Black Bullet - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.2

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Inside Happy Building 3F—the Tendo Civil Security Agency offices—a heavy silence had fallen. Rentaro and Kisara sat on the love-seat sofa in the reception area, with a glass table between them and the Seitenshi, who sat facing them. Before her, a tea stem floated in her cup of roasted green tea, swaying idly.

Rentaro and Kisara had just finished listening to the Seitenshi’s explanation. The contents were hard to believe.

The clear tinkling of the wind chime sounded out of place as it echoed through the room.

Rentaro wiped the uncomfortable sweat from his face. His temple, which he was pressing down on, was throbbing hotly. He shook his head softly as he lifted his face. “Lady Seitenshi, let me make sure I understand what you’ve said. In six days, a Monolith will be destroyed, Gastrea will rush in, and Tokyo will be annihilated by a Pandemic, right?”

“If we do not counter, that is what will happen,” she agreed.

Rentaro looked at the pictures spread out on the glass table: those of the bleached Monolith, and the Gastrea head so repulsive he wanted to look away. “The news yesterday said that the Gastrea that approached the Monolith were immediately driven away…”

“We have told the media the situation and have their cooperation.”

“People who believe in freedom of speech would be shocked to hear that.”

“I do not think you wish for Tokyo Area to stop functioning right now either, Satomi. Please allow me to control the information that does not need to be known, the information that will only be poisonous to society.”

“Dictators say exactly the same thing.”

“H-hey, Satomi?” said Kisara, trying to stop him.

The Seitenshi said, “It’s fine,” and shook her head softly. “Either way, in a few days, the bleaching of the Monolith will be visible even from far away. Right now, under the command of Aldebaran, Gastrea are gathering outside the Monolith. We predict that there could be up to two thousand of them in the end.”

“Two thousand?! You must be kidding!” blurted Kisara.

Rentaro gave a heavy nod in agreement. “This is rash. We’ll be killed. We’ll all be annihilated.”

“We are doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Rentaro put a hand to his chin. “But…why Aldebaran?”

The Seitenshi shook her head slowly. “I do not know, either. We are investigating that now.”

“What? What do you mean?” Kisara asked, confused.

“Kisara, how much do you know about Aldebaran?”

“Let’s see… If I remember correctly, it’s a Stage Four Gastrea that we knew about pretty early on, and when Gastrea were running rampant ten years ago, it focused on wreaking havoc in Asia, right?”

“Do you know why it was given its distinct code name?”

“I…I don’t know…”

“Aldebaran is an old Gastrea that always appeared with the Stage Five known as Taurus. Taurus is a strange Stage Five that acts with a group, and Aldebaran could be called its right-hand man. That’s why it was given the code name Aldebaran, after the brightest star in the Taurus constellation.”

“But Satomi, isn’t Taurus…?”

The Seitenshi answered Kisara’s unfinished question. “You’re right. Of the eleven Zodiac Gastrea, three are confirmed to be destroyed. The first is the Scorpion that Satomi defeated; the second is Virgo, which was defeated by the current IP Rank 2 Initiator; and the last was the Taurus corps, once feared as invincible, which was destroyed by the strongest and number-one ranked Initiator in the world. But the most important thing is that Aldebaran is a Stage Four, not a Stage Five.”

Kisara covered her mouth as she let out a gasp.

“Yes, Kisara: Other than the Zodiacs, all Gastrea are affected by the magnetic fields generated by the Monoliths, so they shouldn’t be able to get past the Monoliths.”

“But, Aldebaran retreated after hanging onto a Monolith, injecting Varanium corrosion fluid,” Kisara muttered.

“Yes, that is the mystery.”

Kisara was deep in thought.

“But…” Rentaro frowned and looked at the Seitenshi. “I don’t know about that, but the ant incident was definitely a diversion.”

“A diversion?” The Seitenshi’s eyes were panicked, but after a moment turned to deep thought. “Satomi, that’s unthinkable. Stage Ones cannot invade through the Monoliths; Gastrea that cannot enter cannot be used as a diversion.”

“Lady Seitenshi, do you know about the self-sacrifice of ants? There is a type of ant in South America that plugs up holes in the nest once it gets dark. When they do that, there are always some worker ants left outside who work to plug the hole from the outside. By the next morning, all of those ants are dead. In other words, in order to protect the network of their nest, they carry out their duties as sacrificial pawns.”

“You think the Model Ants that attacked the self-defense force facilities were acting as such?”

“That’s the only explanation for it. Even if I allow that the Stage Four could possibly hang on to the Monolith, ultimately, there’s no way that the Stage One would be able to invade.”

Just by being carriers of the Gastrea virus, the Cursed Children started to feel sick and faint if they approached the Monoliths. Even if the self-defense force had not annihilated the Model Ants, they would have probably died from weakness from the effects of the magnetic field.

Rentaro continued. “In other words, they charged the Monolith in order to buy time for Aldebaran to grab onto the Monolith and inject Varanium corrosion fluid into it. They knew that they would die.”

“That’s a very…systematic way of acting. They’re being led in a way that hasn’t been seen before.” The Seitenshi groaned as she thought aloud. After a while, she lifted her face. “Satomi, your theory is extremely useful. You truly are amazing. Even though many Gastrea experts have been putting their heads together to figure out why Model Ants would be piercing the Monoliths, you’ve figured it out in a second.”

“That’s because Satomi is kind of obsessed,” noted Kisara.

“Ugh, don’t say that…,” Rentaro rebutted.

The Seitenshi looked at the slouching young man with a curious expression on her face. “Satomi, do you know a lot about insects?”

“Not just insects, but about animals in general. I mean, I liked Fabre’s Souvenirs Entomologiques, and it kind of continued from there…”

“I see… You didn’t have any friends, so the insects were your friends, right?”

“Why do people automatically assume I have no friends if I know about bugs?!” Rentaro saw the edge of the Seitenshi’s lips twitch for a second, and he realized something: The mood was so dark she was distracting them with jokes.

“Lady Seitenshi, what do you want me to do?” Rentaro sighed.

She quietly lifted her tea to her mouth. The wind chime tinkled, and in that pause, the sound of the air conditioner echoed through the room. “I want you to form an adjuvant, Satomi.”

“An adjuvant?” He saw Kisara’s body stiffen next to him. Apparently, Kisara knew what that meant. “Kisara, what’s that?” he asked her.

She looked at him with an expression of shock. “Wait, Satomi, you don’t know what the adjuvant system is? Didn’t you get a lecture on it when you were getting your civil officer license?”

“I don’t know. I slept through most of the lectures.”

“I can’t believe you!” Kisara hid her face in her palm. “During emergency operations, the government can make use of civil officers by grouping them—like the self-defense force. An ‘adjuvant’ refers to a team system, with squads composed of civil officers.”

“Team system? You mean you want me to form a fighting team?”

“That’s right,” the Seitenshi nodded. “An adjuvant fights under a commander, who is in charge of the team leaders. In other words, it is a completely different system from the one used during the Kagetane Hiruko terrorist incident. Currently, in order to organize large-scale squads of civil officers, we are reaching out to leading civil security agencies. I would like you to become a team leader, too, by gathering members to fight in the decisive battle against the Gastrea.

“Satomi, no matter how much we hurry, the production and transportation of the replacement Monolith will take nine days. I would like you and your squad to intercept all the Gastrea that will invade in the three days between when the Monolith is destroyed and when the replacement is put in place.”

The Seitenshi folded her hands in her lap.

“I understand that you must be confused by the suddenness of it all. But please, Satomi, for the sake of the country, will you lend me your strength just this once?”