[SS] For Starters...

"Kisaragi-san it is then; or would you rather go by Kisaragi-chan?" Kuro felt he was probably pushing his luck a bit with this jokingly flirtatious dialogue, but if it kept her flustered while also making him seem more harmless, it was worth it. He made a mental note to apologize later if she turned out to not be an enemy. But now he had to make his case. He couldn't reveal the truth of who he was, but he luckily had a well rehearsed explanation to give if ever questioned by someone lucky enough to notice him.

"I don't know anything about clans or 'sides' Kisaragi-san. I am just a guest consultant currently living here in Academy City. Groups like Judgement and Anti-Skill sometimes request my help in training their new members in hand-to-hand combat as part of their training. In return, I get to step out of the old world as you put it and have a look at the perks of newer technologies and methods for training and maintaining a healthy mind and body. It's like the old and new working together to maintain a perfect balance.

All of this had been, of course, a lie. It was just the cover story Kuro had come up with to brush off curious individuals. As for sides, that could mean a number of things. As he had no reading on who Kisaragi was with yet, Kuro found it best to feign complete ignorance to that question. The most effective move here would be to try and steer the conversation in a different direction again.

"I apologize for alarming you with my curious behavior earlier. As a martial artist who uses the tessen myself, I was unable to ignore the presence of another person carrying such an item. Especially one so easy on the eyes if I may be so bold. But I suppose I could have just approached you instead of following you. That was wrong. I must comend you for being able to notice me."

One more test of his hands confirmed that he had full feeling and motion back. He'd crack his neck for comfort in a normal situation, but he had to avoid such actions for now, and just wait for the moment to move.

The alleyways of Academy City all carried certain characteristics no matter how well-off or run-down they were. They generally felt closed off and fairly depressing, but the girl walking down them didn't care.

Her mood was so bad that walking around alleyways could only bring it up.

...FOUR freakin' hours spent searching for that clown! I work to coordinate the men I'm assigned with, all of whom I have never worked with before, and I still lose nearly all of my pay because the target was too much of a coward to face us head on!

Mari stomped through the alleys angrily, with a few bandages wrapped around her body. The target she had encountered was neither Esper nor Magician, but you wouldn't guess it from chasing after whoever it was. With one member of her group nearly getting his legs blown off, another just barely avoiding death by skewering, Mari herself managing to get some nasty burns, and all six members exhausted with little to show for it, just ending the mission on that note would have simply stopped at depressing.

It moved into annoying when the team lost nearly all of it's pay for the failure. No one really blamed her, and when she tried taking responsibility for what happened, acting as the leader, her boss only have her a nice lump on her head, insisting that while the way it ended was beyond her power, he still couldn't give her any pay due to standard policy of payment.

You get rewarded for what gets done, and the loses depend on how many bodies pile up.

With what little was actually accomplished, Mari was left angry, and decided that she would just try salvaging what was left of the day by dancing away all of her anger-then finding something to take her rage out on.

What she didn't expect was to get caught in the middle of an interrogation.

As she walked further down the alleyway, she heard a conversation between a man and a woman going. She didn't think much of it, until she saw what the actual conversation was like. One guy on the ground, unable to move, and a girl grilling him definitely looked suspicious.

As the man on the ground spoke, Mari started considering what she could do. For all she knew, this could be some Anti-Skill investigation, and that guy was some thug who got caught. Getting involved probably wasn't the best thing she could do.

Eh, what the Hell, could be interesting. and actually worthwhile compared to this morning.

After adjusting herself a bit, and placing her hand into her school bag, which held her combat knife, she peered out of the alley again, and then leaned forward, pretending to trip. Loudly.

"W-woah!" As she caught her balance, Mari looked back up, and put of a facade of being an innocent high schooler stumbling upon something big and scary.

"S-sorry ma'am, I... I was just, uh... well... what's going on...? I don't..." As she 'struggled' for words, Mari scanned the area, confirming that she could only see three people here. Her guard was up, her ability active, and she was ready for combat.

What happened next would depend on the actions of the bland girl in red.

...Of course. He should have expected no less from dealing with a delinquent. Was there... an actual quality difference between picking up adult mags from a convenience store and buying them at a place like this? Ugh... He was already putting more thought into this than he wanted to.

"Fine... There's a section with things like that in the back. But..."

Here was where the real dilemma began. To get the romance novels, he'd told the guy to wait so that he wouldn't be alone in the bookshelves with a delinquent. Now that his original plan had fallen through... he had two options.

One, he could go back and get the books himself. That was out. He didn't want to be seen carrying things like that around in a place where all the regular customers were familiar with him, especially during an event where they'd all be coming for sure.

So, he'd have to take they delinquent with him into the stacks. The dark bookshelves where he could be mugged and his body would only be found by the next person to come looking for the porn section. He swallowed.

"Okay, I'll lead you there. Then you can browse for however long you want, all right? That's what you wanted."

”Really…!? Maaan, I totally misjudged you! You’re the real deal! A brother!!”

What a sudden change. Hamazura Shiage’s energy level had shot from below zero to the absolute maximum, nearly jumping at the other guy to give him a true man-hug – he didn’t in the end. Gratitude similar to one whose life had just been saved.

Right away they headed off into the bookstore’s deeper depths, down into the unexplored land, the secret cave where the legendary treasure lay;
Yet now Indiana Hamazura pursuer of all high class eroticism would come and retrieve it!

Upon their arrival the special shelves’ magic had easily consumed all his body and soul. ”Thank you! I will never forget what you did for me!!!” The boy had charged straight for his Shangri-La, ready to dive into the erotic heavens of breasts and butts from all over the world!
Reading, consuming, enjoying; just an eye’s blink later everything else had been erased from the delinquent’s mind…

All was naught before this.

A good opportunity for a quick escape.

…It would have been at least…

”Oi, Hamazura! The fuzz are coming! We need to-…!” Unfortunately the unexpected second delinquent had entered the stage once again, blocking the only path leading back into the normal regions of the bookstore, cutting off all possible escape.
Nervousness was to be seen on the bandana guy’s face, as he noticed Masaru’s presence instead of the one he had expected.
It had only taken a few seconds, though, for his expression to change into an inscrutable coolness. ”Guess we’re a little lucky today, huh? You know this place well, don’t you?” A rhetorical question; he skipped out on waiting for a proper response. ”Well sorry pal, guess you’ll have to get us to this place’s back exit.”

Making his words more convincing the taller guy placed his hand on some metallic item sticking out from his pants; seemingly a handle, belonging what seemed to be…a gun.


"Kisaragi-san it is then; or would you rather go by Kisaragi-chan?"

He should have noticed how lucky he was to get away with those words, likely feeling a strong insanely terrifying killing intent coming from that Kisaragi.  
But with the interrogation not being over she left it at that, returning back to her normal state instead of smashing his head six times over.

While he told his story, she would listen closely, not showing any reaction. It was highly likely that she was actually dissecting his entire story while listening to it, searching for even the tiniest mistake to prove it wrong.
However it appeared as if there was none to be found; the tension was growing weaker and weaker leading the calm atmosphere to return once more. As she took a breath of relief his success was probably sealed.

No, actually not. An eye’s blink later the situation had turned around by 180° with realisation hitting the girl straight into her mind. The expression she gave him turned into the worst direction; her glance piercing like the lance of Longinus.  
Words weren’t needed; the answer was up on the table: A crucial flaw had been made.

Luck was on Kuro’s side.

Saving his life in the last second, a lost kitten had entered the spot light.
Kisaragi immediately switched her focus, directing it straight at the seemingly innocent girl that had stumbled into this rather uninviting situation. ”Seriously, couldn’t you have done something about this…?” A short whisper had left her lips, so silent it wouldn’t be heard by anyone anyway.  

Why didn’t the dangerous tension return? Why of all times did she choose this situation to appear so relaxed and why did it appear so naturally!? Sadly not even that would force a smile onto her lips.
”Oh well, it’s not like there’s any danger anymore. That guy over there was some perverted molester creep who had been following me for the whole day. I then decided to pretend taking a shortcut through this alley, hoping he’d follow me here.
Just as expected he attacked me, even trying to grab my bottom with these filth clad hands! Disgusted as I was, I sent him to the ground with a throw I learned in a self-defence work-shop.” She paused. ”And now I was just about to punish him…
…but it would be wiser to call Anti-Skill…mhh...?” Those final words were reeking of disappointment.  

There was no way to tell that she was lying, everything about her just appeared to be perfectly casual while her way of pronunciation contained some heavy disgust toward that man’s supposedly perverted actions. Kuro wasn’t the only one good at this.


[OOC: Sorry Masaru, I had to skip ahead a little, I hope you don’t mind.]

And everything had been going so well, too. He'd actually believed he might not get jumped. They'd been so close to achieving this guy's messed-up dream, and then his comrade had to go and ruin it all. Looks like he wouldn't be getting out of here anytime soon, at least without helping them further.

He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. He'd been in sticky situations before, it was inevitable with a place like Academy City. But none of them had really been as sticky as this. If Yuuto'd been here, he would've been all right. But Masaru wasn't one to fight, at least in a public place and one where he was at a serious disadvantage.

"Look. You're just trying to get out, right? In a way that nobody's expecting. I can do that, but you'll have to work with me."

There were a few things on his side. One, the bookshelves were mazelike in their patterns. Few people could navigate them easily. Two, the section in the back was rather dimly-lit. There were plenty of hiding spots. Third, there weren't security cameras in the general section where they were.

"We're in the Adult section, but a bit to the left, in the History section, is a ticket out. You'll need to move a bookcase, though. The actual 'back exit' is behind the counter, so that's a no-go. However, this store used to be a small deli, and the History section is where the butcher's station was. There's a separate exit there, where I suppose they brought meat in directly from the alley."

He started walking towards the blue guy, hoping that he'd move out of the way and let him pass. He'd probably have to escape that way as well, if he was going through all this effort to get them out. Otherwise he'd just end up being questioned by Judgement, and he couldn't afford something like "aiding known criminals" on his academic record.

"What's the problem, anyway? You weren't in here to buy books?"

He could help them, but he didn't have to like it. And he could still pretend to be innocent.

Mari did her best to hide her disappointment at what apparently happened.

So, it was just a creep following her around? Mari took a quick look at the man on the ground, and then looked back up to the plain woman before her.

"You should probably just call for Judgement or Anti-Skill. The law enforcement here aren't tolerant of any vigilante-types." Mari stated, using her free hand to get out her phone, "Here, I'll call them myself, and you can talk to them about what happened when they get here." Mari stated,

Man, and I was hoping for some action, too.

"Sorry that happened to you. Even in a place like Academy City, we've got a lot of criminal activity."

I'd know, I'm pretty deep into the Dark Side myself. Mari thought to herself, as she searched her phone for the contact for Judgement.

"So... wait, can you stick around, or do you want me to keep an eye on this guy for you? I mean, you went to the trouble of taking him down, but..." Mari stated, releasing her grip on the knife in her bag, and taking it out. As far as she knew, this was just some stupid stalker getting trounced by his "victim", which she saw a lot. Heck, the same happened to her a few times.

With all that happened, babysitting a thug would be the least pleasant time of her day,

"Whaddya' say?" Mari asked, trying to sound friendly.

While she was still a bit suspicious, nothing warranted showing any hostility... at least not yet.

Kuro didn't risk revealing his recovered motion, and decided to just listen to this new arrival and Kisaragi's interactions with her instead. The situation seemed dire; he had to do something to try and turn the odds more even so he wasn't thrown completely under the bus. He had been on his knees the whole time talking with Kisaragi, but took this moment to slump forward, planting himself face first onto the alley floor. To the casual observer, he would look like a simple stunned opponent losing his balance and falling over. But Kuro had done this to throw himself on top of his dropped tessen, hiding it from outside view. Don't think I'm going to let you pin everything on me that easily Kisaragi-san. You may be pretty, but I'm no pushover.

"Look out!" Kuro called out from his fallen position, trying to convey a sense of urgency to the new girl so that she wouldn't relax around Kisaragi so soon. He had to keep her suspicious of both of them at least so that actions against either one of them wouldn't be executed too quickly. "She's armed and ambushed me as I followed her into this alley. I was curious about the weapon I saw her carrying. That's why I followed her. Don't trust her, or she'll mug you too!"

Kuro had almost given the consultant cover story again, but felt that it was best to let that subject blow over for now since both girls had mentioned the possibility of calling Judgement or Anti-skill. It would blow his cover immediately if operatives showed up and questioned them all. So for now, he had to bet on the half-truth to set him free. The line about being mugged left him feeling a little dirty, but served to bolster the seriousness of the matter. He carefully snaked his right hand under his body, slowly working to show as little movement as possible, and tucked his tessen back into his robes. This was a gamble, but at least he was ready to move if things went sour again.

What was to be found on Hanzou’s face didn’t resemble a joyful expression at all. Couldn’t that boy just stop stomping on their dreams?
At the very least that kid would present them a way out, one that sounded logical. ”Couldn’t you come up with something more simple?” There wasn’t a hint of happiness about this turn of events, yet he had obviously realised that this was their only way out. ”Mh. Fine. I’ll go get Hamazura and then we’re running.” Checking on the information he had gotten from staking out, Hanzou assumed that the Anti-Skill people would take about 3-5 minutes before their actual arrival at the store’s entrance, roughly.

So for now the bandana guy had taken to opportunity to quickly step past Masaru, aiming to approach his comrade that obviously didn’t notice anything. ”Oi, no time for that. Come we need to get outta here!”

”…”

”Hamazura! Hey! Anti-Skill! Danger! We need to escape!”

”…”

Hanzou grabbed his arm in attempt of shaking him back to reality. ”…oi…!”

”…there is…no need to…Just…leave me…it’s a dream!”

”Oi! Oi! Get back to reality!”

Right before Hanzou could smack his comrade on the back of his head, which he attempted to do in a quite strong and painful manner, the blonde moved his upper body to the side by a little margin, allowing for the other to take a glance at the open magazine in his hands.
Hanzou’s eyes widened, his mind went blank. It couldn’t be…the curse couldn’t have…
”…this…is…” ”…see…I told ya…”

…

Both were lost. All hope gone.

…

Time was running out. Anti-Skill was closing in second by second; soon the door’s bell would ring announcing their great appearance and this story’s end. The two delinquents’ minds were eaten up by the magic of foreign extra class smut, leaving them in a state of absolute mental uselessness.
So all would be left to the third party.

Masaru’s time to shine was now. Would he manage to break the curse and free his involuntary comrades...!?


Kuro Akarui’s story had contained a heavy flaw. Well it wasn’t the story itself but its relation towards the circumstances Kisaragi Anko had seen through. To be precisely there had been a heavy contradiction between what he had told her and what she had seen in the short time they knew each other.

But that didn’t matter right now. Right now the only thing important was the fact that the girl that had stumbled upon them was buying the story she was being told, answering in a quite friendly and helpful manner. ”Thank you. It would be a great help if you did that.” The idea of Anti-Skill or Judgement handling this case didn’t appear to trouble her in the least; she simply accepted it gratefully.

”I heard all kinds of stories about Academy City’s streets. Even my company warned me before I was sent here. That’s actually one of the reasons for me to take some self defence work shops to begin with”, she explained as if telling a story from her everyday life. Of course there was absolutely no truth behind any of the spoken words, another proof of her being a true professional. ”Will wandering around alone as a woman ever be save anywhere on this world?”

However it was then that the man on the floor would cut in, attempting to fight back in this battle of minds. His way of wording once again filled with his typical smartness. He wasn’t half as bad as the usual ones, deserving another compliment.

Yet Kisaragi would still remain a powerful opponent in that regard. ”A weapon?”, she exclaimed with quite a hint of shock in her voice and facial expression. As she did she raised the fan she was still holding in her hands, presenting it while staring at it herself. A display of disbelieve. ”Such a thing is a weapon? I simply bought it at an antique shop here in the city thinking it’d be quite some mysterious accessory.
Wow, who would have thought that there were weapons of this kind…” The final lines were muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear, adding another good line to manifest the image she had been trying to build up. At least she thought so…

”Please girl, don’t pay this creep any attention! He’s just trying to get out of his miserable hole and once he does he will come and repeat his crime. Over and over again.

It’s up to us to put this to an end! For all this city’s women!”

"It’s up to us to put this to an end! For all this city’s women!”

As the bland woman ended her little speech, Mari looked back and forth between the two individuals. At first it seemed like it was just a simple case of harassment gone awry for the guy, now she wasn't too sure. Now it was sounding like some sort of misunderstanding.

Great, now I'm not sure what I should do, Mari lowered the phone in her hand, and looked toward the man on the ground, The guy's story sounds fishy, stalking someone with a weapon like that instead of calling them out. It's not a gun or anything that can cause major damage in a crowd. On the other hand...

Mari looked to the woman in red, I don't know who this woman is, and as strange as the guy's story sounds, it'd be one of the less bizarre things to happen around here. And that fan does look sturdy enough to use as a weapon. Not exactly what a business woman would have... wait...

"Hey, quick question. Who do you work for?" Mari asked the bland woman, giving her a curious glance, "I mean, you're from outside of Academy City, and it's pretty rare for someone who isn't a permanent resident here to get in."

Mari asked the question, and then decided that waiting for an answer was pointless,

"While you answer that question, I'll get Anti-Skill over here for your interview." Mari stated, hitting the call button and letting the phone ring. As she did this, she reached back into her bag for her knife.

Alright lady, let's see how legit you are. Mari put a smile on her face, casually tapping her foot as she waited for an answer, This probably isn't anything to stress over, but if I've learned anything working in the Dark Side, it's that you shouldn't judge anyone or anything at first glance.

And if it really is nothing, than I guess you'll just have a few minutes of your busy antique shopping shaved off from your day. If it isn't... well, we'll see.

Uh oh...

Kuro's mind began to race as his efforts bore mixed results. It seemed that he'd made the new girl hold back on judgement for the time being. But that had done little more than just turned the situation into a three-way Mexican standoff. Or maybe that was the wrong term to use; Rather than none of the three having an advantage, Kuro could only see himself at a disadvantage with the call to Anti-Skill being sent. He didn't know what Kisaragi's reaction to it would be, but it was not good news for him. He figured that she would feel similar though, remembering how secretive she'd insisted on being while they had talked. Being questioned by authorities was probably not in her best interests just like it wasn't in his own.

But these things had an order to them. If he made his move now, all suspicion would return to him again. He'd only serve to reinforce Kisaragi's claims of him being a stalking molester by making a break for it now. He decided to wait and play the helpless victim for a few moments more, just to see if Kisaragi would act in a way that could incriminate her just a bit more. Maybe a little push to further present his case would help.

"I guess that's what I get for trying to play investigator and following an armed citizen. Instant fall from good Samaritan to enemy of all women. Sucks how easy it is for girls to hide behind that accusation though. Guys like us don't stand a chance..."

Kuro was just making stuff up at this point. In all actuality, he was beginning to plan his getaway. He couldn't wait for too long. If Kisaragi didn't react right, he was going to have to get out of there anyway. He couldn't risk being questioned by Anti-Skill.

Ugh. Leave it to a delinquent.... He'd like to just leave them there, but they'd probably make up some story and get him in trouble for revenge. He fished around in his pocket for 3000 yen... The book cost about that much, right? He stuck the bills in between the other books on the shelf, in a final attempt to pay for what looked like it was going to have to become stolen goods. These delinquents had better pay him back.

He walked up to them and tried to close the magazine. "Run first, read later." They could easily take the magazine with them and read it at wherever people like them lived. The blonde-haired one (probably artificially so, but whatever) seemed like the less-threatening one of the two. Therefore, he would be the target of Masaru's pestering.

"Hey. You like that magazine, right? You look like you're enjoying it. But do you know what would make it even better? Reading it at leisure, when you're not in danger of being arrested. So just fold it up and help me move a bookcase a few shelves down so we can get out."

”Fold it up. Get out”, the blonde repeated the words spoken to him. Next he would turn his head to the right, then to the left, then back towards the books in front of him. Reality returned. The curse was fading.  
Then he looked back at his friend right next to him. ”…Anti-Skill are on the way…?” Silence. ”…shit!” Reality struck them hard.  

Cursing their own stupidity and the temptation, they fell into a state of hurry. Time was running out after all. Immediately they grabbed what they were able to, rolling it, folding it, stuffing it anywhere, hoping to secure as many treasures as time would allow them to.

Then they started running, going straight for the place the boy lead them to. ”Here!? This’ the place?!” ”’Course it is, idiot!”
Having passed through the maze of shelves filled with more words than a human would ever speak in their live, they arrived at the target location. Not thinking about anything else than saving their own asses the two actually proved to be useful for once. Even though they were losing a magazine here and there, they hadn’t turned back even once. Losses couldn’t be prevented. Tears could be shed later.

The shelves itself were no hindrance, as both of them were as pumped as Super Mario after eating a ton of mushrooms.

With the path cleared the next obstacle was bound to follow: The door hidden behind the filled shelves was locked. Of course it was. No normal person would simply leave a free pass for a break in wide open like that. Of course, that was common sense. ”Move aside.” Hamazura took the lead, taking some tiny tools from his pockets, obviously meant for lock picking.
However what he did couldn’t even be described as lock picking anymore, his speed surpassing even those using the actual key.

Once through the door they would pull the shelves back to their original position before closing it again, all to ensure that no one would get on their trace – or at least to buy some more time for their escape.
With the door closed behind them, the young men finally found an occasion to breath. Hamazura fell on his butt relaxing for a moment, while Hanzou checked the surroundings, only to realise the obvious.

It was pitch black. Nothing was to be seen. No light.

They were alone within an old out of business butchery.

A strange sound echoed through the darkness. It was a greeting to those that had entered this scene that seemed like a perfect fit into any indie horror movie on the market.

”Say…where do we need to go…next?” Hanzou couldn’t deny that this gloomy atmosphere even crept up to him…a little.


Kisaragi Anko’s assumptions had been blown off.
The moment she had heard and analysed the reply given by the girl she had made an unfavourable discovery. A professional. Even though it had taken a moment, she had seen through the other girl’s methods using her experience and the teachings she had received. Smart, girl. Very smart.

Looking further into the situation’s circumstances Kisaragi was the one that would remain victorious if it got down to defending her identity. Six months worth of preparation had been done to reach this point, creating a bullet proof way to bypass Academy City’s harsh security measurements. Even the company that had supposedly sent her here did exist, being her official employer. The fake id she was using was crafted with utter perfection and there was even a fake family and group of friends that would back up her story. Everything had been taken care of.

However...

…she didn’t play that card. Whatever may have been running through her mind that moment, she quickly had made a different decision than the one expected.    

No denying. This was a bad situation. One, where one mistake would become her failure resulting in death or worse. Exactly how it was supposed to be.

”I should have killed you right away.” Casually speaking out these words, she forced the mood to turn by 180°. This kind of verbal surprise attack was a good means of spreading confusion or to work as a surprise attack that would leave some impact.
And as she had done so she pressed her left hand’s index finger against her left ear. She triggered something.

A small object fell down from above. If it were to follow its path as planned it would land right in the middle of the small group, maintaining an equal distance towards the strange girl and Kuro.
The object was a small ball of what seemed to be red crystal, the size and shape similar to an apple, formerly a bottle containing some sweet odour being sold at a department store close by.
Just like it had done before it would steal all attention.
Upon further inspection one should be able to see a short string sticking out from the opening at its top. A burning fuse.  

Before it would arrive at the ground, the explosion happened. Pieces of glass were shot into every direction, becoming dangerous shrapnel capable of digging deep into flesh, accompanied by a shockwave strong enough to knock even a well built adult of their feet. The result should be heavy damage.

Though damage wasn’t its main purpose.

Kisaragi Anko made her move, the moment all attention had been directed towards the bomb. She had simply disappeared. Not due to a super natural phenomenon but a certain skill of presence concealment, which would allow for her to run quickly without being noticed, usually not leaving behind any trace of sound or sight.
All left was the sound of a trashcan falling over close to the alley’s entrance.  

Where did she go? Had she taken the short route or was she still hiding somewhere around? Could that sound have been nothing but another distraction? Did she leave a trace behind? Where had that crystal apple come from? Was there actually a fourth party involved?

Many questions and they had to be answered.


One thing, though, was sure. Mari should have noticed it; she should have noticed the similarity of the techniques to the ones she had seen earlier this day. Yes, there had been a link.

Mari gave the young man lying on the ground a dull glare as he mumbled about how fate had apparently screwed him over,

Come on man, get over it!

She looked back at the bland woman as her phone rang, wondering which would give her a response first. mari kept her guard up, but she wasn't prepared for what happened next.

”I should have killed you right away.” Despite the sudden admission, Mari wasn't caught off guard, taking out her knife in preparation for an assault. unfortunately, she was too focused on defending herself from a normal attack, completely unprepared for the explosive that fell from the ground.

In the split second she noticed it, Mari saw something drop from the middle of nowhere. It took her just a split second to notice the flame burning on the scarlet object's top.

That was a bomb, and it was about to go off.

"CRAP!" Mari screamed jumping back and upping her guard, making sure her back was in front of her. With no way of knowing the exact strength of this bomb, she couldn't assume it was as powerful as the last.

Fortunately, Mari managed to avoid major damage.

The concussive blast knocked her back into a wall, but her ability protected her from getting a concussion, as well as being shredded by the debris from the bomb. She wasn't hit by any fire from the explosion, so for the most part, she had avoided serious injuries. Though she was at risk for a nasty case of tinnitus.

"Nice try bitch, but I'm-" As Mari prepared to strike back, she saw that the person was gone, and there wasn't a trace left of her. As Mari looked left and right, her mind wandered back to the bomb.

Oh, for goodness sake, ANOTHER nut job trying to screw over the city? Some anti-science fanatic? I do not need to deal with this, but it looks like I'll have to. I need to keep this place safe or my boss will kill me... also, for the sake of the people, and all that. Plus, it could be a good way to blow off steam.

Should I call the others... most of them are busy, and I guess I could call Mack and Dean and wait for their help, or...

Mari looked towards the young man who was still on the ground, safe from the explosion.

Or I could see what mister "Good Samaritan" here has to say about her.

Mari stomped over to the man, grabbing him by the back of his shirt, and roughly lifted him up. She decided to put the knife away, to at least seem less threatening.

"Alright buddy, start talking. Why exactly did you follow that lady in here? And don't go back to that fan BS, otherwise I'll get Anti-Skill here to..." Mari looked around for her phone, realizing it had been blown away in the blast, "Wh-whatever! I'll drag you over to them if you don't tell me what's going on!" Mari shouted, and took a second to compose herself. She was just a blink away from beating the answers out of this guy.

After taking a deep breathe, Mari continued, "Look, I'm sorry, I had a garbage morning, followed by nearly getting blown to pieces by a woman who clearly doesn't hold much value for someone who gets in her way. And other people who do probably won't be as lucky as us. Tell me what I want to know so she can be stopped, and kept from being hurt."

And so I can earn some decent cash... heck maybe even make up for the horrible mission from this morning. And hit stuff. That's good too.

Things were happening way too fast after that. Masaru doubted that 5000 yen would be enough to cover the amount of magazines that they took, probably not even twice that amount. Instead, he just grabbed his money back off the shelf and ran back after the delinquent duo, which was currently tearing through the back sections like a hot bull through a greased china shop. Left... right... right again... straight... They quickly navigated the labyrinth towards the door. He stood back as he watched the pair heave the bookcase out of the way, and silently thanked himself that he hadn't made enemies of them. With strength like that, a punch would hurt pretty bad.

The door was locked, as he'd been fearing. He raised out his hand in an offer to try and "read" the correct key pattern, but they were already on the job. Well, they'd probably done this sort of thing countless times, so it must be almost second nature to them. The door having been opened, he followed them into the dark butchery. "Say... where do we go... next?", one of them asked. Masaru tried to remember the building plans, but he only knew the ones from when the building had been originally built. In the darkness, he couldn't tell how much the interior had been altered, or if it had been at all.

"Um... Try going 3 meters to the left, and then about 5 forward. Feel around for a counter, or a table, or something."

He needed a light. The door should be across the room where they received the meat, which they were almost in right now. They had to exit the interior counter, though. There was what seemed like an opening where he'd told the blue guy to go, but you couldn't really tell from just a blueprint in your head.

Kuro's view on the situation turned from stalling to caution the moment Kisaragi uttered the words. She had abandoned her innocent facade and all niceness that she had held during her and Kuro's conversation. Was this new girl that much of a threat? Or was it the impending arrival of Anti-Skill? He hadn't wanted to think this at first when he began his tailing of her in the city, but this jumpiness made it more apparent that Kisaragi was not what she appeared. The strange behavior mixed with her taste in weaponry was now pushing Kuro toward the belief that she may in fact be a magician.

But there were other things to worry about. An object very familiar to Kuro fell to the ground in their midst as he rose to his hands and knees and turned to face the other two. He had only a split second to recognize the threat from the burning fuse at its top. "Shit!" Kuro exclaimed as he gave his scarf a quick wave and tucked his body in tight to the ground with his arms covering his head. His hastily cast spell blew a layer of wind over his figure to help deter incoming shrapnel as the apple-shaped bomb exploded. The force of the blast and it's glass projectiles couldn't be completely halted by such a feeble casting, so he had to rely on his robes to absorb most of the impact and damage. Kuro shuddered as he wondered how much injury he would have sustained if he were in short sleeved clothes. Sometimes this outfit had its perks.

But Kuro didn't have long to worry about that. He had only just looked up from his position and noticed Kisaragi's disappearance when he felt a tug on the back of his robes, pulling him roughly to his feet. This other girl was apparently more than a simple student who happened upon the meeting of he and Kisaragi. Kuro was grateful that she put her knife away at least. But her attitude was more rude than he was comfortable with. There'd be no joking around with this one.

"I'm as much in the dark on her identity as you are miss." Kuro's tone still carried respect, but darted out much harsher than he'd spoken with Kisaragi. "Being rough with me or dragging me to the authorities isn't going to bring out information that I don't have. You call it BS, but the fan was the sole reason for me picking her out from the crowd today. I'm sort of an expert on such items, so seeing someone else carrying one in this city intrigued me. Didn't expect it to turn into a back alley assault, but that's what I get for letting my guard down."

Kuro turned back to the site of the blast where the glass bomb had fallen. Walking over, he then knelt down and investigated the remaining shards. A look of realization came to his face as he turned to look back at the girl. "You're right that she doesn't seem to care about who she hurts to accomplish her goals. For that reason alone, she must be stopped. I think we should work together on this. And maybe..." Kuro suddenly gave a deep sniff with his nose in the air, "...I may be able to help you find her or her allies."

Kuro sniffed again, focusing on the air and his breath, reading the scents in the area. His hand clenched tightly on his scarf as a habit when using such magical tricks. It wasn't as good as an animal's, but by combining a simple searching spell with his sense of the air currents, he could pick out the scents drifting on the wind. And the scent he was focused on at the moment was the sweet odor still clinging to the glass shards left from the bomb. The perfume bottle he'd seen Kisaragi buy at the store. So there was more than one? Kuro continued to sniff regularly, like a hunting dog tracking its prey, and made his way toward the edge of the alley. When making the bomb, it was more than likely that the perpetrator had gotten some of the scent of the perfume on themselves. If he followed the smell, he could track down Kisaragi.

The pitch black darkness had become a challenge in and of itself. However it wasn’t for the fact that one couldn’t see anything, but for the gloomy atmosphere that enveloped this place. There had been various slasher movies focused on this kind of scenario, so it was rather weird for people to remain unaffected like Masaru was.

Hamazura Shiage was shivering, checking every direction nervously, while his comrade Hanzou would proceed cautious as well.

"Um... Try going 3 meters to the left, and then about 5 forward. Feel around for a counter, or a table, or something."

Both of them remained silent for a moment. ”Hold on! How do you know such stuff that well?! Could it be that you’re the infamous Level 0 Butcher!? The guy that lures innocent Level 0’s into dark places where no one will ever hear their screams, cutting them to pieces little by little and then turning them into sausages, patties and French fries…!?” He didn’t trust anything in this situation right now. His heart was likely to be pounding like crazy so that even a story as dumb as this one would sound more logical than the daily news.

”Get yourself together, Hamazura. Doesn’t matter where he got his info from, but it’s correct”, the other one cut in after having checked the area. His face was slightly uncovered from the darkness by a rather weak glowing light. The source was the cheap flip phone he was holding in his right hand. There was no comparison to be made to an actual flashlight, but it’d serve its purpose of functioning as a source of brightness either way. ”You two. Get your phones out, as well.”

With Hamazura doing what he was told to do, Hanzou turned towards Masaru again. ”I’d be more comfortable with you goin’ ahead. Your infos might be right, but that ain’t a reason for me to trust you.” The bandana guy had seen this situation’s danger. The glasses boy could give them all kinds of directions or hints, but they could become fakes anytime. Additionally there was the danger of the boy being wrong about the information he held, so it was best to let him become the one to suffer for his own mistakes.


Following the perfume’s scent Kuro was able to take a short glimpse at the journey the small bottle had taken.

It all had begun with the bottle’s entrance into the back alley. It had travelled deeper into it, probably due to the gust of wind Kuro released when he had first entered.

Afterwards the bottle had been lifted to a higher position, up above towards the roof tops. Kuro should not be able to follow the exact trace it had taken from there on.

Then it had returned back towards the ground, where it had exploded tagging everyone present with its scent.

From there on only one single trace had left the alley, the one belonging to Kisaragi Anko. However that one would lead towards a dead end, as she had headed straight into the masses, mixing in with the hundreds of smells occupying the everyday city life.

There was only one unknown factor: The roof tops, the place where the scent was at its strongest – highly likely due to someone spilling all of the bottle’s contents.


[OOC: @Mari, I didn’t actually mean the bomb when I stated that Mari was familiar with the opponent party’s techniques, but that whole surprise and sneaking stuff.]

"Help me find her?" Mari questioned.

It seemed like an off statement, considering that neither really had anything to go on. The woman revealed little to nothing about herself, and didn't leave any evidence behind. Though this guy sounded pretty confident in himself, and was willing to ask for Mari's help...

...despite her own reservations about receiving help from the boy.

Yeah, just an innocent samaritan willing to jump right into dangerous, no matter how explosive it is. Literally.

And you're an expert on a fan weapon 'someone else' was carrying. Yeah, okay, feel free to tell me that on purpose some time.

Mari observed the boys strange behavior as he sniffed the air, similar to how a bloodhound searching for a scent would.

Well, at least he's not trying to argue about how normal he is...

Mari tried to figure out what he was smelling, but could only catch traces of whatever was used in the explosion.

"Okay, we're going to help each other... how exactly are you planning to find her? Are you... getting a scent...? And if we do find her, you can handle yourself right?" Mari gave the boy a skeptical look.

"I just want to be sure. I can't dodge bombs and watch you at the same time."

Normally, Mari would probably just be on her merry way, but she didn't have anything to lose with humoring this guy. Worst case scenario, she reports back to base, and they investigate for her.

".........Also, I can't ignore this, what the hell are you doing right now? Are you... honestly trying to catch that woman's scent, dude?" Mari asked, following him to the end of the alley.

What was that guy talking about? He'd heard almost every urban legend Academy City had to offer, and he'd never heard of a "Level 0 Butcher" before. Must be a new thing. Fortunately, the blue guy seemed to have his counterpart on a pretty tight rein, for which Masaru was grateful. He took out his phone, disappointed that it didn't produce as much light as a normal flashlight could. His ability wouldn't be much use, either - Although when he ｢read｣ something it produced small sparks, they didn't actually illuminate anything except themselves.

And now he had to lead the way? He knew roughly what was coming up, but he'd still have preferred one of the other two to go ahead. He debated with himself whether he could complain enough to convince them that they should go ahead, but determined it'd be useless. One thought he was a butcher, and the other didn't trust him well either. The next part of the room would be a series of tables, where the meat was sliced after delivery. They ought to be in two rows of three, and the aisle between them was about 5.6 meters to the right, and on forwards. He was so confident, he didn't even look to see if he was right. If he had, he would've seen that one of the tables was no longer in its original position, instead halfway in the aisle. With a loud, metallic bang, his shin collided with its leg and he hopped sideways, surprised at the sudden pain. It wasn't broken or anything, but he'd probably have a bruise.

"You heard that, right? Come towards my phone's light, but look out. There's a table out of place."

”Hahaha”, the blonde’s laughter resounded in the darkness. But before he could further enjoy another’s misfortune his own would come to get him back for it. Another metallic bang rang out. ”Argh!” Numerous comical sounds of pain were to be heard as the boy seemed to be jumping around, followed by a number of metallic bangs and screeching sounds.

”Oi, not again!” By smacking him on the back of his head, Hanzou attempted to bring his dancing friend to a halt. ”We’re not at the circus, so get yourself together, god damn it.” There was still some slight trace of this situation’s overall tension to be found in both their behaviour.

Sighing once the bandana boy did what he told to do again, closing in on the “tourist guide” and his “flashlight” – the brightest and most modern of the three phones. ”That’s meant to be a problem? Oh please…”
He didn’t show any reason as for why to be bothered about anything that glassed kid brought up, simply climbing over the tables that were blocking the path as if he were out on a playground. Difficulties at trying to make something out in the dark? No trace at all.

Meanwhile that noisy bumping festival had finally come to an end. ”How do ya know such stuff anyway? Blue prints and the like aren’t free to access after all, right?” And shortly after he was asking proof was to follow that the bumping hadn’t actually come to an end…

Complain about a single bruise.

[OOC: Gonna change my posting style a little, please don't feel bothered!]

Kuro progressed without pause through the alley, turning his nose high and low to try and get a reading on the scent left by the bottle bomb shards. He got a hold of a "trail" left by Kisaragi, which he followed to the end of the alley, only to shake his head with disappointment as the light scent that had been clinging to her was drowned out in hundreds of other people's scents in the main street. There was no way to track through that unless you were an actual dog. Even then it'd be borderline impossible.

"Drat..." Kuro turned his attention back into the alley and wondered what else they could use to gather information on the fleeing Kisaragi. While he was thinking, he took the time to politely answer the girl's questions. Seemed he was doing a lot of that today.

"My name is Kuro by the way. If and when we catch up to our target, I can definitely handle myself. You don't have to worry. And yes, I was catching her scent. Or rather, the scent of the bottle she used for that bomb. It was a perfume bottle, just like the one I saw her buy at a store shortly before coming into this alley. Unfortunately, the scent is lost in the crowd on the streets so..." *sniff*

Kuro had just gotten a strong whiff of the perfume. If he was not mistaken it was wafting down from the rooftop, possibly from where whoever had dropped it had been. He'd like to go and investigate, but he had to play things simple for now so as to not bring more suspicion on himself.

"I think whoever dropped that bomb to help her out was on the roof above us. I'm getting a strong scent from up there. Do you know of any way to the roof so we can have a look around?"

"Kuro, huh? Nice to meet you, kind of..." As Mari was about to give her own own introductions, Kuro caught something else, and looked toward the roof. Mari listened to his account with a fiar amount of skepticism.

I still can't smell anything! I swear, if you're leading me on a wild goose chase right now...

Mari's thoughts were interrupted by Kuro.

"I think whoever dropped that bomb to help her out was on the roof above us. I'm getting a strong scent from up there. Do you know of any way to the roof so we can have a look around?"

"Sure, sure. You'd better be right about this. Okay, we're jumping up." Mari casually scooped Kuro up, carrying him bridal style. "Hang on to your head, wouldn't want you dropping it." Without a second word, Mari leapt up, amplifying the force from her legs to leap into the wall.

Careful to be (relatively) gentle for the person in her arms, she bounced off the walls a few times, rather than just jumping straight up, until they reached the roof Kuro was talking about.

"There we go, up and at'em." Mari said as she put Kuro back on his legs, not paying attention to his current condition. It was far from the worst reaction she had ever gotten, so she didn't pay much attention to it. He'd get over it, and she figured that her esper ability would be obvious enough, so she didn't feel an explanation was necessary.

Instead, she looked around the roof, finally noticing a faint scent of perfume,

Ugh, I could never stand this stuff. Who the hell wants to smell like a scented candle?

As she looked around, she couldn't find a door that a person could use for a quick getaway. She noticed some dirt kicked around on the roof, showing signs that someone was there at some point.

"Okay, looks like there actually was a person up here. The next step is finding that person."

She was about to ask Kuro to start tracking again, when she hit herself in realization.

She still hadn't introduced herself.

"Agh, right, sorry, I forgot to tell you my name. Call me Mari." She tried to sound at least somewhat friendly with the young man before her, despite everything that was going on. "So, Kuro, think you can track anything here?"

"If you know some people who're good at digging things like that up, they are. Plus, this store isn't exactly anywhere important. I heard it wasn't particularly hard to get the plans."

Continuing down the row, the rest of the room seemed like open space up until the wall on the other side. They could then continue along that until they reached a door to the outside. He started walking, paying close attention this time to any obstacles that might be in his path. There didn't look like any, and he kept moving forward over the dusty concrete floor. One would think that even though it was an old butcher's shop, someone would've put it to better use by now.

He looked back to see where the other two people were. Going in front of two delinquents was something he should've paid more mind to before, although they seemed less likely to hurt him now that they needed his memorized blueprints.

“Contacts, I see. I wonder what brings an elite to search out stuff like this, though. Are you the kind of person that collects info just for fun or did you actually plan on sneaking into this store at night to stuff your bags with books as far your arms can reach?” A delinquent like Hamazura simply couldn’t deny the fact that this seemed a little fishy, but who was he to judge? They were the ones forcing that boy to help them out after all.

With the tables behind them, the small group was finally able to progress more smoothly.
”Seems like we’re close to the exit.” Hanzou was the first to announce the good news here. While he had fallen behind Masaru again, it still seemed like he was the one who had the greatest skill at handling the darkness, had he been capable of making out most of what was hidden.
Nonetheless he would still remain cautious, especially in front of something as promising as an exit.

Once again the blonde took the lead, heading straight for his task that was the door. Using his phone’s light he would uncover enough to meet at least a basic requirement for handling the issue at hand. The door in front of him seemed rather sturdy, probably made from thick steel. In addition to the sturdy material there had also been what seemed to be an electronic lock, one similar to those you would see in a bank’s vault. ”Hm, a good one. They probably chose it thinking about Espers or some crazy technology that would allow to burst through any standard kind of lock…

…but that ain’t an issue at all! Security regulations wouldn’t allow for doors to become death traps, making it rather easy to open them from within to allow quick escape in an emergency case.” Bringing forth his lock picking equipment once again, Hamazura Shiage immediately got to work. Unlike what one would expect, the delinquent ignored the electronic lock, focusing on what seemed to be an actual key hole positioned right underneath the key card slit.


It was a roof top just like one would expect from an average sized apartment building. While there might have been a few traces of another person’s presence, there was no sight of anyone up there. Even looking around once or twice wouldn’t reveal anything new.
The same went for the surrounding buildings that were of similar height – some were a little higher, some lower. All in all this place seemed to be a dead end.

Silence. The only irregularity was the heavy scent of perfume that lay in the air.

But was there truly no one around? While the roof may have appeared empty, there still were a few possible spots for hiding left: There were about 3 ventilation shafts of about a metre height and the entrance leading to the level below.

Kuro had mixed feelings about the ride up to the roof. The rush of air as they soared up was thrilling, but being carried by a girl when he could have gotten up easily himself was embarrassing. Playing a normal person was annoying sometimes. But at least they were both up here to investigate now.

At first glance, the roof didn't seem very impressive. The smell of that darn perfume was everywhere up here, but all that did was confirm their suspicions that the one who prepared it had done so up here. There was no sight of them now. But maybe...... Kuro turned his attention to the shafts and roof exit. It hadn't been long since the bomb had been dropped. Kisaragi had the advantage of escaping into a crowd of people, but her ally had to get away from this roof. They couldn't have gotten far yet. Or maybe they weren't running, and instead were hiding. Kuro casually made his way to the ventilation shafts. Using the same kind of air sensing spell he'd sensed Kisaragi with down in the alley, he read the flow of air from the shafts. If one's flow came as more blocked or disturbed than the other 2, chances were their target was in it. He just had to make sure they didn't find him out.

"How do you think they got away Mari-san?" Kuro asked with a tone of curiosity. "Did they go through the building and join Kisaragi on the street, or maybe jump over these buildings beside us?"

"So, no new smells? Great..." Mari asked, figuring that Kuro meant the person who bombed them just a moment ago had dissappeared.

"Okay let's see..." Mari walked over to the roof top's door, talking out loud, "There's a good chance whoever this was went building hopping, and found one with a ladder..."

She then reached he door, and jiggled the handle,

"And the doors on roofs tend to lock on the outside for security reasons, ineffective as they are..."

Let's see... what else am I missing, Mari noticed where Kuro was walking, and realized he meant something else,

"Oh, I see wha you're getting getting at!" Mari pointed, excitedly, "You think that dull lady's buddy snuck out of here through the vents!"

Despite the pride she felt for allegedly figuring out Kuro's reasoning, she wasn't very happy about it. That was just a possibility of what happened. For all the two of them knew, the person could have flown away.

"Well... glad we have that much? I don't know, this isn't a lot to go on. They're probably trying to put as much distance between us as possible at this point... do you think you can catch a scent...?"

I still can't believe I'm asking that...

"If not, this isn't looking good. I'm not seeing any way to find them right now, but feel free to prove me wrong on that."