The Last Day

Souryuuden Volume 10

Novel by Tanaka Yoshiki
Summary by Amparo Bertram

Jump to: [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [Chapter 7] [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] [Illustrations]

Chapter 1: Edinborough's Band

The Ryuudou brothers hitch a ride to Edinborough with a Scottish anime fan. A group of hitenyasha attack them on the way, but aside from scaring the driver half to death they accomplish very little before the boys send them packing.
When the driver regains consciousness, he drops them off at the next town and heads back to his normal life. After changing their money, they stop at a restaurant for a pleasant breakfast. Unfortunately, they're interrupted when a man in sunglasses crashes a car into the restaurant, sprays the interior with bullets, spots them, and then pulls out and speeds away. An old man offers to help the boys get to London (if they truly insist on going, instead of staying in Scotland as they ought to...).
There's a bagpipe contest being held in Edinborough. The brothers look quite exotic dressed in kilts along with their guide, MacShane. As they tour the castle, the man in sunglasses from before notices them. It's Whistler, former subordinate of Mr. Townsend. He was ordered by Vincent to manage the Four Sisters' superpowered agents again. Whistler only wants to get away, since he knows he'll probably wind up even worse off than Townsend, but he has no real choice.
Temporarily separated from the others in the castle, Hajime and Tsuzuku are approached by a red-headed woman who calls herself Stone Mistress. She says she's been in the Southern Hemisphere for the past several years, which is why they haven't met until now. She causes thousands of stones to break off and rise from the floor, pelting the two boys. When Owaru sees his brothers buried under a pyramid of rocks, he leaps into the fray (unfortunately causing as much damage to the castle as the machine-gun-toting henchmen).

Chapter 2: Minor Demon Party

The two oldest Ryuudou boys soon burst free of the "sarcophagus," then Tsuzuku knocks Stone Mistress out cold. (He has no problem hitting women after Lady L.) They catch up to Whistler, who was waiting in the car for the others to finish. Since he's useless as a hostage, the boys have to confront the remaining henchmen directly.
Owaru and Amaru just extricate themselves from the henchmen predicament when they hear dreaded laughter. Natsuko has followed them all the way to Scotland. She was going back to Japan, but she met up with the man who got the boys' passports, and he told her where they were headed. (She herself is pursued by police for stealing armor from a museum.) Tsuzuku leads Whistler's henchmen over and sets them against Natsuko by saying she killed Townsend. The brothers leave while the getting's good.
The former Prime Minister is being wined and dined with his cronies, secure in the knowledge that Natsuko can't possibly reach him in London. Just as they're forcing themselves on a couple of Japanese exchange students who had thought they were being hired for a part-time job ("if you don't satisfy me, Japan's poor will starve to death"), a peal of laughter echoes through the room.
Natsuko bursts upon the gathering. She terrorizes and beats the various politicians for their inability to carry out dirty work properly. Then she announces she's taking over the building as her headquarters, and they're all now her slaves.

Chapter 3: October Is the Land of Sorcery

Lambert has the boys' intended contact in Chinatown assassinated, planning to have an imposter meet them in his place. The boys' companion MacShane is reportedly a sorcerer, and he's related to Lambert's secretary Miss Stapler. However, her rival for power, Lambert's chief guard Klein, doesn't want her to gain any advantage from it.
Natsuko awaits the arrival of the Dragon Brothers. She makes her slaves put together "flags" for her, ruthlessly squashing any notions of escape they might have. Finally her enemies are spotted at King's Cross Station. She sets out to meet them.
After experiencing England's much more relaxed train ticket system, Hajime is amazed at how Japan cracks down stringently on petty swindling like a dollar or so on a ticket, while millions and billions of the taxpayers' money are misused by the politicians as if it's their due. MacShane makes a phone call while they eat luch so he can arrange to visit his grandson, then parts ways with them. As they go in search of a place to spend the night, they run into Natsuko.
While she rants, the brothers walk away, and the politicians seize the opportunity to escape. Natsuko plows through the crowd, chasing Owaru onto the roof of a double decker bus. (The crowd starts to cheer for "David" against "Goliath.") Amaru pops up to deliver a message that the older two are going on ahead to the British Museum. (Passing Natsuko off to Owaru is becoming a family tradition...) Natsuko falls through the roof of the bus and starts driving it like a maniac, winding up taking a nosedive into the Thames.

Chapter 4: London's Night Grows Late

Owaru and Amaru leap from the bus at the last moment and take off before Natsuko surfaces. They meet up with a freckled boy about Amaru's age who turns out to be a Four Sisters agent, Paper Master. After seeing his paper cut through a lamppost, they run. When they rejoin their brothers at the museum, Hajime is practically in a daze of bliss. As they report their encounter, Natsuko comes charging in, threatening to wreck the place. Hajime promptly disarms her and throws her out the front door into a trash can over two hundred yards away. He proceeds to take his stunned siblings to see the Rosetta Stone.
They find a B&B for the night. Hajime wonders if they'll be attacked again, but Tsuzuku speculates that the Mistress/Master people are professionals who would be ashamed to be reduced to sneaking up on a sleeping opponent. After emerging from the shower, the two oldest brothers chat about Matsuri being on a ship bound for Japan, and how they hope they tie up matters before she arrives. Tsuzuku figures they should wait for Natsuko to find them and then pit her against Lambert, since whoever wins that battle, it'll be to their benefit.
The politicians had intended to make themselves scarce, but they had left all their ID and money behind at the building, so they're forced to return. However, they discover that they've been betrayed, and all their belongings are in the hands of Natsuko's underlings. For their part, the underlings attempt to set Natsuko on fire and escape, but she catches and kills them, taking on the betrayer as her new flunky.
In the morning the boys stroll toward the river, discussing their plans for the day as well as current events. Sure enough, just as Tsuzuku had predicted, Natsuko shows up to challenge them. They dump her in the Thames and tell her they're going to Lambert's mansion. Then they go visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum and have tea and scones while they wait for her to make her move.

Chapter 5: Though It Ought to Be the Decisive Battle

In Lambert's mansion, four people face off over who will take care of the Dragon Brothers. Klein maintains that it's his jurisdiction, yet the other three (Miss Stapler, MacShane, and his grandson Paper Master) don't believe he has the ability. Suddenly the sound of Natsuko's laughter reaches them. The Ryuudou brothers simply enter the grounds following in her wake as she leaves a path of destruction.
Dark clouds laced with lightning close in. Klein's forces zap Amaru with a stun gun to take him hostage, but the plan backfires, since it's no more than a static shock to him. Amaru then goes into the mansion, where he meets up with MacShane, who tries to convince the boy he's being used by his older brothers to do bad things. At first Amaru feels sorry, but he promptly snaps out of it, explaining that MacShane's mistake was speaking ill of his family. (Only one person other than the four themselves is allowed to do that...) Then Tsuzuku comes to back him up, and MacShane completely gives up his attempt at empathic persuasion.
Paper Master provides MacShane a chance to escape Tsuzuku. The four boys meet again in the parlor, none of them having located Lambert. Just as they wonder what's up, he comes out to greet them. It irks him that they know he's not the real Lambert. He taunts Hajime by reminding him of various historical atrocities the Gyuushu had instigated.
As Lambert threatens to kill them, Natsuko's laughter breaks the room's tension. Lambert blasts her repeatedly, but she keeps getting back on her feet. Furious and disgusted, he tries to get Hajime to join the fight, but Hajime only mocks him. After he finally knocks her out for good, he tries to turn on Hajime, but he loses control and starts transforming. He crashes through a stained glass partition and runs away in shame.

Chapter 6: Natchan's Dragon Crusade

Paper Master attacks the minotaur, thinking it's an invading monster, but his weapons are no use and he's quickly dispatched. Natsuko recovers and starts wandering around again. The police arrive, still after the criminal in armor who's been causing so much commotion. They taunt her into leaving the mansion in the hopes of arresting her, and she gladly charges into their midst.
MacShane confronts Daniel over the death of his grandson. The Ryuudou brothers show up and say they'll return to Japan if the Four Sisters withdraw their grand murder scheme, but if their enemies bother them or their friends, they'll continue to fight as long as it takes. After they walk out, Miss Stapler shoots Klein before he can kill Daniel. MacShane hunts down the minotaur to take revenge.
Natsuko catches up with the former Prime Minister, who had escaped the fire, and makes him accompany her. She's going on a crusade to kill the Ryuudou brothers. Despite his attempt to weasel out, she forces him to follow after her singing a song she wrote about "Natsuko the Dragonbuster." (He wonders whether it wouldn't be better to turn himself in to the police.)

Chapter 7: The Singing Echoing on the Thames River

The three younger boys gang up to convince Hajime they should go sightseeing while they have the chance. So, before they go to Chinatown to find their contact, they agree to visit the Natural History Museum and see the Tower of London.
They admire the dinosaurs at the museum, Owaru figuring they must be the family's ancestors. Afterward, they move on to the Tower of London in the gathering darkness of late afternoon beneath black clouds that still haven't released any rain. "Natsuko the Dragonbuster" echoes in the air.
Unconscious pigeons fall from the sky at the sound. When Natsuko approaches, Tsuzuku picks apart the lyrics of her song (admitting in the process that he believes he's the most beautiful boy in the world). She starts chasing them around with a giant frying pan to bash them. When a SWAT team appears to confront her, she starts singing again, and more birds fall. The boys can endure the sound because they're not human, but they decide not to stick around and make a hasty retreat.
A flock of hitenyasha soars over the brothers. While Natsuko faces off against the SWAT team, the boys battle the monsters. Finally she sends the officers flying and wades through the hitenyasha toward her targets, but they all stop and stare as a minotaur taller than the tower appears.

Chapter 8: London Bridge Fell Down

The minotaur spits out MacShane's head at them, which Hajime forbids his brothers to look at when he realizes what it is. The whole area's evacuated and placed off limits by the police. Hajime knows he can become a dragon at will, but since that would inconvenience the people around him, he's made it his policy not to do so if there's the slightest possibility of handling the problem in human form. He orders his brothers to run east, then picks up a policeman's dropped flashlight and shines it in the minotaur's face to get it to follow.
Tsuzuku realizes they've been directed to a place where they'll cause the least damage to monuments or people. (Natsuko chases them in the limousine bus that the former Prime Minister got from the Japanese Embassy.) The boys leap into the river and transform.
The dragons surround the minotaur. Britain's Prime Minister, Mortimer, wonders who will step in with authority from the Four Sisters, since Lambert is missing. The dragons are holding back their strong powers for fear of causing too much destruction, because the minotaur won't oblige them by walking out to sea. Suddenly the giant snake hiding inside the minotaur's body peeks out its mouth at them before ducking back out of view. Then the police begin firing flares.
The dragons take advatage of the opportunity to lead the minotaur farther east. Natsuko can't stand being left on the sidelines while the monsters have it out with each other. The minotaur jumps up and grabs the White Dragon, who whips it strongly with his tail, knocking it into London Bridge. (He's terrified the Blue Dragon will be angry at him, but then he realizes that the bridge has been rebuilt recently and isn't an irreplaceable ancient artifact.) Once it's righted itself, the minotaur sprouts enormous bat wings.

Chapter 9: Battle of Britain

The British army captures one of the hitenyasha and puts it in an electrified tiger cage to show Mortimer. The dragons get the minotaur to fly out to the mouth of the river, then rip one of its wings so it falls back in the water. The snake creature with a human head comes out its mouth and they recognize it as a being from Tenkai named Kyoukou.
The picture clicks into place. Though the Ryuushu had been content with their sovereignty over the seas, they were ordered to fight the Gyuushu, who desired to rule the human world. The Ryuushu, ever obedient, fought and won. However, their victory frightened those in power, who simply couldn't believe that such strong warriors wouldn't want to take over. Kyoukou was the one who put the plan in motion for the emperor's forces to ally secretly with the vengeance-seeking Gyuushu to crush the Ryuushu. He has been waiting 3000 years in the human world for the dragon kings to awaken.
The dragons prevent Kyoukou from escaping to the moon, leaving him no choice but to head back downward. They plunge into the rainclouds, where it becomes difficult to distinguish friend from foe, and the hitenyasha swarm to attack them. At last the White and Blue Dragons latch onto Kyoukou's tail to hold him in place, and the Red Dragon uses a blade of fire to behead him.
President Forrester phones Mortimer to confirm that the new enemy of humanity (now that the Soviet Union has collapsed) is the menace of the dragons. Mortimer is rather annoyed, since Forrester claims it is the duty of the US to harness and control the dragons. After that call, Mortimer receives a report that Lambert has been found, but he has amnesia. The dragons decide there's nothing more they can accomplish in England, so they head east to go home.
On a ship headed for Japan, Shinkai reports the news of what happened in London, which he heard on the radio. Then Matsunaga-kun barks a warning, and the captain pokes his head into the lounge to announce that pirates are chasing them. The men tell Matsuri to run as the pirates begin invading. She kicks a pirate in the groin and gets out on deck, where she sees the four dragons in the sky.

Chapter 10: Returned Villains

The pirates throw away their weapons, begging for their lives, and are sent packing. Matsuri thanks the Blue Dragon for the help, then asks if he can carry the ship back to Japan, deciding on Kyoto where their school has lodgings they can use. They set down in Lake Biwa near an abandoned hotel, where a gang using the hotel as a hideout attacks them as they come ashore. The tables are turned when Mizuchi and Nijikawa pull guns on them. Matsuri orders the gang boys to hand over their car keys, licenses, and clothes. After barricading the gang members in the hotel restrooms, she picks out clothes to fit her cousins.
They arrive at the dormitory, get washed up, and gather in their yukata to discuss the situation. They can't reach Tokyo by telephone due to the falling ash. They wonder what the Four Sisters will do next, but Hajime declares it's none of their concern unless it endangers them again. The brothers describe the events of the past few days, then they all head off to bed. (Everyone thinks Hajime should go to Matsuri's room, but he stubbornly resists, knowing he wouldn't be able to face her mother afterward.)
The next day, the three oldest brothers and Matsuri chat after breakfast. They mention that Mizuchi, Nijikawa, and Shinkai are considering opening up an investigation agency together. Suddenly a female scream interrupts the conversation, caused by the dorm's manager spotting Amaru floating in his sleep. When he awakens he tells them he dreamed about someone cursing Kyoukou as useless and saying it's Kinhi's turn next. They realize the battle hadn't been an ending but a beginning.
Youki reports on her most recent mission of observation, saying Kyoukou had been foolish to believe he could take on all four dragon kings at once. She doesn't think Kinhi will fare any better as his replacement. In England, Stone Mistress goes to Lambert's hospital to see her older twin, Miss Stapler, relating that she plans to head for Japan to confront the Dragon Brothers again. Natsuko and the former Prime Minister are also bound for Japan. Just before Amaru and Owaru set out to explore Kyoto, Matsunaga-kun attracts their attention out the window.
"Matsuri-chan, your big sister's here!"