Chapter 22
The owner of that sound lowered the gun, but first he blew the smog away, which was coming out of the gun barrel. Just like cowboys in western movies. The girls took a deeper cover behind the window ledge. What? All their classmates want to spend the night in this place? They could just hope, that no more of them will come and this one going to leave very soon. Well, he did not seemed to go in any minute.
A tall, spare boy stepped into the pale moonlight. It was not that glaring for the others to reveal his true self, but the movements he stepped with - quite confident - seemed the first sign, so the girls became suspicious of him. Sonoko and Rumiko was frozen like salt pillars, gotten into a real, heavy situation. One tiny mistake could cost their lives. What should they do?
Meanwhile they totally forgot about Riki. No wonder, that they almost cried from the sudden coming fright, in the time Riki covered they lips with his palm. Rumiko's shoulders only shattered once, but Sonoko bit into her well-wisher's hand. Riki gave a hissing sound, nothing more. Then he let the others go and pointed to his own lips with the forefinger, saying: not a single word! Later added under his breath:
"It's my brother, looking for me." no matter the little distance between them, Sonoko and Rumiko could barely heard him.
"How does he know, that you're here?" Sonoko asked in daze.
This was one reason, but there was also another. The girl was preyed upon a great dilemma inside her heart: lying to Riki about pair-game, which was in effect again... let's say... seemed to be a stupid thing. Riki could think, that they hid the name of Rumiko's partner from him, because Kinji is the mentioned one (how true anyway) and to find out for sure, Sonoko expected; the boy will take his chances. Mainly if he could get rid of Kinji in return.
"Do you think, he has a special gadget or something?" asked again. Riki shook his head.
"He may not know about us. But he can feel my presence. We're rivals since we were little kids. He wants to hunt me down. Always wants."
"Your own brother?" No answer came.
Riki wave her down with a silent "shut up" and considering the circumstances, the girl did not want to make a counter attack. She thought, it was a wiser decision to obey his orders. As Rumiko did.
"Grab all your important stuff! We're leaving!"
After they were ready, the two girls returned to the windows and stopped next to Riki. They only needed the backpack, the katana and the workers hammer - these last two were already in their possession.
"We wait until my brother gets further from the mansion." Riki explains silently "he mustn't know that we're here."
Well, his twin has not shown any sign for knowing the presence of the other three so far. Still, Kinji's steps were obviously cautious and wanted to remain soft-footed. After a short time, he acted like someone, who wants to stall for time. After taking a short circle in the mansion yard down there, he stopped under the glassless windows. Sonoko and Rumiko turned their faces into Riki's direction as one person. The boy focused on Kinji so hard without a blink of the eyelid, so it was useless to say out: Kinji knew, that they were on the upper level. Sonoko had an urgent need to shout - That bastard won't go away! - but she did not want to make more trouble. The enemy would hear them easily within that short distance.
About two minutes had passed in that quiescent, maddening waiting. Then more. Three, five or God only knows, how many. Kinji was standing in the yard, like a statue - suddenly, crazy thoughts came into Sonoko's mind. She did not stand without a weak smile. What if... Kinji whips out a guitar with great speed and shouts 'Aprils fool', then performs an emotional love-song.
Maybe Riki had similar in his mind, because he had enough, that nothing happened for minutes and finally shouted.
"Sod off, idiot! We're not asking for your serenade!" he remained in the cover of the mansion wall, while he did not wished to be Kinji's target. The last one sounded in a devilish laugh.
"What a pity. I killed a lot of time with practicing, are you sure you don't wanna hear my music?" he took a deep breath during an innocent looking-around then continued:
"Not even for Ozawa, the Rumiko's and Kuroki's sake?"
"And what if I'm the only one here?" Riki roared like an enraged lion. Something was not right here. Despite of his rude welcome, the older twin answered in a calm and chatty style.
"Please, don't try to fool me. I'm sure they are by your side."
"And you claim that for what reason?"
Riki simply could not believe his ears, while he admitted deeply within: for some reason Kinji knows way too much. More, than necessary. The two girls also noticed that, and wanted to flee immediately, mainly, because Rumiko's life was at stake. It was a matter of time, when will Riki use her to eliminate his brother.
Damn you, fate! How could I know, that these two has such a bad relationship? Everything will be my fault. Only mine...
Sonoko felt herself in ruins, hardly heard Kinji's additional chat:
"Wow, what a harem! You wanna make up leeway before dying, eh, dear brother? Let me hear, which one was still virgin? But it doesn't matter for you, right? The experience is important, that you could try it. No time 'till the wedding with the chosen one, I can understand that."
Kinji knew, that this field of life was Riki's weak spot. If he could make Riki to be enough angry, the younger one was able to leave his hide in blindfold anger. After that: easy prey. Kinji assumed, that they hadn't got firearms, only melee weapons or something, or else, they would have used their guns so far.
"Or what is this making-friends attitude, bro? I thought you hate this class, these - as you said once - dirty low folk... Hey, wasn't Kuroki your partner at the beginning?" he continued his plan to call Riki forth with the power of words "You became sworn friends, huh? I think I can smell love in the air!"
Riki was near to rampage, but somehow he was angry with his mates, Sonoko and Rumiko, too.
"So, you said, that Moskvin brought the pair-game back." he looked at the girls with acted calmness "but you don't want to tell, who's Ozawa's mate. According to your opinion, to what kind of a conclusion do I have to jump?"
Sonoko and Rumiko did not answer. Sonoko raised up the workers hammer, showing, she was ready to use it, her friend did the same with the Japanese sword. But Kinji interrupted them immediately.
"Pair-game again? Really? Why did I missed that information? No, there aren't any pair-game, believe me, brother. I'm near of the fire, I know what am I talking about." then, with a quickly coming thought, he burst into loud laughing.
"Oh, I see... I see..." then tried to imitate a boy from a kindergarten with high voice, who should everyone feel sorry for "poor little Ricky fell a victim to big, ugly girls, who were lying to him."
Kinji was laughing for minutes long and totally forgot about his plan, he enjoyed the night. He did not have the remotest suspicion, that Riki was close to jump out of the window. But it looked that way. The magic words were: two GIRLS fooled you! - Riki jumped up from the floor to end in the window-ledge, then wanted to attack his twin; but before it happened, Sonoko and Rumiko discarded their weapons and pulled him back.
"Stop! He had gun, dammit!"
They could not explain the moving force of their actions, simply felt, they have to save Riki. The three students fell back to the ground, seconds before Kinji fired his handgun. The bullet disappeared in the mansion wall inside, small clouds of dust and plaster flew into the air. In the upper room Riki shook down the hands of his saviors with beastly vehemence.
"I should exactly listen to you, liars!"
"It is only my fault!" Sonoko gave him a comeback "I was the one, who came up with the idea, I thought..."
"Shout your fuckin' mouth!" Riki pulled them away from his way again and headed into his former lair.
"And you know what?" he stopped only for a short second "I'm done protecting your asses!"
The girls were still lying on the ground between bird guano and feather remains. Meanwhile, Kinji seemed to end his little game, too.
"I can see, that none of you have mood for listening my music. If you enjoy gunfire better, be it. What do you think about hand grenade for a start?"
Uh-oh... We have to pull ourselves together very quick...
With the end of Kinji's monologue, Sonoko and Rumiko saw something flying through the window, right into the middle of the room. It was the promised hand grenade, so the other three had only a few time to take cover.
BOOM!
The explosion shook the mansion like a thunderstroke. Everything happened so fast, like someone took a single glance. Sonoko comprehended as much, that the floor disappeared under her feet again and she was swooshing in the everlasting emptiness. That's why seemed it much more painful, when she finally landed in the cob floor next door. What's more, after the rolling she felt heavy pains in the injured arm.
Sonoko had a look around. There was too much dust in the air, too much rubble, broken furniture, piece of wall plasters and wooden beams. Sonoko's sight was also blurry, but she could see one thing for sure: Rumiko was not there anymore. The room with the stringy board floor was gone, too: a big, black hole stood in its place, covered with suffocating dust-storm. The girl looked up to the ceiling. It was on its last legs until collapsing.
Suddenly, Sonoko realized a more important thing. She was not able to stand up, her right feet was stuck in a hole, under a heavy wooden beam. Thanks to the hole, at least her feet did not turned into a...
Flat shit...
No matter, how hard she tried to save herself, the beam was too massive, since she could heighten it. Riki was in the same room yet, but did not give a damn about Sonoko's situation. He tried to crush the metal door - unfortunately, after the tenth trying, he had to give up and search for another way out. Which else? The other exit could be found in the loft, which loft was connected into this room with a spiral staircase. Riki took a last glance to the trapped one; really for a single glance - in the next minute the staircase clanged under his sneakers with metallic sound.
Kinji was also not lazy and climbed up into the building with great speed. He used the huge pile of the collapsed remains of the board floor room. Oh, no...
He was almost up, the brown, bushy hair looked glowing in the dark, comparing to the other parts of the mansion.
Do I really have to die like this, Lyx? I'd like a quick headshot, okay?
Kinji became more determined than ever, but the headshot was late. Sonoko found herself in somebody's arms, and that somebody raised the massive beam a bit, so she could free her feet. Sonoko did not really believe, that Rumiko saved her - the beam proved to be too heavy for a girl – but a few seconds later she saw, that she could thank this Riki Ryusaki later. The recognition made her mood awful than ever. Hurray... she owed him one, once again.
That was the time, their enemy reached the room surface, and immediately aimed them. BOOM! Sonoko felt another push, then opened her eyes and realized: Riki jumped with her behind the spiral staircase to avoid the bullets. Not to waste more time, Riki aimed the staircase and ran up without hesitation, pulling Sonoko by the wrist. The stairs were old, the whole thing shuttled, from left to right, then back, like it would fell apart in any minute. Kinji stopped downstairs and shot Otomo's gun. Missed again. The bullet lost in the dark loft. After that, no more gunfire could be heard, another metallic sounds as a sign instead: Kinji came after his preys. Why is he so persistent? Son of a bitch!
The loft was the top floor with huge space, the concrete floor was covered by pigeon and bat guano everywhere - in nighttime, like the current was, maybe some of its owners were here - nothing else. In Sonoko's and Riki's near, a small, red door stood in its place; this was the key of their survival. Unfortunately, it was locked by a small, rusty lock. A block maybe? Not at all! Riki crushed the door with a single kick, together with its lock. The remains gathered the near of the exit, in form of broken planks. Now they had free way out, the boy did a sprint until he reached the oak-plantation next to the mansion. Like in the case of the wolf-hunt, Sonoko could barely keep pace.
It was previously mentioned, that the old mansion was built into the hillside, so the students had to go higher and higher if they wanted to reach top. The problem was only, that they lost a lot of energy until they reached their goal. The two students could not go any further from that point, because a deep abyss endlessly stretched itself into the direction of the horizon with its sharp, cliffy arms, right under the Japanese... If they take another step... deadly falling. The landscape was dressed in fog, like dense spider web, somewhere in the near something like strong stream of water came here in the wings of the wind. Kinji could came after them in any minute.
"Maybe there's a waterfall here somewhere." suddenly Riki said out loudly, mainly to himself.
"Is there a lake in the deep?" Sonoko asked.
"If we're lucky..."
That was Riki's last sentence. He stepped to Sonoko and grabbed her arm so quickly, that she sensed their way into the direction of the abyss, when it was too late.
"Whoa... what... you don't..." she stuttered when everything made sense in her brain "this is sui-CIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Sonoko Kuroki's scream echoed long through the abyss. Kinji Ryusaki (boys #14) arrived the hilltop to the last of such an echo-shard.
[Number of students: 17]
