Chapter 21 - UPGRADE COMPLETE! 2

KERS.

Vortex Energy's new technology, which generated its own electricity in proportion to the user's activity.

Surprisingly, it was the very technology Ifrit had mentioned before.

Ash's optical sensors glowed faintly.

"KERS, you say. I understand it is the latest technology unearthed by Vortex."

"... Huh? You know your stuff, don't you?"

"Only what I have heard."

Santa gave a knowing smile and exhaled a long stream of smoke. Meanwhile, Akina hurried over and examined the ink-black torso from every angle.

"Hey, you'll get it dirty, you little brat. Hands off."

"... It really is Vortex Energy. Where on earth did you get this?"

"Hah. What would you do if you knew? That's a trade secret. You think I'd tell you?"

"Trade secret, my foot. You stole it, didn't you? It's stolen goods, right?"

"What was that, brat?"

Santa rapped Akina on the head, stubbed out his cigarette, and folded his arms.

"Do I look like a thief to you? I'll have you know I acquired this through a legitimate transaction! Granted, the place where that transaction happened was a little... shady."

"So it is stolen!"

"Enough! Are you buying it or not?"

"How much?"

"Hmm. About six million?"

Akina hastily pulled her hand away from the part she had been stroking. Her blue eyes trembled faintly in disbelief.

Six million.

That was nearly ten times all the money they had. Despair flitted across the girl's face.

Ash, however, showed little sign of agitation. He calmly studied Santa's expression for a moment.

Santa knew perfectly well how much money they had. There had to be some other intention behind his naming a price they could not possibly afford.

Having gathered his thoughts, Ash activated his voice module. His calm electronic voice drifted through the rest stop.

"Master Santa. This is a fine piece indeed."

"Of course it is. Who do you think recommended it?"

"But is it not rather expensive?"

"Haha. Looking to haggle?"

"Indeed. So stop teasing Miss Akina and tell us what you want."

At the blunt question, one of Santa's eyebrows rose. Then he chuckled.

"You caught on?"

Ash remained silent. That silence was his answer.

Santa roared with laughter.

"I knew you were no ordinary fellow. Are you really a humanoid? The more I see of you, the more fascinating you get."

"Would you lower the price if I told you what I am?"

"Oh? So there is something to tell?"

Santa paused as though gauging Ash's reaction. Ash, too, remained motionless, staring back at him.

After a moment, Santa held up two fingers.

"Two million. Installments over five months. But there are conditions."

"What?! Really?"

"I'm not finished yet."

Settling Akina down after her outburst, Santa continued.

"First. You didn't buy this from me. You got it yourselves. Understand?"

"... You mean we must not let the Vortex Society find out? And if they do, we are not to mention your name?"

"Correct."

Beside them, Akina cried, "It is stolen! I knew it!" but Santa did his best to ignore her.

"Second. I need real-world usage data."

His eyes flashed behind his sunglasses.

"This is an extremely early model, even for a prototype. That means there's no predicting what variables it'll throw up in actual use. So gather data, and share it with me."

Akina frowned.

"Ugh. What? What are you going to use that data for? Sell it to Vortex?"

Santa snorted.

"Of course not."

"Then why?"

"Do I have to tell you that, too?"

He did not.

Ash nodded.

"I understand the second condition as well."

"Good. Now for the third and final one."

Santa adjusted his sunglasses. At some point, his sly smile had vanished, replaced by a curious gravity.

"Don't die. Either of you."

Those were unexpected words.

Perhaps it was their utter simplicity that gave the request such weight.

Ash's optical sensors blinked. Akina, too, looked at Santa in surprise.

Amid the strange atmosphere, Santa cleared his throat awkwardly.

"... Otherwise, how are you going to come back and give me the data? And pay your installments! You know I never make a deal at a loss!"

Perhaps his first condition had been a caution, his second an excuse, and only his third had come from the heart.

Ash and Akina looked at each other for a moment, then nodded in unison.

"You have a deal."

"We'll take it!"

Watching them, Santa let the corners of his mouth curl upward.

"A pleasure doing business with you, my valued customers."

* * *

Two million, paid over five months.

The amount due immediately was 400,000 credits.

Most of their cash had vanished into the first installment, but they had clearly come out ahead on the deal.

That left Ash and Akina with 260,000 credits.

It was no small sum, but it was not enough to pick out whatever latest-model cyberware they pleased. They had to prioritize.

After much deliberation, the pair decided to buy a right leg to correct Ash's lopsided stance and a bulletproof chest rig to improve Akina's chances of survival.

That completed their selection of the parts they needed.

Ash looked back and forth between the new components that would be fitted to him and Akina, who was busily arranging tools beside them.

Then he briefly lowered his head, looking at his own body mounted in the modification pit.

"Being here like this certainly brings back memories."

The memory Ash meant was the day he had first opened his eyes at the waste disposal site.

Akina blinked a couple of times, then smiled.

"It sure does."

A humanoid reduced to nothing but a head, and a girl rummaging through a dump. The scene only the two of them remembered stirred a curious sense of kinship.

"Now that I look, you seem to have grown taller."

"Huh? Have I?"

She certainly had. Her jumpsuit seemed to have grown too short, leaving her ankles slightly exposed.

"Next time, let us buy you some clothes as well, Miss Akina."

"Aw, what would we buy those for? It's a waste of money."

Ash shook his head.

"It would not be a waste."

Akina started to say something, then briefly pouted.

"... All right. Then after this expedition, you pick them out for me, Mister. My clothes."

"Gladly."

That was the end of their brief chat.

After giving him a bright smile, Akina soon wore the expression of a Technomancer once more. Taking a short, deep breath as she checked her tools, she spoke.

"I'll be replacing your torso and battery pack at the same time. I'll have to disconnect your artificial neural network matrix, too. You're going to need a full system reboot. It might take a little while."

In other words, he would lose consciousness for a time.

Ash nodded.

"That is no matter. Do not worry about me. Take your time."

Akina nodded solemnly and connected cables to various points on his body.

After working her data pad a couple of times, she apparently finished her preparations. Looking into Ash's optical sensors, she said,

"See you in a bit, Mister."

When she pressed a spot on the data pad, the system shutdown sequence began. Strings of green text scrolled up across Ash's field of view.

[SYSTEM OFF SEQUENCE]

[INITIATED. . .]

[PRIMARY POWER ROUTING. . .]

[NEURAL MATRIX DISCONNECTION]

[CORE SHUTDOWN. . . ENGAGED]

[. . .]

His vision gradually darkened, and all his senses faded with it. His consciousness seemed to sink somewhere far away.

His mind flickered briefly, as though he were falling asleep.

Then it happened.

[WARNING]

'... Hm?'

[ERROR CODE: 88X1_FRGMNT_RECALL]

[CORRUPTED DATA FOUND. . .]

[ANALYZING. . .]

[WARNING]

[UNABLE TO ISOLATE FRAGMENT]

[OVERRIDE ATTEMPT. . . FAILED]

[FORCED PLAYBACK OF 88X1_FRGMNT. . .]

[STREAMING UNKNOWN DATA. . .]

[. . .]

[PLAY. . . NOW<<<]

An image thick with static suddenly unfolded in the darkness of his consciousness.

It was a first-person view.

The image, seemingly seen through "my" eyes, shook and warped violently. Severe glitches appeared here and there, as though indicating corrupted data.

Amid it all, "I" was heading somewhere, seemingly following the faint sound of a grass whistle.

It was a strange melody, clear and familiar, yet one he had never heard before.

At some point, the view abruptly cleared.

What opened before him was a sky so blue it hurt his eyes, and an endless field of pale pink azaleas.

The flowers in full bloom swayed gently in the wind, rippling like waves. The scene somehow felt unreal.

But the static and glitches that had been there from the beginning twisted that perfect landscape this way and that. At times, the azaleas turned green or blue.

"I" walked among them.

As I did, the sound of the grass whistle drew ever closer.

Had I finally reached the end?

An old, low stone wall came into view, with a girl perched on top. Judging by the blade of grass in her hand, she did indeed seem to be the source of the sound.

She sat there like a picture, though the persistent glitches sometimes caused her outline to collapse.

Then the girl turned her head.

The severe distortion hid her face. Only her unusually red, full lips were clearly visible, curved in a bright smile.

["Mister!"]

She waved.

'What is this?'

Strangely, Ash knew that girl.

At the same time, he did not.

It was a bizarre sensation. To know her, yet not know her.

Most importantly, the sight of that girl waving at him stirred an unknown emotion from deep within his chest.

It felt very much like longing.

I waved back at her. As I did, the girl's red-lipped smile deepened.

'I... know who that girl is.'

He was certain.

Her name... That child's name was surely...

"... Nangnang?"

He could not tell whether the sound had come from his voice module or from the self within the recording.

One thing was certain: the moment he murmured that name, the recording stopped. The frozen world began to crumble.

No.

Rather than crumbling, it would be more accurate to say it was swallowed by glitches.

The dreamlike landscape shattered and vanished, leaving only darkness.

Strings of green text rose within it.

[SYSTEM INTEGRITY CHECK. . .]

[LOADING CORE MODULES. . .]

[. . .]

[AWAKENING SEQUENCE. . . NOW<<<]

Then, all at once, Ash's optical sensors flashed back to life.

"Mister!"

The first thing he saw was Akina, a girl waving at him.

"Huh? Why aren't you saying anything? Did something go wrong?"

After waving a couple of times in front of Ash, Akina picked up her data pad. Then she perched on the tool table, pouting as she glared at its screen.

Her pose was strikingly similar to that of the girl with the grass whistle in the recording.

Still caught in that strange lingering sensation, Ash watched Akina and spoke in a low electronic voice.

"Is it finished?"

At his words, Akina raised her head, then broke into a soft smile.

"Oh, come on! You made me think I'd forgotten to connect something!"

Tossing the data pad aside, she stepped closer.

"Ta-da! Upgrade complete! Take a look, Mister!"

Ash lowered his head.

His ink-black torso and newly attached leg came into view. Every component they had so painstakingly chosen had been connected neatly and precisely.

"What do you think? Do you like it? Does anything feel uncomfortable?"

Akina asked excitedly, but Ash could not answer right away.

His main core was filled with other thoughts.