Loups-Garous (59 page)

They had been under the light of the full moon.

“He said there were times he couldn't get over it. Times he felt like breaking everything and nothing he could do about it. That's why…”

Ayumi looked at her knife.

“He bought this knife and started walking around with it, and the unfulfilled dreams, the dreams he couldn't satisfy, would be tempered. That's what he said. Then, with his head still lowered, he handed me the knife. I killed him,” Ayumi said plainly.

“That was my first time.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I don't know.”

“Why did you kill him?”

“I told you, I don't know. If I knew, I wouldn't have done it,” Ayumi said. “All I know is that I was being attacked and that I was scared. I was annoyed by his sorry way of explaining himself. But I didn't have any destructive motives. I wasn't trying to break him. I wasn't mad at him, and it wasn't spiteful. But when he handed me this knife…”

Ayumi held the knife up close to her face.

“With his head lowered, crying, yeah. It was a full moon. The round moon was high up in the night sky. And then…and I knew that was
the moment
.”

“The moment?”

It was a brief moment.

A thousandth of a second. The slightest of openings.

“The very next second he was dead. A lot of blood spewed from the gash across his throat. I was confused and didn't know what to do, and for a whole day I just sat there staring at the dead body. Finally, I dug a hole, buried him. You saw it, Hazuki.”

“That stone?”

That large stone.

Under that large stone.

“That's his grave. The grave I made for him. Since then I've been going back to the grave all the time.”

“You were feeling guilty.”

“No, I wasn't. The time of guilt has passed. Even a child could tell you that. There's no point in apologizing to a grave. That's just selfish. I just…I kept wondering why I did it. I decided to go to the police when I figured it all out,” Ayumi said. “And I'm not just saying that. At the time, I wouldn't have been able to explain anything if they'd arrested me. If they'd asked why I did it, I wouldn't have been able to answer. It's the same now. I wasn't taking revenge against bad people. But at this rate,

I'm becoming a serial killer. I didn't do anything for the good of mankind. It wasn't to make up for lost friends. I'm just a murderer,” Ayumi said, and let just a single tear fall.

“I talked with Miss Fuwa and gained some perspective. I finally understood that killing people is indeed wrong. That's why I…”

“You're not planning on killing yourself, are you? Because that would be unforgivable,” Rey Mao said. “Don't make this some beautiful self-realization. That would be tacky. What about it, Ayumi?”

“I don't think about wanting to die.”

“But it sure as hell sounds like you're prepared to die.” Rey Mao lifted her head and slowly stood up. “I don't care if I have to use brute force, I'm not letting you go.”

Ayumi looked at Rey Mao with a sad face. “You're a friend.”

Rey Mao moved swiftly to the card reader to block it.

“Stop it, Rey Mao.”

“No. You asked once if I liked protecting the weak. I couldn't answer then, but I want to now. I do. I am a petty humanist for narcissistic reasons. It's just like you said. I like rescuing cats, taking care of them.

I'm a teenage braggart. I knew it as soon as you called me out. That's why I consider myself your friend,” Rey Mao said. “Though I realize what a nuisance it must be for an undocumented resident to be saying that to you.”

“Nuisance is right.”

“Ayu…”

There was a knife at Mao's throat.

“You can't stop me.”

“A-Ayumi.”

“I'm going to say it again,” Ayumi said. “I'm a weak fighter. I don't know how to fight. But I do know how to kill. All you can do is punch me. All I can do is kill you.”

“Ayu—”

Hazuki approached.

“Ayumi.”

“Don't come any closer, Hazuki.”

“But—”

“I…I might kill you too.”

“No. I don't want you to do that,” Hazuki said.

“If I end up killing you, what am I going to do next? So don't tell me we're friends. Let me go. I'm sorry,” Ayumi said, and withdrew the knife and put her hand on Rey Mao's shoulder to push her away from the door.

The door opened.

“Ayumi…”

The blood-soaked young woman turned toward Hazuki's voice.

“I'll be all right.”

The door closed.

CHAPTER
026

IT SOUNDED LIKE
thunder in the distance.

Shizue became aware of her sensitivity to sensory input.

“What was that sound just now?”

“It sounded like something just exploded. Maybe that guy fired his gun.”

With his left arm held up in a sling made of his shirt, Kunugi grimaced. “I don't know how loud a handgun is supposed to be, but I do know how advanced the soundproofing is in a room of this build. The walls in this room in particular are made of the highest grade soundproof material.”

“Yeah? That was a pretty loud sound then.”

“A big bang, yes, but also at a very low register, so there was certainly a large reverberation as well. Of the entire building.”

“Reverberation, eh?” Shizue said. “Well if that's the sound of some terrorists storming in with an ancient piece-of-shit tank borrowed from some third-world country in a civil war, then I'm glad to hear it. Otherwise, I'm sorry, but no civilized country right now has the weapons necessary to take down a building of this magnitude. Not even a bombing run would do the trick.”

Kunugi visibly restrained himself from making pained expressions as he stood up.

“What are you doing? You'll just exhaust yourself if you try to stand.

Why don't you just sit down?”

“Just in case. I'm an old man with old habits.”

Boom. This time it was closer.

“That just lowered the voltage.”

“Voltage?” Shizue looked up. The purplish light started blinking.

“Something's wrong.”

“The twenty-year-old lamp in my room does that.” Shizue's glare was interrupted before Kunugi could finish his joke.

The lights suddenly went out. They were sitting in dark silence. The light…

“Power outage?”

“Not in a building like this. There's a medical center in here after all. They'd have a backup generator, by law. They'd have at least a backup battery or some kind of power supply.”

The touch screen was lit up.

This wasn't a power outage.

Random numbers ran across the screen of the touch screen, which then went blank.

“We can probably open the doors now.”

Shizue flew at the door with her eyes on the red digits left glowing on the screen, and pushed.

“Hurry. Help me!”

“I can't see,” Kunugi said as he approached her.

Shizue felt a groove under the door.

“Here.”

She tried first to get her nails under it, and then her fingertips. It was heavy.

The door moved slightly with a groan. Just as she thought. She applied all her strength in pulling it up.

A window.

One more pane. Kunugi applied his right arm.

A low groan.

The door opened.

“Get out, now.”

Shizue pushed Kunugi through the half-open door, then followed him out.

The hall was also pitch black.

“Somewhere…”

“A hiding place?”

Two or three flashes of light coursed through the hall, lighting it up for a moment.

At almost the same time the door to the microbe room slammed shut.

“Over there.”

Shizue went toward the hall she thought would lead directly to the room Ishida was in. Kunugi followed her, dragging one bad leg.

“Hey. Don't leave this old fart in the dust.”

“I can't do anything with a dead old fart. Hurry.”

For some reason Kunugi stopped and sank when they reached what looked like a kitchenette.

“How did we get rescued?”

“We haven't been rescued yet. Someone's attacking this building though. Probably.”

“Attack? This isn't a game.”

“No…”

The first sound was a physical explosion.

The power outage after that though…

It was a key-lock override.

All the doors in the entire building were probably unlocked now.

Why?

Was it to get in or to get out?

It couldn't have been done from inside.

In which case…

Someone was coming in.

Shizue felt something beyond the hallway. She held up Kunugi as he tried to move, and looked around the corner.

It was Yudani and the Frenchman Arvil.

The thin man with the firearm and the large Frenchman were running down the hall in the other direction.

There was an elevator on the other side.

Neither of them passed by the microbe room and probably didn't notice anything.

The large ornamented door was open.

“Let's go, Kunugi. Ishida should be alone now.”

“I want to say okay, but what do you plan on doing?”

“That insane, sorry excuse for a police lieutenant has to help us save the children.”

Shizue ran out into the hall.

There was no sign of the violent guards.

The large door was still open.

No.

It was closing.

Shizue threw off her shoes and ran down the hall with all her might.

“Wait!”

Beyond the door, Ishida winced.

She would make it. She would throw her leg in.

Ishida's face showed incredulity, and he was unable to close the door for some reason. He simply withdrew into the room. His eyebrows furrowed with fear.

“Miss Fuwa…”

“What happened? Is it terrorists?”

“Well, it really looks like it might be.”

“What did you say?”

Kunugi finally reached them. Shizue stepped into Ishida's room. She closed the ornamented door after Kunugi.

She heard the electric lock close.

“You're not surprised? You're letting us in.”

“I don't mind. The room will get slightly dirty, but there's no way you're getting out.” Ishida, looking ever disgusted, walked over to the desk.

“Wait. You think you're going to call those goons?”

“Relax. There's no need for them.” Ishida sat down at his desk and looked at the wall behind him. “Right now, no one's looking for you. Just sit.”

“What's the rush?”

Kunugi dragged his feet and sat down in the chair he'd started in.

“Hey, you.”

“No need for formalities or anything,” Ishida said.

One wrinkle formed on his brow.

Kunugi narrowed his bloodshot right eye and let out a
hmph
.

Ishida pulled up the monitor screen.

“Takasugi. Hey, Takasugi. Hmm? What's going on?”

“Did something happen to your Takasugi?” Kunugi asked.

“That's none of your business,” Ishida said.

“Mr. Ishida. Is everything all right?”

“Yes. It's under control,” sounded his voice. His face was on the screen. “The results of the experiment were quite satisfactory. I think you'll like what you see.”

“Understood. But tell me, what's the situation with the earlier accident?”

“It hasn't reached here,” Ishida said.

“Just the main entrance, then. Anything happen after that?”

“We're not sure ourselves,” he replied.

There were what appeared to be area patrols in the background of the screen.

The image kept blurring.

The voices were also jarred.

It was noisy.

“What's going on? I can't hear you very well. Perhaps you can send it to me in writing.”

The power lines
was the last thing they heard clearly.

“Have you confirmed the identity of the intruder? Is there indeed an intruder?”

“Unconfirmed,” the zig-zagging image said in a broken voice.

“Understood,” Ishida said. He tried paging Takasugi again but closed the call when Takasugi didn't answer.

Then Ishida looked over his shoulder again.

“Why are you so anxious? Is there something important in the wall behind you?”

“W-what did you say? You're not…It's nothing.”

For the first time Ishida appeared worried.

“What? It's all right. Tell us about it,” Kunugi said. “I'm getting a life sentence, remember? I'm never going to find work in society again. This little lady, Miss Fuwa—I'm going to kill her, right? So you can tell us what you're doing. Why you're killing so many people every year. Oh wait, that's right. You're not killing anybody. I don't know what I'm talking about. But I'd like to know why you're
not
doing any of this. How about it, Ishida?

“You're farming organs from children, aren't you? Say it. What are you doing?”

Ishida glared hard at Kunugi, then spoke.

“I did it all for my great-grandfather.”

“Great-grandfather? Yutaro Suzuki you mean? Don't tell me you're offering sacrifices to his statue. I know his believers have practically formed a religion, but—”

“I'm not a believer, but I won't forgive any mockery of my greatgrandfather.”

“Worshipping the dead isn't a religion? Have times changed? When I was young…well, I was pretty oblivious to religion growing up. Still, isn't ancestor-worship a religious thing?” Kunugi asked.

“Honoring one's ancestors is not technically religious,” Shizue answered. “Obviously it's a tenet of many religions, and depending on the region there will be many indigenous informal spiritual tendencies, but that's a little different from so-called religions that own a complete dogma.”