Little Rabbit Park was a location that was easy to defend and difficult to attack.
To reach RABBIT Squad's stronghold, one had to pass through a small forest.
According to the intelligence provided by the Valkyrie students, however, the moment anyone entered those woods, they would come under sniper fire from an unknown direction. Even while fighting the rest of RABBIT Squad in their fortified position, they had to remain constantly wary of shots coming from behind.
Although the forest itself wasn't very large, the Public Peace Bureau had already attempted a thorough sweep. Even so, they had failed to catch so much as a glimpse of the sniper, whose concealment skills were exceptional.
In short, the first thing to deal with was that sniper.
If you asked me, blowing away the entire forest and rebuilding it afterward wouldn't have been such a bad idea.
Leaving Fubuki and Kirino behind to await my instructions, I walked alone into the woods at an unhurried pace, listening carefully.
The forest was filled with countless overlapping sounds. There was simply too much information. Even with my Mystic activated, it wasn't easy to isolate the one sound I was looking for in such a short time.
Even so, I wasn't worried in the slightest.
I simply waited for the right moment.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, my ears caught the sound of something cutting through the air.
Before I even had time to focus, another sharp crack followed. The sniper round had been deflected by the Shittim Chest's protection and buried itself harmlessly in the ground.
That meant I had already entered the sniper's effective range.
Unfortunately for her, it also meant something else.
"To your front left, at your ten o'clock."
Arona reminded me.
"I know."
Activating Nodoka's authority, I looked as far as I could along the bullet's trajectory. Through the gaps between the trees, I immediately spotted the sniper from the dossier. At the same time, the range of sounds I needed to focus on narrowed considerably.
"...Eh!? H-how did I miss...!?"
Kasumizawa Miyu.
Matching her face with the name in the file, I gave her a gentle smile.
The black-haired girl lay prone on the ground, covered with a few fallen leaves. Two little birds had even landed on her back. Through her scope, she noticed me looking at her. Startled, she raised her timid crimson eyes before hurriedly getting to her feet, gathering her ammunition and water bottle as she fled to another position.
She was probably just embarrassed.
That was only natural...
"I-I've been spotted...? Or... Ugh... this is so scary... I want to go back to school..."
The next moment, the sniper named Miyu's whimper drifted toward me on the breeze.
Even though she kept saying, "This is so scary," I understood perfectly what she really meant.
"He's so handsome."
So handsome it was frightening.
I took a deep breath and once again put on what I believed was my gentlest smile.
Did she really think she could escape after I'd already found her?
Pretending not to have noticed anything, I carefully tracked Miyu's movements while retreating in the opposite direction, regrouping with the two girls from the Public Safety Bureau.
A short while later, after taking a long detour, we successfully arrived behind Miyu, who was still holding her breath and concentrating entirely on the area ahead.
She had been muttering gloomy things to herself the whole time.
"...How much longer can I keep this up...? Maybe I should've just gone to Valkyrie instead... But if I did... someone like me would probably just be forgotten in some corner where nobody cares... Huh?"
At last, as though finally sensing our approach, Miyu turned around in alarm.
By then, Kirino had already drawn her pistol and aimed it at her.
"Don't move! Hands in the air! You're under arrest!"
Anyone familiar with Kirino's shooting ability would know that she posed practically no threat at all.
"Eek!?"
Completely unaware of that, the black-haired girl trembled in fright.
"H-how did you find me...?"
"My, my. Who would've thought Sensei was just as good at finding people as giving orders? I got credit for almost no effort. Lucky~"
Fubuki grinned.
"Rabbit Sniper-chan, once someone's gotten this close, you might as well stop struggling."
Hearing that, Miyu obediently raised her hands, allowing Kirino to handcuff her before looking toward me.
"S-Sensei? Are you... the one from Schale...?"
"Hello."
I smiled and waved to the nervous girl.
"We meet again."
Miyu's face fell even further.
"S-so scary... Adults are so scary... Uuu..."
I wanted to chat with her a little longer, but this wasn't the right time.
After having Fubuki escort Miyu back to Valkyrie's temporary base, I used the radio I'd borrowed from Kanna to report the news.
"...You dealt with that sniper already?"
Kanna sounded genuinely surprised.
"So that's the extent of Sensei's abilities... Thank you for your contribution. With that taken care of, we can finally focus on capturing the remaining SRT students' position."
"Stick to the original plan. Just provide as much cover as possible until I reach those SRT students."
"Understood. I'll notify everyone."
Probably because I'd achieved, immediately upon arriving, what Valkyrie had failed to accomplish despite exhausting all their efforts, she raised no objections this time and readily agreed.
I was just about to call over Kirino, who had become a little shy now that we were alone together, and have her regroup with the remaining combat-capable Valkyrie students.
However, the very first syllable left my lips before I suddenly stopped.
After casually brushing off Kirino's puzzled question, I listened to the conversation drifting over from RABBIT Squad's position, the corner of my mouth twitching slightly.
"...We suddenly lost contact with Miyu... I'll go check on her. Moe, I'll leave the support to you."
"Even if you say that, support or not, we're already out of ammo, you know?"
"...Huh? How?"
"Didn't I tell you earlier? We used it 'all up,' 'super spectacularly.' We fired everything while chasing that drone. Bang, bang, gone."
So it wasn't that they had so much ammunition they could afford to waste it.
They had literally just been wasting it without thinking about the consequences.
These first-year SRT students...
The only word I could come up with was "inexperienced."
Anything harsher than that felt inappropriate, especially considering Valkyrie had been nearly wiped out by a RABBIT Squad like this.
"Kirino, we're heading in directly."
After a brief moment of thought, I changed my plan.
With their sniper gone and their powerful fire support gone as well, their operator had been reduced to only the most basic combat capability.
The current RABBIT Squad truly was no different from a group of rabbits.
Perfect.
I'll personally see what they're really made of.
That way, this easy-to-claim achievement won't end up in someone else's hands.
I'm going to wipe out RABBIT Squad myself!