"We are the first line of defense against the evil spirits. The reason these people have us ordinary folks living on the outskirts must be something they don't want us to know."
"If they don't give us food today, if they don't give us a satisfactory arrangement, then we'll block them in and protest with our lives."
"I refuse to believe they'd really dare kill all of us!"
Waving the clothes she held aloft, the girl craned her neck, her face flushed red. Like some newly awakened modern youth, she shouted at the people around her.
She wanted to awaken them.
Some people in the crowd began to stir.
They had all taken part in protests to some extent in their previous lives, so they were no strangers to this sort of thing.
A fat man in the crowd raised his right hand. "I—"
Bang!
Another gunshot rang out.
The council member from the clan hall fired again without the slightest hesitation. The girl who had been shouting was shot in the head once more, the bullet striking directly between her brows.
Her vision went dark, and in the final instant before she collapsed, she thought, This isn't right. How could they really dare kill me? Shouldn't they have tried to calm me down first, then negotiate with me while I argued my case?
That was how it always went at all those environmental protests I attended before.
Even when we blocked the middle of the road, those cars could only stop and let us block traffic for hours, sometimes even an entire day. Even the police didn't dare lay a hand on us.
Because she was exceptionally good at speaking and inciting others, many companies had paid them hefty sums to protest against their rivals, smearing their products as