Black Bullet - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.3

3

Shrinking away from the noisily chirping sparrows outside, Rentaro looked in the mirror at the face of a young man who looked like he didn’t want to do anything. There were circles under his half-closed, twitching eyes from lack of sleep, and more than an unfortunate face, it looked like the face of a villain. Fixing the collar on the black suit that was his uniform, he tied his necktie. For some reason, his neck felt itchy.

I don’t want to go to school, he thought from the bottom of his heart.

The TV had been left on and was showing the day’s horoscope. Taurus had the worst luck with money, as usual. To make matters worse, Taurus had bad health today, too. Hopefully the horoscope was wrong.

Turning off the shrilly whistling kettle, he poured hot water into his cup of instant coffee and let himself be enveloped in the aromatic fragrance of morning, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

Just then, the door to the entrance opened with a violent force. “Rentaro, the landlady said she’d lend us a bike!” said Enju, who flew in, her spirits high despite the early hour.

Yesterday, he had abandoned his bike near the scene of the incident, so even though it was regrettable, he probably would have been excused for being late. But now his excuse to rest longer was going away. He had a contract with the student council president and couldn’t skip school without a good reason.

He finished off his coffee and took the remote to look for a better channel. Just as he was about to turn off the TV, a reporter shouted, “Look at this!” and Rentaro and Enju turned their attention to the screen without thinking.

The young reporter gripped the microphone firmly in excitement, standing in front of the grand palace of Tokyo’s First District. Anyone would have immediately recognized the distinctive paved road and beautifully pruned trees.

Just then, the camera cut to a girl dressed in white on a balcony. Wearing layer upon layer of pure white fabric as thin as Japanese paper, her head was covered with a veil of the same material, making it seem like a wedding dress. Her clothes looked like a deep covering of heavy snowfall.

Her skin, and even the hair on her head, was white.

“Lady Seitenshi…”

His own voice shook as if his soul were leaving his body with the words.

Ten years ago, Japan had split into five areas. She was the ruler of one of those: Tokyo Area. She was the third Seitenshi, and had been installed in the position after the death of the previous Seitenshi. With her otherworldly beauty and shrewdness that was not just for show, this girl had far more support than the first and second famously bold and heroic Seitenshi.

“Rentaro, look.” Enju was pointing at the stern-faced seventy-year-old man standing next to the smiling girl. With his tall, dignified body dressed in formal Japanese hakama, from his build, he could have been part of the Secret Service.

“Damn, it’s the old man, huh?” said Rentaro.

Kikunojo Tendo, the Seitenshi’s aide, managed all of her support. Because Seitenshi was a hereditary position, in Tokyo Area, after they lost the war, that aide position became the political post with the greatest authority. That old man had made the Tendo family what it was.

Not really paying attention to what the reporter was so excitedly saying, Rentaro muttered absentmindedly, “No one has ever implemented a government where there’s no ruling class, huh?”

“Oh, really? By the way, won’t you be late?”

“Hmm? Oh!” When he looked at the clock on the top right-hand corner of the screen, the time it displayed gave him a start.

As an ordinary student and regular civil security agency employee, he had nothing to do with the government types, and he didn’t like the guys in positions of power, anyway. He turned off the TV and urged Enju outside.

“Let’s go!” he said to her.

She grabbed onto Rentaro’s waist, stuck her legs out from the luggage seat and shouted energetically. It was the pose she called the “Roman Holiday seat.”

The bike the landlady lent them was in pretty bad shape. The brakes hadn’t been oiled, and let out an ear-piercing sound every time he used them, and the spokes were so rusted that pieces of oxidation fell off as he pedaled. He wondered how many years this antique had been left unused in the shed.

But those things were soon forgotten once he started pedaling. As he strained to put strength into his feet on the pedals, he pushed comfortably through the fresh morning air. Enju gave a cheerful greeting to the students and men in business suits they occasionally passed. If he looked hard enough, he could see the Monoliths in the distance, brightly reflecting the sun’s rays. Underneath the trees lining the street that were sparkling with morning dew, the sunlight filtering through the trees changed shape and blinked like a kaleidoscope.

He felt strange.

Ten years ago, material civilization was at the brink of being destroyed due to the invasion of the Gastrea, and a vast number of people were killed or turned into monsters. At that time, the only expressions on people’s faces had been despair and loathing that had no outlet. It had only been ten years. Even so, it had been ten years.

Rentaro closed his eyes and breathed the scent of spring deeply into his lungs. Hearing the bell of a departing streetcar in the distance, emotions welled up from the bottom of his heart.

Just as Enju was clumsily shouting, “Rome! By all means, Rome” as Princess Ann, Enju’s school, Magata Elementary School, came into view. “All right,” she said. “I will now be zealous in my studies. We must part for a while, but don’t cry while I’m gone.” Enju made her parting farewell with her hand stretched out gallantly.

Looking at Magata High School two buildings down, Rentaro sighed in exasperation. “C’mon, Enju. We’re only going to be separated for a few hours. Don’t you think that’s a little too dramatic?”

“If I had my way, we would be together twenty-four hours a day. Rentaro, won’t you transfer to my class? I mean, you are not that intelligent, right? You could take the opportunity to start over from elementary school.”

“You say the craziest things out of the blue. Be kind to my pride.”

“Hmph,” she sulked. “Then be held back and wait for me for six years until I become a second-year in high school. That is my final compromise. Take it or leave it.”

“Being a twenty-three-year-old high school student is wrong in a lot of ways.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

“I do. Anyway, if I get held back that much, they’d kick me out.”

“How dare they?! I want to be in the same class as Rentaro…!”

Seeing the female students around giggling as they passed, Rentaro felt the heat go to his cheeks as he shrugged his shoulders.

“F-fine, I get it. By the way, Enju, inside the school—”

As if knowing what he was going to say next, Enju shook her head slightly and finished his sentence for him. “I know already. In order to hide the fact that I’m one of the Cursed Children, I must act with the utmost consideration inside the classroom.”

Only when she was saying things like this did Enju show her dead, cold eyes. Rentaro uncomfortably shifted his gaze. “All right… That’s fine, then… Sorry.”

“Oh, good morning, Enju!” A cheerful voice interrupted from the side. Rentaro saw a girl about Enju’s age with frizzy hair.

“Good day to you, Mai. I’m glad you look in good health.”

“You’re talking funny, as usual,” said the girl. “By the way, did you watch Tenchu Girls yesterday?”

“Of course. Tenchu Black’s nihilism where one could not tell if she was friend or foe was excellent, as expected.”

She was probably a classmate. Once the girls started talking about the cartoon, they didn’t spare another glance for Rentaro. Even though Enju’s attention was taken away from him in a second, and he was relegated to outside the mosquito net, watching the two talk, his face broke into an easy smile. He felt dumb for worrying even for a moment about her school life. “Well, I’m going now, Enju.”

Before she could say anything, he turned his back and straddled the bike. He kept going until he reached the bike stand of Magata High School two buildings over. The bell signaling the start of school rang as he parked the bike and put on the U-shaped lock.

Rentaro clicked his tongue. He was late. Looking up at the school with an unambitious expression on his face, he half-seriously considered going home. Instead, he hooked his bag on his back and rounded his shoulders, walking slowly into the school. It was the beginning of another boring day.

He slept through Japanese class, and during math class, he was called on three times, but the teacher gave up after being ignored all three times. During break time, the rodentlike girl who was the class president approached him nervously trying to get a survey that had been completed by everyone but him, but he ignored her, too, and she left, looking like she was about to cry.

Some meddlesome girl who looked like her protector came to say, “Hey, don’t you think you were a little mean?” but he ignored her, too. “Fine, do what you want, idiot!” she said, and went back to the circle of girls.

Rentaro could hear someone saying, “Is that guy even trying? Why is he even here?”

Rentaro looked out the window at the faraway Monoliths with a yawn.

Right around when fourth period ended, the phone in his breast pocket started to vibrate. Who’s calling me at this time of day? he thought as he rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at the screen. Looking wearily at the caller’s name, he waited another ten rings for the caller to hang up, but lost to the persistent ringing of the phone and pushed the TALK button. “What do you want at this time of day…President?”

“Don’t call me President when we’re not working. Well, I’m calling you about work, though.” From the phone’s speaker, he could hear Kisara’s voice as clear as a bell.

“Is it about the case from yesterday?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you more details in the car. Anyway, just come with me to the Ministry of Defense for now.”

“Huh?” He thought he heard wrong. Wasn’t the Ministry of Defense responsible for Japan’s national defense? Huh? “H-hey, what’re you talking about…?”

“Look out the window.”

Hunching, he did as he was told and went over by the window. When he did, he saw a jet-black limousine parked in front of the school gates and his breath caught. “Damn it, all right, I’m going.”

“Idiot. You’re late. I’m behind you.”

“Huh…? Woah!” Taken aback, he let out a pathetic shout without thinking. Behind him was someone so beautiful it was bad for the heart when she appeared suddenly. He could tell that the other people in his class were also confused at the sudden appearance of someone from another school.

“Come on, let’s go.”

“B-but what about school?”

Kisara put her hands on her hips and glared at him as if he was trying to sneak a peek from below. “I left Miwa Academy for this, too, you know. School or work, which is more important? This month, we’ve had zero income thanks to someone, remember? Good-for-nothing Satomi.”

Rentaro shifted his gaze away from Kisara. “For some reason, I’ve come to love work a whole lot…”

“Very good. Now, come.”

He tried to find an opportunity to apologize for yesterday, but he completely missed his chance. Oh well, he thought, walking hunched over, two steps behind Kisara, who was slicing through the wind with her shoulders. Every one of the students who passed Kisara stopped, gaped, and looked back at her.

“Isn’t that the uniform for Miwa Academy?”

“No way, the same Miwa Academy that the Seitenshi attends?”

“It’s a school for rich girls, isn’t it? Woah, look at how beautiful she is. Who in the world is she?”

“No way, no way, no way!”

“Hey, who do you think that is walking behind her?”

“Who knows? A servant or something?”

A guy from your class! At least remember my face! Rentaro silently replied to the voices as he followed behind Kisara.

As they exited the school gate, Kisara got into the limousine—or at least pretended to as she turned back and passed it gallantly.

“Hey, fake rich girl,” Rentaro called toward her.

“Did you know, Satomi?” said Kisara. “You can call for a limousine on the phone.”

“Then why aren’t you getting in?”

“If I do, they’ll want to be paid.”

“Did you prank call them?”

“Don’t worry. I pinched my nose and gave them a fake name.”

“No, no, that’s not the issue here.”

“Oh, Satomi, look. It’s a stray Chihuahua.”

“Listen to me!”

Kisara broke into a run and started playing with the dog. When she leaned over to pat its head, the stray Chihuahua started licking her hand, and she laughed like it tickled. As Rentaro looked at the profile of her face, his heart started beating violently.

“Satomi, do you have something I can feed him?”

“Oh, huh?” he said, startled. “Hmm, oh yeah, I do have something. A lot of stray dogs come to our garden, and Enju likes to feed them. Here,” he said, pulling out a bag of beef jerky from his back pocket and holding it out to Kisara.

Kisara’s stomach rumbled with emptiness. Kisara stared at the beef jerky for a while. Before he could react, she grabbed it out of his hand with the force of a purse snatcher, turned around with her back facing him, and then—of all things—she started eating it.

Rentaro gaped, unable to move.

The poor Chihuahua, its food stolen from it, started to tremble, looking up with big wet puppy dog eyes.

Before long, Kisara, who was red up to her ears, turned just her neck to face Rentaro. “What? Do you have something to say?”

“Kisara, that was for the dog.”

“I was a dog in a past life!” She’d moved into the “unreasonable” phase of the argument.

“Kisara, shake.”

Kisara glared at him with a look that could kill, but before long, she bit her bottom lip and put her own hand on top of Rentaro’s palm, looking as red as a boiled lobster, and then turned her head away suddenly.

If she found it so humiliating, why was she giving him her hand?

“Turn around.”

Kisara spun in circles.

Somehow, it was starting to be fun.

“Weenie.”

“Pervert!”

“Wait, was there a trick like that?”

“You’re a pervert, Satomi!”

“Joking aside, Kisara, are you really having that much trouble making ends meet?”

Kisara looked down, embarrassed, and pulled out her wallet, opening it to show him. Looking inside, he suddenly felt the desire to cover his eyes with his hands. He didn’t realize she had fallen so low. “Hey, Kisara… You don’t have to purposefully pay a lot of money to go to a rich girl’s school. You could just go to a regular public school, can’t you?”

“Attending Miwa Academy is all that’s left of my pride as a Tendo,” she said defiantly. “I’m allowed, aren’t I? It’s the money I made from properly managing the meager assets I have as stocks and exchanges.”

“But Kisara, I thought you hated being called a Tendo?”

“How other people see me is a different matter, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah…it is, but…,” said Rentaro. He tried a different tack. “Well then, how were you planning on getting to the Ministry of Defense with what’s left in your wallet?”

Kisara smiled an extremely charming smile. “Satomi, you withdrew money from the ATM two days ago, didn’t you?”

Rentaro looked away from Kisara. His boss was trying to bum off of him!

“Satomi, you withdrew money from the ATM two days ago, didn’t you?”

“I did, but…” His voice trailed off.

“Satomi, you’re such a hard worker, and so strong, and reliable, too!”

“I thought you called me ‘good-for-nothing’ and ‘weak’ and ‘unreliable.’”

“That was ages ago. I’ve long since forgotten about that stuff.”

“That was yesterday, wasn’t it?”

“That was ages ago. I’ve long-since forgotten about that stuff.”

“I’ll expense it.”

“I’ll pay you back in my next life.”

He was appalled to hear this coming from a company president. Rentaro sighed a heavy sigh. “All right, fine! Let’s just hurry up and get going.”

As Rentaro started walking, Kisara grabbed hold of his sleeve and looked down. Seeing this, Rentaro got fed up. “What, was there something else?”

“Um…,” she said. “Satomi, the beef jerky… Is there any left?”

In the end, he gave Kisara the last two pieces of beef jerky, and she ate them then and there.

The stray Chihuahua looked up at Kisara with a betrayed expression on its face.

“It’s kind of late for this, but was it okay that we didn’t get Enju?”

As the train’s departure bell sounded, the doors closed with a rush of air. They were the only ones in the car.

Kisara pulled up her hair so that the nape of her neck was showing and looked at Rentaro. “It’s not like we’ll be fighting. It’s more like something that would just put Enju to sleep.”

“Oh, I see.” Rentaro understood. So they were going to be asked something about the incident from before. But why wasn’t the usual report enough by itself?

“I didn’t hear the details either, but I was just told to go. I hate bureaucrats. They’ve got the nerve to tell the civsec officers who protect the Tokyo Area that they should be grateful they are even getting jobs from them.”

“Then you should’ve just refused them this time.”

“No way. If they give even the slightest hint that they won’t give jobs to puny people like us, then we have no choice but to obey.”

Rentaro sighed. “Even though we’re ‘civil’ officers, we’re still attached to the government by a thread, huh?”

“They’re jealous. Theoretically, there is no limit to the abilities of the Initiators. A top-class Initiator is supposed to be strong enough to sway the balance of the world’s armies. That’s why the government generally wants to have all the civsec officers under control to manage them.”

“They want to have their cake and eat it, too. But wait, then does that mean that we’re about to enter enemy territory, in a way?”

Kisara lowered her long eyelashes and nodded slightly. “Oh dear, you just noticed? That’s why I went and got you, my bodyguard. You’re the only one I can depend on, so you need to be strong, okay?”

Inside Rentaro’s head, only her last words continued to echo, and gradually, deep emotions began to well up.

Just then, a soft weight fell gently on his shoulder, and he gave a start. Kisara was leaning her head against his shoulder. She blinked her heavy eyelids in annoyance. “Sorry… I’m a little sleepy. Let me borrow your shoulder. I’m always like this after I eat. I can’t sleep at school, either…”

“You can’t sleep?” he asked. “Why not?”

“I…am a Tendo… I’m supposed to be a model for everyone. I cannot show an unsightly side of myself.” She reached her limit. As the strength left her body, a weight fell on his shoulder. She seemed to have really fallen asleep.

Clang, clang, went the train, rushing along with a pleasant rhythm. The sunlight streaming in through the window changed the shadows and shone on Kisara’s expression.

Careful not to wake her up, Rentaro slowly turned his head toward her, and his eyes went to her bosom, where he would normally never look directly. Between her slender shoulder and the largely exposed area around her neck was the beautiful line of her collarbone. The soft swell that pushed up her school uniform slowly rose and fell at a distance that seemed almost close enough to touch.

His gaze went from her eyes and the tip of her nose to her well-featured face, lips, and long hair. A sweet fragrance that wasn’t perfume or shampoo intoxicated him. Every time her soft breathing hit the back of Rentaro’s neck, he felt like he was being shocked. She’s beautiful, he thought.

“Satomi…”

He almost answered her until he realized that she was talking in her sleep. But the words she choked out next left his heart hurting.

“Satomi…my revenge…help me…kill…Tendo…”

He paused for a long time before saying, “I will.”

Kisara knit her brows and curled up her body, starting to shake with fright.

“Fa…ther… Mother…no…don’t die… Satomi…help me…”

Rentaro put his arm around Kisara’s shoulder and hugged her tightly without a word.