'Tonight is the big one, after hours, main server room, seventh floor.'

I thought idly as I parked my bicycle beside a mostly ornamental lamp post three streets down. Tapped an icon on my phone and a half moon lock sprang out from the left of the chassis to loop about the lamp post.

'REVOCS.'

I strode away, pulling the grey hoodie tighter to my neck.

'The algorithms are already written up, lock picks easily accessible in their pouch on my belt, glasses strapped around the back of my neck,'

I clambered up the wall, pulling myself easily onto the roof.

'Laptop in the small, well padded bag strapped to my shoulders and waist, heat gun secured to my belt, completely fuelled up,'

I ran easily across the taught washing line between the two streets and checked my phone.

'The cameras I will have to bypass have been running a loop for the past fifteen minutes, no one has noticed.'

I leapt the next, considerably narrower street, rolling as I landed on the lower, flat square roof, sneakers and dark, unrestrictive jeans easily preventing so much as a graze.

'OR, no one has done anything about it yet. I'll have to keep an eye on how that progresses.'

The hidden dagger clanked guiltily against my thigh.

'This is slightly more difficult, in order for someone to get inside the server room; they would have to leap from here onto the lamp post, like so, jump from the lamp post to the ornamental gargoyle. From here, they may be able to scramble up a nearly sheer wall with no handholds for three metres upon which they may be able to haul themselves onto the windowsill, which might look a little like this. Now, if they had a relatively quiet source of heat, they would be able to shrink the rubber seals on the glass pane such that it could be slid easily out of the way and placed effortlessly onto the suspiciously clean desk of the sites manager. Which may bear some small resemblance to this. after exiting the lockless office, and strolling the five metres to the server rooms door, they would face their next challenge. A locked door.'

I hummed gently as I twitched the drive pin slightly, to the glorious music of clicking metal. The door swung open, the cameras were still running false feed, so I walked over to the first server rack, gave the primary input a similar treatment to the door and plugged my laptop in. Gloved hands slid easily over keys and I brought up the REVOCS global investment marketing on a separate page, pulled up their stock value, as I edited prices and export tax values live from the feed. Their value and average income vs time graph plummeted.

'Leave it like this for five, reset, load up some malware... Probably that jumpscare virus I've been working on... and leave the same way I got in, once I've crossed the street I'll deactivate the camera loop and walk away.'

Beneath the collar, I smirked.

It was at roughly three minutes in that my phone informed me someone was trying to undo the feed loop. I moved quickly, gloved hands unplugging the cable from the rack, slamming it back into place, the lock clicked. Placed my laptop and cable back in my bag, strapped it on as I walked towards the door, stopped as I heard a few dozen pairs of footsteps.

'Shit, okay, there's a window in here, I can use that to get out.'

One particular set of footsteps was considerably closer, and the door shook as it was kicked, splinters flying.

Needless to say I turned, ran and leapt. It took a few seconds for me to land on top of a conveniently parked truck, glass shards thudding into the tarpaulin around me as I rolled to break my fall. My shoulder still hurt, however.

There were helicopters and whoever had kicked the door in had leapt after me, so I was off.

Darting between the slow moving cars of the clogged streets,

'It would be best to simply leave my bike until I could pick it up later.'

The girl was still following me, though rather than a gun or some other, slightly more standard piece of weaponry, she was carrying a sword. The blade looked to be almost as long as she was tall, curved wickedly, either a Shinken or a Katana. The girl herself was nothing to chortle at. Though such a heavy blade should have seemed out of place in the hands of a mini-skirted, vaguely officerish outfit, sharp features, a well toned body and an absolutely merciless glint in her eyes more than made up for it.

I picked up the pace a touch, going over cars rather than around them, and drew my phone. I had long ago mastered the art of navigating the disorganised mess of code that was Kyoto's traffic light system at high speeds, it really wasn't that difficult to get the free ways I had just passed moving again. The girl was forced to drop back. The helicopters would be a problem, so I ducked into one of the maze-like back streets that were the hallmark of this City's delinquency, and raced past the vaguely befuddled drunken or otherwise intoxicated residents.

'The spotlights are gone, so perhaps they've lost,'

I rounded the last corner before open air,

'Me...'

Face to face with no less than twenty dark haired, gun-wielding, suited and burly men, the apparent leader easily towering over all of them, blonde hair and hazel eyes stood an old classmate of mine.

'Well, shit.'

I turned to run,

'Hopefully he won't recognise me.'

And came face to bespectacled face with the lady that had been chasing me earlier. Sword drawn now, the blade was solid black.

It was almost instinctual as the blade rushed towards my neck, I caught her wrist, twisting past her and locking an arm across her throat. An elbow crashed into my ribs, once, I began dragging her back into the alley, keeping her body between mine and the gun barrels, twice, I tightened my grip on her throat and raised her to her toes, three times, my left hand reached around smoothly to draw my own knife, with the intent of bringing it to her eye in threat.

Instead I leapt away from her and desperately parried the black blade she had reversed and sent after my intestines. The fight-that-I-really-would-have-preffered-to-avoid was on.

'My first move must be to get out of this alleyway,'

I parried the sword easily, forcing the woman -'Satsuki Kiryuuin'- back towards the entrance.

'Long blades are extremely unwieldy in tight spaces, but by the same token, my own agility is shot if there is nowhere to run to.'

I moved in, getting well within the reach of her blade. Her first mistake was in bringing a hand back to try and punch me, it left too little strength in her blade arm to prevent me from knocking the flat of it aside with my hip, pinning it to the wall.

'Next, I'm going to have to deal with the gunmen, as many as I can and as fast as I can, before I try to put either Kiryuuin or Gamagoori on the floor.'

My own slender fingers wrap around her wrist, dragging her forwards into an overextension, making it easy to slam my knee up into her gut. Releasing her wrist, my hand moves on to take grip of her forehead, completing the wall slam and shaking her plenty enough to ease my passing.

'After that, I'll have to buzz out all the cameras and probably steer the helicopters away from the city by remote, I can do that by phone. Grab my bike and leave.'

I'm sliding on my knees as I exit the alleyway, tilting backwards to avoid the stream of bullets in passing.

'First you're going to have to deal with said tasks, what did you get yourself into, Hōka?'

The gunmen have obviously all had similar training, and are nothing special. They always tense their shoulders right before they start firing, the tinted glasses ruin their eyesight and they have to pointedly look over them to aim. This makes it easy to predict where they are shooting.

'All I have to do is not be there when they squeeze the trigger.'

Gamagoori is smart enough not to step forwards and obstruct their line of fire, though given the formation of the troops, perhaps that would actually have worked better. The first man falls to a square punch to the throat, he goes down sputtering, I leap away. The second takes a knee to the temple as I come down to sweep the legs out from under the third. My knife finds its way into a gun barrel to drag it away from my face, I give its owner a high kick to his face before I am again forced to leap around like some deranged flying lemur to avoid the bullets. I take this 'opportunity' to sheath my knife. I spring off a wall and catch the left most one in the face hard enough to send him spiralling into the opposite wall. They're panicking now.

I stand in the middle of their group now, they're forced to lower their guns out of fear of hitting their comrades rather than me, I pass the sixth's hand by my face, punch him once in the ribs and deliver a knife hand strike to his throat. He's down, I catch seven by the neck as he charges, dragging both shoulders and feet back and down, bones crack in ways they really weren't meant to. I turn, still rising to catch the roundhouse punch thrown at the back of my head, with my upper arm, before swinging the same hand into his neck. Catching his back I slam an elbow into his solar plexus, bringing that same arms hand to bear against his face before taking him to the floor. eight is thrown over my shoulder as I stand up, I am sure to slam nine's head into the same man's chest as I flip backwards, locking feet under shoulders and driving both our weights into eight's chest. Ten, I am forced to hurriedly block twice before I crack his leading arm, take him to the floor and bring a knee down on his hip, bones splinter. I turn to catch eleven as he charges, bringing him around my right shoulder, I push up at the elbow and down on his wrist, the joint snaps, I punch him in the sternum and throat before throwing him to the side. Twelve is stumbling and I drop him to the floor beneath me as I duck Gamagoori's first swing, crushing his neck between my ankles as I crouch. I flip away and none of them move.

We circle, slowly, the nine clumping together in the hope of safety in numbers, even Gamagoori is looking a little nervous, he steps forwards as though to place himself between his men and me. At least he is taking his duty as a commander seriously. The second from the right is the first to raise his gun, and so becomes tonights number thirteen. I twist past Gamagoori and slam a foot into his face as I pass, he flies a metre before stopping, I've already turned back to sweep out fourteens legs, he drops, my foot crashes into his face as I pass, he doesn't get back up. Gamagoori charges me and we exchange blows as he forces me back, two hands to deflect each blow,

'I need to deal with him now, before he allows the others to become problems,'

An opening comes in the form of him attempting to knee me, with only one point of contact on the ground, he cannot twist fast enough to follow me as I leap and spin right, and right again to drive my feet into the ground, right hand forming a knife, drawing my middle finger back so they are even, I push off.

'I've killed someone like this once. Hit them hard enough in the back of the neck that they had time to blink at me in surprise as their head span through the air trailing blood before they realised they were dead.'

Gamagoori is to tall for that, so instead I opt to hit him just as hard between the shoulder blades. He collapses I turn back to the well and truly panicking foot soldiers.

Leaping forwards, I spin, air whistling slightly as my foot crashes into fifteen's ribs hard enough to throw him across the street. I sink low, rising as I lead with an elbow to the gut and follow with a downwards punch to the temple, sixteen staggers away before collapsing. Seventeen tries to bring his rifle to bear and I simply tackle him, straightening up into his gut and throw him over my shoulder, stamping down on his skull to render him unconscious. I leap away from the black blade as Kiryuuin rejoins the fray.

I redraw the knife as she charges, deflecting the first strike away from my head, before sidestepping a front kick, there is no opening as she turns this into a twist to bring her katana,

'And it is a katana.'

To bear on my torso. I leap away, duck the horizontal slash, limbo past the follow through upper diagonal drawback, parry the stab and find my opening. Again I pull her forwards, this time though, I bring my foot down against her lead knee to the sound of creaking bone, turn this into a side kick to the ribs and crash my hand into her throat. She staggers and I relieve her of her blade, sending it thunking into the mortar holding the dull red brick houses together opposite of us, my fist finds her jaw and she flies. I spin back to the last three gunmen before leaping away as bullets make merry where I once stood. Two massive arms close around my torso as I fly.

'Shit. Shit shit shit. Shit! And just for good measure, shit.'

The knife met plated armour.

'Well, seems like this is it.'

The lady pulled herself to her feet and retrieved her sword from the wall it was embedded in.

Strode slowly towards me.

I twitched, Gamagoori tightened his grip.

She spoke, somehow still authoritatively even though she was near collapse, "Houka Inumata."

'Shit, shit, shit! She knows my name! Fuck!'

"I would like to extend to you an invitation to attend Honnouji Academy as the Information Strategy Chair of our War Council."

I blinked.

I blinked again.

Seeing that no more information was forthcoming I prodded cautiously,

"I'm sorry,"

Voice hesitant and slightly strained by Gamagoori's crushing grip,

"But are you saying his whole thing was a recruitment drive?"

The Lady blinked.

"Yes, what do you find so odd about it?"

Voice slightly steadier now that she had granted herself a breather.

"And you still wish to offer me this position, even after I have incapacitated 17 of your men, actuated serious bodily harm upon yourself and Gamagoori here,"

'That gasp was so worth the name drop!'

"Both physically and cybernetic-ally broken into what I assume you at least partially register as your company, Miss Kiriyuin, and sold off all of its investments, stock and assets for nearly a thousandth of their actual value?"

'I really hope Gamagoori doesn't just do the sensible thing and crush my ribs into my lungs.'

Her voice was annoyingly steady as she looked me in the eyes, "I will heal, the company will make back its losses within the year, two windows can be replaced easily and they'll wake up eventually." She breathed in slightly and adjusted her stance to favour her left side.

"Sooo... If I accept does he let go of me?" She nods once.

As sincerely as I can manage, mostly because it is sincere.

"Then I accept your most gracious offer."

I've kicked off of Gamagoori's ribs and am halfway up the wall before either of them can so much as blink.

Running from rooftop to rooftop, I send out the virus buzz from my phone that will disrupt all wirelessly accessible cameras within two kilometres for five minutes, reach my bike, tap the unlock icon, sling my leg over the seat and ride for the hills. Easily outstripping the traffic clogged automobiles that sprawl across the city.

'Well, this is going to be interesting.'

0000~0000

The second time I met Lady Satsuki was in her school's 'No Star' locker hall, just after I had turned around from my own locker, with the intent of heading home for the day. I found myself facing her, she still had her sword.

'Ah, that would be the reason for the other's silence.'

I cocked my head to the left slightly,

"Did you require something of me, milady?"

She blinked at me. Then, rather flatly, began her piece,

"I am grateful that you accepted my invitation."

'Well, that may be considered a good start.'

"But I would have preferred if you had enrolled legitimately rather than simply inserting your name into the registry."

"So... Did you need me for something?"

Her eyebrows twitched together slightly in annoyance,

"Or is this just another invitation? I notice you came to this discussion armed."

Her mouth quirked into some semblance of a grimacing smile. "Fetch your belongings and meet me at the foot of the tower." She turned away then, almost as an afterthought, called over her shoulder, "Inside the courtyard, if it isn't too much trouble, Inumata."

I turned back to the locker I had claimed, drawling just loud enough for her to hear,

"Of course, Milady,"

I smirked as I heard her step falter.

'Yes, calling her out in that tone will be all sorts of fun.'

I began piling my immaculate books into a less immaculate satchel, clothes, tools and laptop already in the bag hanging from my shoulders.

'Fun for later.'

I closed the door on the empty locker and left my lock hanging from it.

0000~0000

I reached the courtyard just as Satsuki reached the foot of the tower, it took less than a minute to stroll up to her.

'Lets see, she doesn't have any backup directly on hand, given over to our previous fight, I could drop her and be gone in less than a minute, plus she obviously needs me for her plans, so I can likely afford to be a little suave here.' "You know, it wouldn't have hurt you to wait thirty seconds," She twitched.

"Come inside, Inumata, I'd like to discuss fully the nature of my proposition to you."

She opened the marble door with a grace that belied the weight of it.

"And exactly what parts of your skill-set that make you an asset to my cause."

'Interesting... She clearly wants this discussion to be held somewhere secure... I wonder how she intends to go about explaining her cause to me.'

We stepped into an elevator. She tapped what seemed to be a code into the number pad.

'04,24,02,11,34, is that a phone number?'

We passed many more floors than the forty listed.

'Interesting, I'll have to remember that.'

We stopped and the door opened. I followed her as she began the walk towards the doorway labelled 'Student Council Room' at the end of the corridor.

As we entered I began in an overly droll tone,

"So, is this secure enough for your tastes yet?"

She nodded, turned to face me, opened her mouth to begin the explanation no doubt as longwinded and melodramatic as those she had given to Ira Gamagoori, Uzu Sanageyama and Nonon Jakuzure.

'Lets just get this over with.'

I cut her off before she had even finished her first word.

"Before you get started, I did some research on both yourself and this school. I also got my hands on several camera recordings of your explanations to the other three... Exceptional individuals you have recruited."

'That shocked expression of her's is exquisite, I need to know what makes her tick.'

"And before you worry, I took the liberty of finding and destroying any and all recordings or intel pieces that so much as hinted that you intended to overthrow both the Life Fibres, and Ragyo. Whom you would very much prefer I only refer to as your mother when in her presence, or the presence of those that report directly back to her."

I paused for a few seconds, drinking in Lady Satsuki and her Three Deva's reactions, ranging from shockingly mortified all the way to grudgingly impressed. I smiled, wanly,

"Now, you mentioned needing to discuss where my skills would be applied...?"

Her voice was quavering noticeably as she responded.

"Yes, well,"

Her confidence returned with a rush,

"For the most part, you'll be working on information gathering and strategy development, as well as working as a member of the Student Council,"

Here her tone became slightly slightly less 'the fate of existence shall be determined by these words!'

"Which is really just a means of not putting 'War Council' down on paper."

Her normal tone returned,

'Was that her attempt at a joke?'

"Given our former interactions, you will also be put in charge of any subterfuge, assassination, disruption or otherwise blacklisted operations. If you show any aptitude, you will also receive a position in the research and development section of the Sewing Club."

"Your Ultima Uniform manufacturing plant, I take it?"

I allowed a small smile to dance across my lips.

'I can't wait to actually see these things.'

She nodded once.

"So,"

I allowed the smile to become slightly more solid,

"Where do I sign?"