Twelve
"Now, I want this whole planet checked from mountain to sea. Leave no stone unturned. Leave no creature unchecked. I want Jaaku, not excuses."
The huge man barking at the group of uniformed officers is drawing strange looks from people passing by. He has to be eight feet tall. A dark visor over his eyes and a large cap upon his head, he does not look like he could blend in very well anywhere. Hardly discreet for the Galaxy Police but these are special circumstances. The lines of officers cry out in unison.
"Yes, High Captain!"
"Very well, I don't need to remind you all who we are dealing with. This is Jaaku. Remember that." The High Captain looks far more serious than the officers are used to and they stir uneasily. Suddenly, a sparkling blue light appears behind the captain and catches all their attentions. "Now what?" The bulk of the man slowly spins to see a figure standing where the light was. The sunlight is fully illuminating the face of Jaaku as he has an empty smile, looking at all of them. "J--J-Jaaku!" The Captain almost chokes on his own words and steps back. The rest of the officers gasp at the site and stare at the lone figure.
"Well, hello, Officers." Jaaku's smug grin is not pleasing High Captain Landross and he lets out a low grow. "My, there are certainly a lot of you. I would imagine you are not after Dargon."
"J....Jaaku! It is you! We are here to end your reign of terror!"
The Captain's word just amuse Jaaku even more and he grins even more, exposing his fangs. There is a very long, silent moment until someone runs in and breaks it. This person is Kiyone. Almost crashing her own ship as she tried to land so fast, she is a bit out of breath. "High Captain! I have information for you!" An equally out of breath Mihoshi comes trailing along and stands next to Kiyone, doubled over as she catches her breath.
"Officer Kiyone, I am pleased in your performance here. It will be noted in my records that you located Jaaku and assisted in our capture." Kiyone goes white and looks back at Jaaku, afraid he will blame her for betraying him. Instead he doesn't even look at her, just grins smugly at Landross. He does not even make a move to get Shibo-Ken-bo. He just stands there with his arms crossed, his orange eyes glancing around at the overwhelming number of Galaxy Police officers. Kiyone turns back to face High Captain Landross in Jaaku's defense. Mihoshi stands next to her, reluctantly backing her ex-partner's decision to stand on Jaaku's behalf. The dozens of officers all hold their pistols ready to subdue Jaaku at the first order.
"My my, it looks like you have half of the Special Operations force out here for little old me." Jaaku says and glances back at Landross.
"Detectives Kiyone and Mihoshi, step away from the criminal. We will not miss this chance to capture Jaaku." Captain Landross demands and keeps his eyes fixed on Jaaku.
"No! High Captain, I have some information that might clear Jaaku of all his crimes. He was under the control of Dargon during those crimes. We believe he is innocent!" Kiyone pleads to him.
"We do? Is it true, Kiyone?" Mihoshi blinks and asks.
"Jaaku, criminal offender 16. You are under arrest for the crimes of....." Captain Landross starts to recite and Jaaku laughs loudly.
"What should you expect? All Galaxy Police commanders are the same. You are wasting your breath, Kiyone." He says.
Kiyone steps right into Captain Landross's face and yells at him, "Sir! Did you hear what I told you? I said he could be innocent. There is no need for a fight!"
"Sergeant! Take Detective Kiyone into custody for aiding and abbeding a known criminal!" Captain Landross yells. Two of the officers holster their pistols and grab Kiyone by the arms.
"Hey! What are you doing!? Let me go!" Kiyone protests but the officers pull her back next to Captain Landross. Mihoshi steps forward to protest also when two more officers grab her also, taking her next to Kiyone.
"Detectives Mihoshi and Kiyone, we will deal with your little mutiny later. First we will take Jaaku into custody, dead or alive." Captain Landross claims and pulls his own pistol out. Kiyone tries to get away to help Jaaku but the officers hold her back. Suddenly Jaaku starts laughing softly and his orange eyes slowly close.
"This is a first. Galaxy Police officers arresting their own people because they have a difference of opinion. I didn't think you people would sink so low." he says.
"Arrest him." Captain Landross orders and the officers start to advance on Jaaku.
"I told you, Kiyone, it is a waste of breath. You all should thank this Detective, she indirectly saved your pathetic lives." Jaaku says quietly and opens his eyes, glowing a deep orange color. He slowly uncrossed his arms and the two orbs in his hands start to glow, as does the two in Shibo-Ken-bo. "I'd love to stay and play with you all, but I have a criminal of my own to capture. I came here to tell you to stay out of my way." He is about to shift dimensions when Captain Landross throws his hand towards one of the officers.
"Now!" he yells loudly. The officer pulls an odd looking weapon from behind his back. On the end of it is a small disc with small hooks on the end. The officer raises it and there is a flash of bright light. The small disc cuts through the air in an instant and attaches itself to Jaaku's neck below his ear. A sudden burst of yellow energy runs through Jaaku's body and he yells loudly. The orbs in his body and hilt stop glowing and he falls to his knees, still yelling from the bolts of yellow energy coming from the disc.
"Jaaku!" Kiyone yells and tries to pull away again. Jaaku breathes heavily as the bolts stop coming from the disc and he looks at the ground weakly.
"You have a dimensional anchor device on your neck. Anytime you try and travel through dimensional rifts now, it will send massive amounts of demi-electric energy into your body. You cannot escape us now, Jaaku." Captain Landross says with a triumphant grin. Jaaku looks up at him and growls, his eyes starting to glow even more. He slowly rises to his feet weakly and places his hand over the device. The disc sends a pulse of energy into his hand and he pulls it away quickly. "Any attempt to remove it will also only harm yourself. It has already begun to drain your body of it's energy and soon you will be unconscious. Give up now and we will not harm you." Captain Landross says.
"I would rather die." Jaaku says and both of the orbs in his hands start to glow. Captain Landross steps back and looks at him uneasily.
"What....is going on? The disc should have disabled all his dimensional capabilities." he exclaims.
"Dimensional travel is not the only thing these orbs are capable of. They also can destroy pathetic creatures such as your Special Operations Corps in a heartbeat." Jaaku says. There is a bit of a stalemate as the Captain weighs all of his options. Jaaku's glowing eyes lock upon Kiyone and see her expression. His promise to her was now endangering his freedom. She looked back at him, wondering if he would keep his promise.
"Subdue him now!" Captain Landross yells suddenly. The officers all pounce on top of Jaaku instantly. However, as they reach him, Jaaku slams his palms together and yells.
"How about a conflicting season?" There is a blinding flash of white light and all the officers cover their eyes. When the light fades away, the officers pull their hands down and see Jaaku is gone. Some of the officers are holding their faces, burned from the flash of energy. They scream in pain about how they are blind now. Captain Landross looks around quickly and his eyes come across Jaaku's form standing on the building high above them.
"There! I want that criminal!" he yells and points. Jaaku quickly disappears from sight and Captain Landross looks at all his healthy officers. "I want a parameter search of this city. Give me all angles of coverage. I want Jaaku now! You have permission to open fire at first sight. Now go!" he roars. The officers concede and all filter out from the alleyway. Some of them touch small buttons on their belt and float up after Jaaku on the building. Captain Landross roars into the radio that he has men that need medical treatment, then turns to Mihoshi and Kiyone. "You see the criminal you tried to protect? These officers are now hurt because of that creature. He will not go around harming our officers any longer. I will make sure he does not leave this planet alive." He says coldly and walks off onto the streets of Tokyo.
Mihoshi puts a finger up to her mouth and sighs, "This is not good. What are we going to do Kiyone?" she asks. She turns to Kiyone and blinks, as she is red with anger. "Kiyone?"
"Damn him. He promised!" she growls and looks at the hurt officers as the paramedics help them. She looks at Mihoshi and pulls her pistol out. "I was a fool to believe he had changed, Mihoshi."
She runs off in another direction and Mihoshi watches her, "Oh my. This is really not good."
A spray of energy blasts tear the roof of the building up from under him. Jaaku jumps from the collapsing metal and lands on the next building with a hard thud. In a fluid motion, he is back at full speed headed towards another building. He looks over his shoulder and narrows his orange eyes at the three GP officers bearing down on him quickly from above. Jaaku winces and stumbles a bit, the disc still weakening him greatly. 'Why don't you just turn around and send them into a spiraling death?' he thinks to himself and his hand slides over the hilt of Shibi-Ken-bo on his back. 'No, I have promised Kiyone that I would not harm another Galaxy Police officer. I can get through this without anybody else dying.' Right as his thought is finished, a blast of energy hits his back and he skids to a stop on his back. He looks up and the three officers land next to him. One of them pulls out a glowing baton and swings it down hard at Jaaku. Jaaku quickly spins around on the top of his back and takes the officer's legs out from under her. She hits the ground hard and Jaaku springs to his feet with his hands. One of the other officers pulls out his own baton over his head and charges at Jaaku. Jaaku steps to the side and grabs his arm that is holding the baton. He plants his foot behind the officer's and takes him down to the ground. He touches the officer's shoulder with the baton and an electrical charge surges through the officer's body. He stops moving and Jaaku stands to face the other officer. Her shaking hand holds another baton and her eyes are frozen with fear as she stares at Jaaku.
"You may be the smartest one out of all of them." Jaaku says and turns away from her. She finally gets her wits about her and reluctantly charges at him, yelling at the top of her lungs. Jaaku whips around and raises his left hand, the orb in it glowing brightly. The officer stops dead in her track as Jaaku's hand hovers two inches from her face. She trembles and her baton drops to the ground from her hand. "The Galaxy Police shouldn't be sending people out to capture criminals if they are afraid of getting killed. Go back to your home and marry someone who will make you happy." he says quietly and lowers his hand to his side. Her eyes are still locked on his orange eyes and he turns from her. He runs to the edge of the building and drops down to the street below, leaving her to catch her breath. As he stands from the fall, two vehicles scream down the street after him. The GP hovercycles bear down on him quickly and give him just enough time to turn around before one of them clips him slightly, sending him into the side of a parked car. The side of the car collapses and Jaaku winces in pain. He opens his eyes and growls. As the cycles turn around for another pass, he pulls himself from the crumpled car and steps out into the street. They are bearing down on him as he reaches around and pulls Shibo-Ken-bo from his back. The long, yellow blade erupts from the end and his eyes narrow. The officers on the cycles start firing their pistols wildly at him but none of their shots hit. As one of the cycles come by, Jaaku brings his hilt around quickly and gashes open the side of it's metal body. The officer jumps off of it and rolls to a stop along the ground. He looks up to see his cycle explode into the side of a building and the other cycles going around a corner. His pupils shrink as he feels heat on the back of his neck and he turns slowly to find the blade of Shibo-Ken-bo at his throat. Jaaku's orange eyes are glowing and his fangs are mirroring the officers impending doom through his sneer.
"P-P-Please d-d-don't kill me." The officer begs and tries to slide backwards on the ground.
"You are nothing but children. Go home and grow up before entering this universe of battle." Jaaku says and his eyes stop glowing. The officers nods quickly and Jaaku lowers the blade down from his throat. Suddenly the dark street illuminates red and an immense blast slams into Jaaku's body. Jaaku screams loudly and is sent into the side of a building, his clothes burned and torn from the blast. He opens his orange eyes and a long streak of blood runs down his handsome face. He sees Captain Landross standing next to a large weapon. An officer sits in a seat behind the huge barrel as it glows in preparation for another blast.
"You are going to pay for all the officers you have killed, ShiboNoAkuma. We are through trying to arrest you." Captain Landross yells at him and drops his hand through the air. The barrel of the weapon sends another huge blast of red energy down the street. Jaaku groans and tries to stand up from the pile of rubble he is in but the blast again hits him. The blast shreds almost all of the rest of his bodysuit and the exposed sections of his body are deeply bruised, burned and cut. Jaaku falls forward to his hands and knees, coughing loudly. "All right, men, one more blast and we will have finally defeated Jaaku. I am glad that you all could be here for this occasion." Captain Landross proclaims loudly. The barrel begins to glow once again but Jaaku can't even look up to see it. He stares at the puddle of his own blood forming under him and growls. He slides his hand to the right and feels Shibo-Ken-bo.
"Come on, Jaaku. Just give me a little bit more." he groans to himself. His hand wraps around Shibo-Ken-bo and Spring's Eye starts to glow brightly. With the last of his strength, he sits up straight and thrusts his hilt forward, yelling from the strain. A large ball of lightning fires from the end of the hilt and slams into the end of the weapon. The officers don't even have anytime to react before the barrel explodes into a cloud of smoke. Jaaku strains greatly and stands up weakly. He turns and stumbles from the road to a nearby alley while they cannot see him from the smoke. He falls against the wall but keeps on his feet. Breathing heavily, he raises his eyes to find a dead end staring back at him. Only a pile of boxes stand against the wall and he closes his eyes. "Just great." he mutters and turns around to get away. He finds the barrel of a pistol pointed at him, with Kiyone standing at the other end. "Kiyone....." he says weakly and winces from having no strength.
"You promised me, Jaaku. You said you wouldn't hurt anybody else." She says to him coldly. He leans his head against the wall, taking shallow breaths and looks at her.
"I am sorry if those officers got hurt. I didn't intend to do it. I was only trying to......get away." he stutters and holds his bleeding side.
She stares at him with tears building in her eyes, "You lied to me! I thought you cared about me! You are nothing more than the monster in your file." She half yells at him.
Jaaku takes a deep breath and muffles a cough, "Fine, then just do it. I can't stop you and I think I am tired of running from you people." he says. Shibo-Ken-bo drops from his hand and hits the ground with a loud thud, making Kiyone wince. Jaaku slides down the wall to a sitting position, leaving a trail of red on it, "One blast from your weapon should kill me. It is appropriate that it is you, Officer Kiyone. I do....care about you. Just promise me you will catch Dargon and take care of.....Ryoko." he says and leans his head against the wall, closing his orange eyes. Kiyone is fighting back her tears as she primes her weapon to be fired.
Captain Landross jumps out of the smoke and glares at the empty street in front of him. He growls and looks back to the other coughing officers coming out of the smoke. "Come on! He couldn't have gotten far. Let's finish this!" he yells and runs down the street. The other officers follow him and they come to the alley where Jaaku went. They all line up along the edge of the alley and hold their pistols ready. Captain Landross jumps out into the opening of the alley and all the others follow. They all point their pistols at the only figure in it, Kiyone. She looks at all of them with a blank look in her eyes, her pistols held loosely in her shaking hand. "Officer Kiyone! Where is he!?" Captain Landross demands.
"I....killed him. Jaaku is dead." She says very flatly. Her pistols drops from her hand and hits the ground, empty of it's energy. Captain Landross looks past her and sees many holes in the wall right where a line of blood runs down the wall. But no Jaaku.
He looks back at her with a look of disbelief, "I don't believe you. Where is he then?" he demands.
"His body disappeared when I killed him. This is all that is left." She says and pulls an object from behind her back. She holds it out and opens her hands, dropping it to the ground. Shibo-Ken-bo hits the ground with a dull thud, the two orbs in it completely dark. "This weapon cannot be held by anyone but Jaaku....unless Jaaku was dead. With no power left for it, it is nothing more than a hat rack now." She says and her voice quivers a bit. Captain Landross looks at the dead hilt and opens his mouth to say something.
Suddenly another officer runs up yelling, "High Captain! The Hajimoto is being attacked! They want us to return to fight this other ship!" he yells in a frantic fit.
Captain Landross looks at him, then to Kiyone, "Very well. Officer Kiyone, I want a full report on this and I want that object brought to my ship." he orders.
"Yes....sir." Kiyone barely says and looks down at the ground. Captain Landross and the other officers quickly head back to their landing ships and leave Kiyone alone in the alley. After a long moment, Kiyone spins on her heels and runs to the pile of boxes. Behind it, Jaaku lies completely motionless and very beat up. She drops to her knees next to him and places her hand on his bruised face, her fingers becoming the same color as her gloves. "Jaaku?" she asks softly. He doesn't answer and her heart feels like it stops for a moment. "Jaaku? Come on....answer me." she says and stares at his relaxed face. Her hand smears some of his blood across his face and her breaths become very shallow.
Then his face twitches a bit and his left eye opens slightly, "Ugh....are they.....gone?" he whispers weakly.
She laughs a bit in relief and gets a weak smile, "Yeah, they are. I told them you are dead." she says and pushes some of his hair from his face.
"You aren't far from the truth, Kiyone. I can't even....sense Shibo-Ken-bo." he says and his other eyes slowly opens.
"I have it right here." she says and nods towards the alley. He nods slowly and takes a deep breath, "Are you okay, Jaaku? How did you get so beaten?" she asks.
"It is the price you pay to keep a promise." he says and his eyes slowly move to her. "I have always found it.....easy to elude officers when I could shift dimensions or just stop them. It is....much harder when you cannot hurt any of them." he says and coughs a bit.
She smiles softly and kisses his lips softly, then slides her arms around him and lays her face next to his, "Thank you, Jaaku." She says. He doesn't answer and the two just remain there motionlessly as a battle was beginning high above the Earth.