Assassins, Detectives, and the Mafia

Gunshots and Choices

Kaede has never before felt fear this acutely.

Sure, she's been afraid quite a few times. She is human, after all.

This, though... this is far beyond what she ever expected.

Shuichi's kneeling on the floor, a gun muzzle pressed to his head.

In the background, under their hydraulic press, blood drips lazily from a pink shirt sleeve that once was white.

Maki's lying against the wall, bleeding out on the floor from Pekoyama's blade.

It's Sophie's choice all over again: that cliche idea that seems so much easier in theory than in practice.

Now, she doesn't want to choose.

But if Pekoyama pushes that blade in any deeper, or if Kuzuryuu pulls that trigger... they're both going to die.

And that scares her far more than anything happening to her.

"Choose me."

"No!" Maki shrieks before Pekoyama clamps a hand over her mouth.

"Really." Kuzuryuu shifts the barrel of his gun just slightly, pointing into Shuichi's eye. "Well, sure."

He angles the gun towards her, and before she can move, he pulls the trigger.

Time seems to slow down as the bullet flies towards her. The faces of the dead flash before her eyes - Rantaro Amami, Kokichi Ouma, and all her other friends who were butchered in this raid.

"I'm sorry," she whispers as the bullet curves on its path towards her heart. "I'm so sorry..."

Her eyes find a last gleam of light - her wedding ring, that last memento from the happiest day of her dark and sad life.

"Goodbye... Maki."

The bullet hits her heart in an explosion of pink blood, and Kaede Akamatsu feels no more.