Not knowing how to take it all in, my heart beats rigorously. "…You two stayed with me for all that time knowing this?"

"That's incorrect."

"Incorrect."

They both reply immediately.

"I had said this earlier, but the fact that we're your fans isn't a lie." Virus said.

"You were quite striking as you fought in Rhyme as an entertaining psycho." Trip said.

"Yeah, yeah. When you used Scrap on your opponent in Rhyme, that was when we became aware of it. So we investigated a little and put it all together. We were surprised to find that Aoba-san was a person who had the same potential that Sei-san did. But you weren't self-aware of it in the least. There was a danger that you'd unknowingly go on rampages. It would've been troublesome if someone other than us noticed as well. so we made it so that you'd forget about Rhyme."

"Not exactly Rhyme, but what accidents you'd leave behind after your little brawls. If I were to speak for Morphine, it's an elite force prepared for manipulating human nature. Erasing memories is a trivial thing. Well, when our control was a little too loose and we were too visible, we famously 'disappeared'. So the ones who erased the memories of your past with Rhyme were us. We're very sorry." Virus apologizes in a tone that doesn't sound very apologetic.

"But Toue had Sei-san, so we thought it'd be all right if we kept Aoba-san out little secret. Well, in the end Toue found you anyway."

"…"

"Now, would you come with us, Aoba-san? You can see Sei-san as well."

"…Has Sei been with Toue this entire time?" I asked.

"That's right. Although he doesn't have much energy to keep on living anymore."

"!"

"Sei-san has had his consciousness continually analyzed since he was a child. The time he can keep himself moving is very short. And because of that, his heart is weak as well. he's at his limit. Toue has been calling your grandmother to keep Sei-san alive longer."

"No way…"

"But the luminescence equipment developed to model Sei's eyes has been completed. So in the worst case, we'll be all right even if Sei-san is gone."

"Luminescence equipment?" I question.

"It produces the different signals that are in Sei-san's unique vision. Once it's been studied and a large scale of them are released, a number of people will be able to replicate the same results. Well, Sei-san is a human with the power naturally in him, so we'd rather not lose him if we could. But even if we do lose him, there'd be no more reason to worry. Because now we have you, Aoba-san."

Those words…My hair stands up just by hearing them.

This isn't funny…!

"So if you have no further questions… we're very sorry, but we'll be taking you."

The men in black parkas grab onto me and pull me along.

"…! Let me go..!"

"Please be obedient."

A slight smile rises to Virus's face.

I stare at it, thinking of how unbelievable everything is right now.

I believed in them.

I thought that they were good people even if they were yakuza.

But…!

"…Why are you guys working for someone like Toue…!?"

"Us?"

Virus and Trip blankly exchange glances.

"If I were to answer, well… We like interesting things. And very fun things."

"Yeah, yeah."

"We have no interest in Toue's ideas. The reason we're here is because Sei-san is an amazing person, and we can relax while at Toue's side. And that's it."

"That's it."

"…That's not funny, don't fuck with me!" I raise my voice, violently struggling to get my arms free.

They think of this as fun and amusing. What these two are saying is insane. I didn't think they were that kind of people…!

"You're quite persistent. Could you stay quiet for us? …Do it."

TWHACK

"Guh-!"

"Just enough so she doesn't die."

A man in black parka knees me in the gut and I double over in pain.

So I guess I have no other choice but to use it.

…This power.

I raise my face, focusing.

…But.

BA-DUMP

…I knew it, I can't.

If I use it, then 'she' will…

In that momentary pause… I just noticed that Trip had made his way up to me.

WHAM

"-!"

"What is it? Aoba-san. Are you lost? You seem distracted. If you're a bit lost…"

"Aoba."

"!"

TWHACK

"Gah…!"

"You'll just be a punching bag, you know?"

Trip punches me in the pit of my stomach and I fall to my knees.

"Uck…!"

Someone kicks my back to, and I shamefully tumble down to the floor. I lift my head, putting up with the nausea, and I see the world filled with peoples' glassy eyes.

…Morphine.

Their eyes, looking at me but weren't seeing anything. The eyes of humans that have turned into machines that only abide orders.

Someone kicks my face, and my mouth fills with the taste of blood. Pain running throughout my entire body, I curl up to protect myself. Taking countless hits, my consciousness slowly starts to fade out.

"Is this enough?"

"Maybe."

"What now?"

"Yeah?"

"Aoba-san."

"Oh…"

"…This- isn't funny… Doing- this…!" I muster my strength and bring myself up with my shivering arms.

"You really don't give up. Just as I'd expect of you, Aoba-san."

"You're right."

"We'll make sure of how long you can keep holding on."

…Shit.

Is this really the end of it…?

"Aoba!"

A familiar voice dimly reaches my ears. That voice…

"Morphine, huh."

"Keep it down."

"Master!"

"Oh, man."

"…Some pests got in."

Without the energy to make sure of what's going on… I barely hold onto my consciousness.

.

.

…When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is a mask.

A gas mask…

…Clear?

"Oh! Everyone! Master has woken up!"

"Aoba!"

Then Koujaku, with a smiling face, came into view. And behind him was a white ceiling.

"Clear, Koujaku… Why are you two…"

"There are more over there!"

As he helps me up, Koujaku points his thumb behind his back. Noiz and Mink are leaning on a wall some lengths away.

"…!" When I move the upper half of my body, my face warps with pain.

Ow, ow…

Well, I was beaten to a pulp by the Morphine guys… When I look around, I see that I'm not in the research lab anymore. There are more neatly organized cases of various sizes lined up on a system of shelves. It looks like a room where they'd leave other equipment.

"How did you all make it here…?"

"You know, the usual passageway between the Old Resident District and Platinum Jail." Koujaku said "We use it, and then this guy over here tampered with the confirmation monitors."

"All I could do was use a trash ID. It's piss hard to forge Platinum Jail IDs, so I did a sweet job as a cracker with all the analysis I did. These guys bought information, so I helped them out a little. I could at least get them in." Noiz said.

"And then we'll beat the shit out of that Toue bastard… right!?"

"I was frantic all the way here! It was dreadful, Master!" Clear wraps his arms around me in an energetic hug.

"Wah, Ouch!"

"Hey, get off! Aoba's all black and blue!"

"A-ah, I'm sorry, Master!"

"Haha… Ouch."

Clear's weird antics make me spontaneously laugh. It's been a long time since I've laughed like that.

Koujaku, Clear, Noiz and Mink.

And everyone else was safe.

When I look at everyone's faces, my heart tightens.

"So those two were from Morphine, huh?" Noiz said.

"…Yeah."

Virus and Trip…

"I always thought they were pieces of shit…" Koujaku said.

"Huh?" Clear looks around restlessly, as if he's looking for something. "Come to think of it, where did Ren-san go? I can't seem to find him…"

"…"

"Hey, what's wrong?" Koujaku frowns when he sees my face.

Ren is…

While I was thinking of a way to avoid answering, something in my bag started to squirm around.

"…!"

Ren?

Did he start up?

In high spirits, I open my bag and take out Ren.

"Hey, Ren. Are you all right?"

When I go to pick him up… I stop my hands before I can touch him.

"Grrrrrrrrr!" Ren keeps his distance from me, his hackles up and his teeth bared, growling deep and low.

"Ren…"

"You…" Beni speaks.

"Grrr!"

When I reach out to Ren, his entire body shakes as he bellows at me.

"Ren-san? You seem odd." Clear said.

"…Isn't he different from before?" Noiz asked.

"Did you replace his AI chip?" Mink asked.

"…!? Rhyme…? A Drive-By? But who…"

When I realize who my opponent is, I take a step back in disbelief.

"Ren…!?"

No way…

Was it him who dragged me into this Drive-By? But I've never heard of an Allmate initiating a Drive-By. Can Allmates even do that sort of thing…!?

As I stand there, bewildered, Ren beings to sprint towards me.

"Ren! Wait, hey!"

A question comes to mind when I avoid his charge.

Why is he a dog?

He always changes into a human form in Rhyme…

"Guh-!"

During the second I was in thought, Ren lunged at my arm. I push his face away before he's able to bite me with his sharp fangs. I want to push him away with all of my strength, but I can't do that Ren. I just can't.

"Ren, let go. Hey… Gah!"

BA-DUMP

A sharp pain runs through my arm.

He bit me…!

But at the same time…

Something strange happens.

Where he bit me, there's… something running down…?

What?

A whirlpool or warmness and sadness… Stealing away my pain and my consciousness. My eyes open wide, and flashes of different images passed through them.

These images…

What are these?

My memories?

…No.

These could be… Ren's?

Are they… all of what Ren's seen up until now? They're like my memories, all of the things I've seen before. It was like Ren had always been watching through the same eyes as me…

…Ren?

…!

…I see.

So that's how it is…

"!"

In a single moment, my vision went to black.

…The next thing I saw was myself pushing away Ren as he bit into my arm.

BA-THUMP

It was her…!

"Ren!" I rush over to Ren, who was thrown across the room, and hold him.

…Why wasn't Ren in his human form in Rhyme?

I knew the reason.

I've solved the puzzle… I now know why Ren snapped at me, why we were together, why I had his memories. And why Ren and I were both sharing his memories. The 'Ren' I'm holding right now is just his vessel.

At the beginning, this dog Allmate wasn't Ren.

The consciousness of Ren who had always been with me, who had always been watching me, who had always been by my side was…

Ren's existence…

…Which is inside of me.

When I was a kid who could barely talk, I would always speak with 'someone' that was inside my head.

I dimly remember that.

But later on I stopped speaking with that 'Someone' and ended up forgetting them. The person who I would speak with then.

That…was Ren.

Ren has always been inside of me.

The Allmate that had Ren inside of it was just his avatar. Although I don't know if Ren was using the Allmate, or how he did it. But he isn't in this Allmate anymore.

Right now… He's inside me.

In my head.

I can't believe it myself… but that's what I assume.

I want to see him.

I want to speak with him.

But I can't like this.

Ren had abandoned this Allmate, and shut himself away back where he was. So… in the game of Rhyme, using electric waves, players would jointly create projections. Peoples' consciousness's were directly linked in the public fields.

So that's to say that it's not impossible to use Rhyme to achieve that.

Then I only have one method left.

Of course I've never done it before, so it may not even work. And the probability of it not working is high.

But I can't think of anything else.

That's…

I'll use Scrap on myself.

EERRR

"!"

EERRR

When an alarm sounds, the space starts to warp.

While I tensed and readied myself for a blow, Noiz appeared.

"Noiz!?"

"Seriously, none of this shit makes sense anymore."

"How did you get here!?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Noiz makes a small grin and walks up to me. "Anyway, I forcibly opened this field. The others should be here soon… and some others, too."

"Others?"

EERRR

"Aoba!"

"Master!"

As the alarm sounded, Koujaku, Clear, and Mink appeared one by one. The alarm still hasn't stopped.

"They're coming."

EERRR

EERRR

EERRR

EERRR

After Noiz murmurs that, the security Allmates enter. And not just a group either, more keep popping in.

"They just keep coming…" I said.

"When I forcibly opened the Drive-By field, it was like widening a pipe. So without any discrimination, as many things as realistically possible will jump into Rhyme."

"That's some bullshit."

"I didn't have the time to think it out."

The security guards just stand there, wobbling as if they're not completely awake. The Allmates are staring at us in clear hostility. Why are the guards, instead of the Allmates, the ones standing there?

"Aren't they…acting a little weird?"

"It's because of an Allmate bug."

"Bug?"

"It's a minor but that Allmates have always had. But the symptoms haven't shown so strongly until suddenly this morning. It's from the spread of this worm. The bug corrupts them. It's big news now. The bug infects them further, the Allmates end up unable to control themselves and go violent. And for some reason, the owners of infected Allmates lose their willpower. When Allmates are registered, the owner has a recognition chip physically put inside them and they connect online. I think that's why."

"Allmates and their owners share consciousness when they're online, so if you reverse the route, Allmates could possibly corrupt their human's mind." I said.

"Probably. All the newer models are going crazy. But for some reason, the bug was never fixed in the first place." Noiz said. "If you look at how you could see this happening from the get-go and how the bug was found out, you can tell that Toue is one sneaky bastard."

"Then maybe Ren has that bug…"

"All the Allmates with the bug have a crystal-like shape come out in front of their eyes." Mink said.

"!"

A scrap of crystal.

Ren's eye showed that symptom.

"So it was because of that bug…"

"Did Ren show that symptom?" Koujaku asked.

"Yeah…"

"Hey. Isn't there some way to help Ren?"

"They say on the news that someone's making a way to fix it, but I wonder about that." Noiz said.

"Ren-san…" Clear murmurs.

"…"

Ren…

I set myself straight and look at everyone.

"There's way to save him. I'll explain in detail later, but to save Ren right now… I'll use Scrap on myself."

"…What?"

"…"

"Master…"

"Scrap? On yourself? Can you even do that?" Koujaku asked.

"We don't know until we try. It might turn out fine… or not at all. But there's no other way. It won't work if I don't' do it here and now, probably."

"You don't know what you're talking about." Mink said.

"If you use Scrap here, you'll lose your consciousness and cause yourself to log out. There's no point." Noiz said.

"That's right, Master. It's too dangerous."

"I know that. I want everyone to cooperate with me. I want to save him. I want you guys to back me up when I'm in Scrap."

"…" In the delicate silence, Koujaku turned and gave me a strong gaze. "I don't really know the details, but there's really no other way, is there?"

"It's all I can think of."

"You do know what sort of danger you're bringing yourself into, right?"

"Yeah. Even if you weren't here, I'd do it alone. I want to save Ren no matter what. And because it's dangerous… I can't give up."

"…I got it. I can't stop you if you say that."

"Koujaku…"

"Listen, you guys are going to help Aoba out too!"

"Of course!"

"Well, it'd be hard for me to go back after getting this far."

"It's going to get rough son, so hurry up and go."

"…" My heart briefly fills with anxiety at the thought of failing to save everyone, but also with positive emotions. So much has happened… but right now I'm genuinely happy.

"Oi…They're coming!"

The guards and Allmates that were so uneasy on their feet started to come our way.

"Hey, maniac. Make sure that when she uses Scrap on her, you make sure she doesn't log out." Mink said to Noiz.

"I'm not a maniac."

"Red and gas mask, shut down the ones coming after him."

As he spoke, Mink started to take his long strides to the guards and Allmates. He then promptly began to completely destroy them all.

"Now, let's get this party started." Noiz sits down, pulls out the keyboard and monitor on his Coil, and starts to work.

"Hey, how are you going to use Scrap on yourself?" Koujaku asked.

"I don't know. But I have to try something." I said.

I sat on the floor on my knees, closed my eyes, and began to focus. But… it doesn't work, the surrounding noise is bothering me.

"…Shit. The stuff around me is distracting."

"Would earplugs work?" Koujaku asked.

I cover my ears with my hands. But I still can hear sounds. Maybe I can't focus as well because I'm frustrated.

"It's no good…"

"So the outside noise is bothering you." Clear said.

"Yeah." I nod.

Clear, who was leaning over me, stood up and then spread out his arms. While I wondered what he was doing… A clear singing voice ran out through the area.

Clear is…singing?

Upon hearing his singing, I noticed that I hear nothing else.

"The sounds…"

"Hey… are you muting the other sounds with that song? Can you even do that…?" Koujaku asked. "-Hey! They're coming this way!"

Clear continues to sing, and Koujaku sends the pursuing guards and Allmates flying.

"Aoba, will it work this time?"

"I'll try." I close my eyes and try to focus my concentration again. I feel like it'll work this time. "…!"

"Uryah!" Koujaku drives off more of the guards.

But…

…It's no good.

I still can't concentrate.

"No go?"

"Just a little more…"

"Is there no way to help you concentrate?"

"My concentration ability… That's right, if I could look into my eyes I could."

"Your eyes… A mirror?" Koujaku mutters, and then grins. He kicks away another guard an leans over me: then he takes out his sword only to shove it into the ground. "How about this?"

My face reflects on the sword's surface.

So I can use this as a mirror…!

"Thank you. I'll try it out." I look into my eyes on the blade and the words come out of my mouth.

"I'm going to go inside you. Into you… I'm going to go inside of you. So accept me. I'm going to go inside you… inside myself. So accept me."

Little by little…my vision fades out.

I can't hear Clear's song anymore, only the sound of my heartbeat.

The fain sound of waves pile up.

Somewhere…

I've heard the sound of waves before, a long time ago…

.

.

This is…

I'm inside of my own head…?

The scenery that expands in front of my eyes leaves me dumbfounded. Pictures of me are everywhere, filling the dome-like area. It resembles a public Rhyme field, but it's a little different.

It's not like one because this time, it's in my head.

And probably… where Ren's consciousness is hiding.

"!"

I turn to find Ren standing behind me.

The human version.

"Ren…!"

"…"

He glares at me, motionless.

His body…had changed an awful lot. Maybe because of that bug. He's covered in errors, and his arm is distorted like I've never seen before.

Just looking at him makes it painful to breathe.

Why…

Probably because I couldn't save him earlier.

Before he turned out this way…

Before I could even speak him, Ren dashed towards me across the surface of the smooth floor.

"-!"

I somehow avoid his attack by jumping, and fall in a heap to the side. When I try to get up, Ren jumps up and slashes me with his arms which were as sharp as blades.

"…!"

I dodge both of his swings. But his offensive is in no way slow.

"Guh…!"

Unable to escape this attack, I guard myself with my fists against his arms. The back of my hand is shocked and numbed by the ferocity of the blows raining down on it.

Ren…is seriously trying to kill me.

Even with Ren as close as he is, his eyes don't show any emotion.

"…I'm sorry."

The words come out of my mouth. And at that moment, Ren threw me away.

"…!"

Without any defenses, I took the blow and hit the ground.

While I was rolling over on the floor, I saw Ren walking up to me.

Ren…

The mortifying way Ren was acting hurt more than the pain… I was sad.

"…Ren, I'm sorry. It… It must hurt so much."

"…"

"I'm sorry for not realizing… I'm so sorry for not understanding you." I hold the pain and stand up as Ren looked directly at me. "I finally understood. I remembered you. Ren, you… were always inside of me. you always watched over me, didn't you? But I still didn't realize, and kept being spoiled by you… I'm so sorry."

"…"

When I try to take a step forward, Ren glares at me. And just then, a strong spark flashed, the sound as loud as fireworks. Unable to even see myself moving forward, my legs buckle and I trip over my own feet.

I need Aoba

I worry about Aoba

I love Aoba

Clara annoys Ren

Ren's eyes are brown

Ren is an old model

Ren is like family

Ren likes Clara

Ren does not bark

This is…

…Was I rejected?

Ren is polite