CHAPTER 300: LONG STORY SHORT.

Three gears, each one of a different size, joined together with the smallest linking the other two. Surrounding them was a large circle with four spikes, each one pointing in a different direction.

’... this is...’

[The Eternal Gear.] Volcan said. [It’s the symbol of a religious movement that believes in the supremacy of machines and ascension through bionics.]

’I knew I recognized it from somewhere...’ Dante frowned. ’Pretty sure it’s a dead religion, tho.’

[That seems to be the case. There doesn’t seem to be any groups that practice it openly, and its official church has long been disbanded.]

’All thanks to Eidolon and its Genomes.’

Clicking his tongue, Dante placed a hand on the android’s shoulder, intending to return it to the Storage. As the neon green lines spread over the white alloy plates, a thought occurred to him.

’They aren’t as dead as people think, though. The church, I mean.’

A dead organization wouldn’t have military grade androids with its emblem running around.

[Maybe they no longer operate in public. It is understandable, considering it has been treated as a terrorist organization in the days leading to its disbandment.]

’Right...’

Dante was aware that he had gotten himself in another big mess, but somehow this was starting to feel beyond his current level. Looking at the tri-gear emblem, he once again questioned the identity of the girl and what her relation to the dead was.

’I need to find her...’

With it being the middle of the night, Dante found himself with nothing to do. He wanted to take his bike for a ride, but the cold stood in the way. In the end, he decided to stay inside and exercise a little.

His body was still sluggish, even now that it’s fully healed. This was one of the problems he was looking forward to getting rid of the most, right alongside the time needed to recover. Once he’s fully cyborg, any parts that get damaged can be replaced in a short time, and right after, he will be able to move normally, as if he were never injured.

Once he had exhausted himself, he went to the shower and washed himself then returned to bed, falling asleep right away. The next morning, Dante woke up to the sound of a message notification. It was, in more than one way, an early reminder about the New Year’s party she would be holding the next day.

Rather than a simple reminder, it was more of a threat, saying she would never allow him to eat at her shop ever again. Dante didn’t plan on missing out, but now he had another reason to make sure he attended. That meant taking no jobs, no matter how small they might seem.

Left with two days of free time and nothing to do, Dante decided to take care of a few tasks. First, he ordered some real meat, not the synthetic kind, and arranged for it to be delivered to the Bowl of Fortune. He regretted not doing so earlier after finding out that all the beef was gone, forcing him to buy mutton.

Done with that, he put on some clothes and went out. After a long wait, he finally took out the Raven once more and went for a ride. He had to take things slow, both because of the wet roads and the state of his body. After losing the idiot stalking him, he made a detour to the Red Rage base and retrieved the Scorpio-bots they left there.

Just as he was thinking about returning them to Finn, he got a message from Viktor asking him to come over. Having decided to avoid taking any jobs for the next two days, he was hesitant to go, but did so anyway. After all, he could always refuse jobs or delay completing them.

~[ ]~

"Took you long enough."

As always, Viktor looked tired, as if he had been sitting at his desk for days and days. Tossing the tablet he was looking at, he leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"Did you... Did you need me for something?" Dante said. He went to the Triple Jackpot as soon as he received the message, so he didn’t believe he was late.

"I’m leaving the city this evening. Got things to take care of."

"That’s... new. Will you be gone for long?"

"Just the new year." The Fixer replied. "Will return right after."

"I see."

Dante was about to ask if the fixer called him because he had something to do when he got a message. Seeing it was from the fixer, he opened it and saw that it contained a document.

"I went through the files Finn got from that terminal," Viktor said.

"The...what now?"

It took him a moment, but Dante soon recalled which files he was referring to.

"Ah, those..."

"Long story short, Earth Bound, the company that owns most of the real-estate in Hollowgrid, is trying to sell a big part of it."

"I see... but how does that relate to Red Rage?"

"Hollowgrid is a gang free district now." Said the fixer. "You should have noticed rent prices rising, right?"

"Obviously," Dante remembered being angry about it more than once over the past year.

"If the rent is up, then the property price is up as well, hence why they want to sell." Standing up, Viktor began tidying up his desk, picking up some of the papers scattered around. "There are interested buyers, but they don’t really like the price, so they want to drop it a little. And that’s where the gangs come in."

"... oh..." All of a sudden, everything started to make sense. "They are sponsoring the gangs to..."

"Cause chaos and bring the price down," Viktor added. "It’s likely the same for the other gangs. They didn’t have a reason for wanting to expand, but there was no harm in doing so."

"That... sounds like a very bad idea." Said Dante. "Do they think the gangs will just move away once their job is done?"

"That’s a problem for later." Putting away a stack of papers, the fixer turned to him with a somber look. "First, they secure the sale. Everything else comes later."