chapter 47: Trouble in Tokyo II

The four stood there, shocked by the sudden turn of event, and watched as Grundy turned around to look at a terrified Daizo. Even the present Self Defense personnel stopped firing, just as amazed, their choppers eve flying back when they realized who it was.

"Hello there." The unded giant said. Despite them facing his back, Ayame somehow knew that Grundy was smiling.

"I-I don't fear you!" Brushogun said, trying to put a brave face even as he stuttered. Hell, Ayame could even see him shake with fear. "You're just some freak that Doom Slayer took in to make an attack dog! I've faced worse! Nah, screw that, I've made worse!"

Grundy merely rolled his shoulders, making loud cracks as his enormous arms moved. Again, Ayame was sure he was smiling. "Is that so, inky? Care to prove it?"

Before Brushogun could say anything, long, thick roots bursted through the pavement around the building, and grabbed then threw him at Grundy, who promptly grabbed him with one of his huge fists before slamming him against the ground. Brushogun managed to free himself and turn his arms into weapons, however, then making himself himself as big as Grundy, turning what could have been a quick beatdown into a prolongued fight.

All the while, the four protectors of Tokyo watched from afar.

"Holy crap!" Mecha exclaimed as both monsters fought. "Are you guys seeing this?!"

None of the three deigned to respond, being just as amazed at this. Grundy, of all people, helping them? Granted, Ayame was confident they could have taken on Daizo by themselves, even without the aid of the JSDF, but still, his help was pretty much welcome as far as she cared.

But then she looked at Pausanias. She couldn't see his face, but something told her he wasn't happy at the sight of Grundy.

"So, does this mean we can go after the others?" Mecha asked, probably thinking he was voicing what the others were. "I mean, they're getting away aren't they?"

"After this?" Saico replied. "Hundreds of people are still trapped, and I doubt the Self Defense Force will be able to help them in time."

"Yeah, but you have to admit we can't just let them get away after all of this either." Mecha retorted.

Pausanias didn't even bother to look at them. "Mecha and Ayame, you're the fastest ones. Go after them and take them down, doesn't matter how. Saico, try and see if you can help the civilians. I'll stay here and see if I can... help Grundy."

Both Saico and Mecha nodded and ran towards the three villains had run off, Mecha hoping to catch them before they could either cause more damage or find a way to escape the city, while Saico-Tek

Ayame, however, stood in place. The others may have not noticed his suddenly changed demeanor, but she had, and not just due to the fact she'd been living with him for several weeks.

"Pausanias?" She asked.

Pausanias glanced at Ayame, but didn't say anything. However, even though the helmet obscured his face and made it hard to see his eyes, Ayame knew that Pausanias was very, very angry despite the fact that everything was going well.

"Pausanias?" Ayame called once more, more urgently this time.

She could see his shoulders shake as he looked back at the fight. Months of bottled up frustration threatened to come out all at the same time, even though the man himself wasn't there.

"I thought I asked you to go with Mecha."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong with you!" Ayame shot back. A childish response, perhaps, but under her circumstances she couldn't think of anything better.

"I'm... not okay, Ayame."

Ayame scoffed at his reply. "That's pretty obvious, isn't it?"

Rather than reply directly, the greek instead turned to look at her right in the eyes. Her anger evaporated when she saw his eyes. Not angry, not sad, nor a combination of both... but rather, something else altogether she couldn't understand.

"Look at him." Pausanias said as he looked back at the fight, specifically at Grundy. "Beating the life out of Daizo like nothing. It reminds me of that day. Reminds me of my helplessness against Daizo."

"I wasn't exactly able to make him bleed, you know." Ayame retorted, remembering the ease with which the seemingly human cop parried her attacks.

"Yes, but you can cope with that. You haven't trained your entire life to fight, only for your first real scuffle being against a freak of nature you can't hurt." Pausanias replied. Ayame had to bite her tongue to not reply to him basically insulting her, knowing he was too being tough on himself, actually even more. "And then this other guy, the one that inspired you to go out to the world, and makes short work of said freak with stupid ease, but refuses to kill the bastard despite what he has done even though right until then he has made a name for himself as a killer of monsters, both human and inhuman." He then looked back at her. "Then there's the fucking fact he can go everywere on the planet, yet he barely does so. And every time, every time I see him come out of his portals I don't just remember the fight, but everything else. It hasn't happened a lot, but..." He tightened his hold on his weapons, causing his knuckles to whiten. "Sometimes I think I'd be better off with my sword in my guts"

Ayame's eyes widened in horror. Pausanias had been bottling up his anger, frustration and self-shame for several months, to the point of considering suicide... and yet had kept it to himself. And she had never caught on it. "You should have told me!"

"I didn't want to trouble you, not with everything that was happening. You and the family had it worse than me, remember?"

"Yes, but that got sorted in just a week or so! You've been keeping it in for three months!" She exclaimed. "And I didn't even think of killing myself! What would your family think if you had gone through, uh?! Hell, what about me?!"

Pausanias shrugged. "I'd have gone to Elysium. I'd still be dead, and you angry and horrified, but at least you could visit me. Besides, I didn't pull through anyway."

"Still doesn't change the fact you thought of offing yourself, you jerk! And all that just out of resentment of Doom Slayer?!"

Pausanias opened his mouth to say something, but then both heard a victorious shout from Brushogun. It seemed that they had either overestimated Grundy's prowess or underestimted Brushogun's, because it looked like the latter had the upper hand; literally, given he had made himself into a giant once more, one nearly twice as big as Grundy was given the scale, and had grabbed the zombie, slamming him against the ground or nearby buildings. The military went back to the assault, but this time with more care, not wanting to hit Grundy despite knowing he could take it.

Ayame looked on with even wider eyes, if that could be possible. Solomon Grundy was peer to Superman and Doom Slayer. If Brushogun could do that to him, what else could she and Pausanias do? They could kill him, but so could he, and if he grabbed them they'd be dead and...

But then Pausanias, after looking at the fight, grunted in displeasure. "Pretty sure he's faking it."

Ayame looked at him, bewildered by his response. "'It'?"

The greek gestured at the fight "Being tossed around by Brushogun. Believe me, someone who can take on Superman and who seems to be seen by Slayer as an equal shouldn't have any trouble with Daizo, much less if he can make trees sprout out of nowhere. He's got to be faking it. "

Ayame had to stop herself from smacking herself for not realizing it herself despite having done similar stunts herself before, and Pausanias for making her start to go crazy with his changes in mood and attitude. At the same time, he also became less... depressed? Suicidal? Pissed? Deep in an internal turmoil? She still wasn't sure. "If that's so, then why?"

"No idea, but the longer he lets that bastard live the more time he has to make a plan to escape and cause more havoc." Pausanias then made a sound akin to a huff. An angry one. "I have an idea, but it-"

"Spartan, Wolf Princess, stop mucking around and help me!" Grundy screamed at them before pummeling Brushogun's head in.

Ayame didn't believe what she heard. Pausanias too was astonished by his response, at least enough to forget he was angry-depressed. "Us?" He managed to sputter out.

"Only your weapons can kill this bastard!" Grundy replied, apparently not caring that Brushogun could hear him. "They are imbued with the powers of a god! My fists and plants can only do so much against someone without a solid body!"

"Shut up and die already you undead motherfucker!" Brushogun screamed before grabbing Grundy by the head, only to scream as several roots exploded from his feet.

"Us?" Ayame voiced outloud before a though struck her. If Grundy was feigning being in peril...

Pausanias made a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan. "I know what he actually wants. Say, do you?"

The yokai nodded. "I think I do, but I think it'll be better to just kill Daizo before he manages to actually escape from Grundy. Everything is possible."

Pausanias nodded at her response before hefting his sword. "I just don't care anymore, at least not until we kill that son of a bitch once and for all. You first."

Ayame nodded with a small grin before sprinting at the site of the fight, launching electricity at Brushogun as she did while being careful of not hitting Grundy. Each bolt of lightning hitting Brushogun's skin caused him to scream, but even though he couldn't heal the damage it didn't seem to do much. But that was fine, because the idea wasn't to fry him from outside, but by stabbing the swords through his skin and deliver enough voltage to power a building right to whatever passed for his brain. And that, of course, was simply the main plan. The second one was distract him so that Grundy could get away, even though he didn't seem to be harm in any way... and so that Pausanias, being much slower than her, could rush in and cut his right leg by the shin. The stump then promptly petrified, but this wasn't of great importance compared to making the titan fall on the ground.

"You think you and you bitch girlfriend can take on me, you foreign bastard?! I'll kill you, then everyone make her watch as I liquidify her friends one by one!" Daizo roared as he tried to smash both of them, even though it was obvious he couldn't really follow on his threats and his rage didn't overcome his fear of dying, given the manic, terrified expression on his face. In fact, as this usually happened in stories, his threats only served to piss Ayame off.

"It's time you pay for your crimes, freak!" Ayame screamed back as she cut into his shoulder, causing Daizo to howl even higher as electricity sparked out of the wound. From her position she saw as Pausanias, apparently overcome with rage, was hacking away at Daizo's back, his frantic swinging causing pieces of petrified blobs to fly in the air. In fact, so focused he was that he didn't see several inky tendrils sprout around him until the last second, grabbing him by the legs, then arms.

"Gotcha Hercules!" Daizo managed to cackle through the pain as he dragged Pausanias into his body. "I'm going to enjoy melting the flesh off your bones, even if it kills me!"

"Pausanias!" Ayame called out.

Even more hands emerged and grabbed Spartan, who struggled as he hacked at them, but before Ayame could help him a large form jumped in and grabbed Pausanias. It was Grundy, who had jumped on Daizo's back and grabbed his torso to keep him down as he pulled Pausanias out of the blob, then throwing him at Daizo's head.

"Kill him, now!" Grundy shouted as he held an even more frantic Daizo (who by now had an idea of what could happen to tim) so he couldn't escape.

Pausanias grabbed Daizo's shaking head to keep it still, not to make the killing blow easier but so that the bastard could see as he and an approaching Ayame raised their weapons more clearly, to make clear to him he was going to die for real, and that he could do nothing to stop it. Then, as one, both screamed and thrusted their swords on Daizo's head.

Brushogun screamed in agony as the three blades stabbed his head, piercing through the inky flesh composing it. His screams then grew in intensity as lighting surged through his body and parts of his body began turning to stone, his head not being the first to suffer it despite it being where the magic came. Arcs of electricity surged through the titan's body, creating fumes of vaporized ink. All that was left of him was his head, frozen forever in a scream.

Or rather, some five seconds before Ayame put her leg on it and pressed until it cracked into rubble. The fight was officially over.

"Thanks for the help." Grundy said as he stood up and walked over to them. "I thought I'd be able to take him, but he was stronger than he seemed."

Ayame could see Pausaniass look up at the zombie, and despite the helmet she just knew he was anything but happy with him. She then looked around sadly, seeing the damage the fight had done to the area and the not-so-rare corpses in various states, even though she knew worse could had happened if they hadn't fought. And then there was the fact Grundy could have killed Daizo "I want to say thank you for helping us, but..."

Grundy, apparently knowing what she meant, nodded sadly. "I know."

Uehara Daizo was finally dead, but unfortunately he had taken hundreds with him.

Brushogun finally bites the dust. I think I've made the chapter too dramatic and convoluted, and the ending is rather crappy, but then, it's one of my (in)famous 'crap episodes because the author is busy yet refuses to stop'. As for Grundy's actions, it's something he thought that will be elaborated upon later, not that Slayer told him to do.