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"Holy sh-..." Shiori's eyes widened at the woman, before quickly diving, more or less, into the portal.
She didn't want to lose all her hair like Kaguyo had (more or less) after all.

Aoki wasn't there; once he discovered neither any clones of Kazuhiko, or any trace of his mother, he had quickly returned to Konton.
"Po-ar's still a wildcard, but we can manage to control him through his son and w-....well, we did make sure there wasn't a wedding, but might as well be wife. I think they're both on Earth; at the very least, they aren't here." he crossed his arms, watching the demon-king closely.
But of course, he brought Aoikage.
"They set the Palace on fire. They're going to move to the summer home---most likely the beach house, between Aled's new interest and the fact he said 'summer home'. The forests are more for autumn..."
He paced a bit. "Po-ar is very difficult to catch. He teleports like Kazuhiko. I'm not sure how or when we could get a cuff on him again, perhaps while he's asleep. I'd rather drug him."

Yuki quickly rushed over to the women, quickly checking the both of them over. "Not good..." she whispered, "Yare yare, not good... Hapushi-chan, you need a great deal of rest. I'm surprised you haven't gotten a concussion... Kaguyo-chan needs to rest also..."
"I can't move anything." the woman's voice cracked, her fear evident, "I, I can't move..."
Yuki went grim. "Ah s**t... Can you feel this??" she tapped on her arms, hands, shoulders...
She even went so far as to poke her tit, knowing she would've flipped out to all hell and back.
"Feel what?!" Kaguyo demanded, starting to panic, "I can't, I can't move, I can't feel anything...!"
"Either a broken neck or nerve damage." Yuki bit her lip. "All the fights you've been in, this had to happen eventually, Kaguyo-chan. I'll keep an eye on her... Don't worry, Kaguyo-chan. You're going to be alright..."

Aoki nodded with a small smile. "The Palace will need a bit of renovating however. It IS burning as we speak after all.. Can you lend some people to do the grunt-work?"

Garren narrowed his eyes, carefully wiping the bloodied spit from his cheek.
He responded by starting to rub salt into his wounds---salt and lemon juice, to be exact.
"Come on now.... Call him, and we'll be easy on you and Eara. You don't call him... well, we'll have to start pulling out the secret weapons."
Although Fir didn't know it, they still had Eara's cellphone.
"What's your choice, Rat King?"

"LET ME GO!!!" Eara kept screamining, thrashing until she was temporarily tired.
She was out of breath; it seemed like he only squeezed her tighter the harder she struggled. "I'm not saying a damn word about Kazuhiko!! Forget about it! I won't! I don't even know where he is!"

Garren just raised his eyebrows, glancing to Melor. "What do you think, dear friend? Do we keep trying to break him with more and more pain, or simply go for the coup-de-grace now?"

Eara did as she was told, shuddering softly.
She could already feel his grip loosening a bit. It was starting to get easier to breathe.
"What are you going to do to me...?" she whispered, trembling like a rabbit, "Please, I really don't know where he is...! He, he and Fir fought, and he just took off! I doubt he's even on the planet right now..."

"I only heard." Eara answered, "They were fighting over a friend of his nearly getting killed... Fir flipped, called him some really nasty things... called him a freak... I've never seen Kazuhiko so angry. Kazuhiko said he didn't need Fir, Fir said the Rats didn't need him and told the kid not to come around anymore. I haven't seen or heard from him since. Kazuhiko kicked him off Tarnbsei and threatened to kill him if he ever came back..."
The information she was giving him was just enough to give him an idea of what happened, but vague enough to keep him from getting any edge.
There really wasn't much there for him to work with, not in attracting the next Hunter, at least...
Or so it seemed.


Garren pulled Eara's cellphone from his pocket, starting to browse through the listed numbers. "Pizza parlor, huh...?" he smiled faintly, dialing a number, "She seems to call this place multiple times a day.... wonder who'll pick up?"
The minute he heard Pixel's voice, he put it on speakerphone. "You know what a rat-king is...?" he started out softly, voice smooth but threatening, "A group of rats in too much s**t to pull themselves loose. Send us the next Hunter, and we'll spare Fir and Eara.... otherwise..."

Kazuhiko was awake immediately, eyes narrowing and widening in one smooth motion.
He didn't speak. He didn't want to give his location away.
But his eyes were locked with Pixel's, and they said only one thing.
Super-big-trouble, man.

Itachi frowned slightly, "I hope I'm not interrupting the creative processes..."

~ ~ ~

"Eye or not, she needs medical attention." Po-ar pointed out with a slight sigh. "The oceanside villa doesn't have the needed supplies for something of this magnitude, and most of what we had at the palace is in ruins."
Aled frowned, strangely quiet for once.
"Capsule Corp could help treat her." Po-ar eventually decided, "They have one of the rejuvenation chambers, one that Bulma built after learning the specs from Vejita and Ashuri. No doubt that would be the best bet."
The Ou nodded, "Yuki-san, I want you to take Kaguyo and Hapushi both to Capsule Corp. As much as I would rather have Shiori with you, Yuki... I highly doubt she'll leave," he said this looking to the woman, waiting for her response. "Thus, Po-ar, Shiori, and myself will all retire to the oceanside palace, hopefully luring Aoki and Konton's various minions toward us there. We have to make it look like things are still working smoothly..."
"But Aled..."
"My main concern," the Ou spoke, cutting whatever Po-ar had been about to say, off. "Is that in our absence, with the palace in ruins, Ainsu will take power and set himself up as the new Ou once again. If this happens, we'll need Hapushi and Kaguyo both in fighting condition as soon as possible. We'll need the rebellion that they lead."

~ ~ ~

At Aoki's request, Konton laughed. "People, no... but demons, who will do the work in twice the time, definitely."
The demon snapped his fingers, and an entire legion of winged demons burst from the mountain, flying toward the palace.
"I want it finished and ours before Aled returns."

heart

Bright Eyes pked Kazuhiko on the shoulder and handed him a note she had hastily written down with a bright blue crayon.

If she was really gonna trade you, she'd a said she had you or knew where you was.

"Where the hell is Herne?" Pixel demanded. "I've already worked with you bastards before. Ask him. I fed you the information about the Fianna because she was going to kill Fir. The stupid kid hero-worshiped the ground she walked on. He's been falling out with the Rats since then. The last bit with Fir was just the final straw. A personally? I don't really care who's Hunter or give a s**t about some whiny little brat. Like I said- he's all yours. Except I don't have him. He's probably crying in Mommy's skirts somewhere. Or something similar. My best guess'd be Tarnesbi. The brat was getting all cozy with his physco grandfather last I heard."

Fir thrashed in his gags and bonds trying to get another word or two out. He actually didn't know where Kazuhiko was and, in fact, for all he knew what Pixel said was completely true.
--------

"Tarnbsei," Herne repeated. "Are you willing to bet your life on it, Little Rose?"