[Brave Police AU] 3/3

[alcesverdes]

Title: --
Fandom: Brave Police J-Decker
Wordcount: ~12600 in total | This part: ~4200
Rating: PG
Genre: AU
Warning(s): Violence, I guess
Notes: Cellphones didn't exist as we know them now when the original canon was created, so I went with that.

Part I | Part II

---

Toudou enjoyed the ride the best he could, which was not at all. This mess only worsened at every turn. He wasn't sure the PDE left enough traces for Saejima and his team to follow when they came to the warehouse. He hoped the Commissioner would put the pieces together as he usually did.

He shouldn't have underestimated the technicians of the PDE. They cracked Deckerd's code faster than he'd expected, and they didn't let him sit next to Yuuta. They couldn't keep making plans. But at least ha hadn't left his sight.

Toudou glanced at the kid, who wore a defiant expression on his face as he ate the candy bar. Maybe he'd come up with a plan. Or more like he thought he'd come up with a plan.

Yuuta's wound had to be the reason that Kimura didn't start by releasing the tapes of Deckerd's supposed attack. Both the boy and the robot said the truth. If he had to reconstruct the scene with what he knew, Toudou would say that Deckerd pushed Kimura away when he tried to shoot Yuuta, and that's how his arm broke. Therefore, in a way, Kimura was telling the truth as well. He shuddered.

The caravan got to the PDE building soon enough. The visitors parking lot was almost empty now, and Toudou saw his car exactly where he'd left it, untouched. Something less to worry about. On the other hand, the guards had doubled his numbers at least, as well. Some of them glared at the main gate, making sure the group of journalists who swarmed around the vehicles as soon as they saw them, remained on the other side. To be honest, Toudou had only see so much security during visits of foreign dignitaries.

True to his word, Kimura guided them to the infirmary and ordered one of the doctors and a nurse to tend Yuuta's wound. Under the pretense of concern, the man overlooked the procedure. No one told Toudou what to do, but he just knew the two armed goons at each side of the door wouldn't let him leave. With his options limited, but unable to sit down in one of the empty chairs and do nothing, he decided to address Kimura.

"I need to make a call."

"To the Commissioner?" Kimura asked. He sounded polite, but his mouth was twisted. "What for? Everything is been taking care of now."

Toudou took a deep breath and counted to ten. It wouldn't help his case to start yelling now. "To inform him. He was going to mobilize a team to find Deckerd."

Kimura smirked. "He shouldn't have bothered. As I said before, I took care of things before that outdated police department."

And he also said that they would destroy the 'defective unit', but Toudou didn't dare to say that out loud. Not with Yuuta withing hearing range.

"I still need to speak to him."

Before Kimura could answer, his sister, who had been busy talking with Yuuta, put her hand on her brother's good arm. "I'll take care of this."

Kimura raised an eyebrow. He stared at his sister's face for a moment. She held his gaze for longer than anyone else Toudou had witnessed before, until he pouted and gave up, throwing his hand into the air. "Whatever."

She smiled and turned to Toudou. "Please, follow me."

Toudou looked at Yuuta one last time. The boy had been brave and didn't complain from the treatment further than an occasional wince. The kid looked back at the man and nodded. He understood that Toudou didn't want to leave him alone, but also that he needed to do it. Toudou nodded back, took a deep breath once more and followed Kimura's sister. He had never spoken to her, and therefore he didn't have any reason to trust her. But he was reasonably sure she wasn't going to cause any harm to him.

Reasonably.

---

Yuuta felt himself go all red when the doctor, the nurse and miss Masako all told him how brave he'd been cleaning and bandaging his own wound. Even if they didn't seem interested in the part where Deckerd was the one to tell him how to do it. That lead the kid to the conclusion that all they want was to distract him from the pain of their own procedure. It did sting, but it wasn't that bad, specially after everything Yuuta had gone through.

"You're going to be fine," the doctor assured him, ruffling his hair.

"Thank you," Yuuta replied. He knew that already, at least as far as his wound was concerned. The bullet had only grazed him, and the damage wasn't beyond skin deep. Once the doctor finished bandaging him again, Yuuta felt better.

Then, his two allies left the room. Or, at least, his one ally--Mr. Toudou--and the one he was still on the fence about--miss Masako. However, it was important tht Mr. Toudou made that call. Not only they needed back up, but it would also cement miss Masako's status as being on their side. Yuuta hoped she was; the candy bar she gave him was delicious.

While he was thinking, Kimura asked the doctor and the nurse to give them some privacy. At the same time, what was left of Yuuta's optimism turned down a few notches.

Kimura walked across the room to sit down in front of Yuuta on the doctor's chair. "So," he began as the boy glared at him. "I need to have a good talk with your parents. You'll receive a compensation for all your troubles. Double if you refrain from mentioning your 'memory lapse' again. Which was of course caused by the kidnapping you suffered in BP-001's hands."

"Deckerd didn't kidnap me! He was protecting me from you!"

Kimura pursed his lips and waved his hand at Yuuta the same way he'd done it at Mr. Toudou before. "Deckerd is a giant robot. I understand that, as a child, you'd think of it as cool. But it is a machine. Machines don't have feelings. They can't think on their own. And you haven't given me your parent's phone number."

"Deckerd has a heart!"

"I refuse to debate such nonsense. Your parents, boy. Quick. How do I reach them?"

"They're out of the country."

"Figures," Mr. Kimura mumbled. "Then your guardian's number. Or whoever is looking after you."

Yuuta looked aside and folded his arms, doing his best not to wince since he forgot about his wound for a second. "You have so many people working for you. Ask them to find out themselves."

Yuuta risked a glance through the corner of his eyes. Mr. Kimura was red and frowning and the fingers of his good hand opened and closed in quick succession.

"I have no time for games," he said. "Give me a number."

"I want to see Deckerd."

"Boy--"

"I want to see Deckerd."

"I'm telling you now--"

Yuuta stood up and tightened his fists. "I. Want. To. See. Deckerd."

For a moment, it seemed like Kimura was about to start yelling, but then he took a deep breath and smirked. He stood up. "You want to see Deckerd? Very well, then. Come with me." He walked out of the room without checking if Yuuta went behind him. "So Masako says I can't improvise? Let's prove her wrong."

The tone of Mr. Kimura's last words scared Yuuta. Part of him wanted to hide in a corner and cry, but he wouldn't. The rest of him knew he had to be strong for Deckerd.

The child stood up as well and followed the man.

---

Miss Kimura was far more agreeable than her brother. It was a shame she wasn't the one to inherit the company, Toudou thought. He hadn't interacted with her before. Not really. But she didn't seem the kind who would snap at every turn and do things like shoot at a young kid while standing next to a sixteen-feet tall police officer.

As they were walking down the corridor toward her office--a nominal office, since she only nominally worked there--, Toudou scratched his head. He wouldn't lose anything with trying, even if he didn't have any real authority to do what he wanted.

"Before that call," he began halting in the middle of the hallway, "I'd like to see the security footage of the auditorium."

Masako turned around to face him, studying his face for a moment. "You don't believe my brother, Mr. Toudou?"

Toudou sighed. Having to admit this out loud hurt. "I do. But I also believe Yuuta and Deckerd."

She frowned for a long moment.

At least she's thinking about it.

"The robot gave you a report?" she asked.

Toudou nodded. "I guess we could call it that."

"What do you mean?"

"That kid, Yuuta, found the warehouse and activated Deckerd behind our backs while we were building him, and interacted with him enough to… well…" The engineer hesitated. Trying to talk about these things with someone he barely knew was harder than he thought. Not that he thought about it often, but in any case it was too late now. "To give him life. So to speak."

Masako's eyes widened. "What," she said. It wasn't even a question.

Toudou did not pout. If Saejima was here, he'd be able to convince her with the sheer power of his charisma. Heck, even Yuuta could do better and he was about ten. "I know how it sounds, but if we were to activate him again, you'll see it's true. He developed feelings, and doesn't need an order to act. That's why--" Here it came. There was only one way to deliver this. He took a deep breath before continuing. "That's why I believe Deckerd broke your brother's arm when he tried to stop him from shooting the boy."

"You make a bold accusation, Mr. Toudou. I'm aware my brother isn't exactly a pleasant person, but from there to shoot a child…"

"You saw his wound."

"I did. But I'm not an expert."

Toudou raised his arms. "And I'm not a detective, but that's the only scene I can put together from everyone's testimonies. The security footage is what could either prove me wrong or right, miss Kimura."

"Fine," she said, although it was obvious she wasn't happy about it. "I hope you're wrong." She backtrack a few steps and took a different turn in the next corner.

Toudou nodded and followed her again. He tried not to make evident that he wanted more than ever to be right.

---

Yuuta followed Mr. Kimura through a long corridor, then to a series of stairs that went downward, downward, downward, each step increasing the boy's fear.

The man finally opened the last door. "In here," he said.

"What's in there?" Yuuta asked.

Mr. Kimura smiled. "Only one way to find out," he said as he crossed the threshold.

Yuuta placed his good hand on his injured arm. He'd never felt so lonely before. A small voice in his head whispered to him just to give Mr. Kimura the information he wanted and go back to the world upstairs, to his sisters, and let Mr. Toudou and other adults handle this. But then, Deckerd's voice replaced it.

"Everyone was leaving me behind. I felt so lonely."

Yuuta frowned. He was not going to leave Deckerd behind, no matter what. Once they were reunited, neither of them would be lonely again. The kid straightened up and followed Mr. Kimura.

As they walked in, a series of lights turned on automatically, revealing a huge room, bigger even than the warehouse. At the other end, Yuuta could see Deckerd's body standing against the wall in a structure similar to the one he was kept on when Yuuta went to visit him.

"Deckerd!" Yuuta exclaimed.

"Wait," Mr. Kimura said, holding him by the shoulder.

Yuuta felt a pang on his shoulder, and he was sure Mr. Kimura grabbed him by the wounded one on purpose. The child looked up to glared at him for this and for stopping him.

Kimura didn't seem to notice. His eyes were fixed on Deckerd. "Your friend is deactivated, you know?"

"Well, then turn him on!"

"Why would I? That thing is a menace."

"Deckerd is not a thing!"

"Listen, boy. The BP-001 is a robot. With a very advanced artificial intelligence, yes, but it's still a robot. Robots don't have feelings."

"Deckerd does! He has a heart! The thing he did when he introduced himself--"

"Was a mistake," Mr. Kimura finished for him. "Someone was playing with its settings."

It wasn't often that Yuuta felt the need to kick someone's shin with this intensity.

"Just turn him on and you'll see--"

"See what? How my other arm is broken and you're kidnapped again? No, thank you. That robot is defective, and there's only one thing anyone can do with their defective property."

Yuuta's eyes widened. "What--what do you plan to do?"

Mr. Kimura took a hand-sized communicator from a nearby table. "Since I'm smart, I'll maximize the profit as much as I can." He spoke to the communicator. "Come forth."

Yuuta could hear then the clank of metal against the floor. Like when Deckerd moved, but the rhythm was entirely different. Soon enough, a robot as big as Deckerd came out from a corner. But that was where the similarities ended. He was bulkier and all black, and he didn't have any head. Instead, the line between shoulder and shoulder was flat. A lens in the middle of the chest had to be his eye.

"That's more like it," Mr. Kimura said. "This is the new model, KI-200. We created it from scratch. We did follow the original schematics, since we'd already bought them, but we made many modifications of our own."

"I don't understand."

"I'm about to do you a favor and demonstrate that robots are nothing but a collection of metal and cables, unable to feel nor to think on their own while I do some testing. Maximize the profit I tell you." Mr. Kimura spoke again to the communicator. "Destroy the BP-001 and don't stop until it's done."

"What?" Yuuta yelled. "You can't--"

"I can. I own it." At the same time, the KI-200 began moving toward his objective. "Isn't it great? The KI-200 is capable of speech, but it won't answer unless you ask directly--"

"Stop him!" Yuuta cried. "You have no right!"

"You are the one who has not right telling me what to do, boy! I am doing you a favor. You have to grow up!"

Yuuta kicked Mr. Kimura in the shin before dashing toward his friend. "Deckerd! You have to get out of there, Deckerd!"

"Stop right there, boy!" Mr. Kimura yelled. After the kick and with only one of his hands in good conditions, he had trouble keeping his balance.

Yuuta ignored him and kept running until he was between Deckerd and the other robot. He turned to face the KI-200, his arms spread wide open. "You have no right either! Nobody is going to destroy Deckerd!"

But the KI-200 just kept moving forward, one step at the time.

"It will only accept orders if they're given through the communicator!" Mr. Kimura growled. "Move aside!"

Yuuta ignored him again. The KI-200 kept getting closer and closer, but the kid didn't move. He wouldn't move. He only cared about Deckerd and never leaving him alone again. "Deckerd, you have to wake up!"

Mr. Kimura cursed under his breath. "Get the boy first," Mr. Kimura said to the communicator. Then, he addressed Yuuta. "Give up, boy. I'm the legitimate owner. I can do whatever I want with my robots."

Yuuta scowled as an answer.

The KI-200 didn't acknowledge having received the order, but given Mr. Kimura's face of satisfaction, he must've got them.

The KI-200 loomed over Yuuta and reached down to grab him. It was only then that Yuuta jump to get out of his way. However, instead of lifting it up again when he failed to catch him, the KI-200's hand hit the ground as if his intention was to squash the kid instead.

"What?" Mr. Kimura exclaimed. "I didn't mean to get him like that, you stupid machine!" He yelled directly at the robot, but the KI-200 only raised his hand to make another attempt at hitting Yuuta. He talked to the communicator again. "Stop."

The KI-200 didn't stop.

"Stop. KI-200, stop. Now."

The robot kept moving.

Mr. Kimura let out a loud growl. "It must have reached the limit of queued orders again! I told them to fix that bug last week! Kid, you better run."

Yuuta scream out of fear as he rolled away from the KI-200 for the second time. "Make it stop! Deckerd! Help!"

"The KI-200 won't stop until it fulfills its orders!"

Even as frightened as he was, Yuuta noticed Mr. Kimura grew desperate. Knowing him, he was scared of what would happen if someone found out about this.

"The BP-001 won't activate with your screams!" the man continued. "I'll call the technicians. You focus on running!"

Part of Yuuta wanted to go back and kick the man again. The other part noticed how tired he was already. On the other hand, the robot was tireless, and had given up trying to squash him with his hand. He tried to step on him with his big, metallic foot. The boy resorted to zigzag. He'd spend more energy, but it disoriented the robot for a moment.

However, while Mr. Kimura punched the buttons in a phone embedded in a wall, Yuuta tripped and fell down on the floor. The KI-200 was over him in less than a second. The giant foot raised to crush Yuuta.

The kid covered his head with his arms. "DECKERD!" he yelled with all he had.

The foot came down hard, but it didn't touch the boy. Instead, another metallic body crashed against the KI-200 and pushed him away, making him fly to the other side of the room.

---

Toudou and miss Masako stormed into the workshop right on time to see Deckerd tackling the other robot. They saw the scene from the security monitors, from where it seemed obvious that Kimura sent the black robot on purpose to murder the boy.

"Stay away from Yuuta!" Deckerd yelled while punching him to the other side of the room

It would be unfair to call that a fight, mainly because the KI-200 did not hit Deckerd back, busy as it was trying to follow his orders to get Yuuta first, reaching out to grab him, but Deckerd didn't stop hitting it, pushing the black robot further and further away from the boy until his fist broke the lens on the KI-200's chest. After pushing further, he ripped out a handful of cables. The KI-200 fell down on the ground, useless. It had become nothing but a pile of dented, smoking metal.

Toudou had never felt prouder in his entire life.

Deckerd went back to his little friend. He looked worried, even if Yuuta was standing up on his own now.

Toudou was about to join them when a movement caught from the corner of his eye distracted him.

As soon as it was obvious the boy was safe, miss Masako turned around and with one fluid movement, hit her brother in the gut with her fist. That immediately ranked as Toudou's second proudest moment of the day.

"What were you thinking?" she said.

"It--it went out of control!" he mumbled from the ground. He lay on his side and held his stomach with his good hand. "I didn't mean--"

"You didn't mean what? To nearly kill Yuuta for the second time today?"

Kimura raised his head. "What?"

Miss Masako grabbed him by the lapels and pulled him toward her. "We saw the tapes. You did shoot at him."

"I did not…" Kimura covered his mouth with his hand. "I thought he was someone else! A-a spy… a kidnapper… a suicide bomber, maybe… but I never…" He looked up at his sister. "You believe me, right?"

She let go of him and folded her arms. "Whether I believe or not, doesn't matter. You'd have to convince the police. And mom." Her frown grew at the same time as Kimura's terrified expression did. "I will call her and tell her everything."

Kimura immediately got up to his knees. "No! You can't! It will ruin everything! I was supposed to take company to new highs before bothering her again!"

"The murder of a child isn't a high anyone should aspire to," Toudou added.

Deckerd's firm strides echoed in the workshop as he got closer with Yuuta perched on his shoulder. Neither of them look happy, but it was easy to tell with whom they were angry.

"Mr. Kazuo Kimura," Deckerd said, "You're under arrest for endangering a minor."

Toudou was impressed at how professional Deckerd sounded. He knew how personal it was for him.

Kimura scrambled up to his feet. "Now, you can't do that!" he exclaimed, pointed at Deckerd with a finger. "I own you!"

"You don't own him!" Yuuta said. "Deckerd is his own person!"

"It's a robot!"

Deckerd straightened up. "I am model BP-001, codename Deckerd."

"You're doing that routine now?" Mr. Kimura grumbled as he rubbed his face with his hand.

"But I do have a heart. Yuuta gave it to me," Deckerd finished. "I refuse to follow your instructions."

Kimura folded his arms. "Like that matters. You haven't even been officially introduced to the police system! You lack the authority."

"He might not have been in the force yet. But I definitely do have the authority," Saejima said from the door. He held in his hands the tracker Toudou left in the car.

To be honest, Toudou was more impressed to see the Commissioner managed to get the device working than about the dramatic entrance. Then again, knowing him, he had been there for a while, waiting for the best moment to announce he was there.

"You took your time, chief," Toudou said.

Saejima smiled and scratched his head as he walked right in. "It wasn't easy to let the security guards to let me get all the way down here."

"Those ungrateful idiots," Kimura said.

"I'll take the full responsibility," Kobayashi said from behind Saejima.

"He was with us when we watched the security footage," Masako said.

Kimura rubbed his face, but didn't say anything else as Commissioner Saejima proceeded with the arrest.

Finally, it seemed like the day was about to be over.

*

During the next days, most people in the city watched the leaked security footage over and over, until no one could deny that Deckerd activated himself to respond to Yuuta's cries of help. All of that while Kimura stared at everything from a safe spot against a wall. No one knew who leaked it, but everyone agreed it had been a good idea. Toudou the first of them.

The old engineer turned off the radio of his car with a sense of satisfaction after hearing the report for the fourth time. He knew, from a trustworthy source, that Kimura not only faced a trial. He had also faced the wrath of his mother, the owner of the PDE. Toudou would've loved to have been a fly on the wall of that meeting. She disowned him and made miss Masako the new heir of the company.

However, to think about miss Masako was the most upsetting thing about this ordeal. Kimura was still her brother. To see the range of his carelessness and sense of entitlement must have been rough for her. But she wasn't alone. At least, Toudou promised himself he would check on her from time to time. He felt he owed her, and not only because miss Masako returned the Brave Police project to Commissioner Saejima.

At that moment, Saejima knocked on the car's window before getting inside. "The meeting was a success!" he announced. "Yuuta's sisters agreed to let him be a police officer."

Toudou sighed. The Commissioner's charisma had stricken again. "I imagine both Yuuta and Deckerd were happy about it."

"Of course!" Saejima gave a thumbs up. "The Brave Police will start working officially next Monday!"

"I guess we could do worse," Toudou said in a low voice as he shook his head.

On the one hand, Deckerd's willingness to follow the boy was worrying. But on the other, while Toudou hadn't yet figured out what he would've done if he'd had a giant robot at his disposal at Yuuta's age, he was aware he wouldn't have done half as much good as that kid. He could appreciate how lucky they were.

Saejima pat Toudou's shoulder. "Let's go have some drinks to celebrate."

Toudou smiled and started the car. "You're buying, chief."

Saejima grinned in response and then turned to see the landscape around them.

The engineer was more hopeful about the future than he'd been in months.  It was nice to see how everything fell in place in due time.

"Say," Saejima began, "how about we increase the number of members in the Brave Police Division?"

Toudou took a deep breath. "We can try."

"I've been working on the designs."

"I don't doubt that."

"We can discuss it over the drinks."

"Sure, why not?"

Saejima patted Toudou's arm again, looking happier than before.

Toudou tried to prepare himself mentally for what was about to come. He realized still couldn't say no to the Commissioner, but now, even if he complained, had grown to stop minding it.