What If We Kissed In The Freezer? Haha, Just Kidding. Unless...

Soon they arrived in Wilcook, and Kate had her usual pre-investigation stops to make. She parked her truck at a local hospital, then led the two inside as she spoke to the receptionist. "Hi. I'm a Urasaria student, my name is Anagen. I wanted to ask if you have anyone on staff who performs Revenant removals."

"May I see your badge?"

"Sure."

The receptionist checked the number on it against Urasaria's database. "Yes, that would be Dr. Fujishita who handles that. Do you need to speak to him now?"

"Preferably, yes. In private."

"Alright. I'll call him to... room 238, in a few minutes."

"Thanks." Kate went down the hall, the two following behind. "I do this in every city -- find out who removes Revenant here, talk to them a bit -- never know if you might need it. Already checked the address of the nearest storage facility. It's a few hours away. Don't need to go there in person."

"A Revenant storage facility?" said Naomi.

"Yeah. I mean, we usually never need to interact with them because whoever cleans up all the dead bodies also transports Revenants, but, y'know." said Kate. "Never seen a dead Revenant last longer than 15 minutes before getting picked up."

They went up to room 238 and met with an elderly man who was Dr. Fujishita. He first introduced himself as Daigo Fujishita, then apologized, claiming that he had not chosen his first name. (Daigo was the host who had nuked Los Angeles.)

"And I was told you knew how to remove Revenants." said Kate.

"Yes, that is my speciality. Is this regarding something in particular?" he said.

"I've read it's a very tedious process. Correct?"

"Well, depending on the amount of detail you're asking for, yes. In its entirety, it usually takes eight hours per host."

"Walk me through it."

"We first begin by putting a host under with Penxeno, or in certain cases, the student who brings them in has already rendered them unconscious in their own way. Penxeno is an anesthetic developed specifically for hosts, although, some are... allergic. At that point, they cannot have their Revenant verified or removed without lethal methods. It's a very repetitive procedure, as I have to ensure almost every bit of bacteria has been filtered out of the bloodstream, and encrusting the heart."

"Does it require a team?"

"Every surgery does."

"Well, yes, but how many for Revenant removal?"

"Usually, five to eight. A student is preferred for standby, if the Penxeno measurement was inaccurate, although you... usually do not see it fit to stick around."

"I was under the impression Penxeno is usually automatically calculated."

"If I didn't know better, I would be offended by how blatantly you seem to be questioning me. But, yes, Penxeno is mostly automatically calculated, in these days, and... I suppose you know this, as well, but recent technological advancements have shed a few members from a standard surgical team for Revenant removal."

"To three, yes."

"Yes."

"Mm." Kate wrote her name & contact information down on paper, then asked him for his. "All I was interested I knowing. I'll contact you if I have any further questions or Revenants."

They left the hospital, and Kate mentioned that she felt no reason yet to be suspicious of him; his answers were all accurate to her own research on Revenant removal surgery. Serena & Naomi were starting to feel hungry, so Kate said she would finish her checklist solo, and to text her wherever they had chosen to eat while she did so.

For now, she simply swung over to the nearest storage unit lot, rented one for her own personal use, then checked in to the three's hotel. Serena texted her the Indian restaurant they had chosen ten minutes away, and as she sat down, Serena asked if she had been out renting a storage locker (just as she had on the 2nd & 3rd off-screen contracts they had gone on).

"I did, right." nodded Kate. "By the way, that reminds me: your girlfriend needs to return the 1873 Winchester I gave her. I've been needing to use it lately." Kate often showed off to the couple her collection of 80+ firearms, which she allowed Yuruko to borrow (to copy, shoot, or repair) so long as they were returned scratchless, and she enthusiastically talked of each weapons' history.

Serena blinked. "You mean the rifle?"

Kate's eyelid twitched. "Yes. I brought a few … handguns, otherwise."

"I thought guns don't affect hosts." said Naomi.

"Not too much, which makes them useful for torture."

Naomi shuddered.

"Okay, I'll text her." said Serena. "Oh, um, were we gonna let the police know we're here?"

"Not unless I want another dickless prick locking me out of my sources." Kate's hair rubbed her face. "Goddamn.You know, after that summer you and I had, I thought it was just one department, but I..."

"Um, I didn't tell Naomi."

"Oh, sorry. Naomi -- Serena and I were on a contract last summer involving a group of sex traffickers, run by a woman, surprisingly. Near the end of that investigation, the local police threatened to arrest anybody who gave me information."

"Were they in on it?"

"No." said Serena.

"No, they weren't. They were a bunch of ballless, gutless stooges. I made some statements and had some run-ins that boiled their egos, and since they couldn't arrest me, that's how they solved it. Samuel and I had to track down the women who survived, and the ones that spoke English corroborated with what we knew about Pines. Although, they didn't know she was a woman. Some of them refused to go with us -- they seemed agitated at the suggestion.

Most were illegal immigrants with no family. We took them to a cheaper city for a few months and tried to get them documents, a job, somewhere. Nobody was willing to give them an apartment or any service for free. Right, they said all that liberal crap about how sorry they were, but they would've rather watched those girls slide off a cliff than make any effort to help them.

I'm hesitant about using my legal immunity when it doesn't pertain to an investigation, but they forced me into a corner. Samuel, obviously, doesn't have that same predilection. I don't know, maybe it's odd I do. I've never quite fit Urasaria in reality, so at least I can fit an ideal of it.

But throughout the next few months, we taught them English, tried to get them hired, but the police never helped us. Oh, they knew, alright. The first night we broke into the apartment where the eight of us stayed, they were called on us. Samuel took one of them aside and made it clear there wasn't any point arguing with me: all it would do is make me mad and I would verbally cut them to the blood. I'd see them around town, and I started noticing how they always showed up immediately to someone stealing or speeding. Never these girls, though."

"Yeah."

"Maybe it was ego, laziness, evil, apathy. To me I found that as disrespectful to policing as those leeches at the bottom of Urasaria's ranks. The ones who hunt nobody but once a month. Those little shits are always the meanest with other students, since not having nothing means they've got to flaunt it otherwise nobody'll notice."

"But what ended up happening with the women?" said Serena.

"By the time we left they were in nearly a precarious a situation. They're still without documents. A few have jobs, now, but to bosses who know they don't have papers. One of them gets sexually abused or exploited, she won't have any recourse with civilian police: they were ready to arrest them on suspicion of smuggling drugs. Funny, I sometimes wonder what they would've thought of that landlord trying to scrounge us or those girls for what he was 'providing' them. I think they'd very much find their sense of discretion in his wallet.

So, I guess why I mention all this, is that the nature of... poverty, and why your mentor views police how she does became very authentic to me. Much as I still don't agree with her. When I left, Samuel had already flew out a week earlier, so he trusted me to drive his truck back. We had left them our numbers, and I woke up before any of them did or needed to. A translucent hand seemed to guide me through the corridor out to where I was parked. I sat in the driverside seat and saw the lights flicker in their small window, as someone checked to see if I had left. It waited, then flickered off. I sat with silence there, until I switched the ignition key, as I knew I was the only one in a position to do so."

"That's why some of them hadn't gone with you?" said Naomi.

Kate nodded. "Maybeso. Sorry, I went long there."

"Hey, Kate, um." said Serena. "Is it cool if I ask why you don't have a protege?"

Kate laughed. "God, I've been wanting to tell you about that one. He isn't dead, he was just too sensitive for Urasaria, and..." Her brow tensed, and Serena began to shiver. "…fuck. I feel it. This is a Revenant."

"W-What?" shivered Naomi -

- and the prodigal pair realized it then; streams of fog filled them with heat -

- just in time to avoid every civilian in the restaurant freezing alive, blocks of ice encasing their bodies, and in the next instant -

- shattered in to a thousand pieces; the three shot up -

" - Urasaria!" shouted Kate, and nothing answered but the frozen shards, air's temperature rapidly dropping and three still shivering, three tendrils of fog filling them with heat.

"This - this is using up a lot of my fog." winced Serena, and Kate nodded, hair going taut and forming a sweater for herself.

"Host isn't in this room." she said, eyes fast around, kitchen door at the wall ahead & right. "Ice Revenant - would want to be in a cold place. Follow me."

With no time to waste, the three started rushing towards the kitchen, shards that had been men&women shattering under their boots as they ran, and as they came up to the kitchen door -

- it froze solid -

- but a single hairpunch buckled it inward, swift strands throwing them away from the three as they ran inside the kitchen, freezer's door overlooking more shattered civilians at the other end. The three rushed over and caught up quick, Kate frowning as she flanked against the door.

"Temperature is rising - you feel that, right?"

"Y-Yeah." shivered Naomi. Kate nodding to her, Avalanche's arm broke down the door -

- and the three sighed at their lack of foe inside, shattered man&woman within, Kate's lips pinching and wondering why the corpses were kissing.

"…gotta be a reason - why wouldn't he be there, be there -" she muttered, and the three rushed back the way they'd came, Blackburn still occupied with the temperature as they came to the dining room.

"Is - could he be outside?" said Serena, and Kate nodded as she ran up to the front door -

- and three sighed as they realized why, drizzle starting up outside, black clouds forming a war council overhead.

"That's why." muttered Kate, relevantly, hair forming an umbrella. "Alright, just - stay under -"

" - got a better idea." chimed Serena, sweeping her jacket off. Streams of fog filled it as she placed it on Kate's head -

- and the beanstalk grew to pierce right through it, Kate nodding as her hair raised it up, two laughing beside as she opened the door. The three rushed in to the street outside under the cover of her hair, and as their eyes turned left -

- they saw their foe a hundred feet away, drizzle starting to freeze as it fell upon them -

- but Serena's jacket of steel kept them safe as they started their rush forward, new&sharper icicles forming above and before they could react -

- the new projectiles burst through their umbrella -

- but the next scene was instant. Streams of fog filled the jacket of steel with heat -

- and in to boiling water melted the projectiles, keeping Kate safe as they kept their run going, panes of ice forming ahead -

- and in to the sudden barriers smashed & stumbled the three, sharp shards slicing their skin & eyes -

" - B-Blackburn -" panted Serena -

- and a sweep of her tentacle filled their wounds, fog occupied with the umbrella as they stopped & halted, sixty feet separating them and he; but they had no time to rest

"I - fuck -" panted Kate, hair starting to drop in temperature - " - need to keep -"

- their hair started to freeze, sudden icicles forming on their skin & movement starting to snow as they struggled -

" - Blackburn!"

- streams of fog filled the icicles with heat; but their chill was immeasurable, more shards forming and growing all over their skin -

" - fill your jacket with wood!" shouted Kate, and streams of fog filled it with wood -

- and the next scene was instant. Her hair's pole spun like a drill within, churning and friction forming as Serena added heat in to the umbrella, and as her jacket burst in to orange flames -

- a sweep of scorching umbrella went through their frozen clothes, freeing the three as they unfroze running again -

" - here." said Kate, ripping the umbrella's pole out and handing it to Serena, cars flanking them eternally - " - you keep this - I'll flank, yeah?"

" - okay." nodded Serena as they ran. Kate peeled left and leaped over one car, swift strand of hair swallowing gasoline out of one car's tank as she disappeared in to one building, storm of icicles shooting towards her but catching only air. Forty feet separating them & their foe, Naomi rose her stone aim forward -

" - Avalanche!" she shouted, stone bullets erupting out of her palm -

- but the next scene was instant. New sheets of ice formed ahead and caught the bullet, projectile ricocheting with the speed of light around and back -

- and right through Naomi's left eye in a burst of white mist; she shrieked as she stumbled back -

- and Serena winced as her tentacle shot in to the grisly socket, new eye filling it as the two stumbled in to a new rush. Carpet of icicles forming ahead, Naomi stomped down -

- and a fissure shot through the road, swallowing every last icicle within and shattering each icy spike -

- but the next scene was instant. Serena swept left & Naomi right -

- just in time to avoid the wall of ice bursting up from the fissure, two separated with Naomi on the right side; her torch's heat lost, her temperature started to drop again -

- but the next scene was instant. Stomping down, a cocoon of stone burst up and swallowed her -

- and the warmer temperature within kept her cool as her stone fingers snapped, new tunnel of stone forming and burrowing in to the wall of ice. Naomi nodded as she rushed up to the barrier -

- and a swift Avalanche Punch brought her back to Serena again, two rushing as two again. Sheets of ice covered the thirty feet separating them and he -

" - why isn't he running?" muttered Serena. Avalanche's mental command flipped the asphalt to cover the ice, and as they came twenty feet within range -

" - Cold Embrace!" shouted the man; a cocoon of ice formed over him -

- and Naomi stomped just in time for one to form over Serena -

- but a hundred icicle spikes burst through her own chest & out her own back; Naomi screamed and gagged, fingers snapping to free Serena -

- and the keen end of an automobile projectile smashed the man's head off from behind; streams of fog filled Naomi's wounds -

- just in time for the two-ton projectile to smash clear through Serena and throw her back along the road, mentor screaming as her torso & spine broke on the landing -

" - fuck fuck -" winced Kate as she ran up from behind, hair reforming from the spatula it'd been -

" - o-okay!" gagged Serena fifty feet behind. Naomi panted as she fell to the ground, her own wounds half healed but still leaking - " - N-Naomi?!"

" - o-okay!" she shouted and winced as she hit the ground, chill wind fortunately gone, Kate running up to a splayed Serena.

"I - fuck." panted Kate, Serena still twitching, streams of fog flying in to her wounds. "I - shit, I - fuck - I'm sorry, I thought you'd -"

" - okay." winced Serena, fog healing her wounds. "G-good."

Kate nodded slowly, gesturing back to Naomi still twitching. Serena nodded and Kate went off, Split's hair stitching Naomi's wounds as she brought her back.

"...sorry." muttered Kate. "Thought - figured you had a counter if it hit you, but. That's on me."

"I-It's alright." winced Serena, sitting up. "Just, um - had to - heal Naomi, so."

"Y-Yeah." nodded Naomi. "Had to make up for me losing my eye, huh?"

The two laughed. Kate nodded and went off to scan, then came back once Serena was standing again, fog refilling Naomi's wounds.

"All good?" said Kate, and the two nodded. "Good. Should come see the other guy, if you want."

"S-Sure." said Serena -

- and the three laughed as they went over to see the other guy, iceman turned headless pancake below, still beating heart peeking out of his chest.

"Told you." laughed Kate. "Still, worked out -"

- a roar came from another street; the deafness staggered the three back, ears clutching and faces wincing -

- to see their foe appear behind the street corner ahead, enormous yellow lizard with eight legs, covered in hair&spines -

" - destroy - Revenant!" Serena barely heard Kate shout; her tentacle shot through the heart -

- and her acid was to blame as it corroded away, and in the next instant -

- a hundred strands of hair yanked her back & in to Kate, Naomi already clutched as Split's strands shot to the lamppost behind, more roars erupting ahead as the hairwoman started swinging & swinging -

- but the yellow beast couldn't match her speed, two cargo held tight by hardened hair, swinging until the roaring faded in to the sidewalks behind -

" - s-shouldn't we -" gagged Naomi, ride bumpier than ever as Kate swung and swung again -

- and the two held back their protest until they landed at their hotel's back, swift ladder of hair forming up in to their room's window. Kate climbed up, waiting for the two to follow within Split's range. Naomi was still panting as they climbed her hair into their room, and glanced back out the window. "S-Shouldn't we -- civilians --"

" - calm. Don't think that's what they're after." said Kate. "Besides, I told you on the way over what Matoi said."

Serena winced, but had no alert on her tablet nor heard no screams in the city. "W-What makes you t-think they're not--"

"--because they attacked us right after the first Revenant. If they had intended to hurt civilians, they would've attacked civilians *during* the first Revenant. Yeah?" Kate frowned. "Still, starting to guess why students've had trouble in this area. One Revenant after another's rough work."

"…y-yeah." winced Naomi. "F-Fuck."

Kate sat down and checked her tablet, keeping her notifications open as she scrolled through the list of students unattached to any contract. "If that's how they're going to fight us, though, I'd like it if we had another pair with us. Serena, it says Yuruko is free. Genesis?"

"Yeah, she's free."

"Okay. … and I see two available... fourth-years. Mint Condition and Inky?"

"Not Inky, no." said Serena quickly. "Not him."

"What about Mint Condition? Either of you worked with them?" Kate tapped her tablet. "Julia Bates?"

"Is she a lesbian?" muttered Naomi bitterly. Serena rubbed her shoulder.

"Hey, I'll call her up. She won't give you any shit." said Kate. "Get some rest -- I'll step outside and call her."

Kate did so, and though Naomi checked over Serena's tablet to ensure no civilians had been harmed, her mind was lodged somewhere deeper, in the situation Kate had described of the survivors. To Naomi this anecdote furthered her belief the universe was a stupidly unfeeling thing. When first accepting her amnesia, it was perhaps under an immature investment of love into it much like the one she had been given by Yuruko & Serena. There was no comfort in this realization, for she felt it meant life was essentially meaningless: or at least that she needed to find something more important to do with it than hunting criminals.