Chương 22: Interlude: The Theft

Hero Park was the collective term for the wide strips of land between the four quadrants of Crashpoint. While they were, in fact, public parks where the large fauna had mostly been driven out over the centuries, their primary use was as a path to get kaiju out of the city without having to go through buildings. Of course, over the years the Kaedekin had made them nice.

Decorative plants had been planted, paths had been paved, fountains and bathrooms had been installed, statues had been erected, and all usually got replaced when they inevitably got trampled by a Void kaiju or got blown up by munitions or spells. Of the statues there, the one that had pride of place was Kaede's… or rather, Stardancer's. It depicted her in full Magical Girl regalia, with billowing skirts, sailor collar, and Lyrica in weapon form.

In the four cardinal directions were statues depicting her closest friends: the members of the Court of the Falling Sky, Knight Queen and her Court of the Black Heavens, Endless Abyss and her three artificial human retainers that comprised her Court of the Twilight Cosmos, and the other six members of the Outguard.

Under normal circumstance, the little lawn on which the statues stood was a quiet and relaxed place, with those who came close showing respect to the statue of the girl who'd created them as they drew sketches, took naps, did weapons practice, or drew sketches of people taking naps and doing weapons practice. Today, the tracts of ghostly white grass was full of Metro Rangers. They were setting up lights and sensors as all of them tried to watch all directions at once, which included the dark sky above.

Everyone knew Phantom Thieves loved their hot air ballons, blimps and gliders! Trees found themselves festooned with lights inside and out to keep them from being able to hide anyone, and every bush and shrub had at least one Metro Ranger already crouched inside it. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about crowds of bystanders taking footage with their buddies and just getting in people's way, the way they did in the other universe.

Everyone was Kaedekin after all, and so there was a large exclusion zone around the active area of the park. Well, after they'd gently told some little sisters who were trying to be helpful and giving everyone bentos and drinks that they needed to leave. They'd been very understanding, although a few a felt sorry for the little sister who'd come with a full push cart who'd needed to navigate her heavy load back through the park almost as soon as she'd arrived.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Normally, the daylamps would begin to dim to simulate sunset, but the emergency override had been activated to minimize the cover of darkness. The Metro Rangers had brought even more lights, and had even borrowed one of the c-type mecha from the Void Rangers to have something naturally tall enough to mount lights on.

With all the preparations in place, the Metro Rangers all waited, doubly checking that their weapons were all set on stun. Criminal or not, this was still a sister, no matter how misguided. At least, that's what they told themselves. After all, they all had Kaede's Legacy inside their heads, so they knew what Phantom Thieves could be like… And so they waited, watching each other as much as the park and the sky above.

After all, Phantom Thieves were known for using disguises, and with every girl being a clone of Kaede, one wouldn't even need one of the elaborate rubber faces to impersonate someone, just put on their clothes and hair style. They waited, nervously eating from snacks they carried in their pockets to keep their energy up, and inevitably needing to go in groups to the toilet to make sure no one got replaced while vulnerable there.

There were regular roll calls to make sure there wasn't one more Ranger than there should be. They waited some more, a few going over to the statue of Stardancer and poking it to make sure Night Raider hadn't already done that 'I'd already stolen the statue before hand and just left a stand in' thing. It was undoubtedly the real statue, checked with scanners and gravitometers to make sure it wasn't just empty air or made of sugar or something.

Finally, at midnight, there was another very colorful explosion that sent up glowing vennplate confetti into the air. No one was stupid enough to leave their posts, and left investigating the inevitable distraction to one of the many mobile teams who had been doing regular—and overlapping—patrols all around the park. When the investigators made it to the sight of the explosion, they found a bare patch of dirt where a statue would be. it was in the part of the park commemorating the Mass Production Models.

More than one girl winced in guilt when they saw the note that had been painted on a sign next to where the missing statute would have stood. Really? No one thought to check on Nikaede-oneesama? Nikaede had impersonated Kaede, after all. She had also called herself Stardancer.