Chapter 5: Old Friend

Night.

The moon was dark, the wind high; clouds crowded the sky, and stars were few.

A figure stood on the roof ridge of St. Mark's Basilica.

His name was Tian Yi.

Even Tian Yi could not help being astonished by the sight before him.

The spires, crosses, and statues on the church roof, along with the outer walls, balconies, and even St. Mark's Square outside, looked as though they had been drenched in a rain of corpses. Severed limbs, internal organs, blood, bones, brains—everything was there except a single intact body.

So human blood really could flow in streams. So this was what it looked like when over a hundred hideously mangled corpses were piled up in such a beautiful place.

An instant later, he opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling.

“That dream again...” Tian Yi yawned, looking thoroughly disgruntled. The light coming through the gap in the curtains promised fine weather, and weather like this only made him more lethargic and depressed.

The dream had troubled Tian Yi for ten years. Though he'd had it no more than ten times in all those years, that was enough to annoy even someone like him.

Who had killed those police officers in Venice ten years ago? Tian Yi very much wanted an answer. He was deeply interested in the killer, but had been unable to trace their movements afterward. Even after he had drawn on every resource in the bookshop, the killer's identity remained shrouded in mystery.

Brutally killing one person was not particularly hard, but brutally killing so many was extremely difficult. Even someone capable of carrying it out would probably be unable to bear the mental strain. Just how insane did the killer have to be to go that far?

Whenever he thought of someone like that existing in the world, Tian Yi wanted to study them. Yet their paths simply refused to cross, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He grabbed the half-full cup of cold coffee left overnight on his bedside table and splashed it in his own face. The cold made him shudder, and he fell off the bed, rolling out of the covers.

He had actually slept in a suit jacket, shirt, and trousers. Once up, he wiped the coffee off his face with a filthy towel that looked like a cleaning rag, and considered his morning wash complete.

He emerged from the cramped living quarters in the back, pulled the door shut behind him, and stepped with practiced ease over the books piled on the floor. He turned the sign at the shop entrance from 'close' to 'open,' switched on the heating, and settled behind the desk. Another day's business had begun.

It was noon on December 12.

Before Tian Yi's first pot of coffee had come to a boil, a customer arrived.

“You again, you bastard.” The words slipped out of Tian Yi's mouth the moment the man pushed open the door.

The newcomer seemed unbothered by Tian Yi's hostile greeting. “Did you know I was stranded a while back?”

“Compared with whatever disaster befell your IQ, I'm sure it was nothing.”

The man continued to ignore Tian Yi's mockery, whether because he did not understand or simply did not care. “You know, though, getting stranded turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I found something good in the South American jungle...”

He carried on talking to himself. Tian Yi stopped listening, took a sheet of paper from a drawer, quickly wrote a few words on it, and folded it twice into a triangular tent before setting it on the desk.

The outward-facing side read, “No Gunsmith or dogs allowed.”

Gunsmith glanced at the paper. “Hey, I just dropped by to see an old friend. You don't have to go that far.”

Tian Yi gave Gunsmith a very serious look. “Dropped by? How did you find this place?”

Gunsmith replied woodenly, “Well... I was walking along, and somehow I ended up outside your bookshop.”

“Where were you stranded?”

“Um... South America.”

“Those two words cover eight million square kilometers. Could you be more specific?”

“Uh... that's all I know.”

“Where are you now?”

“Um... somewhere in Asia... right?” Gunsmith looked rather uncertain.

Tian Yi said, “Do you know you're in Hokkaido?”

At this prompt, Gunsmith said, “Oh, right, right, right. Hokkaido, of course. That city near Iceland, near the Arctic Circle.”

Tian Yi's mouth hung half open. He simply could not tear his eyes away from Gunsmith's face. “Do you know which way north is?”

“Um...” Gunsmith raised a hand, hesitated for a few seconds, then pointed at the ceiling. “That way?”

Tian Yi's face slammed down onto the desk. “I don't want to see you anymore.”

“All right, all right,” Gunsmith said helplessly. “When I built your relocation device, I left... um... something like a backdoor in the system. All I have to do is make a tracker, and I can find your bookshop.”

Tian Yi still did not lift his head. “And then?”

Gunsmith replied, “It's simple. Once I'd made the tracker, I worked out the location from the coordinates it displayed and marked your position on a world map. I found a taxi driver, showed him the map, and he took me to the airport. Then I showed the map to the lady at the ticket counter, and she gave me a ticket. After a few dozen hours on planes, I left the airport and found another taxi driver...”

Tian Yi let out a very, very long sigh, raised his head, and sat up straight. “What do you want?”

“I need somewhere cut off from the world to study the new raw material I found in South America,” Gunsmith answered.

Tian Yi tilted his head and looked at Gunsmith across the desk. “Where is it?”

“Oh, in my trouser pocket.”

“You really are carrying it around with you.”

“Yep.”

“What about your luggage?”

“What would I need that for? I made myself an untraceable credit card. Using it leaves no record of my real identity, and the balance is always one hundred thousand.”

“Oh.” Tian Yi nodded. “Then why don't you take that card, go outside, find a taxi driver, and have him take you to the airport? Find another kind lady to give you a ticket to Iceland. When you get there, leave the airport and ask for directions. Once you see the sea, rent a boat and sail across to Greenland. Buy a sled and a few sled dogs from the locals, crack your whip, and drive the dogs into the Arctic Circle. Build an igloo and do whatever you like.”

Gunsmith seemed to give the suggestion serious thought for a while. “What would I eat there?”

Tian Yi spread his hands. “Ah... who knows? Early Homo sapiens hundreds of thousands of years ago might have chosen to cut a hole in the ice, catch some fish, and cook them to stay alive. In your case, eating shit should be enough.”

Gunsmith flicked his hand, and a strangely shaped pistol slid from his sleeve. Its body appeared to be made of white bone, and it looked imposing in his grip.

“Enough jokes. Are you going to help me or not?”

Tian Yi propped his chin on one hand, looking utterly unconcerned, and said listlessly, “Oh dear. Help. This is so serious. As serious as the Mafia sending me a fish.”

Gunsmith slowly swung the muzzle aside until it pointed at the pot of coffee boiling nearby.

Cold sweat promptly broke out on Tian Yi's forehead, and his eyes suddenly came alive. “Shoot that coffeepot and I'll chop you up and feed you to the pigs.”

“Well... to tell you the truth, I've analyzed the accident that stranded me in the jungle, and it definitely wasn't an accident. Someone caused it. There are only two possibilities. Either the Empire wants to get rid of its less-than-obedient ‘weapons adviser,’ or those bastards in Europe's ‘Steel Commandment’ did it. Neither side is easy to cross. I'm only Normal rank, after all. If they're after me, I'll have to keep running. I can't possibly stay anywhere for very long, so you're the only one who can help me hide now.”

Tian Yi gave another long sigh. “How long are you planning to hide?”

“Hard to say...” Gunsmith said. “Probably just a few months. But once I turn this new raw material into a gun, I'll be at least Strong rank. Then I'll be able to do as I please anywhere on Earth.”

Tian Yi snapped his fingers, and a black bookmark appeared between two of them. “Second row of bookshelves on your right. The book at the very bottom left.”

Gunsmith took the bookmark. “Heh heh. Thanks.”

Tian Yi added two words in a tone of utter disgust. “Tracking device.”

“Got it,” Gunsmith said. “I'll remove it for you when I come out.”

He scampered happily over to the shelves and crouched down. Behind him, Tian Yi let out another drawn-out yell. “Goddammit! That's your left!”