Retsu's lip curled up in disgust. She was about to ask how the glorified match stick was gonna try to pull that off when LDG took the words right out of her mouth. If there was one thing she hated more than being disrespected or interrupted it was finding herself thinking the same thing as that bitch. Her thoughts were her own and the very idea she might be similar to the other woman made her hand twitch towards her arsenal. She swallowed the bitter thought down. There would be more than enough time for recrimination after they'd solved the mystery of the newest pile of shit that had been dropped onto Bakuretsu's lap.

At least the remainder of Firebrand's self-aggrandizing rant alleviated some of her conecerns. Having had the choice between bringing her newly acquired and in the process of being modified guns or stuffing more explosives in her bag had been an easy one but it didn't change the fact that she'd prefer to be packing some iron heavier than the airsoft pistol she'd put in her shoulder holder. Something about it felt off however. Really, really off. Unfortunately she couldn't quite place what. 

"Seriously? We're supposed to fit inta that?" Bakuretsu grumbled. The raft swayed when she stepped in, nearly tipping under the weight of the heavy duffel bag held over her shoulder. Half leaning over the side so the rest could fit in her eyebrow twitched at the lack of space. The rotten cherry atop the whole shit cake was that LDG was firmly pressed up against her other side. She was tempted to push her and her smug smirk overboard.

It was only when they were halfway there, far enough from the coast that she wouldn't be able to make the swim without ridding herself of her entire collection that one and one came together in her mind and turned out to be three. The picture was far too clear. By itself not a big tip off but it clearly wasn't taken in a hurry. What really smelled though was the ship sitting off the coast. The bay of Tokyo had plenty of space for even the largest ships to sit pretty in a dock and she knew from personal experience the coast guard was so crooked it was a wonder they could walk without falling over. Bribing your way past their inspections was barely even an inconvenience. No, the ship was out there for a reason.

Someone was about to get fucked over and if she was to be honest, she didn't like her chances.

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Tags:Revision Bakiri Retsu

The scent of sweat, gunpowder and fire hung heavy in the air like an invisible curtain of tension drawn over the gathered crowd. To Retsu however it all smelled like a load of bullshit. No one here seemed to have even the slightest idea of what they were dealing with but with some luck Retsu herself would be far less ignorant by the time this was over.

She'd expected the shipments to stop weeks ago but lo and behold a bunch of shit she didn't want making its way into her turf without passing through her hands was still getting there. It didn't take a genius to figure out that was hella worrisome. Because this wasn't anything new to her. The Akimichi family had been doing exactly the same thing. On the surface they'd owned a food processing plant and several distribution centers throughout the city. They'd bring fish in every day through their fleet over overnight fishing boats, pack it up and send it all out on the same day. The attached factory specializing in dough production sent out to a fuckton of bakeries, pizza places and other stores throughout Tokyo just widened their reach and made sure they'd be able to distribute whatever else their boats brought in all across the city.

Of course, said factory was now out of action, the Akimichis weren't gonna be doing anything in the foreseeable future and the fronts handling the more legal stuff had all been gobbled up by bigger fish. Retsu had known something was amiss but figured she'd deal with things as they came and what d'ya know, that time seemed to be now. She'd been looking for a decent way to check things out so when the call came that someone was hiring mercs for a mission like this she'd jumped onto it without looking back.

The fact that she'd have some ablative armor in the form of the people around her certainly helped the decision, even if she had to scoff when one of them said the plan would make everything go peachy. She hadn't worked with Firebrand before and couldn't say she was interested in doing so even now. It was perfect, really. She wouldn't hesitate to throw him under the bus. Provided the woman glaring daggers at her wasn't around instead, of course. LDG and her had clashed several times in the past and Retsu's rib throbbed in memory of where it'd been cracked during one such scuffle. If that one went down during this mission Retsu'd be sure to track whoever offed her to treat 'em to a drink.

The one amongst them she was most worried about was the Gorillo Bandit. She couldn't be sure it was true but she'd heard things about him. Definitely not someone she'd be turning her back to, even if she was confident in holding her own against him in a fight. After all, she'd come loaded for bear. She hadn't been twiddling her thumbs in these past few weeks and more importantly she'd brought most of her arsenal with her. Oh, her shoulder would have one hell of a bruise by the time they were done but she'd be damned if her duffel bag didn't contain enough bombs to blow the entire ship up if need be. 

A gut feeling told her it might not be enough. She pushed it down, grit her teeth and walked over to the map.

"Right, yeah, sure. How we doin' this?"

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Tags: Revision Bakiri Retsu

He was mocking her. A vein popped on her forehead. He was fucking mocking her. One hand pushed her upright while the other reached into one of her pockets. She ran forward at the same time as she pulled the pin on her incendiary grenade.

"Oho? Not packing enough heat for you, am I? Let's see how you handle thermite you prick!"

Putting her full strength behind the throw she lobbed it straight at his smug face, letting out a roar as she did. First the delays, then Junior's sad excuse for communication and now this guy's mockery? Retsu had absolutely had it. She was so livid she barely noticed a few of the people scrambling for cover raising their guns over whatever pathetic excuse for shelter they'd found. Nor did she notice Junior himself rushing towards the bin and claiming the very expensive combustible material she'd prepared for their trade. In fact, she was so furious she'd almost completely forgotten about the flashbang despite the fact that she'd only thrown it... exactly five seconds ago.

"Ah shit."

With her own eloquent speech being the last thing she heard before her hearing went the way of the dodo and the ground decided to do a spontaneous meet and greet the worst part of her anger abated very suddenly, as if displaced by an unexpected impact. Much like her nose. The silver lining was that it was unlikely anyone else heard the crack either. 

Pawing clumsily at her face she managed to pull up her eye patch without continuing the facial reconstruction more than a few times. She managed to reveal her spinning surroundings just in time to expose her light-sensitive right eye to the fires released from a certain incendiary grenade.

"Ah sphear ah'm gunna keehl everywun in zis fahkin' flace."

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Remaining explosives: 1 frag grenade and 2 smoke grenades

Tags: Sebastian Sinclaire Bakiri Retsu

In popular media illicit dealings always happened in dark alleys, bags or suitcases exchanged for wads of cash by either shifty looking folk, men in suits or a combination of the two. As cliche as such a thing was Retsu would've almost preferred a dark alley to this. Because seriously, who would decide to make a trade worth several grand happen in a giant skate park of all places? 

"Miss Bakiri! You know how things have been. Surely you could not blame us for this?"

"The delays? Nah. What y'r tryna pull right here, Junior? Yah, ah think ah will."

The sound of several guns being pulled out of wherever they'd been hidden echoed through the little alcove filled with picnic tables near the edge of the skate park they were in. Retsu had no idea how many of the guns were real and she had no intention of finding out. Luckily given the way they were looking at the modified airsoft assault rifle she was now holding with her finger near the trigger it was clear the other side felt the same. She let her now far emptier duffel bag drop atop the table in between them.

"Unless y'all wanna find out how many of y'all ah can fill with holes before dropping I'd point those things down."

The standoff continued for several long seconds before barrels started to be pointed down one by one. Retsu let out a snort before looking each of the gangster's subordinates in the eye one at a time. 

"Good. Don't fookin' try anything. Now then, Junior." She nodded to a bin to the side. "Stuff you ordered's in there. Given what you've brought in exchange y'll need to open it to take out half and leave the other half behind. Direct any fookin' complaints to the gun."

Her eye narrowed when she heard the sound of wheels drawing closer and closer.

"Oh you pieces of-! Watch. This is how I deal with shit gettin' in my damned way."

Holding her rifle one handed she reached into her pocket with the other and pulled out a frag grenade. She pulled the pin out with her teeth and tossed it out of their little alcove and into the skating ring proper, maintaining eye contact with Junior all the while.

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Remaining explosives: 1 flashbang, 1 frag grenade, 2 smoke grenades and 1 incendiary grenade.

Tags: Sebastian Sinclaire

 With her hands on her knees Retsu burst out laughing when Lylyana asked her question.

"Ah, ain't you a riot. Never mind that. You in?"

Seeing the winged woman agree she shoved the frag grenade in her pocket and confidently kept pace, nodding along as she spoke. Her eye narrowed at the sight of the slain boar. That did not look like it was slain with any weapon other than the woman's own physiology. She had to consciously resist the urge to walk just a bit further away from Lylyana and instead made sure to stay right next to her the entire time. By the time they reached the lake she was starting to breathe heavier. She let out a satisfied sigh as she let the heavy bag drop from her shoulder onto the ground and raised her arms above her head to stretch.

"Neat place." Retsu agreed. "Come here often?"

She looked a bit more closely at their surroundings. Plenty of privacy and a place to put down food but no cooking implements or signs of a fire anywhere. She'd have to ask about that later. It was possible that Lylyana stuck to a mostly plant-based diet that didn't require anything of the sort but given the stains atop and around the improvised table Retsu doubted it.

"So, the fishing." She continued. "Fish ain't good at taking blasts to the face. Just toss the 'nade into the water and they'll come floating to the surface, simple as."

With a nod of her head in the direction of the lake she took the grenade out of her pocket, pulled the pin out with her teeth and tossed it into the water. She didn't bother to take cover and watched the geyser of water erupt with a wide smile on her face, letting the sound of the blast wash over her. Looking down at her bag near her feet she didn't feel like crouching to go through it and instead pulled another grenade out of one of her pockets, confident enough the woman wouldn't suddenly try to kill her to reveal that she had some on her person as well. With an underhand throw she passed it to Lylyana.

"Your turn, try to aim at a different spot or you'll blast the floaters to pieces."


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lylyth

Retsu nodded in approval seeing the woman's choice. It's not her own first choice but using it is still a blast. She chuckled at the small inside joke before raising her thumb.

"Yah, like that."

Seeing the flashbang land a little closer than she would've liked Retsu shrugged and crouched behind the nearest tree, covering her ears and closing her eye as she did. All in all it didn't do much but it was just enough to get that little bit of a high. The loud bang reverberated through the forest, dissipating through the wide area without leaving much ringing in her ears. Similarly the flash, while faintly visible even through her closed eyelids, did not have many reflective surfaces to bounce off and get into one's eyes. The moment both vanished and the sounds of the forest slowly became audible again Retsu let out a barking laugh.

"Ahahaha. Ain't that the stuff. Ah can just imagine one of those pricks gettin' caught in the blast. Aaaaaah."

She exhaled with a manic look in her eyes and enjoyed the shiver running down her spine. Taking a moment to let the feeling settle she took a deep breath and cracked her neck. With a spring in her step she walked back to her bag, put everything but the frag grenade inside and lifted it back up to her shoulder. With a toss and a catch she let the frag balance on the tip of her index finger.

"Now, half the fun o' dese things is using them on something of course. Heard there's a lake somewhere nearby, you ever been grenade fishing? Dumb question, probably not ey? D'ya wanna? If so, lead the way."

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lylyth