05 - 5656! -Knights' Strange Night-

by Ryohgo Narita

  “W-wait a second!”

  “Five minutes later, the wedding ceremony begins! This is where Inui declares, ‘our love is only just beginning!’”

  “That line wouldn’t surprise me, but boss! A wedding?!”

  Gitarin’s enthusiastic discussion plowed forward. Jun could not respond. The other Guard Team members watched, holding their breaths, but the more impatient ones were already whispering, “Hey, can we get a bridal registry going on the island?” or “Yamato the transporter could pull it off…”.

  Jun wondered then if all her firsts—first confession, kiss, and even marriage—would be offered up to Inui.

  How many in the Guard Team had noticed the glint in Gitarin’s eye?

  “And the moment they kiss, the doors open.”

  “—I’m not ready to get ma-…what?”

  “From the doors emerges…me. Holding a massive cross in my hands. Yes! A gigantic, cross-shaped chainsaw! And with this, I turn Inui to dust! Heh heh heh heh heh.”

  “Wait, boss?”

  Gitarin received a sizable package from his lovers and took out a large object.

  A massive, ornately decorated cross.

  One side of the cross was a large blade. It was about double the thickness of Jun’s chainsaw.

  “What the hell is that?!” The Guard Team members cried in shock. Gitarin chuckled.

  He snickered.

  He laughed.

  Madly, sickly.

  “Heh heh heh heh heh. What do you think? I got a mainland client to get this custom-made for me. For only 7 million yen out of my own pocket!”

  “Umm…boss?”

  “Yes! The Love-Love Chainsaw that smells like death, which is part of the title of the script. This title was a deception on my part to make viewers believe that the chainsaw in the title is referring to Jun’s weapon. But the truth is, my own chainsaw is the Love-Love Chainsaw in question!”

  ‘So the Love-Love Chainsaw was a proper noun…’ Everyone thought, but they all knew that there were more important things to point out.

  Yet the sheer number of things that they could point out prevented any of them from breaking their silence.

  “Heh heh heh… In front of thousands, I will force Inui to kiss dirt—and death.”

  “Boss? Snap out of it!” Jun cried, shaking Gitarin by the shoulders, but he dramatically placed his own hands on her shoulders.

  “I may use you as a pawn of the Organization, Jun. But it’s also true that I care for you as if you were my own daughter.”

  “Way to be blunt, boss.”

  “That’s not really a problem, though.” “Ahahahahahaha! Literally a pawn?”

  “Hey, maybe that’s it!” “Wait, so it’s not ‘pawn’ as in ‘pawnshop’? Hah hah hah hah!”

  “Then I suppose that makes me a very expensive pawn.” “Go get ‘em, Mr. Gen!”

  “That’s right…I am a diamond pawn!” “That just screams nouveau riche!” “Go get ‘em, Mr. Gen!”

  Gitarin ignored the Guard Team’s prattling and looked into the air dramatically.

  “But even Jun, who is like a daughter to me, will someday marry and begin a new life with another. As her guardian, I wish for Jun’s happiness. But to think I’ll have to hand her to the mad dog… Simply put, it makes me unfathomably jealous!”

  “Jealous?!” Jun cried, starting off a round of criticism.

  “So that’s the reason behind your petty hatred of Inui?!”

  “I thought you were being pretty cold to Inui! I assumed you had a better reason!”

  “Ahahahahaha! The boss is such an idiot!”

  “This is about as dangerous as the twenty thousandth digit of pi.”

  “Zzz…”

  “…I can’t say I don’t sympathize.”

  “Th-that’s enough, Mr. Gen.”

  Gitarin continued to completely ignore the voices filling the room and continued.

  “As a father figure to Jun, I want to respect her choices wherever possible. So I won’t try to stop you from loving him, Jun! All I have to do is kill him, and my problems will be solved!”

  “Please, boss! This just…isn’t like…”

  Jun remembered at that point that this was precisely the type of man Gitarin was, and corrected herself.

  “No, well…this is like you, boss. But killing Mr. Inui is just…I mean, from a human perspective…”

  “What are you trying to say, Jun? If you’ve got an opinion, speak up! Hee hee!” Gitarin grinned and hit the switch on his cross-chainsaw.

  BRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMM.

  Had he forgotten in the midst of his excitement? Or had he been planning this from the very beginning?

  The roar of the engine awakened a certain kitten.

  The ferocious kitten that surfaced as Jun’s emotional high. On its collar was the name ‘Exhilaration’.

  The kitten sensed the foreign engine and began to claw at Jun from the inside.

  “…Heh heh… Hah hah hah hah hah…”

  “Hm?”

  Her gaze emerged from behind her bangs.

  A grinning demon seemed to dance madly around Jun as her arms flew up like a pair of spring-loaded toys.

  How had she pulled them out of the cases on her back? She was already holding in her hands a pair of unusual chainsaws.

  “…Ahahaha!”

  With a roar, Jun pulled the throttle.

  BRRRRRRRRRRRRRM.

  And the office was soon filled with the rumbling of three engines.

  The Case of Nazuna Yukimura - 2

  The entrance to the theme park.

  “Okay, I admit I hit it big at the casino today. But aren’t you kicking me out a couple minutes too soon?” Complained the rainbow-haired man. Nazuna sighed.

  “I heard you got into a scuffle with a shady group not too long ago. We can’t have them charging into the casino and causing a scene.”

  “It’s fine. They’re chumps; your usual security could hand ‘em their asses on a platter.”

  “We’d rather avoid fighting altogether in the casino; one of the employees is the type to attract gunfire, unfortunately,” Nazuna said firmly, the end of her sheath against her shoulder. “And before all that, the boss called you over. …What in the world is going through his mind?”

  “What’s he want with me? ‘You’re startin’ to be a real pain in the ass, Inui, gonna sic the Guard Team on you’? Creepy. But it actually sounds interesting, now that I imagine it.”

  “If the boss wanted you dead, Carlos would have put a bullet in your skull already.”

  “Whoa. Scary,” Inui chuckled. But Nazuna knew well that he was always on guard.

  Though Inui seemed simply like a flippant young man, he was a person of interest to the Eastern District. A potential threat who once ruled the Pits.

  Nazuna had brought him along after her shift at the casino, but as they approached the theme park office she heard something vaguely familiar.

  ‘Engines?’

  Something squirmed in the pit of her stomach. She fixed her gaze on the office.

  The roar of Jun’s chainsaws, and another roar from an unfamiliar engine. And the sounds of shattering glass and something being carved away. Nazuna and Inui both heard it all.

  They went around to the side entrance and opened the door, getting a good look at the commotion inside.

  Surrounded by the rumbling of three engines, Jun was swinging her chainsaws in a euphoric trance. Gitarin, who was holding a massive cross-shaped chainsaw, was busy trying to avoid the swings under the protection of his two bodyguards.

  In the background was Gen with a veritable armory of grenades on hand. The Guard Team members around him were desperately trying to prevent him from pulling the pins.

  After a moment’s silence, Inui spoke.

  “Looks like they’re having a blast.”

  “…Umm… Yeah. It looks like they’ll be busy. I think you c
an go home for today,” Nazuna said plainly. But Inui was teetering at the doorway, clenching his fists in anticipation.

  “Shit! Shoulda come earlier…I have no idea what’s going on now, and that means I can’t jump in in the most entertaining way possible!” He hissed.

  Nazuna sighed, ready to tell him to leave—

  “Seriously! What. The. Hell? I’ve always dreamed of a scene like this! It’s like the second half of ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’! Dammit, now I’m itchin’ for some action… Somebody tell me who I should side with for maximum cool factor!”

  Inui was so excited that he was even shaking Nazuna by the shoulders.

  “Wh-what?” Nazuna breathed, sensing the stress building up in her head.

  Amidst the sound of engines and destruction, she wondered how she should silence the mad dog—

  “What’s happening here, I wonder?”

  Another voice joined them from behind, turning the air to ice.

  “You’re not trying to do something terrible to Miss Nazuna, are you? For example…hitting on her. You couldn’t be trying to do something so awful, right?”

  Inui felt a chill run down his spine.

  It wasn’t the exhilarating rush of staring down the barrel of Kugi’s gun. It was pure terror.

  Realizing the identity of the man behind him, Inui turned with a shrug.

  “Is this your girlfriend? Sorry, man.”

  ‘Wait, he’s not as scary as before,’ Inui thought, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief. But—

  “She’s my friend. We’re starting off as friends.”

  The sense of relief was instantly shattered by the Killer Ghoul’s gaze.

  His eyes were clear, but endlessly dark and deep.

  ‘Heh. Spoke too soon.’

  “Okay, okay. I lose to the power of your friendship. You know what? Your friendly friendship moved me to the point that I think I’m gonna take off like Melos, the symbol of friendship. Although I’m not gonna be back in three days like in the show!”

  With a thumbs-up, Inui ran for his life.

  A near-death experience from several years ago had flashed through his thoughts.

  ‘Can’t go dying so soon, now.’

  Inui put on a wry grin when he realized that he was enjoying even the terror of death, and at the same time made sure the information in his pocket was still safe and secure.

  “Grk…I want to go after him, but right now Miss Nazuna comes first.”

  When the dog leapt over the theme park wall and disappeared from sight, the Killer Ghoul flinched and turned back to Nazuna.

  “W-w-wait, Miss Nazuna. I know I said ‘right now’, but…I lied. Actually…I always…um…”

  “Don’t worry about it. What are you doing all the way here, anyway? If Zhang catches you, there’s going to be a big commotion.”

  “Y-yeah.”

  The Killer Ghoul—Yakumo Amagiri—shyly averted his gaze and put on a dark smile.

  “Miss Nazuna… Today, you are going to be born anew. Bwa hah hah.”

  There was a moment of silence. Several seconds passed before Nazuna finally broke the ice.

  “…Why do I get the feeling I’m about to be murdered or imprisoned and my hands and feet hacked off?”

  “…I think I messed up.”

  “I know. Don’t worry about it,” Nazuna said, having come to understand Yakumo’s personality more in the past few months. “So, what is it?”

  Yakumo looked around nervously before handing her an envelope.

  “Umm… So. Well… Happy birthday, Miss Nazuna.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m giving you a present. A birthday. So your birthday is today… Hmm… Maybe I should have picked a special day instead? I can wait for a day you like, if you want.”

  “…”

  “So my normal gift is a birthday. And that letter is your birthday gift… It’s complicated, but congratulations.”

  At first, Nazuna did not understand.

  But she remembered the conversation from the other day. Nazuna recovered from her surprise and held up the envelope.

  “Can I open it?”

  “Sure.”

  Yakumo nodded. Nazuna pulled out the contents of the envelope. It must have been a rather rushed job, as the envelope was not even sealed.

  On the letter was a simple handwritten sentence.

  ‘I would like to confess my love to you, so please come out to the TV at the fountain square tonight at 12.’

  Silence fell over them again.

  But this time, it meant something different to Nazuna.

  Yakumo looked nervous, as though he had crossed a line he should not have crossed. Nazuna looked him in the eye.

  “A birthday, huh,” she whispered to break the silence, “do you think…I deserve to have a day to celebrate? Just like other people?”

  “Of course.”

  “Remember what I said before? About how I killed people on the boss’s orders?”

  “…”

  “The girls at the dojo seem like they know what I’ve done. But none of them will mention it.”

  A dark look came over Nazuna’s face.

  It was a look of surrender. An expression so subdued for a realization that it almost seemed like self-loathing.

  “I want to tell you. …Some of those girls—I’m the one who killed—”

  But Yakumo cut her off.

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “I understand what you’re trying to say. But…that’s not something you should tell me yet. Because we don’t know each other well enough.”

  There was an unusually grave look in his eyes.

  Though Yakumo was always serious, his gaze had never been so strong.

  “So…I’d be happy if you’d tell me after we start dating—once I understand you better and I can be your pillar of support.”

  Nazuna almost fell into silence for the third time.

  But she grinned and raised her head.

  “I see. You’re right. Sorry for trying to vent,” Nazuna said with her usual confidence. And she looked at Yakumo’s letter with a hint of a smile. “But you know…you already confessed.”

  “…I guess you could say that.”

  “You could have just honestly said you wanted to go on a date.”

  “Actually, I wanted to enclose a present with the letter. But I couldn’t think of anything.”

  Such a way of thinking was very much like Yakumo. Nazuna understood.

  “You’re giving me so many presents.”

  “So I decided that my present will be me.”

  “…”

  “Tonight, I’m going to go wherever you want to go, and help you with anything you need. I haven’t really decided on a time limit…but I guess until you’re satisfied, Miss Nazuna.”

  He was practically forcing his presence onto her.

  It sounded almost like what a stalker would say, but Yakumo had no malicious or benevolent intentions. If Nazuna refused, he would simply apologize.

  But Nazuna understood his twisted sense of innocence. So she repeated herself.

  “You could have just honestly said you wanted to go on a date.”

  Setting aside her past and her reality, she simply flashed Yakumo a smile.

  “All right. I have tomorrow off, so we can have fun until morning.”

  “…!!!”

  Yakumo felt as though he had been jolted.

  The Killer Ghoul raised his clock speed to the limit and lengthened out several seconds of time to near-infinity. And he carved that moment of joy into the eternity in his heart.

  Engines were still roaring in the background.

  In a setting very, very far from romance,

  One man found euphoria,

  And one woman found a small happiness.

  And the slightest hint of sweetness filled the island’s air.

  The Case of the
Detective Siblings - 2

  Night had fallen on the island, but a head of sunshine gold bobbed along the back alleys of the Western District.

  This particular area was quite close to the Eastern District border, which meant the volunteer police did not patrol it as much. Supposedly the Chinese mafia that ruled the district guarded the area instead, but they never surfaced unless necessary.

  It was a setting both dull and eerie. But the one who wore that head of golden hair declared confidently to the black-haired brother walking behind her—

  “Now we begin to tail the suspect, Sherlock Liverpool!”

  “We don’t even have a suspect to tail, Charlotte. Let’s go home already.”

  “What? But our tailing is only just beginning!”

  “Where’d you pick up that phrase?”

  Whether or not she’d heard her brother’s resigned sigh, Charlotte squeaked energetically.

  “Not only that, we received that anonymous phone call!”

  “Huh? …Oh, right. The one after the client. You were finished with that one pretty quick. What did they say?”

  “Would you believe it, Sherlock Liverpool? He simply said, ‘drop this case if you value your life’! Then he hung up!”

  “All right. I’m with our anonymous caller,” Sherlock declared. He took Charlotte’s hand and turned to leave.

  “W-wait, Sherlock Liverpool! Cases don’t happen at home! They happen on the scene!”

  “The biggest case in my life is the case of whatever is going on in your head, Charlotte.”

  But at that moment, Sherlock’s keen senses seemed to catch something. He stopped without thinking and covered Charlotte’s mouth.

  “Mmph?”

  “Quiet.”

  He pulled her into an alleyway—

  And spotted a group of men hurrying over.

  They quickly passed by the Liverpool siblings, who stood holding their breaths.

  “Which way?”

  “The fountain square.”

  “We’ll take him down.”