C-Rank Ranked Match — 1 Vs 12

Ouran, leader of Reiwa Kunoichi, hauled herself up onto the harbor and stared at the factory where the enemy Sniper, Shiki, had gone to ground.

“We’ve taken Shiina down. All that’s left now is the small fry.”

Beside Ouran stood her teammate, Akane.

“Let us crush them in a flash, that we shall!”

“…Haah.”

“Hm? And wherefore dost thou sigh?”

“Akane… that stuffy old samurai way you talk — it’s mortifying. How many times have I told you to drop it…”

“Ran, this really isn’t the time for that.”

Aoi, their Sniper, spoke over the comm.

“This is the talent Shiina herself scouted onto her team. Going easy on her is a no-go.”

“True enough.”

Even as she agreed, Ouran was in fact letting her guard down. If she hadn’t been underestimating the girl, she’d hardly be lazily scolding a teammate over her manner of speech at a moment like this.

Honestly, though, I figure that one’s just there to round out the numbers.

The vacant, dopey look Shiki had worn the instant Shiina went down still lingered in Ouran’s mind.

“…Anyway. Let’s just hurry up and crush her. Move out, Akane.”

“As thou commandest, that I shall!”

“Ao, whereabouts is she right now?”

“Inside the factory—”

Gunshots cracked from the factory right in front of them, cutting her off. Twice.

“What the—? Who did she shoot?”

The next instant, Aoi’s icon vanished from the map.

“Ao?! What happened?!”

“…Shot from right under my feet, out of nowhere…!”

Aoi’s voice came from the Operator Room.

Ao was up on top of the factory two buildings back from the one in front of us. Which means the shooter punched through several walls and a ceiling to reach her. But a normal laser-type sniper rifle loses power with every wall it passes through — by the time it reached its target, Aoi, it should no longer have had the punch to zero out her durability…

That was why Shiki had fired twice. The first shot bored a hole through every obstacle in the way; the second she threaded through that hole, driving clean through her target with no loss of power. The two shots came less than half a second apart, which was not something a person could normally pull off.

How in the world did she get Ao— No. Figure that out later.

The last of Ouran’s complacency drained away. She understood clearly now: the enemy Sniper was formidable.

“Close the distance, fast! Stay far off and you’re playing right into her hands!”

“Understood, that I shall!!”

“Tch!!”

The two of them charged into the factory. And then…

““Wha…?!””

Rows of workbenches filled the factory floor. The Sniper they’d been hunting, Shiki, stood atop the one dead in the center of the room.

“H-hello there~… ehehe.”

She gave them an easygoing greeting, an awkward little smile on her face. Why she’d chosen to stand somewhere so conspicuous, they had no idea.

Either way, the two of them leveled their assault rifles and tightened their fingers on the triggers…

“?!”

Just as they moved to attack, the two of them were shot from behind, out of nowhere.

Another enemy?! No — I’m wrong!!

She spun around. There they were: six Bullet Pieces.

So she looped the Bullet Pieces in through the entrance on the far side to take our backs?! Or else she’d had them hidden in the building’s shadow the whole time… Standing somewhere so obvious was to pull all our attention onto herself…!

The Bullet Pieces didn’t hit all that hard, though. Her thinly armored right ankle was destroyed, but the rest of her came through fine. The same went for Akane.

The two of them snapped their attention back to Shiki, but too late. She had already drawn her Saber back for the swing.

At this range?! No way…!!

Ouran ducked; Akane leapt straight forward. There was no time to stop her. Shiki kicked the Saber into High-Output Mode and swung. The extended blade sheared clean through Akane’s torso, twelve meters out.

“A Saber that stretches this far…?!”

Just as I thought — a full-Expandability Saber!! I’d seen it once before, so I could just barely react!

Akane was shot down. Ouran lifted her head and instantly poured assault-rifle fire onto Shiki.

Shiki grinned and came at her, slipping the fire with a Slide Step as she advanced.

A Sniper, closing in on me herself?! And that evasion — she’s good at it!!

“Bullet Piece.”

Shiki scattered the Bullet Pieces out to either side and sent them flying. They halted to Ouran’s left, to her right, and at her back, five meters out.

“Guh…?!”

With her right hand, Shiki opened up on her with rapid assault-rifle fire.

“Tch!!”

She’d just take one Bullet Piece hit, then. Ouran made the call, planted her feet, and sealed off every direction with her Shield Pieces.

Like a turtle pulled into its shell. With her now-free left hand, Shiki drew the G-AGE and fired. Braced against every angle, Ouran caught the round on a Shield Piece, mechanical, reflexive. Why Shiki would fire a live round at a moment like this, there was no time to wonder.

— Krsh!! The Shield Piece shattered, and the round drove clean through the dead center of her chest.

I never got a single chance to make a move…!

From the moment the Bullet Pieces took her back to this very instant, Ouran hadn’t had time to so much as think straight. One unorthodox trick after another had driven her onto the back foot again and again, shaving her margin thinner and thinner, until she had no room left to spare for the aberration of an attack with a live round.

“…Well played… I’m beaten. Completely.”

Reiwa Kunoichi, defeated.

Shiki went through the items Reiwa Kunoichi had dropped.

As assassination specialists, Reiwa Kunoichi had apparently made a point of stockpiling Smoke Grenades to blind their marks. Shiki eyed the haul and grinned.

“…Nice.”

Shiki included, ten Space Girls remained in this shipyard.

The rest moved in three-player teams, and all three were maneuvering to ring the factory she was holed up in. Their target was Shiki.

Why was she the one being hunted? Because she’d picked out all three teams with Radar Shooting. Every shot had been blocked by their Shield Pieces, but no team was about to relax against a Sniper who kept punching through walls and roofs to reach them. A lone piece, easy to bring down and yet a terror all the same. There was no way anyone would leave her be.

One team took position at the factory’s east entrance, another at the west, a third near the windows on the north side. Once Shiki had each team’s placement confirmed on her radar, she opened up on all three at once with her assault rifle and Bullet Pieces.

Wall-piercing fire rained down on all three teams, but every one of them guarded with their Shield Pieces and pushed inside.

But then…

“Wh-what in the world is this?! What’s going on?!”

The shout came from one of the Space Girls who had stormed inside.

The entire inside of the factory was choked with white smoke.