Author's Notes – Hey everyone, I'm so sorry about the massive delay. I have been SO busy with school, cross-country, and newspaper. However, cross-country ended just recently, so I'll have more time to work on this fic. Hooray! Well, now I'm starting to crack down on the plot, I write the author's notes first before the fic, so I have no idea what I will be putting down. Hopefully something good! =)

Rated – PG – 13 (bad Kusenagi and Koume, tsk tsk)

*Author's Note – On Saturdays, Japanese kids go to school for half of the day.

The Aragami are Back?! Blackmail can be Fun! Blue Seed 1.399 – Why are the Aragami Always After Momiji?

            Kusenagi laughed evilly as he stepped into the parking lot at the Drug-o-Mart, the warm afternoon sun bathing over his skin. Shielding his eyes from its rays, he tucked the photos he had gotten developed an hour before, a CD-ROM, and film extras in his pocket, making sure to button it shut so that nothing could escape. After checking to make sure the contents in his pocket were safe, Kusenagi let out a victorious whoop and flew towards the direction of the TAC headquarters.

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            Koume Sawaguchi was feeling much better, having fired some serious rounds at her favorite target range. The chucked triumphantly as she remembered how the other men near her had either stared in awe at all of the bull's-eyes she had made, or silently slinked off to avoid her noticing them.

            "Men," Koume said as she drove back to the office, "What a bunch of wimps. Every single one of them." Koume couldn't help but smile for the remainder of the drive back, her spirits the highest they'd been since…since, well, since she couldn't remember when. Lightly humming to herself, she made her way up the stairs to the floor that held the headquarters of the TAC and its many labs. Opening the door, she couldn't help but do a double-take at the scene before her. The office was a disaster area: broken furniture and papers strewn in every place imaginable; all of the desks out of place; part of the ceiling showing a spot where it had been scraped off; the walls all sporting really strange, thin, erratic patterns (though those she had noticed from earlier as being the slime trails of the specimen that Matsudaira had lost); and to top it off, Ms. Matsudaira and Yaegashi both crawling around on their hands and knees, feeling and looking intently at the floor, as though someone had lost a contact lens. Yaegashi, having heard the door open, looked up to see a very confused Koume trying to make sense of the state of the room.

            "Oh hi Koume!" Yaegashi said as he stood up and dusted his pants off. He chucked at girlfriend as she opened and closed her mouth, trying to formulate words but failing miserably. With a sort of squeak that sounded to Yaegashi like a cross between a dying bird and a sick rat, Koume started point around the room, as though to gesture that she must have missed something major. Matsudaira, who all the while had been oblivious to the world (in her quest for her poor lost Petri dishes), suddenly took notice to Yaegashi's lack of work and turned around to see what he was up to.

            "Koume, you're back. Great, can you help me look for my Petri dishes? They're here somewhere." Koume, having given up on saying or doing anything, stared blankly at Matsudaira. Yaegashi walked over to his confused love and waved his hand in front of her eyes.

            "Koume?" Noticing his hand, Koume snapped out of her state of utter bewilderment and looked at Yaegashi.

            "Should I even ask?"

            "I'll tell you about it later at home."

            "Ok."

            "Want to help Matsudaira and me out? We're looking for her Petri dishes that she lost."

            "How big are they?"

            "About this big." Yaegashi replied, making an O his forefingers and thumbs about eight inches across.

            "The big ones then?"

            "Yeah."

            "Well, it's not like I have anything better to do." Koume said with a sigh as she got down next to her boyfriend and started combing the floor for signs of any round glass containers.

Suddenly, Kusenagi flew up to the side of the window. Unfortunately for him, Matsudaira had shut it in case any of her Petri dishes were open, to keep a breeze from carrying away her findings. Kusenagi, like a clueless bird, slammed straight into the glass with a sickening "WHAM!!!". Everyone looked up in shock to see a stunned and now-concussion-induced Kusenagi stuck to the window like a frog, slowly sliding down. Koume pointed and laughed at the sight, while Yaegashi chuckled at the poor man's luck, and Matsudaira merely smiled and stood up. Making her way over to the window, she opened it up, and grabbing the collar of his red trench coat, pulled the unconscious Kusenagi into the room. Koume's laughter increased at Kusangi's pain, her hysterical giggles causing her eyes to tear up and her footing to falter, thus making her fall onto the floor. Yaegashi just shook his head at that, though the sight of Koume tripping and falling over in fits of laughter caused his chuckles to increase to small gales of laughter himself. Poking him with a stick, Matsudaira noticed something small poking out of Kusenagi's pocket.

"Oooooooohhhhhhhhh, where am I?" Kusenagi moaned, startling Matsudaira as he came to. Kusenagi looked around the room, confusion etched all over his face at the sight of Koume rolling on the floor in fits of laugher and Yaegashi laughing almost quite as hard.

"It's no matter." Matsudaira said with a light chuckle as she helped Kusenagi to his feet.

"I feel like something hit me." At this revelation, Koume sat up and tried to say something, but her laughter was so strong that she couldn't make out any coherent words. She pointed in a few wild gestures to the window, and then, through her giggles, motioned with her right fist slamming into her left palm.

"I'm afraid you hit something. You flew into the window." Matsudaira said with a smile.

"Shit. Figures." Kusenagi said, a blush creeping onto his face.

"Say, what is that in your pocket?" Matsudaira asked, her attention shifting once again to the object poking out of his jacket.

"Picture and a CD-ROM."

"Of…?

"Well, let's just say I found Ryoko and Kunikida." Kusenagi said with a sly tone. Yaegashi, wiping the tears from his eyes (the direct result of laughing too hard), inquired if he could see them.

"Sure." Kusenagi said as he tossed him the small folder. Koume, trying her best to regain her composer, stood up and walked over to where Yaegashi was standing. Matsudaira followed in suit.

"This…*gasp*…should…*gasp*…be…*gasp*…interesting…" Koume said labouredly as she tried to catch her breath from laughing. Yaegashi opened up the flap of the folder, and took out the set. Kusenagi meanwhile sat down in a chair, anticipation to the TAC's reaction to their boss and co-workers' behaviors running through his mind. Flipping through the pictures, all three workers' eyes grew as wide as saucers, their faces turning beet red. With each passing picture their eyes grew steadily wider, until Kusenagi wondered if their eyeballs would pop right out of their skulls. Finishing off the set; Koume, Matsudaira, and Yaegashi all looked at each other in a stunned silence. Then, what Kusenagi thought was choreographed, all three workers burst out into wild gales of laugher. Yaegashi, trying his hardest to stuff the pictures back into the file while his girlfriend was holding onto him for support, dropped the photos onto the floor. Matsudaira soon followed suit, the hilarity of them all too much for her to handle.

"I'm gonna, I'm gonna, HAHAHA…!!!" Koume said, her initial intention being for the words, "I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks" to come out.

A few minutes later (well, more like ten), the three members of the TAC tried to compose themselves and calm down.

"You said you have a CD-ROM of these pictures Kusenagi?" Yaegashi asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah, I was actually gonna talk to you about that."

"Good, give it here." Yaegashi said, extending his hand. Not one to argue, Kusenagi handed the CD over to the resident computer specialist.

"I heard you can publish them online." Kusenagi commented.

"Yeah, and I have the perfect idea." Yaegashi said,

"Oh?" Koume questioned, surprised at his eagerness and tone of voice.

"Everyone be sure to check their office e-mail tomorrow morning!" He said as he ran out the door.

"Hey, wait for me! No fair doing anything evil without me around!" Koume said as she ran after him, slamming the door behind her. Kusenagi turned to Matsudaira.

"Well, I'm gonna take these with me when I go to pick up Momiji. I think she'll want a good look at this." He said with a sly smile as he waved the small folder next to his face. Matsudaira simply smiled at him and excused herself to get a drink of water. Kusenagi bounded out the window, and headed towards Momiji's school.

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            Momiji sat by the giant oak tree, enjoying the lunch that Toshi had made for her. While the cucumbers were something left to be desired, she enjoyed the overall taste of the meal.

            "Thank God it's Saturday!*" Toshi said with a grin as she wolfed down her portion of the lunch (see author's note).

            "Maybe for you. I have go home to that endless mountain of homework." Momiji lamented, the thought of the stack of papers already enough to give her a headache.

            "I know! Instead of you going home to homework, let's have you take the day off. Come on, it'll be fun! We'll go to the park and throw stones at the ducks in the pond!" Toshi said, her eyes lighting up at the idea. Momiji sprouted a giant sweatdrop at the idea,

            "Now that doesn't seem very nice. Poor ducks."

            "I was only joking silly." Toshi said with a wave of her hand. "But I was serious about you taking the rest of the day off. You need it, you're hurting yourself by always working."

            "I guess you're right," Momiji said with a smile.

            "Alright, then it's settled! Girls' day out!" Toshi said as she pumped her fist high into the air. With a whoop, she grabbed Momiji's wrist and started to drag her towards the park.

            "I-, um, hey, whoa, wait, no, eep, ack, my wrist…" Momiji said in light protest as her friend dragged her through the busy streets of Tokyo to the Suzano-o Memorial Tree Park. Not letting go, Toshi dragged Momiji to a desolate part of the park.

            "So much for playing near the pond. Where are we?" Momiji said as she freed her wrist from Toshi's vice-grip.

            "Away from the world! Come on let's keep going! Unless you're chicken that is." Toshi said as she ran further into the woods.

            "I'm not chicken! Wait up!" Momiji said as she chased after her friend in hot pursuit. Suddenly stopping, Toshi turned around to look at her close-following friend. Unfortunately for Momiji, she stopped too fast, and she crashed into Toshi with a loud "SMACK!!!".

            "Ow, watch where you're going." Toshi said as she sat up, rubbing the back of her head.

            "Sorry." Momiji apologized, wincing as she stood up.

            "You should be. But that's alright, I'll even the score." Toshi suddenly said in a strange metallic voice. Startled, Momiji turned around and stared at her friend. Toshi's eyes glowed a bright red, and Momiji watched in horror as she started to sprout green vines and extra limbs from her body.

            "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Momiji said as she tried to run. However, she was too terrified to run, and her feet were rooted to the spot. 

            "Not all of us are dormant you know. I'm here to take revenge for my lord, Suzano-o!" The one-Toshi monster said. Momiji's eyes widened in terror as she looked at the sight before her. Where her friend used to be now stood a 30-foot tall monster. The head was wrinkled, like that of a giant lizard, and the torso was a cross between a tree and a spider. All over the body were long green vines, some hanging loosely while others were writhing about. The creature had the beak of a bird, with the eight legs of a spider, a wooden-type torso shaped like that of a sort of horse and hippo hybrid. The four eyes on its head stared intently at Momiji, and its be-fangled mouth glistened, saliva running down the beak.

            "B-b-b-but if you kill me, then you'll die as well!"

            "Ha! Not so! I am a new breed of Aragami! The world shall all tremble at the sight of me, such as you are now, you foolish girl. The spilling of your blood won't kill me, nor will it put me in a deep slumber. It won't do a thing. And you know why? Because I am Kodanshi, the soon to be leader of all new Aragami!"

            Momiji, scared stiff at the sight of the beast, did the only thing that she could coherently do. Scream.

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Kusenagi flew through the air, his spirits high off of one of the best days that he had ever had.

"Momiji's gonna freak at these." Kusenagi said to himself with a chuckle, the thought of her reaction and how many more times exaggerated her response would be in comparison to the TAC running through his mind. His thoughts were cut short, however, when a shrill scream vibrated through his skull.

"What the-?" Kusenagi wondered out loud, the scream startling him so bad that he temporarily stopped concentrating on flying and consequently nearly fell through the roof of an office building. Righting himself (and mentally berating himself for not being more careful), Kusenagi flew to the Suzano-o Memorial Tree Park to quickly collect his thoughts. Once he had landed, the shrill scream again reverberated through his skull. Concentrating on what the sound was and why he was hearing it, his head suddenly snapped up, and his eyes widened.

"Oh shit! MOMIJI!!!" Kusenagi yelled, causing passer-byers who weren't already staring at him from his earlier landing (it's not every day you see a green-haired cat-eyed hunk of a guy flying through the air and landing right in front of you) to really take notice. Looking around frantically, Kusenagi took to the air once more and started circling around the park in an effort to find his girlfriend before whatever was making her scream could have a chance at her.

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            Yaegashi and Koume were driving down the road, both their minds occupied with what they were going to be doing that night.

            "Hey Yaegashi, I've never really known you to be bad." Koume said expectantly at her boyfriend. as she looked over at him. She noticed right off that his brown eyes had a sparkle there that they didn't normally have.

            "Well, you'd be right. But I'm an expert at working with this sort of thing and not getting caught. That's one of the main reasons I was hired to work for the TAC!" Yaegashi said, his voice full of excitement. It wasn't every day that Yaegashi got to do something truly diabolical using his computer, so this was a rare opportunity that he didn't want to pass up. Stopping at a red light, Yaegashi sighed.

            "Turn green already!"

            "Hey now, you're sounding more like me!"

            "I'm surprised you're not as excited as I am."

            "I am, I'm just more laid back about it than you. I mean, come on, all of that computer crap is way over my head. I know what I need to, not all that extra stuff."

            "I guess you're right."

            "Damn straight I am."

            "You always like being right, don't you?"

            "I like always being right? How about I am always right. That's why you love me, because I know what I'm doing most of the time." Yaegashi chuckled at that comment. Koume couldn't help but smile as well as she took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the van.

            "WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT?!?" Koume asked as she looked around as though she were in combat. Yaegashi, who was totally taken by surprise, noticed something out of the corner of his left eye.

            "Hey Koume?"

            "What?"

            "Why does the Suzano-o Memorial Tree Park have smoke coming out of it and Kusenagi flying around overhead?"

            "Oh God…"

            "It must be an Aragami!" Yaegashi yelled, his concience telling him how he should've told the rest of the TAC earlier about his findings.

            "ALRIGHT!!!" Koume said as she opened up the side door to the van and leapt out. Knowing right were she was going, Yaegashi yelled for her to get on the sidewalk, and he quickly made his way to the side of the road, parking (illegally of course, how else are you gonna get a parking spot in downtown Tokyo?) and hopping out. Making sure to put an official government pass on the dashboard (so the wonderful government of Japan could pick up the tab for the ticket), Yaegashi closed the door and made his way to the back, where Koume had already opened up and acquired what she needed.

            "I haven't been this pumped up since Suzano-o and the governments of the U.S. and Japan nearly turned us all into nuclear waste!" Sweatdropping, Yaegashi hesitantly picked out the only weapon left in the back of the van (Koume having taken the rest); a  10mm handgun, and stood poised. Koume, packed with her favorite rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and various other weapons of mass destruction, yelled out a war cry and raced towards the park, dodging through 6 lanes of congested Tokyo streets (and threatening anybody who didn't stop for her with her rocket launcher). Yaegashi, with a sigh, walked over to the edge of the street and pushed the button next to the light to activate the signs for the crosswalk.

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            Matsudaira had all but given up hope on ever finding her Petri dishes. She was cleaning the office (from her little catastrophe earlier) when the phone rang.

            "Terrestrial Administration Center, Toyko district, how may I help you?" Matsudaira asked in her polite office voice.

            "Matsudaira! It's Yaegashi. We've got an Aragami situation down at the Suzano-o Memorial Tree Park!"

            "An Aragami? But I thought they were all dormant since the demise of Suzano-o."

            "Apparently not. Listen, I need you to get over here ASAP. Koume's already headed towards the sight, and Kusenagi is flying overhead. It looks as though he's trying to find it."

            "Alright, I'll be right over." Matsudaira said, hanging up the phone and her white lab coat and running out the door. She contemplated called Kunikida and Ryoko, but thought the better of it, knowing that there wouldn't be much that they would be able to do, judging by the pictures Kusenagi took. "I think I'll let their hangovers run their courses before I get them involved in this." She thought to herself as she pushed open the door with full force and ran into the parking lot to find one of the remaining TAC vans.

The End of Chapter 6

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Wow, ok, I am SO sorry about the delay. Seriously, I am. I've spent the past two weeks totally bogged down with homework and midterms, it's not even funny. Plus school newspaper is really putting the crunch on me. I finally had to force extra time to write this. So how do you like it? Hopefully you found it enjoyable. This chapter is 2 pages longer than the others. Hehe! PLEASE REVIEW!!!