The inside of the building was dark.
There weren’t many lights on the staircase, so the shadows were drawn very thickly.
We slowly walked down the dark staircase.
“Siwoon, make me some water.”
Maybe it was because the blood sticking on her was unsettling.
Andrea stuck out her tongue slightly and made a disgusted face.
She was already covered in red blood, including her giant mechanical arm.
“Why didn’t you bring the gun too?”
“Ah, that wouldn’t fit in my car. Honestly, I could’ve brought it if I had modified the trunk for it, though.”
Andrea replied while shaking one arm around. It was an impressive size, no doubt about it.
Water, huh.
I stopped halfway down the stairs.
I concentrated briefly.
A moment later, a mass of water floated up into the air from my palm.
It was a magical sight, but it was something we were very used to.
One by one, Andrea wiped off the drops of blood stuck to her body.
Her mechanical arm was so big that it must be hard to clean thoroughly, yet it didn’t take long for her to look clean again.
I fondly recalled how often I used to make water masses for Andrea when we were working missions together.
Since we entered the building, we had run into a total of six people.
Of course, they were all escapees.
Terrorists, bombers, gang members.
They had various levels of crime.
Now, they had all turned into meatballs at Andrea’s hand.
Before coming in here, Eve had said there were seven signals detected inside the building.
Then it was obvious who the remaining one was.
We took another step forward.
Eventually, we arrived at the end of the staircase, and a worn-out wide room welcomed us.
The concrete walls surrounding us looked just like all the other rooms we had seen so far.
But there was one difference.
In the middle of the room sat a woman in a chair.
The woman’s eyes, Maya, were set upon us.
In a very ordinary and peaceful atmosphere,
Maya opened her mouth.
“Did you come?”
The outer shell, slightly cracked from turret bullets, was still the same.
Thanks to the fuss outside followed by the chase.
And of course, she had come in Andrea’s red supercar, making this predictable.
There likely hadn’t been time to repair or heal.
“How did you follow me here? Did you stick a tracking chip on me when you hit me?”
Maya said while rubbing her abdomen—the part I had struck hard earlier.
“Or have you learned hacking? You really have changed a lot.”
“People change eventually.”
I replied, but honestly, I hadn’t changed at all.
Eve helped me out.
I personally thought I was the same as always, past or present.
But with Eve’s identity needing to be hidden, I couldn’t reveal the truth.
I played along and pretended to have learned something.
“Who’s that behind you? I don’t recognize that face.”
“A friend.”
“Just a friend for now.”
Andrea added to my answer about my friend.
The “just” part bothered me a bit, but it wasn’t important at the moment.
Silence followed, creating a short pause.
“…A friend, huh.”
Maya’s head tilted to the side.
Her expression was blank, but a very quiet sound leaked from her lips.
A scritch scritch. It was the sound of her grinding her teeth.
Her fists clenched tightly under the chair, showing no signs of loosening.
Maya let out a sigh.
“…Huh.”
In a slightly more relaxed atmosphere, Maya continued.
“I know, I do. I know that I’m a bit weird right now.”
Had she come back to her senses after getting hit by my strong physical magic (punch)?
She appeared to be in a much more normal state than when we first met.
Maybe we could solve this with words.
With that thought, I attempted to speak to Maya.
“Then how about you and I─.”
Maya’s voice cut off my words.
A madness flickered in her eyes.
“But there’s no helping it. I want you to see only me. I just want you to look at me forever. Keep looking.”
Maya stood up.
At some point, several blades sprang from her wrist.
“Greed is fine too; just pay attention to me. Forever. Continuously.”
Her previously emotionless expression changed at that moment.
A long curve formed at the corner of Maya’s mouth.
It wasn’t an atmosphere where conversation would work.
…I guess we have to fight after all.
To the average eye, the room seemed spacious.
But to me, it felt incredibly cramped.
Being underground was the reason.
If the ceiling or walls crumbled due to a powerful magic, only a future of being buried alive came to mind.
No matter how great a wizard I might be,
how excellent Andrea is as a singer, and
how outstanding Maya is as a Chrome Psycho,
if it came to that, no one would survive.
I was glad to have Andrea with me on this part.
If I had come alone, it would have been a nightmare.
Having thought that far, I let out a sigh of relief.
I wanted to thank Andrea for coming with me and turned around.
But for some reason, Andrea’s expression was subtle.
She looked like something was bothering her.
Maybe it was because Maya’s condition was worse than she had thought.
Hmm.
That couldn’t be it.
After all, we had seen a few Chrome Psychos during our missions together.
“Why the face?”
“…Nah, I guess being possessive can be a bit much. It made me reflect suddenly.”
I didn’t quite understand why she was reflecting on that in this situation.
Andrea rubbed the back of her neck.
Her mechanical arm was so big that even a single finger wrapped around her whole neck.
“Are you ready to fight?”
“Of course we can’t kill her, right?”
“Uh-huh, let’s try to take her alive.”
“Well, okay.”
Andrea and I exchanged brief words.
The one to break the conversation was Maya’s voice.
“What kind of conversation are you having?!!”
Maya lunged at us like an arrow.
[Synchronizing data from the sight interface… Done.]
Eve supported me.
With her typical obsession, I expected her to target me, the wizard, first.
But Maya aimed for Andrea.
“Die!!”
“Ha… What are you saying?”
A bang sound erupted.
Maya rebounded off as if hit.
A red plasma shape twitched from Andrea’s mechanical fist.
The shockwave from the impact made the air tremble.
“Hey, Andrea. You know we’re not supposed to kill her, right?”
“I just heard it too; I’m aware, so don’t worry. I hit her lightly.”
The other escapees had just turned into bloody messes after a hit like that.
What could have made the difference remained a mystery.
But Andrea’s words seemed to be true.
Maya, who had tumbled back, looked more intact than I had expected.
That’s right.
She was “more intact” than I had thought.
One of Maya’s arms was already destroyed and vanished from sight due to Andrea’s attack.
Maya seemed shocked as she blankly stared at her missing limb.
There was no blood.
With her entire body replaced by cyberware, she wouldn’t have that much blood left.
Instead, a clear fluid oozed out like oil.
It was a natural outcome.
Maya’s cyberware had already been around for quite some time.
In current terms, they were outdated products.
Newer versions would have been functionally far superior.
And Andrea was the type who never spared money on equipment.
The fact that all the escapees we had encountered until now turned into messes due to Andrea’s punches was related to this.
What followed wasn’t even a situation I could call a battle.
The time taken and even the result were completely different from when Maya and I fought on the street.
It didn’t take long for Maya to lose both arms and legs and fall to the ground.
“Alright, it’s over.”
Andrea drew a V with her giant mechanical arm.
“Thanks for your help.”
“What, are we even supposed to say thanks to each other?”
She then took a step back.
It was to allow Maya and me to have a quiet conversation.
I approached the fallen Maya.
Thanks to her full cyberware modification,
even without her limbs, she seemed to be in no danger of life.
However, the nerve lines were still intact, so she must be in pain.
She seemed to be entirely unaware of that pain.
“…”
“I said it before, but I’m sorry for being late.”
“…It’s not you being late.”
Her mechanical eyes blinked.
What was reflected in her eyes, I had no idea.
She could be thinking of my past self, or
gazing upon her former self.
Maya slowly opened her mouth.
“…Now, kill me.”
Her chrome body couldn’t even shed tears.
However, perhaps due to the components inside being destroyed,
a transparent fluid streamed down her cheeks like tears.
“I want to be remembered in your memories forever.”
As she said this, Maya closed her eyes.
What kind of future did she think of?
Was it going back to prison?
Perhaps that’s why she asked me to kill her.
But the future I envisioned wasn’t that.
I supported Maya’s upper body with one hand.
With the other hand, I wrapped around her neck.
“I don’t want to.”
Before I could even hear Maya’s response,
I summoned electricity to my fingertips.
No matter how covered in cyberware she was, delivering an electric shock to the nerve system would work on almost anyone.
I gazed down at the fainted Maya.
The fierce look from before had vanished, now looking like she was peacefully asleep.
In the past too,
I didn’t want to send Maya back to prison.
However, the circumstances at that time couldn’t be helped.
Among her targets for revenge were high-ranking corporate officials, and nominally, many regular civilians too.
Thinking of the NCPD and Chrome Force that arrived at the scene filled with corpses, sending Maya to prison had been the best option back then.
It was also me who had stopped them from trying to kill her on site.
But things were different now.
There were no NCPD here, nor any eyes recognizing her.
Andrea, curious about that part, had come close behind me to ask.
“So… what now?”
“I guess I should leave it to a bioware expert.”
Ultimately, if we were to address the Chrome Psycho symptoms,
the root cause was “chrome.”
Removing all chrome from her body and replacing it with bioware, then undergoing implant surgery again, could lead to some treatment.
Sure, I had heard that in some cases it wouldn’t work even then.
But at this moment, it was the only option I could think of.
She was a sore spot for me.
Because I had rescued her late.
Because I remembered her being a character from the game late.
All of this had led to what had happened.
Thus, after Maya’s incident, I consciously paid more attention to saving or helping others, like with Drake.
I could not turn back time.
But if I could help her now, it was the right thing to do.
In the end, I couldn’t confidently say what her future would be.
But…
I hoped there would be a better future than now.
“Hmm… it does seem like the best option.”
Andrea nodded.
“Well, since it’s all over now, shall we go hang out?”
“…Since you helped, if you want─, ah.”
I stopped mid-sentence.
“Why?”
Just then, I received a message.
“Catherine said she’s home.”
“Ah.”
Andrea paused just like I did.
“…”
“…”
We should head home.
And I also remembered not to forget contacting the bioware expert to help Maya.
That’s how the day came to an end.
*
Then one day,
during a week where I hadn’t gone outside and was just playing a virtual reality game,
someone came to find me.
“…The boss made an appointment, so why haven’t you come by even once? He told me to bring you myself. Let’s go now, Shun.”
It was the gun-wielding kidnapper (Smith and his men).
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