Gofu! Gofu!

Hiromu is still coughing and breathing heavily. He occasionally coughs up blood as well. That's the risk of fighting in that...state. He pushes himself too hard, and gets muscle tearing, bone damage, and obviously loss of energy. Looking at him now, the bleeding, both on and under his skin, is mostly self induced. His skin is slightly charred.

If he pushed himself any harder, he might have killed himself with his own injuries.

I look around the room. Claire's spore clouds have cleared, leaving the three of us and a severely injured Jonathan alone.

Wait...

"Rip!?" I yell. "RIP!! Where are you!?"

Gofu! Gofu!

"Did you see Ripperu leave, Claire!?" I ask.

She shakes her head, rubbing Hiromu's back, as he coughs up more blood.

(Hiromu couldn't have been that observant in his previous state. Oh, Rip...where are you? And at the worst possible time!)

Hiromu is clearly unable to continue fighting, and I'm pretty injured as well. And while Claire can still fight, she cannot fight all by herself at the risk of her spores' symptoms getting to her.

Kun! Kun! Kun! Kun!

I sniff the air, hoping to pick up her scent.

Sadly, the remaining spores in the room make that difficult.

I let out a sigh, then walk over to Jonathan. He's grabbing onto his injured shoulder with his other arm and fighting the pain. However, his heavy breathing and his inability to retreat with his gang implies that he also doesn't have the strength to fight.

"Where is the control room?" I ask threateningly.

"Go...to Hell..."

"Wrong answer."

I grab him by the throat, toss him into the air...

Then constrict him with my anaconda form.

"We don't have time for this!" I hiss.

Jonathan grits his teeth in agony.

I slowly squeeze tighter.

"Sigka, wait!" Claire says as she helps Hiromu to his feet.

I loosen my grip slightly.

"What now?" I ask.

Claire walks over to Jonathan.

Fffffuuuuuu.....

And blows a small cloud of spores over him.

And...he seems to be in less pain!

"What're you doing!?" I hiss.

Claire looks into Jonathan's eyes.

"Feeling better?" she asks.

"N...no..." he weakly replies. "How...could I? I...failed...my family...twice..."

Curious, I loosen my grip even more.

"My brother...my only family...died at the hands...of 'Rapid Pistol'. He died...in the skirmish...that took your 'Hiro's'...family. I devoted my life...to avenging him...ever since. I needed the power...to defeat my brother's killer. That's when...I joined the mob... Became a part...of their family. My only family... They say the Kyusen...fights to protect...the peace. But I fought with your kind...during the war. And I had nothing...left to return to!"

Claire remains silent, then looks at me.

"Release him." she says.

...

I obey, then revert back to my human form. Jonathan falls to the floor.

"Sympathizing with the enemy will only cause complications." I state.

"Our enemy is Hunter." Claire retorts. "And those who follow her."

"Then why?"

She helps Jonathan to his feet.

"It's because you don't follow her, do you?"

?

"I...have to...repay my debts. My...family's debts."

"Surely..." Hiromu starts to say, "You don't believe that snake."

Gofu! Gofu!

"Even I can tell that you're sick of fighting." he continues.

Hiromu slowly extends his open hand to Jonathan.

"I'm sorry." Hiromu says. "We both...lost our families. And...we both became monsters in the pursuit of vengeance. But understand this...you fight for your new family, and I fight for mine. Oren is part of the Keisetsu. Part of our family. A family you were once part of. I won't ask for forgiveness... But I will ask you to understand. Please...help us save our family...and we'll try our best to save yours."

Jonathan starts preparing a strike. I attempt to interfere, but I'm too slow!

Jonathan thrusts his hand towards Hiromu's heart...

But stops within a few centimeters...and begins to cry.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!! Why!? It was so much easier...when you were a monster!"

Hiromu weakly smiles, grabs Jonathan's charged hand in his own, and holds it tightly despite the pain.

Zazazazazaza!

(We're running out of time!)

I pick up Jonathan and carry him on my back. I look at the nearest door near the turrets' control panel and kick it down.

BATAN!

We continue down a corridor.

Jonathan reflects on his memories working in the Kyusen. Memories of Hisao and Katsumi. Their friendship. Their trust.

The bonds Claire, Hiromu, and I seem to share.

(Maybe...) Jonathan thinks. (Some things in the Kyusen haven't changed.)

"Please..." Jonathan starts. "Stop this. Don't...hurt my family, and...I'll cooperate."

I pause and think.

"Deal." I say.

Following his instructions, we eventually make it to the control room. It was surprisingly well hidden behind a makeshift stone wall that I doubt I would have been able to sniff out.

BATAN!

I kick the door off its hinges, barely missing the two yakuza members managing the computer.

"Aaaaaawwwww..." Hiromu whines. "I wanted you to do a 'Here's Jonny!' reenactment! We've got the character and everything!"

I refrain from saying "Shut up, Hiro!", transform into an anaconda, and quickly slither into the room and constrict the two workers. I toss them over towards Claire, who sprays some spores their way.

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonathan and Hiromu are laid down on one side of the room while Claire restrains the others.

I turn back into a human, walk over to the keyboard and begin typing rapidly.

Katakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakata!

"Who's typing?" one of the workers, now blind, asks.

"Wait! It's that animal tone!" the other one, also blind, replies.

I continue typing away at the computer. The firewalls here are surprisingly easy to break through.

Katakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakata!

Jonathan looks at me in surprise, but the two yakuza members only laugh.

Katakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakata!

"You can't be serious!?" one says. "Everybody knows animal tones are too stupid to even solve the most basic of puzzles, let alone code! You're even dumber than I thought!"

Hiromu isn't healthy enough to focus on hacking, Claire can't code, and Jonathan doesn't look like he can move much, so yes, I'm the only one who can hack this terminal aside from those two naysayers.

I stop typing.

"The gray parrot." I say.

"Huh?" one of the two blinded men asks.

"The chimpanzee."

They remain silent in confusion.

"The rainforest elephant, and the gorilla. Four animals in the African tropical rainforest habitat during the First Age with relatively high IQs."

I start typing faster than before.

Katakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakatakata!!

Within seconds, I create programs with many lines of code.

"Sorry to break it to you." I say as I turn to them. "But that stereotype..."

Kata!

I press the ENTER key.

"."

In seconds, all the security devices that were still active on screen shut down.

"Doesn't apply to me." I continue.

Hiromu smiles. I hope he's proud. He is my mentor after all.

I turn to the screens and see Yamiso and Tamashi advancing.

(Now the rest is up to them.) I think.

"Claire! Get Hiromu out, then come back and tend to the injured!"

"What?" ask the two gangsters.

"As soon as we secure Togo, we're leaving!"

Jonathan looks towards the screens, then falls silent.

"Forget us." he says.

"Seriously?"

"You don't understand." he continues. "You're running out of time."