Tatsuya watched the fight between the Parasite and the masked
magician from the shadow of a tree.
He had gotten to the park three minutes before the battle broke out.
When they had reached the predicted point of capture he had let out a
sound despite himself, but now he concealed his breathing and erased
his presence, awaiting an opportunity to intervene.
According to the information from Mayumi there were multiple
vampires and multiple hunters after them, but seeing the two before
him he was certain they were the same two from yesterday. He had
merely looked at the movement of the groups and predicted where the
first contact would occur, but he hadn’t identified the individuals.
(…This is a coincidence, right?)
A shiver ran down Tatsuya’s spine and he almost inadvertently
revealed his position. Somehow holding it back, he complained in his
mind. –Something along the lines of ‘if this is fate, it’s far too
disagreeable’.
He looked back to the state of the battle. The momentum was clearly
on the side of the masked magician. By comparison, the white masked
vampire was attempting to get away. And the net to block that escape
was yet incomplete.
(Four people. As I thought, it’s not enough.)
As three forces — if you include the police who weren’t working with
the Saegusa, it’d be four — ran together and got in each others way,
four magicians were converging here from four different directions.
They were the away team, without any street monitoring equipment,
yet had impressively managed to call in four other people unnoticed
by the others, is what he would have thought, but at the end of the day
it was safe to say such numbers could not hope to cut off all the escape
routes in this three-dimensional city.
Which was why this situation would soon become not 'hide and seek'
but 'tag'...
(Your enemy's enemy is, in the end, just another party. That one fact
alone doesn't automatically make them an ally, huh.)
If all the forces pursuing the Parasites were to work together, each
team had only to send this many people out and then herding them in
would be a simple matter. But due to the differences in intent, it
wouldn't work out. Even his own goals did not completely match with
that of Mayumi or Erika.
But for the moment, the vampire was more of an enemy.
(Now then, how to make my entrance.)
Whilst predicting the various reactions the masked character could
make, Tatsuya pulled from his waist not his CAD but a gun. Of course
it was illegal, but that was about the furthest thing on his mind at this
point. He pointed the gun at the vampire which had just made a huge
leap to avoid a knife stroke with complete calm, aimed at around the
belly, and casually pulled the trigger.
The average effective range of a handgun is 50 metres, while in real
combat the effective range is said to be more within 20m. This had
changed little from the last century, and the reason was because
handguns were a weapon made with those needs in mind.
The distance between the shaded tree under which Tatsuya was hiding
and the longcoat wearing phantom was about 10m. Although Tatsuya
had exceeded the minimum necessary training time, he by no means
practiced with a handgun every day, and it was a still a fairly difficult
distance.
The gun in his hand was a single shot chambered gun designed for a
special bullet. There were no second chances. He would have
preferred to aim for an area of exposed skin, but he had to give up on
what he couldn't do.
Besides, as the target was wearing a hat over the eyes as well as a
longcoat which stretched down to the ankles in addition to a white
mask which completely covered the face, it was a fair bet that there
was no exposed skin in any case. There was nothing to fret over.
The low speed heavy bullet absorbed more of the discharge than a
suppressor would have, yet as aimed, the bullet hit the abdomen of the
coat. While the weight of the bullet was twice that of a standard 9mm,
the lack of speed was compensated by the fact the vampire had been
falling back towards the bullet