"Agito!" It was Sho.

"Can I help you with something, Fukamachi?" Agito asked in his usual unemotional tone.

"Mizuki and Shizu are just about to finish getting lunch ready," Sho said, obviously happy at the prospect of having something to eat.

For that matter, Agito had just noticed that he was hungry himself. "I’ll be out there in a minute, Fukamachi."

"I can wait," Sho said brightly.

Agito shook his head, still thrown off at times by the way that Sho would sometimes act like the little brother Agito had never had. It could be endearing, or it could be annoying, but right now it was the former. Laughing quietly, Agito opened the door and stepped out into the hall.

"All right, Fukamachi, I can see how eager you are." Agito put a hand on Sho’s shoulder and proceeded to steer him toward the large kitchen/dining room. "Let’s go eat."

As they walked, Agito wondered again just what the ‘errands’ that Murakami had alluded to actually were. It was true that the man had proven time and time again that he was an enemy of Chronos, and therefore could be trusted at least that far. And it was also true that when he had worked for Chronos Agito had indeed heard the name Masaki Murakami, mostly in the company of several vile curses and unflattering epithets.

Murakami had been enough of an annoyance to Chronos that they were willing to risk sending heavily destructive teams of Zoanoids into densely populated areas. They hadn’t been at all concerned about the fact that they would potentially be killing tens, if not hundreds of innocent people, of course. The only thing that had made them put a temporary hold on their plans was the thought of their losing so many potential Zoanoids.

He hadn’t been the one to raise that particular objection, and after seeing what had been done to the person who had… Agito shuddered.

"Is something wrong, Agito?" Sho turned a worried look on him.

"It’s nothing I can’t handle, Fukamachi," he said. But, thank you for your concern, Sho.

"Oh," Sho seemed to be disappointed by his answer.

Agito sighed, but kept walking in silence. As soon as they had reached the kitchen, Agito noticed that Masaki Murakami was already sitting down at the table, drinking a glass of something that Agito couldn’t make out. Sho took the place next to Mizuki, just like Agito knew he was going to. Agito himself took the seat beside Shizu.

"Murakami," looking over at the older man, Agito considered what he was going to say. I’m sorry I was such a jerk earlier. You’re right, I had no reason to pry into your private affairs. I still don’t. "You’re looking better." I trust you, Masaki Murakami. You’ve been an enemy of the Chronos Corporation for at least as long as I have. I don’t know what you’ve lost to them, but I do know at least some of your reasons for fighting.

Nothing. Murakami didn’t even look over at him.

xXxXx

When Masaki heard the deep voice of Guyver III, he at first thought that Makashima was going to apologize for being so forward, and so he turned slightly to let Makashima know he was listening. When he finally did hear what Makashima had to say, Masaki had to bite back the angry words that he so badly wanted to say in response.

Turning away, and resolving to ignore Makashima for at least the remainder of the day, Masaki started to eat again. There was a pleasant buzz of casual conversation around the table, and Masaki listened without participating. He toned down his enhanced hearing just enough that he wouldn’t be so easily able to pick out individual words, and just listened to the many overlapping voices.

Sho and Mizuki were talking about something or other, Masaki wasn’t paying enough attention to their conversation to find out what; Tetsuro had complemented Shizu’s cooking, and then had thanked Mizuki as well when there had been a break in conversation between her and Sho; even Makashima was talking, though not as much as any of the others.

Masaki added his own compliments to Shizu and to Mizuki, and then fell silent for the remainder of the meal. Once lunch was finished and all of them had started going their own separate ways, Masaki went out to the main room of the cabin, where some couches and other furniture had been set up to make this temporary base of operations seem more like a home.

Masaki thought that the attempt would have worked a great deal better if they hadn’t all been so conscious of the fact that this place was anything but home, for any of them. Walking up to the windows that had been kept covered, for fear of alerting any patrolling Zoanoids that there were people in this place, Masaki pulled up a corner of the curtain and looked out at the darkening sky. There was going to be a storm soon, Masaki was sure of that, but for now all that had happened was that the sky had become overcast.

Back when their family had lived in a real house, and before Masaki had even heard of the Chronos Corporation, Kenji had liked to go out in weather like this. There had even been some times when Masaki had let his son do just that, if only for a few minutes. Miaka, Masaki’s beloved wife, had always seemed to grudgingly tolerate these excursions. But she had made it very clear that the time Kenji spent in the rain had to be short, or he would have her to deal with. I hope Kenji’s all right, being out in this. But it was just a light drizzle, not even worth being called rain at this point.

Masaki chuckled, remembering how he had mostly went out of his way to avoid getting Miaka angry. She had had a formidable temper, and Masaki used to pity anyone stupid enough to arouse Miaka’s fury. I miss her… Masaki thought, as he looked out at the thin mist of falling water.

It was now more important that ever that he find someone to take care of Kenji, since the doctors’ last projection had given him only a year and a half to live. He would, if he was both careful and extremely lucky, get to celebrate Kenji’s seventh birthday with him, but nothing after that. Damn Gyou for his sadistic tendencies anyway. And damn Balkus for doing this to me in the first place. Damn them both to the depths of Hell!

Alone in the main room, with no one to see him in this moment of weakness, Masaki felt a single tear trail down his left cheek.

xXxXx

The first thing Kenji noticed when he woke up was that it was colder, that was the first thing. The second was that the wind had picked up, Kenji could hear it howling outside his tent. He could also see the sturdy cloth walls rippling slightly as the wind hit them. Pulling on the long, heavy raincoat his dad had given him, Kenji unzipped the front of his tent and pulled back the flap just enough to expose one lone blue-green eye to the outside world. He saw, through the gaps in the trees, the thick clouds that were blocking out the sky.

Kenji also saw the thin mist of water that was falling from the sky itself, it was not much more than morning dew at this point. Dad said I shouldn’t ever go out of here unless it was absolutely necessary. But… Kenji pulled back the flap further, letting both eyes see out of his small shelter. I’m sure nothing bad’s going to happen, as long as I don’t stay out there for too long. His mind made up, Kenji zipped up his coat and stepped out into the light shower.

Looking up again, Kenji blinked as the miniscule droplets of water fell into his eyes. Walking out into the forest, Kenji smiled. Then he laughed, softly and quietly, and started to sprint. Kenji knew that not many people liked to be outside in this kind of weather, but then Kenji knew that he wasn’t really what could be called ‘most people’.

Kenji giggled; most people didn’t live out in tents in the woods, and most people weren’t on the run from an evil corporation that had for some reason decided to name themselves after a moldy old Greek god. Most people also probably get to see their dads once a day instead of every other month, Kenji sighed, his good mood effectively gone. He always says it’s for my own good, for my own safety, but…

Looking back up into the sky, Kenji sighed again. Then, just as Kenji would have turned his gaze back to the ground and walked back to the tent, a brilliantly white bolt of lightning arced across the sky. Looking up and counting the seconds, Kenji heard the loud crash of the thunder a full five seconds later. Then it started to really rain. Kenji wasn’t too concerned about the storm, after all he had been taught by his dad how to tell just how close or far away a storm was. This one was five whole miles away!

Another bolt of lightning lit the sky, and the thunderclap that came five seconds later drowned out Kenji’s laughter. Looking back the way he came, Kenji decided not to go back to his tent, and as another flash of lightning split the sky Kenji took off at a run. He was going to race the lightning, or try to anyway. The loud boom of thunder that came after the usual five-second delay was only cause for more laughter.

Kenji had been out in worse storms than this. Some of the storms were indeed bad enough that Kenji wished that he was with his dad, inside a real house rather than out alone in what felt like nothing more than a flimsy scrap of fabric. But this storm was nothing like those others; where the rain would come pounding down, and Kenji would spread out all the books his dad had given him and lie down on the ground to try and keep the small tent from being torn down or blown over by the winds.

The winds in this storm were gentle in comparison to some of the others that Kenji had experienced over the years. Laughing as more lightning flashed overhead, Kenji ran right past a thick clump of trees without even looking over at them.

xXxXx

Inside this particular clump of trees, though, stood one of the worst possible people to be a witness to Kenji’s flight: a Chronos Combatant. This particular Chronos Combatant was a standard Ramochis model Zoanoid. Watching as the strange, laughing boy ran past his position, Ramochis wondered what he should do. The kid couldn’t have been any more than six or seven years old, and there was a strange familiarity to his features.

That kid’s too young to be out here all by himself, so the parents have got to be out here somewhere, too. And if they found out anything about what Chronos is doing here... Ramochis had been stationed out in this remote part of the forest surrounding Mt. Minakami to watch for any signs of the Guyvers and their allies, but also to make sure that no civilians found out about the operations that were being conducted under Mt. Minakami.

Checking in with Dr. Balkus, Ramochis received orders to watch the kid, see if he met up with anyone, and to report back to Chronos with what he found. Moving off into the wet late afternoon, Ramochis took extra care to make sure that his footfalls were as silent as was possible for someone of his size. Though, given how much noise the kid was making on his own, Ramochis had the feeling that he could have run after the kid without being noticed.

It’s more than a little careless of him, but then he’s only a little kid, Ramochis thought with a predatory grin. The kid was far younger even than Guyver I, and everyone knew that Sho Fukamachi was soft. Yeah, soft in the head, Ramochis laughed to himself. Recovering from his momentary lapse of concentration, Ramochis closed some of the distance between himself and the kid he had been sent after.

Ramochis couldn’t help but think the kid wasn’t thinking all that straight, what with the way he was laughing, laughing as he ran through the heavy rain. Finally though, the kid seemed to get tired of his little game, or maybe he had just gotten cold. In either case, the kid stopped running and calmly walking in the opposite direction. Ramochis followed him as closely as he could without the kid being able to notice him.

The ran was falling a little harder now, and Ramochis sensed more than saw another bolt of lightning tearing through the sky. Then Ramochis noticed that the thunder that always came after the lightning struck didn’t seem to scare the kid at all. Ramochis thought that was kind of strange, but maybe the kid had just gotten used to it. Once the kid reached a towering tree with huge, thickly leafed branches, he stopped entirely.

There was a large pair of bushes that were mostly hiding the kid from sight, but Ramochis could still make out the kid’s head and a bit of his neck. Moving closer, but still keeping out of the kid’s line of sight, Ramochis heard an odd sound. Realizing that this was just the sound a zipper made when it was being opened or closed, Ramochis dared to venture closer.