Chapter Four (Friday I, pt I)

Stood not far from the front of a small cabin, sat in a forest clearing, ‘So, have you got everything? A specs-wearing woman excitedly asked, while adjusting the straps of her backpack. Leaving only an instant for response, with a curious tone and her narrowed eyes firmly fixed on the woman with rose-coloured highlights in her hair, ‘Eh? What’s this? Could you take off your backpack for a second?’

No idea how, but somehow, she’s got the bow neatly affixed vertically to her back? ‘Don’t worry; I’ll hold your backpack in the meantime,’ the captain offered while smiling.

Kasumi removed and handed the backpack to Renka, whose hand jolted toward the ground upon receipt, prompting her to rapidly set black and pink luggage carrier on the ground.

With that pesky backpack out of the way, now I’ve got a clear view and it’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself. A neat grid-like arrangement of straps and tensioners, spanning the full width and almost two-thirds the height of her back, down from the shoulder, snugly holding the longbow against her back; there’s almost no way it’s an off-the-shelf piece of equipment…

There is one problem though; at least it’s been un-strung, but it looks like the lower woodwork of the bow is pretty intensely imposing itself on your derriere, Kasumi.

With her gaze still firmly fixed on Kasumi’s posterior, Renka nervously queried, ‘Hey, uh, I know you can probably handle anything, but; are you sure that’s how you want to travel with it?’

‘To be honest; it’s my first time using this carry harness, so I don’t know what the most comfortable way to wear it is,’ Kasumi calmly admitted.

Renka tilted her head and after a brief moment, ‘Maybe you could tilt it a bit, so that it runs across a shoulder and the opposite waist?’

‘It would be difficult for me to align it myself while it’s still on, so could you please adjust it for me?’ Kasumi politely requested.

‘Sure! Of course!’ An opportunity to do something so intimate for you? No way I’m passing up such an opportunity...

That’s an unsettling amount of excitement, Kasumi internally remarked as she flinched.

The captain fumbled around with two security straps that secured the longbow, attempting to synchronously slide the upper and lower security straps in opposite directions, laterally, along the positioning straps.

That should do it; now each contact point sits next to a shoulder strap, leaving it resting at a diagonal angle. The updated orientation should mean that it’ll no longer attempt to wedge itself into your rear as you travel with it.

‘Did you make this yourself? Renka queried, retreating from Kasumi’s back. ‘It reminds me a bit of the chest rigs that are sometimes worn by light infantry units.’

‘My grandfather made it, though I can’t actually recall him ever actually using it,’ Kasumi explained, as she collected her backpack from Renka.

‘Maybe he’s an oracle and foresaw that the world would head downhill,’ Renka playfully remarked, while her voice and wide eyes also signalled some amazement.

Adding in hand gestures and emphasising certain words, the captain continued, ‘A world where chaos and destruction became widespread and it fell to one heroic lady, armed only with a bow and arrow, to deliver justice and help the innocent.’

Attempting to sell the scenario as something like the setting and premise of a hero comic or action film? For an SDF captain, you sure are silly…

Without providing any visible or audible feedback, Kasumi set off.

Really!? Nothing?? Don’t leave; I have the compass!

Despite the dense tree population in the mountains, splitting rays of orangey-yellow light could be seen almost directly ahead of the women as they progressed. The breeze offered up a soothing soundtrack, mainly in the form of rustling trees, louder than the previous day.

Akin to the duo’s mountain ascent, Renka led the downhill journey, navigating via compass, based on the bearing of the city in relation to the point that Kasumi had drawn on her map for the location of her grandparents’ cabin.

With the gorgeous sunlight patterns up here, along with the rustling of the trees and the myriad of songs and cries from the animals of the forest, it’s pretty hard to stay fully focused on monitoring the compass, to be honest. Renka broke the silence lingering between herself and Kasumi, turning to her companion and asking, ‘Sooo, I take it you’re not a massive fan of rifles then?’

In a neutral tone of voice, Kasumi explained almost immediately, ‘Well, they do make a lot of noise, the ammunition can’t be recovered, they also have a lot of moving parts that need to be maintained and have risk of failure, too.’

‘You had that response prepared, didn’t you?’ Renka responded, with a hint of laughter. ‘One day, I have got to get you to try out a properly-prepared DMR or sniper rifle, if sound is your concern.’

And the other points? Selective much…

After about forty minutes or so, the women paused at the outer boundary of the mountainous region with thick tree cover.

Nice! A river which almost overlaps with a part of the region’s trail network? There’s a conference of valleys and from here we’ve got a view of multiple vivid green mountain ranges and the nearby larger river, meandering around one of the mountains that lay directly ahead of us. Probably nothing new to you, Kasumi, but to me it’s kinda spectacular.

We’ve been making good pace this morning, so, it would have been nice to take the relatively slow option and head along the larger river before making the ascent to the vantage point that theoretically gives us the best view of the city... ‘Ah, that’s a shame. It would have been lovely to stroll along it before heading up, but the gradient of that incline beside the river’s definitely saying “think again”. The last thing we need is to unnecessarily tire ourselves right now,’ Renka concluded.

She tilted her head whilst paused in thought and after a short interval surmised, ‘All is not lost; climbing the hill should afford us an elevated view of the river at least,’ with a slightly excited smile emerging on her face.

The winding roadway carved into the steepest areas of the mountain, made the early stages of the ascent almost as effortless as a walk in the park and provided a pretty nice view of the valleys below, too, the woman with an orange streak in her hair summarised, while stealing one last glance from the edge of the roadway.

Thank goodness for these much gentler gradients; I thought leaving the roadways would mean another steep climb. The trail (heavily lined by perennial trees) provides a strong dose of greenery and calming sounds from the swaying of leaves in the winds for what I think is the final stage of the ascent.

It looks like there’s no more climbing left to be done, so, the vantage point should be somewhere nearby. Oh? What’s this? An area where the trees are replaced by an abundance of bushes? ‘Looks like this is the spot. I should be able to figure out where the site is from here.’ During her statement, she retrieved a pair of binoculars from a side pocket of her backpack.

Elevating the tool to her glasses’ lenses, Renka thought, I wonder if the police would have sold me one of their recon drones? One of those would probably have been useful for looking around at the actual site itself… Her thoughts swiftly wandered. It’d be nice to do this one day, for leisure, rather than as part of an operation…

After almost ten minutes or so with only the natural soundtrack audible, Renka eventually conceded, sounding mildly disappointed and slightly frustrated ‘There’s nothing that stands out from up here.’ After a short delay, she lowered the binoculars and with an outstretched hand, ‘Here; maybe you’ll spot something that I missed,’ she offered, with an encouraging smile.

‘Thanks, but I don’t know exactly what I should be looking for.’

‘Ah, right. Well, the information I was given suggested that the setup we’re looking for is based in a warehouse. The problem I had, is that the warehouses in this part of the city haven’t shown any activity that I could get a positive ID from, either because the perimeters are too high, or because there’s nothing out of the ordinary happening in or nearby them,’ Renka explained, sounding agitated. If we can’t figure it out from up here, then we’re almost certainly gonna need to monitor them from up-close. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a suspicious vehicle or members roaming on foot, who we can follow back to the target. ‘I say we give it another fifteen minutes and if the master huntress can’t find them, then we shall just stalk some of the evildoers and forthwith have them unwittingly guide us to the destination that we seek,’ Renka concluded, slowly.

Kasumi’s eyes remained fixed on the town as she internally remarked. That’s so much like you; a flash of positive energy and it gets dumped straight into something loopy. I’m guessing you were trying to sound like an adventurer from the middle ages?

❀

Right; so far, we’ve passed far too many grand, ancient-looking temples, a bamboo forest, a healthy peppering of parks and public gardens, as well as a large pond. I’m starting to wonder if you planned this “adventure” to figure out who’s responsible for Monday’s assault or to sightsee, Kasumi pondered, discreetly monitoring Renka as her eyes continued to wander and fix on the various sights along their route.

A little voice from the side of Renka’s backpack provided a running commentary during the journey into the city. Ugh, how long will it be before a travel bulletin gives us something useful?? Although I’m loving the sightseeing, it’d be nice to confirm the target as soon as possible. Running into a crime in progress would help us in at least figuring out what our target might look like, though having to help out affected civilians and possibly having to split from dear Kasumi sounds kinda troublesome to be honest, Renka pondered.

During the descent from the vantage point into the city, the relative silence drew Kasumi’s attention. I wonder what’s on her mind? The lack of smiling and upbeat energy, which she maintained for the journey towards the mountain cabin is glaringly obvious. It’s not like there’s anything I can say to “help” anyway, so I probably shouldn’t get too concerned...

While taking one of her occasional glances across at Renka, Kasumi studied and considered. It’s amazing that she can fluctuate so freely between focused or concerned and jovial or gleeful. I’ve not even a fraction of that kind of dynamism. That said, maybe I’ll at least learn a thing or two from staying around her, if her oddness doesn’t derail everything before I get the chance.

Meanwhile, Gah; a walkie-talkie or receiver that could tune into the police frequencies would have been pretty helpful right now, Renka mulled, pursing her lips at regular intervals during the trek. She turned and with a playful smile, retrieved the map from a side pocket of Kasumi’s backpack.

Um, why? I’m dead certain that you have your own, Kasumi internally protested, with a minor frown appearing briefly.

Hmm. That little police badge icon would explain why nothing seemed out of the ordinary from up at the vantage point; that’s definitely less than 1km away from here. ‘So, that’s why this area’s so quiet, then,’ she quietly murmured.

Dispensing a low chuckle, Renka commented under her breath, ‘If that exchange with the honourable officer on Monday was anything to go by, I’m pretty sure the local police wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about helping me, even if I did present my ID. Good on them, for sticking to their morals though. That said, exchanges similar to that one no doubt has the police spread thin these days…’ Less than a minute later, Oh? What’s this? Another good vantage point, almost two kilometres away from the police station and according to the map, it’s a good 100m elevated spot, not far from the urbanised areas. Perfect for getting a good overview of everything in the area that’s a bit further away from the police. Added bonus is that there’s a pretty big pond right next to it too.

After summoning her compass, Renka gaily announced, ‘I promise it’s not because I want to go sight-seeing, but our next vantage point is over there,’ pointing in accordance with her compass. Thank you, nearby temple, for serving as a reference point for our location. ‘It should give us a good enough view to find at least one suspicious warehouse using the binoculars.’

“It’s not because I want to go sight-seeing” you say… ‘Okay,’ Kasumi blankly affirmed.

❀

After a forty or so minute amble, the pair paused, with one of the women keenly observing through the lenses of her glasses. I guess this is the place then. Well, aside from a hill climb and this huge pond that sits between it and us. It looks like a 300m long mirror; surface so uninterrupted and peaceful that it perfectly reflects the blue and white of the skies above.

‘Well, now’s a golden opportunity to get a photo, right?’ Renka rhetorically asked Kasumi, while rummaging around in her backpack. After extracting her phone and starting her photography, she turned to Kasumi and asked, with a slightly deflated tone, ‘You’re not gonna snap a photo or two of this wonderful scene?’

Kasumi casually frowned in response and remained quiet. I have very little doubt that you won’t share your photos later on anyway, so why bother?

Renka enquired with a playful smile, ‘I presume you won’t mind if I take a photo of you then?’ She began to twirl her phone around between her thumb and index finger and arrested Kasumi’s gaze before pressing, ‘Who knows; we might never get a chance to visit here again,’ with a relatively serious facial expression.

‘Fine; whatever,’ Kasumi replied flatly.

When Renka’s phone fell silent and she lowered it from in front of her eyes, Kasumi asked, ‘We’re not taking one together then?’

Renka’s eyes widened. Huh? Are you feeling alright? ‘What?’ she asked, with a confused expression as her head tilted.

‘Well, if you’re going to take something to remember this occasion by, then surely it should star the both of us?’ Kasumi asked.

Thanks, Captain Obvious. That’s not the issue here. You’re acting like a faulty AC unit; blowing cold air one minute and then hot air the next.

Ah; I’m guessing that was inappropriate of me? After a lengthy awkward pause, with a slightly concerned frown Kasumi queried, ‘Right?’

Ah, whoops; the excitement kinda glitched my thought process a bit… ‘Right! Sorry! Of course, hehe,’ Renka conceded, beaming a friendly smile at Kasumi.

After flagging down a passer-by, the two women had their photos taken, with the scene of the pond and the mountain they were set to climb behind them.

The photographer spent most of the time smiling and apparently holding back friendly laughter, humoured by the woman with the vivid orange highlight and her insistence on close embraces, along with her regular changing of pose and facial expression for each photo.

The photographer mainly appeared to giggle and smile in response to the fact that her black and pink-haired companion behaved as a polar opposite, though she made no effort to resist her partner’s affectionate behaviour and the energy being directed to her.

❀

The hill ascent spanned roughly fifteen minutes, despite not being particularly far away, thanks to the pond being an obstacle and Renka deciding that it would probably be best to take a route up the hill with a less harsh gradient.

Atop the hill, peering through freshly-summoned binoculars, she studied, Well, the first thing that jumps out is that it’s less populated with shrines subbed out, in favour of a more suburban composition, with houses, kindergartens, restaurants and some other entertainment and accommodation buildings...

Mostly boring, to be honest.

Apart from the odd set of warehouses sneakily tucked into pockets of that dense population of buildings.

She studied each of these areas for about five minutes and then suggested, ‘I don’t want to keep you waiting around for too long without doing anything, so maybe we should have a “casual stroll” past them and see if anything’s up.

‘The buildings that fitted the description are all within a few hundred metres or so of each other, so strolling past the entrances of the sites once and then reversing the loop, to more closely inspect any buildings where the people are dressed similarly to the guys who hit the camp should get us a confirmed target. Of course, weapons, either on display or concealed, would also be a good indicator; who knows? Maybe with the way things are, criminal operations are brazen enough to potentially draw attention to themselves in broad daylight.’

After roughly half an hour’s worth of touring, the pair paused. ‘Yeah; that first sweep was pretty much a washout, though one of those sites did at least look suspicious. Maybe we’ll get lucky on this second pass,’ Renka concluded. ‘So, this hasn’t been the most straightforward process up to now, but I’m sure we’re closing in. If we keep an eye on the traffic surrounding the most suspicious site from around a corner or something, hopefully we’ll get what we came looking for…’

After trundling toward the site in question, the pair paused on a street corner. ‘Tell me Kasumi, where do you normally go shopping for your clothes?’ Renka asked. Yeah; in hindsight, this topic choice was probably a terrible idea. I’ve not really had any time to stay up-to-date with fashion trends, and your generally guarded approach to me makes maintaining a convincing friendly conversation that bit more challenging as well, she pondered throughout the conversation, as it grinded along.

The rough knocking of a small diesel engine? The mildly painful round of small-talk abruptly halted.

After an instinctive peek around the concrete walling sat inside the corner’s paving, Renka reported, ‘It’s pretty generic, but at least it’s something; a 1990s HiAce panel van just went into our suspicious site.’ She smiled at Kasumi, ‘Looks like it’s go-time then.’

The pair briskly walked down the street until they neared the entrance gate, at which point Renka slowed to a saunter, with Kasumi matching her pace.

‘Whoops.’ Renka stared down at a forlorn packet of mochi that had fallen from one of her hands in front of the open gateway.

While crouched down to collect the packet, she stole a glance into the site. Oh ho? The van driver’s tucking something into the back of his waist. Hmm; his buddy from the passenger side is doing the same. The mystery items aren’t going into back pockets, so I doubt that they’re phones, but I also can’t say for certain that they’re handguns.

‘So, I was wondering, which do you think would suit me better; matte, gloss, glitter or a pattern maybe?’ Renka suddenly asked, holding afront and inspecting the back of her hand as she returned to an upstanding posture with a smile, Gotta keep up the act, right?

Where did that come from? I can’t tell if I’m supposed to answer that, or if it’s another part of the act. Either way, it’s not like I could help you; I hardly ever use nail polish. Kasumi simply shrugged in response.

‘Boo! You’re no fun,’ Renka playfully replied, pouting as she finished. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you prefer to keep things simple though; it totally reinforces your natural beauty and I like it...

Once they put themselves a good distance clear of the warehouse, she continued, ‘If we can get onto the roof of one of the nearby buildings, we should be able to get a good view of what’s going on in there. The only problem is; we might have to disturb some of the locals,’ frowning slightly as she finished her statement.

Following an exploration of the area, ‘It’s good to know that the ordinary folk still have some faith in humanity. I honestly thought it’d be much more difficult than simply displaying my ID and explaining what we planned to do. Though, the supervisor’s hesitancy was more along the lines of what I expected. I’d have preferred to study the suspicious site from the cover of an office, but hey; beggars can’t be choosers, well, that and disrupting the lives of ordinary folk would put us not far behind the scumbags that we’re seeking.’ Renka lectured, as the pair approached the large, blue scissor-lift equipment.

‘It’s not ideal, because we’ll be exposed up there and they’ll have a direct line of sight to us,’ the captain explained, as the duo rose in the scissor lift. ‘But it’s better than nothing; at least we can confirm that this is our target and get an estimate of what’s going on in there.’

Once the women had reached the roof, the pair removed their backpacks and Renka rummaged around, eventually retrieving a pair of binoculars with less magnification than what the two women had been using thus far.

After tentatively proceeding along the metal rooftop, Renka halted at the verge of the direct line of sight and set her backpack down, in front of her. Well it’s a bit odd, but not as alarming as looking up and seeing a lady admiring you from afar through binoculars, I guess, she thought.

She used a hand gesture to signal Kasumi to come and join her. ‘You won’t need the bow though and it’d be inconvenient, so you can disarm.’

Backpacks in place ahead of them, the two women set themselves down on their fronts and studied a particular site ahead of them.

A fairly standard warehouse with a large front opening, rows of shelving and a second level. Decent-sized front yard, with perimeter walls on all sides and vehicles parked almost up against them. ‘Well, this is definitely the place; pretty much everybody roaming the yard is carrying a handgun in their waist. I can also see at least one guy roaming the mezzanine with an older AK-pattern assault rifle,’ Renka started, in a hushed voice. ‘I guess I won’t be scavenging anything from these clowns then, if the rest of their weaponry is equally as meh,’ she concluded, with some annoyance audible in her voice. They’re reliable, yes, but not much of a vibe for somebody used to modern systems.

‘Beggars can’t be choosers; wasn’t it you who said so not long ago?’

‘Touché,’ Renka conceded with a little laugh. ‘This does mean we might have to wait a bit longer to get my hands on something that will allow me to properly ease the load you’d bear in an operation though,’ she added, sounding a bit disappointed.

‘Ah,’ Kasumi remarked. Didn’t see that one coming, despite the heads-up last night at the campfire, I still don’t get why you’re being so affectionate and caring for somebody that you’ve only known for a few days.

‘It’s not all bad though; we can use the sound to our advantage,’ Renka quickly added, turning to Kasumi, with a reassuring smile. With the binoculars held out in Kasumi’s direction, she continued, ‘Here; take a look and familiarise yourself with the proving ground that we’ll be heading into this evening.’

❀

With the last remnants of bright yellow sky lingering on the horizon, the woman with thick-framed glasses rested with her ponytail messily squashed beneath her head as she admired the ever-brightening white-speckled pattern emerging on the darkening canvas above.

Less than a metre away, her black and pink-haired partner lay prone. I’ve spent so long studying this place now that I could probably navigate my way through it blindfolded.

Even with the fact that we’ve been planning a strike on the gang setup across the street and this being a cold and hard metal roof, this afternoon almost felt like a picnic. Hmm; when was the last time I had one of those? Back before university? Rolling across and coming to a rest with the pleasant sensation of her partner’s shoulder against her own, Renka quietly suggested, ‘If it can be helped, I’d like to avoid verbal communication in there; it should help keep them unaware of your presence for a bit longer. I’ll leave the dispatching to you to begin with though. If things go sideways and the riflemen have already been dealt with, then I’ll draw their attention using a scavenged weapon.’

Sounding slightly irritated and concerned for a moment, she thought aloud, ‘Let’s hope they’ve taken at least half-decent care of their weapons; a bolt jam, slide error or another malfunction would be a major pain.’ Voice calmed, ‘I’ll be trailing closely behind you and watching your blind spots and then double-tap your right shoulder whenever I’m about to break away. If or when things get loud, it’s pretty much a case of neutralising anything that moves, heh.’

After pausing for a moment and tilting her head, she turned to Kasumi and slowly asked, ‘Sayyy, you wouldn’t happen to have anything that could silently dispatch an adult male without killing them?’

Shouldn’t you have asked that like, yesterday evening?

‘I have tranquiliser delivery arrow ends? Not guaranteed to work, but they will at least immobilise or sedate them for long enough that you’d have time to quietly restrain them,’ Kasumi calmly responded.

‘I can work with that. It might be a bit risky, quickly removing the bodies, but it should be alright, so long as we’re careful,’ the captain reassured, with a smile. ‘We’ll leave the backpacks on the ground over here, so that we’re not weighed down unnecessarily, and pick them up on the way out. I’ll report the incident to the police using a walkie-talkie that I rented from that surprisingly well-equipped supervisor.’

Pressing herself off the rooftop surface, Renka invited, with an outstretched hand, ‘Well, my dear, shall we?’ with a warm smile.

You really are an odd one; such a cheerful mood for someone about to head into a clear-out operation.

❀

As darkness overtook the capital city’s skyline and the buildings’ lights illuminated the horizon as if it were a Christmas tree, a lone black and purple-haired woman remained still, leaning against a railing, atop an office block that she had sneaked into. Like a hawk, regarding its imminent prey, she studied, through a pair of 8x56 binoculars.

So that’s four outside, two in the watchtowers and who knows how many in the actual warehouse. I could use the roof windows to get a better look inside or drop in from above; good thing I packed the heist equipment in the car then.

Oh ho? They’re all equipped with gloves, pistol holsters and I see some belts with spare magazines as well. They’re decently equipped; makes me wonder if they’re expecting an attack. Still, either way, those won’t save your little arms trafficking operation from me.

I wonder how I’ll deal with the assault rifle guys in the towers though; this arms cache had better live up to its reputation and have a present or two in there that I can use. Going in with a gun would be the obvious answer, but having to contend with the movement inhibition that comes with carrying the extra mass and volume of a suppressed pistol, even if compact, still doesn’t appeal to me.

If it even slightly disrupts elegant and flowing manoeuvres and motion, I don’t want it.

The section’s got a ready supply of suppressors for pretty much every modern, commonly-used ammunition calibre, the other field operators must really consider me a weirdo for not using them, not that I care…

Departing from her observation spot, Hikari commenced a routine of static and dynamic stretches for her arms and left shoulder. Just like back when I was a competitive gymnast. Well, aside from the fact that I’m also using this time to check a shoulder that’s been shot twice in one week.

‘My parents had exceptional forethought when they opted to train me to be fully ambidextrous,’ she quietly commented.

Her eyes focused on the shoulder still secured by layers of white fabric wrapping. Probably best to keep the duty light and not use it for anything demanding in terms of accuracy, I guess.

After using the trip to the car as an aerobic exercise, regularly taking moments to stretch her quads and hamstrings while jogging back, Hikari calmly and methodically extracted from the boot of a grey GR Yaris.

‘Six shuriken; check.’

‘Glass-cutting equipment; check.’

‘Parachute; check.’

‘Water lily hair accent and tanto are in their usual places, so I guess that’s everything.’

Her face calm, expressing neither nervousness nor excitement, Hikari coolly uttered to herself as she disembarked. ‘Light as a feather and fluid like water…’

❀

‘Plate-carrier, kneepads, reinforced gloves, retractable, zip ties; yeah I think that’s everything, Renka confirmed, her eyes tracing a route about herself, in correspondence with her speech.

‘How about you? What goodies have you got?’ she asked, fixing her gaze firmly on a fairly stiff-looking Kasumi.

‘Just the standard longbow, twenty tranquiliser-delivery arrows and five standard metal-tipped ones, for general damage to property purposes.’

‘And the gloves. Surely you only wear them when using the bow for a reason?’

Really? You’re asking that right now? Surely, they’re not interesting or important.

‘Why does anybody wear combat gloves? If you’re asking why they only cover three fingers, it’s for protecting both the bowstring and my fingers when letting arrows loose, compared to regular gloves,’ Kasumi blankly advised.

‘Don’t forget the part where they look pretty cool.’ Renka playfully remarked and after a brief pause, she hastily added, ‘Yours, I mean!’

‘Right.’ Weird.

The pair cautiously crossed the street from the site of their observation nest, ‘The one upside about working in such a conspicuous place; no armed guards at the front gate.’ Renka swiftly led the way into the warehouse’s front yard, with Kasumi scampering along in tow.

‘It looks like we turned up at amateur hour; the patrols are much lighter than earlier,’ Renka murmured, her eyes panning around the yard as she allowed her partner to take the lead.

The pair of women crept around the perimeter of the yard in single-file formation, keeping crouched and dashing between the shelter of cars as swiftly as possible.

Surveying the yard, peeking inwards from behind a car, Kasumi assessed. They’re all operating in pairs? There’s no room for anything other than efficient firing, I guess.

A gang member sauntered towards the front gate and drew Kasumi’s greyish-blue eyes.

An isolated target, Renka really wasn’t joking about this being amateur hour, Kasumi pondered, as she steadied an arrow, resting atop the index finger of a left hand which firmly gripped the pink accent of the huge, curved launcher.

Uwah; the view from down here is incredible, the sight of you, cool and calm, with the bow held out at full extension. This close, I can almost feel the tension of the fully-drawn string.

A perfect metaphor for the strange heaviness that arises in my chest and sharp edge against my shortened breath while watching you; please have mercy and release it soon!

Kasumi softened her grip on the arrow with a twitch of her fingers, sending it flashing through the air towards its isolated target.

Just like the simulations. I never knew tranq arrows moved as fast as that, Renka commented internally, eyes widening as they tracked the rapid flight.

The projectile embedded itself firmly in the gang goon’s lower leg, closely followed by him waywardly tumbling to the ground, akin to a tree being felled.

Setting the dosage of the tranquiliser to work for an 84kg adult male was the right call then, it seems. In theory, the likelihood of killing any of the targets should be low.

The first victim quietly mumbled for a short while before falling silent. Really, we should check his pulse, but I guess we don’t have the luxury right now, Renka thought after observing the man resting near the entrance.

A pair of colleagues also patrolling the yard, flinched in reaction to their tumbling colleague. With bewildered and confused facial expressions, they drew their pistols and cautiously set off, with them firmly gripped between both hands.

I guess it’s time for a distraction; I’d rather not have to attempt a rapid-succession strike right now, if it can be helped. An old-school coin toss should do it…

After the tiny metal disc had flown across the yard in a neat arc, it pinged as it contacted the hard concrete.

The searching gang members suddenly turned to face the sound, leaving them both standing with their backs to a huntress, who stood with an arrow resting in place atop one hand and its tail between the fingers of the other.

Perfect; if either of those guys goes in between those cars to investigate the sound, they’ll be a sitting duck, Kasumi thought.

Her eyes fixed on one of the men apparently cemented in place, while the other cautiously approached the source of the disturbance.

Perfect. The string of the bow twanged and sent an arrow whizzing into the lower leg of the man still standing out in the open.

A thud and some disorientated mumbling prompted his partner to turn back.

By the time that his body faced his partner, the sensation of an arrow needle to the upper leg greeted him and insisted that he pass out.

‘I’ll clean up. You can start looking at the warehouse.’ Kasumi quietly commanded, before hauling the resting gang members to gaps between the cars and perimeter walls. The archer also yanked the arrows from the limbs of the gang members and set them aside.

While Kasumi cleaned up after herself, Renka busied herself with closely examining the equipment of the motionless enemies.

Dammit; one with only four rounds and the other with only six. With a handgun in her right palm, and a magazine in the other, the combined ammunition I’ve seen so far is less than a full magazine for one of these 17s. She briefly stared at the ground, rubbing her forehead and frowning.

Still, it’s better than nothing; at least I can reload rather than trying to fill one now, she eventually conceded, tossing one of the guns across the yard after extracting its magazine.

A sharp, raspy, plasticky sound marked the points where Renka bound the hands and ankles of the lounging men in the yard.

Maybe that guy sleeping near the yard’s entrance is better equipped? Also, we don’t need him escaping, so, it’s probably a good idea to restrain him before he wakes up.

After dealing with the gang member near the entrance, she inspected his weapon. Third time lucky; nice. A magazine with the full seventeen rounds in it. The captain carefully and quietly dropped the magazine from her pistol, before swapping it for the full counterpart whilst making her way back to Kasumi.

Renka gently rested her hand on Kasumi’s right shoulder, prompting her to straighten up.

From a covered spot beside the wide front entrance of the warehouse, Kasumi studied the moderately-lit space for another few minutes. We just need one moment, where they’re not facing this way; it’s not like there’s a bunch of them in the aisles of shelving nearby us.

As the casually-dressed men wielding Type 81-1 assault rifles strolled toward each other, the women scampered into the first shelving aisle on their side of the warehouse.

In short order, Kasumi lowered, resting on her knees, here’s hoping the lack of the usual base of support still works.

Much like a tribal warrior hunting in the forest, she waited in her concealed spot for her target.

Another arrow zipped through the nearby small gap in the warehouse shelving.

Yeah, there’s no escaping that one. When the needles hit more dense muscle areas, they usually speed up the substance’s effect a bit. While the neutralisation time was faster, the thud and clatter against the metal floor remains just as loud though, which is a problem.

The other rifle carrier’s head rapidly swivelled; turning to look in every direction, prompting some of the members on the ground to do the same, with mildly alarmed or irritated expressions.

Kasumi let loose one of the standard arrows and the resulting pop, sparks and falling shattered light glass attracted the gaze of all ground level gang members.

Amid the annoyed grumbling and increased shuffling in the warehouse, another tranquiliser arrow sliced through the air. And that’s the second rifle carrier dealt with, thankfully, Kasumi internally remarked.

The gang members on the ground scattered, with pistols gripped in both hands. Kasumi’s facial expression remained calm, as she knelt with an arrow resting its tail against the bowstring.

They clearly don’t know where I am, so I can freely pick them off as they come into view, so long as they’re not under observation...

The black and pink-haired archer skilfully downed another couple of the roaming gang members in the other half of the warehouse, with arrows flashed through gaps in the shelving contents.

As the heavy footsteps became almost unsettlingly loud for both women, the sound of industrial polymer hitting the floor halted all of the gang members.

Kasumi quickly crept along the clear path at the edge of the warehouse and picked off another three gang members in different aisles by the time she reached the far end of the large internal space.

No viewing through the aisle contents here is a blessing; I can use the coin-lure trick once again.

Another coin flew along the length of the warehouse, to the far corner that she had just come from. Judging from the reduced volume of footsteps, either they’re holding position or the enemy presence on the ground has thinned out heavily, Kasumi pondered.

After she dispatched two more searching gang members with arrows that hurtled straight into their hamstring and quadricep muscles, the warehouse’s main internal space fell silent.

Silently, Renka followed Kasumi, as she gathered her spent arrows.

Although the situation on the ground looks and sounds like it’s been taken care of, the office still has its lights on, Renka silently observed.

Once Kasumi had finished recovering her arrows and coins, she returned to Renka and shot her a blank stare.

Renka quickly flicked her head up and pointed her gaze toward the office connected to the mezzanine, triggering the pair’s proceeding cautiously in its direction.

Loudly bursting in through the door, both women’s eyes locked onto the same spot.

‘Uh, uh,’ the captain warned the sole occupant, shooting an expressionless stare at him. With a scavenged 17 pistol firmly gripped between her hands, trained on the man, ‘Any sudden movements and I’ll happily put one somewhere that won’t kill you, but will definitely hurt.’

Frozen on the spot, his expression remained blank.

Renka smiled. ‘If you tell me what I want to know, you might even come away from this unharmed,’ she offered in a cheerful tone.

He slowly raised his open palms in compliance.

‘Ah, there we go,’ the captain remarked, patronisingly, prompting an irritated facial response from the man. ‘Would you be kind enough to tell me who the leader of this operation is?’

‘I’ve never met the guy; we work in two regions and take assignments for each other’s region, so that the local folks don’t track us and so that information doesn’t leak out in situations like these. Even if you chicks wanted to play sadist and try to get somethin’ outta me using torture, you’d be wasting your time,’ he concluded, smirking as he finished.

So that would explain why they fled and none of the locals knew where they were stationed then, Renka thought. Rather than wasting ammo on this clown or prolonging the conversation, I’m pretty sure the paperwork on the desk or something else’ll reveal info about who the leader is.

Still with her pistol trained on the man, after turning to Kasumi, Renka invited, ‘Well, if you’d like to do the honours, so that we can wrap this up.’

Kasumi gently sent him to join the rest of the gang members on the site, who were unconscious. Renka, with the help of thin black plastic implements, more forcefully ensured that he joined them in being unable to move and escape from the police that would inevitably be summoned.

The captain ruffled and inspected the paperwork which covered the desk for a short while. Not ideal, but it’s a start, I guess; the only clearly revealed ID is for the leader for the next region.

Sounding mildly irritated, Renka concluded ‘Ugh, what a pain; having to go back to the next region for the leader of this group and a possible lead on where the leader for the other half is.’ Her irritated expression softening, ‘It looks like we’re done here, so let’s move out.’

The pair of women strolled back through the warehouse, littered with unconscious and subdued gang members.

A sudden burst of bright light caused the pair to flinch and shield their eyes.

The light roar of a 3S-GE inline-4 engine rapidly closed in on the warehouse entrance.

The two women quickly scrambled for cover, Renka beside the door, with a handgun at the ready and Kasumi nested in a shelving aisle, with her bow in one hand and an arrow in the other.

The growl reduced to an idle and soon fell silent, roughly ten metres or so away from the warehouse entrance.

Four men emerged and took cover behind the opened doors; two armed with VPO-205-00 shotguns and two armed with handguns; dressed and armed similarly to those who perpetrated the camp raid.

One of the men stationed at the car loudly hurled an offer, ‘You’re outnumbered and outgunned; you can come out and make this easy for us, or we’re going in there and making sure that you die painfully and slowly.’

Eyes darting between the 17 pistol in her hand and her black and pink-haired partner across the warehouse, Renka scowled.

Shit. Things are about to get loud then, I guess...