Chapter 26 - November 23: The Smiley Shopping Mall Part Two

“Ahahaha! Hit, hit! Bullseye~~!”

The man laughed loudly while clapping his hands.

He looked like a clown dancing wildly as if he’d gone mad.

“......”

I looked at the fallen woman and recalled something.

Thirteen years earlier.

I was still a student, watching TV while eating breakfast.

Among the trivial news, one story was reported especially prominently: the

"Shimoicho Family Massacre."

It was an incident where an entire family was stabbed to death, leaving only a single boy alive.

The physical features of the man reported back then seemed similar to the man who just threw the knife.

Without hesitation, I opened fire with my submachine gun at the man laughing like a madman.

Thanks to the suppressor, the gunshots were muffled.

Those bullets were supposed to hit the man’s body without fail.

They were supposed to.

“Whoa, watch out!”

The man performed an acrobatic backflip and dodged the bullets.

“Tch…”

I couldn’t help but click my tongue.

I never thought the bullets I fired with the intent to kill would be dodged.

I immediately opened fire again, forcing the man to move to the other side of the car.

“What’s your purpose?”

I asked while aiming my gun.

“There are various reasons, but the main one is—”

The man leapt out of the car and threw a knife.

“To kill you, I guess?”

“Ugh!?”

The man’s knife stabbed into my hand.

(Throwing a knife so accurately from that position…)

I took aim and fired, but the man had already climbed back into the car and was leaving the parking lot.

“This is boring, so I’m heading back!”

He shouted as he waved at me and drove the car away.

Total defeat.

Well, I guess just staying alive counts as a win.

I rushed over to the woman.

“Hey, are you alive?”

There was no response.

The knife was deeply embedded, and there was blood.

Although the knife was plugging the wound, there was quite a lot of blood.

It’s not like people dying is anything special.

Countless comrades have died right before me.

But this woman...

“I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry.”

This was the first time I felt regret for not being able to protect someone.

Once I had some breathing room, I thought I’d mourn her death.

But that feeling vanished in an instant.

Because the woman got up and started laughing.

“Ahahaha! Teehee! ‘Sorry,’ he says! Heh heh heh! My stomach hurts, my stomach hurts!”

As she rolled around on the ground, the knife hit the floor with a clattering sound.

“Why did you—?”

“This blood? It’s ketchup! Pfft! Haha, hehe! And anyway, these clothes are slash- and bullet-proof! Ahahahaha!”

Come to think of it, that made sense.

Even if a knife thrown from that far actually hit, it wouldn’t cause that much bleeding.

Besides, there was no fishy smell.

By this point, my anger had reached its peak, but more than that—

“Don’t make me worry…”

I felt relieved.

All the strength drained from my body.

“W-w-whoa… this is kind of unsettling…”

The woman scratched her head shyly, then looked over at me and immediately tilted her head.

“Huh? Captain, were you wearing that kind of accessory?”

She was pointing at the knife deeply stuck in my hand.

“It’s real.”

When I said that, her face went pale.

“Q-quick, bandages! Gauze! Disinfectant! Ambulance! Medic!”

Flailing her arms and legs wildly, she started searching through the clothes.

Watching her like that, I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.