February 2, 2065

  “Please direct all foot traffic to the right,” an AI-generated voice said in an unfamiliar language as I walked up to my baggage claim. People were all speaking in English, too… Odd how they pronounce certain things. I’d been given the English language pack for my automatic translator, but this was one of the first times I’d heard it spoken aloud by people in the streets.

  The Los Angeles Metroplex put Tokyo’s to shame in terms of sheer scale, but not density. As I flew in, all I could see was cityscape, extending out into an infinite expanse of grids and skyscrapers. It looked like someone draped a blanket over the Earth. The awe-inspiring grandiosity of it all made me feel so incredibly small and dainty by comparison.

  I arrived in early February, still wearing my winter coat right out of Hokkaido. They told us to enjoy the chill while it lasted - we were headed into Death Valley, where temperatures routinely exceed 60 degrees Centigrade. It'd overheat even the most robust coolant system, so we trained for months in sweltering hot-boxes to prepare our bodies.

  But in the cold night of the city, this coat only made me feel more claustrophobic. I never had claustrophobia. But something about this place felt oppressively suffocating. I remember looking out the window at the buildings growing denser with every passing second, as if the Metroplex itself was swallowing the AV whole.

  I was used to the idea of buildings being built on top of other buildings. The area in Tokyo where I’d lived just a year prior had these great, towering structures that less resembled buildings and more jigsaw puzzles. Bridges extended at odd angles, connecting everything like sinew. There was this metallic, acidic taste in the air. Los Angeles was no different. Just… bigger. Far bigger. We drove for hours to the urban training facility and seemingly nothing changed.

  Four months had passed before we each learned enough American English to pass well enough and we got our assignments. And I was still not used to it. Any of it. This cityscape, this land… it felt wrong. Like a shirt put on backwards. A feeling only exacerbated when it was time for me to ship out, finally, and I got into my first American taxicab. The seats were sticky and pungent with some foul odor. An automated driver simply sped through pedestrian crossways without the faintest concept of safety standards. I guess this place treats life as cheaply as we did in Japan.

  Buildings and street-side businesses jutted out over the roadways, forming strange improvised tunnel networks through layers of highways, one on top of another on top of another, all of which were utterly gridlocked. Even the topmost layer, labeled “Express Only” in English, Mandarin, and Spanish, crept forward slower than walking pace. The bottom layer was an exercise in futility, seemingly a single, continuous traffic jam. The air up here was this strange tint of yellowish-orange. It almost felt like the air itself was on fire, like I was looking outside into the world from the bowels of a lit furnace. At least, what little world I could glimpse through the seemingly endless expanse of wires, bridges, and physics-defying structures hanging on to the sides of buildings for dear life, like blisters about to burst.

  As the expanse faded to monotony on the way to the cargo airport, my brain inevitably drifted back to Japan and left my body here. I could only think about my parents. That argument I had with them both before I left. I told them that they were disrespecting the sword, the car - everything, really. A weapon’s spirit isn’t respected if it inhabits something that is no longer a weapon… What was I thinking?! Of course they would disown me. My father slapped me across the face in his usual reserved, pensive anger, then slammed the door behind him. I never saw him again. My mother tried to sit down and talk to me. But she formed perhaps two or three words - words I completely ignored. I don’t even remember them now. I was too busy screaming.

  There was this guy who accused me of being out-of-touch. Maybe that’s why I got so fed up. And I couldn’t even blame him. Who the heck was I, this kid who came from wealth and privilege, and threw it all away because of some petulant temper tantrum? I could’ve had it all. My mother was grooming me for a seat on the National Diet. My father gave me any private education and clubs I wanted. What right did I have to be here? Sitting in this old taxi as its engine protested every time the driver touched the throttle? What right did I have to fight for the states who declared independence to their corporate overlord? I was the corporate overlord…

  I guess, in a way, I kind of sympathized with their pain, their anger. That innate desire to be free, crushed beneath the heel of a suffocatingly dense city that never wants you to leave. It only gets denser as you go further. Like it knows that you’re trying to fight against it, so it’s fighting back.

  Not knowing the conversion rate, I think I handed the cab driver far more than I should have, because he simply grabbed the money and sped down the rotunda making up the cargo terminal.

  I had never felt so alone before. Never. The only voice that rang in my head was my instructor’s. Picking me up and dusting me off in the brutal January winter. Screaming at me. I could still hear them all. As I glanced down at the ruined sword I stole from my family, I couldn’t help but think of them. The people we left behind. My friends. And they were all screaming…

  I hopped in the Kaukaz rig carrying my car and headed east, paying this driver by the hour. He was gonna be flush with cash by the time we reached the Metroplex border at this rate. As big as this truck was, though, the city was at another level. One hour turned to two, then two turned into six. Before I knew it, night had already fallen. But I wouldn’t have known it had it not been for the clock on the dashboard - there were so many lights that night might as well not even exist. I’ve grown accustomed to never seeing the sun, and therefore never knowing the time. But this felt almost unreal. Like I was living in some eternal simulation world where it just never ended. An endless loop of city, block after block, on repeat like a glitching BD.

  There is simply no word to describe what this felt like. I’d lived on both sides of the River in Tokyo for years, but I’d never seen a city like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of Japan could fit into the Plex, as people called it here. I heard varying reports from different passersby as to the population as well. Some say it’s about 100 million, others say double that; I’m not sure anyone really knows. Nor do I really know what to believe - I can’t see an end to the city in any single direction, be it straight ahead, up, or down. It was like living inside a giant cube puzzle. Continuously shifting and reorienting itself in an effort to solve some mysterious, unknowable riddle.

  I wish I’d never come here. That I could take back everything. I hate this… I hate what I’ve done. The car on the back of this truck… it deserves better than me. The sword in its passenger seat should’ve been up on the mantle at my mother’s home. Why do I have it? What have I done to deserve this? Any of this?

  -

  September 10, 2067

  “...So I was freaking out about it, you know? Not like I had anywhere I could take it, which is how it ended up in the middle of nowhere here,” I explained to Jackie. The poor car was littered with scratches and dents and who knew how old the gasoline was. It’s gonna need a lot of work, that’s for sure… Not to mention that I didn’t know the first thing about working on this kind of car - or any car, for that matter. I mean, what’s the point when you can just get the thing shipped to a garage?

  Well, it’s in a garage, that’s for sure. A garage of a recently depopulated town in New Mexico. Guess nobody wants to be here when the war inevitably caught up. At least they had the common decency to leave the tools behind, though. We’ll probably have to salvage our own parts from the junkyard behind the gas station, but we’ll get there… eventually…

  “So what, lemme get this straight, you jacked this thing from your mother and bolted halfway across the planet with it?”

  “…Yeah,” I shrugged.

  “Hah! Ballsy of you,” Jackie laughed.

  –

  The sun was murderous on us, even in this shop. No air conditioning meant it was actually hotter in here than outside half the time. The roof was black, so it just cooked us like a big-ass oven. But if I took the car out for longer than a half hour, the heat from wherever the sun struck would burn my hands.

  “How’d you even get this thing outta the garage, anyway? Where’d you keep it for the two years you had it back in Japan?” Jackie asked me as he got out of the shower. All we had was two minutes. Being in the middle of nowhere meant that water was a luxury, much less bathing water. People in our situation got to know our bodies real well whether we wanted to or not. I think it bothered him more than me. I was used to it; just about everyone in the Concrete River saw everyone else naked all the time. We often only had a few sets of clothes, and we’d have to wash them all - and ourselves - whenever it rained. Jackie, though - he blushed the whole time. I kept trying to reassure him that it’s okay, but I don’t think it helped.

  “I just drove it out, heh,” I lightly chuckled while reminiscing, squeezing my shirt over my head before putting it back on, “Drove about 50 kilometers outside of town and parked it in this old volcanic cave. At first I didn’t really know what my plan was. I think I was just tryin’ to get back at them, you know? But as time went on, well, I ended up kind of missing it.”

  “So why didn’tcha take it to Tokyo?”

  “Oh, I could never get it through the checkpoints there,” I explained, “Tokyo has two sides to it. One side is ruled by the zaibatsu and Yakuza, the other by Arasaka with the river between them - to be honest, I’m not sure which is worse. At any rate, if I drove it to the city, surveillance cameras would’ve flagged it right away.”

  “Surveillance cameras? They care about that kinda shit?”

  “Well of course they do, Jack… Okay, to put it into perspective. There’s the outer city and the inner city. The inner city has this huge-ass wall around it, like a 20m-tall wall that surrounds the entirety of inner Tokyo. About 10 million people live there. Then you have the outer city. About twice the size, more or less. But 50 million people live there.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  “Yeah, then the inner folks have the balls to complain about a lack of housing?! How deluded can you be?”

  “So, what, just park it in the outer city?”

  “I lived in the outer city, Jackie… trust me, someone there would’ve found it and jacked it in a heartbeat.”

  “Ah… This car that rare?”

  “Well aside from the fact that it’s almost a hundred years old, yeah,” I nodded, “My mom estimates that there’s probably around a single-digit number of these left, just, anywhere. Most people got rid of their classic cars once CHOOH2 overtook gasoline.”

  “Right, so why didn’t you just convert it over?”

  “Could get a conversion kit, sure. But they were always a bit finicky and collectors like it when it’s all-original, so people just sold them off for stupid amounts of money. After that, it all became this sorta incestuous give-and-take between the elite, since they held all the cars, you know?”

  “Mm, and fat chance of ever gettin’ these back, I’m guessin’.”

  “Exactly. So most of these old cars just sorta sat around and rotted into nothingness because no one actually maintained them anymore.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “That why you took it?”

  “I dunno, maybe?” I shrugged, “But I’m gonna tell you right now that I had no idea what was going through my head at the time, man. It was… well, it wasn’t pretty.”

  –

  “...So you told me how much the car’s worth, what about your sword?”

  “What, how much it’s worth?– Shit! Jackie, I told you I want the 10mm!”

  “Yeah, yeah, hold your horses.”

  “And what do you care, anyway?” I shouted as I struggled with this fucking piece of shit gasket, “Why don’t I ask you a million questions about your life, huh?”

  “Hey now, no need to get worked up, chica,” he groaned, “Why you so defensive about it?”

  “Hhhuhhgh… fine…” I sighed, “Sorry for raising my voice. Truthfully it’s not worth much right now. I need to have it reforged first.”

  “Reforged? Why?”

  “I mean, why don’t you try going to war with a 500 year old weapon.”

  “Then why not just hang it up?” he asked me as he sat down on the stool behind me, still not fetching me the socket I asked for, “I mean, s’not like they stopped makin’ swords. Doesn’t Arasaka have like a giant foundry just constantly pumpin’ that shit out?”

  “True, but those are just swords,” I explained, “This one is special.”

  “Yeah but why?”

  “Ugh, look, because it just is, okay?” I rolled my eyes, “Now could you please get me the 10mm socket?”

  “Jesus, what’s crawled up your ass today?” he asked sarcastically, “Y’know, I’m here if you got somethin’ on your mind.”

  “Yeah, I know, Jackie…” I could feel my mouth contort into a frown as I leaned over the partially-dismantled engine block, “I know.” I really didn’t feel like explaining all the nuances to him. “Look, no offense, it’s just… I don’t know. My sword, just… I don’t know. Okay?”

  “What, you don’t know why your sword’s special, or why you gotta reforge it?”

  “…Both. I think,” I finally admitted, “Well okay, I know why. I just don’t know how to explain it, I guess.”

  “Yeah, startin’ to get the sense that this’ll be a runnin’ thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You avoidin’ shit.”

  “Heh, funny, you sound like an old friend of mine,” I laughed at him, “Alright, so what about you? You’ve got that chrome on your face. Not the usual kind you see from the cartel.”

  “Yeah, I’m a Tino, that’s why.”

  “A what?”

  “Ti– Uh, a Valentino. One of the Valentinos gang,” I could hear him shuffle around on the stool behind me, “Well, formerly, anyways. Came down here after bein’ shot. Felt like I needed a breath of fresh air, I guess.”

  “Hah! Then have you come to the right place,” I laughed and smiled, “Fresh air’s about the only thing this place has in any abundance, I think.”

  –

  “Alright, my turn,” I smiled at him, wiping off my face from whatever the hell detritus just fell off the oil pan before crawling back under Miyoko, “Play any musical instruments?”

  “Yeah, I can play the drums, actually,” Jackie boasted, “Guess I got a knack for bangin’ on shit.”

  “Oh? When’d you start?”

  “Nonono, it’s my turn,” he quickly interrupted, “What’s your biggest pet peeve ‘bout livin’ here?”

  “What?”

  “Y’know, America, land of the free, blah blah blah.”

  “No, I get that, but what’s a ‘pet peeve,’ exactly?”

  “Oh, uh, ?Cómo se dice?… like, uh, somethin’ that really annoys you.”

  I spat out some oil that dripped straight into my mouth - that annoys me. “I wanna say the silence, actually.”

  “What? The silence?”

  “Yeah, like, there’s no noises. You just get the occasional gust of wind. But there’s no… I don’t know, life. No animals, no birds, no people. It just feels like the whole world is dead out here.”

  “Eh, I dunno, I find it kinda comforting.”

  “Oh? Why?” I asked him, genuinely curious now.

  “Simple, cause no noise means nobody’s around. Means safety. Whenever shit was loud in Night City, you knew it was goin’ down. And if it suddenly quiets down, you know shit’s about to go down. But if the audio’s just constant from start to finish, well then it’s business as usual, right?”

  “Hmm…” I thought about what he said, “So is that what you’re afraid of?”

  “That your question?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Hmph,” he grunted, “Then I gotta say nah. Think my biggest fear’s that I’mma be left alone, y’know? That no one’d notice me.”

  “Oh come on, Jackie. You’re like the size of a building, it’s kind of hard to miss you, man."

  “Okay, y’know what I mean, V,” I could hear him chuckling through a grin, “Like not leavin’ a mark on anyone. On the place I grew up. Know what I mean?”

  “I wish I didn’t,” I muttered from beneath the car.

  “What’s that?”

  “Nothing, your turn.”

  “Alright, so what was your family like?” he asked like it was the easiest question in the world to answer.

  “Wow, you’re really cutting for the heart, aren’t you?”

  “Whaaat? Don’t tell me you’re chickening out of this shit,” he clapped his hands together.

  “13mm socket, please,” I asked him, needing to bolt the drain plug back on.

  “Give you the socket if you gimme an answer,” he teased me.

  “Fff… Fine…” I scoffed, “I’m an only child. My father was generally pretty absentee. Worked all his life, as do most dads where I come from. My mom was, uh…” I took a long, tenuous pause.

  “Your mom was…?”

  “…Complicated,” I finally answered, “To be honest, I blocked out a ton of memories from her over the past couple of years and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you why.”

  “Well, what was she like, was she nice?”

  –

  “…Faster,” Mom paced around me, “You made a commitment.”

  “I don’t want to…” I protested, “I can barely lift my arms…”

  “S******, listen to me,” she used my full name… She must be serious… “Your form was slow. But it was not the fault of your muscles. It was the fault of your spirit.” She pointed at the heavy odachi I held, a sword more than twice my size, as it rested beside me. I had to grasp it on the wooden mock-blade before I could even move it. “I know you better than that. I know you are perfectly capable of wielding this instrument. Do not do yourself the disservice of refusing to believe that. Such acts are beneath you.”

  “Mom…” I whimpered.

  “I am not interested in your pity. Only your honor,” she sharply fired back, “Why do you want to wield these swords?”

  “B-because… I want to be strong… like you…” I silently sobbed as she knelt down in front of me.

  “No, S******. You want to be strong like you,” she spoke with a deep, dark stare into my eyes, “Not like me.”

  –

  "Oh come on, Chica, it's been like 2 days and you still haven't answered." Man, he's persistent, I'll give him that.

  “Fine - My mom was… I guess nice, in her own way,” I really had to think about what I said here, “She had such a way with words. Like… she never once raised her voice. Ever.”

  “Heh, that must be nice,” he chuckled in return, “My mother would shout her head off when I was growin’ up.”

  “No, but I mean, she just spoke… I don’t know the word, uh, with resonance? She could… she could project her voice really well. But she never raised her voice. Never even cursed, not a single time. But she could make grown men grovel at her boots until the sun went down with what she said. Everything had a… I don’t know, a meaning behind it,” I paused briefly as Jackie handed me another spark plug, “Thanks… uh, but anyway, I thought she loved me, in her own weird way?”

  “You thought?”

  “Well, until she told me I was no longer welcome.”

  “Oh, shit… uh, I’m sorry,” he muttered with a sincere tone. “Did you ever see her again?”

  “Yeah… once,” I bit my trembling lower lip, “When I got the car.”

  “And…? Did she say anything?”

  “Oh no, Jackie, I gave you, like, three questions.”

  “Oh come on, V, shit’s interesting!” he fired back, “I wanna hear the rest of the story!”

  “Yeah, well, maybe somewhere down the road,” I replied bluntly, “Still a bit too soon.”

  “Alright, alright, sure…” he scrubbed my words away, “Just a hint?”

  “Jackie!!”

  “Whaaat? Guy’s gotta try, chica!”

  –

  “Merry Christmas!” Jackie shouted as I fumbled another fuse down onto the ground… shit…

  “”Hey, good morning, Jack,” I nodded back to him, “Fuck!– Gah… I hate electrical shit…”

  “What’s up?”

  “Nothing, just the right turn signal still doesn’t work and the ignition keeps randomly shutting off. Trying to find the fuses is such a pain in the ass…”

  “You check the user manual?”

  “No, I’m just randomly pulling fuses – yes, of course I checked the fucking user manual!” I cursed at him, “Bah…”

  “Heh, sounds like a party down there,” he chuckled before pulling me up and dusting off my shoulder, “Here, why don’t you take a break.”

  “Wait, do you even know what you’re doing?”

  “Eh,” he grunted as he gyrated his huge body down beneath the steering column, “Plus or minus.”

  “Jackie!”

  “Hey now, not like you’re doin’ much better,” he laughed.

  “Guuh… fine…” I groaned, “Just don’t– Jackie, for fuck’s sake! I just did all that wiring!”

  “Yeah, I can tell, looks like shit if you ask me.”

  –

  “What did you want to be when you grew up?” I asked him, staring up at the stars. I could see the galaxy… it was utterly breathtaking… And made me feel so… I can’t even begin to think of the words. Blessed, perhaps?

  “I thought we went over this? Said I wanted to run my own restaurant and bar.”

  “No, no… think bigger, man,” I implored him, “Look at this… just… look… You can be anything you want. And you want to run a bar?”

  “Bah, okay, how ‘bout you, Miss Think Big?”

  “I dunno…” I thought for five seconds… then ten… 15… 30 seconds… “You ever just… look at the galaxy, late at night like this? It kinda looks like… like ink, splattered with glitter. Like I can just… dip my finger in it and stir it up. You know what I mean?”

  “...Fuck are you on about, hah,” Jackie laughed, “But nah, in all seriousness. Think it’d be pretty fuckin’ awesome… hey, look!”

  “What?”

  “Crystal Palace, see that?” he pointed to a tiny speck moving against the background, “Okay, good dream. One day, I’mma get up there.”

  “Be on top of the world? Literally.”

  “Heh, you got it.”

  “I’ve always had this one dream…” I mused, “I’d get in my car and go driving in one direction and just… keep going. Put a bunch of gas cans in the back and just keep driving. I don’t know what I’d be looking for… I’d just be driving. For the sake of it.”

  “Maybe lookin’ for somethin’ you loved?” he suggested, “A way outta this crap?”

  “Yeah, maybe…” I pondered his words, “It’s been two years in the military and, you know what, I’m tired already… I can’t imagine what I’d be like after three or four. I came over here… when I came here… I didn’t know what I was looking for. A home, maybe? Somewhere I belonged? Friends, a relationship? I don’t really know.”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled quietly.

  “For what?”

  “For bein’ in a situation you felt like you had to escape from,” he elaborated, “Know what that’s like. S’how I ended up here.”

  “And we’re going back to Night City in spite of all that,” I frowned, “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

  “V, come on,” he spoke more insistently, “We both deserve better. And we won’t get it out here.”

  "I dunno, Jack… I mean, have you ever woken up and just thought to yourself, 'Is there a world out there, some alternate universe, where I'm just… happy?" I thought out-loud, "All I ever wanted to be was a dancer… To make people smile. To compel them with art. I didn't want to join Arasaka. And now I'm just stuck. And scared… I didn't want this."

  "Then let's make a better life," he smiled from ear to ear, "Come on. Night City awaits."

  –

  “How long’s it been?”

  “I think it’s day five,” Jackie said with an unsure punctuation, “Lemme think… We stopped for gas in the Vegas Plex, day there… two days after… uh… no, it’s day six.”

  “Shit…” I rolled my tired eyes, “And one day since we saw another car.”

  “Yeah, well, good news is we still got some coyote.”

  “Don’t remind me,” I grumbled, “It’s gonna be your job to get that smell outta the trunk.”

  “Heh, never thought I’d see someone filet a wild animal with a sword,” Jackie laughed to himself, “Yet here we are, doin’ it like every fuckin’ day. Cacti, vulture, coyote, muskrat… uh…”

  “Fox, skunk,” I added, “But yeah, sadly I forgot to steal the family meat cleaver.”

  “Wait, wait! Stop!!” Jackie suddenly shouted, startling me. I involuntarily slammed the brake and clutch, bringing Miyoko to a screeching halt.

  “What?! What is it?”

  “Go back!” he instructed, “The sign!”

  “What? What sign? You made me stop for a sign?!”

  “Will you just go back already?” he implored me.

  “Fuck, fine…” I said reluctantly, putting the car in reverse and backing up… huh. Huh… “Wow, no shit…”

  “Yeah, no shit!”

  “Alright, so, like, what do we do?” I asked him as we both stared at this sign, leaving the car idling.

  “Well obviously we gotta get some pics! To remember the moment!”

  I obliged him with a loud giggle, lining up where he directed me. The sand licked my boots, the wind picking up and dusting my hair to a charcoal-grey. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a shower. We both stunk. But we didn’t care.

  “Did you get it in focus this time?” I laughed at him as I skipped over to where he stood, “Aww, that’s a good one!”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah, bro, your camera skills’ve gotten better!”

  “Oh, by the way, been thinkin’ about it,” he noticeably scrunched up a bit, “Was wonderin’, you got anywhere to go once you’re there?”

  “Was gonna find a place,” I shrugged, “I have money, I’ll be alright. Why?”

  “Well, uh, ‘fore you do, was wonderin’ if you wanna crash at my place for a bit. Y’know, just ‘till you get back on your feet.”

  “Jackie, you know I’m gay, right?”

  “What? Yeah, I know, it’s not like that,” he stammered, “I’d just feel like crap if I left you on the streets, s’all.”

  “Hah, well I appreciate the offer,” I smiled sincerely, “Tell you what. I’ll stop by, you introduce me to this wonderful mother of yours. And we’ll see what happens, yeah?”

  “Aww fuck yeah!” he beamed, looking like he was about to jump up and touch the stars, “Get over here, mi hermana!”

  “You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you,” I patted him on the shoulder.

  “For what?”

  “For saving my life. For being so nice to me. For inviting me into your house,” I shrugged and looked down, all shy and sullen, “Honestly, I mean… it’s more than anyone’s ever done for me.”

  “Oh come on, V, don’t be like that-”

  “No, seriously!” I exclaimed, “I don’t think I’ve met anyone else so… I don’t know, just… great to be around.”

  “Heh,” Jackie blushed and itched the back of his head, “Well you ain’t so bad yourself.”

  “Now let’s get going. Gonna be a hell of a party your mom’s likely to throw, don’t wanna be late,” I gave him a light punch and skipped back to the driver’s side door.

  “Right behind ya,” he nodded, brushing his shoulder where I hit him, “Get you a nice girl while we’re at it, too, how’s that?”

  “Hey now, let’s not jump the gun, one thing at a time…” We drove off together, finally picking up a radio station and immediately dancing to some nice beats. I can’t wait to see what the city’s got in store for us. After all that we’ve been through, it’d be nice to finally put our feet up and rest. It’s been a hell of a journey.