Cyberpunk: Arasaka Secret Son

Without having any idea who to ask about the video, the first thing I did was to go to a bathroom on the top floor of the school, which all the students knew was where they were dealing with illegal stuff

When I arrived and asked what they had, I realized how many sick people with very dark vices there were from so young .... the amount of drugs and Bd's of Gore, Snuff and all that kind of shit they offered me while I was looking for a copy of Daniel's beating, it was tremendous.

After buying some illegal Bd's, from one of the guys who sold them and became his client, I pretended to be a morbid bastard, who heard about the rumor about the beating to death of a kid son of the H3 culprit and wanted that kind of material since it had happened in our high school.

The guy knew about the video, and said that when it happened he sold it until it passed the trend..... He told me he would talk to one of his regulars who bought it and he could have a copy, after two months of waiting, I finally got a copy of the Daniel beating.

All this started to give a hand to Cesar who had behaved and helped us a lot getting us the parts for the truck we needed, but more importantly I could fuck Ishii..... if he really is the culprit of the beating... but after seeing the video.... I was really hoping that these bastards would end up behind bars or dead.....

It wasn't just a beating....., they took off his pants and started putting out cigarettes while Daniel was screaming and crying for them to stop. They kept laughing and making fun of Daniel, hitting him over and over again, until he stopped screaming and moving, leaving him alone in a field naked and bleeding.

Although we got the video, no faces were shown, also when any of them spoke they had distorted voices on the video.... which made it impossible to identify any of them.

When we gave it to Cesar I warned him not to get his hopes up about finding evidence, but he still thanked us very much, Cesar believed that with the video he was one step closer to getting justice for Daniel.

Back to the present

When Cesar, came in greeting everyone as usual "huh?" it seemed a little strange to me he looked more tired than usual especially his eyes as if there was something different. When he saw us he made an amused expression and nodded his head to greet us.

It seems that he had noticed our absence these days in class after the chase and by the smile on his face ..... I was sure he knew we were the two people in the fire truck at the chase.....

Besides Cesar had secretly helped me without Jud knowing, I asked him for parts to repair the water cannon on the truck ..... so there was no doubt that he knew.

He even recognized us quickly in this huge class with almost 80 teenagers of different ages.....

Why different ages in the classes? In the Nc High School education system there are no grades but levels.

In the Night City education system, students must complete a series of subjects in order to graduate. To graduate, you must have all subjects at level 2 and two at level 3, or the altantive, have at least five subjects at level 5.

Level 5 is the final subject level and is considered a major. There are a total of 20 subjects, and you must achieve level 2 in all of them before you can choose two to specialize and raise them to level 3. This will allow you to graduate at age 18.

Alternatively, you can choose five subjects and specialize in them, taking you to level 5. These specialized pathways allow you to follow a specific career path, and are available in different packages of five subjects. This pathway is considered more difficult but also faster, allowing you to graduate before you are 18.

Jud and I had chosen the alternative path of 5 subjects in order to finish before the age of 18.

The high school is only available to students under the age of 18. If you turn 18 and have not reached the minimum level required, you will not be able to graduate or return to high school... at least not to a public one.

As a result, you can find students of different ages in the classes.

Cesar activates the screen thus starting a video about the subject of the class; American History.

The video starts with an image of the old American flag and a voice-over of the damn mascot pigeon: "Welcome to the 20th and 21st Century American History course. Today we are going to talk about the collapse of the old United States and the creation of The New United States of America

In the 1990s, American society was polarized and conflicted. While some were fighting for radical change in the country's society and politics, others were defending the established system. This polarization and violence spread across the country, and the federal government proved unable to control the situation.

In 1996, due to the strong polarization of its population and the fall of the world stock market, the United States found itself weakened and overwhelmed by unemployment, poverty and corruption. Many municipalities collapsed or went bankrupt, and the government was burdened by staggering deficits. The United States of America could not survive this crisis without the help of patriotic corporations that bought up the country's debt in exchange for some control over the country's laws and politics.

Thus, The New United States of America (NUSA) was created, a country made up of 51 states and several other territorial possessions around the world. Re-creating the great prosperous country we once were, making America great again!"

'YES sure!' I thought, rolling my eyes as I listened to the verbiage of that damned talking pigeon....

The damned pigeon has skipped as how the CIA and the FBI in the decade of the 90's, tried to control the stock market, falsifying the finances of the country by inflating the numbers with false data, creating a huge bubble of lies.... that when the market could not hold any longer it collapsed. ... and not only that of the United States, due to the lies and false prosperity falsified, when the crisis broke out, the whole world state collapsed, sinking entire countries, sinking the value of the Dollar until it was literally worthless and useless, totally changing the geopolitical map of the world.

As Europe reoganized as; United Europe, Eurotheater, or EEC, is a political and economic group whose members encompass all of Western Europe. As creators of the Edis, or Eurodolaers, the world's universal currency, the Edis play a substantial role in the way the EEC conducts its operations.

Specifically, a country's overall wealth determines the level of influence of its representatives on the EEC's Euro Council. The richer a country's economy, the greater its influence. At the center of its operations is the EuroBank, one of the largest and most powerful banks in the world.

And the current state of the New United States of America or NUSA is not that great either.... according to the last statistics I saw, NUSA had one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world, with 99.99% of the wealth in the hands of 0.01% of the population. Over 65% of the population lives in abject poverty, and 25-50 million people were "nomads" or outcasts wandering the ghost towns of central NUSA.

As we sat in the back row of the class, Jud and I, along with the rest of the class heard a loud noise at the back door of the classroom. Someone had kicked the door open and slammed it against the wall.

They were Ishii Shiro and two Tiger Kuv. When Ishii entered the classroom most of the students became agitated, everyone knew how devious Ishii could be, everyone was nervous or fearful except for one group who stared at Ishii with hatred in their eyes.

They were the Mini-Mox, the same group that Jud had greeted earlier.... As Nc the Public High School can be considered a microcosm of the city,

Where just like in the city and the adult versions of the gangs the Mini-Mox hate the Tiger Kuvx to death and vice versa.

This hatred is based since the murder of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Borden, who could be considered the founder of the MOX that were created after her death.

While other Nc gangs made money from different illegal businesses like the Valentinos with drugs, the Maelstrom doing business with the scavengers with illegal cyberware, the Tiger's don't deal with cyberware because they get it from their Arasaka contacts who don't want to get angry by dealing with the cyberware they were given, the drugs were controlled by the Valentinos and 6th Street, so the only thing left was the sex business and human trafficking, which is how the Tigers made their money, which was so lawlessness and brutal with their girls/boys that many fled to the shelter of Lizzie and her Bar, when some Tigers killed and more... one of Lizzie's girls, she hunted them down and killed them with an axe...with a fucking Axe..... the Tigers killed her in revenge but... She died as a true legend

These actions created an uproar that the Tygers could not have foreseen, all the sex workers and minorities that Lizzie had helped create a wave. Lizzie's death set off a wave of protracted riots all over Nc, and Tyger Claws' members and businesses became the main targets of the violence. Those events established Elizabeth Borden as a symbol of defiance against gangers' lawlessness and brutality.

Her ideological successors commemorated her by rebuilding her place, naming it "Lizzie's Bar" and forming a gang that brought together those who felt threatened and oppressed, especially among sex workers and sexual minorities.

The hatred with which the Mox started against the TIgers is still there growing after all....

Ishii did not heed Cesar's warnings nor did he care about the hateful look on the Mini-Mox's face and walked into the classroom. As he walked past Jud and me, he smiled at Jud and winked. She got sick and started making like she was retching, which made me laugh, because of the exaggerated faces she was making.

Ishii thought I was laughing at him, so, to avoid any more misunderstandings again, I raised my hand to my nose and pointed a finger with the same hand at his nose while making a "So how's yours?" expression.

Since Ishii thought I was laughing at him, let that be.... I don't want any more misunderstandings.

Which when I did, Ishii instantly became enraged, taking his hand to his jacket, as if he was going to pull out a gun I didn't move or feel danger because I knew he was going to react that way given his volatile and sociopathic nature, but as I watched him reach under his jacket, my time slowed down and I could slowly see how one of his Tiger Kuv dogs that followed him grabbed his arm stopping him and saying something in his ear.

When the minion stopped Ishii's arm, it made time flow normally for me again... I can't control that feeling, it only happens to me when I perceive a possible danger and not me if not .... when Arc perceives it, tch it bothers me, not being able to control it.

He shook his arm violently to release his minion's grip, annoyed by what he had told him.

Which I imagine would be the warning that made .... the Red D-Demon, the Grand- `Hehe' still makes me laugh, that grandpa made to Wakako, the Fixer that appeared in the game who was known for her close relationship with the Tiger Claw in Nc.

Ishin ignoring Cesar's words, advanced towards a semi-empty desk, sitting down he joined the girl who was sitting alone at it, making her visibly uncomfortable as he did so.

The class remained silent as Cesar continued to stare at Ishii. "Did you not hear me? Get out of the class right now," Cesar shouted in a violent tone.

"What's it to you, old man?, stop bothering me! While I'm here, shut up and let me learn, will you?", Ishii retorted disdainfully.

"This is your last warning," Caesar said with an ice-cold tone, bringing a hand to his gun.

The other students tensed up at Cesar's shouting and Ishii's provocations, which only escalated the situation. Causing Cesar to bring his hand to his gun.....now things have gotten interesting!

"How about I give you a few hundred Edis and you go fuck yourself? Hahaha!" said Ishii with a mischievous grin as his followers laughed with him.

"Get out of class already!" shouted Cesar while.....

"Kyaaa!"

"AHHHH!"

"A WEAPON!"

"CAREFUL!"

"AHHHH!"

Cesar was pulling out his Lexington and pointing it at Ishii, it made all the students panic and scream, some started to crawl under their desks fearing they would be shot.

"WOWO! put that down old man! don't go do something you'll regret...! do you want to die?" said Ishii trying to remain calm and threatening, but giving himself away by his tone of voice, nervous.

"What's the matter, are you afraid? You say you're going to kill me? Tell me Ishii, you and yours are going to kill me like you killed Daniel?" asked Cesar, now he was the one provoking Ishii.

"What, are you crazy, old man? Who is Daniel? I have nothing to do, with whoever he is!", exclaimed Ishii.... really a pity Ishii has a talent for acting if you didn't know him the whole world of the high school as a cruel and somewhat unpredictable bastard you would believe what he was saying.

Ishii acted like the place was his without any filter or limit, never stopping ``flirting'' with girls, he had a fetish for first-year girls..... with rumors about beating the shit out of some unlucky bastard and stuff like that happening often, always going out with no problems, picking guys and girls with no band and no one to protect them to abuse them.... come on, a fucker.

"Don't lie to me!" as Cesar kept insisting to Ishii, who just kept his denial.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about man, are you crazy?"

As they continued in that impase.... I started to get bored, and leaning on one hand I started to look out the window to distract myself, I don't know why, but I really like to look out the window like that, especially in cars, in my old life I would get pissed off, to see what I was missing....but now.... it relaxed me, what a thing.

I mean what is Cesar waiting for? Ishii to confess? What for? That confession taken out with a gun will not serve for nothing, to as he said `do justice for Daniel and his family'.

Unless he has changed his mind about justice and is satisfied with just killing the bastard? I'm not as idealistic as for..... `Lookin'for jutice? In Night City'.

`Heheheheh' As I laughed thinking about what V said or will say? to Takemura at Toms dinner.

Back to Cesar, what is he planning to do kill him if ishii says it was him?....in front of everyone?...Ahmm something that honestly, I don't think Cesar has the balls to do..... making this whole thing nothing but nonsense.... what the fuck is Cesar thinking?

The students more and more decided to take shelter under their desks, frightened by the gun that, although not aimed directly at them, was pointing in their direction.... Even Jud was scared, though she tried not to look it....

"Sora don't you think we should .... cover ourselves." Jud said looking brave, but with fear in his voice....`Ahmmm I'm a simp'..... when I thought that myself.

"FUCK! Cesar, for God's sake if you're going to Shoot him, shoot!... this is getting boring...."

"Eh?!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU SON OF A BITCH?"

"Ahmm....I mean if Cesar shoots you we can say you pulled the firearm out of your jacket putting the students in danger, surely you're such an idiot that you snuck an iron into the school, right?"

"....."

"Hahahahah, what an idiot, up until now if you kept going on like this playing the victim, you might have managed to get Cesar in trouble, but now...."

"You think any of these..... shits, would dare cover for a supervisor for shooting me?" Ishii said as he turned to look at me seriously.

"Well not really most wouldn't they are cowards, but who wouldn't? I mean what would someone earn by messing with the son of Tiger Claw's leader but" I said as I pointed to a group of girls who were smiling at what I was saying "But, those girls seem enthusiastic about the idea of framing you and if that would get your father's pycho fucked up, I'm sure even the Mox would be happy" as I finished speaking Ishii moved towards the group I had aimed at seeing the Mini-Mox smiling and nodding their heads before turning back to me in anger realizing I had insulted his father.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY FATHER YOU BASTARD?

"What offended because I insulted your father? For what it's worth I'll let you insult mine, I'm telling you he's crazy too, look we have that in common!"

"Sora" Noticing a tug on my shirt next to my name I turned to find a somewhat exasperated Jud that "you're getting sidetracked."

"Ah! That's right, well why don't you go fuck off Ishii? so you can at least avoid getting kicked out of high school for carrying a firearm!"

".... "When Ishii heard what I said he kept silent as if he was making a decision.