Chapter 38 - Blitz II

Daisuko watches a car speed down the street at full acceleration from the comfort of a nearby rooftop. She checks her phone. They're two minutes behind Oka's schedule but that's acceptable. Maybe Kanano got held up in the restroom or something. Regardless, everything is progressing as planned.

"How boring…" Daisuko pouts as she pulls out a detonator. Without another thought, she takes off the safety and flips the switch. The C-4 charges she planted in the middle of the road go off, blossoming into a single rapidly expanding ball of pressure. The car is tossed into the air as it runs headfirst into the explosion before crashing back down on its back, like a dying insect. Somebody screams, then all the civilians go running.

"Well, that explosion was kinda fun at least." Daisuko smirks as she jumps from her hiding spot down onto the street. She draws both of her handguns while approaching the wreck.

"Heeeeere's DAISUKO!" She squats down and jabs her gun at the driver's seat.

"...Eh?" But instead of Kanano, she finds someone she doesn't recognize. Just some girl wearing Blackadder colors. She's unconscious, but still breathing. For a moment, Daisuko contemplates putting her out of her misery before deciding that Shosuko would probably get mad at her and dismissing the thought. More pressingly…

"Where the hell did you go, Kanano…?" Daisuko doesn't really expect an answer. But an answer she receives anyway.

"RIGHT HERE, MOTHERFUCKER!!!" A walkie talkie that Daisuko didn't notice was tucked into the girl's front pocket suddenly speaks. And before Daisuko can put two and two together, she hears a gunshot in the distance.

Daisuko tries to get to cover but a horrible, chilling pain erupts in her stomach. She's been shot. "AGH–!" Barely conscious from the pain, she cross-references where the bullet hit the ground along with where the bullet hit her to calculate the approximate location of the shooter. She's fairly certain that the sniper's behind her so she cleanly vaults over the car and uses it as cover.

Daisuko winces as she tears off a part of her beloved coat and uses it as a makeshift bandage for her wound. It doesn't look good. She's only got enough blood left to use… about one Jutsu. Maybe two but she doesn't want to risk it. At the very least, she's staunched the wound, she won't be losing consciousness anytime soon.

"Clever, clever Kanano," She mutters.

"THANK YOU!" The walkie talkie pipes up.

"Jesus… that thing's still on?" Daisuko fishes it out of the unconscious girl's pocket and lifts it to her mouth. "Kanano Masazumi?"

"DAISUKO KUZE. IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!"

"Yeah, yeah. I wish I could say the same." Daisuko winces as another pang ripples through her body. "It seems you've ambushed the ambusher. How'd that happen, huh?"

"GOT LUCKY. WENT TO BATHROOM. DELAY ALLOWED ME TO BE INFORMED OF MY SISTER'S CAPTURE. LOGIC DICTATES I WAS NEXT. HENCE WAS PREPARED FOR TRAP."

"Fucking knew it." Daisukot takes out a coin from her pocket. "You enjoy that piss? Little– little pee pee baby? Li'l piss baby?"

"YOU'RE JUST MAD CAUSE YOU GOT SHOT."

"Your mom got shot."

"NO, YOUR MOM GOT SHOT."

"Fuck you and your mom."

"SHUT UP BITCH! I'LL FUCK YOUR MOM."

"Fuck you and your mom, bitch."

"COPE."

"Seethe."

"DON'T CARE."

"Didn't ask."

"CRY ABOUT IT."

"Stay mad."

"GET REAL."

"Ratio."

"STAY PRESSED."

"Ratio again."

"SKILL ISSUE."

"Final Ratio."

"GO AHEAD AND WHINE ABOUT IT."

"Your problem."

"SEX DEFENDER."

"Ad Hominem."

"DONOWALLED."

"Cringe."

"NERD."

"Fuck you."

"FUCK YOU."

"No, fuck you."

"NO, FUCK YOU!"

"Bitch."

"BITCHLESS."

"Your mom's a bitch."

"NO, YOUR MOM'S A BITCH."

"Tsk." Daisuko has to resist the urge to smash the walkie talkie. Not because the insults are getting to her, but because she's run out of the mental energy required to continue the war and thus automatically loses. Well, whatever.

Daisuko takes stock. She's caught in the open, she has only the vaguest of ideas as to where Kanano is, and she's been shot. Great. Fantastic. Just peachy. But she'll have to make it work. Oka's probably already beaten Nakano and Shosuko's probably already beaten Nanako, Daisuko isn't about to be the one who falls behind.

"Hey, Kanano. Heads or tails?"

"WHAT?"

"Heads or tails?" Daisuko produces a ten yen coin from her pocket and flips it. She makes sure that the apex of the coin's arc peeks out over her cover.

"...TAILS."

Daisuko catches the coin. "Wrong, it's heads."

"..."

"Hey, Kanano. Heads or Tails?" She flips the coin again.

"HEADS."

Daisuko catches the coin again. "Wrong, it's tails."

"WHAT ARE YOU GETTING AT?"

"Hey, Kanano. Heads or tail–"

A bullet intercepts the coin as it reaches the apex of its arc. A miniscule rain of sparks fall onto Daisuko. "Oh? Did you realize it?"

"YOU WERE PLANNING TO SURPRISE ME BY SUBSTITUTING THE COIN WITH YOUR OWN BODY, WEREN'T YOU?"

"Heh. Looks like you're sharper than you look. Still, you're too late. I've got you in checkmate, bozo."

"...?"

"Let me ask you a different question. How many coins can you shoot down in a single second?" Daisuko throws a fistful of ten yen coins into the air. Every single one of them is a potential teleportation point for Daisuko.

It takes Kanano a moment to register what's happening. There are just too many coins to shoot down. But still, she has to try. "「JUJUTSU - BARRAGE!」" Her arms move like clockwork, sending the scope zig-zagging from one coin to the next. Bullets rain down like hellfire, fracturing the 'smokescreen' of metal, one bullet at a time. But with every shot, the coins only fragment into smaller pieces.

"It's over." Daisuko doesn't even bother using her substitution. She simply pops her gun arm over the side of the car and whispers under her breath. "「Jujutsu - Cold Star」" The sound of a single gunshot echoes through the empty street. Then, there's only silence.

"Haa… Haa… Haa…" Daisuko swallows her saliva. Based on where the sniper shots were coming from, she triangulates that Kanano's camped out at a nearby building's third-floor parking lot. She starts limping. One painstakingly slow step at a time, she makes her way through the street, drawing uneasy stares all the while. Daisuko eventually finds herself at the foot of the building. She concentrates all her strength at her legs, and leaps all the way to the third floor.

Kanano's body lies on the ground. Her arms and legs limp. Spinal cord shot. Eyes and mouth wide open. Capacity to call her mom a bitch, neutralized. She's paralyzed, but she should be up and running again in an hour or two. She raises both of her guns and aims them at Kanano's head. Kanano's eyes start to dart to and fro. Daisuko smiles to herself, drinking up as much of her panic as her sadism allows. As happy as she would be to finish her off right here, Shosuko's orders were clear. They need Kanano as a hostage, so she puts the guns down.

"I wonder how Shosuko's doing…" She mutters to herself idly as she pokes at Kanano's paralyzed body.