We made our way back into Radiant City. As we approached the building, a bunch of people of all ages was walking about viewing gadgets.

There was an outside vending station where employees showed new phones and the like. I assume this is where Vivian would have taken me if I had gone to buy a phone with her the other day.

It felt like the place was more futuristic compared to the ordinary streets of Radiant City. People were trying out new models of tools like cooking, home improvement tools, and the like. 

“This place is… amazing.”

I was awestruck. Jade nodded.

“It really is. This place is known as Atom Corporation. So, if you hear people in Radiant City talk about this place, they are referencing the shopping part of it.”

The knight briskly walked past the vendors as she made her way to the main gate. I couldn’t help but look at all the… technology. I read about how the Radiants were reinventing things from the Human Age, but I never expected it was to this extent.

“Feodora, we’re falling behind.”

Yuu Yuu took my hand suddenly. Together we followed Jade as she approached the large tower. It had to reach at least 30 floors. It was bright silver, and there was a collection of windows scattered around the building.  It reminded me of the ancient ruins Eve, Vivian, and I went to earlier in the week.

Jade approached the building and brought out a badge.

“We’re here to see Atom. I called earlier for a meeting with her…."

One of the security team nodded and stepped by. We walked into a large room with a red carpet. As if Jade knew just where to go, she led us to a silver door on the side. After pushing a button, we waited for a moment for it to reveal a small room.

“What’s this?”

I questioned.

“An elevator. Atom is located on the 30th floor.”

Jade stepped inside, and we followed her. It took me a bit to notice that Yuu Yuu must have let go of my hand at some point. The room rumbled like we were being swallowed by a monster and began to push us up, further into the tower.

“This place is massive, Jade.”

I remarked, earning a nod from her. The knight crossed her arms.

“Yes. Atom is known as one of the smartest people on the planet of Prism. She first designed the streetlight with the help of the holy element… at the age of 9. There was no doubt about it then that Atom would become a staple in the scientific field.”

Yuu Yuu crossed her legs and leaned against the wall.

“D-Do you think… Atom is the culprit… Jade?”

The knight waited for a moment. She then put her finger to her lip and looked at the pink bunny.

“Let’s not discuss that right now, Yuuna.”

She turned to the corner of the boxed room.

"Because we're on camera, and she can hear all of our discussions before we make it there. I don’t want all my cards exposed yet.”

 

 

I looked at the small device in the corner. It had a slight shine to it, showing that Atom was watching us.

"I will mention this to the both of you, though…."

Jade took a deep breath.

"She is a Radiant, and the same rules don't apply when speaking to her as they do to a citizen of Radiant city…."

Yuu Yuu clicked her tongue.

“Yeah… Yuu Yuu knows that very well.”

Yuu Yuu said as she looked away.

 

 

"What do you mean by that, Jade?"

I questioned.

“I mean… whatever we discover in this interrogation, we have to let the Radiant Order deal with it. By law, that’s how it works.”

Slowly, I understood a different hierarchy of Radiant City. They weigh differently compared to crimes made by the common folk and those suspected by the Radiants themselves.

A chime rang out, indicating that we had reached the floor we wanted. Jade exited first, and we followed her. As we kept going down a hallway, we got to a large door.

“Ahhhh, no! No!"

A voice echoed out from a speaker.

"Atom, we're here to ask you a few questions…."

Her voice screeched. Suddenly, guns with red lasers came out from the walls. Bars rose up from the floor, sealing our way to enter.

"You are not coming in with that filthy-looking girl! The one with the pink hair… she's covered in OIL!"

We looked at Yuu Yuu, who was embarrassed. She moaned as she looked over her clothing.

“Oh no… she must have tracked the entire floor! Oh no!”

From a side door, a maid rushed out. With a towel and cleaning supplies in her hand, she began scrubbing the carpet below us. Yuu Yuu jumped up, seemingly feeling all the more guilty about tracking the floor.

I didn’t notice the first time we met… but it seemed like Atom might be what some would call… a germaphobe.

“There’s a door on your side. Get in there and get cleaned! All of you… you’re all filthy!”

Another set of bars appeared over the door. It was evident that she didn't want us anywhere near her.

“What do we do?”

I asked.

“… We get cleaned.”

Jade complained...

We all looked at the pure white door at the side.

"What about our clothing, though?"

I asked. Atom shouted from the safety of the speaker.

“There’s a hamper in there! The machine will clean everything, just hurry up and get in there! You’re tracking the floor!”

Without anything else to do, we walked into the room. It was a grey room with one large shower. We all stared speechlessly at the solo bathing room.

Jade pulled off her clothing like this was normal. She stripped down to her underwear within seconds. The beautiful knight had purple underwear that… I oddly expected her to have. After removing her last layer of clothing, she brazenly walked past Yuu Yuu and I nude as she made her way to the shower room ahead.

"Hurry up. The sooner we clean up, the sooner we get a chat with Atom."

I looked at Yuu Yuu, who was shaking like a leaf.

“I… I’ve only…showered with my family.”

Yuu Yuu admitted She looked me over once more as if weighing her traits with mine…

Slowly we removed our clothing next. We tried to stay in our own side of the small room to give each other a little privacy. However, I found myself... peaking over to her, catching glimpses of her innocent white underwear. My own was a tad more colorful with black and red. I picked up a few of them on my way to the Radiant City. Constantly I began to ask myself if... Yuu Yuu found my taste too flashy?

"Nggg..."

I grumbled as I peaked back over to her... who was surprisingly peaking my way. 

"Oh!"

The bunny looked away. I'm sure... we were both getting anxious over this. I decided to steel my nerves and just get it over with. I pulled off my underwear and held my head up high. I had never washed with anyone before other than a few girls in the orphanage when I was really little. I had to remind myself that all I was doing was cleaning up for the sake of the investigation. It... was just a coincidence that a girl I found... a tad attractive was here too...

"W-We should hurry up, F-Feodora..."

"Oh, you're right, Yuu Yuu."

After throwing our clothing in the hamper, we witnessed the cleaning cycle start to spin. There we were in the complete nude as we walked behind Jade. Her back was turned to us as she rinsed herself off from the showers above. Her long hair covered the majority of her back, and all we could really see was her long white legs glistening in the bath.

“Finally here, you two? Okay, we can't get out for twenty minutes. She has a timer set, so we can't leave until we're clean.

Jade faced the showerhead, and we both did the same. We did our best not to look at one another, but… it was hard as my eyes would freely look at Yuu Yuu. She was a tad shapely body compared to the other girls I've met here. When I held her the other day briefly, I remembered how soft she was.

 

 

It made me wonder…

How soft is her skin?

“I’m done.”

Jade abruptly got out. She was the first one in and the first one out, it seemed.

"Hurry up. I'll be waiting at the door for you two."

It was just us in the steamy bath. I expected Yuu Yuu not to say anything, but she suddenly turned to me.

“F-Feodora…”

“Oh…. Yes, Yuu Yuu?”

The water flowed on our bodies as we looked at one another. Yuu Yuu's cheeks were bright red, and I don’t believe that was from the heat of the water.

“… N-Never mind.”

“Oh… yeah…”

We silently continued showering. Tenderly, the bunny spoke again.

“Yuu Yuu thinks you… have a nice body!”

“Ah… you do, Yuu Yuu?!”

Surprised, I scanned Yuu Yuu’s bright red face. She cowered to the corner of the shower and shook her head profusely.

“I-I didn’t mean to say that! S-Sorry… Feodora.”

Embarrassed, we looked away from one another. I prayed that the twenty minutes were almost over. My heart was racing every second. It was as if I could feel Yuu Yuu's heat around me. Eventually, I calmed down… and opened my mouth after a few minutes of silence.

“… You too… ah… I think you… have a nice… ah... body also.”

“Ehhhhh?!”

The bunny bent down and slapped her face repeatedly. It… was funny to watch.

After we got done, we grabbed our clothing. It was clean and dry, to my surprise. I had no idea what Atom did to make this possible in less than twenty minutes, but here it was, ready for us to wear. Yuu Yuu and I got dressed, but before I could leave, she held my hand.

“Oh, what’s wrong, Yuu Yuu.”

Suddenly, she held me in her arms….

“Nnngg… Sorry for being… weird. I didn’t want to say that… but… ah…."

"Oh, don't worry about that…."

I looked her in the eyes. Something about her… made me want to embrace her… unlike others I’ve met. Yuu Yuu… something was certainly special about her. Eventually, she let go, and we walked out.

“All clean?”

Jade smirked as she turned to the door. The bars were released, and it opened on its own. We stepped into a bright white room with a creme carpet. Around the sides were large windows that showed all of Radiant City. It looked as if I would fall down if I walked over to the windows because of how clear they were. Behind a brown desk was the pink-haired woman we wanted to speak with. She had blueprints on her desk as she stood up, walked over to us, and raised her hand.

“Hm?”

Suddenly, a large plastic glass separated us from her. We approached but were blocked from going any further.

 

 

“Thank goodness, you’re all cleaned up. However, your hairs are a mess. Jade, you look like a feral cat.”

The knight banged her hand against the glass.

“Shut up!”

The neat freak backed up in fear like a mouse.

“Ehh… don’t smug the pane, Jade. Do you have any idea how long it takes to sanitize this?”

“Ah… Jade?”

I asked, prompting the knight to continue the investigation. She nodded and turned back to Atom.

“Atom, we’re here to discuss some things with you. Would it be okay if we showed you these pictures?”

“Pictures? Err… they probably have your nasty hand oils on them. Put them up to the pane of glass. I'm not touching those filthy pictures."

At her request, Jade put the large images of the destroyed machines up for her to see. Seemingly surprised, she analyzed them.

“What the?”

Atom questioned.

“Are these your machines?”

I asked. With a fluff of the scientist's long pink hair, Atom turned to me.

“And what if they are, redhead?”

“Feodora and Yuuna here had to face a few of them when they were searching for the nearby ore factory.”

Jade took out another folder.

"Oh, my… isn't that Project Sphere?"

“Project Sphere?”

Yuu Yuu mimicked.

“So, you do know what this machine is, Atom? As you can see, this is very damning for you right now. These machines are obviously your creations…."

"I'm not a fool. I can see what you're insinuating. But if you really think I'm the reason for the bombings or the events that transpired into what happened there, you have another thing coming."

Jade clicked her tongue.

“Then how did you know this was about the bombings?”

The Radiant stepped back…

“Nggg… If I tell you, would you promise not to arrest me?”

“What? If you did something illegal, you should be arrested!”

Annoyed, I lashed out. Knowing I’ve been arrested for far less.

“What did you do, Atom?”

Jade interrogated. The Scientist slumped her shoulders and turned to the side.

“Well… when it was concluded by Radiant law that Eve would be in your possession, Jade… I set up security cameras in the knight stations. I… overheard you all going on about checking for various bombings and the like.”

“You’re illegally capturing footage of our interrogation rooms?!”

The knight screamed for good reason.

“I-It wasn’t for that… I only wanted to keep a tab on Eve! I wanted to make sure nobody touched her! Only I can touch her!”

 

 

That demonic rage came on her face causing me to step back in disgust.

Jade shook her head but ultimately gave in.

“Okay… I’ll let it pass if you tell me the status of your machinery here, Atom…."

The scientist crossed her arms and paced about.

“Well… listen, I have all of my stock. There hasn’t been any stolen from here. I’m not missing a single machine. However, I did have a data breach the other day. Just yesterday, actually.”

She pulled up a strange screen. It was bright green and looked like a map of some kind. The image was a tall structure, so I assumed it was the tower.

“Yesterday, someone accessed the data room and pulled files from there. I was able to stop them by shutting down my entire system, but they did get what they were coming for.”

 

 

“Data? What did they retrieve?”

The knight demanded.

“My blueprints.”

“And when was this again, Atom?”

“Yesterday, Jade.”

I was trying to keep up, so I asked.

“Let me get this right… Someone stole your blueprint data yesterday, Atom?”

“That’s right, redhead.”

“Hey, can we stop the redhead thing and just call me Feodora?”

“Feodora… what a long and… filthy name. Let’s clean it up and just call you Feo.”

I wasn't expecting someone like her to give me a nickname… but I accepted it and continued my questioning.

“So, if these culprits stole your information yesterday… how would they have time to put it into good use today?”

She pondered with her finger on her chin.

“Well… you see. That last picture, the Project Sphere… isn’t even done yet. All the blueprints for it are in testing. There is no physical model for it yet.”

Confused, we all focused on what she was saying. She continued as she paced around.

“Meaning unless they stole my research yesterday and constructed it before the bombing of today…. There’s no possible way it would be around to attack you, Feo.”

She paced from one end to the other as she explained. 

“From what I see from these photos, the culprits copied my design in order to build the machines they used in this attack... But they stole these same blueprints only yesterday.... That’s impossible for them to do.”

Atom explained. Jade jumped in with her own deductions.

“So, these culprits… have a method to rapidly construct all of these machines?’

Jade asked, earning a shake of Atom's head.

“No, it’s physically impossible to build all of this in hours and even days. For the Sphere Project alone It would take at least a year’s worth of time for it to be in the testing phases even if they followed my blueprints.”

I scratched the back of my head.

 

 

"So, how can you construct something that takes years in minutes?"

This was getting more complicated by the minute.

"That's all the information I have on that. If you need, I'll provide any kind of test you want, Jade. Know that I'll fully cooperate as long as nobody touches Eve.”

After that, we left the room. Jade turned to us when we reached the elevator.

"I believe her, you two."

She concluded. I was getting the same vibe as I leaned on the wall.

“But what does that mean for the investigation?”

“It means we leave it up to the Radiant Order to get to the bombings. I need to go back to my missing person investigation… same with you, Feodora.”

She nodded.

"But it's late, and you've had a long day. I wouldn't worry too much about this. Just rest and take the next day off. If more leads come in about it, I'll contact both you and Yuuna about it because you two, along with Mellissa, are the most involved here.”

“Right.”

Yuu Yuu nodded silently.

“To be able to build machines in minutes… we are dealing… with a complex Trickster.”

“Trickster?”

I asked, turning back to Jade.

“Hm? No… don’t worry about it. As I mentioned before, Feodora, Yuuna, you both are relieved for the rest of the day. Feodora, take tomorrow off, you’ve done enough, and I applaud you for the leadership skills you’ve shown me.”

“T-Thanks…”

When we exited the doors, Jade turned to me, nodded, and raced off without another word.

“Ah… I need to go.”

Yuu Yuu said as she turned to me too.

“Ah… I’m not doing anything… t-tomorrow… ah… so… F-Feodora…."

She blushed, and before I could answer, she raced off towards my home. It was… adorable.

… She's obviously saying… she wants to hang out again….

My stomach was warm… and I couldn’t settle down thinking about it. If Jade is giving me more time… maybe, I’ll think about what I need to do. Maxwell… would be upset if I kept getting closer with people, though…

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Somethings… strange…”

 

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was majorly wrong. Like… I didn't have time… something was impending…. And I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

“Well, tomorrow is a day off again. Maybe I should decide what I want to do?”

 

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[Choice]

 Talk to Jade about the investigation. (Jade) LOCKED UNTIL 3 ROUTES ARE COMPLETE.

Go see what Vivian is up to. (Vivian Heart)

Chat with Eve. (Eve Seed)

Search the Baron Group for clues. (Lana Pasco)

Question the Baron Group Leader. (Abigail Pasco) 

Look around Radiant City. (Mellissa Ann Cafree)

Search the forest for Yuu Yuu. (Yuuna)

 

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Yuuna/Yuu Yuu Wins with 14 votes.

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