Chapter prologue
Today as well he tried to play a troublesome farce within the Wild Bunch company in a certain place in Ikebukuro
Taking the call from his superior, Wilson headed straight to the president's office . Knocking on the door and looking inside his superior was relaxed elegantly in the spacious room . There was a plump man wearing a dark blue shirt with a dark brown culotte – his name was John Wayne . Naturally it was not his real name .
The president of this Wild Bunch company, John, was leaning back against the black leather sofa just enjoying a movie on the big screen TV . It was one of his favorites – a famous macaroni western . Right about now a scene where the debt collector man and the villain boss face off and glare at each other was playing . It had the mood of an explosive situation .
It was the climax of the film . Thinking he should not interrupt, Wilson did not greet him and decided to watch over for awhile .
The gun fight ended in a moment . The main character who pulled out his gun from the holster at a speed the eye could not even catch pulled the trigger the same time he took his stance . His opponent was just about to reach towards his hip . A hole opened in the villain's body, and he gave an ugly groan . The conclusion had been decided . It was the main character's win .
Around the point the characters THE END floated up on screen,
"President John . "
Wilson called out to his superior .
"You called for me?"
Once he asked for his business, John reached towards the remote and turned off the power for the TV . Then without turning towards him, he said .
"I want a dual . "
Him proposing such wild statements out of nowhere was a bad habit for a western mania such as he, but for Wilson, who had been a long time acquaintance of his, had already grown used to it . Incidentally, last month he proclaimed, ‘I want to ride a horse,’ so they ended up going to a regional horse riding club as a company trip . John had straddled the great grey male horse and shouted "'Morning, Silver!" with great enthusiasm and hit the whip against the horse's behind . They ran around inside the course of the horse riding club, but he was thrown off in the middle of it and hurt his back .
Not caring he literally suffered an experience, the man came up with another strange thing without learning from his past experiences .
"……A dual, you say?"
Wilson ruminated on his superior's words and frowned .
"That's right, a dual . " President John turned around and said while stroking his beard . "I want to shoot people . "
Wilson made an unintelligent sound at the radical request .
"Is there anyone left?" John inquired .
While recalling who was within the prison on the floor underground Wilson answered . "Right now there is the man from the Awakusu group we caught the day before . "
"Ah, the guy requested from the Airan group . Well then, how about we use him and have a dual . " John said, pleased . He appeared to be in a good mood . "We need witnesses too right . Gather all the employees . "
He could not go against his superior's orders .
"Understood . I will make the preparations right away . "
Bowing his head, Wilson left the room .
There was something called a dual crime .
It was reported of middle schoolers getting caught under a dual crime on television before, but the act of a dual was strictly prohibited by law and one would imposed from two to five years in prison . According to the law Act Relating to Dual enacted in the twenty-second year of the Meiji era it is a crime to make a challenge, accept, carry out, or be present at a dual .
In short, president John looking for a dual, Wilson preparing the dual, and the employees of the company that will witness it would violate the law .
– Although the law had nothing to do with anything in the first place .
We the Wild Bunch Company are an outlaw, rowdy group . Our main job is to kill people . It is a company undertaking murder that was started up by the slightly insane president .
• •
To grant John's ridiculous request of wanting to remake the western dual, Wilson made preparations as he was told to do .
The man from the Awakusu group who was originally planned to be killed was taken out of the jail and brought to the "multi-purpose room" underground .
Multi-purpose- even if it could be called that, it was a room being utilized for killing or torture . In that one room, covered with soundproofing and sound absorption material on the walls, the subordinates playing the role of witnesses were already on stand-by . The twenty sum men were lined up in a row as though to surround president John . It was predestined for the people in this company to follow John's suggestions like this .
The president John wore a black, ten-gallon hat and a gun belt on his hip . A common revolver in western films was hung in his holster .
"I have brought him," Wilson stated .
"Alright . "
Nodding, John pointed a few meters ahead of him .
"Have him stand there . "
Once he stationed the unarmed man in the designated spot, Wilson slipped into the crowd of witnesses . He would watch the end of the event from a distance .
There were two requirements for a dual . One was a gun . John faced the man and tossed him a spare gun . The revolver glided across the floor and came to a halt in front of the man .
The other was a signal . There were various signals for a dual like when the hand of a clock reaches twelve o'clock or they turn their backs on each other and take three steps, but John chose music .
He took out his golden pocket watch,
"Once this music box tune ends pick up your gun and shoot me . "
and ordered this to the man .
The man from the Awakusu group frowned at John's words .
It can't be helped . It's a farce, Wilson thought . Although he said it was a dual, it was only a dual president John would win under 100% conditions . The opponent was at an overwhelmingly disadvantage .
Just as the music box was about to start playing,
"……We don't have much of the atmosphere . "
John whispered, displeased . He appeared troubled over something .
Even though he said that, he did what he could . He gave him a gun, a dual partner, and witnesses . It was exactly like the climax scene in the western film . What more could he wish for than this? Wilson was fed up with it in his heart .
And then John glanced over at his surrounding subordinates,
"You and you, and then you over there . "
Je pointed to the three men and ordered .
"Roll over . "
"""……Wha?"""
The appointed subordinates' voices overlapped . They stared hard at the president's face with mouths wide open . The Awakusu group man also stared blankly uncomprehending .
"I said to drop down and roll . "
John repeated raising his voice .
One of the assigned men asked nervously . "U-um, president……What do you mean……?"
"A western film has a tumbling weeds . Drop and roll around between me and him . "
No matter how absurd the request was they could only follow it . If they displeased this man, then they would just be next to play the role as a dual partner .
The three subordinates did as they were told . They placde both hands on the ground and cut in between the president and the man of the Awakusu group while trying their best at somersaulting .
John nodded, pleased to see that, and opened the lid to the music box . A lighthearted music like that of some background music from an amusement theme park started playing .
Wilson felt like holding his head at the scene in front of him .
– It's an awful farce .
It was an evident match of who would win and lose .
The bottomless light melody of the music box playing in the quite space .
The men rolling right to left in a ball .
Let it end already, Wilson gave a small sigh .
As though his wish was answered the melody of the music box came to a stop . The man from the Awakusu group made his move . He made a dive for the floor in an attempt to pick up the gun .
However in that moment John pulled out the gun and pulled the trigger .
There was one gun shot .
And then he heard a shout . The man in the dual took the bullet, not having the time to take up the revolver, and collapsed .
– It's John's victory .
There were the cheers and applause from his subordinates who witnessed this . John's expression as he placed the gun back in its holster was extremely proud .
"Have you been satisfied?" Wilson asked his superior being showered in praise from his subordinates .
"Yeah," John nodded and glanced over at his subordinates . "Thank you everyone for your cooperation . It's over . Go back to work now . "
Seemingly having been satisfied, president John returned to his private room in high spirits .
Watching his annoying superior's back, Wilson ordered the three men acting as tumbling weeds to clean the room and picked up the fallen man's body .
Illustration provided by Soutenkyuu on Tumblr .
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