Adam was clearing out his storage room of the shit he didn't need. Moving was a good opportunity for that, and while he couldn't take the time to start shipping the stuff he had initially (too much work to do initially) now he had a slightly freer schedule. A lot of shit he just handed off to Chiri and told her to auction it off. There were no shortage of weirdos who wanted some of his old shit, and that made another chunk of change for him to use on his new land development.
He paused when he got to the cheerleader's old shit. He wasn't even really sure why he snatched them back then, he certainly didn't need them, and he certainly didn't want any memorabilia from the fucking cheerleader in his new territory. He thought about auctioning them off as well, but then Uriel reminded him about the cougar.
Ah, she'd probably be pissed at him if he did that, and then the kids couldn't visit. Adam grumbled before making a call. He waited for a couple moments before the other person actually picked up.
"Ah, Adam, it's been a while." It was the voice of Grayson, one of the few meatbags he bothered hiring for jobs. He wasn't incredible at the whole merc job by any means, but he shut up and listened when Adam spoke, so he was tolerable.
"Hiring you for a delivery."
"What do you need me for?"
"Take a car and a package inside it from my storage to Afterlife. I'll give you five-thousand for it."
"Can do Adam, which car?"
"I'll send you a picture. Security will be expecting you."
That was something Adam liked about Grayson, he didn't waste his fucking time with pointless posturing or some other garbage. I have a job for you, can you do it? And his answer is almost always 'yes'.
Adam looked about his now empty basement-floor storage that Arasaka kept on hand for him. It was an area that you could drive into and out of, and normally one of these chambers were dedicated to various trinkets that Arasaka didn't want being outside. He got one of these chambers for himself, as a reward for good service all these years, but he got it decades ago.
Nothing in here had been touched in years, might as well get rid of all of it. His personal floor storage had the shit he actually cared about.
…speaking of things he hasn't touched in years. He still had that old cargo ship docked up in Watson. He might have that actually renovated and re-docked down in his new territory. He wasn't sure what he would use it for yet, but it was another resource that could be useful for overhauling the shit-pile he was assigned to into an actually tolerable plot.
He made sure to tell security to let Grayson in, and went on his way back to his territory. He got stares along the way, he almost always did. That had been true ever since he got put in that sampson frame. Idly, he wondered if he should auction that off too before deciding otherwise, an extra frame is always useful if he needs a very quick repair, even if it's not nearly as good as his current frame.
The DaiOni was staying in Arasaka tower, he wasn't letting fucking anyone take his baby, and the safest place for that until the final HQ was actually built would be right where it currently is. Besides, basically no one knows that he still has that outside of Arasaka higher executives, because he hasn't used it since he got nuked. They didn't keep it a secret particularly, but rather just not talking about it for decades tends to cause people to forget about things.
They were almost stopped at the checkpoint leading into his land, but one glance at him sitting in the truck-bed got them to move out of his way real quick. Through the Arasaka security checkpoint and into the rows of concrete cubes that housed the meatbags he was now responsible for. Every now and again he saw the symbol that Uriel drafted up for the area.
An 'Arasaka red' background/flag, and an eclipsed sun in the center, black circle and golden flames around it. It was simple enough to abstract to put in places quickly, and it was nice and colorful to add a splash to the endless gray, glass, and neon shit that modern architects seemed to love. It's what was used to mark the meatbags that worked for him. He had sent the design to get the bossman's approval first, and he signed off on it, so it was fine.
Absent-mindedly he wondered if this meant that he was a gang, and a gang under Arasaka control at that.
…No, he didn't think so, gangs are usually illegal, everything here was perfectly legal to do. Maybe like a specialized corporate branch? He thinks that's what the bossman told him when he asked to use the symbol. Eh, he didn't care about the technicalities that much, that's what he let the actual corporate entities worry about. He was just a killer at his core.
Some of the meatbags he had to deal with now waved as he rode past, thankfully kept nice and clean by Uriel's micro-managing the past few weeks. No violence that requires a doctor, no hard drugs, no setting off bombs and the like, pick up and throw away your fucking trash, actually use the restrooms. These were the broadstrokes of Uriel's rules for keeping these fuckers from dirtying up the brand new rooms he had to pay for (partially at least).
Can't believe Uriel had to tell them to use the fucking restrooms properly, fucking meatbag animals, he hated all of them so goddamn much. Then again, Pacifica was basically a district-sized wasteland of murder, filth, and violence for quite some time now. No surprise so many of them just defecated wherever they wanted.
Granted, that may be just the consequence of forcing 25,000 people (and counting) into new housing. They currently had enough room for five-thousand more, but soon enough they would have to wait for more income to expand any further.
Considering the rather extreme success of his bloodsports arena, that didn't seem like it would take too long. The base payouts and profits were comparatively small, but the real margins came in from the betting ring and renting out marketspace to various sellers. The actual events were self-sustaining at this point, the gangs had already started to see it as an extension of their existing rivalries, and most independent fighting rings elsewhere in the city came here now that there was an official venue.
That and all the fuckers that were filming it, making BDs, and selling them abroad. He got a cut from each. At least half of the wealth of the arena went right back into making it better, the rest of it went towards funding all the little things that running a civilization required. The Arasaka stipend paid for new developments, his merchandising paid for most of the upkeep costs, and the arena paid for all the little things that weren't in either of those categories.
The tournaments were held during the day, with two sub-tournaments a day, a major tournament at the end of the week that lasted all day, and one day where the arena was closed for repairs and upgrades. That shit was Uriel's best idea yet, and it made this whole fucking job actually bearable.
It had the side effect of reducing the rate at which people murdered each other, because they could now just join a sub-tournament to beat the shit out of each other and everyone would cheer them on, and if they were good at it they might win a bunch of money as well. Occasionally Victoria sent him a clip of a fight, and occasionally it was rather entertaining. One day the kid asked him what he was watching, and Adam explained, and then explained what each fighter could have done better.
Adam then realized that was both a fun hobby and potentially useful, so he started doing that for the fights that Victoria sent him in his free time, recording it, and handing it off to the Arasaka security agents in training that were assigned to his district.
Because of course, he had to deal with a bunch of green meatbags at the same time. He just gave their trainer the clips of him teaching the kid, and the new clips of him explaining why meatbag fighters were dogshit, and told him to use that to teach them. He hadn't heard anything from those fuckers since, but he occasionally saw them about, usually surrounded by a couple of his cheapo police. It was good that they were working together, otherwise he'd kill them all.
Wait no, murder was fun, it was bad that everything was going so smoothly. Of course, it was about that time in which he got a message from Saburo about a job. When the bossman called him for a job, he wasn't particularly allowed to refuse.
The job this time? Guarding Hanako Arasaka and her assistants while at a week-long social gathering somewhere over in France. Of course, for really rich people social gatherings were actually an excuse to meet and talk about clandestine business deals, so that made sense.
He was Adam Smasher, the Butcher of Arasaka, best damn bodyguard on the fucking planet. It made sense that Saburo wanted him to guard his daughter while she was in middle of some of the most tempting terrorist and rebel targets around. The unfortunate thing here? He'd be away for a week, a day to travel to Japan and then to France, and then five days of meeting, and a day trip back.
He got off the truck and waved the driver off. He walked into his black-painted concrete fortress and past the internal security. He walked until he got to the residential section, and saw the kids and the woman in the central room. They were talking about something, but stopped when they saw him come in.
"I'm being called on a solo job. I'll be gone for a week."
He swore, if any meatbag thought they could get up to clever shit while he was away, Uriel was going to burn them to death when he got back.
—
The Arasaka Compound was exactly as beautiful and functional as it ever was, and the trip through Tokyo with all the new gawkers was exactly as annoying as last time. The 2 meter club on his back discouraged a lot of the 'meatbags getting close thing' but there were even more whispers, shouts, and noise from all the bullshit marketing they got up to over here.
The guards were nice and quick about letting him in, just as usual. He walked into the central chamber and waited for his escort to the Old Man. It wasn't the curvy murder-gynoid this time, it was some nameless fucker that he didn't bother remembering that he followed to Goro.
Goro was looking the same as he always had, stoic and serious. They didn't have the best relationship, but they were hardly hostile to one another. Goro did his job and Adam did his, they didn't interact enough to have any strong feelings about one another either way.
At least, that's what Adam thought. Uriel pointed out the expression on Goro's face (it's all in the eyes, he said), a strange mixture of anger and admiration. Adam didn't really care regardless, so he just exchanged the customary greeting with the man and was allowed in.
The old man was sitting there, having tea with his daughter.
They were looking better from last time he saw them. Saburo had clearly dedicated another hour or so each day to sitting in that rejuv bath of his, because instead of looking like a corpse he looked merely like a hundred-year old man. He had even started to grow out some facial hair, and had fully shaved his actual head.
Hanako was in the more traditional wear that Saburo wanted everyone in his house to be in, and her hair was longer and set into a bun with chopsticks holding it up. My, how traditional, I'm sure your husband likes it a great deal, oh wait, he was so sorry, a shame about that. She had also gotten rid of those stupid fucking golden finger-sleeves, thank god.
What was with the new look?
Behind her three girls were kneeling. He recognized two of them as J-V2 and J-V3, but the third was unfamiliar.
J-V3 was the same as before, a curvy little Japanese beauty with all her traditional garb and whatnot. Her face tinted the slightest bit red when he came in.
J-V2 was slightly different. Her hair was a bit darker blonde, her skin was a bit lighter, and she looked absolutely enthralled by her own traditional outfit as she fidgeted in the kneeling stance. Heh, that must be driving the old man insane right now. She smiled broadly and wiggled in place when he came in.
The third girl he felt safe in assuming was J-V1. She was the tallest of her sisters, perhaps 5'6" or so, with pure white hair and gray eyes. She looked incredibly bored with kneeling here and made no attempt to hide it. She also looked rather incredibly annoyed at her own yukata, and occasionally openly tugged at it. She had a Kendachi-MonoThree on the ground to her side. It was about three-fifths as long as she was tall, and had some nice detail work. She raised a brow and scoffed at him when he came in.
If the old man was annoyed with V2's fidgeting, he was probably apocalyptic at her constant moving and noise.
Adam greeted the old man as appropriate.
"Arasaka-sama."
The old man nodded at him, gestured for the seat next to his daughter.
"Yojimbo, please be seated."
Adam was not in a yukata-clad gemini right now, right now he was in his Dragoon frame. This was a business affair, not a chat over tea, he had to be ready for violence.
Carefully, he lowered himself on the cushion that probably cost as much as several buildings in his new land. He managed to not damage it with his weight. He accomplished this by performing a seiza and putting his weight to either side of it with his legs. The old man had an incredibly pleased glint in his eye when Adam did that.
"You may discard with outward formalities, Yojimbo." Well that was a bit unusual, normally the old man reserved that for when it was just the two of them. Adam raised a brow, before the old man continued. "Please Hanako, pour a drink for Yojimbo."
Something she complied with. As she was pouring, Adam felt like being a little mean. He spoke to the old man.
"That district is a pain in my ass, old man."
A jerk in the stream of tea as Hanako almost spilled it. She finished pouring before looking at him in shock. J-V3 raised a hand to cover her mouth, looking a bit amused, she had already known of his relationship with the old man afterall. J-V2 giggled at it. The girl he was assuming was J-V1 gave out an open bark of laughter.
The old man's face was blank, his eyes twinkled with a hint of laughter. Man, he was in a really fucking good mood, huh?
"You have done well with it, far beyond my expectations for its growth." the old man acknowledged.
"It's still a garbage heap, It'll be at least a year before it's not infuriating to look at, and three before it's actually starting to be worth the effort I've put in so far."
"That's incredible progress, technology is a wonderful thing is it not?"
Adam grunted, and almost took a sip of the tea before remembering that he couldn't swallow anything in this body. He paused and stared at the tea that would have surely been delicious. He slowly set it down, and glared good-naturedly at the old man.
The old man's eyes were actually crinkled from how amused he was at pulling one over him again. Adam grumbled about this, before speaking up.
"Did you call me here just to pull tricks on me, old fox?"
"Of course not, I have called you here for a task." The old man, humor mostly leaving his voice except for hints in inflection. He was in a really good mood. "You are to escort my daughter, Hanako, and her three attendants as they attend a party in France. It's something to do with the Blackwall, a party arranged by Netwatch to discuss a recent breach they sealed."
Adam grunted and hummed about that, it made enough sense he supposed. It's not like they had any major enemies in France right now, so it should be relatively safe for her.
"I assume those three are her attendants?" He asked.
"Correct, please greet Rin, Hinata, and Tsumugi." He gestured to V3, V2, and V1 in turn with each of their names. V3 did a nearly perfect bow in return, V2 did her best bow but clearly fell short, V1 did a half-hearted bow and grumbled.
He looked at them, before looking at the old man. He raised a single eyebrow. The old man raised a single eyebrow. Adam relented.
"I thought you said V1 was scrapped?" He asked after another moment.
"The development cycle was, her design was inherently flawed for what the project was supposed to achieve."
Adam raised a brow again. "Mind me asking how so?"
The old man grunted and sipped his tea, clearly still annoyed at the whole affair. That means whoever made the mistake was long dead at this point. Their families were also probably dead, or in serious debt.
"V1 maximizes combat performance and looks identical to human norms, but has no way of concealing weapons."
Adam parsed that for a moment. He let out a bark of laughter.
"The designer forgot that an infiltrator can't carry heavy weapons into clandestine meetings, didn't he."
The old man grunted in displeasure and sipped his tea again.
—
Adam was waiting on the assistants to finish loading up the private plane with the things that the woman needed. He had all he needed, 16 micro-missiles, a shotgun, a handgun, a knife, and his club. He had a waist-pack too, filled with extra ammo and basically nothing else. Even if there were two assassin squads a day, he would still have enough bullets to take care of them. Unless they started bringing out heavy artillery or whatnot, which his missiles could take care of just fine.
"Heyya Mr. Knight~!" A familiar voice called out to him. He turned to glare down at the thing that brought him out of his introspection on potential threats, that was his favorite part before a mission. It was 'Hinata' smiling up at him as she twirled back and forth in front of him, now dressed in the typical garb of a Japanese office lady but sized for her.
"Like, look at my fash, aint it cute?" She said, he grunted. She took his grunt as an agreement and started rambling about how cute it was. Adam admitted that it was certainly fucking better than most the stuff worn nowadays. Another voice eventually interrupted her.
"Onee-san, stop harassing Oni-Sama." 'Rin' said as she approached, looking a bit uncomfortable in her own garb, identical to her 'sister's' but sized for her own much more generous frame. She sounded annoyed that she had to correct Hinata, and embarrassed that she had to do so in front of others.
…wait, what the fuck did she call him?
"Oi Oi, So you're the Butcher, huh? I don't see what's so special about you. Just big and heavy, I've scrapped all kinds of fuckers like that." A crass voice called out to him, and Adam turned to see the form of 'Tsumugi' walk up to them. She was in a three-piece all-black suit, jacket hung over her shoulders, arms loose, and sword carried over the shoulder in a seemingly relaxed slouch. Uriel started laughing.
"Onee-san!" Rin all but shouted at her, and Hinata puffed up her cheeks.
Adam glared down at this white-haired brat of a bot.
"I could wipe the floor with a dozen of you, girl. Don't let your mouth write checks you can't cash in."
She glared up at him, refusing to back down. "Wanna test that theory, pops?"
…Heh, this one was his favorite.
Adam snorted.
"When I'm off the clock, girl. Right now I have a job to do."
Soon enough, Hanako had arrived, the plane had been loaded up by stout and serious looking workers, and they were off to Europe. Adam felt like he was forgetting something, but he didn't care enough to spend any energy on figuring it out.