Brain matter dripped from my hand as I surged forward toward the one who'd spoken to Mizuki.
The moment he was in range, I wrapped my hand around his face and slammed it down—hard enough to crack the ground and his skull.
A sound I hadn't heard in a while echoed below me.
Bang
Looking down, I saw the man's raised hand with a gun—he had just fired into my liver. I stared back at his face, hidden behind my palm for a moment, before grunting and crushing it.
'Forgot about guns.'
Feeling the hot metal exit my body was an experience I didn't bother harping on, especially as the other three were already about to fire their own weapons.
"Kazuya-san!"
Turning and diving for cover the moment the gunfire started, I looked to my left where Renard was staring at the hole in my shirt.
"Are you okay?"
I snorted before nodding. "Dandy. How the hell were they able to get guns? Isn't that shit heavily regulated right now?"
Though I was born a few years after the laws regulating guns and swords, I still remembered how closely they were monitored.
'Yet I was shot.'
"What do you mean?" he responded as watched his hands as he pulled out his own gun.
'Does everyone except me have a gun now?'
"The regulation is still in effect, but that only applies to those not under the Elder's protection."
Renard handed me another gun. "It's a Colt M1911. One in the chamber, seven in the magazine."
I nodded, checking to make sure the safety was off. Seeing it already disengaged, I looked back—then ducked as a shot fired past.
"Kazuya-san, you seem to be out of your ele—"
Ignoring the blond, I leaned out just enough to return fire.
Bang-Bang-Bang
The Colt's recoil felt good in my hands.
One of the four ducked behind a rusted truck in the warehouse, using it for cover. Another dropped, clutching his leg with a scream that barely lasted—Renard followed up with two clean shots. One to the throat, one to the eye.
"Kazuya, two others."
I nodded at Renard's words as he moved out of cover and dipped into a shadowed part of the building.
I slid behind a pillar just as bullets flew past.
Hearing more gunfire, I leaned out and spotted one in clear view, firing in the direction Renard must've been. Raising my gun, I shot him in the head—his body dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Turning to the one still on the ground, clutching his leg, I put a bullet in his head before silence fell over the place.
"Renard?" I called out, walking toward the center of the building—and saw him sighing as he put two rounds into a corpse.
"Ah, Kazuya-san. You seem to be doing well."
I raised an eyebrow as he wiped the blood from his face.
"Yeah, that all of them?"
He nodded, and I turned to the body he'd shot, then back to him.
"The Spokesperson—they should've been here, right?"
Another nod. Renard crouched down and searched the body before pulling out a dagger inlaid with gold trimmings.
"This is the sign of being trusted by Elder Fujiwara. So yes, this man was the one."
He handed me the dagger, and I looked it over before pocketing the blade.
"Now what, Kazuya?"
I shook my head, already knowing what he was referring to.
"Most—if not all—of them are drugged up. It'd take too long and far too much money to get them back on track. And that's not even accounting for the ones who'd want to stay."
Sighing, he nodded, then looked down at the Spokesperson's corpse.
"Now that Mizuki and Elder Fujiwara's messenger are dead, all that's left is Weiss Adelheid and her men."
Wiping the blood from his hands onto the dead man's clothes, he stood and followed me as we left the warehouse.
"Kazuya-san, I'll stay to deal with cleanup. I also want to… pay my respects to Mizuki—for being my boss for so long."
I nodded as we stopped at the exit.
"Sure. Though what'll you do after this? Fujiwara will probably come after you once he learns of your involvement."
He chuckled, which made me raise an eyebrow.
"Though I'm happy you're concerned for me, I'm afraid it's unnecessary. Everything that happened today will be tied directly to your name once it's revealed. And I do plan on revealing it… minus a few details about myself."
'So he's just pinning it on me?'
Shrugging at that, I walked farther out, heading for the car with a few things on my mind.
'Toma and Rin will be out of sight from all this,
which'll give me time to figure out how to deal with Weiss.'
Unlike Mizuki, I doubted Weiss Adelheid would be so willing to let me join her—much less get close.
'Though with how much she's expanded, I'm bound to run into her soon.'
Depending on how she played boss in Kumamoto, things would either get easier—or harder—for me.
The best option was to wait for Renard to reveal Mizuki's death. Once he did, Weiss would most likely launch an "attack" on anything under Mizuki's name and take over.
'And if she's anything like what Mizuki said…'