Of Noble Intentions - Chapter 2: Paradise City

"I confess, at the beginning I had doubts about him. Regrettably he proved many of them true."

Nanagami Rin

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If this was some short-circed gonk's idea of a joke, Johnny wasn't laughing. At all. After all the emotional turmoil, after all the shit he and V went through Johnny finally found the strength to accept his death, or rather his transformation into something very different, only for someone to decide resurrecting him like Jesus on the third day was gut-busting fun? Johnny wanted to grab the pig, break a bottle and see for how long he can make them squeal.

A sudden thought sent a shiver down the Rockerboy's spine: he had all of V's implants plus the Hand, a quick ping by the Agent confirmed it. So what if they took the kid's body, biosculptured it to resemble Johnny's old one and then downloaded him back? The idea was enough to almost make him puke, bile rising up his throat as medical warnings filled the top left of his vision.

Only one way to find out.

Johnny grabbed the Samurai jacket and pulled it open, shaking his shoulders to make it fall off. Hearing two heavy, if softened thumps in quick succession when he expected only one made Johnny instinctively look down behind him. The jacket was there, but next to it was the duffel bag V used to bring along all the tools of the job. Johnny honestly forgot about it, the extra weight having previously felt too natural to notice. Though the shotgun painted in neon green and magenta strapped to the bag's side was not easily forgettable: V did a lot of much more dangerous and memorable gigs, but to Johnny the one when they got that iron sparked a circuit deep within his soul.

====​

"Do you sell BDs now Octavio? Usual biz not making enough scratch recently?" V rolled the chip between their fingers, having picked it up while checking out the available merchandise. The sticker was black, with only the letters 'JK' stylized in neon green on it.

Rancho Coronado's Ripperdoc looked up from where he was sterilizing his surgical tools. "Oh, that one? Nah choom, not for sale. Was planning to throw it in the trash, actually. That's a XBD, Cyberpsycho getting flatlined by MaxTac. Unedited too."

"Strong stuff then." V nodded. People searching for a new high were willing to try anything new, and often it was the last choice they would even make. "How did you come to it?"

"You know the Doc in Arroyo? The one who smokes all the time? Until a few months ago he wasn't the only Doc in the area, there was another. Coked-out hack, guy knew his stuff but couldn't be bothered to act professionally even if they paid him full." Octavio rolled his eyes in disgust. "Heard a lot of clients' first impression was of walking on him masturbating to Mox BDs. And it was far from the last."

"Holy shit! Either he didn't make enough eddies to hire joytoys, guess why, or his sole idea of free time was rocking his Mr.Studd." Johnny appeared reclined on Octavio's ripperchair, hands behind his head and legs crossed. "I'm betting the gonk got zero'ed by his own clients."

By the slight smirk on V's lips they were in agreement. "I'm guessing it ended up biting him in the ass?"

"Yeah, but not for the reason you're probably thinking about. The hack set up shop in a building previously owned by 6th Street, didn't even bother removing the graffiti." Octavio shrugged his shoulders, then began putting away the now sterilized tools. "Until a Valentinos looking for a quick check walked in. Got part of his stuff for a good price."

Both V and Johnny burst out laughing at that. Being naturally curious the kid purchased the XBD for a few eddies and brought it to Judy, to play it through the editor and see if it contained something interesting. That was the first time V saw a mil-spec Sandevistan in action, and when they decided to get one too. Johnny, having possessed a Sandevistan himself, was also impressed by how advanced the device became since 2023. More likely to rip apart muscles and fry neurons too, but it was nothing new in regard to high-spec cyberware.

Even more curious, however, was the writing that appeared at the end: 'To my choom David Martinez, hope you enjoy'. Judy didn't recognize the name, Octavio knew them as a famous Solo that was active until a year ago but nothing more. So V decided to ask Muamar Reyes, Santo Domingo's Fixer.

'Yeah, c-psycho attack sounds familiar but never dug into it too deep. Ex-NUSA soldier went on a rampage, lot of blame flung around, the usual. As for Martinez, choom... the fuck kinda question is that?! Course that name means something to me! Santo kid, like me. Sprung up outta nowhere and never looked back. Was sipping drinks at the Afterlife in no time. Every punk pup with a dream wanted to run in his crew. That is, til bout a year ago when David kicked the hornet's nest.'

Turned out Martinez's input got kidnapped by 'Saka, so he stole a prototype Linear Frame from them and assaulted Arasaka Tower. Tore through both Militech, 'Saka and MaxTac forces with such ease they had to call fucking Adam Smasher to put him down. V looked at Johnny, who had become uncharacteristically silent and solemn at the news. "Strikes too close to home?" V asked tactfully.

"Seeing history repeat itself... Honestly V, not sure how to feel. But Martinez was the headstrong type, I like him already." The Rockerboy replied truthfully. "Ask how it ended."

El Capitán didn't know, but promised to do some digging. Later they were contacted by Falco, a previous member of David's crew, saying they were outta the biz and not to bother looking for them. But having heard of V's rising career as a merc, Falco offered them a gig: to recover a piece of iron the crew lost during the assault to Arasaka Tower.

It took some digging around, as usual a lot of preem stuff got klepped in the chaos of the aftermath, but eventually they found the iron in possession of a member of Arasaka's clean-up crew. She was in the hospital, having broken her arms by firing something with too much recoil, so V sneaked inside her conapt and took the iron. A modified Budget Arms Carnage, exceptionally difficult to control but packed a nasty punch.

"This is Guts, Rebecca's shotgun. No doubt about it." Falco turned out to be a polite, smooth-talking middle-aged man with a preem handlebar moustache. V was a bit surprised when Johnny immediately started calling him Cowboy and expressed relief southern gentlemanliness still lived on, but admitted the driver was a pleasant person to talk with. "Rebecca was... well, she was a short, loud-mouthed and incredibly crass young woman who loved guns and murder. Like most of Night City's female population, I admit. But things were never dull when around her. Trading barbs with her was one of my favorite activities."

"What did her in?"

"Arasaka's pet mass-murderer." Falco's expression turned grim, the culprit's identity all too obvious. "Crushed her flat. Emptied my revolver into him, didn't even notice. Guess he's not a legend for nothing."

"This is one lucky Cowboy, V. The number of people who survived getting closer to Smasher can be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare." Johnny was leaning against Falco's Chevillon Emperor.

Which included V and Jackie, the merc supposed, even if it was all thanks to Delamain. Not that it lasted long enough. "And Martinez's input? If I can ask, that is."

"Personally got her to safety. Arasaka can't touch her where she's now." Falco passed a hand over his face. "Honestly, I worried she would do something drastic... but she just put on David's jacket and said: 'from now on, I'll live for both of us'."

V smiled. "A strong chica."

"That she is." Falco nodded in agreement. His eyes flashed, sending V the promised eddies. He stood up, Guts in hand, and hesitated for just a moment before handing the iron to V. "Here, take it as a bonus. Shotguns are not my style, and Rebecca will find a way to climb out of her grave and kick my ass if I let her baby gather dust."

"You sure?" Despite their words V was holding the Shotgun as if they couldn't wait to try it out against some Scavs. "I've nothing to do with your crew, just got curious about a strange XBD."

"V, the merc who popped outta thin air and took Night City by storm. And given your history with Arasaka, well..." Falco smiled. "You and David got more in common than you might reckon. Our fifteen minutes might be spent but you still got time on the clock. Take care, and good luck out there V."

====​

Johnny shook his head. Now was not the time for a trip down memory lane, maybe later. If, there was a later and not something very ugly for all parties involved. But now that he thought about it-

The Hand went to the under-arm holster, chrome fingers closing around the polished red grip before pulling out the iron. The Malorian Arms 3516 fit Johnny's palm as if it came out of the womb together with him, and in a sense they both were sons of Night City: of its violence, insanity and endless opportunities. He spun it anti-clockwise once with the trigger finger, finding the balance perfect as always, then removed the magazine and confirmed it was full before jamming it back and finishing with a final clockwise spin. V became very adept at using this beast, almost as good as Johnny, but never understood it was meant to be used by someone left-handed like him. Then again, the kid had most of their iron-boosting chrome in their right arm so it was a case of need must.

Reassured by the iron's weight Johnny used his right hand to undo the bulletproof vest's lateral straps, exposing the left side of his torso before pulling up the shirt. Revealing perfectly-toned abs and a set of ugly, dark-red scars: the last physical reminder of when three Pros disguised as gangoons ambushed him outside the Hammer, one of them gutting him with a pair of Rippers before kidnapping Alt for their filthy Arasaka masters. The doctor, the same doctor who did all of his implants and was the father of Johnny's best friend, had to stitch in three feet of glistening wet, tank-grown intestine and plug the punch holes with synthetic skin and muscle. Newtech could have made so there would be no scar, but after he buried Alt's body Johnny went back and asked the doctor to make sure there would be some. Blatant, and unforgettable.

Meat fingers methodically traced the scars one by one, feeling every nook and cranny of cicatrized tissue under his fingertips. A ritual he repeated almost religiously each week for ten years, engraving the reminder of his failure on his psyche just as it was on his body. Everything felt the same, not a single thing was out of place from beginning to end. As if fifty years never passed and it was still those few fateful days before the '23 Assault on Arasaka Tower, waiting for all the mercs Blackhand and General Eddington hired to finally finish assembling.

No biosculpted body, then. Johnny was sure of it: even with access to his engram there was no fooling the Rocketboy's instincts, not on this level. That also discarded the possibility of a copy made with vat-grown parts. This meant his first thought, no matter how ridiculous, was true: Johnny Silverhand really came back to life.

What was next, an Angel descending from the sky to tell him they make drinks in Heaven and they're beyond divine?

At this point it was absurd enough to really happen.

Johnny shook his head: he needed answers, and he wouldn't get them by breaking his head against all this gonkness. He put the Malorian back into the holster, and in doing so finally noticed V's hand implants were inverted: the Ballistic Coprocessor was integrated into the Hand, and the Interface Plug below the wrist of his right hand. Easier for Johnny to use, how considerate. Picking up the jacket he checked the inside pockets, cracking a grin at the sight of V's knife collection: each Punknife was a great weapon for carving open unsuspecting gonks, but the real jewel was the custom neurotoxin knife called Blue Fang. That chica in the Jackson Plains knew more about melee weapons than most of Night City put together, this beauty made a lot of V's gigs smoother than they had any right to be.

One of said knives went inside his left sleeve. Just in case.

Next he checked inside the duffel bag and... yes, everything he and V took for the assault on Arasaka Tower, plus a few extra like ammo. Nova. Shouldering both the bag and Guts again Johnny checked his reflection and slotted his trademark grin on before leaving the bath. The woman, Nanagami Rin was still in the same spot he last saw her and fidgeting. She stopped immediately upon seeing him and looked at him sternly. "Sensei. Are you done? I understand your arrival was unexpected enough to warrant some confusion, but time is of the essence."

"As ready as I will ever be." Johnny smoothly replied, taking a deep breath. And God, even that completely natural act felt better than any cigarette, alcohol and drug he tried before. If life was an addiction, from now on he was the biggest junkie ever. "I said I would listen. Go on, give me the deets."

For some reason she blinked in confusion before gathering herself and offering a polite nod. "My name is Nanagami Rin, and I'm a General Student Council officer of Kivotos, the Academic City. And you're a teacher that we have summoned here... or so it would seem." She finished, regarding Johnny in a dubious manner.

Which was fair. Totally uncalled for because Johnny Silverhand was nothing but dependable, but fair. "Let's focus on the 'summoned here' part. You told me the 'why', now I need the 'how' and 'who'." The 'where' would help a lot too, he never heard of a place called Kivotos before. Sounded European but the chick was speaking Japanese. Johnny already sent the agent trawling but it came back with zero hits, meaning the local Data Pools lacked even something tangentially related.

"Pardon my uncertainty, but even now I still don't fully understand how you got here, Silverhand-Sensei." She shook her head. "And while I said 'we', the truth is that your selection and transfer were handled by a single person: the General Student Council President. She's the one responsible for bringing you here."

An exasperated sigh escaped her lips. "Right before she went missing, apparently. The rest of the General Student Council and I have searched for her far and wide all across Kivotos, to no avail."

"So the only one with all the answers just happened to delta before I woke up? Talk about fucking convenient." Johnny commented, drawl dripping with sarcasm. There could be only a limited number of reasons why a client or Fixer would refuse to speak directly with the ones taking a job, only leaving a Handle and vague instructions, none of them good. "Suppose it can wait. So if I'm a teacher pray tell, what I am supposed to teach?"

"It will be faster to just show you." Rin motioned for Johnny to follow her. They walked to the area behind the desk, which gave a big view of the blue sky above and the city below. The Rockerboy's eyes widened at the sight, anger and suspicion sputtering and dying ignominiously in front of the incredible landscape spreading before him. "Welcome to Kivotos, Sensei."

Blue and white. Those were the first things Johnny's mind registered, Kiroshi Optics allowing him to bask in so many details his mind was almost overloaded. A sprawling, beautiful metropolis of simple buildings and skyscrapers painted with cool, bright colors. There were no megablocks or holographic beams showing commercial ads, the streets were clean and the visible river had not-polluted, sparklingly blue water! It was like looking at Night City as it probably existed within the mind of Richard Night before criminals and corps ruined it.

"Kivotos is a massive city, home to thousands of different academies. This is where you'll be working from now on. It's bound to be very different from the place you call home."

And at the center of it was the sole megabuilding worth this name, a tower that ended with a beacon-like bright light. A holographic beam above it continued the ascend toward the sky, surrounded by a halo covering the whole metropolis like an umbrella.

It was too good to be true, and yet it undeniably existed. A place that deserved the moniker of 'City of Dreams' more than Night City ever did.

An explosion went off in the streets below, followed by several others. The wind carried sounds of gunfire, artillery, cannon shots, screams of fear and the demented laughter of freshly-inducted gangoons who were given a big iron, kicked ass first into a skirmish with a rival gang and told to treat the whole thing like a big virtu-game.

Nevermind, everything was back to normal. A pleasant veneer covering complete anarchy barely held over the edge, it was like Johnny Silverhand never left Night City. The air just smelled better. "No, not really." He answered in response to Rin's statement. A hand reached for his cigarettes but found the pocket empty, not even a lighter. Fucking hell. "So... I can't help but notice you have a little gang war problem."

"Yes, the current state of things is absolutely unacceptable." Rin pushed up her glasses with one finger, features radiating cold disapproval. "And you're the only one who can fix it, Silverhand-Sensei."

"You don't need a single merc, you need the whole badges. That or an army." Johnny pointed out in the bluntest way possible. Him against a single gang or the local forces of a corpo? Doable.

Him against every single criminal and gun-tooting maniac of a city as large as NC? Surest way to get a special menu at the Afterlife named 'Most Stupid Shit Ever' with your name on it.

"Badges... oh, you mean the police." She nodded. "Policing duties are handled by the Valkyrie Police Academy and the SRT Special Academy. However, since the top administrator of Sanctum Tower -the General Student Council President herself- has gone missing we lost access to it. Along with all the weapons and supplies our forces need to quell the riots."

Johnny slowly turned his head, lowering his aviators with the Hand and staring at Rin. "Need to ask now: is Kivotos actually a dictatorship?"

"N-No!" Rin looked positively scandalized by the suggestion. "We follow a federal system! The General Student Council is the central administrative body of Kivotos but each academy handles its respective district's internal affairs.”

"Then I suggest you change things so that the disappearance of a single person doesn't stop literally everything." And Johnny thought the old USA government was corrupt, even the Soviets were better than this. He pushed the glasses back and jammed a thumb toward the city. "Because this? This is the proof things were scop under the surface even before your boss ghosted."

"...A reasonable suggestion." It was like saying those words caused Rin physical pain. "Yes, changes will need to be made after this crisis is over. We have been searching for a way to bypass the need for verification, to no avail... until now. According to the last message left by the President, there's a second person with the authority to do so: you, Silverhand-Sensei."

So this 'President' was involved with Johnny coming back to life, brought him to wherever Kivotos was, and also gave him access privileges to what sounded like the city's most important ICE? Suspicious didn't even begin to describe the situation, they were only missing the giant neon sign advertising free flatlining for stupid gonks, sign up now for a 100% discount.

Johnny's mind flashed back to the dream he had before waking up, about the girl with blurry features asking for his help. She was wearing a white uniform with golden buttons... just like Rin's.

Fuck, he gave his word to someone ever shadier than Mr. Hands. It seemed Johnny's luck could never catch a break. Ah well, nothing left to do but run and hope the brakes worked. "Where's the Access Point? Can't guarantee anything, but I'll try."

"...Thank you, Sensei." She looked incredibly relieved, even offering him a thin smile. She was much cuter when not frowning, he noted. "You can gain access to the Sanctum Tower from a special place that was furnished at the President's request. Once you get past the verification code you simply need to hand over the authority to the General Student Council and we'll handle the rest. It's far away from here, so I'll call a helicopter."

She took out a small tablet and started tapping. Odd she would use such an old way to make a call. And no cyberware, a Neo-luddite? Maybe it was the latest trend.

A beeping sound indicated the call connected. Rin put the tablet on the nearby desk, the screen flashing blue as it projected the speaker in front of them. It was a young girl wearing a uniform identical to Rin's, but the resemblance ended there: white leather jacket dangling by the sides of her arms, bare legs, much shorter and petite, pale-green eyes and pink hair tied into twin tails.

The very definition of 'mischievous gremlin'. She too had a halo, four-armed pink stars set into a circle, and slightly pointed ears. Plus two small horns on her forehead and a tail coming out from the base of her spine, flipping around lazily like the world's most spoiled cat. As far as kitschy Exotic looks went it was... what was the word again? Adorable? Yeah, that. The little Gremlin had a bag of chips in her hand, munching on them without a single care in the world. "Sup Rin, what's up?"

"Momoka. I need a helicopter to take us to the SCHALE club room." Rin addressed her apparent colleague or junior without preambles. Like a true corpo, the thought of not being obeyed immediately and perfectly never crossed her mind.

Which was why Johnny laughed in his head when Momoka just shrugged and kept eating chips. "The SCHALE club room on the outskirts? Sorry Rin, no can do. Things are kind of crazy over there right now."

What a fucking surprise. Whole city turned into a bloodbath almost overnight and the ones in control were still student pups, they only needed military hardware moving around to call this perfect shitstorm complete. Fuck, before the day was over Johnny was going to trudge ankle-deep in the corpses of brats too stupid to even breathe unassisted, he was sure of it.

Rin's eyes widened. "What do you mean, crazy?"

"A suspended student, A-Class Threat, escaped from the Corrections Bureau and is wreaking havoc. They rallied all the thugs in the area and are destroying everything in their path to get revenge on the General Student Council. They're packed up to the ears with AA guns, and I hear they've even got their hands on a Crusader!" Johnny hissed at the news. A Militech MA5 Crusader? How the ever-flipping mierda did some low-level perps get their grubby hands on an ACPA? He saw those things in action during the Fourth Corporate War, even a full-borg Cyberpsycho would cause less damage if allowed to go wild. Whoever lost it was going to disappear forever, not even the bed where their mother popped them out would survive. This A-Class Threat gonk, did they have a mole?

Or.. was Militech itself involved with the riots? They were marginally less scummy than Arasaka, but they were still corpo. Conveniently 'lose' a very outdated model, have it cause some damage, then swoop in to resolve the problem and offer their services at a generous price to avoid similar problems in the future. Yeah, that was totally something they would do. Fuck this shit.

"They must be trying to occupy the SCHALE building because they learned the General Student Council controls it. Maybe they think there's something valuable inside." Momoka flicked a few more chips into her mouth, sounding like everything was just Monday for her. "Oh well, the city's already a dump so I don't think it'll make that much of a difference... Oh, great! The food I ordered is here, I'll talk with you later! Cya!"

The hologram turned off and the call ended. Rin looked like she was a few badly chosen words from snapping and ventilate the closest gonk on hand. If they survived, Johnny predicted a lot of twenty-hours turn in Momoka's future. "I don't suppose you have wheels waiting downstairs? Preferably armored?"

"...I came here on foot," Rin admitted while taking deep breaths. "And with Kivotos in this state, any moving vehicle-"

"Would start a big shooting competition among all the gangoons, with us as the juicy fat goose. Yeah, got it." Johnny really needed a smoke, or a glass of tequila. "How distant is this SCHALE place from here?"

"30 kilometers."

Well. Well, well. 30 kilometers through an unknown city, every stinking hole full of God-only-knows how many gonks packing iron and zero restraints? With a Powered Armor and the local equivalent of a high-cred Merc waiting at the end? Johnny couldn't say he liked his odds, but neither he truly disliked them. "You any good with that iron of yours?"

She followed his gaze to the handgun on her waist. "This? I've been busy with my duties as the Vice president, but I never skipped on the curriculum-required Tactical Training BDs."

As expected of a corpo-kid, everything all virtu and safe and completely useless in reality. Hopefully she can shoot straight and gore doesn't bother her, the last thing Johnny wanted was to babysit her deadweight, if admittedly preem, ass.

"Well Rin, I believe you're going to get a lot of real practice today." Johnny took out the Malorian, racking the slide to hear the satisfying click, and offered Rin the Silverhand's Trademark Grin. There were a lot of things he didn't understand, but violence would never be one of them.

"Get a move on, Samurai. We have a city to save."