First Snow

In Doctor Paylor Sakaki's office

"I see...he killed the pilots then." A voice said out of Sakaki's speaker. It was husky and slightly rasping.

"Wha? No-No, the autopsy showed signs of instant death on impact. No sword marks, no abrasions from anything other than the chopper." Dr.Sakaki said with his usual cheery vigor.

"Then...it was the aragami after all. I thought for sure, he would've taken the chance. You had me there Doctor." the voice said, with a hint of relief.

"Now as for the matter of his current stay Warden, uhhh? Sorry, they didn't stress your name." Paylor said, trying to be polite as possible.

"I am Warden Rodrigo Regis. Warden of Fenrir's Super Max Facility...saying the official name is a breach of contract you see..." the voice said.

"Ah, Warden Rodrigo, understandable, the only reason I could even get a hold of you is agreeing to non-disclosures, and I'm the acting director." Sakaki joked.

"You must understand Dr.Paylor, my prisoners are the worst of the worst. The records of their misdeeds and facilities aren't for anyone's eyes below a Branch Director or equivalent." Rodrigo said.

"If I may Warden, I'd like to request the boy stay here for the unforeseeable time." Sakaki said.

"...Why?" Rodrigo asked as suspicion grew in his tone.

"I would like to keep 1103 here for a crucial study. As it turns out he's a God-Eater that could further our efforts to the Psion threat. Are you familiar with Psions?" Sakaki said.

"Vaguely. They're only in the Far East from what I'm told." Rodrigo said.

"Well we only have One Unit that can effectively deal with Psions, perhaps you've heard of BLOOD. To keep this brief, our own God-Eater haven't yet reached their peak, they're gaining weapons to fight the Psions on their own, but it's not enough yet. Your inmate is a gen-1 god-eater and he still managed to kill a confirmed Psion." Sakaki said with a smile.

"...From what you've told me, doctor, the remote for his restraint device is broken. I'm not sure that helmet is enough for an inmate like him, I'm sure being fed through a needle keeps him docile, but I remind you he's very dangerous. " Rodrigo warned.

"Oh, the helmet broke too, quite some time ago. It must've been on its last legs." Paylor said, grinning as he stretched the truth.

"What!? Where is the prisoner now!?" Rodrigo asked in a panic.

"About to face a day full of missions by now." Paylor said, carefree.

"Doctor did you just say you were already sending him out on missions!? With no remote device or restrains, he's likely to do ANYTHING." Rodrigo voiced, getting more un-composed with every word.

"As I said, Warden, we are in the middle of multiple threats. The Psions, the red rain, the black plague, I can spare no resource however involatile." Sakaki said, gaining a more serious edge. He still held his trademark grin.

"...He's a killer." said the warden, leaving a heavy silence.

"I figured as much..." Paylor calmly, almost too calmly.

As this conversation progressed, Sano, Kanon, Kota, and Erina made landfall at the ruins of the snowfields.

"Is this what snow looks like?" Sano asked as he caught a snowflake.

"You've never seen snow before?" Erina asked, almost amused.

"Not without that helmet. By the time I discovered snow, I was already in jail." Sano said, admiring it in his palm.

"Well, that's...sad." Kota wanted to say something sarcastic but really felt the statement hit him.

"It is what it is. Kane, Let's go." Sano said, grabbing his god-arc flipping it to a reverse grip.

"Uh...ok." Kanon said sadly, as she pulled out her gun.

"Wait a minute. We need to go over a few things." Kota said getting ahead of Sano.

"What now, God-Eater?" Sano asked, making sure to emphasize the "God-Eater" to displease Kota.

Kota grunted as he gritted his jaw.

"Listen up smart-mouth I want you in my sights at all times! I promised Haru I'd watch you like a hawk on a snake. Don't even think of trying to escape! Even if you did we'd track you down in no time! I'm the best scout we've got!" Kota said, pulling up his machine gun.

"Yeah, In-Mate!" Erina said, joining her Captain at his side.

"Erina, report!" Kota said, unflinching to the inmate.

"The Aragami we're getting are gboro-gboro, 3 possibly 4, if it didn't bail on its herd. No sign of small fries from the last report. " Erina said with a salute.

"Got all that? IN-MATE!?" Kota said, with a glare to Sano.

Before they left Haruomi imparted these words on Kota.

KEEP THAT ANIMAL ON THE SHORTEST LEASH POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY AROUND THE WOMEN!

Kota of course, felt like Haru should've imparted those words on himself.

"(Though come to think of it, he's been staring at Erina a lot since they've met...)" Kota thought glancing at his subordinate.

When he looked back at Sano, he noticed he was staring at Erina again, with the same stoic expression from before.

Erina noticing this shot a glare at him. 1103 was much taller than she was, but she would not be intimidated, she thought.

"How old is that report?" Sano asked looking over a wooden platform.

"About a week, why do you ask?" Erina said.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Sano said sarcastically. Off the platform were green figments making their way along a wooden fence.

"Yeah, I can feel it, definitely more than a few gboro-gboros. Erina, you're my extra set of eyes, stay close. " Kota commanded, scanning the surrounding area.

"Yes, sir!" Erina said, brandishing her charge spear.

"Kane. If you fall and can't get up again, you're benched, understand?" Sano said with his back to her.

"Don't worry! I can handle this, Don't Worry. " Kanon declared, almost desperately.

"Don't get in her way. Or mine." Sano said heading for the edge of the platform, Kanon in tow.

"Got all that? GOD-Eater." Sano said, not giving Unit 1 a chance to respond as he jumped off with Kanon.

Erina was fuming as changed her spear into gun mode. "Give the word Captain, he won't make it 2ft!" she said.

"I think I just I just had a flashback." Kota murmured, as he recalled his memories in this frozen environment.

He could only picture a snarky god-eater wearing a blue hoodie, as he looked up at the sky.

Captain!

Kota quickly came to his senses and focused on Erina.

"If we don't hurry, we'll lose sight of the inmate!" she said as she took off from the platform in pursuit of Kanon.

"W-Wait!" Kota called out as he ran after the girl.

Sano took a leisurely pace admiring the mountain settlement. Many wooden structures were still in repairable condition, even livable. A bell tower nearby was relatively undamaged, only the stone platform supporting it had signs of bite marks.

Intriguing as this place was, however, he had to turn his attention to the green horde before him. These creatures up close were smaller than he initially thought.

A blade horn pointing up from their foreheads, and like Ogretails they stood on two legs. These creatures were not raptor-like as evident by their shells. They were Dreadpikes.

Kanon followed closely, casually enjoying the snow. As she noticed Sano stopped, she turned and immediately pulled up her gun.

"Shall we?" Sano said nodding to Kanon.

"Yeah." she said, getting that deranged look she was renowned for.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Kota and Erina hurried to the explosions going off in rapid succession.

"Oh man, and here I thought I should've been worried about the inmate when we had Kanon." Kota said, half-relieved while kicking himself.

"Think we'll find anything left?" Erina said, almost out of pity.

Kota overtook Erina taking the front, and found Kanon firing wildly. Kota was about to bring up his god-arc as he scanned the area for Sano. He, almost dropped it all together when he did.

As Kanon fired one shot after another, they went straight for Sano and each blast was diverted with his blade to the groups of Dreadpike.

Sano jumped up above, deflecting 3 rounds of shots to the bugs below. They flew in pieces, and their cores were nowhere to be found.

Black smoke filled the air as the Dreadpikes disintegrated.

Kota's jaw went agape at the mass destruction done before him.

"How did he do that!?" Erina shouted, barely keeping her eyes in their sockets.

It was only thanks to Erina's shout, Kanon got out of her trance.

"Did-I-Do-That!? All of that!? B-B-But I'm not done yet! I-want-to-shoot-MORE!" Kanon said, as her pupils scanned for more targets.

"That's what the warm-up was supposed to do." Sano murmured, recalling how the last "warm-up" left her unable to stand.

"(But speaking of warm.)" he thought, taking note that even though he wore a jacket over his prison uniform, Kanon, Kota, and Erina were in their usual clothes. Though Kota had a coat, it was sleeveless.

"Is this not cold enough?" Sano asked.

Kota and Kanon raised a brow, Erina however couldn't care less.

"Forget our clothes! How did you do that!?" Erina asked. The older god-eaters couldn't tell if she was offended or impressed.

"That being said, it's gotta hit below freezing to really affect us. Just wait until winter when it gets REALLY cold." Kota said, annoying Erina.

"Pretty sure, I'll be back in prison by then." Sano said stoically, turning his back to Kota.

"Ah...uh, right." Kota mumbled sadly. The felon god-eater was supposed to be unworthy of sympathy, but Kota couldn't help giving care about his predicament.

He didn't have time to ponder on it, however, as his sixth sense went off. Immediately Kota put his ear to the ground and focused his hearing.

He locked on to the sound of knawing and snoring.

Kota picked himself back up and looked ahead. "2 of em are in the main temple, one's sleeping over there. " Kota said nodding to the tall building that looked like an inn.

As he stood back up, Sano fought the urge to nod in acknowledgment.

"Kota's a tracking expert." Kanon said, as though reading his mind.

"That being the case. Make the runt useful and keep her in the bell tower over there." Sano said as he made his way to the temple, with Kanon.

"Ah, and WHO are you calling a runt!? And you never answered me!" Erina said, shrilling at being ignored.

"Hey, I said stay in line-of-sight, In-mate!" Kota yelled, lining his god-arc up. With an aggravated grunt, he glanced at the bell tower reluctantly.

"Erina, stay at the bell tower and keep an eye out for that third gboro-gboro. That or anything else comes up, you let us know!" Kota ordered as he ran after the convict.

"Wha!? Captain!?" Erina was once again left with no response. She kicked the ground into a puff of snow, and with a pouting face did as she was ordered.