VOTOMS Ep. 10: Red Shoulder

The police begin to bulldoze and set fire to the junkyard area in an attempt to kill Chirico and the others. Gotho, Vanilla and Coconna go outside and see Chirico is already there watching the destruction. He tells them that the big sweep has begun, and Gotho estimates they have ten minutes before the police reach them. Suddenly, a missile from a helicopter explodes near them and blocks the entrance to the hideout. Iskui and Borough watch the sweep, and while Iskui thinks they’ll finally be rid of Chirico, Borough thinks they should’ve done this earlier. Gotho says that in one battle, hundreds of AT pilots were burned to death and only three pilots survived. They were Red Shoulders, an infamous special forces unit with a reputation for butchery. Vanilla cries that that has nothing to do with them now, and Chirico punches him. He says they can’t give up, but Vanilla thinks there’s no way to dig back into the hideout. Chirico plucks a hair off of Vanilla’s head and puts it up against a small hole to show airflow. He says the pile of rubbish can’t be too deep, and everyone starts digging. Eventually, they dig up enough to get back inside the hideout. However, the police are dropping bombs now too, so the hideout isn’t safe. Chirico opens a manhole and crawls down an narrow hole to see if they can escape to the next block. The ladder leads into the next block, but it ends high above the ground. Chirico spots an air duct not too far away and asks for some rope and a pipe. He ties the rope to the pipe and throws it over to the air duct. One by one, everyone climbs down the ladder and makes their way across the rope to the air duct. Coconna slips and almost falls to her death, but Chirico grabs her in time. The bombs continue to drop, and an explosion destroys the ladder while Gotho and Chirico go across the rope. As they swing around, Chirico manages to grab onto a pipe and stabilize the rope.

Vanilla and Gotho pry open a refrigerator in an apartment and find some food and water. They plan to leave the city, but Chirico says he can’t go because things haven’t been settled yet. They ask him why he would want to stay, and he says that during the war he saw a military secret he wasn’t supposed to- the Prototype. He wants to find out who she is and won’t leave until he does so. He says he doesn’t mind if they feel like coming, but no one wants too because it’s too dangerous. He then says goodbye and leaves. Some officers report to Iskui that they haven’t found any bodies, but they believe Chirico has to be dead. Iskui orders them to keep looking until they find bodies. The Phantom Lady suddenly leaves and goes to her room. Borough is suspicious, but Iskui chalks it up to her being a young girl. Borough is convinced that the Phantom Lady has met Chirico before and has special feelings for him. Chirico makes his way though the city until he reaches the Battling arena. He kills one of the guards and sneaks into the hangar to begin outfitting a Scopedog with heavy weapons. Elsewhere, Vanilla, Gotho and Coconna travel through the sewers to leave Woodo. Coconna suddenly stops and says she wants to go back and help Chirico. She argues with the others and heads back on her own, but Vanilla and Gotho soon go after her. Another Battling guard finds the body of his partner and sees Chirico in the AT hangar. He runs to a phone and calls the police to give them Chirico’s location. Coconna hits him on the head with a pipe, but he knocks her over. Vanilla and Gotho knock him out with a pipe. They go to the AT hangar and tell Chirico that the police are on the way. Chirico continues to arm his Scopedog with the help of the others. He attaches missile launchers and a control box while Vanilla paints the left shoulder red. Chirico looks at the Scopedog Red Shoulder Custom and notes the Red Shoulders use a blood red color on the right shoulder. Everyone is shocked when Chirico reveals he was a member of the Red Shoulders. Suddenly, several Garshims blast open the hangar doors.