BLACK BULLET
CHAPTER 04

THOSE WHO WOULD BE GODS

1     4:10 A.M.

A silent electronic eye watched the confrontation between Rentaro Satomi and Kagetane Hiruko from an altitude of eight hundred meters.

At the operation headquarters in the First District of Tokyo Area, the Japan National Security Council, or JNSC, used the various data transmission technologies that unmanned surveillance drones were equipped with in order to display the events on the monitors in the meeting room practically in real time.

A dead silence had descended on the operation headquarters. Sitting at the long table, the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Minister of Defense kept looking at each other’s faces furtively. Just moments earlier, they watched the footage of fourteen pairs and one person—twenty-nine civil officers in all—who jointly challenged Kagetane Hiruko and had the tables turned on them.

Currently, they had footage from above as two pairs of four people faced each other silently, waiting for the battle to start.

Sitting at the head of the long table, the chair of the JNSC, the Seitenshi, sighed as she looked at the Minister of Defense. “Currently, what other civil officers are in their vicinity?”

“Er, even the closest pair would take over an hour to reach them.” The bulldog-faced Minister of Defense seemed at his wits’ end as he started dabbing his face with a handkerchief.

The Seitenshi looked at the vice-chair, Kikunojo Tendo. With his boulderlike countenance, Kikunojo returned her look with a nod. “Your decision, Lady Seitenshi?”

After a moment’s contemplation, the Seitenshi stood up from her chair. “Very well—”

Suddenly, the sound of the raised voices of the security police who were standing guard outside the meeting room could be heard. The door to the situation room was suddenly thrown open, and a number of people surged into the room. The Seitenshi saw the girl at the front of the pack, and her response was delayed for a moment.

“What is going on?” the Seitenshi demanded.

The black-haired girl at the front of the pack and president of the Tendo Civil Security Agency, Kisara Tendo, swaggered into the middle of the room, cutting through the middle to thrust a piece of paper in the faces of everyone sitting there. The paper in Kisara’s hands was covered with circles, and outside the circles, like a collection of autographs, were handwritten signatures and stamps of signature seals.

The Seitenshi peeked at the paper and gulped involuntarily. It was a compact under joint signatures. If she remembered correctly, long ago, during the Peasants’ Revolt, they used this in order to form a strong contractual bond among the group and hide the ringleader at the same time.

The gazes of everyone around very naturally turned to the person whose name was one of the many on the list—the Minister of Defense. The other high-ranking government officials drew away from him.

“Good afternoon, Minister Kutsuwada,” said Kisara.

“Wh-what kind of joke is this?” said the Minister of Defense.

“Your subordinate had this very interesting piece of paper, you know. It’s just as it says on the joint compact. You are one in a group secretly maneuvering behind Kagetane Hiruko. In addition, you are also the one who stole the Inheritance of the Seven Stars and tried to leak that information to the media.”

“Th-that’s not true…”

Kisara put her hand to her chin and put on a show of tilting her head. “Handwriting a compact under joint signatures is a very old-fashioned thing to do. Thanks to that, I can round up everyone responsible at once, which saves me the extra trouble.”

The Seitenshi narrowed her eyes. She could not continue to listen silently. “This meeting room is a place of the law that bears the burden of this country’s defense. It is problematic for you to enter rudely like this.”

“Th-that’s right. You are no more than a filthy civil officer dog! I don’t know where you got hold of such a thing, but you need to get out of here!” The minister howled, riding on the Seitenshi’s coattails.

However, Kisara remained composed. “Lady Seitenshi, I agree completely with what you say. However, when I discovered these facts, I could not wait another second to share this with you and hastened to this place. Lady Seitenshi, you must also feel the need to dispose of the spy before continuing with the proceedings, do you not?” She was very eloquent.

The Seitenshi signaled Kikunojo. Kikunojo looked coolly at the Minister of Defense. “Take him away.”

“W-wait…Lord Tendo!” The minister had a pleading look on his face. “I’m… I’m…!” The security officers lifted the man by both arms and took him screaming out of the meeting room.

“Then, I will take my leave here,” said Kisara.

“President Tendo, I cannot let you do that,” said the Seitenshi.

Kisara, who looked like she had been about to turn on her heel, stopped her movement and turned back halfway. “Why not?”

“I’m sorry, but I cannot have you leave this building until this operation is completed successfully. I will have you informally confined to this room for the time being.”

Kisara pretended for just a moment to put her hand to her chin and think. “If that’s the case, then I suppose I must stay.”

“Kisara…I cannot believe you would show your face here.” Kikunojo did not do anything to hide his wrath.

However, Kisara just flashed him a calm smile. “Good afternoon, Lord Tendo. It has been some time.”

“Have you returned from hell for your vengeance?”

“I have just come to exterminate a cockroach that was crawling around my bedside. It was only coincidence that I happened to be here at the same time as you. Don’t you think you are being too suspicious?”

“I cannot believe you can joke around like that…”

Kisara’s eyes gave off a cold glitter as she narrowed them. “Every Tendo must die, Lord Tendo.”

“Y-you little…”

It did not sound anything like a conversation a grandfather would have with his granddaughter. Even just knowing part of the relationship between Kisara and Kikunojo made the Seitenshi frightened.

“Please leave it at that, you two,” she said. “President Tendo, if you have been watching the monitor, then you must understand what the situation is to a certain extent. Will you tell us your opinion on the matter?”

4:15 A.M.

The lukewarm wind blew against Rentaro’s skin.

The smell of salt was strong in his nostrils. There was the sound of rippling waves breaking against the concrete wharf. The moonlight made the surface of the water shine like silvery scales, but the bottom of the ocean was so dark that it could not be seen. The smell of the water was mixed with the smell of blood. There was a mountain of corpses nearby. And at the tip of the pier stood the two fighting asuras.

Rentaro looked at the spreading sea of blood and asked in a low growl, “Did you bastards do all this?”

“We didn’t want the church to get dirty with blood,” said Kagetane. “Everything that we could do is over already. I’m sure the Stage Five Gastrea will be here soon. All that’s left is to wait.”

“Is the case inside the church? And if I go in and wreck all your preparations right now, will the summoning of the Stage Five be stopped?”

“I don’t think that’s possible, because we are standing in your way.”

“Then, I’ll destroy you.”

Kagetane raised his eyebrows and laughed. “I am the one who will destroy the world. No one can stop me.”

“President Tendo, what do you think the Satomi pair’s chances are of winning?” the Seitenshi asked.

Kisara’s eyes showed no expression as she put her chin in her hand, thinking. “Perhaps about thirty percent? If I am allowed to take my own expectations into consideration, then I believe he will definitely win.”

The Chief Cabinet Secretary scoffed and laughed. “President Tendo, it’s not that I do not understand wanting to believe in the strength of one’s own employees. However, twenty-nine civil officers have just been killed. And one of them is a survivor of the New Humanity Creation Project. He doesn’t even have a one-percent chance of winning.”

“One of them? No, you are mistaken, Chief Cabinet Secretary.”

“What?”

“Secretary, I will spare you the details, but ten years ago, right after Satomi was taken in by the Tendo family, a stray Gastrea invaded my house and devoured my mother and father. Because of the stress of that time, my chronic diabetes worsened, and my kidneys pretty much stopped functioning.”

The secretary looked confused, like he could not tell where she was going with this story. “I-I do believe that is an unfortunate story, but what does that have to do with—?”

She cut him off. “When Satomi protected me then, his right arm and leg were eaten by the Gastrea, and his left eye was gouged out. Near death, he was taken to Section 22. The doctor who operated on him was Dr. Sumire Muroto, celebrated as a miracle worker of the times.”

“Sumire Muroto, you said? Then, don’t tell me he is…”

Thinking that this was a good time, the Seitenshi looked next to her. “Kikunojo, pass out their specs to everyone, please.”

Rentaro glared fixedly in front of him. In front of him was the enemy. The enemy he needed to defeat. Closing his eyes silently, he rolled up his right sleeve and pant leg and stretched his arm straight out. “I will stop you, Kagetane…for the sake of those you killed mercilessly, and for Kisara’s and Enju’s sakes. Kagetane Hiruko, I will stop you!”

With a creaking sound, cracks appeared on his right arm and leg, and artificial skin made of plastic elastomer and silicone warped and peeled off, piling at his feet.

After taking a glance at the materials, the secretary stood up with a shrill cry. “Impossible!” He scratched his head and made his confusion and fear known. “There is no way… What is the meaning of this…? There was one more? Another human weapon born of the Gastrea War?”

Eventually, a jet-black arm appeared from underneath Rentaro’s artificial skin. His left leg also glistened with black chrome from the crotch down. Air vents that stuck out like barbs autonomously started peristalsis, and when he opened his eyes, his field of vision widened, and the colors became more vivid. His artificial eye was connected directly to his optic nerve, widening his field of vision and allowing it to capture objects in 3-D. Built into his artificial eye was a nano-core processor made using a graphene transistor. It activated and started operating. The inside of the pupil spun, geometrical shapes emerged, his sense of smell became sharper, and a rich taste filled his mouth.

Kagetane’s body trembled. “Artificial Varanium limbs…? Satomi, don’t tell me you’re one, too?”

Rentaro raised his head slowly. “I will give you my name, as well, Kagetane. I am Rentaro Satomi, former member of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Eastern Force, 787th Mechanization Special Unit, of the New Humanity Creation Project.”

“Satomi’s artificial limbs and eye are made of the alloy Super-Varanium, made from a base of Varanium in a state of weightlessness and mixing in ten different kinds of rare and common metals. It is a next generation alloy that has many times the hardness level and a much higher melting point than Varanium. The section Kagetane Hiruko was with, Section 16, was tactically concerned with absolute defense and created a repulsion force field to stop the attacks of Stage Four Gastrea. Satomi was with Section 22, which was concerned with the exact opposite. Using the propulsion force of ten cartridges in his arm and fifteen cartridges in his leg, he can attack with superhuman strength. It is the personal armament of a New Humanity Creation Project soldier born of the desire to consign Gastrea to oblivion using man himself.”

Kagetane spread both arms and started laughing wildly. “I see, I see! So that’s how it was! From the moment I met you, I liked what I saw, but I didn’t think we really were the same kind!” The laughing continued.

Enju gave a heartbreaking scream. “Rentaro, I thought you were never to use that again?!”

“It’s fine,” said Rentaro. “More importantly, you need to settle this once and for all. It doesn’t agree with you to stay the loser, right?”

Enju glared sharply in Kohina’s direction and then gave a hard nod. Enju’s and Kohina’s black eyes turned a fiery red at almost the same time as they released their power.

“I am thankful to Kagetane Hiruko,” Kisara continued with dignity. “This past year, no matter how much I hounded him, Satomi lazily refused to use that. He hates himself. But right now, Satomi is seriously angry. I have only seen this once before myself, so I cannot predict what will happen after this.”

The Seitenshi stood from her chair and looked around as she announced, “I hope you all understand the meaning of this fight. The battle between Rentaro Satomi and Kagetane Hiruko could be called the battle between the ultimate lance and the ultimate shield, the battle of opposites. However, they will be at odds with one another. In this battle, when it is all over, one pair will definitely be annihilated. Please fight, Satomi, and prove that you are the strongest!”

“Please win, Satomi… Please.” The Seitenshi heard Kisara murmur under her breath as she clasped her hands together.

The cold night wind blew and teased at Rentaro’s uniform. The air was tense, and it seemed sinful to even breathe. Rentaro stepped firmly on the dirt with the bottom of his boots. Sweating in anticipation of the fight and feeling choked, he tore off his necktie.

The enemy was serious. Even when a large number of civil officers banded together, they could not even scratch him.

Kagetane took a stance. He took his two custom Berettas from their holsters, unfolded their bayonet units, and held them out to his sides. Kohina had also drawn her short swords and was holding them crossed in front of her. As the perpendicular swords and guns diffused the moonlight, they formed the shape of a cross of death, ready to engrave God’s majesty on those who would die.

“Do you understand, Satomi?” said Kagetane. “Do you understand what it means to challenge me, who once held an IP Rank of 134?”

Rentaro took his stance silently. The Tendo Martial Arts Infinite Stance made him conscious of the eternally limitless existence of the heavens and the earth. “Don’t worry. I know exactly what that means, Kagetane. I’ve lost twice, all my allies have been annihilated, and no backup is coming. This is not the situation I wanted to be in, scumbag! Let’s start the fight. I’m going to exterminate you now, you bastard!”

That was the signal to start the battle.

As Rentaro stepped forward, Kagetane came at him first. He swung his arms as if he was going to mow him down. “Maximum Pain! I’ll crush you…!” The bluish-white field expanded in a fan shape and rammed into Rentaro with terrifying momentum.

“Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 3—” The sound of an explosion rang in the air, and the extractor that ran along Rentaro’s fake ulnar nerve on his artificial arm picked up empty golden shell casings and kicked them out as it rotated. “Sokuro Kabuto!” Rentaro finished. His explosively fast fist, which was sped up through cartridge propulsion, warped the incoming wall and punched through it. The point of impact exploded, and both he and Kagetane were sent flying into the air.

“So you broke through Maximum Pain, huh…?” said Kagetane.

“That’s not all!” said Rentaro.

Suddenly, Kagetane’s knees bent, and he coughed up blood. He wiped the part of his mask around his mouth and looked wonderingly at the blood that flowed out.

“Papa!” Kohina shouted.

“The field couldn’t block all of the damage?” Kagetane laughed maniacally, standing on his tiptoes and spreading his arms as he spun around once. “What fun! What fun, Satomi! I am in pain! I am alive! What a wonderful life! Hallelujah!”

Just as Rentaro thought Kohina had disappeared from sight, she appeared in front of him and Enju. She screamed in his ear, “Don’t be mean to Papaaaaa!”

Kohina spun once as if dancing with short swords still in both hands. She covered the ten meters between them and slashed with great speed, but other than that swing, her swordsmanship was very random. There was the sound of clashing blades. In the end, a look of astonishment appeared on Kohina’s face. The bottom of Enju’s shoe was on her right sword, and Rentaro’s artificial arm had blocked the left sword in defense.

The perception amplification device in Rentaro’s artificial eye calculated the enemy’s position and predicted the direction they would move in based on how fast they were moving. As they were locked together, Rentaro used his free left hand to draw the XD from its holster.

However, before he could finish pulling the trigger, Enju’s body rammed into his. It was a strong enough force to make him feel the contents of his stomach come up, but in the blink of an eye, the place where Rentaro had just been exploded into a cloud of dust, and Rentaro understood her actions. From the pier, Kagetane had covered for Kohina with his Beretta.

Keeping her hold on Rentaro, Enju jumped toward the ocean, hopping like a rabbit from the top of one moored rental boat to another. The bullets that were following in hot pursuit riddled the boats with bullet holes right after Enju jumped off, sinking the boats.

Rentaro was astonished as he was pulled about by the intense G’s. Using only one point of support while shooting two fully automatic guns at once was usually pretty useless if the enemy was more than five meters away. Just being able to follow Enju’s movements—which were hard to even see—and control the recoil at the same time was already no small feat.

Enju hopped high in the air and, checking the warehouse district on the wharf, tapped Rentaro’s shoulder twice. The signal meant she was going to drop him.

In less than a second, he felt the now familiar floating feeling. This time, the drop was from about five meters in the air, so he used his right leg to break the fall and rolled swiftly into the shadow of a nearby shipping container to hide. He did that all in one movement and turned his neck to survey the place where he had been dropped. There was heavy construction equipment and the like that had been left behind next to evenly spaced-out metal freight containers. Of course, the Unexplored Territory was uninhabited, so the heavy equipment and containers were all covered with rust from the salty ocean breeze.

Rentaro stood with his back to a container, held his gun ready, and inhaled deeply, then exhaled. Jumping out from the shadow of the container, he aimed the XD at Kagetane in the flesh and fired. The stinging recoil flung his arm back, and the .40-caliber Varanium bullet was fired, its empty casing bouncing onto the ground. To fire at the Promoter, who acted as the commander, was a standard by-the-book move for tag-team battles.

However, Rentaro found himself being surprised for a third time. There was a strange noise like someone hitting a cracked bell with all their might, and the bullet disappeared. Kohina had appeared by Kagetane’s side unnoticed. It took Rentaro a few seconds to realize that she had cut apart the bullet.

Rentaro’s legs shook. You’ve gotta be kidding me. He fired off as many shots as he could. As if ridiculing his efforts, every last one of the bullets was cut down with a crack. Spinning her body like a top as she skillfully used her two swords to repel the bullets, she looked like she was dancing.

Kohina kept spinning in circles with her short swords in hand until she finally came to a sudden stop with her head tilted in question.

“That’s impossible…,” Rentaro breathed.

In the back, Kagetane flipped up his mask, gripped one of his guns that had run out of bullets in his mouth, and calmly used his free hand to change the magazine as he walked toward Rentaro. Darkness lurked behind the mask, and Rentaro could not see his features. The ocean breeze made the long tails of his tailcoat flutter, and it made Kagetane’s body look larger than life. There were not even any traces of him having used Imaginary Gimmick.

Enju’s face also paled as she drew closer to Rentaro. Rentaro closed his eyes and thought as hard as he could. “Enju, how many seconds would it take for you to defeat Kagetane one-on-one?” Rentaro asked her, his eyes not leaving the enemy.

Enju seemed to realize something and looked worriedly at Rentaro, but she finally faced forward and said, “I’ll defeat him in ten seconds!” and dashed off in a blast with the superfast acceleration that could be called a distinguishing trait of Model Rabbits. Kohina came forward to intercept her, but Enju slid to evade her slash and rushed toward Kagetane.

Kohina saw the signal too late and a regretful expression crossed her face, but she soon turned to focus her attention on Rentaro.

It was the story of two rooks aiming for the unguarded kings at the risk of their own lives. At this rate, it was a race to see which Initiator could cut down her opponent first. Enju was definitely not an easy opponent for Kagetane to handle. However, the same could be said for Rentaro about Kohina.

Kohina came at him as fast as a bullet with her body low to the ground. The device in his artificial eye started sparking, and the back of his eyelid stung as if getting burned. He could just barely track her movements. Twisting his upper body to avoid one sword, he used his right fist against the second sword that was aiming low.

Now—he thought. An explosion rang through the air, and golden empty shell casings spun as they were ejected. Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 3—“Rokuro Kabuto”!

“Off with your head!” Kohina shouted.

The quickly swinging fist exchanged blows with the short swords. The force of the shock wave sent a cloud of dust high in the air, and Rentaro and Kohina were both knocked backward with their feet flailing. Rentaro was able to move again first. In no time, he was shooting with his XD as he drew near Kohina. Kohina flourished her two swords as she cut down the bullets with piercing, resounding sounds. Rentaro narrowed the distance between them as he fired. But even when they were less than three meters apart, not a single bullet hit the swordswoman with her twin swords.

Rentaro gave in to his impatience and started firing, aiming at her head instead of her body. Right after he did this, he was attacked by intense regret. As if waiting for this moment, Kohina avoided the bullets just by moving her neck, and moved to close in on him. He got chills when he realized she had lured him in. She thrust the sword blades at him at an impossible speed, and his artificial eye became so hot it burned, as it was forced to to operate at super-speeds. Rentaro avoided the thrusts on instinct alone and pinned her arms to her sides. Lowering his hips, he swept Kohina’s legs out from under her, taking a judolike stance.

However, his enemy was not to be taken lightly. In an instant, she used her strength to free herself and ran away, kicking off of Rentaro’s back and springing into the air. The sword she forcefully pulled out gave Rentaro a shallow cut. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he saw the small girl fly almost five meters into the air with one jump.

However, he predicted where she was planning to land, and then it was Rentaro’s turn to shout. “Above you, Enju!”

Enju, who had been playing a seesaw game with Kagetane, alternating between attacking and defending, hurriedly did a backflip to jump out of the way. Kohina skewered the spot where Enju had been with an amazing force as she dropped down.

“Howl, Sodomy! Sing, Gospel!” Kagetane shouted. His two guns fired, making explosive sounds like a rotating saw. One of the shots that followed Enju hit her left arm as she retreated.

“Argh,” she said as the arm that was hit by the 9-mm bullet flew up to the left reflexively.

“Enju, get down!” Rentaro shouted as he changed the magazine of his gun in a split second. Drawing the Sigma gun with his left hand, he pointed it at Kohina, pointing the XD in his right hand at Kagetane. With his arms crossed, he pulled the trigger on both at the same time—an impromptu double-gun stance. Immediately after, muzzle fire scattered from both of Rentaro’s hands like fireworks, and both arms were thrown back with intense recoil.

Kohina used her swords to repel the bullets as she danced, while Kagetane mumbled something under his breath. By the time Rentaro realized that it was the preliminary setup for Imaginary Gimmick, the bluish-white phosphorescent wall had already appeared with a bang to repel Rentaro’s shots in all directions.

The Sigma in his left hand ran out of bullets first, so he threw the whole gun away. He took a reinforced steel cylindrical can out of his pouch, pulled the pin out with his teeth, and threw it. As Kohina thought only to clear it away without worrying about the details, Kagetane raised his voice for the first time. “No, Kohina, not that!”

She fell for it.

Exactly two seconds later, the steel can exploded in a blast of light that spread to blow the darkness away.

It was a stun bomb, with an explosive blast of light that was 170 decibels and 200 candelas. When it exploded, the vibrations created by the compressed shock waves of this chemical-throwing bomb would have made someone go deaf in a small room, and it scattered light brighter than the sun.

“Ahhhh!” Kohina writhed in pain as she covered her ears and screamed in anguish. It even had enough of an effect on Kagetane. Enju was not one to let that chance go to waste. The rabbit-footed girl closed the gap between them in an instant and tread firmly on the road with her left foot, creating a deep impression in the ground.

Kohina immediately crossed her short sword to protect herself. There, Enju landed a direct kick. Enju’s center kick was strong enough to kick through thin steel plates, and despite breaking one of the short swords, its power did not wane, and she blew Kohina off the pier. Then, kicking the surface of the water and creating tsunamis, Kohina advanced about twenty meters before she sank.

“Rentaro!” said Enju.

Even before Enju called out to him, Rentaro had already started running. He sprang out in front of the remaining man in tailcoats. Before Kagetane’s muzzle could be trained on Rentaro, Rentaro used a striker to set off the bottoms of the cartridges he had in his legs. The extractor positioned along the fake hidden nerve pulled onto an empty cartridge and ejected it.

At the same time the explosion sounded, Rentaro’s leg flew up with amazing speed, and on top of that, Enju matched the timing of her kick with Rentaro’s.

He and Enju’s eyes met. “Tendo Martial Arts Type 2, Number 24—‘Inzen Genmeika’!” he yelled, with Enju shouting next to him, and they gave two explosive kicks, side-by-side.

When the impact reached Kagetane, a bluish-white light blocked it, and with a large crash, it blew away the air around them. Kagetane was also blown off the pier, landing on the water and sinking. Rentaro checked where Kagetane hit the water and fired a few shots after him with his XD. He ran out of bullets after three shots. As the night fell silent, the quiet sounds of small waves breaking on the shore returned.

That was when he first realized that he had been yelling and taking short breaths. Rentaro gripped his gun firmly with both hands, praying and waiting. Gradually, his breathing calmed down. “Enju,” he said. He bent over Enju, who had sunk to the ground, and looked at the wound on her arm. Rentaro frowned.

Enju’s wound showed no sign of healing and was still oozing blood. Varanium bullets prevented a Gastrea from regenerating after being wounded, and it was no different for the Initiators who were able to regenerate thanks to the Gastrea virus. Facing Varanium weapons, she was as vulnerable as a regular human being.

Enju’s eyes welled with tears and her mouth was turned down at the corners.

“I-it’ll be fine!” he said as he patted Enju’s head lightly.

“It hurts!” she retorted.

“Dummy, how can you expect to be unhurt after being that reckless?”

Enju looked at the surface of the water. “Did we beat them?”

Rentaro turned his neck to look past the pier, staring at the dark surface of the water. Cautiously, he pulled out a spare magazine for the XD and exchanged it for the empty one. It hadn’t felt like he had made it past Imaginary Gimmick, but the force was strong enough to rupture the caster’s organs. Even if Kagetane wasn’t dead, he was probably out of commission.

And because Rentaro thought that, when an arm suddenly appeared out of the surface of the water and grabbed his ankle, he was so surprised that he couldn’t react right away. He couldn’t hear Enju’s scream for a second. He was pulled underwater with an incredible force, and his eyes and nose and all his orifices were filled with cold water and darkness. Seeing a white mask a mere twenty or thirty centimeters in front of him, he almost screamed. The hand holding Rentaro’s ankle was glowing phosphorescently. Rentaro gasped as he twisted his body desperately.

Aiming the XD, he fired at point-blank range. He hit Kagetane’s shoulder, but the fingers digging into his skin did not let go of Rentaro. Bad things came in threes. The XD couldn’t fire properly underwater, and the bullet got caught in the slide and jammed.

Cornered, Rentaro fired off the cartridges in his artificial limbs like explosives. Small explosions burst in the water, and as white bubbles clouded his vision, Rentaro himself was also blown back. He couldn’t keep his eyes open in an impact that nearly took off his arms and legs. He felt a strange floating feeling.

He couldn’t tell what was up and what was down and moved his arms and legs awkwardly. He couldn’t even get into a proper falling stance when his back suddenly hit something hard and the intense pain knocked the air out of him. He couldn’t tell what had happened for a moment.

There was the sound of rain as drops hit his arm. Wrenching open his trembling eyelids, a clear starry sky spread provokingly above him. Rentaro was lying on his back on the deck of a small fishing boat. It looked like he had been blown out of the water from the blast of firing all the cartridges in his arm and leg at once and was lucky he had been tossed onto a fishing boat. What he had thought was rain was the spray of water that had been blown up with him.

Using both hands to push his body upright on the deck, he vomited the ocean water he had swallowed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Not only were his clothes heavy from the water they had soaked up, but they clung to his skin and felt disgusting. Where in the world was Kagetane?

Suddenly, his vision jerked down. He thought his knees had collapsed under him, but both feet were planted on the deck. At that moment, he felt chills go up his spine. About two meters in front of him saw another moored fishing boat. Staggering, Rentaro went in for the approach and made a long running jump as he leapt into the air. His instinct was screaming that he had to be there.

As the heel of his shoe flew over the dark sea, he landed on another deck. Sure enough, a scene that made him doubt his own eyes exploded in front of him. As small waves rippled on the surface of the water, they were pushed apart and split in two, and with a thunderous roar, they became two enormous waterfalls.

At around eight meters below sea level, Rentaro could see seaweed and old moss-covered tires. The fishing boat that Rentaro had just been on had been pitifully turned upside down, its bow crushed with a sorrowful sound. Rentaro was horrified as he rubbed his arms.

And at the ocean floor, a pair in a tailcoat and black dress stood close as they looked up at him. They had taken some damage. One of Kohina’s short swords was broken, and Kagetane had been shot in the shoulder and had lost Psychedelic Gospel. However, they were far from being out of commission. Their narrowed eyes clearly showed a will to continue fighting. The flame of their fighting spirit was still burning. This was what it meant to be one of the highest-ranking pairs.

Rentaro let the XD drop and stepped back. His brain wouldn’t process the fact that the ocean had been split by the repulsion field.

“What are you doing, Rentaro?!” Before he knew it, Enju was by his side, grabbing his arm and leaping into the air. They landed on the largest passenger boat anchored in the bay. It must have originally been a café or lounge, and there were a number of table sets with umbrellas lined up on the deck.

Tilting his shoulder toward Kohina, Kagetane also soon leapt onto the stage. Hatred peeked out from behind Kagetane’s mask. His arm was stretched straight out in front of him, his fist clenched. “Why are you getting in my way?! Why?! We of the New Humanity Creation Project were created to kill. If the Monoliths are destroyed and the Gastrea War restarted, it will prove that we have a reason to exist. Hatred will not disappear. The war will not end. We will be needed!

“Don’t you understand, Satomi? A world where the Gastrea War continues is a win for us soldiers of the New Humanity Creation Project!”

Rentaro felt a shock like he had been hit in the head with a hammer. “Don’t tell me…that was the only reason…? You bastard!”

“What if it was? The extinction of mankind is only a trivial matter. If we do not fight, no one needs us. Now, let us have war! And more war! This is my war for me, by me. I won’t let anyone get in my way.”

“Even after spilling that much blood, you still want a massacre?”

“This is a grand experiment! In any case, those who are killed so easily by me will not be able to survive in my ideal country. How was the reaction of those around you when your Initiator was exposed as one of the Cursed Children? Were they happy for you? Did they shout for joy with you? Did they hold your arm with delight? Of course not. I was chosen. Kohina was also chosen. You two are also chosen. You should be able to understand my ideology. Now, Rentaro Satomi, I will give you everything you desire. Come with me!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you bastard! I refuse to allow the future you describe!”

“Then, die…!”

Seeing Kagetane point his gun at them, Enju plunged in. However, Kohina predicted all of Enju’s movements as she came in to intercept her. Just as the bottom of Enju’s foot stopped the side sweeping of the short sword, Kohina continued on to ram Enju with her shoulder. Enju, who had been balanced on one leg, was knocked over easily. Kohina grabbed Enju’s leg, and swung her, throwing Enju into Rentaro. Then, Rentaro gasped as he saw Kagetane aiming his gun at them.

A Varanium bullet would be bad. Catching Enju, Rentaro turned his body in a semicircle.

“Howl, Sodomy!” Kagetane cried. A storm of 9-mm Varanium bullets flooded Rentaro’s back, and spasms racked his body as if shocked by electricity.

“Rentaro!” Enju shouted.

He gritted his teeth at the intense pain. He was alive. He had avoided instant death. Rentaro put his hand to his waist and pulled out the string of plastic bell-like syringes. Pulling off the cap with his mouth, he stuck it in his abdomen and injected the medicine.

“Don’t use it unless you have to.” Sumire’s voice echoed in his head.

His heart leapt with a sudden throb. His whole body felt intensely hot, and he felt the illusion of his limbs extending. With the sound of sizzling meat cooking, the wounds in Rentaro’s body healed, and the bullets in his body were pushed out.

It was the AGV test drug, a drug Sumire created while studying Gastrea that made a human’s regenerative abilities go through the roof. This dramatic effect could even overcome the inhibiting effect of Varanium. If it weren’t for the side effect that twenty percent of the test subjects became Gastrea, Sumire would be so famous that her name would be in textbooks.

In the end, Rentaro had won the gamble. He opened and closed his hands and rotated his arms. His body felt fine. There were no symptoms of him turning into a Gastrea. Kagetane went crazy shooting his fully automatic Beretta. Rentaro’s arm went up to protect his head and heart as he shielded Enju. Again, he felt the intense attacks pierce his flesh as blood flew out of his whole body. Almost all the bullets hit their target, but immediately afterward, the bullets were excreted from his body.

Even as Rentaro felt dizzy with the pain, he chuckled inside. As long as he had this—

However, that self-conceit only lasted for a few seconds. Because Rentaro had raised his hands to guard his face, he noticed Kagetane’s approach too late. The rear guard was coming in for close combat? Why?

Completely deliberately, Kagetane slowly put the palm of his hand on Rentaro’s side. “It’s over. I will show you my secret weapon.” Rentaro could hear Kagetane’s voice deep within his skull. “Endless Scream.”

In the blink of an eye, an intense shock ran through Rentaro’s body from his toes to the top of his head, and his body floated for an instant.

“Huh…?” said Rentaro. The repulsion field had become an enormous spear and pierced through Rentaro’s abdomen.

Kagetane pulled out the spear with great momentum, and Rentaro tottered and stumbled for a few steps. The right side of his abdomen was gone. A circle was cut out of Rentaro’s body as if drawn by a giant compass. A cross section of his ribs was visible, and his internal organs peeked out. Rentaro slowly put his hand to his stomach, scared of what he would find. Blood welled up as if it had just remembered it needed to, and his organs and bowels spilled out.

“N-no…way…” Rentaro coughed up blood and fell to his knees. Turning his head and seeing Enju with both hands covering her mouth, he reached out a hand, imploring Kagetane Hiruko, who was looking down at him with cold eyes.

Kagetane crossed himself. “You’ve lost,” he said.

Thinking that the ground was drawing near, Rentaro fell forward. The stain of blood encroached on the deck. The shadow of Rentaro’s death was reflected in the puddle of blood. His arms and legs twitched on their own.

No matter how long he waited, the wound in his body would not regenerate. Even with the effects of the AGV test drug, it apparently could not deal with such a large wound. Unable to bear the pain, Rentaro’s cells were quickly giving up on their host. Darkness came at Rentaro from all sides and an extraordinary loneliness descended on him.

Enju was desperately shaking his body. Tears poured out of her eyes as she screamed at Rentaro for some reason. He couldn’t hear what she was saying.

Then, Kohina kicked Enju’s chin away as Enju raised her head. Enju flew into the lounge table and fell loudly, getting tangled with an umbrella. Kagetane aimed at Enju’s head with his gun and mumbled something under his breath.

Was he planning on killing Enju? Enju, who had already lost the will to fight?

Enju stretched out her arms at Rentaro, without any consideration for her own safety. The pain seemed to gouge out Rentaro’s heart.

“…………!”

He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t hear Enju’s voice. He could feel the cold hand of death reaching into his wound.

“………………!”

His consciousness disintegrated, and he sank into a deep darkness. His eyelids felt heavy and trembled.

Suddenly, Enju’s voice mixed with sobbing flooded in through his eardrum and echoed in his head. “Don’t die, Rentaro! We haven’t been able to do anything yet. Don’t leave me alone!”

Thump, his heart leapt, and his eyes opened suddenly. His right hand grabbed the four remaining AGV test-drug syringes in a flash and, holding them between his fingers, he pulled off their caps with his mouth and thrust them all into his abdomen.

With a familiar sound, Rentaro’s chest swelled, and his bones rang with a strange sound. His body cramped and boiled, and he felt chills like something was crawling around through him. The hole in his body made a popping sound, and then—

Enju was surprised at the regeneration that started. Blood spilled, flesh bulged, bowels hung out, nerves connected, his body temperature dropped, bones were rebuilt, and cells regenerated as they died out.

Rentaro’s body was dying at a terrifying speed and then coming back to life with amazing momentum, a melting pot of contradictions. Feeling an intense pain as if his internal organs were being rearranged, Rentaro writhed and randomly hit his head against the deck.

Then, Rentaro gave a great scream at the sky and stood up. He staggered a few steps as he almost slipped on the blood pooled below him. His vision was severely distorted, and his depth perception bent the world as if he were completely drunk. But he could still see the death god he was supposed to defeat.

His body was hot. It felt like it was on fire. He felt extreme nausea that came with a pounding headache and the urge to vomit. Rentaro himself wondered why he was able to stand. However, his arms and legs could still move, and he was alive.

Kagetane’s mouth gaped as he stood, frozen. “Satomi… What in the world are you…?”

Rentaro shot an evil look at his enemy and readied himself. He took the Tendo Martial Arts Water and Sky Stance. The clear ocean and sky became a single, boundless blue. It was a stance that attacked without worrying about defense.

When Rentaro let out a hot breath, it lingered white in the air and then was carried away by the wind. He closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. Then, he kicked the ground. The sound of an explosion rang from his feet, and an empty casing was ejected. He turned his leg’s mobility thruster back and let the jet propulsion come out of the back of his leg. His body felt like it was being torn apart, but he bore the pain and sprung out in a second in front of the enemy.

Kohina unfroze and jumped out without a moment’s delay. “Off with your head!” she shouted.

“Outta the way!” said Rentaro as he used his right arm to deal with the blade she swung downward with all her might. Three empty casings popped out at the same time as the explosion, and the strong smell of gunpowder filled their nostrils. Kohina’s eyes opened so wide that the corners of her eyelids seemed about to split apart.

Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 8: Homura Kasen, Burst.

Coming at Rentaro from the front again was the fist and the short sword. Intense shock waves pierced his whole body. With his Super-Varanium fist, he broke the remaining short sword into pieces and blew Kohina away like a scrap of paper. She bounced on the deck and broke through the wall to the pilothouse, crashing into the meters and gauges inside. Kohina lay stunned against the wall with a concussion.

Without stopping, he fired his leg and accelerated again with an impact that almost blew him away. He charged directly through a barrage of bullets.

Kagetane lowered himself with a flutter of his tailcoat. “Endless…”

“Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 15…,” Rentaro began.

Kagetane turned and threw away his gun and reached behind him to ready the spear. At almost the same time, an empty casing flew from Rentaro’s arm, and he let loose an uppercut with wonderful speed that looked as if it were scooping something from the bottom up.

“…Screeeeeammm!” Kagetane finished.

“…Unebikoryu!” Rentaro shouted at the same time.

A phosphorescent spear hit Rentaro’s fist and a thunderous roar scattered through the night sky. The clash of a strong fist with unparalleled hardness and a bluish-white spear that could repel bullets from antitank rifles lit up their surroundings like midday.

Rentaro gritted his teeth, his leg sinking with the deck. The ship planks on the deck were flying off from the shock. He tasted bitter adrenaline in this mouth.

As the superior spear slowly pushed his arm back, he broke out in a cold sweat all over his body. Rentaro screamed, stuck together with Kagetane, and fired off a succession of cartridges. The first shot pushed the spear, and the second shot made it clear that his arm was shoved into the spear.

The third shot—Rentaro felt his arm suddenly thrown forward. With an explosive sound that deafened his ears, a supersonic uppercut blew the spear and Kagetane’s body ten meters into the air. Kagetane looked like he did not know what had just happened.

Rentaro bounded up, changed the thruster angle to the back and fired. Jumping up as high as Kagetane, he half turned his body at the top and, facing downward, he fired off the rest of the cartridges in his leg. “Tendo Martial Arts Second Style, Number 11—”

For a brief moment, everything seemed to be in slow motion.

A shower of empty golden casings shot out as he turned, seeming to pour down in a shower from above, filling his vision in slow motion. In the downpour of empty casings, his eyes met Kagetane’s.

Kagetane spoke in a quiet, hoarse voice, as if he had already given up. “I see… So I lost…to you…huh…?”

As the wind whistled by Rentaro’s ears, time returned to normal. It was all or nothing. “—Inzen Kokutei Unlimited Burst…! Fall…!”

It was an overhead kick of judgment that turned the sky and earth upside down. With his Super-Varanium toes, he ripped through Kagetane’s field and crushed his lungs, breaking a few of his ribs and blowing him away. Kagetane’s body bounced with amazing speed over the top of the ocean like a skipping stone, going through two of the small boats moored in the bay, blown almost a hundred meters away, where he landed with a pillar of water like a tsunami that rose and sank.

Rentaro couldn’t completely negate the force of his own kick and spun in midair as he dropped, landing hard on the ground on his back with a groan. Immediately jumping up, he surveyed the ocean without letting down his guard.

Ten seconds passed, then twenty. The air shimmered with the heat let off from the successive firing of large-caliber shells from his artificial limbs. The enemy remained submerged.

Slowly letting out a breath, he turned toward to Enju to show her a smile. “All right, we won, Enju! Yahoo!”

Enju gaped, flabbergasted.

Rentaro scratched his head. Well, it was surprising.

“No… Papa, Papa…!” Turning his head toward the voice, Rentaro saw Kohina on her knees with an expression of despair on her face.

Enju appeared conflicted as she looked up at Rentaro. Rentaro shook his head softly. “She’s not an enemy anymore.”

At that moment, there was a vibration in his chest pocket, and a tinny electronic sound echoed in the air.

“It seems you’re alive, Satomi.” He knew who it was just from the voice. Hot tears pricked his eyes when he heard the graceful voice filled with kindness and confidence.

“It’s done,” said Rentaro. “I won, just like I promised, Kisara.”

“I saw. Unfortunately, I have one piece of bad news for you.”

“Bad news…?”

Kisara spoke with an unusually gloomy voice. “Listen calmly. A Stage Five Gastrea has appeared.”

“What?” Rentaro could only respond questioningly. The words wouldn’t sink in and just floated superficially at the surface of his mind.

So it was over for Tokyo Area. Everyone would be killed. No one would survive.

2

Kisara added one thing after another using present progressive tense as the events were happening. According to what she said, at almost the same time the JNSC council room celebrated the defeat of the Kagetane pair, they received the report of the appearance of the Stage Five, and everyone’s faces paled.

The instant the nonstandard-size Gastrea’s head appeared in Tokyo Bay, missiles, poison gas, and torpedoes were fired, but the missiles and torpedoes barely scratched it, and those scratches healed in a second. The poison gas was a VX nerve gas, the worst known to man, but after taking in the gas, the Gastrea virus analyzed its components in a second and developed a resistance to it. The dependable Varanium armor-piercing ammunition was repelled by the Gastrea’s hard skin. Kisara ended by telling him that the people in the meeting room had fallen into a panic.

Rentaro looked from the port to the faraway horizon of Tokyo Bay. It was true that he could see light and hear soft sounds of explosions in the night. The battle had already begun.

From what she said, he gathered that Kisara had somehow been invited into the JNSC situation room. While they were talking, Rentaro could hear frantic screams and angry shouts arguing back and forth incessantly in the background behind her. It was probably only a matter of time before people started trying to run away.

“Is it all over for us? Is there no hope left of saving Tokyo Area?” Rentaro shut his eyes tightly and prayed as he waited for her answer.

Finally, she spoke, her voice with its usual dignity. “It’s too soon to give up. When I asked the Seitenshi if the plan I just came up with was physically possible, she said, ‘I daresay we can do it.’”

“We can survive…? H-how?”

“We can see you and Enju from here. You can see the answer if you look southeast.”

He turned his head in the direction she had given. Then he understood her plan and was taken aback. No way… It’s impossible, Kisara. There’s no way it’d work.

Two parallel rails 1.5 kilometers long stretched out and pierced the sky at an angle of elevation of about seventy degrees. From where he stood, thin clouds were in the way and he could not see through to the tip. A relic of the last stages of the Great Gastrea War, the massive weapon was completed but had not even been tested once before it was unavoidably abandoned and left to watch over the loss of the war. It was called the Stairway to Heaven.

It was also known as a Linear Electromagnetic Projectile Device. It was a railgun module that could accelerate and fire metal projectiles eight hundred millimeters or less in diameter at near light speed.

“You two are the closest to the target location. There’s no time to lose. You’re going to do it, Satomi.”

The electric lights of the facility turned on all at once as Rentaro and Enju approached. Using the power supply network from the mainland, it was the first time in ten years that they had been turned on. Because the thick power cables were securely shielded and buried underground, they did not suffer any damage from the Gastrea running wild aboveground and could still operate now, ten years later.

The facility sat atop a small mountain, and a deep forest spread around it. The pure white outer walls with spikes on top rose sternly to refuse entry, but unfortunately, it did not take into account the jumping powers of a girl with a Rabbit Factor. Enju quickly carried them over the wall, and they went inside.

From the air, Rentaro could see the whole facility for an instant. The giant base of the Stairway to Heaven that was propped up by supports was connected to a round object about a hundred meters in diameter, which was probably used to store power of some kind.

However, compared to the impressive railgun module, the adjoining research facility looked smaller even than the grounds of Rentaro’s school, Magata High. The mystery was soon solved when he looked at a map of the facility that had been sent to his phone. The facility stretched belowground like an ant nest, and the building that showed its face aboveground looked like it was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Satomi, hurry,” Kisara said from Rentaro’s cell phone.

Rentaro dashed inside the facility with Enju. Inside was a tangled, complicated maze, as though its designer had been afraid of guerrilla occupation. The room they were looking for was on the second floor of the basement. Following the map and Kisara’s guidance, Rentaro reached the middle computer room, panting.

The dome inside was spacious, with computers and other equipment set up around the room. On the front was a giant angled electroluminescent panel spread out, and surprisingly, even after being abandoned for ten years, there wasn’t a speck of dust accumulated on it.

Rentaro hurried to the control panel in the center of the room, stretched out the external connection terminal, and connected his cell phone. When it suddenly asked for a twenty-digit password, he was flustered, but Kisara’s clear voice over the phone did not show a moment’s hesitation.

He could hear other people’s voices behind Kisara. Apparently, in the midst of this confusion, Kisara had been made responsible for this plan. Which meant that the Seitenshi and everyone else present were probably staying back and relaying information to Kisara. The password went through easily and the green bars extended, completing the link. Transmissions between the facility and headquarters began.

“…the electricity supply from the unmanned transformer station underground looks good, and there are no irregularities with the power supply network, either. The vacuum flask for the liquid helium also looks good. This will work. We will carry out the launch sequence on our end.”

As they were getting a handle on the condition of the facility, Rentaro fidgeted nervously. Kisara’s voice was far away. On top of that, there were fewer transmission signal indicator bars showing up than he had expected. At first, he thought it was because of the large amount of data, but it seemed to be a problem with the signal. But why? A satellite phone was never out of area, so he didn’t know why the data would transfer so slowly. He had a bad feeling about this. If his connection to Kisara was cut off right now, it would be all over.

While all this was going on, an alert lamp lit up in the facility and a synthetic female voice echoed through the halls. “We will now commence the activation of the Linear Electromagnetic Projectile Device. Workers in the interlock portion of the superconductor flywheel power storage system should evacuate immediately. Sequence, moving to Phase One. We will now commence energy storage.”

There was a circular indicator displayed on the right side of the panel showing the percentage of energy stored. Even though Rentaro wasn’t touching anything, the touch-panel screen was tapped and flicked at dizzying speeds. Headquarters was controlling it remotely. A joystick stored in the housing of the control panel suddenly popped out, and movements of an invisible hand firmly pulled and pushed it. The rhythmical movements were like a car’s gear changes.

Rentaro swallowed. His skin pricked with the enthusiasm of the people on the other side of the phone with Kisara, and after all this time, he finally understood that this was not a lie or a joke, but that what was happening now was a critical moment for the survival of Tokyo Area.

Suddenly, a shock that made the earth reverberate assailed Rentaro and Enju from below, and they both staggered. Looking at the view on the front panel, he saw that the base of the Stairway to Heaven, which had been fixed at an angle of elevation of seventy degrees, had started to move slowly with a grinding sound. However, the movement was so slow that it made him want to go to the place himself and move it.

Finally maintaining a distance pretty much level with the ground, the feet of the two tripods installed on the lower parts of the long rails on the left and right were brought down with amazing speed into the ground, digging deep into the ground and leveling a hill as they stopped. In order to prepare for the recoil of the blast, the railgun dug itself in deep.

“Changing to online mode, linking data with satellite. Activating the CYCLOPS system. Showing target on the main monitor.”

Before long, the front of the three-sided panel changed, and seeing the zoomed-in image there, Rentaro almost had to look away. Just how many tens of thousands of species’ genes had been incorporated into that body? The Gastrea’s dark brown skin was cracked and had warts all over it that made it look like it had smallpox, and there were objects sticking out of it. Eight sickle-shaped barbs stuck out all over the grotesque body in random places—on the neck, head, right eye, and other places. Its head was swollen beyond strange, and something shaped like a curved beak projected out near its mouth. The remaining left eye was so small that it looked almost sad. On the screen was a horrifying giant walking on two legs.

Based on the scale, it was probably about four hundred meters tall. As it pushed its way through the ocean, it brushed off the flying missiles cutting through the night sky with its feelers. Smoke from the explosions scattered, and the ocean water near it evaporated. But Rentaro could not see anything that looked like damage.

Enju, gazing dumbfounded at the monitor, looked at Rentaro with a pale face. “R-Rentaro, what’s that?”

“A Stage Five,” said Rentaro, “also known as the Zodiac Gastrea: Scorpion. Ten years ago, it was one of the monsters that wreaked havoc on the world.”

It was originally used by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Japanese government as a code name to tell them apart, but before they knew it, it had become a household name that everyone used.

Rentaro made a tight fist and gazed at the repulsive angel of death. If a whale that swam in the ocean was brought onto land, it would die, crushed by the weight of its own body. It went without saying that the same should have been true for something with a frame many times the size of a whale’s.

Suddenly an unbelievable view came into sight. Just how tough was that Gastrea, such that it could support that vast body weight and still move? It was probably harder than anything else that existed on earth. There was no way an existing weapon could kill that. As the Scorpion suddenly stopped, the feelers all over its body stood straight up perpendicularly, and it pointed its giant beak toward the sky. The next instant, Rentaro cursed the fact that these facilities were equipped with a sound collection device.

“Hyooooooooooooooooooooo!!” It was a loud shriek of a monster that seemed to unnerve everyone working hard around Japan. An earthquakelike vibration shook the whole facility, and a cold sweat broke out all over Rentaro’s body. There was anger in that howl. The roots of his teeth clattered loudly. He didn’t even have a chance to scream.

“Did you hear that? Don’t lose focus, Satomi!” Rentaro came back to his senses with Kisara’s cry. Even Kisara could not completely eliminate the panic and irritation that were mixed into her voice. “Satomi, listen calmly. We’re in a bad situation. There’s no Varanium armor-piercing ammunition in the chamber.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” Rentaro asked.

“There’s nothing that can be shot out of that railgun! In other words, it prob…can’t be used…like that. S…plea…secu…it……self……” Suddenly, Kisara’s voice became so faraway that he couldn’t tell what she was saying. Not knowing what was going on, Rentaro pressed the phone harder to his ear.

“Kisara? Kisara?! What’s wrong? Hey, Kisara!” Glancing left and right, he looked suddenly at the control panel and stared at the screen. All the blood suddenly left his face. The indicator bars that had been steadily showing their wireless data transmission had come to a complete stop. The data transmission had been interrupted.

“Right now, we can’t enter anything remotely… The transmission is probably…being affected…the supermagne… The rest is up…to yo…Satomi……” Even as she was breaking up, he could pick up what she was trying to say.

Rentaro clutched the cell phone in his hand like his life depended on it and screamed. “Kisara! No, Kisara! Stop! Please stop! I can’t do it. Don’t leave me alone!”

“Satom…… The world…depen……… please…”

There was static, and then their call was cut off. Rentaro gazed at his cell phone with unbelieving eyes. He was suddenly enveloped with chills. But this was not the end of the terrible situation.

Suddenly, a piercing alert echoed, and when he looked up, the status screen on the left panel seemed to be red with rage. “Coolant leak in power storage system confirmed. Please abort experiment immediately. I repeat—Coolant…”

On top of that, the synthesized voice said, “Fire-control system UNTAC is not activated. Please reactivate it or abort the experiment.”

“Railgun firing angle, eleven degrees above ground level. Energy eighty-eight percent filled.”

Rentaro forced himself to take deep breaths and calm down. He couldn’t let this abort now. He didn’t know how much the coolant leak would affect the firing, but looking at the status screen, it was only leaking slightly. He could probably shoot once.

But at the same time, he knew if he missed, he would not have another chance. He prepared himself. Opening his clenched fist, he checked to make sure he could move all five fingers.

He stretched his black artificial arm straight out in front of him and narrowed his fingers into the shape of an arrowhead. With his left hand, he felt around behind his humerus, where his triceps would have been, and pushing a button he found there, his arm turned counterclockwise and popped out. The connection whirred and came loose, and Rentaro’s right arm came off from the elbow down.

Rentaro stared for a while at the nerve connector terminal, insulation, shock absorber, and other parts in the cross section of the arm. Finally, he opened the universal bolt connected to the chamber next to the control panel. Rentaro then set his disconnected right arm into it and pushed the LOCK button. His right arm was sent to the chamber and locked into place.

“Rentaro, don’t tell me you…?” Enju said, her voice trailing off.

“Yeah, I’m using my right arm as a bullet,” said Rentaro. “Super-Varanium should be good enough.”

As if approving of Rentaro’s sacrifice, the composition analysis results were displayed. This material would be able to withstand up to five percent below light speed.

“Still no response from the fire-control system. Switching to manual trigger control system. Energy one hundred percent filled. Ready to shoot.”

Another joysticklike object came out of the control panel. All this stick had was a trigger like that of a gun. Rentaro prayed as he gripped it hard.

The indicator flickered one hundred percent on the screen. The whole facility shook with the powerful energy of a mass of billions of tesla volts of energy looking for an exit. The fire-control system that allowed for automatic aiming to hit the target was not responding, which meant that Rentaro would have to manually hit the target.

He couldn’t do it.

Rentaro squeezed his eyes shut. There were almost fifty kilometers between this facility on Boso Peninsula and the target in Tokyo Bay. In the world of shooting, where hitting a target a kilometer away was already considered a miracle, even if the target was large, how was he supposed to hit it from fifty kilometers away? Manually, he didn’t even have a fraction of a percentage of a chance of hitting it.

The panel showed the Scorpion trying to land in Tokyo Bay, with a firing line rushing at it as the battle with the self-defense force at the water’s edge progressed. Beyond them was the line of jet-black Monoliths standing silently to protect Tokyo.

At that moment, the Scorpion shot out one especially long sickle-shaped feeler and mowed down all the artillery batteries and missile silos crowded around the coast of the bay at once. Dense clouds of sand and rocks were stirred up and Rentaro could tell that the state of the war was starting to take a dire turn for the worse. Replaying the Scorpion’s hate-filled war cry in his head, he gripped the joystick so hard it almost broke. He wiped the sweat from his hand holding the joystick on his clothes.

The coolant loss alert was annoyingly shrill in his ears. It was as if it was urging him saying, Hurry up, hurry up.

He heard a ragged sigh come from his own throat that sounded like that of a wounded animal and clenched his teeth. He could not let that organism step on the land of Tokyo Area. If he quit here, what in the world had he been fighting for this whole time?!

Do it! Do it! You can do it, Rentaro Satomi!

The tips of his fingers seemed like they had solidified and wouldn’t move. Rentaro finally fell to his knees, still clinging to the joystick. “It’s no use……… I can’t do it. I’m……”

He wanted to run away.

Suddenly, a small hand was placed on top of Rentaro’s. Surprised, he looked next to him, where Enju was looking at Rentaro with an unusually kind expression on her face. “Rentaro, I am here.”

His mouth was parched. The corners of his eyes felt hot, and looking down, he hugged Enju and squeezed hard. “If this misses, it’s the end for us.”

“It won’t miss. You can do it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course it’s impossible. First of all, how can you believe in a weapon that was inactive for ten years that never even had a test run? One wrong step and the bullet could shoot toward Tokyo Area and cause an unprecedented disaster there.”

“But you can do it.”

“How can you always say such irresponsible things? I’m…”

Enju suddenly brought her face so close they almost bumped heads. She focused on him with her eyes wide and bit her lip. “I have not said a single irresponsible thing. It is what I always think. You are the only one who can save this world. No one else but you, Rentaro.”

Rentaro was surprised and covered his mouth. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to calm himself. “Enju…I definitely don’t want to lose you.”

The tension left Enju’s tense body and, at peace from the bottom of her heart, she closed her eyes and put her arm around Rentaro’s neck. “Don’t worry. I love you, too.”

Her body felt so hot he thought he would be burned, but he also felt relief like being wrapped in down. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that. Suddenly, Enju let out a strange sound and pressed in on Rentaro’s face. “Rentaro, let us be clear. I can interpret what you said just now as a proposal, right?”

“Uh………………. D-d-dummy! Of course it just means I like you. Interpret it in a familial way! What does a ten-year-old kid have to say about love, anyway? Besides, before you can even think about feelings, the law says…”

Enju looked dissatisfied as she stared at Rentaro with the corners of her mouth turned down. “Then, do you love Kisara?”

Rentaro gave a start. “Don’t say that……!”

Enju thrust a victory peace sign in front of Rentaro’s nose. “Two years. Within two years, I shall make you like me more than Kisara!”

Rentaro smiled wryly and scratched his head. “When you’re twelve and I’m eighteen, huh? The older I get, the more criminal it seems, doesn’t it?”

“I can’t wait longer than that.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. I expect a lot from you.”

Enju smiled faintly and slowly peeled her body away from his. “Are you still scared…?”

Rentaro looked at the palm of his own hand and was strangely moved. The trembling had stopped. Rentaro closed his eyes. “No… Thanks. Give me your hand. We’re gonna end this.”

Lifting his face, he looked at the panel. He even felt pity for the raging Scorpion.

Sorry we made up a name for you. But I can’t die yet.

The energy that was about to run wild earlier had started shaking like an earthquake right below them.

Rentaro gripped the joystick again, and Enju put her hand on top. They put their fingers on the trigger together.

Rentaro closed his eyes. Strangely, he felt good. He felt like he couldn’t miss. “Enju.”

“Yeah,” she said.

They slowly pulled the trigger.

He felt so light and comfortable that it would be a disservice to compare it to floating. He lost all sense of time.

Finally, everything was enveloped in light, like a blessing.