File 2: Installing New Software

"DAD! Stop please! I'm sorry!" a young voice screamed.

"I've heard enough from you, YOU LITTLE CUNT!" An older male voice screamed back, followed by a loud BANG.

My eyes forced themselves open, heart racing faster than a rocket. It took a moment to adjust to my surroundings before realizing it was all a dream, or worse. My breathing was still heavy and it felt like weights were being stacked on my head. After a couple minutes I recuperated and looked around, I was still in the alley. In the left corner of my optics it showed the time, 4:32. The night sky was covered in a thick layer of cloud with rain still pouring down. Behind me was the bottle of vodka which apparently I used as a pillow and a pile of garbage behind that. I sighed and looked at the bottle. There was a bit left near the bottom, so I polished it off, cringing at the burning rotten taste. The sounds of guitars and drums beating reverberated through my skull; it was my phone. It displayed that I was getting a call from an unknown number, but the picture that showed was very familiar. It was a neon jolly roger, but the bones were guitars. I accepted the call and a short girl with deep purple hair and eyes showed herself.

"Hey Yao, how are ya?" It was Jiro, an old friend who I met in Kyoto back when I worked with the Yakuza. She still had the same look to her as she did three years ago, only this time there was a large socket on the right side of her skull I barely noticed because she hid it so well under her hair.

"Hey Kyou-" I started before yawning. "What's up?" I replied, stretching my arms upwards.

"Oh nothing. Just thought I'd call you," Jiro said with a smirk.

"Well, alrighty then."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Just got done sleeping"

"In… an alleyway?"

"Got a problem with alleys?"

"A bit. Anyway, I think I found a job recently that would really suit you."

"Sorry J, out of order."

"Really? You're telling me you haven't fixed that blade yet?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said sarcastically. "It's not like I just arrived yesterday or anything!"

"geez Yao, calm down."

After a minute of awkward silence I sighed heavily and spoke up.

"What do you want?"

"I found a job for ya."

"What're the details?"

"A Detective at the NCPD put out a contract on a high-interest individual who they have a reason to believe is the perpetrator in a string of murders up north. Name is Tomura Shigaraki."

"What's the payout?"

"700 eddies." After she said that I would've spit out my vodka, if there was any left.

"What?!" I yelled in surprise, making a couple of heads turn while they walked down the street. 700 was a lot of money. Hell, you could buy a pair of mkIV military grade optics with that kind of cash.

"What's the address?!" I yelled, running out of the alley and onto the street.

"Well… he was recently spotted at the Icarus Heights Mega building. Address is 18428, Floor 21, Suite 2193." While she spoke I was in a full on sprint down to the address while my optics gave me directions.

About half an hour later, I arrived at the entrance. Hundreds of people crammed together, food and firearm stands around every corner. In a secluded corner behind a Mexican food stand, there was an AI info stand. In the stand there was a young looking lady with short brown hair and eyes with a slightly rounded face. She wore a black and white jumpsuit with pink accents, Walking up to her she greeted me happily,

"Hello ma'am. How may I be of assistance?" She said in a cheery tone.

"Im looking for suite 2193. Mind telling me where the fuck it is?" I said, resting my arm on the panel in front of me.

"Gladly! There is an elevator over there that can take you up to the 21st floor." She pointed towards a large metal door covered in graffiti. "Suite 93 is to the west of the elevator, although i may want to tell you it's been vacant for the past 9 weeks. Any reason you're going up there?"

"Looking for someone."

"Well good luccccckckkckckckckckckckckck…" she began to malfunction, parts of her body becoming static before rebooting.

"Hello ma'am. How may I be of assistance?" She said before I walked off towards the elevator. Inside it was cold with adverts covering the walls. The panel Crackled before displaying all the floors of the building, showing a max of 82. Clicking on 21 It began to ascend, slowly. After about five minutes I reached the 21st floor. The entire building had a thick stench of rust and alcohol. The corridors were covered in gang graffiti and other random shit, sounds of people yelling, fucking, getting high and even fighting could be heard on my way down to the suite.

There was a large red 'EVICTION NOTICE' holographic note covering the peephole.

"Alright Yao, I've connected to the suites systems and it seems it's still receiving power. The door should be unlocked in about 5 seconds." she said while I readied my blade.

"We're in!" she yelled over the call as I kicked it in. As soon as my foot touched the door a huge cloud of of smell came right at me, the smell was a mix of drugs, alcohol, blood, and… decay? Covering my mouth I entered the room, inhalers and bottles of empty tequila lined the floors and counters. Turning to the bathroom there were several unopened bottles of tequila and inhalers with bits of blood in the sink. The mirror had a massive crack in it, showing multiple reflections of my face. The bathtub had… a body? It was an older man that had all his arms and legs missing. His head was covered in this strange black liquid with his skull fully visible. Large black caverns covered where his eyes should be and a strange message engraved on his skull.

"TRAITOR."

Looking over it, the body was severely decayed, about 3 months at max. Grabbing the skull, it snapped off the spine easily. Turning it around the implant was still intact and turned on. Grabbing my BioMonitor, I plugged it into the socket at the bottom of the implant and a video began to play. In the video there was a man in his 30s with spiky blonde hair wearing a dark green and red aviator jacket. Beside him was an older man with short white hair and fully chrome limbs.

"I thought you knew what would happen if you ever lied to me shigaraki." The older man said in a cold tone. He held his arm up and it split into 4 parts, revealing a cannon of sorts.

"Nezu, listen to me! This is all a big misunderstanding!" Shigaraki yelled out in a desperate tone.

"If this was a misunderstanding, you wouldn't be a dead man walking." Nezu replied before firing. The video cut off, and my BioMon ejected. I put the skull back in the tub and locked the door on my way out.

"So Yao, how'd it go?" Jiro piped up when I got in the elevator

"Where's the cop who put out the contract?" I asked coldly.

"He's down at the NCPD headquarters off 152nd and downing street… did something happen in there yao?"

"He was long dead before I got there J."

"The fuck? How long has he been dead?"

"From the looks of it, bout 3 months."

"Shit… but if he's dead… than who's been murdering all those people?" Jiro said. After that there was a long pause as I made my way down to the station. Outside the entrance of the complex there was a man in a dark green and red aviator jacket with spiky red hair smoking a cigarette. He started to stare at me, taking a long drag before stomping on his cigarette then mounting his bike and driving off. The loud screech of the engine powering up was a bit startling, he still was fucking staring at me as put his helmet on and drove off. One thing that I pointed out was on the back of his jacket, in big red font there was the word 'IGNITION' and below that was a flaming skull with red eyes. I thought that something didn't seem right with him but I brushed it off and walked down to the police department.

The outside of the police headquarters was a dark blue with security cameras scattering the outside. Two droids carrying rifles stood outside the entrance, scanning their surroundings. Heading in, the building was somewhat clean with a metallic silver coating over nearly everything. Personnel were running around like mad men. Up ahead there was a man sitting behind a desk with rich blonde hair and blue eyes. I walked over to his desk and he looked up at me with a smile.

"Hello ma'am. How can I help you today?" he said an almost exaggerated happy tone. But from the look of it he wasn't exaggerating at all. When I was about to speak I forgot who I was really here to see. Luckily, Jiro piped in and saved my ass.

"psst. Your here to see Detective Lida." She said in a whisper.

"I'm here to see Detective lida." I said in a cold tone.

"Alright. He's on the third floor in his office. I'll get a droid to escort you. But before that I'll need to have him pat you down." He said as the droid walked over.

"Put your arms out at your sides and turn around." The droid said in a deep tone. First, the droid started running his hands down my sides and over each of my legs before running them over my arms. I sure as

Shit was annoyed about this but I'd rather not get into any trouble with an autonomous killing machine that'll snap your neck in two with one hand.

"All clear. Follow me." the droid said as we walked over to the elevator. The man at the desk gave me a friendly hand wave than put his hand up to his ear like he was calling somebody. The tune of really shitty elevator music played for a couple minutes as I stared at the droid in front of me. His exoskeleton was a dark navy blue with the serial number 'BLA-2318.' multiple small ports around the rim of his neck had darkly lit red hues, most likely audio sensors. After a few minutes of studying the sentient dishwasher, the elevator gave an electric *ding* and the doors opened. This floor was a lot busier than the ground one, loads of personnel at their desks and running around. The dishwasher ushered me to follow and as we walked down the corridor we stopped at a glass door with a name displayed. The dishwasher stood guard at the side of the door and I let myself in.

"Hello?!" yelled a harsh voice. Looking at the desk there was a dark blue haired man holding his head, nursing a glass of rum. He had exposed wiring on the sides of his eyes that ran to the back of his head, a black prosthetic arm holding the rum, and dark blue eyes.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" he yelled, visually cringing as he held his head with much more force.

"Payment. Where is it." I said coldly.

"Oh, that shit. How'd it go-." he said before suddenly screaming in agony. He grabbed his head with both of his hands and collapsed out of his chair, writhing around on the ground. I looked at him with concern before running over to his side.

"Inhaler… the inhaler on the third shelf…" he choked out before I slammed open the durasteel cabinet. In the cabinets were many bottles of alcohol, pictures of him with a little girl, and documents. I grabbed the inhaler and threw it at his head. He weakly stretched out his hand and took a whiff of the inhaler. After a few minutes he visibly seemed to relax and breathed a heavy sigh. He put his hands to his sides and pushed up.

"Much… Better." he said, relieved.

"what the hell was that all about?" I asked in a questioning tone.

"Nothing…. It's just a condition. Anyway, you killed that bastard right?" As he said that I rubbed the back of my neck and stared off to the side.

"About that… he was dead in his bathtub when I got there." Lida's eyes shot open and he frantically ran to his desk and searched through folders on his computer.

"No, no, no, NO, NO! I had him! I Fucking had him!" he slammed his hand on his desk out of shear fury. He sat down in his chair and started pouring a glass of rum. He chugged the glass and stared at me coldly.

"Well, this changes everything. I'll get a forensics team down there as soon as I get the chance. Thanks anyway, here's your payment." he sighed as he passed me the blue credit chip. I swiped it off his desk and just as I was about to walk out the door he spoke up.

"Hey, wait! I've never seen you before. What's your name?" he said in a questioning tone.

I looked back at him and stared right into his navy blue eyes. "Momo. Momo Yaoyorozu."

Hey everyone! Sorry it took me a year technically to get this chapter out. I had a couple outbreaks of writer's block when trying to finish this and haven't had the guidance of my English teacher so it's been a bit difficult to get this. Still, above all else, I really hope you all continue to enjoy this chapter and this story as I trek along with this story. Peace out!