He thought someone was making fun of his weight...
With the balance of power shifting with the new era of peace it seems the Thieves that stole the bald lady have been using them gold bricks they also nabbed to get high positions in the local police. The Boone family is out hunting escapees so that they can’t finger them in court since their corrupt union with the cops has come to an end. Chirico finds himself with three aspiring managers for the battling circuit, its good to see that Chirico is already finding employment rather than going into a breadline or causing trouble. Unfortunately the Boone Family has Chirico as the last person on their hit list. Despite being out numbered Chirico and his new pals fix up a Scopedog for to face the Boone Family, and while Vanilla lacked faith the Scopedog made a glorious slaughter of biker malcontents though the police showed up for some crime fightan. The battle was brief but plenty of criminal scum were killed though the Police helicopters actually contributed a lot to the burning corpse count. Despite having minimal damage the heat seemed to be a greater hazard than in most mecha with Chrico getting roasted alive in the inferno, thankfully Rochina sends a team to put out the fires. Gotho seems to be rather surprised though since Uoodo doesn’t have a fire department, but makes no further inquiries. i really like how despite the fact that Chirico took no damage that he still felt the heat from the fires around him, it’s rare to see that even with no damage there are other ways of killing the pilot. I confess I am loving this gritty feel, even if Chirico is super human this is still very much real robot and has a more hard sci-fi feel to it than most.
Of the three new people in his life, Gotho the oldest seems to have a glimmer of wisdom when he laments how during the war they gave kids guns and only gave them skills relating to killing and now that there is peace they cut loose all the veterans to fend for themselves. I like how they are making a point to discuss the problems of the post war from time to time as Chirico is 18 and has only ever known fighting, but at least now he has an underground sport to participate in. Sadly this sport is pretty much gladiatorial combat though not every fight ends up with someone dead. I think it really says something when the spectators get all excited when one of the stands gets blown to pieces. Chirico really seems to have trouble making friends it seems the only guy who has come close so far was Carson from Roots of Ambition, though perhaps now he can have a friend in Coccona, Gotho, or Vanilla. Being poor and all with unemployment through the roof I can’t really fault them for worrying about money. Gotho seems to be ahead of the curve as he sees some inate talent in Chirico but has doubts that Chirico can take on the established VOTOMS jockeys. Chirico’s instincts seem to have sharpened enough for him to be able to detect that the he was going to fight Conin and not his original opponent. I am surprised though that even these veterans still cling to thier old rank structure and actually defer to Conin despite the fact that none of them are in the military any more. Conin put up a good fight but in the end Chirico only received a glancing blow while Coning got a BIG BANG PUNCH to the face. I have to say that it was much more satisfying than if it had been a projectile kill. Also it seems that the Bald Lady has a local name as well, but I am not sure what the Phantom Lady’s role is in all this given how she has only been rolling around in an armored limo through fire fights. I guess we shall see in good time though.
Oh ho, dealing in arms are we?
That side car could use an MG-34...
Chirico has no need for a drunk lady with Billy Baggage to tell him how to plan an operation.
I like how Chirico can do maintenance on his own machine.
...
Scopedog seems to own insolent biker gangs pretty well...
Man Rochina seems to have all the bases covered...
Even if they are just firemen they still look pretty badass.
Seems Uoodo doesn't even have a fire department.
Man the old dude is pretty wise even if he has a reputation for fleecing people.
LOL you have no idea Gotho...
The Bastard Conin.
I still have no idea how he picks out Scopedogs.
Covering her baldness I see...
Chirico finally repaid Conin for his SUGOI leadership.
2 Comments
At this point I really didn’t know what to make of the narrative — I was expecting Chirico to be something more like a Gundam character and fight for a ‘side’ in the middle of a war. Instead I find this rather interesting post-war (post-apocalyptic) yarn of survival. Can he trust the people he needs? Probably not, but I’m going to make a wild comparison here:
Much like Dr. Tenma in Monster, Chirico touches and creates a shift in behavior in the people he encounters. While Tenma does it with kindness and doctoring, and the shifts in behavior are rather dramatic; Chirico’s encounters leads to people surprising themselves by behaving not as completely corrupt as they think themselves to be.
I quite like how Chirico really has no side that he belongs to and how his neutrality is makes everyone else think that he is working for the other side. For now I hope that Chirico’s new friends are genuine in their loyalty to Chirico. Certainly since Chirico isn’t the preachy type he’s not being overly annoying when it comes to altering the behavior of those around him. I like to think that Chirico is simply giving his friends the chance to be decent people and that Coccona, Vanilla, and Gotho are choosing to be decent mostly honest people because they don’t want to be corrupt.