Chapter 12: "Haven't you heard? It's a battle of words."“Hey.” Risa greeted quietly as she walked into Lin’s room at sunset, like she had been doing every night since her little plan started. Ai returned the call just as softly, aware of the dozing girl in her bed behind her. They shared a quick kiss and Risa sighed happily, instantly relaxing from the simple contact, “Anything new?”
“No, of course not. Lin Lin nodded off about two hours after you guys left, as usual, so I’ve been pretty bored again. Though I did get the new high score in solitare and I finally finished my book.” Ai reported dutifully, earning a chuckle and firm hands rubbing out the kinks in her shoulders.
“You’ve been sitting too long, you need to get up and stretch every few hours. Do some exercises or yoga. Nothing too heavy, though, don’t want to pull your stitches. Come on, let’s the three of us head down to the gym, I could use a work out, too.” Risa suggested, walking over and shaking Lin gently. “Wake up, time for all good hackers to get up.”
The Chinese girl groaned and sat up, blinking groggily, “Back so soon?” she mumbled, struggling to her feet, wearing sweats.
“Yeah, come on, let’s go down stairs. Then I’ll treat you guys to dinner later. Or breakfast, in your case.” The gunner patted the hacker on the head gently as the three exited the room.
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Aika looked up from her book as Jun sat on her bed, back facing her as she dried her wet hair. The older woman was clad in her pajama pants and an open backed shirt that showed off her toned back and shoulders. It also revealed deep, criss-crossing scars that Aika had only previously glimpsed. She had wanted to ask about them before, when she first noticed them, but she wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.
Before she could censor herself, out popped the only thing she could think to say, “How’d you get those cool scars? Fighting?” The thief immediately felt like smacking herself, but tried to play it cool when Jun made eye contact with her, seeming amused.
“Actually, they’re from horrible childhood abuse. But they are pretty cool, thanks.” Aika did smack herself now, clapping a palm to her forehead, eliciting laughter from her companion.
“I’m sorry, that’s definitely not what I wanted to say.” The younger girl apologized profusely.
“So you didn’t want to know about my scars?” Jun teased the already flustered girl.
“No I did. I just wanted to be more tactful than that.” The fighter laughed again at the blunt response.
“Yeah, my dad didn’t much like my brother and I, but I was always bigger and stronger than him, so I always took the blame. My brother was so sensitive sometimes.” she sighed, a sad smile on her face.
“You miss him.” Aika stated sympathetically, her companion nodding in agreement.
“Don’t you miss your sister?” Jun shot back pointedly. They fell into contemplative silence.
Suddenly, Aika turned her back to her roommate, hesitantly lifting her shirt up to uncover the pale skin beneath. Jun felt her eyes widen as she saw deliberate, swirling burns etched into her back. Aika had mentioned being branded before, but this was beyond anything Jun had ever seen. There was barely an inch of skin left uncovered, the burns overlapped each other in multiple places and turned into an abstract work of horror.
“My father fancied himself an artist. He was never satisfied with the design. Eventually, I never had to do anything wrong to get a new line or swirl.” Her voice was strained and Jun found herself crawling across the bed and reaching out to touch the scars. Aika jumped at the first hesitant brush of cool fingers against her warm back, but relaxed as those hands gently smoothed away her tense muscles.
“I’m here.” The older girl said simply and the thief relaxed even further. Those were the words her sister always used after one of their father’s sessions. No promises, no lies, just a simple comforting fact. Aika blinked away her tears, there was no time to cry.
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Reina blinked groggily as she felt warm arms wrap around her middle. Once again, Sayu had crawled into her bed in the dead of night. Why couldn’t the con just sleep in her own room? Did she have some sort of goal in pushing Reina’s buttons constantly?
The cop was about to roll over and give the older girl a piece of her mind, again, when she realized how tense the body pressed up against her was. Sayumi was practically humming with tension, making her seem warmer than usual and her breath to brush forcefully against the back of Reina’s neck.
The younger girl felt herself blush, her own body temperature rising. She found herself paralyzed under the strange feelings that assaulted her and instead of kicking Sayu out of her bed for the ninth night in a row, she leaned back into the loose embrace the girl had her in.
The con gasped lightly in surprise at the action, but quickly regained her composure and tightened her hold on the cop, happily hugging her. Both girls fell into a comfortable sleep soon after.
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“Wait up, I’ll come with you.” Risa called out to Ai before the older woman could leave the room. Both were dressed in sweats and, even though a morning work out wasn’t the gunner’s habit, they were heading down to the gym. Since Ai had begun to feel much better, she’d decided to get back into the long neglected routine she’d had of exercising before starting her day.
They rode the elevator in comfortable silence, subconsciously holding hands as they made their way through the nearly empty hallway on the communal second floor. This floor had no guest rooms and was reserved for laundry, gym, and the indoor pool and sauna rooms. Both women made a mental note to check out the latter later.
The work out room was empty of people and very large, consisting of a few treadmills and stair steppers and even weights in the far corner. What really drew their attention was the opposite corner, which had nothing in it except for a square of hard wood. It was obviously designed with stretching or yoga in mind and Ai and Risa immediately headed over there and spread out their mats.
Risa followed Ai’s lead, stretching and twisting and bending in a fairly impressive show of flexibility that proved that she kept in shape. The older girl was obviously still sore, as she could not exceed the gunner’s own form and groaned when she tried. When they finished stretching out, they split up to do their own thing, Ai popping in some ear buds and beginning a light dance routine and Risa heading over to the weights.
Picking up a set of eight pound barbells, the gunner began her modified form of training, adopting various poses one would use to hold a rifle, then a pistol, then a rifle again. She absently kept one eye on her girlfriend, watching for the first signs of stress. The door to the room opening drew her attention and in walked a sweat clad Eri, seeming surprised to see them there.
“Hey, good morning.” the cop called out, the other woman returning the greeting with one of her own. Risa put down her weights, feeling like going to get a bottled water, and exited the room as Eri began her own stretches. The drink machine wasn’t very far down the hall and it took her little time to grab a few bottles of water, one for each of them. When Risa returned to the room, she froze in her tracks.
In the time it had taken her to walk down the hallway and back, a pounding hip hop beat had begun to issue from the sound system built into the wall. Eri had finished her warm up and apparently decided to challenge Ai to a friendly dance competition, as both girls now gave their undivided attention to each other. Risa’s eyes widened as she watched one of them sway and twist and then the other match them move for move.
It was like watching a show, except she was sure no choreography could be this beautiful. Ai swung her hips in a slow circle and then thrust her chest out, feet moving in a pattern only she could keep up with and face a mask of concentration. Eri responded as soon as she stilled, throwing her hands up and gyrating her butt, one hip cocked to the side. Her hands slowly traveled down her body, mussing her hair and passing over her chest seductively and a huge grin spread across her face.
Before she had stopped, Ai was moving again, twirling and tossing her head back, feet nearly a blur of steps. Eri paused for only a second before joining her, matching her movements with ones of her own. As they danced together, sometimes with each other and other times as opposite forces, Risa was drawn to the expressions on their faces. Eri kept up some form of a happy grin, obviously enjoying herself. Ai’s face stayed serious, sometimes baring her teeth in a sexy grimace during a particularly energetic grind, but Risa knew she was having fun too.
The current song tapered off into silence and both competitors took a moment to catch their breath, panting heavily from exertion. As the next song started up, Ai let out a low groan and began to fall, clutching her side. Eri was quick to catch her, face transforming into a look of concern and Risa was up and running before it even registered that she had sat down.
“Ai!” both women called out as the demolitions expert was laid gently on the floor. Risa lifted up her shirt a little to glimpse the bandage over her wound. Blood had soaked through where Ai had torn her stitches out. The gunner grabbed a nearby towel and pressed it against the bandage hard.
“Ow!” Ai yelped, her hands clasping the offending object, “That hurts.” she whined and the other girls breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“Jeez, Ai, I told you not to over exert yourself.” Risa scolded, now over her initial worry, Eri just looked guilty.
“I was having fun.” Ai mumbled easily as Risa helped her sit up. The gunner indicated with her eyes to Eri to grab their things and then struggled to put Ai on her back.
“Well, now you can have fun on bed rest again.” The younger woman said as she secured her girlfriend against her. When everything was collected, the three made their way back upstairs. It didn’t feel like all that long before Risa was laying Ai back on her bed, instructing Eri to go get the first aid kit.
What Eri came back with was a hospital in a box. The kit had everything you could possible need in it, though it weighed a veritable ton, and soon, Ai had new stitches placed painfully into her flesh to hold her wound together. After wiping away the older woman’s tears and sending her to get cleaned up, did Risa finally slump down on her own bed.
“Well, today’s going to be interesting.” she mumbled to her same aged companion. The cop just chuckled.
“Yup, already feels like one of ‘those’ days.” she agreed, “What’s the plan, anyway?”
“What’s been the plan for the last agonizingly boring week now? We drive around the warehouse district until Lin calls, or doesn’t.” Even Risa sounded like she would rather chew glass than do that again.
“Well, let’s go shopping.” Eri suggested happily, “I know there’s a mall right nearby there, we’ve passed it every day.”
The gunner gave this a moment of thought, “Okay.” Though she really didn’t need to, “I’ll make sure Lin has thawed our accounts.”
“She can do that?” Eri asked incredulously.
“Of course, she’s already done her’s and mine as of yesterday.” Risa raised her eyebrows at the cop’s look of shock, “You look surprised. We’re criminals after all.”
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“Woohoo! Shopping spree!” Sayumi cheered as the group trooped into the mall. She immediately dragged Reina off by the arm, to her flustered protests, into the nearest lingerie shop. The others just shook their heads and wandered off together. It didn’t take them long to find a shop they could all agree on and they split into twos, Aika and Jun going over to the clothes section and Risa and Eri heading over to where the electronics and snack section met.
Jun inspected a pair of black leather gloves seriously, they were very nicely fitted on her hands and made of strong material suitable for hard labor. She wondered if she could fit brass knuckles over them.
“Jun, what do you think?” she heard a call over to the side and turned her attention to Aika, coming out of the changing rooms. The younger girl was wearing an all black ensemble of tight, but stretchy pants, a long sleeved, formfitting turtle neck, thin gloves, a beanie and steel toed work boots. She looked downright badass and Jun gave a whistle.
“Nice. Try these, too.” she handed the thief a dark purple v-neck, a black thermal undershirt, gloves also in dark purple and a black and purple striped beanie. While Aika changed again, Jun turned back to her serious contemplation of the gloves. They were really nice. Nodding to herself decisively, she grabbed them and turned around to go through a rack of cute shirts.
A few minutes later, Aika emerged wearing the purple outfit. Jun gave her a big grin and a thumbs up. The girl really was too cute, “Which should I get?” she asked, pouting in indecision.
“Get them both. Can never have too many work clothes.” Jun shrugged, grabbing another set of gloves, in brown this time.
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When Eri rounded the corner into the electronics section, Risa was discussing something rather seriously with the cashier. On the counter was two power strips in a bag.
“Is that all you bought?” The cop asked when the gunner finally came to an agreement with the worker.
“Oh no, I’m having the rest delivered to the hotel.” Risa answered nonchalantly and Eri raised an eyebrow.
“What exactly did you buy?” she asked cautiously.
“Oh about,” the other woman looked at her receipt and grimaced, “400,000 yen too much, but some of it’s to keep Ai from getting too bored. What are you getting?”
Eri held up a jumbo sized box of some kind of snack, “Umeboshi! It’s my favorite.” The gunner chuckled at her innocent smile.
“Kame, you’re so cute.” Risa playfully pinched the other girl’s cheeks.
“Hey guys!” Aika’s call made them turn their attention to the approaching pair. “We’re finished here.” Eri headed over to pay for her treat.
“I think we’re almost done, too. Where to next?” The gunner asked easily as the cop rejoined the group.
“Maybe we should rescue Reina?” Eri suggested lightly, as though she didn’t care either way.
“Maybe we should just get something to eat?” Aika replied mischievously, to the agreement of all. With that goal in mind, they headed for the food court.
They all split up to get their food and then found a big table close to the edge of the seating area. No sooner had they sat down, though, did the missing two appear from around the corner, each holding bags from the store they had been in.
“Jeez, took you long enough.” Eri griped to her partner as Reina sat down next to her. She examined the bag curiously, trying to peer into it, “What did you get?” the younger girl yanked the bag away with a blush.
“None o’ yo business! Damn, don’ be so nosy all da time!” The other girls laughed at her sudden accent.
“What was that? I don’t speak yankii.” Aika teased her with a grin.
“Oh, the other yankii doesn’t understand? What a shock!” Jun threw in off handedly, eliciting more laughter.
“I’m not a yankii!” The thief cried, scandalized.
“You’re right, you seem more country.” Eri agreed, getting in on the joke.
“I’m from Shiga! I’m not country or yankii!” Aika defended in vain, the others paid her no mind.
“Ah, a country yankii!” Jun declared, clutching her stomach in merriment.
Aika smacked her hard on the arm, “I jus’ told ya, I’m from Shiga, damn!” her response drew the loudest reaction of all.
Risa was laughing so hard, she almost didn’t hear her cell phone ringing. Luckily, the vibrations drew her attention to it and she snapped it open, with a still chuckling, “Hello?”
Whatever she heard on the other line wiped the smile off her face, “Are you sure?” she asked gravely, catching her companions’ attentions, “Then wake Lin up and tell her to freeze the police cameras, she’ll know what I mean. We’re heading there now.” Everyone looked at each other in slight concern, “And Ai? I-” Risa paused, suddenly aware of her audience, “I’ll see you soon.”
“So?” Eri asked impatiently when she hung up.
“It’s time.”
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“Okay guys, let’s suit up.” Risa said, opening the storage compartment in the floor of the van. There were gasps all around as everyone peered at the contents of the storage space. Weapons of all kinds, projectile weapons; everything from slingshots to rifles; bladed weapons; daggers, machetes, and swords; and hand to hand enforcements; brass knuckles of varying designs and cat’s claws.
“Holy crap.” Jun murmured as she picked up a set of brass knuckles with inch long spikes. “Where did you get this stuff?”
“Oh here and there. You know how it is.” Risa shrugged, beginning to bring out a few holsters, “Now, I know the cops have at least basic pistol training, so that’s what they’ll get. The rest of you, feel free to choose something.”
Reina and Eri shared a look from the front of the van and the older girl followed the unspoken request to gather up suitable weapons for them. Eri climbed into the back and found two 9mm pistols and two different holsters. She knew Reina preferred a shoulder harness, though rarely got to use one, while she would rather wear her weapon on her thigh. Eri strapped on a snug waist belt that allowed her gun to rest low at her side and also to carry up to five extra clips, which she quickly filled.
As Reina was driving, she had to get someone to help strap on her own holster, but before Eri could reach her, Sayumi, who had grabbed a large machete, volunteered. Her soft touch and teasing hands caused Reina to flush brightly, much to the older girl’s amusement, “Why Reinya,” she asked as she secured the straps between her breasts, “is your heart beating faster?” her fingers lingered longer than necessary, finally snapping the cop out of her daze.
“No way, now quit it, I’m driving.” she couldn’t keep the quiver out of her voice and Sayu headed back to her seat with a grin. Eri shared another look with her partner, this one completely different. “Shut up.” Reina said preemptively and the older girl chuckled heartily.
In the back, Jun found that the spiked knuckles she had chosen fit perfectly over her new gloves and Aika practiced opening and closing a small, but heavy, metal retractable baton. Risa had strapped on an absolutely huge hand cannon to her hip and a tiny snub nose around her ankle, as well as copious amounts of ammo for both. After a few seconds of thought, a mid sized knife was slipped onto her belt.
“What the hell is that monster?” Sayumi asked, pointing to the hand cannon.
“This is an S&W 500. It’s mostly for fear factor, as the recoil is so strong I have to be nearly point blank to hit anything, but I shouldn’t even have to fire it if I can just clobber someone over the head.” Sayu nodded, still eyeing the thing uncertainly.
“Guys, we’re here.” Reina interrupted their murmurs, sending everyone’s tension skyrocketing. The van parked within sight of the warehouse and the group slowly climbed out. “Let’s go.”
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Risa crept quietly through the front door, Jun by her side, looking around cautiously for any signs of movement. They had split into three groups, Reina and Eri had taken the side entrance while Sayu and Aika climbed up to the second floor. The gunner could faintly hear rowdy voices echoing from farther inside the plant and began to make her way there.
The warehouse was a partial maze of shelves and boxes that seemed to be makeshift walls. There was still a few conveyor belts leftover from whatever it’s original function was, but they were rusted over from disuse and added to the creepy atmosphere. The two passed by them and into another maze.
Risa paused, smelling a strange odor coming from a room to their left and hearing a couple male voices conversing in quiet tones. As they moved to investigate, a tall man suddenly walked out into the open in front of them. He barely had time to look surprised before Risa had smashed the heavy back end of her hand cannon into his face, knocking him out cold. Before his body hit the ground, they charged into the room he had exited and confronted the two men inside.
“Stop right there.” Risa commanded quietly, pointing her fierce looking revolver at them. Both paused, assessing them, before they charged with identical yells. Jun reacted instinctively, surging forward to meet the one closest to her, while Risa calmly waited for the other to reach her.
Jun’s opponent threw a wide hook that completely missed her and she shot out with a quick jab, changing the trajectory of her fist at the last moment as Risa’s instructions ran through her mind, ‘Don’t kill anyone!’
Her spiked knuckles buried themselves in his shoulder and he gave a cry of pain. At the same time, the other man tried to clobber the gunner with a haymaker that she easily dodged. Sliding slightly to the side, Risa brought her knee up hard into his gut, winding him and sending him stumbling. With his back to her, it was easy to knock him out. She turned to watch Jun viciously chop her opponent in the throat and then, in an impressive display of flexibility, twisted her body and kicked him in the head.
“Nice.” Risa complimented easily, causing Jun to beam, “Let’s get going.”
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Through the crack in the door, Eri saw two men immediately inside the warehouse chatting with each other and smoking cigarettes. She turned to Reina, kneeling beside her and indicated what she saw with simple hand signals. Her partner nodded and gestured back that they would rush in on the count of three and subdue the men quietly.
The yankii held up three fingers, drawing her gun in the other hand. Then two, one, and then they charged, bursting in the door with a startling bang and pouncing on the two men. It was laughably easy to knock them out.
“Ouch, that guy managed to burn me with his cig.” Reina rubbed her forearm gingerly where a small welt was forming.
Eri examined it closely, “You’ll be alright. It’ll heal soon enough, I bet it won’t even scar.”
“This might.” Both women turned in surprise when they heard a male voice speak, followed by the click of a bullet being chambered. From around the corner came a man they had obviously missed, pointing a large gun at Reina’s head. Before he could pull the trigger, though, a blade flashed from beside him and buried itself into his elbow. Another blow by a baton to the back of his knees made him drop to the ground.
Sayu and Aika stepped from the shadows, the con jerking her bloody machete to the side. The sound of blood droplets hitting the floor echoed loudly in the room. “Hi there~!” Sayumi called cheerfully, Aika waved, eyes seeming to be stuck wide with fear. “We took care of two guys upstairs to. Don’t worry, they’ll live.” She felt the need to clarify at their worried looks.
“Though they’ll probably never walk again.” Aika added quietly with a shudder. The man on the floor groaned loudly and made to get up. With a grin, Sayu kicked him onto his stomach and brought the machete down in a smooth motion, hacking his spinal column in half but not doing enough damage to terminally wound him. His cry of pain was cut of by a boot to the head and the con wiped her blade on his shirt.
“I haven’t had this much fun in a while.” Sayumi grinned dangerously at her companions and the cops understood Aika’s fear.
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Arriving at the main office, Jun and Risa heard raucous laughter that seemed to only come from three voices. Deciding to keep with the surprise attack, they busted down the door with a swift kick and entered, Risa readying her hand cannon and training it on the man closest to her. This group was a lot quicker to react, immediately diving behind cover and drawing their own weapons. The two women crouched behind a thick metal desk, Risa propping her gun up on the surface and taking aim patiently.
She didn’t have to wait long, two of the men popped up with pistols at the ready and she realized that she had a perfect shot to hit two birds with one stone. Before either men could pull their triggers, Risa fired off a round, the recoil nearly making her drop her revolver and the report sounding loudly throughout the entire warehouse. The man’s head closest to her exploded with the impact of the magnum round, which traveled farther behind him and impacted on the second man’s gun, knocking it out of his hand forcefully.
He ducked behind his cover again with a cry of pain. “Yasu! You okay?” the third man called out to him.
“Yeah Kenji, I’m fine. Watch out for that bitch though.” Yasuyuki replied to his older brother.
“Go!” Risa called to Jun and the bigger girl vaulted over their hiding place and charged forward to the uninjured Kenjiro. He rose to meet her, attempting to aim his pistol at her, but Jun was faster. A lightening quick punch had the gun sailing across the room and a left hook was barely dodged. The Chinese girl went on the offensive, pressing her advantage.
Yasuyuki began to stand and Risa fired her magnum again, the bullet ricocheting off the shelf next to his hiding place. He ducked with a curse and Risa pulled out the knife on her belt, hopping over the desk and charging for him. She took a swipe that he easily dodged and then took another swing at his face.
Hand to hand was not her forte and it showed in her quick, but clumsy movements. Unfortunately for Risa, Yasuyuki was obviously a skilled fighter and soon had her scrambling backwards.
His brother was the opposite, barely able to keep away from Jun’s spikes and not getting a punch in edgewise. Risa saw this and called out, “Jun Jun! Switch!”
The older girl immediately reached back to grab the gunner’s arm, twirling her around to effortlessly change their opponents. Jun met Yasuyuki’s jab with her own fist, her spiked knuckles sinking perfectly between his joints. He gave a loud cry and stumbled back, clutching his wound.
As she spun around, Risa lifted her leg in a powerful roundhouse kick, sinking her booted foot into Kenjiro’s mid section. He gasped and clutched his stomach, falling backwards onto his butt. The gunner leapt onto him and snagged three of the piercings along his eyebrow with her finger, viciously ripping them out. Her knife swiped down and hacked into his left ear, nearly cutting it off.
Meanwhile, Jun didn’t let up on her opponent, throwing a haymaker at his head when he was distracted by his pain. Yasuyuki saw it just in time to duck out of the way and Jun’s spikes sunk into a box on the shelf that was behind him. She yanked hard, but her fist was stuck and the man took this opportunity to begin pounding into her exposed side.
Giving out a grunt of pain with every blow, Jun opened her fist and slid her hand out of her knuckles, turning to chop against the side of his neck fiercely. Yasuyuki gasped as his air was suddenly blocked and stumbled back, holding his throat. Jun swung her still spiked hand and pegged him in the abdomen, she immediately swung with her other hand, clocking him in the jaw.
His head snapped back and Jun threw a right hook, her spikes sinking into his cheek. He let out another, choked cry and she used her fist to jerk his head up so he looked at the ceiling, pounding into his side with her left hand.
Risa straddled her opponent and raised the knife high above her head, eager to thrust it into his throat. “Wait,” Kenjiro croaked out, “We can help you.” Despite herself, Risa hesitated, something she knew to be a bad move.
“I’m listening.” She said, but his eyes focused on the fight behind her, “Jun, stop!” Suddenly, the scuffle paused, “How can you help me?”
Kenjiro quickly outlined how he could assist her and Risa listened, becoming more intrigued by his proposal. It definitely wasn’t their original goal, but it was just too tempting to not consider. At the same time, this plan would keep her from eliminating absolutely everyone, which would keep Ai happy.
“Alright, I agree to your terms.” Risa stood, examining his bleeding face, “Since I don’t trust you, I’m going to ensure you stick around to keep up your end of the bargain.” With that being said, the gunner pointed her tiny revolver that she had taken from the holster around her ankle at Kenjiro’s middle. Before he could shout, or even move, she had fired a single shot into his stomach.
“Brother!” Risa turned to see Yasuyuki, still connected to Jun’s knuckle, try to run towards his wounded sibling.
“Break his legs so he can’t get away.” Risa ordered and the Chinese girl immediately complied, stomping hard on the guy’s knee. With a sickening crack, it bent backwards and he fell to the ground, unable to support his weight on the wound. He cried out in silent agony, blood streaming from the newly made holes in his face.
As she reached the door, Risa turned back around, “When all this is over, I’ll come back for you guys. Don’t forget your promise or I’ll make this pain seem like a tiny pinprick.”
The two exited the office and almost ran right into the rest of their party, “What happened? Are you guys okay?” Sayumi asked in concern, “We heard the shots, but we’ve been busy taking care of everyone else.” she gestured to the few bodies laying around in various states of unconsciousness.
“We’re fine. I’m letting the brothers live, for now, so call an ambulance and have them put on twenty-four hour watch.” A little confused by Risa’s change of plans, Eri reluctantly complied.
“Why didn’t you kill them?” Reina asked bluntly. Risa put away her various weapons, looking down to hide her face.
“They may have more useful info. Plus Ai would be mad.” Now that her adrenaline wasn’t pumping so hard, the gunner became aware of a few aches and pains in her body. Her jaw hurt from where Yasuyuki had gotten in a solid punch and she realized her lip was split. She turned to Jun, who looked as though she was realizing her pains as well, “You alright?”
“Yeah, my wrists hurt a little and so do my ribs. But it’s nothing a few nights of rest won’t cure.” The Chinese girl answered respectfully. Risa nodded at her, squinting for a second longer to make sure.
“Well, let’s go back and rest. I think we deserve a break after this.”
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Well, here y'all go! The promised action scene. Is it what people were expecting?
Ooooh, who's gonna get hurt in the face?
There, they got hurt in the face! I didn't say it would be one of the girls. Please don't kidnap me, I can't write in a cupboard....
Topic: Black and Blue (Ch 34 6/4 The End!) (Read 176194 times)