Blight Part 3
Naomasa wakes up. He finds himself laying on the ground covered with ashes and burnt clothes. He struggled standing up as he discovers his newly broken femur leg. He silently whimpers on every sway of his injured leg as he tries to walk.
His vision is still a bit blurry with all the thick smoke and fire all over the street and buildings.
Then a fire truck rushes by Naomasa almost hitting him to help put out the main source of fire a few blocks away from where he is standing.
Cough cough.
Naomasa struggled breathing from the suffocating smoke as he seems to be finding someone.
Across the street, he finds Azaki laying in the ground unconscious and bleeding from his head where a treated wound was re-opened.
Naomasa squats and positioned his finger next to Azaki's nose. He felt slight of air coming out from he's breathing.
He exhales as he seems to be glad that Azaki is still alive. He sits right next to him on the ground and waits for an incoming ambulance.
He raises his wrist and wipes clean his analog watch---its glass frame is broken due to his recent fight against the old man on the building.
He grabs a phone from his pocket and proceeds to make a call for someone.
Ring, ring.
On a pitch black road in the middle of a thick grown forest, a car is parked at the side shrouded by the trees and bushes to cloak its presence.
Looking at it closely, it looks very similar to the black car model Naomasa uses to drive in his work. A thick ramp like metal plate is attach in front of the car.
A phone rings and a name "Tsukauchi" can be seen in the phone's screen calling. Someone picks it up and said,"Tamakawa speaking"
as it was the cat headed officer sitting inside the car.
"Is everything ready?" Naomasa asked.
"The preparations are complete sir. And if your guess is right, it should be here anytime soon" Tamakawa replied.
"Yes, that is the only route I can think of if I were someone who wants to avoid police checkpoints. Though its a long way and you can easily get lost" Naomasa said
Tamakawa then worriedly asked, "Is everything alright in there too?"
Naomasa informed saying that they were tricked and manipulated in to a trap that fataly took most of the allied officers. And a massive explosion occured due to a gas leak.
"This will not look good since you're the one who took responsibility in all of this" Tamakawa replied.
"Let's not worry about that for now. Our main priority is to capture that killer and make it pay for all its crimes" Naomasa assured.
A van then can be seen from a far slowly driving. It is the same vehicle Azaki and his team rode to help Naomasa on the operation.
From the inside, someone is driving wearing leather gauntlets on his hands. The steering wheel is stained with blood dripping on it.
From the outside, its head lights is turned on and it's too bright that it is almost impossible to see the criminal's face who is driving through the glass window.
"It is here and it's slowly approaching" Tamakawa said on the phone to Naomasa.
"Good, now whatever you do, don't ram it too hard that it might end up killing the one driving the car" Naomasa clearly instructed.
"Yes sir" Tamakawa replied. He put his phone on the phone holder but did not hang up the call.
Tamakawa is patiently listening on the other side. An ambulance stops in front of him and give the uncoscious Azaki proper medication.
They carefully put him on a stretcher and transfer him in the ambulance bed. They attach him an IV and put on his oxygen mask.
A first aider talks to Naomasa while he is still on his phone that he needs to go to the hospital as well.
Naomasa declined and said that he'll go later after this call.
The nurse insisted and grabs his shoulder. Its force alone made Naomasa who's sitting on the ground groan from pain due to his broken leg.
Upon discovering it, the nurse was more dedicated to convince Naomasa to go to a hospital. The two of them quarreled for while.
From Tamakawa's phone in the car, Naomasa and the nurse can be heard shouting at each other but Tamakawa is too focused on the incoming car that he didn't notice all the commotion.
The van is getting near and Tamakawa is ready to step on the gas.
...
Tamakawa accelerated the car as the van was close to it.
The van changes direction and also accelerated towards Tamakawa's car.
"What the!" Tamakawa said after the van's surprise.
Bang!
The van clashes with the car. Glasses were shattered and smoke is coming from both vehicle.
A while has passed and Naomasa is still arguing to the nurse about his injury.
"If I hear your voice again, I'm gonna shoot somebody!" Naomasa threatened
The nurse finally leaves him alone.
Naomasa gets back to his ongoing call and said, "Is it over? What does the criminal look like? Hello?" he doesn't seem to have heard the loud crashes that happened a while ago.
In the crash scene, Tamakawa is unconscious as his head is laying on an air bag that cushioned the impact.
Tamakawa wakes up and gets off the car. He is still dizzy and confused to what happened.
On the ground, he finds his phone after hearing Naomasa's worried voice.
Tamakawa tells Naomasa that the van and the car both hit each other.
Tamakawa walks towards the van with a gun in his hands. He opens the door and finds it empty.
After a few days, Tamakawa is recovering in a hospital. He appears to be watching a television broadcast while drinking milk on a plate.
Naomasa enters the room on crutches and a new neck brace.
"Let me guess, you were fired from your job" Tamakawa said.
"What else could it be. After I recover from these injuries I'll be facing criminal charges on court" Naomasa replied.
"Were there any lead on the case?" Tamakawa asked.
"Last time I was checking, there wasn't. That bastard is as slippery as eel" Naomasa said
A news segment took their attention. A news anchor is casting, "The police department has released an initial report of the gas explosion that took 12 innocent lives and 30 wounded individuals that happened three days ago. The report states that a possibility of a live wire causing fire to light up a gas leak near the unmanaged gas preserve. The city mayor and the police cheif has released their public apologies and promised to pay the families that got caught under this massive accident..."
Deep in a forest someone can be seen running away. It seems tired as it struggles to catch its breath.
While it is running, it didn't notice a big foot print on the ground it just walked past. The print seem to be old due to the grasses already growing on its surface.
After a while of running, it decided to stop and rest near the shade of a tree. A small knife seems to be buried in its guts.
Three days ago, the van driver seems too high to notice all the gunshots.
Thud.
He suddenly snaps back to reality after hearing something leaned behind the van.
He nervously walks out holding a pocket knife. He checks behind but no one was there.
Bang!
Someone smashes a rock on his behind head and it started bleeding a little.
He didn't notice the impact but reflexively stabs someone after turning to look from his back.
It drops to the ground as it anguish from the pain of the stab.
The driver rushes to the van and finds a phone to call Azaki and the others.
Ring, ring
He tries calling them but no one is responding.
A hand then goes through the open side window and grabs his head. It bashes it repeatedly in the steering wheel until it appears lifeless.
Back in the woods, it appears to be breathing deeply. Then it stopped its breathing as it removes the knife from its guts. It exhales wildly but it's still suffering from the open wound. It cover it with its hand but the blood won't stop flowing out. It just sits there in silence as it observes to the chirps of birds, the breeze of wind, and a mushroom growing on a dead plant, while it's on the ground bleeding.