For all of Mia's request to simply spend hours on shitty African internet searching for a design, she sure did little to protect Yuruko's laptop anytime she was forced to bring it. Last week it would've been destroyed with her finished presentation inside if Serena hadn't reacted in time, but no matter, she made the brightness tester anyway.

Yuruko was quick to dislike somebody. It was an inherited attitude from her time in highschool and her experiences online. It was grounded in her first-year mentor and in her social isolation until she met Serena. Her future as a Revenant researcher was a warm refuge from an uneasy past, and when she was upset, she wasn't liable to confide in anyone but Serena. Though a little obsessive, this suited them both just fine.

"…um, try south?" said Serena, glancing back in the middle of a Mali village.

Matoi held the brightness tester to her scar. "…it was higher earlier, yes."

Yuruko was too exhausted to raise any hell when Mia asked her & Serena to go off with Matoi, though she let Samuel take her laptop for the day of walking, on the condition he not leave his room.

The three started walking back. Serena thought Matoi as much of a domineering presence as her anime doppelganger (and refused to hear any of Mia's stories otherwise), but felt a need now to make conversation.

"So, um… What's Japan's academy like?"

'Fucking otaku.' thought Matoi. Ironically, otaku were despised worse in Japan than in America. "They don't have legal immunity and they're not allowed to kill."

Serena paused, then said: "Oh. That sucks."

"Precisely."

Her interest in Ueno gone, Serena nodded. "Um, what's the brightness say?"

"85."

"It was 120 earlier." muttered Yuruko. "Bit further back."

"Um, what's working at Timepact like?" said Serena and Matoi shrugged.

"It's the same as working at Urasaria, with better pay but more difficult Revenants."

"Least I can be done with fighting this year." muttered Yuruko. "Just get to work in my own lab all day and make accessories and shit."

"You're studying to be a researcher?"

"Yeah, she is." Serena smiled. "Doesn't - does your girlfriend work at Timepact?"

Matoi knew she must've learned that from Mia. She loved Rin, but spoke little of their relationship compared to her girlfriend, who would've broadcasted their dates over national television if she could. "No, she works for Ueno - Japan's academy."

"She's, uh, cool with you working for Timepact?" said Yuruko. "Since you said they don't kill, right?"

Matoi shrugged. "Nobody at Ueno that cares about that - it's simply a law they have to follow."

Serena smiled. Ueno sounded interesting again. "Wait, they don't have legal immunity?"

"They don't."

Serena frowned, her interest in Ueno gone.

"Something else besides Ueno." said Matoi evenly.

"We buried a Nazi alive last month." shrugged Yuruko, relevantly.

Matoi laughed. The three spoke for a while about the hosts they'd fought recently, and she enjoyed the violent emphasis Serena placed on her own stories.

At Timepact, Matoi generally preferred fighting with Marisa, though Aimee had hired Matoi's former mentor Gamage at her recommendation - not for any particular skill, but because she doubted any other agency would take him. Next year, the Elite Four would be four again if Mia hadn't become as boring to fight alongside as her wife.

Matoi turned east in to an alley of mud huts, checking her brightness. The sun was shining on an escarpment beyond the trees hundreds of feet away. "It's brightening again."

Serena & Yuruko nodded as they caught up beside, and in the next instant -

- the three hit the ground just as a scorching wind flew over them from behind, and as Serena shot back up -

- she shrieked as her hair burst in to flames -

- but a swift massage from her girlfriend doused the fire as the three stood, Matoi glancing behind to find nothing but the rest of the village, and as her eyes turned ahead -

- she saw a mudhut ahead & left burst in to flames, and in the next instant -

- she yanked Serena & Yuruko with her as she hit the ground -

- just in time to dodge another scorching wind from a hut of mud at their left & thirty feet away, immense heating setting the walls melting & molten as the three stepped right -

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

- and Serena shrieked as her hair burst in to flames -

- but another massage from her girlfriend doused it, Yuruko sighing - " - did you refill it with gel -"

" - maybe." winced Serena, streams of fog unspiking her hair. (Privately, Yuruko thought her haircut was one of her worse decisions.)

Mud bubbling at their lefts, another scorching wind hit the ground at their rights -

- and yanked three geysers of molten mud on to their legs, immense heat charring their skin as it dripped -

- but streams of fog filled it with ice and set it solid as another scorching wind flew towards them -

- but the next scene was instant. A dozen missiles erupted out of Wedding's shoulders and flew to meet it -

- but the explosive projectiles smashed in to each other like they'd been pulled together by a magnet, minor breeze surviving as Matoi frowned. Yuruko stomped on their muddy legs and set them free, three staggering ahead as Matoi pointed to a mudhut fifty feet away, speaking -

" - the winds are magnetic."

Otaku couple nodding, the three started rushing forward, heat in the ground growing as they approached 30ft within. Yuruko took up the lead and set her step wide -

- and a plastic bridge formed under her boots as the three ran forward & up; another scorching wind burst out of the house & towards them -

- but the next scene was instant.

"Medicinal!" "Blackburn!" "Wedding!"

Yuruko ripped her labcoat off as Serena ripped her jacket off, shirts underneath & streams of fog filling their coats as they threw them left & right -

- and the magnets within dispersed the scorching wind east & west, one opening left that a megamissile flew through -

- and the explosion blasted the roof clear off the home and sent it in to the sky, teenage & gloved boy they knew was their foe shrieking inside; Yuruko leaped down first and watched him run to the other end of the room, shouting "Solaire!" as he set his hands to the wall -

- and a hot wind disintegrated it dry; out through the sudden hole he swept, Matoi & Serena landing behind Yuruko was her revolver formed. She set her finger near the barrel and took aim, one slice of sun hitting her sight -

- and she shrieked in agony as it melted both of her eyes in to white smoke -

- but streams of fog let there be light again as the three kept their rush going, foe escaping the village now with the trees up ahead.

"P-Praise the sun." winced Yuruko, relevantly. "Solar winds."

Solar winds hit the dirt ahead and pulled up walls of soil to stop them, but missiles blasted them away and they kept their pursuit. Serena muttered to Matoi as they entered the trees, their foe fleeing 50ft ahead.

"Hey!" shouted Serena as they ran, " - you think we won't turn you in to red mist just because your balls haven't dropped?!"

"Think again, asshole!" shouted Yuruko. "Snip, snip!"

"I doubt he knows English." muttered Matoi. "Is it worth shittalking someone if they don't understand it?"

Serena nodded sagely. "Yes."

"Yep." muttered Yuruko. "Watch. For-Medicinal-Use-Only!"

- and the three burst in to laughter as their foe glanced back -

- just in time for a shockwave to blast a tree towards him; he swept his palms towards it and a scorching wind burst out of it -

- but as he saw the magnets within the roots absorb it, he was doomed and he -

- and the keen wooden projectile ripped his right arm off and sent it flying across the trees; a geyser of blood erupted from him as he staggered out of the forest, throwing the glove off of his left hand as his fingers turned to glass. Yuruko watched him hold his hand up to the sun -

- and another two rays of sunlight melted Yuruko's eyes in to two white clouds; sudden sight lost again, over one root she tripped -

- and in to one tree smashed her face and sent her groaning to the ground, still hearing Serena & Matoi running ahead.

"If you ever saw what a real Solar Beam was like, you'd - I - oh fuck -"

- and Yuruko grimaced as Serena rushed back to her and refilled her sight.

Matoi was alone up ahead, foe having reached the escarpment now; he threw his left hand to the wall -

- and miniscule scorching wind morphed the metallic rock in to handholds for him as he climbed, Matoi stopping ten feet away & below. She glanced up and saw his scarred left hand was glowing, but knew she couldn't follow; he'd turn the cliff-face spiked if she did. Glancing back, she saw the sun hit Yuruko's face as she came out of the trees -

" - Wedding!" shouted Matoi, and an explosive barrage hit the cliff -

- sending a dozen massive rocks sailing overhead, blocking the sun as Yuruko took aim -

- but another solar wind yanked them back to the climbing boy -

- and a single gasp escaped him as Wedding's metal blade burst through his back and impaled him to the cliff. He looked down at Matoi, who pulled her glove off and revealed her scar -

- and an expression of unholy terror arose in his face as soon as he saw it, stopping for a second -

- just in time for one bullet to shoot through his scar and burst out the palm in a cloud of red. He went limp in a second, then convulsed, screaming as the three caught up below -

- and every pore on his body leaked blood as he fell off of Matoi's sword; they knew he was dead before he hit the ground.

"What - what the fuck?" panted Yuruko.

"Something in Xenocyclin reacts with Sharp's Revenant." muttered Matoi, unsummoning Wedding's blade. "We'll have to find some other method if we fight another host like that."

"…yeah." winced Yuruko. "…maybe Penxeno, but… fuck."

"We'll check the brightness more here and return back to Mia." said Matoi, already walking off. Yuruko grinned behind her back at Serena, who put her posture up like an aristocratic student body president, and the three met up with Mia & Samuel back in the city.

"Did you finish searching?" said Mia.

Matoi nodded, relieved to find the otakus could talk about something besides anime. If they could keep like that, she might've begun to like them. "We have - we should have enough to know where to travel next now."

Serena had made a bet with Junpei for this, and said looking at Matoi: "Um, just so long as we … don't lose your way."

Matoi closed her eyes. Her expression terrified Serena. "…I'm aware."

"Aware?" said Mia, relevantly.

"Junketsu."

Wedding's eyes formed and aimed towards Serena.

Yuruko started cackling. "Y-You watched it?!"

Matoi put her chin up and her eyes shot open. "I lived in Japan while it was airing. I had an entire semester where my class nickname was Kiryuin-domo."

Mia blinked. Later there would be time to figure out this Japanese foolishness. Right now they needed to follow Sharp's trail. "…what did you find?"

"It's pointing south-east." said Yuruko. "Uh, I can check the log, but it doesn't look like it's… moving, anyway. And, um…" She trailed off for a few seconds, hands scrunching.

"We fought a host who had the same scar." said Satsuki, Junketsu's eyes still aiming at Serena. "Yuruko tried to use her Xenocyclin bullets on him, but he died instantly. Something in Sharp's Revenant reacts with Xenocyclin."

Mia frowned. "And he's infected others to force them in to fighting us, then."

"Precisely. They may know where he is - they would need a way for him to contact them."

"Explains why that guy reacted like that, then." said Samuel. "The first host we fought."

"Uh, so are we still killing them?" said Serena and Satsuki laughed.

"I ... yes." nodded Mia. "We can't risk one of them trying to ambush us later. We can try to interrogate them, but… er, use your discretion."

"Coolio."

Mia nodded. "Yuruko, was that everything?"

"…um." She blinked, having not heard the question. "…yeah."