Top of the Eighth Inning
The appointed time had come, so Banba headed over to the family restaurant. He was supposed to met up with Enokida here.
He parked at the parking lot and stepped inside the facility.
"Welcome."
When he entered, he was greeted by a young female shop attendee.
"What is your name?"
"Ah, no, I"m just here to meet with someone……" Banba told her as he looked around the inside of the restaurant.
Enokida should have been waiting for him, but Banba did not see him anywhere.
"……Huh? He ain"t here." Banba c.o.c.ked his head and muttered to himself. "Where did ya go, Enokidkun?"
Enokida had never failed to meet up at a set time before.
Banba had a bad feeling about this. "……It can"t be."
It was impossible for Saitou to stay hidden forever. His job would start today. It was an important day for restarting his life.
Saitou slipped out of Shigematsu"s house he had been holding up in and headed back to his apartment. In just a few hours, it would be sunrise. Saitou had to hurry home and get ready to go to work.
Plenty of time had pa.s.sed, and there should be less people checking that post now. Even that man from earlier should have given up by now. Saitou returned to the apartment with that thought in his mind. But when he got there, a man was standing at the entrance.
"So you finally came back?"
It was the bounty hunter from the day before.
"Gyaa!" Saitou yelled in shock.
Saitou became lightheaded. He never expected the man would wait for him. He did not think he would be so persistent.
Saitou turned around and dashed off in a haste.
The man chased after him. "Hold it right there, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
"Uwwaaa! H-help me!"
Saitou yelled as he ran through Nakasu desperately. But the man was hot on his tail no matter how far he ran.
Several minutes after running around, Saitou had reached his limit. He stopped in his tracks just as he cut through a narrow alleyway.
It was a dead end.
The concrete wall obstructed Saitou"s path of escape.
"S-someone, save me-" Saitou took out his cell phone with shaking hands. But it was too late. The man was closing in on him.
It was useless. Saitou had been driven into a corner. Tears welled up in his eyes.
"Now I"m gonna get that 100,000 yen."
The man"s thick arms reached out and grasped Saitou"s head.
"Hee!"
Saitou resented Enokida as he cowered in fear. What "a hacker and informant is all you need?" It was because of that hacker that he got into this mess.
This was a disaster.
The day for restarting his life was welcomed by danger.
Bottom of the Eighth Inning
A unique ring surrounded by a fenced wall was set up in the garage at Irasawa"s house. The wire netting circled around and reached all the wall to the ceiling, leaving no place to escape inside the ring.
Irasawa carried the small body over and place him down in the ring. The man had striking looking hair and looked frail. He was apparently some big shot hacker going by the name blackleg, but Irasawa could honestly care less. He was nothing more than prey to him.
"Hey, wake up."
When Irasawa hit him on the cheek, the young male woke up. He glared at him with a weary expression.
"It"s time for the match."
"……The match?" He replied with a hoa.r.s.e voice.
"Between you and me."
The man stood up shakily and moved away from him. The drugs seemed to still be in effect as he was unsteady on his feet.
"Come on now. Come at me." Irasawa provoked him. "I have the key. If you wanna get outta here, then try to kill me."
The man clenched his fists fearfully while making distance from Irasawa. What the h.e.l.l is that stance? Irasawa felt like laughing. He must not be well adapted for fighting. Irasawa could tell just from his posture.
Irasawa also took up his stance. He knew he was excited. His heart pounded hard, recalling the past.
A gong rang inside his head. The match began. Irasawa quickly closed the distance and punched man"s body.
"Ugh," the man had groaned.
The young man staggered and collided into the fence. The metal net crunched from the force.
His opponent made a counterattack, going for a punch. He made a weak fist as though he had never fought before. It had no impact on Irasawa. It was so weak he barely felt it touch him.
Irasawa took a step forward, cornering him against the wall and showered him with attacks. He alternated between punching the man in the face and in the torso.
"Gwah……"
Lastily he gave him a punch into his side. The man lurched over unnaturally and collapsed to the floor. The inside of his mouth must have been cut as the man spat out blood. The man crouched over, holding his stomach and bearing with the pain.
"…..Doesn"t look like you"ll be much fun." Irasawa muttered to his opponent who could not even make a practice swing at him in retaliation. The other man"s face contorted in pain, holding his stomach. The eyes Irasawa could see from under his long blond bangs were hollow. The other hacker Irasawa had fought earlier had more backbone than this hacker. The other man attempted to fight back. Even as he trembled in fear, he rushed at Irasawa.
But this man was no good to him. He was out of the question. Fighting a pathetically weak creature like him would just be a waste of time. Irasawa supposed he should just hurry up and kill him.
"Do you have any last words?" Irasawa looked down at the young male crawling on the ground and asked that.
The man opened his b.l.o.o.d.y lips. "……Are you the one who killed those homeless men?"
It was a gentle and hoa.r.s.e voice.
He knew of them? Irasawa was shocked but he admitted in honestly.
"I am."
This man was going to be killed by him now anyway. There was no issue of him knowing that.
"Why did you kill them?"
"No reason in particular." Irasawa just enjoyed tormenting and killing people.
"And why do you pull out their teeth? Are those your spoils?"
Irasawa"s eyes widened in surprise.
"……Now that"s a shocker. You knew even that?"
"There"s nothing I don"t know." The man gave him a b.l.o.o.d.y smirk.
If that was the case, then Irasawa definitely could not let him live.
The young man"s gaze looked outside the fence. "Those are the teeth of the guys you killed over there, right?"
There were small bottles set on the shelf he was looking at. The bottles had human teeth in them. All of them were pulled out from his victims.
"You"ll be lined up alongside the other ones soon too."
"……Haha, yeah, no thanks."
How dare he laugh at me. This man always has to get the last say, even though he"s about to be killed.
Irasawa picked up the video camera he had secured on the fence and held it in his left hand. In his right hand, he held a survival knife. He got on top of the fallen man and raised the knife into the air as he gazed down at him.
"Die."
It was then. A phone was ringing. Irasawa immediately stopped what he was about to do. A cellular device was going off in the other man"s pocket.
Irasawa seized the phone and hit the b.u.t.ton to accept the call.
"Hey, Enokida," a man spoke.
"Who"s this?"
"………" When Irasawa said that, the man on the other end had fallen silent. After a few moments, he replied in a weary voice. "And who are you?"
"Are you this guy"s buddy?"
The other man had fallen silent again at Irasawa"s question before speaking again a few seconds later. He seemed to be carefully crafting his words. "I have business with the owner of this cell phone. Can you put him on?"
"No can do." Irasawa glanced down at blackleg and smirked. "He"s going to die now."
"Wh" The other man was at a loss of words in shock.
"Don"t you dare interfere."
Irasawa hung up and turned the device off just in case. Now the other could not find their location.
He tossed the device onto the floor and turned back to face blackleg. "Your friends won"t be coming to save you."
"……So it seems."
"How unfortunate for you." There was no escaping what was going to happen no matter how much he tried to act tough. "A hacker is just a puny weakling without their computer."
Irasawa swung down the knife at the lean man once more.
Top of the Ninth Inning
Martinez decided to book a table at a restaurant as he got a sudden message saying, "I"d like to go out and have yakiniku." Yakiniku restaurants were popular even in f.u.kuoka, and with not many tables there he had to make a reservation.
But even then, he had no idea what day or time he should book it. He needed to verify when would be a good time to go best for Enokida"s schedule, so he decided to call him right away.
"……He"s not picking up." Martinez frowned. "What"s up with him?"
After a few moments, he finally picked up.
"Hey, Enokida."
"Who"s this?"
But the voice Martinez heard was not Enokida"s.
He asked back in a low voice. "……and who are you?"
"Are you this guy"s buddy?"
Martinez fell silent for a few moments. Who was this man? Was he an enemy or a friend? Why did he pick up Enokida"s phone? Martinez had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but first he had to find out Enokida"s condition. "I have business with the owner of this cell phone. Can you put him on?"
"No can do." The man laughed. "He"s going to die now."
"Wh"
"Don"t you dare interfere."
And he hung up.
Martinez immediately called back, only to receive an automated message. "The phone number you are trying to reach is currently-"
The man had turned off Enokida"s phone.
"He"s going to die now," he said? Him as in Enokida? Was he captured by an enemy? There"s no way.
Sweat formed on Martinez"s brow.
"s.h.i.t," Martinez tutted and yelled. "What did you screw up on? You idiot!"
Bottom of the Ninth Inning
Chegar got a message from Irasawa later in the afternoon that day. His cell phone went off just as he was about to take a nap in the dreary room of his apartment. A video file was attached to the message. When he downloaded it, he saw it was that horrible video of his hobbies again. The young man with mushroom hair was in the recorded footage. It was blackleg.
Irasawa was punching him numerous times. The lean man would fall down each time he was. .h.i.t. Irasawa mercilessly gave him another blow as the man shakily stood up. The man at last stopped moving and dropped to the ground. He was at death"s door. Irasawa held the camera in his left hand as always. The young man"s face was clearly visible on the screen, aside from his eyes that were covered by his long bangs.
Chegar could see Irasawa"s arm at the edge of the screen. He held a knife in his right hand and swung it down, slashing the man in the chest and stomach. Blood spurt out, dying the man"s yellow parka in red.
Chegar paused the video in the middle of it.
"……I told him not to send them to me." That man had terrible tastes as always.
But regardless, this meant Irasawa had finished the job.
Blackleg was dead.
"Blackleg, huh……"
Chegar whispered to himself in the silent room. It finally sunk in after watching Irasawa"s video. They finally did it. Blackleg was dead. He won against the infamous hacker.
Chegar did not prefer working as a spy. But that said, even as he fell behind in knowledge and ability, he had managed to outwit someone above him. And that truth alone made him feel proud right now.
One more talented hacker had left this world. Chegar found it regrettable, but there was no help in it. They had to erase anyone who they could not win over onto their side. That was .mmm"s, no, our national policy.
Chegar only relished in the memory of victory for a few moments before moving on to work on the post-procedures. He first had to send payment over to Siva. He would pay him with cryptocurrency and in great amount this time.
Then all he had left to do was to report to an executive from the organization. Chegar contacted that man and headed to Hakata Station.
GAME SET…?