Kino no Tabi:Volume14 Chapter11

「Land of Cowards」 —Toss-up—

Autumn: the sky was towering, sweeping. In the endless, transparently blue air, pure white clouds hung like shredded silk, drifting silently.

Beneath the sky was a park. In that park were a pond and a boardwalk, surrounded by the rows of tall buildings, and nestled in among the green of the lawn and the autumn colors on the thick trees.

The center of the park was leveled and paved with stone. Chairs and tables were set up, and the square had been turned into a large outdoor cafe. A trailer house with a kitchen was parked on the pavement, where it offered hot meals to the customers.

It was far enough away from the obtrusive buildings in the area, so the cafe was filled with soft sunlight and a gentle breeze. There were many customers idly chatting and enjoying lunch; the cafe's waiters were the only ones moving briskly, as they went about their work.

Beside one of the tables, a lone motorrad (Note: a two-wheeled vehicle. Only note that it cannot fly) was parked. Baggage was loaded alongside and on top of the motorrad's rear wheel. Sitting at the table, which was placed at the very edge of the cafe, the motorrad's rider was leisurely drinking tea.

The rider was young, maybe mid-teens, with short, black hair, large eyes, and a stern face. She wore a black jacket with a belt at her waist, and on her right hip, a hand persuader (Note: a persuader is a gun. In this case, a pistol) was hung in its holster.

The rider was in no hurry to finish her tea, letting the cup rest on the table as she stared up at the sky. With a deep sigh, she murmured, "what a nice place."

The motorrad asked, "Because they gave you free tea with your lunch?"

The rider nodded earnestly, "Yeah, that's part of it. What about you, Hermes?"

The motorrad named Hermes agreed, "I guess it ended up being a good decision to flip a coin back at that fork in the road. They saw that in historical countries, the older buildings are the most interesting. Once you're done with your tea, Kino, let's go look around."

Still looking up at the sky, the rider named Kino agreed, "But just a little longer. Since we're here and all."

"What about finding an inn, Kino?" Hermes asked from the side.

"I don't want one that's too historical, formal, or expensive."

"Didn't the guard tell us that since this country is so big, it even has campsites set up in the forest?"

"But that wouldn't be any different from normal then... I want a shower with a hot bath, and snow white sheets."

While Kino and Hermes were talking, a man sat down seven tables away from them. He looked roughly in his mid-twenties, with thick, neat hair, a navy blue suit, and a fat briefcase.

The man carefully placed the briefcase at his feet, and then called the waiter over to place an order.

"Is there anything we need to buy while we're here?" Hermes asked Kino.

"Portable rations, fuel, and some liquid propellant would be good. We can save that for the last day though, since the store by the country walls was selling all of those things."

Once the waiter had left, the man gingerly touched his briefcase and stood up. As if searching for someone, he turned his head from side to side. He glanced in Kino and Hermes's direction, and momentarily made eye-contact with Kino, but he soon looked away, as if nothing had happened.

Then, leaving the briefcase on the ground, the man left. He strode quickly away from the table, and the sight of his back soon shrunk into the distance.

Clunk.

Kino planted her teacup onto the table. The cup was still half-full, and some of the remaining tea spilled out.

Kino rose swiftly to her feet,

"That was on purpose," Kino and Hermes said in unison.

Kino released Hermes's stand, and started pushing him away from the cafe. She turned on his headlight, and put on her hat.

"Can we make it?" Hermes asked.

Kino continued to push him for several seconds before replying, "Maybe. If it's not too big."

"Let's hope you're just incredibly mistaken."

"Seriously. Otherwise I wasted that tea for nothing."

—

One second later.

Behind Kino, in the center of the cafe, the briefcase exploded.

—

As the sirens wailed, ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars rolled onto the park lawn one after another, laying waste with their tires.

The scurrying paramedics stowed the groaning survivors into ambulances, which were replaced by new ones as soon as they left. Several of the other responders laid out blue sheets over the lumps of flesh that used to be people.

The police officers were spread out, taking countless pictures of the scene, carefully collecting the bomb fragments, questioning people in the area, keeping back anyone trying to enter, throwing out press members that still insisted on flashing their cameras, lining the perimeter with yellow "Do Not Enter" tape, and getting yelled at by Hermes when they tried to tape him too.

A middle-aged man, who had been tending to the injured, said to Kino, who was washing her hands at a drinking fountain, "We're sorry you had to experience this, after coming all this way. I'm glad you weren't caught in the explosion, at the very least." Kino moved aside to let them use the fountain.

While washing his hands, he spat out, "Damn those bastards... Not again..."

"Again?" Kino asked.

"Yeah. It's a group of anti-government radicals that's been around for a while. They used to just make impractical demands, like 'Spread the wealth to help the poor', but when others wouldn't agree with them, they started bombing crowded areas. Recently, we caught a lot of the conspirators, and their activity died down, but it seems that now they've started moving again."

"You can't catch them?"

"Yeah. They're pretty slippery. —All they're doing is hurting innocent people, as if that will somehow make society change. They're just a bunch of cowards that refuse to fight fair and square" the man said, as he washed off the blood from the injured people he was helping.

—

When Kino returned to Hermes, she was met by a woman in jeans and a black jacket, maybe in her mid-twenties. "POLICE" was emblazoned on both the front and back of her jacket, and she carried a holstered 35-caliber revolver on her right hip.

"You two are the traveler and motorrad that happened to be at the scene, right? I'm Raiya, a detective."

Kino and Hermes returned her greeting.

"Did you two happen to see the man that planted the bomb?"

Kino and Hermes did not reply immediately.

Raiya spoke again, "It's fine if you didn't. You're only visiting, after all, so there's no need to —"

"We did see." "We saw." Kino and Hermes replied at the same time.

Raiya's mouth stopped moving, and she brought out several pictures from her breast pocket to show them.

They were all pictures of men of about the same age. Each of them was standing up against a wall with lines to measure their height.

"Would that man..., happen to be one of these?"

Kino looked, and then turned her head to Hermes.

"Without a doubt, right?" Hermes said.

Kino pointed at the picture second from the left, "Yeah. That's him. He had a completely different hairstyle though."

When Hermes spoke, Raiya's face clouded for a moment, and then she returned the pictures to her pocket.

"Thank you for your cooperation. This entire area is on lockdown, so please leave the park, now. Goodbye," she said, in a flat, businesslike tone. Then she turned on her heel and dashed back to where several officers and detectives were speaking.

"...Let's go. There's nothing more I can do here." Kino flipped Herme's kickstand, and started pushing him away.

While they were on the boardwalk, as soon as they were away from the hectic park, Kino spoke up, "Ah, whoops."

Hermes replied from below, "What?"

"I should have asked that police officer where to find a cheap hotel."

—

The next morning.

Kino rose at dawn. In her hotel room, which had a bed and a shower, she practiced drawing her revolver, named Canon, in front of the mirror. Then, she disassembled it for maintenance, before placing it back in its holster.

"Fuwaa... Are you going to take your hot shower now?"

"I already took it a long time ago."

Kino bundled her luggage onto the now-awake Hermes, and left the cheap hotel.

Kino and Hermes rode around town, touring its old buildings.

Along the way, Kino said abruptly, "That newspaper stand just now. It said yesterday's terrorist attack killed 2 people and injured 8."

"That was a close one, huh," Hermes said, as though it wasn't anything unusual.

"If I had said something, ...maybe it wouldn't have been as bad."

"Maybe," Hermes began, "or maybe it would have made things worse. Did you see how your tea spilled over when you suddenly put it down? Besides, you can't do anything about it now."

Kino grumbled, "I guess..."

—

In the heart of the country, there was a vast lake.

Out from it, a broad river flowed through the flat countryside. The lake was surrounded by trees, such that there was not even a whisper of a breeze, and the calm water's surface reflected the colors on the autumn leaves.

A path ran along the lakefront, dotted with magnificent houses, whose vivid white walls sat right on the shoreline.

"Living between the forest and the lake, huh? Being able to enjoy nature while inside the country must be very luxurious. At the very least, they don't have to worry about wild animals or bandits."

"Looks like it's all rich people though."

Kino and Hermes exchanged, as they rode.

Shortly after noon, Kino steered Hermes off of the lakeside gravel road and into the forest. She parked Hermes and sat down next to him. She ate the sandwich she had bought for lunch as she started to boil a pot of water.

Kino slowly settled in and said, "Time for a comfy meal and a comfy cup of tea."

"Yes, after all, it's not like we're going to run into any bombers around here," replied Hermes.

—

After her meal, Kino started Hermes's engine again, and took one last glance to make sure she hadn't left behind any of her belongings or trash.

As Kino began to make her way out of the forest back onto the road,

"There's a vehicle. It's moving fast." At Hermes's word, they stopped.

Driving right past them, a car came in from the right side, and hurtled through the corner on their left. It was a sports car with the top down, and it flung up a thin trail of dust as it flew down the narrow dirt path. The car's driver sped away, not even seeming to have noticed Kino and Hermes.

"That was close..."

Kino slowly brought Hermes onto the road, watching the car in the distance. Past the settling dust clouds, it paused briefly in front of a house before passing through its gates.

Kino said, "Alright then, let's go this way" and turned Hermes in the direction the car had come from.

"The one driving that car just now, that was the same guy. Yesterday and today, he keeps trying to kill us," Hermes said.

Kino was shocked, and she brought Hermes to a stop again.

"There's no mistake, Kino."

"Huh..., does that make me lucky, or unlucky?" Kino murmured, as she craned her neck to look behind her.

"What are you going to do? Tell the police we found his hideout?"

"Good question..." Kino said, and then thought for a bit before continuing, "Well we're leaving the country tomorrow, and it doesn't really involve us, so..., yeah, let's go with that."

"Why?"

"Maybe we'll get a reward or something."

"I see."

Kino sped away on Hermes, kicking up dust as they rode.

On their left was the lake, on the right, the forest.

Just past a bend in the road, they entered a general store by the beach.

—

"It was you two, right? Thanks."

It was Raiya, who got out of the police car with a middle-aged officer to greet them.

They were standing outside the store where Kino had borrowed a phone, and countless other vehicles were parked nearby.

One of them was a bus with barred windows, that some of the police officers had arrived in.

The officers followed Kino into the forest, where they peered out past the bend in the road. Spying through their binoculars, they could see light peeking out from the gaps in the house's curtains.

Then, they all returned to their vehicles.

"You're certain that's the house, right? If you're wrong, we won't be able to fix things with just an apology," asked the middle-aged detective in the suit, with no hint of cheer or politeness in his voice. Kino nodded. "If we're still around" chimed Hermes.

Eventually, an officer ran up to the detective. They had checked and verified that the villa's owner was currently somewhere else. Additionally, they hadn't lent it out to anyone, and they themselves hadn't visited it in a long time.

The detective said to Kino, "Alright. The rest is a job for the police. Leave it to us."

And then, without so much as a word of thanks, the police squad marched towards their bus.

As Raiya followed after them, the middle-aged detective turned back to her and said, "You too. Stay put."

"Wh—, why?"

Raiya argued with the middle-aged detective for a bit. She vigorously insisted on storming the scene with the rest of the police, but the middle-aged detective refused.

"How many times do I need to tell you?! A female rookie is just going to get in the way."

"But I—"

"You stay put!"

The middle-aged detective barked his final words, and then left to make preparations with the rest of the officers. The squad of about 15 officers donned bulletproof vests and loaded their long automatic rifles.

"Umm... Raiya." Kino pushed Hermes closer.

Raiya, who had stood watching the scene in shock, turned to look at Kino.

"Raiya, are they planning to raid that house right now?"

"Eh? Yeah. It would be dangerous for you, traveler, so you should stay here."

"So that's their plan..."

Kino hesitated, and Hermes grumbled out, "It doesn't hurt to try telling them, at least."

Kino agreed, and started up again, "It looks like the plan is to approach from the forest, but I don't think you have enough men to attack immediately. In my opinion, it'd be best to wait for backup."

"Eh?"

Raiya turned to fully face Kino.

"Also, I think those long rifles would be too hard to use after penetrating the house. In my opinion, it'd be best to use a rifle team as support, while the penetrating squad carries hand persuaders. Otherwise, there's a high chance of critical failure."

The middle-aged detective had finished putting on his bulletproof vest, and his face scrunched up in resentment as he walked over to them.

"Also —"

"Shut up! This is a job for the police. We don't need an amateur to go running her mouth where she's not wanted. —Raiya. Watch the traveler! Don't let her out of your sight!" he yelled at Kino and Raiya, before storming away.

"Well, that's pretty much what I expected to happen."

"...You tried to tell them, that's good enough, right?" Hermes said to Kino.

"...!" Raiya shot him a glare. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but then she shook her head, "He can't even stop himself from getting angry at you two... Sorry about that."

—

The middle-aged detective gave a briefing to the line of police officers, after they had finished their preparations.

"There will probably be more than one inside, but to our knowledge, there are no more than four terrorists in hiding right now. We'll make our approach through the forest, surround the house, and then storm in. I have no expectation that we'll be able to arrest them, since they've already killed however many people, so even if we have to reduce that house to rubble, we're going to wipe them all out."

The police force entered the forest.

Raiya stood there for a while, without doing anything, but soon, she became visibly agitated. She kept moving her head around and kicking the gravel at her feet.

"...Dammit."

Then, she grabbed a bulletproof vest from one of the cars, and wore it under her jacket. She checked that her revolver was loaded, and keeping it in her right hand, she walked slowly into the forest.

And so, one human and one motorrad remained.

"What do we do now? Our detective just left."

"...Is it okay for us to just leave?"

"I don't know. But hey, since we're here —," Hermes said, "Should we watch to see if you were right? If we stand next to that curve in the road, we should be able to get a clear view."

"Sure..."

—

They could see the lakefront house in the distance, from the top of the curve.

"..." Crouched down, hiding in the trees was Raiya. She gripped her revolver tightly, staring at the house. The house was still quiet, just sitting on the edge of the lake.

Behind her came a voice, "Not yet?"

"Not yet," Raiya answered automatically, and then spun around in surprise.

Kino had pushed Hermes next to her, standing between the road and the forest.

"You don't have to be so uptight," Hermes quipped.

Kino continued, "I ran over here on my own, so you had no choice but to come follow me. How does that sound?"

"..." Raiya looked at Kino blankly, and then suddenly with a "pfft" broke into laughter. "Thanks for looking out for me."

Kino rolled Hermes a little closer so they could see better, and then crouched down next to Raiya.

Raiya continued to watch the house as she said, "Traveler. Earlier, you said there was a high chance the mission would fail, right?"

"I did."

"If that happens, do you think the terrorists might come running down this road?"

"..." Kino paused, and then asked, "Why do you want to catch him yourself so badly?"

This time it was Raiya that paused before mumbling out, "You got me.

"But that's a secret. Maybe I'll tell you later. Forget that for now —, what do you think?" asked Raiya, repeating her question.

"Let's see, I don't think it's impossible, but —"

"But?"

"If it were me, I would have picked that villa as my hideout for a different reason."

Kino spoke, Raiya turned to look at her, and a gunshot rang out from the direction of the house, quickly turning into an echoing roar as the shootout escalated. Almost like firecrackers in a side alley, the dry sound crackled in the air, together with the smoke from the bullets ricocheting off the walls of the house. The first squad rushed out together from the road toward the house, and slammed their bodies flush against the wall.

"What? They're doing just fine, aren't they?" Raiya exclaimed, half in excitement, and half in disappointment.

"I hope so..." Kino replied, and Hermes followed up, "They're up against bombers, right? And the house is right next to the lake."

As one, the first squad pushed into the house.

"Yes. What I was trying to say before was that if I were the terrorists —"

—

The house exploded.

The walls and roof were flung away in an eruption of flames. Even the police officers by the road were blown away, and they disappeared from Raiya's sight. Then came the explosion's long, low rumble, lagging just behind.

"..." Raiya was wide-eyed and speechless.

Kino calmly broke the silence, "Ahh, there it is... And they'll use a boat to make their escape."

"!" Raiya flicked her eyes to the lake. A motorboat appeared from out under the shadow of the house. The boat's bow lifted off the water as it sped away.

With its white waves slicing through the water's autumn-colored reflections, the boat tore into the center of the lake and then toward Kino's group. Soon, a single man could be seen riding the boat.

"That's the same guy again."

Just as Hermes said, it was indeed the man that had planted yesterday's bomb. Raiya made a sour face, and made sure she was still hidden in the trees.

The boat passed by them, and Kino saw that the man was laughing happily.

The man let go of the boat's rudder with his right hand and drew out a hand persuader, with his arm outstretched. He turned toward Kino and fired once, not bothering to check where the bullet landed.

"Ooh, you got shot at, Kino," Heremes said.

Kino kept following the man with her eyes, and replied, "From this range, on a swaying boat, neither one of us can hit the other."

"Too bad you're short" Hermes said, rather cheerfully.

The man turned to face forward again. The boat continued to fade into the distance, leaving behind only a white wake of foam and the stale sound of its engine.

"..." Raiya simply watched in an unmoving stupor. The boat's image mixed into the reflection on the lake, and soon disappeared.

Raiya ran to the road and cursed, "Dammit!" kicking up the rocks at her feet.

Kino asked, "...'I'm a bad sport'?"

"No, his bullet and your talent both came up short" Hermes replied.

—

The next day; that is, the morning of the third day since Kino entered the country.

Kino rose at dawn. After her usual practice, she reluctantly took one last shower, and then put on a freshly cleaned shirt.

Kino packed up her luggage and tied it onto Hermes. She finished the preparations just before the sky fully lit up in the morning sunlight.

Kino left the room and very reservedly knocked on the door to the neighboring room.

Soon after, she was greeted by a pair of violent-looking red eyes and a mop of rumpled hair. "Ahh, morning... You're up early..." said Raiya, opening the door.

—

The cramped room could barely hold both the bed and Hermes.

Kino sat on the bed, and Raiya, who was wearing yesterday's uniform, sat on a chair, almost pressed against Hermes.

"Not very considerate of you, don't you think?" grumbled Hermes, whose luggage rack was being used as a makeshift breakfast table. Kino and Raiya shared a tray of bread, tea, and soup, with jars of butter and jam.

"A promise is a promise," Kino said to Raiya, as she tore off a piece of bread.

Raiya, spreading jam on her bread, replied, "Hmm? —Ahh, right. That's right. I said I would explain everything to you over breakfast."

She stuffed the bread into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Then, "But, you can probably already guess the majority of it. —Right?"

Kino drank some tea and then gave a slight nod.

"It's that guy, right?"

Raiya responded to Hermes with a short "yes". She wiped the crumbs off of her lap with a handkerchief, and continued, "The man that you two saw in the park the day before yesterday. And then again yesterday at the hideout. In this country, anyone can call and request information on travelers, such as the information they gave when they entered, when they plan to leave, and even what gate they plan on leaving through."

"And he might be planning to retaliate against us?"

"Uhh, close. There's no 'might be'. He fired at you yesterday to say, 'I'm coming to kill you.' You two are in serious danger," Raiya stated, washing it down with soup.

Kino brought a piece of bread with jam to her mouth, and Hermes asked, "And that's why you're vacationing with us until we leave the country?"

"Yesterday's explosion killed one, and injured almost everyone else..., including that one special moron, who has a bone fracture. The higher-ups have taken over the investigation from here."

"In the end, you didn't get to catch him with your own hands," Kino said.

Raiya nodded with squinted eyes.

"Would you be willing to tell us the reason behind it?" Kino asked, eating bread with one hand and reaching for the soup with her other. Kino held the soup to her lips and met Raiya's eyes.

"..."

Raiya didn't say anything, and Kino started drinking the soup.

Once Kino finished the soup, Raiya began, "To make a long story short, we know each other."

"..." "..."

"You want me to say more, right? Fine, I get it. —He grew up in the same village as me, and I knew him pretty well. He was my childhood friend. We used to play together all the time in that dirt poor village. When we were still in elementary school, at least."

Kino sipped her tea and Hermes played his role as a table, both in silence.

"When I moved away with my family to the city, I couldn't see him anymore. So when I learned that he had become a raving terrorist, I was already a police officer, and I wanted—, no, I swore to catch him myself. Otherwise, he'll be shot and killed. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes. Thank you very much," Kino said, "But even if you catch him, won't he still be put to death?"

Raiya brightened up just a little, and laughed, "This country doesn't support the death penalty. The maximum punishment is a quintuple life sentence."

"So capturing him is the only way to keep him alive, huh..."

"Yeah. Both of his parents are still alive, too. As long as he's alive..., they can see him. A lot of people have died, and many of their family members want to see him dead... I understand completely that I'm just being selfish... but still, I want to do whatever it takes to arrest him."

"So that's how it is. I understand. Really, I do, but..."

As Kino dawdled, Hermes spoke instead, "Do you really think it'll be easy to catch someone so violent and reckless?"

"I don't know" came Raiya's immediate answer. "I don't know, but... He doesn't know that I'm a police officer."

"..." Kino was silent. Hermes gave out a "hmm."

"So, what are your plans for today? I might just be a burden, but I'll follow you anywhere," said Raiya.

Kino replied, "We're leaving right now."

—

"What should we do, Kino?"

Hermes asked in a soft voice, as soon as Raiya returned to her own room to pack her luggage,

Kino thought for a moment, and looked at Hermes. "If we're actually being targeted..., I don't really want to cause trouble inside the country. If she's with us, she might be able to help at least a little. If anything happens, two is better than one, right? I have no complaints, as long as we can leave the country safely."

"Makes sense. But we're probably walking into a trap."

Kino nodded, "I know. But—"

"But?"

"We just have to make sure we 'don't let our guard down', as they say. Remember, the enemy might not be alone either."

"?"

—

"And now I'm on a truck. Just great," grumbled Hermes. "You know, I think Kino is better at handling being targeted than she is at handling a motorrad."

In the middle of the vast country, on the road between the forest and the plains, a small farming truck was driving along. Hermes was riding along with it, strapped with rope on top of the dirty truckbed.

Raiya sat in the left-hand driver's seat, wearing a rough jacket that could let her pass as a hiker. The jacket's hem fell low enough that it hid the holster on her hip. She rested her left arm on the open windowsill.

Kino sat to her right, wearing her black jacket as always. She rested her right hand by the door, holding on to "Canon".

The autumn leaves shined in the clear morning sky. The road wasn't very wide, but in the absence of any traffic, the truck chugged along peacefully with the sun shining behind it.

"When I was a kid—" Raiya suddenly started, "I used to play with him all the time. Since there weren't many other kids my age in the village."

"Was it a small village, then?" Kino asked.

Raiya was slightly surprised, and glanced at Kino. "Yeah, it was. You couldn't call it rich, even as a joke. It's a big country, so there's all kinds of different places here."

Raiya turned to face forward again. The road conformed to the forest on its left, swaying left and right as it continued. The country walls weren't in sight yet.

"You know, when we played together..."

Raiya sighed, with a bitter smile on her lips.

"?"

"Ironically enough, it was always toy gunfighting. It was during the pioneering era, when everyone was caught up in those kinds of movies. Like where they flip a coin, and draw their pistols when it lands."

"And? Who won?" shouted Hermes, from the truckbed.

"Oh? You could hear that from back there? ...Yeah, I usually—"

"Won?"

"Lost. Actually, it wasn't "usually". I never beat him," Raiya answered.

"Well that's no good," came Hermes's voice.

"It was definitely frustrating. No matter how much I practiced my quickdraw, it never worked. He was always faster at reacting to the coin landing. When I entered the police academy and held a real gun for the first time, that was all I could think about, and I pushed myself relentless when practicing."

"How about now then? Can you win?" Hermes asked.

"I don't know," was all Raiya said.

—

They stopped at a small store just off the road. It served as the general store for the nearby village, so it had a thin power cable and a telephone line.

From the western side of the country, glimpses of the border wall were visible between the gaps in the trees.

Kino stood next to the truck with a drink in her left hand, and looked out at the road. It was looked too narrow for even a single car to pass through.

Soon, Raiya came jogging back from the store. With a confused look on her face, she said, "I checked with HQ. He still hasn't been caught, and his whereabouts are still unknown..."

"I see. But we only have a short while left to go," Kino said.

Raiya smiled at Kino, "Once we get you safely out of the country, I'll think of another way. —Let me just say it now. Thank you."

Kino laughed, "You're very welcome. But it's still a little early for that."

—

They left the general store behind, and continued down on the road into the forest. The forest enveloped them, and the truck scattered away the fallen leaves.

They were nearing a curve.

"Hm?" Raiya slowed down.

Half of the road was blocked by a stalled tractor that had steam venting out of its open hood.

"..."

Raiya gripped the steering wheel tight, and a man walked out from behind the tractor.

"Ah... Oh." Raiya exhaled. It was a bearded old man, wearing overalls suited for farmwork. He noticed the truck and waved excitedly at them.

Raiya inched the truck closer and leaned her head out the window to yell, "I'm sorry sir, but I need you to move! We can't get past!"

The old man didn't say anything in response, and just kept wildly waving his arm.

"Oh come on," Raiya griped, and stopped the truck. In that moment, another man walked out and smacked the old man, knocking him out.

He then shouted, "Neither of you move!"

It was of course the bomber that had escaped yesterday, and the day before. He was dressed in black from head to toe, and he wore a holster on his right hip.

He shouted again, "If you move, you'll get blown sky high." His extended an arm to show that he was holding some kind of transceiver, with an antenna sticking out of it.

"If I hit this button, or this remote hits the ground, the charges under your truck —, well, you can figure that much out, right? Go ahead and shoot me!" The man walked toward the truck as he shouted.

"..." Raiya carefully slid her right hand off of the wheel and onto her hip.

Then, Kino said, "Shall we get off? We don't need to shoot yet. Let's try talking first."

Raiya looked at Kino in shock, and then gave a short nod.

The two of them got out of the truck, and the man strode forward, grinning with self-satisfaction.

"Long time no see, Torus."

"!" At Raiya's words, the color drained from his face, and he stopped in his tracks to stare at Kino and Raiya. They were close enough now to talk without needing to shout.

"Raiya...? Now that's a surprise. What brings you here? What are you doing...?"

Raiya slowly lifted the right hem of her jacket. On her belt were her holster and her badge.

"I'm a police officer. Right now I'm a detective working in the capital."

"..." The man's eyes went wide, and it took him several seconds to find his voice again.

"Unbelievable... But whatever. I'm not here for you." Saying that, he shot a glare at Kino. "You, traveler. Let me ask you a few things."

"No thank you," came Kino's immediate response.

The man's face contorted. His right hand shook, and the antenna with it. "Huh? Do you want me to detonate the truck?"

"You're bluffing. There's no way you could have set that up." That was Hermes, still tied to the truckbed.

Kino followed, "There are two possible reasons why you would be targeting us. The first is to get revenge by killing us. If that were why, though, you'd already have done it. So that's not it. The other reason —"

Raiya looked at Kino.

Kino kept going, in a flat tone, "You're trying to steal Hermes, assume my identity, and run away. If you need Hermes, there's no way you'd set up explosives. That detonator's probably not even real."

Raiya stared at Kino. The man's face contorted again, this time into a laugh, and he tossed the remote away.

"Ah..." Raiya watched it fall, and she jumped when it clacked onto the road.

"Heheh, you got me. Then why don't you just hurry up and shoot me? Is the piece on your hip just for show?"

"For one, we're still inside the country, and you haven't drawn yet either. Also, I owe it to the person that paid for my hotel room last night."

"Hah?"

Kino glanced at Raiya, and Raiya nodded. "Let's just talk for a bit, Torus."

"About what?"

"You have too many charges against you to count, so I'm putting you under arrest."

"Hah?"

"I'm going to arrest you, put you on trial, and then put you behind bars."

"I beg your pardon?"

"There's a shoot-on-sight order out for you, Torus. If you keep going like this, someone someday is going to make you look like a beehive."

"And that's why you've been tagging along with the traveler? ...Wow."

The man gave an exaggerated expression, as though he had truly been shocked from the bottom of his heart.

"Well?" Raiya prompted.

"'Well?' That's how you try to convince me?"

"You're right. Well then, what do you think?"

"Have you heard the saying? No matter where, no matter when, the last conversation always ends in violence. We're both carrying heavy burdens on our backs. It's not like I hold anything against you, but that's all there is to it."

"You're right—. Fine then, how about this? Let's decide it with a coin toss; when it lands, we draw and we shoot."

The man paused for two seconds. On the third second, he opened his mouth as if to speak, and a laugh came out instead. Still grinning, he said, "That's great! Hahaha, that is great! You are a piece of work! Let's do it! But let me remind you, you've never beaten me before in your life, remember?"

Raiya said, "And let me tell you that I let you win every single time, because I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"Did you seriously think I'd buy a lie like that?"

"Oh? I'm telling the truth though. Sorry."

"I guess we'll see soon enough..."

—

Raiya slowly took off her jacket, and tossed it onto the road, unconcerned with getting it dirty.

"After I arrest you, I'll go with you to the hospital. You'll just have to put up with the pain, okay?"

"You're wrong, I'm gonna get away. This time, for good. Don't blame me if you die."

Standing in the middle of the road, amidst the autumn trees, the two of them looked as though they'd stepped out of a movie, while Kino watched, crouched down beside the truck.

Raiya pulled out a coin from her left pocket, and flipped it high into the air with her thumb. In spun upward between the two of them, higher and higher.

The man's eyes followed the coin.

Raiya's eyes did not.

She brought her right hand down to her holster and drew out her revolver, and while the coin was still ascending, she fired.

Startled by Raiya's movement, the man hastily fumbled for his own persuader, but Raiya's bullet sank deep into his stomach.

"Gah! Guahh!"

He fell to the ground, his body twisted in pain.

The coin made a dull sound as it hit the ground.

Raiya rushed to the man's side, and punted his persuader into the brush.

"Y, you bitch..." The man glared up at Raiya and groaned.

Raiya steadied her revolver at him with both hands and laughed, "You're wearing a bulletproof vest like me, anyway, aren't you? It's not like you're going to die. Sorry if your tummy hurts."

"That was a dirty trick... You coward..."

"I don't want to hear that from you," Raiya countered, calmly.

He fainted from the pain and his head collapsed onto the ground.

Raiya turned and spoke to Kino, "Traveler, thank you. Feel free to leave now before things here get hectic. The gate's just up ahead."

"Yeah, we'll be leaving now. Let me just get Hermes down first. By the way —"

"Hm?"

"I can tell the officer at the gate that you caught the guy, and request backup for you."

"... Yeah, that'd be a huge help."

"Then that's what I'll do," Kino said, and turned toward the truck. Raiya followed her with her eyes, and then she brought her revolver up to aim at Kino's back.

Deep in the forest, a single gunshot boomed.

—

On the road between the forest and the plains, a motorrad ran.

"I guess you weren't too short after all, Kino."

"Hm? —Oh, yeah."

"I know you made sure not to let your guard down, but how did you react in time?"

"The truck's side-view mirror."

"I see" whispered Hermes.

"To be honest though, Hermes," Kino said, "that country was so beautiful that I wanted to relax a little longer and leave in the evening."

"Well that's new," teased Hermes.

The midday sun was still shining.

"After all, I could have refused her offer to accompany us."

"Then why didn't you? You could have just left them alone, and then you wouldn't have had to deal with her at all."

In response to Hermes's question, Kino offered, "First of all, she paid for the hotel and breakfast. Second, it was payback for the wasted tea."

A fine-tuned engine was the only thing audible on the plains for several seconds, and then Hermes replied in bewilderment, "That's way beyond 'stingy', don't you think, Kino?"

Then he continued, "I bet if she heard that, that policewoman would have said it."

"Hm? Said what?"

"'You coward!'"

"Ahaha."

—

The next day.

All of the newspapers in that country ran a single front-page headline.

The bomber terrorizing the populace had finally been captured.

He'd been found in the middle of nowhere, out by the west gate, by a farmer, who then called the police to come arrest him. The man had been shot in the stomach through a bulletproof vest, and was unconscious, tied to a tree. There was still an ongoing investigation to find out who was responsible for taking him down, but the citizens were able to return to their peaceful lives.

In a strange turn of events, a female police officer was also found at the scene, also tied to a tree.

After searching her home, it was discovered that she was from the terrorist's hometown, and at the request of his family and friends, she planned to hide him in the village with a new identity, to avoid a life sentence.

She was immediately arrested as well, and although the police have remained silent in the face of this shocking scandal, pressure from the public will inevitably force someone to take responsibility.

Additionally, the woman had been shot through her own bulletproof vest with a weapon other than the man's. The identity and location of the person that shot her and tied both of them up still remains to be discovered.