Previously on Ookami no Monogatari:

It's time for the final showdown!The Orb was shutdown and Sanji almost died!Nami is trapped in the main room with Isabel!Now,Sanji,Zero and Diana must fight one-on-one!Go,go team!You can't afford to lose!

-

Sanji took out a cigarette and lighted it. The blue-skinned man sighed.

“You know,smoking kills.”
“Eh.”

The man laughed.

“I'm Gwydion,the Triunf of Knowledge.”
The blond raised a swirly eyebrow.
“Triunf?”
“That does not matter. It is time. We cannot stall for long.”
The cook smiled.

“Who's stalling?”

-

“That's a pretty big sword.”
“Indeed,it is. But let's not let war do prejudice to our manners. I am Arthurus,the Triunf of Poetry.”
Zero raised both his eyebrows.

“Poetry?That sounds...Err...”

Arthurus face remained emotionless.

“Let us stop wasting precious seconds of our minuscule lives!We shall combat now!”

The Maverick Hunter took out his beam sword.
“Just what I was waiting for.”

-

Isabel crackled loudly and glared at the blond teenage girl in front of her.

“Did anyone ever tell you,you look really fragile for a warrior.”
“Shut up.”

“It's true,you look like you could break!”

“Shut up!”
“Yeah,and you're kinda flat in the chest area.”
“Nami!”
The redhead shrugged.

“Well,it's true.”
Diana snarled and quietly looked around. Isabel was between her and Nami. Just perfect.
She took out a knife from inside her coat and threw it. The witch dodged and the blade stroke the ground right next to Nami.
“You missed.” said Isabel smirking evilly.

Diana smiled at Nami and dashed towards Isabel. She dodged the punch and jumped back,avoiding being slashed by the shiny dagger in the girl's hand.
Isabel straightened herself and once again crackled wickedly.

“You can't defeat me!I'm too fast,too strong and too evil. BWAHAHAHAHAH!”

Meanwhile,Nami was trying to throw herself on the ground,since she understood Diana's plan perfectly. The wooden chair fell hard on the stone ground,large cracks appearing in some places of the chair. Nami whimpered quietly and started trying to cut the ropes that binded her. Her hand slipped and she winced painfully. The ropes finally snapped. She sat up and looked at her hands. A long,deep wound was on the right one. She bit her lip and got up.

Diana was fighting magic with energy. For every magic spell Isabel casted on the teenager,she got a blast of energy to her body. Both of them stopped and looked at each other.

Isabel's black dress was torn in several places and her nose was bleeding.

Diana was a bit worse. Her leather coat was completely slashed across the back. She had blood coming out of her mouth and a small laceration next to her right eye. She cleaned the blood on her chin and threw the useless coat on the floor,remaining with a simple blue t-shirt with “Graphite”,the brand logo,stamped in front. She sneered.

Suddenly,Isabel jumped forward and blasted Diana close range. The teen flew into a wall. The witch crackled once again and grabbed a sword next to her. The dark haired woman walked menacingly towards the girl.

“Wow. And I thought this was actually going to be hard.”
Isabel had the sword ready to pierce Diana through the heart.

“THUNDER TEMPO!”
With a loud zapping sound,bright lighting and a lot of smoke,the witch flew back.

Nami held out her hand to help Diana get up. She smirked.

“Whoa,that was awesome.”
She grabbed her hand only for a few microseconds. The teenager glared at her own hand. Bright red blood covered most of it.

“Hey,how did you...”
“Sorry,I cut myself trying to cut the ropes. I should've been more careful.”
“No,never mind that.”
She got up brushing the dust of her clothes.

“Uh,I'm,err...I'm glad. I'm glad you're okay.”

Nami smiled for a brief second only to frown immediately after.

“Where's Sanji and Zero.”
“Uh,I left them behind. We didn't know how were you and two guys tried to stop us,so they wanted me to go without them.”
The orange haired girl nodded lightly and smiled again.

“Well,both of us are okay now,right?”

“WRONG!”
Diana and Nami looked back. Isabel was standing there. The little piece of fabric that used to be a magnificent dress was just big enough for some decency and was smoking from the electrical discharge.

“First,I'm not dead yet. Second,I'M REALLY PISSED!”

-

Sanji jumped back avoiding the deadly whip. The leather strip was covered in metal studs and dry blood. Gwydion kept swinging the weapon at him. The cook was even having trouble breathing.
“Damn.” he thought,dodging for the hundred time “Maybe I should quit smoking.”

The whip-clad warrior stopped for a moment.

“Yes,that would be the most appropriate thing to do,considering what smoking does to your health.”
Sanji crouched,panting and glaring at the warrior.

“Wait,wait,wait!You can read my mind?”
The blue-skinned man nodded.

“Yes,I can. Everything from what you're thinking right now to what you feel for the people around you. You can even say I know you better than you know yourself.”
The cook groaned and dashed forwards. The multi-eye man dodged. What followed happened in half a second. The whip cracked loudly. An even louder crack was heard when it's metallic surface hit the cook's ribs.
Sanji fell down and started coughing. Red blood came out of his mouth as he stood on his knees and hands. The liquid started pooling on the floor below his head and torso.

Gwydion sighed as he stared at the young man in front of him.

“I hate to do this. I hate to do this when there's so much more you could do.”
Sanji muttered a muffled “What?”.

“Never mind.”
He sat down on the cold,stone floor glaring at the warrior.

“Tell me,dammit!”

“Spare your breath,you're dying!”
“I don't care!Tell me!”
“I know I've punctured your lung. There's no salvation for you.”
“I want to know!Don't I get a last wish?”
“Please. Your last wish is not knowing what I think about you and your future.”
Sanji dropped his head.
“Well,I don't know how I can actually get my last wish. Just tell me.”

Gwydion sighed.

“Your life...”
-

Metal versus energy.

Gold sword versus beam sword.

Arthurus versus Zero.

The robot whimpered as he lost balance and fell back.

Arthurus stared down at him,his cold face still emotionless. He stared blankly at the Maverick Hunter. Zero's electronic heart skipped a beat as he realized something amazing.

“Wait a second...Are you...Are you...Blind?Are you blind?”
The emotionless man nodded silently.

“But,but how?How can a blind guy be better than me?”

“...Vision is of no matter...What is important is your listening,your felling and your spirit...When you master all of these,you won't need vision anymore...”

The blond chuckled.

“You're kidding right?”
“No.”
“But...I'm a robot I have perfect hearing!”
“Yes,you can hear very well,I'm sure. But can you hear the spirit of those around you. And your feeling?Can you feel the soft breeze on your synthetic skin as is it was a heavy blanket?And your spirit?Are you one with your sword?Do you think you are better than those who are inferior to you physically?”
Zero sat there,without moving,his mouth agape. How?
“How did I spend all this time without knowing this?He's right. A swordsman isn't just about strength or robotic precision reflexes. Why have I been so blind to this?If I hadn't,then maybe I wouldn't be in so much trouble right now. Then maybe I wouldn't be forced to sit here and realize how stupid I am.”

Zero chuckled again.
“Stupid.”

He got up and ripped a piece of broken armor off his shoulder.

“You're right Arthurus.I do think I'm better than you. At least I thought I was. Now I see the truth.”
The man raised an eyebrow.

“Are you going to give up?”
Zero grinned.
“Hell no.”

-

Isabel kept crackling loudly.
“Look at you. Dumb little girls. Don't you know witches don't die that easily?It's not a little electricity that's going to stop me!You better have another plan if you want to keep living.”
Nami raised her arm. Diana glared at her and whispered:
“What do you think you're doing?”
“Trust me!”
The redhead looked at the witch.

“I'm sorry,but can I ask a question?”
“Eh,you're about to die. I don't see why not. Go ahead and ask.”
“Well,you said that you sent three minions after them. But Diana says they only encountered two. Where's the last one?”
The witch frowned.
“There were some...Problems. It doesn't matter now.”
“Ooh,one more thing,why is the big,bad monster called Fuzzy?”
“Well,you see...”
Diana looked at Nami and smiled.

“Well,lookie here. Nice idea,Miss Nami!Stalling for time,uh?I just hope you can stall enough.”

She snickered.

“Why is the sky blue?”
“Well,because...”
Diana silently walked away from the two of them and headed for the witch's magic ball.

“Damn!That thing's packing with energy!I could use it to refill my energy without any side effects!”

She placed her hand over the magical object and almost fell over it with laughter as she heard Nami's next stalling question.

“Uh,where do babies come from?”

“How old are you?”
“I'm eighteen.”
“Right. Right. Well,you see,when a man and a woman love eachother very much...”
Diana began absorbing energy.

-

“Confessing.”
“Yes.”
“And that would make my whole life better.”
“Not quite.”
“Then how?”
“The right moment,the right place.”
“Just a question of timing,uh?”
“Exactly.”
Sanji smiled.
“Timing. And when is the right moment and place.”
“For me to know that,I would need to know more than your mind.”

He laughed,coughing some more blood.

“Right. You need to know her,right?”
“Exactly.”

-

Zero stared at the man in front of him.

“How do you know who you are in the middle of the cosmic mass that is the junction of several universes?” said the warrior,smiling widely.

“I don't.”
“Yet,you seem to know. Are you always this confident or just when you're about to die.”
“I'm pretty sure I'm always like this.”
“That was what I was thinking. You seem to be the kind of person whose confidence does not get shaken easily.”
“Totally right.”

“I bet you want to live just so you can become a better fighter.”
“Exactly.”
“I wish I could let you live. But I cannot.”
The robot laughed.

“In that case I just have to fight for my life!”
-

“And see as demonstrated by this banana and this donut...”
Diana finished refilling her energy and looked at Nami. She was smiling and looking at Isabel,who was facing away from her while holding a banana and a donut. The blond signaled Nami. She nodded and took out her Clima Tact. With a powerful swing,the witch face palmed the stone floor. She looked up. Diana was casually walking over to her,cracking her knuckles.

“You're not very smart,are ya?”
Next chapter of Ookami no Monogatari:

Whoa,whoa,whoa!What's going on?Seems like Sanji and Zero are getting life lessons!But can they survive to use them?And can Diana and Nami defeat the evil witch?

OOKAMI NO MONOGATARI

Diana:Don't screw with my friends!