[h2]Saber - Castle Tepes[/h2]

Queen Tepes gave Jack a happy grin. "Not all of my maids know how to prepare sushi, but I know for a fact that Rei does. She even works like a refrigerator, it's pretty useful!"

The benefits of having a yuki-onna working in your kitchen were many. Even before the installation of various forms of technology in the castle, she had an excellent way of keeping unprepared ingredients nice and cool. It helped that Rei seemed to have very few issues with standing still for extended periods of time. "I'll send a few maids down when it's ready. I also have some tending to the dungeons, so feel free to ask any of them for anything you need! Thanks again!"

With another quick smile, she turned and sprinted up the stairs, past the UMMA agents. So there were people lost in her kitchen then... how did that even happen? Whatever. She'd tell Rei about the sushi and then see what the apparently travelling salespeople at her gate wanted.

Meanwhile, Saber had expected that Nono would not find any error in her judgement of the robotic girl being placed outside. That allowed her to use her larger, ranged attacks more effectively. For this reason, Saber intended to place herself outside as well. This did as little damage to the castle as possible and allowed her to use Excalibur's ranged functions(albeit not the fortress-destroying full extent for fear of harming an ally) in order to keep their enemies at bay. "Nono, would you accept being placed on the roof? I believe you may be able to attack targets approaching from all sides, or launch a counter assault on them them from above if you do."

"Geo," she continued, addressing the boy, "I do not know what abilities you possess in detail. However, my understanding leads me to believe that you may be suited to holding the interior of the castle. Do you believe this is suitable?"

She paused for a moment, then faced Gintoki as well. "Gintoki, as you seem most suited to close combat, I wish to pair you with Geo in defending the castle's interior. Do you agree?"

Ultimately these people were her fellow agents, whom Saber had nothing but respect for. As such, she felt it necessary to confirm that they agree with her assessment of their capabilities. The next task would be to assemble all the maids capable of combat in the ideal locations. As they were servants, the ideal outcome would be that they were never forced to fight. However, chances were slim that the outcome would be ideal.

[h2]Kirisame Marisa - Academy City[/h2]

Marisa grumbled as Othinus was retrieved from her pocket, and some new girl talked about collecting all her stuff. Well... if she did, maybe it'd be easier to get it back into her hat all together. Wait... that guy ran the city or something didn't he? The one she had to go see... well, now the Perfectly Ordinary Witch knew exactly what one of the demands she would make of him was! She'd dress up that tiny girl yet!

Waving her hand as best she could while restrained by all the dark matter. "Fine, fine, let's go see him..."

[h2]Shadow Eternity Vessel [i]Foecrusher[/i][/h2]

The katana-wielding woman sighed. Oh, wonderful. The hulking brute was forgetting his position.

"I'm suspecting the Leader intended for us to work together," she began resting her cheek on her hand as she leaned on the arm of her seat. "Not for one person to take charge without bothering to learn anyone else's skillset. A distraction-based plan is fine, but have you considered that simply throwing our soldiers up against the front gate is liable to end in a bloodbath rather then anything viable? I'm certain they'd rather avoid that just as I would."

She glanced at the soldiers. Not a single one seemed to be flinching, but it was difficult to tell under all the dark gear they were wearing. Still, it was a disciplined group. Good. "Now, that's not to say you don't have something good there, but trying to shut down all discussion by threatening to start a fight with your allies is going to end up with a lot of people dying unnecessarily. On top of that, we need to place all the teleportation devices on the Eye, they may very well have defenses in there as well. While, as I said, a distraction is a good place to start, perhaps some contributions from the other operatives are in order?"

If he attacked her for this, their arrival would take far, far too long.

[h2]The Leader - Shadow Eternity HQ[/h2]

A soul...? What an odd request.

But as someone who had traveled the multiverse even before founding this organization, the Leader had no shortage of resources. Even the unusual ones she did not expect to be useful immediately had been gathered for the purposes of furthering their progress. After all, who knew when they would be useful?

"You're in luck," she began, reaching into her cloak, "I've collected many things in my time, and to be honest was unsure of how this would be useful... to me, at least."

The item she produced was perhaps unlike the souls Hazama was used to, but nevertheless it was a soul, and a brilliant one at that. [url=http://darksouls.wdfiles.com/local--files/consumables/soul-of-a-hero.png]It floated above the Leader's slight palm, an orb of white flame blazing like the sun[/url].