In her room by herself, Claire sat at her desk to write a report of the recently completed mission. "And... done. That's the paperwork for today's mission... and I got, even more, paperwork later today... Ugh!" She stood up and stretched from sitting for so long. She looked at the clock and noticed it was almost time for her mission with Kota was about to start. "Just in time too. I gotta go file this quick." Claire grabbed the papers and quickly made her way to the lobby. Once she reached the elevator, she stood there waiting for it to arrive. Her thoughts went back to what she talked about with Kota during their last mission together. Eventually, the elevator arrived Claire walked in and pushed the button for the lobby.

"I guess there is only one way to repay her. I'm gonna have to kill the Aragami that killed her parents. But has it been sighted at all recently?" Claire thought. "And am I even capable of doing it?"

The elevator doors opened and Claire walked down the stairs over to Hibar, she held up the papers for Hibari to take. "Here you go, Hibari. The after-action reports."

"Thank you." Hibari took the papers before she spoke to her about something important. "Claire?"

"Yes?" Claire turned back to Hibari as she was just about to leave.

"The Director wishes to see you in his office before your mission."

"Thank you, Hibari. I'll go right away." Claire said before she made her way over to the elevator.

Once she arrived at the Director's office, Claire stood in front of his desk, patiently waiting for him to speak. The Director leaned forward on his chair before he spoke up. "You have achieved incredible things during your tenure here. To think you would acquire such leadership talents so fast... Perhaps it is a knack unique to the New Types. It has proven most useful." The Director paused briefly before continuing with what he was saying. "You may already be aware, but construction on the Aegis Island is nearing completion. We are at last ready to enter the final stages. It is a bold shield, an Ark to protect humankind from the Aragami threat... eternally. The impending success is a cause for celebration. However, we must not let our guard down. We're so very close... I will continue to require your services. I hope I can rely on you, Captain."

"Of course, Director. I'll do anything to help." Claire said.

"Good." A buzzing from the computer next to caught his attention and he quickly pressed a button to answer it. "Pardon me, I... I was expecting a visitor. We'll continue this another day. I continue to expect only the best from you, Captain. You will help to lead us into a bright wondrous future. Dismissed." Claire nodded as she turned to leave the room.

Outside of the Director's office, Claire spotted Sakaki walking towards her. "Hello, Dr. Sakaki," Claire said as she past Sakaki and continued towards the elevator, but stopped when Sakaki spoke up.

"I wonder... do you count yourself a curious person?" Before Claire could ask him what he meant, he turned back and went into the Director's office. Claire stared at where Sakaki was standing.

"Weird... I wonder what that was about?" Claire was about to leave when she noticed something on the ground. She bent down and picked it up. It was a disk, and she could only guess that Sakaki dropped it. "What do I do? I can't give it to him now. He's meeting with the Director, and I'm going on a mission pretty soon..." Claire started to think of a situation but was only able to come up with one.

"I'm just gonna have to keep until I'm able to give it back. I'll just drop it off in my room."

In the old City, Claire and Kota walked over to the mission area together, Claire had her God Arc resting over her shoulder while Kota was walking leisurely beside her. "You know Kota. It's been a while since we last went on together, just the two of us."

"Has it?"

"Yeah. I think the last time was when we were just recruits."

"Oh yeah, that was quite some time ago. Man, I still didn't think you would rocket up to leader status."

"Alright, Kota! Let's show them that we're the best God Eater duo in the Far East!"

"Right behind ya! Let's get this sucker done!" Kota said as he and Claire ran over to the mission area, Kota and Claire came to a stop when they reached a corner. Kota peeked around the corner and found the small herd of Aragami they were looking for. Before engaging them, Kota turned to Claire to make sure she doesn't lose herself to anger.

"Claire?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"The target is right ahead of us."

"Okay." Claire nodded.

"I just wanted to make sure that you don't..."

"I... I'll try. I promised Alisa that I wouldn't do anything reckless. Can you watch over me to make sure that doesn't happen?"

"Right! Don't worry, Kota's got your back!"

"Thank you." Claire smiled before she walked around Kota and stared at the Aragami herd, two Zygotes noticed her and alerted the others before charging at her. Claire readied herself before the Aragami could get close. Once the Zygote got close, it tried to attack, but it missed as Claire dodged out of the way. Claire jumped up and slammed her God Arc into the Aragami, forcing it to the ground. The moment it tried to get up, Kota placed the barrel of his God Arc into the large eyeball and pulled the trigger. One after another Claire cut them down while Kota shot them out of the sky. Shortly after taking out half of the Zygotes, the Orgetails started to show up. Once Claire noticed the Orgetails she started to clench her fist in anger Claire began to charge at the Aragami ready to kill them.

"Claire!" Kota called.

Claire came to halt once she heard Kota call out her name and he watched as Claire took a battle stance as the Aragami began to charge at her. Kota fired at the Orgetails before running over to Claire. "Claire! You all right now?"

"Yes." Was all she said before lifting her God Arc and deploying her shield to block the projectiles from the Orgetails. "Thank you. Let's finish this."

The mission was going well with Kota watching Claire carefully to make sure she doesn't try to run off. It looked like the Aragami's numbers were depleting at a decent rate, but they didn't expect more of them to appear. Their numbers were greater than what the report had said. Even though they were small Aragami numbers like this spelled out trouble for Kota and Claire. Both of them slowly started to back away from the Aragami. Kota kept up the fire on the ones that were distant while Claire cut down anyone that got too close. A very loud thud from behind them caught their attention and they turned around to see an Orgetail right behind Kota. The Orgetail tackled Kota with its body and he hit the wall hard enough to knock him out. The Orgetail walked over to Kota to finish him out and begin eating him. But, before it could get close enough, Claire cut it down. "I'm not losing another one!" Claire shouted. "You're not going to end up like Eric..." Claire started to shake him awake, but it wasn't working.

"Shit!" Claire quickly pulled out her radio and began calling for Hibari.

"Claire? What's going on? Kota-"

"Hibari! I need an extraction! Quick! Kota being knocked out by the enemy, and there's too many of them for me to keep him safe!"

"R-Right! Sending in an extraction and rescue team! Just hang in there until they arrive."

The moment Claire out away her radio, two more Aragami show up. The Zygotes charged at them and Claire jumped up in the air quickly cut them down before she focused her attention to Kota. She grabbed him by the shoulder and placed his arm over her shoulder and started to carry him out of harm's way.

Sakuya walked down the stairs leading to the shopkeeper she noticed Hibari working at a frantic pace and began to wonder what is wrong. "Hibari? Is something the matter?" Sakuya asked.

"It's Claire! She's in trouble!"

"What!? How?!"

"She and Kota went on a simple mission together, but the Intel didn't say that the Aragami had such numbers," Hibari explained. "Currently, Kota is unconscious, and Claire's trying to keep him alive long for our forces to arrive."

"Inform Soma and Alisa! We're going in to rescue them!"

"Right!"

Claire was able to kill and cut down most of the Aragami, but their numbers were still too great for her to handle on her own especially since her partner was out cold. Eventually, Claire was able to drag Kota to the old church and hid in that one spot that had only one entrance. Claire tried to recover breath after placing Kota on the far said of the room. She stood near the entrance, occasionally looking out the entrance to see if any Aragami spotted them. She readied herself after noticing one Zygote slowly making its way over towards their general direction. Soon after an Orgetail started following it. "Alright, alright. Stay calm. Breath in and out. In and out. If Alisa can start overcoming her fear, I can overcome this too." When the Aragami got too close, Claire jumped out of her hiding spot and cut down the Aragami. All the Aragami noticed the noise and began charging after Claire. "Focus only on defending Kota." Claire thought.

After a while, it looked like their numbers were dwindling, but it still wasn't enough since Claire started to breathe rather heavily from the constant fighting. Things started getting bad as an Orgetail tackled into her. She hit the wall behind her and she heard a faint cracking noise from her right arm. She dropped her God Arc and nearly screamed from the pain. She stood up and picked up her God Arc with her left hand. "Argh, if I didn't have to worry about Kota's safety, I would have defeated them all already." Claire thought. "Right. Only have to hold out until help arrives!"

Claire found it somewhat difficult to swing with only her left arm it took a little more than usual to be able to cut down one Aragami. When she cut that Aragami down, she failed to notice one of the Aragami closed in. The Aragami jumped in ready to finish her off and Claire tried to back away, but it was already too late to do anything but watch as its jaw get closer and closer. Gunfire rang out as the attacking Aragami was shot down by someone. "I'm up! I'm up!" Kota had finally woke up, still a little dizzy from before. "What happened?"

"You got knocked out, and while I was defending you, I think I broke my arm."

"Ouch, I'm sorry for causing you trouble."

"Don't worry about it," Claire said as they both stared at the small Aragami horde but before they could prepare to fight them off a barrage of bullets took out the rest of them. "Oh, good. They're here." Claire said, relieved that she doesn't have to fight. Soon after some God Eaters they haven't meet appeared and Not long after that, some familiar faces showed up. Sakuya, Soma, and Alisa showed up they all were looking around to make sure there wasn't any more left. Once they confirmed that the area was clear, they turned their attention to the injured God Eaters.

Shortly after catching her breath, Claire was enveloped in a hug by Alisa. She winced a little after some pressure was put on her arm. "I was so worried. I thought you promised not to do anything reckless?" Alisa lightly hit Claire's arm.

"O-Ow..."

"What's wrong?" Alisa asked.

"I-I think you hit the arm I broke."

"Oh, I-I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay."

"You were reckless again."

"This time, I wasn't reckless."

"Yeah, sorry. This time was my bad. I'll take the blame for this one." Kota said.

"Whatever. Let's go back."

"Claire! Are you okay?" Sakuya said after she secured the area.

"I'm fine. Just a broken bone."

Claire left the infirmary after the doctor checked her injury and bandaged it up. Alisa and Kota were waiting outside worried for their friend. "Claire!" Kota said as they both went over to her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I should be. It's only a minor fracture. I should be back in duty soon. Hopefully soon." Claire said as she went over to the elevator. The other two right behind her.

"I'm sorry, Claire. My bad." Kota said.

"It's fine. As long as everyone comes back home. That's the only thing I care about."

"Still. I'll lend you Bugarally." The elevator arrived and they all went in.

"Thanks. That will keep me occupied enough to till I'm able to get back to work."

"No problem. It's the least I can do for screwing up."

"You two have a mission pretty soon, right? Well, I'll see you later." The elevator stopped on the veteran God Eater section. Claire stepped on the blue carpet and made her way over to her room. "Make sure you drop off Bugarally before you go."

Before Kota could press the button for the lobby, Alisa quickly stepped off the elevator. "I need to speak to her. I'll be back in a little while."

"Uh, okay," Kota said as the elevator door closed.

Before the door to Claire's room could close, she heard Alisa call out to her. She turned around wondering what Alisa needed. "Hey, Alisa. Did you... need something?"

"I just wanted to talk."

"Okay, about what?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about this feeling I've been having for a while."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

"It's just... I've been feeling restless every time you go on a mission."

"Okay, go on."

"...And whenever you get hurt. I just end up getting worried sick."

"Hmm..." Claire closed her eyes as started to think of an answer for Alisa. "...Have you ever had a friend before, you know...?"

"N-No. Why?"

"Then you just really care about me. Friends do care about each other. They would sometimes get worried when they found out their friend is hurt. Maybe it's something like that."

"Hm... I-I think you're right. You are the first person in a very long who cared about me so much."

"Did I help?"

"Y-Yeah, you did. Thank you again."

"No problem. Is there anything else?"

"No, thank you again. I need to go. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, see you." Claire waved at Alisa before turning around to rest for a while.