BLACK BULLET 2
CHAPTER 03

THE COURAGE TO BE IMPERFECT

1

“Hey, you came, civsec. It’s kinda sudden, but I’ll have you look at the scene of the crime.” The square-jawed face of Inspector Shigetoku Tadashima of the First Investigation Division had a fleeing expression that looked like sympathy, but he tried to treat Rentaro as matter-of-factly as possible.

When Rentaro touched his own face softly with a pale hand, he felt dry skin and cracked lips. What kind of expression did he have on his face right now? Rentaro shook his heavy head and looked left and right. There were no window frames or anything, and the undressed concrete floor was riddled with bullet holes. Rentaro was on the sixth floor of a building under construction. Around him, crime scene inspectors and people from forensics came and went hurriedly.

Also jokingly called the homicide department, the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department had long included all Gastrea incidents, which had a high probability of being criminal, in their operations. The work of the crime lab was also partially privatized, and things that required complicated calculations like analyzing the trajectory of a bullet were, after thoroughly preserving the evidence and ensuring confidentiality, entrusted to large corporations like Shiba Heavy Weapons.

Rentaro shook his head. What was he thinking?

He was putting off his thoughts, his mind secretly trying to desperately deny what he was about to see. Rentaro had seen a number of crime scenes with the police as a civsec officer, but it was the first time his stomach felt so heavy. It was because the victim was possibly someone he knew very well.

His brain wouldn’t function properly. The fact that he was standing here breathing seemed like something on the other side of the TV screen and felt strangely like he was watching someone else.

“Hey, are you all right, civsec?”

Someone shook Rentaro’s shoulder, and he returned to himself with the pain of the wound in his side and shook Tadashima’s hand off.

“I’m fine… Just, just show me the crime scene.”

Tadashima looked at him questioningly but silently cleared the way for Rentaro. When they got to the back, the forensics people in blue jumpsuits noticed Rentaro and nodded uncomfortably.

When Rentaro finally stopped walking, he stared at the ground. On the concrete floor, there was a spot that had an especially concentrated number of bullet holes, and like stepping-stones, there were countless bloodstains that had small round chalk marks drawn around them.

Recently, there had been a number of days with record-breaking high temperatures, but today felt especially hot and humid, and Rentaro loosened his necktie.

“This is where the victim was shot.”

“It’s pretty intense,” Rentaro was warned, and when he looked at the photo, he had to cover his mouth to hold back the nausea he felt.

“It’s been hot recently, so the flies gather. That’s why I said it was intense.”

Rentaro swallowed the urge to vomit and looked once more at the bundled stack of photos, flipping through them. Most of the pictures were of pieces of flesh. The occasional pieces of white were probably bone fragments. Even though he was just looking at them, he felt like he could smell the choking stink of blood.

The last picture was that of a pink smartphone that had been stomped to pieces. His eyes weren’t tricking him. It was Enju’s.

Rentaro stood up and frowned, looking back and forth between the photos and the places marked by chalk circles. Enju Aihara was defeated by Tina Sprout here.

“Strangely, the victim was shot from four different places at the same time,” Tadashima said.

When Rentaro looked in the direction Tadashima pointed, he saw that Tadashima was referring to buildings in four directions on his right, left, in front of him, and diagonally to the right and above.

“And from the rooftop of each building, we found the ruins of heavy machine guns from three different places. I don’t know if it was to keep any evidence from being left behind, but the machine guns used were destroyed with plastic bombs and abandoned. They have been sent to Shiba Heavy Weapons for analysis, but what we know right now is that the serial numbers and identifying information of the guns have been scratched off, and that parts that are not normally used on machine guns were equipped.”

“Is Enju dead?” Rentaro absentmindedly raised just his gaze.

“I don’t know… Right now, they’re checking the DNA of the scattered victim and your Initiator.”

“It’s Enju. There’s no mistaking it. In the pictures, I saw scraps of Enju’s coat.”

“I see……” Even Tadashima had a gloomy look on his face as he looked down and finally looked around the crime scene. “Don’t despair yet. They’re saying that the bullets probably hit her in the gut, and there was no body at the crime scene. On top of that, all the bullets that they gathered were made of regular lead, not Varanium. Initiators won’t die if they aren’t shot directly in the heart or the brain, right?”

“Even if that were the case, this means Enju has been taken away by the enemy!” And the bullets that hit Enju were antitank rifle bullets. Like their name implied, these were extremely powerful bullets developed to pierce through the armor of a tank. Tanks had become stronger because of Chobham armor and the like, so antitank bullets were unable to bring tanks down anymore, but because they were such overkill when used against humans, their use was limited through war agreements. If shot at a human body, it would open a large hole on impact, and even if the person managed to escape instant death or death from shock, they would still feel a writhing pain.

Imagining that much, Rentaro squeezed his eyes shut. Right now, at this instant, was Enju undergoing harsh interrogation or torture? There was no way a child could withstand severe torture. In addition to having all the information she had pulled out of her, Enju was probably already—

Rentaro’s fist shook. Why hadn’t I noticed? Idiot, idiot, idiot! Just as he was trying to anticipate the sniping and figure out a plan to deal with it, Tina also knew that someone was on her trail and had figured out a plan to deal with that.

And Enju had fallen straight into her trap.

How in the world did she defeat Enju? How did she get Enju, the natural enemy of snipers, with a sniper rifle?

In the first place, that Enju had been shot from four places at the same time was hard to understand. Assassinations were really only done by the best of the best, so there were probably two perpetrators, Tina and her promoter, but was that not the case?

No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find the answer. The only thing he knew was that Tina boasted battle power far above what he had imagined.

Rentaro let out a shaky breath. The only thing left was a cold fear toward the professional killer named Tina. It was all his own fault for not being able to keep Enju back.

In the end, the Seitenshi’s second conference was canceled. At this point, it was unclear whether or not there would be a third.

His head was heavy and felt like it was filled with lead. His brain wouldn’t work more than this. Besides, in his innermost heart, he didn’t care anymore. Everything had lost its meaning. Rentaro turned on his heel and left the crime scene, not listening to the unmoving Tadashima’s voice.

Rentaro went home dragging his feet. When he arrived, he put his key into the keyhole and turned. Unexpectedly, air cooler than that from outside touched the back of his neck.

Rentaro stood stock-still in the entryway for a while. During the last terrorist attack, there had been the distressing incident of Enju running away from home, but compared to that, the situation this time was much worse.

It was painful staying at home, so Rentaro went outside. After walking for a while, he realized he forgot to lock the door to his apartment and stopped but decided he didn’t care and continued walking. The sun was setting before his eyes, and it became dark.

He didn’t know why, but Rentaro’s feet headed toward the downtown area with a lot of people. Perhaps he was looking for the company of others. However, what Rentaro wanted wasn’t there. Rentaro leaned against the guardrail of the pedestrian bridge and looked down on the town, but the dazzling lights were too bright and the happy laughter of the families was too loud and hurt his ears.

One feels loneliest in a crowd. This was exactly how he felt. He felt miserable, like his heart was about to be crushed.

Rentaro looked at one of the families. A child about Enju’s age was jumping at the father’s back.

Why am I not them?

Why are they not me?

Questions with no answers swirled inside his head. Rentaro went home as if running away and fell asleep embracing his despair.

The next day, Rentaro stayed home from school. He felt no will to leave his blankets. Though an eight-tatami-mat room was too small for two people to use, it was too big for one person.

When he turned on his cell phone, he had several texts from Kisara, Miori, and Sumire, but he didn’t feel like looking at what was inside and left them.

He had a hard time falling back asleep, and he felt dazed. He had a sense of loss like there was a piece of him missing, but his heart was numb.

Waking up after sleeping for a number of hours, he was starting to have a hard time telling the difference between day and night. The day before, he had pulled back the dark curtains and put masking tape over the windows and cracks, so the space Rentaro was in now was filled with darkness.

In his light slumber, Rentaro dreamed. The intercom rang, and when he went out front, Enju’s grotesque corpse had been left there. Another time, it was a burned body curled up like a fetus, and then a body that had been strangled to death with rope marks on the neck. A corpse with the head cut off. A half-dismantled body.

All the Enjus were left in an unspeakable condition. “Why did you not come save me, Rentaro?” they asked.

Rentaro pushed his face into his pillow and writhed, trying desperately to make the delusions go away.

After another ten hours passed, he stopped seeing even the self-punishing destructive delusions that swirled in his head. His stomach had stopped telling him he was hungry. It had probably started consuming his own organs because it couldn’t take it anymore.

He remembered what Sumire had once told him. When people live only on water, they will become skin and bones and die, but if people don’t even drink water, they will die from acute starvation, dying before they use all the nutrients in their body, not giving their bodies the chance to become thin before death.

His consciousness became muddy, and various hallucinations came and went. Like throwing everything out of a toy chest, he was swallowed by the torrent of his thoughts as they flowed.

Then, Rentaro felt odd, and his shoulders shook. The next thing he knew, moisture was running down his cheeks. The tears had finally come.

If Enju was dead, then what was he supposed to do with himself from now on? If he was to take a step out of the house, should he go right? Should he go left?

What should he do? Should he just do nothing? Should he live? Should he die?

He didn’t even know the answer to that anymore.

Enju, Enju, Enju, please come home. I miss you, Enju.

Suddenly, he started to lose consciousness. He was probably faint from not eating. He didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

There was a voice calling his name. He thought he was hearing things, but he wasn’t. Outside the door, a spare key was thrust into the keyhole, and the door opened vigorously, making Rentaro squint his eyes at the brightness.

Kisara panted as she came in. With wet eyes and both hands on her mouth, she said, “Enju is… Enju is—”

Rentaro rushed into the hospital room with enough force to run something down. There was baby’s breath in a flower vase, and the breeze coming in from the open window made the curtains flutter. In the middle of the hospital room, a girl was lying on top of the bulging bed. Her small chest went up and down, so he could tell she was breathing.

He wasn’t imagining things.

Rentaro kneeled by the bed with an expression of ecstasy on his face, and he prayed, putting both elbows on the bed and holding Enju’s hand.

O God, God, God! Without words, he prayed thanks that Enju was safe.

Suddenly, Kisara hugged him tightly from behind, and he smelled a sweet fragrance. “You’re so emaciated… Your injury isn’t fully healed yet, either, idiot… Why do you treat yourself so badly? If you and Enju are both gone, then what am I supposed to do…?” The end of her sentence half-disappeared in her tears.

Rentaro put the palm of his hand on top of the palm of Kisara’s hand and closed his eyes. “Sorry, Kisara. I’m really sorry…”

Guiltily, Rentaro rolled up the hem of Enju’s hospital gown and breathed a sigh of relief. Enju’s stomach was the pretty skin color of a normal child’s stomach, and the gunshot wounds had healed over nicely without even leaving a scar.

“Is it all over, then…?” he said.

The assassin had failed once and faced danger to try again. Surely there would be no third time…

Kisara looked up at Rentaro with eyes shaking with uneasiness. “Satomi, I sent you a text. Did you see it? The date of the Seitenshi’s third unofficial conference was set yesterday.”

“When?! What’s the date and time of the conference?”

“Tomorrow night, at eight o’clock…”

“Tomorrow…”

Just then, there was the sound of a door opening. Looking back, Rentaro saw a doctor and nurse come into the room. He got up with a start to press them with questions. “Is Enju all right? Will there be any aftereffects? Where did they find her? I want to talk to her. Is it okay to wake her up?”

The doctor looked at the nurse and replied with a troubled face, “We will know for sure once she wakes up, but we probably do not have to worry about aftereffects. However, right now, it would be best not to force her to wake up. Many times the lethal amount of anesthetic was intravenously injected into her before she was left in a room in an abandoned building where the police received a report and took her into their care. The only reason she is still alive is that she has the Gastrea virus in her.”

Many times the lethal amount of anesthetic…?

The doctor and nurse exchanged looks, as if the next part was hard to say. “There is one thing we must tell you, Satomi. About your Initiator’s body’s corrosion rate… The process involved to heal the large wound from this time made it rise slightly.”

Rentaro made a fist, grinding his teeth and looking down. It’s my fault, he thought. Finally, biting his bottom lip with regret, he lifted his face. “How long before Enju wakes up…?”

“I’d like to keep an eye on her for two days.”

“Two days…”

Something was strange.

As Rentaro tried to find the source of his discomfort, he pressed his temple, but suddenly his vision blinked, and his body swayed. The next thing he knew, Kisara was holding him up. Now that he thought about it, he was on the verge of death himself. Since he had remembered, he couldn’t figure out how he had been standing up. He felt languid and exhausted, attacked by the pain of his wound, and his vision faded into darkness.

Rentaro sipped the rice gruel, but when he forced the porridge into his mouth, his stomach was surprised and started contracting. He wanted to recover as soon as possible, so he forced the food down through the nausea, consuming half of the hospital food in several sittings, and had them give him more saline in his IV drip.

Holding Enju, he dozed off next to her, and when he woke up, he was feeling much better.

The doctor said, “You need to be hospitalized, too,” but Rentaro smiled bitterly and left.

Then, Kisara held her nose and pointed out, “You stink! Satomi, you have terrible BO!” So on his way home to pick up a change of clothes, he stopped by the public bath to wash his hair and wipe down his body.

When he got out of the bath, he rewrapped the bandages over his recovery patch in the changing room and lightly touched the wound in his side. It still throbbed painfully, but he decided he could bear it.

Rentaro put his hands on the large vanity and stared at himself. His cheeks were hollow, his lips were cracked and dry, and his hair had lost some of its shine. However, his mind was working again, and the vague discomfort he felt earlier finally became clear.

The doctor had said Enju had many times the lethal amount of anesthetic injected into her, but Rentaro wondered if it really was chance that kept her from dying from the excess anesthetic.

It would have been easy to kill Enju. Her head or heart just had to be destroyed. However, Tina had not done that. Why not?

In the first place, using injection as her method of choice was strange. When giving an injection to one of the Cursed Children, who had threatening powers of regeneration, one usually used a pressure-style injection that didn’t require a needle, or a Varanium needle that prevented the wound from healing itself. These were the two main types. Even if a regular needle was used, the moment the needle pierced the skin, regeneration would begin, so the needle could break, get stuck to the skin, or something else bad could happen.

After checking Enju’s arm, Rentaro saw needle marks. This was the second type—in other words, it was evidence that a Varanium needle had been used.

Why would Tina go through all this trouble?

Rentaro kept staring at the mirror.

Just then, the ruins of the police car thought to have been destroyed by one of the Cursed Children crossed the back of his mind. The police car had been thoroughly destroyed, but the police officer had miraculously survived.

It was similar—even though one whole wall around Enju had been covered with bullet holes from a heavy machine gun, Enju’s life had been spared.

Rentaro thought about it carefully one move at a time.

Tina was definitely trying to kill the Seitenshi and Kisara. The person who hired Tina, or her Promoter, had probably told her to kill them by name directly. However, it was possible that Tina was trying her best not to kill people not on the list to be assassinated. That was why Enju and that police officer did not die. Was that too big a leap to make?

Of course, this act was contrary to the opinion of the person who hired her and her Promoter. It didn’t make sense for those twisted enough to order an assassination to have any hesitation about getting rid of the witnesses.

Pressing forward with that line of thinking, Rentaro put his chin in his hand. Tina wasn’t a bad person at heart. Was it his desire to believe this that was skewing reality?

Just then, he saw Tina’s face in his mind, smiling softly and eating takoyaki in the sunny park, and shook his head hard.

Damn it. What am I thinking? She’s a professional killer.

In his head, he turned over what the doctor said about it taking two days before Enju would wake up. There was something this assassin didn’t want Enju to wake up and say so badly that she put Enju to sleep.

Tina Sprout was probably planning on finishing all the assassinations and leaving Tokyo Area in the next two days. There was hardly any time left.

What will you do, Rentaro Satomi?

2

Irritated at the unanswered questions, Rentaro changed and left the bathhouse. On his way back to the hospital, Rentaro stopped by a vending machine under a humid-smelling overpass and pushed in some coins, pushing the button consecutively several times. Twisting off the cap of the carbonated drink the machine spit out, he gulped it down and emptied the plastic bottle in a second.

Perhaps because he was distracted, he didn’t notice he was being followed until he heard his name.

“Hey, Rentaro Satomi.”

Rentaro looked back with a sinking feeling. What he saw was Yasuwaki and the other Seitenshi personal guards grinning, riding in a black Benz.

“What do you want…?” Rentaro slammed his plastic bottle into the trash can with unconcealed displeasure and started walking. The car was going so slowly to keep pace with Rentaro that it made him angry.

“The third conference has been decided.”

“I know.” Rentaro said it without looking at Yasuwaki, so Yasuwaki pulled out a thin bundle of papers and started fanning himself with it.

Yasuwaki laughed. “However, you can’t guard her anymore. Why? Because your last ray of hope, your Initiator, was beaten by the sniper and sent to the hospital, right? That’s unfortunate. That means the new guard plan is useless to you, of course.”

The guard plan for the third conference?

“Give me that!” Rentaro stole the papers out of Yasuwaki’s hands and leafed through them quickly, ignoring the enraged Yasuwaki as he burned the escort route into his memory.

Suddenly, a hand stretched out from behind him and stole the papers back. Crushing the papers as he got out of the car, Yasuwaki looked at Rentaro with eyes frozen with hatred. “Bastard… You aren’t planning on stepping down from guarding the Seitenshi?”

Those words surprised Rentaro. Why did he look at the guard plan? Was he planning on continuing this job? Even after going through all that?

Kisara had been half-killed, Rentaro suffered a serious injury, and Enju was in a state of unconsciousness. In addition, the enemy was an unprecedented IP rank 98. To put it bluntly, she was way beyond the capacity of the Tendo Civil Security Agency. The money was not worth their lives, and in this case, the risks had already far outweighed the returns. The Seitenshi had likely promised a large sum in compensation, but even so, if the enemy was ranked 98, even ten times that wouldn’t be worth it.

Of course, this was where they should return the advance and wash their hands of the case. The Seitenshi would probably be sad, but she would not stop them. They would walk away from the job on good terms. Yasuwaki would also stop holding strange grudges against him. Enju would wake up eventually. The Tendo Civil Security Agency would continue on. It would be wonderful.

Rentaro shook his head softly.

That was the one thing he couldn’t do.

What would happen if he were to step down from this job right now? It was obvious. That prideful-but-honorable leader of the nation would surely be destroyed. Even if they were to hire a stand-in civsec officer other than himself, there was no way they would be able to stop the peerless Initiator with her super-precise, long-range shooting abilities.

Rentaro sighed as he lifted his face and looked at Yasuwaki straight on. “I will continue with the job. I will protect Lady Seitenshi.”

“Stop messing around, asshole! It all, all got messed up after you came!”

Seeing Yasuwaki’s arm move toward his holster, Rentaro’s right hand also moved at the same time. The next instant, Yasuwaki’s Luger P.08 gun and Rentaro’s XD gun were pointed at their opponents’ brows.

The other members of the personal guard who were riding in the Benz jumped out in a flurry. At the same time, a train came by on the overpass, and there was a shrill sound as it passed.

Yasuwaki’s persistent eyes blazed brightly as they looked at Rentaro. “Rentaro Satomi, do you really like being by Lady Seitenshi’s side that much?”

“Don’t make me the same as you. More importantly, are you planning on proceeding with this plan? The information’s gonna get leaked again.”

“You’re the one leaking the information, bastard!”

“Bullshit! Did the internal investigation of the Seitenshi’s palace come up with any information about the person who leaked the information?”

“The list has been narrowed down quite a bit, thanks to the efforts of the internal investigation team. Your name is at the top of the list, of course.”

“Then give everyone on that list a fake copy of the guard plan.”

Yasuwaki’s hand holding the gun shook with anger, and the hand on the trigger was white as snow. “Don’t, tell me, what to do………!”

Just before the sound of Yasuwaki’s gunshot, Rentaro brushed Yasuwaki’s arm away and swept his feet out from under him. After he pushed Yasuwaki down with his knee, Yasuwaki made the anguished croak like that of a frog being squished.

“I’ll tell you just one more time! Give everyone on that list a fake copy of the guard plan! I’ll take care of the rest.”

3

She slammed the desk with all her strength, and beakers and flasks jumped noisily.

“No! Hell no!” The queen of the basement, Sumire Muroto, was livid, with her lab coat trailing behind her as she paced inside the basement room.

Rentaro had a faint idea of what would happen, but this was a reaction way beyond what he had imagined. This was probably the first time he had ever seen Sumire so worked up.

Using her own authority, the Seitenshi had printed out information about Tina Sprout and her rank and given it to Rentaro. On that piece of paper, Tina’s Promoter’s name was also printed out.

Rentaro remembered hearing the name before.

“Ain! Have you fallen so far, Ain Rand?!” Sumire shouted.

Rentaro said, “Then this Ain Rand is that person you were talking about after all, Doc? Your—”

“Yeah, that’s right. There’s no mistaking it. Someone who was once called one of the Four Sages with me, as hard to believe as that is.”

“W-wait a minute, Doc. Why are you so angry?”

“How can I not be angry about this? He’s sold the last pride he had as a doctor to the devil. Rentaro, how did you end up getting the surgery for the New Humanity Creation Project?”

“That was…” When Kisara’s parents were eaten by a stray Gastrea, and Rentaro protected her, it resulted in his right arm and leg and left eye being eaten. Near death, he was brought to Sumire’s lab.

“In other words, you had only two choices: undergo the surgery and live, or die,” said Sumire.

Rentaro lifted his face with a start, and Sumire nodded once before continuing. “Kagetane Hiruko was the same. He sustained a serious injury to his internal organs, and he was left with only two choices: undergo the surgery, or wait for death. The four of us, including Ain and me, swore one thing before establishing the mechanized soldier project in our respective countries: ‘We are doctors first and scientists second.’ Of course, that was because of the extremely low success rate of the surgeries, but more than that, we wanted to respect the wishes of the patient, and we did not want to forget our respect for human life. After hearing that, I’ll ask you this, Rentaro. Have you ever heard of one of the Cursed Children sustaining so grave an injury that she was near death?”

Rentaro shook his head. In exchange for having shackles on their lifespans called corrosion rates, the Cursed Children had overwhelming muscle strength, agility, regenerative ability, and they did not get any of the diseases or impairments of normal humans.

Like how Enju did not die even after being injected with a lethal amount of anesthetic, the Gastrea virus inside their bodies was extremely sensitive to dangers to its host’s life and rendered foreign objects nontoxic. In reality, Rentaro had never even seen Enju catch a cold.

In other words, it was unthinkable that they would ever be in a situation where they only had the choice between surgery and death.

“You get it already, right, Rentaro? Ain, that brute, broke his vow and brought healthy Children into his lab.”

Rentaro was astonished. How in the world did Rand perform surgery on the Children? It wasn’t something Rentaro could wrap his head around then and there, and he shook his head.

Rand would have had to use Varanium scalpels, forceps, and other surgical tools to open their bodies. Of course, since Varanium inhibited their regeneration, using it to injure the Initiators would mean their healing abilities would drop significantly, as well.

As a result, wouldn’t the success rate be much lower than that of an ordinary person? Just how many dozens of Children disappeared into the operating room? No, how many hundreds?

Rentaro started to imagine the grotesque scene of Children’s bodies being opened and had to put a hand to his mouth. After all this time, he understood that that small assassin was standing atop a large number of corpses.

“Rentaro, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Ain Rand has pretty much no combat ability to speak of. I can guarantee that as someone who worked with him in the past. They are pair in name only, and he probably isn’t more than the person giving commands regarding the assassinations. You don’t have to worry about him coming out into the front lines.”

“What’s the bad news?” Rentaro asked.

“Tina Sprout’s rank of 98 is something she is maintaining with her own combat ability and hers alone.”

Rentaro was shocked. The IP ranks given by the IISO, or International Initiator Supervision Organization, were called “IP” as an abbreviation of Initiator and Promoter, and they were based on their battle results among other things, calculated based on the combined total of the Initiator’s and Promoter’s combat abilities. If Rand did not fight, then Tina’s rank of 98 was calculated solely based on her own combat ability.

Was something that ridiculous even possible?

“Rentaro, that Initiator named Tina hit a moving target five out of five times from a great distance away, is that correct?” Sumire asked.

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Rentaro.

“If that’s the case, then I have an idea about the trick the enemy’s using to pull off that precision sniping.”

“Really?”

Sumire nodded once and pushed through piles of old documents on her desk to find an old-style terabyte disc, which she inserted into her computer. When she pointed the remote control at the wall to operate it, a screen slid down and connected wirelessly to the projector. Soon, there was a large image projected onto the screen.

Rentaro leaned forward, wondering what was about to start, but at first, he just saw a cold blue background with the words TEST 1 on the screen. The next instant, in a space as wide as a bowling alley, a stocky bald man who was blindfolded appeared on the screen. The picture was crude, and there was no music. It had been made in a very businesslike way.

Rentaro frowned. What was this?

The video changed to a shot filmed from behind the man’s back. That was when Rentaro first noticed the man had a handgun in his right hand, and that there were three shooting targets inside the room. It looked like he was going to shoot them blindfolded.

Rentaro didn’t dare blink in case he missed something. However, what happened the next instant completely surpassed what Rentaro was expecting.

From his navy blue jacket, the man pulled out three round, fist-size black Bits and threw them toward the ground. However, the Bits didn’t fall to the ground, but floated up and started circling over the man’s head without a sound. Finally, the man lifted his arm high and then brought his arm down, as if to say, “Go.”

In a moment, the plasma engines at the bottoms of the Bits ignited. They flew toward the targets with amazing speed. The blindfolded man lifted his right arm and fired three shots from his gun. The picture changed. The next shot was an enlarged shot to prove that the three gunshots went through the middle of each of the three targets.

Rentaro took a step back in shock. His brain couldn’t understand what he was seeing. What was this? Something like this shouldn’t be possible. This had to be some sort of special effect. If not, it was a problem. He turned back with imploring eyes, but Sumire’s stern look and crossed arms rejected that possibility completely.

“Thought-drive interface, a Shenfield. That is probably the trump card Ain has up his sleeve. Do you know what a BMI is?”

“Brain machine interface?”

“That’s right. The BMI is actually not something new in research. For patients whose arms and legs are paralyzed to control a computer cursor with only their thoughts when their brains are connected to electrodes is something that has been possible for over twenty years.

“The man in the video used an advanced version of that. With a neurochip implanted in his brain, he can control a number of devices with just his thoughts. Those Bits are like scouts. They have precise observation instruments installed, and they send information about the location of the target, including its coordinates, temperature, humidity, angle, and wind speed, wirelessly to the brain of the operator. That’s why that man could shoot through the targets blindfolded. Of course, the surgery the sniper underwent was not just for this.

“I have heard that shaking hands are also a great enemy to snipers. It is likely that a metal balancer was implanted in the body to completely shut down any movement to the hand from heartbeats or breathing. Putting something like that in is a piece of cake for someone like me or Ain. Rentaro, do you understand what this means?”

There was no way he could understand.

By making full use of this weapon, the Shenfield, the sniper could scout the enemy’s movements while concealed. That was a great advantage when sniping a human, and it probably made possible the amazing feat of hitting five consecutive targets a kilometer away.

But there, Rentaro had a question. If that was the case, that meant that last time, and the time before, when they were on guard, these black Bits were observing Rentaro and the others from somewhere?

Just then, something seemed to pull at his thoughts. When he realized what it was, he lifted his face and jumped over to Sumire’s computer. Ignoring the flustered Sumire, he turned the volume up to max and replayed the video from the beginning, staring at the screen.

The man fished the fist-size Bits out of his jacket, and the Bits floated and started circling. At that moment, Rentaro could definitely hear something that sounded like the buzzing of an insect, and his eyes opened wide.

This was it. There was no mistaking it. The strange sound he had heard during the last sniping and the sniping before that was this. Rentaro felt chills and rubbed his arms. Those Bits had been flying near Rentaro both times after all.

And Tina was an Initiator with the Owl Factor. She probably already had eyes that could see well at night, and her vision was probably much better than that of the average person. It was possible that Tina didn’t even use the optical scope essential for a sniper rifle when she operated hers.

The reason she was so tired when he saw her during the day was that she had a nocturnal animal factor in her body. There was no mistaking it. Everything made sense now, and all the mysteries were cleared up at once.

Rentaro finally understood. This was the ability of Tina Sprout, the superstrong Initiator specialized for sniping people at night.

“Research like this was being done almost ten years ago…?” he asked.

“I was also surprised when I heard about the sniper from you,” said Sumire. “Because I thought Shenfield was an obvious failure.”

Rentaro looked at Sumire, surprised. “What do you mean?”

Sumire frowned. “I mean what I said. This was a failure. The neurochip implanted in the brain gave off a large amount of heat and burned the inside of the subject’s brain. The man in the video also died in the end. Ain, you bastard, don’t tell me you completed Shenfield…”

“Doc, how many Bits can be manipulated at once?”

“Three. More than that and the brain is overloaded and the operator can’t handle it.”

Three… Rentaro crossed his arms and rested his chin on his hand, stroking his chin in thought.

Sumire sat down in a chair somewhere and narrowed her eyes dangerously. “Rentaro, what are you thinking about?”

“How to beat Tina,” said Rentaro.

“It’s impossible. Stop it.”

“Why?”

“Those with ranks under a hundred have sold their souls to the devil. It’s no exaggeration to call them monsters. It’s too early for you to overtake the hundreds.”

“Doc, that’s stupid! You didn’t say anything during the Kagetane Hiruko terrorist incident!”

“Of course not.” Sumire put her elbow on the armrest and put her chin in her hand, sighing. “During that incident, all the lives in Tokyo Area could have been lost. This time, it’s different. It might sound bad, but there would only be one life lost.”

“It’s not a matter of number!”

“It is a matter of number. It’s true that the Lady Seitenshi’s life is hard to replace with another, but even so, it’s not something that can be compared to all the lives of Tokyo Area.” Seeing Rentaro hesitate, Sumire tried to talk to him in a way he could understand.

“Rentaro, let’s do a simple calculation that even you can understand. Let’s assume that my New Humanity Creation Project and Ain’s NEXT have the same amount of hidden power. If we subtract the abilities of a mechanized soldier from you and that assassin, what do we have left? The unsurpassable wall between a human and an Initiator. Can a human beat a gorilla? Think about it carefully. Rentaro, just stay on the sidelines this time. There’s no need for you to take any more risks than you already have.”

Rentaro ground his teeth as he made a shaking fist. “Still, I…”

“Rentaro, science can make the impossible possible, but it’s not perfect. Science is the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge that humans ate that became the original sin, and we humans are descended from Cain, who was the first to stain his hands with murder. I am a doctor as well as a scientist, and I am proud of that, but I think scientists are the most sinful humans.

“Even I had a period when I thought to fill the world with peace and happiness with a bright flame. However, when my lover was killed during the Gastrea War, I fell easily to the path of demons. I didn’t know that humans could hate something so deeply. And the result of that was that I killed many patients to create an enhanced soldier like you. Rentaro, do you know why Varanium is black?”

“No…”

“My loathing has stained it black.”

Rentaro shook his head. “That’s not scientific.”

“But I believe it even now. And I sent you all into the world with the intent to slaughter and massacre. However, you alone I raised in a completely different way. Outwardly, your tone is sulky, but you are straightforward. That was when I realized it—My soul had been saved by your growth. When I had cried out after losing everything I had in the world, I was still connected to the world through your existence. When I hold the banked fire of that shining passion from that time, it is very warm. If you die, I will return to the darkness. Rentaro, don’t take the light away from me.”

“Doc…”

“Rentaro, what is happiness, anyway? I’m sure even you know that it’s not to be rich. If wealth and authority were the conditions for happiness, a multimillionaire wouldn’t take a gun and shoot out his own medulla oblongata. Rentaro, I believe that you are someone who knows your own happiness. And a person’s worth is decided once their coffin is closed. It’s not like you can’t see Enju and Kisara crying if you die, right? I would be sad, too, and regretful. Rentaro, you have it good. There’s no reason for you to speed up your death.”

Rentaro shook his head. “You’re a coward, Doc. You’re too good at persuading other people.”

Sumire smiled suddenly. “Yeah, it’s something I’m secretly proud of. Then—”

“No, even so, I have to go.”

“Wha—?” Sumire stood up as she braced herself, and yelled in a voice filled with anger. “What are you, a child?!”

“Then is giving up what it means to be an adult? Let me tell you, Doc. You’re wrong!” Rentaro stretched his right arm straight out and made a fist. “I want to prove it. I want to prove that this arm I got from you is to save people!

“Doc, I once saw hell. Ten years ago, on that day, mankind was eaten by Gastrea, devoured, torn to pieces, and if you climbed a small hill and looked around, the sky was burning no matter where you looked. It was a scene I’ll never forget. I kept trying not to remember it, trying not to think about it. But I can’t do that.

“Even if I am at the heights of happiness with Kisara in my left arm and Enju in my right, I’m sure I would keep remembering that hell and agonize over it. In order for me to put an end to that nightmare of despair, all I can do is to protect the Lady Seitenshi, defeat Tina, raise my rank, and bring to light the mysteries of this world. I can’t run away…!”

Rentaro fell silent and turned around, walking forward.

“Where will you go?” Sumire asked.

“Forward. Doc, I’m going.”

“You’re going to be killed… There’s no doubt about it. You will be killed! Hey!”

Rentaro didn’t stop his feet anymore as he left the basement room behind him. Sumire’s cries of “You will be killed!” echoed through the basement, following Rentaro until he left the university.

It was night outside. The cold air on his skin cleared his head.

Rentaro pushed buttons on his cell phone and when the person on the other line picked up after a few rings, Rentaro said, “The enemy can hit a target a kilometer away a hundred percent of the time with a sniper rifle. I can’t win the way I am now. If you know of some way to deal with an enemy like this, tell me!”

The person on the other line was silent for a moment.

Rentaro held his breath, shutting his eyes tightly in prayer as he waited.

Finally—

“Well, it’s not like I don’t have anything.” On the other end of the line, the daughter of the CEO of Shiba Heavy Weapons, Miori Shiba, laughed bewitchingly.

4

“Motion Reality Prism Battle Simulator Version 10.0 activated. Data card reading completed. Welcome back, Rentaro Satomi.”

A synthetic female voice read his name smoothly, and the words HELLO, WORLD appeared in the space about a meter in front of him. Alice and the White Rabbit holding a watch from Alice in Wonderland started chasing each other around the words.

It was probably just the programmer having fun, but the issue was the level at which this was reproduced. Both the blond girl in the apron and dress and the rabbit with his nose twitching looked like the real thing. Rentaro got close to them and leaned over, stretching his hand out slowly, but right before he could touch them, they disappeared.

Rentaro was surprised and stood up, lifting his face. He was in a white room. A really big one. It was empty inside, and it was swept so clean that there wasn’t a speck of dust, but the light shining from far above filled the white room with a diffuse light that made it so bright, he had to squint.

“How is it, Satomi dear?” asked Miori.

Rentaro said, “I can’t tell my right from left or front from back in this space, as usual. My brain is starting to hurt.”

As Rentaro gave noncommittal grunts to Miori’s voice over the headset, he looked around him. It was the fifth floor of the basement of the Shiba Heavy Weapons building. Rentaro was inside a space called the VR Special Training Room, a gigantic cube about a kilometer around.

The inside of the room was made completely of a special rubber that allowed one to use anything from real bullets to different types of explosives. It was one of the few advanced virtual combat training facilities in the world. It was often used by the self-defense force and special police, civsec officers, and even rich hobbyists, and apparently, it was booked up a year in advance, but Rentaro was able to use it as a special favor from Miori.

Living in a shabby eight-tatami-mat apartment, Rentaro sometimes forgot that this was the year 2031, but seeing such futuristic equipment, he remembered.

“Miori, sorry to jump right into it, but please start now,” he said.

“Oh my, Satomi dear, you’re so impatient.”

As he started to retort back, “Why do you always have to make everything sound so perverted?” the scenery around him twisted.

The next thing he knew, Rentaro was abandoned in a desert. Twisting his neck, he could see the sun shining furiously in the middle of the sky, and hot wind and sand hit his body, making him damp and sweaty.

Astonished, Rentaro went to the top of the sand dune in front of him and looked around. Under the clear blue sky was desert as far as he could see. Rentaro was bewildered. His body was definitely in that white room. This room was just a virtual reality. It was not as if he had been transported to an actual desert by a warp from a science fiction movie.

Even though he knew the sweaty temperatures and wind were created by an air-conditioning unit, he couldn’t tell what this hill he was standing on was.

He thought the ground was made of some kind of turgor pressure material that was making instantaneous indentations, but then when he saw the dilapidated pillbox shelter in the distance, he wasn’t sure what was going on again. It wasn’t possible to create such a complicated building out of turgor pressure material.

“Miori, I think this every time, but what principles are at work here?” Rentaro asked.

“It’s a bottom-down system for the 3DCG and a top-down system for the reality capture combined with some other stuff. In other words, it’s a business secret,” she replied teasingly.

When Rentaro scooped up the sand on the ground, the hot sand spilled from between his fingers. It was definitely real—at least, that’s how it felt to him.

“Satomi dear, what do you want to do with the pain level?”

“Set it to max. If not, it won’t be training. Also, give me another of the XD guns that I use.”

Just then, almost ten holodisplay panels popped up in front of him. They were clauses regarding life endangerment saying basically, “We take no responsibility if you die.” Rentaro pushed the AGREE button without really reading them, and the windows closed.

Rentaro put his left hand in the air. A moment later, he caught the XD gun that rained down from the sky.

“Now, let’s get started. I’m looking forward to seeing you get serious, Satomi dear.”

“About that, Miori. For the simulator, just release my left eye. I can’t refill the cartridges in my right arm and leg, so I want to save those for when I fight Tina.”

After mollifying Miori by promising to go all out for her sometime, Rentaro pulled his own XD gun from his waist and waited with both guns out.

A countdown like one from an old movie appeared in front of his eyes—10, 9, 8—flickering inside the black circle surrounding it. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and closed his eyes quietly as he heightened his concentration by paying attention to his breathing.

“Mission start!” the synthesized voice said, and with the sound of a fierce wind on the battlefield, he started hearing the rolling words of a foreign language that sounded Middle Eastern. There must have been terrorist-type enemies positioned in the battlefield.

Rentaro quietly opened his eyes wide.

Artificial eye, activate.

The nano-core processor made using graphene transistors activated and started operating. Geometric patterns emerged on the spinning iris of his eye. His field of vision expanded and the colors became brighter.

Slowly, he inhaled, then exhaled. “Let the battle begin. I will now eliminate the enemy.”

“No way… What is this……?”

Watching on a monitor in another room, Miori Shiba was so shocked, she couldn’t speak. The name of the stage Rentaro was in was Impossible.

Thirty enemies consisting of militiamen in turbans were positioned in this impenetrable stage. Immediately after it started, the militiamen attacked with assault rifle cross fire, so there hadn’t been a single person who had cleared this stage before. The other day, the top ten members of Japan’s Special Assault Team attempted this stage as a team, and they were all kicked out after being judged DEAD.

Miori thought it would be satisfactory if Rentaro took even one of the enemy with him and threw him in this stage half-maliciously. However—

Miori’s face was almost touching the monitor. Her gaze was glued to the young man in the monitor wearing a suitlike uniform.

Rentaro Satomi had the strength of a demon.

Immediately after the battle began, Rentaro ran down the slope of the sand dune with fierce momentum. Sand pillars rose from the gunfire around his feet like explosions. Not even bothering to hide in the shadows, Rentaro charged into the enemy camp.

As he ran, he fired warning shots from his two guns. Slipping through the gunshots of the militia hiding behind a wall of sandbags, he jumped and kneed one of them in the face, jumping into the middle of the sandbags. He shot and killed a militiaman he knocked out at close range. Stealing a grenade from the fallen militiaman, he pulled the pin out with his teeth and threw it into the pillbox shelter. The sound of the explosion and the enemy’s screams came at almost the same time.

Turning toward violent engine sounds, Rentaro promptly rolled out of the way and a truck passed by with a roar, trying to run him over right where he had been. Moreover, there was a heavy machine gun installed in the bed of the truck. With a deafening explosive sound, the heavy machine gun spit fire. A second before the heavy machine gun caught Rentaro and blew him to smithereens, Rentaro rolled onto the sand and fired two shots rapidly, laying low.

The first shot was at the shooter of the heavy machine gun on the truck bed, and the other went through the head of the truck driver, killing him. The truck lost control and spun on its side, exploding and spitting up a pillar of fire.

Even as this was happening, the numbers of the remaining enemy were going down ridiculously quickly.

“The 21-Form Varanium Artificial Eye. That is the true form of what is in Satomi’s left eye.” When Miori looked back, there was Kisara, brushing back her hair, her crisp footsteps sounding against the floor.

“Kisara… What is that?” asked Miori.

“Inside his left eye is a high-performance computer with a CPU that uses a graphene transistor wrapped in a Super-Varanium shell. Miori, would you believe me if I told you that people feel the passage of time differently?”

“Huh?”

“As a child, one day feels very long, but when you become old, a day goes by in an instant. Have you ever heard that? For example, assume that as a child, your brain can think about a hundred things in one minute, but when you become old, of course your brain function declines, and you can only think about ten things in one minute. If that’s the case, then what do you think happens?

“Don’t you think that a day for a child would feel ten times longer than a day for an elderly person? Time stretches and shrinks depending on the person. In addition to having various sensors, Satomi’s artificial eye is equipped with a multiplier function that overclocks the brain’s thought frequency thousands of times, so apparently time passes very slowly in the world Satomi sees. That’s why the enemy’s bullets don’t hit him.”

“B-but, that’s different from his body becoming faster, right?”

“Of course. But according to Satomi, it doesn’t work after the bullet has been fired, but figuring out a safe position based on the trajectory of the bullet before they pull the trigger isn’t that hard.”

“Is that even possible…?”

“It is. That is the true power of Rentaro Satomi, called the greatest masterpiece of the godlike doctor, Sumire Muroto, head of the New Humanity Creation Project.” However, instead of looking proud, Kisara, who was watching the monitor with her arms crossed, looked at Rentaro with sad eyes, murmuring.

“We’ve kept this from Enju, but when Satomi doesn’t unleash the power of his left eye, he can only see out of his right eye. His artificial left eye is set up to move the same way as his right eye, so no one can tell that he can’t see out of it.”

Miori was at a loss for words as she looked at the soldier on the monitor.

“But it’s not all bad. Satomi’s artificial limbs have pain sensory nerves made of carbon nanotubes, so they’re pretty much the same as a normal person—”

“Wait a minute, Kisara. There’s only one enemy left.”

This time, it was Kisara’s turn to tilt her head in question. “He’s almost cleared it then, right? What are you worried about?”

Miori tilted her head at Kisara and said each word slowly and distinctly. “The last person is a sniper.”

Rentaro stood stock-still in the middle of the enemy camp filled with piles of corpses. The area was enshrouded in flames warming his skin and smelled of gunpowder smoke. It was so hot that Rentaro tore off his necktie as he breathed with his shoulders heaving. His whole body was covered with sweat, and one of the XD guns had disappeared somewhere without him noticing.

The enemy was now nowhere to be seen.

Just as he started wondering if he had cleared the stage, something grazed the top of his shoulder. When he thought he had been shot, he sank to his knees and pressed the wound with his hand. The superthin shock paddles he stuck on his skin before entering the VR training room recreated the heat and pain of being hit by a bullet. Even though he had only been grazed, he gritted his teeth at the intense pain that felt like he had been cut.

He looked back and glared beyond the sand dune. “A sniper, huh?!”

The range finder built into the artificial eye found the enemy. The enemy was two hundred and twenty meters away. On top of being too far to see with the naked eye, the hot air created waves distorting his vision. The worst conditions for shooting.

The standard response here would be to get closer to the sniper while hiding in the shadows of the sand dunes. However, Rentaro did not do that but turned back toward the enemy and spread his legs shoulder width, holding his gun diagonally from the target’s point of view.

Tina’s voice played in the back of his mind. “My life has just been pain. That’s why, right now, I’m having my first fun mood in a while.”

Rentaro pulled the trigger slowly and fired. His shot went wide past the target by a long shot.

One more shot. This time, it was too low.

Shots were grazing his ears with ferocious speed, and his legs were shaking. The enemy was firing back. Torn between frustrating impatience and fear, he inhaled, then exhaled shakily. Closing his eyes, he cleared his ears with the sound of his own heartbeat. All living things eventually lose their lives and die and repeat the cycle of reincarnation. The way of the heavens and the reason that preserved harmony among all living things filled his heart, assimilated within him, and sharpened him.

A beam of light flashed in his head. He opened his eyes wide suddenly.

There! He pulled the trigger and fired. His arm was kicked back by the recoil, and an empty brass-colored cartridge spun as it was spit out.

The bullet grazed the upper right part of the Dragunov sniper rifle the sniper held and entered through his left eye socket. It shattered his skull, and the path taken by the bullet was in a vacuum for an instant. The next moment, his body systems were compressed, and his brain was destroyed.

The bullet that was the extension of Rentaro’s arm had brought death to every single one of his virtual enemies. He took the Infinite Stance and quietly stayed on alert.

Rentaro Satomi was one with his gun.

There was a fanfare and the floating words MISSION COMPLETE, along with the smooth synthesized female voice saying the words.

The next thing he knew, he was back in the white room. Only the necktie scattered on the floor, the other XD gun, and the empty cartridges told him that the fight that had just happened was not a dream.

“Satomi dear, you’re amazing! Two thousand, two hundred percent!” Miori screamed into the headset with excitement, causing feedback.

Rentaro yelled, holding his ears. “Be quiet! What do you mean, 2,200 percent?”

“Satomi dear, you used this simulator three times before, remember? If the average of your combat ability during those times is 100 percent, then that’s your combat power this time.”

I see, Rentaro muttered to himself. This meant that with his artificial eye unleashed, he was twenty-two times stronger than usual.

“Satomi dear, how much stronger would you be if you unleashed your arm and leg?”

“Roughly three times stronger that this.”

“Six thousand, six hundred percent! S-Satomi dear, take me now!”

Rentaro snorted.

“Wait, Miori, what are you saying? Satomi is mine! I’m all he sees!” Apparently, Kisara was also with her. “Miori, I’m sure you don’t know this, but Satomi attacked me like a beast and did all sorts of dirty things to me. My body is enough to satisfy him!”

The one who did all sorts of dirty things was Enju. That made Rentaro think of something suddenly. “Hey, Miori, Enju has used this simulator before, too, right? What are her numbers compared to mine?”

For some reason, that made Miori stammer, “Well…” evasively. Finally, she mumbled reluctantly, “Eight thousand, six hundred percent.”

Rentaro exhaled sharply. Well, that wasn’t unexpected. Enju had extraordinary strength for an Initiator. However, it might be paradoxical to think so, but Rentaro did not think that he could not beat her.

As part of a martial arts family, such as he was, he had experience and intuition that Enju lacked. Enju might think that if she made Rentaro miss with the exploding cartridges in his artificial limbs, she could win, but if she thought so naively, she would be easy to handle.

“Then what about the projected numbers for Tina, who beat Enju?” Rentaro asked.

“If the enemy’s specialty was sniping, thinking about it using common sense, going up against Enju would have been the worst matchup for her. If she won despite that, then you should assume she is over 1.5 times stronger than Enju.”

“Over 12,900 percent?!” It was a number that defied common sense. It wasn’t that he had been optimistic, but this was…

“Satomi dear, you can use any of the equipment we have to offer. And we’ll use the simulator to crush your weaknesses one by one.”

There was some time before he answered.

“All right.”

In any case, he didn’t have any other choice. He had long abandoned the idea of running away.

“Now, we’ll use an anti-sniper program next,” said Miori.

At that moment, the world changed again.

“Situation two, stage name: Killhouse. Activating—”

5

Surprised, Tina jumped out of bed.

Reflected in her eyes were scattered junk food wrappers and foam food trays. Turning her head, she saw the bluish-white light of the moon shining into her room in her temporary residence. Water dripped from the faucet, falling with a splashing sound into a bowl, and the sound of the ticking secondhand of the clock on the wall slowly grew louder in her ears. It was three a.m.

Her underwear was drenched with sweat, and the back of her eyelids throbbed as she shook her head and pressed her hand to her temple.

As if it had been waiting for Tina to wake up, the cell phone next to her rang. “It’s me,” she said.

“What are you doing? How many times do you think I called you?”

“I’m sorry, Master…… I was taking a nap.”

“I have the guard plan for the third conference. I’ll send it to your device now.”

The guard plan arrived on her PDA. She changed it to holodisplay mode, and it projected the images in the air. She looked over them quickly.

Tina frowned. What was this…?

“Those foolish people… How many times are they planning on repeating the same mistake? Well, it gives us the chance for our third assassination, though.”

“But Master… Isn’t there something strange about this?”

“What is?”

“Why are they using such a roundabout guard route? And this route contains a perfect sniping spot. It’s as if they are asking for it.” Tina continued inwardly. On top of that, the sniping spot was in District 39, where she had gone once with Rentaro before they discovered each other’s identities. Tina had a slight familiarity with the terrain.

“In other words, what are you trying to say?”

“Could it be a trap?”

Rand contemplated on the other side of the phone. “There is still no sign that our spy inside the Seitenshi’s palace has been discovered.”

“Master, I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should wait and see just this once.”

“No! You’ve already wasted two perfect chances, and our client is angry. We cannot fail!”

Then, as if he remembered something, her master’s voice dropped, and he asked, “Hey…Tina—Tina Sprout.”

“Yes?”

“I got information that the police officer and Initiator I ordered you to kill are still alive.”

Suddenly, an uncomfortable silence fell.

“I thought I delivered a killing blow,” Tina said, exaggerating her surprise a little. Immediately after, she reproached herself for being too obvious.

“Tina…my precious work of art. Surely you are not disobeying my orders?”

“Of course not, Master.” Her master stayed uncannily silent. Tina wiped the sweat on the palms of her hands on her skirt without letting him notice it.

“Tina, who is your master? Let me hear it.”

“You are, Master…I mean, Professor Rand.”

“To whom do you owe your life?”

“I owe everything to you, Professor Rand.”

“What are you?”

“I am your tool, Professor Rand.”

He paused on the other end. “Fine. There is no change to what you must do. However, I’m sure you understand this, but you cannot fail.”

“What if it is a trap?”

“Break through it by yourself. You should have enough strength for that, at least. However, if you are somehow about to be defeated”—Rand stopped before continuing—“Die.”

Tina clutched the hem of her skirt in her hands.

“Kill yourself.”

Tina calmed her breath and put her hands to her heart, closing her eyes. “I understand, Master.”

Once he heard that, Rand hung up without another word.

Tina turned her head and looked around her apartment. She would leave here soon, too. Opening the lid of the plastic container next to the bed, she poured the gasoline inside over everything in the room. Her head hurting from the gasoline vapors, Tina backed up to the door, then flicked the lighter and threw it inside. Snakes of flames reached all the way into the center of the room, and the whole room was enveloped in crimson flames.

Checking to make sure the fire alarm was working, she left the apartment. The fire truck appeared soon after, and shouts from curious onlookers started.

From a slight distance away, Tina watched the burning apartment as the flames pierced into the night sky. When a pillar burned down, the apartment building collapsed in the cloud of ashes.

Even if Rand was a scientist, he was now taking orders from someone above him. There was no way he would change his mind just because she voiced her dissatisfaction to him. If that was the case, then all Tina could do was what she was ordered to do.

And even if the guard plan was a trap, what of it? Her own combat history as an Initiator was currently at a hundred straight wins. There was no one who could reach her.

However, when she fought the boy dressed in black, Tina had once thought that if there was someone who could defeat her, then it could possibly be—

Just recalling his face made her chest hurt with emotion. Even though the waves of heat on her skin were hot enough to burn, Tina hugged herself, shivering with cold, looking down.

“Please, don’t come…Rentaro…”