d instantly."

"Got it."

After putting the data chip he received into his pocket, Harley started up the motorcycle.

Nene didn't do anything, just watching from the side.

◇

He drove the motorcycle.

Harley drove full-throttle towards the center of the forest. He dodged the trees that grew around randomly while driving on the bumpy road with what definitely could not be called good driving, also avoiding various obstacles.

Normally, Harley would have screamed and relaxed the throttles long ago, but right now he didn't do that. Harley's mind was full of how he should find A-1, whose position he had been unable to confirm with his eyes yet, so he focused on chasing the tread tracks carved into the ground and the path of trees knocked over by A-1. If he went along with A-1's trail, he wouldn't encounter any obstacles, so this was a very fortunate situation for him who didn't have much motor skills.

"Got it!"

Harley muttered this, and almost bit his tongue because of the left and right swaying as he drove over the ground.

After passing through the forest, Harley saw A-1. The opponent's training-usage mock filth monster was on the ground, seemingly in a state of having been knocked over by A-1. In that situation, it wouldn't be strange for its stop signal to have been given out. The structure of the machine that sent out the stop signal should be quite simple, so it wasn't easy to break, but A-1 that received this signal had a problem and was unable to stop.

Harley had been going full throttle long ago, but after he left the bad road conditions of the manmade forest, the motorcycle's speed went up a bit. More importantly, A-1 was advancing while pushing the enemy, so its speed wasn't as fast.

The motorcycle Harley was seated on was indeed closing in on A-1. The moving battle machine seemed to give off pressure when viewed from up close. Harley wasn't fazed by that pressure, and set his target as the back outer shell.

"Almost there.... Alright!"

Just as the front wheel was about to touch the back outer shell....

Harley forcefully swerved them motorcycle and jumped onto A-1.

"Uwah! Ah, uh...."

The pain of his body colliding and the violent shaking almost made Harley forget his position, but he still quickly positioned himself securely on the outer shell. After some work, he succeeded in climbing to his destination.

The vibrations of the tread system constantly shook Harley. Harley used strength to stabilize his feet as he searched for the cover of the third port. He opened it, and then succeeded in inserting the data chip.

There weren't any screens nearby the port indicating whether data was being transmitted. Harley who was sent flying by the intense shaking of A-1 could only trust that he had succeeded in changing the program.

A strong shock sent him into a world of darkness.

◇

Harley awoke in the embrace of something warm.

"Ah, senpai."

Nene's face was in front of him. Her worried face returned to anger the moment Harley awoke, and the pressure with which she held Harley became stronger.

No, he wasn't being held.

He was being tightly embraced.

Until now, Harley had never seen Nene's face this close to his own.

"Huh? Huh....senpai?"

Why would she be in such a place? Oblivious to the situation, Harley was at a loss.

"How's A-1?"

"It stopped, thanks to you."

"Ah, really? That's great."

The confusion in his heart instantly became indecision. When he was helping to create A-1, Harley had actually completely forgotten about Nene's confession to him, and just spend sleepless nights researching.

But, after everything had ended, Harley calmed down. He once again realized the fact that her confession had just been a lie, and he had just been used.

Harley didn't think much about having been used. He believed that making A-1 was a very helpful experience for himself.

But, it was very sorrowful that the confession had just been a lie.

No, if it were just a lie, then what was going on right now?

"Well, I'm already alright."

Please let me go - the shy Harley planned on saying this, but Nene's look didn't permit him to do so.

"Um, do you know why everyone from my hometown has two names, but only let other people call them by one of them?"

"Huh? No...."

"Because only a promised lover can call them by both names."

Nene closed her eyes and brought her face in close.

A sensation he had never felt before went through Harley.

"This time isn't a lie."

Harley sank into darkness again because of his brain's computing power was overloaded, as the last words he heard were that passionate, and that sweet.

◇

That was how things should have been....

"You're amazing, Harley."

After being woken up by a strange electronic voice, what appeared before his eyes was a being that couldn't exist in the real world.

"Uwoahhhhhh!"

Harley couldn't help but scream.

It wasn't Nene's intellectual and friendly face that was there. It was composed of inorganic machinery and didn't look like it was alive, and of course it didn't have the muscles of a human.

It was a robot.

And, Harley had seen that figure.

It was the superb maiden Lantica.

"Wahahahaha! How are my techniques!"

Taurus laughed loudly from behind Lantica.

"It's equipped with artificial intelligence, so it can act independently to a degree, and moreover it can identify people in its database. It can even predict the feelings of the person from what they say, and then make expressions. If I just cover it with imitation skin, I can complete a beautiful, flawless cyborg!"

"Huh? Huh?"

Harley whose brain was completely confused looked around everywhere.

It was a hospital room.

"Huh? What's going on here?"

"I dunno."

Taurus patted Lantica's head. He was too eye-catching, so Harley only noticed after a while that Kirik was on the other side.

"We only came here after receiving a communication saying that you were injured, so we don't know anything more than that."

"Huh? Uh, then what about Nene, M........Senpai?"

"Didn't see her."

"Huh?"

"Hey hey hey, it's better if you hurry up and forget those girls that will deteriorate some day. Only Lantica is the best. She won't change forever, and can even be upgraded however you desire!"

"You, you're actually saying such pathetic things!"

After making Taurus shut up, Harley once again inspected his surroundings from the white bedsheets, confirming the fact that she wasn't around.

"Huh.... What's going on?"

Why wasn't she here?

Had he really fainted after hearing those words from her mouth? Or had that just been a dream.... Harley remembered when he had succeeded in inserting the data chip, but maybe because he had suddenly relaxed, the thoughts 'Ah, I might be pretty cool right now' had emerged in his brain.

Was it because of this that he had such a dream, or was it just wishful thinking that he had felt would be nice that way?

Regardless of how Harley thought, he couldn't come up with a conclusion. No, he didn't want to make a conclusion.

But Nene indeed wasn't here right now. In that case, did it mean that the thing just now had really been....?

"Harley, cheer up."

Lantica placed her inorganic arm on Harley's shoulder.

Harley was almost attracted by her unfinished expression. Though it was a secret, Harley began kind of wanting to make a cyborg.