Chapter Eight - Monday II - Tuesday II - 嵐 AKA Storm Pt 2

❀

‘So, I guess this is as bright as it’ll get today; it’s still more or less night.’ So much for being sat here waiting for daylight...

The little specks of light grey that I can see are dominated by dark clouds, as if the trees didn’t already block out enough sunlight.

The woman with black and purple hair remained sat in the driver’s seat of the box truck, listening to the continuous drumming that the lorry’s cabin received from above, along with the relentless and systematic rumbling of thunder.

The rain’s less intense than it was overnight, but still pretty heavy. The winds have also weakened; though they’re still giving the trees a vigorous ruffling, they aren’t swaying anywhere near as violently they did overnight. The currents of air crashing into the truck’s cabin are still pretty intense though.

Sighing and moaning in frustration, Ugh, please can something just happen?? At this point I’ll take anything. Surely with the storm receding somebody will be brave enough to come out here, though if it’s friends of the guys I robbed, they’re still conclusively fucked.

Less than ten minutes later, ‘Oh ho?’ she suspiciously asked.

Her eyes fixed on one of the lorry’s mirrors. That’s cute; I guess they’re trying a shrinking circle formation.

She opened the adjacent door and hoisted herself onto the roof of the truck. After closing the door, she ascended into the tree line, launching from the truck’s storage body onto nearby branches.

Despite the winds, her body apparently moved in perfect unison with all of the forces of nature, elegantly scampering through the elevated greenery.

Her motion remained smooth and natural as she regularly alternated between quick and soft branch landings with her high-tops and swinging using two-handed grips, to eloquently launch her body through the air between further-apart branches. Just how I like it; this is my hunting safari, not yours, boys.

Getting back to the ground might be an issue though, without another vehicle or vines like what that famous ape man uses.

Like an animal native to the forest, Hikari explored the upper tree line for another minute or so before finding her way back to the forest floor, dropping from a low enough branch and lightly landing on her feet.

When her hi-tops reached solid ground again, she immediately darted behind a tree and studied her enemies. I guess these idiots didn’t factor in the winds and rain making it next to impossible to locate me by sound, along with the leaves and branches continuously being in motion helping if I’m moving about above them.

Then again, who would realistically expect their target to move through the upper tree line? Heh…

Hikari drew her violet-accented dark grey tanto from its thigh holster and like a leopard, surged forth towards her prey as they cautiously closed in on the lorry.

Similar to the group from Sunday, these guys have body armour and are carrying modern handguns, though with the addition of balaclavas, presumably to shield their faces from the harsh gusts and deluge from above.

Zipping between trees, taking care not to advance into the view of the men, less than two minutes elapsed before bleeding corpses lay lining the wet floor of the woods.

Rapid, calculated footwork along with sharp sweeping arcs of her blade efficiently dealt with four of the armed men, one-by-one, with their pained cries lost in the overpowering chorus of the wind and rain.

Straight for the bait, she remarked, spectating the three men converging on the lorry.

The rest of them are out of sight, I guess they’re looking for me in the cabin. Going in now would be like shooting fish in a barrel, well, without the shooting.

The guys inspecting the truck are checking out different areas; two checking the rear and one inspecting the cabin.

Let’s hope that anyone in the wood cabin isn’t near a door or window, Hikari commented while swiftly advancing toward the truck’s front.

She dashed into the small clearing and took a forceful slash at one of the quadriceps of the man inspecting the truck’s cabin from its side steps, closely followed by unceremoniously yanking him back by the collar of his vest, covering his mouth and then assuredly driving the blade into the side of his neck, quickly bringing him to a silent standstill.

No shots flying through the woods yet; so far, so good.

Hikari retreated from the lorry and studied from behind a tree.

Hmm; one of them from the rear of the lorry has disappeared from view and one of the rear doors are open.

She closely observed his movements at the truck’s rear and then set off again, quickly arriving at and then circling around the truck, shifting her tanto onto her left hand.

Maintaining a brisk jog, the predator turned, to run along the rear of the truck.

The man guarding the rear door growled as he raised his handgun.

The speeding woman slowed none at all, quickly dragging him back with her as she tackled him.

One quick jam of her blade into his right forearm forced the handgun to haphazardly fall to the floor, closely followed by a forceful plunging of the blade into his throat.

A trail of blood roughly followed the blade on exit as the man’s face quickly settled from the pained expression that it initially took on; turning blank as his motionless corpse slumped to the forest floor against a tree.

Looks like I will get to use them after all, Hikari thought, as she briefly searched her skirt.

The black and purple-haired woman slowly rounded the rear of the truck, metal flower primed between her index and middle fingers.

She slowly edged around one of the rear doors. Almost disappointing, how easy this is; he’s so busy inspecting crates that he’s unaware of his imminent death.

The metal flower ripped through the air, instantly burying its petals in the man’s skull, centimetres above his right ear. I’ll be back for you later, dear shuriken, she playfully remarked.

She used the man who lay lifeless near the rear of the truck as a cleaning cloth. Well, this rain is proving pretty handy, to be honest.

Hikari clambered atop the lorry and hopped back up, to the relative safety of the upper levels of the trees, coming to an uneasy stop directly above the wood cabin.

‘Now, to figure out what the prey below are up to,’ she murmured.

…and then, like a peregrine falcon, I’ll conclusively swoop down when the optimal time arrives.

Perched on a branch, delicately countering the winds, she waited little more than a minute.

Four targets, dispersing in two directions; two heading towards the lorry and two heading in the polar opposite direction. Best to wait for them to separate before moving in...

After a brief period of study, although I’ve got the keys, they might try to take the truck, so I guess they’re up first.

Directly above her targets, Hikari matched their progress, swinging and scampering between branches, slightly making her way down as she went along.

She took a quick glance behind. Almost thirty metres or so between them now.

The woman dropped down through the trees, collecting her tanto from its home on her left thigh along the way.

A merciless crash down onto the right-hand member of the patrolling pair softened her fall.

Her left arm remained outstretched during the descent. That wasn’t exactly my plan, but I’ll take that disarm, still.

A long trail of blood soaked the right-hand sleeve of the landing pad’s partner not long after his pistol fell to the wet woodland earth.

From her seated position, she drove the tanto into the right leg of the struggling man, then fixated on his right arm. Following the resulting jolt and slip, the blade slammed into his side, forcefully driven in under his vest.

Even if you do survive that, you won’t make it far.

Shortly after, she turned to face and straddle the man that she crash-landed on. The blade harshly sliced across his neck, ending the heavy breathing and releasing a stream of blood, which rolled to the forest floor, hurried and also diluted by the wash of rainfall.

Turning to look back, ‘Don’t tell me you’re leaving the party early?’ she asked.

The lone woman hauled herself upright before jogging toward the remaining imminent threats. Only two left, so it should be fine for a direct strike, taking them by surprise from behind.

As the winds howled, thunders crashed above, tree leaves energetically rustled and swayed and the rain continued to intensely gush down, she arrived behind the men who continued to search the forest with torchlit handguns aimed ahead of them.

Starting with her tanto in her right hand, she clinically sliced into the left hamstring of the right-hand man, closely followed by a slick transition of her weapon to her left hand, before carving into the right hamstring of the left-hand man.

Both men staggered, reaching towards their legs and hobbling as they turned.

Her blade swiftly changed hands again, to slice the right-hand man’s neck and release a crimson trail into the rainfall before returning to her left hand.

The left-hand man then attempted to dodge the same fate but his weakened right leg betrayed him, causing him to stumble backwards mid-turn.

Using her left foot, Hikari kicked up and sent his pistol flying, closely followed by a lunge and firm stab into the side of the man’s left calf muscle.

Have fun trying to walk when both legs have heavy bleeds.

Hands on hips, she studied the man’s attempt to crawl along the forest floor. Rolling her eyes and displaying an unimpressed frown, she murmured, ‘Just give up; surely the lights are fading now...’

She kicked the struggling man over onto his back and knelt down beside him, so that she towered from above.

Looking directly into the man’s eyes, she laughed mockingly.

The laughter lasted little more than a second, before her face abruptly transitioned to a markedly more menacing and intimidating expression.

Calmly and coldly, she interrogated, ‘How many more of you are there?’

Increasingly condescendingly and derisively, he replied, despite faltering, ‘I’m gonna die soon, so why would I say anything? Eat a dick, you who—’

A cold, merciless, dark grey blade quickly slashed across his throat.

I’m not really into guys, worthless piece of shit, she thought, as she wiped down her tanto on one of his sleeves before neatly recovering to her feet.

During the slow walk back to the wood cabin, Hikari looked down over herself.

Uwah; that’s a lot of blood-staining.

Her eyes scrolled across, to her right shoulder. Still a fair amount of lingering pain when heavy amounts of force are sent through it.

The sole woman left standing in the forest surveyed the floor, oddly painted with crimson blotches and trails with corpses scattered about haphazardly.

Yep; conclusively fucked.

❀

After delivering the bus to the police and promptly scampering away from the scene, using the S2000 as a getaway car, both Kasumi and the captain headed west, to return the car that they had “borrowed” and to visit the gym, for what Renka advertised as “training”.

‘How can it be almost noon, and the city still be this gloomy?’ Renka asked, under her breath. The wind, rain and pretty angry-looking clouds following the storm are pretty stubborn, huh?

After returning the car to where Kasumi had collected it from, the pair of women retrieved their backpacks and equipment from the boot and set off back toward the shopping centre.

‘You’re not going to take the protective equipment off?’

‘They’re the closest thing I have to waterproof clothing, so no.’ As the pair jogged alongside each other through the downpour, the captain added, with a playful tone, ‘You know; most romance stories would have the main couple walking under an umbrella at a time like this.’

Where did that come from? I get what you’re saying, but it’s pretty random. ‘What?’

Renka continued on, with her head turned to face Kasumi, ‘But running through the rain is just as romantic if you ask me,’ offering a friendly smile as she spoke.

The pair of women ran for another few minutes or so before scampering into shelter near the former battleground.

The entire complex now looks totally deserted; nobody to be seen or heard throughout the building.

The pair of women casually proceeded up to the first-floor gym. Once both women stripped away their sopping wet outer clothing, Renka searched for Kasumi’s gaze and quizzed, ‘It’s not every day that you get to run along with the cool sensation of rain on your skin like that; it’s kinda refreshing, right?’

‘Yeah; It’s been years since I’ve done anything like that,’ Kasumi replied, in a neutral tone.

‘Uh, hold it right there!’ Renka started, as her companion’s hands gripped the top of her skirt. ‘As much as I’d love to admire you in your underwear, we have other things to do first,’ Renka asserted, half playful and half serious.

‘Such as?’ Kasumi questioned, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

A friendly smile appeared, ‘We’re going to have a training session, involving some lessons on hand signals, hand-to-hand sparring, maybe some exercise with the equipment that they’ve got here and you’re also going to teach me how that mini arrow launcher of yours works.’

After a short hesitation, ‘Right’.

The afternoon passed by, largely spent between rounds of hand-to-hand sparring and using the equipment for strength and cardio training.

The sparring portion of their training took the form of simple bouts within a limited square area, with rules not too dissimilar to a judo match. The women did agree however, that punches, kicks and attacking joints were fair game, though intentionally injuring the opponent still remained outlawed.

‘Haha, chalk another up for the Ittō rikui,’ Renka jested, sitting down after concluding another of the sparring matches.

Kind of annoying that despite my abilities, you get the better of me in close-quarters combat more often than not. I’m well aware that you’ve got the advantage of SDF training and years in service, but I still don’t like losing to you. If I had to estimate, it’s only roughly a third of the battles resulting in you having to admit defeat.

Hmm, I figured my training and experience would give me the upper hand, but I was hoping for a more even outcome. It’s weird; I feel disheartened by you not being on level terms with me, though I don’t fully understand why. I will admit though, it’s reassuring to know that you can still take me down. Come on; I hope you’re not holding back on me or something here. I know for certain that any fondness or kindness I have for you is no match for my competitive spirit and desire to be victorious over you, Miss Commanding Presence…

The hand signals lecturing that followed took Kasumi through various standard signals for movement instructions, communication signals and weapon identifications. Similar to the time the pair spent in the mountains, at Kasumi’s grandparent’s cabin, Renka set up a quiz, to see how much of her tuition managed to stick with her black and pink-haired partner.

After completing the test, Renka proudly exclaimed with a friendly smile, ‘Awesome! A perfect score. Not that I ever doubted you, of course. Now we can silently communicate on the battlefield.’

❀

Surely now that the bad weather has almost completely vanished, the resolution team will turn up, right?

Sat on the floor of the cabin, wearing only her underwear and thigh holster while the remainder of her clothes lay strewn across the floor, soaked and blood-stained, the black and purple-haired woman sighed and pondered.

When will I receive my requested assistance, complete this current mission and be free to make a hasty return to my family and Tsubaki??

Yeah; she’s definitely gonna be pretty pissed off at me, for one reason or another.

The dark forest grew lively; affected by a rough rumble and beam of light, which grew increasingly louder and brighter for the cabin’s sole inhabitant.

Difficult to notice, given the overpowering nature of the sound coming from the engine of the lead vehicle, but I’m almost certain there’s also a panel van approaching; another HiAce van.

Hikari shuffled to the front door, and slowly edged forward, to take a peek through the front door once the forest returned to tranquillity.

Hmm; a man and a woman hauling one of the dead bodies to the van and there’s a pressure washer set on the ground next to the van as well.

‘And thus, the ordeal drew to a close,’ she murmured.

Hikari shuffled back, to put her shoes on and head outside.

Her face quickly brightened up, with an excited smile.

Yeah; there’s no mistaking an EJ20, even from a long way away.

The section have brought a GRB chassis Impreza WRX STi. Ehh? It’s the Spec-C? Vivid blue with dark grey wheels and black mud flaps too.

The pair of cleaners had finished loading one of the dead combatants into the back of the van. The woman, after exiting, spotted Hikari and greeted, ‘Good evening. This is for you.’

The woman tossed a set of keys underarm to Hikari, from a latex glove-covered hand, before sternly advising, ‘There’s a spare outfit of yours and an equipment kit in the boot. Please try to not destroy this one.’

‘Thank you,’ Hikari sheepishly replied, blushing in addition. ‘Ah, here are the keys for the truck,’ she continued, stretching out a hand with the keys for the lorry in the woman’s direction.

‘If you could please put it in the ignition, that would be much appreciated.’

Hikari fulfilled the request and then extracted a holdall from the boot of the freshly-allocated car.

Nice; it’s an exact copy of my standard dark blue and white outfit.

After heading inside, she got dressed and folded up the bloodied, rain soaked and dirtied counterparts, ready to hand to the resolution team for disposal.

Returning to the pair of cleaners, Hikari bowed and loudly thanked the resolution team before taking her seat at the steering wheel of the car.

Now we’re talking, she thought as she pushed the key into the ignition and sparked the engine into life with a twist.

The distinct, rough and hearty growl that these cars were more or less famous for greeted her.

Hello to you too. The excitement could probably make me melt. She pressed down the rightmost pedal in the footwell a few times, that UEL exhaust manifold growl never gets old…

Given how close the trees are and the winding nature of the trail back to the road, I’ll have to remain disciplined for the five or so minutes that it’ll take to re-emerge onto proper roadways. ‘After that point, all notions of driving like a normal person are out of the window though.’

After rapidly weaving through the forest and emerging out onto tarmac, she kicked down the throttle pedal and the change in speed forced her back into her seat as she allowed the flat-four engine to unleash all of its power.

Still not really out of the woods just yet though; I wouldn’t be surprised if some backup arrives in the near future, though I have no idea what they’d use to keep track of me, she thought, as the car flew down the expressway.

Not far before midnight, Hikari arrived at her destination, with the trip taking less than an hour, despite taking detours to avoid checkpoints and roadblocks. A loud screech of tyres marked her return, as she used the handbrake to spin the car so that she could reverse along the drive and up to the family home.

Hikari sprang from the car, leaving the engine running and the driver’s door open as she ran inside. Sitting upright in your futon, eyes fixed on your phone; that’s convenient. Doing her best to sound cute and smiling, Hikari asked, ‘Heeyyy, did you miss me?’

The doctor stared with an irritated scowl.

Missed you? You idiot; is that really what you’re returning with?? Although I’m relieved that you’re not dead, that disappearing act of yours was a major pain and not just for me. So many different things to complain about and ask…

‘Yeah, I know; you’re pretty ticked off with me right now, but unless you come with me this instant, you’re gonna have a huge load of other problems stacked on top of whatever’s bugging you.’ Hikari then knelt down and bowed, with hands pressed together.

Ugh; here we go again. Tsubaki relented after a short while of staring at the pleading woman, quietly but firmly issuing her reply, ‘Please stop being so embarrassing, you idiot.’

She emerged from the futon and gathered some clothing, which instantly dissolved Hikari's panicked expression. ‘You’re lucky that most of my things are already packed,’ she continued, as the other woman in the room played with her phone.

I’ll have to request that the section set up something to guard the family house from any incoming threats for a while…

The doctor’s voice sounding a bit disappointed, queried across the bedroom, ‘You’re not going to say goodbye to your parents or anything?’ with a mildly condemning frown.

After a brief period of awkward silence, Hikari conceded, replying with the reduced power that one would expect from a guilty woman, ‘Yeah; I’ll write a note for them and try to fill them in later on. They’ll at least be happy to know that I’m still alive and kicking, heh.’

Well, it’s better than nothing, which I should probably class as a victory. If you think you’re escaping talking to them later though, you’re sorely mistaken, Tsubaki thought as she slipped on her boots. Once on her feet and her backpack in her hand, she paused, fixing her eyes on her helmet, ‘I heard the sound of some pretty extravagant driving. Was that by any chance you?’ she asked, nervously. Please let the answer be negative.

‘Yeah, that was me,’ she admitted, with a proud smile on her face, which prompted Tsubaki to roll her eyes and sigh exasperatedly.

The pair began to make their way to the front door when Hikari paused, ‘I’m gonna get something from the kitchen, the boot should be unlocked, so you can go ahead,’ she quietly explained, with a little smile.

Once her companion left the house, Hikari searched for a pen and paper and once found, she scribed a message, “Hey, mother, father, I’m sorry for the sudden disappearance and for having to leave again so soon. I promise I’ll be in touch again soon. Thank you for not giving up on me (°◡°✿) Hikari xx”.

She gently placed the note on the kitchen table. They shouldn’t miss it when they come through here later.

Hikari swiftly made her exit, running back to the car.

Once returned to the driver’s seat and strapped in, she glanced across, to check that Tsubaki was belted in as well, before easing the car along the drive.

When the hatchback reached the street, a screech of the tyres, four slick marks on the road and both of the women being pressed back into their seats evidenced the beginning of Hikari’s dash toward what she hoped would be relative safety.

Having to concentrate on the road left the driver unable to watch the doctor, across from her, frowning in discomfort. Judging by those cute fearful sounds you’re making, I take it you’ve never had a wild ride before.

Without taking her eyes off the road, Hikari quietly declared ‘Don’t worry so much; it’s time for me to repay you for everything. So long as I'm still alive and kicking, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure no harm comes your way,’ with an undeniably straight and serious expression on her face.

I won’t repeat the same mistakes I made back then…