Black Bullet - Volume 6 - Chapter 4.03

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“Oh. Swordtail was defeated as well…?”

“Yes. It was absolutely deplorable.”

In a break room inside the Central Control Development Organization—the so-called “black building”—Hitsuma looked out the window toward the city, back turned to his conversational partner.

Yuga Mitsugi, watching his still-turned back, found himself confused. “I thought you’d be angrier than that,” he said.

“I am,” came the reply. “But before I gnash my teeth about it like a spoiled child, I wanted to think about how we’re going to get Rentaro Satomi’s head.”

Yuga was impressed, although he decided not to mention this. Hitsuma was not the most satisfying boss he had ever worked with, but even he had matured a bit throughout this ordeal.

“I suppose one reason is that we looked down on Hotaru Kouro’s powers. I couldn’t pinpoint what kind of Gastrea factor she had, but the way Swordtail described it, she literally came back from the dead. That, or her ability allows her to fake death, somehow, to throw her enemy off guard.”

“How do we deal with that?”

It’s about time you saw things my way, thought Yuga as he removed a rifle round from his pocket and rolled it across the table with a finger. The tip was black, the rest of the body a shiny brass. To Hitsuma, it looked like just another Varanium-tipped bullet. He turned around and scowled.

“That’s your big strategy? Hummingbird had a Varanium knife; Swordtail had Varanium-tipped ammo. Look what that got them—”

“Hang on a moment, Mr. Hitsuma,” Yuga said, raising a hand to interrupt. “The tip of this bullet contains enriched Varanium—metal that was melted down and concentrated. Upon impact, the Varanium inside bursts and spreads across the target’s body. It’s enough to kill any Gastrea up to Stage Three, as well as Initiators. It was a pain in the ass procuring these, lemme tell you.”

“Stage Three?”

“You’re familiar with that system, right? Targets you can kill with a normal Varanium weapon are classified as Stage One, and that covers most Gastrea and Initiators. If the target doesn’t fall into that field, then we go up to Stage Two and beyond. With Stage Two, the Varanium keeps them from regenerating their bodies. You can still kill them if you decapitate or dismember them, or if you set them on fire. Stage Three, though, those guys can grow back arms and stuff. It’s like being wounded causes their bodies’ cells to call out to one another.”

“Call out…?” Hitsuma said, eyebrows pressed farther down. Yuga grinned internally. It was exactly the response he’d expected.

“And Stage Four’s even crazier. It can regenerate itself even if most of its organs are toasted. To kill them, you have to blow them to dust. That’s the only way. That’s the stage Aldebaran was at. Then, with Stage Five, you can put them in deep freeze, in a vacuum, toss ’em into molten lava running at two thousand degrees…but as long as the environment’s right, they’ll regenerate. Like, from the molecular level on up. Right now, in the year 2031, there’s no physical way to kill them.”

Hitsuma brushed a hand aside, fed up with the subject. “All right, all right,” he said, eyes swiveled askance at Yuga from his handsome face. “I’m not here to listen to a bunch of gossip. So you’re saying that bullet’s good enough to kill Hotaru Kouro?”

“It’s already in the bag, sir. At most, Hotaru would be Stage Two. No matter how good she is at regeneration, Stage Three’s got to be the max.”

“Hmm. Well. I would like to leave them to you…but I think we won’t need those bullets you’ve gathered after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“We might find Rentaro Satomi and Hotaru Kouro’s hideout before long. We triangulated their general region based on their escape routes from the expressway shoot-out and the Shiba Heavy Weapons attack. I’m having my people sweep the streets.”

Oh. Was that all?

“Even if you find them, sir,” Yuga said as he shrugged and put his hands in the air, “no regular officer’s gonna have a chance against them.”

“Yes,” Hitsuma agreed. “So I’m sending in civsecs.”

Yuga found himself unconsciously narrowing his eyes. “…Civsecs?”

Hitsuma poured a paper cup of coffee from a nearby pot and offered it to Yuga. The assassin waved it away.

“I thought you weren’t using them?”

He already had to cover up the total failure of the police to capture Rentaro at the Magata Plaza Hotel, despite the swarms of uniformed personnel on-site. That cover-up should have prevented him from enlisting civsecs or any other public service for this case.

“We can’t be that picky any longer…in so many words.”

“Who did you send over?”

Hitsuma paused to take a dramatic sip of coffee.

“A group perfect for the job, is who. They’ve already been briefed and are en route to the site. Sadly, you haven’t been activated.”

Yuga deliberated in silence for a moment. Then he quietly shook his head.

“I will be on standby for Rentaro Satomi at the time and place we discussed.”

“Why would you do that?” a perplexed Hitsuma asked.

“…You’ve never traded blows with an opponent before, Mr. Hitsuma. I think this might be working on a dimension beyond your understanding. He’s going to be there. I know he will.”

At this, Hitsuma crossed his arms. Then he emptied the rest of the cup down his throat, apparently abandoning the effort, and tossed it in the bin. There was a plip as the cup joined the mountain of its kin down below.

“…You can do what you like.”

Yuga nodded lightly. Hitsuma nodded back.

“Well, then…”

“Yeah.”

That was all the good-byes they needed.

With a salute, Yuga left the break room and, by himself, took the first step to his final battle.