14. Naked Meteor
We plummeted straight down.
First, the car slammed into the roof of a building like a missile, triggering a spectacular explosion that engulfed the surrounding area. A towering pillar of fire rose into the sky like a massive mushroom cloud, injecting a new spark of creativity into the city.
The humanoid robots of Tropical Night City, long desensitized to the constant, irritating bursts of fireworks, couldn't help but applaud this display.
It seemed they were thoroughly bored of fireworks.
What they needed was a real explosion, I realized.
As we fell, the heat intensified.
The further we descended, the hotter Jinri and I became, our bodies transforming into blazing meteors.
It was the effect of being enveloped by the thick, sweltering atmosphere of Tropical Night City.
In the overwhelming heat that prevented us from even opening our mouths, we confirmed each other's presence through sensors beyond visible light, desperately clinging to each other's hands and embracing. Our clothes had already burned away, and as naked meteors, intertwined, we plunged vertically toward the heart of the city.
Finally, we crashed into the ground.
A forest of flames, far more spectacular than the car's explosion, erupted with a roar, shaking the silence of Tropical Night City to its core.
It felt like scuba diving into a sea of magma, with a deafening harmony of sounds ringing in our ears. In that magma sea, ferocious rose-colored piranhas swarmed, their jagged teeth gleaming as they lunged at our naked bodies amid a symphony of fire conducted by a white-haired orchestra.
I felt the greatest terror since waking up in that room with amnesia.
Locked in a three-legged race with Jinri, we swam desperately to escape the piranhas. Swimming alone might have been easier, true.
But separating from Jinri would be meaningless.
Even if the piranhas devoured me, Jinri's presence made me want to live more fiercely than ever.
By a margin thinner than a billionth of a sheet of paper, we escaped the piranhas' threat, breaking the surface of the magma sea to catch our breath.
But our lower bodies remained submerged in the magma.
The piranhas, baring their sharp, chaotic hundreds of teeth, swam toward our bare feet with ferocious intent.
Their menacing appearance sent a chill through me.
Looking around, I spotted the wreckage of what used to be our convertible taxi floating on the crimson magma's surface. A flat, battery-like component from the car's undercarriage漂ed, just the right size for both of us to climb onto.
Without hesitation, Jinri and I swam toward it with all our strength.
We reached the panel just 0.00000008 seconds before the piranhas could bite.
The piranhas, smacking their hard, protruding tongues, retreated with menacing expressions like back-alley mobsters, as if saying, "This time, we'll let you off."
As the piranhas dispersed, the sea of fire gradually calmed.
From somewhere far off, the nostalgic sound of sirens echoed.
My auditory sensors registered the sound piling up like geological strata over eons. A total of 911 fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the crash site.
The fire trucks were painted in the goldfish-like hues common in this city.
The ambulances resembled the white carp swimming across the black wallpaper in the hospital engineer's office.
Their warning lights emitted warm, vivid neon glows, illuminating Jinri and me—the culprits of the accident—like spotlights.
The brilliance was so intense I couldn't keep my eyes open.
Still holding Jinri's hand, I covered my face with my other hand, like a celebrity dodging paparazzi flashes.
The sheer volume of light and attention was so overwhelming that my CPU felt like it was reeling from dizziness.
And it was too hot.
"Hot…"
The moment I uttered the word, the heat tripled in intensity.
The scorching temperature caused my battery levels to plummet at an alarming rate.
Despite being nearly fully charged from the fast food, my energy had dropped back to the decimals.
As the crowd's attention bathed us, I briefly thought it might not be so bad to shut down forever like this.
If Jinri and I could be witnessed together in our final moments, that didn't seem so terrible.
But I couldn't bear the thought of watching Jinri fall into eternal sleep.
Desperate for a solution, I forced my eyes open and scanned the surroundings. Shaved-ice-like water sprayed from the firefighters' hoses with tremendous pressure, piling onto the magma sea like frost.
The frost gleamed with high-density diamond-like particles, sparkling at an almost infinite frequency.
Amid the scattering light, I caught sight of something familiar.
My sky-blue scarf.
Without hesitation, I grabbed it with both hands, yanking it up like a fisherman hauling in a net.
From beneath the scarf, the polar bear emerged, as if I'd reeled in a massive fish. In its paws, a chain of piranhas dangled like a parade of international flags.
The piranhas that had tried to devour Jinri and me were, to the bear, as delicious as salmon. Even as it was hoisted up by me, the bear casually chewed on them with the leisurely air of someone snacking on jerky.
"That was rough, huh?"
The bear spoke.