Dear Readers,
Welcome to another installment of Night City Holy Grail War! I hope you enjoy it!
ShirouKuroEmiya
Chapter Two "David's Father"
"Emiya!? Are you anyone related to Kiritsugu Emiya, the legendary Solo?" David shouted with wide eyes.
I couldn't resist to grin proudly and nodded. Anyone else in my position would likely react the same way. For mercs (mercenaries), or Solos, Kiritsugu Emiya was the super celebrity of the industry. His exploits were the stuff of legend and stories.
"Yes, I am." I replied proudly before my high-strung pride started to settle down. "I mean no…"
"Hey! Why are you back tracking of all sudden?"
"Umphm…" I mumbled while caught off-guard by how easily I had given away my connection to Kiritsugu.
To be fair, I was proud to be the son of Kiritsugu Emiya, but my parents had warned be to never anyone unless they were someone that I was willingly to trust my life. My father had many enemies, and some of the counted amongst the most powerful and influential people on the planet. The last thing I wanted was to be used as hostage for my father to be exploited.
Suddenly, I felt the urge to… maybe erase David's memories, at least that part I was Kiritsugu's son. Then I shook my head. David might not really believe it, and if he did then anyone he told this information might not believe him because well… There were people all around the world that claimed to be Kiritsugu's child that no had really believed the claims anymore. At least not seriously without strong evidence.
"You thought I was going to believe that claim?" chuckled David.
I mentally sighed in relief. "You are absolutely right! I was just joking with you." I smiled. "Oh, I forgot about this."
David caught the Shard that I threw at him. "What's this for?" He asked while eying the Shard.
"My deal with your mom included health and work insurance. Since she isn't in a state to be working anytime soon and she listed you as a beneficiary, that is money for living expenses and extra."
"How much…" said David as he chipped in the credit shard into one of his neck puts. "Woah!" His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at me. "100,000 eddies!"
"How do you think that your mum affords to send you to Arasaka Academy in Night City?" I quipped. David was about to speak up when I beat him to the punch. "My deal with your mother only started about a month ago. What she did before I entered the picture is not my place to say. You will have to ask your mother about that."
Still that didn't seem to deter David as he wanted to push more. It was only my death glare that stopped him in his tracks.
"Fine," he threw his hands up in surrender. "Since my mum's will not be working for the foreseeable future, how about I pick up my mum's job."
I was about to refute him when I remembered that David was not just any street kid. He attended Night City's Arakasa Academy, something that was normally afforded to wealthy elite. David could potentially have connections built up from his school that could be useful to me.
"Sure, if that is what you want." I shrugged, "but you are not going to be any help as you are right now."
"I am fine as I am!" protested David as he saw me scan his body.
"Your current loadout makes you no different from the regular joe walking on the street. The more capable you the better the results. So I recommend you get upgraded. Whether it is some bioware or cyberware. Personally, I recommend bioware. Less likely to be detected and there isn't the worry about cyberpsychosis."
"You believe chrome is inferior?"
I nodded. In general, I was a strong believe that bioware was superior over cyberware. Every piece of cyberware, unless it was cyberware produced by Olympus Technologies which was made from reverse-engineering Atlantis artefacts that had managed to survive until today, increased the user's chance of becoming a cyberpsycho.
That wasn't to say that bioware wasn't without its disadvantages. Cyberware was cheaper than its bioware equivalent thanks to how current cyberware industry could churn a hundred cyberware for every bioware implant. It was also easier to replace as the number of well trained ripperdocs outnumbered their bioware specialist counterparts several fold, due to part how it took much longer to get the knowledge to work with bioware.
"Here are the upgrades I offer you free of charge."
I sent David a message, it used the credit shard I had given as a link to a list of bioware upgrades that I was willingly to offer him without any eddies coming out of his pockets.
"Holy crap!" His eyes widened even as they glowed with telltale signs that he was reading something reflected onto his retina by his ocular implants. "These are not just any bioware implants, but the top of the line, military-grade ones."
"Yes," I smiled, "but these are not designed primarily for fights. They are created for intelligence gathering-"
"It doesn't matter!" David interrupted me. "Any upgrade, bioware or cyberware, is better then none. Especially top of the line, military-grade!"
"So which one do you want?" I asked curiously.
"All of them!" He shouted as I had expected. "Since you know, bioware doesn't cause cyberpsychosis."
"That isn't true," called out my sister as she walked towards David and me. David turned to Illya and she explained, "One part of cyberpsychosis is that the cyberpsycho think that they are superior and humans are inferior. This comes from that fact that greatly enhance abilities naturally possess or provide traits that humans do not have like the ability to directly interface with computers with their brains. Bioware user also can suffer from a mental condition known as biopsychosis."
David stared at Illya in disbelief as if not believing what my sister had said.
"An extremely rare condition that is very rare. If cyberpsychosis happens to one out of every hundred thousand cyberware users than biopsychosis is one out of one half million bioware users." I chimed in to correct any wrong assumptions that David had been about to burrow into his mind. "That isn't important right now. How is-"
"My mum!" David interrupted as he rushed toward Illya. "Is my mum okay? Please tell-"
"Back off for a moment," shouted Illya as she gently pushed David back.
"Sorry," he apologized.
"Well," Illya flicked her hair. "Before I answer that." My sister stared at me in the eyes. "Do you want David to be involved in our world? I recommend against it."
"I am still debating about it," I sighed. "Just tell David about his mum's condition first."
"Our world? What are you talking about?" David asked in confusion.
"That isn't important," Illya said offhandedly, ignoring the glare that David sent her way for dismissing his question. "Gloria is physically fine. I healed all injuries and triple-checked to make sure I hadn't missed anything."
"Please don't tell me my mum isn't fine!" pleaded David.
"Well, it isn't as bad as you might be thinking," Illya quickly assured the about to panic David. "I don't know what your mum has gone through recently but she has been so stressed that her conscious mind shut down. She maybe coma for a while until her mind recovers from all the stress."
David finally breathed and relaxed. "How long do you mean by 'a while?' You are talking about a few days right?"
"That is hard to say," Illya admitted in an unease tone. "I am not expert about the human mind. My colleagues in the psychology department told me she could wake up any minute to remaining in coma for an unknown amount of time. Most of the psychologists believed Gloria would be unconscious for a few days."
This seemed to greatly disappoint David but I had to side with my sister. I had seen enough injuries to know that the body could easily be restored with magecraft the same couldn't be said about the mind. Sure, there was plenty of mages that specialized in the mind but they were a rarer breed compared to those that could heal the body. And even then, since the human mind was a delicate thing there was no guarantee that a mind healer could help Gloria if Illya could get the help of one.
"I'm sure that your mum will wake up soon," I comforted David and I glanced to my sister.
Illya sighed before smiling. "Gloria will be awake and moving around before you know it!"
If Illya hadn't grow up as a mage where being able to lie was a quintessential skill in keeping magecraft a secret then I had the feeling that David might have not been convinced by her act. Thankfully to my relief, David seemed to buy it and his downcast look brightened.
"Can I visit my mum then?" He asked.
"Of course," Illya nodded and she summoned a nearby nurse to guide David.
I watched a nurse lead David away before turning to my sister.
"So… what do you think of David? Do you think is has what it takes to be part of our world?" asked Illya as she walked over to my side.
"He isn't the innocent or naïve kid that would die so easily in our world. David grew up as a street kid in Night City, one of the world's most dangerous cities I must add. I think he can adapt to our world fine." I replied with my honest assessment on David Martinez.
"If you are fine with David joining our world then I say go ahead with it." She stared at my eyes, "But don't forget to have David sign the non-disclosure geas. It would be a pain in the ass to cover up if David decides to leak magecraft to the world when that could have been all prevented by a magical contract."
"Okay, I will not forget." I grumbled. "How have you been since transferring over to Night City as the Chief Surgeon? Night City is a dangerous place so I will not be surprised if you are flooded with patients all the time."
Illya's expression darkened. "Night City deserves as its reputation as America's most dangerous city. The hospitalization and murder rates are ridiculous! Nearly a thousand patients from minor ailments to critical state are admitted to my hospital every single day. If I didn't cheat and use magecraft then my colleagues and I would be exhausted to death!"
I didn't really pay attention to the next few minutes that Illya shouted her problems to me. I just nodded and pretended to be listening. It seemed to have worked as my sister's dark expression started to lighten up until she felt as heavy load had been taken off her shoulders.
"Sorry for making to listen to my rumble. Thanks for listening, I appreciate it."
"That's why siblings are for, Sis."
"So what is the real reason you're healing, Gloria out? I don't believe your excuse that she is one of your informants to justify the lengths you are going to help her out."
"Well…" I scratched my head before coming a decision. Illya decided to know the truth. "I'm not really doing it for Gloria's sake, but her son, David." Illya stared at me with questioning eyes. "David is our half-brother."
"He is our half-brother?" asked Illya while frowning. "Are you sure? Father makes sure to keep track of everyone one of his children. Besides you and me the only other sibling we have is Signma born from Maiya-kaasan."
I gritted my teeth. "It's Arakasa's fault. They somehow managed to get some of father's sperm to conduct unethical experiments to create supersoldiers answering only to Arasaka. Just as Arakasa was about to start their experiments," I sighed, "Father somehow got wind of it experiment and stopped it. Unfortunately, that was not before Gloria was pregnant with David."
"I presume, Gloria somehow managed to escape the grasp of Arakasa and father afterwards given that she wasn't brought to the family home."
"That's right." I nodded. "Father got the help of Militech as they would do anything to harm their rival, no matter how petty or insignificant. Somehow a small supersoldier experiment caught the attention of other megacorps and in the situation quickly spiraled out of control, which nearly started the Fifth Corporate War."
"Wait… I think I know what event you're talking about. Aren't you referring to the Smasher Experiment from seventeen years ago?!"
I dumbly nodded as my older-half sister stared at me in disbelief. I had also reacted the same when I had learned the information the first time. A Fifth Corporate War was not laughing matter. The Fourth Corporate War that had happened nearly forty years ago had resulted in a nuke being set off and millions dying.
"I only believed it cause father told me, and even then I still doubted him for a while until I found evidence that supported his argument." I replied while shaking my head.
"Send me the file. I want to look for myself what you had found." Illya requested in curious tone.
"Sure," I replied and I didn't take long to find the file that I had kept on the hard drives of one of my brain implants. I proceeded to download the information onto a shard and handed it to Illya. "Here it is."
"Thanks." Illya nodded as she took the shard and slotted into one of her empty skull ports. She then turned to me. "Are you thinking about inform father about David?"
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