Chapter 373
I dropped off the back of the Roughrider and weakly staggered away from the death trap. I didn’t realize just how dangerous those things were until Sakurai Yuki got a hold of it. Even Mira wasn’t suicidal enough to do loopedy loops. I hoped. I really hope she wasn’t that crazy. There were zero safety features built into it for that kind of thing.
”That was so much fun!” Yuki flicked a switch and the bike abruptly clanged down onto its landing gear. “What’d you think, Shiro?”
”I think I’m going to be sick.” I rubbed at my stomach and tried to get a hold of the vertigo washing through me. I’d handled being teleported around constantly, and even that didn’t hold a candle to her driving.
”Heheh!” She pressed her finger to her cheek and stuck her tongue out at me. “Can you make them go faster?”
She wanted to go faster?! Ugh—just thinking about it made my stomach roll… from a technical standpoint, though, it wasn’t impossible. The ionic thrusters hooked up to the Roughriders were pretty simple at the end of the day. A full rebuild wasn’t even necessary. I could just change out some parts.
“How was it, Ojousama?” Elder Anzan asked. Interestingly, he’d made no move to stop Yuki from riding away on the Roughrider with me. Was it a sign of trust—? No, that wasn’t likely. Not to mention we were definitely being tailed the entire time.
“A blast!” Yuki grabbed Anzan’s wrist and dragged him over to the Roughrider. “Give it a test and let me know what you think.”
Anzan did not move. He just stood there, staring at me and the flyer like it was a death trap. “Ojou—“
“I wasn’t asking~” Her voice had a playful tilt to it. Contrary to her expression, a chilly sharpness cut across the rooftop. The glowing threads on her kimono flared brighter almost in warning.
”Perhaps another time? I need to get going soon.” I tried to escape the sudden sharpness across the roof.
“Ah, and here I was hoping we’d go get lunch together!” Yuki pouted, though she didn’t release his wrist. “So, uncle?”
Anzan glanced at her and shifted slightly. “If a Tsukuyomi built it, my test would add little. The Fang have long trusted their products.”
”You’re no fun.” Yuki pouted and let go of his wrist. He seemed to know just what to say to wiggle out of it, and the sharp atmosphere abruptly faded. “Ah, Shiro! What do you think about lunch? To discuss the deal, of course.”
”’Course.” I let out a nervous chuckle. Discussing the deal over lunch felt like just a formality to keep me around. I had a few hours until I needed to meet up with Uncle Ezra, though.
”Ah, Ishi! What do you think about them?” Yuki hiked her thumb back toward the Roughrider.
”The Kage may have some use of them.” The elder’s eyes snapped down to me and then refocused on the Roughrider. “Perhaps our flyer taxi service could use them.”
”I was thinking about Dune Racing.” Elder Usagi said. “Matriarch Sakurai did want to shift away from horse races for our betting house.”
“A splendid idea, Gi-gi!” Yuki practically pranced around like she was the one about to make a sale instead of me.
I definitely felt like joining her. If I could just sell ten of them, that’d be almost 7 mil rayn in straight profit. Not to mention if they wanted to go for any kind of additional module. That was more money than I’d seen in my life. ‘Course, most of it would have to be reinvested into Cold Moon Solutions, but it was a massive step up in the world for me.
Yuki abruptly froze, making the entire all of Fang enforcers around us likewise freeze. “What’s for lunch?”
“I saw the chef was preparing bentos on our way out, Ojousama,” Shinobu spoke up. He blended into the rest of the enforcers to the point I kinda forgot he was there.
“Again?” The Jade Fang princess pouted tragically and sighed.
”I-I know a burger shop.” I hesitantly offered. “He makes the best burgers this side of the city.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I felt like an idiot. No way the Jade Fang elders would go to a burger joint. It wasn’t nearly refined enough for their usual—
“Sounds great!” Yuki looped her arm in mine and dragged me back to the Roughrider. She wasn’t as tall as Mira, but definitely taller than me. She practically wrapped around me, making me shift around uncomfortably with the proximity. Her kimono fully enveloped my arm like I was hugging an oversized blanket. A soft, sweet scent of cherry blossoms washed over me.
“Um… i-is this alright?” I pulled awkwardly at my captured arm.
“Why wouldn’t it be? Oh! And we’ll see you guys there!” Her words registered a beat too late. By the time I realized what was happening, she’d already flicked on the Roughrider and watched me with an expectant look to her face. Her green eyes sparkled with zealous excitement.
I swallowed dryly and hopped on the bike behind her. At the very least, I wouldn’t die if I fell off. It’d just feel like I had.
——
“You look like you’ve been through hell, kid.” Uncle Ezra greeted me at the door to his office. I’d slipped through the base’s security using the pass he gave me a couple months ago.
”Feel like it too.” The flight with Yuki actually hadn’t been that bad. It was the landing that sucked. She didn’t quite understand smooth, and ended up breaking the landing gear on the Roughrider. It wasn’t from a lack of engineering on my part. She slammed full force down onto the roof.
Lunch was almost nice. It was a bit weird seeing Big Mike’s crowded to the brim with Jade Fang enforcers, but the big guy seemed rather happy about the boost in business. More customers were more rayn, no matter where they came from.
Then began the chat with Usagi and Ishimaru. That was a whole other hellscape of contracts, modules, and specifics when it came to Cold Moon’s new flagship product. I almost preferred drunk Ishimaru. It was good he was sober now, ‘course, but he played a much harder game with his wits about him.
By the end of it all, I sold quite a few more bikes than I originally hoped for. It seemed they made a strong impression on Yuki. Ten were just the basic, normal variants. There was an order for five bikes with complete stealth suites, shock-cannons, and Hex-Spring armor. Finally, they also put in an order for five cosmetically enhanced bikes to try for their taxi business.
All in all? I earned a little over 15 million in one morning. If I was a traditional vehicle manufacturer, I’d probably only get around 5% of the profit, or 750,000. Not a bad a sum, but not great either. As things were, I'd get the full 15 million rayn. It was a massive amount.
I’d have to get them done quickly to get paid, ‘course. Not too shabby, though, considering even just five rayn would’ve been quite the sum over a year ago. And that wasn’t even my final stop for the day. Things were looking up at a rapid rate. I’d have to start hiring staff and setting up Cold Moon once more, so that’d cut into my pay a bit. It was fine, though. There was a lot I could do with that much money.
”C’mon in.” He pushed the door wider and retreated toward his desk.
”Am I late?” I followed him into the office and slid into one of the chairs across from his desk. My eye hazed up, though thankfully cleared after blinking a few times.
He gathered up a bunch of papers and pushed them into a drawer. ”Nah, just been busy with paperwork. The bigwigs want to send an expedition force and clear out a ghoul hotspot to the east of here.”
“Thats… good?”
”Bad, actually. Money’s tight at the moment.” He leaned back in his chair and eyed me. “New hairstyle?”
”Ah, this?” I toyed with a strip of silver hair. “Something like that. You talked to Mira recently?”
”Every night.” He laughed lightly. “I swear, that girl is going to kill me with how much she yaps. Must’ve gotten it from her mother.”
”…” Don’t say anything, Shiro. Don’t say anything.
“This about the Roughriders?”
”Chek.” The one I made for the military was parked just outside. It had the full suite of modules compared to the one I gave to the Fang.
The military man sighed and shook his head. ”Look, I’d like to get a deal set up. I don’t think it's going to happen anytime soon, though. The FSA’s pushing a Crisis Management Firm onto us.”
“Crisis Management Firm?” For what? Actually, I take that back. Aythryn City’s been plagued with one disaster after another as of late.
“Redtale Management?” Uncle Ezra frowned and rubbed at his scraggy beard. “They’re a real piece of work. The overseas kind, if you catch my drift.”
”Ah, from Vurn?” He made a trip there not that long ago with Mira.
”That’s the one.” His frown pulled into a full blown grimace. “They’re were a pain in the ass to work with over there, and nothing’s changed over here. It’s worse, actually. No idea what the FSA’s thinking.”
“It’s fine.” I was making enough from the Fang to tide me over for a while, anyway. “How about I leave the one I brought here, and you can test it out? Let me know what you think.”
“You sure it’s wise to leave something like that around here? The R&D guys will snatch it up at the first chance they get,” he said.
I’d prepared in advance for someone trying to break open my babies to figure out how they ticked. “It’ll self-destruct if anything too important is touched. There’s warning stickers on the bike, but you might want to tell them to keep their paws off.”
“I’ll try. They’re a stubborn bunch, though.” He tossed me a file. “I really would like to do more for you. Now just isn’t the time.”
“I totally get it.” Not to mention it wasn’t worth asking him to force something. If he got fired because I made him buy Cold Moon Solutions tech, then that’d feel pretty rotten… though I’d have a job opening for him if he needed it.
We chatted a bit more before I slipped out of his office and headed back out to my bike. There was just one more stop on the agenda today, and then I could get back to my workshop. It was really about time I started working on a chrome eye to replace the synth one stuck in my head.
——
“So? What do you think?” I asked the woman who had started this entire thing off. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have thought to start selling my Roughrider if not for her.
“It’s nice.” Winslow walked around the Roughrider. We were a few streets down from the HQ at the moment, up on a parking garage. Honestly, parking garages were just too convenient for me. Not to mention I could skip paying and directly fly out.
”I managed to get the arc-cannon you wanted installed on the front. Just flick this switch, and it’ll be ready to go.” I briefly walked her through the rest of the controls while I was at it.
“What about this stuff?” Winslow crouched and knocked on the Hex-Spring armor. The tiny hexagonal scales compressed slightly with her motions. “This’ll hold?”
”Against small and medium arms.” I hadn’t managed to improve on the armor much since I first made it. A new kind of alloy would make it more resistant, though metallurgy was admittedly a bit out of my playing field for the moment. Of the alloys I knew, that was the strongest stuff.
”I imagine an AA gun will still knock me out of the air.” She stood back up and circled it one more time.
”You’ll have bigger issues to worry about if you’re being shot with an AA gun.” Like, I dunno, being exploded into chunks. The bike itself was durable. The person riding on it, though? Not so much.
“Nova.” She shrugged and pulled out her phone. A moment later, a First International Boswan Bank transfer popped up into my HUD. Just like that, I was 900,000 rayn richer.
“Pleasure doing business." I left her to her devices and got on my own bike. My workshop was calling my name, and I had more than enough rayn to finally start some other projects.