Above. But not directly above. Something came flying at him from three o’clock high. There was no sound of gunfire. It wasn’t a bullet.
Sousei ran to the left and leaned against the north interior wall of the clock tower. He heard the sound of hard objects hitting one another. Many times.
Sousei sidestepped left along the wall. Something grazed his right temple and hit the wall behind him just as Sousei turned his head to the left. If he hadn’t done that, it would have hit his right cheek. His right ear got cut a little. Had it been a blade?
Kinoshita was moving.
He was flinging blades while moving along the interior wall of the clock tower. Only the two squares of night sky through the open roof and the gap in the western wall stood out brightly. Everything else was dark. Could Kinoshita see him?
“Ngh…!”
Something stabbed him just above his left collarbone. As he pulled it out with his right hand, he jumped not to the left, but to the right. The object he’d pulled out was a small knife without a guard. A throwing knife?
It might have been because Sousei was now holding one, but the throwing knives suddenly stopped flying toward him. If Kinoshita had thrown another, Sousei had been planning to throw one back in the direction it had come from.
He’s reading my movements…
Where was Kinoshita? Sousei didn’t know. He couldn’t sense anything at all.
But he’s…figured out my location. I’m sure of it.
There were no gunshots. Did he not have a gun or bullets? Or was he not planning to shoot Sousei? The roar of gunfire in a residential area wouldn’t be a good idea. Did that mean Kinoshita had at least that much discretion? Or perhaps he was trying to make Sousei think he wouldn’t shoot.
He’s not going to shoot me.
Sousei decided to make an educated guess.
Kinoshita wouldn’t have thought that he’d be able to settle things with small throwing knives. They were likely just a diversion.
He’d had the kind of double-edged knife used by special forces in the United Kingdom and United States, and he seemed to be quite accustomed to using it.
…The endgame is going to be close combat.
Sousei adjusted his grip on the throwing knife and took a fighting stance. The knife had no guard, and he couldn’t expect it to be particularly sharp. It wasn’t too different from a fruit knife. Still, it was better than nothing.
He pinned down my movements. He should be coming to attack…
Where?
Where was he?
Trying to close in on Sousei.
Perhaps even getting closer to him already.
Sousei couldn’t sense anything. Was Kinoshita really able to erase his presence so completely?
Above…
It was a gut feeling. Or perhaps it was Sousei’s experience or the memory of being ambushed by Kinoshita from above that spurred him into action. Sousei swung the throwing knife upward at an angle. It cut through the air about sixteen inches directly above his head. The air was all it cut.
“Ah…”
But there was a sound like someone catching their breath.
He was there. Kinoshita. Sousei couldn’t see since it was so dark, but Kinoshita had probably been walking on the walls trying to approach him. No, he was already close. Very close.
He attacked. Was it a knife? Sousei tried to fight back by lunging out with his own weapon.
“…Huh…?!”
He barely managed to counterattack, but that… It was different. What Kinoshita had swung down at him wasn’t a knife. It was something else entirely. What was it? It wasn’t a blade. The next attack didn’t come from above but from the side. He was attacked by the thing from the left. He couldn’t dodge it, and it sunk into his left cheek.
“Gah!”
Sousei instantly threw himself to the ground. Was it a blunt object? Probably some kind of hammer. Sousei’s cheekbone might have been shattered.
The walls. Kinoshita could freely walk or run on them. Sousei had to get away from the walls. But even if he got away from them, it didn’t mean he could escape from Kinoshita. Vertical walls and horizontal floors were all the same to him.
Sousei jumped to his feet, but as soon as he did, he received a crushing blow to the outer part of his right ankle, then his right knee. He couldn’t keep standing and fell toward the opening in the wall, the impact reverberating sharply, heavily in the bruise on his chest.
Regardless, Sousei crawled toward the opening. As he tried to crawl forward, Kinoshita pummeled him with the blunt object.
The throwing knife had disappeared somewhere. Sousei couldn’t look down toward the ground, though. He had to protect himself.
Sousei turned sideways with his left arm down and curled his body into a ball. When he tried to protect his head with his right arm, his shoulder, elbow, and wrist on that side of his body were pummeled by the blunt object. In a heartbeat, his right arm had become completely unusable.
“Ah-ha!” Kinoshita cried.
He was laughing.
Wha…?
Sousei thought it was strange, but he had bigger problems to deal with at that moment. His enemy’s weapon was a blunt object, like a hammer. It wasn’t big. The handle was about twelve inches long. A small hammer with a metal head. Kinoshita was using that hammer to beat the shit out of Sousei, but wasn’t exactly showering him with blows. It was the joints. Kinoshita wasn’t hitting anywhere and everywhere, but was aiming at his joints.
Sousei’s left arm was still under his body. His right arm was unusable. It wasn’t just his shoulder, elbow, and wrist—even his fingers had been struck by the hammer. Moving them properly would be out of the question. He couldn’t move them at all.
How were his legs? Both of his knees were pretty thoroughly broken, but they weren’t completely shattered. He could still move them a little, but they might not be of any use.
Shit… Shit, shit, shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit…
It hurt. It hurt as if his brain was being directly messed around with, even though the brain itself doesn’t have any pain receptors. Where did it hurt? Where was the pain coming from? He didn’t know. In any case, it hurt. Electrical signals travel through the spinal cord to the brain and are perceived as pain. Ultimately, it’s the brain that creates the sensation of pain. That was why his brain hurt. It was the only way Sousei could perceive it in that moment.
The pain was affecting his ability to think. He was pushing the pain aside to think, trying to somehow form coherent thoughts.
I have to die.
That’s right.
Dying is the only option.
How?
…I’ll use it.
What?
My concealed weapon.
Sousei Takarai was pretending to be a normal high school student. He didn’t carry weapons on him unless he was working. Normal high school students didn’t carry things like weapons. The ice pick-shaped tool which was hidden in the sleeve of his school uniform jacket was different. It wasn’t a weapon. It wasn’t that it couldn’t be used to kill people, but he didn’t use it for that. It wasn’t a tool for murder.
His right hand wouldn’t move. He’d use his left. His left arm was protected under his body. His left hand would move. Would it be possible for him to get to his left sleeve? It didn’t seem like he’d be able to take out the concealed weapon he’d planted there. In that case, he’d have to go with the right sleeve. He had a concealed weapon in that sleeve as well, but it was heavy. His body was heavy. It was getting in his way. His left arm was under his body.