| Battle 11 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Chapter | 11 |
| Total pages | 21 |
| Released | 1992 |
| Story Arc | {{{story arc}}} |
| Chapter Navigation | |
| previous Battle 10 |
next Battle 12 |
Battle 11 of Battle Angel Alita is Bitter Dreams (苦い夢 Nigai Yume?), subtitled Broken Hearts. It was originally titled Guilty Dreams.
Cover
Alita and Hugo standing back to back.
Plot
The next day Vector is in his office was reading a news article about the incident the previous night. It mentions that near Ammonia Avenue at 20:12 Zapan tried to steal Hugo's head from Alita. She destroyed his face and he fell from the building they were on. Alita did not turn the head in for the bounty, claiming that she intended to bury it.
At Daisuke Ido's clinic, he and Gonzu finish transplanting Hugo's head onto the cyborg body of a patient who died of a stroke. Gonzu is apprehensive about the possible implications of reviving a bounty, but Ido suggests that he will keep quiet about it, as Hugo is officially dead. Ido then tells Alita that if she had not connected Hugo's neck to her life support system his brain cells would have died from lack of oxygen. When she states that her recklessness was what jeopardized Hugo, Ido counters that it was Hugo's belief that he could get to Tiphares. As Hugo begins to regain consciousness, he hears Ido tell Alita that as a former Tipharean he knows full well that no one from the surface can ever get there and that he should have told them sooner.
Hugo screams that this is a lie and breaks through the operating room door. He tries to make a grab for Ido but the power cables supplying electricity to his body come undone and he falls to the floor, a precaution that Ido takes in case his patients become violent. After Alita confirms that she has Hugo's stash of chips, she asks Ido to set Hugo up so he can move on his own in order for them to confront Vector.
At Vector's office Alita and Hugo force their way in, with Hugo wearing Ido's black hat and trench coat. Vector is surprised to see Hugo, who lays out his 10 million chips for passage to Tiphares. He tries to talk Hugo out of this with his offer of an intermediate supply route, but Hugo refuses to budge. Vector then reveals that he can only send Hugo to Tiphares if his organs are harvested, as he sends one person's worth to the aerial city once a month. He denies that he was going to rob Hugo and harvest his organs, believing that he would give up on his dream if an outrageous sum was named. Vector confirms that he has never been to Tiphares and tries to pin the blame on Hugo for being too naive. When Hugo approaches him, he calls for Zaariki, who bursts into the office. Alita pins Zaariki's arm to the floor before he forces her off with his free arm. Before he can use his Dance of the Sabato Crab Alita executes a forward somersault in the air that smashes in his brain with both feet. Hugo then grabs Vector by the neck and pins him to the wall.
Trivia
- This marks the second time that Gonzu helps Ido with a major operation, the first being to transplant Alita into the Berserker Body.[1]
- Vector's employee who warns him about Alita and Hugo is the same body parts vendor who was selling his brother's hand.[2]
- It is later revealed in Last Order that the Medical Inspection Bureau periodically added a surface dweller's DNA into the Tipharean gene pool to maintain its diversity.[3]
- The technique Alita used to kill Zaariki does not appear again. In volume 1 of Gunnm Works it is called Kumai Sharinraku.
- There are a few key differences between the events of this chapter and the OVA:
- Yugo leaves Ido's clinic and is pursued by Gally. He does not go to Vector's but instead begins climbing one of the Factory tubes, which he does in the next chapter.
- Ido is enraged at Vector's lying to Yugo and is the one who confronts him in his office. After learning that Chiren's organs have been harvested, he is confronted by and fights Zahriki. When Ido kills Zahriki with his rocket hammer, the latter's severed torso flies into and impales Vector.
- There are a few differences between this chapter and the corresponding events in Gunnm: Martian Memory:
- Hugo confronts Vector after fleeing Ido’s clinic without disguising himself in Ido’s trench coat and hat.
- After talking with Vector and Gally, who follows him to Vector’s, Hugo runs off.
- Zaariki does not appear and Vector is not threatened.
References
Template:Tears of an Angel