A small time later, the creak of the door announced the customer's arrival. There stood the cyborg from before, standing tall in his long coat. His eyes, barely visible beneath his brimmed hat, squinted as he surveyed the room's interior. "Howdy, miss."
Perched alone on the foot of the bed, Natsuko smiled. "Greetings to you, too, honored guest. How may I serve you?"
The man grinned, crooked teeth on full display. "Well, I can think o' several ideas. Been a while since I had me some fun with a pretty gal. but warn't there two o' you?"
"Yes, there is," the girl purred. "Come closer, and I'll tell you where you might find her."
Motioning him to lean down, she brought her lips to his ear. From this position, she winked. The gesture, however, was directed over his shoulder at Haruko who had crept up behind him. "Surprise."
Before he could turn around, Haruko brought both hands down on the back of the cyborg's head, hoping to stun him. Instead, she heard the sickening sound of something snapping. Had she just broken his neck? Such a feat did not seem possible for her small body, and lacking anything suitable for a weapon, she had been forced to rely on her own strength. Still, the momentary thought nearly made her cry out in horror.
Then, the man leapt up into the air, landing a safe distance from his attackers.
"Heheh," the cyborg chuckled, removing his hat. The girls could see that his skull had been covered in metal plating. "Very clever for a synthie, prob'ly from bein' Japanese made. Did yer owner reprogram you fer this? Let'em know that next time he sics 'is girls on a 'borg, he'd better reinforce their bodies a little. Synthies're kinda delicate fer this line'a work."
He indicated for Haruko to look down. She did so and almost fainted at the sight that greeted her. From its appearance, her wrist had snapped like a twig, leaving a broken stump where her hand should have been. What shocked her most, though, was the lack of blood or pain of any sort.
Her flesh seemed to be made from a strange sort of rubbery substance that simulated natural tissue. In contrast, the structure that acted as her bones was clearly metal, but lightweight and flimsy, no match for the cyborg's armor. Here and there, wires stuck out from the wound. Some twitched as if searching for the hand which now lay lifeless on the floor by the foot of the bed.
"O' course, I reckon I'll prob'ly hafta tell 'im myself, since you'll be nothin' but a heap o' scrap right 'bout now." The cyborg reached into his coat and produced a gleaming pistol. Without any further warning, he leveled it at Haruko, who was still paralyzed from shock.
"Jon!" Natsuko yelled as she launched herself off the bed at her sister. Her lithe body knocked Haruko off her feet just as a laser blast burned a hole in the wall where the girl had been. Then, their momentum sent the two of them crashing through the window.
For a split second, both of them clung to each other in midair, watching the ground approach. They knew that the oncoming impact would likely be the end for them. It seemed absolutely ludicrous that the two best friends would find their deaths as Japanese whores on some distant planet in the far future. Their sole comfort was that they would face it together.
Suddenly, they hit something soft on the way down. The surface buckled a bit before tearing through, letting the girls drop the rest of the way to the ground.
