Android Kikaider 02: The Fanfiction
Disclaimer: ...
She was running. She kept running through a darkness that she wasn't able to see through. But she wasn't running away from something. Instead, she ran towards the sounds of footsteps. Footsteps that were not her own. She ran as fast as she could. She had to find him.
Suzume found who she was looking for. She ran and leaped into Niro's arms, and they held on to each other. But then, in a flash of light, she turned back to see Niro in his robot form. He quickly let go of her and looked at her with fear. "Niro?" she asked with concern.
"Please...Don't look at me!!" he screamed as he ran off. Suzume chased after him, but the distance between them was growing farther and farther apart. "Niro! Please wait!"
"NIRO!" she screamed as she woke up on the couch.
She looked around and saw that she was at her home. She was even still in her dress from the dance. She then saw her father, and he said, "Sweetie, are you okay?"
She nodded and asked, "Where's Niro?"
"He left as soon as he dropped you off here. He told me about what happened at the dance and how you were kidnapped," he replied.
"Yeah. He saved my life!" she added on.
"Really? He took off right after setting you down on the couch. It was almost like he was on the run from something."
Suzume just looked down and thought to herself, "Were you running away from me, Niro?"
---Moment of Sorrow---
Niro drove down the road on his motorcycle. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know where to go next. The only thing he knew was that he had to get away from her. "No human girl in their right mind could ever love a machine," he remembered his younger brother saying.
Finally, Niro just stopped at the side of the road. He changed back into his normal clothes and began to play his electric guitar. He played the sad song that he had always known. The sad song of loneliness. As he played it, he thought about the past events. The one thing that he couldn't get out of his mind was the look of complete shock in Suzume's eyes when she saw him as he really was. He realized then that maybe he never really understood the fine line between being human and being an android. But this realization came too late for him. Now he would never be able to get back what the two of them once had.
As he continued to play on the side of the road, a car passed him. The car then stopped and out of the passenger side door came Gunta. He walked over to his friend and said, "Niro? What are you doing here?"
The android turned his head to see Gunta then looked down and said, "I had to stop and play my guitar."
"Shouldn't you be on your date with Suzume?"
"It didn't go well," he replied solemnly.
"Huh? What happened?" he asked.
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Oh come on. Don't talk like that. It makes you sound like a grumpy old man. So what happened?" he replied.
He just looked at him and firmly answered, "I don't want to talk about it."
"What has gotten into you?! You were like this just last week, then you acted like yourself again, and now you-"
"Shut it, Gunta!" he interrupted.
Gunta was caught completely off guard by this. Niro then continued, "You think you know me? You think you know who and what I really am? You don't know squat! You never did! And do you know why? Because you couldn't take the truth! You have no idea what I think or how I feel! If you ever did really know me, then you wouldn't want to be anywhere near me!"
"Whoa whoa whoa! When did I become the bad guy here?!" he responded unpleasantly.
Niro put the guitar up, started the Rocket Machine up again, and said, "Just leave me alone for a little bit. If you really want to know what happened with me and Suzume, ask her."
With that, he took off on his motorcycle down the road, leaving his friend behind.
It wasn't until much later that he got home that night. He quietly opened the door and headed up the stairs until he heard a distinct voice. "So how did it go?" he heard.
Niro turned to see his father sitting on the couch looking at him. "...Sano crashed the dance."
Jiro closely examined his son's face and could tell there was something else behind it. "That's not the only thing that went wrong. What else happened?"
Niro looked at the ground and answered, "Sano took Suzume hostage. I chased him to a tall building, and he dropped her off the roof."
Niro's voice began to crack and tears began to form around his eyes as he continued, "I didn't know what else to do! I couldn't let her die! I jumped off after her, and I ended up having to transform right in front of her!"
"Niro, she's your friend, and I can see she means a lot to you. You made the right call," Jiro tried to reassure him.
"Then why can't I get that look of complete shock she had out of my mind?! Or why can't I forget that after everything was said and done, she fainted?!" he responded.
"Does it matter? She's alive. That's what counts," Jiro replied.
He still wasn't getting through to him, and he could see that. Jiro then looked at him right in the eyes and said, "Okay. Say you had the chance to turn back time. If you could take back any moment and do one thing differently, would you have let her die?"
Niro just shook his head. Jiro then added, "I was like that too with your mother. After being called a freak and monster so many times because of the way I looked in battle android form, I was ashamed of letting her see me that way. But when the time came that I would have to transform in order to save her life, I didn't hesitate. I didn't even have to hit the switches and give the command. I just transformed then and there, and I never regretted it."
"But...what do I do now? She may never want to see me again."
"Then that's her loss. If she can't accept you for who you are, then she was never really your friend. However, if she's really your friend, then she'll still see the person you have always been," he replied.
Niro just walked back into his room. Jiro knew that what he had just told him was true. However, he knew deep inside his heart that he wasn't doing the instruction that he had just given.
The night passed, and it became morning again. It was the weekend, so Niro didn't have to go to school today. However, he had been given a homework assignment, and that was to go over the story of Cain and Abel. He picked up his literature book and began to read to himself, "During the beginning of the world, God created man and woman: Adam and Eve. They were given one commandment: do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, a serpent deceived them into disobeying God, and God banished them from the Garden of Eden.
"Adam and Eve later gave birth to two sons. The first born was named Cain, and the second one Abel. As the boys grew up, they took different choices of work. Cain took to working in the fields and harvesting while Abel worked with the livestock. When it came time to give offerings to God, Cain offered him some of what he had harvested, and Abel gave an animal sacrifice. Although they both loved the Lord and gave him an equal share of what they had worked so hard on, God found favor in Abel. Cain soon became jealous of his younger brother for it, and..."
Niro was interrupted from his reading by a knock at his door. "Come in," he said.
It was a human Gold Wolf that came into his room. "Hey. Your father told me about what happened last night with you and your friend."
"Oh," was the only thing the young Kikaider android could say.
Gold Wolf then got something small out of his pocket and tossed it to Niro. "Here. Take this."
Niro looked at the object. It was a small device with a USB socket. "A USB storage device? What's on it?"
Gold Wolf just replied, "Something you may need for destroying Night. Whenever you feel like you're ready to end this once and for all, plug it into a computer and pull up the file. Use it only when you know you're ready to end this. Not when you're eager or hesitant."
Niro just looked at the USB storage device in wonder.
Meanwhile, Suzume just looked up at the ceiling from her bed. The only thing that she was thinking about right now was her robotic friend. She began to think to herself, "So that's what you've been hiding all this time. All this time, you weren't really who you tried to be. You were...just a machine!"
Then she began to think, "No, I can't say that. You were far more than just some sort of robot. The way you talked to me showed me your kindness and understanding. The way you held me showed me that you really cared. Heck, you even risked it all just to save me!"
She sat up and quietly said to herself, "All this time I thought you were incredibly naïve. I had no idea at just how easy it was for me to believe everything I saw. The only thing that was really true was your heart."
The phone rang, and she picked it up wondering if it was him. "Hello?"
"Good morning. It's Gunta Momochi with your current news and wea-"
"I get it, Gunta. What's up?" she interrupted.
"Nothing much. So how did it go with you and Niro last night?"
"Well, it started out great, but after that things just got worse," she replied.
"Like how?" he asked.
"Well, some guy came in and crashed the party and kidnapped me. When he tried to make his getaway, Niro got on his motorcycle and chased after us. To make a long story short, Niro managed to save me, but he...ended up having to show me something he didn't want anyone to see."
"Anyone? Not even us?" Gunta asked curiously.
"Yeah, with good reason," she replied.
"Well, it's more than what I got out of him last night," Gunta said.
Suzume's eyes opened wide. "You saw him last night?! Is he okay?!" she asked with concern.
"Uh...Define 'okay'," came the reply on the other end.
"What do you mean?" she responded.
"Well, physically, he's okay. Mentally, I'm not too sure about that. I asked him what happened with you two, and he just said that he didn't want to talk about it. After I tried talking to him some more, he went into this complete you-don't-know-who-I-really-am speech."
"Yeah, well, like I said before. He has a good reason for hiding it."
"Yeah, but I mean from us? I mean anybody-"
"Niro isn't just anybody! He didn't tell us what he was hiding for a reason! So leave it at that and don't say anything else about it!" she fiercely interrupted.
Gunta heard the hang-up click on his end right after that. "Geez! Is there anyone I can talk to at all without getting the third degree?"
The daylight passed by once more at the Komyoji house, and Niro just spent the time wondering what was on the storage device. "Use it only when I'm ready to destroy Night once and for all? How will I know when I'm ready?"
Niro just put the storage device on his desk and went outside for a little bit. He just looked at the stars and played his guitar. He played the song that was in his heart once more. However, after playing it a little bit, he heard the same song being played on an acoustic guitar. He turned to the source of the sound, and he saw Jiro with the red guitar Masaru had repaired. "So that's where I got it from," he said.
Jiro nodded and said, "It was just a song that would come to me, too. I always played it to either entertain others or just to express some of my loneliness. I didn't know how to express it in words, and I didn't have anyone to express them to. All I had was my guitar."
Niro just said, "It's not easy going through life as a human and deceiving who you really are from those you care about the most. I just didn't really have anyone to turn to, I guess."
"Well, what about your mother or Masaru?" Jiro asked.
"It's not the same. They just wouldn't be able to understand what it's really like to be so close to being human yet being far from it. I hated not being able to talk about how I feel. I hated not having anyone to talk to. I hated not having you to turn to," Niro replied.
"And after I came back, you hated me, right?"
Niro nodded and added, "I never figured out just how Mom could have held on to believing you were alive for so long. You've been gone for ten years. I think I was the only one who really thought you were dead. When you came back, it seemed to me like you abandoned her."
Jiro was about to keep the conversation going, but the two soon became interrupted by an energy blast that blew up the ground in front of them. Niro turned to the direction that the blast came from. "I'd know that shot anywhere! Sano's here!"
Sure enough, Sano rolled in on his Crimson Angel with that same maniacal smirk on his face. "Hey. Nice place, Big Bro. I'm surprised it's managed to stay up with all the battles that happened here before."
Niro just got into a fighting stance and asked, "Why did you involve Suzume? She had nothing to do with any of this!"
"Is that so, huh? Well, your little girlfriend certainly seemed to have a lot to do with you to me. Basically, I brought her in just to ruin your life," the younger android replied.
"He doesn't seem to take after me or Mitsuko. Heck, he barely even takes after Saburo!" Jiro said.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Dad, but I was finished off by Kuro. Not one of the other old farts," he replied.
"Sano! It doesn't have to be this way! I don't want to fight my own brother!" Niro cried out.
Sano just smiled and said, "Well, tough. It's a fight that dates back as far as the beginning of mankind."
The black-clad young man pulled out his metal ocarina and began to play a tune on it. Once again, Niro grabbed his chest and screamed as he transformed without control. Kikaider 02 looked up at his brother and watched him transform into Kikaider 03. 03 put his ocarina back into his holster and got into a fighting stance. All of a sudden, he heard the words, "SWITCH ON!!"
Jiro soon transformed into Kikaider and charged at 03. Even though the elder android attacked with all of his speed, 03 dodged each of his attacks. The evil 03 then batted away the asymmetric android with one swift blow. "You idiot! Not even Niro could take me down, so what makes you think you have a chance?"
Just as 03 drew his ocarina out again and transformed it into his blaster, 02 blasted his way at his younger brother and punched him in the side of the head and sending him to the ground. "Your fight is with me! Leave him out of this!"
"That's the spirit, Big Bro!" 03 said as he got up and retaliated.
The two brothers soon engaged into lightning-fast hand-to-hand combat. Kikaider watched as the two of them traded blows. "He's moving faster than I've ever seen him go! I really am out of their league!"
02 then landed a swift kick to 03's chest and broke away from the fight. "This ends now!"
The inside of 02's upper arms began to glow once again as he retracted his hands into his arms. He then aimed his arms turned gun barrels at his evil brother. 03 just aimed his blaster at 02 and replied, "That's what you think."
02 took a firm stance and shouted the name of his most powerful attack. "TWIN BLASTER!!!"
Once he fired off the massive blue blast of energy at the reprogrammed android, 03 shouted, "TRIPLE BUSTER!!!"
He then pulled the trigger and released three cork-screwing blasts at 02's attack. Both of the Kikaider androids soon found themselves locked in a power struggle. Mitsuko and Masaru came out to see the battle, and Mitsuko had a complete look of shock. "No! Niro!"
"Mitsuko, what's wrong?" Masaru asked.
"Niro's Twin Blaster is solar-powered! He won't be able to keep this up much longer!" she replied frantically.
Just as Mitsuko had predicted, 02's blast continued to get weaker and weaker. Soon the blast disappeared all together, and the three powerful beams came right at Kikaider 02. He screamed like never before as the attack sent him flying for an extremely long distance and did a critical amount of damage to his body. Once he landed on the ground face down, he reverted back into his human disguise. Kikaider 03 walked up to his fallen brother and said, "This is pathetic! I thought you were a lot stronger than that! I demand satisfaction!"
Niro could barely even manage to get himself up on all fours, but he did it. However, he lifted up his head only to see 03's blaster barrel right in front of his face. Kikaider 03 just laughed and said, "Well, I guess you can't always get what you want. I still have enough energy for one more shot. If this is how it's going to be, then so long, Big Bro."
As he was getting ready to pull the trigger, he heard something in the distance shout out, "WOLF BEAM!!!"
Although his etched smile was permanent, Kikaider 03 was still completely surprised when he turned to see an energy blast coming right for him. The attack caught him off guard and sent him flying right into a tree. Niro looked up from where he was and saw the android Gold Wolf. "Niro, are you okay?"
"Gold Wolf! It's not safe here!" Niro cried out.
Gold Wolf still approached Niro, but he was soon sucker-punched by an oncoming Kikaider 03. "You traitor! You ruined my moment of glory!"
"Don't celebrate just yet! You still have me to deal with!" Gold Wolf replied.
Kikaider 03 laughed and said, "You? This will be quick."
Gold Wolf fired off his tail missiles at 03, but the evil red and blue android blasted his way through them, uppercut Gold Wolf, and fired off his last shot at the former Night android. Niro watched in horror as the blast struck his friend's chest and came out through the back. "GOLD WOLF!!!"
Gold Wolf fell to the ground, and 03 transformed into Sano. "Dang! That was my last shot. We'll finish this some other time, Big Bro."
Sano summoned his Crimson Angel and drove off. Niro crawled to his friend. Jiro, Mitsuko, and Masaru made it to the scene and watched them. Gold Wolf turned to Niro and said, "Niro...I don't have...much time left..."
Tears were beginning to form in his eyes. "Don't talk like that. You're going to be okay."
Gold Wolf continued slowly, "Listen to me. Destroy Night...whenever you're ready...Stop them...Stop your brother...And remember...being human...isn't knowing the difference between...right and wrong...it's knowing the difference...and doing wrong...anyway..."
All artificial life that Gold Wolf had had vanished. There was a long hush over the tragic scene except for Niro's crying. "They won't get away with this. I won't let them," he quietly said to himself.
Then he made a vow that he never thought he would make in his entire life. "Sano...I'll find you...and the next time I see you...I will kill you."
A/N: Sorry for the long update, but I hope the quality of this chapter makes up for it. Once again, thank you for all the reviews. Please keep sending them on over!
Disclaimer: ...
She was running. She kept running through a darkness that she wasn't able to see through. But she wasn't running away from something. Instead, she ran towards the sounds of footsteps. Footsteps that were not her own. She ran as fast as she could. She had to find him.
Suzume found who she was looking for. She ran and leaped into Niro's arms, and they held on to each other. But then, in a flash of light, she turned back to see Niro in his robot form. He quickly let go of her and looked at her with fear. "Niro?" she asked with concern.
"Please...Don't look at me!!" he screamed as he ran off. Suzume chased after him, but the distance between them was growing farther and farther apart. "Niro! Please wait!"
"NIRO!" she screamed as she woke up on the couch.
She looked around and saw that she was at her home. She was even still in her dress from the dance. She then saw her father, and he said, "Sweetie, are you okay?"
She nodded and asked, "Where's Niro?"
"He left as soon as he dropped you off here. He told me about what happened at the dance and how you were kidnapped," he replied.
"Yeah. He saved my life!" she added on.
"Really? He took off right after setting you down on the couch. It was almost like he was on the run from something."
Suzume just looked down and thought to herself, "Were you running away from me, Niro?"
---Moment of Sorrow---
Niro drove down the road on his motorcycle. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know where to go next. The only thing he knew was that he had to get away from her. "No human girl in their right mind could ever love a machine," he remembered his younger brother saying.
Finally, Niro just stopped at the side of the road. He changed back into his normal clothes and began to play his electric guitar. He played the sad song that he had always known. The sad song of loneliness. As he played it, he thought about the past events. The one thing that he couldn't get out of his mind was the look of complete shock in Suzume's eyes when she saw him as he really was. He realized then that maybe he never really understood the fine line between being human and being an android. But this realization came too late for him. Now he would never be able to get back what the two of them once had.
As he continued to play on the side of the road, a car passed him. The car then stopped and out of the passenger side door came Gunta. He walked over to his friend and said, "Niro? What are you doing here?"
The android turned his head to see Gunta then looked down and said, "I had to stop and play my guitar."
"Shouldn't you be on your date with Suzume?"
"It didn't go well," he replied solemnly.
"Huh? What happened?" he asked.
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Oh come on. Don't talk like that. It makes you sound like a grumpy old man. So what happened?" he replied.
He just looked at him and firmly answered, "I don't want to talk about it."
"What has gotten into you?! You were like this just last week, then you acted like yourself again, and now you-"
"Shut it, Gunta!" he interrupted.
Gunta was caught completely off guard by this. Niro then continued, "You think you know me? You think you know who and what I really am? You don't know squat! You never did! And do you know why? Because you couldn't take the truth! You have no idea what I think or how I feel! If you ever did really know me, then you wouldn't want to be anywhere near me!"
"Whoa whoa whoa! When did I become the bad guy here?!" he responded unpleasantly.
Niro put the guitar up, started the Rocket Machine up again, and said, "Just leave me alone for a little bit. If you really want to know what happened with me and Suzume, ask her."
With that, he took off on his motorcycle down the road, leaving his friend behind.
It wasn't until much later that he got home that night. He quietly opened the door and headed up the stairs until he heard a distinct voice. "So how did it go?" he heard.
Niro turned to see his father sitting on the couch looking at him. "...Sano crashed the dance."
Jiro closely examined his son's face and could tell there was something else behind it. "That's not the only thing that went wrong. What else happened?"
Niro looked at the ground and answered, "Sano took Suzume hostage. I chased him to a tall building, and he dropped her off the roof."
Niro's voice began to crack and tears began to form around his eyes as he continued, "I didn't know what else to do! I couldn't let her die! I jumped off after her, and I ended up having to transform right in front of her!"
"Niro, she's your friend, and I can see she means a lot to you. You made the right call," Jiro tried to reassure him.
"Then why can't I get that look of complete shock she had out of my mind?! Or why can't I forget that after everything was said and done, she fainted?!" he responded.
"Does it matter? She's alive. That's what counts," Jiro replied.
He still wasn't getting through to him, and he could see that. Jiro then looked at him right in the eyes and said, "Okay. Say you had the chance to turn back time. If you could take back any moment and do one thing differently, would you have let her die?"
Niro just shook his head. Jiro then added, "I was like that too with your mother. After being called a freak and monster so many times because of the way I looked in battle android form, I was ashamed of letting her see me that way. But when the time came that I would have to transform in order to save her life, I didn't hesitate. I didn't even have to hit the switches and give the command. I just transformed then and there, and I never regretted it."
"But...what do I do now? She may never want to see me again."
"Then that's her loss. If she can't accept you for who you are, then she was never really your friend. However, if she's really your friend, then she'll still see the person you have always been," he replied.
Niro just walked back into his room. Jiro knew that what he had just told him was true. However, he knew deep inside his heart that he wasn't doing the instruction that he had just given.
The night passed, and it became morning again. It was the weekend, so Niro didn't have to go to school today. However, he had been given a homework assignment, and that was to go over the story of Cain and Abel. He picked up his literature book and began to read to himself, "During the beginning of the world, God created man and woman: Adam and Eve. They were given one commandment: do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, a serpent deceived them into disobeying God, and God banished them from the Garden of Eden.
"Adam and Eve later gave birth to two sons. The first born was named Cain, and the second one Abel. As the boys grew up, they took different choices of work. Cain took to working in the fields and harvesting while Abel worked with the livestock. When it came time to give offerings to God, Cain offered him some of what he had harvested, and Abel gave an animal sacrifice. Although they both loved the Lord and gave him an equal share of what they had worked so hard on, God found favor in Abel. Cain soon became jealous of his younger brother for it, and..."
Niro was interrupted from his reading by a knock at his door. "Come in," he said.
It was a human Gold Wolf that came into his room. "Hey. Your father told me about what happened last night with you and your friend."
"Oh," was the only thing the young Kikaider android could say.
Gold Wolf then got something small out of his pocket and tossed it to Niro. "Here. Take this."
Niro looked at the object. It was a small device with a USB socket. "A USB storage device? What's on it?"
Gold Wolf just replied, "Something you may need for destroying Night. Whenever you feel like you're ready to end this once and for all, plug it into a computer and pull up the file. Use it only when you know you're ready to end this. Not when you're eager or hesitant."
Niro just looked at the USB storage device in wonder.
Meanwhile, Suzume just looked up at the ceiling from her bed. The only thing that she was thinking about right now was her robotic friend. She began to think to herself, "So that's what you've been hiding all this time. All this time, you weren't really who you tried to be. You were...just a machine!"
Then she began to think, "No, I can't say that. You were far more than just some sort of robot. The way you talked to me showed me your kindness and understanding. The way you held me showed me that you really cared. Heck, you even risked it all just to save me!"
She sat up and quietly said to herself, "All this time I thought you were incredibly naïve. I had no idea at just how easy it was for me to believe everything I saw. The only thing that was really true was your heart."
The phone rang, and she picked it up wondering if it was him. "Hello?"
"Good morning. It's Gunta Momochi with your current news and wea-"
"I get it, Gunta. What's up?" she interrupted.
"Nothing much. So how did it go with you and Niro last night?"
"Well, it started out great, but after that things just got worse," she replied.
"Like how?" he asked.
"Well, some guy came in and crashed the party and kidnapped me. When he tried to make his getaway, Niro got on his motorcycle and chased after us. To make a long story short, Niro managed to save me, but he...ended up having to show me something he didn't want anyone to see."
"Anyone? Not even us?" Gunta asked curiously.
"Yeah, with good reason," she replied.
"Well, it's more than what I got out of him last night," Gunta said.
Suzume's eyes opened wide. "You saw him last night?! Is he okay?!" she asked with concern.
"Uh...Define 'okay'," came the reply on the other end.
"What do you mean?" she responded.
"Well, physically, he's okay. Mentally, I'm not too sure about that. I asked him what happened with you two, and he just said that he didn't want to talk about it. After I tried talking to him some more, he went into this complete you-don't-know-who-I-really-am speech."
"Yeah, well, like I said before. He has a good reason for hiding it."
"Yeah, but I mean from us? I mean anybody-"
"Niro isn't just anybody! He didn't tell us what he was hiding for a reason! So leave it at that and don't say anything else about it!" she fiercely interrupted.
Gunta heard the hang-up click on his end right after that. "Geez! Is there anyone I can talk to at all without getting the third degree?"
The daylight passed by once more at the Komyoji house, and Niro just spent the time wondering what was on the storage device. "Use it only when I'm ready to destroy Night once and for all? How will I know when I'm ready?"
Niro just put the storage device on his desk and went outside for a little bit. He just looked at the stars and played his guitar. He played the song that was in his heart once more. However, after playing it a little bit, he heard the same song being played on an acoustic guitar. He turned to the source of the sound, and he saw Jiro with the red guitar Masaru had repaired. "So that's where I got it from," he said.
Jiro nodded and said, "It was just a song that would come to me, too. I always played it to either entertain others or just to express some of my loneliness. I didn't know how to express it in words, and I didn't have anyone to express them to. All I had was my guitar."
Niro just said, "It's not easy going through life as a human and deceiving who you really are from those you care about the most. I just didn't really have anyone to turn to, I guess."
"Well, what about your mother or Masaru?" Jiro asked.
"It's not the same. They just wouldn't be able to understand what it's really like to be so close to being human yet being far from it. I hated not being able to talk about how I feel. I hated not having anyone to talk to. I hated not having you to turn to," Niro replied.
"And after I came back, you hated me, right?"
Niro nodded and added, "I never figured out just how Mom could have held on to believing you were alive for so long. You've been gone for ten years. I think I was the only one who really thought you were dead. When you came back, it seemed to me like you abandoned her."
Jiro was about to keep the conversation going, but the two soon became interrupted by an energy blast that blew up the ground in front of them. Niro turned to the direction that the blast came from. "I'd know that shot anywhere! Sano's here!"
Sure enough, Sano rolled in on his Crimson Angel with that same maniacal smirk on his face. "Hey. Nice place, Big Bro. I'm surprised it's managed to stay up with all the battles that happened here before."
Niro just got into a fighting stance and asked, "Why did you involve Suzume? She had nothing to do with any of this!"
"Is that so, huh? Well, your little girlfriend certainly seemed to have a lot to do with you to me. Basically, I brought her in just to ruin your life," the younger android replied.
"He doesn't seem to take after me or Mitsuko. Heck, he barely even takes after Saburo!" Jiro said.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Dad, but I was finished off by Kuro. Not one of the other old farts," he replied.
"Sano! It doesn't have to be this way! I don't want to fight my own brother!" Niro cried out.
Sano just smiled and said, "Well, tough. It's a fight that dates back as far as the beginning of mankind."
The black-clad young man pulled out his metal ocarina and began to play a tune on it. Once again, Niro grabbed his chest and screamed as he transformed without control. Kikaider 02 looked up at his brother and watched him transform into Kikaider 03. 03 put his ocarina back into his holster and got into a fighting stance. All of a sudden, he heard the words, "SWITCH ON!!"
Jiro soon transformed into Kikaider and charged at 03. Even though the elder android attacked with all of his speed, 03 dodged each of his attacks. The evil 03 then batted away the asymmetric android with one swift blow. "You idiot! Not even Niro could take me down, so what makes you think you have a chance?"
Just as 03 drew his ocarina out again and transformed it into his blaster, 02 blasted his way at his younger brother and punched him in the side of the head and sending him to the ground. "Your fight is with me! Leave him out of this!"
"That's the spirit, Big Bro!" 03 said as he got up and retaliated.
The two brothers soon engaged into lightning-fast hand-to-hand combat. Kikaider watched as the two of them traded blows. "He's moving faster than I've ever seen him go! I really am out of their league!"
02 then landed a swift kick to 03's chest and broke away from the fight. "This ends now!"
The inside of 02's upper arms began to glow once again as he retracted his hands into his arms. He then aimed his arms turned gun barrels at his evil brother. 03 just aimed his blaster at 02 and replied, "That's what you think."
02 took a firm stance and shouted the name of his most powerful attack. "TWIN BLASTER!!!"
Once he fired off the massive blue blast of energy at the reprogrammed android, 03 shouted, "TRIPLE BUSTER!!!"
He then pulled the trigger and released three cork-screwing blasts at 02's attack. Both of the Kikaider androids soon found themselves locked in a power struggle. Mitsuko and Masaru came out to see the battle, and Mitsuko had a complete look of shock. "No! Niro!"
"Mitsuko, what's wrong?" Masaru asked.
"Niro's Twin Blaster is solar-powered! He won't be able to keep this up much longer!" she replied frantically.
Just as Mitsuko had predicted, 02's blast continued to get weaker and weaker. Soon the blast disappeared all together, and the three powerful beams came right at Kikaider 02. He screamed like never before as the attack sent him flying for an extremely long distance and did a critical amount of damage to his body. Once he landed on the ground face down, he reverted back into his human disguise. Kikaider 03 walked up to his fallen brother and said, "This is pathetic! I thought you were a lot stronger than that! I demand satisfaction!"
Niro could barely even manage to get himself up on all fours, but he did it. However, he lifted up his head only to see 03's blaster barrel right in front of his face. Kikaider 03 just laughed and said, "Well, I guess you can't always get what you want. I still have enough energy for one more shot. If this is how it's going to be, then so long, Big Bro."
As he was getting ready to pull the trigger, he heard something in the distance shout out, "WOLF BEAM!!!"
Although his etched smile was permanent, Kikaider 03 was still completely surprised when he turned to see an energy blast coming right for him. The attack caught him off guard and sent him flying right into a tree. Niro looked up from where he was and saw the android Gold Wolf. "Niro, are you okay?"
"Gold Wolf! It's not safe here!" Niro cried out.
Gold Wolf still approached Niro, but he was soon sucker-punched by an oncoming Kikaider 03. "You traitor! You ruined my moment of glory!"
"Don't celebrate just yet! You still have me to deal with!" Gold Wolf replied.
Kikaider 03 laughed and said, "You? This will be quick."
Gold Wolf fired off his tail missiles at 03, but the evil red and blue android blasted his way through them, uppercut Gold Wolf, and fired off his last shot at the former Night android. Niro watched in horror as the blast struck his friend's chest and came out through the back. "GOLD WOLF!!!"
Gold Wolf fell to the ground, and 03 transformed into Sano. "Dang! That was my last shot. We'll finish this some other time, Big Bro."
Sano summoned his Crimson Angel and drove off. Niro crawled to his friend. Jiro, Mitsuko, and Masaru made it to the scene and watched them. Gold Wolf turned to Niro and said, "Niro...I don't have...much time left..."
Tears were beginning to form in his eyes. "Don't talk like that. You're going to be okay."
Gold Wolf continued slowly, "Listen to me. Destroy Night...whenever you're ready...Stop them...Stop your brother...And remember...being human...isn't knowing the difference between...right and wrong...it's knowing the difference...and doing wrong...anyway..."
All artificial life that Gold Wolf had had vanished. There was a long hush over the tragic scene except for Niro's crying. "They won't get away with this. I won't let them," he quietly said to himself.
Then he made a vow that he never thought he would make in his entire life. "Sano...I'll find you...and the next time I see you...I will kill you."
A/N: Sorry for the long update, but I hope the quality of this chapter makes up for it. Once again, thank you for all the reviews. Please keep sending them on over!