“You a cop?” I asked for no particular reason.
“Me?” He squinted his already narrow eyes in utter disgust. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lump me in with a bunch of incompetents! You don’t know who I am? Soon I’ll be a household name throughout all of Japan, so don’t you forget! I am the world’s greatest detective, Ranpo Edo—”
“Sorry about that,” I cut him off midsentence. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m in a hurry.”
“Hey! You’d be a real fool to throw away your chance to talk to this amazing detective! In fact, you won’t be able to resist once you see my skills in action! Allow me to show you s
o I can rid you of any doubts. Hmm, let’s see… The reason you’re in a hurry is…”
The cheerful, haughty young man cackled, then stared at me.
“You…”
His eyes suddenly narrowed, and the air around him instantly chilled. The depths of his almond eyes harbored an inhuman glow.
“You…” Unlike just a moment ago, the young man spoke in a whisper. “I’m telling you this for your own good. You must not go to your destination. Reconsider.”
“Why?”
“Because if you go…………you’re gonna die.”
I lit another cigarette, then turned my back to him. Heading west, I marched on once more. As I walked away, I responded to the young man behind me:
“I know.”
After heading down the forest road flourishing with oak trees, I saw a Western-style building. The first things that caught my eyes were the violet slate roof and the semicircle pediment with its religious motif. Basking in the evening sun, it idly stood out against the forest.
At the end of the narrow gravel path stood two Mimic soldiers with submachine guns. They must’ve been the guards.
“Can I ask you something?”
I casually struck up conversation as I strode toward them. The soldiers, taken by surprise, pointed their guns at me, but I’d already drawn my pistols from the holsters under my arms.
I fired two shots at once, one to the left and one to the right. The bullets buried themselves in their heads before shattering through the opposite side of their skulls. Their blood and brain matter splashed against the trees behind them, and they perished without really even knowing what happened. Their bodies hit the ground with a wet thud that echoed through the forest almost simultaneously. After putting away my pistols, I continued to walk without even looking at the bodies.
As I followed the pathway, I headed to the building’s front door. I looked up at the attic space on the third floor near the rooftop on the other side of the lighting window. There was a sentry on watch holding a sniper rifle. Since I’d avoided his range of sight as I approached, he had no idea there was an intruder right below him.
I snapped my fingers to get his attention. When he followed the sound and noticed me, his eyes opened wide in astonishment. I put a bullet in his head before he could even get a hand on his rifle, and the sniper fell backward and crashed to the floor below with a bang. The soldiers inside had surely noticed that something was wrong now. I headed toward the porch, walking at my normal pace, then stopped to take out a cigarette and lit it. The murky smoke filled my lungs.
I stared at my hands—the hands that had just killed three people. They were my hands in every respect, no different from the hands that had avoided killing all those years. My fingers harbored no lust for blood. Neither did the trigger, nor the bullets. The urge to kill dwelled deep within the reaches of my mind.
Soon a ruckus began to break out inside the building—sounds of yelling, running, and magazines being loaded. I slid to the side of the French front door and leaned against the wall next to the stone pillar. With my back against the hard stone wall, I reached out to my side and knocked on the door. Immediately, there was a rumble as if the ground had cracked open, and countless bullets shattered the door, turning it into nothing more than sawdust in the wind.
I looked out of the corner of my eye with both pistols at the ready. Five seconds. Ten seconds. After twelve seconds went by and the soldiers tried to reload their guns, I pulled the pin out of a grenade and threw it into the building. As the explosion blew out the interior, I spit the cigarette out of my mouth. Then, holding out my two pistols, I rushed inside.
Bullets soared through the smoke. I pitched myself forward onto the floor, firing twice. The flash from the guns lit the room up in white. After rolling forward, I shifted to the side and leaped toward the corner of the room while firing two more shots. Bits of plaster, spurts of blood, and smoke were illuminated by the gunfire. As submachine gun bullets hit the ground below me, I ran alongside the wall knowing where they would land. Numerous empty shells hit the floor, playing the music of war. Before long, I pulled my guns together and fired twice at the enemies in the room’s center. Then there was silence.
All the soldiers that were in my way when I broke in had been taken care of. I surveyed the room. The entrance hall to the Western-style building, having been blown apart by gunfire, was now an atrium. The stained glass near the ceiling dimly tinted the dust and gunpowder smoke inside. Six Mimic soldiers lay dead underneath.
According to what Dazai had said, there were still quite a few enemies left. The bloodbath still had a ways to go.
I began to hear the footsteps of soldiers at the opposite end of the carpeted stairs. My skill allowed me to see only up to five seconds into the future; that wasn’t enough time to figure out what kinds of traps and battle formations the enemy had set up ahead of me.
After reloading my guns, I slowly walked up the staircase. At the top was a long, narrow connecting corridor. If the enemy closed in from the other side, I could take cover while putting up a barrage. I saw soldiers at the end of the corridor, and they immediately drew their guns. I decided to charge the enemy instead.
I rushed down the corridor; it was so narrow that I had almost no space to dodge. There were four enemies charging at me while firing submachine guns, the most optimal weapon at this distance. I bent forward and sprinted toward the Mimic soldier in the very front, then fired my pistol. His forehead took the bullet, bending him backward. Next, I swiftly rushed into the pocket and used the soldier’s corpse as a shield while firing two more shots. A bullet fatally pierced the second soldier’s throat. His fingers spasmed, causing him to shoot a line of bullets into the ceiling.
I kicked the corpse’s sternum, sending it flying into the soldier directly behind him. While the third soldier tried to push the body away, I slipped to his side and struck him in the chin with my palm, then put a bullet through the top of his skull. Crimson liquid splattered against the wall. While the last soldier fired a submachine gun, I jumped to the side and dodged. Then I kicked off the wall once more to evade the line of fire horizontally pursuing me. Just as my leap took me right above the enemy, I unloaded the rest of my clip. I landed at the end of the connecting corridor. Only a brief moment had passed since the first shot. After another second had gone by, I heard the soldier collapse to the ground in the background. I only used the sound to confirm his death before once again continuing on ahead.