章 264: Silver-Tongued

"I know your condition, the 'Johnny Brain Parasite' that'll kill you in a few weeks if left untreated. I'm offering help with that, if you work for me."

"W-work for you!? You broke into my best friend's funeral and threatened to kill everyone there!" she angrily shouts.

Ori sighs, "But I didn't kill anyone, which would surprise everyone who knows me. Almost every gig I'm on results in a massacre, so while I don't care that you're not kissing my ass right now, zip your fucking lip and listen." he growls, drawing a sceptical glare from the woman.

"Look, just listen to him for five minutes, he ain't the corpo cunt we thought he was... He's just a regular cunt who's trying to pull my schtick." Johnny states at her side.

V scowls and folds her arms while idly looking around the room, scanning it for a weapon she might be able to use... Her only options were a small wrench left sticking out of a nearby draw, the light above her that could act as a thin metal pipe, and the revolvers on Zombie's hip.

"As you know, right now I'm working with Arasaka, but not in the way you'd think... I'm with Yorinobu Arasaka, that guy that off'd Saburo, which you obviously know already. What you don't know is that he's not just a power-grabbing piece of shit, the guy's off his rocker, but he actually wants to tear the entire corp to the ground..." he says, surprising V. "He hired me to start thinning out the Arasaka board members so he wouldn't have any trouble setting fire to its infrastructure. Once they're gone, the only real obstacles left would be his remaining family, Hanako and Michiko... And, someone Silverhand knows, Adam Smasher."

"God, it's always that fuck. Surprised no one's domed him yet, thought Arasaka was bound to get sick of him eventually." Johnny growls.

"You really think you can beat Smasher? Cuz you went down pretty easy last ti-" her words are cut off as Ori appears behind her in an instant, fingers wrapped tightly around her neck.

"Your guardian angel ordered me not to kill you, locked my chrome up to stop it. So, I'm giving you an alternative. Work for me, and I'll help fix you, in return, we'll fuck up Arasaka in the process." he states.

"I'd say listen to him, V, our only current leads are that Evelyn girl, who's disappeared off the face of the earth, and Hellman, I'd rather trust his capture to this guy rather than that piece of Nomad ass..." Johnny adds.

...

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"This is Juno, since David thought we needed more members I brought one of my own in... And I actually vetted this one." Ori states, sending a look at David who just sighs in response.

The person standing before them had no identifiable gender under all their clothes, wearing a leather jacket with the Samurai logo on the back, torn-up black jeans, and a helmet visor concealing their entire face, gloves covering up even their hands. It was obvious to everyone that they were trying to cover their identity.

"So, 'Juno', where'd you and Ori meet?" Rebecca asks.

"At the Afterlife, hit it off and he offered a job." 'Juno' says, their voice sounding identifiably male.

The crew continued to interrogate Juno over the course of thirty minutes, and finally, Ori claps his hands, interrupting the session. "Alright, now that we're done with that-"

"Hang on! I wanna know why this gonk won't show his face!" Rebecca exclaims.

Ori shrugs, "He's an ugly bastard and embarrassed about it," he nudges Juno 'playfully', "Ripperdoc fucked up a nose job, then their tool went haywire and scarred 'em up good. Trust me, unless you like looking at mincemeat he's better off masked... No offence." he said, offering his apology to Juno.

"It's-... Fine..." 'he' grumbles out, clearly perturbed by the subject matter.

"Now, I wanna know the status of our target, we've wasted enough time on it and if there's nothing we'll have to report it to our benefactor." Ori states.

Lucy audibly sighs, "There's nothing, I spent six hours straight in the subnet and got nowhere. They're probably hiding in the tunnels under the city waiting for the heat to die down."

Ori looks to Kiwi, "Anything?"

"Same old, only thing I found was their abandoned chess club account... Rest of their shit must've got scoured by Arasaka before we could touch it." she says, and V/Juno can only frown under her mask... How did these people get into her account? She'd forgotten the goddamn password for it years ago!

"Alright, guess we're holding off on this gig then. I'll report back to the client... For now, you guys take a break, I've had you on overtime for this the last couple of days, have a beer or something." he says while walking off.

...

"So, Juno-" Rebecca starts, only to be interrupted.

"Not here to make friends." Juno states before leaving.

"Oookay..."

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"What is the status of our thief?" Yorinobu asks.

"About that, we got no leads, she's gone underground and disappeared, there's no point wasting more time on this... Best we can do is return to it later and hope she gets sloppy." Ori explains.

...

Yorinobu frowns through the holoscreen, "Is that so... I trust you have exhausted all possible options, not that I am no disappointed with your lack of progress... We shall continue with your last assignment, the purging of board members. Without my father, we can act with less restriction. I will send you an updated list of targets I wish to be removed."

Ori nods, "I'll get my team on it, the surviving members are probably skittish though, so we might need some help getting them in the open."

"That has already been covered, I have manoeuvred them into more... Dangerous ventures, it's almost amusing how easily they can be lead, thinking that they are getting the better of me whilst in grief for my father. Handle them, and you will be paid handsomely."

*Bzztch!*