ranks and the girl

Chiba was sent a AmuSphere the next day along with a full briefing on Death Gun and who he had targeted. He then sent the info to Ritsu. She would have found out anyway if he hadn't told her, and he wanted a better perspective on the case.

They poured over the information; Ritsu taking over his computer, her avatar opening pages and manipulating the screen, and Chiba at his desk facing her.

"Here, look at this…"

Chiba looked. Ritsu had pulled up a webpage—the design was futuristic, black on neon highlights, and at the top were the words "Gun Gale Online." In the middle of the page were pictures of avatars and information about them.

"Those are the three victims aren't they?"

Ritsu rolled her digital eyes.

"Yes, but~"

"They're all ranked…"

"It's the GGO leaderboard for the Bullet of Bullets tournament."

Chiba's unseen eyes widened fractionally.

"He's going down the list!"

"Yep. Now we know the next target, you'll need to stick by her. You need to be careful too, he's targeting the players who live alone."

Sinon, he memorized the face and the name. It was rather odd to find a female player in such a game as GGO, but it would make her memorable and easy to spot, and for that he was grateful.

Ritsu looked thoughtful.

"You know, there's always the chance she's the killer…"

-End Flashback-

Well, whoever this "Sinon" is, least I can hone my skills in assassination… maybe it'll help me against Korosensei.

Chiba walked around the place for awhile but saw nothing but guys holding guns. He muttered under his breath, "Ritsu, are you connected yet?"

Silence. Ah, so she hadn't hacked her way in yet. Chiba was slightly regretting that he hadn't completely read the instruction manual. He was lost.

Before the dive, he had prepared by listening to the audio and visual of the target. This was going to be different than assassinating Korosensei—he didn't know the murderer's true identity nor his powers. Furthermore, he could sense the bloodlust in the video of Death Gun; it was almost on par with Nagisa or Karma, except more menacing, as if he really did want to completely annihilate the players.

He turned a corner and was going to ask someone (preferably someone who didn't loom over him) for directions, when he glimpsed a spot of color out of the corner of his eyes.

Sky blue swaying hair and indigo eyes.

Sinon! She's the only girl I've seen today.

Chiba half-turned and ran toward her. Remember, she could be the next victim… or the killer—at any rate, I need to stick close to her.

"Excuse me."

The girl turned around and a look of annoyance flashed across her face.

"What?" She examined him, and saw that he unarmed. "Is this your first time playing the game?"

"Yes. I'm sort of lost," he answered "Is there a place where I can get weapons?"

She looked at him sharply, and Chiba realized that, what with the male to female ratio, she probably thought that he was trying to pick her up.

"I'm not trying to hit on you," Chiba said. "I had a friend who introduced me to this game and set me up, but she had things she had to attend to." Namely hacking into this using my computer as her base… but Sinon doesn't need to know that.

"Fine. I'll show you around."

He nodded and began following the target.