Revenge Fantasy

The answer could not have been more obvious.

After the temporary setback, the blood transfusion continued as intended. Kusuri kept a very close eye on Chouko throughout the treatment, with John and Yumi assigned to cleanup duty.

There was no resistance from Chouko this time. She simply stared at a wall for the rest of the procedure, letting the doctor proceed with this treatment.

Once the transfusion finished, Kusuri let out a sigh of relief. "Right. She should be in good enough condition now. Luckily, all her organs are still in working order."

"Good." John looked around. "Where's the blood supplier?"

"In the back of his car, sleeping," Kusuri explained. "Right now, he shows some symptoms of being mentally comatose, but nothing too severe. I'm going to have to accompany him and drive his car off the lot."

"No hard feelings, right... Doctor?" Chouko asked.

This got a glare from Kusuri, a look of pure repulsion. "... None."

"Right. Contact me in a few days from now," John instructed. "I shall arrange for someone to pick up your car."

"Understood."

From there, they parted ways. The storage unit was cleaned up, with no messes left behind. Kusuri and Grayson went off on their own merry way, while John and the rest drove off.

Now, it has been two days since the treatment.

The Underworld is still in search of Chouko Ashford, with many mercenaries closing in on Tennessee after word spread of the events there. Anyone in the immediate vicinity of Tennessee is now on guard for Ashford.

So far, Ashford is still under the radar, and no information has leaked about the Nissan Versa. Careful planning has gone into hiding Chouko Ashford's whereabouts, with no clue which direction or destination she is headed. For all anyone is aware, after two days, she could be anywhere close to Tennessee: Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina... as far as the recently seceded Florida, even.

With preparations taken, the Serbian Flashbang and his partner have gone southwest, coming from Tennessee to... Arkansas.

For now, John and Yumi are taking one of the many "scraps" left behind in this Chouko Ashford fiasco. Unfinished Underworld jobs are being taken by those who lost hope in capturing the Stalker, leading to a very high supply of simple and easy work. This is the best way to divert attention away from them, blending in with the other mercenaries who gave up.

It's a rather simple job: information gathering. Money is being paid to gather information on or from a specific target, with a varying rate depending on what's gathered. For this particular job, John has to pursue a specific individual and gather the information.

With the new asset at his disposal, this job is going to be pulled off without a hitch.

Discreetly, John and Yumi are walking into one of Arkansas's bistros, small restaurants with an exotic decor and a strong focus on—specifically for the state—simple American cuisine. Out of everything that survived the Artificial Revolution, these restaurants persisted for those who passionately loved local food.

Needless to say, the several dozen people filling the building today are a testament to why these restaurants survived. This particular bistro is quite full, with friendliness, liveliness, and chattiness to go around. This is one of the busiest of bistros on this fine day, when the media decided to shut itself down and everyone had no choice but to distract themselves with good food.

"... Alright. I can see you."

"Good," John whispers. "Standby."

Two blocks away, hidden in the lot of an almost neighboring and equally full eatery, the Nissan Versa is parked between two large vans. Chouko Ashford is in the backseat, her body tied up with generous amounts of rope, while her head is covered by a burlap sack.

Apart from the fact that this is out of safety, preventing Ashford from theoretically escaping, there is a camouflaging purpose to this. Anyone who happens to pass by the car is less likely to notice any of her distinguishing features, making her blend in as a random tied-up body in a car. In this day and age, nobody—not even the people of Arkansas—will go out of their way to question the random tied-up person in the car.

Shortcake sits in the passenger's seat, which is reclined back enough to conceal Chouko's legs. While Chouko is tied up, Shortcake has been instructed to stay near her with the flip phone, to hold the phone and give it to Chouko's hand as necessary.

This summarizes most of the jobs now taken by the three. It's a mix between jobs where Yumi and John enter a location alone, leaving Chouko and Shortcake behind in the car.

It makes the android feel uneasy to see Chouko like this, but... Shortcake knows Chouko and John agreed to this. They arranged for this together, so it should be fine.

"Okay," Chouko calmly speaks, staring forward into the burlap sack and getting a good view of the bistro from John's shoulder. "Who am I looking for?"

"Roy Spence," John answers. "An informant by the name of 'the Psychic'."

In the Underworld, the Psychic is famous for having information before anyone even needs it. In the past, whenever a premeditated assassination was about to occur, the Psychic sold information on every detail: when, where, and how it would happen. Getting any information on the Psychic's methods will prove valuable.

"The Psychic. I know I am not one to talk," Chouko, the Stalker of the Underworld, sighs, "but that is quite a straightforward moniker."

"Correct. A reminder, we'll spot him, and—" John explains.

Chouko rolls her eyes. "I don't do reminders. Just tell me when you see him."

"Mm."

Keeping the high occupancy in mind, John and Yumi separate to cover different sides of the bistro. John stays closer to the entrance to keep his eye on those entering and exiting, while Yumi goes further in to order food and watch those at the tables.

Every so often, Chouko closes one eye at a time to focus between John and Yumi. She has butterflies resting on both individuals, having a clear look through both pairs of eyes. The entire restaurant is overwhelmingly crowded, with dozens of individuals who could be this Roy Spence.

Eventually, John's eyes catch a glimpse of the front door, spotting someone: a man in a white dress shirt with blue jeans. His hair is trimmed into a buzz cut fade, with short hair prominent on the top, and the sides brought to a very thin fade.

John quickly holds one hand over his right eye, locking his gaze on this individual. That's him. That's Roy Spence.

Chouko, getting this signal, acts immediately. She takes a deep sigh, keeping her focus on John's perspective as she sends a butterfly away from Yumi.

The butterfly discreetly moves low, staying close to the floor and out of people's direct sight. It swerves left and right past people's legs, actively moving to avoid being squished by the bottom of people's shoes.

Finally, the butterfly reaches Roy Spence's ankle, latching onto his jean leg and securing itself.

"Got him," Chouko tells John.

"Good," John tells Chouko, keeping his eye on the man. He doesn't fully understand Ashford's capabilities, but that's what he and Yumi are here for... in case she messes up. His best guess is to look for anything on him that can be used as communication. A phone, a neurochip, anything.

With this in mind, Chouko puts her full focus into the butterfly on the Psychic, quietly having the bug crawl up the man's leg. The insect's wings flap idly as it climbs, simply searching for...

... Hmm.

The ability to look through a person's eyes is quite handy.

In just a few seconds, her butterfly can now see through Roy Spence's eyes, taking hold of his vision and letting Chouko see what he sees. The Psychic's eyes seem to work like computers, as he's currently looking at some windows and screens. In his left eye, there's a single rectangle with waves and signals. In his right eye, there's video footage coming from several security cameras.

Chouko has a curious look in her eyes as she makes a beckoning gesture with her hand. The sight before her is quite familiar, but where did she see this...?

... Ah. Three years ago. "Eagle Eye Security Co.", a national distributor of security cameras.

All Chouko has to do is execute the same steps. Going through the menu of "hacks", Chouko simply browses through the hack menu, presses the OK button to execute them in a particular sequence, and...

Shortcake holds the phone right up to her, keys in reach of Chouko's fingers.

"Did you find anything?" John asks, having been waiting for a response for about two minutes.

Chouko remains intentionally silent as she gets to work. She doesn't know the extent of her control over the butterflies. If she says anything to John now, while she still has access to Roy Spence's vision, her voice may speak directly into the target's ears. The guy will immediately know something's wrong, and the mission will become null and void.

The best she can do is simply manipulate John's eyes, focusing on making him hallucinate everything she can see. All of the direct information Roy Spence has is being transmitted.

John is visibly astonished as he stares forward. He recognizes these menus as ones that appear in standard issue cybernetics, most popular with security administrators. Roy Spence, the Psychic, is simply tapping into security footage and recording whatever seems noteworthy...

"Ah. So that's how he... right. Keep me updated," John mumbles to Chouko. "If we can get everything he has access to, then—"

Chouko cuts off contact with Roy Spence's senses immediately. "Done. I already have something. Sending it to you, now."

"Huh? Already?" John responds.

Chouko keeps herself in place, maintaining the butterfly's hold on Roy Spence as she messes with the flip phone. She's more than familiar with what to do for this job, remembering Charon guiding her step by step to intercept similar technology. Apparently, it has something to do with the connection to the eyes, with confusing nonsense about "DNA profiling" and "biometrics" behind it.

John stands in place, having a single eyebrow raised as he closes his eyes and accepts the connection.

Three seconds later, John's eyes open wide in shock. Right before his eyes, a glorious sight is right before him: the entire database of a nationwide security company.

Chouko's ability has somehow bypassed all of the security measures related to Roy Spence. The data John has received is something that she sent to Charon, with several vulnerabilities injected into what John's looking at. This is quite similar to how Roy Spence sees it, only with a direct list in the left eye instead of the idle signal waves.

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John scrolls through these security cameras, catching glimpses of active feeds streaming constantly into his eyes. John's own technology has free rein to go through it all, seeing footage of an Oregon family of 4 currently eating chicken fingers, a single Utah bachelor gambling his entire life savings on a cheap slot machine website, and so on.

John is visibly shocked, giving a signal to Yumi. A quick hand gesture is done to get her attention.

Yumi, keeping a better eye on Roy Spence, gives a subtle nod. Nothing seems to be happening with Roy Spence. Guy's just sitting and talking to the waitress, complaining about his salad."

"... Then... I suppose we're done here," John whispers, storing away the encrypted data of this connection. "And you're sure there's no trace?"

"Not absolutely sure. There is a caveat," Chouko explains, recalling that Charon once put that time limit on her. "As long as we only access it for five minutes at a time, then it should be completely untraceable."

"Duly noted..." John responds, cutting the connection off immediately.

With that, the job was completed in just five minutes. No struggle or hassle, just a simple surveillance. Now, the fate of Roy Spence and all of Eagle Eye Security Co. is in John's grasp, as all of the Psychic's information is at his disposal. He saves all of the data, planning to wait a few hours before contacting the client. If he sends it now, that'll raise too much suspicion.

Right. John immediately starts to leave. Yumi waits a couple of minutes before starting to head out as well. The two return to the Nissan Versa and drive off.

After this job, in particular, they're taken to... Little Rock.

Little Rock, like most other cities, has had its former identity erased by the Artificial Revolution. The entirety of the city is no longer a "city" in the traditional sense. Rather, it is now an irrationally massive skyscraper structure spanning across the entire land and stretching about 50 stories up.

It's... unsettling. The structure is made of sandstone and gold, with glass panes tinted completely black to block out the sunlight. Most of what made Little Rock "Little Rock" is buried under several stories of structurally thick architecture, with the air outside the building polluted to all hell. The streets connect to a very elaborately built ramp that goes up story by story, quite like a parking garage... but city-wide.

Once one gets to the intended floor, it becomes a maze of winding structures, with buildings to make up the walls. To get to a specific destination, one needs to navigate several dozen buildings across many streets just for a slim chance of the building being open. If one doesn't find what they want in the

By now, every inhabitant in that car is desensitized to this. Little Rock's been like this for years. Chouko doesn't keep up with central timezone states, John and Yumi have been to this building enough to be familiarized with its absurd concept, and Shortcake has no references to what constitutes an unnatural building. All of this feels natural to them.

The Nissan Versa S drives through the toll booth entrance, then begins driving and ascending about 16 stories worth of building.

"... Man, coming here sucks..." Yumi mumbles.

Shortcake has her eyes glued to the outside, watching the passing golden lights from the passenger's seat.

A bit more driving, and they reach an unremarkable restaurant that's sandwiched between an art gallery with android-only works and an independent android repair shop.

Three of the car's doors open, with John, Yumi, and Shortcake all leaving the car. Chouko remains tied up in the back seat, ever so silent, just hearing the sound of them departing while her head remains covered.

Chouko doesn't have her ability active right now. She doesn't bother to have a butterfly trail after the group as they enter. For now, Chouko's left in peace, spending another long moment of simple contemplation. A moment that she's embraced again and again, just...

... idly.

"Okay. I'm bored," Yumi says out of nowhere, grabbing the sack over Chouko's head and pulling it off. "You're boring me. Say something."

Chouko's eyes open, and she stares at Yumi. She looks a little confused. "... You did not leave with John?"

"'Course not, I'm banned," Yumi explains. "A bunch of businesses that serve food here have banned me from coming in, so Pops has to go in by himself, or, well, he brought the android with him."

"Shortcake."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Yumi responds, legs crossed as she sits back. "Ahhh. So, yeah. Say something else. Entertain me. Give me entertainment, Chouko Ashford."

Hmm.

Chouko looks away, staring at the roof... the ceiling of the car, vacantly looking off into its material. There are a lot of thoughts that cross her mind, yet none seem suited to... "entertain", admittedly.

"I—"

"You're taking too long," Yumi interrupts, rolling her eyes and deciding to throw a question right at Chouko. "Here. Okay. What's it like to be a British girl?"

Chouko tenses up. Her face grimaces into pure discomfort, and she just... she... she musters the strength to answer. "... N... Not that different from any old childhood, I suppose."

"Really?" Yumi asks. "Nothing at all? I was expecting you to say some crap about how you drank tea," Yumi begins to speak, lifting her fingers as she starts listing off random British sounding things, "enjoyed company with the random men your 'father' would bring around, frolicked in the croquet fields like a whimsical flower girl, and went to some fancy private school to learn super smart things."

Chouko is completely stunned by this. That is exactly what her childhood was, before...

...

"... yeah. I—"

"So, what films did you see?" Yumi asks.

Chouko is interrupted, blinking a couple of times. "... Films?"

"Yeah. Like... when I was a kid, I watched a bunch. Mom and Dad would, like, have a bunch of VHS and DVDs of cool movies. I think their favorite was, like, 'Kiss of the Dragon', with 'Enter the Dragon' at a close second. What kinda stuff did you watch as a kid?"

"Hmm," Chouko reacts, staring off for a while. In truth, apart from some film trivia, she could not care a single bit about movies. All her interests in entertainment were narrowed to books and... books.

Thinking of an answer, however, Chouko responds with... "Rocky."

"Pffft!" Yumi covers her mouth and laughs. "Rocky? Like, the boxer?"

Chouko nods, gravitating towards answering with that movie. It's the closest thing to a movie that Yumi would've been aware of...

... Seeing Yumi's amusement at her answer, a thought comes to Chouko's mind. Those two specific films had 'Dragon' in them. A solid guess, but... "I suppose your family is more into martial arts, hm?"

Yumi leans back, staring out the car's windshield. "Yeah," she answers, confirming Chouko's guess. "We were super fond of, like, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and... well, I guess Sylvester Stallone was pretty cool. Dad would gush about how strong those guys are, how cool they looked, and stuff."

"I see..." Chouko responds as the limits of her knowledge are put to the test. Unfortunately, she doesn't know a thing about movies, martial arts, or martial arts movies. She's completely out of her element in this conversation.

That leaves Yumi to fill in the blanks for her. "Like, all the moves, all the culture, everything that martial arts has to offer, it's..." Yumi responds, raising a hand and idly moving it in circles to think to herself, to really put it all into her thoughts. "It's, like, showing the power that people are capable of, the best that we can do with physical strength alone. I didn't get it until I... saw it for myself. It showed the pinnacle of human discipline through that... screen."

Yumi takes a deep breath, looking to the side. She has eyes on the restaurant, up ahead, and smiles at the thought of something...

... as she continues to speak. "Every punch, every kick, every single second of it. It's all just great..." Yumi sighs, a dreamy look in her eyes.

"... Interesting," Chouko responds, unaware of a single thing that Yumi's talking about. She seems so deeply passionate about the topic. The best she can do is compare it to her own passion, as if Yumi has the same passion for these films as Chouko does for...

...

Hm...

Chouko idly recalls the entirety of what she's seen Yumi do. The passion really comes through with a lot of what she's done in the diner. She doesn't understand martial arts, but she's seen what Yumi can do.

But... hmm.

Yumi's fighting style seems to be linked with boxing. She does a lot of jabs and right hooks, which are significantly different from the discipline of kung fu. Every stance she does is akin to boxers, to Rocky.

Chouko, in engaging with this conversation, is now very curious about this, about why she incorporates boxing instead of kung fu. To keep the conversation going, she idly asks Yumi this question. "Hm. Is there a reason why—?"

Before she can finish, however, Yumi interrupts her. "Right, enough about me, I'm ready to talk about you," Yumi asks, looking over her shoulder with a knowing look.

"Hm?" Chouko looks to Yumi. "Talk about...?"

"The warehouse," Yumi explains. "You know. When you did the thing."

Ah.

Right.

... Chouko lets out a deep sigh and speaks. "'The thing'. That's... that's an interesting way to put it," Chouko responds, caught off guard by that wording.

"So? What the heck was that, back at the warehouse?" Yumi asks. "What'd ya do?"

This is the first time Chouko's had to actually think about it, about what her ability just did. She lets out a deep sigh, feeling a light chill throughout her skin, before explaining. "Right. I believe what happened is my... ability, at its fullest. I sought escape, so I decided to incapacitate every single one of you with your worst nightmares, the worst moments you could ever experience. It's enough to immobilize you all to the point of terror."

"No, no, yeah, I got that part, Pops and the doc made that plenty clear," Yumi responds. "I'm more asking about the part of what you were doing with me, specifically."

Chouko hmms. "Honestly, I... don't know. I don't really think about it," Chouko explains. "The four of you, and probably Shortcake too, simply faced the influence of my ability taking... hold... of your senses. You all filled in the blanks yourselves. I don't really know anything about what went through your heads."

"Is that so...?" Yumi asks, a worried look on her face.

"Yes," Chouko responds, meeting Yumi's gaze with some mild discomfort. "So whatever memory I put you through..."

"... I, myself, made me become Ding Dong the Circus Bear."

"Indeed, you..." Chouko begins to speak, mentally processing the words that just came out of Yumi's mouth. Her eyes narrow skeptically, and a look of sheer, utter confusion forms on the rest of her face.

Ding Dong the Circus Bear.

Nothing in this moment could have prepared Chouko for this. She stares directly at Yumi. "... What did you just say to me?"

"Mmmh." Yumi shrugs lightly, rolling her eyes. "You made me into Ding Dong the Circus Bear, Las Vegas's Acrobatic Titan. He's like, this brown bear trained to do all sorts of air tricks, nimbly swinging himself across the entire tent, trained to perform alongside the world's best acrobats. He's kind of like a squirrel, just, kinda spinning around all frantically while... yeah."

"... Okay, no, that is NOT what happened," Chouko objects, absolutely dumbfounded by what she's hearing. "You did NOT experience a vivid dream of being a casino circus grizzly bear."

"I didn't, I was Ding Dong the Bear," Yumi casually clarifies.

"You were not a bear!" Chouko shouts, brought to anger the more she hears the words Ding Dong the Bear. "I know full well you went through worse than some vivid hallucination that turned you into an acrobatic grizzly bear!"

"Well, dunno what to tell ya, British girl, that's what I remember happening," Yumi remarks. "How'd ya do it? How'd you get me to go to Nevada, huh? Tell me!"

"Go to Neva—?! I-I did not have any involvement in that!" Chouko responds. "Your mind did it all. I claim no responsibility for making you Ding Dong in your apparent nightmare!"

Yumi hehs, cracking a very big smirk. "Cool. Best that nobody be made responsible for the horrors I had to face as Ding Dong the Circus Bear. You and I are the only ones to know how vigorous my Ding Dong the Circus Bear was. I was a very wild bear in my prime. I remember the time that my Ding Dong—"

The car doors open.

Flash.

Yumi's eyes blink. The burlap sack is back over Chouko's head, and Yumi's in the back seat once more.

John gets back into the driver's seat, and Shortcake sits in the passenger's. The former has numerous paper bags in his hands, containing the various orders of food he's gotten to go.

"Right... Yumi, one of these has your sandwich, and the other's mine," John explains, tossing... nothing to her.

Yumi's happily biting into a roast beef sandwich with melted parmesan cheese on it. In her other hand, she's holding onto a sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

Shortcake, opening the passenger door, idly puts both of her bags on the...

... she has no bags.

Ever so idly, Yumi's just balancing whatever Shortcake was holding on her left leg. Pure, pure pride is on her face as she's entertained by this.

"So. What's in the bag?" Yumi asks, staring at it. "Guessing it's Ashford's food?"

John idly nods. "It is. We got the standard meal for her, but do be careful. Roxie—"

"Shortcake," Yumi speaks up.

"—Shortcake," John speaks, raising an eyebrow before continuing, "found a certain special on the menu that caught her attention. It's, how you say, sensitive to carry. A surprise for later."

"Hmm." Yumi tosses John's sandwich into his hands. She then bites into the side of hers to hold it with her mouth, pulling Chouko's food bag closer to her lap. "'Kay. I'll get right on feeding duty."

John catches his sandwich. "If you insist."

"S-So, where are we going now?" Shortcake asks, a smile on her face.

"For now, we're headed to the 17th floor," John remarks. "A house is provided for us to sleep in for the night. To not arouse suspicion, it's a two-bedroom, but a couch will be available."

"Cool," Yumi responds, looking to Chouko and grinning at her. "You hear that? One of us's gotta be on the couch. I think it's you."

"... If you insist," Chouko responds.

"Oh, yeah, I do insist. 'Cause," Yumi responds, pulling the sack off Chouko's head. "You've got yourself something worth a bed. Open wide!"

Chouko looks confused, raising an eyebrow as she sees Yumi holding a plastic fork with a bit of...

... cake.

"Yeah, haha. Shortcake got this for her, right, Pops?" Yumi asks, gleefully smiling as she's taken Chouko's cake out of the—

Tensely, John realizes that Yumi's taken the cake out. "Yumi! I said that was a surprise for later! Put it away!"

Yumi rolls her eyes. "Ehh, it's just a cake, what's the difference between now and later? Food's food, might as well get to eating and—"

"I SAID, PUT IT AWAY!" John's voice thunders out, loudly ringing out through the car.

Hearing this, Yumi is caught off guard. It's rare to hear his voice be this loud, this pissed, this... panicked. "H-Huh?! Pops, what's got you so—?!"

"NOW, DAMN IT, NOW!" John interrupts, not entertaining Yumi's response. He tensely looks back at Yumi, pure rage in his eyes.

Oh, this sends a chill through Yumi's spine. She looks between John and Chouko, very noticeably confused. He's getting super pissed over a cake...?

"... S... She'll eat it when we get to the house!" Shortcake exclaims, a little antsy after John's shouting. "I-It was going to be a surprise..."

"H... Huh," Yumi responds, just... putting the cake away. For all intents and purposes, since she's already taken off part of the cake, she... eats the piece herself. Dang spirit downer.

The car is now silent as they drive. Yumi's sitting back, just pouting and looking elsewhere as she puts the sack back over Chouko's head. Shortcake's just sitting and staring forward, uncomfortably fiddling with her thumbs after the shouting.

And John, he's... staring forward. Tensely staring forward.

Currently, he's thinking about what happened back at the warehouse. Chouko Ashford responded to the terms of their deal.

Sure, she's helping him and Yumi. She's very much agreeing to help them with the jobs they've taken.

But the answer could not have been more obvious...

"... No... Absolutely not."