AN: Another update for volume two as I'm working on volume one's remake. This chapter is a little shorter than I'd like it to be, but I'm building up to the Moon in the Welkin mission. Anyways, thank you all for your continued support and has stuck with me during my journey.

After finally arriving back at base after a relatively peaceful journey, Lindow immediately ordered Alisa to go rest for the remainder of the day. Despite all of her protests, she grudgingly agreed after Dr. Sakaki came to the rescue and said that he needed to run some tests on her.

And so with nothing else to do, I decided to go and try to find Soma to drag him out on a mission with me. Out of the entirety of the First Unit, Soma's the only person who I haven't had the chance to partner up with yet despite the fact that nearly a month had passed.

It wasn't too hard to spot him. He always kept to himself and his unique appearance made him stick out like a sore thumb.

"Hey, Soma," I greeted as I approached him leaning against a wall next to a vending machine sipping a drink.

He grunted in response and glared at me from under his hood before deciding to try to ignore me completely.

I couldn't help but sigh at how he was acting. Honestly, he's less of a Death God and more like an edgy teenager. Who even started the rumour about him being a Death God anyways? God Eaters already have a high mortality rate. So what if most of his teammates end up getting killed. Not to mention the entire First Unit is still alive.

"You know, you should treat you elders with a little more respect. Don't go thinking you're some kind of hotshot just 'cause you're called a Death God around here."

Soma's body tensed up at that, and… is he growling? Hm. That worked better than I expected. He's really sensitive about this whole Death God thing, huh. A kid's still a kid after all.

Smirking, I continued. "Say, why don't we make a little deal, Mr. Death God? Let's go out on a mission together and put those rumours to the test. I want to see for myself if I really will die if I stay around you long enough."

The white-haired boy scoffed and threw his empty can into a nearby trash bin before pushing off the wall. He walked towards me, closing the distance in a couple of strides, and leaned down so close that I could feel his breath against my face.

"You should know to stay away from me if you don't want to land yourself in an early grave," he growled menacingly.

Holding his intense gaze, I smirked as a wicked idea came to fruition. Grabbing his tie, I yanked him down, closing the rest of the distance between us, and planted a chaste kiss on his lips before pushing him away.

"Think of that as an advance payment," I said. "You'll get a lot more than that if you agree to come with me on more missions from now on."

Soma retained his stunned expression for a few more seconds as a blush crept up onto his face before he rapidly shook his head and wiped his sleeve across his mouth.

Heh. What a typical reaction from a young boy with no experience with women.

"Wh-What makes you think I want more, you old hag?!"

"Oh? Then maybe I should change the conditions. If you don't agree to coming on a mission with me, I'll just have to keep attacking you until you break."

A myriad of emotions ran through his face ranging from pure disgust to slight interest. It took everything I had to not just burst out laughing at his innocent reaction.

"Tch. Fine! I'll come with you," he grumbled while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just don't blame me when you end up dead."

And it's my win. I've met enough people like him in the past to know exactly which buttons to push to get them to do my bidding.

"It takes a lot to kill me. Trust me," I replied while turning away and walking back to the elevator. "Just check in with Hibari when you're done preparing. I already picked out a good mission for us."

Rain pelted down all around us as a tornado raged in the background creating a harmonious melody of chaos when coupled with the sounds of gunshots and battle. The mission was a simple one; Cocoon Maidens and Ogretails had taken up residence in an area so we just had to clean them out. It was easy enough that I could split my attention between killing Aragami and keeping an eye on how Soma fights. He cleaved through Aragami with ease with his massive blade. Each swing brought with it a gout of Aragami "blood" and a completely bisected corpse. He fights with all the grace of a bulldozer, but I'd be lying if I said that he wasn't efficient.

In the end, we managed to clean out the area in record time.

"Good job you two! All targets eliminated," Hibari congratulated over the radio. "Extraction is on its way."

Readjusting my hood, I made my way over to Soma who was cleaning his blackened blade on a patch of grass.

"We should definitely go on more missions together," I said, giving the kid a slap on his back which earns me a scowl.

"Tch. If that'll get you to stay the hell away from me back at base."

I simply grinned back up at him as he shot me a death glare. Suddenly, his eyes went wide as his gaze fixated on something behind me. At the same time, I heard Hibari's voice crackle to life in my ears warning the two of us about a Vajra that had appeared on the field.

As Soma dashed forward while simultaneously bringing his God Arc up in a slash, I dived to the side and switched to gun form before firing a shot at the Vajra that had landed right on the spot where I was standing at. A second too late and I would've definitely been crushed between its jaws. Where the hell did that thing even come from?!

Soma's blade smashed into its armoured head, stunning it as my frantic shot glanced harmlessly off of its cape. I took advantage of the opening my partner created for me and began dancing around the beast, covering it with a myriad of slashes and bullets. It roars and discharges a dome of electricity which catches Soma in the midst of his attack and sends him sprawling. He gets up a moment later looking none the worse for wear and charges at the Vajra again. This time, he ducks under the Vajra's paw as it swipes at him, its claws scraping against his blade before smashing it into its jaw. As the Vajra reals backward from the blow, I vault over Soma using his Buster Blade as leverage and land on the Vajra's head. Stuffing the barrel of my gun into its open maw, I unload my salvo of drill bullets into its stomach.

With the two of us working in tandem, the Vajra didn't stand a chance and we felled it just as the sound of spinning rotors announced the arrival of our extraction helicopter.

"What the hell was that?" The tanned boy asked to nobody in particular as he finished ripping the core out of the Vajra.

"I'm sorry you guys. For some reason, the Vajra's reading didn't appear until it was almost on top of you. It was almost as if it just appeared out of nowhere."

Where did it come from? I got lucky since my reactions are fast, but if it had been anyone else they probably would've died.

I glanced at Soma who's staring at the swirling vortex of Oracle cells in the center of the field.

Don't tell me… The Vajra hid inside there to mask its presence in order to ambush its prey?

Crafty bastard. I'll have to make a note of that in the mission report and keep that in mind for any future missions. Dr. Sakaki did mention that the Aragami that had survived for a long time end up evolving and growing smarter.

But for now I think I'll just rub this victory in Soma's face.

Smirking, I sidled up to the boy who still looked pissed about having been caught off guard.

"So, Death God," I said while wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "How does it feel seeing someone defy your so-called curse?"

Soma clicked his tongue and pushed me away before turning around and walking towards the idling helicopter.

"You just got lucky."

"Heh. That smile on your face is telling me a different story."

"Hmph."

Stepping into the aerial vehicle, I sit in the seat across from Soma as he folds his arms across his chest and closes his eyes. Seems like I've got my work cut out for me if I want to break him out of his shell.

After getting back to base, our resident Death God immediately stormed off to his room with an even more intense scowl then before. I guess he didn't take too kindly to all of my teasing on the trip back. Unfortunately, Alisa was still undergoing some tests with Dr. Sakaki, Kota was busy watching Bugurally, Lindow was off on one of his so-called "dates" again, and I didn't really want to bother Sakuya who was relaxing in her room.

So having nothing else to do after finishing my after mission report, I decided to head to the lobby to see what kind of entertainment I could find.

Stepping out of the elevator as its doors began sliding shut, the first thing I saw was Tatsumi at the mission counter flirting with Hibari again while Brendan and Kanon sat off to the side discussing something. Meanwhile, Shun and Karel were arguing with each other again as Gina stood watching them with an amused smile.

All in all, business as usual.

At that moment the elevator dinged, signalling its arrival again and a pair of footsteps stopped abruptly behind me before I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Master? Is that you?"

It was a voice that I was all too familiar with. It belonged to someone whom I had thought I would never see again.

"Lenka?"

Omake: Survival of the Fittest

One week after the Advent, the world had mostly been destroyed by the Aragami. Conventional weapons were near useless against them after all. Even the small ones that resembled small animals were impervious. In fact, attacking them just seemed to make them even stronger. The rate the Aragami evolve at was insane. New types of Aragami that weren't there on the day of the Advent had begun appearing en masse as soon as the second day. Humanity was fighting a losing battle, and it seemed like there was no way around it. Not even I could do anything to them with my only effective weapon only having one hundred uses. In the end I simply decided that I was going to survive for as long as I could

I suddenly felt a hand slap me on my back, jolting me out of my thoughts. Groaning, I turned slightly to face my friend that I managed to escape with. Once again she had that optimistic grin permanently stitched onto her face. But if it weren't for her I wouldn't even be alive right now.

"What's with you, Saya? You were making a pretty scary face just now," Miyako commented as she wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her chin on my head. "You better not be thinking that you're useless again."

"Heh. Not only are you the ace of the track team, but now you can read minds? Isn't that a bit unfair?" I replied with a mirthless chuckle.

"Ain't that a given? We've known each other since we were kids, Saya, or at least since I was a kid since you're… you know; that dimensional thing."

"Dimensional Ruler."

"Right! Right, that! Dimensional Ruler!"

I found myself cracking a smile at her enthusiasm despite the situation we were in. That girl really is a wonder of nature. She didn't even bat an eye when I told her the truth about my existence. All she did was just shrug and say: "So? You're still Saya to me."

"Hehe. You finally smiled again! It's another win for me!" Miyako shouted in celebration as she hugged me tighter.

"I thought we weren't doing that anymore."

Letting out a defeated sigh, I melted into her embrace. What the hell am I even supposed to do in this world?

A lot happened when we were on the run from the Aragami. A couple of days after the Advent, Miyako and I managed to make it an evacuation shelter the JSDF set up near the edge of the city where there were less Aragami. Unfortunately, not long after we arrived it was attacked and destroyed by Aragami. As we were escaping again, I was blindsided by some kind of boar looking Aragami and broke my arm. The next few days were spent desperately running and hiding from the Aragami until we finally came across this mall and this little storage closet. We've been able to survive so far with the supplies we have, but sooner or later we'll have to leave to search for more.

Untangling myself from Miyako's embrace, I stand up and move to the blocked door.

"I'm going to go search for some supplies. The mall should still have some stuff left in it."

Miyako nods before waving and flopping backwards onto the mattress we use as a bed.

"Roger. Watch yourself out there!"

I shove the shelf blocking the door out of the way before opening it a crack and taking a peek through. Alright. Coast is clear. Slipping out, I gently shut the door behind me and hear the shelf being pushed back into place.

First order of business is to secure some food and water. The supermarket should be my first stop in that case. It'd also be a good idea to secure some more medical supplies. After that we'll need some more clothes as well.

Taking a deep breath, I start making my way quickly but quietly through the maintenance hallway until I make it out to the lobby. So far so good. No Aragami in sight.

I keep my eyes peeled for any sign of movement as I pick up the pace and dash through the ruined building. Everything goes well and I manage to pick up some canned food and bottled water along with some ibuprofen, alcohol, and bandages. It isn't until I reach the second floor when things start to go wrong. There are dead bodies of people scattered haphazardly around the floor with a couple of dog-like Aragami roaming around devouring the cadavers.

It's strange. The Aragami usually kill by eating its prey. When they're done with their meal there usually isn't anything left of the body, and yet there are people here who still have all their limbs attached. The cause of death is most definitely the circular holes punctured through the bodies, but they don't look like they were caused by bullets. In fact, there's little to no blood around the wounds at all; almost as if they were shot by some kind of laser.

Sneaking past the feeding Aragami, I enter a clothing store and immediately stop when I see a strange figure standing in the center of the store.

It looks like an iron maiden..? This isn't exactly a gothic-themed store so there's no reason for an iron maiden to be on display here.

I creep close to the thing, making sure to hide behind the shelves and clothing racks before circling around. I'm directly behind the thing and can almost reach out to touch it when I see that the iron maiden isn't a store display at all.

It's growing out of the ground. Don't tell me this thing is an Aragami, too. At least it doesn't seem to have noticed me yet.

Backing away slowly, I snatch some shirts and pants from the shelves before doubling back towards the entrance. I shoot one last glance over my shoulder at the iron maiden only to see it staring straight at me. All of a sudden, its front opens up revealing its fleshy guts and a beam of light shoots towards my face. The smell of burning hair fills my nostrils as I barely manage to tilt my head away from the shot.

What the hell?!

The Aragami looks like it's gathering up energy to shoot another laser at me.

Turning around, I sprint towards the railing before vaulting over it as the beam passes over me and bores a hole through the opposite wall.

What the hell was that thing? It doesn't hunt like the other Aragami, and it has that insane projectile attack as well. These Aragami are evolving faster than I thought. I don't doubt that new evolutions appear every day. If this keeps up, it'll be too dangerous to let Miyako go out to scavenge. We've been trading off who leaves the base and who stays behind so I'll need to talk to her when I get back.

The repeated sounds of an incessant beeping invade my ears and I find myself waking up in my bed once again. Another dream, huh.

Although I know how this dream will end, something inside me is wishing that I could change the outcome.

Turning off the alarm, I walk into the bathroom attached to my room and stare into the mirror. The visage of a tired woman stares back at me. An ugly scar about the width of two fingers runs vertically down from my forehead, over my left eye, and ends at my cheek. My left eye. Whereas my right eye is a clear, azure blue my left eye is clouded and gray. I gently trace a finger along the edges of the scar. A dull ache accompanies the trail my touch leaves, but its but a lingering phantom compared to when I lost it.

I sigh before splashing some water onto my face. Walking back to my bed, I grab the eye patch sitting on my end table and affix it over my damaged eye. I don the rest of my clothes and steel my gaze before walking out of my room.

Ah… When will this dream of mine end?

-NORN-

Saya (36 y.o.)

The first New-Type to join the Far East Branch.

[REDACTED]

Dr. Paylor Sakaki's medical check acknowledges the high potential in the individual. Assigned to the branch at the same time as Kota Fujiki.

Loadout:

Label: New-Type Pioneer

Melee:Claudia (Knife)

Gun:Castor Pollux (Shotgun)

Shield:Incitatus (Buckler)

Modules: Speed, Step Distance

Predator Style: Skirmisher (Bändiger, Mistral, Sechshorn, Guzzle, Geist)

Favorite Bullet:Drill Spread

Style: Fauna Suit, Fauna Slacks