Story/Normal 11-2 (Part2)/Script

M4 SOPMOD II: RO! RO, can you hear me?

RO635: What is it? I’m busy!

M4 SOPMOD II: There’s a human walking over here, I don’t know what she wants, but she’s definitely coming right at me!

RO635: Maybe she’s just handing out flyers! I’ll be done soon, stall for time!

M4 SOPMOD II: Hurry up! She’s almost in front of meー

Human Woman: You can’t sit here, miss!

M4 SOPMOD II: Huh? Ah… why is that?

Human Woman: Because there’s going to be an important protest march here shortly!

M4 SOPMOD II: Huh? A protest march? About what?

Human Woman: We’re protesting 3 straight months of lowered sugar and tobacco quotas!
Also, those officials said they’d increase the immigration quota, but they haven’t kept their promises so far!

M4 SOPMOD II: Er… so… I can’t sit here?

Human Woman: Yes, or rather, you should come join our march too!

M4 SOPMOD II: ...I don’t want to join in any protest marches. I just want to sit here and watch the electronic cats fight with that Shiba Inu.

Human Woman: You really ought to do more for your freedom… hang on, you… you’re not human…!

M4 SOPMOD II: I… ah, I’m a tacー ah no, a civilian doll?

Human Woman: A doll? How dare a doll take up space on a human street!? Get out right now!

M4 SOPMOD II: I’m sorry, but could you wait a while? My friend’s asleep.

Human Woman: How dare you talk back to me, trash! Is something wrong with your cyberbrain?

[Saying so, the woman swings at SOP2, who responds by reflexively slapping the woman’s arm away.]

Human Woman: Ahhhhh! My arm!

M4 SOPMOD II: Ah… it bent, I didn’t adjust my strength to compensate...

Human Woman: It’s a killer robot! Ahhhhh, my arm! Call an ambulance!!

M4 SOPMOD II: Ah. I...

RO635: What the hell are you doing!

M4 SOPMOD II: RO, you’re awake!?

RO635: Move! Otherwise the cops will be here right away! Run!

M4 SOPMOD II: But that human...

RO635: If they catch us, we’re finished! Now run!

M4 SOPMOD II: Er… yeah!

[2 minutes later, in a corner of the plaza.]

RO635: All I did was enter the layer for several minutes and look at what you did...
DIdn’t I tell you not to cause trouble?

M4 SOPMOD II: I’m sorry… but that human… she… well, the people here seem to have strong views about dolls...

RO635: Be glad that we’re in a good company.
In the past I handled cases involving the abuse and destruction of dolls, and worse. Guess how those cases ended?

M4 SOPMOD II: Oh I want to know, I’d like to understand in person...

RO635: You’re not suited for that sort of thing. Most cases don’t end with your gun pointed at the offender’s head.
Do what’s in front of you. That’s the least we can do to repay the Commander and Kalina.

M4 SOPMOD II: I understand… so, did you find the source?

RO635: No.

M4 SOPMOD II: Huh?

RO635: No…
I copied all the footage from the surrounding cameras but I couldn’t find anyone who matched the person in this picture.

M4 SOPMOD II: But, but how could that be? Did you miss something?

RO635: I checked three times.
Still, the camera density here isn’t too high, when you think about it… if the opposition’s trained in counter-surveillance techniques, avoiding cameras while on ops shouldn’t be too hard.
Someone like him wouldn’t be working in the outdoors all that often, and a planned route is very hard to find… in the end we’ll just have to stick to plain old collection of doll visual records...

M4 SOPMOD II: Mm… but there’s got to be some kind of clue… He can’t possibly have left no trace behind.
RO, can you send me the records? I’d like to go through them myself.

RO635: Sure.

[RO takes out her transfer cable and plugs it into SOP2.]

RO635: Still, I’m quite confident in my judgement, I don’t think you’ll find anything...

M4 SOPMOD II: RO, take a look at this image! There’s people fighting!

RO635: Fighting? There’s at least 30 instances of people fighting in this batch of records.

M4 SOPMOD II: But it’s not normal. Look at these tough guys surrounding a maid, and they’re holding knives too.

RO635: So it’s a robbery? Robberies are common in the paupers’ district.
Also, there’s 5 other instances of local gangsters committing robberies, and 12 more instances of what look like thefts...

M4 SOPMOD II: That’s not important, look at the footage from the other two streets.

RO635: Hm… I think I understand now...

M4 SOPMOD II: Right?

RO635: There’s no trace of this maid at all.

M4 SOPMOD II: I looked through the footage of the nearby cameras and the maid didn’t show up in them. That means she was following a path that avoided the cameras.

RO635: But she was robbed and it ruined the plan… so an error cropped up in following the route.

M4 SOPMOD II: And now look at this.

[The men surrounding the maid suddenly pull out their knives.]

[Bang!]

[The maid suddenly crosses her hands and checks the right hand of one of the men, which is holding a knife.]
[She then kicks at another man’s chin and uses the backspin to deliver an elbow strike to the neck of a third, then forces the robber she was controlling to the ground and delivers a punch straight to his face.]
[In an instant, she has taken down several humans with her bare hands.]

M4 SOPMOD II: You saw that?

RO635: Given those movements and her power, she must be an illegally-modified doll...
That would be impossible without extremely high-end posture-control software and a high-output body….
Even among Griffin dolls, most of them wouldn’t be able to achieve such results considering our available budget.

M4 SOPMOD II: The movements, speed and strength she used to take down those robbers was carefully calculated… even I can’t do that.

RO635: Huh? I thought you excelled in melee combat?

M4 SOPMOD II: I’m good at ripping the enemy to pieces, but she counterattacked so fast and used just enough strength to knock out those robbers. I can’t execute movements as precise as that...

RO635: Which means we’ve got a clue at last!

M4 SOPMOD II: Hehe, if we get fired from Griffin, let’s go be detectives together!

RO635: Hah… can dolls open a detective firm?

M4 SOPMOD II: Maybe the Commander will secretly apply for a license for us. Who knows?

RO635: Why are you assuming we’re going to be fired? Besides, this mission is a long way from over!

M4 SOPMOD II: Fine fine, what are you doing to do next?

RO635: It’s simpler now that we know what she looks like. That maid might able to avoid cameras, but she can’t possibly evade the eyes of everyone on the street.
If we can find some visual data, we can slowly work out her travel route and even extrapolate her destination.
Next up, we’ll go through the visual databases of all the dolls near these cameras!

M4 SOPMOD II: Ehhhhh, are we going through them all one by one again...

RO635: That’s why we’ve got to work hard, SOP2~

M4 SOPMOD II: Ah… why did we end up doing this sort of boring crap in the end anyway...