Vengeance Is Mine

by Shiden Kanzaki

  From between the treetops, Rentaro caught glimpses of explosions’ red flames painting the battlefield crimson.

  “Leader, I’ve found them!” Midori shouted toward him. Looking in the direction she was pointing, Rentaro, who couldn’t see as well as she could in the dark, couldn’t immediately tell what she was talking about.

  He signaled Enju by tapping on her shoulder three times, and she used her rabbit jumping power to leap even higher. Rentaro gritted his teeth against the invisible hand that seemed to push down on him as they accelerated, until the pressure finally disappeared. With the sound of the wind in his ears, he opened his eyes narrowly and saw that they were already fifty meters in the air. Straining to look in the area where Midori had pointed earlier, he saw a pitch-black group, darker than the darkness, squirming in a clearing.

  And a straight line from that was the main civil officer force led by Nagamasa Gado. There was no sign that the main force had noticed the impending danger of the Gastrea sneaking in from behind them.

  “We’re going down, Rentaro!” After Enju spoke, they lost inertia and traced the trajectory of a free fall. The forest rushed toward them at a terrifying speed and the fundamental fear of falling engraved in his DNA ran through his whole body. However, Enju safely thrust her legs at a thick branch, and with exquisite timing, bent her legs perfectly to break their fall and jump toward the next branch. Before they had time to relax, Rentaro gave the hand signal to attack to those behind him.

  Everyone leapt off their branches.

  This time, he could see the enemy even more clearly. Their chests were made up of eight parts, and a pair of antennae extended from their heads like whiskers; each antenna had a pair of small compound eyes. The hard exoskeletons, like those of crustaceans, glittered like obsidian. And there were a lot of them.

  The Gastrea were shaped exactly like pill bugs, but in order to infect humans with their bodily fluids, their mouthparts were stretched wide and had giant fangs peeking out. They came up to about Rentaro’s chest, but because they did not have crazy shapes, Rentaro concluded that they were all Stage One simple factors.

  The Gastrea crowded together in a diamond formation, but because they were so vigilantly waiting for a chance to launch a surprise attack on the main force, they had, luckily, still not noticed Rentaro and the others.

  After a while, one dropped suddenly from the sky and screeched to the others upon spotting Rentaro’s crew, but by then it was too late.

  Rentaro and Enju jumped into the middle of the Gastrea gaggle side by side. Just before they landed, Enju cut Rentaro loose, and Rentaro rolled forward to break his fall as he landed. Enju released her terrifying natural leg powers and darted around, obliterating the enemy’s admittedly crowded battle formation. Her hurricane roundhouse kick surpassed even the claws of a tiger, ripping through the armor of the crustaceans easily. With their exoskeletons peeled off, their bodily fluids spurted into the sky, and they were covered by the high-pitched screams of the Gastrea.

  The Varanium weights on the bottoms of Enju’s shoes drew out a strong and unparalleled kick that was like a flash of death for Gastrea.

  They could not lose.

  “Haaaaaaa!” Rentaro released his artificial limbs. The artificial skin covering his right arm peeled off, exposing his black Super-Varanium artificial arm. Gritting his teeth at the fuzzy pain burning into his brain, Rentaro made a fist and raised it, activating its power.

  Empty golden shell casings were kicked out from his arm. At the same time, his arm was pushed forward with intense acceleration. He felt the thrust of Homura Kasen sink into the flesh of a Gastrea that weighed less than seventy kilograms. The next instant, it was thrown into the horizon like a bowling ball, impacting the surrounding Gastrea and scattering them like pins.

  The Gastrea had been planning a surprise attack, but they had ended up on the receiving end of one, and it threw them into confusion.

  The other members of Rentaro’s adjuvant landed like shooting stars, crushing enemies left and right. Midori’s nails sprinkled death before they could even be seen, and when the Gastrea tried to retreat, they were caught in invisible spider silk and exposed to the appalling slaughter of Tamaki’s Varanium chain saw.

  Soon, about thirty Gastrea had screamed and were starting to flee, succumbing to fear.

  A violent urge filled Rentaro. He couldn’t let them get away. Behind them spread the undefended Tokyo Area. If even one Gastrea created a Pandemic, it would be more than enough.

  “Leave it to me.” Just then, there was a hint of the smell of citrus shampoo right next to him. Kisara, with her long hair fluttering, danced out in front of Rentaro. Using her right foot as an axis, she rotated her body once, slipping her sword out of its sheath with centrifugal force. “Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing First Style, Number 8—” There was a ringing sound as the sword came out of the sheath. “Muei Musou.”

  The thirty Gastrea that had turned around and were starting to flee were suddenly cut in two, and there were screams and splashes of blood. In addition, the trunks of the pine trees and sugar maples in the area were also cleaved in half, and all the trees within range of the attack were felled.

  Rentaro stood still in amazement, forgetting for a moment that they were in the middle of battle. A whirlwind slash. It was the only way to describe that attack.

  But just then, Rentaro was surprised as the skin of the Gastrea that had been cut down started to foam, and then started to stand, convulsing. Gastrea that had escaped damage to their hearts and brains were showing signs of regenerating.

  “Kisara, get back!”

  Realizing what Rentaro was trying to do, Kisara retreated.

  Rentaro made eye contact with all the Promoters. Standing in a line horizontally, they drew their guns from their belts. The impact of the kickback reached Rentaro’s elbows and his eyes were dazzled by the muzzle fire that bloomed in the dark of the night. They pulled the trigger continuously without even checking to see where their shots landed.

  Rentaro, Kisara, Shoma, and Tamaki fired with unwavering control, rushing into the bodies of the Gastrea that were trying to regenerate, and the Varanium’s regeneration-inhibiting properties started to work. The Gastrea trying to revive themselves were pierced with a storm of bullets, and this time, they stopped moving.

  There was a strong smell of gun smoke from the muzzle of Rentaro’s XD that had emptied itself of ammunition. Rentaro changed magazines and waited for a while, but after realizing there was no sign of regeneration, he sighed.

  They had defeated them all.

  And because he thought that, when one of the bodies at Kisara’s feet suddenly jumped up and sprang at her, he wasn’t able to deal with it in time. “Kisara!” he shouted.

  At his voice, a look of astonishment appeared on her face.

  Just as the Gastrea’s fangs were about to pierce through Kisara’s skin, a fist came from the side, twisting into its torso. The Gastrea that had been hit by the fist expanded suddenly and then burst, like a balloon that had been pricked with a needle.

  A sullen mist of blood hung in the air, and Rentaro and Kisara stopped in their tracks, eyes wide. In the end, Shoma was the one who had saved her.

  However, Kisara was so astonished that she even forgot to thank him. Abruptly, Rentaro’s and Kisara’s eyes met. Even without words, he could tell that she was asking, “What was that move just now?”—because Rentaro felt exactly the same way.

  If she were just asking the name, he could have told her that it was Rokuro Kabuto, which drew a circle around the opponent as it was released, but that wasn’t a move that made the opponent explode.

  Shoma had improved on the move.

  Seeing Rentaro’s and Kisara’s eyes on him, Shoma turned his body around awkwardly. It was as if he suddenly regretted using the move.

  “Leader Satomi, we have finished here.” Turning around, Rentaro was just in time to see Midori slipping her claws out of the last pill bug’s body. She had skewer
ed the brain easily through its armor by going through spaces between segments, and the light of life had already been extinguished in the Gastrea’s eyes.

  In the middle of a terrible battlefield filled with corpses, the four Initiators looked at him with their eyes shining red.

  They killed them all in such a short time… Rentaro shivered. They were strong. This was the true value of the adjuvant system.

  Rentaro returned to himself with a start when he realized they were all watching him, waiting for orders. “All right, now let’s hurry up and go back and help the main force.”

  Rentaro and the others tried their best to move quietly as they hurried back. As he held onto Enju’s shoulder, with her kicking trees and rustling leaves as she moved, for some reason, the uneasiness he felt showed no sign of going away.

  It was true that they had nipped the surprise attack in the bud, but everything they had encountered so far was Stage Ones.

  Where were the Stage Twos and higher?

  Finally, they could hear the rapport of weapons and hardened voices beyond the trees, and see red through the leaves. Suddenly, the forest cleared, and his vision widened all at once. The rough voices that had been muffled by the trees became noticeably louder.

  Because they had been in the dark until now, Rentaro involuntarily narrowed his eyes as light flowed into his retinas all at once. “Damn it, they’re already here…?”

  They had only been away from the formation for a short time, but the battlefield had changed considerably. The battle formation that had been organized before had collapsed, and they had been pushed by the Gastrea all the way back to the tents. Flames were blazing here and there all over their own camp. A melee of enemy and ally mixed together; shouts and cries, guns and swords—the battlefield played the music of pandemonium.

  An enormous, cylindrical Gastrea that looked like a snake but had a mouth like a sucker smashed the tents around it as it writhed; it was a leech Gastrea. Fighting more than equally with a pair that had swords in both hands was a Gastrea that looked like a strange combination of spider and scorpion—a pseudoscorpion Gastrea. There was a group of civil officers with spears who had gathered to form a line around a boar almost ten meters in length.

  Pushed back by the fierce attacks, the civil officers fought hard within the camp, but no matter how Rentaro looked at it, there was too big of a difference in their numbers, and the civil officers were at a disadvantage. In this situation, it didn’t matter which squad they were in anymore.

  In the back of his mind, Hidehiko Gado’s face looking at him with betrayal crossed his mind for a moment, and he shook his head. He had to at least try to find them. Rentaro signaled his team members to follow him and then ran like the wind through the battlefield. Fortunately, all the combatants were focused on their own bouts, so they were able to weave through the gaps as they ran.

  Climbing the small hill in front of them, Rentaro suddenly found a shining, dark gray exoskeleton and sighed with relief. There was no mistaking it. It was Hidehiko Gado.

  In a spot a little ways away from the battlefield, not even giving any orders, he was wandering around idly.

  “Hey, you. This place is done for. Give the order for the troops’ immediate retreat.” Rentaro started to stretch out his arm, but he noticed something strange and stopped his hand in midair.

  “Well, if it isn’t Leader Satomi.” Hidehiko turned his pale face around to face Rentaro. Rentaro had always imagined that the man shut himself in a research lab all day, but at that moment he was more than pale; he was pallid. Even though he had been so nervous before the attack that even the roots of his teeth were shaking, right now, the man was strangely calm.

  However, rather than putting Rentaro at ease, it seemed eerie. The problem was the object Hidehiko held in his right hand.

  “Have you seen the Spear of Light?” Hidehiko asked.

  “The Spear of Light?” Rentaro repeated.

  Hidehiko chuckled. “If those guys have such a thing, then humans have no chance of winning in the first place. It’s over.” Saying that, he showed Rentaro the object he held in his hand.

  Next to Rentaro, Enju took a sharp breath.

  It was a human arm. It was a distorted cross section, as if it had been ripped off, and there was nothing past the elbow. From its size, it looked to be that of a young girl. It was probably his Initiator’s.

  “Kokone and I were a real family. We said we would be together even until the end and held hands the whole time. That’s when we were attacked by the Spear of Light… Before I knew it, the spear went astray and came right next to me. Kokone disappeared, leaving only her arm.” One glance at Hidehiko laughing loudly, and Rentaro could tell that he was not in a normal state of mind. “But I’m glad that you’re okay, Leader Satomi.”

  Seeing Hidehiko take a step as his armor creaked, Rentaro involuntarily took a step back. In the end, that action decided their fate.

  Suddenly, the ground started to crack beneath Hidehiko’s feet, and there was a sudden bump, and it split in half with a roar.

  “Look out!” Rentaro pulled so hard he thought his arm would be dislocated, and before he knew it, he had fallen on his back on the ground.

  Where Hidehiko had been standing, about ten meters of the ground had completely fallen away, and there was a giant hole. Gado had disappeared.

  Suddenly returning to his senses, Rentaro quickly took a flashlight from his hip and ran up to the hole. He covered his mouth to keep out the choking earth and its smoky cloud of dust. The second he shined the light on the bottom, however, he met the eyes of creatures. They’d dug their way out of the earth.

  Except—to be more precise, their eyes had degenerated so much and were so small that they could no longer see. They had fur that looked like wet velvet. Their five gigantic claws that had become enlarged were for pushing through the dirt, but the feelers and bright red flower that broke through their fur gave off the stink of a Rafflesia plant. If they didn’t have the feelers radiating out from the tips of their noses covering their faces, Rentaro probably never would have noticed that they were star-nosed mole Gastrea.

  He had not expected this attack from directly below them at all, and it gave him the chills. They were probably Stage Twos. From what he could see, there were about five of them. They’d caused the cave-in and were coming to attack them.

  When the moles realized they’d been seen, they quickly rushed into a side tunnel.

  “Tinaaaaa!” Rentaro called out.

  “Yes, sir!” Tina leapt and jumped down to the bottom of the hole and thrust the antitank rifle that was almost as big as she was into the side tunnel and pulled the trigger. There was a dull bang, and a great muzzle flash spouted out of the tip of the rifle from the V-shaped muzzle break. The discharge gas that flowed backward blew up a cloud of dust that covered the surrounding area. In an instant, there were screams of Gastrea coming from deep in the tunnel. Without pausing to take a breath, Tina changed her aim and pulled the trigger again and again, mercilessly, until finally all the Gastrea were silent.

  “Big Brother, I have defeated them,” she stated.

  Nodding once at Tina, who had jumped out of the hole and returned to his side, Rentaro looked over the battlefield.

  It had become a melee with no logic or reason. Once it had come to this, the commander’s instructions had no way of reaching them. On the other hand, he did not have the power or authority to do anything about their current battle.

  Rentaro closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. “We will split up and help those civil officers who are fighting tough battles.” Everyone gave a nod. Rentaro closed his eyes and took three steadying breaths, then announced, “Let’s go.”

  Promising to reunite, they bumped fists and split up by pair.

  Rentaro ran along the battlefield, looking for civil officers who needed to be rescued. Enju was able to make enemies retreat and rescue their allies at what seemed like lightning speed. They rescued an Initiator who h
ad been cornered by Gastrea and was desperately scooting backward to escape, then saved a pair that had lost their comrades, and carried out the wounded without a break.

  Some of the people they saved were dumbfounded and stupefied, some repeated their thanks more than necessary, and some looked Rentaro in the eye and squeezed his hand, saying nothing as they returned to the battlefield.

  However, as was natural on a battlefield where life and death competed with each other, they didn’t meet with just beautiful situations. Unfortunately, they were unable to make it in time to save an Initiator who they watched get ground up between numerous rows of sharpened teeth. In particular, their eyes were filled with the sight of confused Initiators who lost their Promoters, their commanders, and emotional pillars of support.

  In one place, there was a girl sitting unmoving next to the corpse of her Promoter. When Rentaro pulled her arm to try to get her to a safe place, he was met with resistance.

  “Stop,” said the girl. “If I leave this man’s side, I’ll be hit a lot.”

  The words were an account of the kind of treatment she had received from her Promoter when he was still alive. No matter how many times Rentaro told her that her Promoter had died, the girl wouldn’t believe it, and Rentaro left to rescue someone else. When he passed by that area again, a large number of Gastrea had swarmed over, devouring something greedily with their backs turned to him, looking like they were fighting over something in front of them. They seemed to notice Rentaro, but they showed no sign of coming to attack him. They must have really liked whatever they were eating there.

  In another place, there was a Promoter who was turning into a Gastrea. He was aiming his gun so that he could at least die as a human, but an Initiator with her dyed hair in buns stood in his way, imploring him with tears in her eyes. “Shun, it’s not too late. So don’t kill yourself!”

  The next instant, the transformation was complete, and the girl’s head was plucked off by the Gastrea behind her. Her body fell, spinning like a top.

  The smoke made Rentaro’s eyes sting. His breathing became shallow. His face was probably black with soot and mud. The effective temperature was around a blistering 50 degrees Celsius. Rentaro ripped off his necktie at the battlefield’s heat.