Joshua G., Shen, FromTheDeep, Tyric Gaia.

These are heroes of the modern age, having ascended to the ranks of legends via their various great deeds, performed throughout a whole galaxy!

If you wish to join the ranks of the legends, you can do so by heading over to " Pat Reon -dot- com -slash- FrancoGamerxz ", and adding to the cosmic tip jar!

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Now, feel free to enjoy the story!

"Regular character speech"

"Differently inflectioned character speech" (Whispering, hissing, etc)

'Powerful character speech' (Backed by Killing Intent, Pressure, Sheer raw power, etc)

'Regular character thoughts'

'Mind Reading/Telepathic Conversation'

[Ddraig talking out loud]

[Ddraig telepathically speaking to Issei]

'Ddraig/Powerful being thinking'

"Hello?"

"Hey babe, it's me, Issei. Just calling to warn you that I won't be making it home on time today."

"Oh? How come?"

"An urgent call came in from work, so I have to head out of town for a bit. Depending on how soon I'm done I could be away for a few days."

"Alright. I am going to miss having you lying next to me, keeping me company in bed, though. Oh well, I guess I'll have to find a way to... entertain myself."

"...Are you trying to get me to return sooner?"

"Yes. Is it working?"

"Very much so."

"Then I can consider it a job well done." Issei could all but envision the smirk she was currently sporting. "Well... Stay safe, Ise."

"I will. Sleep tight, babe. Love you."

"Love you too."

Beep

Issei sighed as he slid his personal phone back inside his pocket, before taking the time to look around the streets of the town he had gone to.

'Everything is so silent, and still. Excessively so for a place with as many inhabitants as this town.'

He frowned as he made this observation, before recalling the briefing Susano'o had given.

"A rural town has been reporting cases of an odd sickness that doctors have been unable to treat so far. Said disease's symptoms include high fever, soreness of the body, and bleeding, generally in the form of nosebleeds. That by itself wouldn't be a priority to check out were it not for two things: One, those afflicted by the disease have been surviving fevers that would usually be outright lethal; and two, they have been bleeding in excessive amounts. Some people have been reported to have lost more blood than they should have been pumping through their veins, and yet they still remain alive, even if not healthy. Some of our people have gone in to help with taking care of the sick and keep the authorities unaware and uninvolved, and none of them have fallen ill so far, so we know that either being beyond a certain level of strength, possessing magic, or both grant immunity to whatever it is that has been affecting these people.

"Unfortunately, with our people so preoccupied with taking care of those afflicted by the symptoms and distracting the rest of the nation, we couldn't send any of them to check out the source of the affliction itself. That's where you come in.

"You are expected to find out how the disease came to be, and either point out the source to us so we can send people to stop it, or stop it yourself if you believe it possible."

'I won't be able to find anything out with the streets being this empty. Worse, I'll probably get singled out for walking around when nobody else is. I guess it's best to find a hotel to stay at for the night.'

Having made his decision, Issei soon found a cheap hotel and allowed himself a night of rest.

"Bloody hell..." Issei spoke to himself as he walked around the town, taking in the dismal aura that hung around practically every inhabitant. Be they elderly or young, male or female, every single person's shoulders hunched as they moved, as if the weight of defeat had settled itself upon them.

It was visible in every action they took, from the simple, such as walking and eating, all the way to the more complex, like the men Issei watched climb up a power line to fix something up there; they were all despairing.

It wasn't hard to see why, though, when a disease suddenly crops up that no doctor can heal; especially when it had extreme amounts of bleeding as one of its symptoms.

What person wouldn't be affected by the sight of one of their precious people bleeding more than they should physically be able to?

'I need to figure out what is going on, and I think I know where to start!'

"Could you tell me when all of this started, Dr. Hazama?"

The short-haired woman adjusted her glasses while the shoulders of her lab coat rose into a shrug, her tone sounding tired and weary as she spoke.

"As far as I'm aware, it all began two weeks ago. My predecessor, Dr. Yamuri, was the one in charge of the first patient to come in. At first it was only a fever, and it wasn't even particularly high, so nothing was thought of it. 'Just another regular patient!', we thought." The woman snorted at that. "They return the next day, feeling sore all over, while their fever skyrockets. We decide to keep them overnight for observation, and our equipment keeps logging higher and higher figures on their fever. Their muscle pains became stronger and stronger, and they eventually started manifesting muscle spasms."

Issei nodded along, writing all of this down in a notepad, while his phone recorded her words.

"That's when new cases started coming in. Children, adults, elderly, many of them started manifesting these symptoms. Things became panicked when the first person developed a nosebleed that just wouldn't stop. It reached a point where we had begun giving them blood transfusions, but there's not enough blood for everyone, so we unfortunately had to... Prioritize.

"This... Prioritization... Was how we figured out that the afflicted people kept bleeding continuously without bleeding out. We don't have any explanations as to how it's possible so far, but the most discussed theory is that whatever pathogen is responsible for this disease also stimulates the extremely rapid production of blood in the body. We verified this by testing the blood they produced, and it shows every sign of being nothing more than regular blood.

"For that reason, we have been keeping people hooked up up to IV's with a particularly rich solution, to provide all sorts of vitamins, electrolytes, enzymes and everything else required for the creation of blood within the body."

"I see. May I see any of the patients, doctor?"

"That isn't my call. A few specialists have been sent here from higher up, and one of them is in charge of the whole operation, so I'd have to check with him before giving you a response. Considering the fact that we've been keeping them in quarantine due to our lack of knowledge on the possible transmission rate of the pathogen, I'd say that you'd be refused access to the patients."

Issei gave the woman the best puppy dog eyes he could muster - even gave the trembling pout - causing the woman to sigh in exasperation.

"Fine, I'll try to contact Doctor Sawano, but don't get your hopes up, and stop giving me that look!"

Issei nodded lightly at her, the smile on his face too innocent to be true, while the woman spoke teasingly as she fiddled with her beeper.

"I'm making some effort to get you the info you're asking for, so you better make sure my name shows up in bold and all caps in this piece you're writing for your college's paper."

"Sure thing, Doctor Hazama!"

"That's good..." The woman frowned as she fiddled more and more with her beeper, her button presses eventually turning into frustrated jabs, before she jumped with an angry grunt as the beeper let out a spark before going dark. "Shit. That's the third time this has happened to me already! What the hell is going on with this thing?"

"Doctor?"

"Hah..." She sighed, before favoring Issei with an apologetic look. "It seems you won't be getting that exclusive scoop, Houssen-san."

"Don't worry about that, Hazama-sensei. What you've given me is more than enough. Though, I have to ask... Is there anything notable that happened to the town before, or around the time these cases began manifesting?"

"Mhm... Well, there was this construction company that came around and did work in the city a week before the first case..." Issei's eyes widened as he watched the doctor's eyes glassing over for an instant, before she blinked herself back into awareness, her tone dismissive as she finished. "What was I saying? Oh, right, I'm sorry I couldn't get you your scoop."

Issei schooled his face before responding.

"I'll make do with what you've already given me." He then bowed politely at the woman. "Thank you for your time, Hazama-sensei. I'll be taking my leave now."

"No problem, young man."

The doctor watched the young man leaving the hospital with a considering look, before speaking to herself.

"What was his name?"

Issei threw the files he had gotten at the Mayor's office down on the small desk of his hotel room with an annoyed grunt.

'Hours of reading through these documents, and no mention of any sort of permits being requested or given, any machinery moving into or out of the town, or any type of work whatsoever being performed.'

He thumped a fist against the desk, jostling the TV remote that had been resting at the corner of said desk and turning the TV on, though he did not notice it as the TV was muted.

'I guess I'll have to go back out and do some more legwork.'

He covered up his nudity with his newly washed clothes before leaving the bedroom and slamming the door behind him.

This meant that he wasn't there when the tv screen glitched out for a while, before simply going dark.

"Are you sure you didn't see or hear anything unusual?"

"Pretty sure, boy."

"Not even in regards to any sort of recent construction work?"

The burly middle-aged man's eyes glassed over for an instant, before he blinked the glassiness away. He scratched at his face in mild confusion as he spoke.

"The construction work performed by Shin Jinrui was nothing but a benefit to our town, and the community. There is nothing wrong, or suspicious, about it."

"Really?" Issei spoke up, skeptical. "Would you mind explaining what the work they made was, and just how it benefited the town?"

The man paused for a moment as if he were trying to bring up memories, only for his eyes to roll within their orbits for a moment, before he gave Issei an angry look, his voice turning mildly menacing as he spoke.

"Don't question the contribution that Shin Jinrui has made to our town, you ignorant, ungrateful brat! Get the hell out of here!"

Issei shrugged at the man, leaving his office without complaints or delays.

'Every time I mention the construction work these people seem to simply fall into a set of canned answers; if I try to ask about specifics, they get aggressive and run me off... There's magic messing with people's minds here, and I don't like it.'

Issei's eyes narrowed as he made his way towards his hotel in preparation for his next move.

"Sir, one Houssen Fuudo is here to see you."

"Be a dear and send him in."

The secretary released the button on her intercom before turning her focus back towards Issei, the smile on her face noticeably strained as she spoke in as cheery a tone as she could emulate.

"Please, go right in."

Issei nodded politely, taking the slightest of moments to notice the bags under her eyes that she was unable to fully conceal, the tired set to her shoulders, and the slight level of untidiness of her hairdo, before moving into the mayor's office.

The mayor, a slightly portly old man with a bald head, bushy white moustache, and laugh lines around both his upturned lips and eyes, spoke up in a friendly tone.

"Welcome, Houssen-san! Please, take a seat!"

"Thank you very much."

Issei sat down on the chair across the mayor, who spoke up in the same genial tone, a smile visible on his face.

"First of all, let me welcome you to our small town, Houssen-san!"

"Thank you very much, sir." Issei said with a small smile and nod. "Excuse me, but would you mind if I recorded our conversation and took some notes?"

"Ah, you are an investigative journalist, are you not?"

"I can't really claim the title just yet." Issei rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a mildly awkward smile on his face as he spoke. "I'm just a university student trying to get material for our internal newspaper."

"You may still yet be a student, but here you are, doing some legwork in your pursuit for a story. That certainly sounds 'journalistic' to me. And please, do feel free to record and transcribe this... Interview."

Issei affected a mild blush at the teasing tone and smile the mayor said this last word with, before setting up his phone to record, and taking up a notepad and pencil.

"Ahem... October XX, XXXX, Houssen Fuudou conducting an interview with the mayor of XXXXXX Town, Hidetaka Nobuya-san. Thank you so much for acceding to my request, mayor Nobuya."

"It is no problem, Houssen-san. The ability to aid a driven youth in the furthering of their objectives and of their professional career is something that us members of the previous generation should see as both a task, and a privilege." The man smirked lightly after that, his tone teasing as he spoke. "Plus, what sort of person doesn't want to know they helped launch the next big name within any field of business in the media?"

"You think too highly of me, Nobuya-san." Issei gave the mayor a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his pencil against his cheek, before clearing his throat and putting on a serious face. "But that is not the important matter at the moment."

Nobuya's friendly smile fell at that, a frown coming over his face and a somber tilt to his voice as he spoke.

"The illness, then."

"Indeed."

The old mayor sighed mournfully, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"It was a very sudden, and very surprising affair. One day everything is alright, and the town is working normally, and the next day everybody is panicking as people get rushed into intensive care, unconscious, with extensive bleeding and muscle spasms."

The sound of Issei's pencil scratching its way along the pad filled the air for a moment, before the mayor resumed his talk.

"It was very discomfiting. A new disease that has such terrifying symptoms suddenly strikes at the populace of a small town without the full resources to properly combat it... We were lucky a delegation from the Medical Association was nearby, as they provided us the support required to keep this problem under control."

"Is there anything else you think may be relevant to the situation, Nobuya-san? Any anomalous event, foreign elements, anything?"

"Well..." The man rubbed his chin for a moment. "The animals have been more active and aggressive as of late. For anyone that steps into the forest, especially at night, it became a norm to hear the sounds of them fighting. Anyone who isn't a certified hunter was barred from going to the forest at the time, and if the animals turn their focus towards our town, I will be forced to call on federal aid."

"Perfectly understandable. Now, please allow me to deviate a bit from the disease itself and ask about the town itself."

"The town?"

"Yes, sir. News cannot be reported as if the concerned events occurred in a vacuum. I need to collect some background information to give the content a sense of context."

"I see. Well... There's not much to the town's past. It was just the simple story of a group of people settling down here and making a living for themselves. There are no previous accounts of diseases, crisis, or anything like that. We don't even have any local legends, or anything of the sort."

Issei scribbled down on his notepad while nodding, before speaking.

"Thank you very much for your time, mayor."

"As said before, it is my pleasure, Houssen-san."

Issei tapped his chin with his pencil, his notes strewn around while his interview with the mayor played back on his phone.

'So a quaint little town with no notable traits, so out of the way that most people aren't even aware it exists, suddenly gets a bout of a weird illness. Said illness leaves people with severe, life-threatening symptoms, but doesn't kill even a single person. Only certain people get infected, others remaining healthy even after extended contact with them and their blood.

'All of this happens shortly after a construction company I can't even find searching on the internet moves into the town, and the inhabitants seem to be under some sort of compulsion to never associate said company to the disease, or to any negative events in general. The doctor got her short-term memories shuffled after she made a reference to the company in the same train of thought as the disease. The middle-aged man got angry at the sheer implication that the company might not have contributed to the town, even though he couldn't really talk about exactly how they contributed to it.

'The mayor doesn't even mention this company, and there are no records or reports of if ever setting operations up here. This is so freaking shady that it hurts.'

BEEP

He blinked as his phone gave a notification of having completed its automatic backup.

'Backup... Mhm, I guess I should do it as well.'

A few minutes of fiddling with his personal phone and all of his recordings were sent to his work phone.

Bzzzzt!

And not a minute too soon either, as his phone decided to suddenly glitch out, before shutting down altogether. Issei attempted to turn his phone back on unsuccessfully, prompting him to flip it over and pop the back cover off.

"What the..."

The smell of burnt plastic met Issei's nose at the same time as the sight of utterly ruined components, the plastic boards having melted into green sludge.

'First, the doctor's beeper shorted out. Then, I heard a few of the other customers complaining about appliances not working in their rooms. I tried turning the TV on as soon as I entered the room, but it didn't work, and now this... If I didn't already think that something fishy was going on, this would have convinced me.'

He tossed the burnt out thing away before leaning back in his seat.

'What should I do next? Going to the headquarters of this company would tip them off to the possibility of someone being onto them, so I'll try to keep that as a last resort. What else can I do, though?'

He bit down on the end of the pencil, before nodding to himself as a certain part of the mayor's interview came back to mind.

'He said that the animals were being excessively aggressive... I guess I'm checking the forest out as well, to see if there's any correlation.'

His plan made, Issei decided to act.

The noises coming from the forest were ones that spoke of aggression from and between animals, with growls and yowls joining grunts and snarls. Even the air in the forest itself felt heavy with anger and bloodlust.

He had already come across a few corpses, and the common trait between them was the fact that they seemed to be swollen, and had extensive amounts of bite and claw marks on them, all the way to the bone.

A particularly loud snarl had Issei crouching behind some shrubs and parting a slit between them.

"!"

The view that he was met with was that of a black bear and a wild boar facing one-another. Thick muscle throbbed under the fur and skin of the two to obscene degrees, pulsing veins being visible even at a distance. The bear's claws looked longer than expected, and particularly sharp and vicious, while the boar's tusks looked like exceptionally wicked curved daggers.

They snarled at one-another again, revealing row after row of wicked, yellow fangs.

Issei's eyes widened when the bear lunged at the boar, and the boar managed to juke out of the way, both at borderline supernatural speeds.

The bear slammed into a tree, cracking it in half, before easily shaking off the hit and turning back towards the boar, just in time to mitigate what would have been a stab from the tusks to the side into a graze on it's left forelimb.

It retaliated by clawing at the boar with its opposite limb, an attack which the boar avoided by the barest of margins, though at the cost of picking up a scratch of its own.

They started circling around one-another, continuous snarls and growls sounding out between the two of them, before the boar dashed forward, slamming head-first into the bear and knocking it up into the air, its sheer strength further surprising Issei.

The boar angled itself so that the bear would fall directly atop its tusks, but the bear surprised Issei again by clawing at the trees on its way down in order to change its landing angle and area.

The boar stomped hard on the ground with the intent to dash at the bear again only for the earth under one of its hooves to crumble, causing it to slip.

The bear didn't let this opportunity go.

It lunged at the surprised and unbalanced boar, simulating a frontal attack with its claws only to change at the last moment to an open-mouthed maul to the side, drawing pained squeals from the boar.

The boar turned in an attempt at defending itself and succeeded in jabbing one of its tusks into the side of the bear, but this only caused the bear's bite to tighten, before it ended the fight by ripping off the flesh it had bitten down on, leaving the hog downed and gurgling on its own blood.

" #*$%&!"

A feral roar left the bear's mouth, an announcement of its victory, and of its supremacy over the area, before it settled down to feast on the corpse of the loser.

'This is definitely abnormal behavior, though I can't tell how it relates to the disease... I guess I need to do more exploring.'

He stealthily moved away from that clearing, exploring the forest while avoiding the sounds of scuffles between animals as much as possible.

HMMMMMMM

An ominous hum attracted Issei's attention, leading him to shuffle through a thick undergrowth towards it.

"Wha-"

The source of the hum turned out to be a magical circle of some sort, a blue-ish glow emanating from it. Issei's fingers neared the circle, only for him to pull them back as an arc of energy sparked between them.

THWACK!

Two men stood over the downed form of the brunet young man, one of them wielding the wooden club that had just been used to knock him out.

Well, the remains of it, anyway.

"You hit him pretty hard with that thing for it to shatter like that. Do you think he's dead?"

The one with the broken wooden club jabbed at the youth's side, getting a groan from him.

"So he's still alive. Should we off him?"

"Nah," The other speaker shook his head. "Boss wants him alive, for whatever reason. That means you get to haul his ass back to headquarters."

"What? Why me!?"

"Because I said so, that's why. You gonna fight me about it?"

"...Fine! Asshole!"

The stick-holder picked up the downed youth over his shoulder, before the two of them walked off to headquarters.

"Wake up, bitch!"

A bucket of water caused the youth's eyes to snap wide open. A moment of confusion was visible on his face, before he noticed the fact that he was bound to a chair, his arms behind his back and in handcuffs, and his ankles tied to the chair legs.

"W-what the hell is going on? Where am I? Who are you?"

One of the two men, a bald man with a scar running from his head to his face, dark, cruel eyes and a split lip punched Issei hard, causing the chains the chair was wrapped in to rattle , while keeping Issei from falling over.

"Shit..." The man shook his fist, surprised at how jarring that hit was to his hand, and how the skin on his knuckles had gotten torn. "The boss was right, he's changed fast."

Issei's eyes were wide, his voice hysterical as he spoke.

"Affected? Boss? Changed? What the hell are you talking about!?"

"We, Mr. Houssen," Issei's eyes widened at that voice, his head snapping towards the source, only to end up meeting the sight of the mayor, clad in his impeccable suit and flanked by two men, their clothes being something akin to military fatigues, with odd, unfamiliar symbols on the breast of the uniform. "Are talking about the future of humanity."

The man stepped away from the two goons, walking up to Issei and fixed up his shirt for him, before turning towards the bald scarred man with a wrinkled nose.

"There was no need for you to assault Houssen-san in this manner, you brute."

"Shut up, you old fucke-"

"Boys, silence him."

The scarred man was down in the blink of an eye, one of the uniformed men standing in front of his downed form, his hand crackling with blue electricity.

The mayor smiled at the wide-eyed look on "Houssen's" face, before speaking up.

"Do you see this, Houssen-san? This is what it looks like when a human comes into their innate potential."

"What do you mean?" Issei cried out. "What happened? How did he suddenly show up there, and why is his hand sparking? What the hell is going on!?"

"Let me tell you a story, Houssen-san. There were once two groups of individuals, living in a shared space. One group was composed of humans, men and women born from other humans, who lived the lives of humans. The other group was composed of monsters.

"The monsters... They were stronger than the humans. Using this strength they hurt, attacked and tyrannized the humans, subjugating them to their will, and subjecting them to humiliation, pain, and loss. The humans could not fight back against the strength of the monsters, so rather than engage them, humans survived by running and hiding, all the while searching for ways to be able to fight back against them.

"And eventually, it happened. Humans started awakening to their true power, the inner potential they possessed, and it manifested in many forms. In some, it came in the form of a stronger body, in others, the ability to bend the very elements to their will. The end result was that humans gained the strength to fight back against monsters.

"The problem was the fact that the number of humans who awakened their potential was much too small, a non-factor in the grand scheme of things. Humans capable of fighting back were still sorely outmatched. This state of affairs was mitigated somewhat with the advancement of science, and the development of all sorts of powerful weapons, yet it was still not enough.

"So two groups of people who fight the good fight, whose goal is to ensure that humanity prevails, and utterly crushes the beasts, monsters and abominations, got together. They theorized somewhat, and ultimately decided that the best solution was to forcibly awaken the potential of others. They harnessed the knowledge they amassed in the form of magic, and created a spell that would allow this to occur.

"However... There was a downside to all of this. This spell that awakens the strength of those caught under it... It also results in those who are too weak, and too talentless, to fall ill. Their bodies are unable to resist the level of power that is being awakened within them, and they fall into a coma, their muscles trying to develop beyond their own limits, their bodies stressing their operating capabilities until they overheat, and their very hearts pumping their blood so so hard that it was constantly ejected from their body. However, this same attempt at awakening their potential ensured that they did not die.

"There are others, the averages, who become extremely tired under the effects of the spell, their bodies trying to generate power and working at their hardest to draw out their potential. These people would often take years to gain any sort of strength, and even then said strength would be unremarkable.

"But the strongest ones... They were able to operate under the power of the spell without any trouble, feeling no strain or stress. These people would ultimately awaken great power, and gain the ability to lead humanity into their freedom from the monsters!

"And you, Houssen-san, are one of these future leaders of humanity!

"Join our group, join The Order, and you can become a king amongst kings! Every dream and ambition you ever had, easily fulfilled!"

"Oi, wait a damned second!"

The downed goon pointed a finger towards the mayor and the trapped youth, his voice pained and gasping as he spoke.

"Th-that... Ain't... What's s'posed 'ta happen'... He ain't gonna be Order... He... Gon' be Humanitas and Order! Tha' was the dea-"

BANG! BANG!

A shot to the head ended the scarred man's life, while another did the same to his companion, who had been holding the remains of the wooden club he had hit the youth over the head with.

The mayor turned towards Issei at that, the friendly smile on his face contrasting the sheer level of fanaticism in his eyes, before he spoke.

"So, what will it be, Houssen-san? Will you be joining us in our crusade for the extermination of all beasts?"

"...Before I answer that, I'd like to know. What happens to the people in the town after this?"

"Those who are lucky enough to awaken their inner potential, they will be collected to be trained by our Order, to finally elevate us to the level of power we possessed once upon a time."

"And what about those who don't awaken it?"

"Those will be offered to Humanitas as material for their experimentation. Our local forces are all gathered here at headquarters right now, waiting for the order to go collect them."

"So... All of the people from the Order that got sent to the town are here, in this building, right now?"

"Indeed, so even if you somehow made it past me, there was no way for you to escape alive."

"...And how close are we to the town itself?"

"Far away enough that no noise you make will reach anyone else. So, Houssen-san, have you decided on whether or not you'll be joining our illustrious Order?"

"Yeah. Just... remove my cuffs, and I'll give you the answer."

"...Very well. It is not as if doing so will make a difference regardless."

The man snapped his fingers, prompting the two uniformed goons to free the chained youth.

"Can I have my phone back?"

"Might as well." The mayor spoke with a shrug, before tossing Issei's work-phone his way. "A side-effect of this spell we're under is that electronic objects have a tendency to short out around those who possess potential. Amongst all of those under its effect, you were the only one who shorted something as large as a tv, whereas most others only shorted small electronics. Your phone should be completely usele-"

BEEP

Nobuya's eyes widened as he watched the young man firing off a text with an air of casual relaxation, before sliding the smartphone into his pocket and cracking his neck.

"Ah, man, it was nice of you to give my phone back. You have no idea how annoying it would have been to replace."

"W-what? How can you not short out a mobile phone?"

"That phone is shielded from magic, duh."

"You knew of magic?"

"Yup! I've known about magic from before I first came around. I also knew that there were people stalking and keeping track of me from the moment I first left the hospital after talking to doctor Hazama, just as I knew that there was more to you than a friendly old man at a single glance, and that there were a pair of guys after me in the woods, just waiting for a chance to nab me."

"How...?"

Issei snickered at the man's flabbergasted face.

"You should see your face! The only other time today I felt this entertained was when I had to play possum for the guy that clubbed the back of my head."

"B-but you... The television..."

"The television shorted because of the interaction between your spell and my power. And now that you've done me the favor of giving me back my phone, explaining the whole situation to me and collect all of your operatives and have them together at this out-of-the-way place, I can finally take care of this annoyance you've turned out to be and go back home to my hot girlfriends."

"KILL HIM! DO IT NOW!"

The two soldiers reached into their holsters, drawing their firearms-

"Haha, No."

Only for a wave of power to pulse through their whole bodies for all of a second, all the hairs in their bodies standing up at once and the smell of Ozone filling their nostrils.

"Die."

A thick pillar of light came to existence in the center of the room, with the villainous occupants having all of a moment to inwardly curse at their lack of luck...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

-before they were unable to ever feel anything else.

A massive beam of light suddenly shot up to the heavens, turning night into day for the few seconds that it persisted. People from towns and cities within the region were all capable of seeing it, whereas only those of the closest town were capable of feeling the ground under them tremble and shake.

All the animals of the forest, regular and mutated alike, lied on their backs, their bellies and necks exposed to the air and their ears flattened against their heads, while whimpers left their throats. They had felt, even if for a single moment, an animal much more dangerous than all of them. In the face of such a being, none of them felt like trying to lay claim to any sort of territory.

The beam of light eventually died out, leaving behind only a brown-haired teen - with a single purple bang - staring at a pile of rubble stacked as tall as a single-story house.

'If the rubble is this tall, then the building had to have been pretty big. To have a big building like that erected in the middle of a forest, and no-one asking questions... Whoever it is we're dealing with has got resources... Well, I guess I'll figure that out later. Different tasks to accomplish right now.'

He reached into his pocket, ready to dial Susanoo's number...

RRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIING

Only for a call from Hageshi Katagi to show up on his screen. Shrugging, Issei tapped accept call before raising the phone to his face.

"Hey-"

"Issei, one of the people we've sent just called about a large pillar of light and shaking ground. Is there anything extreme occurring? Do you need support?"

"Nah, it's all dealt with. Just send some people to the forest, tell them to search for magical circles and disrupt them, and the town should go back to normal. Make sure that you copy down the formulae though, so that you can figure out a countermeasure for whenever these sorts of symptoms pop up again."

"...Alright, I'll work on it."

"Cool. I'll give you a full report on what happened later. Don't call me for a while unless it's an emergency."

"Understood."

BEEP

Issei sighed out loud after that, his eyes moving along the parts of the forest that were visibly destroyed by his attack, before he shrugged.

'Oh well. Nobody innocent died, so I can consider this a job well done. Now, all I have to do is get home, slip under the covers with my Aika, and make sure that her body hasn't forgotten me.'

He nodded to himself before walking off, all the while whistling a cheery tune.

-Humanitas HQ-

Knock Knock

"Come in."

Sakenomi Shindo, CEO of Humanum Services Incorporated - the conglomerate behind the Humanitas group - gave a few of the papers on his desk another look, not addressing the person that had just entered his office. He eventually put his papers aside, allowing his attention to turn towards his visitor.

Said visitor was a tall and stocky man, his black hair reaching his shoulders, a pair of shades on his face, and his body clad in a floral-patterned Aloha shirt, a pair of blue swimming trunks and flip flops, fully revealing his muscular physique.

"Yo, Shindo bro!" The man spoke cheerfully. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Madoromi Ikimono."

"Aww crud, you just used my full name. Why did you use my full name?"

Shindo didn't respond to him directly, instead sliding a sheaf of paper his way, which Madoromi took up to read.

"Costs of materials, transportation, construction, equipment, staff... Aww shit, this is about that."

"Indeed it is, Ikimono. I would like to know how in the fuck you wasted this much money with nothing to show for it!"

Ikimono started sweating despite being clad in tropical fare in autumn, shifting in his place like an overgrown child rather than the fully grown man he truly was.

"Well? I'm waiting for an explanation."

"Well, that is, you see... I had set up a joint op between us and the Order guys, a trust-building exercise type of deal, y'know? We should be able to snap up some extra research data and materials, while they get themselves some recruits to fill their thin ranks. If this came at the cost of one or two of our guys, well... Who cares?"

"That sounds... Reasonable enough, so far. Please continue."

"Well, you see, the thing is..."

"...Yes?"

"We sort of... Have no idea why things got like that."

"...What?"

"Look, all the info we've got is what everybody else has, and that is the fact that there was some sort of blinding light and shaking around that area. We managed to get a single agent to collect some info, and it seems that the whole tower got destroyed, so there should be no evidence of our involvement.

"Unfortunately, the government has already moved in and is investigating, so we can't really get involved with the area again for at least a good while, meaning we won't be getting the full data on what happened."

"So we wasted money, time and people, got involvement from the government, and we have nothing to show for it?"

"Hehe... Yes?"

Shindo pinched the bridge of his nose at that, letting out a weary sigh before he waved his hand.

"Just... Just go away, you massive headache. I have no idea how you managed to make it to department head."

"I don't really see why you're so worried anyways, Shin-chan."

"Okay, first things first, don't call me Shin-chan." "Alright, Shin-kun!" "...Hah... Second, need I remind you of how much we fucked up? How many resources were spent?"

"You're worried about money?" Ikimono waved a hand, his tone as dismissive as his motion as he spoke. "You know that the old bats are in this as deep as we all are, and the business by itself has been making some fat stacks. If anything is going to be an issue in all of this, it ain't gonna be money!"

"...People could have died, Ikimono."

"People die every day."

"You know what I mean! We... Our fight is against the monsters, the beasts that lurk in the dark. We fight to protect innocent people. If our actions hurt innocent people, then what the hell are we doing?"

"Stop being so naive, Shin-kun. We are fighting a war. And not only are we fighting a war, we are also losing. We've been losing for millennia now, and are only just managing to put up any sort of organized effort into trying to actually fight back, rather than simply struggling to survive! If the ability to fight them on even grounds comes at the cost of some innocent lives, then it is the price that we will be paying!"

"Get out."

"You are too idealistic, Shin-ku-"

"OUT!"

"Whoa, alright!" Ikimono raised his hands in surrender. "I get it, I'll leave, no need to shout at me!"

The muscular man walked all the way to the door with his hands raised, his face set in a parody of a child's scared face. He reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open, before stopping with his back turned towards Shindo.

"Remember, Shin-kun. We're all in this together."

Click.

Shindo glared at the closed door so hard that it was a surprise it did not catch into flames, before letting out a tired sigh as he leaned back into his seat.

'The cost of innocent lives, huh...'

He opened one of his desk drawers and withdrew a photograph, his gaze turning equal parts affectionate and regretful.

'Kayoko-chan's school is in the city closest to that town. Had the damage been bigger and more extensive, or if she had been at the wrong place, at the wrong time... I need to keep her safe.'

Nodding, Shindo stored the photograph back inside his desk before pulling some documents up on his laptop.

'I need to make sure that my baby girl is safe. This means taking her away from any area where our group is active.'

He leafed through pamphlets for all different sorts of schools, before pausing at one in particular.

'Saint Leona's All-Girls Academy...'

He rubbed his chin while pulling up some data from all sorts of websites, government and otherwise.

'Low crime rates, meaning that Yakuza action is either nonexistent, or so controlled that it might as well be, no reports of unexplainable and excessively abnormal crimes, and one of the lowest rates of mysterious disappearances in the whole country... This Kuoh town may just be the solution to my problems.'

Having made a decision, Shindo started working on the transfer paperwork, knowing that he could - and would - pull a few strings to get it through if needed.

No amount of effort was too much to ensure his baby girl's safety. That was an incontrovertible fact, and one that reigned supreme above all others.

-Chapter, End!-

A/N: Alright, I couldn't help it with the purple bang thing. I saw an opportunity, so I went for it. I'm not sorry. Also, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Bye bye!