Chapter 1

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Prologue: Ikebukuro Dual

Today as well he tried to play a troublesome farce within the Wild Bunch company in a certain place in Ikebukuro

Taking the call from his superior, Wilson headed straight to the president"s office. Knocking on the door and looking inside his superior was relaxed elegantly in the s.p.a.cious room. There was a plump man wearing a dark blue shirt with a dark brown culotte – his name was John Wayne. Naturally it was not his real name.

The president of this Wild Bunch company, John, was leaning back against the black leather sofa just enjoying a movie on the big screen TV. It was one of his favorites – a famous macaroni western. Right about now a scene where the debt collector man and the villain boss face off and glare at each other was playing. It had the mood of an explosive situation.

It was the climax of the film. Thinking he should not interrupt, Wilson did not greet him and decided to watch over for awhile.

The gun fight ended in a moment. The main character who pulled out his gun from the holster at a speed the eye could not even catch pulled the trigger the same time he took his stance. His opponent was just about to reach towards his hip. A hole opened in the villain"s body, and he gave an ugly groan. The conclusion had been decided. It was the main character"s win.

Around the point the characters THE END floated up on screen,

"President John."

Wilson called out to his superior.

"You called for me?"

Once he asked for his business, John reached towards the remote and turned off the power for the TV. Then without turning towards him, he said.

"I want a dual."

Him proposing such wild statements out of nowhere was a bad habit for a western mania such as he, but for Wilson, who had been a long time acquaintance of his, had already grown used to it. Incidentally, last month he proclaimed, ‘I want to ride a horse,’ so they ended up going to a regional horse riding club as a company trip. John had straddled the great grey male horse and shouted ""Morning, Silver!" with great enthusiasm and hit the whip against the horse"s behind. They ran around inside the course of the horse riding club, but he was thrown off in the middle of it and hurt his back.

Not caring he literally suffered an experience, the man came up with another strange thing without learning from his past experiences.

"……A dual, you say?"

Wilson ruminated on his superior"s words and frowned.

"That"s right, a dual." President John turned around and said while stroking his beard. "I want to shoot people."

Wilson made an unintelligent sound at the radical request.

"Is there anyone left?" John inquired.

While recalling who was within the prison on the floor underground Wilson answered. "Right now there is the man from the Awakusu group we caught the day before."

"Ah, the guy requested from the Airan group. Well then, how about we use him and have a dual." John said, pleased. He appeared to be in a good mood. "We need witnesses too right. Gather all the employees."

He could not go against his superior"s orders.

"Understood. I will make the preparations right away."

Bowing his head, Wilson left the room.

There was something called a dual crime.

It was reported of middle schoolers getting caught under a dual crime on television before, but the act of a dual was strictly prohibited by law and one would imposed from two to five years in prison. According to the law Act Relating to Dual enacted in the twenty-second year of the Meiji era it is a crime to make a challenge, accept, carry out, or be present at a dual.

In short, president John looking for a dual, Wilson preparing the dual, and the employees of the company that will witness it would violate the law.

– Although the law had nothing to do with anything in the first place.

We the Wild Bunch Company are an outlaw, rowdy group. Our main job is to kill people. It is a company undertaking murder that was started up by the slightly insane president.

To grant John"s ridiculous request of wanting to remake the western dual, Wilson made preparations as he was told to do.

The man from the Awakusu group who was originally planned to be killed was taken out of the jail and brought to the "multi-purpose room" underground.

Multi-purpose- even if it could be called that, it was a room being utilized for killing or torture. In that one room, covered with soundproofing and sound absorption material on the walls, the subordinates playing the role of witnesses were already on stand-by. The twenty sum men were lined up in a row as though to surround president John. It was predestined for the people in this company to follow John"s suggestions like this.

The president John wore a black, ten-gallon hat and a gun belt on his hip. A common revolver in western films was hung in his holster.

"I have brought him," Wilson stated.

"Alright."

Nodding, John pointed a few meters ahead of him.

"Have him stand there."

Once he stationed the unarmed man in the designated spot, Wilson slipped into the crowd of witnesses. He would watch the end of the event from a distance.

There were two requirements for a dual. One was a gun. John faced the man and tossed him a spare gun. The revolver glided across the floor and came to a halt in front of the man.

The other was a signal. There were various signals for a dual like when the hand of a clock reaches twelve o"clock or they turn their backs on each other and take three steps, but John chose music.

He took out his golden pocket watch,

"Once this music box tune ends pick up your gun and shoot me."

and ordered this to the man.

The man from the Awakusu group frowned at John"s words.

It can"t be helped. It"s a farce, Wilson thought. Although he said it was a dual, it was only a dual president John would win under 100% conditions. The opponent was at an overwhelmingly disadvantage.

Just as the music box was about to start playing,

"……We don"t have much of the atmosphere."

John whispered, displeased. He appeared troubled over something.

Even though he said that, he did what he could. He gave him a gun, a dual partner, and witnesses. It was exactly like the climax scene in the western film. What more could he wish for than this? Wilson was fed up with it in his heart.

And then John glanced over at his surrounding subordinates,

"You and you, and then you over there."

Je pointed to the three men and ordered.

"Roll over."

"""……Wha?"""

The appointed subordinates" voices overlapped. They stared hard at the president"s face with mouths wide open. The Awakusu group man also stared blankly uncomprehending.

"I said to drop down and roll."

John repeated raising his voice.

One of the a.s.signed men asked nervously. "U-um, president……What do you mean……?"

"A western film has a tumbling weeds. Drop and roll around between me and him."

No matter how absurd the request was they could only follow it. If they displeased this man, then they would just be next to play the role as a dual partner.

The three subordinates did as they were told. They placde both hands on the ground and cut in between the president and the man of the Awakusu group while trying their best at somersaulting.

John nodded, pleased to see that, and opened the lid to the music box. A lighthearted music like that of some background music from an amus.e.m.e.nt theme park started playing.

Wilson felt like holding his head at the scene in front of him.

– It"s an awful farce.

It was an evident match of who would win and lose.

The bottomless light melody of the music box playing in the quite s.p.a.ce.

The men rolling right to left in a ball.

Let it end already, Wilson gave a small sigh.

As though his wish was answered the melody of the music box came to a stop. The man from the Awakusu group made his move. He made a dive for the floor in an attempt to pick up the gun.

However in that moment John pulled out the gun and pulled the trigger.

There was one gun shot.

And then he heard a shout. The man in the dual took the bullet, not having the time to take up the revolver, and collapsed.

– It"s John"s victory.

There were the cheers and applause from his subordinates who witnessed this. John"s expression as he placed the gun back in its holster was extremely proud.

"Have you been satisfied?" Wilson asked his superior being showered in praise from his subordinates.

"Yeah," John nodded and glanced over at his subordinates. "Thank you everyone for your cooperation. It"s over. Go back to work now."

Seemingly having been satisfied, president John returned to his private room in high spirits.

Watching his annoying superior"s back, Wilson ordered the three men acting as tumbling weeds to clean the room and picked up the fallen man"s body.Ill.u.s.tration provided by Soutenkyuu on Tumblr.

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