Black Bullet - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.5

5

Going through two more thoroughfares and into an alley, it seemed like they had arrived at another world; like the deep ocean where the light of the sun did not reach. The smell of perspiring grease, rust, and mold thriving in the humid twilight drifted through the narrow confines. When Rentaro pushed open the building’s iron door, creaking and thick with rust, he entered, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with the GPS on his phone.

However, he realized too soon that his feeling was wrong. After climbing the stairs of the run-down building with no elevator, he was at his destination.

Even the sun, which was shining brightly when he left school, was now slanted, and threw orange light onto the ground. From somewhere off-site was the clang of heavy construction equipment, ringing hollowly through the building like the rumble of distant thunder.

Rentaro and Tina stood for a while before the door that was beyond worn out and practically at “dilapidated.” The wall that was probably originally white was a completely different color, and there was graffiti on the lacquer in all directions.

“Is this really the place?” Tina asked in shock.

Rentaro, who could just barely make out the sign that said KATAGIRI CIVIL SECURITY AGENCY, responded with a “Probably.”

From the information he got beforehand about how there were only two officers, Rentaro had predicted that it was not a large agency, but he had never imagined that he would find a civil security agency shabbier than his own employer in the entire universe.

There was no doorbell, so he knocked on the door, yelling “Hey!” a few times, but there was no response.

Just as he was about to go home, an energetic voice suddenly called out, “Oh, Rentaro Satomi the Pervert!”

Turning to look, Rentaro saw a blond girl appear at the stairs they had just climbed up. Suddenly, she leapt back and bared her teeth, starting to growl.

He knew this face. She was clad from head to toe in black pleather with a choker collar and engineer boots. Her dyed-blond hair was split in the middle and tied on each side. In the midst of all that punk fashion, the bright red backpack she carried looked extremely out of place. It looked like she had just gotten home from school.

“Little Sister Katagiri, huh?” he shot back.

“It’s Yuzuki, Rentaro Satomi! Fuck you! Don’t come near me, you letch! I’m gonna catch your pervy-ness!”

Oh yeah, this was what she was like, he recalled with a touch of irritation, but getting angry here would be just what she wanted, so he chanted quietly to himself, Calm down, calm down. “It’s been a while, Little Sister Katagiri. Haven’t seen you since the manhunt three months ago, huh?”

Yuzuki crossed her arms, feigning boredom. “Hmph, you were just a lowly low-ranking civil officer back then, but now you’re the savior of Tokyo Area who defeated a Zodiac, huh? What do you want? Don’t tell me you came to rub it in? If that’s why you’re here, then you can turn right around and go home, you letch.”

“That’s not why I’m here. I came because I have work for your brother.”

“We don’t need work from a perv!”

Rentaro looked at the decrepit hallway and office door and knocked on the wall. The vibration made a corner of the plaster fall off. “Wouldn’t it be better to at least hear what I have to say?”

Yuzuki looked annoyed as she pulled out the key from the back of her choker and put it in the door, stealing a look at Rentaro as she opened the door. “Big Bro! You have a guest!”

Following the girl inside, he was first overwhelmed by the choking smell. All families had their own smell that permeated everything, but the Katagiri Civil Security Agency’s was the smell of a cloth that had wiped up milk and was dried in the shade. Scattered around the reception area were empty containers of instant noodles and junk food. There were shed clothes scattered everywhere, a hanging plant dangling from the ceiling, and tall piles of comics. From floor to ceiling, it was so messy that it seemed like it was done on purpose to make visitors shrink back.

Just then, something moved a little. Rentaro looked to see a sleeping man sitting on a stool with his combat boots resting on the table.

“Yo, Bro! Wake up!” said Yuzuki, shaking him.

“What is it, my sweet?” said the man in a sleepy voice, pulling off the adult magazine covering his face and glancing at Rentaro. Then, he uttered “Whoa…” and put the magazine back on his face.

“Hey, you! What do you mean, ‘Whoa…’?”

“Try to understand, boy. Right after I wake up, a guy with a face so unfortunate that I feel like I’ll be cursed just by looking at it is standing right there. For a second, I thought the Grim Reaper had come for me.” So saying, he grunted and jumped out of the chair.

Because of Rentaro’s height, he had to look up at the man just a little. He wore black cargo pants, a field jacket, and amber sunglasses. He had dark blond hair like his little sister, but with earrings and half-finger gloves. With his muscular build, he gave off an overbearing air. The words I am an American printed on his jacket were in such bad taste that the American girl next to Rentaro was clearly annoyed.

Tamaki Katagiri. Even though he wore clothes that looked like they belonged to a thug, he was the president of the Katagiri Civil Security Agency.

Rentaro looked around the messy office with distaste. “Well, what can I say? Looks like you’re doing well.”

“Hmph, I don’t need your sarcasm, boyo.” Tamaki looked appraisingly at Rentaro and then flopped back into his president’s chair. “It’s been a while. What do you want?”

Rentaro scratched the back of his head. “Actually—”

“Shall I take a guess? The Monolith’s motherfucking destruction is drawing near, so you have no choice but to form an adjuvant, so you’re going around asking people to join you, but they’ve turned you down everywhere else, so you had no choice but to come here. Right?”

Rentaro had nothing to say in response. He had gotten it exactly right. Rentaro thought back on the fifteen crossed-out names on the list of possible adjuvants and almost let out a sigh. In the two days since he informed the Seitenshi that he would accept the job, he had gone around knocking on the doors of various civil security agencies to gather strong allies, but his progress could not be called satisfactory by any means.

Some got really angry, others had unpleasant expressions on their faces that looked like they had been insulted, he was turned away at the door of some, and there were even some others who just stole the advance and then ran away. He was at the end of his rope.

Tamaki crossed his arms and looked so triumphantly proud that Rentaro couldn’t say anything in response. “Well, it’s only natural. Upstart brats like you are hated by civil officers around Japan.”

“Shut up,” Rentaro said sulkily, but he had to agree with Tamaki on the inside.

Rentaro and Enju’s IP Rank had been 123,452 just a few months ago. Among the civil officers, they were no better than the middle zone, who could neither hurt nor help. As a civil officer like that who had two consecutive and amazing successes, in short time he had risen to a rank of 300.

Because he had risen in social status by his own abilities, Rentaro had also accumulated a number of interested stakeholders. But this was natural to any era, and, similarly, had the effect that most of the other civil officers disliked him. On top of that, another factor that made him hated was the fact that he was a sixteen-year-old high school student. Obviously, there were not many high schoolers who were constantly risking their lives as civil officers. The average age of a Promoter was around twenty-eight. And generally speaking, Japanese culture valued years of experience over anything else, so from child to adult, those living beings called Japanese tended to stick to the outdated way of thinking that they did not want to take orders from someone younger than them.

With just the combination of his age and the increased stakeholders, it was more than enough to make all fifteen of the civil security agencies he had visited before this turn him down spectacularly.

Tamaki shifted in his seat, and the springs of his chair creaked. “Well, how much prey are we talking?”

Rentaro said, “It hasn’t been put on the news yet, but there are two thousand. The head of the enemy is Aldebaran.”

Yuzuki’s eyes widened, and Tamaki raised his sunglasses and rubbed the corner of his eye. “The exit is that way. Hey, Yuzuki, the visitor’s going home now.”

“I’m not done talking yet!”

“Stupid, idiotic boy. That’s called a suicide mission. It’s like a praying mantis threating a horse carriage by raising its front legs. It’s beyond pathetic. It’s funny.”

“If we don’t do anything, then it’s over for Tokyo Area. You two will die, too.”

“That news hasn’t been spread past the civil officers, right? If that’s the case, then the smartest thing to do would be to get my hands on some plane tickets to escape Tokyo.”

“Then you guys can laugh cheerfully from another Area with a beer in one hand as you watch the Tokyo Area citizens who didn’t have time to run away get killed by the Gastrea.”

Tamaki didn’t say anything.

“If we had the assistance of civil officers like you two, we’d have the strength of a hundred men. Please lend me your strength, Katagiri.”

Tamaki silently stood up from the chair and started to circle Rentaro menacingly. “The most important thing for us in deciding whether or not we take a job is if the returns outweigh the risks. That thing called Aldebaran is a monster of a Gastrea. The story of how it turned three cities into ruins with Taurus is famous. I don’t know how many civil officers the government is planning on trying to scrape together, but there’s obviously a slim chance that we’ll make it back alive. What is the government prepared to give us for that?”

Rentaro hesitated. “A promotion in rank and reasonable pay, I suppose. Of course, we can give you a little, as well—”

“Motherfucker,” Tamaki interrupted. “That’s all I can say. I can only take it as an insult that they expect us to risk our lives for something like that.”

“If you’re not happy with that, I can talk it over with the Lady Seitenshi to see if she can raise the pay and rank promotion.”

“You don’t understand it at all, boyo. It’s not about money.”

“Then—” Rentaro lifted his face and looked straight at Tamaki. “What do you think about fighting for my sake?”

Tamaki looked taken aback for a second, then met Yuzuki’s eyes. The next instant, the two of them started laughing, holding their stomachs. Tina couldn’t help herself and stepped forward to get closer to them, but Rentaro kept her back with his hand.

“You say interesting things, brat. You’ve changed in the short time since I last saw you.” Tamaki shrugged his shoulders. “There’s one thing I forgot to say. I won’t work under someone weaker than me.”

“Then…,” said Rentaro.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Tamaki stuck out a fist, baring his canines with a carnivore’s smile. “If you can beat me, then I’ll think about joining your adjuvant. If you’re a man, then prove to us that you’ve got balls.”

The battle was to be held at a public gym that they rented out near the Katagiri Civil Security Agency. Or rather, Tamaki marched in and said, “Scram! Kids should go home and play games!” to the good citizens who were exercising there, quickly chasing them away.

Gym No. 3, which Tamaki had obtained, was smaller than both Gym No. 1 and Gym No. 2, but it was still twenty meters long on each side and had a high ceiling. Spectators who were now gathered at the entrance clamored and shouted as they watched the takeover with interest. It wasn’t every day that they got to watch a skirmish between civil officers.

Rentaro and Tina faced off against the Katagiri siblings, putting distance between them and looking at their equipment. The older brother, Tamaki, had a gauntlet wrapped with showy chains over his half-finger gloves, and at his hip was an automatic revolver, a Mateba Unica. Since they were in a public place, they probably wanted to avoid gunfire, but Rentaro and Tina would have to be careful of the gauntlet.

In contrast to that, taking a loose stance was the unarmed Yuzuki. If Rentaro’s memory served him right, then the Gastrea factor inside her body was…“I’ll tell you my name, Rentaro Satomi! With an IP Rank of 1,850, I’m the Model Spider Yuzuki Katagiri!”

That’s right, she had the spider factor. Rentaro didn’t have any pleasant memories with Model Spiders.

“And I’m Tamaki Katagiri, with the same IP Rank of 1,850.”

Realizing that there were high-ranking civil officers in a public gym on the outskirts of town, the spectators gulped. Tamaki waved a practiced hand at the spectators before turning toward Rentaro and snorting. “Hey, kiddo. I thought your Initiator was a noisy little bunny girl? Are you planning on taking us on with an impromptu pair?”

“Yes, and we will win.” It was Tina who spoke. She too slid into a calm, relaxed stance.

Rentaro looked at her without being able to laugh off Tamaki’s ridicule. Tina was a long-distance type Initiator who specialized in night sniping. However, right now, Tina’s hands did not carry a sniper rifle, and it was not a dark night where she could draw out her full potential, either.

Tina seemed to understand his concerns and smiled. “Do not worry, Big Brother. If we’re going to do this, let us win.” Tina stared ahead and continued. “Besides, I think this is a good opportunity. Because not only can we see their power, but I can also display my strength for you, too. I want you to know what I can do.”

Tina lifted her forearms, and from her loose sleeves, three round, fist-size objects tumbled out. Right before the Bits touched the ground, they floated up gently, acting like living, conscious beings as they flew around Tina, tracing geometric patterns in the air.

Shenfield—It was the thought-drive interface used by the neurochip buried in her brain.

“Formation Delta, and maintain autonomous trajectory Foxtrot.” Tina made a horizontal sweeping motion with her hands and the Bits started flying in triangles as they spread out and rotated above her head, which caused a stir among the spectators. Tina then pulled out a black glove from her pocket and put it on her right hand. Apparently, she only had one glove, and on her wrist, there were two small metal rings that shook at the edge of the glove.

Rentaro was curious about her equipment, but he didn’t have time to ask her about it.

Tina looked at the Katagiri siblings. “I’ll tell you my name. I am Model Owl, Tina Sprout. I have no rank because it was revoked. Please be gentle with me.”

“H-hey, what’re those weird things flying around you?” Tamaki asked.

“W-wait, what do you mean, your rank was revoked…?” Yuzuki asked fearfully. Rentaro understood her unease. She must have started to realize a little that Tina was no ordinary Initiator.

Having one’s rank revoked was a pretty severe punishment among the many punishments a civil officer could receive. People who became civil officers in the first place were generally a bloodthirsty bunch, with many would-be yakuza and people who liked violence and fighting. Therefore, having a death or two in skirmishes between civil officers was no big deal. If their licenses were taken away every time something like that happened, there would soon be no civil officers to protect Tokyo Area; so unless they committed a serious crime like injuring a civilian, the current situation was that a certain level of violence was tolerated.

The demon, Kagetane Hiruko, and his partner, whom Rentaro had faced off against before, were truly atrocious psychotic killers. In the end, their licenses were taken away, and their rank was frozen, but to put it another way, it took killing as much as they did before civil officers received such a severe punishment.

Yuzuki was probably wondering what Tina did that made her receive the punishment to have her rank revoked. And it wasn’t like Tina could say with all the spectators milling around that she was the one who attempted to assassinate the Seitenshi.

Tamaki and Yuzuki closed rank and stuck out their fists, their eyes sharply narrowed. Rentaro could understand the sudden seriousness.

They had changed their perception of Tina Sprout. The temperature of the air in the gymnasium dropped, and it was filled with intent to kill.

Rentaro crouched and took on the Tendo Martial Arts Indestructible Stance. It was one focused on defense, allowing the user to shift quickly to evade or counter. Rentaro continued looking forward as he spoke to Tina next to him. “Tina, let me tell you now—those guys won’t be beaten easily. I’ve never fought against them before, but if we let our guard down, we’ll probably be beaten in a second.”

“I know. I will take the Initiator. Big Brother, please take the Promoter.”

Feeling goose bumps, Rentaro got close to Tina, and they beckoned together, provoking the Katagiri siblings. Tina’s and Yuzuki’s eyes blazed bright red at the same time as they released their power.

“Let’s dance, boy!” At Tamaki’s words, the siblings charged them side by side. It was a straightforward attack without any underhandedness to reflect the character of the siblings—or so Rentaro thought. Suddenly, Yuzuki jumped on Tamaki’s shoulder and leapt upward, flying high over Rentaro and Tina. Her trail sparkled with light.

What was that? Rentaro had no time to resolve the question in his mind as Yuzuki landed on the ground at his back. Realizing they were surrounded, Rentaro narrowed his eyes. “Tina!”

“Okay!” said Tina. In the midst of the confusion, Rentaro and Tina quickly stood back to back.

Yuzuki and Tamaki kept a fixed distance away as they started circling Rentaro and Tina. It was as if they were two sharks, tenaciously circling their prey, instilling fear as they waited to sink their jaws into them.

Rentaro and Tina also changed positions as they matched the slow movements of the Katagiri siblings. Through their shirts, he could feel the heat of Tina’s body and the damp sweat on her back in response to the slowly mounting pressure. They would certainly be at a disadvantage in a long fight. An impromptu pair would start to unravel the minute they started feeling nervous.

In order to pick a fight with the brother, Rentaro dove forward and shortened the distance between them in an instant. It was a test: Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 8—

“Come on!” Tamaki swung an arm that was about as big as Rentaro’s thigh and Rentaro matched his movement. “Homura Ka—!”

“Ahhh!”

The meeting of Rentaro’s and Tamaki’s fists sent shock waves across the entire gym. The heavy blow sent numbing tingles up Rentaro’s artificial arm, and he shut one eye without thinking.

In Tamaki’s style of killing, he definitely did not have the skillful technique Rentaro had. However, the difference in their physique and muscle strength was enough to be a deciding factor in their fight. In addition, the attack power of the knuckledusters hanging from Tamaki’s fists was undervalued.

However, at this point, Rentaro was still misreading the threat of the Promoter named Tamaki Katagiri.

Rentaro then noticed Tamaki’s knuckledusters and guiderail—or something that looked like the grooved chain of a bike—moving. Wait, were those even knuckledusters? Seeing the compact power unit on the back of his hand, Rentaro got chills down his spine. I see, that’s a—

Tamaki grinned, and Rentaro hurriedly tried to pull his fist back, but it was too late. With a sudden explosive sound, the chain that looked like a knuckleduster started to rotate, and when their fists met, it shaved off part of Rentaro’s fist.

“Arghhh!” Rentaro’s brain registered the seething pain, and he stumbled forward. Looking at his right fist, he saw that the artificial skin had been completely shaved off, and the Super-Varanium inside was peeking through. Since he hadn’t cut his pain nerves before the fight, a wave of injury so intense left his mind feeling spent. If he had used his real left fist, his hand would have been a terrible sight. Rentaro lifted his face and gritted his teeth as he looked at Tamaki. What Tamaki had on his hand was a grinder, a rotating file. No, there was a more precise name for it as a weapon—“A Varanium chain saw, huh…?”

“That’s right! Took you long enough to notice, boyo.” Both of Tamaki’s fists buzzed like a nest of angry bees. “But you were hiding the hardware inside you from me, too. Now we’re even.”

Rentaro quietly hid his exposed Super-Varanium fist from the eyes of the spectators. Tamaki’s fist could be swung in defense in addition to the obvious offensive attack. Even so, if Rentaro did not attack, the situation would just get worse. What should I do? What should I do?

“All right, I’m coming!!” Tamaki shouted.

With a terrible, rotating buzzing sound, the two fists rushed at him. Rentaro stepped backward and escaped three punches by a hair, only to have Tamaki’s combat boots fly upward, kicking at him with the heel. As Rentaro blinked, he saw that there were chains wrapped closely in the pattern of Tamaki’s boots, and Rentaro felt chills again. Jeez, you’ve gotta be kidding me—

Rentaro cut off the pain sensors at the same time the chain on the bottom of Tamaki’s boots started making a violent sound. He immediately threw up his artificial right arm and left leg in defense. A second later, his artificial skin and his uniform were completely shaved off, and the sound of Varanium on Varanium rang metallically through the whole gymnasium.

Rentaro had been thrown back, but for some reason, he did not fall to the ground. Instead, he was suddenly caught by something soft and flexible behind his back. It felt like a boxing glove. He was shocked when he looked behind him. Wrapped around his back were sparkling threads of light.

It was spider silk.

In the back of his mind, an image of Yuzuki flying over him earlier with a thin trail of light behind her overlapped with what he saw. She probably had the ability to create a territory by putting up invisible strings in the spaces where she walked. Earlier, when they surrounded and encircled Rentaro and Tina, she had already completed her preparations.

At that, another suspicion raised its head: Why wasn’t Tamaki accidentally caught by the invisible threads? As he thought this, the existence of Tamaki’s amber sunglasses suddenly passed through the back of his mind. Perhaps there was some sort of special treatment applied to them—a treatment that would allow him to see the invisible threads…

Rentaro finally understood the way these siblings fought. As his sister created a territory to drive the prey into, Tamaki used his chain saw with its immense attack power to violently fell their opponents. It was a bad joke that a pair using such an elaborate strategy had not gotten any further than IP Rank 1,850.

At that moment, a dark shadow crossed Rentaro’s body. It was Tamaki, swinging his fists with that horrifyingly metallic sound. Rentaro twisted his body desperately, but that made the threads around him stretch more, and the more he panicked, the worse his situation became.

He used all the tension in his body in one instant to crouch and evaded Tamaki’s fist in the nick of time. A veering whir passed by his ear, and he shivered like a block of ice had been slipped down his back. Lifting his leg reflexively, he stopped the fist that came at him with the sole of his right shoe. The chain saw buzzed and sparked as it played the rubber, but Rentaro bore it, gritting his teeth.

Tamaki, certain that he would win, stepped back for a moment, twisted his body around and added a circular motion as he lifted his leg to plow a kick into Rentaro. Along the way, the chain started rotating with a roar. This was bad. “Die, ya bastardddd!”

Rentaro fired the cartridge in his leg. Bam! From his right leg, the cartridge shot out with the sound and force of an explosion. With the tremendous kickback, he was able to tear through the threads and ducked under Tamaki’s kick; he braked with his left and darted directly behind Tamaki.

“Wha…?!” Tamaki exclaimed.

Rentaro wasted no time in hitting his calves with a hard blow. Tamaki couldn’t bear it and let out a groan as he fell to his knees. Rentaro looked at him contemptuously and raised his right leg high, then held it for a moment directly above his head.

Tendo Martial Arts Second Style, Number 4—

“Inzen Jokahanameishi!” Rentaro’s heel fell with the speed of a guillotine and hit the back of Tamaki’s head. There was a roar, and his face sank into the floor of the gym.

Feeling victorious, Rentaro exhaled, then calmed his breathing and his heart. The spectators were speechless. Rentaro came out of his stance, scratched the back of his head, and looked down at Tamaki.

Did I kill him? he wondered. Well, Tamaki was trying to kill me. He exhaled through his nose. Tamaki had yelled, “Die, ya bastardddd!” at the end, while obviously coming at Rentaro with the intent to kill, so it was legitimate self-defense, and there was a crowd to witness it.

Just as Rentaro thought he saw Tamaki’s body twitch, Tamaki put both hands on the ground to push his face off the floor and drew near Rentaro with an expression of rage. “Bastard! You were seriously trying to kill me with that last hit, weren’t you? If it hadn’t been me, I woulda died, ya know!”

“What, you’re alive?” drawled Rentaro.

“Is that bad?”

Even as he cracked jokes, Rentaro was astonished at Tamaki’s combat abilities. He couldn’t believe he was forced to use his cartridge in public.

Tamaki Katagiri—putting his low speech and strange actions aside, Rentaro definitely wanted him in his adjuvant.

“Hey, kid, the girls’ fight looks like it’ll be settled soon, too.”

Following Tamaki’s gaze, he saw that Tina and Yuzuki’s match was also reaching its climax. Using the high-speed maneuvers characteristic of Initiators, Yuzuki tried to dazzle Tina as she flew, freely turning as she pleased. In contrast, Tina took the stance of an ancient martial arts master and closed her eyes, not moving a muscle. Not paying any attention to Yuzuki’s feints, Tina precisely dodged only the real attacks that occasionally came.

Rentaro soon noticed the trick of how Tina evaded the attacks. Shenfield, which was spinning as it traced an equilateral triangle above her head, was busily responding to Yuzuki’s high-speed maneuvers with its camera eye. Even with Yuzuki’s speed, three Shenfields locked onto her at the same time made it impossible for her to lose them. Meanwhile, Tina could read Yuzuki’s location coordinates that Shenfield was sending to her wirelessly, and so dodge her attacks with the least amount of movement necessary.

With that, it was like she had eyes in all directions. No wonder she was able to defeat the Initiator with specialized leg strength, Enju Aihara. It could be said that the godlike Initiator formerly ranked 98th was living up to her reputation.

“Huh, the fight’s over,” announced Tamaki, grinning mischievously with his arms crossed as he stood next to Rentaro.

“Tina’s going to win, right?” Rentaro huffed.

“Idiot. Look at this.”

Rentaro let out a cry as he looked at the amber world through the cracked sunglasses Tamaki handed him. A vast number of threads were hung throughout the girls’ battlefield. Tina had been forced so far into the middle of the spider web that she barely had room to move. Yuzuki had not been flying around randomly. Every time she kicked the ground or jumped about on the wall, she was expanding her territory, definitely chasing Tina into a corner.

This was bad.

Yuzuki seemed to think the time was ripe and made an enormous leap into the air, sticking to the ceiling of the gymnasium that was probably twenty meters high. A spiderweb immediately formed at her feet, and, hanging upside down, she looked down at Tina and yelled, “Hey, you! You’ve realized what my ability is by now, right? Surrender. You have no chance of winning. Because if you just move your neck a little, you’ll be caught in my net.”

Looking at Tina holding her stance soundlessly with her eyes closed, Yuzuki revealed her annoyance for the first time. “I see… Then don’t blame me if you get hurt.” Yuzuki’s voice turned cold, and she bent her knees, storing up as much spring as she could. She was filled with a thirst for blood.

Yuzuki kicked off the ceiling with an explosive sound that made the building tremble. A cannon fast–drop attack using the physical strength of an Initiator with the addition of the acceleration of gravity was heading straight for Tina.

Instantly, Tina opened a piercing eye and waved the black glove on her right hand. She stuck her left forefinger and middle finger into the metal rings on the glove on her right hand and pulled hard, and threads of some kind came out.

Piano strings? Rentaro wondered.

Tina used her teeth and fingers to form something like a cat’s cradle with the piano strings that had been stored in her glove and met Yuzuki’s attack. Yuzuki and Tina clashed, and the floor exploded. The spectators screamed as the ground shook with a tremor so severe it made even standing dangerous. Rentaro immediately covered his face, but pieces of the floor and shock waves hit his body, making him gasp for breath.

After the intense ringing in his ears stopped, he opened his eyes a little and saw a thick cloud of dust swirling around. Where was Tina? Where was Yuzuki? Rentaro wiped his sweaty palms on his pants and held his breath as he watched the center of the explosion attentively. Finally, the dust settled, and the two girls were revealed. Rentaro was left spellbound by the sight that was before him.

Tina was on the bottom, and her neck was held down by Yuzuki’s hand, ready to strike. If Yuzuki pushed just a little more, she could probably break Tina’s neck. However, the outcome of the match was determined by the almost cruel difference in their abilities.

Layers of piano strings were wrapped around that hand of Yuzuki’s that pinned down Tina; she couldn’t move even a single finger. In addition, the piano strings were wrapped around both her arms and legs, and even her neck, until she was caught in her own threads and hung like a marionette. It was hard to describe the strange sight of a girl who had the Spider Factor inside her caught in a web of string.

Tina had fixed the positions of the beginning and end of the string with her left hand and her teeth, and if she pulled the string with her teeth, then Yuzuki’s head would likely fall off in a second. Yuzuki was frozen like a statue with both eyes open wide. No, she was not even allowed to close her eyes. Just a few millimeters in front of her eyeballs were Tina’s fingers.

Tina made a “scissors” shape with her freed right hand and placed them right at Yuzuki’s two eyeballs. Of course, if Tina pushed even a little with her fingers, there was no reason for Yuzuki’s eyeballs to remain unharmed.

Not just Rentaro, but Tamaki and all the other spectators were spellbound. No one had considered that Tina would be able to win from behind, so their brains couldn’t process what had happened from the time the ground exploded to when the match was decided.

Only Shenfield spun with joy at its master’s victory, and eventually retreated under the hem of Tina’s dress.

Tina slowly removed her fingers from in front of Yuzuki’s eyes and released the strings. After watching them writhe on the ground like the cord of a vacuum cleaner as they rewound themselves, Tina finally stood up, removed the glove, and returned it to her pocket.

While considering this show of force, Rentaro thought back on the many techniques Tina Sprout had shown him. The piano strings in her glove were definitely a weapon used for assassinations. He had seen it in an old film before: The target enters a bathroom stall, and the assassin drops the string from the stall next to it, wraps it around the target’s throat, and strangles the target using the basics of a shoulder throw. It was a cruel technique, but it was still more elegant than poking out someone’s eyeballs.

Rentaro could not help but feel the depth and darkness of the gap that stretched between him and Tina. Tina was clearly made of something different from the others in the Tendo CSA. Too, she was not limited to just the Tendo Martial Arts that Rentaro and Kisara studied; she could be said to have trained her mind in the spirit of everything and anything that could be called martial arts. She was probably the most extreme example of the Shaolin Kung Fu teaching that said, “Justice is helpless without power, and power without justice is violence.” Yet, no matter what part of martial arts one looked at, biting or poking out someone’s eyes fell under the category of evil and abusive.

However, Tina the former assassin was probably never asked to do anything other than destroy a human body in the most efficient way possible. Just imagining how she wandered through the underground society where killing and betrayal ran rampant made Rentaro’s chest hurt. Tina probably never knew what it felt like to have fun as a girl, or be happy.

Rentaro remembered again how Sumire Muroto had said, “Those with ranks under a hundred have sold their souls to the devil. It’s no exaggeration to call them monsters.” If I’m aiming to be in the top ranks, then I’ll have to fight against guys like this, huh…? Thinking that, Rentaro’s consciousness returned to the gym.

He looked on pityingly at Yuzuki’s back as she lay on the ground with both hands on the floor, her confidence shattered, showing no sign of trying to stand up.

“Please stand up, Yuzuki.” It was Tina.

Yuzuki looked for a while at Tina’s outstretched hand but finally shook her head in self-derision. “You’re strong, aren’t you? Having someone like me in your adjuvant will only cause you problems.”

This time, it was Tina’s turn to smile as she shook her head. “That is not true. I was formerly ranked 98th. For you to have me cornered to that point is something I think you can be proud of. You were much stronger than I imagined, Yuzuki.”

“Ni…ninety-eighth?!” Yuzuki’s eyes were open so wide they looked like they would burst.

Looking at Yuzuki, Tina stretched out her hand again, stronger this time, and smiled prettily. “I ask you as well, Miss Yuzuki Katagiri: Please join Big Brother’s adjuvant.”

Yuzuki looked down for a moment but finally grasped Tina’s hand firmly and stood up. Then, unexpectedly, Yuzuki was overcome with emotion and hugged Tina’s head, all smiles. “I love you, Tina! You were superstrong and supercool! Marry me!”

Embarrassed and baffled, Tina flapped her arms. She probably wasn’t used to someone expressing affection so straightforward and openly.

Next to Rentaro, Tamaki was watching the scene intently, dumbfounded. “Yuzuki can’t make friends at school because she doesn’t want anyone to see her eyes. But look at how happy she looks…”

Rentaro’s mouth started to smile spontaneously. “Then, we pass?”

Tamaki returned to himself suddenly, then finally gave a big nod and stretched out his right hand. “Very admirable, Rentaro Satomi. We, the Katagiri Civil Security Agency, are at your service.”

“I’m counting on you.” Rentaro grasped Tamaki’s hand and shook it hard. When their eyes met, they both smiled wryly, a little embarrassed. There was a clap, and when Rentaro turned his head to look, one of the spectators was clapping his hands for the brave fight of the civil officers. Another person followed suit, and then another, until even those who hated them and discriminated against them seemed to be worn down by the persistence of their fellows, and came to clap as well. The sound swelled until the applause seemed to wrap the gym in a never-ending thunder.