Episode 13 — The Great Train Robbery 2

The train was finally approaching the junction.

Having switched onto the branch line leading toward Roaring Dragon Society territory, the train began to curve sharply.

"Whoa?! Wh-what's this?!"

"That's weird — a curve, here?!"

"Don't tell me...!"

Sensing something was seriously wrong, the Legion users near the engine room went wide-eyed with alarm.

"If it's come to this—!"

One user gritted his teeth and pulled a grenade from his jacket. No one knew what kind of disaster using explosives inside a moving train might cause, but this wasn't the time to worry about that.

"Everyone, get down—!"

"?!"

Just as the gritted-teeth user raised his hand, grenade in grip—

"Argh—?!"

The Professor, drawing a pistol alongside his sniper rifle, shot the hand reaching for the pin before it could pull free — but another user, witnessing this, dashed over and yanked the pin himself.

"Now! Throw it—!"

"That bastard—!"

Watching the Legion user, teeth gritted, fling the grenade, the Professor ground his own teeth. Even an anti-personnel grenade could cause the train to derail if the shock was strong enough. Which meant—!

"Hah!"

Activating his "Ballistic Interception" skill at full power, the Professor's hand delicately swept the barrel of his pistol into position.

The instant the grenade's arc reached its peak—

A thunderous explosion tore a massive hole in the ceiling of the engine car.

The train lurched violently from side to side under the shockwave, and the Legion users caught directly in the blast of shrapnel from the mid-air detonation dissolved into particles, one after another.

"Ngh—!"

The Professor didn't come away unscathed either. Even having ducked behind his armor plate the instant he fired, the blast wave slammed his body into the engineer's seat.

"Damn it... my back—!"

His lower back had apparently taken a solid hit against the steel post supporting the seat. Rubbing at it, he hurried to check the state of his sniper rifle, still mounted on its bipod despite the impact.

He retrieved the rifle, which had been knocked loose and was lying in a corner of the engine room, and remounted it.

"Phew... this is getting serious."

Meanwhile, the Whis-Kiss and Grave duo had just taken out their third towed-artillery emplacement. Fortunately, there was no dedicated self-propelled artillery to worry about, but Gaia Legion had apparently scattered a handful of towed guns along the perimeter of their territory.

"All right! That's this one done! That should clear out the whole area around the line, right?"

"Yeah! According to the minimap, there's no more spots left where artillery could be set up!"

At Whis-Kiss's reply, Grave gave a satisfying grin as she ejected the empty magazine from her autocannon.

"Then let's head to the rendezvous point?"

"Sure!"

With a heavy roar of the engine, the two women's vehicle pulled toward the rendezvous point.

"Hah!"

"Guh—?!"

Shadow's graceful kick caught a Legion user square in the jaw, sending his head crashing hard enough into the train window to crack it.

"Y-you bitch—!?"

Another Legion user across from her drew a pistol tensely, moving to counterattack, but she reacted nimbly, sweeping the submachine gun from behind her waist and firing in a raking arc from left to right.

"Argh—?!"

"Hmph!"

His body armor spared him serious injury, but he couldn't dodge the shot to his gun arm — and while he faltered, she closed the distance and finished him off with a knee strike, dropping him limply to the seat floor.

"Phew..."

Six Legion users had been guarding the front of the cargo cars. She'd taken out every last one, alone.

But—

"Hey, time for a shift chan— what the hell?!"

"Kuh!"

Apparently the cargo-car guard duty rotated in shifts — new users, opening the car door to relieve their comrades, found her standing there instead.

"You! Definitely Roaring Dragon— where are the others?!"

"...Dead."

"Damn it—! Well aren't you something!"

He reached for the gun at his waist, but she interrupted with a throwing star from a holster near her thigh, striking his wrist.

"Argh! Wha— the hell?!"

"You're not getting past here. Give up."

"Hmph! Hey! We've got an intruder here!"

"What?!"

A cold sweat broke out across Shadow's forehead. Beyond the doorway, roughly twelve faces came into view. However exceptional her close-combat skills, that many at once was more than she could handle alone.

"Hmph! If you're so eager to be turned into swiss cheese, I'll happily oblige!"

"Gotta hand it to the Roaring Dragon Society — bold as ever!"

Shadow kicked a user right in the face just as he tried to push through the doorway. If that many pushed through at once, she'd have no way to hold them off — her only option was to defend this narrow doorway and hold the line.

"Kuh—?! You'd dare hit my face?!"

"It wasn't even that handsome to begin with, so no great loss?"

"What did you say?!"

Provoked by her casual jab, the user snapped and drew his submachine gun. As if on cue, the other users drew their pistols and SMGs as well, leveling them at the doorway.

"Kuh—!"

"Come on! Hands up, surrender!"

Her brow twitched, and she made a slow, deliberate gesture of lowering her submachine gun to the floor.

The moment the Legion users relaxed, believing they'd won—

Something came rolling across the floor toward them.

"...?"

"Ninjutsu — Devil's Mist Technique!"

"What?"

With a faint pop, a pale green mist immediately began spreading out from the object.

The startled Legion users flailed their arms trying to wave the mist away, and inevitably ended up inhaling it—

"!!"

"C-cough, cough! Aaaargh!! It burns—!"

"Bleeeeegh!"

What she'd thrown was nothing more than a specially formulated tear-gas smoke grenade laced with wasabi and pepper spray powder. The horrific mist filled the entire car in an instant, and the users inside began vomiting, collapsing to the floor.

"Aaaargh! The window! Open the window!"

"Guck... ugh!"

Eyes and noses streaming, the users desperately groped along the walls, searching for a window. Shadow had already shut the door behind her and retreated back toward the cargo cars.

No matter how quickly they opened the windows, clearing that mist would take a good five minutes. She'd bought herself at least that much time.

The track straightened out again. About eight minutes remained.

Shadow glanced at her wristwatch and considered her options. The goal was, ultimately, stealing the train. There was no real need to engage the twelve or so users up ahead — thoroughly soaked in that gas now, they'd need hours before they'd be fit to fight again.

At the same time, the Professor was watching the clock in the engine room, timing his brake application. The hole in the ceiling had the engine car shuddering unsteadily, unsettling as it was, but the train was still running without major issue.

"Hm... two minutes thirty seconds left..."

Light flashed behind his helmet's visor, and his hand eased the brake lever down. With a heavy rumble, the train began to slowly decelerate. Without a word, the Professor tapped the communicator at his ear three times, signaling that the braking had gone smoothly.

Now, the rest.

He disassembled his sniper rifle, packed it back into the bag, stomped the armor plate flat with his foot, folded it up, and set it aside. After checking his pistol's spare magazine, he forced the engine room door open.

"Time for the cleanup operation."

He intended to finish off the remaining Legion users, who — worst case scenario — might resort to a desperate stunt with grenades again, like before.

At the same time, having heard the Professor's signal over the radio, Shadow was moving too. Fitting a gas mask over her mask, she opened the door and headed toward the forward car, where the mist had partially dispersed thanks to an open window.

"Ugh... cough, cough!"

"Ngh..."

The users sprawled across the floor weren't quite dead — though, looking at their wretched state, death might have been a mercy. She shook her head.

"Sorry, but this is business."

"Cough— th-the price for this—"

"........."

She cleanly slit the throat of a user desperately clawing at the hem of her stocking, killing him instantly. One by one, she slit throats down the line, finishing them off, then spotted four more users charging in from the other direction and settled into a combat stance, submachine gun in one hand, wakizashi in the other.

"There she is! Just her alone?!"

"Doesn't matter! We hold the cargo car, no matter what! Charge!"

"Raaaaargh!"

The users who'd been resting in the middle car gritted their teeth, guns blazing, and charged.

The train had already entered Roaring Dragon Society territory. Very few options remained to them.

"Kuh!"

Overwhelmed by the momentum, Shadow spun and ducked behind the wall beside the door, and they used the opening to close the distance to the doorway.

A standoff over the door ensued. A Legion user hastily reached to open it, but another stopped him.

"Wait!"

"What's the matter? We need to detach the cargo cars, somehow!"

"That woman earlier had a blade!"

"!!"

"If we just push through, at least one of us dies."

"Kuh—!"

Finally grasping the situation, the user released his hand from the door latch. Shadow clicked her tongue quietly to herself — she'd been gripping her wakizashi, ready to slit the throat of the first person through that door, and now that plan had gone to waste.

"Hey! Anyone got a flashbang or something?"

"No! Just grenades."

"Damn it, none here either!"

Overhearing snippets of their conversation, Shadow's eyes lit up.

"Ah, got one! I have one! A flashbang!"

"Nice, hand it here!"

A Legion user immediately tossed the flashbang through the shattered window of the door. With a deafening bang and a blinding flash of light, the Legion users threw the door open and charged in almost simultaneously.

"Surrender! You Roaring Dragon woman!"

"Raaargh!"

"Surrender, or we'll turn you into swiss cheese!"

They'd charged in with force, but no matter where they looked, she was nowhere to be seen. After a moment scanning around, they arrived at a conclusion.

"Don't tell me — she's planning to detach the cargo car and take it separately?!"

"Kuh! Hey! You! Come with me! We're searching the cargo car!"

"Damn it, fine!"

Hurriedly splitting into two groups, they headed toward the cargo car — just as a window elsewhere on the train silently slid open.

"Careful! That woman's blade work looked like nothing to joke about!"

"I know!"

Just as one of them issued that warning to the tense group heading toward the cargo car, a black shape darted through the window and grazed past the throat of the user who'd spoken.

"Uh—?!"

Before he could even register it, his throat had been slit cleanly, and he vanished. The same-group user who'd been keeping watch on the door behind them turned back reflexively—

"Guh—?!"

"Hah!"

Shadow closed the distance in a flash, her wakizashi driving straight into his stunned, open mouth, killing him instantly.

One of the users heading toward the cargo car, sensing something amiss, turned back just in time to witness this — and gritted his teeth.

"You... you damn bitch!"

"What?! Why is she over there?!"

"Shoot! Shoot her!"

Just as they drew their guns and aimed at her, a low, machine-toned, flat voice sounded in Shadow's ear.

[Get down, Shadow.]

"—!"

The moment she dropped into a crouch, a satisfying gunshot rang out, and a 50-caliber round punched clean through the chests of the two users, who'd been standing slightly overlapped, in a single shot.

"...?!"

"Guh—?!"

The last thing the two collapsing users saw was the door opening behind Shadow's crouched form, revealing a famous user — dressed head to toe in black with distinctive purple glow lines, a matching visor covering his face.

"Th-the Pro... fes... s—!"

—To be continued—