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An Assassin's Memories

Fourth Shot: Vigilante

"Someone help me!"

"The more you move the closer you get to falling," Shima stated calmly. He looked over the edge of the building and whistled. "I doubt falling would be beneficiary to your health."

"You can't do this!" the man screamed.

"What makes you say that?" Shima asked as he loosened his grip on the man's ankle. The man screamed.

"I'm a cop!" the man screamed.

"One who likes bribes," Shima said. "I already know that part. Now you're going to tell me just how far up the line the corruption goes."

"They'll kill me!" the man screamed.

"The last time I checked they weren't the ones dangling you from the top of a forty story building by your ankle," Shima pointed out helpfully.

"They would do a lot worse," the man said. Shima reached under the coat of his school uniform and drew a knife.

"Want me to do a lot worse?"

"Marco Norton!"

"What was that?" Shima asked.

"NERV owns Chief Marco Norton!" the man shrieked.

"Tell me more," Shima said.

"There isn't any more!" the man screamed. "NERV pays Morton so that they can do whatever they want!"

"And what does he pay you for?" Shima asked.

"He pays me to throw off investigations," the man said. "I destroy evidence and bribe witnesses. Please forgive me!" Shima let go and watched the man fell.

"Forgive?" he asked the air in confusion. "What do I look like, Jesus Christ?"

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Yuji Kaido stared at the body lying on top of the partially crushed Honda. "Interesting."

"Well I'm willing to bet it's a suicide," the cop next to Yuji said as he lit a cigarette. "Poor bastard."

"Do you know him?" Yuji asked.

"What are you?" the cop asked, "some kind of reporter?"

"No," Yuji said. "I worked for NERV."

"Oh," the cop said. "Yeah I knew him."

"What makes you think it was suicide?" Yuji asked.

"The guy had a bitch for a wife and a greedy little bastard for a son," the cop said. "He had a good job though."

"What was his job?" Yuji asked. The cop eyed him carefully before responding.

"He was Chief Norton's top kick," the cop said. "Such a shame."

"Yeah," Yuji said. "Do you have another one of those?"

"Sure,' the cop said as he pulled a second cigarette. Yuji took it and felt in his pockets for his lighter. "Here."

"Thanks," Yuji said as he leaned forward and lit his cigarette.

"So what do you think about that?" the cop asked as he jerked his thumb at his fallen comrade.

"Doesn't fit the profile of a suicide jumping," Yuji said as he turned and began to walk away.

"How can you tell?" the cop called.

"He's wearing glasses," Yuji said simply. "Thanks for the cig."

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

"No!" Marco Norton screamed as he ran down an alleyway. "Someone help me!" A loud pop echoed behind him and Marco screamed as something slammed into and through his shoulder. The sheer force spun him around and knocked him to the ground. He stared at the shadow walking towards him. "Stay back!" he shrilled. "I'm a cop!"

"Deja vu," the shadow's low voice said simply. "I already had this little chat with Officer Shujumi." Marco's jaw dropped and he tried to crawl backwards, but the shadow pursued him. "You turned your back whenever NERV did something illegal." The tone was calm and not accusatory at all.

"They're way out of my jurisdiction," Marco said. "They could have gotten away with anything, even with me trying to stop them."

"You'd be surprised just how fallible they are," the shadow said as he raised a long pistol.

"Please," Marco whimpered. "I have a family."

"Does that make you better then me?" the shadow asked quietly.

"No!" Marco said quickly.

"Please tell me," the shadow said. "I want to know the answer."

"I don't want to leave my family," Marco said.

"Too bad," the shadow said. The pistol bucked and Marco's world went black.

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Shima turned away from the body and jacked the action of his ancient PB 69P. The spent 9mm casing ejected into his palm and he tucked it into his pocket. "I wish you had answered my question," he called over his shoulder. 'I would have liked to have known the answer.'

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Yuji stared at the dead body sprawled out on the ground and reached into his pocket for his cell phone. "I'm going to have to ask you to stand back," one of the cops roping off the area said.

"Of course," Yuji said calmly as he stepped back and turned away. As he walked down the street he flipped open his phone and opened the phone book. He found the number and hit send. The phone on the other end was picked up before the first ring ended. "It's Kaido."

"What happened?"

"Marco Norton is dead," he said. "It looks like a professional assassination. I tried to get closer, but the cops beat me to the scene."

"I don't want excuses," the man on the other end snapped. "Do what you must to find the answers."

"Yes sir," Yuji said. The phone went dead and he tucked it back into his pocket. 'I wonder if this is linked to that other cop.' Yuji shrugged it off. It was his job to find the facts, not piece them together.

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Ari watched as Shima shrugged off his school uniform jacket and button down shirt. "So how'd it go Shima?"

"It went flawlessly ma'am," the young man said as he drew the large pistol holstered under his left arm. He laid it on the table and sat down slowly next to it. He moved just slow enough to draw Ari's attention

"Are your wounds hurting?" she asked.

"Not any more then they should be ma'am," Shima said simply as he laid out a white cloth and began to disassemble the pistol.

"Okay," Ari said as she sat down on the couch and watched Shima clean the weapon. "Hey Shima?"

"Ma'am?"

"Why don't you ever wear gloves?"

"Why would I wear gloves ma'am?" Shima asked as he looked up from his weapon.

"To hide your fingerprints of course," Ari said.

"Of course ma'am," Shima agreed. "But I don't have fingerprints."

"What?" Ari asked in surprised.

"I don't have fingerprints," Shima repeated. "When was your last hearing test ma'am?"

"I heard you just fine," Ari said.

"Then why did you. . ."

"How can you not have fingerprints?" Ari demanded as she grabbed the young assassin's hand and nearly pulled him over the table.

"They do it in training," Shima said. "The application of heat allows the skins to be melted and fused. With our employer's capabilities they can even removed any identifiable scars on the hands."

"Did it hurt?" Ari asked as she ran her finger over the silk-smooth tip of Shima's fingers.

"More then you can imagine," he said simply as he retracted his hand and continued to clean his pistol.

"So who did you go kill?" Ari asked as she sat back down.

"Two policemen," Shima said.

"Why are you killing cops?" Ari asked.

"Because they were corrupt," Shima said.

"Well that's noble of you," Ari said. "You had better be careful or people are going to think you're a vigilante."

"Permission to speak freely?" Shima asked.

"Go ahead," Ari said in exasperation.

"Killing for peace is like fucking for virginity ma'am," Shima said simply. He put the pistol together without another word and lay down on the floor with one arm behind his head and the other clenching the pistol.

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Misato pushed the door to her home open and looked around for her charge. "Asuka?"

"I'm in here," the young woman called. Misato kicked off her shoes and walked towards the voice. "Hikari is here too."

"Okay," Misato said even though it wasn't a question. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine," Asuka said. "Just another boring day at school."

"I see," Misato said. 'Why do I even bother?' She looked at the screen and watched as the evening news came on. She sighed in disgust and walked to the kitchen for her after work beer. She pulled a can out and flipped on the little television she had bought for the kitchen a few months ago. The evening news was on the channel. Misato was about to change the channel when the anchorman with unnaturally white teeth began to speak.

"In local news," the anchorman said, "two Tokyo-3 Police Department officers are dead. Police Chief Marco Norton and Detective Antonio Shujumi were both found dead in apparently unrelated killings."

"That's horrible," Misato said as she opened her beer and took a long drink.

"In other news police continue to search for the murderer of Alexander Henderson, but no new leads have been found."

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Yuji stared at the corpse laid out on the operating table. "So what's this big find?"

"This," the coroner said as she held up a small, metallic lump.

"What is that?"

"It's the bullet I pulled out of this guy," the coroner explained. Yuji tugged back the paper covering the corpse's face. It was Police Chief Norton.

"And what have you found out?" he asked. The coroner walked to a microscope and laid the bullet on the slide. She twisted a few knobs and stepped back.

"Have a look." Yuji looked at the bullet. It looked like someone had written on it. Yuji looked harder. The bullet was badly misshapen and the Kanji was hard to make out.

"Traitor?" he guessed.

"Yes," the coroner said. "The same thing was found on the bullets in Alexander Henderson."

"I wasn't aware of that," Yuji said calmly as he leaned back.

"The cops are trying to keep it quiet," the coroner explained excitedly. "They think that the murdered might be a serial killer and this proves it."

"I see," Yuji said. That would explain it. The new police chief wasn't as. . .'friendly' with NERV as the old one. He reached into his pocket and extracted a thick was of bills. "For your trouble. You'll call me if this happens again."

"Of course," the coroner said as she thumbed through the bills.

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Shima opened his eyes and looked around his surroundings. He sat up and laid the pistol in his hand on the coffee table. He glanced at his watch. It was five in the mourning. He stood up and picked up his pistol again. He walked into the spare bedroom and picked up one of the cases laid out on the floor. He opened it and began to extract the rifle components. He began to meticulously check each part and slide them together. "Going out?" Ari's voice didn't surprise Shima. He has heard he wake up shortly after himself.

"Yes ma'am," he said simply. "I have an appointment I can't afford to miss." Ari watched silently as he checked the rifle.

"You're using the twenty-two?"

"Yes ma'am," Shima said.

"Why?" Ari asked.

"Watch the news and you'll find out," Shima said simply. Ari blinked in surprised. That was the first time he had ever dodged a direct question. 'Maybe he's starting to finally loosen up,' she thought.

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

Shima stared down at the busy street below him. He found the face he was looking for and lowered his binoculars. He reached into the guitar case and slipped the compact .22-caliber rifle out. He checked the suppressor on the end of the muzzle and finally uncapped the scope. It was really rather ridiculous to worry about the glare from the rifle's scope, but it was habit. Something creaked behind him and Shima whipped around as the door opened. "Come on in Mister Yuri."

"Of course." Shima leveled his PB 69P and pulled the trigger twice. The two people fell and Shima almost leapt forward. He dragged them into the room and quickly shut the door. That didn't buy him much time. There was a noticeable bloodstain on the floor. Shima leapt back onto the desk and sat down in the chair. He brought his rifle to his shoulder and stared at the man through his scope. He was smiling and chatting with his wife. She was wearing a pink dress. Shima thought it was rather pretty. His finger squeezed the trigger and the man dropped. His wife stood frozen as she stared at the red blood splattered across her pink dress. Shima slipped the rifle back into his guitar case and picked up the dropped handgun. He carefully tucked it under his shirt and drew a second pistol.

-End

(:::::::::::::ii::::::::::::::)

-Author's notes. I know this is short, but for the moment its all I could manage. If anyone out there is confused, the pistol Shima is using is an actual weapon. The PB 69P is a specialized version of the Makarov PMM. It has two modes of fire. One is the normal auto-loading pistol and the second is a manual operation where the slide it manually pulled back to further reduce noise. As for Yuji's comment on the glasses, I heard somewhere that most suicide jumpers remove glasses first. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Update

Cereal, serial. . .it all sounds the same and you got the point.