[SS] Intensify- Episode 2

July 15th

The noise of the city streets and traffic provided the perfect cover.

"C'mon, hurry up!" The shaven headed boy peered at the lank-haired youth and his cohorts as they lugged the heavy container up onto the rear compartment of the truck. He glared impatiently at the cratered wall to the laboratory as two more burly looking Skill Out wheeled the next crate towards him. He kicked the side of the crate with an irritated snarl.

The side alley meant that they were only visible from one route. The bulky, non-descript truck covered the only other line of sight.

And the tall buildings either side of them made the gang impossible to see from anywhere but the very edge of the buildings closest to them.

Considering all of that, the other Skill Outs were less than surprised when the shaven headed boy ordered them back into the building with a terse nod of his head. Kenji Kurama and his gang had already made a profit tonight. What was a little more to line their pockets?

"Tha fuck is his problem?" The long-haired boy swatted his metal baseball bat along the surface of the table, cleaning it of beakers and sheaves of paper that littered its top. The glass smashed loudly against the polished floor of the research laboratory. His cohort, a skinny boy with a cast on his wrist and pale green dyed hair that gave him the unmistakable appearance of a street punk, simply shrugged.

"I mean, we got what we need. Anti-Skill are gonna be here any minute. This place must have some sort of..." He heaved his bat against the side of a desktop monitor. "...security system, right?"

The green haired punk shrugged.

"Probably all kinda silent alarms and shit." He continued to grumble as they approached the ominous looking clean-room. Brushed steel and clear, hardened plastic made up the walls and floors and every visible surface. The long haired thug shivered. "Damn, place gives me the creeps. What is this stuff, anyway?" He asked as he loaded another crate onto the trolley.

The punk shrugged non-commitally.

"Whatever. Let's just get out of here." They hurried to the crumbling wall.

It was a relatively perfect weather for her. Neither too hot or cold and the breeze was soothing her. Yet...

"I hate this city."

July 15th had marked her return to Academy City. More precisely it was July 14th, but due to time zones she ended up sleeping the whole day and night. After several years, Miyako had finally returned to Academy City, much to her dislike.

"Then why did we came back in the first place?"

With her, she had brought multiple members of her faction, including her assistant Akira.

"I hate this city, but I can't avoid returning since I hate it."

"Logic would have it otherwise, mind you."

"Oh please, be grateful you weren't turned in the Power Curriculum Program thanks to me instead of judging my hate for Academy City."

"That has nothing to do with anything, heck do you need to mention your hate in every sentence...? But still, this city sure has a lot of Urban Legends for such a scientific place."

As they continued their usual argument, Akira brought up a subject that's been interesting him for quite a while. He had found a recent interest in Urban Legends

"Since when where you interested in them? But well, that's students for you, they like coming up with random stuff at every corner in this damned city."

"Leaving the fact that you're really doing it aside... I'm just curious, and it's not something Natsumi would get curious of."

"You're right about that, I doubt she'd give a damn in the world about such things. But still, dealing with Natsumi is going to be tricky, if she learns that I'm in Academy City so soon it's going to be really complicated to handle..."

Miyako had not told Natsumi about her return, and had no intention to do so anytime soon unless a need would arise.

"But why are you hiding it from her?"

"Hey now. I'm not hiding it from her, I'm just not telling he-" She was cut in mid-sentence by Akira.

"It's the same thing. Why?"

"Sigh... I'm just waiting for a good occasion to do so. Before you ask me why, I just have a feeling I should."

She was mainly waiting for a moment where she could tell Natsumi about her return without having the latter close herself in her shell again. She just had a feeling it would be the case, a baseless intuition.

"It's great that you can read my mind without requiring a mind-reading ability, but I still don't get it... Oh whatever, what are we going to do now?"

Akira's subject change was beneficial to Miyako, who had not wanted to stay on the same subject any longer and who was dreadfully bored from just walking around.

"Wait for it. I'm betting 2000 yens that we're going to get involved in something really out there pretty soon."

After a long morning of unpacking boxes, Kyou Rindou stopped by Judgement Office 177, bearing several bright pink, overly sweet-tasting, fruity drinks for everyone, including herself. Bringing drinks Kyou made herself at home was something she did every day at the Judgement office she used to work at, and the habit didn't die when she transferred to this office. She usually only brought the extra sweet drinks on special occasions, such as today - today she could start actually working for this branch, doing patrols and actual Judgement work. Ordinarily, the drinks were fruit smoothies Kyou made the night before; however, she always makes far too much, and she just gives them away to keep her fridge from getting cluttered. Anybody who asked for the recipe for today's drinks out of morbid curiosity would question Kyou's sense of taste upon finding out just what exactly went into the drinks to make them so chokingly sweet.

She didn't even say hello when she entered the Judgement office, as she was used to not needing to; at the branch she had come from, she had been well-known enough to not need introductions. As such, she had completely forgotten to remind anyone she handed drinks to as she passed by that she was actually a member of Judgement. Luckily, she was wearing her Judgement armband, so no questions were raised. The drinks, in question, were things Kyou liked, so there was no guarantee that anyone would even like them, considering how sweet they were.

Truthfully, she was supposed to have the day off to finish unpacking her things in her new dorm room, but she had finished far earlier than anticipated and now had too much free time. As such, Kyou found herself in the office of the head of Judgement Branch 177, looking for work and making a nuisance of herself. She had moved all the way across Academy City, and she didn't know where anything was on this side of the city, so this was the extent of her plans for entertaining herself.

At least she remembered to knock on her CO's door before barging in, this time. The last time she failed to remember to knock, she had seen something her CO swore her to secrecy over, and Kyou had no intention of repeatedly promising to never speak of the embarrassing thing she had seen - for well over 45 minutes - again.

...Konori Mii's office was dark. And cramped. And it smelled of cleaning supplies. And the door locked automatically when Kyou closed it.

...This was not an office, Kyou realized. She had just accidentally locked herself in a janitor's closet.

From behind the door came a few meek knocks.

"Can someone let me out, please...? I thought this was an office..."

Trystan looked up from where he was cleaning. The door to the office clattered as it was pushed open, perhaps with a foot or an elbow, as a woman carrying some brightly colored fluid entered the building. He turned to greet her, but she was quite obviously ignoring almost everyone else that was in the room as well. Since he was new here, her appearance might have been something of a regular occurrence; none of the other senpai's in the office seemed to be raising much of a ruckus about her entrance either. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that she had a Judgement armband around her arm as well. Seeing this, he had no other qualms about being here and simply went back to his work.

On the other hand, he was curious about the colored fluid that she brought in. As she soon started to divide it up into cups, he could only assume that it was some sort of drink. But what kind of drink was it exactly? He sneaked a peek from the corner of his eyes as she continued pouring it out. The fluid had a sort of slow, sludgy feel as it slid from it's container into the cup. As she finished divvying out the substance, she made some sort of vague gesture towards the rest of the room, inviting them to take a cup if they felt so inclined. It just so happened that he was feeling thirsty, so Trystan went over to take a cup.

Who was he kidding, he was just curious as to what this brightly colored sludge was. It was curious that no one else was making a move on free drinks. A slightly nagging voice at the back of his head scolded his eagerness at free drinks - has living in poverty really changed him so much?! However, as he brought the cup to his lips, it quickly became apparent that it wasn't because of the ability to self-sustain that the others had made no move towards the drink.

"Itadakimasu", said Trystan in a soft voice.

A pungent, sickeningly sweet smell came wafting up from the cup that he had taken even before he had slurped down the first gulp. However, but the time that smell had hit him, he had already tilted the cup far too much to stop the incoming landslide of sticky sweet goop. The fluid slid into his mouth, assaulting his tastebuds with a sadistic amount of sugar. It was so much that the sweetness suddenly transformed into a strange, surrealistic sort of bitterness. A few of the other workers who were around laughed wrly and shook their heads as they witnessed his suffering. They had heard the rumors from the other branch that this transfer brought in a poison disguised as a nice drink. Why didn't this greenhorn heed this warning?

As much as he wanted to spit the drink out, it was something that this woman had brought in and shared with the rest of the office for free. Even if he would never drink or even eat anything this woman would make, to spit this drink back out after he had already put it in his mouth would have been a disgrace. Steeling his resolve, he forced himself to swallow the rest of the goop before tossing the cup away, lest she see that he had finished and offered to pour him some more. Heaving slightly, he returned shakily to his cleaning supplies, before starting to clean the office once more.

"...Hisakawa Miyako."

The silence was broken by Akira. A heavy silence that did not indicate good news.

"...Yes?"

She knew what Akira was about to say, and she also knew how Akira would react once she'd answer.

"Where are we?"

"...somewhere."

Or so she said in a low voice, barely audible. During their slight argument earlier, she had forgotten about the fact that she had not been in Academy City for many years. As such she had also forgotten that she did not know the city by heart anymore, and thus they lost themselves in various side alleys while trying to find directions. Akira stopped moving, breathed in and casually yelled at Miyako.

"How the hell is that supposed to be an answer, you said you knew where we were going, right?!"

"How was I supposed to know I wouldn't remember the city that well?!!"

"God... It's common sense!! Logic!!"

They continued their arguments for a few minutes while randomly strolling through the city until they reached a side-alley in which there was a truck. She was openly exposed to this side of the side-alley and upon seeing the truck, she had a really, really bad feeling.

"Oh, shit... I have a bad feeling about this..."

Well, at least she would hopefully get 2000 yens out of this. Hopefully.

"-the fuck?" The two thugs stood by the truck uttered at the sight of the two teenagers.

"You two picked the wrong spot for a date..." The boys glowered at Miyako and Akira, approaching them whilst cracking their knuckles intimidatingly. Even in a city full of Espers most kids their age would run at the sight of the dangerous looking punks.

"-the fuck is going on back here?" Kenji leaned out of the truck's cab. Spying the two unexpected interlopers he pursed his lips into a thin frown. Without taking his eyes off Akira and Miyako he nodded to his gang. "Deal with 'em."

The first Skill Out reached into his back pocket and unfurled a length of chain as the other slid a pair of brass knuckles onto his fingers. They circled for a moment before brass knuckles lunged at Akira's jaw with a heavy overhand punch.

***

Konori Mii sipped at the scalding hot coffee as she returned to her desk. It was then that she heard the quiet sound.

"Can someone let me out, please...? I thought this was an office..."

"Huh?" She looked about for the source of the meek voice. She could have been sure she had heard something. She tilted her glasses down and turned her eyes towards the door of the closet.

The door to the dark closet opened, allowing a shaft of light to illuminate Kyou's face. Mii stood above her wearing a bemused expression and without demanding an explanation simply stood aside to let the girl out.

Kyou calmly walked out of the closet, then turned to face Konori.

"Rindou, reporting in, ma'am!" she suddenly said, with a determined look on her face. She soluted crisply. "Awaiting orders!"

After a second, she snickered, then visibly relaxed. "...Couldn't resist. Hi, I'm new here; just transferred in from a Judgement office across the city from here. You're Mii-san, I take it?" Kyou asked; on "Mii," Kyou mumbled just a little, so the word came out sounding like "nii;" to anyone but her, it just sounded like Kyou called her CO her brother. Her posture was very... lax, was one way to put it. She was slouching, her hands were in her pockets, and she looked like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Well, you're my new CO. Tell me to do somethin'. I was supposed to come in tomorrow, but I finished unpacking all my stuff early, and I need something to do."

Mii stood sunned as the girl saluted her abruptly and tapped her fingers to her forehead lightly. She adjusted her glasses and looked around the office. It seemed as though all the minor duties were being dealt with. Kazari was carrying stacks of papers to and fro as they struggled to reorganise and re-file countless memos, reports and other paperwork into something resembling order.

Trystan it appeared was busying himself cleaning.

She looked down at the schedule in her hands. There were always street-level jobs. Minor tasks and errands mainly. It would keep this 'Rindou' girl out of trouble at least...

"Well, it's probably not the kind of thing you signed up for..." Mii reached past Kyou into the closet the girl had stepped out from. She passed something to Kyou. A long mechanical litter-picker and a plastic bag. "But please do your best." She beamed a smile at Kyou. Her head snapped suddenly to face Trystan as he wandered back into her sight.

"Yamato-san! You'll be accompanying the new recruit on litter patrol. Make sure she doesn't get lost."

"I'm not into old women... Whoa! Gah!"

Miyako quickly pulled Akira out of the way to make him dodge the punch and punched him herself while glaring at him in a 'who are you calling old?' fashion. Her gaze fell upon the long chain the first Skill Out was holding.

"I don't know whenever you guys are in that sort of thing or not, but would it happen to mean that we have the option to get tied up instead of beaten up?"

She awkwardly laughed while seeking for an opportunity to run for it.

As his vision continued to swim, Trystan absentmindedly cleaned from hither to thither. In all honesty, the office was pretty much as clean as it was going to get while other people were still working. As such, what he was doing could be pretty much classified as a time-killer. On the other hand, he didn't have any other jobs that he could be doing that weren't being done already by someone else; this office was quite well-managed. As such, when Mii called out to him, he promptly snapped to attention, eager to find something else to do other than pretending to look slightly busy with tidying.

That, and the glint from her glasses lent her an indescribable sort of intimidating aura. It wasn't the sort of intimidation that accompanied someone dangerous, no. It was more akin to the glare that his mother used to give him when he had been slacking off from his practice or chores.

"Yamato-san! You'll be accompanying the new recruit on litter patrol. Make sure she doesn't get lost."

"Understood, Konori-sama," replied Trystan.

As he straightened up from out of his bow, he wondered who exactly this new recruit was. However, as he watched Mii hand off some cleaning supplies to the one who had brought in the drinks, his expression settled into an obviously strained poker face. His taste buds might have somewhat recovered by now, but the memory of the hellishly sweet drink, if it could even be called that, was one that was still just as fresh. However he decided to push it out of his mind for now; there was no reason to think that this sort of characteristic would leak into other areas of her life, right? And besides, she had brought those drinks here to the office in goodwill, right?...RIGHT?!

With these, and other similar thoughts, Trystan managed to eventually take the awkward looking expression off of his face, settling back into his normal, half-smiling and relaxed expression. Beckoning to the girl, Trystan held the door open for her from outside the office.

"Then let the two of us embark."

Earlier, he couldn't stop sweating. Now, he felt cold and clammy. It didn't make much sense, since before he was wearing his regular school uniform, and now he was wearing his full Silver Lining outfit, with the long black coat included. Today's operation would be no walk in the park. He was to investigate a certain rumor. An outbreak of violent attacks committed by Espers has been linked to a new drug. That's basically all he knew. Who made the substance? Where it came from? What it did exactly? Who the had access to the drugs? Who was distributing it? What the projected results of taking the drugs were? He didn't know any of it. To many known unknowns. It warranted investigation. He did know one other thing, the name of the drug.

Of course he could take his guesses, but that didn't make this any easier. He'd be out there, all alone. Those taking the drugs, those distributing the drugs, the drug itself, the local authorities, they all could potentially turn against him. Not to mention, there were always those irregular factions running around. So many things could go wrong. He could loose track of the subjects. His stomach might start acting up. He could be caught by the enemy. He might include some of his delusions in his report. He might have spelling errors in his report. He could be killed. He might have to kill. He could pass out from anxiety. He needed his mask. He put it on. He felt better.

It didn't matter how dangerous the job was. If he refused, or tried to resist the organization, he was as  good as dead. At least if he tried to go along with it, he'd have a chance of surviving.

That's all he had to do. That's what he'd do. Survive it.

He stepped outside onto the roof of the abandoned building. He took in a breath, and as he did the metal accents on his outfit began to move. The chains, zippers, studs, and spikes clung tightly to his body. As he released his breath, the metal accents fell loose. He took in another breath, and they clung to him again. He repeated this process until he had cleared his mind of all anxiety and hesitation. Then he moved forward. The dancing metal accents on his clothes announced every single stride he made until he reached about half way across the roof. Again, the metal accents were pulled to his body and held in place by some invisible force. Being held together, they stopped making the usual jiggle jangle sounds that loose metal made.

Now moving silently, he also began to move more swiftly. He ran across the rooftop with an unnatural grace and speed. All the while it seemed like he was hardly trying at all. The metal wrapped around him was lightly lifting him up and moving with his body. Not enough to fly, but enough to make each stride carry him farther and easier than what should be humanly possible. The dark figure reached the edge of the roof top and glided off of it with ease. Before anyone could look twice, he had spanned the gap between the buildings and was making his way across another rooftop. He stuck to the rooftops, moving from shadow to shadow with his unnatural grace and speed. His mind was unusually cooperative. This was the quite before the storm. Mindless repetitive physical activity that he was easily capable of. Using his ability to help facilitate this was like second nature to him by now. Moving the metal accents on his favorite outfit was equally as easy as moving his own body.

It was not long before he reached his destination. The source of the silent alarms. Where they trying to attract attention? He hated the need to know basis. Or at least, he wished the higher ups would decide that he needed to know a little more. He certainly felt like he needed to know more, anyway. He stood on the rooftops of one of the tall buildings. He raised up some fancy looking binoculars, and peered down to the alleyway below. Apparently, he was not the first to arrive. It seemed there was already a scuffle going on in the alleyway below him. Still not sure what was going on, the brave (but wisely cautious) Silver Lining decided that for now, he would simply observe (from a very safe distance).

"Understood, Konori-sama, Then let the two of us embark."

While Trystan and Kyou departed the slight sound of a sigh escaped the lips of Konori Mii as she wondered if the other Judgement departments were quite this peculiar? Once again she considered the possibility that her superiors were playing some sort of practical joke on her...

She regarded the cup of bright looking liquid that the new recruit had brought with her and in curiosity she reached for the drink and took a sip.

The sudden, overwhelming sensation to gag washed over Mii as she spat out the overly sweet beverage in disgust amidst coughs and splutters.

***

The Skill Out stumbled towards the wall of the alleyway with the momentum of his clumsy punch before turning to face the two again as they backed away. The alleyway behind Miyako and Akira was still clear, but with the thugs so close behind them escape was far from guaranteed.

"I don't know whether you guys are in that sort of thing or not, but would it happen to mean that we have the option to get tied up instead of beaten up?"

The answer to her flippant question was a swift lash of the chain, the steel links whistling deeply as they snapped towards the girl's face.

Behind them the trucks horn brayed as Kenji urged his lackeys to hurry.

"Yes, ma'am," Kyou replied, her tone decidedly chipper.

On the inside, Kyou was decidedly unhappy with her assignment. She didn't want to pick up litter; she had done her time as a newbie in Judgement already. Still, an assignment was an assignment, and technically she was a newbie again. At least, she was to this office.

Kyou followed Tristain out the door, litter-picker and bag in hand. She was happily sipping one of the drinks she had brought in, blissfully unaware of their effects on everyone else in the office. She didn't say anything at all; she merely followed closely behind Tristain, an unworried expression on her face. At the very least, doing this would keep her occupied, and at best, she'd learn her way around the area.

The chain lashed across Miyako's shoulder, knocking her aside and clearing the way for his comrade who charged at Akira with a heavy shoulder tackle. He slammed into the boy's back, knocking him to the floor and clambered over his victim, holding him down on the floor before delivering a sharp kick to Akira's kidneys.

During this time another pair of Skill Out emerged from the yawning hole in the building and hurriedly wheeled their cargo into the open truck.

"Enough!" Kenji snapped at the pair attacking Miyako and Akira. "Stop playing with those kids and get in!" He revved the engine for emphasis and the two Skill Out sprinted back to the vehicle.

"Yosuke's still inside." One of the gang told Kenji through the window to the driver's cab.

"Yosuke can take care of himself." Kenji ignored the half-hearted protest and slammed the truck into gear. The rear compartment sparked and grated loudly against the walls of the alleyway as it sped out onto the street.

***

Kyou and Trystan's 'patrol' had been as uneventful as one would expect and as night fell the pair made their way back to the branch office. The loud, aggressive growl of the truck's engine thundering to life startled them from their small talk and the vehicle narrowly missed the two Judgement members before it screamed off into the distance.

Trystan shivered inside every time he looked back and saw the newcomer take a sip of that god-forbidden drink...that nasty yellow-orangey, sticky, throat-clinging drink. Thankfully, there was a strange abundance of garbage that the litter-bots had missed. This, coupled with some preliminary topics of small talk, allowed him to distract himself long enough for her to finish up her supply of sugargoop and finally put it out of his sight.

While the drink and her sweet tooth was rather disconcerting, she was an otherwise pleasant individual to be around. Well, it would be more accurate to say that 'Rindou Kyou' was not unpleasant to be around. Her attitude was pleasantly polite, but it wasn't one that he could call genuinely open. She responded easily enough when he asked about things such as her name and likes, but as soon as he asked about anything that could even be construed as slightly more prying, she had clammed up, and only gave him some non-committal responses. In short, it was subtle, but she was keeping him at a comfortable distance. On the other hand, it wasn't as if he minded this sort of distance - he would have been more concerned if she had been completely forthcoming about anything that he asked; it felt like it was simply the sort of self-protection that one would naturally expect when suddenly forced to spend time with someone one hadn't even met before.

With this sort of back and forth, the sun started slowly sinking down as they made their final rounds and headed back towards the office. It had been a rather peaceful and uneventful day. While they picked up the trash around them, he had done as best he could to introduce the layout of the city to Kyou; hopefully, she would know her way around soon as well. With this sort of thought in mind, Trystan hung behind her, letting her guide the two of them back towards the office. The Nagatenjouki Academy uniform she was wearing indicated that she was among the most intelligent in the City, and in all honesty, he didn't expect her to have much trouble with the task. On the other hand, a change of pace is always nice, right?

As he was thinking these sorts of pleasant thoughts, a sudden, violent rumbling from what sounded like a powerful motorized engine came from the alley in front of them. The engine itself was giving off a wild, out of control sort of noise, while the alley echoed noisily with the sound of some sort of large vehicle haphazardly trying to drive quickly through the narrow alleyway. Alarmed, Trystan immediately came to his senses, while preparing himself for the possibility of a reckless driver. Sure enough, a moment later, a slightly banged up truck burst out of the alleyway.

"Rindou-dono, abunai!!"

Trystan barely managed to get out of the way in time before the vehicle rocketed out of the narrow path. The tires on the truck skidded, skipping slightly and leaving burn marks on the road, before rapidly taking the truck itself off into the distance. It was frustrating, but the speed of the vehicle was far too fast for him to catch up to, even if he had boosted his speed to his utmost with his hansha. As the sound of the truck died, a wave of nausea hit him, the source of the sakki coming from within the alleyway itself. Immediately suspicious of the speeding vehicle coinciding with this sudden wave of violent ill-will, Trystan pushed down the gradually rising feeling of queasiness, and motioned for Kyou to follow him into the alley. It wasn't as noticeable before with the sound of the engine, but with the sound of the car fading away, the sounds of violence that had been suppressed earlier had now started to ring more and more clearly.

Checking with his fingers to make sure his Judgement arm-badge was pinned properly, Trystan simultaneously prepared two hansha in preparation for what might come.

Silver Lining struggled to find the answer as he asked himself why he cared about any of this. Ultimately, even if he had wanted to help, it had all happened way to fast for him to intervene. He had to touch metal to manipulate it. There was no way he was going to get down to the ground level before that chain hit that girl.

So why did he care so much about it hitting her? He couldn't do a damn thing about it. Not as he was, anyway. If he were just a bit faster, if he had noticed the chain sooner, if his mastery over metal were just a little stronger...

He could have saved her.

But he didn't. He slumped as they made their way to the truck. Again, he let himself succumb to the feeling of uselessness. He couldn't make it to that truck before they escaped. If he did, they'd see him. Probably shoot him full of lead. Did they have guns? He couldn't tell at this distance. Could he stop the bullets? He didn't want to find out the hard way. Maybe there was still some hope for his sanity.

If he let them get away, a hot lead like this probably wouldn't pop up again. Even this was a miracle, one that he was letting slip by. He'd fail his mission. They'd realize that he was useless. They'd dispose of him like a used napkin. He gripped his head as he watched the last of them reach the truck.

Then they began shouting. Yosuke! There was a Yosuke! Thank god for the invention of Yosukes!

Abel finally felt like he could spring to action, but do what? He noticed some newcomers to the scene. He looked for just another second more with his binoculars to notice a judgement arm band.

He swallowed hard and took that into account as he silently and quickly moved, ducking out of sight. He moved onto the rooftop of the building that was robbed. He noticed a roof top access door. The alleyway was covered for now. The sides of the building weren't an option, because other buildings. Would Yosuke be stupid enough to go out the front? Maybe.

Silver walked passed the roof access door. He poked the lock built into the door handle. Locked. Click. Not anymore. Hopefully Yosuke was the horror movie kind of stupid.

'I can't go out the ground level because reasons, maybe I can get out on the roof!' as if people could move roof to roof. People other than psychics.

The fact that he still wasn't in the alleyway might have been a good hint. Still, he might go out the front door. Abel made sure to wait on the roof near the front of the building. He watched with his eyes for Yosukes that might exit through the front. The roof access was close enough that he could 'feel' the metal in the door handle move. He could probably hear someone opening the door, too. And he'd leave the alleyway to Judgement and the others.

The ball was now in Yosuke's court.

"Good luck, Yosuke," Silver whispered to himself.

Kyou sidestepped the truck in a way that could only be described as 'lazy.' She got away unscathed, but her garbage bag did not; it was struck by the truck as it passed. The garbage she had collected spread out across the street.

Kyou stood still for a moment, looking completely calm. After a moment, she bent over and let out a shaky breath.

"I thought I was a goner for a second there..." Kyou breathed. "...We ARE going after that truck, right?"

As her companion began heading down the alley, Kyou sighed. "I suppose not. Something down here?"

Miyako's frown didn't come from the pain in her shoulder as she had already ignored most of it, it came from her obvious curiosity and suspicion regarding what had just happened. Akira, on the other hand still had a hard time recovering from the pain due to his weak build making it harder for him to take on hits compared to other boys of his age.

Upon hearing voices in the alleyway, Miyako quickly got up and for once, didn't drag Akira up along with her as she prepared herself for any more potential danger. She however sent him a quick look to tell him to quickly get over it and get up by himself, which he did after some effort of ignoring the pain.

"Who's there?"

As she called out to the persons with a dangerous tone of voice, she made a mental note to look into what had happened in this alley.

"Who's there?"

As Trystan rounded the corner, an obviously threatened female voice called out to him from within the growing shadows. Not only was the light already dim from the current time, but the setting sun was also glaring from behind the backs of Kyou and himself, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that whoever had shouted had not yet seen the Judgement bands on their arms. He held his palms out in a neutral stance as he approached, signifying that he had no intent to do anyone any harm.

"This one is Yamato Trystan, of the 177th Judgement Branch Office."

As he neared, he spotted two individuals, both with rather unnatural damage to their attire. The male of the group looked physically worse for the wear, breathing heavily and with an obviously pained expression on his face. The girl looked relatively unscathed, as she was standing and even had her hands up and back towards the wall in a defensive sort of position. On the other hand, her uniform even looked as if some sort of greased item had lashed her over the shoulder; the dark, oily mark left on her clothing indicated that this item was perhaps a whip or something of a similar flexible nature.

As he neared, he pulled out a small first aid kit from his pocket and held it out towards the pair. In it contained, among other things, some miniature ice-packs, bandages, and disinfectants. It was actually Judgement policy that all patrolling members carry this kit around with them when they left their Offices, but the reality was that this policy was actually one that was only loosely enforced. The reason was that the combined materials were relatively bulky and could be inconvenient and impractical to carry around when one was really only going out for, say, garbage duty; what were the chances that someone would actually have to use it while picking up plastic bags in the park? In all honesty, he himself had also skipped out on carrying this item a few times in the past. It was only on a whim that he had decided to carry it with him today; who could have known that it would have come in handy? While keeping himself wary of the surroundings, as the feeling of ill-will had not yet faded, Trystan approached the final distance between them, finally stopping just a few steps away.

"This one does inquire, might the two of you wish for assistance? What happened here?"

"This one does inquire, might the two of you wish for assistance? What happened here?"

'This one'? 'Might the two of you'? His way of talking sure felt out of place for a student of such an advanced city, she had rarely ever heard anyone express themselves in such an uncommon way... After the boy introduced himself as a Judgement member, Miyako finally noticed the Judgement armband and pointed towards Akira.

"I'm good to go, I probably have to buy new clothes anyway. Though I don't think he's in the same state so please take care of him. I still don't understand how a guy can be so weak at times..."

She moved aside after muttering the last sentence, and looked at the girl.

"I'm guessing you just happened to pass by here and don't have any idea of what that truck was doing, right?"

"Speeding, reckless driving, turning without using a blinker, an illegal lane change, and if the driver saw us, attempted murder with a vehicle," Kyou replied, listing the various driving offenses she had noted. "At least, that's what it looked like to me."

Kyou's teeth gritted, and her hand clenched shut on her blazer, wrinkling it; ordinarily, she'd be gripping the handle of a shinai or wooden sword for stress relief, but she had left her weapon at home today - she hadn't expected she'd actually have any Judgement work today, considering she wasn't even supposed to show up for Judgement work until tomorrow. As she did this, her own Judgement armband caught the light.

"You sound as if you know what's actually going on. Mind telling me?" Kyou asked, affixing the girl with an inquisitive, piercing stare. If one thought about it too hard, it almost looked like Kyou thought the girl she was questioning  - and the others with her - was involved.

"Are you okay?"

Miyako asked as she observed the girl's abnormal behaviour.

"I don't know much, we just lost ourselves here by accident and we ended up having to face those guys. I'm fairly curious as to what they were doing to be in such a hurry. But still..."

Returning her piercing stare, Miyako could only confirm to herself that this was the 'something really out there' that she mentioned earlier, but it only made her wear a mischievous smirk and mutter in a voice only herself could hear.

"This is going to be interesting."

Kyou frowned at the girl's smirk. Something was up.

"You said you - quote - 'faced those guys.' What 'guys?'" Kyou asked. She pulled a small notepad and a mechanical pencil out of her blazer pocket and flipped to a blank page. "Could you describe what happened here in detail for me?"

Kyou's eyes never left they occupants of the alley; she wasn't looking at her notepad at all, though the pencil in her hand hovered over the paper.

"They were probably delinquents or something... We arrived here a while ago and saw them filling up a truck, after that they lashed at us. Was it something they didn't want us to see, I wonder?"

Using her high talent in trickery, she put up an act of 'innocent civilian who wasn't used to living this kind of thing'.

Obviously it had been something suspicious, though she couldn't help but wonder what they were doing? Surely, if it was something top-secret then they would've killed them on the spot or kidnapped them, unless time was such a big issue?

(No, I'm over-thinking this. I can't picture it being something as important if they were so careless about it. The possibility that they were stealing something is higher considering the situation and the fact that they're delinquents, but in that case what is that 'something' they wanted to get?)

She continued thinking about it while making sure that the two wouldn't notice that she's thinking about it way more than what she shows.

Kyou made a few notes on her notepad. Unfortunately, in her opinion, the girl had given her precious little information, and Kyou didn't want to press her for more information at the moment - what had been described was far less than 'detailed.' She figured Tristain would ask about how the two got hurt, so she put the question out of her mind, and the notepad and pencil back in her pocket. She highly doubted the girl was completely innocent of any wrongdoing, related or not; that smirk earlier definitely wasn't because she remembered a funny joke.

"I'm gonna have a look back there to see if there's anything they left behind," Kyou announced. She strode briskly past Tristain, the girl, and the boy on the ground, headed towards the back of the alley to see what she could find.

What she found was a large hole in a wall. Kyou stepped through warily; she was watching her surroundings very carefully, and her eyes raked over every surface around that she could see.