Professor Hunt (2)
The elevator had barely arrived at the third floor of the Academy's Humanities Building when the shootout between us and the Russo Family began.
"Boss!"
"Move, now."
Giovanni shouted in a urgent voice as I quickly stepped out of the elevator. It was clearly a warning that it was dangerous. But holing up inside the elevator wouldn't solve anything. If we were going to have a gunfight in the Academy, the only option was to end it as quickly as possible.
It wasn't as if there were no places to take cover in the third-floor hallway. We could duck into the classrooms to hide, or press ourselves tight against the long rows of lockers lining the corridor. The problem was—
"Wolves!"
"The Fellini bastards are here!"
Most of the Russo Family's made men were vampires. Vampires were one of the races that were notoriously difficult to deal with, rivaling even golems in toughness. They could manipulate the blood in their bodies to prevent it from spilling out even after taking gunshot wounds. It might not seem like much, but it was a technique that had dramatically improved the average lifespan in the underworld.
"Giovanni! Match my fire!"
"Yes!"
My choice to counter such vampires was something akin to a traditional American martial art.
Gunfighting.
I immediately drew my silver-gleaming single-action revolver and aimed it at them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots fired in an instant. The vampire at the very front took all three rounds and collapsed. Giovanni didn't miss the opening and put a bullet through the bastard's head. The pattern was simple: I would disable enemies with my revolver's fanning, and Giovanni would deliver the kill shots. Naturally, the reverse was possible too. For Wolves like Giovanni and me in the Fellini Family, this level of marksmanship was basic.
BANG—!
Of course, I had no intention of relying solely on fanning. A revolver is a gun that requires loading each round manually, after all. On top of that, fanning involved holding the trigger down with one hand while repeatedly cocking and releasing the hammer with the other. A single-action revolver wouldn't drop the hammer just by pulling the trigger, making it essentially a manual repeater.
The issue was the revolver's extremely heavy trigger pull. No matter how much you practiced, the strain on your fingers was unavoidable. Still, repeating the process smoothly created the rare spectacle of unleashing multiple rounds in the blink of an eye.
"Enemy!"
And the psychological shock it inflicted on the enemies who witnessed it was a bonus.
While Giovanni and I moved through the hallway using the lockers and classroom doorways for cover, the other Wolves weren't idle either. Several of them had taken the elevator back down. In the meantime, Russo Family made men began emerging from all over the third floor.
"...."
Judging by their numbers, it looked like at least one caporegime had brought every last one of his subordinates.
"...Hiiik!"
"Get back inside!"
Giovanni shoved a professor—who had reflexively jumped out at the sudden sound of gunfire—back into his office. From the surrounding noise, it seemed there were classrooms with Academy students still inside as well.
Ding-dong—!
'Sorry about this.'
With a loud chime, Wolves poured out of the elevators at both ends of the third-floor hallway. And they were all carrying submachine guns. We'd told them not to use firearms before entering the Humanities Building, so there hadn't been any need to bring the SMGs. But the situation had changed. The Wolves who had gone down earlier had returned with the weapons at remarkable speed.
And there was one more thing.
"Uwaaack!"
Goleman Family members appeared from the central staircase. One of them—an alligator beastman—had already sunk his teeth deep into a Russo Family member's shoulder.
Giovanni and I signaled the newly arrived Wolves from the elevators. With our permission granted, they opened fire on the enemies in the hallway without the slightest hesitation. The overwhelming rate of fire from multiple submachine guns created a bullet storm straight out of a movie scene.
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Yeah, of course you wouldn't stay quiet.
The smoke pouring from the submachine gun muzzles momentarily formed letters in the air. The western and eastern corridors, split by the staircase, were suppressed in an instant.
"...."
Giovanni signaled the Wolves to confirm the kills.
Bang—!
I, too, put bullets into the heads of any vampires we passed as I headed toward our target—Professor Botari's office.
The third-floor hallway was now completely under the control of Wolves armed with submachine guns and Goleman Family members. And yet, two people still dared to show themselves.
"Wait!"
The moment the Wolves swung their gun barrels toward the pair, the vampire standing beside the elderly professor shouted desperately.
"Giovanni, that guy... I'm sure..."
"Yes, he's one of the Russo Family's caporegimes."
According to Giovanni, his name was something like Deolo. I didn't remember the exact name, though.
"Little Wolf! What the hell is this?!"
The bastard seemed to be feeling a complicated mix of emotions about the current situation. Shock, rage, and fear all at once.
"What do you mean?"
I answered while stepping forward with Giovanni toward him and Botari.
"You killed our Family's made men! This is a declaration of war against us!"
Giovanni and I couldn't help but laugh at the bastard's pathetic logic.
'How dare you throw that kind of logic at us?'
If he wasn't just acting, then either the Russo Family had nothing to do with my father's death, or they were involved but this guy was so low in the ranks that he didn't know about it.
"The Godfather is dead! What the hell does that matter?!"
Giovanni said exactly what I was thinking.
"What?! You stupid bastards. Your Family's misfortune didn't come from us."
"Enough."
"...."
The Russo Family Caporegime and Botari fell silent at my words. The hallway was filled with Wolves, after all. If the Russo Family had no more hidden forces on the third floor, then this fight was my... no, our victory.
"Hey. Your name was Deolo, right?"
"...."
He didn't react, so I must have gotten it right.
"There's something you five Families keep forgetting."
"...And what's that?"
"The owner of this Academy is me."
The nonsense about students being the true owners of the Academy, or the realistic point that it technically belonged to the chairman—none of that applied to me.
Bang—!
The moment I finished speaking, I put a bullet from my revolver through Deolo's head. Right after, Giovanni fanned four rapid shots into the same target. There was no need for the submachine guns.
Meanwhile, Botari—who had been standing right beside Deolo—was instantly drenched in his blood.
"Botari!"
"Kuh...."
The old professor turned his right hand behind his back at Giovanni's shout. I had no idea what he intended, but there was no way I would miss even the smallest movement. In this underworld, even the tiniest action could lead to something unexpected.
By now, Goleman Family members had approached Botari's side. Of course, Giovanni and I moved past them and stood directly in front of the professor.
Clack.
Botari dropped the gun he'd pulled from his coat onto the floor. It was a gesture to prove he had no intention of fighting.
"What's this? Have you given up on defying us?"
"...Yes. I've lost."
Whatever future awaited him, Botari suddenly walked up to me and dropped to his knees. For an old professor to cast aside his pride like this was incredibly humiliating. But from the moment he had turned against us, he was already a dead man. How could someone who had died once come back to life? If even my father couldn't accomplish such a feat, there was no chance for Botari.
"...."
But then Botari suddenly stood up. I had never given him permission to do so. Without warning from either me or Giovanni, he rose and thrust a dagger toward me with his right hand. The traitor's blade had almost reached my left eye.
THUD!
Before it could, I slammed my fist into Botari's jaw, completely destroying his balance. It was the same strike I'd once used on Elena.
"Not yet!"
Botari refused to give up. Even as he fell off balance, he drew another hidden pistol with his other hand. I'd considered taking him alive to extract information. I thought I might be able to learn more about his connection to the Russo Family. But with him acting like this, our options had narrowed to one.
Giovanni and I almost simultaneously leveled our guns at him. More than ten bullets poured into the old professor in an instant. Moving the hammers up and down in rapid succession, Giovanni and I turned Botari into nothing more than a corpse.
"Giovanni, let's withdraw."
"Yes."
Giovanni signaled the Wolves to retreat. As the Wolves quickly pulled back, the Goleman Family members—clearly not idiots—began exiting through the stairs as well.
"Boss, shouldn't we check the professor's office?"
"We can leave that to the other professors. Getting out comes first."
We boarded the elevator and headed straight down to the first floor. It stopped at the second floor midway, but there wasn't a single student brave enough to get on after seeing our bloodstained appearance.
"Let's go."
Although we'd wiped out Botari and the Russo Family forces, we withdrew for now. After leaving the Humanities Building, we escaped the Academy through the dormitory wing. We planned to use the administrators, professors, staff, and students to create an alibi for this incident and force them to give false testimony.
And the execution of that plan would fall to the Fellini Family's new Consigliere, Anthony Salmo. Salmo was already busy handling one legal issue. The Fellini Family members who had been stationed at the Academy—Elena’s subordinates, in simple terms—were currently under arrest. That had been Botari’s doing as well. But now that Botari was dealt with, if Salmo greased the right palms with the police...
It wouldn't be difficult for Elena's men to regain their freedom.
"...Seriously. When is Luke coming back?"
"Elena, don't get your hopes up too much."
"Shut up."
The real problem was the two wives waiting for my return.