Chapter 122: Shroud and Wedding Dress

The cable car arrived at the mountaintop. Kirigaya Nuo glided out of the platform and stopped not far away, pretending to adjust her snowboard bindings.

Her gaze, however, passed through the ski goggles, calmly scanning the entire view of the VIP lounge:

A wooden cabin with Nordic flair, panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows, the curtains currently half-drawn.

Two plainclothes bodyguards stood at the door, slight bulges at their waists.

To the rear side was a staff passage connecting to the kitchen and storage room.

The snow on the roof was very thick, and icicles hung from the eaves.

"Icicle."

Kirigaya Nuo suddenly said softly.

"What?"

Xu Yunzhou blanked.

Kirigaya Nuo's gaze fell on those natural icicles of varying lengths and sharp tips hanging under the eaves.

"The temperature here is minus twelve degrees Celsius, the hardness of the icicle is sufficient."

Her tone was steady, like analyzing a math problem:

"Piercing into the fourth intercostal space on the left chest, if the angle is precise, it can reach straight to the heart."

"The ice will melt very quickly. The wound will initially look like just a minor stab wound. When he takes out nitroglycerin due to an attack of his hidden heart disease, the ice water will have already accelerated into the ventricle along with blood circulation, inducing ventricular fibrillation."

She paused, her tone flat without ripples:

"The autopsy will conclude it was a sudden death from a heart attack, and the subtle scratch on the chest will be explained as being scratched by an icicle when falling—the wind at the mountaintop is strong, and icicles often fall."

Xu Yunzhou was silent for a moment.

This child's way of thinking had already been completely trained into a precise and ruthless killing machine.

"You need to get close to the eaves."

"Mhm."

Kirigaya Nuo stood up and glided toward the rear side of the VIP lounge.

There was an equipment area fenced off there, piled with snowmobiles and snowcats. The icicles under the eaves there were the longest and sharpest.

She easily flipped over the fence, landing silently, leaving only extremely shallow marks on the snow.

Looking up, she selected an icicle about thirty centimeters long, its tip as sharp as a dagger.

Reaching out, she gripped it.

The bone-piercing chill instantly penetrated her glove, but her hand was very steady, without the slightest tremble.

"Teacher, help me pay attention to the bodyguards' line of sight cycle."

Kirigaya Nuo said in her consciousness, her voice as calm as usual.

Xu Yunzhou switched his perspective to a high place, like an invisible surveillance camera:

"The two at the door, their line of sight synchronously scans the left ski slope once every forty seconds, lasting five seconds each time. The right staff passage is temporarily unmanned."

Accompanying Kirigaya Nuo's special training, Xu Yunzhou found that he too was slowly paying attention to this world using an agent's perspective.

"Now."

Hearing this, Kirigaya Nuo moved.

Like a white shadow, she glided sticking to the outer wall of the wooden cabin toward the staff passage entrance—there was an unlocked side door there for staff to transport supplies.

Pushing the door, she dodged in.

Inside the door was a dim corridor leading to the kitchen and storage room.

She could faintly hear the laughter of a man and a woman and the crisp sound of clinking glasses coming from ahead.

Kirigaya Nuo took off her snowboard and stepped barefoot on the cold wooden floor, moving silently.

At the corner of the corridor, she stopped.

Five meters ahead, by the bar of the open kitchen, a middle-aged man wearing an expensive cashmere sweater with thinning hair was hugging a young woman, laughing and talking, holding a whiskey glass in his hand.

Yamamoto Ryuichi and his mistress.

Kirigaya Nuo held her breath, calculating the distance, angle, and the other party's bodily micro-movements.

She needed a one-strike sure-kill, and couldn't make too much noise.

Time ticked by.

Yamamoto Ryuichi seemed to feel a bit hot from drinking. He loosened his collar and walked toward the terrace nearby:

"It's too stuffy inside, I'm going to get some fresh air."

He pushed open the glass door, walked to the viewing terrace under the eaves, took a deep breath of the cold air, his back facing the indoors.

Perfect timing.

Kirigaya Nuo glided out from the shadows, her movements as fast as a phantom.

Closing in with three steps, her left hand precisely covered his mouth and nose from behind. The icicle gripped in her right hand drew an almost invisible cold light in the air—

Pfft.

A slight sound like a needle piercing paper.

The icicle precisely submerged into the fourth intercostal space on the left chest, exactly nine centimeters deep.

Yamamoto Ryuichi's body abruptly stiffened, his pupils contracting sharply. A vague gurgling sound came from his throat, but because his mouth and nose were tightly covered, he couldn't call for help.

Kirigaya Nuo let go of her left hand, letting him fall limply forward onto the railing, looking just like a sudden fainting spell.

She quickly arranged his body into a posture facing the snowfield and leaning against the railing, then pulled out the icicle—the tip had melted slightly, but there were no bloodstains.

The icicle rapidly melted in her palm, the water drops falling into the thick accumulated snow and disappearing.

Kirigaya Nuo retreated, flashed back into the corridor, and put her snowboard back on.

The entire process took no more than fifteen seconds.

On the terrace, Yamamoto Ryuichi's breathing gradually weakened, his face turning purplish-blue.

With trembling hands, he reached into his pocket, fumbling for the nitroglycerin spray.

But the severe angina and icy coldness coming from his heart had already blurred his vision.

Thud.

He slid down from the railing and fell onto the terrace floor.

From indoors came the mistress's puzzled voice:

"Yamamoto-san? What's wrong with you?"

Kirigaya Nuo had already flashed out from the staff passage side door, flipped back over the fence, and stepped onto her snowboard.

"Teacher, let's go."

She said in her consciousness, her voice calm without ripples.

Xu Yunzhou watched her nimbly glide toward the intermediate slope, merging into the ranks of other skiers, her back pure white as snow, light as the wind.

As if that cold and precise fifteen-second assassination just now had never happened.

Two hours later, Kirigaya Nuo sat in a coffee shop at the foot of the mountain, holding a cup of hot cocoa and drinking in small sips.

Outside the window, the siren of an ambulance approached from afar, then faded away again.

She lowered her head, looking at the news alert popping up on her phone screen:

"Financial Services Agency Councillor Yamamoto Ryuichi suddenly passed away from a heart attack at Hakuba Ski Resort, suspected to be induced by a hidden illness due to the extremely low temperature at the mountaintop..."

She turned off the screen, raised her head, and looked at the couples laughing and gliding on the ski slopes in the distance.

"Teacher,"

She suddenly spoke in her consciousness, her voice very light,

"Valentine's Day... seems to be ending."

Xu Yunzhou fell silent for a moment, responding warmly:

"Mhm."

"I killed a person."

She stated, her tone flat without ripples,

"On Valentine's Day."

"He caused the deaths of many people."

Xu Yunzhou said,

"You were executing justice."

"Justice?"

Kirigaya Nuo gave a low laugh. No emotion could be heard in that laughter,

"Teacher, do you really believe there is such a thing as justice?"

She paused:

"The Crescent Group told me to kill him, but someone paid a higher price to buy his life."

"And I killed him, merely because... it was a mission."

"Nothing more."

She drank the last mouthful of cocoa and precisely tossed the empty can into a trash can in the distance.

Then, she stood up, looking out the window at the white world shrouded in twilight and flying snow.

"Teacher, skiing... makes me very happy."

She said softly:

"But this happiness is too brief."

"People like me... probably don't deserve to have long happiness."

After saying that, she pulled up her hoodie, turned around, and walked toward the direction of the station.

Night completely fell.

The lights of the station spread warm yellow halos in the wind and snow, like small, illusory harbors.

Kirigaya Nuo boarded the train returning to Edo, sitting by the window.

Outside the window was the continuously retreating, endless darkness and snow.

Inside the train, the heating was sufficient, passengers were sparse, and it was completely silent.

She closed her eyes, leaning against the seat back, not knowing what she was thinking.

"What do you want to eat tonight? Today is Valentine's Day, want to eat something special? Teacher's treat."

Xu Yunzhou asked in her consciousness, his tone gentle, trying to dispel some of the lingering haze and coldness.

Kirigaya Nuo froze for a moment.

"Teacher,"

She suddenly asked, her voice carrying a rare, almost naive curiosity:

"On Valentine's Day... shouldn't girls give chocolate to boys?"

Xu Yunzhou blanked, then smiled, his tone carrying warmth:

"Generally speaking, yes. Girls will give chocolate to people they like or are grateful to."

"I want to give Teacher chocolate."

She said, her tone serious, even carrying a bit of stubborn expectation.

The author has done many things, started businesses, traded stocks, traded crypto, gotten drunk, sang songs, participated in Go competitions... and been to many places... but has just never killed anyone, and doesn't want to dedicate himself to the art for the sake of writing more realistically, so whether this section is reasonable and realistic... please criticize lightly...