Lamentable Nights: Act 05.1 - "Enjoy the little things"

[AYC]

(In which Lazarus learns to make an exception.)

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 9:40 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PC: Leuel (Lazarus)
NPCs: Blacky
================

Having been ditched by her new, kind of mean and kind of scary friend, after about ten minutes around the park, Leuel concludes that she's officially alone again.

Rather than the possibility of being intentionally left behind, the sheer thought of being unable to track the lady with her Friend Sensor for at least a few more hours brings tears to her eyes.

Nnn... where did you go, Miss Harley?

This has probably been her fifth lap around the perimeter of the park, but still no signs of the black-haired lady. In her woe, Leuel squats down on the side of the path to lament safely and properly.

W-w-why do all my friends keep disappearing on me...?! First the cool jacket-wearing guy, then Threads... and Lilia... and now Miss Harley too..!

Amidst the sniffles and rivers of tears, she manages to make out a small, dark figure dart out from between some legs in the crowd. It kind of looks... familiar?

"It's the kitty!"

As if on cue, the black cat dashes in her direction and jumps into her outstretched arms, visibly shaking from whatever kind of trauma it must've experienced. Or escaped from.

"Mew!"

"Eh? What's wrong kitty? Where's Miss Harley?"

At the sound of her mean lady friend, the cat immediately jumps and looks behind itself apprehensively, as if in terrible fear. "Mew..."

Leuel tilts her head to the side in confusion. It can't be that... kitty's afraid of Miss Harley, could he? Although she has to admit that Miss Harley is kind of intimidating and mildly rabid when she gets angry, she's not that bad. After all, Leuel's seen worse in frightening creatures called children.

Just remembering sends shivers down her spine.

"It's okay, kitty! I'll protect you from all those scary things out there! Like children and Blights!"

As if to demonstrate, she straightens up with a little hop and stares straight forward and through her bear head, in complete focus and concentration. She can very vaguely feel Threads somewhere else, and Lilia somewhere in the direction of Materion, and two blips for her jacket-wearing friend.

Two blips? Eh?

Didn't Miss Harley say something about this?

One of the signals was definitely coming from the kitty in her arms, but the other one was coming from somewhere else. It's still really weird, and she doesn't really get it, but for now, Leuel decides not to think too much about it.

Maybe it's the real jacket-wearing friend's signal?

If it is, at least it doesn't look like it's in any danger. Her Blight sense is telling her that the closest Blight is far from him, but actually...

Really close to her.

Eh?

EH?

EHHHHHHHHHH?!?!?

In great alarm, the kitty yelps as Leuel suddenly starts spinning on the spot in search for anything that looks like a dangerous Blight. Anything black, shadowy and -

And..?

Isn't the kitty black and kind of shadowy?

She really hadn't noticed it before until now, when she looks down and sees something kind of black and wispy emanating from the tip of its tail. Didn't she hear Miss Harley exclaiming about this too?

As if confirming the truth, Leuel's Blight sense starts going haywire.

...

"...Mew?"

. . .

"..?"

...................

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

Probably just about as terrified out of his wits as Leuel is, the cat-Blight leaps out of her arms and starts dodging the huge flashes of lightning with it's nimble size to the best of its ability, slipping between the forks bare millimeters from imminent doom. It's really bright and blinding though, and in her panic Leuel can't really control herself or pay attention to what she's hitting.

A few moments later though, she manages to calm down and the blasts subside. Much to her great relief, there aren't any dead Crosser or Stray bodies lying anywhere, but it's to her rekindled horror that the cat-Blight seems to be in more or less one piece, unscathed.

Even if it does look rather tired, slumped over on its side like that in exhaustion. That doesn't stop Leuel from quaking though, especially when it lifts its head and looks at her wearily.

"... Mew."

... Why?

"Eh?"

"Mew!"

Why did you do that?!

"E-eh..?"

Although she doesn't know a single word it's saying, somehow she's able to understand at the same time. It's kind of weird and mysterious, but in her terror, Leuel couldn't bring herself to run away even if she wanted to.

I-I thought you said you were going to protect me? mews the kitty, little tears welling up in his eyes. I thought you were going to keep that scary Panzer lady away from me...

"Miss Harley?"

He nods in reply. But then you suddenly started blasting me! It was r-r-really scary! I thought I was going to disappear and never see my master again!

"You... have a master too?" Somehow Leuel's starting to feel really bad and guilty about what she's done. She didn't know Blights could have masters too... unless it's kind of what a Crosser is to a Stray? Which kind of makes her feel worse.

All I wanted was some funnel cake, musters the kitty through tears. I thought we could've been friends...

A lightning bolt of some other kind falls out of the sky and strikes Leuel right in the heart. She doesn't even realize it at first but her shaking in fear has somehow turned into shaking of a different variety. Namely tears of sadness for what a terrible thing she's done to the poor kitty, even if it is a Blight!

Against all she's thought and done before, Leuel takes a few steps towards it. It still scares her greatly, but... she really can't turn her back on a friend, can she?

"I'm sorry, kitty..."

Eh? It's kind of weird. She's never thought a Blight could ever be so warm in her arms before.

Maybe... this is what friendship could do to a Blight?!

===

As an apology to her new, first-ever Blight friend that for some reason feels like her jacket-wearing friend at the same time, Leuel accompanies him to the funnel cake stand.

"Is... that what it is?" she asks, eyeing the strips of fried dough and colorful sugary toppings. "Is it good?"

"Mew!"

"Oh, okay." Leuel watches the dough drop into the oil with a small sizzle, and kind of wishes she was human and physical to taste it.

Though, that reminds her...

"How are you able to eat it? Aren't you ethereal too?" Her friend looks up at her with a knowing grin and an expression that said "you'll see".

It makes a great many question marks appear over her head.

Even more so, when it kind of... shimmers for a bit as it jumps out of her arms, pounces on the stall person, just as he's handing a customer his treat, and promptly steals the plate in an instant.

Leuel doesn't even get what's going on when her friend bolts through the crowd, an angry man behind her as she chases the mysteriously now-physical cat-Blight in his escape through the square.

What was that?

Is this something else friendship does to a Blight?!

[AYC]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 9:35 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PC: M
Other PCs: Lanette, Mirto, Leuel (Lazarus)
================

"So let me get this straight, we're looking for a woman with dark hair and supposedly piercing green eyes?"

"Yup! Eyes that... could probably pierce into your soul is a good way to put it."

M pauses at this to contemplate if it really was a good idea to take along with this chick to help her look for her... caretaker was it? Something like that.

The pair of them don't really get too far before a loud growl emanants from the direction of his companion.

M promptly begins staring as the shorter girl struggles to muffle the sounds with her hands. Honestly, he doesn't really get the point of doing that, but he ultimately decides to cut her some slack with how flushed her face has gotten from embarrassment.

"Hungry? It's not even noon yet."

"Ehehe... I think I burned off all my breakfast energy from the show..." M raises an eyebrow slightly, but then shrugs.

Is that how humans work? It's not like dead guys need to eat, and he doesn't remember anything about it from his time as a human. His observations of Sanae and her roommates don't really match up either, but even they had a weird smattering of habits. He remembers walking around in the middle of night and catching one of them binging on sweets, and another time when he found another one stooped over the scale in tears over gaining a kilogram or two.

It had been terribly awkward and personally it made him kind of glad that Sanae seemed to maintain a pretty systematic diet of... sometimes weirdly prepared food. The woman apparently doesn't know how to cook for the life of her and it's kind of miracle nothing's been set on fire yet.

The sound of Lanette's stomach grumbling again snaps him out of his thoughts and back at the struggling girl at his side. She looks pretty uncomfortable and kind of distracted, especially with the smell of food wafting from the nearby stalls.

"Want to get something to eat?" he offers, and he's not sure how to take it when she reacts in a flustered flurry of hand gestures.

"Eh? No, I'm...!" Her voice drifts off slightly as she reassesses her situation before she corrects herself with, "Yes, please. I feel like I'm going to die!"

He doesn't really know if he's supposed to be amused or what, but with the straightest face he can muster, he drags her into the Rozen Queen castle of stalls before she can actually make good on her comment.

Five minutes of razing the entire place of not only food but also merchandise, Lanette seems a lot more cheerful and energetic than the embarrassed, famished girl outside before. The metamorphosis is kind of jarring but also kind of impressive at the same time. Especially when the girl's stomach is sort of like some kind of crazy black hole.

M can't say this for sure, but for comparison against a moderately-sized group of people, she could probably out-eat Martin and his entire Go-class in one sitting.

Hot damn. What a monster.

"Here you go, kid."

"Oh, thanks! Wait -"

And she still doesn't look quite done yet. Holy shit. Good thing he's dead and doesn't have any kind of gentlemanly chivalry in him at all, because he'd rather not imagine the notion of him having to pay for his companion's snacks.

Ultimately, he decides not to think about how the girl in question herself is even able to pay for all of this in the first place. There are some things he'd rather not blow a fuse figuring out, and the mysterious livelihood of a teenage Crosser girl is one of them.

"Are you done eating yet? We still have to find that woman of yours."

Lanette looks up at him from her ice cream with a bright smile. It kind of reminds him of Sophia, just less sunny and more demure. "Yup! Just let me finish this -"

M raises an eyebrow as her eyes go wide at something behind him, and she starts waving wildly at... whatever it is. He leans back slightly to avoid getting slapped in the face by her open palm.

"Mirto! Mirto! Over here!"

... Mirto?

"Come on!" she tells him as she grabs him by the arm and through some magnificent display of strength, wheels him around and starts lugging him in the direction of some stall they had neglected earlier.

"Hi Mirto! Are you working?"

It takes M a while to realize it, but the sole attendant in the stall was none other than Jacket's ex-Crosser, handling a series of machinery and a colorful selection of toppings. To be honest, M's never seen someone with a natural expression that deadpan and professional before.

Is this what she's like when she's working? It's kind of intimidating.

Not as intimidating as the way she was using her own fingers as a tourniquet after he rescued her from the cliff though. Regardless, he'd hate to be on the receiving end of her vicelike grip.

"Yeah, I am. It's been a while, Lanette."

"Haha, yeah... some stuff happened here and there..." For some reason, the shorter Crosser looks a lot more nervous, and it fails to escape the attention of both members of her audience.

The older girl pauses, her lips in a flat line as she surveys his companion. For a brief moment, M can't help but wonder if maybe Jacket's ex-Crosser was who Lanette was trying to find, especially with the way she seems to be practically cross-examining his companion's soul with her eyes.

Even though her eyes aren't fully green.

Lanette seems to let out a breath in relief when Mirto sighs in resignation and brushes her long bangs out of her eyes. "Well, if you say so. As long as you're okay and all, that's all that matters, I guess."

"U-um, well..." starts Lanette uneasily, but halfway through she seems to change her mind with a shake of her head. "What are you selling Mirto?"

"Hm?" M follows her pointing finger to a neat, orderly sign listing numerous toppings and specials next to the stall.

"I'm selling shaved ice. Want some?"

It's then that M realizes that some time in the middle of their conversation Lanette had apparently inhaled the rest of her ice cream cone and was now empty-handed. M promptly takes this chance to stare in both disbelief and awe as she beams like a little kid and declares without any remorse, "Yes please! I'll let you pick what to put on it!"

Holy shit.

Less than a minute later, Mirto turns around and presents to the younger girl a container of the most colorful shaved ice he's ever seen in his feeble existence. Although the ice in and of itself seems to be an ordinary strawberry flavor, the number of fruit toppings on it has turned it into some kind of funky rainbow. Not to mention that container -

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! I-it's a..."

"Special Hero vs. Villain container? Yeah, we're doing a promotion with them. I thought you'd be interested."

M watches with extreme envy as Lanette giddily takes the frozen treat into her hands and starts digging in, every bite brightening her face up in bliss. It's not like she's goading him but...

Dammit. If only he was human.

"...?"

Apparently his intense staring manages to snap Lanette out of her food/container-induced coma for a moment as she looks back and forth between his longing gaze and the goodie in her hands.

"Oh, hey, Mirto? Do you think... I can get another one of those containers?"

"What? Sure, we've got plenty."

"Awesome, thanks!" Almost immediately she holds out the cup to M with the brightest grin he's seen yet from her. "Here you go! This is what you wanted right? No H vs. V fan could possibly resist the chance of getting a limited edition collector's item like this!"

For some reason, M's ice cold heart feels oddly touched by her consideration. Maybe it's because the only Crossers he's had the fortune or misfortune of getting to know properly are Martin and Sanae, but the idea of someone... actually looking out for him, instead of the other way around, is... kind of welcome.

Well, he can't say it's a bad feeling.

"Haha, you read my mind. Thanks, Lanette." Due to her short stature, he has to bend a little to ruffle her hair with his hand. "I'll let you hold on to it for now though. Wouldn't want anyone to be scared shitless by a floating cup."

"O-oh, okay. You're welcome..."

Paying no mind to the shorter girl's oddly flushed face, he turns in the direction of the exit.

"Anyway, we should be going now, right? I think we've procrastinated enough."

"Oh, right!"

Before Lanette manages to move even an inch, she immediately swivels around half-step and catches Mirto, who had returned to her work during the exchange, off guard. "Um, wait. Mirto?"

"... Yes?"

"A-are you still... worried about Jacket?"

M's not sure what he might've been expecting, but the Crosser in question only looks mildly surprised more than anything else.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"W-well!" starts Lanette, clearly somewhat nervous and weirdly apologetic at the same time. "You can rest a little easier now, because he's totally fine and in one piece!"

Mirto only blinks in surprise at the declaration. "Oh. Thanks for telling me... though I already heard this a while ago from... him, actually," she answers, making a small gesture towards M.

Apparently this is news to Little Miss Crosser, as she rigidly turns to him and mouths quickly, You know Jacket?!

M only shrugs nonchalantly in reply. "I think the real question is, who doesn't know Jacket?"

It's an honest statement. Not only is he some kind of celebrity around town, but according to Sanae, even Martin's met the guy in person recently, though it hadn't gone superbly.

Man. He wishes he could've seen it though, damn.

The awkward, contemplative silence that follows is only broken by a loud, high-pitched scream somewhere behind them and a large, blinding blast of light.

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"Oh, holy fucking hell."

It's that crazy Pedobear-head wearing Stray that's afraid of kids.

Shit.

Mirto struggles to see the source against the bright forks of lightning. "What the hell is that?!"

"I think that's some kind of ether!"

M has to pause before answering in order to dodge a stray bolt aimed at his body. "Your guess is pretty spot on actually."

Holy shit. Apparently that Stray's either stronger than he thought or a lot closer, if they're able to be within it's danger zone from this stall. He barely gets time to duck another one going for his head.

"What? For real?!" Lanette turns to squint at the barely visible figure in the distance, just as Mirto manages somehow to block a large cluster of electricity coming at them with what appears to be her Enomena.

Gathering her resolve, the younger girl declares like Hero Red on a good day, "If that's the case, then we obviously have to stop it!"

Although Lanette makes a move to head in the direction of unfathomable death, M immediately grabs hold of her shoulders and steers her in the other direction. "Uh, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Wait, why not - "

"'Why not'? I don't think you want to get blasted off the face of the planet by that -" Oh fuck. Maybe it's just to prove his point, but an unusually enormous and blinding blast comes hurtling in their direction at some freakishly fast speed, with excess sparks for extra kick.

God dammit.

"Fuck, you know what? Hold still and hang tight." Before Lanette can even think about jumping out of the way and doing something either very brave or very stupid or both, M just engulfs them in the shadows of his cape and shadow mobiles the pair of them away.

Left behind, the blast only manages to scrape the Impact Shield Mirto conjures at her fingers with a loud screech, before passing the stall relatively unharmed and the vicinity oddly silent and peaceful. Minus the ordinary noises of the crowd.

"... Whoa. I don't think I've done that since the Train."

===

Elsewhere, M watches the park from the nearby lighthouse. For the most part they had managed to get out unscathed, though he can't say much for anyone other Crossers or Strays that might have been in the line of destruction. He'd imagine that Jacket's ex-Crosser seemed capable of taking care of herself though.

"Ugh. Damn, that was close."

[Pictor]

NPC post, but setting up for future events.

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 8:30 AM
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
NPC: Lin, Leuel
================

Crossing over into Materion Square did not take long. However, when Lin had finally found the funnel cake stall, she realized that the trip would most likely be taking much longer than she had anticipated.

"Goodness, what an absurdly long line up...!"

The queue for the funnel cake stall actually filed nearly all the way back to the edge of the square itself before doubling back again, winding through other stalls. The woman scanned the record-breaking line of people with a slight frown that grew deeper set with each additional person her eyes followed back.

She gave a sigh as she promptly made her way over to the back (the waaaay back) of the line. Politely, she got the attention of a woman in front of her who was waiting with her daughter.

"Excuse me, ma'am.

"Oh?"

"I do not mean to bother you, but how long have you been waiting here?"

The woman gave an amused chuckled at the question.

"Huhuhu~, not a local, are you?"

"Ah, no, I am not."

"I thought so. The look on your face gave it all away! The funnel cake line is infamous among us Pebbletonians for being a nightmarish wait! We've only just gotten here, but..."

The woman side-stepped briefly to take a quick peek ahead, but not so much as to lose her place in line.

"Oh, I'd say we'd have a good hour, or at least that and another half to go!"

"... Wha-!" The news was enough for even Lin to be taken aback. "All this for some cake?"

"Oh ho! Tsk tsk tsk." The older woman waggled a finger while shaking her head. "I assure you, young lady, Velvet Tea's magnificent pastries are never just 'some cake.' Aaah, I remember back in my younger days, I had waited with my husband for these very cakes! You could say it's almost a rite of passage for us townsfolk! Oh, we had only just been dating since, of course... my husband and I, I mean. And the shop was set up in the park; the square had not been built yet! The town was a much smaller place then, but hoo hoo, oh boy... let me tell you, in some ways it was busier than nowadays..."

The woman continued on and on, dictating the long story of her life. From behind her long skirt, the her daughter slid out and gave a slight giggle.

"Hehehe, sorry. Mommy gets like this sometimes."

"Ah.. I-Is that so..?"

Lin returned the girl a nervous smile. The way she draws her fingers up against her lips to stifle her laughter reminded the caretaker of another certain someone. Someone... who actually happened to be older, as troublesome as it was to say. Eventually, the woman began to talk to no one in particular, having completely closed her eyes as she regaled an invisible audience with tales of her youth.

Ah yes, speaking of that certain someone, Lin was reminded that she should probably notify her of the situation. There is no possible chance that the Young Miss would be able to stand staying still for such an extended period of time, so having them wait together was out of the question. Besides, she would also miss her performance. It was fine, they will simply reunite afterwards.

Lin reached into her pockets and pulled out her cell phone. As she prepared to speed-dial Lanette's number, however, a scream suddenly pierced through the air from somewhere in the distance, ringing audibly throughout the square even through the thick crowd.

""NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~!!!""

Lin's attention snapped immediately to the source of the sound, but it was coming from beyond one of the brick-lined walls surrounding the square. Looking around, no one else seems to have taken notice to the obvious disturbance at all.

"... An ethereal commotion?"

--- Danger! ---

Within her, a feral sense fired wildly. Instinctively, Lin took a step backward, just in time to dodge a bolt of what appeared to be lightning shooting out of sky.

"Nnng!" Lin turned away slightly, raising a hand defensively against the streak of energy. It was just a small flash, most likely an off-shoot from a much bigger shock. But it was enough to have severely injured her, had her other half not been keen enough to avoid it. "What on Earth...?"

She looked around, but there was no sign of any other lightning strikes. The crowd was much too dense to try to pinpoint the source of the bolt. Whatever it was... it hadn't seemed to be aiming for her specifically. More over, it seemed that it was gone now.

"Oh my!"

The woman with her daughter was staring wide eyed in her direction, pointing a finger at the phone Lin still held in her hand.

"Hmm?"

Lin looked down, and became similarly wide-eyed when she discovered that the device had been completely charred black, and was now emitting a black haze.

"Are you alright, dear? How dreadful! Oh, you're not hurt, are you?"

The woman carried a worried look as she asked. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that she had indeed suffered a few burns upon her palm. They were minor wounds; nothing to worry over. In fact, the were already healing by the time she noticed them.

"... I am fine. Thank you for your concern."

"Thank goodness. The spark that came out of that thing nearly gave me a shock myself! Technology these days, so unreliable! I'll tell you, back in my days, people only carried around pagers! But at least those things had the decency not to explode on you! Well I suppose there were also those giant brick-like things..."

Lin exhaled calmly as the woman returned to her ranting ways. Thankfully she, she wasn't prying any further. It would have been awkward trying to explain her sudden reaction, even with the exploding phone.

"....."

Lin's eyes narrowed as she silently examined the fried remains of the mobile device in her hand. That lightning strike was clearly ethereal in nature; no one else but her had reacted to it. It was more of a relief that no one else had been affected by it either. She could not imagine the damage it would have caused to a normal person, even if they had been a Crosser. However... it was powerful enough to have affected something physical. The evidence was literally in her hands.

Just what exactly caused that lightning bolt...?

But, more importantly... it seems that she could no longer reach the Young Miss. As much as it embarrassed her to say, she had not committed Lanette's new number to memory, so it was impossible to ask to borrow another person's phone. Lin turned around and leaned over the side of the line. In the few short minutes she's been there, almost 20 more people had accumulated behind her. Thankfully, dodging the lightning did not move her out of her place in queue. But if she left now, then who knows how much longer the line would become once she got back.

"... What an irksome circumstance."

[Pictor]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 9:40 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
NPCs: Lin, Blacky
================

A full hour-and-twenty-minutes later, Lin finally found her turn at the funnel cake stand. A gush of sweet aromas filled the air around her as she approached the stall.

"Thanks for waiting, ma'am! What can I getcha?!" An older gentleman, clearly showing wrinkles but still maintaining a robust posture, boisterously asked for her order.

"A single large. Vanilla, and... ah, strawberries. In a container, please."

"The classic, eh? Can't be beat! Comin' right up!" Turning around, the man shouted her order to a crew of busy bodies behind the stall. Within seconds, a large, plated mound of what could only be described as pure, syrupy paradise was produced onto the countertop. "An' a container, you said? Lemme just..."

The cashier prepared to stoop over to fetch a box from behind the stand, but just as he was about to do so...

*Pew--!!*

As quick as a bullet, almost faster than the eye can see, a small blur of black zipped by the countertop, cutting between Lin and the man behind the stall before leaping off once again. When it passed, the cake was gone with it.

"What in blue blazes...?!"

The cashier man turned with a surprised look as the black blur landed safely a few feet away from the stall. It was a cat, with a full coat of jet black fur shimmering in the sunlight, and bright red eyes. It clutched the plate between its mouth, an impressive feat considering its small size in comparison to the giant mountain of sugar.

"...!"

It was Lin's turn to be astonished as she looked upon the cat, but for an entirely different reason.

"Why you little pest! Back again eh?? You already tried to do this twice!! Hell if I'm gonna let you succeed on the third!"

Rolling up his sleeves, the cashier man vaulted over the counter and lunged in the cat's direction. At the first sign of the man approaching, the cat immediately bolted off in the opposite direction with amazing speed, despite its cargo.

"Sir! You can't just--!" From within the stall, a young lady appeared, waving after the cashier man, who was already in the distance chasing after the cake thief. It was no use, her voice couldn't reach him through the crowd. She leaned against the counter in an exasperated fashion and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, ma'am. Mister Dufferin gets really worked up when it comes to funnel cakes. We can fix you up anoth-"

But by the time she looked up, the green-haired female customer was nowhere to be seen.

"... Eh?"

Already a ways off from the stall, Lin deftly flitted through the crowd, in hot pursuit of the cat. The cashier man had already lost his mark, having gone in a completely different direction, but Lin's senses were trained keenly on the small, fleeing creature.

"This ether signature... there's no mistaking it."

================
Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 10:00 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Fukami Mansion
PC: Hailey
NPCs: Lin, Blacky
================

"Where the flippin' fuck is that damned cat?" With a puff of fine, black feathers, Hailey transformed from a raven into her human form, touching down lightly on a sandy lot. "And how the hell did I end up here?"

The Panzer woman glanced upward at the massive ruins of the mansion before her. A rickety structure of steel, glass, and wood that had somehow stood the test of time even in its decrepit state. She brought her arm out and checked her MPUD for the nth time in a row. A small holographic panel appeared, displaying what appeared to be a bird's-eye-view map of Pebbleton, as well as several, scattered glowing dots. One of of the blips was blinking red, with its location apparently right where she stood.

"Tch. I thought I'd finally calibrated this thing to track that damned Blight. Don't tell me it's actually busted. God dammit, that'd be a pain to deal wi- Geh!!"

She was interrupted midway through her bellyaching by a streak of black fur leaping directly over her from one of the nearby walls.

"Hey! Speak of the fucking devil!" Hailey gave a dastardly smiled as she observed a familiar creature land on all fours in front of her. "Knew you be here, you little-- Whoa. Hold on. What's that?"

The Panzer stopped dead in her tracks as the cat turned around to face her. As it noticed Hailey, its fur shot up rigidly as it gave a terrified, high-pitched mewl. Hailey, on the other hand, had an entirely different expression on her face. The dastardly smile had widened into something sharp and menacing, and her eyes gleamed with deadly intent. From the cat's perspective, it was nothing short of a monster that was towering up against it, blocking out the rays of the sun.

"Ha. Hahaha... That's.... that's what I think it is, isn't it? Hehehe..." She slowly moved towards the cat, who took a step back for every step she took forward. A thin bubble of drool began to form at the corner of her mouth. "You showed up, and you also brought me a present. That's so nice... hu... huhuhuhu... big sister's gonna treat you real nice, now. Hehehehehe... hahahaha--!"

"KIEEEEEEEEEE--!!"

With a horrifying shriek no longer human nor Panzer, Hailey pounced forth toward the cat like a crazed predator performing a killing strike against a long-stalked prey.

The cat froze on the spot. It tried to budge, but its legs refused to listen. It was utterly petrified at the nightmarish sight. Dropping the plate from its mouth, it squeezed its eyes shut and waited for the worst.

"--- Caught you, little trouble maker."

Suddenly, the cat felt itself being swept up and off the ground, once again, by the scruff of its neck. This time, however, by a much gentler and steadier hand than before. Opening its eyes, the cat saw a familiar face. Green hair and sharp eyes like its own, except also green instead of red.

Lin reached over and picked up the miraculously preserved plate of funnel cake just in the nick of time to move it out of harm's way from a incoming Hailey. The scene played out oddly similar to a matador avoiding a charging bull.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah--!!"

The raven Panzer cried wildly as she tumbled past her intended target, crashing into the sand and rolling for a good yard-or-so before finally coming to a full stop. Almost immediately, as if the impact had not even phased her in the slightest, she flipped back on her feet and threw an angry finger at the intruding character.

"Hey! What the fuck's your problem, bitch?! Ya nearly killed me!"

Lin, completely indifferent to Hailey's profanity laced accusation, curiously looked Hailey from head to toe. She was completely covered in specks of sand all over.

"Ah, my apologies. I was not aware the source of that awful noise was a person. But, you appear unhurt, are you not?"

"What?! You...!! Oh. Wait a sec. I see..." Hailey's expression twisted into an irritated sneer as she realized who it was she was facing. "Yer that bodyguard, aren't ya? The Hindfell one."

"I am."

Lin calmly asserted the claim as she shifted the cat in her grasp into a more comfortable position against her arm, instead of dangling out in the open. The feline was more than happy to welcome the change.

"And you must be... Hailey Geminesca, I presume."

[marcien]

in which leuel's lightning bolts affect everyone but herself.
and blacky meets every oneesan character we have.


Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 09:45am
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
PCs: Lilia Auen
Other PCs: Leuel (Lazarus)
================

Lilia should have expected Leuel to not be able to stay in one place. By the time she got to Materion Square, no bear-headed stray was to be found. She tried searching around the area, but failed to find any trace of her stray. She had already covered most of the festival grounds, so has she been barely missing Leuel all on her round?(Or maybe, she was so distracted by the activity around her that she was not really paying attention.)

Another "IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" sound was heard. More bolts rained down randomly. The place... was near the food stores, where... oh. Where the massively long queue for a pastry store was. Lilia recalled that there were many children in the area playing while their parents or older siblings waited in the queue.

She hurried there.

--- --- --- --- ---

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 0945
Location: Block 44 #12-108
PCs: Z. Redmist
Other PCs: Leuel (Lazarus)
================

Disturbance in observation devices at food stores. Similar to earlier disturbance at Materion Square.
This information reached Redmist through the cables attached to his head.

Damage caused: two cameras spoilt, one destroyed. One mircophone spoilt.
The sleeping man's eyelids twitched.

Scanning for source... : Linked stray. The same neurotic, electricity-based one as two days before.
By now, Redmist had already programmed all of his devices to treat all ether signatures coming from this stray as non-dangerous. Still, it does not stop him from receiving updates about his suddenly damaged eyes and ears. He has a good mind to send her crosser an email to rein her stray in properly. That, or find a way to lightning-proof his equipment.

He woke.
He slept.

--- --- --- --- ---

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 09:54am
Weather: Clear
Location: Lagann Street (food stores)
PCs: Lilia Auen
Other PCs: Blacky
================

The queue for the pastry store was even longer than the one she was before. How is she to find Leuel here? She briefly considered just calling out loud for her. After all, there are so many children around here, the crowds may just think that she is looking for a lost child.

Yes, she should do just that.

'Leeuu-eeeeellllll! Leuel, where are you? Leeuu-'

A black cat...? carrying...? a plate of some pastry topped with sugar...? in its mouth runs at her legs. She sidesteps to avoid tripping. It seemed headed for the abandoned mansion where she first met three strays of this town.

As weird as pastry-delivery cats are, her own stray's whereabouts worry her much more. (Who could have trained their cat to do this?)

Right. Back to searching.

'Leuel! Where are you!'

[SavviG]

Blacky, onee-chan magnet.

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 09:50am
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
PCs: Graciel Flay
Other PCs: Blacky (Mentioned)
---------------------

A long queue has formed right at Stray Cats stall. Around 20 and mostly female. Smaller gathering crowds started to form and quite close to the stall too.

"Kyaa! Did you see him?! Did you?!"
"No! I can't! Too many people in the way!"
"Is he really that cute? seems bizzare for a guy to wear cat-"
"Do you see him?!"
"Oh my! He does look kinda cute! Lets get a closer look!"

A few phone cameras go off, snapping photo's of the stall staffs.
Is someone spreading some kind of word out? This stall is getting crowdy by the minute!

Graciel had his back to the crowd, pretending not to notice the camera clicks and flashes. It felt as there were a hundred eyes gazing upon his back now.

"Turn around!!" cried one of the girls.

A gentle nudge came down at the elbow. A fellow Stray Cat staff stood besides Graciel, "Hey, I think they're asking you to turn around."

"S-seri- Really? Me?"
"Yeah, you. I think you got quite the fanbase ever since you popped into Stray Cats with the cat ears of yours." He gave another nudge and a bright smile. "Stop grinding those and start pulling more costumers with your charm! hahaha!"

"I fear this may go badly.."
Graciel slowly turns towards the crowd with a smile. OH MY GO-
They stood waiting, with phones held up ready to take a snap.

*SNAP*
The single photo taken triggered another 6 camera snaps.

A girl in the line looked kinda baffled, she turns to a friend, "Is that guy popular or something?"
Her friend shrugged "Beats me, all I want is a drink!"

Graciel froze for a minute, like a life sized cardboard cut out. "Snap out of it!" came a cry in his head. Its not the time to stop, even with many people gazing upon him, he has a job to do and after that, he too can enjoy the festival. Like Blacky who is having so much fun he hasn't returned since he left for the funnal cakes.

That's right, I have yet to try funnel cake. "Oh funnel cake, get me through this..."

--------------------------
Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 10:00am
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PCs: Alkane
Other PCs:
-------------------------

She held up the colourful Speciel Hero vs Villain container to eye level, inspecting the limited item she obtained. Very neat indeed and it could be useful to store in some odd bits of her subjects back in the labs. She secretly added the container into her storage device.

She took out a Ether tracker device, which is then set to track a specific signature, the apparent talking Blight kitty. It picked up two blips. Two? She checked the signature data. "Jacket"
And the other shared the same Ether... so, he split, repopulated or what?!

She did not know which one was which. so she ... "eeny-meeny-miny-mo!"

She then set off to one direction of a blip.

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 11:20am
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PCs: Fujiwara Sanae
================

"Hey, Sanae-chan, I don't really mean to intrude, but..."

As the four ladies began queuing up for the funnel cakes, oblivious to any drama before their arrival, Chihara spoke up just as Sanae was adjusting her bright pink yukata by the sides.

"Eh? Is anything the matter, Chihara-senpai?"
"Uh, more like, are you feeling any better now with that?"

Sanae blinked for a bit, but then quickly understood what Chihara was asking about.

"Oh! I feel better now, thanks to your care."
"Glad to see you're feeling better now. But someone else you were ignoring clearly isn't."
"Eh? Who was it I ignored, senpai?"

Chihara, queued behind Sanae, moved her lips closer to Sanae's right ear.

"There's a guy who's been chasing for you, and you've been moving away from him all these while, I noticed."

Sanae's expression changed a little, realising belatedly that she was in the company of the legendary "Gossip Queen" of Materion Towers.

Even something minor like ignoring Martin... how was it even possible for Chihara-senpai to take notice of something like that?

Sanae, however, refused to admit anything. Perhaps, for something silly such as pride.

"No, you're mistaken, Chihara-senpai... no such thing."

Chihara tut-tutted Sanae, knowing the latter is in full denial but also aware that no one has successfully refuted the Gossip Queen's astute observations, ever.

"I chanced upon the two of you several days ago at the coffee shop, you know. And you claim to not know that guy? Speaking of which, I seem to remember he's supposed to be working at those hours..."

Chihara-senpai... weren't you supposed to be working at that hour too?

"Well... I..."
"Come on, Sanae. If you have a problem, just tell me. It isn't like you to be this rude and condescending to people, I know you're better than that."
"Martin-san..."
"Oh, so I was right! He was someone you knew well, indeed!"

Sanae blinked in surprise. "Eh?" Her next thought: did I just fall into Chihara-senpai trap?!

Watching Chihara's cheeky grin, Sanae couldn't help but giggle, too, despite herself.

"Yeah, well, Chihara-senpai, you got me there..."
"No, that's not really important! I'd gossip about other things, but for you, my roomie, my kohai Sanae-chan, I give you a special!"
"A... special? What special...?"
"That's right! Chihara's special - LOVE LOVE ADVICE 110%!"

Sanae blushed at the mention of the word. "Love advice...?"
"That's right! I can totally tell you like that Martin guy there, no? I didn't know you had a thing for foreigners!"
"That... that's not true..." Sanae kept on denying, but she had completely forgotten that she had already been exposed, and in trying to hide her feelings, instead she blushed even harder, the hue of red on her face complementary to her own yukata.
"Ara, ara, look at you now, Sanae-chan!"
"Chihara-senpai..." Sanae tried to muster a weak protest, but even that was impossible.

"Well, I mean, most Pebbleton men are pretty weak, not assertive enough towards girls, which is not typical for Japanese guys. In that guy's case, though, he seems to want to make it up to you for whatever you're angry at him for. You know, he's been chasing us for the past half an hour?"
"I know that, senpai... but I just want to keep him chasing."
"For what? For your own pleasure?"
"No, just... I'm not sure I'm ready to accept his apology because I can't even accept my own actions yesterday."
"Well, what exactly did you do?"

The calming effect of a reliable big sister has Sanae pour out the events leading to her flipping the table at Martin. Chihara tried to control her giggling until, finally unable to do so, she promptly burst out in laughter, oblivious to the crowd already tired from queuing for the funnel cakes.

"That's mean, Chihara-senpai!"
"Oh, I'm really sorry... but, that was singularly childish of the both of you! I mean, I've heard of guys arguing with girls over other things, but over a board game?! You two take childishness to a new level altogether!"

Sanae gulped hard; that was the first time Chihara came out with something so hard-hitting and it was spot-on.

"E, ee..."
"Well, at least now you're aware that you're not entirely in the right, but neither is he. I'd venture as much he's trying to apologise to you as much as you want to him?"
"Hai..."
"Well, the only way about it is to talk to him in the face, one-on-one. Best solution."
"But..."
"No buts, Sanae-chan! If you like someone and something like this happens, you can't just dodge it."

Sanae kept silent. Another direct hit.
"I only know you for slightly more than a week, but you remind me of my sister back in Japan and she's also really innocent, just like you."

Critical hit.
"Between two innocent people, a face-to-face talk is really the best way. Take it from me, Sanae-chan. Talk to him if you really don't want to lose him as a friend, mmhmm?"

Between Chihara and Sanae, suddenly everything looked so clear-cut.

[Pictor]

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 10:00 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Lighthouse
PC: Lanette
Other PCs: M
================

"Wah!"

Lanette gave a small cry of surprise as she was released from the confines of M's Shadow Mobile a few inches off the ground. It was almost cartoonish how she seemed to hover for a few minutes before dropping with a metallic thud upon the outer deck of the tower.

"Oof! Ow ow ow ow-ow-ow..." The girl staggered to her feet, unceremoniously rubbing her injured behind. As soon as she saw where she'd ended up, though, she forgot about that pain in a flash. "H-Huh?! What the heck happened??"

Lanette rushed towards edge of the deck with wide eyes.

"Wooow! Is this the lighthouse...?" Momentarily suspending every other thought, the girl grasped the railing with one hand and leaned as far as she could over the ledge, using the other hand to shade her eyes from the bright morning sun.

Staring out, the girl saw glistening blue, as far as the eye could see.

M, who had been squatting perfectly still with both feet upon the metal bars, quickly looked over with concern.

"Hey, be careful! I just saved us from being barbequed, don't be so eager to die again just yet."

"Hehehe, it's fine!" Lanette returned a response laced with giggles. She appeared a lot older than Sophia, but M was surprised how easily it was that she could make herself appear as innocent as the golden-haired Stray.

Well, both are girls... maybe it's something about that. He wouldn't know. But there are some girls that can't pull that off no matter how hard they tried.

"Hey! Watch this! ... Hup!" With a light hop, Lanette leapt from the floor and onto the railing, the impact ringing the entire deck with a loud clang.

"Yo! What'd I just..."

M was about to ready every fiber of his body to Shadow Mobile the girl the moment she fell off, but fortunately that never happened. Almost immediately, Lanette found her balance and, just like M himself, sat comfortably with both feet planted on the thin steel bars.

"See? No sweat!" The orange-haired Crosser rubbed her nose proudly with a gloved finger.

"Hmm." M gave an uncomfortable but impressed huff as shifted himself back into a sitting posture.

The two sat, hunched over on their precarious perch, as they looked over the ocean. Dawnview Park was also visible across a stretch of water. It was strange, watching all the hustle and bustle that they'd been a part of just moments ago from almost a bird's-eye-view. Lanette, however, was more fixated on the sea. For a while, the girl said not a word as she watched the infinite span of rolling waves. With her eyes as bright-blue as they were, it was hard to tell if they reflected the sea, or if the sea reflected them.

The silence between them was almost a bit jarring for M. He didn't really know the girl all that well, but during the time they've spent together since they met earlier in the morning, she'd never once stopped talking. Or stayed still for more than a second, for that matter. She'd been peppy even with her mouth full. The calm was strangely less of a respite than it was a sudden blackout of activity. Usually, the Stray was one who'd prefer if everyone else just shut up for once. But for some reason, when Lanette ceased to talk, it was an uncomfortable thing. The girl was usually so rowdy that it seemed as though the moment you stopped hearing her voice, she would somehow slip away and disappear into thin air.

What an annoying thing to be weirded out by, M thought. He had no idea why it bothered him so much, but he couldn't stand the stillness much longer. For once, M was the one to initiate the conversation.

"It's the sea."

... Or tried to anyway. Although it came out more as a blunt statement than anything. The Stray couldn't care less about being a smooth talker at the moment, he just wanted to throw some words out there.

"Yeah..." Lanette responded with a sort of wistful tone, as if too mesmerized by the view to give a proper reply. M mentally sighed in relief anyway. One word was better than none. At least that meant she hadn't lost her voice.

Then, as M tried to figure out something else to say, Lanette continued to speak.

"You know, I'm pretty afraid of open water!"

"... Huh?" It was completely out of the blue, but M could hardly judge her after his own lackluster attempt at starting a conversation. "Open water? Like... the ocean?"

He pointed curiously toward the massive body of blue before them. M would be lying if he said he wasn't just the least bit surprised. It's hard to imagine anything frightening this girl. Well, she did get knocked out at the cliff, but unlike a certain goatee'd "master strategist", he won't pretend he knew all the details behind the situation.

"Yeap! It's not that I don't know how to swim; I do. It's just that... erm, how do I put it...? The girl scratched her cheeks nervously. For a second, she seemed to regret having spoken her heart out so randomly. In the end she continued anyway. "I guess... it almost looks too big. Like it'll swallow you up. Imagining myself out there, all alone... it's kind of freaky."

The girl spun around deftly upon the railing and bounced back off onto the deck.

"Hehe... sorry. That was a weird thing to say, huh? I... um... kind of thought it fit the moment, though."

"Well, whatever. I don't really mind." M gave a shrug. He didn't really know how to respond to that. I mean, it was a strange thing to hear out of the blue, but she owned up to it, so he guessed there wasn't much to snark about here. "If you're so scared, then you shouldn't try tricks on ledges like this. I'm pretty much a ghost. Gravity won't do jack to me, but it's not gonna hold back on making you a pancake."

"That's okay! Even if I'm freaked, I'll overcome everything with guts!" Lanette gave M an exaggerated wink and a thumbs-up. M couldn't help but give a wry smile. The girl had just quoted one of the signature lines from the main character of H vs. V. Though... he wasn't sure if lack of "guts" was the right problem here.

Lanette dropped the stance and mock determination in her expression, reverting to the solemn look from before.

"I'm afraid of a bunch of things, but I also don't like being stopped just because of that. Like when I ran away from home. If I'm scared... I just close my eyes and do it anyway!"

"You ran away from home...?" M raised an eyebrow at the news.

"Oops!"

Lanette clasped a hand to her mouth, apparently not having intended to leak that little tidbit of information. But she soon relaxed and gave a light nod.

"... Yea. My family's pretty rich, so life wasn't too bad. But, I was always cooped up; I wasn't allowed to leave the estate. Growing up... I didn't see much of the outside world, or had many friends. Well... Lin, maybe. But that's it. I got fed up, so I left."

At least that explains her care-free spending habits, M mused.

"So, you're some kinda princess on the run then, huh?"

"W-Wha? I'm no princess!!"

Rather than offended, Lanette simply seemed shocked that M brought up the term at all. The Stray himself had only uttered it absentmindedly. He quickly rectified his mistake.

"Yea. You're not. You know what? Forget I said that. We're not going any further with that theme."

"Right..."

Attempting to change the subject as fast as possible, M brought up the first thing that came to mind.

"Lin... that's the one we're looking for, right?"

"Huh?" Lanette turned at looked blankly at M for a split second "Oh yea! It is! We've still gotta find Lin!"

Lanette snapped her fingers as her face lit up in realization.

"Don't tell me you forgot..."

"I... I didn't! Well... maybe. I was distracted. Can you blame me? It's pretty up here." Lanette shot another look out at the horizon, just as a light breeze picked up, sweeping her bangs back and ruffling her short ponytail.

Oh boy, we need to get out of here before she turns into something sappier than I can handle.

M hopped off the ledge and joined Lanette back on the deck.

"Well, it doesn't look like we're in danger of being fried up anymore. Wanna keep moving?"

"Yea... let's." Even though she agreed, M could tell the Crosser girl was just a bit disappointed to have to leave.

Too bad. Having you attempt circus acts from this up high isn't good for either of our healths.

Just as he thought that, he saw that Lanette was already attempting to climb over the railing once again, apparently about to jump.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Hmm? Well, the door to the tower is locked, so there's no other way down."

"Don't be stupid! Here, I'll take us. The safe way."

With an irritated sigh, M reached out a hand.

"Huh? It's okay! I can..." The girl was about to go on and say something, but she quickly stopped herself mid-sentence. "... Alright. If you say so."

Lanette obediently did as she was told dismounted the railing. She made her way over to M and took his outstretched hand.

"Hang on."

*Whoosh!*

Lanette didn't have a chance to catch what exactly happened when M first performed Shadow Mobile back at the park, but she was able to see it in action this time. The black, flowing mantle M wore on his back billowed outward like an extending curtain before quickly wrapping itself around in a spherical shape around the two of them, completely covering them in darkness. Then, before she could even register the feeling of being suspended in shadows, the veil burst open, releasing its two occupants onto solid earth.

"Wah!"

For the second time, Lanette found herself dropping from mere inches above ground. Unlike last time, she was able to land on her feet, though the short impact did cause her to stumble a bit.

After regaining her bearings, Lanette looked around and was astonished to see that they'd made it to the base of the light house.

"Whoa..! Did you do that?! Wait... of course you did that! You did that before, too! But, how did you do that? What's your form conversion, anyway?!"

The girl whipped around and bombarded M with a barrage of question. She had both hands clenched into excited fists against her chest. Since the Stray was so much taller than her, she had to stand on her tip-toes in order to barely pose as a conceivable presence.

"Form conversion... what the hell is tha-"

"You know! Your Stray powers!"

M had to raise both hands to gently settle the girl down before he tripped backwards on his ass with how fervently she was lurching against him.

"Alright, alright! It's shadows! I can make shadows!"

[AYC]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 9:45 am
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
PC: Leuel (Lazarus)
NPCs: Lin, Blacky
================

Not more than a few minutes after Leuel started chasing after the kitty with sugary treat in mouth does she realize that she was not only being closely tailed by the stall master (who, of course, could not see her at all), but also someone much more ominous in presence.

So ominous and frightening that the woman actually passes her and converges very closely on her kitty friend before she even realizes it.

Run kitty run! Don't let that... lady catch you!

She's not even sure why the lady is so scary in the first place.

Even as kitty and the lady keep getting farther and farther away, Leuel keeps her friend sensor finely tuned onto her one and only Blight friend's signal. How is it that kitty can run so fast when her legs are longer? Where is he getting all this extra adrenaline and energy from?

I-if he's a Blight, doesn't that mean he's siphoning his energy off from somewhere?

Maybe it's friendship?

So he's siphoning energy from her?

Huh? Eh?

???!

No! Stop thinking about that! Have to catch up to kitty!

Rekindled with motivation and determination to rescue her Blight friend from the sort of scary lady after him, Leuel decides to pull out all the stops. Which is fine and dandy in and of itself, except for the fact that the question is whether or not she still remembers how to use the move in question. Due to ethereal constraints, she hadn't had the capacity to use it after she turned unlinked, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

Here goes nothing!

"Electric Trigger!"

It had been a name her previous Crossers had given it without really knowing what it meant. Even Leuel didn't really know what it meant either, but it had stuck on and ultimately that's kind of what it does.

An electric shock to stimulate the ghostly muscles of her legs, which makes her go really fast! As fast as... riding the lightning!

Ready? Set, go!

"Wait for me kit- TYYYYYYYYY?!?!!" she manages to get out as she zooms off, somehow a lot faster than she would have expected. Certainly she hadn't been so fast when she was using this move to pick up the kids and flee from ginormous Blights on a regular basis before? It's so much faster now that Leuel only knows that she's going straight after kitty more than anything else.

Maybe it has something to do with how Lilia's a stronger Crosser than the children?

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

Whatever it is, it's making these curves really hard to hit! Her body's like... flapping in the wind from all the rotational force! ... Or something like that?

"Leuel! Where are you!"

... Lilia?

Although any tears she might've shed in the process are streaming past like deflated balloons, the sheer idea that she finally managed to find one of her friends so very dear to her makes her heart almost explode in happiness.

As she rounds the corner, her upper body almost parallel with ground and still homed in on kitty's signature, Leuel can clearly see Lilia mingling in a spot just sparsely populated with other people.

Lilia!

It's happening in slow motion, as she approaches Lilia and her Crosser slowly turns in her direction, eyes widening in surprise as she sees who's coming her way.

"... Leuel?"

It really is Lilia! Overcome with emotion, she can barely see through the tears clouding her vision. All she knows is that she heading in Lilia's direction, body now righted and arms outstretched, with pretty pink sparkles everywhere.

"Liilliiiiiaaaaa~"

"Leuel!" says her Crosser, clearly surprised but relieved to her see her at the same time. Maybe because she hadn't gone home last night in her search for Threads, Lilia got worried?

Nnn... I'm sorry...

But at least they found each other again!

"Liiiiiliiiiiii - IIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAA??!???!!?!"

Eh? EH?!

For some reason, she just ran past Lilia. It's l-like... her brakes are broken! Why isn't she stopping?

Oh.

Oh. Yeah.

She still doesn't really know how to control her Electric Trigger yet.

And therefore she doesn't know how to brake, and therefore she ultimately ends up zooming past Lilia with tears of fear and sorrow flying behind her.

"... Leuel! Where are you going?"

"LILIAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! SAAAAAAAAVEEEEEEE MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Her mental state in shambles and her heart in pieces, Leuel doesn't fully comprehend her location amidst her cries until she dashes past a very familiar face (Miss Harley?!) and a very familiar fountain. It's not until she stumbles over the threshold of a rickety doorway and ends up skidding into the decrepit building that she realizes that she's in Fukami Mansion, crashing and stumbling over every piece of furniture and wall in her way.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH????????!!!!!!!"

A particularly large stuffed bear replica sends her unto the floor in a mess of limbs and bruises. Although the collision seems to have taken some steam away from her rampage, the sensation of rolling on the ground and rolling over a variety of bumpy objects isn't really comfortable, especially when she somersaults headfirst into the floor.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH - "

And crashes through the floor below, into what seems to be a basement.

Ow...

Never mind her dark surroundings, but at least she stopped.

Though somehow the whole flurry of motion (and now lack thereof) makes her want to hurl, and her foggy, increasingly unfocused vision isn't really helping.

"Nnn... Lilia... Miss Harley... ; A ;"

As the sound of debris shifting settles down, it's awfully silent and peaceful as Leuel blacks out in the darkness.

[Pasonia]

In which a certain cat sneaks out of work and bumps into Sanae.

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 12:20pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PCs: Fujiwara Sanae
Other PCs: Graciel
================

Sanae is usually a patient woman when it comes to queues - an ability that comes with being a city dweller for the better part of her life - but the funnel cake queue was taking so long to get to the end that Sanae began to wonder out loud if they had been queuing for nothing at all.

"It's like this every year, Sanae-chan. Gaman, gaman! We'll soon be there! Soon!"

Being on the big red one, Sanae was not sure if she could really endure her way through, but there was little she could do other than grin and bear it.

Then, a godsend came, in the form of a swath of other Velvet Tea Room workers suddenly springing up and helping with the making and the packing of the funnel cakes. In five minutes' time, the queue went from crawling to almost strolling, as the queues split up in three toward the end and the sales went by pretty fast. They were told to mark their orders on slips of papers, with payment options of either cash or credit.

"Thank you for your patronage, customers! Please prepare payment before you reach the end of the queue! This will help us serve other customers faster, too!"

To which Sanae duly obliged. Anything to get out fast.

In ten minutes, Sanae and Chihara were out of the queue. Out of a sudden pang of curiosity, Sanae turned her head around, thinking that someone familiar seemed to be behind her in the queue as she got out of it.

"What's the matter, Sanae-chan...?"
"I-I was thinking if someone I know was behind me."
"That man? No, he's not around..." Chihara spoke, in between bites of her funnel cake.
"No, I wasn't referring to Martin-san..."

Strange, I swore someone familiar was---

"Hey there, Miss!"

From an unexpected side, a greeting that startled Sanae a bit, almost causing her to drop the one cake she had waited more than an hour for.

"Whoa! I'm so sorry, so sorry! Didn't expect---"

It was then that both Sanae and Graciel spotted a strange expression emanating from Chihara's face. Before they could react, Chihara had burst into some random bout of happiness and began to squeal.

"Kyaaaaaaa! So cute! Neko-chan, neko-chan!"

As Chihara handed her plate of cake hastily to Sanae, she simultaneously wrapped her hands about a rather confused-looking Graciel, who had been in his tails and ears "getup" for the better part of the morning.

Between the two who met only once, they could only let out a strained, awkward giggle. The only things sweetening the occasion were the funnel cakes all three of them slowly tucked into, marvelling at every bite of pure happiness. The wait was well worth the time spent for all three.

"I... guess this doesn't happen very often..." Laughed Graciel nervously as Chihara continued staring at Graciel intently.
"I... would think so too, Mister..."

Slowly, Sanae bowed at Graciel, who quickly waves his hands asking her not to do so.

"It's fine, it's fine... there's no need for that Miss Sanae! I'm just here for the funnel cake too. I need to go back to work at 1pm or my boss would be all over me..."

Sanae nodded. "Thank you for the hard work!"
"It's okay, not really hard work!"
"...I'm sorry to ask, but I actually forgot your name..."
"Eh? Oh. I'm Graciel Flay. Just call me Graciel."

Chihara pulled Sanae aside suddenly before she could react; luckily, Sanae was already at the end of her funnel cake when her senpai pulled her aside.

"You knew him?"
"H-hai... what is the matter, senpai?"
"He's the cutest guy working in Stray Cats! You know, didn't Asuka bring you there once? That cat cafe?"
"She did?" Sanae strained to remember when Asuka brought her there.
"It's okay if you don't remember. All you need to know is, your friend here is the cutest cat we've seen in a long while!"

All the while, Graciel could only stare on in utter embarrassment. His popularity is something he had not really expected, cats being meek and all. Sanae, on the other hand, has nothing on cats and could only so much as try to empathise the feelings of a friend who had clearly gone into fan-girl mode.

Graciel nodded as he finished the last of his funnel cakes, and as he proceeded to take his leave, Sanae tugged at him.

"Mister Graciel, I apologise... I've got a request."
"Please don't be! What do you want to ask of me?"
"Can we meet up elsewhere after the Festival in the day?"

[marcien]

all the ladies bumping into each other oh my. festival first day is ladies day.


Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 09:46am
Weather: Clear
Location: Materion Square
PCs: Lilia Auen
Other PCs: Leuel (Lazarus), Alkane
================

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH - "

Lilia should have expected that from the moment Leuel disappeared from her house, she was not going to be able to have a normal relaxed festival experience. She applied another yellow overlay on herself and set off after her stray.

As she ran, Lilia saw ahead of her a woman looking at some sort of mechanical device. She did not appear to have any reaction to Leuel's dash, so Lilia assumed that she is not a crosser.

"Good day," she slowed down and called out to her.

The woman barely looked up from her device (Lilia noted that it was beeping like some sort of tracker) and nodded at her. Not a friendly one then.

Perhaps, not a local either? The woman was headed in the same direction as she was - which means away from the festival grounds towards the abandoned mansion. What would anyone want to find there? Is she lost? (Or following something with the tracker?) Lilia peered curiously at her as they walk awkwardly side-by-side.

The woman must have finally decided to care about her, for she said, "That lightning-fast stray went that way," as she pointed a little to the right.

Oh? She is a crosser then? "I see! That was my stray. Thank you very much! You're a crosser too? My name is Lilia."

Some silence.

"Alkane."

That is a strange name. "Well, thank you again, Alkane. I will be off looking for my stray now. I hope you find yours too!" Lilia left Alkane in the direction indicated.

A tracker for strays? That would be so convenient if one has a stray like Leuel. Lilia made a mental note to ask Alkane about it the next time they meet.

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 9.50am
Weather: ???
Location: ???
PC: ???
==================================

The top of Materion Towers was mostly a matter of afterthought for most people who were headed for the Festival. Indeed, the entire office block was empty, bereft of even its security guards.

The building was supposedly under total lockdown after 9.00am, to be opened only when the festivities have concluded.

Yet, at the very top of the towers, were two people, dressed in exclusively black with no lapels, no badges, no nothing. They were just up there, perched over the building's edge, waiting for the perfect opportunity to size up their targets.

"Sector scan."
"Ten-four, scans show wanted Target G chasing likely Blight of Interest, five hundred meters out. Cross winds: south-south-east ten knots."
"Negative then, cross winds too heavy. We will wait until the winds die down."
"Affirmative."

It was clear, then, that these were Panzers.

To him, it was all too clear what sort of unit this is. A Sniper unit under Executive Orders that his cube had alerted him to, and by their all-black getup, presumably to match the black of the rooftop, this was a team who had been sent to either terminate or neutralise a certain Hailey Geminesca. It became even more apparently so when his senses instinctively told him that the team consisted of an eagle Panzer - whose feathers doubled up as some kind of masquerade for today's Festival and indeed, wouldn't have looked at all out of place - and a crow Panzer - indeed, patient animals stalking on a fellow bird.

"Disgusts me that they would take out one of their own without even questioning why. Panzers who know the truth are beautiful creatures; else, they're just disgusting beasts to me."

As he said so, he had two daggers in a fatal downward grip, as he silently and swiftly leapt from above and coldly punched the knife straight through the skulls of the poor Panzers, who will never have an idea what hit them; the assassin was merciless enough that he then cut his daggers straight through the Panzers' noses, causing a shower of blood to then splatter over their already non-functioning bodies, as their equipment clattered noisily along with their fallen postures.

No screaming, no shouting, no struggling, no fighting. Just two bloodied daggers and an equal number of dead bodies.

Picture perfect.

"Better off dead, ignorant fools."

However, he couldn't leave their signatures as is - if their vital signs were zero, and there were more units in the area, he would be in trouble if they corner him. Immediately, he deployed his cube onto the floor, and it did the trick of emulating life signs by sending the appropriate raw signals through the dead Panzers' MPUDs.

Yanking the binoculars out of the dead spotter's right hand, the man proceeded to observe the festivities as they were happening.

Happy days were not his thing;
in fact, to him, there were no such thing as 'happiness'.

"Indeed, you are there, war hero's daughter... Be glad I'm keeping you alive while you're not remotely aware of it---"

Then, as though his senses had instinctively led him to do so, he quickly turned and faced a rather familiar-looking figure - a huge, dark-skinned hulk with a large group of what they seem to be calling 'hip' fashion these days in the underground or something, something to do with dances and whatever.

"Oh? Oh ho ho ho. Ho ho ho!"

The man's inexplicable laugh, even as the dead Panzers' blood began to seep and stain his shoes, underscored just how important his new discovery seemed to be.

"I see now, I see now! Welcome aboard on the flight to the truth, young panther. Oh ho ho ho. Ho ho ho! This will be a sight to behold when Reckoning comes, no?"

Looking up into the sky, it was as though the man had spotted the face of an old enemy within, helplessly and fruitlessly flailing his arms. The grin of a sadistic man who would love to see his enemies suffer.

The imagination takes a man further than his limitations, but for all his brilliance, this man has lost the ability to clear distinct imagination and reality.

"Ha ha... did you see that, Zaed? I certainly hope you're already turning in your grave if you're in one."

As if to correct himself, he slammed the binoculars into a nearby wall, shattering it into many distinctly broken pieces before saying:

"If you're in one."

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 Jun, Saturday
Time: 11.00am
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park (beach side)
PC: Melvin Jack
==================================

It wasn't so much the presence of a Crosser that stirred Melvin from within; throughout the course of his career, he's had to see one too many Crosser; sometimes, openly hostile ones.

It was the fact that his sixth sense did not match what his device told him, and he was agonising within about finding out what exactly is happening.

I'm pretty god damn sure something's afoot there.

Still hanging around the park area, he was not satisfied with leaving answers as is, but his animal instincts kicked in to temper that temptation. Soon, he quickly resumed his happier, more deceptive demeanour as the crew turned around and started dancing in sync to the music that was being blasted out from one of many speakers.

"It's 'Great Feelin' Me' on the speakers! Show how great you gonna make Pebbleton feel!"

For a full five minutes, the crew danced their hearts out, the fist pumps, hand sways, and shuffling kicks getting a local crowd worked up as the crew made up a routine there and then. Generally, the dance did look messy, with some crew members not being on the ball; they were jokingly pushed away by Melvin as the song progressed, and they ended up dancing solo right in front of the crowd to increasingly louder cheers.

When the song ended, the entire crew made up a finishing pose with their arms pointing towards Melvin, who posed with a wide grin and folded arms, to a crowd thoroughly enthralled by the crew. Mistaking the crew for buskers, lots of people in the crowd ended up throwing all manners of coins into where their tops were thrown.

Melvin found quite a pile of coins over his own shirt as the crew excitedly collected their own and began to debate over who has the second-most number of coins thrown onto their shirts.

Amidst the shirts, however, he noticed something queer.

"What on earth...?"

It was a postcard-sized piece of paper, held down by a glut of smaller coins taped haphazardly across the top. Underneath the paper were two other pieces of paper, of which one Melvin was too familiar with.

"Huh?! What the heck is this? How did this...?"

It was the same photo he'd left with the perfect-ice-shaving lass at Rozen's. Only, this time, her photo was the subject of the base end of an arrow, which pointed to the piece of paper that had the coins taped on top.

Speaking of which, noted Melvin, the paper itself seemed to be a map of some sort. Melvin took the tapes off the paper and scrutinised the words as best as he could.

Which, according to his eyes, meant near-absolutely rubbish.

"YOU... yeah, I'm at the beach side of this park, I think... so that means I am here... and the arrow is pointing somewhere pretty far out, some... Pirvtea hooscl... what? What was it?"

Melvin wished he'd had his specs to go with the text. He could almost feel the helpless anger creep onto his face; as though whoever is providing the information is very fully aware of his weakness and was out to mock him about it.

Seriously? Words don't make much sense when you can't read it!
...On the other hand, is that ice-shaving lass much more than she seemed to be? How did the photo end up here anyway?

[AYC]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 1:00 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PC: M
Other PCs: Lanette
================

This is probably the fifth time they've circled the park.

M's not really sure how elusive Lanette's caretaker is supposed to be, but even after three hours they still haven't found any sign of the woman.

The fact that they hadn't exactly been searching the whole time probably has something to do with it.

Catching the main act of the tokusatsu show had probably taken up a good hour and a half of their search time, but M doesn't regret it in the slightest. Never mind the fact that Lanette had bumped shoulders, or rather her shoulder into his arm, several times during the whole event, but holy shit was it awesome. So awesome in fact, that somehow he had managed to catch Hero Red's trademark scarf when the man himself threw it off in a hotblooded spur of the moment to do battle with Villain Blue.

M had had to hide it in his cape to avoid the other rabid fans in the crowd from upending the place in search of the coveted piece of cloth. Man, it's good to be tall.

Ultimately he had given the scarf to Lanette much to his great chagrin though, simply because it was impossible for him to wear it himself without drawing a great many screams of terror (not that he'd mind) by civilians, and that he couldn't possibly leave it around Sanae's house because it would've eventually found its way into the hands of one of the ladies in the place. Even as Lanette had sheepishly wrapped the fabric around her neck, a bright happy smile on her face, M could probably say it looked a lot better on her than it would've on Sanae.

And at least Lanette looked like she had actually, almost painfully wanted it in the first place.

And it's not like a hero's scarf really suited someone like him anyway.

The remaining hour and a half of their time had been dedicated to Lanette eating again at Rozen Queen Company's Beach Castle (somehow she had expended all her energy during the show again, what the hell?), going to Materion Square and finding only what appeared to be charred remnants of an electronic device on the ground ("Uh... well, at least I got my funnel cake, I guess?"). In the end the two of them had returned to the park again, in hopes that maybe the woman - Lin - had returned some time during their intermission.

Doesn't seem to be the case though.

"Are you sure you don't have any other ways to speed up the process here?"

"She's not answering her phone... and there's too many people around the festival for me to track her down by her ether!"

I guess this is what I get for trying to spend a day without babysitting Sanae or Sophia. God dammit.

Lanette herself doesn't seem particularly thrilled at this revelation either, but it's probably because she's genuinely getting worried about the missing woman. "It's not like... something's happened to her... right..?" she mumbles to herself, but before M can comment, Lanette immediately shakes her head and smacks herself on the cheeks with both hands.

"No! What am I thinking?! Lin's way stronger than that!" Much to his surprise, she then turns to him, looks him in the eye and says completely sure of herself, "Pinch me! Pinch me here!"

What the hell?

Rather than be stared down by a girl more than a foot less than his height, M stoops down and pulls at her cheek with a less than eager expression. "Fine. Happy now?"

"Ow!" As if his face couldn't get more unimpressed, he's not really sure what to make of the big, tearful eyes Lanette turns to him with. "Yesh... I'm good."

"Ah... thanks. I needed that," she says when he lets go, a slight pink mark on her cheek where he had pulled it. If he wasn't so perplexed right now he might've felt bad.

"Alright! I think I'm ready to go now!"

Huh?

With a flourish that nearly hits him in the face, Lanette hops into a reassured stance and declares probably more to herself than anyone else, "Lin's probably fine! We'll find her sooner or later if we try hard enough!"

"I think that's easier said than done, kid," he comments, ruffling her hair nonchalantly with his hand, like he's trying to get her head out of the clouds. "But I said I'd help you and nothing really messed up has happened yet, so I guess I'll be sticking around for the ride."

Lanette's grin brightens up her face. "Yeah! Thanks lots!"

Man, she's such a kid. He can't say he really dislikes that about her though.

"Alright, what's the game plan then?"

"Hm... how about... oh! How about we try to find some clues? I mean, like! Like, we could walk around and see if anyone's talking about anything related to Lin..."

"People-watching, huh? You're in luck, Lanette, because that's one of my specialties."

For some reason she's looking at him like she's never seen anything like it in her life. It's an object of mystery to M, and although he's rather taken aback, he chooses not to comment on it. Instead he settles for dragging her towards the center of the park, where there's clearly the most people but the least number of distracting activities.

"Stay close to me, Lanette, don't want to lose someone else in this crowd." For good measure he grabs ahold of her hand, but as soon as he does it he realizes that it's really warm. Definitely warmer than Sanae's. A glance backward tells him that her face also looks really warm from the flushed look to it, but it can't be that she's overheating from all the people around because she was perfectly fine with the crowds at the beach.

Huh. Maybe it's a one time thing.

"Oh my god, did you hear about that hot cat boy - "

" - how about that PANTHERZ show - "

"'Scuse me, coming through -"

" - man, I saw this cute chick - "

" - Mommy, I want ice - "

" - did you hear about that pervert wand - "

Lanette suddenly tugs at his hand to get him to stop. "Wait!"

"What is it?"

She holds a finger from her free hand to her lips, just in case he couldn't hear her over the scattered noises. "Listen!"

"Oh yeah, there's like, this weird pervert wandering around here... I heard he got that one girl, you know, the one with the curls from 1-D?"

"Really? It must be because of her boobs! I heard the class president's girlfriend got hit too!"

"My neighbor's sister also got hit... ew, what a creeper. Did you know that no one's been able to spot him?"

"Yeah, it's like he runs away so fast that no one can even catch him! You turn around, and bam! Where did he go?"

"Scary..."

The pair of girls walk away in hushed whispers, but Lanette doesn't look interested in hearing more. In fact her eyes are rather wide and... sparkling?

"Did you hear that?" She's practically swaying on the spot in excitement.

"The random pervert? What about - "

"We should stop him!"

"... What?" M can't even hide his surprise. He doesn't even know what this pervert has to do with him or Lanette or even the woman they're looking for.

It doesn't look like he has to wonder long though, because he goes from surprised to skeptical in a second when Lanette pulls a superhero pose somehow in the middle of the crowd, paying no mind to the dark-haired guy she jabs in the back in the process.

"That's right! We can't just let this guy run around doing whatever the heck he wants! How would you feel if you got touched by a pervert like that!"

M is nothing short of disturbed. "I'm a guy. I think the pervert is only interested in chicks."

There's a brief pause, but Lanette doesn't let that stop her as she steps up, and says confidently, "W-well! But it's only the right thing to do, you know! That's what heroes do! Heroes never turn their back on people in need!" She even ends her declaration with another flourish and smacks the same guy from before in the shoulder with her elbow.

"You're right... but I can't say I'm really keen on the hero busi - " he forces out with a strained, wry smile, but ends up cut off when he notices something.

Wait, what the hell is that?

There's like... something coming in their direction. It's obviously not a Blight with the way people seem to moving, but it doesn't seem like it's a good presence either.

What the fuck is it?

He doesn't think much about it before concluding that it seems to be making a beeline towards Lanette. She did say she was some kind of rich kid, right? Maybe it's a kidnapper or something.

Whatever it is, it's moving too fast for M to Shadow Mobile them away if it's some kind of ether-sensitive being. The best he manages to do is step in front of Lanette and move her behind him in an instant, just as a person emerges from the crowd and passes him, a hand darting out to slide across his lower ribs before he merges into the cluster of people again.

...

"M? Are you okay?" Lanette peeks out from behind him upon seeing his clearly traumatized profile.

"... What the fucking hell was that." Holding onto the spot he was hit, he squints in the direction of the fleeing man, and with his tall height easily manages to pick him out, dashing towards what appears to be a camera crew some ways in the distance.

How is he able to do that?

"M? What happened?"

Slowly M starts piecing things together - Lanette's chest is around the middle of his torso, where he was hit - he moved Lanette just as the man came out and stood in her place to protect her -

Oh fucking hell.

Now I know how it feels to be touched by a pervert like that. Fuck, this is some messed up piece of shit right here.

Upon seeing Lanette looking up at him, concerned, he can't help but sigh though.

Better me than her, I guess. Ugh...

"I'm fine," he manages, but even the grimace he makes disappears when he realizes -

In order to touch a Stray, you have to be ether-sensitive. The pervert was obvious human, so that must mean...

Holy shit.

The pervert's a Crosser. Some idiot Crosser with the ability to run through a crowd unnoticed and quickly and uses it to grope women like his own sex life is lacking.

What a sad, sad sap.

What's even sadder though is what M's going to do to him when he catches him.

Hahaha... you're going to fucking pay you little son of a bitch.

Somewhere along the line a wide, evil grin had emerged on his face. It's so wide and sinister that it could almost split his face in half, and it definitely has Lanette looking on in both shock and awe.

"M...?"

"Alright alright, I gotcha, Lanette. Let's go catch the pervert."

"Eh?"

"What, that's what heroes do, right? Protect the civilians from danger and misdeeds and all that stuff."

And what villains do is get revenge on personal enemies.

"Y-yeah! You're right!" Clearly motivated again, Lanette straightens up and points in an arbitrary, completely incorrect direction. "Let's go get him, and beat him to a pulp!"

"Alright, let's move out then, Miss Hero," replies M without much fanfare despite the mischievous smirk on his face as he turns Lanette in the right direction.

Let's go get him, so I can mess that sorry little fucker up like a bitch.

It's been a while since he's felt this much malicious intent.

Oh man. This is going to be fun.

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 June, Saturday [Festival]
Time: 1:05 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
NPC: Maeda Takao and his VJ, Takagi
================

"What... the hell?"

Takao couldn't believe what his hands had just gone over. An effin' bourei!

He wanted meat! Fresh meat! Meat that is tender and young enough for his hands' enjoyment. Everything about him were bestowed by the gods, and god forbid if he doesn't use his hands to actually give these meat more loving caress!

On the other hand, why did he use these god bestowed hands to go over... that god damn bourei? Damn if he didn't curse his ability to touch the other world of dirty things!

"What's wrong? You missed just now, didn't you? Your hands weren't even close---"
"Takagi, you mind keeping your trap shut while we're both running?"
"...uh, yes, Mister Maeda..."

As Takao slipped away into the crowd, with Takagi closely behind him, he cursed over and over again the meddling kid Stray who had prevented him from getting that redhead's chest in his loving grasp and pinch.

Absolutely nobody else in this world had the power to stop him. He and his VJ had gone all over the country and rarely failed at getting boobs. His side-job with Takagi had earned the duo lots of money, and viewership on his site has been on a steady rise.

Backed by rogue ISPs in Japan, no one could ever have dreamed of stopping Takao.

Until now. That was an absolute insult to his abilities - second only to someone insulting his stand-up comedy skills.

And he wasn't going to take it lying down!!

Slipping on a pair of shades while no one was watching, Takao made use of his short stature to swiftly slink away from view, while watching the floor and observing which escape routes were best for him.

"Hmm, a small kiryouku mark here... one there... yeah, major landmarks... With my fantastic running skills guided by these marks, I'll try for three in a go this time."

And already, his next group of prey weren't too far apart. Pretty distinct as well, four kimono-wearing Japanese girls about to receive some of his love.

"Ready, girls? I'm going to love you this much more, right now... ehehehehehehe..."

Behind him, his VJ could only hope that someone could shut Takao up doing whatever.

*A/N: In case you didn't know what a VJ is, a VJ is a video journalist whose job typically entails carrying a large video camera and running about. Usually meant for on-the-ground reporting, this role is now largely known as referring to the various running cameramen in a Korean variety show, Running Man.

*A/N 2: Bourei is a play on kanji. While it usually refers to dead people (亡霊) it now refers to Strays (忘霊) after changing the "亡" in "death" to the "忘" as in "to forget". This is an idea cross-referenced with AYC, Pictor, and martia.

[Pictor]

Time Travel again!

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 10:08 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Fukami Mansion
PC: Hailey
Other PC: Leuel
NPC: Lin, Blacky
================

"Yer that bodyguard, aren't ya? The Hindfell one."

"I am. And you must be... Hailey Geminesca, I presume."

"aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...."

"...."

"...."

The two women turn to watch the glowing, screaming ball of lightning that had just rushed past between them, as it skated off into the confines of the mansion with a deafening crash.

"... And who on Earth was that?"

"Search me."

*BA-FOOOM!!*

"...!"

"Whoa!!"

Suddenly, before their very eyes, a massive spark shot down from the skies and struck the pile of crisped rubble called Fukami Mansion. Almost instantly, a flame was ignited, quickly spreading over the entire ruin.

"Wait... lightning?! Don't tell me that was..."

Hailey drew her MPUD up before her, but before she could confirm the identity of the lightning ball, another distraction occurred.

... Ah!

Lin gave a slight gasp as the black cat in her arms took the opportunity to wriggle out of her grasp. It sprinted off in the direction of the mansion - which was still quickly catching fire - as soon as it had touched the ground.

"-- Dah!! You idiot! You let it get away again!!"

Lin gave a revolted grimace, but wasted no time in giving a retort. Instead, she laid down the cake that was in her other hand and prepared to dash on after the creature.

"Oh no ya don't!"

Lin took a single step before being tripped over by a low, sweeping kick from Hailey. Although having lost her balance, the bodyguard was able to quickly right herself before impacting with the ground, instead landing on her hands. With a short flip, she was back on her feet.

"Tch!!"

The green-haired woman narrowed her gaze upon the person who had just attacked her.

"You attacked me. I hope you have an appropriate reason for that, Panzer."

"Yea. I do: You piss me right the fuck off. How's that?"

Lin shifted her emerald pupils toward the direction of the spreading flames. Her opponent seemed to have immediately caught on.

"Don't even think about it." When Lin turned back around, she was met with a pair of darkened eyes, as well as the barrel of a pistol "Since when did the Hindfells start chasing after strays? You guys starting a pound or something?"

"Do not feign ignorance with me. Both of us know that creature is a Blight."

"Oh gee, no fuckin' way, eh!! Someone give this chick a prize! Yea, it's Blight. And I already got first dibs on it." Hailey followed up her sarcastic performance by tightening her finger around the trigger. "Just so you know, this ain't a toy. I know a few bullet holes won't kill ya. But they'll slow you down, won't they?"

"Hmph. So, you seem to know quite a bit. Perhaps you should be the one answering for your interest in that Blight."

"Nah. Don't feel like it."

"Then..." As she began to speak, Lin's eyes, as well as the markings on the left side of her face, began to glow a dim green. "... I also hope you are prepared for the consequences of pointing a weapon at me, Panzer."

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 11:00am - 11:30 am
Weather: Clear
Location: From dance spot at Dawnview - MVD, near the stadia
PC: Melvin Jack
Other PC: Hailey
================

"Whatever it is, I'm pursuin' this lead."

Melvin wasted no time leaving his crew be, for a short journey - his crew preferred their own me-time in new towns, so they were okay with Melvin going away for a while knowing the dude will be back anyway, somehow.

He never left them reason to worry -
typical reliable big brother, ain't I? But I'm just a spy eye in human sight...

He'd taken the map - covering the important points - and asked where they were. Based on that, all he needed to know were the directions leading towards where the arrow pointed towards.

Even if he didn't initially understand what Pirvtea hooscl meant, as soon as he reached the gates of the private school he immediately understood.

So that was a school the dude wrote.

All it took for Melvin to bypass the tall, sharp spikes around MVD's fences was a forceful bending of a section of metallic fences while no one was watching, then proceeding to walk right through the gap he had made himself.

He was about to go all the way in, then realised sheepishly that he might leave a hole too obvious. So he walked back toward the gate and bent the bent fence back into place. The gate ended up looking twice-crooked from the double-effort, producing a jarring S-like shape that screamed tampering.

"Sheesh. Effin' steel gates."

He remembered an operation involving a similar steel fence. That fence seemed to have already been bent one too many times, and it ended up breaking apart abruptly and creating a ruckus as it crashed into a nearby pile of metal poles.

In the middle of a freakin' night mission. Suicidal.

You remember that mission right, sista? It's a pretty huge effin' mess.

Since he was quietly searching for that woman, Melvin made sure his footsteps were light and easy - keyword for stealthiness. Expertly tiptoeing while walking naturally, Melvin was as silent as a cat - probably because he is one - as he made his way through the closed building soundless.

Then, his noses picked up something while he walked towards the cafeteria, and he grinned as he quickly identified the scent. It was deja vu for a man already accustomed to smelling this dope for the longest time.

"Definitely here. I can't forget that smokey feeling ever, sis."

Melvin quickly followed the scent away from the cafeteria, but somehow it was lost by the time he reached the end of the corridor. Melvin thought about it for a while, then surmised that he had followed the route backwards rather than forwards. He traced his step backwards, and soon the scent picked up again, leading him right through the closed cafeteria across a squeaky-clean floor - which shined so hard that even in the absence of light, it still managed to glitter slightly - as he made his way carefully across.

"Sheesh, this place takes cleanliness too seriously. A clean freak's easy to deal with, though. I'm sure yaknow that feel, sis."

Melvin kept right on smiling, following the scent as it grew stronger and stronger. Alas, at the end of the corridor, all he saw was an abruptly-stubbed cigarette atop a tall tin trash-can.

The janitor is going to get it, thought Melvin, but much as I pity the janitor's plight... a giveaway feather on top of the trash can was not such a bad idea for a clue, was it?

That was what Melvin had in his mind, as he reached for the feather, hoping to gain a good clue on what is actually going on.

Then, from above him was a short grunt, and as he instinctively turned his head up, he saw what he had wanted and grinned from it, though the frazzled clothing and hair looked worse for the wear from the last time he saw her over many months ago.

And he uttered no noise even as his face grew a long, catty grin and another feather fell on top of his face.

"What's with you, big cat? Fancy you showing up."

[Pictor]

A while ago, from Paso's post...

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 10:08 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Fukami Mansion
PC: Hailey
NPC: Lin
BATTLE THEME: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUON6yDIgY8
================

"Ungh!!" Hailey dove rapidly to her right, tumbling hard against the ashen dirt ground. She had reacted just in time to avoid an incoming wave of rending wind, although just barely. The deadly projectile current swept by just centimeters away from her shoulder. She could feel its razor edge mangle away the hem of her sleeves as she dodged.

*FWOOM*

The air wave, having missed its mark, barreled a few more yards into the distance with deadly speed before impacting upon the remains of a storage shed.

*CRASH*

Chunks of debris and smoke were sent flying in all directions as the surface of the shed exploded with a deafening sound. As the dust cleared, three deep vertical marks now marred the wall that had been hit, each of them at least a meter in height and an inch in width. From a distance, it was clear that the damage resembled impossibly gigantic claw marks.

And the beast that made them was charging toward Hailey at that very moment. The Hindfell bodyguard, as soon as she had finished her last words of warning, had sprouted a long segmented tail covered in white armor and two very large claws that looked liked they should have belonged to a creature much bigger. They were so big that the hooked, knife-like nails dragged to the ground even from the woman's standing height, though she had no problems in raising them as she dashed toward Hailey's position.



"Oi! You're serious right from the get-go?! Those could have actually killed me, you kno- Gah!!" Two more claw-waves shut the raven Panzer up before she could finish her retort. Her opponent had wasted no time in delivering too more slashes, even as she moved. Each attack from those massive claws, traveled out in the form of a sundering force at their target.

Tch. What bullshit.

Hailey was able to dodge the first one by performing the same maneuver as before, but back to the left. The last one however, followed up too closely.

"Ah shit."

There was no time to dodge this one!!

*FWOOM!*

Similarly to the first, the third claw-wave exploded... right where the Panzer woman had stood. A puff of black feathers shot into the air, carried by the wind generated from the blast.

Lin ground to a swift halt, narrowing her eyes as she did. The cloud of sand the explosion had kicked up made it impossible to see the results. But it was obvious this encounter wasn't just going to end so simply.

*BTAM BTAM BTAM!*

Suddenly, gunshots rang out as Lin found herself pelted by a barrage of suppressive gunfire.

--- Danger! ---

Lin's bestial senses alerted her to an incoming threat.

The sky..?

The Hindfell guard turned her attention upward. As she did so, she was able to catch a brief glimpse of Hailey flipping over her in mid-air before the onslaught of bullets forced her to take defensive measures.

"... Kuh!" Lin grit her teeth as she swiftly pivoted her body and swung her claws to defend against the shots. Two or three shots slipped past her guard. At least one managed to graze her against the shoulder. Though her armored limbs were able to defend her, the impact from ether rounds were enough to rattle her footing.

A few paces across from her, Hailey touched down onto the ground, brandishing her pistol in an upright, readied position. Her face twisted into a sadistic sort of smile as she saw a patch of red slowly form on Lin's clothes.

"What, surprised I ain't dead?"

Lin furrowed her brows but gave no response. The wound in her shoulder was already starting to heal, but that doesn't change the fact that she allowed herself to take damage from such an obvious trick. In fact, if it weren't for her regenerative abilities, she'd probably be put out of commission with that one shot.

It also didn't change the fact that it hurt.

Panzer weaponry. How bothersome.

Hailey shook her head sarcastically, and continued her taunting.

"C'mon. I thought you wanted to pla-"

*FWOOM FWOOM*

More claw-waves, and again, cutting her off before she could finish her sentence.

Hmph. Someone sure doesn't appreciation theatrics.

But these straight-forward attacks were full of holes. Literally. As Hailey had quickly assessed, the shots arrived in sets of three vertically slicing waves. They seemed to be fired from each claw as they cut through the air. For a human, they posed a threat, but something smaller could easily slip between them!

With another puff of black feathers, Hailey transformed into her raven form. Instead of avoiding the blasts, she met them head on. They were straight forward enough to telegraph easily. Even in such split second conditions, navigating between the slicing waves was an easy task.

How boring. Let's make this a bit more fun!!

After slipping past the rending torrents, Hailey continued her flightpath, making a beeline straight toward her foe. For a moment, she could catch a slight sense of astonishment in her opponent's glowing eyes as she witnessed a tiny black bird of all things charging at full speed right up to her face.

"Tch."

That's right. Transformation. Hailey Geminesca's beast form was that of a crow, or some such animal.

Lin reacted quickly and swatted at the incoming avian missile with a claw-swing. However...

*POOF!*

... Hailey had reacted much faster. In another burst of black feathers, she was back to her human form. Her change in mass caused her to fall abruptly toward the ground, allowing her to avoid Lin's razor-sharp nails by mere hairs.

"...!"

Lin blinked in surprise as the small animal grew in size, although still managing to slip between her legs before it re-emerged as an adult human. An adult human that quickly delivered a flipping kick from behind her.

"Kuh..!"

Lin was immediately sent rolling into the dirt from Hailey's flanking strike. Even from such an awkward position, it packed quite a bit of force.

"Strike Three. You're ou- Gwah!!" Once again, Hailey's remarks were cut short as something tightened around her leg and pulled her completely off balance. Lin had been able to coil her tail around the woman's left ankle before being struck away, taking the Panzer down with her.

With a thud, both sides crashed to the ground.

"Ngh--!!"

Hailey grunted in pain as she hit the dirt with a dull thud. The world around her shook in a daze as she flipped herself over on her chest and attempted to push herself back on her feet. Attempted being the key word.

"Gah!!"

The raven Panzer was on the ground yet again, with the vicegrip around her leg refusing to let go. As soon as she hit the floor, she found herself being dragged by one leg toward her opponent, who had righted herself much faster. Lin's tail snaked around behind her, towing Hailey with it like rag doll.

"Whooooaaah!"

Hailey cried out as she was awkwardly lifted into the air, dangling upside-down as Lin moved her in front of her face. The Hindfell guard's green eyes burned brightly against her face, causing Hailey to squint.

"What purpose do you have with that Blight?"

"Gee. Kinda late for civil conversation, don't you think?"

"You are mistaken. We are not conversing. You are simply bartering for your life."

"HO HO! Finally, some trash talk! So watcha gonna do now, Little Miss Monster? Eat me?"

"As you wish."

Hailey's bemused expression quickly turned into wide-eyed shock while, at the exact same time, she learned that one must always be careful of what they ask for. Lin's human visage suddenly disappeared. In its place gaped the giant shadow of a dragon's maw, filled with rows of razor sharp teeth.

"Oi. You've gotta be fucking kidding me..."

Lin's newly sprouted dragon head lurched forward, growing wider as it did. All the while, the coiled tail pulled Hailey closer toward the toothy abyss.

"W-Wait! Okay, okay! Don't eat me! I was kidding!" By then, Hailey had already been half stuffed into the dragon head, with her arms fervently trying to pry the jaws apart so they wouldn't chomp down on her.

"Phew!" Hailey breathed what seemed to be a sigh of relief as Lin's movements stopped. But just as soon after that, a smile spread across her face. "I was kidding about that, too!!"

*BAMF!!*

A flurry of feathers clouded up inside the mouth of Lin's dragon head. The scrawny talons of a raven were much too small for the armored tail to properly seize. Hailey took this chance and flew up and out of danger of being a snack. Once far enough away, Hailey poofed back into her human form and watched as the dragon head thrashed this way and that, apparently choking on the feather buffet.

"You like bird that much? Then have one on the house... a la flambé!!"

Feathers weren't the only gift she had left. With a quick press of a holographic button, the dragon head suddenly exploded into flames.

Remote-detonated incendiaries. A personal favorite.

*Grrrrrrraaaaaaaaaugggh!!*

The dragon head let out hollow, almost machine-like roar before it disappeared into a haze of fire. A disoriented Lin stumbled out the fumes shortly after that. Her claws were also gone, and her fingers were gripped around her own throat as she coughed and hacked from the smoke.

"Kah. Geh....! You...!"

"Oh wow, you still have your head? So, damage to your other half doesn't transfer over to your human body, huh? You still look pretty hurt though. Neat. I think I'll add that to the "How to Kick Its Ass" section of your profile."

"Hmph." Phased, but still undaunted, Lin simply gave a stern huff as she resumed a composed posture. Admittedly, she had been taking this too lightly. As irksome as the Panzer woman was before, it's obvious now that she isn't simply all talk and no walk. Lin silently reprimanded herself. Perhaps it had been too long since she had the opportunity to properly stretch her claws. This was most likely what they called "getting rusty".

An interesting experience. But one that is over as of now.

"Wanna give up now, girly and save us both some time? I promise not to make Swiss cheese out of you, if you just tuck your cute little tail between your legs and saunter off. Really."

"No. I do not think I shall be doing that." Lin's words were spoken with her usual, polite calmness. However, they somehow seemed to pack even more ferocity that way. "Quite the contrary, really. It appears you have riled up my partner quite a bit. There is a good chance she will not be able to settle down unless she takes a morsel or five out of you."

The green-haired woman shifted her legs apart and drew her arms out to her sides. As she had done so before, two armored limbs materialized upon her arms. They gave a metallic rattle as they bound themselves to her. This time, however, an additional pair of armored appendages also appeared upon her legs, both also ending in deadly claws, binding themselves to Lin in the same way.

Hailey gave a sardonic whistle as she beheld the new transformation.

"Scary~! Anymore where that came from?"

"They are unnecessary... for exterminating pests."

"Hmm." Hailey gave an almost delighted smirk. "Ha ha. This is perfect. I actually have to thank you. I really didn't think I'd get to test my new toys so soon."

Hailey raised her MPUD, but right as she did, Lin charged forward and unleashed a rapid torrent of claw-waves. There was no way she was simply going to stand around and give her opponent the time to prepare anything else.

*BAMF!*

Another puff of black feathers told Lin that the Panzer had transformed yet again. But that wasn't going to work this time. Putting extra effort into her next step, Lin propelled herself upon her draconic legs and shot forth. As she flew, she crossed her arms in front of her, bracing them like a mesh of razors.

Nothing, no matter how small or quick, was going to escape the next strike.

*Sidewinder System Online. PS5... Deploy.*

An electronic voice suddenly sounded from behind the veil of dust that had been kicked up by Lin's earlier barrage.

*GRNNNNNNNG....!!!*

Then, a low and deafening hum, similar to the sound of a fog horn, boomed forth. The noise was accompanied by a powerful concussive force that was enough to halt Lin in her tracks.

"Tch..!"

She was forced to dig her claws into the earth to prevent herself from being blown back.

Of course. Another new, execrable trick.

The blast did more than just deter her advancement, it had also blown away a large amount of debris from the area. With the obstruction cleared away, the source of the shockwave was revealed.

A circular series of flat, rectangular panels floated before the Hindfell guard, arranged in the form of a cylinder.

"Hahaha! Hey, not bad! Not bad at all!"

A familiar voice declared from behind the floating panels. As it spoke, the panels began to glow bright yellow before disappearing one by one into thin air.

"Hmm..."

Lin narrowed her eyes as she beheld what lay behind them.

Hailey stepped out into the open from behind her dissolving shield, but she, too, had taken on a new look. While her upper body and torso were human, her arms now bore a pair of large black wings. Likewise, instead of human legs, she now stood upon two double-jointed avian limbs, both sporting dangerously sharp-looking talons.

"Ha ha ha ha.... You gave yourself such a pretty makeover, I thought I'd try something similar!"

*FWOOF*

Hailey lifted her arms and spread her large wings. Tufts of black feathers were cast into the air as she did.

"You're not the only one who can turn into something scary!"

*P10... Deploy. P210... Deploy.*

As if on cue, two glowing balls of light appeared beside her waist and quickly assumed a solid form. The one on her left materialized into a massive gatling gun, while the one on her right shaped itself into what looked like a missile launcher.



"You to wanted play? I'm all ready. Let's play some more!"

[Pasonia]

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 1:30 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Dawnview Park
PC: Fujiwara Sanae
NPC: Maeda Takao and the ever-unwilling, ever-disgusted Takagi, the Four Japanese Ladies
==========================================

"You ready, Takagi?"

In about half an hour's time, Takao's hunting ground preparation was complete. Takagi, in full view of everyone and seemingly just being an events video guy - the "events" tag on his shirt that was pretty apt for what he was apparently doing - signalled the thumbs up.

All over the place, Takao noted the best spots for running away very fast, while his Ether also placed special emphasis in areas where girls were likely to stop at. This included trinket, toy and games stalls, which were replete over the area, and were perfect grounds for his tender loving.

"Euphoria across their chests - that is my sole mission in life," declared Takao under his breath. Takagi, a distance away, inwardly facepalmed, even though this was the nth time he was with the pervert - had it not been for Takao's ability, things would have fallen apart at the seams long ago!

Takagi sometimes wondered if his career choice was the best, filming perverts going about their jobs. It wasn't as if he particularly enjoyed it, since he had two younger sisters at home who were Takao's preferred type.

"If only I'd been a little more careful with my wrists, I'd have been in MLS by now," sighed Takagi as Takao radioed him.

"I'm prepared here, Takagi. Ready up."
"I'm already up. Your call now, Maeda-san."

Takao focused on his targets, slowly coming into view, having stalked them for their bust size and walking habits the past twenty minutes or so.

"Hmm..."

"I'll skip twice down the trinket stall and reach into the buds of the sporty one. Then I'll spring down one step to the next stall and shuffle my hands into the one wearing a pink and a nice geta. I'll then strike the lady with the biggest assets and skip three down to the one in pink."

=========

Sanae and the other girls split up - agreeing to meet back in ten minutes - as they separately found interesting things to go to. The landlady found herself a stall selling perfume, Chihara found a net fishing game that reminded her of home, and as usual Asuka was all over soft toys, with which one stall was replete with and that she could not stop squealing about.

As for her, all that was in her mind at that moment was Go, having just finished watching an exciting "phantom battle for influence" on the server some days ago and of which she only has proper time to contemplate now.

As her mind wandered further into the mysteries of Go, she found herself in front of a candy store, absent-mindedly staring into the space as the stall-keeper found herself talking to a spaced-out Sanae.

In the three minutes she was in front of the store, the first thing she noticed snapping back into reality and the throngs of people around her, was a familiar person.

Or ex-person really - it was the butcher guy from some days ago, the same one that had behaved comically when she was receiving her "101 on Ether" from her Stray.

"Lady, this, this," he spoke with a heavy lisp, as he placed his arms across his shoulders and pressed down repeatedly with his palms, as though telling her something might happen.

"Eh? What?" Sanae, not fully comprehending the situation, decided to do as she was told, reaching her arms across to their opposite sides and pressing down hard. As she does so, she noticed a wave of Ether suddenly prickling on the underside of her wrists, sending a buzzing sensation both ways from the shoulder.

Almost as though something just exploded out of her.

Mere moments later, both the candy stall-keeper and Sanae bore witness to a spectacular flight of utensils and machinery, something toppling them onto the floor and causing lots of smashing sounds, breaking cacophonies, resulting in an utter chaos the likes of which Sanae could only shriek about.

Just as quickly as it had happened, something zipped away really fast, at such high speeds that Sanae could not at first understand if that was a fast bear, a small dog or a short human running away.

=========

"GO!"

From the get-go, all that was on Takao's mind were the precious orbs that only voluptuous women bore, and he was sure he could strike four at a time.

Skipping very fast amidst the heavy crowds, it only took five seconds for him to score, as he swiftly reached down Chihara's and scored. He was so swift, he had time for seconds as he parted Chihara's yukata apart enough for her to expose her shoulders.

Skipping away in one step, he scored again, this time as a defenceless Asuka was grabbed from behind. Asuka was relatively more aggressive, but like all other aggressive women without powers, he easily dodged the punch and then moved on to the landlady in front of the perfume store.

That didn't go down so well, as Takao overshot his movements and sent several bottles of perfume crashing, but he repaid himself by landing his face right into the landlady's navel as his hands skimmed past her bosom, before he skipped away for his final target.

The girl in the pink yukata looked especially tempting - that's why he saved her for last. The candy store beckoned, as though to tell him that sweet things are on his way into his mind.

At the last second, however, just as his hands were about to reach in to Sanae's chest, a forceful expulsion of Ether suddenly emanated from her; to Takao, it felt as though a palm had pushed him away from Sanae. As he was running so fast, the sudden redirection caused him to be aloft in the air, as he flailed uselessly towards Sanae's yukata, wanting to pull her along for his ride in the air but ultimately failing.

He ended up crashing right into the surprised stall-keeper, who stepped away in an agile reflex but could not help being surprised at someone flying into her stall.

And he could not help feeling utterly, utterly gutted when he finally realised whose chest it was he had failed to grab.

"It... cannot... be... This is some joke isn't it...?"

He had no time to reflect on his failure.

Pervert's rule number 0: Always run away no matter what happens.

Why... is she here?!!

He leapt right into the crowd before they could figure out what had caused a sudden upending of candies.

What the hell is she doing...

Before anyone could register a camera snap, he was long gone, slipping into the cover of the dense crowds like a slithering snake in grass.

...thousands of miles away from Japan?!

[Pictor]

Date: 12 June, Saturday
Time: 10:18 pm
Weather: Clear
Location: Fukami Mansion
PC: Hailey
NPC: Lin
=================

The scene at the Fukami mansion grounds seemed like something out of an exaggerated war movie. Things were on fire, craters and gashes scarred the area everywhere, and the air was torn by the sound of swinging blades and ricocheting bullets.

"Fufufufufu... Aaaah-- Hahahaha~!!" Hailey let loose a maniacal laughter as she hovered through the air upon her giant wings. The almost comically large, six-barreled Gatling gun by her left screamed hellfire as it spun, glowing a molten red while spitting out an endless hail of lead and empty shells. "Just keep running~!!"

On the ground, Lin dashed about, barely keeping ahead of the deadly trail of projectiles following up close behind her.

... Petty, meddlesome bird crone.

Having had enough of playing poorman's cat and mouse, Lin about-faced and freely allowed herself to be caught in the midst of the bullet storm.

"Haaaaa... AAAAHHH---!!"

With a battlecry, Lin began to swing her massive dragonoid claws wildly in front of her. The furious flurry of swipes were so fast that they managed to act as a shield against the Hailey's concentrated fire. At first, Lin's actions were only just enough to keep up with, and defend herself against the Gatling gun's force, but soon, the powerful claw-waves generated by each of her swings was enough to slowly push back the assault.

"Whoa!" Even Hailey began to sound impressed when she witnessed the feat.

Hot damn! That's actually kind of hard core!

*VRRRRRRR---- click click click click...*

"Rats." That was an obvious sound. The weapon beside her slowly spun to a sputtering halt, blowing steam everywhere as it did.

... Outta ammo.

Flapping her wings, she veered off to the side quickly enough to dodge Lin's counter-volley of claw-waves, which were now free to reach their mark without being contested by Gatling gun fire. While Hailey herself managed to get away safely, the same could not be said for her weapon. The long barrels of the Gatling gun were not able to make it out of the way in time, and a stray pulse of slicing wind smashed into the tip with such power that it both caved in the weapon beyond operation, and sent the raven Panzer spiraling around in mid air.

"Ungh!!" Hailey made a couple of disoriented revolutions before righting her bearings. She was less than pleased when she saw the damage her foe had done to her armament. "God damn it!! Do you know how much these things co-- Gah!!"

*Shwing Shwing Shwing Shwing!*

Another barrage of claw-waves narrow skim the top of her head.

"STOP BEING A CUNT FOR ONE SECOND AND LET ME YELL AT YO-"

By the time Hailey righted herself for the second time, it was too late for her to properly react to Lin's next attack. The Hindfell guard had jumped from ground-level to her height with one leap. Hailey rose her head right as Lin loomed over her, with one claw raised in striking position above both of them.

"... Oh. Hello."

Before Lin could properly bring her bladed nails down upon her, the Panzer woman managed to kick up both of her talons to block against the palm area of the claws. However, the new position made it impossible to maintain flight, and the two ended up plummeting toward the ground in their tangled state.

"Kuh! Have some of this, then!" Even as they descended, Hailey had more tricks up her sleeve. At her command, the front hatches of her remaining weapon - the missile launcher to her right - opened up. An array of rockets lined systematically out of the firing tubes, ready to be armed.

"Tch." Lin gave a frustrated grunt as she realized her opponent's plan. But at this range, that kind of attack would blow the both of them up!

What an idiotically suicidal person.

Of course, these types also made the toughest of enemies. How annoying.

So, before Hailey could fire any of her explosive death wishes, Lin draw back her free arm and plunged her claws into the device. They sunk easily through the missile launcher's casing plates, and with another swipe, the weapon was torn apart, missiles and all.

As she watched her remaining weapon fall to pieces, Hailey simply narrowed her eyes and gave Lin an icy glare full of loathing.

"Fuck you."

Immediately after her vulgar retort, Hailey hocked a mouthful and spat right into Lin's face.

"Mmph..!" Caught by surprised by the dirty shot, Lin couldn't help but flinch away, raising a claw to wipe herself of the disgusting spatter. Hailey took this split-second moment of clearance to clench down on the arm that her talons had taken hold of. Twisting her body, she managed to throw the other woman under her just before the two of them crash-landed back onto solid ground.

*THUD, CRACK, THUMP*

Lin bore the brunt of the impact as the two slammed into the dirt, then proceeded to tumble a few feet forward in a bunched up heap. When they finally came to a grinding halt, the two were still struggling against each other in a violent stalemate. Somehow, Lin still managed to end up the one on top. Hailey, beneath her, was struggling to hold off her left arm with both hands and feet. Both were now back in their human forms; Lin bereft of her dragon appendages, and Hailey her wings, talons, and equipment.

"Oi." As dust flakes settled around them, Hailey slowly panted out labored words. "Your right arm's busted. Isn't it about time you stopped?"

Sure enough, Lin's other arm hung limply by her side. Through her torn sleeve, it was possible to make out thin rivers of red snaking along her wrists, gathering at her fingertips and dripping to the sandy floor as crimson droplets.

Despite the obvious truth of Hailey's statement, Lin made no attempt at a verbal response. Instead, she simply put more effort into her left arm. The raven hissed with effort as she continued to struggle against the weight of the strike.

"Nnnngh... Alright kid, look. This was a stupid thing to do. I'll admit that, okay? You're pretty friggin' intense. You happy? I just gave you a compliment."

"An... amusing thing to say... after having spat... in my face..!" Lin's own words were laced with fatigue, but nevertheless her efforts did not wane. In fact, her arm was slowly making its way closer and closer to Hailey, compressing her bit by bit like a human accordion. She no longer possessed the strength to call out the Lacerator, but that mattered little. Even without her Reaper half, and even handicapped as she was, she was more than enough to take out the trash.

"Er, yea. It was... nrrrrgh...! It was a spur of the moment thing! I'll lend you a hanky after, yea? To wipe up a bit! Stop being stupid. It's pretty clear that I won."

"And just... how... do you.. figure that... harpy...?"

"You know... I really don't like it when people call me that."

*P50... Deploy. P50... Deploy.*

A familiar electronic voice sounded from Hailey's wrist-bound MPUD. Then, just like before, two orbs of glowing light materialized at Hailey's waist.

... However, just when they started glowing their brightest, both of the orbs suddenly dimmed down before fizzling out with an anticlimactic pop.

*Deployment error. Deployment error. System maintenance required.*

"Ah." Hailey had the time to mutter out a solemn acknowledgement before the crushing force of Lin's arm came down harder than ever. "Ayayaya.... Wait, wait, wait! I give! Uncle! Full surrender! Sheesh!"

Unfortuantely, Lin had no intention of giving the Panzer even a chance of throwing in the towel. Enough tricks, enough foul deceit. At the very least, she was going to beat the consciousness out of her before this was all over.

*WEEEEEOOOOO~ WEEEEEOOOOO~ WEEEEEOOOOO~ WEEEEEOOOOO~*

Just then, the sound of sirens blared through the air. In almost an instant, an entire armada of vehicles spilled onto the scene. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances pulled up and surrounded the lot.

Obviously, the first thing anyone noticed, other than the burning wreck growing ever-so-much brighter in the background, were two bashed, cut, and bruised women trying to wrestle each other into the ground in the middle of the front yard.

"What the hell is going on here?! You two, what do you think you're doing?!" A young male officer yelled out as he stepped out of his ride, an action quickly followed suit by at least 7 other policemen doing the same.

"Ooooh! Officer! Thank goodness you're here!" Taking advantage of the distraction, Hailey was finally able to push Lin's arm aside. She quickly hobbled to her feet, stepped away from the other female, and pointed an accusing finger in her direction. "I caught this naughty girl playing with fireworks! Look at the mess she made! And when I tried to stop her, she attacked me!"

"W-What?! Is that true?!"

"........"

Lin remained silent, and simply furrowed her brows sternly. Slowly turning her head, she cast a glance filled to the brim with ugly death in Hailey's direction. The raven Panzer just kept right on smiling, all the while nodding her head in the most ridiculous fashion at the officer.

"Yep, yep! It's all true!"

There was a short moment of silence where it seemed everyone took some time to comprehend the scene. In the background, the fire department had already begun battling the flames. For a good minute, only the distant sound of firemen yelling, rushing water, and the crackling of flames could be heard.

Finally, snapping out of stupor, the young male officer quickly retreated back into his car and pulled out his radio. After another moment or two of chatter, he stepped back out and approached Lin and Hailey, clearing his throat loudly before he spoke.

"*Ahem!* W-Well, in any case, both of you seem suspicious! We're gonna have to place you both under arrest. This is a pretty big mess, but if you really have nothing to do with it, we'll clear it up at the station... otherwise you're gonna be in deep trouble. Got that?!"

As soon as the officer finished his sentence, Hailey's beaming smile seemed to vanish into a revolted, bitter scowl, but only for an instant. In a flash, the grin was right up again.

"Oh, of course, officer! I did absolutely, positively nothing wrong, so I don't have to worry about a th- OH MY GOD, IT'S THE PHANTOM JACKET!!"

With her outburst, Hailey struck a dramatic pointing pose towards the mansion gates, behind the law-enforcement brigade.

"... Wha-?! Where?!"

Every head in the immediate area save for Hailey and Lin's simultaneously snapped in the direction the raven Panzer had gestured. It took all but a nanosecond for them to realize the ruse, but by then...

... Hailey had already bolted off into the distance.

"GAHAHAHAHA~! Bye bye, You fuckin' idiots~!!"

"D-Dammit! Go! After her, now!" The young officer commanded the rest of his brigade in a frustrated tone.

"Right! Come on, don't let her get away!" With an affirmative response, three other officers broke away from the barricade of vehicles and took off after the escapee.

This entire time, Lin made not a sound, merely watching the ruckus unfold where she stood. The commanding officer made his way up to the young woman.

"As for you, Miss... you're gonna have to come with us to--"

Before he could finish his sentence, the officer found himself staring face-to-face with some inexplicably terrifying beast. The Fukami property around him seemed to shatter away, the scenery suddenly replaced with a nightmarish, burning landscape. The beast before him bore him down with two horrifically glowing green eyes. They were lit so violently that he thought his face might melt off just by it staring into him. Right before his eyes, the beast opened its abyssal jaws and uttered forth a booming grumble.

"-- The police station. Yes. I am aware."