[?] A Certain Masked Man

As that same green light burst through the wall of the branch, there was no doubt who was up there with Uiharu. Well, that's only considering if she was still there. He had come a bit late to the scene in context to the time that message was sent. That devilish women was an immense problem and probably more so in a tight space. It would require room to manoeuvrer to avoid such a deadly ability and attempting to block it with obstacles was pointless considering its destructive capability.

While his normal tactic was to rush in he decided to actually take it quietly this time. He had the benefit of being in this building numerous times so he roughly knew the layout. The judgment office was on the second floor of this five-story building and so he had to be wary about going up to that floor.

Either way he couldn’t just simply face that woman again with just his hands, rushing in with fists only will not get anywhere with someone with her powers. So he had thought for a moment as he realised the floor he was on, the first floor he knew there were some storage lockers for the equipment used by Judgement members depending on the requirement.

Taking it slowly he would make his way into the room, thanking his stars the doors hadn’t be locked and probably because not everyone had left the building. Though concerned opening the door would make too much noise, Taichi did so slowly before entering the equipment room.

Most equipment used by Judgement was designed to analyse crime scenes and in case of dangerous situations like riots to clear and control civilians.

Signal flares and Riot shields were probably the most useful items here.

He would grab two flares and holster for them while also picking up a riot shield. He really wasn’t sure what he could do with the shield, but he often would be the one to grab one in such situations and this was a habit. But he had an idea regarding the signal flares and was actually inspired by the masked man from the fight the other night.

Having got what he needed, Taichi would head back out the room to the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor. He couldn’t just go up just yet and made sure to place the shield down quietly. He wasn’t entirely sure about his next action and the loud and terrifying noise caused by that women’s power had reminded him what he was facing.

“Bloody violent and ugly.” Taichi had said who immediately covered his mouth with his hand after saying those words. He started to worry that out of frustration from the situation he said that too loudly.

It was clear that she wasn’t the only one upstairs, while he couldn’t make out what they were saying above there was obviously different voices. He was an idiot by many standards, but the attack dog wasn’t a complete fool. The only reason based on their last encounter that this violent women would be here was because of that message Uiharu had sent.

That means someone was here already to prompt Uiharu to send that message, the question would be who? He wouldn’t be entirely sure from his position, and decided the only way he was going to hear anything properly was too get closer. He would do just that as he slowly crawled up the stairs to take a peek above the top step.

Should he succeed in doing so without being notice, the boy who clearly was way over his head would equip one of the two signal flares.

He had not intention to reveal himself and only risked getting closer to scope out the situation. The lack of knowing what was going on had clearly been tormenting him from the inside.

He had a promise to keep and he was determined to keep it.

The question being; ‘how would he do it?’

A door lightly creaked as a breach was made between the metal frame and the door.

It was far too small for anyone to notice were they not to pay attention to the metallic noise, but from it peeked an amber-coloured eye that was attentively surveying the corridor.

Though she was in the other floor’s office on the other side of the hallway, it was quite visibly and audibly apparent to Natsumi that the events of the previous night were re-enacting themselves. And, for better or worse, the entire damn cast was here with a flower-headed girl that appeared similar; though Natsumi wouldn’t be able to make out the full details given the small window of view she had.

Now, she had been tasked to either retrieve that which the masked assailant was after or take care of him directly... well, ideally, both. But needless to say, she felt less than enthusiastic about the latter prospect, and so, she had spent a couple minutes pondering her options. And though she was at a loss on how to proceed, new footsteps could be heard approaching from the entrance near Natsumi’s hiding spot. Cautious footsteps, but each step closer made it clearer for Natsumi: it was the boy who had followed her the whole bloody night and day.

She almost cursed out that he’d managed to follow her despite her precautions, but then an idea came to mind. Mayhap it was a blessing in disguise; this could be, in fact, the perfect opportunity to grasp her primary objective.

(OOC: Cheers for your permission to control things a little, Yawkkun~!)

The door carefully creaked some more, and from it emerged Natsumi in her hoodle, slowly creeping onto a non-expecting Koyoko like some kind of stalker.

“Mhh….? Gyah?!!” He screeched out at the sight of the hooded figure suddenly springing on him and firmly grasping him by the arm. “The hell you– Oi, don’t you dare…!”

The poor boy, with an abnormal ability to survive even the most dangerous of situations, had been now used as distraction bait as he found himself flung onto the laser-beaming woman while Natsumi slipped between the two of them to seize Uiharu’s arm and pull her away from the masked man.

"Tch..Where is she..?"

The grey haired boy had followed the young pyromaniac, and while keeping watch at the entrance originally, the commotion coming from inside gave extremely bad vibes. And considering he himself had not seen anyone leave or enter quite yet, he can only assume she is still inside, most likely dying. Then again the fact that the building wasn't burning down was a good sign. Within the abandoned the abandoned hallways, there was absolute silence, Koyoko not using his air displacement sense quite yet until he's closer to the noise.

"Why the judgement offices though...This can't be about the package right..? That kind of shady crap wouldn't be here unless..and officer confiscated it I suppose...but with that laser bitch around...? Unlikely.."

The foolish boy was getting closer and closer to the commotion, the sound of a struggle, nearing a set of doors that might lead him to it. He didn't need to even peek himself, as he could just use his ability to see inside.

And yet...


“Mhh….? Gyah?!!”

Luck was most certainly not on his side.

"The hell you– Oi, don’t you dare…!”

Koyoko beloved, fair, and considerate ally, had immediately thrown him to the wolves, the young man crashing against a certain brunette and hitting the hard floor with him practically laying on top of her currently, face to face with death. This current situation could only get worse if this was a romcom.

"...I'm fucking DEAD!!!"

Was the only thing the boy could say, before immediately getting up and launching himself away with a pressurized air blast, crashing into the door Natsumi ran through, hitting a nearby wall, and blasting once more down the hall to quickly get away before the beam beam girl could instantly vaporize him.

"YOU DID IT AGAIN?! WHY?! DO I LOOK LIKE A PUNCHING BAG TO YOU....DONT ANSWER THAT!!"

«He…he is after me! Use me as yo-your ba-bait!»

The girl gave a bold cry of defiance. What followed was long, dreadful silence as she waited for the knife-wielding phantom to emerge from the shadows. He was fast. She might not see him coming. She could only hope that her 'saviour' would.

The commotion erupted suddenly.

A familiar voice from the stairwell acted like a starter pistol.

A second voice, crying out in dismay moments before a body was propelled through a door and into Kazari's saviour.

A hand grasping her arm, yanking her away from the gaping hole in the wall. Dragging her off to God knows where.

How many people were after her? What had she gotten herself into? Overcoming her initial surprise, the small girl with flowers in her hair dug in her heels and pulled away, twisting her arm so hard she thought it might break. Her newfound courage would not be so easily conquered. She would resist with all her might.

It had taken only an instant, but in that brief window of time those assembled had lost sight of the ghostly spectre of the Masked Man. And now every corner. Every shadow concealed the threat of death. And without knowing his ability there was no way of predicting from where he might strike, or in what manner.

A moment passed and the fire suppression systems activated throughout the building with a high, insistent whine and a fine spray of water. The acrid fumes of melted concrete and plastic and all sorts of assorted matter that had been in the path of Mugino's beams had apparently triggered the alarms.

It could have gone so perfectly well for that boy plagued by insane luck, but destiny – just as usual – was a bitch.

Therefore when he was sent stumbling towards the harbinger of destruction in hopes of knocking her over, the ideal path for survival that should have opened in his imagination would be shut immediately, as her already on edge perception immediately shifted towards him.

«Tch!»

With the speed and precision of a pure professional that woman immediately reacted to the incoming obstruction, swiping his legs away with a swift kick of her own before following it up with that slender other leg of hers transformed into a vicious hammer meant to pummel down upon his back to deliver him to the cold and dirty floor where it would make sure to pin him down almost definitely.

However, while she would make sure for annoyance B to be neutralized the true intention of the attack had escaped her entirely. An obstruction was an obstruction after all. And it had served its purpose entirely well had someone else emerged from the shadows, removing the girl that had all too kindly offered herself as a bait from plain sight and into the shadows.

And to make matters even worse water would start spraying from the ceiling showering the entire space, followed by the all too awful sound of loud blaring sirens.

Picking up on noise as faint as that enemy’s movements was no longer possible. Nor would picking up on any other acoustic trace be.

She sighed.

Someone had snatched the bait and with it most certainly the best hint at fulfilling the mission. They were hiding somewhere in the darkness. Much like that mask wearing freak who had yet to unleash his fury. There had been an entirely useless idiot that had hopefully been neutralized just now. And the loud alert would not go unnoticed for sure.

A many-sided stalemate framed by annoyingly pressing circumstances and a lot of unknowns.

Who were the enemies? How many factions had been present? What were their objectives?

«Fine. I’ll let you rats slip away. As long as I get my kill on Mr. Sneaky-Mask. Deal?»

There weren’t many choices to make, but sometimes the sour apple was still more appreciated than starving to death.

The falling water formed a fine mist, a halo of droplets bouncing off the skin of the two girls struggling beneath the sprinklers. Uiharu was still putting up a valiant fight with the unknown person pulling insistently at her arm. The thin film of water that pooled at their feet went unnoticed.

That had been a mistake.

A gloved hand pressed against the floor of the office in some unseen corner. Sparks of blueish electricity jumped and scattered across the gathered water as the power of a stungun erupted with a loud snap! Uiharu's body seized, not in terror this time, but in the very real, very painful sensation of white hot bolts of lightning traveling through her muscles. The shock was mild enough that she recovered almost immediately. But in that short window of time a pitch black shadow had streaked across the edge of her vision and torn the precious device from her grip.

The Masked Man tumbled through the open hole of the office wall, twisting through the air to narrowly escape the beam of Mugino's Meltdowner.

Just like that, the assassin had escaped. Against all hope, no one had lost their lives that night. Perhaps this had been the best outcome they could have hoped for.

***

"Data retrieved."

"And with no casualties. I can't tell whether I should be impressed or disappointed in that performance."

The white-masked figure did not reply, and after a moment the voice in his ear continued as if to fill the uncomfortable silence.

"I'll get a team working on decoding it ASAP. With luck we can retrieve a secondary sample to make up for the one that girl took. Let's see where this leads us."

***

Arisawa Science and Research headquarters 00:10

"Anything to report?" The stern voice of Board member Itsuno Kamiya crackled through the radio of the armored troopers assembled throughout the building. The plain-looking man leaned forward in his chair to carefully examine the bay of monitors in front of him and steepled his fingers thoughtfully.

"Nothing yet, sir." One of the men replied in a terse, professional tone, his voice muffled by the black visor of his bulletproof helmet. Glancing around at the other guards, he signaled the next in line with a quick hand gesture. The other man relayed the silent message to the next, and then the next, the order passing rapidly through the pitch-black lobby of the high rise building. All power had been cut to the building save for the penthouse where Itsuno sat waiting. They hoped this would impede the expected intruder and provide them with the advantage in a confrontation. State of the art night vision ensured they could see where he could not and their positions allowed them to cover every blindspot across the open ground floor. Cutting edge weaponry would make short work of anyone in their sights. Other units patrolling the floors above would regularly give updates. In short, they had the entire building locked down.

Itsuno lowered his hands and leaned back in his seat.

"Board of Directors member, Itsuno Kamiya. Did you think these measures would be enough to protect you from the judgment of the Chairman?" The cold, hollow-sounding voice came from just over his shoulder. Itsuno wheeled, the holdout pistol in his hand leading the way and recoiling with a snapshot at the space behind him.

It was the final act of a condemned man. The grimly smiling white mask peered impassively at him from across the penthouse. He felt a cold, sharp sting in his chest as the thrown blade pierced his breastbone and bisected his heart. And as his vision grew rapidly dark, he heard the voice of his killer.

"Your death will not be in vain. It will serve as a warning to the others."

The guards' response time was almost supernaturally fast. Within 5 seconds of hearing the gunshot they were at the door. Another 2 and they burst into the room. They were greeted by a corpse and nothing more.

"VIP down. The target has entered the building." The guard at the head of the pack gave the alert.

Several hundred meters below, in an underground section of Arisawa Science and Research's building that was not shown on any official plans, another unit of heavily armed troops gathered up outside a room with only one entrance. They leveled their weapons at the door of elevator and waited.

A moment later and the ceiling burst open onto them. The thick, choking cloud of dust that followed filled the room as a chunk of debris took down the first soldier.

The second saw only the black hand that clasped over his visor.

A third fired at the flash of movement seen between the plumes of dust that obscured his high tech sensors. The machine pistol fell from his hands as his arms were broken at the elbow and his throat was crushed by a savage blow.

The fourth guard eschewed his firearm, pulling free the blade at his shoulder and slashed at the air in front of him. The blade turned back, guided by something unseen back into his own gut.

That final guard felt a wire loop around his neck the instant before a fatal surge of electricity ended his life.

That black clad figure stepped over the fallen men towards the single door at the back of the room.

Inside the room beyond a single woman looked up from the complex-looking machinery in front of her. The cool gaze of her steely grey eyes peered into the empty black holes of the white mask.

"Professor. You're coming with me. Do not resist." The Masked Man stated emphatically as he extended a gloved hand towards the brunette woman in a labcoat. She nodded silently, her pokerfaced expression betraying neither fear nor relief.

***

"Primary target eliminated. Secondary target secured. Secondary sample acquired. With this, the mission has been accomplished." The Masked Man spoke robotically with no hint of emotion.

"Understood." The voice in his ear responded. "Chairman Aleister should be pleased. Itsuno was a loose cannon. Hopefully his replacement will have better judgment." They chuckled dryly. "Stand by and await further orders."