"And you're absolutely sure about this?" Reisi straightens his glasses with the flat of his palm- a feat that leaves Suoh wondering how the other doesn't have fingerprint marks all over his lenses- and eyes the papers littering his desk. He's only had the time to read half of them, but between the data from Seri Awashima, his head of research, and Suoh Mikoto's own bartender, Kusanagi, the results are quite clear.

"So let me get this straight," Suoh drawls, gesturing with his cigarette-bearing hand. The blonde woman, aide to the temporarily-defunct Blue King, winces as she thinks about ash spreading on the fine carpets of Scepter 4's headquarters. The amber-eyed man allows himself a smirk at the opposite faction's comfort before continuing. "When Munakata released his power, the force with which he did it canceled out my Sword of Damocles."

"That is correct," Awashima replies stiffly, looking to her King for support.

"And in canceling out your power, I caused an imbalance that has thrown the essence of nature into disarray," muses Munakata. "Which manifested itself in the freezing of all waters in a 100-kilometer radius around Japan." The man leans forward, placing his elbows on his desk and making a steeple of his fingers. "Well, Suoh, are you going to rage at me?"

The former Red King snorts disdainfully before turning again to Awashima. "Kusanagi's research- backed by yours, I'd think- indicates that the imbalance is spreading."

"Right once again," the blonde replies, her demeanor betraying nothing but professionalism. "We have reason to believe that the ice is slowly spreading every day. Scepter 4's satellite images hint at a possible increase in the ice mass under the water, probably due to the proximity of a power source."

"So what you're saying is our powers are trapped down there, and as long as they stay there, this freezing is going to continue?"

Awashima nods to her King and fiddles with a large folder cradled in her arms. "Kusanagi- Izumo- did the calculations. At the rate the ice has spread in the week since the incident, we can expect the underwater ice mass to be twice its original size in several more days. The surface ice will grow at a much slower rate, and is estimated to double in size after approximately a month past the incident." The blonde looks up at both Kings and inhales sharply. "Izumo and I have also taken the liberty of making a plan to stop this."

Munakata leans back in his chair and places a hand to his chin. "I'm listening." The second-in-command of Scepter 4 glances to Suoh, who gestures for her to continue.

"During our testing period, we discovered something rather unusual." She produces several sheafs of paper, which she dutifully hands to her King. He glances down at it once and sets it aside, content to let her explain those twenty pages of scientific blather away.

"Kusanagi and I each chipped off a sample of the surface ice and took it back to our respective headquarters for further study. We were expecting it to have a lifespan of several hours once disconnected from the main power source, that is, the ice body itself. However, the ice not only refused to melt, but took on a crystalline form."

Awashima slaps down a few more papers in front of Munakata, and produces identical documents for his counterpart. "What we have here is a business front known as Snowblock United, whose main purpose is 'the excavation and export of unmeltable ice blocks from the ocean'. Not only will this be a suitable front for us to dig down to the power source, but it will also provide aid for the rest of the country, since our fishing industry is all but crippled."

"What's stopping others from drilling into this ice and finding the power for themselves?" Suoh counters.

"We've narrowed down the power source to a radius of fifty kilometers." Awashima consults the large stack of papers- Munakata takes a split second to admire her diligence- and the blonde produces yet another map with a flourish. "What we have here are thermal images of the ice. As you can see, there's one spot that exudes slightly less heat than the others. Unfortunately the effect is rather spread out, so we can assume that either the power source has been scattered all across said radius, or it is so far down that its effects are spread drastically across the surface."

Suoh sits back in the wooden chair provided for him. "What a pain," he mutters.

"This wouldn't be happening if you hadn't decided to go after the Colorless King," Munakata states tersely. "Awashima, we thank you for your report. Dismissed."

Awashima salutes and pivots on her heel before opening the door of Munakata's office and exiting quietly. Both Kings immediately stand once she's gone, and Suoh's eyes find Munakata's instantly. "There's no other option is there," he hisses, displeased.

"It appears that Scepter 4 and Homra are going to need to work together for this," Munakata replies as stiffly as ever. "With the loss of our clansmen's powers, we'll have to rely on more... mundane means as well. How many employees will it take to dig up an ice mine?"

"If you and your stooges take care of the paperwork, Homra can handle the rest." Mikoto scratches idly at his nose. "And if you don't mind at all, we'll be taking Saruhiko Fushimi along with us as well. Don't want him messing up your precious bureaucracy, do you?"

Munakata snorts, the first sign of humor he's shown since the incident. His arm, his right arm, twitches as if laughter is painful. Indeed, the multiple lacerations in that arm are slow to heal; it's a small relief that Suoh's just volunteered to do most of the grunt work. "Yes, I shall get Scepter 4 started on the hiring process, budgeting, and all of that lovely paperwork you so love to avoid."

"Send some steel our way," Suoh says with a sigh. "We'll have to build tunnels, bases, supports, probably even sleeping quarters-"

"Appropriate sleeping bags, mining materials, oxygen filters in a worst case scenario-"

"Parkas, jackets, blankets-"

Suoh and Munakata glance at each other, and each gives the other their best version of an exasperated smile. "Give our lieutenants the smallest chance to make trouble for us-" Munakata begins.

Suoh waves a hand at him and starts for the door. "I'll get everything going in a week, tops. I expect the same from you, Blue King."

Munakata watches his counterpart saunter out the door and shut the mahogany slab behind him. He stares into the silence, his injured arm throbbing like an annoying second heart at his side, before turning back to his desk and chair, the former still littered with papers. The Blue King sighs and leans over to grab at the tallest stack with his good hand.

From King of Scepter 4 to CEO of a mining company, he muses, sighing inwardly at the amount of paperwork he's going to need to limp through. Maybe after closing time he'll drop by Homra and ask Kusanagi for a drink, since the two sides are no longer at war, just to piss Mikoto off.

It'd be a nice way to end an otherwise boring day.