Black Bullet - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.14

14

“No…!”

The Seitenshi rose from her throne in horror, both hands covering her lips.

The police commissioner in the crew cut, hands clasped behind his back, sadly shook his head.

“They were apparently forced to neutralize him after he put up heavy resistance. There was nothing we could do.”

The shock was similar at the Tendo Civil Security Agency.

“You, you’re kidding me…”

Kisara, rearing away, was blocked by her desk from going farther. Hitsuma quickly acted to hold her before her legs gave out.

“I’m deeply sorry, Ms. Tendo. I told my men multiple times to take Satomi alive if they could, but apparently there were some crossed wires in our command chain.”

Kisara shook violently as she embraced Hitsuma.

“What am I gonna do…? I… What am I gonna do? Enju, Tina, Satomi… They’re all gone.”

There was something moving about the sight—such a firm, resolute woman, looking so pitifully small now. Hitsuma turned her head away from the desk, then lightly blew into her ear. It practically made her leap out of his arms.

“Now you’re all alone,” he sweetly whispered. “I want to be here. To help you forget about your loneliness… Will you marry me, Kisara?”

They both had their respective chins on each other’s shoulders so he couldn’t gauge her face, but through the shaking, he could feel one firm, palpable nod on his body.

Now this girl is mine.

Resisting the urge to shout out in joy, he turned his face downward.

Her hair was as jet-black as a raven, her skin almost a sickly white, her neck thin. Her collarbone was flushed with pink, no doubt from her emotional agitation. Her breasts, like fruit, pushed up by her black school uniform, were ripe and ready for the picking, practically dripping with sweetness radiating off her body. It was like a work of art.

Just as he was reaching toward one of them, hoping for perhaps a small taste, the cell phone in his breast pocket rang. He nodded at Kisara, almost groaning in frustration in the process, and answered it.

“This is Nest. Dark Stalker says he needs to talk to you about Rentaro Satomi. It’s urgent.”

It was now one o’clock in the morning.

Police officers swarmed to the riverside where Rentaro fell, Yuga Mitsugi among the crowd. He stared at the river with his hands in his pockets, motionless.

Is this it? he wondered to himself.

Rentaro Satomi… He considered the life of his adversary: the savior of Tokyo Area. Part of the civsec pair whose names were on the lips of people worldwide. The slayer of Kagetane Hiruko, Rank 134. Slayer of the Zodiac Scorpion. Slayer of Tina Sprout, Rank 98. Slayer of Aldebaran, the immortal Gastrea.

If this was any normal civsec, he would’ve been 100 percent dead in these circumstances. But was he?

A bespectacled young man sidled up to him.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Hitsuma,” he said as he stared at the black water, “can you get divers on the scene right away?”

Hitsuma eyed him doubtfully, wondering what inspired this.

“There’s no point doing that until sunrise.”

“It’ll give me some peace of mind, at least. It’ll be too late by then anyway.”

Hitsuma’s eyebrows arched downward. “You think Rentaro Satomi is alive? You said you defeated him.”

“I’m saying that we need to prepare for anything. Common sense doesn’t apply to him.”

“That’s high praise, coming from you.”

“You haven’t fought him, Mr. Hitsuma. You wouldn’t understand. My specs were defined so I’d be able to suppress Rentaro Satomi. When we did the calculations before the mission, there was supposed to be a 0.02 percent chance of Satomi even landing a blow on me. But even though I deflected it, Satomi landed the first strike. A kick. When we unleashed our eyes, he managed to graze me three times because I couldn’t calculate his moves fast enough. In the end, I was hit by a rain of shrapnel I had no chance of dodging. Satomi was starting to get accustomed to my moves.”

“……”

“Wouldn’t that make you sleep better, too, Mr. Hitsuma, if we found an arm or his head or something?”

“Look, are you threatening me?”

Yuga shrugged and raised his hands in surrender.

“No, no, no. I’m just making a suggestion. Just get those divers in here, all right? As long as we don’t find a body, I think it’ll be smarter for all of us if we treat him as alive.”