Masashi Takeda smirked ruefully to himself as the heavily-fortified door to his safe room was suddenly blown apart. BanchoLeomon lowered his fist as he stepped through the ruined doorway, glowing with light as he split apart into Lucas and Leomon. 

“What’s the matter, Okada-kun?” Takeda chuckled as he lay back in his seat, relaxed even as Lucas leveled his pistol at the man, flipping the safety off. “Afraid that I’ll pull the same trick I did with your friend? Don’t worry. You saw how much electricity that machine took to power. From what I’m told, the building’s capacitors are blown out. Call it a drawback that R&D wasn’t able to fix before you came.” 

“That’s nice.” Lucas spat as he placed his finger on the pistol’s trigger. “Tell you what, I’m going to make you a deal here; you tell me what I want to know, and you die clean. One headshot. You keep quiet or I think you’re lying, well, who knows. My aim might be a little off. You might take a while to go.” 

Takeda laughed. “Vicious, yet strategic. How ironic that Hideki-san’s bastard is the one that’s the most like him.” Lucas snarled, raising his pistol, only for Leomon to lay a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. 

“Don’t let him bait you, Lucas. We’re here to get answers from this scum. Don’t let him get off easy just yet.” 

Lucas exhaled, nodding. “Well, either way, I’m pretty sure I already know why you’re doing all this, considering your political affiliations, but I’d like to hear it out of your mouth. Just to clarify.” He said coldly. 

“You’ve obviously looked me up. But you’d be correct: I want Japan to return to the height of its imperial majesty.” Takeda said, no longer smiling. “We were respected as an international power once. When I was a boy, before the war, we were raised to believe that we were a superior people. Asia was our birthright to take. Then we lost the war.” He spat bitterly. “And then came our humiliation. For over sixty years, we’ve bowed before the Western powers, tried to make ourselves look as harmless as possible. Now the rest of the world regards us as spineless salarymen and sexual deviants.” 

“So what, you thought Digimon would make Japan a superpower again?” Lucas questioned, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not technically wrong, but what you’re doing here is almost as bad as Unit 731.” 

“You imprisoned and experimented on sentient, intelligent creatures.” Leomon scowled, clenching his fists in anger. “And even held one of your own kind prisoner. How would you justify this?” 

“Simple, really.” Takeda responded smoothly. “Anything to ensure Japan returns to the prominence it deserves. Compared to that, what are the lives of a few meaningless artificial intelligences and one insignificant girl?” 

“No remorse, huh? I figured as much.” Lucas sighed. “Fine. Let’s get down to the real business then. Just one more thing until you can go.” He said. 

___

“That’s everything, then.” Lucas said, satisfied with what he’d gotten. “You’ve kept your side of the bargain, so I’ll keep mine.” He raised his pistol to Takeda’s head, who simply nodded and smiled. 

“Thank you for keeping your word.” He said, closing his eyes as Lucas pulled the trigger. 

[b][i]Bang.[/i][/b]

Takeda’s brains splattered against the safe-room walls. Shaking his head, Lucas flicked the safety back onto his pistol, unloaded the magazine, cleared the chamber, and tucked it away, nodding at Leomon. 

“Are you alright?” Leomon asked in concern, laying a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “That was the first kill you’ve made on your own, without being Biomerged. I can’t imagine it was easy.” 

“It wasn’t.” Lucas said with an uncharacteristic terseness. “But we’ve killed plenty already, haven’t we? First all those Digimon, and then we as good as killed those two dozen people earlier. Let’s just go. I’ve got one last thing to do in dear old dad’s office.”