Chapter 20

[It’s alright. Everyone, let’s hold hands and go up!]

It was Unimo, who had been playing with the children. Unimo was equipped with action protocols for disaster situations. Of course, since its hardware was just a stuffed-animal robot, the only things it could do were very basic tasks like calming the children down.

Holding Unimo’s hand, Sisi said tearfully.

“Unimo, your hand is warm.”

Unimo spoke in a bright voice.

[Sisi’s hand is warm too. If we all hold hands together like this, nothing will be scary.]

Sisi let out a small chuckle with a teardrop still hanging on her eye.

At the words that nothing would be scary, the children promptly grabbed each other’s hands. As Sisi headed up to the second floor while holding Unimo in one arm, the children followed trailing after her like Vienna sausages.

Inwardly, Shuri was impressed.

‘Unimo, you’ve memorized Sisi’s name! Your response in a disaster situation is magnificent, and you even turned on the heating function yourself to calm the user.’

It appeared that during their brief time apart, Unimo had pulled off a massive level-up.

‘But using the heating function will drain the battery in the blink of an eye.’

Still, the children feeling safe was more important than Unimo’s battery right now.

After sending all the children up to the second floor, Shuri turned back to face Adam. She then stripped off her jacket. Her pale, slender body was revealed, clad only in a black tube top.

Seeing that, Adam covered the area where his mouth would be with his hand.

“Shuri…!”

Having taken off her jacket, Shuri looked up at Adam with her large eyes and approached him. Adam opened his two arms toward her.

“Shuri, I am truly…!”

Shuri threw her jacket straight over Adam’s head. Adam let out a bewildered sound.

“Sh-Shuri?”

Tying the sleeves into a firm knot, she tightly wrapped his pitch-black head to hide it from sight, leaving only a tiny gap so his sensors could remain exposed. She then warned him in a sharp voice right against his microphone.

“Don’t let those bastards discover that you’re a robot!”

Adam asked in a voice that carried emotional agitation.

“Shuri, are you worrying about me?”

“What? I’m not worried about you. You can just escape the system of this humanoid whenever you want.”

Adam instantly grew deflated.

“Ah… yes. Well, that is true…”

“But if possible, don’t let those bastards discover your identity. They are way too disgusting.”

The reason Shuri said such words became apparent very soon.

Two military vehicles entered the front yard of Soul Garden. As the distance closed, a machine gun mounted on the lead vehicle came into view. However, something was entangled on the gun.

Looking closely, it was the upper torso of a Patrol Bot—a robot responsible for keeping public order in the city.

Glaring at them, Shuri spoke.

“See that? Those bastards are the types who chop up a Patrol Bot and hang it on their gun like a keychain. I don’t want my robot taken away by those bastards.”

Adam also nodded his head.

“While it cannot be compared to your safety, the SH-48-XY-9000-P is special to me as well. I too have no desire to have this robot taken away by those people.”

Shuri formed a smile.

“We’re on the same page.”

Gazing down at her, Adam spoke in a low voice.

“Shuri, I know very well what kind of people they are. The one who must not have their identity discovered by them is not the robot, but you.”

“Right.”

Shuri nodded easily. Crouching down before the window, she merely poked her eyes out to peer outside.

“So I’m going to hide right here!”

“That is not a bad choice in this situation.”

Coming up behind her, Adam sat down with a thud. He then pulled Shuri’s small body—which had been awkwardly huddling—and settled her right onto his thighs.

Finding herself held in Adam’s embrace once more, Shuri flinched.

“You, in this kind of situation…!”

“It is alright, Shuri.”

Adam spoke in a soft voice.

“Do not worry. As long as I am here, nothing will happen.”

Staring blankly up at Adam, Shuri gently smiled.

“Are you imitating a stone axe?”

“It is what I always do. Attempting a new trial to obtain the desired result.”

What should she do about this?

After pondering for a brief moment, Shuri decided to just stay held in his embrace.

Even though Adam was a robot who teased her at any given moment by making rattling sounds from his crotch, at least right now, he looked entirely serious.

She carefully leaned her body against his chest. As expected of a well-made humanoid, it was quite cozy. But that wasn’t all.

Slowly wrapping his thick arms around her, Adam whispered in a soft voice.

“I am going to protect you.”

The embrace of the person telling her those words felt exactly like a small, perfect nest.
That was a sensation she had never experienced before in this massive world, even among countless people.

The two military vehicles ground to a halt right in front of Soul Garden.

The leader of Cell-3, an operational squad of the Human Liberation Front, raised his head to look up at the building’s rooftop. He could see the familiar solar panel peeking out.

Kay roared out.

“Fuck’s sake. Director, where the hell is the director!”

Kamal, who had been waiting for them all along, welcomed them.

“You motherfuckers, I told you not to come rolling in here because it scares the kids. What the hell is there to suck dry in this place that you keep coming back to raise hell?”

A chubby squad member named Angel burst out laughing.

“Kamal, long time no see!”

“Yeah, welcome, fatty.”

Kay grumbled as he leaped down from the driver’s seat.

“How can the director of a children’s shelter have such a foul mouth?”

Even after taking a massive earful of curses, work was work. Kay shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Our equipment suddenly vanished, so we thought it got busted by a Patrol Bot, but it’s sitting right here!”

Kamal covered his mouth with his hand, feigning pity.

“What? You all lost your dicks? Now that’s a real shame. But since your specialty was cutting off other families’ lines, I suppose it’s your own poetic justice, isn’t it?”

Fuming, Kay pointed his assault rifle toward the rooftop.

“Fuck, who said anything about losing a dick? That. I’m talking about the solar cells!”

Taking on an astonished face as if he had truly just realized, Kamal spoke.

“Ah, that? Our kids picked it up thinking it was junk. Was that thing yours?”

Kamal smoothly played innocent while wearing a gentle smile.

“It looked tolerably useful so I told them to try installing it, but to think it was you bastards’ cock… no, equipment. My bad. We’ll return it to you!”

Kay scoffed at Kamal’s words.

“It looked tolerably useful so you told them to try installing it?”

Suddenly, Kay raised his assault rifle like lightning to aim straight at Kamal. Grinning broadly so that his teeth looked exceptionally white against his pitch-black, sunburnt face, he spoke.

“Is that something a tech-illiterate who can’t even use a radio because he can’t match the frequency would say?”

“Don’t shoot!”

Jera, who had been watching the situation from a distance, came running out.

Kamal shouted loudly.

“Kid, go back inside!”

Paying no heed, Jera came and stood right beside Kamal. Kamal let out a heavy sigh.

“You’re getting no dinner for ten days.”

Disregarding Kamal’s rebuff, Jera spoke confidently toward the squad members.

“I’m the one who discovered it, brought it all the way here, and installed it!”

Glancing sideways to glare at Jera, Kay asked.

“You installed that? You think I’ll believe those words?”

“It’s true.”

Pulling out the insulated gloves he had stuffed inside his pocket to show them, Jera spoke.

“I know how incredible that thing is too. That is the result of truly many people researching for an exceptionally long time to utilize the sun’s energy.”

He then shouted at the top of his lungs.

“You guys only think about smashing up every machine, so you wouldn’t know, but the hearts of truly many people are contained inside it!”

At Jera’s words, Kay took on a pensive face.

Lowering his gun muzzle, he muttered in a much softer voice.

“What does this… tiny punk even know?”

Thinking Kay’s momentum had broken a bit, Jera’s face brightened slightly. The child spoke rapidly.

“I-I’ll return it right now. I’ll go bring it down!”

With a pensive face, Kay gestured toward Jera with his hand. It seemed he was telling him to come closer.

Gripping his knife hilt, Kamal growled.

“Don’t you lay a hand on our kid!”

Kay scoffed.

“Hey, director. No matter how bad we are, we don’t lay hands on a brat. I just have something to ask.”

While Kamal hesitated, Jera courageously took a step closer to Kay. At that, Kay opened his mouth with a serious face.

“Since you claim to have installed that yourself, I’m asking out of curiosity.”

Taking another step closer to Kay, Jera questioned back.

“What are you curious about?”

Kay asked with a grave expression.

“Why did a blackout happen just a moment ago?”

“U-Uh?”