Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.6

6

“All right! All right!”

Rentaro watched from a distance as Shiba Heavy Machinery workers gave directions with hand signals that carried over the sound and shock wave of the transport aircraft propellers. The searchlight that was fastened to the bottom of the current transport vehicle was slowly lowered to the ground; apparently waiting for it to land safely, four other workers immediately bolted down the four corners to fix it to the floor. Standing next to him, Miori was watching them work with delight as she fanned herself.

A strong wind blew by, and Rentaro held down his hair to perceive the sight below him. He was on the roof of one of the seven intelligence buildings that surrounded the memorial monument, the Flame of Return, in Tokyo Area District 40. The last time he had come here, he remembered it being a scenic tourist spot, with bright sunlight filtering in through the trees even in the forest, and old ruined buildings that were nesting grounds for wild birds. Now, however, the weather was bad and there was no sight or sound of the birds. It was as if even they had abandoned Tokyo Area based on some wild instinct.

Rentaro looked up at the sky. The clouds were an ominous lead color today, too, and they flowed by quickly. The thought that they were facing a time of great social upheaval floated through his head, and Rentaro hurriedly ejected the thought from his mind.

“It looks like the work will be finished before the sun goes down. That’s good,” Miori said in a bright voice as they watched the work happening in front of them.

Rentaro watched her for a while. “Sorry, Miori.”

“Hmm?” Miori’s big eyes looked up at Rentaro.

“You’ve offered us help with so much equipment. Even though I’m sure the self-defense force has taken a bunch of stuff because it’s a state of emergency.”

“Oh my, Satomi dear, are you worried about me?”

“It’s not that I’m worried…”

Miori crossed her arms and stretched toward the sky. “Well, giving you so much equipment for free would be a big loss even for our company.”

Rentaro looked apologetically at her and scratched the back of his head. “About how much does it all cost?”

“Oh, it’s impossible for you. With your salary, you won’t be able to pay it back for the rest of your life,” said Miori, waving her hand in front of her face, putting her hand slowly on the searchlight. “But well, after this, we’re just waiting for the battery to arrive.”

“Battery? There’s no battery in that searchlight?”

“No, there is the danger of the battery corroding if it is transported by air, so it’s being brought by land right now. The self-defense force seemed to have some extra hands, so I had them do it.”

“I see…” Rentaro was uneasy for some reason, but as he quickly returned to work giving orders, his doubts disappeared before he noticed.

Rentaro gathered the remaining civil officers and explained the plan, then had them take position. Even if it was a monument remembering the result of the Second Kanto Battle, that didn’t mean that all the civil officers looked happy about it. They just had to force their way through with a brave face.

Miori passed out small radios to everyone, and there was an equipment inspection. Rentaro got an extra magazine of bullets and a supply of special large-caliber ammunition cartridges for his artificial limbs. He also grabbed a number of other things that looked to be necessities this time around.

It took until nightfall before the work to fortify the Flame of Return was completed.

Rentaro took his cell phone out of his pocket and checked the time. They had less than three hours left.

This would be the last battle, no matter what the result. That thought made his heart race whether he liked it or not. No matter how hard he tried to calm down, the wave of nervousness did not lessen, but in fact grew stronger.

He lifted his face from his cell phone. A fire had been built in front of him, and the five pairs of people in Rentaro’s adjuvant plus Miori and Sumire gathered around, surrounding it. They were able to continue within the margin of error left by the loss of Midori.

Around them stood the thick night. It was as if they were the only ones left in the world.

“We have to get into position soon, but let’s defeat Aldebaran and survive to reunite. So, please get me to Aldebaran. In exchange, I will definitely be victorious.”

Everyone gave a nod.

As if repeating the performance from that day before they started fighting, he raised his right arm with his XD gun high above his head. The others raised a weapon or arm as well. Kagetane and Kohina even followed, grudgingly.

But then, Rentaro noticed that there was one person who was still looking down. “What…what’s the matter, Enju?”

Enju’s shoulders shook in surprise for a moment, and then she shrank even farther down. She didn’t speak.

Unable to comprehend her feelings, Rentaro grew nervous watching her. “Enju?”

She still didn’t reply. Suddenly, Enju seemed unable to bear something any longer and turned on her heel and ran away.

For a moment, Rentaro was unsure. However, he realized that this was the sign of something unusual and pulled himself together. Rentaro shot a look at his companions and followed after Enju.

The temperature today was again unbelievably cold, and there was white in his exhaled breaths. He failed to glimpse Enju’s back.

Rentaro thought frantically. From her pained expression, he thought that perhaps the cause was this place. As a teacher, Rentaro had once brought the children from the Outer Districts to the Flame of Return on a field trip. It was a place filled with excessively happy memories. But those girls were no longer in the world. Since the girls had been killed by the angry populace, those happy memories were all flowing back to torture her with guilt.

Sumire had already given her stamp of approval, saying Enju was fine, but Rentaro had continued to consider the possibility that this would happen. What if Sumire was wrong? What if, behind Enju’s smiling broadly to brighten Rentaro’s day, she was bearing a whirlpool of tears and screaming at the edge of despair?

Without realizing it, Rentaro hastened his step.

Before long, he found Enju; she was about fifty meters from the fire, hugging herself and shoulders shaking, her back to Rentaro.

“Rentaro, what should I do? I don’t want to fight.” Her voice sounded weak, like she was at a loss. However, Rentaro had expected this, so he was able to keep from getting flustered. It was easy to tell that she had troubles jumbled up inside her just by those short sentences.

If they saved Tokyo Area, they would save a lot of innocent citizens, but those persecuting Enju and the other Cursed Children and those who murdered Enju’s classmates would also benefit. A torrent of feelings wanting to carry out justice smashed into the smoldering feelings of hatred and resentment inside her, and she hardly knew what her own feelings were anymore. “I don’t know anymore. I don’t know, Rentaro. Why does the Stolen Generation do terrible things to us, the Cursed Children?” When she continued, she was almost screaming. “All we want is to have a place in the world!”

Rentaro closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Be careful, he told himself. This was a situation that was no less critical than the Aldebaran War itself.

“Enju, do you hate people?”

She didn’t answer.

“Do you detest the Stolen Generation?”

Enju continued to look down resolutely.

Rentaro tilted his head and looked up at the black sky for a while, then brought his gaze back to the girl. “Enju, I believe that being a civil security officer is the one job where you can die for the sake of another person’s ‘Thank you’ or ‘You saved me.’”

Enju retorted, almost biting at him. “I heard what everyone was saying in town! I heard them saying that the civil officer system was just a good way of taking out the trash by having Gastrea and children with the virus kill each other!”

Rentaro was shocked. Enju, you… “Have you always thought this way? Even when you ran around to defeat Gastrea with me? Have you always felt like you were being made to take out the trash?”

Enju didn’t respond.

“Who do you want to believe?”

Enju lifted her head with a start and stared at Rentaro.

“Enju, do you want to believe me, or the people who said it’s taking out the trash?”

Enju looked like she was at a loss. Tears gathered at the edge of her eyes, and she wiped them with her sleeve. However, no matter how much she wiped, her eyes continued to overflow with tears.

“Rentaro.” That was all she said. And then, words started gushing out like a dam had burst. “Rentaro…Rentaro. Rentaro. Rentaro Rentaro Rentaro Rentaro!”

“Idiot.” He ran up to Enju, kneeled, and gave her a hug.

He could hear her shaking and sobbing on his chest, and a wet stain spread on his uniform. The poor thing’s body was chilled to the bone. “Enju, if you believe in me, you know what you should do, right? If we don’t save Tokyo Area right now, you won’t have time to draw a conclusion before it’s the end for us all. There’s no need for you to draw a conclusion right now. But in order to give you enough time to come to the conclusion that this world is really worth saving, the world must continue on.”

Enju nodded to herself in his chest, over and over. Rentaro could hear sniffles, and allowed her to cry as he rubbed her back. There were a ton of things he wanted to do, but the time for the start of their plan was drawing nearer and nearer, minute by minute.

Finally, he sought a good time to ask her, “Do you think you can do it?”

When he did, Enju made her eyes red like a rabbit’s, sniffed, and gave a big nod.

“All right,” Rentaro said, and, putting his hand on Enju’s head, patted her and stood. “Now, shall we go back? I’m sure everyone’s worried.”

Enju rubbed her eyes and forced herself to smile, then looked up at Rentaro while forcing down a sob. “R-Rentaro, you’re so mature.”

“Huh?”

“Even though you’re only six years older than me, y-you’re so mature.”

Rentaro shook his head slowly. “It’s only because I want to be mature in front of you that I act that way. It’s not a matter of age. Do you know why I fight?”

After thinking for a while, Enju shook her head.

“The reason why I still want to live in this rotten world of ours is—It’s because you’re here, Enju.”

“Oh, they’re back!” Kisara saw Rentaro and waved at him.

Next to her, Tina couldn’t bear it any longer and ran out to him.

But she stopped short. “Wh-what is this?”

The “this” Tina pointed a finger at was a grinning Enju with her arms and legs wrapped around Rentaro’s side.

Rentaro scratched his head hard. “I don’t know. I can’t get it off.”

She was heavy and made it hard to walk to boot, so he wanted her to let go as soon as possible, but she wouldn’t listen to anything he said. When he returned to the bonfire with difficulty, Enju released him and landed with a thud, her face wreathed in smiles as she raised her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry I made you all worry. I am fine now.”

“L…looks like it,” Tamaki said, clearly confused by Enju’s sudden change in attitude.

As Rentaro watched, Enju grinned and beckoned him with a hand. In the Satomi household, this was a signal to bring your face closer because the beckoner had something to tell you. Wondering what it was, Rentaro bent his knees so his eyes were on the same level as hers.

Suddenly, something soft was pushed against his lips, and Rentaro’s eyes opened wide. His vision was filled with the sight of Enju’s closed eyes. Her cheeks were flushed.

Rentaro moved away from her in a hurry, and Enju opened her eyes shyly.

Rentaro exclaimed, “Hey, idiot! What are you doing, all of a sudden?! In the first place, why do you always have to suddenly—”

Enju looked triumphantly in Kisara’s direction and smiled. “Rentaro and I both love each other, like I thought. Rentaro said he wanted to continue living because of me. He said breast size didn’t matter!”

“Wait a minute, Satomi!” Kisara shouted. “What are you doing? You moron! Pervert!”

Enju, carried away, jeered at Kisara, who had jumped up suddenly. “Kisara’s vexed!”

“I’m not vexed! Hmph!”

Hmph?

“Enju, you already have the advantage of living with him. You should be more discerning about your relationship with Big Brother!” Tina admonished.

Enju just put her hands on her hips and retorted happily, “I don’t wanna be more discerning.”

“Satomi, dear, let’s kiss-kiss, too.” Now even Miori was interfering, and the situation was getting out of control.

Asaka looked at him with contempt in her eyes. “Having relations with four women at the same time…? What a brute.”

He thought that things were getting too complicated, but he also noticed that the place had grown brighter with Enju returned to her normal self. Rentaro gazed up at the night sky behind him. With this, all of our preparations are ready, Aldebaran.

All that was left was to wait for the searchlight batteries to arrive…