08x08 - Master of Kouan

[bunniefuu]

Ub: "The strongest man in the universe."

Ub: The people who call me that are but frogs in the well.

Ub: The universe is a big place.

Ub: A planet is no more than one of innumerable specks of sand within it,

Ub: and the world one can see in a lifetime is no more than a tiny part of the whole.

M: You mean to say there are many more stronger than you?

M: But you must've been the strongest man in the world my father saw.

M: Otherwise, he...

M: The captain of the Chidori Space Pirates wouldn't entrust his dear daughter to you,

M: Umibozu.

M: Or should I say, my father's old friend, Kanko?

M: You needn't say a thing.

M: I, Mutsu, shall withdraw our request myself.

M: You are far too great a man to be teaching someone like me.

M: But, whenever you feel like it,

M: would you come chat with this ignorant, sheltered bird in a cage?

M: And tell me about the innumerable specks of sand you have seen with your eyes?

Gintama,OP Card: Gintama

OP Card: The Battle on Rakuyo

Title: Battle on Rakuyo Arc Part

Title: Master of Kouan

Warning,Sign: Watch the Battle on Rakuyo arc in a bright room and at a safe distance from your TV!!

U: I sensed from the start that things between you and me

U: would eventually come to this point.

U: And, having met you, I think I have found my answer...

U: As to why, despite building an advanced interstellar civilization,

U: we still don't stop fighting.

U: It has nothing to do with standpoints, views, or creeds.

U: It comes from our fundamental nature as creatures.

U: No matter how far we evolve,

U: our psyche may always force us to determine

U: which of us are predators, and which of us are prey.

U: And when it comes to two creatures at the top of the food chain...

Ub: The strongest man in the universe?

Ub: Are you one of those fools who keep talking about that crap, too?

Ub: Well, I'm sorry, but I have no interest in that title.

Ub: Begone!

Ub: I don't care what happens to the world.

Ub: Even if I am a frog,

Ub: I will protect the well I live in, even if it kills me.

Ub: I'm fine with being just a frog.

U: You are no frog in the well.

U: As someone who has seen the rise and fall of many a species, I guarantee it.

U: But that's exactly why I know that,

U: even if you are a once-in-a-millennium warrior,

U: you cannot escape the principles of life.

U: Indeed, you will inevitably fall someday.

U: Because I have escaped the principles of life,

U: and you ended up standing in my way.

Sak: Mutsu! Hurry!

UB: Someone stronger than me?

M: Yes.

M: If you say that even you can't be called the strongest,

M: have you met anyone worthy of the title?

UB: Hosen, whom I fought when I was younger, was pretty strong.

UB: But that's only if we're talking about creatures like us.

UB: The things I've fought in my life as a hunter

UB: were all beyond comparable concepts such as strength.

UB: Could you compare anyone's strength to that of a typhoon or tsunami?

M: There's no need to.

M: Nobody else could stop a natural disaster by themselves.

M: I've heard of it, you know.

M: How you earned the title of "strongest."

M: The reason Yato hail you as a hero.

M: About the battle in which Umibozu took back our home.

M: The Yato's home planet, Kouan,

M: suffered an all-out att*ck by the Allied Planets during the Great w*r

M: and was destroyed along with many Yato.

M: Altana began to gush out of the ground,

M: and the ruined planet became a nest for mutant creatures.

M: Among them was something that made people call Kouan the planet of death...

M: The planetary parasite Orochi, considered the Master of Kouan.

M: It fed on the Altana reserves, grew heads,

M: and eliminated anyone who dared approach its nest.

M: Everyone abandoned the place

M: and didn't approach it for centuries, but one man charged into its nest alone

M: and took back the Yato's home...

M: That was you, Umibozu, was it not?

UB: Took back our home?

UB: I just lost a bet with a friend.

UB: I said I'd go to our deserted home and hit on a woman if I lost a drinking battle.

UB: I'd never experienced anything like it before.

UB: The moment I saw them,

UB: it stood up.

M: Stood up?

M: What did?

UB: I guess it was too early for you, kid.

UB: Well, you could call it my instinct.

UB: The moment I laid eyes on them,

UB: my genes immediately came to a conclusion.

UB: "You're going to die."

UB: "Hurry up and make some babies," they said.

UB: I went after them again and again, but I just couldn't break through.

UB: It felt like I was fighting the earth I stood on.

UB: Like I was a mere insect going up against a planet.

M: Your genes admitted defeat before you did?

UB: Simply put, I felt fear for the first time in my life.

UB: But, as much as his genes may cry out in terror,

UB: a man cannot cry until his battle is over.

UB: So I told my right ball...

UB: Quit rattling.

UB: Lefty, you shut up and watch, too.

UB: I planted my seeds a long time ago.

UB: My best ones, in fact.

UB: So let me fight! Let me protect my family!

M: I don't believe it.

M: You suppressed your instincts by force?

UB: Thanks to that, my worldly desires d*ed down,

UB: and I could hit on the woman with a clear mind.

M: The woman?

M: Was the Orochi female?

UB: What are you talking about?

UB: Why would I crush one of my balls to fight a scrub like that?

UB: Is that arm regenerating?

UB: Like I said,

UB: I was on that planet to hit on a woman.

UB: I see.

UB: I knew it...

UB: You really are just like her. A being of Altana...

M: Who are you talking about?

U: Who are you talking about?

UB: I'm talking about the woman I risked my life to court.

UB: On the Yato's home planet, which had fallen to ruin a long time ago,

UB: on the planet of death...

UB: There stood a woman.

UB: And I, too, stood tall.

UB: I can't believe there really was someone here.

UB: Hey, wait!

Ko: This planet isn't dead or anything.

Ko: It may have become uninhabitable for people,

Ko: but these guys still live here, eating the rotten earth,

Ko: those guys still live here, drinking the rotten water,

Ko: and I still live here.

Ko: All that happened was that one species among many on this planet d*ed out.

Ko: You shouldn't judge an entire planet by your standards alone.

Ko: Leave.

Ko: I don't want to erase another life from this planet to save an intruder.

Ko: I must put them to sleep.

UB: That's when I learned

UB: that "Master of Kouan"

UB: referred to that woman.

UB: Hey, wai—

UB: I said wait!

UB: Out of my way!

UB: Listen to me!

UB: "That woman is dangerous."

UB: That's what my instincts told me.

UB: But, at the same time, they were also telling me this...

UB: H-Hey, lady.

UB: If you don't mind, why don't we forget about this Orochi

UB: and go take out the Orochi in my pants?

UB: "She is the one."

UB: For three days and three nights, she kept fighting to put the Orochi to sleep.

UB: And I kept trying to woo her in order to put the Orochi in my pants to sleep.

UB: Why don't we go get some coffee?

UB: But she paid no heed to me at all.

UB: Just as she took out the th head and the Orochi began to retreat,

UB: I suppressed my last Orochi, too.

UB: There was something I wanted to tell her not out of instinct, but with my own words.

UB: My name is Kanko.

UB: I'll ask your name next time I'm here or something.

UB: If the Master of Kouan will let me come here, that is.

Ko: Did you tag along all this while just to say that?

UB: When you visit someone else's home,

UB: it's common courtesy to first knock on their door and introduce yourself.

UB: Sorry for causing a fuss.

UB: Tell your family I apologize, Master.

Ko: This isn't someone else's home.

Ko: It's your homeland.

Ko: If you want to come back, feel free.

Ko: Though, as far as I know,

Ko: you're the only weirdo who's ever come back here, let alone knocked on the door.

Ko: The Orochi wasn't trying to get rid of you.

Ko: It just got excited and wanted to play.

Ko: We thought everyone had forgotten this planet,

Ko: but there was someone out there who remembered us.

Ko: Maybe that made it happy.

Ko: Also, I'm not the Master of Kouan.

Ko: I'm Kouka.

UB: After that, I began going home regularly.

UB: At some point, the Orochi stopped attacking me.

Ko: Maybe it accepted you as part of this planet,

Ko: or maybe it accepted you as its new master.

Ko: You might actually be suited to the role.

UB: There's nothing good to eat.

UB: All you can find here is rotten earth and water.

UB: I wouldn't even last ten days here.

UB: Kouka, why do you stay here?

Ko: I'm the same as you all.

Ko: You abandoned the planet because you couldn't live here anymore.

Ko: I can't live anywhere but here.

Ko: That's why I remain.

Ko: The few Yato who survived the Great w*r scattered to other planets.

Ko: But there were some who chose to die with their home.

Ko: Most of them d*ed sooner than they normally would have.

Ko: However, some among them could adapt to this harsh environment.

Ko: I am a descendant of that admirable clan,

Ko: its sole survivor.

Ko: If it came down to it, I could even eat your stinky boots to survive.

Ko: I'd rather die, though.

UB: If you don't have any family or friends here,

UB: you don't have a reason to live alone here, eating boots to survive.

Ko: But I don't have a reason to leave, either, do I?

UB: Any other place would be heaven compared to this.

UB: Besides,

UB: aren't you lonely?

Ko: Lonely?

Ko: The thought never crossed my mind.

Ko: Could something like that be a reason to leave?

Ko: Even if it could,

Ko: I forgot a long time ago when you're supposed to feel that emotion.

Ko: I was born and raised on this planet.

Ko: No baby hates the cradle it slept in, right?

Ko: I don't know how you see it,

Ko: but I quite enjoy this life, where I get to hog an entire planet and do as I please.

Ko: Also, it's not like I can't have fun here.

Ko: I can read all the books on the planet,

Ko: sing at the top of my lungs without worrying about anyone,

Ko: and toy with the occasional invader that shows up.

UB: I always told her stories about all the planets I'd visited.

UB: I thought she'd find them interesting because she'd never set foot off of Kouan.

UB: And she always listened to me with a bored look on her face.

UB: But then, one day...

Ko: Kanko.

Ko: Enough.

Ko: I've grown sick of listening.

Ko: I want to see another planet with my own eyes.

UB: B-But you...

Ko: I don't mind if it's from afar.

Ko: Would you take me?

UB: She gazed at it without saying a word,

UB: wearing the same bored expression as always.

UB: But she gazed at it intently, without budging an inch.

UB: Is it pretty?

UB: That's what most planets people live on look like.

UB: Have you heard of Earth?

Ko: Earth?

UB: Apparently, it's a remote planet that's still developing,

UB: but it's blessed with clear water and fertile land,

UB: and is said to be very beautiful.

UB: Would you like to go see Earth with me?

UB: No, not just Earth.

UB: If there's anywhere you want to go,

UB: the great Umibozu will bring you away from that rotten planet and take you.

UB: So, be my... m-my...

UB: Be my, uh, partner!

UB: Y-Yeah! My business partner!

UB: If we teamed up, we could be the strongest alien hunters ever!

UB: Don't you agree?

Ko: Partner, huh?

Ko: That doesn't sound bad.

Ko: If that were possible,

Ko: I bet it'd be really fun.

UB: That day...

UB: Even though she never used to see me off,

UB: she didn't take her eyes off my ship as it flew off.

UB: It didn't hit me until then.

UB: The reason she never used to see me off.

UB: The reason she saw me off that day.

UB: I spent twelve whole days looking everywhere,

UB: but I couldn't find her.

UB: That's when I saw the Orochi standing silently.

Ko: This is a problem.

Ko: When did you tame the Orochi to this extent?

Ko: I wasn't going to see you anymore.

Ko: Why'd you come here?

Ko: Didn't I tell you that I belong to the clan that would die with this planet?

Ko: I've lived all my life by myself.

Ko: I have to live by myself.

Ko: So why?

Ko: Why do you remind me of these feelings?

UB: I'm sorry, Kouka.

UB: But I'm the same as you.

UB: Even if I'm on a planet bustling with life,

UB: even if I have thousands of people around me,

UB: I still feel lonely without you by my side.

UB: I don't want to let you die alone.

UB: If you want to stay here, then so will I.

UB: If you want to go somewhere else,

UB: I'll go anywhere with you.

UB: So...

UB: Die with me, Kouka.

Ko: I'm betraying my clan.

Ko: I feel like the planet's asking me if I'm going to abandon it, too.

UB: Really?

UB: If you ask me,

UB: it looks like it's thanking you.

UB: Like it's saying, "thanks for everything."

M: I see.

M: Legend calls you a hero who took the Yato home from the monstrous "Master of Kouan,"

M: but you were actually a Casanova who wooed her and took her from the dying planet?

UB: Legend, my foot.

UB: The strongest creature the great Umibozu ever encountered

UB: can be found all over the universe...

UB: A wife.

UB: And I, just like every other pitiful man in the universe,

UB: ended up under my wife's thumb, basically.

M: That's hilarious.

M: The strongest man in the universe was the weakest in his household?

UB: Don't laugh.

UB: A household is a whole other universe.

M: But it's a fine legend.

M: Rather than stories about lonesome monsters dying all alone,

M: I prefer ordinary stories about finding companionship, parenthood, and a family.

UB: You can say that again.

UB: Building a legend of being the strongest means nothing.

UB: Building such ordinary happiness is far more valuable.

UB: I knew nothing back then.

UB: I can't live anywhere but this planet.

UB: Not even what her words truly meant.

UB: I'm neither a hero nor a father.

Kam: He's a m*rder*r.

Kam: That man k*lled our mother.

TBC,Sign: To Be Continued

Preview,Sign: Preview

UB: I'll take care of Mom's illness somehow.

Ko: Good grief. He inherited all your stupidity.

Kam: Take us away.

Title: Battle on Rakuyo Arc Part

Kam: Take Mom and me away from this planet.

Title: The Lost Rabbit

TextR: To protect his family, the young Kamui sought something.

TextL: His earnest desire grows twisted with time...

TextR: Can the bald old man reform his stupid son?

TextL: And how will his fight with the monster that barged in end?