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Top of the Twelfth Inning Lin figured out where Banba would go from Enokida’s hint. He called Shigematsu to get the address of where the incident took place thirteen years ago and promptly headed over there. He got a taxi nearby and told them the destination. The driver floored it when Lin emphasized that he was in a rush.
The place Banba use to live at was at an old apartment building which seemed to be devoid of any residents now. Shigematsu had told him Banba lived in a room in a corner on the first floor. When they arrived, Lin left a thousand yen bill and told the driver to keep the change before quickly rushing out of the taxi.
There was a car in the parking space in front of the apartment building. The car’s headlights were on, illuminating the area. Lin saw two men beside it. The men were in a scuffle amidst the downpouring rain. One of them was Banba. That meant the other had to be Eitarou Bessho. Bessho was on top of Banba and had his hands clasped around his throat.
Lin’s body already moved before the thought crossed his mind. He got in Bessho’s blindspot and kicked him hard, his heel bashing against the man’s temple. Defenseless, Bessho was blown back, collapsing onto the ground.
That was close, Lin sighed. If he had not shown up a minute sooner, Banba would have died. He was glad he made it on time.
Banba slowly rose up, coughing.
“What the hell were you doing? You idiot Ban,” Lin spat.
Banba stared at him wordlessly, completely dumbfounded.
Lin turned his attention towards the other man. Bessho seemed injured. He had multiple cuts on his arms, and blood was seeping through his clothes. The injuries he had were from torture. He even had bruises forming on his face. He must have mustered up the last bits of strength he had left to overpower Banba.
“Don’t get done in by a small fry like him,” Lin sighed exaggeratedly, eyeing Bessho’s back.
There was rope on the ground next to the car. Bessho must have removed them. Lin picked it up and approached the fallen man. As he tied his arms tightly to make sure he could not escape again, Lin whispered into Bessho’s ears.
“I have Kouki Bessho.”
He lied. He actually set him free. However, Bessho seemed convinced. His complexion changed as soon as he heard the name. “...What did you do to my brother?”
“Nothing yet. That depends on you. You know what will happen if you try anything funny, right?”
Bessho scowled. “My brother has nothing to do with this.”
“Yeah, I suppose so. I’ll let him go once everything has been taken care of.” Lin whispered softly so Banba could not hear, “But if you try to hurt him like you did just now again, I’ll do the same to your little brother...You got it?”
Bessho consented to Lin’s threat. He gave up resisting and let Lin do as he wished, tying his hands behind his back.
Less than a moment later-
“Lin,” Banba finally spoke up. He asked in a solemn voice, “what are ya doin’ here?”
Banba was practically glaring at him. He seemed apprehensive. He was probably convinced Lin would force him back to the hospital.
His tone of voice when he asked that question gave him mixed feelings.
“That’s not the way to talk to me after I saved your life.” Lin snorted before adding, “relax. I didn’t come here to get in your way.”
Banba’s eyebrows furrowed deeply, seemingly wanting to ask for an elaboration.
Lin did not come to get in Banba’s way. In fact, it was the opposite. He came to help Banba. Banba needed his help to achieve his revenge.
“Give me your phone.” Lin held out his hand towards Banba.
“...My phone?”
“Shigematsu and his guys know where you are from your cell phone. They’ll be here soon.”
As long as Banba had it on him, he would get caught and brought back to the hospital. But if Lin took the device and walked around with it, he would be able to trick them or even derail Shigematsu away from Banba.
“I’ll give you time.”
Banba’s eyes widened in shock. “...What?”
“But I have one condition.” Lin pointed to Bessho and stated, “bring me his body.”
“Fine by me...but why?” Banba cocked his head.
Lin had made a promise with Kouki Bessho. He was unsure himself why he did it either. Lin smiled and answered ambiguously, “I guess so he doesn’t lose face as a fellow hitman.”
Lin took Banba’s cell phone and put it in his pocket.
“I’ll lend you this. There are three bullets in it.” Lin handed Banba his beloved knife-pistol in return. “It’ll be too difficult for you to swing your Japanese sword with your injuries otherwise, right?”
Banba accepted it earnestly.
This was all Lin could do for him.
“Do whatever you need to until you have your fill,” Lin told him before turning on his heel. “Once you’re finished, go back to the hospital.”
Just as Lin turned his back to him, Banba stopped him, “Lin-chan.”
When Lin turned to face him, Banba’s frown greeted him. “Why?...Is this alright with you…?” He still seemed to doubt Lin’s actions, presuming Lin came to drag him back.
Come on. Is he seriously asking me that?
Naturally, Shigematsu was going to give him an earful. Lin fully anticipated it but had decided to help Banba no matter the consequence.
“I can’t help it,” Lin stated as he turned away from Banba once more. “...Hakatans like to butt in things.”
Bottom of the Twelfth Inning Lin confiscated Banba’s cell phone to throw off Shigematsu’s search for him. Thanks to this, Banba had ample time to confront this man. My partner did me a great favor, he thought to himself.
Banba held up the knife pistol. He pointed it at Bessho’s back and ordered, “walk.” Bessho, hands tied behind his back, obediently obliged.
“Make sure to tell that guy afterwards,” Bessho started as they walked. “Please tell him to follow through and let my brother go.”
Banba tilted his head, unsure what he was talking about. He must be referring to Lin. But a brother? Now thinking about it, Banba remembered Lin mentioning that he had Bessho’s younger brother. The guy had apparently been behind some drugging-robberies.
“Two criminal brothers,” Banba laughed and sarcastically said, “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
It made Banba want to see what their parents looked like. Though he supposed they were brought up by good-for-nothing parents.
“...are you one to talk?” Bessho questioned softly and laughed in turn.
Indeed, Banba may not have the right to say that about them. He was a killer and a criminal - a companion in crime.
“I had a good father. ...He was murdered though.”
He opened the door and had Bessho step inside the room. Nothing remained in this apartment where Banba lived thirteen years ago. There was nothing he could get nostalgic about being here. The only feeling he felt was the sense of loss for his family.
Banba made Bessho stand in the middle of the vacant living room. He stood in front of him, weapon still raised.
“You remember it, right?”
Banba pointed to the spot. The tragedy took place here, in this very living room. Banba could still remember the scene from thirteen years ago in pristine detail.
“That night, my dad stood where you are right now. And you used a knife to-”
“What do you want?”
Bessho had cut him off and laughed.
“What do you want to do to me after bringing me all the way here? You want me to remember what happened and get a confession out of me? Do you want me to apologize to you?”
“Shut up,” Banba growled and thrust the gun at Bessho.
“See? That’s fine.” The look in Bessho’s eyes showed he had already given up on living. “I’m going to be killed either way. If the company captures me, brutal torture awaits me. If you want to kill me, do it quickly.”
After a moment’s pause, Bessho looked around their surroundings and said something odd: “...But since you brought me here, I did remember something from a long time ago. So I’ll tell you something interesting instead of an apology.”
“...Somethin’ interestin’?”
Banba frowned.
“The truth behind what happened thirteen years ago.”
The truth. Banba’s heart thumped hard in his chest.
He removed his finger off the knife pistol’s trigger and examined Bessho’s face. It did not look like he was faking it to buy time.
“I have no obligation in keeping it secret anymore. I’ll tell you everything. Even you have to know that what I did wasn’t a robbery, right?”
There was one question that had bother Banba this entire time: why his family? Why did his father have to die? He wanted to know the reason behind it.
“Tell me everythin’ you know,” Banba sternly ordered, readjusting his grip on the knife pistol.
Bessho glared back at him. “In exchange, promise you’ll let my brother live.”
“Done.” Banba nodded. “I promise.”
They came to a compromise. Bessho sighed before slowly beginning to speak. “I worked for Murder Inc. until thirteen years ago. I followed the company’s instructions and killed in earnest. ...But then I found a job that paid even better than the rest.”
Bessho continued his story steadily and calmly, digging through old memories.
“A certain man approached me and told me: ‘if you quit the company and work under me, I’ll pay you triple the amount they do.’ So I naturally jumped for the opportunity, and I became his personal hitman.”
He needed money to pay for his brother’s schooling expenses. Bessho added, refusing to acknowledge his wrongdoings:
“I then started to work under the man. He would never tell me the reason or goal behind anything, just the target. It was a simple job. So I killed whoever he told me to. I don’t remember the exact number, but I believe I killed five or six people.”
Banba remained silent as he listened to the man talk. The only sounds in the room was the harsh downfall of rain and Bessho’s voice.
“Thirteen years ago, I got a job from him as I usually did. He instructed me to go kill a certain family. And the address he gave me for the targets was here.”
And so Bessho broke into the Banba household as he was requested to. He was not after the money. Not even his father. It was his father and himself - the entire family was his target.
Banba was bewildered and was at a complete loss of words upon learning this revelation.
But why?
He did not understand. He was an ordinary high school student. His father and him were an ordinary family. So why would a hitman be sent after them?
“But I never expected someone would interfere.”
Bessho had failed in his mission that night. Masataka had saved Banba from dying by his hands. Masataka’s interference completely threw a wrench in Bessho’s plan.
“They caught me, and I was sent to prison for thirteen years. During that time, I never once got in contact with my client.”
After Bessho was released from prison, he came back to this apartment. Perhaps he was trying to complete the job by killing Banba to get his payment from the man.
“...And this client of yours-” Banba’s heart rate accelerated. He felt sweat on his palms. Banba forced himself to ask the question: “who was he? What was his name?”
“I don’t know.”
Bessho shook his head. He seemed to be telling the truth.
“I’ve only seen his face once. He always reached out to me, and he never would contact me via phone call or text message. Whenever he had a job for me, he put an envelope in the post box at my house. It would have all the details for my target and instructions to burn it once I finished reading it.”
It was thorough secretiveness. If he went that far to make sure there were no traces left behind, then this person had to be extremely precautious.
So Banba could not figure out who was behind it all in the end anyway.
“That can’t be…” He whispered softly, gaze cast downward. He felt his strength dissipate. He could not say anything. He felt helpless.
Over these past thirteen years, he thought something would change if he faced Bessho. He thought he could be released from his past and bring everything to an end. But Bessho was just a pawn. There was no clue left behind to find the man who gave the order to kill his family. Not a single thing had been solved at the end of everything.
It was comical. He had become a hitman in order to kill this man just for this to happen. There was no point or value gained for the life he lead over these past thirteen years.
Just as Banba fell into despair-
“But there is one thing I do know.”
Bessho smiled softly before stating, “I got a certain feeling when I first saw you in this room. I felt like I had met you somewhere before.”
Banba did remember that. When they met again in this room the other day, Bessho had looked at him and asked, ‘did we meet somewhere before?’
“At the time I figured I would obviously recognize you since I tried to kill you thirteen years ago...But that wasn’t it.”
Banba frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You look alike. Your face resembles the man who asked me to kill your family. You were only a kid thirteen years ago, so I didn’t notice it at the time. But now I finally see it. Your facial features are exactly the same. You really do look like him, so that’s where that feeling came from.”
Bessho raised his voice, “in other words, the person who hired me to kill you two was a blood relative of yours.” He smirked. “...the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

When Nguyen returned to consciousness, for some reason he found himself in the driver’s side of a car. It was a familiar, black Sedan. He was in the rental car he had been using since he arrived in Fukuoka.He looked at his wrist watch and saw it was past 10 o’clock at night. More than an hour had passed while he was unconscious.
Memories started to return to him.
Where is that clown?
A clown had attacked him. Nguyen was thoroughly convinced he would die, but for some reason he was left alive.
He did not understand. Just what was the clown’s goal? Nguyen tilted his head in thought. The whole encounter was strange.
It wasn’t a dream, was it? If it was, what a nightmare. I feel like I’ll become coulrophobic from this.
But Nguyen figured out quickly that this was not the case. It was not a dream; it had actually happened. The pain in his head was real. It was still pounding due to being struck by the clown’s clubs.
That’s right, Nguyen remembered. There should be another person in this car. Nguyen promptly got out of the driver’s seat and went to open the trunk.
However, it was empty. The man kept inside the trunk was gone. All that was left were the large amount of blood stains.
“...He got me.”
Nguyen clicked his tongue.
He finally pieced everything together.
The clown wasn’t after me. His target was Bessho.
Even so, he did not know who the clown was or why he took Bessho. But based off the amount of blood left in the trunk, it was clear Bessho was dead. It was too late for him to try and find his whereabouts.
This was the worst outcome. Nguyen had lost Bessho without getting any information from him. He had failed his mission.
“I’ll have to write a letter of apology when I get back to HQ…” Nguyen muttered to himself, bracing his head. He had a hard time with his last business trip out here too. Apparently he had bad luck with missions in this city.

Afterwards, Banba managed to drag Bessho’s body to the car with great difficulty and put him in the trunk. He brought the body to Saeki before returning to the parking deck. The Asian man was still knocked out. He undid his bindings and situated him in the vehicle he had stolen.The red RV waited for Banba’s return in the parking garage. It took off once Banba got inside. Their destination was to the east side of the Hakata Station. After they drove for a couple minutes, a familiar building came into view.
The driver dropped Banba off in front of the building. Once Banba got out, he turned around and spoke to the girl, “Misaki, I won’t say anything to Jiro about this. I was an accomplice after all.”
It was nearly past ten o’clock. If her parent learned he had made a junior work this late at night, he would get killed.
“But next time don’t do nothin’ on your own without tellin’ Jiro, okay? You know how much he cares for you, right?”
“...Yeah.”
Misaki hung her head. She seemed to be reflecting on her actions in earnest.
“I’m sure Jiro will listen to whatever you want to say. Tell him your honest feelings.”
Misaki nodded to Banba’s lecture, “got it.”
“Thank you for your help today, miss avenger.”
Her eyes brightened up when he gently patted her head.
Without her help, he would not have achieved a single thing. She may be young, but she was someone he could rely on.
And Banba had one other helper this time as well. He turned to the young man in the driver’s seat, “Méqué-kun, thank you. You both helped me a ton.”
Méqué smiled creepily and waved from the driver’s side. I should keep him a secret from Jiro too, Banba decided in his mind.

Banba watched the RV drive off into the distance before ascending the stairs to the third floor.
It was often said that baseball players who kept playing after getting injured would be found to have overexerted themselves after the match was over. They were distracted from the game, so the pain they felt was numbed. It was the same for Banba in this moment in time. The pain in his stomach was starting to come back full force now that the adrenaline his brain produced was receding. I overdid it, Banba thought to himself. He grit his teeth as he walked and finally made it to the Banba Detective Office.
The door was unlocked. Banba heard the sound of the TV when he got inside. He heard familiar terminology: ‘bases loaded,’ ‘relieving the pitcher,’ and ‘pinch-hitting.’ A baseball game was on.
Lin was in the room. He was slurping a cup of ramen as he watched TV. He noticed Banba’s presence and asked, still facing the screen, “is it finished?”
“Yeah,” Banba nodded. “It’s over.”
Even as he said that, he was not entirely sure himself. Could he really say it was over?
He had killed Bessho. Even so, he had not fully taken his revenge. Nothing regarding his situation had changed. He became a hitman in order to kill Bessho, and yet he felt miserable at the thought that his struggles over these past thirteen years had been unfruitful and meaningless.
“So what did you do with the body?”
Banba had promised to give Bessho’s body to Lin, so he made sure to bring it back. “I left it at Saeki’s place. You can do whatever you want with it.”
“Okay,” Lin said before finally turning to face him. He examined his face and frowned.
“So why did you come back here?”
“What?”
“Go back to the hospital.”
“...Oh. I forgot,” Banba whispered.
He had completely forgot that Lin told him to go the hospital after he was done. His mind was blank, and Méqué went ahead and brought him back here. Banba had unconsciously brought himself here, just like back then.
“I don’t know how it happened. I just ended up here before I realized it.”
“What the hell’s that?” Lin snorted. “Well, whatever. Shigematsu will show up here soon enough. He’ll bring you to the hospital.”
If Lin had stayed here, then Banba’s cell phone had to be in this office right now. Shigematsu would come here in a matter of time, believing Lin to be Banba. But Banba did not have any need to run from him anymore. He could just sit tight and wait to be caught.
“...Oh, that reminds me. Here, Lin-chan.” Banba took out the bloodied knife and handed it to him. It was the knife pistol Lin had lent him. “Thank you for doin’ so much for me.”
Lin had truly saved him, not just with the cell phone problem. Had he not shown up, Bessho may have killed him.
“It was nothing really,” Lin expressed indifferently before moving his attention back to the TV.
It seemed the Hawks were losing. The score was six to three. They were three points behind, but they had two outs and bases loaded. They had a window of opportunity.
In the following moment, there was an uproar. The live announcer shouted excitedly. Someone had managed to hit a home run. The audience all stood up and cheered. Some of the fans were caught on camera, crying.
The person who had came from behind with a grand slam was none other than the veteran player who had announced his retirement later this year.
“...Oh right. That reminds me, Banba.”
Banba heard Lin’s calm voice as the announcer shouted in glee.
“Welcome back.”
Banba’s breath caught in his throat. He felt like that one phrase had saved him in some way.
Thirteen years. It had been a long time. He had lost many things up to now, but he also gained other things in return. There were people he would not have met had he not taken this path.
He felt like there was meaning and value to this after all.
“...I’m home.”
It was bustling with activity on the TV screen. The player ran around the diamond and returned to the benches, where his teammates crowded around him and showered him with praise. A former professional baseball commenter regrettably spoke on how incredible it was for him to send the ball flying in the opposing direction of its course and how the player could still play for another couple years.
But even if they take leave from active duty, life did not end.
The player who had hit the home run answered to his supporters’ calls and took off his hat with a bow. His broad back with his number on it seemed to be exclaiming loud and clear through the TV screen: I’m not done yet. There’s more to come.
Banba sat down next to Lin, pushing back against the pain in his stomach, and lightly smiled.
He felt the urge to cry a little.

Translation: Kaede726
Reposts are prohibited and should be exclusive to Kaede726 on blogger.
Editor: Voissane
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