Ambition isn't something that should exist in a dog's world. A dog's world is one of instincts. Hunger, fatigue, lust, simple emotions like that drive a dog. Base things like that make this beast swing his blade in such a wild way, his Ceruledge circling him in a fiery dance of death. Briars line the path. A wolverine speaks to him, encourages him, heals the wounds that inevitably form on Jubei's body and his own.[break]
What a beautiful dance. Two blades dancing as one. Repetition, symmetry, flow. His boss's bladework is exquisite. Memories unbidden come now in the midst of battle, of guarding Yumi at school trips and dates to museums. He remembers dull eyes and how they failed to understand the beauty of art. Someone poured their soul into the vessel of a canvas or a decorated pot only to have their work wasted on his eyes.[break]
Watching this bladework, he thinks he finally understands. Vexed by Rocket's blade, he almost misses a blow from a Kartana that would have cost him his head. Only instinct saves him now, as it always has. A flick of the blade upward. Jubei's bitter blade ever following a moment later, a flickering shadow against the still bamboo.[break]
He wants to swing his sword like that. He must swing his blade like that - as a human would. Gripping his katana, twisting it in his hands, he sees the army coming for him.[break]
Jubei is recalled. In his place is conjured an Aegislash. It's a hefty western sword, taller than Hitoshi. He charges the army with a howl in his throat - a battle cry of humanity. He, too wishes to be a blade.[break]
"Come on, then! Let's end this quickly!" He cuts into these chittering blades with a sacred sword, swinging that heavy blade quicker than someone his size has any right to. He hits them like a bowling ball, sending Kartana flying like so many pins. He's surrounded. In his rush for offense, he has utterly forgotten to cover himself. His Aegislash desperately tries to cover Hitoshi with the king's shield, but it won't be enough - not by itself.

What should inspire fear instead kindles wonder. A petrified tree within a beautiful glade. What beauty. Upon hearing the voice, he wonders if the woman will command him to obey or disobey.[break]
Tension rolls off him when she agrees with the command. It's what he would do, were it entirely his choice. It doesn't dampen the hatred in his heart for her - how could it? It only tints it with confusion. A dog's world is black and white, but she makes herself a color he can't perceive.[break]
"What happened to the tree?" He asks as he summons another of his Pokemon from a ball. Kai, his Samurott, surveys the situation he finds himself in. It's ready to spray water whenever the boss gives the order.[break]
"The real one."

The hand that is about to strike is pulled back. Hitoshi's eyes when Yumi holds him back are all business. Countless scenarios, steps, battleplans ran through his mind, all trying to lead him to the point where his blade found her throat.[break]
"Why--" It ends there. Steadying himself, he falls in behind her.[break]
Trust that I know the best course.[break]
They're here now, for better or worse. He closes his eyes, lets her take the lead. He'll place his trust in her. If they have to fight their way out, so be it. Let them think to harm one hair on her head.[break]
"I hope we learn somethin' good. These guys just look...human." He makes no attempt to hide his puzzlement. "What's the big deal?"

This vision cast before a dog is like pearls before swine. The fate of the cosmos plays out in perfect clarity, with dog and queen cast in the role of a captive audience. There is beauty in the darkness of space, beauty in the dazzling battle between two primal forces. Dark eyes move first to the shifting form of the skeletal dragon. In another life, another where, some other when far in the future but not so far as to be the present, the grunt and the underboss are comrades. They fight this dragon. They strike it down with the help of a heroic dog.[break]
Would that they had that dog now. Would they had any tool to combat this evil.[break]
They are back, Hitoshi's hand upon the rock. His shoulder still bleeds from where his Kartana dug into the shoulder.[break]
"You're crazy." He growls at the woman. Somehow, he doubts she will find the notion of a grunt with lip novel. Pulling against his leash, he barks, "A real crazy bi-"[break]
The world shatters into white particles of data. They're floating, moving fast through the simulation. The world around them reorders itself, places them in some new scene born of the stone they stole.[break]

He resents her. He resents what he sees of himself in her, he resents the mirror that she holds up to him - and to Yumi. This awful, evil power she has claimed fills him with resentment.[break]
His teeth bare. Looking up at this woman, every pore, every cell of him, cries out the same message. Angstroms of atoms repeat it in a chorus.[break]
Kill her. Kill her. Kill her.[break]
Kill her. Kill her. Kill her.[break]
She cannot be allowed to live.[break]
He resents how powerless he feels in her grasp.[break]
"Fuck- fuck-" you he wants to finish, but he does not.[break]
The blade floats onto Hitoshi's shoulder. He digs into the flesh, more an accident than anything. The pain and the blood steady him as he is released. Slumping to the ground, the dog looks up at the Queen of Resentment and snarls.[break]
"Fine." His voice oozes venom. Simulated figures, ones that stood on the edge of the scene, watching it play out, flash looks of all too human fear at one another.[break]
"Have it your way." He does as he's told, like a good dog.[break]
He touches the rock.

As empty as this dog's head is, he is not the sort of creature to ask 'what' when he hears someone. Her words ring in his ear loud and clear. She wants to send him stumbling forth like a fly to the bug zapper.[break]
A few footsteps puts some distance between the masterless dog and the creature who would hold his leash. Being close to her sets the hairs on the back of his neck on end. Amber eyes observe her, observe the thing at her side. He wonders what would happen if the floating red blade fluttering around him were to strike her...[break]
No. They have Yumi. He can't do that. Not while they're watching.[break]
"The hell? Why would you do that? We can't die in here, but stuff can sure hurt." He barks, biting at the monster that would order him. "You do it, if you're some kinda masochist."[break]
Decorum and years in the employ of the Hasegawa taught him to act better than this. Yet still, he says the words. He bristles like a dog before a wolf.

"Exactly. Come on, let's get the hell outta here!" Hitoshi helps him at first, one creature in the pack helping another as they limp along. A limp turns into a walk, into a run, into a lope. Daylight is just ahead. Sweet, precious daylight. With it come promises of freedom, of hope, of tomorrow. This place is like being trapped in a nightmare. It's beyond dogs like them, but by necessity they will be forced through this time and time and time again, so long as they stay here.[break]
A quiet voice whispers as the floor crumbles beneath them: there is no escape. The more there is, the less you see. In this darkness, now devoid of light as they fall, they see so very, very little.[break]
One eye opens. Then another. Soon thousands of eyes turn upon them. For a moment, they are beheld. Something sees them. The moment passes, time shifts, the next sand in the hourglass falls.[break]
They are somewhere else.

What a beautiful song they all sing. Each voice is a promise, a hum, a beckon forward for the curious. It reminds Hitoshi of the stories told about this place in his youth. Whoresons would tell each other about other boys their age who went missing, who wandered into the Unown, never to be seen again. There is allure to the call. Something w o n d e r f u l waits for them.[break]
"Nah, Blue." Hitoshi pats the taller man on the shoulder. At the edge of his voice is a growl. They're beasts of the same cloth, two dogs cast about into this strange world. Creatures meant to die for the benefit of those above them. Amber eyes gaze into the darkness. They remember years spent in Galar. Regression may have sapped his honed skill, but they did not dull his mind.[break]
Within him is focus, a desire to return to Yumi. Boundless love for her that will not let him die.[break]
He knows that if he goes down this path, he breaks a promise to her.[break]
"I'm not gonna die here just so the people watchin' us can get some good data."

Through the desert wanders a ronin. About him floats a red blade, chittering useless questions. Above them is a canopy of purple, dotted with white. A young sky, yet to bear witness to all the evils that mankind will commit upon one another in the time between then and now. This land will bear witness to boundless fear, a thousand accumulated grudges, endless hatred, and envy beyond count.[break]
Those are tomorrow's concerns. Today, this ronin simply wishes his duty done. Beside him is a woman who, nominally, is his boss. One of his bosses. One allowed to hold his blade, to use him as he sees fit.[break]
Suddenly, he is haunted by the instructions given before they began the simulation.[break]
You can't really die in there, as far as we know.[break]
"Huh." He says when faced with the purple rock, pulsing with red veins. "It'd take an idiot to touch those."

Every atom in his body calls for this woman's destruction. It is not a decision born of hatred or even malice. Desire for death blooms from recognition of one fact: were her plans to come to fruition, the woman beside him would die. Placed in this scenario, this exact circumstance, even outnumbered, all he can do is attack. Move. Charge. Unleash the blade fluttering around him, waiting for his order.[break]
Perhaps, with this blade, he can strike. He can hit true. All he must do, after all, is secure one clean hit on the white-haired woman's throat. One clean slash through the jugular and all her many plans will fade away. Let the light of life leave her eyes, and with it the death she brings for their universe.[break]
"I'm not lettin' you or any of your friends take her." He calls out, voice crying thunder. Only one thing can stop what happens next.

This is no place for a dog.[break]
Amber eyes sit in patient silence, never leaving Naomi Sato. Every word is absorbed. She is the center of his world for the time she speaks. He looks at her with no great intelligence, only recognition. Whatever the deeper truths of this 'DRK Triad' are, they're not things meant for him. He's a grunt, a foot soldier, a creature that has his orders.[break]
This meeting is optional. No one, not even Yumi Hasegawa, ordered him to be here. His presence is one of his own volition. Twenty years ago, he wouldn't have cared. Others would learn the important information and disseminate it to him as needed. Twenty years is a long time, long enough to change a man. Long enough to give him perspective, make him care.[break]
While his voice retains the same swagger it had during the SPECTRA trials, it's a voice that has been beaten. Before it was molten metal, pouring from a cauldron. Now this voice holds a blade's voice and a blade's cadence.[break]
"Alright, Doctor. Let me speak for all the other grunts who don't even know what you're talkin' about. Can you tell us from the beginning who and what the DRK Triad are, or at least point us to a file that can catch us up to speed? When's the first time they showed up? What kind of powers do they have? Are they just trainers, or are they avatars?"[break]
He isn't afraid to ask stupid questions. He'll bear that shame if it equips him to survive what is to come. He made the woman for whom his soul howls a promise that he would come back to her. He made himself a promise that he would be strong enough to fight anything that stands between him and her.[break]
This is no place for a dog, but it is suitable enough for a blade.