Delta 2: Jefferson City Shindig

Now this was something she did not want to deal with on her fine day off, she had already made it into the outskirts of the city and was following along the debris that would've once been rooftops while keeping her eyes peeled when she felt the energy bubbling up, something was about to go down. She fixed her gaze on the scene below, the squad- Was that a little girl? Yugiri didn't even sense any reiatsu coming off her. They wouldn't, they would?

There was no time to waste thinking, she'd use instinct. A flash goddess couldn't waste time trying to think about something, they had to think faster than they could step and Yugiri could step quite fast.

What a pain in the butt, if she saved this kid she'd feel like she was taking her on as baggage. A responsibility, was that really what she wanted? No. Then again, she didn't exactly have a say in trying to suppress her body's instinctual motion. Even if she wanted to debate it further, Yugiri moved to fast to actually find the solution.

Instead she dropped down in a flash, amongst the chaotic formation of the group that had just lost half its numbers. Her appearance was brief most probably would think it was a mirage but there was definitely the missing form of Ira who she grabbed and jumped away and got out of sight in the broken building which she could peer out and assess the situation from while hoping her little act of snatching the kid wouldn't throw them off too much for what came next.

She didn't want to reveal herself too hastily until she had a better picture of the situation, even if the little girl would probably not appreciate her bold choice of action. She did her best to shush her and hope she got the idea of being quiet so she could watch.

Alastair had fortunately been at the forefront of the group, a choice he had made willingly to keep his eye out for the first sign of danger. A black feeling had already begun to settle in his gut when the demonic pulse went up, and he was perhaps the only member of the company whose gaze did not turn to gawk at the bifurcated soldier. He was already focused on the source of the energy, a hand outstretched and ready to call for his Spirit Weapon, until the sky began to fill with Gillians. Only then did he turn back, looking on as the rearguard were so bluntly decimated.

Immediately he regretted the morbid feeling of relief that he felt when he saw that the Gagantas were only on the outside of this freshly materialised barrier, but there was no time for guilt in a warzone. Half of his ragtag squad was already dead, but at least Jenkins and Ira were still alive so that was something.

He felt through the glove of his Leidan Hant, slowly but methodically gathering up the Reishi to materialise Falke in its bow form. Whatever was waiting for them inside Jefferson, it knew that they were here and it was not in the business of playing fair.

"What are your orders General? Are we still trying to break out or pressing forward? If we're lucky, the other teams might have made it inside as we--"

His voice cut off as he suddenly lost sight of Ira, he vanished in a flash of movement that Alastair had barely caught from the corner of his eye. Was it the monster that had summoned the barrier? Surely it wouldn't be so sadistic as to target the small child first? Ira hardly had a spiritual presence, but he reached out all the same and tried to sense which direction they had gone.

Ah, damn it. Well, wasn't this the pits? Ira could only sigh in a way that probably sounded fairly out of place coming from a young girl's mouth, more exasperated and tired of the situation than necessarily terrified by it. Was it concerning? Well, yes, obviously. But Ira was well past the point of tucking his tail between his legs and running, so--

Oh. Well, he'd gotten picked up now, hadn't he? He almost thought to yell at whoever'd thought of just grabbing him without a warning, but then he actually got a look at her. Hey, now this was what he'd come down to Jefferson for. Other than the whole chance to stretch his legs a bit, but you know, it seemed like he might've been a little out of his league now. Oh well, Ira wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He almost thought to thank her overexaggeratedly for the save, but that would probably put him in her bad graces after she'd just told him to shush. So, instead, he did what any terrified young girl would do, and held himself nice and close to Yugiri's chest.

For safety reasons, of course.

A lot happened in a very short period. They began to split up the two of them, likely as some manner of way to try and provoke Yaksha and see how he'd respond to their goading, or to give them an excuse to strike him and justify it as "disobeying orders" or something similar. The tactics of well-trained militaries were not something foreign or confusing to Yaksha at all, so their motives and objecives were as obvious as if they had shone them on a spotlight high in the sky. Even so, the fact that Calypso was about to enter a highly-contested area, where any number of fatal outcomes waited, as well as band of individuals that would gladly take advantage of an opportunity to bury a knife in a back.

He may well have made some comment on their attempts to insult their guests, or bothered to dislodge some archaic sense of guest-right that they'd no doubt laugh about if mentioned, if not for the sudden intervention of the third party he had vouched for, chiefly on a whim. Though he hadn't expected anything of this sort, it wasn't something unfamiliar to him; he'd housed a room inside of himself for some time, one that contained quite a lot of information on quite a lot of people and places and things up to now. Now there was simply an adjoining room, one where two people could hear him. Though it was a completely black void, he imagined it as a very well-maintained waiting room, complete with comfortable chairs and alcohol.

And even in this place, the child couldn't talk, it seemed. They simply reacted by gesture, prompting Yaksha to think back his own reaction; a very simple image of a figure, with two hands spread, shoulders jerking upwards for a second. Followed a split second later by Calypso speaking, Yaksha could already tell this would serve very ably as a form of communication that the Vandenreich couldn't hack or easily keep tabs on.

"General, I have a vague idea of what your plans are for this country, but I cannot in the slightest fathom how giving away the inadequacies of your information network factors into them."

Saying nothing else, he simply walked alongside the others, watching with grim poise as a man was bifurcated by a barrier, and then a split second later as the sky began to fill with unexpected, unprompted garganta. They couldn't all have linked to the same place physically; this many menos gathered in hueco mundo would've probably make Hallibel seek them out and smack them down almost immediately. And there weren't other places they could all lie in wait unseen, really. Which implied they too had some way of communicating, and some sort of trigger.

Which meant there was leadership here. Someone trying to treat hollows as beasts of burden again. Flashbacks to the third world war caused Yaksha to inhale slightly, and had one been able to see his face they likely would've noticed a twitching nerve on his forehead. Instead, all that happened was that his wings flared outwards, and his claws balled together, as he closed his eyes, allowing the two green lights within his mask's sockets to wink out, as he reached out mentally, trying to feel any weakening in the holes of reality near this place. Opening frequent or constant gargantas left an imprint, one that he'd normally be able to feel pretty heavily. This barrier in the way put a damper on that, but only very slightly.

I'll be giving you as precise a sense of our location as you can, Calypso. There are casualties here, ones that can possibly be saved. Do not fall for whatever they throw at you, remember that our goals here are not mutually exclusive. They want for it to be so, but there is no reason we both cannot win.

"I don't imagine that request about the barrier was directed at me, General. Were I to let hollows in here with us, you'd no doubt see that as me taking their side. I will instead resolve to find out who is pulling their strings."