"How's progress on our little project going, Kagetsune?" The speaker looked at his comrade with dark, glassy eyes, sightless yet all-seeing.
His bespectacled, crimson-haired ally sighed heavily and adjusted his glasses, replying, "That's the third time in as many days that you've asked me the same question, Masakado. The Ashiya Corporation may be large and resourceful, but my people are not miracle workers – and neither am I." Pausing for a moment, he continued, "But to answer your question, the majority of the work is done. The rank and file are all ready for action, but without the elites, they're completely ineffective. Mindless entities require orders, after all. The problem is, we've had… difficulty finding suitable candidates for conversion."
A smile tugged at the corners of Masakado's mouth as he handed a thick folder to Kagetsune. "I anticipated that. These are dossiers on particularly promising conversion candidates; you already have… unsavory contacts, so I'll leave their procurement and conversion to you." His blind eyes turned toward the industrial bay hidden in the underground facility they occupied; countless black-armored figures stood immobile, uniform in appearance. "The Hyakki Yagyou will be our key to seizing control of Japan, and the rest of this world soon after. We will become the gods of the new world."
Mitsuru Kirijo dried off her long red hair as she stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body until she got to her wardrobe. "I have to thank Yukari, Akihiko and the others. They've helped take quite a bit of the stress off me lately." She mused to herself. After getting dressed, she left her bedroom and made her war to the Kirijo estate's foyer with the intent of spending a night on the town.
The Shadow Operatives' founder froze, however, when she saw the figures covering every exit of the estate. For a moment, she thought Public Safety had made another move to undermine her, but that notion was quickly discarded. The men she saw before her were clad in full tactical gear and, much to her surprise, carried military-issue weaponry. The Self-Defense Force? No… They have no identifying markings. A terrorist attack, most likely. Unarmed and without much in the way of escape options, Mitsuru stepped forward with her hands up, hoping to negotiate.
"Kirijo, right? Didn't expect it to be this easy to get you. We don't want any unnecessary attention here, so let's make this short and sweet." The apparent leader of the squad raised one gloved hand, revealing a taser in his grip. Before Mitsuru could act against him, he fired the device, the resulting shock sending her muscles into uncontrollable spasms. The Kirijo Group's CEO was only dimly aware of several other intruders striking blows with their rifles, and then… nothing.
Several gunshots resounded through the air as a petite young woman finished her marksmanship practice. Eight perfect bullseyes out of ten fired shots was her best record – impressive for a teenage girl, but not up to her standards. "I must redouble my efforts if I am to do the Shirogane legacy justice… Grampa wouldn't have missed a single shot, even in his advanced age."
Naoto Shirogane holstered her revolver and made her way out of the basement training facility, her stomach growling. "I was so absorbed in my training that I'd forgotten about meals; an amateur mistake. Pull yourself together, Naoto, you need to keep your strength up. You don't want to worry Yu again, like last time you collapsed from forgetting to eat." Making her way to the kitchen, Naoto thought of her lover; her former senpai, now no longer a Yasogami student but still the love of her life. She'd been through this once before, obsessively studying to the point that she'd grown weak from malnourishment and collapsed. Her grandfather had her admitted to Inaba Municipal Hospital to aid in her recovery, and if that wasn't embarrassing enough, her friends had informed Yu of her condition. He'd rushed from Tokyo to see her and given her a stern lecture that made even her grandfather's pale in comparison, and she certainly didn't want to give him cause to worry again.
"There's no time for anything elaborate, not when I'm supposed to be meeting Rise-chan in an hour. I'll settle for instant ramen for now, I suppose." The girl detective muttered to herself as she began preparing the noodles, snapping her gaze to the side as a sound reached her ears. As the ramen cooked, she cautiously moved to investigate, her intuition telling her something was amiss. When she reached the dining room, however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Just as alarm bells sounded in her mind, something pierced her upper arm and her senses began to dull.
A tranquilizer dart! She thought as her vision began to fade. Someone managed to break in without setting off security? How…? The remainder of the thought was lost to her as she lost the feeling in her body, unable to support her own weight as her mind drifted into unconsciousness.
"Rragh! Ayiah!" A fire-haired youth swung his twin katana relentlessly, hacking into the training dummy before him. It wasn't quite the same as bringing his blades to bear on another person, but over time he'd slowly begun to realize that there were ways to deal with people that didn't involve cutting them to ribbons. He was calmer than before, less prone to violence. Finishing his routine, he twirled both his blades and sheathed them in one motion. "That guy's been rubbing off on me, I guess."
Before he could decide what to do next, a faint sound reached his ears. A mechanical click from behind him… He turned and drew his katana again, cutting down a dart that had been flying toward him. A man in tactical gear stood with a firearm in his hand, stunned at his would-be target's reflexes. "Who the hell are you?" The swordsman asked, taking a step toward the stranger in his rented house.
"Wh-What the hell… What kind of monster is this kid?" The man stammered, backing away slowly. "I heard he was just an ordinary high schooler… You aren't Sho Minazuki, are you?"
A feral smile spread across the young man's face. "Sho Minazuki… Yeah, that's me all right. What the hell is a punk like you doing shooting things at me, huh?" Sho approached slowly, both swords glinting in the dim light of his lamp.
Falling back against the wall, the intruder looked up at Sho with sheer terror in his eyes. "D-Don't kill me! I'll tell you everything!" Seeing as he wasn't immediately cut down, he began instantly spilling his guts. "I-I'm part of a special forces unit contracted by the Ashiya Corporation. We were supposed to kidnap talented people for some project their head honcho Kagetsune Ashiya's working on, and I got assigned to you. The bosses said you didn't need a full team because you were just a kid without any special resources, but they're lying assholes. Let me go and I won't cause you any more trouble, I swear!"
"Huh, that sounds pretty out there. Well, I won't kill you. But if anyone else asks for your story, you'd better spill it like you did just now, or you'll be dealing with me again." Sho finished by bashing the hilts of both his swords into his attacker's head, knocking him out. "Narukami told me about that one cop I could count on… Dojima, right? Time to give him a call.