Chapter 76
“…Huh?”
My head naturally turned to the side.
I thought I heard a strange sound somewhere in the distance outside the grocery store.
As if an aircraft flying over the old-town streets had suddenly exploded….
A sound like that.
But no matter how far down this was among the lowest of the low, there shouldn’t be any lunatics crazy enough to attack a megacorp aircraft.
So I chalked the sound up entirely to my mood.
When I started acting strangely, Michael looked at me with a questioning expression.
“Why did you suddenly do that?”
“No, it’s nothing. Just….”
I brought the conversation back to the original subject.
“…Anyway, looks like it worked out?”
After briefly explaining the situation, I shrugged and spoke while pretending to be as nonchalant as possible.
The possibility that the megacorp’s security team would pursue us—or, more precisely, me—over ‘the truck’s contents’ had all but disappeared.
‘Though the process was a complete mess….’
No matter how you get there, all that matters is arriving in Seoul.
However, Michael’s gaze was extremely suggestive.
“Don’t tell me you intended all of this from the beginning and deflected those bullets on purpose?”
“…Yeah.”
That wasn’t it.
But Michael didn’t seem interested in listening to me.
His expressionless face grew animated.
“Especially that performance of Hot Dog Man’s…. I feel a little awkward saying this, but it was really…….”
“Like a lunatic?”
“…Yes.”
Apparently unable to deny it outright, Michael twitched the corner of his mouth and turned his head aside.
Michael had watched all the bizarre things I did inside the aircraft.
- Hey, Hot Dog Man…. Could you open the door?
- Oh, Michael. Sorry. You were the only one who treated me well. Now go.
It was almost enough to make me glad that exchange had never happened.
The Joker character is memorable even outside its series.
Anyway.
“The megacorp team leader called Paul Lucas probably doesn’t want to reveal his own mistake, either, so I don’t think we need to worry too much. He’ll probably make up some plausible story and handle it.”
“A plausible story?”
“…Hmm.”
Michael calmly explained without giving it much thought.
“They succeeded in finding Marcus Vogel, but all they found was a corpse that had been dead for a long time…. Even corporate cyberbrain technology has its limits.”
Well, of course they couldn’t extract information if the brain was damaged.
Either way, we’d managed to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Fine. Then I guess we can consider it over.”
I had merely been acting like a madman.
I wasn’t actually a madman.
I had absolutely no intention of starting an all-out war with a megacorp that held influence over the world.
When I stopped talking to Michael and turned my head, I saw Nova and Rivera together.
“Still, it’s lucky things ended quickly, right? Otherwise, we would’ve had to stay in that warehouse for days without being able to leave.”
Yet for some reason, the two of them gave a strangely lukewarm response.
“Indeed. It truly is fortunate. Yes.”
“…It hasn’t even been a day.”
Why did they look as though they were disappointed?
It wasn’t my place to say, but staying in the warehouse must have been pretty uncomfortable.
Besides, Rivera had moved into the vacant lot right behind the grocery store.
And Nova was….
…….
‘…Wait a second.’
Come to think of it, how did Nova normally live?
And where did she sleep?
‘…Do androids not sleep at all?’
Maybe the androids developed by corporations didn’t need to recharge their energy separately.
Perhaps she had an arc reactor in her chest or something.
Or maybe the machine containing the android body in the truck’s cargo compartment was a charger.
While I was sorting through the sudden question that had occurred to me,
the two of them looked at each other and nodded as though they had reached some sort of agreement.
I had let my thoughts run on too long.
I casually waved my hand.
“It’s getting late, so everyone can disperse. I’m getting sleepy too, so I should go get some sleep.”
The sky had already been pitch-black by the time I prepared to summon Marcus Vogel.
The neon lights spilling over from the city center looked like the Milky Way.
In fact, the cityscape felt more beautiful than the dystopian night sky filled with clouds of smog, so the comparison seemed fairly apt.
When I signaled that we were breaking up, Michael gave me a small bow and disappeared somewhere.
Rivera and Nova exchanged another strange glance, then.
“…Good night.”
“You too.”
“I hope you sleep peacefully.”
“Yeah.”
The two of them went outside through the back door together.
Phew. Being alone really is the most comfortable.
I should fiddle with my terminal for a while, then go to sleep.
“…But why aren’t you leaving?”
The runaway ninja─, Cat, who had remained silent the entire time, looked at me and boldly began to speak.
“This humble one is a sharp blade. But a sword that loses its master can do nothing but live the life of a fool, less useful than a walking stick. What’s more, this humble one was of no help at all this time, so to make amends, he has no choice but to guard Hot Dog Man day and night…….”
I kicked him out immediately.
* * *
Ever since Abel Anderson had arrived in Risk City, there hadn’t been a single day when he didn’t have a nightmare.
At least the intensity of the nightmares had weakened somewhat after he acquired the 【Iron Mind】 trait.
Even so, it hadn’t changed the fact that he was still being hounded for repayment by a raccoon in his dreams.
“Urgh, a new resident in Animal Crossing…. And what’s with the Japanese yakuza tiger villager….”
As usual, he mumbled incomprehensible sleep talk and soaked the sheet covering the old sofa with sweat.
There was something he didn’t know.
In fact, Abel Anderson’s hearing became considerably duller at night whenever he had a nightmare.
Dull enough that he wouldn’t notice even if someone carried him away.
In other words, the few hours he spent asleep were practically the only weakness Abel Anderson possessed.
Of course, the grocery store had several military tactical composite 20mm fortress-type automated turrets installed, and the homeless people also patrolled every day without fail to maintain security.
So the possibility of an intruder breaking into the warehouse was close to zero.
“…Are you really sure this is okay?”
“Of course.”
But that only applied to outsiders.
Rivera and Nova silently opened the warehouse’s back door and crept inside.
Their target was Abel Anderson, sleeping obliviously on the sofa.
When Rivera found Abel Anderson twisting in discomfort, sometimes looking as though he couldn’t breathe and sometimes as though he was hyperventilating, she couldn’t hide her surprise.
“…Hot Dog─!”
The voice slipped out before she realized it.
She immediately covered her mouth, but in terms of pitch, it was almost the pitch of ‘si’ in do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si.
Under ordinary circumstances, even someone with poor nighttime hearing would have woken up.
But Abel Anderson continued groaning in his nightmare without opening his eyes.
“……It’s true.”
She scurried over like a rabbit and looked directly down at Abel Anderson’s face.
His face was already fierce, but with his brow furrowed, he looked twice as terrifying.
But in Rivera’s eyes, he merely looked like a child groaning in pain.
There were still children among her family who suffered and struggled with nightmares.
Naturally, Rivera’s palm moved toward Abel Anderson’s sweat-dampened face.
If not for the voice that came from directly behind her, her palm would have gently stroked Abel Anderson’s forehead.
“Stop right there.”
Rivera slowly turned around, her eyes gleaming brightly in the darkness.
Golden eyes blinking quietly beneath a mass of shaggy hair.
She looked at the insolent ninja who had dared to stop her.
But Cat’s attitude remained bold.
“You have not even received the Boss’s permission. How can you act so discourteously?”
“……”
Meeting eyes in which every emotion seemed to have died all at once, Cat swallowed nervously.
He felt an oppressive presence, as though he were standing before his former squad leader, Bansho Takemaru.
But he didn’t back down.
“If you know the meaning of shame, step away at once. Then, when the Boss is awake, boldly ask him directly, with that meager body of yours, to allow you to personally attend to Hot Dog Man─.”
“…Th-that’s not what I mean!”
Rivera, who had been raised as a corporate test subject from childhood, blushed at Cat’s blatant words.
She had only wiped away his sweat a few times!
And lightly stroked his forehead!
She had merely tried to check his body temperature—with a soft part of her body, since she had no other choice!
Rivera, too, held her ground.
At the sight, Cat snorted.
“If it isn’t, then what is it? To this humble one, every single one of your actions is steeped in lust─, urk!!”
Cat suddenly clutched his abdomen and groaned.
Rivera had somehow drawn close and was stomping her feet while lightly patting her fist.
‘…I didn’t even see an afterimage.’
At that moment, the scene that appeared in Cat’s mind was that of a ‘massive grizzly bear’ playfully swinging its claws.
It was nothing more than play to his opponent, but for Cat, it was a matter of life and death.
Cat gritted his teeth and endured the pain that felt as though his insides were being twisted.
Rivera—the grizzly bear who had swung its claw—seemed belatedly startled as well, her eyes widening behind her hair.
“A-are you okay?”
“…Violence can change nothing. It was the Boss who taught this humble one that. So give up now and leave the grocery store…….”
Cat’s words were cut off again.
This time, it wasn’t because Rivera had resorted to violence in irritation.
It was because she had noticed Nova, who was now giving Abel Anderson a lap pillow.
‘Oh no…!’
Cat’s expression twisted.
While the two of them were arguing, Nova, having accomplished her objective, quietly raised her index finger.
“…Please be quiet, everyone.”
If Abel Anderson had opened his eyes amid this chaotic situation, he would have found it strange that he couldn’t see anything because of ‘something.’
But for now, he was simply sleeping with a much more peaceful expression.
The sense of security brought by human body heat.
Nova had known that Abel Anderson suffered from terrible nightmares since she was still a turret.
But there had been one moment when he hadn’t had a nightmare.
That was when he had asked her to tell him a story, saying that he wanted to hear Nova’s voice.
As a turret, Nova had only been able to watch.
But now that she had obtained an android body….
Giving him a lap pillow had become one of the routines she carried out diligently.
“Kngh….”
Frustrated at failing to protect the person he served, Cat dropped to his knees right there.
Rivera glanced around to see if anyone was watching, then moved next to Abel Anderson in an instant.
Although his entire face was obscured by some shadow and difficult to see, it wasn’t hard to check his condition.
She carefully wiped away the sweat that had cooled slightly on Abel Anderson’s face.
“…This is how it’s done, right?”
“Yes. Since I cannot wipe him from this position, I’m counting on you.”
“……”
A lap pillow referred to the position of placing someone’s head on one’s thighs.
In Nova’s case, since she was overwhelmingly larger than Rivera, she couldn’t directly check Abel Anderson’s face while giving him a lap pillow.
“How is he?”
“Mm, he’s much better than before….”
“…I’m glad.”
A smile blossomed on her expressionless face.
If Abel Anderson had known about this, he would have grabbed Cat and wailed about why he hadn’t woken him up.
“Mmmnngh…….”
But he was still wandering through his dreams.
For the record.
A cat character named Ankara had now appeared in his dreams in place of the raccoon.
* * *
For some reason, my body had been feeling remarkably light whenever I woke up lately.
‘…I feel like I smell something pleasant somewhere again, too.’
Even the frequency of my nightmares had decreased.
That wasn’t a bad thing, but for some reason, the strange sense of foreboding wouldn’t go away.
‘I must have slept about four hours, give or take.’
I yawned and leisurely looked around.
And then.
“……”
“……”
I locked eyes with Cat, who was kneeling in the distance.
Naturally, he wasn’t an actual cat, so I nearly blurted out a curse in surprise.
“…What are you doing over there?”
“After thinking, and thinking some more, throughout the night, this humble one realized that things could not continue this way.”
He must have been kneeling there for hours, because the way he stood up looked extremely unsteady.
Cat rose to his feet, swaying, and revealed his firm resolve through his mask.
“No, I asked what you were doing there.”
“…I was reflecting on this humble one’s shortcomings.”
“?”
What was he talking about?
What on earth had happened during the night….
“Then I shall be off.”
“Where?”
“It seems the only way this humble one can grow stronger in the short term is through implant surgery. But in Sir Walter’s case, he does not have a separate combat prosthetic body, so…….”
Had someone beaten him up somewhere?
“I intend to visit Black Square.”
“Huh?”
Another question mark appeared above my head.
Cat didn’t even wait for my answer. He bowed deeply at the waist and walked out of the grocery store.
Apparently, he hadn’t been joking.
He wasn’t actually a five-year-old cat, but his sudden strange behavior was starting to worry me.
I stared dazedly at the warehouse’s back door, through which he had left.
“Damn it.”
I scratched my head and rose from the sofa.