CHAPTER XV

Kyle laughs. "So this is what Justine was trying to do."
Not understanding his words, Kirsten frowns.
Spotting the frown, he explains. "She said she was hoping these angels wouldn't be objective about the whole thing. And that is now working in our favor."
"Because now the trial can't go on anymore!" Kirsten manages a bright smile this time.
"Exactly!" Kyle cheers. "Seriously, what was wrong with him this whole time?"
"Who knows," Kirsten answers. "I mean, you felt bad about not being able to help the people that Centroman crashed into. He did not even bring them up. At all. Like their deaths didn't matter to him. Instead, he made up all that stuff, ignored so many things, and nothing we showed him changed his mind... something was seriously wrong with him!"
"And anything good we did," Kyle adds, "like stopping the attacks, like keeping others from getting hurt, or returning those things to who they belong, none of that mattered to him?"
"Well, if he was one of those people who punished the genie you met, I guess this shouldn't surprise us," Kirsten admits.
"No, I guess not," Kyle says.
Returning her gaze to the screen, Kirsten can see that the Prosecutor is no longer in the room.
"People," the Chairman says. "I am sorry to have wasted your time. And Mister Vanman..."
They see the Chairman press a button on his desk, and within a fraction of a second, the glowing green bars disappear.
"With the charges dropped," the Chairman continues, "you are now a free man."
The two children roar in happiness, wrap their arms around each other, happier than they have been in the past few days.
"It's not over yet," Anaïs tells them. "You've revealed a little too much about yourself to the people of the jury. You might want to be sure they won't talk about you, outside this courtroom."
Kyle groans. "Right."

The Vanman leans closer to Justine. "Is it possible to erase the memories of the jury?"
Justine looks at him, and smiles. "Don't worry. Because of the sensitive nature of many of the cases, wiping the jury's memory has become standard practice."
The Vanman nods. He turns around, and makes his way toward the exit.

"The Faceless are leaving the Astral Van," the Van informs everyone inside.
"Great!" Kirsten says.
"Don't be too sure yet," Anaïs says.
Kirsten looks at her, concerned. "What do you mean?"
"The Faceless may be ordered to leave you alone now," Anaïs says. "But they might still be keeping an eye on you, hoping you'll make a mistake."
Kyle grumbles. "No good. Remember what I had in mind, to help Delphine and Nanook?"
"Yeah," Kirsten replies. "You wanted to use the nanobots to make them show their thoughts in the Astral Plane, so the two can talk things out with each other."
"Yeah," Kyle replies. "But if the Faceless keep an eye on us, they'll find Delphine and Nanook. Who knows what they'd do, then."
Kirsten curses in Danish. "They may not be the Thought Police, but they may as well be."
Kyle scratches his forehead, thinking about this. "For now, we should let these two talk inside the Astral Van, where they'll be protected from the Faceless. At least, until we find a better solution."
"Sounds fair," Kirsten agrees.

As the Vanman is about to exit, someone calls out to them.
"Vanman-san!"
He stops, and turns around.
Standing with him now, are Tetsuno and Shotaro Kobayashi, their bodyguard Mecha-Sol 8, and their lieutenant Ando Honda.
"We apologize for everything that's happened," Honda says. "I hope that next we meet, we can be allies, rather than enemies."
The Vanman stares at him, without saying a word.
"We might meet sooner than you think," Kobayashi says. "There is still some paperwork to be done, to make your stay in Japan legal."
The Vanman still gives no response.
"Maybe we can go see the Flying Five together!" Tetsuno suggests.
Kobayashi tries to keep himself calm. "I already told you. If you visit them, it will let them think we condone their actions."

Watching this happen on the screen, Kyle sighs. "Van, just leave the courthouse, and go back to Japan."
"We can't," Anaïs says. "You heard what Kobayashi said. We still have some paperwork to do."
"All right, then," Kyle suggests. "You take care of that. Come on, Kirsten, we've got ourselves some monsters to help."
"Lemme get out of this dress first," Kirsten says. "I've felt ridiculous wearing this the whole day."
Kyle nods, and motions to her to go.