Assassin Shiki — Chainsaw Woman

— Bratatatatat!! Rounds hammer out in an unbroken stream. Keeping low, I block the stray shots with a Shield Piece.

Her energy isn’t infinite. Should be about time.

The gunfire stops.

G-AGE!

I get to my feet and slip my finger onto the G-AGE’s trigger. But then…

“?!”

I freeze the instant my finger touches it.

“Shikki…?”

What is this feeling…? My skin’s prickling. I can feel a murky, stagnant pressure…?!

This pressure is different from the kind I’ve felt from Tsukigami or Tsubasa. It doesn’t belong to the attacker. Then who?

“Huh? The hell are you?!”

The attacker’s eyes swing toward us. And in that very instant…

“…The crime of disturbing my slumber is a grave one indeed.”

— Khwiiiiiin!!! A shrill whine rings out from the luggage rack. By the time everyone turns toward the sound, there’s nothing there; a figure has already dropped down in front of the attacker.

“That’s…”

It’s the person who had been sleeping on the luggage rack earlier. The sleeping bag is gone now, of course. In its place she wears a white coat, and in her hand is a weapon of whirling blades: a chainsaw.

“You—?!”

Two strokes. The first shears the attacker’s prized submachine gun clean in half, and the second takes her right arm off at the shoulder.

“Damn it!!”

The attacker reels back two steps, but the follow-up comes instantly, and the chainsaw carves away her left arm as well.

That’s no ordinary chainsaw. Above the spinning physical blade, a laser blade is spinning as well. The destructive power is monstrous. From what I can see it’s a real handful of a weapon — but she’s wielding it flawlessly. Who is she?

I study the chainsaw-wielder. Under a white coat she wears a black knit top, a miniskirt below, a mass of tools strapped to the skirt. She’s shed the sleeping bag but somehow kept the sleep mask on. Everything about her suggests a scientist, or maybe a researcher.

Her hair is mostly black, cut into a bob with a yellow-green inner color. A permanent smirk sits on her face, and there’s an air about her I can’t quite place.

“Dammit! A chainsaw…?! What kind of joke weapon is that?!”

The match is already decided. The range belongs entirely to the white-coated woman now, and the attacker, both arms gone, can’t so much as hold a weapon. And yet, rather than finish her off right away, the woman slices off both of her legs.

“Gah?!”

Unable even to stand, the attacker crumples to the floor, but the white-coated woman hauls her up by the hair and drops her into a seat.

“A joke of a weapon. True enough. It is loud, it is heavy, it is delicate — its one and only virtue, if you can call it that, is destructive power. You are curious, are you not, as to why I would choose such a thing?”

The attacker has already lost the will to fight, and tears are welling in her eyes.

“To give death its weight. In this game there is no pain, and even if you die, you come back to life. Death carries no weight here. To punish a human like you, merely killing is too light a thing. But you see, when you are carved from the crown of your head to the tip of your crotch with this chainsaw, it makes for quite the traumatic little experience. I cannot harm your body in any physical way — but done this way, I can gnaw at the mind.”

“A-Aahh…?!”

As if to flaunt it, the white-coated woman sets the chainsaw whining, kwiin, kwiin.

“It is this sound. This ear-splitting sound is what is so good. When it grinds through a Space Girl’s body, it sings even sweeter. A sound that resonates in the very soul.”

“I-I’m sorry… I’m sorry. I just wanted to try out a new weapon, I got carried away, that’s all. I’ll make proper amends for killing the passeng—”

“Ah, but do not misunderstand me. I am not reproaching you for killing the passengers. Do as you please with that sort of thing. The noradrenaline and adrenaline flooding my brain are owed entirely to having my sound sleep disturbed.”

The chainsaw’s shriek rings out again.

“Well — since you cannot actually lose consciousness inside the game, in truth I was merely lying there with my eyes shut, but even so.”

“Th-Then… you weren’t even really asleep…!”

“Hmm, true enough. Ah-hahaha! What does any of it matter, really? You ticked me off, so I kill you. That, and nothing more.”

The train comes to a stop.

Guess we’ve arrived. If so, someone from the Police class will be here any minute. I’ll stall for time.

I close in on the white-coated woman and press the G-AGE to the back of her head.

“P-Please, stop. Let’s leave the rest to the police. That person has already lost the will to fight…”

“Hmm. And so? If I had lost, this one would have killed me without a moment’s hesitation. Even if I had lost the will to fight and begged with tears streaming down my face, she would have killed me all the same. And yet, because I am the one who won, I am to show mercy? Because this one has lost her will to fight, I am to hold back? I have thought it for the longest time — do you not find the world is far too soft on crazy people?”

“Um, whichever of you had won, I would have stopped it. It’s not that I’m going soft on anyone in particular. If I were the sort to go easy on crazy people… then I wouldn’t be stopping you right now.”

“Oh-ho. Such a cute face, and quite the mouth on you.”

The white-coated woman twitches her left hand.

“M-Move and I shoot.”

“Is that so? Then it cannot be helped.”

The woman raises both hands, the chainsaw still in her right, her left empty. And even as she makes her show of surrender, she spins around in an instant and comes slashing at me.

Knew it.

One blow, two, three. As I slip each swing of the chainsaw, the woman breaks into a wide grin and stays her hand.

“Not bad at all, you! You have read every one of my strokes!”

A chainsaw should be pretty heavy. And yet she’s fast. There has to be some trick to—

“Then, how about this?”

The woman levels her free left hand at me, and from the long hem of her white coat a gun muzzle peeks out.

A hidden gun!!

I fire the G-AGE and shoot clean through the hidden gun.

“—Fast. Quick-draws are not really in my nature, but this is the first time I have taken the initiative and still lost the exchange.”

Judging by the shape, a shotgun. If my reaction had been another 0.01 seconds slower, I’d have been done for!

“…Keep this up, and it won’t stay a game.”

“?!”

The instant I turn my killing intent on her, the woman steps swiftly back.

“How fascinating you are. One thing I am certain of now. You did not stand in my way to save her. You simply chose the opponent you wished to fight, nothing more.”

A rush of footsteps comes echoing from the cars up ahead, and at the sound the white-coated woman drops her combat stance.

“Hmm. I should like to play with you a while longer, but the noisy lot is nearly here. I shall take my leave.”

The woman carves a hole in the train wall with her chainsaw.

“And you are…?”

“I am Rosetta. If you are a resident of this town, no doubt we shall meet again.”

The woman who calls herself Rosetta steps out through the hole and is gone.

What an interesting person…

Passing her on the way in, a group of women in military uniform enters our car. ChaCha and I explain the situation, the attacker is placed under arrest, and with that the whole affair is settled.