Kokonoe's Personal Laboratory

Kokonoe slowly emerged from her sleep... she had fallen asleep on the floor, just next to the table on which she makes most of her experiments. Tch... I don't have time to waste like that... She stood up and took a look at the table to remind herself what she was doing. Oh yes, there's nothing on... It means I'm still working on Hakumen... I should be able to free him easily by midday.

Without a word spoken aloud, Kokonoe resumed her work from the last week: trying to take the Hero Hakumen out of the Boundary. With someone like him under my command, Terumi will not live tonight, I swear!

The legendary silver knight found himself no longer surrounded by the darkness, the darkened void known as the Boundary, his vision was suddenly of a strange surroundings and as if magic, a light that differed from anything that he'd known for a long passage of time; should there ever have been something of the sort in a timeless location. "Where am I? It seems that I have returned...though through what sorcery is this?" the question was simple and objective, he had come to be within the physical world through some means; even though he was unsure of how it happened. The whole matter was of little consequence, all that mattered was what the world had become and the reason for his return for that very matter.

Kokonoe had yet to recover Hakumen's physical body (the Sankishin Susanoô Armor) properly on the table, but at the moment she took his consciousness out from the Boundary, he was already speaking..? How impressive... he's still alive after all those years? Regardless, he's gonna have to speak better to me... Nevertheless, she had to answer him.
"Science isn't sorcery, but it's doing its best to get you out of here. Don't make my work more difficult that it already is. Just be there and don't make a sound. I have yet to recover the Susanoô properly." As of now she had but a mere percent of Hakumen's existence on her operation table, but she hoped to have at least the Susanoô Unit that day. Hakumen's soul just happened to not let go of it... but it probably was a matter of time. I'll have to deal with it later. For now recovering the Sankishin and the Nox were more important to her than taking care of not bringing Hakumen with it. Several hours, and the work would probably be well over.

The words of this strange woman at first held no bearing, so she was not using sorcery but science to return him? This fact held no importance in the scheme of things. It was the fact that he'd returned that was key, it would seem that he had still had a role to play in the fate of this world. While considering the situation at hand only a few things were clear: he was not back from the edge yet, this woman had some kind of motivation for this activity, and that the degree of this science was sufficient enough to return him to the world.'It would appear that she is not human. Something about her feels familiar, however this is irrelevant, I will soon take my role in exterminating the evil from this world. The order of the world is at stake.'.

For a moment his mind wandered and the Silver knight realized that somehow this strange woman he had never met was...a little familiar to him. If his memory had served his mind well, she was reminiscent of acquaintances he had known some time ago; the aura that emitted from her body was only another means to proving this fact; however with himself still not completely present he would simply have to wait patiently until whoever this was 'recovery' was completed.

After hours of work, Kokonoe had finally finished to get the Susanoô Unit back onto her table, verifying its actual existence by tapping on one of its shoulders. The firm reaction from the armor gave her a wide, gleeful grin, she could barely contain her excitement. Finally! I have all the cards in my hands now! Soon Terumi will pay for what he's done!

She had to calm down, but it took her several minutes, but then she recalled something. Her research funds weren't exactly coming in time, so she'd have to look for the money herself. Without any word, she left the room, hoping that Hakumen still won't move as she didn't tell him anything.

The Ancient Hero was not known for being still for long periods of time without reason, the White Susano'o was at first slow upon the uptake; but attempted to move a limb first. Making sure that his right foot was working. 'It seems that this Grimalkin has had some success...' while not fully understanding the process of how she had come to bring him back into the this realm or that he had been back enough to get the idea that was truly present did not matter.

"A question is in order, Grimalkin. Why have I been summoned back into this world?" It was not a question of whether he realized that he was direly needed, but instead testing the worth of this woman's word based upon her answer. Sensing the truth was a simple matter, even if the Silver knight had only just returned; he would use this as a basis for a means of putting trust in her, if any at all.

The question had gone unanswered, as at some point he seemed to miss the time in between when she had disappeared. This was quickly getting nowhere, the world was descending into madness every possible second that followed this. It was no use sitting here if he was not free to destroy the evil, the time would not repeat itself once again. The world had to be cleansed of its evils and he was the blade to do so, breaking the bindings that held him in place on the table with little effort; rising up from the laying position he quickly stood up.

Looking at the room for what it was, things seemed to be simplistic in nature as it was just a closed off examining room of some sort. None of which really mattered, he stepped towards the door and found it opened with no restraint to him, while it was not what he expected; there would be no problem leaving. "The world will be cleansed, I will bring justice where it is needed." with the words stated he headed down the hall and headed for what he believed was the direction of the exit.

"Tut tut tut..."
A sarcastic, but familiar voice denied Hakumen the exit he was trying to find. It was none other than Kokonoe, getting back from sending her request for fundings. She hated that fussy crap, but it had to be done, and she didn't trust anybody to do this properly for her.
"Not very obedient, I see. Get back into the lab. In your current state, you won't be able to do much." It was all bluff, but the pink-haired scientist certainly had the same serious tone she usually had when speaking to anybody - except Tager in her most tender moments -.
She then proceeded to simply walk back into the room Hakumen had tried to leave, somewhat forcing him inside with just attitude and her mission control orders. "We're late. Our EADAP has detected irregular activity inside Kagutsuchi's NOL Headquarters, and the presence of Ragna the Bloodedge in the vicinity. I'll be sending you straight there. Preventing everything from going apeshit will be your only problem. Did that explain it?"
All ears for whatever he'd try to answer, she was already getting the spatial interference device ready to send him wherever all that crap was happening. It was a risky maneuver, but in the end Sector Seven wouldn't look like a bunch of complete tools in the incoming events.

Obedient? What did she take him for? He acted of his own accord and despite her words, he would pay them little mind. He was not fully capable? Perhaps not, but that was not what mattered as the simple fact was that the world did need him and judging by what she'd spoken, the dark one's actions might well be the cause for the destruction of the world. Not on his watch, he knew destiny from his first trip through time, he would set it all straight no matter what it cost. While he followed her back towards the room, he had his doubts about this strange cat-woman before him, but since it suited him, he would heed her for the time being.

"Then send me when ready, I will destroy the dark one and set this world on its path towards a better future. Whatever is within the structure will face its judgment, Justice will be served." there were little words more to say, while he was not sure whether to trust the one who brought him from the Boundary; it served little purpose in the scheme of saving the world.

"Oh, shut up already, your justice crap will make me miss the target." Kokonoe's annoyed voice came even before Hakumen had finished his little speech. His ways to make a fuss aver the very concept of justice pissed her off, but for now she could bear with it... For now...
"Now to just find a good location to drop him in..." Kokonoe was extremely focused. A tiny mistake on such a process as spatial interference could throw out the window the work of a year, aka send Hakumen back into the Boundary.
A minute or two later, she was ready to send him straight to the Cathedral, near the elevators, ready to explore what's underneath.
"Looks like it's ready. Stand right here and don't say a single word." Kokonoe ordered, waiting for him to obey, ready for this moment to initiate the spacial rend and get rid of him for some hours while whispering a last line before sending him away with no opportunity to answer her: "Stay careful..."

He did not bother to answer her, it wasn't like what she had to say mattered, he was being sent to the Cathedral which would allow him to put an end to all of this on his own; which better suited his actions. There would be no doubt of what the outcome would be, even if he had just been brought back from the boundary. With his hands folded in front of his chest, he paid no mind to anything else and focused on the mission at hand. He would first go to find out what was causing the stirring below the N.O.L. HQ before destroying the dark one...or whatever happened to come first. "..."

(Exuent to the Cathedral) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

"Well, things certainly went straight to hell."

These words certainly rang true for one Professor Kokonoe, who currently has quite a dilemma. It's been hours since she sent Tager into the field to pursue Ragna the Bloodedge, but she hasn't heard from him since. What's worse, she hadn't gotten a peep out of Hakumen either. As such, she was running out of options. Hell, even the double agent hasn't been responding either!

"I guess there's only one thing left to do." The Chief Scientist sighed as she pushed her office chair back and stood up. Seeing as she didn't know whether Lambda-11 would be ready for a field test, and that Kageo-kaka was the only active field agent at this point, she simply had no choice.

She would take matters into her own hands and collect the data herself.

"It's either this or the nukes." She sighed as grabbed a laptop, which held all her data as well as the capability for acting as a mobile mission control to her agents. "Well I better get going before Terumi fucks things up."

And with that, she teleports to Kageo's last known location...

The seemingly empty laboratory of one Professor Kokonoe flashed with light as said beastkin returned with four others. Two of them, Ragna the Bloodedge and Mai Natsume, were in critical condition after sustaining many grievious wounds.

"Get the over to those examining tables." She said with an authorative tone that Noel and Lusec felt compelled to obey. After they did that, Kokonoe called out in a loud voice.

"Caelica! You there? We need your healing magic NOW!"

Caelica snapped out of a little afternoon nap by the less than pleasent shrieking voice of Kokonoe, and jumped awake. Even though she was five rooms down the hallway she could hear her clear as day... which meant whoever was next to her would probably be deaf now.
"Ah! Y-yes, i`m coming, i´m coming!" Her healing magic was needed? That meant it was something Kokonoe herself couldn´t handle, which was troubling... as she rushed into the room, she noticed what that meant.
A husk of crimson, what used to be Ragna the Bloodedge before a pile of rocks fell on her, and a beautiful young girl with knives sticking out of her. Both seemed to be alive, but the girl might not be for much longer.
"...Oh.. oh god, i... i´ll get right to it." She covered her mouth in horror, but then quickly rushed to Mai´s side. Her hands tugged on the first knife, but she noticed it was stuck.. after wedging it left and right gently, it eventually came loose, and upon closer inspection- the knife was serrated, just slightly, just enough to make the blade stick and the wound more gruesome. ...someone this sadistic, using throwing knives...?
Caelica dismissed that thought, she merely concentrated and placed her hands on Mai´s chest, inbetween her gigantic mounds, of course, restoring the broken skin and the busted lung. Soon enough, Mai started to cough, and Caelica smiled a bit, turning her over to her side to make her spit out the blood that had gathered in her lung.
"Its fine. You`ll be alright... don´t worry." She hummed, briefly stroking Mai´s hair to calm her down.
With that, she begun work on the second wound, in her gut, more careful this time due to the nature of the knives.

Lusec laid Ragna where Kokonoe pointed at. He then sat on a nearby chair, still collecting his thoughts from the recent events.

He was visibly shaken and confused that he was staring at blank space and was so out of it.

Noel could not believe what she was seeing; She had learned in the Academy that healing magic is a rare gift, even in an art that is considered unreachable by today's standards. To witness it being used before her was quite the experience.

Still, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Mai was safe, and that's all that mattered to her.

"Th-thank you..." she said as she gave the brunette a grateful smile "M-miss...?"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Caelica A. Mercury." Kokonoe said with her usual cocky smirk "She's probably the only person alive who can do legit, non-ars healing magic. Hence the reason why she's under my employ..."

Of course, the sly scientist only revealed the very tip of the iceberg. Oh, if only they knew how she "hired" her in the first place...

Caelica smiled a bit stupid as she was introduced before she had a chance to do so, and removed the third one of Mai`s blades before beginning to heal her.
"Uhm, Kokonoe, i was going to tell them myself... but i guess thats right..." The light emmitting from her hands dimmed down, and Mai rolled over, blinking in confusion. She was still coughing a bit, but obviously alive again.

"N-Noel...?" She brought out, a bit raspy due to her coughs, but her eyesight cleared up again and with it, her ability to form words... the bluenette reached out to her blonde friend, trying to get a hold of her as soon as possible while Caelica looked Ragna over, removing his shirt to acess some of the signficantly bigger wounds.

"Shh..." Noel smiled as she took Mai's hand, holding gently as if it was made of porcelain "You need to rest, especially after..."

Noel found that she could not finish that sentence; seeing the bluenette, a person she considered both her best friend and the person she loved the most, in such a state was too much for her to bear. Even now, the image of Mai laying in her own pool of blood with knives sticking out of her gut was burned into her mind.

All the more she needed to say what she wanted to say.

"M-Mai?"

After a moment, Lusec got back to himself. Guess I'm stuck with them, huh, he thought.

He stood up and went to Kokonoe. "What do you plan to do now?" he asked, though making sure it was only the pink half-beast and him would only hear his words.

"We wait for Kageo and Tager to report in." Kokonoe nodded, her usual rough exterior coming to the fore "Then we'll plan our next move." As she said this, she was thinking about what Hazama called Noel.

"Eye of the Azure, eh? I suppose I owe that bloodsucking rabbit a visit..."

This and the fact that Hakumen called her something similar piqued the scientist's interest greatly. That train of thought was immediately interrupted when she heard the faint buzzing of Tager's comm patching through.

"Report." the pink-haired scientist spoke with her usual brusque tone "Were you able to neutralize Hakumen?"

With what she had just said, Lusec had just confirmed his thoughts: He was now working with them.

Lusec couldn't believe it. All his life he had worked alongside NOL, bringing people to "justice," and maintaining order and stuff. Now...

Daaaaaamn! What a twisted turn of events. Now he was working with the supposed "bad guys" he had known and heard of. Though still confused, at least he now knows that he was on the right side.

"All right. I'll take some breather," Lusec said as he went off to find a fridge, whilst thinking who was this "rabbit" she was talking about.

Caelica smiled and went over Ragna with her healing hands, but she already realized this wouldn´t be enough.
"...uhm, Kokonoe, i´ll need to try something... could you, uh, give us some privacy there?"
Her face was cheeky pink as she asked this, but it couldn´t be helped. Her magic alone wasn´t enough, she had to bring out more of her power.

Mai nodded a bit to both her and Noel and forced herself up, still a bit wobbly on her legs... the prospect of what Noel would tell her, something she already knew in the back of her mind, wasn´t helping the fact that she lacked a few liters of blood and felt a bit woozy.
"Alright... i.. i can´t thank you enough, Miss Mercury, i hope i´ll get to properly thank you later... Come on, Noel. I need to tell you something beforehand anyway.... before you say anything else, there´s something i really must tell you."
She went out of the room, limping more like, holding onto Noel for support. Both her swords were broken apart, her grimiore`s power had been all but exhausted, and her body just narrowly survived death. She wouldn´t get into a fight anytime soon... instead, she went to a quiet break-room at the end of the corridor, where she almost fell into a chair and sighed, panting deeply from exhaustion.
Surrounding them were a few coffee machines, some of which also served tea, hot coco and one with soft drinks, and another dispensed snacks.
"...Uhm, Noel, if its not too much to ask, could you get me a drink? My throat... feels kind of dry."
That was because of what she was about to say.

"O-okay..." Noel nodded as she led Mai out of the room, supporting her by the shoulder as she walked with the bluenette. Upon hearing that Mai had something to tell her as well, and that she needed a drink, the blonde nodded and went to get some.

A minute or so later, she returned with two cans of orange juice, one for each of them. "Here you go." she smiled as she handed her friend the drink "So...you wanted to tell me something?"

"Being shooed out of my own lab by my aunt? Never thought I'd see the day."

Kokonoe sighed as she turned her attention back to Tager, her ears twitching with interest at what the Red Devil had just told her "The Hero of Ikaruga, eh?"

At that moment, her lips curled into that smirk that showed so many ill intentions. "I'll be there in a few seconds. Try not to do anything stupid until then."

After a short nod to Caelica, Kokonoe snapped her fingers and once again teleported out of the comfort of her lab and back into the battlefield.

(Heading back to the Underground Elevators!)