SF Novel "Cyborg Graffiti" PART 2-1

"Chapter 2, Room 4: In the Case of Sumire Barato"

Returning from the 'Cape Where the Great Fools Sleep' in the helicopter piloted by Motoya to this Manjiya, which stood quietly in the valley of buildings in the 3rd Avenue of the Hachitouya city district, Hikaru finally reunited with Sumire Barato, whom he had been searching for all this time, and at last held her in his arms.

"Sumire... finally, I've finally found you. I..."

"No. Don't say anything. I felt all of your memories and experiences, too."

"I see..."

Through the sharing of memories via cyberbrain, their hearts were connected as one once again.
While holding her, Hikaru gently stroked Sumire's head, her light purple hair.

What surprised him a little was that the sensation of her prosthetic body was softer than he had imagined, and the weight of Sumire as she clung to him was almost no different from how it used to be.

"Hey, Sumire... are you?"

As he gently pulled Sumire's body away, he recalled the memories of that day.
On that day, when a fierce battle was unfolding at the hospital facility, Sumire should have been fighting a large combat unit all by herself.

In other words, Sumire was a cyborg equipped with a combat prosthetic body.
However, the body of hers he was holding now was the same soft body of a young girl as before.

Sumire looked straight into Hikaru's face as he showed his bewilderment.

"You know, I..."

Sumire closed her green eyes, which emitted a gentle and beautiful radiance.
And as if responding to that, Hikaru gently brought his face closer to Sumire's...

"Yahoo! Hikaru!"
"What kind of youth are you two having?"
"Nice to meet you~"
"...Well, isn't it fine?"

As if to shatter the quiet atmosphere between the two, a torrent of consciousness from a 'large group' suddenly flooded in.

"M-Midori-san! Motoya-san, and also...?"

"Welcome, you two. And welcome to the Gurentai!"

Everyone who had barged into the office spoke in unison, welcoming them.

Hikaru was becoming slightly panicked, his feelings of embarrassment at being witnessed in the act he was about to perform mixed with gratitude for the kindness of the Manjiya and Gurentai members who were welcoming them from the bottom of their hearts.

"Awawawawa!"

"Hmm, Hikaru, you really are cute."

Midori suddenly pounced on her.

"We want to hear more about your story too, Sumire. What exactly happened to you? Will you tell us?"

"U-um, yes. If you say it's necessary, I will tell you, but..."

Sumire also seemed quite bewildered.
However, pushed by the silent anticipation and a kind of pressure from everyone present, she began to open her mouth.

"Hey, Sumire, why don't you try using the functions that were installed in you? Why don't you try doing what's called 'Conscious Synchro,' which connects everyone here within your mental domain?"

"C-Conscious Synchro... is it?"

Sumire flinched for a moment at Motoya's suggestion.
But she nodded obediently and accepted his proposal.

She was afraid of the unknown functions she didn't know about, but she was also curious.
Besides, she thought that if it was her own ability, she had to understand it.
Especially since she had been given 'abilities beyond human' like this.

"I understand. So, what should I do?"

"There's a sync jack for connection on the back of your neck. You just need to plug everyone's cables into it and you'll send out a pass. It's okay, as long as you focus your consciousness, you'll recognize the code."

While saying that, Motoya pointed to the back of his own neck and had everyone there prepare their cables.

"Alright, here we go, Miss Sumire. This function is a blessing bestowed upon you. Make sure you master it."

Sumire nodded silently, and everyone connected their cables to Sumire's sync jack.

"W-well then, here I go."

Sumire closed her eyes and lowered her consciousness into the deep layers of her own cyberbrain.

"Blessing them all."

Through the cyberbrain, a passcode floated into her consciousness.

"Conscious Synchro, start!"

At that moment, a new world was formed under Sumire's consciousness.

"You did it, Sumire! So this is your subconscious world."

Midori, having descended into Sumire's consciousness, looked around and smiled brightly.

"Sumire... um."

Hikaru looked bewildered, his face flushed red.

"Hey! What are you blushing for now? You're partners who can perform mental resonance, right?"

"M-Motoya-san! No, I mean, that's true, but..."

Hikaru stammered at Motoya's teasing words. However, they both took a deep breath and pulled themselves together.
They took a deep breath and regained their composure.

"What was 'privacy' again...?"

A girl with pink hair, whom Hikaru was seeing for the first time, muttered this as she stood by Sumire's side.

"Nice to meet you, Sumire-sa... no, let me call you Sumire. I'm Meru Misumai. Don't hold back, you can call me Meru too."

Meru, the pink-haired girl, stared at Sumire with her crimson eyes.

Perhaps there was something they shared, being fellow cyborgs—a situation that, while not rare, was certainly not ordinary.

Watching from the side, that was what Hikaru thought.

"Oh, in that case, the same goes for you, Hikaru."

Meru made a sharp retort to Hikaru, who had forgotten the unique mental sharing nature of cyberspace.

"T... That's true."

Still, calling each other by their first names so soon after meeting? The women here really need to be a little more...
The women here really need to be a little more...

ZAP!

A shock similar to an electric jolt pierced Hikaru's body.

"This world is under my control. You'd better be careful about what you say."

Sumire squinted one eye, sparks crackling from her fingertips.
Beside her stood Meru, who looked like a long-time close friend, with her arm wrapped around Sumire's shoulder.

For some reason, Hikaru felt complicated.

"Can you... start already?"

The young man with silver-blue hair, who had been almost silent until then, muttered in a blunt tone, urging the situation to move forward.

Since it was their first meeting, Hikaru did not know his name.
And so, he bowed his head slightly and asked for his name, albeit a bit late.

"Excuse me, it seems I'm late with my introduction. I am..."

"Ryuzaki Hikaru, right? I've heard a lot about you from that guy Akaiwa. I am Sho Amagami. I'm the leader of the Guren Squad."

The young man who called himself Amagami didn't pay any more attention to Hikaru after that, instead listening to Sumire's multi-dimensional telepathy.
However, the name of the person he mentioned was more of an issue than Amagami's overly cold attitude.
Akaiwa... Kazutoshi Akaiwa.
That he, his senior who was killed by Licht, had a connection to the emotionless, taciturn man before his eyes, Sho Amagami.
Hikaru wanted to ask more about that matter, but he did not show that impulse on his face.
Because his emotional control was set to the maximum, Hikaru was currently almost the same existence as the taciturn man in front of him.

Seeing that the conversation between Amagami and Hikaru had ended, Sumire spoke up softly.

"Um, sorry. So, where should I start..."

"Well, start by telling us how you and Hikaru first met! I'm curious."

Meru's intensity was incredible.
Despite having only just met, Sumire ended up having to reveal her past to the four people other than Hikaru.

"Please, don't tease me too much."

Sumire bowed her head and pleaded with everyone there.

At that moment, particles of light burst and flew about.
It was the resonance of the hearts of everyone present.

"Ah, right. Hikaru, you should turn off your emotion transmission/reception function, or at least turn it down to the lowest level. Otherwise, it's going to be dangerous."

For some reason, Motoya sent that advice, or rather, instruction, to Hikaru in a relaxed tone.

"??"

Without fully understanding the meaning, he followed the instructions, turned his emotion transmission/reception function down to the lowest level, and waited.

"Yes, yes. That's fine. Because while listening to Sumire's story, there's a possibility that Hikaru might heat up and have an entropy explosion."

"Yes. That is exactly it. If you cause an explosion, you will destroy Sumire's spirit, this information space! You would be in trouble if that happened, wouldn't you?"

Hearing this explanation, Hikaru turned pale and nodded vigorously.

"Y-yes, yes, yes! I understand. I will keep my emotional functions to a minimum."

Intimidated by the threats from Midori and Motoya, Hikaru obediently listened to Sumire's story. The first half, about meeting her, was already playing back in Hikaru's mind without needing to be told. However, because his emotional functions were set to near-zero, no emotions welled up from it.

A sense of discomfort, like something out of place, enveloped Hikaru's heart, and he experienced a strange, indescribable sensation.

He felt as if he were pretending not to know something he actually knew.

"Wouldn't it be better to turn my emotions back on?"

A thought of dissatisfaction raced through him.

"Hey! Don't say things like that."

"I'm sorry..."

He shrank back under Midori's glare.

Although Hikaru's emotional transmission had been cut off, since this was Sumire's mental space, he could roughly guess her emotions from the light, sound, hues, and spatial pressure unfolding around them.

He realized how frustrating it was to be unable to receive or convey emotions. Once again, Hikaru was grateful that he possessed "emotions." For now, it was unavoidable to prevent an unforeseen accident. Telling himself this, he continued to listen to Sumire's account without any emotional inflection.

Meanwhile, the others—Midori, Meru, and Motoya—were listening to Sumire's story with interest. Tenjin, as usual, was staring at Sumire with an expressionless face.

It seemed the colors of Sumire's space were determined by her mental state.

When she was calm and composed, it was pale yellow or orange; when she was excited, it turned deep crimson; and sadness or suffering seemed to react with blue. And at the time of her final parting with Hikaru, it was blue eroded by black... a dark, bruised blue.

Regarding the topics up to that point, Hikaru himself was a participant, and considering his state of mind at the time, blocking his emotions might have been the right choice.

Setting aside the unresponsive Hikaru and Tenjin, the remaining three were listening intently to what Sumire had to say. In Motoya's case, it felt like he was just listening for the key points to get a grasp on the new member, Sumire.

By the way, the six people currently existing in this space were all highly sophisticated replicas created by the AIs installed in their respective cyberbrains.

Midori and Meru were already in full "girls' night out" mode, listening to a love story. The three men could only shrug and offer bitter smiles. As for Tenjin, he even looked as if he had fallen asleep.

"Hey, you! Sumire's heartbreaking love story is over, you know."

Midori puffed out her cheeks, her well-shaped eyebrows arched.

"Yeah, yeah. So, what happens next?"

Motoya kept his arms crossed, monitoring the situation.

"Well, normally we wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble. They've started moving. Nano-level reconnaissance drones have even infiltrated our office... Plus, that pair over there. They might be crazy, but their technical level regarding cybernetics is top-tier."

According to Motoya, the space Sumire created was a completely closed electronic environment, making external cybernetic intervention impossible.

Zero chance of hacking.
There is no space more convenient for secret conversations.
But because of that, what would happen if it were used with malicious intent?
Especially if that technology were in the hands of people plotting to seize and control everything on Earth.

"Right, right. The problem starts here, doesn't it? Sumire getting caught by them..."

Midori gently hugged Meru, who was suddenly shivering with anxiety, while keeping her gaze fixed on Sumire.
Hikaru, without any particular emotional shift, questioned Sumire.

"Hey, Sumire. Why were you caught there? Was meeting them there just a coincidence?"

"Yeah, I'm going to explain that now."

Sumire took a deep breath, showing a slightly pained expression.
But she quickly shook off the feeling and began to speak quietly.

(To be continued)
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"Author's Mutterings"Thank you all for waiting. I am resuming writing "Cyborg Graffiti." I probably should call it "Chapter 2," but since I intended to edit it into short episodes when I started writing, I will stick with "Episode 2" this time as well. I am considering changing the chapter structure after the work is completed. So, the main character for this second episode is Sumire Ibarado (the heroine, for now). The rest of the main cast will also appear in this second episode, so if you have any requests for your favorite characters, such as "show more images," please don't hesitate to ask. See you next time, and thank you for your support.
I am also waiting for comments regarding this work. Also, if you could like or follow, it would make me, the author, very happy and boost my motivation to work hard.

"Next Time: Episode 2"

"Series Episode 1"

"Please check out my other works as well"