Chapter 105: Eguchi Hideya’s Mental Journey

“Very well, I’ll grant your wish.”

With his mind blank after witnessing his companion being “brutally” shot to death, Eguchi Hideya heard the Chinese officer say those words.

Grant what wish?

His thoughts were still turning when he saw the Chinese officer raise the black muzzle of his pistol and aim it at him.

What wish is he granting me?

An enormous terror blossomed in Eguchi Hideya’s eyes.

He’s going to kill me!

He said he would grant my request that he kill me.

Am I going to die?

Well, if I die, then I die.

Hadn’t I known this day would come ever since I was captured by the Chinese?

Come then!

I shall give my life in service to the Empire!

No, no, I can’t die.

I’m still young.

I made money in China.

Keiko is still waiting back home for me to return and marry her.

Two voices began a fierce argument inside Eguchi Hideya’s head.

Cheng Qianfan’s pistol was pointed at Eguchi Hideya.

Yet the person he was speaking to was not Eguchi Hideya.

Instead, he looked toward the Japanese agent tied to the wooden frame on Eguchi Hideya’s left.

“First question. Which intelligence organization do you belong to?” Cheng Qianfan asked.

“You have ten seconds. If you don’t answer, I’ll put a bullet in him.”

“Mr. Oguri...” Eguchi Hideya cried out instinctively.

“Eguchi, don’t worry. I will not yield. I will not talk.”

Oguri Motomitsuro shouted loudly.

“See you at the shrine!”

Mr. Oguri is so brave!

No!

Eguchi Hideya suddenly realized.

The one with the gun pointed at him was me!

The look in his eyes as he turned toward Oguri Motomitsuro changed.

Cheng Qianfan had been observing this Japanese agent the entire time.

From the look Eguchi gave his companion, he detected a trace of hatred.

Perhaps this Japanese agent understood his companion’s choice.

But he would never forgive it.

“How unfortunate. In your companion’s eyes, your life isn’t worth a damn.”

Looking at Eguchi, Cheng Qianfan smiled.

“Do you have any last words?”

It was a devil’s smile.

In Eguchi Hideya’s eyes, that smile was sinister and terrifying beyond measure.

Last words?

What should I say?

Should I deliver some impassioned speech about being willing to die for His Majesty the Emperor, about having no regrets in serving the Empire, about meeting again at the shrine?

Eguchi Hideya felt his mouth grow incomparably dry.

Even the air he breathed seemed hot.

To his horror and shame, he discovered that at this moment the voice urging him to die for the Emperor had become very, very faint.

An image became increasingly clear in his mind.

By the seaside in Kagawa, Keiko stood beneath a small red umbrella, smiling gently and waving to him.

“Hideya...”

Suddenly, a short but thickset figure appeared and grabbed the petite and lovely Keiko into his arms.

As Keiko cried, the man laughed triumphantly.

It was Suzuta!

The son of the owner of the flour mill back in his hometown!

That capitalist’s son had long coveted Keiko.

If he died in China, Keiko would certainly be taken by Suzuta.

Pain filled Eguchi Hideya’s eyes.

Cheng Qianfan looked at Eguchi.

Within the Japanese agent’s eyes, he could see the complex emotions that surfaced when a human being stood on the brink of death.

There was a trace of hatred.

There was pain.

There was even a trace of regret?

Unwillingness?

In Cheng Qianfan’s eyes, all those emotions merged into a single word:

Struggle.

This Eguchi did not possess the same determination to embrace death at any moment that the other Japanese agents displayed.

The other four, including the one Cheng Qianfan had just shot dead, had shown fanatical fervor when they shouted, “Kill me.”

Eguchi’s eyes had contained fanaticism as well.

But upon closer inspection, there was a little less madness in them.

Especially after Cheng Qianfan fired the shot.

He had noticed the fanaticism vanish rapidly from the man’s eyes, replaced by a fleeting flash of terror.

Cheng Qianfan had caught that detail.

That was why he immediately chose Eguchi as the breakthrough point.

He interpreted the emotion of struggle as fear of death.

Whatever the source of Eguchi’s struggle, the root of it was simple:

He did not want to die.

Yet years of militaristic indoctrination prevented this young Japanese agent from making up his mind to become a traitor.

Cheng Qianfan decided to give him a reason, a reason that would allow him to confess with a clear conscience.

“It seems somewhat unfair to decide your life and death in this manner.”

Cheng Qianfan frowned.

Looking at the Chinese officer who resembled a devil, Eguchi Hideya could not understand what he meant.

Was this one final humiliation before killing him?

His face ashen, Eguchi Hideya’s thoughts were now filled entirely with Keiko.

The thought of Keiko being taken by the capitalist’s son made his heart bleed.

He would never accept such a fate, even in death.

If word of his dying for the Empire in China reached Kagawa, how wonderful it would be if Keiko took her own life for him.

Would Keiko die for him?

No, a voice whispered beside his ear.

Suzuta would definitely take Keiko for himself.

No.

Would Keiko perhaps throw herself into the arms of the capitalist’s son the moment she heard he had died?

Or perhaps...

Could it be that the adulterous pair had already become involved back in Japan?

While he served the Empire abroad, they carried on their affair at home!

And that bastard Oguri Motomitsuro.

What right did he have to decide whether I lived or died?

An intense unwillingness began growing wildly within Eguchi Hideya’s heart like invasive weeds.

It seeped into his blood.

It filled his mind.

At that moment, he heard a voice.

“Last three seconds, Mr. Eguchi. Tell us the name of the intelligence organization you belong to. Otherwise I will have no choice but to kill your companion.”

Cheng Qianfan looked at Eguchi Hideya, whose eyes had gone vacant as he sank into silence.

He frowned slightly.

Had he misjudged the man?

Had his assessment been wrong?

He had not chosen Mr. Oguri to test Eguchi.

If Eguchi resented Oguri’s earlier decision and was willing to watch Cheng Qianfan shoot him, that would ruin everything.

Therefore, he had chosen another Japanese agent tied to a wooden frame.

His demand was simple.

Eguchi had ten seconds to reveal the name of their intelligence organization.

Otherwise, this Japanese agent would die.

Meanwhile, Lu Da was counting down loudly.

Yet Eguchi Hideya showed no reaction whatsoever.

“Very well. Time is up.”

Cheng Qianfan shook his head at Oguri Motomitsuro.

“What a pity. Mr. Eguchi has refused to save your life.”

“No! Don’t!”

Suddenly, Eguchi Hideya shouted.

“Stop! I’ll talk!”

“Eguchi Hideya, do you know what you’re saying?”

The Japanese agent at whom Cheng Qianfan’s pistol was pointed immediately shouted furiously.

“Mr. Kurai...”

Eguchi Hideya cried out sorrowfully.

His eyes reddened as he screamed miserably.

“I can’t do it, Mr. Kurai. I can’t stand by and watch you be killed. I can’t do that. You’re my best comrade and brother.”