Breaking into the manor was easy- it was a simple matter of stalking for weeks on end, placing a trojan into a personal computer, and learning almost everything about the woman's habits just by going through numerous pages of browser history and observing almost everything she did in her daily routine. Memorizing her schedule and slip in when she retired for the night and concentrated the majority of her guards around her quarters was just for professionalism's sake- the less casualties, the less mistakes she could make while killing them to prevent them alerting others. In general, the better choice.
The extraction, however? Definitely hard. Between the roving hordes of patrolling guards, the hulking gorilla of a man stamping about the place, and the ridiculously difficult security measures the CEO had in place, it was a wonder that she had even obtained the amount of information she stole, much less accepted the job in the first place. That raging swordsman that came after her and woke the entire place up when he had accidentally stumbled into the room while she was rifling through the papers on the CEO's desk had certainly convinced her that this woman was utterly mad. Perhaps charging 150 million yen for her services was setting the bar much lower than she wanted.
The target- Kiryuin Ragyo. Reason for theft- Monopolistic hold on textile industries worldwide, corruption of the police force, a heavy hand in the alleged murder of several international high-class businessmen, and bankruptcies of several dozen legitimate business through trumped-up charges and a heavily biased court system. An impossible figure to bring down, much less steal from. Her hand had stretched into international waters and muddied them.
But the client was ridiculously wealthy and adamant that she break into the CEO of Revoc's house herself and retrieve all information regarding the murder of a personal relative. It wasn't as if Ryuko was deaf to his order for help- she had been affected by the Kiryuin greed as well. In fact, her ailing father had returned to his store one day to find the doors barred, his house repossessed, and all his financial assets illegally seized. The jobs themselves were deathwishes, but the reason why she had taken up such a dangerous career was because it paid well. And because of this, her father was able to purchase another house and maintain a smaller store selling handmade pottery rather than the expert tailoring and unique custom clothing he so favored doing.
An extra 450 million yen was offered if she managed to assassinate the queen bitch herself- the cherry on a cake and a definite addition to an already complicated job that would have made her retire and live an ultra comfortable life- had she actually managed to sneak by those brainless drones patrolling the area and strangle her.
She reached for the bead in her ear- a small device that could easily be overlooked in a cursory check but not so for more observant guards- and lightly pressed a roughened finger against it. Her low, husky voice filled the air as she whispered into the commsys, and deep blue eyes suspiciously flitted towards the dark corners of the alley out of sheer force of habit.
"Suzume to Jiro. Reporting in. On schedule. Prepare for extraction."
"On my way," a deep voice replied monotonously, and the feed went silent.
Ryuko adjusted the carrier bag nestled against her side, unconsciously running a hand through the bag's contents until she relocked it, satisfied that all was in order. Two USBs worth of information stolen right off of her servers, five folders, and a fat stack of papers detailing multiple plots of forced business assimilation, receipts of bribes, and messages detailing the specific methods to murder targets. And just to rub salt into the wound and avenge her father, stolen copies of all fashion designs marked for release within the next couple of years; the original copies were long destroyed at her hand and all accompanying servers playing a part in their corrupted scheme permanently put out of commission as well.
Slipping into an adjacent alley, she allowed herself a rare smile. The household that she left behind was waking up, the roaring confusion exhulted from the butlers and guards alike grew fainter as their distance grew. Come the morning sun, the full extent of damage she wrought would be discovered and countermeasures undoubtedly enacted. But by then, she would be long gone, sitting comfortably in a first-class seat on a flight out of the country while the heat died down and sipping a glass of sake. She turned the corner...
...And found the wind knocked out of her. Ryuko coughed as her solar plexus was dealt a blow in succession, staggering back. She blindly punched back, finding her attack prematurely halted by a hand wrapping around her wrist. A second punch from the other hand ended in the same manner. Her commsys crackled to life, the same deep masculine voice informing her of his changing position as her assailant switched her grip so that both Ryuko's wrists were held within a single hand.
Ryuko struggled against the tight, unnatural grip the other's hand had on her wrists, only ceasing her efforts upon the sound of a gun's safety being disengaged and the feel of a handgun's muzzle pressing against the hollow of her throat. The light of the adjacent building provided revealed insight to her attacker's identity, and she sighed in irritation, recognizing the face that was plastered across thousands of billboards and magazines and adverts worldwide.
"Kiryuin Satsuki," she mumbled. "I should have realized."
Of course. If there was only one person in that mass of idiots that had to track her down before the job was completed, it had to be that overzealous perfectionist bitch.
"This exchange is monitored by an elite sniper. Attempt to retaliate, and I guarantee you will be killed instantly. Comply, and you will be left unharmed and brought to the authorities. Understand?"
Ryuko mutely nodded as best she could with a pistol against her body, thickly swallowing a wad of saliva and wisely deciding to take the woman's threat at face value. Kiryuin Satsuki was not one person to bullshit around- if she voiced a threat, there would be an army backing up even the smallest of claims. Ryuko's stare eventually transitioned to a sword resting comfortably against the Kiryuin's hip, attached to the body with a sturdy cloth sash. She stared at the sheathed katana nervously, dilated eyes flicking back between the armed woman and her weapon. She licked her lips and tried to ignore the beads of sweat forming at her forehead.
"Hey, uh… You're not going to decapitate me with that are ya?"
The elder opted not to respond to such an idiotic question. Keeping the gun pressed against the soft of the smaller's throat, she advanced, hand outstretched towards the courier bag and fingers splayed in anticipation. Ryuko sucked in a breath as the ebony-haired woman drew uncomfortably close, masking her anxiety and the rising tide of adrenaline by looking away, pretending to remain submissive. Her foot scraped against the wall and ground forward, gauging how much room its owner had to act.
She couldn't go to jail- undoubtedly, the corrupt force would attempt to execute her on the spot, have her massacred by the press and left as an example to those that stood in Revocs' way, or leave her with a weight wrapped around an ankle as she drowned in the bay. No way were they going to wait for a trial, even though judge and jury were all bought out. And in this position, the sniper Kiryuin had claimed to be watching them couldn't fire her weapon- Satsuki would be too physically close to engage.
Just as the elder's digits reached for the silver clasp binding the top portion of the bag to its main body, Ryuko jerked to attention. Her knee drove up- hard- into the other's crotch, stunning her if but for a second. The gun discharged, the bullet smashing against the ground and burrowing into the soil rather than the courier's flesh. The heiress's hand released the shorter woman's wrists, and she swore as her pelvic bone throbbed and pain raced through her nerves.
Before she could fully regain her bearings, Satsuki found her opponent's raised leg wrap around hers and pull. With an audible roar of outrage, she fell onto a knee, the limb swiftly disengaging as her own legs fell out of place from under her. Without missing a beat, Ryuko solidly planted a foot against her chest and kicked her away, finally gaining enough space to spring onto a steel garbage can dumpster, jump to a window ledge above, and scale it.
Nonon's rifle barked once, and the pinkette swore as her bullet missed her target by a mere centimeter. She pulled the bolt back with deft fingers, teeth grinding against the cigarette lodged between two incisors, and practically smashed her face against the scope to line up another shot.
Ryuko continued to scale the building, swinging her body and letting it fly in random directions just to piss the sniper off. Pulling herself over the edge, she hurled herself over and continued running on the rooftops just as another 50 caliber bullet dug into the wall beneath her knees, vaulting onto adjacent buildings. From the mad stampede of footsteps behind her, she guessed she was being pursued. Daring to turn her head, she observed the Kiryuin heir following behind her, also vaulting over the various rooftop obstacles. Figures that she would also know parkour.
But Ryuko had scoped this area out before and practiced her route, putting her at a significant advantage above the woman and her accomplice. She changed directions frequently and doubled back on her paths, confusing the other and causing all the sniper's shots to miss. She smirked as their distance grew, Satsuki becoming a blip in the dark backdrop of the sky, and adjusted her route to her final destination.
But as fate would have it, Ryuko's luck ran out just as she landed on a nineteen-story commercial building. The sniper's eighth bullet successfully bit into the meat of a calf, and Ryuko swore as she was downed in an instant. Pain exploded through her body and she screamed bloody murder as bone shattered and red blossomed on her skin, bleeding into the dark material and staining it. Her vision blurred and darkened at the edges. With titanic effort, she dragged herself over to the corner edge, letting her upper half rest against the roof access's concrete stairwell structure.
With her teeth, she ripped off part of her outfit from around the shot leg. Hands trembling, she managed to tie the cloth around the wound, hopefully staunching its flow. She flashed a tired smile as Satsuki finally arrived and advanced to her position, undoubtedly bringing along with the certain possibility of a very painful death. But the young woman didn't care. She had reached the drop-off point, and that was all that mattered. With the last of her remaining strength, she reached for the commsys in her ear with one hand and shrugged the bag off with her other shoulder, letting the straps messily pool onto the limb below. She pressed it, and let it and the accompanying hand fall.
The neat, efficient sound of clacking heels grew louder and stopped a meter before her crumpled form. She looked up, finding the Kiryuin Ragyo's loyal lapdog and soon-to-be-heiress menacingly standing before her. Ryuko wheezed, the pain intensifying upon prolonged contact with the cold surface of the roof.
"I guess that's it for me, huh? Well, the least I can do is try to make myself more dignified and make one last grandiose speech before death, like they do in movies. Well, here. Humanity lights the flares of its existence with hand grenades and flamethrowers. Time crawls by in an hourglass, the sands of time soon sweeping away… What is the present but an illusion, a future past…?" she hummed, looking up at the dark sky above, the heavens visible through a thin cloud cover. "The moths look beautiful in the moonlight tonight, don't they? Shame they have such short lives. They'll never be able to roost in the same spot again for as long as they exist."
The glint in Satsuki's eyes turned colder and her entire demeanor shifted. In a flash, the younger found the tip of a blade pressed against the indentation the handgun made earlier. Ryuko stared at her visage reflecting against the black steel, marred only the slightest bit by the gentle curvature towards the cutting edge. Satsuki snarled, all pretence of a calm, collected young woman vaporized.
"Save it. You will hand over the contents of your bag and be allowed to live your life in a maximum security prison, or face instant death. Your choice."
Ryuko merely smiled, for her intelligibly nonsensical message was not for her, but for her partner waiting below, wherever he was. 'I am at the agreed drop point. I am going to die soon. Don't come back for me.'
"Urgh… heh... heh... ugh... huh… I choose… … … I choose... death…"
She tossed the battered bag over the side of the building with a pained grunt, where a dark figure effortlessly snatched it midair from his position on a nearby rooftop. One of Satsuki's generous eyebrows rose in surprise at the act, and shot up even higher as he merely turned tail and left instead of helping his incapacitated partner. Ryuko laughed at the sight, grinning in triumph as she ground her commsys against the rough roofing, destroying it and preventing it from being examined. Her mocking turned harsher when Senketsu completely vanished from the area and the sound of squealing tires on a motorcycle soon filled the air. She closed her eyes and maintained her smug, self-assured grin, making sure her prominently sharp incisors caught the moonlight.
"Heh… heh… heh... Kill me if you wish, Kiryuin. That bitch is going down either way, and your company with it. There's enough evidence in there to bring her to international court and completely ruin her company."
Satsuki opened her mouth to reply, but Ryuko's hearing, muffled and long dulled from pre-syncope made her words muted and indistinguishable. She laughed once more over the elder's speech, the dark waters of unconsciousness threatening to claim her. And with that, her vision completely failed, and the paltry remnants of awareness fled her. The taller of the two pulled her sword back as the other's head lolled to the side and brought the unconscious woman's upper body crashing with it. Her nose wrinkled in disgust and she sheathed her blade.
Reaching into a hidden pocket, she extracted a burner cell phone and dialed it, frowning against the receiver. A cool, level voice greeted her after the first ring, clearly discernable despite the whirring hum of many servers around its owner.
"Lady Satsuki. What can I do for you?"
Satsuki reached down with her free hand and picked up the fallen courier's body with little effort, letting her limp form balance on a shoulder like a sack of flour.
"Tango down and in my possession. Prepare the extraction. Medical supplies and a medic onboard if possible."
"And the intelligence?"
Her grip on the phone increased, the screen and casing cracking against the increased pressure. She noticed and silently exhaled to calm herself down, forcing her muscles to relax.
"Failed retrieval."
The quiet shuffling of papers on a desk answered in lieu of an actual vocal response. This stunt the annoying little courier pulled had thrown their own plans and set them back by a considerable amount.
"I've notified Gamagori. He will arrive in five minutes via one of the unbranded SUVs to make your requested escape inconspicuous. He will be arriving at the corner of the block you're currently at, near the Toho bank. Police scanners are buzzing- Nonon's bullets had unfortunately attracted several dozen individuals' attention and they called for officers to investigate. Is there anything else you require?"
Satsuki shifted her gaze onto the sleeping woman's face. The moonlight reflecting off shoulder-length midnight blue locks and pale face highlighted her calm features. Her body rhythmically moved in tune to her breathing- a sure sign that she was still a long way from death. How fortunate.
"Prepare a chamber and a welcoming committee. I'm sure our new… guest… will want a warm welcome when she arrives. Do not inform Ragyo of my involvement or engagement with the target at all. I want all our dealings with this… messenger… to be absolutely private."
"Understood. Inumuta out."
Satsuki turned off the burner phone and shifted her captive's weight so that she now held her in a fireman's carry, ignoring the blood that seeped into her clothes. She strode purposefully down the fire escape towards her destination, millions of new possibilities flitting at a lightning pace through her mind. The break in, the skill this scruffy woman showed in managing to infiltrate Revocs' systems, the amount of data she escaped with, and the abilities she had displayed while fleeing and successfully evading an elite sniper... No doubt that this woman would have to be factored into their plans. But for now there was a long day ahead of her- a CEO to report to, and a full line of questioning for this interfering bug about her past training, as well as the companies she worked for.