Shop Handsome

"The hell do you mean we're signing up for a tournament?!" Solis yelled in Shop Handsome, slapping down a poster with Chronojet Dragon's picture and the title "Chronicle's Eve" on the table a human formed Graywon was sitting at. Several of the drones were gathered, and while they were less irritated, they were just as lost and curious as the sun warrior. The man with some of his pride intact inquired on how they'd achieve nihilism through some asinine competition when they should be focused on the war.

Harbinger giggled, teasing Solis by leaning her pillowy mounds down on the surface. Little did she know, those had no effect on him. ... Or at least, he wanted to believe that, but his flushing red face ratted him out. He was a weak man who knew even if he wanted the end of time, he still had a want for-

"You're going to enter it so I can get a shot at that Gear Dragon", Harbinger replied calmly.

"When were you going to tell us this? Or did you just expect us to blindly follow?"

"You don't get a choice anyway, brat." Koga responded to Solis, leaning back in her chair.

"I'm older than you!"

"She's right, I wasn't going to give any of you a choice. Besides, you all like Vanguard. It'll be nice to relax, no? Aren't I kind for thinking of my underlings?" Harbinger sneered, reinforcing the lettuce's words with an attitude of a generous and loving boss. While they willingly followed, they all began to sweat at such an asinine thought of this God of Death being nice. Considering their feelings and hobbies? Yeah, sure, okay, and she isn't trying to delete all of existence.

"Ugh..." Solis groaned.

"Did you arrange this?" Chris questioned.

"No, Gear Chronicle did." The redhead replied, confusing the drones further.

"How are you getting a shot at Chronojet with this? Why is he putting himself back in the open?" Kachidoki inquired the details of this plan.

"He's probably trying to give humanity Stride back. If that happens, humanity can start flipping their vanguards faceup and get shittons more power off of it. We won't be screwed, but it's going to make things... more troublesome than necessary. I expect Chronos is in on this shit too, so they're probably making a gamble, and hoping the Chosen Shitstain and her happy band of rats join the tournament too. Little do they know they can't keep me away from the Akashic Record forever. After all, unlike them, I actually have forever."

Fine, Solis was satisfied with this explanation of the scheme. Stride returning is problematic for everyone who isn't an invincible, armored titan. And if Harbinger is the only one left... well, she doesn't really care, probably. She's immortal too, and it's rather grating to hear. Bowing, the sun warrior departed with the others, beginning to go their separate ways as the Shop PSY hostesses stayed behind.

"I suppose we're entering too?" Fuki inquired.

"Yeah, I need you guys to back up whatever fuckups they make."

"Ugh... I gotta babysit?" Koga groaned.

She's sick of these damn kids.

Mirai was in the background listening in about an upcoming tournament. A chance for the Resistance fighters to come in to this was pretty high if what Harbinger was saying is true. "Chronicle's Eve... it sounds like fun. I'll enter it... I can't wait to see the faces of my opponent as I slowly tear them apart like I did that poor fool Raiden!" She giggled a little. She has the power to make them all suffer. Or at least she thinks she does as the Seed has regained all her lost powers now.

Trinity was sitting near Harbinger, not leaving unlike the rest. She was restless and sweating. The power Harbinger and Sovereign had unleashed had agitated the seed within her. It was like its growth had speed up tremendously from the destruction of Gotem City. Occasionally a power spike would escape and cause her increased pain. She wondered just how long it would take for the seed to be ready to sprout.

Karin looked up from her seat in the back of the shop, listening in on the conversation about the "Chronicle's Eve" tournament. So the leader of Gear Chronicle still wanted to help... At the very least, it was more reassuring than Chronos had been the previous night. "So we enter, win, and keep the giant gear dragon from undoing your deletion of Stride, right?" Karin spoke with a bitter tone. She remembered back to when she had attempted to Stride against Kraken for the first time... And failed. She was still rather sore about it.

Getting up from her seat and walking up to Harbinger, she looked her over with... hesitant eyes (explicitly avoiding looking down below her neck). This was the woman who had erased Gotem from the map only hours ago, who had broken the spirits of all of humanity, Karin herself included, yet here she was, looking like some ginger bimbo. It was hard to swallow, but having seen the transformation firsthand, Karin had no choice but to believe it.

Karin decided it'd be better to get her mind on something else. She'd rather not think about the destruction anymore.

"...Uh, I had a question. All the Reapers seem pretty alien, and not even Overlord recognizes them as being from Cray. But... You're different from all the others. I mean, I get you're the big boss of them, but you..."

Karin couldn't help it. Her eyes darted down towards the loveglobes again, if only for a moment.

"...Er, you act completely different than all the other Reapers. Even that, uh... Thing you have going on with your, um... 'Brother' Sovereign..."

This ended up sounding more awkward than she had intended. Oops.

Trinity noticed Karin's gaze and growled obviously. She didn't mean to and usually wouldn't, but the seed was causing her to be more sensitive with her jealousy. And so here she was, growling and looking like she was ready to rip out Karin's heart right there and then.

"Better, I get a shot to kill him", Harbinger answered Karin with bloodlust. Everyone understood her goals, and they knew Chronojet was in the way. To deliver all of existence from "pain" as Solis, Kachidoki, and others put it, the grim reaper would have to delete him and the Akashic Record. Leaning back, Karin's other questions were to be answered. As a drone, they supposed the other Kagero player should know.

"We Deletors are from the all-eating planet Brandt that wanders about space and devouring everything it passes through. Sovereign and I are the strongest - with me being cunning and him simply being strong. I had fun being 'Tomo-Zo' as a human, so I figured I'd fuck around and annoy Sovereign by calling him big bro."

The busty shedevil quickly bounced out of her seat for dramatic effect to explain her joy as a Shop PSY hostess, causing those meaty jugs Karin kept staring at to jiggle within even the confines of her top.

"Sovereign just puts up with it, it's still fun."

Karin's expression turned a bit bitter. Reapers were gross. "Right, incest is 'fun'..."

Karin put her arms up in a shrug, shutting her eyes (if only to try and block out those tits). "Whatever, I guess you're allowed to do what you want when you're that powerful. Not like I could do anything about it anyways." Putting her arms back down, she turned around and headed back to her seat. She wanted to get at least a little distance between herself and those magnificent breasts before she succumbed to them a second time. "...How would that even work, he doesn't even look like he could..." Karin muttered to herself quietly, not bothering to finish her sentence. Hopefully the mental link between her, Overlord, and Harbinger only went one way.

Trinity calmed slightly as Karin moved away, scooting closer to her Mistress...maybe too close. Then came another wave of energy from the seed and a groan of pain from Trinity as she gripped her stomach.

Harbinger giggled, turning to pet Trinity. "Soon, my little project baby can hatch. If it's good enough, I won't even need Shiki", the woman sneered, speaking of a change of plans. When you're infinite, you have the right to do whatever the hell you want and adjust plots for laughs. You can't be punished, so the armored titan disguised as a big titted vixen gently squeezed at the blonde's head, sitting down next to her.

"Gross", Koga agreed with Karin on every account.

Trinity looked content as Harbinger pet her, listening to her every words. The pain didn't bother her now that her Mistress was giving her attention. She sighed happily as she was in her Mistress' embrace, feeling she could stay like this till the end of her life. Then Trinity began to sing a song. A song that told of Harbinger's eventual victory.

Through the door of the cardshop that the Reaper base was located came the cybernetic commander Halcion. She walked past the people, pushing away tables and chairs that got in her way before standing in front of Harbinger. Nothing was said from the cyberoid. She just stared before collapsing forward, her armor disappearing to reveal...a more cybernetic version of Trinity, passed out. The toll on her body from awakening Halcion and the battles against the Resistance had been great. So great that she had been unable to unleash her full power and was...defeated in every sense of the word. If she could feel right now, it be shame for not showing her true potential and defeating Harbinger's enemy. For now, Trinity fell and began to rest her body from the day's event.

Trinity looked focused on and frustrated. She had the card version of her soldiers in front of her, her eyes darting to each one continuously. Since she woken up she had been....violently frustrated. While her fights with the Resistance had not been a complete loss like with her old Shadwitch, she did not want to accept any kind of loss. Especially with her new power as Halcion. She had to break them....to get rid of them. She wanted to prove she was a better commander than Yukino. That the title of Chosen Sword was wasted on the commander of the Resistance. And most of all, she wanted to prove her usefulness to Harbinger. Her Lord had blessed her out of all her servants with this power and she will not let it be seen as a waste. But how? Her army was....sadly simple in terms of what they could do. Sure swarming the opponent with her reverses was....not an easy thing to overcome..but it wasn't anything grand either. She needed something more. More power. More control. ANYTHING!! Trinity slammed her fist on the table, accidentally breaking yet another one with her new strength. Sighing, she slowly began to pick up the cards that had fallen.

"Chill", Koga spoke to the angry blonde Trinity who broke yet another table. The cabbage had been playing with a Nintendo 3DS the entire time, zipping through video games like a madwoman. "You've been breaking shit since you got back from getting Halcion, what's your deal? Stupid brat."

Again, this person is older than the lettuce.

Trinity didn't seem to be bothered by the cabbage head's rudeness as she pushed the broken table away and sat with the cards in her hands, looking at it. "I need more power. This power. It wasn't enough. How can I be useful to Lord Harbinger if I can't even handle measly humans?" The way she spoke, she made it sound like she wasn't even a human. Probably wasn't anymore. She didn't know.

Karin looked over at the shop's wallside TV. An announcement for the Chronicle's Eve tournament had just finished... marking the start of its official registration period. To the commonfolk, it no doubt just seemed like any other tournament, but for anyone involved in the war against the Reapers... or in the case of those around Karin, with the Reapers, the signs of what was coming was clear. An attempt to give humanity the power to transcend back, the miraculous power known as "Stride"... A power that Sovereign already deleted once. Being where she was, Karin would have to prevent that to the best of her ability.

She looked down at the copy of Sharyu laying on the table. This was going to be a public tournament broadcast for all to see, not a warfield. She wouldn't be able to use the power of Delete she had been gifted. "You're going to have to hold back too, you know. We can't draw any suspicion from the general public."

Karin glanced over at Harbinger, sitting at the shop's counter. "...Gotta keep our cover, after all..." Karin tried to resist staring at the globes again. She failed. Again.

Mirai stretched after taking a nice nap. "I can't wait for this tournament to start. I've been quite bored. You all can keep your cover if you want but, I'm going to have fun with these Resistance losers." The Seed chuckled and had a twisted grin, she was fired up, ready to take everyone in her way out. The power to Stride, Mirai would love to have that power to herself to bring back her power to their maximum.

"So get good", Koga sneered to Trinity.

Harbinger didn't seem to be responding to or looking at any of the other drones or members of the shop. The Reaper overlord glared at the television with the announcement of Chronicle's Eve with furious bloodlust and a scowl. Finally... her chance to kill him would come soon - to eliminate all of existence after removing the one true obstacle in her path: Chronojet Dragon. The drones stood up, immediately ready to depart. They would not allow the Gear Dragon to give humanity the chance to counterattack by any means, however... only that psychotic God of Death was interested in more. Counterattack was meaningless, all that mattered was erasing everything.

That frown turned into a maddening grin.

"Let's go", Solis stated, leaving first before the others.

Karin scooped up her cards and tucked them back into her box, her eyes turning towards the door. Bless Solis for distracting her from the hypno-melons.

Still, though, that kid needed to chill a little. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Impede Yugure, stop the big gear dragon, all that. Simple plan." Karin waved a hand as she went through the motions of the very basic plan the drones had been given, already moving out the door. It was nice to have an excuse to leave the shop and go somewhere, at least, and it'd be equally nice to not have such high stakes on a fight for a while.

Nodding, Trinity stood, looking at Harbinger at first for a bit before following the drones out.