Page 357 of Mercy Written in Blood

"You do not know."

"Neither do you."

Hayashi lifted a detonator. Haruki spoke quietly into Renji's ear.

"His thumb."

Renji felt it. Pulse in the hand. Tendon movement beginning. He closed the artery before the button depressed. Hayashi's thumb stopped. Confusion entered his face.

The other attackers moved. Renji did not rage. He performed. One shooter lost vision. Another lost balance. A third attempted to detonate the charges manually. Renji stopped his heart. The fourth dropped his weapon immediately. Alive. The fifth ran towards the vault with the blood case. Renji ruptured no vessel. He increased pressure behind the man's eyes until pain forced him to fall.

Mercy where possible. Death where necessary.

Hayashi remained standing. His disabled hand hanging at his side. He looked at the bodies around him.

"At last," he said. "You prove them right."

Renji approached.

"No."

"You decide who lives."

"Yes."

"Like every tyrant."

"Like every surgeon."

Hayashi's face tightened.

"You believe precision makes killing moral."

"No."

Renji stopped in front of him.

"Necessity makes it necessary. Nothing makes it clean."

Haruki's voice came through the radio.

"Renji."

A warning. Not because Renji was losing himself. Because Haruki knew how easy certainty could become execution.

Renji looked at Hayashi. The man had ordered deaths. Attacked civilians. Tried to erase the Archive again. He remained unarmed now. Defeated. Killing him would be simple. Perhaps satisfying. Not necessary.

Renji closed the blood flow to both legs. Hayashi collapsed. Renji caught him by the coat and lowered him against the wall.

"You will live," he said.

Hayashi laughed weakly.

"Mercy?"

"No."

Renji looked towards the camera.