The NOL branch

Shinju went into the building, just coming back from another boring mission... only to discover the mass of corpses lying around here. Each man of her squad that was just behind her was shocked, but she wasn't. The job was not as sure nowadays as it had been some years ago. Ragna the Bloodedge was one serious threat... and possibly the one behind all this slaughter. What could have happened here...? Weren't people here ready for any surprise attack? Leading her small squad, she ordered them:

"No time to fool around. Try to find here any hint that could tell us who is the criminal behind that rampage."
Her men were phased, immediately having thought of the Bloodedge, they assumed it was the only person capable of all this damage: "Captain Shimotsuki, are you sure that it is not Ragna the Bloodedge?"

Crouching near the corpse of a dead colleague, the Captain was examining him. He had clearly been stabbed. So that's not the Grim Reaper... His sword is enormous from what I've heard... Some of them look as the victims he did though. "I can safely assume that he was not alone... even if he is probably not that foreign to this incident."

After a while, noticing her men's laziness, she became bored of it, not finding many more things herself. "I am in the office rooms if someone looks for me. Clean this mess as soon as possible." Hearing that she was obeyed, she headed to where her superiors were.

Nothing in the offices either... Shinju didn't find anybody in the offices either. Upon informing the authorities, she thought: What will the NOL look like if we can't fight any rebellion? Or maybe the superior officers just ran away. There is no trace of any fight in here. Everything is absolutely tidy, no corpse, and god knows if all those bureaucrats get out of there at the same time. There were now possible desertions to count as well... whatever kind of order the NOL was bringing was starting to crumble before that rebellious Bloodedge... and Shinju couldn't stand it.

Shinju walked down the stairs. Her men had been doing their job quite well. Not quite the ones that faced the Grim Reaper, but there weren't exactly the same jobs. Shinju informed her squad, upon coming back to the office where she called her superiors: "I'm likely to be called soon. I do not want anyone to disturb me for a while."

Cutting through the silence of the office, the telecom sounded with an electric whine. Over the secure, private line a deep masculine voice spoke slowly into the speaker. The sinister timber was none other than Relius Clover, the infamous Puppet Master. "Captain Shimotsuki, I trust everything is in order under your command in the 7th Hierarchical City now that the violence has ended. However, the Library will not stand idly by and allow such disrespect to go unpunished. You are hereby ordered to seek out the culprits of the attack and decimate them, no prisoners. As I speak a full company of 200 soldiers is en route to your position as additional reinforcements. Do with them as you wish but mark me well Captain, failure will not be tolerated."

Shinju heard the voice speaking: it was Relius Clover. What does the Engineering Department has to do with that? The orders were clear: she was charged to find out the cause of all this and eliminate them. But as an eventual failure's consequences were clear as always, other things were not... and the Captain was ready to put this in relief:
"Understood. But, Colonel, do you know who the culprits are? As of now, I can't be exactly sure that Ragna the Bloodedge is involved. And it is quite clear that he was with somebody. I hope you sent some Intelligence soldiers in your 200 people. And I fear that few soldiers would be able to help me win against the Grim Reaper..."

"Fine." Shinju's objective would be a bit more simple than she thought. Actually it would only be shorter. What the Captain didn't understand is why the Colonel Clover and the Captain Hazama were given this many responsibilities. The Intelligence and the Engineers should have nothing to do with military operations. Why are these two always in charge? But she didn't pay it no other thought as of now, as this was not her objective.

"I have other bad news, Colonel Clover. We found only soldiers' corpses, I think the superior officers took their leave. The offices are fairly clean, which suggests that nobody went there. Desertions are to be predicted as noone ever came back." Shinju heard some noise and took a further attention to it, mere seconds were enough for her to guess it.

"The soldiers arrived. I will proceed to track down Ragna the Bloodedge. This was Captain Shinju Shimotsuki, over." On those words, Shinju cut the communication, and after reuniting her 200-soldier squad in the halls, briefed the men and led the way to eliminate the most wanted criminal of all time.

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