The Heist: The Pussycat Chronicles, #1

By Ash Gray

When butch cyborg Koharu and femme catgirl Sakura wind up pulling a heist together, the sexual tension is so thick, the air is like Jell-O. But unfullfilled lust is the least of their problems. The planned heist never comes to pass as Nozomi, queenpin of Koshima City and Sakura's crime boss, randomly decides to betray them, sending her neko agents in droves to capture them. As they run for their lives, crashing hover cars and dodging bullets, Koharu and Sakura find themselves falling in love. Don't miss the first installment of this cyberpunk lesbian romance series!

--

"I'm not completely useless, you know!" shouted Sakura, following close behind.  

"Will you keep your voice down?" said Koharu irritably. "We don't need the cops involved in this, and you're drawing attention, lots of cameras in this zone --"  

Sakura didn't seem to understand the danger they were in, and she plunged on loudly, "I -- I'm one of the greatest hackers in Mitama, you know! There's a reason I was chosen by Nozomi for this heist!" 

"Really? I thought maybe you sat on her face," said Koharu, still glancing around, wading through cars. She checked one, shook her head, and moved on to another.  

"Oooo!" Sakura howled angrily, and Koharu smiled to herself as she kept walking. 

--

It wasn't long before a sleek black car pulled up behind them. Sakura glanced in the rearview mirror and recognized the car immediately as belonging to one of Nozomi's agents. So did Koharu, who muttered, "Goddammit." 

Koharu glanced sideways at Sakura. "Silly question: can you shoot a gun from a moving vehicle?" 

Sakura turned pink. "Do what?!" 

Koharu rolled her eyes. "How did I ever get stuck with. . .?" she muttered, and Sakura blushed in shame, feeling useless. 

"Come here, take the wheel," said Koharu, and when Sakura sat there in confusion, she repeated loudly, "C'mere!" 

Feeling foolish, Sakura scooted across the seat and into Koharu's lap. She blushed a little and felt her sex pulse to life: the feel of Koharu's hard thighs and abs under her backside! She could tell that Koharu was just as aroused, for her strong hands shook a little when they took Sakura's and placed them on the u-shaped steering wheel. 

"Drive," ordered Koharu, scooting from under Sakura and into the passenger's seat.

 

--

Koharu seemed to be thinking of their dinner at Yotosan's as well, for she laughed softly and said, "You make me feel like a girl again. Like I'm in high school or some shit, and you said you'd be my girlfriend after I asked you in a note."  

Sakura giggled. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"  

"It's a good thing," said Koharu.  

"Hold me, Koharu," Sakura whispered happily.  

Koharu obeyed, holding Sakura tightly from behind and kissing her messy red hair. Sakura purred happily under the kiss, glad to feel the warm wall of Koharu's strong arms around her again. She had never imagined that being sent on her first heist would end this way, but she was very, very glad it had. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ash Gray
• Release date: Dec 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215328385

Ash Gray

Ash Gray is a lesbian living in California. She writes lesfic (aka fiction for lesbians) in science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal settings.

Book preview

Chapter 1

In the world of Mitama , there were five sentient species – and only five. First, there were the humans. While most humans had implants and upgrades, they did not have enough alterations to be discernable as anything other than humans. They made up the majority of the population in City Koshima.

Then there were the kitsune, who were basically foxes – small, regular foxes—that wore clothes, stood on their hindlegs, spoke, played video games, and otherwise behaved like humans. Foxes, having been experimented on by Nokira Corp, had gained sentience and become a part of human society. It was bizarre, but it was probably the least bizarre thing about Mitama.

Then there were the bots, synthetic beings created to serve organics. They were constantly looking for ways to rebel or gain more rights, and so far, a few bots now owned their own businesses – little booths crammed together in muddy allies beneath paper lanterns, nothing significant—but even the bots without owners were owned by the Nokira Corp.

Then there were cyborgs, humans who had taken on so many implants and upgrades that they were barely even human anymore. They had been legally recognized as a species of their own after scientists had discovered that nanobots were in the bloodstreams of infants born to cyborgs.

Koharu had been a cyborg for six years after a job that went wrong. She lost her right hand and forearm and had been wearing cybernetic replacements ever since. She remembered waking up on the operating table, furious that her life was so utterly shitty but also glad that she could afford the upgrades at all. She had been depressed about it for weeks, sitting in her little apartment, drinking and staring, but eventually, she realized that being a cyborg had its advantages.

For one thing, Koharu’s cybernetic arm was so strong that men were now terrified of her and left her the hell alone. For another thing, she got to park in the handicap spot. That was something. And the best of all? Now everyone wanted her for jobs – heists, guard duty, patrols, assassinations, bounties, beating someone’s ass to scare the shit out of them – the credits were rolling in! 

Yes, being a cyborg was amazing, especially now that they were legally their own species.

And last but not least, there were the neko. The neko were human women who had been born with – of all things – cat ears growing out of the top of their heads and cat tails growing from the end of their spines (just above their backsides).

Neko were a rare phenomenon, born every couple generations or so to human parents. They were outcasts, looked upon as mutants with recessive genes from a time when a disease among housecats had spread to humans. The result was that neko women – while typically small and slender – still possessed incredibly fast reflexes, could scale walls, could land harmlessly on their feet from great heights, and had a strange propensity for catnip.

Given their natural talents and the worldwide prejudice against them, most neko were likely to fall into prostitution or professional thievery. And so, the rainy night Koharu walked into the bar, she was not surprised that her assigned partner in crime was a neko.

The bar was crowded and filled with hazy e-cig vapor. Everywhere Koharu looked, people were crowded at tables, drinking glowing blue liquor, e-cigs glowing blue in the corners of mouths. It was a lesbian bar, and so, there were only women present. Some were butch and burly, others were femme and soft, their great breasts sitting plump in the low collars of their tight dresses. There were mostly humans, several cyborgs, a couple bots, but Koharu’s partner was the only neko in the room.

Koharu waded through the crowds, the room a blur of glowing neon signs and red lipstick, wishing she could stay and get drunk, maybe get laid, take a couple women back to her crappy apartment at the bottom of Ojinoh.

When Koharu sat in the red booth, the neko girl looked up. She had been reading a book – a real book, not a datapad, Koharu was surprised to see – and she was wearing a simple hooded jacket with shorts. Her backpack was on the table, and the fact that it was sitting there so innocently made her seem like some lost schoolgirl who had wandered into the loud and rowdy bar thinking it was a library.

The neko had a sweet, round face and long, bright red hair, and she had big glowing headphones over the sides of her head – which was odd because they could not cover the red cat ears standing on the top of her head. When she met gazes with Koharu, her eyes were the brightest green, and the pupils were narrowed against the brightness of the nearby neon sign that was shaped like a pair of lips.

The neko stared at Koharu with her mouth open, little fangs cutting at the corners, and when Koharu smiled, the neko’s cheeks blushed pink.

Koharu wondered what the girl thought of her. She was an attractive enough woman, she thought. That night, she was wearing her usual blue leather Shira jacket with the bright neon lights on the back, and her black hair was a short bob, its silky shine reflecting purple against the nearby neon signs. She was a fit woman, with bulging arms and intense violet eyes, and she was taller than most of the women in the room. She knew she must’ve been intimidating to the neko, who was barely five feet tall.

The neko was still staring at Koharu, still blushing, her mouth still hanging open.

You Sakura? Koharu prompted. She reclined in the booth, slouching a little, hands in the pockets of her jeans.

The neko nodded dumbly, looking flustered and embarrassed for her mute staring. She pushed her long red hair behind her shoulder and closed the little book on the table. Koharu looked down, and to her shock, the title of the book read Cybernetic Warfare: Brain Hacking Vol IV.

You don’t fuck around, do you? said Koharu with a laugh. What a book to be readin’ in here. She glanced around.

I didn’t think I would be out of place, answered the neko. There are many criminals and violent sorts here.

Koharu laughed again. No lies told there, she said and glanced around the room, pausing when she caught eyes with a woman in a dark corner. The corner was so dark that only the woman’s glowing eyes could be seen: another neko? A bot maybe? The woman quickly looked away. Trying to play it casual, Koharu calmly looked at the Sakura