This was the place? I thought it would be an upscale kind of building considering its location, but it looked a little worse for wear. The entire block right around here was, really. Lights flickered unsteadily, and walls looked like they might collapse with just the wrong touch. It was just this block, though. Everywhere else around here looked perfectly fine.

I parked the Roughrider up on one of the nearby buildings’ roof, sealed the door up onto said roof, and then took the express way down with my Drop Chutes. I touched down in the alley between buildings, nearly stomping on a homeless man’s head by accident. He blended in with the trash way too easily.

The man staggered and fell to the floor. Needle marks covered his arms, and the familiar black veins of a dark ether addict traced across exposed skin. “A-an angel?”

”Close enough.” I eyed the man for a moment and then looked around. No cameras. Just in case, I set off my Blinder and went through the full garage of Perks and gadgets to keep myself hidden.

There was something I’d been meaning to test, and now was the perfect time. Perfect Donor—I still hadn’t used it a single time. There just hadn’t been any injuries since I—

Gah! Why am I so stupid?! Would it work on Iris? It totally would, wouldn’t it? Fucking hell. Why are you so stupid, Past Shiro? How did that slip your mind? You really would drown looking up into the rain, wouldn’t you? Okay, after this, I really needed to stop by Absolom Clinic. She was probably about ready to be moved to Medtech, anyway.

Before all that, though, testing. I still needed to test it. Maybe it was actually for the best that I hadn’t quite gotten around to using it on Iris yet. It could just not do anything. Wouldn’t that suck?

”Hey, you.” I stuck my hand down and offered it to the man. “You want to try something?”

”M-more dark ether?” His eyes lit up and he eagerly took my hand. “You really are an angel! I-I just ran out.”

”Uh, no.” How would it even work on this guy? Was drug addiction something that could even be healed? It was part chemical damage and part rewiring the brain, right? No—even if the addiction itself couldn’t be healed, the black veins definitely could. That was just contamination built up in the veins.

Right, I’d see the effect regardless. I activated Hidden Hands and Hidden Weapons. The duo kept the man from panicking as I pulled a knife from my waist and approached him. I raised it to my own wrist and—

“Fuck.” I flinched and pulled away. My hand trembled, and the knife slipped from my grasp. It clattered loudly against the trash covered alley floor.

“Demon!” The man spotted my knife and scrambled away from me. He tripped over a pile of trash, and nearly collapsed to the alley floor. By some feat of agility, though, he managed to keep staggering down and away from me.

Stupid. I shook my head and picked up the knife. What was I thinking? Oh, let’s test this never before seen Perk on some random back alley hobo, and just hope for the best! If I went through with it—wouldn’t that make me no better than a Savant? Using and testing things on random people just because they were convenient test subjects was right up their disgusting alley.

I ran a hand and pushed aside my silver bangs. Maybe Mira was right. It probably was for the best that I was going to see a counselor sometime soon. If I could slip up with something like this… Too bad Quick Healing and Perfect Donor didn’t work on my mental state. What else had changed about me since I first got the interface?

I let out a shaky breath and gripped the knife tighter. I could still test it a bit, though. I ran the knife along my wrist a couple times, and a streak of white pain laced up my arm. I hid the fresh cut in my sleeve and wiped off the blade. There was no issue if I myself was the test subject, right?

Blood trailed down my finger. I quickly sprayed my wrist with some of that hemostatic foam to stop the bleeding. Now, if I understood Perfect Donor right, I should start healing pretty quickly, right? It was something about potent blood and supercharging regeneration. I eyed the unchanging wounds.

Well, whatever. I guess I’d see in a couple minutes. I sheathed the knife and moved down the alley toward the apartment. I could always beat myself up later for my stupidity… like in the shower where I usually did it. I was on the clock now. Granted, I was also on the clock when I was playing darts with Ligh, but whatever.

The apartment building that Jerry told me I could find Bronson at was easy to get into. Although it looked low-end, it still had a stationed guard at the entrance. She staggered away to let me through as soon as I flashed my badge, though, so she probably wouldn’t do much against someone that really wanted in.

I stepped through the door. “Oh, wait.”

The guard didn’t look up toward me, though she did shift around. “Y-yes, ma’am?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

”What’s with the state of this place?” I waved a hand around the building—and then quickly dropped it when the sleeve rolled down and revealed my wrist. “The rest of the street is fine, but here…”

”I-I know what you mean. It was hit by a merc squad a couple years back. S-supposed to be bulldozed and rebuilt, but the original owner went bankrupt.” The woman flinched when I took a step closer to her. It was kind of funny. I was, like, three quarters of her size, and yet she was flinching around like a sheep in front of a wolf.

“No need to be so nervous.” I took a step forward once more and then pulled back. I was rapidly approaching the line where teasing turned to tormenting. “Who owns the place now?”

”T-the city pays me, s-so probably them?” She shrugged halfheartedly.

“Why would—“ I frowned. “Are they trying to sell it still?”

The woman’s eyes flashed. Cybernetic of some kind. She grew a bit distant like she was looking at something on a HUD. ”A-at a fraction of the o-original’s price, given this place’s s-state. N-no one wants to buy. I-I’m sorry, how does this help w-with your investigation?”

”Interesting…” Could I use that? If I forced the owner of the apartment above my speakeasy into bankruptcy, and the city repossessed the land, then wouldn’t I be able to get it cheaper?

Hmm… I ran into the same problem that I usually ran into when making schemes for acquiring the apartment building. I didn’t know who owned the place, let alone whether they deserved to be screwed over like that. I mean, they probably did given they were an Aythryn City resident, but there were a few good souls still clinging to life. Nael, for one.

I shook my head and tried to focus back on the job. ”There’s a guy here. Phyxaflame. Have you seen him?”

“Phyxaflame?”

”There’s supposed to be an inspection here.” I frowned.

“I haven’t seen anyone except residents.”

How else would the guy get in? He wasn’t a runner or merc, so he wouldn’t need to be stealthy—unless… maybe he wasn’t actually here. I just thought he was since Jerry showed me a map ping. Was this all a distraction? Maybe Bronson didn’t even exist in the first place. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

”I-is something wrong?”

”No. Nothing here.” I headed back out onto the street, though paused at the base of the steps. “You’re absolutely sure no one came through?”

”Y-yes, ma’am. D-Daniel’s at the back entrance. I-I’ll call him.” She backed away and lifted a hand to her ear.

While she did that, I leaned against the metal railing leading up the apartment building’s front stairs. Water trailed down my Crusade Trenchcoat and flowed to the ground while I sunk into thought. I had a suspicion… one that was a bit uncomfortable to admit.

The guard stepped out of the building and hesitantly waved at me. “W-we haven’t seen anyone except residents and you.”

This was the right apartment. I never forgot a map, so it wasn’t something I could accidentally get wrong. I pushed off the rail. “Chek. Thank you… oh, and maybe get your building inspected for fire safety soon. Just in case.”

Her expression paled like I’d just threatened her. “I-I-I’ll pass word up the chain.”

I walked down the street toward the building I parked on and worked my way back up to my bike. Before doing anything else, I needed to drop off my bike and swap to a cruiser. CJ29 should be just about done, and the hound probably wouldn’t fit on here.

— - —

“What do you mean I need a guardian?” I glared at the old man working the Crusade’s garage. An old Knight, by the looks of things. He was out of the armor, but his body was massive and broad just like theirs.

”I can’t give you a cruiser.” The man sighed and waved a hand toward the garage. “It’s corporate policy that you must be at least eighteen years old.”

”What the hell?” I rubbed at my temples. “So, you’re telling me that I can get shot, sent into a cultist hideout, and all sorts of terrible things, but I can’t drive a fucking car?”

”Language, young lady.”

”Don’t call me that,” I snapped out at the old man. This rule was right up there with Hope getting pissed about me drinking. Like—I risked my life on a monthly basis for the Crusade, and they didn’t care about my age then. And! And since when the hell did the Crusade care about rules?

CJ29 whined loudly next to me. I ignored the metal hound and started to pace in front of the clerk. Should I just steal one? I totally could, and I doubted anyone would actually care. Or… fuck, did I actually need to find someone to drive me around? Things just weren’t going my way today.

I turned back the other way and kept pacing. I mean, seriously. This was… it was like I was a little kid that needed her mom to chauffeur her to her first date. It was three parts embarrassing, and one part aggravating.

”Ugh.” I stopped just next to CJ and pulled out my phone to call Hope. It only rang once before she picked up. “I need some help.”

”Shit—okay, where are you?” The sound of something clattering came across the line like she’d just dropped something.

“Crusade HQ.” I sighed and dragged a hand down my face. “Not that kind of help. I, uh, I can’t get a car.”

”Right, you’re not eighteen yet.” Her voice filled with something I couldn’t quite place. It was gone the next moment. “I’ll send Dev your way.”

”You sure?”

”Yeah… I thought I’d need him, but I’ve just been sitting around—actually, you know what? Field trip. I’m coming too. I need a break from staring at documents.” Her voice noticeably perked up toward the tail end of her words.

I really didn’t want her breathing down my neck. Especially not if what I suspected happened at Phyxaflame was true. Being so close, and yet so far would make me look incompetent. ”A-are you sure—“

She hung up… nova. Just nova. Could today get any worse? Seriously, what next? Ligh marching down the stairs to come too? What were the odds—

”Shquire!”

I flinched so hard I nearly dropped my phone and drew my gun. I flicked around—nothing. Just an empty parking garage. Was I… was I hallucinating? This was getting bad. Like, real bad. That psychiatrist was starting to sound like a better and better idea.

I rubbed at my wrist uncomfortably. What the hell was up with me, anyway? Was it just the stress getting to me? That’s it—after this, I’m not doing anything stressful or complicated for a month.

I’d been going going going—it was time I just stopped and relaxed for a bit. Maybe build some tech, and hang out with Mira, but nothing else. ‘Sides, what were the chances something stressful and pressing would pop up right after this one, anyway?

I shook my head and went back to pacing. Hope and Dev couldn’t get down here quick enough. I was so ready to be done with this whole thing.