Chapter 164: Dead Flowers
After heading out of Lizzie's, about a week after gaining the Chaos System, everyone went there own ways, well except for me as Kiwi called me over as everyone went on home.
"So what's up?" I ask as I sit on her couch while looking at her, luckily her Apartment is right behind Lizzie's bar so we just walked on over.
She doesn't say anything at first and presses something on her apartments wall before a hidden cupboard opens up to reveal a lower half of a face, one that was a normal one at least.
She then pushed the sides of her face as I heard a click before her cybernetic mouth came off before putting it on a stand next to the other one as it was pulled down into a different area as I could hear the sounds of her face mask being cleaned while she took the other in her hands before coming over to me as my holo lit up.
"Help me put this on." She said handing it to me as I looked it over while seeing the intricate mechanical details of the faceplate.
As I looked at it Kiwi sat down before laying her head on my lap which surprised me as I raised an eyebrow at her, "What? It's easier to change it out while laying down with another persons help." She said.
Hearing that I just shrugged and gently pressed it up against her face before lining up the sides before they easily clicked into place.
I saw her move her jaw around before she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and put one in her mouth, I grabbed one as well and pulled out my own lighter and lit mine.
I then leaned down and pressed the smoldering end of mine to light hers up as she laid her head on my lap as we smoked in silence.
I kept smoking while we talked through the holo, "So, what did you wanna talk about, though might I add I find this look of yours to be beautiful." I said as I ran my fingers across her chin as I looked down at her.
But she just slapped my hand away, "Please, your too young to try to play a move on me kid."
"What? Not interested in a hot young guy like me?" I said before taking a drag and flicking off the ash in a ashtray before putting it in my mouth again.
"Mmm, more like I get fiesty when it comes with messing around, not only that I prefer linking Neural Ports when I have sex, something most people can't handle without going into a coma for a week afterward, and it doesn't help that I have high grade Chrome in my head so it tends to fry the senses of any guy I've done it with." She said back but still hadn't lifted her head off my lap.
"I thinking your saying some bullshit so you don't say you haven't had your cherry popped when your already in your late twen- OW! That fucking stings!" I shouted out as she took her cigarette and burnt it onto my arm in retaliation for what I said.
"Don't you know it's rude to talk a woman's age, and I really don't appreciate a kid talking about me being a virgin when you have only been having fun with those two crazy girls from what I can tell." She says while I rub my arm as I waste a bit of my blood pump to get rid of the burn mark quickly.
She got up and went over to the window as she looked down at the city before looking back at me.
"Hifumi, you remember what I said when we met for the first time?"
"Never trust anybody? But you remember what I said right?"
"Of course i remember, the only ones you can trust are the ones who would take a bullet for you and that you'd call a true friend." She said which wasn't word for word what I said but close enough.
"Sooo…. Does this mean the stoic, soft spoken and pragmatic Kiwi finally trust me and even considers me a friend?" I showed an over exaggerated look of shock on my face which she flipped me off when she saw that.
"I trust you so I'll let you in on something about me and my past…" she said before beginning to explain her past to me.
She wasn't born in NC but actually was born in Chicago and was actually raised in an orphanage.
One problem was they were sold off to corporations if they were shown to have the Compatibility with becoming great Netrunners which was sounding familiar to me but I kept listening.
She was sold off to ZetaTech to be a corporate trained netrunner assassin as she would deep dive the net, find her designated targets and kill them, but her life was a living hell during that period as she constantly feared of death from her superior's or from those she was sent to kill.
But luckily since Chicago was part of the NUSA what ZetaTech was extremely illegal and so Militech came in and destroyed the facility and released the children.
But as Militech wasn't babysitters the kids were all abandoned with little to no money on them at all so Kiwi did what she did best when she was a young teen and that was this world was kill or be killed and anyone and anything could stab you in the back.
So first thing she did was see a ripper doc to take out any ZetaTech chrome in her body with only her neural port being kept the same, she even got rid of her original face plate that originally gave her a blacked mouth and chin, actually the reason she got a new one was she had her jaw shattered by her higher ups and had her mouth forcibly replaced to keep her mouth shut in case anyone inspected the facility from the NUSA but that only got them so far before what inveitably happened.
So after that she got enough money to hop from one place to another before finally getting to NC by 15 and between then and joining our crew things weren't all that well for her, enough to make her distrustful of everyone and anyone.
"…. And that's my story to sun it up, but you are the first person I can trust and not only that…" She said before coming back to the couch and laying her legs on my thighs as she looked at me with a squint in her eyes.
"Your the only one that can help me get back at those ZetaTech bastards for what they did, and what seems like they are still doing." She said before taking another drag before blowing out the smoke and putting out her cigarette in the ashtray.
"Oh? And why would you say I can help you fuck up a corp all by my-"
"AWG."
"…. Haaa so you finally figured that out?" I said with a sigh.
"Well you weren't exactly hiding it but you weren't saying everything either." She said with a raised eyebrow which was true I never said anything but everyone knew that my brother was a CEO level Corpo it's just nobody looked too deep into it.
"So then, what do you need me to help you with?" I say crossing my legs while looking at her.
"ZetaTech is at it again, only this time much closer to home, Sin City itself, the place where the mega rich and powerful go to spend there Eddie's and have fun while also being the third highest homeless population in the NUSA, and I want to fuck them up and make them pay for what they did to me a hundredfold." She said while saying for the first time with an angry look on her face.
I just rubbed her legs and thought for a bit, "I'll see what I can do, but you know it would be much easier if we get everyone else involved in this you know?" But she just shook her head.
"No, it's not that I don't trust them…. I just don't want to see my entire crew die for my personal revenge." She said with a melancholic look on her face.
"You know it's really nice to see you care about them so much you don't want them to get involved, but what you don't care enough if I get killed?" I say sarcastically while she sighed while shaking her head.
"It's cause I know you could easily get out if and when shit hits the fan on this job, besides it's a job where nobody would get paid so I doubt the others would join in a mission like this." She said as I pushed her legs off me before standing up and reaching out my hand.
"I know you won't admit it, but you trust them enough to let them in on this but don't want anyone to die for you as well, well news flash Kiwi this crew is tight like family, you ask for help I doubt they'd say no to this, and with my brothers backup I doubt they wouldn't want to be a part of such a big mission like this, as they say being an Edgerunners we live our lives on the Edge every single day, so we live it like we have No tomorrow, now grab your shit cause we're getting our crew together whether you like it or not." I say as she finally grabs my hand as I pull her up standing before heading for the door.
"…. Haaa, I'm surrounded by idiots…. But this is my crew of idiots." She said with a slight smile.
And on this day Kiwi's cold exterior slowly began to melt as she became true to herself once more.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone