Black Bullet - Volume 2 - Chapter 3.2

2

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

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

“Hey, Rentaro Satomi.”

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

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

“The third conference has been decided.”

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

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

The guard plan for the third conference?

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

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

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

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

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

Rentaro shook his head softly.

That was the one thing he couldn’t do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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