IKAHO TOWN, GUNMA, JAPAN

AUGUST 24TH

21:20

It was getting late at night and we were still locked in the room trying to distract Haru from trying to figure out on her own what had happened. At a certain point, Haru was distracted reading a couple of messages on her phone so Tamamo took the opportunity to go to take the bathroom together and fill me in on what she had found while pretending to be a cop. I was especially struck by the fact that Takahashi Shuichi takes the same medication as me to treat his hypertension, then I just had to remember how the Inspector asked me for several of my pills before we went out to the hot springs, so I left the box in the room to take some, only to realize later how he had taken almost all the contents of it. If Mr. Takahashi was in treatment and received an overdose of Clonidine, it could easily cause a cardiac arrest and be difficult to identify as a homicide, but as negligence with medication. But now the question remained, how did Yamamoto give him the medicine without him realizing it?

I was still talking to Tamamo when a strange noise came from the window of the room, we went running to see what was happening, and to our surprise, we saw how Haru was being held against her will handcuffed and gagged by a woman in black armor, an Arksuit, it was Akane, who upon seeing us was surprised in the same way and jumped out the window at full speed. Without thinking much we began to run out the window in the same way, Tamamo before falling to the ground transformed into a giant fox and using one of her tails took me to fall on her back, as soon as she touched the ground began to run at full speed behind the kidnapper.

The truth is that it was a very well-thought-out idea by Tamamo, because the girl with the Arksuit reached an inhuman speed in a very short time using small thrusters in her legs, which although they did not give her the possibility of flying if they gave her the possibility of being much quieter, it must be a new variant of Arksuit focused on stealth as opposed to the Alliance's heavy combat focused.

We were running through a forest adjacent to the hotel, it was quite dark and hard to see, but Tamamo sure didn't have any trouble looking, unlike the chased one. Haru was looking at us terrified from Akane's shoulder as she was being carried away and we were chasing her closely, dodging the trees. No doubt quite a few things must have been going on in that girl's mind.

Akane was quite fast but luckily Tamamo in her big fox form was faster and we were lifting her up, but just when the kitsune was opening her mouth to bite her feet and stop her an object flew in front of us, it came out without warning from one of the nearby trees, I could barely make out the silhouette of the object, it was a flash grenade. It was so little time to react that I could only pull my fox ears with my hands this time.

The grenade exploded and a white light filled the whole place, almost at the same time I could feel how Tamamo hit something and lost his balance, so he fell to the ground with me. At the end of the blow, I was on the ground with the giant fox crushing me on my body, as soon as I recovered my sight I could see a man in black, in his hand, he was pointing something towards me. Without time to discern what was happening I call Avalon to protect me.

*whizz*

*clang*

I could hear a buzzing sound come out of nowhere and then how that same thing bounced off something metal, my sword.

"What the hell is this?" he said surprised by the big sword.

Tamamo recovering from the fall, got up a little giving me the opportunity to slide under her and free myself, right after I ran out in a straight line and kicked the sword which made it fall in the direction of the man in black, he managed to dodge it by moving to the right, I took a stone and threw it at his hand, making him drop his gun. Without giving him time to pick it up I moved even closer to him and again threw another kick to try to stop him from picking it up, but he used his other hand to parry the blow while he crouched down and picked up his gun. He raised his hand and took aim again. At first, I thought he wouldn't have the courage to shoot again in a place so full of cops around, but when I saw how abnormally long the barrel of the gun was I noticed that it had a silencer, I was in trouble, I wouldn't have time to wait for my sword to disappear in order to get it back out of the ground. But by surprise Tamamo appeared next to me, in her muzzle she had Avalon, biting the hilt she moved her head and launched an attack towards the man, which forced him to take distance from us and give us time to think what was happening.

"Okay, that's new"

"I thought Avalon was impossible for anyone else to lift"

"Well, it doesn't matter right now, you're faster."

"Put down the sword and keep chasing Akane!"

"She was heading east, beyond this forest there is a road that leads to a highway, a good place to put a getaway vehicle."

Tamamo said nothing, but left Avalon behind and ran into the forest, to the east.

"What the fuck is wrong with that fox, why is it so big?"

"There is no breed that grows to be the size of a car."

"Well, I've been giving her vitamins since she was a puppy."

"Yes, of course"

"......"

"I guess you must be the white girl Brandon keeps mentioning every time something goes wrong"

"Elise from what I could read from the hotel register"

"Damn it, another person who knows me, I'm not someone made to be popular"

"Since you work with that loser Akane my guess is that you work for Brandon."

"Or for someone even higher up, since I highly doubt that someone much better than her isn't in charge of her operation."

"And what makes you think I'm better than her?"

"Akane is wearing an Arksuit, and yet you're the one who's falling behind trying to buy time."

"It doesn't make sense to let the one who in theory would be better at fighting leave her the job of running away."

"So there are only two options, either you're an idiot looking to kill yourself for your job."

"Or because you're better at fighting, so it would make more sense to use the fast-moving girl as the thief."

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"You've got some good guesses then."

"While we're also on the subject of guesses"

"Do you happen to know Damien?"

"How is he? Is he still depressed about Rose?"

"I'd like you to leave him a message for me."

"Tell him he's not the only one who knows his enemy well."

"Or ask him about the pages torn out of Rose's notebook."

"Tell him that if she did it herself, she did it for a reason."

"For the same reason that her last note was her goodbye hastily written"

The man did not respond to my inquiries, on his face there was a slight smile, one that was trying to hide his surprise, no doubt he did not expect me to mention that. But the reason why he was mentioning it was much simpler, I was also buying time, and making him hesitate was a good idea to get it.

*whizz*

*crackle*

The man in black as soon as he received the blow moved and took cover in a nearby tree. He had also been shot, but unfortunately, I could see how another energy field protected him from what would have been certain death. The source of the attack was Inspector Yamamoto, who as I thought would happen noticed the absence of his granddaughter and came to help. He was still dressed in the hotel's Yukata, a little worn and dirty, he had probably fallen somewhere, and his breathing was heavy after running so long for his age, but it did not seem to affect him at all, for in his hand he had a pistol which he held perfectly steady, it was not his usual huge revolver, it was a much smaller and modern one, one with a silencer as well.

The other man did not let the action go unpunished and pulled out his pistol to shoot as well, only three whistles came out of it, two of them hit the tree near me.

"What the hell was that, I'm sure I shot him in the head" said the inspector a little confused.

"He has some kind of portable shield generator between his clothes"

"It must be pretty small then if it's not one of those big armors."

"It shouldn't have much battery life, it will probably only last 3 shots at best."

"Come on Yamamoto, you're too old for this, you know that."

"You barely made it here, you think you can keep up with this?" said the man in black in a mocking tone.

"Friend of yours?" I asked.

"Not anymore"

" Mr.Gomez, a former C.I.A. agent since he was 13 years old."

"He was traveling with me several times through the Iron Curtain"

A noise came from my left, I turned to look, it was the man in black, he appeared by surprise next to me already pointing his pistol at close range.

"Shit!"

I barely had time to turn Avlaon and put him in the middle of me and his two shots. Right after I noticed how the strap of his gun was open, the gun had run out of bullets, it was time to attack, I moved under the sword on the other side to try to hit him, but he moved his free hand to deflect my right point. Although that also served me well, because I continued the movement and put my hand on the ground to use it as a support to give a somersault and give him a strong left kick. But by surprise he instead with his foot on the ground turned my hand and threw me helplessly, causing me to fall flat on the ground. The inspector not letting his chance escape either fired his gun. The first shot was stopped by the energy shield, while the rest missed as Gomes moved back again and took cover in another tree nearby.

"Shit, I accept it, you're pretty good at this."

"I have to admit that took me by surprise."

"That's what I get for not being serious for once." I said as I got up from the ground.

"Well, I also have to admit that I am a very surprised white girl."

"I think you're the first one to come to fight me head-on and not die right away."

"I didn't expect you to be so brave, even having the guts to come unarmed to a gunfight."

"I can see why Mr. Yamamoto doesn't treat you like a child."

"You're the same, aren't you? Someone who has also been fighting all his life since was young right?"

"No, I'm sorry, unlike you, my parents did love me"

"Damn it Gomez, give me back my granddaughter or I'll blow your stupid head off."

"I'll never let you take anyone else away from me again, you son of a bitch."

Wow, the old man is pissed

"You were the one who brought this upon yourself!"

"Why did you kill Mr. Takahashi Shuichi?"

"Like hell I'm going to answer, I know you have a tape recorder"

"I taught you that myself moron!"

"Time is running out, every minute that passes your granddaughter is further away."

*whoosh*

But the man in black did not get to finish speaking when a loud sound appeared in the air, it was one similar to that of an airplane engine, although not as thunderous, At the top of the zeal could be seen as a green line was moving further and further away from the area. It was the trace of the Arksuits' flight module. Undoubtedly it was Akane who was the source of it, who seemed to have preferred to make a conspicuous exit as opposed to the one they had surely planned and bothered to make stealthily. It was a sign that something had gone wrong.

"Hey, your partner Akane screwed up again didn't she?"

"I mean, I don't think that was part of the plan, was it?" I said mocking what was happening

"The giant fox beat an Arksuit?"

"I accept it, no doubt it is my loss then, but I am also curious to know what she will write in her report."

A big flash went up in the air, both the old man and I looked away as I covered my ears again. But just in that direction, another big flash appeared, which we saw directly. At most, I lost my sight for about 5 or 8 seconds, but when I recovered it again Mr. Gomez was no longer there, in his place there was another grenade, now with a red smoke that made it almost impossible to see through it. Yamamoto when he saw his rival escape cursed and almost took it against me for letting him escape. But just a short time later Haru appeared a little cheerful riding a giant fox as she headed toward us.

"Haru! What are you doing!"

"Get down from there this instant! It's dangerous!" Said the old man even more scared.

" Ojii-san wait! I'm fine! Look!"

"It's okay! It's friendly! It doesn't do any harm!" said a reluctant to come down from the fox Haru.

"Don't worry, she's been tamed."

"She's the one who rescued Haru alone in the first place, you should thank her instead" I said as I approached Tamamo to help her granddaughter to get down.

"Wait a minute, that's the same giant fox from Ueno Dam!"

In the beginning, it was quite hard to explain to the old Inspector that Tamamo was transformed, he was a little bit reluctant, but not as much as I would expect him to be, but I think it was because he had a slight suspicion of what was going on in the background, after all he already knew Lisa or the twins, or he had seen Mitsuki Izumi the magical girl that time in the port. Although probably the main reason why he accepted it quickly could have been due to seeing Haru talking so excitedly trying to talk with his grandfather. The old man himself had too weak side for her, he seemed more concerned about listening and sharing his granddaughter's excitement than listening to Tamamo transform into a giant fox, but there he was. Although I also think he did it on purpose for another more practical reason, Haru was so excited to see action and explain how Tamamo was a real kitsune, that she wasn't realizing that she had been kidnapped in the first place and that they almost managed to take her away, so keeping her mind distracted on something else will surely not affect her in the long run, nor will it make her ask the right questions as to what really happened in the first place.