What was going on? As Aoi’s expression became more and more dire, Hiraku could feel himself becoming tenser as well, the muscles in his neck becoming rigid as the satori tried to pinpoint the source of what she was picking up. Was it the thoughts of some gang members starting an operation? A recluse ready to go on a knifing rampage? The scale embedded below his yellow eye began to throb, and he blinked, his left eye tearing up from the irritation.

And, heralded by Aoi’s words, reality inverted.

The essence of a being was corrupted, and the land cried out in response to this supernatural infection. In his mind’s eye, Hiraku could see the serpent god watching the Imaginary District from another plane of existence, that bemused expression having not even twitched in the presence of such an insignificant obstacle. And yet, the extended hand remained.

[i]Want it?[/i]

[i]No.[/i]

Hiraku raised his gaze upwards once more, and saw it now, clearly framed by buildings around it. An obscene, bloated creation, it stood three stories tall, its size evident even from such a distance away. Wait, no…he recognized that bear from somewhere…

The blue-haired youth’s hand reached up, taking the teddy bear off his shoulder, looking back and forth from the toy to the oversized monster.

[b]“Wow…”[/b] He lucked out there, huh? Smiling at how that giant teddy bear totally could have been flattened him into paste right at the moment, Hiraku flipped out his own phone once more, punching in Ren’s number.
[b]
“Yo, Ren, at the lost child station yet? Make a festival-wide announcement for me, alright? There’s a big ass teddy bear causing mayhem around the corkgun stand on…west side of block 81! Tell all MYO to head there immediately and for basically everyone else to evacuate! Looks to be a teddy bear thing, but setting it on fire would just cause a fire hazard and make that shit scary as hell. Cut along the stitches and just dismember it!”[/b]

He took a deep breath then, before grinning.

[b]“Officer Himura, out! …Aoi, can you pick anything up? Is there more coming?”[/b]