[h1][center]The 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi[/center][/h1]
[h2][center]Hanging Gardens[/center][/h2]
"H-hey, what are you two--?!" the man asked, bewildered at the actions of the two he was trying to protect before sighing. "Ah, damn it all! Forgot this place is full of hot-blooded fighters. If you two are planning to fight, then I'm going to have to request that you only disable that girl! Something's really wrong here, and I've got my hands full here with damage control. I've got some questions of my own to ask, but I guess that'll have to wait."

Standing tall, the man planted his blade in the ground as he stood against the opponent in front of the group.

"My name is Kagura Mutsuki, the head of the Mutsuki family. If you two are intent on fighting, then lend me your strength. I'll answer as many question as I can afterwards."

With that little self-introduction, Kagura pulled his weapon from the ground as the enemy rushed forward, her blade aimed at his neck. With a quick kick, Kagura quickly tossed his weapon up to parry the blow before shouting.

"Let's do this!"

[center][h2]Orient Town[/h2][/center]
"Nya?!"

A surprised cry left the "Tao"'s lips as Tailred shot a kick towards her, narrowly dodging the blow before stomping her feet. The fact that Washboard Girl had destroyed her food and was trying to run away brought back vague memories of a similar incident, but she, of course, didn't really care much about that at all.

"Tao's not going to let you go that easily! Take this! Mean Bun Justice Slash!"

With a loud cry, the catgirl crouched down and, with surprising speed, pounced towards Tailred with her claws outstretched. By now, a few onlookers were watching from their rooms of in the windows, but with nobody actually on the streets there wasn't really any major chance of innocents being harmed.

Not that it mattered, of course.

[h2][center]Laboratory[/center][/h2]
As Miku had predicted, a large chunk of the insects had begun to go after the bright lights rather than their original targets, and about three quarters of those that remained were blown away by Hibiki's own attacks. The path outside was clear now, though it was nothing more than what seemed to be a hallway that led into... Well, probably more hallways, all things considered. Still, it seemed that it would be all that was there, and for all intents and purposes the absolute lack of any footsteps signaled that Relius had not even bothered to respond to the incident at hand.

[hr]
[center][h1]Unknown City, Somewhere in the U.S.- Debriefing Over[/h1][/center]
While the little girl and the larger-than-life male (and, by extension, his pet wolf) seemed to be completely ready to help deal with their problems, the man with the strange weapon and bandanna seemed to be... A different story. Mercenaries, it seemed, seemed to exist everywhere, regardless of time and place. Claire sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"You really think we're going to keep money on hand in the middle of an apocalyptic crisis? Where would we keep it in the first place? And why would we keep it instead of using the area to store something more practical?" she asked him expectantly before turning to the other two. "As for you... Thanks for accepting. We know that there are a few bases scattered about the world, but from what we've gathered, hitting their main bases should flush them out. The only feasible way for them to keep this up would be to have one on each continent, so right now we're at least focused on finding the one here in North America. Problem is, though, that we don't have enough data to pinpoint their coordinates, and we haven't been able to capture any agents to interrogate, so all we're really trying to do right now is retake some group and wait for the next attack."

Outside the compound, however, the guards seemed to be much more on-edge about the new visitor. Unlike the guests that had come along with Chris, this one seemed to be ... Well, much more suspicious. Having been decked out in weapons and now speaking about something that sounded like the ramblings of a crazy man (which, given everything that happened so far, usually wasn't a good sign), the visitor seemed to be worthy of the utmost wariness. One of the guards took the initiative and quickly radioed in towards the main base out of caution.

"We've got a crazy outside. What should we do?"

"Details?" Claire responded, activating the radio to transmit the dialogue from the room back, just in case the new guests had anything to say.

"Armed to the teeth. Rambling on about being sent by some outside force. Signs of insanity. No clue how long he'll stay put, but I don't want to risk losing any men just in case."

"Hrm."

Claire looked to the side for a moment before sighing.

"Should we look into it, or do you want to deal with it? You can deal with the infected fine, but I'm not sure how well you can handle a possibly-crazed armed lunatic..."