CH 26

Around dusk, the SAT arrived from Tokyo.

They arrived in a heavy-armored vehicle with a jet-black body and black tinted windows.

[Tokyo department got quite the budget huh.]

Looking at his 10-year-old rickety investigation vehicle, Manda felt jealous.

The men who got out of the vehicle quickly entered the tent functioning as the temporary headquarters, so Manda couldn’t see them clearly, but he could see that they were all dressed in bulletproof helmets and bulletproof vests, and had weapons such as submachine guns.

As the sun set and it became dark, a power-lighting truck, also from Tokyo, illuminated the house where the murderer was holed up with brightness as if it were midday.

There was no movement for a while, but even Manda and Nagai, who were on the outer edges of the encirclement, could sense the tension at the scene had reached its peak.

[We’re counting on you all…… Avenge the people’s deaths……]

The SAT raid was about to begin.

★　★　★　★　★

This place calms me…… For this is my place……

“It” was huddled in a room of the abandoned house.

“It” has known this room the longest.

The decrepit bed……

The bookshelf with nothing in it but an empty frame……

The wall clock with stopped hands on the floor……

“It” wondered, how long had it been since then……

“It” has already lost its sense of time.

However, at the time its being had become definite, “it” was already here……

There is a small scratch on the pillar of the room.

Tiny little scratches every few centimeters since it was less than a meter high.

Scratches that prove the time “it” had been here since it was young……

Huddled in this place, it felt like it could return back to the fun times……

However, enemies now stood before its path.

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There it is again……

The enemy……

An enemy that interrupts my time reminiscing the past……

I fought them off earlier, but they won’t learn their lesson and are back here again……

And this time, there are more of them……

Its hearing as acute as the angle of its large, pointed ears, “it” can easily see the multitude of people surrounding it.

★　★　★　★　★

[Ready…… Go! Go! Go!]

The raid operation began with a light burst of sound and smoke.

“Pom – pom – pom”, tear gas shells were fired in rapid succession, followed by the sharp sound of residential windows breaking.

First in the strategy was to fill the interior with tear gas and smoke the criminal out.

If he comes outdoors because of the pungent odor of the smoke, he can be seized by a large number of people.

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However, seemingly as if the culprit had strong patience, he didn’t run out of the house.

[Did he have a gas mask or something prepared……? It doesn’t feel like he’d be the well-prepared type of guy.]

Manda wonders about the behavior of the criminal, which does not match his image.

★　★　★　★　★

When it sensed a large stone breaking the window, smoke came out of the stone.

It stinks! Smoke painful. It’s alright. Bearable.

I’m fine with something like this.

Even with no sense of smell, I can still hear them.

Slap the stinky stone away.

However, that was as far as “it” could endure.

For at that moment, the sound of another stone being thrown rang out.

★　★　★　★　★

[Throwing!]

Continuing on, a SAT member threw in what seemed to be a small black grenade.

With an explosion of light, a thunderous roar filled the room.

It’s a flashbang. It’s also called a stun grenade. Upon detonation, it produces an explosion of over 170 decibels and a flash of over one million candela, causing dizziness, deafness, loss of sense of direction and disorientation.

It should be especially effective against the murderer who had been hiding in the dark for a long time.

[Charge!]

With submachine guns at the ready, several more SAT members rushed in from the front entrance and the windows.

★　★　★　★　★

A roar and a flash.

Can’t see. Can’t hear.

In a daze, “it” felt as if its whole body had been hit by a continuous stream of hot flames.

★　★　★　★　★

“Tatatatatata”, the sound of submachine guns being fired in succession echoed through the air.

The sound of gunfire could be heard even by Manda, who was outside of the encirclement.

[It has finally…… ended huh……]

It seemed to signal the end of the long siege and the horrific incident.

Relief could also be seen on the faces of the police officers who had been guarding the scene.

★　★　★　★　★

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

I don’t want things to end.

Go home.

Not here.

Go home.

Not here.

Go home.

★　★　★　★　★

The relaxed atmosphere around everyone suddenly turned for the worse.

With a thump, the sound of something heavy kicking against the roof resounded on everyone’s ears.

At the same time, a black figure leaped into the air, illuminated by light.

[That’s impossible!]

The criminal, who was supposed to have been shot all over his body, kicked the window sill of the second floor and jumped out.

However, his posture suddenly became unsteady mid-air.

The sound of sharp gunfire, unlike that of a submachine gun, followed.

It was a rifle shot by the sniper team.

[Alright, arrest him!]

The police rushed toward the fallen criminal with their polycarbonate shields and batons.

But the criminal, whose posture should have been broken mid-air, landed on his feet, and crawling on the ground, he kicked the police shields that surrounded him, mounted their shoulders, and literally leaped through the layers of encirclement.

[D*mn it! What the heck was that!? Is that even human!?]

[After it! Don’t let that get away! Get on the patrol cars!]

[Copters! Have the copters chase after it!]

[Don’t let that get away! Do everything you can to catch it!]

With such a large force surrounding the scene and even the SAT, the police’s most precious asset involved, it was every police officer’s worst nightmare.

The scene was filled with angry shouts from the police officers, and the police car radios were shouting instructions and scoldings to the pursuers.

★　★　★　★　★

[Whoaaaa. Things are getting really serious…… It got away huh……]

Hiroki and his employees were watching the police siege broadcast on TV on the large monitor.

Since the scene was in their prefecture, many employees, whose homes are in the city, were anxiously trying to grasp the situation on their smartphones and from social media.

The helicopter was in pursuit of the fleeing criminal for a while, but when the criminal began to skillfully hide in the dark, it was beyond the limits of what an ordinary helicopter without special nighttime lighting equipment could do. Now, the live screen only showed the road brightened by the lights.

[Oh, we appeared! Our company appeared on TV!]

As the helicopter was turning around, a glimpse of their company appeared in the corner of the screen.

[There isn’t really anything around, so you can’t clearly see it though.]

The company building, illuminated at night, looked like a floating island cut out of a jet-black ocean.