The five heroes came to the entrance of their hotel. Makoto offered to book the room for her trio, and Grant told her him & Sylvia were in room 213 before she set off. The four went up the stairs outside and to their room. Grant & Sylvia's room was barely livable, half-empty jugs of protein powder and tanktops crumpled on the television.

"You guys want anything to eat, drink?" said Sylvia, veering over to the minifridge, a blender sat precariously on top.

"Uh, nope." chimed Marisa, wading carefully in to the musk.

Sylvia realized how their room must've smelled and felt a bit embarrassed: with Marisa around, especially. The fashionista always held her attention, even if she felt guilty; but she couldn't have hidden a figure like that if Boudoir had been a tarp. Nodding to herself, she dumped bananas, peanut butter, milk, and protein powder in to the blender before it screeched to life.

"I can't imagine the other guests are happy about that noise." muttered Mia, barely audible.

"Ehh, yeah, but the gym here is good." Sylvia tapped it off and dumped the concoction in to two shaker bottles. She gave Grant one, and herself the other.

"I can't imagine the other guests are happy about that noise." muttered Mia, barely audible over the cacophony.

"Ehhh - yeah, but the gym here's good." said Sylvia, tapping it off and dumping it in to two shaker bottles prepared. She stood up and turned to Grant, who took one, and she the other.

"Gotta make up for lost time." murmured Grant. "Three, two, one - go!"

One sweep brought the concoctions to their mouths, chugging ferociously down, and the two not privy watched the flood of the liquid down Sylvia's throat, brown milk dripping down her lips and tanktop. Few could match her speed, and as the two passed the halfway point -

- a knock came at the door, and Grant pulled free with a gasp -

" - it's open!" he shouted, and continued.

The door opened, and in came Makoto. She blinked at the two chugging combatants. "What the fuck are these retards -"

" - done!" shouted Sylvia, yanking her lips free. "Stupid bitch! Shouldn't have paused to talk!"

Marisa laughed. She liked Sylvia; hopefully she hadn't been picking up too much from her womanizing mentor. It never ceased to bother her that he was usually rewarded for it,e ither.

Grant stumbled back as he finished his, doused in his loss. Sylvia drew over, smacked him hard on the back, and he glared at her, muttering something about feeling sick. Marisa noticed Makoto was in her personal space left, so she adjusted to Mia's right.

"Uh, you sure are good friends." chimed Marisa. "But, uh, you're down here for a reason, right?"

Grant tottered in place. "Uh. Yeah. Sylvia, you mind -"

- he stumbled to the bathroom door, and it closed itself behind him.

"Biiitch." chimed Sylvia. "Um, but yeah. So, uh." She took a seat and a napkin. "There's this serial killer going around recently. Or, I mean, the cops think it's been going on for a year or so, but whoever does it, seems to space it out enough that…" She shrugged. "We don't really have anything on him, but he kills women with black hair. All of his victims show up with half of their body disintegrated."

"Only half?" said Mia.

"Yeah. Just the right half."

"Toasty." muttered Makoto, walking to Marisa's side.

"That's all we've got so far, though. Last one was the day we got called in, Monday, and you can kinda guess there's… not a lot of women in this town with black hair, anymore. Grant wanted to find one and stick by her."

Marisa tapped her black hair. "Any idea why he hates it?"

"It looks beautiful on you." chimed Makoto.

"Nah, no idea." said Sylvia.

Out of the bathroom came Grant, with a sigh in tow. "Gotta make another shake. All of those gains are swimming in the sewer right now." He set over to the minifridge. "Heard what you were saying, though. He's been doing this for a few years, police asked some students come down. Guess they eventually figured out he has a Revenant, and even they're not proud enough to - Sylvia, did you use all of the PB? - anyway, even they're not proud enough to try to handle it or whatever. We were checking where you guys were, trying to find, uh, women with black hair to stick around with. Couldn't find a bathroom, so Sylvia had to go piss in some abandoned home -"

" - uh, hey, don't tell them about that part." said Sylvia, who would've taken the same opportunity.

"- eh? Oh, yeah, right. Anyway, I was saying, Sylvia had to go piss in some abandoned home, doesn't come out for five minutes, I assume protein shits, wait ten, I check, then you came along. Sweet thinking on the tether, Marisa."

"Thanks. Uh, we should probably get some rest after a fight like that."

Makoto nodded, yawned, then went over to the door and held it open for Marisa. "I got us a room on the same floor, but, uh…"

"You only got one?" said Sylvia. "Hoo boy."

"Is something wrong?"

"You'll figure it out." said Grant, shoving a PB-less shake down the blender. "Check with you dudes tomorrow, then, yeah. Seeya."

"Seeya." said Marisa.

Makoto led them to their room a few doors away, feeling nervous over how Marisa seemed to keep away. "Uh, no clue how many beds they have. Might only have two."

Mia saw Marisa's face pinch out of the corner of her eyes.

"...only two beds, huh?"

"Yeah, but -"

"- I'll make a pillow and blanket with Boudoir." she mumbled, and they stepped in to their room.

"No, I'll - I was gonna let you sleep in my bed." said Makoto with a quivering laugh. "I'll sleep on the fl-"

" - no, it's fine." said Marisa, pulling a pillow out of her dress's excess frills and weaving a blanket. "Night. I'm going to sleep."

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

◆◆◆

The five were called to a crime scene the following morning, and Makoto & Grant & Mia responded. The black-haired corpse was hanging from a ceiling fan in her living room. Mia stepped away from the kicked-over stool, muttering that it could have been a suicide to the outlets scattered along the drywalls.

"Or someone else hung her." said Grant. "Cops took one look and called us, for once. Check that rip in her dress, too, though."

Makoto stepped over to it, swatting a fly off her face. A thin gash was cut in the dress near the woman's heart, and as she peeled it back, she found an identical slit in her flesh, flies nesting in the wound. "This shit is so gross. Let's just go tell the cops we're done."

"Thing that's weird is - can't have been our guy, right?" said Grant. "If he has one Revenant - one way to kill - uh, or at the least, related set of abilities like Mia. What type of Revenant would be able to burn someone in half, and then need to hang somebody? Why bother making it look like a suicide?"

The three stood there for a while, thinking. Grant smacked another fly out of the air.

"It's either multiple people, or someone who thinks they could get away with it in the interim." said Mia, and the three started walking out.

"Yep. Guess we'll mention it to the cops, but, uh - not much for investigation besides that to go on."

Grant opened the front door -

- and a bizarre scene met their stare at the driveway right; hanging upside-down in midair, the corpses of the two officers that'd driven them over, their car gone.

"Ooo, here we go." grinned Makoto, trumpet appearing between her fingers, eyes on the gate & street beyond. "Where's the bitch at?"

"You seriously hoping for a -"

- a thunderclap cracked at their right; the corpses fell to the ground -

- and a second later fell a tattooed & freckled man as if he'd been dropped from the sky. Makoto & Mia turned, Revenants ready to execute -

" - uh - guys, up!" shouted Grant -

- and as the three looked sky-high, they found where the missing car had gone, hurtling like a meteor from above, and as it drew within range -

" - World-"

" - Ferrous!" shouted Grant -

- and an unseen force shredded the car to bits, yanking wires and metal, smashing and crumpling it in to a miniscule shape -

- and the ball of metal fell limply before them. Grant's hand sweeping, the projectile flew towards the devil at the driveway -

- but he held his own hand out, and the lofty projectile flew to the sky and was gone.

"Ferrous - control over metal?" said Mia.

"Yep." replied Grant. "S'why I got these arms."

"Control over music, bitch!" shouted Makoto; a blast of a chaotic note from her trumpet, and as the sound filled the four's ears -

- an object shaped like a soundwave formed between their foe's hands, unharmed as he stepped towards the three, a shimmer of air forming a perimeter like a dome around him. He threw it back towards them -

- and the projectile impaled clear through Makoto's chest and threw her in to the living room behind, smashing a hole in the wall as she skid back. She yanked from her own internals the bizarre weapon, a second note shredding it down.

At the front steps, Mia's scarabs flew to the devil only a dozen feet away -

- but as the scarabs passed the dome, the swarm flee as in a backwards current; their wings beat and chattered, but were soon thrown skyward & away.

"Shit, shit, shiiiit." Grant stepped hastily back in to the home, and Mia followed behind as she slammed the door shut. "He's gonna - fuck."

"What - the hell is that?" groaned Makoto, rubbing her head as she stood, the two at the back of the room by her side now. "Power over gravity?"

"Power within his range, appar-"

- the front door burst open, and the man stepped inside, furniture and chairs lifting upwards as if pulled by magic. A wide distance separated them still.

"Swarm." muttered Grant. "Your sword. Is that immune to electricity?"

"Yes." said Mia, her hand on the back wall.

"Cut open the walls - don't burn, cut. Got it?" said Grant, and the scarab-wielding woman set to work behind, slashing at the walls to expose the wires within; realizing the plan of the three, their foe rushed from across the room -

- but a web of wires burst out of the walls, shooting to his ankles & wrists; Grant rushed forward -

- but as he drew within range, the wires threw him with the strength of a thousand down. The man stepped forward again, wires coiled around his wrists.

"Ground Control is stronger than your's, apparently." he yawned. "But -"

- the wires at Grant's neck snapped in half; his foe shot up -

- and was charred dead in an instant, grilled corpse falling limp on a blackened face.

"Phew. Got him to touch something conductive." muttered Grant, shaking his head as he drew to his feet. He turned and handed back one of the electrical scarabs to its mistress. "Those things are kinda cute, you know -"

" - I'm a lesbian."

"I - what? …oh, not like that, c'mon." winced Grant. Even if he did often use his badge for one night stands, he had learned to not bother any of Urasaria's women anyhow.

"Blame Sylvia." chimed Mia. "That's what she told me."

"Sounds like her." Grant shrugged.

"Uh, lemme heal you two." yawned Makoto, pulling a harp off her back. "…uh. How do I tune this, how do I tune this… I miss Saya."

"Who, the infirmary chick?" said Grant, and the three began walking out. "She's cute. You guys know if she's single?"

"Uh, she's gay." said Makoto. "But she's so deep in the closet, she's eating pussy in Narnia."

"I was asking for Sylvia, man." He shook his head. "She asks me that about every chick on campus. Feel like I'm her mom trying to talk her up. Speaking of, she can bench four hundo - pretty strong for hosts - so if you're in the neighborhood for a chick who -"

- catching the raised eyebrow from Mia, he shook his head.

" - well, not you. Obviously."

"I've got my sights on someone already." grinned Makoto.

"If you say so." shrugged Grant. "Mia, can you let Marisa know what we found?"

"Mmhm."

He wondered how Sylvia was getting along with Marisa; likely nervously. As much time as he had spent with Sylvia, he still mostly knew her by her failures in bars. She had taken up lifting as a hobby prior to Urasaria, and hoped that her physical progress would eventually carry over sexually.

As they walked back home, he noticed that Makoto & Mia said nothing to each other; why this was he did not know. He had noticed a difference between Urasaria's women & its men: drama was few among male students, and there rarely was any real animosity among each other. This capacity for loyalty, so far as he had seen from Urasaria's women, tended to be in lesser supply.

Yet he sometimes wished Sylvia was male; not out of any sexism, but in that *then* he could read her thoughts like a dialogue balloon of a cartoon over her head, giving what advice he could for that dust in her that still hadn't seemed to fully coalesce.

◆◆◆

Later that night, Sylvia watched a woman on the other end of the club go over to another woman. Probably asking her to dance. Her target shook her head, and the first woman went over to a second woman: judging by her expression, she received the same answer. As she looked over to Sylvia, Sylvia smiled at her.

She kept walking.

"You thinking of hitting her up?" said Grant, looking over.

"Um, maybe." said Sylvia, turning back. "If she comes over here. Y'know."

"You gotta be more proactive than that. Chicks don't approach anyone, ever, unless they're so drunk you can't take them home. You all just wait and let someone else do it."

Sylvia frowned. "I feel like I should be offended."

"Hey, I'm not saying I mind that." said Grant. "I'm just saying that when it comes to you and me, women are more… particular. Right? You get what I'm saying?"

"I guess." Sylvia shrugged. "I just feel like if I come on too strong, they're gonna think I'm using them for sex or something."

"See, that's what I mean. If a chick wanted to use me for sex, you think I'd be sitting here?"

"That's the difference between you and me." muttered Sylvia. "I mean, you just... I just want to get it out of the way, you know? Not really that in to casual sex."

Grant laughed. "What, you think it's shallow? You see that shallow girl I was with last week? She texted me this morning - told me she doesn't eat meats or sweets."

Sylvia laughed. "Uh, is she on a diet?"

"Iunno, but whatever it is, it's working." Grant shrugged. "Still, I dunno why you would want to tie yourself to one woman already. If you weren't so nervous, we'd probably have to start getting separate hotel rooms. Urasaria sucks for relationships."

"There's plenty of ch- women, on campus who have girlfriends." said Sylvia, a little defensively.

"Yeah, but that's different, they don't know any better. Way I see it, if I started dating somebody on campus, I'd barely see them 'cuz of contracts, I'd be worried about them dying to a Revenant, and she'd probably get ... jealous with how civilian chicks get around me."

Arrogant as he sometimes came across, Sylvia knew it was justified; his badge's two-stars usually wiped away any hesitation that his appearance missed. "Doesn't sound so bad. I'd kinda like somebody getting jealous over me."

"Yeah, everyone says that until she starts carving your name in her wrist." Grant gazed down the bar to a woman sitting alone. "…hey. Think she's gay?"

Sylvia didn't respond. Looking over, he frowned as he saw her watching the woman from earlier. He knew enough from men how a lack of sex twisted them, driving them in to seeing women as a privilege their own bitterness kept them further from; he wondered if women were the same way.

He reached over to pat her back, but, realizing how it might look here, compressed himself back.