Chapter 4: Hiryuu's New Guns
Hiryuu walked into the gunshop at the other end of town. He didn't feel like going back to the other shop. Though he had saved the gunshop owner's butt from that Rider Gang. He wanted to take them out next but when he took out the Gripper's gang he left his unusual nine shooter in the inn. He would get it back eventually but he didn't feel like heading back to the inn. He had killed several innocent people on top of the entire gang of Gripper's. He wondered if the insurance girls would ever figure out that he had described himself to them.
"What do you have in revolvers?" he asked the gunsmith.
"What do you want a revolver for, kid?" the gunsmith asked. It wasn't the first time that a gunsmith had refused to sell him guns.
"Well, I'm not a kid, first off," he said casually. "But my ID was in the April Saloon last night and well, there's no April Saloon anymore."
"Kid, no ID, no gun."
"Oh, well," he said. He turned to leave, accidentally dropping a full nine shot ring of bullets and a few thousand double dollars as his pocket caught on the counter.
"I'm sorry, there is a charge you can pay in the case of lost ID."
"Oh," Hiryuu said, turning innocently. He picked up his fallen bills and stuffed them in his bulging pocket.
"It's fifty percent added on any arm or ammo."
Hiryuu bought two identical, outrageously priced six-shooters and a few boxes of .22's to go along with them.
"Do you have a free shoot target so I can get the hang of these?"
"Hundred fifty a half hour free ammo in the back."
Hiryuu laid out the bills.
"Um, two twenty-five for you, kid."
Hiryuu looked up at the sign saying "Half hour free ammo target practice: $$100", and laid out the bills anyway.
He pulled a small odd claw-shaped knife and opened the two guns and removed a small mechanism from each one putting them in his pocket.
"You just ruined those guns!" the gunsmith bellowed at the kid.
"No, I made it so the the cartridge will spin freely, making it shoot a lot faster. Though this six-shooter wouldn't be as fast as my custom nine was.
"A nine-shooter no ones ever made a nine shooter, and no one could time a spinning cartridge well enough to make it shoot. Plus you have to aim you can't look at both the cartridge and the cross-hair. Kid you just blew two thousand double dollars. Now, what are you doing?" he said as the kid started scraping at the inside of the barrel with the knife.
"If the barrel is the same size as the bullet then on the first shot for a split second the bullet acts as a pin lock stopping the cartridge where it is so I can't keep firing," he said working at the barrel on the second gun. "If I widen the inside of the barrel so that it tapers down to the normal width at the half way point of the barrel then as the bullet fires the cartridge is free to spin because the bullet is not locked into the barrel until it has completely left the cartridge so it has enough give that the bullet moves sideways along with the cartridge as it exits but it still follows the end of the barrel losing little accuracy," Hiryuu finished. He dumped small metal filings out of either gun and walked into the shooting range through the door. A man turned and saw him enter and raised his eyebrows at the boy. He then turned and shot six shots, four hitting the bull's-eye.
"See what you can do kid," the man said.
Hiryuu loaded a ring into the first gun, spun the cartridge and fired six bullets into the same hole, all in under one second.
"Huh. It's off three inched to the left at only twenty-five yards," he said as the cartridge kept spinning.
The man looked at the spinning cartridge and the hole exactly three inches to the left of the center of the two inch wide bull's-eye.
"Lucky shot. But why's it still spinning?" the man said.
"I changed the gun a little, so it stays spinning. And that's six lucky shots," Hiryuu said as he ejected the six spent shots. He took another ring and did the same with the other gun.
"Huh. Good. This one's two and a half inches to the right. That makes it easy," he said ejecting the six newly spent rounds.
The man looked at the twelve empty shells on the ground and the two holes on Hiryuu's target. Then Hiryuu took both guns in one hand grabbed two rings of bullets spun the cartridges in opposite directions switched hands of one of the guns and fire all eleven bullets in the same hole, in under one second then dropped his left hand and fired the remaining bullet in his right in the same hole … in the absolute center of the bull's-eye. The man standing next to Hiryuu watched the twelve empty shells drop to the ground then looked at the seemingly single hole in the direct center of the target.
"What the hell are you?"
"I'm David," Hiryuu said cheerily. He loaded the two guns and clicked on the safeties then placed them on the inside of his trench coat so he could easily grab one in each hand.
He walked out of the firing range.
"Back so soon, eh?" the gunsmith said, expecting the kid to complain that the guns didn't work.
"Yep. Thanks," Hiryuu said and walked right out of the shop.
The other man from the firing range came out.
"Who the hell was that kid?" he said to the gunsmith.
"I hope he didn't bother you to much, sheriff. He did something really stupid to his guns before he went in there. Man, ruining two good guns like that, kid dropped two thousand for 'em."
"Gary, you should come see this."
The sheriff brought the man into the firing range. He pointed at the twenty-four empty shells on the ground and the gunsmith gasped. The kid had gotten the things to fire.
"I want you to take a look at the target."
"Only three lucky shots, then."
"No, lets go down to it and look."
The two men walked down the range to the plywood target. It had three perfect circles in it. But there weren't any other shots on or off the target.
"Where's the other ones, he had twenty-four shells on the ground."
The sheriff began taking layers of plywood of the target until there were three bullets' butts sticking out. The sheriff took out the still warm bullets and the right and left bullets pulled five other bullets out with them smashed into a perfectly cylindrical rod with obvious rings where the bullet separated. The gunsmith gasped and looked at the awkward strings of bullets, then looked at the one directly in the center and pulled out a rod of twelve bullets along with sawdust. He stared at the rod in his hand as the last bullet fell away from the other eleven. Then the sheriff told the gunsmith exactly what had happened.
"My god, that kid must have been Jesus reincarnate! He had a nine-shooter ring earlier he dropped on the ground like a clumsy fool before he bought the guns."
"You sold guns to a kid?" the sheriff suddenly said quietly. Then he realized the more important detail.
"Did you say nine- or eight-shooter?" the sheriff suddenly demanded.
"Nine, weirdest thing I ever saw."
The sheriff's face went white.
"Do you know who is known for being the only person to have a nine-shooter on Gunsmoke, and it sounds like the gunman takes one shot?" the sheriff of April said.
"No. Who?" the gunsmith said worriedly.
"Hiryuu the Flame."
Both the men looked back at the door to the range and they ran out the shop and looked up and down for the kid with sunglasses and a black trench coat seeing no one.
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Hiryuu looked at the suns high in the air. He walked along a side street toward a bar close to the nearest plant. The plant had long been dead. He looked up at the giant light bulb-like structure and walked into the bar. Some drunks were brawling in the corner and he recognized the larger man to be the leader of the Rider Gang. He new it was too early to strike again. He decided that he would tail them for the next week. Then he would do the man of the Rider Gang in.
"Double whiskey with a twist."
Next, Chapter 5: A Gunfight in April