Cyberpunk Edgerunners IF: Going to the Moon with Kiwi, Not Lucy - Chapter 3

The neon sea of the Watson district bled hazily into the darkness beneath the elevated tracks. Sirens wailed in the distance, and the smell of burnt oil drifted from some street stall. It was still a little too early to call it late night. David Martinez, still dragging the weight of his last colossal failure, climbed the emergency stairs of Megabuilding Zeta one heavy step at a time. Kiwi's safehouse, room 1407. The elevator was, as always, completely dead, so he had no choice but to haul himself up fourteen floors. With every step, his spine—overused from the Sandevistan—throbbed with a sharp, stinging pain. "[sad]Haaah... I really did look pathetic, huh." He'd walked right into a trap, gotten pinned to a wall by magnetic locks, and nearly beaten to a pulp by gangers. In the end, Kiwi had saved him, and he'd been left sprawled under the overpass, battered and broken. Her cold voice still clung to the inside of his skull. (*What did I even say when we parted ways back there...? I got carried away and yelled something like, 'I'm sticking with you till I pay you back,' didn't I?*) David grimaced. Looking back on it now, it was so stupid it made him want to cry. After saying all that, he'd only ended up dragging her down. But. (*Even so, she didn't abandon me.*) A tight heat bloomed deep in his chest. It was the first time he'd ever felt anything like this. Kiwi was someone he'd worked with, sure. She was supposed to be just a one-time partner. And yet, the mere thought that he might never see her again was enough to feel like his heart was tearing apart. "[whispers]...I want to see her." The words slipped out unconsciously. He couldn't believe how startlingly honest they were. David shook his head and sprinted up the stairs, as if to psych himself up. When he reached the fourteenth floor, the hallway was dead silent. The paint on the walls was peeling, and a few fluorescent lights flickered unreliably. In front of room 1407, David swallowed hard. A small surveillance camera beside the door stared at him, cold and mechanical. (*First, I have to apologize properly.*) The moment he tried to find the intercom, that icy voice streamed directly into his brain. "[cold]If you don't get away from that door in three seconds, I'll slice you in half with the monowire on my left wrist." David jumped back instinctively. "[scared]Whoa!? W-wait, wait, wait! It's me, David! The idiot from the other day!" "[cold]I know it's you. That's why I'm warning you." No mercy. David hastily straightened his back. "[serious]I want to talk! I want to thank you for the other day, and I've got things to apologize for too! I don't want this to end with me just owing you for saving my life!" A few seconds of silence. The lens of the surveillance camera moved slightly, as if focusing with a quiet whir. From somewhere beyond his head, he heard Kiwi let out an exaggerated, heavy sigh. "[sarcastic]...Idiots really are persistent, aren't they." A *clunk*—the sound of the lock disengaging. The heavy iron door slowly swung inward. The room was shockingly sterile. One entire wall was lined with net-diving equipment, all of it rugged military-grade hardware. Cables snaked across the floor like serpents, making it a little hard to find a place to step. Three empty cans of nutrient drink sat on top of the refrigerator. The sense of someone actually *living* here was as close to zero as it got. In the center of the room, standing in front of a large dive chair, Kiwi stood with her arms crossed. Her two-tone pink and blue bob cut was illuminated by the pale light of the monitors. The ice-blue cyber-eye peeking through the gap in her bangs was cold and beautiful, like a carved sculpture of ice. She wore her usual tight black turtleneck and cargo pants covered in countless pockets. The monowire launch port on her left wrist glowed faintly. This was only the second time he'd actually met her face to face. Once again, her cold beauty seized his heart in a vice grip, and for a moment, he lost his words. "[cold]If you're coming in, close the door quickly. Then, sit over there. I'll give you fifteen minutes." Kiwi pointed with her chin at a folding chair in the corner of the room. David did as he was told, closing the door and obediently sitting down. On a small workbench, there was a single mug half-filled with coffee. It seemed she really wasn't eating anything decent. "[serious]Um, first of all, thank you so much for the other day." David bowed deeply from his seated position. "[serious]If I hadn't ignored your orders and charged in, things wouldn't have gone down like that. The mission failed because of me. And even then, you saved me. I'm really, truly sorry." Kiwi picked up her mug without sparing him a glance. "[cold]The analysis and results are already in. The only thing lost because of your failure was the prospect of a bonus. That trap was rigged to be unavoidable from the start. You aren't the only one to blame." Her tone of voice seemed to soften, just a little. She took a sip from her mug, then glanced at David. "[cold]So? Was that all you wanted to talk about?" "[excited]N-no, there's something else I came here to tell you!" David straightened his posture. Those words he'd shouted under the overpass—they'd been almost entirely impulsive. But they were the truth. He felt that if he didn't say them again properly here, he'd never see her again. "[serious]I want to become someone who can fight by your side. I know right now I'm just a useless idiot who gets in the way. But please, don't give up on me. Give me the right to stand next to you." Silence. The cooling fan of a monitor whirred softly. Kiwi's long eyelashes blinked slowly. She quietly placed the mug in her hand down on the counter. "[cold]...Are you serious?" "[serious]Dead serious." Her icy eyes pierced straight into David's. The iris of her cybernetic eye glowed faintly, just once, like a twinkling star. She stared at David's expression for a few seconds, as if analyzing it, then let out a small breath. "[gentle]...I see. Then, get that toolbox over there." "[surprised]Huh?" At the sudden instruction, David let out a dumb-sounding noise. Kiwi was pointing at a toolbox by the wall. He handed it to her as instructed, and she opened it with practiced efficiency, taking out a precision screwdriver. Then, without any hesitation, she began removing the armor panel on her own left arm. What appeared beneath was a complex tangle of synthetic muscles and heat-dissipation gel packs. Kiwi pointed a finger at the monowire launch port on her left wrist. "[cold]When I was analyzing the combat log from earlier, I found one error here. There's a 0.3-second delay in the monowire's launch mechanism. Taking the panel off is a pain, so you're going to help." David's eyes went wide. "[surprised]Wait, I don't know anything about mechanics...!" "[cold]It's simple. Turn this a third of a rotation clockwise. Then, peel off this heat-dissipation gel. Your job is to hold the panel in place when I need both hands." Was this her way of giving him an answer? He wasn't entirely sure, but he somehow understood that this was a first step of trust. David swallowed and picked up the precision screwdriver as instructed. For the next hour or so, the room was filled only with Kiwi's short instructions and the small sounds of metal scraping. Cursed at as an idiot and sighed at over and over, David desperately helped with the work. He just watched from beside her as her slender, pale fingertips moved with a precision that seemed almost mechanical. "[cold]...Done. The delay is resolved." Kiwi tightened the last bolt and replaced the panel. Her expression was as blank as ever, but he felt like the corners of her mouth had relaxed, just a tiny bit. "[excited]Alright!" "[cold]We would have finished two minutes faster if you hadn't messed up." "[sad]Urk..." Kiwi stood up and walked over to the window. When she opened the electric blinds, the neon sea of Night City flooded into the room. The advertising towers of the high-rises, the taillights of cars on the road, the distant lights in the direction of Pacifica. It was like countless stars fallen to earth. David stood beside her, breathless. "[whispers]Amazing..." Still gazing out the window, Kiwi murmured quietly. "[gentle]Sometimes I think this neon is more beautiful than the moon." Her voice was surprisingly gentle, and David found himself staring at her profile. The neon lights flickered and wavered inside her cold cyber-eye. He had never imagined she would say something like that. "[serious]Do you want to see the moon?" "[cold]Not really. It's just... an old contact of mine always used to say 'I'm going to the moon' like a catchphrase. Not in a romantic sense, but literally—he wanted to emigrate to a lunar colony." An old contact. The words sent a sharp pang through David's chest. It was probably a guy. Someone connected to Kiwi's past. It didn't sit well with him, but it wasn't something he had any right to comment on right now. "[serious]I'm... just being able to look at this neon sea with you right now makes me really happy." Kiwi's eyes widened slightly, and then she immediately averted her gaze. "[whispers]...You're such an idiot." She murmured that quietly, then closed the blinds. Her cheeks, perhaps because of the neon light, seemed to be tinged with just a little bit of red. Silence returned to the room. Kiwi sat down in front of her desk and activated several holographic panels. She seemed to be scrutinizing some kind of data. At a loose end, David looked around the room. Then, a single piece of paper stuck in a corner of the wall caught his eye. Was it some kind of blueprint? "[surprised]Hey, this paper... is this the Charter Hill Observatory?" Where David was pointing, there was a note handwritten with "C.H. Observatory - North Elevation." It was a scrap from an old pamphlet for a famous date spot on a hill in the northern part of the City Center. Kiwi froze for just a moment. "[cold]...I picked it up. It was a meeting point on a previous job. It's just trash." She was clearly flustered. Her tone of voice was a little stiff. David's intuition kicked in. This was a chance. "[excited]Hey, that place is still open, right? I've heard the night view is incredible! If you've never been, let's go together sometime—" "[angry]I told you, it's trash! Just drop it!" Kiwi stood up abruptly, snatched the note from David, and shoved it roughly into the back of a desk drawer. Her ears were bright red. David, having no idea what was going on, just flailed his hands. "[scared]S-sorry! Did I ask something I shouldn't have!?" "[cold]...It's nothing." Kiwi turned her face away sharply and dropped her gaze to the data on the monitor. But her ears were still red. David felt his chest tighten painfully at her completely unexpected reaction. This cool hacker, hiding a pamphlet for a date spot in the back of her desk and blushing. (*What the hell, that's way too cute...!*) David desperately suppressed his impulses. If he said something weird right now, he really might get sliced in half by that monowire. He cleared his throat quietly and decided to change the subject. After a while, Kiwi seemed to finish her data check and let out a deep sigh. "[sad]...As I thought, it looks like Phantom is moving behind the scenes. There's a high probability that the information leaked to Chromejaw's gang can be traced back to him." "Phantom... so that's the former partner who's after you." David clenched his fist. That indescribably nasty feeling he'd gotten when he first heard that name came rushing back. Kiwi nodded. "[cold]He thinks of me as his 'creation.' He has no intention of letting go of his property. You should be careful too. The moment you got involved with me, you were put on his enemy list." "[serious]Fine by me. I'd like nothing better. Anyone who treats you like that,

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Episode 3

Name: Cyberpunk Edgerunners IF: Going to the Moon with Kiwi, Not Lucy
Author: Novelia

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