James wanted to see what had happened to Suki, but there was a tuxedoed mahōkei in front of him with a sword. He didn’t have time to look away. The icy cold from their previous hits was still running through him, and he wondered if he was bleeding out.

  The black mahōkei had his own concerns. His gaze kept flickering to the girl in the green dress next to him.

  “She’s hurt,” he said simply.

  “You attacked us,” James replied. “If you want to run off somewhere, I’m not going to stop you.”

  Black hesitated. Then Mitsue’s voice came down from above.

  “I have neutralised the yellow and the purple one,” he said.

  “That’s not fair! You can’t take him hostage!” a girl's voice cried. A look of alarm passed across the tuxedoed man’s face.

  “Harajuku Violet! Are you alright?”

  “I—I’m fine, but he choked Harajuku Yellow!”

  Harajuku Black—assuming James had figured out their naming scheme—looked accusingly at James.

  “He is merely unconscious,” Mitsue called. “When fighting magically protected persons, it is important to remember that they still need to breathe. He will recover, as long as you surrender.”

  Black looked down at Harajuku Green again.

  “Call it a draw,” James suggested. “You did—” The word kill floated up in James’s mind, but he pushed it down. RinRin wasn’t bleeding, as far as he could see, so she might be all right. James wanted it to be all right. “—take down all the maids. We really were just guests; we’re not part of APRON.”

  “Secret Organisation APRONS,” the man said absently. “APRON is a different thing.”

  He sighed and looked down at Green again. “Alright. Harajuku Green! Stand down! I’m calling a ceasefire!”

  James let his sword disappear and moved over to RinRin. He kept his armour, though. RinRin’s clip had been exhausted, and she had slumped back to the ground, but she was still conscious and not bleeding as far as he could see.

  “Cute and complete… mission’s sweet…” she mumbled.

  She’ll be fine, James decided. He looked over to the other side of the battlefield.

  The first things he noticed were the fallen combatants. Closest to him were the motionless figures of PekoPeko and Mimi. James hoped they were alright, but there was nothing he could do. Harajuku Red was also on the ground. Beyond him…

  The two hunters were still on their feet. Their haori were looking a little tattered, but they otherwise seemed no worse for wear.

  The female hunter had switched her bow for a sword and was duelling Harue. Though, maybe, that word implied some rules. James didn’t think Harue was following any. Back in her school uniform, her ears and tails were visible. As were her claws. Wicked-looking hooked claws about two inches long, that were apparently capable of blocking a katana.

  Harue was using her speed and mobility to the fullest, flying over the female samurai and never attacking from the same direction twice. Despite this, the hunter was fending her off easily, even finding time for the occasional strike of her own. James wasn’t sure if it was Harue’s illusions or some other power that caused one devastating blow to pass right through her.

  Blood on Harue’s arm and a small scratch on her leg told James that not every attack was so easily evaded. Harue was laughing, though, which, honestly, could have meant anything.

  The male hunter, on the other hand—James’ breath caught in his throat. The male hunter had used one arm to catch Kaguya in some kind of martial armlock, lifting her off the ground, helpless to resist.

  She hadn’t gone down easily; her dagger was buried to the hilt in the man’s chest. It didn’t seem to be bothering him, however. His other hand held his sword, which was pointed at Suki.

  Suki was… yelling at the hunter? She had her sword out and pointing at the man, but James had practised with her. He knew she didn’t have the skill of Midoriko or the speed of Harue that might have made her a threat to the hunter.

  James wanted to help her, but he wasn’t sure he was a threat. His armour could keep him safe, but his skill… was lacking. It didn’t matter, though, because Harue had noticed his approach.

  “Hey, James! Can you keep this busu busy for a minute?”

  James whipped his head around to see Harue headed towards him, deftly dodging the attacks of the female hunter. James summoned his sword again. Harue stuck her tongue out at him and leapt. She went high, over a slash, and then kept going, flying in a high that took her out of his line of sight.

  James didn’t follow her with his gaze, as he had a deadly samurai running at him. He readied his sword for a charge, but the hunter paused and took stock of the new situation. Her eyes narrowed.

  “You are suspected of defiling the master’s property,” she said flatly. “A quick death will be far kinder than what the master has planned for you. Accept it.”

  “What? I didn’t—”

  James stopped. He felt the tiniest amount of pressure, spread over a very small area on the top of his head. He didn’t look up.

  “Harue,” he grated. “Are you standing on my head?”

  “I’m posing on your head,” Harue corrected. “Posing is very important, with magical girls.”

  The hunter was looking at them both warily. James imagined that she needed a moment to process Harue’s madness. God knows he did.

  “Harue,” he said with forced calm. “I’ve been stabbed twice already. I don’t think I can fight with you standing on my head.”

  “Oh, walk it off, big man,” Harue scoffed. “Magical girl attacks aren’t real.”

  “It feels real,” James protested.

  “Which of us is the expert on what’s real or not? Me, that’s who—case in point: You can go ahead, Kotodama.”

  James frowned, trying to figure out what Harue was talking about. From the identical expression of the woman facing him, he wasn’t alone. But Harue wasn’t talking to them.

  She was talking to Suki.

  “I have become aware of new information,” Suki stated firmly. “Capturing or injuring the rogue Dolls poses a threat to the Garden. They must be released.”

  “Yes, Master,” the Doll replied.

  “Wait!” the female hunter interjected. “That is not the master!”

  The male looked at her. “That is the master,” he insisted. “The master must be obeyed.”

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  He released Kaguya. She twisted as he dropped her, grabbing her knife and yanking it out of him as she fell. She let her momentum carry her back for three steps.

  “You have become compromised!” the female hunter asserted. “You have accepted orders from someone who is not the master!”

  “You have become compromised,” the male hunter replied. “You have refused to accept orders from the master!”

  “You must be shut down and returned to the Garden for inspection!” they said in unison.

  James had never seen a real-life version of what happened next. He’d practised it. Midoriko had demonstrated it with wooden blades, but there just wasn’t any way to cut someone in half safely. You had to pretend.

  He barely saw it this time. Both of the combatants moved so fast that he’d have missed it if he blinked. One moment, they were facing each other. The next, their swords had clashed in tsuba-zeriai. They struggled for a brief moment, swords bound against each other, before the male hunter overpowered his companion. In one flowing motion, he managed a kiri-otoshi, pushing her blade aside and delivering a devastating cut. His momentum carried him forward, so he didn’t even see her fall.

  There was a moment of still calm. Then Kaguya stuck her dagger in the middle of his back. He froze and dropped face down.

  “That’s the problem with rules,” Harue said, still perched on James’ head. “If you can’t break them, they’ll break you.”

  “Nice play,” Kaguya said to Suki. “How’d you do it?”

  “It was a group effort!” Harue crowed. “Suki provided the words, I provided the illusions, and James provided the platform!”

  “Will you get off me?” James spluttered. Harue’s weight wasn’t on him at all, but she was effortlessly managing to keep her foot—or maybe just her toes—on his head despite his movements.

  “I suppose I can, now the magical girls are gone.” Harue jumped—or flew—down and smirked at him.

  James looked back and saw that Harue was right. The magical— the mahōkei had all gone. Mitsue had come down and was attending to the fallen maids.

  “How did you know what the Old Man looked like, to make an illusion of him?” Kaguya asked curiously.

  “Suki showed me,” Harue said carelessly. She wandered over to the fallen bodies of the hunters and started poking them.

  “You have a recording of him?” Kaguya exclaimed incredulously. “He’s ridiculously careful about being filmed!”

  “Not exactly,” Suki said, glancing nervously at James. Harue perked up, suddenly interested in the conversation again.

  “You mean you haven’t told him?”

  “Not yet,” Suki admitted, looking embarrassed.

  Kaguya looked between them. “Well, if how is sensitive, how about why? Why would you give this… spirit, that kind of power over us?”

  “If he gives me an order, and I can believe it’s Harue playing a prank, I can disobey him,” Suki said quietly. “I think that will work for you as well.”

  “It might, but…” Kaguya glared at Harue. “Try it and I’ll murder you.”

  “Whoa, there, Kaguya-chan!” Harue giggled. “You’re pretty scary, so I think I’ll save that prank for special occasions!”

  Kaguya’s mouth compressed into a hard, thin line. “Oh, that’s right, I already had murdering you on my to-do list.”

  “Please don’t, Kaguya-nee,” Suki said. “I need her.”

  Kaguya took a deep breath and closed her eye. “Fine. We have more important problems to deal with, anyway. The police have closed their cordon, and there are more hunters on the way.”

  “How do you know that?” James asked.

  Kaguya tapped her eyepatch, a gesture that made James wince.

  “This thing isn’t just to make me look like a chunibyo, you know,” she said.

  “But it was one of the design goals, right?” Harue asked insistently. “Because, I gotta say: nailed it.”

  “What it does,” Kaguya stated, with another glare for Harue, “is hold the very best cyberwarfare suite that Kotodama Aiko could come up with. It’s no longer the very edge of state-of-the-art, but my skill makes up for its shortcomings.”

  “So… you’re in the Matrix right now?” Harue asked. “Is that going to help?”

  Kaguya sighed. “What I am, is linked to dozens of security cameras around the district. I can see that the first pair of hunters are almost past Sugar Spoon's security screen. And that the police have this entire district surrounded.”

  “What do we do?” Suki asked.

  “I’ve already signalled for Tony to come pick us up,” Kaguya said. “The question is, what are we going to do about the maids?”

  “They seem fine, if not capable of moving,” Mitsue said. “They have no visible wounds, but they are incapacitated somehow?”

  “Magical wounds are like that—no blood,” Harue explained. “Heaven help us if a magical girl should ever get their clothes dirty. They’ll be fine in an hour.”

  “Not if those hunters come through here,” Suki said. “They said something about eliminating witnesses.”

  “Let’s get them out of here,” Kaguya decided. “I can update Tony on our location, and we might be able to find somewhere safe to stash them.”

  Mitsue, James and Harue all picked up one of the maids, which meant that James had to keep his armour on. He could have picked one up without it, but he couldn’t carry her for any significant distance. Not with his wounds still affecting him. Magical illusory wounds or not, they still sapped at his strength.

  Harue, who was actually bleeding, seemed unconcerned.

  “I’m no Kana,” she said, “But this will be gone in an hour or so.”

  Kaguya led them through the maze of back alleys, seemingly adjusting both the route and destination as more information came to her. She did manage to find an unlocked door that they could stash the maids behind.

  “Will they be all right?” Suki asked. “Are they going to get arrested?”

  “They may wear dresses, but they’re soldiers,” Kaguya said. “One way or the other, their organisation will take care of them. I’ll send a text to let them know what happened.”

  By now, they could hear the sounds of the police cordon a few blocks away. Sirens, horns blaring, the distorted barking of orders through police megaphones. Kaguya grimaced at something James couldn’t see.

  “This is bad,” she said. “Tony can’t get through the blockade, and I can’t find a better place to cross.”

  “I can help!” Harue said brightly. “Why don’t I make a distraction and draw them away?”

  Kaguya looked at the fox spirit speculatively. “That would leave you stranded in the middle of the police. We wouldn’t be able to escape with you.”

  She paused, then shrugged. “So, I love this plan.”

  “Pshhh! As if the police will be able to stop me,” Harue scoffed.

  “Won’t antagonising the police get those Hirasaka guys after you?” James asked.

  “Nah, as long as I don’t kill too many people or cause too much property damage, those guys aren’t gonna be interested.”

  “Please don’t kill any people,” Suki put in.

  “What she said,” James agreed.

  “So demanding, you guys! Kaguya-chan gets where I’m at, right?”

  “That does seem unreasonable,” Kaguya said. “And don’t call me Kaguya-chan.”

  “Fine!” Harue’s put-upon tone was undermined by her wide grin. “Is that direction okay?” she asked, pointing in the direction where the loudest noises were coming from.

  Kaguya nodded. “That’s fine,” she said.

  Harue winked and started skipping in the direction indicated. It was only after she was out of sight that James had a concerning thought.

  “Wait,” he said. “Did she agree not to kill anyone, or not to use -chan for Kaguya-san?”

  Everyone froze as they considered the options.

  “I know which one I’m hoping for,” Kaguya muttered darkly. “I’ve designated a new pickup point for Tony. Let’s move.”

  They’d moved a bit further away, but the crump of the explosion was still audible when it came. Kaguya was monitoring the scene with security cameras and was visibly startled.

  “What?” she said. “How?”

  She shook herself. “Tony’s on his way,” she said. “Get ready.”

  There wasn’t much they had to do to get ready, so they just stood there nervously as the deep growl of an engine started to get closer. Despite the warning, James jumped as the black SUV tore around the corner and screeched to a halt. Big and obviously powerful, it was the sort of car you didn’t see too much of in Japan. A Japanese make, but an American car.

  Despite Harue’s distraction, Tony clearly hadn’t had an easy time getting in. The front of the car was damaged from a collision, and the back window was spiderwebbed with cracks from what James had a sinking feeling was a bullet.

  “Get in,” Kaguya ordered, taking the front passenger seat for herself. Not wanting to waste any time, the rest of the group clambered into the back seat.

  “Tony” turned out to be the man who had accompanied Takashi to the meeting with Elidor, Anthony Galloway. He nodded at the group but wasted no time with greetings. As soon as the doors were closed, he put his foot on the accelerator.

  “Back out the way we came, ma’am?” he said calmly.

  “Yeah, I’ve sent a route to your GPS,” Kaguya replied. “There’s a blind spot we can ditch the car in.”

  “Understood, ma’am,” the man said, and sent the car in a tight right-hand turn that left the kids in the back scrambling for seatbelts.

  “This might be a little rough, but I doubt they’ve had time to put the barriers back in place,” he called back. “And the windows are bulletproof,” he added as an afterthought.

  Before James could ask if that was going to be important, the barricade was in front of him. There was a squeal of tyres, they were flung from side to side and a massive crash of metal against… something.

  Then they were through.

  “I have to say, that was an impressive diversion, ma’am,” Anthony said. “However did you manage an explosion on such short notice?”

  “Well, I—” Kaguya started, before there was a loud thump from the roof of the vehicle as something landed on it. Anthony immediately threw the car into a spin.

  Suki screamed as they were all flung about, even with the seatbelts holding them down. The screech of tyres was deafening, so James couldn’t hear the sound of metal tearing as two sets of claws punctured the car roof in an attempt to hold on against the evasive maneuvers.

  He saw them, though, as they poked through the inner lining of the ceiling.

  Wait, he thought. Are those…

  At the very moment that Anthony returned to straight-line driving—not wanting to deviate too far from his route—Harue fell through the still intact roof. For a brief, confusing moment, the cabin was filled with dangerously smooth skin, school uniform and fluffy tail.

  “Guys, guys!” Harue said excitedly. “Did you know that riot police carry grenades with them?”