••●••

'A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work'
— Colin Powell

••●••

Tadashi couldn't believe his ears. Nobody else in the room could, and instead were gawking, desperately hoping they were dreaming.

The real Ayame Kobayashi would've never said that. She would've never done that.

"Wh-What the hell! This is a sick joke, Kobayashi!" Yasuo hollered, fumbling his words. "You're trying to leave this case to us? You're running away?!"

"Running away?" Ayame repeated as if he were stupid. "Why would I be running away? You could leave and join a club at your own will and that's what I'm doing. I joined this club once, and now I am leaving. If you want a reason it's because this club isn't beneficial to me at all. I'll be joining the Student Council and I'll put my strengths to good use there."

What... Tadashi thought incredulously.

"The Student Council?" Atsushi exclaimed, eyes wide.

Sighing, Ayame crossed her arms. "I don't have the time to waste on you people. If I shouldn't leave, give me a reason as to why."

"Why?" Ryuu said after her incredulously.

Everyone in the room were jaw-dropped and shocked. They couldn't believe the person in front of them was Ayame at all.

"What about the case?" Ryu demanded. "We still never found who the mastermind is! And you, you said—"

"You called Minamoto out for running away!" Yasuo yelled, cutting him off. "And now... now you're leaving this club like it has nothing to do with you? Even after all that's happened? I thought you were going to find and put a stop to the mastermind! Were you lying this whole time?!"

Unchanging and poker-faced, Ayame stared at them one last time. Quirking an eyebrow, Ayame opened her mouth.

"I told you that I didn't want any part of these Crime Games so stop talking to me like I'm a culprit in this story you have made up. This is real life, Ishikawa. There is no mastermind. Realize that we're not detectives, police officers, nothing. We have no right to gather, make up crimes, and solve them like they're real. Just realize that already. All of you."

Ayame slapped the sheet onto the tabletop and spun on her heels before leaving the room.

"What the actual...." Yasuo cursed profanities, kicking the chairs. "Freakin' Kobayashi, always acting like a freakin'—"

"Everyone..." Tadashi opened his mouth, his head hung. All the teens in the room jeked their heads in his direction. "It's not Kobayashi's fault. It's because—"

"She has amnesia."

The sudden voice caused the teens to whip their heads towards the doorway. There, Kazuma Kurosaki stood, his eyes narrowed. His violet hues locked with Tadashi's darkly, as if he'd kill him if he said it.

"She has amnesia," Kazuma reiterated with another breath. "That's why she's been acting weird."

☻☺☻

"Upperclassman Kazuma!" Tadashi dashed after Kazuma after he had walked away from the clubroom.

The Student Council President stopped to glare at him. "What?"

Tadashi halted, obviously hesitant. "Kobayashi said she was joining the student council! Why did—"

"She decided that herself," Kazuma cut him off, glancing away. "I gave her all the files of the members of the CRF to memorize but she wanted to join the SC before I could tell her about what was going on right now. Something had to be driving her to join the CRF before but because she reset everything, it's lost knowledge now."

Something.... Tadashi gulped hard, his eyebrows knitted together. He didn't like the sound of his words at all. "Why..." he began. "If Ayame Kobayashi is an Android like you said, how do you know that?"

Kazuma spared Tadashi an inexpressive look, but Tadashi never wavered. It was odd!

"Even with the police and with pushing the reset button at the back of her neck, how do you know about all that?" Tadashi's features flickered with an earnest emotion. "It's not like you're in the same class and you guys don't hang out at all, and if she is one like you're saying, I think she would tell us in the club before you. So that means you had to have known from before..."

Even though Tadashi had no idea what he was saying, words were tumbling out of his mouth before he time to think about them. It was the first time he'd ever felt like this. He'd never been one to accuse others of something before.

After a few seconds of silence, Kazuma's lips downturned in the form of a frown. "Why do you want to know? The Ayame Kobayashi you knew is gone. Instead of letting her rot there to become a useless piece of metal, the second I pushed her reset button, like you said, Ayame rebooted like the robot she was created like. She's lived for years so that's how she became the Ayame you know now. But she's restarted now. Just like when she was first created. There's no way you can bring back the old Ayame. It's impossible now, no matter how much you want it, Tadashi. Just give it up."

Tadashi flinched and his mouth fell. Gone...

He had thought about that. Dropping his head, Tadashi clenched his teeth and fists. But he knew the real reason as to why he still wanted answers.

He didn't want to believe that Ayame was gone. It was surreal, as if it wasn't even happening— but it was. What happened last week was real, whether he liked it or not.

But... there was no way...

"I understand what you're saying." Tadashi raised his head, desperation as clear as day. "But I can't accept that! I need to know, Upperclassman Kazuma! I—"

"Fine, fine," Kazuma said, stepping up to him.

His expression was miffed as he exhaled loudly, avoiding his eyes.

"My dad, Azusa Kurosaki. He... created her."

→☻☻☺☻☻ CRIME GAMES ☻☻☺☻☻←

"My dad loves science. Everything about it, but he mostly specialized in neuroscience. He was a genius to the doctor community and everyone came to him for advice on things. He performed surgery perfectly and always came up with blueprints to devices and all that. That's the reason why my family's rich really. And in my dad's spare time, he'd always invent things. Useless junk that you'd watch in those movies..." Kazuma had begun explaining it to Tadashi as soon as they entered the Student Council room for privacy. His eyes fell upon Tadashi. "But one day, he tried creating a human."

Tadashi's eyelids shot up in surprise. "What?"

Kazuma closed his eyes. "Of course, it didn't work out. It's not like he could make a Frankenstein type thing with simple dead flesh and lightening. So, he started working on making an artificial being..."

Tadashi sucked in his breath, "Kobayashi..."

"No."

Tadashi flinched at Kazuma's curt response and he blushed. He was wrong... Ugh, how embarrassing was that!

Kazuma smirked at Tadashi's flustered reaction. "Ayame came afterwards. She was the seventeenth one. No matter how hard my dad tried, creating an artificial being that could act human and blend into society was impossible. Their wires could malfunction at any given time, or their databases wouldn't withhold a large amount of information for a lifetime without deleting some of it, human speech patterns and behaviours; it was like creating a human being from scratch. But we humans aren't God, so we can't create life. That's why my dad made something that could count as giving somebody a life.

"His seventeenth robot, P-#1768.A.K, he decided to try something he hadn't tried before..."

Tadashi nearly gasped at the numbers. "Those are the numbers—"

"Yes, instilled into Ayame's neck. Prototype number 17 created on June 8, Azusa Kurosaki." Kazuma cleared his throat before continuing, "I don't know for sure how he created her, but I do know that using the neuroscience that he excelled in, and his familiarities with computers and machines, the robot came to be. And she was a fast learner. She learned human speech and patterns to the point where she could blend into society. But..."

But...? Tadashi swallowed hard, dreading the worst.

Kazuma's expression darkened. "No matter what, without a real heart, a robot can't experience emotions. No matter how hard my dad tried, fixing that tweak of hers was impossible. And in my dad's eyes, she was a failure."

"A failure?" Tadashi said. "But—"

"A junk of metal who can't feel is still just a junk of metal. Just like computers and our cell phones and any other electronic out there, if it could have emotions, that'd make it amazing. But since it can't, they're all considered to be like the rest. Just by adding a special feature onto a phone doesn't make it godly unless it proves it's worth," Kazuma said coldly. "That's how society works, Tadashi, and there's no changing that."

Tadashi bit his lip to keep in all his retorts and he tentatively glanced up at Kazuma. "What happened?"

Kazuma stared at him for a while before looking away. "At first, Ayame was scheduled to be crushed so he could make another being. But on the day she was, she disappeared. My dad was angered, but I knew it was because she didn't want it. She grew up with our family for years with my dad telling her he loved her and how amazing she was learning, so when my dad said he was going to dispose of her and turned the other way, just like any six-year-old kid would've, she ran away."

"Where'd she go?"

Kazuma shrugged. "Who knows..."

His eyes glazed over Tadashi and he blinked under his pressuring look.

"What?"

The black-haired teen shook his head. "Anyways, a few days later she came back. My dad was furious and was just about to throw her into the junkyard when she started crying. And crying. Until she suddenly dropped. Just like last week, exactly like that. She had no signs of waking up or anything. But since my dad saw the way she, an android, cried—with the use of the tear ducts my dad inserted into her system—he didn't hesitate to bring her back. He gave her a reset button, and she rebooted instantly.

"When she woke up... she was cold and emotionless again. My dad wasn't mad, though. It was a success. He had made an artificial robot, and all he had to do was teach her how to feel again." Kazuma frowned. "But before he could accomplish that, my dad disappeared and left my family behind. And shortly afterwards, the police got custody over Ayame and took her away from my house. And we met back here in our first year, her using the name 'Ayame Kobayashi' ...and she was impassive. She didn't recognize me and treated everyone in the school the same way she always has, but without emotions."

Tadashi absorbed this information, gritting his teeth. So that was... the full truth? He studied Kazuma intently, but his expression told him he wasn't lying. Ayame Kobayashi really was a robot. And was created by Kazuma's dad, Azusa Kurosaki.

But... He was wrong. About that one thing.

"How can I bring Kobayashi back?" Tadashi's unwavering voice and question shocked the Student Council President of Kaisei Academy.

He stared at him incredulously. "I already told you, Ayame—"

"Kobayashi wasn't emotionless. She cared about this case too. I've seen her angry, and I've seen her relieved, and troubled, and anxious. If she was just an emotionless robot, she wouldn't have felt it! She wouldn't have blended into the club if she didn't!" Tadashi stated strongly. "Kobayashi doesn't smile often, sure, and she's rarely emotive, and she's always so poker-faced and insensitive to others, but, she definitely had emotions, Upperclassman Kazuma. She wasn't acting.

"I don't know why she enrolled into this school, or what her purpose was considering she was an android, but, if a useless junk of metal had felt emotions not once, but twice— even after getting reset— then we can do it a third time!"

Kazuma was jaw dropped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had never seen Tadashi Matsumoto like this before— ever. And his words were simply unbelievable.

"Even if you do make her learn to feel emotions again, that doesn't mean her memories will come back," Kazuma told him, but Tadashi held up a fist.

"I know... but it's worth a shot, right?"

Kazuma's expression faded into one of deadpan. He closed his eyes. "Why do you want to try so hard? All your club members seemed defeated when I told them she had amnesia. You're the only one who knows she's a robot, and that's a bigger problem to deal with then that. Even I think it's impossible, somebody who's seen it happen before..."

Tadashi unclenched his fists and stared at it before taking a breath. Ayame's words pumped through his mind.

"Even in these events, everyone is always changing huh? I'm the only one... who doesn't... who isn't..."

"I didn't think you'd let this knock you down. Regardless of whose fault it was, I took you to be a person that never gave up no matter what. Who never hid just because something out of their reach happened. The Tadashi Matsumoto I know isn't frail like that."

"Standing up. Getting something done. Never giving up. That's a very unique and impossible way of doing things, but it's how I accomplish everything. And this case will be no different. I will put a stop to this tragedy, with or without your cooperation. You could stay where you are if you want, I'm not forcing you to get over it so soon and come back to help. But if... if you really want to make a difference — to stop this occurrence, to make it up to your guilt, to move forward — come assist us..."

"They, along with myself, need you to put a stop to this case. That's why I'm asking you to not give up."

When he found the answer, Tadashi opened his eyes. "Kobayashi... isn't unfeeling, Upperclassman Kazuma. Believe it or not, she's the one who's always getting me back up to my feet. She's the reason why I haven't lost hope yet. She's the one who wants to put a stop the mastermind more than any one of us."

Furling his fingers into fists, nothing but aspiration welled up inside of Tadashi.

"Even if you say there's no solution, I'll find one," Tadashi declared. "I'll definitely bring her back."