Harue’s phone rang. It was such an incongruous thing to happen in this moment that James glanced away from the cars they were chasing and looked over at the kitsune. He saw her annoyed expression as she looked down at the ringing phone. He saw it flash over into something that looked like fear.

  “Yes,” Harue said into the phone. “Yes,” she said again. Then she looked at James.

  “It’s for you,” she said.

  The van lurched under James’s feet as it accelerated past traffic.

  “This isn’t a good time,” James said. “Can’t I call them back?”

  “You need to take this call,” Harue growled, and, for the first time, James saw her transform.

  She’d always done it when he wasn’t looking before. She’d slipped through the transitions so smoothly that he’d begun to believe that it was part of the magic that let her change forms. This time, however, he was looking right at her as she held out the phone. He saw her fox ears sprout through her hair, saw the fire suddenly burning in her eyes.

  Saw her long fangs as she bared them at him.

  “It's important,” she insisted.

  “Okay, okay,” James said, taking the phone. “Hello? Who is this?”

  “This is Kuzahana Kaede,” a woman purred into his ear, and suddenly, her voice was the only thing that mattered to James.

  He could hear the shouts of the others in the van with him. He could see the SUVs ahead making their getaway. He could feel the acceleration smash him sideways as their vehicle took the turn-off too quickly. But he couldn’t react to any of it, because none of that mattered. Only Kaede did.

  He would have fallen if Harue hadn’t braced him, seemingly aware of his problem. Dimly, he was able to make a connection between her and the woman who was talking to him. They shared a family name.

  “I’m the guji of the Hanamatsu Hachiman Shrine,” the woman continued, and James hung on to her every word. “Harue-chan refers to me as her Eldest Sister.”

  “I see,” James said, entirely on autopilot.

  “Harue-chan has told me so much about you and your little quest,” she told him.

  “She has?”

  James wanted to ask what Harue had said, but he didn’t—couldn’t—want to interrupt. Anyway, something told him that Kaede wasn’t the sort of person you could hold back things from.

  “Yes…” Kaede drew out the word in a way that sent shivers all the way down his spine. “And her quaint little stories have inspired me to help you out.”

  “They have?”

  Part of James was struggling, trying to come up with more than the stupefied responses he was managing.

  “Of course, it wouldn’t do to hand out… benefits without making sure that you deserve them.”

  “Um… what sort of—” James stammered. Kaede kept talking over him.

  “So I’ve asked Harue-chan to arrange a quick trip for you and your friends. I can meet you all and see for myself just what kind of hero you’re going to be. You will come, of course.”

  “Of course,” James fervently agreed. “When would—”

  “Harue-chan will find a convenient time,” Kaede cut him off. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt your studies.”

  “Right, of course, I—” but the line had gone dead. James returned to normal functioning, just as the van screeched to a halt.

  “Well, now everything is ruined forever,” Harue declared as she took back her phone. She’d changed back into human form. Sebastian and Matsuri, focused on the road ahead, probably hadn’t even noticed she’d changed.

  “What are you talking about?” Sebasitan asked. “We’ve tracked them down to their lair!”

  He pointed ahead of them to the high wall bearing the logo of Kotodama Heavy Industries.

  “They drove into that compound, and the satellite doesn’t show any other roads out,” he said. “They’re trapped!”

  James glanced back. Shion had noticed the change, based on how she was gaping at Harue.

  “Are they trapped, or have they merely found a defensible position?” Mitsue asked.

  “That doesn’t matter, does it?” Sebastian suggested hopefully. “Now that they’re not moving, we can call in the police and let them take care of the kidnapping.”

  “That would be unwise,” Mitsue told him. “KIH has several short or vertical take-off flying vehicles in their catalogue. Even if one of them is not present on this site, waiting for the police would allow them to bring one in. We should not allow them a chance to take the initiative.”

  “Yeah!” Shion declared. “Let’s drive this heap straight through the gate and come in fighting!”

  “I’d really rather not,” Sebastian said. “I’m not sure if the insurance will cover deliberate damage.”

  “Initiative, right,” Harue said. “Look, I’ll go in and take care of the cameras and whatever while you guys figure out how to get inside. I’ll join up with you when you make it in.”

  For just a second, James contemplated asking Harue to just ghost in and bring Junko out. As far as he was aware of her powers, she couldn’t make Junko invisible or have her pass through walls. But there was a lot she could do.

  Then he thought about the last time they had rescued Junko, and the trauma that Harue had been very pleased to visit on the girl. He thought about what she might get up to with no supervision.

  “Wait for us then,” he said quickly, “Don’t go after Junko yourself.”

  “Rodger-dodger,” Harue said, giving him something that might have been a salute. Then she disappeared.

  “Let me see the map,” Mitsue said, pushing past a gaping Sebastian. “I’ll try and find the best entry point.”

  Kana walked forward and stared out of the front window.

  “If we move from our present position,” she said, “Then they will have the opportunity to simply leave.”

  “I think we’re back far enough that they can’t see us,” Sebastian said. “I hope we are, anyway,” he muttered more quietly.

  Kana ignored him. “Therefore, our best entry point is the front gate. If we cannot take this vehicle, we can proceed on foot.”

  “Can you, for once,” Mitsue asked, exasperated, “not take the most simple and direct route?”

  Kana thought about it.

  “No,” she answered, and exited the van.

  “Wait, wait!” James called out. “We want to at least wait for Harue to take care of the cameras.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Kana paused. “That is true,” she acknowledged. She looked back at the gate, more than two hundred yards away. “I will walk slowly.”

  “Crazy,” Shion chuckled. “I like it. That’s how you get things done. She jumped out of the van and joined Kana in walking slowly towards the front gate.

  James shook his head. “Mitsue, can you do something… subtle, while we do something… not? Someone has to find Junko, and I’d rather it wasn’t Harue.”

  “I can,” Mitsue said evenly. “However, if I know Harue, she will be drawn to the fighting once it starts.”

  “All the more reason for someone to be looking,” James pointed out. “Wait here until… I guess Kana is going to tear the gate down.”

  As it turned out, she kicked it open. With a single blow, the metal warped and twisted out of the locking mechanism, leaving them free to swing open. Kana just sniffed and moved on.

  James thought to look into the guardhouse. It was more than just a hut; it was an entire building built flush with the outer wall. The front of it was a guard post, but there were rooms behind it.

  There was a guard tied up in his chair, gagged with a ragged bit of brightly coloured cloth. His eyes bulged as he shouted something unintelligible at James.

  “Oh, hey, you’re early!” Harue said brightly, popping up from the room behind the guard.

  Before James could respond, there was a muffled crump from behind her. Something crashed into something else, and smoke began pouring from a source inside.

  “That should take care of communications,” Harue stated. She walked out casually, slapping the guard lightly with some kind of soft package as she passed. “Thanks for the security ties, guy.”

  “You can’t… set off explosions with security ties… can you?” James asked.

  “No, silly, I still had some grenades left over!” Harue grinned. “Are the others already inside?”

  The sharp rattle of machine-gun fire was a faster answer than James could give. Harue’s grin spread wider.

  “Sounds like fun!” she declared. “Let’s catch up!”

  They found Kana easily enough; they just had to follow the angry crackling sound of her lightning. The KIH people seemed to have set up an ambush where they could fire on Kana behind barricades. They now looked to be regretting their life choices.

  Kana’s lightning ignored the barriers. It flowed over them like water, sending electric discharges in every direction, but favouring any exposed bits of metal. Like the goon’s guns.

  They fled in fear, leaving their discharging weapons behind, but they weren’t the only ones converging on their position. Four large men pushed their way through the running corporate soldiers.

  They wore suits, but they didn’t look entirely human. They were at least partially machine. One of them had a clearly mechanical arm, two of them had red glowing eyes, and the other had knives for fingers.

  Kana snorted in derision and charged forward. “You think some metal parts are enough to challenge me?” she yelled. “You will all-arrgghhh!”

  Knife-hands had slipped around her punch, stepped behind her and driven his hand deep into her back, all in the time it took to blink. James didn’t have time to worry about her, though; the other thugs were headed towards him. Fast.

  He barely got his sword up in time before the arm guy was on him. James hastily parried. His training had mostly operated under the assumption that a sword meeting an arm would go badly for the one without a sword, but that wasn’t James’s problem.

  Nor was it this guy’s. There was a screech of tortured metal and some sparks, but the arm remained intact. Mostly. The guy drew back, seemingly startled by the result as much as James was.

  From one side came Harue’s cackling laughter, and James risked a glance over to see. Harue was in full fox-girl form. Her ears were out, and her tails were lashing about as she traded blows with one of the cyborgs. Her claws versus his heavy knives seemed an even match.

  James couldn’t believe how fast these guys were moving. He could barely keep up, even with the enhancements his armour gave him. Shion must be… he glanced over.

  Shion was also enjoying herself. She was moving just as fast as Harue. Much faster than he’d seen her move before, and more than enough to match the movements of her opponent.

  The metal wings coming out of her back were new.

  James quickly looked back at his target, but the man had also been looking at Shion.

  “The prototype,” he growled. “If only—”

  James didn’t wait for the man to finish the sentence. He charged forward, sword held high. It was a calculated gamble. These guys didn’t seem particularly skilled. They relied on the brute force that their speed and toughness allowed. Much like James did, admittedly. Despite the speed of their motions, they showed none of the quicksilver fluidity that the ninjas had employed.

  Startled by James's charge, the man reverted to his default move, blocking with his metal arm. However, this time James wasn’t parrying.

  The advice of his sensei floated through his head.

  Just cut.

  Midoriko-sensei wasn’t one for complicated advice.

  James’s sword came down in a high, perfect arc. Just like he’d practised. It met the cybernetic arm—and passed right through. Sparks flew, and the man looked astonished. James kept moving forward, twisting the sword around to bring it up again, reversed. His next strike took advantage of the man’s frozen shock, smashing his pommel into the side of the man’s head.

  The man went down like a sack of dirt.

  James looked ahead to check on Kana. He winced at what he saw.

  Kana had been stabbed in the side by knife-hands—again. However, she had grabbed and held his arm, trapping his hand inside her wound, and was using the hold to negate his speed.

  “You think—you can—hurt me?” Kana snarled. Each pause was accompanied by a devastating blow to the man’s upper body as he desperately twisted, trying to get away. “Such—disrespect! It cannot—be tolerated!”

  She seemed fine.

  Shion was… her wings were… it wasn’t clear. She was moving too fast for James to make out her movements clearly. She didn’t seem to be using them in combat or to fly—they were more like the token bat wings that you saw on anime succubi or dragons in human form. He could see heat shimmers rising off them, so they must be tremendously hot.

  Actually, it looked like the guy she was fighting had his own heat shimmers. James looked down at the cyborg spasming at his feet. He’d gone down, and he seemed out of the fight, but he wasn’t motionless. And… there was quite a lot of heat coming off him.

  Harue seemed to have noticed as well.

  “Is there a limit to how long you can keep that up?” she asked conversationally, even as she flicked between dodging knife strikes and lashing out with her long claws. “You seem like you’re going to cook yourself.”

  The cyborg didn’t reply, concentrating on annihilating his enemy. His attacks were simple and direct, launched with devastating speed and power.

  Harue danced around them, laughing. It wasn’t that she was faster than him—James thought they might be evenly matched. She was just never where she appeared to be. Always moving, constantly switching direction, a natural counter to the machine’s precise, logical motion.

  James started to move in, but the end came suddenly. Without warning, the cyborg froze in place and toppled over.

  “Huh,” Harue said. “Did he really overheat? Seems like a design flaw.”

  A strangled, shattered, mechanical gurgle yanked James’s attention away. Shion was standing with her arm through the chest of her opponent. That sound had apparently been the death cry of a cyborg having its heart crushed.

  James never wanted to hear that again.

  “Are these guys… human?” he asked.

  “Dunno,” Shion replied. “Am I? But I’m real glad we ran into them. You know what Big Sis and I call ‘em?”

  “What?” James asked reluctantly. Revelations from Shion were generally disquieting.

  “Spare parts!” the girl exclaimed. “Good thing too, my back skin isn’t going to fix itself.”

  She glanced over at the last cyborg. “Uh, well, I don’t think I’m gonna get much from him.”

  “I—will—teach—you—to—show—the proper—respect!”

  “Uh, Kana, I think you can stop now,” James said. The cyborg had given up trying to get away. It might not be possible for it to move, with all the damage it had incurred.

  Kana looked at James and then back at her victim. “Perhaps,” she acknowledged, and pulled the guy’s hand out of her side. It started visibly closing—the wound on her back was already healed.

  The cyborg slumped to the ground when she released him.

  “Is that all they’ve got?” Shion wondered. The words were hardly out of her mouth when a heavy thump shook the ground. It was quickly followed by others.

  “Did you have to say that aloud?” James asked.

  “Well, sure!” Shion replied. “If I didn’t, we might not get the next round! This was a nice warm-up, but I’m looking for a real fight.”

  James couldn’t pinch his nose or rub his face without taking off his helmet. He could hit himself on the head, but he probably wouldn’t feel it, and it would look odd besides. He pushed the urge down.

  “We’re not here for a fight,” he ground out. “We’re here to rescue Junko.”

  Shion looked at him with wide, guileless eyes.

  “Who?”

  James had never been happier to be distracted by his own oncoming destruction. The six Frames that rounded the corner couldn’t have come at a better time.

  They looked a bit like the Frames that had attacked the island arena, but those had been heavies. These were lighter, more suited for combat in urban environments when you didn’t want the entire battleground levelled. They had the same dappled grey camouflage, the same sloped armour. The guns looked much the same as well.

  “Think fast!” Harue yelled and flew up into the air. The Frames opened fire, and a lot of them aimed at her. She seemed to dodge it all, twisting furiously about, but James had the feeling that she was using the same trick she’d used on the Red Raptor. An illusion or turning insubstantial, James wasn’t sure, but he thought she wasn’t in any danger.

  One of the Frames fired at him, but his armour, improbably, was up to the challenge. Bullets as long as his finger were dropping around him, their momentum somehow absorbed by his armour. He got his sword up and held it in front of him. Bullets bounced off that.

  Kana was hit by some bullets as well, getting knocked down by the force of them. She was injured as well, but she seemed more upset by the indignity of it. With a flash and a swirl of smoke, she took her dragon form and spat lightning at the slowly advancing Frames.

  James didn’t have a ranged attack, so he had no option but to charge. He heard a scream of rage from behind him that sounded like it came from Shion.

  “Just keep tanking the hits, booger-boy!” she yelled when he tried to look back. “Let me get close, and I’ll show them why Frames are outdated technology!”

  James didn’t bother to nod, but he kept running forward. Charging into a bunch of machine guns when you didn’t have armour seemed like suicide, but this was Shion.

  Most of what she did was crazy.