The air cleared with a massive, bone rattling boom. Even if the glass chamber that enclosed them was quite spacious, the sound echoed in that confined space to such a degree Junko thought her eardrums might burst. She slid herself backwards as much as possible until her heels were right at the edge of the platform, and held her sword out in anticipation of some kind of follow-up.

A resounding shockwave surged out from the center of the platform as the concussive blast blew the dust away. Reverberating after the shock came the noise of sundered rock clattering down from above. Junko didn’t take her eyes off the unseen target in front of her, but it was clear that shattered stonework was crumbling down from the hole overhead after the explosion, likely filling the chute with impassable debris. The traces of smoke still whirling around her face made it hard to take deep breaths and keep her eyes wide open, so Junko forced herself to breathe in slowly and keep her eyes narrowed. Sahori kept her pointed tip aimed right at the yet to be revealed.

Gekko’s voice resonated out first before the smoke could completely clear. He was clasping his ears but the dirty expression on his face showed at least one sign of positivity. Junko could barely make him out over the ringing in her ears. “General Gounomouno!”

Around them the circus of luminescent jellyfish, their glow bent into strange shadows by the rotating glass, colored the whole scene into feverish light.The black soot settled and Junko saw who now landed in their midst. It wasn’t Daisuke, but in a way seeing that frightening man would have been preferred. At least she was familiar with that brand of asshole. Instead stood a towering, almost statuesque figure, looming an entire head taller than even the sizable Junko. The clothes he wore, apart from looking somewhat moist, stood up in crisp juxtaposition to the still deteriorating rags that hung over Junko and Gekko’s shoulders. The blues and grays along the sleeves looked like Gekko’s Annitou uniform used to, before the jungle got to it. Here stood every bit the image of an Annitou shoulder; worst of all, the bear of a General looked well rested and in top physical form. Next to him Gekko looked positively minuscule. The man’s massive build was only accentuated by the custom modified cannon he held up one-handed, which still smoldered from the blast he fired up into the roof. As if that wasn’t enough the Annitou General carried an enormous barrel across his back as well. For a brief moment Junko thought it looked like a cask of wine. If only she could be so lucky.

Gou moved as though his cannon and his cargo weighed next to nothing, lowering his weapon to lock his cold eyes right on Kiku-ichimonji Junko.

This was the first time Junko ever laid eyes on the famous General Gounomonou and his reputation as a sea monster did not disappoint. Even the full length of Sahori might not have been capable of severing his limbs, so thick around the muscle clung to his intimidating frame. When Gou breathed it was like the releasing of air from a geyser, and as he spoke his rumbling baritone seemed to shake the glass walls surrounding them as much as the cannon blast had. “Move an inch, Kiku-ichimonji Junko, and I’ll smear you across the wall like a cockroach.”

“General Gou!” Gekko sputtered, coughing out some inhaled debris. “It’s- look! Look at this!” The boy gestured with the dagger towards various spots in the chamber. “Read the- it’s all lined out! This thing- the tower, it’s a weapon, it’s going to wipe out Annitou and the island! We can shut it down though!”

Gou’s hard eyes turned down at the cadet at his feet. Junko couldn’t understand what was happening, but Gekko appeared to have already processed his commander’s thought processes. “I know- I know why you ordered everyone to kill me! I get it! I’m not upset by it!”

“You,” the man’s sizable muscles rippled as he effortlessly brought his cannon down to the boy’s level, “are responsible for the weapon being activated again, are you not?”

“I mean- yeah, but come on!” Gekko remained on his knees, the pleading clear in his voice. “I knew- you knew, this thing has to be destroyed! Garion was just trying to destroy it! Everyone has the same goals, here!”

“It doesn’t look very destroyed to me.”

“The- we’re working on it!” Gekko’s attention briefly flicked over towards the bewildered Junko, then resumed focusing on the man towering over him. “I can’t read all the Bossa in here, but you came because you are looking for the answer too, aren’t you? You want to shut it down too! There’s no reason to kill me now- or Junko-we can just- if you just help-”

Gou’s free arm reached back into the barrel-shaped storage on his back, where from it he plucked a very familiar looking cylinder and a pitch black iron cannonball. Junko tensed up as she recognized the gunpowder charge. Was that maniac carrying an entire ship’s worth of ammo on his back? “If you understand that much, Cadet Gekko, you must understand why I’m here.”

“Too...” Gekko trailed off. The boy’s smart mouth didn’t seem to connect the dots for once. “...you’ve been trying to hide the weapon from Annitou. That’s why you wanted me dead, so Garion couldn’t find it. I get it. I get it! I’m not mad about it! It makes sense! But now it’s here, the weapon is here, so you should want to destroy it.” Streaks of sweat could be seen running off Gekko’s dirt covered face. “You and I both know it can’t be allowed to exist. That’s...”

“That is precisely right.” Gou very slowly and deliberately loaded the cannon with the charge. Junko couldn’t decipher the man’s body language at all. She was used to reading the movements of people in battle, but her experience extended mostly to the chaos of warfare. A one man artillery force like General Gou was something she possessed zero ability to decipher. Gou’s mountainous voice continued. “And if we break it- if we shatter it to pieces right here, you believe that would be enough to stop it.”

A brief moment of relief spread on Gekko’s face. “Yeah! Yeah, that’s exactly it! We’ll break it, and-”

“-and the pieces will still exist.” Gou took his eyes off his cannon to stare back down at the tiny child. “Pieces can be put together. Even if we buried every fragment of this tower, some remnant of it would leak out and get back to the rest of the world. The nation of Garion found out about this structure through nothing but their spies- Metsina and Fenshingiri were hunting after this weapon without even understanding what it was. If it exists in any form, it poses a danger to the whole world.”

“Ah.” Gekko let out the word with a little breath, like he didn’t want to agree but was finding it hard to accept his leader’s words. “I, I mean, we can- we can be thorough! Like the Annitou anthem says, with loyalty and devotion anything is possible!”

“Exactly right again, Cadet Gekko.” General Gou leveled the cannon right at Junko. Even though she saw it coming she made no motion to get out of the way. She felt some enormous weight holding in her place, like every word the man had said was anchoring her to the platform. Where could she even run to? This room only had one way out, and it was up on the ceiling. And that one escape was now plugged up with rocks! “So we will wait here, and let the Jinchi weapon perform its job. When it fires, the island will disappear from this world again, eradicating the tower and all its secrets from the planet for another thousand years. This is our duty as loyal citizens of Annitou, and our responsibility to the world.”

Even breathing became difficult. Gekko once again looked to be at a complete loss for words, as if his well of arguments had run dry. Had the boy anticipated this? Had Motonubu? Everyone seemed to have a death wish now, and unfortunately Junko found herself surrounded by fanatical soldiers who didn’t even value their own life. Her hands holding Sahori did not tremble, but her heartbeat pounded uncharacteristically hard. Even maintaining her posture was becoming a struggle. She was wrong- General Daisuke’s presence felt nothing like this. The rock steady glare of General Gou filled her body with a completely unnatural hesitation. Was he right? Should she just accept that everyone was going to die, but it was for a good cause? Some doubt still lingered in her head if the weapon would even work- it was a thousand years old! What if Motonubu was wrong? What if nothing happened!

“You’re bloody mental.” Junko hissed, trying to force the words out of her mouth. They tumbled out heavier than she would have liked. “This all could have been avoided if you hadn’t kept secrets like an idiot.”

“I won’t be shamed by a criminal.” Gou tilted his nose up. “What does a dishonored bodyguard for a country that values wealth more than anything know about sacrifice? You sold your soul when you dragged a child into this out of pure greed.”

“At least I didn’t try to murder the kid!” Junko wheezed, the rage momentarily providing her voice with strength. “Acting like you’re so much better- how many children does your beloved country send into harm's way without protection, again? I can count one in this room!”

“Cadet Gekko chose to be here.”

“Bullshit!” Junko spat, but it came out more like a spray. “You turn children into tools of your state, and have the nerve to act like you’re so righteous. I’m a terrible person!” Junko struggled to raise up her sword. “But at least I only dragged one kid into this! How many are you about to slaughter to let this infernal tower go off?”

“You cannot think clearly because of your history.” Gou’s brow furrowed, and his chest heaved. “I have done my best to keep these children from getting involved. I have even lied to the Annitou Generals on our mainland, to keep them from sending any more Bossa speakers. I sinned to keep the people here safe from Jinchi’s ancient secrets. But every action I’ve taken was for a greater good.” Gou raised up his free hand from the cannon and rested on its rear. “It is regrettable, Kiki-ichimonji Junko, that you bear the sin of your sisters’ deaths so heavily. Surely you can appreciate, that if they were given the choice, they would have preferred to die for a proper cause, and not to some random act of violence like bandits-”

Despite the enormous strain it put on her, Junko shifted her stance, bringing Sahori up into a striking position. She couldn’t process why her muscles pushed so hard to perform an action so simple, but maybe this was the end of her rope. Constant, unrelenting activity for this long finally pushed her physique to the limit. Even the best soldiers couldn’t fight forever.

Even so Junko took a stuttering step forward, and Gou responded in turn. With exactly the opposite amount of effort he easily flicked his arm across the top of the cannon, and lit a spark across his fingernails. Only a short wick poked out of the cannon, which lit immediately with Gou’s well practiced motion. She stared straight down into black abyss behind his cannon’s barrel. Among the swordsmen clans of the City of Kings, there were rumors that some of the most skilled could bisect a bullet from the older types of firearms. Allegedly Daisuke managed to do such a feat to a cannonball- but only aided by his superhuman jutsu. Junko possessed nothing but the thin edge of her blade. While her sword would definitely survive an impact, the fleshy squishy human parts holding it, maybe not so much. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Gou’s cannon would make true his promise to smear her against the wall.

Junko pushed forward anyway. Being wrong or unmatched never stopped her before. All those arguments didn’t matter. What mattered was what she felt right then- that dying for what she believed was more important than living with something she didn’t.

The cannon exploded and its gut churning wave of sound blasted out around Gou. Junko couldn’t even track the cannonball with her eyes. In one moment a cloud of black smoke erupted outward, and in the next it was blown out in a ring around the cannon’s mouth. From the sound alone she knew there was no chance of it not obliterating her in her tracks, and from this distance an experienced professional like General Gou wouldn’t miss. The cannon would annihilate exactly what it was aimed at and there was nothing Junko could do to stop it.