Black Bullet - Volume 1 - Chapter 2.4

4 THE NEXT DAY.

Rentaro was speechless as he hung up the phone. His arm fell limply and he did not recover from his shock for a while. Looking at his surroundings, he saw thin clouds like the previous day’s and cherry tree leaves that looked like they were about to be scattered in the strong wind. The sky looked like it might start crying any minute. Outside the school, Rentaro gave a start as he heard the warning bell, but his legs felt heavy and he didn’t feel like going to his classroom at all.

During the break between first and second periods, he realized that he had to explain that Enju would be absent to her homeroom teacher, and went behind the school to call from his cell phone.

The response he got was completely unexpected.

Rentaro looked back at the school and went back and forth wondering if he should hurry back to his classroom or not, but in the end, he turned around and headed toward Magata Elementary School once more.

He went to the staff room and met up with Enju’s homeroom teacher. The teacher’s face looked like he also did not understand what had happened. “Yes, Aihara is at school.”

Rentaro searched his memory and only just realized regretfully that her schoolbag and a set of books had been taken out of their apartment. After he left the manhole the previous day, he’d searched District 39 until sunset, but he didn’t get any valuable information, and his feet dragged as he went back to the apartment.

The teacher brought Rentaro to Class 4-3’s room. They peeked at the situation inside through the window of the sliding door in the back.

There she was. Even though it was break time, she sat alone, looking down resolutely, her eyes staring at the desk, proof of her iron will. There was extra space between her desk and the others, and her classmates treated Enju as if she weren’t there.

Rentaro’s heart broke at the pitiful sight. He wanted to yell at her to stop. But this was probably Enju’s way of fighting. He had no right to stop it.

“Do you want to see her?” the teacher asked.

He wanted to see her. He had a mountain of things he wanted to ask her when he did. As Rentaro squeezed his chest, he pulled out a syringe with the cap on from his breast pocket and handed it to the teacher. Inside was cobalt blue liquid medicine.

“What’s this?” said the teacher.

“It’s a special medicine…” Rentaro shook his head. “No, I’m not going to lie anymore. This is Gastrea corrosion-inhibiting medication. Please give it to her.”

Saying just that, he turned his back on the teacher, who looked at him questioningly, and cast his body into the violent winds. Would Enju continue to attend school like this? Even knowing that she would only get hurt?

Losing his will to return to his own classroom, Rentaro headed for the university hospital where Sumire was. He had been going to school every day for a while, but he realized with a bitter smile that he was starting to skip classes again.

As he passed the demon-engraved ward-objects and entered the basement, Dr. Sumire was just coming out of the operating room. Taking off her green operating scrubs and mask and throwing them in the trash, she lifted the corners of her mouth and said, “Hey.” The queen of this basement room would always be here to welcome Rentaro with her strange smile no matter what, come hell or high water.

“Doc, what were you doing?” Rentaro asked her.

“I had some free time and couldn’t take it anymore, so I went to break up with Charlie. Unfortunately, he has been turned into small parts. Oh, while it was extremely stimulating, I feel a little sad because now I have to find a new lover tomorrow.”

Rentaro looked at the double doors the fed-up doctor had come out of. The aromatics that were all over the room were only there to mask the intense odors coming out of the dissection room she called her “kitchen.”

“It’s not much, but make yourself at home,” said Sumire.

Rentaro stood in front of the bookshelves that covered the left wall of the room. She was a movie maniac, and she had everything crammed on the shelves. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was just the type of person who threw everything on her bookshelves, but next to The Tenth Dimension vs. the Eleventh Dimension: Settling String Theory!!!!, a book that looked like it was about quantum theory, was Forbidden Training 24 Hours: Karin’s Big Brother’s Pregnant Wife, an adult game. It was terrible.

“You really are something else, Doc,” he said.

“What, you just noticed?” she said.

“Famous universities admit people based solely on their test scores, so they end up as nests of eccentrics.”

Sumire laughed. “Don’t be jealous, silly boy. I’m a genius because my parents were both geniuses. That brings back memories. When I was young, Mother used to read Dante’s Inferno from his Divine Comedies to me as a bedtime story. This was all she read, and she read it over and over. The misery of a person who is sent to hell…” She laughed.

“So your family’s been strange since your parents’ generation, huh?”

“I’ll dissect you alive.”

“No, please, not that!”

“Oh yeah, by the way, the demon to scare people away out front has the face of the fallen angel, Lucifer, or should I say the demon king, Satan? It’s related to the Divine Comedies. It’s an unexpected foreshadowing, don’t you think?”

“If I cared less, I’d be dead.”

“Now, let’s see…what were we talking about again? ‘The word Erromango, that is the name of the island, Erromango, means “I’m human,” but don’t you think there’s some truth to how it sounds like erotic?’ Was that where we left off?”

“Stop lying. We weren’t talking about that!” Rentaro was disgusted. Why didn’t anyone around him listen to what others had to say?

“I was kidding, you stingy, inflexible boy. I can’t help but feel bad for your beloved Kisara.”

“D-don’t say that!”

“Oh, speaking of which, your patron came by earlier.”

The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he looked uneasily from left to right. “She was here?”

“Yeah, and she wasn’t happy. She said that since you never visit her in the student council room, she goes to your classroom to look for you, but you’re never there.”

“It’s ’cause I always run away to avoid seeing her.”

“Why are you doing that again? She’s the school idol, isn’t she?”

“Well, she is kinda c-cute, but that’s just because no one knows what that woman is really like. If she got worked up, she would shoot up the school with a Magnum semiautomatic…” But, he thought as his voice trailed off, she was also the one who provided Rentaro the civsec officer with weapons and ammunition free of charge.

It was the natural order of things for civil officers and weapon companies to work together. For example, the Bastard Sword, Mark IV Gibraltar used by Shogen Ikuma was from Escari, the company that supported him. By backing him and having him use their products and be a tester for their new products, they could say “Used by Shogen Ikuma!” in their marketing campaigns, so it was extremely natural for companies like that to be devoted to finding talented Initiators and Promoters. However—

“In what part of me does she detect any promise?” Rentaro said.

“You have such an unfortunate face that she probably just felt bad for you,” said Sumire.

“That’s ridiculous…” Saying that, he suddenly remembered something and narrowed his shoulders. “Doc, sorry… I actually came today because I wanted some advice.”

Putting on the long, white lab coat that hung over her chair, she pulled out a coffeepot and two heatproof beakers, saying “Hmm…” Filling the beakers to the brim with coffee, she slid Rentaro’s cup over to him, where it stopped in front of him.

As the hot coffee flowed into his stomach, Rentaro could feel the knot in his chest swell. Rentaro told Sumire everything—about the girl who had been shot, Enju running away, and what he went through to find her.

They arrived at a moment of silence. Sumire, with her chin in her hand, had a grave expression on her face that Rentaro had never seen before. Rentaro suddenly felt uneasy and massaged the palm of his hand. “D-doc?”

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, I was thinking about what to make for dinner tonight,” said Sumire.

“Hey, wait a minute!”

“I stopped listening halfway through ’cause your worries are so normal that I was getting bored.”

“Wh-what…?”

Seeing Rentaro staring frozen at his beaker, Sumire pushed in to deal the final blow. “Hey, Rentaro, mankind will become extinct one day, you know. It could be in a few million years, when the whole Earth freezes over, or in the far future, when it is swallowed up by the expanding sun. Or the land with the Monoliths could be destroyed tomorrow, and Gastrea could surge in and kill everyone.

“Wonderful movies, famous novels written by literary masters, beautiful buildings—all of them will fall into ruin and return to nothingness in the far future. Do you understand that? From the universe’s point of view, essentially, there is no reason for humans to be alive.”

Seeing the maniacal smirk on Sumire’s face sent shivers down Rentaro’s spine. She seemed to be overcome by nihilism.

“Hey, Rentaro, why do Gastrea have to be exterminated, anyway?”

He was caught unawares and faltered for a moment.

“You can’t say?”

“No, wait,” said Rentaro, finding his tongue. “It’s because Gastrea are enemies of mankind who prey upon humans and rewrite their DNA, of course.”

“In short, it’s because Gastrea are inconvenient organisms for humans to have around, right? But don’t you think mankind is a little too spoiled? They rest on their laurels, certain that they are the pinnacle of evolution and look down on other organisms, but that’s just because they can’t help but feel superior to other organisms based on the consciousness they’ve acquired.

“But if you think about it carefully, it is our consciousness that is telling us that our consciousness is proof that we are advanced organisms. As long as humans are humans, there is no way to prove that objectively. For example, what about Gastrea? They have the godlike ability to interfere with an organism’s genes and redesign them, right? Couldn’t you say that that is an ability that surpasses our ‘consciousness’? It has died down in Japan, but around the world, there are a number of religions that consider the Gastrea sacred. That they are divine messengers who have appeared to purify this corrupt world.”

“Really?” said Rentaro, surprised. “Why…?”

Sumire continued. “Humans are using up all the resources and are the cause of the rapid destruction of the world. From the perspective of the spaceship Earth, if Gastrea controlled the world, they would probably be able to steer the ship a lot better. There is that saying that all life is fleeting. The idea that the Earth is just a temporary inn for all living creatures to stay. Aren’t we humans leaving the inn too messy? Wouldn’t it make sense for us to make the bed neatly before we pass it on to the next generation of governors?”

Rentaro pretended to drink his coffee, lost in thought. “Isn’t that the same as the excuse of deep ecologists? With too much ecology, humans end up not being needed at all in the end. Even if there are people out there who affirm Gastrea, I can’t agree with them. Anyway, if they’re divine messengers, then what are the Cursed Children supposed to be?”

“They are the most fit to be God’s substitutes as messengers between humans and Gastrea.”

Before he knew it, he couldn’t take it any longer and stood up. “Enju is human. She is a human with her own personality and her own will! Nothing more, nothing less.”

The coffee that spilled with his movement formed a stream that led to a small river that dripped off the edge of the desk and onto the floor. Sumire playfully spread her arms in approval. “That’s exactly right. See? You do understand.”

“Oh.” She had set him up. When he realized that, he suddenly became embarrassed and collapsed into his chair. She purposefully said things that would rub him the wrong way. Everything she had been saying was to force him to honestly confess his feelings about Enju voluntarily. She had him completely by the nose.

“Hey, Rentaro,” said Sumire. “At least you know who you are and where you came from. Enju doesn’t even have that.”

“Huh?” said Rentaro, confused.

“Most of the kids living in the Outer District were abandoned. Because those girls were born after we lost the war, they don’t know their parents’ faces, and all they’ve ever known is the small world of Tokyo Area. They’re being spurned by so many people without even knowing anything, being looked down upon with scorn. The first generation of those girls will soon be entering adolescence, and because of those origins, they will definitely agonize over the loss of their identity. It was my hope that you could be there to help lead Enju through that—you guys are family, right?”

Rentaro’s mouth opened slightly and he felt shivers going down his spine. Just how far did she…? “Doc, I’m gonna go see Enju after all.”

Sumire waved her hand limply and had no further intention of looking at him.

As he left the university hospital, his cell phone buzzed. It was a call from an unknown number. “Hello, is this Satomi.”

He knew who it was from the voice.

“Yes, speaking.”

“This is Aihara’s homeroom teacher. There has been an incident with Aihara… Can you come to the school immediately?”

By the time Rentaro reached the school gates, panting, a small crowded had gathered. There was a donut-shaped wall of people surrounding two people who were having an argument.

Three girls passed by Rentaro.

“What’s going on?”

“Remember that girl from Class 3? Apparently, she was a Gastrea virus carrier.”

“No way! I think I touched her before. What should I do?”

“I never liked her. She always acted like she was better than everyone else.”

Feeling an uneasy sense of déjà vu, Rentaro felt like he was being suffocated and loosened his tie as he drew near to the ring of people. From where he was, he couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but he could hear the loud voices of two people. However, what was unfolding was decidedly one-sided. When someone who sounded like a boy yelled, the crowd around yelled encouragement, but when the girl yelled, all she got were cold, dead stares and a critical silence.

When Rentaro realized that the person inside the circle was Enju Aihara, he felt like vomiting and covered his hand with his mouth. His worst fears had come true. As he started toward Enju again, he heard murmurs around him that made him sick.

“There really were Red-Eyes around us. Why don’t the civsec officers exterminate them?”

“Ugh. Her eyes glow red. I wish people like that wouldn’t come to school.”

“Don’t come out of the Outer District ghetto.”

Who do you think is protecting the peace of Tokyo Area?! Rentaro was overcome with the urge to run into the middle of the wall of people and send them all flying. But seeing their expressions, he had to put down his fist. Most of the people were onlookers or worthless gossips, but there were some pale faces who were seriously afraid that they would catch the Gastrea virus. If they had been educated properly, they would have known that unless they received a large amount of blood from the girl, they couldn’t get the virus from her.

Rentaro had seen the boy who was arguing with Enju in her class picture before. His face and closely shaved head looked like it belonged to an energetic little leaguer, but right now, his face was flushed purplish-red, and he was pressing Enju for an answer with a shrill voice. “My dad had been drinking every day and hitting my mom ever since his leg was eaten by a Gastrea during the war! Because of all your killing, my family’s…!”

Enju shook her head furiously. “No! That wasn’t me. I’m human!”

“That’s disgusting, how you pretend to be human.”

“I am human!”

“Shut up, you monster!”

“I am human!”

“Are not!”

Rentaro looked down, clenching his teeth. It was too hard to watch. This wasn’t a conversation anymore—she was just being unilaterally rejected.

“No matter how hard you work for those guys, they will just keep betraying you.”

This was exactly what Kagetane had told him would happen. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes. “Enju…”

When Enju noticed him, her eyes opened wide, and she took a step back. “R-Rentaro…”

Realizing that he was connected to Enju somehow, the wall of people parted, and an unpleasant silence descended. Rentaro tread firmly on the sand in the schoolyard with the bottoms of his shoes and walked slowly toward the center. The boy who was verbally attacking Enju faltered and said, “Wh-what do you want?” trying to act tough.

Rentaro passed right by him and when he got to Enju, he hugged her silently. Rentaro closed his eyes and spoke slowly, punctuating each syllable. “Enju, let’s change schools.”

In his arms, Enju’s body moved slightly. Enju’s cold body trembled as she drenched the shoulder of Rentaro’s uniform with her warm tears. “I…don’t want…to give up… I made so many friends, too…”

“They’re not your friends anymore.”

He heard Enju sniffling. “Is it all over for me? I can’t start over anymore?”

“Yeah, it’s all over. It’ll take some more time before the world is ready to accept you.”

“But we have to keep fighting?”

Rentaro paused. “Yeah.” Rentaro wiped her tears with his fingertips and put a handkerchief over her face, letting her cry for a while. Finally, he let go of her and made her stand, smiling at her. “Now, at least leave with your head held high.”

“But my bag is in the classroom.”

“Does that stuff even matter anymore?”

“N-no! You’re right!” Enju wiped her eyes on her sleeve and acted cheerful.

That’s right, Enju.

At that moment, Rentaro’s phone vibrated. He thought of ignoring it, but after seeing the name on the screen, he pushed the TALK button.

“Satomi, I know where the source Gastrea’s hideout is,” said Kisara’s voice on the other end. “It’s in District 32.”

“Kisara, I mean President…,” said Rentaro. “How did it get all the way to District 32?”

“Listen to this. It looks like that Gastrea can fly.”

He thought he heard wrong and shifted his phone to get a better grip. “The infected became a Model Spider, right? So the source Gastrea should also be a Model Spider. What do you mean a spider can fly?”

“Just hurry and get to the hideout. The other civsec officers are also after the source Gastrea”—she gave a snort of triumph and continued—“but the Tendo Civil Security Agency will get there first. I have your location on the GPS, and I’ve contracted someone amazing, so chase down the Gastrea with them. In order to get them, I had to use my tuition for next semester. Which means if someone else gets the credit, I’ll have to drop out of school! Do you get it? So work hard and do your best.”

“Ah, hey, wait, Kisara…?” Hearing the empty dial tone, Rentaro sighed and flipped his cell phone closed. What in the world did she mean by “I’ve contracted someone amazing”?

At that moment, he could hear commotion mixed with screams in the schoolyard. Rentaro looked in the direction the crowd was pointing. Before long, he could see something that got bigger as it drew near. Finally, it was so close that voices couldn’t be heard over the thunderous roar of the rotors, and shock waves blew away the clouds of dust in the schoolyard.

When Rentaro narrowed his eyes and looked up, the sky above him was dyed blue with the polished body of an aircraft. In the middle of the aircraft was the picture of a snake wrapped around a staff. It was the emblem of the god of medicine, Asclepius. Rentaro winced inwardly. Just like a rich girl. She did everything on a large scale.

Looking dumbly into the sky, one of the teachers murmured, “Medevac helicopter…”