Loups-Garous (64 page)

There were several large beams holding up the ceiling. There were desks and all kinds of measuring instruments lined up neatly.

A window.

An unbelievably wide window.

Outside the window it was night.

In the sky, a full moon.

A large, round moon hung glowing in the middle of the window.

Like it could swallow them whole.

Hazuki was mesmerized by the heavenly body.

Soon.

She took a step forward.

There was no indication of anything.

No sound.

No smell.

Hazuki couldn't feel Ayumi's presence.

Mio aimed her weapon.

She signaled to the others with her eyes.

Rey Mao soundlessly advanced.

She waved a hand behind her back.

Don't move.
Ritsuko and Hinako stopped.

Hazuki turned torward Mio. She could hear her own heart beating.

Her heart was beating.

It was the first time in her life hearing this sound. A sound that had certainly never stopped in her lifetime. A sound she could have heard at any moment.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Boom.

Mio advanced one leg ever so slightly, and it was at that moment.

The desk closest to them sprang up into the air and a large black shape leapt forward. The shadow jumped at them with tremendous force. Just as they captured what they saw, and probably too late, the desk made a tremendous sound, crashing to the floor.

It was him.

But they realized it too slowly. The large man with the head tattoo threw Rey Mao across the room and wrapped a hand around Mio's neck. Flung her away. No one moved. No one could make a sound. Mio swung her legs and fought back. It did nothing. Rey Mao jumped on him.

She was no match for him. He was simply too large. Rey Mao was tall, but still only half the man's size. And yet his arms reached down to Rey Mao's waist.

Then, finally and much too late again, Hazuki was seized by her fear.

“Stop! Stop it!” Hazuki screamed.

Slam
.

On top of the desk, with the full moon casting light from behind was Ayumi's silhouette.

The man looked back for a moment. Ayumi whisked down.

Then…

It looked like she had just disappeared.

With the speed of a wolf.

The delicate shadow moved without a sound to the man hoisting up Mio and, in one gesture, went for his throat.

And slashed it.

It was a matter of one second.

Ayumi's shadow moved away from the man. The otherwise normallooking face, touched by moonlight, eventually let out an abnormal noise.

He let go of Mio's neck. Mio fell to the floor. The man turned his back to her. He brought both his hands up toward Ayumi.

Blood from his wound spewed violently in Ayumi's face.

It made the sound of a winter's wind.

The large man held his throat with his hands. The sound stopped.

But the black-red blood kept pumping through his fingers. As if in rhythm with his heart.
B-boom b-boom b-boom
.

B-boom
.

Then the man fell forward, as if trying to make one last lunge at Ayumi.

He fell like a rag doll, unceremoniously.

The pool of blood spread across the floor.

Bleached by the moonlight, Ayumi looked at the man.

“Ayumi…”

She lifted her face.

Her eyes were clear, brave.

Very short hair.

A refined face. Delicate arms.

Covered in blood. The moonlight illuminated the bright red blood.

Ayumi's shoulders heaved with her breath. She had probably been fighting him this whole time.

“Ayumi,” Rey Mao said as she stood up.

“I was waiting for both his hands to be occupied,” Ayumi said. “Are you okay, Tsuzuki?”

Mio rubbed her throat with her left hand and said, “Of course I am
not
! Why'd you wait so long? I had two, maybe three seconds left.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yes,” Rey Mao said.

“Then get out of here. There's one more person here.”

Suddenly, they heard a bang. Hazuki thought maybe only she'd heard it.

“Get down!” Rey Mao yelled.

A bright red burst of light.

“Shit! Get out of here!” Mio said. “Hide!”

Ritsuko ran from the doorway.

They heard the sound again.

Was this the sound of a gunshot?

Someone let out a short cry.

“Kisugi!” Mio yelled. Blood poured from her left arm. Hinako disappeared, rushing over to help her. Mio left.

“Hazuki!” Rey Mao called out, and not a moment after hearing it Hazuki fled to the entrance. A red line. A red laser pointer.

No.

She was just a pace faster than the sound of the gun. She made it past the entrance.

Ayumi had pushed her away. She tumbled across the ground and passed the entrance.

Another gunshot.

The sign that read 18 flew from the wall.

Rey Mao simultaneously flew past the entrance.

“Where's that girl? The injured one.”

“She was only grazed. I had her run upstairs with Sakura.”

“Up?”

Ayumi looked puzzled.

“Cat, go up too,” Mio said.

“Funeral Girl and Ritsuko are in danger even if no one is there,” Mio said and lowered her goggles. “You too, Hazuki.”

“Ayumi…”

Mio looked at Ayumi through her goggles.

“You know why I made them go upstairs?”

Ayumi looked at Mio, confused.

“Because this idiot with the gun is going to go downstairs. And you know why he's going downstairs?”

“What? Tsuzuki—”

“So that you'll go upstairs. Now go.”

Mio pushed Ayumi toward the stairs and then stood up in the middle of the entrance.

“If we're taking turns, it's mine now. C'mon, you gun-toting asshole!”

Mio held up her plasma gun.

The red light steadied on her forehead.

“Crap, he's going to get me. Hurry up, Ayumi! I'm gonna get killed here if you stay!” Mio withdrew as she said that.

A gunshot.

“Shit! That was too close!”

“Mio!”

“Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid. I'm a genius, remember?”

“You're an idiot,” Ayumi said and ran up the stairs.

“Makino! You too!”

Mio pointed just the barrel of her gun around the entrance.

She was using the viewfinder to look inside the room. She was no doubt scoping the room with her goggles.

“Here he comes! Stupid Makino, stop stalling! Get out of here!”

“Aghhh!”

“Aghh nothing! Seriously, you have to leave. Get away from here!”

Mio screamed, and ran down the stairs.

Hazuki followed.

Seventeenth floor.

“This way, Makino.”

Mio ran to the seventeenth floor and across the main hall.

There were several semi-private cubicles lined up with short partitions.

There were glass dividers, lockers, and bizarre scientific instruments everywhere. It was like a maze.

“He's coming.” They heard running footsteps coming down the stairs.

Mio hid behind a pillar.

“Makino. Stay put right here.”

Mio hefted her gun.

The red laser beam traveled across the dark floor.

Mio suddenly jumped out.

A light shone on her.

She flew to Hazuki's side.

A monitor exploded on a desk at the same time the gun sounded. The man ran. Mio, now on her knees, started to move.

She stood up. Another gunshot.

First a hole in the glass partition, then the whole partition shattered and collapsed into a rain of shards. Mio quickly ran around it.

But every time she stood up he would shoot at her. She couldn't run or charge him, and she obviously couldn't attack. Was she going to wait till he was out of bullets? Or was she going to keep hiding?

Still, her movements were explosive.

Suddenly, Mio turned her back to the man and sank to the floor. At almost the same time a hole opened in the wall.

“Shit! He thinks he's hot shit just because he has a gun. Bang bang bang bang, stop it! Man, I can't believe Rey Mao actually attacked this guy. This is unforgivable. Nicking Ritsuko and everything. It's just not civilized to be shooting a gun at fourteen-year-old girls in a developed country. But you know what?”

Her plasma gun made a beeping sound.

“It's also not normal for us to want to go upstairs. You think I'm going to let you get me, you pervert? You were prancing around so much I have your whole movement pattern down. Plus, I have all the blueprints for this building. Now. I'm here…That means you're…”

The numbers reflecting on Mio's goggles scrolled rapidly down.

All the lights on her body suit lit up.

Whoosh
. A shadow stood up.

“Charge.”

And as Mio spoke, she stood up, pointed the gun slightly left of where the man stood, and yelled, “Don't fuck with little girls.”

The man moved. Electric tendrils scattered all around Mio and a beam of light hit the ground.

All the lights on the floor went out at once, and the monitors glowed with the reflection of the plasma burst.

The sound of static crackling. A short burst of lightning.

The last sound they heard was
shoo
.

The floor was completely still.

The man stood there, still holding up his gun.

But he couldn't fire it. Even the laser pointer disappeared. Then.

Bam
. The destructive sound reverberated through the entire floor.

The gun—and the entire arm holding it—exploded to pieces.

From the man's ears and nose wafted a white smoke.

He was dead.

“Mio!”

Mio pointed her plasma gun at the ceiling. Her hair was standing on end, and she just stood there with her eyes wide open.

“Mio! Mio!” Hazuki slowly approached her, and Mio slumped to the floor.

“Dude, that was scary.”

“Scary?”

“Yeah, because it was different than how I'd imagined it. I didn't know what would happen. But this thing was like an electromagnetic oven. That guy is burnt to a crisp inside.”

Hazuki placed her hand on Mio's shoulder. It was trembling.

“This makes me a k…” Mio stopped talking, looked at Hazuki, and hugged her.

“I was about to piss myself,” she finished.

CHAPTER
030

ISHIDA STARTED SCREAMING
when the walls shook. It was the most human look Shizue had ever seen on him.

Her calm and collected mother was also suddenly deranged, right before she died.

Kill me, just strangle me
.

There was no situation in which it would ever make sense to ask a patient you are treating to kill you.

Anyone who thinks for even a second about what would happen afterward would never do that.

The boy ended up killing himself.

If he hadn't, he would have been a convicted murderer anyway.

Even if he weren't apprehended for his crime, the memory of having murdered another human would stay with him.

That was why Shizue had decided her mother was no longer human.

She couldn't forgive her.

She hated her as much as she hated herself.

Sometimes people just couldn't think that far ahead.

Looking at Ishida in his deranged state now made her realize all this for some reason.

However.

“Gra-ndfather. Gra-ndfather…Gra-ndfather,” Ishida muttered over and over.

Then with his hands on the floor, he suddenly realized Shizue had been watching him.

He cocked his head to one side like a veritable slapstick comedian.

Then, as if playing around, he made his face rigid and, half facing her, glared at Shizue. “What's your problem? What? What? What? What?” he kept repeating, now approaching her.

“Hey!” Ishida kicked Shizue. Unable to understand his demonstration she just said, “That hurt.”

“What the hell are you…Why are you looking at me like that? Hey! Hey hey hey hey!” Ishida kept kicking Shizue.

“Stop that!” Kunugi said, and with his good arm pulled Ishida by the shoulder. “What's wrong with you, Lieutenant?”

Ishida grabbed Kunugi's hurt arm and twisted it hard.

Kunugi let out a ferocious scream and fell to the floor, but Ishida wouldn't let go. “What? Why are you bothering me? What? Hey, say something. Speak!”

Kunugi was gritting his teeth.

Shizue took Ishida by the hand and said simply,

“Stop it.”

Ishida guffawed, let go of Kunugi, and drifted over to the ornamented door.

He said, “What did I do wrong? Why? Everything was going so well. What happened to Takasugi? Why did everyone disappear? Has it all fallen apart? I'm okay. This is all trivial.” Ishida suddenly spun around. “I'm sure this is just an electrical malfunction. The electromagnetic waves are unusually strong. Maybe the medical equipment downstairs just malfunctioned. I can't get ahold of anyone because the wires are all mixed up, that's all. There's nothing wrong.”

“You think the secret door's just going to open now?” Kunugi said, still lying on the floor. His voice was hoarse.

Suddenly, the wall behind Ishida's desk parted to the left and right, and indeed opened wide. Beyond it was another gate, and that opened too. Beyond that gate was an old wooden door.

“What? It's just a couple open doors,” Ishida laughed. “Right now, the tresspassers, Hazuki Makino and Ayumi Kono, are being captured. And that filthy undocumented brat Rey Mao too. They're most certainly restrained by now. Ritsuko Kisugi is being sliced open, and her delicious liver is being extracted. Anyway, this time, we'll have plenty of ingredients. We can keep eating and eating and eating…” Ishida said proudly, spreading his arms as he uttered the words.

“My great-grandfather will be so happy. When you're 115 years old, eating good food is one's only joy. And you two, yes…you will have to die. You'll have to commit double suicide.”