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Nagano checked the scanner The red dot blinked steady and still “He’s in the back Let’s go”

They moved down the hall and came upon the body of another priest He lay in a pool of blood just inside one of the doors They found three more in the next room Two more bodies and a pair of ransacked roo spree

Nagano paused andUshi-Oni alive had vanished They would shoot hiht If he lived, so be it If he didn’the would be getting what he deserved

Nagano crept forward They were nearing the end of the hall The flashing indicator on Nagano’s screen told them Ushi-Oni was in the room on the left

For the first tiano could hear ed forward, kicking the door open

He saw a figure dressed in black as hunched over a desk He raised his weapon and was about to fire when the figure turned It wasn’t the face of a killer but another of the elderly priests

The man was tied to the chair with an electrical cord On the desk in front of the prisoner, sitting on a folded white garment, was a tiny circular object with a hole in thecoin

Realization came too late A shout of pain from behind him confirmed it

Nagano spun in time to see the flash of a sword decapitate his lieutenant and take the arm off of another of the men

The third officer was already on the ground, a throwing knife sticking out of his back

Nagano fired once but missed and the bullet buried itself uselessly in the wall The flashing sword hit the side of the pistol before Nagano could fire again It took off the tips of his fingers and knocked the gun across the room

Nagano dove for the w

eapon, trying to grasp it with his right hand, but Ushi-Oni was faster A kick to the ribs sent Nagano over onto his side He wound up against the desk with the point of the ancient sword pressed up against his neck

He froze as the Deh at any second, but instead Ushi-Oni laughed and held him there like an insect under a pin

“Looking for this?” Ushi-Oni said, as he picked up the tracking coin