The Queen Of Collateral Damage

“Y’know, Toki, after we separated, I knew you’d do some stupid shit.” Fujiko was whinging and whining while tying up her open wound with the gag we had brought with us. One that she had no qualms about pulling out of a dead man’s mouth. “You always had that ‘holier than thou’ attitude like you thought you had some great purpose or whatever, so I had a feeling you’d get on the wrong side of the corpos. But becoming the most hunted domestic terrorist in Asia? I gotta say, you impressed me. I didn’t think even you could be that stupid.”

“Oh, bite me, Fuji.” I poked at the burn on the back of my leg. It stung like a bitch, and I was likely to have trouble putting pressure on it, but it’d heal with a good night’s sleep. “I don’t wanna hear a damn thing about recklessness from the Queen of Collateral Damage.”

“It’s ‘Princess of Electric Power,’ you bitch.”

“Whatever you wanna call yourself, you’ve got no right to lecture me on being dangerous. You’re the reason we only ever got demo and destruction jobs. Hell, I bet the only reason you got this one is because literally no one else wanted it.”

“Ah, a lecture about not being wanted by the most wanted woman in the whole of fucking Japan. Bra-fuckin-vo, Toki, you sure showed me.”

“Go to hell.”

“As if I’d ever get near your domain. Demon.”

Three years of festering resentment, and it all boiled over into petty bickering. God, I felt like a child. But that bitch knew how to bring out the worst in me.

“So, to be perfectly clear,” said Ryou, the palm of her remaining arm rubbing her forehead, “that ‘walking calamity’ you spoke of before, that was Ms Denka? The infamous electric menace?”

“Hey, that’s Electric Princess to you, girly. Or ‘Your Highness.’ Anything that makes clear that you and I aren’t on the same level.”

“Truly, you are a charming individual. It’s no wonder you and dear Tokiko get along so… electrically.”

“Ryou, if I wasn’t in too much pain to stand right now I would backhand the shit out of you.”

“Apologies, dear girl, but this is quite the news to take in.” Ryou looked back and forth between us, before pointing at my face. “Am I to presume, then, that Ms Denka-“

“Princess.”

“-is the one who took your right eye?”

I grimaced. God, that was not a memory I wanted dredged up. But I also knew a certain someone had too big a mouth to not answer that question.

“Yeah, you got that right. I’m the one who cut that mug wide open. But this damned fool has no one to blame but herself.”

“What, for valuing human lives over your damn paycheque?”

“A billion yen! For a torch and burn op! It was a dream job!”

“The MPs inside had surrendered! You’re talking about burning hundreds of non-combatants alive! No money is worth that, how do you not understand?”

“No, Toki, you don’t understand. This is corporate warfare. People die. Entire companies wiped out. That’s the way the world works.”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to change!”

“You could have stayed with me and changed it from within!”

“You can’t douse the fire from inside the house! You’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a complicit pawn in their little war game. You think that’s the way forward, Fuji? Go with the flow, give the powers what they want? How does that achieve anything!”

“Because we could have done it together, you idiot!”

“You’re the one who turned me down!”

“And you know damn well why, Toki!” We both had to breathe heavily. We had gotten to the point of shouting so quickly, that the sudden silence following her declaration felt crushing. “…mum’s treatment didn’t exactly go as planned. The cancer metastasised before they replaced her kidney with the cybernetic one. Now I’ve gotta scrimp and save every penny for another surgery. That’s why I couldn’t give up this job back then. That’s why I can’t give it up now.”

“But we can find other ways to make that money, Fuji. Ways that don’t involve helping the corpos keep a stranglehold on the people. Come with us. We can make a positive difference in the world, I swear.”

“I can’t, Fuji. Casino robberies and train heists ain’t a consistent way to make a living, and I need that money. Only the state and the PMCs pay enough. I can’t afford to make an enemy of Japan. I need to keep working.”

“Ah- about that, lass…” Electron grabbed our attention and zipped towards the centre of the room, electricity flaring around his body the whole time. “It looks lit ye really buggered the databank wi that last move o yers. Ye ken, the theng ye were meant tae be protectin frae intruders?”

“A destroyed top-secret data bank with trillions of yen’s worth of corporate data…” Ryou shook her head. “It’s safe to say, dear girl, that your debt is looking rather insurmountable.”

“Ehehe…” Fuji nervously rubbed the back of her neck, though she couldn’t hide that her complexion had gone sheet-white. “…have I ever mentioned my dream of being a cool and virtuous outlaw?”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Fuji. Welcome aboard, I guess.” I groaned. Technically this was what I was angling for, but god, this was all such a mess. “Fuck’s sake… with the databank gone we’re never gonna learn what we need to take on W and Z again.”

Fuji, who was still theatrically rubbing her neck with a faux-innocent smile, stopped dead. Her expression dropped to undisguised horror.

“Toki… please tell me you didn’t just say W and Z…”

“Huh? Yeah, they beat ten bells of fuck out of us in an opera house a few weeks back. You know those psychopaths?”

“Wish I didn’t.” Fujiko shivered and grimaced. In the years I’d known her I’d rarely seen her so unsettled. “Should have known those fuckers were behind the opera house massacre. Nastiest magical girls I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. That green chick with ‘em is the reason I’m stuck with these things.” She knocked on her cybernetic legs with her fist, a look of disgust on her face.

That explains why the girl who always rejected cybernetics suddenly had titanium legs.

“Does that mean you know something about them, then? That’s why we came in the first place.”

“Yeah, I know something’ about ‘em,” Fujiko spat. “I know you should stay the hell clear of ‘em. Fightin’ those bastards ain’t worth the misery.”

Now that was a surprise. Never once in all my time of knowing her had Fuji ever shied away from a fight. The stronger the opponent, the more she wanted to go to blows.

For her to actively avoid them, they must be even worse than I thought.

“So… who exactly are those miscreants?” asked Ryou. “Weeks of searching magical girl registries found no matches. Their names came up in no casualty report documents either. How can such prolific magical girls fly under the radar as such?”

“They’re something like a cleanup crew for this shady org called Kageno Kairai. They get sent to do the dirty work when someone steps outta line or pisses off the top brass.”

“Kageno Kairai… I stumbled upon them before. Who are they?”

“Hell if I know. They ain’t Feds, and they ain’t corpos. Too strong for organised crime, too secret for terrorism. If anything they just seem like some powerful cult, but I ain’t know enough about ‘em to tell ya. One thing I do know is that I sure as hell don’t wanna get myself tangled up with ‘em. If you’re planning to take on W and Z, count me out. Those nutcases have caused me enough problems as is.”

“We’re not gonna hunt ‘em down or something, we just wanna make sure we can defend ourselves if they come for us again.”

“‘Fraid I’m not gonna be much help on that one. Z and W never even used their powers so I ain’t got a clue what they can do. Wanna know how to survive? Stay as far from ‘em as possible.”

I sighed. It was hardly the answer I was looking for. Sure, if we could just avoid them I’d do so, but we didn’t know shit about them. And they clearly wanted us dead. There was no guarantee we could stay away from them forever.

Another dead end. Fucking fantastic.

“As much as I hate to break up the reunion, dear girls, it should be noted that the parade ended twenty minutes ago, the commanding officer is dead on the floor, and we are sealed in an underground vault with his fried corpse. I think it’s best we continue this discussion elsewhere, no?”

Ryou brought us back to reality, and it suddenly dawned on me how bad this situation had gotten. Illegal entry to the most fortified place in the country. Destruction of a databank probably worth billions of yen. The death of a high ranking member of the JSDF. If we were caught down here, there was no question: we’d either have to fight our way out through the whole damn military, or we wouldn’t be making it alive.

Ah shit. Time was probably worried sick.

“Calm your tits, lady, we ain’t trapped in here.” Fuji got to her feet and wandered over to the centre of the room. Raising her hand above her hand, she magnetically pulled down the metal rope she had earlier descended from. “I got my own way in and out. Was part of the deal with me takin’ the job.”

“But neither of us can use magnetism,” I protested.

“Hmm…” she put her her finger to her chin, barely hiding her smirk. “Damn, guess you better get climbing. Sucks to suck, losers.”

She grabbed the metal rope, magnetically moved it to drag her up through the hole in the ceiling, then dropped it behind her when she was done.

God. I fucking hate this bitch.