NOVEL WEB Chapter 111: A Hard Life
"Mira! Don't walk away! Let me explain!" I said.
"No! Stupid Dylan! Go away!" Mira activated her nervous system accelerator and disappeared.
"Fuck!" I said. I concentrated and increased my Vi circulation as well as my blood circulation. I looked up and I saw Mira in the middle of the street. She jumped really high and disappeared out of view.
"God damn it! It feels weird chasing her, but I can't let this girl go without at least explaining why her assumptions are wrong," I said.
I ran out into the street, empowered my legs with Vi and jumped onto the nearby building rooftop. She was there looking at me. "Mira, please! Stop! I just want to talk."
"No! I have nothing to say to you!" She said. She ran to the edge of the rooftop and jumped to the next one and then the next and the next.
I followed after her. I followed her across rooftops, through alleys, through underground passages and across bridges. I even chased her through a library. We quick walked very quietly so as not to disturb anyone and when we made it outside we resumed our running.
She was climbing up a building when suddenly she dropped off the face of the building. I caught her in my arms. She was bleeding from her nose and mouth.
"You need to go to a doctor!" I said.
"Take me to Crazy Sanchez," she said.
"Who's that?" I said.
"He's a cyberware doctor. Take me there," she passed out in my arms.
'System. Can you direct me to this Crazy Sanchez guy?'
[I can if I hack the dimensional game system]
'Do it!'
[Affirmative. Initiating]
A green arrow showed up in my vision showing me where to go. I followed the arrow until I reached a door with a gate over it. I banged on the gate. No one answered.
I pulled out my sword and activate my Blood Saw. I was about to cut through the gate, when a guy came up to the glass door behind the gate with his hands up.
"Whoa! Whoa! Put that away! What do you want?" He said.
"I need to see Crazy Sanchez. My friend. She's sick." I said.
"Take her to a medical doctor. I'm just a surgeon," he said.
"She said to take her to you. So that's what I did. Are you going to take a look at her or not?" I said.
"Ok, ok! I'll do it. Just don't cut apart my building." He said.
He let me and Mira in and then closed the gate behind us. He ushered me into a surgery room and had me put her down on the table. He took a look at her. He turned her over and inspected her spine.
"Who did this work?" He said.
"I did," I said.
"It's impressive. I can't even see any suture marks," he said.
"That's because I didn't use sutures," I said.
"Glue?" He said
"Nope," I said
"Then what did you use?" He said, curious.
"It's not going to make any sense to you, but I basically transferred life essence into the cut to make it heal faster," I said.
"You're right. That doesn't make any sense to me," he said.
"It's a cultivation thing," I said.
"Like those eastern dudes who meditate on mountaintops?" He said.
"Something like that," I said.
"Well, whatever it was and however you want to describe it, it worked. Now I just have to convince her to stop using it before it kills her," he said.
"Oh shit. Good luck with that. She's a stubborn one," I said.
"Don't I know it," he said. "I tried to convince her not to go cyber. Stay organic. But she wouldn't listen. Said she needed it for self defense. Fat lot of good that did her. She still became a slave, and no amount of cyberware could stop that."
"If anything, it ensured it. The money had to come from somewhere. And her dad wouldn't pay for it. He said his kids had to earn their way just like he did. Which is a really nice excuse to not help your kid when they're in need."
"She got into debt, and couldn't pay it off. So they took her as a slave as compensation for the debt. Went through the legal system and everything. Can you believe that? Legal slavery. It's like we've learned nothing. What has this world come to?"
"I don't know what else there is to say, but that's bullshit. I'd wring those politicians necks if I could," I said.
"You and me both, brother," he said. "Well, you probably know what comes next. Sex slavery. She got sold from scumbag to scumbag. Passed around like a piece of meat. Always fetching higher and higher prices. Until she sold for $50,000,000 to a man name Dylan Sanguis." He looked me in the eye to tell me he knew that was me.
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"You may ask me why I'm telling you this. I'm telling you this, because she never will. I want you to understand her story if you're going to become involved with her. A man needs to know a woman, to treat her right. To do right by her. And to know how not to upset her."
"How did you know? How did you find all that out?" I said.
"I can see the way you look at her. I know love when I see it. I'm not that old," he said, coughing. "And I try to keep track of my clients. The ones I like at least. Especially her. A lot of people come through my shop. I see a lot of sad stories, but none as sad as hers."
"That makes sense. If it makes you feel better, I had no intention of using her as a sex slave when I bought her. I still don't. I just saw someone in a bad situation, and I wanted to get her out. Show her a taste of the good life. Show her that life can be good, if you're given the right opportunities," I said.
"But then I had to go and fuck it all up. It's my fault she's in here. I said something that upset her and instead of just letting her go, I chased after her. I had to tell her my side of the story. I couldn't let her leave thinking I'm a monster. That was my selfish side taking over."
"Don't beat yourself up about it," Sanchez said. "Who knows what kind of trouble she would have gotten into if you hadn't chased after her. We're all selfish sometimes, and it doesn't always have bad outcomes, when we do it for the right reasons."
Mira stirred. She opened her eyes and saw Sanchez and then she saw me. She gave me a dirty look, but then she looked at Sanchez and said, "How bad is it doc?"
Sanchez pulled out a tablet he'd been taking notes on and leaned in. "It's bad, Mira. Real bad."