Trauma
Buuuuuuung.
James’s pickup truck lurched to life with visible effort.
“Whoa. James’s car is having a rough day today?”
“Still gets your heart racing, though, doesn’t it?”
At James’s words, Colt let a grin creep across his mouth.
“Yeah. My chest is pounding. Makes me want to swing one around right now.”
“Heh-heh.”
More than the firearms packed into the back of the pickup, it was the sword blades piled high inside the trailer that had both of them burning inside.
After putting some distance between themselves and Sam’s collection, James stopped the truck in a quiet, isolated place.
“Why?”
“Because this thing looks like it’s about to fall apart.”
James got out and moved everything loaded in the trailer into his inventory, then did the same with the items in the pickup bed.
“Done.”
“Nicely don—”
Only after James had finished stowing every last item in his portable inventory and come back did Colt finally remember the question that had been bothering him.
“James. Why’d you buy all the guns in the first place? There was no need to blow cash like that.”
The money James was spending had been taken from the casino vault back then. It was illegal money and couldn’t be used carelessly, but since cash was the only form of payment accepted when buying illegal firearms, it had been usable after all. Even so, being able to spend cash and buying something useless were two different matters.
“Oh. I bought the guns on purpose.”
“...I thought you hated guns?”
A while ago, Colt had tried to take James to a shooting range where he could fire a gun, and James had refused, saying he didn’t even want to touch one.
“There were times like that because of what happened before...”
Only later had Colt learned that James’s parents had died in a shooting accident, and that James himself had been one of the victims. Then he’d finally understood James’s hatred of firearms.
And yet today James had bought an enormous number of them.
“If I bought them all... nobody else would be able to buy illegal guns from Sam’s collection for a while.”
“...You bought them all just so nobody else could?”
“Yeah. It’s money I can’t really use anyway, and even if I do spend it, it barely makes a dent.”
“There isn’t just one illegal gun dealer. I’ve been introduced to four of them alone here in Las Vegas.”
Once the scope widened to the state level, it was impossible to guess how many illegal gun shops existed, and counting the whole United States was so meaningless it barely warranted the effort. Buying up the guns from one shop wasn’t going to reduce crime.
“That’s why I just put them all in my inventory.”
“...What?”
“Let’s go rob the second dealer. You know where it is, right? Hurry up and guide me.”
“...You’re insane.”
“Heh-heh. Think we can clear out all four today?”
“Hey!”
* * *
One day wasn’t enough.
That day, James and Colt managed to raid two more weapon shops, and the next day they finished off the last one. And even then it wasn’t enough for James, who went on to a legitimate weapons store and swept up every knife he could find, the kind that didn’t need separate registration like firearms did.
In the end, he had not only cleaned out every gun from the illegal weapon shops they visited, exactly as he’d intended, but also bought even more swords on top of that.
“You really know how to waste money in a fresh new way, don’t you?”
James had burned through a substantial amount of cash, thanks to the four illegal weapon shops and even the legitimate store where he stole swords as well. To Colt, every cent spent so far felt like nothing but waste.
“I bought a lot of good swords, didn’t I? I’ll be able to choose what I use from now on.”
It was nice that he’d bought the swords he needed for future knight training, but at the same time he’d purchased far too many firearms.
“You bought more guns than swords.”
“For crime prevention. At least around here, nobody’s going to be casually browsing illegal firearms. Thanks to me, serious crime should drop quite a bit for a while.”
“Tch.”
Thanks to this shopping spree, James had filled his inventory with a wide collection of firearms and blades.
“The only ones cheering are the giant companies that manufacture guns. Since you bought out all their models and emptied the stores, those guys are going to start buying weapons again.”
“Then they’ll get caught in the state police’s net. Illegal arms dealers are targets from the start.”
James had been able to buy weapons from illegal dealers without proving his identity or presenting any permits. But if those dealers needed to restock that many models, they’d have to do it through the underground routes, and in the process they were likely to attract police attention.
“...You planned that far ahead?”
“I don’t like moving with only one objective in mind. It’s inefficient.”
The first purpose had been to secure a knight sword for the training ahead. The second had been to buy up all the illegal weapons and at least keep crime down in the surrounding area. And the final purpose was to expose the movements of the dealers whose stock had been drained.
“Still, that’s going to be hard. They’ve been hiding their illegal trade well until now. There’s no way they’d make a mistake.”
“Mistake? I never said they’d be caught by accident.”
James had spoken as though he were nearly certain they’d fall into the surveillance net.
Colt realized James had used magic.
“...So what now?”
As Colt suspected, James admitted readily that he had used magic.
“I put a simple spell on the people we met. Just enough that they’d draw a little attention.”
“......”
“Even if they walk around crowded streets, the police will only end up stopping that one person for a random inspection. It’s a spell called Attention. No matter how careful they are, the police will keep an eye on them, so getting caught is only a matter of time.”
“Fine. If Las Vegas’s illegal arms dealers get caught, crime will definitely go down. But...”
“But?”
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Why us?”
“Won’t they start tracing where all the guns they bought went once they’re arrested? We became their biggest customers.”
Just as Colt said, if they were arrested, it wouldn’t end with them alone. The police would start digging through old records to track the spread of the illegal firearms, and even if those men kept their mouths shut, James and Colt were likely to get dragged in eventually.
“Couldn’t we just leave that to the giant gun companies that run this country?”
“What? You think those guys would protect us?”
“Pfft. I’m joking. Relax, Colt.”
“Is this really the time for jokes? We’re about to get exposed to the police!”
“After they’re caught, there’s nothing to worry about. All the records they had on us have been destroyed anyway. First, I reset the storage on every camera that was installed... and then I burned the ledger too.”
James had used magic while dealing with the illegal arms dealers, and as he left the shops he’d used the same kind of magic he had when he wiped out TY Telecom’s headquarters server in Korea. Even after that, it wasn’t enough for him, so he had burned every precious ledger they’d kept. The reason was simple: when he’d cast the Attention spell on criminals trafficking illegal weapons, hoping they’d get caught, James had reached the same conclusion Colt had.
“...But they recognized us. We’re famous in Las Vegas.”
“Those guys will remember us as Hispanic men from South America.”
“Huh?”
“Memory manipulation is basic stuff.”
Without Colt noticing, James had used a great deal of magic.
“......”
Colt had nothing left to argue against James’s meticulous way of handling things.
“Even if they suspect us, the police won’t find anything. First, let’s look at where the money came from. We’ve never withdrawn a cent from a bank account.”
“...R-right.”
Since they had paid in cash stolen from the inventory, there was no source of funds to trace.
“And where exactly would the police find all those weapons we bought from the shops?”
“...They can’t. The police will never find them. Besides, the knives we bought from the store weren’t even the kind that needed registering in the first place.”
More than anything, the weapons stored inside James’s portable inventory could never be found no matter what anyone did.
“And we never leaked any of the weapons we bought outside, either. We certainly never used them. No evidence means no guilt.”
“Phew...”
Only then did Colt finally let out a breath of relief.
“The flight leaves tomorrow, so pack your things properly. If we go to Korea this time, we won’t be coming back to Las Vegas for a while.”
“I’m counting on you, Jimmy.”
“Colt.”
“But seriously, aren’t you going to use them? All those weapons, just sitting in storage?”
“......”
James had never even fired a gun before.
“The flight’s not until tomorrow afternoon. Why don’t we go to a shooting range and practice before then?”
“A shooting range?”
James had hated firearms because of the accident in his past. So he had never gone to a range, but now, with time passed, that aversion had faded quite a bit.
“...Maybe I should at least take a look?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to learn the basics? If you think of it as a sport, it might even be interesting in its own way.”
Pistol and rifle shooting were Olympic events, and the World Shotgun Championships, where shotguns were used, were held separately as well.
“Then tomorrow morning’s schedule is shooting?”
“So you’ll go?”
“Yeah. I’ll go.”
Having something I don’t know anything about is a little unsettling, I guess.
It was a decision born of a mage’s curiosity. But James’s trauma surrounding guns ran deeper than he’d expected, and the sense that his aversion had faded was nothing more than an illusion.
* * *
Only after two hours of safety training was James allowed to step into the shooting range.
“...You didn’t mention this, Colt.”
Colt didn’t have to go through the instruction because he had already completed it before, so James was the only one stuck with the training.
“It’s mandatory, Jimmy. Firearms are seriously dangerous.”
“They drilled that into my ears during class.”
Afterward, with the help of an employee who supervised or assisted with gun use, James was fitted with a bulletproof vest and led into the firing booth.
“Never point the muzzle anywhere else. When you’re done firing, pull the hammer back and put the safety on. Then set the gun down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Feeling the weight in his hands, James aimed the muzzle at the target. Up to that point, he had still been confident.
Swish.
The gun in James’s hands was a pistol that fit in one hand. Even so, the oppressive weight it carried was considerable.
This is a gun.
“......”
I have to shoot...
If he pulled the trigger, powder would explode in the chamber and the bullet would travel through the spiral grooves cut into the barrel before firing out. But James’s finger rested on the muzzle as he trembled little by little.
I-I can’t pull it...
As James stood there aiming the gun without moving, the employee behind him stepped in.
“If it’s hard, put it down and start again. Everyone’s like this at first.”
“Ah... yes.”
James carefully set the pistol on the table and stepped back.
“Take a break. Come back in a little while.”
“All right. Phew.”
“......”
Colt wasn’t inside the firing booth, but he had stayed close by and was watching James, unable to hide his concern.
“...Jimmy.”
“Ah. Colt.”
“You okay?”
“...I thought I’d forgotten it all, but I guess I hadn’t.”
The gunshots that filled the school... the screams bursting out everywhere... my parents collapsed in the hallway...
The moment James picked up a gun, the memories of that day came back in vivid detail. That was why he couldn’t pull the trigger.
“...It felt like the bullet I fired would hurt someone.”
The photos of the classmates who had died by Andrew’s gun remained placed in front of the school for a long time afterward. James remembered every one of their faces, and especially the image of his parents he had encountered in the hallway. And he remembered Andrew’s face too, smiling viciously while high on drugs.
“No one gets hurt here, Jimmy.”
“I know. I know, but...”
His mind understood, but his body refused to follow.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have suggested this.”
“I’ll rest a little and try again.”
James had steeled himself to overcome his trauma today.
“Jimmy.”
“I’m fin—”
Then a gunshot cracked from another booth beside them.
Bang!