A few minutes earlier.
At the pier, among the stacked Shipping Containers.
Akai Shuichi followed the taxi ahead all the way to this Port.
Seeing the road ahead growing narrower and narrower, he did not continue following it. After determining where the taxi was headed, he parked his car in an alley.
He got out, silently closed the door, and began circling toward the target point while watching his surroundings.
If I remember correctly, I've seen that hooded child before. Back when he and Uzo had faced each other from afar across the Twin Towers, Uzo... or rather, that curly-haired one suspected of being Uzo, seemed to have been holding a girl just like her.
Akai Shuichi had thought about that scene for a long time afterward, yet still could not understand its purpose. In the end, he could only force himself to guess: some bosses liked to hold a cat or a dog when they made an appearance. Uzo had simply upgraded the idea and held a child far larger than any cat or dog?
...In any case, the appearance of that little girl definitely signified something unusual—perhaps even something related to Uzo. So Akai Shuichi followed her, intending to find out what exactly was going on here.
As he circled around, his ears suddenly twitched at the sound of a gunshot.
Akai Shuichi raised his head, his gaze slowly traveling upward until it locked onto a spot.
On top of a shipping container by the sea in the dead of night.
A figure lay there holding his breath, peering through a Sniper Scope at the three people below. Cold sweat silently seeped into his palm.
He lowered his head and looked at his hand, desperately wanting to take out a handkerchief and wipe it. But moving that