Creak. The sound of the door opened.
"There is no one here," said the black-coated man. He turned around and continued, "Search every room and make sure you didn't miss anything."
"Yes, Sir!" Answered the bunch of white-coated men synchronously.
"That was a close call," whispered Hiroki. He was dangling between the attic space and the bathroom vent. "We should hide before they come back." He went inside the attic space and closed the bathroom vent.
"What should we do next, Jer?" Whispered Hiroki.
"I still need to copy and delete Yuu's data before we escape from here," whispered Jer.
"How much time do you need to copy and delete the data?"
"I already reached around 70% of the copy, but I still need more time."
"How to increase the copy speed?"
"I'm currently copying the data from the research room to my hardware body…"
"Your hardware body?"
"Yeah, your earrings. That is one of my hardware bodies."
"Eh? This?" Hiroki surprised and touched one of the earrings. "Isn't this just a normal present Yuu gave me?"
Jer sighed and continued, "It's actually one of my hardware bodies. I already told Yuu to keep it on herself, but she insisted on letting you wear it."
"Really?" Hiroki rubbed one of the earrings and tried to feel the shape. "I wish I had a mirror now. I want to see the shape."
"It's only a small clear diamond. Nothing to be excited about." Hiroki is still busy trying to feel the earrings shape. "Ehem," Jer purposely let out a cough, and Hiroki focused back on Jer, "We need to finish this data copy as fast as possible before Yuu gets into more trouble."
"What do we need to increase the copy through your body?"
"You." Jer pointed at Hiroki with his paw.
"Me?" Hiroki pointed at himself, confused.
"Yes, you." Jer pointed Hiroki again with his other paw. "You just need to touch the main storage in the research room."
"So, you mean, you want to copy the data through my body cable?"
"Yes. That's the reason why Yuu modified you soon after you arrived at our house."
"Modified?" Hiroki was confused.
"Yes, you were sent to us by the Peace faction's laboratory H, and we requested to switch you on by ourselves with an excuse of an imprint."
"Did they even eat that kind of excuse?"
"Well, fortunately, they eat that excuse without any complaint. So we manage to modify your body before starting you."
"Then why can't you remove the spyware?"
"Well, we do try to remove it, but the problem is, it was attached to your heart, which is your main system. So it's precarious to remove it by ourselves."
"Hmm… I see."
"Looks like the time is quite right." A screen popped in front of Jer. The black-coated man and bunches of white-coated man gathered in the living room. ��They must be leaving soon."
—-
"There is nothing to be found, Sir," said a white-coated man.
The black-coated man let out a deep sigh and looked around the living room before turning around, "Let's call it a day."
The black-coated man stepped out of the house, followed by a bunch of white-coated men, and the front door slid close by itself.
—-
"We should be safe to go down by now," said Hiroki while opening the vent cover.
"Let's move quickly before they come back," said Jer while jumping down swiftly, followed by Hiroki.
"You know, Jer," said Hiroki as they approached the research room. "You can try to fly instead of walking."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Yelled Jer, disbelieve.
"I mean you are a hologram, a data, you are not even a real thing. So why don't you try to fly instead of walking?" Said Hiroki, and they stood in front of the research room.
"Do you think Yuu is that insane to make a dog fly instead of walking with four paws?" Asked Jer while putting his paw on the wall, and a door slid open in front of them.
"But you have two tails. Which kind of dogs have two tails?" Asked Hiroki, and they both walked inside the room.
"Well, that's true. Yuu was trying to imitate a devil cat from some comics she read before, but she wants a dog rather than a cat," answered Jer and they arrived in the middle of the room. Jer pressed a tile on the floor, and the few tiles in front of them shifted, and a thick square thing raised. "This is the storage."
"Why does it look like a table instead of storage?" Asked Hiroki, confused.
"Yuu likes to hide things which are too obvious," answered Jer, unwillingly. "Can we start?"
"Yes, of course!"
Hiroki put his hand on top of the storage and closed his eyes. Jer put his paw on one of Hiroki's legs. Hiroki felt like something was talking inside of his head.
'Data transfer from Yuu storage to Jer storage…'
'Transferring through body cable Hiroki…'
'Transferring on progress, please don't remove the cable…'
Hiroki could feel some kind of energy flowing through his hand and traveling across his body and stopping at his ears.
After a while, the talking came back, 'Transfering completed. Please remove the cable.'
Hiroki removed his hand and opened his eyes. "This is too fast!" Shouted Hiroki, surprised. "It's only for a while!"
"You mean for 30 minutes?" Retorted Jer.
"Eh? It felt like 30 seconds."
"That's what the body cable function handy for." Jer removed his paw from Hiroki's leg. A screen appeared in front of him, and was busy typing something.
"Then how about without the body cable? How many minutes would it take?" Asked Hiroki curiously.
"7,200 minutes."
"2 days?!" Shouted Hiroki, disbelief.
"Yes, that's why I took the initiative to wake you up first and use the body cable to copy the data."
"Did Yuu tell you to do so?"
"No, Yuu asked me to wake you after I finish the copy."
"Then why do you wake me up first?"
"It's a personal choice."
"Won't Yuu get angry at you for making the reverse order?"
"Yuu believe me in making a more effective decision for her. So it's okay."
A button appeared on the screen, and Jer pressed the button with his paw. A system like voice came out again.
'Process to delete the data…'
'Please remember to back up before deleting…'
'Deleting on progress…'
"While it's deleting the data. Let's find where Yuu is," said Hiroki.
"Yes, I have my chip left in the laboratory where Yuu is held captive. So we can track the GPS from that chip," said Jer.
"Then I think you can connect it to my memory map to find the place," said Hiroki while kneeled and extending one of his hands to Jer.
"They are in a rural area where internet connection is hard to catch. So please do your best," said Jer and placed his paw on Hiroki's extended hand.
Hiroki closed his eyes and tried to detect the GPS from Jer's chip in his memory map. He attempted to narrow and narrowed the beeping show-unshown GPS.
'Delete completed.'
"Found it," said Hiroki at the same time after the system voice.
They looked at the storage and looked back at each other.
"Let's depart."