Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

A massive yawn stretched my lips, and I stretched out. For a moment, I just wanted to go back to sleep. A warm, comfy blanket covered me and I was sprawled out on the most comfortable bed I’d ever had the pleasure of sleeping on. I drowsily blinked a few times, and my sleepiness abruptly vanished.

Um… where am I? I sat up in the bed, and pushed the covers off of me. It was a really, really fancy room. A mesh window off to the side let in a low-level light that cast the entire place in moody shadows. I half expected to see some guy in a fedora and trench coat off to the side telling me all about the dame he met last night.

Instead, I found Vox chilling in a chair off to the side. The metal fox cutely looked up at me for a moment before her eyes flashed blue. “You’re up?”

”Luna?” I brushed my wild hair back behind my head. The scent of blood wafted up from my jacket. Right, 10,000 swings. I nailed it, chek?

”Mhmm. Nael called for me.” The fox stood up, and eyed me. “You look totally fine. I don’t see what the big fuss was all about.”

”I feel totally fine.” It was just 10,000 practice swings. Why so much fuss over something so small? “I’m surprised they let you through.”

”They don’t know I’m here.” The girl snickered, and the fox tilted her head sharply to the side. “If you need me, call me. I’m a hack away from taking over this place.”

”Will do.” Though I’d probably be fine without her. I wasn’t part of the Fang, but we were on extraordinarily good terms as far as I knew.

“Oh, and take Vox with you when you leave? I’ve gotta go. Busy dealing with Monarch.” The blue eyes faded before I could ask any more questions. Luna promptly disconnected and went to deal with other matters.

I slid out of bed, and stretched out. My equipment all sat off to the side, so I quickly tossed everything back on. I was definitely still in the Jade Fang dojo. That much was clear by the style of everything around me.

For a moment, the interface distracted me. I patiently waited for it to announce that the training had pushed me up another level for melee weapons… only for the announcement to never come. With a frown, I checked my numbers. Melee Weapons stayed stuck right at 11. It seemed I’d need something else to push me over the edge to 12?

I crossed the room, and poked my head out the door. Two Kage stood on either side of the door. Both of the ‘borgs were intimidating as hell, and glared down at me as soon as I appeared. I promptly ducked back into the room before either of them could say something. The hell? Am I being held? Who—? Yuki?

Regardless, I didn’t want to stick around here for long. I did a quick sweep of the room to ensure there were no cameras or anything, and then stashed a Spectral Flock crow in the walk-in closet to the side of the room.

With my way back secured just in case, I moved over to the window and popped it open. Based on my perspective—I was on the upper floors of the central pavilion. That Elder Yoshi guy really was nice to lend me such a nice spot.

Blackout popped up out of my pack the second I spotted a drone patrolling through the air of the cavern. The drone wasn’t the only bit of security that’d spiked. I spotted dozens of guards moving around that hadn’t been there when I first got here. What the hell happened while I was out?

I originally planned to just jump, but a second look around changed my mind. I wasn’t super confident in sneaking through everything to the elevator. There was only one way in and out of here. Might not be worth going for until I understood the situation better.

Should I recall the Spectral Flock bird? I hesitated for a moment, and then shook my head. Best I leave it as a just in case option. Worst case scenario, I teleport back up here, jump out the window with my drop chutes, and try to get past all the guards posted to the lone elevator going back up to the surface. Simple.

A metal hand knocked on the door just behind me. I quickly waved to Vox. “Hide here for now.”

“Yip!” The little fox nodded her head—and then climbed the wall instead of finding somewhere more traditional to hide. She made herself comfortable in the corner of the room, almost totally hidden behind a light filter.

“Come in!” I called out to the door.

Shinobu hesitantly pushed it open just as I turned to face him. “The guards told me you were up.”

”Am I… under arrest?” I asked as calmly as I could given the situation.

“Oh, no.” Shinobu sighed and shook his head. “They aren’t for you. How are you feeling?”

Somehow, that wasn’t as reassuring as he probably thought it was. If the guards weren’t here for me, then who were they here for? Just what happened while I was out? Did a bomb go off? As assassination attempt?

”I just had the best sleep of my life, and woke up to find this place turned into a fortress while I was out.” Err—second best. Right after I took down Corvin was probably the best sleep of my life. “A bit conflicted at the moment.”

“Fair.” Shinobu rubbed at his chin. He’d started growing a beard at some point, but progress looked slow. “The situation's a bit complicated—“

”She’s awake?” A familiar voice called from the hallway. Shinobu grimaced for the briefest of moments before he put on his best Enforcer look. Just in time, too, as Sakurai Yuki burst into the room. “Shiro! You’re awake!”

”Um… yeah.” Why was she here? I wasn’t quite sure which version of her I was getting today, so it was best I played it safe—“What are you doing here?”

The moment I blurted out the words and totally ignored my own decision to play things safe, the air in the room practically chilled. Yuki’s sweet smile grew, and she waltzed over to me. I half expected for her to order my eyes to be plucked out. Instead, she just faux-collapsed onto me.

Her legs gave out, and she basically fell into my arms. Her masterwork kimono rode up on her fishnet clad thighs, and the top of it opened to reveal a section of her chrome collarbone. “Ugh, bestie, it’s been horrible recently. Dealing with traitors is such a drag.”

I carefully supported her as my brain worked overtime to catch back up to the situation. The scent of cherry blossoms washed up and over me. “Traitors?”

”Ungrateful bastards.” She sighed, and popped back up to her feet. “Still! I’m glad to see you’re awake and well. That Nael guy really knows what he’s doing, huh?”

”’Course. He’s the best medek in the city.” My response was automatic as my mind drifted elsewhere. Nael was here too? Why did I get the feeling that I accidently stepped into a pile of chaos while I was asleep? “He still here?”

”No, no. Said he had a clinic to run and bolted the moment I showed up.” Yuki grimaced, and she appeared every bit the fragile flower as her expression drooped. “Am I that ugly?”

”Nael’s a busy guy. Probably had nothing to do with you.” That was a bold faced lie. Nael had a surprisingly good ear to the ground, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d heard rumours and decided sticking around wasn’t good for his health. “You’re definitely not ugly, Yuki.”

“Ah, thanks, Shiro! You’re too sweet.” A radiant smile filled her face, and her chrome eyes curled into charming half-moons. She coyly covered the bottom half of her face with the sleeve of her kimono. “You’re going to make me blush~”

Over just that? My mind finally started to wake up fully, and went back to what she just said. “Traitors?”

”Ah, don’t worry about that.” She reassured me softly. She stretched out casually with her arms over head, which made her kimono tightly hug her body’s contours. Her sweet smile vanished under a cold exterior. “Some ungrateful fucksaren’t happy about me taking over the Fang. Nothing that can’t be handled.”

Ah, there she was. ”And by handled you mean—“

“Handled~” Although she said it playfully, there was no doubt in my mind she meant a more permanent solution. Her head tilted down, and her long black hair fell forward to curtain her sharp features. “Just sucks some of them are so high up. Makes it difficult to move without proper justification. Speaking of, I really need to thank you!”

“For what?” I hadn’t done anything too important with the Fang as of late. I went back through recent events to make sure, but I’d been doing my own thing for a while.

”For giving me justification, ‘course! That Elder Yoshi—been trying to get rid of him for months!” She happily grabbed my arm. Her kimono basically swallowed my limb as she half-dragged me out toward the hall. Her sudden physical affection always threw me off. “Then you showed up, and all my problems went away! You really are my maneki-neko?”

Neko? Really? In what way did I look like a cat—besides my eyes. Those hardly counted though. One was chrome, and the other came from Panther, the most homicidal house cat of them all. “I didn’t do anything.”

”Exactly! How dare that bastard abuse his authority over my precious mikata just trying to learn the blade.” Yuki leaned down to my ear, and her breath tickled past it to make a shiver go down my spine. “Ishi almost blew a gasket when he saw the state you were in. If I don’t punish that guy properly, there’s no telling what Ishi’ll do.”

“Ishimaru’s here, too?” The whole gang was arriving. Would Mira and Saint pop out of the woodwork as well? And abuse of authority—no way they were talking about Elder Yoshi, chek? He’d been nothing but kind so far.

”Mhmm! He’s entertaining our… friends. I was just waiting for you to wake up before passing judgement.” She pulled away from my arm just as we reached the doorway, and turned back to face me with her usual cutesy maiden look. “How do you think I should deal with him, bestie? You were the one directly injured in this case.”

”Him as in Elder Yoshi?” I asked hesitantly.

”Got it in one!” She smiled at me like we weren’t casually discussing the life and death of a Jade Fang Elder. She once more started down the hall with quite a bit of pep in her step. “Let’s go!”

“Ojousama, Nael did warn us to be careful once Shiro awoke.” Shinobu respectfully spoke up. Was he giving me an out?

Yuki grimaced, and twirled back to face me. “Ah, you don’t mind coming with me, do you?”

”No.” Not like I had much of a choice in the matter. Saying no to the Jade Fang Princess seemed like it’d be bad for my life expectancy.

Shinobu silently fell in line behind us alongside the two ‘borged out Kage. The two of them following us made me as uncomfortable as always. Yuki helped ease some of that discomfort, surprisingly. Although she was… well, her, she hadn’t done anything bad to me yet.

Yuki nodded to herself enthusiastically like we were having a conversation. Only—she forgot to converse and jumped straight to a conclusion. “So Elder Yoshi basically has to go.”

Well, so much for having him teach me the way of the blade. If Yuki wanted to get rid of him, I doubted he’d be able to teach me much. “I’m still a bit confused about what he did? 10,000 slashes seems like pretty normal training to me.”

“You, my dear mikata, have a catastrophically warped perspective on training. 10,000 is excessive by all standards.” Yuki shook her head like it was a shame that my perspective was so twisted.

Honestly, she kinda had a point? To be fair, most of my training came from the interface. The eidolons were extremely excessive in all of the training I did. It seemed normal to me, but maybe that should’ve been the first clue something was off. “So you’re punishing him just for that?”

“No, no. Not just that.” She led our little group into an elevator, and one of the Kage hit a button for the bottom floor. Yuki once more turned serious, and raised her fingers to count off his offenses. “He tortured a Jade Fang VIP, abused his authority, was negligent in his duties, and I personally find him terribly ugly. The Jade Fang has a strong aesthetic, and he doesn’t quite fit. Why, the other gangs will laugh at us at this rate.”

“…” Everyone in the elevator eyed Yuki weirdly. I did it more openly then the Fang dared to. She wanted to get rid of him because she didn’t like how he looked?

”Well… I guess when you put it that way, it kinda makes sense.” I could read between the lines. Probably had to do with that faction that didn’t support her becoming the Matriarch. It wouldn’t surprise me if Yoshi was part of it, and she was using him as an example.

The elevator dinged, and we moved out into the main training hall. The place had cleared out at some point, and dozens of people filled the room. Elder Yoshi knelt in the middle of the room with his hands bound in heavy chains. Two Kage flanked either side of him, and Ishimaru wasn’t much further away. Several other elders stood around too.

“Ah, good! We’re all here!” As soon as Yuki spoke, the attention of everyone in the room snapped to us. “We can get started~!”