CHAPTER FIVE: Carnival 2000
Maki, Yuko, Makoto, and Leela squeezed their way through the crowds packed onto the streets of Tokyo for the summer festival. Music played loud enough to wake the dead and everyone was out in their traditional Japanese clothing. Even the women of Katzen had decided to show up in yukata, and brave the streets in their geta sandals.
As they clicked along, Maki was ever vigilant for their new friends. The florists by day, assassins by night.
Yuko saw Maki looking all around and rolled her eyes. "This place is packed. The chances of seeing them are slim and none", she said to her friend. Maki made a pouty face but kept looking.
Makoto placed a hand on Yuko's shoulder and said, "I'm actually with Maki. I know those boys are more dangerous than they seem...but I just can't help wanting to see them again."
Yuko sighed. Leela turned around from her place just ahead of them and smiled. "Don't worry, Yu-chan. Maybe that Aya will take a liking to you!" Yuko shot her an angry glare. Maki remarked under her breath that Yuko was the master of disgusted facial expressions.
Leela suddenly stopped short, causing her friends to run into her, as was their way. "Hey, look, there they are!" she exclaimed and pointed through the crowd to a cluster of boys. Two were smiling and eating rice balls, one was putting his moves on the nearest lady, and the fourth was standing off to the side, looking disgruntled.
Makoto smiled, "That's them all right!" She then took off in the direction of Youji and Random Girl #240. There was a certain predatory glint in her eye, and the other girls knew better than to argue. Following suit, Maki took off towards where Ken and Omi were stuffing their faces. Leela and Yuko watched them go, looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed.
"Uh oh, here comes trouble!" Youji said with a smile as Makoto approached.
She giggled in what she considered to be a most feminine way, and pushed herself in between Youji and the girl he had been talking to. "Oh, I'm no more trouble than you are," she said while admiring how he looked in his navy blue yukata.
Ken's eyes lit up as Maki approached, and he began walking to meet her in the middle. Unfortunately, he wasn't used to his sandals and tripped before he made it to her. Maki closed the distance and caught him before he made a very embarrassing splat on the ground. As he looked up from his near disaster, he blushed. "Sorry. I can be such a klutz sometimes. And yukata make it hard to walk."
Maki smiled at him and ruffled his hair, "Think nothing of it. Since you look so cute dressed like that, I won't hold it against you." Ken's blush deepened. Omi laughed. Maki flicked a piece of rice from Omi's cheek. Omi blushed.
Aya stood watching the whole exchange and frowned deeply. 'Why are they doing this?' he thought, 'As far as we know, Katzen is the enemy.' To her own accord, Leela was thinking along those same lines about Weiss. But she enjoyed seeing the other girls happy.
It was getting late and the sun had set, sending a light breeze and a certain sense of calm over the festival. The matsuri lights had been dimmed and the music played on.
Yuko had gotten into a discussion with Omi about hay fever, and was doing her best to ignore Aya, when the fireworks began. And with the fireworks, came the screams.
At first the sounds seemed to blend right into the fireworks and matsuri music. Then, the sound escalated until it drowned out the music, and gunshots were soon heard. Before anyone knew what had happened, young women brandishing automatic weapons were pouring out onto the street and were firing randomly, killing dozens of people every few feet.
Maki looked at Ken. Makoto looked at Youji. Yuko looked at Omi. Aya and Leela avoided looking at each other. The secret was about to be out.
"Dammit!" Ken and Maki swore together.
Ken took Maki's hands and said, "I have to go now. I think you know why."
For some reason, Maki was suddenly overwhelmed with fear, but she nodded and quietly said, "Yeah, I know. I have to go, too." Ken studied her face to see if she seriously planned on fighting. She did. Ken leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. Then he turned from her and ran into an alley with his friends. Presumably to change clothes or think of an attack plan.
Maki quickly wandered over to where her friends were now hiding. Crouched beneath a vendor table. Leela waved her over, and Yuko said, "We saw that, you big dumbass!"
Maki ignored her and asked, "OK, what's the plan?"
"Plan?" Makoto repeated. "Good question. All I have is a derringer strapped to my thigh. No other weapons."
"Not to mention we're not exactly dressed for fighting," stated Leela. "I say we call this one off."
"No!" yelled Yuko, startling them in the small space. "We knew this might happen! OK, so we're not professionals like Weiss and didn't think to be more prepared. That's our fault. You live, you learn. I'm packing a big knife under this thing, " she gestured to her yukata. "So that's one gun and one knife. What else do we have?"
Makoto sighed. "Did you not hear what I said? A derringer! I have one bullet! It's just for emergencies."
Yuko looked at her with determination, "Then I suggest you use that bullet wisely."
Maki sighed, "I have a handful of button bombs on me. I didn't bring more because, well.Unagi wasn't this violent when Yuko and I were there! They had their moments, but they usually didn't just shoot people in cold blood!"
"Obviously," Yuko stated, coldly, "there's a new Unagi in town."
Leela closed her eyes, which was her habit when thinking about something very seriously. The other girls became quiet, and a minute later Leela opened her eyes and said, "Maki will run out there just long enough to plant a few button bombs around the perimeter. Then she'll come back here to detonate them. Try to get the bombs close around Unagi and avoid contact with innocent people. We'll watch your back. If anything happens, Makoto can use her derringer, or Yuko can attack from behind. Got it?"
The other three girls nodded. Maki reached into her bag and pulled out the handful of bombs. Without another word, she took off.
Maki stumbled a few paces before finally kicking off her sandals and ripping at the bottom of her yukata. Pushing her way through the crowds of people still screaming and running to avoid the gunfire, she finally had a few members of Unagi in her sites. Dropping two bombs, she kept circling around.
Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind, and a hand was clamped over her mouth. Maki was jerked hard and dragged into an alley, kicking and screaming.
Warm breath and a soft voice in her ear said, "I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth. Don't scream, or they'll hear you."
Maki nodded, was released, and spun around to slap her kidnapper.
"Ouch!" Ken said, rubbing his left cheek. "What the hell was that for?!"
"You messed up my groove!" Maki raged at him. "Katzen is not an infantile operation! We came up with a plan just as good as anything you could come up with, if not better!" She raised her hand to hit him again, but he grabbed both her arms and slammed her up against the cold brick wall of the alley. Before she could protest, he had his lips pressed to hers in the most passionate kiss she had ever received.
When Ken pulled away, Maki was speechless for all of 5 seconds before she started yelling again, "you think that makes up for it?! My friends probably think I'm dead or crushed by thousands of scared pedestrians now! They aren't armed, Ken! They'll get hurt!"
Still holding her in a firm grip against the wall, Ken leaned in and whispered, "but you just said they're not infantile. They can take care of themselves. It's you I'm worried about."
Maki blinked at him. "Why me?"
Ken stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before he finally said, "Because I think I."
"MAKI!" yelled a relieved voice from the opening to the alley. "Thank God you're all right!"
Makoto came running up to her, pushed Ken out of the way, and hugged Maki. "We thought you had been trampled to death!"
Maki managed a smile and said, "not quite. My little guardian angel here thought the mission was too dangerous for a proper little lady such as myself." Makoto shot Ken a look that actually seemed appreciative, and then put an arm around Maki.
"Come with me, " Makoto said, "when you disappeared, the other girls freaked out and Yuko started ranting about stabbing members of Unagi in the face, and Leela grabbed a katana from a nearby shop to start slicing them up. Not to mention Weiss. They've been doing pretty good damage."
Maki's head was reeling, but she allowed Makoto to lead her out of the alley and into a war zone.
"And you, Ken," Makoto called over her shoulder. "Did you know about this?" Ken nodded, weakly. "Then I suggest you do you what you came here to do." Not knowing quite what to do at this point, Ken followed them out into the madness.
Back in the light, Makoto squeezed Maki's hand before running off to look for the other girls. Maki slipped across the other way to continue planting the bombs. She discovered quickly that it wasn't going to be as easy as she'd hoped. Innocent people in a state of utter panic were everywhere. Members of Unagi packing heat seemed to be oblivious of the four people out of hundreds trying to stop them and continued gunning people down without regard. Panicking herself, Maki realized they didn't have much time to stop them. If they were bold enough to attack blatantly at the summer festival, they must have something more than semi-automatic weapons up their sleeves
Youji scanned the crowd, looking for their one main target. So far he'd found nothing but screaming children and angry young women with guns. He'd done his best to stop who he could but Unagi was quick and, in the crowd, it was difficult to differentiate gang members and scared civilians.
"Hey!" a female voice called. Youji turned and saw Makoto running up behind him. "You guys have to do whatever you have to do and then get the hell out of here! This is a decoy. I saw a bunch of girls planting bombs in trashcans and things. In a few minutes, Unagi's going to clear out and detonate the bombs while everyone's still freaking out from the riot they just caused."
"What?" Youji asked. "Are you sure?"
"I saw it with my own eyes. Just watch your back and let the others know," she said, looking at him directly so he would hopefully know she was sincere. "Please? Don't let them win. And.don't you go getting hurt."
She started to run away but Youji grabbed her by the arm and made her face him, "Why are you doing this?"
Shaken, the only answer Makoto could muster was, "You have your reasons and we have ours. End of story. Now go!" Breaking free, she ran off to warn the others. Youji stared after her for a moment but decided it would be wise to heed her warning.
Leela had just received a warning from Makoto about the bombs. She'd already found Maki and told her. Maki hadn't seemed surprised for a change and accepted Leela's directions to go meet Makoto back where they'd started. Now Leela just had to get to get to Yuko before it was too late. She'd already noticed that Unagi's members were thinning out.
Leela spotted Yuko in front of her. As quickly as she could, she caught up with her. "We have to go," she said, urgently.
"Why?" asked Yuko. "What's going on?"
"They're planning to bomb the place. We have to get out of here. Mako- chan and Maki are.," Leela started.
But she was cut off by Yuko's yell, "Hey! Watch out!" Following Yuko's gaze, she saw Omi, reloading his crossbow, completely oblivious to an Unagi member with a gun cocked just a few yards away. Omi looked up, confused. "Behind you!" she yelled at him, running over there with Leela not far behind.
"Huh?" asked Omi.
But, that time Yuko had reached the girl behind him and stabbed her squarely in the chest. Omi stared at her, his eyes wide. "We have to leave!" Leela told him. "I don't know if you know but they plan to bomb the place."
"Bomb it?" he repeated. "How do you know?"
"Who cares!" cried Yuko. "We have to get out of here! Come on!" Grabbing his arm, she started running.
Then they heard the shot behind them. When Omi fell, Leela realized the girl Yuko had stabbed had enough fight left in her to pull the trigger. "Shit!" she swore as she and Yuko stooped down to check on him.
"I'm okay," Omi said, wincing. "It's just my leg."
"Oh, god," Yuko said, as she tore some fabric from her yukata. Wrapping it around the wound, she told him "This'll have to do for now. We've got to keep going." They struggled to help him up then continued on to Katzen's meeting place.
Half carrying and half dragging Omi, Yuko and Leela finally arrived at Katzen's meeting place. Maki and Makoto were already there, looking tense.
"What happened to Omi?!" gasped Makoto, hurrying over to help Yuko and Leela get him resting comfortably.
Yuko was winded from the effort of carrying Omi, but managed to say, "he got shot in the leg by an Unagi member. Those bitches."
Omi struggled to get his wounded leg into a comfortable position, but failed miserably. "Dammit," he swore. "I'm a sitting duck if anything happens now. And where are the others?"
Maki squinted into the crowd and failed to see any other Weiss members. "It's impossible to say," she told Omi. "Hopefully they listened to our warning and vacated."
Omi sighed. And with that sigh came an explosion to their right. Then another to their left, and so on and so forth.
Maki let out a startled scream and Makoto pulled her under the vendor table they were using for shelter. The four members of Katzen and Omi sat as close together as they could, like sardines packed in a can.
Explosions kept erupting all around their hiding place, and Yuko had to close her eyes to keep from crying.
After a few more explosions, everything became deathly silent. The group of five under the table didn't even dare breathe, lest they disturb the sudden peace.
Finally, after a minute of silence, Leela said, "I think it's over. Let's get Omi to a hospital. Although I have a feeling they're going to be packed."
"But what about my friends?" Omi asked, while allowing Yuko and Makoto to help him to his feet.
"I'm sure they're fine!" Maki said, sounding a lot brighter than she was feeling.
As the group walked out into the streets of what had once been a happy festival, they were devastated by what they saw.
Everywhere, the dead lay in groups, riddled with bullet holes. The once beautiful matsuri lights were broken and torn to shreds, and there was darkness and silence all around.
"Oh, shit," said Omi.
* * *
Maki, Yuko, Makoto, and Leela squeezed their way through the crowds packed onto the streets of Tokyo for the summer festival. Music played loud enough to wake the dead and everyone was out in their traditional Japanese clothing. Even the women of Katzen had decided to show up in yukata, and brave the streets in their geta sandals.
As they clicked along, Maki was ever vigilant for their new friends. The florists by day, assassins by night.
Yuko saw Maki looking all around and rolled her eyes. "This place is packed. The chances of seeing them are slim and none", she said to her friend. Maki made a pouty face but kept looking.
Makoto placed a hand on Yuko's shoulder and said, "I'm actually with Maki. I know those boys are more dangerous than they seem...but I just can't help wanting to see them again."
Yuko sighed. Leela turned around from her place just ahead of them and smiled. "Don't worry, Yu-chan. Maybe that Aya will take a liking to you!" Yuko shot her an angry glare. Maki remarked under her breath that Yuko was the master of disgusted facial expressions.
Leela suddenly stopped short, causing her friends to run into her, as was their way. "Hey, look, there they are!" she exclaimed and pointed through the crowd to a cluster of boys. Two were smiling and eating rice balls, one was putting his moves on the nearest lady, and the fourth was standing off to the side, looking disgruntled.
Makoto smiled, "That's them all right!" She then took off in the direction of Youji and Random Girl #240. There was a certain predatory glint in her eye, and the other girls knew better than to argue. Following suit, Maki took off towards where Ken and Omi were stuffing their faces. Leela and Yuko watched them go, looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed.
"Uh oh, here comes trouble!" Youji said with a smile as Makoto approached.
She giggled in what she considered to be a most feminine way, and pushed herself in between Youji and the girl he had been talking to. "Oh, I'm no more trouble than you are," she said while admiring how he looked in his navy blue yukata.
Ken's eyes lit up as Maki approached, and he began walking to meet her in the middle. Unfortunately, he wasn't used to his sandals and tripped before he made it to her. Maki closed the distance and caught him before he made a very embarrassing splat on the ground. As he looked up from his near disaster, he blushed. "Sorry. I can be such a klutz sometimes. And yukata make it hard to walk."
Maki smiled at him and ruffled his hair, "Think nothing of it. Since you look so cute dressed like that, I won't hold it against you." Ken's blush deepened. Omi laughed. Maki flicked a piece of rice from Omi's cheek. Omi blushed.
Aya stood watching the whole exchange and frowned deeply. 'Why are they doing this?' he thought, 'As far as we know, Katzen is the enemy.' To her own accord, Leela was thinking along those same lines about Weiss. But she enjoyed seeing the other girls happy.
It was getting late and the sun had set, sending a light breeze and a certain sense of calm over the festival. The matsuri lights had been dimmed and the music played on.
Yuko had gotten into a discussion with Omi about hay fever, and was doing her best to ignore Aya, when the fireworks began. And with the fireworks, came the screams.
At first the sounds seemed to blend right into the fireworks and matsuri music. Then, the sound escalated until it drowned out the music, and gunshots were soon heard. Before anyone knew what had happened, young women brandishing automatic weapons were pouring out onto the street and were firing randomly, killing dozens of people every few feet.
Maki looked at Ken. Makoto looked at Youji. Yuko looked at Omi. Aya and Leela avoided looking at each other. The secret was about to be out.
"Dammit!" Ken and Maki swore together.
Ken took Maki's hands and said, "I have to go now. I think you know why."
For some reason, Maki was suddenly overwhelmed with fear, but she nodded and quietly said, "Yeah, I know. I have to go, too." Ken studied her face to see if she seriously planned on fighting. She did. Ken leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. Then he turned from her and ran into an alley with his friends. Presumably to change clothes or think of an attack plan.
Maki quickly wandered over to where her friends were now hiding. Crouched beneath a vendor table. Leela waved her over, and Yuko said, "We saw that, you big dumbass!"
Maki ignored her and asked, "OK, what's the plan?"
"Plan?" Makoto repeated. "Good question. All I have is a derringer strapped to my thigh. No other weapons."
"Not to mention we're not exactly dressed for fighting," stated Leela. "I say we call this one off."
"No!" yelled Yuko, startling them in the small space. "We knew this might happen! OK, so we're not professionals like Weiss and didn't think to be more prepared. That's our fault. You live, you learn. I'm packing a big knife under this thing, " she gestured to her yukata. "So that's one gun and one knife. What else do we have?"
Makoto sighed. "Did you not hear what I said? A derringer! I have one bullet! It's just for emergencies."
Yuko looked at her with determination, "Then I suggest you use that bullet wisely."
Maki sighed, "I have a handful of button bombs on me. I didn't bring more because, well.Unagi wasn't this violent when Yuko and I were there! They had their moments, but they usually didn't just shoot people in cold blood!"
"Obviously," Yuko stated, coldly, "there's a new Unagi in town."
Leela closed her eyes, which was her habit when thinking about something very seriously. The other girls became quiet, and a minute later Leela opened her eyes and said, "Maki will run out there just long enough to plant a few button bombs around the perimeter. Then she'll come back here to detonate them. Try to get the bombs close around Unagi and avoid contact with innocent people. We'll watch your back. If anything happens, Makoto can use her derringer, or Yuko can attack from behind. Got it?"
The other three girls nodded. Maki reached into her bag and pulled out the handful of bombs. Without another word, she took off.
Maki stumbled a few paces before finally kicking off her sandals and ripping at the bottom of her yukata. Pushing her way through the crowds of people still screaming and running to avoid the gunfire, she finally had a few members of Unagi in her sites. Dropping two bombs, she kept circling around.
Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind, and a hand was clamped over her mouth. Maki was jerked hard and dragged into an alley, kicking and screaming.
Warm breath and a soft voice in her ear said, "I'm going to take my hand away from your mouth. Don't scream, or they'll hear you."
Maki nodded, was released, and spun around to slap her kidnapper.
"Ouch!" Ken said, rubbing his left cheek. "What the hell was that for?!"
"You messed up my groove!" Maki raged at him. "Katzen is not an infantile operation! We came up with a plan just as good as anything you could come up with, if not better!" She raised her hand to hit him again, but he grabbed both her arms and slammed her up against the cold brick wall of the alley. Before she could protest, he had his lips pressed to hers in the most passionate kiss she had ever received.
When Ken pulled away, Maki was speechless for all of 5 seconds before she started yelling again, "you think that makes up for it?! My friends probably think I'm dead or crushed by thousands of scared pedestrians now! They aren't armed, Ken! They'll get hurt!"
Still holding her in a firm grip against the wall, Ken leaned in and whispered, "but you just said they're not infantile. They can take care of themselves. It's you I'm worried about."
Maki blinked at him. "Why me?"
Ken stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before he finally said, "Because I think I."
"MAKI!" yelled a relieved voice from the opening to the alley. "Thank God you're all right!"
Makoto came running up to her, pushed Ken out of the way, and hugged Maki. "We thought you had been trampled to death!"
Maki managed a smile and said, "not quite. My little guardian angel here thought the mission was too dangerous for a proper little lady such as myself." Makoto shot Ken a look that actually seemed appreciative, and then put an arm around Maki.
"Come with me, " Makoto said, "when you disappeared, the other girls freaked out and Yuko started ranting about stabbing members of Unagi in the face, and Leela grabbed a katana from a nearby shop to start slicing them up. Not to mention Weiss. They've been doing pretty good damage."
Maki's head was reeling, but she allowed Makoto to lead her out of the alley and into a war zone.
"And you, Ken," Makoto called over her shoulder. "Did you know about this?" Ken nodded, weakly. "Then I suggest you do you what you came here to do." Not knowing quite what to do at this point, Ken followed them out into the madness.
Back in the light, Makoto squeezed Maki's hand before running off to look for the other girls. Maki slipped across the other way to continue planting the bombs. She discovered quickly that it wasn't going to be as easy as she'd hoped. Innocent people in a state of utter panic were everywhere. Members of Unagi packing heat seemed to be oblivious of the four people out of hundreds trying to stop them and continued gunning people down without regard. Panicking herself, Maki realized they didn't have much time to stop them. If they were bold enough to attack blatantly at the summer festival, they must have something more than semi-automatic weapons up their sleeves
Youji scanned the crowd, looking for their one main target. So far he'd found nothing but screaming children and angry young women with guns. He'd done his best to stop who he could but Unagi was quick and, in the crowd, it was difficult to differentiate gang members and scared civilians.
"Hey!" a female voice called. Youji turned and saw Makoto running up behind him. "You guys have to do whatever you have to do and then get the hell out of here! This is a decoy. I saw a bunch of girls planting bombs in trashcans and things. In a few minutes, Unagi's going to clear out and detonate the bombs while everyone's still freaking out from the riot they just caused."
"What?" Youji asked. "Are you sure?"
"I saw it with my own eyes. Just watch your back and let the others know," she said, looking at him directly so he would hopefully know she was sincere. "Please? Don't let them win. And.don't you go getting hurt."
She started to run away but Youji grabbed her by the arm and made her face him, "Why are you doing this?"
Shaken, the only answer Makoto could muster was, "You have your reasons and we have ours. End of story. Now go!" Breaking free, she ran off to warn the others. Youji stared after her for a moment but decided it would be wise to heed her warning.
Leela had just received a warning from Makoto about the bombs. She'd already found Maki and told her. Maki hadn't seemed surprised for a change and accepted Leela's directions to go meet Makoto back where they'd started. Now Leela just had to get to get to Yuko before it was too late. She'd already noticed that Unagi's members were thinning out.
Leela spotted Yuko in front of her. As quickly as she could, she caught up with her. "We have to go," she said, urgently.
"Why?" asked Yuko. "What's going on?"
"They're planning to bomb the place. We have to get out of here. Mako- chan and Maki are.," Leela started.
But she was cut off by Yuko's yell, "Hey! Watch out!" Following Yuko's gaze, she saw Omi, reloading his crossbow, completely oblivious to an Unagi member with a gun cocked just a few yards away. Omi looked up, confused. "Behind you!" she yelled at him, running over there with Leela not far behind.
"Huh?" asked Omi.
But, that time Yuko had reached the girl behind him and stabbed her squarely in the chest. Omi stared at her, his eyes wide. "We have to leave!" Leela told him. "I don't know if you know but they plan to bomb the place."
"Bomb it?" he repeated. "How do you know?"
"Who cares!" cried Yuko. "We have to get out of here! Come on!" Grabbing his arm, she started running.
Then they heard the shot behind them. When Omi fell, Leela realized the girl Yuko had stabbed had enough fight left in her to pull the trigger. "Shit!" she swore as she and Yuko stooped down to check on him.
"I'm okay," Omi said, wincing. "It's just my leg."
"Oh, god," Yuko said, as she tore some fabric from her yukata. Wrapping it around the wound, she told him "This'll have to do for now. We've got to keep going." They struggled to help him up then continued on to Katzen's meeting place.
Half carrying and half dragging Omi, Yuko and Leela finally arrived at Katzen's meeting place. Maki and Makoto were already there, looking tense.
"What happened to Omi?!" gasped Makoto, hurrying over to help Yuko and Leela get him resting comfortably.
Yuko was winded from the effort of carrying Omi, but managed to say, "he got shot in the leg by an Unagi member. Those bitches."
Omi struggled to get his wounded leg into a comfortable position, but failed miserably. "Dammit," he swore. "I'm a sitting duck if anything happens now. And where are the others?"
Maki squinted into the crowd and failed to see any other Weiss members. "It's impossible to say," she told Omi. "Hopefully they listened to our warning and vacated."
Omi sighed. And with that sigh came an explosion to their right. Then another to their left, and so on and so forth.
Maki let out a startled scream and Makoto pulled her under the vendor table they were using for shelter. The four members of Katzen and Omi sat as close together as they could, like sardines packed in a can.
Explosions kept erupting all around their hiding place, and Yuko had to close her eyes to keep from crying.
After a few more explosions, everything became deathly silent. The group of five under the table didn't even dare breathe, lest they disturb the sudden peace.
Finally, after a minute of silence, Leela said, "I think it's over. Let's get Omi to a hospital. Although I have a feeling they're going to be packed."
"But what about my friends?" Omi asked, while allowing Yuko and Makoto to help him to his feet.
"I'm sure they're fine!" Maki said, sounding a lot brighter than she was feeling.
As the group walked out into the streets of what had once been a happy festival, they were devastated by what they saw.
Everywhere, the dead lay in groups, riddled with bullet holes. The once beautiful matsuri lights were broken and torn to shreds, and there was darkness and silence all around.
"Oh, shit," said Omi.
* * *
