Another prickle came again. This time, it hit my chest. The pressure. The chill. Thatthird eyesensation that made my skin tighten across my ribs.
Another watcher. Not in the East or West, but right in fucking front of me.
I didn’t have time to think.
Just felt and heard the click—metal on metal—somewhere in front of me.
I screamed, “Drop!”
The word tore out of me before I even heard myself.
Me and the twins hit the ground at the same time, trained instinct snapping our bodies flat against the moss.
The bullet kissed my skin—just a whisper—but it sliced a line across my cheek. Hot. Immediate. I didn’t flinch. Couldn’t. I was already calculating distance, trajectory, wind.
A warm line of blood bloomed across my face.
I didn’t stop to wipe it.
Now I knew where the third bastard was.
“Straight ahead.” I jumped up and launched forward—low, fast, blood trailing my jaw. I raced that way and spotted the piece of shit.
His shadow bolted—zigzagging through stalks like he thought the bamboo would shield him.
Adrenaline spiked.
My legs took over.
Leaves slapped my arms as I shot through the thicket.
The twins moved with me—flanking like mirrored ghosts. I didn’t need to signal. Yuki dipped low, Aki veered high. They split angles like we’d choreographed this in another life.
We zipped past corpses—open jaws, empty eyes, slit throats still steaming.
Up ahead, bamboo cracked. He must have hit his arm or knee on a trunk.
A breath came next, and then a grunt.
My own pulse pounded thick in my ears. War drums pumping out a rhythm of rising violence.
I pivoted without hesitation, lifting my guns and shot in his direction.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The three shots echoed through the trees. The flashes lit up the forest in staccato bursts—brief snapshots of chaos.
Up ahead, the shadow ducked, but rushed on.
The bastard was fast.
But I was faster.
The bamboo hissed in protest as he tore through it.
