With Scythe in Hand

RYUUJI AND THE GIRLS walked together in civilian clothing, blending perfectly with the crowd in a dense transit hub in Mitaka. It was close to a train station that Akiko used daily, and it hosted a locker rack where she stored occasional necessities like a change of shoes, a winter coat or an umbrella.

This day, however, the locker became a cold drop site for Hotaru.

“It’s over there,” she said, pointing to the front of an ice cream shop. The place was decorated with neon lights, and plenty of pedestrians were in the area.

Ryuuji discreetly scanned the surroundings and didn’t see anything worthy of alarm. The people closest to the locker rack were a middle-aged couple eating ice cream with their daughter; just an everyday scene in the afternoon.

“I’ll keep watch; you get the package,” he said, staying on alert. The odds of being attacked in a public area were low, but not zero, and Ryuuji’s group was unarmed. They did carry summoning charms, but a delay in using them could prove deadly.

“Let’s see, it’s number 49. I swear, Akiko-chan couldn’t have picked a worse one,” laughed Hotaru, kneeling in front of the locker. “Open up and show me your secrets,” she whispered, her words laced with power to disable the safety enchantments.

However, as she pulled the door open… she unleashed Pandora’s Box.

A massive burst of light exploded from all directions, followed by a sonic boom that shook them to their bones. The ice cream shop’s lights and windows shattered, and before any of them could react, a humming buzz reverberated from inside every other locker in the street.

Ryuuji and Hotaru had heard that buzzing before.

It came from resonance dampeners.

Driven by instinct, Ryuuji conjured a magic barrier and reached for a summoning charm. He was dazzled and confused, but he knew their lives were in danger, and he had every intention of fighting back.

Alas, the couple nearby had other ideas.

They activated summoning charms before Ryuuji could deploy his own, and the three of them — their teenage daughter included — soon had a set of submachineguns trained and ready at Ryuuji’s team.

A moment later, they opened fire.

The roar of gunshots echoed in the air, clashing furiously against Ryuuji’s barrier. Faced with a dizzying rate of fire, each bullet charged with cursed energy, it only bought him enough time to summon his sword.

His barrier began to crumble, and he managed to fortify his defense just enough to protect his vitals, parrying desperately against whatever bullets he could. Hotaru was crouched behind him, so she was safe from harm… but Akari wasn’t so lucky.

Taken completely by surprise, she was gunned down without mercy. Dozens of bullets dug into her body, and she collapsed without so much as a scream.

As the bullets bit into what little remained of his barrier, Ryuuji realized the dreadful truth: he wouldn’t survive the encounter either. He was the only one standing between Hotaru and the enemy, and he couldn’t afford to step aside. Her magic was sealed by dozens of dampeners, so if Ryuuji got out of the way, she would perish.

They’d been utterly, completely outmaneuvered… and in the face of this onslaught, Ryuuji had no recourse but to mount a last stand. On his honor, in a final act of defiance, he vowed to drag at least one enemy with him to Hell.

Such was his resolve.

However, before he could charge in a final blaze of glory, the fabric of space and time distorted around him. The street shone with an incandescent flash of blue light, and in the next moment, he vanished into thin air together with Hotaru and Akari.

The gunmen ceased their attack and lowered their weapons, the barrels venting a trail of acrid, purple smoke. Against all odds, their quarry had escaped from right under their noses.

Clicking his tongue, the man in the group took out a paper slip and spoke into it like a phone.

“The target has teleported; they had outside support. We’ll rendezvous at the extraction point Alpha.”

Soon, the paper lit up with magic energy and vanished without a trace, as did the submachine guns. Then, the man extended his hand toward the nearby lockers, and all of them shone with magic from the inside.

With the cleanup complete, he and his teammates nodded to each other. People were screaming and running all over, and without their weapons, the trio could blend right in.

They fled the scene unimpeded, leaving behind only bullet holes and splashes of blood on the ground.