Everyone"Good afternoon. Today's operation is a snatch and grab. Your target is one Tsuyotomi Daichi, real name Hashimoto Hanzo."A model of him appears beside the AIs, a middle-aged man with a powerful build and an awfully expensive suit. Floating next to him is a logo taking the form of a stylized eight-headed serpent.
"We have reason to believe he is a member of the Kujushi" "Think Yakuza 2.0" "and involved with the recent string of kidnappings."Right, those. Sakurako wasn't a one-off, people have been disappearing. No ransom, nothing. Just snatched off the street, never to be seen again.
"Yes. While we've made some progress in foiling these attempts, we've been unable to discern destination of the victims - the kidnappers never delivered them directly, only ever through middlemen. The Kujishi as it happens.""Needless to say, there's a bit of an infrastructural disparity between mononoke and a full-blown crime syndicate, mundane as they may be. So we need a lead and Hanzo fits that bill.""Hanzo will be at the ELYSIUM nightclub this evening. He usually has a VIP booth reserved . You'll be entering the nightclub under covers - plainclothes officers of Sendo PD, our partners for this little endeavor, and apprehending him. Easier said than done of course - we expect he'll have some mononoke guarding him, Hunters from the Ministry of Red most likely."Hanzo's projection is replaced with something far more fantastical. It looks like some bizarre art installation, a mummy-like figure formed from wide strips of still-liquid paint striped black red, its uniform giving it a knightly visage albeit with a visor made from clear plexiglass and tactical armor in place of plating. Next to it is an eye sigil with a stylized sword in its pupil and the words
Nii-chan Is Watching.
Faith, you recognize that as being the sort of mononoke you saved Sakurako from. Minato, much the same but you just recently had a few of them try to run you down in a van. Yuki, you haven't seen these particular ones before, but there were those things you fought with Pia and Tahmras, these look much the same just with different outfits and red instead of purple.
"They're firearm specialists, predominantly armed with arcane munitions. They tend to favor suppressive fire and striking from multiple angles. Expect a high volume of fire coming you way. Their Reinforcement magic is fairly strong so cover will mean something to them. I'd advise going for their officers first if possible - that should weaken their command structure and deny them access to supportive abilities.""Take care when fighting the ones with the harnesses - it wreathes them in a temporal anomaly letting them move instantly and negate attacks. Your best options against them would be a wide area attack or something high velocity, preferably done at close range.""In addition to their usual loadouts, the ones in this kidnapping operation have access to performance enhancing syringes."You ever seen a novelty dildo? Well this, is to a USB stick what a novelty dildo is to a regular dildo. If it were crossed with an autoinjector.
Armor overlays on top of the Hunter, angular with psychedelic smoke and blue-shifted light leaking from its gaps. They have a striking resemblance to those constructs you fought in the Apple Estate Sanctuary. The ones that damn near tried to detonate Faith's lungs.
"Hyperspace Dopants. Believe me, we didn't come up with the names here. They're related to the work conducted inside the Apple Estate Sanctuary, such a shock I know, they're related to a certain Project Rainbow, we're still piecing together the details at the moment.""This alternate form enhances their mobility, durability, and close quarters performance. In particular it allows them to phase out of reality when attacking.""To our knowledge, Hanzo himself is not Awakened. But in situations like this, we would expect the mononoke to have a fail-safe in place. A kill-switch.""In other words, the man's probably a walking bomb and they'll probably set him off at the first sign of trouble. You should be able to figure it out and disable it if you get a close enough look at him.""But keep an eye out for mundane measures too, they could have tricked him into carrying a bomb on him. Look for something with decent volume, like a pen or a phone.""Keep a look out for other Kujushi members too. There's bound to be a few there as security and there's always the chance one of them's Awakened."