The tall girl frowned as the bullet that had just grazed her eye severed a few strands of her hair. She was C&C's sniper, callsign Zero Two, Kakudate Karin, characterized by her chocolate-brown skin.
She had taken up a position on the roof of a nearby building overlooking the 'Burger Emperor.' In other words, it was nearly impossible to get a clear line of sight on her from inside the restaurant.
And yet Haruna, the leader of the opposing side and her initial target, was somehow managing to do just that. And she was improving in real-time.
At first, Haruna couldn't even pinpoint Karin's location. But after Karin's second shot at Mika, Haruna had immediately returned fire. Karin had been disappointed by the shots, which were far from threatening.
So this is the infamous terrorist group from Gehenna? For their leader, her skills are pathetic.
It was a strange situation where Mika, who was fighting C&C's own Chief Neru to a standstill or even pushing her back, seemed more like the leader. It was enough to make Karin wonder if they had misidentified their target.
Of course, everyone except Neru knew that she had made the mistake of attacking a person who might have been the kidnapped hostage.
"…Why is her skill improving so rapidly?"
She's growing in real-time. Witnessing a situation that seemed to defy reality, Karin took cover, reloaded her anti-tank rifle, and had a premonition.
This fight would be decided within this magazine. Given her opponent's growth rate, if she couldn't neutralize her with these next few shots, she would be the one to be neutralized.
Karin turned and entered the stairwell leading into the building, descending two floors before taking up a new position by a window. Her previous sniping spot had been completely exposed; she would resume her attack from here, aiming to end it with a single shot.
Just as Haruna, who was kneeling and looking through her own scope, entered Karin's sights, Karin went to pull the trigger.
Or rather, she hesitated.
She had just witnessed Neru and Mika burst through the restaurant wall and continue their fight out on the street. And as she watched them, Karin noticed something else that was strange.
"...A Gehenna transport helicopter?"
From a considerable distance, external forces were appearing. External forces that Chairman Rio, if she were in her right mind, would never have allowed into the district.
Worse still, a wave of white was surging from the direction of the Millennium campus. Looking closer through her scope, she saw they were armed robots… unmanned drones.
"Chief. The situation is escalating."
Karin quickly sent the radio message. Just as she turned her weapon back toward her original target, Haruna…
KRA-BOOOOM—!!!
The entire restaurant exploded, and flames and smoke completely obscured Karin's vision.
"…"
…It was undoubtedly the work of Akane. In any case, the terrorists who had remained inside the restaurant must have been dealt with. It was for the best. Karin decided to leave it at that. The cleanup was Seminar's problem, anyway.
Beep—
[Huh? What is it, I was just starting to have fun… Why, what's going— URAAAGH!!!]
"Ugh."
Karin grimaced at the loud battle cry that came through Neru's comms. It was only thanks to her earpiece that it hadn't been worse.
[Give me a break, just report what's going on… Hnngh!! You bastard, just take a hit already!]
"Gehenna transport helicopters are approaching at high speed. Unidentified forces are also moving toward the operation area from the campus—"
Thud, thud. BANG— BANG— BANG—!
Karin threw herself to the side. There was no decent cover, but because she had reacted the instant she heard the footsteps, she was unharmed.
"…Who are you?"
"I'm here to find someone precious. That's all you need to know."
The girl in the light, airy outfit and gas mask—Azusa—spoke, then took aim with her rifle, one hand gripping the end of the handguard, and began her hunt.
Karin's decision was swift. She rushed up the adjacent stairs while reporting the situation to all of C&C over the radio.
"I've been flanked. The opponent is… presumed to be from Trinity."
With the essential information relayed, her only options now were to hold out or neutralize the enemy. Karin reached the top floor, which thankfully had plenty of pillars for cover. She spun around and aimed her rifle at the top of the stairs.
But as if anticipating this, it wasn't Azusa who entered the top floor first.
POP!
The flashbang detonated just as Azusa made her entrance.
BANG—!!!
"Kngh…!"
The bullet from the anti-tank rifle struck Azusa squarely in the shoulder.
The flashbang had gone off a fair distance away, so Karin had been able to avert her eyes and fire based on predicting the timing of Azusa's entry. It was a move born from Karin's experience, having worked as a security agent for Seminar before joining C&C and continuing combat and intelligence operations since.
"Now, I'd say things are a little more even."
"…Vanitas Vanitatum."
An agile opponent like Azusa was a terrible match-up for Karin, who had now lost the advantage of sniping. Hitting a small, fast target at such close range with an anti-tank rifle was a feat of artistry even for someone as skilled as her.
However, if that opponent had one arm disabled, that was a different story. An immobile arm meant a compromised sense of balance. It meant, at the very least, that she now had a fighting chance.
BANG— BANG— BANG—!
Of course, a fighting chance was just that.
Even though she was forced to fire one-handed, losing her usual stance, Azusa didn't waver. She had no intention of leaving a blemish on the first mission she had been given since transferring to Trinity.
Contrary to Karin's expectation that the abundance of cover would work to her advantage, Azusa began to utilize it herself, becoming a target that Karin couldn't hit no matter what she tried. Her only remaining option was to predict Azusa's movements and fire, but having already been hit once upon entry, Azusa was now moving erratically, anticipating that very tactic.
KRA-BOOM!!!
On top of that, Azusa had plenty of tricks up her sleeve.
The supplies given to the Squad during their Arius days were top-tier by Arius standards, but they were laughably inadequate compared to what she had now in Trinity. Azusa was not one to refrain from using grenades and flashbangs when she could do so as easily as breathing.
Eventually, Karin was cornered and fell to the floor. As she desperately reached for her dropped rifle, Azusa stomped on her arm, pinning it, and aimed her own gun. Its muzzle was pointed right between Karin's eyes.
"…Damn."
BANG—!
"This is Squirrel. Sniping position secured."
[…Yeah. Good work.]
Azusa sat down next to the now-halo-less Karin and caught her breath. All that was left for her to do was wait for Hiyori, who was likely struggling up the stairs with a heavy weapons case on her back that now felt even heavier than before.
The members of the Gourmet Research Society poked their heads out from the rubble of the collapsed Burger Emperor, all of them a complete mess.
Unlike Izumi, who had been trembling in a corner, or Akari, who had been too busy with her mukbang to care about the fight, Haruna had been forced to briefly engage an enemy. She sighed, a look of disappointment on her face.
"Phew. I'm sorry, Mika-san. It seems I've betrayed your expectations."
Having lived a life obsessed with gastronomy, Haruna had little combat experience. She had never once fought another sniper, and as a result, her performance had been subpar. She had wanted to elegantly neutralize the other attackers to earn Mika's praise, but it was not to be. A true pity.
Haruna glanced at the two monsters trading blows on the street, then checked on her club members and closed her eyes. It wasn't that she was physically tired; she was mentally exhausted.
"Waaah?! P-Prez! Don't die! If you fall asleep here, you might actually die! So, um… right! Think about your gourmet list! It's still more than half full~!"
"I'm not going to die, Izumi-san."
With an expression far too serene for someone buried under the rubble of a building, Haruna calmly soothed the panicking Izumi.
"Oofufu…"
Just then, a laugh came from behind her, and Haruna sensed that the inevitable had arrived. She decided to offer a moment of silence for whoever had made the fatal mistake of messing with the one person you shouldn't mess with at the worst possible time: when they're eating.
"I still had seventeen burgers I hadn't eaten… This has made me juuuust a little angry."
Akari burst from the debris, brushed herself off, and picked up her rifle, which was laden with accessories.
"Whoever you are, you'd better be prepared. Yes… When I find you, I won't let you off easy~."
Callsign Zero Three, Murokasa Akane, was completely unprepared to face the wrath of a monster whose meal had been interrupted.
Once the battlefield shifted from the cramped interior of the restaurant to the open street, I focused on maintaining my distance. My spare magazines disappeared one by one, but I was able to steadily accumulate damage on Neru.
That's not to say I was unscathed. My effective range wasn't all that different from Neru's, and it was only natural that the person with an extra gun would have more firepower. If this was a fight where I could just beat her one-sidedly, Neru would never have been able to call herself the strongest in close combat.
Then, the restaurant exploded. At first, I thought Haruna had done it, but on second thought, she had no reason to in this situation. For a moment, I almost lost my composure worrying about her, but I trusted that she, who routinely blew up restaurants from the inside, would be fine. For a Kivotos student, it was a minor incident that would likely result in only light injuries.
After that, I watched Neru talking to someone on her radio and briefly wondered whether I should let her. It was a pointless thought, as Neru proved the next moment by charging at me again. It was clear the only thing on her mind was beating me.
Well, I suppose I'm partly to blame for that, having relentlessly provoked her. Anyway.
Just as we were about to resume our fight, I overheard something from Neru's radio that I couldn't ignore.
A Gehenna transport helicopter? Why would that be here? This is the heart of Millennium.
"…Ah."
Finally, the whole picture started to come into focus. It was the moment that provided a clear explanation for why C&C would try to neutralize the Gourmet Research Society—a group with little to no history of blowing up restaurants in Millennium—treating them like terrorists.
Trinity must have realized I was missing and investigated, and somehow found out the culprit was Haruna from Gehenna. That would have dragged Gehenna into it, and since I was headed for Millennium, the information would have been relayed to Millennium's student council president, Rio. And Rio would have ordered C&C to apprehend the Gourmet Research Society, a.k.a. the high-profile criminals being pursued by the other two major academies.
That much made sense, but why Gehenna would push their forces all the way into Millennium…
Wait. If this was an agreed-upon action with Millennium, that would be one thing, but the fact that C&C moved in first suggests it wasn't. That means what I've caused is an issue of violating another academy's autonomy.
This isn't about my medical bills or the restaurant's damages anymore. This could be bad enough to irreparably sour relations between Millennium and Gehenna… Hold on.
"Whoa-oh."
It's a crude expression, but I can't think of any other words to describe my current situation.
I'm so screwed. And I have no idea how to even begin to fix it.
The fact that Gehenna moved means Trinity must have given them a push. Hina is not the type of person to do something this reckless so lightly. Not unless someone was there to share the burden or take full responsibility. There was no way Hina would push her forces in like this otherwise.
In other words, it means one of two things.
Either Nagisa didn't see the MomoTalk I sent using Haruna's phone.
Or she saw it and didn't believe it.
"Hey, Neru-chan. Could we call a temporary truce? Uh, things are getting a little… weird—"
"HUH? Who said you could call me that?! ORAORAORAORAORA!!!"
Whoops. I called her that out of habit and pissed her off. I was so focused on not calling her a kid that I made a different mistake.
And she ignored me…! We just had a whole back-and-forth. You could at least listen to me now, Neru…!
A deadly rain of bullets descended upon me. I took cover behind a parked car, which was instantly turned into a bullet-riddled wreck. To whoever owns this car, I'm sorry. I don't think this was my fault, though.
"You bastard, come out of there!!! Are you gonna ru—"
KRA-BOOM—!!!
Neru's head whipped to the side as she was yelling. I knew that sound all too well. I had fought the person who uses that anti-tank rifle myself.
"Why is Hiyori here… Don't tell me, they sent the Squad?"
Hiyori's shots came one after another. Unlike when she was alone, someone must have been helping her reload, because the interval between shots was impossibly fast. If Hiyori had been able to snipe at that level when I fought the Squad, I would have had a much harder time.
Neru, who had nearly been knocked senseless by the first shot, must have instinctively felt the danger of taking another, because she scrambled to get out of the line of fire.
Thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump—
The sound of an approaching helicopter beat against my eardrums. A helicopter stopped behind Neru, and ropes were thrown down. A number of Prefect Team members began to rappel down.
When I recognized two of them, I had to genuinely fight the urge to grab my head and curl into a ball. Hina and Iori had personally led the Prefect Team all the way to Millennium.
Hina glanced at me, her expression suddenly turning cold as she aimed her machine gun at Neru.
And then,
"It would be wise to surrender. Depending on your choice now, Millennium could find itself in a little trouble… or a great deal of it."
This time, a voice that was familiar yet, in this moment, the most terrifying, came from behind me. It was a welcome voice, but unwelcome at the same time. The place and the situation made it so.
"Hello, Mika-san."
"Nagi-chan…"
"It seems you're in need of a stern scolding for this incident. What do you think?"
Flanked by the fully armed Saori, Misaki, and Atsuko, Nagisa appeared before me, a smile on her face that didn't match the coldness in her eyes.
But… in this situation, shouldn't Nagisa be the one getting scolded, not me? Why do I feel so wronged?