I jumped onto a short stone wall, and kept running on an sloped lawn. I saw many people getting out of the assembly hall from the main entrance. It was bright around the vicinity. But, the woman wearing the hood could not be located. She has got to be nearby.
While surveying the surrounding vicinity, I made the approach to the building. My hand was unbuttoning the holster inside the jacket. I rarely shot a gun. I had not even joined the drill as of late.
I found Kusanagi. She was holding the entrance door with her hand. She appeared to be greeting those who were coming out from the building. I walked toward them. As if I was looking for an enemy aircraft, I looked to the right, left, and backward. I was trying to hear just the whispers of the people.
“Oh, it is cold outside.” Someone said.
“See you tomorrow, then.” I heard a few such voices, here and there.
As I climbed down the concrete stairway and stepped onto an asphalt surface, I heard a short and snappy sound that was similar to a tree branch being snapped, from the direction obliquely above and behind me. I looked back.
From an opening of the hedge, whose leaves had already fallen, the tip of a gun was sticking out by about five centimeters. It was pointed to the entrance of the assembly hall.
I took out the gun reflexively and pulled the trigger toward the sky.
Blast.
Followed by screams, with a delay.
Kusanagi lowered her head at the location.
The muzzle of the gun sticking out from the hedge disappeared.
I jumped on a stone wall and ran up the lawn.
I pushed my way through the hedge, and entered the premises.
Many branches were snapped in the process. I put my hands on the ground once.
In the darkness, I saw the object moving.
I ran toward the one.
Toward the parking lot.
Running.
The one stopped before the hedge.
The one was turning to me.
I stopped, too.
“Who? Kurita? Are you Kurita?” She asked.
“This is Kurita.”
“Don’t get too close to me! If you do, I will shoot you.”
“You were attempting to shoot Kusanagi, weren’t you?” I closed in on her.
“Please, do not come here!”
“It is my responsibility, because I let you run away.”
“I beg you! Please!”
I stepped forward.
A gunshot.
Light.
Then, I saw smoke.
Someone has bumped into me. I thought.
That was such an impact.
I saw the gun falling to the ground.
“Sorry.” Sagara’s feeble voice as well.
She was vanishing into the hedge.
Fading away.
The sound of the branches being snapped.
Footsteps from behind.
They were getting closer.
I was still standing.
“Kurita!” Kusanagi’s voice. “Where?”
Although I tried to look back, I knelt down onto the ground.
Once again, the ground seemed to be approaching me, and I crouched down there.
Have I just been shot?
Which part? Abdomen?
I tried to steady my breath.
Settle down, calm down.
The footsteps were approaching.
“Kurita.” Kusanagi raised me in her arms. “Have you been shot?”
“Sorry, ma’am.”
“Call an ambulance!” Kusanagi shouted loudly. “Hey, anybody out there!”
“Are you alright?” I heard another voice. “We have to call the police.”
“Ambulance, first!”
Many dull footsteps.
“Darn it!” Kusanagi made a big sigh. “Can you walk?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I will drive my car to bring you to a hospital. It’s faster that way.”
Kusanagi turned her back to me. I leaned against it. I barely managed to stand up. Rather, I felt that I was being lifted up.
“Hang in there!”
I was starting to feel sick a bit.
“Ma’am, take this ...” I held out my hand. I was still holding the gun.
Kusanagi took it. She seemed to put it into her pocket. She was carrying me. When we climbed down the stairway to the parking lot, she almost tumbled down once. Her car was parked very close.
I could no longer see the things around me. I noticed that the range of my vision was becoming very narrow. However, I was not having any sensation of pain or chill in any part of my body. If so, how can I tell that I have been shot? It made me wonder.
“Mizuki!” Kusanagi shouted while approaching the vehicle. “Open the door.”
I collapsed in the seat. I could not get my legs inside the car by myself. Kusanagi pushed them into the car one by one.
“Mizuki, return to where others are. You can go, can’t you?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Stay in this facility. I will come back later.”
“Alright.”
I could tell that Kusanagi was moving around the car to sit in the driver’s seat. The body of the car shook, and she sat next to me. So as not to interrupt her in the process of shifting the gears, I pulled my hands back. I could move hands. The engine started.
“Oh, I should have reclined your seat.” Kusanagi said. “Are you okay? We’re almost there.”
I nodded without words.
“Does it hurt?”
I shook my head.
-6-