Trinity Arc

by Ancient2

Three crossing souls. One lead by glory, one by vengeance, the last by redemption. All come together as one to the Far East Branch, each touching the life of the other and the Den members. Three God Eaters starting as strangers, then slowly turning into friendship. Leading each other slowly to grace, may their God Arcs guide them to Serenity.

26. Chapter 26

Facing Doom

The citizens of the Far East Branch had locked themselves away, barred up all their windows and took cover in the farthest corner of their homes. There were no children running about or playing that morning. No adults going to work or going about their daily routine. A tense air had come over the Branch, and all went silent in all the Sectors. The air was heavy of something to come as all took heed to the call of the sirens.

Everyone, young and old, knew the drill: when the sirens go off, take cover. But it was a rare and frightening thing when the sirens went off on all the Sectors. The warnings had signaled for the people to stay indoors, and not the one that signaled for them to evacuate into the Den; but, it was still alarm raising when it was instructed to all of the Branch. The people did not fully know what was happening but they knew it was something big was coming. But they had no idea what it was; it scared them.

Children huddled up to their parents or their guardians, adults were silenced with no comforting words to give for it was beyond their control. All had remained silent as the sirens just went off. The only ones taking no heed to the call were the God Eaters.

All had arisen on time, some pumped with adrenaline for the day. Others were scared to the stomach, unable to keep down their meal. But all were their, standing in attention with their God Arc in their assign position of combat with their teams. They had marched their way from the Den into the only entrance gates that lead to wastelands, all heavily sealed, all rarely open. Which brought on the fascination on how the Rouges of the wasteland still managed to cross over so discretely, perhaps the security of the Anti-Aragami Wall wasn't the best, since they only focused on intruders of the Aragami nature. But such information didn't matter now, what mattered was the approaching threat heading their way that would be on them in less than half-an-hour.

The First through Seventh Unit had gathered to exit through the same door. All units were to depart from three main gates of the same direction the radars indicated that the attacking Aragami would be approaching from. Each gate would be handled by one of the three authoritative veterans to instruct the God Eaters their last briefing before the battle and give them one last motivational pep-talk before the fight. The First Unit had the luck of getting Tsubaki, while the other two gates got Dr. Sakaki or Gen. Gen was probably the best motivational speaker out of the three of them, with the most battles under his belt, but Tsubaki was still one that could hold a candle close to him. And Dr. Sakaki, well... let's just say he knew how to get rid of the tension in a room.

"The enemy will be upon our gates within 0015 hours, their numbers have not change. Reinforcements from the other Branches will not be here in time to help you when the fights starts, so we'll be on our own for a while." Tsubaki explained to the God Eaters as they waited for their Briefing in a formation in front of the gate, God Arcs on hand. "Chopper support will be there to assist you, but do not rely on them to fully get the job done. They will cover you from the flying Aragami as their primary objective, the ground forces will be left up for you to handle."

"..." They stayed silent, patiently waiting for her to finish her explanation. Listening careful, because the likely hood of dying over something stupid during the fight dwindled down when they heeded Tsubaki's words.

"I know you're anxious to get out there. I know you all just want to get this day over with. But..." Tsubaki spoke out to them, giving them her last few words that she could before the battle. "Do not rush into this fight. The last thing you want is for those you left behind to grieve over and over for your lost because you weren't thinking straight during the battle."

"..."

"Calm yours self and think before you act. Look around you," Tsubaki said, giving them a moment to follow her instructions before going on. "These are your comrades. They had lived with you; they have grown with you; and they will die for you when the moment comes."

"..."

"Do not try to take all this on alone. Use your comrades beside you to help you both make it back home alive." Tsubaki instructed. "You are strong together. The Aragami know this, and they will try to break you apart. Do not give them that chance."

"..."

"I'm proud of all of you. You stand together as mankind's last defense against the enemies behind our door. You are strong; you are brave; and you do not fight for yourselves, but for those who cannot fight for themselves. Fight for those families, come home for your families. We will all be waiting for you to come home. I'm counting on all of you! Do not fail me!"

"Yes ma'am!" They all shouted, standing tall.

"Good." Tsubaki nodded in approval, crossing her arms behind her back. "Yuu Kannagi!"

"?!" Yuu jumped in attention at the sudden mention of his name.

"Is there anything you would like to say to your comrades as the leader of the First Unit?!" Tsubaki called out to him, putting him on the spot.

"Uhh..." Yuu nervously looked around everyone as all eyes seemed to fall on him. He wasn't much of a motivational speaker, nor was he one to thrive on the spot.

"They all look up to you." Tsubaki assured to him in a more quieter and gentler tone, where the others couldn't hear them. "They could use a few encouraging words."

"..." Yuu stayed quiet for a moment as he sunk her words in. Sucking in a deep breath, he left his spot in the formation to join Tsubaki up front and face the rest of his fellow God Eaters. "..."

"..." They all stared at him as he nervously stared back.

"Boy, some nice weather were having today, huh? The perfect kinda day for a fight." Yuu lamely said with a nervous laugh, trying to break the ice. It didn't work well, and his team were shaking their heads and silently groaning as they look to the sky in pity for him. "Heh, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not much of a speaker. I just get the job done from day-to-day and leave the rest for the history books. I'm just like the rest you, just another guy trying to make it through the day."

"..."

"I've heard about this Odin Aragami we're going up against, and even had the pleasure of fighting him once. Turns out he's a pretty tough guy to take on. Not to mention that nasty skill of his, he uses to take control over other Aragami, this isn't going to be a walk in the park for us."

"..." If this was his way of being a motivational speaker then he was going way off course.

"You know, I've read up on this guy, Odin. Turns out he was the big cheese, the top dog of his gods. There was none who stood a match for him during battle, since war was his legend and death was his breath there was no way he was going down." Yuu continued on his downing streak. "But, you know, there was one part of his legend that I could never get out of my mind."

"...?"

"In the end, it says that he died by the fangs of Fenrir."

"?!"

"Even with all his strength and experience, he will die by the younger blood of the massive wolf whom he tried to chain down to control his fate. But in the end no chain or boulder could hold him down, no sword could pierce his jaw as he wildly howled in defiance." Yuu went on to describe, building up with each sentence he spoke. "He devoured everything in his path, from earth to sky. A destructive power for those who stood against him."

"..."

"We are Fenrir. God Eaters, devouring those who stand against us. Biting our fangs into those who would dare depict themselves as gods!" Yuu stated, building up a fire in them all. "Our hunger has been insatiable from this point, what's a few more Aragami to us?!"

They began to shout their agreements in a roaring chant.

"We're going to win this thing! And we're going to dig our God Arcs' jaws into Odin's hid! And then we're gonna go home to have Dinner!"

For some reason, the roaring chant became louder at the last part.

"I can't believe the others could get worked up at that." Alisa huffed as she looked around at her fellow God Eaters as they cheered and fist pumped.

"I guess it's more of Yuu's charisma than motivational speaking." Lindow laughed out as the wave of energy was starting to get contagious.

"Who are we?!" Yuu called out to them with a his God Arc raised to the air.

"FENRIR!"

"What are we?!"

"GOD EATERS?!"

"What are we gonna do?!"

"DEVOUR THE GODS!"

"Hail the wolves of Fenrir!" Yuu shouted out to them with one more pump up. They all roared in agreement at this, rising their God Arcs in the air as pumped their fists.

"All troops, move out!" Tsubaki shouted out over their roaring cheers. "Leaders, look out for your Unit, and watch out for each other!"

They were all pumped as the gates were unlocked, slowly rising to let the God Eaters through. Marching through, Yuu had leaped down to join the others on his team, taking his place in the formation again as they moved out.

"Boy, some inspiring words you got there, Yuu!" Kota commented to Yuu as he took his place beside him. "I'm getting pump just thinking about it!"

"A little on the dramatic though." Soma commented, tired of the shouts ringing in his ears and not looking forward to Kota's being among them if this kept up.

"Are you kidding?! I'm all fired up now!" Kota replied, looking over passed Yuu to Soma with a quirked eyebrow before facing back forward and punching a fist out straight in front of him before upper cutting it to the sky. "I'm gonna show those Aragami how awesome I am!"

"Don't let your guard down." Alisa warned Kota as he was getting overly excited before the fight even started. "We don't want to lose you because of the air in your head making you a bigger target."

"Yes..." Sakuya sighed out, tensing up a little as they finally crossed over the gate. "Everyone be careful."

"Right," Kota cooled down a little, taking it down a notch. "I've got too much to lose to die here. Mom and Nozomi are waiting for me to come home."

"We're all waiting to get home, Kota." Lindow said, adding a comforting word to them all. "So let's finish this up so that we can all go home, together."

"Together," They all said in agreement.

"No destination

Is reached by clouds in the sky

Only endless change."

"Whoa, what's that Karen?" Kota asked over, leaning over to look past Yuu and the other to look at her.

"It's a Haiku. It's suppose to calm your nerves before the battle."

"Heh, getting your last poem in before you die, Karen?" Soma joked, not really meaning the words he said. She could pick up on this and smirked right back at him.

"Hmm, maybe. But if I was going to go out, I would say something more meaningful for my last words, something that someone else had already said. Something like,

"I would die standing,

like smoke when it is transformed

not even knowing."

"Who said that?" Alisa pondered such an odd last words.

"Agusti Bartra," was all Karen would answer.

"Jeez, with those as your last words, makes me wonder what your opposite might say? I'm sure if Shōkan could join us she would say something about going down with a blaze of glory while riding on a Vajra." Kota teased out, silently missing their absent member along with the rest of them. They could've used all the help they could get.

"She'd probably say something more like,

"Bury me

next to friendly people

I like to talk a lot."

"Heh, that does sound like her." Yuu smirked. "Where did you hear that one?"

"Hal Kaplan. It's old, he died at the age of 60."

"You sure like the Western Style of traditional Hiaku verses." Sakuya commented with a smile.

"Yes, they're very creative with the style." Karen honestly admitted, before turning serious again. "What ever happens today, I just want you to know that it has been an honor fighting along side you all."

"Jeez, we're not gonna die today, cuz." Shun gently bumped into Karen's side from his spot where the First and Third Unit started to meet in the formation, to whack her out of her morbid track before she went down it. "We're gonna stick around and fight for a long time. Probably til you're old and a spinster in your case."

"Tch, don't curse me, Shun-san." Karen huffed out, bumping him back in return.

"Now, now, play nice you two." Gina calmly chastise the two of them. "There's plenty of Aragami to go around."

"Heh, right. We're gonna show those Aragami what the Ogawa clan is made of!" Shun elbowed over to Karen for agreement. "Let's take out the most Aragami, Karen."

"Hmm, you're on, Shun-niisan."

"Heh, great. We're gonna get a butt-load of money after this." Karel groaned out, trying to look at the bright side out of all this. "This had better be worth it."

"I can't wait to fire." Gina sighed out in her way of expressing excitement.

"Heh, at least one of us are excited for the prospect of today." Karel smirked over at her before looking ahead towards the wastelands' horizon. "We've only got one shot at this. We can't let them breach the Wall."

"Right," Karen nodded in agreement, turning her head to look ahead as well as the grip on her God Arc tightened. "They won't get passed us."

"!" Soma's eyes widen with the arrival of a sudden breeze blowing their way. It was not natural, and the air with it smelt foul. "They're coming."

"!" They all went on guard at the sound of his warning. Battle hardened and ready for a fight. The time for play was over. Their threat had finally reached them.

The first thing they heard was the trotting of horse hooves, making all go silent. Soon the intimidating form of Odin raised from over the horizon, standing alone as his eyes glowed in the distance. He had come to a stop once him and his horse fully appeared on the scene, looking out among the God Eaters as he gauged the field. He looked among them with scrutiny only to huff at what he had seen. No longer seeing them interesting, he turned his attention up to the Branch, observing the buildings that rose pass the walls protective height and passed them to the tree that covered a good center portion of the Branch with its branches.

Never taking his eyes from its ashen bark, he rose his arm holding the lance up into the air. At its mark, Aragami had come over the horizon to join Odin in his line of stance. A gust of dust had form with their numbers, quickly dissipating in the wind as they all simultaneously ground to halt. Even the Aragami that took to the sky stayed behind Odin's line. All stood still, all waiting for Odin to give his orders. Odin had stood his ground through the whole thing, his lance still raised to the sky.

The numbers were intimidating.

"Ah man, I knew the numbers were bad, but I didn't think they would be this bad." Tatsumi groaned out in frustrated alarm as the range from Ogretail to Fallen species were there and Zygotes and Sariels took the skies. In fact, the only Aragami that weren't present in this grand hurrah was the Ouroboros, Hannibal, and Aether species, luckily. At least that didn't leave the situation to be at its worst.

"It's different on paper than when you see it up close, huh Leader?" Brendan commented to Tatsumi, trying to ease them up. It wasn't helping the situation much that Kanon was shaking in her boots on the other side of him.

"T-there are so many... how are we suppose to stop all of them...?" Kanon nervous said out loud, saying what most of the other God Eaters were thinking.

"By doing what we usual do." Yuu simply answered over to her, drawing everyone's attention out of their oncoming dreary thoughts.

"!" They all snapped in attention at that. And just in time too, Odin had brought down his lance once again and pointed it towards them. Giving the Aragami a silent order to charge them; standing still as he let the Aragami pass him by.

"Tch, this is it people!" Yuu shouted out to the units one last time, tightening his grip on his God Arc as he rushed forward to meet them. "Devour or Die!"

The others rushed after him, not letting Yuu go on out there and have all the fun on his own. His team staying close to his sides, covering him from all possible angles of exposure as they did the same for each other. God Eaters roared along with Aragami as they ran or glided to meet each other in the middle. The Branches FBS news stayed on the safety of the wall as they recorded the whole thing in a live broadcast report on the battle front to the rest of the Fenrir Branches and the people in the home front.

"I-I'll do my best." Annette nervously promised to the rest of her team as they finally reached their opponents.

"Let's give 'em hell." Frederico promised along with her as he acted as her guard. Both focused on one aspect of their training and faltered tremendously on the other. So together, they created the perfect God Eater. Annette would be the brute force to Frederico's weak offense, while Frederico would be her unbreakable shield in Annette's weak defense.

"Try not to die." Soma said over to Yuu as a Kongou was the first to stomp its way over to them.

"Heh, same for you, man." Yuu smirked back at Soma as both of their God Arc blades came down hard on the Kongou's skull, instantly destroying its Pipe Oracle Cells and bringing it down off its fours and onto the ground.

"Leader!" Alisa called out in warning as she fired cover shots over their heads as she took out a Zygote that was coming down on them for a bite.

"Thanks." Yuu called over to her before taking a bite out of the Kongou along with Soma, going into a Burst.

"Rotten piece of meat," Soma growled out before delivering the crushing blow that finished off the Kongou. They had no time to play around with them, they had a thousand more Aragami to go through. And their was no promise that the Aragami would be patient enough to wait their turn.

"I've got your back!" Kota shouted out to them as he joined with Alisa and Sakuya to give the advancing them cover fire from the flying Aragami that came at them from above.

Kota remained purely offensive cover, Alisa and Sakuya balanced from offense to recovery cavalry when necessity called.

"They're coming in on your left!" Alisa called out to them in warning before shooting down the Sariel with its fallen Zygote minions coming at them.

"Whoa!" Yuu shouted out in alarm, ducking in time as Alisa's shot blasted the incoming attacking Sariel out of the sky. Just in time from preventing the Sariel from rushing them. "Thanks Alisa!"

"Let's finish them off!"

"Hai," Karen replied back to her with a nod. Rushing in on the downed Sariel with no restrains. The following Fallen Zygotes closed in on Karen to defend their leader Aragami, but Karen paid them no mind. She dashed from one Aragami to another, dodging and slashing. No shields, no blocking, just relentless attacks until her stamina was low and the Aragami were down for good. "[Fourth Tier: Path of the Little River]!"

"Whoa, Ougi?!" Shun shouted in surprised as he watched from behind his shield as he blocked from an on-punching Kongou. "Since when did you reach to Tier 4?!"

"Aside from these past few days, I've had a lot of free time to train recently." Karen explain in aloof, before upper slicing at a charging in Chi-You with her God Arc blade. "Ay!"

"Oh whaa! Well, I can't have you taking all the fun." Shun huffed out, pushing the Kongou back with his shield before changing back into Blade mode. "Let me show you what I can do!"

The Kongou was enraged at being forced back in such a way. Stomping up and down with its fists and legs, it began to prepare itself for a roll-in attack on Shun. But he smirked, not even fazed by the Aragami's rage. As the Kongou rolled towards him with increasing speed, Shun matched its speed as well, passing the Aragami in the middle. As the two forces crossed passed, Shun had delivered four quick blows on the Aragami with incredible speed. Each slash hitting their target, but due to his speed their accuracy weren't always perfect. The first strike was an amazing shot which destroyed the Kongou's face armor, while the next one did minor damage with a slash on the arm. The third one sliced at the Kongou's Do, while the last one was a flawless strike on the upper thigh that brought the Kongou to the ground.

"[Empty Sky Sword Style, Tier 1: Stream]!" Shun kiai out while the Kongou shook and struggle on the ground to get back up.

"?!" Karen looked on in impress. "That's your style of of Empty Sky Sword...?!"

"Yup! Impressed?" Shun boasted with pride at hearing the awe struck in her voice. Not one to allow her cousin to get a bloated head, she decided to tease him a little.

"I would be more impressed if you would finish off your Aragami." Karen shot back, rolling out of the way of the laser strikes of an incoming Fallen Sariel as she changed into Gun Mode.

"?!" Shun turned his attention back to the Kongou, to realize that it was starting to get up. "Darn, you still haven't had enough? Just stay down you pests!"

Shun had ran towards the Aragami, jumping into the air to come down on the Aragami to impale his blade into its back. The Kongou roared out, and reached its arm out towards its battle line. Its hand reached out towards the direction of its leader before a tired groaned escaped from its mouth as its hand fell to the ground with its last breath.

"Ha! Guess you never stood a chance against me." Shun barely had enough time to gloat before the next Aragami came in for its turn. "Whoa!"

"Don't make me have to save you this time." Karel sighed out in exasperation as he shot at the Vajra that forced Shun to jump back from its snapping jaws, off the Kongou.

"Hmph, nobody asked you to save me!" Shun huffed back in a weak counter, before dashing to the side to slash at the Vajra's paws.

"And yet here I am." Karel countered back, continuing his fire on the Vajra's face destroying its face armor in the process. He smirked as Shun became tongue-tied and unable to counter his remark.

"Tch- well... Nobody ask you!" Shun lamely said, slashing off its tail armor, still thinking about the bonus awards on the back of his mind.

"You've already said that."

"Enough with the chit-chat, you two." Gina sighed out in her nonchalant charm, taking the bulls-eye shot in the center of the Vajra's forehead for the kill. "You're in my way of fire."

"Tst!" "Yes ma'am." Both Shun and Karel said at the same time, making way for the lady and her aloof trigger-happy spree.

"(Ecstatic gasp) I can't wait to fire." Gina was practically flowing with glee even though her voice and facial expression didn't show it. She calmly walked out along the field as the Gboros wobbled their way towards her. Teeth all shiny and pointing out of their jaws as if they were happy to see her. A small grin came over her face as she took aim to fire. "Bloom for me."

BANG

The first shot went off, one of the Gboro's head fin was blown clean off.

BANG

Another shot, a Gboro on the left flank had its jaw cannons busted in. It twirled over as the explosion of the broken cannons flipped the Aragami off the ground and killed it along in the process.

Regardless, the others kept on coming towards her.

"(Chuckle) How lovely." She fired some more, getting one good sniper-worthy shot in one a Gboro's forehead. It had flatten down in its place as the shot killed it on the spot. But she was not as please with that shot as others would have been. It was too clean, the impact of the bullet didn't nearly spout enough blood as she had hoped for, it was barely a bud. So she tried again, getting more pleasing results from the other two Gboro before they had died. One last Gboro still remained, continuing its braving charge as its comrades fell all around it. Gina could admire its guts, but it was time to put an end to this Spring. She took aim and pulled the trigger to fire... "... Oh... out of bullets."

She was so calm about it, the situation had gone from alarming to dangerous in the blink of an eye. The Aragami was upon her with its jaws wide open an it leaped in the air to take a bite out of her, and she was out of ammo. This would be the end of Gina Dickinson.

"!" If it was not for the massive Oracle Explosions all around her as they had latched of to the Gboro and blew up on it one mercilessly after another in midair, knocking it dead on the ground and harmlessly in front out Gina. It's jaws wide open, as its gut was blown open from the explosions, it was a complete mess. And Gina loved every second of it.

"You should be more careful, Gina-neesan." Karen warned, her God Arc still smoking in the barrel. "I almost didn't make it in time."

"Oh. Thank you." Gina was love-struck although she didn't show it. The flowers that Karen had created with her shot was magnificent. She would give almost anything to see it again, or else be apart of it. Although Gina wouldn't say that, Karen could see she was thinking that in her eyes.

"I call it IOD V2. I can show you how I made it when we get back to the Den." Karen sighed out, giving in to Gina's silent question.

"I would love that." Gina smirked, reloading while she had the grace period. "You better keep your word on that."

"Hmph, a Dickinson and an Ogawa always keeps their word."

"Heh, good." Gina smirked before suddenly firing a shot close to Karen's head, the narrow bullet blitzingva few inches past the side of her head before digging a hole in the Fallen Sariel, which was trying to sneak in on her from behind. "But we also have the tendency to not let our own die so easily."

"!" A life for a life, her cousin was good - she was certain of that. No wonder she wanted to be like her when she was little.

"The advanced Vajra species are coming in!" Alisa warned out as she was extracting the core of a Vajra she had just got done taking down. Only to have a Dyaus Pita pounce on her, knocking the feet off from under her and the breath out of her. She was at its mercy as it growled down at her before opening wide for a bite at her jugular. "Ahh!"

"Alisa!" Yuu called out in alarm, unable to come to her aid as a Borg Camlann was getting in his way.

But Alisa was saved. Only by a bullet that had latched on to the Dyaus Pita at the last second, causing it to stop in mid-action and look at the offensive clinger on its side and its shooter in annoyance before destructive bombs exploded from it one after another, only to pause for the Dyaus Pita to stagger on its paws to the side and off of Alisa before it started again, knocking the Dyaus Pita on the ground. The devastating damage would have had consequences on Alisa if she were not already lying on the ground. But the shoot was purposely aimed higher to avoid Alisa in the explosion, such precise aim was only known to a handful of God Eaters in the Den.

"Karen!" Alisa gasped out in relief as she looked upon her savior as she sat up.

"Finish it, Alisa-san." Was all Karen replied back before drawing her attention to other God Eaters in need, leaving the rest of the Dyaus Pita to Alisa. She knew Alisa could handle it.

"Right!" Alisa nodded back in compliance before turning her attention back to the raising Dyaus Pita, it growled in frustration before roaring at Alisa as the blood dripped from its jaws from the damage. "You're not going to catch me off guard twice!"

"I got'cha." Karen smirked out as she fired another Type P S-Bomb V1 at the Borg Camlann that was giving Yuu a hard time. The shot had knocked the Aragami off its feet and its tail down to the ground, but it also took out the remaining OP she had. "Out of bullets."

"Then just slice him and dice him!" Yuu suggested to her as he worked on the Borg Camlann's shields.

"An excellent suggestion." Karen praised back, changing into Blade mode while joining Yuu to finish it off. Going for the tail armor, to make the Borg Camlann harmless.

"Oh thank goodness!" Sakuya sighed out in relief as the sound of Choppers could be heard coming their way. "The Choppers are here!"

"Great, now we can take some of our focus off the sky!" Kota cheered out as the Choppers began to open fire on the Sariels and Zygotes in the sky, maneuvering around the Aragami as the air became the grounds of dog-fights. Their Anit-Oracle Shields kept their Chopper safe from Aragami laser shots or missiles; however, they still had to dodge the Aragami's actual physical attacks.

"Don't let your guard down!" Lindow warned as he took a Devouring bite out of a Fallen Chi-You. "They can't always get all of the Aragami out of the sky!"

"Roger that!" Brendan replied in response as he yanked his God Arc out of a Kongou before an explosive shot took out a Frozen Fallen Gboro that was coming in for a bite behind him. He could feel the heat of it on his back and could tell from the destructive damage whom the shot had come that.

"D-did you see that, Brendan?! I reduced that Aragami to a hunk of meat!" Kanon kept jumping up and down in praise of her self.

Usually Brendan would sweat drop at the antics of his somewhat bi-polar comrade, but all he could do was smirk cause those same antics had just saved his life.

"Good job, Kanon."

"Right!" Kanon's smile grew wider at his praise, but her cheerful jumping had stopped as she got her head back in the game again. "Let's put more holes in the Aragami."

"Right!"

"No going on a rampage without me, Kanon!" Shun commented in a playful teased as rushed in on a Prithivi Mata, only to stop at the last second in front of it as it roared. Staying at arms length and out of reach of the Prithivi Mata's claws, but still close enough for his Long blade God Arc to reach with blade to spare. His strikes were more accurate and gain more power with each strike, but their was a noticeable time gap between each strike compared to his other move. Even so, the Prithivi Mata didn't have enough time to take advantage of this flaw as Shun didn't give the Aragami enough time to counter between each strike. And as the blows became more powerful than the next the Pritihivi Mata began to tire out before Shun delivered the final blow by thrusting his blade into the ski of the Aragami. "[Empty Sky Sword Style, Tier 1: Rapids]!"

"Wow, Shun-niisan. That was better than your last move." Karen praised with a little teasing criticism to make Shun strive to do better. "But a little slow between the strikes, don't you think?"

With a 1/10th of a second delay if she were to be precise.

"Hmpf, says you!" Shun mocked back in defensive pride while he Devoured his Aragami's core. "You've only seen but a taste of what my sword style can do!"

"Heh, then by all means, Nii-san." Karen smirked at him, baiting him to the challenge. "Show me what you got."

"Heh, don't regret it later!" He shouted back while doing a hard dash at an on charging Vajra, cutting in on its side and bringing it down before the fight even started.

Karen couldn't help but smirk at this, he was showing true potential. Where was this energy when they were younger? She hardly remembered Shun even showing precision when he was training under her father. But the past was in the past, he was showing promise now. And it left her in awe a little, even if she didn't want to fully show such admiration towards her Ogawa cousin. He was cocky enough; she didn't want him to overdo it. But she was digressing, there was a battle to be won and comrades to back up. Getting back into the fight, she focused on more oncoming Aragami and stayed on the look out for possible God Eaters that could use some backup.

"Help, Somebody! Help!" Out in the distance cried a lone Gods Eater, blocking off a relentless punching Sekhmet with his shield. His stamina was running low and he was down on his knee, his shield wouldn't hold much longer and once the Sekhmet broke through the damage would be more sever with his tired body. The Gods Eater looked around, hoping that someone would have heard his call and come to his aid, only to see that the field was occupied with God Eaters already dealing with a problem of their own. His shield wouldn't hold much longer, his limbs were already starting to shake. "Ah!"

Just when he was prepared for the worst, the weight on his shield was lifted as someone had come to his aid. He looked over his shield in surprise that his rescuer was a Corrosive Hannibal that had yanked the Sekhmet away from his shield to finish off by biting off its head only to spit it out into the field. He was shaking in his boots, he was not ready for this. The Sekhmet had already worn him down enough for him to even think about facing this stronger Aragami, he didn't have a chance. He couldn't do it, things were hard enough.

"Pull yourself together!" Came the stern voice of a beautiful woman with blue hair on the back of the Corrosive Hannibal whom was obviously Rie, this fact unknown to the Gods Eater. The two seemed to be working together, not like anyone would believe that. But the Aragami didn't seem to mind her on his back, and she didn't seem afraid to be so close to a dangerous beast. Her face hard as stone as she lectured the shaking Gods Eater. "Isn't this what you've trained for?!"

"?!" Her words smacking him hard with sense before she and the Aragami ran off further into the field, leaving the bewildered Gods Eater behind. He had just been saved by the most unlikely of saviors that were here one second and gone the next. Watching them up ahead as the Corrosive Hannibal bit into a Fallen Gboro before taking down a Fierce Kongou with its fangs. One thing was for sure, he was glad that those two seemed to be on their side...

Rie bit into the Fierce Kongou's jugular, shaking it around in his jaws before tossing the lifeless corpse to the side. Fukushu stayed on his back, firing at oncoming Aragami to delay them from reaching Rie in time for him to recover for the next contestant. Growling at them with the Fierce Kongou's blood still dripping down from his jaws, he rose up on his twos. Fukushu had jumped down from the back of his neck as he pulled out corrosive fire-blades from his wrist; rushing on ahead as he did his dance of slashing and dashing all around the area. Fukushu calmly stroll on foot towards without a care in the world as he had his fun.

Seeing her alone on the field, the remaining Aragami in the general area saw her as an easy match and rushed towards her. Only to be thrown in for a surprise as Rie flipped backwards, behind her, and circled around Fukushu as an aggressive shield. Blocking her from her harm while striking with claws and his tail in the process. All the while, Fukushu had fluidly maneuvered around his movements to fire at the oncoming Aragami without even grazing Rie as he circled around her. Once the Aragami were taken down and Rie's protective circling had come to a halt, Fukushu had wrapped an arm around his neck to twirl herself onto his back again as they rush on ahead to another area where the Aragami grouped. Leaving the remains of the Aragami they had taken down in a disintegrating heat of corrosive flames...

Somewhere a little further off, Tatsumi was fending off a Vajratail from an injured comrade while Brendan held a hand on the wound to stop the bleeding.

"May Day, we need an Extraction Team! We've gotta an injured God Eater in need of immediate medical attention!" Brendan called out on the radio along with calling out loud, just in case an Extraction Team was close by while he did his best to halt the bleeding.

"It's only a flesh wound, sir..." Groaned out the injured God Eater, stubbornly trying to get back up again and suck up the pain. "I can still fight..."

"That's a negative, Soldier." Brendan push him back down with his other hand, not buying his tough guy act. It was pretty hard not to with that good bite size chunk missing on his side. "You're returning to the Den to get that hole closed up. You've fought enough for the day, Hiro, you've done well."

"But-" Just when the God Eater was about to protest the Extraction Chopper flew in. Not fully landing as two members of the Extraction Team had to jump down with the stretcher to retrieve the injured God Eater. It was better this way, time was a value they couldn't afford to waste at this point. What with the Combat Choppers covering them in the sky, and the God Eaters covering them on the ground they had to use each moment wisely. So the hurriedly gave the God Eater a quick roundup checkup before carrying him off.

"He's lost a lot of blood." One of the Extraction Medics summed up. "We need to get him to the Den for a blood transfusion, stat."

"I'll hold them off!" Tatsumi assured to them as he pushed the Vajratail back as it tried to get passed his shield. "Just get him out of here, quick!"

"I'm sorry, Leader!" The God Eater apology in disappointment of himself for letting the team down. Here they were fighting back the Aragami and risking their lives just to save his and he couldn't do a damn thing to help them. He felt like he had failed his team.

"Heh, hey, no worries." Tatsumi said back to him while the Extraction Team was quickly but careful moving him onto the stretcher, he could only turn his head to the side a little bit as he smirked back at his injured comrade. "Just be sure to get yourself patched up. You had better be alive when we get back to the Den."

"Thank you sir." The God Eater said back to him as the Extraction Team rushed him on the stretcher back onto the Chopper with the other full cargo of injured God Eaters and the other two Medics on the Chopper. "Give 'em hell for me, guys!"

With their load at a full capacity, the Extraction Chopper made its way back over the wall to the Den to deliver the injured God Eaters to the designated Sick Bay areas to return to the field for other immediate extractions. Their teammate had been safely lifted off, and they were on their own now.

"Heh, enough with the Tug-of-War." Tatsumi grunted out, pushing the Vajratail back with his shield. "Time to end this- !"

He was halted in his taunting as Brendan had sunk around the Vajratail while Tatsumi wasn't looking and delivered a crushing blow down on the Aragami, ending it in one blow.

"Sorry, Tatsumi. We didn't have time for this." Brendan apologize, before gesturing with his head towards the herd of Vajratails heading their way with a few Fallen Ogretails in the mix.

"Heh, I'm starting to get tired of this." Tatsumi tiredly chuckled out with a shaking head. "When will it end?"

"No giving up, Sir." Brendan encourage, pushing Tatsumi out of his morbid thoughts before they ended up getting himself killed. "We'll clear the mission like we've always have done and prepare for return to the Den."

"Heh, you're right." Tatsumi smirked, pumping up with energy again as he remember what he was fighting for behind the Anti-Aragami Wall. "I've got too much to lose to die today. I've got that date to ask Hibari for after all this."

"Roger that, let's mow them down." Brendan replied, preparing for enemy contact.

"Alright, let's get starting." Tatsumi responded in agreement, doing just the same as Brendan as the Vajratails were closing in...

Meanwhile, somewhere further off, three of the First Units Offensive Blade Users were fighting finish off a Blaze Fallen Gboro.

"(Sigh) I'm really getting tired of all this crap." Soma groaned out, exhausting and bored from the seemingly non-ending waves of Aragami that just kept on coming. Harshly pulling out his God Arc from the Gboro's remains as he extraction the core, more violent than usual in his annoyance. "How much longer do we have to keep this up?"

"I have no idea." Karen replied, leaping back further to dodge as a long twirling tail circled around a Fallen Borg Camlann that had made its way towards them. Circling around it as they tried to keep it off from focusing on just one God Eater. Dodging its tail as they would go in and jump back for strikes. Taking advantage of this moment, she thrust her God Arc's blade point into the ground to lean to rest for a bit. "How many Aragami have we taken down so far?"

It was hard to keep count of many she herself had taken down, let alone the number that other God Eaters had taken out. It was hard enough to even try what with all the chaos going on.

"I don't know, about two hundred, I guess." Yuu round up for them, pulling out his shield along with Soma as they had failed to move back far enough as the tail decided to make another round again.

"Great, only eight hundred more to go." Soma groaned out in response.

"Hey, that's still better than a thousand." Yuu replied back.

"But still just as bad." Soma counter.

"No worries, Soma. We'll blow through those numbers in no time if we keep this up."

"I really hope so, Yuu-san. I could use the rest." Karen sighed out, resting her chin on her hands which were on the pummel of her God Arc.

"!" Only for the other two God Eaters to look in alarm as a Vajra had come rushing towards Karen, behind her.

"Karen, behind you!"

"?" Karen nonchalantly looked over her shoulder towards the direction of Yuu's alarm to see a Vajra coming her way at full speed. With no big worry, she leaned back up again and took her time turning around to face the Aragami with only one hand remaining on her God Arc.

"Karen!" Yuu called out in alarm. It was no use, there was no way she would be able to pull out her God Arc from the ground in time before the Vajra would reach her. It had caught her in a vulnerable state, and there was not the two of them could do about it as their shields were busy at the moment blocking off bombarding needle attacks from above by the Fallen Borg Camlann.

But Karen didn't seem too worry, oh no. In fact, she looked rather impatient. Tightening both her fist, she waited for the exact moment for the Vajra to reach her. It jaws wide open as it leaned down for an open bite on her open defense. Only to be given the shock of a life time as a feminine fist came crashing at its head from its right side.

"?!" The two God Eaters were dumb struck as they watched as someone had the audacity to punch an Aragami, let alone Karen. She had side hooked the Vajra so hard it staggered on its feet as the sense was knocked out of it. This was so uncharacteristic of an action from Karen, it almost seemed like something Shōkan would do. "Karen?"

"Ei!" But she wasn't done there, she ended up giving the Vajra two more hard punches on the other side of its face only to return to the initial size. The Vajra wobbled on its paws as the sense was knocked out of it. Not letting the moment passed, she gave one hard slash along the Vajra's chests, horizontally. It staggered back a step from the strike only to be struck again from above as Karen twirled to bring her blade down on its skull. While it was blind sided from the strike, she charged up for a Devouring bite which had consequently finished the Vajra off. It roared one last time in pain before toppling to the ground. "[Empty Sky Sword Style, Tier 4; Redemption: Three God's Benediction]!"

"Uh..." Yuu couldn't think of any words to say at what he saw, momentarily forgetting about the Fallen Borg Camlann that they were dealing with, along with Soma. Karen still seemed a little flustered after that move, almost frustration. It was like looking in a mirror only to see Shōkan, Karen, and a little bit of himself in there as well.

"Err, Stupid Cat...!" Karen hissed out before noticing her other two teammates staring at her from the corner of her eye. Calming herself down again, she faced them. "Sorry about that, I got myself a little worked up there."

"What was... what kind of move was that?" Yuu finally got the words out of his mouth.

"Do you like it? I styled that technique's moves after Shōkan-san, you, along with a little bit of me. I hope you don't mind."

"Uh, no... No, of course not." Yuu assured to her as he pulled himself together again. "I'm a little flattered actually."

"I'm glad to hear that." Karen smiled back at his answer, only for them to be interrupted.

"Aw crap!" Soma grunted out as he hastily had do dodge along with Yuu as they suddenly had to move away from the Fallen Borg Camlann's piercing legs as it jumped around in frustration for being ignored for so long. "I forgot about this piece of work."

"Let's pull ourselves together!" Yuu encouraged to his team. "We can finish this thing off, I know we can!"

"Hai!" "Back me up." Karen and Soma said together in compliance. Karen fired another Type P S-Bomb V1 shot at the Fallen Borg Camlann, knocking down off its legs to its knees. Only for their kill to be taken from them as Shun jumped in mid air to attack the Fallen Borg Camlann with his blade in multiple twirling strikes, his feet moving in sync with his blade, making it a double combo on the Fallen Borg Camlann.

"[Empty Sky Sword Style, Tier 2: Dancing Leaf]!" Shun kiai as he landed on the ground, the Fallen Borg Camlann not too far behind with a not as graceful falling. His movement was so fluid that it made him look like a leaf dancing in the wind. Even as he landed on his feet in a crouched down position, his s-hit long blade square aerial combo was performed flawlessly and was worthy of praise. Getting upright again, a boasted to Karen. "Hey, did you see that?! I was epic!"

"You took our kill." Karen calmly pouted out, not really changing in tone.

"Save it for the After-Party, cuz." Shun waved off her complaint as a no-big-deal. "We've got Aragami to take down- Wah?!"

He was knocked off his feet as Soma pushed him out of the way to slash down hard on a Kongou, coming at Shun while he was busy boasting.

"Don't get in the way." Soma lectured as he walked passed Shun to face another Aragami. Leaving the Kongou twitching on the ground as an after-nerve in shock before it finally stilled for good.

"I believe you've just got saved, niisan." Karen commented with a slight tease as she offered a hand to help Shun up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have to remind me twice." Shun groaned, accepting her hand as they both pulled him up. On his feet again, he wiped the dirt of his pants before readying himself again. "Okay! I'm gonna keep pushing forward. Try not to fall too behind, cuz!"

"Nonsense." Karen huffed in slight offense, following behind after Shun and Soma. "I never lag behind."

"Heh," Yuu smirked at their antics, shaking his head at it all before running after them. "Hey guys, you forgot about me!"

Soon their group had caught up with Lindow and Kota's, who were acting as a Defensive Force for Sakuya and Alisa as they went around delivering Recovery Bullets and Medical Aid to God Eaters who needed it. Sakuya and Alisa were busy working on a God Eater with a nasty open slash along their stomachs. Their Oracle Cells were weakening up as it is, and their wound refused to close. The wound had opened into deep line patterns, marks that resembled the claw pattern of a Prithivi Mata. Kota and Lindow tried to keep a Fallen Chi-You off of the girls as they worked on healing the injured God Eater.

Rushing to the rescue, Karen and Shun ran on ahead of Soma to reach for the target first. Getting a sense of what they were about to do, Yuu fired some already built up Team Bullets at them to them a level up Link Burst. Moving a little faster the two cousins look at each other.

"You ready for this, cuz?!" Shun called over to Karen who had replied with a nod.

"Let's do this."

"Arhh!" AhhHH!" They both leaped into the air, higher than usual due to their burst. Jumping over Lindow and Kota as they came down on the Fallen Chi-You with their God Arc. They began to twirl in mid-air with their God Arcs, Karen getting in multiple strikes as she preformed her family Branch's Tier 2, Abyssal Blade: Legendary Lotus Guillotine. While Shun before a similar move from his family Branch, but instead did a full aerial 540-degree vertical spin slash, which was called Tier 2: Curved Moonbeam.

As they both crossed each other, they literally cut the Fallen Chi-You into four pieces that didn't fall apart until five seconds after they had landed on the ground.

"Whoa!" Kota gasped out in amazement before jumping in the air with a fist pump. "You guys are awesome!"

"Ha, you better believe it!" "Hn." Shun and Karen responded at the same time.

"We can't get her wounds to close!" Alisa said in alarm, bring the others back to the situation at hand. They all gathered closer to the two of them as they tried to close the God Eater's wounds.

"We've tried all sorts of Recovery Items," Sakuya explained to them as she continued to try a Link-Aid along with Alisa to try to jolt the God Eater back up. "But none of them seem strong enough to start up her Oracle Cells."

"I think I might have a trick for that." Karen replied, changing into Gun-mode.

"!" Alarming the others as she reloaded a form of bullet into her God Arc before aiming the barrel at point-blank of the God Eater's cut up stomach.

"Karen?! What are you do-" Sakuya was cut off as Karen took the shot, to her relief was only a powerful self-made Recovery Bullet.

"?!" It seemed to do the job as the bleeding slow down while the wounds started to close up, the Oracle Cells were back in business.

"Karen, what did you...?"

"I used a heavy dosed Recovery Bullet I call Recov96, it should hold her up for now." Karen explained to Sakuya, reloading her Offensive Bullets as her top shots again.

"Karen, that was amazing." Alisa gasped out in awe while Karen was sweating a little as the bullet took a little energy out of her.

"Yeah, well, don't expect me to do that again anytime soon." Karen sighed out to her. "Those bullets take a lot of OP out of you."

"Hm..."

"!" The others were caught by alarm as a scream rang out through the field. They turned to look to see what was the cause of all the commotion, only to see that their rear had been flanked by hoards of Cocoon Maidens, closing off their path to the Anti-Aragami Wall.

While they were too busy pushing forward they had no idea that they were being herded away from the Wall while the Cocoon Maidens dug their way under them to cut them off in the long run. Only for their front to be cornered as well as a line-up of Quadriga species blocked up the front, boxing them in. Their retreat back was no longer an option as the bigger Aragami took more priority, only leaving their chance of extracting the injured from the skies. As long as the Combat Choppers were present they wouldn't have to worry about the Quadriga's missiles as they automatically locked on to the Choppers only to spray off due to the Anti-Oracle Shield.

But that hope was soon crushed too as Odin had lifted his lance once again to give off a silent command. When he had brought it down to point towards the Choppers, Sariels began to blindly crash towards the Choppers on the way to the ground as they performed acts of kamikaze.

"!" The Choppers didn't know what to make of it by the sudden change in Aragami movement. They lack the self-preservation as spiraled out of the sky towards the ground, trying to take the Choppers with them as they over-heated the Oracle Cell activity inside them to self-explode on impact. Their movement was so quick, the Choppers could barely dodge them as it is.

"May day, May day! Chopper 2 and 7 are down!" The radios became hot with activity.

"Can we get a read on the pilots?!"

"Negative! They went down with their flight!"

"Chopper 10 is taking heavy damage!"

"Requesting cover for pull-back?!"

"Chopper 3 is critical!"

"AHH!"

"We've lost Chopper 9!"

"Chopper 4 is going down! Emergency landing! I repeat, clear the area!"

God Eaters didn't know what do as Choppers and pieces were falling from the sky around them. Some had to jumped out of the way as pieces and exploding Sariels came down at them, while others had to run out of the way to make way for the emergency landings. The main priority was to secure the surviving pilots, but the Quadriga's were making that hard to do with the incisive bombardment of missiles they all simultaneously decided to launch at them. The Anti-Oracle Shields deflected the missiles from the Chopper, but that didn't mean it deflected them away from the God Eaters now that the Choppers were closer to/on the ground.

"Dammit. This doesn't look good." Soma growled out at the situation.

"He out played us." Lindow admitted out loud with frustration.

"W-what are we going to do?" Alisa asked out in growing panic. "We'll be surrounded soon at this point!"

"AHH!" It looked like it was already starting as the remaining free-moving Aragami were starting to herd the God Eaters into groups towards the center, and pick off the slaggers. One exhausted God Eater already picked off by a Prithivi Mata, dragged off to be eaten alive by the others.

"Oh God, Ken!" Shun cried out, recognizing the God Eater from one in his Unit. Only to be enraged as he was grabbed up by the jugular to be eaten apart by other Prithivi Matas. The shouting only lasting ten seconds before going dead silent. Karen could barely hold him back from rushing in to his death to try and recover an already dead comrade. "You're going to pay for that, you BASTARDS!"

"Shun-niisan, please stop!" Karen cried out to him as he struggled in her hold, Yuu having to come in to help her hold him back.

"Let me go! He need's me!"

"He's gone! There's nothing you can do about it!" Karen tried to reason with him.

"(Weakening cry) No...!" The energy trained out of him as he listen to the crunching sounds of the Aragami's jaws. They blocked off the teams vision, but they could only imagine what those chomping and ripping sounds meant.

"Ahh AHH AHHH!" The increasing screams of a female turned into wails as she was cornered by circling Kongous and Vajras that closed in on her.

"Mi!" Kanon cried out, firing her explosive shots to push them back. "Leave her alone, you Monsters!"

But her shots were useless.

"Enough, Kanon! Pull back!" Brendan shouted to her as he grabbed her arm to drag her away from the building numbers of Aragami in the group.

"But Mi!"

"It's too late for her! She's already dead!"

"But...!" Kanon began to whimper as Brendan dragged her away from the opening of the close-in.

"We've lost a comrade today. Please. For the love of God, don't make it two!"

"B-but Brendan...!" Her eyes began to water as she openly cried while Brendan dragged her to the safety of numbers. "She was my teammate... She was our Unit...!"

"I know... she was apart of our Unit..."

"Dammit, we're losing comrades left and right!" Soma growled out in anger.

"They're attacking the Wall!" Alisa cried out in alarm.

"!" They all watched in horror as Quadriga's started to purposely fire missiles at the wall. While kamikaze Sariels began to change their destructive course towards the Wall. The God Eaters could do nothing as their path was cut off.

"Dammit! They'll break through in no time if we don't stop this!"

"Well what can we do?!" Sakuya cried out dwindling hope. Things were looking grime. Their forces were getting exhausted and would run out of resources soon. The FBS news could only record, as the people at home could see the dismal situation in action, uncensored. If things didn't change soon... it was over for them.

Behind the Walls of the Far East Branch, eyes unseen by all watched the battle from its dawn through closed eyes.

"And so Fenrir falls to the hands of Odin in the end of the battle. Fangs stripped from its jaws and claws torn from its paws. Chained in for their life, only to be slain for the freedom they fought to take back and protect. Bravely they fought to the bitter end.

"Their Champions destroyed: the city is demolished and its people devoured by the armies of Odin, as I am eradicated from the face of the earth and my roots ripped out at last by their conquest, as I watch.

"Devours of the gods silenced at last, fighting until the bitter end. Is this how our story is to finis? The last memories of them and their loved ones before their screams of death? Our heroes slaughtered at the front of our doors only for the enemies to come in and ravage all they had fought so hard to defend for...?

"I. Think. Not!"

*** Author's Notes ***

Empty Sky Sword Style

The list below describes Karen's attacks for each tier...

Tier 4/Ougi (revealed mid-storyline)

Redemption: Three Gods' Benediction

- named after Shōkan, Karen copies Shōkan's and Yuu's movements and one of their attacks, then delivers one of her own before doing a charged Devour from the target Aragami's blind side.

Courage: Mighty River of Gods

- named after Yuu, Karen charges into close range and keeps on the defensive to allow her team or companion to attack freely. If solo, Karen goads her target to making an attack before blocking and pushing back.

Path of the Little River

- Karen allows herself five minutes to remove all restraints on herself and fight like a flowing river: always weaving and dodging and slashing, never stopping from attacking. This also means she does not block - at all.

In comparison, below is Shun's own take on Empty Sky Sword.

Tier 1

Stream: Shun's attacks are quick, chaining together easily. Think of the 4-hit long blade square combo, but faster. Unfortunately, his accuracy slightly suffers due to the increased speed.

Rapids: each of Shun's attacks gain accuracy and have considerable power and distance, but there is a noticeable gap in between each attack. Think of the 4-hit long blade triangle combo, but with a 1/10th second delay in between each strike.

Tier 2

Dancing Leaf: Shun attacks in mid-air, his blade and feet moving in sync and making him appear like a leaf dancing in the wind. Think of the 2-hit long blade square aerial combo.

Curved Moonbeam: Shun shifts his weight enough to do a full aerial 540-degree vertical spin slash in mid-air (think of the long blade triangle aerial attack, just extended - one full spin of the blade from 12 o'clock position and back, plus one half-spin from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock position).

Shun's family branch has only one intermediate and one ougi-tier attack, however it is reputed to be the most difficult (complex) among all the Ogawa families. It has been seen in action only once, and never again after a live demonstration by Shun's great-grandfather.

In comparison, Karen's family has the most physically and mentally draining ougi-tier attack (Path of the Little River).

FBE - stands for Flash Back Explanation

OMAKE 3:

Karen had come into the Resonance of the tree to visit Shōkan after a short break between the guarding shifts. She had felt an eerily still aura around the tree that seeped through her like a chill through her spine. This was unusual from the cheerful vibe that the tree usually gave out; it felt hollow and traumatized.

Sinking in to the Resonance she found Shōkan curled up into herself. Hiding her face from the world from the shield of her bent legs as her arms wrapped around them. She was shaking like a leaf and silently crying, curl up as small as she could. She looked broken, this sight alone set off an alarm in Karen. Rushing to a safe distance to Shōkan, not too far and not too close, she called out to her comrade.

"Shōkan-san, what's wrong?" Karen sternly asked to her, slightly fluttered from Shōkan's alarming state, making her break her cool.

"..." But Shōkan didn't answer Karen, she continued to silently cry onto her legs.

"Shōkan?!"

"Pfft, ha-hahaha." Shōkan's cries began to change into hysteric laughter as her shoulders shook while she shot out of her pitiful curl-up to howl at the sky as her laughter grew louder. "(Hiss) HA HAHAHAHAAAA...! Revenge...!"

"?!" Caught off guard by the change in mood, Karen took a nervous step back as a sweat drop escaped from her brow. Something she could not see was off about Shōkan, as if something inside her had snapped. It set Shōkan out of character, she didn't even care that she wasn't covering herself as she continued her hysteric laughter. But whatever it was, it was about to blow, and Karen did not want to be close when the blast was set off.

"Oh, Karen, my flawless, flawless champion!" Shōkan happily cried out, drawing closer into Karen's personal bubble, making her take another step back along with a lean back in discomfort. Shōkan was practically in her face. "You will help me get revenge, will you not?! You will help me see to it that Yuu gets the cold, cold hand of justice...! (Hysteric laughter)!"

"Uhh..." Karen nervously looked around elsewhere from Shōkan, anywhere but Shōkan. And it wasn't because she was butt naked, Karen didn't partially care for that; oh no, she just didn't want to face the crazy vibe Shōkan was giving off. That look in her purple eyes made her face look like she had rabies. "I don't think I can be apart of this..."

"But you must!" Shōkan insisted, leaning a little closer to Karen as they both floated in the emptiness. "I have been done a great wrong and must be given retribution!"

"?"

"Look at me, Karen. Do I look normal to you?"

"?!"

"Of course not! I am distressed, hysterical, and mental scarred right now! And it's all Yuu's FAULT!"

"What has Yuu-san done to cause such a strong reaction from you?"

"Psychological warfare, a breach in the Geneva Convention." Shōkan said, shaking. Her arms crossed as she rubbed them with her hands, leaning back a little from Karen. "Him and his damn FuRie fanatics."

"!" She needn't say anymore with that, Karen got the picture. "He actually read that waste of literature to you? That seems cruel and unusual."

"He wouldn't stop!" Shōkan cried out, gripping her skull as she shook her head trying to get the memory out of her mind as the words played back in her memories. "He kept going and going, on and on in such detail until it was no longer a romance, it was a porn."

"!" Oh she had heard about that part of the novel, how could she not when all the girls in the Den wouldn't stop buzzing about it. It was suppose to be one of the most heated parts of the novel, even she would get disturbingly uncomfortable when the others would talk about it and she had never even read the novel. To think that Shōkan would be force to listen to it with no where to run as it was read to her word-for-word was a harsh blow. No wonder she seemed a little messed up.

"That's my sister, man. That's my sister! I don't need to know about that stuff, let alone have it described to me for my active imagination to go crazy with it!" Her head stopped shaking, but she bowed it down, hiding her face behind her blue hair as she cracked. "I can't get it out of my mind! I can't escape it; I see it in the darkness! It has turned this place into my own madhouse!"

"..."

"Please, you're my friend. Help me..." She begged, exhausted out from her hysterics. "Yuu can't get away with this. He knew what he was doing, and he enjoyed every minute of it..."

"..."

"I can't get him back while I'm rooted here. You have to do it. You have to be my arms and legs."

"... Tell me what I must do."

"!" Her face looked back up at Karen as madman's grin came over her face. "So you'll help me than?"

"Yuu-san has done a low blow to a comrade. His own friend at that. This cannot be overlooked, he has to pay."

"Ah-eh-ha, Oh thank you, Karen." Her grin grew disturbingly wider on her face like the Chester cat as she began to shake in the shoulders with hysteric laughter.

"Uh... okay, I'll help you. But, you've got to fix all 'this'." Karen nervously says, gesturing towards her whole face to show Shōkan her point. "It will make me less concern that your plan will lead to possibly setting Yuu-san on fire in the end."

"(Laugh) Oh no, that would be too easy." Her shoulders slowly stopped shaking as she calmed down, her face was starting to dial back to normal again. Well, aside from that wicked look building up on her face, almost normal. "No, we have to pay him back equal in crime. Double if we want to make sure he doesn't offend again. We, my dear friend, are going for the psychological warfare."

"Why am I not surprised..." Karen sighed out, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Right, now listen carefully..." Shōkan began to lower her voice, gesturing for Karen to draw closer as she began to divulge her plan. "This will all depend on you now. We've only got one chance to get it right, and we'll need all the players to cooperate for this to succeed. Now..."

*** Two days later ***

"I've got to say, I'm a little surprised that you suddenly wanted to hang out like this out of nowhere, Lindow." Yuu commented as the guys on his team walked along through one of the Branch's Sectors. "You usually don't want to leave this far from the Den unless it's a mission."

"What can I say, I was starting to get a little stir crazy staying cooped up in the Den so long." Lindow shrugged off. "I could use the fresh air."

"Yeah, me too." Kota excitedly commented in agreement, his hands relaxingly resting on the back of his head as he walked along. "It's great to get out every once in awhile. It's been some time since us guys hanged out like this."

"Yeah, but, even Soma?" Yuu commented with a quirked eyebrow, looking over at Soma who had his hands tucked in his pants' pockets. "Usually we have to drag him out with claw marks along the way. It's strange seeing him so 'willing' hanging out with the guys like this without even putting up a fight."

"I have my reasons." Was all Soma would say as his eyes looked away from the others.

"Eh? Well either way, I guess it's good to get out for a little while."

"Hey, that's the spirit." Lindow cheered to Yuu, wrapping an arm around his shoulder to bring Yuu in for a side hug. "Just relax and enjoy your day off. We've all earned it."

"Hm, right. Sooo, what do you guys wanna do today?"

"Heh, how about a game of two-on-two at the Community Center's basketball court!" Kota suggested with a fist pump.

"Whaat? If we were gonna do that, I would have brought something better to sweat in." Yuu complained.

"Heh, what? Don't think you can handle us with a little weight." Soma challenged with a smirk, bringing his hands out of his pocket and crossed his arms in confidence. "Hn, I'll take you all on at once, with my coat on."

"Ooh, is that a challenge?" Lindow jeered on to Yuu, adding air to the fire. "Are you going to take this one sitting down?"

"Heh, fine. I'll take you on, and I'll even leave my jacket on." Yuu smirked, accepting Soma's challenge.

"All right! We got ourselves a game!" Kota hollered in cheer. "Dibs on Yuu's team!"

"Eh? Looks like we're gonna have an unfair advantage with our team, Soma." Lindow commented.

"Ha! Says you!" Kota countered back with a pointing finger at the two of them. "We're gonna wipe the court with your asses, just you wait!"

"That's the spirit, Kota. Keep on dreaming." Soma teased back with closed eyes and growing smirk as his hands returned into his pocket.

"Easy guys, save it for the court- Ow!" Yuu chuckled at their antics until something whacked his head from above. Looking up, he saw that the offending object was a small branch from Shōkan's tree that had fallen down, barely above the twig category. "?!"

"That's strange, Shōkan usually has more control over her branches than that." Kota commented. In the case of the God Eater tree, nothing usually fell down from the tree unless she wanted it to, or if it was chopped off but that was another story.

"Unless she did it on purpose." Yuu commented, squinting his eyes up towards the face of the tree.

"Did you do something wrong?" Soma questioned over to him while looking around the tree. "The around here seems more tense than usual, almost angry."

"Heh, I kinda tease Shōkan for a little bit a while ago." Yuu shrugged off as if it was nothing big. "Turns out she's still upset about it."

"What on earth did you do to her?" Kota inquired with curiosity, it was usually pretty hard to get under Shōkan's skin like that, let alone where you could practically taste her agitation.

"Oh, nothing much. I just introduced her to the 'FURIE BAND WANGON'!" Yuu calmly replied to Kota before turning to teasingly shout at the tree at the last part. In response another branch fell down on his head, slightly bigger. "Ow! Oh come on, you're being a poor sport!"

"Uh, Yuu... you gotta remember to everyone else it looks like you're shouting at a tree." Kota nervous commented, tapping on Yuu's shoulder as he gestured with his head towards the civilians that were stopping in their tracks to stare at him in disturbance.

"Oh, heh-ha, right..." Yuu awkwardly groaned out, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment as his playful outburst in public.

"Heh, come on, you tree bully. Let's get you to the Community Center before the nice men in their clean white coats come to take you to the Funny Farm." Lindow teased, wrapping an arm around Yuu's shoulder as he dragged him along.

"Oh ha-ha." Yuu groaned out as he went along with Lindow. "And I'm not a tree bully, I just take slight joy in messy with one."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get you out of here before another branch drops down on your head." Lindow replied, dragging Yuu along as the others followed behind, nervous eyes in the crowd were still on Yuu. "If you get her angry enough she might even drop an even bigger one on your head."

"Heh, I'd like to see that happen."

"Never test the nerves of a women." Lindow wisely advised to his younger successor. "It's a force to reckon with when a woman is scorned."

*** Some time later ***

The boys were just heading out from the Community Center, covered in a light layer of sweat after a good game.

"Heh, you were saying, Kota?" Soma teased over at Kota with a smirk from his earlier comment.

"Tst, no fair! You guys cheated!" Kota accused with a pout.

"I don't recall height counting as cheating." Soma counter back, his smirk growing wider as Kota began to pout more.

"It's an unfair advantage!"

"Then blame the gene pool, don't blame us."

"Ah whatever! We would've won if Lindow's arms weren't so damn long." Kota huffed with a pout, crossing his arms.

"Hey, no worries. It was a good game, you guys almost won." Lindow consoled to Kota. "Next time, buddy."

"Yeah," Kota agreed, cheering up again. "Next time I'll even dragged Tsubaki onto our team! That aught ta show yah!"

"Okay now 'that' is an unfair advantage." Lindow nervously chuckled getting a laugh from the other two God Eaters and a smirk from Soma.

"Jeez, all this sweating sure worked up an appetite for me." Yuu commented as his stomach began to rumble. "Let's go grab a bite to eat. Losing team pays for the meal."

"No worries, Yuu, it's on me." Lindow offered, tapping a hand on Yuu's shoulder, halting Yuu his process of reaching for his wallet in his inside jacket pocket.

"Really? Thanks, Lindow. That's awfully generous of you." Usually Yuu would insist on his word, but who could say no to free food.

"Yup, that's me, generous senpai." Lindow praised to himself.

"Alright, so where do you guys want to go- Oh, hold on I'm getting a call." Yuu said to them before his phone started to buzz in his pocket. Turning away from the others so as not to be rude, he answered the call. "Hello?"

"Leader."

"Alisa?" Where was she calling from? It sounded like she was calling from a tunnel. Let alone, why was she calling? "What's up, is something wrong?"

"Can you meet me at the Mesh Hall. I have something important to tell you."

"Uh... okay?" She sounded kinda strange. "I'll be there in a little bit."

"Please hurry."

"Okay, I'll- ?" She hung up, just like that. Putting his phone away, he turned back to the guys. "Change of plans, I've gotta head back, go on without me."

"Oh whaa. Why?" Kota groaned out.

"Uh, Alisa's kinda acting a little weird. She wants to have a talk with me."

"Well, you better go see what's up." Lindow suggested. "Don't keep the little lady waiting."

"Uh, right... I'll see you guys later then." Yuu awkwardly said back before moving on to head back to the Den.

"Later, man!" Kota waved later to Yuu as he headed off from the others.

Not to longer after parting with the guys, Yuu had a bump-in with a kid. Well, more like run-over tackle from behind. Some kids had been playing in the area, running around, and one of them ran straight into Yuu's back, toppling him onto the ground. His face was buried into the dirt as he gathered his wind back from the ordeal.

"Sorry, sir!" The kid hastily replied as he ran off again, not even stopping to help Yuu up.

"Hey, watch where you're going, kid- !" Yuu lectured out before noticing the sudden breeze on his feet. Looking around his back, down towards his feet, alarm that his shoes where no longer there. Swiftly looking back in front to the running kid to notice him running away... with his shoes. "Why you little sticky fingers! Get back here, brat!"

Bolting up, he dashed after the kid in his socks. The ground tickled roughly over his socks and dirtied them beyond wash, but he still chased after the kid. Wondering how the kid even got his shoes off his feet without him even feeling it.

The chase was almost over, he was nearly up on the kid. Due to his height advantage of longer legs and his strength boost as a God Eater, he was catching up on the kid in no time. He almost had him in his reach, just when he was about to grab him he was halted by a policemen. Startled in his place as the policemen grabbed his arm in mid action of grabbing the back of the kid's collar.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you chasing a child?!" The officer exclaimed in alarmed appall.

"Eh, well, uh..." There was nothing he could say against that, that was 'exactly' what he was doing. The child long forgotten and lost as he continued running to disappear around a corner further ahead. The kid was no longer a priority to Yuu, he was in big trouble right now.

"Someone your age picking on a child like that." The officer shook his head in disappointment and disgust. "I'll need to see some ID, please."

"Oh, s-sure." Yuu said, pulling himself together again as he reached into his jacket with his free arm. "Officer, I assure you, this is all a misunderstand- !"

"?" The officer silently waited as Yuu felt around in his pockets, starting to panic with each pocket hole he passed. "Is there a problem?"

"My wallet, it's gone!" He nervously admitted as he continued searching his empty pockets. "I had it on me before I left, I must have dropped it- ! Wait... that brat! He must have snatched it from my pockets while he was at it. Oh he is dead!"

"Alright that's enough."

"!" Whoops, he forgot that he was still in the presence of an officer. "Wait, I'm not really going to kill him-"

"Identification Verification, please." The officer replied, cutting to the chase and no longer having the patience for shenanigans.

"Uh, I don't... have any on me right now." Yuu nervously admitted.

"..."

"Honestly, sir, I am a God Eater." Yuu tried to insist to the officer to make up for the lack of ID. "Look at my Armlet."

"An unidentified man chasing around children in the Branch. If that's not suspicious, I don't know what is."

"I'm telling the truth, I work for Fenrir." Yuu insisted.

"Yeah, but you fail to show proof of which Branch you work for." The officer pointed out, beginning to drag Yuu off. "And I will not have you cause trouble among the citizens. Not in my Branch."

"Wait, Officer! I can explain!" Yuu tried to hold his ground as the officer dragged him off. Holding back enough so that his Oracle enhanced strength didn't harm the officer, the man was just doing his job and Yuu was in enough trouble as it is.

"Are you saying that you're resisting arrest?"

"N-no, officer." Yuu relented, no longer resisting as the officer towed him along.

"Then come along. We'll put you in a holding cell until someone can identify you." Yuu groaned out at his words.

*** A good two hours later ***

The holding cell was like a big cage where Yuu wasn't the only one on exhibit. Others were also sitting along the benches with him, their offenses unknown to him. Which wasn't much of a concern, everyone tended to keep to themselves. The hardest part was deciding on whom to spend his one phone call on.

The guys were out of the question, they would never let him live this down. He couldn't call Alisa either, she would just worry too much. And Karen was a gamble whether or not she would even pick up her phone; she tended to prefer face-to-face conversations over the phone, which lead to her usually not being good with answering her calls. His only hope was Sakuya, she was supportive and understanding. She would most likely come to his aid without judgement.

And just as he thought, she answered his call for help like a Nightingale and was on her way to bale him out. Now all he had to do was wait, but waiting is what made the time seem to pass slower. It felt like hours for her to final get there at the station, when in reality it wasn't that long. He still had to wait for her to get his process papers before he was baled out, but other than that things when smoothly. She confirmed his identity and was given the okay to collect him from the holding cell, free of bale. She was like an angel from heaven when she came over to the holding cell door with the guard, didn't help her case much that she was turning heads along the way.

"Good news kid, you're free to go." The officer said as he open the door.

"Oh thank God." Yuu groaned out in relief, finally freed from the boredom of his cell.

"Yuu, are you alright?" Sakuya asked in big sister like concern, looking down as she noticed his socks. "What happened to your shoes?"

"Ugh, some little brat snatched them off me and made a run for it."

"We caught him chasing a kid and thought he was a delinquent or some kind of deviant." The Officer clarified for her.

"Great, aren't you guys suppose to 'not' make assumptions?" Yuu huffed out in frustrations at the accusations thought against him.

"When it's situations of this nature, we cannot be too careful. If we are wrong it could lead to event of trauma for the victim. And you did not have any identifications on you so who knows whom you could have been." The Officer explain. "I apologize for the misunderstanding."

"Uugh, fine. Did you at least catch the kid with my shoes?"

"The boy got away long before we brought you in, but you've already given us your description of him. We'll be on the look out for him."

"Great, so I'm going home without my wallet, and shoeless." Yuu groaned out.

"Here, I brought some of Lindow's spars for you, if you want." Sakuya offered him, remembering to grab them before leaving to pick him up after he called her for help. "Although they're kinda big for you."

"They're better than nothing. Thank you, Sakuya." Yuu said to her in gratitude, taking the boots from her hand and putting them on. They were big on him, just like she had said. Spacious on the inside for his feet and loose even as he tied the lace as tight as he could. They were much too big for his feet, and they showed it on the outside.

"You look like a clown in those shoes." The officer nonchalantly commented as he moved around his desk to take his seat. Two chairs on the opposite side of him were left for visitors or people he had to deal with, open for Sakuya and Yuu to take a seat before heading out.

"Tst, thanks for your opinion, sir." Yuu grunted out in annoyed sarcasm which the officer didn't seem to mind at all.

"Juust being honest with you." He replied back, straightening some papers on his desk before sliding one over towards Yuu on the other side of the desk. "Okay, you're free to go once you sign off your release forum."

"Great, let's get this over with." Yuu sighed, looking up to the ceiling lights before sliding the chair closest to him back to take a set in and sign the paper.

"Wait, Yuu, don't-"

SPLAT

Sakuya tried to warn him, but it was too late. He didn't look down at his seat, he had no idea of the object occupying the seat that he was putting his bottom down on. It made a smushed-splattered sound as he crushed it between himself and the chair. It was warm and had a moist feel to it, making Yuu shoot up out of his seat. He turned around to see a big chunk of smashed up brownie on a plastic plate. Pieces of brownie falling down onto it, meaning that some of it had got on to his pants, most likely leaving a questionable stain along his buttocks region.

"Oh!" Yuu groaned out as he look at the brown stain left behind on his pants making it look suspiciously like poop.

"I'm sorry, Yuu, I tried to warn you." Sakuya sincerely apologize at her inability to react fast enough.

"Huh, that must be the brownie plate our Desk Assistant, Rita, left behind for me." The Officer explained, looking over at the stain on Yuu's backside as well. "She must have forgotten she put that there when she sat down a little while ago."

"Does Rita usually bake fresh, warm brownies for you?!" Yuu groaned out in annoyance, his day just kept on getting worse.

"Not for me particular, no. She bakes everyone a fresh batch of her brownies this time of the week. She's really good. Pity..." The officer replied nonchalantly. "I was looking forward to having that."

"You can still have it."

"Don't be a smart alack, kid."

"Well what am I suppose to do now? Go out there with people thinking that I crapped myself?" Yuu huffed out, looking around for a solution before his eyes landed on Sakuya. "Uhh, Sakuya, quick! Give me your skirt."

"Yuu!" Sakuya gasped out in shock and embarrassment at his request. She was already wearing somewhat revealing clothes as it is, giving him her skirt as a waist scarf cover would leave nothing to the eyes imagination on her attire.

"Err, right, sorry." Yuu sighed out in apology, cooling down to realize that was a bad idea on his part. Thinking of a new plan again, he turned back to the Officer. "Uh, sir, do you happen to have any lost-and-found here."

"We only deal with stolen clothes with pre-determined owners if that's what you're thinking."

"Heh-ha, great. So what am I suppose to do now?"

"Take it like a champ and get it over with."

"(Sigh) Thanks for the advice, Officer." Yuu sighed out deflated, accepting the public humiliation that he would have to go through as he walked back home in shame.

"Stay out of trouble, kid." The Officer said in farewell as they headed out the door.

It was a humiliating walk home for Yuu as people would pass by to double take his pants and silent laugh and giggle at his supposed 'dodo stain'. Others would whisper in disgust, Yuu didn't know if he wanted to fight or blush in embarrassment. Now he was definitely glad he didn't call one of the guys or Alisa, he would practically die in embarrassment. And the guys would definitely talk, never letting him live this down.

"Come on, Yuu, we're almost there." Sakuya tried to comfort, walking close beside him in support. She had tried walking behind him to cover the stain, but that only drew more attention to him. "Chin up, the thing that's making this situation more embarrassing in your mind is the fact that you're embarrassed with yourself."

"(Groan)."

"The sooner we get you to the Den, the faster we can change your clothes."

"Sakuya, can you please not tell the others about this." Yuu pitifully pleaded with Sakuya.

"Don't worry, what happens now will stay between the two of us. I promise."

"Thank you, Sakuya. You're an angel."

"Aww." Sakuya cooed at his sweet remark, giving him a good old squeeze hug from the side. And not before long they had reached the front entrance of the Den. "You're so sweet. Here, I'll go on ahead to clear out the Entrance so you can make a run for the elevator. Hibari stays professional at all times, so I'm sure she won't talk."

"You are a Saint."

"Just give me a minute before you come in, okay?" With that Sakuya walked on ahead of Yuu, up the stairs and into the Entrance.

Like she had instructed, he had took his time going up the stairs after her, stretching out the time as long as he could for her to do what she needed to do. And like her word, the Entrance was cleared out, most likely she had lead the wandering God Eaters away with her charming charisma. Hibari was busy checking through the day's mission statuses to even notice Yuu as he slid along inside, his backside facing away from her as he silently made his way up the stairs to the upper level towards the elevator.

He had let out the breath he was holding in relief once the elevator doors had shut. His ordeal was almost over; he could get on a new set of clothes and shoes once he was in his room; return Lindow's shoes before he even knew they were missing; and, request for Tsubaki to issue him a new Fenrir ID card. The wallet and money were long gone, and he had no hopes of ever recovering them, they were a minor loss that could easily be replaced.

The elevator doors slid open to his floor. The coast was clear, much to his luck, as he made a hasty walk down the hall to his room. All he had to do was get in his room and this would all be over.

"!" Why wasn't his door opening? Why was his door locked?!

He began to panic, he never locked his doors, it was a habit of his. One that he hasn't broken yet.

"(Exhale) It's okay, I'll just use my Armlet to override the locks." Yuu slowly breathed out, calming himself before he went into a hysterics. Bringing his armlet over by the keypad next to the 'doorbell speaker' for its scanner to pick the designating coding of his Armlet. "!"

It wasn't working. Why wasn't it working?!

"Great! This is just perfect!" Yuu growled out in frustration, quieting himself once he realized he was still in the hallway. He was locked out of his room, what was he going to do now?

His only hope was to ask one of the guys for help and hope that they were back at the Den already. He couldn't ask Lindow, he was already wearing the man's shoes. Soma wasn't the sharing-clothes type and he wasn't subtle about his teasing either. His only hope was Kota, he was the most mellow out of the guys and didn't openly make fun or say mean things of people unless provoked.

Nervously making his way back to the elevator with the hopes of not getting caught, he made his way up to the Rookie's Floor. Checking for the coast to be clear before heading into the hallway and cautiously knocking on Kota's door. Nervously looking around the hall, hoping that Kota would hurry up and open the door.

Much to his luck, Kota did not leave him waiting long.

"Yuu? Hey man, where have you been?"

"Can't say. May I come in?"

"Uhh, sure..."

"Thanks." Yuu said in a rush as he made his way past Kota and into the safety of the room.

"What's going on, man?"

"I need to borrow some pants from you."

"What?" Kota said, taken aback by the random request.

"No time to explain, I need a change of pants quick."

"Whoa, dude! What happened to your pants?!" Kota shouted out, finally noticing the large brownie stain on the backside of Yuu once Yuu had unintentionally brought attention to his pants.

"This is an emergency, please hurry."

"Did you po-"

"No, it's a brownie stain!" Yuu answered before Kota could finish his awkward question.

"Where on earth where you that you would sit on a brownie?"

"That isn't important right now. The only thing that matters is that it's there and I need to get rid of it. Now please, can you help me?"

"I'm sorry Yuu, it's laundry day. All the clothes I have are dirty and in the wash." Kota answered while going over to his dresser. "The only thing I have right now is this."

"!" Yuu eyes widen in alarm at the pants Kota pulled out. They were such a sickening neon green that they made his eyes bleed, and they tightened around the ankles to make them look those wore-drove malfunctions from the 80s. "Jeez man, why do you even have those things?!"

"They were a gift!" Kota huffed out in defense.

"They look radioactive!"

"Look, do you want the pants or not?"

"... Do you have anything else?"

"Everything else is in the wash, Yuu."

"... Can you check again?"

"Take it or leave it, Yuu!"

"Alright, alright! (Sigh) Damn..." Yuu sighed out as he took the pants from Kota and put them on. "I don't know what's worse, going around making people think I crapped myself or making them think I have no self-respect for myself?"

"Well, you can always give them back!" Kota growled out in offense at his remark.

"No, no, I'll take them. Thanks, Kota. I really appreciate this."

"No problem, Leader. But why couldn't you get changed in your room?"

"My door's lock and won't open for some reason."

"Ohh. The Security System must still be down." Kota commented as if in understanding. "The Doc had to reboot the whole thing when he got a complaint that one of the room's locks were acting up. He sent an email out about this a little while ago, says the doors will automatically lock while the system is shut down, but will reactivate once it starts up again. The doors have to be unlocked from the inside until then. Everything should be back to normal in no time."

"Phew, well, that's a relief." Yuu sighed out, crashing down onto Kota's couch as all the stress started to drain him. "Mind if I hang out here for a while?"

"Sure, we can watch Burgarally together while the Security System reboots again!"

"Hm, great. I'm down for anything at this point." Yuu replied back, leaning further into the couch as he relaxed. Kicking his feet up onto the top out the couch as he lied down, crossing his feet by the ankles while he was at it.

"Hey, are those Lindow's shoes?" Kota questioned as they were brought into his line of vision.

"Yup."

"What happen to your shoes?"

"(Sigh) Don't ask?" Yuu groaned out before his phone began to buzz in his pants' pocket. Reaching over to them on the coffee table, he pulled out the vibrating contraption from its pocket to see that he was getting a text. Only for life to suddenly hit him again as he saw that the Sender was Alisa. "!"

"Dude, who was it?"

"It's Alisa..." Yuu zoned-outlying said, reading the message out loud. "Where are you?! I've been waiting for you for hours!"

"What? You mean you haven't met up with Alisa yet?! What the heck have you been doing all this time?!" Kota said in alarm. A woman left waiting for hours with no response or updates on why he was late, Yuu was in the dog house right now. But perhaps he wasn't all the way in yet. "Uhh, quick! Are the words in all caps and are there exclamation marks?"

"No caps, but there are exclamation points at the end of each sentence!" Yuu began to panic, he was in big trouble now. He had completely forgotten why he was heading back alone to the Den in the first place. Alisa must be furious right now. And speaking of Alisa, she was sending him another text right now. "!"

"One text right after another, that's not a good sign. What does it say?"

"It says, 'Get down here now you jerk before I go looking for you. And God help you when I find you!'"

"Dude, this is bad. You need to go now!"

"But-"

"This is an infuriated chick we are talking about!" Kota exclaimed in alarm, pointing towards the door as his energy got Yuu worked up as well. "Get down there before she cuts off your balls!"

"Right, I'm going!" Yuu said, jumping up on his feet again and running out the door. No longer paying attention to the appalling pants or the big shoes that tended to make him trip as he ran.

"Hurry! And God help you if she sends another text!" Kota called out to him before Yuu closed the door.

Running for the elevator, he continued to even run in place as the elevator went down to the Mesh Hall. Silently he prayed that Alisa would be more forgiving at his late arrival and the fact that he had forgotten that she had asked him to meet her there. Pre-occupied by his silent hopes that he paid no mind to the Announcement Speaker that came on as he rushed down the halls. It was probably Dr. Sakaki announcing that the Security System was back on again and the doors should be able to unlock for the Armlets.

He had burst through the door in his haste, not noticing the bizarre setup of the Mesh Hall. Tables were spread out and connected together, some were even tilted over as barriers that made a path with balloons attached to their ends like the place was prepared for a birthday party. It wasn't anyone he knew 's birthday, he double checked in his head to be sure of that. But that wasn't the concern right now, what was his main priority right now was the female New-Type that was sitting alone at the table at the end of the pathway, strangely the only other person present in the Mesh Hall at this point.

"Alisa, I'm here! I got your messages, sorry I'm late!" Yuu shouted out to her, slightly out of breath. His sudden appearance and loud voice threw her off guard with alarm. She swirled around in her seat to face his direction before his words finally sank in.

"What are you talking about, Leader?" She called over to him, her voice echoing in the seemingly empty Mesh Hall. "I haven't had my phone all day."

"?!" It was like everything had gone in slow motion as he was making his way over to her, stopping him in his tracks as things started to hit and confuse him. Soon he realize that that wasn't Dr. Sakaki on the Speakers, that was Carmina Burana's 'O Fortuna' playing.

That's when the balloons started exploding around him, releasing a gaseous stench so foul it almost made him puke. They could be seen in a sickly yellowish mist before they dissipated into the air. But they weren't exploding, no... they were being shot open by a silent unseen sniper. They aim was good and their shots were quiet, Yuu couldn't even tell where they were coming from. But whatever they were using as projectiles were harmless since they only popped open the balloons and left a paint-stain on the wall, floor, or column they hit.

He couldn't react, the smell and mist pushed him back to even more balloons to be shot open as his path was blocked by a set trail while the choir on the speaker sang on in the background and surrounded him.

'Semper crescis'

Before he knew it, guys in gas mask and covering clothes popped up from behind the barrier and the tables on the sides aiming paint guns at Yuu as they began to open fire at him, some by the barriers began to throw paint bombs at him. The odd thing wasn't that they were shooting paint pellets at him, oh no, what truly took the cake was the fact that their bullets were small balloons filled with paint dyes.

'aut decrescis;'

It was like it was all happening in slow motion, all he could do was take it.

'vita

detestabilis'

He tried blocking it with his arms, but that didn't help, they still hit everything else. Well the pants weren't that much of a lost, but the jacket would sure be a blow for him.

'nunc obdurat

et tunc curat

ludo mentis

aciem,'

A stink bomb balloon exploded close to him, the smell pushed him back to unknowingly another one.

'egestatem,

potestatem'

The bombers were showing him no mercy as they led him along like a fish to the hook. He could barely heard their excited cries over the crescendi choirs. Whoever his assailants were, they were enjoying this. He could practically hear the glee in their voice.

'dissolvit ut

glaciem

Sors immanis

et inanis,'

They weren't stopping, there didn't seem to be a break in their fire. Even if there were, it was most likely covered by another assailant while the one in cease fire reloaded.

'rota tu

volubilis,

status malus,

vana salus,

semper

dissolubilis,'

He tried to get out, but the paint and the stink mist was covering his eye. Luckily his attackers were using the non-sting or the baby-safe paint, or else his eyes would be on fire right now. This all seemed to be in good fun, but it would have been more fun if he had his own paint gun himself.

'obumbrata et

velata

michi quoque

niteris;'

It didn't seem like they were after Alisa, she remained safe and untouched at the end of the pathway at the table where she sat. Her eyes wide in shock and just as surprised as Yuu was at these turn of events. No, it seemed that he was the only target. And that was good, he guessed. He was mostly covered all over, he didn't want to take any chances if the paint bullets actually hurt when they hit skin. It was best that he suffered alone on this matter. But this left him to wonder, who did he tick off to make them retaliate in such a way?

'nunc per ludum

dorsum nudum

fero tui

sceleris.'

The stink balloon beside him was shot off, he had no time to dodge it as the mist circled around him as it was unleashed onto the world. His mouth open in surprise, unwillingly taking in its foul taste into his mouth.

'Sors salutis et

virtutis!

Michi nunc

contraria,'

They were smiling behind those mask, he could see it in their eyes through their goggles. They were having way too much fun with this. This was beyond overkill; he was the colors of the rainbow for Pete's sake.

'est affectus et

defectus

semper in

angaria!'

They were drawing closer, but none truly passing past the setup barriers. Except one, that rose from their laid down cover spot onto of one of the back tables closer to Alisa. Rolling their sniper paint gun onto their back by its strap as they began to rise.

'Hac in hora

sine mora'

They were running right towards him, disregarding the open fires.

"!"

'corde pulsum

tangite;'

They leaped from table to table, making their way over to Yuu, reaching for something behind them.

"Whoa, whoa, time out. Let's talk this out, I'm sure we can call a treaty."

'quod per

sortem sternit

fortem,'

But they were not stopping, regardless of Yuu's plea. But they did finally speak.

"Gomenasai, Yuu-senpai. But I bring a message from Shōkan-san."

"?!" He knew that voice. "Karen?"

'mecum omnes

plangite!'

"You have given me your 'FuRie'; now taste my 'Fury'!" Karen shouted out, taking the jump that would leap her over to Yuu and into the line of fire. She would get hit by a stray paint bullet every once in a while, but she paid it no mine. She continued in the direction of her projectile, the object from behind her in her hand now as she thrust it towards Yuu's face as she came down at him. Revealing to him that it was a pie that smack right at him at the big finally of the song.

"..." He stood still as the pie platter slid down in face and on to the floor. The taste was sweet in his mouth, nearly washing away the nasty taste of the stink balloon bomb from his mouth. Was that peach?

"Vengeance has been won!" Karen roared out to the crowd, getting a roar back in response.

"What the heck is going on? Karen, are you behind this?!" Yuu was confused. Why would Karen do such a thing, he didn't think she had it in her.

"No, I am but the operative behind the mastermind. The artisan, if you will."

"But why?" He couldn't think of anything he had done to cause such a extensive reaction from Karen, let alone for her to go along with such integrate pranking.

"Shōkan had asked." She simply replied. "You had did her a wrong, while she had no way of retaliating, so I assisted her."

"But how... did you pull off all this?"

"It was easily and only took two days to pull off." Karen explained, seeing no point in holding the information from Yuu any longer. "We knew that there was no way to pull this off on my own, so we had invested some help from some God Eaters the night before. I had to bribe some of my help, but most were easily willing..."

*** FBE ***

"Hey Lindow, want to help me get back at Yuu?"

"Heh, sure. I'm in."

*** FBE ***

"!"

"As long as I wasn't going to hurt you, Lindow was willing to go along with anything, seeing it as a fun change in pace." Karen continued on. "You see, while you were lead into a seemingly innocent game of basketball, I had set up my traps that I had restlessly worked on last night while you were out."

"Wait, but Kota was the one that suggested the game of basketball."

"That's right. He was."

"!"

*** FBE ***

"Karen? It's late. What's up?"

"Kota-san, how do you feel about helping me with an innocent prank on the Leader?"

"?!" He eyes shot open wide in surprise. "Whoa, Karen. Didn't think you had it in you."

"So what do you say? Are you in?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't think I could betray Yuu like that, even in good fun."

"I see..." Karen responded in aloof, pulling something out of the bag she had brought with her. "What if I were to offer you an authentic Isamu costume from the Burgarally Series, just for you."

"!" She was making this hard to refuse. Wait. "How did you get my measurements?"

"I have confidence in my judgement. Now, are you in?"

"..." Kota remained silent as he contemplated for a moment. "You're not going to take this overboard are you?"

"You have my word."

"And all I have to do is stall him until you're ready in the Mesh Hall?"

A nod.

"And I'll even get to get 'em with a few paintball shots, right?"

"Keep him in the dark and somehow get him to wear these pants and I'll even throw in the hat."

"Ugh, those pants are hideous." She was going to make him work for it.

"I know. That's why I want him to wear them."

"You are one evil chick, Karen."

"Not me, Shōkan."

"?"

*** FBE ***

"I have to give Kota his credit; he worked hard for that outfit. Even pulled some strings from his acquaintances from his Sector to help us out as well. From small to big."

"!" The pieces were coming together. "You mean that kid? The Cop?!"

"Hai, both were part of the plan. Your shoes were never in any real danger, along with your wallet, both were safely brought into my possession and return to the security of your room. At a good price we got the child to not only snatch your shoes from off your feet but clean them as well."

"Then those brownies at the Police Station?"

"Baked them myself this morning. It was nice of the Officer to reheat them again before placing it in the chair while no one was looking as Sakuya had came to bail you out from your holding cell. I think I'll make him an actually batch of brownies for him tomorrow for being a good sport."

"Sakuya was behind this too?" The thought was nearly heartbreaking.

"No, Sakuya is too nice too go along with such a plan. She doesn't even know that this is happening right now, or that Lindow has any part in this. The hard part was maneuvering around her. She took out the fun in all it when she shooed away all those God Eaters when you made your entrance of shame."

"And... Alisa...?"

"Borrow her phone this morning, said my phone was dead and that I was going out for a while. We knew that she wouldn't 'willing' go along with this, not by a long shot. So we had to trick our way into somehow getting our hands on her phone, this wouldn't have worked if you had noticed the Caller ID wasn't hers. She was more than kind enough to let me borrow her phone while mine was charging." Karen explained, diving deeper into her sinister plot. "It was easy texting you from her phone, making you believe it was her. The hardest part was pre-recording from the exact words I needed her to say to make the initial call..."

*** FBE ***

"Karen? (Yawn) It's late, is there something wrong?" Alisa tiredly replied to her from her door.

"We have to talk."

"Well then please hurry. It's late, and I want to sleep."

"I have something important to tell you."

"What is it then?"

"What is it that you want to talk about?"

"What?"

"You said you have something important to tell me."

"I have something important to tell you? You said you had something important to tell me."

"No, I didn't." Karen insisted nonchalantly, confusing Alisa in her tired state. "Let's talk about boys."

"What?" Karen usually never cared for this kind of talk?

"What do you think about Leader-san?"

"Leader?" Alisa began to blush brightly, even in her tired state.

"Yes, tell me what you think about him."

"Ehh... can we talk about this somewhere else later. I'm kinda tired right now." Alisa nervously tried to change the subject.

"What was that, I couldn't quite hear you."

"I said, can you meet me in the Mesh Hall if you want to talk about this stuff. I don't really have the energy to do this right now."

"Alright that's all I needed. Goodnight, Alisa-san."

"?" Alisa had no idea what just happened, one minute Karen was rambling in her normal tone yet so uncharacteristically then in the next she was heading back to her room. "Goodnight, Karen?"

Unknowing to her, Karen had been recording their whole conversation.

*** FBE ***

"It only took five minutes to alter and re-adjust the recording to my liking. And once all was done, I sent her an email telling her to meet me in the Mesh Hall so I could return her phone before sending you the text to come down with her phone. Speaking of which," Karen paused walking over to Alisa for a second to hand her back her phone. "Here you go, thank you for the lend."

"..." Alisa was aghast, too shocked to speak as the phone landed in her hand. She had been played and she didn't even know it. Although, she should have found it suspicious how the Mesh Hall had been rearranged from this morning, and a note on the table saying 'wait here, please' was the only notice that Karen would be along with her phone in awhile.

"But the locks, did you lock my door?" Yuu question, the plot still had some wholes in it.

"I only sent the call to Dr. Sakaki that my door was acting up before you and Sakuya came in. Your door simply locked on its own."

"You were still in my room..." Yuu concluded for himself.

"Hai, I just needed to put in the finishing touches to the plan."

"Where did Soma have a role in all this?" Yuu was only joking in sarcastic retort; he didn't really expect an answer.

"He helped with the heavy lifting and made sure you didn't stray from the plan."

"Oh No..."

"Oh yes."

*** FBE ***

"... This plan is insane."

"Shōkan-san is in a little bit of an 'insane spot' right now. What with that horrible love novel Dr. Sakaki wrote that Yuu shoved down her throat."

"..." Not that idiotic thing, Soma wouldn't even touch that thing. It must have been much worst for Shōkan, what with it being about her sister's love life.

"She's itching for payback right now. Would you like to help her scratch it?"

"..." He leaned back onto his broken window screen, arms crossed in contemplation. "Do I get to get a few shots in?"

"Sure there's plenty of shots to go around."

"My help comes with a price."

"..." Karen bent down to pull out a nice smelling bag from her bigger bag. "Imported Coffee Beans from the South Americas, free shipping and handling."

"Heh, when do I start."

Her only answer was handing him the bag.

*** FBE ***

"Soma, how could you?" Yuu pouted to no one, but still got an answer in response.

"Sorry, Yuu. You had it coming."

"!" Yuu turned in alarm as one of the masked paint ball shooters answered him from the side. The voice was slightly muffled, but was still recognizable as Soma's.

"You didn't think I could fix all this by myself and follow you? I'm fast but I'm not the Flash." Karen retorted, bringing his attention back to her. "I had to get some help setting up if I wanted to catch up to you before the basketball game ended. And Karel was so nice to hack into the Speakers to get our song to play on cue."

"You got others in the Den to go along with this?"

"Damn right," One of the shooters answered, sounding like Shun. "There was no way I was missing out on a piece of this action."

"Nothing personal, I just wanted in on all the fun." Another one answered, sounding like Karel.

"Karen had made a simple, harmless request. It would have been rude not to comply." This one sounded like Brendan.

"I wanted to see all the lovely flowers in bloom." Replied another one, obviously Gina.

"Sorry, kid, it just sounded like too much fun to pass off." Said the voice of Lindow as one of the shooters.

"Jeez, is Kota in there too?"

"Here I am." Raise the hand of one of the bomb throwers. "I had to take the stairs in order to make up for the time it took to change."

"(Groan) Wait, you've been following me this whole time?" Yuu responded to Karen's earlier words, a little late to the punch.

"Oh course. Didn't you notice the small shadow above the buildings while you walked back? The old man in the hood and the shaggy yellow beard sitting at the other Officer's desk in the far corner of the Station? The running shadow on the other block's intersection that rushed past you?"

"(Gasp) You!"

"Yes, me. I had to keep rushing to keep two steps ahead of you and have the satisfaction of recording your failures on film."

"!"

"That's right, I've got this all on camera. All of it for Shōkan to watch later during the Resonance for sweet satisfaction. Oh yes, and good luck trying to wash off that smell for a weak, it's made with some strong Aragami Repellent."

"... Heh, ha ha, HA Hahahah! (Inhale) Well done, Karen." Yuu praised to her. "You actually pulled this off. The Brownie, the paint balls, the pie-"

"That part was all Shōkan-san's idea, actually. I was strongly appalled in such a waste of good produce."

"Either way a job well done, and a hist successfully pulled off. And I've got to hand it to you, I still had fun at the end. Next time, let's do this again while I'm armed."

"Hmm, I'll shall see if this can be done again."

"I'll be looking forward to that. However, there's one little thing that you failed to take account for."

"?"

"How are you going to explain this mess to Tsubaki."

"Hm, that's no problem." Karen smirked at him in response. "The better question is how are 'you' going to explain this mess to Tsubaki-sama?"

"?!"

"You see, the final touches to the plan was the mass email I sent out for everyone to come down to a paint ball fight in the Mesh Hall on 'your' room's Terminal. Tsubaki is tracking it back to you as we speak." Karen explained, kicking over an empty paint ball gun over to him that she refused to touch, right on time when Tsubaki came bursting through the doors.

"!" She was shocked at the state of the Mesh Hall, but soon turned that shock into pure livid. Yuu couldn't help but smirk back at Karen as he watched the changes in Tsubaki, Karen had put him in checkmate. "Heh, well played."

"YUU!" Tsubaki roared out through the Mesh Hall, a chill went through all their spines.

"Remind me not to piss off any of the chicks from this Den, ever." Kota elbowed over to Soma, their mask still on.

"Seconded."

*** The Next Day ***

Shōkan had watched the film to the end from Karen's camera. A relief and satisfaction had washed over her at the end of it.

"(Inhale) (Exhale) Ahhh, justice feels so good."

"Are you satisfied with the results?"

"Yes, I'm very happy, very."

"I think Yuu has a new found respect for you."

"You mean he has a new found respect in 'us'."

"Cheers, to friendship."

"Hm, to friendship."

*** Co-Author's Notes ***

... Oooh, that vicious streak. Good thing my Karen is on good terms with Ancient2's Shōkan, ne?

Anyway, the story is drawing to a close; we invite you to stay as the curtains descend.

Sanguis out for now.