Gunfire. Close.

Only charge for labour, not parts. If you don’t, I’ll kill you. - Ronin

I put the same note in all eight of the boxes we had looted, and without further ado, we were ready to deliver the supplies to every nearby clinic in the area.

Well, there was a little further ado.

“Must I… really wear this?”

“You wanted to be a ronin, right? You gotta look the part.”

I had more-or-less forced Kawari into wearing one of my spare black cloaks. It was mostly to hide her identity outside of combat, but also because I thought it was pretty funny.

I hadn’t paid much attention to it yesterday, but now that I could clearly see her face I realised she was actually quite the beauty. Even with the handful of cuts that had scarred her cheeks and nose. I had mistaken her outfit and build for a man, but her face was unmistakably that of a woman. A pretty woman at that.

Pissed me off. I’m stuck with these ugly metal plates around my eye, while this girl’s more battle scarred than a pickup truck in the Middle East and still looks like a damned runway model.

She was also pretty hot. What was I saying again?

Oh. Right. Saving lives or whatever.

We had decided to take four trips each, only carrying one box at a time to lessen noise and visibility. I’d cover the north and west areas of the slums, she’d deliver to the south and east. Time would be watching and talking through the earpiece. Higgs would be following Kawari while incorporeal. It was a routine drop-off mission, something I’d done a dozen times before. Though, I’d never committed theft or destruction quite on the same scale as yesterday, so there was every chance we’d run into more patrolling cybercops than usual.

Not that they provided any issue. Other than blunting my sword a little.

We set out a little while after 2am. The streets were dead silent. Everyone nearby was either hiding inside from curfew patrols, or staying out in a part of the slums with less surveillance. As someone with a fair amount of experience with stealth, I knew how to step lightly enough to not draw attention, and the lack of prying eyes certainly helped. I was able to drop off my first delivery and get back to the shack in less than a full minute.

My second run went completely uninhibited as well, the extra cybercop presence I was expecting not seeming to materialise. I was surprised, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. I dropped off the second box and got back faster than even I could have expected.

By the end of the third drop-off, though, I was starting to get uneasy. It wasn’t just that cybercop presence hadn’t increased. There was none whatsoever. Not even a single beat patrol. Never once had I seen the streets so devoid of law enforcement. Theoretically, it should have been a good thing, but I knew better than to expect such good luck.

It was as my fourth and final run came to an end that my fears were confirmed.

Gunfire. Close. Less than half a klick away.

First it was a single round. Sounded like the revolvers the beat cops carry. Then silence for a few seconds, before the night erupted with noise. It was impossible to tell if it was ten guns or a hundred firing, but however many it was, it was an all out firefight.

“Toki, did you hear that?” Said Time over the earpiece.

“How could I not? Sounded like the damned end of days.”

“What are you gonna d- wah!” Time jumped out of her skin, and the snobby voice that followed told me why.

“Ms Tokiko, Ryou and I heard gunfire. She sent me to commune with you. Are you planning a response?”

“Ah… shit…” This wasn’t a great situation. Gunfire on that scale in my turf? That could never be a sign of good things. But I was hardly in fighting condition, and I doubted Kawari was doing much better. If we got involved in a firefight here, it could spell the death of both of us. All that being said… “there might be civvies in danger. We get there, evaluate the situation, get any innocents out. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary, hear me?”

“Yes, my lady. You may have to go on ahead, Ryou will meet you there soon.”

“Got it. Tell her not to do anything stupid.”

Well, it’s not like I was the type to take my own advice. I knew that if it came down to it, I’d probably do something rash and dangerous to get between the cops and civvies. I just sincerely hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

I took off towards the sound of the gunfire. The initial intensity had died down, but there were still intermittent moments of heavy fire, and they only got louder as I approached. It wasn’t long before I determined the source.

“The… opera house? Time, was there a show there today?”

“I couldn’t tell you, but if there was, that place will be crawling with civilians. Get in there and get them out, but stay out of trouble. It doesn’t exactly have a tonne of escape routes.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. They’ve made plenty of new ones for us.”

I quietly ran around the exterior of the opera house, seeing most of the windows riddled with bullets. The sounds inside had mostly died down, so I was able to safely find a high window that had been completely destroyed and sneak my way in. I perched on the edge of the gallery seating area and looked out over the wrecked theatre.

Luckily, there was not a single civilian in sight. At first I wanted to write off as not my problem and leave, but something about the scene confused me.

Every corpse I could see belonged to the same corporation.

I had assumed it was either a turf war between two of the corpos or an uprising from discontent slumlords, but every person I could see, alive or dead, was either a state cybercop or a private MP from Kurogaisha.

Would they really break out into a corporate civil war in the middle of an opera theatre? An empty opera theatre? The hell kind of sense did that make? And why were the cybercops here?

The surviving soldiers weren’t firing on each other. They all had their guns raised, but they clearly weren’t aiming to kill their own. No, they were frantically scanning their surroundings. As if death himself was lurking in the shadows.

None of the lights were on, so I doubted they could see well. So what the hell were they looking for?

A moment later, the question answered itself.

An MP was bisected across the waist. It was so quick that his companions couldn’t have seen a thing, even if the theatre wasn’t shrouded in darkness. The panic immediately intensified, and every soldier still standing turned and fired at the noise. They achieved nothing but friendly fire. Another three or four were killed in the crossfire.

The enemy made another pass, beheading a cybercop right in the middle of the pack. Again, the cops and MPs fired, and again hit nothing but their own allies. There was barely a handful left, all huddled together by the centre of the seating area.

The grand finale was brutal.

One at a time, the last few were steadily riddled with holes. The enemy would approach with incredible speed, stab at a non-vital organ, and disappear just as fast. The precision was incredible; every stab just barely missed being fatal.

The poor bastards had no idea what force of evil was slowly torturing them. It was too fast for the unenhanced eye to make out.

However, I could see every moment of it. I knew exactly what it was.

What else could it be?

This slaughter was the work of a magical girl.