Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 3.8

8

The sky soon began to cry. Like the day before, there was a large amount of rain. In a bad mood, the sky rumbled, but there was still no lightning yet.

As Rentaro climbed upstream, he wiped the raindrops from his face and looked at the palm of his hand. The raindrops coiled about like diluted ink.

After a while, a three-tiered waterfall spread out in front of their eyes. It was as wide as the river itself, and the top tier had a drop of about three meters, the middle tier about two meters, and the bottom tier about three meters again. Normally, it might have been a beautiful scenic spot, but currently, the river was a dark reddish-brown, muddied from the dirt, sand, and rain, and the fact that it was about to overflow.

Yesterday, Rentaro had jumped into such a fearsome muddy current.

“We should probably jump to the other side now, while we can,” said Kagetane.

“Yeah.” Rentaro immediately nodded at the suggestion. The Gastrea campground they looked down on from the top of the slope was probably on the other side of the river.

“Kohina.”

“Yes, Papa.” Kohina released her power, and her eyes turned a bright red. Kagetane offered her a shoulder, and they got to the other side in one jump.

Rentaro watched them jump and then went to the bottom of the waterfall. There, he found a thin path at the back of the basin and walked across. He didn’t feel like being at the mercy of Kohina.

The waterfall roared as it splashed down with impressive force, and there were no sure places to put his feet. In addition, there was slippery moss covering the path, so he had to be extremely cautious as he crossed.

Just then, he noticed a small hollow in the back of the basin. He tried sticking his hand in but felt the cool, slimy rock face and pulled his hand back quickly. It wasn’t like in a movie, where the back of the hollow continued on; it simply ended presently. It wasn’t that interesting, so he hurried forward, but then there was a slick sound as his feet slipped on the rock and kicked forward.

Wagh—

His whole body pitched forward. He was only able to stop himself and stand up again by sticking his hand on a sudden protrusion on the wall.

He caught his breath after the shock. This time, Rentaro walked deliberately and carefully across to the other side. The moment he took his last step, he heaved an involuntary sigh of relief.

Seeing that Rentaro had safely crossed, Kohina clicked her tongue.

They continued north, checking the compass to confirm. On the way, they finally stopped following the river and entered the thick, luxuriant forest. Compared to the forest with the giant trees where Rentaro and the others had spent a night, the tops of these trees weren’t that impressive, but there was no comparing how much denser the plants grew here.

Rentaro took the lead, followed by Kagetane and then Kohina. Rentaro crouched as he marched, quietly taking out the Varanium survival knife from his hip. In a close-combat fight, it would be faster than sighting his gun and pulling the trigger.

In the Unexplored Territory, it was a hard-and-fast rule to move without making any noise. Rentaro’s XD gun had lost its silencer when he had been washed away in the river, so since they were nearing the crowd of enemy Gastrea, he definitely couldn’t make use of it.

There were many ferns at their feet; Rentaro spotted gingko and Adiantum. Bearing with the black rain in his eyes, Rentaro used his survival knife to move the intricate tripe-shaped leaves, and his field of view widened unexpectedly. There, he saw a strange scene and signaled behind him to stop.

What is this?

“Everything’s been bitten off, huh? What is this?”

Surprised, he looked next to him and saw Kohina slip past Rentaro like she was not the least bit nervous. Rentaro checked around him to make sure there were no Gastrea around before he followed behind her.

There were many trees almost two meters high growing wild, but strangely, the leaf blades of this tree had almost all been bitten off by some kind of living being. Finding a whole leaf, Rentaro saw that it was flat, like broadleaf trees. Since the leaves looked like they had been bitten off by some sort of herbivore, it was strange that all the other trees around it were unharmed.

Where have I seen this leaf before…? The second understanding shot through his brain, Rentaro let out an “Ah!”

“Do you know what this is, Satomi?”

Rentaro nodded silently. Even someone with such extensive survival knowledge like Kagetane couldn’t be expected to distinguish between South American plants.

“This is a coca leaf…”

“Coca? As in…”

“The plant that the raw material for the alkaloid from which cocaine can be extracted.”

Kagetane put a hand to his chin. “I don’t understand. Why have these been bitten off? Of course, it was a Gastrea that bit the leaves off, right? What in the world was it after?”

“The Gastrea must also be using it as a stimulant.” Alkaloid plants and their derivatives could stimulate the central nervous system and temporarily block fears. Rentaro thought back to his first fight against the Gastrea the day before yesterday. Even when they fired on them with guns, the Gastrea in the front row yelled but did not fall or stop advancing. They had probably chewed these leaves beforehand for their stimulant and painkilling properties.

Rentaro had conjectured all this on his own, but he still found it hard to believe. Even if they developed intellect, chewing coca leaves before going into battle was too far beyond what ordinary insects and animals could do. Before long, it was possible that Gastrea that could speak human languages and/or something similar could appear. Of course, human and animal vocal cords were very different, so it was uncertain whether they would be able to converse like humans, but still…

When Rentaro looked carefully, he saw that all the plants had been beaten down in a uniform direction, and there were a number of footprints. There was no doubt that Gastrea often came through this area.

Just then, they heard a groan that was obviously inhuman, and each looked in that direction. Suddenly, they saw two vertical shadows in the curtain of rain.

Rentaro gulped. They were snakes with four legs, standing upright. They did not have the long, narrow faces of lizards, but rather had flat, apelike ones. The legend of the Chinese gods with human faces and snake bodies, Nüwa and Fuxi, passed through his head.

The moment seemed to last forever as both sides acknowledged their sudden encounter with the enemy, and the Gastrea took a deep breath to call others of their kind.

This is bad.

Before Rentaro could rush out, Kohina had thrown two of her short swords at high speed. Her aim was true, and one sword skewered the brain of the Gastrea on the right, killing it before it got a chance to call out.

The Gastrea on the left twisted its body quickly to avoid the other sword, but it couldn’t get out of the way completely, and the short sword pierced its chest. Ignoring the Gastrea’s cry of anguish, Kohina pulled out another two short swords from their sheaths and ran in faster than the eye could follow. With a light sound, Kohina jumped up and landed on the short sword before jumping again. Leaping up to where their noses almost touched, she inserted her blades to destroy the brain, quickly killing the Gastrea.

The two monsters fell to the ground at almost the same time, shaking the world as they did so.

Rentaro looked at the scene, dumbfounded.

“You’re weak. That’s why you will die.” With a cold glance, Kohina poked the corpses with her foot, looking bored.

As Rentaro watched, chills shot down his spine. He bit his lip—he definitely did not want to reunite Enju with Kohina. Kohina and Enju were completely evenly matched. But added to that was Kohina’s cruelty. Seeing that this girl was not shy about it at all, it was possible that she was not even aware that killing was wrong.

Rentaro suddenly remembered how Kagetane had called her an evil angel. Rentaro had definitely been saved by some crazy people—devils he met in a hell called the Unexplored Territory. So that made this…the second level of hell.

“Now, Satomi. We are nearing the enemy’s inner circle.”

Rentaro nodded without saying anything. They had been hearing a growl that sounded nothing like the rain from beyond the forest for a while now.

And then that omen became reality.

Rentaro and the others, who were going through the forest halfway up the mountain, had prepared themselves already, so no one screamed in an unsightly way even after seeing it.

“So this…is the enemy’s base…,” whispered Rentaro.

Beyond their vision was an open area with various types of Gastrea, big and small, as far as the eye could see. There was a large organism that looked like a platypus, complete with a wide bill and a shell on its back. There was also a mouse with the faces of two different organisms stuck together in a strange place and covered with a chitinous exoskeleton. Could the roadrunner that had gotten so big it looked like a dinosaur fly with those wings it had? It was like a parade of demons in front of his eyes, but in modern-day Japan.

A putrid breath blew over to where they were and made Rentaro’s lungs feel like they were going to rot.

Because Stage One Gastrea were just a larger version of animals that already existed on earth, they were able to make formations with others of the same type, but the Stage Twos and above did not fit in; they were around the edges and were all different shapes and sizes. They just ended up resting all over the place, it seemed. The camp was made up of all different sizes, from small Gastrea to some so large they could be mistaken for small mountains, and they continued as far as the eye could see.

Rentaro could see a giant fly Gastrea staggering around with one wing ripped off, probably injured from fighting the civil officers and self-defense force. When he looked more carefully, he saw that some Gastrea had lost legs or had eyes that had carbonized white. Based purely on numbers, the Gastrea had an overwhelming advantage, but the Gastrea were in no condition to fight.

Aldebaran should have also been there somewhere, but there were so many Gastrea that Rentaro could not find it.

“Isn’t that the Gastrea you all call Pleiades?” said Kagetane.

Following Kagetane’s gaze, Rentaro saw it: sixty, seventy meters distant.

“That’s…” Of course, it was Rentaro’s first time seeing Pleiades, but he instinctively felt that that must be it. He roughly estimated it to be about ten meters tall and wide. It matched the report from Tina’s Shenfield.

It stood out a head and shoulders above the Gastrea around it, and its mouth stuck out like a funnel just as he had imagined it would. It still kept some fish characteristics, but its eyes were set apart like those of a herbivore’s, and its mouth was more like that of a stork or pteranodon than an archerfish.

The first thing to draw the eye was its swollen belly. It was inflated like a balloon, and it was so blown up that even now it seemed like it would float up into the sky. The pectoral and dorsal fins seemed to have atrophied and could not be seen, but in their place were things that looked very much like human hands and feet with five fingers and toes.

Rentaro didn’t understand what was going on. Compared to its swollen belly, its arms and legs were much too short. With those, not only would it not be able to bring the prey it shot down with the compressed mercury to its mouth, but it also couldn’t even move the way it wanted to. That beast was a failure even by the warped standards of evolution of the Gastrea virus. If left alone, it would be eliminated through natural selection in no time. How in the world did it survive to see this day?

His doubts were cleared up unexpectedly quickly. A Gastrea that looked like a demon monkey climbed adeptly up Pleiades’ balloon stomach. As Rentaro watched rapt with interest, the monkey Gastrea shrugged its shoulders and made its whole body tremble as it regurgitated fish from its throat to give to Pleiades.

Gastrea helping each other. Rentaro felt like he was witnessing an important part of Gastrea ecology.

An unhappy-looking Kohina poked him with her elbow. She seemed to be saying, “If you’re going to go, hurry up.”

Rentaro looked at Kohina and then Kagetane and gave a big nod, then detoured around the forest to get closer to Pleiades. It went without saying that this was Aldebaran’s base. If they were discovered by the enemy and surrounded…

Rentaro calmed his shaking breaths. This was a critical moment. He needed to calm down and do his job. He felt like he was about to slip in the muddy path, and the rain that started just then chilled the extremities of his arms and legs, so he was already numb. He hadn’t had enough sleep, either, and most of all, being in constant fear for his life was wearing on Rentaro’s nerves.

He had also become part of the food chain. He had never been as aware of that fact as he was today.

Just then, Rentaro took a wrong step—his boot stepped on and broke a twig that had fallen to the ground. Even in the midst of the sounds of the rainfall, the dry snap reverberated.

One of the reptilian types sleeping nearby lifted its head slowly with a growl and shook its head left and right.

Holding his breath, Rentaro stopped moving and closed his eyes. All he could do was pray.

Finally, the Gastrea’s neck seemed to wind back into place. Rentaro heaved a massive sigh.

Detouring around the forest, Rentaro cautiously drew near to Pleiades, and his neck slowly tilted more and more. The creature’s enormous body practically filled his vision, and a low, heavy growl came from what could have been its chest or its stomach, which was expanding as it breathed, blowing away rain with its breath. In the rain, white steam was coming off its hot body.

This really is a huge Gastrea, he thought again.

“What were you originally planning to do once you got to this point?” Kagetane asked in a low voice, frowning.

“I was planning to set a plastic explosive and blow it up from a safe distance. But I lost the explosive along with the backpack when I was washed away by the river.”

“Then there’s only one way to kill it.”

Rentaro looked at his exposed, black-chrome right arm with mixed feelings. The original purpose of the New Humanity Creation Project was to create human weapons that could destroy the Gastrea.

The tactical ideology of Section 16 that Kagetane had been affiliated with was to create the ultimate defense that could stop the attack of a Stage Four Gastrea, and Section 22, where Rentaro had undergone unexpected medical treatment, had the ideology of creating an ultimate attack that could rip through the shells of Stage Four Gastrea.

In other words, both of them were designed to deal with all Gastrea besides the nonstandard Stage Fives.

According to Kisara, the former Seitenshi had called Rentaro and Kagetane the ultimate spear and shield, which was a fitting name for them. If that was the case, then it was possible for him to eliminate Pleiades by using his arm the way it was meant to be used.

Suddenly, a snicker came from next to him and he turned to it. Kagetane was holding his mask and giving off an air of brutality. “That’s great. I’ve always wanted to go up against something like that. I’ll kill it.”

Rentaro was shocked. “Hey, wait. I’ll go.”

“I don’t take orders from you.” Saying that, Kagetane left for the thicket they had seen earlier.

Rentaro was dumbfounded for a moment but then soon followed him, pushing Kagetane aside with his shoulder. “You can’t do anything with your attack power. Stay back.”

His shoulder was shoved back. “Injured people should stay back. That’s my prey.”

“Y-you bastard…”

Just then, a nearby Gastrea finally noticed them. Rentaro and Kagetane clicked their tongues at the same time and moved forward in the rain side by side. Rentaro was in a good mood, and Kagetane held down his silk hat. It was the walk of people who had given up trying to hide and had resolved themselves.

Rentaro’s heart beat loudly. They had to do this in one hit.

Rentaro’s explosive-style artificial limbs and Kagetane’s repulsion field were both techniques that were far from being silent, and it was not hard to imagine the fearsome counterattack that would follow upon letting off such an attack in the Gastrea base. Therefore, their plan could only be to take one attack and withdraw quickly.

Pleiades noticed them. It looked at them with reddish eyes that looked like they had a film of oil over them, but it did not look like it was going to take any action. Rentaro had seen it before. Those eyes were eyes that had given up on everything. Rentaro looked beyond his own position and couldn’t help but sympathize with the monster. It had evolved only its ability to slaughter until it was unable to move freely, and was only being kept alive because it was being fed by other Gastrea.

“Well then, shall we?”

“Yeah.”

It was a strange feeling. In the past, during the many times he had fought against this mysterious man, he could not bear the reality that they were both alive and breathing at the same time. When Rentaro’s spirit of justice mixed with hatred and clashed with Kagetane’s logical evil, Rentaro and Kagetane could only deny the other’s existence with their whole souls. That was the only way they could see to resolve their situation.

But then why—how could he feel that he could rely on a man like that right now? What was this uplifting feeling he felt in his chest?

The Gastrea around them screeched warnings to their comrades in response to the humans that had suddenly appeared in their base, but it was too late. There was a high sound, almost like the air itself was being cut, as Rentaro and Kagetane pulled back their arms.

“Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 3—”

“Endless—”

Phosphorescence gathered around Kagetane’s hands and formed into a sharp spear. At the same time, three empty golden cartridges flew out of Rentaro’s right arm and bounced on the ground with metallic clangs.

Rentaro’s and Kagetane’s eyes met.

“—Rokuro Kabuto, Burst!”

“—Screeeam!”

The right fist with great mastery of technique in it and the shining demon spear of darkness drove into the abdomen of the Gastrea Pleiades at the same time. The sound of the impact reverberated out right afterward and blew the leaves off the tops of the trees, making the forest shake. The center of the explosion caved in, lifting up the bedrock and blowing it backward.

As Rentaro’s rotating arm thrust powerfully, he felt his arm swing through. Pleiades’ skin, which had been reinforced to keep it from getting crushed by gravity, was split open and scattered in all directions. The creature was extinguished from the earth without even having a chance to scream.

Under the Gastrea’s shocked gazes, Rentaro tended to his fist that had heated up and took the Infinite Stance and focused; meanwhile, Kagetane put his silk hat back into place.

Rentaro realized that he had completed the mission to defeat the Gastrea Pleiades. He groaned involuntarily. There was an intense pain in his side, and he fell to his knees and coughed, unable to bear it.

His wound had opened up.

“Papa, hurry!” said Kohina.

Kagetane did an about-face and started running. Immediately, there were angry bellows in succession behind them, and the air shook. Almost three thousand Gastrea contacted their comrades to report an enemy attack.

One side of Rentaro’s face twisted with the dull pain, and he ordered his body to move, but his movements were slow, and he naturally protected his side as he ran. His vision turned hazy and his legs became tangled. He almost fell. He had used up the last of his strength with that last attack.

“You’re too slow!” He was suddenly pulled so hard he felt like he would dislocate his shoulder, and his body felt like it would be torn apart with the sudden acceleration. Opening his eyes while he gritted his teeth against the assaulting wind pressure, he realized that Kohina had taken him by the shoulder and was flying through the air.

“Why are you…?”

Kohina pretended not to hear, and jumped off of boulders and tree trunks, making Rentaro’s vision shake.

He felt like he was being shaken in all directions by her violent running, and he started to feel nauseous. Still, he held on tight so that he wouldn’t fall off. He definitely did not want to scream, so he gritted his teeth. Behind him, he could hear angry bellows here and there that seemed to bunch together into a single roar. Danger signals resounded in the back of his mind.

Their restless enemies had finally started to follow them in earnest. Of course, there was the threat of the fast-moving Gastrea, but if flying Gastrea also started following them…

Ignoring Rentaro’s misgivings, Kohina jumped from tree trunk to tree trunk as fast as a tornado. He grazed his cheek slightly on a giant tree, and the rough leaves cut his face.

Light suddenly appeared on the opposite side. Kohina darted over with a vast leap and they continued on that road in the opposite direction, running through the forest where they could see the cloudy sky, light rain, and the swamp they were following.

“Over there! There’s a small hollow in the back of that waterfall!” Rentaro pointed at the three-tiered waterfall downstream of the river.

Kohina didn’t spare a single glance in his direction, but Rentaro could tell that they were on the same page by the way Kohina made her steps lighter. She silenced her footfalls and ran in the direction of the waterfall.

With just two jumps, she brought them to the waterfall and let go of Rentaro without warning.

He couldn’t deal with the unexpected floating feeling and awkwardly flapped his arms in midair. Immediately after, he spun over and over with sharp pain hitting all over his body. He felt like he had just jumped out of a speeding train—and decelerated like it, too.

Before he knew it, he was lying facedown. The rocks along the mountain stream hit him, and he thought he would lose consciousness in another moment. His joints hurt. Just breathing made his lungs hurt.

Damn it, is she trying to kill me?

“Hurry!” When he looked, he saw that Kohina was beckoning him, unconcerned about the details. Behind them echoed the sound of the earth rumbling as their pursuers followed them, and he desperately used his hands to push himself up and walk through the catwalk of the basin of the waterfall, practically hurling himself into the hollow in the back to hide himself.

Not five seconds passed before a soaked Kagetane also rushed in, looking like a drowned rat. “Will they really pass by us if we stay here?” he asked.

“There’s nowhere else!” Rentaro snapped.

“You two are both too loud!” Rentaro was taken aback by Kohina’s roar and shut his mouth. After that, they didn’t talk anymore and just holed themselves up in the crowded hollow, trying to quiet their breathing and hide.

The short and shallow rise and fall of Rentaro’s shoulders quieted down, but it meant that he could more clearly hear the vibrations of Gastrea pounding on the ground, and his world shook. In front of them was a curtain of water, and because of the rain, the Gastrea were not supposed to be able to pursue them by smell.

Rentaro closed his eyes and made a hard fist.

After a while, the loud cries passed over them, and the large group of Gastrea went by. This didn’t feel like real life.

Finally, their cries faded away with the Doppler effect.

Rentaro was about to give a sigh of relief when the ground shook loudly, and just as he was about to fall into the waterfall basin, Kagetane grabbed both his arms.

There was another loud vibration. Rentaro’s body floated in the air, and his feet danced. He broke into a cold sweat. This time, it was an outrageously large Gastrea walking toward them.

“Last night, because of our encounter with the repulsive monster, none of us slept one wink.”

Gado’s words echoed through Rentaro’s head. Could this possibly be what he had been talking about? The general over all the enemy, the Gastrea Aldebaran?

The low rumble of its breath made the air vibrate, and the stink of animal attacked Rentaro’s nose.

It was here. He couldn’t see it, but he could tell by its overwhelming presence.

A giant Gastrea was plopped right above the hollow where Rentaro and the others were hiding. What in the world did it look like?

What’s wrong? What’s it doing? Hurry up and leave. Why isn’t it moving?

Rentaro started to panic. Don’t tell me it’s noticed where we are?

Just then, the waterfall in front of them split open, and the earth quaked as something large poked into the waterfall basin.

At first, Rentaro thought that a stone pillar had fallen from the sky. But no, it was a leg. One of the Gastrea’s gigantic legs had stepped into the waterfall basin by chance.

That did not mean that they had been noticed yet.

Rentaro pushed his back deep into the hollow as far as he could.

Finally, the giant leg was pulled out of the waterfall basin, and the Gastrea’s steps gradually faded away.

Rentaro slid down the back of the hollow.

In the next two hours, Gastrea came near them intermittently, but none of them came as close as Aldebaran. Rentaro didn’t know where it had gone. Right now, all he could hear was the sound of the muddy water flowing past them.

However, since they’d been spotted, the Gastrea were on guard; if they were seen again, it was less likely that they would be able to escape again. The three of them were in agreement about not moving until nightfall.

After they waited another two hours, the dim, lead-colored sky had quickly turned into an indigo blue, and now, it was completely dark. It was hard to tell from the back of the waterfall basin, but it looked like the rain had also stopped.

For Rentaro, having to hide himself in the hollow with a constant sheet of spray flying in was a cruel trial. Blood loss had made him pale, and he was shivering uncontrollably from the cold. Earlier, he’d injected himself with morphine, but it seemed to be wearing off, and now he was being attacked by stabbing pains.

He’d sewn up his side with the needle and thread in his first-aid kit, which lay at the bottom of his survival knife under the back flap. Multiple times, he’d almost lost consciousness from the ordeal, but he was determined to survive despite it all. In the end, he covered the affected area with a pad of biological glue called fibrin and wrapped a bandage over it.

When his mind was fuzzy from the morphine, various memories ran through it unchecked. He remembered how, at the Tendo Civil Security Agency lit orange by the setting sun one day, Kisara started complaining about how they didn’t have any clients, and Tina mollified Kisara as she served tea. Enju stuck her head into the fridge without permission and started rifling through the stockpile of food, and Rentaro, who had been put in charge of accounting, glared at the unforgiving finance software as he desperately grappled with the numbers.

Even though the memory wasn’t that old, it seemed to be fading into sepia, slightly blurred with tears. For some reason, the casual everyday scenes had become irreplaceable. They were like an edited movie of happy endings with all the kissing scenes strung together and pressed in on his heart.

“Rentaro.” A voice suddenly called his name. The outline of the person was blurry, but a clearer image slowly focused on his retina. A square face with rectangular glasses, with hair that was over half-white, and rounded cheeks with deep laugh lines that gave the impression of being overwhelmingly kind.

“Dad.”

Takaharu Satomi. The father who had passed away ten years ago when Rentaro was six years old.

“Mom and I will be there soon, too.” Saying that, Takaharu had pushed Rentaro onto a full train and told him the name where he was to evacuate—Tendo.

Don’t go.

However, Rentaro knew what happened next: He knew that his father would not evacuate to Tokyo Area. The next time he saw his parents, they were in coffins.

“Rentaro.” His father kept calling his name.

Tears ran down Rentaro’s face. Why didn’t his parents come for him? His father said that they would be there soon…

Liar. I believed you. I loved you.

“…tomi…Satomi…”

“Dad.”

The blurry square face he had been looking at turned into a cold white mask before he realized it. The path between dream and reality was severed, and he reflexively jumped up.

“Did your father wear a mask or something?”

“Sh-shut up.” Rentaro turned away to hide his hot cheeks, but when he did, the pain in his side returned immediately. He shook his head as he pressed down on his eyes, rolling with pain. “Where are we?”

“We’re still in the waterfall basin. However, there’s something strange going on outside. Go out and look for a second.”

Rentaro’s head still felt like it had been stuffed full of mud. But he crouched and, when he got outside of the water, saw large, round footprints pressed into the ground, with tracks of something crawling in their center. It looked like Aldebaran didn’t walk upright, and had at least six legs.

The wind was blowing too hard and cold.

At first, he was on guard for Gastrea outside, but when he looked around, he soon noticed the strange feeling Kagetane had.

It was too quiet.

“There aren’t any Gastrea around here anymore, huh…?” said Rentaro.

“That’s right. I had Kohina scout out their camp earlier, but it was empty,” he replied.

Rentaro felt like cold water had been poured on him. “They weren’t there? Not a single one?”

“That’s right. It looks like the Aldebaran troops have started to move.”

Move. Where? No, it’s obvious: the civil officers’ base.

That meant Aldebaran had recovered from its injury.

—Enju!

Rentaro sprang to his feet and started running. A voice behind him called for him to stop, but he paid it no mind. Since he’d already been seen by the enemy once, he should have moved far more cautiously, but impatience won out.

There was no sight or sign of the enemy anywhere in the forest, which actually worked for the better, since he could run at full speed. He jumped from cliff to cliff, ran over mountains and through valleys. He didn’t know how much he had run. He stumbled out of the forest, out of breath, and the space in front of him widened. He squinted at the light of flames and flares.

Bizarre silhouettes were clumped together and attacking fiercely, scattering the puny humans below them. In fact, there were so many fewer people by comparison that it wouldn’t have been strange for Gado’s troops to have fallen apart already. The desperate bitter fight continued, but it was as plain as day that they would not last long.

Enju and the others were in the midst of that. If anything had happened—

He had no time. He took out his cell phone with shaking hands, switched it to satellite mode, and pulled up a number.

It rang ten times, and then the person on the other line answered in bewilderment. “Satomi, this is not the time for—”

“Lady Seitenshi, please listen! I have defeated Pleiades. You can use missiles and fighter aircraft now,” said Rentaro.

The Seitenshi gasped but regained herself quickly. “Please, continue.”

Rentaro reported the coordinates of the enemy troops’ position verbally and then requested fire support quickly after that. “I’m counting on you, then.”

“Oh, wait, Sato—”

Rentaro hung up and waited impatiently, praying.

Before long, an object came in at such high speeds that it was impossible to track with the naked eye. It rammed into the back of the Gastrea troops and exploded. A large number of the enemy force was caught up in the blast.

It was an antiship missile. Starting with that first one, missiles inundated the enemy with second and third consecutive waves. Heat pulses from the explosion pressed toward Rentaro, and he protected his face from the splinters and dust that blew his way.

When he lifted his eyes, red flames were blooming in the night sky and hot wind gusted against his cheek. The crimson tongues from hell billowed upward with a thunderous roar, and there was black smoke from the burned-up sky.

Two support fighter aircraft arrived at the battlefield late. Spitting out jet fire, the single-engine turbofan planes approached the battlefield at the speed of sound, crossing over them and letting loose five-hundred-pound guided bombs used for ground attacks. Heavy tips pointing downward, they sucked up the Gastrea on the ground, and more fire and heat from the explosions scattered around them.

The Gastrea troops who had been rushing in headlong slowed to a stop for the first time and gave off sounds of bewilderment and fear. Just then, there was another shower of regular bombs, demolishing the front lines.

The enemy was restless, and there were even those among them who had succumbed to their fear and were running backward toward their own troops. That was fine. If it turned into a stampede, it would be better for the humans.

Just then, Rentaro saw a mysterious sight and held his breath. In a corner of the enemy ranks, in a spot that was relatively well controlled, a giant Gastrea suddenly faded in. When Rentaro saw the silhouette of its rounded back with thin tentacles sprouting from it in random places, he was shocked. It was almost fifty meters in length.

No way… Is this Aldebaran?

With a wave of one of this giant silhouette’s arms, it swung downward at the Gastrea trying to run away. The monsters that had been pierced by the arms didn’t even know what hit them; they struggled and finally started to spasm in death throes. Aldebaran brought the bodies of its subordinates to its mouth, opened its giant mouth wide, and threw them in without hesitation.

Rentaro heard the dying cries of the Gastrea as they were ground to pieces, even though he shouldn’t have been able to hear them. He resisted the urge to vomit.

Aldebaran was eating the other Gastrea that were on its side.

“Gahhhhhhhhhh!” Angered, Aldebaran howled into the sky. The remaining Gastrea that were just about to stampede froze in midstep. Finally, they slowly returned to their positions and once more faced the civil officer troops.

Even their enemies were afraid of their commander, and were willing to struggle to the death on its orders.

Aldebaran was also focused on aiming for the self-defense force’s fighter aircraft. They were under attack.

The flying-type Gastrea that had come to intercept the attack formed a large cloud to strike. The two fighter aircraft released air-to-air missiles. The spears of science from the four missiles ran into the wall made by the flying Gastrea and blossomed into flames. The sight of the countless Gastrea dropping from the sky as they screamed long screams made Rentaro’s hairs stand on end, but he couldn’t take his eyes off it for a moment.

However, the enemy was not to be taken lightly. The flying Gastrea had strength in numbers, and a few of them went through the middle of the flames to throw themselves at the jets with a high-pitched neigh, prepared to die.

One of the aircraft couldn’t escape completely and was grazed on the edge of one wing, losing its balance and going into a tailspin as it fell. In the end, it couldn’t recover its position and crashed into the ground.

The remaining aircraft charged the Gastrea. With a cross counter that did not take defense into consideration, it delivered a single courageous strike to Aldebaran. The fighter aircraft let loose a guided missile at the same time that Aldebaran stretched out a conspicuously long tentacle. The alloyed metal body was pierced by Aldebaran’s tentacle, which went straight through the cockpit as it exploded. The pilot probably didn’t even realize what had hit him as he left the world. And the five-hundred-pound guided missile that the aircraft had left used GPS guidance to make slight adjustments to its position as it fell and was sucked into Aldebaran’s torso.

The next instant, there was a huge explosion, and Aldebaran’s scream rang out.

When the flames from the explosion cleared and Rentaro could see again, he saw that the silhouette of Aldebaran was still, not moving an inch. It had completely lost its head and was bare to its abdomen.

“All right!”

But just then, Gado’s dispirited comment rang inside Rentaro’s head:

“Leader Satomi, Aldebaran is an immortal Gastrea. There is no way to kill it.”

Aldebaran’s body twitched and wings unfolded out of its torso, fluttering at high speed. It was moving without a head.

Rentaro looked on in wonderment. Its brains had been blown out. If Aldebaran was an organism that used nucleic acids as a base to replicate DNA to form proteins, then its regenerative abilities should have been greatly reduced, what with its heart and pulse stopped and its pupillary light reflex gone. It should have just been waiting for its inevitable death.

“No way…”

Was there really no way to defeat this thing?

His shock aside, a familiar scene repeated itself before him. The entirety of the Gastrea halted abruptly and retreated while protecting Aldebaran. The flap of its wings earlier had probably been to spread pheromones.

A mass of Gastrea troops left the Monolith and came toward Rentaro. He quickly dove into a dilapidated house nearby, removed a floorboard, and let the creatures pass him by. After waiting for the right time, he rushed out and ran back toward the civil officer base.

“Kisara!” Seeing her among a group of civil officers covered in wounds, he waved his hand as he ran toward her.

He could see Enju next to her, too; the girl noticed him at the same time. “Rentaro!”

“Enju!”

They hugged with such force that they almost knocked each other over. Rentaro embraced Enju tightly and buried his face in her neck.

The girl’s arm went around his waist. “You idiot.”

“Sorry, Enju. Really…I’m sorry.” Regrets flowed up from the bottom of his heart. He should have explained the situation to Enju, at least. He really thought so now, after he had seen how painful it was to spend time apart.

“Why did you leave without informing me? I was worried.” As she said that, she half-sobbed and punched his sides.

“Argh, that hurts, stop it. I’m injured there! Don’t touch it.”

“Satomi……?”

Pushing Enju away from him, Rentaro looked toward the voice and gulped. Kisara’s black hair and white skin were covered with soot and blood, and she had a cut above her eyes that forced her left eye closed from blood. When he looked more carefully, he saw that Enju’s clothes also had traces of cuts and tears all over them.

Even so, Kisara let her tears gather at the edge of her vision as she put a hand firmly on her hip and looked at him sharply. “Jeez, you’re late!”

“Sorry.”

Kisara looked like she was about to say more, but no more words came out. Clasping her hands in front of her chest like she was praying, she looked down, shoulders shaking.

Rentaro was racked with guilt and scratched his head, not knowing how to deal with it.

Just then, a voice called out, “Hey, isn’t that Rentaro Satomi?” Rentaro raised his head as the surviving civil officers looked at him as if he had returned from Hades, surrounding him from far away.

He heard voices raise a commotion:

“I heard he’d been banished…”

“Then, the missiles that flew over were…”

“Did he defeat Pleiades and come back?”

“No way…”

From their reaction, he understood at once what the others had been told about his mission to subjugate Pleiades. He desperately controlled his expression to make sure his inner thoughts did not make it to his face. From their hollow eyes, he could tell that everyone was more exhausted than their visible wounds allowed. Thankfully, he still saw Tina, Tamaki, Yuzuki, and Shoma, but what was the deal with having their five-hundred-person-strong troops reduced to about sixty people before the second wave came?

He wanted this to be a joke. He wanted to hear the sound of footsteps bringing the remaining civil officers saying, “Don’t tell me you thought we died?” and laughing it off. He would feel annoyed for a moment, but then he would be grinning happily with them.

“Where’s…everyone else?” His voice sounded stiff, dry, and flat as he spoke.

Kisara wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked at Rentaro solemnly. “Satomi…Leader Satomi.” Kisara saluted and looked at Rentaro sharply. “Commander Gado has died in battle.”

He felt like he had just been hit hard in the head. Died? Gado did? The war veteran with an IP rank of 275 died?

“According to the Adjuvant System in the civil officer manual, article 40, if the commander dies, then the authority to command the troops will pass to the civil officer with the next highest rank.”

“Then who’s in right now?” Rentaro asked.

All the Promoters and Initiators around them looked their way.

No way… Rentaro shook his head slowly as he backed away. It’s impossible, Kisara. There’s no way I can do it.

“From here on out, we will fight with you in command. Please lead us, Satomi.”