Murder

“Oh my god…”

The only light in the dark alley was the light coming from the stars and moon. In the shadowy darkness, Ryu could barely make out the man standing above a still body. That man was holding a gun, its barrel smoking as if it had been shot. Ryu could smell something metallic and rotten. The smell of a gunshot? But that didn’t make sense.

Ryu hadn’t heard a gunshot at all. There was no silencer on the gun. He should have heard the gunshot if it was still smoking. He could smell it, but why hadn’t he heard the gunshot?
The quiet, still air was the only answer his thoughts received.

In that silent alley, Ryu’s shaking legs took a small step in front of Chika. They should’ve ran. Ran and never look back. But neither of them could. He could feel Chika shaking just as much as, if not more than, he was.

“Oh? Someone is past the barrier?” A cold, detached voice rang out through the silence. The man with the gun had noticed the two of them. His voice had an edge to it that made Ryu’s shaking ramp up. His legs were close to giving out.

A small thud behind him told Ryu that Chika’s legs had given out on her. She was on the ground, terrified.

Ryu had to protect her.

That thought gave his legs a bit of strength.

He couldn’t fall now.

“I- I- I-”

“Oh shut up,” The man cut off Ryu before he could stammer out any sort of words. “If you got through the barrier then you have to be another competitor, yes?”

“C-c-compet-etitor? We don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ryu stammered out as he threw his hands up. It was a signal of surrender. He didn’t, no he couldn’t get shot here. Not in front of Chika.

Each step the man took towards them, Ryu’s body flinched. There was a weight in his gut that was dropping deeper and deeper. His throat was closing and his mouth had grown dry. So dry that it hurt to swallow the little saliva in his mouth.

The man stopped a step or two away from Ryu. In the low light, the two could finally see each other properly. The man holding the gun was significantly bigger than Ryu. Not only was he taller, his body seemed as wide as the alley they were in. His presence caused Ryu to cower into his own body a bit.

“You… You’re civilians? No,” The man shook his head at the idea, as if it was the most nonsensical thing he had ever said. “Civilians can’t get through the barriers. You must be mages? Or maybe Assassins.”

Ryu’s head was spinning. Mages? Assassins? What was this? Some anime or game? And this man, what even was he? A soldier from the defense force? A member of a crime organization? There were so many options that Ryu had trouble even thinking of them all.

“Your actions? Tactics to get me to lower my guard? Seems very assassin-like of you.”

“I told you, we don’t know what you’re talking about! Mages? Assassins? Those are all fantasy. How could either of us be something made up? I’m just a bartender. I work at a bar in Shibuya. My friend and I are just trying to get home and we cut through this alley without seeing what was going on here.” Ryu put out his arms to plead for his life. “Please, let us go. We promise we won’t tell anyone what we saw here. Your secret will be safe!”

An explosion rang out in front of Ryu. The wall to his right exploded in rubble.

The man had shot the gun to the side.

Ryu slammed his hands over his ringing ears and keeled over. His head was splitting from the noise. He could hear sounds coming from above his head, from the man, but it was so muffled that he couldn't make out exactly what was being said. 

What he did know was that Chika had started crying. His eyes flicked to her and he could see her shoulders heaving with each bout of tears. If nothing else, Ryu had to get her out of here. He had to.

Before Ryu could fully recover, the man with the gun kicked Chika. Ryu couldn’t hear why but he had a decent idea based on how he had been acting. Ryu saw Chika keel over in pain and his vision went red.

“Don’t touch her!” Without thinking, he swung. Ryu’s right hand turned into a fist and went flying at the man’s face.

It happened in an instant. In one moment, Ryu was swinging his fist, and the next he was being slammed into the ground. His lungs seized in the impact. He struggled to move his body. His vision was getting darker. It was closing in from the outer edges of his vision.

The man was standing over him, and a gun was pointed in his face.

“Rest now.”

Ryu barely heard the man.

“USE ME. USE MY STRENGTH.” A voice boomed in Ryu’s head. It sounded like it was coming from below Ryu, from the earth itself.

“USE! ME!”

Ryu felt something below him. Something warm. He could feel that it wanted to be pulled up. His hand reached for the ground and found it. He pulled. As hard as he could. Something was burning his hand as he did it. But he pulled. He pulled as hard as he could.

Before the trigger on the gun could be pulled, something impaled the man. The thing that wanted to be pulled from below Ryu disappeared. Ryu gasped for breath and crawled out from under the impaled man. He stumbled onto his feet, using one of the walls to support himself, and looked at the impaled man.

A stalagmite-like rock had risen out of the ground and punctured the man in the gut. It was large enough that it had lifted him straight off the ground. His eyes were already lifeless.

“Did I…?” Ryu didn’t have time to think about the implications of what this meant. He had to get out of there.

He stumbled over to Chika. “Chika. Chika.” He called out her name softly. His brain was getting fuzzy and his vision was getting smaller and smaller. He was going to pass out soon. Something had drained all of his strength.

Thankfully, Chika had heard him. She looked up at him in surprise. When she saw his stomach, she rushed to her feet. “You’re bleeding!”

Her outburst caused Ryu to look down at himself. His shirt was covered in blood, but he didn’t feel any pain. He reached a hand under his shirt and didn’t feel anything.

“It’s… not mine.” Ryu glanced back at the suspended body. He had been under him when the man was stabbed. The blood must have been his.

Chika looked where he was looking and gasped. “You…”

“Chika, please, right now I need to get home. I’m…” His head fell down and he slammed against the wall. His strength was leaving him. As Chika slid one of his arms around her neck, Ryu saw a flash of white on the rooftops above. He didn’t have time to think about what it was before he lost his consciousness.