Chapter Four (Friday I, pt II)

After taking a while to ascend to the roof of one of the many brightly-lit skyscrapers that the capital city had to offer, the lone woman with a water lily accenting her side ponytail dived off, quickly tucking her arms in.

Her body hurtled through the air with the poise and sharpness of an eagle swooping in on its prey.

With the target warehouse less than a couple hundred metres height below, a rip of the cord over her shoulder preceded the rapid ejection and expansion of a navy canopy and her deceleration. The black and purple-haired woman landed softly on her feet, near an edge on the roof.

Light as I am on my feet, these shoes, quiet as they are against the metal, will probably give away my presence, she considered, before carefully removing her high-top trainers and setting them aside.

After carefully approaching one of the roof windows, Hikari peered into the modestly-lit storage space below. Hmm, so that’s three pairs on the ground and three pairs on the mezzanine; seems simple enough.

Keeping her overall height low, she scurried closer to one end of the roof and her eyes panned the main yard.

These guys are consistent at least; still four roaming the yard and both watchtowers occupied. Meh, whatever; I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it; best to get away from here before the rifle-carriers clock me in their peripheral vision.

Placing a suction cup onto one of the roof windows with her left hand, Hikari began running a glass cutter around in circles with her right hand, relatively gently.

The cutter quietly scraped in a circle for a while. This is taking aaaages, but I guess that’s the price for reducing the risk of alerting the enemies below and preserving the shoulder.

Once the glass circle threatened to drag her hands into the warehouse, she carefully lifted it out of position and placed it out of the way on the roof.

After putting her shoes back on, panther-like, the predator studied and waited to pounce.

Before too long, the blissfully unaware conversation taking place directly below invited her to elegantly launch herself into hostile territory.

Abruptly, the conversation stopped, in favour of wayward grumbling. The pair of men crumpled to the ground in a heap.

The invader quickly retrieved a tanto from its holster on her left thigh and swiftly delivered a single slash to each man’s throat.

As the streams of blood soaked into their grey jumpers and some drops landed on the metal floor, the pained groans weakened to a silence.

Her eyes fixed in place for a short while. A breast logo of a basic brass compass for both of them? Hmm; I’ve not seen that brand logo before and there wasn’t anything in the report about this warehouse being guarded by a company, she thought briefly, before collecting a pair of throwing stars from her skirt.

Almost immediately, another pair of guards rounded the corner. A pair of metallic flowers rapidly sliced through the air and almost instantly embedded themselves into the front of their skulls.

Following a short delay, both men fell to the floor with lifelessness akin to statues being toppled to the ground.

One pair left up here then.

It’d be a pain to have to come back up here to recover these, so I might as well take them down with me straight away, Hikari decided while dislodging a throwing star from the front of a goon’s skull before using his jacket to clear away the slick crimson coating that shrouded one of its petal blades.

Those last two being in the far corner is pretty convenient; still happily unaware that they’re being picked off like prey in a jungle.

The thrown stars retrieved, the tiger-like assailant confidently and lightly sped towards the end of the warehouse, attempting to keep her body low and her head level with the adjacent guard railing and its intermittent panels.

While quickly approaching, she forcefully slung the freshly-recovered shuriken at the last two unsuspecting victims.

Like a building being collapsed, each target hopelessly sank to the floor, lying perfectly still after having done so.

One phase down, two to go. Now to find a quiet way to get down to the ground floor…

Like an orangutan in the forest, Hikari lowered herself to the ground floor through a small section with no guard wall, clinging to and then gracefully dropping from an edge of the upper level.

Well, with this much stuff on the shelves, at least they won’t spot me from another aisle. The only problem is; I can’t see much either, I guess I’ll be navigating by sound then…

She focused her hearing on the repeated thumping of heavy boots against the ground. Those conversations effectively broadcast your positions as well, guys.

The sounds of utility boots and idle chatter grew louder, prompting the infiltrator to scurry back down the aisle.

In short order, a man jumped back slightly at the sight of his partner being felled by a relatively silent object that had just sped by, mere centimetres in front of his face.

Hikari rolled sideways, through a clearing in the shelf’s contents and quietly scampered towards the end of the aisle.

No need to spend a shuriken for this one, her face icy and expressionless, she assuredly drove her tanto blade into the back of his skull.

Shit.

She quickly lunged forward, to catch a HiPer handgun which fell from the recently-loosened grip of the man.

She quickly retracted her weapon, and only then allowed the target whose life had just been drawn to a close to fall to the floor.

After hauling the bodies to the relatively dark and densely-packed corner of the warehouse which she initially landed in, the assassin paused.

Hmm; I only hear one set of footsteps now. Either one pair’s gone for a break, outside or something, or they’re working on something in here, fixed to a spot.

After carefully traversing a few aisles, she crouched and studied through a gap in the shelving contents, Oh ho? It looks like there’s a guy getting an in-depth lecture on the contents of that open crate. The guy getting the explanation is dressed differently to everybody else here too, equipped with an armour vest and kneepads. Base clothing is generally a black colour scheme, in contrast to the dark grey and black worn by everybody else.

He’s carrying an MP7 as well? I don’t see those around too often.

No footsteps or chatter anywhere near here, so, I guess it’s time to explore the other half of this place.

Hikari skittered through the dimly lit space cluttered with rows of shelving before pausing again. Enemy footsteps approaching...

The black and purple-haired woman set off, carefully and quietly advancing down the aisle. Come on; I need a gap to pass through, so that I can get directly behind them...

As the thought crossed her mind, Perfect; they’ve made a 180° turn are now heading away from as me. I’m still yet to find a gap to cross aisles with though. She lightly furrowed her brows in response to the sudden direction change.

Hikari set off again, soon slipping through a gap in the large storage cates which lined the shelves. to the aisle that the men were peacefully sauntering down.

The intruder swiftly drew from her skirt another new shuriken, to add to the one recovered from the first defeated ground-level enemy.

Her face calm as ever, the metal flowers shifted, to between her index fingers and thumbs.

No chatter to disrupt and alert the two guys inspecting that crate in the middle.

In quick succession, the shuriken silently ripped through the air and buried themselves in the back of each man’s head, forcing them to limply fall to the floor, one after the other, lying motionless thereafter.

The last two men are sitting ducks; a clear line of sight behind them and two throwing stars’ll should make light work of them.

After a few minutes spent carefully sliding crates aside in a few aisles, Perfect; a channel of gaps with enough range, it’ll be like firing the stars down an industrial-sized barrel.

‘One for you and one for you. You’re welcome,’ she quietly murmured to herself as in quick succession, two stars firmly lodged themselves into the back of the men’s heads. The weak tumbling of both men signalled the elimination of all threats within the warehouse.

Now for the main problem; I can maybe take care of two of the guys patrolling outside with shuriken, but the rest of them will probably get pretty jumpy pretty quickly when I do, so I’m gonna need something creative...

While rummaging through the content of various crates, I’ll need something that can engage multiple targets at once, or at least suppress them for long enough to give me a fighting chance.

‘Bingo!’ she quietly exclaimed, with a slightly delighted smile.

Frag grenades; I could throw one at the watchtower and one at the patrols. It’s a shame there are only two left, but a scavenged gun should be able to take care of the last watchtower.

Eh? MK3 Five-seveN MRD; I don’t see too many of these knocking around either. I thought only special law enforcement groups used these or something, Hikari thought, while picking up a handgun from one of the downed enemies in the warehouse.

Nice; twenty in the mag, plus one in the chamber. 5.7x28mm should mean that even decent body armour won’t save them. She unhanded the slide and slammed the magazine back into place before advancing toward the warehouse entrance.

The black and purple-haired woman gently set down the grenades and handgun beside her before leaning against the wall beside the wide warehouse entrance.

After studying the enemy positions in the yard for a minute or so, she dipped a hand into her cleavage. No suppressors, so I guess earbuds are a must, again. I’m pretty sure Tsubaki wouldn’t appreciate having to sort out my ears as well…

Hikari collected the last two shuriken from her skirt and took aim. Well; looks like it’s time for the grand finale...

❀

The deafening blasts and bright muzzle flashes of 9mm calibre gunfire inescapably dominated the scene, as an armoured woman with an orange streak in her hair set things in motion with three stray shots fired out into the yard.

Don’t worry guys; I don’t plan on hitting you, but I do need your attention on me rather than Kasumi.

A flurry of bullets and shell contents came hurtling in her direction, prompting her to fall back through the warehouse.

Aside from the fact that those 12-gauge shells will probably penetrate the walls of the warehouse, hopefully having them chase me into here will lure these guys into Kasumi’s line of sight.

She sprang from her shelter and zipped from side to side, behind shelf cover, back through the warehouse, firing only one round toward the group of attackers on random transitions.

Amid the storm of gunfire, Kasumi quickly and quietly scampered up onto the mezzanine, coming to a stop and priming her bow and arrow shortly after.

Eight rounds left; gonna need to dial it back. Let’s hope that these guys are the toxic masculinity types that are easy to provoke.

Renka’s 17 handgun remained silent and still when she reached the back of the warehouse and sat leaned against the corner of a shelving row.

‘If you want me, then come and get me, boys!’ she playfully shouted.

Like flies to honey, here they come, two by two. Successfully baited; straight in my direction with guns drawn afront and irritated expressions, heh.

Kasumi’s eyes fixed on the lower floor. It looks like the leaders are fully focused on what’s ahead of them. She knelt with an arrow resting atop an outstretched left index finger and against a fully tense bowstring.

Oof; well played, Kasumi.

Kasumi’s eyes widened at the result of the swooshing arrow’s journey. The arrow end lodged itself in the right forearm of the trailing shotgun-carrier, triggering an involuntary blast, where he sprayed the contents of a shotgun shell at the pair only a metre or so in front of him.

The leading pair started to groan in agony and slowly stumble to the floor with clenched facial expressions after their weapons limply dropped and clattered against the ground.

The gang member who had fired the shotgun had a relatively peaceful and dignified fall to the floor before lying still.

The last fully operational gang member studied the arrow sticking out of his partner’s arm, prompting him to scan and eventually fix his eyes at the woman crouched on the upper level.

Kasumi should only see it as a malfunction, so I guess transferring some thermal energy to force a misfire could help here…

A single blast and flash from the man’s pistol filled the atmosphere in the warehouse.

The man took on a confused expression as he hesitated before hurriedly reaching for the slide of his gun.

And that’s why I’m not massively fond of guns…

The archer sent another arrow tearing through the warehouse, destined for the thigh and in short order, he too succumbed to the tranquiliser’s insistence that he pass out and helplessly collapse.

Save for the groaning of the two men that caught an unhealthy dose of buckshot and two relatively light pairs of footsteps, the warehouse fell quiet again.

‘There she is; the MVP of the operation!’ Renka gleefully exclaimed, with a smile, as Kasumi returned from the upper level. Her smile vanished quickly, as she set about zip-tying only the last assailant to be neutralised, tampering with the scene of a gang member that just shot two of his own probably isn’t a good idea.

She inspected the wounds of the two men that had been debilitated by their comrade, with a fairly blank and unsympathetic facial expression, despite the heavy presence of blood. ‘I wouldn’t worry about them too much; as you can see, something went wrong here and this clown shot two of his buddies; that’s why I don’t really want to touch any of them, even with the gloves,’ Renka concluded calmly.

Hmm, using a 1911 handgun? An American import and different to what the all of the other gang members were armed with? Strange… Renka pondered, before frisking him.

The woman with the orange lock of hair ventured over to the black Altezza, still sat in front of the warehouse, with its headlamps on. After a very brief inspection, she found a smartphone and after returning to the suspicious man and using his fingerprint to unlock it, not exactly the information I was looking for; but I’ll happily settle for this confirmation of the man lying in front of us being the leader for this region; it saves us having to head to another region to find him.

Hmm; there’s also a list of names, and one’s been contacted significantly more than the others.

More suspiciously is that there’s implications of contact with Compass Security Solutions in here. Hardly anybody knows what that company is up to, but rumour has it they’re national-security risk levels of trouble. What business would they have dealing with ordinary street gangs?

She copied the contact information and after tossing the borrowed handgun back into the yard, Renka and Kasumi strolled back to where the backpacks were peacefully sitting.

‘Alright; time to see if that supervisor came through for us again,’ the captain started, as she adjusted the frequency of the walkie-talkie, probably best to use a civilian police report interval, rather than the internal police band, given the shooting incident. She avoided presenting herself as an SDF officer and instead opted to report the crime as an emergency; a gang shootout in progress.

After finishing her reporting, Renka returned the walkie-talkie to the lift, along with a hand written-note, reading, “Thank you for your help; we (and a lot of others who probably don’t even realise it) really owe you one. If we cross paths again, the drinks are on me :)”

❀

In quick succession, two of the men patrolling the yard limply collapsed, to end up lying on the floor; face first, with two metal flowers embedded in the back of their skulls. Blood trickled, soon pooling on the ground around their heads.

Shortly after the shuriken rushed away from her grip, the black and purple-haired woman had sent a grenade swiftly arcing through the air, toward the nearer of the watchtowers, closely followed by a second, which clinked down, in the middle of the yard.

Have fun with that; I left it cooking for a while, so it’s landing nice and hot.

‘Quick; gren—!’

Almost instantly after the audible landing of the second grenade, two massive blasts rocked the yard, with bright orange flames spawning from the aftermath.

Hikari poked her head out, down she goes, she remarked, slightly smiling at the sight of a watchtower well on its way to toppling over completely. Her focus slightly shifted, onto the weakening spray of blood coming from the middle of the yard, along with bright flames coming from almost anything combustible or flammable near the middle of the yard.

There’s still one problem though; the second watchtower; and that awkwardly–placed intensely focused guy, with a 433 assault rifle busy scanning the yard.

Nothing like a final boss battle, right? Hikari asked herself as she firmly gripped the handgun.

She darted into the yard amid the chaos and with a firm two-handed grip, with two loud, quick-succession blasts, terminated one man’s miserable effort to crawl from the structure wreckage towards his weapon.

The shots attracted the furious gaze of the man in the other watchtower and she dove behind the pile of twisted metal which formerly hosted his rifle-carrying colleague.

Now to sort-of make like a western but have the fastest draw in the east...

Confidently, Hikari quickly shuffled, rose and took aim at the sole remaining enemy; the man in the watchtower who had his assault rifle aimed so that she more or less stared down its barrel.

Two almost simultaneous cracks dominated the air above the low crackle of flames.

‘Grr, for the love of…’ Hikari quietly forced from her throat, through a mildly scrunched facial expression. ‘Haha; well, at least it’s not another model 17 wound; I was beginning to think I was stuck under some strange curse.’

The woman fell to her knees following the exchange, clutching her right shoulder and hissing.

The man in the watchtower remained completely motionless, with blood dripping from his head, hanging just beyond the edge of the platform.

‘Uggghh; if this one doesn’t kill me, then I think Tsubaki will for sure.’ The black and purple-haired woman glanced sheepishly at her right shoulder area, the bandaging becoming strongly dyed crimson.

Probably best not to slow down. Thankfully, the car isn’t parked too far away and it shouldn’t be more than a ten-minute drive to reach the clinic.

The rate of blood loss is higher than the last two instances, where it was only 9mm calibre ammunition though. The bullet of a 5.56mm calibre round evidently doesn’t mess about, so far as soft tissue goes.

Hikari relatively slowly hauled herself to the car, hold it together girl; no blacking out until the doc can either hear or see you.

After lugging herself into the driver’s seat, she requested the clean-up crew before twisting the ignition key, rocking the lever to her left and kicking down the rightmost pedal.

A dark grey GR Yaris sped through the island’s capital city and under the control of her skilled hands and feet, despite her injured state, the hatchback swiftly progressed through the narrow streets.

Arriving at her destination, however, the black and purple-haired woman blared the horn before falling still in her seat.

‘Oh great; another late-night call from a ruffian I bet,’ the doctor muttered to herself, rolling her eyes as she peeled herself away from her laptop and her desk.

Wearing an irritated facial expression, Tsubaki trudged to the front door and peered through the peep-hole.

A sports car with a black and purple-haired woman in the driver’s seat?

The doctor unlocked the door and hurried out, not taking her eyes off the car for even a split second.

Hikari, what have you done this time!? Passed out and there’s a large pool of blood around that right shoulder area this time.

Weak pulse, but at least she’s still alive, for now… ‘Uwah; this is bad!’ the doctor exclaimed.

Tsubaki hurried and extracted Hikari from the car, before hauling the uncooperative body into the clinic, emitting a variety of irritated grunts while she struggled.

Once inside, she laid the woman down on the recliner, quickly followed by bringing a toolset, cleaning fluids and wrapping materials. Slowing the bleeding would be a good start, if I don’t want that pulse to vanish completely...