Headquarters, Direct Attack

Nobody wants to work the night shift. It's boring for the most part and only guarantees that someone's typical sleep schedule takes a turn for the strange. Strange, as in the average circadian cycle would be thrown for a loop.

Stowed away from the prying eyes of outside organizations, Direct Attack was awash with underground activity that kept the public in their little world of bliss. Normally, it was dealing with the usual: kidnappings, illegal dealings, and maybe the occasional terrorist or two. However, that had changed within the past week. Talks spread of some rogue gunman that had struck fast, left a mess on the scene, and then quickly disappeared back into the Tokyo metropolis.

In the intelligence department, tonight was a particularly busy time to be on the job. In one of the many analysis rooms, staff were making their way about a large table. Whatever photographs and technical information they could pull up had been assembled en masse, and any pieces of interest would earn a spot on the large whiteboard by the end of the table. At the center of the work, a reddish haired lady donned in a white coat could only sit back and watch her intelligence division try to make sense of it. Much to her expectation, there wasn't much in the way of progress.

Kusunoki wasn't one to be trifled with. Bearing a no-nonsense attitude, she held a commanding presence wherever she set foot within headquarters. Depending on the situation at hand, either a comfort or an intimidation. Fortunately or unfortunately, tonight she was proving to be neither, only perplexed by the ongoing debacle between several of her subordinates.

"Terrorists?"

"No. As far as we know, this person may not be affiliated with any known terrorism rings. Besides, a quick 'get in, get out' conduct isn't a terrorist's trademark. They want their actions to be known."

"This better not be a rerun of Majima…possibly a mercenary of sorts?"

"Those kinds of people tend to ask for higher echelon work to be paid for. This was nothing more than a simple reconnaissance mission they breached into."

"So who could it be then?"

"Like I'd know any better! We'll probably get an answer at some point down the line."

"If at all."

To be fair, nearly everyone was at wits end. Files, digital or not, weren't going to cut it. Kusunoki simply sighed before getting up to head to the debriefing rooms. At present, the two agents who had been on site at the Miyazaki Offices at the time of the first encounter had only recently come back to headquarters. With no other witnesses, they were the only credible source the intel division had to consult.

"Alright, from the top again. Describe the figure as best you can," the questioner prompted with Kusunoki and a recorder observing from the sideline.

"It was a…slender figure. Male, I guess? The voice sounded male enough. Wearing something all dark. He had a large handgun, I've never seen one like it before. Severe damage on any who were hit and-"

"Okay, that's all we need to know." The questioner turned to her colleagues and shook her head.

"That's all we can get, Director," the recorder reported. Kusunoki only nodded before heading out of the room, leaving them to carry on with what little they had. It was going to be a long night until their shift was over.

In the cryptanalysis sector, things were progressing at about the same rate as their paper counterparts. Once Kusunoki arrived, word spread quickly, and everyone dropped what they were doing to stand to attention for her.

"Back to your duties." Kusunoki waved everyone off, and they did as such. She made her way up to the principal cyber analyst. "Any progress with our online databases?"

She glumly shook her head. "Radiata has been unable to find any matching profiles. Given what little we have and no clear visual identification, we're at an impasse."

"Keep trying." Yes, it was repetitive, but it's all she could say for now.

Down a few corridors, and she had made it to the one room to rule them all. The main control room: the nerve center of all operations of Direct Attack from the lowest risk to the highest priority. Tens of operations running all at once, managed by tens of overwatch personnel at their consoles.

Almost abruptly, a voice came over the PA system. "Attention all personnel. Radiata will undergo diagnostics scan in two minutes."

Right, this was a new thing implemented in the past few months.

"Running diagnostics to scan for malfunction. Standby." All in all, the process took about a few minutes of techno-wizardry to finish, but the results were to be expected. "All modules are reporting nominal status. No faults detected."

Expected but necessary.

But no, fate never let the Director ever catch a break when she honestly deserved one. "Is this some sort of sick joke to you, Kusunoki?"

Great, another problem decided to stroll in this moment. Annoyed at his entrance, and having to be him of all people in the DA with his twirly mustache and purple suit. Itadori, commander of the LilyBell branch.

He seemed to be having an angry streak, glaring at the Director. "We had an operation going to plan, and then a fellow just so happened to barge in and lay corpses at our feet. Who is this, one of your little girls coming to meddle in our affairs?"

"You know well that Lycoris does not cross over into your field of activity," Kusunoki calmly responded, but he wasn't buying it.

Thankfully, a Lycoris aide intervened right at the moment, digital tablet in hand. "Sir, please hear me out. Last week, a reconnaissance operation of ours observed an individual of unknown status infiltrate our perimeter and eliminate our target against our director's orders. It seems your 'friend' is the same one we've had running into our affair."

"Furthermore, it seems you have neglected to consider that Lycoris does not have male agents. Only your branch would possess such people."

"For all we know, it could have been one of your agents that chose to drop in on our operation."

Itadori shifted his glare down to the subordinate. "Are you accusing me of sending one of my own to handle your lowly work?"

She grit her teeth. "No, we are merely…suggesting a possible theory."

"Well, since your teams were first in on this, you should consider it your responsibility to deal with it, Kusunoki."

"Then hand over any intelligence you have on this person and we might consider your personal favor."

He sarcastically cleared his throat. "You should choose your words carefully next time, Kusunoki. Who knows if your little operation spirals out of control and requires us to clean your mess."

He was definitely trying to get a rise out of her. She wouldn't put up with it. "Need I remind you what happened at the radio tower the first time around? I'd wish to avoid that for your sake."

"See to it, Director," he sneered, an extra layer of sting on that last word, before turning on his heel to leave the room.

Kusunoki couldn't show it publicly, but there was a little satisfaction putting him in place. Understandably, her subordinates were the most audible to protest his judgment.

"So it's 'our' problem because…what? We had it first? That's ridiculous!"

"Cowards. Same people that tried to wipe our people at the Enkuboku-"

"Enough," Kusunoki cut them short. "If LilyBell heavily insists that we Lycoris must handle this, consider it a sign of their dependency on our success."

Worded as such, it did quell some of the discontent, but deep down she knew it was only a small moral win. The fact that LilyBell was authorized to dispose of Lycoris for even the slightest chance of being compromised hung over every woman's head like a thundercloud. The tension had been building ever since the first scuffle with Majima at the old radio tower. LilyBell fumbled, and Lycoris had to send in their best to end it. Then came the bodge job with stopping a major arms deal, resulting in several dead bodies at the hands of agent LC3023. Lastly, the finale at the two radio towers where Majima nearly ended Lycoris right there and then, again halted by their best agent and the supposedly dead hacker "Walnut".

A while later, a LilyBell representative was in fact sent to give over whatever intel they had themselves, albeit begrudgingly. You could imagine a great deal of daggers emanating from his eyes as he exchanged a handful of files. Not much to go over, but it was all they were going to have.

The intelligence division was on it within seconds, having swooped in and taken it back to their analysis room with Kusunoki trailing behind. Spreading them out across the table, everyone realized a new lens had opened up. LilyBell action reports, but more importantly, actual photos courtesy of a body camera mounted on one of the LilyBell operatives.

Whilst the division combed through, Kusunoki picked up a photo that caught her attention immediately. Out of the deluge of text and pixels, this was likely the best of the pile. At first, just a fuzzy still frame, but once Kusunoki placed it upon an overhead projector, details came to the forefront. They could make out black clothed legs, a gray top, the head covered in black, but most strikingly-the red footwear.

She pinned the photo front and center on the board, penning "TARGET" underneath if it wasn't clear enough. Scanning between the action reports, the similarities only helped to confirm her suspicion. Their operation had the same person involved, she thought to herself.

The Director had her mind made up. Nothing could be left to chance. This anomaly had to be dealt with now.

She consulted members of overwatch, at least the ones she knew were part of Lycoris. "Relay a message to all our agents through the datalink…and make sure that no LilyBell personnel receives word about this."

"Roger. Standby to record transmission." The person at the computer typed away a few commands, opening up a speech-to-text program, and handing a microphone to Kusunoki. "Ready, Director."

She had to ensure her voice didn't get too audible lest others around tried eavesdropping. "Attention agents of Lycoris, this is your Director. As you may or may not have heard from your acquaintances, there has been an unknown operative responsible for disrupting at least one operation. They are not aligned with us or any known terrorist group, yet they do not conduct within our guidelines. As agents of Lycoris, our mission is to protect the public interest whilst keeping out of its eye. If allowed to continue, this entity will pose a threat to our ability to perform in secrecy and thus our ability as an organization. This impediment cannot stand. Starting this week, agents will be tasked to track down this operative. Orders to follow if receiving this assignment." She signaled to stop recording.

"Message sent, processing through Radiata datalink."

Task complete, Kusunoki made her way over to dispatch, the girls responsible for tracking agents, their mission statuses, and availability.

"What agents are not on mission at the moment?" she inquired to the chief of dispatch. The chief pulled up the profiles on the display listing their details. Names, physical characteristics, Lycoris rank, all information privy to mission tasks. At the top of the list flashed two profiles in green.

"Agent LC2807 and her partner are available for tasking," she responded.

Kusunoki didn't hesitate, pulling out a notepad, jotting words down, and handing over the slip to her dispatcher. "Assign them this case. Make sure they receive these orders as soon as possible."

"Got it." Without much pause, dispatch typed off the Director's message to be sent to this pair.

ORDERS: Apprehend and capture target, or if deemed by necessity, elimination by lethal force.

With a few presses of some keys, the orders would make their way through the Radiata and eventually to the recipients' phones. They'd also receive the clearest image of the figure Kusunoki personally picked out as a complementary visual.

In the hour, Kusunoki had a team of six selected and tasked for this special mission. Surely, that was all she needed to deal with an upstart. Maybe. That doubt was eating at her mind again. What if the situation went sideways again like the Enkuboku? If LilyBell had to get involved again? No, she couldn't let those buffoons nearly have their way again.

She was calling it in now. One more ace card she could draw.

She tapped away on her phone until she finally got the number. It hadn't worked for months owing to that troublemaker of a girl on the other end of the line, but maybe this kind of news would finally get their attention.

And she wasn't going to take "no" for an answer this time.

AN: Well, I'm sure some of you might be wondering, "Who the heck is this person anyway?" That's exactly what the next chapter is for, readers!