Hyoubu was looking at the girls through a monitor, and the moment he saw the red-haired girl floating in the air, a massive smile bloomed on his face.
"Well then. Time for a date. I'll leave this to you, Magi, and remember, only call for that guy when you really need it."
After casually making that remark, Hyoubu teleported away.
"Major!?"
"..."
"Roger that." He muttered; he knew this would happen if Hyoubu saw her. But still, to just leave like that.
There was nothing he could do about it; that girl was just that important to him. With a sigh, he then turned around and quickly went on his way to try and get all the chaos under control.
Above the catastrophe, Hyoubu and the red-haired girl were floating, staring straight at one another.
"You look even more beautiful than ever tonight; I've missed you. My Queen!" Hyoubu said with a slight bow.
"That's because I'm already in middle school, Kyousuke!"
She replied, not taking her eyes off of Hyoubu; her whole body was tense, and she was ready for anything he could throw at her.
"Oho, is that so? I'll have to treat you more like an adult then." Hyoubu remarked with a smirk on his face.
In one fluid motion he launched a massive fire tornado at the red-haired girl in front of him.
"Right?!"
Kaoru didn't even flinch, and with a single slap the fire tornado vanished, while she kept staring straight at Hyoubu.
"Hoh... impressive."
Then, without hesitation, Kaoru rushed straight at Hyoubu, and the two started trying to take the other down.
Hyoubu kept flying away while launching fireballs and lightning at the girl, but she was unperturbed, and nothing could connect with her; her telekinetic powers were so powerful that she could destroy anything Hyoubu threw at her.
Kaoru was glaring at Hyoubu while carefully following after him, making sure to not fall for any traps he might have planned.
"Fufu, interesting." Hyoubu stated, a massive smile on his face.
In the middle of their intense battle, he suddenly started a leisurely conversation like they were taking a walk on the beach and not fighting.
"You're being unusually extreme today. What are you planning?" Hyoubu asked while still flying away from Kaoru but staying close enough so she could hear him.
"Is Minamoto trying to get at me for the other day, perhaps?"
Kaoru wasn't taunted by Hyoubu's provocations and kept carefully dodging all his attacks and following closely behind him.
"Who knows. In any case, today I'll definitely catch you!"
While shouting, she suddenly launched a massive wave of psychic power straight at Hyoubu.
But he easily dodged the attack by teleporting out of the way.
BANG! The wave of psychic energy hit the Catastrophe, denting the hull. Hyoubu looked at it for a moment with a shocked expression, while Kaoru kept her eyes glued to him.
"Nice!" He said with a grin on his face.
***
And while Hyoubu was engaging with Kaoru in a heated battle, Andy was tied up and sat in front of the other two members of the children.
"*The children* to think you were actually kids… I thought it was just a codename." Andy muttered, staring at the two young girls standing in front of him.
But Aoi and Shiho were completely ignoring Andy and instead looking for something.
"So Aoi-chan, does he have it?"
"Doesn't look like it." Aoi casually replied.
"Oi, don't ignore me, you brats!" Andy hissed, glaring at the girls that were clearly ignoring him.
But then the two girls saw something interesting hanging around Andy's neck.
"Mn? Isn't this a limiter?" Aoi suddenly said, grabbing the necklace that hung around Andy's neck.
"Hey, Aoi-chan, let's turn it."
Then Shiho came close and stared Andy straight in the eye.
"Now you won't be able to keep any secrets from me, right?"
Andy glared at her, afraid all his secrets would be revealed by the girl with psychometric abilities.
"How'd it go, Shiho?"
"Nope, he doesn't have it," she said with a sigh.
"Or rather, it's more like they still haven't given it to him. Pffft."
Clearly mocking Andy, she smirked at him, then she turned to find the hamster he had with him.
Andy, however, couldn't care less about Momotarou at this moment; he was afraid that she had found out about his secret identity and that would put him in grave danger.
"The hamster should have one, Aoi. Let's quickly find it and continue our mission."
When Andy heard that, he suddenly got an idea: "Hey, wait a minute!"
"Take me with you. I can at least serve as a hostage!"
This was his chance to finally get closer to his objective and learn more about Babel's top espers. It was a win-win situation.
"Hostage?" Shiho muttered, looking at Aoi.
Aoi was speechless; she had no idea how to reply to something like that.
"Do you want to come with us that badly?" Shiho asked Andy, glancing at him while still looking for the hamster.
"I guess..." Andy resolutely said, a slight smirk on his face.
"But Shiho, where is that hamster? I haven't been able to find it at all."
Aoi suddenly mentioned she had been looking around everywhere, but it was nowhere to be found. And without the key they had, they couldn't fulfill their orders at all.
"Momotarou is over here!" The three suddenly heard the hamster's voice echo through their heads, and they all looked around to see where it was coming from.
That's when they saw it: the hamster sat on the shoulder of an abomination. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
It wore a creepy mask soaked in blood and had such long and slender limbs that they were all completely misformed in all kinds of disgusting angles.
"Wh!?" Shiho barely managed to squeeze out before she felt its deep red eyes turn toward her, and her whole body froze in place.
Aoi was the same; the moment those crimson eyes landed on her body, she felt her whole body freeze in place. She couldn't control her body anymore and was rooted in place.
Andy was also just staring at the monster, but instead of being afraid, he was only frozen in place; he had been trained for almost all scenarios and was used to illusions if that was even an illusion.
Momotarou was clearly lying on its shoulder, but how was that possible? It should have been an illusion.
"I'll be leaving now; see you later, newbie!" After Momotarou said that, the monstrosity vanished from sight together with Momotarou.
Shiho and Aoi both fell on their behinds, tears forming. They were both sniffling, terrified by the monster.
"L-Let's g-go back, Aoi." Shiho barely managed to say.
Aoi just nodded silently and grabbed her hand tightly, and the two then vanished, teleported away to safety.
"..."
Andy couldn't understand what was happening anymore; a moment ago he saw hope in completing his mission, and the next he was left all alone because those two girls were frightened so badly they ran away, abandoning their mission.
"Haah, just my luck," he muttered, lying down on the floor. The only thing he could do now was wait for someone to find him and get these constraints off him.