Page 148 of Dragon 7

My niece ceased with giggling.

And for one breath the world did not know which way it was supposed to run.

What? The? Fuck?

I stood, suspended in time. I did not know if I was alive or remembering being alive. I did not know if my body was mine or a thing I was about to be poured back into.

Then the world chose forward.

What now? I don’t understand.

I stood there looking like an idiot as all this action happened around me.

Akiro's guards were already down—the twins had cleared the front ring, Reo had cleared the right, and the bodies lay where they'd fallen. The kusarigama hung in Kenji's grip; he'd already torn it from Akiro's hands.

Akiro stood empty-handed and furious in the center aisle.

But. . .is this a cruel dream or what? Will I wake up and cry?

And the Fox crouched at the rear bulkhead preparing to shoot those guns at us.

Dream or not, I’m fixing this!

This time I didn’t focus on the Fox or my revenge, I concentrated all my energy on the twins.

I raced for them.

Aki stood on the starboard side, near the crates, with his shoulder turned at the exact angle that would put his throat in the path of the Fox's third shot. He didn't know it. He and everyone else were watching Akiro.

This is how he dies.

Yuki had his blade out and a hand near his holstered gun, three feet from his brother, alive, whole, his eyes on the same place every eye in the cabin had landed.

I had seven seconds, maybe ten.

I sprinted. “DUCK!!!!”

The twins turned to me.

Reo snapped his gaze my way and appeared bewildered and utterly confused.

Three steps to Aki.

I hit him low at the hip and high at the shoulder, the way I'd been taught to take a man down without breaking him.

“Ah!” Aki went down sideways and hit the metal under. "Hiro, what the—"

I was already up, closing the two steps to Yuki. Fast, I took his gun out of the holster and shoved him to the ground.

“Hiro, have you lost it?!”

Gun in hand, I spun around, raised it in the air, and shot Akiro through the eye.

The sound of the round was the loudest sound in the world for one full second, and then it was the second loudest, because I had already turned the barrel toward the bulkhead.

The Fox's two guns came up shaking. He was too slow. I pulled the trigger again, before he could fire a single shot. My bullet hit him in the middle of his forehead.

Then, I went back to Akiro and delivered the remaining bullets to his chest.