Chisato aimed her trusty gun at an angle, holding it in front of her face. She fired at the man’s jaw, finishing him off.
Takina watched everything play out in astonishment. As usual, her gun was at the ready, but no enemies remained.
“Hey, Takina. You’re getting faster every day!”
Chisato smiled at her partner, lowering her gun so that it pointed at the retching man she had hit earlier. She fired at the back of his neck and he stopped moving.
Chisato was a stickler for nonlethal methods, but neutralizing her opponents by almost killing them was perfectly acceptable in her book. There was no pity and no hesitation in her movements.
“You used to have real trouble catching up. Good progress! I’m proud of you!”
If this had been their first mission together, Chisato would have probably finished off everyone on the staircase and moved on to the basement before Takina had even gotten to the stairs. After many joint operations when Takina struggled to keep pace with Chisato, she did, in fact, get faster. Still… She was aware that she wasn’t good enough yet. She didn’t have sufficient experience and ability… Or maybe she was simply too ordinary.
There were three ranks among the Lycoris. The first-rank Lycoris were true beasts when it came to combat. Takina’s partner and senior at DA, Fuki Harukawa, was a first-rank Lycoris. She used her short stature to an advantage. Staying low to the ground, she could run extremely fast, easily outspeeding big, bulky men. Her superpower-like speed was also effective on smaller targets like her fellow Lycoris. Second-rank or lower Lycoris couldn’t hope to win against Fuki. After frustrating training sessions, they spitefully called her “Cockroach” behind her back.
Yet even Fuki was no match for Chisato. Chisato was in a league of her own.
“Slow down, Chisato. If you’d made even a single mistake back there…”
“If something goes wrong, I’ve got you to back me up!”
Chisato chuckled as if they weren’t in the middle of a mission. Takina couldn’t tell if Chisato’s laid-back attitude was a mark of superiority or if she simply couldn’t switch off the part of her that was always messing around.
Takina let out a little sigh.
“You should just use standard ammo. One shot from your .45 would be enough to finish a target. You wouldn’t have to waste so many rounds.”
Chisato had to fight in her own unique way because she adamantly refused to use the regular ammunition that all other Lycoris were supplied with. Chisato used nonlethal rounds only—rubber bullets. Hers were a special make, utilizing red powdered rubber. They weren’t made with natural rubber but a synthetic kind—essentially plastic—like what was used to make erasers, for example, mixed with powdered metal for increased weight and impact force. They fell into the category of frangible plastic rounds. On impact, the bullets fractured into tiny pieces, which looked like blood gushing out of the target or like a red spider lily flower when seen from the side.
Chisato never shot from a distance because of her unique ammunition. Rubber bullets were lighter than metal ones, and their power dropped dramatically the farther they had to travel. You couldn’t hope for decent accuracy with them unless you were up close. These disadvantages were even more pronounced given Chisato’s bullets were the frangible type.
Chisato needed to get as close as possible to fight on the same level as armed, armored opponents. At extreme close range, her pistol packed a punch, rubber bullets or not. While other Lycoris employed the Weaver stance or Isosceles stance, Chisato had developed her own shooting style based on the close-range-oriented CAR system.
The biggest difference was her extended position—shooting with the gun held with both hands in front of her face, aiming straight or at a slight angle. In the CAR system, you hold the gun so that the back of the hand that’s directly holding the grip is pressed against your eye on the opposite side of the body—so, if your right hand’s on the grip, it blocks your left eye—to allow for more accurate aiming with the unobstructed eye. Chisato didn’t block either of her eyes, though. When Takina asked about it, Chisato said it worked well enough for her. Takina supposed that Chisato’s adaptation was because, at super-close range, a slight improvement in accuracy didn’t matter, and Chisato didn’t want to lose her situational awareness even for a moment. Her style often involved jumping right in between enemies, so she had to know what was happening around her at all times.
But it could also have something to do with Chisato’s left eye being dominant, unusual for a right-handed person. She probably didn’t need to cover her right eye to aim well with the left. Takina hadn’t seen her do it, but if Chisato switched between aiming with her right and left eye without covering them, that would count as textbook CAR.
“It’s okay, I don’t mind. I prefer nonlethal, so I’m cool with the slight inconvenience. My rubber bullets have their upsides, too!”
“I fail to see any.”
“You’ll understand someday!”
“Or you could just explain now.”
“Don’t like to give out spoilers.”
Takina felt mildly annoyed.
“If you don’t want to kill, that’s fine, but you could still use normal ammo. You’re skilled enough to disable an enemy without killing them.”
“You can do that, Takina. Dividing tasks is what makes a duo like us effective! Anyway! Let’s go, go!”
While chatting, Chisato attached a wireless communication device to the stairwell wall so that Kurumi could reach them.
“Why the hurry?”
“What a question from the logical, efficiency-oriented Takina! Hah, how love changes people! You want to be with your beloved Chisato as long as possible!”
“Incorrect.”
“D’aw!”
“Will you tell me why you’re in such a rush?”
“Because I want to wrap this up already and see a movie with you before our shift at LycoReco starts. The prequel to the zombie movie we saw with Mr. Doi the other day. The first movie is way better than the second!”
Takina was irritated that her suspicion was right.
“You guessed it was something like that, huh?”
“Yes. Please stop reading my mind. And if you knew that’s what I was thinking, why didn’t you say so outright…?”
“Enough chatting. Let’s go, Takina!”
Chisato had probably had enough of Takina’s persistence with that topic. She ran out of the stairwell. Takina let out a little sigh again and followed her into a dark corridor. After a turn, it continued in a long straight line. If there were enemies at the end, Chisato would be at a disadvantage due to the long range. Takina would have to take point.
“Whoa?!”
Chisato was about to turn around the corner, but she jumped right back.
“Something’s there!”
Something? Takina frowned suspiciously. She swapped positions with Chisato and momentarily peered around the corner into the long part of the L-shaped corridor. With the electricity cut off, it was dark, but the emergency lights were on, casting a dim glow. Takina made out a shape that could be a person at the far end, about thirty meters from them… Something was odd, though.
Takina knelt on one knee and peered round the corner again from a different height. She quickly withdrew. As she expected, the enemy fired at her with a rifle, maybe an AK chambered in 7.62. The shot chipped the wall slightly above where Takina had stuck out her head.
She understood why Chisato had said that “something” was there. There was a person there, but they looked strangely…huge. Bulky like a bear and as tall as one standing on its hind legs. The strange foe wasn’t taking cover behind anything—they stood confidently right in the middle of the corridor, which only added to the bizarre aura… The enemy looked so massive, Takina at first wondered if she’d judged the distance correctly.
“Kurumi, can you restore electricity only for the basement corridor?”
“You sure you want that? You’ll be completely exposed.”
“That probably won’t make a difference anyway. Go ahead!”