"There's one more thing I must do before we leave," Shin said. "Wait for me here, Mihara-san."
He urged Tetsu to return inside his body and left the building the same way he had entered. Instead of going to his trophy car, though, he went to the blue car with a man inside.
The cultist tensed at Shin's approach. From the caution and reverence in the cultist's eyes, Shin knew that the man was informed about him.
Shin leaned to the car's window, and the cultist rolled it down.
Killing him would've been incredibly easy, if not for the audience. They were on a quiet, but public street. Anyone could be watching from windows, from the hotel, from the street.
And Shin wanted to own at least one car with seats clean from blood.
"Kugutsu-sama," the cultist greeted, "did you succeed?"
Shin raised his eyebrows. "Did you doubt my abillities?"
"N-no, of course not, Kugutsu-sama. I, um…" he hesitated, unsure how to proceed.
"I'm going to report about my success in person. Give me a lift to the art gallery."
"Of course! It will be my honor."
The cultist unlocked the door of the shotgun seat, and Shin immediately went in. Inside the car with its tinted side windows, he was almost safe from any onlookers.
He turned to the cultist, who focused on turning the ignition key, and flexed his fingers.
'You can do it, my friend,' Tetsu cooed. 'I gave you all the strength I could. I wish I could give it all, but we aren't close enough. Not yet…'
Shin didn't NEED to kill this man himself. But he needed to get used to these things. He couldn't depend on Tetsu, or he will have the same glaring vulnerability as Mihara.
'I already did worse. This is nothing,' Shin said to Tetsu and himself.
Then he reached out and grabbed the cultist's head. The startled man gasped, but had no time to do more.
Shin turned his head to the side, snapping the man's neck like a dry twig. It was almost as effortless. His body was noticeably stronger than that of a normal human.
The cultist's body fell on the seat limply. Shin exhaled.
His heartbeat was only slightly faster than normal.
'Great job, my friend!' Tetsu cheered.
Shin huffed slightly and began to push the corpse onto the back seat.
***
"Is this a corpse in the back seat? Was that the 'thing' you wanted to do, Kugutsu-san? Was he a cultist?"
"Yes," Shin said, starting the engine. In the seat next to him, Mihara looked at him weirdly. "What? There's no blood."
The other man shook his head. "No, no. I just wondered if you have a driving license."
"Of course not. This body is seventeen at most." Shin frowned. "But I'm not."
The drive to the Shinkushio Art Gallery wasn't long, and thankfully, Mihara spent it in silence. When they arrived at their destination and Shin turned to look at Mihara's green face, he realized why.
"Are you car sick?" he asked incredulously. "Can a person with a Contract even be car sick?"
Mihara took a deep breath. "Yes! If you are the driver, then they can! Have you ever heard about speed limits? Traffic rules? Where did you learn to drive?!"
Shin shrugged. "Nowhere, really. Now stop that. We didn't crash into anything, and we have cultists to kill."
He really didn't see the problem. It's not like local police were very present on the roads.
"N-nowhere?" Mihara shook his head incredulously. "Maybe you were sent to kill me, after all. In a car crash."
Shin didn't park near the art gallery itself—that'd be too noticeably. Instead, he left the car a couple blocks away, and together with Mihara, they walked the rest of the distance on foot.
Mihara grew more and more quiet and visibly nervous the closer they got.
Finally, they stopped behind a corner, from where they could observe the back entrance to the art gallery. A single security guard was posted there, and he looked alert.
"I will kill this one," Shin gestured. "Then we both enter and act as the situation requires. We might split up inside, but the goal is their leader."
Mihara nodded. "I remember. You told me what he looks like… Hamlet, right?"
"Yes. Or just kill everyone you meet. None of them is 'real', anyway."
Mihara nodded. After making sure that he wasn't going to bolt, Shin stepped from behind their cover.
Something about Mihara's words didn't seem right, but he wasn't sure what. Either way, there was no time to think about this.
He dealt with the security guard like with the cultist in the car, then called for Mihara. So far, everything went smoothly.
Instead of bothering with looking for a key, Shin asked Tetsu to unlock the entrance. He went in first, watching that Mihara was still following.
"This was too easy," the man muttered as they walked down the empty corridor. "It must be a trap. Maybe we shouldn't have come in."
Shin pressed his lips together and kept walking. The stairway to the underground storage must be somewhere nearby.
One of the side-doors suddenly flew open, and a woman stepped out, almost bumping into the two men.
"Who are—What are you doing here?! This is a restricted territory!" she screamed, showing the white crown on her tongue. "Secur—!"
Shin's hands on her throat cut the scream short. Then Tetsu's hands reached for her tongue and her heart, tearing them out with a single swift movement.
The woman collapsed to the ground, and blood splattered Shin's clothes. Second time for today.
"Sorry for the mess, boss," Tetsu said apologetically. Her head was growing out of Shin's shoulder. "I just wanted to grab the tastiest bits before the soul left the body…"
Somewhere nearby, Shin heard more shouts.