Episode 13: "His Grave"

Santaro Mita
"There you guys are. Sorry for makin' you come all the way here."

Santaro and the Four Children were waiting for everyone by a fenced area in Azabu Crossing.
There was a vending machine and a large ash tray; it looked like a run of the mill city corner rest stop.

Kazuki Aoyama
"So, what is it you wanted to show us?"

Santaro Mita
"This."

Sitting in one section of the rest stop was a space with a metal two-door closet installed.
The closet had been decorated with a large trophy on top.
In front of it was a litany of things like flowers and coffee cans. Prominently featured was a photograph of a white haired, handsome young man.
Upon seeing that...
Yo was struck with an unfamiliar sense of discomfort.

Koishi Kohinata
"...Is this supposed to be a grave? In a place like this?"

Ichiro
"Yes, it belongs to a dear friend of ours."

Jiro
"We decided now would be the best time to come visit, it had been a while after all."

The closet was serving as a stand-in for a gravestone. The number of flowers that had been placed by it spoke to how much he was adored while he was alive.

Yutaka Gotanda
"Could this be..."

Santaro Mita
"Yeah. It's that guy's grave. Ah, right, I don't think Kazuki ever had the chance to meet him in person."

Santaro and the Four Children stared solemnly at the photo.
Yo took another look over their shoulder, eyes fixated on the 'him' in the photo.
That's when it happened...

Yo Kuronaka
"...!"

He felt a sharp pain in his head.
It seems like the same thing was happening to Kazuki, Tsuruko and Koishi.
Scowls appeared on their faces as they gripped their heads.

Santaro Mita
"Hm? Y'all okay? Somethin' the mattter?
Need to head back and lie down?"

Kazuki Aoyama
"We're... we're fine. It'll pass if we rest for a minute."

Yo Kuronaka
"A-Ah, that reminds me. I'm sorry for not properly addressing him. I should at least make a prayer for him..."

Yo felt the pain recede slightly and put his hands together before the grave.
For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling like this wasn't the first time he had seen 'him'.
But he couldn't remember who he even was.
Tsuki bore a vacant, puzzled expression on her face.
Perhaps they were just imagining those feelings?
But, just as they were trying to retrace their memories...

(Crunch...)

A noise echoed.

Tsuruko Semba
"Huh?! I think I just heard something..."

(Crunch... crunch...)

The sound was coming from a pile of trash that had accumulated next to the vending machine.
Something was squirming underneath all of the trash...

Tsuki Iroha
"I-Is it a g-g-g-ghost?!"

Tsuki was pale, and the moment she said that...
(CRUNCH!)

With a strikingly loud sound, the trash heap began collapsing.
And what appeared from underneath all that trash was...
A round robot.
Its spherical body was actually its face, and a pair of arms and legs grew directly out of it.
As if it was modeled after a baseball umpire, it wore a catcher's mask on its face.

Kazuki Aoyama
"Is that... a robo-umpire? What's it doing in a place like this?"

Tsuruko Semba
"Oooh! They officiated XB games! They used to be all over the city, but after the governing rules came into play, they all but vanished."

Just like its appearance hinted, this robot used to referee matches.
But why was it in a place like this?

Robo-umpire
"Bzz... bzzzt..."

Responding to Tsuruko's voice, the robo-umpire's mouth began to open and close.
It seemed like it was trying to say something.

Yutaka Gotanda
"It doesn't seem as though it's beyond repair. Let me take a look, I might be able to fix it up."

Yutaka pulled out a set of tools from out of nowhere, and begain repairing the robot.
He loosened the screws and popped off the cover panel, then with a soldering iron he began soldering together the wires that had been severed.
He replaced the dead motor, changed out some of the gears, applied oil in various places. The repairs continued smoothly without any issue.

Robo-umpire
"Bzzt. You fixed me. Thank you."

Koishi Kohinata
"Awesome! It's all fixed up!"

Thanks to Yutaka's excellent repair, the robo-umpire was now able to speak.

Santaro Mita
"Why were you even in a place like this? I mean, I'm shocked you hadn't been found til' now."

Santaro quickly inquired about its situation.

Robo-umpire
"Bzzt. I was found once. But someone brought me here to hide me. Bzzt. That person paid their respects at the grave, but after that, they... never came back."

Tsuki Iroha
"Aww. They sound like a really kind person. I wonder if they liked XB?"

Tsuki spoke as if impressed.
It was true, for a person to go through all the trouble of carrying around such a large robot and then hiding it; it had to take someone with a lot of love for XB.

Ichiro
"But, if it was here this whole time, someone may have found it and broke it at some point."

Jiro
"How about we bring it back to the secret base when things calm down? After all, it's an important living witness of XB."

Saburo
"True! Until then, do your best to stay hidden little buddy. It would be dangerous if you were found by the 24 Tribe."

Robo-umpire
"Bzzt. Understood."

Yo and the others returned the robo-umpire to where they found it, carefully covering it in trash so that it wasn't visible.

Santaro Mita
"Rightio, how 'bout we head back? Thanks for comin' out this way!"

After they finished covering up the robot, they turned around to head back to their secret base when...

Robo-umpire
"Bzzt. If you see the man with red hair, please thank him for me."

Yo Kuronaka
"...Huh?"

Hearing those words, Yo stopped dead in his tracks.
Red hair...
The face that shot to the forefront of his mind when he heard those words was...

Tsuki Iroha
"Earth to Yo! C'mon! Let's get going!"

Yo Kuronaka
"Ah, yeah, sorry."

Yo returned to his senses when Tsuki called out to him.

Tsuki Iroha
"We're so close to returning Sui back to normal. When he's finally back to his old self, I'm going to give him a real earful!"

Kazuki Aoyama
"Well, it's still tough to say if we're going to win. To that end, we need to have a strategy meeting."

Kazuki was right, at this point, their odds of winning were low.
It was going to take a brilliant strategy if they wanted any shot at beating Sui now that he had gained overwhelming power after becoming Number 9.
Yet, no one was worried. They were going to win for sure.
As long as they had each other, they would win. That's what Yo kept repeating to himself on the way back to the secret base.