Chapitre 36: The Wave-Guiding Hero and the Host Samurai

Though he sensed the presences, Lucario did not heighten his guard. He merely quickened his pace slightly. If he continued on this path, he would soon encounter them.

Lucario kept his ears raised, also remaining aware of his surroundings. He had taken down a few beings along the way. There did not seem to be any civilian-like forms around – at least, not any living ones.

Truth be told, Lucario had another inclination. But he could not defy Shirona's wish. He too had no objection to saving more lives.

Still, her face came to mind. Hair not long enough to cover her ears or drape over her shoulders, lush round eyes. He had thought his duty, his responsibility, should be protecting Anzu.

The other party feigned an air of nonchalance. But Lucario could tell – she did not linger long in his space alone. Though she did not show it outwardly, her fear was evident.

Understandable, given Lucario's memory of that grotesque alien parasitizing him, the sensation of crushing Anzu's chest ingrained, killing her without hesitation.

So he had to atone. This time, he would protect her at all costs. It was the least he could do for his master Shirona. Ideally he would have stayed by Anzu's side, but he had to trust the other Pokémon. Perhaps he had a separate role to play.

The presences were near now. He could feel their life auras. The two he had detected some time ago were practically right in front of him.

Lucario rounded the corner. And they noticed him as well.

"Oi..."

They wore black outfits, though not the same gear as Shirona's group. Looser fitting, more like suits. Undoubtedly not of Gantz origin.

The blond man smoking a cigarette nudged the woman next to him.

"...Again?"

Neither was armed, yet their combative intent was palpable. Still, Lucario did not take a stance.

For they were the same. Clearly distinct from Shirona and the other humans, with anomalous physiology. But the device embedded in their heads was identical to his own. Which meant they were likely allies.

So he placed his paws on his hips as if to convey something.

"What is it?" The man furrowed his brow.

"Whoa!" Lucario howled, indicating he was no foe.

The woman glanced at the blond man, who stared intently back at Lucario. "You want to try talking to this alien instead?"

Lucario had learned much about "aliens" from his master – adversaries to defeat, threats to eliminate. So he tried conveying the misunderstanding. He shook his head, and the man's brow furrowed deeper.

"I've had a chat with your bosses. We're just here to exterminate you alien bug freaks."

"Woo?" Lucario frowned.

"Oh? What, aren't you one of them?" The man questioned.

Lucario gestured more insistently, patting his own head then pointing at theirs repeatedly before framing a small box with his paws.

"What's it doing?" the beautiful long-haired woman asked, lips parting slightly in apparent amusement at Lucario's antics.

It seemed his meaning was not getting across, so he animatedly repeated the gestures, almost endearingly so.

"Whoa."

"Speak a common tongue. What're you playing at?"

"...Guh."

The man narrowed his eyes, then scratched his head in exasperation. "Ah, you men about our heads?"

Lucario nodded vigorously, exaggerating the box framing even more now with his entire forelimbs. The woman stifled a laugh.

"Something in our heads, huh?"

"What, like...you know about the bombs planted on us?"

"Woo!" Lucario bobbed his head up and down emphatically.

"You've got one too?"

"Woo!" He shook it repeatedly.

At last, the understanding seemed to dawn. Following Shirona's instructions to help everyone, including supposed allies in the same predicament, seemed only right. However, their attempted discourse ultimately failed.

Lucario sensed the presences slightly too late, so absorbed was he in communicating. He had let his guard down, failing to detect the new arrivals closing in.

From farther down the street, two figures approached.

"Tch..."

The man and woman simultaneously readied their weapons, arms morphing into blades. Lucario felt a pang of admiration – moves he had never witnessed before, wondering if he could learn them himself.

In response to their raised swords, the newcomers halted, one raising their hands placatingly.

They too appeared divided into male and female forms. The male bared vicious fangs, staring unblinkingly with an unsettlingly feral gaze, horns protruding from his head in a visage akin to a Hannya mask. If Lucario had any knowledge of such Japanese cultural traditions he would have recognized it.

The woman's eyes were so thin they were almost thread-like. Yet she, too, did not move her eyelids at all. Her thick eyebrows were very distinctive.

"Wait..." The blond man's voice was gravelly, coarse. "Wait...you are not...Human. You both are...not Human. What manner of...creatures?"

The blond man relayed how they had been implanted with bombs in their heads, enemy signals crossing wires and leading to this unfortunate misunderstanding.

It was then Lucario detected the pungent, oppressive flow marking them as foes – aligned against whatever Gantz directed. Which meant the blonds too opposed Gantz's force. There were no allies for Lucario here.

As if to confirm this, the beast-man wearing the Hannya mask pointed a clawed finger at Lucario.

"Ok...let us exterminate the vermin together then. Will you join...our cause? Ahahahah!"

All eyes turned to Lucario.

The slit-eyed woman's hand inched towards her hilt.

"Hohohoho. But no, no that won't do. Stinks. It stinks. Orders to kill. The blue dog. Under orders."

"I see."

The blond man took a drag of his cigarette, clenching his fist tightly around his blade. "Then let's cooperate and take care of it quickly."

Lucario had already bounded away, nimbly evading the blond man's overhead slash and landed on the wall. Sharpening his gaze, he leaped upward.

"Hehe. Ensnare. Envelop. Cut into pieces..."

As he tried to land, the narrow-eyed woman rushed in. But Lucario also understood that. He readied one hand.

He continued with Force Palm, releasing a barrage of Aura Spheres – one towards the waiting woman, the others keeping the Hannya beast-man at bay.

"Ahahahah. Amusing. Most amusing..."

Yet the two were not so easily struck, swords flashing to bifurcate the glowing projectiles in a shower of dissipating light.

Still, Lucario had created a momentary opening. He angled his jaw, a blade grazing his cheek as the black-haired woman's rapier thrust missed his neck by a hair's breadth – an exquisitely honed technique born of physical prowess rather than technique.

Lucario accelerated forward, aiming to kick her directly in the face.

"Heh..." Seeing this, the blond man flicked away his spent cigarette butt. He would likely counterattack.

In that elongated moment, Lucario contemplated. Obeying Shirona's directive, he should flee – the numerical disadvantage was too great to overcome unscathed. Her prioritization of his life should take precedence over engagement.

Yet he also considered preventing any further obstacles. They had voiced genocidal intent against Gantz's forces, putting more lives at potential risk if left unchecked. So he would neutralize the threat here and now.

Envisioning Anzu's face, Lucario parried with a deft pawstrike. Grazing but not cutting the blond man's sword edge, he thrust outward with an infused impact shockwave, the force halting the man's counterattack in its tracks despite his evident bafflement at Lucario's technique. And then, a focused Force Palm.

Whoosh!

Lucario had long since attained mastery over disrupting objects and beings at the molecular level. Yet the blond man's blade seemed specially reinforced, merely repelling rather than shattering the burst of vibrational force.

Still, the resulting impulse jarred it from his grasp, breaking the assault's flow. Naturally, Lucario did not foolishly press this opening. His opponents were not singular.

He dropped into an extremely low stance, another blade passing harmlessly over his raised ears – its windflow utterly ineffectual when he could detect the incoming surge of aura long before its physical manifestation. To sense the universal radiation of all matter rendered ambush null.

Before the strikes grew too numerous, Lucario disengaged. Sweeping out his legs in a spinning retreat, he toppled the Hannya beast-man and the narrow-eyed woman's stances who were approaching on the left and right. Their footwork appeared lacking, their balance collapsing entirely from the low reversals.

As they staggered, Lucario extended his forepaws, twin Aura Spheres lancing out to strike the flailing pair squarely.

A searing sensation grazed his shin just before collision with the wall.

It seemed the Hannya beast-man had desperately drawn a wakizashi shortsword, sacrificing reach for maneuverability compared to his earlier greatsword technique.

Examining the superficial wound, Lucario determined no serious danger – they likely lacked an alien parasite's ability to invade through even minor lacerations.

As he nursed the bitter memory of inflicting far graver harm himself, the slit-eyed woman struck with blinding speed.

"Kyaaah!"

Lucario's eyes flashed wide. The expected attack never came. The blade that the narrow-eyed woman pulled out reached the black-haired woman's arm. It easily cut through her flesh, and a lot of blood flowed out.

Her dying eyes met the blond man's impassive stare as he silently observed the beast-pair pinching their noses.

"Stinky stinky."

"Indeed...stinky indeed."

The woman licked her blade clean. "Stinky! Heheheheh. It is stinky after all!!"

"The scent...most foul...we'll have to slay you as well."

The two seemed even less rational than their blond counterpart, who sneered contemptuously at their betrayal.

Lucario landed beside him.

"Ah, so it seems we're both stuck dealing with a bunch of nutjobs..."

The Hannya beast-man and evil-eyed woman began circling as the blond man sheathed his sword, raising an accusing finger.

"Well then, how's about a warm up?" One hand rested on his hilt.

Lucario lowered his paws into a ready stance. He closed his eyes – it would enhance his perception.

The woman's strike lanced forth like lightning, her naked blade aiming to sever Lucario's forelimb.

He flicked his paw upwards in a negligible beckoning gesture. A compact Aura Sphere manifested to obliterate her leading foot as it touched down, the wild force also deflecting her sword skyward.

Lucario seamlessly extended that paw as a palm strike directly into her sternum – not even carrying the full force of a typical Force Palm behind it, more like a gentle push.

Yet the internal shockwaves rippled devastatingly through her body. She coughed up blood, crimson spattering her aghast features as Lucario's follow-up kick launched her smashing through the wall, neck grotesquely snapped.

The coppery scent of fresh blood filled the air.

When Lucario turned around, Tthe blond man clutched a gash on his arm, deeper than Lucario's own graze.

"Kyoooooh!"

Enraged by his fallen comrade, the Hannya beast-man charged in a berserker fury. He wielded dual blades – the greatsword to batter offensively while the shorter wakizashi stabbed at openings, providing both offense and defense in that whirlwind of steel. The blond man was hard-pressed fending off the onslaught.

Lucario observed stoically, making no move to intervene. Their earlier skirmish had revealed the blond man never intended lethal force. For whatever reasons, he clearly did not see Lucario as a complete adversary and more importantly, had been concealing his full might.

An artful horizontal parry disarmed the beast-man of both weapons. Lucario kept tracking the blond man's measured focus through the killing blow, his consciousness never wavering from that solitary scrutiny.

As the melee concluded, the pair faced each other in silence.

Lucario lowered his stance first.

After exhaling deeply, the blond man followed suit, sheathing his blade before tearing a strip of cloth from his shirt to bind the dead woman's severed arm as a tourniquet.

Lucario inspected his own wound – delaying treatment any longer could have proven perilous. Togekiss or Milotic would need to tend to it properly. When he gestured for the man to accompany him, he shook his head.

"Yo, what happens when this 'mission' of yours is over?"

The query finally prompted Lucario's recollection of unpleasant memories – him inadvertently obliterating Shirona's ear in their earliest battles, a torment he still suffered nightmares over. Yet evidently, such injuries were fully restored after each Gantz encounter concluded. He conveyed this understanding as best he could through mime.

The blond man hoisted the deceased woman into his arms. "So everything just resets back to normal then. Got it."

"Wuh?" When Lucario gestured quizzically at her, the man plucked out a fresh cigarette.

"Nah, I just wanna get this cut on my arm fixed up."

Lucario's ears perked up as the blond man also turned towards a new presence. Three figures were sauntering over from the distance.

"Oi, there he is."

"Lucky, looks like we got one injured over here. Easy pickings."

"Huh? Hold up..."

Lucario stepped forward, shaking his head at the approaching sunglasses wearing trio. They eyed their raised Z-Guns warily before lowering them and ambling closer.

"Yo doggie, what's up? Wanna play with us instead?"

"Why don't you show us how to power up first?"

"Look man, I'm more of a Dragon Ball guy myself. Think you can whip some of that up for me?"

Lucario barred the blond man's retreat with an outstretched paw.

"What's with this guy?"

Lucario smacked his own forehead in frustration. Had it been Shirona, a simple bark would convey his overall meaning. Rarely had he been so compelled to expressively mime his intentions before – significantly more taxing than any actual combat exertion.

The blond man snort of amusement acknowledged the futility. "He's telling you I'm on his side."

"How's that?"

"...I'm from Tokyo's Gantz team. You guys must have met the others."

Kimura clapped his hands together in apparent realization. "Ohh I see now. Was worried y'all were tangling with some alien and they got our precious sensei for a second there!"

"Why, is this dog your sensei?"

"Yes, he's my Master Roshi."

"Heheheh."

"Wuh?" It was then that Lucario sensed an unprecedented shock. Something utterly inconceivable had slipped past his detection, dropping his guard despite never wavering in awareness of his surroundings even as they conversed.

"My, aren't you the dashing one." Atop the beast-man's corpse, amidst the spreading crimson pool, stood a regal female figure.

She pointed directly at Lucario, garbed in a luxuriously embroidered crimson kimono that only accentuated her striking, almost overwhelmingly bewitching beauty. Bestial ears twitched atop her head, a plush swaying tail trailing behind as she rippled the bloody surface with each graceful step.

"I wonder how one might acquire such magnificent power? My mutts could certainly use the inspiration." Despite her mellifluous tone, no ease could be felt – only the scorching intensity of her manifested killing intent.

Furred ears twitching, she casually retrieved one of the discarded swords, indolently raising it with all the speed of molasses into a guarded stance.

Two tails now unfurled from her back. "Do allow me to partake as well?"