Clocking in. Studying.
V suffered from a severe case of "firepower anxiety"—the constant fear of not being strong enough—so she squeezed every second she could to reinforce herself.
Like now.
She'd borrowed a Kang Tao smart security unit from the Protection Division, shut off its counterattack routines, and was attempting to crack into its subnet.
No amount of theory could compare to hands-on practice.
V herself had grown through one near-death battle after another. Sure, frying a guy's brain with a daemon wasn't exactly the same as caving in a skull with a baseball bat, but at the end of the day? Close enough. V was old-school; she firmly believed skill came from repetition.
Blue light flared in her eyes.
She launched the breach.
The robot's boxy head tilted toward her—almost like it was saying "the hell you doing"—but with its retaliation program disabled, all it could do was stare.
Arasaka may have pioneered the smart-robotics industry, but Kang Tao—the Chinese megacorp—caught up fast, then overtook them entirely. Around 2070, Kang Tao shattered Arasaka's technological monopoly, surpassed them across the board, and dominated the entire robotics sector.
Now every corporation used Kang Tao bots.
Even Arasaka.
A little ironic.
But—well done.
V smirked, mentally giving Kang Tao a thumbs-up.
If the world ever ranked "People Who Hate Arasaka Most," the top one hundred slots would all be filled by Arasaka employees.
Only when you'd truly worked inside Arasaka could you understand how cruel the place was.
Just like—only after you've eaten shit do you truly understand how bad shit smells.
Damn.
That thought made her want to puke.
She didn't know why she was mentally torturing herself, but that single moment of distraction was enough to doom the breach.
The data lattice collapsed in a rain of alarms. Red exclamation marks flooded her vision.
V failed to crack the bot's subnet before the timer ran out.
"Fuck—Chinese-made stuff really is built like a damn tank!"
Her admiration for Kang Tao evaporated instantly.
The KANGTAO logo stamped on the unit's chassis had never looked so annoying.
V kicked the bot's metal leg in frustration.
The damn thing didn't move an inch.
Her toes, however, definitely felt it.
She sucked in a breath through her teeth.
"Damn it… okay, okay… again."
Just as she rebooted the breach protocol—
Ping.
A message window blinked open on her retinal display.
[From: Judy Alvarez]
— At Lizzie's. You coming?
V froze.
She had… forgotten.
Tonight was the Mox meeting.
"Shit."
V quickly shut down the robot, locked the subnet, grabbed her coat, and stormed out of the practice room.
The Mox weren't some random gang.
They protected sex workers—trans, femme, masc, chromed, flesh, anything in between.
Their base: Lizzie's Bar, run by Judy's crew.
And V had promised Judy she'd come.
She hurried toward the elevator.
While waiting, she checked her reflection in the polished steel.
Messy hair.
Minimal makeup.
Eyes still faintly glowing from the breach attempt.
"Fine. Good enough. Judy's seen me worse."
The elevator opened—empty.
She stepped in.
As the doors closed, she let out a breath.
She needed this.
A break.
A human moment.
Something not involving espionage, neural decay, or corpo politics.
Just Judy.
And the girls.
And maybe a drink.
The elevator descended—
Ding.
V walked out toward the exit.
But she slowed.
Standing in the lobby were two Arasaka clerks gossiping in hushed tones. She normally wouldn't care—but one phrase caught her ear:
"…the Corpo girl who punched out the Tiger Claws at Clouds…"
V's eyebrow twitched.
Were they talking about—
No. No way.
That was last lifetime.
But the clerk continued:
"Her name's V. Some say she's Judy's woman."
V almost tripped.
Excuse me?
Her Judy?
She hurried past before the clerks noticed her eavesdropping.
Out on the street, the neon lights hit like a wave of color and noise.
She flagged a Delamain.
"Evening, Miss V," the AI greeted.
"Destination?"
"Lizzie's Bar."
"Confirmed."
The cab lifted.
V leaned back, rubbing her temple.
Judy's woman?
God… if Judy heard that, she'd laugh her ass off.
…right?
V's stomach tightened for a reason she refused to identify.
The city flashed beneath her.
Endless.
Chaotic.
Alive.
After a few minutes—
"Arriving at Lizzie's Bar," Delamain announced.
The cab descended to street level.
Lizzie's glowed in pinks and blues—the giant neon cat above the entrance lazily blinking down at passersby.
The Pink Cat.
V paid, stepped out, and approached the door.
Two Mox girls leaned against the pillar, smoking. One recognized V and grinned.
"Hey, Miss Corpo. Judy's inside. Been waitin'."
V scratched her cheek. "…Thanks."
She pushed the door open.
Warm lights.
Bass thumping gently.
Holograms shimmering like glitter in the air.
V had been here countless times in her past life.
It still hit her heart in the same place.
"V!"
A voice called from the bar.
Judy—leaning against the counter, arms crossed, expression half-annoyed, half-relieved.
"You're late."
V lifted a hand helplessly. "I know, I know. Work."
Judy rolled her eyes and walked over, grabbing V's wrist.
"Come on. Everyone's waiting downstairs."
V blinked. "Everyone?"
"The Mox council. You said you'd be here to help. Don't tell me you forgot."
"I didn't forget. Just… got held up."
Judy smirked.
"Always got an excuse, huh?"
Before V could respond, Judy squeezed her hand—just briefly—before letting go.
That tiny gesture made V's heart skip.
She followed Judy down the stairs.
The basement meeting room was dim but cozy—blue lights tracing the walls, pink murals glowing faintly. Several Mox members sat around a long table.
Mox leader Roxanne looked up as V entered.
"Well, well. Arasaka's golden girl finally graces us with her presence."
V gave a slight nod. "Traffic."
"Bullshit," Roxanne snorted. "You don't drive."
"Exactly," V said. "Which means I'm never at fault."
That actually made a few Mox laugh.
Roxanne sighed. "Fine. Sit."
V took a seat beside Judy, who nudged her knee lightly under the table.
"So," Roxanne began, "we need intel on a Tiger Claws smuggling route. Judy says you can get it."
V crossed her legs. "I can."
"How fast?"
"Tonight."
That made the room go silent.
Judy glanced at her—surprised but impressed.
Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "That easy?"
"For me? Yeah."
The Mox exchanged looks.
Finally, Roxanne nodded. "Then consider this meeting adjourned. V, Judy—stay."
The others filtered out.
Now only the two of them remained.
Judy leaned back in her seat.
"So," she said softly, "you really can get that intel tonight?"
"Yeah."
"…How?"
V smirked. "Company secrets."
Judy groaned. "Come on. Don't give me that corpo crap."
V hesitated.
Then decided to be honest—partially.
"I'm… working against someone," she said. "Inside Arasaka. And the more allies I have outside, the better."
Judy's expression softened.
"You're in trouble."
"A little."
"You should've told me sooner."
"I didn't want to drag you in."
"Too late," Judy said, rolling her eyes. "I've been dragged in since the day I met you."
V blinked.
Judy realized what she said and quickly looked away.
"…Forget it," she muttered.
V didn't.
But she pretended to.
Instead, she stood.
"Come on. I'll walk you out."
Judy smirked. "You're the one leaving, not me."
"Then walk me out."
Judy's lips quirked, amused.
"Fine."
They headed up the stairs together.
At the bar entrance, Judy stopped.
"You sure you're okay?"
"No," V said honestly. "But I will be."
Judy stared at her a moment.
Then stepped forward—
and pressed a soft kiss to V's cheek.
"Don't die," she whispered.
V froze.
Judy stepped back immediately, pretending nothing happened.
"Go," she said. "Before I regret that."
V's voice came out faint. "…Right."
She walked out.
The night air felt colder.
Her cheek burned.
She pressed a hand to her face.
"…Shit."
The neon cat blinked down at her.
V exhaled and flagged a Delamain.
"Where to this time?"
the AI asked.
V closed her eyes.
"Arasaka Tower."
"Understood."
The cab lifted.
V leaned back.
Her cheek still felt warm.
"Judy…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
The night swallowed the rest.
The Delamain cab soared over the city.
Neon bled across the windows in streaks of blue, pink, and harsh white. Below, the streets writhed with life—gang turf fights, cheap joy, drunken stumbling, stolen kisses, botched robberies, laughing kids, weeping adults.
Night City, in all its rotting beauty.
V pressed her thumb against her cheek again.
She could still feel it.
Judy's kiss.
Just a soft brush of lips—nothing more.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing heated.
But it hit V harder than most gunshots she'd taken.
"God… what am I supposed to do with you…" she muttered under her breath.
Delamain's voice chimed gently:
"Miss V, your heart rate has risen by twelve percent.
Should I play calming music?"
"No."
"As you wish."
V leaned her head back and breathed out slowly.
She didn't know what Judy wanted.
She didn't know what she wanted.
And she couldn't afford to think about it now—not when she was already fighting on too many fronts:
Her neural decay.
Arasaka politics.
Abernathy.
Michiko Arasaka.
Militech.
Stout.
The Mox.
And a whole pile of ticking bombs waiting to go off.
Relationships?
Right now, falling in love was like tap-dancing on a landmine.
The cab gently descended toward Arasaka Tower.
The massive, blade-like building pierced the sky like a steel sword.
Its white lights—cold and clinical compared to Lizzie's neon glow—carved harsh lines across the night.
"Arrived at destination," Delamain announced.
V stepped out onto the plaza.
The moment her boots touched the ground, she shed the haze from Lizzie's—her face tightening, spine straightening, breath steadying.
Corpo mask on.
Emotions locked away.
This version of V belonged to Arasaka.
Sharp, lethal, untouchable.
She walked into the tower.
Inside, she headed straight to her private suite—not her office.
She didn't need a computer for what she was about to do.
She needed access.
V sat on the edge of her bed, rolled her neck, and exhaled.
"Alright… Tiger Claws smuggling routes…"
Her eyes glowed faintly.
Blue latticework unfolded behind her irises—a framework of access pathways, encrypted channels, and authorization keys.
Her clearance wasn't enough to see directly into Tiger Claws–related files.
But she didn't need direct access.
She only needed to look for the places where the system refused her.
Every rejection was a sign.
She hit the first wall.
Then the next.
Then—
"Found you."
The Tiger Claws' smuggling pipeline ran through:
Japantown's Westbrook district
An abandoned high-speed rail tunnel
A freight elevator hidden beneath a ramen shop
And a monitored garage owned by a Claws-linked fixer
V mapped the data mentally.
Easy.
Too easy.
She packaged the intel into a shard, encrypted it with her own cipher, and shut down her access sequence.
Then she grabbed her coat again.
It wasn't far.
She could deliver this tonight.
But—
Her hand hovered over the doorknob.
Judy's face flickered across her mind.
The kiss.
Her voice saying "Don't die."
V sighed.
"Damn it."
Why did the world get so complicated when feelings got involved?
She left the suite and took the elevator down.
At the plaza entrance, she flagged a Delamain.
"Destination?" the AI asked.
V hesitated.
Then said softly:
"Lizzie's. Again."
"As you wish."
The cab traveled through the city once more.
V didn't know what she planned to say.
She didn't even know if Judy was still awake.
But she knew one thing:
If she didn't go now—
she'd regret it.
The Delamain descended in front of Lizzie's.
This time, the street was quieter—bars winding down, late-night crowds thinning, stragglers stumbling home with cheap joy buzzing under their skin.
The pink neon cat blinked lazily at her.
V inhaled, stepped forward—then froze.
A figure sat on the curb outside Lizzie's, elbows on her knees, posture small.
Judy.
Her head was lowered.
Her hair draped around her face like curtains.
She looked exhausted—emotionally more than physically.
V's chest tightened.
She approached quietly.
"Hey."
Judy looked up.
Her eyes widened a fraction.
"V? What are you doing back?"
V held up the shard.
"You needed intel."
Judy looked at it, then back at V.
"You could've sent a message."
"Yeah."
Judy's voice softened.
"…So why did you come in person?"
Because I…
V swallowed the truth.
"…Because you kissed me."
Judy froze.
The street fell into a hush.
Even the neon buzz seemed to quiet.
Judy looked away, cheeks coloring.
"That was— I didn't mean— I just—"
"It's okay," V said gently. "I wasn't… upset."
Judy glanced at her again, uncertain.
V sat beside her on the curb.
The concrete was cold.
Judy's shoulder, warm.
"I don't know what I'm doing," V admitted. "And I don't want to hurt you."
Judy's voice was barely audible.
"…Then don't."
V exhaled slowly.
That was the terrifying part.
She wasn't sure she could promise that.
After a long silence, Judy reached out—hesitant, unsure—and lightly hooked her pinky finger around V's.
V stared at the tiny gesture.
It was soft.
Subtle.
So Judy.
And somehow more intimate than the kiss.
Judy whispered:
"You don't have to know everything. Just… don't push me away."
V's throat tightened.
She squeezed Judy's pinky in return.
"…Okay."
Neither moved for a while.
Two women sitting under a blinking pink cat, in the middle of a city that didn't care if either of them lived or died.
Finally, Judy nudged her.
"You should go," she said. "You look tired."
"You look tired too."
"Yeah," Judy chuckled. "But I sleep here."
V smiled weakly. "Right."
She stood.
Judy stood with her.
V offered the shard.
Judy took it carefully.
Their fingers brushed.
Judy held V's hand for half a second longer than necessary.
"Goodnight, V."
"…Goodnight."
V walked toward the waiting Delamain.
Judy watched her go.
Just before V got in the car, she turned back.
Judy was still there, standing under that soft neon glow, hands stuffed into her pockets, eyes fixed on V like she was afraid to blink.
V whispered—
"Goodnight… Judy."
She slid into the cab.
"Destination?" Delamain asked.
V leaned back, closing her eyes.
"…Anywhere quiet."
"Understood."
The cab lifted.
The city lights stretched into rivers of color beneath her.
And V, for the first time in a long time, felt her heartbeat slow.
Not with fear.
But with something gentler.
Something she didn't dare name yet.