Dandy Lion/Summary

## Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War

### Fifth Battle: Snake in One's Bosom

The profile of Dandy Lion is given, including his crime of rioting and treason. He was originally a soldier in the air force who, through his charisma, managed to stage a revolution and overthrow his country's government. However, after brutal and inhumane treatment of both the rebel army and the opposition, the world turned against him and he had to flee the country. His love of astrology is also mentioned, revealing that he was the one who gave all the war criminals their aliases.

#### 1

Dandy Lion watches the air strike carried out on the old castle used by the twelve warriors by Double Mind, which he ordered, the narration remarking that he's the first one to use weapons as large scale as missiles in rapid succession in the history of the Zodiac War. He wonders if the remaining warriors truly died, to which the Double Mind twins ask him what they should do, commenting that the remaining warriors aren't as straightforward as the Tatsumi brothers, and might have managed to escape. Dandy Lion thinks about which warriors haven't died yet, to which Double Mind enumerate them: Sharyuu, Niwatori, Inounoshishi and Dotsuku. Dandy Lion remembers how Sharyuu managed to unite his scattered birthplace, before ordering Double Mind to crash the aircraft into the remains of the castle, just in case, as well as to not neglect the monitoring of the area.

#### 4

In truth, Dandy Lion didn't think the air strike would be successful at killing the warriors, and only wanted to flush them out of the castle, as the warriors, more experienced in combat, might be able to even the scores in a drawn-out battle of attrition. While he doesn't know about Niwatori's ability, Dandy Lion assumes that they'd find a way to sense the approaching attack, but looking out at the area through binoculars, he doesn't see any of them running out, and wonders if they really died in the bombing. The Double Mind twins ask if they should go and confirm the deaths, though commenting that, if they didn't manage to escape, there probably isn't any fragment of their bodies left. Dandy Lion remains silent, falling deep into thought.

#### 6

Standing at the entrance of the cave that the warriors headed to after escaping from the air strike, Dandy Lion boldly steps inside without a second thought, followed by Double Mind. Sharyuu's escape plan had been a success, as the war criminals were unable to detect the escape of the warriors, but Dandy Lion nonetheless followed his intuition rather than logic, and continued to believe that the warriors didn't really die. Once he came to that conclusion, he decided it would be a waste of time to check the site of the bombing, and instead headed directly for the cave―a place which the strategist of the war criminals, Sir Cancer, had deliberately left unguarded in order to create an escape route for the warriors that the war criminals can exploit. Using Double Mind and their weapons to cut off all the forks in the road as they encountered them, Dandy Lion's group steadily advances through the natural labyrinth. Though the noise must have alarmed the warriors inside, Dandy Lion doesn't mind, refusing to sneak around his prey.

However, after blocking off every fork in the road and arriving at the end of the cave, Dandy Lion doesn't find anyone. Wondering if his intuition had been wrong and the warriors really just died, Dandy Lion decides to have the younger twin's submarine bombard the cave as well. However, before he can give the order, the Double Mind twins yell out to him, telling him to look up. As he raises his head, he sees missles mixed in with the stalactites. Instinctively, Dandy Lion yells out the order to evacuate, having no time to logically process why missiles would be up there. The narration reveals that the warriors had used the remaining dud missles that didn't detonate to set up a trap, and used the stalactites to create an ignition device, with the dripping water serving as a time signal. The remaining missles finally doing their job and detonating, the cave was blown up, disappearing without a trace, and with it both Dandy Lion and Double Mind.