Korosuu Translation - Chapter Five
At any rate, why the shopping district? It wasn’t a bad place to target Korosensei. Korosensei’s five senses were all terrifyingly sharp, but his sense of sight and smell were especially outstanding. Inside, his sense of sight was largely obscured thanks to the crowds of people, and with regards to his sense of smell, he would likely be dazzled by the scent of food that flooded the shopping district in the evening.
There were many obstacles in the narrow shopping arcade, so it was the ideal environment to make use of ricochets.
When they rushed out of breath into the shopping district, they saw an unusually large crowd. Many vans with food stalls were parked in the already narrow pedestrian zone, and the scent of crepes and coffee filled the air.
“Hey, what’s that strong smell?” Hayami muttered like a groan whilst pinching her nose. An intense stench was wafting from somewhere.
“Pork belly ramen. It’s said the authentic ones are simmered, so it can be tough if you don’t get used to it.” Chiba answered with a frown. “I guess there’s a stall somewhere. It’s the first time I’ve smelled something like this in the shopping street.”
Chiba surveyed their surroundings. And, at the same time, he heard a familiar voice.
Hearing that slimy mucus-filed voice, the two reflexively hid themselves in a nearby alleyway.
Just a few metres away, Korosensei was standing in disguise. The product exhibition was booming, and a small line near the entrance was being formed. Korosensei was lined up at the very back.
“Certainly, I never thought I’d be able to enjoy these manju buns right here in Kunugigaoka. They’re good no matter how many I eat!” There was a two metre radius left around the suspicious person who stood two heads taller than the other customers and didn’t even attempt to hide the grin on his face as he narrated to himself. “…I’m grateful for the pork belly ramen. They definitely would have found me without that stench.”
The two students quickly left their hiding place and started to walk down the street pretending to be shopping.
So that they could assassinate Korosensei anywhere, the students of 3E had secretly researched the areas surrounding the school. The shops are naturally also one of them, and so checks of buildings that have been vacant for a long time and general floor plans had been converted digitally with the help of Ritsu.
Chiba and Hayami pulled up the blueprints on his smartphone and compared it with their surroundings. They’d kept the data up to date, but it wasn’t perfect. Since the events within the shopping district change day by day, in such cases, they were unable to do an advance check.
“Hey, where’s that sniper? He’s already lurking somewhere.”
“Probably. Karasuma Sensei said that, so I’m sure the preparations are already complete. But, maybe it’s still okay.”
Hayami tilted her head at Chiba’s words. “How come?”
“If you’re aiming at Korosensei, the best time is right now he’s standing in line, right? Yet, nothing has happened yet.”
“Is this a place even the legendary sniper can’t aim at, or maybe there’s some other reason…? Either way, we still need time to prepare. Let’s hurry.”
Right then, Chiba noticed the wall of the old wooden building slightly ahead of them had a dreamy sheen.
When he tried touching it, the surface was hard and flat. It seemed like an acrylic board, but rather than affixing something like that, it stuck firmly to the wall more like it was smeared with some sort of liquid substance that solidified. They found these walls all around the building. This kind of measure had been routinely applied to the uneven walls and areas that seemed weak.
“Come to think of it, there are less billboards, right?” Hayami murmured whilst comparing the phone with their surroundings.
Many of the billboards and small decorations attached to the walls and streetlamps were missing from the area. There were not even screw holes left from where the billboard was originally attached, and it looked like the surface had been smoothed and repainted.
“It looks like they’re trying to make the wall as flat as possible. They’re certainly here, close by.”
That evidence was concentrated in the centre of the arcade street. In other words, the legendary sniper had chosen the place for his assassination.
“If that’s the case, it’s definitely difficult to aim for Korosensei in his current position. The Korosensei BB bullets are light, so they won’t reach very far.”
The line for the exhibition was more than 30 metres away from the ricochet location. It would be sufficient if shooting normally, but it was better to think of the distance as being more than double that if you wanted a ricochet shot to reach it.
[illustration] Kunugigaoka shopping street in the evening. Even though it’s a weekday, there are many people and many stalls are open.
“But with such meticulous preparation, why would they choose a place where Korosensei’s so far away?”
Chiba replied after thinking for a moment. “They didn’t expect the monster who exploded the moon into a cresent to be waiting in line at an exhibition?” After he said it, Chiba’s mind turned back to what Karasuma had said during the lunch break. “Is it highly unlikely that someone who doesn’t know Korosensei well enough would be able to assassinate him?”
Not long after, the two of them took up their positions on the second floor of the ruined dining hall. The building was facing across from where the legendary sniper had chosen for their assassination. Korosensei couldn’t be shot from there as he lined up for the exhibition. They could see him, but it was too far away.
Despite that, the two of them chose that place because there was no building that could be used for sniping within range of Korosensei, and they based it on their judgment that the place set up for ricocheting was more reliable. It still wasn’t an easy task to fire bullets as they desired downtown. Unlike in the classroom, there were an overwhelming amount of walls that would cause the bullet to bounce against their calculations in the wind. The legendary sniper who had many successes in these conditions was certainly not a normal person.
As soon as Chiba entered the room facing the street, he spread his graph paper out on the table and made a sketch using his drafting tools. It was supposed to be a very precise drawing, but Chiba finished it in a few minutes, including the mirrored copy.
[Illustration] The store across from the abandoned dining hall where Chiba and Hayami are. There are several walls with different depths like this in the store. In reality, it’s necessary to use an elevated floorplan which actually fits the depths of the walls.
[Ground view] A view of the building from above. Multiple lines indicate the depth of each wall. Although it is actually more detailed, irregularities such as window frames are ignored.
[Elevated view] A view of the building from the side. Similar to the floor plan, multiple lines are drawn according to the depth of the wall.
In the meantime, Hayami got the air rifle she’d brought into position, and installed the rangefinder to measure the position of the target.
[Illustration] Using the floor plan of the building and actually aiming. In this way, the position of the limit of the reflection changes depending on which wall is used, so it is necessary to draw multiple target positions.
Hayami, who was peering into the rangefinder, looked back at Chiba who had finished drawing. “Right now, he’s coming out of the exhibition. But it doesn’t look like he’s coming straight this way.”
When Chiba took the place of Hayami and looked into the scope, Korosensei was staggering down the street, and he couldn’t determine his direction.
“Nyuyaa… I want to eat that, and that too, but there’s not enough in my wallet… I have to choose carefully… No, but I can’t leave it out…”
Apparently the smells coming from the food stalls lining the street had drawn him in, and he’d lost control of his direction.
“The legendary sniper must be pretty irritated,” Chiba muttered with a wry smile.
Sensing a strong impact nearby, Chiba jumped up.
“What?” Hayami, who was away from the window, called out.
“There was a shot… I think.”
At Chiba’s words, Hayami handed over a small mirror meant for makeup. Chiba took it and looked out of the window whilst hiding his body. He could see a thin layer of smoke around the window frame. It was probably a live bullet that was shot.
At the same time, Chiba’s phone started to vibrate. The display showed ‘withheld number incoming’.
When he answered, a monotonous voice reverberated. “I told the person in charge that I should not be disturbed. Didn’t he tell you?”
Chiba pulled the phone away from his ear and turned the speaker on.
“I had no intention of interfering with you at all, so it’s no problem for you to shoot first. However, it’s normal for us in class 3E to aim whenever there’s a chance.”
“Okay.” There was a clear hint of frustration in his voice when he answered. “Get out of there and go straight home. You students are just a hinderance. Harming children isn’t a hobby, but excuse the warning if you stay here."
