Zoid Hunters! A Man's Promise is the 43rd episode of Zoids: Wild. It first aired in Japan on the 11th of May 2019.
Overview
Team Freedom head off towards Death Metal, but get side tracked and end up having lunch instead. Here they meet up with Sanratan. She informs them that Gyoza's doing well, but she was really here to meet her "angel", and Mitsuba, a young boy who lives in a village nearby. She coerces Freedom to protect her at risk of increasing their already substantial debt. Also in the restaurant are the Raptor trio from Death Metal, led by Soders.
As the team head off, they are ambushed in the dark by none other than the people Sanratan was trying to meet. The group is a bunch of kids who seemingly hate Zoids and Zoid Hunters.
Its shown that their village was destroyed as collateral damage in a battle between the Resistance and Death Metal. The kids lament how a Zoid Hunter had promised to protect their village, but had obviously lied in that promise.
The Zoid Hunter turns out to be none other than Bacon.
Arashi, realising that Bacon wasn't a lier, but doesn't defend him. He hesitates thinking the children would be better off believing Bacon's a lier than rather realising he kept his promise, but had died in the meantime.
When talking with the other members of Freedom, Arashi realises that the kids are stronger than they seem, he resolves to tell them what happened to Bacon. To do so, he takes Mitsuba with him on a run with the Liger. The kid obviously loves Zoids, but when Arashi goes to tell him what happened to Bacon, Mitsuba works out what had happened.
It turns out he was only half angry at Bacon. Because when Bacon left, Mitsuba had also promised to protect what's important to him, e.g. his family. The boy had also failed in his promise, and not realising Bacon was dead made him shift the blame to Bacon. Both Arashi and Mitsuba overcome this, and reinstate their love for Zoids.
Having befriended Arashi, Mitsuba asks him to show his invincible Wild Blast, which Arashi agrees.
As he does so, the three Death Metal Raptors show up nearby. Sanratan engages against them not wanting to let them get close to Mitsuba. But Soders reveals he has a Death Metal Key, even though Sanratan can use a Wild Blast, a Death Blast could turn the tables in battle. However, it's revealed that only Soders has a key, Zammas and Azas don't have one. The trio argue over who should use it, and in that time are defeated by Sanratan without ever actually unleashing their Death Blast.
Towards the end of the episode, Arashi is about to offer Mitsuba a Freedom badge, but is beaten to the punch by Mitsuba saying he's going to form a team of his own and explore the world. Arashi pockets the Freedom badge and agrees, telling him they'll seek out the Great Ancient Treasure Z.
At this point, the boy tells Arashi he's heard of that before. He had overheard some Resistance forces talking about it, and their information had come from an "old man". The team quickly piece together that this person is none other than the Mushi Hermit, who they had trained with some time ago.
They decided to head back to him to see what he knows about the Great Ancient Treasure Z.
Trivia
- The way Arashi is about to offer a Freedom badge and is interrupted is the same as what happened between Bacon and Arashi at the start of the series.