Chapter Text
...
This will be my buddy,
“Nishiyama Yuuta”...
A 21 year old male, passed the training system, did very well handling cyber crimes...
Hopefully.. I’ll get to know you better from now on.
“Seven,” I heard my buddy call out my name again, everything that happened back then felt like a blur. It’s like just now I have become self-aware at this very moment.
“Let’s go to H.Q. again, okay?”
“...Seven?”
“!” I snapped out of my gaze, now realizing I was just sitting on his bedroom desk just like that...
“Yeah? What’s wrong?” I asked, so casually.
Silence spoke louder than voices, I felt embarrassed. But at least this guy doesn’t remark on what I do other than the last one...
Let’s go to H.Q, buddy.
ANCHOR HEADQUARTERS, 64TH FLOOR
Yuuta exits the elevator, being greeted with the same colleagues and their faces that I recognize almost instantly. Mimasaka approaches him, just when she was talking about the current crime, I felt my hearing get muffled.
Ah... I was zoning out again. I wonder why I’m slacking more than before...?
That’s when Yuuta suddenly called out to me.
“Seven, you heard that?”
Crap.
I absolutely didn’t.
“Hmm.. I couldn’t hear it quite right, you should explain the details with me later.” I responded, hiding the fact I was worried, worried about myself in particular.
It felt like driving with Takimoto...again.
It’s natural that Yuuta has a driver’s license, he’s 21, I have to get used to the fact humans are different ages, idiot me.
Yuuta stepped on the brakes, parking his car somewhere before unlocking the doors. He took me with him and exited his vehicle.
This is where we solve the crime, then.
“Seven,” he called, “You’ll have to enter this passage here, I’ll go the other way. I promise we’ll see each other again, okay?”
“Roger that.” I responded back, he seems to be strategic when handling these. I have my respect.
So I entered the small passage, he told me it was a shortcut, It’s like he knew the tidbits of this place at the back of his hand.
I landed on my two-feet out of the passageway, to my luck, I saw units that seemed to be the very cause of the current cyber crime. How foolish of the criminal to be leaving these here, even more foolish of the fact they didn’t even notice the small passageway right behind.
I hopped towards the desk, there was a timer in around 3 minutes before all the compromised personal info the criminal gathered were to be sent in public as a data breach.
“Initiate Cracking Sequence, Access Commence!”
I put my hands towards the LCD screen, I could feel my own essence scurrying through the data in seconds.
But at the back of my head, doing this alone felt uneasy. The Buddy System tells you that a Phone Braver is at its most vulnerable state in this condition, a Buddy is recommended to watch over. But I brush those thoughts aside...
...Keita...
Keita sometimes leaves me alone when I crack data, mostly because he tries to probably mug the criminal first. I mean, Takimoto does that too.
So I wonder if Yuuta is currently mugging the criminal?
Just as when I was about to finish, I heard a faint rustling sound. I knew I couldn’t turn around, I had to stop this timer from putting innocent users’ lives at risk. And before I knew what was gonna happen, I got trampled.
“uAH!-” I yelped in shock, whoever was this... They grasped me with force. It was just like that poetic old man... when Keita and I...
My buddy, I have to call out...!
“Help! Help me!” This was unlikely for me to yell, but where was my buddy?! I thought we would meet again, right?!
“Little shit...” A deep voice growled from above, “I knew you’d come in! I’ve seen too many cases with you in it!”
“Cases... What do you mean-?!”
“Hackers getting sent to prison... Rumors of ‘Angel-K’ at the same time... It’s you isn’t it?! Huh?!”
I felt his grip getting tighter, it was like my silver body was gonna crack at any time now...
“Let go! Just you wait!” I kept yelling, hoping deeply that my buddy would hear me. I tried clawing at his skin, punching his fingers with my alloy metal fists, but I was too small to do so...
The man walked away with me in his possession, the distance between the monitor and I grew further away. The timer continued ticking, knowing that I failed...
It felt like another faint memory again.
My vision... my vision was blurry, I could only see the slightest silhouettes of two people.
I blinked again, only to see them more clearly. It was that man again, and Yuuta...?
“Buddy...” I tried to call out, but it felt like watching a theatre show. They just never respond, nor listen to what you say.
The ringing frequency that I kept hearing stopped, I could hear their voices again. They were arguing.
“Bastard...”
“Right back at you! I knew and I KNEW you’d be coming here!”
“Huh, and how’d you know huh?”
“I saw EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING!”
Yuuta was pushed before he stepped back up...
I have to stop this but... I felt like I was too small and frail to do anything.
“Fuck you! At least I know what you’re up to!”
“WELL, FUCK YOU TOO!” The criminal retorted before Yuuta were to arrest this man, he pulled out a gun, and without warning, loud shots were heard that even a Phone Braver couldn’t handle hearing.
Yuuta staggered before my eyes, I felt like I was paralyzed. If only I had moved sooner...
“Gah! It burns...! Damnit... Why?!” Yuuta yelled in pain, clutching his gunshot wound as vermilion started seeping through his sweatshirt.
“Uh...” He croaked out...
...
This is bad...
I... I have to DO something..! I’ll have to stop the bleeding...!
A terrifying memory flashes before my eyes as the adrenaline suddenly coursed through my robotic body.
I quickly got up and jumped down to hurry towards the wounded Yuuta, before I could plunge my hands to the soaked sweatshirt, another bullet flew towards his flesh.
“!” I staggered from the shock, my head started ringing from the frequency, it was further straining my lambda chip from panicking this much...
I never gave up, I quickly pushed my hands towards his wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding, but there was too much blood that had flown away from his body.
I sat atop of him, leaning down to hear his heartbeat one more time...
...But there wasn’t anything I heard.