Chapter 1
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A young man in brown hair, wearing a very thick winter coat, and a scarf to go along with it, entered the room he had booked earlier. Strangely, for a traveler, he didn't bring a single bag with him except for what was strapped around his shoulder and running across his body to the waist, his guitar case. He stood beside the bed and pulled it off him before laying it over the sheet. He reached a picture from inside the pocket of his coat and took one last glance at it; a plump old man with mustache -- President Shinra of the Shinra company. This wasn't such a good idea. He'd get hunted down for life just for doing this.
But, Squall had already accepted this mission, and it was the most highly paid job he had ever done. He couldn't refuse; he had a pretty girl to propose to. He needed the money. Slipping the picture back into his pocket, he shifted his hands over the case and blindly looked for the zipper. He unzipped the case and pulled up the lid, revealing the inside of the case to be a sniper instead of a guitar. He took it in his hands and wiped it as though it were a precious belonging to him. Then he equipped it with a silencer before bringing it to the window. He slid it up then readied himself on the chair that was all set near it.
Squall raised his sniper, then looked through the snipe, zooming in as he tried to captured his target in motion; the President was on stage, giving speech. He was escorted by two other men; one with red hair and a low ponytail, and another was bald, wearing sunglasses.
"..."
He made sure his aim was steady before his finger nudged to pull the trigger. And he released it, dealing a perfect shot on the President's forehead.
While he retracted his firearm, one of the President's securities spotted his gesture-- the leader of the Turks, Tseng. He quickly sent signals through the microphone attached to his ear, and made his way out to capture the brunette, who was keeping his gun away in the guitar case he had earlier. He closed the lid and wore it while he rushed out of the hotel through the emergency staircase.
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"President!!" the red-haired yelled aloud, while the bald man kept on the lookout for the culprit.
Elena, the female of the Turk, along with a few Shinra securities, rushed to the President as well, to check up on him.
"He's dead," she said as soon as it was confirmed there were no heartbeats. "I'll settle this." "Reno, Rude, inform the company right away."
"We know that, already," the red-haired replied egoistically at the new recruit.
While Tseng ordered a few man to secure the building, the brunette was already coming out of the hotel, and putting on a pair of sunglasses. With his current appearance, no one could possibly recognize him. While the leader of the Turks rushed towards the hotel, he accidentally bumped into him, hitting his guitar case.
"Pardon me--"
Squall nodded in reply as to not make himself suspicious. But there was the sound of an object hitting the wall of the bag when the black-haired man hit him. Something was wrong. A guitar wouldn't shake out of place like that. Tseng turned, reaching out to the brunette.
"Excuse me," he called him, but the brunette elbowed him in the face before he saw it coming, causing his nose to bleed.
"Boss!" His men came up to him to see if he was alright while the brunette made an escape.
"I'M FINE, GO AFTER HIM!" he yelled. Quickly, they picked up their pace and ran after Squall.
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Squall made turns and now mixed in the crowd, but his bag was a big significance of himself. Making another turn into an alley, he quickly pulled off the straps and left the bag in the dump. He continued his way wherever they led him, but this was the last turn; he'd been cornered. Seeing as there was only a very tall chain link fence in front of him, he climbed it hastily-- if he turned back and get trapped it'd be too late, so he really had no choice. Considering how high the fence was, he slipped a few times. He took and threw off the sunglasses that was in his way before he managed to reach the top when two of Tseng's subordinates found him and pulled out their guns to shoot him; hitting him on the rib, resulting him to drop a long fall. Thinking he was probably going to lie around for sometime, the two agents approached the fence. But he regained his balance, quickly picking his pace back up and ran. They released a few more shots before he got out of their sight, but none had him. Having him escape, they immediately contact their force.
"He got away," one of them said. Another man went to observe the guitar case Squall had dumped and found it being a sniper.
The brunette turned behind to see if he was still being followed. Even if he was, they would be too busy chasing in the streets to check buildings, so he fixed his coat and hid his blood-stained dress shirt. He was holding himself in a way that anyone thought he was just cold, but it was the pain that he was trying to hide. He wasn't walking very straight though. He seemed almost suspicious, but because of the way he fashioned, no one thought they needed to help. Well, he'll refuse any hand stretched to him anyway. Squall looked up at the nearest sign of a very small inn, and made his way in, desperate as he is.
Entering the inn and almost losing balance of himself, it wasn't strange for the owner to think he was only drunk. He quickly reached in his pocket for money and placed it on the counter desk; he was even giving more than enough, though all he wanted was a night. His hands were trembling as he handed the fee, and he was breathing heavily.
"Give me the keys" "now" he demanded.
"Y-Yes..." The counter person looked in the drawer and granted him one.
"The room is to the right, in the corner," she told him while he was already making his way up.
The brunette unlocked the door of the room and leaned it close. He was still breathing heavily. He locked the door before slipping his coat off his stomach to take a look at his wound. It wasn't all that serious, actually, except for the fact that the bullet was still inside. He understood it himself that the reason he was so worn out was because of the chase, and the tension that rose along with it. Anywhat, he needed to get moving soon, but with that wound, it's impossible to make far, so he settled down to treat it.
Squall looked around in search of anything useful. A small inn like this wouldn't have an emergency kit. As he tried to think of an alternative, he took off his scarf and coat, putting them on the table beside the door he was leaning on. He still had a dress shirt on-- a white dress shirt stained with red blood. And a chain necklace of lion carving.
There was a glass over the table. He walked towards it, grabbed and smashed it against the table. His hand was also bleeding now from the cuts of the glass, but it wasn't very serious. He thought that it'd stop soon. He walked over to the bed and sat in it, resting his back against the wall, in his hand a piece of the broken glass. He buttoned off the dress shirt and revealed his wound. Not wanting to waste more time, he pricked the glass into his skin and dug for the bullet.
He gritted his teeth as his chest contracted and he held his breath, before exhaling and inhaling quickly. Realizing he was out of pace, he reminded himself to keep his breathing slow so that he was relaxed and wouldn't end up worsening the wound more than he had to. He dug deeper, enduring the pain, until at one point, he had to screech. His body was trembling, but he needed to regain himself. He lift his head to have a better look when he felt the glass come into contact with the bullet inside him. The opening was wide enough now so he put away the glass piece, then dug the bullet with two of his fingers, groaning while picking the bullet from his wound. He finally got it out. Although slightly relieved now, he was still shaking when he placed the bullet on the table beside him. His hands were also covered in blood now. He had a lot of cleaning to do if he was going to leave soon.
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Back at the Shinra building, things were much in havoc with the President's public assassination that happened a few hours ago. All of the head departments were presented in the boardroom, along with Turks and the two men who last trailed the sniper.
"What do you mean it was a dead end? Then how did he escape!?" Heidegger yelled at his subordinates. "W-Well... he climbed over the fence..."
"Then!? Don't tell me you just stood there and watch!"
The men were quiet. They looked at each other before turning back to him. Even Tseng didn't feel he should back them up; Heidegger was much in rage, but
there wasn't much they could do now that the President is dead.
"In any case, we should inform the Vice President," Scarlet, head of the Weapons Development, interrupted.
"Are you out of your mind?" the bearded old man shrieked, "We know that that boy is under house arrest because he's a traitor. Who knows if this was part of his plan for revenge?"
Having made to admit that, everyone kept quiet, until Reno sees the guitar case held by one of the two men that went to chase after the brunette.
"What's that?" Reno pointed and asked away.
"That's...!" voiced Tseng-- he recognized it well.
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The guys began their work to track down the sniper. They were now in the computer room of the very big headquarters of the Shinra company. They had a professional hacker to break into the universal satellite system and secure the cameras over the location they were in.
"The guys said they shot him, so he can't be too far from the main street."
Tseng entered only to overheard that.
"Get the recordings from the traffic camera," he ordered. "He might have a hideout. Keep on the lookout for his destinations."
All of the Shinra's responsible crews did as they were told. It was a lot of work, but they had to catch him before he leaves. Otherwise, it would be hard for them to track him down if he made it to a different city. Meanwhile, Reno entered the room with papers in hand; results from the fingerprints on the weapon. He handed it over to Tseng.
"You owe me sandwich for not telling that guitar case was dumped."
Tseng ignored it while he looked through the brunette's profile, but there weren't much information about him except that he was an elite at Balamb Garden-- a secret military-like school, where a lot of weapon specialists origin from. And if he is an elite, there is no doubt he is the sniper.
"I want his picture printed out now," he ordered the other Turk. Reno left the room and did as told while Tseng viewed the screens that showed the streets where the brunette might've passed by.
"This is where they lost him, right?" he pointed at the sight of a chain link fence. "Rewind this," he ordered, until he'd seen a part where a figure jumped off the fence.
"There!"
Based on the time of the recording, he ordered the rest to follow, and after having observed a few cameras, he came to a conclusion that the brunette has made his base at an inn.
"He's in here."
"Secure this area. Send in the SOLDIERS as soon as possible."
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Squall didn't wait longer than he needed to; he'd washed his blood-stained shirt and scarf, and didn't even wait for them to dry off before bandaging his wound with the scarf and wore his shirt. He left the coat to make a different remark of himself, before leaving the inn.
It was nearly just past noon then when he came out of the building. He looked around to make sure he didn't run into Shinra armies. He even began to develop a sort of phobia against men in black suit, but thankfully the ones he met carried a case, indicating they're only office workers. Suddenly, he saw Shinra troops arriving to the area. He immediately turned the other way, hiding his face by lowering his head. He looked back to see if they'd seen him, but they were already pointing at his direction and running towards him. He walked faster, but didn't run until he was sure they'd recognized him. But then in front of him were also Shinra troops. He turned back, forgetting the other half from behind. Seeing as both directions were blocked, he only had the option to cross the road.
He immediately ran across the road- a few vehicles had horned, one even hit him before it got to stop. But he didn't care, he got back up and continued to flee. The Shinra armies blocked the way and allowed their men to trail the brunette, who, by now, had reached the other side of the street. He immediately ran into a corner, and then another. He'd lost the army, but thanks to the satellite images, the guys at the company are able to locate him and sent signals to the army- as well as the Turks who were riding the company vehicles and on their way.
Now having made to slow down from the wound that was made open and bleed again from all the running, Squall's dress shirt was once more becoming stained. He hid it in his hand while he looked for a nearby phone booth. Upon seeing one, he quickly entered-- cutting in front of a person who was about to come in. Feeling disrespected, the man walked away, perhaps finding a different phone booth. While he ran his hands blindly into a pocket, he finally realized he wasn't wearing the coat where he kept his money.
Motherfu... He restrained himself from saying that word, trying to keep his cool. He scooped around, keeping an eye out for Shinra armies, before confirming there were none and exiting the phone booth. It just occurred to him that tomorrow was Rinoa's birthday. He thought about finishing the job today and coming back immediately, buying that ring she always wanted, and proposing to her tonight at 12AM sharp. But reality had been as harsh as it was for the dead President. He is stuck here, being hunted down to the end of Gaia and waiting for death to come at him with that wound on his rib.
Ah. Squall thought. I'm loud today.
This was no time to be looking at one's fate. He had to find a way out of this as soon as possible. While he wasted his time thinking, the Turks were passing by in their black car. If it weren't for the Shinra logo carved on the front bonnet, Squall wouldn't have made his escape again. Tseng immediately spotted him from inside the car. He ordered Reno to stop, and then all four ran out of the car and chased after the brunette.
Squall couldn't run very fast, so he took turns whenever he could, and then he'd act like a normal citizen in the crowd. The Turks had split up whenever they lost him. Only Reno had followed him to the right corner, but couldn't tell where he was in the middle of the crowd. The wound was disabling him to walk normally, and he had to cling onto the wall beside him for support. That was a wrong move. The red-haired Turk instantly recognized him and ran after him, calling the rest of the Turk along his way.
"I see him. He's in the 13th District."
"Remember, Reno, don't kill him. We need to thoroughly investigate the assassination," Tseng replied to him.
"I know, I know."
Reno finally got to Squall, but only to receive a punch in the face before the brunette continued to run. He quickly took out his gun and pointed to shoot, scaring a few citizens away, but there were still those with their backs against him that didn't realize.
"MOVE!!" he yelled, but when they finally cleared the path, the brunette had gotten away.
"Dammit!"
He kept his gun away and continued to run after the brunette in that direction.
"He's heading out of town. Have the guards block all exits!" He specified, and the order was carried out.
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Squall couldn't decide whether he's safe because there were less crowd, or if he was in more danger of being caught because he's out in the open. He's at the end of the Junon now- the streets were silent. And the road where he'd been on level with was more like a bridge over water. Squall stopped for a while when he saw Shinra troops arriving to the level. He decided to turn back, but the Turks were also at the other end. There was only a building in front of him. He had nowhere else to run now. He stepped back until he reached the border. It was a long fall into the ocean.
"Give it up," Tseng voiced at him when they saw him looking down into the water.
"You'll die if you fall. The water leads to a cascade," he said.
The brunette looked around him at the Turks and the Shinra armies. "Won't you guys kill me anyway?"
"Well, we'll only ask you a few questions and, um, maybe a little payback for that punch..." Elena stepped on Reno's foot for having said that.
"--But all's good, yeah?"
Squall looked up at the building in front of him- at the clock. Not that he mind about the time, but...
Reno also looked up, being the careless person he is as to not notice that the brunette had climbed the border and was ready to jump.
"Wait!!---" Tseng yelled aloud, but it was too late. The brunette had jumped off.
Everyone rushed to the border to see. Having waited for nearly ten minutes and seeing nothing rising up to the surface, they simply assumed the brunette had drown.
"How deep is the water?" Tseng asked the nearest guard.
"About six metres, sir."
"...There's a chance of survival. Go down and see if he made it up somewhere," he ordered. "Elena, send in the patrols. Have them inspect the ocean."
The blonde girl gave a nod before carrying out the order. They continued to look from over the top, hoping to see that the sniper was alive so they could investigate the assassination. Reno thought that the brunette should just be left to die after causing so much trouble for them. But what is a Turk without trouble, eh?