With a loud bang, pain shot through my right wrist the moment I drew my gun.
Staggering backward several steps and barely avoiding collapsing, I stared speechlessly at the handgun that had flown from my grasp and landed several meters away.
Then I gave a bitter smile, shook my head, and muttered softly:
"At least cut me some slack... forget it, pretend I said nothing."
Misaki lowered the still-smoking handgun without saying a word.
Honestly, with my body already this close to collapse, even if I had successfully fired, the recoil alone probably would have produced the exact same result...
And the power of the bullet I fired would likely not even have been enough to warrant dodging for the people before me.
But my real purpose in drawing the gun had merely been to let a gunshot ring out.
The situation earlier had been too urgent, so Misaki had no time to attach a suppressor, assuming she even had one.
At that moment, Hiyori suddenly seemed to think of something. She jogged over, picked up my handgun, bowed apologetically toward me, then jogged back.
In a serious situation like this, maybe don't casually pick things up. The atmosphere had become awkward instead.
Seeing Hiyori's actions, Saori slightly furrowed her brow, though in the end she said nothing and merely continued speaking to me.
"...Sensei, please stop wasting effort on meaningless things. If you continue refusing to understand, we'll have no choice but to resolve this in our usual manner."
"And I already said,"
I stubbornly replied,
"I'm not going to wait helplessly for death."
Even so, aside from waiting for someone else to rescue me, there was truly nothing I could do now.
Or perhaps I should confess my love to one of the girls here and see whether my overwhelming charm could grant me a new authority from the enemy's side and let me turn the tables on the spot?
At that moment, the purple-haired girl gestured something toward Saori with hand signs I could neither understand nor see clearly anymore.
"I know, Princess."
Saori said,
"The longer this drags on, the more likely unexpected complications become. And that gunshot could attract attention from nearby as well. I'll finish this quickly."
So the purple-haired girl really was the Princess Atsuko they spoke of.
Why was she using sign language instead of speaking? Did she have some kind of hidden difficulty?
Then Hiyori suddenly spoke.
"Saori... no, C-Captain, please let me do it."
"...You?"
Saori eyed the volunteering Hiyori suspiciously for a moment.
"What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Eh, ehehe, about that... s-sorry, Sensei."
Apologizing as she spoke, Hiyori picked up my handgun again.
Then she aimed at my already injured right wrist. After hesitating briefly, she instead shifted toward my left wrist and pulled the trigger.
Bang.
The bullet fired.
I noticed her movement and tried to dodge, but my body had become too heavy to obey me, and I took another shot solidly.
This time, I could no longer maintain my balance and crashed heavily onto the ground.
Looking up at the azure sky, I felt as though even my consciousness was drifting somewhere far away.
"Uu... i-it hurts a lot, right?"
Hiyori said awkwardly.
"Sensei, um, if you don't want it to hurt anymore, then please stop resisting..."
"...Hiyori, this is your method?"
"Eh, w-what's wrong with it...?"
The green-haired girl asked weakly.
Leaving aside why she aimed for my wrists not to fully strip away my ability to resist, but instead hoping I would surrender out of fear of pain...
Did I really look that pathetic?
Barely propping myself up, I saw Atsuko making several hand gestures toward Hiyori before taking the handgun from her hands, the same handgun Rin had given me on the day I first took office at Schale, intended at least for self-defense.
Bang! Bang!
In the next instant, I felt faint pain spread from both my ankles almost simultaneously.
This was probably to make me lose the ability to flee...
Ah, right, I had a halo now. Or perhaps she held the same thoughts as Hiyori?
Though we had never met before, she should know I had treated her to ice cream too.
Would she thank me? Would she like me? Was she trying to kill me?
Even with a halo, one could still die. Seia had nearly died. Arius possessed bombs that dealt unavoidable damage to halos. Azusa had carried one of those halo bombs when she attempted to assassinate Seia.
No... Beatrice still wanted the so-called technology from me, so she would not do anything to me...
But what about the Arius Squad? They obeyed Beatrice because they feared her overwhelming power, not because they did not hate that woman.
If Beatrice desired something from me, would they instead wish to prevent her from obtaining it? Would they kill me and disguise it as an accident?
My thoughts became increasingly chaotic.
All sorts of absurd ideas flooded into my head.
And the final thought to surface was one I almost never had ordinarily, a thought that horrified me.
If I simply died like this...
Maybe that would not be so bad after all.
"Princess! What exactly are you doing now!?"
Through my haze, I heard Saori shouting in confusion.
"Yes, Misaki and Hiyori already fired, so another few shots from you wouldn't matter! But wouldn't one shot to make Sensei lose consciousness have been enough!? Have you forgotten your training already!? This is completely wasting time!"
Atsuko seemed to explain something back to Saori with sign language.
"...Tch. Fine. Then let me teach you all once again how to properly use a gun in this situation."
Saori took the handgun and aimed it at my head.
Yet for some reason, she hesitated as well before lowering the muzzle slightly.
"Watch carefully. Even without hitting the head, a heavy impact to vulnerable internal organs is enough to knock someone unconscious."
Bang.
Yet after that utterly ordinary gunshot, for some reason, I felt no pain.
From my side, where I should have been hit, a warm, damp sensation spread outward, then gradually turned scorching hot.
Struggling to lift my head, I saw a bloom of blood-red spreading across my white clothes.
No.
That was blood.
My blood.
"Eh...?"
I heard someone ask in confusion.
"W-why? The halo disappeared...? At a time like this? Princess! Get the medical kit... wha... an ambulance...!?"
Then amid the gunshots and shouting, I heard another distinct sound approaching from afar, accompanied by an extremely frantic voice.
"Sensei! Grab my hand!"
Instinctively trying to raise my arm, I realized I could no longer move.
Yet immediately afterward, a tremendous force seized my arm, dragging not only it but my entire body into some rapidly moving space, followed by the heavy slam of a door closing.
Using the very last trace of strength to open my eyes, the face that entered my vision was one I knew better than almost any other, yet the expression on it was one I had never seen before.
Hina...
Why was she crying?
Holding that question in my mind, my consciousness sank into the deepest darkness.
---
(TL/N: I have no words. This is ... something else.)