Mediziner's Notes: On the other site this was discontinued from being worked on before I moved it here, I had put chapter titles but I eventually decided to drop that by this chapter because I couldn't come up with anymore ideas. I felt more and more confident with PoVs.
This Chapter was originally uploaded: 10/5/2020 on DeviantART.
The Leader within Cover Art is drawn and commissioned by Erilmadith-Everyoung on DeviantART. You can also find Radiant Prism's full reference there, too.
Enjoy!
...
The search had expanded shortly after they've managed to gather as many of the stranded people they could find. Deckerd and Yuuta would also report about a fourth landslide which totaled to now four landslides. Multiple landslides in one day was certainly not natural at all, and as Power Joe said, the size of the landslide would most likely be the case with the other three- Not natural sized. "Power Joe, Drill Boy, Duke, Gunmax, I'm going to see if the others need help." Radiant Prism told them, finding a place away from people to take off and fly towards one of the locations after they acknowledged. The first location she flew towards a few minutes later was currently being attended to by Dumpson and McCrane, who've managed to just gather a couple of people to safety, but from the expressions it was clear they seemed a bit stuck. Descending, Radiant Prism changed out of her vehicle mode and hovered towards the two. "Dumpson, McCrane, how's things over here?"
"We're still trying to look for people trapped under the debris here." McCrane said, looking over at the roads. "Unfortunately the road is out, as you can see from the traffic gathering, we need to redirect people by putting them on the other lane to go back towards where they came from."
"Could you give us a servo, Radiant Prism?" Dumpson asked, managing to locate a car buried in the mud as he carefully lifted it out of the dirt and handing it over to the foreign Brave. "There's some people that don't know about this incident yet since it's a little away from even any of the rural towns."
"I can do that." Radiant Prism nodded, bringing the vehicle back up onto the roads and setting it down gently. It looked fairly banged up, and the person inside seemed to be alright if not a little dazed from the incident. She noticed they were trying to get out of the car through the broken window as she carefully helped them out, thanking her in return once they were out. Radiant Prism watched as the driver moved off the road to the side, making sure they were still within sight. Shoftly after, McCrane found another vehicle and Dumpson said there weren't anymore to find as this road was little to never busy. Radiant Prism now had the task of having to switch inbetween sides of the lanes and turn the vehicles around carefully to the other lane and setting them down so that they can drive back the way they came. A few more cars would come their way, but eventually the number of incoming cars would start to decrease as they'd most likely worked together to stop anymore cars from getting in. She still kept a sharp optic out for any who've probably ignored other people going against driving on this road, which often left her to redirect them back and take a different route to get to where they need to go if possible.
"I think that should be all. Fortunately it was just two cars that were caught in the landslide's path." McCrane told Dumpson, the latter turning to Radiant Prism. "We can take over redirecting vehicles to go back the way we came now." Dumpson said.
"Radiant Prism, since you seem to be looking into the landslides, you should check on the others." Dumpson pointed out. "They could use your help."
Radiant Prism acknowledged then flew off to her next destination. While a bit further out, she'd eventually make it to the third site, where Kagerou and Shadowmaru were currently working as she landed nearby. "Shadowmaru, Kagerou, have you found all the people buried underground?" She asked, approaching the two ninjas.
"We have, we're fortunate that there was only about three people that were trapped under the landslide while the rest managed to avoid the disaster." Shadowmaru replied, optics scanning the trail of mud and dirt left behind by the landslide. "Shortly after helping those people out, we've discovered gunpowder mixed among the mud here." He said, pointing along specific spots. "It seems that whomever is behind these unnatural landslides, they used explosives to trigger them. With any luck, the other hit areas may also have the same issue."
"What? Gunpowder?" Radiant Prism repeated in surprise. "Power Joe did say that landslides of this scale aren't normal. So he was right... These were man made landslides." Looking between the two ninjas, she spoke once more. "Whoever is behind this will certainly be seeing jail time once we've find who did this mess... But for four different man-made landslides to occur all at once, or seconds after each one..."
"Aside from discovering gunpowder within the dirt, we've detected something coming from the source of the explosive impact where we uncovered a criminal organization hideout there." Kagerou then gestured Radiant Prism to follow, intending to show her where it was as she followed. "We've already gathered the criminals that were found injured but unfortunately some didn't make it." He explained, pointing towards the hideout as Radiant Prism began peeking inside. "Shadowmaru and I think that the survivors might have some knowledge on who was behind all this once they're well enough to speak, as they managed to say something about not possessing any manner of explosives. However, we're still trying to see if we can find anything else that might give us more clues. That is, until when Shadowmaru informed me about finding gunpowder mixed in with the dirt."
"This opening is far too small for any of us to look into let alone reach, we'd need the humans to look into it." Radiant Prism commented, trying to peek in and see a bit more than what she could. "Hm... Considering it's size, it was probably a small hideout for petty criminals intending to steal stuff that doesn't require lots of efforts such as using explosives... But that can only be the disguise of it as they could obviously be working with a more bigger organization... But I wouldn't know because sometimes it may or may not be the case. If anything, the explosion seemed to be somewhat purposefully controlled. There isn't much damage for the rest of the other areas other than this particular wall..."
"That's our thoughts, too." Kagerou nodded. "We believed a criminal may have intended to control the blast in this direction so that it would cause the desired landslide. But it's not clear if the criminal is part of this organization or not."
"Kagerou, have you and Shadowmaru found anything about an anonymous group of people purchasing explosives here in Japan?" Radiant Prism asked.
The blue and black coloured ninja shook his helm. "Nothing of the sort which leaves the main solution that there are smugglers smuggling explosives from other countries to avoid being found on the radar of any purchases or theft of explosions here. Once the human police arrive, Shadowmaru and I are going to do a sweep of the country for any signs of smugglers and uncover any hideouts." He explained. "I may not know the laws of owning explosives in Germany, but Japan's laws on many things are far more stricter than just about anywhere else as far as I know. Explosives would be highly illegal to be owned by an individual. They're instead used by professionals either for mining or construction work."
"I see. In the meantime I should go and see that Deckerd and Boss hears what you and the others have said and perhaps see if they might need any help with their situation." Radiant Prism replied as Kagerou nodded. She proceeded to step back and leapt into the skies, changing form.
This time, compared to the other three, the fourth site that Deckerd and Yuuta were investigating was further away from the other three and more up north. Halfway through the destination, Radiant Prism was suddenly overcome with an excruciating pain, forcing her out of her vehicle form as she descends back down to the ground, clutching her helm. Shortly afterwards, her audio receptors were ringing and could hear nothing but distorted static as she cried out in agony. 'My head... It feels like someone's trying to tear my Super A.I. apart! Make it... Stop!' She thought, falling to her knees. A while later, the pain finally subsided but due to the excruciating pain, Radiant Prism wasn't sure how long this sudden pain lasted for, but it greatly exhausted her. She remained there giving herself a moment to recover but flinched when her badge went off.
-Radiant Prism! Radiant Prism are you there?-
Quickly identifying that it was Deckerd's voice, Radiant Prism brought out her communications badge, opening it as she gave herself a moment to make sure that her pain wasn't visible. "This is Radiant Prism. Did you discover anything, Deckerd?" She answered, one servo still on her helm.
-Ah, there you are. Shadowmaru and Kagerou were trying to contact you but you weren't answering your badge.- Replied Deckerd. -They told me that you suddenly stopped, did something happen?-
"Huh...? How long ago did they tried to contact me?" Radiant Prism asked, and when Deckerd replied that it had been about roughly fifteen minutes, she immediately frowned. 'I was... In pain for that long...?' She thought, feeling like she had disappointed the others with her sudden silence... She would need to make up for suddenly stalling. "Apologies, I... I thought I saw something but it wasn't anything of importance. I should be at your location short-" She was suddenly interrupted when Gunmax began contacting the others, reporting that not only did a few more man made landslides occur, but there was also a criminal causing some trouble near Tokyo. Radiant Prism listened to the struggles of the others, asking Deckerd what to do but silence fell on his end. Knowing that the people must come first, Radiant Prism spoke up.
"I can go deal with the criminal causing trouble, or at least long enough for you guys to ensure the areas affected by these landslides are closed off and secured." She suddenly spoke. "It's hard to say if they're the ones responsible or if this is a different organization taking advantage while we're busy..." She paused for a moment, knowing that there wasn't much choice in the matter as she took to the skies. "Because I'm the only one currently available for this, I'm going ahead to respond accordingly. Deckerd, Duke, it's up to the both of you to decide what to do with the situation, but I'm going to engage the criminal regardless before people get hurt."
-But, Radiant Pri-...- Disconnecting from the call, Radiant Prism put away her badge and called for her support, combining with it along the way. 'I'm sorry everyone, but you guys need to attend to those places first... If I can at least stall the criminal long enough until you all get over here, that's good enough for me regardless if I will be scolded for going against whatever orders may have been addressed to me...' She thought, finishing her combining sequence. Now as Aerial Radiance, she flew in the direction of Tokyo.
...
It took a short amount of time for her to reach the city, seeing that the criminal left a trail of destruction that lead straight into the city. What immediately brought her attention was seeing the machine they piloted, appearing in the form of what appeared to be a strange mashup of unknown creatures in design that she couldn't identify. "That's as far as you go, criminal!" She called out, weapon at the ready. "If you think that we'd be slowed down by your little 'natural disaster' plan, you clearly didn't plan properly!"
"So you're here, Brave Poli- Wait a minute, you're that foreign robot I've been hearing about! Well, I suppose Japan must be getting desperate to seek aid from foreigners but no matter, I can spare time having fun turning you into profitable parts!" The criminal replied with a grin. "But I do thank you for... I'd say willingly giving me the information I just needed!"
'Hm... I can't tell if they're pretending to not know or if they really know. I think someone among the Brave Police might be able to tell if the criminal is lying or telling the truth... Regardless, I'll have to give it my all until the others get here!' Thought Aerial Radiance, engaging the criminal as they charged her way. Immediately she leaped into the air, quickly avoiding the charge attack. Before she could return fire, she quickly noticed the criminal had fired missiles at her, twisting to avoid them but noticed that they were coming around and back to her. 'Damn! They're heat-seeking missiles!' She quickly ascended to avoid the risk of the blast radius hitting nearby buildings. Aerial Radiance couldn't risk anymore damage, needing to keep it to a minimum as best as she can. 'I need to figure out how to stop him from firing those missiles, this isn't looking too well for me... But maybe...'
"You can't run forever! Sooner or later you'll be nothing but spare parts!" Laughed the criminal.
At that moment Aerial Radiance began flying towards the criminal's machine, she quickly opened fire but didn't aim for the criminal in particular, but instead at the feet of the their machine. Seeing as it stumbled and moved back. 'As I expected... This might make my job a little less complex... At least I hope.' She thought, quickly returning up into the air. The multitude of the machine's thin legs had clearly showed poor performance in really rough uneven ground, and she was going to take advantage of that as much as possible while keeping the homing missiles from hitting the buildings and herself, but she knew they couldn't chase her forever.
"Damn you, how about a taste of this!?" The claw-like appendages of the machine detached themselves, the criminal having fired them as large projectiles towards Aerial Radiance. Immediately, she quickly dodged one of them, nearly hitting her but managed to lure one of the missiles into it's path. 'Scratch one missile down, however- Nngh!' Without warning, a sudden wave of excruciating pain washed over her. 'No! The pain...! It's come back! Not now!' the incredibly painful sensation that had returned was enough to lose her focus. Combined with the remaining missile that was still on her tail, it eventually struck her, followed by the other clawed appendage striking her shortly afterwards and sendind her tumbling out of the skies where Aerial Radiance crashlanded into one of the skyscrapers.
"Well, that was rather short-lived than I liked it to be." The criminal chuckled, it's claw-like appendage reattaching itself as he made his way over to where Aerial Radiance crashed. "I never thought you strange robots would have the capacity to feel pain at all, but seeing as you're clearly faulty and defenceless..." With that same appendage, the criminal grabbed hold of Aerial Radiance, suspending her towards him. "D-Dammit... I'm not giving... Up...!" She managed to say, struggling against the grip that seemed to only tighten as she struggled to break free.
She wasn't going to give up just like that even if she might be powerless against the criminal, it was in her instinct to keep fighting back regardless of the pain she felt or if the situation didn't look so great for her end. To her, giving up would be going against what she was built for, and at the same time letting Deckerd down despite she had completely cut him or someone else off, unable to remember who tried to contact her thanks to her agonising pain. When she tried to break herself free, she'd only manage to widen the grip by just a few centimeters, but soon succumbed to the pain to the point that she felt dizzy as it clamped back down tightly into her, feeling her armour starting to dent and buckle. 'Why did this have to happen to me... My motor circuitry is... I can barely move... Where did this pain come from? Why was I fine the whole time that I'm now...' The criminal's grip began to tighten, crying out in agony once again.
"That sturdy, eh? Well it shouldn't be too long until you're offline!" By now, Aerial Radiance's body was beginning to spew out a mix of hydraulic fluid and fuel, a clear indication that the support vehicle's armour had been breached where the criminal was crushing. Because of her design, Radiant Prism couldn't eject due to obstruction, completely trapped in her own combined form.
Warning signs of all manner were flashing up on her visuals, Aerial Radiance continued to try and struggle despite the little to no movement due to her damaged motor circuitry and loss of hydraulic fluid. She wanted to move but she could barely even bend her elbows, she wanted the agonising pain and the damage she was receiving from the criminal she's caught in their grip to go away. She was taken completely by the pain that she didn't recognise that she had been shot free. Their words of telling her to get away completely fell on deaf audios.
She couldn't tell what was going on around her.
-J-Decker, something is wrong with Aerial Radiance.- Shadowmaru informed the combiner privately as he flew around, preparing to fire a couple of rounds at the base of the clawed appendage. -Not only has she lost her ability to properly move, but it seems that something is wrong with her Super A.I., I can't explain what's going on with her but it might be why she can't seem to respond to us, but it seems to be giving her so much pain.-
'What?' J-Decker thought as he listened to Shadowmaru explain the situation with Aerial Radiance. Could it be due to the extensive damage that she was suffering under the criminal's grip that's causing this? He couldn't tell, but one thing he needed to do was to get her free. "Deckerd, what's happened to Aerial Radiance?" Yuuta asked with worry just as J-Decker managed to break away from the criminal just enough to draw out his police baton. "I'm not sure, but the others will know once we get her back to the station." He replied to his friend, quickly dodging a couple more incoming attacks before finally thrusting his weapon into the base of the arm appendage, breaking it off.
"Super Build Tiger, take Aerial Radiance and get out of here, now!" J-Decker ordered as Duke Fire helped him redirect the criminal's attention away.
"Understood!" Acknowledged Super Build Tiger. Once J-Decker and the other four redirected the criminal's attention away and forced them to move away, the large combiner retrieved Aerial Radiance and flew back towards Nanamagari City as fast as they could. Just as he began to leave, the criminal's attention was drawn to the retreating combiner, but the other five Braves were quick to prevent them from trying anything against their friend, each taking a few shots at them.
"Going somewhere?" Gunmax Armour smirked. "We still have a few words with you."
"Tch! Annoying thorns in my sides the lot of you!" The criminal began charging towards Duke Fire but quickly backed away, evading the massive sword swung in their direction. When they straightened themselves up, the machine suddenly fell to it's side. Apparently what the criminal failed to notice was that while he missed getting hit, the red combiner had managed to get their machine's left rows of legs.
"Crap! I need to... G-Get away!" The criminal exclaimed, frantically trying to improve his controlling of the machine, but it was far more difficult thanks to the half-severed legs.
In unison, Duke Fire and J-Decker readied their respective melee weapons, sprinting towards the criminal's machine and impaled it while avoiding the area in particular where the criminal was located. As quickly as they delivered the final blow to the machine, both combiners quickly freed their weapons and retreated back just enough to get clear of the explosion. Having spotted the criminal escaping the blast in an escape pod, Gunmax Armour quickly spotted the fleeing criminal and grabbed hold. "I'm sure you'll love for me to give you the full list as to why you're hitting the-"
"Damn you Brave Police! I will have my-"
"Talking back? Well I suppose I'll have to pile extra decades of prison time with your criminal record."
"E-Eh!? You can do that!?" They exclaimed. Stunned at being given that many years, the criminal stared at the Motorcycle Detective in disbelief. The expression alone was enough to make Gunmax Armour smirk seeing that the little choice of words were enough to scare them completely. Knowing the others will be arriving soon to take them off their servos, he began descending back down onto the ground. "Only for me to know." Despite this, Gunmax Armour wasn't sure if that was even within his or the others' power to add a few more decades of prison time, but shrugged internally at the thought. Something like that fell onto other branches of the police department.
...
"Eh!? You weren't the one causing the landslides?" Yuuta asked, currently interrogating the recently captured criminal alongside Deckerd and a few others. It was only a few minutes into the interrogation but the answer had remained the same, much to everyone's uncertainty if it was true or not.
"As I said, I know nothin' about no landslides! You've got the wrong guy for that sort of dirty work nor do I know anyone with that sorta plan!"
"How can we be sure you're not trying to sneak your way out of this?" Power Joe said, stepping forward as the criminal inched slightly back.
"I ain't, I ain't! I worked alone! Used to work for some other people but those days were long gone thanks to you guys capturing them one by one!" The criminal snapped back in defence.
Annoyed, Power Joe just about lost his cool but Kagerou placed a servo onto his shoulder, shaking his helm. "He's speaking the truth. I'm not detecting any form of lies radiating from them. It seems that our target... Or targets for that matter are still at large, whomever is the one responsible for those landslides." He then let go of the Kung-Fu Detective and turned his attention to Yuuta and Deckerd as police members returned to take the criminal away knowing they were done with them.
"Is something wrong, Kagerou?" Deckerd asked as the others present in the interrogation room left.
"No, nothing of the sort, but you should go down to the repair bay and see what the mechanics have found wrong with Radiant Prism." Kagerou paused, giving himself a moment then looked back at them once again. "It's... Difficult to explain unless you ask the Chief Engineer to show you. Considering your statuses as leaders of the entire Brave Police, I only found it fitting to inform the both of you." With nothing else to say, Kagerou decided that it was time to join his Brother into seeing about looking into finding any clues that could help the team locate and pinpoint the ones responsible for the earlier landslide incidents. "I have to go, Shadowmaru wants to see if we can find anymore clues that could lead us to our main culprit behind the natural- No, unnatural disaster."
Deckerd nodded. "Do that, whatever you and Shadowmaru find, let us know about anything related to the case immediately."
"Understood." Replied Kagerou, taking his leave. Once the prototype had gone, Yuuta looked over to Deckerd with concern. "We should go see what's wrong with Radiant Prism. I hope she's okay..." Nodding, Deckerd was just about to turn and meet Yuuta downstairs, just like one of the things they'd always do after finishing up their interrogation with a criminal, but when Yuuta called out for him, he turned to look at him. "Um... Could I come with you down to the repair bay?"
"Sure." Deckerd smiled as he approached his friend, gently extending a servo, palm upwards towards his best friend then bringing it back up to him once Yuuta climbed in. Together they made their way down to the repair bay, immediately spotting Radiant Prism who was horribly dented, clear that while she had suffered severe damage as Aerial Radiance, she looked just as battered just like the times she's been defeated by the trio of criminals she struggled to defeat and arrest. However, this time she didn't look active, noting the absence of light in her optics. Deckerd gently sets Yuuta back down next to the Chief Engineer, where the young boy readily asked Toudou what was wrong with Radiant Prism.
Toudou only frowned, shaking his head.
"We're at a complete loss with our finding, and in some ways I'm puzzled even more that I failed to notice this earlier during the times I've had her come in for her routine maintenance checkups even when I performed them for the first time she came here." He replied. "The others and I had to deactivate her earlier otherwise she would've not only risked hurting herself but also accidentally hurt us. But the agony she had gone through looked similar to what the boys went through when they were resisting the influence of the harmful frequency waves caused by the Fahrzeurgs. However, in Radiant Prism's case..." He paused to look up at the deactivated foreign Brave, looking so sad. "The reason we're at a loss for words is that after multiple deep scans, we've found that her Super A.I. is... I have no idea how we've missed this, but we've discovered that it's littered with an incredibly large amount of firewalls..." He continued, shaking his head. "Too many to count but we know for a fact that they're the cause of her pain. If we didn't choose to deactivate her, that choice would be nothing more than letting her suffer more pain. These aren't firewalls part of the anti-virus system either, but instead just unnecessary junk added to them."
Yuuta and Deckerd could only stand there and stare, completely stunned. Both of them struggled to believe what was just said by the older man. Radiant Prism's Super A.I. littered with who knows how many firewalls, it was just far too unreal to believe someone would implant such a cruel act during production on the Super A.I. and in Radiant Prism's case... Perhaps maybe this was why she behaved a little unusual every now and then, or said things that were at times a bit strange, but neither of them were prepared to learn that all of this, and her pain and inability to register them was caused by all this...
"Chief... Is it possible to clean out those firewalls from her Super A.I.?" Deckerd asked slowly, hesitant about wanting to know the answer to his question.
"There are too many things I'm worried about related to the situation, but the primary thing I'm concerned about the most is whether or not it would be incredibly painful for Radiant Prism should the others and I take out one of the many firewalls." Replied Toudou, typing a few commands into the console.
"What were the firewalls used for? And why so many..." Yuuta asked.
"From what we've learned is that these firewalls seem to be blocking or even limiting some specific parts of her Super A.I., particularly most of the pre-fed information all Super A.I. start with when developing members for their own Brave Police team. Whomever was in charge of working on Radiant Prism either did this themselves, or was forced to ensure that she wasn't someone who asked too many questions or hesitated on tasks given to her. It could explain why she seemed to silently believe herself worthless compared to others. These firewalls might have unfortunately done some permanent damage to her altogether as a result of having these firewalls for so long but I'll need to know more before I can confirm... Well, at least that's what we're seeing." Toudou inputted a few more commands, the screen on the computer shifting to show a detailed image of Radiant Prism's Super A.I. followed by warning signs could be seen in parts of it. "This is unforgiving, nobody should do this to any of the Brave Police units..."
"So cruel... I can't believe anyone would do this..." Yuuta frowned, unable to imagine anyone who could go through this type of suffering. "Mr. Toudou, Radiant Prism can still be fixed, right...?"
"The mechanics and I are intending to wipe these firewalls out as soon as we can figure out- Hm... I see that a few firewalls may have also been removed. Only two... The only thing I can think of is that these removed firewalls might have been uncovered by Radiant Prism's anti-virus systems and neutralised it, but as a result caused her to suffer pain she couldn't describe. Every Super A.I. is not only pre-fed with information to start with after activation to let them adjust, develop their persoality, and other basic things, but also that they're equipped with the strongest anti-virus in existence that the others and I built to combat any criminals that may attempt to hack into their systems."
"Oh yeah! We have encountered some criminals that hacked into A.I. controlled objects back then..." Yuuta looked over to Deckerd then back to the Chief Engineer. "I remembered some of them tried to give Deckerd and the others the same treatment, but those guys were so shocked that their hacking equipment wasn't working on them."
Having noticed the time on one of the mechanics' watch, Deckerd knew that they needed to head back upstairs. "Yuuta we should return back to work, we still need to look into our current case."
Yuuta nodded but seemed concerned, looking back up at Radiant Prism. Toudou spoke telling Yuuta that he and his mechanics will do everything to get Radiant Prism fixed up. "If you'd like, we can update you and the others on current progress if we manage to make any." He told the young boy, knowing his passion for wanting to make sure all the BP units were okay.
"Yeah, I think we'd all like that. Thank you Mr. Toudou." Nodded Yuuta. Knowing he needed to let the mechanics get back to work, he stepped away and walked towards Deckerd knowing it was time to get back to work.
...
As the hours went by, it was time for Yuuta and Deckerd to return back home. Yuuta didn't have much to do in the way of work other than hear idle chatter about the day's events. As he entered his house, he announced to his sisters that he's home, pausing to see extra pairs of shoes that looked close to his own shoe size. 'Guests? Those shoes look like they belong to-'
"Ah, Yuuta. Welcome home." Smiled Azuki.
"Yuuta, hey!" Masaki grinned, having come out from the living room to greet his friend. "Surprised to see us? Kikumaro, Emily and I figured that we could come over and visit since we never get the chance to hangout much. Well it actually was Emily's idea."
"Sorry, Masaki... It's just really tough to find free time with work starting to get a little more active..." Yuuta frowned.
"The others and I figured since Radiant Prism joined Deckerd and the others. But speaking of that, I'm guessing that giant robot we saw on the news before the others came to help was her, right? Like how Deckerd becomes a bigger robot?"
"Yeah." Yuuta began taking his shoes off, then stepped forward. "Radiant Prism can combine like Deckerd can become J-Decker, she chose her name as 'Aerial Radiance' when she's combined." He said as the two of them went back into the kitchen where Kikumaro and Emily were, where they greeted Yuuta upon sight.
"It's a little disappointing what happened back there but we know that once she's repaired, she'll be back to normal all over again and put those criminals to a stop if more pop up!" Masaki said enthusiastically. "Yuuta, you really should see about finding a free day where all of us could meet Radiant Prism."
"There's so much we'd like to ask her, especially considering she's from so far away." Kikumaro added as Emily nodded in agreement, speaking next. "I think it's wonderful that girl robots are possible, Radiant Prism is a good example of that and maybe the others in Germany have also made other girl robots."
"I wouldn't know, the only team outside of the country the others and I talk to is Regina's team over in England." Yuuta replied with a shrug. "I don't know if any other countries around the world have started their own teams yet, otherwise we would have been in contact. I wasn't aware of Germany's own teams until we first met Radiant Prism, and then we've only about once talked to the first German robot."
"Really? I thought Radiant Prism was the first built robot over there..." Frowned Emily. She shook her head deciding to change the topic "Anyways, all three of us have some big stuff to tell you after we have dinner! Looks like everything's ready." At that moment, both Azuki and Kurumi were bringing the food over to the table as Masaki and Yuuta joined the others. The topic seemed to be more towards Yuuta, clearly they had their promise about wanting to tell him after dinner time while Azuki added in that she's not sure what she wants to be, and has trouble sticking to something she could be most passionate about after university while Kurumi talked about someone of interest from her high school. Eventually everyone finished and helped clean up and both Yuuta and his three friends went up to his room where they continued their talk about the Braves, but soon the topic would change when Masaki explained the big news on his end.
"Eh!? You're going to sign up for a sports club?" Yuuta exclaimed.
"Yeah, my family and I talked about it and I've been wanting to do more sports when I checked it out a few days back. You could say that because Drill Boy and Power Joe are like Brothers to one another, I guess Drill Boy's enthusiasm with soccer or even other sports got me pumped up for that." Masaki said. "Besides, I get to show Power Joe some cool moves in the future if he can try to make time so he could come watch me compete against other teams! But, it kinda sucks I wouldn't be able to play sports with either of those two since they're way too big for me to play sports with..." His attention then turned to Emily and Kikumaro. "What about you guys? It can't just be me with the big news about what I plan on doing!"
"Um..." Emily began, giving herself a moment to think. "There's some clubs that have my interest. But, I think I may consider joining the art club. I think Power Joe and the others might like my artworks." She looked at Yuuta. "Oh yeah! Yuuta, you did tell us that the Brave Police received a sculpture from a very famous sculpture artist years ago, right? I think the others would really like it if I give them all sorts of art they can hang on the walls. It can give them something nice to look at after coming back from dealing with whatever they're called to look into."
"That does sound like a good idea." Yuuta smiled. "There's a lot of empty space on the walls of my office too so I could hang all the pictures you draw up on the wall for the others to look at. Drill Boy has a knack for making some things their size, and aside from soccer, he's also very good at art."
"It's settled then! I'll be joining the art club!" Emily giggled. "I'll be making all sorts of art and I'll pick out the ones I'm most happiest with to send over to you guys!"
"Wow, you guys all have something you guys plan on doing after school. I would've loved to join some club activities but my job as Boss of the Brave Police keeps me from doing that." Yuuta replied with a sad smile. "Oh well, working alongside the others makes me really happy, because being able to ensure the criminals are locked up behind bars makes the city and even all of Japan a safer place." The three of them now turned their attention to Kikumaro, wondering about what plans he might have but grew concerned about how sad their friend looked.
"What's wrong, Kikumaro?" Masaki asked.
"It's amasing that you guys have activities you can all join and participate in..." He replied sadly. "For me, I won't be able to get to do any of that because my parents are starting to expect more from me because of how high I score on my report cards. And, what will make me really sad is..."
There was a long moment of silence as they began to worry greatly about their friend. Kikumaro was hesitant to continue but he knew that he had to tell his close friends. "I... I was told that we might be moving to a completely different school when we finish the current year we're in." As soon as those words left his mouth, everyone exclaimed in utter shock. Masaki quickly spoke asking Kikumaro where his school would be and the other two became curious, and that only seemed to worsen his sadness. "It's not in Nanamagari City either but it's in Tokyo, called 'Kaisei Junior and Senior High School'. But, I'm more happier being in the same school as you guys, even if we sometimes may not end up in the same classes together. If I went to that school... I wouldn't recognise anyone there, and I'm not that great at making friends."
"Whoa... That private school is one of the best schools in Japan." Yuuta said slowly. "Not only that but not only a a junior high school but it's also a senior high school, too. I think enrolling there would mean that we'd have to wear a uniform, too."
"Have you told your parents that you'd rather stay in the same school as us?" Emily asked worryingly.
"Yeah, but they still want me to enroll in Kaisei next year..." Replied Kikumaro, shaking his head. "I don't really have much of a choice."
Emily became even more concerned. "Maybe we could all try to apply for the same school you're going to?"
"We could, but you won't be able to, Emily." Replied Masaki unhappily. His response earned a saddened look from Emily, asking why she couldn't enroll in that school to which he looked away with a frown. "Because that's a boys school! Girls can't enroll in that school!" There was a long silence and the mood had completely withered away, what had been such an active happy talk had shifted into sadness due to Kikumaro's parents enrolling him to a completely different school far from them. Yuuta and Masaki both knew that even if they wanted to enroll in the same school as Kikumaro, it was impossible on their respective levels due to it's incredible reputation and difficulty to get into. But, at the same time they didn't want to be apart from Emily either.
"H-Hey, at least we're all still here together and in the same school." Kikumaro said slowly with a small smile. "I can't promise, but I'll try to talk to them again about remaining in the same school with you guys when we get around towards the end of the year, I can't think of being in any other school but the same one all four of us can enroll in."
"Yeah! Friends stick together no matter what." Yuuta exclaimed happily.
"Let's lighten the mood up with some games." Emily suggested. "We can't let sad things keep us down!"
The four of them began playing games together and talked about hilarious things they witnessed during school or on breaks, each sharing the best or even funniest things they've seen. Eventually when it was time to go home, Yuuta and the others came back down and walked towards the door. Just as they were about to get into their shoes, Azuki tells Yuuta that she found an old camera while she was cleaning some stuff out but wasn't sure if it still worked. This then gave Yuuta the greatest idea as he looked at his friends. "If it still works, we can take pictures together, so this way we have something for all of us to remember by!"
"Come to think of it, we haven't had an updated picture in a long time." Kikumaro replied with a nod.
"Let's hope it still works!" Azuki smiled. "Let's take pictures in the living room." Agreeing, the four of them followed Azuki into the living room where she took a couple of pictures of Yuuta with his friends, some were normal, some had struck poses, did silly faces, and other fun things. A few pictures in, Azuki looked at the camera when she realised that she couldn't hear anymore flashing. "Oh, out of film." She said upon realising the roll had been used up. "Well, I'll have to get the pictures extracted next time Kurumi and I go shopping for things. I wonder what other pictures were taken before we took these pictures..."
"Thank you very much Azuki!" Emily said.
"You're welcome." Azuki replied, her eyes were then fixated on the clock, noticing the time. "Oh no, it's really late..."
"Ah! I was going to ask Deckerd about helping them get home safely." Yuuta said. "I was going to say that but when you brought up the camera, I didn't get the cha-"
"Really!? You'll let Deckerd take us back home!?" Masaki exclaimed as the others two expressed what would've it been like if Deckerd or any of his friends gave them a ride. Yuuta gave a nod, saying that it's not safe at this time since it was pitch black outside. Once they were outside, Yuuta explained and asked Deckerd if he could escort them home since it was too dark for them to head home on their own, to which he was more than happy to. Once his friends were inside, he waved goodbye as Deckerd drove out of the garage and took his friends home. Heading back inside, he took his shoes off once again, then made sure they were neatly kept together then went in the direction of his room. His thoughts immediately went to the earlier conversation he and his friends had, particularly the club activities that Emily and Masaki planned to sign up for despite he was sad about that Kikumaro wouldn't be able to enroll in the same school as them when the next year for them rolls in. 'Well, even though it's still quite a ways away, the least Masaki, Emily, and I can do is make lots of memories with Kikumaro until we get around to crossing that bridge... It's not surprising considering that he's one of the most smartest kids in the school but I do hope his parents will allow him to enroll in the same school as the others and I...' He thought with a sigh, shutting the door behind him.
Laying on his bed, Yuuta's thoughts shifted once again, now primarily towards Radiant Prism and when she first came to Japan. What puzzled him primarily was that the trio of criminals that she originally dealt with back home had followed her all the way from there to here not too long after she flew here. Now that he thought about it more, he couldn't help but feel that something about the criminals coming all the way here was too suspicious. From his perspective, he also considered it unusual considering the number of criminals over the years he's faced alongside Deckerd and the others would rather attack when confronted committing their ill-doings but in the case of Radiant Prism's criminals, the felt like they more like bounty hunters or mercenaries of some sort. "They could be working for someone but it could also maybe be a form of obsession or deep hatred for her for whatever reason. But, I just don't get it... Germany is such a long way away from here and criminals usually like being able to steal things without intervention when they go stomping around in their machines or bio-machines. Hmm... Could it be that these guys hold some sort of deep grudge against her? Or... No... There needs to be more to these guys that we have yet to know, but what?" He muttered to himself quietly.
Yuuta had been deep in thought that he didn't register Deckerd having just returned to the residence after having dropped off his three friends at their homes. It wasn't until when Deckerd lightly tapped at his window. Immediately out of instinct, Yuuta greeted him. "Welcome back, Deckerd!"
"Thank you, Yuuta." Smiled Deckerd. He quickly realised that something seemed to be on the boy's mind, wondering what was he thinking about. "Still worried about Radiant Prism?" When Yuuta nodded, Deckerd frowned. "We all are... But the Chief knows what he's doing. Those firewalls will be removed from Radiant Prism's Super A.I. before we know it."
"Yeah... But there's something else on my mind." He looked at his friend. "Deckerd, I know I don't have any proof of this, but I'm really starting to think something just doesn't feel right about the whole... Situation with Radiant Prism and the three criminals that came all the way out here looking for her." The boy's words were enough to confuse Deckerd, which Yuuta explained further. "The years we've worked together and dealt with criminals, we've never had any actively target us in particular, but these criminals that came here shortly after Radiant Prism came to Japan..." Yuuta paused, looking away as he shook his head. "I feel like there's more to this, because think about it... Why would those criminals go through the trouble of coming all the way here with the intent of solely targeting Radiant Prism every chance they get? They wouldn't even have known she flew all the way over here in the first place, I think somebody with close ties must be responsible for having sent them after her..."
As Yuuta continued to explain things he was piecing together, Deckerd was also finding bits of the situation strange as well, he couldn't think of anyone that could target them, save for the one time a certain assassin targeted Yuuta years ago. "Hm... Perhaps we could ask about looking into her past memories to find anything and perhaps learn more clearly from her than what she had told us to get a better picture of everything that happened. However, we shouldn't jump to that right away once those firewalls have been eliminated, it could be overwhelming for her because she'll need time to adjust to the pre-fed information and other vital parts that have been locked away from her in those firewalls." He replied. "But, I can understand where you're coming from. All we know is things that Radiant Prism has told us, and the information Redlight would sometimes send me about her."
"Eh? Do you think Redlight is the one behind all this?"
Deckerd shook his helm. "No, because Redlight genuinely cares for Radiant Prism and is known to be the first BP built in the country. He and those he works with can't be our suspect considering Radiant Prism speaks highly about him quite often. He told me in an email that he ordered her to flee the country when her harsh Commissioner had wanted her disposed for failure of arresting the three criminals that have followed her here." Deckerd began to recall a small part of something that he mentioned in the midst of one of the emails he had been sent but decided against mentioning it. "What I've also been told is that he and the team from up north have responded to the incident after Redlight saw what happened in the news upon her defeat, but those criminals fled by the time they reached Essen, and weren't seen again. It wasn't until a couple of days later when the team from the south part of the country spotted them during patrl and managed to defeat and arrest them in a short time. This was before the machine they stole and currently pilot, and according to reports..." Deckerd paused with a frown, even he was puzzled by what he was about to say. "Strangely, not long after their arrest... Neither Redlight or his fellow German Braves could find any clues nor did anyone witness what happened except for spotting or hearing explosions coming from the prison they were locked up in. Only those three criminals were freed while the walls of other prisoner cells were left intact, which is the most unusual and confusing case I've heard of."
"Eh!? But then how did they get that strange machine that was supposed to be used as some backup plan against the Chieftain army or whatever!?" Yuuta exclaimed with surprise. Deckerd's optics averted for a moment but focused back to his best friend. "No one knows, but it's suspected they either managed to sneak in and steal the machine, or posed as members to slip around security." Deckerd replied. "However, I'm not sure if we can conduct an investigation on a matter outside of the country unless we have special permission because we don't have the authority to do so. Even if she's working alongside us, we need to respect that unlike Duke, she didn't come here to work alongside us permanently. I think Redlight and the others would want her to come back to Germany once her criminal situation is over. As you might have known from the winged crest she wears on her helm, she's one of the leaders."
"Leaders? Wait, what about Redlight? If he's the first BP, doesn't that mean that Radiant Prism is in the same position as Duke?"
"No, as I've mentioned, there are four separate teams each protecting parts of Germany while the center is protected by all four sides. Redlight has a team of his own and deals with crime in the east part of the country stationed in Berlin. Radiant Prism is assigned to deal with crime in the west where she was originally stationed in Dortmund with a team she was originally supposed to have, but ended up working solo for reasons unknown. Radiant Prism is about the same rank as he, King, and I even if she refuses to see herself as such." There a moment of silence, but the moment Deckerd scanned for the time, he realised that their conversation had been going on for quite some time and it was getting late. "Ah, we can talk more about this tomorrow. It's getting late and you should sleep, you have school in the morning."
Yuuta glanced over at his wall clock, seeing how much time had passed. "Oops! Yeah... I should get to bed. Goodnight, Deckerd."
"Goodnight, Yuuta." Replied Deckerd with a small smile.