Memory, or Data
"...Swoo? What are you thinking?"
Enoch cut Swoo off mid-sentence. He had to. Judging by the look on her face, he was absolutely certain that letting her finish that thought would lead to nothing good.
"Should I not?"
"I don't know what it is, but don't."
"You heard him, Draco. Go scrub yourself clean."
Draco tilted his head, then followed Angela toward the bathroom.
Swoo smacked her lips in disappointment, then tugged on the hem of Enoch's shirt with a grin.
"Enoch, let's go to the bathhouse together."
"Didn't you say it collapsed?"
"There's more than one bathhouse in Westtown."
"...That's true... No, wait. You can't just expose your tail in a crowded bathhouse anyway."
"We can just kick everyone out."
The question *how* almost slipped out of Enoch's mouth, but he decided not to ask.
He didn't need to ask to know.
If they just walked in cloaked in digital noise, people would flee in a panic. And if they didn't flee, well, she would probably just blast them with magic.
So the answer was already decided.
"I'm not going. Absolutely not. Don't do it. I said don't. I am definitely washing up at home."
"Well, I did hear some people pay money for that kind of thing. I just shouldn't drain the tub after using it, right? Angela, you do that too."
At Swoo's words, the one person, one animal, and one android heading into the bathroom all stared at Enoch.
Angela smiled wryly, knowing it was a joke, but Draco and Bori, who didn't know Enoch well, looked dead serious.
"M-my body is dirty, though..."
"Meow, meow."
"Bori wants to know if you're okay with his fur floating in it."
His lips trembling as he stared at Swoo, Enoch stood up from the sofa and headed straight out of the office.
"I'm going to the bathhouse alone. If you follow me, I'll dance naked in the street."
"Ah, Enoch, that's embarrassing. Don't pretend you know me."
"Yeah, you bastard."
Slam! The office door shut violently.
Looking through the window, Enoch's retreating back was radiating pure annoyance.
Swoo, on the other hand, smiled with absolute bliss.
Serena had been reacting well to her teasing lately too. Swoo thought she would be twice as happy if she alternated between pushing Enoch's and Serena's buttons.
Ah, right. Grandpa.
Suddenly, she remembered she was supposed to call Salvador.
Swoo moistened her throat with the tea Enoch had been drinking and dialed Salvador. Normally, she would turn the volume down to less than half before calling. Salvador's vocal volume was immense, completely unfitting for his age.
When he shouted, it was like a lion's roar.
For Swoo, who had particularly sensitive hearing, it was almost physically painful.
That was why she always had to lower the volume.
But today, she didn't.
She figured since he was probably busy running around working, he might speak quietly.
She was dead wrong.
"You foolish brat—!!!"
"Ow."
Salvador was a man who could shout regardless of time and place.
"Are you out of your mind, looking for a way to die—?!"
"C-calm down, Grandpa."
"Calm down?! You dare tell me to calm down?!"
"Whoa, whoa..."
"Whoa, whoa? Ha, haha... You crazy little..."
She didn't mean to act cute, but due to Swoo's appearance and the nature of her voice, whenever she was surprised or flustered, a natural cuteness slipped into her tone.
With that, Salvador's anger was instantly defused.
Honestly, even without the cute voice, he would have calmed down.
After all, Swoo showing fluster was a rare sight that even surprised Salvador.
"Do you even know what you did wrong?"
"Yep... Collapsing the building in Westtown?"
But that answer made his anger flare up again.
"...Are you playing games with this old man... No, do you truly think that's it?"
"Did one of your buildings get crushed under it too, Grandpa?"
"Good grief."
She genuinely seemed to think so.
Dumbfounded, Salvador could only gape, unable to find his words.
"...Is there anything this old man hasn't done for you?"
"No, nothing."
"Then why are you giving me such a reason?"
"Are you mad about something else?"
Salvador fell silent.
Swoo usually insisted on video calls, but she opted for voice calls when she didn't want to see the other person or when she had a guilty conscience.
In this case, it was because of her guilty conscience.
Since she couldn't see Salvador's expression, Swoo had no way of knowing why he was silent.
"...No, forget it. As long as you're alive."
Salvador couldn't bring himself to say that he had been worried about her.
It felt too cringeworthy, and if she responded with "Why are you worried about me?" he didn't feel like explaining it to her.
That was why he found it puzzling.
Why couldn't this cheeky brat even conceive of the possibility that someone was worried about her?
He had been a bit strict and harsh, but Salvador believed he had treated her well. A normal person would have thought, *Oh, he's worried about me...*
He briefly considered digging deeper into her background for information that hadn't surfaced in his initial investigation, but he shook his head.
Even if he found out on his own, he couldn't act like he knew. He decided it would be better to ask her directly once they grew a bit closer.
Though knowing Swoo, she'd probably just tell me easily.
Let's ask her when we meet soon.
Salvador made up his mind and spoke.
"I've cleaned up what you did as much as possible for now."
"Cleaned up?"
"I made sure they couldn't step on your tail."
"Wow, thanks."
Swoo nodded.
And she thought.
She had never shown Salvador her tail, so she should show it to him when they met.
But if she just kept thinking about it, it would be no different from saying "let's grab a meal sometime" and never doing it.
"Grandpa."
She decided to ask right away.
"Do you have something to say?"
"Are you free today by any chance?"
To anyone else, it might sound sarcastic or confrontational, but Salvador knew Swoo. She was asking out of genuine curiosity.
"Not today, but tomorrow at seven would be fine."
"7:00 AM?"
"Yes."
Swoo's eyes drifted to the clock.
10:23 AM.
Even if she talked with Draco for a bit and then went to sleep, she had plenty of time to get a good rest.
"Yep... Then, can we meet then? I'll go to your office."
"Bring the fellow you rescued today along with you. I saw him when writing the request, but I'm sure he looks quite different now."
"Yeah. But Draco's heart has gotten soft, so you have to handle—I mean, treat him gently."
This brat, she definitely just said 'handle' him.
Salvador let out a dry chuckle at her absurdity but agreed anyway.
"Don't be late."
"Yep. Enoch is back too, so I'll bring him along."
"...What? Enoch?"
"Yeah, Enoch."
"That punk is back?"
"Yeah, today."
"Shouldn't you tell me such important news right away, you damn brat—?!"
"Ow!"
He started calmly and ended in a rage.
At Salvador's gradual escalation of anger, Swoo covered her ears and curled up.
"Whew... Just bring everyone who's with you right now."
"Yep. See you tomorrow."
Swoo ended the call and opened her calendar.
She had never written anything in a calendar in her life, but her schedule was so packed this time that she absolutely had to.
Tomorrow was Salvador, the day after was Hugo.
After that, someone else would probably visit the office, then John after that, and after that, she had to visit the person who was eagerly waiting for her.
I need a VPN.
She wanted to relieve her accumulated stress as soon as possible.
"I don't even know how long it's been since I last washed up."
"So that nasty stench from earlier was you, Enoch."
"That's the smell of your own upper lip."
"Dragons don't smell. Want to sniff?"
Swoo said, puckering her lips.
Naturally, Enoch recoiled in disgust.
There was no telling what would happen if he stood his ground just to save face. Especially when Swoo did something completely out of the blue.
There was definitely someone nearby.
Or perhaps the one person, one animal, and one android who went into the bathroom were about to come out.
"Whew, that was refreshing."
"T-thank you..."
"Meow—"
Enoch's judgment was spot on.
The moment Swoo got on Enoch's nerves, the group that had gone into the bathroom emerged, fully dressed.
I've improved too.
Call it a danger-sensing ability.
Or maybe an abyss-avoidance skill.
Whatever it was, he had improved.
Enoch smiled proudly as he chugged a sports drink.
"Mmh..."
Swoo looked away, disappointed by Enoch's growth.
Draco, fresh from the bath, looked incredibly pretty.
Although his face was still bruised, cut, and broken in places, he looked far prettier and cleaner than when they had first rescued him.
Above all, wearing proper clothes made him look even more so.
One might wonder how a sexroid, a machine, could bruise, but apparently, such features were added to cater to specific tastes.
The technology of this cyberpunk world was truly remarkable.
"I thought my clothes would be too small for you, but I'm glad they fit. They suit you."
"T-thank you?"
Unsure whether he should be grateful or not, Draco nodded in slight confusion.
"Draco."
"...Yes."
"You heard everything I said, right?"
There was no reason to delay.
Swoo decided to get straight to the point.
She wanted to wrap up this conversation quickly, ask Angela to turn on the VPN, and relieve her stress.
"...Yes, I heard."
"What do you think?"
"Honestly... I can't believe it."
"Because you haven't met the original yet."
"The... original..."
Mulling over the word "original," Draco looked straight at Swoo. Bori was snuggled in his arms, purring softly.
Though Bori was small and fragile, it seemed the cat was enough to heal and fill Draco's heart.
"There is something I'm curious about."
"Yep."
"Like I said before, I saw the symbol of the Phantom Protocol in the junkyard."
"Those are all fabricated memories."
Swoo spoke the truth bluntly, without beating around the bush. She could have sugarcoated it, but she believed being direct would be more effective for Draco right now.
"No matter how great the Phantom Protocol is, they can't put that kind of function into a shard. Like you said, Draco, if that were possible, Eden would have already fallen into their hands."
Draco could only part his lips, unable to say a word.
There was no concrete proof of anything.
He hadn't seen either his original self or the Phantom Protocol with his own eyes.
So, while he tried to deny it in his heart, he couldn't easily claim Swoo was wrong either.
Because he hadn't seen the truth of that either.
"...Then from what point are my memories fabricated?"
"Maybe there is no 'from what point'."
Swoo's words were simple yet complex.
Easy to understand, but hard to accept.
"Haha..."
The expression vanished from Draco's face.
In its place, a bizarrely twisted and distorted blankness appeared—a look only a face ruined by long-term abuse could make.
A blank expression, yet not blank at all.
It looked as if he were crying, raging, and resigning himself all at once.
That face was perhaps the truest expression of Draco's current state of mind.