I Can't Go to a Hero School with my Little Sister!

by KyouManX57

Okay, uh, most of the characters have have powers and Kyousuke has powers and, uh, he goes to a hero school with his sister Kirino and he saves the world and the universe and stuff, doesn't get anymore complicated then that, I swear.

16. Chapter 16

Ki: "…"

Ky: "…"

Ki: "…This is so weird."

"Afternoon Kousakas."

"Heya there Kirino~"

"Burka's looking nice today Kyou."

Ky: "Uh, thanks."

Since Nicola needed more time to make a diagnosis Kyousuke needed a way to be able to cope with his condition other than using the underground pathways. Naoki provided a solution in the form of a full-on Islamic burka which unfortunately worked and combined with Naoki's mass mind control to make everyone else see him wearing it as normal, Kyousuke was now able to move along the surface freely.

Ki: "But you still look ridiculous."

Ky: "I feel ridiculous."

Ki: "Heh you should put on a white mask so you look like that creepy Ghibli character or carry a plastic scythe around, then you'd look like the grim reaper."

Ky: "At least then I'd look cool, hih~"

Ki: "Jeez don't start crying, that just makes you look even more uncool."

Ky: "I know but I can't help it~"

Ki: "Well maybe some food will cheer you up."

Ky: "I want a pork cutlet."

Ki: "We'll get you one."

So they entered the cafeteria where they both grabbed pork cutlet meals and managed to grab a seat near a TV that was running the news.

Ky: "Haah, how long am I going to be stuck like this?"

Ki: "I'm sure it won't be long, just be glad nobody is poking fun at you for it."

Ky: "Besides you."

Ki: "Well I get a pass because I'm your sister plus you think I'm super cute."

Ky: "Only that first part is true {munch}, this cutlet is good."

"A typhoon has been spotted off the coast of the Kanto area and is estimated to make landfall sometime next week."

{Ririri}

Ky: "Hello?"

Hi: |Hehey what's up Kousaka?|

Ky: "Hey Hitaro, got another job?"

Ki: "Pff, you look silly talking on the phone in that."

Ky: "{flips her the bird}."

Hi: |Yeah but first I have to tell you, we can't do anymore jobs with you where we can get ambushed again.|

Ky: "That's fine, I understand."

Hi: |Alright, anyway this job is just hunting a pack of Spiteful Deer out in the woods, including their pack leader.|

Ky: "Cool, I love deer hunting."

Hi: |And don't worry, we know about your condition, Nicola already made modifications to your suit to deal with it, double layer fabric, stealth enhancements and active camo if it gets really bad for you.|

Ky: "Whoa, all that just so I feel comfortable?"

Hi: |Hey, you're the government's golden boy, they want to keep you taken care of, make sure you don't break down on us.|

Ky: "I see, well I'll meet up with you guys after school."

Hi: |Oh and, uh, Ayami says, make sure you come in the burka.|

Ky: "Haah, screw you guys."

With that Kyousuke hung up and put his attention back on his meal.

Later That Day

Ky: "Alright, how do I look?"

The new suit was basically his old suit but a bit heavier with an all black recolor and a system of small grey hexagonal panels covering parts of his body.

Hi: "I like it."

Ay: "Looking like a cyber soldier, way better than the burka."

Ky: "Can we drop that and get to some monster hunting already?"

So they loaded up and headed to the spot, Hitaro and Ayami went off to distract the grunts while Kyousuke headed into the den to take care of the alpha. Fortunately his helmet came with built-in night vision and thermal imaging so he could look past the illusions they create.

Ky: "Weird, nothing so far."

As he reached the back of the cave an odd scent entered his nose.

Ky: "Hm? Fire?"

He then noticed the faint glow of embers on the ground.

Ky: "What the?"

He also noticed that the fire was put out by someone throwing dirt on it.

Ky: "Did the deer-"

As he looked up he saw the alpha looking back at him from the other side of the fire, though it looked much different from the others. It was much taller and more heavily built with larger, more complex antlers and it stared back at him with a frightening intelligence and then…it smiled.

Ky: "…"

"Shh."

{Fwoosh}

Then with one of its mangled hoof fingers it gave Kyousuke the "hush" gesture before it disappeared in a cloud of dust. Kyousuke quickly switched to thermal imaging and looked all over the cave but didn't see anything then out of nowhere the colors in his view began to twist and smear together.

Ky: "No way, a Western Spiteful Deer?"

Exposition: Average threat level: Cat. T. Unlike its smaller Asian cousins, the Western Spiteful Deer creates its illusions telepathically making any sensory enhancing technology completely useless against it and its abilities even allow it to fool its victims' other senses including touch but the extent of its abilities is based its number of targets. It is because of these terrifying abilities combined with their near sentient level intelligence, full language communication and their unreasonable group desire to prey on every other carnivorous creature, especially humans, that they are designated a top priority extermination, any individuals discovered must be eliminated on sight by any means necessary.

Ky: "Hitaro, Ayami, we have a problem!"

As all of Kyousuke's senses went out of control the deer came up behind him and twisted his neck and it released its psychic hold on him. After everything cleared up and Kyousuke figured out what was going on, he quickly took the opportunity to play dead and fell to the ground.

"Icklocke dawa tu sewei, ibmono sibim."

Ky: It's talking, that's so freaky.

Its voice was raspy and unclear but had a bit of a baritone to it. It bent down and picked up Kyousuke's arm with a bit of drool dripping from its mouth.

"Hagda osdem."

As soon as it bit onto his arm Kyousuke began to freeze it, before the ice reached its elbows and eyes it used its leg to pry itself off and it quickly jumped away.

"Haaaagh! Ahahohenghaaaa!"

It couldn't talk properly due to most of its mouth being frozen and because of the pain it was in, it couldn't focus its powers properly.

Ky: "Shit."

When Kyousuke got back up most of his senses were clear but he was completely blind, he stumbled around the cave, feeling for anything but then he suddenly felt a massive weight drop on him knocking his helmet off of his head.

{Crash!}

Ky: "WHOOF!"

He touched the object holding him down and realized it was a large boulder that fell from the ceiling. Before he suffocated, he quickly applied heat to the boulder until it was molten though he didn't see that the deer was using that heat to melt the ice off its hands and mouth. As soon as Kyousuke was out the deer focused its power again, sending his senses out of whack again.

"Hisdaf ublem sewei, poglad iv nedun."

Kyousuke did his best to break free of its hold but he couldn't, so he decided to calm himself. He closed his eyes and allowed the deer to take hold of his senses, he looked for another solution and concentrated on his "hidden power".

Ky: Alright don't be the dumb protagonist, take hold of that power, dig deep and try to pull something useful out, push away all negativity and self-doubt, believe and you shall achieve.

Ky: "Huh?"

With his eyes closed he was able to see the outline of the deer surrounded by a cloud of shifting colors, he opened his eyes but only saw the psychedelic mess the deer created, he closed them again and saw only the cloud.

Ky: "Huh, aura sense."

{FwshBang!}

He went with it and while the deer was distracted, Kyousuke charged his thermal rifle and fired into its thigh and he saw its aura quickly change colors in response. Before Kyousuke's mind could recover and he could charge another shot the deer made a run for the exit and Kyousuke made chase.

{FwshBang!}

Once his rifle was charged he fired again and hit its other thigh though it continued running but much slower and just as it reached the mouth Kyousuke tackled it to the ground.

"Tatakolei ichta! Momuchet ut!"

Ky: "Shut your creepy ass already!"

{FwshBang!}

One last shot to the chest and it was down for the count, Kyousuke opened his eyes again to see the moonlit forest around him and the dead Spiteful Deer beneath him.

Ky: "Another job well done."

Though as he got up, his aura sense began to act up over his normal vision and he saw the auras of the other lifeforms around him sending the woods asparkle with colors.

Ky: "Wow, this is pretty cool."

But then his heart rate began to spike and the same feeling of doom began to come over him again, then he noticed, among the colors, hazy menacing eyes began to fade into his vision. He was completely surrounded by them, each one varying in size, some as big as him and every one stared directly at him, hungrily, then he looked up and saw one giant eye taking up most of the sky, its massive pupil looking right at him as well.

There you are.

Kyousuke panicked and ran back into the cave to hide, he sat in there for nearly an hour huddled up in a crevice hyperventilating not daring to look outside. He also heard faint voices he couldn't understand, making him even more scared even though the voices were coming from his helmet's comms which he left at the back of the cave.

Ay: "Kyousuke?! …Kyousuke?! Jeez why isn't he answering?"

Hi: "Maybe he's busy."

Ay: "I don't know, what if his "stealth" is compromised and he's going into a panic attack right now?"

Hi: "Then we better meet back up with him, quick. Also did you notice how strange those Spiteful Deer were?"

Ay: "Yeah, they were a lot more organized than normal, almost got the drop on me a couple of times."

Hi: "Me too."

They hurriedly trudged through the forest until they reached the den, found the corpse of the alpha and Ayami began to poke it with a stick.

Ay: "Whoa {poke, poke} this guy definitely isn't from Japan {poke, poke}."

Hi: "Yeah…hm based its physiology, I'd say this guy is American."

Ay: "Damn, I hear they're the nastiest, how'd it end up here?"

Hi: "I don't know but right now Kyousuke takes priority. He's not trying to contact us so he likely was "exposed" and fell into a panic, so he would've gone back into the cave, let's go."

Hitaro and Ayami turned on their suit lights and headed in, when they reached the back all they found was Kyousuke's helmet and the half melted boulder.

Ay: "Guess we know what happened, didn't know those things were smart enough to set traps."

Hi: "Trust me, the Western deer can do way more than that, anyhow time to find our OP sidekick."

Hitaro quickly sent out a sonar pulse to map out the cave and located the crevice they had overlooked that Kyousuke was hiding in.

Hi: "Found him, let's go."

They rushed to the crevice and saw him inside shivering like a scared animal.

Ay: "Kyousuke?"

Ky: "H-Hey guys."

Hi: "You okay?"

Ky: "No, I am very much not okay."

Ay: "What happened?"

Ky: "Well I discovered a new ability which helped me win."

Ay: "Okay cool."

Ky: "Then I lost my helmet, stumbled outside and saw a massive hungry monster eye the size of Kyushu staring at me from the sky."

Hi: "That, uh, sounds intense."

Ky: "Very."

Hi: "Well we have your helmet here, you can put it on and the eye won't be able to see you, then we can get on out of here."

Ky: "Uh, yeah, uh, sounds…good."

Ay: "So…let's go."

Ky: "Huh…I can't seem to be able to move, I am literally paralyzed with fear."

Ay: "Haah, here I got you."

Ayami reached in and pulled Kyousuke out and Hitaro secured his helmet back on his head.

Hi: "There we go."

Ky: "Thanks guys."

After a few seconds of calming down Kyousuke was able to regain mobility and they made their way to the exit where Kyousuke stopped.

Ky: "…"

He timidly peeked out to the sky and after confirming the eye was no longer there, he regained his confidence and stepped outside.

Ky: "Hoowh, I feel better now."

Ayami grabbed the deer corpse to take back for examination and they all began making their way back to the SUV.

Ay: "So what did the eye look like?"

Ky: "…Have either of you ever read the "Hellstar Remina" manga?"

Ay: "Oh."

Hi: "That sounds horrifying."

Ky: "It certainly was."

Later That Night

Ki: "Hmm~ Perfect warmth…eh?"

Ky: "{Snooore}."

Kirino had woken to find Kyousuke not just sleeping in her bunk but spooning her from behind as well and the worst part was she was only wearing a night dress and panties and she could feel one of his hands just under her breast.

Ki: "Wait a sec? Is this an invitation?~ …No, that's too good to be true, is this a dream? {pinch} No, this is definitely real."

Ky: "It's coming…to get me."

Ki: "Hm, maybe he had a nightmare and sleepwalked down here, first time for everything."

Suddenly Kyousuke tensed up a little and she could feel his heart rate rise.

Ky: "It's…in the sky…it's coming."

She turned around in his embrace and after a moment of hesitation she held his head close to her chest and he slowly calmed down.

Ky: "Strawberries~"

Ki: "You're lucky you're a deep sleeper…idiot."

Kirino looked at her clock and saw it was around 2 AM so she set her alarm to go off a half hour earlier than normal knowing Kyousuke wouldn't wake up to it, she still wonders how he can magically wake up on time.

…

Ky: "Morning."

Ki: "Morning."

Ky: "Hm?"

Kyousuke was surprised to see a tray with two plates of bacon, scrambled eggs, toast and apple slices with orange juice set up on the coffee table.

Ky: "You made breakfast?"

Ki: "Uh, yeah, I woke before my alarm and couldn't get back to sleep and I was starving, I also thought I'd be nice today and make you some too."

While she wasn't lying, after Kirino woke up she gently set Kyousuke back in his bunk, though she did so rather reluctantly given how "comfortable" she was. In the hopes of helping Kyousuke feel better she used her extra time to make breakfast at the communal kitchen.

Ky: "Wow, heh, thanks."

Kyousuke flipped on the TV while Kirino sat down on the couch next to him and they both began to eat.

"Governments the world over have decided next week to perform the decennial Apocalypse Bunker drills early. Tokyo and other prefectures connected to the Kanto Bunker's civilian evacuation system will take advantage of the oncoming typhoon to incentivize proper evacuation drill procedure."

Ki: "That sounds like it's going to be a chore."

Ky: "Yeah but hey, gets us a few days off of school."

Mo: "I-i-i-i-i~"

Ki: "Hey there Mochi~ Did you sleep good?~"

After finishing breakfast along with their other morning activities, Kyousuke donned his burka and they headed off to class.

Ky: "Haah…this sucks."

…

Re: "So when do you plan to make your next move?"

Ky: "I don't know, right now I'm just trying focus on my training to eventually take on the top fifty, what about you."

Re: "Still no luck, haven't found anything definitive."

Ky: "You can't carry around a camera or a voice recorder?"

Re: "You think I haven't tried that already? He has strategically placed students with the ability to disrupt any kind of recording devices."

Ky: "I see, have you tried hacking the database or whatever?"

Re: "I'm in the middle of learning how to do that right now, would prefer not getting caught trying to wing it."

Ky: "Yeah, it's too bad you have to do that part alone."

Re: "Hm, well we need you to keep Akihiko's focus off of me, plus I doubt you're very well practiced at amateur espionage."

Ky: "Right on the money, by the way, there's something I want you to look into."

Re: "What is it?"

Kyousuke pulled out a note and passed it to Renji.

Re: "Hm…heh, this could be useful, where'd you hear about this?"

Ky: "Let's just say I heard it from a friend."

Re: "I see, I'll do what I can."

Renji finished off his food and disposed of his garbage.

Re: "Oh and remember to stay safe if the storm hits early."

Ky: "Yeah, you too."

With that Renji disappeared. After finishing with classes Kyousuke headed to the campus store to grab a snack before heading home.

SS: "Excuse me?! Ma'am?!"

Ky: "Hm?"

To his surprise Sergeant Sunrise AKA Shuichi Sosuke came trotting up to Kyousuke and obviously didn't recognize him in his burka.

SS: "Excuse me but do you know Kyousuke Kousaka?"

Ky: "Mr. Sosuke it's me."

SS: "…Oh…um, is there a reason for-"

Ky: "It's complicated, if you want to know more talk to the DSA, I'd prefer not to talk about it."

SS: "I see, well I came here to congratulate you for getting accepted into my alma mater, I've been so busy as of late that I didn't hear about your transfer to Tokyo until recently."

Ky: "Well, uh, thanks, hey listen Mr. Sosuke, you have time to grab a bite?"

SS: "Of course, my whole day's free."

Ky: "Cool but first let's pick up my sister, she's been dying to meet you."

So they went to get Kirino who somehow didn't recognize Shuichi without his hero suit and practically screamed after Kyousuke told her he was Sergeant Sunrise. Then they headed into town where Kyousuke insisted on a place with private dining and no windows which led them to a karaoke bar.

Ki: "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm at a karaoke bar with Sergeant Sunrise~"

SS: "Go ahead and order whatever you want, my treat."

Ky: "Heheh whatever you say."

Now out of his burka, Kyousuke happily went over to the service phone as Shuichi focused his attention on Kirino.

SS: "So little missy, been a while since the Tokyo attack, I still can't thank you enough for the assistance you gave me back then."

Ki: "It's no problem."

SS: "So tell me about yourself, I don't think we've been properly introduced."

Ki: "U-um, my name is Kirino Kousaka, my power is advanced+ super strength with an enhanced durability adaptation and I have a birth defect that spreads my super strength enhancements to all the muscles in my body rather than just the skeletal muscles."

SS: "Wow, never heard of something like that, Oh! hey Kyousuke is it okay for us to talk in front of her?"

Ky: "Wouldn't have brought her if it wasn't, she already knows everything, she's cool. Yeah make that one a large with plenty of fries."

SS: "So you know everything about your brother? Even about how special he is?"

Ki: "Yeah but in this case I don't exactly see him being special as a good thing."

SS: "Hm, I can understand that."

Ky: "Hey Mr. Sosuke? What do you want?"

SS: "Thirty of the spiciest buffalo wings they have and a pitcher of beer!"

Ky: "One All Star Rectum Wrecker meal too please…yes we agree not to sue…thank you, alright foods on the way, now let's get down to business."

SS: "So what do you wish to talk about?"

Ky: "Well, uh, do you know about any of the corruption plaguing THA?"

SS: "Corruption? What, you mean the gym teacher's drinking problem? He's been dealing with that since I was enrolled."

Ky: "No, I mean, about Akihiko Toyama?"

SS: "The Kanto champion? Hm, I only ever hear good things about him, especially about his travels around Kanto in his effort to take other talented students under his wing."

Ky: "So you don't know about the undercutting?"

SS: "Undercutting?"

Ky: "Listen Mr. Sosuke, what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room."

Ki: "Pff, how long have you been waiting to say that?"

Ky: "Very long, anyway do you know what happens to the students Akihiko recruits?"

SS: "I don't know, I'm too busy to listen to every little detail, I really only pay attention to the numbers."

Ky: "Understandable but even if you looked now, the current numbers are total lies but I have reliable sources that tell me that all of those students have either stagnated, demoted or dropped out entirely."

SS: "Really?"

Ky: "He's been doing this for the past year or so since he's attained his title, I believe his motive is to eliminate any threats to his throne and his planned ascension to Japan's top ranked hero. Meaning before long he might extend this strategy to other prefectures until he's snuffed out any and all opposition through his cutthroat methods."

SS: "…These are some very serious accusations Kyousuke."

Ky: "These are more than just accusations, I know someone who's seen it happen firsthand, a person who had to see his best friend's dreams unfairly get shattered along with many others."

SS: "Why are you telling me this?"

Ky: "Like you said, you're a former student of Tokyo Hero Academy, I thought you'd be interested and that maybe you could help us."

SS: "I see."

Ky: "You don't have to believe anything I say but after we leave here but I want you to at least think on it."

SS: "…I may not have known you very long Kyousuke but I feel like I can trust you and after all of my time on this job, I've learned to trust my instincts. So I'll look into it, discretely of course, I wouldn't want to blow whatever cover you're trying to maintain and obviously I won't be using any official sources, it has been a while since I've done an investigation."

Ky: "So you believe me?"

SS: "No but I'm not saying I don't either, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and if you are telling the truth then I must perform my duty to serve justice where it is needed! As Sergeant Sunrise, the symbol of hope and peace for Japan I cannot ignore a call to action especially against those who would dishonor the title of hero for their own personal gain!"

{Knock, knock}

"Your order's here~"

SS: "I'll get that."

Ky: "Sergeant Sunrise is so cool."

Ki: "The coolest."

After Shuichi brought in the food they all decided to use the room for its intended purpose. It was fun, especially when Shuichi got drunk and started badly singing in broken English though he eventually passed out and Kyousuke had to called the DSA for help.

Ky: "Uh, hey guys."

Hi: "Hey Kyousuke."

Ay: "Is he really in there?"

Ky: "Uh, yeah, come on in."

So Hitaro and Ayami entered to find Shuichi sleeping on the seats and Kirino munching on some fries.

Ki: "Hey guys, about time you got here, I'm ready to turn in."

Ay: "Whoa it's actually him, so this is what his secret identity looks like."

Hi: "You do realize he doesn't wear a mask and we see him dressed like this all the time at HQ."

Ay: "…"

Hi: "Are you seriously telling me that this whole time you thought this random guy who looks exactly like Sergeant Sunrise just hangs around the most powerful heroes in Japan and you never even thought to question it?"

Ki: "…"

Ky: "…Pffhff."

Ay: "Just help me pick him up."

Hi: "Hehe whatever."

The siblings followed the heroes to check out and headed to the car they had parked outside.

Hi: "Jeez I can't believe you partied with Sergeant Sunrise."

Ay: "Yeah I'm honestly jealous, he gets invites to go out for drinks all the time and he always turns them down, says he's too busy."

Hi: "You may be special but what makes you so special to him?"

Ky: "Dunno."

Ki: "Maybe he sees you as a potential apprentice."

Ky: "I doubt that, given that he knows about my powers, he probably sees me as a potential threat and wants to try to quell that danger with his kindness."

Ay: "He wants to keep you from going "school shooter" on us, makes sense."

Ki: "You don't think you're a threat, do you?"

Ky: "Ms. Kirishima did say my powers were dangerous and unstable, talk about a Shonen cliché. So I should stay aware of the possibility of becoming a threat but not let myself get paranoid about it."

SS: "That's a good way of thinking Kyou but also remember most everyone's powers are dangerous, not just yours. Lots of superhumans forget how hazardous they can be, always know that even your normal powers can kill as easily as your special ones."

Ky: "Whatever you say sensei."

The Following Week

Dai: "Okay all loaded up, everybody get in."

The typhoon was just off the coast and as the Kousakas did every ten years they loaded up their government issued bunker evacuation vehicle with everything that didn't overload its carrying capacity and started driving down the dimly lit road.

Ky: "Haah I like being down here."

Ki: "Why?"

Ky: "I think it's cozy."

Ki: "Ugh, I think it's creepy down here, those red lights always look so sinister."

Ky: "I think they add to the charm."

Ki: "You're weird."

Ky: "Says Ms. Warrior Angel."

Ki: "You're so getting shin kicked when we get out of the car."

Ky: "…"

After waiting forever in line for one of the vehicle elevators they made it down to the Bunker and entered their assigned apartment.

Yo: "Alright, we'll be here for a while depending on how much damage that typhoon does, so let's settle in, I'll get started on dinner."

Dai: "I have a meeting at the police station here but I should be back in a couple of hours."

Ki: "I'll be in my room calling up my friends."

Ky: "Same here."

Kyousuke entered his room which was as plain as his old one and after a few text messages he was able to confirm all his friends had evacuated safely.

{Knock, knock}

Ki: "Hey Kyousuke, you have time to talk?"

Ky: "Yeah sure, come in."

Kirino opened the door and plopped herself onto Kyousuke's bed.

Ki: "Haah I miss Mochi~ You think he'll be okay at the Bunker's kennel?"

Ky: "Don't worry, I used my riches to book the best caregivers down here, he'll have plenty to eat and plenty of room to hop around in."

Ki: "…You know, I'm getting a weird vibe from this whole situation."

Ky: "How so?"

Ki: "Well there's the fact that the decennial apocalypse drill was initiated like four years early and it's just before an oncoming typhoon that came right after the very similar one that destroyed Sydney, Australia. You know, the one that had a mysterious floating kaiju in the middle of it."

Ky: "Huh, you have a point there."

Ki: "It's one thing if they did this just for Kanto but the entire world is locking down. It just feels like there's something much bigger going on that they're hiding from us."

Ky: "Yeah and to be honest I've been feeling my anxiety increasing."

Ki: "Really?"

Ky: "Yeah, just this morning it was manageable but now…even from down here, I can feel it and whatever it is, I think it knows I'm down here."

Ki: "…Are you going to be okay?"

Ky: "I think so, after all we are in the Bunker, one of the safest places on Earth, I think that's reassuring enough for me."

Ki: "Well then, I'm going to meet my friends to explore the Bunker, want to come."

Ky: "Nah, I feel like just staying in for the day and relaxing

Ki: "Of course you would, lazy ass."

Ky: "You can go ahead and kiss it on your way out."

Ki: "Bleh~"

After flashing her tongue at her brother, she quickly grabbed one of his pillows and threw it at his face before heading for the door.

Ki: "I'll be back later this evening, try not to miss me too much."

Ky: "I'll be dreaming of you~"

Ki: "Gross!"

{Slam!}

With a pep in her step now and grin on her face, Kirino hummed her way out of the apartment.

Elsewhere, 1 hour after evactuation.

"Tsar Bomba Maximum armed and ready."

"Dropping."

"…Impact in T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…"

"…No impact detected, mission failed, I repeat, mission failed…returning to base."

"Wait, what is tha-"

{BOOM!}

Kousaka Apartment

{Ririri, ririri}

Ky: "Hello?"

Ni: "Hey Kyousuke."

Ky: "Hey Mr. Johannes."

Ni: "Listen, I need you to come in, there's a bit of an emergency."

Ky: "Okay, I'll be over as soon as I can."

Ni: "By the way, is Kirino listening?"

Ky: "No, she left a while ago."

Ni: "Oh, well just come in by yourself then."

Ky: "Don't see why she has to be involved but whatever."

Ni: "I'll send you directions on where to go, see you when you get here."

Nicola hung up the phone and Kyousuke reluctantly got out of bed.

Ky: "What was up with him? He sounded…sad."

After leaving the apartment building and grabbing one of the Bunker's rental bikes he headed to the edge of the residential level where the directions led him to a door in the wall labeled "Authorized Personnel Only".

Ky: "Huh."

He opened the door and entered a well-lit grey and white hall. The directions led him past several doors until he reached an elevator which led to another hall, past more doors, another elevator, yadda, yadda, yadda and he finally reached an underground office just below the surface.

Ky: "Oh my god, finally."

Kyousuke opened the last door he needed to go through but fate decided to throw him another curveball both figuratively and literally.

{Crush}

{Slam!}

After opening the door Kyousuke was nailed in his jewels by a large rubber ball just hard enough to avoid his nullification threshold and he immediately fell over like a wooden plank.

"Oops, sorry."

"Are you okay?"

As Kyousuke was foaming at the mouth and cradling his mashed spuds, a couple of kids came up to console him, one little boy and a slightly older girl.

Ky: "Ugh, I fucking hate kids, shiiit."

"He said a swear."

Ar: "Oh my god, Kyousuke…you okay dude?"

Ky: "{Barf!}."

Ar: "Oh, you are not."

"Ew!"

"He made green poo out of his mouth."

Ar: "Come on kids, lets play with different, less bouncy toys."

Uni: "Okay Ms. Hiroyuki."

Ar: "Nick hurry the heck up!"

Ni: "I'm coming, haha, sorry about that Kyou, here have some painkillers, it's the good stuff."

After downing the drugs and taking a couple of minutes for them to take effect, Kyousuke got back on his feet.

Ky: "Ah, thanks for the drugs, so those kids, were they Arika's-"

Ni: "Oh no, they were mine, she's just babysitting for me, since I couldn't find any sitter because of the evacuation, she's really good with them."

Ky: "Really? Hm, well it wouldn't have surprised me if they were hers."

Ar: "I heard that!"

Ky: "Anyway, what do you need me to do?"

Ni: "Ahem, w-well first of all take this and get suited up."

Nicola handed Kyousuke a large heavy-duty container similar to the one he carried his first suit in.

Ni: "It's a new suit, weather proof, shock absorbent, the HUD has a new updated OS with an improved and more user-friendly interface and it has a special device that should help you with your anxiety issue. If you want more details about the suit's features here's a manual you can look at later."

Ky: "Awesome."

Ni: "Once you put it on, head to the meeting room down the hall, should be clearly labeled."

So Kyousuke headed to a nearby locker room to change, the suit was like something out of a sci-fi game. It had dark grey fabric, black straps and white armor plating with a few yellow segments covering most of the exterior though still light weight and much more form fitting than the previous suit and the helmet was also white with had black tinted half-dome visor. Kyousuke then headed to the meeting room where Naoki and Nicola were seated at a table with a camera at the opposite end and a young familiar looking man with an odd red gun standing off to the side.

Ni: "Go ahead and take a seat Kyousuke."

He did as he was told and a few seconds later a bunch of screens behind the camera lit up to reveal the faces of many world leaders.

Ky: "Whoa, what's going on?"

Na: "Sssh, don't talk unless we tell you."

"Good to meet you young hero."

"Take off your helmet son, let us see your face."

Kyousuke proceeded to do so but Naoki stopped him.

Na: "Sorry but I'm under strict orders not to reveal the identity of our charge."

"Who's orders would that be?"

"Orders from the US government, that boy is a highly valued asset to global affairs, we can't risk the possibility of a clandestine organization finding out who he is, going after him for malevolent purposes and possibly jeopardizing the lives of the people around him."

"So you are saying you are suspicious of one of us potentially being affiliated with such a "clandestine organization"?"

"Typical American paranoia."

"Enough, let's focus on the matter at hand, the being now known as the Cosmic Devourer, the beyond Cat. A monster."

"Beyond Cat. A? That doesn't make any sense."

"What does that even mean?"

Ni: "It means this creature is powerful enough to destroy multiple worlds if it wanted to."

"Are you serious?"

"How do you know this?"

Ni: "…"

"Go ahead Nick."

With the US president's permission Nicola stood up from his seat and shifted into his true form.

Ky: "Mr. Johannes?"

"What the?!"

"What is this?!"

"Is he…a monster?!"

"The US government is revealing this information in hopes of maintaining trust and peace between nations in this time of crisis. The man known as Nicola Richard Johannes, is an alien being, completely not of this world."

Nicola still had a humanoid body but now had paper white skin, a head about the same size as a human's but with four long tentacle-like appendages sticking out if his face in a way that gave his head an almost teardrop shape and his large football shaped eyes showed off different shades of the most vibrant blues all the way to the edge.

Ni: "My true name is Strizug-boke Qtvasn (kut-vasin), though you all my continue to use my Earth name."

"Hm, if it is true that this creature is indeed and alien, what is the purpose of revealing this information now?"

"Like I said, to maintain trust and peace between nations by revealing one of our closest kept secrets and so he can brief us on how to proceed with the situation without anyone questioning his knowledge."

Ni: "Yes, I have encountered beings like this before and the reason it is here is because of the falling stars."

"Is it attracted to the radiation?"

Ni: "Yes but there is another factor at play that makes our planet of high interest to it, our godling right here."

"It's here because of him?"

Ni: "Yes, I did have instruments in place that were theoretically supposed to hide us from them but it seems they've failed."

"Couldn't we just dispose of him so it loses interest?"

Ky: "?!"

Ni: "No, this being isn't just another monster, it's vastly intelligent, if we did kill our godling we would only end up angering it for depriving it of its meal."

"Then would the best course of action be to simply feed him to that thing to get it to leave sooner?"

Ni: "Honestly that wouldn't be a bad idea, with the amount of power he already has accumulated in his core, it would certainly "fill up" the devourer faster…"

Ky: "…"

Ni: "But that wouldn't do us any good in the long term, as bad as the cosmic devourers are, there are far worse threats out there in the universe possibly making their way to us as we speak. Nothing we have in our arsenals would be enough to even phase them and of all the godlings that we know of, he's the one that shows the most potential, we need to keep him alive and help him develop his abilities to face these threats, without him Earth won't survive."

"What about the God Slayer, all he needs is a single shot."

Ni: "That would only work if the shot makes contact with living tissue and unfortunately the devourer is surrounded by strong kinetic barriers and a psychic repulsion field that even God Slayer bullets would have a hard time breaking through. On top off that, its entire external structure is composed of solid mineral layers, so God Slayer would be ineffective in against it, at least in its current state."

Kyousuke did everything he could to maintain his composure but inside he was a mess.

Ky: Earth won't survive? Cosmic devourers? Godlings? Aliens? What is all this bullshit?

"So you think the godling can defeat this cosmic devourer?"

Ni: "No, at least not on his own but I think perhaps he can retrieve the lost Tsar Bomba Maximum and deliver it through the cosmic devourer's defenses. I'm not sure of the effectiveness of this plan but I've seen the destructive capabilities of this weapon and I believe perhaps there's a chance it could be successful if executed perfectly."

"What should we do on our ends?"

Ni: "In case the mission fails we need all shelters to shut off all but the most vital facilities, these beings are attracted to high concentrations of energy. The Bunkers' outer shells should keep you mostly hidden but there's no guarantee you won't be found so I suggest you pray to whatever higher power you believe in to protect you, in the meantime the all global military forces and the other godlings will face the devourer and keep it distracted enough to make it less likely to find the Bunkers until it leaves."

Ky: Other godlings?

"This doesn't sound like a plan to defeat it."

"Is there really no other way, how did you defeat the last one?"

Ni: "We didn't…the devourer we faced on my planet left of its own volition, that is how they work, like with livestock, they eat their fill and leave enough to regrow the herd. Maybe if my people were a little more cautious like you humans, we would have come out a little better off."

"…Shit, we really are facing an apocalypse."

"I never thought I'd live to see something like this."

"Anyway, are all in agreement with the plan?"

Uni: "Aye."

"Very well, all Bunkers will commence shut down of all but the most essential systems."

"How long will we have to wait for it to leave?"

Ni: "The one I faced left about eight Earth months after arrival, my planet was approximately 1.64 times the size of Earth and almost four times the amount of global biomass with about an eighth of that left after the devastation. I estimate the amount of time before it leaves to be around three or four months."

"Four months to eat our world."

"We should be able to last that long without power…hopefully."

"Is there time to ask the alien any unrelated question."

"I'll prepare copies of his files to be sent to any who are curious, of course we'll only reveal what we can afford to disclose."

"Alright then meeting adjourned, we'll meet again once the crisis has passed."

The screens shut off and everyone exited the room.

Ky: "What the hell was all that?"

Na: "I know you have a lot of questions Kyousuke but we don't-"

Ky: "Yeah I get it, we have to deal with this cosmic devourer first. Well I expect a full disclosure later if you want my continued cooperation, for now I'll just follow whatever orders are given to me."

Na: "…Good then, Nicola get him prepped."

Ni: "Yes ma'am."

Nicola led Kyousuke down the hall to a car in the underground roadway where Arika and those kids were waiting.

Ar: "Bout time you guys finished."

"Daddy where are we going now?"

Ni: "We're going somewhere safe, come on both of you get in the car."

"Okay."

As Arika was helping the youngest into his car seat, Kyousuke stopped Nicola for a second.

Ky: "So…are those two…"

Ni: "Yes they're just like me."

Ky: "Where's their mother?"

Ni: "They don't have one, they're clones I made from samples I managed to save though I added in some of my own genetics to give them their shape shifting abilities, I plan on making more when my proposal to terraform Mars gets approved."

Ky: "I see, can't wait to see that."

After everyone was loaded into the car Nicola drove on.

Ni: "So Kyousuke…are you okay?"

Ky: "Are you curious why I'm not freaking about you being an alien? Or that I have to face off against very embodiment of gluttony in the next hour? Or that there are other people that are the same as me?"

Ni: "All of the above."

Ky: "I figured I don't have time for any of that given that people are relying on me, a high school kid, to use my fabulous secret powers I'm almost completely unexperienced with to stop an apocalyptic being from beyond the stars and save the world."

Ni: "…I'm going to have to prescribe you special pills aren't I?"

Ky: "Oh absolutely."

Ar: "Yay drugs."

"Yay drugs!"

After arriving at their destination everyone exited the car.

Ni: "Alright Arika, here's the key to my ship, you sure you don't want to come with us?"

Ar: "Nah, if I'm dying it's going to be in Japan, besides I have astraphobia."

Ni: "Okay, just stay on the ship with my children until I get back."

Ar: "Aye aye cap."

Ni: "Alright you two, be good for Ms. Hiroyuki, daddy will back in a little bit then we'll go for a little trip to see Saturn~"

"Yaaay!"

"Yayay!"

Ar: "Alright let's go, hey stop wiping your boogars on your brother!"

Ni: "Haah, okay Kyousuke come with me."

Kyousuke followed Nicola until they came to a large hangar area where an odd looking craft sat in the middle on some supports. Nicola then walked up to a man in a heavily armored suit standing next to the craft, studying it.

Ni: "Kyousuke I'd like you to meet Carl Edmondson, an American World Class Item Summoner, he can create just about anything weighing less than two tons."

Ky: "Whoa."

Ca: "World Class- actually, nice to meet you."

Ky: "You too."

Ca: "I'll be joining you up on the surface, this special craft Johannes designed that I just scanned into memory will be used to recover the Tsar Bomba Maximum."

Ni: "Yes, once it has been secured, Carl will retreat and you will pilot the craft through the storm and straight at the devourer."

Ky: "Wait pilot?!"

Ni: "Don't worry, it will be mostly automated, all you have to do is activate it, maybe do some steering and finally crash into the devourer's face, your passive abilities should allow you to break through its barriers. Even if this doesn't work, don't worry about getting captured, the blast should launch you to a safe distance, possibly even into orbit."

Ky: "That's comforting."

Ca: "So do you need some time to mentally prepare? Or are you ready to go? Remember you are going to face a god-like super being, so we understand if you need a moment."

Ky: "…Nah, there's no time to waste, best get this over with as soon as possible."

Ca: "I see."

Ni: "Well then I'll be going which means that this is possibly our last time we see each other for a while Kyousuke though I'll remain in contact until failure is confirmed. I'll be taking my ship into orbit along with some VIPs in case the plan fails, so we can hide off somewhere in the system until all this blows over, we'll come back to help with the reconstruction…try not to die out there."

Ky: "Kind of one of the few things I'm good at though given my luck that's certainly no guarantee of success. So guess I'll be seeing you."

Ni: "Yeah, see you in a few months…hopefully."

Nicola left and Kyousuke followed Carl to another underground roadway where a large tank-like armored personnel carrier sat waiting.

Tokyo Bunker: Residential Level: Commerce District

Ki: "Man, even with the free arcade this place is boring as hell."

Sa: "Well the Bunker is meant to mainly provide the necessities."

Ru: "Stop whining, you'll only have to deal with this for the next few days, an adult should be able to last that long."

Ay: "It's too bad we can't go to the park with it just being dirt and all. Oh maybe we can play some baseball!"

Ka: "No way! I ain't getting dirt on my cute clothes."

Ki: "Then I guess we'll just have to hit up the arcade again."

{Br-ring!}

Ka: "Hm? …Whoa, hey look at this."

Everyone crowded around Kanako to see what she just received on her phone, it showed a recently ended livestream of someone who broke the evacuation and remained on the surface with some friends to explore the area just before the main force of the typhoon hit.

|Alright shout out to all my viewers, check this out.|

|Man it's so empty.|

|It's like Silent Hill or something.|

They got on their bikes and rode into the city which looked even more ominous being empty with dark clouds hanging overhead.

|It feels like we're in some post-apocalyptic movie.|

{Haaaaaaaaaayyyyyyuuuuuuuuuu~}

|Hey, you guys hear that?|

|It sounds like…singing?|

|It sounds like it's coming from the sky, like in the clouds.|

|Uh, guys maybe we should head back, I'm starting to get creeped out and the wind is starting to pick up.|

|Y-Yeah, let's go before we get caught in the storm.|

They rode back to their homes in silent anxiety with the unsettling yet beautiful sound following them while the sky grew darker and the wind and rain became more intense, all the way until the streamer shut his door and cut the video.

Ki: "That was creepy."

Ay: "You think that was real?"

Ka: "The video was just posted a few hours ago, practically right after the evacuation."

Ru: "There is also a link to a report about some people being taken into custody for breaking evacuation procedure, so probably not."

Sa: "I wonder what could be going on up there."

Ru: "Indeed."

Ay: "Now I'm starting to feel scared."

Ki: "Hm?"

Suddenly Kirino noticed a familiar head of silkie red hair turn the corner onto the opposite side of the street they were on.

Ki: "What's Arika doing here?"

Though the moment Arika noticed Kirino she immediately turned around and went back the way she came in an attempted inconspicuous hurry.

Ki: "Hmm, hey I'll see you guys later, I have somewhere to get to."

Ay: "Okay then."

Ka: "Later bitch."

Kirino rushed over to the corner Arika disappeared behind then once her friends were out of sight she shifted to a mad dash to catch up.

Ki: "Hey! Get over here!

Ar: "Oh shit!"

Arika quickly summoned a small electric moped but before she could reach top speed Kirino tackled her to the ground.

Ar: "Wahaha!~ I just wanted some ice cream!~"

Ki: "Why are you running?"

Ar: "Haah…"

Suddenly Arika's expression became more somber.

Ar: "Listen little sis, I have a lot of personal issues I'm dealing with right now, I'm not really in the mood to talk."

Ki: "…Okay I understand…but why did you run away when you saw me."

Ar: "…"

Ki: "Is something going on with Kyousuke?"

Kirino noticed Arika's face grimace a little, she learned a little on how to read faces in class so she could tell Arika was keeping something from her and that it had something to do with Kyousuke.

Ki: "Haah."

Kirino then dragged Arika to the unplanted park and quickly buried her up to her neck.

Ar: "Hey, what the hell?!"

Kirino then pulled out her phone and called her mother.

Yo: |Hello?|

Ki: "Hey mom, do you know where Kyousuke is?"

Yo: |No, he left a while ago without saying anything, I assumed he went to go see his friends like you did.|

Ki: "I see, I just needed him to help me carry something, super strength doesn't really make up for small hands."

Kirino went on to call Kouhei.

Ko: |Uh, hey Kirino what's up?|

Ki: "Hey, is Kyousuke over there with you?"

Ko: |No, last I heard from him was when he called to check up on me?|

Ki: "I see, well that's all I needed."

Kirino hung up and turned back to Arika.

Ki: "So tell me, where is Kyousuke?"

Ar: "…"

Ki: "If you don't tell I guess I'll just spray your face with makeup remover or I could just put a bucket over your head and leave you here, the park has almost no foot traffic so I wonder how long it will be before someone notices you. Or better yet I could call the kennel to do some dog walking jobs for them and bring all those woofers over here to use you as a fire hydrant."

Ar: "Alright fine! Damn girl…but let me ask you something first."

Ki: "What?"

Ar: "If you could let Kirishima wipe Kyousuke from your memories, would you?"

Ki: "What are you talking about?"

Ar: "Like if somehow Kyousuke died some horrific death or turned evil and we had to kill him, would you be willing to let your memories of him get wiped?"

Ki: "Are you saying Kyousuke is about to die?"

Ar: "Just answer the question."

Ki: "…No."

Ar: "Really?"

Ki: "Yeah, even if I watched him slowly get ripped to pieces or I had to kill him with my own two hands, I'd never want to forget him."

Ar: "Why?"

Ki: "Because…he's a person that deserves to be remembered and someone has to be the one that remembers him when no one else is going to."

Ar: "Jeez…trying to hide one truth behind another, you're more clever than I thought."

Ki: "Huh?"

Ar: "The real reason is because you love him…you're in love with him."

Ki: "…"

Ar: "Why are you looking at me all shocked like that? I already told you, we know everything about your family even all your deepest secrets, including the fact you're in love with your own flesh and blood brother, talk about Sweet Home Osaka."

Ki: "…So I answered your question, now tell me where Kyousuke is."

Ar: "Nah-ah, I want to hear you say it first."

Ki: "…"

Ar: "You don't have to shout it but it has to be loud enough for me to hear, say that you love your brother."

Ki: "…Calling the kennel now."

Ar: "Okay! Okay! Just let me out off here and I'll show you."

Ki: "…"

Ar: "Don't worry I won't run away, I'm a woman of my word. Besides it's not like I could if I wanted to."

So Kirino pulled Arika out of the ground and they made their way to the wall where they entered the same door Kyousuke went through earlier and hopped in the same elevator but instead of pressing a floor number Arika pulled out a small hidden keyboard and dialed in some special code.

Ki: "What are you doing?"

Ar: "You want to get there fast don't you? People always avoid using this, say it's too hazardous."

{Bing!}

\Activating Maglev Elevator.\

Ar: "Better hang on to those bars."

Ki: "Eh?"

\Disconnecting cables.\

The elevator suddenly lurched downward before shooting upward then left, right, right, up, left, up, forward, right, up, down, left and up before finally stopping with a wobbly Kirino's hands indented into the bar she was hanging onto.

{Bing!}

Ki: "Wha-a-a-a-a?"

Ar: "I always love riding that."

After prying her hands off of the bars, Kirino continued to follow Arika until they came to a room where Naoki was talking into some kind of voice communicator and overseeing a couple of people looking at their laptops which showed feeds of what appeared to be body cameras.

Ca: |Alright Ms. Kirishima, making final approach on foot|

Ni: |How are you doing Kyousuke? You good?|

Ky: |Suit's working so far, no scaredy pants here.|

Na: "Good, time for the next phase, be ready."

Ki: "Kyousuke?"

Na: "Kirino?"

Ky: |Kirino?|

Tokyo Underground Roadway: Earlier

Ca: "Alright, hop in, I'll do the driving of course."

Ky: "…"

Ca: "Hey, don't let the pressure get to you too much and don't think you have any responsibility to bring me back alive."

Ky: "What?"

Ca: "I know you may think that because you were chosen as some kind protector that you have to defend every last person like some comic book hero but I need you to keep all your focus on the objective at hand. Once I've done my part I want you to completely forget that I exist even if I'm dying right in front of you, you need to proceed onward, do I make myself clear?"

Ky: "Yeah."

Ca: "Good but just in case-"

Carl then pulled out a revolver.

Ca: "If you can't get over your morals and attempt to abandon the mission to aid me, I'll shoot my own brains out, got it?"

Ky: "Um, yes sir."

They both then got into the vehicle and took off, while it was entirely windowless there were screens connected to external cameras that gave them a 360 degree view of the outside. After a couple of minutes they turned onto an inclined road that lead up a large heavy metal door, Carl then pressed a few buttons on the vehicle console and a few seconds later the large door slowly slid out of the way and they were able to continue forward as powerful winds and debris started to violently batter the APC.

Ca: "Shit, it's like we're being shaken around by a giant toddler and there's too much rain to see anything, better turn on the radar highlighter."

With the flip of a switch everything around them was highlighted with brightly colored outlines.

Ca: "That's better."

{Haaaaaaaaauuuuuu~}

Ki: "What's that sound?"

Ni: |Don't worry about that, it's just an effect of the Devourer's psychic manipulation on the clouds.|

Ky: "Man, this place got torn up, hard to imagine that my house is like this right now."

Ca: "Haah where could that thing have ended up…so what's your stake in this?"

Ky: "Huh?"

Ca: "What's your reason for working with us, aside from just protecting humanity?"

Ky: "Hmmm, for my friends and family I guess, sure may parents treat me like crap but I'd still die for them and the few friends I have and my little sister are my entire reason for living."

Ca: "Hehe I see, didn't take you to be such a passionate person."

Ky: "Yeah and if you tell anyone I said that I'll kill you."

Ca: "Pahahahaha!"

Ky: "…What's so funny Carl?"

Ca: "U-Um…"

…

{Bib! Bip! Bip!}

After twenty minutes of driving over wrecked buildings a beeping sound started to come from the console.

Ky: "What's that? What's going on?"

Ca: "It's a device that detects the tracker in the TBM, came with the bomb when the Russians loaned it to us. The storm has been interfering with it so far, so we must be close, look around, do you see anything?"

Ky: "…Is that it?"

Kyousuke pointed to a large round metal object on top of a pile of debris.

Ca: "Let's see."

Carl drove the APC around to get a better look and it was indeed the bomb.

Ca: "Tsar Bomba Maximum confirmed, I repeat, we have located the TBM."

Na: |Good, approach it carefully, we can't afford any mistakes.|

Ky: "Alright let's go get it-"

Ca: "Don't!"

Ky: "Huh? Why not?"

Na: |These are record breaking winds, you go out there without any special gear you'll get blown away.|

Ca: "Plus with the wind catching onto the open door you could end up flipping the APC over even with the anchors in place."

Ky: "So what do we do?"

Ca: "Just wait a minute."

Carl then drove the APC to the downwind side of a different debris pile and kept going until he was pushing into it and had the APC buried with just the rear sticking out.

Ca: "Alright that should do, come on."

Carl got out of his seat and headed to the back with Kyousuke following.

Ca: "Alright put these on your boots and take these."

Ky: "Hm? Ski poles?"

Carl handed Kyousuke two long mechanical poles and odd metal frames he could strap onto the soles of his boots.

Ni: |That gear should help keep you from getting blown away, also keep an eye on your HUD, there's a special tracker radar installed that can calculate the trajectory of anything moving within a half-mile radius of you and warn you when something is going to hit you. If any large debris comes flying at you, full brace will be activated, that's where all of your gear locks into the ground at once.|

Ky: "What if something really big is coming at me?"

Ni: |Don't worry, the gear should be able to withstand an elephant crashing into you.|

Ky: "Hot damn."

Carl himself grabbed a similar set of gear and put on a helmet that was equally as armored as his suite.

Ca: "Alright Ms. Kirishima, making final Approach on foot."

Ni: |How are you doing Kyousuke? You good?|

Ky: "Suit's working so far, no scaredy pants here."

Na: |Good, time for the next phase, be ready.|

Ki: |Kyousuke?|

Na: |Kirino?|

Ky: "Kirino?"

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building: Subterranean Offices

Ky: |What the heck are you doing here?|

Ki: "Kyousuke? What's going on?"

Na: "Arika explain yourself?!"

Ar: "Sorry ma'am, she ambushed me and threatened to torcher me if I didn't spill."

Na: "How'd she even figure out anything was going on?"

Ki: "To quote literally every fictional character in the mystery genre, call it a hunch."

Na: "…"

Ki: "So tell me, what's going on?"

Naoki walked up to her calmly. Kirino, thinking it was so she could explain, was surprised when Naoki placed her hand on her head with her thumb on Kirino's forehead. Kirino was too shocked to react but after a few seconds an angered look came across Naoki's face.

Na: "How? …How are you able to hang onto him so tightly…that even I can't pull him away from you?"

Kirino slapped Naoki's hand from her head and faced her again undaunted.

Ki: "Bitch just tell me, what is going on?"

Na: "…"

Ni: |Kyousuke? Is it okay to tell her?|

Ky: |Not like we have a choice, go ahead, tell her.|

So everyone joined in on the short explanation of the Cosmic Devourer about to bring an end to civilization and how Kyousuke was going to crash the world's most powerful bomb right into its face.

Ki: "Are you serious?!"

Kirino grabbed Naoki's communicator so she could talk directly into it.

Na: "Hey!"

Ki: "Kyousuke are you really going along with all this?!"

Ky: |Listen sis, I'd love to go into further detail about this, I have a lot of questions myself but if we don't act quick, it's back to the stone age for humanity.|

Ki: "What if you get hurt?!"

Ky: |Come on Kirino, I'm immortal remember? I should be fine.|

Ki: "This isn't the same as getting hit by a truck or getting chewed up by a monster you're talking about kamikazeing yourself into possibly the most powerful explosion in history!"

Ni: |I know you're worried Kirino but trust me, Kyousuke will be fine, besides he's the only one that can do this, well the only one that would survive doing it.|

Ky: |I appreciate your concern Kirino, I honestly do but when the world is ending do you really expect anyone that's able to do something about it to just do nothing?|

Ki: "…"

Ky: |I'm doing this whether you like it or not, you can scream and cry all you want but I'm going to defend Japan…even if I do somehow end up dying.|

Ki: "Why? Why are you suddenly so willing to throw your life away? What happened to my lazy self-centered big brother that kept himself safe from danger by avoiding work!?"

Ky: |…Jeez you're really going to make say it?|

Ki: "Say what?"

Ky: |It's because I love you, you stupid bitch.|

Ki: "{Heart jab!} Gya!{collapse}."

Ar; "Wow, way to go for the weak point."

With Kirino barely holding herself up, Kyousuke continued.

Ky: |If there's any one person on this whole damned planet I'm willing to end my immortal life for, it's you, dammit you make my crappy life worth living, heck if you weren't my sister I'd be proposing to you right now.|

Ki: "{Heart jab!} O-Oh."

Ki: So this isn't a confession?~ Dammiiiiit~

Ky: |So you bet your ass I'm going to throw myself at whatever apocalypse comes our way if it means saving you, ah god all this melodrama is putting a bad taste in my mouth!|

Ar: "Ugh, same."

Ki: "…So you promise you'll come back alive?"

Ky: |Yeah, don't worry we'll take care of this and by next week we'll be back at THA dealing with Akihiko.|

Ki: "I want to hear you promise first."

Ky: |Jeez where was all this worry before I became a hero student?!|

Ki: "Haah, just…don't be stupid out there. I know how hard that is for you but at least try."

Ky: |Yeah, yeah, screw you too.|

Kirino handed the communicator back to Naoki and the mission proceeded as normal but with Kirino and Arika now spectating.

Tokyo Bay Area

Na: |Alright, you two ready to go?|

Ca: "Kyousuke?"

Ky: "Let's go."

Fully geared up Carl opened the rear door and the wind blasted in, forcing them both to stumble backwards a bit.

Ky: "Damn that's strong!"

They finally exited the APC and once on the ground the spike anchors in the poles and their boots deployed. Slowly, one step and one pole at a time they moved forward and once they left the cover of their debris pile they were exposed to the full power of the storm.

Ky: "Agh! Holy shit it's like trying to walk through a perpetual tsunami!"

Ca: "Just hang on and keep going, mmf!"

{Beep! Beep! Beep!}

Ca: "Incoming!"

As the radar sounded off Kyousuke wasn't able to move anymore as all the anchors locked into the ground at once and out of the torrential rain came a large piece of metal that slammed right into him.

{WHAM!}

Ky: "Ah! Dammit!"

If his hands weren't bound to his poles with near unbreakable straps, he certainly would have lost his grip.

Ki: |Kyousuke?!|

Ca: "You okay?!"

Ky: "Yeah…let's keep going!"

After shaking off his disorientation from the impact they continued.

Ca: "Kyousuke, can I ask you something?"

Ky: "Shoot."

Ca: "How are you not scared? Most other teenagers would have pissed, crapped and vomited themselves before now but you're handling this all like it was just another day on the job."

Ky: "Well being immortal has a way of killing your sense of fear for most things though that's not always a good thing. Now I can't enjoy scary movies or Halloween the same way I could as a kid, I can still get startled though."

Ca: "Heh it's hard to imagine a life without fear, I always think of it as an important survival tool and part of what make humans what we are though in this situation that fearlessness of yours is certainly an invaluable asset."

Ky: "Well so long as I have this suit on, it is."

Several more times they were struck with flying debris, fortunately for Carl, his armor took the blows as if they were just leaves in the wind, then they finally reached the bomb.

Ca: "We've reached the bomb!"

Ni: |Good.|

Na: |Proceed with next phase!|

Na: "Roger! Now generating!"

Carl placed his hand on the front end of the bomb and created a high power harpoon grapple that became fused to the exterior after he summoned it, after which he launched the harpoon into the ground. He then moved to the rear and fused a large parachute to it and once he pulled the chord, the chute shot out into the squall and the bomb quickly lifted into the air with the harpoon keeping it in place.

Ky: "What's all this for?"

Ca: "So there's nothing in the way."

Before the parachute could get ripped apart, Carl finally created the TBM Delivery Craft, the chassis wrapped around the bomb, their aerodynamics integrating seamlessly with each other. the cockpit formed in front of the bomb with the engines forming around the tailfins, cutting away the parachute, with the wings now keeping the bomb in the air.

Ca: "Alright now let's get you in there."

After tying a rope around their waists and hooking a metal clip to the harpoon chord to keep Kyousuke from getting blown away, Kyousuke discarded his anchoring gear and began to climb up to he craft. A few times he nearly lost his grip and was almost knocked off by flying debris but he made it to the cockpit and after fastening his seatbelt and cutting his safety lines, he slid the canopy in place, finally getting some peace from the storm.

Ca: |Alright, Kyousuke is secured in the TBM Delivery Craft, making my way back to base. Kyousuke, wait about ten minutes before you take off, if you don't hear from me by then, take off anyway, got it?|

Ky: "Roger."

So Carl disappeared into the torrential rain, within a few minutes he saw the lights from the APC turn on and watched as they disappeared around the bend. As he waited he heard more flying debris pelting the exterior but didn't see any signs of damage, the craft was definitely built to fly through a storm. At around the eight-and-a-half-minute mark Carl spoke up over the radio.

Ca: |Alright, safely back at base, Kyousuke you're good to go!|

Ky: "Taking off!"

Kyousuke pressed the giant six inch wide red button on the console marked "Kyousuke, press this button to activate the auto-pilot, seriously don't touch anything else" and the auto-pilot activated, the harpoon was disconnected, the craft rose higher into the air and the engines fired to steer it towards the storm's center.

Na: |Alright Kyousuke this should be the easy part, just let the auto-pilot take it from here and take over the steering if it begins to malfunction.|

Ni: |And don't worry about getting attacked, the craft should keep you hidden until you get close.|

Ky: "Right."

{Beeepbeepbeepbeep!}

Ky: "Huh?! Mr. Johannes something is going on."

A message then popped up on the console joined by a robotic voice from the speakers.

\Unidentified objects in pursuit.\

Ni: "Dammit! Kyousuke brace yourself, I'm going to remotely increase the auto-pilot's max speed."

Seconds later the craft boosted forward and through the haze Kyousuke was able to see the blurred silhouettes of things zipping by the canopy and felt repeated impacts on the exterior.

Ky: "Shit! Doesn't this thing have any weapons?!"

Ni: "We needed to keep it light so Carl could create it, I thought the stealth systems I installed would be enough to keep you hidden."

{Boom!}

Just then an exterior explosion sounded and Kyousuke looked to the rear to see one of the engines on fire and the console screen showed exactly which one it was. Alarms blared in the cockpit as the craft began to spin out of control.

Ky: "I hate spinning! Bluh, I think I'm gonna throw up!"

{Smash!}

Suddenly the craft smashed into a skyscraper, destroying the canopy, once again exposing Kyousuke to the storm.

Ni: |Kyousuke I'm ejecting you! Aborting mission!|

With that Kyousuke's seat ejected though before his parachute could deploy the winds blew him into another skyscraper.

Ky: "Agh, damn."

Kyousuke then quickly unbuckled himself and jumped out of the seat, a few second later the chute deployed and the wind yanked the seat back outside.

Ky: "That was a close one."

Kyousuke headed to the center of the floor he was on and found an undamaged bathroom to hide in.

Ki: |Kyousuke {skrch-ch-ch} -ou okay!?|

Ky: "Yeah, I'm fine, haah, so what do we do now?"

Na: |Haah, nothing {skrch-ch} that was our only shot.|

Ni: |So it's officially a mission failed…setting course for Saturn.|

Ki: |Wait, Saturn?!|

Ky: "…Shit."

Na: "Kyousuke, just maintain your position until we figure out what to do next."

Ky: "Roger…"

Kyousuke didn't want things to end like this, there had to be something else he could do.

Ky: Hmm…special powers, so far the they've given me immortality, lightning immunity and aura sense along with enhancements to my own abilities. Let's see if we can't perform some more plot convenience.

Kyousuke thought back to his fight with the spiteful deer, how he calmed his mind and focused his will to gain his newest ability.

Ky: "{inhale} Haaaah."

Kyousuke focused, calmed his mind and attempted to find a solution. A few minutes passed buy as the negativity and self doubt in his mind was cast away and a sudden weight sat upon his hand.

Ky: "Huh?"

Subterranean Offices

"Hm? M-Ma'am, Kyousuke's core showing abnormal activity."

Na: "What?"

"It's subtle, similar the readings we received during the Reranking Tournament and from the previous Spiteful Deer hunt."

Na: "Could he be unlocking a new ability?"

Surface

He looked down at his right hand and saw a combat knife that wasn't there before.

Ki: "Oh shit, I just unlocked a new ability."

He disintegrated it and was immediately able to reform it, it was then an idea popped into his head. He disintegrated the knife again and got up to open the door, letting the winds into his hiding place.

Na: |Kyousuke what are you doing?|

Ky: "Plan B!"

Ni: |What?! We don't have a plan B!|

Ky: "I got one, pulled it right out of my ass!"

Kyousuke rushed to the damaged stairwell of the building and made his way up to the roof.

Ky: "Haah, haah, oh my god, I need a drink."

Ar: |You could take off your helmet and drink the rain.|

Ky: "Hell no! There could be sewer water flying around out there!"

Ar: |So picky.|

The top quarter of the building was torn off so Kyousuke just stood there at the stairs hanging on for dear life with the knife once again in hand.

Na: |So what now?|

Kyousuke looked around at the Cloud Skimmer zipping around like bolts of lightning and with near perfect timing…he jumped into the air and managed to sink his knife into a large one as it flew by and began to ride it.

{FWOOSH!}

Ki: |What the hell!?|

Na: |Kyousuke what do you think you're trying to do?! Where'd you get that knife from?!|

Ky: "I'm not going to let that stone assed, piece of shit destroy the world, I still have a ton of money in my bank account that I worked my ass off for and I fully intend on spending it!"

Kyousuke grabbed one of the Cloud Skimmer's wings and set his feet over its tailfins and managed to steer by moving them all in sequence.

Ky: "Mr. Johannes, is there some kind of program in my helmet to track down that bomb?!"

Ni: |Uh, not directly but yes, I'll pull it up for you.|

On his HUD, a black and green window popped showing his trajectory and the position of the bomb. He adjusted his course by moving the fins until the window showed that he was directly in aligned with the bomb.

Ni: |Contact in three, two, one!|

Just when the bomb was close enough, Kyousuke jumped from the Cloud Skimmer, disintegrated his knife and summoned a high power magnet with a large handle attached to it and was able to grab onto the bomb with it.

{BONG!}

Kyousuke strained as he used both hands to hang on to the magnet then once he was stable he summoned another magnet then repeatedly destroyed and recreated them both in order to climb closer to the front. He then created a new magnet but with the handle attached to it by a short winch cable and he was able to use it to stand upright.

Ky: "Carl you there!"

Ca: |Yes Kyousuke, what do you need me to do?|

Ky: "Destroy the craft, I need it out of the way."

Ca: |Uh, okay then.|

The craft quickly disintegrated leaving the bomb without any form of lift and it began to drop,

Ky: Okay ramjets, ramjet engines are the simplest yet one of the most powerful in aviation, having no moving parts and comprised of only a few main components, air intake, compressor, fuel injector, combustor, flame holder, jet nozzle. The key to its thrust lies in the physics of thermal expansion, fast moving cold air mixed with fuel then ignited expands quickly and violently creating immense thrust, the fuel can theoretically be taken out of the equation if you can expose the air to another highly concentrated source of heat at the compression point to get it to expand, heat, expansion, thrust, heat, expansion, thrust, heat, expansion…

Ky: "Thrust!"

Harmony Link

In that moment both Kyousuke's and Kirino's cores began to glow yellow and a new craft manifested around the bomb, it was smaller than the previous one as it lacked a cockpit and the steering and thrust were controlled by a remote now on the winch handle and had heat transfer units at his feet.

{fwoowheeeeEEEEEE!}

With lots of air rushing through the engines Kyousuke generated as much heat as he could through his feet and managed to fire them and lifted the bomb back up towards the sky back on course towards the devourer.

Ky: "Bomb recovered! Resuming with mission!"

Subterranean Offices

Ca: |Yeah!|

Ni: |Atta boy Kyousuke, go and smash that bomb into that bastard's face!|

Na: "He actually did it."

Ki: "Wow."

Ar: "Damn, is he like this often little sis?"

Ki: "Not at all, usually he prefers to gives up as soon as he thinks he failed…but on a rare occasion when he has a goal, he finds truly important, he doesn't stop for anything until he achieves it."

Ar: "I guess saving the world would be a pretty important goal and I have to say, I especially can't resist a man capable of this much badassery."

Ki: "Wait did you already forget about my feelings for Kyousuke?"

Ar: "No, in fact I respect your feelings for him despite you being siblings, I just don't respect you calling dibs on him."

Ki: "Eh?!"

Ar: "To me all men are fair game until they're "settled down" so to speak, so until you're actually able to get him to return your feeling I'm going to keep chasing after him."

Ki: "You fucking bitch!"

Surface

Kyousuke struggled to keep the craft stable in the wind but managed to keep it on course though it was hard to see so he activated a program in his helmet that gave him an augmented reality flight path to follow and another that highlighted any flying objects near him.

Ky: "Alright, so far so good."

{Beep! Beep! Beep!}

\Hostiles in pursuit.\

Ky: "Son of a bitch!"

The Cloud Skimmers once again began their assault but thanks to the higher speed and maneuverability of the new craft Kyousuke was able to outpace them and dodge the few that came from the front.

|Just look how fast he's going.|

|Watch those Gs kid.|

|It's like a scene out of Eureka 7!|

|Dude, seriously? Now's not the time for that.|

|I know but it's so cool!|

|Ugh.|

Though while it looked like he was in control Kyousuke was in all honesty under incredible stress trying to anticipate any incoming projectiles, correct for wind current changes, evade waterspouts, maintain his heat output for the engines, try to stay on course and hold back his motion sickness.

Ky: "Agh, if I survive this, I'm taking a paid vacation for the rest of the month, you hear me Naoki!"

Na: |Noted.|

Ni: |Kyousuke don't go too fast, the storms eyewall is where the wind and cloud density is the highest, if you don't pass through it carefully you'll get tossed around like a ragdoll and possible lose the bomb again.|

Ky: "Okay how do I approach?"

Ni: |First you must begin orbiting the wall in the same direction of its wind flow, then punch it until you've reached max speed while maintaining orbit. Then proceed into the wall still while maintaining an orbital trajectory until you've reached the inner edge, from there you'll have a clear path to the devourer.|

Ky: "Got it."

Kyousuke followed Nicola's instruction, with the Cloud Skimmers still giving chase he moved into an orbital path around the typhoon's eye, increasing speed as he went, then once it appeared that the swirls of vapor were stationary next him he eased sideways into the wall. Inside everything went black thought he could still feel the craft shaking violently beneath his feet and his body getting pelted by large raindrops, he kept calm as he continued diagonally through the wall until…

{Fwoosh!}

He leaped out into the eye, it was like he entered a completely different world after making it out of that chaos. Calm seas below and a circular Heaven's Gate of clouds and blue sky above and in the middle sat the menacing polygonal stone pillar that was the Cosmic Devourer.

{BEW!}

While Kyousuke was distracted by the view a large glowing beam narrowly hit him.

Ky: "What the heck!"

He noticed flashes coming from the Devourer, knowing what was coming Kyousuke flew parallel to it in order to dodge the beams each one creating large holes in the cloud wall as he surfed along it.

{BEW! BEW! BEW!}

Ky: "What's going on?! What happened to a clear path?!"

Ni: |Accelerated Matter Cannon! It's drawing matter into an orbit around itself until it's melted down from friction with the air and other matter, then flings it at incredible speed.|

Ky: "Dammit what do I do?!"

Ni: |There should be a blind spot directly above the Devourer.|

Ky: "How the hell do I get up there?!|

Ni: |Just keep flying along wall and gradually make your way up until you're able to get above the Devourer then dive down and deliver the payload.|

Ky: "Alright, here we go!"

Kyousuke boosted to max speed, traveling along an upward spiral while simultaneously dodging the matter beams as they came at him in rapid fire succession.

Ky: "Come on, come on!"

Higher and higher he climbed, clearing the clouds and going so high that frost began to developed on Kyousuke's suit and he was having trouble breathing, fortunately with his angle and altitude the beams came at him slower, so were easier to dodge. He then shifted into an upward arc that turned him upside-down until he was finally directly above his target where none of the beams could reach him and then immediately dove straight down.

Ky: "This is for ruining my weekend you son of a bitch!"

As he dove he felt the change in energy as he passed through the Devourer's barriers and could feel invisible hands trying to grip onto his body as the monster used its psychic abilities on him but Kyousuke's core detected the Devourer's presence and enacted countermeasures to nullify it, allowing Kyousuke to continue uninhibited.

Ni: |Impact in three, two!|

Ky: Last words, let's see…

Ni: |One!|

Ky: "{inaaaale} Fuck this shiiiii-"

{…BOOOOM!}

Subterranean Offices

Na: "Everybody brace for impact!"

{…BOOOOM!}

Once the bomb hit the entire office shook so violently even the heaviest furniture was flung across the room, fortunately Kirino was able to keep anyone from getting crushed.

Low Earth Orbit

From Nicola's point of view from his ship he and a crowd of other people saw the light as the explosion went off, dispersing the storm and pushing away the clouds for miles, a couple of minutes later the ship began to lightly shake a few times as the shockwaves finally reached them.

Ni: "…Please work."

Surface 2 Hours Later

Ky: "…Ugh, mmm, huh?"

Kyousuke came to, not knowing where he was.

Ky: "Damn, that thing was a real doozie."

He looked out over the devastated landscape, for as far as he could see everything was leveled, the only improvement being the now clear and sunny skies.

Ky: "Wait a minute."

It was then that Kyousuke realized he was sitting on something very high up in the air.

Ky: "…"

He looked down to see he was sitting on a slanted, crater marked, stone surface.

Ky: "…"

He then turned around to see two tall and skinny pyramid shaped spires behind him with a set of stairs leading between them and it was then a sudden feeling of fear went through his chest, then suddenly a phantom eye, like the ones he saw in the forest, opened right in his face.

There you are…godling.