Sitting in the car, watching the city roll by, I couldn't help but chew on the very tempting idea of turning into the shush-monster and giving the Banker a visit. Sure, it would raise alarms. Sure, megucas might even show up faster than I could act. Sure, all hell would break loose, buuuuuut maybe it could work?

For starters, I'd need to find a way around the surveillance epidemic in the second district. It wouldn't do if some camera caught me transforming. There was also the problem that I couldn't be sure of the physical location of our credits. Those two factors alone were big obstacles in the plan.

This would not be easy.

"You look like you just found a rock in your gum," Vesper called out from the driver's seat. "Credit for your thoughts?"

"Some personal stuff's been bothering me, but it's nothing important." I shook my head, glancing out as we drove off. There was something enjoyable about looking at the graffiti as we went by. "In an unrelated question. How do inner-city gangs operate?"

"They don't deserve the name." Vesper's face hardened as she spoke. "Third and fourth district gangs? We work to keep our own safe. We made the rubber wall while the mobs from second and first just preyed on us like the monsters did." The venom in her words was palpable.

"You lived through that?" I asked, slightly confused.

"My gramps and pops did. We lost family to the mob and the monsters, no one wanted to help the fourthers, we had to fend for ourselves," she said. "Many folk don't remember how bad things were. There's still gonks running around yapping their mouths about fourther's not belonging in NF."

Though I didn't feel like I was getting much progress in the ideas-department, it was interesting to see how energetic Vesper got about this topic. "Your family sounds tightly-knit."

"Pffff, yeah." She laughed. "It's been a lot smoother since I moved out."

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy as I nodded along. "Visit them often?"

"Every other week or so." Vesper paused, giving me a brief glance. "Got anything good from your side?"

I hummed in thought. "I come from a few generations of city-guard, or at least that's what my father said. Don't know much about my mother's side other than my aunt hated them."

"Sounds complicated."

"That's a very generous way to put it." I couldn't help but laugh, hiding the slight grimace as I kept my gaze on the outside. "What about the Sewer Saints?"

"What do you mean?"

"The last time they gathered, it had felt like a tightly-knit group, very friendly."

"We sort of are, yeah." She elbowed me a little. "Many keep asking when you're going to get thrown at the group chats. You've got some fans."

My face heated up a little. "I guess I could add it to my tablet, but it's hard being active online without a neuralink."

"Hey, I can dig a more 'natural' lifestyle, even if it was sort of a bit imposed on you." Vesper let out a big sigh. "Still, the group-chat's kind of the only real option we have available right now to still feel like a group. Everyone's got jobs to cover the bills, so finding a chance for everyone to just be in one place at the same time is… yeah."

I nodded along. "Hence the money."

"Hence the money," she agreed. "If or when we get a large enough revenue stream going, we'll be able to pay members a proper salary, have them work full-time for the gang, so to speak." Vesper's face lit up with a whimsical smile. "With any luck, we'll be able to prop up alternate income and perpetuate it and grow."

"Get your own little corporation up and running." I teased.

Vesper punched my shoulder. "Fuck off." She laughed. "It's propping up a gang, a proper one."

"Sounds like a corporation to me." I sang along, chuckling.

"You'll understand one day," she promised, bringing the car to a stop. "Well, here we are, time to drop you off. I got an important and very corporate one-on-one meeting later."

"A date?" I asked, picking up on the tone, then noticed her sheepish grin. "Who with?"

"An inner city gonk," Vesper vaguely replied, grinning harder, clearly some sort of inside joke of hers. "Maybe you'll meet one day. See you tomorrow?"

I thought about it. "Maybe? Probably better the day after. I've got some things I gotta do and I'm not sure how they might pan out." I definitely needed to do some down and proper research on this one, probably even recruit Isia to help me out on that end.

"Understandable. See you, then."

Waving as she left, I headed into the motel. I wanted to get a shower, then head on over to the internet shop. It was still early, and I was sure I could squeeze in a few hour's worth of digging around. My biggest concern right now was that the Banker probably had a powerful backer, and in the corporate world that could mean anything. I'd definitely need to keep an eye out.

"Gotta finish this mess soon, or-"

Stepping into the motel lobby, I froze.

"I would like to rent a room, please."

The voice shot ice down my spine, alarm bells rang in my mind, and my eyes widened in recognition. There, standing in front of the counter, was a young woman, with jet black hair tied into a tight ponytail, dressed in equally dark attire, and hefting a metal shield twice her height like it was merely cumbersome rather than heavy.

A scratched-up shield with a rat giving two flaming middle-fingers.

Shadow.

I knew in my gut it was her, even though her appearance was different to the previous times I'd seen her. She was shorter, her skin though pale was not chalky, and her eyes were normal black rather than eyeless dark pits.

My eyes darted to Grills, then the door. I began considering my escape options, and whether making sudden moves might draw unwanted attention my way.

"Good afternoon, Axel Garcia!" Grills greeted cheerily, turning to wave at me with the arm that wasn't there.

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Shadow stiffened slightly, turning to look my way before shifting the shield around towards me. "This is yours," she declared, setting the thing down carefully. "You left it behind." Her tone was scornful, as if she were chiding me for dropping litter on the street.

It shifted my balance a bit as I just blinked at her in confusion, warily and tentatively reaching out to take the shield. I made a mental note to scour every inch of the thing for any potential bugs or signs of sabotage. "Thank… you?" I said, trying to decipher the blank expression.

The meguca gave a single curt nod, seemingly satisfied with that, and turning back to Grills. "I would like to rent a room, please," she repeated.

I just stared.

From a logical standpoint, I should've walked away then and there. I'd gotten my shield back, I wasn't being attacked, this was the perfect opportunity to turn tail and run. "Why are you here?" I asked instead. There was a hotness in my chest, right where her blade had ripped a hole through my ribs and lungs.

Shadow turned towards me. "To rent a room," she said, plainly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

As if she hadn't tried to cut my head off barely a few days prior.

"You can rent a room anywhere else," I declared, my breath was hot, a growl mixed into my tone.

"This is a good motel." Shadow pointed at the piece of paper that rested on the counter. The one with my name and 'five stars' comment that Grills had made.

I clenched my fists. "Do you think this is a joke?"

Shadow did not react, blinking at me, then turning to Grills. "I would like the room next to Axel Gar-"

"NO!" I slapped the counter, hard enough it bounced. Shadow's black eyes met mine and I stared her down. "Why are you here?" I growled.

With the same impassive coldness crossed her arms. "I am to be your teacher."

My chest tightened. "Fuck no." Yeah, that sounded like the right response, the 'fuck' lingered in my throat, some deep corner of me flinching at the swear word, everything else in me ignoring the sting. "Leave now, go look for someone else to harass."

Nodding at my own proclamation, I picked up the shield and turned to leave, intentionally ignoring the feeling of Shadow's eyes locked on to the back of my head.

I briefly wondered if New Francisco had such a thing as restraining orders. Would a judge even be willing to throw one at a meguca? Was there any effective way to enforce such a thing? It was a whimsical hopeful fantasy, but one I indulged in as I entered my room. Using the shield to block the door, I began gathering my stuff up in preparation for what might become a need to make a run for it.

No, I paused, that was the anxiety talking. If Shadow wanted to stalk me, there was currently nothing I could do to stop her.

I needed to calm down.

After having gathered everything up, I proceeded to empty every shred of sugary food I had available before hopping into a shower and turning it to steaming hot. It gave me the breathing room I needed to think properly. Clearly something was happening, and it would probably be best for me to spend a few night with the Sewer Saints.

With everything packed up, I'd call Isia to-

There was a knock at the door.

The fact that I couldn't even hear breathing from the other side was all I needed to know to be sure who was waiting there.

Breathe in.

I had to be reasonable.

I had to be reasonable.

I removed the shield from the door and opened it. Shadow was waiting for me, arms crossed. "I am to be your teacher, Axel Garcia," she said.

"I draw the line at my teacher trying to kill me," I snapped, not managing the 'staying calm' as well as I should have. I shouldered the backpack that contained everything of importance and picked the shield up. Clearly I'd need a few days away from this.

"It was my mission."

That stopped me. "It was my life." I growled. "You had no right."

Shadow quickly moved to block me from reaching the stairs. "It was my mission." Her voice strained with a hint of annoyance, the first sign of emotion she'd shown. "It is necessary for all megucas to learn from a more experienced meguca. The elders appointed me as your teacher."

"Oh, NOW I'm a meguca, am I? After you failed to kill me," I snapped. One shower clearly hadn't been enough. "Is this going to extend itself all the way until you get a new contract to chop my head off? Or are you going to generously refuse it if you ever get one?" Every word came out hot, I'd dropped the shield, my back ached the harder I stared. "Maybe you'll wait until someone near me is deemed a threat and then turn to point your blade at me out of convenience!?"

The system was snarling with me, revving up like an engine, begging to start a transformation, to start a fight.

I didn't, though, I stared down at the meguca, holding my ground.

Shadow did not back down. "You were deemed a threat."

"And you aren't!?"

Though she didn't flinch, she hesitated. Shadow took a deep breath, then looked around for a moment before turning back to me. "From an outsider's perspective, you looked like a monster not just capable of taking human form, but displayed human levels of intellect, and worse of all, a capacity to absorb and permanently grow more powerful for every monster you killed." There was an odd resonance to her words, as if they weren't made of sound, but still only I could hear them. The effect was gone when she continued. "If you understand the duty megucas hold to protect humanity, then you should know that such an entity could not be allowed to develop."

I faltered. "You spied on me every waking hour."

"You could've been pretending. I had no way to be sure, not when you could detect me sometimes." She cut me off.

The corridor felt narrow, my eyes flickered at the stairs that were beyond her. The tightness in my chest ached with a ghost of pain. She'd lied, she'd ignored Bear and Cate vouching for me being approximate to a meguca. And the thing I hated about all of it was that it was reasonable. What she'd done was practically ripped out of some theoretical manuscript. How to deal with a monster that pretended to be human? Trick it. How to deal with a rogue mad-woman that could make such humanity-threatening monsters? Hunt her down.

But there was one thing that I could not let go.

"I don't trust you," I said. "If this is even half as important as you say it is, then the elders should be able to send someone else."

Shadow stiffened. "I'm the only non-elder that knows the full scope of what you can do," she hurriedly said. "And no one else-"

"I just don't trust you." I cut her off, shouldering the shield and shoving my way past. "That's it. End of the discussion. Go away."

Stomping my way around her, I marched onward, ignoring the wide-eyed look on her face. Someone else might say I was being too hard-headed, but at the same time, maybe the assassin could go get bent. Even if this was true, who in their sane mind would send the person who'd tried to murder someone to go "teach" them afterward?

I was half-way down the stairs when she called out. "I'm sorry," she said.

Against my better judgment, I stopped.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "It is my duty to deal with the threats megucas are normally blind to or unable to tackle, my duty is to protect them. And I failed to realize you were one of us until after the fact. I am sorry I pointed my blade at you." Her voice tightened. "Let me do this right."

I hesitated, looking down the stairs towards the motel lobby. I really wanted to tell her off. Apology or not, she'd tried to kill me, and was responsible for everything I'd gone through to try and just… survive. It made my blood boil just thinking about it. And, looking at it logically, I couldn't ignore that she could be lying through her teeth right now, for whatever reason, wanting to "teach me" for some other goal.

It was also impossible there weren't ulterior motives here.

And yet I hesitated.

The system chose to pipe in.

NEW QUEST! Shadow of a Doubt (2): Complete Shadow's first test.

Failure Conditions: Axel's death. Shadow meguca's death.

Rewards: Speed: [+1] Skill: First Strike New Quest: Shadow of a Doubt (3)

God dammit.

The screen just chirped reassuringly, a metaphorical squeeze on the shoulder.

Sighing, I slumped. "Let's… assume I've got a situation going right now, a problem I need to solve." I spoke carefully. "If you were my teacher-"

"Which I am," she hurried to reaffirm.

"I haven't agreed to anything, but let's assume you were," I shot back. "There's a gang in the second district that has something they took from me, and I want to get it back."

Shadow stiffened at that, lips drawing thin as she looked my way. "There are lines I cannot cross. I will not interfere in human or meguca politics without elder approval, and as my student, neither should you."

"I'm an official member of the Sewer Saints, and you're not going to convince me to leave." Ever. "If you're not going to help me, then I might as well-"

"I cannot interfere." She met my gaze, and hesitated. "But… I can provide counsel to my student?" Quickly, she shook her head. "Under the condition that no humans be killed without proper judgment or cause."

The system's chirping turned from reassuring to smug, and I held back the groan.

God dammit.

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