Ringleaders

"NANAKO, YOU ARE SEVERAL MINUTES OFF-SCHEDULE! REPORT!" Kanano yells into her walkie-talkie. For someone camouflaged against the color of the sky, Kanano isn't acting particularly stealthy. She stares into the scope of her sniper rifle, trying to make out something, anything going on in the bar.

"Nanako's probably losing. If she was winning, she'd be out here by now… I think." Nakano speaks into the walkie-talkie, her voice barely audible. She stands on a rooftop closer to the bar. She's fully transformed, sporting a hooded bluish-purple robe. There's a lit cigarette tucked between her lips. She has the hood raised, wary of revealing her identity even though she's almost certain that her enemy already knows her name, where she lives, her face, and the Jutsu she has under her belt if her meeting with the Awano Family is anything to go by. "I-I think we should go down there and lend Nanako a hand."

"NEGATIVE. WE HAD CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS TO REMAIN ON STANDBY!"

"Fine… I think–"

Just as she says that, a gigantic crash comes from the bar below as its window is shattered to pieces. Nanako comes flying out, battered, bruised, but just barely alive. Shosuko steps over the broken glass, still in her dramatic pose.

"That's our cue, I guess."

"TANGO CONFIRMED." Kanano fires off a couple of shots aimed right for Shosuko's head but the sound of the sniper rifle firing tips her off. She raises her hand and blocks the bullets one by one with a flurry of open-palm thrusts. "TANGO IS SHOSUKO KUZE, THE NEW KUZE CLAN HEAD. IF WE ELIMINATE HER, WE CAN WIN THE WAR WITH MINIMAL CASUALTIES."

"I know that already." Nakano jumps from the roof's edge. "Back me up, Nakano. If you don't have any better ideas, I mean."

"AFFIRMATIVE."

While Shosuko's distracted by Kanano's volley, Nakano goes for the flank.

"「Genjutsu - Updraft」" Right before Nakano hits the floor, a gust of wind comes from beneath her, breaks her momentum, and lifts her up. She rides the wind, closing in on Shosuko with gale-force speed. And once she's in range, she raises her arms in front of her.

"「Genjutsu - Nightglow」" Magical tesla bursts from her fingertips and rakes the ground as they rush towards Shosuko. It's not 'true' lightning. The kind that strikes from the sky is reserved for God and the weakest of mages to hurl. Any Magical Girl worth their salt should know how to conjure much more effective bolts of lightning. There's no time for her to react. The electricity wraps itself around her body, frying every single nerve-ending inside of her. Shosuko lets out a fierce, primal scream.

If it were any other magical girl, they would have probably dropped dead right on the spot. But for Shosuko, someone with two passive Taijutsu boosting her resilience, she only suffers a couple of major burns.

"「Genjutsu - Nightglow!」" Nakano tries to double the strength of her Genjutsu but Shosuko's faster. She jumps so high she lands on a nearby rooftop, her legs leaving craters in the concrete floor. Again and again, she jumps from rooftop to rooftop like a grasshopper. Nakano and Kanano both give chase. Nakano surfing along the updraft she conjured, and Kanano elegantly weaving through the concrete jungle like she knows it better than the back of her own hand. That's because she does.

"She's headed straight for Midori-ward… I think." Nakano radios Kanano.

"AFFIRMATIVE. MOVING TO INTERCEPT."

"「GENJUTSU - GUN」" A light machine gun, that's actually quite heavy, appears in Kanano's hands. The main problem with using guns against magical girls is that they're too predictable and are easily dodged. Of course, none of that matters when you're eviscerating a general area instead of a singular point. Which is exactly what a LMG is for.

She points at Shosuko's general direction and unloads. After a few misses, she course-corrects and manages to score a couple of hits on Shosuko. Her clothes are in tatters, but somehow she only suffers some minor graze wounds.

"WHAT IS THIS GIRL MADE OF?!"

"「GENJUTSU - GUN」" Kanano throws her light machine gun away and conjures a sniper rifle, sacrificing more of her blood in the process. Sniping is a hard thing to do. Sniping while running is even harder. And sniping a fast-moving target while running is downright impossible. Still, Kanano has to make it work somehow.

"NAKANO!"

"Got it, I think."

"「GENJUTSU - LONGINUS!」" Swirling embers manifest all around Nakano. She holds out her hand and the embers begin to coalesce into a single spear made out of pure fire. Without missing a beat, she hurls it at Shosuko. It flies true. Sonic booms rattle her bones as it travels faster than sound.

It's a deadly attack sure to pierce any defense. But that's besides the point. The important detail is that to avoid it, Shosuko's going to have to dodge either to her left or to her right. Which means all Kanano has to do is fire such that whichever way she dodges, she'll be pierced by her shot. Or that was the plan, anyway.

Shosuko stops, whirls around, and grabs the flame spear. The heat melts the flesh on her palm but she manages to maintain her grip on it. She spins it in her hand before throwing it right at Kanano. It rips through the air like a buzzsaw rips through wood.

"SHIT!"

Kanano barely manages to dodge but still, the flame spear grazes against her side, both opening and instantly cauterizing a wound. She hisses in pain.

"I'M HIT!"

"Suck it up, I think." Nakano's answer comes quickly and cruelly.

There's a whistling sound in the distance but Kanano ignores it. She raises her sniper to take another potshot but when she pulls the trigger there is no bang. There is only a click. She pulls the trigger again but still nothing. She takes her eye off the scope and inspects the sniper from the side. Huh, apparently it's been cut in half.

"WHAT THE?!" Her ears perk up. She hears something in the distance whistling towards her. Without wasting another millisecond, she acts on instinct.

"「Genjutsu - Gun」" A high-caliber handgun appears in her grasp. She pinpoints where the noise is coming from and fires twice. Sparks fly as the bullets intercept the object. It's a thin bladed thing, almost like a scalpel but with a rounded handle. A letter opener. Nakano and Kanano stop their pursuit. They've just entered Midori-ward. The belly of the beast.

"Damn it. We're pinned." Nakano pulls out a couple of letter openers that pierced her arm and abdomen. "I don't think we can go any further."

"A FELLOW SNIPER. IF A LITTLE UNORTHODOX." Kanano shoots down a few more letter openers that were coming for Nakano. "RETREAT?"

"Retreat. We'll crush them soon enough… I think." Nakano leans backwards, and the updraft carries her away from Midori-ward.

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

"「Taijutsu - Cold Star」" Her eyesight magnifies a thousandfold and her hand goes perfectly still. Kanano lifts her gun up, lines up a shot at the faraway radio tower, and fires. One last parting gift from Blackadder, with love.

"Th-they got me good." Oka nurses a gunshot wound in her stomach. "I should be f-fine but I can't believe they h-hit me from that far away."

"Never underestimate a magical girl with a gun." Daisuko, a magical girl with two guns, knows that better than anyone else. She dangles her feet over the edge of the radio tower.

"That was close. T-too close." Oka glowers over Shosuko's shoulder as she speaks. Shosuko doesn't seem to care. "N-next time, tell us when you're about to do something i-incredibly stupid like go to a meeting completely alone"

"It worked out. I made it out just fine." Shosuko takes out the dossiers from within her jacket. "If it gets us even one step closer to taking out Kasai, I'm more than happy to take any risk."

"Whatever. Just keep in mind that you're not the only one fighting this war from now on." Oka rolls her eyes as she opens one of the dossiers on the floor. She goes through them one by one, sifting through the important stuff and getting rid of the chaff. "Alright, I think I have the info we need."

"What do we got?" Daisuko squats next to Shosuko.

She takes out a map of Ozawa city from her skirt pocket. "From what I can tell, the Blackadder safehouses are here, here, and here." She points to three distinct locations. "If we attack them all directly, that should draw out the Blackadder brass."

Shosuko punches her palm. "Deploy the troops, we attack now."