Savior
“Swoo? Why did you stop all of a sudden?”
“Sister, sister, is something wrong?”
Frey and Lucy asked in worried voices as Swoo, who had been bouncing along, suddenly stopped and fell into deep thought.
Agner and Iba, who were standing on the opposite side, tilted their heads and approached Swoo.
Swoo had no time to pay attention to the people around her.
She was lost in deep contemplation.
Will it work?
She was tired, and her body felt sticky and uncomfortable.
Even Swoo, who usually found bathing to be a chore, missed a bathtub filled with warm water after getting this dirty.
On top of that, she was hungry.
The burger Iba would order for her would surely be high-end, and a high-end burger would have juices dripping from the patty. It would definitely be delicious and heavenly.
To go to Draco, she had to turn her back on all of that. She would have to give up soaking in a warm tub, eating a burger afterward, and even the cold french fries she enjoyed for dessert.
Smacking her lips, Swoo listened to the voice recording Draco had left once more.
There was no information. No location was pinned. The only thing she could tell was that it was an extremely urgent situation.
It certainly wasn't a hack. Not only was it Draco's actual voice, but the client-only line Angela had created was not something any random amateur could hack.
So, this was undoubtedly a voice recording sent by Draco himself. It meant he was in danger, and Swoo was the only person he could turn to for help.
To help Draco, she first had to track his location. Was such a thing possible without Angela by her side?
Even if she managed to find his location, leaving Nosterica wouldn't be easy. Draco would be somewhere near Westtown. Going from here would take too long, and breaking through the cordon would be incredibly difficult.
She also needed time to process what she had heard from Irina. Of course, it was barely a story—just the name of Anastasia's accomplice—but it had still come as quite a shock to Swoo.
That was why her head ached.
She wasn't in the best condition, either.
It was dangerous, and the probability of failure was high.
In comparison, there was little to expect in return.
The situation had escalated rapidly.
A lot had changed. Forty percent of her prepared plans had gone down the drain. Even if she gained Draco's trust, it wouldn't change much in the current situation.
Swoo's eyes blinked slowly.
One more message had arrived.
It was short and concise. It was so devoid of substance that it could barely be called a cry for help.
There was no information.
There was no one to ask for help.
Her head was tired, and her condition was poor.
But.
Even with a tired head, she could read Draco's message, and even in poor condition, she could understand that Draco was in danger.
It was dangerous, and the chance of failure was high.
No.
It was dangerous, and the chance of success was low.
Even if she succeeded against all odds, all she would gain was Draco's trust and some unsecured future honor.
It was a truly foolish request.
It was the kind of job one should never accept in a cyberpunk world.
If this were a fantasy world where heroes thrived, it might be different, but in a cyberpunk world that began and ended with machines, this was an absolute taboo.
And that was precisely why it was meaningful.
At least, it was to Swoo, even if no one else saw it that way.
“Something came up.”
Swoo handed the backpack she had been holding so preciously to Frey.
“I'll come back for it when I'm done.”
She took a step back. The air trembled with a vibration that started from beneath her feet. A sound like a beast growling echoed from the hazy sky above.
Frey's mouth hung open.
Lucy looked up at the sky.
Iba and Agner's eyes widened.
A light sparkled in Swoo's smiling eyes.
Brilliantly glowing circles appeared in her lazy grey eyes. One, two, three, four, five, six. The circles overlapped, merged, and began to spin furiously.
Lucy's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Iba and Agner quickly covered Lucy's eyes.
Frey, looking around warily, covered her own eyes a moment later. Over the darkness that fell, Swoo's voice drifted calmly.
“Make sure to pick up whatever falls. We might be able to use it someday.”
Whatever falls?
Is she talking to me?
Just as the question crossed Frey's mind—
KRA-BOOM!
A bolt of lightning shot up into the sky. A terrifying roar followed immediately. The dark, gloomy sky lit up in an instant. A murky static noise spread across the grey-lit sky. It expanded wide, incredibly wide, swallowing the entire sky of Nosterica.
As if in response, five Talos transport ships that had been hiding behind the hazy clouds revealed themselves. BONG—! The tolling of a bell, the signature sound of Talos, reverberated across the skies of Nosterica.
On the ground, sirens wailed.
The ECPD deployed throughout Nosterica sounded their sirens and moved in perfect order. Megacorp investigators, realizing the situation late, dashed through the city right behind them.
Cars sped along the ground, and field personnel ran alongside them. Countless drones and hovercars painted the sky with red lights.
The static that had spread across the sky compressed. Hundreds of lasers targeted the compressed point. Gunfire erupted from the ground. Drone turrets spat fire. A bizarre wave of energy rippled out from the Talos transports.
Every attack was directed at the static.
On the ground, Frey shrieked.
But no one could hear her scream. A brilliant flash of lightning tore through the sky. A thunderclap so massive it shook the very bones inside their bodies swallowed all the noise in the world.
And so, the only thing visible in the sky was the red light emitted by the Talos transports.
The hundreds of drones were all falling to the ground, charred black.
“Oh... Oh, what do we do...”
Normally, Frey would have run to pick up the drones, shouting, "My wedding fund!" But right now, she was too worried about Swoo to move.
“She'll be fine, Miss Frey. For now... let's head back home. We need to erase the security footage anyway... Do you need those drones? We can probably secure about three of them for you.”
Iba, who reacted a moment later, felt the same way.
She had no idea what Swoo was planning to do.
But the fact remained that she was the savior who had rescued her husband, Lucy, and herself.
“...It would be nice to have them, but, well, first... isn't there some way we can help Swoo?”
“With our power... it would be difficult. Since our names are known, we can't move carelessly.”
“Ah...”
“But other people might be able to. Though I don't know if a helper like that can resolve the current situation...”
Frey rubbed her fingertips together anxiously.
Iba gave Frey a light hug and offered her warmest smile.
“I'll do everything I can, so don't worry too much. And this is Swoo we're talking about, right? She'll definitely be fine.”
“...I suppose so. Yeah... if it's Swoo, she'll probably be fine.”
“Come, let's go.”
Patting Frey's back as they walked, Iba whispered softly to Agner as she passed him.
“Please swap the footage with the dummy files. I'll look for someone who can help.”
“We have the dummy footage Angela sent us... I wonder if she sent it anticipating a moment like this... I'll make sure it's completely swapped out, so don't worry too much either, honey.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Agner shared Iba's thoughts. He immediately picked up Lucy and headed toward the office.
“Daddy, Daddy, is Sister Swoo in danger?”
“...She'll be fine. She's the hero who saved us, after all.”
“She is, right?”
“Of course. Why don't we think about what we'll play with Sister Swoo the next time she visits?”
“...Yeah, okay!”
Lucy, burying her face in Agner's shoulder, answered cheerfully and looked up at the sky.
Far in the distance.
A blue light shot up into the sky, in what could be called the exact opposite direction of where Swoo had headed.
It looked like a signal announcing something.
“Boss!! We're screwed!!!”
“Quiet. And who are you calling boss?”
“Come on, if not you, who else is going to take responsibility for Twilight? Anyway! That's not what's important right now, we're seriously screwed!”
“What are you making a fuss about in the middle of the night—”
“It's Talos! Five Talos transport ships just deployed!”
“...What?”
The man, who had been sitting in a chair cleaning his firearm, stood up.
“There are hundreds of corporate drones too! And do you hear the sirens? They're not coming from the front lines, they're ringing from Nosterica!”
“...From Nosterica?”
“J-Just come outside and look! There's some kind of static in the sky, holy crap... I never thought I'd see something like that in my life... Wait, so what happens to our plan? If Talos is out, it's going to be hard to pull off our job quietly—”
Ignoring his noisy subordinate, the man called the boss walked straight out.
Static.
Drawn by those words, he pushed aside the crudely woven tent flap blocking the entrance.
“Ha...”
A sigh escaped him.
Static was spreading across the pale sky.
Behind it, hundreds of drones and five Talos transports cast a red glow.
“The scale of her trouble-making has reached a whole new level.”
The static was familiar to his eyes.
It was impossible for it not to be.
“You crazy idiot.”
His sigh turned into a dry chuckle.
Chuckling, the man pulled a flare gun from his waist and aimed it at the sky.
“B-Boss...? What are you doing all of a sudden?”
“Get ready.”
“...Ready?”
A grey bolt of lightning tore through the sky.
A terrifying roar struck the world. The sound was so massive that even the distant northern front felt a faint tremor.
Dozens of people gathered near the camp flinched and cowered in surprise.
Meanwhile, the man holding the flare gun laughed even louder and spoke.
“We're going with Plan D. It's a bit early, but we have to do it now. It has to be now.”
“D-Do we really have to do it now? The guys were all excited about the eve festival tonight...”
“Don't do it if you don't want to. I'll go alone.”
“No way! How could we let you go alone, Boss!”
Despite his subordinate's protests, the man fired the flare gun without hesitation.
A blue light dyed the sky of the battlefield.
The noisy chatter around them died down all at once. In the silence that fell, the only sound was the clashing of metal against metal.
“She's calling for me so loudly, I have to go back.”
“...Is it someone you know?”
“Of course I do.”
Tossing the flare gun aside carelessly, the man returned to his quarters to pack his weapons.
Standing out among them were an ink-colored single-edged blade and a pistol that resembled moonlight. They were the weapons that best suited the embarrassing title he now bore: the "Savior of Twilight."
Click. Having finished loading and checking the chamber, the man nodded at the dozens of people gathered in front of his tent.
“We're taking the shards we were supposed to get next month today. We'll take them, and then we'll follow that static in the distance to help. The forces of the three major corporations will be there alongside Talos. Anyone who wants to back out can do so now.”
No one backed out.
Not a single complaint was heard.
If they were human, they could never do such a thing.
For the man they called boss was not only the savior of their lives, but also the hero who had rescued their dying families.
“If no one's backing out, we leave immediately.”
The man smiled with satisfaction and mounted his pitch-black motorcycle.
“Damn... I'm scared out of my mind.”
“Then back out if you're scared.”
“How can I back out and leave you behind, Boss? Forget it. If I die, I'll die by your side.”
Muttering with a cigarette between his lips, the subordinate glanced at his boss, who had a wide smile on his face.
It was the first time he had seen the boss smile like that.
He usually only smiled when talking about what he did before coming to the battlefield, but now his smile was brighter than ever.
“...So, who on earth is behind that static that you're rushing to save them?”
“I'm not saving her. In fact, she might not even need us. But I'm still going. I have a debt to pay.”
On a night when the moonlight rose, he had never forgotten the sight of her saving his dying self. The time had come to repay that debt.
She was a brat who would say friends didn't need to repay such things, but the man still intended to pay it back.
Favors and grudges must never be forgotten and must always be repaid.
It was a promise he had made to himself after losing his entire family.
“Let's go.”
The loud roar of the exhaust echoed across the wasteland.