Agito Chapter

Count: 1

For reference, lines that are in the actual Agito TV show:

"Officer Hikawa adores Agito." –Hojo

"Are you in love with Agito?" –Shouichi, to Hikawa

"I'd feel the same if one of my girlfriends died." –Ozawa

Just so we're clear.

Anyway: Now for one final look at this same two days all the previous crazy stuff was happening, before we move on to the climax of the arc…

As could be expected on an evening like this, police HQ was abuzz with activity.

"We've got Unknown reports from three different locations!"

"Back-up to all of them! Stalling tactics! And deploy the G3 Unit to the closest!"

"Um, actually…"

The commissioner stared at the file before him. "Are these orders for real?! At a time like this?"

"Straight from the top, sir." Officer Hojo Tooru saluted, the faintest trace of a smirk crossing his face. "I'll relay it to them."

"Deploy where?" Ozawa swatted the orders out of her face. "That school's been closed for years!"

"Officially, yes." Hojo carefully picked up each dropped sheet of paper. "That's not quite the case. But you don't need to know the details. Time is of the essence."

"Don't be like that!" Hikawa tried to get up in Hojo's face, momentarily forgetting his injuries before wincing and sitting back down. "Just tell us already!"

"He can't," Ichijou cut in from his seat across the room, "because he doesn't know either. But he's trying to act cool, so he can feel superior."

Hojo's mouth twitched. "Regardless, that facility is under attack by an unprecedented number of Unknown and we are to deploy there immediately. I will require at least some of you as support—"

"You?" Ozawa barked with laughter. "What have you got to do with it?"

"Neither Officer Hikawa or Ichijou are in any condition to pilot the G3-X," he explained, "leaving me as the only suitable candidate for—"

"After last time? Get real." She rose and pushed past him out of the office. "There's only one more candidate, and you're looking at her."

"I am clearly—"

"Get outta my face."

As she stormed off, Ichijou stood, pulling on his coat. "Come on. We're still good for support."

The building was silent and still, the main entrance broken in. Ozawa paced through the corridors, the G3-X's headlamps lighting the way between broken or flickering light fixtures.

"Looks like we were too late," she reported.

"Stay on guard," Omuro cautioned from the G-Trailer. "Picking up a lot of heat signatures. Not a one of 'em human."

"Copy." She came to the first door, tapping it open with the barrel of her pistol and edging inside. No-one. Overturned desks, a smashed computer, but no signs of life.

"Hold on." She knelt down, reaching for something half-buried under splintered wood. A single shoe; it looked…chewed. "You seeing this?"

"Y-Yeah…" Omuro answered after a moment. "We see it."

"That answers where everyone went," Ichijou said with a sigh. The Lords hadn't seemed like a threat on par with the Grongi until now, but a body-count like this…this was uncomfortably familiar.

Suddenly one of the heat signatures was a lot closer. "Ozawa, there's one right abo—"

The ceiling burst open, and the latest otherworldly horror dropped down on top of her.

She heaved forward, smashing it against the ground and loosening its grip so she could roll away. Standing, she fired a three-shot burst; one round caught the Lord in the leg, causing it to stumble in its next lunge, falling to its knees in front of her. Her next bullet went through its skull, dropping it.

Now it was dead, she was able to get a proper look. It was squat and bulky, with ant-like features, its clothing darker-hued and less regal than most Lords.

"That one went down easy," she remarked. "No halo when it died, either."

"Maybe it's a mass-produced type?" Hikawa offered. "The others in the building are giving off the exact same readings…and, uh…heading right…towards you."

"How many?"

"They're blurring together. Could be fifty, a hundred…"

"Tactical retreat it is, then."

"They're…also grouping between you and the main entrance," Omuro said. "Try the back."

"Copy." She retreated from the room and headed further down the corridor, a definite buzzing noise coming from the way she'd come in, faint but growing. She sped up, mechanical footsteps rattling the brittle floorboards.

The scuttling, buzzing sound was almost upon her as she neared the back entrance. Just before getting out, though, she stopped—there was movement in one of the rooms. She leaned in…

"Hojo?!"

He was digging through the contents of a large crate he'd pried open, in total focus. "You'd better go," he said. "They won't kill either of us normal humans, but they know that suit is a threat to them. They'll be happy to tear it up."

"And what are you doing here in the—"

"I'll deliver a full report by tomorrow," he said, waving her away. "There's no time."

Infuriatingly, he was right. She burst out the back entrance seconds before the pursuing Lords caught up with her. All identical, the antlike type, coming on in a great scrambling wave, clawing and biting. She threw them back and emptied her pistol's clip into them, creating some space before flipping out the built-in arm-blade to keep them at bay, staying on the defensive. They weren't particularly tough for Lords, but there was a whole crowd of them, and the suit was built for durability, not agility.

The trailer veered around the corner and swerved to a halt behind her, Omuro emerging from the back, just about managing to carry the GX-05 minigun in both hands. Rather than have him attempt to throw it, she fell back and took it, making a stand by the trailer to spray the oncoming horde with a rain of fire. They hissed and grew more cautious, circling and spreading out.

Before they could make a move, one near the back suddenly went down with a shriek. Then another, then two more. Something was moving through them, striking them down in single blows. It finally emerged from the crowd, tearing through the two closest Lords and stepping out in front of Ozawa: A black-armoured suit, nearly as bulky as the G3-X.

"With my thanks," the wearer said.

"Hey…" Ozawa tapped it on the chest. "Hojo? You shouldn't be wearing this! I scrapped Project G4 for a reason!"

"No need to worry about me," he said, turning back to the remaining Lords and rushing them again. He picked at the edges of the flock, herding them back into a single hissing mass, then raised one hand to the sky. A four-barrelled rocket launcher dropped from above—Ozawa looked up just in time to see the support helicopter departing.

By the time she looked back down, the rockets had already struck home and the entire crowd of Lords was blasted apart in a roaring fireball. Both she and Hojo staggered back from the aftershock, him even fumbling and dropping the empty launcher.

She grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back towards the G-Trailer. "Now take off that damn suit!"

"You're welcome," he grumbled, making an exaggerated gesture towards the burnt ground where he'd destroyed the horde.

"You're not impressive," she said bluntly. "G4 has that kind of power. I could've done the same if I'd been wearing it. But I'm not, because I'm not an idiot."

"I think you're exaggerating…"

"I built it! The stress on your body will eventually reach lethal levels!"

"I will not continue to be left behind!" he snarled. It was a startling break from the smug demeanour he'd carried all day. "I will carry out my duty as an officer of the law in the highest capacity I can. Besides, G4 has surpassed your design."

She headed around to the back of the trailer. "What are you talking about? You just dug that thing out of storage."

"Did that place look like a storage facility to you?" Hojo asked.

She paused. "Hey. I don't know what you're getting at, but don't tell me you found a way to…"

"I didn't," he replied, composure regained. "The full details will be in my report, but yes…it has been completed."

"Bullshit." She turned around and marched back up to him, sizing the suit up. "The processing power to make it work on that kind of scale won't exist for years. Trust me. I tried."

"I can demonstrate—" Before the words had fully left his mouth, Ozawa swung a punch at his face, but he'd already begun to dodge, flawlessly moving around the blow. As if he'd known in advance it was coming. He reached up and removed his helmet, smiling slightly. "Are you satisfied?"

"I guess you weren't lying. I'll be taking a close look at that report," she said, hesitating on the verge of leaving, before oddly enough disengaging one of the G3-X's gloves, leaving her right hand bare. "Hey, Officer Hojo…remember when you replaced Hikawa piloting the original G3, only to flee from battle as soon as things got difficult, letting the Unknown escape?"

"If you want to put it like—" Ozawa gave another punch, bare hand to bare face, and his mysterious precognition seemed not to function without his helmet.

"Just so we're clear on what that was for." She climbed into the trailer, slamming the shutter down as it drove off.

"Okay, Hojo's report will be biased to the point of complete fabrication, so here's the situation," Ozawa explained, motioning everyone to crowd around the trailer's front cabin as she levered off the last few pieces of armour. "He's wearing an old project of mine. G4. On paper, it's the most powerful system I ever created."

"More than G3-X?" Hikawa asked. "Why would you abandon it for something less effective?"

"I never completed the AI required to run it. The movements are too fast for a human brain, the actions too forceful. And the kind of computer that it'd require…it'd have to pretty much know everything that was going to happen. That kind of moment-to-moment probability-extrapolation software just doesn't exist yet."

"But…you still built the whole suit," Ichijou said.

"I was drunk. I was on a roll. What do you want from me?"

"You designed and constructed police equipment while drunk?" Ichijou seemed to be the only person surprised by this.

Ozawa snorted, tossing the suit's helmet into the far corner. "Do you know how I solved a block while working on G3-X? I went out and got hammered with that Tsugami guy. Stumbled back to HQ in a daze and finished the design that night."

"Tsugami….Shouichi, right? Hikawa mentioned him."

"We're not that close," Hikawa clarified.

"No, your one true love is Agito, right?" Ozawa teased.

"Hey—"

"Where is the lie?"

"Look, just because I happen to believe he's on our side—"

"'Officer Hikawa adores Agito'," Omuro quoted. "That's in an official report. Truest words Hojo ever wrote."

Ozawa continued her explanation while Hikawa dissolved into protesting stammers. "Anyway, Hojo or someone working with him has found some way to make the predictive system work. But even then, it puts too much strain on both the mind and the body. If he keeps using it, it'll kill him."

"That's awful!" Hikawa exclaimed, a little redundantly.

"Well, if it had to be someone, Hojo…" She briefly entertained the thought. "No, it wouldn't be good to let an officer die. Maybe even more concerning, though, is what comes next." She held up a hand at their odd looks. "Not in the afterlife sense. With the data it's picked up from Hojo's consciousness, if he dies while in the suit, it could well keep going on its own, and without an operator won't listen to orders. Might even happen while he's still alive. It's smart."

"At least it'll keep fighting the Unknown, right?" Omuro said.

"It'll fight something. That's all it knows how to do."

As expected, Hojo was insufferable. While the G3 Unit nursed their injuries and tried to focus on their regular, day-to-day work, he pranced up and down the station, giving everyone looks that implied that he could at any moment launch into a lengthy recounting of his magnificent achievements today, and in the spirit of politeness you would have to listen, but he was choosing, in his infinite kindness, to spare you.

"It still doesn't add up…" Ichijou drummed his fingers on the temporary desk he'd been given. "How did they get the predictive system to work? It's probably got something to do with that building the Unknown attacked. Why was G4 there in the first place?"

"Yeah." Ozawa slid her chair over. "Unknown only attack psychics and Agito, right? But they cleared out that whole building. Was everyone inside one or the other?"

"Maybe that's why there were so many," Hikawa offered. "We've never encountered more than a handful before. I'm glad those other simultaneous sightings were fought off…Agito's still out there fighting for us!"

Ichijou shared his smile. "I wouldn't doubt the Riders are helping out, too. But, back to the point…"

"The answers are in G4," Ozawa said. "I need to get to it. But Hojo will pounce for sure…"

"Let him. I'll slip past while you're frustrating him like only you can. The helmet will be enough?"

"Uh, yeah. Can you really hide that thing?"

"I'll think of something, probably…"

Shortly, he was taking a roundabout route towards the storage room where the G4 suit was being held, while Ozawa made a direct and obvious beeline for it. Sure enough, Hojo swooped in from the side, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards. "Can I help you?"

She sighed. "Might as well be honest. I was hoping for a look at G4. I was concerned about you."

"No, you weren't."

"Ugh! No, I wasn't."

He shrugged. "There's no need to hide your dislike for me. It's only natural, for petty people like you to find greatness unpleasant…"

"You're despicable."

"I'm this precinct's best, right now. I might even be your whole unit's replacement. But I might be willing to tell you a little about how we've got G4 working…" He had no actual interest in Ozawa, in that sense. But he couldn't pass up saying it, for her reaction. "…over dinner with me? Our shifts finish right about now. There's a newly-opened French restaurant just a couple blocks down, very romantic…"

Her irritation visibly boiled over into full-on anger—then just as quickly, it vanished as she saw Ichijou emerge from the storage room, then freeze awkwardly as he realised he was now standing directly behind Hojo, holding the G4 helmet in full view.

She was just wracking her brain for a way of keeping Hojo from looking around (knock him out? No, she'd received a caution after last time) when Ichijou threw the helmet in an overhead arc. Right as it was directly over Hojo's head, Ichijou tapped him on the shoulder, Hojo turning to face him just as the helmet flew right past Ozawa and smacked Hikawa in the chest—he'd been watching the whole spectacle, but hadn't expected Ichijou's sudden manoeuvre and went down with the helmet, hurriedly rolling behind a desk just as Hojo finished a couple moments' awkward conversation with Ichijou and turned back around.

Somehow, the farcical on-the-spot plan had worked, but now she had to get rid of this jackass.

"Let me be clear: I will never interact with you for one second longer than is necessary. But…" She dug out her phone, flipped it open and started dialling. "That restaurant does sound nice. I think I'll take someone there."

He took on an exaggerated contemplative look. "If you're calling him, he's not on the force…I never figured you for someone with a personal life, Oza—"

"Officer Hojo, would you shut up please? I'm talking to my girlfriend."

"You're joking."

She ignored him, walking off while talking into the phone. "Hey, babe. What? No, just some jerk, ignore that. Yeah, I get off right about now. Hey, I know we made dinner plans, but apparently there's this new French restaurant..."

Ozawa locked the office door and set the G4 helmet on the central table. "Girlfriend's working late, I've got a couple hours. I've signed us all up for the night shift. We're going to crack this."

"Why do we have to be here?" Omuro complained.

"Well, strictly speaking you don't, but I wouldn't want you to feel left out." She slapped a toolbox onto the table and set to work dismantling the helmet.

She seemed to take particular interest in the back the inside, digging around until she found a specific panel and levering it open. Lying beneath was something that could have almost been a microchip, were most of it not transparent—glass. She gently removed it, holding it up for them all to see with a grave expression.

"Uh…what's that?" Hikawa asked.

"A slide. In the biology sense. It's a container for a thin slice of living cells." She carefully put it back in and started screwing the helmet back together. "Most likely…human brain cells."

"Wait…don't tell me…"

Ichijou sat back, putting a hand over his eyes. "We know a biological system for predicting the future…those with psychic powers. The ones the Unknown are hunting, so they don't become Agito."

She saw what he was getting at. "So everyone in that building was a psychic. Some kind of government program to complete G4…hey, you don't think…" She tapped the helmet. "They've got to have put some kind of safeguard in. Or made sure there's not enough of a human brain in the chip for the Unknown to register it as a psychic and be drawn to it."

"Would they? That school was full of psychics, and was attacked just like you'd expect. The project must have begun before we knew that was what they targeted. So, in all likelihood—"

The conclusion they were about to reach was confirmed by the sudden medley of crashes and screams from down the hall. Ozawa snatched up the G4 helmet and threw the door open. "Omuro, with me. I'll need help suiting up. You two, you're still not recovered, lock the door when we're gone and don't go anywhere."

Stepping out into the corridor, headquarters was in a state of full evacuation. The action seemed to be downstairs, but first they headed for the G3-X's storeroom. Every second it took to put on piece by piece was torturous, as the sounds of violence from downstairs grew louder and more vicious.

Finally it was on, and she headed for the stairs alone. A shadow on the wall alerted her and she already had her pistol raised as the ant-drone Lord scuttled into view, but it was quickly felled from behind, Hojo stomping up the steps behind it, bareheaded but otherwise suited up as G4.

"I'm not going to ask where you got that helmet," he said, "but I need it. Give it here."

She held it up. "This is what they're after. You'll become their target."

"That's good. It'll be easier to defeat them all that way. That should put a significant dent in the Unknown's total numbers."

She thought it over, before tossing it to him. "Do what you want." Then she shoved past him, and descended the stairs into the maelstrom.

The first few seconds were the most chaotic, aiming and firing faster than thought, slapping Unknown after Unknown back with a backhanded metal fist. Once she reached where the G3-X's minigun was stored on the wall, things became much simpler. She strode through the precinct, mowing the monsters down in droves. Hojo was working through the other side of the room, moving through the Unknown with the casual ease of someone who could see his opponents' moves in advance.

They drove the diminishing horde back towards the entrance, kicking stragglers through the glass front of the building and pursuing them out into the parking lot (now empty of cars after a hurried evacuation). Ozawa suddenly got the sense she was doing more of the work, having to throw in more occasional kicks and swings with the base of the gun between shots to keep the creatures at bay…yes, in fact, it was all her now. What was Hojo doing?

As it turned out, he was bent over, arms hanging loose, hissing out ragged breaths. "Idiot," she growled under her breath, sending another spray of bullets into the Unknown and jogging over to him. "This is what I warned you about! Your body's starting to break down."

"I can handle it…" he slurred. "Just…just give me a…"

"You picked a damn time to grow a spine. Get out of—" Her gaze alighted on two taller figures amidst the thinning crowd of monsters. More regally dressed, standing up straight, one carrying a pike-length trident, the other flexing clawed hands.

"Looks like king and queen ant showed up," she said, checking her ammo count. "Shape up or bail out, Hojo."

He didn't respond, so she turned her attention back to the approaching pair, turning her hail of fire on them, to little effect. They waded through the storm of bullets, thirty feet, twenty, ten.

Then there came the roar of an engine, and something flashed by: Somewhere between a bike and a great horned insect, its rider gleaming red, slamming its chariot-like horns into the spear-wielding queen Lord and carrying her through and out the car-park and off into the night.

Watching from the window upstairs, Ichijou breathed easier upon seeing this, dropping his phone back into his pocket. He made it in time.

Godai didn't ease up on the throttle until he'd passed into the woods, abruptly hitting the brakes and swerving to a halt, the queen Lord retaining the bike's momentum and flying off through the trees, felling several with her deadly flailing limbs. He dismounted, electric sparks running up and down Kuuga's body, adding gold highlights and touches and filling him with power.

Kind of like the Grongi, but they act so different. There's no personal gain, no blood-game or anything…they just blindly do what that man says. Well…in the end, it doesn't matter.

There are people crying because of you. You have to be destroyed.

Ozawa had run through the minigun's ammo supply right as the 'king ant' Unknown was preparing to make its final spring towards her; she tossed the gun away and met the monster's leap with pistol and wrist-mounted sword, meeting its ferocious strength and holding steady with the suit's heavy frame.

She twisted her hand inwards and got a shot off into the side of its head at point-blank, stunning it and letting her smack its hands away, both of them raking their blades down the other's body, the Unknown flinching back a little as G3-X fell away, warning symbols blaring.

Before the Unknown could make another move, though, Hojo came barrelling forward, ducking and weaving around its swipes, grunting as each prediction wore at his mind. He came up behind it, grabbing it around the waist. "I'll hold it! Fire now!"

Maybe I misjudged you. She snapped the launcher extension onto the pistol, drawing a bead on the thrashing, roaring Unknown.

"Just—just don't hit me, got it?"

Never mind. She fired, scoring a clean hit, the detonation blossoming on the monster's chest…to little effect. It flinched and flailed some more, hammering blows back into the G4 suit.

Ozawa lowered the gun, thinking for a second. "Don't let go, Hojo."

"W-What?" His voice was shaking as he called back, ducking his head down to avoid another backwards swipe.

"You had some heavier ordnance earlier. I'm gonna go get that out of storage, but I'll need a minute. So keep him entertained."

"Are you serious? I'll—" He was cut off by a sharp blow that threw him off the Unknown. It stood between them, breath filling the air with steam, before slowly craning its head back around towards him, ignoring Ozawa, who was already heading back inside. The prediction chip…!

He scrambled up and back, the chip letting him dodge for a while, but he was starting to slow down and eventually it clipped him, spinning him off-balance. It didn't waste the chance, lunging in and gripping with both hands, claws digging into armour. He threw a short-range punch into its gut, to no effect at all.

Is this it? Humanity's limit…when the Unknown decide to get serious, and send monsters like this at us…no matter what we build, we can't—

"Yeah, right there." A symphony of thunderous noise and scorching heat erupted all around them, up was down and left was right, and half a minute passed in a flash of confused senses. Hojo was lying on tarmac. His eyes refocused, the ringing in his ears died down. Small fires still burned around him. Parts of the ground were bubbling. He raised his head and shoulders, the extra weight of the movement reminding him of the armour.

Ozawa had been waiting to see what emerged from the smoke. She'd got the angle right; Hojo was battered but alive, and there was nothing left of the king Unknown; its explosion had been masked by the far larger one she'd caused. She lowered the steaming, quad-barrelled rocket launcher, surveying her victory with quite the smug look. G3-X and the launcher weren't synced up, so she'd had to remove the suit's helmet and eyeball the aim. Worked, though. Course it did. I built all this.

"What," Hojo hissed, "do you call that—"

"Effective," she said, dragging him up. "C'mon, to medical with you." She started heading back for the station, expecting him to follow. "We'll call everyone back, you can file an official complaint which I'll ignore…hey, you coming?"

He'd taken a step forward, but not as smoothly as he'd planned. Now his back arched suddenly, limbs jerking, fingers twitching. Like a puppet with tangled strings.

Godai fell back against his bike, toppling it over, gasping. The queen-ant Lord was unbelievably strong.

But… He straightened up, locking his gaze on it. There were Grongi much worse than this. "Up 'till now I've had to be careful about releasing too much of Kuuga's power." He spread his stance, an identical copy of the golden brace on his right leg forming on his left. "But there's a reason I drove us out here. There's no-one around for a long way." Ten times normal human senses assured him of that. "So…" More sparks coursed through his body, and his chest-carapace faded from red to black.

Ozawa didn't miss a beat at the pillar of flame rising into the sky from the distant forest. Kuuga was doing his job. This was hers.

Hojo didn't seem to be conscious anymore. Whether he was even alive wasn't clear. This was purely G4. Every time she drew near, it twitched, spinning awkwardly to face her and lashing out wildly.

"Shit…" I told him this would happen. She checked her pistol's ammo count, slowly circling the lurching suit. It's not making reasoned decisions, like 'friend' or 'foe'. It's purely acting out combat protocols whenever a target presents itself. If I don't stop it, it'll kill anyone it comes across.

"I brought you into this world…guess I have to see you out." She fired a few shots to confirm; it was as mobile as ever, and none of them touched it. "All right…"

How do you beat something that knows the future in real-time?

Cheat.

"No matter how powerful the psychics that gave you cells were, projecting an accurate recreation of moving three-dimensional space around you that quickly is taxing. You can only process a simulation three seconds in advance. So…" She fired, seemingly randomly, up at the building behind, emptying the clip then throwing the gun aside and rushing G4. She kept up a ferocious speed so it was so pressured to defend it barely got the chance to hit back. "…all I have to do…" She waited for it to block a punch of hers that would've hit without the prediction system, thus altering the projected future—and struck with her other hand in that tiny moment while it recalculated to produce a new prediction, a clean shot to the face knocking it in a full staggering circle. "…is plan your defeat further in advance than that."

A shower of glass and concrete from where she'd shot the building rained down on G4, its agitated movements growing more and more random as its system was flooded with trying to map out the path of hundreds of individual fragments. In the midst of its confusion, Ozawa stepped in, digging her gauntlets into the sides of the helmet and tearing the entire front half off, doing the same with the back and stomping both into a shattered mess against the ground. Hojo collapsed, eyes still rolled back but breathing uneasily.

"Idiot…" Ozawa slumped down next to him, levering her suit off a piece at a time. "A minute more and you'd be dead." She gave his body an idle kick. "Is this enough to convince you to not mess with my shit when I tell you not to mess with my shit?"

It was getting on into night proper. The whole station was abuzz with activity, the force returned, assessment for repairs underway. Ozawa had slipped away from the medics and was sitting in the back of the G-Trailer with the rest of the G3 Unit, the doors open to the night sky, their legs dangling over the lip and nearly brushing the ground. Godai was behind Ichijou and fussing around him with blankets, food, drinks; Hikawa and Omuro nursed a coffee each, while Ozawa was just finishing a beer and reaching back for the next, somewhere among the pile of cans she'd already emptied since sitting down.

"I think it turned out okay," Godai offered, giving a vacant-looking smile.

"How did it?!" Hikawa said, staring at him.

"I suppose we did dispose of a lot of Unknown," Ichijou said. "And learned the extent to which they'll hunt any trace of potential Agito, and destroyed said trace so this won't happen again."

"I think you mean I did most, possibly all of that," Ozawa said, locating the last full can and popping it open. "By the way, I hear Hojo could be out of action for months."

Hikawa's face fell. "And he's always working so hard…he'll be devastated."

"He sure will." Ozawa grinned. "Sometimes, life gives you something beautiful."

Ichijou waited until she'd drained the can and laid back in a moment of serene satisfaction before delivering a precisely-timed reminder. "…so you had a date?"

"Ahh!" She sat bolt upright, grabbing Hikawa's wrist to read the time, then Omuro's when it turned out the former didn't have a watch. "Ten minutes!" She disappeared into the trailer—then the rest of the team had to dive out of the way as she flew out the hatch and into the car-park on G3's bike.

Omuro started towards her. "I don't think you're cleared for—"

"I built it, it's mine!" She swerved around him and sped off down the road, vanishing into the night.

"Don't…don't drink and drive…" Hikawa mumbled.

Midday, the following day…

Kaoru Kino dragged himself out of the alley, covered in dirt, blood and sweat. This can't be my limit! There are still so many of them left. I must be the strongest!

And then he was there. The Overlord.

"Please…I'm sorry, I failed…give me another—"

"Calm down." He held out an open palm, a gentle glow dulling Kino's pain. "I will not abandon you simply for losing. You are human. Weakness is in your nature. And as long as you are still willing to help, I have no reason not to accept." He handed over a slip of paper. "One has presented himself to you. This was delivered to your last known residence."

Kino scanned the message, keeping his expression steady.

Please come and meet me at the above location. I don't want to fight you but, well, if we do I'll win. Sorry. So please let's just talk. I think all Agito should be friends. Actually I'm working on a sort of club…I'll tell you about it when we meet, I guess.

Please don't try to hurt or kill anyone else or anything until we meet.

—Tsugami Shouichi (or Sawaki Tetsuya?)

"Eliminate him." The Overlord was gone, his voice carrying to Kino on the wind. "With his personality, it should be easy. You will be one step closer to your reward. And don't worry about that, I'll provide it as promised. I don't begrudge you your human selfishness, either…"

Kino gripped his shaking arm, his teeth chattering.

Two more Agito chapters remain!