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Miyama city was a fairly expansive area, a largely residential district in contrast with the more commercial focused Shinto city, which both made up Fuyuki as a whole. Between the two, Miyama had been here longer, and unlike the more organized sections that made up Shinto, had a more free form organization than one would imagine such a major area to be. For the purposes of simplification, these areas could be boiled down to a handful of key locations.

The first was the residential area, divided into two notable sections differentiated largely by the relative age of the structures itself. There were houses in this district that were hundreds of years old and as such reflected the ethos of the time, being more traditionally akinese in design with sliding doorways, tatami mats and the like. The roads were less orderly in nature here, a direct legacy of a time when centralized city planning wasn't quite in vogue, and so the city planning committee having had to account for the more free form placement of the houses. As such, navigating the area was considerably more difficult than in other parts of the city and while still maintained as well as could be expected paled in comparison to the more modern districts. Here the difficulty in travel was far less pronounced, as that same city planning committee had evidently sought to compensate for the ghastly chaos of the olden times by designing all new houses along much more orderly placements. Of course, 'new' in this case could easily date back to more than a century ago, but for the most part the design in this place was significantly more western influenced.

Grouped around this area would be Homurahara Academy, a local high school from which the Miyama town youth were constantly funneled towards. Hundreds of students passed through the aforementioned residential areas on a daily basis, orientating themselves through both the labyrinthine maze of the older district and the orderly roads of the newer with all the familiarity of those that had lived there their entire lives.

Mount Miyama, though less of a mountain and more of a hill or a particularly sharp incline, was the shopping district set right in the middle of the residential areas and the school. A portion of the Miyama town residence operated here for their livelihood, but a significantly larger percentage commuted past this into the Shinto district across the river. Those that remained here were mostly self employed entrepreneurs, either fresh graduates attempting to start something new or old timers that had been at it for decades.

All told, the population of Miyama city was, by more recent estimates, tallied easily into the thousands. Now to be fair, the instructions and location given had specified Miyama town in particular, which referred to the residential area of the city. Unfortunately, what with this area positioned near the center of the entire city, it meant a significant degree of foot traffic not just from the high school but from the neighboring city as well. This of course did not include travelers passing through the town in transit to somewhere else.

These collected facts were, among other things, significant factors contributing to Lieutenant Isabel Laverne near tearing out her hair in frustration.

"She can't possibly be serious right?" she muttered aloud, her voice the exasperated wail of overworked peons the world over. "There's like, hundreds of people to observe, dozens of streets to bug and tape, we can't feasibly do all that with the entire company, never mind half a dozen people! Then to do it all tonight? Is she insane?"

The modulated voice of Sweeper Two called back to her, an amused tilt in Morrison's voice audible through the intimidating electronic haze. "Maybe. Do you wanna tell her that though? Actually, do tell her; I got a bet going with Lanza on who's gonna piss her off first."

Isabel scoffed. "Thought Laurent did that all by his lonesome?"

"Yeah but not really. He and his team irritated her, that's not pissing her off, entirely different definition. Besides, I'm pretty sure if Laurent really pissed her off we'd be fishing his body out the river by now."

"So what you're saying is you wanna bet on the first person her Majesty is gonna rend to bits, is that it?"

"...I can neither confirm nor deny the validity of your statement."

Isabel sighed, choosing to ignore her second in command. Typically that was the wiser option, what with the american's penchant for cracking jokes, but occasionally she did have some nuggets of wisdom to impart. Yes it was vanishingly rare, like a unicorn in the wild, but then what was her current situation if not that?

It wasn't normal to be up in the middle of the night installing a camera onto an electrical post overlooking a freeway. It wasn't normal to have been mobilized on a mission to spy on some girl only to abandon the mission minutes after contact was made. It certainly wasn't normal to get one's ass beaten halfway to Samar by an OZEV Black Ops operative cosplaying as her patron saint, but here they were, living in such a ridiculous reality.

Then again, it's not like Miss Sioux was unpleasant to work with per se. Her work was certainly more challenging than whatever Mister Galliasta had arranged for them, not that this was particularly difficult. Serving as bodyguards to his favorite little plaything of the week wasn't exactly the kind of thing you'd shill out top dime for, but the man had paid them a prince's ransom faithfully and well so she wasn't gonna complain about it. When Isabel had heard that Galliasta's latest new favorite was coming down to speak with them she didn't have a lot of faith on seeing anything worthwhile. Probably a spoiled little princess that had wanted to play at tin soldier for the afternoon, maybe go laugh and flirt with a few of the burlier men then fuck off to whatever it was they did when not 'servicing' Galliasta.

That….really wasn't how things turned out.

Isabel stood, gently stepping off the electrical post where a small, nondescript, camera would observe the foot traffic. They'd prioritized working on the streets that would lead the occupants of Miyama town to either the school, the shopping center or further out into the Shinto district via the bridge. They had no choice really, it's not like this could all be done in the middle of the night, and while she would have liked to have Rodriguez or Fang that just wasn't possible with them on standby. Isabel had no idea what they'd have to be on standby, but she could only imagine shit was going down somewhere in the city and that Sioux needed someone to bail her out.

She scoffed at that. Yeah right Isabel, Marietta Sioux needing help, in your dreams Isabel. Maybe she'd need help burying the bodies, in between lecturing the company on their lackluster combat doctrine and questioning whether they'd been taught to shoot by a blind rat or a drunk monkey. The worst part was that Isabel couldn't even say that Sioux was wrong, the Degurechaff lookalike had flown circles around them all with such totality that Rodriguez was starting to keep a shrine to the girl in his locker. Either that or develop an unhealthy crush, she wasn't even sure there was a difference at this point.

Isabel didn't like to think of herself as inclined towards the conspiracy whack job demographic of the world. Articles on Germania's biotech companies working on constructing some clone of their deceased Chancellor? Laugh it off and joke about how that country still hasn't gotten over the loss over their Kaiserin. The members of the 203rd and their family disappearing from the public eye for some kind of plot against Albion and the rest of the world? Scoff and say that it's not like they've had any real rest over the past decades, it'd only be natural to want some peace and quiet from the media and all that. Albion once again making some play at reducing Germania's influence via the direction of some underground council of mages?

Okay that one made sense. Perfidious Albion and all that.

So really, she tried not to think too many crazy thoughts about Sioux. Never mind that she spoke with a faint Germanian accent, looked like some kind of Degurechaff clone or that their employer was from Albion. Isabel had worked in the business long enough to know that unnecessary questions were often more trouble than they're worth, and anything relating to the Devil of the Rhine was just so far out of her pay grade it was in low earth orbit.

The mercenary allowed a trickle of her will to flow into her device, her feet departing from the ground in a soft burst of cerulean energy as she took stock of her immediate surroundings. Eyes scanned the immediate surroundings, the residential area quiet and peaceful, as her suit's much ignored thermal regulatory system kicked in. It was rarely necessary, but what with the gear being former Germanian stuff all of their hardware was suited to operating in colder climates. Not that a light bit of snow counted anyway near that, but she'd take what she could get.

"Okay ladies and gents, status?"

"Sweeper Two. Did what I could in the shopping district, oh have you tried any Akinese yet? There's like a bunch here-."

"Sweeper Three. School's clear, bugged and wired all the way to the foundations."

"Sweeper Four. Bridge and associated streets still in progress. Will update in ten."

"Sweeper Five. Ditto. Bridge harder than expected, lots of security. Might need another approach."

"Sweeper Six. Residential areas still in progress. Won't be finished in time."

Isabel sighed, around about what could be expected really. It wasn't that the scope of the problem was completely hopeless, if anything positive could be said of Galliasta's funding it meant that logistically speaking anything the Tresillo needed they had, and anything they didn't have could be gathered in short order. It was a pleasant state of affairs actually, compared to the usual employer that would do the absolute minimum effort necessary, it was downright heavenly. Didn't help in actually doing the legwork to carry it all out though.

"Acknowledged, Six. I'll give you a hand."

"Copy."

The magical energy surrounding Isabel spiked, her body thrusting forward, not nearly to the point she'd wake up every magical sensor in the country, but definitely more than a full unaugmented sprint. The view before her turned into a pale haze. Rooftops and roads slowly being buried in a soft layer of snow, the vaporizing impact of snowflakes against her shield as she made her way to Six. It was an energizing burst of power, and not for the first time she marveled at what Sioux had done to her gear.

Her suit and computation device were long outdated at this point, but even that wasn't necessarily a bad thing as far as mage tech if it was Germanian gear, such was their dominance in the field. Each suit and device the Tresillo had acquired were specifically specialized into certain roles, and so they'd organized each squad to fulfill those roles. That was why Rodriguez had access to the more offensive oriented tech baked into the system, as well as why Fang had some kind of fancy tech that prioritized stealth casting and also why her squad basically had all the people who could carry out stealth casting to any acceptable degree.

She wasn't exactly sure what Sioux's augmentations had done to their gear, but she could certainly fucking feel the difference in her's. It was more than just a basic diagnostic spell whatever the fuck she said it would be, but it felt rejuvenated. The familiar creaks and peculiarities of a well used machine replaced with the pristine, if dull, performance of a brand new system. At least she thought it was, she certainly never had the experience of testing pristine OZEV gear, but she imagined it was brand new anyway. The device was more responsive, the energy consumption trimmed down, the energy production expanded upon, even her sensors were sharper than, if that bleeping sound was any indicati-

She blinked at that, instinct forcing her to take a hard swing to the left as something passed through her sight and her interface started whispering incessantly at her. The mercenary ignored it, her flight path leading to a sort of uncontrolled landing on the tarmac, her feet skidding on the road as she swung her head wildly in search of-

"Hey, didn't you read the signs? This is a non-speeding area."

Isabel's eyes widened, a sliver of crimson energy, blindingly fast, and the smeared shadow of something before her body was cast aside in a burst of azure energy. Her computation device hummed violently as a sheen of cerulean energy flashed madly in the conflagration for a moment before shattering in a thousand bright shards. The chill of the night air disappeared in a burst of crimson heat as the world spun around her, the device screeching in fury before abruptly turning silent as she crashed upon the concrete of a nearby wall with a terrible roar.

Her interface was practically screaming at her now, target diagnostics tracing a red shadow at the corner of her vision even as it yammered at her about a catastrophic power outage. Her device was in even worse shape, undergoing a thermal purge as whatever had hit her had overloaded its system so as to force the reset protocols. Isabel eyes struggled to keep the shadow in view, though what with her interface yammering on about contusions and possible bone fractures she knew that she wasn't exactly in the best place to do anything to her attacker. The impact had taken the breath out of her lungs, and every attempt to take in another was met with damn near debilitating pain. Cracked ribs maybe, or perhaps her heart had already been crushed in the attack and her body didn't know she was dead.

A shuddering, painful, breath proved the idea false and Isabel would have chuckled if she could. Never the easy way out, huh?

"Huh, that's a surprise." a masculine voice called out, tone somehow curious and dismissive at the same time. "I thought for sure you were a Servant, what with you running about like that. You certainly felt like it too, though now that I can see you properly it seems I'm mistaken."

Well that certainly made her feel better, that she was about to die as a result of an accident. If she had to die, she would have liked to die comfortable and fat in her own bed, not from some kind of dumb mistake like speeding in a residential area. Still, Isabel was nothing if not petty, and she struggled to point her gaze in the direction of her killer before suddenly feeling her breath stolen from her once more.

It wasn't a shadow apparently, but a man. A rather attractive man, with bronze skin, pale white hair, a red coat and what looked like some kind of black armor that had no business being that distracting to look at. He was a few feet away from her now, studying her with an analytical gaze, and in her half conscious state Isabel recognized that she should probably hold some form of animosity towards the guy. After all, if she could take his words at face value, he was the one who'd put her in this state. Then again, what with him recognizing his 'mistake' maybe she wouldn't actually die here?

Yes, the delusions of the mildly concussed though that may be, she had to hold on to some kind of positivity here right? Turning into a ball and bemoaning life's inherent unfairness would be helpful to exactly no one at the moment, least of all her. She tried to speak into her mic again, a vain hope of trying to contact her squad, but her attempts at speech still had more in common with a retching cat than actual human conversation and so she abandoned that soon enough.

The man stepped in closer, his arms to the side, hands completely empty of weaponry though Isabel had no illusions about his lethality. If it had been even a week ago she'd have had major doubts about someone taking down a mage without a weapon, but what with Sioux's 'examination' she'd believe damn near anything at this point.

"Hey, looks like you're still alive?" he commented easily. "I'm surprised honestly, though I'm glad you're not dead. My cute little Master's going to kill me if I just went out and made a bother of myself on someone uninvolved in this entire mess."

He paused for a moment, his gaze to the side, his face as though in deep thought before chuckling. "Well that settles it then, my Master would rather not you die as a result of her…'idiot Servant's mistake'. She'll be coming over now so just sit tight, by the time she's done you won't remember a thing."

Isabel supposed that should have made her feel better, though as to how she won't remember a thing was quite worrying. It could be a euphemism for properly silencing her, and though the man seemed somewhat insufferable he didn't seem particularly smug about it. That and what with Sioux's display of hitherto unheard of magic, this guy's 'master' possessing some ability to wipe out memories seems disturbing likely.

"H-help." she muttered into her mic. "Viscon on hostile."

There was only a brief moment of silence before she heard Morrison's voice, devoid of her usual humor. "Gotcha, on our way. Three, you're with me. Four, Five, I want you on approach now. Six, get on the horn and get-"

Whatever else it was that Morrison was going to say, she lost it as the man grabbed her by her suit, dragging her onto the street with overwhelming strength and disturbing ease. He dropped her on the floor and Isabel found herself with a particularly grand view of the night sky, a full moon peaking out of the clouds as the man stood over her.

"Then again." he commented, his voice somehow turning even more curious than before. "I'm not entirely certain you are uninvolved, are you? I mean, odds are good some other Servant used you as a patsy, if their magic signature is all over you, but if that's the case they would have moved by now shouldn't they? Or are they waiting on my Master to arrive, and that's when you people will strike?"

Isabel would have dearly liked to speak, perhaps questioning him on what the hell a Servant is, or maybe that if he was some kind of combat specialist wear less eye catching armor and also maybe if he'd like to go out to get some dinner sometime? None of it seemed to fit particularly well with the environment though, and if she was so desperate to flirt on the first guy to hit her then her future wasn't looking particularly bright in the first place. So she said the only thing that did make sense at the moment.

"Screw you." she groaned, the audio distortion masking the pain in her voice. Even that additional exertion strained her recovering body, but Isabel didn't care, it was totally worth it. The man chuckled.

"Well, fair enough." he shrugged, his hand reaching out.

She wasn't sure what he was going to do, but what with unknown magical capabilities behind him she sure as hell wasn't gonna let him touch her. Her eyes glance to her indicator, noting that the computation device had nearly completed its reboot. The indicator helpfully informed her that while her rifle was about five meters away from her, she still had her sidearm and knife firmly attached to her belt.

Isabel's hand reached out for her knife. She didn't need to kill him, though she doubted that could even be done at this point. At best, she could probably take off a few fingers, use the shock of that to do something. Maybe if she was lucky she could even reach her gun, though she doubted she could manage that. Then again, what else was she gonna do, wait for someone to save her?

"Hey! Hey! What's going on over there?"

The sudden interruption brought both the Servant and the mercenary pause. There, at the end of the street was a red headed kid, a black trash bag in his hand and a look of what could best be described as righteous indignation. Despite the obvious danger of the situation the kid seemed hyper focused on the sight of them, dropping his bag and running towards her. He stalled slightly at the sight of her gun, and then even more at the huge depression in the wall that her impact had made. Somehow, the sight of both failed to make any lasting impact and he ran even faster towards her.

Was he an idiot? Did this kid want to die? Somehow the sight of the kid confused the man in red even more, his eyes turning hard as the boy ran. Isabel could see the man clench his fist, a confused look on his face, and the mercenary figured that if she was ever gonna move, now would be the best time to do it.

Her computation device whirred into life, a surge of magical power enveloping her as the strange cerulean energy that Sioux had imparted to her flared into life. Impossibly, the man in red seemed to notice it a split second before it even manifested, his gaze aimed back at the ground as though he'd never been distracted in the first place. But Isabel was no longer there, the mercenary spinning to her feet as her device buoyed her flight, her arm augmented with power as she sent a magically charged knife straight at his chest. At this distance and the sheer speed of her throw, the man would be lucky to only be impaled into the wall

He dodged it.

Not allowing that to sway her thoughts, definitely not allowing that bullshit to sway her thoughts, her device buzzed into action. Magical energy flowed into her body, accelerating her straight to her fallen gun as she unholstered her pistol and opened fire on the man. With the sheer speed of her movement, and the sudden burst of fire from her sidearm, he'd only have a split second to react and even he'd have to-

He dodged it, the bullets exploding onto the wall nearby as the man in red watched on with a bemused expression. Somewhere along the way, blades the size of butcher knives had found their way into his hands, and she didn't like the way he held them so comfortably.

She swore, dropping the useless sidearm onto the ground and performing a move that could best be described as an aerial handstand. Isabel picked up her rifle, her spin ending with her feet impacting a nearby wall as she allowed her knees to crumble, the mercenary crouching against the structure in defiance to the law of gravity. At the corner of her vision, she saw the red headed boy stare at her like a gormless idiot, and Isabel did her best to ignore the boy as she set her sights on the man in red and opened up a rain of magically enhanced rounds.

If nothing else, he didn't dodge this time. Instead he somehow blocked her bullets with the damn things in his hand. His arms moved fast, insanely, supernaturally, fast and even as her eyes widened in terror and her rounds exploded unto shrapnel against his blades he continued to stand there, the magically enhanced firepower doing very little to sway him from his stance. By the time the magazine had run empty, all Isabel had to show for her efforts was the man staring down at his weapons, a few cracks along the surface of the two blades and the smell of gunpowder in the air all the proof that she'd even opened fire on him.

"Huh." he said, before turning back to her, renewed interest in his eyes. "Not bad."

That was all the excuse she needed. With a burst of energy, she flexed her legs, turning around and tackling the red headed idiot that was still somehow standing here and taking him with her as she sped through the street. She quickly turned the corner from which he came, her hand grabbing onto the nearby electrical pole and using the momentum of her approach to swing them around it quickly. Isabel urged her device on, moving as fast as she could in the claustrophobic, narrow, streets while still able to maintain some level of control to her bursts. She knew better than to take to the air, he'd somehow shot her down once before, and she wasn't about to take the risk of him repeating it with a passenger in her arms. As such the only option she had now was to run through the streets, hopefully try not to get anyone killed, and hope her squad could somehow bail her out before the hunk in red could kill her.

"H-hey, what are you doing!" the boy yelped out, eyes widening in fear, his hands tight on her arms. Isabel cursed, and keep the boy alive. That too.

"Saving your life idiot." Came Isabel's reply, her sensor blinking wildly as she noted the man in red following her. Not completely out of sight as a result of her speed, not falling behind but following her. What the hell was wrong with him? "If I leave you there he's gonna fucking kill you, so sit tight and maybe we won't die in the next few seconds yeah?"

Her sensor screamed as soon as she finished, and a nearby chunk of the street exploded inches away from where she'd been. Isabel swore, shifting her flight directly to her left. Her device once again contemptuously throwing the rules of gravity and momentum back at reality's face, and her speed and momentum carried through with her, the gate exploding inwards in her wake. Isabel did it again, bursting through the doors of a traditional Akinese home as the boy squawked in visible protest. She ignored him.

If she spoke to him, they were going to die. If she spared a moment of her attention on him, they were going to die. It was all she could do to think-

Her sensors began blinking, and while she couldn't tell what the hell it was trying to warn her about, she trusted its judgement. She turned her momentum slightly, resulting into a sort of baseball slide just as a black and white blur filled the air above her. Isabel's momentum halted for a second as her foot touched the wall, both her and the boy in her arms staring at the two blades embedded into the wall.

Nope, nope. Not thinking about how bullshit that is, not thinking about how cool that is. No thinking, just running.