BLACK BULLET 2
CHAPTER 01

VARANIUM WAR

1

Kisara Tendo stood in the middle of the tatami-floored dojo filled with the cool morning air, wearing her black sailor-school uniform. The soft morning light sparkled on her straight, too-black hair, throwing small shadows behind her.

She stood with her eyes closed and her hips low, with her hand on the grip of her sword. She had already been in this position for ten minutes: The Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing Style, Nirvana Stance. The stance meant being in the midst of a state of constant change and existing freely in that state. It was a stance that encompassed all the offense and defense of the Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing Style.

She’s beautiful, thought Rentaro from the bottom of his heart as he looked up at his fellow pupil, at the same time unable to suppress a shudder. There was not a single opening in her stance, and there was something about it that made Rentaro certain that the moment he stepped within reach of her blade, he would be cut down. Rentaro discreetly took his smartphone from his pocket and looked at its LCD screen. It was almost time to leave for school. She would move soon.

Just as he thought, there was almost no need for him to wait.

Kisara exhaled softly, and her clear voice rang out. “Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing First Style, Number 1—” Her scabbard rang, and her sword was unsheathed with the speed of a lightning bolt: “Tekisui Seihyou.”

The slash made an extremely modest whoosh. But the top half of the target in front of Kisara—a carved wooden target wrapped in cloth—was blown off with a destructive blast, and pieces of it flew into the dojo’s walls. The most astonishing thing of all was that there was a distance of more than six meters between Kisara and the target.

Rentaro gulped. The striking distance of a sword catapulted by its sheath to accelerate when drawn was equal to the length of the sword plus the length of the swordsman’s arm and step.

However, the Tendo sword-drawing technique has something more than that. It was not like Rentaro had seen all of Kisara’s techniques, but he knew that she could slash up to three times her striking distance. And this was data from three years ago…

Standing up quickly, Rentaro clapped as he approached her, throwing her a towel. Kisara, whose face was haggard from the intense mental concentration this had required, said, “Thanks,” and wiped her face with the towel.

“That was incredible sword speed as usual, Miss Master Initiate President.”

Kisara stuck her chin in the air primly. “Don’t call me President when we’re not working. And if you think that, you should be more diligent, First Dan Satomi.”

“That was helpful. Even if the Sword Drawing Styles and Martial Arts Styles are different, they are all Tendo techniques, so there were a lot of things I could learn from that. You were seriously in a state of enlightenment just now.”

Kisara did not seem dissatisfied as she chuckled and lifted the hair above her neck. “You know, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is no enlightenment in the path of the sword. Apparently the moment you think you have reached enlightenment, deception and vanity are born and cloud your sword. And when I rose to master initiate level, Master Sukekiyo looked at me and said, ‘Your sword is so rusted, it’s sad. I will make you a master initiate taking that into consideration.’”

“……that demonic old man. He’s still alive?”

“He’ll be an active one hundred and twenty years old this year.”

“Damn, he should just commit seppuku already…”

“But thanks to him, I didn’t become too prideful. Now that I’m honing my mental spirit like this, I understand that there is still a lot that I can achieve.” A fearless look crossed Kisara’s face as she started to put away the target.

Watching her, Rentaro pouted, feeling pitiful. She didn’t need to become strong. He would protect her.

Then, he realized. Rentaro thought she had been using her usual sword-drawing practice sword, but although the black scabbard and base and red cord looked similar, this was a real sword. “The murderous blade, Yukikage, huh…?”

“That’s right.” As Kisara stopped working and looked at him, she dusted off the scabbard and held it up to the sunlight coming in through the window. Bathed in the morning sun, the wavy temper pattern on the blade scattered the light, filled with a charm that drew in all who looked at it.

Kisara looked at the blade absentmindedly and murmured, “Satomi, did I ever tell you what ‘murderous blade’ means?”

“No…”

“In Zen, it’s the opposite of the life-saving sword; it negates all human delusion. This…is the sword that will hunt down all the Tendos, Satomi.”

Rentaro made a fist where Kisara couldn’t see, his eyes flashing. Should he point out that Kisara, enthralled by the light of the murderous blade, also seemed to be possessed by delusions?

Kisara, whose failing kidneys meant she could no longer fight for long periods of time, recently gave up fighting on the front lines and shut Yukikage in a locker in the office. What did it mean that she was wielding it in the dojo again? Like Rentaro, who was using the recent terrorist incident as a chance to clear up the facts of his parents’ deaths, was there some sort of change in Kisara’s state of mind, too, or was he overthinking it?

A line from the Hojoki, a famous classical text he had studied in Japanese class, came to mind: “Although the river flows unceasing, the water will never be the same as before.”

As Rentaro was just about to open his mouth, he heard loud footsteps, and the door of the dojo was opened violently. Enju bounded in, looking just like a rabbit with her hair in swaying pigtails. “Rentaro! Today is the day you promised to assist me with my training!”

Had he promised to do something like that?

Rentaro released the slide lock of the toy gun and loaded the first round while keeping an eye on Enju ten meters ahead. “If you think you’re in trouble make sure to yell. Understand?”

Enju shouted, “I understand!” and waved her hand at him.

Rentaro and Kisara circled the back of the dojo by the lawn.

Rentaro took a deep breath. The tip of the gun Rentaro held was painted red in order to show that it was a toy gun that shot only BBs. Rentaro could feel Enju releasing her power as he took up his stance. “I-I’m starting.”

Rentaro aimed at Enju’s chest, then fired a bullet with a dry-sounding gunshot.

Huh? thought Rentaro as the bullet grazed Enju’s side.

He thought he missed his aim and tried again, aiming and shooting, but this time it was even more clear that Enju moved out of the way in an instant.

“Y-you little…” Rentaro fired consecutive shots, and Enju avoided them all safely.

In fact, she scowled, obviously bored. “Rentaro, this is boring.”

“Idiot, battle training isn’t supposed to be fun.” But, if she was going to go that far…

Rentaro abandoned the toy gun and drew his Springfield XD. It was loaded with nonlethal rubber rounds, but they were fired with gunpowder, so their speed was the same as real bullets, and it would do more than just hurt if Enju was hit with one. Even if Rentaro knew that she had powers of regeneration, he didn’t want to make her use them.

He fired the first shot. As he absorbed the recoil, he predicted where Enju would cross paths with it and fired continuous shots into her possible escape routes. He could tell that Enju had gotten serious by watching the afterimages left by her sharp eyes. Using the dojo’s outside wall to do a triangle jump, she approached Rentaro while staying one step ahead of the bullets.

Amazed, Rentaro continued firing as he stepped back. He was startled as Enju suddenly appeared in front of him. He tried to bring the gun’s barrel back to bear on her, but her footwork was overwhelmingly faster.

“Take that!” she said.

Rentaro felt the pain of the skin of his hands rubbing off as Enju’s kick came from below to send his gun flying.

“Match point!” Kisara, who had been watching the match with her arms folded, judged.

As Rentaro felt cold sweat running down his cheek, he slowly shifted his gaze to the side and saw Enju’s foot pushing against the side of his neck. Enju lowered her foot slowly and peered at Rentaro happily with her arms behind her back.

“Well, I guess I should say I have high hopes for you,” Rentaro said, making a sour face as he picked up his gun. At this rate, it was hard to say who was training whom.

During the last terrorist incident, he’d faced off against Kohina Hiruko, a dual-sword wielding Initiator, and was surprised at her speed, but fighting Enju like this, he could tell—the speed specialist Initiator, Enju Aihara, was even faster than Kohina. Enju could even be called the natural enemy of all gun users.

But this was not the only reason Enju was amazing. Initiators possessed enormous power, but in cases when they lost to ordinary people, it was because they’d seen swords or guns pointed at them in bloodlust and forgotten their reason for fighting. In other words, when the girls lost, it happened because their mental weakness as ten-year-old girls had been exploited.

However, Enju was not afraid of the muzzle of a gun. And that was an ability she had since before she met Rentaro. Enju was one of the Cursed Children, and someone who made the Stolen Generation, who ran the world ten years after the war, hate Gastrea even more.

It didn’t bother her, but just imagining the situation she was in before they met where she had to face the muzzle of a gun made his heart hurt. He was sure he couldn’t forgive a society like that.

Rentaro put the XD gun on the palm of his hand and took a long hard look at it. It had been a long time since the general public was allowed to carry guns in the name of self-defense. However, in Rentaro’s many brushes with death, he learned that a gun was an offensive weapon that existed to allow you to aim accurately at your opponent, to pull the trigger a fraction of a second faster. The idea of “self-defense” was an expedient one that nobody would touch.

This was the technologically advanced country of Japan, broke and scattering weapons in exchange for money and taxes. In reality, it was because of this that large global corporations like Shiba Heavy Weapons were created, but on the other hand, Japan had also become a hotbed of gun violence, so there were pluses and minuses.

Rentaro could say with certainty that he hated guns. However, if he didn’t use one, he would not have been able to make up the difference between his abilities and those of his elder disciple Kisara, or strong Initiators like Enju.

Rentaro shook his head softly. There was the New Humanity Creation Project, where humans were operated on to turn them into mechanized human soldiers designed to obliterate the Gastrea. Rentaro hated that power as well. More specifically, he felt disgust for the large-caliber Super-Varanium alloy shells inserted into his right arm and left leg.

This was because bullets, whether they were used for both attacking or defending, killed people in the process. It would be better if things like that were erased from this world. Definitely. Definitely.

Just then, something pulled on his sleeve. When he turned around, Enju was beaming, pointing at herself enthusiastically. “Rentaro, how did you find my fighting?”

Rentaro closed his eyes and exhaled deeply through his nose. “You know, Enju, you shouldn’t do a bunch of high kicks in a row in a skirt.”

Enju blinked in surprise for a moment before holding down her skirt, embarrassed, but then smiled happily and said, “You speak of such even though you were happy about it.”

Breaking out in a cold sweat as he felt Kisara’s spearlike gaze on his back, he put his hand on Enju’s head and ruffled her hair. “Idiot,” he said, as Enju half-closed her eyes in pleasure.

“Satomi.”

Turning around, he saw Kisara with her right sleeve rolled up, tapping her wrist where her watch was with her left forefinger. It was time.

“Uh…Enju, Kisara and I have to go to school now.”

Enju suddenly froze for a second but then recovered immediately. “Right. Well then, be zealous in your studies!” Saying that, she stuck out her chest proudly.

Rentaro watched her with a conflicted expression on his face. “Enju, I’ll try to find a place that will take you as soon as possible, okay?”

“Take your time. It’s fine.” Enju laughed, but she sounded a little troubled.

After they left the dojo and turned a few corners to walk out onto a large street, they continued along that same street. It was still relatively early in the morning, so there weren’t very many cars, and people only appeared sporadically.

As Rentaro walked next to Kisara down the street lined with fresh-smelling poplars, Kisara spoke, still looking ahead. “You still haven’t found a new elementary school for Enju yet?”

“No…,” Rentaro mumbled as he looked at the granite tiles at his feet. During the Kagetane Hiruko terrorist incident, Kagetane had exposed Enju as one of the Cursed Children, and Enju was unavoidably expelled from school.

Enju pretended she didn’t care, but it was supremely embarrassing as her guardian to have her pretend for his sake, so in order to bring back her smile somehow, he had gone around to a bunch of schools trying to find one that would take her.

Rentaro kicked a pebble on the street as hard as he could. Of course, he had not gotten very favorable reactions.

It wasn’t something he was proud of, but even though he hid the truth about Enju’s identity and filled out the transfer applications as if she were a normal child, it seemed that nothing escaped the information net the schools had among themselves, and it had been passed along that Enju was one of the Cursed Children. Once, he was shockingly told upon arrival, “I hate Red-Eyes, and I think those who’re on their side have the Gastrea virus in their brains, too.”

Rentaro lifted his face and glared gloomily at the brightly shining sun. Enju got good grades, was really athletic, and could brighten a classroom with her presence. She was a student schools should have been trying to convince to attend. So why was it that—Damn it.

Suddenly, the tip of Rentaro’s nose was pushed hard. Surprised, he looked next to him and saw Kisara with her hand on her hip, peering at him with an angry expression.

“Hey, Satomi, do you think this problem is yours to handle alone? It’s our problem, you know. Enju is an employee of the Tendo Civil Security Agency, which means her problem is my problem as well. You know, I was thinking… What if we had her attend a school in the Outer District?”

“That open-air classroom in the ruins? The classes would be so easy, it’s not even worth considering.”

“Oh my, does that mean you want Enju to go to an academically challenging school?” Rentaro groaned as she hit a nerve. It was true that the most important priority should be whether Enju would be comfortable at the school or not. Even if she were able to completely blend into her surroundings, as long as she herself was conscious that she was deceiving others, she would not be able to feel completely at ease there. And Enju definitely wasn’t thick-skinned or someone who could lie easily to others.

When Rentaro stopped, Kisara went a few steps ahead and then turned around.

“Well, I mean…,” he started. “I’ll consider your suggestion.”

Kisara sighed with exasperation and shook her head softly. “Satomi, everything really revolves around Enju for you, doesn’t it? Why don’t you take a look in a mirror? Unlike before, your face looks superhappy now.”

Rentaro hurriedly ran his hand over his face, but as he did, he saw Kisara gloating and realized that she was toying with him.

“Now, Satomi, no matter what we end up doing, there’s something we have to do first. We have a job. We’ve gotten to the point where we get work even if I don’t go around begging for it. Lady Luck is smiling on the Tendo Civil Security Agency now, too,” she laughed.

“What is it? I don’t wanna do anything annoying.”

Kisara looked at him with suggestive eyes, flipped her shiny black hair, and told him. “The job is an escort mission. The package is Lady Seitenshi. If you would believe it, Lady Seitenshi herself asked for you, Satomi.”

2

After school, Rentaro changed trains and headed to the First District of Tokyo Area. On his way, he absentmindedly looked out the window at the Monoliths as he wondered why she chose him.

About a month earlier, Rentaro had ruined a ceremony that was supposed to honor his achievements saving Tokyo Area and destroying a Stage Five Gastrea. She should have resented him. They definitely did not have the type of relationship where she would offer him a job.

Still not completely satisfied, Rentaro got off at the station in front of the Seitenshi’s palace. After a few minutes’ walking, the Seitenshi’s palace came into view. It looked like it was built in the neo-Gothic style of architecture. The whole thing seemed to consist of many organic curves, with the curved glass windows that could be seen through the stone pillars that looked like bones and the area in front of the entrance slanted like waves. No matter how many times he saw it, it was always a gorgeous Western-style building, but for Rentaro, who lacked aesthetic sense, it just looked like the poor taste of people with new money.

He gave a security guard his name and the purpose of his visit. After the security guard called inside and talked for a while, Rentaro was allowed to pass, sandwiched between more guards in front of and behind him.

There were folding chairs lined up in an orderly fashion, and in front of them were a spotlight and a tiered doll stand. That was probably where the spokesman always stood to smoothly answer questions from the press. In the past, Rentaro had had the opportunity to see similar events when he was at the emperor’s palace, so there was a strange familiarity when he came to a place like this.

Because of those thoughts, he was surprised when he realized it was the Seitenshi herself who came to the podium. Directly in front of her sat a few people scattered about. It looked like she was practicing some sort of speech. It seemed she had not yet noticed Rentaro.

The third-generation head of state of Tokyo Area was wearing the same pure white dress she always wore and had a strained expression on her face. As usual, she possessed such beauty that she was hard to approach. “Today is a day of good fortune, and I wish health and joy on those gathered here today. Now, there are only three points I wish to speak of today. Only three—”

Her eye contact, the placement of her breath, the tempo of her speech—everything was perfect. In front of Rentaro’s eyes, there was a national ruler his age presenting a speech that would put adults to shame.

Rentaro was reluctant to interrupt and listened attentively, putting his hand on the back of a chair on the side. When he did, a leg on that chair gave a loud creak, and he was surprised as everyone turned to look at him.

The Seitenshi adjusted her seated posture and folded her hands elegantly in front of her dress, cracking a smile. “Good afternoon, Satomi. You’re right on time.”

Suddenly, the memory of almost grabbing the Seitenshi resurfaced in Rentaro’s mind, and he looked down slightly, scratching the back of his head. “Um, sorry about before.”

“I am not concerned about it.”

Looking at the Seitenshi’s faint smile, he grumbled in his heart that she didn’t just look good but she also had good character. No wonder she was so popular with the citizens.

A woman who looked like a secretary pushed up sharp glasses as she approached him. “Who is this?”

“Kiyomi, this is your first time meeting him, isn’t it? This is Rentaro Satomi from the Tendo Civil Security Agency, the hero of Tokyo Area who drove away a Stage Five Gastrea.”

The woman called Kiyomi was taken aback. “Rentaro Satomi… You mean the former kids’ TV singer and stripper at a gay bar? That Rentaro Satomi?”

“Who’re you calling a stripper at a gay bar?! Who’s spreading these false rumors, anyway?!”

Because of the incomplete news blackout that had been imposed, strange rumors were being spread, primarily online. Having his personal information distorted was a big headache for Rentaro. Based on those rumors, Rentaro was a former shiitake mushroom cultivation engineer, a former fortune adviser, and a former animal therapist. Kids’ TV singer and gay bar stripper were new.

“Hey, if you don’t need me for anything, I’m going home.”

“I do need you for something.” The Seitenshi signaled with a look telling those around her to back off, stepped down from the platform, and approached him.

“Satomi, President Saitake, the Osaka Area representative, is informally visiting Tokyo Area the day after tomorrow.”

“What?!” Rentaro froze unconsciously as she said a name he recognized. Sougen Saitake?

“That’s right. I’m sure you already know this, but currently, Japan is split into five areas—Sapporo, Sendai, Osaka, Hakata, and Tokyo Areas—ruled by five heads of state. One of them, President Saitake, sent a message out of the blue the other day saying that he was going to visit Tokyo Area and that he wanted a conference with me.”

“Why…?” Osaka Area hadn’t contacted Tokyo Area at all these past few years. What could he possibly want after all this time?

“I do not know. However, I believe a large part of why he chose now is because of the absence of Kikunojo.”

“Now that you mention it, that old man is in China or Russia or something, right? They showed it on TV.”

The Seitenshi nodded silently. Saitake and Kikunojo had a long history of being political opponents since before the Great War, so to come while Kikunojo was gone could be seen as cowardice or underhandedness.

“I see. Well, you said you wanted me as an escort, but what exactly did you want me to do?”

“I want you to sit next to me in the limousine when we travel, stand behind me during meetings, and be my bodyguard.”

“Does that mean you want me to stand in the old man’s place where he always stands and be his replacement?”

“To put it plainly, yes.”

Rentaro didn’t know what to think anymore. What in the world was the national head of state in front of him thinking? “Is this at your own discretion?”

“Yes.”

“When the old man comes back and finds out about this, he’s going to be furious, you know.”

“Why would he be?”

“Because…I followed Kisara Tendo.”

As if she understood with just that, the Seitenshi let out an “Ah.”

“I do not make plans based on concerns over the Tendo family feud.”

“But you know that it’s not as simple a matter as a family feud.”

She did not say anything.

“Anyway, don’t you already have proper guards around you?”

“I was just about to introduce you to them. Please, come in.”

When the Seitenshi raised her arm to summon them in, there was the stamping of soldier boots, and men without a thread out of place entered the press conference room and formed a line. These were the Seitenshi’s personal guards, who were always seen off to the side during TV broadcasts. Rentaro counted six of them.

They all wore white overcoats and uniform caps, with handguns at their waists. He didn’t want to say it, but more than guards, they looked exactly like the treasonous military police from World War II. When they looked this similar, it was strange that there was no military sword at their waist.

“Satomi, this is the captain, Yasuwaki.”

A conspicuously tall and handsome man stepped forward, smiling with his right arm outstretched. “Pleased to meet you. I am Takuto Yasuwaki. My rank is second lieutenant, and I have the honor of being the captain of the guard. I have heard much about you. If anything happens while on duty, I am counting on you, Satomi.”

“I haven’t accepted the offer yet, you know. Besides, I didn’t come here to serve. I just came to hear an explanation of a job.” Even as he spoke, Rentaro was inwardly surprised. The man looked to be in his early thirties. He was very young to be the captain of the Seitenshi’s personal guard.

Rentaro stared at the proffered right hand for a while, and then raised his head to look at Yasuwaki. He had sharp eyes in a narrow, pointy face that looked nervous. Behind his ingratiating voice, those eyes stared at him coldly. Rentaro could feel them on his skin that had suddenly become as sensitive as radar. For some reason, contrary to Yasuwaki’s tone of voice, Rentaro was apparently not very welcome.

Seeming to sense the unrest in the air, the Seitenshi hurriedly intervened. “Satomi, isn’t it a little impolite of you to not return his handshake?”

Yasuwaki lightly took off his hat and smiled at her. “No, Lady Seitenshi. I am used to being treated this way by civsec officers. Even if he is a hero, he is still a mere high school student, so he must be a little nervous.” Yasuwaki did not seem particularly hurt as he withdrew his hand and gave a polite bow.

He knows how to handle himself, Rentaro thought. Was it my fault?

The Seitenshi looked back and forth from Rentaro to Yasuwaki. Then, with a strange uneasiness, she quickly moved on to discussing compensation.

Rentaro let that go in one ear and out the other as he put his hand on his chin and thought, setting his personal feelings aside for a moment. He felt bad doing this to Kisara, but it wasn’t really a job he felt like doing.

First of all, during the previous terrorist incident, he had gone through a lot of trouble because the government had been hiding important information. The job this time seemed to be a personal request of the Seitenshi’s, but it sounded like the selfish wish of a princess where he would definitely get the short end of the stick.

Another reason was that he simply did not think he was good enough. A job like this should be undertaken by a specialist unit of VIP guards. It was one thing if there was no money and the client wanted to keep costs down by hiring a civsec officer, but for the national ruler, this was unthinkable. Guarding a helpless girl like the Seitenshi would likely be a nerve-racking job. He didn’t think anything would happen, but if something did, the responsibility would be too great.

“Well then, if you will accept the job, please fill out the necessary paperwork and contact us.”

The female secretary from earlier finished the standard explanation and handed Rentaro the contract. Then, the Seitenshi concluded, saying, “I have another engagement,” and left, taking her personal guards with her.

By the time Rentaro stretched out his arm asking, “Uh, hey, where’s the exit—” everyone had already left the press conference room.

At a loss, Rentaro scratched the back of his head, stuffed both hands in his pockets, and wandered around the Seitenshi’s palace. However, he stopped suddenly and scratched his head three minutes later when he realized he was lost. After passing a reception room decorated with gigantic stuffed deer and alligators and the like, then a locked meeting room, Rentaro found himself in a hallway he had never seen before with a red carpet, without knowing how he had gotten there.

As Rentaro walked around looking for a worker to ask for directions, he suddenly felt a shot of pain as his arm was wrenched behind his back. “Don’t say a word,” a stifled voice whispered in his ear, and he was pushed into a nearby men’s restroom and thrown against the wall. Rentaro saw stars, and he thought his forehead had split open as he watched a bloodstain spread on the wall.

Bastard. Still trapped, Rentaro elbowed his captor behind him and tripped him. Getting free, he used his left hand to grab his opponent’s head and banged it into the wall in return.

“Son of a bitch.”

Rentaro felt someone else coming from behind to hit him and took the attack by putting up his right arm to block without looking. Then, he used a bit of aikido to twist and throw his opponent into the wall.

There was a gasp as air was pushed out of his attacker’s lungs.

“That’s enough.” There was the click of a gun cocking, and Rentaro stopped moving. Turning around slowly, he saw the six guards from before, including Yasuwaki. One was standing guard outside the restroom, two had been beaten by Rentaro, and two had drawn their sidearms and had them pointed at Rentaro.

And the last, Yasuwaki, had his arms clasped behind his back, looking down at Rentaro like a snake tormenting something weaker than it.

“What are you trying to do…bastard?” Rentaro said.

Yasuwaki walked briskly over to Rentaro, and just as Rentaro thought he had drawn a large knife from his hip, Yasuwaki thrust the side of Rentaro’s face into the wall of the restroom as hard as he could. Yasuwaki brought his mouth next to Rentaro’s ear and whispered in a stifled voice, “Rentaro Satomi, turn down this job. It is my job to stand behind Lady Seitenshi.”

“Huh?”

“You make me sick. Who cares if you’re the hero who defeated a Zodiac? You just happened to be the one by the abandoned railgun module, you whelp. If I had been there, I would have defeated the Zodiac.”

Rentaro didn’t say anything.

“Why you?” Yasuwaki continued. “Lord Tendo left Lady Seitenshi to me while he was gone. To me. Lord Tendo’s usual position by her side should be mine.”

“You’re always by her side protecting her, aren’t you?”

Yasuwaki gave a snort. “Idiot. It’s not the same as being with her in the car or during meetings. Besides, Rentaro Satomi”—Yasuwaki leaned over and grinned, licking his lips repulsively—“Lady Seitenshi has grown up beautifully and will be sixteen this year. Don’t you think it’s about time Tokyo Area’s ruler had a successor, as well?”

“Oh, is that how it is? In the end, it’s always that, huh?”

Yasuwaki drew his gun from his hip and thrust it between Rentaro’s eyebrows. “Shut up. Now, I’ll have your answer.”

“I’m not gonna listen to you.”

Yasuwaki put away his handgun quickly and headed for the hallway with a jerk of his chin. “Crush the bones in his arms and legs.”

Were these guys serious? Held down by guards on his left and right sides, he was disgusted and flailed wildly until suddenly the hold on his right hand loosened. The next instant, before he could even think about it, his hand had reached out to the gun on his hip. He aimed slightly to the right of Yasuwaki’s astonished face and pulled the trigger.

The bullet flew straight and grazed Yasuwaki’s cheek, and then the explosive sound of small-arms fire in a small room thundered throughout the palace. Then, there was a brief moment of silence, and the smell of gunpowder smoke stung Rentaro’s nostrils.

“This guy…”

“I can’t believe you fired in the Seitenshi’s palace.” The guards were shocked.

Yasuwaki roared at the guards, who had started to look nervous. “Get yourselves together, idiots!”

Holding his cheek where the bullet had grazed him, Yasuwaki narrowed his eyes that were burning with hatred. “I’ll kill you…… I’ll kill you, you son of a bitch!” Spitting out his parting threat, he and the guards quickly retreated.

In their place, workers rushed in in great numbers. “Are you all right?” they asked Rentaro.

As Rentaro waved away the hands reached out to him in his confused state and stood up, he glared at the exit Yasuwaki and the others left from. Apparently, the Seitenshi’s personal guards were far from being honest or diligent.

Rentaro received simple treatment and was interrogated by the staff and found innocent. By the time he was led out of the palace by the staff, he had decided to take the job.

When Rentaro left the palace, the sun was low, and the sky was dyed red. He stretched hard, and the bones in his body made delightful popping sounds. Every time he had to undergo this kind of questioning, it made his shoulders stiff.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain and pressed his hand to the bandage on his forehead.

On the other hand, despite the extremely serious matter of boldly shooting a gun in the Seitenshi’s palace, he had been allowed to go home surprisingly easily. For some reason, the staff understood his situation, but when Rentaro tried to turn the conversation to Yasuwaki and the other guards, the staff gave a start and looked down.

It looked like the staff inside the palace had some knowledge of the arrogance of the Seitenshi’s personal guards. At least, enough to figure out immediately that something had happened between Rentaro and the guards when they saw Yasuwaki and the others leave the restroom, with Rentaro inside with blood dripping from his forehead. Rentaro sighed. It had turned into something annoying.

Then, he looked up and thought, Oh? There was a bicycle circling the elaborately designed fountain in front of the Seitenshi’s palace. It had been circling this whole time. Riding the bike was a girl about the same age as Enju with hair that could probably be called platinum blond. The wind blew her beautiful hair up, and it reflected the red light of the setting sun, sparkling brightly.

However, the girl was wearing baggy pajamas, her feet shod in house slippers, she had a serious case of bedhead sticking out from her head, her mouth hung half-open, and she pedaled the bike with a self-effacing expression on her face. It was hard to watch.

The people walking by had expressions on their faces that made it clear they did not want to get involved with what looked like a sleepwalker on a bike caught in an endless loop around the round fountain, and they quickened their steps to pass her.

Rentaro had a bad feeling about this and hunched his shoulders, walking quickly to pass the girl on the side, leaving plenty of space between them. With a feeling of relief, he stroked his chest and tried not to look back as he headed home.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something falling behind his back.

“Hey…! What the…?! Watch where you’re going!” The thunderous voice carried a hundred meters, and when Rentaro reluctantly turned back, there were three delinquent boys with bleached blond hair surrounding the girl from before. The girl had been thrown off her bike and looked like she didn’t know what had happened. Surprised, she looked left and right, but then the kicks started mercilessly, and Rentaro closed one eye.

The girl’s back crashed into the edge of the fountain, and the muffled voice that escaped when the air was knocked out of her lungs even reached Rentaro.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Say something, bitch. You ran over my foot with this bike. Get it?”

“Aw man, that foot’s probably broken.”

“You’ve gotta pay compensation! Compensation!”

One of the boys started stomping on the vainly spinning spokes of the inverted bicycle in a fit of anger. The girl didn’t know what was going on and just stood with her mouth open. There were more people around them who avoided the girl and walked by, and some started appearing who didn’t want to get involved and turned away completely.

Rentaro felt bad for her, but he wasn’t such a good person that he would act like a hero and go in to help. His feeling of not wanting to get involved won, and he turned around, but when he suddenly thought of what Enju would say if she were here, his legs stopped as if they were glued to the ground.

Rentaro ruffled his fingers through his hair. Damn it. Might as well call her parents, he said to himself as he put his hand on the spiky-haired one who was poking the girl and who seemed to be the leader, forcing him to turn around to face Rentaro.

The spiky-haired boy scowled unpleasantly and said, “Huh?”

Rentaro regarded the boy with little in the way of enthusiasm. The pure violence of this type of scary-faced loudmouth was definitely easier to deal with than the underhanded, spiteful Yasuwaki.

When Rentaro didn’t say anything, the boy said, “Who the hell are you?” and put his face close to Rentaro’s to threaten him.

Rentaro didn’t say anything and just tapped his own back twice where his gun was stuck into his belt.

The spiky-haired boy’s reptilian eyes gave off a dangerous light, and there was an oppressive silence. The fibers of Rentaro’s clothes poked his skin.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the spiky-haired boy finally turned on his heel and said, “Hey, let’s go,” and left, taking his friends with him.

Exhaling softly and relaxing his shoulders, he swore to himself that he would never do this again. As Rentaro turned back reproachfully, he saw the blond girl looking at him with her mouth open.

“A hero… It’s my first time ever seeing one.” The girl in pajamas that he saved looked at him with an absentminded expression.

“You don’t have to thank me. Just hurry up and go home! Later.”

As he waved carelessly and was about leave, the girl grabbed the sleeve of his uniform. “Where are we?”

Rentaro covered his face with his palm and shook his head softly. Damn it, he had gotten involved, after all.

Sitting the girl on a bench in a green park in the neighborhood, Rentaro went all the way to a water faucet, got a towel wet, and brought it back. Wringing out the towel, he wiped the girl’s face. “Stay still for a sec.”

The girl lifted her chin, narrowed her eyes, and stayed there. “You seem to be…used to this.”

“I’ve got a freeloader about your age at home, that’s why. There, all clean.” Rentaro took a step back to look at the girl, putting his hand on his hip and nodding once.

The girl lowered her head to bow in thanks—but strangely, she never lifted her face back up. Rentaro thought this was suspicious and peeked at her face from below. Her eyelids looked heavy, blinking sleepily as she started falling asleep.

“Hey…”

Suddenly raising her head, the girl dug around in her pocket and pulled out a bottle with an English label on it, took a pill out of it, and put it in her mouth. Rentaro thought she was eating something and stole a look at the label on the bottle and frowned. Apparently, they were caffeine pills.

“I’m…nocturnal, so if I don’t do this, I can’t stay awake during the day.” As she spoke, she tossed a large number of pills in her mouth one after another, chewed sleepily, and swallowed. Rentaro did not know much about this type of pill, but he could tell that this was more than a normal dose.

“Where did you come from? What’s your name? Where’s your guardian? Why are you wearing pajamas and house slippers?”

The girl looked down at her own clothes and tilted her head slowly. “Dunno…” It had taken her about ten seconds to react.

“What do you mean, ‘dunno’? Jeez… What about your name, then?”

“My name is…” For some reason, the girl’s eyes shifted for a moment, but then she seemed to give up and lifted her face. “Tina…… It’s Tina Sprout.”

“I’m Rentaro Satomi.”

“Call me Tina.”

“Then, you can call me Rentaro.”

“Rentaro…?” Tina looked at Rentaro absentmindedly with her mouth half-open.

“What is it?”

“I just…wanted to try it out.”

Rentaro slumped his shoulders. This was tiring. “Well, Tina, I’ll ask you again. Where’s your guardian?”

“I don’t have one.”

She didn’t? “Where did you come from? You can just tell me what you remember.”

With her eyes half-closed, Tina tilted her head front and back, left and right, stuck her forefinger on her chin, and started to speak slowly. “All I remember is that I think I woke up in my apartment today, took a shower, changed my clothes, and went out.”

“Don’t lie! Not only haven’t you changed or showered, you look like you just woke up!”

Tina opened her mouth and said, “Oh,” softly, her eyes still half-closed. “You know me better than…I know myself…don’t you?”

“Hey… The bike that was broken was yours, right?”

“Bike? Was I…riding something…like that?”

“Never mind. You should go to the police box and ask for directions.”

“I can’t…really…”

“Just do it. I realized now that I can’t deal with you.”

“Don’t…say that.”

Rentaro wrote his phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. “Here, if you get lost again, you can call me, so just go to the police box. Please.”

“Then, can I try calling you as a test right now?”

“Why do you have to do something like that…?”

“Because you might have given me a fake phone number.”

Rentaro had no words.

Tina turned her back on him and fiddled with her cell phone, and then Rentaro’s chest pocket started to vibrate. “I know this is sudden, but you are interested in ten-year-old girls, right?”

“Wh…what…?”

“I was keenly aware of you gazing at the skin peeking out from my pajamas.”

“Go see an eye doctor.”

“I was afraid to say it to you in person, but you really have an unfortunate face, don’t you, Rentaro?”

“Shut up.”

“I also didn’t get a chance to say this, but I know where my apartment is.”

Rentaro felt foolish. Then, what was I hanging out with this kid for?

Tina smiled faintly and folded her cell phone shut slowly. “Today was a very fun day.”

Apparently, in this girl’s mind, this farce was saved in her memory as a fun day.

It wasn’t fun at all for me, you know, he almost said, but kept it to himself after seeing her happy face.

Tina slowly slid off the bench and smiled. “I hope we can meet again.”

Rentaro scratched his head, then gave up and gave a big nod, shooing her off with his hand.

“Well then, good-bye, Rentaro.” The girl bowed politely and walked falteringly out of the park. Rentaro watched her go, not exhaling with relief until he couldn’t see her anymore. She didn’t seem like a bad kid.

Thinking he had another story he could tell Enju, he walked in the opposite direction of the girl.

3

Cars were passing by so quickly they made Tina’s ears hurt before going off into the distance. The temperature had cooled down, and it had gotten a little chilly. As Tina trudged down the highway, before she knew it, she had turned her face toward the cars with their headlights turned on.

The sky was dyed with darkness and the moon shone in stark contrast. Night is coming. It’s my time. One by one, the cells in her body started to awaken, her mind became clear, and her body became filled with energy.

Just then, Tina’s cell phone vibrated. Looking at the caller’s name, she put the phone to her ear. “Master?”

“Give your report.” It was a hard, businesslike voice.

“I have infiltrated Tokyo Area successfully. I will now return to my apartment and then head to the designated location to retrieve the items.”

“Anything out of the ordinary to report?”

“There was some trouble, but it was nothing serious.” Tina put her hand on her chest and closed her eyes as she continued slowly. “……a kind person helped me.”

The person on the other end of the phone spoke, sounding irritated. “I thought I told you to avoid contact with other people if possible. In order to avoid information leaks, make sure you give a false name if possible.”

“Yes, sir…… No problem.”

“Tina Sprout. What is your mission? Let me hear it again.”

Tina lifted her face and looked at the moon. She was completely awake now. “Do not worry, Master. I will carry out the assassination of the Seitenshi.”

Tina’s feet took her back to her apartment. The wooden apartment building was old, built based on old building standards with pillars that had been rebuilt time and time again in order to extend its life. The white paint was peeling, and there were cracks in the wall. Tina’s master probably thought this would make the best hideout for her because there were no conspicuous buildings around, and it was a quiet area.

Still, what was up with still using a pinfire gun in the year 2031? she wondered, remembering her classes on espionage as she put her key in the lock and turned.

The minute she opened the door, she was met with stagnant, moldy air. Just like the outside, the inside did not consider the comforts of its renter, but this was a temporary mission, so she just had to bear with it while she was here. Thinking that, she took off her slippers.

Tina blushed as she stood in front of the full-length mirror left behind by the previous occupant. I stood in front of that man dressed like this? If I dressed up a little, I would look cuter than this, she thought regretfully as she took off her pajamas and went to take a shower.

Changing her clothes, she replaced the battery pack of her cell phone with one that was fully charged and put a futuristic-looking spindle-shape wireless headset over her right ear. Then, she called her master back as she left the apartment.

She headed toward a seedy place where freight containers from the suburbs were stacked neatly together. They were a kind of rental boxes called trunk rooms. After the Great War, apparently, there were a number of people who started a business by simply installing freight containers on vacant land. Because of Tokyo Area’s chronic land shortage and with the price of land going up gradually, it was a practice that continued steadily until the land was sold off and the owners withdrew.

“Master, I have arrived.” Tina held an IC card up to the unmanned gate and went inside, looking for the container he was talking about. Before long, she found the number she was looking for on a conspicuously large container. Inserting the key in the lock, she entered the numbers into the padlock as she was told and opened the door.

When she stepped inside, Tina was shocked.

“What do you think, Tina?” She could hear the pride in his voice over the phone.

The interior of the gigantic container, about the size of six tatami mats, could be called an armory. Of course, there were small arms and sniper rifles, but there were also rocket launchers, recoilless guns, antitank rifles, and other superior weapons overflowing from the walls and ceilings. It seemed like he had gotten one of everything that looked like it could be of use, just to be certain not to be lacking something.

Getting a peek at his neurotic eccentricity, Tina chose an antitank sniper rifle and put it in her gun case. However, as she tried to lift it up, it wouldn’t budge off the ground even when she used all the strength she had as a weak girl.

Left with no choice, she calmed her breathing and released her power. She could feel her whole body gradually growing warm and felt her five senses physically expanding. She didn’t have a mirror, so she couldn’t see for herself, but she was sure her eyes were red.

This time, she was able to lift the case easily, and she passed through the gate with her head down so her eyes wouldn’t be seen and walked quickly toward her apartment. All that was left was to get back home. Perhaps because of that self-conceit, she froze when high beams from a car suddenly shone on her from the side.

“Miss, where are you from? You shouldn’t be out right now. Do you know what time it is? Where do you live?” A door slammed, and someone came out of the car.

Promptly covering just her face with the palm of her hand and seeing the sirens on top of the car, Tina reported the situation very calmly. “Master, I’m sorry. There has been an unforeseen situation. I have been stopped by the police.”

Apparently, they thought she was a runaway.

“Have they seen your face?”

“No…”

“Oh, well…” The man seemed to nod on the other end, and then gave her the order coldly and evenly. “Kill them.”

4

“This is terrible…” Holding the spoils of the evening limited-time sale war in their reusable bags, Rentaro’s and Enju’s feet stopped. The police car sunk into the concrete wall was in a sorry state —it looked like it had been kicked by Godzilla.

The sirens were smashed, the hood was crushed, and the exhaust pipe was bent in a strange direction. Outside the cordoned-off area, a large number of onlookers were crowded around, taking pictures with their phones with one hand.

Rentaro approached one of them hesitatingly and said, “Hey, do you know what in the world happened here…?”

“Who knows? It looks like they haven’t caught the perpetrator yet. But aren’t the only ones who can do something like this the Red-Eyes?”

Rentaro ground his teeth in frustration at not being able to refute this presumptive reasoning. It was true that even though it wasn’t strictly speaking impossible for a human to do this, the probability that it was a human was low enough to ignore.

“There are no leads, and the officer attacked is still unconscious in critical condition.”

“Critical condition? He’s not dead?”

“Hmm? Yeah, what about it?”

“Nothing…” Rentaro felt bad saying it, but because the car had been so thoroughly destroyed, he had thought that the officer driving it would have left this world, as well. Rentaro gave a quick bow in thanks and returned to Enju.

Enju had covered her eyes, still holding her shopping bag. Rentaro stopped for a second and approached her slowly. “Enju,” he said quietly, “you’re not the one who did it. It was one of the other Children.”

Enju gave him a quick, bitter smile but then soon showed him a full smile. “Rentaro, you are too kind. Yes, I am fine now.”

“All right, let’s go home, then.” On the way home, he and Enju had a rambling conversation as she swung her shopping bags back and forth.

“And then, you know the new cartoon Go, Zengar! that just started…?”

As Rentaro snuck a peek at the side of Enju’s face, he wondered if he should say it. Should he just mind his own business?

Rentaro said diffidently, “Enju, don’t worry about it. You weren’t the one who did it.”

Enju tilted her head and looked at him like she didn’t know what he was talking about. “Hmm? Whatever is the matter, Rentaro?”

“You weren’t the one who did it.”

Enju’s gaze wavered, and she seemed flustered. “Wh-what’s the matter, Rentaro? You seem strange.”

Rentaro put his hands on Enju’s shoulders and turned her toward him, saying each word clearly and distinctly. “I said, you weren’t the one who did that, Enju…”

Enju made a perplexed face, but then unconsciously, her face crumpled and her expression wavered. Enju looked down and wiped her eyes quickly with her sleeve. “R-Rentaro, you’re amazing! How did you know that I was still concerned about that? Even though Kisara and Sumire wouldn’t have realized…”

Rentaro put his hand on her head and let out a long breath. “Because it’s you…”

“Why can’t everyone just get along, Rentaro…?” Enju’s voice was hoarse, and it sounded like it would disappear at any moment.

“I don’t know………” Even as Rentaro tousled Enju’s hair, he saw a bleak future for the Cursed Children. Born at almost the same time as the Great Gastrea War ten years ago, the Cursed Children were ten years old or younger. As such, it was probably too much to ask for them to possess wise judgment.

However, each time a crime like this was committed, the hatred the Stolen Generation—who already hated Gastrea—had for the Cursed Children grew stronger. The girls didn’t know. They didn’t realize that hatred would swing in the opposite direction of where force was applied, like a pendulum. Sometimes with far more force.

Each time one of the Cursed Children committed a crime, it was as if Enju’s neck was being strangled slowly with a silk rope, and it made Rentaro’s chest hurt to watch it. No, more accurately, it was as if the net trapping the Children was getting tighter, in a way they couldn’t see.

Rentaro narrowed his eyes and looked back once more at the scene behind them. He didn’t know who’d done it, but Rentaro doubted he could forgive the perpetrator.

Enju finally separated herself slowly from Rentaro and wiped her face one more time with her sleeve. “All right, this time—this time—I am surely fine!”

Rentaro smiled. “Yeah… Okay.” In order to dispel the solemn atmosphere, Rentaro exhaled deeply, puffing out his chest and laughing loudly, looking down at the shopping bags. “By the way, Enju, we got a good haul at the limited-time sale today, huh?”

Enju grinned mischievously. “I did not think we would be able to purchase meat so cheaply, either.”

Rentaro pumped his fist. “We’re having sukiyaki today!”

“Sukiyaki…!” Enju hopped happily.

As soon as Rentaro got back to their rundown eight-tatami-mat apartment, he put on an apron and went to the kitchen. As he cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces, Enju capered around Rentaro, chattering excitedly about the cartoon she was currently into, Go, Zengar! It sounded like it was based on those old shows about fighting squadrons and transforming robots.

“And then, and then, there’s the robot of justice, Zenin Zengar, and the evil robot, Akuin Akkar. And the storyboards for episode eighteen were—”

“Zenin zenga, like ‘one good turn deserves another’? And akuin akka, like ‘what goes around comes around’? Aren’t those Buddhist terms or something? That’s a pretty advanced cartoon.”

Enju proudly put both hands on her hips, as if impressed that Rentaro had noticed. “That’s right. And the most amazing thing is that the squadron consists of four chief priests and a Buddhist nun, and they are all bald, and their five temples combine to form one large transforming robot.”

“R-really……”

The cartoons you watch are so weird, Rentaro thought as he put konnyaku noodles, leeks, chrysanthemum leaves, and mushrooms on a bamboo draining basket and then unfolded a low table that was leaning against the wall. Putting on oven mitts, Rentaro moved the sukiyaki pot from the kitchen to the gas burner on the table and turned it on. Before long, the ingredients were boiling gently, and the warm steam was rising to meet Rentaro’s and Enju’s faces. As the sweet smell of the sauce filled the room, Rentaro started salivating. He couldn’t wait to eat. It had been days since he’d had such extravagant food for dinner.

After Rentaro chided Enju for putting her hands on the low table and jumping around, she switched to hitting the bowl with the egg in it with her chopsticks and yelling, “Is it time to eat yet?”

Rentaro gave a wry smile. Urging Enju to sit down, they had just started to chorus, “Time to eat!” when the front door’s intercom rang unexpectedly.

Rentaro scowled as he turned to look at the clock on the wall. Who could it be at this time of night?

“S-Satomi dear…” With a voice that was on the verge of death, a beautiful girl wearing Japanese-style clothes barged in. She had a large face mask over her mouth, her face was red, and she sounded like she had a bad cough.

Rentaro was taken aback. He knew this face. And it was a face that he wanted to avoid seeing if possible. “M-Miori?! What are you doing here?”

The girl in the kimono took cold medicine and nutritional supplement drinks out of the shopping bag on her arm and put them in Rentaro’s hands. She seemed to be making an appeal to him as she pointed at herself repeatedly.

“T-take care of me…while I’m sick…” Saying just that seemed to use up all her energy, and she fell with a thud to the floor of the entryway.

Rentaro’s mouth gaped as he was overcome with surprise. But, that was not the end of the situation.

Seconds after the girl in the kimono fell, Kisara Tendo came through the entrance, her face haggard. “S-Satomi…… I know it’s sudden, but take this…” Then Kisara handed him a tray of beef with a half-price price tag on it.

It was cheaper than the sale meat Rentaro had bought. “Make sukiyaki with it… I’m…hungry…” Saying only that, Kisara fainted from hunger and fell with a thud to the floor of the entryway. The girl in the kimono was smushed and made a weird sound.

One sick person. One unconscious person. A total of two people had suddenly barged into the Satomi home.

Rentaro turned white as a sheet. “Th-this is terrible…”

Enju raised her voice, sounding unhappy. “Another woman I do not know is here! Rentaro, explain yourself! Who is this woman who is not Kisara?!”

“A-anyway, Enju, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, so please abandon one of them outside!”

Enju didn’t really understand what was going on and tilted her head in question. “Hmm? Rentaro, what are you saying?”

“Kisara and this girl don’t get along at all! Leaving them in the same space will cause an awful chemical reaction.”

Enju leaned over the girl in the kimono and started poking the girl with her chopsticks. “Well, who is she?”

Rentaro scratched the back of his head and remembered that Enju hadn’t actually been introduced to her yet. “This is Miori. Miori Shiba. The student council president of my school, Magata High School, and the daughter of the CEO of Shiba Heavy Weapons, the weapons corporation that supplies us with equipment.”

The phrase “bed of thorns” was meant for times like this, Rentaro thought as he broke out into a cold sweat. Across the table from Rentaro was an unhappy-looking Kisara, kneeling properly and poking at the sukiyaki pot. Diagonally across from him was Enju, grinning, and next to him in equally high spirits was Miori.

Miori’s face was still red, but after a dose of cold medicine and nutritional drinks, she had soon recovered enough to sit up. Now, she had even taken off her face mask that would get in the way of eating sukiyaki. In the end, it was doubtful whether she even really needed someone to look after her while she was sick. Rentaro looked sideways at Miori, wondering if it had just been an excuse to come to his house.

She seemed to be the perfect little rich girl, with her long, wavy, shiny black hair and her brightly colored Japanese-style clothes. As they were both rich girls with a certain noble air about them, she and Kisara were very similar, but there were definite differences in their Japanese versus Western tastes and in their ways of thinking.

“Sorry y’all ended up treating me, too, Satomi dear,” Miori said with a drawl.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about—”

“Yes, there is,” Kisara said flatly, with her eyes closed and just her chopsticks moving silently and continuously. “We brought ingredients like respectable people do, but that snake woman over there is eating for free. It’s a bother. I wish she would leave immediately.”

“Oh, were you here, Kisara? Your boobs were so large that I couldn’t see your face.”

There was a strange sound that Rentaro had never heard before as Kisara crushed the chopsticks in her hand.

Hey, those are my chopsticks!

“Sorry, Satomi, can I have another pair of chopsticks?” Kisara tilted her head with a sweet rich girl smile, but her hand was shaking.

Rentaro stuck out his hand fearfully, and Kisara deposited the chopstick shards into his palm. When he looked more closely, he could see that the chopsticks had been shattered into well over twenty pieces. He couldn’t even imagine how much strength was needed to crush them so thoroughly.

Rentaro, who had managed to defeat the highly ranked Kagetane Hiruko pair as well as repelling a Stage Five Gastrea, wanted to run away from this place this instant.

Kisara stared at Rentaro. “By the way, Satomi, what are you going to do about the job?”

“About that. If you’re okay with it, President, I’d like to accept.”

“All right, I’ll fill out the paperwork and send it along.”

Rentaro turned to face Enju again. “Enju, I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow, but we have an escort mission. I’m counting on you.”

Enju saluted sharply and said cheerfully, “All right, a job!”

Miori narrowed her eyes and looked at Enju mischievously. “Enju, I’ve heard a lot about you from dear Satomi. You’re such a cute little thing. Dear Satomi’s always complaining to me about how hard it is to hold in his feelings when he’s turned on by you.”

Enju’s pigtails bounced sharply in surprise. “Is that right, Rentaro?! It is not necessary to hold in your feelings!”

“It’s not true! Miori, stop making things up!”

Miori spread open a large fan and covered her mouth, snickering. At first glance, it looked like a refined gesture, but her fan was an iron fan, reinforced with iron in a number of places and a fine weapon in its own right. “You know those combat shoes you wear, Enju? We designed them based on measurements from dear Satomi. How are they? Are they comfortable?”

“Oh, yes! So you made those? Yes, they are good shoes.”

“I see, I see. Come back and tell us when your feet grow and they get too tight. I’ll make some new ones for you. Also, Enju, those Varanium bullets dear Satomi scatters all over the place, and the equipment he uses—they’re all provided by our company, you know.”

Enju looked around at the shabby eight-tatami-mat room and tilted her head with a look of bewilderment. “But Satomi doesn’t have the money to pay for that.”

“It’s free.”

“Free?”

“I’ll explain about that,” Rentaro interrupted.

It might have seemed like civsec officers were the only ones who gained from sponsorship contracts with weapons companies that supplied them with equipment, but of course, that was not the case. For weapons companies, being known to supply equipment to strong civsec officer pairs whose names were brands in and of themselves could be used for marketing campaigns.

Once pairs rose to a certain rank, their private information stopped being published on the list managed by the country, but if they weren’t afraid of being kidnapped or assassinated by other countries and continued to show their faces in public, strong pairs could make a lot of money from advertisements and commercials. However, the weapons companies also did not just sponsor anyone off the street, of course, and there was a strict review process involved.

A year earlier, when the Tendo Civil Security Agency had just been founded and had no results to speak of yet, they applied knowing they had nothing to lose, but—

Miori was all smiles as she took Rentaro’s arm and suddenly blew into his ear. Rentaro’s body stiffened in surprise. “And then, Enju, the minute I saw dear Satomi, I knew. He will be someone great in the future, I thought. That’s why we accepted him, with some conditions.”

“Conditions? What conditions?”

“There were a few. He had to test new products, appear in commercials, you know. One of them was that he had to study with me at Magata High School. I have it all in writing.” She laughed. “Dear Satomi is all mine.”

Rentaro thought going to school was a waste of time, but because of their contract, he was partially bound to the school and was being forced to attend. The worst was if they happened to bump into each other during the all-school assemblies, when Miori would be on stage as student council president and give him conspicuous winks or wave at him, which made the other boys at school hate him.

“Satomi, get away from that woman this instant.” Kisara’s eyes were steady.

“H-hey, idiot, get off of me, Miori. They’re touching! They’re touching!”

As Rentaro became flustered, Miori smiled teasingly, still hanging on to his arm. “What? What’re touching? Could you be talking about my chest? I’m making them touch on purpose. Even so, you’ve got it tough, Satomi dear. Kisara has those large breasts hanging off her but seems unexpectedly prudish, and if you go after Enju, you’ll end up in handcuffs, right? So…” With slightly flushed cheeks, Miori looked at Rentaro with upturned eyes. “Hey, Satomi dear. Am I cute?”

“H-huh?! You beat the second-place person at the beauty contest at the school festival by a wide margin. What are you asking about it now for—?”

“I want to hear it from your lips, Satomi dear.”

He was perplexed by her strange tone of voice and her acting cute and scratched his head. “Well, y-yeah, you’re cute.”

“Say it again.”

“I-I said, you’re cute…”

“Did you hear that? Hey, Kisara, did you hear that? He called me cute twice! Oh my, what should I do?”

Kisara had her fists on her knees and was trembling all over.

“And you know, Satomi dear, we have our own private civil security agency at Shiba Heavy Weapons, so why don’t you quit Tendo Civil Security Agency and work for us?” Miori continued. “If you join now, I’ll throw in the right to do whatever you like to the most beautiful girl in school whenever you want.”

“Y-you can’t!” Kisara hurriedly leaned her body forward. “S-Satomi has a contract with the Tendo Civil Security Agency! Not with you guys.”

“He can just break that contract. We can pay you this much, Satomi dear.” Miori quickly flicked the abacus she pulled from the sleeve of her kimono and brought it coquettishly to Rentaro’s face.

When he saw the number, the chrysanthemum leaf he was eating almost came out of his nose. “What’s with that number? It’s a joke, right?”

“Satomi dear, you’ve risen to the rank of 1,000, haven’t you? That’s your market price, you know.”

“It is?”

Looking at Kisara, he saw her stuffing her mouth with meat and vegetables like a squirrel and turned her nose up, looking the other way. Apparently, she had activated the Kisara rule where she didn’t have to talk if there was something in her mouth.

As Enju blew on her meat to cool it, she looked at Miori. “Why don’t you and Kisara get along?” She should have just stopped, but instead, Enju waved handheld fireworks around a powder keg.

Miori laughed. “That’s a good question. Of course, there is a long history between the Shiba and Tendo families, but Kisara and I are way beyond that. We hate each other on a genetic level.”

“Small boobs.” Kisara mumbled this softly.

However, Miori was the better actor. She turned over her fan and waved it softly. “Japanese clothes look better on those with moderate chests. Large, vulgar breasts are unnecessary. Do you understand, Kisara?”

For some reason, Enju’s head bobbed up and down as she nodded.

There was a popping sound—the sound of Kisara’s blood vessel ripping as she looked down.

Even though there was no more food on Kisara’s plate, her chopsticks were still mechanically making the trip between her plate and her mouth. It was scary. “Hey, Yukikage…… What’s that? You want to drink the blood of the snake woman? Well, if you say so…” She laughed evilly. Kisara was so angry that it caused a shift in her mental state, and she had begun talking to the sword at her side. “Satomi, this food tastes good, but I think there’s something missing. And that is Miori’s blood!”

Hey, come on…

Kisara finally started to stand unsteadily. “Miori, do you know what bloodletting is? Apparently, when sick people bleed a little bit, they feel better. I will……be happy to perform bloodletting on you.”

Kisara drew her sword and aimed it at Miori’s eyes.

“Everything from the neck up is unnecessary.”

That’s not called bloodletting. Rentaro wanted to just hold his head. He didn’t want this to happen. That’s why he didn’t want to have the two of them in the same space. “C-calm down, Kisara.”

“Calm down? Did you just tell me to calm down? My anger is ecstasy!” Even her language ability was uncertain now, and when Kisara started to breathe Lamaze style, Miori stood quietly with a smug look on her face.

Rentaro remembered the phrase “an ostrich in the desert.” There was an anecdote about how an ostrich in the desert will stick its head in the sand and pretend it can’t see anything when an enemy appears.

At a loss, Rentaro desperately stuffed meat into his mouth and tried to avert his eyes from reality. Yeah, the meat is delicious. It’s superdelicious.

Kisara and Miori moved away from the table and faced each other, opening some distance between them.

Kisara spoke. “Miori. Someday, I will buy your company’s stock twice over and short sell it, crushing the whole company! And then at the general stockholder meeting, I’ll disrupt the meeting as an extortionist and torment you until you cry!”

“I wouldn’t if I were you. Shiba Heavy Weapons is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as part of the Nikkei Tokyo 60, and is one of Japan’s mainstay industries. It’s suicidal to try to short sell it. Anyway, how much capital does the runaway daughter of the Tendo family have, anyway? If you start by buying, you can make a lot of money, you know.”

“I would rather bite off my tongue and die than make money off your company’s stocks!”

“Does that mean you won’t back down?”

“I’ll send you to the other world.”

Miori reached into her kimono sleeve and pulled out a government sidearm, a Swordfish, custom-made just for her, and then took a complicated stance with her iron fan in one hand and handgun in the other. “I don’t know about your Tendo style or whatever, but it’s just an improvised martial art that’s barely been around for a hundred years. I’ll make you bow to the Shiba style.”

Kisara took her sword-drawing stance and spoke in a cold voice. “Shut up, Miori. Save your sass for the hereafter.”

In the midst of this volatile situation, Enju was the only one who balled her fist and said, “Be careful, Miori! If you touch Kisara, she’ll suck up your boobs!” energetically cheering her on. It seemed like Enju was on Miori’s side.

For some reason, the fluorescent lightbulb that had just been changed flickered.

“Shiba Style Niten Kitcho—”

“Tendo Sword Drawing, First Style, Number 2—”

Rentaro realized that he was never getting his cleaning deposit back and was suddenly very depressed.

5

After being rocked in the luxurious limousine for about two hours, they finally reached their destination. Rentaro got out of the limousine and looked up at the enormous building in front of him as he listened to the clear cry of a skylark in the bushes. The informal conference would be taking place at a high-rise hotel eighty-six stories tall. Rentaro had heard that along with each area’s embassies, it was often used as a safe house for important persons.

Because countries around the world lost a lot of land to the Gastrea invasion after the Great Gastrea War, it had become necessary to build taller buildings in order to cram in the large numbers of people that remained. After the creation of real estate tax laws favorable to allowing buildings to stretch vertically, a number of high-rise buildings were built quickly as if in competition with one another. Tokyo Area was already dotted with buildings taller than the Tokyo Skytree.

“Rentaro, go and do your best on the job,” said Enju, waving at Rentaro from inside the limousine. Rentaro waved back and then followed behind the girl in white in front of him, the Seitenshi.

The Seitenshi’s white formalwear looked like a wedding dress and exposed a lot of her upper back. Rentaro could see her slender shoulders and a peek of her shoulder blades in addition to the light pink skin with its healthy blood circulation. Rentaro felt a little guilty and shifted his gaze, asking her curtly, “Did you have to leave Enju in the car? It would be safer if she was with us.”

“I cannot bring a child into a serious place like this.”

With no choice but to obey, Rentaro sighed inwardly.

The Seitenshi went through the rotating doors and informed the gorgeous front desk obviously meant for nobility of the reason for their visit. They were immediately received by the manager, who pressed a key courteously into the Seitenshi’s hand, deferential but stiff with nervousness. The Seitenshi gave a slight smile and thanked him, and the manager smiled a self-satisfied smile.

When they got on the elevator, the Seitenshi stuck the key into the keyhole and turned, and a button to the highest floor appeared that was not there before. He couldn’t get used to this feeling no matter how many times he rode these elevators—the feeling of being pushed down by slight pressure as the antique indicators counted the floors with a metallic clicking sound.

“Hey, do you really not know why Saitake wanted to have an informal conference?” Rentaro asked.

“Yes, I have no idea. That is to say”—the Seitenshi glanced at Rentaro for a moment—“I have never met President Saitake.”

Rentaro was surprised, but now that he thought about it, it made sense. After the Tokyo metropolitan area was renamed Tokyo Area and its forty-three wards, there had been a number of Seitenshis. The first Seitenshi, who rebuilt Tokyo after they lost the war and renamed Tokyo Area, died from sickness a little less than a year later, and the second Seitenshi took over. And now, the girl in front of him was the third Seitenshi, who had been a politician for only a year.

“Satomi, you are acquainted with President Saitake, are you not?”

“Yeah, well, when I was younger, right when I had been taken in by the Tendos, old man Kikunojo wanted to make me a politician and took me around to different parties. I guess you could say I’m acquainted with Saitake. It was a long time ago, though.”

“I actually have a question for you. What kind of person did President Saitake seem like to you? Whenever I asked Kikunojo about Saitake, he became obviously ill-humored…”

“Adolf Hitler.”

“Huh?” The Seitenshi’s voice cracked, and she blinked with surprise, making a funny face that Rentaro had never seen before. As the Seitenshi turned her whole body to face him, she rubbed the corners of her eyes lightly. “I’m sorry, Satomi, I’ve been so busy with state affairs lately that I seem to be tired… Will you say that once more, please?”

“I said, he’s like Adolf Hitler.”

“That’s a joke, isn’t it?”

“I’m serious. Even you know that Saitake has had seventeen assassination attempts by Osaka Area citizens, right? Anyone would be angry at having such heavy taxes levied, but that guy doesn’t care. Anyway, Lady Seitenshi, the heads of Sapporo Area, Sendai Area, and Hakata Area are like that, too. Those first-generation guys are the real deal, the ones who rebuilt their areas from the devastation of the Great Gastrea War.

“You know how people say the shogun’s council of elders got younger after Perry’s black ships arrived? During times of peace, it doesn’t matter who is in charge of Japan, but when things get really bad, the ones who crawl up are the really capable and dangerous guys. All the area rulers are guys who can say nonsense like ‘I am the representative of all of Japan’ with a straight face. Saitake is the worst of them. Be careful.”

“I-I understand. I appreciate the warning.” The Seitenshi looked a little overwhelmed and nodded gravely.

Partway through, Rentaro had started talking as if to convince himself, as well. He lifted his gaze to glare at the highest floor. Even if this was unofficial, the other side wouldn’t be so dumb as to set a trap in the conference location, but anyway, Rentaro was thinking of how he could successfully complete his job.

The Seitenshi looked nervously at Rentaro. “Please do not leave my side.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Rentaro, a little insolently.

She looked put out, and stuck her index finger in his face. “Also, you have a short temper, so please keep yourself under control. If you hit Saitake and start a war between our areas, I won’t be able to bear it. Also, you must not use impolite phrases like ‘Shut up’ or ‘What the hell?’”

“Dang, I wouldn’t say stuff like that.”

The indicator finally stopped on the top floor, and the door opened gravely. Unexpectedly, the first thing they saw was the blue sky, and Rentaro’s stomach sank. The reinforced hexagonal glass that formed the half dome above them was transparent, and looking out from there, the world seemed to spread out forever. Instead of feeling like they were in a room of the hotel, it seemed like a set of office furniture was placed in a private room of the observation deck on the top floor of a high-rise building.

Standing by the side of the elevator, bowing deeply once while standing erect were Saitake’s guards. Brawny and muscular, it was obvious that they were extremely skilled. There was also a white-haired man with his back to them, sitting on a designer sofa and looking down at a six-page flexible paper display.

Rentaro knew who it was just by seeing his back. After a while, the man stood from the sofa and turned around. “A pleasure, Lady Seitenshi.” He seemed to notice Rentaro then, and the tone of his voice dropped suddenly. “And is that the boy taken in by the Tendo family?”

“You’re still alive? You should just die already, old man,” said Rentaro.

“Watch your mouth, civsec officer! You know where we are!” His voice roared like thunder, and next to Rentaro, the Seitenshi trembled in surprise.

The man looked majestic, with his mustache curled at an acute angle, and his beard and hair connecting to look like a lion’s mane. His eyes were sharp, and his tall height was clothed in a suit. He was supposed to be sixty-five this year, but he always seemed to be overflowing with energy, not seeming his age at all. He was Kikunojo Tendo’s rival and a cunning politician who had buried one political rival after another: Sougen Saitake.

“Rentaro, I have heard rumors about you. Tempted by that Tendo vixen and running away… You acted foolishly. Now, you are not a Tendo politician, you are a civsec officer at the same level as a worm crawling in dirt. I will treat you as such, and you shouldn’t forget how low you are!”

Rentaro stuck his hands in his pockets and approached Saitake with dangerous eyes. “What the hell are you talking about, old man? Social status? Pedigree? If you can’t be satisfied in a conversation without those things to lift you up, then you should go back to Osaka Area and stay there! Whether or not I’m a Tendo, I’m me.” Rentaro closed in on Saitake until they were almost nose to nose and glared at him.

Unexpectedly, the one who relaxed his mouth and stepped back first was Saitake. Apparently, Rentaro had passed for now.

Looking at the Seitenshi, Rentaro saw that she had paled at the threats and stood holding her lace gloves.

Rentaro wanted to hide his face. Come on, Lady Seitenshi. Stuff like this is just a warm-up.

Saitake jerked his chin. “Is that Buddha sculptor doing well, Rentaro?”

Buddha sculptor surely referred to Kikunojo Tendo. Sougen Saitake’s rival, Kikunojo Tendo, separate from his role as a politician, had an unexpected side as a Buddhist sculptor, carving images of the Buddha from wood. Kikunojo, who had been made into the youngest living national treasure of Japan at age sixty-two, was required to raise a disciple after receiving the title.

When Rentaro’s thoughts reached that point, they dredged up bad memories, and he shook his head to get rid of them. “He hasn’t been carving much lately, ever since his incompetent disciple ran away.”

“What, do you regret what you did?”

Rentaro glared at Saitake, who was looking at Rentaro with unconcealed scorn. “Do you wanna fight, pal? You’ll look smarter if you keep your mouth shut a little, you know.”

The Seitenshi blinked her eyes in surprise. “Satomi, you…were Kikunojo’s disciple…?”

Apparently it was the first she had heard of it. “So what if I was?”

Rentaro said it so distastefully that the Seitenshi hurriedly covered her face and said, “It’s nothing…”

Saitake offered her a seat, and the Seitenshi sat down on the sofa on the other side of the glass table, and Rentaro stood behind her. Rentaro thought for sure that they would start political discussions now, but Saitake raised his gaze to look at Rentaro. “Rentaro, when you defeated the Stage Five Gastrea, you used the railgun module, destroying it beyond repair in the process, didn’t you? Do you understand how important that was?”

“Huh?” said Rentaro.

“In war, according to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, whoever is in a position of higher ground wins. The army who shoots arrows from the top of a hill wins, the army who drops bombs on an enemy from above wins, the army who figures out the enemy’s position using a satellite wins—so then, what’s next? That railgun you destroyed was a next-generation weapon that was supposed to be transferred to the moon to shoot down Gastrea on the ground from the surface of the moon. And you…”

Rentaro frowned. “Wait a minute, old man. Even if you could get the railgun onto the moon, would you really just use it for Gastrea?”

Saitake scoffed with contempt. “Of course not, idiot. It’s just as you’re imagining. It’s a next-generation deterrent as part of the groundwork to push Japan into becoming a great world power.”

“Do you plan to threaten other countries with violence?” The Seitenshi couldn’t bear it any longer and interrupted.

However, Saitake just laughed slowly and stood up, spreading his arms wide in an exaggerated gesture. “Lady Seitenshi, you have no vision. We must be thinking of the world after we exterminate all the Gastrea. Japan should reign as one of the world superpowers. I’m sure you have noticed as well. Ten years ago, right before the major powers of the world stopped functioning, many things were taken away and destroyed by the Gastrea. And now, ten years later, whichever country recovers from this unprecedented disaster first will have the right to be the leader of future generations. And Japan should aim for that. This is my grand strategic design! If I must, I will eliminate every obstacle, every incompetent, and everyone who will not do as I say!”

Rentaro was at a loss for words. This could be taken as an implicit declaration of war against the heads of state of all the areas besides his own. There were many other heads of state who secretly plotted to get the drop on the other areas, but this man was probably the only one who would say it out loud.

Rentaro was stunned. He didn’t know where he should start in pointing out this man’s mistakes. The world’s mathematicians and statisticians had calculated a devastating number for the likelihood that mankind would be able to exterminate all the Gastrea, and yet Saitake wanted to kill more people this late in the game.

If Sumire Muroto were here, she would have said with a triumphant look on her face, “Humans are foolish creatures who, when they get tired of peace, turn to war, and when they tire of war, they want peace.”

Saitake suddenly stamped his feet in anger. “And you—you turned the railgun into scrap iron by making it take too heavy a load. You deserve to die a thousand deaths.”

“Well, sorry. You should be glad I tested it for you. Besides, the wreckage is still there in the Unexplored Territory, so you should go and retrieve it if you want it so bad.”

“Hmph. But, well, given my flair for leadership, I wouldn’t mind allowing you the opportunity to make up for it—”

“Huh?”

Saitake sat down on the couch and leaned forward. “I heard you defeated a pair that formerly had an IP Rank of 134. Rentaro, a vulnerable city like Tokyo Area will be destroyed eventually. If you do not want to be a citizen of a ruined country in five years, come with me. Let’s take over nations together, you and I. To watch the creation of a new world together with a wineglass in one hand—I’m sure it will be a sight to see.”

The Seitenshi paled and started to stand, but Rentaro stopped her with just an arm. “What the hell? Go back to your own area!”

Saitake’s eyes blazed with spite, and he waved his arms as he frothed at the mouth. “I won’t give up. I will gather all those with power and make them part of my plan! My will is Japan’s will! Japan’s will is my will!”

The Seitenshi quietly put her hands in the lap of her dress and sat up straight. “President Saitake, may we move on to the matter at hand?”

Saitake looked dumbfounded as he clucked his tongue and waved his hand saying, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Two hours later, the first unofficial conference was over. The only thing to come of this conference was that the Seitenshi and Saitake both realized that they were incompatible, mortal enemies.

6

By the time they got in the limousine to go home, a thick curtain of darkness had fallen. Though Enju had spent a long time waiting in the car, she was now fast asleep on Rentaro’s lap, drooling and hanging off him. Jeez, you’re a great guard, he thought. Once the car reached the Seitenshi’s palace, the first day of their job would be successfully concluded. He knew he should be glad nothing major happened, but…

When he lifted his face, he saw the Seitenshi sitting prettily across from him with her hands folded neatly in her lap, looking out the window at the darkness outside with a slightly melancholy expression on her face.

“Don’t be so depressed,” Rentaro said.

The Seitenshi responded to Rentaro’s voice and slowly shifted her gaze. “I’m not depres—” Stopping midsentence, she quietly shook her head. “You’re right, I am a little… Generally speaking, I always believed that if I spoke sincerely, the person I was talking to would understand where I was coming from, no matter who it was, and I believe that even more now.”

“It’s not like it’s your fault, you know. Even Kikunojo would have trouble with someone like Saitake. You did a good job.”

The Seitenshi gave a mischievous smile as she place her hand on her chin. “You’re unexpectedly kind, Satomi. Even so, you surprised me today. From a budding politician to a Buddha sculptor to a soldier of the New Humanity Creation Project, it seems you’ve had a complicated past.”

Rentaro shifted his gaze with a start. “Hell, those are all parts of my past that I’d rather forget. Don’t make me think about them.”

“Will you carve something for me sometime?”

“No way.”

The Seitenshi put her hand to her mouth and chuckled. The atmosphere inside the car seemed to relax slightly. “But you’re amazing, Satomi. You didn’t back off one bit against Saitake. I think it’s that part of you that I like, Satomi.”

“Like?”

“Yes, everyone I come into contact with, from my tutors to Kikunojo, speaks to me with respect. There isn’t anyone around me who tells things to me straight like you do, Satomi. It’s very refreshing.”

Ah, now I get it, Rentaro thought. During the Kagetane Hiruko terrorist incident, Rentaro had not said anything to make the Seitenshi like him; instead, he had snapped at her constantly. He kept wondering why the Seitenshi would nominate him for this job, but now it made sense. “But why a civsec officer? You have your own personal guards, don’t you? You know, like that guy that looks like a military police officer?”

“Yasuwaki? He… He’s too dazzling. It’s a little scary to be with him.”

Even as Rentaro responded with an indifferent grunt, inwardly he thought it served Yasuwaki right. Yasuwaki seemed to be trying to shrewdly attract the Seitenshi’s attention, but it looked like his ulterior motive wasn’t gaining much traction.

The Seitenshi took out some peach juice from the mini fridge and poured it into a glass. She offered some to Rentaro, as well, so he took it. He was only planning on taking a sip, but when he swallowed, the cold sweetness penetrated his internal organs, and he downed the glass in the blink of an eye. Apparently, he was thirstier than he thought.

When the Seitenshi lifted her face from her cup, for some reason, her eyes looked like they were clouded with the resolve to drink poisoned sake. She looked at Rentaro. “Satomi, it is rumored that President Saitake has been fostering relations with foreign countries.”

The car approached a curb, and Rentaro’s body swayed a little to the right. On his lap, Enju murmured something in her sleep. The city lights shone on the glistening metal car top, slipping away as they drove past.

“Keep going…,” he said.

“I’ve heard that America and other foreign countries have been secretly contacting Saitake, providing him with capital and weapons.”

“What’s the benefit for the foreign countries?”

“Varanium.” The Seitenshi stopped talking for a moment and lifted her face. “Varanium is the material used for the weapons and ammunition of civsec officers and the Monoliths that separate humans from Gastrea. All these are essential in the fight against the Gastrea. A small country without that much land like Japan is still okay, but large countries like Russia and America need a large amount of Varanium to take back the land stolen by the Gastrea. And rough estimates of the amount of Varanium left in the ground indicate that even if we scraped together all the Varanium in the world, it would not be enough to take back all the world’s continents from the Gastrea. Do you understand what that means?”

Rentaro understood what she meant so well it was almost painful. Different natural resources around the world were distributed unevenly. The Middle East was rich in oil, and South Africa was plentiful in gold and diamonds. Varanium was found on volcanic islands. Even if the islands were separate, it could still be said that the bulk was found on Japan.

Rentaro had recently met a boy who ran away from working in the mines, and he had been shocked at their terrible working conditions. Illegal mining of Varanium in the Unexplored Territory might seem like a failure at first when looking at the risk and return, but taking into account that there was a constant stream of illegal miners, as long as one bore in mind the risk of being crushed by a whole mine, it was still possible to find some reasonable profit in it.

Rentaro’s thoughts came one after another. Now that he thought about it, the bulk of the conference seemed to involve Saitake thrusting unfavorable conditions on Tokyo Area and the Seitenshi refusing them. Because of what she had just said, it seemed like Saitake was looking for an excuse to start a war.

“Then, what Saitake wants to do so badly that he would get help from foreign countries is…” Rentaro’s voice trailed off.

“Yes. He probably wants to unite the military power of Tokyo, Sapporo, Sendai, and Hakata Areas. In return, he would provide them with a stable supply of Varanium.”

“Is Saitake being controlled by the larger countries?”

“I do not know.”

Rentaro put his hand on his chin. “I don’t think he is someone who would just do what he’s told.”

“I do not think so, either. The foreign countries probably think they have tamed Saitake, and Saitake is probably planning on forestalling them.” The Seitenshi straightened and continued with a clear voice. “In the ten years that have passed since the end of the war, each country has been holed up inside Monoliths in order to just recover their national power. However, it is now the time to look outward and take back the land that was lost. Whoever recovers their national power first will be the world leader of future generations. That part of Saitake’s thinking is not incorrect. In other words, whoever controls Varanium will control the world.

“Satomi, from now on, countries around the world will contact the different areas of Japan either cooperatively or with hostility in search of Varanium. And the next generation of wars will not be flashy with ballistic missiles or bombers, but will be focused on assassinations carried out by civsec officers with high IP ranks who are strong enough to rock the world’s military balance.

“In no time, all the strongest civsec officers will come to Japan, the country bound by the curse of natural resources. Satomi, in the previous terrorist incident, you defeated Kagetane and Kohina Hiruko and drove away a Zodiac. Unfortunately, Tokyo Area cannot afford to allow one of its capable human resources to play around right now. I will have to ask you to work continuously from now on. For me, and for our country.”

Rentaro stamped his foot with irritation that he could barely hold back. “You just decided that yourself. You really will decide everything based on whatever’s convenient for you, won’t you?”

“I recognize that.” Then, the Seitenshi put both hands on her lower abdomen with a sorrowful expression. “I may also collapse in the whirlpool of turmoil. Because I can now have children, those around me keep telling me I should hurry up and bear a successor. However, instead of bearing a child with the best genes using mechanical means, I would rather bear a child through love, even if it is prideful.”

Rentaro started to stand up without thinking. “Fight back! Why do you only think about death? If you know that Saitake is that dangerous, then there are a lot of ways you could oppose him, aren’t there?”

The Seitenshi’s face twisted with an expression more sorrowful than Rentaro had ever seen. “Even you’re saying the same things as Kikunojo?”

“What?” “Satomi, you said that your perspective was narrow. I plan on taking back the land of Tokyo Area and one day connecting it back to Sendai and Osaka Areas. One day, when all the areas are connected again, the citizens will remember, won’t they? That ten years ago, Japan was one country, and we were fellow citizens all looking up at the same sky. And then, they will be embarrassed to have ever been trapped in the cramped boxes of Tokyo or Osaka Areas.

“I do not have any intention of invading, and even if assassination or murder attempts occur, I have no intention of yielding. Revenge and the like is also absurd. Such cowardly acts are like trying to wash blood away with blood.

“Satomi, do you know who the first victims of a war are? They are the infants who barely open their eyes, and the elderly. During the period of confusion after the war, I went to visit the different parts of Tokyo Area with my mother and was shocked.

“In an environment with terrible hygiene, there were children who were sick and couldn’t even move, but when I smiled at them, they did their best to smile back at me. But the next day, they became cold and flies swarmed over them.” The Seitenshi shook her head firmly. “I do not want to see anything that terrible ever again. I must be the embodiment of peace. Not with words, but with actions.”

The Seitenshi folded her hands together and wrung them in a position of prayer. “Satomi, I cannot bear to have more seeds of sadness sown in this world…”

Rentaro felt a shiver up his spine.

I regard her with respect and affection. That’s why there are things I cannot forgive!

Rentaro was reminded of what the real mastermind behind the previous terrorist incident, Kikunojo Tendo, said about the Seitenshi. At the time, Rentaro didn’t understand Kikunojo’s actions of hatred toward the Cursed Children and his inability to hate the Seitenshi, but now Rentaro felt like maybe he could understand.

Rentaro shifted his gaze away from her. “You’re the idealistic type that dies young.”

“I do not want to become a person who cannot talk about her ideals.”

“Then you need to learn to outmaneuver others better.”

The Seitenshi was silent.

Rentaro lowered his gaze and rubbed the sleeping Enju’s back and shoulders. Finally, he lifted his face. “You’re stupid… But I don’t hate that.”

The Seitenshi blushed slightly. “Th-thank you very much.”

Just then, he felt a sudden sharp pain on his lower jaw. His head rang like he had just received an uppercut.

Enju, who up until now had not woken up from all manner of jostling and shaking, suddenly jumped up, her eyes wandering left and right. Apparently, he had gotten head-butted by the awakening girl. The pain brought tears to his eyes.

“Wh-what was that for?” Rentaro looked at her as he rubbed his chin.

Enju crossed her arms and nodded as she looked back and forth. “My Rentaro Radar reacted to something just now…”

“R-Rentaro Radar…?”

“Yes, it reacts when Rentaro seems to be taking up with an unsavory type.” Enju seemed to have obtained a devilish new power. She looked back and forth, and when she finally settled her eyes on the Seitenshi, she stared at her silently.

“Wh-what is it?”

“You can’t have Rentaro.”

“U-um, I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Rentaro is from the planet of boobs, so he doesn’t recognize women with boobs smaller than Kisara’s. That’s why it’s impossible. You should give up now.”

The Seitenshi looked at Rentaro contemptuously. “Satomi… That’s filthy.”

“That’s a grossly false accusation.” Rentaro denied it with his whole body, looking at Enju resentfully. “Y-you little…”

However, Enju wasn’t looking at him anymore and was instead looking intently in front of them. “Rentaro, I have a bad feeling for some reason.”

The car was approaching a four-way intersection and stopped slowly at a red light. It had started sprinkling, and the view from the window was distorted by the water. Rentaro put his face next to Enju’s to look in the same direction as her.

Past the window Enju was pointing at, on a faraway building towering in the night, there was nothing out of the ordinary except for a few red aviation guidance lights on the edges of the building. At least, that was how it looked to Rentaro. However, Enju was an Initiator whose bodily functions, including her sensory organs, far surpassed those of ordinary humans.

Without knowing why, Rentaro also became nervous, and he prayed fervently that the car would start moving again soon. Finally, as if his prayers had been heard, the light turned green and the car started to move. He breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Enju still had not relaxed. Looking at Enju’s continued seriousness, he shifted his gaze once more. Near the roof of the building, for a split second, there was a glint of something. The instant he realized that it was a muzzle flash, Rentaro’s spine froze, and before he could yell, he pushed Enju’s head down and covered the Seitenshi with his body.

Then, they were attacked by a great calamity.

Surrounded by the sound of breaking glass and the squeal of the emergency brakes on the limousine, the Seitenshi started to scream. The car continued to slide sideways and crashed into a road sign. Rentaro was at his wits’ end as he was thrown into the car door by the G’s inside the car and almost lost his breath.

A sniper inside the city?

“Rentaro!” Enju screamed.

Rentaro swung to attention immediately and yelled, “Enju! Get out. Take the driver with you.” Rentaro also kicked the door open and, taking the Seitenshi, who was in a state of shock, by the hand, he rolled out of the car.

Smack-dab in the middle of town, at an intersection. First, they needed to find shelter to hide under. Right after he thought he saw a flash of light on the roof of the building again, there was the echo of an explosion. The sniper bullet had shot out the fuel tank of the limousine, making it go up in flames, distorting the air around with its heat. Around them, members of the general public were screaming, their panic contagious, and the shock wave from the explosion made the Seitenshi fall forward.

When Rentaro went to help her up, the Seitenshi shook her head, her face stiff. “S-Satomi, I don’t think I can walk…”

Rentaro ground his teeth and looked at the building.

This was bad.

There was a third flash of light. He stood in front to cover the Seitenshi but then looked regretful. It was no use. It would go through him and hit her. His spine knew that it was going to be a direct hit, and he squeezed his eyes shut. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Then, he heard Enju’s yell and the shrill sound of the attack. Enju rolled several times on the ground after she was thrown back.

At first, Rentaro didn’t know what had happened, but he soon realized after he saw Enju pulling the sniper’s bullet from her shoe. Amazing.

Rentaro didn’t know where Yasuwaki and the rest of the Seitenshi’s personal guard had been up until now, but the guards now came to form a wall around them as they withdrew. The retreating Seitenshi still seemed to be in a state of shock, and her face was pale as she trembled, gripping the sleeves of her dress.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing like the sound of an insect flapping its wings, and Rentaro looked around, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

What was that sound just now?

Enju pulled Rentaro’s arm hard and yelled. “Rentaro, what are you doing?! If you don’t hurry up and hide—”

“No, the enemy has already run away.” Rentaro twisted his neck to look around. Flames danced, and ashes blew in the wind. The burning limousine threw up thick black smoke into the sky, and the mania that had spread to the masses showed no sign of abating. The streaks of rain became stronger, wetting his hair and streaming down his cheeks.

Rentaro glared at the faraway building, ignoring the rain that was soaking him. It was roughly one kilometer away. At night, with strong winds and the extra rain, it would be hard enough to shoot three times in a row point-blank, let alone having all three rounds go where they were supposed to.

“Bastard… Who are you…?!”

“I’m sorry, Master. I failed. There was a skilled civsec officer guarding her. After I retrieve the Shenfield, I will retreat promptly.”

“A civsec officer? That wasn’t in the intel. It wasn’t just those idiot Seitenshi personal guards?”

Ignoring her angry master cursing “Damn it, damn it” over the radio, Tina put the Barrett antitank sniper rifle in its case.

“Hey, did you see the civsec officer?”

“Yes, but it was too far away to see what he looked like.” If Tina had seen correctly, the third shot was kicked away by an Initiator. The antitank sniper bullets Tina used were ranked above all but cannons and Vulcan canons in the ranks of the bullets that existed in this world, and possessed an enormous amount of kinetic energy. She caught that?

She was incredibly skilled. A strong opponent.

Tina finished getting ready to withdraw and held down her hair being blown by the eddies of wind around the building. She turned around and looked down, glaring with icy eyes.

“Who are you…? Who got in my way…?”