Deciding that she should find some clothes first, Kano went to the room she rented above a dealer in custom body parts. She mostly used it when she couldn’t be bothered to walk back to her own house. It was far from uncommon after one of her benders, assuming she was in any condition to walk at all.

Like most of the buildings in Shorinstown, the little shop was crammed into whatever space was available. The buildings beside it were pressed so close it seemed as if they were trying to crush the store between them. She flung the door open, and it banged against the wall.

The owner of the shop, a small white-haired man, looked up from his work. Kano locked eyes with him, daring him to comment, but he just shook his head and went back to tinkering with a spikelike limb. With a little satisfied nod, Kano walked past him toward the stairs. At least some people knew their place in the world. That was one of the few things she liked about… whoever it was that owned this shop. She tried to remember his name but came up blank.

Oh well, she reflected. It didn’t matter. She remembered enough to know that whoever he was, he wasn’t important.

Going up the rickety iron stairs two at a time, she pulled back the curtain to her room. What little was inside was scattered across the floor, but she assumed that’s how she’d left it. She couldn’t imagine anyone would have bothered trying to rob her—there was nothing worth stealing.

Picking through the assorted pile of junk, she pulled out a black coat, a gray skirt, and a pair of old shoes. The coat was for someone much larger than her and fell past her knees, but that was easily fixed. She tore it so that the edge didn’t extend past her thighs. The skirt was torn in three places and held together by several off-color patches.

She shrugged. It didn’t have to look pretty, so long as it covered her. Pulling it over her hips, she found it barely managed that. Still, the coat would cover the worst of it, and fashion wasn’t her highest priority right now. Feeling more like herself, she hurried back outside, not sparing a glance for the old shopkeeper.

Though not far from Aru-Aru’s place, the street outside the shop was in much better condition. It was wide enough for two people to walk abreast, a rare enough thing in the narrow confines of Shorinstown. Despite the space and the cleanliness, Kano much preferred Aru-Aru’s. The businesses in this area had little tolerance for people off their heads on narcotics, which happened to be Kano’s preferred state inside Shorinstown. She found it terribly boring otherwise.

It was the best way to avoid unnecessary fights, which tended to incur the wrath of whichever authorities were paying attention. Thinking back to what she’d done to Virtur, Kano blanched. Well, she could deal with that once she’d found her bracelet. Putting it out of her mind, she hurried through the street. She still needed information, but Virtur wasn’t the only creep she knew who got off on watching people.

“Oi,” she said, stepping into Sherp’s dimly lit office on the bad side of town.

Flinching on instinct, it took Sherp a moment to realize who’d spoken. “Kano!” she shouted, backing into the corner, hands clutching each other for emotional support. “I swear, I didn’t mean to.”

Kano stopped short. “Didn’t mean to what?”

“Err,” Sherp said, baring her teeth in a grimace, “I don’t really know. I kind of just assumed something had happened.”

Even coming from a pissant like Sherp, that struck Kano as being a touch too afraid. “Look,” she said, “I don’t really have time to beat whatever you’re hiding out of you, so why don’t you save both of us some trouble and spit it out.”

Sherp’s mouth widened into an O as Kano’s words sunk in. After a few stuttered attempts at forming words, she finally got out, “P-please, t-take a seat. I’ll tell you everything.”

Kano sat down opposite her, shifting uncomfortably at the stickiness of the seat.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard,” Sherp said, “but there’s a new outfit in town. They call themselves the Red Company.”

“Company?” Kano asked, scratching her head. “What, like a business?”

“Er, I believe it refers to a military company. They showed up here a few days ago. A couple of their members came here, started asking questions. They wanted to know about you, among other things.”

“And you told them?” Kano asked, stretching as she got to her feet.

“W-what choice did I have?” Sherp replied, withdrawing as far into the corner as she could get. “They were scary. I tried to say no, but they broke my desk.”

Looking at the desk, Kano saw its legs were bent, and it had a huge dent in the top. “Wasn’t it always like that?”

Folding her body in on itself, Sherp endeavoured to make herself as small as possible. “It wasn’t that bad before,” she muttered.

“You wanna say that again?” Kano asked, holding a hand up to her ear.

Sherp looked down. “A-anyway, I’m sorry, but that’s what happened with those guys.”

Picking at her nails, Kano asked, “What did they want to know about me, anyway?”

“What you could do, where you hang out, that kind of thing.”

“Well, you’ve been a great help, but I just have one more question.”

Sherp covered her face with her arms. “Please don’t hurt me.”

Kano laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to know where this company is now.”

“Oh,” Sherp said, lowering her arms. “I think they’re still over in the old barracks.”

“All right,” Kano said, walking to the door before turning back. “And one last thing: Don’t give out information about me to anyone else. I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but if you do it again… I’ll burn this place to the ground with you inside.”

Bobbing her head in agreement, Sherp said, “I understand. Never again, I swear. Please don’t burn me.”

Leaving the door ajar behind her, Kano headed for the old barracks. It was a large complex, made up of several adjacent old buildings with the walls knocked through. Abandoned long not long after the founding of Shorinstown, it had been a place to live for those down on their luck, but it seemed those days were long gone.

The exterior was in far better repair than she’d ever seen it—it even had a fresh coat of red paint. Not seeing anyone outside, Kano went to knock on the nearest door. Several thousand volts hit her, and Kano found herself lying on the ground.

“Ow,” she said, getting up. She grabbed a loose rock and hurled it at the door that had shocked her. “Open up!” she shouted.

A few seconds passed, and a large man with scars across most of his face opened the door.

“What the hell do you want?” he demanded.

Leveling an accusatory finger at the now open door, Kano shouted, “Your stupid door zapped me!”

“Of course it did,” he said, gesturing toward a sign beside the door. “Can’t you read?”

Kano laughed in his face. “Who reads anymore? Like I have time to waste on that crap. Anyway, hurry up and give my bracelet back.”

Narrowing his eyes, the man regarded her with a mixture of confusion and anger. “Piss off, you lunatic,” he said, and slammed the door closed.

Kano sighed. This was definitely going to be a lot of work. If they weren’t going to let her in, then she’d have to break in. Not wanting to use what little energy she had remaining, Kano tried to think of an alternative. An instant later, bored of that, she decided to bash her way in with whatever she could find. Looking around, she couldn’t see anything handy. Whoever these Red Company people were, they sure kept things clean. What sort of degenerates clean outside their house as well? Well, if there wasn’t anything useable, she’d have to improvise.

Using a tiny yet significant portion of the power she had left, she sheared off a chunk of a long, thin section of concrete from an adjacent building. She gripped it with both hands and raised it over her head. Giving voice to her building frustration, she brought her makeshift weapon down on the door of the Red Company’s hideout. Despite the thunderous report, the metal weathered her assault with only a large dent.

Undeterred, Kano struck again and again in a lightning-quick series of blows. Falling apart and streaked with blood where the jagged edges had cut into her hands, the length of concrete got the job done.

The mangled wreckage of the door fell inward, and a triumphant Kano stepped through. She was hurling what remained of her weapon at the surprised man on the other side when she brushed against a piece of still electrified metal. Toppling over as she entered didn’t make for the most dignified entrance, but she fared better than the Red Company man.

Her aim proved true, and a chunk of concrete connected with his temple. Still wearing the same wide-eyed expression of surprise, he toppled over in front of her. On her way past, she stomped downward on his head. Pausing only to wipe off the blood and brain matter on her bare foot, she passed through the entranceway into the larger complex beyond.