Mr. Tachibana (film)/Plot

The events of which take place during Mr. Tachibana.

Prologue
On the human colony world Tinixia II, an Eclipse Military base comes under attack by a group of Galactic Rebels who have targeted the base for its large supply of Experimental Titan-X battle suit, an armour system which has an incredibly large value on the galactic black market and know a guy who is able to fence them for over 250 million dollars each; possibly granting them over billions. As they detonate explosives throughout the base, the Rebels are able to successfully secure a small freighter with at least 30 of these suits onboard, however they are stopped by General Blackburn, a genetically enhanced super soldier, and proceeds to kill all of the Rebel gunmen. Although he is ordered by Special Operations Command, through his earpiece, to secure the freighter and ensure all of the suits were in Eclipse Military hands, he decides to push his plan of galactic conquest forward and instead kills the Rebels on the freighter and takes off, disappearing and going off the grid with the suits. Special Forces General Priscilla Adams reports to High Command that Blackburn has "gone rogue" and soon after, High Command General of the Army Brooks says that due to the genetics he had received by Eclipse Research Laboratories, it would be a waste to use Eclipse Military assets. A day later, Brooks issues a bounty on Blackburn and allowed anyone capable to take it, many Jokers and Galactic Rebels proceed to track down the rogue General. After hearing about the incident and the bounty issued by High Command, Ruby Rose decides to locate an old friend to see if he would take the bounty as it offered a reward of 100 million dollars to the person who kills Blackburn or 500 million for bringing him back to the Eclipse Empire alive, as she thinks the money would do him good.

Act I
For the next few weeks after attempting to locate her friend, Ruby is able to track down Mr. Tachibana, finding him on The Frontier where he spends most of his days after the events of the Rose Squad Trilogy, and is now the captain of The Forsaken, a Huldrian-built Halcyon-class heavy freighter which belonged to a crew of smugglers before winning it from them in Gambit, a card game created by The Drifter. Before going to the Frontier, Ruby changes out of her Titan-X armour in order to not draw any attention to herself and wears Frontier-like clothing to blend in. After arriving on the Frontier, she makes her way to the nightclub [Empty Tank where Tachibana was last seen and is given entry by the Wolves; who seem to know who she is but ignore her. She recognizes the music that's currently playing, asking herself how and why she felt like she knew the song and proceeds to take a look around to see if Mr. Tachibana was in the club and sees him over at the bar drinking, and she makes her way over to him. As she approaches the bar, she initiates their conversation by saying she didn't expect to find him in a hellhole like the Frontier, let along a bar and drinking booze. He looks over to his right and sees Ruby, and chuckles. He asks her if she was there to claim the bounty that's been on his head for the past four years; she says no and slides over a holotab to him, displaying the bounty information on Blackburn including the rewards listed at the bottom. He takes a minute and examines it; she adds, saying that her commanding officer was willing to vouch for him and clear his name if he were to complete it. He looks at her and asks if it was a trap or scam, she nods no and tells him that it also wasn't specifically issued to just him; that probably every other Galactic Rebel group and Joker are all probably searching for Blackburn. He finishes his drink and gets up, she follows behind him.

Leaving the Empty Tank, they walk and talk on their way to Mr. Tachibana's ship which was docked at a nearby landing pad. Ruby expresses her condolences about the Armoury, The Derelict and all that happened four years earlier. After filling him in on her recent ventures, she tells him about Blackburn and how he was different from both Titan-SSs and Titan-Xs; that his genetics were more advanced and beyond what both the Titan-SS Initiative and Titan-X Program gave her and Rose Squad. He grins and says the more advanced the better the fight he would get from him. She smiles and calls him the "most overconfident Joker" she'd ever met. They reach his ship and immediately Ruby recognizes it as The Forsaken, and asks how he was able to get it. He replies with that he won it from the previous crew in the game that Drifter created, Gambit, and that the previous crew are "probably dead now" due to problems that arose. Just as he is boarding the ship, she asks him if he was going to get The Drifter to help him with the bounty; he stops and paused for a moment. He only replies with a simple no. He continues on inside and watches from the cockpit as Ruby walks off and back to the Beacon. He starts up the Forsaken and takes off from the landing pad where it was docked. Breaking into orbit, he sets the ship on autopilot while he goes in the back to figure out where Blackburn is, checking the holotable which had a map of the galaxy as well as numerous other technological equipment that allowed him to tap into the Eclipse Military Networks and access the galactic grid; he checks Blackburn's last known whereabouts, discovering it was just updated and that he was on Harmony meeting with a group of Galactic Rebels called the Agents of Change, a group that he knew was always trouble and just a bunch of "fancy-pants Rebels" with better equipment and weapons than most Galactic Rebel groups. He immediately rushes to the cockpit and sets the ship's course to Harmony in order to catch him off-guard and hopefully bring him back to the Eclipse Empire's High Command, alive for the maximum payout.

On Harmony, Blackburn and The Grand Praetorian are discussing a possible alliance between them; Blackburn offering the Experimental Titan-X battle suits under the condition they join his private mercenary army he was currently gathering. However, Ester is hesitant towards his offer while Alison doesn't care, as long as the pay roll is good and she isn't considered expendable. The Grand Praetorian asks him if he were able to get his hands on more of these suits; he answers, telling him that his condition still stands if he were to get his hands on more of the suits. Grand Praetorian then says he's gonna speak with Ester and Alison about the offer first. As Blackburn waits; Ester protests against the offer and says it would be better if they just steal their own, but Grand Praetorian asks him exactly how he would plan an attack on an Eclipse Military facility without losing all of their men in a single attack; Ester doesn't answer. Alison expresses as long as they are paid well for their services, she has no objections to joining Blackburn's army. The Grand Praetorian goes back to the rogue General and tells him they accept the condition but he would need at least 80 more of the suits in order to outfit the rest of his men. Both men shake hands; their deal now locked in place and there is no turning back. The Agents leave the area and just before Blackburn is able to leave, Mr. Tachibana jumps down from his vantage point with Black Talon, however he immediately takes notice and steps out of the way.

Both men see eye to eye as Mr. Tachibana misses his shot and stares at Blackburn, who returns the gesture and looks back at him. The General expresses disappointment in the once "greatest Joker" to ever live, and that his opening attack on him was sloppy. Mr. Tachibana readies Black Talon once again and proceeds his attempts to apprehend Blackburn but he does not let up and continues to resist against the Joker's persistence. The two engage in close quarter combat; Mr. Tachibana using Black Talon, displaying his mastery with swords while Blackburn is simply just deflecting the slashes thrown at him with his forearms, as swords essentially did not go through his armour. The advanced General remarks on the Joker's ability to fight, saying he may have underestimated him and tells him to simply back off. He replies saying that the bounty on his head will be his. Launching his final attack against Blackburn, he is counterattacked and the General power-punches him, sending Tachibana flying back towards the wall behind him. The General chuckles and tells him to save his skills and fight someone else, or he would be forced to kill him, which is something he says he doesn't want to do as it would be wasting perfect talent, and he takes off.

Mr. Tachibana sits up holding his left rib cage and says to himself that he might need to get some help, which is all he says to himself before getting up, leave the area and return to the Forsaken before Blackburn sends some of his men to finish him off.