Gun Feeling

“Now that’s a revolver! It’s an American design.” Yuki said as she went back into cover, “How did you do that?”

“I just did what you did, followed my intuition.”

She grinned. “Oh? Are you copying me?”

Or maybe…

“Yuki-san! Shoot my hammer when I say!”

Yuki raised an eyebrow but pointed her revolver at him.

The hammer felt heavy in his hand. He threw it with all his force, into the air. It spun, flying upwards, just short of the ceiling. It arced downwards, like a messenger from God; until it was above the steel slabs.

“Now!”

Yuki shot the hammer. Boom. Half the roof crashed down. Men screamed. The wooden handle felt warmer as the hammer appeared again in Kanji’s hand. It worked!

Yuki chuckled. “Now that’s an interesting trick, I didn’t know hammers could do that.“

“Neither did I.” Kanji said.

“Let’s go outside, before any more get here.” Yuki said.

They both headed towards the backyard, and hid behind a concrete half-wall.

Combat boots thudded against the asphalt parking lot. Another squad.

A low rhythmic hum pressed down from above.

What’s that sound? Kanji looked up. A helicopter, with a door mounted machine gun.

Shit…

“What now?” Kanji whispered.

“Now? We kill them.”

“K-kill them?”

“How else? Sneaking out is too risky, Kanji-kun.”

And fighting isn’t? Kanji gulped.

“How many bullets do you have left?”

“Four.” She looked at him, “More than enough.”

“What? I can see at least ten from here. There might be more.”

“It’s my turn to do something interesting.”

“What are you going to do? Yuki-san?!” He asked, but she already got up and started walking.

“So my intuition is worth following. I was hesitant to follow it fully until now.” She said loudly, walking towards the squad.

She shot a bullet upwards blindly.

The helicopter tilted sideways, then started spinning, and it descended towards where Kanji was.

Shit! Do I move? I might get shot if I leave cover!

He curled into a ball.

The helicopter hit the building above him and exploded. Kanji was left unharmed, shaking.

As Kanji lifted his head, he saw a very strange occurrence. The squad all dropped their weapons and stood in a column, their hands on their sides. What the hell?

Yuki fired once, and the five dropped to the ground, like dominoes.

Why?

Another blind shot to the left; she hit a gunman on a nearby building. He fell down and hit a car, triggering its alarm.

“I even saved one,” she yelled towards Kanji.

A purple, glowing, spinning projectile flew at her from a school window.

“Yuki! Move!” Kanji yelled.

Explosion. The asphalt tore, splattering in all directions. The shockwave flung Yuki back. She landed, and slid on her heels to a stop. The area where she jumped from became a charred crater.

Yuki kept jumping rapidly like a spider as more and more projectiles came from the school building, melting the asphalt.

What do I do? I need to help her somehow!

Could I somehow… use inspiration to turn the revolver into a loaded revolver?

But… If I throw it out I will reveal myself!

But if I don’t, Yuki will get hurt.

Shit.

Kanji threw his hammer at her.

She glanced aside, seeing it coming, and hit her revolver with it. She emptied her revolver six times at the school building. The projectiles stopped.

It reloaded!

“Target 50 meters! Go!” more voices sounded from the school.

Kanji’s heart raced.

There’s no going back now.

He ran towards her, picking the hammer as he stumbled.

And besides…

Kanji hit Yuki’s revolver again on the way up in an unbalanced arc. The five men exited the building and fell one after another. There were already sounds of more.

I have to see what else Yuki can do!

“Kanji! Hit a machine gun!” She yelled at him.

He quickly ran forward and grabbed an M4A1 out of a dead gunman. He hit it alongside an extra magazine he picked off him, and… the rifle became another revolver, and the magazine became a box of revolver bullets.

“Eh? What the hell,” Yuki took the second revolver from him, and tied the box of bullets to her belt, “It will do.”

She pushed the tip of the revolver into the box, and with a swift motion bumped exactly six bullets in the air, and loaded them into the revolver’s slots.

Huh?

“Hide, Kanji-kun.”

Another four teams of gunmen came. Aiming from the windows, running into the backyard. Yuki stood upright with her elbow locked, her hands moved in a flurry, pressing the revolver’s trigger so fast it might as well have been a machine gun, then reloading it swiftly while firing the other. Bang, bang, bang… every shot either hitting a gunman’s head, or ricocheting into it through a metal. Kanji’s ears pounded as he crouched behind her, not daring to move into the line of fire, or to take his eyes away.

How… How is this even possible?

The onslaught went on for about a minute.

The pounding stopped. Yuki breathed heavily, lowering her arms. The backyard became a silent graveyard.

She turned to Kanji, “was that interesting?”

Kanji’s heart wouldn’t stop racing.

He stood up, “How? Even if you could predict where they are, how could you hit every shot?”

“Hmm? It wasn’t hard. Some people just can’t help themselves from being shot, you know?”

“I don’t get it at all. But we need to get out of here, this is getting way out of hand.”

“Wait. We need to find out who these people are and why they’re after us first.”

They walked towards one of the bodies. Kanji pulled up a necklace hanging on its neck, it carried a sun emblem with a small mirror in the middle. A sun disc?

“Team Golf? Team Golf? Team Golf is out of commission too, sir…” a voice came out of the body’s radio, turning away from it for the last sentence. Then it turned into the radio again. “Initiate the final phase.”

Final phase? Kanji continued checking the gunman’s pockets. He found a note, a long printed document which he skimmed to be some sort of official documentation, and yet had a lot of redacted details. He slid it into his pocket.

“Kanji-kun… isn’t it getting dark?”

He glanced at his phone screen. “It’s only 16:30. It should be a while before dark.” But it does look a bit dark...

“Kanji-kun, look! The sun!”

The sun itself gradually became black. What? A dark liquid wall bled outwards of it, wrapping around the school’s fence, cutting off the outside world. Kanji sprang to his feet.

Yuki extended her arms and shot three times. Two men and one woman wearing orange Kariginus approached them. Walking slowly, calmly. Yuki’s bullets hit a purple bubble around them, before dropping down like pebbles.

“Greetings, hammer bearer. It seems you’ve made quite a mess.” The younger man said, brushing his hand through his long dark-blue hair.

Kanji’s hand clasped against the hammer. “Who are you? What happened to the sun?”

“I’m Kazuo. Hand us the hammer now, and there won’t be need for any bone crush—” he coughed as he got elbowed by the woman, “Don’t start so aggressive!” she said. Her hair matched his, but tied in a bun; she strangely looked both mature and young simultaneously.

“I apologize for my little brother’s manners. My name is Aiko, and this is Isamu-san.” She gestured at the tall muscular guy with the military buzzcut, as he nodded and folded his arms.

Now they want to act friendly?

“It appears the situation got out of hand, and so we needed to take measures to modify the battlefield. I cannot reveal any specifics as of now.”

“Why are you trying to kill us?” Kanji said.

“That hammer you are carrying is quite dangerous, Okimoto Kanji. It is our highest priority to ensure that it isn’t used by anyone. Especially not anyone associated with that… fiend.” She glared at Yuki, who raised an eyebrow.

“What did you just call me?” Yuki said.

“Anyhow—we let our lower ranked members have a go at you first, but it seems we have underestimated your development. But for us, killing you will not be a problem. So hand us the hammer and leave, Kanji-kun. We will deal with the fiend by ourselves.”

“You want… Yuki?”

“That thing is not Yuki. It needs to be dealt with immediately.”

That much I know.

But…

Yuki’s still in there. I can’t let them hurt her. And besides…

He looked at Yuki, who stared back at him with those strange eyes.

I kind of like the new Yuki too.

The thought itself surprised him. He was scared of her more than anything. But he couldn’t deny it.

Kanji closed his fist.

“I’m not leaving Yuki to you.”

Aiko looked at him with what appeared to be real concern. “Okimoto-kun… Please understand, we are not killers. We do not enjoy any killing beyond the necessary. This is simply for the good of Japan, nothing personal.”

“Enough talk!” Kanji said as he swung his hammer. It hit the floor, making the ground shake. Three asphalt pillars raised out of the ground like geysers, lifting the three off the floor until they squished against the black dome.

Kanji panted, Did that work?

A feminine laugh was heard as the three of them appeared again before them.

“Nice trick. Let me try.” Aiko said as she put her hand on the ground. A purple aura lit around it. A heavy steel wall rose just between Yuki and Kanji, across the whole dome, separating them. On Kanji’s side was Isamu, and on Yuki’s side were Aiko and Kazuo.

“Bold move, kid. I like you. I shall fight you to our last breath.” Isamu removed his top, revealing an abnormally muscular figure. A menacing purple aura twice his height glowed around him.