John Wayne had worked in the main office of Murder Inc. in Shinjuku until half a year ago. He would get on the crowded trains wearing a suit, follow his superior"s orders as a company employee, and carried out the task of a.s.sa.s.sination.

However, there was no way a man like him who lived as he pleased could spend his time obediently in the company organization. John had the bad tastes in enjoying murder and also despised the people at the top of the company.

John being John was just about sick of being in the middle of the troublesome framework that was a company.

Murder Inc. had many clients. They also had many connections to antisocial organizations like gangs. On contrary to that, the scale of the influence of the company"s work was limited. Since they took the countless requests they got from their gang clients they could not accept the request of a.s.sa.s.sinating a yakuza client. And those ties did not sit well with John. Why do we have to take their well being into consideration? Shouldn"t we kill whoever we like? Freely, no matter who it is. What are they so afraid of? If they offer money, I"ll kill them – he had thought blatantly.

John, not wanting to be tied by anything, made the conviction to become independent. He called out to several other co-workers that also were unsatisfied with the company and made this Wild Bunch Company a half a year ago.

Wilson was also one of the first members from then. Incidentally, Wilson was a nickname president John had given him, yet he was a native-born j.a.panese person.

At first they were a small company with a hand full of people, but having taken in some rouges from former color gangs and biker gangs in just a half a year the company had rose to have twenty people.

And so the Wild Bunch Company had become to be as a wild group that would kill anyone as long as they were given money for it.
Even now having become the president, John"s bad tastes did not change. Although it would be better to kill them right away, John would capture the target and torment them. Wilson felt admiration for how he thought up mean, cruel methods each and every time.

Just the day before, John ordered not just for a man to be captured but for his young daughter to be caught as well. And then he had gallows made in the multi-purpose room. He put the captured man onto the platform and placed a rope around his neck. He then showed the details to the elementary school daughter.

He would try to kill her father. The young girl had been crying and wailing in a high-pitched shrill for some time now.

He got close to her face and whispered detestably. "Your father will be executed now. He"ll be hanged, and he"ll die."

He was truly a man with terrible tastes for him to make a daughter watch her father die. However, John"s ill tastes had far surpa.s.sed Wilson"s expectations.

When he took out a gun,

"Save your father with this."

he said and handed it to the girl.

She grasped the black shape in her tiny hands and was forcibly made to brace it. The mouth of the handgun in the girl"s hands was pointed at the rope above her father"s head.

"……Taaaake a good shot, alright?"

He said with a grin, and John began the execution.

The moment he pulled the rope hanging from the gallows, the board at her father"s feet opened. The man"s body drastically dropped down, and the rope was constricting his throat.

Having lost his footing and being hung, the father twisted his body in strife. The girl"s eyes opened wide at the sight and stared while shaking.

"Hey now, if you don"t hurry up your father will die."

Urged on by John, the girl pulled the trigger. The sound of a gun discharging resounds, and the girl"s body was thrown back greatly from the recoil.

Rather than an expert, there was no chance a normal elementary schooler could make the feat of having the bullet hit the rope hanging her father. Her target had greatly been missed, and the shot the daughter took hit her father in his torso.

Her father that had been struggling gave out a cry and then his movements suddenly stopped.

And in the room having turned deep quiet,

" – Too bad. You missed."

John"s cheerful voice stated.

The girl was struck with terror at the scene before her. The hand holding the gun is shaking bit by bit.

After ordering to his subordinates to take down her father"s unmoving body, John went around to her back and moved up towards her ear.

"You killed him."

His lips curled up into a smile, and he repeated it in a whisper.

"You killed your father."

– No, she didn"t.

Wilson knew. That the gun was just a tranquilizer gun. She just put her father to sleep. He should still narrowly be breathing.

However, from the young girl"s perspective it could not be helped for her to mistake it as killing her own father.

And John had dared to set it up that way. He played around too much.

"Do you hate me? Me who forced you to kill your father? Hey, you hate me right? In the next twenty years become a s.e.xy gun woman like Sharon Stone and come back to me for vengeance. I"ll accept a challenge any time if it"s a dual."

John, in an apparent good mood, talked at length expressively. But his words did not reach the girl. She lost consciousness due to the excessive shock.

"Someone send this girl near her home." John shrugged his shoulders and said that, pointing to the girl collapsed on the floor with his chin. Giving a glance at the president"s smirking face, Wilson gave a sigh. "Will it be fine doing this?"

He was letting the witness go. They should kill that girl as well originally. No, there was no need to bring the girl here in the first place. Just for John to mess around and getting the company involved in some trouble has not started right now though.

"What are we going to do if the police rush over? If investigators happen upon the company-"

"Then at that time we can kill the police."

This man said something reckless as always. I won"t get through to him, Wilson could only sigh in his mind.

By the way, John changed the topic. "How did that traitor case go?"

That traitor. This was also a head throbbing problem.

Among the first members, there was a spy sent in by Murder Inc. They let out the company"s information to the outside, but they covered their tracks of it being leaked out in a hurry.

The strength of the Wild Bunch Company was that it was shrouded in mystery. The company name and employee names were all fake, and they used delinquents belonging to local color gangs as p.a.w.ns for contacting with their clients or targets. Their hideout place would also periodically change. And so like the week before last John had shot the Awakaku Group"s executive candidate without hesitance.

However, if there was a spy in the company that was a different matter. If their information had pa.s.sed to Murder Inc., with them being on good terms with the Medei Group, they would naturally leak information to the Awakusu Group. If they knew the Wild Bunch Company was involved in the disappearance of their executive candidate, then the Awakusu Group should be looking for the whereabouts of the spy right now. If the spy was handed over to their side and everything of the details comes to light, then the Wild Bunch Company would certainly be retributed.

Right now they still did not have a clear grasp of their information so they were not meddling in their affairs, but it would only be a matter of time for their hideout to be breached.

As part of the company on top of having to capture the spy quickly and prevent more information from leaking out, they had to even torture them to tell them of the contents of the leaked information and of their enemy"s movements.

"Just as you said, I made a post on the underground site."

Under John"s orders Wilson put out a bounty on the spy on Undergroundjobs.com, Tokyo. He wrote, a.s.suming themselves as the NPB, "For those who catch this man we will pay a bounty of three hundred thousand yen. The people to hand him over to is at the NPB."

"Go as the recipient. We need to confirm his face after all."

"I do not mind that," but Wilson could not understand it. "But why are we putting out a bounty and have an amateur look for him? It would be quicker and safer if one of us did it."

"If it is known we are looking for him, it may catch the Awakusu Group"s eye. After all they"re looking for him too."

John lit his preferred cigar and grinned.

"Besides, Wilson-kun. When I look at this, I"m fairly p.i.s.sed. I"ll have him receive as much pain as we can until I kill him. Do you think he could psychologically handle being chased by complete strangers, let alone by a whole crowd of them? How about it?"

Another bad habit of his then? Wilson thought to himself. He was a tremendously s.a.d.i.s.tic man.

"However, is the bounty not a waste?"

The person who captured the spy would receive a reward of three hundred thousand yen. It was a pointless expense.

However,

"Ahh, about that."

John said dismissively while smoking his cigar.

"As if we"re gonna pay up."

Of course.

John was that sort of man.

– This had gotten serious.

Shinta Kasaoka was unbelievably impatient.

Half a year ago around the time gossip of John Wayne"s independence began to rise up someone in the upper stratum of Murder Inc had made contact with Kasaoka. Kasaoka, having debt, jumped at the deal. He would receive plentiful amounts of money just by working as John"s subordinate and periodically reporting to a member of Murder Inc. It was a juicy deal. He had spent half a year continuing as a spy until just the previous day. A co-worker had witnessed him meeting up with a member of Murder Inc as he was reporting on how the Wild Bunch Company worked for the month.

And since then Kasaoka had ended up being chased by guys he did not know by face or name. All of them were probably sent out under the suggestion of the Wild Bunch Company. John may have put out a large sum of money and hired a.s.sa.s.sins. It had to be it; it could not be anything else.

John Wayne – that man was a demon. If he got caught, then his life will be toyed with.

He just did not want to become John"s toy. Kasaoka frantically continued his life on the run. He had been moving from place to place in the city, and right now he was hiding in an abandoned building in a certain place in Ikebukuro. Usually a group of young kids hang out here often, but right now no one was present.

Taking cover, Kasaoka took out his cellphone. He makes a call to a certain number right away.

[ – Hey] The other picked up immediately. It was a member of Murder Inc.

[Where are you? I"ve called you numerous times already. The Awakusu Group wanted to talk with-]

"I got into trouble." Kasaoka cut off the man"s words and told him. "Help me."

He also could not trust them, but right now he had no one else to rely on.

"It was let out to John that I"m your guys" spy."

The other man"s breath got caught. [How did it get out?]

"I was seen by one of them when I was with you. If I"m caught, I"ll be killed."

[Then don"t get caught.]

"Don"t say it like it"s not your problem!"

Kasaoka yelled. He violently kicked the drum nearby and clutched his head.

"It"s all your guys" fault! Since you guys came to me with that deal! That"s why I"m in this mess-"

He immediately shut his mouth. He could be found by someone if he was too loud. By the multiple a.s.sa.s.sins John sent out.

"……If I get caught and tortured," Kasaoka threatened. "I"ll tell them everything. It"s John. You won"t be let off on it either. You"ll be put out on the streets."

After moments of silence,

[……Alright.]

The other agreed in an intimidating voice.

[We will protect you.]

"Please do that."

[Where are you now?]

"I"m in an abandoned building in Ikebukuro."

When he explained his location in more detail,

[We will come get you later. Don"t move from there.]

Kasaoka was a little bit relieved at the man"s words. He dropped the call and gave a big sigh.

With his back against the drum, he sat down on the ground. Anxiety rose up again in his mind. Would they really come to get him? That man does not plan to discard him, right? Or they could kill him to keep his mouth permanently shut.

As soon as he begun to doubt there was no end to it.

At a corner of a narrow street lined with signs of suspicious-looking shops in a place a little ways from Ikebukuro station, the weapon"s merchant Hugo was quietly working.

When the door inside of the multi-tenant building on the third floor opened,

"¡Hola, amigo!"

The man wearing a sombrero and poncho cheerfully greeted Tora. His appearance was very Mexican-like, and he had an easygoing personality where he could imagine him holding maracas or a guitar and start singing.

"¿Que onda? How are you?"

Hearing the mix of Spanish and j.a.panese, Tora readily replied with "I"m not bad."

"Bien, bien."

Hugo was an acquaintance since he started this job. His store outwardly seemed to be a specialized store for air guns or model guns, but in actuality it was a place of smuggled weapons and fire arms acquired from his home land, Mexico"s drug cartels, Russia"s weapon arms businesses, and Vietnam"s backyard moonshine villages. It was famous among the bounty hunters, and many other hunters came here.

On the store"s every wall or in every show case were dummy toy guns. The real merchandise were stored in a secret room further inside.

Today there was a black box placed on top of the counter case. Its shape was unfamiliar to him. It was long for a gun case and far too narrow as well.

"What is this box?"

When Tora asked this,

"Ahh, that. It"s called a youtou."

Huge spread out both hands and answered him.

"…A demon blade?"

When he opened the case, stowed away there was a black scabbard of a j.a.panese sword.

"It seems the owner of this takes form of a blade and is possessed. "This blade is a demon blade," they kept saying. So since then I got too scared to pull it out of the scabbard."

Hugo explained the details.

"They also said it"s creepy and to take it for free, so I brought this to my store. My place isn"t a recycling joint though."

"Uh-uh," he hums to himself. "A demon blade, huh……"

Tora bent forward and stared closely inside the case. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a normal blade though.

"Tora, do you want this? I"ll give it for free."

"Don"t need it."

Tora shook his head, "I have these after all," and pointed to the two Colts.

" – That"s right, talking about demon blades."

Hugo recalled something.

"Wasn"t there the Slasher just awhile back?"

"Yeah," he thought back and nodded. "That Ripper Night guy, right?"

It was the incident with consecutive slashings that occurred several months ago. The media was making a fuss over it for a while.

"Si," Hugo lowered his voice and said. "There"s rumor that it had something to do with a demon blade as well."

"Huh"

Tora responded apathetically. As if, he laughed in his mind. He had no interest in the occult based rumors. Besides, his weapon of choice was guns. Swords were not correlated with him. Hereafter he would not feel obligated to demon blades either.

" – By the way," Hugo brought up the main topic. "What do you want today?"

"I"ve got a job. Give me the usual."

When he requested for the bullets for his revolver, "one for a thousand yen," Hugo told him.

"That"s expensive," he unconsciously spoke out loud. "The price went up quite a bit. Did something happen?"

"Seems the Russian company I get them from has been in a mess recently. Goods haven"t been coming in much even to my sh.o.r.e."

Originally he wanted to buy a pack, but unfortunately he was low on money. He decided to purchase enough of what he needed. "I"ll buy ten bullets, so make it half price."

"No."

He was denied it flat out right.

However, he could not back down on it so easily. "Then, eight thousand yen. Please, Hugo. It"s tough on me this month. The new year started, so my expenses went up for my brother"s text books and school uniforms."

"Tora, quit it. And this is why you"re called an indigent by Rabi."

"Don"t mention that money bags b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Tora recalled the man"s face and grimaced. If it was that wealthy gorilla kid he could buy more than the pack but this store itself. Just imagining it irritated him. He frowned deeply just for thinking about it.

Tora reluctantly took out ten-thousand yen from his wallet and paid up.

"Who"re you going to catch this time?" Hugo asked.

"A hit-man. Seems he"s a former employee of Murder Inc. I asked an informant to find his location."

"By informant do you mean the one in Shinjuku?"

"That"s the one."

When Tora nodded, Hugo made an openly unpleasant face. "Ohh, you shouldn"t use him. I don"t hear good rumors about him. He"s malo. Malo."

Thinking of the informant"s creepy smiling face had Tora make a wry smile.

"Well, he"s definitely an untrustworthy guy, but he"s information is accurate. I"ll use what I can."

In order to support his family he cannot choose other options.

He could not bargain a better deal in the end, but in exchange Hugo gave him an additional free bullet. He loads the purchased bullets into the two Colts, and he inserts the remaining ones into his gun belt.

"Well then," Tora placed a hand on the brim of his hat. "See you later, Hugo."

"¡Chao Chao!"

After giving his farewells to Hugo, Tora turned over the cuffs of his coat and left.

As he was walking Tora hummed a tune. It was a tune of a certain western film, and if he recalled right the movie was about a wandering gunman struggling between two powers. There was a brutal, macaroni-like scene with the protagonist being caught and tormented by his enemy, and they hurt his dominant hand to the point he could no longer use a gun. Perhaps he got influenced by the film, but once Tora began this kind of work he trained himself to shoot with both hands. So he would be able to blow a hole into their head with the opposite hand even if by one in a million chance he was caught by the enemy and his dominant hand was crushed.

It was why the two Colts hanging from his hip gave him the name among bounty hunters, "The Double-Hand Gun Tiger."

As he was humming the tune with a pout and proceeded to his destination, after awhile he entered Sunshine 60 Street. The sorrowful melody was blown away by the hustle and bustle of the city, Ikebukuro.

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