Most wanted girl in the world

This part of Shin-Tokyo is quiet at this time of the evening. On nights like these, rarely can you hear much more than the pitter-patter of rain, the quiet humdrum of nearby homes, and the dull humming of the neon signs that adorned local businesses. I tried to respect that quiet by keeping my steps light as I made my way through the backstreets.

My pursuers, unfortunately, had no such respect.

“After her! Don’t let the Ronin get away!”

Footsteps thundered somewhere behind me, completely drowning out those tranquil sounds of the night. They were slower than me, but I could hear them coming from multiple directions. They were trying to head me off.

Fortunately, I knew these streets better than those upjumped mall cops could ever hope to. I darted right down a side alley, narrowly avoiding the enemies north of me and buying myself an extra few seconds. The alley I’d chosen was long, had no branches, and led into a dead end. For most, it would have been suicide, but I had a trick up my sleeve.

“Stop! Bastard!”

The footsteps had reached the entrance to the side alley. I was about two-thirds of the way to the end. There was one chance to make it out alive.

My left hand sat on the hilt of my katana, and as I neared the back wall of the alley, I turned on the spot and cleaved through the air, splitting the oncoming bullet in half. The two splinters of .38 Special flew harmlessly past me, the sound of the gunshot reaching my ears a fraction of a second later.

“What?! How did she-”

Before the private police captain had a chance to finish his question, I jumped cleanly over the back wall and onto the roof of the small business behind it. There was no way any of those bastards could catch up to me now, even with their cybernetics. Keeping my steps light and my head low, I dropped down from the roof and carefully made my way through the slums.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally reached the doorstep of my (very) humble abode. To call it a “home” would probably be a stretch, frankly. It was little more than a few walls of corrugated metal sheets, a roof to keep the rain out, an old futon for a bed, and a handful of personal effects.

Then again, when you’re on the run from every private military and police force in the country, you can’t exactly expect to live in luxury.

“That was reckless, Tokiko. You should really know better by now.”

“Come on, Time, not even a ‘welcome home?’ Or an ‘I’m glad you’re safe?’ You really have to start nagging the second I get in the door?”

“If you didn’t keep trying to throw your life away, I wouldn’t have to.”

I closed the door behind myself, dropped the duffel bag of stolen money on the ground, and sunk down into the futon in the corner, my body completely exhausted. From next to my haphazard pile of clothes in the other corner, a cat with pure black fur emerged and gave me a disapproving stare. It was Time, the magic guide that had awakened my magical girl powers and was now serving to help me control them. Despite looking like a pet, she tended to act like it was her taking care of me most of the time.

“Look, Time. I got in. I got the money. I got out. What more do you want from me?”

“If your precognition hadn’t triggered in time, that bullet was going straight into your spine.”

“But it did trigger, and the bullet didn’t hit me. So what’s the problem?”

“Are you forgetting that you’re the most wanted person in all of Japan? Just because you got lucky this time doesn’t mean you will every time. And this just proved they won’t hesitate to use lethal force. You have to be more careful.”

“Of course I’m not forgetting. After all, how could I? Can’t go anywhere without seeing another damn headline like ‘evil rogue magical girl brutally executes beloved CEO in senseless public attack.”

“If you’re aware of it, act like it. You can’t go around carving up public figures and robbing zaibatsus every night and still be this careless.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll pack it in.” I heaved a heavy sigh, trying to let some of the stress out of my body. As much as I hated to admit it, Time was right. I got lucky this time. I had to push my body pretty hard to escape, and even then I got my ass saved last-second by my precognitive powers. Considering how little control I had over those, it wasn’t something I wanted to rely on consistently.

Still, I’d started this war. The least I could do was end it.

“Honestly, a magical girl lowering herself to petty theft…”

“‘Scuse me? Petty theft? Does this look petty to you?” I said, lazily opening the bag’s zip with one hand and kicking it over. Hundreds of notes spilled out onto the ground. It must have easily been a hundred million yen.

“God dammit, Toki, are you trying to make the target on your back even bigger?”

“I turned a CEO’s internal organs into sashimi in front of hundreds of people but you think robbing a casino is gonna change anything? You said it yourself, I’m already the most wanted girl in the whole damn country.”

“That doesn’t mean you should bring even more attention onto yourself. I appreciate the money is going to a good cause, but your luck is gonna run dry very quickly if you keep this pace up.”

“I know, I know, it’s just… didn’t you approach me about becoming a magical girl because you thought I could make a positive change in the world?”

“Of course I did. And I still think that. But you’re playing with fire every day and it’s my job to make sure you don’t get burned. I’m just trying to keep you safe, Toki. That’s all.”

I didn’t respond. There really wasn’t anything to say. She was right, obviously. I hardly had an ounce of concern for my own wellbeing. All I really cared about was putting those corporate bastards to the sword and giving their money back to the folks who needed it. But I can’t keep up the Robin Hood act if I’m cold in the dirt. For better or worse, I needed to clean up my act.

Man. This job would be so much easier if I wasn’t going it alone.

Still, it was the middle of the night and I was exhausted. The character development could wait until morning. For now, it was time to sleep.

Wordlessly, I haphazardly threw the black cloak that had been covering my face and body onto the floor. Then I pressed the release button built into my temple and removed my cybernetic eye, placing it a little more gently on top of the cloak. Not like I had a bedside table to leave the damn thing on.

“You really should get into the habit of sleeping with it in, y’know. It’ll keep you more alert to threats.”

“Last thing I want when I’m tryna sleep is to be more alert. If they wanna slit my throat in my sleep, let ‘em do it. Give me the peace and quiet.”

“Toki.”

“You want me to fight sleep-deprived?”

“Fair enough. I won’t argue with that.”

“Thank you.” I laid my head back on the futon and closed my eye, glad to not send the day off with an argument. I felt a slight dip in the futon as something furry snuggled up next to my head, and I knew my faithful guide had come up to join me. Honestly, she talked so big for someone so cuddly. “Goodnight, Time.”

“Goodnight, Toki.” Her gentle voice was the last thing I heard before drifting off to sleep.