The Hannya Boy to my right darted towards me. I skipped left, shifting out of the way, then slammed the back of my fist into his ‘face’. He fell on his ass, whilst the others attacked me. I turned right, slightly reorienting myself into a better defensive stance, but caught sight of the Red Hooded Hannya Boy rocking his hand back. Damn it.

Three quick strikes from his fist sent me scuttling back, two grazed my shoulder and side, because I feinted in to to fool him, but not good enough.

I moved right, spinning and punching vigorously, trying to counterattack, but another brute appeared to my right and left me a drilling sensation throbbing in my side, which made me ground my teeth, as I felt all the wind in my lungs betray me.

The sound of rolling metal skipped across the floor as I dropped my case, leaving me Pain. That’s what I felt, but it wasn’t enough to bring me down. I swept him off his feet, watching him float for a mere second.

That’s all I needed.

As he crashed into the ground, I scrambled up, releasing three-snap punches into his side, chest and face.

His chest was cybernetically enhanced, obviously his face, but the dent I left in it, he surely would’ve needed to visit his surgeon. “YOU BASTARD.” He hissed. “Orphan,” I said, correcting the piece of shit. I snapped his wrist in two and felt vertigo hit me instantly.

I floated through the air for a moment, then crashed into a stall, crushing CDs, vinyl records and cassette tapes. Old items, considered collectables, what a waste. I stumbled to my feet, snapping a vinyl disc in two, with the title “Volcano” by Red Plastic Bag.

The Three Hannya Boys stood before me, fangs bared and steam rising from their maws. God, they were ugly. The atmosphere around the area was cold, rancid and quite heavy.

The nervous gazes of patrons and stall owners watched us battle it out, but when I turned noticing someone looking up I clearly remembered something I should’ve never forgotten.

Drones.

The drones in the sky circled, probably thinking it was just a scuffle, but all in all, this was a good time to find out.

“Does Akatani have such a hard-on for me?” I spat, hitting another Hannya Boy in the chest, spinning and kicking another in the chest.

“The boss wants you dead…tha—“ one of them said, but was stopped by the red hooded one. The boss… So it is this Akatani fellow after all. Funny enough, I didn’t even know he existed till today

“Come with us, and there won’t be any pain,” The one on the left said. After rethinking what he was going to say earlier.

“Look at yourself kid, you’re the one in pain, I haven’t even started yet.

He darted towards me again, but I spun out of the way tapping him gently, which made him crash into a stall on the right. The other Hannya Boy charged, but he ran straight onto the tip of my shoes. “All those cybernetics are for show aren’t they?” I goaded.

The one in the red hood didn’t fall for my petty tricks though, he stood there, unmoving, like a rock.

I slid in, feeling my shoes skid across the surface. Red Boy, as I decided to call him mentally, released a wild swipe at my throat. I danced back, barely missing his serrated fingertips, and skipped Slamming my shoulder into his chest, watching him flail to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

I turned right, hopping over a stall, bypassing one of them and scooped my case, running down the hallway and into the crowd, hoping I’d lose them.

“FIFTEENTH FLOOR FIFTEENTH FLOOR FIFTEENTH FLOOR…HE’S HERE!” A Hannya Boy shouted.

Guess not.

“…NOVA, WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?” I growled, making a right, then a hard left.

The stale air of Underwent struck me in the mouth, making me gasp unexpectedly. I was grateful for it though, as it restored some vitality I’d just lost.

I made a b-line for the escalator, only to find four more Hannya Boys stalking the area, like gnomes in an open garden. I had to decide what my next step was, which sadly was out of only two options: take them out or leap to the fourteenth floor.

“Hack Complete,” Nova said, cancelling my original plan in two words.

“You’re a beaut, you know that Nova?” I was glad for those words, I really didn’t want to leap to the fourteenth floor.

I made myself comfortable between a small place, between two shacks, and shooed two kids away who were eyeing me with tilted heads. Once they left, I opened the line to their comms and listened in. “Where did that bastard go?!?! I want his head”

Not likely to happen.

“I see him…he’s heading for the 16th floor!” I shouted, through the comms. I snuck my head out and watched them converse amongst themselves. Once the consensus was made, two of them sauntered off to the sixteenth floor to find me.

Now that two were left by the escalator, I crept out and slowly stalked my way towards them. These two Hannya Boys didn’t look menacing or particularly interesting, so I decided to make their day.

“Nova, how many men are scuttling up the 16th floor?”

“Seven currently.”

“And how many have you detected to be on the frequency?”

“Fifteen.”

“Fifteen for little old me? Why? All because I helped put some of his ‘underlings’ in jail?”

I stood there, feeling the rusted galvanise start to slice my fingertips as I pressed against it. “This is foolish.” I finally said, feeling as if Akatani were some child.

“The criminal mind is a mind of wonder, Sir,” Nova added.

“Mind of shit, if you ask me…let me know when all fifteen seven of them have scattered.”

“Yes Sir.”

As I peeked from between the stalls, an idea came to me, one I knew would work, better than the leap or bulldozing my way through. “Can you isolate those two comms? Where they can only hear me?”

“I should be able to isolate their signal, yes.”

“Now, can you re-construct one of these Hannya Boys voices?”

“Affirmative, sir, but I would need them to talk seven more minutes for the algorithm to mimic their voices perfectly.”

“What percentage of it can you mimic?”

“55%”

“That’s good enough!” I said.

I watched as Nova showed the progress status of isolating the two Hannya Boys’ comms. 73% complete. Once that was finished, I waited for her to gather enough chatter from the comms to push the voice impression above 70%, you never could really tell when someone was too paranoid.

“We need more help on the sixteenth floor. Whoever’s on the fifteenth floor, come.” I said. The two Hannya Boys eyed each other confused. “NOW!” I said firmly.

The two Hannya Boys sauntered off in a different direction, and I finally stepped out of the small space with both stall owners looking at me as if I were crazy. I gave them a gentle nod and moved my way down to the fourteenth floor.

As the escalator took me down, a bright red light struck me in the eye from the chandelier’s beam. Not enough to blind me, but enough to annoy the living daylights out of me.

“Seven isolated to the 16th floor, meaning six remaining on the remaining floors, right?” I asked Nova.

“Affirmative, Sir.”

“Good, where are they located?”

“All on the 14th floor Sir,” Nova confirmed.

“Damn it…I should’ve guessed that.”

“Ok, highlight their locations via their comms.”

“Affirmative, sir, ignore drawbacks?”

“Drawbacks, what do you mean?”

“The spyware I’ve installed to track and feed their GPS location has taken up a majority of the comms RAM.”

“Meaning?”

“There’s a static feedback if I highlight their location to your GPS tracker.”

“I see.”

I pondered for one second and came to a decision quickly, “Can you set up a pulse, where you ping the GPS and it highlights into my eye’s HUD? That way, they’d assume they have a bad signal within Underwent.”

“Affirmative.”

“Good…do it.”

The Hannya Boys comms lit up red across the 14th floor like Christmas lights. They were evenly spaced out, around ten to twenty meters. The gaps were big enough for me to sift through, but without knowing their pattern of search, this would be hard.

“Where the hell is he?” One of them hissed through the comms “We’ve scoured this entire floor!”

“Yeah, boss, we’re not seeing him. I don’t like this.”

“Damn it!” I said to myself, knowing full well the curtain would soon be drawn. I shifted through the crowds, walking as fast as I could, but with soft steps, not to indicate my haste.

A red dot pulsed into existence thirteen meters behind me, and another five meters in front of me. I swerved in front of a cart, startling the poor old man pushing it and chipping without apology.

“Why the hell are you TWO here, we told you to watch the escalator!”

“What are you talking about? Fazed told us to help with the 16th Floor search.”

Shit

“I did no such thing, Yeapon!” Fazed hissed over the comms.

A brief argument broke out on the comms, and I passed two more of the Hannya Boys, leaving three left, who were scouting close to the escalator leading to the 13th Floor.

“Silence,” a gruff voice said. The comms went dead silent for thirty seconds, then the individual spoke once more. “You hacked my comms, Cypher.” The stranger said.

“That’s quite admirable, not an easy task to do, I commend you for that.”

I didn’t answer, of course, I knew when I was being goaded.

“The silent type, arentcha? Well…we’ll see how silent you are when I find your loved ones.”

I bit my lip, not answering because that truly pissed me off.

The scent of roasted lamb chops fluttered into my nose. On my left, was another Hannya Boy, but I slowly crept around a woman, avoiding his gaze, planting myself at the food stall.

“What’s this? A bug in my system? You’re well equipped, Cypher well equipped. If you can hack remotely, Cypher, maybe you should be doing other things…things that don’t have children rotting in cells.”

That was it. The confirmation I needed. I couldn’t confirm that these Hannya Boys were related to Akatani. Yes, I’d heard he’d taken over the gang and based on what Zade told me, had it out for me because I helped bring down his vending machine scheme and help arrest a few of his men, but to come for me out of some pitiful vengeance? It was a bit much.

“Alright…you won’t answer. Then, fine.”

“Hack attempted,” Nova said.

“Counter it.”

“Too late, location compromised.”

“You see, boys, that’s how you trap a rat…get him and bring him to me,” Akatani said over the line.

The one I’d just passed changed his direction charging towards me. I knew what to expect, so I let my training take over and did my worst.

I shifted my weight to the left leg, anchoring myself as I shot my shoe into the Hannya’s Boy Chin. I missed. He stumbled to the ground, grabbing my leg, but I twisted, loosening his grip and loosed my leg wildly in a sweeping motion. It relieved my attacker of his grip and whilst his hands flared, I spun violently, sending a kick straight to his face.

That didn’t work. Cybernetic Face. I forgot.

The Hannya Boy pushed himself up from the tattered stall I sent him to. The owner was understandably angry, clearly not her first tussle within Underwent, surely won’t be her last either.

I charged towards him, darting left and right, baiting him out of the tattered stall. The moment he stepped out, I sent him back in. “There he is!” another one shouted.

“Damn it, they baited me!”

Two Hannya Boys surrounded me quickly and charged. I skipped back, then spun violently, slamming my cybernetic arm into one of their stomachs. I awaited the impact, then rolled out of the way before my second attacker could read the punch I sent into his throat.

I groaned in pain, feeling a rounded object drill into my sides, then felt three more repeated strikes in the same area, making me kneel instantly.

My natural eye went hazy, but my Cybernet was in fine form, despite the grogginess registering in my brain.

One of the thugs from earlier held a line that beamed in the dull light between the crevices, at the tip of it was something metallic, the shape and size of a tennis ball. Steel Ball Line. I grit my teeth, trying my best to grab, but relief washed over me the moment the ball left my side for the fourth time.

That bastard

I heaved heavily, tasting the stale air once more and forced my stomach to ease from the tension. The four consecutive blows to my liver were harsh and made it difficult to breathe. Hell, I was on my knees with three…no four onlooking Hannya Boys surrounding me.

The tension here was heavier than what I felt during the meeting with the Commissioner and she had more presence than my training officer back at boot camp during those days.

The menacing thing about it, though, was the soulless eyes these Hannya Boys had stitched into their metallic skulls. I was pissed though. So I formulated my next plan.

“Nova, comms to Max!” I shouted.

“Comms confirmed to be at Max.” The AA confirmed.

“Initiate Static Squeal”