Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. First some creep is going around eating people - god he hoped that was just a rumor - and now the alarms were going off. They had to find their partners and get the cityfolk up to Shibusen while guarding them from their foes.

But could he guard them when something was... was wrong?

It was building again, a twisting discomfort in his stomach and a screeching in his soul. It felt like something was clawing him from the inside, before with another clench of his teeth and a grunt of pain, everything within ten yards of him were sent flying. Chairs slammed into glass windows and shattered them, and even a car parked on the sidewalk was thrown onto its side, its own alarm going off in a cacophony that wailed through the air and alerted to hissing monsters that crawled over walls and were homing in. He'd fled from the scene before he'd be seen, and for less than an hour he'd joined Naoto in her investigation. So much blood...

But she sensed something he couldn't. She transformed, and he swallowed hard, offering his soul wavelength to join hers. Maybe if they resonated, he could avoid the current problem with his Meister Ability, and Naoto'd never know.

Because she couldn't know that he was... broken, or something. Sick.

"Shit, here they come!" Well, at least these attackers decided to be just as 'subtle' as the soul-eating newcomer. What a damn day.