Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 224

Once we were alone, the Shrinemaiden summoned a sprite. It was a quick action, and the spell that followed was even faster. At my questioning gaze, she spoke up. “Anti-eavesdropping magic. Just in case! Never know who might be listening~.”

”Right…” There were a plethora of things she could want to talk about privately. The least of which was Vulpes personally hanging out with me or the magical tracker in my neck. Speaking of which, the tracker was gone. Must’ve taken care of it while I was asleep. The bug bite was healed, leaving smooth skin once more.

Speaking of healed injuries, my hand was fully healed. It's just that the datajacks were cut off. It was deeply uncomfortable feeling my flesh heal around it. It was like shards of steel poking into the insides of my arm. I'd have to visit Nael soon to get it fixed.

”First! An introduction. I am Sune Banto. And you’re Shiro Tsukuyomi, yes?” The Shrinemaiden smiled faintly at me.

My guard immediately raised, though I tried to hide the tension. It made sense she’d know my name. Echidna’s group had known me, at least. Still, it was very uncomfortable. Especially considering my current situation with the Crusade. 

As if sensing my discomfort, Sune laughed lightly and continued on further into the storage room. “Oh, don’t worry about the Crusade. I won’t say a thing~.”

”Then it’s nice to meet you, Sune.” I followed behind her. She was probably trustworthy with some of my secrets. At the end of the day, she was one of Fox’s high-ranking Magi. And Fox and I had a particularly close relationship, so the chances of a backstab weren’t exactly high.

Sune rifled through a couple of drawers before pulling out an outfit exactly the same as hers. “The pleasure is all mine~! Imagine my surprise when Lady Vulpes herself showed up to take care of you. And you’re not even one of Her Magi!”

”It must’ve been quite shocking. Thank you for letting me stay.” 

“Who am I to say no to Her? My curiosity is simply killing me… but I won’t pry, no need to worry. I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you, so I’d like to get along~.” Sune handed me the set of clothes. Then, with a pulse of the Aether, one of the guardian foxes cast a spell. A wall rose from the ground, creating a changing area.

I peeked around the wall at her. “Is this really necessary?”

”Of course~! You need clothes to leave in, right? At least something to wear till you go back to the Crusade.” Sune smiled happily, making her face truly radiant. “And Milady would love to see you in her attire.”

Why? Marking territory? Was that a thing the eidolons were interested in? Still… I looked down at the clothes. They were high-class and seemed to be made from actual cotton, not the synthetic stuff. It actually looked pretty soft and comfortable. There were even shorts to go on under. It'd take care of the fall breeze that was starting to come through the city.

It’s just… well… skirts weren’t exactly my thing. Especially long ones. But new clothes would be nice. I quite literally lost almost everything that I’d kept in my apartment, including all my spare clothes. I made a mental reminder to stash some replacements at the speakeasy when I found time to stop by.

She even included a black eyepatch to cover up my empty socket. How considerate of her. It'd work until I figured out what I wanted to do about my missing eye. Chrome was easy, but switching it up for clone-flesh or some kind of bio-mod might prove to be an interesting choice. Netrunners out in the wild were scary…

Regardless, I needed to by some ICE for my tech. The Night Marktet should have what I want, though there was no telling when it would be next. It’s a good thing I left the card back at the speakeasy instead of taking it home that day.

I hesitantly changed into the new clothes as I heard Shrinemaiden Sune walking around the storage hall, seemingly gathering stuff up. Once I was done changing, I stepped out.

The blue-haired woman froze as she spotted me, her blue eyes sparkling brightly. I rubbed at my arms slightly. Then her face split into a wide grin. “I knew it! You’re so cute~!”

”Ah- uh- thank you?” I flinched as the wall disappeared, returning the space to how it was originally. 

While I was changing Sune had gathered all my stuff. At least- everything except my clothes and ballistic vest which were supposedly sent to the Crusade’s cleaners. At a glance, it looked like everything was mostly there. 

“Here’s all your stuff.” Sune nodded down to the pile before heading for the door. “Take the stairs all the way down to the bottom when you’re done.”

One of the fox guards stayed behind with me, and the other followed the Shrinemaiden out of the storage hall. With the distractions gone, I moved to my gear and looked over everything, checking it all with Technical Expertise to see if it was still in working condition.

My gauntlets and wrist pad were in a rough shape- or I should say gauntlet. The other was gone, blown off in the explosion along with the rest of my hand. Annoying, though I could probably whip up a replacement fairly easily once I got back to my stuff.

The remaining gauntlet was deformed in several places and absolutely covered in ash and soot. The internal components were also a bit broken, but nothing I couldn’t hammer out and repair with a bit of work. The wrist pad, though, was entirely fried. I’d have to buy or make a new one.

I also made a mental note to buy another poncho. Mine hadn’t survived after I sacrificed it to get away. With more money in my account, I might as well splurge and get a more advanced one.

I’d taken the brunt of the damage from the front, so my backpack was in working condition. The Drop Chutes were a bit dinged up, and the pack itself was discolored in several spots, but if need be I could jump off a building and still be fine. At least, if I had a full battery. The one in my pack was completely dead. A recharge shouldn’t be too big of an issue though.

As for the equipment inside the pack? Most of them were in cases or otherwise protected. That being said, it was full of glass shards from shattered bottles. A major annoyance to clean out, though something I could do later. 

The other issue was my Scouters were all out of order. I’d have to make more of them. While I was at it, I might as well update them to Scouter 3.0.

But that all was for a later time. I gathered up my gear, stuffing everything into my bag, and then moved up the stairs. The fox guard hummed at me before leading the way down.

The bottom of the stairs opened up into the massive shrine room that I saw the last time I was here. The silver fox statue in the middle of the place gleamed brightly as its sapphire eyes seemed to gleam with a mischievous look.

「Glad you’re awake.」

I paused for a moment, staring up at the statue. I noticed it last time too, but could Fox… direct message me? Were these messages directly from her though? Last time it was something along the lines of ‘Crow isn’t the only one with good rewards’, so I’d glazed over it thinking it went along with the reward, but now I’m not so sure.

“Zuku~! Anyone there?” A voice called out to me, making my gaze shift away from the eidolon statue and down to the Shrinemaiden and Inquisitor, both staring at me.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. ”Oh, sorry… guess my head’s still a bit banged up.” 

“Understandable. You were in a rough situation when I was called to watch over you.” Inquisitor Zere shrugged. “Didn’t think you’d make it without a Medevac.”

So he’s been here the entire week I was in a coma? ”Thank you for watching over me.”

“No problem, Zuku. It was a good excuse to take a break and stay in my Patron’s place for a while.” He waved his hand to the shrine. “Oh, and our pickup will be here in ten minutes. Command wants you to report directly in. And Ligh wants to check on you.” 

Pickup? Guess I was heading to the HQ. I could go collect what was left of my clothes… and debriefing after all that was probably a good idea-

Oh no… are they going to make me pay for all the destruction I caused on my desperate flight? Surely not, right? If all that added up… my money… I felt tears at the back of my eyes- er, eye. I barely managed to blink them away, though it left my hollow socket with a dull phantom pain. At least for now, there was no telling if they’d actually do as I feared and charge me.

”How is the Crusade, by the by?” Sune smirked at the Inquisitor. “I heard one of your High Lords stabbed the entire organization in the back~.”

Inquisitor Zere froze up for a moment, his expression mostly hidden behind his mask. There were enough Cues from his body language of intense rage, though. “He got away, unfortunately. Sicar Ubanhaf wasn't a High Lord for no reason. The High Table is a complete mess across the country, not just in Aythryn City. He’s got a five-million bounty on his head.”

”Interesting~! No wonder the city has been in chaos recently. I heard Lord Lykos was even dispatched here~! It'll be exciting to see the Wolf Lord himself.”

"Well... I don't know about all of that..." Inquisitor Zere sighed deeply. His posture read intense exhaustion without even having to look too deeply 

The Shrinemaiden tilted her head for a moment as one of the armored foxes approached us. It bumped up against my side in passing before stopping just in front of Sune.

They seemed to have a conversation of some sort for a moment before Sune nodded with a more serious expression on her face. “Come along, Zere. That spell you were talking about has been found in the archives.”

Zere seemed to do a complete one-eighty as his anticipation became visible. If he had a tail, it’d be wagging as fast as the foxes around us. Gone was the serious Inquisitor. Instead, he’d turned into just another Magi happy to get new magic. “Really?”

“Of course~!” The Shrinemaiden led the Inquisitor back up the stairs. She momentarily glanced over her shoulder at me before dipping her head and leaving. It was just me, the guardian foxes, and the statue.

“So…” I started, then paused, feeling stupid as I talked to empty air. At least, for a few moments. Maybe I’d hallucinated the message in the first place? Quick Healing had let me get up, though, so any brain damage I received should’ve been healed, right?

That feeling of unease faded as the interface popped up into my view once more. A tickling breeze, carrying an odd warmth to it, caressed my black hair.

「It looks good on you, Shiro.」

My hands grasped the Shrinemaiden outfit I was wearing tightly. I looked down at myself for a few moments as my cheeks heated up. I still preferred my normal getup, but it wasn’t necessarily as bad as I thought it'd be. “Thank you.” 

I looked around the shrine. Guess this wasn’t called Fox’s place for no reason. But why contact me now? Why not in the past? If they could just talk to me whenever, why was there the need for the request board and all that in the first place? Unless… maybe there were some kind of restraints?

I felt a strange sense of detachment for a few moments. Here I was having a casual conversation with an eidolon… Never in my life did I think I’d arrive at this point. Hell, several months ago, I would have laughed in someone’s face if they told me I was going to have my very own hidden workshop and a ton of Rayn in my account, let alone talk to one of the top dogs of the world.

“What did you want to talk about?” It wasn’t a coincidence that Sune led the Inquisitor away. Rather, a fox led Sune, who led the Inquisitor away. 

The statue seemed to gleam brighter and brighter as the sapphire eyes gleamed. An ethereal blue presence seemed to leak out of the statue as five more ghostly tails joined the statue. Unlike the hard metal, the ethereal tails of Fox swayed gently as if to an unheard tune.

A faint pressure squeezed my body. A feeling of danger filled the air, though it wasn’t directed at me in the slightest. Even without saying anything, I knew Fox would be more than enough to take me down if she wanted. And easily at that.

「A request. One that can’t be given officially thanks to certain restraints.」

I raised a brow as I flushed my system with Cold-Blooded to help keep my head cool. I patiently waited for her to continue.

「Certain… concerns have arisen among the Eidolons. Concerns of a traitor supporting the Fallen.」

“Fallen?” I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

「Beings that shouldn’t exist. Warped entities that lurk in the Aether’s chaos.」

Right… sounded positively horrifying. And there was more than one, which was even worse. Today was Mother. Assuming I survive this current encounter, what would tomorrow bring? Father? Or something worse? Like that entity Inquisitor Varus mentioned, Lurks In Depths or something like that.

And if an eidolon was supporting them? This was way, way over my head. There were far too many concerns for someone like me, who was just a simple thief. Or had been at one point, at least. Every power had its price, and being beholden to the whims of eidolons was mine. “I don’t know what you expect of me.”

「Nothing for now… and maybe nothing in the future. We may still solve the issue internally. Just keep your eyes open.」

“I can do that. At least one of them.” I wasn’t planning on closing them, at least. Especially not with danger lurking around every corner as it has been. This was just another stressor thrown onto the mountain of them breaking my back. 

「Watch yourself out there. And good luck, Shiro.」

The pressure faded with that last message, leaving me to stare at the statue in silence for several long minutes in thought. It wasn’t until the duo came back down the stairs that I fixed my expression and greeted them.

After a short talk, I joined Inquisitor Zere as we left the main building of Fox’s Shrine. We waited by the pond for the Crusade flyer that was supposedly coming to pick us up.