#17 go underground

Seven years before KIRIYA assembles the Youth members,
one afternoon, near N Station, Suginami,
a pair of robbers forced their way into a small post office. 
The robbers, the faces of whom were covered with black mask,
moved and talked uneasily as if they were robots.   
A ray-bullet from extended right sleeve
hit a staff member's arm at the counter. 
The pliers-like two fingers of left hand
roughly hold wads of cash and went outside. 
On the school road in front of the post office,
a lot of pupils were walking home then. 
One of the robbers mercilessly pointed a gun at the kids. 
The moment, a young man stood with his arms open,
trying to protect a child, and fell to the bullet. 
The next moment, U-toms, the robots,
whose faces were hit by ULTRA BEAM from nowhere,
fell slowly down on their knees synchronizedly,
and melted away quickly as programmed,
with bills of cash blowing in the wind. 
The young man's name was SATSUMA Jiro,
who had lost parents and elder brother as a child
and lived in a special home.

(How brave!  Let me use your figure, and I'll save your life.)

That is how such a relationship has been established
as SATSUMA = MOROBOSHI = SEVEN.

SEVEN came to the Earth,
because he followed MYSTERIOUS corps of robots, U-tom,
which would build their underground base
to INVADE the planet like ants. 
Each U-tom was not so strong,
but cooperated systematically with each other
and did whatever they could do to realize their goal. 
Once they finished realizing the goal, or invading one planet,
they moved to another. 
Nobody else knew where they came from, and where they went to. 
At the same time,
aliens began aiming for the Earth,
where MYSTERIOUS phenomena came to happen frequently,
especially in Japan. 
SEVEN knew it, hoped to stay there to protect the beautiful blue Earth,
and left his home planet, the nebula M78. 
Then, SEVEN was mixed well among Japanese people
as MOROBOSHI, getting a driver's license and attending T University.  Belonging to the mountaineering club,
he kept on searching for the alien base under the ground. 
And became a member of the Youth,
the circle of investigating MYSTERIOUS phenomena. 
Not everybody could take part in the circle,
because the member was required
to be excellent in academics and sports,
and leader of some club with strong body and mind. 
It was not for fun but of super elites. 
The members that time found something like the alien base
somewhere in Yamamashi Prefecture,
but U-tom had not appeared since the last case. 
And seven years passed.

GUREN, or Bright Red is the biker gang,
the base of which is in Suginami-ku, TOKIO. 
It has been more and more widely spread,
with other gangs around in its neighborhood under control,
and already become the largest team over Kanto Region. 
The team is made up of members aged 15 to 25,
the name of which terrifies whoever knows it.

 This Saturday night, around Hachioji Interchange
are a lot of illegally modified bikes making a noise,
and going to parade towards Yamanashi Prefecture. 
The young leader, called JIRO, is an orphan brought up at a special home. 
As a child, he used to be bullied because of no parents. 
No matter how terribly bullied, he kept smiling patiently. 
But when he was alone, crying and biting lip,
he would often beat concrete walls or electricity pole
so strongly and repeatedly that blood came out.

"Brother, what's the matter?  'Cause bleeding."

"Nothing.  Let's play games at home.  Next, I'll win."

"Yattah!  Hurry home."

Saburo, three years younger brother,
was almost always with JIRO, except at school. 
JIRO loved his brother, only family, and took good care of him.

One day, however, Saburo became a hit-and-run victim,
who suddenly disappeared from his sight, only to be all alone. 
JIRO felt nothing beyond sadness, sorrow, and grief,
and ready to die anytime. 
The readiness and kindness gave him
the courage seven years ago to guard the kid with his life. 
Certainly, he got shot through the chest,
but was saved MIRACULOUSLY. 
Since then, he has had MYSTERIOUS power,
which reduced the hit-and-run driver
who killed Saburo to a powder, together with the car. 
There is nobody to make fun of and bully,
what is more, to approach JIRO. 
He woke up one day to find himself HEAD of GUREN. 

When JIRO raises his right hand up to the sky,
the night parade starts. 
Hundreds of head light and full blast of roar run after him. 
Regarding the power of machines as the ability,
the gangsters are taking out bottled-up frustration on the parade.

Mt Takao echoes with the sound,
which reaches the ears of Youth members in their hideout, of course.

"What a noise even here!" Furuda.

"Still exist, don't they?" YURI.

After a while, there sound sirens of police cars.

"No matter what, too late." SOMA.

"But also ambulance and fire engine?" AMABE.

The parade goes on at a lower speed on the high way,
approaching Sasago Tunnel. 
Then, JIRO passes something like a human,
when he hears screaming and screeching from behind. 
The moment, the second robot appears in front, shooting randomly. 
Bastard! 
JIRO accelerates to hit his bike on the robot. 
Making a U-turn, attacks the first robot. 
Everybody, turn back! 
U-toms, as reacting and drawn to his MIRACULOUS POWER,
come out up from the ground one after another like zombies. 
JIRO runs a bike freely, right and left, up and down,
inside the tunnel, playing on the robots. 
They aim and shoot at him, and destroys the inside walls,
when the tunnel falls down over U-toms and JIRO.

Hearing the news about the rock collapse of Sasago Tunnel,
KIRIYA and MOROBOSHI head to the scene by HAWK 1. 
The other members also arrive. 
The area is cordoned off,
where a lot of youngsters are standing still worriedly. 
They speak to the police about the story.

"When we were parading, something came BAAA. 
We were shot PEEE.  Tunnel BOOM."

" Must be robots.  Just like Terminater. 
'Cause their face and hands were machinery."

"Save JIRO, our leader.  He is there under the rubble. 
If nothing is done, he will die."

" MIRACLE MAN JIRO cannot be dead,
because he did not die even when shot by burglar."

(JIRO?  SATSUMA JIRO?)

The long tunnel has caved in widely,
so digging  toward the side wall is better
than going straight into the gate. 
Getting on HAWK 1 transformed to the magmarise mode,
AMABE and DAN goes underground,
radar-checking where they are. 
Underground feels much oppressive than undersea,
as a matter of course. 
After a while, they are in a cave.

"This cave looks unnatural, isn't it?" MOROBOSHI.

"SATSUMA JIRO might be just above." AMABE

(No.  He is not in the tunnel.)

When getting out, they find light far away. 
As they approach it, the light becomes larger. 
At the exit of cave, they are astonished
to see the futuristic huge fort spread in front of them.

"What is this?  What has made it, why?"

"AMABE sen-pai. 
Would you mind telling Professor about this? 
I'm just watching it."

"Certainly not.  I'll be back soon, so be careful."
When AMABE turns around, there MOROBOSHI has already gone.

First, MOROBOSHI teleports himself to the huge robot factory,
where a large quantity of U-toms are being produced
automatically, carefully, and slowly.

(Such an underground, so many robots, I've not realized.)

Setting a bomb, he gets out of the open door. 
In the hallway that draws a huge arc around the factory
appears a pair of U-toms, which always act in pairs. 
Beating two pairs, he goes into the next room,
which comtains the factory controller protected by ten armed robots. 
When they try to trigger at him,
his knife of light has just penetrated through ten black faces. 
Arc hallway again, knocking down one pair after another,
MOROBOSHI looks for him. 
Eventually, he finds JIRO lying on the round table
with his arms and legs sprawled out.  

"Are you OK?"

Just JIRO's eyes looks at MOROBOSHI, nodding. 
Both of their faces look more alike than twins,
but JIRO is not what he used to be seven years ago,
because he has casual long hair and lifeless skinny cheeks. 
He is up and about, but seriously injured.

"Can you walk?"

"Why not?  I'm MIRACLE MAN, you know."

A few minutes' walk takes them to the space
that seems to be the center of fortress. 
The enormous advanced brain machine produces
and manipulates its soldier robots
as if a queen ant did so to spread its nest. 
Countless numbers of U-toms approach and surround two men. 
The moment, MOROBOSHI leaps and spins himself,
shooting ULTRA BEAM around,
which sweeps away all the enemy soldiers in a blink of eyes. 
But, the mother robot shoots ray-bullets at his landing point as calculated
just before he lands. 
NO! 
JIRO stands at the very point, thrusting MOROBOSHI away,
and being hit by all the bullets. 
Son of a …  beam pierces the brain of Queen Ant.

"JIRO, thank you very much."

"This time, don't anything, don't any more.  We're even now."

"Did you know?"

"Who you think I am?  MIRACLE MAN!"

It is impossible to give life to anyone who has once gotten.

"I've been waiting for this time to come, for long. 
I cannot kill myself, and I don't want to. 
Let me die as I do, please."

MOROBOSHI lifts up JIRO's body in his arms,
and teleports above ground.

"Saburo, wait me go to you. 
Let's play games at home.  Next, I'll ..."
JIRO makes his last smile.

The nest of U-toms has just been blown up.

(JIRO, thanks to you, they will never INVADE any planet. 
Who invented such a machine? 
The inventors themselves might have been destroyed
by the machine they had invented.)

Since SATSUMA JIRO has passed away from the Earth,
MOROBOSHI has the loneliness as if he had lost half of himself.  

#17 the end