"You've got to be kidding me", Michiru half said, half groaned, the annoyance in her tone making Haruka smirk, even though the blonde felt quite similar; after they had taken out his men, they had been sure that the first piece of the key to the vault would be in their grasp soon, and now, after they had entered and searched the hut of the bandit who was supposed to have it, they had found, to their dismay, that he had used a rather well-hidden trapdoor to escape into some sort of underground tunnel system, neither of them having an idea how large said system was.
"Guess we have to follow him", the blonde said out loud, earning an unhappy look from Michiru in response, both knowing how dangerous this could be – they neither knew how big this tunnel system was, nor how many men he had down there with him, if any traps had been readied for them or if, perhaps, they were walking right into an ambush.
"Let me go first", Michiru gave back, "no offense, but I do believe I draw and shoot faster than you do." Also, she added mentally, words she knew she could never say out loud to her companion, I don't want you to get hurt. This is my quest, I'm not going to repay your help by getting you injured or even killed.
"Be my guest", Haruka distracted her from those thoughts, to her relief not trying to argue about who should go first, "but we better be super careful, who knows what that maniac has down there."
Nodding, Michiru checked her weapons once more, making sure they were properly loaded and ready to use; she wasn't sure she'd need her sniper rifle down there, but it was better to be safe than sorry, and only when she had reassured herself that both her handgun and the rifle were fully loaded, she climbed down into the tunnel, Haruka following suit, both of them slightly relieved that a row of lamps lit the way, keeping them from having to stumble around in the weak glow of the flashlight Haruka had brought along.
It was unsettling how quiet it was, Michiru thought to herself, their footsteps echoing unreasonably loud despite their tries to be quiet; somewhere in the distance, she could hear something drip, the noise and the way the lights flickered every now and then not making her feel any better about this unexpected underground adventure.
Glancing down, hoping for footsteps or other tracks she could make use of, the sniper was dismayed to find herself looking at a hard-packed dirt floor, too hard for anyone to leave footprints in it, making her wonder if this was a natural tunnel system or if it had been made by Nine-Toes and his men, for an occasion such as this one.
Then, another sound joined the dripping, an unsettlingly loud, heavy breathing; clearly, Haruka had heard it too, since Michiru noticed her steps falter behind her for a moment, her hand on the sniper's shoulder moments later, and even though she sounded carefully controlled, Michiru could tell at once how tense she was.
"Better let me take the lead", she murmured, keeping her voice low, even though they both figured that, just like their footsteps, it would carry, "if this noise is made by what I think, my machine gun will be more useful than your rifle and pistol."
"What do you think it is?" Michiru demanded to know, not liking the tense note she had heard in the blonde's voice; before Haruka had the chance to reply though, the breathing sounded even louder – before a massive figure appeared up ahead, roaring as it spotted them, Haruka reacting at once by tightening her grip on Michiru's shoulder and shoving her behind her rather harshly, her free hand simultaneously pulling the machine gun free from its holster.
Roaring at the sight of the weapon, the creature Michiru now recognized as an absurdly muscled and large man raised a massive fist – and then charged at them, never stopping the monstrous roar, sounding more like an animal than a human being, the shouts he was letting out mixing with the rat-tat-tat of Haruka's gun as she opened fire on him seconds later.
Until this very moment, Michiru had stoically dealt with everything this strange planet had thrown at her, from the aggressive wildlife to the unsettlingly large number of violent inhabitants it had; at the sight of the giant man storming towards them though, apparently not even feeling the shots she could see hit home so clearly, she felt the ease with which she handled everything evaporate, her heart beating faster and her mouth going dry.
In front of her, Haruka kept firing, until she had emptied the magazine; at the click click click which replaced the previous sound, Michiru snapped out of her stunned state, her pistol in her hand the blink of an eye later; just as she brought it up to fire though, the giant had reached them and slammed into Haruka, driving her back and against the sniper, making it impossible for her to get the gun into a position which would let her fire it without endangering Haruka.
Still roaring, unhindered by the numerous bullet wounds in his torso, the man started beating down on the blonde; Michiru heard her grunt a few times in pain, but instead of fighting back, she just kept groping for something at her belt, the smaller woman realizing what she tried to do just a second before Haruka's fingers finally found the hunting knife.
Michiru had a moment to wonder what the knife might do, if bullets hadn't stopped the man, then Haruka rammed it forward with all the strength she could bring up; she buried the blade in the guy's throat, all the way to the hilt, then jerked it back out and stabbed him again, apparently at least making him feel a bit of pain this time, since he recoiled with another roar – and gave Michiru just the chance she had been waiting for.
Without missing a beat, she brought her gun up, took a second to aim, then fired; his head snapped back into his neck as the bullet hit, and his roar died down to a gurgle, blood streaming from the wounds in his neck and the bullet hole in his head as he slumped down, twitching a few times, then lying still, the tunnel suddenly quiet again, the only sounds being the soft dripping in the distance and Haruka's heavy breathing.
"Are you…" Michiru started to ask her if she was alright as she turned to look at her, then fell silent, her eyes briefly widening as she took in the blood which streamed down the blonde's cheek; for a few dreadful seconds, her mouth went dry again, then she realized where it was coming from and instantly felt better, the wry smirk Haruka gave her helping quite a bit with that, as well.
"Got in a lucky hit", the blonde mumbled, reaching for the cut which split her eyebrow; before she could touch it though, Michiru grasped her wrist, giving her a strict look in response to the surprised one she received.
"Don't touch it just like that", she scolded, pulling Haruka's hand back down as if to make sure the taller woman really would keep her fingers away from the cut, "you'll get dirt in it and it'll get infected. Wait…"
She dug through her pockets until she found a reasonably clean piece of cloth; it wasn't the perfectly sterile bandage she would have preferred, but she figured that it'd be better than Haruka's fingers, warning her that this might sting a bit before she started dabbing at the cut, her relief only growing when she got some of the blood off and saw that it wasn't nearly as bad it looked, but only had bled unreasonably much, as injuries in that area tended to.
"What the Hell was this guy made of", she wanted to know as she kept cleaning the wound the best she could, Haruka bravely bearing it without even flinching, even though she did grit her teeth now and then, "you shot him two dozen times and he kept coming!"
"No one knows for sure", Haruka gave back with an unhappy glance at the dead brute, "the only thing we do know is that those guys kept popping up more and more ever since that company gave up mining here and took off. Some think they've been made this way by chemicals used in the mines, others think the company experimented on them and guys like him were the result. We call them Psychos."
"Fitting", Michiru dryly replied, figuring that the cut was as clean as she could get it with her limited supplies and carelessly tossing the bloodied cloth aside, making a mental note to take proper care of the wound later, once they were out of these tunnels, "let's hope there was just one of them around. Can you go on?"
"Sure", Haruka shrugged, clearly not all too bothered by the cut, "just let me reload my gun and I'm good to go."
Nodding, Michiru did the same with her handgun, then holstered it again; and moments later, they were walking again, moving deeper into the tunnels, eager to find the bandit and get out of there again before any more unpleasant surprises might find them.
To Michiru's relief, they neither encountered more Psychos, nor any traps; they kept walking through the tunnels, checking the passages breaching off left and right each time to make sure they wouldn't miss their target, Michiru constantly looking out for tracks, and finding some here and there, just enough to tell them they were going the right way.
Still, it seemed as if they had been walking for hours by the time they finally heard voices up ahead; Michiru knew that it hadn't been that long, but the tension after the Psycho's attack never had left her, having resulted in her straining her ears for the slightest sound which might indicate another one of those men waiting for them up ahead, a constant level of focus she knew would take a toll on her later.
For now though, she knew that she had to stay alert, her hand dropping to her holster as she heard several men talk up ahead; hoping that this time, Nine-Toes would be among them, she moved on soundlessly, taking the lead again, Haruka right behind her, just as quiet as she was.
Apparently, the men had no idea they were there, from what they were talking about, laughing about a rather tasteless joke one of them had made; not wanting to lose the element of surprise this would give them, Michiru made sure to keep quiet as she moved closer to the door at the end of the tunnel, suddenly sure that only this thin wooden barrier was between her and the first piece of the vault key.
As she reached the door, she glanced back at Haruka, silently asking her if she was ready; the taller woman gave a brief, terse nod in response, and after a few slow, controlled breaths, Michiru grasped the door handle with exceeding care, not wanting it to move the slightest before she was ready – and then, she slammed the door open, gun already in hand, taking in the number of men – four – and their positions with one skilled look, and firing twice before they even realized she was there, two of them falling in quick succession, her bullets finding their heads with frightening accuracy.
The third one just had time to reach for his gun, then he fell, as well, joining his comrades in whatever afterlife there might be; the fourth one hadn't been caught completely off-guard though, Michiru having a second to recognize the weapon he swung her way as a shotgun, then she was already ducking to the right, taking cover in the tunnel, squeezing her eyes shut when he fired and the lead shot blasted past Haruka and her, the blonde thankfully having followed her lead when she had taken cover.
"You won't take me down so easily!" the bandit shrieked, in a surprisingly high voice which grated on her nerves after those few words already, "I am Nine-Toes! And I have three balls, too!"
"This was a piece of trivia I did not need to know", Michiru told Haruka, earning a low snort in response; she briefly smiled, then focused again, listening closely for any movement of the bandit boss, figuring that he wouldn't just stand there and wait for her to shoot him.
Briefly, she regretted that she hadn't brought any grenades, her mind racing as she tried to come up with a quick way to end this; as if he had realized what she was doing, and tried to distract her, Nine-Toes fired again, thankfully hitting neither her, nor Haruka, both of them safe behind their cover.
Giving her best to not even breathe too loud, Michiru focused on listening again, trying to figure out if he had moved and where he had gone; she figured that he'd found some sort of cover, as well, recalling an image of the room and remembering that, apart from the flimsy looking wooden table the bandits had been sitting at when they had surprised them, there hadn't been anything else he could have used to hide behind.
She signalled to Haruka to stay where she was, then risked a quick peek; and just as she had suspected, Nine-Toes had thrown the table over and had taken cover behind it, his eyes meeting hers as he had chosen the exact same moment to take a look, Michiru throwing herself back into the tunnel just as he fired his shotgun at her once more.
"Cross your fingers that this table is as flimsy as it looks", she whispered to Haruka, earning a brief nod from the blonde; she took another moment for a controlled, deep breath, then, in one smooth movement, leaned into the doorway again, brought up her gun and fired, moving back into cover the second after she had pulled the trigger, thus only hearing the bullet smash through the wood, followed by the bandit's pained cry.
"Once again, I'm glad we're on the same side", Haruka commented, earning a brief smile from the sniper; keeping her gun ready, Michiru then stepped into the room, the soft groans she could hear from behind the table telling her that Nine-Toes wasn't quite dead yet.
At least though, he had dropped his shotgun when the bullet had hit; Michiru stepped around the table just as he reached for it, and a quick swipe of her foot brought it out of reach, the bandit groaning in both pain and dismay in reaction.
"We better make sure he doesn't have another weapon hidden somewhere", Haruka stated as she moved to stand next to her, "I'll search him."
Nodding, Michiru kept her gun aimed at the bandit while Haruka quickly patted him down, neither of them surprised when the blonde found another gun, smirking as she made sure that the safety was on, then tucked it into her belt.
"We know that you have a piece of the key", Michiru told him, unimpressed by the glare he levelled her way in response, "where is it?"
"I'm not telling you anything, bitch", he snarled, blood dripping from his lips as he spoke; shrugging, Michiru smiled at him, a cold, calculated smile, the same coldness in her voice when she replied.
"Then don't", she casually told him, continuously unruffled by the hateful way he kept staring at her, "I'm sure we'll find it around here somewhere. Someone like you wouldn't leave an object like this hidden anywhere too far from them."
The way his eyes briefly widened told her that she hadn't been far off with her assessment; she gave him another smile, then raised her gun again, his eyes going wide again – but before he could try to plead, she pulled the trigger, and a second later, he slumped down, life leaving his eyes while Michiru reloaded her gun, then holstered it.
"Alright", she then stated, glancing around, "where might he have hidden it?"
In response, Haruka moved to search him more thoroughly while the sniper started checking the room; and while Haruka came up empty-handed, Michiru found a loose wooden board at the wall, carefully pushing and prodding until it came off, revealing part of a safe hidden behind it.
"Found it", Michiru called out, prompting Haruka to move over and help her remove the remaining board, until the safe was fully in sight; and then, Michiru paused, realizing with dismay that, while she was highly skilled with guns, she knew next to nothing about cracking a safe she didn't know the combination of.
"Let me", Haruka smirked, moving past her and closer to the safe, "one gets quite good at cracking safes here, after scavenging for a while. There are more than you would think."
She pulled a small, thin metal rod from one of her many pockets, with a delicate hook at the end; curious, Michiru watched how she started working on the safe, wondering if Haruka could teach her how to do this when there was an audible click, the door swinging open moments later.
"Impressive", Michiru complimented, giving her best to ignore the happy grin Haruka gave her in response made her heart skip a beat; and then, she looked into the safe, and saw the rather unspectacular, cylindrical purple object sitting inside, her breath getting caught in her throat as she recognized it as what they had come here for.
"This is it", she breathed, not sure if she was talking to Haruka or to herself; she took a moment to make sure the inside of the safe wasn't trapped, then took careful hold of the piece, allowing an excited smile to curl her lips as she looked up at Haruka.
"This is the first piece of the key", she repeated, giving it another admiring look – until this very moment, she hadn't even been fully sure that this quest was leading anywhere, but now, as she held the first piece of the key in her hands, she suddenly knew that everything would work out just fine and that soon, they'd find the remaining pieces and the vault, and within it, all the treasure she could ever wish for.