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> RECORDING

“Police log, March 25th 2023.”

Daichi had sat himself down at a table, the doors and windows were closed, and an audio recorder sat in front of him. It was recording, making a low buzzing sound as it did so.

It had only been a couple of hours since the incident happened, and he wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. But he had to talk about it now. The police couldn’t wait forever for his report on the incident he’d so foolishly placed upon himself to investigate.

“I, Sawamura Daichi, am submitting report of the incident that happened at Karasuno High on March 25th 2023. I received the call at 09.16 AM, about an eighteen-year-old Karasuno High student, whose name is confirmed to be Akai Mosu, bringing a handgun to the end-of-year ceremony. A semi-automatic pistol with 9mm rounds, to be precise.

According to the reporting person, named Sugawara Koushi, a teacher at the school, Akai had started shooting into the student body after climbing up on the stage during the principal’s speech. The number of injured were unknown to Sugawara, who was hiding behind the stage during our call. Therefore he also couldn’t tell me exactly how many people had made it out of the school’s gym, where the ceremony was being held, before Akai took everyone inside hostage.

We ended the call at 09.18 AM after there was a gun fired on the other end of the line.

Sugawara explained he couldn’t stay on the phone, he didn’t confirm why, but I suppose it probably had to do with the fact that he couldn’t draw attention to himself if he wanted to stay hidden. After our call ended, I send out an order for back up. Despite being on dispatcher duty that day, I went to Karasuno High to investigate the situation straight away.”

It hadn’t been until afterwards that Daichi’s brain kicked in and made him realize how reckless he’d been. Investigating alone? Abandoning dispatcher duty? He should be fired – Hell, he was lucky if he wasn’t sued for this.

But at that moment, he hadn’t been thinking. He’d only been thinking about the dangerous firearm in that room full of people, and about Sugawara.

Despite not having spoken to Sugawara in literal years, he wasn’t ready to lose his high school best friend in a school shooting. His colleagues at the police didn’t have to know about the reckless decision he made to go alone, mainly because of Sugawara’s presence.

There were a lot of things they didn’t need to know, the thing was that those things intertwined with the harsh facts Daichi needed to report.

Daichi swallowed his thought, though, and continued with the next detail of the incident.

“I arrived at Karasuno High around 09.25 AM. I entered the school grounds to find a group of twenty-four students making their way out of the school. One of them had a gunshot wound in his left leg. I decided to send the students to the school gate after confirming that the wound was superficial. I asked for medical back up, so an ambulance would arrive soon, in case there were more injured students and staff.

After making sure the other students weren’t injured, I continued heading towards the gym hall. I arrived there about two minutes later.

The doors were locked from inside when I reached it.

I listened to estimate how many people were inside, but it was mostly silent behind the door. All I could hear was Akai speaking. He was talking about how the staff and students deserved this fate. He didn’t mention anything that confirmed why exactly he was doing this, though. His voice sounded far away. Going from that, I estimated that, if I were to enter, I’d be on the opposite end of the room from where the stage was. The chances of him seeing me were fairly big because of this.

I knew, going from how quiet it was behind the doors, I probably couldn’t sneak inside without being noticed. I knew it was probably the smartest idea to remain outside and monitor the situation, while I waited for back up. But there was another gunshot and Sugawara-“ Daichi’s voice trailed off. He listened to the recorder’s low buzzing while he focussed on his breathing for a moment, the police didn’t need to know his trail of thoughts before he made the decision he made. He needed to keep it short and concise. Objective.

“I picked the lock and went inside upon hearing the sound of a gun firing. When I--”

A soft knock sounded on the door, barely making its way to Daichi’s ears through the low buzzing of the audio recorder. “Agent Sawamura?” A voice sounded from the other side of the door. “Is that you I hear talking inside?”

Daichi winced, pausing the audio recorder just too late.

‖PAUSED

He was certainly going to have to cut that sentence out later; this was confidential information after all. He honestly hadn’t thought the walls would be thin enough for people to hear him in the hallway. Maybe recording here was a bad idea; his boss was probably already going to consider Daichi incompetent after what happened that afternoon. If he also got word that Daichi’s report had been overheard by someone not from the police, he’d be fired for sure.

In all honesty, Daichi’d rather been able to record or jot down his report at the office, but he wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital until his injuries were monitored by medical professionals for twenty-four hours. He couldn’t wait that long with his report; he needed to get the details reported before the exhaustion made him forget it all.

This was his best option.

“Yes,” he replied reluctantly. “Can you hear it really well?”

The door opened slowly and the same nurse that had given him painkillers earlier, appeared in the doorway. “Not really. I just heard your voice, that’s all.”

Daichi exhaled in relief. “Good.”

“What are you doing up anyway?” the nurse asked. “It’s past midnight and with your injuries, you need rest.”

“Work.” Daichi nodded towards the audio recorder. “I couldn’t sleep anyway.” It wasn’t a lie; he’d tried lying down for a bit when the painkillers still needed to kick in, but he simply couldn’t. He kept hearing gunshots. He kept seeing the blood on his hands, even though they had been sanitized as soon as he got here. He couldn’t rest until he was able to forget about the details of the event, which meant he needed to record them first.

The nurse nodded slowly. “Alright then, just please try to get some rest afterwards.”

Daichi nodded once.

“Is there anything I can do for you before I leave?” the nurse asked. “Something to eat or drink? More painkillers? Anything?”

“Has there been any news on the victims?”

“Not that I know of,” the nurse replied. “I’ll make sure to get someone to fill you in on the details if I hear anything.”

Daichi nodded again.

After making sure Daichi didn’t need anything else, she left him to his work.

Daichi took a slow breath and nodded to himself.

“Good, uhm-- Where was I?”

> RECORDING

“So I heard the sound of a gun firing, and I entered the gym hall. When I got inside, the room was still packed full with all the students of Karasuno High. I estimate there were around 426 people still inside, including staff. Akai was standing on the stage and Karasuno High’s principal was lying at Akai’s feet, unconsciously-“ Daichi swallowed thickly. He knew he was informed that the principle had only been knocked out, but it was still a memory that sat vividly in Daichi’s mind; seeing the same principal that held speeches during Daichi’s time at Karasuno High, lying on the stage lifelessly was something Daichi hadn’t expected to see upon walking into the gym he used to practice in on a daily.

“Not long after I made my way inside, students in the back of the gym started noticing me. I hushed them and pointed them toward the door. While the students in the back silently made their way outside one by one, I started heading toward the stage.

There were people hiding behind the stage, as Sugawara had told me over the phone, I couldn’t let them in there with Akai. I kept my head low, not wanting to be seen by Akai.

I must’ve not been careful enough, because I was shot at when I’d almost reached the stage.”

The sound of the handgun firing sometimes causes Daichi to wake up from naps, screaming. He still felt the sting of where the bullet hit him when he laid down on his back.

Despite having been a police officer for years by now, Daichi had never been shot at; there were close to none firearms in Japan. Daichi didn’t even want to think about the terrible acquaintances this high school student had to get his hands on one.

Daichi was lucky, though; the gun being fired at him gave him a scare, but that was all. He was lucky he had been wearing his bulletproof vest, he would’ve been a dead man otherwise. Despite the vest, it still hurt when he got shot at and he must’ve let out a groan, because it apparently sounded bad enough that Sugawara started screaming.

“Upon witnessing me being shot at, Sugawara revealed his location.

Before I could react in any way, Akai pointed his gun to the hiding spot behind the stage. He demanded for Sugawara to come up on the stage. Sugawara did as he said and climbed out of the hiding spot, Akai never took the gun off him.”

Daichi’s voice began trembling as he recalls the words Akai said in that moment, while pointing a pistol at his old best friend. He always knew he shouldn’t let emotional attachment come in between himself and his work, maybe that was why he broke most contact with friends after the officer training he’d had after high school.

“Akai told me that if I wanted for the people in that room-“ Sugawara specifically. “-to survive, I had to leave the hall. This meant I couldn’t help any of the injured people that hadn’t been able to make their way out of there, but I knew my hands were tied as long as Akai had his finger on the trigger. I needed backup, but my backup hadn’t arrived yet.”

Daichi closed his eyes, remembering how tears streamed down Sugawara’s face as he begged for him to stay there. He said two of his students were badly injured, they had been hiding behind the stage with him, and they needed medical attention quickly. And those were only the people he knew of; he was certain there were more students that had fallen victim to the bullets that had flown around the room before Daichi had arrived.

Daichi wanted to stay, in that moment.

But Sugawara had been taken hostage and no matter how quickly Daichi could reach for his taser it wouldn’t matter; it wouldn’t reach Akai, and even if it did, pulling the trigger of a loaded gun would be quicker. If Daichi didn’t listen to Akai, Sugawara would get shot.

Daichi couldn’t let that happen; he wouldn’t be able to live with himself knowing that his best friend got shot because Daichi was too stubborn to listen to the one holding the gun.

“I gave into Akai’s demands, knowing people would get hurt if I remained there. I made my way towards the door, in hopes of running into backup on my way out.

As I was leaving, Sugawara was talking to Akai. I recall the conversation being about a past of bullying. Sugawara seemed to know Akai well, even mentioning things about his home situation; assumptions about domestic violence.

Upon coming outside, I contacted the dispatchers for backup again. I told them to run code and get there, quickly. They’d taken long enough.

While making my way to the gate to wait for backup, I ran into a group of five students who’d made it outside. One of them had a gunshot wound in his left thigh, which needed medical attention. I carried him to the ambulance that had arrived by then. I brought the injured student over to paramedics. I could hear police sirens approaching in the distance when-“ Daichi’s voice trails off, his heart thumping loudly in his chest as he relives the moment in his mind. “-when I heard a gun being fired inside.”

Daichi closed his eyes and took a moment to focus on his breathing.

He wasn’t ready to relive this moment. He just was not ready to talk about it yet.

But he had to.

“As soon as I heard the gun being fired, I ran back to the hall.
I was met with a wave of students running out of the building.”

Daichi remembers a lot of shouting and crying. Some of the students were carrying injured classmates. Running and tripping over each other as if a bomb was about to explode inside.

“When I asked one of the students what was going on, she informed me that Akai had threatened to take everyone inside down with him if anyone else dared to move again.

Going from the amount of students that had made their way outside all of sudden, as well as the smell of smoke that suddenly hit me, the students had not listened to this demand.”

In the black veil created by Daichi’s eyelids, he could still see the smoke and flames that were waiting for him inside of the hall. The place where he used to play volleyball on a daily basis in high school, was going up in flames. The linoleum flooring packed a pungent fume and the wooden accents created large flames around the stage.

“I made a call for extra backup from the firefighter department before heading inside.
When I got inside, there was barely anyone inside anymore. There were a few staff members carrying students out from behind the stage and there were two people near the stage, other than that the hall was mostly empty for as far as I could see.”

Right now, Daichi actually wished the flames would’ve left more to the imagination, because as he ran into the hall, he barely registered the other people apart from the two figures near the stage. Akai sat on his knees in the middle of the flames.

At the bottom of the stage lied a limp body.

“Sugawara had been shot.”

Daichi attempted to hold back tears, but he couldn’t help but feel them sting behind his eyes as he saw himself running through the flames like some out of body experience. He saw himself kneeling down beside Sugawara, not paying mind to the flames that were creeping toward them. He still saw the way Sugawara’s white shirt was drenched in blood and how Daichi could feel the size of the wound in Sugawara’s side as he applied pressure.

He could hear himself promising Sugawara it was all going to be alright. He wanted to believe he hadn’t been lying, but with every passing hour it started to feel more like he had.

“I got injured while giving Sugawara medical attention.”

Daichi looked down at his hands, which were bound in bandages after being burned. His back fortunately didn’t take as much of a burn because of the thick layers of clothing. Despite the painkillers, he still felt the sting from when he tried to keep the flames off of Sugawara.

From that moment on, events got foggy, the fumes of the flames made the memories blurry. But Daichi had to try his best to recall every detail nonetheless.

“Backup arrived and I got pulled out of the flames.

Sugawara-“

A knock sounded on the door interrupting Daichi.

Daichi was just about to wrap up his report and try to catch some sleep at last. It was already past midnight and, while he couldn’t sleep until he had recorded every detail now that it was still fresh in his mind, he was starting to get groggier with every word he spoke.

He paused the recording and turned towards the door.

‖PAUSED

“Yes? Come in.”

“Agent Sawamura.” The woman in scrubs, standing in the doorway, greeted him by bowing shortly. “I’m sorry for barging in so late, I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

Daichi glanced at the audio recorder, already feeling how the exhaustion of the past day was causing the details to become less vivid with the minute. He shook his head, nonetheless. Unlike the nurse that visited him, this one wasn’t anyone he recognized.

Maybe she had news about one of the victims, it was a formality for the medical staff to report back to the police if there were any casualties after all. So maybe-

Daichi didn’t want to let himself think about that. No one had died yet, and it was certainly the plan that the competent paramedics wouldn’t let anyone die now.

Daichi took a slow breath and looked back at the woman, trying not to let it show how much his heart was pounding in that moment.

“Not at all,” he told her. “Is anything the matter?”

The woman closed the door behind her and nodded sort of uncertainly. “It’s about Sugawara,” she explained. “Is he a friend of yours, by any chance?”

Daichi swallowed thickly. “Yes?”

The woman nodded to herself. Her eyes closed shortly as she smiled and muttered something along the lines of, “Then it makes sense.”

“Did something happen to him?” Daichi wanted to know. He almost added “outside of getting shot, of course” but didn’t feel the need to; this was a medical professional, she obviously knew what happened to Sugawara before he and Daichi arrived here.

“He woke up.”

A weight lifted off of Daichi’s chest. Finally, he felt like he could breathe again.

“He asked to speak to you, almost straight away,” she continued. “He’s not strong enough yet for investigation interviews, though. But he really wants to see you and since you’re friends-“

“Yes,” Daichi said, and his voice came out as a whisper. He cleared his throat, composing himself again. “When can I visit him?”

The woman smiled and told him, “Anytime you feel up to it, sir.”

Daichi glanced at the audio recorder one final time. I’ll finish my report later.

He got up from his chair slowly, careful as not to hurt himself. “Right now sounds great.”

> RECORDING

“Where was I?” Daichi muttered to himself.

After a visit at Sugawara’s hospital room followed by a good nap, Daichi sat himself down at the audio recorder again, ready to finally wrap up his report. His mood was slightly better than during the night. Sure, he didn’t feel great, as this was a heavy case that would not leave his mind for a bit. But at least the incident had remained unlethal in the end.

“Oh yeah,” he continued. “Just like me, Sugawara also got carried out of the hall.

We both got rushed to the hospital afterwards.

I’ve been informed, Sugawara had made it through the night and has a good chance at making a positive recovery. Equal things have been said for me.

As for Akai Mosu; he has been arrested by officer Tachibana. He will get five years and a five thousand yen file for owning and using a firearm as a Japanese citizen without a firearm license. Meanwhile, investigations will have to be started to find out what drove Akai to do this.

The students and staff members that have been injured during the shooting have all been given the needed medical attention. During the incident there have been twenty-four injured, four of which were more severely. They’ll likely have a longer, tougher road to recovery.

Despite that, I’m glad to report that, against all odds, there have been no fatalities.”

Daichi exhaled slowly, allowing himself to start forgetting about the details of the incident. He was done holding onto every sight and every word said for dear life, he was ready to let go and start healing. He hoped it’d be a while before he’d have to deal with guns again. And above all, he was ready to finally catch up with Sugawara after not seeing him for ages; after almost losing him today, he regretted allowing himself to lose contact with him.

Daichi looks at the audio recorder and nods to himself; only one last thing to say.

“Finally, as of now, there is nothing further to report.”

□ RECORDING ENDED