Chapter One - Monday I

Fast-forward five years, in a south-western village of an island (roughly a thousand kilometres east-north-east of Shanghai), lay a camp, run by the nation’s self-defence forces. Amid the increasing levels of crime on the island and unfortunate incidents that left people homeless, an increasing number of camps like these sprouted all over the island, to look after those adversely affected by problematic developments, who had nowhere else to turn.

The camps offered regular meals, good sanitation, fairly comfortable sleeping arrangements, a schedule that included regular exercise and health activities as well as assisting in seeking more permanent residences for the visitors, among other things.

Despite the staff wearing military-themed uniforms and patrolling with weapons on display, light and positive chatter as well as brief bursts of children’s laughter could be heard throughout the civilian areas of the camp.

Armed with a Type-20 assault rifle and her brown eyes keenly panning the area outside the main entrance stood one slightly odd woman, with long, dark brown hair, held in a single ponytail by a bright orange scrunchie. Almost instantly, one’s eyes would be drawn to the single lock of bright orange hair which trailed down, close to her glasses’ left lens. In sharp contrast to her personal appearance, she wore relatively dull, multi-shade green attire; not much different from that worn by GSDF officers serving on a permanent base. Her name tag featured the kanji for love (恋) and fire (火), representing the name Renka, along with her family name.

‘Ooo; a new arrival!?’ she excitedly exclaimed. Uwah; talk about a strong first impression. Taller than me, though not by too much; about 185 I’d guess. Well-toned legs and arms, topped with short, messy, black hair and bright pink highlights. The sight of her almost sent my heart out of rhythm for a moment, ready to race.

‘Yes, unfortunately. A recent flare-up of trouble in my town forced me to flee. Surprise, surprise; my home was destroyed,’ the newly-arrived woman coldly replied.

‘Ah, well, worry not; we’ll take good care of you, or at least I will,’ the SDF officer confirmed, with a friendly smile.

‘Right.’

The officer gestured through the open gates, to the camp which sat behind the concrete walls, ‘You’ll need to register at the intake desk and then they’ll get you settled in.’

‘Thank you,’ the visitor blankly answered.

The guard closely observed the tall woman as she walked away. Hmm, that’s weird; I don’t think I’ve seen any visitors that are anything like her turn up to this camp. While most people don’t really make any impact when they arrive here, she seems like the sort of person that you’d expect to be a lone-wolf and thrive in a world where things are falling apart, she pondered.

❀

That same day, as the last remnants of pale yellow and light blue vanished beyond the horizon,low-pitched, unsettling blasts of shotgun gunfire bluntly ripped apart the relative peace of the camp.

‘That’s right folks, this is a raid.’

Several men, dressed entirely in black, complete with balaclavas to mask their identities, became hosts of a hostage situation while very few uniformed officers could be seen in or near the visitor area.

‘Right on cue; staff being rotated and a good bunch of them are dealing with their regular supply delivery,’ one of the men quietly muttered, with a smug expression.

Near the camp’s perimeter, a group of uniformed officers regularly tripped to and from the back of a delivery truck, carrying crates with each journey.

The entire group paused, some with irritated expressions, some confused, some searching for eye contact with their colleagues. Among the group, one woman in particular immediately set her crate down and reached toward her right thigh as she straightened up.

Shotguns? That can’t be good. I guess we’re the targets of an old-school hold-up, she thought, while checking the magazine, freshly ejected from her standard-issue USP45 handgun. Twelve, plus one in the chamber; good, but without spare magazines, going solo’s out of the question.

Renka confidently issued a hand signal, instructing a nearby colleague to accompany her in row formation, before the pair hastily shoved tactical earplugs onto the openings of their ear canals.

The pair quickly proceeded into the store house, densely-packed with aisles of shelving either side of a central channel, evenly dividing the space into two halves. Using the parallel channels at the end of each row, the two women carefully crept along opposite walls, with their handguns and torches readied in front of them. Although no movement could be heard initially, the eyes and torch beam of Renka’s short-haired partner darted toward rustling and figures who popped up from behind a shelf at the far end of the store house.

A flinch from both men and a brief glance toward the light source prompted two deafening cracks from the handgun of Renka’s colleague to fill the air, along with two bright yellow flashes.

Great; a full-blown pistol shootout. At least my suspicion that we’re being raided was accurate. Amid the flurry of traded gunfire, Renka thought, Ugh, what a mess. Outmatched here and whoever else is on site probably knows that we’re fighting back as well, now.

Following a short period where Renka issued a series of hand signal instructions, the SDF duo pressed forward. One of the ladies loudly drew the assailants’ attention to their side, with her weapon, while Renka stealthily crept through the other half of the building.

She took cover on the corner of one of the shelving aisles and observed the robbers’ movements for about ten seconds, displaying a little pitying smile as she concluded.

So, you’re just gonna hold position? How inviting… Less than a second apart, two rounds from her weapon brought each of the men to the floor, clutching their lower legs, with subdued groans.

Without hesitation, the officer with an orange streak in her hair burst forward and soon after kicked away the men’s weapons before restraining them with zip-ties.

After a brief inspection of the boxes sitting on the floor next to the criminals, Renka returned to standing upright, softening from her irritated frown. ‘Good work, now let’s regroup and assist with the other situation,’ Renka firmly ordered her colleague.

The armed men in the visitors’ area remained locked in battle with the SDF staff who arrived shortly after the initial shell blasts disrupted the calm of the camp. Uniformed officers continued to converge and amass at the area of the camp filled with the intense soundtrack of a battlefield. As the cacophony of various loud and sharp cracks in the visitors’ area intensified, and fully-automatic gunfire joined the din from the SDF side of the battle, the robbers rapidly withdrew from their sheltered positions.

‘Tch.’ Again, wearing an irritated expression, Renka surveyed the scene in the visitors’ area.

‘So, I’m guessing those cowards have vanished into the night?’ She murmured. The unlucky staff who were outnumbered and overpowered by the initial exchanges are a pretty grim sight, especially those who were hit by 12-gauge buckshot shells but are still alive, groaning in pain.

At least the visitors emerged unharmed, it seems. As she briefly caught sight of the black and pink-haired woman, she released a mild sigh of relief along with a small, similarly warm smile.

This relief quickly returned to irritation. Blood-covered officers being stretchered away in a camp that they run; I never imagined I’d ever see that happen. The irritation spread to her facial expression in the form of a frown and she quickly marched back to the storehouse. ‘Have the police been radioed in yet?’ she loudly questioned, at the sight of the two apprehended criminals, standing under the stiff watch of her partner from the earlier gunfight.

‘Yes; they should be here in about five minutes or so,’ replied one of the camp staff.

Ugh; that’s not a lot of time. ‘Right, well, seeing as I was the one who exchanged gunfire with them and apprehended them, I’m sure the police will have questions for me, so I’ll be handing them off,’ she insisted, with a commanding glare. Despite a minor discontented grumble in response to Renka’s insistence, the short-haired lady released the criminals into her custody.

Yikes; this’ll leave me maybe one or two minutes to question them myself.

She led the attackers to one of the small, unoccupied offices and sat them down, across a desk from her. ‘Now then, which of you two would like to be a gentleman and tell the lovely woman sat before them who sent them to this camp?’ Renka smiled innocently as she asked; a smile which quickly combined with a harsh stare, to form a menacing look, causing one of the men to twitch.

‘After severely injuring a number of our staff, I don’t think the rest of us here will really mind if you died under mysterious circumstances following the shootout, before the police arrived.’ Placing a glove-clad hand firmly on one of the hastily strapped leg wounds, Renka’s behaviour resulted in both men’s postures stiffening…

Local police officers arrived shortly afterward and an officer wearing light-blue and navy uniform entered the small room, while Renka sat staring blankly at the assailants. ‘Good work here; thank you. We’ll be taking these two into custody and processing them,’ the officer firmly informed.

‘I presume you’ll need to question me as well? I’d be happy to come down to the station.’

‘We can question you here and call you in later if we need anything,’ the officer flatly replied.

Looking a little bit disappointed, Renka admitted, ‘Well, there’s one sort of favour I’d like to ask from the station staff. Surely you wouldn’t refuse an SDF officer who went to great trouble to bring you these two alive?’ she pleaded, with an appropriately longing expression.

The police officer sighed before issuing another firm response, ‘Fine, but any shady business and we’ll be apprehending you as well, understood? We may be on the same side, so to speak, and the world may be falling apart, but that’s no excuse for complete breakdown of the rule of law.’

‘Understood.’ Renka beamed a smile at the police officer as he signalled her to follow them to the police van.

Sweet; now I can buy a few of those nicer-looking plate-carriers that the anti-firearms officers normally use. Actually, now that I think about it; I wonder if they stock vests optimised for women…

Under normal circumstances it’d be difficult to acquire protective equipment like that for personal use. I guess things really have taken a significant slide if they actually serve me. All that’s left is to wait and hope, I guess; getting hold of some equipment that doesn’t scream GSDF is pretty much essential for where I’m planning to head…

❀

Hmm; pretty standard inner-city drug distribution setup, I guess. Fairly cramped L-shaped yard with a warehouse, office and a fair bit of organising activity, despite it being night time. I count two watching over with rifles, ten working in the yard, unarmed and carrying handguns and three in the main office, seemingly unarmed, one young lady thought, as she lay prone on a rooftop not far from the heart of the capital city, surveying the scene with her left eye, peering down the barrel of a 4–28x56 M7Xi scope.

‘Are the police really so busy now that they couldn’t handle this? Oh well, at least the pay is good,’ she muttered to herself, while rising from the surface. After dusting off her navy-blue jacket and frilly skirt, she flipped her black and purple hair before descending toward the enemy territory.

Despite how swiftly she dropped from rooftop to rooftop, her movement remained controlled and her high-top trainers emitted barely any noise with each tap against the metal or tiled surfaces.

I could make it into the first of the watchtowers without having to climb a ladder or stairs and risk being spotted if I vault in from a nearby rooftop, surely... After checking the security of the blade within the holster on her left thigh, she returned to scampering across the roofline, moving as quickly and lightly as a puma homing in on its prey.

After reaching the edge of the final rooftop, she launched herself off with an almost dive-like motion.

Much like a predatory kitten, she landed in a ball-like shape and quickly rose to her feet, drawing her blade as she righted herself.

The armed man in the watchtower quickly turned, to the sight of the black and purple-haired woman lunging toward him with a blade in her left hand.

The woman had landed about three metres from where the man stood; a distance that shrank rapidly as he hurriedly struggled to raise his AKM assault rifle.

‘Fu-!’

The woman cut his exclamation short by running her cold, merciless blade cleanly across his neck. Directly following the strike, she used her right hand to cover his mouth, limiting him to muffled cries before the life ebbed away from him completely.

You might have sucked at handling that thing, but at least the sling is doing its job stopping it from falling to the ground and accidentally discharging. Once the guard had fallen silent and completely still, she reclaimed her blade and instantly wiped down the bloodied dark-grey element on his jacket.

After observing the yard’s movements for a minute or so, the woman launched herself out of the watchtower toward a nearby roof edge and hauled herself up after catching onto the ledge. She forcefully kicked off and gracefully brought her feet and legs over her head in a manoeuvre similar to a front walkover, returning her to standing atop a roof.

The black and purple-haired woman then quickly proceeded to repeat the elimination process with the man who stood in the other watchtower, before lightly descending onto the paving of the main yard.

Yeah; there are definitely too many workers and patrols to deal with using a single blade.

From within the frilly skirt of hers, the woman produced a pair of small, light grey, metal flowers which had a dull shine.

The most jumpy ones go first, and it looks like they’re the ones coming and going from the van at regular intervals. In short order, briskly flying throwing stars aimed at the head dispatched the pairs when they approached the van’s rear door. With little delay, she quietly slinked across the yard and hauled away the bodies from sight after each kill.

After neutralising the first four men, the predator proceeded to reclaim her already-thrown stars and then review the yard’s layout.

After another couple of minutes spent in cover behind the van, she summarised internally. So, that’s two at the gate, two at the building entrance, along with the two who were mobile; probably now in the building.

Like a praying mantis, the infiltrator remained still and discreetly waited for the next footsteps to approach. After another pair of men passed the van, two of the reclaimed metal flowers were swiftly propelled towards another pair of victims.

One landed cleanly in the target’s head. On impact, the other prompted an irritated frown to appear on her face. Of all the times to look down… The armed man shrieked as his life, along with an unhealthy amount of blood, sprayed out from the neck slice of the metal star.

Ah; that’s gonna be a problem. I’m pretty sure they’ll know something’s up now, she thought, listening to the unsettling cry.

The guards at the main gate rushed to survey the yard. Amid the confusion, the woman had moved closer to the gate and had taken cover behind a car, eyes locked onto her next target. A rapidly flung shuriken halted the armed man who cautiously proceeded towards where the sound had come from.

The unnatural, limp collapse of the victim triggered an alarmed flinch from his partner.

The hesitation quickly resulted in him lying on his back, with his life and a stream of blood flowing from the front of his head, where a metal flower had buried itself after a swift flight.

‘All units, status report.’

Some of them are carrying pocket radios as well?

The voice repeated, from the small device attached to the freshly-killed guard lying near the front entrance, ‘All units, status report,’ after about fifteen seconds.

Well, I guess I’d better make this quick then.

Expression remaining cold and calm, the woman used the parked cars and van as a staircase, to lightly hop back up onto the nearby rooftops. Once elevated, she quickly scampered to the main building’s storage area entrance.

Views panning in all directions, guards surveyed the yard, in combat-ready stances, with model 17 pistols drawn.

Four shuriken left, huh? While still swiftly proceeding along the roofline, the woman confidently flung one of the flowers at the guard on the left of the entrance.

The man’s partner looked around hurriedly as his partner collapsed to the floor. The urgency with which his view panned his surroundings increased the longer his uncertainty grew.

Before long, the person he sought descended from directly above, with her blade primed to strike her target while she used him to cushion her landing.

‘Ack!’ The man exclaimed before crumpling to the ground in a heap.

The woman, then breathing more audibly, though showing no other signs of wear, climbed protrusions and ledges, to return to the roofline. The office is where this party comes to a close then; time to study who my hosts will be…

Not good, but I can still make this work, she concluded after roughly a minute spent surveying, through the office’s large window array.

The lone assailant steadied her breathing and leapt into action, swinging her feet forward, taking care to maintain elegant form as she flew through the air.

Her hi-tops shattered the window glass on entry, sprinkling glass shards onto the floor nearby.

Though failing to disable the lights, following a swift entry, she staggered the man that stood closest to the entrance of the office with a heavy strike to a temple. Now, you can make yourself useful by soaking up the rounds coming my way, thanks, she commented while tightly wrapping an arm around her victim’s neck before a storm of gunfire raged toward her.

‘Tch.’ Lucky bastard.

The intruder begrudgingly remarked aloud and internally, with hints of a grimace and faint traces of a hiss. Awesome; a hot pain near the right shoulder.

As soon as the gunfire paused, the woman threw off her shield and used the scavenged model 17 that she had collected earlier to dispatch a second of the men in the office, with two loud and bright blasts accenting the departure of two assured bullets aimed at his head.

His weapon clattered against the floor, with the magazine half peeking out from the well, closely followed by the dull thump of his lifeless body hitting the floor.

The woman peered down at the handgun, lying about a metre away from the third man, before returning to coldly stare at the last remaining man. He stood frozen, with faint traces of panic in his wobbling eyes.

‘Go ahead; even if you’ve got a loaded one on you, you probably won’t make it in time,’ she casually informed her final enemy while clearly advertising that the slide of her handgun had locked rearwards.

He attempted to rush for the weapon on the floor, in which time, the woman limply threw away the 17 pistol from her right hand, whilst drawing her tanto from its thigh holster with the other hand.

By the time the man had slammed the new magazine in place, the woman’s blade rested against his neck and her purple eyes indicated no mercy whatsoever as he caught her glare.

‘You bi-!’

Very little escaped from the man’s mouth before a swift slash of the woman’s blade across his throat resulted in a stream of blood spurting out, confirming that he would never speak again.

‘Urgh!’ The woman let out a laboured groan while inspecting the bloodied shoulder area.

It’s been ages since someone’s managed to land a shot, maybe I’m getting complacent?

Nah, that can’t be it.

Either way, it’s pretty annoying and I’m dead certain the round is stuck in there, so getting it out before it poisons me is probably a good idea…

Largely without the help of her right arm, she swiftly made her way down through the building and out into the yard, before dashing off, for her car.

Ugh; a doctor’s visit. God, I haven’t missed having to visit a hellhole to get patched up.

❀

‘Haah.’

A woman, still seated at her desk sighed, despite the hour almost approaching midnight.

Though her small (roughly 3m x 7m) clinic had a generally tidy appearance, her desk surface couldn’t be seen beneath a sea of papers, a box of nearly-finished yakisoba and a can of tea. She stretched out her arms and legs with a relieved smile, ‘Well, that’s all of the reports taken care of. Time to call it a day, or night, I think.’

Ugh; it looks like a wild animal’s been here; what is wrong with me? Definitely need to clean up, ready for tomorrow morning… She gathered together and straightened piles of sheets on her desk and finished off the food and drink.

This woman, despite the time of day, looked remarkably fresh. She wore fairly generic office wear, though the combination of shirt, long skirt and dark tights gave off a classy yet understated impression. A long, white coat topped off her outfit, bearing a tag, reading; 椿 (camelia) and 喜 (joy), representing the name Tsubaki.

Although her outfit boasted no particularly striking qualities, her hair arguably did; dark brown fading lighter towards the ends, fairly shiny and held up in two buns, with matching darkish-green ribbons on either side, not too dissimilar in colour to her nails and irises.

The lady stood up, grabbed her keys and slung her bag over her shoulder. While she made her way over to the light switches and front door, she heard the screech of tyres and the squeal of brakes. Please don’t be another hastily-driven car pulling up outside my clinic.

She froze, …or another of the violent incidents that have been increasingly taking place recently.

Before she could think for too long however, the door burst open.

A black and purple-haired woman with a fairly frilly mostly navy-blue and white outfit, including a (blood-stained) matching jacket draped over herself staggering in??

‘You’re still open, right!?’ the visitor immediately enquired, breathing slightly ragged.

The doctor remained fixed in place, with a blank expression and stare.

‘Oi! You there, the cute doctor in a daze, hellooo!?’

The black and purple-haired woman waved her left hand a few centimetres in front of the doctor’s face.

Um, what??? There’s a woman roughly my age, well-dressed, with equally alluring hair and makeup, yet with bloodied clothing standing in my clinic.

…

Also, I really should keep that door locked after the open sign gets switched off….

‘Heh, hehe; it’s so late and I’m so tired that I’m now imagining things?’

Laughing to herself in denial, ‘This is a product of my imagination, surely?’

‘Bzzzt, nope; I’m very real and have a medical emergency! I’ll happily pay you above your normal rate for your services,’ she exclaimed, starting to pout at the doctor, along with flapping her left arm. Though I’ll accept that excuse if you meant to suggest that I’m the girl of your dreams. Gah; this shoulder is no fun, though…

‘This can’t possibly lead anywhere good,’ the doctor muttered, while folding her arms and glaring condemningly.

‘Pleeease?’ Despite grimaces and slightly restricted movement, the injured woman put her hands together and brought forth her best pleading expression.

‘Fine.’ The clinician sighed and reluctantly signalled the wounded lady toward the recliner. ‘I already have an idea of what the answer is going to be, but could you please inform me what your emergency is?’

The visitor shrugged off the jacket that covered her shoulders and pointed to the spot near her shoulder where blood still slowly oozed from.

‘Well, see, I was trying to have a discussion with some gentlemen about their questionable activities and one of them kinda got upset and shot me, so there’s a bullet stuck in my shoulder.’ She emitted a small guilty chuckle as she finished.

‘Of course,’ replied the doctor, exasperatedly, rolling her eyes in addition. Of course; it wouldn’t be an ordinary request at almost midnight. ‘Well then, first of all, if I may, some anaesthesia would help me with taking a look at that shoulder and working on it.’

‘Whatever you say doctor; I’m in your care.’ The patient turned to the woman sat beside the recliner and flashed her a warm smile. Maybe it’s the blood loss or the poison setting in, but you definitely have a familiar about you…

After administering the anaesthetic, the green-eyed woman began searching around in the bloodied opening.

After a few minutes, Ah; there we are; something unnaturally solid. She proceeded to swap her tool to forceps. Despite some minor fidgeting from the patient, the doctor extracted the remnants of the projectile from her as she lay on the operating surface; one large piece of metal, followed by some smaller fragments. After a metal detection scan of the affected area, the doctor proceeded to close up the wound and wrap it.

While the patient lay still on the recliner, Tsubaki remained busy reviewing and organising papers at her desk along with occasionally pondering. Not too long ago, this clinic was solely home to consultations and check-ups for all manner of non-emergency conditions and injuries, as well as a distribution point for medicines and treatments. I’m still not at all a fan of how there are so many unusual clients now, seeking emergency treatments, almost always at unsociable hours.

I picked this relatively quiet side-street location because it’s away from the hustle and bustle of the main roads of the capital. Times like now I think no matter where I set up, my highly-valued peace and quiet would have ended up disrupted.

I don’t wish to start arguments or draw any unnecessary attention to herself, so I’ve reluctantly tended to the abnormal new clients, for an increased fee, but now they’re becoming very strange. I never envisioned this when I started my doctor’s qualification…

Roughly half an hour later after finishing the operation, the patient’s eyes fluttered open, at which point the doctor arose from her resting state in her seat and enquired, with a neutral tone of voice, ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Well, the shoulder feels a bit rough, but better than it was when I came in here, thank you,’ the patient responded, with traces of pain remnant in her voice, before briefly rummaging within her skirt.

‘Here.’ Her outstretched stilled, centimetres away from the doctor’s chest, with a plastic card gripped between her fingertips and dark purple nails. With her head still facing the ceiling, ‘Be sure to add on a tip to the lovely doctor for me,’ she added, with a mischievous smile.

‘Right.’

After collecting her fee, the doctor returned the card to the patient, who then sat upright, with legs dangling over the edge of the recliner. ‘I recommend avoiding putting too much, or better still, putting no stress on that right shoulder for about a week or so. In that time, everything inside and out should have more or less healed.’

‘Ah, thank you,’ the patient waywardly responded.

‘Well, if you don’t mind; I’d like to close up and go to bed…’ the doctor replied, her voice indicating a mixture of weariness and mild annoyance.

‘Right, sorry, heh.’

The patient muttered in a slightly disappointed tone as she hopped to her feet and slowly trudged to the clinic’s front door.

The visitor turned back. Still with the grumpy frown? Well, that’s disappointing… She waved, ‘Goodnight,’ while forcing a smile as she reluctantly departed, gently closing the door behind her.

I definitely didn’t foresee such a delight waiting for me after getting shot, she thought, as she strolled the short distance back to the grey GR Yaris parked in front of the clinic.

Who knows; maybe I’ll be “unfortunate” enough to need her services again. If she is who I think she is, another excuse to spend more time with her wouldn’t be so bad, I think…