Let's gather up the tears and give them back to the night sky
Scatter only love that never wavers, stardust
On nights when I've stopped knowing whether or not I'm alive
I get swallowed up by the starless night sky
"Don't disappear, light!" my uncertain heart cries out
I just want to see you!
Sprinting with all my might through illusions, delusions, daydreams
A miracle wakes all throughout my body
Don't forget, you're not alone
We're always just a dreamer
Take love, get all love, get back love in our hands
Scatter only love that never wavers, stardust
What kind of tomorrow shall I dream about tonight?
I'm sorry. You were about to close, weren't you?
I don't mind. You're a customer I haven't seen in a while.
I couldn't possibly not give you a warm welcome.
Here you go.
Thanks.
Say, are you a friend of the Master?
Yeah, but you came to see Ginji, not me, am I right?
Is he doing well?
I'd like to say so, but right now he's gone to the Limitless Fortress.
That's right, on a recovery service job.
You just missed each other.
To the Limitless Fortress...
How far does this damn passage go?
Someone's finally showed up?
Now, what's gonna jump out at me?
What's happening behind these six doors?
Shido!
Hey, how did you get those wounds?!
No time to explain. A doctor!
If I'm not quick...
Isn't this an enemy?! You plan to help him?
Haruki Emishi, he's called the Fresh Blood Joker,
and he's a former member of VOLTS.
He's an enemy right now, but he was one of my own before.
Which means he might become one of my own again, right?
Shido...
What are you going to do, Miss Negotiator?
This place is dangerous. You'd better come with me.
You're right.
I wonder if everyone else is okay?
Who knows?
But Kazuki's fighting an enemy.
An enemy?
Juubei Kakei...
He's a former member of VOLTS too, and a flying needle user.
Kazuki won't lose against a former VOLTS member, huh?
He may not look it, but he was one of the Four Kings after all.
It's not that easy!
Before VOLTS was formed,
Juubei was second-in-command of Kazuki's group, Elegance.
But he wasn't under Kazuki because he didn't measure up to him.
He chose that position himself in order to protect Kazuki.
In order to protect him?
Those two were close friends
since long before they came to the Limitless Fortress.
But then why are they fighting?!
Who knows?
But the Juubei I know is a man who would throw away his life for his principles.
Bastards like that are strong.
I see, it looks like your skill hasn't dulled any.
In the Fuchouin School Thread Technique, everything in creation is made into an attack.
No one can escape my threads.
There's nowhere to run, Juubei!
Run?
In the Kakei School Needle Technique, there's no word for retreat.
But it looks like I won't be able to beat you without using up my ultimate technique.
Black needles?
Kazuki, I don't think I've told even you this,
but in opposition to the white needles I've used up until now, there are black needles.
The technique that uses black needles is the forbidden and secret ultimate technique.
There aren't many who even know about it.
The Kakei School Thread Technique originally evolved as a medicinal technique.
So those black needles are really...
Prepare yourself, Kazuki!
Poisoned needles?
Even if you poison your flying needles, it makes no difference if you can't hit me.
Don't underestimate me!
Why? I thought I dodged them.
The Kakei School Needle Technique uses no drugs,
but merely uses needles to pierce acupuncture points with precision.
It's a secret art that heals wounds, and conversely, can destroy flesh.
Obviously a heresy like applying poison wouldn't be the ultimate technique.
If they're not poisoned needles, just what are the black needles?
That's it! The black needles are...
You finally figured it out?
The black needles are flying needles that were forged out of
the black magnetic ore dug out from underneath holy Mount Fuji.
I completely control them with the magnetism of this source stone.
That's the secret ultimate technique of my Kakei School Thread Technique:
the Black Magnet-Controlled Needle Method.
You're the one that has nowhere to run, Threadmaster Kazuki!
Balsam!
Bee Swarm!
I thought I knew Juubei's strength better than anyone, but...
They're reacting to the magnetism.
I get it!
If a flesh-and-blood human is controlling a strong enough magnetic force
to cause a magnetic storm, he won't escape scot-free.
It would cause the functions of all his internal organs to go haywire,
and in the worst case scenario...
Juubei, is that what you meant by using up your ultimate technique?
Whirling Current Formation!
Why, Juubei?!
Why do you go that far to follow Makubex?
Even whittling away at your own life?
Kazuki, YOU ought to understand!
Juubei, wait!
Sister, hurry!
And here it's his first time paying his respects to the Fuchouin head family.
What a hopeless child he is.
Mother, I'm going on ahead!
Who's there? State your name!
Juubei... Juubei Kakei.
Oh, you're the Kakei heir, I'm sorry.
I thought you were someone suspicious.
This means you're going to be my future family doctor, huh?
It's nice to meet you, Juubei. I'm Kazuki.
Kazuki, you mean, YOU'RE Kazuki?
The heir of the Fuchouin head family is a girl?
I'm a boy.
In the head family, it's a rule that until you're fifteen, you have to wear
a long-sleeved kimono when you play the koto, whether you're a boy or a girl.
They say you need to do it to master the Thread Technique.
Oh, so that's how it is.
What is it, Kazuki?
I got stung by a bug.
Show me.
Grin and bear it.
The pain disappeared.
The Kakei School Needle Technique is really something, huh?
Of course it is!
For five hundred years, we Kakei have been protecting the Fuchouin family
as their personal doctors.
You have, haven't you? Thank you.
Don't worry, Kazuki.
I'll protect you, no matter what.
That's why I was born!
Juubei, you're so old-fashioned.
What's so funny?
Kazuki, run away, quickly!
Mother, no. I couldn't run away and leave everyone else.
It's to protect the school!
But... But, where should I go?
The Limitless Fortress.
Mother...
I'm sorry, Kazuki!
Because we Kakei...
Because I wasn't strong, I couldn't completely protect you.
Juubei...
I will... I WILL become strong!
So I can protect what's important!
Why, Juubei?!
Kazuki Fuchouin
You know, don't you?
You know what Makubex is trying to build.
It's an atomic bomb, you know!
He could turn Tokyo into a mountain of rubble, let alone the Limitless Fortress.
Of course I know.
Then why don't you stop him?!
For the future that ought to be.
The future that ought to be?
Yes, Makubex is getting closer and closer.
To the mystery of the highest section of the Limitless Fortress,
Babylon City, where even you couldn't reach!
What are you looking at?
I wonder what's up there?
There's no one who's seen Babylon City.
I wasn't able to make it, either.
With my abilities, the Beltline was as far as I could get.
Why did you do something that reckless?
I don't know.
I just thought something was up there.
It feels like we're being looked down on by something.
We've been abandoned by the Lightning Emperor.
And Kazuki and the others won't come back again, either.
Makubex...
Well it's true, isn't it?
We were left behind here in the Limitless Fortress.
If that's the way it is, then that's fine.
Because we've got no choice but to live here.
Makubex...
Say, Juubei...
I've finally gotten at the truth.
The truth of this Limitless Fortress.
Everything that happens here is being controlled by Babylon City.
Even the fact that we exist here is their will.
I can't even imagine why that is.
But there isn't a single freedom left to us here in the Limitless Fortress.
That's impossible...
In that case, why are you here?
Are you saying it's coincidence?!
Not even one face on the die is free.
If both laughing and crying... If even human life and death
are in the palms of the monsters of Babylon City,
then can you really say that we're alive?!
Juubei...
Kazuki, are you sure you didn't know that?!
That's why you left here alone!
I...
Gramps, what is Juubei Kakei talking about?
What does he mean, everything that happens in the Limitless Fortress is Babylon City's will?
Ren, it has nothing to do with you.
But!
I'm telling you not to worry about it!
Gramps...
Does that mean Makubex knows then?
No, that can't be.
Not even Makubex could.
Excuse us...
We came because we heard about you from Kazuki.
Are you Pharmacist Gen?
Yes.
All right, bring Emishi over here.
It looks like you know the situation, huh?
How is he?
He's in dangerous condition, but... Ren, the preparations.
Right.
Oh, good, it looks like he'll be okay.
This is?!
These are images Makubex sent me.
He's telling me to watch.
Old man, just what are you?
Ren, for now have him drink this.
What, me?!
Do it quick.
Kissy, kissy!
What are you thinking, you jerk?!
Oh, no, I was just thinkin' if I gotta drink it, a little mouth-to-mouth
with the little lady would be nice.
Idiot!
So she's a girl?
That is to say, doesn't Emishi seem totally healthy?
Nooo...
That's right, Juubei.
I always felt it too.
Here in the Limitless Fortress, no matter what you accomplish you're haunted by
a sense of emptiness like you're being manipulated by someone.
So I aimed for the higher floors.
I felt like the answer was there.
I know, Juubei.
Makubex plans to use that atomic bomb to make a deal.
Perish together, or gain freedom.
The most dangerous, forbidden deal possible with whoever makes their nest in Babylon City!
Makubex predicted that we would win our freedom!
I believe that!
You're wrong!
The deal will never go through!
Spear of Rain, Scattered Showers!
Black Needles, heed me!
Mountain Echo!
Why don't you get it, Juubei?!
This deal will never go through.
Makubex knows that!
What?
Makubex's real aim is to pass a final judgment with his own hands,
to return the history of the Limitless Fortress to a blank slate!
That can't be!
Listen, if everything that happens here in Lower Town is controlled by
the will of someone in Babylon City then that someone is essentially a god.
God doesn't make deals.
And that's because he can return everything to nothingness.
That's right.
Like it was recorded in Genesis in the Old Testament,
just like God washed away the masses who met with his wrath with a flood,
there's someone in Babylon City who can return everything to zero too.
Like resetting a game!
And there is no salvation from that.
Noah's Ark doesn't exist here in the Limitless Fortress!
A virus?
Oh, I'm sorry. It entered from the network and...
You can just restart.
But then the data will...
It's a shame, but there's nothing to do but give up.
Once a system has been hurt, it never goes completely back to the way it was.
Someone as brilliant as Makubex must have realized that!
He knows everything! And he's still...
Fool!
Why don't you get it, Juubei?!
This will probably be the final, biggest technique.
Kakei School Needle Technique: Ultimate Technique...
Ground Spider!
To dodge that many flying needles, enough to avoid the vital points,
you're as talented as ever.
Don't worry, Kazuki.
I'll protect you, no matter what.
That's why I was born!
Juubei, you're so old-fashioned.
Can we no longer go back to those days?
There's no way you even have enough energy left to dodge.
I want to save you.
This ends it!
Spear of Rain, Mist.
You lose, Juubei.
Why don't you finish it?
If you don't do it now, you'll regret it!
Even now you really are still my close friend, from ever since we were kids.
You really never change.
But you're soft!
Juubei!
Why?
This is fine...
It's a fitting end for a fool.
For a fool who tried to take the life of a true friend that he couldn't keep believing in.
Juubei!
Stop it. Don't cry for a man like me.
Just wait, I'll get you to a doctor right away!
Leave me.
You have things you have to do right now, don't you?
To me, right now there's nothing more important than your life.
And...
And I believe that they'll stop Makubex.
Yes, those two, the Get Backers will!
What's the matter, Doctor Jackal?
You don't like this place?
No, I find it very boring.
I'd like to be allowed to start soon.
Then how about this to beat the boredom?
This is...
It won't be too late to do it after you've seen this through, will it?
The way this battle goes, I mean.
It won't be, will it, Doctor Jackal?
For you, as the betrayer Judas.
It's no small-time, once-in-a-thousand-years love
The sky and earth were moving for the two of us
In those days we had the power of Buddha, come back
The friendship bracelet I threw into the midwinter sea
Disappears without making a sound
In the afternoon the breakwater flames bright red
The waves are beautiful like spangles, aren't they?
They're this beautiful, so smile like that
Don't look back
All right, here I go
Embraced by the storm, jump from your dreams!
An island eternity crashes against like waves
Seeking an endless clear sky
The injured sea gull flies away too
A hurricane of tears
Oh, I don't know what's what anymore!
Things getting all dark, and the scenery suddenly changing too.
It looks like Computer Boy likes cheap tricks, huh?
But I can't laugh at this one.
Himiko! Watch out, that Kagami guy is really tough!
She's overdoing it again, that idiot!
Next time: "The Man From Babylon City"
Next Get Backers: The Man From Babylon City Next time: "The Man From Babylon City"
Next Get Backers: The Man From Babylon City You haven't changed a bit since back then.
Next Get Backers: The Man From Babylon City