“W-wait a minute…! What do you think you’re doing!?”
“Don’t come any closer. If you move, I’ll tear your doll to shreds right now.”
Even while trembling, Mina’s eyes were firmly fixed on Venus.
“Tsuchiya-san… Why? Why did you kill Tsuchiya-san!?”
Mina’s scream, spat out like that, shook everyone present.
“Eh…? W-what are you saying!? You… Mina! You were the one who killed Tsuchiya-san!”
“Don’t play dumb! It wasn’t me! You killed Tsuchiya-san! With a gun, you shot him through…!”
Baka couldn’t keep up with the exchange between Mina and Venus.
Wasn’t it Mina who killed Tsuchiya? Did Venus kill Tsuchiya? If so, what about that dying message?
Were Venus’s words an act? Or is Mina lying right now? And above all, for what purpose!?
“Venus-san… You didn’t hesitate, did you?”
While Baka was confused, Mina said that, trembling.
“…It was strange. Tsuchiya-san and Venus-san, how do you know how to use a gun?”
“Huh?”
“Even the stance, I didn’t know it. But Venus-san, you held the gun without hesitation. Even pulling the trigger… there was no hesitation at all.”
Mina spoke in a trembling voice, but calmly. Everyone in the room was stunned by Mina’s words.
“And… maybe Hibana-san was also someone who didn’t hesitate?”
“…Hibana?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Venus react with a twitch, Mina’s expression became even more severe.
“He killed my senior, didn’t he?”
“…W-wait a minute. What are you talking about?”
“Venus-san. You might not know. But it wouldn’t be strange if you did… You know, don’t you? I was also at the scene of the fire a year ago.”
At Mina’s words, Venus just frowned. But Mina continued without caring.
“I heard it was a conflict between yakuza groups. That one of the shops in that shopping street was a shop run by the yakuza… And then, somehow, a fire broke out, and it spread, burning down an entire corner of the small shopping street.”
Mina’s voice trembled and became tearful. In Mina’s eyes, which had been filled with nothing but fear and tension, a different emotion began to peek out.
“My senior’s small restaurant was also there. I was working part-time there. That day, when I went to the shop before opening… the shop was ablaze. Leaving my senior, who should have been taking a nap after finishing preparations…”
Tears began to overflow in Mina’s eyes.
And yet, deep sadness and… anger.
“You might have forgotten, but I haven’t forgotten. I haven’t forgotten about my senior who was engulfed in flames and died. And… I haven’t forgotten that a person with a tattoo on their neck escaped from the shop where the fire started and ran away. I haven’t forgotten.”
Mina took a step closer to Venus. The hand holding the doll gradually tightened, and Venus suddenly looked pained.
“I saw Hibana-san’s neck tattoo… A snake tattoo. It’s the tattoo I saw back then.”
“A snake… tattoo… there are so many people with those…?”
Venus’s neck was being squeezed. It was because Mina was gripping Venus’s doll.
And then.
“…I couldn’t bring myself to fulfill my wish by killing innocent people. My senior would never want that… But.”
Mina, now shedding large tears, directed her anger at Venus.
“If it’s the person who killed my senior, it’s a different story! And the person who caused it all! Venus-san! You’re from the Snake Tattoo Gang!”
With a bang, a hole opened in Mina’s chest.
…Smoke was rising from the gun that Venus had somehow gotten her hands on.
Mina fell to the ground. Instantly, the grip on Venus’s neck loosened, and Venus coughed violently.
“This is…”
Then, after finishing coughing, Venus muttered in the silence of everyone.
“…Why is it that our fate is decided from the moment we’re born?”
Venus said that expressionlessly, then straightened up…
“Things that are inevitable from the moment you’re born. Do you understand that feeling?”
…She re-aimed the gun she was holding, pointing the muzzle at Tama.
“…What do you think you’re doing?”
It was Yo who stepped forward instead of Tama.
“Can’t you see? I’m going to kill you if necessary. That’s what I intend to do.”
Venus’s hand holding the gun was incredibly smooth. There was no sign of inexperience. Seeing that, Yo’s expression showed tension.
…Just now, Mina had said, “There’s no hesitation.”
That’s right. There was no hesitation in Venus’s movements.
Venus would definitely do it if she thought she would. Even if it meant killing someone.
“…I have a lot of things I want to ask you, considering what Mina-san said earlier.”
“Go ahead. I don’t mind telling you as a souvenir for the afterlife.”
On the other hand, Tama might have been more composed than Yo. While somewhat tense, Tama still calmly looked up at Venus.
“About your relationship with Hibana.”
“Relationship? …He’s my underling. Is that okay?”
“Underling…?”
Baka muttered “underling… underling…” while trying hard to flip through the dictionary in his head (most of the pages were blank!), and Venus let out a slightly exasperated sigh.
“I’m the daughter of a yakuza. Hibana is one of the young members under my father. That’s what it is.”
“A yakuza’s daughter… they actually exist…”
When Baka said that, Venus chuckled.
“That’s right. Compared to when my father was younger, I think they’ve decreased quite a bit. The yakuza themselves are becoming unsustainable. Did you know? Recently, the yakuza can’t even make a living anymore?”
Then… Venus lowered her gaze to the floor.
“That’s why… Hibana has no obligation to follow me to a place like this. He’s really a baka…”
“…Is it true? That Hibana was the one who set the store on fire…”
When Kaito cautiously asked Venus, she shrugged.
“Well… all the members of our group get a snake tattoo on their necks when they reach a certain rank. It’s not just Hibana who has a tattoo.”
It seemed that Mina might have been mistaken. However… it didn’t seem like they were completely unrelated either.
“…Can I present a theory?”
Then, Yo raised his hand and said that.
“Yes. Go ahead.”
Then, Venus allowed it without taking the gun off Tama. …Yo, still tense, spoke clearly.
“The one who killed Tsuchiya-san was, after all, Venus. It’s you.”
“…However, there’s no direct evidence. It’s just that it’s certain you were lying.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The gun.”
When Yo said that, Venus made a face as if she understood something.
“You said that there was one gun missing… but that one is in your hand, isn’t it?”
Venus still had a gun in her hand. The gun was firmly aimed at Tama.
“And then, the dying message. That can be faked easily. …It’s easy to change the Venus symbol to the Mercury symbol.”
…Baka, who didn’t understand, had a bunch of question marks floating above his head, but Kaito, who was watching him, explained from the side.
‘♀’ is the symbol for Venus, but if you add two horns on top of the circle, it becomes the symbol for Mercury. …In other words, Tsuchiya’s dying message could be faked by adding a little bit later.
“That’s right. And?”
“And also… you’re too unhesitating.”
Then, finally, Yo said that, hesitated a little… and then said.
“I can only think that you’ve killed someone before.”
“…That’s right. I certainly don’t have any resistance to that kind of thing.”
Venus said that and smiled.
“I’ve been in killing scenes like a devil’s game… so, firing a single bullet is, well, easy. I’m pretty composed, even for this.”
“…Why? Why did you kill Tsuchiya-san?”
In front of the smiling Venus, Yo, increasingly tense, gently held Tama’s hand. Seeing that, Venus smiled again, amused…
“Why? Isn’t it for my wish, what else?”
“If it’s to twist the fate that was decided from the moment I was born, I’ll even become a devil’s puppet!”
Finally, Venus’s finger was on the trigger.
That was the moment.
Snap.
…An unpleasant sound echoed.
“…Eh?”
At the same time, Venus’s head flew off.
The blood splatter was so vivid that it felt unreal.
Next to Baka, who was just staring blankly, Mina stood up unsteadily.
“…Did you forget? My Unique Ability is healing. Even if I’m shot… once, I can manage…”
But, as Mina said that…
Bang.
…A single gunshot echoed, and another hole appeared in Mina’s chest.
A white marble statue, which had appeared unnoticed, held a gun and had shot through Mina’s chest.