01x17 - Return of the Braves

[bunniefuu]

Get back here!

Over there!

Come on!

Thinking back...

My master had told me
about his daughter before.

I just didn't pay it any mind
at the time.

sh*t! This really sucks!

Do these guys ever give up?

What the hell is wrong with them? Damn!

Yashiro! You had better
not ditch me and run off!

You're dead if you betray me, you hear?

Whatever...

Would it k*ll you to get me one, too?

I dropped my wallet.

Don't lie to me, boy.

I'm not lying!

Yeah, you are. You just don't wanna
pay vending machine prices for water.

Cheap-a*s old man...

Why are you so desperate to
hold on to every last yen?

You got a gambling problem?

Dumbass. A runt like you probably
doesn't understand this, but...

Child support is no joke.

And even a guy like me needs to live
up to his parental obligations.

Master, you have a kid?!

Am I not allowed to?

Then again, maybe I shouldn't...
since I'm a Brave.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Damn it all.

What a total mess.

You mean becoming a Brave?

I mean, sure, we both screwed up there...

No.

It was supposed to go a lot smoother...

I'm not sure how, but here
we are with the results.

I guess it boils down to not
looking far enough ahead.

Oh, pipe down. And you had better
k*ll at least half these guys.

It's part of your training.

I asked if becoming a Brave was a mistake,

and Master said that wasn't
what he was talking about.

I should've thought more
about what he meant...

Probably.

Takamiya Kiyohito, my master,

was a Half Dragon executive.

I saw his name in their research docs,

listed as being one of the
researchers on E4 development.

Seems he was probably acquainted
with the Count of the Venusian Veil.

And, as far as E4 goes...

I figured it was a drug for
turning people into monsters,

but it seems that's not the whole story.

Like the name suggests,

it was apparently developed as a
next-gen ether enhancement drug.

Something revolutionary, capable of
regenerating lost limbs and organs.

The downside is that very few
people are compatible with it.

Administer it to a carcass,
and you get a berserk monster.

Give it to a living human, and
their injuries will heal,

but most of the time
they'll lose their mind.

The Count of Amber Thorns and Nephillim
are common examples of what happens.

Ido probably had comparatively
high tolerance.

The records said that it's still unclear
what the factors for compatibility are.

The Count of the Venusian Veil was
receiving funding from these guys

to look into the compatibility problem.

The production and deployment of
Nephillim was just a byproduct.

The majority of subjects
were unidentified.

Whether they were collecting them,
or making them from scratch...

Hokkaido was an ideal environment.

They ended up butting heads
with the Northern Lamplights,

the mercs that Indo used to work for.

And apparently, at around the same time,

they found a highly compatible
subject down in Kanto.

A kid who was around ten
years old at the time...

The Count of the Venusian Veil
was at this for seven years

but never found anyone
with better compatibility.

That more or less matches
up with what I've found.

I've been digging on my end, too.

Into your master's kid, Jogamine.

That stuff you said about her eye
growing back after being cut out...

You yourself mentioned how odd that was.

Yeah.

Speaking from a purely
bureaucratic standpoint...

The kid died once, seven years ago.

Got caught up in the October Meguro w*r.

October? That would've been right
before I joined up with Master...

How could she have died?

I heard that, after they divorced,

her mom got custody, and she
only saw Master once a month.

Well, they definitely divorced.

Wouldn't surprise me if
her dying was the reason.

Girl had a death certificate
and everything,

but when she enrolled in the academy,
she was updated to being alive again.

I wanted to talk to the mother,

but she apparently died right before
the girl went into the academy.

She's dead? Anything sketchy about it?

Doesn't look like it.

She'd been undergoing cancer
treatment for two years prior.

Can't say I blame her for getting sick,

after her daughter
showed up as a zombie...

That's probably how it happened, right?

Sounds about right.

It's starting to add up.

Jogamine's warped ideas of being a Brave,

and her ability to regenerate...

Jogamine Aki had an ideal level
of compatibility with E4.

Seven years ago, my master performed
experiments on his dead daughter.

And, shockingly, it went well.

Jogamine Aki actually got better.

Did a real number on his marriage, though.

Probably on Jogamine's brain, too.

There's no telling if any of her
original personality is intact.

That craziness of hers is either
a side effect of the E4...

Or her brain got reset
after she was revived,

and she's still mentally seven years old.

Yeah? It ever occur to you that
she might just be like that?

I'm not surprised that my
Master was in with these guys.

He was never shy about breaking the
law, as long as he didn't get caught.

I'm not too different, myself.

But I'm still not sure why he got
involved with E4's development.

Maybe he wanted an ace up his sleeve?

Was the goal to make enough cash
so he could quit being a Brave?

Whatever he was after, he wasn't
able to protect his family.

At the end of the day, he failed.

He trained me to be a Brave
with a realistic outlook...

While he was desperate to build something
he could pin his hopes and dreams on.

Resorting to pretty grotesque means...

In the hope that it'd bring
some kind of salvation.

Some way to save himself...

and the daughter
who was already long gone.

Anyway, I'm heading back
to Tokyo in the morning.

I'm way too jumpy up here.

Yeah, I'd hurry back if I were you.

Ed Cyrus was shot.

Old fella's in a coma at the moment,

and the bar's shut down in the meantime.

What happened?

It's w*r, man.

With the Coffin Count
of Storms in the wind,

a lot of Dark Lords seem
to think it's open season.

West Tokyo's all kinds of messed up.

t*rror1st attacks, robbery...

But our job doesn't change.

And business is booming.

So, let's make us some money.

Yeah.

Ishino...

Ed Cyrus...

There's a price for harming people who are
part of the good stuff in my life...

And I'm gonna collect.

Then I play this one!

- I'm trying to tell you, you don't have
enough resources to play that one.

- Explain it again.

Being a Brave is a job for
the lowest kind of scum.

That's why I never wanted
to sink any lower than that.

I hated the idea of becoming
a k*lling machine

without even a whisper of a conscience.

There's no shortage of Braves who
end up as minions for Dark Lords.

So, I'd be careful who you socialize with.

My master warned me about that.

And he turned out to be a piece of
sh*t lower than even a scumbag.

But... But what's it matter?

This doesn't have anything to do with him.

I've got a job to do.

And that starts with...

My dream is to follow in his
footsteps and become a great Brave!

Why did you decide to
become a Brave, Master?

I was taught that Braves
are meant to embody hope!

I can't get my thoughts in order.

I'm craving E3...

Master!

What? I'm trying to sleep.

Pardon me!

But last night, the mercenaries we worked
with taught me how to play Medallion.

And we've each put together our own decks!

Which is why I was hoping
to to play against you!

My specially selected Jogamine Beatdown
may have enough firepower to defeat you!

But if you would
rather sleep, that's fine.

In light of the the t*rror1st attacks that
have been centered on Western Tokyo,

the government has established
a Dark Lord Disaster Task Force.

As the casualties and
collateral damage increase,

the Round Table's leadership has
begun working with the JSDF

in an effort to bring this state
of affairs to a swift conclusion.

A press chopper went down
in Shibuya, apparently.

Joe wasn't joking.

This is on the scale of a minor w*r.

With the trains down, I guess
the move is to drive...

But getting caught in
traffic would be real bad.

Not that there's any other options.

Drive?

You going somewhere, Sensei?

It should be obvious, Sara.

We need to suppress these Dark
Lords as soon as possible!

The people are living
in fear of this chaos.

Someone needs to be brave
enough to strike for change!

Isn't that right, Master?

Yeah, something like that.

Don't give a BS response.

Aki's gonna take you seriously.

You got another plan, Sara?

Would you rather your daddy pick you
up, so you can go home and go to bed?

Screw you!

Exactly. At a time like this,
Braves need to get to work.

It'll be good training,

and a good chance to make some cash.

Who are we going after, then?

Because it seems like there's at least a
hundred Dark Lords raising hell out there.

I guess I never mentioned this, but...

The Coffin Count of Storms is alive.

And I'd bet she's in the shadows,
pulling the strings for all this fighting.

The Count of Rupturing Star Charts
was able to confirm as much.

And from the data I found at the fortress,

she's also a part of Half Dragon.

She'd been funneling cash into that
hellhole of a lab that was up there.

But wasn't her party attacked by...?

Members of Half Dragon, yeah.

Is it some kind of internal beef?

Come to think of it, she
mentioned something...

The truth of the matter is they've
been a nuisance to me as well.

They've been strengthening
the unruly masses

and attempting to sabotage
the established order of things.

She's also presumptuous enough
to mention hiring Master

in preparation for a conflict with them.

And it didn't sound like she was joking.

Yeah. And we could speculate all
day about what their deal is...

But it doesn't really matter.

Because she's still got the
biggest bounty in Kanto.

And this time, I intend on finding
out everything she knows.

That being the case, first,
we need to get ready.

The issue is gonna be E3.

Including doses for you girls,
we've only got four left.

Four doses...

I mean, if we need to leave the city,

I should be able to detect any threats—

I wouldn't be so sure.

I haven't mentioned this because I
didn't want to freak you out, Sara...

But we're being followed.

Don't do that, idiot!

We screwed up letting those
Seki and Tomoe guys get away...

Someone's already trailing us.

Hey, don't touch me!

A-Are we gonna be okay, then?

Not if they ambush us while we're moving.

And seriously, Sara, is there no chance
of your family sending someone for you?

No direct commands from
King Arthur or anything?

My dad never does stuff like that.

I let one of the maids
know I was back in Tokyo,

and she said to just keep
my eyes open and be careful.

Nothing from Dad, himself.

He's probably got his hands full
trying to wrangle this mess.

So what we're gonna do is ditch our tails,

then head for our closest
safe house: Ed's bar.

We can stock up on weapons
and E3 in the garage there...

and rendezvous with some major backup.

Here's dessert. One for each of you.

But what about the car?

I get the feeling the rental
places are gonna be tapped out.

We'll just have to borrow one, won't we?

From that parking garage.

Is this really for the best?

That family seemed scared of us.

It was a peaceful commandeering we were
forced to undertake to uphold the peace.

I suppose so... but this
is all the more reason

we must make it up to them,
by succeeding in our mission!

You should probably sit down, Aki.

I get the feeling Instructor's
not the smoothest driver.

Tell me about it!

I actually wondered if
you forged your license.

Excuse me?

I told you, I've had zero accidents and
infractions since getting my license!

That just means you've
never been caught, Sensei.

Whoa, hold on! Sara, when did
you go for a drive with Master?!

I-I mean, he just drove me home
after our training the other day...

So Sara gets an escort?!
All the way home?! In a car?!

I'm not suicidal, okay?!

I dropped her off near the house!

What's the meaning of this?!

You ditched us at the station!

Indo, get this animal off me!

I'm gonna crash!

Do I get a lift to the dorm next time?

Fine! Just hurry!

We're not screwing around here, okay?!

They're after us!

It's at least an hour drive to Ed's place.

E3's effects last, at most, an hour.

Do we keep running?

Or try and fight them off?

A white-knuckle car chase!

Pursued by Half Dragon assailants!

Master! Look how awesome I am!

Are you looking, Master?!

Shut up! I'm driving here!

Next time, Episode 18: "Braves in Danger!"