Fandom SRT's Justice Never Wavers - A Blue Archive RP

[November Witch]

Evelyn Andahlia

Status: Surprised & Nervous.

As those around her silently ruminated over the option she’d given, to use force on the door, more footsteps echoed through the mostly vacant halls of the first floor. Her twilight blue, almost black, hair fluttered as she turned her head to see who’d come around the corner… Only to see someone she recognized. It was certainly a surprise. A pleasant, yet unpleasant one. It was nice to see someone she already had a vague relationship with. However, this girl was one others may find difficult to get along with if they weren’t adept at reading others.

While Evelyn recovered from her slight surprise, someone else spoke up, obviously weary of the newcomer, as Evelyn would have been too, had her and the other not had a history. Well, it probably couldn’t even be described as that. The two had barely known one another. They’d had some classes before and had been partnered on a project at one point even. In fact, it had helped Evelyn understand the girl wasn’t always up to something dubious or malicious, even if her voice hinted differently. She had a good brain on her shoulders. However, her social skills often caused conflict. Everyone has their flaws.

“Miss Uzumori, it’s a pleasant surprise to see you here.”

The maid offered her words truthfully, giving the other a curtsey in greeting.

“I thank you kindly for the input, however the best chances we have revolve around opening this door...”

She removed the shield from her back and held it in her other hand. She turned to face the door once more.

“As you can see, I’m likely the best suited for the task.”

As long as there was still no answer from inside the room, and no objections from those around her, she’d go ahead and break down the door. Using her mace to strike the door and having her shield up and at the ready just in case. Evelyn would rather open it in a quieter way than using any explosives of their own. Anything like that would be sure to echo and reverberate its power throughout the school, possibly causing even more panic. Besides, if it were a stealth operation, Evelyn found it hard to believe they would leave something like this behind. It would just lead to the whole situation getting found out sooner.

Then again, Kiyone was right. Sometimes they assumed their opponents were smarter than they actually were. There’s only one way to find out.

Tau

 

[Ehb]

No response came from beyond the door after the maid requested it. But then... That girl made her presence known. PLayfully, and maybe even mockingly observing what was going on with amusement, perhaps.


Right. Shiina thought. Hold on a second. This part wasn't supposed to happen.




The group was about to enter the front gate kiosk to find out what had happened to the weapons. The maid was about ready to smash the door down. But, now, a yet unknown variable had just reared its pointy-eared head. A girl with a sniper and a student whom Evelyn could vouch for as a fellow Millennium School student. There was immediate suspicion. She seemed aware of what was going on, but unlike most of the others, she also still had her weapon. What were the implications of this?

Was she just a passerby? Unlikely, there wasn't much reason for a Millennium student to be gawking at the front of the new SRT Academy all the way out in this part of Shiratori Town.

Then, was she like Evelyn? Intending to join the SRT Academy? Possible. She seemed to be aware of the orientation. SRT had a flashy debut, but even though it was recruiting, it wasn't like they were just accepting literally anybody off the street either. The academy's orientation was only known to students who had been interested enough to join the school. The 'Elite' status of the school generally made it so that students who were at least somewhat competent in their abilities in combat would even have the option to have a chance at transferring.

In any case, Shiina caught herself thinking about it too hard. At the end of the day, it seemed like this student was knowledgeable about what was happening. For some reason or another, she hadn't entered the school yet. Her not being all that cooperative was not helping either.

So, in the simplest of terms:
This new girl knows about SRT, but Shiina couldn't confirm if she was a fellow student. Moreover, the situation as presented made the possibility that this student was working with the infiltrators very possible. Evelyn might've had the familiarity with the girl having been from the same school. But treating this girl with suspicion like Furiko currently is—that was the normal reaction.

Whether this girl was a Helmet Gang accomplice or some bystander watching the chaos unfold from the sidelines, it was apparent that the longer they spent trying to play detective with this new arrival, the more time that the Helmet Gang's plans had to run their course.




So, Evelyn was keen to return to track and open the door. Furiko, on the other hand, had her attention on her and was positioning herself near the unknown student.
So a choice came before Shiina. Should she focus on clearing the room, or should she be keeping watch over the other student alongside Furiko?

Shiina draws out her handgun again. She pulls back on the slide and lets go. A bullet did not fall out from this motion. Meaning Shiina had been carrying that pistol without a bullet in the chamber until now. She leveled her handgun at the unknown Millennium student standing outside.

Being the only person in the group with a (normal) firearm at the moment, Shiina opted to cover Furiko from the possible threat of the other student.

"These are SRT Academy Grounds and you don't need to be idling outside the campus if you aren't an attending student. You do anything to try to bring that rifle to bear, and I'll shoot you." Saying this to the sniper rifle student, Shiina then addressed the others without breaking her line of sight on her target. "Myself and the girl here have the student with the rifle covered. Clear the room and see if you can find what happened."

The SRT recruits around Shiina might've shuddered a little at the sudden escalation.




With no objections voiced, Evelyn knocks the door down. This door to the room falls over easily. The initial swing of Evelyn's mace, even with a little hesitation about damaging SRT property, was more than enough. The door simply fell in, like it wasn't even held by any hinges. In fact, it really wasn't, which some found odd.

Mindful of the outside girl's comment on trapping doors, the SRT recruits entered and cleared the room. There were no traps set.

In the interior of the room, the counter is behind the bulletproof window. There were blank tags and writing utensils that were neatly put back. The tags were used to match students with the equipment and weapons they turned in at the gate.

There were some boxes in the room as well. They had weapons and ammo, yay! Though it was not their weapons, mind you, but actual SRT-branded firearms. Blue and white with the school's markings. But they all seemed to be really older stock. An old Drum Magazine submachine gun Some bolt-action rifles. All these things are almost antiquated now, if not for the fresh coat of paint. These were definitely not the high-end carbines carried by FOX Platoon.

In any case, the student's weapons were most definitely GONE. Including the ones they themselves had turned in.

Looking closely, there was a security station that had a monitor showing various angles of the campus. Immediately, the investigating students rewind the footage. Rewinding the security tape footage back to fifteen minutes ago reveals what happened. The robot clerk allows Helmet Gangster students into the booth, and they wheel the turned-in weapons out the front gate of the school.

Their weapons had been stolen; the only arms they had left were these Valkyrie School hand-me-downs with an SRT Academy color scheme applied to them. Perhaps traceability or the lack of flair of the guns had spared them from being stolen.



The students, after finishing their investigation and arming themselves with the spare weapons, were at least able to shoot back at any threat trying to keep them from recovering their property. Though it seemed like the Helmet Gang had already made a dash towards whatever hideout they came out of, The fact that the students had been burglarized on their very first day was leaving a sour taste, and the desire to recover their things was boiling over.

Shiina and Furiko had kept the girl outside locked down.
It was obvious that the Helmet Gangsters had left the academy grounds with their gear. But even with that now established, there was another part of this investigation: a witness. And there was a distinct possibility that the outsider may have seen what had gone down. But now, they had to figure out how to get her to cooperate. Was she going to start shooting at them with her rifle the moment she got a chance - even when outnumbered?

"What did you girls find?" Shiina asked of them.

---

s0ufflecake November Witch Nellancholy Chibistaryuu Crow Tau

 

[s0ufflecake]

Kihachi entered the room, and as noticed by the other pink-haired girl, her weapon and the others were gone. So, the cat-eared girl picked up an unknown assault rifle painted in the colors of blue, white, and some hints of black, which were the usual colors of SRT.

But then her ears perked up as she accidentally almost kick over a box. It rattled suddenly, the noise inside of indicated something to her. There's something inside of it.

So, Kihachi leaned over the box and opened it, it revealed.. many grenades, in various types. ''Oh.. This is a DM51...'' She said as she picked up what seems to be a fragmentation grenade from the box. As her hand wandered, the girl picked up another one. Except it was larger, and possibly more destructive if she were to use it. ''An M9 rifle grenade.''

The girl looked over the box, and placed these grenades back in the box as she searched the box. Or maybe not really searching the box, since her eyes seemed to sparkle alike a child getting a gift on Christmas day.

Ehb Tau November Witch Nellancholy Crow

 

[Crow]

"Alright girls! I need this group, and this group as close to the fire extinguishers as possible, 3 per extinguisher - after all, our big boss leaves wakes of fires behind her. If we can't defeat her, we can at least protect our place. The rest of you, assign yourselves in groups of threes. For every 100 metres along this map, we will need one group...

... Try to attack the intruders in groups and claim their weapons to make up for the lack of ours, then work from there until at least two of three of you are armed. And AAAAHHHHH-"

It was at this moment that Tomie was pulled with Furiko with the rest of the group

~~~

"... well, I have to say, it's unexpected to see you attending this Academy," Tomie said, crossing her arms as Furiko continued dragging her and they finally got to where their weapons were placed.

"My Emperor of Destruction's all gone," Tomie said, noting the weapons being gone, "he's far from my big trump card, but he's my greatest partner."

As soon as the door was smacked open, Tomie assumed fisticuffs - only to see spare weapons, in which she would immediately rush to them, grab the closest thing that shared its shape with her 'greatest partner' and add modifications to it until it was as close to said partner as possible.

"Ta-da!"

Tomie pocketed a few more.

"Let's grab some for the ones with the hidden eyes. They're gonna need some help aiming, after all."

s0ufflecake
Ehb Tau November Witch Nellancholy Crow

 

[Nellancholy]

"Hm..." The occurrences following did not escape Furiko's attention. The door had been bypassed, but in a rather ridiculous way, one that seemed quite preoccupied with making the door appear intact. Or something even more absurd like the door having been knocked off its hinges with a weapon like Evelyn's, only for another party to replace it neatly in place.

And the security footage was rather discouraging as well: it revealed that the robot attending the gate had cooperated with a group of Helmet Gangsters to cart away the turned-over weapons of the recruit candidates. But why? It wasn't like the Helmet Gangs tended to lack their own peashooters and other cheap, banged-up weapons. Even if they coveted the weapons of more decent folk, how long could they expect to hold on to them? The other possibility, of course, was that their main goal was to deprive the recruits of their weapons, supporting the theory of an incoming assault. The robot was a problem too: either they were voluntarily cooperating with the gang the whole time...or they had been coerced, even reprogrammed outright. The Helmet Gang probably didn't have access to that kind of technology, but...

"Maid." Furiko nodded to Evelyn, then to her apparent acquaintance. "Do stay on guard for a moment." Hopefully, her shield could withstand the first bullet if it came to that.

Furiko stepped into the room, scanning the standardized equipment. Those SMGs would be a bit harder to carry and handle than she was used to. What else...

Eventually, her gaze settled on a few revolvers, sitting unloaded. Sturdy and reliable.

She took a minute to carefully load two of them, sliding them into the Valkyrie-standard arm holsters. Twelve shots, likely not enough to handle anything that moves. It'd have to do until she got her bullet hoses back.

Now slightly better equipped for ranged confrontation, she took her position behind Tomie, still eyeing Kiyone closely. "We'd better not lose any more time. I propose trying to track down the carts of weapons. I believe they haven't gotten far."

 

[Tau]

Kiyone Uzumori

November Witch Ehb Crow Nellancholy​

Kiyone nodded in satisfaction once Evelyn had readied her shield as a buffer. "There you go," she answered, "much better." Still, a part of her looked a bit disappointed at the lack of an explosion, and it wasn’t clear why.

She cheered up rather quickly, though, as soon as she caught side of the pink-haired girl’s gun. Having it aimed straight at her head only magnified her amusement. "Oh~? Now this is unexpected! From your looks, I would never have guessed you would be that sort of person," she ‘taunted,’ in her trademarked vague sense.

She paused briefly, glancing over at the rather dynamic girl with the antennae. "Your Emperor of Destruction should be headed east of here," she answered in a cooperative way so suspicious, it called the validity of her info into question, even if the recording seemed to match her claims. "Happy hunting~"

In contrast, Furiko received a rather cold look. "You do know Maid has a name, hm~? And speaking of which, mine is Uzumori, Kiyone. Kiyone is fine, if you like~"

She turned her eyes back to the gun pointed at her head. "But you, I think you’re lying to me~! There’s an easy way to find out, isn’t there?" Kiyone chuckled, straightening up and pulling the barrel straight up towards the pink-haired assailant, all but daring her to do it.

From the way she was holding it, Kiyone made it fairly clear she had no clear intentions to shoot. It was rather a personal dare to the one who’d suddenly antagonized her.

 

[November Witch]

Evelyn Andahlia

Status: Exasperated & Disappointed.

It was clear to Evelyn that the others wouldn’t have the same information, and would make their own opinions on the newcomer. Though, given Evelyn’s less than truthful entrance, she wouldn’t be surprised if her vouching for the new girl would be taken with a grain of salt… Or outright skepticism. Evelyn would speak on the other’s behalf, given time. For now, though, she had things to do.

Her mace hit true, causing the door to fly inwards. Perhaps she put too much into the swing? She pondered only momentarily before seeing that the door hadn’t even been connected via hinges. That meant all they had to do was gently push on the door and they would have been let in. Well, at least now that was something she could try next time…

Yeah right, like something like this would ever happen again. Eve made for the door to be the first into the room. After all, if there were traps, the one with the shield should go first. But then someone called her name. Actually, she didn’t even use Evelyn’s name. Simply maid. She could have sworn the girl was there when Eve had introduced herself earlier. Perhaps she just didn’t hear. Evelyn gave it no thought. She was confident in Kiyone to at the very least not start a fight. The tall woman would clear the small room, making sure there were no traps in the obvious places before stepping out of the now cramped room with everyone rushing inside. Meaning the maid was there to watch the escalation between some of the only students with firearms.

“Thank you, Kiyone.”

Evelyn replied as the feline spoke on her behalf. It was nice to have someone to back her up… Even if it was someone like Kiyone. Though Evelyn didn’t stop once she was before the two. Instead, she walked between the two, only to hear the long rifle get drawn by Kiyone.

“Can we point our weapons toward the enemies, and not at each other?”

Evelyn asked, and turned to look at Shiina. Naturally, she was the one Evelyn didn’t trust as much. In fact, she was the one calling out random students for being part of the helmet gang with no proof.

“I can vouch for Ms. Uzumori. We attended Millennium together. She won’t shoot you, just leave her to me.”

Evelyn then turned back to Kiyone and rested a gloved hand on the long barrel of her weapon.

“You can have your fun later. Just help us get our weapons back please. Well, at least they won’t be able to use her against me.”

Kiyone would immediately know what Evelyn meant. Despite how Evelyn looked when handling her machine gun, Dusk and Dawn, it was incredibly heavy. Actually, so was her shield and mace. There were very, very few who could actually lift her weapon alone, let alone use it. So Evelyn was pretty strong! But that led into her weakness, which Kiyone also knew well.

Although, defending Kiyone, who already seemed suspicious maybe wouldn’t bode well for Eve. After all, she’d seemed suspicious too, pretending to be a staff member when everyone first met. Kiyone had stood up for Evelyn when she was called maid. Two suspicious people who seemed to know one another and vouched for each other may have made the two even more of a red flag in the eyes of others. But did everyone care more about that, or the stolen weapons at the moment?

“So, we’re going to have to chase them down, huh?”

Evelyn let out a sigh. Running and being fast wasn’t something she was good at. In fact, the maid disliked running and cardio in general. But, she knew she had to do it in order to get her beloved Dusk and Dawn back. So once whomever reviewed the security cameras explained the full situation to them, she would look between everyone.

“I would ask if anyone here knew of any Helmet Gang hideouts in the area. But we’re all new to this area, so that won’t work. We may catch them if we head out now. Lugging around that many weapons is going to slow them down. But it depends on how close their destination is, compared to how close we are to them.”

Evelyn thought aloud, and would look around at the others, wondering if maybe they had any ideas or remarks they wanted to share. She would stay between Kiyone and Shiina until both weapons were lowered.

Tau Ehb

 

[Ehb]

The others investigated the booth and came back with... not their weapons, but rather armed themselves with the equipment that had been left behind. Well, they still functioned, at least, and they were in proper SRT livery. Though that didn't give much solace since everyone was still dressed up in whatever they came to the orientation in as opposed to SRT uniforms. That didn't matter much given the circumstances, though.

Some of them were still in the middle of 'investigating the room', but back outside, this still-evolving encounter with the sniper-armed student was still ongoing. It kept on sounding like Kiyone was taunting them. But Shiina didn't react to the verbal provocations. All that mattered at the moment was whether or not Kiyone would start looking like she was about to try shooting her. She'd allow the.50 AE rounds to do the talking after that. Shiina, with her gun still trained on Kiyone, continued to listen to the conversations unfold.


"My Emperor of Destruction's all gone, he's far from my big trump card, but he's my greatest partner."
"Your Emperor of Destruction should be headed east of here, Happy hunting~"

So, this student saw where the weapon heisters had gone?


"Maid. Do stay on guard for a moment."
"You do know Maid has a name, hm~? And speaking of which, mine is Uzumori, Kiyone. Kiyone is fine, if you like~"

Yes. Furiko could probably do with learning to at least learn each other's names. So this mystery student was Kiyone Uzumori?
Why did it feel like Shiina had heard of that name before?



In any case, the whie haired girl's attention was now turned to Shiina.
Shiina had warned that she would shoot at the fox-eared girl if she did anything with her weapoin. No way, was she really?

"But you, I think you’re lying to me~! There’s an easy way to find out, isn’t there?"

Did she really think that she was going to beat someone to the first shot with her weapon at ease when Shiina already had her weapon aimed at her? If this girl thought that was going to be the case, then she probably was a helmet gangster in disguise after all. Considering that was the sort of level of intelligence she'd expect from one.

Kiyone motioned to raise her rifle.
Shiina put her finger on the trigger. The girl wasn't even going to be able to level her sniper rifle before-


“Can we point our weapons toward the enemies, and not at each other?”

Shiina chose not to shoot.
She had seen Evelyn making her way to get in between her and Kiyone. At that moment, she was under the presumption that Evelyn was about to use her shield to block a shot, but Shiina got a sense that Evelyn was trying to protect the fox-eared student instead.

“I can vouch for Ms. Uzumori. We attended Millennium together. She won’t shoot you, just leave her to me.” Evelyn then turned back to Kiyone. “You can have your fun later. Just help us get our weapons back please. Well, at least they won’t be able to use her against me.”


"I get that you two have a form of comeraderie already from having come from the same academy, Evelyn. Even so, a Millennium student going around and waving their guns at students outside on the grounds of another academy is a really big problem for us." Shiina smiled as she pointed the barrel of her pistol up high—a safe direction and a sign of disengagement. "The irony of me saying that isn't lost either. But then again, pointing guns at people in the name of school security isn't the same as pointing guns at people in the name of something petty like stroking your own ego."

Shiina reached into her pocket.

"Evelyn, catch."


The maid looked at the pair of handcuffs that had been thrown at her.
Were these for Kiyone?


"If Kiyone is just one of your fellow Millennium students, then a non-SRT student has no business being near our academy with what's going down right now. If you want to convince me that Millenium's Top Student Prodigy and a maid from the C&C Intelligence service aren't working together, then either send her away or put her in handcuffs if you want to drag her along. Your good word on Kiyone does not mean all that much to us who've never attended Millenium. And what we've seen of her in these five minutes says otherwise. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as long as I have that (the handcuffs) garuntee of not having to worry about her shooting us in the back."

Shiiina then addressed the student behind Evelyn.

"And Uzumori Kiyone..."
It was flattering that Shiina already knew who she was~♥!
Wait.


"I'd like to politely suggest you take hold of the convenient idea that Evelyn suggested: help us locate the burglers who stole from our academy so we won't have to go through the unsavory buidness of having to interrogate every bit of detail out of you in a very long and mentally debilitating process. Maybe after that, I'll be able to believe that you aren't some sabetour sent by the helmet gang."


Evelyn, naturally, did not just do what Shiina ordered.
It didn't feel right.

Shiina sensed that hesitation.


"You know that if I tried to put cuffs on her, we'd probably both start shooting at each other, right?" Shiina said, trying to make it humourous. "But, yes. It'll be really hard to let Kiyone help us if we have to constantly worry that she's going to start shooting off her sniper rifle into our backs. If you're worried about her getting into crossfire, hide her behind your shield."


While she was being as polite as she could about it, Shiina still had her suspicions about the two. By all metrics, Kiyone, a Millennium student, had no reason to be out in front of SRT Academy if she wasn't trying to join like the others were. If this same thing had happened out in front of a Vakyrie branch, and if Evelyn wasn't there to give her good word on Kiyone, then she would've been quickly detained and questioned immediately.

In other words, Shiina was trying to give both of them a chance to roll back the obvious suspicion. Kiyone had a chance to help reverse how her demeanor, convenient appearance at a crime, and all other things made it look like she was involved in the heist by being cooperative and helping the SRT students recover those weapons. Her innocence could be more easily proven that way.

For Evelyn, putting a fellow student into handcuffs was a tad cruel, but in cold logic, it did make sense. If she hesitatated here, it would make it really look like she was possibly working outside of SRT's interests. In this situation, a spy would actively try to protect a suspect who was secretly a team member.



Shiiina didn't want to have to engage in a firefight that wasn't directly related to recovering their weapons. She didn't want to have to shoot anyone still, but...

"I want to believe you're on our side, Evelyn. So please..."


Shiina's words were simple and honest. But the situation was once again, tense. One wrong move and everyone would start shooting at each other to the benefit of the Helmet Gangsters trying to get away with their stolen goods...

November Witch Tau

 

[Tau]

Kiyone Uzumori

Ehb November Witch​

Kiyone pouted as Evelyn quickly stepped in to lower her rifle. As the crazy pink-haired girl kept talking, however, she started to consider maybe Evelyn had saved her a painful bullet to the head. This girl one-hundred-percent sounded like the sort who would arrest an innocent bystander just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. So much so, that...

Clink.

"Really...?" Kiyone threw her a weird look, after turning to catch sight of the handcuffs. "Now I may have been accused of a lot, but shooting someone in the back is new. Especially from a recruit who seems to have smuggled in a handgun," she gestured over to the crazy girl's weapon with a shrug.

There was a rather easy way to resolve the whole argument. Each of the girls should have - in theory - brought transfer paperwork and identification. Every fiber of Kiyone's being wanted to keep it hidden away in her bag. How fun it would be, to push the buttons of this vigilante and see how she ticked. But...

...that's exactly what she did.

"Hmm... well, Andahlia-chan, do what you're going to do, I suppose~" Kiyone submitted to her classmate's judgement. The irritating smirk made it feel as though getting handcuffed was entirely part of some plan, even if there was no conceivable way she could've foreseen such a thing. "If you're all done with me, Paranoid Pinky, maybe we'd better be going?"

 

[Nellancholy]

Things were heating up again, and this time almost everyone had a gun in their hand. If it came to that, the group could most certainly address Uzumori quite easily, though not without some injury on at least one of them. If anything, this little incident was adding to Furiko's own doubts about SRT's standards if someone like her could just show up. Better to believe that she was an interloper than a candidate: who could conceivably work as a team with someone so...volatile?

But they were getting distracted. They had clear evidence of one thing: the theft that was facilitated by the subversion of one of the robotic staff. They did not have clear evidence of many other matters, such as Uzumori's status or her own intentions. The next course of action was clear, at least to Furiko.

She raised her hand, giving Eve a tap on her arm. "Maid- ah, Andahlia. I suggest only that you make your decision quickly, though my vote is that you not bother entangling yourself with this malefactor if you think she's more trouble than she's worth. To you, Uzumori..." She offered Kiyone only a glance. "...you may march with us if you're done trying to play with us. I'll keep my eye on you."

With that, she turned and took a couple of steps in the other direction, addressing Kihachi and Tomie, the ones who would be the least trouble with proper direction, or so she believed. "We have our next lead and we've wasted precious minutes. We should get moving before our personal firearms end up in untoward hands. Or worse." With that, she was quite ready to move on with whoever wasn't planning on wasting another second.

November Witch Tau s0ufflecake Crow

 

[s0ufflecake]

Finally, the cat-eared student finished closing her large backpack. The newly-found assault rifle was tied to the side of the bag, and as she put it on, it felt a lot more heavier for her now that the grenades she took from the unknown box were in it.

For the final part, she put the strap above her chest, and walked out of the base. When Furiko addressed her, she immediately looked back at her, yellow eyes meeting red, and stood back up slowly.

''Roger that.'' She responded back to the black-haired student. The girl then continued walking in the same direction as Furiko, not wanting to be left behind. Kihachi then smiled softly as the other girl turned around. The grenades she found earlier must've made her mood a lot more better, and her ears were waving around.

However, she wondered a bit where her beloved Catcher had gone. If anything were to happen to the assault rifle, Kihachi wouldn't be very thrilled, not at all.

Nellancholy Crow

 

[November Witch]

Evelyn Andahlia

Status: Exasperated & worried.

Evelyn would know exactly what the other was thinking when she caught the handcuffs. She held in a sigh of disappointment. Yes, things were tense, but they could all at least trust one another in this small group, right? It seemed not everyone shared that sentiment. The maid knew it was risky, but she got the sense that if someone in their group really was an infiltrator, they’d attempt to leave as soon as the big group got away with the weapons. After all, if the infiltrator was caught, they would have no backup. Why stay behind after everyone already got out?

Maybe she didn't exactly trust those in the group yet herself, she at least trusted them to not be part of the Helmet gang. Though, Evelyn was caught in the midst of another thought. Everyone here was an SRT recruit, right? So why was Shiina questioning Kiyone? Why would the fox girl be here if she wasn’t one? She was obviously here as a prospective member, like everyone else, right?

“If I may ask, why else would she be here?”

Evelyn asked, seemingly to them both, as she turned to directly ask the girl with fox ears.

“You’re here to attend the academy, correct?”

It was then when she seemingly offered her wrists to Evelyn, who would put the handcuffs on. Shiina would have a point if Kiyone wasn’t transferring schools, like everyone else was. But it was just too difficult for Evelyn to comprehend. Kiyone could make just as much chaos and have just as much fun toying with people at Millenium. So why come all the way out here to do the same thing? It made no sense. Yet the girl hadn’t spoken up for herself so far, which worried Evelyn.

Kiyone’s smirk didn’t faze Evelyn. In fact, not much of the other fazed Evelyn, as they had some previous history. She was used to the other’s manner of speech and playful behavior, to put it nicely. And with the click of the handcuffs, Evelyn was put on guard duty. Not as in guarding a prisoner, but as in protecting the now defenseless girl.

“If we get into trouble, would you mind me using your firearm?”

Evelyn would ask Kiyone. If she wasn't going to use it, it might as well be put to good use if they encountered others.

“There was nothing in the room that fit my liking.”

Whatever the response was, Evelyn would bring up the rear of the group as they all filtered out in the direction that the group had fled…

Tau Ehb

 

[Nellancholy]

Ultimately, it didn't take too long for the group to track down the group of Helmet Gangsters that had taken the recruits' weaponry. Between the trail of discarded parts and ammunition that had fell off the cart as well as the skid marks, dents, and scratches that they had left on roadside objects in their hurry, it wasn't hard to follow them to a currently vacant warehouse where they dumped their loot.

Several Gangsters were milling around, carrying boxes and bags of other loot ill-gotten from other places in the city and stacking them up haphazardly on the shelves. Without much of a vantage point for the team, the location of their possessions in particular was clear, still sitting on the cart in the middle of the warehouse, not yet separated and carried off to who knows where.

While few were watching the cart of stolen goods in particular, there were a pair of them standing in close proximity to it, in the middle of a discussion.



"So what are we gonna do with another case of guns? We've got so many of them we barely have room to put them!"

This was likely to be hyperbole. The rest of the loot was probably mainly other stuff.



"You idiot! Don't you see? We can turn this whole case into fat stacks of cash for all of us, just like the rest of the loot!"



"You mean like holding them hostage? Send SRT a note saying 'we got your guns, if you want them back meet us at-'?"

The sound of a fist hitting a helmet rang out.



"And give them a way to track us down? No way! But everyone needs to repair and reload their guns in this city! We'll just disassemble them and sell the ammo and parts to whoever needs them at below retail price! No one will be able to trace each individual part, we'll have destroyed the evidence and made a good profit!"



"I don't think that's true. And besides, shouldn't we mark the prices UP if we want to make money?"



"AS I said, I'm the one who knows how this is supposed to go! You can just keep your head down and pick out whatever's dinged too bad to sell! Let you lot hold on to it because it's what you deserve."

---

The conversation didn't go unheeded by Furiko as she crouched by the open shutter to the warehouse.

"Let's make a move before they take apart our prized possessions. Evelyn, Demon?" She nodded to Eve and Tsuyoi. "Draw their attention from the front." November Witch Chibistaryuu

"Takara, stay back if you must. You, cat." She glanced at Kihachi. "Shall we strike them from above?" There was a skylight on the warehouse's roof that shouldn't be too hard to open. If they managed, their position dropping down onto the Gangsters and Kihachi's use of explosives would make for an effective ambush. Crow s0ufflecake

 

[s0ufflecake]

The cat-eared girl then looked down on the Helmet Gang members. She seemed to think about whether if she should actually drop the grenades. However, the final decision was decided. Kihachi then took off her heavy backpack and placed it down, and opened it up. She took out a handful of Mk 2 grenades in her left hand and played with it a little bit until Kihachi looked back at the black-haired girl next to her. There was a slight sparkle in her yellow eyes, one that was cheerful, yet a bit dangerous.

''Yeah, I think it's a good idea.''

The strange gleam disappeared as the girl moved the grenades a little in her left hand, she placed her other hand on all of the pins of the grenades. She then looked back down on the roof. Out of instinct, Kihachi then pulled out all of the safety clips with her little hand. The small girl looked to the opposite direction, and backed up a little to ready herself to throw the grenades.

''This is gonna get a little messy.. 1.. 2.. 3.''

As soon as she counted down to three, she immediately threw the grenades as fast as she can before it can blow her up or anybody in the vicinity, as it flew in the opposite direction. The cat ears underneath her cap then lowered a little to possibly lower the extra sounds of the explosions that will come after. Kihachi smiled a little, like she accomplished something big in her own life.
Nellancholy Crow November Witch Chibistaryuu Ehb Tau

 

[Ehb]

Kiyone was handcuffed without much fanfare. Allowing Shiina to outwardly breathe out a sigh of relief. The point where she would most likely have to start fighting amongst the SRT recruits had passed without incident.

"Thank you." The Trinity student said it in relief.

---

The impomptu 'Recovery Task Force' had armed themselves with weapons that were left behind. This was reasonable, as it was likely that they would have to fight against the thieves. To review,

The buggy girl had taken a handgun and slapped all manner of attachments together to make some sort of cursed weapon. Tomie's keeper armed herself with a set of what looked a lot like Valkyire Issue Revolvers. Kihachi took what looked like a surplus assault rifle and some grenades; those would be useful. Then, Evelyn had taken possession of the sniper rifle their detainee had, and Tsuyoi still had her rocket launcher, of course.

In any case, while Shiina's handgun packed a punch, the ammunition for it was a little bit expensive. So it was for the best to arm herself with something as well.

As the Kahachi started moving out, Shiina went over to the guard kiosk to pick up something quick.

Great luck! There was a SMG like the Lancaster she used to use!

---

Following a trail of droppings from the thieves' ill-gotten gains, the unit eventually arrived at a warehouse near the port. Eavesdropping on a conversation from the outside, it seemed clear that the people responsible for stealing the weapons were there in the building and had basically just admitted to their crimes. Thus, the impetus to go in guns blazing was very tempting. Going against that urge, Furiko laid out a strategy of using the long-range weapons held by Evelyn and Tsuyoi to engage the gangsters at range. While the foe's attention was focused on those two, the rest of the squad would try to flank the gangsters by dropping down from the roof of the warehouse.

That sounded really flashy.

Shiina, while visualizing the plan in her head, realized that she wasn't mentioned at all. Did she just get put on guard duty for the Millennium Student?


A part of Shiina wanted to protest. But again, jumping into gunfights without thinking got her into trouble in the past. So maybe sitting this one out wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

She approached Kiyone and Evelyn. She tilted her head a little and shrugged. Acknowledging she wasn't 'assigned' anything at the moment.

"It's probably best to keep someone with a close-range weapon near you two in case they try to sally out of the warehouse. So I'll keep an eye on the ears (Kiyone) and the flanks while you engage the warehouse. Let's find a good position to fire at the warehouse."

Shiina motioned towards a nearby, rather obvious, row of concrete road barriers. Classic cover.
They would get in position and...

''This is gonna get a little messy.. 1.. 2.. 3.''



Shiina hears Kahachi already priming her explosives to be thrown. Wait! Everyone was still just standing by the warehouse!

Before Shiina had a chance to say anything to the cat-eared explosives expert, she already saw that she had thrown not just one but multiple explosives into the warehouse. At this point, Shiina urgently turned back to Tsuyoi and Evelyn to make for the cover that she had motioned to earlier; it was moving away from Kahachi's explosions, and it would allow them to not have to engage the Helmet Gangsters in the warehouse out in the open like they currently were.

Oh,
and Shiina also started to drag Kiyone by the arm along to the cover as well. she dragged her along by the arm.



Kahachi's explosions went off one by one in the warehouse. The helmet gangsters were caught completely by surprise!

While Shiina wasn't trying to hurt Kiyone, she nonetheless dragged her to the cover and leaned the fox girl up against it—almost even throwing her into it.

From within the warehouse, Shiina heard some of the helmet gangsters demanding to know where the explosions had come from. Furiko's team had to be able to get up on the roof of the building without being noticed, or else they'd be helplessly getting shot at from below. The 'Heavy Weapons' team needed to focus the defender's attention towards them and away from the flanking squad.

Shiina looked for the SMG's charging bolt and racked it back, loading a round. She took general aim at the warehouse and pulled the trigger.
The gun didn't fire.

She inspects the trigger. It looked like it wasn't exactly like her old Lancaster.

"Tch! Seriously?"

Shiina wasn't able to immediately start firing due to her unfamiliarity with her weapon! It was up to Evelyn and Tsuyoi to start firing on the warehouse before the squad attempting to attack from the roof was discovered!

November Witch Chibistaryuu Tau

 

[Tau]

Kiyone Uzumori

Ehb November Witch s0ufflecake​

"Hm…" Kiyone smirked as she was finally asked the question that really should’ve come before anything, in her eyes. "It’s possible~ I have been watching for a while, after all…" she answered as vaguely as ever.

With what little movement her cuffs allowed, Kiyone hugged her precious weapon, only to have the one familiar girl there ask her to part with it. Puffing her lips a little, she offered her an ironic-looking pout, "Next, one of you will ask to carve me up and steal my kidneys!"

A firearm was an awfully personal thing, after all. In any other situation, it would’ve been socially acceptable, if not expected, for her to say no. Nevertheless, she handed it over.

"Just know that Hundred Percent has a reputation to uphold! Don’t make her into a Ninety-nine Percent, or her successor will exact revenge for her stolen honor." For once, Kiyone actually sounded a bit menacing… if only just a bit…

---

Tracking them down didn’t take too long, leaving no time to properly taunt pinky, which was a real shame.

"The Ears, hm? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone’s jealous~!" Kiyone taunted, wiggling her overly-fluffy ears a bit. It was hard not to, when they were suddenly called out like that. How rude.

And so, her eyes fell on the other triangle-eared girl. She wouldn’t call it kinship, per-say, but Kiyone was maaaybe a little biased towards getting along with others who shared her skyward-facing ears. Considering she’d just been called cat, surely she understood the pain…

"Oww, jeez!!" Kiyone whined, her ears pressing to her head as the girl tossed several loud explosives into the building. On second hand, maybe she didn’t understand the pain… literally. "You know your own weapons are in there, right!?" Kiyone warned, more-so on behalf of everyone else, though her precious eardrums were a major factor.

"Oof! Oo, forceful, aren’t we, pinky~?" Kiyone replied, settling into cover. "Andahlia-chan, just so you know, it’s not a miss if you never intended to hit a person in the first place. But if you’re going for cover fire, maybe use the cheap rounds in my backpack?" she suggested, turning her back to Evelyn for easy access. "They’re in the big pouch, next to all the fancy paper."

Meanwhile, she took the misfire exactly as one might’ve expected. "You missed~" Kiyone chortled, "Have you tried pulling the trigger? I heard that works for most guns~" She was enjoying herself far too much for a girl handcuffed and ducking under a block of concrete. Despite the dicey situation, she still didn’t feel all that threatened.

 

[November Witch]

Evelyn Andahlia

Status: Frustrated & Focused.

Evelyn wasn’t sure if she should heed Furiko’s commands, as she had a, uh, person to protect. She wasn’t a prisoner, and she wasn’t exactly a VIP either… The maid didn’t know what other word to label Kiyone as. But it was good enough, not too demeaning in her opinion. Either way, drawing attention would likely be the worst thing to do with someone who couldn’t fight. Though, they didn’t have many other options, and if anyone could protect the fox eared girl, it would probably be the one with a shield.

After a moment’s thought, she would acknowledge with a nod and remain quiet. She’d watch another of their cat eared member’s pull a handful of grenades from her bag, and wondered exactly where in the plan this came up. They’d lose all pretense of stealth if they went this direction. She wanted to stop the girl, but she was too disciplined to start an argument about tactics in the middle of a time-sensitive operation. Even if the explosives could end up damaging their precious weapons. She’d discuss this later. It was all so different from the previous environment she was in. Much more disciplined and organized than whatever this was.

As Kiyone was grabbed and pulled towards cover, Evelyn followed. Though once the gunfire started, Evelyn would stop, turn on her heel and plant the shield into the ground. Pressing a hidden button, it extended to be just big enough to hide the large maid behind. Who needs cover when you can make your own?

Evelyn was just a handful of meters away from the cover behind her that Kiyone and Shiina had taken refuge behind. She decided she’d just wait for covering fire from Shiina before joining them. She could hear Kiyone speaking behind her about cheap rounds in her backpack. Well, she’d put them to good use once she got there. But she waited for the covering fire for a few moments. Then a few more. But nothing came. That was obviously a problem as the enemy would slowly start to advance on them. So Evelyn would take it into her own hands then with only one magazine on her, the one already loaded into the sniper. She pulled the cocking lever, making sure there was a round already in the chamber. Thankfully there was.

Evelyn would lay down perpendicular to the shield, her feet closest to the shield and her head the furthest away. She’d twist her body to the right and aim down the sight. Evelyn, while trained in most firearms, still didn’t prefer precision weapons. She could normally hit her target but was never precise enough to hit anything specific on them. Hitting the gun or the head or a specific limb was out of the question. Her time using an LMG would, however, mean the kick of the gun was more manageable for her then others who usually used lighter weapons. Her lack of accuracy meant Evelyn would simply aim center mass and pull the trigger.

She twisted to the right and scoped it. Two anti-material shots rang out, and two members of the helmet gang fell, hit in the chest and abdomen. The wind clearly knocked out of them and groaned in pain. Evelyn twisted back behind her cover. She’d press the magazine release only to see 2 bullets left in the magazine, and one in the chamber. 3 total.

“I’m 2 for 2 at the moment. I hope that’s good enough to keep her at 100%.”

Evelyn would call back to Kiyone and return the magazine snuggly into the weapon with a satisfying click. Due to no return fire coming from the two behind her, and the threat being Evelyn at the moment, she had all the gunfire focused on her.

“I’ve got their attention! It’s your turn Ms. Manato!”

Evelyn knew if she tried to peek around the shield, it was likely she would get hit, so she would simply remain patient, and wait for the gunfire thrown her way to let up, or for someone else to take the bulk of the attention. If she had her LMG, she would be blind firing, but something told her it would be much less effective with an AMR. Plus, she knew Kiyone was genuinely serious when it came to her precious weapon too. She wouldn’t want to make her frustrated or angry.

Thankfully Evelyn had drawn pretty much all the attention to herself, so hopefully those on the ladder would be fine. But now they were slowly advancing on Evelyn and her shield. It was then when she saw something flying through the air. Well, other than lead. It was a grenade, and it was headed towards Evelyn… Or maybe Shiina and Kiyone? It was difficult to tell its trajectory. Evelyn knew she may have to move quickly…

Tau Ehb

 

[Nellancholy]

"Excellently done, cat." Furiko would have to make sure to properly learn everyone's names later. But there was no time for that right this moment.

The "shock" was severe in its effectiveness.

Now came the "awe". And in that, Furiko was perfectly in her element.

She crossed her arms and dropped down through the open skylight.

WHAM.

She landed on one knee on the table bearing a portion of the Helmet Gang's loot, its legs sagging slightly from the impact.

Evelyn had drawn the attention of much of the forces present and was beginning to pick them off, while the ones nearer to the table were just picking themselves up and shaking off the effects of Kihachi's explosives.

Furiko's right arm swung out, drawing her sword in one swift motion and swiping out the legs from under one of the dazed Gangsters, sending her sprawling back to the floor with a donk from her helmet.

Then her left arm moved, drawing one of the revolvers from under her right arm. She was never a good shot, and even more so with her non-dominant hand.

"Ei!" The other Gangster had no response other than a grunt of shock and anger as she leveled her assault rifle at Furiko, hands shaking as she squeezed out a burst of bullets.

Furiko threw herself flat on the table just in time, the trio of rifle bullets grazing across her arm and chest, leaving fine cuts in their wake.

As hard as it usually was for her to aim, at this distance even she couldn't mess up.

She squeezed the trigger twice, two blasts ringing out and two bullets punching her assailant hard in the stomach.

With that, the Gangster fell, and Furiko released the breath she held.

The table let out a groan and a crack, and then...it collapsed, leaving Furiko lying in a heap of unloaded weapons and ammunition.

A few more Gangsters ran forth from the back of the warehouse, about three or four of them.

In such a precarious position, Furiko might need help evening the odds...

Ehb Chibistaryuu Crow s0ufflecake

 

[Ehb]

November Witch Tau Chibistaryuu

The chaos of the situation continued to unfold as the defenders in the warehouse sprung forward to respond to the attack by the SRT recruits. Shiina wasn't sure if the other team flanking the warehouse was successful or not. She felt some apprehension at not being entirely sure if she could put her faith in them to do so, but she shrugged that idea away. These were all SRT recruits. They were supposed to have had enough courage to handle themselves to have even been invited to SRT in the first place.



Shiina herself was being detrimental to this whole thing as her gun STILL wasn't working!

"You missed~" Teased the ear'd prisoner. Clearly disleased at her being handled thus far. "Have you tried pulling the trigger? I heard that works for most guns~"

"You're not helping!" Shiina pouted as again, racking the charging handle failed. "Come on!"

She pleads with the gun to work.

Shiina had to get her gun working, though. Hosing down the windows a bit might force the shooters to take cover, even if it's just for a moment. Laying down a good amount of fire to make the enemy take cover instead of shooting was exactly what this SMG was great for.

Removing the magazine, Shiina pulled the charging handle on the SMG again. Nothing dropped out of the chamber. It failed to feed a round?

She reinserted the drum, took aim, and pulled the trigger. It fires.



Shiina lays down return fire at the warehouse windows that the helmet gangsters were shooting from. The maid, taking cover behind her shield, could register the shots being fired from behind her. The Trinity student peppered the windows where the delinquent students were firing from. The shots impacting Evelyn's shield lessened somewhat.

"I'm suppressing them." Shiina said in between bursts of her SMG. "Evelyn! Tsuyoi!"



Shiina's firing on the opponents immediately lessened their barrage of fire as some took cover. What would Evelyn do? Should she make for better cover with the others? Or was this a chance to get a clean shot at one of the helmet gangsters?

Oh, and Tsuyoi acknowledged that... Shiina was telling her to shoot her rockets at the gangsters? It was okay/
But wait a moment, wasn't there a chance that a really bad shot could either hit one of their people inside, or set off all the weapons stored in the warehouse? Tsuyoi faced a moral dillema of the risks involved with shooting off her rockets. But... she kind of still wanted to - kind of?

It seemed like there were many helmet gangsters involved in moving all of this loot around. Right now, even among the six of them on this operation, they were very outnumbered.


AT that moment, one of Shiina's shell casings that had been flying past Kiyone very rudely landed in Kiyone's lap with the still inserted pin jungling as it settled on the girl..
Actually no - it wasn't a casing. Tsuyoi and Kiyone saw very clearly: it was a grenade.

That was a really impressive throw.
Though, the helmet gangster in their panic or lack of knowledge had forgotten to pull the grenade's pin out.

---

Nellancholy s0ufflecake Crow

In the warehouse, the helmet gangsters who were not currently engaged were actively looking for someone to engage. While it seemed like there was someone to shoot at outside, there was also someone causing a commotion inside! Furiko, who had landed smack in the middle of the warehouse, found herself beset by multiple gunners. They looked really mad about being victims of her sneak attack.


The delinquents who noticed her intrusion now fired on her.


There was a feeling of shock as Furiko started to feel her halo shuddering as it tried to deflect most of the physical damage being thrown at her. This was bad.
Furiko was completely surrounded, and just enough of the warehouse had taken notice of her to focus their attention and their guns on her.


Where were the others? The flanking maneuver wasn't going to be very effective if the warehouse had time to respond to it!
Furuiko felt a surge of energy—the will to survive by any means!

 

[s0ufflecake]

As soon as the others had went to action and to their belonged positions, Kihachi had started to take out a few M84 stun grenades, and reloaded the assault rifle she took earlier. Moving over to the large opening she made earlier, she then looked down while trying to not be seen.

''1... 2... 3...''

As soon as she counted down to three, Kihachi then pulled the pins of her the three stun grenades in her right hand and then moved away a little to prepare herself to throw the grenades, and to also jump into the warehouse as soon as possible.

''Go.''

Once the cat-eared girl said 'go', she immediately threw the stun grenades into the large opening and then jumped right into the hole once she started to notice that some Helmet Gangsters were affected by the flashbangs.

Just as expected, the cat-eared girl landed on many boxes in the warehouse, except on her face. Kihachi muttered quietly, ''Jeez.. That hurts..'' Before getting up, and putting her cap back on.

As soon as the stun grenades' effect started to wear off on the Helmet Gangsters that have been hit by it, Kihachi immediately started shooting on them with her assault rifle as soon as possible. As expected, a few Helmet Gangsters returned fire to the cat-eared girl.

Nellancholy Crow

 

[Nellancholy]

Stinging blows continued to assail Furiko's side, the gangsters that had witnessed her dramatic entrance focusing fire on her after she had neutralized the ones nearest to her.

How ironic. If the now-unconscious thugs nearest to her were still standing, she could use them as human shields amidst the heap of detritus. But now they were lying next to her, in no state to involuntarily protect her from their allies. Perhaps it was her fate then, to be promptly pummeled into unconsciousness by them.

Well, she wouldn't allow it. She held her arms close to herself like a boxing guard, the revolver and sword in her grip held flush to herself as she rolled away like a log, moving a few feet closer to Evelyn and the entrance.

The embarrassing, undignified maneuver got her out of the way just in time to avoid Kihachi falling on her, followed by several blinding flashes and a stream of assault rifle fire.

"Exactly as I planned." She remarked, doing her best to save face. Pulling herself up into a kneeling position, she leveled her appropriated revolver, aiming past Kihachi and firing the next four shots to help her take out the stragglers.

With that, the revolver was spent. At this distance, her sword was useless as well. Crossing her arms again, she sheathed her sword in a practiced motion by her left hip while dropping the revolver back into its holster under her right arm.

Six bullets left.

Drawing the other revolver from under her left arm,she quickly scrambled into cover behind a shelf.

Should they choose to, Kihachi could join Furiko behind cover, and Evelyn could push in.

s0ufflecake November Witch

 

[Tau]

Kiyone Uzumori

Ehb November Witch​

Kiyone watched Evelyn carefully as she took each shot. One look made it obvious just how overly invested she was in the arbitrary hit chance, to the point where she near flinched with every shot fired. After she got a confirmed pair of hits, Kiyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, that is how percentile math works, if I remember right~" she retorted. "I almost feel bad for these guys, though. Those rounds leave an ugly mark…"

The thought was interrupted and Kiyone scrambled back a few feet in panic, once she realized what’d fallen in her lap. Only when she got her hand on it to toss it away did she realize the hilarity of the situation.

"Hmm… on second thought, I don’t feel so sorry anymore~" she chuckled, stroking the grenade like a villainess petting a small dog. "Hey Pinky, wanna see a magic trick~? I just need to stretch my wrists a bit and we can perform the Wondrous Helmet Gang Vanishing Act~! How about it? Doesn’t that sound exciting~?"

Kiyone pushed her cuffed hands forward, poking Shiina in the side over and over with the persistence of an irritating friend who wouldn’t take no for an answer. "You know you waaant toooo~"

 

[November Witch]

Evelyn Andahlia

Status: Worried & Determined.

Evelyn didn’t breathe out a sigh of relief yet as Shiina started laying down suppressive fire. In fact, she was still worried that the grenade was going to go off… But as the few seconds ticked by with nothing, the girl could only pray that it had been a dud, or perhaps a rock? But it was clear nothing was exploding, so she slung the rifle over her back. The battle maid would heft her shield up. While it wasn’t any heavier than normal, it was unwieldy when it was in this extended mode. She lifted it to her knees and slowly moved backwards towards the barrier her allies were currently bunkered down behind.

This exposed her shins and everything below, but Evelyn had armor covering that portion of her. Rounds would dink off of the metal plating that adorned her legs uselessly. If anything, they may make the girl unstable when lifting a leg, but it's why the girl moved slowly and steadily, until she was with the other two. She could see Kiyone begging for the cuffs to be removed but turned her attention back to the battlefield for now. She set her shield beside the concrete barrier, creating a tiny sliver between the two objects of cover. And protruding from that sliver was the barrel of Kiyone’s sniper.

“Please, Shiina, just let her help.”

Evelyn laid down, steadied her breath, and slowly squeezed the trigger… Only for a bullet fired at her to hit the legs the rifle stood on, folding them back into the stowage position, and causing Evelyn’s first shot to fly past her potential targets and into the warehouse somewhere. She really hoped Kiyone didn’t see that… She’d pull the legs out once more, slow her breathing and pull the trigger. This time, she struck true, hitting one target in the head. The rifle had so much force behind it, the helmet was sent flying off this helmet gang member and into another one. Two fell with one bullet coincidentally. Surely that would make up for her missed shot, right? That is how percentile math works, if Evelyn remembers right.

Ehb Tau

 

[Ehb]

November Witch Tau Chibistaryuu

Evelyn used the lull in the enemy shooting at her to take herself and her shield to the concrete barriers where Shiina and the rest of the team were located. Just in time, a couple more bursts out of Shiina's SMG, and it soon clicked on her next trigger pull. Her magazine was empty. Unable to fire back without reloading, Shiina dove back down into cover; the return fire from the gangsters in the building intensified in her direction

Seeing Evelyn behind cover now, Shiina reached for a spare drum magazine, but her focus was caught on their prisoner admiring the still-pinned hand grenade a little too much.

"Hey Pinky, wanna see a magic trick~? I just need to stretch my wrists a bit and we can perform the Wondrous Helmet Gang Vanishing Act~! How about it? Doesn’t that sound exciting~?"
The fox then started to poke Shiina with her cuffed hands. The pink haired girl narrowed her eyes at Kiyone feeling a strangely deeply seated sort of annoyance.

"Are you proposing that you'll be able to stop the entirety of the helmet gang in there with one good throw of a grenade?"

"You know you waaant toooo~"



Evelyn, from her new position in cover, started to pick off some of the students in the windows. A couple more, and it might be possible to consider pushing into the warehouse itself to link up with Furiko. - or would Furiko and her team manage to clear it out beforehand? With the intensity of the fire still coming from the windows, it even felt like launching a rocket at them would be acceptable at this point!

“Please, Shiina, just let her help.”

Evelyn again vouched that Kiyone could help in their situation. Shiina knew that Millenium's top student probably had some idea in how to get through this situation... but Shiina shook her head:

"This whole thing is ultimately the problem of the SRT Academy. It's not my place to have SRT start to owe favors to Millenium for their help. While I'm certain the great Kiyone Uzumori could probably solo this entire thing on her own if she wanted to - this situation remains SRT's problem. It would be a serious issue for me to drag another school into solving that problem on our behalf."


Nevermind the fact that Evelyn and everyone else were still technically applicants who hadn't gone through orientation yet. But they understood what she was getting at. Evelyn and Kiyone had a realization of sorts based on what Shiina had said. The Trinity student who put the fox in handcuffs was still operating under the assumption that Kiyone had no intention of joining SRT at all and that her being outside of the academy today had nothing at all to do with attending orientation.

Holding to that assumption, what Shiina said was true. SRT shouldn't be—couldn't be—dragging students of other academies into its battles. The same could be said for Millenium's operating standards—or any school's, for that matter. The business of any individual school was the business of that school alone.

Despite how reckless Shiina had been looking from her initial encounter, it did seem like she did try to be mindful of the ramifications of some of her actions, at least. But, in any case, going into something too political was beyond the scope of what was needed here.

If Shiina wasn't letting Kiyone directly participate because she wasn't an SRT candidate, then the simplest way to solve that was to just say that:

---

Nellancholy s0ufflecake Crow

Kihachi joined the fray with more of her grenades. With the gangsters' attention shifting around, she began to spray and prey on the helmet gangsters she could raise her weapon towards. Her absolute lack of mercy caused some of them to duck for cover within the warehouse, taking some of the attention off of Furiko.

Furiko and Kahachi were now in the warehouse, teeming with helmet gangsters who, despite being very disorganized, still had them outnumbered despite catching them by surprise. They were going to need to use superior close combat skills to win the day in that warehouse and even the odds!

Already, various helmet gangsters scrambling around were stumbling into the two recruits' line of sight. The gangsters hastily raise their weapons to fire on the intruding SRT applicants from close range! Who would land significant shots first?

Perhaps a third member would really allow the group inside the warehouse to gain unstoppable momentum to clear the warehouse?

 

[Tau]

Kiyone Uzumori

Ehb November Witch s0ufflecake Nellancholy​

Kiyone pouted as the pink-haired girl continued to refuse to play ball. "You, dear Pinky, really need to loosen up!" she declared in the middle of a warzone. "I bet you don’t even believe in magic."

Thankfully, Kiyone seemed preoccupied enough with Shiina that she failed to notice one-hundred percent become ninety-nine percent. That, or the double-kill had appeased her.

Reaching her cuffed hands in the backpack, grenade still in hand, a few seconds later, two very uncuffed hands came back out, one still holding the grenade, and the other, the pin. "See? Magic~" she flaunted.

Despite being unpinned, Kiyone was still holding the strike level carefully, barely keeping it from triggering. In a way, it was an unintentional threat: making a grab for it risked it slipping and exploding right at their feet. Despite this, Kiyone went right to work with her crazy plot, whipping out her phone and holding it up to the building.

"Distance of approximately 17.31 meters. Height of 12 meters. Calculate force of standard issue time-delay grenade given target angle applied over a cone with radius of…" Kiyone continued quietly mumbling nerd words to herself as briefly peeked out from cover to snatch a traffic cone. She placed it in a very specific place, and marked a similarly specific, grenade-shaped spot on the ground with chalk.

"Trade ya," Kiyone called over to Evelyn, swapping a similarly-colored pistol for her beloved sniper rifle. "By the way, Evelyn, you owe me a new gun." Quickly filling it with some of her aforementioned "cheap rounds" (an impressive feet with one-hand still gripping the grenade), Kiyone carefully slipped the grenade in it’s marked spot, covered it with the traffic cone, then jumped up and balanced on top.

"See ya inside, Evelyn. Pinky." Offering a playful salute, the grenade then exploded, wreaking havoc on the concrete while launching Kiyone and the traffic cone high into the air. As if that wasn’t enough to show off, Kiyone added a little mid-air spin. Figuring the gun was tainted anyway, she even went for the mid-air 360 no-scope, which predictably turned ninety-nine percent into ninety-eight.

Even without the extra take-out, she still landed neatly on the roof and ran up to the former entry point. The high-ground: a sniper’s dream~! Suddenly, inside the warehouse, the tides began to turn, as the powerful assault of Kihachi and Furiko was aided by Kiyone’s precision fire.