Part 20: Mission 8 (Rescue Route) - The Price of Justice - Part 2
: Alright, the thing’s immobile!
: STOP! HE’S MIIINE!!
: Yamashita!
: Got it!
Yamashita: “The hell is this Machina’s Factor thinking?!”
: Done and dusted!: !!: …What did you do? That guy killed Yajima…! I wanted to at least, at least get revenge for him… and now YOU TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ME!!
: You’re gonna pay for that…! You’re just as bad as that killer and I’ll destroy every single one of you…!!
: W-What power is this? It’s overwhelming!
: The earth… the very air is shaking!: He’s fully awakened as a Factor…!: Haaaaaah!: This reaction… the Vardant’s afraid?: The Hind’s also acting weird!
: What’s going on…?!: HAAAAAAAAH!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI8eoVHqC-o
*Everyone’s HP gets cut in half!*
: A beam weapon?!
: He had something like that under his sleeve…?!
: Always gotta have at least one secret weapon, huh…!
: That’s the Executor…!
: Executor, as in one who doles out the death penalty?
: Get real! No one here’s gonna take any death penalty!: Emi, can’t you use your power to stop the Linebarrel like you did before?: My voice isn’t reaching it… I keep trying, but it’s being drowned out…!
: The system’s isolated itself and is out of control. My guess is the Linebarrel can’t process all the raging emotions inside Kouichi Hayase. 
: I feel the rage and violence corrupting the budding justice within him. If he’s not stopped, he’ll be dominated and consumed by this false justice…: Damn it all! And if he fires that weapon again, the whole town’ll go up in smoke!
: But this is mine and Kouichi’s home! Our friends live here too…!: And he’s going to destroy it himself…?! We can’t let that happen!
: (I can’t let him make the same mistake I did under the Zero System’s grip! That sort of tragedy mustn’t happen again!): The Executor’ll need some time to charge the energy for another shot! If you can stop the Linebarrel in that window…: Copy that. We’ll immobilize the Linebarrel before it can use its weapon again!
Now you just need to bring the Linebarrel below 10%. He’s no different from our previous encounters, really.
Oddly enough it doesn’t SEEM like wrecking it is a game over, but I wasn’t about to try.
Sakuya: “Did you quit being a Champion of Justice, guy?”; Aoi: “Don’t even try. You’re not being heard.”
#1 Alice: “The Linebarrel’s moving like a rabid beast!”; Ichitaka: “Hrm… can I actually stop him now…?”
#2 Ichitaka: “Kouichi… did you forget all about me in your anger…?”; Alice: “I sense an overwhelming impetus coming from him…!”
#3 Ichitaka: “Yajima’s death wasn’t his fault! No way!”
#4 Alice: “What do we do, Ichitaka?!”; Ichitaka: “I dunno… First off we gotta get the Linebarrel to stop moving…!”
#5 Ichitaka: “I’m just as shocked over what happened to Yajima, but if you keep with this…!”
: Why the hell are you hounding me?! I… I just wanted to get revenge for Yajima!: Yajima… I’m… so sorry! YAJIMAAAAAA!
: He’s going to fire the Executor again!: No, he won’t!*Quatre goes and grapples the Linebarrel again!*
: Beat it! Get it inside your skull that you can’t stop me!
: Lord Quatre!
: We’ll assist you!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-x-0klHbKA
Quatre: Kouichi, don’t let anger and hatred control you!
Quatre: Here we go, Sandrock! We’re putting a stop to the Linebarrel!
: Now, Yamashita! Throw him at the town outskirts!: Y-yes, sir!*Yamashita moves by the Linebarrel.*
: Go, Hind! Bullet Arm!
: You’re mine!
: Yajima… I… I wanted to be like you…*Power dooooown.*
: Is it over?!: Yeah – the Linebarrel’s stopped.: Then let’s recover and get it back to JUDA.: What about Kouichi? Is he alright?: Don’t worry. I think he just passed out.: We’ll bring him in as well, of course. He can’t be left at large now that he’s awakened as a Factor.: The town took some damage but at least we avoided the worst.*Sirens!*
: Still, we’re gonna have a lot of folks coming over in a bit.: Then we should hurry. Goh, help me get the unknown Machina sorted out.: I’ll be right over.
: Sorry, but I’m afraid you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
: This was our Machina to start with, so we’ll be taking it.*The Katous run to where the Stray Machina was destroyed.*
: Heey, they made off with the thing!: Were the Katou soldiers just waiting for a chance to steal it?!: Do we go after them?!: No, just head back to base. Chasing those guys after all the damage you took would be suicide.
: And the mechanics agree. That wouldn’t be good to either you or your units.
: Hurry home, people! I want to get those repairs started as soon as can be!: Please do, Rachel. This was a way tougher than what we usually get…
: And that boy, Kouichi! Once he’s back up, Imma whoop his ass ‘til he mellows out some!
: Sis, he just saw his friend get killed…: And him wanting payback makes it A-OK to bulldoze the whole dang place?!: Sis…
: … Well, we should get going too.: Thanks for the help, pilots of the Dancouga. It was only with your help that we could recover the Linebarrel.
: No need. We didn’t really help that much courtesy of that mysterious red bot.: You don’t know what it is?: Not really, nope. Do you?: The Preventers have an ongoing investigation, but, unfortunately, no… : I’ll have them get in touch with you if we find anything.: Thanks, Quatre…. Oh, and you, the Rushbird pilot.: Y-Yeah?: I’m glad we managed to save Kouichi here. : … : Bye, LOTUS. See you guys around!
: But maybe if I was stronger, we could’ve wrapped this up without the town taking any damage…: I’m sure Yuu would’ve handled things way better…Had we attacked Kouichi before he hulked out, we could’ve gotten a couple of convos:
: Kouichi, stop! You’re gonna hurt the people of this town too!: SHUT UP!! OUTTA MY WAY!!: Damn it, why can’t I ever get through to him?!--
: Hey! Stop and calm the hell down, you!: I’m getting payback for Yajima! RAAAAAARGH!!: So before you wouldn’t listen right, today you can’t hear right? Whatever the case, the fact that we always come to blows with you is REALLY starting to wear thin!
Back at Shangri-La, Masaki mulls over their failure to capture the Linebarrel – but at least they manage to recover the missing Apparition. Katou isn’t bothered, satisfied that they were capable of bringing out some of Kouichi’s power.
That wasn’t his or the Linebarrel’s full might, though – more like the very first cry of a newborn. This mewling child has finally stood up with his own feet and Katou can’t wait to see how he’ll grow.
Masaki, meanwhile, has some combat data to analyze.
Cut to Dragon’s Hive, Tanaka is very insistent that he’s got no idea what the red bot is. Serious, for how long is he gonna give them the run around? Kurara isn’t having it, though: she draws her gun and suggests he start talking if he values his life.
Fine, fine! He’ll talk, though the best he’s got is speculation – nothing 100% certain, which is why he figured he shouldn’t tell. Still, Johnny figures there’s gotta be SOMETHING that he knows for sure and, indeed, he can tell them that the thing’s called R-Daigun! That’s some info he got from the top.
And? And that’s it. Sakuya’s quickly losing his patience as Tanaka’s not the one out there risking his life; and while Johnny, the former salaryman, understands how being the middle man’s like, this is getting out of hand. Tanaka sees that but he can’t answer what he doesn’t know.
They’re interrupted when an angry Seimi walks in, demanding to know what kinda battle they got into that got her Dancouga so beaten up. Furthermore, today’s counseling day and Ru’s been waiting forever for Team D to turn up.
Aoi lets Tanaka off the hook for today but the team tells him to get in touch with his boss and make it crystal clear that they want answers and soon (not that they’re expecting good ones, mind).
Inwardly, his status as middleman notwithstanding, Tanaka does want to know what his organization’s working towards. Maybe he should try and poke around a bit?
: Yo, what’re you doing, Kouichi?: Yajima?! You’re alive…!: What’s with that look? There something on my face?: You’re alive… thank god, Yajima…!: Hurry up now. Keep sitting there and I’m gonna leave you behind!: Ah, hold on, Yajima!: Kouichi…: Wait! Don’t leave me here, Yajima!: …: YAJIMA!!
But that was just a dream, as Kouichi wakes up at JUDA’s infirmary. Yui’s there with him and she tells that he’s been asleep for two days. She was starting to get worried, with how long he was taking.
Kouichi thinks for a bit and remembers fighting with the Linebarrel… and Yajima. Where is he?! Kouichi jumps out the bed… but how about we pipe down and put some clothes on first? Woops.
A bit later, Yui’s showing him around the JUDA HQ building – the world’s premier medical equipment corporation! She properly introduces herself as the president’s secretary, but Kouichi sniffs that he doesn’t really care for who she is: “Ooh, the dossier was right. You DO have a pretty big mouth… if nothing else,” Yui quips.
As Kouichi begs her to forget whatever she saw while he was naked in that infirmary, Yui leads him up to Ishigami’s office.
And Ishigami’s very welcoming, introducing himself and calling Kouichi over to share in some sushi he made. A bit of time later, Ishigaimi’s said his piece and invites Kouichi to join LOTUS.
When the kid asks, Quatre enters and gives him the rundown of our work for the UN’s intelligence department. Wait, what’s he even doing here?! Quatre apologizes for never telling him but, yeah, he’s an infiltrated agent tasked with keeping an eye on him.
Ishigami proclaims that we need Kouichi’s abilities as a Factor and Quatre asks if he’s willing to fight for world peace. He could atone for his wrongdoings by being a legit Champion of Justice.
By the hangar, Reiji’s passing the news that Kouichi’s awakened. Ichitaka wants to go and see him now but, of course, that’ll have to wait until his meeting with Ishigami’s over. And, yes, the guy’s planning on inviting him into LOTUS.
Yamashita and Shizuna are VERY much against letting someone who went as crazy as he did with that Machina join, and both Goh and Tetsuya concede that he’s a very difficult sort. Our previous fights with him, his unwillingness to even listen, made that very clear.
Ichitaka asks them to forgive him: “I’ve known Kouichi since forever and he’s not really a bad guy. He just got too excited when he FINALLY managed to fulfill his dream of being a Champion of Justice…”
Rachel’ll concede that people who awaken as Factors have been known to be over-defensive but you can’t really handwave all he did with that excuse. And while Goh understands that Ichitaka wants to help his friend, he can’t in good consciousness say that he’s suited to pilot.
Yamashita very much agrees with that assessment, but, as Reiji says, this call belongs solely to Lady Une, not us.
Back to Ishigami, he’s explaining that JUDA’s history as makers of medical gear is simply a front – their actual job is to coordinate with the UN and deal with any force that threatens the world. Kouichi obviously knows of the Katou Organization after their many attacks, and Ishigami shows him a picture of their commander: Hisataka Katou
In other words, that guy’s the one to blame for the attack that killed Yajima. Mind, he’s not the only enemy to fight as there are also the Mimetic Beasts, Jama Kingdom, Cthulhu, Darius Army and more. Which is why, Quatre concludes, we need Kouichi and the Linebarrel’s strength and he hopes he’ll accept.
Ishigami will understand if he needs a bit of time to process it all – this IS a bit heavier than anything a regular student might face normally – but he says there’s nothing to be scared of. Kouichi doesn’t appreciate his condescension and says he’s not scared.
Whether he is or not, Ishigami says he’s got plenty of comrades here – not just him and Yui, but Quatre and everyone else he’d fight alongside with. With that, he beckons the kid to follow.
Over by Djibril’s place, he and Logos Guy have heard what happened with the Linebarrel… and his take on it is that the thing could be really useful in SLAUGHTERING COORDINATORS! If the intel’s right, that lone Machina can level an entire city!
Indeed, Logos Guy now sees why Lady Une, JUDA and the Katou Organization were so keen on getting their hands on the thing. What will Djibril do about it, then? Nothing right now, but seeing how LOTUS captured the thing, it won’t be long before they can use legal, very democratic, means to make the Linebarrel theirs.
Djibril will handle that, while Logos Guy is gearing up to attack a place called Diokia real soon – look forward to it.
: Come in, come in. Allow me to introduce you to the people of LOTUS – they’ll be your comrades-in-arms!: …: It’s that guy… you’ve got some stones showing your face ‘round here…!: Kouichi!: Ichitaka? What’re you doing here…?: What, did you forget all the times I called you when we were fighting?: I… I was sure you were a doppelganger, like in Kivaider and stuff. There’s always a doppelganger.: A doppel—… Well, I guess I see where you’re coming from.: Really? You do?: Mr. Ishigami, this really isn’t gonna work. Our teamworks gonna go right out the window with this idiot around!: Now, now, don’t be like that, Yamashita.: He’s right. Teamwork is something one builds over time.: Oh, and I’m Miu Kujo – the Painkiller’s pilot. It’s good to meet you, Kouichi.: Y-Yeah, likewise.
: Hayase, if you’re joining us then there’s something I want to tell you: you rely far too much on the Linebarrel abilities when fighting. You won’t go far with that.: And, just as I told Nagumo before, you’ll only be a hindrance to others if you don’t train yourself up to a bare minimum standard. : Then that means we’re gonna have to train together, eh, Kouichi?: Hey, hold on there! I never said I agreed to fighting with you guys!: Kouichi…!: … Just take me home. If I’m going to be “a hindrance” then I’m useless to you, right?!: Hmm… Well, I’d at least like you to think this through. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your positive answer.: Don’t hold your breath…!*He leaves.*
: Kouichi…: So much for the negotiations…
: Not surprising. It was a lot for him to digest. Mr. Ishigami, maybe you should give him time to put his thoughts in order and then try again?: That’s what I’m thinking, yes… Too bad. I was hoping he’d come aboard right away.: Still, you didn’t expect him to even lend his ear in the first place, did you?: I suppose not. Then let’s give him some time. If he still doesn’t change his mind, then…
: The hell? My uniform, my cell, they’re all brand new… Is this their idea of buttering up the new guy? Damn it, that guy oughta go and jump off a cliff!
: Kouichi…: Ah… Emi.: … Do you have even the tiniest grasp of what you’ve done?: …?!: You gained the Linebarrel’s power and what did you do? You thought of no one but yourself; you used that power only to satisfy your worthless, insignificant pride and arrogance…: You went on and on about how you were a “champion of justice”, but you couldn’t even protect anything. Rather, you only made things worse for all around you. What you did wasn’t even like a child playing make-believe – it was worse than that!: Wh… What?!: You may have the abilities of a Factor, but you are absolutely not worthy of the Linebarrel. Your friend’s death… that was your fault!: !!: You’re despicable!
Elsewhere, F.S. is talking to someone. The guy’s seen today’s bout and found the awakening of the Linebarrel’s Factor to be quite interesting. Could it also be representative of the potential of humans? It’s still very much unripe, but F.S. is certain there’s huge potential hidden there. And he’s not the only one, he believes.
Indeed, the more strength they have to mount their resistance, the better; F.S. figures that’s precisely why the guy had the R-Daigun made in secrecy. It wasn’t just that mind, as the guy figures the R-Daigun’s actions will beget evolution. That’s what he learned from observing life’s history.
Was the bot the last surprise he had tucked away? F.S. won’t like his answer to that question – time is short, after all. In that case, F.S. figures he’ll go and make some preparations of his own in the interest of helping his precious friends.
Back at the Cthulhu Fortress, Sepia tells Sir Violet that she’s bid her farewells to Cobalt. Violet understands the grief she feels over losing her beloved but Sepia’s a fully-fledged warrior and cannot remain that way forever.
Indeed, she’ll take over Cobalt’s mantle and will strike down Iczer-1 as the commander of the Iczer-Σ. The sorrow and anger she feels must now be turned against the traitor and Sepia stands ready. She’ll personally destroy Iczer-1 and lay Cobalt’s soul to rest.
Good, as Big Gold’s already started working, so Sepia’s partner should be given life before long.
Sir Violet takes her to a room with what Sepia knows to be a Growth Capsule. Within is her partner, Iczer-2, who bids her good day. She’s another android like Iczer-1 and is looking forward to being good friends with Sepia.
Sir Violet can see that Sepia’s rather surprised, but tells her when Iczer-2 and Iczer-Σ are awakened and fully active, not even Iczer-1 will stand a chance. And Sepia is ready to fight alongside Iczer-2, promising Cobalt that she will get revenge for her.