Here it is, the incident itself. I feel I've teased this long enough, so here you are. Please enjoy chapter eight. :)
Lunar Eclipse
Chapter Eight
Sugawara and Tsukishima had no reason to pay any attention to the man who entered the convenience store a mere five minutes after they had. As far as they had any reason to be concerned, he was just another customer who happened to be out late. They had no reason to suspect that he would in any way be motivated to do what he did next. The stranger approached Kiku at the counter, pulled a gun from the back of his jeans, and demanded all the money she had in her register.
"W-what? B-but I - "
"Didn't ya hear me, girlie!? I said now!"
There were many motivations that man could have had for walking into a convenience store, in one of the quietest, calmest towns in the prefecture, past midnight, pulling a gun on the cashier, and demanding a large sum of money. Maybe he had a rough day at work. Maybe he got fired. Maybe his wife is sick. Or his son. Or his daughter. Or his dog. Maybe the store wronged him in the past, and this stunt was the only way, in his mind, to set the record straight. Or maybe, just maybe, he was simply a greedy and twisted man. Whatever his reasons were for doing what he did, the simple fact was that he did it anyway, and about scared Kiku to death. Her frightened tone, however, did not escape Sugawara and Tsukishima's notice.
At the sound of the man raising his voice, Sugawara quickly nudged Tsukishima in the rib cage with his elbow, eliciting a soft grunt from his teammate. Tsukishima turned to look at him, and the two spoke, careful that their voices should not, even for an instant, rise above a whisper.
"Did...Did that guy just do what I think he did?" the silver-haired setter asked his friend. Tsukishima seemed just as incredulous as he was.
"Yes. I think this trip is going to take a little longer than you expected it to, Sugawara." Sugawara almost laughed out loud at Tsukishima's dry sense of humor before he quickly stopped himself. He turned his focus back to the task at hand.
"We need to hide."
"I agree. We're in the back of the store. I don't think he's noticed us yet, but we're the only other customers here. I can't imagine he'd be very happy to find out he has two witnesses he needs to take care of." Sugawara swallowed the nervous lump that had formed in his throat at his teammate's warning.
"Yeah. We need to make sure he doesn't see us. He has his back turned on us right now, since he's facing the register. Let's see if we can hide somewhere." Tsukishima discreetly gestured to the large shelves behind them that ran perpendicular to the coolers.
"If we crouch down and hide behind these, maybe he won't notice us as long as we stay out of the aisles." Sugawara nodded and the pair very slowly lowered their duffel bags to the floor and slunk down onto their knees. Slowly but surely, the boys inched their way so that they were almost leaning against the small edge of a shelf directly behind them.
"I'm not gonna ask you again! Give me the money, you stupid bitch! Or you're gonna get a face full of lead!" He waved the gun around wildly, prompting Kiku to scream as he did so.
Sugawara's blood turned to ice. She screamed. He has a gun. This is real. At the shrill sound of Kiku's frightened scream, Sugawara felt like everything inside his body had just stopped cold, frozen in place, as if even the fragile beating of his heart would alert the gunman to their presence. It was as if her fear was a splash of cold water, shocking him into the reality that he was trapped in a highly dangerous situation that could any moment claim his life. He knew he needed to focus his senses. Concentrate. If the gunman did anything that would even remotely suggest the idea that he was on his way to kill them, he needed to be aware of it and ready to handle it. Handle it? Handle it how? You don't have a weapon. Besides, even if you did have a pocket knife or something on you, what could it possibly do against a gun?
Sugawara could feel his heart beating louder and faster inside his ears, the fragile sound growing in volume as it seemingly grew in power. The blood rushing through his brain was almost enough to obscure his hearing; he could only faintly distinguish the sounds of the criminal yelling at gentle Kiku to give him the money. Calm down, you need to calm down, Koushi!
But he couldn't calm down. He felt his lungs hammering away at the inside of his rib cage; he could more hear than feel his heartbeat by this point. He was sure the whimpering was coming from a voice other than his, a voice he didn't recognize nearly as well as the one he used to keep Hinata and Kageyama in line in practice. He only hardly registered his teammate's harsh whisper coming from his left.
"Sugawara! Sugawara, you need to calm down! If you don't keep a lid on it, he's going to hear us!"
But as much as he wanted to, Sugawara couldn't calm down. He was trembling, his throat was raw from his harsh, heavy breathing, and his pulse flooded past his eardrums with a sickening rush. Tsukishima grabbed his arm and shook him slightly in an effort to snap him back to reality, but the attempt failed. It was not long before the gunman heard their commotion.
"Hey! Hey, you! Is there someone whispering back there? You'd better shut your mouth!" He whipped around to face the back of the store, but in his blind rage, didn't immediately see the two boys. Wildly pointing his gun around the room, Tsukishima could clearly see that the guy was angry to the point of hysteria. And with Sugawara in the full throes of a panic attack, there was no way Tsukishima could quiet him down enough to keep the gunman from blowing their cover.
It was than that Sugawara did something incredibly stupid.
At the sound of the gunman's demanding words, his undeniable panic overcame his usual common sense. Without warning, the third year setter leaped across the aisle towards the door, right in front of the gunman's point of view.
"He's gonna get us! We have to move now!"
"Sugawara, stop!"
But it was too late. Sugawara had already made the leap.
"Hey, what - "
And the gunman was too startled to fire. Sugawara had made it to the next aisle - relative safety.
"Damnit!" Tsukishima, partially out of concern for his friend's safety, partially in the heat of the moment, leaped across the aisle to follow him.
The gunman had overcome his initial surprise. He fired.
...
It was a sound that Sugawara would remember for the rest of his life. The noise around him, the shouting, all died away into one heavy silence and then...
CRACK
...
Thud.
At the moment he first heard it, he knew he would never again hear anything like it. The discharge of the gun was much louder than he expected it to be, like a shot from a movie times twenty. It rang in his ears for several seconds after it happened, like the ghost of a moment that refused to pass. He heard the sickening sound of his teammate hitting the floor, but was too scared to turn around to see if he was still alive.
Oh, god...that shot was so close...he...he's dead! He's gotta be!
Refusing to entertain the thought any further, Sugawara knew he needed to move. He heard the assailant's footsteps as he sprinted down the aisle, ready to turn the corner any second to discover Sugawara sitting there dumbfounded. He pulled himself to his feet and moved. Fast. Numb to everything around him, Sugawara ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He dodged between aisles, looking desperately for any sort of cover. As a last ditch effort, he dove behind an ice cream case, and crouched between it and the wall.
If he finds me here...I'm dead...
It was then that Sugawara heard a voice, but it was not the voice he was expecting. Instead of the voice of a ravenous murder ready and willing to claim his life, the voice he heard belonged to Kiku.
"Y-You better put the gun down right now! Or I will kill you!"
Kiku was not a stupid girl. Scared? Yes. Shy? Yes. Stupid? No. She was not stupid. As soon as the gunman turned his back on her, as soon as she was sure the two boys had his full attention, she ran to a phone.
She knew there would be one hanging on the wall just to the right of her cashier station - the elderly man who trained her had told her so.
"If you need to call someone in an emergency - either one of your managers, the police, anyone - use this phone here. That's what it's for." Kiku smiled and nodded, wondering if she would ever actually need this information.
Well, as it turned out, she did - now more than ever. Huddling against the wall, she pulled the phone off of its hook and dialed the police. A stern-sounding woman answered the line.
"Hello, what is the nature of your emergency?"
"I'm at the Family Mart in Torono Town. A guy just came into my store with a gun. He - he's threatening my customers!"
"How many customers are there in your store right now, ma'am?"
"Just two, but he's really upset. I think someone might get hurt."
"Okay, ma'am -" She was cut off by the sound of a gunshot, followed by Kiku's scream.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you alright?"
"Oh, god! He just shot one of my customers! Oh, god, please! I need an ambulance!"
"Okay, ma'am, I'm sending police and paramedics to your location right now. Would you like me to stay on the line with you?"
"N-no, I can't stay on the line. I'm afraid he might see me with a phone." Kiku hung up before the policewoman could respond. Luckily, she knew how to keep the guy busy until police arrived.
"Now, Kiku, this next bit is very important," the old man was saying, "You're coming back tomorrow for your basic firearms review, yes?" Kiku nodded.
"Good. We keep a 9mm in a lock box behind the counter. You have to remember, the owner was a cop for 15 years in one of the worst crime capitals of Japan before he and his wife bought this place. He's seen far too much violence in his life, and he considers having a gun and knowing how to use it the height of safety. I understand you have your license already, but we like to play it safe when it comes to our customers and employees, so we're going to review the basics with you just in case. Please understand that you are to use that gun only if your life, or the lives of your customers, are in immediate danger."
Kiku figured that a situation like this one counted as immediate danger. Right after she hung up with the police she took the few necessary steps back to her counter where she knew the lock box and 9mm would be. Crouching down so the gunman couldn't see her, Kiku knelt in front of the little shelf and put in the box's unlock code. When the latch clicked she carefully opened the lid, revealing the sleek black weapon and a half-empty box of ammunition sitting beside it. Pulling the lock box off the shelf, Kiku set it on the floor and picked the gun from the box, feeling the weight of it in her dominant hand. She opened the magazine and saw that it was full, thanking every deity she could think of that she didn't have to waste time loading it.
She turned off the safety.
This was it. She was about to fire a gun. At a person.
Kiku took a moment and steadied herself. She looked down at her hands and saw how badly they were trembling. Was she really about to shoot someone? Stop it, she chastised herself, this is no time to get cold feet. This guy is threatening my store and my customers. I need to take him out. Besides, it's just like being at the shooting range with dad, right? Kiku stepped out from behind the counter and squared herself with the attacker.
"Y-You better put the gun down right now! Or I will kill you!"
At Kiku's threat, the gunman turned around to see the cashier he had just threatened mere minutes ago pointing a loaded firearm at him. His eyes went wide.
"Hey, now, that's not necessary, little lady. I'm leaving, look! I'm leaving! Just don't call the cops or nothin'!"
Kiku took one last moment to contemplate killing this guy. However, before she could weigh her options, he took off, sprinting from the store in a frightened panic.
Once the gunman had taken off, Sugawara raised himself from the floor and looked at Kiku, who was staring him down in wide-eyed horror, gun still focused in his direction.
"Kiku? Kiku, it's over. Could you, uh, please put the gun away?" She shook her head slightly.
"Huh? Yeah..." She flicked the gun's safety back on and put it on the counter.
"Come on," she ran back to Sugawara and pulled on his sleeve, "We need to check on Kei." Without saying anything more, they ran back to the aisle where Tsukishima had been shot.
They stopped cold at the sight. Tsukishima was lying in a small pool of his own blood, on his side, almost hunched over himself. His arm was covering half his face, and Sugawara could hardly tell if he was breathing. His eyes were closed. At the sudden sight of such a close friend covered in so much blood, Sugawara promptly turned his back on his friend's mangled form and vomited violently onto the floor.
Part 1, I guess you could say, of Sugawara's Nightmare is complete. I tried my best to get all the little details right, so if I've missed anything, don't be afraid to let me know. Please let me know what you think, and remember, I appreciate any and all constructive criticism.