The bullet had left the gun. One-hundred fifty-eight grains of steel-jacketed lead hurtled toward the center of the Cody Howard's chest at a speed designed to stop a moving target at a hundred yards in a fraction of a second. But as he stood only fifteen feet from the muzzle of the gun, the bullet was on track to strike its target in less time than it took to blink. He didn't blink, but he did see the bullet - a black hole in the center of a sun that was the muzzle flash. It didn't take any time for his mind to register what his eyes saw, and to understand the future it dictated. He shouldn't have even had time to think "good-bye" but he did. Because of the flash of blue...the same color as Deki-san's shirt.