I do not own Ghost in the Shell or any of its characters.
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Light filtered into his brain, but something felt off. He couldn't place exactly what, but it was there. He raised a hand to his head, and somewhere in his brain, he knew that something was off about even that.
"Cane?" Kusanagi asked worriedly.
"Hey," he smiled, turning his head to her, only to raise an eyebrow.
She was in a new body. It had the same shape, but it was a little taller, and her hair was purple now, with the hair to either side of her face hanging chin-length, the back hanging shoulder-length, and the bangs hanging to her forehead, looking something like an inverted bob haircut. Her irises were also red, now.
"New body?" Cane asked.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Kusanagi asked.
He hummed, thinking. "I remember you diving in the Puppeteer's body. I remember you were slipping away. Then..." He closed his eyes before remembering the cold, the fear. "I got shot."
"Your body died," Kusanagi nodded. "You were fading, but the Puppeteer remotely hacked into what little cyberbrain you have to access your ghost, and pulled it into my body to protect it. He said that you could be saved, but only if I fused with the Puppeteer."
"Motoko," Cane breathed. "You didn't."
"I had to," Kusanagi said. "I couldn't lose you. I fused with the Puppeteer, and I used his abilities to hack a pair of Megatech Body Inc manufacturing cells to make us new bodies, then pulled your ghost through the Net to your body, then got you out a couple minutes before anyone responded, erasing the records of what bodies were made. We've been in this safehouse for days, since then, while I waited for your ghost to accept its new shell."
"So...I'm cybernetic, now?" Cane asked.
Kusanagi nodded. "I was very specific with your body's design, so you should be able to use adrenaline, still, or something similar to it, but instead of wearing your heart out, your body will just move sluggishly and will need a few minutes to power back up. I also added a few goodies that I'll teach you to use."
"Goodies?" Cane asked. "Please tell me I have a vibrate function."
Kusanagi laughed. "No, no. Nothing like that. Concealed weapons. Your left arm has a double-barrel, break-action shotgun, in the forearm, and your right has a CZN-M22 equivalent in your forearm."
"Awesome!" Cane grinned, then frowned. "How do I use them?"
"Like I said, I'm going to teach you," Kusanagi said.
Cane nodded, then pushed himself upright before reaching over and kissing her. Kusanagi sighed, leaning into the kiss instantly, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tightly, all of the fear she'd felt since he was shot slowly settling at last.
Cane held out his right arm, his hand separating and swinging out to the side at the back of the wrist before his forearm separated into several plates, exposing the considerably shortened M22 inside. Unlike the normal version, this one lacked a buttstock, instead having his elbow joint in its place, and the gun itself was shorter. Instead of just under arm-length, it was roughly forearm-length, with the end of the barrel being concealed in his hand. It lacked a lower magazine well, also, instead having the upper rail replaced by a slot for a custom, detatchable, fifty-round box magazine along the top, of which he carred five along with his pistol mags. Its sight was a holographic projection on top of the frame rail above the barrel. When his arm separated, he wached several pieces of the gun extend from inside of it before securing into place, allowing the gun to hide inside of his forearm.
"Targets," Cane said.
Kusanagi pressed a switch, and several silhouette targets rose from the ground. Cane opened fire instantly, his right elbow automatically locking into place as his left hand gripped one of the sections of forearm, which was designed to be a foregrip. Cane's aim with his right arm's M22 was getting better, but it was still awkward to use. In general, past fifty meters, he missed about one shot in ten for every five meters, meaning that by one hundred meters, he was likely to hit around a target and scare them, but unlikely to hit them, unless lucky.
The gun clicked and he freed the magazine from the top, swapping it for a fresh one in roughly two seconds, then collapsed his forearm back down, instead opening his left as a target stood beside him on the left. His left arm swung around, and just as the arm finished opening, he fired, blasting a gaping hole in the target. The shotgun was little more than a hammer-and-firing-pin system attached to the elbow joint, then the barrel, which ran to his wrist, the outwer layer of his forearm splitting in half along the top and bottom to open outward from the elbow, the hand remaining attached to the outside of the forearm. The shotgun used ten-gauge shells, and Cane wasn't a fan of break-action weapons, but its raw destructive power made it highly useful despite its shortcomings. He whipped his left arm downward just far enough before stopping for the shotgun's barrels swinging downward about a quarter of the way along his forearm from the elbow. Two empty shells ejected, and he shover two more in before whipping the barrels back into place. In total, it took him about one second to reload the shotgun, but the frequency of the reloads ruined the achievement. He collapsed his left forearm around the shotgun again and turned to Kusanagi, who smiled and nodded. It was good enough. Finally, after three months, it was good enough.
"Alright," Kusanagi nodded. "You've basically mastered the use of your new toys, you know how to switch between your main body and your two spares, you can interface with machines and work through attack barriers decently...You're ready."
Cane nodded. "I'd just like to point out that my so-called spares are entirely identical to my main body, including the built-in toys. That means they're technically not spares. They're replacements."
Kusanagi rolled her eyes. "Don't argue with me."
Cane smiled, kissing her, then went to pack up his spare clothes and replacement bodies, as well as packing away his guns, as he didn't need them all. He kept one new pistol with him, a Seburo handgun that fired the same 5.7 ammo as his right arm's gun, and which he had exclusively extended magazines for, allowing each magazine to hold thirty rounds. Once he'd packed everything away and had his pisyol concealed, he walked back out into the main room, where Kusanagi was just arriving with her own luggage, though hers lacked the spare bodies. They headed out to the car together, loading their stuff up, then started toward Section Nine headquarters. Cane grimaced at the sound of his suspension creaking and groaning under the weight of their four titanium bodies.
"So, you're sure they're not on a man-hunt for us?" Cane asked. "Or going to question us showing back up after months away from work?"
"Oh, no, they'll be extremely suspicious, especially given your body is likely buried now," Kusanagi said. "But we'll say the Puppeteer burned itself out to save us by uploading our ghosts to new bodies, and then we'll have to deal with being watched for about a year before they trust us again."
"Joy," Cane said, glancing at her. "So, I know I've asked before, but..."
"Yes, Cane, I'm still me," Kusanagi said, taking his hand. "I'm not going anywhere. I will always be right here with you."
Cane smiled, nodding, and squeezed her hand. A few minutes later, they reached Section Nine HQ and walked inside, Aramaki meeting them at the door.
"Don't move," Aramaki said. "You have five seconds to explain."
"The Puppeteer saved us," Kusanagi said.
"How?" Aramaki asked.
"He used my body to boost his signal and hacked into Cane through his few augmentations, then pulled his ghost into a sort of data storage area he had created, then pulled my ghost in as well," Kusanagi lied convincingly. "He then hacked a pair of Megatech Body Inc. manufacturing cells again so that he could build us new bodies and put us inside of them, but in doing so, he burned himself out. Once I woke up in my new body, I noticed Cane's ghost was rejecting his shell, so I took him somewhere I could try to stabilize him. Because of the circumstances of his body transition, it took a long time for his ghost to stabilize and for him to adjust to his body."
Aramaki stared at her for a long few moments before speaking only to the pair of them telepathically. "So, you fused with the Puppeteer to save Cane, did you? Alright. We'll go with your cover story. If you have any spare bodies for him, go take them to storage, then meet the techs in the lab for a diagnostics scan of your legally acquired bosies, which are no longer owned by Megatech."
Kusanagi and Cane nodded, and both headed back to the car for their gear before heading inside.
Cane smiled as he tightened his arms around Kusanagi, who responded in kind. A few seconds later, May and April finally came back from the bathroom, joining them in the bed.
"It's so good to have you back," May smiled, pressing her lips into the back of Cane's shoulder.
"We missed you," April agreed, kissing the side of Kusanagi's neck just as both strippers slipped their hands down to tease Kusanagi and Cane.
"Jesus, you two," Cane sighed. "You're incorrigible."
"I suppose there's nothing else for it," Kusanagi sighed. "Gang up on Cane!"
Cane's yelp of surprise was muffled by Kusanagi's lips before May mounted him and April reached between both girls' legs.
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