#Let gale weathers rest please those bangs need a break.

[tasty-bitch-nugget-666]

No more scream movies PLEASE ain't no way you scrom'd that much.

[chilly-territory]

K Case Files of Blue 2, chapter 4 (part 1 out of 2)

Continuing with this, and the end is in sight! (one more part + epilogue is all that’s left)

Case Files of Blue 2 by Miyazawa Tatsuki

Chapter 4 (part 1/2) (volume 2, pages 197- 224) The Blues Rally

Dark clouds hang in the sky. The wind whistled. The door rattled noisily.

It was early morning, and Kamo Ryuuhou stood in the entryway to "Chuubairo". To make up at least a little for his stay, he decided to do a thorough cleanup of the kitchen. He'd finished sharpening knives and polished pots, then buying more of the condiments that were about to run out, doing grocery shopping and cleaning everything from drainage to ventilation fans - it was no exaggeration to say that the kitchen was licked squeaky clean.

His handpicked successor was scheduled to start tomorrow. It was a lady chef who Kamo had complete trust in to take good care of this eatery's future. She had studied under Kamo's father, which made her Kamo's fellow disciple. Having a frank and spirited personality, she was very kind and also a skilled chef at the same time. Kamo had specifically pulled 2 all-nighters to write down the recipes for her. If she had those, she could get to work without any delay tomorrow.

Kamo still stood in the doorway when a voice came.

"You're leaving?"

He turned to the source of the voice. In the darkness of the corridor there stood the young proprietress of this eatery. She wore a thin sleepwear that left her neck and both arms exposed, and their whiteness was starkly visible even without turning the lights on, as if the darkness was erased in those spots. Moist eyes and disheveled hair were strangely captivating. Kamo averted his eyes as if assaulted by the feelings of guilt.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Having gotten no reply from Kamo, the proprietress repeated her inquiry.

But she had already understood. Kamo's white apron, his trademark as a chef, was gone, replaced by the blue uniform of the protector of order. Which could only mean that he'd been already done steeling his resolve.

Kamo's expression warped, as if in pain.

"To be honest, a part of me wished I could stay. But there are people out there who need me." "But so do I!" the woman suddenly cried out forcefully. Tears in her eyes, she implored, "I, too, need you!" She ran towards him with small steps and clang to his back. Pressing her cheek to his shoulder, she squeezed out in a whisper, "Can't it be me?"

Kamo shut his eyes, overcome with sadness.

"Sorry, but the cause..." He squeezed his fists tight. "I have a greater cause that I must protect."

He then bodily pulled away from the woman.

"A big storm is coming, so make sure to lock up the door. So long." He smiled. "Take care."

The woman broke down crying. Kamo purposefully pretended not to notice the hand she was reaching out towards him.

He opened the door, stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him, letting that banging sound sever all the lingering attachments for him. The last sight his eyes caught was that of the woman crumbled down on the floor, weeping.

Kamo started running through the incessant rain.

†

As he changed trains, heading towards the Scepter 4 HQ, all kinds of musings ran through Kamo's head - thoughts on what happiness was, and what it was that he must do.

But it was undeniable that the sense of duty made his hear tremble with exaltation. He'd heard that several members of the special ops squad were put out of commission, including Awashima. Scepter 4 would be hard pressed to function without him, no doubt.

Getting off at the nearest station and not bothering about opening an umbrella, Kamo broke into a run. It would be faster this way. And he wanted to be back at Scepter 4 as fast as possible and to do everything in his power.

According to Hidaka, even the electrical system of the HQ had started acting up.

Resolved to see the building sinking in the dark, Kamo couldn't help doubting his eyes when he finally arrived to stand in front of the entrance gates.

Every window was lit up with light. What's more, lively talk filled the front yard. Three special ops vehicles were parked there with engines running.

"Hurry up with the trucks' check! Once the Captain gives the order, all the vehicles will be deployed!"

The one to motivate the mechanics with those words in a taunt tone was none other than Awashima Seri wearing a blue raincoat.

'Eh, huh?' Kamo then thought. 'Wasn't she supposed to be MIA?'

As he stood there dumbstruck, the person in question noticed him and called out to him with a smile.

"Oh, Kamo. You're back."

Although she wore no makeup and was getting beaten by the rain, it took nothing away from her beautiful looks. If anything, she looked even more elegant, standing there coldly amidst the raging bad weather.

"Hurry up and go check in with the Captain. He's inside." "Ah, yeah," Kamo managed listlessly as he passed through the entrance after being prompted. Once he did, he ran into Gotou on the other side.

"Oh, Kamo-san. Welcome back~" Gotou passed him with those carefree words and an accompanying smile.

Without registering it, Kamo followed him with his eyes.

"Oh, Kamo-san. Welcome back. Sorry, but please make way for the dolly!" Hidaka was pushing a dolly with a floodlight mounted on it. The way he said those words couldn't be anymore routine.

Kamo proceeded forward giddily.

On the way, he passed Doumyouji who energetically raced somewhere - Kamo wasn't sure where.

"Oh, good to have ya back! And see ya later!"

As Doumyouji raised a hand in greeting, Kamo found himself doing the same. Although the return gesture on his part lacked energy.

Walking along the hallway, Kamo found the door to the data processing room opened, and through it the form of Enomoto animatedly working his computer could be glimpsed. Kamo wanted to call out to him, but then thought better of it. Somehow, he got a feeling that it wasn't the right time to bother the bespectacled man.

There was also Fuse who was talking to someone through the transmitter.

When Kamo had finally reached the Captain's office, he encountered the duo of Akiyama and Benzai there.

"Oh." "Glad to have you back with us."

Akiyama was the same as always, while Benzai gave him a slight bow and a smile. But that was all there was to it. The two then walked away at a quick pace as they were exchanging opinions on some subject or other on the way. By no means was this reunion especially moving or emotional.

For a while, Kamo just stared at their retreating backs.

Indistinct feelings started bothering him. Somehow... he couldn't accept what was happening.

And then, at last, Kamo managed to define them with a description which sounded suspiciously like 'What the heck, everyone's going around their business like usual!'

No, it didn't mean it was a bad thing per se, but...

Knocking on the door to the Captain's office that was left open, he entered.

"Ohh, welcome back, Kamo-kun." Munakata raised his face from the tablet he was reading reports on and smiled at the new arrival. "How was your time off?"

Kamo clamped down on the words welling up inside him, then straightened his back properly and saluted to his superior.

"Kamo Ryuuhou, returning to the assigned unit!"

His expression was a bit like laughter through tears.

Munakata smiled gently and nodded.

†

About the time Kamo was knocking on the door of the Captain's office, Fushimi had finally made a short while in his busy work schedule to take a break. Although it was called a break, it didn't really amount to much more than sipping canned coffee in the shadow of a pillar in a corridor that didn't see much traffic and fiddling with his PDA.

As he was doing precisely that, a new message dropped to his work address' inbox.

With a sigh, Fushimi opened it. And then...

"Huh?"

Without his intention, his expression turned grim.

It was from someone Fushimi had least expected to be getting mail from.

'Hello, Fushimi. How are you? It's Totsuka.'

Totsuka Tatara, one of the leaders of the Red clan Homura. That was who the message was from.

Fushimi clicked his tongue and muttered in a tone that was in equal parts fed up and impressed, "...How the hell does that guy know my work address?"

It went without saying that Fushimi would sooner die than tell it to anyone from the place he was affiliated with in the past. But he had to admit it was just like Totsuka having a grasp on things like this despite being an absent-minded oddball about everything else.

When Fushimi looked through the message, he found it was a letter of thanks for letting Totsuka peruse Scepter 4's documents the other day.

'Please give my thanks to Munakata Reishi-san and Zenjou-san who treated me extremely kindly.'

"I respectfully refuse. I'm not your messenger boy," Fushimi muttered his thoughts aloud.

Clicking his tongue once again, he was about to delete the message altogether when he found a postscript at the end of it.

'By the way, I have a message from Yata.'

Since that was what it said, he looked through the rest of it just in case.

'"The guy we met was the bad sort. He tried to kill Mikoto-san, and it turned into a full scale battle. So a warning for you. A huge storm is coming to Japan. Be careful," is what he says.'

"A huge storm is coming, eh?" Fushimi raised his head and snorted. "Well, duh, I can see that, moron."

The windowpanes rattled, shaken by the heavy rain and gales outside. The sky peeking through looked completely covered with leaden clouds.

Still, along with Yata's words, it was Totsuka's last remark that got Fushimi bothered. It read as follows: 'That storm Yata mentioned might be related to your case.'

For a while, Fushimi was deep in thought.

Seriously, what the hell had happened in Las Vegas?

†

In the Captain's office that Kamo had already left, Munakata was reading through a multitude of reports at an astounding pace. He would read anything written at a speed unthinkable for ordinary human on a regular basis, but today he increased that already amazing reading speed even more. It took him literally only a second to look through a report, memorize it, parse it, make a connection with other reports and reach a conclusion.

In other words...

'Looks like everything is going just the way I predicted, eh?'

Even to Munakata it was amusing, and his lips curved up a little in a tiny smile.

The reports covered quite a few areas. There was a message from Scepter 4 operatives about the seizure of a vehicle that Kounomura Zen'ichi had allegedly used, Japan Coast Guard's data on comings and goings to and from the harbor, information on the production of a certain construction that Munakata had ordered, and also news from Japanese Meteorological Agency.

Among them, there was a message from the young and capable attorney that had assisted Scepter 4 in the matters of Akiyama's defense, lawsuits against them and the mass media countermeasures.

The gist of his message was basically this: 'The moment Akiyama-san was found not guilty was when the tides had completely changed.'

It looked like by leaving that matter entirely to him and his trusted team of lawyers everything would be settled with no further trouble.

The message also contained the following bit: 'A few words about Doumyouji-san that you had put in charge of these matters. At first I wasn't sure it was a good choice, but surprisingly, it appears he really is equipped with the aptitude required to handle these kinds of matters. His grasp on what is vital is excellent. Truth be told, there is no pressing need for us specialists to keep an eye on the practical side of things when we handle the details of the judicial process. So in these types of cases, it is necessary for the client to understand what is important and what is not. And that is where Doumyouji-san left nothing to be desired. I daresay that is not something many youths can do. Moreover, his ever sincere attitude of an innocent child when dealing with the media apparently made a very favorable impression on them and won him a lot of sympathy.'

In a sense, it was high praise.

Munakata let out a tiny sigh. Actually, among all the personnel assignments this time, this was the one appointment he felt a little insecure about.

"Oh well, looking at the results, everything ended well, I suppose. If possible, I'd like for Doumyouji-kun to broaden his knowledge in this field from now on." But then Munakata reconsidered. "Although he's sure to go off the rails before he can apply it." He snickered.

In that sense, Doumyouji, perhaps, wasn't so well-suited to that kind of job. In Scepter 4, there were people with all kinds of personalities and all kinds of abilities. And bringing them together and giving them a direction to move in was Munakata's job.

It was at that time that his PDA emitted a beep to signal the arrival of a message. Munakata had already guessed what it was. A glance at the display confirmed his guess.

'Analysis complete. The location of Kounomura Zen'ichi identified with 92.978% probability,' the message from Tokijikuin read.

Although he half-forced them into allowing him to use their super computer, they didn't let it impact their job, doing it perfectly.

Munakata smiled.

"It's time at last, Kounomura-san." It was a truly refined smile without a speck of fighting mood. "I'm looking forward to seeing your face."

And so, he started towards the door out of his office to give the entire Scepter 4 move-out orders.

†

About the time Munakata received the message from Tokijikuin, Kounomura was on the top floor of a high class hotel that was still under construction.

He had a wearable PDA on him in the shape of a visor, reading thoroughly every piece of intelligence that was being sent him.

His reading speed was every bit as astounding as Munakata Reishi's. Piece after piece, he memorized and analyzed all the information the volume of which would be way too much for a regular person to process, which allowed him to grasp the situation accurately. That had become something of a daily routine to him since he'd initiated the confrontation with Scepter 4.

Reports from the observers dedicatedly watching Scepter 4's HQ, transmissions from the local police radio he'd wiretapped, communication records of the port facilities, the trains service information - all that and more formed innumerable informational fragments of the bigger picture. When he pieced all of them together in his head, Kounomura felt a sense of unity with the world.

Once Munakata got hold of required information, from there on out his thinking processes would unfold in a comparatively logical fashion, but in Kounomura's case, his perception was more ambiguous and more intuitive. As such, he let himself steep in the informational flood absentmindedly until the complete picture showed through it.

And then he burst into laughter. "Munakata-kun really is something. I should've known." His voice was slightly higher pitched than usual.

"Did you figure something out, Zen'ichi?"

Nakamura Gouki and Marumoto Keiji who had joined them at some point watched Kounomura seated in an armchair. Gouki looked composed, as usual, but Marumoto was somewhat nervous.

"Yeah. They've laid almost my every trick bare. I assume all the members of the special ops squad are back by now, too. Oh, and Kamo-kun seems to have returned as well. That's impressive, really, because in his case, pure coincidence was responsible for the turn of events so convenient to us, so all I did was simply watch it unfold without doing much, and yet he's still back at the most crucial time for them, just like that. Ah, and Munakata-kun sure acts quickly, so very quickly. He's making his moves one after another as we speak!"

Kounomura positively looked to be overjoyed. It was hard to believe that this was the same man who only recently represented gloom and doom.

Gouki smiled lopsidedly. "Zen'ichi, taking delight in your opponents' powerups is a bad habit, you know."

Meanwhile, Marumoto's expression turned openly anxious. "So what does that mean for us?"

It was Gouki who answered his question in place of Kounomura who was being wrapped tighter and tighter in the net of information galore.

"Well, I guess it's just a matter of time now before this hideout is found out." "Eh?" "Don't worry. You know how fast Zen'ichi is when he runs away, and you think he didn't take any measures? He's got dozens of countermoves at the tips of his fingers at any time." "Ah, I see. Great, then."

Marumoto Keiji had barely had any time to feel relieved when Kounomura spoke up in a stiff voice. "No."

Kounomura was shaken - a state that even his long time friend Gouki had seen only rarely, while Marumoto saw it for the first time.

"Huh? Eh? Wait a second." Kounomura rose, reading through the information changing on his wearable PDA with an incredible speed. "That's weird, what the hell?" "What's wrong, Kounomura-san?"

Marumoto tried to press for an answer, but Gouki's hand stopped him, demanding he let Kounomura concentrate.

When Kounomura spoke up, his lips were pressed together tight. "It can't be. Ah, I see. That's how it is. I can't believe it." He gave a laugh. "Out of 12 shelters here in Japan, 11 have already been cordoned off by the police and Scepter 4." "Eh?" "What?"

Marumoto and Gouki were reasonably shocked.

"Ah, and they've found my remaining shelter just now. Also, out of 24 routes out of the country that I had prepared, 22 are no longer usable. Oh, I get it." A shiver ran through his body. "Munakata-kun went and used the Coin Toss theory on me. Plans I'm likely to devise, actions I'm likely to take - he's analyzed it all and is now shutting them out one by one."

Gouki was speechless, Marumoto was dumbfounded.

Kounomura was getting covered with cold sweat as he went on, "What a pickle. There's still a move left up my sleeve that hasn't been predicted yet and another one that's probably impossible to even predict, but this bad weather renders them both effectively unusable."

"How is it possible?" After a long sigh, Gouki rolled his shoulders and giggled. "Oh well. Zen'ichi. I can't believe there was someone else who could use moves even craftier than you." "You said it. Ah," Kounomura opened his mouth. "This is not good. I'd say everything points to them having already figured out our location by now. They're massing the troops in front of their HQ. The dispatch orders are about to be given." "Eh? Eh?" Marumoto flapped about in confusion unable to keep up with the sudden turn of events. "What will become of us?"

Gouki gave him a wry smile. "We'll be arrested, I guess. After all, they mean business." "Ehhh?" "It's a given," Gouki added maliciously, "after how we've messed with them. Better prepare yourself while you can. If you're lucky, they'll only sock you a couple of times."

Hearing that, Marumoto's face fell, on the verge of weeping.

Just then...

"Agh!" Kounomura suddenly tore off his wearable PDA. He stood there in dazed amazement - something that even Gouki saw for the first time.

Looking at Gouki and Marumoto with an expression that was hard to describe but that could, perhaps, be that of rapture or of shivers-inducing fear, he muttered just one word, "Unbelievable."

"What happened, Zen'ichi?" That was enough to make even the ever composed Gouki worry.

"Munakata-kun has completely ignored us in favor of deploying the troops he'd gathered for arresting us to assist in relief and rescue instead." "Eh?" voiced Gouki. "Huh?" uttered Marumoto.

Both of them had their eyes opened wide in disbelief.

Kounomura shook his head with nakedly heartfelt delight, "What a man! What a man with a cause Munakata Reishi is!"

And then he burst into a loud laughter seemingly coming from the very bottom of his heart.

Gouki and Marumoto could only watch him, speechless.

†

Munakata, wearing a cobalt blue raincoat under the incessant rain, stood on the roof of a truck with a voice amplifier in hand.

Before him, there lined up in neat rows the members of the special operations squad in the raincoats of the same color worn over the head.

Akiyama Himori, Benzai Yuujirou, Kamo Ryuuhou, Doumyouji Andy, Enomoto Tatsuya, Fuse Daiki, Gotou Ren, Hidaka Akira - with the exception of Fushimi who was on a separate mission they all had assembled there, none of them missing anymore.

Awashima Seri also stood there, by Munakata's side, facing them.

Even beaten by large droplets of the rain and harassed by the blasts of the ceaseless wind, they all were showing elation on their faces. Fighting spirit and determination burned in their eyes. They finally knew the whereabout of Kounomura Zen'ichi - the man who dared make sport of them. Once they had the orders from their superior, they were willing and ready to hunt him down like hounds and aprehend him. Doumyouji and Fuse were especially eager, for all intents and purposes looking like they'd take off running any moment now.

"Ehem. Gentlemen," Munakata began speaking so calmly that his manner might be more fittingly described as carefree. Waiting when the static noise died out, he continued, "We have finally pinned down the location of Kounomura-shi. As such, I intended to go catch him, but..." His tone was completely devoid of any urgency. "Let's put that on hold for now."

That declaration threw several members of the special ops squad quite literally off balance. They all were single-mindedly prepared to hunt, and being denied it robbed them of their bearings or left them struck dumb.

Munakata went on indifferently. "I saw the Meteorological Agency's data, you see. A big tempest that might even be called unprecedented is on the way to this city. A rainstorm with wind speeds of 40 meters is expected to rampage throughout the area, with thunderbolts and heavy rain paralyzing most urban functions. Needless to say," suddenly he looked very serious, "that will put quite a few people in danger."

The faces of the special ops squad members tightened in response.

Munakata continued in an intense tone. "I dispatched Fushimi-kun earlier, and he's already finished making necessary arrangements. So gentlemen, during the time this storm rages, I want each and every of you to cooperate with the Fire Defense and Police Agencies and local autonomous units and do what you must do as members of Scepter 4!" His features then softened. "That said, this sort of matter is outside of our area of expertise. That's why we must always keep in mind to be humble when requesting to let us help and to respect and listen to the opinion of the professionals in those areas. If we do that," he asserted in no uncertain terms, "our super power will become the shield that defends the innocent citizens, no doubt." With that, he smiled. "Compared to this duty, the matter of Kounomura-shi is but trifle. We can easily postpone it and work something out later, at any time."

Those words were bound to send a shiver running down the spines of those listening. Their king had just called the possessor of talents that could only be described as abnormal who gunned for his throne nothing more than 'trifle'. Each of the Scepter 4 troops felt a surge of strong emotion, moving their hearts and making them straighten up with pride.

What was the greater cause?

To this king, it wasn't simply a figure of speech, he held to it steadfastly as one would to a belief or conviction.

Nevertheless, Akiyama still found it necessary to ask something.

"It is a reasonable to fear that Kounomura would flee his hideout in the meantime. Is it okay with you, sir?"

He just wanted to confirm it for himself.

"Let me think. If some of us find themselves free after fulfilling their duty by assisting the government agencies in relief and rescue, let's arrest him while we're at it."

The instructions Munakata had issued concerning that matter were quite vague. But the special ops squad members answered him with a 'Yes, sir!' regardless.

Munakata smiled.

"Well then, gentlemen, let us move out. Only, this time there is no need for us to draw our swords." Raising his voice, he declared, "For our cause is pure!"

His catchword was suddenly answered by Akiyama. "Akiyama, dispatching!" Making motions as if he was drawing his sword, he took his leave.

Benzai followed suit with a chuckle. "Benzai, dispatching!"

Kamo smiled. "Kamo, dispatching!"

"Doumyouji, dispatching! Here I go!" Doumyouji shouted gleefully as he raced off.

Enomoto and Fuse exchanged a glance. "Enomoto, dispatching!" "Fuse, dispatching!"

With that, Enomoto headed towards the command vehicle to devote himself to performing the operator job, while Fuse, as a field agent, sped off in the opposite direction to be on the scene of the disaster.

Gotou and Hidaka repeated the same stately motion of drawing their sword in turn. "Gotou, dispatching!" "Hidaka, dispatching!" They, too, then went off.

Awashima was the last one to fluidly unsheathe her invisible sword. "Awashima, dispatching... Captain," she smiled charmingly, "off I go then, sir."

Munakata's lips curved up in an answering smile as he watched her go.

"Our cause may be pure, but the same could not be said about the sky," he pointed out. Luckily there was no one around anymore to hear him make that silly remark.

†

Majority of the general public closed their doors tightly, took cover under their futons and then dozed off while listening to the updates on weather and disaster reports on the TV news or the internet. With modern disaster prevention technology, impossible a few dozens years back, one's safety was more or less guaranteed unless one decided to venture outside. However, the residents of old wooden houses and those who had to go outside due to the nature of their work still had a very good reason to worry.

Also, in some areas power cables got severed, which caused blackouts, and even fires resulting from ensuing short-circuiting. So the fire and police stations were pressed to operate at full capacity even at times such as this. And in the thick of it, a group in blue uniforms could be found cooperating with the public agencies.

They helped local crews repair embankments in places where they were likely to burst, freed ambulances with emergency patients from mud traps and did everything they could to protect the city against the disaster, like silent shadows. The police, the fire deparment and other pertinent agencies were greatly helped by those wielders of supernatural powers beyond common sense.

As were ordinary people living in the city such as the lady owner of a small eatery who had a little son.

In all honesty, she didn't think any harm would come to them because of this storm. But misfortune had paid them a sudden visit. An election advertisement board got launched by a blast of the gale, smashing the windows of the second floor and letting in heavy rain and wind. The child had started to cry, and the woman, holding him in her arms, found herself at a loss. She couldn't think of anything one woman entirely on her own could do.

As she was puzzling, a dashing young man she knew very well clad in a blue uniform appeared. He and a few of his colleagues rushed to the house and quickly completed stop-gap repairs. It appeared the gales so mighty they could send even an adult flying if one was not careful and the torrential downpour that beat down anything in its path with violence had no effect on them.

"Are you okay?" The man she once idolized as 'onii-chan' worried about her. He wore a dignified face resolute in a way different from when he stood in the kitchen. "Thank you," she said. "I'm okay now." "I'm sorry," said the man apologetically. "But there are still other places I have to go to." "Then, go," she replied in a flash.

She hugged the baby closer to her chest. Protecting this child was her job, while this man had a different job he needed to do, she realized.

After a while of silence, the man said, "Thank you. See you again sometime." "Yeah. Take care," she replied with a smile.

And so, he threw himself into the raging storm once again in order to help more people.

Having watched him go, she shed a single tear and decided to get stronger.

Her face was that of a mother who had overcome a difficulty.

†

In the dead of night, in the lobby of a certain hotel still under construction, there stood Fushimi Saruhiko. The result of the analysis stated that this was where Kounomura Zen'ichi and several of his followers hid themselves. Fushimi had completed his duty for the time being and, thus, was free to go after Kounomura's group faster than anyone else in Scepter 4. To be precise, he had provided necessary relief and rescue assistance in the area he had been assigned to and urgently contacted the relevant authorities, and somehow or other he'd been done with that in about 30 minutes. He had a plan worked out.

'I alone will be more than enough.'

Now that Munakata Reishi had seen through his opponent's every possible trick and stratagem, the Kounomura Zen'ichi faction had become nothing more than a paper tiger. There were presumably three of them hiding in here: Kounomura Zen'ichi himself, Nakamura Gouki and Marumoto Keiji. Among them, only Nakamura Gouki, a strain with a power that gave him herculean strength, could be considered formidable, but by Fushimi's estimations, even he couldn't be much more than Fushimi's own abilities allowed him to handle.

Fushimi was advancing further into the lobby of the first floor.

The opening ceremony for this hotel had been pushed back a month, but the interior of the building was pretty much already complete. The lights on the ceiling were on, and movables like sofas and tables had already been brought in.

Sweeping his wet bangs that clung to his forehead back, Fushimi muttered, "I see, it makes sense."

This hotel was perfectly ready for living even at this stage. Despite the fact, its name had yet to be added to digital maps. Kounomura had probably been moving from one such place to another all this time. It was also safe to assume that he was involved with the construction company or the hotel's management in some way.

Just as Fushimi thought that...

"Oh, Fushimi-kun, that was quite fast," his superior appeared from a shadow of the hallway and addressed him.

Fushimi very nearly clicked his tongue at him but managed to suppress the urge just barely.

"You're here, too, Captain," he muttered vacantly.

It was probably just Munakata being Munakata. Having finished everything that his duty demanded him to do with that ever nonchalant air, he'd arrived here even faster than Fushimi himself. Those ridiculously high capabilities were what made him Fushimi's boss alright, but sometimes it was just so very annoying.

"Fushimi-kun," Munakata inquired, "how much time do you think you can spare for this?" "From half an hour to an hour, I estimate. Then I'll go back to my assigned area." "I see. It's about the same for me, too. The storm has yet to show any signs of passing, after all." Munakata then smiled. "Well then, let's go, shall we?" "..." Fushimi only nodded wordlessly.

"Captain! Please wait!"

It was then that the automatic doors to the lobby opened, letting in a sprinting Awashima. She was soaked to the bone and dripping water, and she also was breathing hard, but still she lifted her head almost immediately.

"I'm going, too. Please let me accompany you!"

She, too, made some time for this somehow or other.

For a while, Munakata gazed at her gently before finally saying, "Alright. Since there is not much time to spare, let's split the workload. Each of us will take care of one of the opponents. Is that alright with you?" "Yes, sir!" Awashima's reply was loud and clear. "...Roger." Fushimi quietly nodded his agreement as well.

And then, the trio split up, each heading to the elevator, the staircase or the emergency stairs respectively.