"Most Samurai's lives change substantially after initialization, but a higher percentage than you'd think mostly return to their previous patterns afterwards. Unfortunately, this also includes a disturbing number of diehard corporate shills. Gotta wonder why those fucks were chosen."

  — Chad "FlamBAE" Syed

  "Sure, we can give it a shot, so what happens now?"

  Elliot just shrugged in response.

  "We do usual dating stuff, just both me and you and you and Aisha. Doesn't need to be overly complicated as long as we keep up good communication."

  She nodded, sipping from her drink. "Okay, I think I can do that, as long as you two are willing to be patient with me."

  Aisha grinned at her "Of course, Cutie, its everyone's first time at some point."

  Dammit, that was putting thoughts in her head.

  Despite sitting in a pilot seat for most of the day Quinn was ravenous, and wolfed down two large plates of food in the end.

  They chatted for a while, topics ranging all over. Hobbies brought some surprises in Elliot being an avid artist, and Aisha revealed she was president of the university anime club. They discussed family, with Elliot mentioning his sister back in Pennsylvania, while Aisha gushed about her parents and two brothers who lived locally.

  Quinn was never the most adept socially, but it definitely seemed like the two liked each other, which was probably a good thing for her future love life.

  They did however argue over the bill, each insisting they would pay it, but eventually settled on half each. Quinn managed to unite the two of them against her when she attempted to contribute, which was kindly but vehemently refused, and she gave up after a little protestation.

  On the way back to the dorm rooms they were staying, Aisha piped up with a question.

  "So, what are you two going to do, now you're samurai? I'm assuming you aren't going back to work for amazon?"

  Quinn stopped, thoughts floundering. She'd not really thought about that yet.

  "No idea yet." Elliot replied, answering for her as much as for himself. "Still need to figure that out I guess, do you have a plan?"

  "Half of one at least." Aisha said, fox ears twitching slightly. "I'm going to finish my degree, probably with some Sam cheats so to speak. Then see what I can do to push the field forward."

  Elliot nodded. "Seems like a solid plan."

  Aisha rounded her gaze back to Quinn. "And you, Cutie? Any ideas what's next?"

  Quinn shook her head. "Need to work that out as well, I've been a little tunnel visioned on surviving and fighting antis."

  The other girl nodded. "That's quite alright, you don't need to have it all figured out instantly. Just let me know, I want to help if I can, okay?"

  Quinn suddenly found herself pulled into a hug, fox ears tickling her cheek as Aisha snuggled into the crook of her neck, arms around Quinn's waist. Quinn's heart audibly sped up in her chest as she put her own arms around Aisha. A few more moments than an entirely platonic hug later, and Aisha pulled back with a smile on her face.

  "Later then, Quinn. I'll hit you up with a day for a date, okay?"

  Quinn nodded and cracked a warm smile. "Sounds good."

  With a parting wink, Aisha turned and vanished into her room behind them.

  Elliot and Quinn walked the couple of doors to Quinn's own room, stopping in front of it.

  "So." Elliot started, playing with his hands. "I'll figure out somewhere for us to go, too?"

  Quinn nodded, slightly amused at seeing him nervous. "Sure, I'll look forward to it."

  She paused briefly, thinking over her next move before deciding to just roll with it, grabbing both of Elliot's hands in hers and holding them still. His hands were warm and bigger than hers, with that rougher texture normal to men.

  "I'm not sure what's got you worried, I thought you were a veteran in this."

  That got him to crack his usual goofy smile. "What can I say, I still get a little jittery with people I have massive crushes on."

  Oh. That caused Quinn to blush profusely. Before she could overthink it, she let go of his hands and evened the score by wrapping her arms around his back. He gently pulled her in in return, and she had to try to keep her thoughts safe for work as her cheek pressed against his firm chest.

  Eventually she let go, glancing up to find him watching her with tenderness in his eyes. Feeling emboldened, she decided to borrow a move from Aisha for this one.

  "So, talk to you tomorrow then, handsome?"

  He chuckled. "Of course."

  Lying in her new bed a few minutes later, Quinn turned the question over in her mind.

  What was her plan, now. She briefly considered going back west, finish her law degree under her own power, and stick it to her parents, but she dismissed that quickly enough. She just… didn't care enough about their opinion any more, and had plenty of people she did care about here. Going back to Amazon was obviously a non starter, there was no way in hell she was going to sell herself to an exploitative corporation again.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  But that brought her back to why she wanted to do law in the first place. Her plan had been to do employment and corporate law, do high paying jobs for the corporations, then do cheaper or pro bono work for unjustly treated workers. In retrospect it was a stupid idea, after all it would have required creating her own firm, then attracting high value clients willing to keep hiring her after she started working against their peers.

  Not to mention that half the time, even if the employees won the company would just ignore the ruling. After all, corporations ran most police forces these days, or at least had their tendrils in so deep they functionally did. She'd did some digging and was surprised just how many places, Madison included, had some pretty worker friendly laws that were just plain ignored.

  But… that was a solvable problem now, wasn't it? She'd never been fond of a lot of what the small communist groups she'd tangentially interacted with in college had thought, but they'd had a phrase she thought was apt - "All political power comes from the barrel of a gun.", and well, it was hard to get a bigger gun than a Samurai.

  So she could finish her degree, maybe with some protector tech assistance like Aisha, and then win cases for workers while enforcing the rulings. But that was small scale, she was only one person, and could only do so much on her own. Elliot and Aisha would probably help if she asked, but it would still be small scale, and she could do better.

  A company then, a team of lawyers and administrators fighting cases and then keeping an eye on the compliance with the results. Lobbyists to try to make the laws better, or at least keep them from getting too much worse. And of course an armed wing, for when companies decided to try their luck. She'd have at least one Samurai as cavalry, maybe more if she could convince Elliot and Aisha to help.

  But if she was going to do that, she was going to need money, and a steady stream of it. Which begged the question.

  "Hey, Irys. What do Samurai do to make money?

  "A better question might be what they don't do to make money, Darling, but I understand your true meaning."

  Irys paused, before launching into the slightly commanding tone Quinn was beginning to think of as her 'Professor Voice'.

  "The simplest and most popular would be selling points for money. Many corporations will happily pay to purchase samples of Protector provided technology, or blueprints in a similar fashion. Another surprisingly common tactic is selling merchandise, many Vanguard support organizations will take care of essentially everything for you in exchange for a cut. Some start their own businesses of various kinds, using Protector technology as an edge. Others continue to work their previous professions, using their Vanguard status to improve their labor, subtly or unsubtly. Given the natural bent of initialization, many Vanguard end up working as mercenaries, whether as free agents or employees of one of the many mega-corporations. The more popular Vanguard can often make substantial sums selling their endorsement, likeness or image to corporations for advertising purposes, though this is not exceptionally common. Finally a not insignificant amount of Vanguard simply empty the accounts of the shattered remains of the corporations and executives that opposed them."

  Quinn shifted, pushing herself upright a little. "That's just theft though, do their AIs not prevent it? Also, would it be a bother if we got some way for me to see an avatar of you or something?"

  Irys chuckled, and there was suddenly a figure standing by the desk in the corner. She was young looking, maybe late twenties, with olive skin and dark brown hair in a wavy bun. She wore a suit of advanced looking combat armor, polygonal plates in solid colours of bronze, blue and brown to give the impression of a suit of ancient armor. She had a pair of golden wings that were tucked into her back. One one hip sat a pistol, with the similar hexagonal middle as Cassie's laser rifle, and the other held a sheathed short-sword. Quinn jumped at the surprise, stopping herself before she actively scrambled out of bed.

  "Shit, I didn't… how are you doing that?"

  Irys gave Quinn a chance to collect herself before answering. "I'm merely making use of your cerebral link to project an image, this isn't a physical form."

  Quinn let out a breath, sitting up and sitting cross legged, deciding it felt weird to talk to Irys in this form while still partially prone.

  "I guess that makes sense, give me a warning next time?"

  Irys smiled a wry smile "I'll design an appropriately telegraphed appearance for the next time. But to answer your previous question, we Protector AIs care little for the crude legal framework of this world. We are here to serve as your guide, not to act as police for the most unworthy of you. I hardly chose to stop you when you committed significant property damage earlier."

  She inhaled haughtily. "And I must admit I did enjoy seeing those executives taken down a peg. This degenerate capitalist hellscape you humans have constructed for yourselves could do with a shakeup."

  Quinn winced a little "Are we that bad?"

  Irys shook her head "Oh no, there are far, far worse societies out there, trust me. You are however in the bottom half. But, that's part of what we aim to help fix."

  Quinn nodded. "Okay then, I think I have a rough plan for what I want to do in future."

  Irys raised an eyebrow "That was what you were thinking of?"

  Quinn glanced up to meet here eyes "Wait you didn't know, and wait what did you think I was thinking of."

  Irys tittered. "I can't read your mind, Darling. We explicitly avoid that capability unless our vanguard actively seeks it out. And I assumed you were daydreaming of your new paramours."

  Quinn gave her a slightly horrified look, which only made Irys laugh harder. After recovering from that revelation, she continued.

  "No, I want to start some sort of company to improve working conditions for the little guy, lawyers to argue cases, a PMC like wing to enforce them, and was wondering how to make the money for it. It sounds like I have some options then. I don't really want to just sell tech though, that sounds like it would rack up points costs fast, and I'd rather use those to be more useful."

  Irys nodded. "Understandable. If I am to extrapolate what I think you're aiming for, it would indeed require significant funding. If I may, I could make a few suggestions?"

  Quinn nodded.

  "Well, firstly, I could recommend an easy solution for the short term would be making use of a merchandising deal, there are several more reputable corporations who would do so and will provide a steady income stream."

  Quinn looked puzzled. "I'm popular enough for that?"

  Irys nodded. "Yes, Cassie especially is very popular online, and I suspect scaled down but detailed models of her would have collectors climbing over each other to acquire them. While I believe that will provide enough for you to subsist in some comfort, for a more adventurous undertaking you will require a more robust income source. Assuming you do not wish to sell your soul to the highest bidder, metaphorically speaking, my next suggestion would be founding a company to manufacture choice items from your Yrassian catalog. While the nanite swarms are somewhat beyond your capability to set up efficient production for, a basic version of your repair drones and a number of other things in your utility catalog would be of immense value to nearly any industry using vehicles."

  "But wait, if the nanites were tier 1, how come they are so complicated to make?"

  Irys 'sat' down on the desk. "In short, because of scale and not complexity. As it were, if your entire civilization were functionally tier 1 it would be trivial, but for an individual samurai the cost would be prohibitive."

  "Okay, so I need to start a business to sell vehicle utilities, and set up merchandising rights with some group." She paused. "I uh, have no idea how to do either of that."

  Irys placed her hands neatly in her lap. "For the latter, I can provide a list of reputable options. For the former, we'll merely have to find some reputable individuals. But, in accordance to that we should discuss a couple of things."

  Quinn gave Irys a questioning look. "Like what?"

  "Well primarily how we are going to spend your current points between this endeavor, and upgrades to your capabilities of course."