When he took a moment to think about it, it was clear right away.

He certainly found it odd.  Murder Inc. was rather lenient when John Wayne established his independence. They did not interfere or try to meddle with John"s plans but remained as a spectator. They were fine with it. Murder Inc. had already sent a spy into the inner workings of the Wild Bunch at that time. They could receive reports from their spy periodically and leave the Wild Bunch Company up to their own devices. If they had any utility value they would let them swim along undisturbed, and when they became a hindrance they would eliminate all of them.That was Murder Inc"s objective.

" – And what else?"

John Wayne pressed for a continuation to the conversation with a low pitch to his voice.

He was enjoying himself with a western film in his office as usual. He listened to Wilson"s report while laying back on the black leather coach, facing the television. Wilson could not see his expression from where he stood, but he was able to read from his tone that he was displeased.

"Kasaoka leaked everything about the company." Wilson informsed him of what the torturer had told him. "The ident.i.ties of the employees and the jobs we have taken. Everything."

The beginning of it all was a few weeks prior. The Wild Bunch Company accepted an a.s.sa.s.sination task from the gang, Airan, which made enemies with the Awakusu Group. They wanted to eliminate a certain man who was an executive subordinate of the Awakusu Group because he was a hindrance to them.

They took careful precautions as to not be tracked and the company abducted the man. And they secretly disposed of him after his dual with John. The case on the matter should have been closed.

However, it resurfaced. Initially they discovered a spy among them and then learned recently that the whole deal with them since the beginning was leaked.

Murder Inc. had sent that information to the subsidiary group of the Medei Group they are patron to, the Awakusu Group. Naturally even for the Awakusu Group they would not forgive murdering an important member of theirs in such a ridiculous farce off the hook. They must have wanted to punish the one responsible for the man"s murder as well as the individuals who requested them to do so.

Furthermore –

"The Awakusu Group seems to have put out bounties for us."

All the employees under the Wild Bunch Company were wanted men. According to the information Kasaoka slipped to them, they put out national bounties of the employees with their names and photos on them.

"A bounty huh. Not too shabby." John broke into a smile, likely imagining himself on a bounty poster. "How much do I have?"

"You have 1,000,000 yen."

"One million?" John was displeased. He bit off the cigar in his mouth and scowled. "My bounty is only that much? I"d like for them to revise that."

Who knew they would be pursued by the NPB bounty hunters after using their name to deceive bounty hunters. He felt this was karma.

"Won"t it be only a matter of time until the bounty hunters sniff us out?"

Then they should hurry up and make a move. They should relocate their hideout, or perhaps they should escape overseas.

Wilson addressed this with a grave expression, but Wilson rejected it with, "and what"s wrong with that?"

"They"re bounty hunters. We"re killers. Is there a need to be afraid of them?" John laughed while blowing his cigar. "They"re spoiled punks who aren"t use to taking a person"s life."

"However -"

Wilson began to say, but in that moment –

" – President John!"

One of their subordinates dashed into the room with desperate expression.

"What is it? You"re so noisy."

"The bounty hunters are coming their way to the company!"

Wilson"s eyes widened in surprise. They"re already here? We were too late. He knitted his brows.

"What are the numbers?" John asked him in a quiet voice.

"There are two."

Hearing that from his subordinate John was disappointed. "What"s this? It"s just two of them?"

Upon learning there were only two coming John seemed to have gained some composure as well. He returned a faint smile.

"How about we beat them to it?"

John stood up from the sofa and thrust his beloved revolver pistols in his gun belt at his waist.

Ikebukuro 20-Chome 60-Ban. There quietly stood a three-story office building. The men who deceived them should be inside somewhere.

Looking up at the building Lin voiced to motivate himself, "alright, let"s go in."

Banba nodded beside him. "Yeah."

Lin took out his favorite knife pistol from his pocket and pressed the intercom on the first floor.

After a few moments, the unsociable voice of a man replied back, [ – who is it?]

"Um, we"re the fellas from earlier." Banba faced the microphone and answered him. "We"re here for the bounty."

[ – What!?] The man shouted in shock. [You guys are bounty hunters!?]

"……Ah?" Lin tilted his head in confusion.

Their objective was the bounty, so they could not say they were not bounty hunters. Their main occupation were as killers, but right now it was different. And there was no need to reveal their true ident.i.ties. Lin replied ambiguously. "Well, that"s how we got here."

After waiting some time they heard the sound of the door unlocking. It probably meant they could enter.

After opening the door with caution and proceeding down the hallway they entered into a s.p.a.cious room. It seemed to be a break room of sorts; it had a television and several sofas and coffee makers in it.

And there were men waiting for them. There were about ten of them. Each one had a hand gun or short sword as a weapon in their hand. They seemed to intend on fighting them here.

"Seems we"re being given quite the welcome."

Lin looked at the men and cracked a joke.

One of the men spoke up.

"If you let yourselves get captured quietly there won"t be any casualties."

They had their guns facing them, but they did not appear to have any intent in killing them. "You two have utility value." He grinned.

"Utility value?"

"You can resist and be killed at this very spot, or you can be caught and be put to work overseas. Choose which you prefer."

I see, Banba muttered. They planned to capture them and sell them overseas to make money. Lin shrugged his shoulders beside him. "I"d rather not go with human trafficking again."

Banba and Lin looked at each other. For one moment their eyes meet – that was their sign.

The two moved at the same time. Banba headed to the right, and Lin headed to the left. They rushed at the enemies.

Banba whipped the case with the j.a.panese sword inside around and hit the men on the head with it in front of him.

The men taken by surprise regain their composure, and as they began to attack him he took out the sword from the case. He did not draw it. He had no intention on killing them. He hit them with the hilt of the j.a.panese sword at vital parts of their body including their heads, solar plexus, and backs to make them lose consciousness. He targeted the men with guns first and then confronted the remaining men.

When he looked over to where Lin was at, there were several men fallen around him as well. He had taken them all down. He had managed to clean them up in sheer moments. "That was easy." Lin laughed.

The two headed out of the room. Ahead of another hallway they could see a staircase. It was divided to an upper floor and a lower floor.

"Let"s split up and search." Lin suggested. "I"ll head to the second floor. You go to the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"Got it."

He watched Lin head up the stairs before heading down to the bottom floor, and in that moment he felt sudden killing intent from behind him. When he snapped back around there was a man standing at the end of the hallway. He was probably one of the men they defeated early and had regained consciousness and pursued after them.

"Die, you -"

The moment the man brandished his gun a large, black shadow flickered behind him. Whoever it was, they sneaked up on the man and hit him in the head.

"Ah-gah."

Unable to pull the trigger, the man lost consciousness once more and fell at that spot.

– Who was that just now……?

A large built man slowly approached the awestruck Banba.

"Ah," Banba voices, seeing the familiar figure.

The dark-skinned, Latin American showed a toothy grin. "Hey, Banba."

"Mar-san!"

His sudden, foreign rescuer was his teammate José Martinez.

"Why are you here, Mar-san?"

Martinez explained to the confused Banba. "Enokida asked me to come here. He said you guys would be here, so go and help you out. He mentioned that there was going to be a lot of enemies and you"d need the extra hand."

"I see. That"s Enokida-kun for you." Thanks to him he narrowly escaped death. Banba gave a broad smile and his thanks. "Thank you, Mar-san. You saved me."

Banba and Martinez headed down to the bas.e.m.e.nt floor. Proceeding through the long hallway ahead they saw a room labeled "multipurpose room." The door was open. They turned the k.n.o.b and walked inside.

There was something in the center of the room. It was a man. He was hanging on a cross. His face looked familiar to him.

"……Huh? Ain"t this guy here," Banba instantly came to a realization. "I thought I saw his face before."

It was the wanted man Shinta Kasaoka whom they caught and handed over to the NPB. Kasaoka was bleeding and unconscious. He had several marks as though he had been tortured.

"Oh dear," Banba frowned, seeing the painful sight and whispered. "Who"d do somethin" so awful……"

"Me."

"Eh?"

He took a double take on what Martinez said when it happened. He received a call from his cell phone in his pocket. The device vibrated along with playing the intro to Izayuke Wakataka Gundan. Banba pressed the b.u.t.ton to answer. "h.e.l.lo?"

[ – Ahh, good. You picked up.]

He heard the voice of his teammate. Speaking of the devil.

"Enokida-kun."

[Are you by chance in the middle of something right now?]

"We"re at the address you told us about. I met up with Mar-san."

[That"s good to hear.] Enokida laughed. [There are a lot of dangerous people there right?]

"Yeah." Banba agreed. "They greeted us with no courtesy."

[The company you guys infiltrated is a killer contracting company called the Wild Bunch.]

"The Wild Bunch?"

[Yes.]

Enokida addressed the main topic.

[The truth is all the employees of the Wild Bunch have bounties put on them.]

"Bounties? How much?"

[All together they have 3,000,000 yen.]

Banba"s eyes widened at Enokida"s statement. "……Is that true now?"

According to Enokida this group was an illegal organization calling themselves the small killer contracting company, the Wild Bunch. If they brought them all in alive they would be paid by the NPB.

They came here to take the 300,000 they were not paid for, but he had trouble believing that a price ten times that would fall before them.

Martinez peeked over at Banba"s face once he dropped the call. "What did Enokida have to say?"

"If we bring these fellas here back we get money for them."

"Huh," Martinez raised his voice. "Then let"s tie them up so they can"t get away."

The two grabbed rope and hand cuffs left in the multipurpose room and headed upstairs. The men they defeated earlier were still all fallen on the ground. They bound them one at a time and tied their legs and hands together so they could not escape.

"One, two, three, four -"

He counted them. There were twenty employees in the Wild Bunch Company. For each underling it was 40,000. All the people here would be 40,000 each at least.

The ones left were –

"……Ah, that ain"t good."

He suddenly remembered. The remaining members were probably facing Lin by now. He had faith in his partner"s strength, but it would be problematic if he carelessly killed them.

"I"m headin" off to find Lin-chan!"

He had to tell Lin quickly.

"Mar-san, take care of the rest of "em!"

Banba left Martinez there and ran off.

At that moment he heard the sound of a gun go off from the upper floor.

John Wayne was calm. He could jut be pretending to be calm, but at least to Wilson he looks like he was. He was counting on his boldness in this sort of situation.

John appointed orders to his employees. First, half of them would go down to the first floor and shoot down the bounty hunters. They should be able to settle this with just ten people, but by the one in a million chance they broke through the others would remain waiting in the president"s office.

Several minutes later a young woman surprisingly was the one to arrive to the office.

" – Don"t move."

John told the mouse that wandered into their company with a sharp voice. The men who had been in waiting surrounded the woman with guns pointing at her.

"No further, young lady."

When John stated that the woman stopped where she was at. Looking around the area from her line of sight she probably could tell it was pointless to resist. The woman slowly raised both her hands with a knife in her right hand. Her weapon of choice was probably just that knife. She was reckless for infiltrating this place armed with just that.

"I"m not a woman." The guy spoke. He had a audacious att.i.tude. "I only dress as a woman. Don"t just a.s.sume by looking."

Wilson was shocked. This guy is a man? He looked at him and observed closely. His face looked familiar to him. Actually this man, isn"t he one of the guys they in the parking garage when they went and exchanged Kasaoka?

"Do you have that much faith in your skill to barge your way in here by yourself?" John grinned while still holding his gun. "Or are you just an idiot?"

"Which do you think?" The cross-dresser man laughed.

John snorted.

"I don"t hate idiots like you. So I"ll give you a chance."

He then ordered one of his subordinates.

"Give this guy a gun."

The subordinate tossed him a revolver gun he was holding onto the floor as instructed. The silver weapon lied at the cross-dresser"s feet.

"Dual with me."

John ordered.

This again? Wilson sighed in his mind.

"……Haa? Dual?"

The cross-dresser squinted and inclined his head to the side.

"That"s right. If you win the dual, I"ll let you leave."

John took out a pocket watch from his pocket and told him, "when the music box stops playing pick up this gun and shoot me. Alright?" And he opened the lid.

A cheerful tune began to play. At that moment three of the subordinates got onto the ground and started rolling.

– This is déjà vu.

The scene of the dual from a few weeks ago played again in Wilson"s mind. The same event from that time was going to happen again in front of him.

He could easily predict how this was going to end. Like the last time they would stare at each other for a while. The two quick gunmen would face off with the ridiculous melody as the background music. One was John Wayne. The other was this cross-dressing man. The moment the music stopped the cross-dresser would bend down to try and pick up the gun. But by then John would have shot a fire from his revolver. Wilson imagined the trivial conclusion to this dual and prays for it to end quickly.

John"s expression was composed. He even seemed to be enjoying this situation. His victory was a given. At least it should have been. However, something happened beyond their expectations.

The cross-dresser moved while the music was still playing. He turned the knife he was holding in his right hand around, placed his index finger on the guard of it and pulled it back. The next moment there was a gunshot. A bullet flew from the knife itself.

"Wha-"

– What was that just now!?

Wilson"s eyes popped out of his head. The cross-dresser had shot John with his knife. Shocked from the scene, Wilson was taken aback, dumbfounded. It was the same for the other men standing by around them. All of them were dumbfounded into silence.

And so there became an opening. The bullet pierced John"s stomach. In the moment John recoiled from the impact the cross-dresser closed the distance. After smacking the hand gun out of his hand, he kicked it far away and out of reach.

There was a thin, gunpowder smoke coming from the knife he held. That wasn"t just an ordinary knife?

" – I told you," the man gave them a wide grin. "Don"t a.s.sume just by looking."

Even with ten weaklings with guns surrounding him Lin did move. He was only in the range of one person. Besides, Banba was downstairs. Even by the chance he did get captured he would just be saved later.

But the man did not try to kill Lin or to bind him. For some reason or another he stated, "dual with me." And furthermore three men started rolling on the ground.

He did not get it. Lin was dumbfounded as a strange melody played.

– A dual? That"s ridiculous.

Fortunately he still had his knife in his right hand. It was a Chinese knife-pistol. It looked like a knife, but in truth it was also a gun. It had bullets, but there was not much in a load so he could not shoot everyone here.

Then he had to go for the guy on top.

Lin immediately shot him. Once he closed the distance he moved around to his back side and pressed the tip of his knife to his throat.

"Y-you, you shooooooot!"

The boss yelled while putting pressure onto his wounded stomach.

"You cowaaard!"

"What are you talking about? You"re the coward." Lin shrugged. Is he really saying tossing the gun onto the floor is a fair dual?

"All of you, drop you weapons. Raise your hands and line up facing the wall."

Lin directed them, looking at all the subordinates.

"If you try and resist even a little I"ll slice open this guy"s throat."

The boss ordered the bewildered subordinates, "do as he says!" All of them placed their guns onto the floor and raised their hands.

Lin had the boss as a hostage and eight unarmed men.

– This is a sudden role reversal.

Lin immediately brought up their main objective. "Now then, how about you pay up this time around?"

The boss exclaimed, "what are you talking about?" He did not appear to be playing dumb; he really did not seem to remember.

"The 300,000 you were supposed to pay up. You put that bounty on Kasaoka right? Yet you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds gave us fake money. If you pay up there won"t be any more harm done to you.  And we"ll leave quietly. I promise you that."

Once they get their money they had no further use from them.

"300,000 you say? Alright. I got it." The man pointed to his subordinate with his chin. "Hey, Wilson! Prepare the money!"

It was when the appointed subordinate began to move.

" – Lin-chan!"

Banba dived into the run, his face red.

""Sup." Lin replied with a cheerful tone. "You"re late, Banba."

"……Thank goodness."

Banba was relieved.

"What is it?" He grins and cracks a joke. "Were you that worried for me?"

As if I would be done in by these guys. Ignoring Lin snorting in boast Banba looked around the office.

"Good, no one ain"t dead."

"……Ha?"

Lin looked blankly at him while keeping the knife pressed to the boss"s throat.

Immediately after, Banba saw the boss was bleeding and was startled. "You"re hurt! Wait a sec! I"m gonna stop the bleedin"!"

"You"re not concerned for me!?"

For some reason Banba was anxious over the boss"s well being.

"Hey, what"s the meaning of this?"

Banba explained the details when he asked him. "All these guys here got bounties on them."

"Bounties? How much?"

"All together they"re 3,000,000."

– 3,000,000

"You serious?" Lin muttered.

"If we bring all these guys alive to an organization called the NPB, we get the rewards. I heard from Enokida-kun, so it ain"t a lie."

I see, so that"s why Banba was acting like that. He finally comprehended what was going on.

"……Sorry, I take back what I just said." Lin grinned up at him. "There will be a bit more harm to you."

He then quickly punched the man in the face, and he fell unconscious.

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