A/N: Oh hey, its me again. Its been a while, hasn`t it?

To say the fucking least. Anyway, i`ll finish this one, i promise. Only one or two chapters to go.

Chapter 9 no Jutsu!

Resisting the urge to break open another soda machine, Bullet follows suit, soon to be blinded by the sun as they arrive at the surface.
However, there was a downside that came with it- the sun was setting, dusk. Meaning that they would soon be in a ghost town in pitch black darkness... not a pleasent way to spend an evening.
"Damn." She cursed, shielding her eyes with one hand over them. "Looks like we`ll have to hurry to that Institute."

Patting Makoto`s back to help her catch her breath again, Caelica escorted her to the surface as well and was greeted with a beautiful but sorrowful sight. The sun vanishing behind the horizon in a city that was annhilated a century ago- the hundreds of glass shards in the fine dust reflecting the sunlight, giving it a whole new spectrum of colors, added to the romantic sadness of the view. Near the horizon, one could see ripples in the clouds and stars that seemed to shiver, stirr around- an optical illusion caused by the massive radiation in the area.
Then, a pair of positioning lights caught her eye- a drone aircraft rapidly, but silently approaching. Most likely their backup.

"Yup." Makoto answers, following after. Her pace is a little staggered still from her residual head trauma, but her smile is fully and completely restored. "I don't think we'll have time to locate the journal thingie once night falls, so let's settle for finding the building and setting up camp there. We'll need daylight to finish everything, I think."

Ragna shrugs, his bad mood already receding from long practice. "Agreed. Plus I don't want us to be split up and distracted when that fucker comes back. I'd bet his pets can see in the dark or some shit like that. Not a time to be fighting him if we can help it."

Makoto nods as she glances around at the ruined glass architecture, picks out a lightpole, and attaches a flare to it that sets off a blue smoke cloud to signal the drone plane. "So which building d'ya think is the Institute?"

Ragna points at a low concrete structure distingushed by the actual bunkers set into the ground around it. "I dunno, but anything that heavily defended has to be a big deal. Follow the security, I guess?"

Caelica nodded, recognizing the building from memory.
"Yeah, thats it... the front yard, that is. You wouldn´t believe how huge it is underground... made to withstand an atomic war."
And that had been absolutly handy, even though the air filters died years ago and the electricity only barely sustained some LED lights, the underground bunker was left nearly untouched. But they weren´t that far yet.

Instead, Bullet tossed down her explosive gear near the entrance and nodded to herself.
"That has to be the hatch down there." She pointed at a steel trapdoor, locked from the inside... or simply rusted shut. "Should we set up the camp here?"
The mercenary turned her head as a modified Reaper II drone flew overhead, dropping a person onto them like a bomb. Instead of exploding on the ground, however, he rolled off and stopped on one knee, slinging off a parachute package full of weapons and getting on his feet.
Slowly, he approached the group- a young man, not overly tall, toned and with short brown hair, a healthly complexion that seemed almost too flawless to be natural. In a crowd, he wouldn´t stand out a bit- even when one counted in his odd, light yellow eyes.
"Hey, squrriel-pop."
With a smile, he tossed Makoto a bar of chocolate.
"I shopped around, and most people seemed to think i was crazy for asking in the first place, but i finally found chocolate with chestnuts in it."
With that said, he turned to the others and waved a greeting.
"Yo. I`m Neon, and i`ll be your guide for this tour."

Ragna shakes his head. "Blow the trapdoor. When we find a suitable room inside we'll camp there. This is way too open. I don't fancy that fucker dropping a building on us somehow, or bringing a whole pack. Let's get somewhere he can't do either." He turns to the new arrival and cocks an eyebrow. "Welcome to the party. Nice entrance."

Makoto has no words. She wibbles at Neon for a moment, tears the wrapping off with her teeth, and gobbles it in about point five seconds. Actual tears spring to her eyes and she sighs in delight. "Oh god, that was glorious. I owe you one, flasher." She turns and clamps an arm around Bullet and Caelica. "This is Bullet. She just got through with a wet T-shirt contest." The beastkin introduces cheerfully. "And this is Caelica. Her touch feels really good."

The two girls look at Makoto with pretty much the same expression.
One that said 'Thanks, fuck you too.'

Going with the flow however, Bullet decided to go with the flow.
"I didn`t win though. The independant judge felt i didn´t deserve a prize." The judge, naturally, was Ragna, though he didn`t know that.
Sighing dramatically, she turned around and unpacked the first tent to set it up before the light would be completely gone.

Caelica on the other hand just rolled her eyes and remained somewhat serious.
"We were just going to rest here and sleep, we`ve had some trouble getting here and neither of us feels very comfortable walking into a grave at night."

Neon patted Makoto in a friendly manner, smirking as wide and as smugly as he possibly could.
"Ah, don´t mention it. Its just good manners to get some candy for your coworkers in the office." He joked, then tossed the parachute bag aside, seeing how it wasn`t needed yet. "Koko thought you guys could use some backup- turns out i was available. And i could never let her down if she asks me so nicely."

Ragna snorts and grabs the other tent, punching the stakes into the concrete with brute force. "You declined it on account of being fair to your competition. Don't throw your problems with assertiveness on me." A snicker, as he sets up the centerpole. "Besides, I was the one that had to clean up."

Makoto beams and throws her arms around Neon, hugging him tight. "You're the best stapler a girl could ask for." She skips off to aid Bullet, winking over her shoulder. "And don't sweat it, Koko's just jealous that we get to take long walks out in all this beautiful wilderness while she has to stay inside."

Ragna coughs to hide a laugh. "I think it's you and me to a tent, Neon, and the girls in the other. Unless anyone has complaints?"

Neon waved off, hearing that. "I don´t need to sleep, honestly. I can just stand guard if you guys like me to... i think i brought some books to read."
He pointed to the tent Bullet was putting up. "Besides, i would develop claustrophobia with three people in one of these."

Caelica looked up with a wry smile. "Well, yeah... tents for two were cheaper than those fit for three people... and considerably lighter, of course! Its not like we planned for this or anything!"
She was obviously lying, especially considering the lengths they went to to blow Kokonoe`s money on their shopping trip.

"I´m fine with whatever you guys decide." Bullet remarked, busy unfolding a waterproof sheet that would be their roof. "Makoto or Caelica or Ragna, don´t care." She did, but didn´t want to compete with the others about who got to sleep with Ragna.
As the sun was travelling further behind the ruins, the air became more and more chilly, reminding them to hurry up if they didn`t want to put up tents with only a flashlight to aid them.

Ragna shrugs as he clicks the last tentpole into place. "Suit yourself, Neon. It'd be damn useful, especially because you don't have to worry about frying out in this radiation. I dunno how your eyes adjust to darkness, but here -" he digs a flashbang out of Bullet's bag of bombs and tosses it over to the cyborg. "Anything out there will be used to the dim light. Set this off in their face and cover yours. It'll sure as hell wake the rest of us up too."

Makoto glances between the two tents for a moment and shrugs. "You know what, I can't really say it matters much either, because I'm really woozy still and want to sleep. Y'all decide." She crawls into the one Ragna's just finished erecting and unrolls her sleeping bag. "Whoever it is, don't start any catfights I can't join." she calls back out with a yawn.

Ragna glances at the tent the beastkin occupies and immediately starts sliding over towards the other. "Mine." he says, grabbing it.

Caelica and Bullet were then forced with the decision themselves- staring at one another cluelessly, they figured the best course of action.
"Rock paper scissors?" Caelica suggested, shrugging her shoulders.
"I think Ragna would rather just see the scissors with us two." Bullet replied, then cursed. "Damn it. I gotta cut down on the jokes or i´ll be left with no material after this trip."
Snorting in response, she decided to draw the short stick. "I`ll pass. Makoto is fluffier anyways."
As that was settled, the shorter girl moved over to the squrriel, Bullet shrugged and moved to Ragna, and Neon unpacked his gear, which included a large sniper rifle, a compact handgun, a foldable seat and a copy of COLONEL SASSACRE'S DAUNTING TEXT OF MAGICAL FRIVOLITY AND PRACTICAL JAPERY.

Propping up the seat and making himself comfortable, Neon held back a laugh.
"Now i can see why you wanted to sleep with me, Ragna. Those two reek of trouble."

Ragna turns and throws the android a Look that peeled the concrete. "Thanks, tin man. It's nice to see you're already picking up the native lingo." He shakes his head in frustration then unzips the front of the tent and ducks inside, spreading his coat on one side of the floor and plunking himself down atop it with a groan. He folds one leg over the other and stretches in the opposite direction, which pops his spine in multiple places; then he unashamedly flops down on this coat, nudging the collar with his head until it lies comfortably beneath him.

"This has been," he says definitively, "the second weirdest week of my life so far. And the first involved my house getting burnt down, my family stolen, getting abducted by a furry and a lolita vampire, and attaching a fake arm in place of one that was donated to a crazy fucker."

Ragna chuckles, tone rusty. "And we're only halfway through this week so far."

Neon rolled his eyes. "I`m made of titanium, kevlar and carbon fiber, thank you very much." Then he started to read, the rifle leaned against his seat, bored out of his mind already.

"Sounds like you had quite a life before you became the biggest manmade desaster in history." Bullet replied, crawling inside with a sleeping bag under one arm.
"Want one? Sleeping on the ground like that is gonna hurt tomorrow."
With that said, she spread hers out on the ground next to him, tossed her jacket into the corner of the tent and went under its comfortable hide... where just two minutes later, she decided that the jeans could go as well and promptly tossed them away to where the jacket was.

"Something like that, yeah." Ragna replies, tilting his head up onto an elbow to watch Bullet. "Jubei was probably the best thing to ever happen to me. Weird old cat, but he put me straight after everything. I don't suppose I'll ever get the chance to finish paying him back. Besides putting a knife in Terumi's face, at least."

He sits up for a moment and spreads the sleeping roll on his coat without complaint. "Yeah, thanks. I feel like I'm going soft almost, or at least less flagellant. Can't say I mind." Then Bullet's jeans fly past Ragna and he flushes a tiny bit, grinning ruefully. "Wow, ain't ya gonna get cold going like that? That's the reason I usually wear everything to sleep."

"I think i`d rather get a heatstroke if i keep them on. Those aren`t just comfy, they`re warm too." Bullet respnded, snuggling deeper into her sleeping bag.
"If my shirt wasn`t damp and cold as it is, i`d take that off as well." That she said more quietly, more softly, suspecting Makoto and Caelica to listen in already.
Just being this close and private with Ragna was something, she had to admit. She could see why Caelica would fight with her over it... and she knew why she gave up so soon, too.
"You`ll get your chance, Ragna." She finally said, deciding to switch topics before it became too intimate for him. "If Jubei lived this long, he`ll be fine to wait a few months or years until you took him down."

The mercenary girl still didn`t look at him. Instead she focused on the cieling, seeing a few drops of rain slowly staining the cover of their tent.

There is a long moment that is still, and then a faint rustle and a laugh as Ragna rolls off his sleeping bag, putting him right beside Bullet. His hand rises and cups her cheek, thumb brushing beneath her chin.

"You realize that you set the mood for our group, back when we first woke up. That you didn't need to stick with us after beating down Azrael. That all this is a threat to your life and your livelihood, being in my company - that you have a place in this world, unlike me and Caelica, displaced or cast out. And you've put that on the line for us." Ragna says, quiet, his voice steady. His gaze focuses on the one eye of Bullet he can see from his side. "And maybe you haven't thought a lot about it - but it's mattered to me."

He hesitates a moment, sighs, and smiles a self-depreciating smile. "Thank you, I mean. For everything."

Then Ragna leans in and carefully presses his lips to the corner of Bullet's mouth, a half kiss he holds for a second before pulling back.

"I wouldn´t have become a mercenary if i had anything else to live for-"
Bullet started to explain herself and set the facts straight, then Ragna inches ever closer and touches her lips with his, her eyes widening as her heart gave off a single, powerful beat, then fell silent for a few seconds. As he left her lips again, her mind was blank and she couldn`t think of anything to say or do.
This whole time she thought they had overdid it with the flirting a little, but she didn´t think it was that serious yet. But yes, this was serious... not very, very serious, but very serious. Semi very serious.
"What the hell was that?" She breathed out, amused. "I think your aim was a little off to the side." Her eyes finally found the courage to lock onto his, irony included. "What now, do you want me to show you how?" Her body still shivering with excitement, she brought out one of her hands from the sleeping bag and placed it on his shoulder, ready to draw him in should he allow it.

In the meantime, Caelica was trying her hardest to listen in on what they were saying.
"Damn me and my human ears." She cursed, staring over to where the other tent was. "I`m telling you, Makoto, they`re totally making out in there. Count on it."

Ragna has a funny little smile on his face, a silly thing that he isn't having much luck controlling. "That wa a warm-up." He says, tilting his head a little. "You weren't paying attention, and I'd feel bad if you couldn't compete. I think I have your attention now, though." No, he definitely doesn't doubt that - the way the mercenary's body has oriented itself towards him, and the flush spreading up her neck tells enough.

Ragna scoots a little closer until the line of Bullet's body lies against his, the thick sleeping bag between them, and then he leans down again, but not to kiss, not just yet; his forehead presses against hers, and their gazes match from just a few inches away. "I think," he murmurs, "I can do better this time, too. But if you want a turn~"

He laughs again, a rolling, low chuckle - a masculine sound of amusement and excitement entirely distinct. The breath of his laughter, like soft mint, brushes against Bullet's cheeks and mouth. "Well. Too bad."

He moves forward those scant two inches and matches Bullet's lips with his own again, this time fully; an insistent, soft pressure that fogs his mind and raises the hair on his arms.

Makoto raises her head sleepily and perks an ear, her superhuman hearing easily deciphering the sounds. "No, right now they're just talking - ehh, that's a bit of fabric - Ragna laughing - aaaaaaaaaand yes, that's a kiss. Haven't been listening long enough to figure out if they're snogging."

She shrugs and leans back down on her sleeping bag, peering idly at Caelica. "Look, if you're so worried about it, why didn't you make a move while we were back on the train? The guy's a bag of hormones. And you confuse him all to hell. Wouldn't be that hard, would it?"

Giving off a low hum in agreement, Bullet moved over to partially slip out of her sleeping bag and wrap an arm around the swordsman- she wouldn´t let him go so soon. Slowly, her eyes closed as she concentrated on the feeling, her lips grinding against his ever so smoothly, sucking on his lower lip... the feeling of his rough strands of hair as her hand ran through them. Life was a funny thing, when she woke up this morning she didn`t think she`d be here now, and she didn`t think she`d still be with Ragna. Not to mention halfway on top of him, locking lips with him.
Finally, she tore herself away from him again, gasping for air, but keeping her hands were they were- on him.
"Thats more like it." Bullet teased, licking her lips. "Suits your image to go for it, rather than to talk too much."

Caelica grunted and turned around. "I`m just curious. I`m actually glad he`s found someone now, because i can tell i would never be the same to him than who i was to the other Ragna... man that sounds confusing. I mean, eh... you know. Besides, i don`t even know if i`m allowed to stay in this timeline since Kokonoe just ripped me out of mine." Despite everything, she was honestly suprised how well she took it herself. Seemed like she started to distance old and new Ragna apart in her head without knowing it. Plus, Threesome was always an option.

Bullet's lips are chapped from exposure to the air, a lack of chapstick or other cosmetics, and having been punched in the mouth more than once; these aren't things that Ragna notices, because the roughness of her mouth against his is instantly his favorite thing in the universe. The soft interplay of lips, the delicious friction sparking, sets his spine to tingling, and the warm band of an arm around his lower back only makes it worse. He has to play catch-up when the mercenary finally pulls back, but when he puts his brain back together, he smirks. "Yeah. Always been the direct sort. I don't play around when I find what I want."

Ragna reaches up, around the girl's back, and rests an arm about her; with a few gentle tugs, he has Bullet halfway up out of her sleeping bag, his forearm and hand resting on the delicious stretch of bare skin between her shirt and her bottom. He laughs a little as his fingers stroke the chocolate curves of Bullet's smooth back. "Just took me awhile to figure it out, really."

Absent-minded with newfound affection, he tilts his head back and plants a kiss on the tip of Bullet's nose.

"He was kinda messed up about that yeah." Makoto agrees. "I wasn't there to hear much of it but that really bothered him from what I can see." She smirks and reclines. "But what do I know? I'm just the new girl enjoying all the skinsmanship there seems to be in this little parade. Hopefully sometime I'll get to contribute."

"Careful, my shirt is still damp from that stupid move i pulled earlier." Bullet purred, slowly slipping her legs out of the sleeping bag to move closer to Ragna, entangling her body with his as one of her legs moves behind his own. She looked at him for a moment, chuckling with amusement. "So i guess i just lost 60 billion for not taking you in. What a shame. Could`ve bought me a house." Her lips brushed against his in a quick, faint kiss, then she moved behind his lips to rest her chin on his shoulder, her arms both wrapped around him. "Oh well. What good is a big house if only one rich girl occupys it?"

"You`ll fit right in." Caelica reassured her, turning back to her with a smile. "So long as you constantly tease Ragna in a more or less sexual manner, aim for his pride as a man or try to praise him up as some sort of messiah, you´ll be fine. Thats all we do, aside from beating up bad guys on occasion."

Ragna links his other arm behind Bullet as she slides atop him, limbs entangling into a warm nest. The dampness of her shirt sticks to his own, and makes him consider discarding some of his own clothing, but right now he wouldn't move for the world. Instead he squeezes Bullet a little tighter, fingers running lazily over her back in long strokes, and trades another ghostly kiss with the girl. "Well, you could use the house to throw parties for all the brand new friends you'd be able to buy." Ragna comments, voice low, into Bullet's ear. He turns his head and nuzzles into the shell with his nose for a moment before planting a third kiss inside it on the sensitive tissue. "You'd have plenty with sixty billion. Even if you bought a house."

His other arm reaches over and unzips Bullet's sleeping bag, then draws it over them both blindly, the soft interior cushioning them like a blanket. "Shoulda done this in the first place." Ragna mumbles. "Comfy. Delicious. I require seconds."

"If you´ve got money, you either end up being very lonely or very poor. Friends become envious of wealth really fast, you wouldn´t believe it." Bullet growled, nibbling on his ear. "You already have something soft and comfy here, don`t you?" A kiss on his neck, then another on his lips followed, and Bullet slowly began to feel at ease with the situation. The more she kissed him, the less odd it became, and she feared she might soon get addicted to it.
A sigh escaped her, and her body relaxed on top of his. "So how do we explain this to the others...?"

Ragna hums something unintelligible but happy, entirely pleased with his situation. Bullet's continual kisses were intoxicating and he was loathe to say anything that would make her pause. Both of his hands slide up her back and cup her face, and he draws her into a longer, dizzying kiss again that burns soft against his lips and starts a warm bubbling in his abdomen that he's fairly sure is not the right time to explore. So instead of pressing further, he releases Bullet and relaxes into the intimate embrace again.

"I do it." The Reaper says simply. "I think Caelica mostly understands. Besides -" he winces slightly. "As I remember it, she's my adoptive mother. That's . . . there's definite squickiness. I'm not going to mess with that. Even if she looks absolutely nothing like what I remember."

Ragna makes a muted noise of irritation. "I hate time travel. Don't get me wrong, the results," he strokes down Bullet's back - "Have been fantastic, but it's profoundly weirding me out. My mother should not be offering to take care of my morning wood."

She nearly bursted out into a fit of laughter as the last sentence passed his mouth.
"Jeesus, you`re still creeped out by that gag? I highly doubt she was serious that time." Still purring lightly, her hand combed through his hair, her eyes going blank as she once again focuses on the feeling, rather than her surroundings. Taking in his smell, his warmth, the feeling of his skin against hers... and the comfort that came with it all.
After a short while, she looked at him again and smirked.
"So are we gonna do something tonight or is it alright to fall asleep? I`m pretty sure at least Makoto is listening in... plus the whole day was nothing short of a survival trip, in more ways than one."
She still wasn`t over the shopping spree her friends had forced her through.

Ragna rolls his eyes. "Well I know that now, but at the time I had not yet been immunized to the teasing. That was a hell of a wake up call." He buries his nose against Bullet's neck and breathes deep, already drowsy. "This ain't the place and time, I think. I can wait, n' savor a bit. And peeper Makoto can go to hell."

He smiles sleepily down at his girl, and closes his eyes. He sleeps deep and dreamless.

When Ragna awakes in the morning it's the best one he's ever had, on account of a half-naked girl atop him for the first time. He's comfy and warm, a combination he's rarely encountered at dawn, and morever, he's content. That's a thing even more alien.

Some muzzy consideration later, and he decides to wake Bullet and get moving; the sooner they get this job done, the sooner he can enjoy this sort of thing on a more regular basis. So he rests his forehead against hers and pokes her in the cheek with his nose. "Hey." he says, voice gravelly after the night's rest. "G'mornin', Bullet. Time to rise and shine."

He pokes her in the side as insurance - and out of vague curiousity to see if she's ticklish.

A slight squeaking sound later, Bullet practically falls off of Ragna, and is reminded of the harsh reality almost instantly. Not only was Ragna not the most ergonomic matress in the world, but this WAS concrete they put their tent up onto...
"Youtch." She muttered, rubbing her back. "Dust or not, this still feels like pavement. Morning Ragna..." Yawning quietly, she decides to add something to her greeting after being done with it. "...haven´t slept that well in a while." A smile crosses her face, then she decides its a good time to start looking for her pants.

In the meantime, Caelica had crawled out of the tent already, onto the semi-hard mud the dust had turned into after yesterday`s rain. To her suprise, Neon was still sitting on his seat, reading the Colonel`s book like it had only been ten minutes since they went to bed.
"Woah! Don`t tell me... you`ve actually been up all night reading that thing?"

Neon shrugged in response. "Sure. I don`t even know if i`m able to sleep at all. Even my brain is synthetic, so there`s nothing that would need rest."
Standing up, he put the book aside and took his rifle in one hand. "In case you`re asking- a lonely scavanger came by for a visit last night. I thought about cooking it for breakfast, but the geiger counter registered 1600 RAD coming from him. Sorry."

Caelica grimaced. "Thanks... i think. We got toast in tin cans for that occasion though."

Ragna sits up, stretches, and throws on his coat. That is the extent of his morning ablutions. "You get used to it." He says simply. "Or you learn how to weave air cushions into your coat and sleep on that. Not that I do that - saw some fucker try it though. He wandered into a thornbush and all his pride and joy went off like a foghorn."

He snags an energy bar from Bullet's bag of vending machine goodies and chows down on it. "I'd make breakfast but this is a pretty bad place to do it, all told." the Reaper apologizes. "I don't fancy cooking anything that's radioactive before it exits the pot. That's Noel's schtick. Right now we'll have to subsist on the energy bars -"

A furry head pops into the tent. "GOTCHA!" Makoto roars, beaming. Then she frowns. "Aww, Bullet, you not taking care of his morning problem? Or is it my turn to offer?"

Ragna stares dully at Makoto. "Good morning, hairball."

Bullet made a face as Makoto suggested that. "Hey, i admit i`ve been thinking about it, but we`re practically in a graveyard here. Fucking on a grave is something you just don´t do, you know?"
With that said, she had to admire Ragna for eating the energy bar whole. After a century they had to be small cinder blocks with similar taste to one.
Instead, she drank another bottle of ancient cola, then shrugged on her jacket again, her shirt now dry and warm. "Well, lets see what kind of wierd shit this day brings us. Seems we´re getting a lot of that recently."

In the meantime, Caelica had given the scavanger a christian burial and decided to stick to snacks, rather than attempting to toast bread in the heat of the sun.
While it might not be as healthly, it was a lot easier. Munching on a candy bar, she looked over to Neon, who was busy reading his novel.
"So.. i`ve been wondering about a lot of things concerning Kokonoe... do you think you could help me out a bit?" She asked, still hesitant to question one of her loyal soldiers about her secret plans.

Neon shrugged, placing the book aside. "Depends... I know a lot about her but at the same time i know nothing at all. I know she has a sweet ass, though." A smirk crossed his face, then he remembered she was her aunt. "Uhm. Right. Well, if you`re asking why you´ve been brought back from the past- i`m guessing its for this very mission, really. I couldn´t do this alone and you´ve been there before. If you`re asking why she wants the log... well, thats classified."

Caelica´s eyes narrowed. "I`ve been suspecting as much. Father had a habit of writing everything important down, even blueprints and schematics... and Kokonoe would have the resources to realize his projects... which makes me afraid she will if she gets her hands on it."

Neon chuckled. "Count on it. Sector Seven has the entire conventional and unconventional armament of the pre-war world at their disposal- including every single nuclear warhead we could find. If your father made something powerful, she`ll try to use it."

Caelica fell silent, clentching her eyes shut. "... not even Terumi would be a justification for that. The Prime Field Units were built, and that was already a huge mistake. The Lynchpin was made, thats doom waiting to happen. I don´t know about his plans about artifical cauldrons and about the knockoff Susanooh, but... i know the biggest mistake ever is still down there... at least i hope it is."

The android`s eyes showed curiosity, and even though Kokonoe wasn´t listening in, that could be a potential danger. "Whats that?"

The witch bit her lip. "A seithr powered bomb, designed and created when they still had to open a cauldron to get seithr in the first place. I don´t think they managed to test it back in the day, but if the entire world is flooded with the stuff, i fear for the worst should it go off at some point."

Neon´s jaw dropped to the floor, and he had trouble getting it to shut again. "Oh." was his only reply.

Ragna straightens and sheathes Bloodscythe on his back with a sigh. "So basically the upshot of all that was that there may be bad shit down there, if there's a fight don't wreck everything because it may blow up? Or does this bomb have a fuse thing I can just hack off? Because that'd be much preferable."

Makoto rolls her eyes. "Go with that for a start, yes. Maybe not throw around the demon heads so much or whatever it is you bite things with. The rawr-heads." She makes clawing gestures with her hands with a scrunched-up look on her face. "What is it you call them? Dead Sprites?"

"Dead Spikes." Ragna says, annoyed, and walks over to the trapdoor descending into the laboratory. Gripping the latch with one hand, he tugs sharply. Nothing happens and he scowls. "Bullet, blow this door the hell up."

Bullet eyed the trapdoor, knocking on it with one hand, then beating on it harder.
A helpless scratch of her head later, she didn´t seem so sure.
"I dunno, Ragna. That seems to be permenantly shut... maybe bolted into place or something. But i`ll try."
Firing up her Ars Magus once, she howled loudly and rammed her fist against the steel plate blocking their path... making a dent on it.
As she was waving her hand to make the numb pain go away, Neon stepped forth and brought up his rifle.

"Let me try, then." Flicking a switch on the sophisticated weapon, he took aim and fired- the magnetically acclerated projectile simply tore through the steel, but with enough force to pry the hinge loose. As a result, the hatch was open, but from the wrong side... a firm kick to the lock made it fall down, decending into the darkness below.

Caelica looked down and instantly felt bad. "Okay, uhm, before you jump down there, Ragna... you know how i`m constantly holding up a barrier to protect us from seithr and radiation? Down there, the seithr is seven, eight times as strong. Ususally a barrier of this type lasts a few hours, but if i forget to renew it..."
She swallowed hard.
"Its been nice knowing you."

Ragna stares at Bullet. "You know you have, like, an entire fucking bag of explosives, right?" he says. "And that this is precisely the sort of thing that explosives are good for?" He smiles and shakes his head, then tosses off a salute to Caelica. "It's been a swell time walking behind you, Caelica."

And then he hops down the hole, landing at the bottom with a crunch of dust and glass beneath his boots. The underground complex had been bunkerlike, with sealed steel walls and glass checkpoints, but something - presumably the Beast - had torn through the security, leaving gaping holes in the defenses, torn steel floors and rivets sprung from the seams to scatter along the floors. A multitude of colored arrows directed traffic to various areas: Laboratories, Dormitories, Admin, Containment. Ragna frowns down at them, then stumbles when something else lands on his shoulders.

Cackling cheerfully, Makoto wraps both arms around Ragna's head from where she is now seated on his shoulders. "Hey there!" she chirps. "Wow, this place looks boring and sterile."

"Makoto." Ragna says patiently, stepping to the side so that no one else will fall on him. "Get off me."

"No." she replies, pleasant but unmoved.

Bullet zipped down the ladder which both of them ignored for reasons of being badasses, then stares at the two as they`re cuddled over into a bunch.
"...You know i wish i would`ve brought my camera for this. That picture could win me an award, like, it symbolizes the nature of a trans-species relationship... or some shit like that."
As Caelica hopped down, Bullet caught her in her arms to set her down next to the bundle.
"So you`ve been down here, haven`t you? Think you could give us a tour?"

Caelica nodded, pointing at the arrows on the wall. "Follow the signs. We´re looking for the containment area."

Bullet crossed her arms, sighing. "Wow, that was really useful."

"Bullet, wildlife observer." Ragna grumbles, and tugs on Makoto's arms a few times. She doesn't budge, and he gives it up and starts trudging forward, the overactive squirrel still mounted on his shoulders. "Don't quit your day job. Y'know, if any of us count as having one."

Makoto sniffs. "For your information I am recorded as security personnel and beastkin specialist on the Sector Seven payroll. You all are the jobless bums."

Ragna turns up and raises an eyebrow at her. "Isn't that the terrorist organization you run around and beat people up for?"

The arrows direct them to a large, shielded area partitioned by a decontamination unit that has been torn apart. Ragna picks his way through the sterile, torn glass and plastic with a frown as he searches the tables and laminated displays up ahead. None of the technobabble recorded on old post-it notes or cabinet folders makes any kind of damn sense to him. "Can you find anything in this mess, Caelica? Because I don't know what half this shit means."

He scoops up a binder from the floor and flips through it. "Like see here: Observations on Deactualized Organic Bosons. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means they´ve studied how people died due to exposure to the Boundary." Caelica added, emotionless and cold. She shut herself off from the world, if she let this place get to her, she might crumble along with it. "Come on, its down those steps."
Saying this, she pointed to a staircase next to a broken down elevator... seven floors deeper, they arrive in a hallway with various airtight doors, all steel and bulletproof glass.
Passing through one series of doors which had been shattered and broken out of its hinges, she passes a series of computers and plotters until finally arriving at a large, mostly empty hall. Behind what used to be a shielded containment area was, undoubtfully, a Cauldron, which had been damaged severely and was no longer useable. The rest of the room was a mess- the few desks with computers and sensory equipment, paperwork and clipcharts were scattered around the room like an earthquake had brought them all out of order.
"Here it is.. Thats where the Black Beast emerged into our world."

Bullet looked about, but suddenly felt a disturbing pressure in the room, followed by quiet whispers that came from seemingly nowhere.
"Hey... hey. Do you hear that too?"
Slowly, the whispers became louder, they told of destruction, annhilation, death and vengence upon the world. If one paid enough attention, it could be made out that all of the voices were young girls.
The mercenary backed away, looking for a wall to face with her back. "...lets try to make this quick. I have a bad feeling about this."