Underland 3
By the clock, it would have been around noon.
But Underland remained sunk in deep darkness all the same.
That was only natural, with no sky to speak of.
And yet, though there was no sky, it still rained. The culprit was the industrial wastewater that dripped down from the thick pipelines packed against the ceiling overhead.
A city lost in eternal darkness, forever showered in acid rain.
Perhaps that was why the faces of the people passing through the streets carried no trace of life. They simply shook out their umbrellas or adjusted their gas masks, all of them wearing the eyes of the dead.
Ash steered the Revenant through their midst, engraving the gloomy cityscape into his optical sensors.
"Ah. Turn right up here."
He turned the wheel as Siren directed. Their current destination was a kind of 'parking lot' — Siren's advice, on the grounds that the Revenant, an armored explorer built for the Outer, stood out far too much in Underland.
The place they arrived at was, in truth, less a parking lot than a dark, cramped hollow tucked beneath precariously tangled elevated roadways. Which, if nothing else, made it about as good a hiding spot as one could ask for.
In the meantime, Siren pulled one of the gas masks stored in the vehicle and put it on — a half-face model that covered only nose and mouth. Once she'd finished, she absently grabbed a second mask and held it out to Ash, then took it back with an awkward, sheepish smile.
"...You don't need one, do you, Ash-nim?"
"I shall simply accept the thought, then."
Ash gave his short reply and killed the engine. As the rattling exhaust died away, he drew a data chip from his breast pocket.
"Now then, let us consider our options. Our purpose is to 'return' this data chip. But to whom it must be returned — nay, where they can even be found — I have no notion whatsoever."
It was, one could say, a rather hopeless situation. They had reached Underland, but the only clue they possessed was the single phrase hovering above the data chip:
"Information. What we need most at present is information."
Ash stowed the data chip away and continued.
"Hence my question — is there perchance an information broker in this place as well? Better still, one known to you, Yeohyeop."
Siren nodded.
"There's one person I can think of. An engineer — who also does information brokering on the side."
"A colorful way to put it. An acquaintance of yours?"
"Yes. My closest friend, really. Like a sister."
"Hmm. A sworn friend, is it..."
Ash nodded.
"Good. Let us go there first, then."
"Yes!"
With that brief exchange concluded, the two Pathfinders opened the car doors.
"Kyaa!"
The place Siren guided them to was a workshop at the very end of a winding alley. The cramped shop, with barely room to stand, had every manner of cyberware hanging from ceiling to wall in tangled profusion — a small cyberware repair shop much like a corner mom-and-pop store.
From within, a young woman in the middle of repairing something pushed her goggles up onto her forehead and shouted.
"Anna? Is that you, Anna? For real?!"
A piercing shriek filled the repair shop. At that cry, equal parts shock and delight, Siren managed an awkward smile.
"Long time no see. Unni."
At the short greeting, the woman flung even her goggles to the floor, came scrambling out, and threw her arms around Siren in a crushing hug.
"Hey! How long has it been? I thought you'd never come back down — why are you here? Did Halloween cut you loose? Ugh! What did you break this time?!"
"Do I look like a kid to you? And what accident would I have gotten into?"
Siren grumbled straight away, but before anyone noticed, the corners of her mouth had already curved into a deep smile.
"So what brings you to Underland..."
The woman's voice trailed off as she finally noticed Ash. He offered a light bow.
"Well met."
"Oh, uh... hi."
She gave a distracted nod, then whispered to Siren.
"Hey. What's the deal? What's with the tin can? Did you two come together?"
"Don't say it like that."
"That's not an answer. Did you two come together or not?"
"Yes! So this person is... um..."
Siren deliberated a moment before answering.
"...A client? Yeah. A client."
"A client? What, are you trying to become a ninja or something? Did you actually quit the idol thing?"
"Ugh, I told you it's nothing like that! It's a long story if I explain."
"Long? Even better!"
Smiling, the woman ushered Siren toward the back of the shop.
"I've got all the time in the world. Let's hear this long story of yours! Want an energy drink?"
"Ah, Unni. Before that, just a second."
With that, Siren turned to look at Ash. As if the glance were a signal, Ash drew a data chip from his breast pocket and handed it over.
"Would you happen to know what this is?"
"Obviously. It's a data chip."
"Not that. What's written on it."
The woman stared at the data chip for a moment, then shook her head.
"Dreamweaver? Never heard of it."
"...I see."
"Yep. What is it, anyway?"
Siren couldn't answer. She didn't know what Dreamweaver meant either.
"...Then perhaps you've heard something, anything, similar?"
"Hmm... let's see. Dream... dream..."
After agonizing for a long while, she finally gave up.
"Nope. No clue."
"...Right."
"But one thing I do know. You came down to Underland because of this thing, didn't you? And here I was thinking — wow, she came to see me."
Siren flinched at that.
"That's..."
"Forget it, you brat. I wasn't expecting anything anyway. And besides — you did come find me in the end, didn't you? That's enough."
Curling her lips upward in a wry grin, the woman seated Siren on a worn-out sofa, then turned the chip over in her hands this way and that.
"Did you try opening it? There might be some kind of clue inside, you know."
It was Ash who answered.
"I attempted to, so I was told. But encryption-based access controls prevented verification."
"Mmhm. Encryption, huh..."
Glaring down at the stubby data chip, the woman suddenly looked up.
"Oh, right — I haven't even introduced myself. The name's Jenny. As you can see, I'm a cybernetic engineer."
"Ash Blade. I work as a Pathfinder."
"Ooh. A Pathfinder."
Jenny raised an eyebrow at that.
"I take it you work with Siren? In which case, you must be pretty strong."
"...Think what you like. More importantly."
Ash steered the conversation back on course.
"You're saying nothing at all can be learned about that data chip?"
"What exactly do you need to know?"
"It would suffice to learn whose it is. Nothing more."
"Huh? That's all you need?"
"That is all."
At Ash's words, Jenny scratched her head — then nodded quickly.
"Find the owner of the Dreamweaver chip? Okay, easy. I'll run a call around to the people I know. Ah, of course, the brokerage fee is..."
"It shall be paid."
"Haha! You're refreshingly blunt, aren't you? Give me a moment. I'll be right..."
"Before that — one thing."
Ash extended a hand. To Jenny, who tilted her head in confusion, he let out a burst of electronic tone.
"I would like the chip returned. Now."
"Ah. Okay."
She handed over the data chip she'd been holding.
"I'll be right back, so wait here!"
She gave Siren's shoulder a couple of pats and left her seat. Before long, only Ash and Siren remained in the little workshop.
"...Things seem to be going well, don't they?"
"Let us hope so."
With spare time on his hands, Ash took a moment to look around the workshop here and there.
At a glance it resembled Santa's Rest Stop, but the atmosphere was strikingly different. It wasn't simply the confined space. Nor the dim lighting or the musty smell.
It was the cyberware products lining every wall.
Every one of them was heavily damaged, or corroded with rust. Some machine arm still bore vivid traces of blood that had never been wiped away. And there was even a machine leg with someone's flesh still clinging to it.
"..."
Secondhand goods.
Every cybernetic product on display was 'secondhand' — and not lightly used, either. The fact that these had once been someone's arms and legs made them seem somehow deeply unsettling to look upon.
Then, suddenly, Ash noticed a hologram flyer flickering dizzily from a wall on one side of the shop.
WANTED
DEAD OR ALIVE
ZERO
REWARD : 5,000,000 CD
— Memoryphilia
A wanted poster, the kind that sometimes showed up on the Central Hub's request board as well. Common, if anything could be called common.
And yet Ash could not take his eyes off the flyer.
Because the text written beneath it was quite intriguing.
'...Zero?'
And it wasn't merely text. A three-dimensional, finely rendered image of someone was displayed alongside it.
But that image was terribly familiar. A figure masked, wrapped head to toe in black techwear. It was no different from the ninja Ash had encountered.
With just one exception.
The mask was different.
The ninja who had stormed into the Rest Stop — the one who had introduced himself as Zero — had clearly been wearing a wolf mask. But the man in the hologram wore a tiger mask.
"Huh?"
At that moment, Siren's bewildered voice rang out. He turned to find her, like Ash, taking in the workshop — standing before a steel cabinet, holding something up.
It was nothing remarkable. Just an old epaulet. One bearing the emblem of three yellow interlocking gears.
The mark of the Rest-Men.
"W-why is this here...?"
Siren's voice trembled faintly with confusion.
Ash immediately flung his qi-sense out in all directions. And before long, he realized.
'...She's gone.'
Not a trace of Jenny's presence could be felt anywhere. Had she gone far away to make her calls? Impossible. Escaping the full breadth of Ash's opened qi-sense would take more than mere distance.
Come to think of it, the very idea of her stepping out to make contact was absurd on its face.
In an instant, a torrent of information flashed through his main core.
An epaulet used by the Rest-Men. Blood- and flesh-smeared cyberware. Jenny, vanished. The Rest-Men he had encountered while passing through Underland. Their falling-out with Siren.
"Welcome home, Anna."
Those words — laden with some unspoken meaning.
Fragments of memory gathered one by one, churning and interlocking.
'Jenny is a Rest-Man. Or in league with them. They anticipated that Siren would come looking for Jenny — because the two are close. Which means this is...'
Every thought converged into a single word.
'A trap.'
Ash reached out and seized Siren, who still stood staring at the epaulet in confusion.
"Yeohyeop."
At his low electronic voice, Siren's head snapped around.
"We must leave. Now."
Ash offered no explanation beyond those few words. The silence itself was a kind of wordless pressure, as if to say: you understand what is happening, do you not?
"Wait, just — Unni will be right back, she'll explain everything..."
"Do you know why betrayal cuts so deep?"
His optical sensors glinted with a cold light.
"Because it always arrives wearing the face of someone dear. And so, one is always slow to notice. One might even say we are fortunate right now — we noticed comparatively early."
"...!"
"There is no time for this. Move. Quickly."
Siren drew a short, sharp breath. By the time she exhaled, her expression had steadied considerably.
"Let's go."
The two of them wasted no further time. They burst out through the entrance they'd come in by, and sprinted down the dark alley through the falling acid rain.