Garo 5: MOONLIGHT

Kouga is walking down a crowded urban street at night. He overhears bits of many different conversations. It seems there are stories and legends starting to circulate around town about shadowy demons and a golden knight who fights them.

A girl is walking down a darkened street talking on her cell phone about monsters that have been lurking in the city and possessing people. As she is talking she is grabbed from behind, her cell phone falling to the ground.

At Kouga's mansion Kaoru is drawing a portrait of Gonza standing in an awkward tai-chi type pose. Not able to take it anymore he falls to the floor as Kouga enters the room. He wants to know why Kaoru is there. She explains she was kicked out of her apartment and needs a place to stay, reminding Kouga that he wants her to stay close by. Kouga says she will have to work to earn her keep at the mansion.

Later Kaoru brings out a soup that she has prepared for Kouga. But he has Gonzo taste it first, unfortunately for him as he runs off gagging from the bad taste. Kouga tries it, saying it's terrible.

In Kaoru's room she starts on a new painting, a portrait of Kouga. Her thoughts drift to her parents, who died when she was young. Since being alone for so long she's not gotten along very well with family or boyfriends. As she works the radio in the background announces a murder that has taken place. 23 year old Reiko Sagashi was found dead in her apartment, the suspect was a man who also lived in the building, pharmacist Shitoshi Morino.

In a deserted industrial workspace the pharmacist Morino holds the cell phone girl captive. He has her in a headlock, threatening her with a needle with deadly poison in it. He says he does not intend to harm her but as she asks why, the door busts in and a cop, Detective Hanesawa runs in. He tells Morino to not add to his crimes and to let her go. Morino says he did not kill Reiko and that Hanesawa just has a personal grudge against him. The Detective says that Morino never changes and has been using the same excuse since high school.

Kouga is deflecting automated weapon attacks in his dungeon-like workout room when Gonza enters with a card. He stops his practice to walk over and pick it up.

Back at the stand off the Det. Hanesawa is trying to make a call, but he can't get through. He says he is not calling for backup anyway and wants to finish this man to man. Morino says he was dating Reiko, is that so unforgivable? Hanesawa says he's chasing him because he thinks he's the murderer and that he should surrender now. Morino counters that he has no motive for killing Reiko. As the argument between these two old school-mates goes back and forth the girl hostage gets fed up and starts yelling at them to stop fighting with her in the middle of it. She's not involved.

Suddenly Hanesawa's composure changes. He looks into the darkness beyond the pharmacist and hostage, seeing a shadow creeping along the back wall. Morino and the girl seeing his expression also look. Then a hand drifts across a windowpane behind the detective. All three look around nervously.

Out on an old, wooden, countryside bridge Zaruba is telling Kouga that this is bad, a Horror is already on the loose. A handbag lying on the bridge was left by a woman taken over by the Horror. Kouga ask why it's way out here and Zaruba answers that humans like this place. It seems it is known as a spot for committing suicide. As they talk a moth flutters by, leaving an iridescent trail of dust behind it. Zaruba says the woman's thoughts are bundled into it. Kouga says it is trying to tell him something and Zaruba replies that is it saying, "I don't want to die by becoming a monster. Cut off my dark half." Kouga decides to follow the moth.

At the industrial workspace the three are trying to break out of the building, but it seems to be impossible for them to open the doors and windows. The two high school rivals continue to argue back and forth. The angry girl wonders how after all that is happening they can keep this bickering up, they are not even thinking about the dead girl.

In the sanctuary of the three fairy guardians Keiru, Bell and Rose talk amongst themselves about the full moon. At its zenith the Horror, Lunarkin,will start to feed.

Kouga continues to follow the luminescent moth while Zaruba tells him that Lunarkin will lay dormant in the human host until the moon is full, in one hour.

Hanesawa is laying face down on the floor, he has been tripped by a disembodied hand. As he lays there, a horrid, ghostly woman's face flashes next to him. As Morino and the girl scream in terror, hands grip the pharmacist's shoulders and the ghostly head appears just in-between his feet. More hands grab at the hair of the terrified girl as the apparitions face appears above her as well. The whole place is invaded by the dead woman's shade.

The ghost grabs the girl and starts to drag her into the shadows, but she is able to break free. As she does the Detective draws his revolver and fires several shots into the cadaverous figure, which of course has no effect. Then Morino tries to stab her with his syringe of poison but is easily thrown across the room.

Unexpectedly the monster goes down as the screaming ex-hostage girl smashes its skull repeatedly with a large piece of wood. As the three recompose themselves Kouga tries entering the building but faces a supernatural barrier. He and Zaruba discuss the problems. The barrier is easy to penetrate, but the fact that there are humans trapped with the horror is troublesome since he does not want to reveal GARO to anymore people. The rumors are already getting pretty bad.

The three again try to escape, but as the full moon reaches its zenith the corpse girl springs back to life, this time covered in a cocoon of thousands of moths. Kouga enters and quickly attaches a piece of paper with a runic symbol to the foreheads of the three hostages, which causes them to pass out. As he faces the moth cocoon they explode away revealing the Horror Lunarkin, which unlike most other horrors is in the form of a beautiful woman swathed in a warm glow accentuating the very bright reds, blues and greens of her dress and red hair. At her command is a small levitating ball that looks like a miniature cratered moon but glowing orange and red, like molten lava.

She points at Kouga and the lava ball instantly shoots out, hitting him in the mid-section and smashing him against a wall. He pulls his Makai Blade to fend off the ball, which grows out viscous spikes that try to impale him. While fighting off the spiked ball he finds a chance opening and leaps at Lunarkin to slice her with his blade, but she easily defends with a force shield that tosses Kouga away like a rag doll. It is time to summon the GARO armor.

Kouga transforms into GARO, jumping at Lunarkin again. She tries to defend with her shield but it shatters under the GARO blade. She disintegrates into thousands of moths, which fly behind GARO and reforms again. She commands her spiked ball to make another attack but this time the GARO Blade pierces it, pinning it in mid-air.

This also affects Lunarkin who as she struggles painfully tells him "you don't understand a woman's anger or suffering". GARO retorts that he just doesn't understand a woman's heart, with that he twists the sword, making the glowing orb explode and in the same instant slashes the blade through the Horror. She disintegrates into thousands of moths again which also disintegrate. Zaruba says that the woman probably had troubles with a man, which created her dark half, which could be possessed by Lunarkin. Zaruba muses that though it is troublesome, the relationships between men and women are very interesting. Kouga simply says "To me, it's all nonsense".

At Kouga's mansion Gonza is setting the dinner table as Kaoru asks him about Kouga. She asks why he's always in such a bad mood, but Gonza says it's more like he is "cool". She says it's too flattering and he doesn't understand women and that he is weird. More thoughtfully Gonza tells her that Kouga lost his parents at an early age and that his only family is him, his butler. That's why he doesn't involve himself with other people.

In Kaoru's room she stares silently out the window at the moon. In the center of the room stands the finished painting of Kouga.

In a car mostly likely heading to the police station, the pharmacist Morino, the girl and Detective Hanesawa listen to the radio news. There is breaking news that the case of Reiko Sagashi has been solved. It seems an unemployed man had broken into her apartment to burglarize it. Reiko caught him in the act so he murdered her. The police offer their apologies to Morino. Later, in a public phone booth the girl continues her conversation with her friend from before the kidnapping, saying that she lost her cell phone. When asked about the city legends she says she has forgotten.