"Do you understand your instructions?" the tall man's voice boomed down at the young Ichimatsu who stood there looking at the gun being held out in front of him. It wasn't one of the fancy repeaters he had been training with. Instead it was an old revolver with only a single bullet loaded into it.
"I understand," uttered Ichimatsu.
The tall man then turned to the boy standing beside Ichimatsu. The two of them had been summoned by the man to the room at the training camp where they practiced hand to hand combat in the early hours of the morning. Except for the sentries who patrolled the perimeter everyone at the camp was making the most of the opportunity to rest. "Do you understand your instructions?"
"I do," said the boy whose name Ichimatsu had never heard spoken in all the time they had been at the camp.
The tall man brushed his fingers over the bullet cylinder of the revolver causing it to spin wildly until he stopped it. There was now no way of telling where in the cylinder the bullet was located.
"You will go first," said the tall man to the boy next to Ichimatsu. The boy took the revolver from the tall man's hand and turned to Ichimatsu. Ichimatsu stood firm as the boy aimed the gun at him squarely into his forehead. In one swift movement Ichimatsu watched as the boy tried to fire the gun at him and end his young life…
10 Years Later
The gun shot rang out through the darkened forest that was enveloped in a cold night air. The sound of the bullet whizzing through the night came to a sudden and dramatic stop as it embedded itself into the skull of Yani Hiroto, a member of a notorious gang of thieves and rapists who prowled these woods.
"What the fuck?" screamed Hoshi, one of Yani's three compatriots who had only just removed the knife from the throat of a young woman who now lay dead on the ground just a few feet from Yani's body. Hoshi reached for his crossbow that sat on the ground several feet from the girl's body, he having put it down in order to free his hands up to hold her down by the wrists as he had his turn with her.
"Yani!" gasped Shiro who dropped the bottle of Saki he had stolen from the carriage they had robbed and kidnapped the girl just an hour earlier. "Shit, he's been shot!"
The three men took cover reaching for their weapons that consisted mostly of crossbows, knives and the obligatory sword.
Shiro, drunk on both Saki and the euphoria he took from rape, was in such a panic to find cover that he failed to hear the whizzing sound once more as a second bullet claimed the life of another of their compatriots, Hideki.
"Do you see him?" asked Hoshi kneeling behind the tall roots of a tree looking intensely into the darkness for any sign of the shooter. For a brief moment he thought he saw the back outline of a man but he couldn't be sure. His eyes were unreliable in the darkness while the predator that was stalking them was an expert at utilizing this advantage to the maximum.
As they sat there hiding from what seemed to be a ghost assassin it seemed all they could do to find him was to wait for the next shot to ring out…
10 Years Earlier
"Very good," said the tall man clearly impressed by the lack of hesitance in Ichimatsu's opposite number. He turned to Ichimatsu and said, "You're turn."
Ichimatsu reached out and took the gun off the other boy. His fingers instinctively slithered into place around it like a swarm of serpents descending onto their prey. It was natural to him to hold the weapon. It was as though the gun was in fact part of his own body and using it was as easy as breathing air.
But something was different this time. This time he knew he wouldn't be firing at straw men on the firing range. This time he knew that there was a live round in that gun and that in a few moments either he would kill his fellow trainee or he would be killed himself. It was a powerful and intoxicating sensation. Even the prospect of death seemed to have become a narcotic to him.
"Proceed!" instructed the tall man.
Acting entirely on his training Ichimatsu raised the pistol, cocked the hammer and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked but didn't fire…
10 Years Later
The amount of alcohol in his stomach coupled with the sudden rush of adrenalin was wreaking havoc with Shiro's stomach. It had now been the course of six or so minutes since they had found themselves under attack and he could hold it back no longer.
He choked and gagged as he fought off the urge to vomit but alas it was no use and the contents of his stomach poured through his mouth. He lurched forwards as he did so breaking away from the cover he enjoyed behind the tree. As his body rose back upward a single bullet ripped into his skull causing scraps of bone and brain to be ejected at the back of his head in a sudden spray of dark red.
Hoshi watched as the last of his fellow bandits slumped to the ground. There was now no escaping it. The next bullet would be for him unless he could find the assassin first and kill him. He knew he would never find him by staying in one spot and so he gathered up all his strength as his finger held onto the crossbow tightly.
In one sudden move he leapt from his hiding spot and charged forwards towards the direction of where he thought he heard the shot that killed Shiro emanate from.
"Where the fuck are you, you bastard!" screamed Hoshi as he charged forwards. "I'm going to fucking kill you."
There he was! As he made his hell-bent charge Hoshi saw the outline of a man crouching down in the vegetation. He dived for cover, training the crossbow onto the crouching blackened figure as he fell. He squeezed the trigger and the arrow was sent hurtling through the air just before he landed hard against the ground. Certain that he had hit his target he lifted himself up to assess the success of his shot.
The figure remained in the darkness, motionless. He was sure he had hit the crouching assassin but as he stared intensely at him his eyes acclimatized to the darkness and to his dismay he saw he had fired at a bush.
There was suddenly a drop in air pressure around him. His right ear twitched causing his head to turn to the right. His eyes fell upon a man adorned in black garments and a helmet. There was no mistaking it this time. He was facing the assassin.
Hoshi looked up and saw that peering through the helmet and face plate was just a single solitary eye.
"I'm Samurai Gun…"
Ten Years Earlier
The other boy took his turn for a second time and once again the gun clicked as the trigger was pulled but no bullet was fired. The confidence in the two children was beginning to wane as their odds of losing increased.
"Change over!" instructed the tall man and the two boys did as they were told. Once Ichimatsu had the gun once more the tall man said, "Proceed!"
The training took over again and Ichimatsu hurled the pistol barrel into the face of the other boy. He cocked the hammer and fired the trigger.
There was a loud bang. Staring down the barrel of the gun, Ichimatsu watched the boy's face blow open from just above the nose. Blood spurted onto Ichimatsu whose mouth began to open in disgust. The boy was dead before his body hit the floor.
"Very good!" boomed the tall man. "You are the winner. Don't you feel it? The power in your hands? You must learn to harness that power. You must become like the weapon in your hand; emotionless and without fear or disgust at what you must do for the greater good. Do you understand?"
Ichimatsu didn't answer right away…
10 Years Later
Ichimatsu removed the face mask from his helmet as he walked out of the forest leaving behind the four bodies of the bandits and their one victim, the girl he was too late to save. With the mask peeled away he then took off the helmet and he felt like Ichimatsu again and not a Samurai Gun.
He felt human. He felt clean.
He took a moment to look up at the stars that twinkled in the slight break in the clouds. He had often heard that those in the afterlife look down upon the living from heaven. He always wondered if that boy was there, the boy whose name he never knew and had the distinction of being the first life he ever had to take.
"I don't understand," he said to him in heaven. "I don't understand why killing is necessary." He paused for a moment before he finished with, "I wonder; do you?"