Takeru's Apartment

"WAGH!"

Takeru was sent flying off the couch and into the wall the moment Nu's fist collided with his jaw. The unfortunate dhampir was knocked out cold from the sheer strength of her fist.

"Oniichan!" Mizuki wheeled herself out of the room upon hearing the commotion, seeing him dazed leaning against the wall in a hunched position and the half-asleep Murakumo with her fist extended in the air.

"What happened here?!!"

"The spokesman of madness came and tried to take away my pride! His gellatinous fingers will never reach me, however, Captain Falcon will protect Princess Mizuki-Toadstool, even if it costs me my life...!!"
Nu announced, before dropping her arm back on the bed. Something felt off. She didn´t feel as light as she did before... thats wierd.

"Uhm...Are you okay, Nu-neechan?"

Mizuki cautiously wheeled herself towards where Nu was, not minding that neither her nor her brother weren't decent. She slowly placed a hand on the Murakumo's forehead out of fear of getting punched too.

Oh, and Takeru was still out cold.

"Oh, my.... Princess Penistool is here too? <3 What a nice suprise~ I ddin´t think i would see you again so soon, your highness!"
Despite saying this, the first thing Nu did was pull Mizuki out of her wheelchair, onto the sofa, before groping her.... her eyes still tightly closed, and her breath still even and calm, while her hand explored the girls yet underdeveloped curves.

"N-N-NANI SORE?!!"

Mizuki gasped in shock as Nu grabbed her and began groping her almost-non-existant-chest. The poor girl was blushing heavily from the contact, thinking that it could be much worse...

"Heeeey, Takeru! I'm here to pick you- what the hell?!!"

In that inopportune moment, Aoko and Kinjou decided to show up see Takeru, stark naked, knocked out cold while Nu, also stark naked, was groping the closest thing the cat girl had to a little sister.

"Can someone explain what the hell is going on?!!"

Nu didn´t answer, as she was busy groping Mizuki, one hand on her butt, the other on her chest, before her movements became slower and she seemed to settle down, before her breaths got deeper and she sank into a deeper sleep again.

(Following Aoko from 'Kurogane Renkon')~~~~~~~~~~~~>

As he heard the exclamation from Aoko, his gaze just happened to carry to the same rather outrageous scene before long. The beastkin was quicker to avert his eyes than anyone might see, as his head whipped to the side; he'd made sure to pull a blindfold out and tie it over his eyes. 'By the Nine...does her friend have some odd quirks going about..?' it was the strange young woman he'd seen when they'd run into her friend earlier, groping a young woman in a chair, with the very same youth on the ground on his back unconscious? Clearly the boy and the woman were intimate, he'd been able to put that together by scent alone. 'Gah...damned nose...stop that.' just the way he was trained to visual a foe while blindfolded was not helping his situation right now. But of course, the beastkin would eventually say something, along the lines of Aoko's questions.

"What the blazes is all of this? I err...didn't mean to walk in, but clearly this is..yeah." he'd had no words for it, just being left on the point of lacking a response that made sense.

"U-Uhm, it's not what it looks like, Aoko-neechan..."

"Ugh...I suppose I'll have to sort this out..." The frustrated sniper walked towards where Takeru lay and did the most sensible thing one can do in this situation: Kick him in the head.

"Ow!" The dhampir finally awoke, looking up to see his friend/employer...and realizing that he was still naked, causing his cheeks to turn as red as Muramasa.

"Oh shit."

"'Oh shit' indeed. Now tell me what the hell happened here!"

"If you want to know the full story, we'll have to wake HER up first." Takeru, rubbing his sore jaw, pointed to where Nu was; still asleep on the couch in her birthday suit and still grabbing Mizuki.

Nu sleeps, occasionally groping those soft little hills Mizuki had to offer, and drooled on the sofa.

The now blindfolded Kinjou looked in the general direction of Takeru if anything to apologize for the intrusion, at least on his part right? "Er...well sorry to catch you in such a position, i don't imagine this is well for you." though it was probably just the way he did things, likely some odd quirks with being naked? Perhaps odd things with this woman's sleeping habits? He hadn't known, but he was certain now they were some kind of item.

"Ugh...let me get changed first."

Takeru had stood up (causing Aoko and Mizuki to avert their eyes) and walked to his room to get a spare set of clothes. Minutes later, he came out clad in his usual black blazer and red tie around his neck.

"Alright, what are you two here for?"

"Straight to the point, I see." Aoko nodded as she took a seat at the dining table "Well, to make it short and sweet, I came to pick you up. We have a job to do, remember?"

"Ah, another job?" Mizuki asked while trying to wrench Nu off her "But what about Ragna the Bloodedge?"

This was a question that Takeru didn't want to answer. Aoko saw the painful grimace on his features manifest. She already knew from Kageo that he was soundly reminded that the SS Class Criminal was out of his league.

"Eh?"

Nu`s eye shot open, and she jolted upright, causing her modestly small breasts to bounce once.
The sheer name got her out of the sleeping phase and gained her attention, as she looked at everyone in the room in confusion, but interest.
"What about Ragna?"

As Kinjou only knew in part about what was going down, the beastkin ended up standing where he remained, with a hand only reaching a moment out towards the table, he'd used his ears to listen to the sound of Aoko's voice after she apparently moved and he very carefully walked towards the table; drawing his hand back and instead using his tail tip and one coil to just feel in front of him while he moved for the table. "Eh? Yes what about Ragna the Bloodedge?" blindfolded of which did not allow him to see, but of course he was sure he managed to avoid bumping anyone as he neared the table.

"I think you should tell them."

Takeru shook himself out of his self-imposed reverie to see Aoko, her expression unusually stern "I know what happened and don't ask me how. Mizuki especially deserves to know, and it's best if it came from you, Takeru."

As much as he wanted to tell her to mind her own damn business, she was right; it was best if he told Mizuki that he failed to even reach Ragna the Bloodedge, now rather than later.

"Very well..." The dhampir sighed before walking to the couch, kneeling on one knee so that he was at eye level with his sister with a sad smile on his face "I...I messed up, Mizu-chan. I wasn't able to even get to Ragna the Bloodedge. A kaka cat named Kageo beat me pretty badly before I could."

"Oniichan..."

"Wait, wait, wait. A Kaka beat you up? You didn´t tell me THAT bit before. Now that´s sad."

Nu´s half opened eye blinked, and she hopped off the bed, indecent as she was.

"I`m gonna get changed, that beastkin boy seems like he´s a bit embarressed~"

Giggling a little bit, she hushed into the bedroom to fetch some clothes to wear.

Of course this was something that just made him a little bit bashful, but he was already blushing from the whole situation, obvious scents of physical actions; well yes he'd retain the blindfold yeah... "If its who I think it is, well that might not be so bad as you think." though of course he wasn't going to bother saying more, there was going to be something better on the horizon of course.

"There is enough there, you can stake your claim on the many bounties...always another to take down. Its what keeps me going personally, sometimes the gym and teahouse aren't enough." the Shimazus worked hard, though again this was not about the personal issues at hand. "Sorry, went off on tangent: so we're going to track down Carl Clover. I am sure with the three of us it will be a thing of great ease by comparison."

"Sorry, Mizu." Takeru sighed as he tousled her hair "I was talkin' big about how I'm gonna take down Ragna the Bloodedge and get his bounty so that we wouldn't worry about your medical bills any more. Kinda makes me a sucky big brother, huh?"

"You're wrong." Mizuki answered him so resolutely that the dhampir was surprised "So what if you're not strong enough to beat him? Someday you will be. I know because I believe in you, Oniichan. So no, you're not a sucky big brother. You're the best one there is!"

If he wasn't surprised by her words, the hug that followed surely did "...I'm just glad you're alive, Oniichan. So please, don't beat yourself up any more, okay?"

"Mizu..." He was genuinely touched by that show of affection, that small reminder that his sister was much stronger than her body suggested. So he returned that embrace with his own "Gomen ne, Mizu. Thanks for snapping me out of it."

"Ahem!"

Both Oda Siblings turned to see Aoko, smirking at them with her usual teasing smirk "As much as I hate to ruin such a tender moment, Kinjou-san kindly reminded us that we still have a Clover to catch, remember?"

"...You are the worst, Bakaneko."

As he heard the two going on about this, he'd given off a light pop of his neck, well adjusting his head a moment before he'd slowly untied the blindfold. It should be okay to right? Now onto the matter at hand. "So now let's discuss how we will approach this, I mean...Carl Clover is an opponent of great strength, at least I would say this due to whatever performance enhancers that he has taken. I presume he's all human and not normally so strong, from our clash I might say he and Ada are definitely able opponents. The teamwork is beyond solid, I'm really sure that it would be an issue, even with us three. At least without a plan."

With a nod, Takeru joined Aoko and Kinjou in the table to discuss strategy while Mizuki just sat on the couch and watched.

"If you consider that 'Ada' is the Nox Nyctores Nirvana as well as his own skills, he's really the opponent to beat." The dhampir nodded sagely "Though...I never heard that he uses performance enhancers though."

"Either that or his Nox would explain his current state of mind." Aoko threw in her two cents "At any rate, the best way to defeat Carl Clover would be to divide and conquer."

Kinjou had to admit he didn't know that for sure, but he wasn't so sure a human boy could block one of his kicks so easily at his age. Even a strong one at that, lest he wasn't really a human? The latter that he not only kept to himself, but he'd doubted as well. "It is only a guess about the enhancers, but he took a kick of mine while I wasn't holding much back; I don't kick very softly you might imagine." he was of course feeling a little proud in that moment, though he didn't show much of it. When Aoko mentioned the idea of dividing and conquering, he did think that would be a good idea, he spoke to the thought on that.

"So a minor thought then? Maybe Aoko can play a mid-range set of strikes, firing your rifle and keeping Ada occupied. Takeru can play point man and engage Carl, I will assist him, but also strike at Ada. I have a bit of range with my spear...might be able to keep out of her worst spots." he was going based upon a guess that Takeru was a close combat type.

Aoko nodded in agreement; while he didn't look like it, she knew that Takeru can take a serious amount of punishment before being forced to heel. That was just how stubborn he was, and it was going to be an advantage in this situation.

"Think you're up to the task?" She asked the dhampir, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Ready and able." he answered her with a grin..

"Good." The sniper nodded. Placing a hand on her chin, she crossed her legs as she furrowed her brow in thought, her tail swaying idly "Okay, now that we have a tactic to use, the question now would be how to find him. I'm sure he won't be raising a flag saying 'I'm here!'."

Kinjou knew better than that naturally, he wasn't counting on such a thing being there to ease their trip. But he was sure that they'd be able to collect on his leaving a trail. Chances were that if anything could be certain, Carl's killing intent wouldn't leave him due to his state of mind. "Well I'm sure each of us can feel that killing intent a mile away...perhaps we start looking for that? We know that he was after Ragna the Bloodedge at the very least. We won't have to look that hard for those who are brave enough to try for such a man." he was sure they could base something off of that in their focus.

"So in the end, we might run into Ragna the Bloodedge?" Takeru scoffed at that situation, considering that he too was after the man before "Talk about ironic."

"If it comes to that, we grab Carl and withdraw." Aoko stated adamantly "I don't need to remind you two that when it comes to the Grim Reaper, neither of us has a ghost of a chance against him."

Kinjou had heard plenty of things about Ragna and his parents had warned him thrice about trying to face such a dark aura about a man such as he. "I am sure we can avoid trouble and still just gather Carl Clover. I'd rather nice attempt to stand to a man who can reap one's soul." it was a bit of preservation, but alsoa wish to complete the better mission on hand. He wouldn't see anything come bad of it if he had any say in the matter. "Its a pretty simple task...though finding our target won't be any easier than one might consider." he just meant considering how fast that Carl apparently could move.

"I am sure the fortunes will be with us."

"Alright, looks like we have a plan!" Aoko giggled as she looked at her new partners.

"Yeah. We do." Takeru chuckled before looking at the couch, where Mizuki was sitting "Think you can keep your Nu-neechan out of trouble while I'm out?"

"Don't worry!" The young loli vampire giggled while raising her fist "You can count on me!"