1 Mean People: Go away, you monster! Mean People: We don't want you around here, Toukichirou! Hishigi: Mitarai Toukichirou... if you want to rise above those people, come with me and join the Mibu... Hishigi: It will be okay. I'm your friend, now. As proof, I'll give you a special name - #13. (I bet Hishigi isn't very creative in naming his goldfish, either.) Hishigi: I want you to use your abilities to serve the Mibu, and hone that sword arm of yours into a weapon. I am your friend, #13... Akari: No matter what happens... Hishigi will always be my dearest friend... this will always be my home... Hishigi: #13... You are my dear friend... and now I would like for you to be the captain of my guard. Hishigi: And there is one more gift I would like to bestow upon you. (XD This is totally random, but the weird word he uses for "gift" can also mean "the eyebrows of a beautiful woman"... he's giving Akari a spa gift certificate? Okay, I'll shut up now.) Hishigi: Akari: UWAAAAHHH!! Side text: My dream... is to be with those people I call my friends... 2 Hishigi: #13, I have come to understand that you are my truest friend... the "Medusa Eye" is my way of ensuring that we stay good friends. Hishigi: No matter where you go, the "Medusa Eye" will watch and report back to me. Akari: Stop screwing around...!! I'll use "Reject" on it!! Hishigi: It's no use... I did not give you the "Medusa Eye" out of affection... Hishigi: With this "Eye", you are now my most important weapon. Akari: What...?! So our friendship was a lie!? Hishigi: ...I'm not that kind of person. Hishgi: I have done this precisely because you are my friend. Hishigi: #13... no, my "Ashura"... Akari: No... don't say things if they're not in your heart!! Akari: And don't call me by that name!! Akari: [This wasn't the dream I had been wishing for...] Akari: [When it happened, my eyes were opened...] Akari: [And I realised I would become a monster...] 3 Akari: [I am Ashura... I am the most terrible of all demons. The "Medusa Eye" will consume my body and my soul... It is my fate.] Text: Is it her fate to be a sad marionette bound by the strings of her tragic past...!? Julian: After Genbu... Nee-chan should be totally incapacitated...!! Julian: Kyo...!! Did you actually kill Nee-chan?! 4 Julian: Nee-chans's arm is totally trapped by "Genbu"... Julian: But... Kyo didn't finish it...? Ashura: Shit...!! Kyo: You can't break free... And your "Medusa Eye" has been sealed. Kyo: I'm going back to pound the shit out of your master, Hishigi... I don't like seeing you like this, Akari... Ashura: I don't think so... 5 Kyo: What?! Julian: KYO!! Julian: That explosion just now totally vaporised the binds...!! Julian: But how could Nee-chan attack in that state! Julian: She used her right hand!? Julian: But... but the Medusa Eye is on the left hand... how...!? Julian: Oh... Julian: Oh shit... 6 Julian: The Medusa Eye is starting to take over Nee-chan's entire body!? Ashura: This... is the final sign that my body and soul have started to be eaten by the "Medusa Eye"... Ashura: Soon... my transformation into Ashura will be complete. Julian: Wha... what!? Julian: Nee-chan.... Akari: I want to be together, always... Julian: Did she just give up!? Kyo: Shit.... Ashura: Now... all of you weak creatures... Ashura: Celebrate the opening of my eye...!! 7 Yuan: Yo, Hishigi... 8-9 Yuan: We're pretty much even... Hishigi: Yuan... why did you hide your skill with a sword? Hishigi: Why wait until now to boast of you "amazing sword skills?" Yuan: WYou still harping on that, Hishigi? Yuan: You think I carry my precious baby Hakuya-dono just because I look cool with a sword? Hishigi: I have no desire to waste any more time playing games with you. Hishigi: ...Alright? Hishigi: Interesting choice of name for a sword... shall I show your "White Night" what total darkness is? (awful sentence, really, so I had to reword it to keep the meaning) Yuan: Sounds fun... I've got no regrets. And I'm going to show you something cool. Yuan: Alright, Mr. Cheerful, you had better brace yourself and get a good grip on the dirt... Yuan: Yeah! 10 Yuan: Gah.... Kyo: Tch...!! Yuan: "Tch...!?" That's all you can say after totally wrecking a guy's super-cool attack!? Kyo: Huh? Julian: Yuan, you're a dork~~! Yuan: Damn it, Kyo! Where the hell did you come flying from, anyway...? Ashura: Die... 11 Yuan: Wh...whoa... Kyo... this is bad... Yuan: That "Medusa Eye" didn't open, did it...!? Kyo: ... Kyo: Akari... Hishigi: Shall I tell you a simple way to defeat the "Medusa Eye?" Hishigi: Just make #13 look directly into the opened eye. Hishigi: Then it is #13 who would be turned to ash. Deprived of its source of noourishment, wouldn't the Medusa Eye cease to function and disappear? Yuan: I see... but... Yuan: You goddamned idiot!! If we do what you said, Akari-chan would die, wouldn't she!? Yuan: Akari-chan is your friend, right? Don't fuck around!! (And isn't she the captain of your soldiers, too!?) Hishigi: And your point is...? 12 Hishigi: Have you... ever lost someone important to you? Yuan: Huh? (What kind of reasoning is that?) Hishigi: ...That's just how it is. Hishigi: If #13 dies here, I don't particularly care. Hishigi: I have created many lives, and I have taken many lives. #13's life does not especially concern me. Hishigi: Friendship? I created Ashura for one thing only... and if you do manage to kill it... well, frankly, I don't think you can. Yuan: Hishigi!! You asshole... Kyo: Don't fuck with me... 12 Kyo: Akari is MY servant... Kyo: Nobody but me gets to talk to him like that!! Hishigi: So you are friends, after all... such a high level of emotion from you... I suppose it's the emotional entanglements that bind us that make us unsuitable candidates for Aka no Ou... Hishigi: So... Hishigi: Perhaps you would like to die by the hand of your own "servant?" Kyo: Gah...!! 13 Ashura: Hishigi-sama is my master... and you are Hishigi-sama's enemy. I must suck the life of Hishigi-sama's enemies with my "Air Vamp." (Jeez... which of Akari-chan's attack names is worse - "Air Vamp" or "Core High Crusher?") Yuan: Houriki? But that's Akari-chan's technique!? Yuan: [Does that thing finally have control of Akari-chan's soul...!?] Yuan: Huh...!? Yuan: He's going to face Akari-chan!? 14 Ashura: DIE!! Ashura: I don't want to see you again!! Yuan: Whoa... Kyo... 15 Yuan: WHY AREN'T YOU FIGHTING BACK!? Ashura: AHHHHHH!!! 16 Kyo: Why did you give up, Akari...? Kyo: What did that "Eye" do to you!? Kyo: You are really starting to PISS ME OFF!! Kyo: We never said it, but you're my friend, damn it! Akari: [...My... dream...] 17 Akari: [If only...] Akari: [If only there was someone who could forgive my selfishness and my vanity...] Akari: [If only there was someone who would just laugh it away when I did something stupid...] Akari: [If only there were someone strong enough to withstand even sadness..] Akari: [Dreams are so fleeting... If I were to open my eyes aonce more, would I still miss my dream again...?] Akari: [That... is what I always believed...] Akari: And what if I really am a monster!? Would you still stay with me!? Akari: How can you be so sure that your feelings won't change!? Kyo: You're being so weird about this that I think they're changing right now! Akari: [But...] Kyo: I don't give a damn if you're a "monster" or not!! 18 Akari: Kyo... I'm sorry... Akari: You're the same as you've always been... Akari: Even though you the truth about me, you haven't changed one bit from the first time we met... Akari: I know I'm awake, but this still feels like a dream... Kyo: Akari... Julian: Akari....! What are y... Yuan: Hey... hey... look at that... oh crap... 19 Yuan: The "Medusa Eye" is opening...!! Yuan: AKARI-CHAN!! DON'T LOOK AT IT!! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF!? Akari: [But...] Akari: [I still have my dream...] Yuan: AKARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Text: [To sacrifice one's life for friendship is the most intense affirmation of one's existance...!! Is this a heroic self-sacrifice!?] Akari: [And for that, I will give up this life...] Next Chapter: A Broken God of War!! (Note: In Buddhist and Hindu stories, the Ashura (asura in Sanskrit) are a class of demigods just below humans and gods but above condemned souls, ghosts and animals. They're not necessarily evil, but they are sometimes very warlike, and constantly battle the real gods (Deva) for power. Buddhism adopted Ashura as guardian deities. Some Ashura were very kind, though, and became sun goddesses that helped humans. They are represented as having three faces - two violent and one benevolent. Ashura are usually sort of androgynous and very proud, just like Akari-chan~ Kind of cool that Kamijyo-sensei does his homework, huh?)