Therefore, given the emergency situation, it was essential for the Department of Interstellar Immigration to capture Canti before MM could.
Things have gotten pretty hairy.
As he pondered the instability of the situation, Commander Amarao sat in a beauty salon in town. His surroundings were in contrast to the danger of the situation as his head stuck out of a white cloth and a stylist combed his hair.
Communicating through a neck charm, Amarao gave orders to Kitsurubami. "Okay, if we screw this up, then MM is going to get involved for real, so wait until I get there. And whatever you do, don't mess with Raharu—it'll just get even more complicated.
"I have a lot of work to do, so make it a quick cut, please. I want to look good, though—I want to look dignified for a girl I haven't seen in a while… dependable, if you know what I mean."
The latter half of Amarao's speech did not consist of orders to his subordinate, rather directions to the hairdresser next to him.
As Kitsurubami hung up the connection, those incomprehensible words echoed in her ears. "A girl he hasn't seen in a while?"
She suspected that he was talking about Raharu, also known as Haruko.
She'd wondered why Amarao had made time to go to the hairdresser when they were about to begin battle plans for the urgent situation that had developed—but if the reason was Haruko, Kitsurubami could understand; Amarao was a bit more concerned with Raharu than was absolutely necessary.
According to rumors, he had worked with Haruko before. And then, ever since that girl had showed him her special power, he'd been afraid of her. But it wasn't just Kitsurubami's imagination that underneath his fear, Amarao seemed to have an admiration for Haruko. Most likely, Amarao had gone to the salon in anticipation of finally coming in contact with Haruko again.
Well whatever, Kitsurubami thought. It doesn't matter to me.
Still looking through the scope, she refitted the large receiver to her belt in a habituated manner. She didn't use the standard issue one that was designed to look like an ordinary mass-market cell phone, instead preferring to employ this large Russian military-use transceiver. Similarly, the Degtyaryov sniper rifle she wielded was not issued by her organization, rather something she owned because of her own personal hobbies.
Three months earlier, Amarao had been dispatched by the center to be a part of the special immigration team situated in Mabase. And because of that dispatch, the recently admitted Kitsurubami was now able to realize her desire to become a field agent, a wish that derived from her military hobbies.
Guns—those beautiful, heavy, metal machines, cool things that could kill a person and the senselessness in using them… Indeed, her passion for her job didn't came from patriotism or responsibility, but instead from her interest in using military weapons in a real fight.
Her current task was to watch a robot that had escaped from MM. But if she had intended only to watch, then she wouldn't have brought a personal battle rifle with her.
Amarao had told her to wait until he got there; however, if the robot's body color changed to anything besides blue, then she had been given permission to act as the situation demanded. All it took was a change of color—and she was the only one there. She had plenty of excuses she could use.
She could see that the target robot was hidden in the grass.
While looking through the Degtyaryov's sniper scope with a self-satisfied look on her face, she slowly pressed the trigger.
The enemy bullets attacked endlessly, and Naota was the only one countering. No longer able to tolerate Haruko relaxing next to him, he screamed at her. "What are you doing? Do something! This is a shootout!"
"What's shooting out?"
Haruko lazily pointed the barrel of her Uzi in no particular direction, pulling the trigger. Rat tat tat came the dry sound of gunfire.
Then, Haruko saw Kitsurubami aiming for Canti from the top of the bridge.
Several bullets hit the railing of the bridge, right beside where Kitsurubami was stationed. Kitsurubami, who had been about to pull the trigger on her rifle, knew that she had just been threatened with a terrifyingly accurate attack.
Panicking, she looked through the scope in the direction of fire. There was Haruko, looking her way with a bold smile on her face.
Haruko's position was several meters from the bridge where Kitsurubami was, quite a distance farther than the effective range of an air gun. That meant the gun Haruko had was the real thing; the bullets had hit dead on, burying themselves in the bridge's concrete barricade. Kitsurubami shuddered. She was afraid, not so much of the fact that Haruko had a real gun, rather of the marksmanship that Haruko had displayed. Haruko was not an enemy to be taken lightly.
But when Kitsurubami touched the unfamiliar bullets buried in the barrier, her fear turned to confusion.
They were BB bullets! The things that had managed to get buried into the barrier were small plastic balls for use in an air gun.
What's going on?
Confused by the impossibility of this, Kitsurubami forgot for a moment that she was still holding onto the heavy sniper rifle as she leaned over the bridge railing. The moment she noticed, it was too late: Her world tilted.
"Eh!"
Losing her balance, Kitsurubami fell into the river along with her beloved gun.
Her fall was followed by an "ugh" — the strange yelp of a man. The place where she'd fallen, right into a patch of tall reeds, coincidentally happened to be where the unlucky Kamon was hiding. Kitsurubami had landed right on top of him.
The two rolled into the deep section of the river and were swept away by the fast water current.
Kamon's fighting spirit with regards to survival games was indomitable, though; perhaps his battle spirit even surpassed Kitsurubami's in that respect. So, having suddenly been involved in an accident, even as he was being washed away, he yelled out a parting cheer for his teammate: "I'm leaving the rest to you, TV boooooyyyyyy…"
When it heard its teammate's parting words, Canti jumped out from the grass where it had been hiding to challenge Naota head on. Although Canti was in fact equipped with a laser sight, it had put it away without anyone instructing it to do so, simply having decided that kind of thing wouldn't be chivalrous in today's game. Indeed, it was a robot with sense and reason.
"Damn!" Naota panicked. The enemy had caught him from behind.
Unfortunately for Canti, who was at the point of certain victory, the only thing that came from his air gun was the lonely clicking sound of the trigger. It had run out of bullets after its previous full-on assault.
With this development, the certain victory clearly reversed to Naota.
"Heh heh, I win!" Naota praised himself and turned his guns on Canti.
The robot realized it was in a bad spot and so quickly fled.
It was a "center flag" match, so the game could be decided if someone stole the flag from the middle of the field—but Naota had decided to win by way of the gun, and thus chased after Canti. It seemed he'd discovered the joy of this game as it had progressed.
Elated, Naota chased Canti over the dry riverbed. However, when he turned the corner at a small boathouse…
"Waaaahhhhh!"
Naota was thrown into confusion.
Canti, whom he'd thought was unarmed, ambushed him with a new air gun in its hand.
Having planned meticulously for this battle, Kamon had prepped by hiding guns in that small boathouse. Once again, the tables had turned.
With a loaded air gun right in his face, Naota was up against a wall.