Bloody Dream

Chapter 2: The Woods Are Burning?

1. Ordered to leave no witnesses, the Superpowered Team napalms the forest, planning to blame the destruction on a UFO. When they land, they're rather annoyed to find they have wasted expensive ammunition on an empty village. Like a 20th century Robin Hood, Owaru shoots Molotov cocktails out of the darkness from a Native American-style bow, taking out one of the helicopters. In the ensuing fight, Owaru is shot in the leg, but it doesn't stop him from giving his assailant ("Catcher") a flying kick in the face. When the dust settles (and there is a lot stirred up by the efforts of the telekinetic "Third"), he has defeated three of the nine opponents.

2. The three remaining brothers discuss the situation. Hajime prefers to spring the trap he can see rather than attempting to avoid it; he plans to capture at least one of the enemies as a guide to their headquarters, though he knows it's a standard tactic. Meanwhile, Whistler has no sympathy for the Superpowered Team's defeat at the hands of a child like Owaru, particularly after the way they treated him. When Amaru joins the fray, Whistler opts to hide.

3. Amaru spots Whistler and recognizes him from television. Whistler has a huge ego about his reputation, but the boys--especially Tsuzuku--aren't impressed. He attempts to understand their Japanese conversation about him from their tone and facial expressions. After Tsuzuku translates Hajime's ultimatum, Whistler tries to save his own neck by convincing them he's not such a bad guy. Taking him and a pilot, the brothers claim one of the helicopters and soar off into the night sky.

4. An enemy helicopter appears behind them, frightening their pilot, who knows his colleagues won't hesitate to fire. When a heat-seeking missile catches up to them, they're forced to bail out into a lake. They all have to keep ducking underwater as the enemy showers them with machine gun bullets. Tsuzuku launches himself onto the helicopter and forces out the two occupants, First and a pilot. First attempts to take Amaru hostage, which proves to be his last mistake as the empty helicopter crashes down on top of him. The boys set off once again with Whistler as their guide.

Chapter 3: Mississippi Fugue

Chapter 4: Typhoons Landing in Rapid Succession

1. Lambert Clark has something of a rivalry going with Mr. Townsend, and his bloodless acquisition of the Dragon Brothers' cousin puts him in the lead. Strong winds force the boys' helicopter to land in Chicago, and Whistler takes them to meet Townsend. They demand to know where their cousin is. He doesn't tell them anything, but he invites them to stay at his high class hotel. Of course, the fancy hotel room is nothing more than a gilded cage.

2. Hajime deduces that Townsend is being polite because he needs them in his possession to match a rival who has Matsuri. After the younger two boys retire for the night--Owaru having thoroughly taken advantage of room service--Hajime stays up reading the Bible provided in the room. Speaking English is his weak point, but he can read as well as Tsuzuku. He is searching for clues about the bull-shaped Gyuushu in Amaru's dreams.

3. Rather than going to bed after showering as planned, Owaru and Amaru decide to roam the halls. Though they aren't looking for trouble, and Owaru even resists his impulse to drop things on the bald heads in the atrium below, a hotel security guard starts bullying them. They soon discover that everyone in the hotel is an agent of the Four Sisters.

4. Whistler is just thinking what a nuisance the boys are being when his attention is captured by an even worse clamor. The surviving five members of the Superpowered Team show up after escaping the forest fire. Privately, Whistler figures it's their own fault they were in such a mess. Hungry for revenge, they threaten to tear the hotel apart if the Dragon Brothers don't appear for a rematch.

Chapter 5: Bridge of Light

1. Townsend thinks the Superpowered Team members received what they deserved for letting matters get so out of control. He decides the Ryuudou brothers are more valuable to him than the team, so he has to join forces with them against his own underlings. Whistler is sent to negotiate with the boys. Hajime agrees to cooperate, on the condition that they will be pardoned for being in the US illegally. He figures the younger two will tangle with the team anyway, and they may as well gain something from the situation. He knows he and his brothers are technically criminals for their deeds, but unlike their opponents there are some things they simply won't do, such as causing destruction in hospitals. He pauses to recall visiting his mother in the hospital when he was about ten, because giving birth had weakened her.

2. The boys confront the Superpowered Team. Second just begins to attack Hajime when the entire upper half of his body vanishes, leaving a carbonized, bloodless wound. Hajime drags his brothers to the floor to avoid further laser cannon fire. The boys don't know who's shooting at them, but Matsuri can see the cannon through the window of the restaurant at which she's eating. Lambert Clark fires the huge contraption, which uses an enormous amount of electricity, so he can't use it again right away.

3. Matsuri would prefer being able to take cover behind Hajime, but he's not there, so she hides her fear and puts on a show of bravery. When Townsend calls, furious at what happened, Clark chides him for getting upset over one little hotel when he's party to the planned extermination of 5 billion people. After hanging up, Clark asks Matsuri if she believes in reincarnation, and she replies that she thinks it's nonsense. As he continues his attempts to convince her that he's only trying to help Japan by ridding its government of corruption, she gets the unsettling feeling she should have strangled him while she had the chance.

4. After clearing away the remaining members of the Superpowered Team, the Ryuudou brothers overhear Townsend's phone call to Clark and demand to know about the plan to kill off so many people. He claims that it's the only reasonable way to deal with the population problem, and that the plan is different from Hitler in that the Four Sisters aren't discriminating against any races or cultures, they're merely selling a limited amount of vaccine to those who can afford it. Then, as Whistler looks out the window, the top of the hotel is sliced clean off right above their heads and falls to the street below.

Chapter 6: Bloody Dream

1. The Four Sisters bigwigs discuss Townsend and Clark, expressing regret that Townsend isn't more useful in keeping Clark in check. They suspect that Clark doubts the story that the population decrease will be accomplished with a disease, though they're not worried that he'll turn against them. They named their plan "Bloody Dream" after a plot concocted by leaders of the Confederacy in America's Civil War to form an empire based on the slavery system. Meanwhile, despite the destruction in Chicago, the mayor is feeling a twinge of admiration for whoever had the courage to attack a hotel operated by the Four Sisters--not knowing that the perpetrator is one of their own.

2. Clark tells Hajime that if they want to see their cousin again, they have to come to St. Louis. Matsuri and the three men are currently safe, but they're in a room rigged to deliver a DuPon-developed chemical at Clark's command. It instantaneously hardens water into what is essentially plastic--including the water inside a human body. The victim would wind up like a bug sealed in amber. Hajime is horrified and knows he has no choice but to go. With Townsend and Whistler as hostages against being shot down, they take a helicopter to St. Louis.

3. Japan's Prime Minister has returned home safely after his ordeal and is back to business as usual--namely, okaying construction projects in return for "donations" and other favors. However, just as he's basking in the glow of anticipated future prosperity, the Vice Secretary of the Cabinet rushes in to bring horrible news to his attention. The President of the United States just declared them defaulted on their foreign debt. In other words, America refuses to pay back the two trillion dollars it borrowed from Japan. The frantic Prime Minister tries phoning Washington, but he can't get through. He wonders what he can possibly do.

4. Conditions worsen all over the world. Germany is plagued by wild gangs of Neo-Nazis. Columbia is undergoing a civil war. It's all being manipulated by the Four Sisters big shots, who are having a ball selling weapons. Japan is already turning away a multitude of refugees from China, many of whom wind up dying when their boats capsize in storms. Thousands suicide as stocks plummet. The Prime Minister is concerned with picking out a successor he can control behind the scenes.

Chapter 7: Dragon Through the Looking Glass

Chapter 8: China Maze

1. Acting on behalf of a friend, two men named Wang and Lee from St. Louis' Chinatown wait outside the hotel for someone to emerge. Inside, Hajime and Tsuzuku continue to search for their brothers in the dark. Clark makes light of the situation, saying that with dragons and birds and a dog, they only need nine more animals to complete the Chinese zodiac. Finally word reaches him that the older two brothers have been stopped.

2. The soldiers fire upon Hajime and Tsuzuku in the dark. Working together, the two heave a statue at their attackers, rendering them all incapacitated. They make their way to the floor where the laser is stationed, and Hajime reduces it to scrap. They rejoin their brothers and Matsunaga-kun on the thirteenth floor, where Matsuri is being kept. They break through the wall to get to her. (Mizuchi offers to get Matsunaga-kun a gorgeous doggy girlfriend as a reward, though the puppy doesn't count on it.)

3. The eight of them (plus the dog) invade Clark's room, which is stuffed with a tacky collection of Japanese cultural items (though Owaru falls in love with the stack of C-class horror movies). Clark is disappointed that the blackout prevented the use of some of his intended traps. He mentions that he's pointless as a hostage, since no one is irreplaceable to the Four Sisters. When Clark stalls on answering about the Four Sisters plans and headquarters, Hajime orders Owaru to wreck Clark's "collection" to make him talk. They manage to extract the location of the tycoons in Zurich. As they leave the hotel, however, they're attacked by security and Clark slips away.

4. As Clark is rushed away in an ambulance, an eighteen-wheeler plows past the guards and they all scramble in the back. The truck takes off again the instant they're inside, crushing any police cars that get in its way. It lets the passengers off in two cars, which speed west. The escape is provided by Wang and Lee, who have a friend named Huan Tahren, an acquaintance of the boys' grandfather. Lee asks if Hajime knows about Long Shenshang, Dragon Springs Village. In their room in Zurich, the Four Sisters leaders hear from Townsend that the dragons are traveling toward San Francisco's Chinatown. Just after Townsend hangs up, one of the men clutches his chest and collapses on the floor.

Chapter 9: Night Fog Tank Corps

Chapter 10: San Francisco Great Sea Battle