Chapter 218: Yahiko's True Fight 2

(The police and Yahiko stand at one end of the narrow street, behind a low barricade of rubble; Kujiranami at the other.)

Kujiranami (charging): BATTOUSAI!

Yahiko (thinking): His weapon's different--that's not a cannon. (aloud) Shinichi! What is that!

Shin'ichi: It's ... It's called a grenade launcher--

(Kujiranami fires, blasting the barricade to pieces. His second shot is aimed at Yahiko on the roof.)

Shin'ichi: Though its force and range are less than that of the cannon, its rapid-fire is very effective--

Yahiko: Too slow!

(Shin'ichi catches him as he falls off the roof.)

Shin'ichi: So? How do we fight him?

Yahiko: That's obvious. We charge! (taking off) I've got his right side. You take the left!

Shin'ichi: Wait a minute. Can't we think about this a little?

Yahiko: We can't wait! The longer we wait, the closer he gets to town!

(He barrels forward.)

Officer: Wow, he's really going for it!

Officer: He'll kill him!

Officer: That's just insane!

Kujiranami: Battousai!

(He fires at Yahiko. Yahiko throws himself out of the way, rolls, and jumps in for another shot.)

(A series of shots throws broken boards and roof tiles in the air, but each time Yahiko seems to come away unharmed.)

Officer: He's avoiding each blast by the skin of his teeth. He can really move.

Officer: Yeah ... but if he can't turn the tide, eventually he won't be able to dodge one of the rapid-fire attacks...

(Yahiko lands from his last leap a bare ten feet away from the barrel of the gun.)

Officer: He's gonna hit him!

Officer: I knew this was insane!

Yahiko: Shin'ichi!

(Shin'ichi sails out of nowhere to whack Kujiranami across the head with his staff.)

Shin'ichi: How was that?

(Kujiranami barely noticed the blow.)

Shin'ichi: It did nothing!!

Yahiko (from the right): Over here, whale-mouth!

Imitation Ryuushousen!

(Yahiko's upward blow hits the seam where the gun is attached to Kujiranami's arm. The stitches tear at the flesh.)

Officers: It ... It worked!

Officer: That's it! It's a rapid-fire weapon, but it can't fire more than one shot at once--he can't fire right and left at the same time.

Officer: And by pressing in close, they can avoid his attacks more easily--

Officer: You don't think the kid thought all that out...

Officer: Couldn't have ... But he did deliberately choose the right, his grenade side. He put himself deliberately in harm's way ... That's not just recklessness, that's courage.

Officer: So being afraid of danger even when you see a chance of victory ... That's not caution, that's cowardice!

(Kujiranami roars.)

Officer: But ... Officer: ... y'know ... Officer: ... head-on's a little too...

Officer: All right! Take the advantage of ground! If we run through the buildings and jump out--

(They run through the houses and the narrow streets, emerging to surround Kujiranami.)

Officer: We've got him from behind!

Shin'ichi (grinning): They're not heroes, but they came through.

Yahiko: All right! Let's do this!

(A child's cry drifts across the battlefield. A small boy, dragging a blanket and crying, is walking through the street.)

Boy: Daddy ... Where are you...

Officer: It's a kid! He didn't get out in time!

(Kujiranami, ready to shoot anything that moves, turns the gun on the boy. Yahiko dives in front of him.)

Shin'ichi: Kid!

(Elsewhere, Tsubame falls to her knees, tears in her eyes.)

Tsubame (thinking): ... Yahiko...