Thank all that may be more omni-potent than Chikage that she was finished with the bathroom. At least, that was what Suki thought, the moment she felt that familiar yet terrifying sensation of something wrapping around her body the moment she had finished washing her hands. Freezing up on the spot, she couldn't help but to glance down ever so slowly. The familiar sight of those black tendrils slithering around, brought forth a squeal of both terror and something else. "Chi-Chikage~samaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" With that wail, Suki got pulled through the shadow beneath her feet.

A short time later, Suki fell through the shadow onto her knees. Quickly brushing herself off, she frowned. "Chikage-sama, you could have simply told me that you needed me." Although her speech was in her usual, seemingly childish innocent tone, there seemed to be tears at the corner of her eyes. She did mutter a few more words, mostly towards herself, although the volume was so low that the only thing someone might be able to overhear would be "...she even went there...".

After picking herself up and dusting off her skirt, she looked around. "Ah..Dangeki...so what is it that you would like me to do?" With a curious tone, and a slight tilt of her head, she asked Chikage.

Tomori shocked her head away from the moth a little as it seemed to be reacting out of shock to Tomori her talking. Tomori angled her head a little but did not understand why the moth did that. Maybe he was just shy? She had a lot of customer's who didn't like to talk to her but just enjoy their coffee for a second and leave afterwards. Of course she accepted this request but did not leave them entirely alone. She had an urge to walk up and talk whenever she was bored or alone. Tomori stood up again and left the moth alone for now. It was clearly confused and didn't want anything to do with Tomori. The reason to why he had been hugging was to warm her up. Tomori tilted her head a little as to what his goal was. He tried to warm everyone up so that they would be happy and warm again. It was a weird wish to have but she didn't commend she stared at the moth and thought to herself how she couldn't be the coldest one here. If the moth was so desperate to warm the coldest ones first it would have been weird not to do Tomori first.

Meanwhile on the other side of the bar Zane was trying something with Eos that didn't feel completely right to Tomori. She squinted lightly and kept a close look on Zane for if he would try to do something to her friend. Tomori slowly made her way over next to Shiina and took a little water from the tap to cool down the burnt looking spots "I hope it doesn't hurt much nyan." She didn't look up at Shiina her face but instead soon after she went over all the burned looking spots on her clothes. There was drip of water left, it was all dumped into the drain again after she had finished.

The people inside all huridly stormed over towards the job board but Tomori did not bat an eye. She instead was called out by Eiko. She curiously looked up at the girl and tilted her head slightly while she talked. Tomori gave a nod at the command of Eiko "Sure nyan. What is it nyan?" She glanced over at Shiina for a moment and walked over to ask her if she could help Eiko. Tomori tucked lightly on Shiina her clothes and gave her a quick question "Shiina-sama, Eiko asked for my assistance... I'll fill in the missing hours later, I'll be off then nyan." She lightly ran over at Eiko again and gave a short nod while holding her serving board in front of her lap with both hands "We're good nyan."

A few miles away from the city, huh…that isn’t so bad. Even if it does come crashing down, there won’t be any terrible inconveniences to the city itself. The only problem, then, would be of getting there...

The immortal looked over the details of the mission once more, and nodded in approval. Five million, even if it were split into two halves, was still a tidy amount, and he wasn’t hurting for money anyways. He’ll have to call a friend to send the two Chasers up there, but even after paying the dude, there should still be enough left over to splurge on food and other meaningless luxuries.

“Isn’t it a ghost ship though?” Rui-Ling interjected at Kazuki’s confident gesture, “If you don’t think you can handle ghosts, why would you be better at handling ghost ships?”

“As for boarding it, however,” he continued, “I have an acquaintance who’s a friend of an owner of a sightseeing company specializing in helicopter rides. Shouldn’t be that big of a problem, getting on, as long as there’s nothing annoying like ghostly anti-air turrets.” Following the man to his car and realizing he didn’t recall whether or not he paid the bill for his multitude of desserts, the old youth decided that, since no one stopped him, he must have paid it off already, and continued on to the parking lot, guilt-free. The eyepatch kid’s car was rather…plain, but understandable. Sonomachi was far from peaceful, after all, so chances were high that an overzealous Chaser might do some collateral damage while they worked. Better to get a decent vehicle instead of a nice one.

Or be like Rui-Ling and take public transit, because he had all the time in the world.

As Kazuki drove out of town, Rui-Ling made a short call, setting up a quick rental of one of the helicopters. All he needed was some assistance with ascending, after all, and dropping a million yen as a service fee wasn’t a problem at all for him. With that matter settled, what remained was simply for the car to arrive at the destination. Looked like Kazuki wanted to engage in some small talk on the way there, and Rui-Ling decided that he could oblige.

“Good for you. Should find people with similar powers to you and start a clean energy movement. God knows how much longer the planet has until it turns into Venus or something,” Rui-Ling said, before pulling up the sleeve of his left arm and showing off its silver tone. “I don’t stay dead and I can grab souls. Makes me pretty useful against murderhobos and ghosts, but I can probably kill anything and everything.”

---

Lucille left as the Chasers began to scatter, though this was but a momentary reprieve, certainly their paths would cross again.

---

"Well, I guess it's about time for me to leave as well Shiina-chan." Chikage said as she porpped herself up from the stool that she was sitting, before turning to Suki and saying "But you can't deny that you like it, can you? Anyway, I brought you here so that you could get some jobs. I don't think that you can live on nothing but instant ramen and tap water for too long." Chikage then gave a hearthy pat on Suki's back as she said to everyone still present "By the way, feel free to treat Suki as if she was I. If there's anything you wanna do with her, please don't hesitate."

Following that Chikage finally walked away from the café, innocently kicking her geta against the sidewalk, while reciting yet another improptu haiku.



Over the bar on the place where Chikage previously was, an envelope with the following message "Don't worry about the repair costs, Shiina-chan. Tell the others that tonight is on my tab, please." rested over a stack of gold coins dating back to the Sengoku period.

@TheWindel@Kimiyosis

---

Eos stared daggers at Zane as soon as the self-entitled scientist wento to check on The Rook without even thanking her for the free treat. Though, Eos knew better than let her frustration get the best of her and turned away from him with a scoff, before going into the kitchen to retrieve Usagi's order.

"Here it's ojou-sama." Eos said as she handed the jelly-like dessert to the lupine looking girl. Actually, Eos had never met with Usagi before, but she was aware of the shinigami's identity, through comments that she heard from other customers of the café and was quite intrigued by the prospect of a death god that doesn't like to kill. However, she was sure that a better opportunity to talk with Usagi would come in the future and simply bowed and said "Thank you for your patronage, ojou-sama. If you want to take part in any missions, please talk about it with either Onee-sama or I" before leaving.

As Eos was going back to Shiina's side, Eiko came and asked her if she was willing to take part in a mission. Eos shook her head before looking at her colleague's eyes "I'm sorry, but I have to stay with Onee-sama and help with the repairs," she pointed to the broken storefront "maybe next time."

Despite saying that, it was actually quite obvious that Eos refused Eiko's just because she pretty much never went on missions with anyone but Shiina. It was more evident as the angelic android went into the kitchen again and brought a cup of a faintly red, steaming liquid and offered it to Shiina while saying "Please, rest for a bit, Onee-sama. I'll handle everything while you recover from your wounds."

@Lmpkio@Spriggs27@Crimson Raven

---

"I'll handle the Efreet. You should go and join one of the others in a mission." Reiko said to Yuudai just as Lucille exited the café. "While I do appreciate the attention that you give me, Yuu, you need to socialize more. What will you do if others start thinking that you are nothing but a delinquent that knows nothing but how to cause trouble?" Reiko patted Yuudai shoulder one last time before moving out of their table.

A moment later and she was in front of Star "Your name is Star, right? I have a few things that I need to ask you, could you please spare a few moments? Also, don't worry about warming me. I'm pretty comfortable as I'm now." Reiko said as she adjusted her scarf and looked Star in his eyes, waiting for the mothman's answer.

@McFazzer@Kitsune

---

Just as Kazuki and Rui-ling approached the dilapidated remains of what was once Sonomachi City's port, they could finally get a sight at the ghostly silhoutte of a battleship hovering ominously over the scenery. The helicopter that Rui-ling called for, laid not further away from in, though it was nothing but a pile of burning scrap metal by the time they arrived, and the holes in its flimsy carcass made it clear that the flying machine had been downed by the the ship's anti-air fire.

However, with further observation, they would notice that the ship was actually docked to the rusted cranes that overhung the port's drydock, remembering an old zeppelin port in all but the fact that the ship over there was in fact a forty thousand tons steel monstrosity, armed with enough fire power to lay waste to the city's downtown even from this range.

On the corroded armor plates the vessel's name coould still be read and it was no one other than the Kongou, one of the most active ships during the war years.

What was it that kept a relic from a past long since gone still active on this world? Better, how did it get here since it was supposed to be resting on a watery grave for the past six decades? No matter what were the answers to those questions, the fact remained that the Chaser double needed to do something about it before whatever force that spurred the ship back into the world of the living decided that it was time to follow through with their plans...

The true question is, will they be able to?

@j8cob@Ashifili

It was truly shocking to Star, the violence, the resistance, to him wanting to warm these cold souls. Why weren’t they grateful? How could they stand being in such a miserable state? Pervert? New word. Explode her arm in an orifice? I haven’t heard those words either, would the Coldest be impressed? Wait exploding? Won’t her arm exploding hurt? thoughts whipped through his mind without pause as all these cold people fussed over called missions, or the fact he warmed people. This place lacked any logic to Star and he frowned as he tried to make sense of this before he responded to Eiko.

“You are a violent person and not the smartest. Lightbulbs are a fake warm, nothing like the real warm. No comfort from them, but you still deserve warm. I will warm you one day.” noticing Lucille exit with a new umbrella Star hesitated in wanting to follow since he lacked the means to warm her.

While hesitating a woman’s voice spoke to him about wanting to ask him something. Tilting his head he stared with his full blue eyes and tried to make sense of her. She seemed warmer than the others, not brilliant like he is or the others he warmed, but it put her lower on his priority list. The Coldest was his priority.

“Ask? I’m not the best at answering...” his wings gently fluttering as he stared back at this lady, his head straightening as he was struck by an idea, naively believing that only he could have come up with it "If you teach me more words, better words, I can try answering... your name?”

@KoL

The doctor remained polite towards Rui-Ling as they conversed. "If the ship is tangible then I can handle it," Kazu clarified. "The intangible, however, I have nothing for. Though it seems you can cover that for us quite splendidly." He briefly wondered on the immortal's words about starting a clean energy movement. Perhaps that would be something worth looking into if there were others like Kazuki, but from his knowledge of electricity it wouldn't be a very fun or easy accomplishment even if there were dozens of others. While he could generate massive amounts of power Earth is still a large place with high energy demands. To sustain everyone he would have to work like a dog, something nobody would enjoy. But the thought itself was endearing and perhaps useful to keep in mind.

When they arrived at the port Kazuki was quick to stop the vehicle. He saw the helicopter wreckage and quickly deduced that getting too close could be dangerous. The weapons on board seemed to still be operational, and he didn't want to risk his car being annihilated by getting as close as the helicopter. "That's a problem," Kazuki stated, putting the car in park and getting out. He didn't even bother to lock it; there was nobody else here for sure. Not with that massive ghost ship looming overhead. "It can fire tangible artillery," Kazuki began to deduce aloud. "Odds are we can get on board. Using aircraft is too dangerous considering it is still operational... We will have to climb aboard using that chain lead attached to the crane over there. From there we can only hope it will not fire upon us as we climb, though even if it were to open fire it would be difficult to hit small targets such as ourselves..."

Without hardly waiting for Rui-Ling to get on board with the idea he began to walk towards the crane. Electrical sparks began to crack in his pupils as he activated his X-Ray Vision, scanning the nearby area and then the ship itself. Though a bit distant and thus not quite clear, it did appear to him that there was nobody onboard the Kongou. "I have never tried to see ghosts with my X-Ray Vision before, I doubt it could detect any," he muttered to himself as his vision returned to normal. The doctor took the ladder up to the top of the crane, making his way up at a casual pace. He wasn't anxious or panicked in the least. Once at the top, however, he waited for his partner. "If you don't feel comfortable climbing this chain then let me know. I do not wish for you to fall from this height, even if you are immortal and will not die. I can carry you on my back if all else fails." Kazuki tried to sound respectful, but it was difficult to come across as caring when you were suggesting to carry a grown man on your back. He then turned towards the chain and grabbed on. Immediately there was an electrical cracking sound as his hand stuck to the metal magnetically. Kazu had no fear of falling while he still had his powers. "We may want to move. If the ship is sentient or if it has a crew it may well notice us trying to sneak aboard. That could potentially be the end of us."

When Eiko had her partner, she held the little water elemental under her arm and walked over to Shiina holding the mission out in front of her." Shiina we need to know the last location of the rouge chaser, we need to know a last known location in order to know where to follow up from." Eiko asked Shiina in a cold tone, she didn't mind that she was going with a different partner than Eos, and even at first before Tomori she considered the Onii but she didn't feel like having to yell at her partner and felt the young water elemental would be a....Good partner for the moment.

" Tomori ! Do you have anything to say or want to know about anything else before Shiina tells us anything ? Or want to know anything else about the target that we're going after ?" Eiko asked wondering if Tomori had any questions for Shiina besides the question that Eiko just asked before they would've set off for their mission, when she just noticed Yuudai just sitting around on her ass and not doing anything, Eiko pointed her robotic arm at the Oni girl with sparks of flame almost coming from the edge of her elbow." You !"

Eiko glared at the lazy Oni and waved her over since she wasn't doing anything." Time to get off your lazy ass and do some work." She glared at the Oni girl while still carrying her partner under arm as if she was a large doll or just a tool." You'll get paid the amount of work you do not for just being apart of the job."

At the sight of the burning wreckage that was supposed to be their ticket up onto the battleship, Rui-Ling took in a deep breath, taking in the terrible aroma of burning metal, gasoline, and plastic. There was no smell of charred corpses, however, and off in the distance, he could see the remains of a parachute. No body as well. Guess he didn’t have to pay a weregild for this bullshit, at least. Shaking his head at the loss of most of his monetary pay in order to appease the helicopter’s owner, the immortal looked up at the ship that loomed above them, like a massive thundercloud. Its anti-air was working, at the very least, and judging by how neither of them had heard the ship’s guns from afar, it was most likely a magical projectile, one that made no noise.

More troubling, however, was the fact that the helicopter had been shot upon the first place. How did the occupants of the ship decide that it was an enemy, when WWII didn’t even have military helicopters, never mind the fact that there were no guns attached to it the first place?

While it WAS nice to see that there was another way onto the ship, via climbing up a series of rusted cranes, it definitely wasn’t an optimal method of getting on there. After all, even if its guns weren’t going to be accurate enough to shoot them off the cranes, there wasn’t anything stopping it from simply lifting off after it notices them trying to board it. Well, hopefully the ghostly crew of this ghostly ship had sub-par sentries for this night. Sub-par idiotic undead sentries that couldn’t tell the difference between an unarmed aircraft and an armed one.

Fucking hell, he was going to send at least a few of those assholes into nothingness for making him incur a loss of 4 million yen.

Rui-Ling stretched his legs as Kazuki offered a ride on the back, shaking his head. “I’ll take the lead,” he stated, “If they start shooting at me, you’ll be farther away from the ghostly gunfire shenanigans, at least. Your offer of carrying me would probably see us both dead if we get spotted and they give us the helicopter's treatment.”

With that, the man jumped up, grabbing the chain by his silver arm and beginning the climb. In this situation, his nigh infinite stamina as a divine being would help, at least. Unless there’s more magnetic tricks up Kazuki’s sleeve, he’d have to feel sorry for the poor man.

Shiina nodded as Mina proclaimed her interest in the Black Goat mission. Honestly, she thought the mission was perhaps a little too extreme considering the Youkai in question causing such trouble was labeled a rank SSS. But Chikage had insured her the Chasers would be able to handle the challenge so the vampire placed faith in the one who had founded their misfitted group.

The elegant maid nodded towards Tomori now before a cold wind passed by that made even her shudder in response. Chikage was finally taking her leave, bringing with her the familiar patch of darkness that followed her around. Well then, some things and some people never really did change now did they? That brought to mind the question of Eos now and she glanced over to the robotic girl.

“You know I can handle things here Eos,” she said with a smile, blinking in appreciation as she was handed the bloody cup of tea. “My wounds are already healing so there’s no real need to worry. If you want to go on a mission then that’s fine by me. Besides, I need to take care of our moth guest.”

As to Eiko, the vampire nodded before going on with, “The rouge Chaser was reportedly sighted west of here near a corner where the Crimson Sky and this world intersect. Hopefully that helps you, young Mistress.”

Yuudai was clearly saddened by the news that her sister had given her "Wait I thought-," It was too late, her sister had already moved off to finish the job, her eyes became downcast "That we would be working together for once..." The young youkais hopes were shattered a little but she was a strong oni she didn't have time to look upset just because her big sister was not paying any attention to her... That would be silly, right?

"Time to get off your lazy ass and do some work."

The oni's head snapped up when she heard Eiko mocking her, though a grin showed up on her face in response as she started to make her way over, lifting up her hand and placing it on the girls shoulder. "You are right! I should work... Well, shall we get to work?~" Before Eiko could protest the oni tagging along she had to bring up one little thing...

"Soooo... You into kidnapping cute youkai now?"

Leaning down a little she stared at the water elemental before raising up and putting a hand on her chin as if she was a critic reviewing a piece of fine art~ "You have good tastes. Seems like I misjudged you~" She said grinning away like a fool as she stared at Eiko now, clearing teasing her.

She read over the details of this 'Rules of nature' Job again. It was straightforward enough and having the Rook on their side would help greatly. She started a mental list of what they would need. Silver bullets wouldn't be much use given the reports but Sheridan would feel mus=ch better with a heavier weapon. She'd also need a police scanner to keep an ear out for any reports and a set of radios to keep in contact with Mia. She could pick up a heavier rifle at her apartment but the other items would require a shopping trip.

She turned to the girl and hoisted her bag up onto her shoulder. "I've got some errands to run before we start on this. If you don't have anything you need to do you can ride along while I pick a few things up."

@TentacleLord

Zane stepsided the projectile and it splattered on the floor. Zane look after it with a sneer "Bah, disgusting. I have no business with a mere hunk of scrap and spare parts. He said and he walked past it to find Chikage to talk to her to apply for the job and get the details. Why the hell would anyone put blood in a machine anyways? He wondered. He saw that she was no longer in the room so he he sat back down to await her return.

[@TenticalLord] @KoL

Tomori had a blank dead pan look on her face as Eiko lifter her up under one arm but did not comment or react in any way and continuously stared in front if her. Tomori was still in the same position as she was just was when she was standing, as straight as a board she was carried over towards Shiina so Eiko coul ask some questions to thr vampire about the opponent they had tonight. Tomori remained gazing in front of her and eventually dropped her legs down so they could hang. Otherwise they might hit everything when they would turn around. Tomori gave a small shake off thr head to indicate she didn't have any more questions and eventually let her upper body hang too "I don't have any question nyan desu."

Eiko seemed to be mad at another person for a moment and commanded for the person to start with doing something like a job or anything. Tomori stayed quiet and began to ponder on why Eiko had chosen her instead of one of her ussual comrades. Normally Eiko would only go with Eos or anyone else but this might even be the first time they ever went together. Tomori gazed around her a little to see if everything in the cafe was fine and eventually they left through the front door with the robot hand girl and the water elemental going on their own adventure.

As soon as the cyborg gotten information on where to go Eiko swung the water elemental's legs wide and almost knocked something over on a table but she was careful enough to manuver the elemental's legs to not hit anything and made sure she didn't hit Yuudai or someone else, as Eos spoke to Shiina, Eiko got into Yuudai's face to the point where Eiko was pressing her chest up against Yuudai's." Your running with me so I'm just gonna say this once, if I see you fuck up or do something that I don't like or we lose this guy because of something you did then you don't get paid any of the cut, you do something that makes me angry you won't be paid, you leave and give me lip you don't get paid you under stand ?" Eiko asked holding up her regular hand and pointing it in Yuudai's direction." I'm not your so called sister so I won't up with any of your bull shit."

It seemed like Eiko almost had it out for the Oni, but it wasn't that she just didn't want to be responsible for what ever could happen to the stupid girl, Eiko backed off of her and grabbed Yuudai by the hand leading her out of the cafe with Tomo under her arm, she began leading Yuudai while carrying the water elemental girl she was silent the whole way to the area that they were going to, when they were there Eiko let the water elemental down and hoped Yuudai wouldn't do anything that could or would mess up anything.

Yuudai's smile vanished when Eiko decided to get up in her face, something that did not sit well with the young youkai one bit as it felt like the cyborg was challenging her, something only the foolish did to a Oni. However her smile soon returned when Eiko continued to talk about cuts and money and how she should behave herself, and she chuckled out a response "Please, if I didn't do my job right my sister would never take me along with her. Though I reserve the right to give you as much lip as I like 'boss'"

Though she was a little sad to be suddenly pulled away from all the cute girls in the cafe she did allow Eiko to pull her along to their destination. "So, you going to give me any information on what we are going to be doing here?" She asked before pulling her arm away from Eiko. Despite agreeing to come along and everything she did not really know the whole story or what kind of job this was. If she was going to need to get loud then she would but the more subtle jobs tended to go her giving advice on youkai and staying silent.