5656!_Knights' Strange Night

by Ryohgo Narita

  ‘Oh no. Oh no. How do I resolve this misunderstanding?

  'Aha. I get it.

  ‘I just have to kill them all!

  ‘But to be honest…I don’t care if she misunderstands.

  ‘Even if she gets the wrong idea and ends up killing me…

  ‘I have to protect Miss Nazuna.

  ‘Because I love her.’

  “Goddammit! Who are those freaks?!

  The men who were on standby outside the square began to panic.

  “Nobody warned us about this… This island’s full of monsters!”

  “…Looks like we’ll have to resort to gas,” said one of the men. In his hand was an object shaped like a grenade.

  It seemed to be a weapon that sprayed nerve gas into its surroundings. The man made to pull the pin—

  “Hold it!”

  A proud but un-intimidating voice shouted from behind them.

  When the men turned, they saw an energetic young blonde who was a poor match for the island’s air.

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “Heh heh heh… The criminal is among us!”

  She was failing to read the flow. The men exchanged glances.

  “…Who is this bimbo?”

  “Good timing. Maybe if we take her hostage, some of those freaks inside’ll stop.”

  The men grinned, pulling out guns from their jackets.

  “So, who’s guilty of what now?”

  “Umm…violation of gun control laws…?”

  Sherlock, who had been watching the perilous scene from the shadows, was waiting for an opportunity with a gun in hand. He was hiding opposite Charlotte, and was hidden from the men.

  There were three targets.

  If he did not take them out—with one shot each—he and Charlotte were both finished.

  Sherlock was not a remarkably good marksman, and he was afraid he wouldn’t make the shots. But time did not wait for him.

  ‘All right. Now!’

  The moment the men’s eyes focused on his sister, Sherlock made to step in—

  But his charge was interrupted by a man who passed by him without a sound.

  “Your crime is daring to breathe on my island.”

  “What…?”

  By the time the voice reached the men’s ears, it was already too late.

  Their hands, still wrapped around their guns, fell heavily to the ground.

  Blood began spouting from their wrists—

  “And your sentence…is death.”

  Before the men could even scream, blood gushed from their necks.

  The man at the source of that violence did not even flinch. His broadsword dripping with blood, he whipped the tassel against the ground.

  “It’s you…”

  When he heard Charlotte’s voice behind him, Lihuang smiled bitterly at his own actions.

  ‘Going out of my way to save a girl like her? It seems I still have a long way to go.’

  But ultimately, he had committed murder before the girl’s eyes.

  It seemed that this air of blood was the only kind he was allowed to breathe after all.

  ‘Now, scream.

  ‘Fear me.

  ‘Fear this island.

  ‘On this island, there is nothing more fitting for a woman like you than the sound of wailing.’

  Slowly, he turned to look at Charlotte—

  When she grasped his hands and flashed him an innocent smile.

  “Thank you! You rescued me!”

  “Wha…”

  “And you called the office this evening, too! I knew I recognized your voice! You were trying to keep us safe from harm!”

  Charlotte showed no hint of fear before the blood-covered man with sharp eyes. And yet again, she destroyed the air he had built up around himself.

  Lihuang had no idea how he should take that fact. In fact. he was unable to meet her gaze. He looked away awkwardly and spat,

  “Don’t misunderstand. It’s not like I was doing this for you.”

  Watching everything from the back, Sherlock was struck by a certain word.

  ‘…Tsundere…?’

  But out of fear for his own life, he decided to hold his tongue.

  Once she was reasonably certain that she had taken care of most of the rabble, Nazuna rushed out of the square before she was caught up in the cleanup.

  A certain figure quickly caught up to her like a shadow.

  Nazuna stopped once she turned into an alleyway and smiled at the pursuer in white.

  “You came to help.”

  “Was that unnecessary? …It must have been. I know you’re strong, Miss Nazuna, so I knew you didn’t really need any help…but I still wanted to lend you a hand.”

  Yakumo continue to ramble at length before finally concluding with, “—no, that’s not what I was trying to say…” and falling into self-loathing.

  Nazuna looked at him curiously, fascinated.

  “Thank you,” she simply said.

  Yakumo’s eyes shone as though that was all the reciprocation he ever needed.

  Nazuna’s expression returned to normal, and she asked, “so where are we off to?”

  “It’s up to you, Miss Nazuna.”

  “…Hmm…I think Mr. Iizuka from the Western District should just about be starting his night fishing session.”

  Nazuna called on all her knowledge about the island to think of something, and ultimately let her initial idea shine through.

  “I like fishing at night, too. I’m not good at it, but maybe we can just set up a couple of poles and have a chat under the stars…or maybe that’s a little boring…?”

  “Not at all!”

  Unusually for Yakumo, he replied without a nanosecond’s thought.

  It surprised Nazuna to hear such passion from him, but she grinned and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Then let’s take our time.”

  She put on a mischievous smile.

  “We’ve still got half an hour until you’re supposed to confess to me.”

  What kind of a second confession did Yakumo make? And where did they go afterwards?

  That is a story for another time.

  The men from the mainland had all been incapacitated. The situation came to a close in less than three minutes.

  ‘Hm? I thought I just saw Mr. Amagiri and Nazuna.

  ‘Wait! I can think about those two later!

  ‘He’s here! Right before my eyes!

  ‘Mr. Inui is right here in front of me!’

  Jun’s eyes shone when she realized Inui was standing before her. She quickly composed herself.

  ‘Yeah! I have to say it! The answer to the proposal he made on the day we met!

  ‘“If it’s all right with you, I’ll be the heroine in the movie of your life!” You can do this, Jun!’

  “IF—————, HEROINE————————MOVIE——!”

  “What?! I can’t hear you over the engines!” Inui cried. Surprised, Jun turned off her chainsaws.

  And—

  “Ah, that’s better. So what were you trying to say?”

  “Huh?! Oh…umm…I…”

  ‘…’

  “Umm… well… huh…?”

  ‘I’m so embarrassed…

  ‘Confessing is embarrassing enough…but “I’ll be the heroine in the movie of your life”? That’s…so awkward!’

  Jun’s high came to an end with the roar of the engines, and she was left unable to say a word.

  “You’re still as funny as ever, aren’t you?” Inui chuckled.

  On one hand, Jun breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that Inui was not put off by her demeanor. But ‘funny’ was not the most encouraging thing to hear from him.

  But—

  “That was pretty kickass. Teach me how to use one of those chainsaws sometime?” He snickered, though it was hard to tell if he was being completely serious.
>
  “Y-yes!”

  Jun nodded firmly, and felt her heart swell.

  “Whoa?! H-hey, why’re you crying?”

  “Ah… Hah…hahahaha! Why am I crying?!”

  Wiping away tears of joy, Jun trembled with emotion.

  Perhaps fighting alongside and being acknowledged by Inui, the man she so admired, was more meaningful than even a kiss.

  Of course, she had no way of confirming that, as she had never kissed him.

  If nothing else, her heart was filled with joy.

  And night grew deep for many young men and women on the island.

  Not even realizing they might be feeling romantic love,

  They accepted the minute changes in themselves.

  The next day. A medical facility in the Eastern District.

  “Life is nothing without a dash of love,” muttered Gitarin, lying in bed and covered in bandages.

  After the commotion at the office, he had fallen and rolled with the cross-shaped chainsaw in hand and cut both of his legs.

  His bodyguards had pulled him back in the nick of time, and he only suffered minor injuries. He was then moved to the organization’s clinic for bed rest.

  But afterwards, the Guard Team and Zhang (who had come back after a meal) came over and left him covered in more bandages than a mummy.

  Following them was a long line of Eastern District executives intent on lecturing him.

  His bodyguards had left to eat, and the guards were outside the door. Gitarin was alone in the stillness of his hospital room.

  “…Maybe I’ll watch a romance flick online,” he mumbled lethargically and turned on the TV.

  “What is it that people lack? Love.”

  He continued to prattle irresponsibly as he continued to love.

  He loved his life and everything about the world—the island—around it equally.

  Though twisted, he was full of love.

  -Episode 4 End-

  Episode 5: 1 & 1

  Dispassionate text flashed across the screen.

  ‘Charges: robbery and murder’

  ‘In middle school, led a group of students to bully a classmate to death’

  ‘Served only three years at a youth detention center before release’

  ‘Three months later, committed robbery and murder and found on the run before being taken into custody’

  After the flashes of text came a shot of a windowless room.

  From the characteristic stains on the wall and the state of the floor, it was not difficult to tell that this was somewhere on the artificial island.

  In the center of the shot was a young man, gagged and bound.

  His wrists and ankles were handcuffed. He squirmed on the floor like a de-legged insect.

  In his eyes was despair.

  The camera slowly zoomed out. The rest of the room came into view.

  A fluorescent lamp cast a cold light on the claustrophobic room.

  Around the man were several figures holding metal bats and pieces of lumber.

  The figures were wearing balaclavas and masks over their faces. They said absolutely nothing.

  It was almost a familiar scene to any B-movie fan. But that familiarity only made it more ghastly.

  The man on the floor floundered. His arms and legs swept the ground.

  About 20 seconds later, one of the masked men moved.

  He raised a long piece of lumber over his head. He swung.

  With a bloodcurdling noise, the piece of wood—and something else—snapped.

  As if on cue, the other men slowly raised their weapons.

  “And that’s the gist of it,” Gitarin said with a smirk, pausing the video playing on the computer, “after this comes pliers, hammers, scissors, and a potato peeler, if you wanted to have a look.”

  “I don’t feel like watching butchers at work.”

  The mechanical yet disgusted reply came from Greatest Zhang, a member of the Eastern District’s Guard Team. Standing in a line beside him were Carlos and the other members. Gitarin, heavily bandaged and still in his bed, let go of the mouse and continued his explanation.

  “This is just a recording, but sometimes they do livestreams. They stick mostly to streaming video. Also, you can’t even access this stuff without a video player custom-made for the stream.”

  “In other words, the mainlanders are trying to make Hollywood out of the island with snuff films?”

  “Yes. Although there are only 3,000 people in the audience.”

  The creases in Zhang’s forehead grew deeper as he listened.

  A series of murders and kidnappings targeting so-called ‘villains’ had taken place on the island recently. Gitarin had called in some of the Guard Team members, saying that he would explain the truth behind the incidents.

  Many of the men who had been wreaking havoc on the island had been killed or incapacitated, and there had been a mass arrest overnight. The two districts had taken the survivors into custody.

  “The Western District got most of ‘em, so I only know a few details—but I got a hold of some info from the mad dog just before the confusion.”

  “Cutting a deal with a guy you tried to tear apart with a chainsaw? You’ve got guts, boss,” Carlos commented.

  “Heh heh heh…it’s a perfect example of laughing on the outside and crying on the inside,” Gitarin replied. Then he returned to his explanation.

  Supposedly, this group had been a small-time organization that dealt with things like voice phishing. But as they expanded and gained more and more connections to the criminal underworld, they entered a new line of business.

  Their new enterprise: claiming to be champions of justice and selling videos depicting the execution of ‘villains’.

  The group found snuff film lovers and people with money and power. Then they created a secret members-only club that allowed members to view the films for a steep price and the promise of protection.

  It was too dangerous to be an attractive proposition—at least, from a normal perspective.

  But—

  “Suppose the victims in question happened to be unrepentant criminals. Fugitives on the run from society. The group executes such people in the name of justice. That pretext boosted membership exponentially. The lofty cause of ‘justice’ lessens the viewers’ guilt. It’s like illegally distributing movies online and telling yourself you’re just helping to publicize the movies, in order to alleviate your guilt.”

  The name of justice.

  Though the viewers knew that ‘justice’ was only a front, it was good enough to win over those teetering at the edge of morality.

  “If this guy really was the piece of shit the text made him out to be, he might have deserved it. I’m not condoning this crap, but some people really might have held a grudge against this guy. …This isn’t ‘social justice’—not by a long shot—but it’s not something we should poke our nose into, either,” Zhang growled, holding back his rage. Gitarin chuckled.

  “That is, if the victims were villains at all.”

  “…So they pulled the text out of their ass?”

  Gitarin nodded easily.

  “The man being butchered in this video is a criminal and a ‘bad guy’, yes. But he’s not a murderer. He was actually a shady judicial scrivener who fell into debt and went bankrupt. Another example would be…ah, yes. They introduced an old man who was quite obviously a hobo as a former politician who drove several secretaries to suicide and received 2 billion in bribes.”

  “They didn’t give two fucks about trying to sound believable.”

  “But the audience pretends they’re convinced. After all, the viewers aren’t after justice so much as a gorefest. The audience includes people from all over the globe, not just Japan. And the list keeps growing. It must feel like you’re one of the ancient Romans watching a slave warrior killing a criminal in the Coliseum.”

  Zhang was irritated by Gitarin’s
nonchalance as well, but he held himself back.

  “…So now what?”

  “What else? The group knows that the police won’t lift a finger if the victims are all from the island. So we’ll have to give them an in-depth lesson in the same. That no one will lift a finger if we kill them. Although I suppose most of them must have learned after last night’s carnage.”

  Then, Gitarin accessed the website with the password he extracted from one of the men in their custody. Then he deciphered the encoded message on the website with the key he had received from Inui—

  “…My bad,” he said suddenly.

  “What?”

  “I thought we’d taught them their lesson, but it looks like these people aren’t willing to learn.”

  “Hm?” Zhang frowned.

  Gitarin finally withdrew his grin and muttered indifferently.

  “‘Livestream at 3. “Exorcising” a cute girl who committed arson during a school trip and killed her classmates’, it says.”

  The Western District. Iizuka’s restaurant.

  “C’mon, just lemme off the hook this one time.”

  “Shaddap. You’re staying here till Mr. Kuzuhara gets back.”

  In a corner of Iizuka’s restaurant was a member of the volunteer police. He was keeping watch on someone tied to a chair in the corner of the restaurant.

  A mad dog with seven-colored hair.

  After the battle the previous night, he had said goodbye to Jun and the others and left. For some reason, Lihuang had shown up and caught Kugi. So Inui had bolted before he could get caught up in the mess.

  “Can’t believe I was so distracted running that I crashed right into Mr. Kuzuhara. I’d give the scene a standing ovation if it was a movie. Too bad my hands’re tied.”