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Buaaaaaang—!!

A motorcycle with an engine displacement that would classify it as a monster bike exuded an intense presence.

Even on the city’s elevated highway, packed with all sorts of vehicles, its noise was unmatched. It would have been natural for curious gazes to turn towards it, but… that was impossible.

Even though the city was bathed in sunlight, like a blessing from nature, only the upper echelons fully enjoyed its benefits. Even the mid-level areas, where most citizens resided and decent shops were located, were overshadowed by the upper district, with colorful lights and street lamps turned on from morning.

…Not satisfied with a speed that made those lights look like thin threads, Helena kept pressing on the accelerator.

“Helenaaaaa—!! Drive safely…! Please drive safely—!! Obey the traffic laws!”

“…Where did you learn such old-fashioned words, and how did such a scaredy-cat become a mercenary? I’m going slower than usual, so don’t worry. More importantly, you’re saying there’s nowhere to go except the Implant shop and the Droid store? And we still have a day left before hotel check-out?”

Thump!! Bang!

“——!!”

A shrill scream, barely qualifying as language, escaped her lips.

She could swear that both wheels had just lifted off the road, only to land again after a few seconds. And… who in the world does acrobatic driving, weaving between other cars on a downhill slope…!

It was ten times scarier than running from pursuers or having a loaded gun pointed at her head.

When she was forced to wear the helmet, she thought it was an excessive display of consideration, but now that she could feel the cold wind brushing her fingertips, she changed her mind.

…This treatment is unbearable. I won’t tolerate it any longer. No matter how difficult something is, the first time is always the hardest; from the second time on, you figure out the knack or something.

“Helena, sis…! I don’t know what’s going on, but I was wrong about everything!! So please, just slow down—!”

“…? Wrong about what? I was just admiring how we’ll be staying at a hotel tonight thanks to my little sister. ……Still, going for a drive together once in a while wouldn’t be so bad.”

“!! Ahead! Please watch the road…!!”

Screech—!!

Desperately looking back, her eyes met Helena’s. …She thought her heart would stop.

Even though none of her implanted devices, like someone else’s, were glowing or activating, Helena used her superhuman senses to avoid the other, relatively slow-moving vehicles.

It would be more accurate to say they grazed past them while making sharp turns, but anyway.

Indeed… she was worthy of being their main heroine and strongest close-combat ally, but… she had no idea what Helena thought of her truly heartfelt screams. At least, the perceived speed hardly decreased at all.

“…….”

…Okay, this is a kind of amusement park ride. And how do you ride a scary roller coaster without batting an eye? By closing your eyes.

So, following Helena’s recommendation, she refused the light and retreated into darkness until they arrived at the Implant shop that Helena had recommended, where she had also safely received her procedure.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★

A shoe-clad foot, perched rakishly on the desk, tapped incessantly.

Despite the shop being open for business, a middle-aged man wearing a sleep mask muttered to himself.

“Whew… the atmosphere is quite ominous.”

• …? The shop’s ventilation system is operating perfectly normally, sir. Shall I perform a simple brainwave scan to determine the cause of your anxiety? –

“……Spare me, Jenny. Machines can never understand a human’s intuition.”

A woman with neatly combed red hair and charming freckles. If it weren’t for the manufacturing number etched near her face and neck, it would have been difficult to guess her identity. She continued her response without hesitation.

• …A person’s intuition, or sixth sense, is closer to a judgment made by gathering environmental information unconsciously. However, since my sensors are not currently detecting any external threats, I conclude that there is a serious problem with your health……. –

“……Sigh.”

Rustle, rustle.

The man, called “teacher,” sighed and ostentatiously put in earplugs.

Jenny, a humanoid AnDroid for medical assistance, an incredibly high-end asset for a small shop, closed her mouth at her owner’s attitude.

• If you grant permission, I will immediately perform a basic health check…. –

“Cough?!”

…Instead, she made a call to fulfill her duty.

The teacher, startled by the soft voice that suddenly rang in his head, coughed as if he had choked and raised his upper body from his lying position.

He briefly regretted investing in an AnDroid, even reducing the Credits he should have spent on his house and shop when dividing his retirement pay into thirds, but… he relaxed again after seeing her appearance, which had been customized to his liking to a wonderful degree.

Fortunately, there were no customers in the shop, so there was no fear of damaging his reputation as a ‘discreet and skilled expert.’

But… the lack of customers since last night felt like the calm before the storm to the teacher.

If he had to find a reason, there was a clear answer. With an EMP bomb terror attack having just occurred, who would want to risk going under the knife?

No matter how skilled the teacher was at his work, if the electricity suddenly cut out… his tombstone would have to say that he died of shock looking at his own insides.

“Hmm….”

Scratch, scratch…!

He lowered his hand after seeing Jenny quietly take out hairspray, as he tried to forcibly comb his messy hair.

…He wondered how an personality model that was clearly geared towards being an assistant or housewife had turned into a mother figure, but… that thought was broken by the arrival of a long-awaited customer.

“Anastasia… I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were so scared you’d pass out.”

“…. I didn’t pass out…!”

“……Oh-ho?”

The teacher straightened his posture at the appearance of two beauties with a truly wonderful contrast—color contrast—of jet black and silver, a sight too good to keep to himself.

The taller one, the silver-haired one, was Helena Valentine, who had the greatest potential of any customer he had ever had.

On the other hand, the smaller one, the jet-black-haired one… was trembling like a newborn fawn, relying on Valentine for support as she moved, so he was curious about her identity.

• Thank you very much for visiting our Implant shop. However, since you are currently suffering from unexplained anxiety, I, Jenny, will assist you with new registrations and guidance instead…. –

“Hey… hey!”

The teacher hurriedly pulled his assistant, who was trying to close the shop forever, back.

The silver-haired one, who at least understood Jenny’s fuss, accepted the teacher’s greeting, but the jet-black-haired one, whom he was seeing for the first time, was glaring at him with eyes that seemed to want to run out of the shop immediately.

“…Ahem, Ms. Valentine? It’s been a while. Have you come for a check-up? Or… additional procedures?”

“Unfortunately, I’m quite satisfied as I am. Today… my younger sister has come with some business.”

“…Hello. I’m Anastasia…… Valentine.”

The girl, defined as the younger sister, was pushed slightly forward.

Her face was already full of distrust, but the teacher didn’t care much.

Even without the AnDroid’s excessive honesty, it was common for customers visiting the shop for the first time to be suspicious of the cramped waiting room and the scenery of the office-cum-situation room.

But he hadn’t survived in the competition with countless other businesses in the same industry just by luck.

“Ah, there’s no need to be nervous, miss. You can call me Teacher comfortably. …Jenny? Could you give our first-time guest a brochure and explain things?”

• I will assist you with all my heart. –

Therefore, the teacher put the AnDroid, whom he had stopped once, back into customer service and went inside, leaving the operating room door wide open.

After confirming that the girl, Anastasia Valentine, had been somewhat convinced after seeing the pure white stage equipped with all sorts of state-of-the-art surgical equipment and tools, unlike the outside, which was hard to praise as luxurious even as a compliment, he tried to grasp the main interests of the small guest while receiving real-time sharing of Jenny’s visual information left next to the customers.

“Hmm…… Is she the type who admires her sister?”

Muscle enhancement, bone strengthening, skin hardening, reaction speed improvement, physical assistance. ……Why suddenly gender reassignment surgery? She even looked at the Juggernaut procedure, which was still in the improvement stage, with sparkling eyes. Of course, some options were blocked by a serious-looking Helena, but anyway.

He thought that if she was the sister of someone with a god-given body, her aptitude would be worth looking forward to, and the teacher silently prepared for the procedure.

• Teacher? Ms. Anastasia has made a decision…. –

“…First, bring her inside. We need to start with the examination.”

Half fear, half excitement, a spoonful of tension. Anastasia Valentine entered the operating room with a creaky attitude.

She sat on the operating table with a light movement and muttered.

“…You don’t have to do an Implant compatibility test. There won’t be any side effects anyway.”

“Hmm…?”

It was a strangely confident declaration.

Unlike the unfounded boasting of mediocre people, it was a conviction as if she had seen the predetermined results in advance.

But this business was also a business that was half in the medical industry, and it would be a big problem if he swallowed what the patient said at face value.

“Then… have you also had a potential or amplification rate test?”

“…Huh?”

The girl, who had been wearing a slightly arrogant expression, asked back blankly.

…Thinking that he had done well to test her, the teacher took out a syringe containing test nanobots and checked the concentration.

“…The biggest problem when implanting a bio-implant is side effects, but… even if you implant the same Implant and install the same Cyberware, the efficiency varies greatly from person to person. …If you thought that your sister, who shows a similar appearance to a full-body cyborg even after implanting only basic physical enhancement Implants, was normal, you’ll be quite disappointed.”

“Huh…? Yes? Huh?? But… Implants are modifications that increase the numerical value by the grade of the inserted part…?”

…Watching another unfortunate case who had blindly believed the company’s promotional copy, he clicked his tongue.

“…Implant procedures are not a means of bridging or helping the gap between people. Rather… it’s closer to discrimination that blatantly reveals the limits of the subject.”

Press…! The syringe was inserted into her delicate arm.

He felt like he was doing something terrible to someone who was facing the cruel truth and couldn’t come to her senses, but… work was just work.

After injecting all the nanobots, the teacher went to the operating room monitor to see the test results being output, but… nothing was displayed on the screen.

“……?”

He lowered his gaze to check the neatly emptied syringe and Anastasia’s arm with the needle mark.

It wasn’t a daydream. He had clearly injected the test solution properly. It was just that the nanobot swarm, which should have been actively working, had evaporated.

‘…Is the monitor broken?’

After making the most reasonable inference, he continued his work while keeping his eyes fixed on the screen.

“…Ms. Anastasia? I’m sorry, but I’ll have to give you one more injection. …Jenny, please scan at the same time as the injection.”

• …Precision scanning on standby. Injecting now, teacher.

The nanobots inside the newly drawn syringe were displayed as countless dots on the screen. If it wasn’t a monitor malfunction, it meant the first nanobots inserted had broken down… It was safe to assume there was no chance of tens of millions of independent robots failing at the exact same time.

Then… could the shop have been exposed to an electromagnetic pulse attack?

The answer to the teacher’s question unfolded before his eyes.

• …Strong Theta wave (Theta wave: a low-frequency brainwave emitted in a non-aroused state) generation confirmed in the subject’s Thalamus (Thalamus: the brain’s input/output center where sensory information gathers and motor information is sent out)! Teacher…? Are you watching…? –

“……”

The nanobots that entered the black-haired girl’s blood vessels stop functioning one by one.

Forgetting their programmed purpose and entering rest on their own accord, it looked as if a clergyman was offering their own body to their god.

He checked the data sheet sent from AnDroid, but the only mechanical parts on her body were the visual aid Implant around her shoulder and the barcode on her arm.

“Ugh……?!”

The teacher’s legs faltered.

The figure of the girl, whom he had only thought of as pretty, seemed distorted. His brain, screaming after observing something he couldn’t understand even with his long experience and accumulated knowledge, cried out.

…That, that is not a simple human. Humans cannot control the science built up by thousands of years of civilization with their bare bodies.

What is the reason why so many people cut away perfectly good flesh to add Implants? It is to shed even a little of the limitations of the brain and body, this lump of protein.

Then, does a being that has already transcended that realm… need an Implant…?

If that demon’s authority was a result established on a miraculous balance, it could be broken or altered by even a small change.

“Um… are you okay…?”

Darkness beckons. It tempts a beast wandering after losing the values it believed to be immutable.

How merciful, how alluring.

“……I’m sorry, I think I’m not feeling well. Test results… It seems like Anastasia, you absolutely shouldn’t add any Implants. Even to protect your ‘special talent.’ That’s… my opinion.”

“?! R-really…? Really…?”

“…Really. You’ll get the same answer no matter which shop you go to. So, will you please leave now…?”

The teacher pushed Anastasia, who had an expression as if the world was collapsing, and Helena, who was comforting her, out of the shop.

No, he quietly called Helena, so that Anastasia, who was trudging along, wouldn’t hear.

“…Ms. Valentine? Is she…. Is that really your sister…?”

Helena’s body stiffened for a moment at the ominous expression.

However, the confusion disappeared as she recalled the story she heard from Heinrich and… the sight of her sobbing for the dying mercenaries.

“…Yes, well, it’s a bond that fate has brought together.”

“……That’s a relief then.”

With those words as the last. The teacher closed the shop door.

“…See. I told you she was subversive…?”

• ……Yes. –