The question is, rabid fan or jilted musician who hired a merc because Kotomo took No.1 in the charts?

And if a merc tries sniping her then by the time she's 24 Hiromi has probably set Vik up as CTO or something for her subsidiary that sells Motoko's chrome designs. Which naturally includes subdermal plating sufficient to stop the sniper rifle from having an effect.

Not sure but if she was sniped at?

I'd been watching him all night. A building across from the rapid setup event Hiromi had talked me into covering for Kotomo.

Now I was standing on the top of a bus singing my heart out, microphone stand in my hands, and I knew it was coming. My little buddies had moved in to watch the sniper. So out of the corner of one eye I was literally watching the back of his head as I sang.

It was coming. He had been narrowing in the targeting data this whole time. Trying to punch through my ECM, and he was getting close.

I sighed. This was so annoying. I couldn't break character! Hiromi would kill me! And someone would kill Kotomo!

So there was only one option.

Be a badass bitch!

I timed it. Lowering the quality of my ECM so his Ashura Smart Sniper would finally get it's lock right at the correct moment.

He fired.

I turned in my dance move, and activated my sandy.

For a moment. The world stood still. Nothing moved. A droplet of my sweat shone in the light, and then I let it out, A single spin, the bottom of the microphone stand I had been flinging around slammed into the homing round and squashed it as I slammed it into the bus I was standing on.

Sorry Hiromi, knew she was going to yell at me about the insurance on the rented bus again.

But at the same time I my sandy cut out and I shifted, leaning forward practically tipping the microphone out over the crowd, the crowd now reaching up to touch me.

And my left hand was in the shape of a gun pointed straight down the sites of the man that just shot me.

"*Bang.*" I finished the song. At the exact moment Kitten fired into the back of the snipers head.

I threw a wink down at the crowd directly under me, people that had no idea what they had just missed out on.

Just another day in the life of Motoko Kusanagi!

From what I remember in an old post, "Words of Gods" (Seras') is that she doesn't want to write romance because Mokoto being an SI makes it very discutable in term of morality. I think there is also something about SB battle rules being extremely harsh about it so no point in taking the risk?

Though, I'll admit I really like the gag of Mokoto being extremely dense around Hiromi, especially since she is the 1st to spot any girl flirting with Jun so it's not like she can't see romance. Hell, she even spotted the TC honey pot in 20s flat during her last Scavenger mania. I just hope Jun is 100% conscious of Himori's crush on Mokoto. I just want the 2 of them laughing about how dense the other is while completely blind to (important) people flirting with them.

Jun totally knows Hiromi is crushing on Motoko. He just won't say anything to Motoko. Big brother privilege to see the car crash each time. He does feel sorry for Hiromi though. No idea why that new girl Motoko brought along is so eager to hang out with him and have dinner. It's just an XXL burrito, which is the best food in Night City, but not really date food.

(It may be hereditary.)