A Rainy Day (4)
A Rainy Day (4)
(Photo of Andrea drawing a V with her fingers)
@A_Rose
[Taking a short break now!]
#NeonCity #Vacation #Singer #MeetingAFriend
Below that, hundreds of comments followed.
I closed the vision interface.
"See? Vacation."
"......But still, is it really okay for a celebrity to just walk around like this?"
"What's the big deal."
Andrea played it cool and pulled her hood up.
"I can cover my ears with this."
Then she pulled out blue sunglasses from her hood pocket and put them on.
"Plus I've got these nice designer sunglasses on."
Lastly, she pulled out a mask with a familiar design and put it on over her mouth.
"And I bought the same mask as you, see."
"......Please. If I go back, will you just go back?"
"Nope. I'm not going back. So where are we going anyway?"
My sighs just kept multiplying.
I'd meant to go by myself, you know.
Nothing was going according to plan.
Without realizing it, I rubbed my eyelids.
I was mentally exhausted.
"...You brought the car?"
"Of course."
"...Haah, then shall we go?"
"Oh, where to?"
I didn't even know that myself yet.
I checked the location of 'Maya,' who was still on the move.
"Anywhere."
It was time to move.
6. A Rainy Day (4)
《Vehicle is entering a toll road. Additional charges will be applied.》
A mechanical voice came from the wireless terminal installed in Andrea's car.
But I paid it no mind.
It wasn't my car anyway.
I pressed the accelerator harder.
Andrea's car boasted a form similar to the low-slung sports car from L company I'd seen in my previous life.
Maybe because it was painted red, it seemed about three times faster than a normal car.
Andrea, in the passenger seat, stretched.
"So, to sum it up in one sentence."
"Mm."
"A crazy Chrome Psycho stalker who escaped from prison is after you, something like that?"
"...Something like that."
I gave Andrea a rough explanation of the situation.
There was no reason not to tell her my current situation at this point, now that she was already coming along.
"I haven't been able to work out much lately, so this'll be perfect for stress relief."
Even after I explained that we were going to meet a Chrome Psycho whose entire body was practically a deadly weapon, Andrea's eyes showed no sign of worry.
Andrea, who had been leaning back against the car seat, tilted her upper body toward me.
"But seriously, what the hell have you been doing, and where have you been going, that bitches like that latch onto you? And if something like that happened, you should've told me."
"It was before I met you and Drex. Back when I was only running with Catherine."
"......Hmmmmm."
And then she leaned back in the passenger seat again.
To my eyes, she seemed to have some kind of complaint.
I thought she might quiet down for a bit.
But Andrea spoke to me again.
"Hey, I've got something I'm curious about."
"What."
It was a cautious voice, unlike her usual self.
"Are you going out with Catherine?"
"?"
I nearly caused an accident.
"No."
"What, I thought you were already dating."
"......What kind of random nonsense is that."
I felt like I'd heard something similar from Drex before.
I wondered why this kept coming up.
"I was just curious, so I'm asking. Nothing wrong with that."
"...I've known her for years. Over ten years now. We're not like that."
"......Is that so?"
It was an awkward subject to answer.
But fortunately, we soon arrived at the destination I'd had in mind.
"Anyway, we're here."
It was an alleyway somewhere in the Lower Layer, Citizen District.
Because it was on the outskirts of the Lower Layer, an urban sprawl phenomenon was spreading outward from the city.
Even on the map, the area was laid out in an extremely complicated and unplanned way.
"So, what is this place?"
"I don't really know either."
That was the truth, without a single lie.
I'd only followed the map Eve had marked for me.
And from what I knew, construction was so frequent in this area that even if I'd been here once before, it would look completely different now.
"...Then how did you know this location?"
"......Well, someone told me."
First of all, Eve's identity was a secret, so I couldn't tell her honestly.
"Who?"
"Secret."
But strangely, Andrea was persistent.
"It's not a woman, right?"
[For the record, I explain that this AI has no gender.]
"She says 'for the record,' it's not."
I opened the car door as I answered.
I turned off the engine and locked the wheels.
The rain had let up compared to earlier, so I didn't need an umbrella.
"What do you mean, 'for the record.'"
Andrea grumbled and followed me out.
But come to think of it, parking the car here seemed like it might cause problems.
Not a parking violation kind of problem, but more like whether someone would steal the car.
"...Hmm, should I move the car a bit? Isn't there a parking tower nearby or something?"
"Ah─, it's fine. We'll just finish up fast and be out. Even if someone steals it, the insurance is expensive so they'll find it real quick."
Then it didn't matter.
Apparently, an insurance company armed with guns would come flying in.
My worries eased up a lot.
Andrea walked to the trunk.
"Hold on, wait a sec."
"Huh?"
The trunk was at the front of the car body.
When Andrea lightly placed her hand on it, the trunk door slowly opened.
Inside the trunk was a large bag that exactly filled the trunk's volume.
It looked incredibly heavy.
But weight wasn't an issue for Andrea.
She lifted the bag out as if it were very light.
"I see you still carry that around with you."
"Of course, my main job is being a mercenary."
Wasn't that her side job now?
The thought struck me for a moment.
...Well, if she says so, then that's how it is.
"Besides, if you're gonna roam around Neon City, you've got to keep your weapons well prepared. It's the basics."
"That's true."
Mm.
Andrea, I don't have to worry about you.
Now the only one I had to worry about was myself.
We started walking deeper into the alleyway.
The chilly air unique to the Lower Layer swirled around.
One strange thing, though: not a single vagrant, who should have been occupying every alley, was in sight.
But looking at the cardboard laid out on the ground and the flames still burning in the drums, it was clear that vagrants had been here.
No matter how much it rained, this was strange.
Even as we sensed these odd signs, we didn't stop walking.
At the end of the alley was an old garage door.
On one side of my vision interface, the map screen Eve had pulled up switched to a 3D format.
The structure was deeper than I'd thought.
I confirmed that Maya's location was underground.
It was a mystery how Maya had found a place like this.
Did she have some kind of connections?
Or did the bastards who broke her out of prison tell her about it.
The only sure thing was that we'd have to go down to find out.
[I inform you that seven biosignals have been confirmed inside.]
So that's how it was.
After first confirming there were no surveillance cameras nearby, I pressed close to the garage door.
I was planning to detect the inside with magic.
"What are you doing?"
"You've seen it plenty of times. Before going in, I have to scan it with magic. ...It takes a bit."
"You should be finishing it quick, what are you dragging your feet for?"
"Huh?"
"Finish up fast before Catherine gets here— no, let's just go have some fun."
I turned around at Andrea's words.
There stood Andrea, with a massive mechanical arm equipped.
It was the true identity of the bag she'd taken out of the trunk earlier.
A custom Colossus Machine Arm..., whatever it was called.
Anyway, it was an item with a name similar to that.
It had been a really long time since I'd seen that, too.
But why is she already wearing it on her arm?
My question was brief.
Andrea swung her fist at the garage door.
- Kwang!
With a loud crash, the entire garage door was smashed to pieces.
Miss Andrea?
What's the big hurry....
"......What if there was a separate owner?"
"Then I'll just pay them back."
Aha.
"Then what if there were civilians inside?"
"Ah, don't worry. Do you think there'd be normal civilians in a place like this? I can smell the stench of corpses drifting out."
Now that she explained it, the action made sense.
Still, though.
Couldn't there be captured people inside?
I don't know anymore.
Such a loud noise had echoed.
From inside the broken garage door, two people came running out urgently.
"What the?"
"What's going on."
Both had good builds.
Even at a glance, they boasted cyberware bodies that were above the Neon City average.
They were an Orc and a human, respectively.
Not to judge by faces, but they all had rough looks and expressions.
At the same time, Eve relayed a screen through my vision interface.
It was a prison mugshot screen with the faces of the people in front of us.
[Confirmed in NCPD database, NCB24 News. I inform you that these are criminals who escaped from Pelicanus Prison.]
So you were all gathered in a place like this.
It seemed like I now understood why Maya had known about this place.
Andrea asked me.
"Who are they?"
"Prison escapees."
"Ah, the multiple escapees you mentioned earlier."
She lightly clenched her fist.
Each time, the massive mechanical arm let out a kkadeudeuk- sound and shuddered.
"So then, crushing them is okay, right?"
Our peaceful conversation was brief.
The escapees shouted.
"Who the hell are you? Don't you know this is private property?"
"Wait, isn't that Andrea?"
"Who's that."
The Orc seemed clueless.
"You dumbass! Have you never heard names like the Devil or Red Horn?"
"I was in Pelicanus for years, how would I know."
"Fuck, the guy next to her is that Mage who runs with them. Wait, so did Shooting Star come too? They said this was a safe house, has it already been blown? Is that it?"
Unlike the Orc who couldn't grasp the situation, the other one kept spewing curses.
He looked extremely panicked.
"Back door, is there a back door here?"
"Where the hell would there be a back door, fuck. And anyway, even if they're famous bastards like that, they all die the same when they get shot, don't they?!"
The Orc seemed full of fight.
The Orc's arm, which he'd shouted out irritably, split apart mechanically. Inside, multiple gun barrels that looked like a machine gun popped out.
Even at that rather chilling sight, Andrea remained in a peaceful mood.
"Alright, shall I blow off some stress for the first time in a while?"
* * *
Personally, I think the nickname the mercenary world gave Andrea suits her really well.
Andrea tossed aside the two bodies, already reduced to chunks of meat. The massive mechanical arm was already smeared with red blood.
She habitually moved her arm to wipe the blood droplets off her cheek.
Thanks to that, blood got smeared on her pointy elf ears too.
"Ah, shit."
The sight looked just like a red horn.
"Your personality's still the same."
"I mean, I'm the same as always."
I'd thought being incredibly famous as a singer might have mellowed out her temper a bit.
For the record, among the people I know, she was also the best at close-quarters combat.
We found the basement and descended underground.
It was time to face my regrets once again.