Black Bullet - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.6

6

“For such a thing to happen…”

They were inside the car. The Seitenshi sat elegantly with her hands on her lap, hiding her face. “I’m sorry. I had good intentions when I asked you to take on this job, but I didn’t think it would come to this.”

“You do not have to worry about that! When we were offered the job, Kisara said she was so happy, it was like it rained on her drought.” That was Enju. It was a great response—if only she had said “welcome rain in a drought” instead of “it rained on her drought.”

Rentaro leaned his back deeply into the all-leather seats and followed suit. “It’s just like Enju said. We looked at the risks properly and are getting paid to do our job, so it’s nothing you need to worry about. The insurance looks like it’ll cover the building, too. The only thing is that Yasuwaki thinks I’m secretly communicating with the culprit, so it makes it harder to do my job.”

“He thinks you’re secretly communicating with the culprit?” The Seitenshi responded with a smile, and Rentaro had to keep his mouth shut. He wasn’t secretly communicating with her, but he knew her. But if he said that, what kind of face would the country’s leader make?

Today’s second unofficial conference would be at a restaurant for a change of scenery, and it would start at eight p.m. and was scheduled to continue late into the night.

Rentaro checked the time. It was currently seven thirty p.m.

Thinking of how the last conference went, it was hard to imagine that this conference would bear much fruit, but that was beyond the jurisdiction of a guard, and not something he had a say in.

“Rentaro, do you think this will go well?” Enju asked.

Looking at Enju’s eyes filled with a mix of expectation and anxiety, he checked that the decoy limousine was driving in front of them and finally turned his head back around to look inside the car. “I wonder,” he replied.

The van they borrowed from the staff at the Seitenshi’s palace had a worn-out suspension or something that made it shake terribly, and it was no comparison to the comfort of riding in a limousine, but the Seitenshi sat quietly and expressed no discomfort.

It was Rentaro who suggested switching cars at the last minute. Even that was sudden and only in the presence of the Seitenshi’s trusted personal aides. At first, the aides just stared at him in shock. Apparently, just the suggestion for a holy personage such as the Seitenshi to ride in a normal car was hard for them to believe. However, a clever scheme that followed the rules of common sense was not a clever scheme. The more absurd the idea, the more likely it would be to fool Tina.

The guard plan leak last time meant that it would make sense to assume that there was a traitor in the Seitenshi’s palace. If the traitor was part of the Seitenshi’s personal guards who wrote the guard plan, then it would be annoying, but if the traitor wasn’t, then they would be arrested sooner or later. There was already an internal investigation team that had started work on bringing to light who was leaking information. If they had caught the culprit, Rentaro would be able to relax a little more with his guarding, though.

There, Rentaro remembered the face of someone he disliked and hit his knee with a fist. “Sougen Saitake… I’m sure he’s the culprit.”

The Seitenshi’s head twitched, and she looked at him with a sad expression. “Satomi, that’s…”

“I know. I don’t have any evidence yet. But when I think about who has the most to benefit from your death, he’s the only person who comes to mind. Why is he sneaking around coming unofficially to Tokyo Area, anyway? That’s pretty suspicious by itself, and then you were attacked on your way back from that meeting. And there’s one more thing that’s suspicious.”

Rentaro stopped talking for a second and looked into the Seitenshi’s eyes. “Lady Seitenshi, all your personal aides are scum. All they did was lay blame on others for leaking the plan, but they didn’t even try working out a plan to prevent anything from happening. In the first place, why didn’t they talk about who ordered the assassination? It wouldn’t be hard to figure out if you just thought about it a little. But if they really expose Saitake as the leader behind the scenes, then one wrong step could lead to an outbreak of war between areas. Those guys are afraid to even think about it.”

The driver, who realized that the conversation was taking a turn for the worse, started to fidget in the driver’s seat.

The Seitenshi kept her eyes closed for a while. However, she eventually opened her eyes quietly and looked at Rentaro. “Satomi, I will keep what you said in mind, but only to myself. Please do not talk about it to anyone else.”

Rentaro understood there was more to it than she said and reflexively started to stand up, but the Seitenshi shook her head slowly. “I am still the ruler of this nation. I cannot cancel a conference without evidence. Satomi, this is something that cannot be helped.”

“You’ll be killed!”

“If that is the fate chosen for me by the heavens, then there is nothing I can do. I will follow the god inside of me.”

Rentaro suddenly felt a red-hot sensation, and before he knew it, he had grabbed the Seitenshi’s collar and raised a fist overhead.

“Rentaro!” Enju hurriedly tried to intervene, but Rentaro just barely managed to grit his teeth with his fist trembling.

The Seitenshi just let it happen to her and quietly looked into Rentaro’s eyes.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Rentaro didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but he thrust the Seitenshi away and sat down in ill humor. Why were all the women around him idiots? There was a limit to how mentally strong one could be. It was hard not to be envious. “I will protect you. I did not take on the job of guarding you just to have you killed before my eyes.”

“Thank you, Satomi.”

Before long, the van arrived at the first-class restaurant, Utoro. It was on a large plot of land, and the outer wall was very high. The guard unit that had arrived earlier to investigate and disinfect the inside of the restaurant guided the van to a stop next to the restaurant.

Rentaro pulled the sliding door open and stretched a hand out to the Seitenshi. “Now, let us go, princess.”

“I’m not a princes—,” the Seitenshi started to say reflexively, but then bashfully looked down and quietly took Rentaro’s proffered hand.

Exiting the car and exposing his body to the slightly cool air outside, Rentaro looked at the entrance of the restaurant and scowled.

An angry Yasuwaki had come out to meet them, looking like trouble. “Rentaro Satomi! What is the meaning of this? Why is the Seitenshi riding in such a shabby car?”

“We changed the car. I decided that a limousine would be too dangerous.”

“Why did you not tell me?!”

Rentaro glared at Yasuwaki silently. Because I couldn’t trust your abilities.

Yasuwaki kept grinding his teeth. “Bastard…… A big-headed grandstander like you will destroy the whole team! You scumbag!”

Because the angry Yasuwaki had moved a hand to the sidearm on his hip, Rentaro also put his hand on the XD on his hip to stop Yasuwaki if necessary. In the middle of the tense atmosphere of the explosive situation, Enju also made her eyes red and pawed the ground with her shoes. It had turned into a bad situation.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound, and Rentaro twisted his head back and forth but did not find anything. There it was again… The sound was the same as the buzzing that he heard during the last sniping incident. What in the world was it…?

Those tense nerves played a part in allowing Rentaro to anticipate a glint on the roof of a large building in the corner of his field of vision. He wasn’t mistaken in what he had seen. It was the same sniper muzzle fire as he had seen the other day.

As Rentaro yelled, he hurled himself against the Seitenshi to force down the upper part of her body. The next instant, there was a sharp pain in his body. Rentaro was sure he felt the hot tip of an antitank bullet graze his side.

A heartbeat later, the place became frenzied. A number of the guards who understood Rentaro’s intention quickly became a shield.

Rentaro pushed the Seitenshi into the van, rapped on the driver’s seat, and ordered, “Drive.”

The limousine that was blocking the front and the van they had gotten into started moving at almost the same time.

Rentaro put a hand to his side and felt something slippery as blood stuck to his hand. Unconsciously, one cheek twitched. Even with this, they were lucky. If he had been hit straight on with a bullet designed to pierce through armored cars, a frail human such as himself would have died immediately.

A small trick like switching cars was not enough to fool that sniper, after all.

“Rentaro!” said Enju.

“Enju, don’t worry about me! Keep watch behind us,” said Rentaro.

The Seitenshi’s face paled as she reached her hand out toward his wound, but Rentaro waved her away with just his hand. The danger wasn’t over yet. They had to break away to a safe area as soon as possible.

At that moment, Enju, who had been observing the roofs of the buildings behind them, gave a yell. “A glint!”

At almost the same time, the sound of screaming breaks and a crash flew into their ears. Ahead of them, the decoy limousine was fishtailing with a large hole in its roof.

Rentaro felt chills when he realized that the sniper had not missed, and the car tilted forward, softly scattering splinters of glass as it turned on its side. As it spun, it entered his field of vision, approaching with frightening speed. Then and there, he realized what Tina was intending, and gritted his teeth.

The driver of the van froze with his hands still gripping the steering wheel. Rentaro kicked up the steering wheel from the backseat. The tires screeched as the van slid sideways, narrowly avoiding the approaching limousine. Anticipating the driver returning to his senses, Rentaro leaned his body forward and yelled, “Go into the parking lot of that building, quick!”

The flustered driver turned the steering wheel hard to the left, and the inertia threw Rentaro hard onto the glass of the window. They rushed into the basement parking lot of the nearby building, scattering the shocked security guards.

The moment the van stopped, Rentaro and Enju jumped out and started running. They got out onto the street just in time to see the driver crawl out from the ruins of the limousine that was used as a decoy. Antifreeze and gasoline had spilled onto the street.

Rentaro’s mind was on the verge of panic. With this, the sniper had hit five out of five super-long-range shots, not missing a single one. Was this a coincidence, or…?

He tried to run toward the building Tina was sniping from, but he fell to his knees dizzily. His gunshot wound throbbed in pain.

Rentaro gritted his teeth and looked up at the giant building between the two tall buildings. But at this rate, he would let Tina get away again. What could he do?

Just then, something shook Rentaro’s arm hard. It was Enju. “Rentaro, I will go after the sniper!”

“Go after…? Will you make it?”

“If I’m by myself.”

Rentaro was surprised by Enju’s response, which was accompanied by serious eyes and a hard nod. In other words, the injured Rentaro would be a burden.

Rentaro hesitated. Enju losing was unthinkable, but he also wanted to avoid a situation where Enju wounded or killed Tina. What in the world was he supposed to tell Enju?

“I will return, Rentaro!”

Feelings rising up from deep in his gut pierced through Rentaro, and before he knew it, he had grabbed Enju’s arm. “Be careful. Make sure you come back.”

At first, Enju opened her eyes wide, but then finally smiled wryly and said boldly, “You are such a worrywart, Rentaro. Who do you think I am? The sniper does not have Zone. It’s fine.”

“Zone?” Rentaro said.

“I’ll be back shortly.” Enju unleashed her power, turned her eyes bright red, and jumped.

The onlookers pointed at Enju and started screaming, wondering what was going on, but Enju ignored them and jumped to the top of the building closest to them, and then soon disappeared.

After a while, Rentaro looked in the direction Enju had gone off. For some reason, even after hearing Enju’s words, his uneasiness didn’t let up one bit.

“Satomi, are you all right? The ambulance will be here soon, so please don’t worry.”

He looked back. It was the Seitenshi, looking pale.

“Get back into the parking lot, now!” is what he opened his mouth instinctively to say, but his words were swallowed by empty space, and he looked down, staying silent. That wasn’t what was occupying his mind anymore.

She was a little calmer and noticed the state Rentaro was in. “What’s the matter, Satomi?”

Rentaro hesitated, but before he knew it, he had told the Seitenshi about Tina. If he didn’t talk about it to someone, the uneasiness that had already risen up to the back of his throat would make him go crazy.

“Tina Sprout…?” After the Seitenshi heard what he had to say, instead of telling him what she thought, she repeated the name of the young sniper wonderingly, continuing as she quickly rushed back to the car.

Rentaro tilted his head questioningly at her mysterious words and actions, but those feelings were soon overwritten by different thoughts. Rentaro had a strong impulse to call Enju to make sure she was safe, but when he opened his address book, he gritted his teeth and stuck his cell phone back into his pocket.

Enju and Tina were sure to be in the middle of their fight right now. If he foolishly called her at a time like that, it would be a devastating state of affairs for Enju. If Enju won, there was no way she would not contact him. He had to wait until then.

He broke out in a cold sweat, and his vision lurched, forcing him to his knees. The dull pain was slowly but surely invading Rentaro’s body.

In his head, he remembered the training they had in the back of the dojo the other day. Enju had slipped past all of Rentaro’s rubber bullets in no time and was closing in on him. There was such a great difference in their strength that it could barely be called practice.

Enju had said she was bad against a barrage of bullets from a shotgun or machine gun, but she was strong against guns designed to shoot single bullets, like a handgun or sniper rifle. Sniper rifles were almost always used with optical scopes with high magnification used to enlarge the target.

This was something that was not that different in principle from the microscopes used in science or biology classes. Of course, with higher magnification, even though the target could be seen more clearly, moving just a little caused the target to leave the field of vision. There was no way a sniper could capture a girl who could move at superspeeds—a girl with the Rabbit Factor inside her. Since this was night sniping, there was probably also some sort of infrared equipment being used, but either way, there was no way Enju would fall behind the other girl.

It’ll be fine. Calm down. Rentaro chanted this over and over.

Thinking that about thirty minutes had passed already, he looked at his phone and realized that it had only been five minutes. It was irritating how slowly time was passing.

“Satomi!” Screaming, the Seitenshi came running toward him. “Get Enju back here right now!”

The girl who had been able to say it was her fate to be killed was in front of him right now looking pale, with her shoulders heaving as she panted.

“H-hey, what’s the—”

“I used my authority to do an International Initiator inquiry into Tina Sprout’s name. Her IP rank is 98. She’s an owl Initiator and one of the enhanced NEXT soldiers. I saw her specs, and her numbers are terrifying. Enju will be killed!”

IP rank 98. Just those words echoed over and over in Rentaro’s head. That was way above Kagetane Hiruko and his daughter. Rentaro recalled Tina’s face and shook his head softly. There was no way.

Then, he suddenly regained his senses and dialed his phone as if hitting it, pressing it hard to his ear. As it rang a few times, he shut his eyes tight and prayed desperately that Enju was safe.

It rang about ten times, and then there was the sound of the phone being picked up. “Enju! Is that you, Enju?!” he called desperately. “Ahh, oh good, get back here right now. We’re going to rethink our strategy.”

There was no answer.

No, he could hear faint breathing from the other side.

“Enju, what’s wrong? At least answer.”

Rentaro listened dubiously, but there was no answer after all.

“Enju…? What’s…the matter…? En…… Huh?”

Rentaro took the phone off his ear for a moment and stared at it fixedly.

“Is this……Tina………?”

There was a long silence.

That said everything.

The cell phone Enju should have been holding was in Tina’s hands. Then, what had happened to its rightful owner? All sound disappeared from his ears, and his blood froze.

No. No, no… No…!

Suddenly, there was a click, and the dial tone rang.

The cell phone slipped out of his hands, ringing dryly as it bounced. The blood running out of his side spread slowly on the ground, soaking the phone. Rentaro fell to his knees, shaking his head from side to side without a sound.

Enju had been…killed?