As I stared up at Daizo, and he at me, I couldn't help but feel that perhaps I had prolonged the situation for too long: he was terrified out of his wits, had proven himself to be unable to actually harm me, and even with my aid he nearly got the group. So, I decided to end it.
I jumped at him once more, only this time I wouldn't just push him to the ground. No, this time, I'd rip him out of his disgusting biomecha.
Made even easier due to the fact that, because of circumstances, his face was on his chest. And he screamed when I pounced at him.
I entered his open mouth, grabbed the real Daizo by the throat, and exited the back in a shower of black matter and ichor that had been that body's gore and blood respectively, had it been a flesh and blood creature.
Then, as we finally touched the ground, I began to strike him, slowly but surely, in a way that assured he wouldn't die. As for why did I do that, beat him without killing him, I did so to remind him that he never had any hope to stand against me.
None at all.
By the time I was finished with him, Daizo was still alive... and only alive: every bone below his neck turned to dust, left eye dangling from its eyesocked blood (actual blood, if black to the point it seemed like ink) pouring from every large orifice on him, uttering unitelligible moans of pain, and overall on the verge of death to the point a kick from a kid could end him, but alive nonetheless. Truly, a grisly sight, if the disgusted noises and the clear sounds of people vomiting coming behind me were anything to go by.
And yet, as already stated, he was still alive.
Of course, I could have killed him outright, but I didn't, because I would make sure to make his existence Hell... without even having to resort to torture. No, I would ruin his life, his reputation, his reason of existing, to the point he wished I had killed him outright.
Then, and only then, would he die. Or rather, he would be executed by the very same people he wanted to be respected, loved and admired by.
Sadly, the problem with this kind of things, making plans for yourself, is that most of the time only one person is aware of them, and that said plans could be ruined by people who had no idea of said planification, like a certain hoplite who wanted nothing but to kill Daizo and had the means to do so. It didn't take long for me to hear the familiar sound of a chainsaw cutting the air and over two hundred pounds of furious greek warrior running in my direction. Or, more specifically, at Daizo. Unfortunately, as much as I would have liked to see the man cut Daizo in half, I could not let him.
Fortunately, unlike most people in my situation, I knew exactly what to do to deal with the man.
Before the roaring blade could rip Daizo in half, I stopped it with my open hand, then grabbed it. Sparks flew as the blades met my armoed palm, and Pausanias growled as he tried to pull it from my hold, but I was simply too strong for him.
"Let go, dammit!" He growled as he pulled, but no matter how much strength he put into it, I simply didn't budge. "Let me kill this monster!"
My response was simple, blunt, and short.
"No."
Naturally he didn't like it one bit. He turned to snarl at me, never releasing the chainsaw. "Why not?!" He shouted. "Why the hell do you want to let this wretch to live, afte everything he's done?!" In truth, at that moment I didn't know what exactly did he do, but I've overheard his gloating as he tried to kill me and then chased after Ayame, and had an idea of his past actions. Besides, Daizo had been a bad guy in the cartoon, and his actions made clear this one wasn't any different from the cartoon.
As a matter of fact, he was much, much worse than the original. He had after all four hundred years to commit crimes. You'll see it later.
Plus, as I already told you, I wanted him to be killed by the japanese government, not me or a man that seemed to have come straight out of Platea. For that, I needed every last possible bit of information about him, not just recordings.
"Because if he dies now, there'll be no evidence of his crimes which, given what I saw, must be a lot. I simply don't know."
"We do!" I heard someone from the group say. It was the redhead I gave the plasma gun to, Ayame, who ran at us to stand next to Pausanias, the gun on her hands nowhere as angry as him but obviously not happy about me keeping Daizo alive, not just by the glare she directed at me but also because she had the weapon aimed at Daizo. "Damn it, YOU have to have seen him!"
I realized then that I knew neither hers nor his names "Name?" I asked her, earning a confused look. I clarified: "What's your name, girl?"
Her face hardened once more. "Ayame, just Ayame. He's Pausanias." She said as she gestured to him, still struggling.
"Ayame, I only saw him sending his monsters fight your friend, but I know he's a monster. Problem is, your country doesn't see him that way, at least not yet."
"Then we'll just tell them of how much of a freak this guy is!" One of the yokai exclaimed. "I mean, he set us up as murderers and basically tried to kill us to have good PR!"
Pausanias said nothing, busy as he was still trying to free the chainsaw from my hold, not even bothering to try and see if he could kill Daizo by himself, so angry he was.
"I'm perfectly aware of that, kid, but the people of Japan would take the side of a respected keeper of the peace over a bunch of creatures that, from their point of view, are man-eating creatures from legend, at least before revealing the truth, both about him and about your people. For that, I need answers, and to get those answers, I need him alive."
"But-" She said before I interrupted her with a raised hand.
"Do not misunderstand me, Uehara Daizo will die. But in the due time, and not at your hands, or mine for that matter." I then turned to look at Pausanias, who had long stopped pulling the chainsaw. "And you, stop pulling. I admire your bravery and determination, but believe, you just can't."
Pausanias glared at me for a moment, turned his head to look at the lying form of Daizo, and turned back to me.
"Besides, you seem to forget that this is my weapon, not yours." I reminded him before turning to Ayame, extending my free arm and opening my hand. "That reminds me..."
Knowing what I meant, the girl gave me the rifle back. After sending it back to hammerspace, I turned to look at Pausanias. His glare softened, he kept looking at me for several seconds before sighing and releasing the saw. The moment his fingers stopped curling around the handle, he closed his eyes and promptly fell to the ground in a heap. He did receive one helluva beating and lose quite a lot of blood, after all.
"Pausanias!" Ayame screamed as she dropped next to him. When he didn't respond, she panicked, and so did the others. "Say something you greek jerk!"
"Don't worry, he's just unconscious." I assured her as I retrieved the chainsaw. Still, she had every right to act like that. "The Fortress has the equipment to treat his wounds."
This caused the boy from before to perk up.
"Wait, the Fortress? You taking us to THE Fortress of Doom?!"
I nodded. I couldn't just leave the yokai and Pausanias there, not just because I didn't want to leave them in the middle of a forest, but also in case Daizo had someone or something following him. Plus, I also needed witnesses to corroborate Daizo's crimes, even though I had to prove some of them to prove the wolves innocence and to incrimnate him. So, I chose the most logical solution to the dilemma.
It also ended up solving one of the early problems I ran across for the Mars project: finding volunteers for the colonization project, and ones that actually had a reason to be AND stay in Mars despite the challenges. Again, you'll see them later.
"I cannot leave you here. Besides, eventually I will need people that have seen suffered at the hands of Daizo, in this case you, as witnesses for the courts."
Ayame looked at me with a concerned look, but not for Pausanias this time. "But the others..." She was, for course, referring to the rest of her tribe.
I had VEGA open two portals, one for us and the other for the rest of the tribe, who I knew would cross despite their fears.
"C'mon." I said as I shouldered Pausanias and grabbed Daizo by his foot. "Your family will be waiting."
..........
Several minutes later, after dropping Daizo in the Ripatorium for several reasons (the lack of proper holding cells, for the very unlikely case he became active once more, and because I thought a literal dungeon was quite fitting), I was carrying Pausanias to an improptu medical wing I told VEGA to make, with both Ayame and John in tow. The bewildered tribe, meanwhile, was being looked after by drones for anything they needed.
"Y'know, I understand why did you do it. You're a superhero after all, helping the helpless, but... Don't get me wrong, this is your castle, but it's gonna smell like a bloody kennel in the morning."
Ayame, having learned english, didn't like the brit's comment. "Look who's talking! The entire place smells like a bar during a soccer match, and someone forgot to open the windows!"
The Fortress' systems filtered oxygen from the outside, but could not exfiltrate certain elements out... like the smell of tobacco. It didn't bother me, and John was... well, John, but the tribe was another matter altogether, not helped by their enhanced smell.
John was omniglot and understood perfectly what she said, but being who he was he paid her no mind and ignored her comment. "You some landlord or something?"
"John, I couldn't leave them down there."
"I know, I know, you have a hidden heart of hold, you're supposed to do this kind of things from time to time. But where, exactly, do you plan on keeping them at? And feed them with? Drink's not an issue, of course."
He raised a good point: the Fortress, while large enough, was not designed to hold that many people. Plus, despite being from Tokyo, the tribe was not used to being indoors, or rather, being crammed inside a castle with no visible exit. The fact said castle was in Mars, despite the amazement they had at being the first earthlings (technically third, but theu didn't know that) who had set their feet on the Red Planet.
"The main hall will suffice. If everything goes well, they won't be staying here for more than a couple days." But for that I had to clear their names... and ruin Daizo's. "Go to the Ripatorium and prepare Daizo, I'm going in."
"You mean..." He asked as he tapped his head, earning a nod from me. He, of course, was talking about entering Daizo's memories. "You sure you can't just ask VEGA to stick a needle on Daizo's eyes and drain his brain?"
"He could try and forcibly hack his brain for everything of worth, or what might remain of it, but I want to see his past firsthand, and record it for all of Japan to see just what kind of monster he is."
"The hoplite?" He nudged his head at Pausanias.
I shook Pausanias' prone body. "I told VEGA to prepare a bed for him. Even if he can possesses a healing factor, it's better to be on the safe side."
"And the girl?" He signaled at Ayame.
"Just concerned about him, that's all."
John just shrugged before leaving to prepare the ritual, while I kept walking with Ayame behind. "Don't blame me if the wanker dies. The inky one I mean."
Two minutes later, I was laying Pausanias in a medical bed from the UAC, several nodes attached to his naked chest and IVs connected to his arms injecting both nutrients and UAC-made nanobots. Ayame sat right next to him, obviosly concerned despite the fact she didn't have to; he was in a safe environment, his healing had already kicked in fully, slowly redoing the damage he suffered during the previous fight. This, in turn, was further accelerated by the nanobots helping in the reparation.
"Now" I said as I stood next to Ayame, making her look at me with unease. ", could you please tell me what happened down there?"
She told me everything she could, mostly about her tribe, about Pausanias and his pseudo-divine origin, and of what Daizo had gloated to them. Saving the adopted son of an Olympian was a boon, that was for sure, but at that moment I couldn't capitalize on it, at least until I took care of Daizo and Pausanias recovered.
"VEGA, how long until he wakes up?" I asked VEGA. Ayame, not yet knowing about him, was about to ask me who was I talking to when VEGA spoke, startling her.
"Approximately two hours, but it'll take three more for his body to fully recover, even with our aid."
A bit slow for someone with the blessings of the Greek pantheon, but still much faster than, say, Superman. "Good, inform me when he does." I turned to leave when I felt Ayame grabbing my arm to stop me.
"Wait! Before you go..." She then bowed, and when she rose up she had a small smile. "Thank you, for everything." She didn't say anything more, it wasn't needed.
I nodded at her. "You're welcome. Now, why don't you go to your family and see how're they doing? He's not going to die just because you left him for five minutes."
The girl nodded before speeding back to the main hall. After that I left the room and made my way to the Ripatorium and a waiting John, who was standing on the bridge, still inspecting the floating body of Daizo to make sure the ritual would be smooth as possible.
"A bit, late, don't you think?" He said as I made my way to him, his voice echoing across the nearly empty dungeon.
"I had some business to attend to. John" I asked him as I climbed up the stairs to him. ", will you do the honors of sending me inside this bastard's memories?"
..........
Daizo's stopped being a threat, but the SI can't just off him just like that if he doesn't want to be seen as a murderer, because that's how it works in DC. Fortunately, as the ending makes clear, that's going to change... Next chapter will skip the memory watching and jump straight to Daizo being given to the japanese authorities.
Those complaining about the non-DC characters, I understand your annoyance, but I'm already well inside the story, so I cannot just rewrite them out, and they still have a part to play, and become an important sideplot. To put it simply, they're staying. However, it'll just be that, a sideplot: after Daizo's arc, we'll get back to purely DC, the search of Raven... and the formation of the Justice League.
Also, I think you will you be happier when I write chapters from... someone's POV in the future. I won't say whose, but he'll be unexpected.