KuzuRe

by Remus973

Tokyo, Japan. After a devastating invasion took place, the city is restored to is former state. However, ghouls still lurk in the darkness, hunting for humans to feed upon. The Ghoul Countermeasure Bureau (GCB) creates an enhanced squad to exterminate all ghouls, once and for all. Leading the squad, they assign Haise Yashida, who possesses an effective, and very familiar, mutation.

8. Ch08

Hi there. Good to have you back. In this filler chapter, a lot of action, considerable character development, and Yashida Industries acting shady around Haise without him knowing. All around an adaptation of a certain movie. Shall we?

Chapter 08 – levant: Going Backwards to move Forwards

(Sometime after midnight)

The X-Force arrived at Mt. Takao in the Kanagawa prefecture. For the Quinxes, this was the farthest distance from Tokyo they knew as Mutsuki commented,

"Wow…I never thought I'd be this far from Tokyo."

Hisako says to Mutsuki,

"Well, I came from the Honshu region of Japan."

"Really? What's it like?"

"A whole lotta trees, a whole lotta sky and…that's it."

"Seriously?"

Asked Shirazu.

"Yeah. Back when I was in middle school, I wanted to go to Tokyo so bad. Just wish it was in better circumstances."

"Well, when this is done, we can play tourist."

Said Urie, which surprised his fellow Quinxes. Urie got a little defensive as he says,

"What?! I can be sociable!"

Some of the team laughed while Urie blushed. Haise smiled at this, to the notice of the battle-hardened members of X-Force. More so to Deadpool, to an annoying degree.

"I bet you want to join them."

"Huh?"

"You know, join in on the laughter, talk about how flashy and shiny Tokyo is compared to here, maybe bust the balls of the serious tsundere…"

Haise got irritated by Deadpool. Which made the mercenary back off in a comical way.

"Easy there, claw man. All I'm saying is that you're not afraid to show…"

Deadpool made a heart shape with his hands before finishing his sentence.

"love to your squad."

Haise sighed before replying,

"I do care about them, if that's what you're implying."

"And that's all I am saying. Chill every once in a while."

As Haise walked away, Yukio got closer to Deadpool, whispering to him,

"It would be wise not to annoy him."

"Why? You'll kill me if I keep it up?"

"Oh believe me…I won't have to."

"What? Pretty boy over there will do it?"

Yukio scoffed before replying,

"With what Haise is capable of, you'd wish Harada kills you first."

Haise yells to the three,

"Yukio! Harada! Deadpool! Huddle up. Team assignments."

Harada yells back,

"Be right there!"

As the three joined with the rest of the X-Force, Haise addressed everyone.

"Okay. As we discussed earlier, teams of three. Yukio, you take Hisako and Mutsuki."

"Roger that."

"Urie, Shirazu, you're with Harada."

"Got it."

"Yeah."

Harada simply nodded yes.

"Saiko, you're with me and Deadpool."

"Okay."

Haise brought his tablet from his bag.

"I'm sending the map of the mountain area, with three sectors for each team."

Haise showed the map before sending it to each of the team's smartphones. Each member of X-Force received the map.

"Team one, consisting of Yukio, Mutsuki, and Hisako, will cover sector one. Sector two will be taken on by my team. Sector three will be handled by Harada, Urie, and Shirazu.

"Roger!"

Said the teams simultaneously.

"Remember, stay frosty. And stay together."

"Yes sir."

Said all of them simultaneously again.

"Break."

As the teams split up, Haise remembered the briefing Hisako led earlier.

flashback

(play Section 1 (SRX)- Metroid Fusion OST)

Hisako used a laser pointer to point out locations where events similar to what at the 23rd ward. Her research into the incidents were shown through a projector connected to a laptop unto a white screen.

"The 23rd ward wasn't the only location where something like this happened."

First Hisako displayed a video screencap of the parking lot area of Cochlea. Then a photo of a garden on top of a roof, covered in various items. With the items themselves possessing blood stains on them. Hisako showed one more photo, which contained a physical Japanese Yen coin with a blood stain no it.

"There was an incident within the 18th ward. The residents all reported not just a spontaneous blackout, but some of them also heard screaming."

"Where did the sound come from?"

Asked Harada.

"The residents who heard the screaming all said it came from the sky."

Some of the team got a little creeped out.

"All the evidence is currently under police custody. None of this is saying that ghouls are responsible for this."

Haise says,

"Agreed. Even if Aogiri is getting bold by hiring supervillains as hired muscle, none reported by Shield are capable of something like this."

"I almost hesitate to say this…"

Hisako stopped for a moment, but Yukio urged her to go on.

"Please go on. We'd like to hear your perspective."

Hisako took a deep breath before saying,

"We could be looking at something extraterrestrial."

No reactions from anyone within the room as they all understood that such a presumption did not seem out there anymore. Saiko raised her hand to ask,

"What kind are we dealing with?"

"I wish I knew. I contacted the X-Men before I arrived here."

Some of the X-Force lit up when they remembered that Hisako still had a connection with the team that finished the Shi'ar incident.

"Thanks to their diplomatic connections with the Shi'ar royal family, they have a comprehensive encyclopedia of known alien species. The only thing is it only covers species within the galaxy they inhabit and any they contacted."

"So the Shi'ar didn't make contact with any from our galaxy?"

Asked Urie, to which Hisako replied,

"Only about 75 or so. But like I said before, they only know the ones from our galaxy, the Milky Way, via them making first contact with the Shi'ar."

"Got it."

As Urie finished, Shirazu asked Hisako,

"What galaxy do the Shi'ar live in?"

"M-33."

"Whoa."

"I know, but let's focus."

Hisako then displayed photos of similar incidents in the Tohoku region.

"This is where my hometown was hit with incidents like here in Tokyo, however the difference is that the Tohoku region experienced these incidents first."

The team did a collective gasp over hearing that the Tohoku region was struck first.

"And it's not just Tohoku. Hokkaido, Aomori, and Niigata were hit by this as well."

Hisako then showed photos of farms within said areas hit with the same phenomena as Haise experienced. Hisako finished by displaying photos of Mt. Takao. Specifically, the Omotesando mountain trail.

"The most recent incident in connection to all the ones before took place at the Omotesando trail…"

"At Mt. Takao, right?"

Asked Mutsuki.

"Right…"

Mutsuki cleared up by what he meant.

"When you mentioned that mountain trail, I remembered watching a news report of it about a couple of days ago. Right sensei?"

"That's right. So the fact that this is the most recent report…"

"means that Mt. Takao is where it's most probably staying for now."

(end music)

Hisako ended the presentation just in time for Haise to say,

"Then we should move out right now."

Deadpool then yelled,

"Road trip!"

end

Haise divided the sectors into three areas that each of teams covered. Team one covered the area covering the base of the mountain, including questioning the staff of the Tama Forest Science Garden. Team two covered the mountain path itself. Team three covered the tourist spots at night. Such spots included some temples, an onsen, and a monkey zoo. Something which delighted Shirazu, much to Urie's annoyance. Team one covered the base of the mountain. Yukio and Hisako perfectly managed to avoid falling, with Hisako noticing that Yukio carried a small knapsack on her.

"So, what did you bring with you?"

"Just the essentials. A tablet, my phone, battery packs for my devices, my retractable katana…"

That last one surprised Hisako.

"Retractable katana?"

"Usually I have my usual one, but for this, I thought discretion was needed. I also have a pair of binoculars as well."

"Way to think ahead."

Hisako then looked around to see where was Mutsuki. As she looked behind her, she found Mutsuki trying and failing to not fall down on the rocks. It was plain to see that Mutsuki had problems being around nature. Hisako asked,

"Mutsuki, you okay?"

"Yeah…I'm just new to nature…"

Yukio went to Mutsuki's side to pick him up.

"Just try to watch your step going forward."

"R-Right…"

As Mutsuki caught up, Yukio looked at Hisako, keeping in mind of her connection with Haise.

"How fortunate that Haise chose to stay with Deadpool and Yonebayashi instead of her…I have to make sure that she never stays alone with him…"

As they walked along the base of the mountain, Mutsuki asked Hisako,

"Does living in the Tohoku region help you survive all this?"

"Well, during the spring and fall seasons, it was never a problem for me and a lot of my classmates from middle school had to hike a lot of ground to make to school and back home. It was only during the summer or winter seasons that it got hard to rough it."

"I had no idea…"

"You lived in the city all your life, Mutsuki?"

"Yeah…"

"So…your parents never took you to like a nature walk or zoo or something?"

Mutsuki did not say anything, which served as indication for Hisako that she approached a sensitive subject.

"You know what? Forget it. You don't have to say anything."

"…Thank you…"

xxxxxx

Team three walked within their assigned areas, with Shirazu doing his best to contain his excitement from the rest of the team. However, such an endeavor did not escape either Urie's or Harada's notice.

"I knew he was going to act this way when Haise pointed out the monkey zoo on the map he sent."

Said Urie, which Harada replied,

"Well, he's still a growing boy. Much like you."

Urie felt a little peeved when Harada lumped him together with Shirazu.

"Hey. Just because I called him out on acting this way doesn't mean I'm waiting for the opportunity to lead him to a fall or anything."

"All I'm saying is this. The two of you are formidable in your right…"

"Thank you."

"But you still have your lives ahead of you. Plenty of room to grow."

Urie felt a little floored when Harada said that.

"Well…that's kind of you to say…It's just that…this line of work we're in…"

"Lives get cut shorter than they should. Am I right?"

"…Right."

Just then, Shirazu says to the two of them,

"Hey guys. We've just reached one of the temples."

"Anyone working there?"

Shirazu brought out a pair of binoculars within one of his coat pockets. He sees someone working at the temple in the middle of the night.

"Yeah. I see a monk sweeping at the front."

"All right then."

When the team reached the temple, Urie was the first to question the monk. Although the round of questions did not give as much as intel the team hoped, the monk proved himself to be aware of the rumors concerning the blackouts within the area.

"Did you anything that could've caused the blackouts?"

Asked Urie.

"Sadly no. It was very cloudy that day. I did hear from some of the other temple monks say they caught glances of something in the sky."

Shirazu hid the fact that he stiffed up when the monk mentioned the possibility of something akin to what Hisako guessed earlier. Harada asked,

"Something like a UFO?"

"Actually, I don't think they call it UFOs anymore. Now they call them UAPs."

"Really? I had no idea they changed the name."

Said Shirazu. The monk went on.

"My guess: the government want us to be kept in the dark."

Urie internally cringed at what he currently experienced.

"Oh great. A government conspiracy monk…"

"I mean, before the Battle of New York, the government tried to hide the fact of aliens once visited the Earth. But since the Avengers kicked the asses of the aliens that tried to take over New York City, a lot of what the governments declassified got people started paying attention. And the more they did, the sooner the name changed to UAPs."

"Whoa…"

Said Shirazu, much to Urie's chagrin.

"For the love of god, don't encourage the conspiracy nut…"

"Question: What does UAP stand for?"

"That's the thing, man. Nobody knows. That's how they make you lose interest. It was only because of the Shi'ar thing that happened in Tokyo that made everyone see through the UAP bullshit."

Harada stopped the monk's ranting by asking,

"This is all fascinating, but I feel as if we're losing focus."

"Thank you, Harada. We want to know if you, personally, have seen anything at all."

"…Unfortunately, no."

Both Urie and Harada silently groaned, but the monk then took out a smartphone and showed a picture.

"But someone I know in another temple near here caught a picture. Here."

This picture seemed odd for the team as they discovered that it was a smartphone picture of a physical one.

"It's an actual celluloid picture. The reason why he took it like that was because he tried to take one with his smartphone, but the thing shut down by itself for some reason."

Harada asked,

"May I?"

"Sure."

Harada exchanged his number with the monk so he can receive the smartphone photo via text message. Another look of the picture made both Urie and Shirazu remember when that happened.

"Just like last time…"

"So, he got one of those old-timey cameras. Like the ones they used during the Showa era, with the big lightbulbs and everything?"

"I think I know what you're talking about."

Said Harada.

"Anyhow, this is all I got."

"Thank you for your cooperation."

As the team left the temple, Urie spoke with Shirazu.

"You do know that a lot of what he's talking about was…"

"Total bullshit?"

Urie looked surprised by Shirazu accurately predicting the end of his sentence.

"I mean, I know aliens are real but a lot of what he's saying comes off as unhinged right?"

"…Pretty much."

"Plus, that stuff about the government. I mean, we work for the government, right?"

"Sort of, but yes."

"That's part of the reason why I think a lot of what that monk was saying before was bullshit. The other reason is that if I really believed anything he said, then I wouldn't be a good Investigator. Right?"

"The way I see it, to investigate anything is to know the line between facts and fiction."

Said Harada, continuing with,

"Obviously what the monk said before reeked of double negatives and supposition. Nothing definitive until the photo."

Urie took a moment to piece together what he experienced before and right now.

"Yes…the fact that it took an old camera from, what I think, the early 20th century means that what causes the blackouts only affected any device powered by electricity."

"So…that means we can't bring proof that this thing exists with our smartphones or something?"

Both Urie and Harada were in thought about the facts they collected so far. Shirazu, feeling as if he were at a roadblock, says,

"Maybe we should talk with more people. So we can get a better idea."

"Great minds think alike."

Said Urie. Enthused by his partner, Shirazu shouted,

"TO THE MONKEY ZOO!"

Urie facepalmed. Harada laughed a little, thinking to himself,

"Of course…"

xxxxxx

Team two walked the mountain path, with Haise carrying Saiko on his back after she got tired after walking for 10 minutes, while Deadpool held a flashlight to see the path. Haise lamented on this, saying to her,

"You really have to work out more, Saiko."

"I beg to differ. She can really pull off that whole chubby NEET girl thing."

Said Deadpool, much to Haise's aggravation.

"Don't encourage her!"

"Oh relax, lil' Wolvy. Just pulling your leg to pass the time."

Haise groaned at having to put up with the red-suited mercenary.

"In all seriousness, I do agree with you. If we are dealing with flying saucers or something, it's not a matter of if they catch the oppai-loli, but when."

Saiko started to get scared. To which Haise condemned.

"Don't scare her like that!"

"Then maybe she needs to toughen up. Otherwise, how can she take down ghouls, let alone aliens?"

"I take down ghouls just fine!"

"Right, and I'm Queen Elizabeth back from the dead."

This time, Saiko got so irritated that she hopped off Haise's back and ran a little ahead. Before she continued running, she exclaimed to Deadpool,

"I'M NOT THE OVERGROWN BABY YOU THINK I AM! I'M GONNA FIND THE ALIENS AND KILL THEM BEFORE YOU DO!"

Saiko ran out of reach of Deadpool's flashlight.

"Saiko!"

Said Haise before shifting his attention to Deadpool and criticizing what he said to her.

"Do you know what you just did?!"

"Got a big load off your back? You're welcome~!"

(play Park Kids Prank Haywood – Nope soundtrack)

Haise grunted before going off to find Saiko. Deadpool notices something about the part of the mountain path they were all on. Deadpool muttered to himself,

"Bird season…"

As Saiko continued on, without knowing, she got off the mountain path. Before Saiko realized it, she tripped off the path and tumbled down near something wet. As he slightly struggled to get up, she noticed that the ground felt wet.

"Am I stuck in something?"

Then she felt something. Something that seemed to have caught her left leg in a vice-like grip.

"I-I can't get out!"

Then Saiko sees something. Although it was dark, she saw something within the distance. She used her ghoul senses to try to get a read of what stood in front of her.

"Breathing seems to be normal. A little slow…maybe that means it's not active…I also hear the wind, slightly breezy…"

Then Saiko heard something flap a bit.

"Wait…there's also something that's…interrupting the wind…"

The second flap scared Saiko to the point where she loudly yipped. Said yip reached Haise's hearing.

"Saiko?!"

"Maman!"

The flapping sounds now moved at a faster rate, which furthered scared Saiko.

"Oh crap it's coming for me!"

Just as Haise made it to Saiko, he sees something heading for his subordinate. Just as he was about to bring out his claws…

BANG!

A gunshot was heard, causing what was heading to Saiko to instantly turn to another direction. Deadpool pointed his flashlight to reveal that it was a large bird, and that the team stood near a pond. Saiko says out loud,

"Maman!"

(end music)

"I'm here, Saiko."

Haise notices that one of Saiko's legs seemed to have sunk into the mud.

"Let me help you get out of this."

As Haise got Saiko out of the mud pit that held her left leg, Deadpool sees the two of them and yells,

"Yo!"

Haise sees him just in time of freeing Saiko. Haise looks at Deadpool with an expression of irritation.

"This happened because of you."

"Hey man. You wanted me on this mission. You knew what that meant."

Haise's look of irritation continued. A part of him began to regret requesting Deadpool to be part of X-Force, but whatever desire he had of choking the life out of the mercenary, Haise knew to set aside such an urge for the sake of the mission.

"Just no more of this shit."

"…Fine then."

Saiko looked at the bird flying away, then at the pond across her. Deadpool explained,

"If you re-checked the map Haise gave you, we were near a pond. That bird flying away is called a Little Egret. It likes to hunt its food in the mud in ponds."

Saiko looked beneath her to see that her uniform was partially covered in mud.

"Damn it. I'm dirty."

"We'll get it cleaned after the mission."

xxxxxx

Team three made it to the monkey zoo However, Shirazu was in a depressive mood since they discovered it to be closed. Urie pointed out to him,

"What'd you expect? It's over 10 o'clock."

"BUT I REALLY WANTED TO SEE THE MONKEYS!"

Tears flowed through Shirazu's eyes before a huge gust of wind blew through. This made the team flinch a little due to the shock of its abrupt arrival. Shirazu asked,

"What was that?"

Then the monkeys in their cages began to act up. This unnerved both Shirazu and Urie, but Urie hid it better than his usual partner. Only Harada focused on the why of the event happening in front of them. He looked around to locate the source of the disturbance. Urie then says,

"Let's go in."

"But it's closed…"

Said Shirazu with Harada replying,

"Allow me."

Harada unsheathed his katana. Even with the loud noises the monkeys were making, Harada maintained his concentration to summon a tachyon field around his blade. Both Shirazu and Urie were amazed by what they saw. With a series of swift, and nigh-impossible to see, strikes of his katana, Harada sliced away the closed gated entrance of the zoo.

"Come on."

He says to the two. The team investigated the zoo, which still had the monkeys still acting up for some reason. Shirazu asked,

"What's making them freak out like this?"

"Usually, animals react this way when they feel as if there's a threat nearby."

Said Harada, to which Urie replied,

"So, where the hell is it?"

(play It's in the Cloud – Nope Soundtrack)

Another gust of wind arrived all of a sudden. When it passed, Shirazu looked around to see one of the clouds looked closer than they should.

"Hey…"

Harada heard Shirazu and looked at the same direction he currently looked at. Harada then says to Urie,

"Urie, I think Shirazu found something you should see."

Urie turned around to see a cloud so close to the zoo. Almost above where they currently stood.

"I see it…"

The team did not move as to not agitate whatever floated in front of them. Even when the monkeys were still acting up, the team stayed right where they stood. Urie says to Shirazu,

"Shirazu…I need you to, calmly, take out your phone and contact Haise."

"R-Right…"

Shirazu did what Urie told him. However, as soon as Shirazu brought out his phone and tried to turn it on, his phone stayed off for some reason.

"Urie…it's not turning on…just like-"

"Back at the ceremony…"

Once again, Urie felt a degree of frustration at being present with a situation where he did not know what to do. He then notices something sticking out from the bottom of the cloud. As he looked closer, he discovered to be the bottom of a tree with its roots hanging out. Urie's breathing was a little uneasy as he says,

"There's something sticking out from the bottom."

Both Harada and Shirazu notice this as well, with Shirazu stating,

"Are those…tree roots?"

xxxxxx

(pause music)

As Team One stopped near a lamp post after finishing their rotation, Hisako asked Mutsuki,

"Mutsuki, can you contact Haise and tell him that we didn't find anything?"

"Sure."

Hisako spots Yukio looking at the area where team three was assigned to. Hisako goes to Yukio and asks her,

"See anything?"

"There's something happening at the monkey zoo."

"Monkey zoo?"

(resume music)

Yukio hands the binoculars to Hisako. She looks at the direction Yukio pointed to her and sees what was happening as well. She sees a cloud hovering over the zoo. Hisako then summoned a portion of her psionic armor on her eyes. With the binoculars and the psionic energy, she sees an object within the cloud. Something with massive amounts of energy, and gains it by eating organic matter. A fact that causes Hisako to shudder a little, to Yukio's notice.

"Hisako, what's the matter?"

Mutsuki stopped calling Haise for a moment to see what was happening with the rest of the team.

"What's wrong? Hisako, is something the matter?"

"Yukio…you pointed to that cloud, right?"

"Yes…what did you see?"

"…There's something in the cloud…"

"What?"

Asked Mutsuki.

"It's in the cloud!"

xxxxxx

The monkey in the cages acted out further, with some of them escaping the cages through the temporary boost of strength via adrenaline. This made Shirazu jump, which greatly worried both Urie and Harada. Then a growling sound came from the cloud, with made the whole team go on alert. Then, the cloud roared. Such a roar compelled Shirazu to whisper,

"It's a kaiju…"

Urie asked,

"What?"

The cloud made one more sound before slowly moving. Shirazu then yelled,

"IT'S A KAIJU!"

The cloud then spat out the tree before moving faster, prompting Urie to yell,

"RUN!"

The team did so. With the sound of screaming monkeys, fear encompassed their minds as they frantically searched for something to hide from the cloud kaiju. Harada noticed a restroom and pointed it out to his teammates.

"There!"

Both Urie and Shirazu see the restroom and run toward it. Shirazu made it first, but failed to open it.

"It's locked!"

Urie kicked the door down with his left leg.

"Get in!"

(stop music)

Just as soon as the team made it inside the restroom, the noises stopped. The only sounds heard were the heavy breathing from the team itself. After a few seconds of silence, Shirazu whispered,

"Is it gone?"

Harada shushed him as he slowly peeked outside. He looked upward to see some sort of large round object flying in the cloudy sky. He feared that whatever chased them before temporarily discard the cloud disguise and flew across the cloudy sky. Harada also heard the pitter-patter of the escaped monkeys running around the zoo. He then looked up once more to see an upcoming gap in the clouds, slowly showing the light of the moon. However, when said gap aligned with the moon, the moonlight did not shine through. Not until the kaiju moved once more, with Harada confirming that the kaiju took the form of a flying saucer. As soon as the kaiju flew away, Harada then heard the noises of shrieking monkeys. Before a large gust of wind kicked up some of the dust within the zoo, Harada saw a couple of the monkeys fly up into the air before the dust covered what happened to them.

xxxxxx

Yukio brought out her phone to record what was going on at the monkey zoo while Mutsuki finally connected her call. She put the call on speakerphone.

"Haise."

'Mutsuki, what's the situation?'

"We spotted some sort of floating object over the zoo where Team Three was assigned to."

'About them, have you contacted them yet?'

"No. Not yet."

'That's weird. I just tried calling them a while ago, but the call just couldn't connect.'

"Well about that…"

Then, Hisako called for Mutsuki.

"Mutsuki, let me speak to Haise."

"Right."

Mutsuki handed his phone to Hisako, to which she says to Haise,

"Haise, we just spotted something above Team Three's assigned area."

'What kind of object?'

Just as Hisako continued, Mutsuki's phone stopped working by itself. As did the lamp post. This prompted him to say,

"It's happening again…"

Yukio then says,

"Same thing for my phone."

Then, loud screeching noises were heard overhead as the flying saucer kaiju Team Three encountered flew over them. As the kaiju seemingly disappeared, both their devices and the lamp post turned back on. Hisako asked Yukio,

"Yukio, how much did you record?"

"Let me check."

Yukio checked on the status of the video she recorded.

"Damn it. It didn't save."

Both Mutsuki and Hisako felt a little sad at the fact that they could not give any proof for Hisako's confirmation of extraterrestrials involved in the incidents. Yukio then says to them,

"Mutsuki, call Haise again. Tell him regroup and head to where Team Three currently are."

"Right…"

xxxxxx

Haise ran downwards in order to reach the teams. The sudden cut call on his phone heightened his fears and instinctively sprinted down the mountain. Both Deadpool and Saiko ran after him. Deadpool caught up to him fine, but Saiko struggled to even reach half the speed of her team leader. Deadpool looked behind him to see her panting hard, and slowed down to her speed.

"Having trouble?"

"I'm just fi-"

Saiko tripped while she ran. Deadpool stopped to help her get up.

"You okay, little piggy?"

"I'M NOT A PIG!"

"Easy. Just busting your pork chops."

Saiko now got angry at Deadpool, while at the same time that the ankle bracelet started beeping by itself.

"Wanna do something about it?"

Deadpool then started running to catch up with Haise.

"THEN START CATCHING UP, BABE!"

Saiko got so angry that the energy and adrenaline gave her a massive speed boost that made her run past both Deadpool and Haise. Deadpool ran completely surprised while Haise says to her,

"I'm proud of you right now, Saiko! That's why we work out every day!"

"THANK YOU!"

xxxxxx

Soon the two teams met up to head together where Team Three were last reported. Saiko breathed heavily, much to Mutsuki's notice.

"What happened to you?"

Too tired to breathe, Saiko pointed at Deadpool with an angry look on her face. Deadpool comically shrugged it off, much to Mutsuki's chagrin. Hisako informed Haise of what she witnessed.

"We saw something over at the monkey zoo."

"Monkey zoo?!"

Said Saiko and Deadpool simultaneously. Mutsuki replied,

"Oh man. Shirazu won't resist going there."

"Hell, I'm trying hard to resist going there right now!"

Said Deadpool before Haise gave the order.

"Let's head there now."

As the teams made it to the zoo, they discovered Team Three made it out alive.

"Shirazu!"

Said Saiko and Mutsuki simultaneously.

"Urie!"

Said Haise. Yukio made it to Harada first, asking,

"You alright?"

"In one piece. Thank you though."

Deadpool was the last to catch up, asking the third team,

"So, what did it look like? Like a flying saucer? Or are we talking some rogue Shi'ar?"

Shirazu answered.

"It's not a spaceship…"

"It wasn't?"

Asked Mutsuki. Haise asked,

"What happened exactly?"

Harada explained,

"We've confirmed that it is an extraterrestrial, as Hisako suggested."

Most of the rest of the teams lightly gasped of the discovery, while Deadpool gave a whispered,

"Woah…"

"It took the form of a flying saucer, and I believe that it feeds on organic matter."

"I can confirm it. Yukio had a set of binoculars with her, and I looked at how the saucer-"

"Kaiju."

Said Shirazu, interrupting Hisako before she asked,

"What?"

"It's a kaiju. Like King Ghidorah or Megalon."

Hisako replied,

"Yeah, but Godzilla never fought a flying saucer kaiju."

"Yes he did. In Godzilla 2000."

Said Deadpool, with Saiko replying,

"That was its first form."

Haise says to all of them,

"Focus people! Hisako."

"Right…I saw the kaiju absorbing organic matter with not just Yukio's binoculars, but also by enhancing my sight with a portion of my psionic armor."

"You can do that?"

Asked Haise.

"I trained to use my mutant powers in more than just combat. By doing so, I was able to see the kaiju feeding on complex organic matter."

"Complex organic matter?"

Asked Mutsuki, to which Harada elaborated,

"I saw the kaiju capturing some of the monkeys in the zoo by first entrapping them with a powerful tornado. Even though the dust within the air blocked my view, I am confident that the kaiju flew the monkeys up within its vortex in order to devour them."

What Harada described made most of the team lightly shake in fear. For Yukio and Deadpool, this made them tense up in apprehension. Urie then says,

"It's true. The kaiju either took on the form of a cloud, or created a sort of mist surrounding itself to look like one. Either way, it got near us while it had a tree within itself. To my shame, I ordered our team to run away from the kaiju."

"Don't be."

Said Haise.

"You did the smart thing. We don't know what this kaiju is, so it would be absolutely senseless to fight it head on."

Urie felt a little grateful for Haise not berating him for running away.

"Thank you…"

"Guess a tactical retreat is sometimes the only thing you can do…"

Haise addressed the whole force.

"Let's head back. Regain our strength and sanity before reporting what we've discovered."

The X-Force collectively nodded yes to Haise's decision. As they got back, Haise spoke with Yukio.

"Yukio, do you have room where you and Harada are staying?"

In disbelief, Yukio snapped back,

"You want that gimp-suited asshole to live with us?"

"For now, Deadpool is proving to be an asset to the mission. He got Saiko to prove that if she applied herself seriously, she can outperform even me. True, how he did it made me angry, but I believe he uses the anger of others in a strategic fashion. To either affect the enemy's focus or to motivate his comrades."

"…I think you're giving him way too much credit."

Replied Yukio in a deadpan manner.

"Maybe, but for now…"

Haise handed Yukio the remote trigger connected to Deadpool's ankle bracelet.

"I need you to house our paroling mercenary."

"Right."

Just then, Harada walked by his side.

"Harada?"

Harada took out his smartphone to show the picture he got from the monk earlier. Haise felt truly surprised at seeing proof of the existence of the kaiju he encountered earlier.

"Please send it to me."

"Got it."

xxxxxx

(The next day)

Haise, Yukio, Deadpool, Hisako, Mutsuki, and Saiko headed toward GCB Main Headquarters, with Shirazu, Urie and Harada going on their own to gain something that will help the mission of gaining proof of the existence of the kaiju. 2/3rd of the X-Force presented their report to both Special Investigators Arima and Marude. Marude summarized what he learned.

"So, an extraterrestrial kaiju is currently located with the Kanagawa prefecture of Tokyo?"

"Yes sir."

Said Haise.

"And is feeding on whatever it sucks up into its tornadoes?"

"Only complex organic matter."

Said Hisako, with Arima asking,

"Such as mammal-based lifeforms?"

"Yes sir."

Marude continued with the summary.

"Unfortunately, you couldn't retrieve any proof of its existence because it was capable of shutting down any electrical devices within its range?"

Hisako elaborated a little on that.

"We believe that it emits a short-range EMP field in order to perform such an action."

"Roger that. Investigator Yashida, you said that you retrieved an image of what it looks like?"

"Yes sir."

Haise took out a folder from the bag he took with him for the meeting, and opened it to reveal a color print of the smartphone photo of the physical picture of the kaiju. Both Marude and Arima looked at the picture with a mixture of skepticism and worry. Arima spoke first.

"Haise, it's not like we do not believe you. However, we feel that we need more than this to bring the full weight of the Bureau into this."

"True, we now know aliens exist. But even this…"

Marude pointed to the printout of the photo.

"Won't cut the mustard."

Haise replies,

"I understand sir. We'll gather whatever more info on the kaiju we can."

"In the meantime, I recommend we place a general warning for the Kanagawa prefecture."

Said Arima with Marude replying,

"Agreed. X-Force, gather whatever proof you can on this kaiju. I'm sure you know the reason why."

The X-Force then collectively stood up as Haise says,

"We understand sir."

As the X-Force exited the room, Arima approached Haise and asked him,

"By the way…"

"Yes, Investigator Arima?"

"'I've noticed that a third of the X-Force were absent."

"That was because Urie wanted to consult with somebody who knew about…recording equipment?"

"Would you elaborate?"

"Investigator Urie pointed out that how the photo of the kaiju was taken. The person we interviewed stated that the photo was taken with a camera built during the early 20th century."

"I see then. I assume he knows somebody that specializes in this particular field?"

"Yes sir. He searching for her right now."

"Let me know how that works out."

xxxxxx

Urie, Shirazu and Harada waited at a certain café. Harada asked why.

"Is there a point to this?"

Urie took out his smartphone and checked something before saying to Harada,

"In about five minutes, you'll get the full picture. But just to give you a heads-up. We're meeting with someone who's, pretty much to my knowledge, an expert in photography."

"I see."

"What I want to ask her is pertaining to cameras. Specifically…"

"The type that was used to photograph the kaiju."

"Exactly."

In about a couple of minutes, Shirazu spotted who arrived at the café and notified Urie.

"Urie…"

"I see her."

Harada notices the petite young woman entering the café. She spots the team and heads to them.

"Good to see you again."

"Likewise, Chie."

Chie sits next to Shirazu before noticing the new face.

"Is he a comrade of yours?"

"Yeah. He's a member of the X-Force."

"X-Force?"

"It's the new name of our squad."

"Seriously? Why the change?"

"Myself and a few mutants joined the Bureau and we were assigned to this squad."

Harada explained.

"More or less…"

Thought Urie to himself before introducing Chie to Harada.

"Her name's Chie Hori, professional photographer."

"Nice to meet you."

Both Chie and Harada shook hands before she asked Urie,

"So, what'd you need help with?"

Urie looked at Harada and says to him,

"Show her."

Harada nodded, took out his phone to show the photograph of the kaiju. Chie was fascinated by what she saw and asked,

"Is this what's been happening at the Kanagawa prefecture lately?"

This worried the three as Shirazu asked,

"How do you know exactly?"

"It's all over the internet."

Chie took out her tablet from her bag to display how she heard about the incident at Mt. Takao. From the disappearing hikers to the reports of missing monkeys from the region's monkey zoo. Lastly, she showed her social media accounts and how the news of said accounts were dominated by the incidents.

"So, this is the only proof you could find?"

Urie explained.

"The reason why is because…"

Urie signaled Chie to be closer to him as to whisper to her.

"The kaiju emits a low-EMP field around itself."

"A KAIJU?!"

Chie yelled out, which prompted Shirazu to shush her.

"Keep it down. We don't want to cause a panic."

Chie whispered back,

"Sorry. It's a major shock."

Harada sighed over how this meeting currently turned out.

"Anyways, the kaiju puts up a EMP barrier around its body, so it makes it impossible to record video of its existence."

"It sounds really smart…"

"However, the picture Harada just showed you was taken with an early 20th century camera. We were wondering if there's a sort of filming camera that doesn't operate with electricity."

Chie took a moment to think before speaking further.

"Well, in the very early days of the motion picture industry, there were cameras that evolved on the concept of the stereopticon. So yes, there is such a thing as a non-electric filming camera. However, they're total antiques. Most probably break down before even a minute of use."

Urie asked,

"So, there's no chance of getting one of these cameras that won't break down."

"Nope. The only way you can get one of them is a custom job. A real once-in-a-lifetime commission."

The trio felt that their options cut down to zero.

"Thankfully, I know a guy."

Shirazu lit up, asking,

"You know someone?"

"He works as a contractor for Toho studios. One of the few individuals who know how to produce celluloid film strips, and can create something you're looking for. But…"

Urie anticipated this as he asked,

"But what?"

"There's a high price. Like the regular kind. As I said before, he's a contractor."

Harada then asked,

"How much does he charge?"

Chie took out a piece of paper and a pen as she wrote down the address of how she spoke about.

"His name is Ataru Hirokawa. Also known as Antlers Hirokawa."

Shirazu asked,

"Why Antlers?"

"He's a deer fanatic. He spent seven years trying to create the most compelling documentary about them. That's why he contracts with major Japanese movie companies, to fund his passion project. He creates not only celluloid film strips, but he also creates film cameras from scratch. Like this one."

Chie then showed a picture of the kind of camera they were most likely talked about.

"It's the ones they used from the 1920s. The kind that you're looking for, right?"

"Pretty much."

Said Urie. With the info in hand, Urie made a call.

"Haise? I need you to meet me at this address."

xxxxxx

(Later that day)

Urie, Shirazu and Harada waited in front of a small warehouse with a storefront. They waited for a full half hour before Haise arrived with the X-Force in tow. Urie commented on this.

"You didn't have to bring everyone on this."

"They wanted to come. Anyhow, this the place?"

"Yeah. One of my contacts we spoke with during the Torso Investigation said that this person has what we need for the mission."

"Okay then. Urie, Harada, and Yukio. You're with me. The rest of you, stand guard in case of anything."

"Uh, what about me?"

Asked Deadpool. Haise sighed before saying,

"Fine. You too."

"Sweet~"

The rest of the Quinxes and Hisako stood outside while Haise went in with the people he chose to go with him. As they stepped inside the well-lit shop, they were amazed by the various models of film cameras all around them. From the small ones dating back to the 1970s to the larger ones from the 1900s. Haise asks out loud,

"Hello? Anyone here?"

"Just a moment…"

Said a gravelly voice responding to Haise.

(play Haywood Ranch – Nope Soundtrack)

Urie instinctively knew it to be Ataru Hirokawa. He seemed to be reaching 50 while wearing a pair of blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He also had long brown hair with small strands of silver poking out here and there. His face was slightly wrinkled with a slight stubble on his lower face. Lastly, he wore a pair of brown sunglasses. He asked,

"Who sent you?"

Urie answered.

"Chie Hori. Antlers Hirokawa, I assume?"

"Yeah…shrimp told you about me?"

"In relation to what we're looking for."

Haise explained further.

"We need your equipment for a mission we're on."

Antlers asked,

"Who you work for?"

"The Ghoul Countermeasures Bureau."

"Why though? I don't do stuff involving ghouls."

Haise asked,

"Do you have a place where we can sit?"

Hirokawa guided them to the roof, where sat a porch with a table and seven chairs. Hirokawa also took up a hot plate, a kettle, a gallon of purified water, a metal teaspoon, and a small jar of green tea leaves. As he poured water into the kettle and placed it on the hot plate, he asked the X-Force,

"Anyone care for green tea?"

Yukio and Harada raised their hands. As did Haise. Urie and Deadpool replied,

"Just a cup of water."

"I'm good."

"Alright then. Back in a bit."

Hirokawa went back down to bring up a plate that held five ceramic cups with floral designs, as well as an eastern-style teapot. As he placed the cups on the table, the kettle whistled. Hirokawa poured the hot water into the teapot before grabbing a small handful of green tea leaves into the pot. As he served Urie his water, he asks,

"While we wait for the tea to…you know, become tea, what's the job you Bureau doves want me to do?"

Haise gave a short description.

"Well, we like both your equipment and skills to film something."

"Would you care to get into specifics? Gonna need more."

Haise hesitated to speak further. Deadpool, however, possessed no reservations.

"Let me handle this, boss man."

To everyone's chagrin, Deadpool took over negotiations.

"You see Antlers, can I call you Antlers? You see…we want you to be part of a project. How would you like to be in the middle of something that only happens once in a lifetime?"

"Hopefully, not in my lifetime…"

Deadpool laughed hard before speaking further.

"Good one, man. Ha… (sharp breath) Okay man, look. Price is no object."

Deadpool got closer to Hirokawa.

"You see that dude? You see him?"

Deadpool pointed to Haise.

"That is the great-grandson of Ichiro Yashida, founder of Yashida Industries. He has access to cash that'll get you what you want for your passion project."

Everyone held their anger back as Deadpool used Haise's heritage to get Hirokawa to aid their mission. Hirokawa then said something that proved Deadpool's talent of persuasion.

"Keep talking…"

The collective anger for Deadpool instantly faded away as Deadpool gained Hirokawa's interest. Deadpool continued.

"What we want you to film is…something akin to…documentary."

"All right. Liking what I'm hearing…"

Hirokawa got up to check on the tea. He lifted the top of the teapot to see that the tea ready for consumption.

"All right. Remind me, which of you wanted a cup?"

Haise, Harada, and Yukio raised their hands. As Hirokawa served them their tea, he asked,

"What's it about?"

"The stuff the dreams are made of."

"That's a little vague…"

"Well…what we're talking about is somewhat vague…but it takes place…in the Kanagawa Prefecture."

Now the X-Force members gave sharp looks at Deadpool for mentioning the location of their mission. Haise says to Hirokawa,

"Please excuse and my…associate…"

(end music)

Haise grabbed Deadpool by the shoulder as they spoke out of earshot distance. As the two argued, Hirokawa asked Urie,

"Is this about what's happening there?"

"…We…wanted to keep you in the dark…for your safety…"

Hirokawa maintained his stoic expression as he refuted Urie's intention behind what he said.

"When you keep people in the dark on something like…what you hear involving what's happening in the Kanagawa prefecture…"

Hirokawa took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"It makes one unprepared for any sudden developments…"

(play The Muybridge Clip – Nope Soundtrack)

"We understand what you're saying…"

Said Harada to Hirokawa before he spoke with Urie.

"Urie…perhaps it is best to be honest. Despite how semi-outlandish we're asking him to take part of…"

Urie sighed as he knew that honesty was the only option to take. Soon, Haise and Deadpool finished their conversation and rejoined the table. Haise says to Hirokawa,

"Mr. Hirokawa, maybe it's best for us to…be honest with you."

"Rest of your team were talking about it."

Haise redirected his attention to Harada, Yukio, and Urie.

"You agree?"

All three of them nodded yes. Harada took out his phone and showed the picture of the kaiju and explained.

"We believe it to be an extraterrestrial predator."

"Alien?"

Asked Hirokawa as he took a closer look of the kaiju in the picture. Haise explained further.

"Not just an alien. A kaiju. One capable of making our modern devices useless. But for what we're looking for with you in not just your filming gear, which doesn't run on electricity?"

Hirokawa took a moment to think before answering.

"I do commissions. Not just filming, but I also make my own film and the cameras to go with them. Remind me: What day is it today?"

Yukio answered,

"Wednesday."

Hirokawa got on his phone and started to text some people he knew. Then he said,

"I'll have everything you need by Friday."

Haise says to him,

"If you're going to bring in a crew, I ask that you keep it to a maximum of five."

"That's fine. I keep a small crew anyways. My price is 400 million yen."

Urie almost fell from his chair as he heard the price Hirokawa set.

"F-F-400 million!?"

"Take it or leave it."

Urie looked at Haise, who says to Yukio,

"Do it."

Yukio brought out her phone to text, what Haise thought, his great-grandfather. A little later, Hirokawa received a notification from his bank. One that said that a billion yen recently was deposited into his personal account. This made his eyes widened, the amount more than twice than he set. Then he returned to his usual expression and says to them,

"Like I said. By Friday."

(end music)

The X-Force bowed to Hirokawa before Haise said,

"Thank you. May I have your number so we can text you the location?"

Hirokawa gave his phone number to Haise before the group left the building. Haise sees the other half of the X-Force huddling around Hisako and her phone for some reason. Urie asks,

"What are all of you doing?"

"Haise, you have to see this."

Haise went to Hisako's side to see what she wanted to show to him, as did the rest of the X-Force on their phones. It was news outlets reporting on the incident near Mt. Takao last night. Specifically, the possibility of alien activities as the photo of the kaiju was shown.

"People are starting to catch on."

As Mutsuki showed to both Shirazu and Urie, Urie thought to himself,

"Damn it…did Chie leak this?!"

Shirazu briefly looked at Urie, and saw the expression of anger.

"I don't blame him. Hell, I'm a little angry myself."

The reports also state that since said incident, visitation of the Mt. Takao area skyrocketed. Video of numerous individuals with video cameras were shown. Haise says,

"This is bad. We have to contain this."

"I don't think that's possible. Even with the Bureau using their whole containment department to putting a tight lid on this, the damage is already done."

Said Urie. Haise then asked,

"So, what do you propose then?"

"…keep on investigating the kaiju. Only we be discreet about it."

Haise sighed before giving the order.

"We're heading back. We're going to be gathering any and all camera footage not just around Mt. Takao, but the entire prefecture. Pack clothing for, at least, two nights. Yukio, Harada, I need you to stay here in Tokyo if Hirokawa finishes his work early."

This shocked the two of them as Yukio said,

"I'm sorry, but I can't follow that order."

"Excuse me?"

"Haise, we work with the Bureau, not for it. Master Ichiro's orders comes first for us."

"This is different."

"I wholeheartedly disagree. We stay with you at all time."

"Yukio, this isn't the time to act as great-grandfather's personal go-fer!"

"I don't follow your orders. I follow Master Ichiro's."

"Then I'll give you a reason why."

Yukio narrowed her eyes as she suspected Haise planned to fight her on the spot, which worried the rest of the Quinxes. Mutsuki tried to diffuse the situation.

"Hey. Let's not start something-"

"Stay out of this."

Said Yukio in a stern and threatening voice. This compelled Mutsuki to stand back, which made Urie stand by him. A tense stand-off occurred; silence filled the space between Haise and Yukio, with the silence soon broken by Haise saying,

"Either you follow my orders, or…"

"Or what?"

"I'll go over your head."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, wouldn't I?!"

"Master Yashida would ultimately side with me."

"I'm not talking about Great-Grandfather. I'm talking about Kisho Arima."

This struck a chord with both Yukio and Harada.

"I'll ask him to fully revoke your deputy status. And if this causes me to be kicked out of my home, guess what? I can live with it! I can live with living on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis if it means that my authority is always recognized!"

Yukio hid her anger toward Haise, but Harada stood ready to act in the extreme. Deadpool, however, noticed this and placed his hand on Harada's right shoulder.

"I wouldn't try anything, man."

Harada felt a gun pointed to his back.

"Just helping the boss man stand his ground."

Haise finally says to Yukio,

"Now, either follow my orders, or you're fired."

Yukio took a deep breath through her nose before saying to Harada,

"Harada…"

Deadpool withdrew his gun just before anyone can see it.

"We're on standby…"

"Understood."

Both Yukio and Harada rode away in their car, leaving the rest of the X-Force on their own. Hisako asked Haise,

"You okay?"

Haise took a deep breath before giving an answer.

"Yes…just needed to…establish some boundaries. Let's head back to the Chateau."

"Just one problem."

Said Deadpool, which Haise asked,

"What?"

"It's going to be a tight fit…"

Deadpool pointed out the fact that the vehicle the Quinxes usually rode for was a hybrid vehicle, made for five people. With Yukio taking the other car, Haise realized that with Hisako and Deadpool, seven people had to fit with the hybrid.

"Oh…I hadn't realized."

Deadpool suggested,

"I'll sit in the back seat."

"No."

Said Urie before making his own suggestion.

"Me and Shirazu will call for a taxi. Hisako and Deadpool can take our usual places."

"You sure?"

Asked Haise, to which Urie responded,

"Not much of a choice, is there?"

Haise sighed before giving his approval.

"All right then. If I get back to the Chateau first, I'll use the time to look for a hotel within the Kanagawa prefecture for us to stay in. Everyone inside. Urie, Shirazu, we'll wait for you to pack when you get back."

"Got it."

As Haise's group drove away, Shirazu asked,

"Want me to make the call?"

"Yeah. I got one of my own to make."

xxxxxx

As the Quinxes finished packing, they got outside to see both Hisako and Deadpool waiting for them.

"We're ready!"

"Where's our ride?"

"It'll arrive right about…now."

Soon two large black SUVs drove in front of the Chateau. The team stood a little impressed by its entrance. Who exited the vehicle was a well-suited individual who seemed to know Haise.

"Mr. Yashida. The car you requested."

"Thank you. Please give Great-Grandfather both my gratitude and regards."

"I will gladly forward them."

The two bowed to each other before the well-suited individual exited the scene in the other SUV. Mutsuki asked,

"I thought your Great-Grandfather wasn't allowed to help us?"

"He didn't, exactly. Yashida Industries owns a large series of businesses across the nation. Car rentals are one of them, and I used my personal allowance to pay for the fee."

"One of the perks of being part of a rich family!"

Said Deadpool. This embarrassed Haise, much to Mutsuki's chagrin as he scolded Deadpool.

"Hey. Don't make fun of Haise."

"I appreciate it Mutsuki. But he is right. I do belong to a rich family. I own that fact about myself."

"Plus I wasn't making fun of him. Ain't nobody got time for that, right boss man?"

"…Yes. By the way, haven't Urie and Shirazu finished?"

Saiko answered his question.

"Last time I saw them, Urie was on the phone about something. And Shirazu followed him like a dog."

Haise groaned before saying,

"We don't have time for this."

As Haise went inside the Chateau, Urie was on the phone with Chie. Since Urie put it on speakerphone, Shirazu took part in the conversation.

"Listen, the story of the kaiju was leaked to the public."

"Hey. It wasn't me. I don't reveal my sources to anyone."

"Then why the hell is the Mt. Takao is filled with all kinds of nuts right now?"

Asked Shirazu.

"Look, if you took a closer look at who leaked the info about the kaiju, you'll find out it was someone else."

The call stopped at Urie's end. He sighed before saying to Shirazu,

"Look. Finish up packing in your room."

"What about you?"

"I was done for some quite time."

Urie pointed to the duffel bag on his bed.

"All right. I was just about done as well."

As Shirazu left the room, Urie picked up his bag. As he proceeded to exit his room, he accidently hit one of his painting easels.

"Oh great…"

He took a moment to pick it up, only to find something else fell as well. Urie picked it up to see something thick like a cable wire, and at one end of it was a lens. The color of the mini-cable wire looked exactly the same as the painting easel.

"What is this? Some sort of camera?"

Urie wondered if there were more within his room. Then another idea hit him.

"What if they're all over the house?"

Before Urie can even begin the search, Haise knocked on his bedroom door.

"Urie, we gotta go!"

"Shit…shelve it for now…"

Urie put the camera in his trench coat pocket for now, and headed for the door.

"Sorry for the wait. I'm done."

Haise sighed before replying,

"About time."

xxxxxx

Back in their safe house, Yukio and Harada internally panicked.

"This is bad."

"This could undo everything…"

Said Harada. Yukio took out her phone to text somebody.

KEEP AN EYE ON HAISE. NEVER LOSE YOUR SIGHT ON HIM.

Yukio received a reply to her text.

ORDERS RECEIVED. DO YOU WANT TO TAKE CARE OF THE BUG?

Harada says to her,

"Tell Delta to wait on that for a while."

"Are you crazy? We can't let Haise know about this."

"I know. But…his next memory treatment is due next week."

Yukio gave a narrow look at Harada.

"That seems a little…dirty…"

"This is for Master Yashida's sake. And ours."

xxxxxx

(Two hours later)

The car drive into the Kanagawa Prefecture proved itself to be a long one due to the influx of tourists who wanted to see the spaceship. As reported by many of the news outlets. Both Urie and Shirazu looked at the news reports, and a lot of them reported their source to be the monk both them and Harada interviewed a little more than a day ago.

"Guess he still has some more earthly desires to discard."

Said Urie, which Shirazu responded,

"Thought he was a nut. Now he's a nut chasing fame."

"Well, it's gonna come back to haunt him one way or another."

Shirazu still contained his anger towards the monk, which Haise noticed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just found out that one of our leads talked with some reporters, looking for his 15 minutes of fame in the process."

"Is that why I gotta go through this traffic jam?"

"Sorry, Mr. Yas."

Said Shirazu. Haise replied,

"I'm not blaming anyone…but this is getting monotonous…"

Haise felt a growing sense of frustration as he felt the brunt of the boredom that comes with a traffic jam, him being in the driver's seat. While Urie sat in thought as to his discovery. He sees Shirazu splitting his attention between looking at the traffic and his phone.

"Good…"

Urie took out what he discovered earlier.

"Must be some sort of bug…camera-based. You can see the lens within the faux-screwhead upon closer inspection…but why? More importantly, who set this up? Is it the Bureau? I thought they trusted us enough to live in the first ward without hurting anyone in the neighborhood…Or maybe…?"

"Finally!"

Exclaimed Haise, which caught the attention of everyone in the car.

"Traffic's finally moving."

Haise slowly accelerated as the cars in front of him slowly got faster. Urie then thought to himself,

"When this mission is over, I'll tell him…"

Shirazu caught a glimpse of what Urie put back in his trenchcoat pocket. By the time nighttime arrived, the X-Force arrived at the hotel they were staying at. They all stood in front of the hotel with gaping mouths. Its appearance took the form of a classical Japanese castle. Haise says to them,

"Here we are."

One of the hotel staff arrived, with a Bellman cart in tow, went to them and asked,

"May I carry your luggage sir?"

"Yes thank you."

The staff member opened the back of the SUV, placed all the luggage on the cart, and head back inside the hotel. Mutsuki asked,

"Haise, I looked up the hotels in the area we're in. This one isn't listed."

"That's because my family paid a lot to keep this hotel hidden from the public."

"For real?"

Asked Shirazu.

"Yeah. My Great-Grandfather owns this hotel, and only lets high-society individuals pay for here. Like major corporate CEOs, high-ranking members of the Diet, foreign dignitaries and businessmen, and every once in a while seriously prolific celebrities."

The minds of the X-Force staggered at how exclusive this hotel was. Deadpool, once again, said a silent,

"Woah…"

"Anyhow, we have the place to ourselves."

Saiko asked,

"How's the food?"

"First bite will blow your mind."

Saiko squealed for five seconds straight before yelling,

"I'M GOING IN FIRST!"

"NOT IF I BEAT YOU!"

Yelled Deadpool. The rest of the group made their way into the hotel. As they arrived, one of the staff members guided the X-Force to the penthouse suite Haise requested. The team felt further floored by how ostentatious the whole room seemed. Haise then showed the other rooms.

"The reason why I asked for the penthouse is because it has seven rooms in total."

"SEVEN?!"

Said the X-Force in a collective voice.

"Yeah. That's the other reason why I asked Yukio and Harada to stay behind. Even if I wanted them here, I'd either have to give them separate rooms or ask for extra beds. I don't want them to feel like extra wheels."

"Well, the way you threatened them by going to Arima isn't gonna keep you on their good sides."

Said Deadpool. Everyone but Haise gave him a sharp look. Deadpool shrugged it off before saying,

"Hey, you were all thinking it too!"

"Back off him."

Haise sighed again before continuing.

"He's right. I intend to apologise to them when they get here. For now, get to any rooms you choose and unpack. In about half an hour, we'll order room service."

Saiko's mouth instantly watered when Haise mentioned room service. Mutsuki felt a little overwhelmed at how affluent Haise's roots were. As each of the X-Force finally unpacked and took about 10 minutes each to get acquainted to their rooms in their own fashion. Afterwards, Haise guided them to the dining room. The X-Force were impressed once again as although the room was classical Japanese, the space of it struck such a positive chord in their minds. As they sat, each of them noticed the menus in front of them.

"Order what you like, everyone. There's an intercom near me that connects directly to the front desk. So, take your time."

As the X-Force gave Haise their orders, the food soon arrived in less than 20 minutes. The team each loved what they ate tonight. Saiko, most of all. Although Haise got her to watch what she ate, her meal satisfied her. Soon the team went to sleep. But not before Urie knocked on Haise's door.

"Urie?"

"Can we talk about something?"

"Sure. Come on in."

As Urie entered, Haise noticed that Urie's left hand was in his left pocket.

"What's on your mind?"

Urie took out the camera bug he collected from his room earlier. As he saw it, Haise asked,

"What's that?"

(play Wrapping Up – Perry Mason Official Soundtrack)

"I think it's a bug. I found this in my room before we left."

"Where, exactly?"

"On one of the easels I used for my painting hobby."

Urie handed the bug to Haise. As he examined the bug, Haise says to Urie,

"I didn't know you paint."

"It's a hobby. For relaxation."

"Hobby is good…"

Haise took a closer look to see a camera lens within the screwhead.

"I see a camera lens…"

"Yeah. You think the Bureau put those there?"

"I highly doubt it."

"Is it? After all, we're experimental super-soldiers based on borderline mad science. Makes sense for the Bureau to keep a closer eye on us in case we accidently go rogue."

Haise took a closer look at the bug once again to see a familiar logo. Haise internally growled as he recognized what this logo meant. Urie sees the look of anger on Haise's face and asked,

"Haise, what's the matter?"

"…this isn't the Bureau. I promise you that."

"Okay. Who is it, then?"

Haise placed the bug in his pocket before saying to Urie,

"I'm glad you brought this to my attention. This bug was made by Yashida Industries."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It has my family crest on it."

"I didn't know…"

"It was most likely planted by Harada."

Urie remembered that one of Harada's skillsets was the art of ninjutsu.

"Was he operating…"

"Under my Great-Grandfather's orders? Most likely."

"But why?"

Haise sighed and walked for a bit before giving his answer.

"Ever since my mother passed away, Great-Grandfather was utterly distraught about not just how she lost her, but the why as well."

"The why?"

"My Grandfather arranged a marriage for some cheap-ass political gain, but Great-Grandfather objected to it. She flew away with my biological father as an act of rebellion against my grandfather. It was because of him that my Great-Grandfather didn't act to ruin the married life she had with my father. A life that resulted in me."

Urie was strangely compelled to listen further.

"But when she died, my Great-Grandfather did everything he could to find me. It was only when I joined the X-Men that he finally found me. The rest…it's a total mess that I'm receiving treatment for."

"I see…"

"Anyways, I intend to confront my Great-Grandfather about this. For now, get all the sleep you can. With our luck, we have a hectic day tomorrow."

"Right…"

As Urie went to his room, Haise changed into his pajamas, placed the bug into the left pocket, and went to sleep after turning off the lights. Unbeknownst to him, a certain eye implanted within the penthouse kept a close watch on Haise.

(end music)

xxxxxx

(The next day)

The X-Force arrived at the Mt. Takao area. As Haise figured, there were more than dozens of people within the area. Practically all that arrived wanted to glimpse of the alien that arrived a day ago. Haise thought ahead as he asked his team to dress in civilian clothing as he felt that if the X-Force dressed in their usual uniform, it gave the true fanatics reason to go to further extremes to witness what the X-Force hunted for. With the exception of Deadpool, who a samurai outfit with a sandogasa. Except the sandogasa was larger than the usual ones, which added to the ridiculousness of his outfit. Haise, in a strained voice, asked,

"What…the hell…are you wearing?"

"You said we had to disguise ourselves…"

"I said disguise, NOT COSPLAY!"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. The costume is under your card, so this is set in stone."

Once again, Haise fought back the urge to choke the living daylights out of the mercenary. Mutsuki saw this and asked him,

"Haise?"

Haise shifted his attention Mutsuki.

"How about me, Urie and Saiko keep everyone's attention on Deadpool in more public spaces, like say the monkey zoo?"

"Keep going…"

"We keep everyone distracted, especially for the big alien fans, while you and rest of the team get the footage of zoo."

Haise took a moment to consider Mutsuki's plan. Although he wanted to avoid something like what Mutsuki went through the auction operation, something like this seemed Mutsuki can more than handle. He then gave the remote trigger to Mutsuki.

"Don't go crazy on my account."

"Yes sir."

As the X-Force got outside the hotel, Saiko asked,

"What about breakfast?"

Haise answered.

"I'm sorry, Saiko. I'll make it up to you by snacks and a huge lunch."

Saiko instantly lit up by the prospect of snacks.

"LET'S GO!"

As the X-Force went on, they were seen by the same unknown eye with the prefecture's public surveillance system.

xxxxxx

As the X-Force arrived at the monkey zoo, they found it to be almost packed. Aside from the families that arrived to see the monkeys, there were also people with cameras who wanted to capture footage of the kaiju and alien fanatics who wanted to greet the creature. Haise, with a book bag in tow, proved himself to be right.

"Just how right was something I didn't anticipate…"

Haise says to the team,

"Let's go."

The X-Force entered the zoo. Little by little the team attracted attention. Before long, about an eighth of the people within the zoo focused on Deadpool in his exaggerated samurai cosplay. By then, Haise spotted the park surveillance room. Of course, the path to said room was blocked by the crowds of people in between them. Haise nodded to Mutsuki, which Mutsuki took it as a sign.

"Hey! Back off me!"

Deadpool instantly understood and yelled back,

"ME BACK OFF?! You're the one who bumped into me!"

Soon, more arrived to see the "fight" that broke out in the park, with Urie standing by Mutsuki and Saiko with Deadpool to further the staged distraction. Said fight gave Haise the opportunity for the team as the path to the park surveillance room finally cleared.

"Let's go."

Haise led the team to the room. He knocked on the door, with one of the zoo employees answering. She looked at Haise and the rest of the X-Force with him and said,

"I'm sorry. Only park employees can enter."

Haise showed his badge as an Investigator of the GCB.

"I like to review your surveillance footage."

The park employee had no choice but to let them in. As the employee guided them to the camera room, she asked Haise,

"I had no idea that ghouls were involved."

"They're not."

Said Shirazu, in which the employee asked,

"Then…why are you here exactly?"

Hisako explained.

"We're here as a specialized task force created by the Bureau for incidents like the one that affected your zoo a day ago."

The employee felt a little floored by this. Something Haise noticed.

"Can I have your name?"

"Hinata Yukihira."

"Ms. Yukihira, we're here for your safety and the safety of every monkey within the zoo."

"He's right. I was there when the…incident occurred."

Said Shirazu, which shocked Hinata.

"Really?!"

"I can't give you the full details of what exactly…but I have to ask. Do you keep track of how many monkeys are within the zoo?"

"Well…that kind of information belongs to another department, but rumors have spread that there's fewer monkeys than before."

"Recently, I take it?"

Asked Haise. Hinata went to the computer monitor which had 20 mini-windows of the cameras, all giving a live-feed of the entire zoo.

"This has been happening recently, and it's got a lot of us worrying."

Hinata clicked on one of the windows, which enlarged to give a clearer picture.

"This is today's feed."

The live-feed showed the crowd surrounding the distraction.

"We got all got all kinds of nuts today."

Both Haise and Hisako hid their complicity of the scene, but Shirazu almost blew hiding his reaction. Thankfully, he stood behind Hinata when he did.

"Anyhow, I rewind the footage to where we first noticed how many we were missing."

As Hinata did so, Haise noticed that one of the cameras recorded a part of the zoo where someone can see the sky with no visual interruptions. He noticed something peculiar in the sky background of the rewinding footage. Shirazu says to Hinata,

"Some of your footage went blank for a while…"

"Yeah. It was proof that said incident took place here, but since the system shut down for some reason, we can't definitively prove such a fact…"

Hinata then sees footage of someone breaking into the zoo in one of the mini-windows. She recognized Shirazu, but did not say anything. Hinata eventually stopped rewinding when the computer reached the point that Hinata attempted to reach.

"This is it. See that cage?"

Hinata pointed to said cage on the screen. Hisako responded,

"We see it."

"Someone I know that's in charge of live inventory said that about a week ago, there were 15 monkeys within that cage."

Hinata then fast-forwarded to the current live-feed. During the fast-forward, Haise looked at the mini-window of the part of the zoo with a clear view of the sky.

"Now there's a little half than that."

"Yeah, that's something to worry about."

Shirazu looked at Haise and asked,

"Mr. Yas?"

"Ms. Yukihira? Can you click on that window here?"

Hinata did what Haise requested. The mini-window automatically became the main feed everyone currently watched. Haise then asked,

"Now rewind, say, a week."

"Alright."

Hinata did as Haise suggested. As the footage rewind, the rest of the team noticed something that Haise saw earlier. Hisako asked,

"You saw it first, right?"

"Yes I did."

Confused, Shirazu asked,

"Saw what?"

"Shirazu…"

Haise pointed to a certain cloud formation on the screen.

"Take a good look at that."

Shirazu did so, seeing the cloud formation. It seemed vaguely familiar to him. But the more he looked at it, the more he remembered when he saw that cloud before. It was only when the cloud no longer appeared on screen that Shirazu slightly freaked out. The footage fully rewinds to last week, and the cloud did not appear.

"It's not there anymore."

Hisako responded,

"Correction. It hasn't appeared yet."

"This part of the live-feed is from last week. When we fast-forward…"

Hinata took it as a cue, although she did her part with shaky hands.

"The cloud slowly becomes part of the scenery."

As the footage fast-forwarded, Shirazu notices something else.

"That cloud isn't moving with the rest of them."

"Exactly."

Said Haise with Hisako concluding,

"So, that thing disguises itself as a cloud because who would notice something as simple as a cloud? They're just there, and you just…take it for granted."

The footage stopped, now showing today's live-feed. The cloud still stayed in its current position. Haise asked,

"Which part of the park is that camera in?"

"I think…somewhere along west?"

"Before we go, may I have a copy of the footage?"

"Sure."

Haise connected his tablet to the hard drive on the surveillance computer, in which Hinata copied the necessary recordings of the zoo footage.

"Thank you."

As the team left the zoo surveillance room, Haise texted Mutsuki to end the distraction and wait near the exit. Mutsuki texted back, saying that the distraction group were already at the exit since the zoo employees kicked them out. Haise texted back to apologize and to remain on standby until he returns. By then; Haise, Hisako, and Shirazu made it to the west side of the zoo. Shirazu looked around to see where the cloud was. Hisako says out loud,

"Found it."

She pointed to where it floated in the sky. The team moved to get a clearer view. When they did, Shirazu looked at the cloud, memories of the night when it attempted to eat him. His knees shook as the kaiju floated dormant, fearing when the kaiju hunted again. Haise noticed this.

"Shirazu, look at me."

Shirazu breathed hard as Haise held his head.

"Look at me…it's not doing anything."

"For now, but what happens when it's on the hunt?"

"Listen to me. This is what we know. The kaiju likes to hunt at night, and only at night. And since it going to be 4:00, we still have a good amount of daylight to operate."

Shirazu's breathing eventually got steady, and soon got up.

"You good?"

Asked Haise.

"Yeah…thanks, Mr. Yas."

Shirazu slowly got to the edge of the zoo to get a closer look. The cloud neither made a sound nor moved from its spot. When Shirazu made it to the edge of the zoo, the fear slowly waned away as he now focused on another familiar sight.

"I had no idea…"

Haise went to Shirazu's side and asked,

"What's wrong?"

"That."

Shirazu pointed to the direction of where he faced. Hisako joined in and asked,

"What's up?"

"Me, Urie, and Harada went there when we first arrived at the prefecture."

Both Haise and Hisako see the temple Shirazu pointed to. It seemed to be a lively spot.

"Haise…"

"I know…"

Both recognize the fact whoever was in charge of the temple set themselves up for a death trap. Haise then gave an order.

"We need to alert the zoo. Tell them that to close the zoo for the foreseeable future."

Hisako responded,

"Right."

As the team went to the owner of the zoo, Haise alerted him about the situation that was responsible for the recent missing amount of monkeys. After a heated argument, Haise used his authority as an Investigator of the Bureau to shut down the zoo until further notice. After the zoo closed; Haise, Hisako, and Shirazu reunited with the rest of the X-Force. Haise noticed that Deadpool was in his regular get-up.

"Got tired?"

"More like it outlived its usefulness. Looks like you caused a bigger scene than we did."

Shirazu explained.

"Well, we had to. The monkeys would've stayed in danger with that…"

Shirazu whispered the rest of his sentence.

"kaiju around."

The X-Force nodded in understanding. Haise also informed the rest of the team,

"We spotted the…"

Haise whispered the word "kaiju," so that the rest of the X-Force will do the same for the conversation ahead.

"At the west side of the zoo."

Hisako continued the explanation.

"We told the owner of the zoo to shut it down for the foreseeable future. Before that, we spotted a temple that seemed to be bursting with tourists. The same one that Urie, Shirazu and Harada visited for questioning."

Urie slightly reacted to this fact.

"I bet he's making money out of this…"

Before Haise concluded the explanation, he just received a text from Hirokawa. The message stated,

GOT EVERYTHING DONE. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO MEET?

Haise texted back.

I'LL HAVE SOME OF MY PEOPLE TO PICK YOUR CREW UP. MY TEAM IS CURRENTLY NEAR MT. TAKAO.

GOT IT. MY CREW WILL BE READY IN FRONT OF MY STUDIO AT AROUND 9 O'CLOCK. SEE YOU AND YOUR TEAM TOMORROW IN THE MORNING.

Haise put his phone on standby.

"Right now, Antlers just notified me that he's ready and will be here tomorrow."

"Guess we're in phase two now."

Said Urie, with Haise answering,

"Yes we are. Let's head back to the hotel. Hisako, Urie, we'll review the footage from the zoo I've managed to collect."

"Got it."

Said the two simultaneously. As the X-Force exited the zoo's parking lot via their SUV, someone from the temple used spying equipment to listen in on the conversation. The one that listened was the same monk that team three interviewed.

"Holy shit…"

xxxxxx

(later that night)

During dinner Haise texted Yukio.

ANTLERS HAS CONFIRMED HE HAS FINISHED. PICK UP HIM AND HIS CREW IN FRONT OF HIS STUDIO AT 9 AM.

After a while, Haise received a response.

GOT IT.

(play Holy Sh*t, It's Real – Nope Soundtrack, start at 1:01)

Haise, Hisako and Urie finished dinner early so they can review the camera footage. As they did, Urie took a moment to finally notice something unusual about what he saw.

"That cloud isn't moving…"

Haise replied,

"Exactly…"

Hisako took a moment to think before asking,

"Harada said that it uses a tornado to eat its victims, right?"

"Yeah."

"So…where does it poop?"

Haise almost laughed out loud when Hisako asked that. Hisako did the same, leaving Urie in the cold.

"That's gross."

Hisako composed herself before replying,

"I know, but it's a valid question."

Haise added more reason to Hisako's argument.

"She's got a point. It varies from person to person, but how much we poop out is relatively equal to how much we eat."

"All right…that means that our kaiju isn't quite full yet…"

"And that means that we have to clear the entire area."

Urie commented on Haise's plan.

"I image that'll cause some friction with every business owner."

"Either way, we have to. We can't afford either a repeat…"

Haise finished Hisako's sentence.

"Or escalation."

(end music)

As the X-Force slept, Haise went to his phone to text one more person.

xxxxxx

(The next day)

The X-Force waited for Yukio and Harada to arrive Hirokawa and his crew. They all went to the train station connecting both the Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture. Deadpool once again stuck out in the crowd, although little less so considering that all he did was stand in his usual costume while carrying a purple duffel bag. As they waited, Haise checked on his phone, looking at his messages. Curious, Mutsuki asked,

"Haise?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you checking on your phone for?"

"I texted Akira last night."

"You asked for Investigator Madou to come here?"

"We need the extra hands for this part of the operation. I just wonder if she can keep her anger under control."

"Why's that?"

"She hates Yukio with a passion."

"Holy crap, she does? Why?"

"Yukio isn't afraid to…break some rules, if you know what I mean…"

Mutsuki remembered when she took Haise after the Quinxes tried and failed to defeat Orochi.

"Right…"

Soon a pair of SUVs arrived. The doors of the first SUV opened as not just Harada and Akira exited the vehicle, but also Hirokawa and two other people. Two females, one tall and one about a couple inches shorter than Akira. The tall one had black curly hair while wearing a pair of blue jeans, a yellow shirt with a green vest, and brown sandals. The other possessed dyed-blue pixie-cut hair while wearing a light-blue shirt with the sleeves cut off, tight grey shorts, and black boots. Haise focused on Akira.

"Akira."

"Hey there, Haise."

As she approached Haise, she asked,

"How's it going with the mission?"

"So far, not a disaster. Really want it to stay that way."

"Well, that makes two of us."

The second vehicle opened with not just Yukio exiting the vehicle, but the rest of Hirokawa's filming crew. The three were male triplets, all wearing pants and a regular shirt, with the only difference were the colors of their identical clothing, their body sizes, and their footwear. Hirokawa introduced them.

"All right. This is my filming crew. The tall one is Nezuko Hiromi. She does editing of what I film. The punk one is an American immigrant named Jessica Mason, sound management."

Hirokawa then pointed to the triplets.

"And those are the triplets. They have actual names, but they gave their consent to be called by their nicknames."

Urie asked,

"Let me guess. They're called Huey, Dewey, and Louie?"

Some of the X-Force laughed a little at Urie's question.

"Actually yes."

The only ones that laughed openly were Deadpool and Saiko. Which Haise reprimanded them for.

"Knock it off."

Huey spoke up.

"It's fine. We like to think of it as our appeal."

Hirokawa explained the triplets further.

"Huey's the regular-sized one. Dewey likes to work out, so he carries the heavy stuff. Dewey likes to game and snack, but he's a very capable accountant."

Saiko related to Dewey.

"Anyhow, here's what I made, per your request."

Hirokawa nodded to Dewey and Jessica. As the crew unloaded what they brought for today, Dewey brought a large black box containing the camera Haise asked for. When Dewey finished the setup, he moved aside to reveal the camera that Hirokawa and his crew created. The X-Force stood impressed by Hirokawa's handiwork. He explained the full details of the camera.

"Now this is modeled after the Bell & Howell 2709, designed in the 1910's. Now, this particular model is built from the ground up by yours truly."

Most of the X-Force expressed awe at Hirokawa's craftsmanship.

"Now, what this one shares with the old models is that this is made of metal, although the old one were made with metal of a heavier make. This one is made from aluminum, which makes it lightweight therefore easier to handle. I made about three of these, in case of an accident with this one."

Hirokawa signals Jessica to bring another camera. The camera looked like it was set on a modified version of a baby wrap carrier, but made of hardened plastic. Hirokawa explained further.

"Now, this allows for on-the-move shots. In case there's some running involved."

"I understand but…"

Said Haise before he was interrupted by Hirokawa.

"You're pressed for time. I get that. Just let me get to the important part. What makes this camera able to record video without electricity, which is the main reason why you requested me."

"Okay. Go ahead."

"Now this crank here…"

Hirokawa pointed at the angled rod attached to the right side of camera with a plastic round handle.

"You have to turn it like this."

Hirokawa turned the crank of the camera in a circular fashion, as designed.

"This is what enables the camera to record moving visual images without electricity. The other two have this function as well. That's what you wanted, right?"

"Exactly. Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Hirokawa."

Haise bowed to Hirokawa, as did the rest of the X-Force. Hirokawa took a moment before saying,

"I think we should get a move on. Beat the crowds and everything."

Haise addressed the team.

"Let's get a move on. Let's divide into teams. The temple one will consist of this much: Myself, Mutsuki, Hisako, Yukio, Deadpool, and Saiko. With the filming crew consisting of Hirokawa, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The zoo one will consist of Harada and Shirazu, filming will be both Jessica and Nezuko. Everybody clear?"

Harada asked,

"Isn't the zoo closed?"

"Yes, but I called the owner to allow the three of you, and additional crew, to enter the zoo for professional reasons."

"Very well."

"Everybody now clear?"

Everyone nodded yes.

"Let's move."

As everyone went to their respective destinations, Yukio looked at Harada while he looked at her back. Yukio nodded at him, and Harada likewise at her. Indicating an unspoken pact.

xxxxxx

While the team that possessed Shirazu went for the zoo, Haise led his to the temple. Hirokawa felt that the temple is where the kaiju would likely appear. As the larger team approached the temple, what they saw confirmed Haise's fears. Dozens of people stood in front of the temple, booths forming a sort of festival hallway. What he saw confirmed Haise's fears. As well as Urie's.

"Damn. Somehow, I had a feeling that he'd do something like this."

"Urie…"

"When Shirazu, Harada and I first met the monk, we seemed to come off as less of a devout monk…"

"Less?"

Asked Yukio. Urie took a deep breath before explaining further.

"Okay, we seemed to want his 15 minutes of fame at whatever the cost."

Haise addressed the X-Force with him. Hirokawa signaled his team to film everything happening.

"Okay. This is what we need to do. Yukio, you're with me to find this monk and do whatever we must to get him to stop."

"Got it."

"Investigator Madou, lead the rest of the X-Force to break up the crowds. Use our authority as Investigators if you have to."

"Roger that."

"Go."

The X-Force did as Haise ordered them to. Hirokawa followed Haise and Yukio with his movable camera while he says to his crew,

"Film everything they do."

For the next five minutes, the X-Force did what Haise and used their authority as Investigators of the GCB to break up the crowds and ordering them to flee the area for their own safety. While some families and elderly people did what they demanded, the alien fanatics and the social media figures scoffed and rebuffed their demands. Mutsuki encountered them most of all. Meanwhile, Haise and Yukio searched all over the temple for the monk, but did not find him. Haise encountered another monk within the same temple.

"Excuse me."

"How can I help you?"

"I'm an Investigator for a special division of the GCB. I'm here looking for the one that organizing the entire event."

"Oh. You mean the celebration?"

Haise stood confused by the monk's words.

"Celebration?"

"Yes. Today's the anniversary of the founding of this temple. One of our more…sociable monks organized this event as a means of celebration. The abbot gave his approval for the festival."

This filled Haise with further dread.

"Is there something we should know about?"

The monk then whispered,

"Is it about ghouls?"

Haise seemed out of it as his worst fears came to pass. Now a massacre became more likely to happen. In a slightly shaky voice, he says to the monk,

"Listen to me carefully…there's a kaiju that will come here if you do not cancel this event."

"A…kaiju?"

Before Haise explained further, a series of fireworks rose into the air and loudly popped. Both Haise and the rest of the X-Force instantly feared the worst. Urie stood closest to the front of the temple as he witnesses the monk he interviewed stand in front holding a microphone and speaking into it.

"Hello everyone. Welcome to our temple as we celebrate the anniversary of its founding. I hope all of you have been enjoying the festival as we've had setting it up."

The crowds cheered for a while. Urie attempted to stop the monk speaking any further, but the crowd standing between him and the front of the temple proved itself too dense to go through. Urie tried his best, but he feared that by the time he can get to the temple, a disaster will arrive.

"Now we come to the main attraction of today. Now, all of you have heard about…some sightings that made a lot of you come here to Mt. Takao."

Some in the audience cheered louder than most.

"Well, I'm here to tell you…they're all true!"

The monk then brought out a monkey tied to a leash. Seeing this, Saiko says,

"Oh no…"

"Another alien has arrived and we're gonna bring him out!"

As the crowds cheered, Deadpool responded to the monk bringing out a monkey as a possible sacrifice to the kaiju,

"More like hell no."

Deadpool put down his duffel bag and opened it to reveal a collection of guns. This surprised the X-Force in a negative way. With Mutsuki responding,

"Are those-"

"Guns? Yes, and a shit-ton of them. And before anyone asks, no I'm not going to use it against these people. But with the you-know what around, I had these with me."

The monk asked the crowd,

"Are you ready?"

The cheers sounded audible enough, but not to the monk's satisfaction.

"Come on. ARE YOU READY?"

Now the cheers were louder than before, with applause mixed in. Akira almost wanted to protest, but considering how Haise explained the situation in their texts, she instead said,

"Fire one shot into the air."

The X-Force gave a collective,

"Huh?!"

"Look, if there is a you-know-what and it's coming here, we have to get these people out of here."

Before Deadpool could fire a shot, music was heard.

(play The Star Lasso Expeeerrriii… - Nope Soundtrack)

"Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, I bore witness to nothing less than pure spectacle. Spectacle no different than what Tokyo experienced before."

The audience cheered louder. Akira said to Deadpool,

"Do it."

Deadpool fired a gunshot into the air. However, the monk saw the gun and signals the one operating the fireworks to fire another one. The sound of the firework proved itself too loud for anyone to pay attention to Deadpool's gunshot.

"Shit! It was cockblocked!"

The monk kept speaking.

"What me and my fellow monks saw on that night was a flying saucer, and I know how to bring it here!"

The monk brought the monkey to the forefront. Some of the audience murmured about how the monkey played a role.

"This flying saucer is oddly fascinated by these monkeys. But trust me, this is not a sacrifice. This is an invitation for us to make first contact. HOW ABOUT IT?"

When he stopped speaking once more, the music slowly shut down. To everyone's confusion.

(end music)

Now the only thing that could be heard was a loud roaring sound. The crowd turned their attention to where the roar came from. For the X-Force, this moment was a critical one for them. Haise made it to the front of the temple and yelled,

"EVERYONE PLEASE! LEAVE THE AREA!"

Deadpool yelled back,

"YOU HEARD THE MAN!"

This time, Deadpool fired three shots into the air. Hirokawa and his crew filmed the direction of where the roar came from. After a series of small, but audible noises, what happened next made the temple become a scene of absolute pandemonium.

xxxxxx

Back at the zoo, Shirazu and Harada waited at the west side of the place to film the kaiju from a higher, more visibly clear vantage point. Jessica commented the scene from the temple.

"A lot of people at the temple."

Nezuko asked,

"Is there a festival or something?"

Harada responded,

"I honestly have no idea."

Shirazu added,

"But I'm willing to be that monk me and Harada met before is behind it."

Nezuko asked,

"Monk?"

Harada explained.

"Me and Shirazu met a monk from that temple and interview him about an incident that happened a couple of days ago."

Jessica asked,

"Let me guess. He lied about some things."

Shirazu answered,

"Nah. He's was just some conspiracy guy to wants to be famous."

Shirazu paid attention to the cloud that he saw yesterday. He kept staring at it for three minutes straight. Nezuko asked,

"What are you looking-"

Shirazu loudly shushed her as the cloud began to slowly move. This shocked Nezuko, Jessica, and Harada. Shirazu says to the film crew,

"Record! Now!"

Jessica started to turn the crank on the camera while Nezuko picked up the boom microphone to record the sound. Shirazu paid attention to where the kaiju was heading, which proved itself to be the temple. Shirazu feared the worst as he says to Harada,

"Harada, watch those two for me."

"What?"

"I'M GOING AFTER IT!"

Shirazu leapt from the spot to go beyond the zoo and towards the temple.

xxxxxx

(play Godzilla Main Title – Bear McCreary)

The kaiju descended over the crowd with the bottom of itself wide open. From the monk to the rest of the X-Force, all stood in dreadful awe of what floated in front of them. What broke this grip the kaiju had over the crowd was Deadpool bringing out an anti-tank gun from his bag and shooting at the kaiju. Although no blood was spilled, the impact of the shots made the kaiju groaned.

"RUN LIKE HELL, YOU STUPID FUCKS"

Immediately, people started to run from the kaiju. From any direction they could either run away from or to places where it cannot get them, the crowd ran from the kaiju. Hirokawa, on the other hand, told his crew,

"Stay right where you are! We're getting every single minute of this."

Both him and Huey kept on filming the scene while Haise with to his X-Force with Yukio following. As he reached them, he asked,

"Are any of you okay?"

"Haise, it's Deadpool."

Said Mutsuki as Haise looked at Deadpool taking on the kaiju by himself with an anti-tank gun. He also spotted the duffel bag of weapons Deadpool dropped earlier.

"Get a weapon and fire at the kaiju!"

Each of the X-Force got to the duffel and took out a weapon suited to them. Mutsuki, Akira and Urie each had a different type of machine gun, Saiko and Hisako both had a pair of handguns, while Haise and Yukio both held grenade launchers.

"Go!"

The X-Force reached the kaiju and started firing at it. And yet, this did not faze the kaiju as it summoned a tornado. Urie yelled to Haise,

"HAISE! THE TORNADO! THAT'S HOW IT EATS PEOPLE!"

"I REMEMBER!"

(skip to 1:10)

The kaiju maintained its concentration as it aimed its tornado as some of the fleeing target. As the tornado got stronger, some of the fleeing people instantly floated into the air and straight into its hole. The people that got caught up screamed in fear as their fates now became sealed. As it cannot spot anymore humans to feed, the kaiju circled back to the temple, ignoring the X-Force. Urie yelled,

"HAISE!"

"BACK TO THE TEMPLE!"

The kaiju now floated over the temple as its tornado became so strong that it tore apart the temple within its vortex. The monk who arranged the show looked up in terror and despair over what he summoned. He too got sucked into the maw of the kaiju as the temple now became a complete wreck. Haise also noticed that Hirokawa and his crew were near the area of the kaiju's vortex.

"MUTSUKI! SAIKO!"

Yelled Haise.

"RIGHT!"

Replied the two as they sped toward Hirokawa and his filming crew. Hirokawa, Huey, Dewey and Louie all floated into the air, but Mutsuki caught Hirokawa just in time with his kagune. As did Saiko when she caught the triplets with hers. Both latched their kagunes to a nearby tree that did not get sucked up into the kaiju's vortex. Hirokawa kept on filming as Mutsuki hung on. Saiko likewise. Unfortunately; Haise, Urie, Yukio and Hisako got caught into the kaiju's vortex. Mutsuki yelled,

"HAISE!"

Saiko yelled,

"MAMAN!"

Hisako acted quickly as she activated her psionic armor. As her armor grew, so did her mass. Before she got back to the ground, she used her psionic arms to catch the rest of her teammates to prevent them from being eaten by the kaiju. Although she got Urie and Yukio, Haise missed his chance and further sucked in.

"HAISE!"

Yelled all three of them. Haise feared that his time neared an unfortunate end.

(skip to 2:06)

Until he spotted Urie getting sucked in as well. With his kagune out, Shirazu yelled,

"EAT THIS, YOU FUCKING MONKEY-MUNCHER!"

Shirazu fired a series of his kagune missiles into the maw of the kaiju, which proved itself to be an effective move. The kaiju started to roar as if it were choking on the missile Shirazu fired. The tornado instantly died, leaving Haise and Shirazu floating in the air for a while. As the kaiju flew away, both Haise and Shirazu feel to earth. Haise fell faster, much to Shirazu's dismay.

"MR. YAS!"

The last memory Haise had on that day was being slammed into the ground, head-first.

DONE! That has to be one of the longest chapters I have written to date. But I have no regrets. I just you've enjoyed it. Next chapter will conclude this arc. Stay tuned. Don't forget to either leave a review or share with your friends. Until next time.