*Impulse Force*

"Hm." Hazama was currently holding onto one of the bigger Ouroboros, both floating aimlessly on the gentle ocean waves. He checked his wristwatch, which had stopped a very long time ago on one of his many fights. Hazama didn't really need the watch to tell the time, he only looked at it out of habit. "He's been gone for about 34 minutes now."

The Ouroboros moved its big mouth, showing off shadowy fangs as it made metallic clicking noises.

"What, you think we should look for him?"

The blob snake nodded, splashing some water around. The tinier snakes, not entirely blobs nor quite chains, happily swam around, trying to catch the droplets. The ocean was quite calm, maybe far too calm. Hazama felt like stirring some trouble, but being under the warm sun was robbing him of his energy.

"I really don't feel like doing anything right now." The captain moaned in a complaint, using the big Ouroboros very much as his personal inflatable tube, though it was neither a tube nor inflatable. Well, as long as it floated, he really couldn't care less. "Maybe one of you could fish him out?"

The green shadow snakes all stopped playing around and turned to Hazama, a curious look on their featureless faces. Despite having their attention, not a single one of them volunteered for that particular job.

"Oh, come on, you little rascals."

Still no response.

"Sigh, fine." So, he would have to resort to this, after all. "The one who pulls him back out gets a boiled egg."

As soon as that precious word was spoken, three big chains curled around Hazama's hands and there was a loud *splash* as the big snakes quickly dove under the waters. Having lost his support, Hazama fell into the deep, though he soon floated back to the surface. Somehow, his hat was still on his head.

"Oi, you there! Are you okay?!"

The sudden voice surprised him, but not as much as the strange whirring sound coming from somewhere behind him. Before Hazama could turn around to locate the source of the loud noise, he was knocked hard on the back of his head.

His hat fell off. "Ouch!" He somehow managed to blurt out while his mouth was semi-covered by the salty waters. "Watch it!"

Luckily for Hazama, the mini-boros latched onto his hat and began playing with it, pulling the object around. They were quite sad when he snatched it back. "Sorry, I'm still not used to operating this kind of vehicle."

This time, he was able to turn around and face the woman that spoke from atop the Jet Ski. "Who gave you permission to drive that?"

"I am the life-guard. What did you expect me to drive, a unicycle?" The tanned woman retorted with a frown, crossing her arms. From under the life jacket, she still wore the very revealing uniform of her previous affiliation, the Mercenary Troop.

"How can you say you're a life-guard while clearly threatening my life like this?!"

"As I said, I'm sorry but I don't know how to dri—"

"These hot-pants are far too erotic for any man to keep a cool head while in the water! Do you want to make me drown in a puddle of my own nosebleed!?"

"THEY ARE NOT HOT-PANTS!" If Hazama didn't have the insight to duck when she screamed that, his head would be as full of holes as his black hat now was. "Denim short shorts! They're denim short shorts!"

"A little too short, if I may…" He didn't manage to finish the phrase before another charged Flint Shooter hit the waters right in front of his nose.

"You may shut up before I make you regret being born, mister!"

"Ooh, how scary. Aren't you supposed to be the life-guard? How can you go around threatening an innocent swimmer's life like that!" Hazama complained with a playful pout. "Now that's no good, isn't it, miss?"

"I'm not even in this job by choice! I was dragged into this!" Bullet complained, resting her hands on the Jet Ski's wheel and angrily sighing.

Hazama was very much enjoying the view from his lower angle. "Please, do continue."

Bullet, naively failing to notice the sneaky serpent preying on her features, sighed deeply and leaned over the steering wheel. "It was quite the misunderstanding." As she said that, the day became greyer with the weight of the memories that were soon to befall the current setting.

Hazama, who was not exactly paying attention to the words spoken, failed to notice what was happening until it was too late. "Hey, miss, stop right there! This is my story! No one gave you permission to—!"

It all faded to black. A deep emptiness, not unlike the very insides of the Boundary where a hero once slept; where a scientist lost himself to the truth; where a particular nasty being first Observed himself.

Let us all fade to blackness, where the one who erases the world resides, so that reality may be explained from Her eyes.

Why are you being so dramatic, isn't this just a God damn flashback!

And, ever so slowly, the light may shine over the current situation.

The scene we find ourselves is the city background, as colourful as always. Bullet is walking around aimlessly, holding her bag to her back. She wears a thoughtful, if not somewhat uncertain expression.

"It all started on a dark and stormy night…"

"Miss, it's clearly early morning."

"I was looking for information on the whereabouts of Kokonoe Mercury, the scientist from Sector Seven."

As the narrator explained that, Bullet's thoughtful expression suddenly twisted, pained, and she held a hand over her stomach. A loud grumble shattered the stillness of the almost empty street.

"It was a harsh and difficult task. Sometimes it felt like I couldn't possibly go on."

"Well, I can see that. You're basically passing out from hunger."

"But despite the challenge, I persevered. With the last of my energies, I managed to find a trace of hope."

As her disembodied voice explained that, the Bullet on the screen slowly walked to a small food stand and payed for the frivolous breakfast of a single crepe. Despite being just out of the cooker, she ate it all in one go.

"Ouch, that looked hot!"

"It reignited my spirit and gave me the needed strength to continue my quest."

"You say that, but you clearly burned your tongue right there."

"My will was once again ablaze!"

The Bullet on the screen waved her burnt tongue with a pained expression, cursing herself for her eagerness, though none of her words could reach the two spectators from the future.

"Why are we in a silent film again? And starring her? Isn't this supposed to be my day off?"

"And with that, I resumed my chase. Through many perils I braved on, all for the sake of—"

A gathering went by, though Bullet didn't really noticed the people right away. After downing a glass of juice, courtesy of the clerk that clearly felt bad for her, she realized that the very Kokonoe she was looking for had just passed by, riding the shoulder of a red giant.

"It's rare to see a narrator so dramatic that the plot goes on without them."

"Ahem. Anyway, I gave chase, though they managed to elude me."

"Elude you? Elude you? She was sitting on top of a giant man moving at a snail's pace, surrounded by a cat, a witch, an edgy protagonist, a robot girl with a woman in schoolgirl uniform and Lambda!"

"Is Lambda that one that just showed up in the old motorcycle?"

"Oh, no, that's Major-pain-in-the-butt Kisaragi. Look at that show-off and his silly vintage motorcycle… Huh."

"Is anything the matter? You look lost in thought."

"I kinda want to steal that pretty silver keychain of his… I mean, who cares what I look like, they can't see me anyway! Finish your damn flashback already so I can return to being the focus of this narrative!"

"Very well, where was I…"

"Currently, you seem to have arrived at the beach."

"Oh, yes, after that I…"

As Bullet arrives on the shore, scattering the glistening sand as she walks in a hurried pace, she is stopped by a very muscular man wearing nothing more than his Astral Finish outfit. Though not a word could be heard, Hazama could almost feel his body shiver with the sheer excitement that the highly visible ninja injected on every syllable that came from his big mouth.

"He mistook me for a trainee."

"Though I appreciate you being blunt about it, at this point why are you even shortening the narrative that much?"

"He gave me some loud instructions, a life-jacket and the Jet Ski."

In the flashback, Bang Shishigami was lively trying to get Bullet over the vehicle, though she glowered at it as if the Jet Ski was a mythical beast she had been told to subjugate. There were many failed attempts that resulted in her, her instructor and sometimes both of them falling to the water. A couple times they even managed to fall near the vehicle in question.

"After… that, he was going to teach me how to operate this machine, but there was ice trouble."

"Ice trouble?"

Bullet was finally sitting properly on the Jet Ski, though she was so tense her body couldn't really move. As Bang tried to demonstrate the gesture to turn on the vehicle, an icicle spike suddenly rose from the ground, sending both him and Bullet flying away.

"Ice trouble."

"Yeah."

Bang rushed to part the fighting that was freezing the beach, while Bullet paddled her way back to the Jet Ski. As she managed to climb on it, there was an explosion, and the waves send her forward and away from the commotion.

And as the image once again faded to blackness, that was the end of that special moment.

"Though since then I've learned how make this thing move and stop, I still have no idea how to actually turn." Bullet finished with a sigh, leaning over the Jet Ski's handle in a depressing manner. "I can't go back. And not in the poetic sense."

"So you've basically been stuck skiing in a straight line for… how long, exactly?"

"About two hours."

Hazama nodded thoughtfully, a mini-boros chomping the back of his teared hat. "Miss, I diagnose you with stupid."

"Hah?!"

"It's probably not terminal, but just to be sure, you should get some nerd glasses. Or a cape. Maybe some double belts while at it. God knows your current one is long enough to make at least three more." Hazama pulled a little on the end of her tail-like brown belt, making Bullet's entire body fire up in anger. "And now, if you don't mind, please leave and stop taking away my precious screen tim—"

Before Hazama could finish, a sudden tightening of the chains around his arms yanked him into the depths of the ocean.