Part 9
(November 10 – Oahu – Smoking Area within Coral Street Shopping Mall – From the camera in the magician's cell phone.)
As the magician pulled out her cell phone to check the time, she heard dry gunshots in the distance soon followed by the screams of onlookers.
"The scary thing about amateurs is how they will go through with something to the end once they are determined to do it."
She was not speaking to herself, but she received no response.
Standing next to the magician was a black girl of about ten.
The girl was standing utterly still while using her right hand to hold the end of a flathead screwdriver up to her temple.
"It truly is frightening," the magician whispered. "All I had to say was that I would have you tear your head apart like a frozen orange and he was ready to do it."
Birdway had analyzed the magician's spell.
She knew that the magician used the stories of the Leshy to control people by spreading her role as the ruler of the forest animals.
If the magician had sent one of the people she was controlling with the Leshy spell after Birdway, the traces of magic power and the spell would have been detected and eliminated before they could get close.
The people controlled by the magician's magic could not approach Birdway.
That was a foregone conclusion.
However, there was not just one way of controlling people.
For instance, she could control a certain daughter and order her father to do things while he maintained his true self.
"She is quite skilled, but that in itself creates openings. Since she is determining danger by the presence of my spell, I can slip right past her defenses."
The magician grinned.
In addition to the black girl, she had a few other children gathered in the smoking area.
Every one of them would function as a hostage to pull off that kind of secret trick when it was needed.
The magician had prepared as many disposable pawns for those tricks as she had hostages. For instance, one was targeting President Roberto Katze.
"And once he is past her defenses, it's all over. Whether she is a magician or not, she is still a human who can be killed by a single bullet."
The girl's father must have wanted to make absolutely sure she was dead or a police officer had shown up and shot him to death because further gunshots rang out. However, it did not matter. When Birdway was in a completely defenseless state, the first shot was all it would take.
Part 10
(November 10 – Oahu – Coral Street Shopping Mall – From a security camera near the east entrance)
Having been struck in the back by countless bullets, Leivinia Birdway collapsed to the polished shopping mall floor. Even so, the large black man continued to fire bullet after bullet from his handgun.
The dumbfounded tourists frantically tried to flee in all directions from the center of the incident.
Shouts and screams exploded out.
Accelerator's eyes opened wide as he took in the developing situation.
The large black man was trembling and tears were falling from his eyes, but he did not hesitate. He tossed aside an empty magazine and put in a new one.
At that point, the #1 finally came to his senses.
He hit the switch of the electrode on his neck and the Level 5 powers that gave him his name activated. He was thinking of breaking the man's wrist before crushing his neck when…
"Sh-shit. That was dangerously close to being my moving death scene," said Birdway as she raised her head.
The black man fell backwards in shock and shouted something. As Accelerator kicked him in the chest, he shouted at Birdway.
"What the hell did you do!?"
"Having a body substitute just in case is one of the most basic of precautions. In fact, modern Western magic goes so far as to embarrassingly say we need to kill our old self and be reborn as our new self."
Birdway pulled a card from her pocket. It was a tarot card from the major arcana, the Hanged Man. The card showed a man hanging upside down from a tree branch, but it had holes through it.
Meanwhile, Birdway herself had not shed a single drop of blood.
"If you use Crowley's tarot, it is the symbol of the death of the Son of God, who himself represents an age. It was originally not a symbol of execution, but if you intentionally misinterpret it, it can be extraordinarily compatible, especially for things piercing into the body. …I wanted to make sure I had some defense against bullets before setting foot in a major gun country like this, but I didn't want to deal with a thick, sweaty bulletproof vest," Birdway explained. "Now then, I know you're about to awaken to your true power due to the anger and sorrow of believing I had died, but let go of that man."
"…Esper powers aren't that arbitrary."
"Even if we push him, we won't get any hints about who's behind this. I already have all the information I need on the spell and he isn't being controlled by it in the first place."
"What?"
"This is an indirect method. To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised. It isn't often that I praise someone, so remember this."
Birdway ignored Accelerator's puzzled look and approached the large black man with long strides. The man immediately held the handgun up with both hands. It was unclear whether he had remembered what he was supposed to do or if he was merely reacting to the threat of the strange monster approaching him.
"If the magician's specialties lie solely in the field of controlling people, then guessing at the rest is a simple matter. Most likely, she is threatening you with someone close to you who she is controlling."
"!?"
"I am not some hot-blooded idiot, so I will not give you some annoying speech. Nor am I going to kindly discuss this with you. I am simply going to tell you the truth as bluntly as I can."
Despite the man being able to shoot her at any moment, Birdway let out her stabbing words while striking a daunting pose.
"You lucked out this time." She pointed at her small chest with her thumb. "But next time will be different. No matter the reason and no matter what emotions are driving you, if you pull that trigger now, I will die. The trembling of your body will change to an irreversible truth. You won't get a third chance. People aren't normally lucky enough to get this second one."
With a terrible light in her eyes, the victim spoke to the attacker.
Her tone of voice made it clear she knew what it was like to cross that line.
"…Are you still willing to shoot me? Do you have the guts to go through that great shock you gave yourself once more from the beginning?"
The large black man's trembling reached its peak.
He had likely worked hard to prepare himself on his way there. He must have repeated the justifications for what he was doing again and again, piling one atop another.
When he had done the deed but failed, the pyramid of cards had come tumbling down.
If he had rationally built it back up from the beginning—if he had mentally rearmed himself by recalling what situation his loved one was in—he may have been able to shoot Birdway once more. However, he could not balance the cards with his trembling fingers. Now that he knew the shock he had experienced when he had fired that first shot, he could no longer put a stranger's life on the scales so easily.
A cry of desperation burst from him.
It sounded like anger at his dead end of a future and also like atonement for what he had done to Birdway.
The man's eyes opened wide as he shouted and he stuck the barrel of his handgun into his mouth.
Accelerator and Birdway let loose kicks at the same time which knocked the handgun from his hand and knocked him unconscious.
"I went too far," said Birdway, making a conscious effort to bring her tone of voice back to normal. "This has gotten a little trickier. I no longer have the Hanged Man."
"It's your own fault for being careless."
"Not really. The magician would only have put together that plan if she knew I had analyzed her spell. So where did Gremlin learn that? My methods were perfect and there was no flaw in your retrievals. And yet…"
"…"
"This is not an enjoyable situation to be in, but we might find something enjoyable if we look further into this."
Part 11
(November 10 – Oahu – Beachside – From a camera along the main road to enforce the speed limit)
When Roberto Katze pointed that out, the driver moved slightly while still holding out the handgun. It might have been a nod.
The attacker finally opened his mouth and said, "…And if I'm not?"
"Then they most likely have a hostage. Perhaps your lover or your child."
"And if they do!?" shouted the attacker as he re-aimed the gun. "Whatever my situation is, the situation here remains the same! Come with me. If I capture you, I can protect my family even if it means the end of this country!!"
"…C'mon, mister. Do you really think they'll hold up their end of the deal? These are people that threatened you right off the bat rather than showing any kind of good will, right?"
"I don't give a fuck!! If there's even a one percent chance, that's enough! If I do nothing, she'll be killed for sure!!"
"Well said." The president grinned. "But those aren't words you should use out of desperation. If you're willing to believe in a one percent chance, how about you put that trust in a much better option?"
"Shut up. Shut the fuck up!! Can't you see this gun!? All you have to do is tremble in fear and do what I tell you!! Those crazy people kidnapped my younger brother's daughter. It's a long story, but my dead wife risked her life to protect that girl. I can't lose her now. In fact, if the police and you guys in the government had done your job, none of this would be happening!!"
The man's words were fueled by resentment toward crime in general and dissatisfaction with the agencies meant to protect the peace that had not stopped it. Even though he had clearly gotten caught up in the incident, it was unlikely that he knew who the real enemy was.
However, in a way, his words pinpointed the current crisis in America.
Despite being the attacker, his were the words of a victim.
Before speaking, the president reflected on the twist of fate displayed in those words.
"Mister." The president moved slowly, completely ignoring the gun pointed at him. "I apologize for what has happened to you and the kid who is being used as a hostage. In this country, we are taught to never apologize even when there has been a murder, but I bow my head to you. However, I have more to say. What you saw is the true enemy I must fight. I cannot stop until I have crushed it. After all, I am the president of this nation. It is my job to protect the lives and freedoms of its people."
"Yeah, right… You people don't give single thought about our lives!! There's no election coming up, so you don't need to patronize me like this. I don't expect any goodwill out of you self-serving politicians!!"
The gun in his hand trembled, but Roberto Katze's expression did not change.
He put his elbows on the frame of the crashed station wagon's window and peered inside. The driver carelessly pulled back the handgun and tried to put some distance between them.
Roberto simply continued speaking.
"Let's talk about the past. Before he died, my old man used to always tell me to grow up to be a strong man. He was a drunk and he never worked, but he always had a proper light in his eyes when he would say those words."
"What does that—?"
"His words led me to want to be as strong as I could possibly be. And that's how I ended up where I am now, as the President of the United States."
Roberto Katze smiled slightly and stared the armed attacker straight in the eye.
"Now I have a question for you, mister. Do you think the strong man I wanted to be was someone who would obey inhuman orders to save his own skin? Do you think it was the kind of man who decorates himself with his position and political power but pisses himself at the sight of a handgun? Do you think my dream was to become a chicken who is so overcome with fear at the thought of a single bullet that he abandons an innocent child who has been taken hostage?"
For an instant, the attacker lost sight of reality.
He forgot that he held the gun and that he had control of the situation.
"Tell me, mister."
He could only hear the words of President Roberto Katze.
"What do you think the kind of strong man I longed to be would do in a situation like this that angered him to the bottom of his heart?"
Part 12
(November 10 – Oahu – Government Vehicle – From the in-vehicle camera)
The small refrigerator inside the high class vehicle contained ice-cold champagne, but Roseline Krackhart did not take any. She had reached for the refrigerator door, but the gazes of the secretaries had reminded her that she was on official business. The high class vehicle had a leather sofa that stretched around the inner edges in a rectangle and an expensive looking table in the center. Roseline reached for a magazine on the table but tossed it aside when she noticed the large image of the president's face on the cover.
One of the secretaries caught it in both hands and looked down at the page it had happened to open to.
"Is this true? It says his father died of cancer, so he is prepared to reform the medical system so that no one else need go through that pain."
"Of course it isn't. He's just bragging as always. In fact, if you take everything he says at face value, his father has died over eighty times. I was thinking of throwing a party once it breaks one hundred."