins showed it, but even knowing that, Becca couldn't just stop.
"It works!"
"Stop!"
Panam put her fist on Becca's head and rubbed it a couple of times, making the girl squeal in pain.
"I get it! I get it! I can't be that brazen! I'll just slip into his bed, and that's it!"
Panam sighed.
"Well, at least that's something..."
"Seriously?"
I looked at Panam in surprise, and so did the others. But she just shrugged. She looked as if there was nothing contradictory in what she was saying.
"I don't think any of us doubt that Becca and Lucy will end up in David's bed?"
"Well..."
"No... they'll get there... though I doubt it'll be in the next week..."
"Yeah, and I don't doubt it either..."
Panam shrugged and gave a snarky look to the girls who hadn't been in my bed yet.
"...but I still want to keep some decorum. And I don't want to hear about how you plan to fuck my boyfriend. And I certainly don't want to see it."
"Alright..."
Lucy nodded seriously.
"Alright... that's enough of that topic. What are we going to do now, Judy?"
"What about me?"
"Well... you know Parker and what she's capable of planning. You know Maiko... who will outsmart whom, and should we get involved?"
"Nah..."
Judy shook her head.
"...we're not getting involved in any of this. Though I'll send out a message to some dolls I know, so they can get the hell out of the Clouds for a couple of days if they need to."
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"...it's your call."
"I don't give a damn about them... I did everything I could. The rest is really just about zeroing out all the unnecessary people and becoming the queen of the Clouds herself. But that would mean tying herself to this city. And you had some awesome plans for flying to the moon, even for the near future..."
Judy shook her head, and at that moment, the phone rang.
"Listening, Rogue."
"David, they found Dex..."
"And?"
"With a hole in his head..."
"I'm not surprised."
"It wasn't you, was it?"
"Does it look like it?"
"Well... no, not really... you wouldn't have dragged him to a dump. You would have zeroed him out where you found him."
"A dump?"
"Yeah... they found him by chance. And I still can't figure out what he was doing there..."
"Well... I can guess..."
"I'm all ears..."
"V... the day I went to Viktor's and he was operating on her, she and that ex-suit stank. V was probably taken to the dump after she got a bullet to the head. And after that, the suit went to Dex and demanded the name of the person who did it..."
"Hmm... and after finding out that the person who did it got a bullet to the head, he decided to see for himself. He found out at the dump that V miraculously survived, and Dex, as he was no longer of any interest, was simply zeroed out."
"Exactly."
"It's a bit of a stretch, of course, but for lack of other info..."
We were silent for a bit.
"You don't want to know what I dug up for your acquaintance?"
"No... that's not my problem anymore. Honestly, I've already gotten too involved in all of this..."
I shook my head.
"...I'm not going to dive any deeper."
"Alright... though it's a shame..."
"Hmm?"
"Well, if it was you who did it... you wouldn't have done it for no reason, and right now, you would have given me a ton of useful and not-so-useful information. But now..."
"Alright... end of comms."
"End of comms."
The connection was cut, and I shook my head with a sigh.
"Did something happen?"
"Dex is gone... found in a dump."
"Hmm?"
All the girls looked at me in surprise, and I told them my theory about how it all could have happened. And they had to agree that my version was plausible...
Early in the morning, we got to the Aldecaldo clan's camp, and we spent the entire day working. The runners were cracking the shards, and I was working on the tech that had been brought to me for a job from Rogue's and Regina's crews...
But all good things come to an end...
And our good time came to an end when a very, very expensive car drove up to the clan's camp, and the familiar Chinese-Japanese guy got out of it. I was relaxing in the fresh air, so I could see everything that was happening. I saw him, with his head held high, walk toward the nearest clan member.
A couple of words...
With that same contemptuous look on his face, and then his expression changed. It went from contemptuous to displeased, and he said something else. And his face quickly changed again...
Sandevistan!
The world froze for me, but I knew it would be foolish to show off all my abilities in this situation, so I slowly lowered my acceleration. And I only started moving when the guy started moving in my perception.
But going in his direction would have been stupid, as that would have also shown off my abilities. Instead, I pulled out a dagger and threw it in the guy's direction.
But I threw it in a way that the handle would hit him, not the tip. And I threw a second one in a way that its tip would fly right past the guy's nose, leaving a thin cut on it...
I immediately turned off my Sandevistan.
"Hey..."
Just as the daggers had done their job, a second before I started talking, and the suit hadn't had time to attack a member of my clan.
"...what do you want here, suit?"
"You..."
He turned in my direction and, with his right thumb, wiped away a few drops of blood that had appeared on the bridge of his nose.
"...my lady wants to talk to you."
"Yeah, I don't give a damn about that..."
I shrugged.
"...I don't do business with corpos."
"I think you should change your mind..."
"Why would I?"
"We can pay..."
"Yeah, yeah..."
I nodded, showing that I believed him. And I really did believe him; they could pay, but I wasn't going to get involved in corpo shit.
"...I believe you can. But I don't work for corpos."
"And yet you helped V... and she needs your help again..."
"I helped her..."
I nodded again.
"...but she's not a corpo, even if she used to be. And my help was... not that significant. I just helped her not die. From now on, she has to work things out herself..."
"But she needs..."
"Suit, I already told V this. She has to do it herself from now on. I'm not going to get involved in corpo fights and fights between corpos."
"Are you sure? Working for us can be very profitable..."
"Yeah... very profitable..."
I nodded.
"The profitability was very apparent on V, when she was thrown away, and on you... you guys are the very definition of the word 'PROFITABLE'."
"We can talk differently, you know..."
"There..."
I nodded.
"...typical for a corpo. If things don't go your way, you immediately start with the threats, not concrete ones yet, just hints... but I don't think threats are far off. So why don't you just attack now? Let's skip this pointless talk..."
"I was ordered to bring you in alive and unharmed for a talk..."
"Well..."
I shook my head.
"...that's not going to happen."
"You do realize that something bad could happen to your clan members..."
I shook my head.
"You know, something bad could happen to the top brass of your corporation, too..."
"Are you threatening Lady Hanako?!"
"Only if your words about my clan's problems can be seen as a threat..."
The guy clenched his fists so hard his knuckles cracked, but he didn't say anything. Only his gaze became very, very heavy.
"So, should I take your words as a threat?"
"N-no..."
"Well, in that case, you shouldn't take my words as a threat, either."
I shrugged.
"You can just turn around and leave, because I'm not going to talk to your lady. I'm not going to work for her. Or against her, for that matter."
"Are you sure about your choice, mercenary?"
"Yeah."
"Alright..."
He turned around and walked toward his car.
I knew perfectly well that he didn't like that answer, just as his lady, who was probably a spoiled girl who wasn't used to hearing "no," wouldn't like it. But I wasn't going to go with that suit.
"Tony..."
I looked at the sentry who had met the guy and could have gotten a pretty bad beating from him if it weren't for me.
"Yeah?"
"...are you alright?"
"I'm fine... but if it weren't for you..."
"Good that you're fine... I need to go see Saul... talk to him and prevent any possible problems..."
I sighed and headed for Saul's place...
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