AN: The promotion to captain has already happened.

In the cold, windy mountains of the Far East near an old almost destroyed temple from before the Aragami stuck. Claire, the new leader of the 1st Unit, and Kota spoke to each other as they waited for one more member to show up. "I can't believe you went ahead and watched Bugarally without me!" Claire said.

"Well, you were busy," Kota said.

"That's no excuse!"

"I think there's something more important right now."

"Huh?" Claire looked at Kota, slightly confused.

"You're a captain now!"

"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right."

"How are you not excited about this?!"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just so nervous that instead of worrying about if I'm going to make it back alive. Now I have to worry about if you or anyone else I'm on a mission with is going to make it back or not. There's so much to worry about. You guys are my responsibility now! I don't know how to act as a captain! I didn't have the best example to run off of! That just adds more pressure."

"Oh... I didn't know you felt that way. Well, you got us behind ya. We'll help you to the best of our ability."

"Thank you, Kota."

"Alright, enough of this! Let's have some fun for a change."

"Uh, okay? What do you suggest?"

"I've been thinking of have a little party for your promotion."

"A party!?"

Kota noticed the excited look on Claire's face after he said party. "What? Never had a party before?" Kota said jokingly.

"Actually, yeah."

"You serious?"

"Yep, I never had the time to have one when I was growing up. I was always busy."

"Well, since this is your first party. We gotta make it the best party ever!"

"Ooh! I'm getting excited."

"Darn right you better get excited!" Kota noticed Claire looking off to the side and he turned around to see Soma arriving for the mission.

"Somebody finally made it," Claire said.

"Hey, what up, Soma? I was just talking to Claire here about having a little party to celebrate her promotion. You down?"

"Gonna say no," Soma said as he wasted no time on considering it and continued forward into the mission area.

"Come on Soms, don't be the pre-party pooper!"

"Go ahead and have your 'shindig'. Just don't count on my RSVP." Soma said as he jumped down the ledge. Kota angrily followed him to the ledge and yelled at him.

"Jerk! Hey don't act all badass just... 'cause you're all badass and stuff! And don't be so arrogant even when you show up like twenty minutes late, but whatever! Jackass..." Kota turned towards Claire. "You'd think I was asking him to run ops naked. Damn... He's such a buzzkill! Whoops, it's twenty-past-mission. Guess we better get on out there yeah?" Kota said as he jumped down the ledge.

Claire sighed after watching what happened. "Geez, Kota... You got to stop arguing with Soma so much." Claire said to herself before following.

After Claire cut down the finally Aragami, she started to think back to happened with Alisa. Wondering how she can repay her for saving her from death. "I don't know if there's anything I can do to repay her..." Claire thought. "Unless..."

"Hey? Something wrong?" Kota said with a worried expression.

"What? Oh, no. Nothing's wrong."

"You sure? You looked pretty troubled. You worried about your position as leader?"

"Uh, no, not right now."

"Uh, then is it Soma? I'm worried about him. We haven't seen him since the mission started."

"No... I mean, yeah. I am worried about him, but it's not that."

"Well, then what?"

"Um, you know how Alisa saved me from that Varja? I was just thinking about how I could repay her."

"Ah, I get it."

"Do you know how I could go about it?"

"Hm... I can't think of anything big enough that would be the same as saving someone."

"Well... I'll think about it some later." Claire said as she started to leave the area. "Come on. Let's go find Soma so we can go home."

After Claire confirmed with Hibari that they were no Aragami in the area she spilt up with Kota to find Soma so they can head home. They looked around the area, both not finding anything but it didn't take that long for them to find him. The area was pretty small, not many places for them to go and it being cold meant they were going to stay that long. They found him in one of the old temples and from the looks of it, it looked like he was looking for something, but they didn't know what. "What's he doing?" Claire asked.

"I dunno. Let's just go check upon him." Kota said.

The moment Kota got close to Soma, he quickly faced towards them and pointed his God Arc at him. There was a very small look of surprise on his face, but it quickly faded away. "Whoa! Whoa! Hey!" Kota said as he held up his God Arc in defence, not expecting a God Arc to be pointed so close to his face.

"Huh... Well, I didn't expect to turn around and see you." Soma said.

"You are welcome," Kota said. "It's not like we came out here to look for you. Damn! You never came back. We got worried."

"Now you found me, why don't you turn right around and go home? I've things to handle on my own."

"What? We're comrades, man. We're in the same unit. Geez, you can be stuck-up."

"Ha! So we're comrades now, huh? How so?" Soma asked. "Who would want a comrade that can't take a little joke, a comrade you can't trust to have you back? Hmph. Better to not have them at all..."

"The hell, man?!" Kota yelled, feeling slightly insulted. "You know what, fine! Okay? Fine! You're so awesome! You're so epic! If you think you're so hot and you don't need us, then whatever! Suit yourself, jerk. I'm going home."

Claire watched as Kota turned and left them in the old temple. "Geez, Kota," Claire said to herself. "Don't mind him. He doesn't mean it." Claire turned to Soma who gave that same unamused stare.

"You should go too. What do you need with a monster like me?" Soma said, ignoring what Claire had said.

"Monster or not. You're still a friend."

"A friend, huh?" Soma said, slightly amused "What the hell did I do to make you think like that?"

"During our first mission together. When Eric... died... I froze up and lost it... again. You made sure I survived that mission."

Soma started at Claire for a few seconds before looking away. "Tch... Just get the hell out of here."

Claire sighed a little before she spoke up. "Alright, I'll leave. I know you're fine now. Just don't do anything reckless... although I'm not one to talk. Ugh, now I have to write up a report."

"Since when the hell did you start taking your job seriously?"

"Since I became a Captain," Claire said before she left Soma to do his things. "Ugh, I hate paperwork."

Back at the Den, Claire stood outside the door of her room who used to belong Lindow since what happened she hasn't entered the room once she has been promoted to captain she didn't feel right for taking Lindow's room from him. Whenever she felt too tired to do anything and she needed sleep, she would always ask Sakuya or Alisa for a place to sleep for a while. She opened the door and looked around the room, everything was still the same since the last time she visited. Her eyes fell upon a picture near a radio. She walked over to and picked it up. She looked sadly at the picture which contains Sakuya, Tsubaki, and Lindow. She took the picture outside the room and she walked over to Sakuya's door. She knocked on the door waiting for an answer. She didn't wait long for an answer as she heard Sakuya telling her to come in.

"Claire?" Sakuya greeted her once she noticed it was her who entered. "Was there something you need?"

"Uh, I finally went into... my new room."

"Oh."

"I find this." Claire showed Sakuya and noticed her expression changed to sadness. "I thought maybe you should keep." Sakuya took the picture and stared at it for a couple of seconds.

"Thank you..."

"You're welcome. I'll talk to you later. I just finished writing a report not too long ago, and I'd like to take a rest."

"Alright." Claire turned around to leave her to rest.