The pool of red slowly spread out from the body, as countless gunshots had pierced through the squirrel costume. Chisato was still breathing heavily, recalling her past. Takina was left in shock, not believing that she could fail a mission again-as she had killed the arms dealer back then, in the process of saving her coworker, Erika, which caused her removal from DA.
"Fall back!"
"Mary!"
A girl fell to the ground, rounds of bullets landing on her, as the terrorists advanced. Her entire uniform bloodied over, the girl reached out and her arm went limp. The ground was painted red.
Just then, more nearby Lycoris were shot to the ground as the enemies begun to ambush them, somehow sensing where their positions were. More bodies begun to fell, and some were stomped on until they were unrecognizable.
"Move in! Those girls are falling quickly, push until there's no more!"
"Chisato."
"Yes. I understand our situation, Yarim. Don't worry, we only need to reposition ourselves and swiftly assess the remaining surroundings to create a plan."
"That's not what I was going to say. Just make sure you pay attention to your own self. We wouldn't want any major injuries on our little red fellow, would we?"
Despite the dire circumstances, the red haired girl laughed. Her short hair was practical in comparison to Chisato's long hair, although Chisato kept it long as she could just tie it up. Additionally, she never could find time to cut it anyways. Yarim's blue eyes contrasted from everything else on her person, as she also wore a red uniform.
"I suppose it would be an inconvenience."
"Really…you need to have more self awareness."
Back in reality, Takina had already called for support as the gunmen had already fled the scene, supposedly hopping in a large van and taking a vote about where they would go.
"Chisato, we need to prepare for extraction."
"Y-yeah? I see…I'll get a Surveillance Lycoris to see if anyone nearby heard anything."
—-
It was almost deathly quiet within the ambulance. Chisato and Takina sat on the same side, as the bloodied Walnut was laid on a stretcher and put inside. Takina looked to her side, only to return to staring at the ground. She didn't want to disturb Chisato. But, at the same time, she also felt it was best to help her cope. Meanwhile, Chisato was crying, something she hadn't ever remembered doing before. It was quite obvious to Takina, but hearing Chisato's sobs only enforced her decision not to disturb her.
Then, a familiar voice arose.
"Can I get up now?"
Miraculously, the bloodied Squirrel sat up, and took off their mascot head.
"Jeez! Get me a beer, it's hot as hell in here!"
A can flew out from the front, as the woman inside the mascot caught the drink. It was Mizuki, and she seemed to have suffered nothing-despite the countless bullet holes in the costume.
"…huh? But…"
Takina was also about to inquire, but then a familiar head popped up from the front. It was their overseer, Mika.
"Don't get confused, it was planned out."
"Planned…out? That means…"
"Yes, as a hacker, it's best to let your adversaries believe you're in the grave."
Another voice came up, as the suitcase slowly opened to reveal a little girl. She wore some sort of goggles, and seemed like she couldn't see with them on as she grasped around.
Turning back to Mizuki, Chisato processed it all.
"So…no one died?"
"Yeah, this is pretty bulletproof-although I did take quite the beating-and filled with these red liquid ba-AUOF!"
Chisato gut-punched Mizuki out of anger, and proceeded to repeatedly shake her about while sniffing and crying.
—-
"Why didn't you tell me about this plan? Could've been a lot less of a panic attack if you did…"
"Yeah, but I love seeing your natural reactions," reasoned Mizuki, "see?"
A picture of a Chisato bursting into tears was on Mizuki's phone, and Chisato ran up to her as she attempted to take it and remove evidence.
"Stop..! When did you even take this?!"
—-
The next night, a bunch of the Lyco Reco cafe's regulars stayed over for the after-hours board game party.
"Takina, Takina! Join us! You must be bored after closing up!" Chisato attempted to lure in the black haired girl.
"No thank you."
"Maybe there's too many old dudes here?"
"She's just at that shy age, you know?"
"Takina." Mika noticed the situation, and was also wondering.
"Why won't you play with them?"
"It won't get me back into DA," Takina coldly responded as she went to change.
"Hey, hey, Takina? You're not going to play with us?"
"Chisato. Did you do your medical and physical tests yet? You're going to need to do them if you want to keep working."
"Boo…it's a pain…teach, can't you smooth-talk her? You're Teach, I'm sure Ms. Kusunoki will listen to you."
Suddenly, the door of the changing room opened. Takina was still in the middle of changing.
"You're going to see the commander?"
"Hey! You're still changing!"
Mika looked to the side. Then, the door reopened, revealing a freshly dressed Takina.
"Please, take me with you."
—
As they were in the process of managing their assessments, a group of Lycoris passed by and gossiped about Takina.
"Isn't that the girl who disobeyed orders?"
"I hear she gets her partners into trouble all the time."
Meanwhile, Erika was watching as she rubbed her eyes to make sure that it was Takina. On the other hand, Chisato gritted her teeth towards the gossipers.
—-
In the locker room, Chisato met with someone she didn't expect to see in the same boat as her: Fuku-Takina's old group leader. With a smirk, Chisato spoke out to the red-uniformed lycoris.
"Fuki, who always has her teeth clenched and is always so strict, renewing her license on the last day?"
"Don't get me mixed up with you; I've just been quite busy lately."
As Chisato and Fuki kept completing exercises, Takina was nearby at the shooting range. Her accuracy was dead-on, with her shots also landing extremely close to one another. Meanwhile, Chisato kept out-performing Fuki in everything. In the end, Fuki was panting whilst leaning over on a bench, with Chisato sitting next to her and seemingly have done nothing at all.
Just then, the commander passed by. Kusunoki seemed to mock Chisato, as Fuki stood attentively in the presence of the woman.
"Despite not fulfilling a Lycoris' duties, you still want a license, huh?"
"But I do work for you guys at DA from time to time, do I not?"
"Hey, Chisato! That's the commander you're talking to!"
Chisato seemed to ignore Fuki, as she didn't seem to care who Kusunoki was in ranking.
"For what did you kick out Takina?"
"You must've already heard. Disobeying orders."
"Yeah, but she saved an ally!"
"Because of that, we still do not know the whereabouts of all those firearms."
Pulling out her phone, Chisato showed the red haired woman a picture from a certain client they had some time ago-who had accidentally taken a picture of the arms deal.
"DA Headquarters had the wrong time for this deal! Doesn't this mean you're also in the fault here?"
"We don't give you a license as a toy. You should do more work."
"Hey, you're just trying to avoid this!"
"Chisato, that's enough!" Fuki seemed to jump into defense of the commander.
"If a leader can't assess the situation properly, isn't it their fault?"
"There was nothing to be done; radio interference disabled contact.." Fuki then realized that she had accidentally leaked the information about how their great radio, Radiata.
"Hey! With Radiata monitoring the mission, radio interference should be impossible."
Walking away, Kusunoki waved it off as a simple tech error.
"Hey, it'd be a huge problem if it were cracked!"
"I have no clue what you mean," the commander replied as she continued to walk away.
Takina was finishing up her practice rounds, when a brownish-orange haired girl walked up to her.
"Hey, that was pretty cool. I'm Sakura Otome, yeah. I'm here to fill in your mistakes when you fired at your own team member, since I'm your successor."
"Succ…essor?"
"Yep. I'm going to be Fuki's new partner, yeah. Unfortunately for you, that means nothing is left here for you."
"Hey. Shut it, runt."
A familiar voice spoke as Sakura was gently lifted by the collar by Chisato.
"And who are you?"
"That's Chisato, Sakura." Fuki was standing in front of them, with Kusunoki and her assistant standing beside.
"So this is the famous Radio Tower.."
"Don't call me this." Chisato hadn't even realized that because she was so pissed at all the Lycoris picking on Takina, she didn't even feel any discomfort hearing the topic of the Radio Tower.
"No. She's just some moron," Fuki followed up, as Chisato glare at the red-uniformed girl.
Meanwhile, Takina ignored the complications as she talked to the commander.
"Commander, I have collected a document which shows vital information about the arms deal timing, I wish to know how much I should perform to return-"
"Return?"
Faltering, Takina continued.
"If I performed well enough, I could-"
Again, Kusunoki cut her off.
"I'm afraid I don't remember ever saying that."
"She's telling you to give up!" Sakura translated.
"You're no longer needed here at DA," added Fuki as she wore a smirk. Chisato was getting pent up as she largely disliked their attitudes.
"Impossible…" Takina said, looking at the floor.
"If you don't get it, I can destroy you in a mock battle," Fuki boasted.
"Yeah, yeah, great idea! Takina, we can do this one!"
"You gonna chicken out?" Sakura kept putting her into discomfort.
"We can take this in a 2v2!" Chisato joyfully stated, before Takina dashed away without a word, as Chisato ran after.
"You both gonna run away, yeah?"
—-
Takina stood in front of a large fountain, in the middle of the facility. She seemed to be in deep thought, staring upwards, before Chisato ran in.
"All Lycoris like this spot."
"We all wish to live here after being adopted by DA. When I first put on the uniform…"
"You were really happy, right? I know what it was like. I'm Lycoris, too."
"Then..you get it, don't you? It was all taken away from me! How…"
"Takina. You don't have to be helping people here, the city has many who need you too-"
"You're still needed by DA, aren't you!? My place…it no longer exists here."
"Back then…you decided to save your ally yourself, didn't you? That's not necessarily the reason for their treatment towards you. There was some radio interference, right? It was hacked. But since they're not going to report an abnormality like that, they said a Lycoris acted recklessly."
Takina, without replying, got up-but Chisato stopped her.
"Hey, hey, where are you going?"
"To the commander-"
"She'll just avoid it and act innocent!"
"Then…what can I even do?"
"Takina.." Chisato started, as she hugged the black-haired girl for the moment, "we just need to move ahead. Those days are over."
"Also, we would've never met had you not have saved that teammate."
Picking up Takina, Chisato started to spin around despite Takina's obvious reluctance.
"I'm truly happy, really! You shouldn't try to put yourself down in order to become something, which someone else wants you to be. You have your place. Try conversing within our cafe and spend more time with everyone! Even if you don't enjoy it, and here is better, there's always a choice for you. You're in the center, and a chance will surely come. Everything I want to do gets my top priority! Even though it can cause some failure…but right now, my priority is to beat up those girls who were talking some shit about you, and this opportunity is quite hard to come by, so please excuse me!"
Meanwhile, Lycoris were all ordered to go to the spectating booths for the mock battle, as news also spread about the famous Radio Tower Lycoris battling against Fuki and Sakura. Erika was also called up.
—-
"Pff…looks like we have a shortage."
Sakura was referring to the absent Takina, as the girls got ready with protective eyewear and their paint guns.
"It's called reserving a trump card."
"Really, a trump card?" Fuki responded.
"I know, I know, you don't have a good eye for good people. Makes me wonder how you're a 1st Lycoris."
"What about you? Is that uniform just for show, rubber chicken?"
"Huh? What middle school are you from, little girl?"
"Did your brain also turn into rubber?"
"Wow, you guys get along very well…" Sakura said, as she spectated the two's quarrels.
"We shall begin unless otherwise stated," Kusunoki spoke over the speaker.
—
Chisato started off strong, seeing Fuki solo and got up close to her. Despite the distance, Fuki could not land a single paint shot as each one whizzed by the Radio Lycoris, who dodged each one and nearly got a successful counterattack-until Fuki shot without looking behind herself as she ran away, forcing Chisato to dodge.
"Not bad, not bad."
Meanwhile, Sakura was running as she executed their plan. Finding Chisato, as she kicked down doors, Sakura peeked out from behind a few boxes and fired several times at Chisato. However, Chisato only dodged even further and kept creeping up close, eventually grabbing hold of Sakura's gun and showing her own.
"You're fairly skilled."
"A fine opportunity!"
Sakura attempted to turn the tide as she moved around her weapon, but to no avail as Chisato held Sakura at yet another gunpoint.
"A fine opportunity. For me to take this, thank you."
Chisato made it off with two guns, as Fuki attempted to surprise her and fired from around the corner Sakura was retreating into.
"Grr…what's she playing with me for?"
"She's waiting. She's like that."
"And, you'll never hit her if you shoot randomly."
"Hey, I'm confident in my shooting, yeah!"
"That just makes it worse!"
"Something else catch your eye?"
Chisato kept spitting out witty banter, and lured out Sakura by tossing back her gun. Although Sakura managed to pick it up and fire at her, Chisato managed to avoid every single shot-until the gun ran out, and the opening was up.
Grabbing Sakura by the arm, Chisato took back the empty gun and pushed her back, then sliding whilst firing at the Fuki around the wall, preventing any ally aid. Then, Chisato used her own gun and fired a couple of shots into Sakura, eliminating her.
From the back, Fuki prepared to fire back at Chisato when a blue uniform appeared and punched her square in the cheek. Takina then aimed her weapon at Fuki, who was also about to fire. Chisato, stuck in the middle, opened up for Takina to be able to quickly shoot first, winning them the battle.
Up in the observation deck, Kusunoki's assistant was surprised by Chisato's movements.
"What kind of magic is this?"
"Chisato can easily see the trajectory and timing of a shot with her insight. Even at such a close range," Kusunoki aimed a finger gun at the assistant to demonstrate, "it is hard to shoot her. Outside of that, though…she's just a cheeky little brat."
Kusunoki smirked as she described Chisato as a brat, which was noticed by the assistant.
'Is she more annoyed or more proud of what this kid can do?'
—-
On the train home, Chisato saw a group notification about a new board game party.
"Hey, hey, Takina, take a look at this. What'dya want to do?"
"…Tell Teacher we'll be there. Both of us."
In the end, Chisato taught Takina a lesson that, ironically, even Chisato herself hadn't begun to realize yet; Those days are over.