All three of them arrived at the rendezvous point.
Syd and Roxxy reached the meeting spot too.
It was the bridge across the river, about a hundred meters or so from the Eiffel Tower.
From the opposite end of the bridge, the siblings saw three figures limping toward them, looking just as battered.
"Yo! Jap guy! Jody! Fatty!"
"Fatty your ass!"
Sera's sharp reply was the first to echo back, but that alone reassured Roxxy—it meant they were all still in one piece.
Seeing that Syd, Roxxy, and the kid were safe brought relief to the group.
Jody noticed both siblings had burn marks and charred streaks on their clothes.
They must've been hit by the explosion too…
"Huff… huff… huff…"
"How many enemies are there?!" Syd asked.
"Just one on our end," Toshi replied.
"She can decompose things… the more you move, the faster it happens."
"Shit… so you're at a disadvantage."
"It's fine. We've got Sera."
Roxxy glanced at Sera and Jody—both were bruised, scraped, and stained with blood, no less than she was.
The siblings also noticed one of the legs on Jody's jeans was torn off, leaving her leg bare.
"What about on your side?"
"Same—just one. He's the one who dropped that car from the sky…"
Syd went on, "I roughed him up bad, but he'll be back. From now on, keep your eyes on the sky. That bastard could drop anything on us."
"We heard an explosion—saw smoke and fire coming from the park. That you guys?"
Jody asked.
"No…"
Syd shook his head.
"That was him. The guy I ran into doesn't care about anyone else—just the damn kid. He's the one who brought the chopper down."
Now that Sally was safe, the three of them exhaled in unison.
"…Syd… your hand…"
Sera pointed at the hole through his palm.
"Yeah. Heal me, will you? And Roxxy too—the chopper blast hit her hard."
Once Sera finished healing Syd, she turned to treat Roxxy's wounds. Taking the chance, she asked,
"By the way… why are we meeting here?"
"Mickey," Roxxy answered. "I called him to pick us up here. He's on his way."
She glanced at Jody, just as the American girl walked up to Syd and whispered something.
"Syd…"
"What?"
Roxxy couldn't hear the conversation, but she saw her brother make a weird face, glancing between her and Jody before saying anything else.
She saw Jody grab his shoulder and look him in the eyes seriously. Syd paused, thinking about something...
Roxxy Barrett didn't like it one bit.
Sera, still healing her, picked up on Roxxy's rising irritation—but chose not to comment.
"How's that?"
"…Ah… better now…"
Roxxy rotated her wrist just as Jody finished her talk with Syd and walked back toward Sera.
"What were you planning to do?" Roxxy asked the American girl.
"Figuring out how to take down our enemies."
"..."
When Jody answered like that, Roxxy said nothing more.
"Hey… Sally's calm now, huh?"
"Damn right. I smacked her ears twice. She's tamed."
Sally clung to Syd Barrett's leg, her eyes twinkling as she stared at Toshi Ishii.
"…You're the guy who passed us earlier, right…?"
"That's me. Sorry about that."
Toshi patted the girl's head.
"Why apologize to a pickpocket? She's the one who should be sorry."
Syd smacked his Japanese friend on the back of the head and got back to business—his ability to transfer the properties of materials.
It was obvious by the red aura evaporating from everyone's body.
"Almost 10 minutes now… time to top you all up again."
He shifted Sally to his other arm and passed her to Toshi.
He placed one hand on the concrete edge of the bridge.
"…What are you doing?" Sally asked.
"Making us tougher," Toshi replied.
"…Oh…"
Syd placed his palm over Sally's head, and the red aura started flowing from the bridge into her body.
"Too many questions, brat."
Smack!
Syd flicked the kid's head.
Still, Sally felt something surge through her—her body felt stronger.
"Alright, form a line."
One by one, Syd gave each of them the buff, until the last in line—Jody.
Roxxy, who was keeping watch, noticed her brother talking to Jody again.
He seemed unsure of what he was doing, but Jody shook her head, firm in whatever decision she'd made… What the hell were they talking about?
Sera walked up to Sally, who was still in Toshi's arms, and struck up a gentle conversation.
"Hey… your power, it lets you see through everything, right?"
Sally was a bit nervous making eye contact, but Sera's soft tone encouraged her to answer.
"…Do you think you could use it to look around real quick? Maybe the enemy's hiding behind one of those pillars."
"…Huh? There's no one. Those two don't have invisibility or anything. What're you talking about, Sera…" Toshi chimed in, glancing around.
"Doesn't hurt to check."
"…Okay…"
Sally nodded. A soft orange aura began steaming off her body like vapor from a kettle.
The symbol of the eye appeared, and her power activated.
The moment her green eye started glowing…
"…H-Hey! Wait! What the hell?!"
Everyone's attention snapped to Toshi and Sera—because something unexpected was happening...
Sally broke free from Toshi's arms and bolted toward Syd Barrett, who was still talking with Jody. She screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Aaaah!!! AAAAAHHHH!!!"
"Hey—whoa, whoa! Kid! What the hell's wrong?!"
"AAAHH!!! Big brother!!! Run!!! We have to get away from them!!! They're dangerous!!! Dangerous!!!"
The tension in the air spiked. Sally's panicked cries and sudden turn in behavior shook everyone. She yanked at the hem of Syd's red shirt, trying to drag him away from Jody while also turning to Roxxy and crying out the same warning.
"Run!!! Big brother, we have to run!!!"
"Run?! What the hell are you talking about?! They're my friends, you little psycho! What got into you?!"
"Sally? What's wrong—"
Jody stepped forward, trying to calm her, but Sally flinched back as if recoiling from a monster.
"Don't! Don't come near me!"
Everyone could feel the energy pulsing off Sally. She was terrified of Toshi, Sera, and Jody—despite having spoken normally with them just moments earlier.
When Syd wouldn't budge, Sally ran straight into Roxxy's arms, clinging to her tightly.
"Please! You have to tell big brother not to go near them! You have to tell him!"
Roxxy blinked in confusion. She looked the child in the eye and asked gently,
"...Sally… what did you see?"
"Germs! I saw germs crawling all over them! If we stay near them, those things will get inside us!"
"Germs?!"
Syd rushed over. As soon as he arrived, Sally switched from clinging to Roxxy to latching onto him.
"What do you mean you saw germs?! What are they like?!"
He shook her gently by the shoulders.
Toshi and Sera started to get visibly worried. Jody, on the other hand, was processing something deeper.
"I don't know! I don't know!" Sally buried her face in Syd's chest. "They're… orange and gross and wiggly! They'll eat me!"
"Calm down, Sally—"
Toshi tried to approach, but Jody snapped at him.
"Toshi! Don't go near her!"
All attention shifted to Jody Johansson.
"I get it now... this is what's been going on!"
"What do you mean?!"
Sera asked urgently.
"That assassin's power! Her decomposition ability—it spread into us through the parasites! That's how it infected us!"
The air tightened. Everyone froze.
"Sally, you saw them, right? Crawling all over us? And they were orange?!"
The little girl nodded.
"Same color as that assassin's aura…" Sera muttered.
"Exactly," Jody continued. "What Sally saw wasn't germs. They were parasites—implanted into us by that woman. That's how her power works! It needs a medium to function! And we're carrying that medium inside us!"
Jody stepped away from Syd. Roxxy, who was standing close to Jody, tried to move too—but it was already too late.
"Above us!"
Toshi pointed skyward. A flaming chunk of the destroyed helicopter was plummeting toward them!
"They're attacking again!"
BOOM!
Chaos erupted.
Even worse, a green pineapple-shaped object was falling from the sky. A grenade—and it was about to detonate right above them.
"Bomb!"
But before anyone could act, it flashed white and detonated, precisely calculated to explode just before hitting the ground.
Sera was closest.
"Sera! Get out of there!"
Toshi yelled with everything he had—but there was no time. Even with enhanced reflexes or hardened skin, it wouldn't matter. Not against that blast.
In that desperate moment, Toshi activated his martial technique again.
The world around him dulled in color. Time slowed to a crawl. The ticking of his internal clock returned, loud and rhythmic, rising into a rapid, urgent tempo.
He saw the expanding flames, the pressure wave beginning to bloom. It hadn't reached Sera yet.
Toshi sprinted toward her.
Tick, tick, tick, tick—
In the final moment before his technique expired, he hurled himself into Sera with full force, knocking both of them off the bridge and into the river below!
BOOM!!!
The explosion rocked the area, tearing through everything—stone, metal, wood—obliterating it all.
"Toshi! Sera!" Syd shouted.
"We're okay!" came Toshi's voice from below.
Syd rushed to the bridge edge with Sally in his arms. Looking down, he saw both Toshi and Sera floating in the water, alive.
"Huh?! What… Toshi?!"
Sera was still in shock, not realizing what had happened until now. Everything happened too fast for her to even process. But Syd understood—this was the second time Toshi had saved her life.
But the attack wasn't over.
"More incoming!" Sera shouted from below, pointing up.
Syd looked up and saw it—dozens of grenades were raining down on them.
"Shit!!"
He grabbed Sally and ran, dodging explosions behind him.
The bombing forced him back onto the road they had come from.
Now, the helicopter wreckage had divided the group into three separate parts: Syd and Sally running from the falling bombs, Toshi and Sera floating in the river below, and Roxxy and Jody cut off on the other side of the burning debris.