The first rank of muskets fire before retreating behind the second rank of muskets which fire before retreating behind the third rank and so on, creating a swarm of bullets rushing straight for the four. Shosuko stomps on the street, causing a rift of asphalt and soil to rise up, creating a barrier to hide behind while Kasai yells out
"「Iaijutsu! - Thousand Cuts!」" She slashes faster than the eye can see. Though she appears to remain stationary, flashes of steel flicker all around her as she deflects the fusillade of musket balls. But she can only keep it up for so long. The constant use of Jutsu from the past few days has drained her blood supply nearly dry. Same goes for Nakasuko.
"「Jujutsu - Tiro Destruction」" Tami raises her hand, manifesting two giant cannons with barrels as wide as a man is tall. As she lowers her hand, the flintlock mechanisms fire, propelling two gigantic boulder-sized shots at the four girls.
The ball munition cleanly smashes through Shosuko's and Kasai's hastily thrown together defense, forcing them to jump out of the way .
Th–this power! Shosuko stares incredulously at Tami.
"There's something different about Tami." Kasai's looking increasingly pale by the second. "The smell of her magic is different."
Yuki sniffs the air. "You're right. It's like… the scent isn't coming from around her, it's coming from her."
Nakasuko's voice is barely more audible than a whisper. "She's coming."
The sounds of muskets being reloaded and Tami's footsteps fill the otherwise empty street. "Come on then." Tami grins widely. "You're not going to beat me staying on the defensive."
Kasai is the first to act. She rushes at Tami, weaving through the hail of bullets at blinding speed. Whenever she's cornered, she simply cuts a path through the barrage and moves through it. Eventually, she gets within point-blank range of the muskets.
"「Iaijutsu - Hundred Cuts!」" One by one, the guns are split down the middle by a hundred sword slashes. Then it's just her and Tami. Putting all her strength into a single slash, Kasai swings her sword upwards in a powerful draw-slash.
"Useless." Tami reaches up her sleeve and produces a musket made of a black steel. Wielding it as if it were lighter than a feather, she stops Kasai's slash with its barrel. She doesn't even look like she's trying. With a sudden burst of strength, she knocks her blade aside, conjures another musket in her offhand and then fires. Kasai just barely manages to retract her sword fast enough to block the shot but the sheer force behind the bullet overwhelms her. She's sent flying backwards. Her attack was countered. Definitively. Absolutely. But at the very least, she's cleared the way for the others to advance.
Yuki attacks next. Her rapiers whirling around her like helicopter blades, she crashes against Tami. She counters by catching her strikes with her muskets before kicking, aiming for Yuki's chest but she sees it coming and dodges to the side. As though it already happened. Tami leans backwards as Yuki slashes across her face, getting her sunglasses knocked off. But thankfully, her beautiful complexion is undamaged. She tries to strike again but Tami blocks her rapiers with her bare hand. Yuki tries to force her blades into her flesh but it's no use. All it does is distract her long enough for Tami to kick her in the stomach, pushing her backwards.
"Not bad." Tami wipes her mouth. "As expected from a former ICMG agent. Your rewind ability is formidable as usual."
"I don't want to do this, captain."
"You don't get to call me that, traitor!" Tami's voice suddenly reeks of rage but she quickly reins it in. A lady is always elegant, after all. "You've chosen your path and I've chosen mine. There's nothing left to be said between you and I."
"I guess not." Yuki rolls her shoulders.
"It's been nice chatting, but don't think I haven't been keeping an eye on your two friends."
"–!"
"RAAAAAAGH–!" Shosuko and Nakasuko jump from two buildings on opposite sides of the street before crashing down on Tami's flanks.
"Too slow!" Tami waves her offhand around her head, summoning even more muskets that swirl around her like a shell. She winks at Yuki right before unleashing a devastating salvo at the surprise attack.
Shosuko pulls her arms back, protecting her head and heart. The sheer hardness of her skin means even direct hits only half-bury themselves into her body. Still, that does nothing to diminish the sheer accumulated force of the cascade, smashing her into a nearby building.
"Shosuko!" Nakasuko's hands move at blinding speed, reflecting the bullets with her bat, sending them flying backwards, destroying the muskets that fired them.
"I'm fine!" Her voice is barely audible above Tami's blitz. "Don't worry about me!"
"You bastard!" Nakasuko yells at Tami as she sweeps the muskets aside and brings her bat down on her enemy. "I'll make you pay for that!"
"Just try it!" Tami flips her musket so that the business end is pointing towards her and the heavy stock is pointing away. Then, using it like a bat of her own, she swings it perpendicular to Nakasuko's own strike. Tami smirks.
"「Taijutsu - Special Homerun!」" Tami's smirk disappears as those words leave Nakasuko's mouth. The weight crashing down on her triples in strength, shattering her musket. With nothing in its way, the bat slams into her head. There's a thud but no crunch. Trembling from a mixture of fighting back against the force of the bat and barely restrained rage, Tami raises her head back up and stares Nakasuko in the eyes. "You."
"Me."
"It's so nice to see you again, Nakasuko. But I must ask, why have you so boldly chosen to side with the yakuza you so hated?"
"My convictions have not changed. But I refuse to believe that simply killing all yakuza is the solution."
"And what alternative do you offer?"
"Don't pretend like that still matters to you. All you want is your revenge."
"...Hmph." Tami grins. "So what?"
"I'm the dullest tool in the shed but I know this because I've just been there before." Nakasuko stares back at Tami. "Whatever peace you're looking for, you won't find it through killing. Sometimes… All you need is someone to share the burden with. Sometimes that's enough." Nakasuko finds her eyes drifting towards where Kasai's limping towards them. Her face is so pale. She should have collapsed from blood loss hours ago but she's still going. Running on sheer determination to save her sister and her friend.
"You would betray your convictions because of something so simple? Have you already forgotten that she's also yakuza? You should know better than to trust her."
"It's because of her I can trust the yakuza. It's because I now know for a fact that not all of them are like my sisters. I'm not abandoning anything, I still want to eradicate the yakuza. But I don't want to hurt the people in it anymore."
"Enough." Tami pushes Nakasuko backwards with a decisive shot from her other musket. She just barely manages to deflect it with her bat. "There's nothing more you can say that can dissuade me from my goal. I will grind the yakuza down until you all are less than dust!"
Tami waves her hand, conducting the muskets such that they break off into three squadrons, one for Kasai, one for Shosuko, and one for Yuki. All three of whom are now too busy fending off the bullets to help Nakasuko.
"「Jujutsu! - Tiro Obliteration!」" A humongous cannon the size of an entire building storey appears in front of Tami. Its mechanisms creak under its own sheer weight. "Disappear!"
All the fury of the sun combined with the sonorous toll of death's bell. That is the insurmountable mountain-like bullet that Nakasuko is faced with. Just looking at it, she knows. She knows that there's nothing left to be done. It's over. It's tempting to just drop the bat, sit down, and let the living star consume her. But it's even more tempting to go out fighting.
"「Taijutsu! - Special Homerun!」" There's a clang as the comparatively tiny metal bat clangs against the bullet. This must be how it feels to be hit by a speeding train. This must be how it feels to be an ant crushed underfoot. This must be what it feels like to carry the sky on your shoulders. There's no contest. The difference in strength is just too great. As she thought. There's nothing to be done.
"NAKASUKO!" Kasai's voice snaps her out of her trance. "JUST HOLD ON! I'M ALMOST THERE!"
She is very much not 'almost there'. She's struggling to just remain standing, much less actually fight back against the muskets firing at her. All she can do is deflect. But even then, the sheer determination on her face to save her friend, maybe her only one, wills Nakasuko to keep on fighting.
That's right. She just remembered what Kasai said. 'I'm not going to run away anymore.' So if she isn't, then why is she? Is she going to leave Shosuko without a sister? Of course not. Is she going to leave Kasai missing a friend? Of course not! Is she going to let the yakuza system be destroyed by someone else? Of fucking course not! This is her fucking battle. All these other posers can stay in their fucking lane!
"「Taijutsu…!」"
She plants her leg firmly on the ground before doubling her strength. Nakasuko pours every single ounce of power, every single ounce of blood she has left in her body from her head to the tip of her toes into her swing.
"「...Ultimate Homerun!」"
Her bat begins to glow with an almost godlike power. Nakasuko feels her heart beating out of her chest. Not out of fear, but rather because she can hear them. The heartbeats of all the people precious to her blare in her ears. With that kind of power behind her, something as tiny as this bullet is nothing. She halts the bullet before sending it flying into the sky. A true to form home-run.
But that's all she can do. She takes one step. Then another. And one more before she collapses from blood loss. Her heart still keeps on pumping like there's anything left to pump. She doesn't even realize she's alive until the creeping chill overtakes her.
"How meaningless." Tami dispels the discharged cannon and conjures another one. "「Jujutsu - Tiro Obliteration」" She aims it downwards at Nakasuko's almost-corpse.
"Waaaaait!" A familiar face framed by blue hair jumps down from a nearby building and interposes herself between Tami and Nakasuko.
"I…sa…ka?" Nakasuko manages to gather enough strength to say her name.
"The one and only magical girl of justice!" She's without most of her skin or innards– barely more than a stick figure made of rebar.
"I… tho…ught–"
"We kind of just snuck off in the confusion. You should have seen Jet's face though, she gets real red when she's mad."
"What… hap…pened?"
"Later. For now…" Isaka splays her arms and legs outwards, protecting Nakasuko from the cannon. "I have a bad guy to stop!"
"Get out of my way, Isaka."
"Nope! I heard what you said and I won't stand for it! The magical girl of justice, Isaka, refuses to let you kill a human being!"
"I said get out!" Tami waves her hand and a hundred muskets surround Isaka, each and every single one of them pointed at her. "I won't hesitate to kill you too!"
"Would Nagisa have wanted this?"
"This isn't about Nagisa! I know that Nagisa wouldn't have wanted this but how else am I supposed to find peace?!"
"..."
"I couldn't protect her, Isaka! Don't you get it?! I failed! As a sister. As your captain. As a bringer of justice. I've already made so many mistakes… so many things I can't ever take back. I'm… I'm not like you. I'm weak. I'm unsightly. I'm awful. At least… Let me have this. Just this one selfish act."
"Tami…"
"Is it so wrong? Am I so selfish? To want a tiny peace for myself?"
The muskets stop firing. One by one, they disappear.
"This isn't the only way."
Isaka starts walking towards Tami… "What are you–" …And wraps her in a tremendous bear hug. She flinches away at first but Isaka is relentless, breaking down the walls around her heart with sheer force.
"Let's go, Tami."
"Where?"
"Away from here. I know the perfect place where we can hide out and relax for a while until all this heat blows over."
"Where?"
"It's a secret."
"..." Tami looks into the holes Isaka has for eyes.
"Everyone's waiting.""
"Wherever you go, chief, we will follow." Ryukko, or what's left of Ryukko shambles out of a nearby alleyway and places her hand on Tami's shoulder. "Sorry I'm late, by the way."
Amaru and Amanda approach from further down the road. "Your orders, captain?"
"Yeah the whole revenge thing is usually kind of bad for you." Amanda states the obvious.
"Everyone…" Tami sighs.
"Let's go somewhere. To a future where everyone can smile."
"...Fine. I hate changing my mind. But I'll put my trust in you, just this once, Isaka."
"Yesss." Isaka pumps her fist into the air. "Alright, let's go. Preferably before the ICMG gets here."
Tami looks at Nakasuko one last time before jumping onto a nearby rooftop. Amanda, Amaru, and Ryukko follow. But Isaka stays behind.
"Justice saves the day once again."
"Wh…y?" Nakasuko manages to gather enough strength to ask that one question.
"Hm?"
"Why? Why… help… us?"
"Don't get me wrong. I dislike you yakuza types. You go against everything justice stands for. If I was in Tami's position, I'd purge you all from this city in an instant. But bloodshed for the sake of justice isn't justice, that's just hate. And there's nothing I dislike more than hate."
"..."
"Ciao!" Isaka jumps onto a nearby rooftop and the I-C's vanish.