Pulse couldn't help raising his hand to his mouth. Noticing the mark on Alter Ego now, he was reminded of that one night when he had seen Riche after what her programmer had done to her in a fit of rage; though she was a program and could repair her own data, able to erase the visible damage entirely, Pulse bore it as a reminder of the pain she was feeling on the inside, the disconcerting sight of an angular tear across her middle where her ribs would be, if she had any.

But Alter Ego was not a C-Life like Riche; perhaps it wasn't painful to them, or that they couldn't feel pain, or they were stuck with the scar because they couldn't repair themselves. Or maybe it was simply a reflection of the damage done to the computer, since they were still tied to it, like how Riche's base data always remained inside Nikoponia...

Either way, the resemblance was very strong, and it gave him pause, causing him to forget the conversation momentarily.

"Does..."

He gestured lightly toward the crack.

"Does that... hurt?"