Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-One

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Mouse, as a rule, didn’t leave her home beneath the River Rat’s... was it their base? I was certain the home of a good number of them, but I wasn’t sure if it counted as a base. That felt too official for what it was. 

In any case, Mouse rarely left. She was a true and proper shut-in. Unlike the average shut in, she actually wielded a good amount of power and was accomplished, in her own way, so I supposed she had that going for her. 

Becky was more than happy to drag me out of the Mouse’s den and back over to the elevator. “Sorry about her, she can be a little weird sometimes,” Becky said. “And I’m saying that while totally aware that she can listen in on us!” The last was said louder, voice pitched towards the ceiling of the elevator.

“It’s fine. I think most C-rankes get to be a little eccentric.”

“I think people say that about D-rankers too, you know,” Becky said.

I snorted. “Nah. D-rankers that are eccentric are posers.”

Becky laughed and she bumped her shoulder against mine. “Glad that Mouse didn’t fry your brain, that was cool of her.”

“Sure,” I said. 

Dammit, I was going to have to work through that entire conversation again, wasn’t I? I closed my eyes and ran through it all again. Nothing jumped out to me too hard. Though... yeah, no there were a lot of hints sprinkled into that whole conversation that I hadn’t fully figured out. 

Mouse had stuff going on, a lot of it. I had the impression that she was more than willing to make a move, and I was going her the opportunity she wanted on a silver platter.

I had lived through the next week a couple of times already. Mostly studying magic and spellcasting and training to fight Seraph, but I had paid some attention to the news. As far as I was aware, it was a pretty quiet week. 

Sure, there was the usual news cycle of political corruption and other flavours of bullshit, but the scandals lately had been on the tamer side of things. A few portals popped up here and there, as usual, but all of them were well-within monitored areas and had been scooped up by one corp or another, usually within hours of opening. None in this part of Fortress ENE, so that was out.

“You good?” Becky asked.

“Hm? Yeah, just thinking,” I said.

“Sure, I get that. Wanna grab a bite? We can go check the apartment at the same time. Got the digi-key for it and all.”

“It’s... ten fifty-two,” I said with a glance at the time readout in the corner of my eye augmentations.

“Yeah, and?” Becky asked. “If anything it’s a better time to check. Less traffic on the way over and no one’s gonna be there to stop us.”

That was... a fair point. I was planning on living out the next day or two ‘here’ to feel out Mouse’s plans some more, so I’d be seeing the apartment eventually.

If I ended up spending a couple of days working here and entertaining Mouse’s plan only to discover that the apartment was a shithole, I’d be pretty upset. Might as well check it out now. “Alright, I could eat,” I admitted. “And yeah, we should check it out.”

Becky grinned and we were off... to her apartment, because she wanted to grab a coat before heading out. The coat in question was this men’s bomber jacket. Like, some vintage thing with real wool on the inside and a dozen old patches sewn into it. Becky, or someone near her, had effortlessly added some gang tags between old regiment and company markings and... fuck, how was her fashion style so on point? 

She even scoured around in a closet and came back with a helmet that looked like it was from the 80s. Entirely different era than the bomber jacket, but covered in stickers and she had goggled strapped on. “That’ll do for riding, yeah?”

“Sure,” I said. “You don’t mind being in the back?”

“Nah, not at all. I hate driving.”

“You can drive?” I asked.

“Well, I mean, I never passed the tests, but I can drive, sure. It’s the sit-down parts with all the signs that I can’t handle. Too much stuff to remember, you know? Plus I, uh, get distracted easily, which isn’t ideal if you’re driving around. There’s a whole thing if you’re a spark mage they don’t like you on the road.”

“Really?” I asked as we slid out of the room.

“Uh-huh? You’ve never heard of that?” 

I shook my head. “No, not really. Are there other things? I mean, other discrimiations against rankers? Is that even the right word?”

“I think so. There aren’t too many things. Generally, the big government types don’t want normies to know about the whole emotion magic shit, since that causes trouble or whatever. So it’s not like they’ll go posting signs. But if you’re a fire mage they usually want you in anger-management courses, and nature mages often have to take therapy. Cause, you know, they off themselves a bunch, and no one wants the best healers dying like that.”

“Right,” I said.

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be... eh, I’ve seen you do magic with vines and stuff before? But dark too. So... a halfie?” Becky asked. She was walking with her arms folded behind her head, casual as could be. I didn’t think she was probing me, exactly, just making conversation. But I didn’t want to go down that route.

Then again, I wasn’t able to think fast enough to find a way to twist the conversation away. “Yeah. Bit of both. It’s a spectrum, you know? What about you, pure spark, right?”

“Yup! Straight down the middle! Technically water and nature are both a step away, so I could maybe learn something from those, but when I looked at the spellbooks I couldn’t understand a word of it. It’s all jargon.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’ve read a few. Hell, I’ve learned some of my spellwork from books. Or, I mean, files online. It’s not the easiest thing to understand. Having a teacher is so much better. I’d probably be a better Dark mage than anything else, but there’s a woman at Luna Corp, where I work, who’s a fantastic Nature mage and she’s taught me a few things.”

“Oh, neat,” Becky said. She frowned, then pulled up a phone and... was that a colour wheel? “Wait, Dark’s next to Fire! You could pick up some of those, no?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe? But that would take a while. I can barely do basic cantrips for the elements that I’m in.”

“Oh, yeah.”

We went back down, and I was happy to see my bike still parked where I’d left it. There were a few guys from the River Rats around and... well, I wouldn’t call them goons, but they certainly had a mook-ish sort of vibe to them. They were at least keeping an eye on things, and were friendly enough with Becky and I.

I got on my bike, Becky climbed on behind me, and soon we were rushing through the city. 

It... did something for me, having a girl pressing into my back, arms around my waist and her hips occasionally bumping into me from behind. I pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the road. It helped that while the place was downtown, it wasn’t deep in the city, just past a bridge and on the edge of the centre of the city.

The building in question was nice enough. Not new, but not too old, either. I could see myself living here. Plus, it was probably a much shorter commute from here to Luna Corp, and to Fran’s place. I might even be able to see her building from up on top.

There was parking, but we didn’t have the code or the little sensor thing for it, so I ended up having to squeeze my bike in between two cars after sliding under the gate. Not the best security here. I thought even less of it when we went in and the lobby guard let us in without a fuss. It was just a rent-a-cop sort sitting at a desk looking unbelievably bored.

“What floor are we going to?” I asked.

“Fifty-seven,” Becky said. “Jsut a couple shy from the top.”

“Huh,” I said. The elevator panels were clean. In fact, the whole lobby was clean. Not sparkling, and not spotless, but... yeah, this place already looked like a big step up from my last hole.

Well, damn, maybe I was really coming up in the world.

***