As the sun went up, the air slowly but steadily became warmer.
The men talked to Kino about moving their truck. If they divided work and dug up the snow around the truck to create a slope, they could possibly get the truck out of its current condition of being buried. As long as the truck was still in running condition, they could get to the nearest country.
The man in his thirties asked Kino, “First, we want to remove our luggage from the vehicle. It would be nice if you can help.”
Kino and the men turned to the back of the truck.
The truck’s loading platform had three locks. The man in his thirties asked for the keys of the other two, opened the door and went inside. After a while, they heard some clicking sounds, and the man in his forties separated Kino a bit and talked to her.
“Miss Kino, will that motorrad be fine?”
Kino, who did not understand what he meant, turned around. At the same time, the man in his thirties quickly got out of the truck’s platform. He was holding a long persuader with both hands and aiming it towards Kino.
The moment Kino saw the man’s persuader, she reached for her holster with her right hand but stopped herself from pulling Canon out. She calmly faced the persuader pointed at her.
“Good decision. If you pulled out that persuader, I would have shot you without a moment’s delay,” the man said as he climbed down the platform. There was no opening in his stance.
“Well, thanks for that,” Kino said with her usual tone without any hint of surprise. The other two men backed off from Kino a few steps, their faces now stern.
The man in his thirties spoke. “The truth is I wouldn’t have fired at you. We take pride in delivering our important goods without a single scratch, you see.”
“Goods?” Kino asked, and the man in his forties answered.
“Yeah. We work for an employment agency. What we refer to as ‘goods’ are people.”
Hermes, who was parked a bit ways off behind Kino, spoke in a tone not different from usual. “Oh, so you guys are kidnappers. Or to be more specific, slave traders.”
“You don’t have to put it so bluntly… but well, that’s correct. Now that we are strong enough to move, we have to do our real job. So, Miss Kino, we will take you with us to a place where someone would buy you. Don’t put up any resistance now.”
“Well, that’s that, but I’m a little concerned,” Hermes said.
“Don’t worry, Hermes. Your partner is quite a beauty. She’ll shine with a bit of polishing, and because she’s young, she’ll definitely be sold for a high price. We always adorn our goods with jewels and pretty clothes; it’s a complete package. We’re not going to give her any injuries,” the man in his forties assured.
“Anyway, you sure make it sound easy,” Kino replied indifferently, her body not moving an inch.
While gazing into Kino’s eyes, the man in his thirties spoke with his persuader still aimed at her. “Please don’t think badly of us. We are truly grateful to you for saving us. It was great… really great. However, you can say that we are wolves. And wolves have no choice but to live like wolves. This is in order for us to survive, you see.”
“I see.” Kino slowly raised her hands.
“Okay. Now, remove that revolver in front of your stomach. Slowly, with your left hand.”
Kino slowly removed Canon’s holster from her belt with her left hand.
“Throw it away.”
Kino tossed it, and it fell between her and the men. There was a thud, and it was stuck halfway into the snow.
The man in his twenties went to pick it up, but the man in his forties beside him stopped him and spoke. “Remove your winter suit. Slowly. One hand at a time, and throw it up front.”
Kino removed her winter suit as she was told. Underneath, she was wearing a black jacket fastened with a wide belt on the waist. There were several pouches attached to the belt.
“Face to the back. Slowly now.”
Kino turned around. Lightly inserted on her belt was the holstered persuader she used to shoot down the rabbits. Kino called this one ‘Woodsman’.
“I knew it. Pull that persuader out slowly with your right hand. Then throw it. Slowly, remember.”
“I’m impressed you knew,” Kino said while looking at Hermes. With her right hand, she gripped Woodsman’s barrel, removed it from its holster and tossed it away.
“Face here, hands up. Slowly.”
Kino raised both hands and slowly faced the men.
Two of them tried to approach Kino, but this time, the man in his twenties stopped them.
“Wait. You have a knife, right? Where is it?”
Kino, with a somewhat dejected look, replied bluntly. “I have them all over.”
“Throw them all away.”
Kino slowly put her right hand in the pocket at her jacket’s hem. She took out the folding knife she used for cooking and flung it away.
Kino slowly reached out for the pouches on her belt with her right hand. From there, she pulled out the grip of a knife, flicked open the folding blade, locking it automatically. She threw this away.
Kino slowly put her right hand inside the left cuff of her jacket and extracted a double-edged knife. She tossed it. And then, she put her left hand inside the right cuff and took out a similar knife, and threw it away.
“……”
The men silently looked on. Kino slowly began to take off her overpants. She zipped down the fastener on her side and removed it one leg at a time. The boots and pants she was wearing underneath could now be seen.
Kino slowly squatted down and took out a thin knife from a sheath tied up on the shin part of her boots. She threw it away. She removed a similar knife from her left leg with her left hand and tossed it.
The knife fell down and hit the other knives on the ground, making a clinking sound.
“Are you… a knife merchant?” the man in his thirties muttered impulsively.
Kino slowly reached at the belt behind her right waist with her right hand and pulled out a sheathed knife. It was a knife with a double-edged blade around fifteen centimeters in length, and a fat, cylindrical grip.
Kino gripped it with her right hand and held the blade part with her left.
She spoke slowly, looking at the eyes of the man holding the persuader. “This one’s the last.”
“Throw it away,” said the man in his thirties. A red dot appeared on his forehead — a red light.
Bang bang bang!
There were three gunshots in succession. Between the blade and the grip of the knife were four small holes, from three of which bullets flew out.
Blood spurted out of the place where the red point of light marked the man’s forehead.
At the same moment, as the shots were heard, the man in his forties saw Kino advancing towards him and flailed his left hand. Kino passed underneath and restrained the man’s left hand from behind with her left. She stabbed all of the knife’s length through the left side of his back.
“Guh—!”
At the same time as the man let out this sound, the man that had three holes opened in his forehead collapsed.
Kino then pushed forward the knife and the man towards the man in his twenties.
As the thin man fell over, Kino retrieved Canon from the snow.
Kino immediately raised the hammer and stood in front of the man, pinned on his back underneath the corpse.
“Aaaah—!”
The man shrieked. Kino took a short glance towards the other man whose face was stained red with blood. And then she pointed Canon towards the last man.
“Save m——”
There was a thunderous roar and a white smoke as Kino’s right hand bounded up. Several of the man’s teeth burst flying like popcorn.
The man’s head leaped as if hit by an electric shock, then became still. Blood pooled from inside his mouth, and at once, the air pushing out of the lungs bubbled out. The blood overflowed, melting the snow beneath the man’s neck little by little.
Kino stood in front of the three men’s corpses. There was a faint steam rising up from the blood.
“That was a close call,” Hermes said to Kino from behind. “Are you hurt?”
“Nope,” was Kino’s only reply. Then she added, “That was scary. I thought it was the end for me.”
Kino stood for a while, holding Canon in her right hand.
In the middle of the clear blue sky and the glittering snowscape, the sound of Kino’s molars grinding in fear resounded.
—
“Are you fine now?” Hermes asked.
“I’m okay now,” Kino nodded. Steam no longer came out from the corpses.
Kino stood in front of the truck’s loading platform.
While holding Canon cautiously, she slowly opened the door.
“I see,” Kino muttered, and looked for a while inside the truck. And then, she opened both doors. Light shone inside the truck.
A number of white bones rolled off from the narrow interior of the truck.
Human bones. Thin ribs. Small finger bones. Broken pelvic bones shaped like spatulas. Broken thighbones — the marrow inside thoroughly slurped.
Several used up containers of solid fuel rolled off. An iron plate was torn off from one part of the truck. Above it, there were several charred pieces of a backbone.
In one corner of the truck was the head of the person who owned these bones.
Long blonde hair was tied on the truck’s pipe, from which the head was suspended, lightly facing downwards. It was a young girl, perhaps about the same age as Kino.
The eyes and the nose were gone. There were only the silently gaping black holes, the whittled skin and flesh of the cheeks and jaws, and the exposed part of the skull underneath the face. The lower jaw was barely connected to the rest of the head.
A hole as big as a person’s fist was gaping wide on the forehead. All of the brain was gone.
Hung neatly in one corner opposite the head was a bright yellow dress.
“…Hermes, can you see it?” Kino asked.
“Yup. Food scraps,” Hermes answered.
Kino looked at the corpses of the men by her feet.
“Before that, this was their important ‘goods’ eh…”
“And before that?” Hermes asked, catching Kino's mumbled words.
While looking at the glittering blonde hair, Kino spoke gently.
“I don’t know.”
As Kino slowly closed the door, she spoke to the girl.
“It’s not right. But, they didn’t want to die.”
—
“We’ve been held up so much. Let’s leave as soon as possible,” Kino said, picking up all the knives she tossed earlier.
Snow accumulated inside the Woodsman's barrel. Kino picked it up, and without aiming at anything in particular, fired two shots. Then she closed the safety and returned it behind her waist.
She took the knife piercing the back of the man with one forceful pull. She thrust the bloodied blade in the snow back and forth until it was clean. Then she wiped it with the clothes of the dead man.
Kino opened the screwed lid at the bottom of the knife’s grip. She took out three small, empty cartridges from inside. Then she took out Woodsman’s spare bullets from her belt and put them inside the knife’s grip.
And then she returned this persuader-knife to its sheath in her right waist.
Kino put on her overpants and winter suit. Then she returned Canon to its original place.
She quickly packed her tent and loaded her luggage on Hermes. Then she started the engine.
Suddenly, Kino returned to the side of the truck. She squatted beside the corpse holding the persuader.
She removed the glove in her left hand. A ring was inserted on her middle finger. It was a silver ring, with several small green gems attached to it.
Kino looked at her left hand for a few seconds.
Kino removed the ring and took out the box from her pocket. She put it inside the man’s breast pocket. And then she spoke to him softly.
“I’m returning this to you… because I wasn’t able to save you in the end.”
Then Hermes spoke with a voice as soft as Kino’s,
“What? I thought you liked that thing?”
—
Kino straddled Hermes. She covered her face with her hat and goggles.
Kino lightly revved the accelerator, and the engine roared in excellent condition.
“Shall we go?” Hermes proposed.
“Yeah.”
Kino turned her head back lightly to check whether she left anything. Then she looked at the remains of the three rabbits lined up on the branch of the tree.
“Please don’t think badly of us. We’re only humans, after all.”
The motorrad ran off. It passed through the truck, the tent, and what remained of the four corpses, and soon disappeared.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-04-13 06:50 pm (UTC)The men talked to Kino about moving their truck. If they divided work and dug up the snow around the truck to create a slope, they could possibly get the truck out of its current condition of being buried. As long as the truck was still in running condition, they could get to the nearest country.
The man in his thirties asked Kino, “First, we want to remove our luggage from the vehicle. It would be nice if you can help.”
Kino and the men turned to the back of the truck.
The truck’s loading platform had three locks. The man in his thirties asked for the keys of the other two, opened the door and went inside. After a while, they heard some clicking sounds, and the man in his forties separated Kino a bit and talked to her.
“Miss Kino, will that motorrad be fine?”
Kino, who did not understand what he meant, turned around. At the same time, the man in his thirties quickly got out of the truck’s platform. He was holding a long persuader with both hands and aiming it towards Kino.
The moment Kino saw the man’s persuader, she reached for her holster with her right hand but stopped herself from pulling Canon out. She calmly faced the persuader pointed at her.
“Good decision. If you pulled out that persuader, I would have shot you without a moment’s delay,” the man said as he climbed down the platform. There was no opening in his stance.
“Well, thanks for that,” Kino said with her usual tone without any hint of surprise. The other two men backed off from Kino a few steps, their faces now stern.
The man in his thirties spoke. “The truth is I wouldn’t have fired at you. We take pride in delivering our important goods without a single scratch, you see.”
“Goods?” Kino asked, and the man in his forties answered.
“Yeah. We work for an employment agency. What we refer to as ‘goods’ are people.”
Hermes, who was parked a bit ways off behind Kino, spoke in a tone not different from usual. “Oh, so you guys are kidnappers. Or to be more specific, slave traders.”
“You don’t have to put it so bluntly… but well, that’s correct. Now that we are strong enough to move, we have to do our real job. So, Miss Kino, we will take you with us to a place where someone would buy you. Don’t put up any resistance now.”
“Well, that’s that, but I’m a little concerned,” Hermes said.
“Don’t worry, Hermes. Your partner is quite a beauty. She’ll shine with a bit of polishing, and because she’s young, she’ll definitely be sold for a high price. We always adorn our goods with jewels and pretty clothes; it’s a complete package. We’re not going to give her any injuries,” the man in his forties assured.
“Anyway, you sure make it sound easy,” Kino replied indifferently, her body not moving an inch.
While gazing into Kino’s eyes, the man in his thirties spoke with his persuader still aimed at her. “Please don’t think badly of us. We are truly grateful to you for saving us. It was great… really great. However, you can say that we are wolves. And wolves have no choice but to live like wolves. This is in order for us to survive, you see.”
“I see.” Kino slowly raised her hands.
“Okay. Now, remove that revolver in front of your stomach. Slowly, with your left hand.”
Kino slowly removed Canon’s holster from her belt with her left hand.
“Throw it away.”
Kino tossed it, and it fell between her and the men. There was a thud, and it was stuck halfway into the snow.
The man in his twenties went to pick it up, but the man in his forties beside him stopped him and spoke. “Remove your winter suit. Slowly. One hand at a time, and throw it up front.”
Kino removed her winter suit as she was told. Underneath, she was wearing a black jacket fastened with a wide belt on the waist. There were several pouches attached to the belt.
“Face to the back. Slowly now.”
Kino turned around. Lightly inserted on her belt was the holstered persuader she used to shoot down the rabbits. Kino called this one ‘Woodsman’.
“I knew it. Pull that persuader out slowly with your right hand. Then throw it. Slowly, remember.”
“I’m impressed you knew,” Kino said while looking at Hermes. With her right hand, she gripped Woodsman’s barrel, removed it from its holster and tossed it away.
“Face here, hands up. Slowly.”
Kino raised both hands and slowly faced the men.
Two of them tried to approach Kino, but this time, the man in his twenties stopped them.
“Wait. You have a knife, right? Where is it?”
Kino, with a somewhat dejected look, replied bluntly. “I have them all over.”
“Throw them all away.”
Kino slowly put her right hand in the pocket at her jacket’s hem. She took out the folding knife she used for cooking and flung it away.
Kino slowly reached out for the pouches on her belt with her right hand. From there, she pulled out the grip of a knife, flicked open the folding blade, locking it automatically. She threw this away.
Kino slowly put her right hand inside the left cuff of her jacket and extracted a double-edged knife. She tossed it. And then, she put her left hand inside the right cuff and took out a similar knife, and threw it away.
“……”
The men silently looked on. Kino slowly began to take off her overpants. She zipped down the fastener on her side and removed it one leg at a time. The boots and pants she was wearing underneath could now be seen.
Kino slowly squatted down and took out a thin knife from a sheath tied up on the shin part of her boots. She threw it away. She removed a similar knife from her left leg with her left hand and tossed it.
The knife fell down and hit the other knives on the ground, making a clinking sound.
“Are you… a knife merchant?” the man in his thirties muttered impulsively.
Kino slowly reached at the belt behind her right waist with her right hand and pulled out a sheathed knife. It was a knife with a double-edged blade around fifteen centimeters in length, and a fat, cylindrical grip.
Kino gripped it with her right hand and held the blade part with her left.
She spoke slowly, looking at the eyes of the man holding the persuader. “This one’s the last.”
“Throw it away,” said the man in his thirties. A red dot appeared on his forehead — a red light.
Bang bang bang!
There were three gunshots in succession. Between the blade and the grip of the knife were four small holes, from three of which bullets flew out.
Blood spurted out of the place where the red point of light marked the man’s forehead.
At the same moment, as the shots were heard, the man in his forties saw Kino advancing towards him and flailed his left hand. Kino passed underneath and restrained the man’s left hand from behind with her left. She stabbed all of the knife’s length through the left side of his back.
“Guh—!”
At the same time as the man let out this sound, the man that had three holes opened in his forehead collapsed.
Kino then pushed forward the knife and the man towards the man in his twenties.
As the thin man fell over, Kino retrieved Canon from the snow.
Kino immediately raised the hammer and stood in front of the man, pinned on his back underneath the corpse.
“Aaaah—!”
The man shrieked. Kino took a short glance towards the other man whose face was stained red with blood. And then she pointed Canon towards the last man.
“Save m——”
There was a thunderous roar and a white smoke as Kino’s right hand bounded up. Several of the man’s teeth burst flying like popcorn.
The man’s head leaped as if hit by an electric shock, then became still. Blood pooled from inside his mouth, and at once, the air pushing out of the lungs bubbled out. The blood overflowed, melting the snow beneath the man’s neck little by little.
Kino stood in front of the three men’s corpses. There was a faint steam rising up from the blood.
“That was a close call,” Hermes said to Kino from behind. “Are you hurt?”
“Nope,” was Kino’s only reply. Then she added, “That was scary. I thought it was the end for me.”
Kino stood for a while, holding Canon in her right hand.
In the middle of the clear blue sky and the glittering snowscape, the sound of Kino’s molars grinding in fear resounded.
—
“Are you fine now?” Hermes asked.
“I’m okay now,” Kino nodded. Steam no longer came out from the corpses.
Kino stood in front of the truck’s loading platform.
While holding Canon cautiously, she slowly opened the door.
“I see,” Kino muttered, and looked for a while inside the truck. And then, she opened both doors. Light shone inside the truck.
A number of white bones rolled off from the narrow interior of the truck.
Human bones. Thin ribs. Small finger bones. Broken pelvic bones shaped like spatulas. Broken thighbones — the marrow inside thoroughly slurped.
Several used up containers of solid fuel rolled off. An iron plate was torn off from one part of the truck. Above it, there were several charred pieces of a backbone.
In one corner of the truck was the head of the person who owned these bones.
Long blonde hair was tied on the truck’s pipe, from which the head was suspended, lightly facing downwards. It was a young girl, perhaps about the same age as Kino.
The eyes and the nose were gone. There were only the silently gaping black holes, the whittled skin and flesh of the cheeks and jaws, and the exposed part of the skull underneath the face. The lower jaw was barely connected to the rest of the head.
A hole as big as a person’s fist was gaping wide on the forehead. All of the brain was gone.
Hung neatly in one corner opposite the head was a bright yellow dress.
“…Hermes, can you see it?” Kino asked.
“Yup. Food scraps,” Hermes answered.
Kino looked at the corpses of the men by her feet.
“Before that, this was their important ‘goods’ eh…”
“And before that?” Hermes asked, catching Kino's mumbled words.
While looking at the glittering blonde hair, Kino spoke gently.
“I don’t know.”
As Kino slowly closed the door, she spoke to the girl.
“It’s not right. But, they didn’t want to die.”
—
“We’ve been held up so much. Let’s leave as soon as possible,” Kino said, picking up all the knives she tossed earlier.
Snow accumulated inside the Woodsman's barrel. Kino picked it up, and without aiming at anything in particular, fired two shots. Then she closed the safety and returned it behind her waist.
She took the knife piercing the back of the man with one forceful pull. She thrust the bloodied blade in the snow back and forth until it was clean. Then she wiped it with the clothes of the dead man.
Kino opened the screwed lid at the bottom of the knife’s grip. She took out three small, empty cartridges from inside. Then she took out Woodsman’s spare bullets from her belt and put them inside the knife’s grip.
And then she returned this persuader-knife to its sheath in her right waist.
Kino put on her overpants and winter suit. Then she returned Canon to its original place.
She quickly packed her tent and loaded her luggage on Hermes. Then she started the engine.
Suddenly, Kino returned to the side of the truck. She squatted beside the corpse holding the persuader.
She removed the glove in her left hand. A ring was inserted on her middle finger. It was a silver ring, with several small green gems attached to it.
Kino looked at her left hand for a few seconds.
Kino removed the ring and took out the box from her pocket. She put it inside the man’s breast pocket. And then she spoke to him softly.
“I’m returning this to you… because I wasn’t able to save you in the end.”
Then Hermes spoke with a voice as soft as Kino’s,
“What? I thought you liked that thing?”
—
Kino straddled Hermes. She covered her face with her hat and goggles.
Kino lightly revved the accelerator, and the engine roared in excellent condition.
“Shall we go?” Hermes proposed.
“Yeah.”
Kino turned her head back lightly to check whether she left anything. Then she looked at the remains of the three rabbits lined up on the branch of the tree.
“Please don’t think badly of us. We’re only humans, after all.”
The motorrad ran off. It passed through the truck, the tent, and what remained of the four corpses, and soon disappeared.