-Horohoro! -Hey.
"Hey"? Is that it?
What the hell were you doing up in the mountains?
Sorry guys, my bad! I just needed to recharge the batteries.
I'll make up for the time I've lost us, though.
Now let's hit the road.
EPISODE 16 ENTER THE ULTRA-POMPADOUR
Horohoro seems so grown-up all of sudden.
I don't know why, but he seems more dependable somehow!
So why don't you cut him a little slack?
Sorry. He just looked so smug, and it pissed me off.
What can you do?
Don't worry about me.
Hey, guys!
We're here at last!
That's the place Lilirara told us about!
The old Patch Village,
Mesa Verdede!
We might be able to find an important clue here!
I'm getting kind of pumped!
All right!
Let's get on the scene and investigate!
What?
It's crawling with tourists!
It's become a total tourist trap.
What's going on here?
The chances of finding any clues look pretty slim now.
Well, we're here anyway,
so let's keep looking around.
Yes. You never know.
"Keep out"?
All right. Let's see what's past here.
Hey!
Boys.
If you want to see what's past there,
why don't you follow us?
Who are they?
Look closely.
I remember those faces.
They're Hao's minions!
What?
Hao…
Calm down, Lyserg.
What do you want with us?
Well, well…
Interesting.
What gives?
Excuse our manners.
I suppose you are his descendant,
but you really do have a striking resemblance to Lord Hao.
What?
Yoh is…
Hao's descendant?
Right…
Now I see why we look so alike.
-So laid-back! -So laid-back!
All right, punks!
Tell us what's going on here!
Whoa there! Sorry, but I can't tell you any more.
We have orders from Lord Hao
that we must put Mr. Yoh through a trying ordeal.
And to do that, he says we must kill his four friends!
Bastard!
What have you done to my Lyserg?
You damn pervert!
Over here, ugly one.
My…
Such weak, fragile beings.
Allow me to introduce my Spirit Ally.
Blamuro, the vampire hunter.
And I
am Boris Tepes Dracula.
A vampire.
A vampire hunter
and Dracula?
Cut the crap! Dracula is a fictional character from a novel!
Besides, if anyone's Dracula,
it's got to be that geezer over there!
Yes, you're right!
It's his hair and his beard!
There are only five of them, so why do they have two of the same type?
Man, that's lame!
You won't get away with that!
Being likened to such a shabby-looking man as he
is the gravest insult!
What?
Now my unique identity is protected.
Forgive me, Damayaji.
It's all their fault
for uttering such malicious slander.
My friend, please do me the kindness
of living on in me to give me your strength…
for all eternity.
-What's with him? -Those guys…
Their friend just died,
but they haven't even batted an eyelid.
I'm sorry. This is a bad habit of mine.
I let my emotions get the better of me.
Don't worry about it.
We don't need weaklings.
Just make sure you fight well enough to make up the numbers.
Yoh…
Lyserg!
Are you all right?
I'm so cold…
I feel like I could lose consciousness any minute…
Those bitten by my fangs
become vampires themselves, loyal to me.
What are you saying?
What's Dracula doing out here in broad daylight, anyway?
Silence!
What would a foolish human know?
In what world could a creature that turns to dust in the sunlight possibly exist?
In what world could a creature that has its eyes burned by the cross exist?
Don't you dare liken me to a fantasy
conceived of by foolish humans!
First, I'll wash out that mouth of yours--
Always be aware of your surroundings, asshole.
I'm the one you're fighting.
-Ryu! -Stay back if you're scared, Horohoro.
Now I'm seriously pissed.
Whether this is Dracula or not,
whatever Yoh has to do with Hao…
It's all the same to me right now.
I can't ignore people who hurt their friends so easily.
Yoh, look after Lyserg, okay?
Sorry, but for one night only,
"Wooden Sword" Ryu is the star of the show!
We're almost there.
We'll be arriving at Duringo in about an hour's time,
Master Manta.
You did well to persuade your father to let you come to America.
Though it was a surprise to me too when Anna told me to take her along.
The Shaman Fight?
No matter how many times it's explained to me, I don't understand.
It figures.
But I think that in these very times, we'll need Shamans, you know.
So I really want to see how the battle plays out for myself!
On your feet,
you absent-minded fool.
My, oh, my!
Now he's gone and done it.
There's no chance of an easy death now!
My face…
My beautiful face!
It's been contaminated!
By a filthy human!
You'll pay dearly for--
If your face is so precious,
then I guess I'll keep smashing it!
Let's dance.
I'm even more dangerous with my wooden sword.
I am "Wooden Sword" Ryu, after all.
Right, Tokageroh?
Hell Dragon Crimson Lizard!
Now's a good time to tell you
that this guy didn't have a great upbringing.
He's got an even worse personality than me.
I'm your senior in being bad by 600 years.
Watch the way you talk around me, asshole.
How strange.
I never knew that old bastard Ryu was so tough.
The only time he's properly fought
after training under my grandpa
was at your home, Ren.
I see.
It seems he's also a Shaman capable of commanding a higher spirit.
600 years after their death,
a human's soul gradually becomes less bound
by its original, corporeal form
and transforms into a pure soul.
You could say it becomes more and more like a monster.
He's flying?
You slipped up, Boris.
Please don't commit suicide from the shock.
I cannot die yet.
Not until I achieve
revenge in the name of the Tepes Dracula family!
I got tired of seeing that ages ago!
I couldn't give two damns who you are!
Come at me with fangs, claws, whatever. I'll blow them all away!
You fool.
What?
I am Boris Tepes Dracula.
A most noble vampire.
As expected.
Is the plan finally reaching its climax,
Hao?
Goldva!
Can we really stand back and let this happen?
I know your policy,
but he is far too dangerous!
The tragedy of 500 years ago is bound to be repeated!
Nevertheless,
regardless of what anyone thinks or does,
the one left standing at the end will be the King.
That is the Shaman Fight. What will be, will be.
What?
The main round has already begun.
Whoever wins this battle of survival
and makes it here is in the right.
Hey!
That's my blood!
What?
They multiplied?
They're sucking all my blood out!
Ryu!
Oh, you.
Master Yoh!
Lyserg!
What are you doing?
I did tell you.
Those bitten by a vampire become vampires!
Hey! What is that?
Blood grants me supreme power.
Wait…
This guy's a real monster?
You must be joking!
I'm out of here, asshole!
Hey!
Get back here, you coward!
Forsaken his master, has he?
That epitomizes mankind.
That's why I decided to serve Lord Hao and wipe humanity from existence!
Not even we can control Boris when he gets like this.
We'll go on ahead and let him deal with them before we get caught up in it.
Ahead?
Don't worry about it, Mr. Yoh.
Should Boris somehow manage to lose to you,
there is no doubt you will end up having to fight us
because this path leads to Patch Village.
Interesting.
So if we don't defeat this monster,
we can't progress any further.
You can still stand, can't you?
I can't let you get away with killing your own friend.
Not even if you're a monster,
and definitely not if you're human!
Still spouting that nonsense…
You have the same stench as me.
The stench of sadness
that comes from being rejected by others
and being left with no place to go!
You and I are the same?
Now you've crossed the line, human!
I've already figured out your secret!
You!
You thought I ran away, right?
I'm sure of it, Ryu.
His cloak is made of blood!
He's a Shaman who uses blood as an intermediary for his Over Soul!
BLAMURO
A Shaman with blood as his intermediary?
I see.
An explanation, at last.
By turning the blood to mist, he can conceal himself and appear to teleport.
What about Lyserg?
Ah, yes. He's being manipulated
by his Spirit Ally, Blamuro.
My ancestor, Vlad Tepes Dracula, was a mere mortal.
In fact,
he was a hero who protected his homeland from a great enemy.
Yet despite what he did for them,
the foolish and weak-minded masses
made him out to be an imaginary beast. A vampire.
In the 15th century,
Vlad was a grand duke in the small nation of Wallachia.
It was an age of war.
After a series of invasions, the Turkish Ottoman Empire
finally stepped foot on Wallachian soil.
With a fearsome strategy, Vlad forced the overwhelming force to make a retreat.
This victory made him a hero.
However,
this would also prove to be the beginning of my family's tragedy.
He made sure that the invading Ottoman Turks
would see the 20,000 corpses he had impaled on spikes.
This extreme ploy of his
would also make him notorious at home.
"Vlad the Impaler."
The people, fearful of Vlad, killed him.
And so the abominable legend was born
that Vlad Tepes was a blood-sucking vampire.
My family, left with nowhere else to go,
was left with no choice but to retreat deep into the Transylvanian forest.
But that was not to be the last of it.
Countless destroyers continue to torment us
in the name of "justice."
Have you realized?
One of those misguided fools is with us right now.
Blamuro, the vampire hunter.
We were powerless to defend ourselves
against our armed human assailants.
But then, one day,
a lone man came, having heard the vampire rumors.
I know more than anyone how foolish people can be.
So why not become real vampires
and get a little revenge?
Lord Hao gave us the light of hope
and the power of Shamans.
Hao?
We made an oath.
We will forever be Lord Hao's servants.
Until all of the weak, foolish humans were annihilated,
we would fight!
Blood gives me
even greater powers!
These spikes are made from the blood of the ignorant!
And I will impale you with them!
Naturally,
I will not permit any resistance.
If you move even an inch,
this boy will instantly thrust the sword into his own throat.
It's no good!
Lyserg is completely possessed!
If we move an inch, Lyserg will stab himself with Harusame.
But if we don't move, we'll be stabbed with these spikes!
We're in real danger.
Pardon me, but would you awfully mind restraining yourself, Mr. Yoh?
What allows me to have him possessed is his blood, you see.
His slender muscles have no effect on my Over Soul.
I can use their power to the fullest.
Blamuro will never allow his grip to slacken.
In life, as punishment for opposing the Tepes Family,
his misguided notion of justice was thoroughly broken
and his whole sense of self was destroyed.
So you're another spirit manipulator?
What a vulgar way to put it.
Isn't controlling spirits precisely what defines a Shaman?
Honestly, you can only be so pathetic.
If you abandon your friend, you might be able to save yourself.
Yet you cannot face living without him,
so you remain still!
That's why I cannot forgive you.
Through this punishment, you shall get a taste of the pain my family felt
at being hounded out of their home by puny humans!
Say your prayers.
When I swing this sword down, you shall all die.
Damn it!
Master Yoh!
Is that right?
You're getting ahead of yourself then.
It's okay.
Then we can all carry on together.
Then…
Then?
You mean, "Then we will all die."
Take this!
Death by Impalement!
I don't have enough hair.
Move it, Ryu.
I'm going to make some ice pops out of these spikes.
Or maybe some shaved ice instead!
Why?
Don't you care about your friend's life?
Come on, Horohoro.
When you smash something, you break it up so badly that it can never come back!
Super Golden Vorpal Dance!
It can't be!
It just can't be!
What are they thinking?
Very well!
Rip his throat wide open!
What is the meaning of this? Have you gone deaf, Blamuro?
It's futile.
I have reached out to this man and given him his heart back.
You have power over him no more!
How?
How did they…
Because we're friends!
Unlike you,
we've spent a lot of time together.
So we could tell what Yoh was saying.
I was once a Shaman who manipulated spirits too,
but spirits have hearts and minds too.
And then I lost to him.
And if he has a heart, then no matter what you do to him,
he may still listen to us.
Which is why we attacked.
To distract you.
Then I tried to appeal to him as best I could.
This is absurd!
If you had failed, the boy would have died!
But if we did nothing, everyone would die.
If something had happened to Lyserg, we'd have worked something else out.
You look like you can't believe it!
It's no wonder.
I'm made of different stuff from you!
A guy who gives up and chooses a path of destruction
will never be able to build anything!
No matter what comes my way, I'll never give up!
Not on my buddies, and not on my happy place!
I'll beat the crap out of you!
That's my way!
Subtitle translation by: Lewis Williams