Memory, or Data
"Enoch."
"...Yes."
"Water."
"Then what... what is that sitting right in front of you?"
"I want something hot."
Eden was as noisy as ever.
Westtown, where Noise had last appeared, was even louder.
Countless ECPD cruisers patrolled with sirens blaring, megacorp investigation teams poked into every corner of the city, and other corporations squeezed into the chaos, hoping to scavenge whatever scraps they could find.
Meanwhile, the group known as Twilight, which Enoch had led, dispersed on their own, agreeing to reconvene in twenty hours.
Enoch had ordered them to disband and live well, but there was no way they would listen to such a command.
They followed Enoch, whom they revered as the savior of Twilight, but that was precisely why there were some orders they simply could not obey.
An order to disband because they were no longer needed was one of them.
They would do anything for Enoch.
For the savior who had accomplished what they never could on their own, they would gladly lay down their lives with bright smiles on their faces.
Faced with such near-fanatical devotion, Enoch had eventually given up and agreed to meet again in twenty hours.
Meanwhile, Kou and Honoka, who had set out separately to help Swoo, headed to the Etherdam couple's house.
Since it was the last place Swoo had stayed and the epicenter of the lightning storm, they decided to guard it just in case.
And so, the situation was roughly sorted out.
It wasn't a complete resolution, more like kicking the can down the road, but they had managed to buy some time to rest.
Of course, one might argue that Swoo was the only one actually resting.
What was certain was that this was no vacation for Enoch.
"Enoch, the water is too hot."
"...Did you not order hot water?"
"Drop the honorifics? Going back on your word? Want me to snip it off, Enoch?"
"Didn't the master ask for hot water..."
"Yep, but it's too hot."
"Son of a..."
Gritting his teeth, Enoch downed the tea Swoo had been drinking in one gulp and headed back to the kitchen.
Regardless of his frustration, Swoo wagged her tail with a look of pure bliss on her face.
Watching them, Angela let out a wry chuckle.
"...I'm glad to see you two still get along so well."
"Yep, Enoch and I are best buds."
It had been a long time since the three of them had gathered like this.
Yet, the atmosphere wasn't awkward or different. If anything, the reunion seemed to have drawn them even closer together.
Even Enoch, who was currently debating whether or not to spit in the tea, felt it. He was being teased mercilessly, but it felt like he had finally come home.
He wanted to tell them about his experiences on the battlefield.
He wanted to share the secrets of Eden he had learned there, and the reality of the drifters. He wanted to talk about the dream he had dared to dream once more.
Of course, there was a mountain of things to do before that.
From the talking cat that had made Enoch its slave, to the Sexroid trapping a man's consciousness, the sudden appearance of Miko's drone to help Swoo, Hugo Arcardo's rebellion, and the secrets hidden by the three megacorps.
There were simply too many threads to untangle.
While it felt a bit harsh for someone who had just returned from a war zone, Enoch felt a sense of relief.
Because he was certain that Swoo, at least, would never tire and stop halfway.
Enoch had watched from afar as Swoo—as Noise—brought about change after change. Thus, he could look forward to how Eden would transform through the events to come.
Angela, on the other hand, was slightly tense.
She trusted Swoo and Enoch, and she knew they trusted her in return. She was also aware that Swoo already knew her secret. Still, bringing it up aloud was no easy task.
Amidst that subtle tension...
'Whoa, boobs.'
Miko was left speechless upon seeing Angela's "processing power pouches." Toppus, who was sharing Miko's visual feed in real-time, couldn't bring himself to look at the screen either.
"So... how is Draco?"
"He's alive."
"Just barely?"
"He'll be fine."
Swoo smiled faintly and stroked Bori.
Was that gesture also a form of expression?
Angela pushed the questions in her mind aside and spoke.
"Anyway, I prepared a battery pack just in case. I also learned how to swap it out."
Swoo's eyes widened, wondering how and when Angela had managed to get a battery pack amidst all this chaos. In response, Angela placed a short note on the table.
You absolute brat. Do you want to see this old man die of a heart attack? Call me the moment you get back.
— Salvador
P.S. I hear what you asked me to find is in Nosterica.
"Ah."
"Elder Salvador helped a lot. He's probably running around busy even now."
"Grandpa came here?"
"Yeah, he came by and even set up security detail for us."
Swoo tilted her head.
The surrounding area seemed completely empty for a place with a security detail.
While Swoo couldn't sense presence like some martial artist sensing qi, she could do something similar. Yet, she felt no trace of anyone nearby.
"Well, how should I put it... the people working under the Elder are mostly snipers."
"Ah."
If they were snipers, it made sense that Swoo couldn't sense them.
They would be guarding the place from a massive distance away.
"Should I contact him right now?"
"Nah, I'll do it in a bit."
She had already sent a thank-you message with a cute emoticon. Calling Salvador was urgent, but there were too many things to discuss right now.
Tapping her headset, Swoo lifted the drone sitting beside her and spoke.
"First off, this is the friend who helped me get into Eden. Her name is Miko Yuugiri. She's currently active in the Wasteland."
"Hello, Angela Meier. I am Miko Yuugiri."
"Hello. Thank you for helping Swoo."
"I've received plenty in return. If it weren't for Swoo, I might have died back then."
"Ahaha, I suppose the same goes for me."
Though Miko had shown nothing but her clumsy, eccentric side to Swoo, she sounded incredibly intellectual and gentle in her conversation with Angela.
It wasn't fake or a facade; it was the respect she showed to Swoo's friend and companion.
"...Ahem. I am Toppus... Toppus Ebner. Like Miko, I'm a scavenger who received help from Boss Swoo. I'm also the older brother of Miki Ebner, whom you helped not long ago."
"Long time no see, Angela! I'm doing great thanks to you! Hello to you too, Swoo!"
"...Ah."
While Angela expressed gladness at hearing Miki's voice, she flinched slightly at Toppus's.
She remembered what Swoo had said about Toppus in the past.
Hadn't he confessed to Swoo and gotten rejected?
And what was with that "Boss" title?
Still, since he was an ally who had helped Swoo and Enoch return safely, she suppressed any wariness.
"Ah, yes. Hello, Toppus. Long time no see, Miki. I'm glad to hear you're doing well."
"Hey Toppus, long time no see. Hey Miki."
"Yes, hello, Boss. You look as cool as ever."
"Yep, I am cool."
Puffing out her chest and wagging her tail, Swoo grinned at Enoch, who was glaring at her from the side.
"Toppus, this is Enoch."
"...Ah."
This time, Toppus's voice dropped.
Just as Miko had looked up rumors about Enoch, Toppus had done the same.
Just as his guard was about to go up...
"Nice to meet you. I'm Enoch."
Seeing Enoch's somewhat haggard face, Toppus's wariness dissolved. In fact, it vanished completely, replaced by a strange sense of kinship.
And the feeling was entirely mutual.
Toppus, the guy who had confessed to Swoo and gotten rejected. Rather than that description, Enoch felt a deep connection just from hearing the tone of Toppus's voice as he spoke to Swoo.
"Yeah, nice to meet you. I'm Toppus Ebner."
"...I feel like we'd get along well."
"So I wasn't the only one who thought so."
Exchanging brief greetings, the two men arrived at the exact same conclusion.
This guy is another victim of Swoo's torment, just like me...
"Thanks for helping Miki, Enoch."
"I received help from her as well this time, so don't worry about it."
"By the way... about Miki. She said to you—Agh!! You crazy bastard!!! I told you not to say that!! Shut! Up! Already!—No, but shouldn't we make things clear—I said I'll handle it myself!!"
"...You have a tough time with your sibling. I understand."
"Do you have a sibling too?"
"I did."
"...I see."
"Though I can't say I don't have one now, either."
"Ah... right. Yeah, I understand."
While the two men forged a bond only they could comprehend, Swoo swapped out Draco's battery pack.
The process was simple. It was just a matter of opening a small cover on the back of the neck and swapping it out, much like changing the battery of an old slide or flip phone.
Swoo briefly debated whether to force Draco awake, but decided against it.
The force-boot button was located in a rather... sensitive spot, and waking him up in his current physical state wouldn't lead to anything pleasant anyway.
'If he wakes up on his own, though, there's nothing I can do about it.'
With that thought, Swoo wrapped Draco's body snugly in a blanket.
"So, Swoo."
"Yep."
"Care to explain?"
"He's right, Boss. I'm curious too. What is that Sexroid that you went to such lengths to rescue? Even from the Wasteland, we could see Eden lighting up like a madhouse."
"Hmm... I guess I should introduce Bori first."
Swoo lifted Bori, who was purring on her lap, with both hands. Bori went completely limp, sagging like a bag of fish cake soup from a generous street vendor.
"Bori is a Kimera that Neonic experimented on."
"A Kimera?"
"...Like those things we fought when you and I first met, Boss?"
Back in the Wasteland, Swoo had fought Zyrec's test subjects to obtain her first magic. It was more of an overwhelming slaughter than a fight, but that was the gist of it.
"Yeah, similar to those test subjects. But Bori is a slightly more advanced specimen—a Kimera."
"Well, she can speak human language despite being a cat, so that makes sense."
"Right, but... how did she even learn human speech? It shouldn't be possible through simple training."
"Like I said, it's because she's a Kimera. Created from head to toe by Neonic."
Swoo spoke nonchalantly, but Enoch's face hardened instantly.
The same went for Toppus on the other end of the drone. He might not know the inner workings of Eden, but he understood the weight of Swoo's words.
"Are you saying... the cat, Bori... even the brain inside her head was manufactured by Neonic?"
"Yep, that's why she's so smart and cute."
"My god..."
"They built the brain and loaded it with the necessary information. Just like transferring data to a computer, or how I send data to Angela. It's that simple."
"...Swoo."
"Yeah?"
Angela, her face pale, spoke up hesitantly.
"...Why did you explain Bori's situation before talking about Draco?"
As expected, Angela was sharp.
While Enoch and Toppus were distracted by Bori's existence, Angela alone pierced straight to the heart of the matter.
"Because they're the same."
Setting Bori down, Swoo poked the cheek of the limp, unconscious Sexroid.
"This Sexroid, and Bori."
A Sexroid, not Draco.
A cold term slipped from Swoo's lips, replacing the name she had always used until now.
Angela closed her eyes tightly.
Enoch stared blankly, waiting for Swoo's next words, and not a single sound came from the drone.
Amidst the heavy silence, Swoo spoke.
"It's likely just a Sexroid programmed with Draco's memories."
The limp Sexroid twitched.