Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 5.1

CHAPTER 05

THE PRICE OF BEING A HERO

1

Rentaro vented his frustration by kicking an eighteen-liter drum barrel. The cylinder clunked and blew away, falling from the top of the building, getting swept sideways by the wind and disappearing from his sight. He rubbed his head vigorously and banged a fist over and over on the wall of the pump house. “Why?! Why aren’t the batteries here yet?!”

“Rentaro,” Enju said with an uneasy voice.

Rentaro put both hands on the wall and tried to calm his ragged breath. Eddies of wind gusted around the building like a flute shrilling in his ears and violently fluttered their clothes.

Rentaro checked the time and ground his teeth in despair. It was 10:50 p.m. There were only ten minutes left before Aldebaran was predicted to arrive.

Wandering to the edge of the building’s roof, he gazed out into the distant darkness. Because there was no electricity in the Outer Districts, there were no streetlamps. The thick cloud of ash from the Monolith’s collapse that covered the sky blocked the moon, so they could not count on light from that, either.

Because his eyes were used to the darkness, it wasn’t like he couldn’t even see an inch in front of him, but it was not incorrect to say that he could see pretty much nothing. The only people who could move freely in this darkness were those few Initiators who had night vision, like Tina.

And he could hear from the darkness the countless feet crushing bedrock as the voices of the Gastrea surged forward. Even though he couldn’t see them, they were there.

His nails dug into his fist. According to his and Miori’s plan, they would use the searchlights set on the roofs of the seven buildings surrounding the Flame of Return to quickly find Aldebaran’s location and then attack all at once. However, given the current situation, the searchlights were obviously useless. In which case, their plan would fall apart at its first step, with them unable to determine Aldebaran’s position.

The civil officer troops were already in position, hiding within the bottom floor of the building. It was too late to order a retreat. It made Rentaro regret not replenishing their supply of flares.

Should they charge in desperately like this and try to lessen the enemy numbers even a little bit? But it was a fight they had no chance of winning. Once it became a Pandemic inside Tokyo Area, they would not be able to remove the lesion.

Rentaro closed his eyes tightly. Even if he knew that they would definitely lose, he still had to carry out his duty as the leader of the civil officer troops.

There was no other way.

Rentaro took the radio in his hand and took a deep breath. “All troops, char—”

Just then, Enju pulled his sleeve. “Rentaro, look at that.”

“What now, at a time like this?” Rentaro asked rhetorically, irritated, but Enju couldn’t answer him. She just pointed dumbfounded at a single spot in the sky.

Suddenly, Rentaro felt a soft, unusual light behind him, so he turned around to follow Enju’s gaze. His eyes, which had gotten used to the darkness, were suddenly hit with a scalding beam of light. Rentaro shielded them with his hands and squinted.

He was astounded. The sky over all of Tokyo Area was filled with a dazzling light. He soon realized that the source of the light was a large number of soccer ball–size hot-air balloons. At the bottom of the ball-shaped balloons was oiled paper soaked in fuel and burning brightly, the hot air making the balloons rise gently as they floated left and right.

What was amazing was their number. The thousands upon thousands of balloons that filled the sky danced in the air like down feathers as they bumped into each other on their ascent. As they did so, even more were added to their number, and the light grew two or three times brighter.

Rentaro’s heart was stolen by the otherworldly light, and his mouth gaped open. “It’s the Genan Festival. It was today, huh…?”

Involuntarily, he recalled the conversation he once had with his students.

“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.”

“Mr. Rentaro… Are we going to die? Will we be able to live…to see the next Genan Festival…?”

But the Genan Festival that took place every year was supposed to be a modest affair that was held near the Flame of Return monument. There had never been such a large-scale festival held in the past ten years. And for it to become this bright, there had to have been an enormous number of people and balloons… Who in the world did something this big?

Just then, Rentaro’s cell phone vibrated.

“Satomi, it’s me.”

Rentaro gave a start and readjusted his hold on his phone. “Lady Seitenshi…I see, it was you…!”

The Seitenshi seemed to straighten herself on the other end of the phone as she said, “Satomi, each and every one of those balloons carries the hopes, prayers, and will to survive of the citizens of Tokyo Area. Can you see them? If you win this battle, the Gastrea will fall. If you lose, we will fall. I entrust Tokyo Area’s future to you. Now go, with the courage to continue fighting no matter what.”

Rentaro closed his eyes and then opened them slowly. “Don’t worry, Lady Seitenshi. I will definitely win.” Hanging up, Rentaro took Enju’s hand quietly, and they watched the world of light together from the best seats in the house.

The warm light made the balloons translucent, like paper lanterns, and the mass of orange nestled close and touched, sometimes crashing together as the enormous number of them slowly floated up.

Rentaro felt a hard squeeze through their connected hands. Looking next to him, he saw the tears readily flowing down Enju’s face as she looked up at the sky.

“Enju, it’s true that people from the Stolen Generation killed your classmates. But it was also somehow the Stolen Generation that created this light. People probably have two faces—light and darkness. This is the face of light. If even you can see the prayers and hope in each and every one of those balloons, then—let’s fight.”

Enju quickly wiped her tears with her sleeve and regarded him solemnly. She gave a firm nod. “Of course! We have to save everyone.”

He felt like his and Enju’s feelings were one. It was an indescribable sensation of unity.

It was strange. It wasn’t as if the situation had suddenly turned in their favor. In fact, they were overwhelmingly and hopelessly at a disadvantage. Even so, what was this feeling that was filling his heart? Why was he so at peace right now?

The stiff nervousness dissipated, and he felt renewed. Until just now, he had been worried about whether or not they could win, but now that feeling was gone.

No, he was now certain they could win. There was no way they would lose.

Rentaro turned back with a determined look.

And then, he froze in surprise.

He could see. He could see perfectly. The countless lights that lit up all of Tokyo Area drove away the night sky in place of the searchlights, showing the troops of darkness as clear as day. He spotted Aldebaran easily. In the middle of the enemy toward the back—Hallelujah.

Enju stepped forward firmly, and her usually black eyes burned red.

Rentaro reached his right arm straight out and started his artificial limbs. Geometric patterns emerged on the inside of his eye as the graphene transistor nano-core processor activated. He felt a shock of electricity spread through his mouth as the iris of his artificial eye spun. He had only been able to see out of one eye, but now he could see out of both, and his field of vision expanded. He was able to see in 3-D.

Rentaro put the radio to his mouth and took a deep breath. “We will now begin Operation Rapier Thrust. I repeat, we will now begin Operation Rapier Thrust. Tina, do it now.”

As he spoke, there was the sound of an explosion that made him duck involuntarily. Of the seven buildings that surrounded the monument, the six buildings other than the one Rentaro and Enju were standing on exploded at the same time—or so it seemed.

The 20-mm Vulcan gun, 30-mm chain gun, 127-mm cannon, 155-mm howitzer, and other antiair guns fired at once from the roofs of those buildings. To Rentaro, the detonation and vibration seemed like a volcanic eruption, and it left his ears ringing.

There was no sign of the shooter. They were all unmanned, controlled instead by Tina’s remote control modules and, thereby, the neurochip in her brain. Rentaro knew firsthand just how scary their precision was, after being fired on by six antitank rifles from different places at the same time.

The line of fire rushed into the Gastrea’s flying troops, and the next instant, they exploded. Pushed back by the superheated shock waves, Rentaro couldn’t even open his eyes.

In the blink of an eye, hellfire materialized in the air and filled the sky. Flying Gastrea had their wings torn off, were burned up, and had their brains blown apart as they fell from the sky, one after another. It was an attack as precise as if they were all individually manned fort cannons. With a line of fire of certain destruction more accurate than that of an advanced computer, Tina exploded timed fuses in enemy vital spots to give the most efficient blows to the swarm.

Rentaro gulped. This was the real strength of the former Rank 98, Tina Sprout. As long as she could hack the suitable weapons with her neurochip to integrate and control them, it was possible that she could even by herself create as much firepower as an aircraft carrier.

Tina might even be able to defeat all the flying Gastrea by herself.

Rentaro took another deep breath. “All troops, charge!”

He heard war cries from downstairs. The civil officers burst forth in a desperate attack with their adjuvants.

“All right, Enju. We should go, too.”

He and Enju nodded at each other and ran down the stairs.

Just then, he heard a scream from the radio. “There’s a giant Gastrea rushing straight toward us!”

Stopping his feet running down the stairs, he ran through the floor and rushed up against the window glass. “What is that…?!”

A giant Gastrea was wriggling on the ground. It was long and thin, and bigger than any snake or worm could ever be. The diameter of its torso was about as big as a subway tunnel, and it was about as long as a small building.

Jormungand—The name of the giant snake from Norse mythology, created by the wicked god Loki, ran through Rentaro’s head.

It was probably a Stage Three. The enemy still had that ace up its sleeve? The giant snake writhed on the ground, cutting away large swaths of trees and upturning scrap cars as it rushed straight at the building where they were positioned.

By the time they realized the giant snake was after them, it was too late. It stretched up and twined around the building and, shockingly, it started to constrict the building from its base. The metal frame twisted, and the glass windows passed their critical temperature to shatter with a crack.

Hey, this isn’t funny…! Gulping involuntarily, Rentaro’s vision tilted, and he stumbled. It was already too late by the time he realized that the floor had become slanted. With an unpleasant and nauseating sound of collapse, the top part of the building bent over, and the floor became so slanted that Rentaro couldn’t remain standing. Falling and rolling on the floor along with rusted steel desks and chairs, Rentaro landed back first on the floor—which had been a wall just a moment ago. The air was squeezed from his lungs with a sharp pain, like a hole had opened up in his back.

Suddenly, his hips floated up with a different kind of vibration. Opening one eye, he found the building bowing, as if it were leaning against another building rather than fully crashing to the ground.

In the bizarre world where vertical had become horizontal, he had no time to catch his breath. Enju tumbled toward him with pieces of glass; he froze when he spotted where she was going to fall.

At that rate, she would go through the windows and smash into the ground.

“Ennnnjuuuuuuuuu!” He stretched out his arm immediately. The girl stretched out her hand back.

With a screech, Enju’s body went through the glass window.

“Gah!” A heavy impact ripped through Rentaro, nearly dislocating his right shoulder. Opening his eyes as much as he could, he saw that Enju had just barely managed to grab his arm in time and was hanging in midair.

“Rentaro!” Enju called out in a pained voice.

He felt throbbing pain along his spine. He didn’t have time to pull out a mirror and check, but he knew he had been stabbed by the countless shards of glass that had tumbled down with the girl.

Enju’s wondrous jumping ability could manifest itself only with a hard floor to jump off of, so she couldn’t step on air to jump. He had to make sure she didn’t fall from this height. “Hang on, Enju. I’ll pull you up.” Holding the excruciating pain at bay, he gritted his teeth and put all of his strength into his arm.

Just then, he felt overwhelming pressure and heat on his back. Turning his head, he found the giant snake Gastrea had stuck its head into the building and was flicking its red tongue in and out of its mouth.

The hot air it breathed out smelled like rotten eggs. With just the long and narrow snout and pair of horns visible, it looked just like a dragon.

If Rentaro didn’t release Enju’s hand, he wouldn’t be able to evade the giant snake’s attack. He paled with despair.

Suddenly, the giant snake opened its mouth wide.

“Satomi, I’m coming.” Unexpectedly, a graceful voice echoed from his radio.

Kisara, where are you coming from? Turning his head, Rentaro yelped. “Ahh!”

Kisara was accessing their building from the roof of the one it was leaning on. She rushed down a steep slope with an angle of elevation no less than forty-five degrees, and at a speed close to falling.

She was being reckless. She didn’t even bring an Initiator with her.

The giant snake noticed something out of order and raised its head to meet Kisara directly.

Without warning, there was a sharp exhale. “Tendo Sword Drawing, First Style, Number 6—” With a clear tone that froze the air, Kisara drew the sword at her hip from its sheath as fast as a lightning strike. “—Midaei Suiken.”

Countless giant cutlines scattered into the air, and Kisara and the Gastrea crossed paths. They were so fast that Rentaro couldn’t tell what was going on. Kisara braked suddenly with the heel of her shoe and exhaled deeply as she slowly resheathed her sword. When the naked blade was sheathed all the way to its base, the head of the giant snake that was already stiffening with rigor mortis spurted blood, and pieces of flesh that had been cut off like dots of a die splattered down in chunks.

The body that had lost its head wriggled like a loose string, and then fell from the building. It fell with a creak of the ground and a thunderous roar, raising a thick cloud of dust.

The civil officers below them cheered as they saw the defeat of the enemy’s general-class Gastrea.

Rentaro watched the scene with his mouth slightly open. Someone who wasn’t an Initiator or a mechanized soldier—a regular human—had defeated a Stage Three Gastrea with a single attack. A Stage Three. With one attack.

Kisara jumped down to where Rentaro was and flipped her hair. “Satomi, we’re going to pull Enju up.”

“R-right,” said Rentaro.

With Kisara’s help, they were finally able to pull Enju up. However, there was no time to pull out the pieces of glass stuck in his back before the world shook and he fell to his knees. Opening his eyes a little, he saw that the floor was getting even closer to horizontal. Cement dust fell and was blown away, and the entire building cracked.

Rentaro broke into a cold sweat. The edifice was leaning over even more. At this rate, it wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. If they stopped here, they would end up committing suicide with the building.

“Enju!”

She nodded once and put her right hand around Rentaro’s hips, and the other arm around Kisara’s waist.

“Let’s go.”

Enju bent her legs deeply and jumped. The next instant, Rentaro couldn’t even open his eyes under the pressure; it felt like a giant was pushing its palm against him. Next to him, even Kisara screamed a little.

Hearing the sound of clothes flapping, Rentaro forced his eyes open a little. The sky was crimson, lit up by the otherworldly glow of the hot air balloons within it, while the forest below held Gastrea in a dense formation. Civil officers, the size of grains of rice, attacked like the thrust of a rapier.

Rentaro tapped Enju’s shoulder twice and pointed at the middle of the vicious battle below them. His signal meant to land there.

Enju gave a nod, and, doing a triangle jump off the building, she kicked twice. He felt G’s hit his side so hard that it almost made him groan.

Cutting through the wind, they went up over a hundred meters before inertia and gravity canceled each other out. They fell into free fall the next instant, and the brown dirt of the ground grew bigger as he watched.

Just before they ran into the ground, Rentaro and Kisara curled up their bodies and rolled as they landed.

Even though his vision spun, Rentaro stood up quickly. The ground was muddy with rain, so Rentaro’s uniform was instantly covered in it. But he didn’t worry about the details as he checked his surroundings.

They were in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by the sound of fighting, the rumble of the earth, and splashes of mud as ground was trampled.

“Run, Satomi!” Even Kisara shouting with all her might was hard to hear in the midst of the shouts and war cries around them.

Rentaro and Enju nodded at each other, and they ran through the battlefield, kicking up mud.

Noticing that Rentaro had arrived, the civil officers around them exploded in war cries that made the air vibrate. Morale rose immediately, and their attack intensified. They surrounded the running Rentaro and Enju in a defensive circle, and the civil officers who had been aiming for the outriders boldly charged at Gastrea of all shapes and colors.

He saw Kohina jumping from tree to tree like a giant flying squirrel as she precisely severed the heads of the Gastrea around her. Smaller Gastrea were caught up in Yuzuki’s invisible threads, and Tamaki made them explode with his Varanium chain saw punches and roundhouse kicks. Blood splashed into the air.

All of a sudden, there was a scream from behind him, and even as he ran at full speed, he turned around to see a giant rhino with horns all over its face scattering the civil officers around it as it charged toward him.

“Go on ahead!” Kisara used her legs to brake suddenly and turned, lining up next to Asaka. The two swordswomen nodded at each other and readied their swords.

Rentaro wanted to see the outcome of the fight, but he forced himself to face front again and ran on. Soon, he heard the high-pitched scream of a monster dying in agony.

There was one here, too. Another Gastrea of the same shape was approaching. They had been planning on catching him in a pincer attack.

“Let’s go, Satomi.” He suddenly heard the reliable voice of his senior disciple next to his ear, and he was filled with strength.

Rentaro trampled the mud with the bottoms of his shoes as he stopped, inhaled, and focused his energy. He aimed his right fist at the Gastrea rushing at them and exploded a cartridge. The smell of gunpowder smoke burned his nostrils. Next to him, Shoma was using a similar technique.

The rhino made the ground rumble as it approached. With its weight, its attack would be like that of a bulldozer.

Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 3—

“—Homura Kasen!!!”

The rhino was hit straight on by two fists rushing at it, and its horns exploded. Rentaro and Shoma were likewise pushed back by the enemy rushing at them.

The Gastrea with the attack power of a heavy tank had its horns broken as fists exploded onto the bridge of its nose, and its face was blasted into tiny pieces. The rhino’s body, which had veered off in a different direction, did not seem to realize at first that its head had been pulverized. Suddenly, it lost its balance, fell with a crash, and slid on the mud for more than ten meters before it finally stopped moving.

“Go, Satomi!” Before Shoma could finish talking, Rentaro had already started running. However, by the time he ran past a giant tree and noticed the Gastrea waiting next to it, it was already too late. The hard-shelled Gastrea with large pincers lowered its arms like a strangely swollen hammer. A giant shadow covered Rentaro.

Just as he was about to be crushed, there was a thunderous sound, and the pincers stopped.

“Kagetane!” Rentaro yelled.

The man had sprung out in front of Rentaro and protected him with his repulsion field. It creaked with the enormous force of the attack, and the ground sank beneath them as bedrock was lifted up. The field couldn’t absorb all of the attack, and the capillaries in Kagetane’s body burst, showering Rentaro’s face with blood.

However, in his brush with death, Kagetane just threw back his body and laughed loudly. “That’s right! Fighting to live! How exciting! This is death! This is war! How wonderful!”

Enju dove under the crab Gastrea’s body and kicked the six legs holding it up, destroying them one by one. As the body shook and fell, she brought her foot up and kicked straight above her. The shell armor was smashed to pieces, and the giant Gastrea flew up into the air. It crashed into the ground a moment later, bubbles frothing from its mouth as it died.

Kagetane had released his repulsion field and fallen to one knee. As Rentaro was about to run to him, Kagetane turned his head toward Rentaro and stretched out a hand. From the depths of his mask came a dark, hoarse voice. “Nameless Reaper.”

Rentaro didn’t even have time to be surprised at the unexpected move as a sickle-shape came toward him, leaving an afterimage. There was a slashing sound, and Rentaro’s shoulders shook. Not knowing what was going on, his eyes opened wide, and there was a thud behind him as something fell.

When he looked, he saw that the sickle that had grazed his cheek had taken off the head of a Stage One that had come at him from behind. The next instant, blood spurted up like a geyser from its neck. Blood splashed all over Kagetane’s white mask.

It took Rentaro a while before he realized that Kagetane had saved his life.

Kagetane stood up and waved his hands. “Go! You don’t have time to worry about me!”

Rentaro nodded a quick thanks and took off again. They had already suffered a lot of damage. The civil officers had already lost many—a chip was starting to form in the blade of the rapier that was supposed to cut through the enemy forces.

Even amid all that, the strength of Rentaro’s adjuvant was a cut above the rest. Kohina was pushed back by an enemy attack and thrown into the air, but waiting there was Yuzuki, ready with her threads strung like tightropes. She inverted heaven and earth with a thread wrapped around her foot and caught Kohina midair like a circus trapeze artist. Then, using the rope bridge as a fulcrum, she spun her body and accelerated, and then threw Kohina straight down. Kohina’s surprise attack from above pierced through the head of the Gastrea sneaking up behind Tamaki, killing it.

Rentaro felt his chest grow warm from the inside. His adjuvant of ten was switching pairs between them as they unleashed a surge of chain attacks to cover each other’s blind spots.

Finally, the Gastrea started to falter at the adjuvant’s ferocity. The enemy was starting to fall apart.

With a finger, Rentaro signaled Enju, running next to him. She nodded.

The cartridges in Rentaro’s leg exploded, and the empty shells it spit out flowed out behind him. “Ahhhhhhhh!” He kicked off the ground. Enju and Rentaro, who were superaccelerated, came together to form a single bullet that passed through the spaces between their enemies’ legs, getting them through the dense enemy formation. Then, breaking out of the forest, the world opened up.

However, their unnatural stance was their ruin, and they messed up their landing to bounce over and over the muddy ground. When they finally stopped, Rentaro pushed himself up with both hands and spat gritty mud from his mouth. It looked like they had been blown all the way to the plain where the tents had been set up.

When he looked at Enju next to him, he saw that she was looking up with her head tilted, dazed.

As he stood, he followed her gaze, and then his body froze.

“This is…” Rentaro’s neck bent forty-five degrees, locked in position as he looked at the monster standing still in the darkness. “This is Aldebaran…”

There it was: a large body that could be mistaken for a small mountain. It had a long tail, and eight short, thick legs that looked like stone pillars holding up its gigantic body. It stood on all eight, and on its back was a hard shell that looked like that of an armadillo. From cracks in the shell stretched countless tentacles. Each tentacle seemed to move independently, like the mythological, gigantic, eight-forked serpent.

There were countless holes in the sides of its shell, as well; they were probably where it released the pheromones that it quickly spread via the wings tucked behind its shell. On its face, there were no eyes or nose. There was a giant hole that seemed to be its mouth, and from the depths of that eternal darkness, its breath whistled as it dripped green mucus. It looked, vaguely, like a turtle or armadillo monster.

Now that he thought about it, he had only seen its silhouette from afar, or heard stories from people who had fought against it, so this was his first time seeing it with his own eyes.

Its breath was hot. Just its existence gave off a huge pressure, and when it walked, the earth shook.

Rentaro’s stomach shriveled in fear, and he felt like he was going to vomit.

But as long as we defeat this…

Aldebaran had finally noticed them, and it pointed the tips of all its tentacles at them, not paying any attention to the battle in the forest. It was possible that Aldebaran had realized that Rentaro and Enju were the generals.

It was a chance match between commanders. The other squad members were doing well, but they would not last long. If he did not finish things here, everything they had done up until now would go to waste.

Enju stayed on guard as she edged closer to him. “We don’t have much time, Rentaro.”

“I know. We’ll be at a disadvantage if this drags out for too long. We’ll go at full power from the start.” Rentaro exhaled and relaxed his whole body, then tensed all four limbs and dropped his center of gravity, taking the Tendo Martial Arts Water and Sky Stance.

“Commence battle. We will now eliminate the enemy.”

“Hyuuuurrrrooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

Aldebaran made the first move. Like a bull mad with anger, it gave a war cry and then twisted its body—its tail came at them along the ground, moving as fast as a whip.

Enju’s arms wrapped around Rentaro’s waist, and the next instant, Rentaro and Enju were in the air. However, the enemy had taken into consideration the possibility that Rentaro and Enju would evade its first attack: While they were midflight and unable to change direction, it brought down a tentacle in a vertical slash, along with a gust of wind. Rentaro and Enju put the soles of their shoes together and kicked off against each other, separating in midair. With a frightening rush of wind, a giant tentacle scraped the spot where Rentaro and Enju had been the moment before.

Rentaro activated his artificial eye, and the iris spun quickly, calculating the estimated location of the tentacle’s next attack. Rentaro pointed his leg thrusters in Aldebaran’s direction and exploded one of the cartridges to change direction. His vision contracted and he felt like his body was going to be torn apart by the acceleration. Barely avoiding the undulating tentacles as they attacked one after another, Rentaro rained down on the center of Aldebaran’s shell from above.

“Haaaaaaaaa!” He released a dropkick with his artificial right leg.

Super-Varanium and hard skin. Two extremely hard objects hit each other, and a crack formed in the shell as Rentaro felt his foot sink a little into flesh.

However, it was far from a fatal wound. Aldebaran screamed in pain and shook its body hastily. The vast shell shook like an earthquake, and pathetically, Rentaro had to use all that he had just to hold on. If he got thrown off, those thick legs would definitely trample him.

“Enju! Aim for its head!”

Enju had been continuing the air fight, jumping from tentacle to tentacle as they moved in all directions. At Rentaro’s shout, she jumped on a tentacle and ran down the road of flesh with her pigtails streaming out behind her until she drew near Aldebaran’s body.

Enju kicked a tentacle and dropped a second kick on its shell from the air. The attack exploded onto Aldebaran’s head at the speed of a falling meteor, but it hit the surface of Aldebaran’s face and then, Rentaro was free from the vibrations for an instant.

“Rentaro!”

He was rescued by Enju jumping over to him, and together, they crawled under Aldebaran’s torso. The pulsating shell formed a ceiling about two meters overhead and gave off hot body heat, and its eight legs carried out their job of supporting the ceiling.

First, they had to stop Aldebaran’s movements.

“Let’s overturn this monster turtle.”

Enju’s eyes opened wide. However, she soon gave a big nod. “All right.”

“Okay.”

They glared resolutely at the hard, pulsating stomach that formed the ceiling above them. Rentaro jumped high with Enju and whacked the striker at the bottom of his leg cartridge. His leg leapt up with violent speed. His eyes met Enju’s.

“Inzen Kokutei, Unlimited Burst!!!”

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

The two overhead kicks, unleashed with all of their desperate strength, slammed into Aldebaran’s abdomen. The shock wave made a crack in the ground and blew back the air around them.

Rentaro gritted his teeth as cold sweat poured from him. The skin was hard. If their kicks weren’t strong enough and they were blown away, they could easily be thrown to the ground to break their necks. Impatiently, he forced strength from his whole body into his fingertips.

Kicks beyond human understanding and the mass of a high-level Gastrea: Only then did the balance between the two pushing against each other fall apart. A huge depression appeared in Aldebaran’s abdomen, and then its enormous frame gently floated into the air.

Rentaro couldn’t even imagine how many tons it was, but all two meters of the monster danced in the air, almost like a joke. Aldebaran struggled like it couldn’t tell what was going on.

And then, it crashed, back first, onto a dilapidated building, making the building collapse. The edifice crumbled toward the monster, raising clouds of dirty smoke.

Aldebaran, thrown into a building with its stomach showing, looked exactly like a turtle flipped onto its shell.

However, the monstrous Gastrea started struggling again, wriggling its legs. Its abdomen started to regenerate. That much damage would have killed a normal Gastrea immediately, but it wasn’t going to go down that easy.

Rentaro put his hand on the EP bomb that hung from his belt on a carabiner, gripping it in his hand as he asked the cold Varanium to save them. “Enju, let’s finish this.”

There was no need to explain the whole plan. Enju put her arms around Rentaro’s waist and jumped. As Rentaro’s vision contracted from the g-forces pushing down on his head, they jumped to an altitude of fifty meters, looking down at Aldebaran.

Rentaro locked onto the monster below them and like a multistage rocket, he kicked away from Enju’s body midair, rushing down headfirst. At the same time, he lit the percussion fuse in his artificial arm—another Unlimited Burst. The extractor pulled out empty shells one after another as the ejector kicked them all out behind him. His body rotated in the air from the centrifugal force, and he swung his fist like a dive bomber.

“Goooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” Rentaro’s fist sank into Aldebaran’s abdomen. A moment later, a deeper depression split open Aldebaran’s enormous body. Behind it, the ground jumped with a spiderweb of cracks running through it.

Rentaro’s whole body was dyed red, covered by a huge amount of hot blood.

A scream unleashed from Aldebaran’s vocal cords, blasting Rentaro’s eardrums.

As his arm holding the EP bomb buried into Aldebaran’s abdomen, it continued wildly from the intense propulsion, as he expected. Feeling it go through organs, he twisted the can of the EP bomb to activate the timed fuse. At the same time, he felt around the back of his artificial arm with his left hand and pushed a button, turned it counterclockwise, and braced his legs.

Suddenly, there was a hiss and the connection between the artificial arm and his flesh was separated. His arm, which had turned into a mass of propulsion, continued to go deeper into Aldebaran’s body separated from Rentaro’s will, cutting through flesh and carving up bone.

Immediately, the cavity left by the path of the artificial arm rose and stuck together as it healed.

Rentaro stared at the place where the artificial arm had attacked as it disappeared. Finally, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and yelled into the radio. “The EP bomb has been set inside Aldebaran. It will explode in three minutes. Everyone, quickly get out of the range of its blast!”

He promptly faced Enju. “Enju, I’m counting on you.”

Enju hugged his side and made a few short jumps. In no time, they were behind a giant boulder tens of meters away.

Rentaro checked the time. There were thirty seconds left. When he peeked out from behind the shadow of the boulder, he saw that there was smoke rising from Aldebaran’s wound as it finished healing, but there was a scar left behind at the place of attack, leaving a marker for where the bomb was buried.

When there were less than ten seconds left, Rentaro put his back flat up against the boulder. His heart pounded as it sent blood through his body. He was so nervous, he felt like his heart was going to jump out of his mouth.

In order to bear the shock of the explosion, he closed his eyes tightly, put his hands over his ears, and gritted his teeth.

Three, two, one. Zero………

“Huh?” He opened his eyes in surprise and hurriedly checked the time.

And then—

The predicted time of the blast came and went without fanfare.

He was filled with panic. Was the explosion delayed? Did he mishear the timing of the explosion when Miori was telling him about it? Or was it something else—? Various possibilities passed through his mind, but then he realized that he just did not want to accept the most likely possibility.

It didn’t go off. After all this, it didn’t explode.

The strength left him from his lower body, and he fell to his knees with his eyes still wide open. Sticking his face out from behind the boulder, he saw the struggling Aldebaran lift up its body and look for Rentaro and the others as it shook its head.

This was the end. Tokyo Area would be overrun. Everyone would die.

“Rentaro.” As he tilted his head listlessly, he saw Enju crossing her arms in front of her chest worriedly.

He shifted his gaze away from her and looked down. The plan had failed. He just couldn’t bring himself to tell her it.

He felt like his heart was going to tear apart. It was a battle they were not allowed to lose. He even swore to her: that he would save Tokyo Area.

Just then, a thought flashed through his brain like a lightning bolt. No, there was a way. There was just one way.

What had Miori said when she was explaining how to use the EP bomb?

“If you twist the EP bomb itself to this notch, it will explode three minutes later. It will be more sensitive at that point, so after you twist the can, make sure you do not let it undergo any strong shocks.”

That’s right. A strong shock.

There was another way to set off the bomb than by using the timed fuse. However, unlike the timed fuse, setting it off with a shock would make it explode immediately. In addition to having to work close by, there was no way to run away from the explosion.

In order to do this, they would definitely have to sacrifice one person.

Before he knew it, a sigh of resignation escaped from his lips, and his body cooled down, paying no mind to the turmoil in his heart. Rentaro closed his eyes slowly and let out a long breath. It had taken him an unbelievably short amount of time to prepare himself.

Around him was the sound of flames burning. The sound of fighting. The stink of living things burning. His lungs burned every time he took a breath. His throat was dry. And for some reason, all of this felt so dear and irreplaceable.

Rentaro got down to his knees, made his eyes level with Enju’s, and gave her a hug, putting his chin on her shoulder. He whispered quietly into her ear. “Enju, good-bye.”

“Why?”

“I always wanted to be someone who was suitable for you. After I took you in, I didn’t know anything about raising a child, so I was completely absorbed in it. I didn’t know anything, but I can say right now—it was fun.”

Enju moved her arm from around Rentaro’s shoulders and grabbed his uniform hard, wrinkling it. She must have noticed, too. “Why are you saying that right now?”

“In this year since we met, I was happy. I was even able to almost like the power of my artificial limbs that I hated before. I’m truly glad that I met you.”

At Rentaro’s chest, a small head shook and squeezed out a thin voice. Enju was crying. “Don’t go.”

“Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 13—”

“Stop!”

“—Senkuu Renen.” There was a sharp sound, and Enju’s body floated into the air. The force of Rentaro’s fist, which punched into her at point-blank range, was thoroughly transferred to her body. Enju’s once-crimson eyes turned black and wavered as if urging him to do something. Her knees folded, and she leaned on Rentaro.

Rentaro put his arm behind the unconscious Enju’s head and lowered her slowly to the ground, careful not to let her head fall too hard. Then, he stood up. He lifted his face and watched motionlessly as Aldebaran went wild on the battlefield of hellfire.

The timed fuse did not go off. The only way left was to detonate it with a shock.

The Stage Four Gastrea, Aldebaran, would have to be eliminated by the suicide bombing of IP Rank 300, Rentaro Satomi.

Fortunately, one person was enough to accomplish this. There was no need for two people. Rentaro took a final look at the unconscious Enju and resolutely started to walk toward the monsters’ general. The wind blew, and his cloak, which had become ragged in the battle, fluttered.

He had thought that this day would come one day. He knew that if he continued this fateful occupation, one day, the long hand of Hades would catch him.

The time has come. Accomplish your duty, Rentaro Satomi.

The burnt scar was a good landmark showing him the position of where the bomb was buried. However, in order to apply a shock to the EP bomb buried deep in the enemy’s body, he would have to deliver quite an intense blow. He had already lost his right arm. He had no cartridges left in his legs. His whole body was injured. He was wounded all over. His mobility was significantly decreased.

However, he had no choice but to do it.

He stopped, feeling the sensation of gravel getting stuck in the bottoms of his shoes. He sucked the hot air of the battlefield into his hurting lungs; they felt like flames.

“I’m right here.”

Aldebaran noticed him again.

His target was thirty meters ahead. The monster gave a loud war cry that violently shook the earth and then waved its tentacles desperately.

At the same time, Rentaro started running all-out with the last of his strength.

The tentacles of the giant Gastrea that moved at the speed of sound came down at the earth like meteors.

Rentaro avoided the first attack by jumping to the side. However, two more attacks came down as Aldebaran predicted Rentaro’s evasion.

Rentaro gave a beastly yell and ran away, escaping in the nick of time. A piece of bedrock that had come off flew into his temple, and his vision shook violently. He almost lost consciousness from the pain, but he gritted his teeth and somehow managed to stay awake.

However, that was all a trick.

When the curtain of tentacles opened up and his vision cleared, he saw green mucus on the open mouthparts of Aldebaran. Rentaro felt chills down his spine. Abruptly, he lifted his arm to protect himself, but he had covered the wrong place.

His artificial right leg, which had been showered with mucus, started to steam and slowly bleached. His eyes widened as he tried to figure out what was going on, but he soon realized the truth and ground his teeth at his critical mistake.

It was Varanium corrosion liquid. In that case, he thought he would do it before his leg corroded, and he started another fierce dash. As he watched, Aldebaran’s enormous body loomed as it drew nearer.

Beyond the eight short, fat legs like stone pillars, Rentaro saw the scar where he had hit it before. If he applied shock to that area, the bomb would probably detonate.

There were now less than ten meters between him and Aldebaran.

Just a little farther. Once Rentaro got under its torso, it wouldn’t be able to attack him. As long as he could get there…

However, Rentaro suddenly lost his balance and stumbled over nothing.

Huh? Still not knowing what was going on, the ground drew nearer, and he fell heavily into the mud face-first, groaning.

Rentaro looked hesitatingly at his right leg. “N…no…way…”

It was gone. There was nothing past his thigh on his right leg. There was just a pile of white ash shaped like a leg that had fallen like a bad joke. His artificial leg, made of the pinnacle next-generation metal, Super-Varanium alloy, was completely gone.

His whole body trembled. Without that, he could not walk. Without that—

Just then, Aldebaran suddenly turned its back to Rentaro, and its tail swung toward him at a terrible speed. Centrifugal force sent mud flying as it approached. Immediately, Rentaro rolled into the hollowed-out area near him that was shaped like a mortar.

A fierce roar grazed him. He had avoided being hit directly, but the shock wave given off by the tail sent Rentaro’s body flying into the air like a diseased leaf, and he was thrown, back first, into a standing boulder.

There was an unpleasant crack, and he slowly fell off the boulder and slid to the ground, falling face-first into the mud. He felt pressure all over his body when he breathed, like he had broken at least a few ribs and couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs. His breaths became short and shallow. Even when he put his hands on the ground and forced himself up, the next instant, he violently coughed up blood and a red flower bloomed on the muddy ground.

Rentaro wiped his mouth in disbelief and then opened his fingers in front of his eyes to look at his bloody palm. Suddenly, strength left his arm like a string had been cut, and his whole body fell down. Cold sweat oozed from his pores. Even though he felt like he was in a hurry, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t muster the strength to move his body even an inch.

Finally, he was unable to move anything of his own free will, and he turned slowly, head over heels, in the mud.

He thought he was going to die.

Lady Luck had left him. However, there had been no way it was going to go well from the start. There were things in this world that just weren’t meant to be. The fate of mass extinction was just one of those things. That was how it was.

His vision distorted. Everything was painted black with despair, and his eyelids grew heavy.

“Satomi, you’re really beat up, huh?”

“Huh?” Just then, there was a thud, and his vision was filled with the fluttering hem of a long coat. His senior disciple, wearing a visor and white coat, had his back to him. “Sh…Sho…ma… Why…?”

“I understand the situation. I’ll go.”

“No… It’s…impossible… You’d have to…apply a shock…deep…into its body…” After saying that much, Rentaro gave a start.

“Have you forgotten, Satomi? My technique is considered heresy. It has the power to destroy an object from the inside out.”

His thoughts were distant, but he desperately shook his head. “N…can’t… No…you can’t… Shoma, bro…you’ll die…”

“Satomi, you saw my technique, too, didn’t you? It was a sinister technique that twisted the Tendo style. It must be sealed into the depths of the earth. It’s just as Master Sukekiyo said—I did actually realize it a long time ago. But it just took me too long to act on it.”

Shoma put his arm around the helpless Rentaro and brought him to the back of a small, nearby hill. Shoma didn’t say anything else as he turned his back to Rentaro and ran off.

Rentaro stretched out his hand, but it wouldn’t reach. He tried to call out to stop him, but his voice was hoarse and no sound came out.

Shoma was going to go away again. Even though Rentaro hadn’t wanted to sacrifice anyone else. Even though he had been fighting for a bright future where no one else would have to die.

After a while, loud war cries and rumbles in the ground continued from the other side of the hill, but Rentaro had no way of knowing how things were going. He gritted his teeth and dragged himself desperately with his remaining arm, crawling to the top of the hill. He saw that the fight between Aldebaran and Shoma had reached its climax.

Shoma moved with a superhuman agility and dodged literally all of Aldebaran’s continuous attacks, going under its torso.

“Noooooooo, Shoma, Shomaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Rentaro couldn’t see after that, but he was sure that Shoma did what he had to do.

Suddenly, the sound disappeared from his ears, and there was a glint and a ball of fire that dazzled his eyes. He was blown away by the hot shock wave and rolled over and over down the back of the hill.

And then, he saw it. The fireball that came from the EP bomb stretched vertically from the rising air current and became a giant mushroom shape that sucked up all the dust and structures from the surface of the ground.

“Shoma! Shoma! Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” With a dreadful roar, a shock wave violently swept across the sky. Rentaro screamed into the sky until his throat was ragged.