The bullet fired from Bando's gun missed Lucy by inches. She was powerful enough to deflect even his special tungsten .50 AE bullets, but it was not her who deflected his shot. Kouta grabbed the gun and readjusted his aim in the blink of an eye. He was gripping the barrel of the handgun and holding away from Lucy. He was giving Bando a serious glare while he took hold of the gun. Bando was trying to struggle and get his firearm back away from Kouta but found he couldn't. Kouta was impossibly strong, there was no way some kid like him could be stronger than Bando. "What the hell? Let go you bastard!" Kouta listened and released his grip. Bando pulled the Desert Eagle away from Kouta. taking a step back. "Do you want to die?" He asked with great anger. He then glared over at Lucy, who just stood there watching things unfold. "Gah, my beef isn't with you anyway. It's her I want." He pointed a finger to her. "You're that bitch who mutilated my body, I will never forgive you. I'll break every bone if your god damn body!" He pushed his way past them and began to leave. "Let's go for a walk, this isn't the time or place."

"As you wish." Lucy responded in an almost evil tone.

"Then i'm coming too." Kouta interjected. Bando turned his head to look back at him, then a grin appeared on his face.

"Sure, the more the merrier." He responded with confidence.

"No, you can't!" Mayu tried to stop them. She didn't want Bando to kill Kouta and Lucy. She equally didn't want them to kill Bando after he just saved her life.

"Shaddup you little brat!" Bando yelled back to her. "I bet you thought it was funny. Watching me stumble around blindly, looking for the bitch that tore me apart back on the beach. Meanwhile she was sleeping safe and sound in this house with you."

"No, that's not it. I..."

"I don't wanna hear it!" He yelled. "I already repaid my debt to you. Now I don't wanna see your face ever again!" Mayu began to tear up.

"Mayu." Kouta called to her. "Don't worry, everything's going to be ok." He smiled at her, trying to reassure her. Mayu began to calm down, still upset at Bando's harsh words but coming to realize that Kouta wouldn't let him die. She nodded back to him and he turned to join Bando and Lucy for a walk. The three of them left through the gate of Maple House and left the place for another location. It was evident to all of them that a fight was about to go down, and to Yuka and Mayu it seemed that Kouta and Lucy were at an advantage with their powers. Yuka knew that they could beat him easily, and that Kouta would probably let him live. But still she couldn't shake a feeling down in the pit of her stomach that something bad was about to happen.


"Damn it, that bastard. If I see him again i'll fucking kill him!" The man with the sunglasses cursed as he managed to pry the spike ball from his ass. He was right beside a large rock on the beach along Kamakura. He had fled there after being wounded when Bando came in and rescued Mayu. He had to rethink his strategy, he was now without his Diclonius radar and had an extra hole in his ass. If he didn't find Lucy before that scientist girl she was going to cut off his manhood too. Arakawa, the assistant to Professor Kakuzawa back at the university, had been taken to the island of the Diclonius Research Institute. The Chief had ordered them both to go about tracking down Lucy, and they each made bets out of spite of one another. If he won, she had to be his pleasure slave. But if she won, she got to castrate him. He gritted his teeth and thought about how much he wanted to kill her now. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard people approaching. He his behind the boulder and watched a group of three people descend down the steps onto the beach. The first was Bando, the man who injured him back at that house. The unknown man gritted his teeth at the sight. But his attention quickly turned towards the woman in the middle. For following right behind Bando, was none other than Lucy. The man's eyes widened in surprise, his target had come right to him. He couldn't ask for it any better. There was also a third one, a boy following behind Lucy. He did not recognize the boy but did not care. He would probably have to die anyway.

The three of them reached the middle of the beach when Bando spoke up."Right here is good." He said, stopping right in his tracks and facing away from the two of them. "Do you remember this spot? This is where you defeated me the first time. I never forgot that day, I swore vengeance to matter what it took." He then turned to the two teenagers. "I've done a lot to prepare for this day, I always knew it would come. Now, it's time for you to die."

"For me to die?" Lucy mocked. "I won't be the one here who dies tonight." She summoned up her vectors as sand shot into the around her in spirals. She was about to unleash them when out of nowhere Bando picked a rock up off the ground and chucked it at her as fast as a professional baseball player. She easily managed to block it though, and it shattered on impact. "What's the big idea?" She asked.

"Last time we fought I was at a huge disadvantage. I didn't know about those 'arms' of yours. I didn't know that they could destroy on touch or throw anythign around you. But know look around you." He lowered his arms. "But now take a look around. I spent all this time cleaning up this beach. Now you don't have a thing around you can use. Oh, and one more thing." He suddenly drew his gun again and fired another round. This one zipped dangerously close to Lucy and scratched her face. Leaving a trail of blood on her where it passed. "Special order 50 caliber tungsten steel bullets. Far to heavy for those 'arms' of yours to deflect. I've set up the battlefield in my favor, that's checkmate." He was about to fire again when Kouta rushed him.


Nearby, Kurama and Mariko were both snuggled up close against one another in Bando's small shack. He had built it as a temporary place of residence after beginning his search for Lucy. He had allowed Kurama to move in however after agreeing to help him. When Kurama brought Mariko back Bando was less that pleased. He wasn't exactly fond of horn girls. However, he reluctantly agreed to let Mariko stay with them for the time being. Way he had planned it after he killed Lucy and got his revenge he was leaving Kamakura and never coming. Maybe he'd sell his skills as a bodyguard or mercenary. Hell, maybe he'd even join up with the Yakuza and earn some cash that way. Didn't matter to him, so long as he got to kill people. He was just going to leave the small shelter to Kurama and his daughter, not like he cared what would happen to them. He was only letting Kurama stay with him because Kurama could help him. Now Kurama and he daughter were huddling together for warmth. "Are you ok Mariko?" He asked her. "I'm sorry we have to stay in such a place, especially in the cold."

"It's ok daddy." She reassured him. "As long as I get to be with you, i'm finally happy."

Bang.

They heard gunfire from outside the shack. The both turned their heads simultaneously at the sound. "Was that Bando?" Mariko asked.

"I would guess so, probably trying to scare off another litterer. Still, we should go make sure everything's ok." Kurama began to stand up and placed Mariko on her feet. She wrapped the small raggedy blanket around her shoulders as she was set on her feet. Her father opened the sheet metal door to the shack and stepped out barefoot onto the sand. He had began to take more to the look of a homeless man after moving in with Bando. His suit was ragged and unwashed, as well as his hair. He had begun to grow a beard around his jaw and his eyes were a little sunken. Mariko's dress was now tattered and looked filthy, and her hair looked ragged in a patch on the left side of her head. but she was happy to finally be with her father, even if it was in such conditions. He was happy to finally be her father as well, it was just as his wife Hiromi had always wished. If she only she were alive...

The two of them looked over to see Bando with his gun out, to no surprise. But they did not expect to see Lucy and Kouta once more. Mariko recognized them both instantly and the next thing she saw was Kouta making a b-line for Bando. "You wanna die too? Fine!" Bando yelled at him, taking aim as Kouta drew close surprisingly fast.

"Mr. Bando, don't get to close to him!" Mariko shouted out to him. Bando heard her words and dodged back to get some distance. His first thought was that this boy might have the same powers as Lucy. He was surprised however to see that the boy's left eye changed color to back with red around the center. Even more surprising was when four glowing red tentacle like appendages came from his back. Bando rolled to the side as the came down from above and just missed him. "Thanks for the tip." He turned his head to Mariko when he landed on his knees. "Die you freak!" He shouted as he fired at Kouta. The round hit him in the gut and he slid back a few centimeters but was otherwise unharmed. "What the hell?"

"Huh, seems your bullets have enough punch to move me back. But still, they won't do any good if they can't even penetrate me." Kouta commented, taking a step closer to Bando.

A ghoul? The Unknown Man recognized the four things coming out of his back as a kagune. That would make sense, Ghouls are notorious for hiding out among humans. Lucy must have been lying low with a group of them in order to keep a low profile.

"Hey, what the hell is this guy?!" Bando called back to Mariko for advice.

"He's a human like creature called a Ghoul. He's much stronger than most people, he even beat me in combat before." She explained.

"Oh really? Then care for a little rematch?" Bando asked with a grin.

"No."

"No?! What do you mean no?" He demanded.

"That boy may have beaten me, but he also saved my life. I owe him a great debt of gratitude."

"So you're just going to let him kill me?!"

"He won't kill you." Kurama told him. "Even if he wins, he won't." Bando grunted then looked back over to Kouta.

"Pfft, stupid ideological types. You think sparing me will do anything for you?!"

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way, i'm not a killer and i'm not going to start now."

"Then you can start being killed!" Bando aimed again. Kouta jumped out of the way of each bullet, then Lucy rushed in as well. Bando fired at her, thinking he had won. But much to his surprise she managed to deflect his bullets as well. "What the hell?!"

Fool, it doesn't matter even if you are using a 50 caliber bullet. Lucy's vectors are stronger than any other Diclonius. Still... The mystery man looked over at Kouta. They both ran at Bando in order to scissor him in, but he jumped back and rolled. They both stopped and were standing next to each other, facing him again. I wasn't expecting to run into a Ghoul. I better call for backup. He pulled out a small handheld radio and put it up to his ear. "Hunter to Kami, come in." He called over it.

"This is Kami." Cheif Kakuzawa's voice came from the other end. "Have you captured Lucy."

"Negative, i've tracked her down to the beach at Kamakura. She's in my sights but there's a problem."

"What do you mean there's a problem?" Kakuzawa asked in an accusing tone.

"There's a ghoul here, and I have no doubt he'd interfere if I made a move."

"A ghoul? Very well, i'll send backup. ETA 3 minutes."

"Roger that." The man turned the radio off and decided to wait by watching the battle unfold. Lucy and Kouta both rushed Bando again, this time separating a bit and going in at an angle.

"Big mistake!" He shouted as he pulled out a second gun and aimed it at the ground. They both looked down to see what he was up to when suddenly they were blinded. Bando had loaded the gun's first round with a flash bullet that that blinded them both while he remained protected by his special shades. He then pulled something out of his jacket. It was a grenade. He pulled the pin and threw it over to them. Lucy managed to see it coming last second and pushed Kouta out of the way with her vectors. The grenade landed right in front of her and shot out a large cloud of gas. Lucy screamed in pain and clutched her eyes again. Bando laughed manically. "How's that flash bullet and tear gas combo feel?" He looked over to Kouta who was still clutching his eyes. "Geez, you only caught the bullet flash kid. What the hell's the matter?"

"Bando, his senses are heightened far beyond that of anyone else's." Mariko explained.

"Ah, I see. Then that flash bullet was equally as worse for you. Looks like that worked to my advantage." He aimed the gun at Lucy, the rest of the clip loaded with more tungsten rounds. "Finishing blow!" He was about to fire when he noticed something from his peripheral vision. Kouta was right beside him, he spun around and delivered a hard spin kick into Bando's ribs, sending him flying back towards the ocean. "God damn it! How?!" He yelled as he sat up.

"Didn't she just tell you my senses are heightened far beyond that of a normal human?" Kouta asked. "You only took my sight, I can still hear and smell you just fine." Bando growled as he stood back up. He had come so close to victory, only to have this kid ruin it. He aimed his gun at Lucy. "Well let's see if you can hear well enough to protect your girlfriend!"

"No!" The creepy man rushed in the way and wrapped his arms around Lucy while she was kneeling on the ground.

"Who?" Kouta asked.

"You again?!" Bando yelled. "What the hell do you think you're doing you fucking pedo?"

"You can't kill this girl, if you do the new world can't be created. Lucy, I will be your eyes." He failed at that job however, as Lucy ripped his head off. She then chucked it at Bando, hitting him in the head and causing him to fall down again.

"Why you little!" He tried to stand but only managed to get to a knee. Kouta was already back upon him with his kagune coming straight for Bando. Kouta did another spin and used the momentum to hit Bando with his kagune very hard. Bando was sent flying back and tumbled until he hit the concrete wall on the other side of the beach. He was upside down and out cold a few feet away from Kurama and Mariko. Kouta finally managed to slowly open his eyes and saw the defeated Bando up against a wall. Kurama and Mariko were staring at Bando as he lay there. They then looked over to Kouta, who simply nodded to them. He walked over to where Lucy was. There was a headless corpse beside her and she was starting to open her eyes as well. Kouta knelt down beside her.

"Lucy, are you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, my eyes were already mostly closed so I didn't get a lot of gas in them." She responded, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Kouta took her hand and helped her stand on her feet.

"I'm glad." He smiled at her. Then he looked down at the body next to her.

"I'm sorry." She told him, causing him to give her a surprised look. "I didn't mean to kill him, it was just kind of reactive after I was blinded like that."

"Don't worry about it." He told her. "Whoever that guy is, he reeks. He's definitely where that smell was coming from."

"Really?" She looked down at him. "I wonder who is he? And what did he mean by 'the new world'?" Before Kouta could responded there was a barrage of grenades that landed around them. Each one exploded into tear gas, causing the two to fall back on their knees and cough. This wasn't the work of Bando though. Kurama grabbed Mariko and ran back inside the shack before they were spotted. Several spot lights shone on the beach from the sea. Three boats approached from the sea and a battalion of soldiers disembarked and headed for the two. Kouta could hear them. They rushed over to Lucy and held her down. She found herself unable to send out her vectors as she was in pain from both the gas as well as the men holding her down. She felt one of them stick a needle into her neck, a feeling she had long since forgotten. They then retracted it after they injected her with something and she quickly found everything going black as as she was drugged under. Kouta could hear the men doing something to her and stood up, his eyes still closed.

"There's the other one!" He heard one of them shout. He heard a man run at him, and Kouta knocked him aside with his rinkaku. The other soldiers just watched as he used his kagune to clear the rest of the gas.

"That's him." Another said. "That's the ghoul!" Kouta could them, all of them, rushing him at once. He used his kagune to knock some more of them down but some managed to avoid it. About four soldiers all took him down at once. They pinned him down and started to beat him. He could feel their fists, feet, and the butts of their MP5 sub-machine guns all hit against his head. More soldier jumped in as well and tried to beat him into submission. He opened his eyes only to see Lucy being dragged away by two soldiers. Lucy, was the last things going thought his mind before he was finally knocked unconscious by the large amount of soldiers. After they felt him stop moving, two other soldiers bound and dragged an unconscious Kouta onto the same boat as Lucy. Then just as quickly as they arrived, the soldiers packed back onto the boats and left. The engines of the boats roared as they turned tail and left the scene.


Nana started to come too back at Maple House. She slowly opened her eyes and her burred vision began to clear. She could see one of the other residents of the Maple Inn was inn the room with her, but she could not make out who. "I think she's starting to wake up." Nana could hear Yuka's voice calling out. Her vision began to focus and she could see Yuka was kneeling over her with a concerned look. Nana heard footsteps as Mayu came running over to her side.

"Nana, are you ok?" She asked with concern.

"I think so." Nana said weakly. "What happened?"

"After you blacked out, I managed to get away and call Bando for help. He saved me just in time and beat up that man."

"That's good, i'm glad he came to save you." Nana responded, still sounding weak.

"Yeah... but then the others got home just as he was leaving." Nana tried to sit up after hearing that but winced in pain. Yuka helped her lay back down.

"Hey, take it easy. You were really hurt you know."

"Wha-what happened then?" Nana asked.

"Bando left with Lucy and Kouta. I think they must have gotten into a fight." Mayu explained.

"Probably." Yuka sighed. "Those idiots. I wonder where they went off to?"

"The beach." Nana managed to get out. "He must have taken them down to the beach."

"The beach?" Yuka was confused.

"Ah, that's right. He was preparing that spot to fight Lucy."

"Then we need to go there, and find them." Nana tried to get up again but Yuka prevented any further attempts.

"You're not going anywhere. You need to stay here and rest. Mayu and I will look for them. You just stay here and get better ok?" Nana was giving Yuka a rather serious look. As if she wanted to protest but knew Yuka was right. She nodded and Yuka got up and her and Mayu left Maple Inn to go search for Kouta and Lucy.


"I think he's starting to wake up." Bando heard the sound of Mariko's voice in the pitch black. He began to open his eyes to look up at the night sky. Both Mariko and Kurama were standing around him. They had gotten him onto his back from his upside down position. He then sat up and put his hand to his head. "Ah, my head. Those bastards."

"Welcome back." Kurama greeted him.

"What happened?" Bando asked.

"They pulled off a joint attack and knocked you out."

"Damn it, then they got away." Bando gritted his teeth until he heard a familiar voice call out his name.

"Bando!" Mayu called out. He looked to see her and that other girl he saw before running over to him. "Bando, are you alright?" She asked.

"The hell are you doing here?" He asked her in a harsh tone.

"I... I wanted to see if you were ok, and..." She began to tear up. "I wanted to apologize, for lying to you. I'm sorry Bando, I just didn't want anyone to get hurt. Please forgive me." Bando was surprised to see her like this. She actually cared about hi, he couldn't understand why but she sure as hell did. He looked away from her before answering.

"Sure, whatever I guess." He forgave her in his own way. She smiled at him in response, thankful he forgave her. "Doesn't matter anyway, they got away."

"What?" Yuka asked. "Where did they go?"

"Dunno, I was out."

"While you were out, soldiers from the institute came and ambushed the two of them. They took them both." Kurama told Bando, as well as the other two girls.

"Institute, what institute?"

"The Diclonius Research Institute, it's on an island not too far from here. It's a dark, horrendous place where the Diclonius are locked up and 'experimented on'." He gave heavy implication on the experimentation part. Yuka felt a knot in her stomach after hearing that. Her cousin had been taken away to some place awful, and it terrified her.

"We have to go help him!"

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do." Kurama put it bluntly. "The island is heavily guarded, it's likely they would blow us up before we even saw it coming." Yuka began to tear up after she head that. She held her head down in defeat.

"Then tell me... am I ever going to see my cousin again?" She managed to ask without bursting out sobbing. Kurama walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, in order to give her some sense of comfort before he dropped it on her.

"I'm sorry, but where they're taking your cousin... it's better for his sake to hope that they kill him."