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It doesn’t seem polite to hang around and gawk over the fact that Da5id’s computer crashed. A lot of the younger hackers are doing just that, as a way of showing all the other hackers how knowledgeable they are. Hiro shrugs it off and turns back in the direction of the Rock Star Quadrant. He stifi wants to see Sushi K’s hairdo.

But his path is being blocked by the Nipponese man-the neotraditional. The guy with the swords. He’s facing off against Hiro, about two sword-lengths apart, and it doesn’t look like he intends to move.

Hiro does the polite thing. He bows at the waist, straightens up—

The businessman does the much less polite thing. He looks Hiro rather carefully up and down, then returns the bow. Sort of.

“These-” the businessman says. “Very nice.”

“Thank you, sir. Please feel free to converse in Nipponese if you prefer.”

“This is what your avatar wears. You do not carry such weapons in Reality,” the businessman says. In English.

“I’m sorry to be difficult, but in fact, I do carry such weapons in Reality,” Hiro says.

“Exactly like these?”

“Exactly.”

“These are ancient weapons, then,” the businessman says.

“Yes, I believe they are.”

“How did you come to be in possession of such important family heirlooms from Nippon?” the businessman says.

Hiro knows the subtext here: What do you use those swords foir, boy, slicing watermelon?

“They are now my family heirlooms,” Hiro says. “My father Won them.”

“Won them? Gambling?”

“Single combat. It was a struggle between my father and a Nipponese officer. The story is quite complicated.”