The Lightning Flash

Chapter 37: Far from Over

Shino opened her eyes, slowly, after having just logged out of her Nerve Gear.  All was dark in her room as she sat upright in her bed, taking the Nerve Gear off of her head.  She listened, closely, for the sound of approaching police sirens but didn't hear anything so figured she still had a little bit of time before they arrived at her home.  She sighed in disappointment at her failure to defeat Asuna.  She didn't know how Asuna had done it but she had managed to defeat her...even after all of the careful planning she had done alongside the other Laughing Coffin members and Vassago, himself.  She couldn't have possibly predicted that Asuna would be, all of the sudden, able to move at an unseeable speed while leaving nothing but pink streaks of lightning, behind. The worst part was that...Kyouji had probably caught most of what happened...if not all of it, on the live stream and, even if he didn't and had logged out, as soon as Asuna was beginning to get the best of Shino, the original feed would have kicked back in, showing Shino getting knocked around by Asuna, regardless. No matter how Shino looked at it, Death Gun was embarrassed by Asuna in front of everyone that was watching the Bullet of Bullets tournament which was the exact opposite of what she had wanted, more than anything. How was it that she was the one, who ended up being humiliated?  Shino knew that giving this too much thought would just waste more time, allowing the police the chance to show up at her home to arrest her.  She had to take advantage of the fact that they hadn't shown up and leave, as soon as possible.  Shino got up off of her bed and began packing all of the necessities that she would need since it was highly unlikely that she would be able to return to her home, any time soon. 

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Agil had been inside of his parked car, outside of Shino's home far longer than he was hoping to and was actually surprised that neighbors or some passerby didn't get upset at him or call the police on him.  It was always part of the plan for him to keep an eye on Shino's place, in case someone tried to break into her house to cause harm to her real body while she was participating in the Bullet of Bullets tournament.  Although, as Agil had already told Kazuto, no one ended up arriving at Shino's home that looked remotely suspicious.  Agil could tell that Kazuto was shaken by this news, especially because it led to him asking Agil to keep an eye on Shino's place for a little bit longer.  Despite not being the biggest fan of the idea, Agil imagined there was a good reason why Kazuto wanted him to do this so he, reluctantly, stayed in his parked car to continue keeping an eye on Shino's place.  Agil had continued to monitor the home, still not catching sight of anything suspicious but received a strange text from Kazuto about ten minutes ago.  It explained to Agil that Shino was actually the real Death Gun and that Agil had to call the police, immediately and tell them to report to Shino's house.  He then had Agil stay put in his car so that he could not only explain things to the police but also, to make sure that Shino didn't try to escape from her home.

"Kirito, I trust your judgement but are you really sure that Sinon is Death Gun?" asked Agil to himself since he was the only one in his parked car.  "It didn't seem like there was a mean bone in that girl's body...plus, she seemed to really care for Asuna.  If she's the real Death Gun then...she's the one, who's responsible for killing Klein, right?  Shit, and she was with me while Klein was killed...she was right beside me...knowing damn well what was going to happen to Klein.  The more I think about it...the more pissed off I get.  Kirito didn't really send me much in the way of proof but he sounded pretty damn sure about all of this from the text he sent.  Plus, the police should be here soon so as long as nobody leaves that house, I don't have to do—"

Before Agil could finish, he observed that the front door of Shino's home was being, cautiously, opened.  Shino made her way out of her home, wearing a black jacket with a hood covering her dark brown hair.  She, conspicuously, looked in both directions before shutting the front door of her home behind her and making her way down her small driveway. Agil sighed to himself, not being able to deny that Shino did look incredibly suspicious...almost like she was attempting to make a clean getaway which, of course, meant that Agil had to try and stop her.