"We shall follow," Artorias stated, apparently fully confident in his ability to follow the vehicle. It wasn't as if there were many other options for the enormous knight--'standing on the bonnet' would obviously obstruct the view of the people controlling it, he could see that much. Sif, however, could probably squeeze in fine... if put in at the end, onto everyone else's laps.

Shotaro and the knight had somehow managed to obtain a newspaper, which "Jack" found rather odd. Then again, they did ask nicely... How else could the man have reacted? Still, she thought it would've been even easier to just kill him, but...

Her train of thought was derailed slightly as she felt something... Fuzzy in the corner of her mind. It took her a moment to realize that this weird feeling had been accompanied by Satori suddenly looking rather unwell, but the thought never occured to her that the two things could be related. She wasn't really paying too much attention to the youkai earlier, after all. Still, she wasn't sure how to react... And was actually somewhat thankful when the more effeminately looking of the two detectives approached her.

"We... Uh... We have..." The small girl trembled involuntarily. Not only was it a man talking to her, but... "...Mother... We have Mother... Wherever Mother is... But she is sure to find us and we are sure to find her. No-one else matters aside from Mother."

"... Cosplay...?"

The practice of dressing up as characters from a video game, anime, manga, movie, or some other form of media? What did that have to do with anything? For a few moments, Saber was nothing but confused... at least, until she realized what Shotaro was trying to do. Oh, so he believed it would be easier to hide their purpose here, even if this world did not appear to hide its supernatural elements? Perhaps it would be easier then attempting to explain what they were doing... but this didn't seem like a Grail War that demanded secrecy.

... Did it? The blonde girl was uncertain.

"... Yes," she said flatly. She was, perhaps, not the best among liars.

The man looked at the two inquisitively before shaking his head, a frown on his face as he pulled his cellphone out and began to dial... Someone.

"Well, if you say so. I mean... That's what I would say if there weren't a few flaws in your argument. You state that most of your belongings were stolen, but parading around in something as unwieldy as that suit of armor in such a scenario seems counter-intuitive," he said, motioning towards Saber before continuing. "Let us go along with your argument that you most of your items were stolen once you arrived, including your money and phones. Why, then, would you send someone off with no way of contacting them in the case of an emergency? Why come to this park this early in the morning, when the logical course of action would be to file the report together? You are fit to gain nothing simply waiting around here. Furthermore, why would someone change into a costume when there are much more pressing things to account for, such as the retrieval of your stolen goods? There are a lot more things that come up as strange, though; for example, your first action was to ask me for a newspaper. When a person's goods are stolen, their first instinct is not usually one to search for news on current events."

With that, the man brought the phone to his ear and began to speak to the person on the other side of the line.

"Hello? Chain? I understand that you're a bit busy right now, but could y-"

Before he could finish speaking, though, a black-haired Japanese woman seemed to pop out of thin air, holding a phone to her ear as well.

"Done," she responded, ending the call and placing the phone in her pocket. "What's the problem here?"

"Nothing much, really. Could I ask you to go check out if there are any 'cosplay events' happening today? Also, can you check the precincts in the area for any people filing reports on lost items?"

"Alright. One moment, please."

The woman vanished for an instant, but returned about a half a minute later, shaking her head.

"Nothing of the sort. It is a Tuesday, after all; most places would have it on the weekends, I think. There precincts are also empty; the only ones inside are the officers on duty at the moment."

"Figured as much," he sighed, shaking his head before turning back to Shotaro and Saber. "It's not good to lie so blatantly, especially in this city. Now, could I ask you for your real reason for coming here? We've got a lot of problems on our hands already, but we'd rather not add one more onto the stack."

Meanwhile, Satori had barely managed to stabilize and had just taken a few deep breaths to calm her mind and her heart. Making a mental note to never try that again, the youkai girl turned to glance at the mess that Saber and Shotaro had gotten themselves into.
Well, so long as they didn't end up blowing up this place in the process, she wouldn't have any complaints for the moment. Such a peaceful place, even in what seemed to be a hectic city, didn't deserve such a fate.

You could just see the look of crushing disappointment sink into Shotaro’s face as the suit exposed his lie for what it was. A large frown gradually creased across his face and he folded up the newspaper, resting the hand holding it on his hip with the other going up to hold his hat. His expression briefly changed to wide-eyed surprise when the suited lady came in and out… and in again. It was quick resume its wide frown once their thin lie was thoroughly stamped to pieces into the ground, and Shotaro tilted his head down a little, pressing his hat down over his eyes. ”Ahhhhhh- fine!” he groaned irritatedly, ”I’m a detective in the first place, lying on the spot isn’t my forte."

He shifted his weight onto one foot and let his hand fall back from his hat, looking at the two straight on. ”I tried to avoid explaining ourselves since it sounded so ridiculous, but if you’ve got a bunch of… other things rolling around here and people popping out of thin air, you’ll probably buy it.” He raised his free hand back up and gestured at himself and Saber, ”Me, her, and a few others back over that way,” he gestured back at Philip and the others, ”We’re from a bunch of different worlds. Only it’s all coming down, apparently, and some lady wants us to fix it. There’s something going on in this world, we don’t know what, and we’re supposed to handle it before it gets worse. That ring any bells to the problems you guys are having?”


”Then consider how you would feel if your mother was killed. Especially over something as trivial as a newspaper.” Philip bluntly put it. ”The logical response to that might be sadness or anger, but it’s nothing you would want to inflict on just random people, would it?” he asked “Jack.” If her mother was seriously just that important to her, Philip hoped it would trigger some sense of empathy in the girl.

All Saber could do is watch as the entire lie was torn apart in a matter of moments. Well... it was not as if she liked lying, anyway. Certainly, omitting information was something she was fully capable of, and she could cooperate with the lies of others... but directly lying was, in most cases, something she did not approve of. Blatant dishonest quite simply did not fall in line with her viewpoint, and did not often coexist with honor and chivalry. ... Though... her rule had been founded on a lie... regrets welled up in Saber's mind, but she managed to push them back down. No. She no longer desired to erase such things from her past.

She would focus on the here and now.

"I apologize," she said, bowing her head as if she had been the one directly perpetrating the lie rather then Shotaro. She had participated, and that was enough. "Shotaro has told the truth. We are here in order to prevent something terrible from happening."

It was around this moment that Saber realized she had no introduced herself, neither to her comrades or to the man(and now the woman) they were speaking to.

"Allow me to introduce myself," she began, "My class is Saber."

The habit of not clarifying her true identity, however, died hard.

The doll's reaction certainly threw Shirabe a little. It was definitely casting doubt in her mind on her assumption that this figure was indeed one of the Autoscorers. Was it trying to goad her though?

With a sigh, she stopped focusing on the doll and looked at the truck.

"I... I don't think I'm going to fit in there."

As she shifted back into a more normal posture, the armour over her twintails swung up and a pair of sawblades shot out, forming a mono-wheel type vehicle around her. In theory this would allow her to keep pace as well as clear the way.

Goldibanne's cheeks puffed up in an exaggerated pout. Even if the girl's decision to ride on sawblades was considerably wonderful, the decision to basically blow her off was not. The doll didn't approve of that kind of reaction. Not one bit. So, with a huff, she turned and climbed into the van, leaning towards the men in the front and grinning as she did. They were a fair amount taller then her, and seemed like the rough type, but she still gave them a cheerful, friendly grin regardless.

"Fufufu, it's nice you meet you~" she said, "My name is Goldibanne~"

Given the spare seat--with one of their number apparently having flight and another the ability to turn their sorcerous contraption into a wheel--and that Sif was, despite their size, far too young to be expected to keep up with a vehicle, Artorias picked up the oversized wolf cub and carefully placed them alongside Goldibanne. 'Alongside' was a relative measure, of course, since there was still the front end of a wolf on her lap now. Quite a cheerful wolf, however.

Whatever the size, a puppy was still a puppy.

Relius frowned as the delinquent took Ignis' attack head-on, seemingly unfazed by the fact that her hands were now embedded in his body. Was the boy on some sort of pain-dulling medicines or something? That was a logical explanation for his brickheaded action to take the hit just now, but there would be time to muse over that later.

Before Ignis could try to pull back, the puppet was hit dead-center with a punch that was much stronger than the puppeteer had expected it to be. The doll seemed to recoil, but showed no sign of any lasting mark. Relius shook his head and flicked his wrist upwards, causing Ignis to launch Alex into the air. Kicking off the ground, Relius moved to follow, a claw-like mechanical appendage extending from his back attempting to stab him from above.

"Noble. Stupid, but noble. Children like you are the reason why the death rates are so high recently. Honestly..."

The situation with Arakune and the three magical girls, on the other hand, was a bit more... Chaotic.
Well, considering half the street was on fire and the other half of it was covered in bug guts, then yes, it would be chaotic. Arakune had been slipping about, constantly creating more and more insects as it drew closer to the girls that were NOT lighting the entire street up in flames.

"...e Azure! Y... not... it, but... close! Give! M... kn... ge... ob... Azure! Po... r! AZURE!"
The erratic dialogue that seemed to be screeching out like some demented banshee seemed to be coming from all over the street at once, but the source soon made itself clear. With a sudden leap, the blob-like creature lunged at the two girls from behind, spinning around with blade-like appendages protruding from its mass.


Chris watched as only the doll and the giant dog... Wolf... Thing... Decided to take up the offer of riding in the van. He didn't exactly understand why those two had decided to do as such, but they probably had their... own reasons. Like that blade-girl's giant sawblade-motorbike thing.
...

"Okay. That's it. I'm going to need an aspirin and some rest when we get back to base," he sighed, shaking his head before taking control of the mounted gun once more.

"Yeah, you and me both. Well, whatever. Trip back's gonna be 'bout an hour or two if we're lucky," Aaron stated, nodding his head in agreement as the vehicle began to rumble and move down the road at a decent past, crushing the corpses that were strewn all over the place.

"I... Guess I can assume you've got your own way to follow us or something. Mind telling us why you were all here in the first place, though? You don't usually see giant men with giant wolves swinging around swords around here, y'know? Or, well... Girls that can... Actually, I'm not even going to try describing that."

Even as she destroyed more of the insects, more seemed to keep popping up! But that wouldn't stop her! Hibiki raised her right hand back, even as the swarm seemed to be swirling higher and higher. If there were this many, she'd just have to take as many as she could out in one blow! The force from her punches had been enough to kill a few that hadn't even been hit, so that meant if she put even more force behind it... A handle swiveled forward from her gauntlet, and she firmly gripped it, as heat built up inside of her gauntlet. That... thing seemed to be trying to say something, but the girl couldn't tell what it meant. And that only made her pause for a moment.

"Be brave(Let's shout!)! Go in a straight line-"

At that moment, she heard the whirling sound of something moving behind her, and spun in time to see that the blob creature was hurling itself at them, having formed blades out of its body! And... there was Miku...!

"Miku!"

Without thinking, Hibiki spun on her heel and threw herself between her roommate and the whirling creature. She had enough time to raise her hands, feeling the whirling blades slam into her gauntlets, the force reverberating up through her arms for a moment before she felt herself lifted and sent rocketing through the air, towards a railing. That was no good! That had hurt, but it would be worse if she fell off the edge! She had to get back to the fight!

Even as she hurled through the air, the heat built up in her right gauntlet again, and fire erupted out of it, the rocket booster counteracting her momentum. As she reached the railings, she slowed, stopped, and reversed her course, hurtling right back at the creature with her fist outstretched, tearing through insects as she went.

"-no matter WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!"

---

Before either of the men could respond, Goldibanne felt a considerable weight on her lap as the huge wolf was placed into the car and laid on her lap... and across the free seats. For a few moments even she was kind of bewildered, but... this did seem rather like the sort of things canines tended to do, didn't it? And her body could support this kind of weight. Her Mistress's excellent craftsmanship ensured it could, and also ensured her maximum levels of charm and grace.

Still...

The living doll reached up and stroked the wolf's head. "Warn Goldibanne before you do that, next time~ I'll have to clean my dress."

The wolf had been killing zombies without extreme heat that cauterized the wounds, after all. Her attention returned to the men, who had not decided to clearly introduce themselves even though she had done so herself. How bothersome.

Oh well.

"It's molten gold, if you're curious~" Goldibanne began, to answer(at least for her part) just what she had been doing, "As for what we're here for, I suppose we're here to get rid of all these animate dead and the ugly skinless things. Well, at least, that's what Goldibanne thinks~"

Miku was caught almost totally unaware of Arakune's approach, camouflaged as it was by exploding insects, fire, her own lasers, Hibiki's song, and of course the blob's own erratic, unpredictable movement. She was perfectly ripe to get her back attacked by the spinning blades coming from absolutely nowhere on Arakune's person. Then, as always happened, Hibiki stepped in to protect her but got thrown away as well.

This was no good, Miku wanted to help protect her as well! There was only a tiny opening after Hibiki's attack but she was determined to take advantage of it, even if Shanguang wasn't the best attack for this: the fan in Miku's hand split and formed into a full circle that could be described as concentrating all of the attacks from her mirrors into one somewhat more focused barrage--but definitely more likely to hit one opponent right in front of you.

The familiar onrushing sound of rockets and music got an instant response: move up, and take advantage of flight--getting out of Hibiki's path and leaving a clearer shot if Arakune still hadn't moved out of the way. Every time she heard those sounds, she was either falling or in one case being grabbed, and this time she wasn't falling...

---

Breaking into a brisk run, Artorias kept pace with the vehicle, inclining his head towards the doll when she mentioned her dress. Not that the knight thought worrying over the staining of one's attire was a proper response to a land so obviously devastated by some foul incursion, but it would be improper to not acknowledge the lady's concerns. Even if preventing Sif from showing attention of their own accord was somewhat beyond his normal abilities.

"I am Sir Artorias, one of Lord Gwyn's Four Knights," the loping knight stated, introducing himself for the first time, "I agree with Goldibanne; unless some force more dire than this infection has arisen in recent days, then this is the challenge before us."

Sif, pleased by the stroking, decided to return the affection and licked the doll's face, happily barking afterwards.

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

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

Alex's punch managed to recoil the machine woman but did not let go of him as he had planned. Instead, his mechanical opponent threw him up in the air but he recovered just in time to see Relius coming at him from above with another claw-like appendage ready to skewer him once more. Normally he'd take the hit to catch the golden-haired man right in his hands but he had already taken one and while he could take one more, he decided to save that for when he really needs it.

What Alex did was immediately put up a large, black shield made of hardened biomass, his Shield Power, to block Relius' attack. The force of the attack, however, managed to shatter his Shield and blew him towards the ground but at the least not at all hurt from the attack. The virus jumped to his feet, his innate powers already began closing the wound and repairing his 'clothes'.

Alex figured it was time to take off the kiddie-gloves since it was all too obvious that this Relius was more than a pretty face with a robot assistant. Numerous tendrils of black and red color enveloped the virus' hands and became larger and larger until the tendrils subsided and revealed large, sharp claws, his Claw Power having replaced his hands.

"You're not the only one with claws." Alex dryly said to his opponent.

The virus raised one of his Claws into the air and sunk hard into the ground, making the ground rumble. A couple of seconds later, huge black spikes would erupt from Relius' position.

"Jack" stared blankly at Philip for a moment, pondering what he'd just said. Well... Of course she'd be upset if that happened to Mother. Mother was everything to her...

We... If someone hurt Mother... Expressionless, she stared the detective right in the eye. "If they hurt Mother, we would have to hurt them back. If they killed mother, we would have to kill them." That's just the way things worked, wasn't it? If someone hurts you, hurt them back. It's the only way to survive in the gutter. Sure, they'd probably try and hurt her back, but that's just how things were. She wasn't born with her scars, after all...

The man and his partner (Chain, given what he had just called her earlier) stared at the two blankly, turning to glance at who they assumed to be the others in this man's group before looking at each other before shrugging.

"Erm... Well, normally I'd tell you to stop joking around, but the fact that you were so earnest and that your last lie showed that you two are worse at lying than most people... I'll humor you for a while. Convenient, though; it just so happens that we're searching for a few lost people ourselves," the man said, holding out two pictures to the duo. One was of a man who looked oddly like Wolverine, while the other was of a young man without any notable features aside from his goggles.

"My partner and I have been combing the city over for these two ever since last week, but we haven't found a trace of either. Others have been searching, too, but none of them have had any luck either. If you find either of them, can you let us know? Here, I'll give you a disposable cell with my number on it and some money handle the search. If I need to spread out my net thinner and have to use a few more resources to do so, then I won't complain. My name's Steven, by the way. Now, it's been nice meeting you two, but we need to get back to work."

With that, the man handed over a cheap-looking cellphone and a few $20 bills to Shotaro before picking himself up off the bench and walking away with Chain... Somewhere.

Satori, who had watched the entire incident from a distance, decided to walk up to Saber and Shotaro and glanced at the items that they just got with minor intrigue.

"That man didn't seem to be lying, but his behavior entails a lot more than what we've been seeing here. I don't think people give handouts to strangers like that normally; they never did back where I lived, though etiquette might be different here. Regardless, I think we've found our problem... Should we get going?"

Money! A phone! Things were already looking up for their situation! And they believed them too to boot. If Shotaro hadn’t already admitted to the massive fumble he pulled just moments ago, he would’ve claimed it was all according to his nonexistent plan. As Steven and Chain walked away, he gave them a thankful nod and pocketed the phone and stashed the bills away in his wallet. ”Thanks. Nice meeting you two too.” There was a grave part of him that couldn't help but be skeptical of this search task. He certainly hoped they weren’t plunging into some sort of hit operation by helping them out.

He turned back to Satori as she approached them, recalling what her ability was when she mentioned he wasn’t lying. Or at least, he chalked it up to her ability. If he didn’t spot any lying tells, he was pretty sure nobody else had. ”No, I don’t think it’s normal to just give out stuff like this to strangers either no matter the place,” he stated, agreeing with the Youkai, ”It's kinda weird that he had a disposable phone on him, but I guess whatever their work is requires it. Where do you think we should even start looking?” Shotaro took a long look around them, ”New York’s a big place for just the five of us, and I don’t think we wanna be out here for too long trying to find these guys, right?” Shotaro opened up the newspaper he got from Steven again, scanning the articles over more earnestly for anything that seemed related to the people they were looking for.



This girl really had no sense of right or wrong, did she? And she was missing his point entirely! Philip held back a sigh as he came to this dreadful conclusion. He really couldn’t just let things continue without her understanding what was so wrong about her initial idea, at least not here. She could easily get them neck-deep in trouble they didn’t need. ”Let’s focus back on why you can’t just kill any random person for any random reason. As you said, you would want to hurt back anyone that hurt your mother, right? I’m sure you would be angry, and even sad if she was killed too. You can’t just replace mothers after all, they’re always one of a kind,” he noted, briefly thinking about his own, ”It’s why you can’t just kill a random person for any random reason. They’re all one of a kind to someone else, and might be just as important to them as your mother is to you. It’d make them sad and angry and plenty of other uncomfortable feelings too. Nobody deserves to feel that way or be treated like that unless they earned it”

Philip felt his explanation was enough for now. Sure there was a bunch more moral nuances to discuss in that argument- that last bit especially. What defines having earned feeling like total shit? Getting killed? Etc, etc. That was a discussion to have another day, though, once “Jack” had really thought over what he told her. For now, though, Philip looked up to see the people Shotaro and Saber were speaking to had walked away. ”Please think about all that the next time you think killing someone would be the easy solution. Feel free to ask any of us about it later, too. Not now, though, it seems our friends just got done over there. Let’s catch up to them. With that, Philip walked over to the reforming group, motioning for “Jack” to come with.

Prior to his summoning, Akuma had, as per usual, been partaking in a duel to the death. At long last, he'd been granted a second chance to slay Oro, the impudent hermit. Among all the world's warriors, Oro was a rare specimen; a man capable of rivaling Akuma in battle. Truly, the clash between these masters of Ansatsuken and Senjutsu would become the stuff of legends, their titanic struggle remembered for generations to come. Or, that would have been the case, if not for a small complication. Just as Akuma moved to deliver the finishing blow, a sudden darkness overtook him, and he fell into the void.

The warrior's initial reaction was, disturbingly enough, one of amusement. Had the hermit done the impossible? Had Akuma finally been slain by a worthy foe? Was his journey at an end? For the first time in years, the martial artist felt something close to happiness. Whilst he'd been expecting Ryu to be the one, dying at the hands of Oro was acceptable.

Naturally, it was at this point that Akuma was roused by the sound of conversation. Awaking to find himself in a cathedral devoid of decoration or furnishing, the warrior had only one thought in his mind: Someone, or something, had cheated him out of his duel with Oro. To put it lightly, Akuma was furious. As the warrior seemed to be alone, however, he was unsure as to whom was responsible. Before Akuma had the chance to hunt down the guilty party, he was given pause by a voice suddenly echoing through his mind.

It spoke of collapsing dimensions, an 'Akashic Record,' and the offer of a wish, among other things. The mention of travelling to other realms was of particular interest to the warrior, and served to quell his rage. While he'd lost the chance to settle things with Oro, a new opportunity had arisen in its place. The thought of facing powerful warriors from across the whole of time and space pleased Akuma greatly.

Without so much as a shred of hesitation, the warrior agreed to cooperate. The being instructed Akuma to enter one of three nearby doors, and meet with a group of likewise summoned 'heroes.' Selecting the middle doorway, the Supreme Master of the Fist dove forth into the unknown...



Only to find himself in a decrepit alleyway. A miniscule layer of fog coated the ground, reminiscent of the deep blue smog emanating from the gateway he'd arrived from. Upon exiting the alley, Akuma took a moment to observe the bizarre architecture of the city, noting the haphazard and mechanical nature of the buildings. As the warrior wasn't one for sightseeing, his attention was quickly drawn to the distant sound of two separate battles, one much closer than the other. Naturally, Akuma was drawn to the din of conflict, not unlike a moth to a flame.

Arriving on the scene, the warrior was treated to the chaotic sight of seven individuals doing battle. Between the gaudily dressed fop, the gold-clad eccentric, and the small children, Akuma was unsure as to whom he was supposed to fight. Rather than waste time mulling it over, however, he simply decided to pick one at random and make his presence known.

Upon stepping into earshot, Akuma casually stomped on the ground. Despite the minimal effort involved, the martial artist's strength was great enough that it caused the ground surrounding his foot to shatter. With the others properly alerted to his presence, Akuma turned his attention towards the garishly dressed man in purple.

"I am Akuma," the ogre-like warrior bellowed, his fist pointing towards his chosen target, "the denizen of hell! Surrender immediately, and your death shall be swift, worm."

Heaving a sigh of relief at the moment after seeing the blobby thing retreat and the insect swarms burn, the girl quivered in surprise as she saw the streets be alit on fire from her actions. The place seemed to be a lot more flammable than it seemed. Hurriedly trying to disperse the flame by drawing it into her sword to keep the property damage to a minimum, Tailred then jerked in more surprise at what looked like the scariest human the girl had ever seen decided to step and cause a low magnitude earthquake. The man was certainly a lot more intimidating than what she fought on a near daily basis, that was for sure. Still, Akuma seemed to be on their side considering he was going after that skeevy purple-suited man so the magical girl decided to get back to helping the two other girls. Drawing her arm back with the furiously blazing sword held within her tiny but steel hard hands, the girl then took a step forward herself while bending her body down and outright flinging the longsword at the sharp and rotating creature, herself sneak attacking the sneak attacking creature. If the thing moved and the blade went towards the other magical girls, Tailred would simply return her weapon back to ribbon form to handily cancel the impromptu technique.

Relius frowned as his attack failed to connect head-on, rolling backwards as he hit the ground. The delinquent, it seemed, was a lot more that he put on airs about. Self-repairing clothing, too...? Hrm. Interesting, but not particularly noteworthy. Those Murakumo units, though? Those could be worth examining. Hopefully, Arakune would be able to stall them long enough to finish combat here.

"Claws? Well, I won't deny that I use them often, but they're not the only tool in my arsenal," he stated, watching as the boy began to mutate his arms into some sort of... Monstrosity...?

"Huh. Maybe this little detour was worth it in the end. The question here, though, is if I can sample you..."

At his behest, Ignis moved over to his side just as the tentacles spurted from the ground. The puppet threw Relius into the air just as the spears emerged, the attack itself penetrating through Ignis' body in various places. Relius, for the most part, seemed unimpressed.

"Hrmph. I guess you have some strength," he shrugged, unimpressed as he landed gracefully next to Ignis before recalling her and turning to face the giant ogre-like man, sighed.

"I'm impressed. Not even the slightest of manners? You arrive late and declare your intent to kill? Well, at the very least you did give me your name, which is better than nothing. Though... This battlefield is becoming a tad too crowded for my tastes. I might just decide to make my exit soon, anyhow."

Arakune, on the other hand, was having absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel luck with its fight. Though one of the girls seemed to have taken some recoil damage from his attack, the others seemed to be mostly unharmed.

And there seemed to be three concentrated attacks coming its way.

In order to minimize the total damage, Arakune opted to jump face-first at Hibiki and her rocket-powered fist in another attempt to spirit the girl away into... Whatever the hell space was inside of Arakune. If worst came to worst, then at least it'd be plastered against the fist and dodge the blade and lasers for fear of friendly fire.

Seaside, the sun, her friends and just a nice long break from the normal and abnormal day to day routine of the Hiizumi Life Counseling Office. Yet fate it self has decided to be selfish and denies that respite from her for she has now found herself in with innumerable other characters that she could swear has literally come out of literary materials of the comic book variety.

With all the heavy drops of info Lydia lay upon everyone. Kotoha for a moment relapsed into her introvertic, old self as she digested everything. From the collapse of dimensions, and even more dimensions that she was used to back in Sakura Town. Her response was meek but was definitively an affirmative.

And when the three doors to whatever worlds they lead to appeared, she steeled herself as she approached the leftmost door. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and stepped into...



Hmm, new york eh... And seems like I'm a bit behind, better ask what's up.

She stepped forward to the group and directed her attention towards the people who she actually saw introduce themselves back in the cathedral thingamajig earlier. The all together normal looking men Shotaro and Philip and the Satori, Komeiji.

"Hi! I'm Kotoha Isone, Hanyou from Sakura Town, Nice to meet ya. Any idea how we're actually supposed to fix the universe in New York?"

Blunt but honest...