She felt powerless, like always. Her entire life was like this, and that would probably never change… But how could she go on living like that?
“Fuck off!”
“Now, now, don’t make noise.”
Ishihara quickly covered her mouth with his hand, and Kana bit it fiercely, her sharp canines piercing through his flesh until she felt bone and heard a crunch.
The teacher yelped, and the weight holding Kana down disappeared. A chance to esca—
He hit her, slapping her face so hard she crashed into the wall. Kana collapsed to the floor, lights flashing in her eyes. It hurt so much that she wailed like a baby.
“Shit… You bitch!”
Ishihara stalked over to her, blood dripping from his hand. He wasn’t wearing that usual dumb smile on his face. He looked absolutely furious.
Kana was seized with a primal fear. She thought he might kill her.
Her bag, where was it? She had to get it. Where did she leave it? It should be next to the chair…
“Ah…”
Ishihara stood between her and the chair, with Kana’s bag next to his feet. Shaking from fear, Kara desperately lunged, trying to get her bag, when Ishihara kicked her in the stomach.
“What is wrong with you?! You needed money, so I tried to help you, and this is the thanks I get?!”
Kana was sprawled on the floor, but she had her bag. She’d managed to grab it before he’d kicked her away. She didn’t need to be afraid anymore.
Kana reached inside the bag, into a hidden pocket between the double lining, and took out what she’d been carrying around with her all this time.
“Don’t move!” she shouted, pointing the thing at him.
It was a small semiautomatic pistol, Glock 42. It fit into her small hand perfectly, as if it were custom-made.
“What do you think you can do with that toy, huh?”
It was a real gun, not a toy. Kana quickly racked the slide back to load a round in the chamber, swiftly returning her hand to the grip.
The metallic sound, the change in Kana’s behavior, the look in her eyes, and the very genuine look of the gun made Ishihara suddenly lose confidence that it was just a toy.
Kana wiped her tears with her left hand, keeping Ishihara in the gun’s sight while holding it one-handed for a moment. She realized her nose was bleeding, so she wiped the blood off her face with the back of her hand, and then she grabbed the grip with both hands again. She moved her right leg back and held the gun with her right hand directly on the grip and the left hand over it for support, arms extended. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the Weaver stance, which Takina had explained to her when they’d been staging that scene at the café for the manga artist.
Kana was confident she could shoot Ishihara. She was sure she could kill him.
“What the hell are you doing, Katashi? What is this?”
She didn’t reply to him. There was no need. The teacher had lost all authority he’d had over her. Now, she decided what happened. She’d already won, so she didn’t need to say anything. There would be no negotiating.
She was breathing through clenched teeth, the air hissing like the panting of an animal. She could taste blood in her mouth. It could be hers, from her bleeding nose, or Ishihara’s, from when she’d bitten him. That second possibility grossed her out, and she spat at the desk.
“Let’s not play games, Katashi. Put that toy away,” Ishihara said after a long silence.
He tried to smile, but he was sweating profusely, clearly afraid, even though he still refused to believe that an unassuming schoolgirl had been carrying a real gun in her school bag. Categorizing her as a girl trying to intimidate a grown-up with a toy gun made him feel more at ease.
“Don’t expect to get away with this, Katashi. Injuring a teacher and then threatening them with a toy gun is ridiculous. Give it up already.”
He must have convinced himself that he was right and that the gun was a toy. Looking sure of himself again, he started walking toward Kana, who responded by putting her index finger on the trigger.
She only needed to pull her finger back ever so slightly, and Ishihara would die. Her Glock was chambered in .380 ACP. This caliber was slightly less powerful than the standard 9×19mm Parabellum, but it could still kill a person in a single shot if she aimed properly.
“Stay away, or I’ll shoot!”
“Go on, shoot me with that toy gun.”
If she only wanted to, she could kill him. But uncertainty took hold of her. Should she shoot him? The world would certainly be better off without that man…but he wasn’t on her death list. She only had five bullets, one for each of the five people she intended to kill. She’d have to remove someone from her list if she shot Ishihara. Her father was at the bottom of the list.
Which one deserved to die more, her father or Ishihara?
Unable to make up her mind, Kana froze with her finger on the trigger.
“You’re going to pay for this, Katashi. I hope you know that…”
He reached toward her with his arm. Kana told herself to stop thinking and just pull the trigger, but her finger wouldn’t move…
Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The ear-piercing noise was the emergency alarm. Kana and Ishihara froze, suddenly at a loss as to what to do. They both looked toward the hallway where the sound was coming from.
They heard someone running outside the room, opening the doors of the empty classrooms. They reached the counseling room, but the door only rattled in the doorframe as they tried to pull it open. It was locked. Kana hadn’t even noticed when Ishihara had locked the door behind them.
“Is someone in there?! There’s a fire! Everyone must evacuate!”
Ishihara sucked his teeth in annoyance and unlocked the door. He was blocking her view, so Kana couldn’t see who was standing outside the room, but she was wearing a white coat, so maybe it was the school nurse. Whoever it was, she couldn’t let them see the gun, so Kana picked up her bag and quickly hid her hand with the gun inside.
“Mr. Ishihara, everyone must evacuate the building! Please go to the emergency assembly area!”
“Yes, yes, of course. How did the fire start? Hold on, I don’t think I’ve seen you—”
“Mr. Ishihara! You’re wounded?! What happened?!”
“Oh, this… I… The alarm surprised me, and I stumbled…”
“This must be attended to at once! Quick, come with me to my office! Come!”
“Your office? But what about the alarm…?”
Ishihara was getting confused. Kana took that chance to sneak past him and the nurse. She thought she could hear Ishihara shouting while she ran down the hallway, but she ignored him. She ran out of the schoolhouse, still in her indoor shoes. Outside, students who had stayed after classes for club activities and some teachers were standing in the designated evacuation area, unsure of what was happening. Kana was out of breath, and she didn’t want to join the others, so she hid behind a stone monument commemorating the school’s founding in a corner of the school grounds. Ishihara didn’t seem to be coming after her.
Everything was okay. She’d done well. She hadn’t wasted a precious bullet on Ishihara. She was okay. She was okay. She was okay…
She straightened her clothing and tried to calm her breathing and mind, but suddenly, tears started streaming from her eyes again. She crouched down, covering her mouth with her hand, and silently sobbed, the big teardrops rolling down her cheeks one after another.
“Are you okay, Kyouko?”
Ruri appeared out of nowhere, her smile making Kana think of a snake just before it struck its prey.
“Tee-hee… Did something happen between you and Ishihara? Tee-hee… That perv…”
Her beautiful face lit up with grotesque joy, telling Kana that Ruri had been waiting for her. That she was sure Ishihara would call her up to the counseling room and maybe assault her as well.
“You posted it! You posted that picture!” Kana shouted, getting back to her feet.
“Hey, chill. I blurred the name on your jersey and half of your face. Oh, and I edited out the hands holding you down. It’s actually pretty amazing that Ishihara recognized you. I guess he’s had lots of practice, that Peeping Tom.”
“You’re scum!”
“Be nice, or I’ll post your real name and address on that site too. Don’t ever go against me again. I went through a lot of shit last night because of you. What happened to you is nothing in comparison.”
Kana wanted to take her gun out and shoot Ruri there and then, but the sound of sirens stopped her. Emergency vehicles were arriving at the school, alerted by the fire alarm. There were fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars…
Kana wasn’t brave enough to take her gun out, knowing the police were there.
Ruri’s two tea club friends came over with the same cruel, smug smiles as Ruri’s. Their giggling was torture.
“Ruuuriii! Are we doing the tea club tonight?”
“Of course we are! My boyfriend’s expecting me.”
“I wonder how many people will turn up this time. It’s going to be fun!”
Kana clutched her bag to her chest, turned away from the girls, and started running. She’d made up her mind. She was going to begin her plan today. She’d do it. She’d kill them, the five targets on her list. There was a certainty in her stride.
“Excuse me, we need a stretcher! One person got seriously injured. It’s pretty bad… He’s in the nurse’s office!” a woman called out to the paramedics, who went to help her right away.
Kana ran past them in the commotion. Nobody tried to stop her. A uniformed schoolgirl was the very picture of innocence, after all. Nobody would ever guess that this small, young girl was carrying a gun capable of killing five people in her bag. Or that this particular girl had decided she’d become a murderer that day.