There was a slanted line traced across the attacker’s left cheek, the kind you get from peering through a scope for hours on end. Spotters just used binoculars; they wouldn’t have a mark like that.
The enemy’s fingers trembled as he pointed the gun. Just like Dazai said, he had only one shot. He couldn’t fire unless he was confident he could hit him. Dazai continued to approach the man, welcoming him to pull the trigger.
“Now shoot. Right here. You can’t miss from this close up.” Dazai grinned from ear to ear. “You’ll be killed whether or not you shoot, so just bury the enemy executive before you go.”
“Dazai!” I screamed. I felt as though we were thousands of miles apart.
“Please take me with you. Awaken me from this oxidizing world of a dream. Come, now. Shoot.”
Still pointing at his forehead, Dazai closed in on the enemy with a smile that could’ve even been described as peaceful.
The attacker bit his lip and tightened his finger around the trigger.
—He’s at his breaking point!
The sniper and I fired almost simultaneously.
Two flashes of light flooded the alley.
Shot in the arm, the man spun around.
Dazai violently bent backward after being shot point-blank.
A split second like a blue flash of lightning.
A never-ending instant.
Then time began to move again.
Immediately, Dazai’s men showered the enemy with bullets as he spun from the impact of my shot. Like a rag being pummeled by a waterfall, the man was thrown backward, scattering flesh and blood until he perished.
Leaning away, Dazai took two, three steps back before stopping.
“…………How unfortunate,” he lamented, still bent over. “Looks like I didn’t manage to die this time, either.”
Dazai lifted his head up. The skin on the side of his head, slightly above his right ear, was slit open and bleeding.
The bullet had just missed.
I looked at Dazai. There was something there invisible to the human eye. You could’ve called it demons of the mind—something that could never be seen—just something compelled to destroy all.
“Sorry to shock you like that.” Noticing my gaze, Dazai scratched the side of his head and grinned. “Pretty realistic acting, right? I knew from the start that he would miss. The imprint from the sniper rifle was on his left cheek, meaning that was the side he used to shoot. In other words, he’s left-handed, but he was holding the pistol in his right hand. So he was going to shoot with his nondominant hand, he could barely even stand on those wobbly legs, and to make matters worse, he was using that old-fashioned gun. The only way he would have hit me was if he pressed the muzzle against my body.”
I didn’t say anything. I just stared at Dazai as he explained with a smile.
“All I had to do was talk to him to buy some time until his arm got tired. If I slowly walked toward him, he wouldn’t be able to shoot straight away. The rest was in your hands, Odasaku. I knew you would do something. Pretty logical, right?”
“Yeah.”
That was all I said. I didn’t have anything else to add. Had our ranks or relations been any different, I probably would’ve punched him right then. However, I am me, and there was nothing I could do to him.
After returning my gun to its holster, I turned my back to Dazai and began walking away. With every step I took, I felt as if the ground were going to collapse, creating a bottomless hole that I would fall through for an eternity.
Dazai’s expression as he placed a finger on his forehead and approached the enemy—that of a child about to burst into tears—remained burned into my eyes.
CHAPTER II
The rain came and went after that. Dazai had been running around trying to get information on Mimic, while I wandered around the city in search of clues. I felt as though something important was slipping through my fingers with each passing moment, but I couldn’t see what that something was. The more important it was, the less visible it became to me—especially when I lost it.