"Sorry about this, chief." Daisuko picks up Kanano's sniper rifle from her unconscious body. Not like she can really protest, but she still feels compelled to apologize.
"Daisuko, how are you holding up?" Oka wipes the blood from her hands on a nearby towel. She's managed to mostly stop both Nanako and Nakano's bleeding but they're still a hair's breadth from death.
"I'm fine but I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not sure we're walking away from this one alive."
"We just need to survive." Oka nods to herself. "Just keep holding out until Shosuko and the others arrive."
As if on cue, a gigantic pink energy bolt hurtles towards the public bathroom they're taking refuge in. It detonates, carving a gigantic crater in the concrete. It's not enough to completely bust through the improvised bunker, but it's only a matter of time before more arrive.
"Tsk. We need to run." Oka rolls her shoulders.
"Right." Daisuko dusts herself off as she stands. "Where to?"
"We need to get out of Midori-Ward. Coming here was a mistake. She's already burned through our garrison."
"Damn her. So many of our girls..."
"We'll compensate them later. For now, we need to get out of here. I'll go to Shiro, you go to Aka."
"You want to split up?"
"At least this way, one of us will survive."
"Given up already, I see." Daisuko chuckles as she stares at the ground.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing. It's just so like you to try and heroically sacrifice yourself like that, Oka."
"...Hmph." She smiles. "What gave it away?"
"I dunno. I just had a feeling."
"It's the least I can do for both you and mom." Oka's expression turns dead serious. "You took me in when no one else would. I know that I can never truly repay the debt I owe, but–"
"Could you do me a favor and like, shut the fuck up?"
"...What–"
"Enough about your debt this, your debt that. Fuck that shit. Do something you want for once in your life. You owe yourself that much."
"Daisuko…"
"So what is it? What do you want to do?"
"What do I want…?" Oka looks up at the ceiling. "Hmmm… if you don't mind, I'd prefer to die fighting."
"Yeesh, when did you become such a romantic? Still, it's not like I hate that side of you." Daisuko nods. "Sure, why the hell not?"
"Heh. Ever chipper, huh?"
"Sure am." Daisuko reloads both of her pistols, mostly to hide the fact that her hands are shaking. "Now let's get this shit over with."
Daisuko steps out into the empty street. There's destruction all around her– fresh scars from their battle with the I-C. An amalgamation of fire, rubble and smoke litters her surroundings. Standing opposite her, unmoving, watching, waiting, is the pink-haired I-C.
"Yo." Daisuko nods her head at the I-C. "What's your real name?"
"Why should I tell you?" Her demeanor is entirely different from how it was earlier. She's more confident now, more self-assured, almost to the point of mania.
"Pretty please?"
"Amanda is fine. It's not my real name but that's what you can call me." The I-C smiles. "And you?"
"Yor."
"Is that a first name or a last name?"
"Yor mom."
Amanda doesn't smile. "That joke doesn't even work in Japanese."
"It is kind of weird how we're speaking English even though we're in an explicitly Japanese setting but whatever. I had to distract you somehow."
On cue, Oka jumps out from the shadows and before Amanda can react, stabs her in the heart with a letter opener. She drives it in deep.
"Not bad." But Amanda doesn't so much as flinch.
"Shit–!" Oka tries to back away but Amanda's faster. She brings up her bow and fires off a bolt that pierces right through Oka's stomach and pins her against a nearby building. A waterfall of blood trickles out from her abdomen.
While Amanda's distracted with Oka, Daisuko draws her pistols and fires a few shots into her head. The first bullet connects, knocking off her mask but the other bullets simply glance off.
"What the–" Daisuko can't help but flinch seeing an I-C's true form.
With mechanical efficiency, Amanda lets loose two bolts from her bow. They fly straight, true, and too fast for Daisuko to react. They sever both her hands at her wrists.
"Ah…" Her eyes wander over to where Oka's pinned against the wall before meandering downwards to the ground where her hands lie. It suddenly becomes apparent to Daisuko that she's about to die. It's strange. She doesn't feel afraid. She tried her best and she didn't succeed. It's okay. It's just a part of life. She can accept that. But for Oka to die here. Pinned to that wall, like a butterfly in a picture frame. That, she can't accept.
"Now to finish you off…" Amanda, or the thing that was Amanda, aims her bow at Oka and fires two shots at her head. But before the bolts can make contact with Oka's skull, Daisuko intercepts. Not with bullets, with her body. She hurls herself with every fiber of her being into the line of fire. The first bolt pierces her left lung. The second pierces her stomach. Both pin her to the wall. She can't breathe. She feels all the heat drain from her body.
"This… this sucks." Daisuko coughs up a mouthful of blood.
"Well… we tried." Oka's voice is understandably weak. "Ha… ha…"
Amanda's looming shadow approaches. She raises her bow, and two magical bolts appear, aimed for Daisuko's and Oka's heads.
"Any last words?"
"Look behind you?" Daisuko uses up the last of her breath.
"Nice try."
Daisuko smiles right as a chainsaw blade comes from behind and cuts across her eyes, taking the top of her head off.
Strangely, Amanda doesn't miss a beat. She delivers a swift back kick to push away her attacker. "Oe?! What are you–?!"
"Sorry about this, Amanda." A monstrous mechanical figure that only vaguely resembles Oe stands behind Amanda. Her porcelain face has a chainsaw blade protruding between the eyes. The same goes for both her arms. They bite into her metal flesh with every rev but it self-repairs faster than they can cut through it.
「Oe Tenma」- Renegade
"How mean..." Amanda reaches down, picks up the top half of her head, and slots it back into place. Her self-repair mechanisms make it as if nothing even happened. Steam hisses from her back as two extra arms sprout from two sockets. There's a flash of light and another bow appears in her hands. She splits both of her bows in half, forming four improvised blunt sabers. "You're really going to betray the ICMG?"
"It's just not in my blood to play by the rules. I already told you. I want power. Now that you don't have any to offer me, I no longer need the ICMG."
"Just so you know, I won't forgive you."
"Of course not. You would be a fool to." Oe makes the first move, dashing forwards, arm-saws swinging outside to inside like jaws clamping down. Amanda calmly extends two of her sabers to deflect the two chainsaw blades before lunging forwards and stabbing her remaining sabers at Oe's chest, going straight for her gem. With a wild twist of her neck, Oe quickly deflects the blows with her head blade. She follows it up with a kick directly to Amanda's chest, pushing her backwards, breaking up the melee.
"Hmmm?" Oe chuckles darkly. "Looks like little Amanda found her resolve to kill."
"If it's for Amaru's sake, I'll do anything."
"I like that overconfidence. Keep it up."
Amanda jumps backwards and begins running along the side of a building. She forms her four sabers back into two bows, firing bolt after bolt at her enemy. Oe gives chase, carving through the magic arrows with her chainsaws, splitting whatever she can in half and deflecting the rest. Whenever one of her chainsaws breaks, a new one simply bursts out of her arm.
Her recklessness is rewarded with a fast track straight to Amanda. She tries to split up her bows into sabers again but Oe is quicker. She slashes wide, ripping off both of her right arms. In response, Amanda conjures an extra large bolt and fires it point-blank into Oe's chest, forcing her to defend with her arm. It blows it clean off. Three arms in total fall from the sky and clatter onto the ground.
Amanda is relentless, loosing another arrow. Revving her chainsaw teeth and gritting her teeth-teeth, Oe moves her other arm to intercept, getting it blown off in the process. But she doesn't flinch for even an instant.
"YOU'RE IN MY RANGE, DUMBASS!" A chainsaw sprouts from the sole of her foot and she stabs it at Amanda's chest. She tries to break away but it's too late, she's forced to defend with one of her two remaining arms, getting it cut off in the process. "DIE, DIE, DIE!!!" Oe drives her leg into the wall and uses it as a pivot to deliver a roundhouse, severing both of Amanda's legs.
"I'm not done yet!" Amanda uses her teeth and her final arm to split the bow in half. With the saber, she slashes at Oe's extended leg, severing it off from the thigh.
Both combatants are reduced to a single limb attached to a torso. They fall from the side of the building like broken toys before clattering onto the ground. Oe drags her body to one of her severed legs and reattaches it to her body. Amanda does the same with her own leg. Oe scrambles for her other arm. Amanda scrambles for her other leg. Oe scrambles for her final limb while Amanda reattaches her three arms in quick succession. They both stand back up, all traces of the battle prior having been almost completely erased.
"Whoof. I can do this all day." Oe criss-crosses her feet, light and fast on her toes while Amanda flexes her four arms, tremendous firepower at their fingertips.
"Enough." There's the sound of a distant gunshot. Oe has half a mind to raise her arm in front of her chest just in time for a killshot to shatter the saw blade.
Amanda whirls around to the source of the gunshot. "Amaru!"
Sure as the sky is blue, a mechanical Amaru stands at the top of a nearby building. She too has shed her disguise and revealed her true form. Both of her arms now end in an enormous bundle of gun barrels. Ammo belts hang from their sides and pool onto the ground. She levels her guns at Oe before firing them all at once. Bullets of all shapes and sizes rain down on her, rending her metallic form, tearing through her defenses faster than she can self-repair, and just barely stopping short of shattering her gem. When the fusillade comes to a close, Oe is no more than a single unblemished gem surrounded by scrap metal fruitlessly trying to pull itself back together.
"Not… my day…" Oe collapses, incapacitated, and that's it. The Kuze Clan falls. For maybe two seconds. Then it's time for round two.
"Hey."
Someone taps Amaru on the shoulder. She turns around and is immediately met with an absolutely skull-shattering punch, sending her flying off the side of the building and crashing onto the street below. A car is crushed under the weight of several dozen guns and one I-C's frame.
"Ugh…" Amaru shakes her broken sunglasses off of her face.
"You okay?" Amanda runs up next to Amaru.
"I think so." As she says that, an entire section of her face falls off. "Bastard."
"Hey!"
Both their heads turn to the rooftop Amaru was just punched off to see two magical girls. One with a bat, and one cracking her knuckles. The sun's angle casts them in a heroic light. The cavalry's arrived.
"Looks like Isaka didn't quite make it." Amaru shakes the rubble out of her hair.
"I mean, did you expect anything else from Ryukko and Isaka?" Amanda conjures two of her bolts and nocks them into her bows.
"Typical." She rolls her shoulders, the immense mass of guns attached to her arms cock in sync.