"Some girlfriend you have," Zeke muttered as the trio tried to fight their way through the crowd.

"Urasai!" Dionysus snapped. He looked around. "Do you see any of them?"

"I can't see a bloody thing with all these people! Our Otaku are dressed pretty normally... the only one that'll stick out is that fuku-wearing tramp of yours!"

Dionysus growled low and made to attack Roger for the slur on his charge's name, but Zeke held him back.

"Calm down, buddy! The stuffy brit's just pissed. None of us expected this to happen."

"You're damn right we didn't expect this to happen! Celly keeps snapping ALL THE TIME!!! How are we supposed to know what kind of schedule she keeps? I don't care what happened in the Silver Millennium, but I want to see her go down!"

Dionysus' blood ran cold. "What do you know about the Silver Millennium?" he asked in a harsh tone.

"Ah, only that Celly was some princess named 'Celeste' and you were her bodyguard or something. Susanne was trying to explain some psycho-babble called multiple personalities to me. I wasn't really paying attention."

Dionysus was about to speak when a massive explosion cut him off. All the men turned and were shocked to see the top of the Matterhorn blown away like Vesuvius. The people around them screamed in fright, not understanding what was happening. The trio also saw a group of Japanese tourists snapping pictures rapidly.

"What..."

"... the..."

"... hell...?"

It struck him like lightning. "Oh, gods... Ce-ko!!!" Dionysus yelled and tried to take off. Roger and Zeke grabbed onto him.

"What do you think you're doing?!?" Roger said.

"We're Guardians! We're not allowed to interfere with the fights between Otaku!" Zeke added.

Dionysus calmed down and the two men loosened their grip, but didn't break it. "You don't understand," he said quietly. "Whatever has taken over Ce-ko has no inhibitions whatsoever. She will tear this place apart with her bare hands and kill everyone in her path until your Otaku muster enough guts to face her. Gomen nasai... forgive me for this."

Before the two could contemplate what he meant by that, Dionysus twisted out of their grasp, reached out, and knocked their heads together. He then leapt to the top of the nearest building.

"I'll interfere as much as I want!" he called out flippantly. "I was kicked out of the Council, remember? I'm not a Guardian anymore!"

Dionysus took off, leaping the rooftops above the trampling crowd, trying to find his Otaku before the others could find her first.

TBC...