Senpai: A Story of Good Friends Devas Edition Chapter 24: Taian Daylight, a Ranma + Urusei Yatsura Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written fiction, the views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, and Five Pound Gospel are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi, property of their respective rights holders and publishers. Please support the official releases.

CW: This story will contain violence, strong language, sexual humor and situations, drug use, Moroboshi Ataru, and Happosai. You've been warned.

|Taian Daylight|

Outside of the combini that Curly described as the limit of the Host Martial Artists' incursions, Katie crassly fed upon her sixth skewer of yakitori–another six skewers of grilled chicken held awkwardly between the fingers of her other hand. Akane was crouched down next to her, hovering over a bowl of instant ramen with chopsticks in hand, loudly slurping up the noodles. A folded handkerchief with a second cooked but partly open bowl of ramen upon it rested on her head, and two more empty bowls sat at her feet.

The two had stopped for lunch with the Butsumetsu boys spoken to and had elected to make up for their dreadful mealtime experience the other day.

Sucking the last of the sauce from her current finished skewer, Katie flicked it like a missile into a trash bin on the other side of the door of the 7-Eleven combini's storefront and let out a chuckle as it went in like the last eight before it.

"You know… your sister's an amazing cook, and that Okonomiyaki hit every spot, but sometimes you just gotta have some of that down home combini junk food, y'hear?" Katie asked.

Akane let out an "Mm!" in agreement, wary to nod with a reinforced paper bowl of near-boiling water cooling atop her head. She finished her penultimate bowl of ramen and hiccupped before taking the last from atop her head and stirring the contents with her chopsticks.

Rather than slurp the noodles, she stirred the bowl harder before pulling out a large ball of noodles the size of her fist. Opening her mouth wide, shoved the entire mass in her mouth and began chewing, stopping to take sips of the remaining broth to wash it all down.

Katie stared at Akane, her left eye twitching a bit. "God damn."

Akane looked back at her Senpai, smirking before she took a final gulp of the last of her broth. "What?"

Katie looked away. "I just learned somethin' new about ya, is all. You sure about that kinda ramen?"

She nodded. "I didn't think I'd like this natto ramen, but here I am."

Katie took to another stick of yakitori. "I'll take yer word for it."

As her senpai ate, Akane asked. "So… these guys in black leather, what do you make of them?"

Katie chewed on the question like she did her chicken. "Bad hombres with weapons in black leather could be any ol' operation. Like Curly said, they could be bikers… but I ain't heard no motorcycles rumbling 'round our neck of the woods at night."

Her kouhai nodded in agreement. "There's no way anyone would miss that… unless they were on actual bikes or something."

The mental image of big tough bikers on regular bikes nearly made Katie spit out her yakitori and choke on it at the same time. It was too powerful of an image. Shaking her head as she wiped her tears, Katie sputtered. "Bleh, gah… well… otherwise they could be ninja, or yakuza, or who knows what else."

Akane huffed through her nostrils. "They could be sentai for all I care; I'll take them on."

"Attagirl, you got that dog in ya," Katie complimented. "Regardless of what we find out, we're definitely gonna hang out after dark and see what kinda fun we can turn up."

The air sparkled around Akane as she preened from her praise.

"Let's heat up the bricks, we got daylight to burn and questions to ask."

Akane puzzled the meaning of that before Katie headed off, and quickly took after her as she understood.

The pair sauntered on deeper into Taian, where the anachronism of Butsumetsu faded quickly into the upscale and chic of the wealthier mixed commercial and upscale residences. A relatively new addition to Nerima Ward when the SAD was established, with its proximity to no less than three estates belonging to the wealthier residents, the new construction was both modern Earth and out of this world alien in architecture–symbolic of what the Special Administration District was.

Akane's eyes wandered as they meandered along. The busy streets and sidewalks were crowded with not just humans, but all manner of aliens. Creatures, aliens, humans, and not mingled in a morass of eclectic colors and shapes, drawing the eyes of the two girls as they passed them.

Katie huffed in amusement as she noticed a green three eyed boy with slicked back hair and antennae trying to be suave and cool to an unimpressed human high school girl.

Beside her, Akane stared at a gaggle of monks crowded around the corner of a small park, drawn together by a shogi match between their brethren; a younger bald man with electrifying blue skin and yellow eyes versus a creature whose smoldering red eyes could be seen glowing from underneath it's heavy cowl.

Reaching out, Katie stopped Akane from walking in the path of another pair crossing their path at a street intersection next to the park.

"… Aw you know me dawg, I'm just doing just fine," drawled a large pink gelatinous mass to his blue Oni friend in a poncho as they walked at a sedate pace. Both of them had cups of boba milk tea in some bizarre energic green flavor.

Akane took note of the boba with interest as the aliens passed. "… Huh… been a while since I had boba."

"Let's find some when we're done." Katie said before she looked at her phone and the list of people Curly sent her. "The first group hang out at the park here, let's go."

The park was like the rest of Taian, clean, attractive, and orderly. Near the playground full of brand-new equipment and next to some picnic tables, two Clusters of grannies of all shapes and sizes sat holding court upon their small carts, gossiping about this and that as they passed around a never ending stream of trinkets and candy.

As Akane lingered to watch them without stopping, one of them hooted, bidding goodbye to her fellows and took off, her wings flapping lazily as she soared across the rooftops with a cackle.

Katie took the distracted Akane's arm and pulled her aside as a harried preschool teacher dug in her heels to no avail against half a dozen furry children yipped excitedly, running towards their playmates at the playground equipment; much to the delight of the grannies as they welcomed the young'uns.

"Cute…" Akane cooed herself at the sight before Katie directed her attention to a less than eye-catching group of teenage boys who were gathered at a picnic table.

They were a sullen lot, despite their expensive-looking clothes and their fancy phones. With some time and motivation, they could clean up into passable models–but in the state they were at the very most approachable.

The boys looked over and didn't react much as Katie and Akane walked up to them.

"Howdy," Katie greeted, "Word on the block is that you're some of those Host Club Martial Artists we've been hearing about."

Akane glanced at Katie, then at the boys, the apparent leader lifting his head up fully from his phone as his boys sulked. "Nah, we don't do that anymore."

"What happened?" Katie asked.

The leader shrugged his shoulders. "We got our asses kicked, that's all. It's real in the streets."

Akane silently wished some of these guys went to Furinkan–it would have made things easier on her if getting beat up was enough to get them to quit. "Who beat you up?" She asked. "We're looking for some guys who are going around jumping people at night."

The leader of this pretty boy posse paled at the question, and he looked down. "Suzuki."

"Suzuki?" Katie and Akane repeated as one.

He nodded. "Guy named Suzuki, him and his crew… it was them."

With that he got up, his friends quietly following, and he turned to leave. "Go talk to them and leave us alone. They have a spot downtown in an office building called Moon Parlor."

Katie quirked an eyebrow but decided that they could verify it even if it was incorrect. "Thank you for your time, I guess."

The two turned to leave the park and headed out to the street and the vibrant Taian street life.

"Sheesh," Akane said. "He sounded just like Ucchan and Ryūnosuke."

Katie nodded. "Mmhm. Ain't got much to say other than they took an L"

Nevertheless, Akane turned her nose up. "At least they quit with that Pick-Up Martial Arts crap–so it's not a total loss."

Letting out a chuckle, Katie agreed with a quick "Exactly!" before a shadow fell over them.

"Hi!" She and Katie looked up as a handsome young man with webbed hands approached them, holding a tray of small cups of milk tea and boba in a dizzying array of colors. "We're having a promotion of our new Boba shop with fantastic flavors such as Cookie Alpaca and Angry Hanya Cream!"

Akane looked at the vast selection of offered drink samples, then at Katie. "Cookie Alpaca sounds cute..."

"Right?" Katie agreed. She turned to the sample man. "Y'all can color us intrigued."

The young man grinned and handed the sample cups to them. "If cute is what you're looking for, we also have flavors like jellocat and queensberry. The shop is right down the street, look for Milk Booba!"

Katie let out a snicker. "Heh, booba."

Akane gave her an admonishing look. "Really?"

"Hehehe…" Katie chuckled at her pout. "So cute."

As they continued, a family of sentient green onions strolled down the sidewalk opposite of them, the kids were surprisingly cute, while the father was a spectacularly built fellow with a lovely slim wife hanging onto his admittedly incredibly sizable arm, belly swollen with more baby vegetables.

Cute couple, I wonder how plant folks get their gains. Katie thought.

Akane worried for sentient food aliens in Japan.

The further down into Taian they went, the more packed it became with students out of class, the afternoon drawing more and more of the Special Administrative District's teenaged population out to enjoy Golden Week.

Katie pointed ahead and both she and Akane moved aside from a pair of girls in stylish and expensive clothes. One was human, but her companion was a pink-skinned alien.

"Oh my gosh, like have you tried this new Gobbo Brew?" The human teenager said to her friend. "It's like a mix of coffee, chocolate, and chai!"

"Yeah, I heard it gets better over time, too," the female-sounding alien replied in a gurgly voiced. "It's gonna totes take over the coffee scene on Earth the second someone gets ahold of it."

Akane let out a small chuckle. Nabiki has been getting into coffee lately…

Katie turned to the passing girls. "Pardon my dust, ladies–but can you maybe help us out for a second?"

The human and alien pair turned to Katie, and just about did a double take at the tall pretty girl and her super cute friend in tragically ugly uniforms. Nevertheless, the sporty teens did not judge. "Like, what's up?"

"Howdy, y'all. You girls wouldn't happen to go to Kolkhoz International Academy, would ya?" When both girls nodded, Katie continued. "We're looking for a kid named Endō Ryohei, you know him?"

The human girl lit in recognition. "Oh yeah, totes! He used to run the Kolkhoz Host Club!"

Akane made a face, a High School Host Club sounded incredibly skeevy.

"Used to…?" Katie asked.

The blue-skinned alien spoke up. "Last week he stopped coming to school. He sent a letter saying that he was stepping down and dropping out–and to not look for him."

Akane grimaced. "… That's dark."

"I know, right?" The human Kolkhoz student said. "And it's, like, a shame! He and all the other guys who quit were totes cute, too."

"Other guys?!" Akane yelped.

"Yeah, it wasn't just him, the entire host club quit, no one's seen them since," the alien student replied.

"Anyway, we gotta, like, go? Sorry if we weren't any help," the human girl said before they continued. "You're totes cute, and your hairstyles are awesome, though! Bye-bye!"

"At least they were nice." Katie turned to Akane as they resumed walking. "A whole dang host club?"

"A whole dang high school host club," Akane reiterated. "And good riddance! What kind of school has something like that?"

Katie held her tongue. "I wouldn't worry none about it. It's kinda like a maid café at a school festival, y'know?"

"Those are worse," Akane said.

Katie couldn't stop her laugh, now. "Really? But maids are so cute!"

Akane shook her head. "You wouldn't understand… and we got more important things to do than talk about the dark history of maids."

"I guess so…" Katie conceded before she looked off to her left and her eyes widened. "Oh my God, Akaneko, look."

Akane turned and found the café. Milk Booba, despite the lascivious name–or maybe because of it and the small band of pretty women and tall muscular men out front by the door advertising the various flavors of milk tea with special boba on tap–was quite popular for their grand opening and full of people of all ages, with a line stretching out the door door and down the street.

To the side of the attractive attractions, several floating holographic signs insisted that visitors "Do not abuse the advertisements" in numerous languages… some that hurt to look at. A harried looking bouncer, a muscular Oni with a fire engine red skin, gave a few humans a wary glare before letting them into the organized chaos that was the boba shop.

One of the muscular men posed dramatically, his skintight shirt straining as the milk tea, its contents, and named flavor emblazoned on his chest changed color, font, and size with every move of his pecs. More than a few teenagers of various genders and races eyed him speculatively before being ushered closer into the shop.

Katie and Akane watched as the doors opened, and another red Oni stormed out. She was taller than Katie and was hauling out a pair of rambunctious boys kicking and struggling uselessly in her hands.

"Hey, what's the deal?!" One of the boys shouted.

"Didn't you read the signs?" Growled the Oni, her eyes narrowing. "No fucking around with the ads! They don't wanna go out with you! Get to the back of the line!"

She shoved them into the street, Katie and Akane stepping back from both boys as they grumbled and did as commanded, stomping off to the back of the line.

"We gotta come back here when this place dies down some," Katie said as she too ogled the handsome advertisements.

Akane huffed in amusement. "Maybe if we time it right, you'll catch them on break."

"Hush, you," Katie snapped at her.

Akane let out another laugh before she looked all around at their quickly changing world. "I can't believe how different this place has become…"

Katie looked at her. "You don't come out here much?"

"I do my shopping closer to home, and Nabiki doesn't like coming out here because it's so expensive. Kasumi's the only one who comes out here regularly."

Akane gave Katie a mischievous smile. "Maybe you and her should go out here together, visit each other's favorite spots…?"

Her senpai's whole face turned red and she loomed over her kouhai. "Oh, you're gonna have fun with this, ain'tcha?"

Akane brought a hand to her lips to mock conceal her teasing giggle. "Fufufu…"

Turning away from Akane, Katie sighed. "Why? Oh why? Do I have to suffer such a cute kouhai? I can't even get mad at her, she's too much."

Katie abruptly snatched Akane up into a light headlock and ruffled up her hair. "Oh yeah! I'm bigger than her so I can do this!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaah!" Akane squealed in mock distress as she squirmed in Katie's grip, before both broke into laughter.

Despite attractions providing distractions, Katie and Akane continued through Taian, interviewing local delinquents and a few hosts who Curly listed as victims of the beatings… and a pattern began to emerge.

A nicely dressed young man hanging out a restaurants outdoor dining area met them with a sad grimace. "… They jumped us out of nowhere. I didn't see who did it. One second, I was laughing with my bros, then pow."

Some delinquents hanging out in front of a newsstand reading manga were just as forthcoming. "They challenged us, and we gave them a fight… but they were too strong… too stylish…"

A loner with a bandaged face walked away from them, speaking as he did. "Leave me alone, I don't wanna talk about it."

A bigger teenager, seething and in a battered state outside of a clothing store, growled. "It was Suzuki and his guys."

Two nearly identical guys in school uniforms hanging out by a water fountain, also well-battered, reluctantly gave a name. "Yeah, Suzuki."

Another fresh-faced young man, with dead eyes as he worked at a noodle stand, just muttered a single name. "… Suzuki."

Katie put her phone away as she and Akane reached their destination on their little investigation. Set on the first floor of a mixed-use high rise, was a swanky little café with stairs leading up to it. The Moon Parlor Café was certainly an innocuous façade for the den of skilled pick up martial artists.

"It all comes back to this spot and the guy holed up in here," Katie said. "Suzuki."

Akane ruminated over their various interviews. "Something isn't right with all of this. They're all the same way… totally defeated."

Katie nodded. "Like getting beat by these guys was enough to hang up the gloves. Well, let's see what kind of badasses we're up against."

She looked at Akane. "You ready?"

Akane rested a hand on her stomach, then looked at the building. "More than I'll ever be."

Climbing the stairs, they found what looked like a combination a clean and swanky little evening lounge and a café that was a 1:1 recreation of the Fruits Parlor Crown café from the Sailor Moon anime. As it was still the middle of the day, there was no business–booths that would be filled with giggling young women being treated to parfaits and mixed fruit drinks were empty, and young men who'd been idling to look cool, casual, but approachable for any would-be guest perked up when the two walked in.

At the far end of the soda shop's booth seats, at a larger half-circle booth, the leader of this band of bishounen raised his head with interest. Suzuki, the same young man who traded blows with Soban and walked away intact, raised an eyebrow when he saw the two Furinkan Girls. Like that day, he was dressed in his stylish cream-colored suit and his hair was on fleek.

There was no mistaking those awful uniforms or the beauty that shone through them. The tall and violent foreigner, her smaller but tremendously cute friend who was no less capable of carnage. The same girls who devastated Kuno Tatewaki, Furinkan High school's entire male student body, and put on a glorious show breaking the Shining Killers… they had come to his Club.

He was of several thoughts. The first being that he was so glad that some feminine beauty saw fit to grace his club. The next was the question of why they were here. One more was if this was going to end in a fight, and could he prevent it from becoming as such. He had other thoughts, but those ranged from the mundane to the risqué, and thus kept them far down the queue to his mouth.

Standing up, he clapped his hands twice. "Gentlemen."

Before Katie and Akane's eyes, the other hosts sprang into action, forming up in two rows between them and the seating of the club. They all struck a greeting pose–one hand on their chest, and the other presenting the path to the booths, which Suzuki blocked as he assumed his spot as the master of this ceremony.

"Good day to you, my princesses," Suzuki said, the other hosts speaking in time with him before he introduced himself. "I am Suzuki, and I will be your guide to a world worthy of your beauty."

It was a flattery that, after meeting with Soban and his gang, felt so artificial and hollow.

Akane took the lead. "We're not here to be catered to, we want answers."

Folding her arms, Katie nodded in agreement. "Mmhm!"

Suzuki seemed to glide up to the two, before stopping in a sweeping bow to them. "My Princesses, we will be more than happy to answer your questions and cater to you. Speak to us your desires, and we will fulfill them to our best ability."

With a bit of sleight of hand, he produced a tablet and offered it to them. "But first, would you like to make a selection of hosts you'd like to get to know?"

Reaching out, Katie nudged the tablet away. "Let me make this clear. We're not paying for any of yer services, and you ain't gonna push 'em on us. We know about you getting into scraps 'round here, and a lot of people been turning up beaten to a pulp with your name signed on their clapped keisters."

Suzuki gave pause at that then tried to speak soothingly. "That doesn't seem like anything we'd be involved in–"

Katie's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Everyone from Butsumetsu to two streets over are saying you and your guys the ones out here cleaning up."

Suzuki's lovely features shifted into a small frown, then a scowl as Katie continued. "Then there's the fact that you came close to messing with our school–but only stopped short when you saw what me and my girl here did to the Shining Killers."

The Host turned away from the girls, bringing up his hand to cover his mouth. He glanced at them furtively, got caught, and looked away again.

"It ain't attractive to lie," Katie pointed out. "We just wanna know what you have to do with what's goin' on."

Suzuki stepped back from Katie, raising his hands. "M-my princess… I really think you've got the wrong Suzuki. We're not that kind of Host Club crew." He smoothly spun in place and struck an attractive pose, his fellow hosts following suit. "All we want is to show you a good time and make you feel lighter than air."

Katie's glower was withering as she realized they were going in circles. "… Maybe make our wallets feel lighter. C'mon guys, stop dawdlin'..."

She trailed off when Akane stepped past her, her head lowered slightly, so her slightly curved bangs fell to shade her eyes as she reached up and took Suzuki by the collar. "Suzuki-san… my senpai just said lying isn't attractive. I don't want you to look less attractive…"

Her actions confused that very senpai, who watched as she tightened her grip on Suzuki's collar… but then lifted her head to look him in the eyes as she pulled him closer slightly.

"Er… Akaneko…?" Katie asked.

"Huh…?" Suzuki stumbled, as he became lost in the beautifully cute Tendo Akane. Her eyelashes fluttering, she tilted her head ever slightly as she continued to draw him in–a clear and obvious signal.

As Suzuki felt his tension ease, and he began to lean in as she commanded, she whispered. "Tell us the truth… or I'll kiss you."

Suzuki, who'd tasted the lips of many a Princess who'd graced his shop, was happy to comply. "Yes, I…"

Then it occurred to him, as Akane's lips parted just centimeters from his. "… Wait… or…?"

Akane burped.

Katie, who'd been horrified by Akane suddenly going for the clumsy seduction approach out of thin air–now watched in gobsmacked awe as Suzuki's face went pale, then blue, then green in the space of a second. In the very next second he tried to leap back from her like an angry cat on a veterinarian's table, gagging and choking while craning his head back as far from Akane's face as he physically could without ripping his own neck off or worse, tearing his clothes.

"GAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR BREATH-?!" Suzuki yelled before Akane leaned forward while pulling him in–this time opening her mouth wide to exhale a hot breath into his face. "AHHHHHHH!"

Suzuki's legs buckled, and he fell to his knees even as he tried to break free. "FUCK! FUCK! WHAT DID YOU EAT?!"

He raised a hand to push Akane back, but she caught it and pushed him down onto his back, putting a knee on his stomach and pinning him down to lean over him. "Geh… so strong…!"

"I just ate four bowls of combini instant natto ramen," Akane answered. "Don't mess around, Suzuki!"

She brought her free hand up, finger pointed at the back of her open mouth. "You'd better answer or you'll get way more than a whiff of my lunch."

Katie was wheezing, completely stricken with the hardest laughter in her life that she couldn't let out. When Suzuki half-screamed, half-gagged, she realized that she was going to die here and now.

Her kouhai was gonna kill her with the funniest shit she'd ever seen.

Now, it wasn't so funny that she couldn't swing the knife edge of her hand to stop right against the throat of one host and catch another in a headlock when they rushed to grab and pull Akane off Suzuki.

"Hahahahaha…" Katie laughed, as she grabbed the neck of the host that she nearly decapitated. "… Y'all ain't listenin', so let me make it crystal."

With that she whirled around and threw both hosts, sending one crashing to the floor, and the other into two others. Her back to Akane and Suzuki, she looked at the remaining hosts with a glare that the smile on her face did not reach.

"We ain't in the mood fer bullshit," she finished. "Tell the truth."

Suzuki, trying to breathe, dry-heaved when Akane huffed in his face again. He let out a scream. "I admit it, stop! Stop! We're not jumping anybody! We're just copping the credit; we don't even know who's doing it!"

"No cap?" Katie asked.

"I swear!" Suzuki yelled as Akane leaned towards him, her mouth hanging open like the jaws of a whale shark to let the power of natto flow through him. "Please, have mercy! Get this crazy bitch away from me!"

Turning, Katie faced the other hosts, who were suddenly a lot less inclined to attack them. She scanned them quickly. "None of y'all know about last night, either?"

When they quickly shook their heads, Katie held out a hand. "Akaneko, let the pretty boy go."

And just like that Akane released him and rose to rejoin Katie's side. Taking a handkerchief to her mouth, she wiped it of any unsightly drool.

Suzuki gasped for breath, and pointed at her "You're disgusting, what's wrong with you?!"

Akane huffed. "You would've liked it if I manhandled you any other way, pervert."

"It's true, hon's got strong hands, and they'd be wasted on you," Katie praised.

Suzuki coughed. "Get out of my café…"

"Y'all ain't gotta tell us twice," Katie assured him as she and Akane went to the door. "Now, I reckon y'all ought to not go around claiming cred for every fight that goes down when the sun does."

Getting up, Suzuki hardened his stare at the girls. "How we build our rep is none of your business. The shit that goes down between Host Clubs makes the Maid Wars look like playground fights."

Incensed, Akane snapped back. "Let's see how many women will come down to your stupid café after we tell everyone that you jumped and robbed a girl and her friend last night!"

That got a very different reaction from Suzuki. "The hell did you say?"

"It's as we said it, and why we're here; a girl we know got jumped," Katie said. "If you don't want this to get back to you in the worst way, y'all best get to clearing the confusion 'bout what's really goin' on 'round here."

She stopped at the door and turned back to Suzuki and the other hosts. They were all looking at him with a mix of horrified gapes and furious glares, while he pulled a new grimace and clenched his fists. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea, would ya? Word goin' 'round is that these guys were suited up nice like you–but bigger, an' meaner."

Suzuki recoiled ever slightly like that, confusion flashing on his face before he said with less edge on his voice. "… No, that could be anyone. Host Club, Yakuza, even foreign Organized Crime… there's no shortage of guys in clean fits coming to town and starting shit."

Don't I know it, Katie thought, before she nodded. "We'll be on our way."

With that the two girls hustled out the door and down to the street below. Melting into the crowd quickly, they got out of site of the café and headed back up the long thoroughfare towards the boba tea spot.

"Senpai?" Akane asked as she matched her pace. "Why did you give them the wrong description?"

Katie closed her eyes and smiled. "To see if he'd grab the rope and haul himself out of the shit with it, and he did."

Akane's eyes widened. "Ah?! He knows who they are!"

"Mmhm!" Katie replied. "And I reckon he's gonna want to have a word with our beasts in black about the danger they now present to his reputation."

Smiling at Katie, Akane nodded. "Then we're going to be here for a while."

Katie licked her lips. "Let's grab some Booba and wait out the sun."

Akane's smile turned into a flat glower. "Gross."

The older girl barked out her laugh. "Hah! Not as gross as eating four containers of natto ramen and then making someone smell your breath. Hon, you are a legend in the makin'."

Rather than feel any amount of shame, Akane turned her nose up with pride. "Now do you understand the true terror of Indiscriminate Grappling?"

Katie did, and she approved. "Heh, I got the memo, there. Though I gotta wonder. Is that attack a biological or chemical weapon?"

Akane raised a finger for emphasis. "Yes!"

Katie laughed attractions providing distractions, Katie and Akane continued through Taian, interviewing local delinquents and a few hosts who Curly listed as victims of the beatings… and a pattern began to emerge.