Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.7

7

The vehicle shook as it popped up stones, and the objects in the luggage compartment covered with a waterproof sheet sounded like they were lolling about.

“Damn it, why do we have to do something like this?”

Staring at his partner cursing in the passenger seat with his legs stretched out in front of him, Daigo Jogasaki gripped the steering wheel hard.

“Well? Daigo, why do we hafta do something like this? Huh?”

Daigo thought his partner was pretty drunk. He’d been grumbling about the same thing over and over like this for a while now. Well, it was understandable. Daigo responded: “I don’t want to do it, either. I mean, transporting batteries is…”

“Not that! What I’m trying to say is, why are we heading toward the civil officer troop that Rentaro Satomi of all people is leading?”

Rentaro Satomi—when Daigo heard that name, his heart could not remain calm, either.

“We’re elites! Respect us! Damn it!” Daigo’s partner, Tatsumi Ashina, held a cup of shochu in his hand as he yelled and kicked the dashboard with his feet. The latch broke and maps slid out of the opening and fell to their feet.

“Damn it,” he swore again, moping. He ground his teeth in regret, and started to sob. The self-defense force camouflage uniform he wasn’t used to wearing did not suit him at all.

Again, Daigo could not help but look back at his own decline. Just as Tatsumi had said, they had been elites. He had been incredulous when they received the invitation from the talented Takuto Yasuwaki, who was a year his senior at the National Defense Academy and had graduated at the top of his class. He and Tatsumi had talked it over for a whole day, a serious conversation about what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. And in the end, it had been a great decision to follow him.

Somehow, Yasuwaki was selected at a young age to become the commander of the Seitenshi’s personal guard, and thanks to his influence, Daigo and Tatsumi had been able to work at the palace as his subordinates. The guys at the Seitenshi’s palace were all terrible cowards who were easy to domineer over. Their duties were easy and their pay was good.

When they had free time, they would change into plainclothes and go to the Outer Districts where they would shoot at Cursed Children. In order to keep them from running away, they restrained them with many layers of strong wire and then took turns picking them off from afar. It was really fun to shoot at a living doll that could scream, and it wasn’t like the girls paid taxes or were in the family registers; the men almost felt proud—like they were playing a role in beautifying the area.

When he went shooting with Yasuwaki, the man had often talked about his dreams. The Seitenshi still did not have a successor, and her advisors had often told her that she should get married. Yasuwaki wanted to become the idealistic princesses’ knight in shining armor, receive a post in the national government, and pull the strings of Tokyo Area from behind the scenes.

Yasuwaki had said, “Of course, I’ll also bring you guys with me.”

Daigo had believed in him. He had believed in his own shining future and had not suspected anything. However, a trap had opened its jaws in an unexpected place.

The Seitenshi Sniper Incident—apparently that was what the public called it. The skinny civil officer with the black uniform whom the Seitenshi had hired independently had changed everything.

Daigo’s hands gripped the steering wheel, creaking in anger. “I wonder what Commander Yasuwaki is doing right now…”

Tatsumi was brooding next to him, but even though he was drunk, his ears were sharp enough to catch Daigo’s words. “Don’t call that idiot Commander! Rumor has it that he’s in some mental hospital right now. He must’ve been real scared of that kid—I heard his hair turned all white.”

“Get out of my sight, and never come near Tina again. If you refuse, I will shoot you to death here and now for refusing to obey orders from a superior officer.”

Just remembering that voice sent chills down his spine. Of course, Yasuwaki’s subordinates, Daigo and Tatsumi, were with him at the site of his downfall, but they were so overawed that they couldn’t move a muscle.

It wasn’t that Daigo didn’t sympathize with Yasuwaki, but because of what Yasuwaki had dragged them into, Daigo and Tatsumi also had to take some of the blame for the incident. The careers that they had built up turned into nothing, and they were made to join the boring transport squad. They would probably be doing this job for the rest of their lives. Forever, in this job with no opportunity for advancement. But right now, it seemed like it would be faster to be killed by Aldebaran.

“Stop.”

Daigo hit the brake reflexively and pitched forward. “Wh-what’s the matter?”

Tatsumi ignored Daigo’s question and got out of the car. They had reached the bank of a small lake. Thinking something was suspicious, Daigo followed him and went around to the back of the transport vehicle. There, Tatsumi opened the door to the back without permission and took out a battery that filled his arms.

“Hey, what are you doing—” said Daigo.

“This is what I’m doing—!” So saying, Tatsumi threw the battery into the lake. It rolled down the slope slowly before it finally dropped under the water with a loud plop.

Daigo almost screamed as he grabbed Tatsumi’s shoulder. “What are you doing, you idiot?! We’ll be severely reprimanded if anyone finds out.”

Tatsumi’s bleary eyes reflected an intellectual light that did not seem dead drunk. “No one will find out, Daigo. Think about it carefully.”

“What?”

Tatsumi dug in his pocket and pulled out two plane tickets. “These are for the last flight to Osaka Area. They rose up to a ridiculous price, so I had to use your money, too, and now we’re penniless, but with this, we can survive. Where there’s life, there’s hope. Either way, this is the end for Tokyo Area.”

Ignoring orders and deserting. It was true that they would be severely punished if they were caught—but of course, that was only if Tokyo Area continued to exist.

Tatsumi’s hands grabbed Daigo’s shoulders tightly. His eyes shone, and his mouth was twisted into an evil smile. “Not only have we used up all our money, but we’re also clearly criminals. Now that we’ve done all this, it’s terribly unfortunate, but we’ll just have to have Tokyo Area fall, or we’ll be in trouble. Right?”

We’ll just have to have Tokyo Area fall, or we’ll be in trouble… That was true. But even so, it pricked the small conscience that Daigo had left. Was there really a need to do all this? It was one thing to have nothing to do with the civil officer troop as they fought the Gastrea, but to purposefully do something that would be advantageous to the Gastrea…

Just then, he noticed that Tatsumi’s two jet-black eyes were peering at him, and he got chills up his spine. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna let me do all this and then pretend that you’re a good boy by yourself when it’s over,” Tatsumi said.

“O-of course not. That’s not funny. It’s not enough to kill Rentaro Satomi normally,” said Daigo.

“Then, you know what you have to do, right? Those guys destroyed us. Now, it’s their turn to atone for their sins.”

Daigo could not refuse.

After that, they threw all the batteries into the lake, and Tatsumi upturned a can of gasoline that he “accidentally brought” and emptied it of its contents. When he threw in a lighter, tongues of flame reached out from the lake.

Tatsumi started to dance with the flames and shout with joy. “Whoooooo! Take that! Now it’s over for them!”

Watching his partner laughing maniacally out of the corner of his eye, Daigo wiped the sweat that had beaded on the palm of his hand on his pants. It was as if Tatsumi had been possessed by Commander Yasuwaki, but Daigo desperately forced himself to avoid speaking the thought aloud.