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“So this is your skill… You can control the black overcoat,” he groaned, staring at the black straps around his arms and legs. “An extraordinary ability, one with no openings. However…it’s lacking. It’s not enough to free our souls from original sin… It appears I expected a little too much from you.”
Akutagawa’s face stiffened as hard as a diamond. His breathing halted, and something in his body snapped. He responded with the flash of his black blade, slashing toward a man who was tied up and unable to move. Without even a hint of nervousness, Gide leaned forward and tilted his head. The blade grazed the side of his face, cutting a few hairs to flutter in the wind. As Gide turned his neck, the tip of his head skimmed the old-fashioned gun Akutagawa had just stolen. As the pistol left Akutagawa’s hand, his finger accidentally pulled the trigger.
One of the belts around Gide reacted by enveloping the bullet and stopping it before it could reach Akutagawa. However, this freed Gide’s left hand…and he was carrying another pistol in his military uniform. He drew the gun with that hand and shot the mafioso next to him before the target even knew what was going on. The bullet struck him in the shoulder, causing the Mafia member’s automatic rifle to fire three bullets, with one shooting right through Akutagawa’s arm. The other two hit two mafiosi in the chest. The shots were fatal.
“What—?!”
Taken aback at being shot in the arm, Akutagawa reflexively used his skill to block. He cut through space, blocking Gide’s next shot, but in return he ended up undoing the black straps restraining Gide, thus freeing him.
Immediately, Gide picked up his other gun lying on the ground…and that was when the one-sided m
assacre began.
It wasn’t some sort of mysterious, visible power at work. The bullets weren’t turning and flying in the opposite direction, nor was lightning or fire falling from the skies. No one was suddenly being frozen in place, either. It was simply a repeat of the earlier gunfight with the exception that everything was taking place at extremely close range—that, and the outcome was different.
Gide rolled over the ground while shooting the pistols in both hands. Each bullet pierced straight and true into a Mafia member’s vital organ. Only Akutagawa was able to defend—or rather, he was forced to defend would be a more accurate description.
“What’s going on? Is this…a skill?” Akutagawa uttered.
Gunfire illuminated Gide’s surroundings as he evaded every counterattack, be it bullets or Akutagawa’s black claws. With the slightest of movements, Gide dodged Akutagawa as if he were a mere insect. Before long, one of Gide’s bullets eventually sneaked past Akutagawa’s guard and hit him in the abdomen with enough force that it bent him backward. Coughing up blood, Akutagawa fell back and immediately wrapped his black fabric around the wounds on his arm and stomach to act as makeshift tourniquets. However, the result gave him less fabric to use to attack and defend, which put him at an even bigger disadvantage.
“Impossible… A destructive skill that surpasses mine?”
“I’m jealous, Mafia skill user… I might have asked the same thing.” Gide stood with both pistols drawn. “If you were a little more capable—if you had more experience, then perhaps things would have been different. But right now, you’re nothing more than a little black duckling.”
“Don’t you dare talk down to me!”
Akutagawa’s hair stood on end. His black coat whirled as it started to form spikes, but Gide shot them down right as they were about to launch at the speed of sound.
“You…can read my movements…?!”
“We are Mimic.” Gide aimed his gun at Akutagawa. “We are a squad of ghosts—a fantôme escouade forsaken by God and fallen from grace. We shall continue to march through tainted blood until our true enemy brings us salvation.”
Akutagawa was briefly overwhelmed by Gide’s presence…because he knew Gide was neither acting nor bluffing, but speaking only the truth. He could see it in his eyes.
“…Answer me, leader of Mimic,” Akutagawa said in a quiet voice with a gun to his face. “What are you trying to accomplish by attacking the Mafia’s territory?”
“Nothing,” Gide replied without missing a beat. “Ghosts wish for nothing. All we want is for our souls to cease to exist. Long ago, we turned to the Order of the Clock Tower for that purpose. Now we are here to demand that from you… Any last words, black-robed skill user?”
“Kill me.” Akutagawa closed his eyes, then gave a small smirk. “I—understand your feelings, truly I do. I regret that I couldn’t become the enemy you sought.”
“Farewell.”
Gide pulled the trigger.
But he didn’t fire. Right before he was about to shoot, he reflexively took evasive action. Raising his pistols up, he turned his body to dodge something…but his efforts were in vain. Odasaku’s bullet hit the pistol out of Gide’s hand.
My bullet struck the enemy’s pistol, knocking it to the ground. The man who I assumed was the Mimic leader seemed to be taken aback. Maybe he was surprised I’d shot his weapon with such accuracy from so far away, although he looked startled by something else, as well. There was something curious about how he’d tried to dodge before I even fired my weapon.
That wasn’t the time to think about it, though. I rushed toward the enemy as I shot. He fired back, but I could already “see” the bullet’s trail. Turning my head, I evaded the incoming bullet. I then fired back, but he dodged in the same way.
He dodged?
“Mafia reinforcements…?!”
Neither of our bullets were connecting as we drew closer until I was near enough to grab his gun. And I did make a swipe for it, but the Mimic leader nimbly twisted his wrist, thus avoiding my hand. It was the same bizarre reaction from a second ago. He could read my every move.
I promptly gave up on trying to neutralize the enemy and searched for any Mafia members that were still alive. Most of them had already perished, but there was a boy in a black overcoat who was still conscious. Ryuunosuke Akutagawa, I believe his name was.
