Saiken fought the urge to bolt and stayed put. Before Leo could speak, Susie stepped forward and jabbed a finger at Saiken, shouting:
"You're not Jotaro Shobo—who are you?"
"Yes, yes, you're absolutely right, Big Sis. I'm not Jotaro Shobo. So can I leave now? I'm just an innocent bystander who got dragged into this."
"Innocent bystander? Since when do 'innocent bystanders' hang out in Jotaro Shobo's office? Spill everything you know!"
"I don't know anything. What do you expect me to say?"
"Oh, you refuse to talk? Then we have no reason to let you live."
Before setting out on this raid, Leo had made it very clear: if they didn't want a repeat of the tragedy at Lizzie's, they couldn't leave a single witness alive. Even if someone spouted the most pitiful sob story, there could be no risk of them running off to warn the Tyger Claws. Despite the Mox being mostly women, they were hardly soft or gentle. Seeing Saiken still playing dumb, Susie didn't bother with more threats; she was about to kill him on the spot.
"Too bad," Saiken muttered under his breath. "I was hoping to bluff my way out."
He raised his arm, aiming it at Susie—the obvious leader among the Mox. His skin split open to reveal an internal arm cannon. But Leo had been expecting it. He darted in, closing the distance in a flash. A cold gleam swept across, and Saiken's entire arm was severed at the shoulder, spraying blood across the walls and ceiling. Saiken collapsed, howling in agony, until Leo finished him off with another slash.
Susie and the others gave regretful sighs. They had inflicted heavy damage on the Jotaro Group tonight, but the biggest disappointment was failing to capture Jotaro Shobo himself. The intel had come from Regina's informant.
If Jotaro Shobo truly wanted to lie low now, who knew how long it would take to find him again.
Susie was about to order everyone to pull out when Leo suddenly drew his pistol and fired four shots into the ceiling above her head.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four neat holes appeared in the ceiling. The Mox, Susie included, jumped at the sudden commotion. Susie opened her mouth to demand an explanation but froze as she realized someone else had appeared in the office—a figure dropping down from above.
It was Jotaro Shobo.
He had been hiding between the rafters, biding his time to stab Susie in the back. Leo's preemptive attack forced him to reveal himself, leaving him no choice but to activate his Sandevistan and flee his hiding spot.
"Jotaro Shobo…you didn't run after all?" Susie asked.
"Why would I run?" Jotaro Shobo glanced at Leo warily before focusing on Susie. "This is my turf. Why should I run away from it?"
He turned back to glare at Susie. "So it's you…you're the ones who hijacked my group's transport trucks and destroyed our Glitter labs. Why? The Mox never had any quarrel with my division before. Why would the Mox pick a fight now?"
Susie began trembling in rage at Jotaro Shobo's twisted sense of righteousness.
"Us picking a fight? Jotaro Shobo, why don't you ask yourself how many girls you've harmed? Our Mox alone lost three people to your brutality."
Instead of showing any remorse at Susie's accusation, Jotaro Shobo appeared almost nonchalant.
"So it's just about that? Relax—I didn't let them die for nothing. They contributed to a great work of art. Even if they're gone, the custom braindances I made for them will circulate forever on the dark web."
His shameless bragging revolted the Mox women.
"Ugh! Disgusting!"
"You're scum! Garbage! Worthless!"
"Just die already. A rat like you is wasting our city's food supply!"
Jotaro Shobo paid no heed to their curses. He'd stepped on countless enemies—both inside and outside the Tyger Claws—to rise to the position of lieutenant in the Tiger Claws gang. There were more people who hated him than he could count. People who insulted him to his face usually ended up sealed in cement and dumped in Arasaka Waterfront.
Their hatred didn't bother him in the slightest.
What did pique his interest was the man among these women—Leo.
"Hey, you," Jotaro Shobo said, pointing his blade at him. "I know these Mox girls don't have the brains to pull off something like this. You're the real mastermind, aren't you?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Fine. We lost fair and square. But if you think you can just walk out of here with my life, you're dead wrong."
Susie scoffed at his bravado. "Dead wrong? There are enough of us here to turn you into swiss cheese."
"Oh, really?" Jotaro Shobo's lips curled in a sneer. In the next instant, he vanished, only to reappear moments later. All around him, the Mox's guns clattered uselessly to the floor, severed into twisted scraps of metal.
"What the hell—?"
The women looked around in shock, clearly unable to process what had just happened.
"You…don't tell me…" Susie's eyes widened in horror. She realized there was only one way for him to achieve such a feat. "You implanted a Sandevistan?"
Everyone stared at Jotaro Shobo with a mix of disbelief and dread. Susie's face turned pale. So that explained why he hadn't run—if he charged in and took them on at close range, he could unleash a massacre, thanks to that Sandevistan.
The very idea sent a chill down her spine.
A tense hush fell over the office. Suddenly, a calm voice rang out from within the group.
"Jotaro Shobo—that's your name, right?"
All eyes turned as Leo stepped forward. No one knew what he intended to do.
"As you guessed, I'm the one who orchestrated these attacks on your division," Leo continued.
Jotaro Shobo's gaze sharpened.
"And now you're stepping up to do what? If you're here to beg for mercy, you're too late."
"Beg for mercy? No, not at all. Jotaro, I'm challenging you to a one-on-one fight."
"A fight?" Jotaro Shobo repeated, caught off-guard. Then he thought he understood. This guy must be trying to serve as bait, giving the Mox a chance to take him down somehow. "A man-to-man duel, huh? Fine, I accept."
Zetatech's Sandevistan MK.2 offered up to twelve seconds of heightened speed. Whatever Leo was planning, Jotaro Shobo figured twelve seconds would be more than enough time to kill Leo and then slaughter every last Mox in the room. After all, a Sandevistan's greatest advantage lay in close combat. Once he was in their midst, the Mox women wouldn't stand a chance.
…
"You really plan on fighting him?" V whispered urgently to Leo.
"I said I would, and it's too late to swallow those words now."
"But—" V bit her lip, unable to finish. Jackie, more direct, chimed in: "C'mon, don't do this."
Lucy stayed silent, but in her mind, she already made up her mind: if this so-called "man-to-man duel" started going south, she was going to hack Jotaro Shobo's cyberbrain and fry him from the inside out, unspoken rules be damned.
Meanwhile, Jotaro Shobo was happy to see the others fussing over Leo. He needed a bit of time to let his Sandevistan's cooldown finish resetting anyway. Once he regained full power, he could move in for the kill.
Leo reassured his companions, then pulled up his system interface. A flood of data scrolled across his retinal display like a waterfall of glowing text.
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