Black Bullet - Volume 3 - Chapter 2.1

BLACK BULLET 3

 CHAPTER 02

DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD BY FIRE

1

“It’s time. Stop.” Rentaro pushed the stopwatch, and groans of people relaxing could be heard here and there.

“Ahh.…”

“Whoa…”

Kisara clapped her hands. “Okay, pass your answer sheets to the front!”

The students of the outdoor classroom calmly passed their papers forward. The foremost student represented the others and handed the papers to Rentaro. He bundled the stiff, low-quality papers together on the crude table, put them in his bag, and then lifted his head.

“How was it?” he asked them.

He was met with reproaches of “I couldn’t do it!” and “It was hard!”

Kisara, who made the questions, looked conflicted, but after noticing the smiling Enju and prim Tina, it looked like at least a couple of them had passed.

Rentaro had checked the questions ahead of time, but multiplying two-digit numbers together looked to still be a little too hard for the children of the Outer District. Rentaro had known before he enrolled Enju, but it looked like he had no choice but to say that the children of the Outer District were at a lower academic level than normal ten-year-olds. However, that did not mean that the IQ of the children of the Outer District was lower.

In fact, Rentaro and Kisara were the ones who were surprised at how quickly they absorbed new information. Generally, grades were determined by the total value of three main parameters: memory, critical thinking to apply things memorized, and interest. Rentaro, who had a vast difference in his grades for biology and history even though they were both memorization subjects, was painfully aware that he could not underestimate the power of interest.

Like an Italian artist once said, eating against one’s will is injurious to health, and study without interest makes the memory retain nothing it takes in. Of course, the Outer District had few recreations, so to the girls, even studying seemed to be fun, and that was a big part of it. However, even though Rentaro had not known them for very long, he felt like outside of that, they also knew that studying was something that would be beneficial to their futures.

Rentaro tilted his head and squinted at the rays of sunlight shining down on them. Conversely, what about himself? His earliest memories were of burned fields after the Great Gastrea War, of collapsed homes and buildings, people crying and shouting, black smoke that stung his eyes, and the stink of decay.

After everything had been taken away from him, the empty Rentaro was able to stand again after being filled with hatred. Hatred became the fuel that drove his body, and it had provided temporary relief.

But in the end, that was nothing more than a stopgap measure. Eventually, he ran out of fuel, of course, and he came to see everything as meaningless, finally losing his ability to keep up his enthusiasm for study and dropping out of school. Even so, he had been praised as a prodigy and whatnot when he was young.

To Rentaro, the students in front of him were dazzling. He was sure these girls were the hope of Tokyo Area. Rentaro found this personal opinion an unyielding one, even if everyone else in the world chanted opposition. But Rentaro shook his head and pushed back the sentiment. He had other things to do at present. “Please pass these handouts around,” and distributed sheaves to the front row of pupils.

Once the handouts were passed around, the students looked at each other with unconcealed confusion. One student raised her hand nervously to speak for the class. “Mr. Rentaro, what does this ‘Future Dream’ mean…?”

Rentaro put both hands on his hips and exhaled through his nose. “It’s just as it says. Write about what you want to be in the future.”

The students looked like they were not quite satisfied with this explanation. Apparently, they had never done this kind of recreation before. This was supposed to be a break after the test, but he might have made them more confused instead.

Oh no. He looked up at the sky, scratching the back of his head. “Well, if you don’t want to do it, then—”

There were scritching sounds, and when he looked at the girls, they were already giving the papers their full attention, pencils moving intently.

So you will do it. Rentaro sighed as he looked at the students, and asked himself why they were spending the precious time they had left in the Outer District’s outdoor classroom.

There were less than three days left before the collapse of the Monolith.

Currently, Rentaro and the others were sleeping in the civil officer squad tent, and he and Kisara had told their high schools by phone that they would be taking a temporary absence. His homeroom teacher had accepted it silently and said, “Do your best,” with casual insistence.

Under Commander Gado, they had standard training in the morning, but it was all in the classroom, learning about simple formations and the different types and meanings of signal flares. Well, he thought, that was only natural. There was a limit to how much training they could do in the remaining three days, and they weren’t expecting something as organized as the SDF, which had been training for years, from civil officers who were “just a bunch of ruffians.” The fact that they had the whole afternoon off was further proof of how low the expectations were for them.

So Rentaro, Kisara, Enju, and Tina chose to spend the rest of their time in the outdoor classroom. It may have been that part of their hearts wanted that peace of mind. Rentaro had heard that routine work like this helped to lessen stress. He was sure that that was the reason why he was here, too.

Just then, Enju called out, “I’m finished!” and stood up, excitedly turning in the paper to Rentaro. It read: “My future dream is to become Rentaro’s wife and kiss him as much as I want every day.” Underneath the scrawl was a sketch of a strange-looking monster face with large googly eyes. Is this supposed to be me? he thought.

“You do something similar every day already, don’t you?” he said.

Enju laughed and locked her hands behind her back as she returned to her seat. “Then, I am happy every day.”

Rentaro smiled wryly and returned back to his interrupted thoughts. On the other hand, there were big changes happening in the city. The large underground shelter that had been made after the Great War had been opened, and thirty percent of the residents of Tokyo Area who were chosen by lottery were already starting to be evacuated by block. Naturally, even within families, there were those who had been chosen and those who had not, and there were embraces and promises to reunite seen all over the place.

The remaining seventy percent were completely divided into two types. The first type believed that the mixed troops of the SDF and COs would be victorious and tried to maintain normal societal operations. The second type believed that the troops would lose.

The latter were escaping overseas, even selling off their household goods at low prices to scrape together enough money to buy the aircraft tickets that had suddenly jumped in price. Those that could not do even this were going around town crushed with despair, struggling to do whatever they could to forge or steal shelter spots.

Public order was disrupted mainly by the second type of people, and riots broke out as a result. Vigilante groups organized and strengthen patrols, but the current situation was that it was not nearly enough compared to the number of riots breaking out.

All of Tokyo Area was being torn apart by fear and worry. However, Rentaro thought their unease was justified.

A person’s mental state was able to stay calm because of ignorance. If people were able to count on their fingers the number of days until their deaths, they would not be able to sleep peacefully.

Whether they were aware of it or not, people expected each day to proceed according to plan. However, currently, the kind veil of ignorance had been lifted, and the truth had been exposed to all the residents of Tokyo Area. The truth said this: “Your lives will come abruptly to an end in three days, and it is possible that you will be eaten alive.”

Large parts of the population became depressed in each district, and the whole town was still. But even so, the days passed solemnly.

The cool fresh air touched his skin, and he tilted his head. Rentaro gazed at the blue sky that seemed to stretch forever and then looked back at the students scribbling away silently as they sat on the grass. Rentaro thought that the outdoor classroom where he was teaching seemed to be isolated from the worry and confusion, and time passed gently. For a moment, he succumbed to those strong feelings.

However, of course, the Outer District was not such a leisurely place that it could hold onto that tranquility for long. The triggers of violence that were building up in the whole area had not yet reached the Outer District. However, it was probably just a matter of time.

Rentaro prayed. He prayed that it would pass away without anything happening.

Just then, there was another voice that announced, “I’m finished.” Tina stood up and brought her paper to him.

Her paper said, “My future dream is to become Big Brother’s wife and kiss him as much as I want every day.” Rentaro froze, mouth agape.

When he lifted his gaze to Tina, she blushed with embarrassment and ducked her head. “C-can’t I?”

Rentaro didn’t know what to say and was mumbling something ambiguous when the stopwatch went off. Rentaro clapped his hands to tell everyone to stop and then collected the papers.

“All right, that’s it for today’s—” As he was trying to end the class, he stopped before the last word.

The children were all staring at their desks with gloomy faces. For the girls, the fact that they still had classes to attend had allowed them to stop thinking about the destruction they faced and had probably saved them mentally, at least until now.

Rentaro crossed his arms and thought for a moment. “Hey, Miss Kisara, how much do you have in your wallet right now?”

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

“Just tell me.”

Kisara opened her worn-out coin purse and made a sour face, then held up three fingers. If she had that much, combined with what he had in his wallet, they should have enough for round-trip train tickets.

Rentaro nodded once and faced forward, shouting from his gut. “All right! We’re going on a field trip, so raise your hands if you want to go!”

With the excited and restlessly moving girls in the lead, Rentaro and the others changed trains, got off at District 14, and followed the signs from the station. As they got closer to their destination, there was more forest, and the peaceful smell got stronger; even the chatter of the students turned to wonder. In the forest with knotty roots echoed the chirps of cuckoos, and the sunlight sparkled as it filtered in between the branches of the trees. After they passed the forest of light, there was a large group of abandoned buildings standing in front of them.

The glass of the windows was cracked, and the buildings themselves were slanting; in the place of people, it had become nesting grounds for different species of birds. But in their golden age, these were proud to be some of the few intelligent buildings in Japan. There was a small park, too, courtyard-size, around the building. This was the only part that was well taken care of, and it did not have the shadowlike atmosphere of most abandoned buildings.

When Rentaro’s group got to the center, Rentaro walked up the steps and stopped in front of the monument that came up to his chest. On the top half was written in large letters: FLAME OF RETURN.

“Mr. Rentaro, what’s this…?”

Looking back to answer his student’s question, Rentaro glanced at each student in turn as he started to talk. “Do any of you know about the Second Kanto Battle?”

All the girls shook their heads at once.

Rentaro put his hand on the monument and rubbed its rugged metallic skin. Even in the summer, it felt cool to the touch against Rentaro’s hand. “There were two Kanto Battles in the past. The first time, it was during the war ten years ago. In what is now called the Outer District, the SDF clashed with Gastrea, and it suffered a crushing defeat.”

“They lost?” Enju asked, her eyes wide.

Rentaro nodded. “That’s right. And so, the self-defense force was forced to regroup by retreating to old Saitama, and they lost a lot of ground. If they had won that battle, the current Tokyo Area would have been much, much bigger. And the Second Kanto Battle happened right where you’re standing now.”

There was a stir, and the students looked at each other. “Did they lose again?” one of the girls asked.

Rentaro shook his head. “No; this time, they won.”

Sighs of relief swept among the girls.

“In fact, it’s because they forced back the war front and put up the Monolith blockade that Tokyo Area has the shape it does now.”

Tina raised her hand. “Why were they suddenly able to win if they lost the first time?”

“That’s a good question. The first time, it was still early in the Great Gastrea War, so mankind did not yet understand what the organisms called Gastrea were. Even if they wounded the Gastrea with normal weapons, if they hit anything other than the brain or heart, the Gastrea were able to recover.”

The girls smiled bitterly. The fact was that with the Gastrea factors inside their bodies, they were probably better acquainted than him with the self-regenerative abilities.

“Are you saying that the second time, they had more information?”

“That’s right. Using the surviving communication networks, information was shared around the world. By that time, the fact that that Gastrea showed a strong aversion to Varanium was already so widespread, it was considered a self-evident truth. That’s why by adding Varanium to tank gun bullets, they were even able to kill Gastrea with hard shells with one hit. This Flame of Return has two meanings—one, to commemorate the day we won the war, and two, as a memorial to the souls of those who lost their lives during the Gastrea battles up to that point. Actually, this monument was made by melting two thousand guns used during the Second Kanto Battle.”

As one the girls breathed an awed, “Really?”

Having such a great audience, Rentaro congratulated himself a little and asked, “Do you know what the Genan Festival is?”

They all raised their hands. “I know! It’s that pretty festival where the sky shines with lights, right?”

It was Rentaro’s turn to be impressed. The lights must have been bright enough to be seen even from the Outer District. “That’s right. People make small palm-size balloons, and then when night falls, everyone releases them at once, so some of you may have seen it before. The balloons are supposed to be filled with thanks to the people who died fighting in the Gastrea War, and the festival started after the Second Kanto Battle.”

There, Rentaro suddenly realized something and lifted his eyes to count in his head. “There are five days left before this year’s Genan Festival, huh?” After he said that, he looked back at the children.

For some reason, they all looked downcast with their shoulders slumped. “Mr. Rentaro… Are we going to die? Will we be able to live…to see the next Genan Festival…?”

Rentaro exhaled from his nose and put his hand on the student with chestnut brown hair. “Dummy. You still don’t know why we came here for our field trip?”

“Huh?”

Rentaro looked at each and every one of his students. “The fact is, I brought you here today because I wanted you to know about the Second Kanto Battle. I think you already know that the fight that will start after the Monolith collapses will be called the Third Kanto Battle. But even after the Monolith falls, the self-defense force that won the Second Kanto Battle will be protecting us, so you won’t be dying.”

One of the students looked at Rentaro nervously. “Mr. Rentaro, is that really true?”

“Yeah, it’s true.”

“But the self-defense force’s missiles and planes crashed, didn’t they?”

Startled, Rentaro started to say, “How did you know that?” but shook his head almost immediately after. Even these girls would be naturally greedy for information if their lives were at stake.

Rentaro put his hand on his chin and considered. Last night, he had called the Seitenshi to ask about the effect of the lynching of a regular person by the Cursed Children on the Outer District. At the time, she had told him something baffling.

In the first place, when he had seen the report of the gathering of Gastrea, he thought that if the Gastrea were concentrated in one place, then it was the perfect chance to get them all at once with a missile or other weapon of mass destruction. And apparently, Rentaro was not the only one to think that. Timing their movements with the mass of Gastrea, an Aegis cruiser in the water, under orders from the JNSC, fired a precision-guided munition—a Tomahawk missile. However, what was baffling was that there was no confirmation that the missile had hit its mark before its signal completely disappeared.

Before they even had a chance to be puzzled, two fighter aircraft, the treasure of the self-defense force, sent missiles from the air to hit the targets, but these gave a last indistinct scream before communication was lost.

The last one even Rentaro knew. It was the TV news crew that was lost after broadcasting live from the Unexplored Territory the other day. From a picture taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle from high above, apparently, they had been able to find the wreckage of the two fighter aircraft and the news helicopter.

The news helicopter had been cut cleanly in two and then mangled, and the fighter aircraft had been made into perfect cross sections with their wings sheared off. The Tomahawk missile had not been found yet, but the Seitenshi predicted that it would be found in a shape beyond what they could imagine before long.

As he listened, Rentaro rubbed his upper arms unconsciously with the chills crawling up his spine. In other words, nothing that had gone to the mass of Gastrea had returned safely. But was it because of Aldebaran, as well, or…?

“We also have no idea what happened,” said the Seitenshi. “I have heard that you know about the habits of Gastrea, Satomi. I’m sorry, but with our shortage of personnel, we would even want the opinion of a civilian like you. Do you have any idea what might be going on?”

Rentaro was bewildered. If it had just been the helicopter, then it would have been reasonable to deduce that a strong flying Gastrea caught it and tore it apart. However, fighter jets that could fly at supersonic speeds and cruise missiles that were even faster than that had been shot down, so this was no ordinary situation.

Japan’s airborne self-defense force had been one of the organizations to suffer the most losses in the Great Gastrea War ten years ago, but that was why the surviving pilots had had plenty of real combat experience and were called some of the most powerful in the world. For Gastrea up to Stage Three, unless things went very wrong, it was hard to think that they would fall behind.

But considering further… What if it was a peregrine falcon–type Gastrea? It was the fastest bird on earth and could reach speeds of up to three hundred kilometers per hour in nature.

Rentaro thought that much and then shook his head. No. The fighter aircraft that had been found had their wings cut off cleanly, according to the Seitenshi. It was too hard for even a peregrine falcon Gastrea to slice off wings made of a tough metal alloy.

In the first place, if a Gastrea that flew at almost the speed of sound came into contact with a fighter aircraft, neither would be able to leave unscathed. If that was the case, then it would be hard to explain why there were no Gastrea corpses at the scene.

Since the Seitenshi was counting on him, he wanted to solve this for her somehow, but he didn’t have the slightest idea. However, there was already a suspicion in the corner of his mind, and it had put down roots.

Just then, Kisara poked him with her elbow, and the students all looked at him together with strangely uneasy expressions. Wondering just how long he had been lost in thought, Rentaro hurriedly cleared his throat. “The fighter aircraft getting shot down and losing the missile is no more than a rumor. Miss Kisara and I will both be fighting on the front lines as civil officers. You all can stop worrying.”

“You guys are fighting, too?” a student asked.

“Yeah.”

The children looked at each other and finally started to look a little relieved.

Thinking it was a suitable time, Rentaro put one hand on the Flame of Return and considered the students. “I’m sure you know about the lynching of the regular person by the Cursed Children—”

The second he brought up that topic, the students’ expressions clouded over. One girl lifted her face to speak for everyone. “It…wasn’t us, you know.”

“I know. But there’s something I want you all to hear. There’s the saying that all humans are born equal—” Rentaro closed his eyes and exhaled. “That saying is a lie.”

“Huh?” questioned a bunch of different voices.

When Rentaro opened his eyes, he looked at his pupils one by one. “A crime committed by one of the Stolen Generation is judged as a crime by that one person, but a crime committed by one of the Cursed Children has an impact on all of you. I want you all to know this, too. Humans are not born equal at all.”

“Then…” He heard a hoarse voice, and one of the students asked, shaking, “Then…what are we supposed to do?”

“Bear it. And don’t even think about getting even. Right now, I think all you can do is bear it for a while. No matter how bad the cards you were dealt, you must make a hand out of those and win somehow. This is the same for all of you.” Rentaro scratched the back of his head. “Th-that’s why, well, even if it’s something that can’t be helped, since I’ve become your teacher, I’ll teach you a bunch of stuff, if you’ll have me—”

“Everyone, gather round!” one of the students shouted, and in no time, the twenty students huddled with their foreheads touching and started whispering to each other. After a while, the students started to steal glances toward Rentaro, and Rentaro watched uncomfortably as he heard a voice say, “That teacher’s pretty good.”

“Wh-what’s that about?” he asked Kisara, who was standing next to him.

Kisara put her hand to her chin. “Who knows?”

Finally, they finished their discussion and the students adjourned with solemn faces, only to make an Okay symbol with their hands. “Mr. Rentaro, you pass.”

“Wh-what?” Rentaro stammered.

“It means we like you.”

“I-I see.”

“There are five of us who would like to date you with marriage in mind.”

Rentaro didn’t say anything.

“I am one of those five.”

There was an even longer pause.

Kisara pointed at herself, looking like she was about to cry. “Wh-what about me?”

“We haven’t decided about you yet, Miss Kisara.”

“What?!”

Finally, the students swarmed around them with shrill voices and pulled both of Rentaro’s hands. Pulled along, Rentaro looked up at the sky and gave a big sigh.