Twentieth Jump (Shadowrun) Part 4

A Day Out on the Town

            It was a dusky, fog-ridden morning as I went along the busy sidewalk with a Yankaka close at hand. The lower half of her face, along with just about everyone else’s that we passed, was covered by a thin respirator to keep their lungs clear of the low hanging smog that blanketed the streets and was almost one-and-the-same at this point. Yay… Urbanization. I was one of the few that was not wearing one as I simply did not have to breathe the noxious fumes and, even if I was forced to for whatever possible reason, my body was more than capable of processing the toxins.

            Yan was sticking close to my side as to not be separated from me because of the heavy foot traffic that the wageslaves and sararimen (Apparently street names for those who worked for the corporations.) went to and from work. She had apparently found a restaurant while she was out exploring the area and, as always, was keen on dragging me out of the apartment to try it out. Honestly, it was kind of sweet how she wanted to share her findings with me (Though, I am sure it was also because I always paid for the food.), plus it gave me an excuse to leave the apartment and, in this case, an excuse to avoid the plans that Bang, Cannonball, and Chopshop were currently fabricating for the job that we had been given.

            Now this was fairly normal of her, staying close and physically dragging me to wherever she happened to want to go. I did not mind such things, but she seemed a little more insistent this time around. If it so much as seemed as if I was drifting more than a foot away from her, she would pull me close once again or, at the very least, pull herself closer to me if I didn’t budge… At one point she even jumped onto my back under the notion that I apparently wasn’t allowed to run off without bringing her along.

To top it all off, she seemed a bit more jealous than usual. Now, ever since we had started dating, her jealousy was, for the most part, under control whenever she wasn’t in a bad or paranoid mood. What surprised me, however, was the fact that she was smiling and chatting away as we walked, but if anyone glanced my way she would begin to glare and then even growl if they got what she apparently deemed as too close. Heck, she almost lashed out at someone who complimented her jacket while saying something along the lines of “No, nya! You no have Yankaka. Yankaka with Sweet Guy, nya.”

Something was amiss. Despite her psychosis and her usual behaviors, this was a bit… odd… even for her as far as her normal, moment-to-moment behavior, especially around me. She was always a calmer individual around me and, while even I realized that she could be argumentative and aggressive when I wasn’t around, she was normally quite in control of herself if I was present. At least we arrived at the restaurant without any real issue.

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            The restaurant was an in-the-wall and out of the way establishment. The room was small, lit by only the glow of faint, neon lights that lined the wall and the small, hanging lamps that dangled above every table. There was a bar-kitchen mix up against the left and only five booths along the right wall, which might cause someone to wonder how it even remained in business at any given time with such minor holdings. Yankaka was clinging to Tadek’s arm as they entered, tugging him along while he was left to glance around the establishment with a curious eye.

            She had been looking forward to convincing him to come to the restaurant. It wasn’t of the same quality as the last one, but she was sure that Tadek would enjoy a higher quality restaurant such as this. Their serving sizes were actually more than slivers of food just barely larger than the palm of their hands and didn’t take fifty minutes to cook! Though… She did recall never getting any food, but that was the waitress’s fault for flirting with Tadek and forcing her to take action to prevent a new challenger from getting their hands on the object of her obsession.

            Once they were seated, Yankaka made a point to sit across from Tadek with her arms outstretched toward him while they waited for someone to come over and take their order… At least until the Orc that was standing behind the counter called out with a rough “What will ya’ have!? I’m not going to you just to know what you want!”, which was answered with an order from the both of them after they took the time to actually figure out what they served. Soy, krill, mushroom… Really, there was barely any “real food” on the menu to choose from, so in the end they shelved out the extra nuyen to purchase one of the few choices that had the actual meat for the way it would taste or look if it was simply soy.

            Everything seemed simple enough at the least. Lot of food ordered, lot of food eaten, and simple conversation. “Just have to get Sweet Guy to speak, nya. He will tell Yankaka who is after him… Have to be subtle, have to find out what he wants. Then Yankaka can have him for herself, nya.” She thought to herself throughout their conversation, trying so hard to keep things subtle by asking him more about what he had been up to whenever she wasn’t around. She had to find out. She had to know who was between her and what she desired.
            It took some time, but she eventually dragged out how he had been spending a lot of time around a specific Stuffer Shack, a mass-chain convenience store, where he had been meeting new people to converse with whenever he was wandering around the area and wasn’t either practicing his new abilities, such as the magic that Yankaka listened to… and whatever caused him to go limp and not respond to anything that she did. Really, she didn’t know what he was doing, but the Dwarf and Troll explained that he was probably in the Matrix doing what they called “technomancer stuff”.

            That was all the information that she needed, though… She knew that he was talking to people, so now she just needed to find out who might be trying to distract him or take him away from her. Once they were taken care of, they could have a proper date… She just needed to figure out who to remove from the equation.