"I can see them from here." Lonk didn't even need to squint to see them... although, doing so might have helped. Getting a call from his bae usually meant she wanted to call him back for cuddles, but her urgency over the line somewhat conflicted with his own wants.

That, and their daughter Sarah was currently grounded and locked in her room back in Lowee; needless to say, Zaeda was in a fairly poor mood all around, and the current circumstances did not alleviate her worries either.

"Then get your ass over there and help them: we rarely get pawns as useful as them, and I swear by the goddesses themselves if you somehow lose them-"

"Don't sweat it babe: I got this~" Clicking the call off right after would certainly leave his lover bolstering her fury even more, but to be honest, Lonk loved it when she was angry. Besides, he wasn't about to let the newest addition to the crew be lost to a silly little skeleton. The trio were cool, and he wanted to keep them around for as long as possible.

"Interesting... it would seem she's taken a liking to them."

"Oh yeah." Lonk leaned back in his chair a little, stretching just a small amount before relaxing his arms. "She's especially fond of capital K."

"So you're on a nickname basis." The little man hummed, shutting his eyes in thought as a small smirk overcame him. "Makes me wonder if I should attempt such casual greetings... although: my employees would probably find it a bit odd."

"Yeah... maybe just a little." Lonk had no problems with speaking to his work associate in such a carefree and straightforward manner; being a big boss himself gave him the credit to do so.

Mr. Boss - apparently his first name was Big, but everyone just called him Boss - was quite the interesting guy. Despite looking like a toddler in an old-timey suit - at least for today anyway - he was a fairly intimidating man. After first meeting the guy and his goons, Lonk immediately questioned himself as to how Kurome could have possibly fallen in line with him... but then he recalled everything he'd learned about the haymaker trio - his own nickname for the group - and all of it fell into place.

That wasn't to say he was a bad guy... well, at least in terms of criminal overlords just scraping the edge of the law. He could be brutal when he wanted to be, however each of his 'punishments' for failures and other disappointing acts were distinctly non-lethal, despite how his threats sounded. Lethal acts would draw out the goddesses, and nobody wanted that, which was why almost every criminal refrained from severe acts of violence... at least since the friendship treaty proposed by the divines.

Back when the goddesses were at war, everything was game.

Today though, the pair were sat in a rather luxurious café situated on one of the many rooftops of their beloved - in Mr. Boss's case - nation: discussing why a few of their eggplant transports were attacked. Luckily, none of the people leading the transport were harmed, but both trucks were set ablaze. And would you know it, those attacks just so happened to be led by skeletons. In fact, after seeing the commotion at the shop below and across the street, even from this distance, Lonk had a suspicion the skeleton involved was connected to their recent troublemakers.

At least Sonya looked to be having fun.

"Hmm?" Mr. Boss looked up, reaching his hand out to feel the droplets, before snapping his fingers. One of the well-dressed, and slightly less disturbing because of it, goons brought over an umbrella, opening it up and shielding all at the small table. "Strange. The weather called for sun all day."

"Heh heh." Lonk rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I guess you can blame that one on one of my guys. My man down there with mister bag-o-bones tends to get a little excited when he gets a chance to fight."

"Pardon, but what does that have to do with the rain?"

"Well... take a look at the rain." Holding up a hand, Lonk reached out and allowed a few drops to puddle in his palm. Bringing it over again, he held it out and asked. "See anything weird about it?"

"It's... red?" Mr. Boss's face hardened, and he raised a brow afterwards while casting a look towards Lonk. "It's not blood, is it?"

"Nah." Tossing away the water and flicking his hand dry, he offered an aloof smirk. "It's just water, but blessed with black magic. He calls it Crimson Storm. Luckily for us, it only harms those he dictates as enemies, and nobody else." Lonk's face twisted a little. "Otherwise we'd be in for some serious legal trouble."

"I can imagine." Mr. Boss cast an eye out to the battle going on down below, before twisting it towards his associate again. "Will you be off to aid them then?"

"In a bit." With a playful grin he looked out. "We can go check on them later... that is, if you want to join us?"

"I could do with a visit." Taking a sip of coffee, Mr. Boss let himself lean back as well, albeit with a more dignified posture. "It's been quite some time since I've spoken with them. Although, is there a particular reason we're waiting. You've spoken of being a competent fighter, and I'm far from defenseless, even on my own. Why wait?"

"That's why." Lonk pointed to the neighboring rooftops below, just off a ways from the shop where the battle was taking place, where a peculiar trio of two opposing-colored twins and a mouse could be seen hopping and running along. "See the red girl down there? She's my man's older sister, and the blue copy at her side is our recent champion."

"Huh... you're quite right with that. Stange, she looks younger than 'your man'."

"Don't let her looks fool you, despite looking like a teen she's actually in her late twenties."

"Interesting... She has quite the striking resemblance to Kurome, no?"

"Yeah, but Sonya says she's always cosplaying as her idol, so maybe Kurome's doing the same... although she's rocking the goth aesthetic."

"Perhaps..." Mr. Boss allowed himself to relax as he looked out. "Very well, let us then enjoy the show."

.

.

"DO YOU DO THIS OFTEN?"

"You don't need to shout, chu: we can hear ya just fine." Warechu said, causing Uzi to glow a little red around her cheeks.

"Sorry, I thought it might be hard to hear up here."

"Why?" Warechu had this kind of iffy expression, like a guy who'd just been told he himself wasn't real. "There ain't no wind or anything."

"I-I might have gotten a little over excited." Uzi spoke just fine now that she wasn't popping everyone's eardrums, even as they leapt over to the next building while keeping a casual pace; it wasn't like they were in a rush or anything. "I'm not used to making death defying jumps, you know?"

"Normally we aren't doing this either." Kurome then recalled several missions and their requirements prior. "Most of the time we aren't doing it. Today just so happens to be a little wild."

"When is it not, chu?"

"Don't sass me." Kurome didn't particularly care about the sass, but she couldn't go giving the idiots 'outs' too often, or they'd get way more in over their heads than they already were.

"There they are!" Uzi yelled, and upon a quick glance, Kurome realized that coming all the way out here might have just been a waste of time.

"Why am I not surprised?" It was a genuine question to herself, as if there was some little gremlin in the back of her mind; the solitary personality who was bullied into the corner for liking stupid things, the one who knew what was happening and could make sense of it effortlessly.

"Because this happens every other day." Warechu, unseen by Kurome as she was too busy at the moment focusing on trying to rationalize what they were seeing, sent a sorry smile to Uzi. "Sorry kid. This is probably seeming a little bit crazy, right, chu?"

"I-It's okay, really." Uzi did her best to not make a fuss of everything, but in truth, she was just a little bit - a teeny weenie little smear - unnerved by it all. She knew her little brother was a bit... strange, some would say, and she understood that his official job wasn't exactly something you'd brag about in public, but seeing him standing there with a literal member of the undead tangled in his whip kind of frightened her.

Really, this was probably all her own fault: she really should have devoted more time into being a good role model, as opposed to letting her obsessions overtake her.

Once upon a time she wasn't known as FU the Fake Uzume and supreme fan of the lovely red-head, but rather PHIL the Purple Heart Imposter Lady; back in school everyone always got so confused in class when the teacher called her name - many 'huh?' echoed throughout the room. Those memories often made her scoff: how dare they go off thinking a woman couldn't be obsessed with Lady Purple Heart - all those 'PHIL's a chick?!' and 'who calls a girl that?' ticked her off in ways one could only imagine.

While Kurome was questioning her life choices... again, for the third time these past few days - new record - and Uzi was having an internal existential crisis: Warechu was just looking on as they ran and leaped, with only a few thoughts on his mind, with one of such being...

Bloody rain; running over roofs with a new chick; watching our housekeeper tangle a boner with his whip… Yep, I definitely need a drink after this.

Dubbing a skeleton as such most likely sounded awful, but it made him chuckle a little in the face of all these scrambled sensibilities, and so he enjoyed it as a sort of break from the idiocy of the day. That wasn't to say he hated every facet of the situation. Take Uzi for example: Yes, he was a little surprised to learn she was Sonya's older sister, and yeah, it was kind of irritating that she showed up at the worst possible time, but that was hardly her fault. So far, and much like himself, she appeared to recognise just how freaking dumb the entire situation was, and he low-key appreciated her for that.

Given she was older than the guy, and yet looked like a girl in her late teens was only a tiny flick disturbing. On the bright side, she wasn't preying on kids, which she'd probably be perfect for - CFW Trick would love her. Fortunately for humanity at large, and to some extent monster society, the gal was focused solely on her 'Uzume', who she wouldn't shut up about for the first five minutes of the trek to the store. Much like Kurome, Uzi was the spitting image of the irritant, but unlike his close friend she stuck true to the style. Kurome went goth with her look, making it her own in a way, whereas Uzi did her damnedest to keep it official. That didn't mean she was completely unmistakeable; her design flaws were the copious amounts of roughness and split ends along the outfit, making her appear as a more wild and crazy Uzume.

And honestly, it kind of worked for her.

"Hey guys, over here!" Linda spotted them, which wasn't all that hard as they'd made a pretty big splash landing all at once on the pavement portion of the roof, spraying 'blood' all over the place.

"Can you please, please-" The way Kurome emphasized the second 'please' made Linda physically recoil. "Not get into trouble for one day?"

"I'm sorry, alright, but it wasn't my fault." Shooting a glare at the bound monster, the girl spat with ire. "It stole our stuff."

"Right..." Gazing at the creature, and as Sonya continued to tighten the whip, Kurome noticed that something was lodged in its ribcage. "What did it take?"

"Is that what I think it is, chu?" The rat spotted it too, and apparently choosing to answer said question, Sonya was the one to speak up, not once taking his eyes from the creature.

"It's the shave butter you recommended; It ripped it right from my basket. I apologize: I was the one being robbed."

"Hi!" Uzi's voice butting in had a fairly blatant affect on the man, who stiffened to the call and nearly let his hold over the whip in his hands fail. He retained his grip on the weapon however, and with it his grasp on the beast, but his eyes... They were now firmly set on the girl who waved from behind, and Kurome got a good look at the exasperation just hiding behind their butler's falsified indifference - he could mask it good enough, but a second slip-up was all the woman needed.

"Sylvia... You're here as well?"

"Yeppers." There was a soft silence, followed by a sigh. "Will you ever consider wearing pants just once?"

"That is currently the least of our concerns right now, I'm afraid."

"Yeah?" Kurome just had to toss a quick look at Uzi as she said that, or would it be Sylvia now? No, no she was sticking with Uzi - she introduced herself as such, and so it would be. It was the first time the girl actually sounded upset for real; Kurome only knew her for like, an hour, but still. The annoyance coming from her tone was... weird: it didn't quite match the projected persona.

Feeling there was nothing to be gained dwelling on the idea, and not wanting to get between the brewing sibling's spat, Kurome decided to instead make for the monster. Walking up to it, she felt this eerie bubbling throughout her stomach. Just being in close proximity to the creature set off a few alarms... although that wasn't exactly a hard thing to do. What was hard to do, however, was to break a limb free from your restraints and start choking Kurome.

A thing with no muscles really shouldn't have been capable of such an iron grip.

Everyone's movements were slow, really really slow, but not theirs. Nope, both the skeleton and her were struggling at regular speeds, and from how tightly its fingers remained around her throat, Kurome wasn't sure if she should break out her delusions or not. If there was anything positive to be had, it was the fact it wasn't cutting off her throat completely: she could still breath to an extent. Maybe this was the reason she didn't immediately break out her power.

T-the hell! Being strong enough to rival a goddess, even an ex, was no simple feat. Heck, Kurome knew that, even as an ex-goddess, she was stronger than all of the big four. Uzume was physically the strongest of all Gamindustri's deities, and being an extension of her, Kurome shared that trait. By this point everyone else had stopped moving entirely, and it was just the two of them locked in place. Its jaw remained still, not creaking with even a single twitch, and still...

It spoke.

"Coming… I… n-n-need you…"

It's a girl?! Probably not the most helpful of observations, and yet a part of her felt like she might just be a wee bit off. The voice came from it, and yet it felt wrong to her. Something about that voice, that tone of speech specifically, it called to her. A sense of nostalgia came with it, flooding over like a tide of salt-water along the beach. Obviously by this point, Kurome realized she recognised the voice... and yet she couldn't picture the owner.

It wasn't one of their friends... Uzume's friends anyway, and it wasn't her own new friends either. That last idea had her slowing her efforts to escape the clutches; it didn't matter either way, as once the first word echoed out the creature had let up its grip, just enough for her to breathe. Having friends: actual real friends, ones she could definitely call her own... it made her chest feel tight.

It also emphasized the nostalgic ripple along the inside of her skull.

She let her eyes fall fully back towards the skeleton, right as the whip wrapped around it began moving again. Everyone's cries came all at once, and as the strip of leather ripped across the bones, crushing and shattering almost all of them, Kurome was left stumbling faintly as she tried to stand on her own again. Linda's cry came first, assaulting her from seemingly everywhere. She was shouting something, but for the life of her, Kurome couldn't hear a thing with everyone else apparently having chosen to do the same.

"ENOUGH!" It had been forever since she needed to yell at the top of her lungs, and her lungs made sure she knew this by clawing the insides of her throat as the air left it, forcing the girl to experience a minor coughing fit. After a second or so she managed to get that settled away, and called out again, albeit at a more reasonable volume this time. "One at a time."

"Are you okay!?" Yet again Linda was first, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it was a simple question, and Kurome liked that.

"I'm fine. The scrub just caught me by surprise."

"Heck yeah it did!" Uzi wriggled her way in, swinging around into sight and flailing her arms wildly. "It was like a bullet: all 'woosh' when it shot its arm at you, like that guy in all of those old martial arts films!"

Kind of a weird comparison, but Kurome somewhat understood what Uzi was saying: Uzume watched a few old movies before with scenes like that.

"Did we at least save the shave butter, chu?!" The question wasn't exactly aimed at her per say, but Kurome found herself drawn towards the group's only men when Warechu nearly jumped for joy upon seeing Sonya hold it up. Yeah, Kurome was probably going to be feeling that choking for a day or so, but the tone which accompanied the housekeeper as he spoke had Kurome nearly leaning over.

"It was after this so badly it resorted to theft." He stared, seemingly scrutinizing the little can. "Why?"

"Beat's me, chu, but at least we didn't lose out."

"You wish to use it?"

"Nah. I just appreciate a product that does what it says it does." Warechu was smiling, looking far too relaxed. "Half the time everything's a sham, chu."

"You're not wrong." Again, Sonya focused on the can. "Although I'm curious as to what's so special about grooming products."

Kurome was curious too, and as a show of it she was already walking towards the pair - after having unknowingly ignored the girls who'd been talking to her. Without a word she snatched the can from Sonya's grip, and the man simply stayed quiet as she shifted to look at the back. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary: all the ingredients were the usual junk, with the standard warnings displayed openly and even. It was an ordinary can of shaving butter, with the fact it was a can being the weirdest part of it - then again, a round little tin was par for the course in most cases, although this wasn't quite so small. Something caught her eye then, as despite being normal everywhere else, there was a small message along the bottom rim.

'Quality tested and approved by Lady Black Heart.'

"Lastation's goddess tested this."

"What?" Warechu hopped up, snatching the thing from her hands and reading along where she was just staring. His face twisted, but showed nothing more than mild intrigue. "Huh, it seems she did, chu."

"She most likely sampled a portion of the formula before it was sent to shelves..." Sonya sprung the statement casually, as he usually did when informing them of anything, however he didn't simply end it off there. "Although, I find it odd that a goddess would have the time, or even desire to do a personal test on something as simple as this."

"Says here she's sponsoring it." Warechu looked up, having taken off the lid and held the underside towards them. The Lastation symbol was displayed proudly, with a statement being written underneath which confirmed just that. After a bit he popped it back in place, now sporting a new look of befuddlement. "Come to think of it, I've never seen this version of the stuff before. The butter I remember was in a tube, sort of like most skin creams, chu."

"Perhaps this one is simply new." Sonya reasoned, but nevertheless he crossed his arms. "However, I can't deny how strange it is for a creature to try and steal it."

"Well, the rest of it is all sold out, right?" Linda tossed in her two credits, adding to the conversation something Kurome didn't know - Warechu didn't either, which was shown with his exasperated face. With how much he seemed to love the product he never used, Kurome just wrote his feelings off.

"That's another thing." Sonya tapped the side of his cheek, with his eyes clenched tight, creating a crease of irritation. "Why has something so simple as a bathroom product sold out completely?"

"I don't know." Linda shrugged with a curled brow. "Maybe people just really want to have something approved by the goddess?"

"This is a Lastation approval though, and we're in Planeptune." Sonya told, and before Linda could respond, Uzi seemed to hop into the conversation.

"Why not just ask the goddess about it?" Everyone turned to Uzi, who backed away a little after that. "I-I mean, she has a blog: we could just post a question and find out."

Sonya mulled it over, before shaking his head.

"We can, but an answer wouldn't be guaranteed."

"We can ask the robot dude." This time Linda stole the attention, however unlike Uzi, she seemed fine with all the eyes on her. "He's a pro hacker, isn't he?"

"Do we still have contact with him, chu?"

"I mean... we could just ask Zaeda..." Linda shrugged, only to seemingly retract her words and alter the idea. "Or Lonk... Yeah, on second thought we should probably ask him instead - he likes us at least.

Kurome simply sat there, apparently in the background as everyone else came to an agreement. She had no strong opinions on the idea either way, being far more interested in the voice from before. It was so familiar, just on the tip of her tongue even, and yet she could recall who it belonged to. Usually, she'd ignore the mood it brough, but that voice...

It made her feel happy.

Author's note

...

Took a bit, but here we are. Sorry for the wait, but to keep uploads consistent and at full quality, I'll be uploading a chapter to this every two weeks instead of one: I'm working on three stories right now, so both this one and Unstoppable will alternate in uploads - Beyond Destiny still takes priority… even if the starting 50 chapters are pretty shit.

Anyway, the crew has a new goal in mind, and the old boss is back. Uzi weasels her way into the plot, and Anonydeath gets a spot too: all being drawn by the mysterious monster uprising. Pack your things boys: the fabled skeleton war has begun… or it's just Tuesday again - who knows by this point?

See you later!