Hyde stopped to look at the tall hotel building they would be infiltrating to reach the roof. The sounds of passersby and cars in Osaka were setting in, they weren't going to be here long but it felt like they were never going to hear the silent peace of Kashiwara ever again after this final mission.

With nothing else to say, they entered the hotel. There weren't any obstacles preventing them from reaching the top, something they were thankful for. They took an elevator to reach the farthest floor they could go and walked the rest of the way, taking stairs up to the roof. Stepping outside onto the flat roof, the cold weather really started to bring an uneasy chill to their skin. They felt this was too easy, they had a feeling that Soap had something planned to stop them.

Hyde left once hand on his sheathed katana watching Mary place the bag onto the ground. If someone had come to stop them, Hyde could rely on Ibuki, Rine, and even Mary to back him up. This eased his nerves slightly.

Mary looked at Hoka and Oscar asking if there was anything else that needed to be done. Oscar shook his head and hovered his arm over the pile of weapons "I'm not sure if this is enough power but I can try."

Hoka also held her arm out and a faint glow emitted from their hands. Hyde scanned the area one last time, getting distracted by the many buildings he could see below. He stepped back from the edge after getting light headed, only for his sickness to quickly fade when he turned around.

His heart skipped a beat but he knew this wasn't going to be an easy mission. Squatting on the edge of the cooling tower with a scythe over his shoulder was Shotestor. It wasn't clear whether or not he had been waiting for them or chased after the detectives until Hyde asked.

"When did you get here?" Hyde questioned while drawing his katana.

Sho chuckled at their reactions "With all that magic you were carrying it was easy to follow your trail and easier to find out your destination. Needless to say but our battles end here, detectives."

"We'll take him together Hyde!" Mary stepped up beside her friend and raised her arm to summon her lance into her hands. Ibuki had taken a sword from the pile of special weapons and joined their side.

Sho stood up and unleashed just a pulse of his immense energy that made the wind blow away from around himself. Merely showing his powerful magic was enough to make even the weather spiral out of control. The dark element was tearing his sanity apart, his eyes were visibly reddish and draining his very soul. But the scythe felt so good to handle.

"You'll never beat me with that stick of a weapon!" Sho hopped forward with a wide swipe of his scythe to start the battle. Hyde closed the distance to block the attack, nearly falling back from the recoil of the attack.

Sho's swings were wide making it hard for all three to close in and get a strike without fear of getting hit with the weapon. He was focused primarily on Hyde, making him step back more and more with each swing, planning to make him fall off the edge of the building. Hyde had to turn this around somehow.

He swung his sword just as Sho swung his scythe and the blade clashed with the pole of the weapon making both boys stagger from the impact. Hyde pushed his weight towards Sho so he could at least attack in his direction, a wild upwards slash struck Sho which pushed him back enough for Hyde to move away from the edge of the building.

"That would hurt if you weren't so weak!" Sho turned around swinging his scythe to deflect Mary's lunge and started to shout in the megaphone "I'll get this over with! Encore, make it rain!"

That's when the weather started to shift. The clouds gathered above the building and started to drizzle sharp rain that slowly burned the group's skin. They covered their faces with their arms.

"He can do that?!" Mary exclaimed.

"Even more of an incentive for us to finish this as quickly as we can. Don't get the rain in your eyes!" Ibuki dashed forward only to be tackled by Mary to avoid a wave of darkness. They quickly picked themselves up and hopped over the cooling tower to hide behind it along with Hyde.

"I'll try to sneak behind him with none in view!" Mary covered herself with the white trench coat and vanished from sight. Hyde and Ibuki meanwhile split in separate directions as the cooling tower was sliced clean in half. Sho's attacks were a lot faster and the scythe's blade left behind purple trails of darkness.

Ibuki opened the umbrella to deflect the scythe slash, giving Hyde the opportunity to attack Sho once more though the damage was little. He stepped back a few steps to avoid Sho's kick then brought up his sword to block the scythe from overhead. Sho would pull the weapon back then swing it upwards to knock the sword out of Hyde's hand making him stumble back.

"I think I got him!" Ibuki drew her sword to slash twice which was easily blocked by Sho. He shoved her aside to block Mary's attack from behind and countered with a punch of his own that broke her illusion spell. She fell on the wet ground and rolled to the side to dodge the scythe slam, but the rain would get in her eyes making her vision overly blurry to see anything.

"And you can take this!" Shouted Sho as he jabbed the end of the scythe pole at Ibuki, sending her rolling back nearly falling off of the edge.

She sat up on one knee but the effects from the rain was making her immensely weak and tired. Hyde felt similar. Their skin was reddish in exposed areas, mostly their cheeks and hands that were affected the most. The rain stopped but the damage was already done. All Sho needed to do was kill the detectives one by one starting with Hyde.

Before Hyde had a chance to summon his lance, Sho kicked him in the face which pushed him over the edge but Hyde managed to grab onto it. He was moments away from his doom. Sho stood over him looming over his life like a reaper. It didn't need to be said but if Hyde had any last words, it would be how he truly enjoyed the time together with his friends.

"See you never detective." Sho raised his scythe ready to deal the final blow.

"Gh!" That killer feeling came back to Hyde. It was instinctual that he took out his lighter "Arrrrgh! I don't wanna die here! Arcel!" He threw it up and shot out a thin bolt of thunder from his hand to strike it, creating a magic reaction, a small explosion that was enough to blind Sho.

Hyde then grabbed his leg and pulled as hard as he could to toss Sho off the edge, making sure to sntach the scythe from him as he fell far far below screaming. Hyde could feel his other hand starting to give up on its hold and just before he fell as well, Ibuki caught him and pulled him back up.

The dark clouds parted, returning the weather above back to its original state. Rine rushed over to them worried and without his signature poncho "Are you alright?" That battle looked tough."

Hyde sighed "Yeah, but I'm not sure about Mary."

Mary touched the ground in random places trying to get a grasp on her surroundings " Y-yeah… this is nothing, hahaha…" she nervously laughed. Hyde then looked at Hoka and Oscar who used Rine's poncho to cover themselves from the rain. They were decently unharmed.

His nerves could rest easy now that the battle was over. Now all that was left was to find whatever Cran was searching for. But the rooftop door burst open and an abnormally tall male in a trenchcoat and fedora walked out slowly, carrying a silver briefcase. The shadow from his fedora hid his face from all angles.

Hyde tightened his grip around the scythe and confronted the man. He was probably going to die here for being overtly brave but it didn't matter now. As long as he was protecting his friends in this moment. "Come on!" The scythe was heavy to handle and its power was corrupting, the dark element making his uneasiness even more noticeable, but Hyde was ready to fight another battle.

The abnormally tall man raised his arm and brushed his hair off and a leaf fell out. With a poof a cloud of smoke exploded from the man and quickly dissipated to show Lambda, still abnormally tall with the trench coat covering most of her body. But looking at her legs, they were shaking tremendously.

"Yo yo yo!" Lambda made a toothy grin.

Hyde, Rine and Ibuki were equally baffled and confused. Mary heard their confusion and looked in the opposite direction…

"What is it?"

Lambda rubbed the back of her head "We came with a special delivery." She opened the trenchcoat to show Lan whose shoulders she sat on. The young brown haired sister was sweating profusely, almost about to give up and fall over.

"Lan..?" Hyde tilted his head confused at how this was a special delivery.

"No." Lambda looked down at Lan "Hey turn around."

"S-sis…" Lan replied with a dry voice.

Lambda dropped the trenchcoat and got off her sister's back. She took the backpack from her allowing her to fall to her knees panting. "We brought some more special weapons."

"Perfect!" Oscar cheered "I could sense something but it was very faint and hard to make out with all the other magic sources out there. Bring it over here."

Lambda brought over the bag of weapons to add to the pile. Oscar and Hoka quickly got back to work, the faint white aura around their hands started to glow even brighter due to the concentrated magic source. The feeling was gentle, when they closed their eyes they could envision the destination in their mind. What they saw was Kyoto, then Kameoka, then the maple road and lastly…

"The shrine!" Oscar said loudly once opening his eyes. He turned to face the group "Cran's going to the shrine in Kyoto. I don't know what's there but it feels very familiar."

Hyde nodded slowly and briefly thought over things before speaking. "Rine, take everyone back to rest. I'm going to go alone."

"Hyde no!" Mary managed to grab his pants "You don't have to go alone. I'll go with you!"

"It's stupid to go on your own Hyde. You should take Rine with you." Ibuki interjected. It was for the best to let him tag along since Mary was blinded for the meantime. But Mary objected heavily to this, rubbing her eyes and standing up trying to show that she was completely fine but her nearly stumbling over said otherwise.

Hyde groaned "Fine, but stay out of danger. Rine, Ibuki, can you take Hoka and Oscar back to the dormitory?"

Rine nodded, fully understanding "Try to come back alive alright?"

Hyde had wrapped his arm around Mary's shoulder and together they journeyed to Kyoto one last time.