Released 10 days early for members. Eroge? Bad Ends? Betrayal? I’m Just Here to Suplex Monsters through Buildings.

From the Top Rope (3.3)

…

Neo San Kyoto, Cathay Drive, 7PM PST.

…

It took a month to grow everything back, and as much as I wanted to split up with Helena after that, a situation arose.

A debt situation that my emergency funds couldn’t handle.

“Honestly, this is crazy. They already chopped your parents up for parts, but you still get hit with half a million in debt?” I sent the first set of collectors, who just wanted to take her ‘extra’ parts packing, along with a proposed payment plan with a sizeable cut of the money she recovered. Half a million wasn’t much… If I still had my old reputation, gear, and contacts, I could make that in a month tops. Right now? When I was having to relearn how to walk without cracking pavement? Yeah, no. “How is this legal?”

“The initial debt was four million. I don’t even know how they managed to rack up that much without any assets. They were gamblers, probably.” Helena sighed and leaned back on her chair. I sat across from her. From time to time, she looked at me from the corner of her eye. Not because she was interested, but because she was worried I’d turn back into a monster. It was fair. Even with most of the heat generated by my kill switches converted to healing somehow, I was still thrown into her car like a pile of burnt, still-living meat. I couldn’t fault her for thinking that I was disguised as a human with that introduction. “Are you sure you can’t access your old accounts?”

“Not without bringing a hammer down on our heads. I pissed off a lot of people.” I looked through some lobbies online and found my ‘death’ plastered as news of the week. Loads of people blamed me for the whole mess. A crazy vigilante who attacked the Red Light district without prompting. A lot of the rogue ninja clans were after me, along with plenty of other powers. Thankfully, there was nothing from Asakura and the others, so I presumed that they completed their part of the mission. Given the amount of damage that they did, their capture or deaths would have been publicized. No news was good news. “Fetching those funds will get us both killed.”

If I were stronger, I’d probably just go a bit crazy and smash these guys, but I wasn’t able to jump without worrying about hitting the ceiling. I needed time to get my bearings with my body, rearm, and do some intelligence gathering before I lashed out again. Not only that, but as strong as I was now, I probably made a lot of enemies that’ll rip my head off if I pop up.

A season of training, fighting, and gathering my strength, and I can go ahead and live as I wanted.

And, of course, I had to help Helena out.

She saved my life, after all.

“If you’re fine with driving and doing some legwork, we can make some things happen. You’ll need to be in the front, though.” It was easy enough to get into the dark side of the city. “I’ll hire you as an intermediary, do some jobs with your help, and we’ll make enough money to get you out of debt and a new identity.”

“…So, I do walking, talking, and act like a messenger, while you take on bounties?” Helena’s naturally sharp gaze intensified. She had one hell of a resting bitch face and was generously proportioned. Given her parents’ gambling proclivities, it was easy to see that she was set up to be a human trafficking victim. Someone swallowed up by the underbelly of the city. Either she’d end up ending it all, or she’d get killed after everything was finished. “Why do I need a new identity?”

“Because if you don’t, other people will try to recruit you to do the same for them, and they’ll cut you down because you’ll be a loose end. I owe you my life, so I won’t be doing the same.” I walked her through the logic of my plan, and she listened carefully. Doing my best to move away from her possible bad ends, I looked at her body, and she immediately shrunk inward and covered herself up. “You can either go as a femme fatale or dress up in a suit and glasses and pretend to be a cog in the machine.”

“I’ll take the suit route, but you better keep me safe.” Helena stated, and I agreed with a nod. On the surface, the femme fatale route seemed to be the most primed for a bad end. However, in this setting, any woman who decided to cross-dress or go for the dashing route was basically painting a target on their back. Cool beauties get torn down the worst. “That’s the wrong route, isn’t it?”

“Women who try to hide are targeted.” I told her bluntly. Helena was sharp. I had my face covered, and she just picked up on my discontent with her choice from my silence alone. It wasn’t even that long. Just a single beat. Sharp instincts from having to deal with bullies and abusive parents, maybe? “Do you still have your high school uniform?”

She scowled and nodded at my statement.

“That’ll work. You’ll be an innocent pulled into a monster’s scheme. I can make up for my stature with violence.” People will laugh at my current situation, but once fists fly, I am sure that they’ll stop laughing. As long as I don’t act like a psychopath and murder outright, things will be fine. Beating people up and breaking bones for insults is well within acceptable conduct for the city’s underbelly. “Get dressed. Let’s get a move on.”

Helena didn’t look happy while I excused myself, but I thought that was a good sign.

It was better that she not like what’s about to happen than otherwise.

…

Interlude: Helena Horner, Courier

…

I almost forgot how school skirts were so short and how much it pissed me off when people leered.

Our school was just a cesspit owned by gangs looking to improve their stables. Everyone was in on it, from the principal down to the janitors. My parents sent me there since everything was free, including clothes and three meals a day. Boys turned into soldiers for their territory wars, while girls were developed. If rich bitches ended up in school, it was because their parents were hardline gangsters or part of the managerial staff.

The shirt barely buttoned up past the sternum, it was tight to the chest, and you were encouraged to tuck it into the skirt. If you took off the lower half of the skirt, it was basically a belt, and if I didn’t move carefully with my back straight and with flats, I’d flash my panties without even thinking. I had to get a hoodie and tie it around my waist to cover myself up, but I only did it when it was cold. Tights were fine, but if you went past see-through deniers, you’d just attract attention.

Attention was always bad.

I was sure that they fed girls food that made them fill out faster and fed the boys things that made them more aggressive and bigger. The water, I was sure, made people stupid and lazy, since I saw a classmate of mine just take a nap while she was manhandled into the boy’s restroom after drinking her fill. I had to pick my poison, and I chose the food. While drinking water, I filled up from home. The fact that anyone important had their own packed lunches and bottles of water made it clear that the rest of us were being fattened and trained up for the gangs to use.

Getting out of there by testing out at a community college probably saved my life.

But now I was doing my best to pretend like one of the vapid bimbos produced by my school while walking up to the bar.

“Like, hey!” I plastered a grin on my face and smiled wide. My hair was loose, the makeup made me feel like I had another face on, and the scrunchies on my ankles and wrists were like neon bands as I spoke to the bar. “I’ve been hired by some super-strong monster to go in there and pick up some bounties. Can you, like, let me in, please?”

I felt like I was swirling vomit in my mouth with every word, especially as the bald, muscle-bound bruiser manning the door leered down at me.

But before he could get a word out, I pulled out the marker Kay gave me.

Almost instantly the leer on his face, about to suggest that I do something else, fell off, and something close to fear formed on him.

I didn’t recognize the symbol, but it got me through the doors.

The place was dingy, and the walls were covered in faded pictures, graffiti, and broken pictures and plates. The only real lights were on stages or cages where girls barely past my age danced wearing little more than strings. The headphones they wore were large and bright pink and pumped music into them, and more than a few had tally marks or even used condoms hanging off garters. If they didn’t have prices written on their thighs, it was on signboards.

I was probably lucky that I was far from Ruger; otherwise, I’d recognize some classmates.

Walking through the hazy smell of smoke and cigarettes, I kept a smile plastered on my face and kept a little skip in my step. Stupid, vapid, and with a marker in one hand and a cheap phone with an oversized fluffy doll hanging off it. I wore the look like armor and hoped that no one would see through it. And, if they did see through it, they’d see the gun strapped to my thigh or the marker I carried.

I went through it, aware of dozens of stares that would’ve made sluts angry with envy if they still had two brain cells left, and reached the bounty board.

Out of all the thugs covered in tattoos and piercings and carrying iron, there was a man sitting with water at a table beside a board filled with bounties.

People who had money on their heads, who even these guys went after for cash.

“Hey~. I got told to pick up five bounties from the middle by some guy who gave me this thingie.” I draped myself over the small circular table and blatantly showed off with a wink. I attracted attention with my acting and skirt first, but soon enough the bar got a little quiet. They spied the little marker I brought in. “Can I get their data pretty please?”

It was getting really difficult to keep the puke down, but knowing that Kay told me to watch out for any trouble at this point helped.

And, just like that, I was dodging a stool thrown at me that smashed into the wall.

Kay said that he’d react quickly to save me.

I didn’t expect “quick” to mean that my attacker wouldn’t even have a chance to open his mouth.

From the bracelet he told me to wear beneath the stupid, ruffled wristbands, a streak of lightning went out and instantly struck the thrower.

He was sent flying back and smashed into the wall with a pained scream.

For a second, everyone stared, then he kept screaming about his back… and the bar just went back to business while his people went to him to cart him out.

But that wasn’t all.

The whole building suddenly shook once, then twice, and then a part of the wall broke, and Kay spoke through with a voice like grinding gears.

“I have heeded custom. Violate it further at your own risk.” He told me that the mark I carried was that of a predator passing through a city in search of funds and bodies to feed on. When they passed through cities, they went through local establishments with bounty boards to get their prey and funds. That way they didn’t step on the toes of those who were already established in the city. It made sense in a fucked-up sort of way. “I will gladly consume this tavern’s ilk instead.”

Silence permeated the entire bar. Only the sound of mind-addled bimbos dancing to music only they can hear through hazes of drugs resounded.

Then, dryly, the bounty board representative pulled out five data chips and slid them my way.

I slotted them in with a hum and bright smile, then looked them over.

Each one was worth fifty thousand at the minimum.

“Thankies~! I’ll be going now. Don’t worry, we’ll hit another bar instead of coming back. He doesn’t want to stick around.” I giggled and smiled widely, almost worrying that my makeup would break with my act. With the bounciest and most saccharine voice I could manage, I bid them farewell while winking and blowing a kiss. “Maybe I’ll come back here if I manage to stay alive! Tata!”

I gave them a wave with my fingers and my hand bent at the wrist.

Damn, I really wanted to throw up.

Kay made a show of landing and entering my car while I turned it on and trundled away.

A minute passed before he spoke.

“Good work.”

“Thanks, I hated it.” I ground out before handing him my cheap phone. He went through it, covered up in ragged clothes we dragged through some mud and dried out before layering onto a raincoat. I had the back of my car covered up in some plastic, so he didn’t ruin it. “The closest one is in a warehouse a few miles away.”

“Drive to the last one. I’ll meet you there after taking care of the rest. Just keep the plastic bags ready and drive safely. Call me if there’s trouble.” He handed me back my phone after copying the data and undid the window. I slowed down near a building, and he gave a nod. “Any trouble at all. Got it?”

“I got it. Drive safe and call you if any trouble pops up.” I repeated and felt his gaze beneath the shadows of his hood. “And, you don’t go dying on me. I need you so I don’t end up like those idiots or worse.”