Blankout
From Inga no Kusari wiki
Are You Experienced?
An average evening at Utsuro's bar turns into a night of hell with the appearance of a mysterious man who calls himself August. An attempt to arrest the owner of the bar goes awry, and with a mysterious device, August unleashes the hollows hidden within Jin Urashima and Utsuro himself. The Quincies Vander Shashu and Marco Blackburg, helped by the newly-awakened seer Gafuruu Haribou, battle the Visoreds, and eventually, Utsuro is subdued. But in a tragic act of Quincy Pride, Marco defeats the hollow in the only way he knows how, resulting in the untimely death of Utsuro.
Don't You (Forget About Me)
The next day, at the crack of dawn, Desmond Green, the venerable owner of Green's Bookstore, is met by two mysterious fellows in black suits. Claiming they represent a building contractors, they distract Desmond and knock him unconscious with a tranquilizer dart, leaving nothing but the note 'Mr. Green is in custody. Apologies.' It's only a couple of hours later when people start arriving at the store that a full investigation ensues, performed by the friends of Desmond.
Don't You (Try To Pretend)
Investigations of the store reveal not only the method of capture, but even where the dart came from. Armed with this information, the group, made of Gafuruu Haribou, Dmitri Kengo, Sho Kasuke, Calleigh White Fox, Rikimaru Naresegawa, Rorek Ambrosius and Daichi Kenta, prepare to set out to the store where the dart was purchased. Their progress is hampered by the coming of a hollow long thought dead, but in a matter of minutes it is bested, and the group set on their way to track down the purchaser of the dart.
Darts of Pleasure
Another roadblock is raised before the group in the form of a fickle old man, the owner of a hunting supplies store. While initially cagey about matters, a lie about kidnapped dogs, some risqué poses from Calleigh and continuous bribes from Gafuruu bring out a more amiable side to the old man. A blonde gaijin and an obvious bluff about government pest control, the old shopkeeper gives the group an address to follow, a residential address in Central Okumichi..
Watch That Man
Following their leads of a Quincy's residual reiatsu and the address of the last buyer of the dart, the group arrives at the apartment of Jin Urashima, a Quincy surgeon at Okumichi General Hospital. After a short interrogation it turns out he had been framed, but he too had had an encounter with the men dressed in black, possibly the same man who kidnapped Desmond. With this knowledge that there's been more than one occurrence, that it could be more widespread than they thought, the group split up to look for clues.
Soul Doubt
A battle with a hollow leads to an unlikely gathering of people, a Native American, a Quincy, a Shinigami, a girl who speaks like she's older than she seems, and a bleach-haired punk. Out of the group, only the punk is the odd one out. The beast is quickly taken care of, and a discussion ensues, which soon enough leads them to Green's Bookstore.
Friend or Foe
It's revealed the blonde punk is Desmond's nephew, sent across from the UK because of the bookstore owner's mysterious disappearance. He has some interesting information. A group of Men in Black, a shadowy agency, kidnappings like these have happened before, and they always ended in a witch hunt. They'd need to find Desmond, and fast, otherwise every one of them could be in danger.
Bite Your Rhymes
A mere week after the disappearance of Desmond, Dmitri is approached by a woman calling herself April, who appears to be working for his stockholders. After a short meeting in which a merger between Kengo corp and another company is discussed and approved, the woman's more sinister intentions come to light. Working for a shadowy organisation, April threatens Dmitri to be more careful with his questioning and the use of his power, and she reveals that all the Seers and Quincy are being watched. She ends the 'meeting' by shooting the millionaire, leaving him with more questions than he has answers.
B-SIDE - Hotel California
Desmond is held inside a concrete cell, the basement of some building or other. Into the room arrives April, obviously flustered and holding a tazer. With a little bit of coercion and threatening, she interrogates Desmond, and tries to see if she can reveal anything new from the bookstore owner. Eventually he confirms details about the great earthquake that shook Okumichi in October, revealing that the disaster was not so much natural as it was supernatural. With his agreement to help, he's knocked out, and dragged deeper into the complex...
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
A party is held at the bookstore, a gathering of anyone who could be useful for the investigation into Desmond's disappearance. After a few drinks, ideas of torture and mental games come into the fray, along with a cunning plan to lure an Agent into the open in order for the group to capture them and make them talk.
Hang Onto Yourself Parts 1 & 2
Using an attracted Menos Grande, the gang draw out June, a member of the Agency. With a quick capture and interrogation, they learn the history of the mysterious organisation that she works for, her commanding officer Zwolf, and perhaps even the dastardly plan they've kidnapped Desmond Green for. Next on the agenda is an infiltration, to find out just how much the Agency knows about each of them, and where they're keeping the elderly bookstore owner.
Of Birds, Moons and Monsters
Using Dmitri's connections and clever disguises, the Seers infiltrade the Kengo tower, heading for the apparently abandoned basement levels. There they discovered a hive of activity, two Agents and a whole host of men in white scrubs, working at computer terminals. When their cover is blown, a fight ensues, most of the computers are destroyed in the melee. The battle looks like it would turn in the Seers' favour, with the red-haired October joining in to help his comrades. But at that moment, August uses his device to fill the room with a high-pitched buzzing, sending Dmitri, secretly a visored, into a wild frenzy. August escapes sneakily, and with most of the computers destroyed, the most important data is kept out of Seer hands. But a laptop, and the Agent October survived...
B-SIDE - Silver Strand
In the dead of night, a convoy of dark cars approaches the Quincy's secluded abbey. Out of the head car comes August, newly disgraced from the events at the Kengo Tower. He enters the abbey and demanding to speak with the Quincy Elders. Daichi, despite not wishing to allow this Agent entry, tries to appease him, and learns that there is video evidence of Marco and Sieg's actions in that basement. Matters are worsened by the actions of Jin and Marco himself, hidden in the darkness of the forest and picking off the agency members around the perimeter. When news of this unseen attack gets out, orders are made to destroy the abbey using explosives. To ensure the safety of the non spirit-sensetive Agents, Desmond gets out of the car, forcing co-operation by robbing the Quincy of their powers. Their faces recorded, Daichi, Jin and Marco are all labelled as terrorists, held responsible for the bombing of the Abbey, the Agency hopes this sobers the 'heroes' enough to prevent any further meddling in their plans.
Beyond Electric Dreams
Called to the bookstore at 3am, Finn reveals to the group some of the information stored on the laptop stolen from the invasion on the Kengo building. With everyone sitting comfortably, he reveals to them (the first time for him, too) the very thing the Agency have been working towards during their occupation of Okumichi city. The truth is far more sinister than it seems. Desmond was not just captured because he was involved in the spirit presence in the city, he was kidnapped to extinguish it. Operation Blankout, a shadowy plan, intended to use Desmond's abilities to wipe out the spirit presence of Okumichi for good. Using his fullbring in conjunction with a mysterious 'subject Ross', he would be able to make all spirit energy halt in Okumichi, preventing souls from existing there, removing the fullbrings of all its seers, but also protecting it from hollows.
Plans are called for, and soon the group take their attention from the laptop and begin to lay out what they ought to do. They know where Desmond will be and when, all they need is to work out how to get into the mysterious Verne Tower, a place that had been erected in little over a year, astonishing work for a skyscraper. Daichi and Dmitri suggest a stakeout, and the rest agree, for three months they would monitor the activity around the tower, work out shift patterns, see when people enter and leave. Then, in November, the seers would gather for the final push, to work their way up the tower, free Desmond and stop the Agency once and for all.
No More Heroes
The group gather before the Verne tower after a three month stakeout. With the building deserted for the weekend, they enter the still under-construction skyscraper. Not a moment after they enter the premises are they approached by a police officer that feels a tingling down his spine. Whether this feeling is suspicion or something supernatural, he does not know, but he decides to follow along with the group in hopes of preventing any misdeeds.
A search of the ground floor yields nothing of worth to the group, and with that they ascend the grand staircase to the in-construction tower and find themselves face to face with a member of the Agency familiar to most of them, a blond-haired siren known as April. She tells them that her company are pulling out all the stops to keep Desmond safe, with specially trained operatives who can withstand spiritual attacks far better than the average mortal.
Rain Dogs
These spiritually-aware soldiers fall quickly to the powers of the group, who try their hardest to eliminate enemies in the most humane way possible. Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Sachiko Haribou and Tsuya Soikotsu venture into the tower, late for the meet-up and seemingly lost, they search the ground floor much like the rest of the group did. Up above, the battle goes against the Agency until only April is left standing. She surrenders when she sees that she is beaten, prepared to make deals with the assembled Fullbringers in order to save her skin. Sachiko and Tsuya make their way to the basement, where Sachiko is gripped by her visored self and brought into her inner world.
Spring Snow
With April's goons defeated, everyone begins to interrogate the surviving agent. The questions come thick and fast and she struggles to answer any one of them, instead she allows the group to bicker amongst themselves, hoping that at the right moment, she can quietly slip away and alert her superiors of the group's invasion of the tower. Beneath them, however, Sachiko undergoes a tremendous change, her inner hollow awakening and taking control of her body.
In the frenzy of activity, the hollowified Sachiko releases a cero straight up, cleaving a hole through several floors of the building, but fortunately not causing any major structural damage. The group continue to bicker, but some keep an eye on April, leaving her only option for a speedy getaway as a suicide attempt, throwing herself into the newly opened hole and dying upon impact with the basement floor.
November Rain
With the hole formed in the floors, the Agency are alerted to the group's presence on the tower. A new agent, known as November, calls down from one of the floors above, taunting the group in an attempt to have them rush up into yet another ambush. Finn swears up a storm at the agent when, suddenly, the groups attention is broken by the appearance of Sachiko. Bearing a mask and attacking the group without any thought of hesitation or mercy.
People Traps
Tsuya joins the group and attempts to distract the hollowified Sachiko whilst the rest of them rush up the stairs, hoping to meet with November ready and armed. Tsuya battles against the unrelenting Sachiko for a couple of rounds, but soon succumbs to his own inner hollow, the two ravenous beasts fight each other on the second floor whilst the group ascend upwards.
On their journey towards November and the seventh floor, the group encounter numerous hidden traps, all reminiscent of those employed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. It takes all the mental abilities of the group to overcome these traps, knowing that even if they used their powers and superhuman survivability, they would likely be blown to smithereens.
Up The Hill Backwards
On the seventh floor, the group engage with November and December, who have combined their specially armed forces in order to take down the group swiftly and cleanly. The goons take a lot out of the group, but they're taken out much the same as April's operatives were, unable to resist the onslaught of the attacking fullbringers and quincy.
Lives are lost in this fraught battle, with the group unable to use their abilities to merely disable these military-minded attackers. November is knocked unconscious in the fracas and December dies when Jin impales him with a seele schneider. When the dust finally settles, the elevator at the end of the room opens, the ever-grinning August telling the group that it's all over for them. He activates a tower-wide sonic frequency emitter, which forces the inner hollows present within those of the group cursed with visoredhood to take charge. They will be forced to kill their allies or be killed by them.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
The bloodthirsty visoreds turn on their comrades and each other. Dmitri, possessed by Impio, attacks anything that moves nearby him. Jin, possessed by Carrera, uses the shadows to his advantage, attacking any person that tickles it's fancy. Meanwhile Sachiko attacks Yuuto, throwing him down the cero-forged hole. Finn, possessed by Cúbolg, attacks Calleigh, ripping the back of her jacket to shreds before turning his attention on the grinning and laughing form of August.
Finn lunges as August, spear in hand, he kills the agent quite messily, severing limbs and sending blood everywhere. In his frenzied attack, he mistakenly severs a power cable, which luckily enough cuts out the building's power supply. The loss of power halts the sonic frequency emitter's assault on the visoreds ears, freeing them from their unwanted demons.
Bad Moon Rising
With dozens more floors to climb, the group, significantly reduced by the attack of the visoreds and exhaustion, decide to use a janitorial service elevator, which works on a separate power supply to the rest of the building. With Gafuruu, Dmitri, Calleigh, Sachiko and Finn in the spacious elevator, their slow and steady journey to the top of the tower is made a whole lot easier.
Motivational speeches are uttered, wounds are healed and battle is prepared for. Their next fight would be their last, against their greatest enemy and their mutual friend.
No More Heroes Anymore
Up on the roof of the Verne Tower, the group finally comes into contact with Desmond once more. Strapped to an infernal device created by a scientist known only as "Ross", the amplification frame is the final product of Operation Blankout. The group attempt to free their friend from his unfortunate fate, only to have their supernatural powers blocked by Desmond's fullbring. The commander of the Agency's Okumichi branch, a man known as Zwölf, directs his men to attack when the group are at their weakest.
Nevertheless, the group manage to take down Zwölf's men through some good old-fashioned ass-kicking, and soon they're free to try and talk the Agency out of unleashing the negation of spirits upon Okumichi. As they discuss and debate, Dmitri slowly makes his way towards the console that controls Desmond's amplification frame, hoping he could shut the machine down. Zwölf relents against the endless debating, however, and calls up an helicopter armed with a minigun. No amount of rock-fu could take this foe out.
Whatever Happened To..?
Using the reiatsu-imbibed key to the bookstore in conjunction with a short, sharp shock to Desmond, Calleigh activates a portal away from the rooftop, and takes Desmond with her before he can re-activate his fullbring. The curse of their negated powers is lifted and the group can officially whoop ass again. The rest of Zwölf's goons are defeated, the chopper is blown to smithereens by an accurate cero fired by Sachiko and the day is all but won.
Match Box
Zwölf, defeated and with nothing left to fight with, tries to make a deal with Dmitri, who conveniently seals the two of them within a special cube of reiatsu. Their deal would be discussed and finalised, if it wasn't for the ability of Finn's fullbring, which cut a hole in the cube to allow Gafuruu and Finn to listen in on the deal.
Zwölf decides that if he cannot make a deal with Dmitri, who gave his word that the Agency manager would be shared amongst the three of them, then he would sooner die. A suicide pill is swallowed, but with the ability to see ghosts, his victory is a short one. Zwölf is filled with rage, and quickly transforms into a hollow, that Gafuruu soon kills. Finn punches Dmitri in the fact for making deals with the Agency, and then excuses himself, Gafuruu follows suit soon after.
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