Chapter 12
Hot Springs & Blood Under the Moon

Itami's group had just made their way to the subway. Although some of the girls are scared, including Rory, because the underground is Hardy's domain. When the tram moved, some of them got a little scared.

Itami looked at them and says, "Guess you guys are scared of being underground, huh?"

"No joke." Shino says to Itami, "They are terrified. They say something about being dragged into the underworld or something."

The train shook a little with Bozes and Akira bumped into each other. When they see each other's faces, they blushed and look away. Aaron chuckles a little on how adorable they are.

"Looks like the gangs all here." Komakado later joins in. "Guess the schedule is a little off then."

"Weren't you keeping an eye on the decoy bus?" Itami asked the creepy agent. "What happened to it?"

"It served its purpose. Someone got wind of it and try to make it look like an accident. Guess whatever mole have been giving the intel was incorrect."

Aaron approaches the grinning agent and wave his right hand along with saying in a hypnotic tone, "You are tired. You wish to fall asleep and rest here on the train."

Komakado stops grinning and sounds like he is hypnotized and says, "I am tired. I wish to fall asleep and rest here on the train." Then collapse on the floor and started snoring.

"Why did you do that?!" Itami shouts at Aaron. Then goes to otaku-mode, "Was that a Jedi Mind-Trick?"

"It was." he answers to Itami, having no regrets for his actions. "The thing is, the guy might BE the mole. Although not entirely sure, but we need to get off at the next stop."

"Why is that?" Akira asked.

"Because there is another ambush if we keep on going to Ginza."

Shino looked at Komakado who is resting peacefully. "Should we do something about him?"

"Nah." Aaron smiles. "He'll wake-up in an hour or two."

After he answers, Rory grabbed Aaron's left arm tightly and looking a little scared as she lays her head on it. The oracle is shaken up as if she is afraid of something.

Aaron looked at her. "Let me guess. You're afraid Hardy would come after you and you're clinging to me because she hates men. Correct?"

This was a surprise to the loli-oracle as she opens her eyes and looked at him. "How do you know the goddess of the underworld?" she asks.

Aaron pats Rory's head and smiles. "Never underestimate my empire's intelligence office. Although I have to ask. Why are you holding onto me instead of Itami?"

Before Rory can answer, the announcer tells everyone the next station is coming up.

"Oh, we're here."

Everyone got off the train and up to the surface. On the way out, they hear from then station announcer saying about a fault in the electrical wiring. Rory stretches her arms and take in the not-exactly-fresh-air while saying how much she enjoys it.

"Guess you were right." Itami says to Aaron.

"I'm afraid so." Aaron nods at Itami.

"But I have something to ask." Shino looks at the Lord Sovereign. "How come you couldn't teleport like those negotiators you brought?"

"Because I don't want to." His answer is a bit vague. "What I mean is that I don't want to teleport back since I would like to take in the sights a bit. Sort of like a holiday or vacation. I could use the break."

"I see."

Then Aaron turn is attention towards Piña. "By the way, Princess Piña Co Lada."

"Huh?" the princess turns her head and looks at him.

"I was wondering you-"

"HEY!" Rory screamed out. A man stole her axe and runs off with it. But it was a little too heavy so he collapsed. Rory reclaims her axe while saying, "Serves you right."

"Anyway." he looks back at Piña as they all continue to head towards somewhere safe. "I was wondering if you and your brother, Diabo, would be interested in seeing whats on the otherside of the Romalia Gate. Since you are visiting Japan's Gate, it would seem fair that you would like to see what my home is like."

Itami went in a convenience store to get some food for a certain somebody. Piña isn't exactly sure, but she gave a definitive, "Yes." Although why invite her brother too? Is there a specific reason for that? Who knows.


At a small apartment complex, the rooms are all dark with the only light source being a computer monitor screen. Bookshelves filled with manga, the rooms being cold because she is trying to save both electricity and heating. As a matter of fact, there is a mountain of unpaid and past due bills on the table. Yet there is also a grumbling sound that can be heard. Almost as if someone is starving to death.

In front of the computer, a woman speaks in a weak tone. "Gas has gone out. Phone is dead. Pretty soon water and electricity is next. Just one more page before-"

Ding-Ding!

Her self-loathing stops when someone rang her doorbell. However, Itami let himself in while carrying a bag full of freshly cooked pork buns from the convenient store.

"Hello, Risa." Itami calls out to his ex-wife. (We already know she is his ex-wife so no point of surprise.)

Risa crawls out from her room while complaining, "Food... Feed me..."

Itami gives a disappointed sigh and just gives her the buns. "Honestly." Itami hands over the bag and Risa enjoys the warmth and smell of the buns while her glasses are being fogged up.

"Um, Lieutenant. Who is this?" Akira asked while outside the door along with many others.

Before Itami explains who she is, Aaron explains. "That is Risa Aoi, his ex-wife."

Rory: "You mean his..."

Akira: "Ex-wife?!"

Everyone: *surprised* "What?!"

Shino: *confused* "What?"

Risa gets her face away from the bag and goes, "Eh?" as her glasses defog.

"Oh come on now!" Shino says in aggravation. "What kind of weirdo marries a guy like him!?"

"Who are you calling a weirdo?!" Risa is offended as she clutches the bag closer to her.

"You, ya' little wack job!" But she takes a closer look at the two. "But then again, you guys do seem you kinda belong together."


After everyone enters inside the apartment and the lights come on, Rory looks at some of the dolls and is frighten by them.

"Oh no." she went, "She followed me here to this place too?"

Lelei looks at the bookshelves and realize there are a lot of books.

Piña and Bozes have taken an interest in one of Risa's books and are holding one of them.

"This is also a book?" Piña says while holding one.

"I never seen a book like this before." Bozes says to the princess.

Akira is looking out the window just to make sure that they are not being followed. Itami explains the situation to Risa while she is looking at her computer and eating some food.

"And that's why we came here."

Risa then speaks with some food in her mouth. "Coming here is an awful idea. Okay?" She then turns around to face her ex. "There is nothing about this to justify into getting me involve with something so dangerous."

"He's right, sir." Akira agrees with Risa and close the curtains to join the conversation. "She might be your ex, but she's still a civilian."

"But we keep running into all these problems when that creepy dude is around." Itami tries to justify himself.

"That's what I just said!" Aaron tries to take credit about pointing out the leak.

"But I don't know about that. It could be one of the guys with them."

Akira then starts to look stern. "Or it could be all of them."

Piña and Bozes are getting close together as they try to read one of Risa's yaoi-themed manga as Itami then says, "With that guy asleep on the train, things have been quiet."

Risa then raises her hand, "Excuse me. I kinda prefer if nothing kooky happens to my place." Then starts to get serious and shouts, "I have got a deadline to meet!"

While everyone is asleep for the night, Piña and Bozes have definitely taken a great interest in a BL-comic.

"I'm amazed that art like this can exist!" Piña whispers to herself and have develop a great interest.

"My lady," Bozes whispers to Piña while having her eyes glued to the comic, "we are in a different world."

"Yes, I know that!"

"I would really like to take those language classes."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would."


The next morning, Rory prays as the birds chirp outside the window to greet the morning sun. Itami has the idea about going out and enjoy what time they have. If they go straight towards Ginza (according to him), the threat is still gonna be there. Risa agrees as she holds an envelope of money and wants to do some clothes shopping for them along with Shino, who agrees. Bozes and Piña wanted to go to a library to get some BL manga while Akira accompanies them. But Aaron points out that they should go to a manga store instead since there aren't any of that in a public library. Itami is also going to a manga store.

Rory, on the other hand, doesn't want to go clothing shopping saying that any other clothes that isn't like hers is considered an insult to Emroy. That is until they come across a certain clothing store.

"Awwww!" she went with her hands claps together and eyes sparkling. She stares at a white and frilly gothic-lolita dress out the window. "My god, that's gorgeous!"

Tuka, Lelei, and Rory try on different outfits at the store with Risa saying how cute they look she could eat them up.

At a manga store, across the one Itami is at, Bozes and Piña immediately look for some yaoi manga. Akira just watch them as they drool at certain points, which kinda freaks him out a little.

"I cannot believe that such art exist in such a place like this!" Piña says to herself with her face all red and continues to read.

"Miss, we're in a different world." Bozes says after glancing away from a book she is reading.

"Uh-huh." Piña just nodded and barely paying attention to Bozes. She is long gone by now.

'What the hell are they reading?' Akira thinks to himself as he just smiles and stands there.

Aaron just looks at all the anime and games away from everyone else to see if there are any that interest him. Some of which could be beneficial for his galaxy such as new technology, new races, new resources...and maybe a new wife or two.

In the meantime, Itami got a manga catalogue and heads towards an intersection where he meets a very certain someone.

"It has been twenty years since we stumbled into each other." a man says while standing next to Itami. The man is in his elderly years with his hair turning grey and wears a formal black suit.

"Yeah." Itami says in agreement.

"I just lost the election. Found myself looking for work."

Itami turns his head to face the man. "I was in junior-high." he says with a smile. "So, you okay out here? You should probably have security."

The person he is talking to is the Defense Minister, Taro Kano. Taro just shrugs at Itami, "I don't need any. With the baddest badass in Tokyo, right?"

The two men hang out at the park, catching up on some old times. Even talked about an old western movie and Itami gave Taro a manga catalogue. Taro can't go to manga shops anymore due to some people that want to take him down. Taro then assigns Itami to get to the rendezvous point as soon as possible. Itami salutes and give him a 'Yes, sir!' before rejoining the group.

As soon as Itami leaves, somebody says, "Nice to meet you, Defense Minister Taro Kano."

Taro becomes startled as he turns around. But no one is there. However, Aaron started to appear once he is done using a invisibility power.

"You must be that Lord Sovereign from some galaxy. Aaron is it?"

"Yes, and there is something I have to tell you."

Taro just smug a little, "Must be very important for me to have an audience with a being like you."

Aaron chuckles a little, "Don't flatter yourself." Then starts to look serious. "Anyway, just to let you know, there will be three agencies trying to get their hands on me. They have orders to ignore the guests from the Special Region and go after me instead. Some people I know have intercepted a few calls from China, United States, and Russia. The CIA, MSS, and SVR are going to hit the hot springs hotel where we will be staying. I assume you have the Special Forces stationed there?"

This took the minister by surprise on how well he knows. "Y-yeah. We have troops standing by."

"Well the bad news is that the president of the USA is going to blackmail the current Prime Minister about company corruption in order to have your troops pull back. But take it easy, I have a few troops of my own that will hunt them down for you."

"Exactly how are you planning to-"

Aaron raised his hand at Taro, signalling him to stop. "Just think of a horror and action movie from the 1980's, then you'll see." He lowers his hand. "Don't worry, none of your troops will be harmed. Just be ready to pull out when the Prime Minister does receive the blackmail." Then he disappears.


Over at Shinjuku Station, everyone met up.

Risa starts holding up her bags, "I think I may have gone overboard here."

Tuka is holding a black case, "I got a new bow!"

Lelei is holding a white bag with both hands, "Books are everything to me."

Rory holds up a small pink bag, "They actually have tailors that's literally fit for an apostle."

Aaron just smiles and shrugs, "I had fun looking around."

Itami takes a deep sigh. Then he hears a cheer coming from Bozes and Piña with Akira looking like he got traumatized. His eyes are wide open and just smiles like a creep.

Itami waved his hand at Akira's face. "Tomita? Are you okay?"

"Don't ask." Akira says in a monotone voice. "Just. Don't. Ask."

Itami moved his hand away from him and is a little worried. "Okay then." Then goes to cheery mode, "Now then, who wants to go to the hot springs?!"

"Yeah!" everyone says in unison with their fists raised up in the air. Akira is still standing there, not moving or saying a word.


Over at the Ministry of Defense, Taro comes in to the operations room where Colonel Kazufumi Ryuzaki says, "Good evening."

"Evening, colonel." Taro says as he sits down.

"I am Colonel Kazufumi Ryuzaki, head of special operations. Good to meet you."

After Taro sits down, he then looks at Kazufumi, "Yes. Pleasures all mine, colonel."

The two looked at the monitor and see three soldiers on the screen.

"Archer, bearing three heat signature at 3-1-5. Distance, 1-5-0. Designated targets, alpha one, two, and-"

On screen, something happened. Some sort of harpoon or something decapitated alpha one and his head is pinned to a tree. Alpha two looks like he is struggling while being lifted up the tree. Alpha three looks like he go stabbed by an invisible blade with something covering his mouth right before disappearing behind the foliage.

"What the hell is that?!" Kazufumi shouts while he watches some sort of shimmer killing off alpha three.

"Must be Aaron's troops. He told me they would be here incase we are ordered to pull out."

"Huh?!" the colonel is confused.


In the hotel, the ladies are astonished by a simple pond filled with hot water.

"How is all of the water from the spring so hot?!" Tuka says in amazement.

"I have never seen so much hot water." Lelei says in her usual emotionless tone. But she is curious about it.

"They actually created an indoor bathing pond." The princess is dumbfounded at the sight. "With all of our magic, why haven't we come up with this?"

"Princess, we are in a very different world." Bozes pointed out

"Yes, I know that."

Rory removes her towel and is about ready to jump in. But Shino stops her and tells her she needs to rinse first.


Not to far, a van pulled over with men armed with guns coming out. Two more units are in the foliage and are waiting for the opportunity to strike. Aaron creates an invisible force shield to prevent them from coming in in secret before taking a bath.

The Special Forces are watching the hotel, but unable to see anything because of the force field.

"Lancer, do you copy?" one of the lady tacticians say over the radio.

"Copy. What's the situation?"

"We have lost visual on the targets. Can you see the inside of the hotel, over?"

Lancer pulls out his nightvision binoculars to try to see the inside of the hotel. Unfortunately, he cannot see anything inside the windows. No light, no people, hell not even the furniture.

"I have no visual. Although it is weird. Not to mention, kinda creepy."

"Please explain."

"There is nothing inside the hotel. No lights, no furniture. It looks like the place is cleaned out."

Somewhere on the road where the van is, the driver sits patiently while waiting for his team. But then there is a loud thud on the roof of the van. THUD!

"What the-?"

The man steps out of the vehicle and sees a large dent on the roof. He looks around and doesn't see anything on the roof or anything around him or the van. He holds his SMG up to make sure the area is safe. However, something grabbed his head and sliced it off with an invisible blade. Something is on the roof while giving off some sort of series of clicks as it hold the head up high, approximately over seven or eight feet high above the van with the face facing the moon.

Back at the forest, there are some jungle beats being played in the forest. All four factions look around to see where the hell is that noise coming from.

"Where the hell is that noise coming from?" a CIA agent asked.

As they continue to scan the area, one of them noticed something hanging in one of the trees. He pulled up his nightvision goggles to see what it is. The agent freaks out as he sees a flayed man hanging upside down with a face of fear on it.

"What the fuck is that?!" one of the agents yelled out. However, three laser points are aimed at his heart. What happens next is a bolt of blue energy shot right through and killed him.

They focus their fire at the direction of the blast but ended up having their heads pinned to the trees by some harpoon weapon. The MSS are also having difficulty. One of their members gets trapped in a net that is slowly crushing and cutting him along with his weapon. They try to fire their weapons, but they ended up getting cut down from what appears to be an invisible spear-like weapon. One of the men did land a shot on the invisible killer and some blood spattered out. Neon green bio-luminescent blood to be clear.

"Ah shit." the MSS soldier realizes that he is fucked. So he had his head ripped out by a pair of invisible hands.


"Looks like their doing a hell of a job." Taro says as he watches the carnage on the screens.

"Are you sure about this?" Kazufumi is concern about the situation. "But something about the way they are getting killed is...familiar. Yet I cannot remember where have I seen this."

The phone rang and Taro answers.

"Prime Minister, I assume."

"Yes. I have some-"

"The Americans called you and gave you a list of corrupt cabinet members in order to get their hands on the galactic emperor guy. Correct?"

"Y-yeah. How did you know that?"

"Aaron told me himself. We have troops ready and protecting our visitors, but it turns out that he brought some troops of their own. CIA, MSS, and SVR are closing in on the hotel, but seem to be having trouble with these invisible hunters."

"Invisible hunters?"

"Yeah, they are..." Taro then realizes something. Something about what is happening seems so familiar. Then he finally remembers. "Wait a minute! I think I have an idea what they are!"


Itami wakes up and quotes a line from Evangelion. "I don't remember this ceiling." Then gets up and see everyone asleep. His jaw starts to ache as he realizes that Shino punched him. He rubs it to help soothe the pain. He later hears ice clinging on glass as he then notices Rory, staring out the window.

"You're still up?" Itami asks.

"Yes." Rory answers.

"Well to tell you the truth, you would've been a bombshell when you hit twenty."

Rory gave an amused chuckle at Itami's comment. "None of that matters."

"Huh?"

"Once I have reached a thousand years of age, I will ascend and have a new body. So I won't be able to enjoy any mortal pleasures like this." Rory then puts her drink down. "There is a battle happening out there and my body is burning up." Then she looks at Itami. "So, would you please help me?"

Itami took a big gulp. "What do you mean?"

Rory stumbles towards Itami with a grin and knocks him down to the floor. "I need you to satisfy me. So come on, let's have some fun before I become a goddess. My body may look young, but I can do anything like an adult."

Itami tries to reason with her. "Sorry but, there are laws against this sort of thing! Child safety laws!"

"Really?" Rory just continues to do what she wants. "Do you still think I'm a child?"

Itami hands are crumbling towards Rory's waist as Rory's lips keep on getting closer to his. 'Oh god!' he thought to himself, about ready to give in to his urges.

Put he was saved by a text message on his cellphone.

"What is that?" Rory says in anger and resent.

Itami reaches out to it and holds it up. "Oh, this is a cellphone. A very helpful device."

Rory just gives an angry glare. "An annoying device if you ask me."

Itami then looks around and goes, "Wait a minute. Where's Aaron?"


Outside, the three sides meet and are still being hunted by the invisible hunters. All of them hid behind some trees and rocks while firing. They wish to kill each other, but the predators have them pinned down.

"Hey!" one of the SVR shouts out at the other agents. "How about we work together to kill these things?! Then go back to killing each other!"

"I agree with that!" a CIA member agrees reluctantly but has no choice.

"I'm gonna have to agree as well!" says a member of the MSS.

A big, blue explosion happening in front of them as they hid. Once the smoke clears, they can now see what has been killing them off. They deactivate their active camouflage and it turns out to be a form of alien. Three of them. They are muscular, standing around seven feet tall, have reptilian skin, long dreadlocks, and wearing steel masks on their faces. They are the Yautja. Predators.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." a CIA agent says after the Predators reveal themselves.

"Looks like we are fucked, comrad." a SVR agent says to one of his fellow agents.

The three have their plasma casters aimed and ready to fire. The agents are ready to fight back with their suppressed weapons, but something unexpected happened. The three put away their casters and kneeled down.

"What are they doing?" a MSS agent stops taking aim and tries to figure out what are they up to.

Then a whistling is heard behind them in the darkness of the woods. Someone is whistling the Doctor Who theme for a few seconds then stops. What happens next is purple lightsabers started to light up and reveals Aaron van Dyke.

"Hello, boys!" he greets them with a smile. "Looking for me?"

"It's the target!"

"He's armed!"

"Don't kill him! We need him alive!"

"Fuck that!"

All the remaining agents fire their SMG's right at Aaron. But when the bullets get close, they immediately turn into splashes of water. Aaron just stand their as each and every bullet gets turn into water while waiting for them to run out of ammo. Aaron turns off the force field to let Itami's group watch on what is going to happen.

When they stop firing, Aaron looked at them and say, "My turn!"

He says with a rather cheery tone as he proceeds to throw his sabers. He nearly decapitated all of the agents with saber throw. Some of the agents ran away with Agent Tanaka then calls Graham.

"This is Tanaka!" he says in a panicking tone. "We are aborting the mission! We are taking heavy casualties and heading back to the rendezvous point! Do you copy?!"

"The hell you say?" Graham doesn't sound happy about the situation. "Was it the Japanese?!"

"No, sir! The primary objective is armed and-" STAB!"

Tanaka took a stab wound from the chest. Not from a lightsaber, but by twin metallic blades. The agent coughed up some blood as he nervously looks behind him. The predator then aimed its plasma caster towards the right side of Tanaka's forehead and BOOM! Tanaka's head is reduced to scattered, liquified, and charred remains. The reason being is that this Predator see its victim as a coward. An unworthy trophy for him.

This Predator does follow the code of its kind, but has a more personal code. If the prey runs from a fight, then they deserve a quick death and to ensure that there are no witnesses. This young Yautja prefers to hunt stronger prey.

Itami opened the door and see the carnage that Aaron and the Yautja has caused.

"Oh my god." Itami says softly and in shock.


Taro and Kazufumi along with the other members in the control room just stare at the carnage with various horrified expressions.

"Uhhhh... HQ?" Saber says in the radio. "Do we head back or clean-up? ...HQ?"

Taro then says to the radio while still gawking at the scene, "Fall back. We'll send a clean-up crew in a little while."

"Roger that! Man. What a mess. Remind me not to piss that emperor guy off."


Aaron stands there as he look at the dead bodies. He doesn't feel...anything.

'Strange.' he thought to himself as he keeps looking at the bodies. 'Why don't I feel anything? I don't feel any remorse nor pity. Nor do I feel happy or thrilled. Has being in my own cyber prison so long desensitized me? Or do I still think of them as fictional characters? Maybe I need to see a psychiatrist once I get back home."

"Hey, Aaron!" Itami yelled at Aaron with a cupped mouth. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

Aaron then looks at him by shifting his gaze. Itami feels a deathly chill down his eyes when he sees Aaron's.

"We need to get going." Aaron says to Itami. "There's a van not too far from here. Let's go!"