[ a hand reaches up to rub at his eye before he flinches pretty hard, remembering it's still tender. ]
I did design Roboji to carry a little more than my own weight. [ that's not an answer. ] ...help me with the worst of it for now, and then if there's time I'll try another half hour before we have to go set up everything else.
[ he kind of does without meaning to, which means shu can tell he's still a little warm to the touch in addition to being burnt and bruised as shit. yay. but he's out and he's favoring one foot over the other. ]
...chest and ankle, probably. I don't think it's broken but putting weight on it's getting harder. And...[ gestures. there are large claw marks in his chest that are thinly closed. those should be obvious.
the eye is the worst but given it's healed enough to scar over it's okay. ]
[ i do not control the die. he's busy regaining his balance, though he's glancing around the medbay like he'll magically know where bandages and wraps and the like are. ]
Yeah. [ it's an aside, and maybe it's easier to address that than really think. ] When I first made Robota I designed it to carry up to forty-five pounds. So when I made Roboji I knew I wanted at least double that, so I went above it. [ glancing at his foot. the pod at least helped set it, but it's very much a situation of "this is not fixed and should not be pushed." ] Ankle first is probably a good idea.
It might be a bit uncomfortable. I'm gonna do it kinda tight -- but tell me if it outrightly hurts.
[ he will wrap. with the skill of someone who has absolutely wrapped their own wounds a number of times. ]
Yeah? That's how technology advances though, isn't it? I did it this way the first time, so this time my goal is to double it, make it better, faster, stronger, whatever.
Yeah. [ he probably won't because he's pretty sure by nature of things it'll hurt, but he does know his limits. the bright side is he absolutely trusts shu to know what he's doing so he'll be good and still for this. ]
And yeah, exactly. I started building Robota when I was about eleven and then it was a lot of finetuning and adjustments. I spent a lot of time looking around for parts and scavenging junk shops for pieces I needed, plus reading up on how to get some of the framework to stabilize but it worked. I wasn't really planning on making Roboji, but when Robota went missing I rebuilt the same robot and applied all of my upgrades to him instead. [ there's a slight wince again but he's okay for now. ] Roboji managed to carry Ryuki just fine, so...I know it works.
Not exactly. We've met a few times, but he's a guy who works in the same department as Mizuki. He was working on the Half-Body case years before she joined, and then when the case reopened they were working on it together.
[ mmmmm. MMMMMMM. he looks a little frustrated at the question, but more because of the nature of the answer than at shu himself. also this is actually a good distraction to get his mind off of the horrors of cyoa as much as he'd be mad to realize that. ]
I didn't lose it. It got stolen while I was out of town for a few days.
[ ...well. shu did see how the confrontation went before thanks to memshare, so he's slightly less cagey about this. ]
No, just people close to me. [ ... ] Amame used Robota to move half of Tearer's corpse to the stadium for Mizuki to find. It's what reopened the whole case.
The guy who killed my dad and Amame killed in return, yeah. [ he just says it. ] There were complications about the case that led to a whole different part of that investigation but...both of my robots had the one-wheeled design, and the tracks were visible on the stadium field. It was just a piece of figuring out the truth.
With a victim like that, lawyers would have a pretty easy case ahead of them to get her off with a light sentence. [ as long as they know what they're doing. ] You talked about it like the cops would talk about a serial killer case -- "Half Body"? They only give out titles to the repeat offenders.
Yeah. [ to all of this, but he's looking at his feet. ] By the time he was stopped there were three victims. All six years ago. But because of the nature of how his body was discovered every came open again. [ a pause. ] I don't remember if I told you, but the guy called himself Tearer because he would cut his victims in half and leave the different halves in different places.
Amame's lawyer thinks they should be able to get her a lighter sentence because of the things Tearer had done and was planning to do, but it's too early to say for sure.
That... sounds unnecessarily cruel and complex. [ he doesn't ask 'why', because he's not an absolute ass who asks a kid to think on the reasons why a psychopath decided to cut his dad in half. ]
... Bluntly, if the lawyer's good, they'll swing her a lighter sentence. [ BLUNT. ] Offing a serial killer who personally cause them emotional harm and-- well if she was close enough to kill the guy, you can absolutely argue self defence and a psychological distress and you can argue it well.
[ there's no getting off scott free, she killed a guy. but-- she'd have the sympathy of any jury. ]
It was a complicated case. [ and even he doesn't fully know all of the details, but...yeah. he can agree with that. ]
When I get back I'll have to remind her to argue that much. She's been pretty upset since it happened that I'm not sure she's thinking straight about it. There're other complications about what she did that make it less straightforward is the thing, but...the blackmailing that followed wasn't her fault either. I'm going to have to help her however I can.
Yeah, getting her off the hook entirely's a no but... it's not even her, a good lawyer can coax things out of people. That's their job, as long as she can be perusaded to trust them, they'll get what they can.
Wasn't her idea to take Tearer's body to the stadium. Someone found her after she killed him and coerced her into a bigger plan that led to someone else's death. [ the rabbit hole...she goes deep. ] ...I trust my sister to fight for herself, but I am a little worried she'll be too scared to explain everything even with a lawyer on her side.
[ again, this is a horrible conversation but it's a good distraction from being bandaged up. ]
[ well, he’s just about done with the foot and is moving onto these flipping claw marks, child. what did you do. ]
… [ he sighs. ] There’s always someone who’s good to take advantage. [ i love you aini, you’re so unhinged. ]
You get visits with her? Probably better to work on her then. Might be kinda cruel at first, but bringing up that you miss her might be a good start. It looked like you’re close, so I’d be surprised if she’d be okay with leaving you alone longer than she has to.
[ sometimes...things happen. he's standing pretty still to accommodate this. ]
Yeah. That's a whole other long story. [ he nods though. ] ...I was actually leaving the detention center with Genny when I got stuck here. I've gone to see her every day since her arrest. It's only been a week. [ ... ] ...I've been living by myself since my dad died, but she would always come by to visit and make sure the house was taken care of and I had everything I needed. I can obviously figure out how to take care of myself now, but I kinda doubt she'll be happy about it either.
[ every day i think about how aini really just decided their mom just doesn't exist. ]
[ YEAH— no wait, amame lives with their mother and then she just went oh well ok other child now your guardian is dead i guess you can just stay right the fuck where you are?? AINI PLEASE MAKE SENSE. ]
I don’t think it matters if you’re the most competent homemaker on the planet or not, she’s your sister.
[ simple. ] Even if shit’s complicated, siblings tend to look out for each other.
[ ignores his own circumstances to look at whatever knives and vash are doing we really made hei rp with themselves huh. ]
[ I DON'T UNDERSTAND AINI. also stop shaking me shu could straight up ask. but shoma's fine with this. ]
Yeah. [ ... ] I've had a little bit of time to think about everything that happened and I still don't know how I feel about certain things, but it's the same reason I know that when I get back I have to do what I can to take care of her, too. So it's not like I don't get that.
[ I THINK IF WE DID WE'D BE VERY CONCERNED FOR OUR OWN SAFETY. ]
... [ he nods. ] Well, if you need extra advice I know a lawyer. He's working in American law rather than Japanese, but he might have some ideas for you and your sister if I pitch him the outline.
[ he finishes wrapping up the claw marks and sits back. ]
...I'll keep that in mind before we leave. Thanks. [ he could use all the help he could get, mostly. but everything's wrapped and he's settling on one of the beds for a bit. ]
...it was different than last time. We at least knew we were going, and Io told us we had to clear up a CEM storm so we could keep going. We had to go to another planet and find the source of the storm to remove it entirely. But the whole thing was...pretty bad. [ ... ] We had to go inside a slaughterhouse that doubled as a prison.
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I did design Roboji to carry a little more than my own weight. [ that's not an answer. ] ...help me with the worst of it for now, and then if there's time I'll try another half hour before we have to go set up everything else.
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ok well. he'll wander over and help shoma out of the pod carefully. he can lean on him. ]
Deal. Even 30 minutes will help, if you can get them. It all looks pretty bad, but what's the worst right now?
[ he'll focus on that. ]
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...chest and ankle, probably. I don't think it's broken but putting weight on it's getting harder. And...[ gestures. there are large claw marks in his chest that are thinly closed. those should be obvious.
the eye is the worst but given it's healed enough to scar over it's okay. ]
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... You said roboji can carry you, right? [ he's thinking he should take the robot up on that, especially if his ankle is hurting. ]
Right. I'll do the ankle first, it should support it a bit too. [ and then the claw marks... ]
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Yeah. [ it's an aside, and maybe it's easier to address that than really think. ] When I first made Robota I designed it to carry up to forty-five pounds. So when I made Roboji I knew I wanted at least double that, so I went above it. [ glancing at his foot. the pod at least helped set it, but it's very much a situation of "this is not fixed and should not be pushed." ] Ankle first is probably a good idea.
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[ he will wrap. with the skill of someone who has absolutely wrapped their own wounds a number of times. ]
Yeah? That's how technology advances though, isn't it? I did it this way the first time, so this time my goal is to double it, make it better, faster, stronger, whatever.
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And yeah, exactly. I started building Robota when I was about eleven and then it was a lot of finetuning and adjustments. I spent a lot of time looking around for parts and scavenging junk shops for pieces I needed, plus reading up on how to get some of the framework to stabilize but it worked. I wasn't really planning on making Roboji, but when Robota went missing I rebuilt the same robot and applied all of my upgrades to him instead. [ there's a slight wince again but he's okay for now. ] Roboji managed to carry Ryuki just fine, so...I know it works.
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That a friend of yours? Ryuki?
[ hmm. ]
... I have to ask, how did you lose a whole robot? If Robota's like Roboji, it's can't have been small.
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[ mmmmm. MMMMMMM. he looks a little frustrated at the question, but more because of the nature of the answer than at shu himself. also this is actually a good distraction to get his mind off of the horrors of cyoa as much as he'd be mad to realize that. ]
I didn't lose it. It got stolen while I was out of town for a few days.
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... Someone who knew where it was? Did many people know you built a whole robot?
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No, just people close to me. [ ... ] Amame used Robota to move half of Tearer's corpse to the stadium for Mizuki to find. It's what reopened the whole case.
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... Tearer. That was the guy who--? [ death. hmm. ]
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And you were surrounded by a few detectives.
[ ... ]
With a victim like that, lawyers would have a pretty easy case ahead of them to get her off with a light sentence. [ as long as they know what they're doing. ] You talked about it like the cops would talk about a serial killer case -- "Half Body"? They only give out titles to the repeat offenders.
[ says the uh. serial killer of hitmen. ]
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Amame's lawyer thinks they should be able to get her a lighter sentence because of the things Tearer had done and was planning to do, but it's too early to say for sure.
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That... sounds unnecessarily cruel and complex. [ he doesn't ask 'why', because he's not an absolute ass who asks a kid to think on the reasons why a psychopath decided to cut his dad in half. ]
... Bluntly, if the lawyer's good, they'll swing her a lighter sentence. [ BLUNT. ] Offing a serial killer who personally cause them emotional harm and-- well if she was close enough to kill the guy, you can absolutely argue self defence and a psychological distress and you can argue it well.
[ there's no getting off scott free, she killed a guy. but-- she'd have the sympathy of any jury. ]
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When I get back I'll have to remind her to argue that much. She's been pretty upset since it happened that I'm not sure she's thinking straight about it. There're other complications about what she did that make it less straightforward is the thing, but...the blackmailing that followed wasn't her fault either. I'm going to have to help her however I can.
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[ hm. ]
Yeah, getting her off the hook entirely's a no but... it's not even her, a good lawyer can coax things out of people. That's their job, as long as she can be perusaded to trust them, they'll get what they can.
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[ again, this is a horrible conversation but it's a good distraction from being bandaged up. ]
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… [ he sighs. ] There’s always someone who’s good to take advantage. [ i love you aini, you’re so unhinged. ]
You get visits with her? Probably better to work on her then. Might be kinda cruel at first, but bringing up that you miss her might be a good start. It looked like you’re close, so I’d be surprised if she’d be okay with leaving you alone longer than she has to.
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Yeah. That's a whole other long story. [ he nods though. ] ...I was actually leaving the detention center with Genny when I got stuck here. I've gone to see her every day since her arrest. It's only been a week. [ ... ] ...I've been living by myself since my dad died, but she would always come by to visit and make sure the house was taken care of and I had everything I needed. I can obviously figure out how to take care of myself now, but I kinda doubt she'll be happy about it either.
[ every day i think about how aini really just decided their mom just doesn't exist. ]
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…
[ YEAH— no wait, amame lives with their mother and then she just went oh well ok other child now your guardian is dead i guess you can just stay right the fuck where you are?? AINI PLEASE MAKE SENSE. ]
I don’t think it matters if you’re the most competent homemaker on the planet or not, she’s your sister.
[ simple. ] Even if shit’s complicated, siblings tend to look out for each other.
[ ignores his own circumstances to look at whatever knives and vash are doing we really made hei rp with themselves huh. ]
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Yeah. [ ... ] I've had a little bit of time to think about everything that happened and I still don't know how I feel about certain things, but it's the same reason I know that when I get back I have to do what I can to take care of her, too. So it's not like I don't get that.
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... [ he nods. ] Well, if you need extra advice I know a lawyer. He's working in American law rather than Japanese, but he might have some ideas for you and your sister if I pitch him the outline.
[ he finishes wrapping up the claw marks and sits back. ]
So. What happened? [ there u go, ty. ]
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...it was different than last time. We at least knew we were going, and Io told us we had to clear up a CEM storm so we could keep going. We had to go to another planet and find the source of the storm to remove it entirely. But the whole thing was...pretty bad. [ ... ] We had to go inside a slaughterhouse that doubled as a prison.
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