"It hurts, doesn't it?" he asked M.
"Yeah. A bit. Just like the time Tokunaga-san spilled her hot chocolate on me."
"Hehe. Why? You didn't laugh at her puns?"
"Nah. She didn't see Shimizu-san and she tripped over."
"Ooooh! Burrrrrrnnnn! Hahaha!"
"I heard that M!" H shouted.
"Sorry. I just had to say that. Hehe."
"But enough of that. Do you want to know something that will hurt more?"
"What?"
"When I cut your head off."
Ichiro dashed towards M but M was ready. He was able to parry the initial wave of Ichiro's flurry before he answered with a flurry of his own. Ichiro was able to parry them too. Ichiro tried to counter with a knee but M vanished and appeared behind him. M unloaded a straight but Ichiro vanished and appeared behind him, ready to strike. He hit M, but it was only an illusion, as M was already in the air, his hand was charged with electricity. In a split second, he headed straight for Ichiro but Ichiro was able to leap away in the nick of time. M's strike made a crater on the ground. Ichiro fired energy blasts into it before M could get out.
"I've seen that move before." Ichiro said as he kept on firing.
"Really? What about this?"
Ichiro stopped firing and looked above him. He looked at his side and he looked behind. He was surrounded.
"Do you think I'm afraid of your illusions? Think again brat! Come on!" Ichiro grinned as he put down his guard.
One of the "illusions" started attacking Ichiro. It aimed for Ichiro's face. Ichiro just smiled as he waited for it to connect.
His smile was erased once he got hit. It hurt him. He punched the "illusion" that just hit him but it vanished into thin air.
The taste of blood in his mouth made him realize that those were not measly illusions. One of them was able to damage him. And there were at least 50 more of them.
Ichiro released his aura and his body was covered by it. He took a fighting stance as the "illusions" began their assault...
"Wow! Pervy-kun's really strong! Maybe I shouldn't have teased him about his open fly before!" exclaimed Reina.
"Yeah. We should have been nicer to him." added Sayu.
"You can tease him all you want, Michishige-san. M's a good sport. You can call him whatever you like, just don't say anything bad about Niigaki-san." D told them.
"Don't worry Tanaka-san, Michishige-san. It's not in M's nature to hurt girls. You may think of him as lewd, but he's not like that. He's a... how should I say it...a gentleman? Hehe." added K.
"Maybe that's why the kids like hanging around with him." Ai said.
"Whee! It's like watching Dragonball Z!"
"You can see them, Kamei-san?" S asked her.
"Of course. Why? Can't you?" she said as she looked at the other girls. They looked at her with 'eh' looks and shook their heads. "What?"
"C...Can Michii-kun win?" Risa asked as she looked Dan.
"I know you’re worried for him but I'm going to be honest with you. I do not know. I do not know, Niigaki-san. Ichiro has changed since the last time I saw him and I do not know what else he is capable of. But M, he does some unexpected things. He's different. No. He's special. Not just because of his Frame."
"Yes. Michii-kun is special..."
Suddenly they heard an explosion from where Ichiro was standing earlier. The blast destroyed the illusions and M was thrown to the ground. All they could see was a black, spherical barrier, which slowly disappeared as Ichiro became visible. His arms were bruised and his lips bled. But he had that 'you started it, I'll finish it' smile on his face.
"Ichiro's eyes..."
"What about them, Aya-san?" Risa asked.
"Both of them are blue now."
"Shit!" exclaimed Dan. "That means his Zero-Tolerance mode has activated!"
"Zero-what?" asked R.
"It's something similar to Dynamic Guardian mode. However, once in this state, you will have no control of your actions. Your only objective is obliterate whatever stands in your path."
"That's bad, right?" Sayu asked.
"You can say that. If he defeats M, we're all done for. Now let's just hope M can stand for three minutes."
"Three minutes?"
"Yes. Unlike Dynamic Guardian mode, Zero-tolerance has a time limit. It was implemented as a last resort. We never thought that there would be a situation that Ichiro would use it, hence the time limit."
"So that's what that chip was for." Tezuka said.
"What chip?" Dan asked.
"When I was fixing him, the very first he asked me to do was to remove this small, blue chip from his frame and erase some values from his registry."
"What does that mean, Dan?" D asked.
"It means that now, his Zero-tolerance mode has no time limit." S answered. "Get ready guys. M might need our help."
Before M could stand up, Ichiro ran towards him and hit his face with a knee. While M was knocked back, Ichiro grabbed his leg and slammed him on the ground. M bounced off it and Ichiro kicked him up to the air. Ichiro buried his hands in the ground then took them out, covering his fists with large chunks of earth. He jumped into the air and slammed his fists onto M. He followed it with a foot stomp, sending M back to the ground. Once they landed, Ichiro stomped M a few more times before he mounted him and punched him repeatedly. M was able to block some of the punches but Ichiro's savage attack was able to destroy his guard in no time. The other Guardians dashed to help M but Ichiro blasted them away with energy beams. Ichiro proceeded to pummel M. After a few blows, M started to lose consciousness. Ichiro grabbed M by the red scarf and continued punching him.
"What a cheap scarf, probably as cheap as the one who gave it to you. Hehe." Ichiro said.
"What did you just say?" M asked.
"You didn't hear it? Alright. I said your scarf's cheap, just like Niigaki!"
Another punch was about to land on M's face but he caught it with his hand and crushed Ichiro's fist. Ichiro let go of the scarf and stepped back. Even if his hand started to regenerate, he was writhing in pain. He attempted to kick M but M was able to punch him first, sending him a few feet away. After his hand was fully regenerated, he attacked M again. M ducked and punched Ichiro in the stomach. Ichiro backed away and looked . The area that M punched was caved in.
"You called Gaki-san cheap. I won't forgive you."
"She's not just cheap, you know." Ichiro answered. He charged and released his entire black aura and contained it in his hand. M did the same and covered his right hand with his red aura. Ichiro started walking slowly than ran full speed towards M as M did the same. They clashed. Now they were a few meters away from each other, with their backs turned.
"Who won?" Reina asked.
"I dunno." Eri answered.
"But you could see them when they were fighting earlier, right?"
"Yeah. But my eyes got tired." Eri said as she kept blinking rapidly.
M dropped on his knees and started to cough out some blood. Ichiro turned around and started to laugh but he stopped when he placed his hands on his side. He just found out that a portion of his torso was missing. M then stood up and smiled at him.
"Bastard!!!" Ichiro yelled as he charged his aura again and fired an energy wave at M.
"I was waiting for that hehe." M said as he placed his hands together. "KA-ME..."
"Eh? Kamehameha?" Risa said.
"He's a Saiya-jin?!" Added Reina.
"See. He's not only a robot. He'a also an alien." Eri told them.
"...HA-ME..."
"Cyborg, Kamei-san. We're cyborgs." S corrected her.
"Go M! Go M! Fight, fight, fight!" D and Sayu said as they held each other's hands.
"Eeww!" Reina told them.
"Ichiro..."
"...HA!!!!!"
M's kamehameha devoured Ichiro's energy wave. Ichiro could not dodge it anymore so he blocked it. At first it seemed that he was successful at stopping it, the kamehameha only pushed him back. Ichiro started to move forward but M added more energy to keep him away but he kept moving forward.
"Is that all you've got M?"
"I told you before, I have a Son Goku complex." having said that M disappeared from where he was and reappeared behind Ichiro. "KAMEHAMEHA!!!!"
Ichiro was caught between two kamehamehas. The one behind him exploded once it made contact. The one in front exploded soon after.
The entire area was covered by smoke. The others could see a silhouette of someone standing.
"He did it." said Ai.
"No. That's Ichiro." R answered.
R was right. As the smoked cleared, it was indeed Ichiro who was standing. However, one of his arms was blown off and now, his entire frame was almost exposed. The only part of him left unscathed was his face. He dropped on his knees as M slowly approached him.
"Pervy-kun did it! He beat him!" Reina said as she embraced Risa.
"I guess he did." a teary-eyed Risa answered.
"Whew! That was close." said Eri as she tried to feel out her handkerchief from her pockets.
"Here you go, Kamei-san." S said as he handed her a handkerchief.
"He did it! He did it!" D and Sayu shouted as they jumped together.
"Could you two cut it out?" Reina scolded them.
"Tss. M really did it, huh. Hehe. Now he's surely gonna rub it in." H said.
"He's strong, Aniki. He's stronger than us."
"That's what happens when you have a strong desire to protect someone. You risk everything you have, not thinking of anything, even the consequences. We should learn from him boys." R said.
"In the end, the one you least expect to do it saves us all. At least there wasn't a hostage-taking situation chapter here."
"Hostage-taking situation? What do you mean Dan?" Tezuka asked.
"Well, you see, there are things that are always present in stories, like flashbacks, jumping the shark, return of former love interests, lovers quarrels, you know those kinds of stuff. I think the writer nailed at least two from the ones I said."
"Both of us are products of the writer jumping the shark, aren't we?"
"I dunno. Maybe?"
"Huh? Where is Aya?"
M stopped in front of Ichiro. "Now for the finishing technique..." He put out his index and middle fingers.
"Bakusai Tenketsu!!!" he shouted as he aimed for Ichiro's forehead. Ichiro closed his eyes as it hit. He wondered why nothing has happened yet, why he was still alive.
"Gotcha! Bakusai Tenketsu can't be used on people, you know. Didn't you watch Ranma 1/2?" M said as he started to walk away. Ichiro spoke when M was a few steps away.
"You won already and you have every right to gloat so what are you waiting for? Kill me!" M stopped and went back to him. "Kill me!!!"
"You really want to die?" he said as he put out his palm into the Big Bang Attack position.
"Stop! Don't kill Ichiro! Please."
It was Aya. She went between them, trying to shield Ichiro from M.
"A...Aya...don't..."
"Please. Don't do it. I beg you."
"No need to do that Matsuura-san." M said as he put his hands down. "I'm not like him. I don't kill people." he added as he turned his back and started to walk towards the others.
"Thank y..."
Before Aya could finish, Ichiro shoved her and impaled M with his hand. His hand went through his chest. After he pulled it out, he fired Macross-esque death beams towards the others.
Tezuka advanced and created a barrier to attract all the death beams to it. It was successful but the beams penetrated the barrier and punched holes into his body.
"I...Ichiro. How could you?" Aya said as she wept.
"Tsk tsk. Why did you let your guard down? You should have finished me when you had the chance, M. Now I'm going to kill you before you can recover." Ichiro said as he grabbed M by the hair.
"Y...you bastard!"
Ichiro prepared to chop off M's head but he felt something warm on his forehead. He let go of M as he tried to look for the source of the heat.
"Oh shit!"
Suddenly, his head exploded. His body exploded afterwards. The one who did it made sure that not even a shadow of Ichiro would be left.
"You're too violent." BoA said.
"You shouldn't have let your guard down too."
"M...Miki?"
"No one survives the Death Glare."
"Was that necessary, Miki-tan?" Aya asked her.
"YES!" all of the others said in unison.
"I guess I should go back now." BoA said as she pressed something on her wrist.
"Won't you need repairs, BoA-san?" Dan asked.
"Nah. You've done enough already. Fujimoto-san, take care of Ayaya okay. Bye." After saying that, BoA vanished into thin air.
"You don't have to tell me that." Answered Miki. "Hey, how come my chest is exposed?" she said as she looked at the Guardians who were all pointing at Dan.
"I'm not the in-house doctor…"
"Michii-kun!" Risa shouted as she ran to him. Blood continually flowed out from the hole in his chest. "Hang on. Don't leave us."
"Don't cry, Gaki-san. This is what I was made for. My duty has been fulfilled. Soon they will erase everything about me from your memory. Don't waste your tears on me"
"I won't allow them to do that. And I'm not going to let you die! Mister in-house doctor, please help him. He's losing a lot of blood."
"He's not the in-house doctor, Gaki-san." Sayu told her.
"He's not the only who will be leaving, Kamei-san."
"What are you saying, Shingo-kun?"
"Now that Ichiro has been defeated, we serve no purpose." K answered.
"So you're saying that they're going to erase our memories and get rid of you guys too? Like I'd let them!" Reina said furiously.
"I will live." Tezuka said as he lay on the ground. "No vital parts were severely damaged. Go, help M."
"Alright." Dan said." H and H2, go help Tezuka and take him back to the van. "Wait for me M."
"Hang on Michii-kun. Don't leave me. Who's going to guard me when I'm going to do the Alo-Hello?"
"It's.....it's..... fine Gaki-san. If I ever was going to die, I....I... would have wanted....to....die...in your...arms........."
"Michii-kun? Michii-kun? Don't scare me like that. I...I...lo..."
"I....l...like you too, Gaki-san...."
"Michii-kun..."
"..."
"Michii-kun!!!"
"What about the baby?"
"Baby?"
"Our baby?"
"What baby?"