The streets felt more threatening than ever. We left the apartment extra early that day, but even so, there were still too many people around for my liking. Curse the early risers and the health-conscious idiots going out for a jog!

And there were more than a few of those. Really, who the hell went jogging outside in Zanos? The city was a shithole where you were way too likely to get stabbed. These people must have been driven insane by the thin veneer of protection the inner districts gave them.

In other words, I had too many people glancing my way and making uncomfortably sudden movements around me. My nerves were frayed beyond belief. My battle to keep my Stalker claws from coming out felt less like a battle and more like an inevitable loss.

At least I was functional in spite of it all.

"Would you please relax?" Amelia sighed, tightening her hold on my arm and making my face flush the tiniest bit. She had both of her arms around mine, so any tightening put my arm in a rather… interesting position. "We'll be fine, you big dummy. Or, well, should it be small dummy?"

I shot her a scowl, because bringing up my height was just rude.

"I would still have been way more comfortable if you'd let me go alone," I grumbled.

"Really? Would you have been? Or would you be freaking out right now about having too many eyes on you?"

I ignored how much sense she was talking, because it irritated me.

"Listen," she went on. "We're going to a… semi-respectable shop. There's not going to be violence. There's not going to be combat. I'm just here to help you through this. I'm not leaving you alone to face another freak-out."

"I'm not going to have another freak-out."

"And if some mean individual decides to flirt with you and push you out of your comfort zone?"

I scowled again at the teasing lilt of her voice. Having her in my head for that experience was a mistake I was not going to repeat.

While I was busy plotting how to discourage Amelia from virtually joining me on my next outing, she led us unerringly deeper into the district. Really, it was kind of impressive to watch her navigate the city with no cyber eyes or scroll in hand, going entirely off of either memory or the directions she'd read.

"Been to this shop before?"

"Hm? Oh, no. As I mentioned, they fucking hate my father. He'd never go there willingly, cause the phrase 'caught there dead' would apply to him literally. And… not sure how much you had the chance to notice this while he was going full 'mad scientist' on your ass, but my father is a coward. Like, major coward."

That didn't surprise me, honestly. I'd always seen him as a man who relished being in control, and Amelia had only confirmed that.

She was also confirming that she had a truly impressive sense of direction, if she was leading us through the city based solely on her scroll research.

"It's so… nice, out here," she suddenly mumbled. Her eyes panned over our surroundings hesitantly, like a slum kid you just bought a free meal for and who didn't know if it was actually okay to eat it. Like someone waiting for the trap to snap shut. "I know I said I'm fine with staying inside, and I am! But… well, yeah."

She was all flustered and flushed, but I couldn't find it in me to tease her. To be honest, now that she'd forced me to pay attention, the scenery really was nice.

The light of day had only just begun to spill across the city, painting it in the same hues of warm orange and pink that warred for dominance in the sky overhead. Even the sky looked inordinately beautiful.

Plus, whoever had designed this part of the district deserved all the praise. The walkways were wide and decorated with fractal murals. Trees — actual, living trees that must be hell to maintain — were planted in two-meter intervals along the walkway, and something had been done to them. Based on the pictures I'd seen online when Amelia was researching our route, the trees were permanently in bloom. That meant we were surrounded by the soft, calming smell of their flowers as soft white petals fluttered everywhere, reflecting the colors of the sky in some truly fascinating ways.

The architecture of the buildings around us was soft and understated, too. All soft angles and calming shades of white and beige. And, oddly enough, some very light green. That particular megabuilding also had vines climbing over it, though they were probably artificial.

Now that I was giving the district a chance, I could admit that the people weren't really that offensive, either. No one bothered us, eyed us with ill intent, or even paid too much attention to us. I particularly appreciated that last bit of good news. Though I logically knew otherwise, my new condition meant that any eyes on me felt like a threat if I was aware of them. And I was aware of all of them.

"Yeah, it's really pretty," I admitted quietly, suddenly afraid to break the tranquility of a shockingly quiet atmosphere. Amelia turned to give me a beaming smile, and I felt my lips twitch upwards.

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Well, okay. Maybe not all eyes feel like a threat.

I knew she wasn't looking directly into my red orbs, due to the glasses concealing them. But it still felt like she was, which tempted me to lean forward and —

"We're nearly there!" Amelia whispered excitedly, and I had to blink a few times to recalibrate my brain.

Right. We're here for a reason. You're not on a date. Get a grip, you idiot.

I did just that, feeling all kinds of out of sorts. Amelia might have been doing a remarkable job of keeping me calm and keeping us both on the ball, but with her there, I was starting to behave weirdly. I was going to have to get over that pronto, or it would get in the way and potentially get both of us killed.

Thankfully, I just needed to lean into that good old Stalker paranoia! Sure, it erased most of the enjoyable vibes I was getting from the district. But I considered that a worthy tradeoff for, you know, getting shot or shanked without having a chance to react.

We did, in fact, arrive at the shop pretty soon after that. It was one of those small establishments built right into the ground floor of a megabuilding, with the storefront on the outside. The owner probably lived right there or some higher floor, making the morning work commute a trivial thing. I was jealous.

The storefront loudly and proudly declared itself as 'Marvin's Marvelous (M)wares.' Arrayed in the window were so many knickknacks that I was briefly taken back to Catill's shop.

I still felt guilty over never contacting my boss to let him know I was alive, but the less he was involved with me, the better. Way less chance of spontaneous death-by-corpos that way.

"Are you sure this is the place we want?" I asked, eying the '(M)wares' part of the neon sign. I could appreciate a good pun or whatever, but this was clearly just the owner giving up on finding a better name and tacking an 'm' in front of a word that had nothing to do with the letter.

"Yep yep, you'll see!"

She was already dragging me up to the door, which smoothly slid aside to welcome us into the shop.

The inside was exactly the riot of all sorts of nonsense I'd expected from the outside. Shelf after shelf of random shit crowded the space, including a whole section dedicated to some miniature figurines. They were kind of cute in that adorably derpy way, but I was guessing you needed the emotional component of watching the cartoon they came from to really feel tempted to buy them.

Amelia, apparently, had that emotional component. Lots of it.

"Oh man, I didn't think I'd ever see these!" she gushed. "They were all limited time collectibles attached to the cereal boxes of custom character flavors. I really wanted to try collecting them, but my father said no and my mom didn't feel like arguing with him. How many do you think we could fit into, like, one or two backpacks? Ohhh, they have themed backpacks too!"

I shook my head with a smile as she pulled me through the store with mounting enthusiasm, but my eyes were reserved for what I assumed was a clerk at the far end of the space.

He wasn't doing or saying anything. He was just watching us with that bland, tired look only customer service can really bring out in a man. But I did note his muscles, which showed even through his shabby, oversized work uniform. This wasn't just a random civilian, unless he was really into fitness. Somehow, I doubted that.

"Ugh, they should really have shopping carts! How come I can't find any?" Amelia grumbled, looking around. "Forget it. Here, carry these for me, will you?"

I sighed again as she released me just to start shoving collectibles into my hands. By the time she was convinced I was at full capacity, I had twelve figurines crowding the cradle I'd been forced to make with my arms. I felt hilariously unprepared to react to any threats as we finally approached the counter. It didn't help that Amelia, too, had her arms full with the figurines/backpacks combo.

"Hello there!" she chirped enthusiastically and immediately began to unload her items in front of the clerk, who looked about ready to pass out on his feet. "I'd like you to ring all of these up for me, please. Oh! We'll also need to talk to Yuri, if he's around."

The shift was instant. One second, the clerk was blandly ringing up her purchases like some mindless clanker. The next, his eyes were boring into hers and there was a gun just lying there on the counter, his hand laid protectively on top of it.

Meanwhile, I nearly bluescreened.

I was already in the process of reaching to rip his throat out when I remembered the figurines. I felt so confused and flustered at the thought of dropping them that I kinda just froze instead.

"And why do you think you're worth wasting Yuri's time, eh? Ya some kinda bigshot?" the clerk drawled.

I couldn't place his accent at all. There was some kind of twang in there, and he sounded like he was chewing gravel, but that wasn't enough to go on.

"We just have a little business for him, that's all!" Amelia replied almost as blandly, slowly removing the figurines from my arms.

When I spotted the calculated look she was giving me while doing so, I couldn't hold back a scowl. The little shit had saddled me with the fucking things on purpose!

"And what name should I give to Yuri, huh? He don't take just any random walk-in. He's discerning with his customers and shit. Goes on about it all the time."

"Amelia."

The chaos gremlin gave her actual fucking name with a careless shrug! I just about had a conniption then and there. Or a stroke. Either.

"Just Amelia," she went on. "Representing myself. Make sure to tell him that, yeah?"

"Hmmm… Eh, I'll go for it. Your funeral if you piss him off, girlie. Literally."

With that, the totally nice clerk and not a hidden front guard at all picked up his gun, shot us one final glare, and vanished behind a door I'd only just spotted behind the counter.

Watching him closely, I caught the lines on his skin that typically delineated mid-range cybernetics. Not the junk that just showed off the chrome without even the pretense of being natural limbs, and not the highly sophisticated cybernetics some corpos used which couldn't be differentiated from regular skin.

Well. I was spouting off the stories everyone perpetuated in the slums. I did, after all, have a premium set of eldritch cybernetics attached to my shoulders, and they were rather blatant. Plus, I could imagine some corpos wanting to show off their wealth and influence through their cybernetics, so…

Maybe I should work on the way I gauge the quality of chrome?

Not that this was my main concern at the minute.

"Amelia, what the fuck?!" I hissed, flexing my fingers angrily as she took the final items from my arms. "He could have shot you first and asked questions later!"

"Nah. I know how these places work. Sort of. Ninety-nine percent. Just trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing. If you'd attacked him, we'd be in way more shit, I can guarantee you that. So, just relax, sit back, and let me do the shopping, 'kay? Of course, if you see something you like, I encourage you to speak up."

I only had time to roll my eyes and scowl some more before the clerk came back. I did not like the way he was looking at us now. Not at all.

"Yuri will see you after all. Don't try any shit, got it?"

I declined to make any promises as I started to follow him into the back of the shop.

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