Kitty Killer Isn't Very Cold

Nana stepped over broken bricks with a tap-tap-tap, leading the two little ones away from the military blockade while taking out her Terminal and pretending to discuss matters with her handler:

"...An Organization employee ran off with our things..."

[Not the Organization's—the ICA's... I'm already asking around. Wait a moment...]

Before Nana could reflect much on the mistake of focusing all her attention on Mrs. Jackson and the neighbors... Miss Assassin had to admit that an ICA employee betraying their employer was simply something that had never happened and was never considered.

But Nana could probably guess why this had happened...

[Number Seventy-Seven, I have some very bad news...]

"I can roughly guess what forced an Organization employee with a decent reputation to do something that would ruin their name... Williams did something again, didn't he?"

[...Yes...]

After a brief silence, her handler's tone was even graver than Nana had expected:

[Funds from Loken Watertank were injected into the ICA through some unknown channel. A contract that would never have been approved in the past, but is now listed on the black market... has been accepted... Which means...]

Holding the bewildered children's hands, Nana looked up at the clear sky, her heart turning cold.

"Now even the assassin organization is my enemy."

PS: One of Nana's available disguises will be revealed below.

1st Rosemary's Embrace: 013 Free Every Day~

DL-13 Platform—Laytonson City.

Columbia time, 75 AM.

Due to the sudden situation, Nana had left the suitcase she could no longer conveniently carry in the safehouse on the fourth floor of the apartment building.

With a shoulder bag on her back and medical equipment in hand... Number Seventy-Seven led the two children toward the nearest parking lot she could remember. Nana was about to randomly pick an unlucky person and hoped they had bought enough insurance for their beloved car.

"Nana... What about Colt...?"

"...The suitcase has my specialized equipment. As long as those 'Cleaners' haven't changed vehicles, I won't lose their location..."

Though she said that, Nana was worried that the Cleaners had recognized the VIP containment case specifically used to transport people... No, they had probably recognized it, which was why they had acted so decisively.

"Don't worry. Besides your brother, the specialized equipment is something I can't afford to lose either... They picked the wrong target. We'll catch up to them immediately."

She calmly entered the parking lot and looked over the mostly cheap electric vehicles on display. After glancing around, Nana finally settled on an SUV-type wilderness rover that looked somewhat too large for the city...

This was probably some courier's vehicle. Though it was a small model compared to true long-haul vehicles, its cargo space was already sufficient for short-distance wilderness travel.

The main reason Nana chose it was that, unlike the battery-powered vehicles, it carried an Originium Engine and had sturdier ram guards than ordinary city cars. Whether for pursuit or collision, it would be powerful and useful.

"This one. Get in. You two go to the back seat."

There was no time to use the Master Key to adapt to the door lock. The lock on this kind of outdoor vehicle was comparable to a safe... After confirming that no one was nearby, Nana directly drew her pistol. Black light gathered around it, and with a soft whoosh of gunfire, the driver's side window became covered in dense cracks without a sound.

She casually pulled away the entire warped pane of glass, which was only thirty centimeters thick in name, stuffed the little ones into the safer back seat, and finally started the vehicle... Of course, Nana did not forget to adjust the seat's distance from the pedals.

As the vehicle entered the street and she felt the early morning city breeze, a voice that had been silent for a long time returned to Nana's earpiece.

[Number Seventy-Seven, the ICA administrators have replied... They do not seem to realize the severity of the issue. A deliberately conflicting mission could still be blamed on the Intelligence Department's negligence or a loophole in the automated system, but deliberately leaking an employee's mission details... All I can say is that Loken Watertank's money has blinded their hearts and eyes.]

[The ICA Operations Department has begun investigating the operator who broke the rules, but that cannot undo the fact that ICA has lost control over its Laytonson employees... Those movers who attacked you demonstrate the situation you are currently facing.]

[Next, I will protest to the ICA platform maintenance staff in the Organization's name. Meanwhile, the Organization has also begun discussing the problems you are currently encountering... Naturally, our opposition faction is surely doing the same.]

[Before a conclusion is reached, public authority will likely be restrained by the Organization's meeting. And during the discussion, the more pressure you exert, Number Seventy-Seven, the more our faction can suppress those standing with Loken Watertank. After all, the problems caused by the betrayal on the ICA mission platform are not as simple as customer service claiming that 'employee property was mistakenly marked as spoils'...]

['Profit,' 'good and evil,' 'technology,' 'human ethics'... This contract concerns far more than the survival of the Bruce family. This is a war between two ideologies.]

[With ICA no longer trustworthy, the support I can provide you is very limited. At the same time, to avoid suspicion, I will shut down the combat recorder... You know what that means.]

[Then, Number Seventy-Seven, I will not disturb your operation any further... Happy hunting.]

As the Arts indicator on the headphones hanging from the girl's cat ears dimmed, Nana floored the accelerator and shot into the main lane on the yellow light amid countless startled cries and curses.

The medical gloves generated immense friction as they gripped the steering wheel, and the sound of synthetic rubber rubbing against the interior was equally powerful. Nana was not skilled at driving, and every time she shifted gears, she had to search for the unfamiliar gear lever, but no matter what vehicle she drove, she always pressed the pedals all the way down.

Following the Originium Arts location signal from her specialized equipment, the six-ton wilderness rover raced along the rush-hour roads. A shadowy, smoky aura quietly "burned" across its tires.

Thanks to that power, whenever the onlookers screamed and thought the vehicle would lose speed during a drift and crash into something, it always smoothly cut into the turn as though it had a life of its own.

"What's with those two vehicles?!"

"No idea... Is something going on with that moving company?"

"I have no idea what's happening, but isn't that SUV rover incredibly stable? Fine, I'm buying that brand for my next car..."

Nana, enduring the children's screams from the back seat, had no idea she had unintentionally advertised for a car manufacturer. Watching the surrounding pedestrians move away from the road, she vaguely felt that her colleagues might not be as skilled at driving as she was.

The bloodstained tire tracks on the road ahead were obviously left behind by those poorly trained fools who wanted to get rich overnight. That explained the faint sound of police sirens coming from behind.

Columbia did not have dangerous driving laws like Shangshu in Great Yan. Columbia's terrain and cities were exceptionally flat, and civilian street racing was commonplace.

Though Nana had been speeding a little, it was not enough to warrant a report. Those traffic police were clearly chasing the people ahead... But Nana knew they certainly would not mind nabbing a speeder to meet this month's KPI while they were at it.

"...Troublesome."

As she spoke, the flashing lights in the rearview mirror became clearer and clearer, while the speeding light truck ahead was visible to the naked eye... Under the dual pressure of the police and the legendary assassin, the driver of the van was clearly becoming more frantic.

Nana sensed trouble the instant she saw them accelerate toward the city center, but just as the girl was preparing to overtake and stop them, someone in the van's passenger seat suddenly leaned out with a siege crossbow.

The SUV, which had been driving steadily ahead, suddenly swerved, catching the pursuing police off guard. As a tearing whistle ripped through steel, the lead police car behind them was completely pierced through along with its Originium Engine.

The steel bolt ripped through the vehicle and nailed itself into the ground. The police car flipped forward, while the seven or eight police cars closely following behind crashed into one another in a chain collision... Some vehicles even chose to ram into concrete bollards or the iron barriers in the middle of the road rather than hit the storefronts along the street and risk harming civilians... But that inevitably meant crashing into their fellow officers.

The entire road suddenly turned into hell, and with all the onlookers gathered around, cries of anguish filled the area.

Nana was worried about the police too, but if she did not stop the van's mad dash, not only would she fail to recover her precious specialized equipment, Colt in the case would likely have no chance of surviving a car crash.

The case was bulletproof, but children were not resistant to being thrown around.

Thinking it over, few pieces of her equipment and costly medical supplies could withstand a collision at triple-digit speeds either. At their current speed, ordinary methods like striking the rear wheels to force a sideways stop would not work.

There was no choice... Nana could only drive level with the van's door. As Nana freed her left hand and drew her silver Firearms Arts weapon at the other side, she could clearly see through the window buffeted by fierce wind the mover aiming the siege crossbow at her... and the madness in his eyes.

There was clearly no way to talk this out. Both sides fired almost simultaneously.

In terms of trigger sensitivity, Nana's silver pistol had the clear advantage... The black bullet struck the forehead of the man in the gray work uniform.

His violently recoiling body pulled the massive crossbow upward. Expressionless, the girl allowed the siege bolt to pass beside her ear, blast through the ceiling, and vanish into the distance... Amid the children's screams, Nana accurately killed the second driver, who seemed to be either laughing or crying.

So, on a four-lane expressway racing ever closer to the city center, how was one supposed to stop a van carrying fragile target items?

Nana gave the answer with a nimble drift and collision.

The black SUV's Originium Engine roared as it unleashed surging power. Then Nana turned the steering wheel, gave the van a light impact, and immediately initiated a sideways drift, using her own vehicle body to catch the other vehicle as it lost control.

Like a rugby player making a lateral tackle, instead of smashing into an opposing player, she embraced them and pulled them down... In rugby, such a move would be far too gentle, but from the perspective of two steel Beasts, the force was just right.

Columbia's highways did not have soft grass like a rugby field, but at the cost of all eight of the SUV's tires being burned out by Originium Arts, Nana still used the rover's stable frame to bring the speeding van to a halt.

Because the police cars pursuing them earlier had been caught off guard by the Cleaners' heavy weaponry, the artificial chain collision was an undeserved disaster, but it did provide Nana with ample cover.

Taking her valuable equipment and the VIP containment case holding Colt from among the many cargo boxes... Nana thought for a moment, took out a marker, and wrote the message, "Please do not waste medical supplies," on the van's scratched-up door panel. Then Miss Assassin quickly left with the children.

Whether those things were taken by onlookers or used by kindhearted people on the injured police did not matter. Nana had other things to do.

For example, finding another unlucky person... Hopefully, the second person had also properly bought enough insurance for their beloved car.

As a case file was placed on the conference table, everyone in the smoke-filled meeting room remained silent.

About two hours earlier, a severe chain collision had occurred on the city expressway... Through the local intelligence center, it had been confirmed that ICA employees, assigned conflicting missions, had pursued and fought one another in the city center.

More than fifteen traffic officers had been injured in the pursuit. Another innocent person had been struck while crossing the street by the van running a red light... The poor victim had been hooked on the ram guard and dragged for nearly ten kilometers.

The police did not know whether he had been alive or dead when he was caught on the guard. If he had been alive, the ten kilometers of bloodstains and the corpse whose lower half had been ground away amounted to torture.

By comparison, the two movers in the van's cab had both died instantly from gunshots to the forehead. It could practically be considered a painless release...

"So, can someone tell me what happened? Why did employees from our own subordinate unit commit hostile acts against one another in our jurisdiction? Their pursuit and battle even affected public authorities... What were the handlers doing? And has ICA offered an explanation?"

As the man seated at the head of the table asked sternly, the assistant standing beside him immediately handed over a prepared report.

"Regarding the flaw in the ICA system, ICA's person in charge cannot evade responsibility. Our agents have taken control of the city's High Table, and according to the person responsible for the High Table, this was an operation carried out independently by a mid-level system operator. The system records that can serve as evidence have all been archived."

The man who appeared to be the leader looked at the documents from his assistant and frowned deeply.

"He dispatched Hotel employees under his command... The person involved committed suicide?"

"Yes... Our agents also conducted a follow-up examination. That system maintainer did indeed overdose and commit suicide shortly after completing his interference with the ICA system."

"..."

The entire meeting room fell silent. Then the man, covering his face as though pondering something, painfully waved his other hand, trembling as he pointed at nothing in particular.

"Suicide... What a fine suicide... What about ICA's system?"

"The two opposing missions still exist."

"Why haven't they been changed?!"

"...For ICA employees, neither of those missions is particularly easy to take part in... And any operation on the system leaves a record. In the current situation, no one dares touch either mission."

"Because touching them means being suicided, is that it..."

The man let out a heavy sigh.

"Forget it. An order like 'ensure the Loken Watertank Experiment proceeds smoothly' might indeed be threatened or interfered with by the private armies of technology companies... What about the other one? 'Ensure the safety of the Bruce family'? Can't that order be canceled?"

"...This... Because of ICA's two-way confidentiality regulations, you may not be aware... regarding this employee..."

"Then I should know now. Let me see who they are... Assassin... Number Seventy-Seven?"

Looking at the contents of the document, the leader, who normally dealt with administrative matters, first wore an expression of deep confusion. Then he frowned and held the document close for a long while. Throughout that time, everyone else at the conference table remained silent.

Because just like their superior, they had only learned today that the supposed urban legend in their jurisdiction... was real.

After a period of thought that looked calm and composed but was actually filled with existential doubt, the man looked again at the people seated on both sides of the conference table.

"...Heh... An urban legend against the local economic pillar, is that it? Oh... This assassin is not a legend, and that company is not merely a company either...

"So the situation is that an intangible individual, who is only nominally registered here yet seemingly capable of killing anyone, is going to wage war in our city against a group that controls Laytonson's entire economic lifeline and political landscape?

"Has Number Seventy-Seven's handler arrived? Contact that employee and tell them to stop first..."

That sentence seemed to touch upon everyone's sensitive nerves. Among the two groups staring at one another across the table, a black-haired woman with no obvious racial features stood from the seat at the very end with a reserved smile.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Director."

"...You had better give me a reason..."

"The reason is that Number Seventy-Seven is the assassin I have seen who values contracts most and possesses the strongest sense of justice and compassion. From the day I chose them as my direct employee and sent them to the ICA training institution until now, five years later, they have never abandoned a single contract."

"But if this continues, they will become the biggest terrorist in our jurisdiction..."

"Does Loken Watertank become righteous because it pays taxes? Do you need me to provide Number Seventy-Seven's tax payment records to you? Director, I believe that before you try to quell this incident, you first need to see what Loken Watertank has done... and what has driven Number Seventy-Seven, as an individual, to oppose an entire corporation... even an entire city.

"Yes, Loken Watertank is Laytonson's pillar. Even the Department of Defense has taken notice of its experiment and judged it to be the project most likely to change the balance of the world... But does that make their actions reasonable?

"I think driving an ICA employee to death is only a minor issue for them... Before that, they had already behaved as though they were not human! They treated human beings as mere materials, disregarded the principle of consent, betrayed a father's final wish, and kidnapped the mother and eldest daughter of a family... It was bad enough that they did not leave this family with a single adult. Now, judging by their actions after breaking ICA's rules, they even want those children. Throwing an already shattered family into the abyss seems completely insignificant to them... Is this the kind of corporation we protect and support? One with no bottom line at all?

"Director... Please take a good look at the intelligence submitted by the employees... Can you truly not hear the wails recorded on those videotapes?"

Having raised the question and vented her anger thoroughly, Miss Handler returned to her usual smile.

"If you find even this insignificant, then no matter what I say, and no matter what you ask me to do, I am afraid nothing can stop the arrival of 'war'... Number Seventy-Seven is free. With one side having broken the contract, they naturally will no longer abide by those scraps of paper that even their creators do not obey...

"Let us enjoy this freedom belonging solely to Columbia."

PS: A Number Seventy-Seven disguise that can be revealed.

That's right, she can do it without cat ears too!

1st Rosemary's Embrace: 014 Rest and Set Out

The VIP bulletproof case used a carbon ballistic armor shell. It could withstand ICA standard Level Seven Originium Arts and most light Firearms Arts. It weighed seventy-five kilograms.

The VIP inside the case, together with enough rations and water for three children to use under rationing for one week, weighed approximately fifty kilograms.

Whenever Nana carried the VIP case in her hand, she wondered whether this was the weight of life.

In contrast, the equipment case hanging from her shoulder strap... The folding radar used to spread Originium Arts, together with its Firearms Arts transmitter and the neatly stacked Etch Rounds, weighed less than forty kilograms.