Sinner (2)
Heavy gunfire rang out in ragged bursts, and dust scattered in the air.
Against the backdrop of a bridge vibrating perilously beneath their feet, two soldiers faced each other down.
"...Damn it."
"...!"
In the thick silence that pressed against the lungs, it was Iris who moved first.
She abruptly turned toward the detonator that had fallen to the ground, and her comrade reacted a beat too late.
If she reached for the device now, it would be too late.
Her comrade, quickly reading the situation, hurled herself into Iris's side and tackled her.
"Ghk...!"
"Where do you think you're—!"
Caught completely off guard and struck hard in the flank, Iris staggered, lost her balance, and went down. In that opening, her comrade lunged for the detonator.
But Iris was not about to stand by and watch.
"Hrk...?!
Just before her comrade's hand could reach the device, Iris looped an arm around her neck and went for a rear choke.
The crushing pressure around her throat sent her comrade coughing and toppling backward.
"Just... stay down for a second...!"
"Grrr...!"
Iris tightened her hold on the neck she had trapped in her arm, and her comrade twisted desperately from side to side, trying to break free, but her vision was already blurring.
If this continued, Iris would trigger the detonator and blow the bridge. If that happened, the other comrades currently crossing it would die.
That was something she simply could not accept.
"Aaaagh!"
"...!"
Bang-!
A pistol ripped free from her comrade's thigh holster and spat fire. A bullet slammed into Iris's right knee, and with a soundless scream she loosened her arm.
Now, with pain flooding through her, Iris's focus slipped—that was the last chance.
"Hngh...!"
Her comrade violently shook off Iris's arm and hurled herself toward the detonator.
"Got it...!"
At last, she succeeded in clutching the detonator to her chest.
All that remained was to cut the fuse connected to it and sever the link to the explosives.
Hastily, she drew her dagger and hooked the sharp edge under the inner length of fuse.
Bang-!
And then the next shot sent one of her eyes half-ripping from its socket as she pitched forward in a humiliating collapse.
The bullet that pierced the back of her neck shattered inside her body, splintering into sharp fragments that ripped through the medulla and brain tissue alike.
There was no time to react.
She died on the spot.
With one eye half-hanging out, her tongue slipped from the mouth that had fallen half-open and flopped limply to the ground.
"..."
Iris stared at the scene with a trembling gaze, pistol still in hand, gray smoke spilling from the barrel.
Her comrade twitched briefly where she had sprawled across the ground, then fell still.
I never meant to kill her.
All I wanted was to subdue her.
The problem was that, high on the adrenaline surging through me after being shot in the knee, I had instinctively aimed for the head.
The bullet, slipping cruelly past the protected area covered by her helmet, tore through the target without mercy.
"..."
Even in the face of the ghastly sight before her, Iris said nothing.
She merely walked to her comrade with a deathly pale face, pulled the detonator out from beneath her body, and gave not even a glance to the comrade's eyeball, dangling precariously from the optic nerve bundle.
[We're almost there! Please don't blow it up-]
Thud-
Ignoring the cries of her comrades above the bridge that had been reaching her ears for some time now, Iris shut off the radio.
Blood stained the detonator in her hand.
The Teheran Bridge demolition operation ended in success, temporarily halting Gibro's advance and buying the Solomon forces time to prepare their counterattack.
During the operation, the 10th Infantry Regiment and the 7th Engineer Corps made a noble sacrifice, and after the war they were awarded the Medal of Honor by the Solomon Ministry of Defense.
Noble sacrifice.
A noble sacrifice, huh.
"Bweh...!"
Vomiting stomach acid in front of a row of trees at the park, Iris Michel laughed to herself.
There had been no noble sacrifice there that day.
In that hell where people died more easily than insects, they had been thrown in as bullet shields and torn apart to die more miserably than dogs.
There had only been human beings, powerless before death, screaming that they wanted to live instead of sacrificing themselves to buy time for their comrades.
And she had been the sinner who wiped out those lives.
"Heh-heh-heh..."
Separate from the burning in her throat and the blur of tears clouding her vision, a foolish little laugh leaked from her slack mouth.
How long could she keep running?
How far could she run from the sins she had committed?
Did she even have the right to be happy?
Clutching those unanswerable questions to her chest, Iris stood there for a long time.
Whether it knew her heart or not, the sky above her was a clear, endless blue, white clouds drifting in loose clusters across it.
.
.
.
.
When I finished the stream and went to sleep, by the time I woke up the sun was already sinking past the skyline.
"Akira! You could've woken me up, you know...!"
I looked at Akira with a deeply wounded expression after having my entire day stolen from me, but—
"I-I mean... you were sleeping so soundly..."
"Urgh..."
That was all I got: confirmation that I had been out cold so completely that even calling my name hadn't stirred me.
I really must have been exhausted.
Back then, I could spend a full twenty-four hours on edge and still function just fine, but somehow after coming back to Korea, my condition had gone to hell.
People always said the environment affected your physical state too. Maybe that had something to do with it?
As I idly entertained that ridiculous thought and tried to reboot my still-sleepy head, I suddenly noticed that someone was missing from the house.
"What the hell. Why isn't Iris here? Didn't she go out for exercise this morning?"
At my question, Akira answered as if it were nothing.
"I asked her earlier, and she said she'd go get some groceries from the supermarket nearby."
"When did you ask her?"
"Uh... around five, I guess?"
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Who spends two hours shopping at a neighborhood supermarket?
"It's seven now. She's still out buying groceries? Something happened, didn't it?"
"Hmm... I don't know... I'll call her first."
Maybe she was still holding a grudge or something, because Akira fumbled around unwillingly before taking out her phone and calling Iris.
"...She's not picking up."
"Tch..."
But no matter how long we waited, all we got was the endless ring tone. Iris never answered.
"This isn't good. Something must've happened. I'll go out and look around the neighborhood, so if you get in touch with Iris, call me."
"Huh? You're going out dressed like that?"
"I'll just throw on a jumper and head out."
Akira seemed flustered by the combination of my worn-out tank top and shorts, but I didn't really care.
One of my comrades had gone out for a walk in the morning and still hadn't come back by nightfall. Did the outfit really matter?
I immediately grabbed a black athletic jumper from my room and headed straight for the front door.
"Call me if you get in touch with Iris!"
"O-Okay! Be careful!"
With Akira seeing me off, I stepped out the front door and found the world already washed in the bluish light of evening.
"Sigh..."
I came out in a hurry, but where was I supposed to start looking for Iris?
She'd said she was going to the supermarket, so should I start there?
Or should I check around the house first?
It had been hours since she said she'd stop by the store anyway, so by now she would've moved somewhere else.
Maybe she was somewhere nearby?
"Ah, damn it, I don't know. I'll just start around the house."
My brain had basically stalled for a moment, so I shook my head hard to toss out the confusion and decided to move first.
If I ran around the neighborhood long enough, we'd run into each other eventually.
It would be a pain, sure, but as the saying went, if the road leads to Seoul, who cares how you get there?
.
.
.
.
Finding Iris turned out to be a real ordeal.
Not only the alleys near the house, but even around the supermarket, there was no sign of her no matter how hard I looked.
I pulled the neighborhood layout from memory and checked every place she might have gone in turn—PC cafés, coffee shops, restaurants—but I couldn't find her anywhere.
By the time I'd been running around for ages, the sky had gone completely dark and the streetlamps had come on.
Zzzt-
Just as I was starting to run out of breath and my legs were beginning to ache, my phone vibrated to announce an incoming call.
The caller was none other than Akira.
"Akira, any news on Iris?"
I just got in touch with her, but something seems off with her. She sounds drunk.
Drunk? What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"Where is she?"
Uh, she says she's at a playground. She won't tell me which one, though.
"A playground?"
The only playground nearby would be the small one set up in the neighborhood park for little kids.
"Okay. I think I know the place. I'll head there and call you back."
Got it. Don't push yourself too hard. If anything happens, I'll come out and help look too.
After mapping out the shortest route to the park playground in my head, I hung up and broke into a run.
I'd already gotten burned so many times that, even while sprinting, I honestly kept wondering whether this was really the right playground.
"...! Iris!"
But it was only a needless worry; the moment I reached the park entrance, a head of white hair sitting on a bench came into view.
I rushed over to Iris, only to be met with a sight so utterly wrecked it stole my words away.
"Hehe... it's the Leader..."
"What the—"
Just how much had she drunk? Her face was flushed red, and the two crimson eyes fixed on me were blurred and unfocused.
Maybe the alcohol had heated her up, because the athletic wear she had on was half-undone and carelessly pulled open, exposing pale skin and a suggestive line of cleavage, while empty beer cans lay scattered across the ground.
This was already bad enough on its own, but apparently that still wasn't enough for her, because Iris kept grinning and wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing herself against me.
"Leader... Leader..."
"Hey, hey! Pull yourself together!"
I tried to communicate with her while patting the top of her head as she rubbed her face against my stomach and mumbled, but she seemed to be completely plastered, because she didn't respond at all.
Still, since something kept thumping against her head, she must've noticed at least a little. Slowly, she lifted her gaze and met my eyes.
She stared blankly at me for a moment, then murmured dazedly, "Leader..."
"Yeah, yeah. It's me. What on earth are you doing here getting drunk?"
Her stupidly dazed expression made my temple throb, and I let out a sigh.
That was when it happened.
Clench-
"...Whoa?!"
The arm Iris had casually looped around my waist suddenly yanked me toward her.
I, who had been relaxed and letting my guard down, lost my balance and lurched forward, and what Iris did next to me was—
Smack-
"Huh?"
"Heehee..."
...kiss me.