Don't own KHR.

Full Collision

Kyouya didn't speak when he arrived at the hospital, his displeasure a near-palpable haze around him that had his subordinates and the hospital orderlies scrambling over themselves to either help or stop hindering him. Kusakabe's own assistant greeted him in the meeting room and took point, leading Kyouya to where his second-in-command was being kept. They both ignored the nurse that tried to call out to them.

"He was found further into the city than the last patrol," the assistant – Minamoto – said. "Whoever's taking out our people aren't being dissuaded." Kyouya didn't see a point in commenting on the obvious, and so didn't, and after a moment Minamoto sighed. "I've organized people to track them down again but not engage and instead inform me if they're sighted."

Kyouya grunted at that, pleased with the decision. Minamoto may not have said it yet, but it was clear that they were both in agreement; throwing more of his subordinates at these intruders would only weaken his forces with no foreseeable benefit to himself or the town.

No, it was time that he intervened with these intruders.

Minamoto finally came to a stop in front of a door and took a post next to it, and Kyouya offered him a nod before entering. He had to hand it to Kusakabe – he certainly had an eye for competence.

Kusakabe was awake, and immediately sat up at Kyouya's entrance. The teen was barely able to get a greeting out before Kyouya crossed his arms and ordered him to report what happened. Kusakabe sighed. "After we put out an alert to the civilians regarding the disturbers of the peace we received several tips that gave a sighting of the disturbers." He rolled his eyes a little. "A few were false, naturally, but a few provide a trend in movement and, after confirming the sightings, I and several of the more capable members went to intercept the intruders."

Kyouya shifted his weight as he took in the flash of something across Kusakabe's features – apprehension, perhaps, or weariness; not fear, but something disconcerting none the less. "The descriptions of the disturbers checked out – one with blue hair, another with orange, looking to be in their teenage years. One of them was fighting with a musical instrument," he grimaced a little at remembering that, and Kyouya mirrored his distaste. "The other was doing something to manipulate the battlefield."

"How so?" Kyouya asked, his attention caught on the vague descriptor.

Kusakabe waved his hand, not in dismissal, more to punctuate how unclear it had been to him. "One minute there would be this sensation of vertigo, the next rats would be attacking a Committee member next to me. A few of them screamed out about something that I couldn't see. At one point I thought I was being burned alive by blue fire." He shuddered at the memory and Kyouya made a note to order his subordinates to speak to the school counselor at the next opportunity. He wouldn't tolerate hesitation when they were performing their duties.

But first. "Blue fire?" He asked, brow quirking even as he filed away the information. "Did you see instances of blue fire at any other time during the fight?"

Kusakabe didn't question him on his line of thinking and answered promptly. "Flashes here and there, but not a lot. At one point one of the intruders appeared exhausted and the other one touched her. What looked like yellow fire covered their point of contact and, when the second withdrew, the first appeared to have regained energy."

Kyouya made a note to bring his second up to speed on Flames and their applications. There wasn't a point in keeping it from him if more people were appearing with the ability and he'd already observed uses of it in public. Kusakabe was level-headed, and should be able to roll with the change in worldview with relative ease.

But, regardless, what he'd brought up was worthy of note. A Sun and Mist Flame user were coming in to the city and showed themselves willing to harm anyone that attempted to have them leave. He continued to question Kusakabe until Minamoto knocked on the door and poked his head in. "Sir, the disturbers of the peace have been sighted."

Kyouya nodded and stepped away from the hospital bed. "Regain your strength," he told his second in command, before sweeping out of the room with Minamoto on his heels. "Tell me where they are," he commanded, and a moment later his phone chirped with the messages Minamoto had received. He checked the coordinates and grunted, irritation stirring in him.

Based on their trajectory, they were moving closer to the infant's house. And, currently, said infant was in no shape for visitors of any sort, be they well-intentioned or otherwise. "Intercept them and evacuate the surrounding area," he told Minamoto, who began to call the Committee members in that area.

Then he made his way to where the intruders would be intercepted.

M.M. groaned as they ran into yet more of these high school kids with the weird hair. "How many of these people are there?" She complained to Chrome, getting out her clarinet and, remembering what Chrome told her, running some of her Flames into the instrument to enhance it. "Is this some kind of weird gang?"

Chrome frowned and readied herself as well, dark blue fire licking at her palms. "It might be," she murmured back, and the tightness in her voice made M.M. glance back at her. Her friend already had sweat beading at her temples and her hands shook minutely. M.M. cursed.

These guys hadn't given them a break since they'd arrived in this damn town! If it weren't the place they were looking for she would've hightailed it out of here a while ago, and dragged Chrome along with her, whatever they both wanted here be damned.

But no, this is where that baby that saved her lived, and where Chrome's other "friend" stayed. They definitely weren't going to quit without a good reason. And these jokes didn't even qualify.

As she got to work beating back the newest wave of goons, M.M. made sure Chrome was at least in her peripherals in case she was overwhelmed by the people around them and they needed to run.

But after a while M.M. felt unease creep up her spine. These guys weren't fully engaging like they had even a few hours ago. Their tactics were more "slip in a hit and get away" rather than hit to detain like they had been before. And some of them were standing at a distance, keeping themselves between the girls and some of the normal-looking people.

Who were rapidly vacating the area.

"Chrome?" M.M. called out, swinging at one of the guys and cursing as he managed to just duck away from the blow. "Something's going on."

And then a rock slammed into her shoulder and she swore as the area briefly went numb. When she turned to glare at the asshole that had done that she realized that all of the guys that had been attacking them had retreated, and standing in front of them was another guy that looked about her age and wasn't sporting the ridiculous haircut the others were. She eyed him, wary, and felt her stomach drop as she registered the tonfas he had in either hand. "And who the hell are you?" she asked.

He ignored her completely. "For loitering and disturbance of the peace, you will be bitten to death." And then suddenly he was moving, closing the distance between her and him rapidly and making M.M. flinch back before she forced herself to tense and meet him head on.

The tonfas colliding with her clarinet sent a jolt up her arms as she was easily overpowered and had to kick at him to force a separation. As she swung out at him, her clarinet lengthening into its nunchaku form, she smirked as he let one of his weapons get wrapped up only to lose it as he sharply yanked to try and take her weapon instead. She flicked her wrist to get the clarinet to slip away, but the boy didn't seem bothered at all. "What the hell?" she murmured, the unease she'd felt before worsening.

With her Flames running through her clarinet and bolstering it, that should've melted his tonfa, or at the very least damaged it in some way.

Before she could get a closer look he swung out and caved in the skull of the illusory snake that had been creeping up behind him before lunging at her once more. She thought she saw a shimmer of purple as the tonfa swung down on her and she'd only just lifted her arms to try and lessen the blow when a shimmering indigo shield materialized in front of her and took the hit instead.

The boy looked unbothered, cocking his head to the side like a bird of prey evaluating the situation. His eyes shifted over, looking around where Chrome had hidden herself, and M.M. felt the unease give way to a new rush of anger. He was just toying with her, trying to bait out her friend and not even straining against her attempts to meet him fairly in combat. He didn't care about her; he's barely even noticed her.

He wasn't hurting Chrome under her watch.

"Hey buddy!" she called out, sneering as his eyes snapped back to her. Her clarinet clicked back into its original form, and she lifted it her lips.

And then, without another word, she used her Burning Vibrato.

The guy was smart, unfortunately, and dodged away without any issue, but M.M. had a far better lung capacity than she did muscular stamina, and soon she had the upper had with the boy largely playing defense between dodging the Vibrato and fending off the illusory animals that would spring up and attack him.

For a second, M.M. felt victory on her tongue and paused to take a breath.

And the boy struck.

He spun toward her when he heard the music fade away and hurled a tonfa, the purple shimmer she'd seen before much more obvious as it sped at her and collided with her instrument. Her breath of air turned into a gasp of pain as her mouthpiece was pushed into the roof of her mouth until her mouth filled with blood. In her pain and confusion the orange-haired girl lowered her instrument.

And that's when the boy surged in, swinging his other weapon so hard into one of her arms that she screamed out and dropped her clarinet completely. It was kicked to the perimeter of still watching henchmen and she glared hatefully at him, only to see him not even looking at her, instead gazing around where Chrome would be. "Show yourself," he ordered and, when Chrome didn't do anything, he reached out and squeezed her probably-broken arm, forcing a sob out of her clenched teeth. "If breaking her other arm insures that one of you is not a threat to Namimori, I will do so." He sounded bored, but M.M. believed him.

And she hated him all the more for it as Chrome stepped into view, her face bone white from both fear and the toll her Flames had taken on her. She could barely stand upright, but still she held the monster's face as she said, "There, I'm visible. Please release my friend."

The monster did so, but only after gesturing and two of the henchmen took his place. "You will both be escorted to a facility, where you will provide your reasons for entering Namimori and disturbing the peace." He didn't look as if he cared one way or the other about what would have now, but when he met her eyes M.M. shivered at the rage she saw simmering there.

He didn't want to do this, she realized. He didn't want them to be escorted somewhere else. He wanted them out of his town; dead in a ditch or on the bus to the next city all together – he didn't care. So long as they weren't here.

And that made her all the more determined to stick to her guns and find a place to live in this quiet little town.

As they were escorted, the monster taking the lead of their small procession while many of them remained to help clean up the place, his phone began to ring and he answered it easily. He remained silent as he listened to the other side (which M.M. could hear at all, to her frustration), before saying, "I've detained the disturbers of the peace that arrived a few days ago." Another pause, then he gave a curt, "I wasn't needed." Yet another pause, and M.M. glared at the henchmen that pulled her back into place every time she tried to get closer to listen in. Finally, he said, "Understood," and hung up, going silent once more.

"So what was that about?" she demanded, her anger and pain making the question anything but, but the boy didn't answer.

Some place that looked like a school had just come into sight when an irritatingly loud voice yelled out, "What's with this EXTREME procession?"

Spite and meeting the people they were looking for better be worth all of this, M.M. thought as her head began to throb.

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