Gado tightened his fist and hit the stage as hard as he could. “We will win! We will win and make history! And our names will be written in the history books. We will overcome the Gastrea and fight without drawing back. Make your nation, your descendants, the spirits of those who died defending the country proud! Let’s kill them!”
A cheer rose loud enough to make the ground shake. Renataro was dumbfounded at the speech, buried as he was by the cheers around him. The content was extreme, but Gado probably took into consideration the bloodlust of the Promoters and thought something simple like this would be easier to understand.
Rentaro rarely respected his superiors, but he had no choice but to recognize that Gado was shrewd and able. So long as this man stood at the head of the civil officer corps, there was no need to worry that they would be steered wrong.
Next, Gado moved on to explain the specifics of the plan they would carry out with the self-defense force for the Third Kanto Battle. However, unlike the general policy part of Gado’s speech, the more Rentaro listened to the explanation, the more puzzled he got.
Currently, their battle formation had Monolith 32 between the Gastrea corps and the combined self-defense and civil officer forces, with the two sides glaring at each other. The start of the battle was predicted to be the same time as when the Monolith collapsed. It was fine up to that point. However, the problem was how Gado was saying the civil officers would be used.
Rentaro had heard before this started that the civils would be under the command of the self-defense force, but he thought they would follow behind as the decisive rear guard and trample the Gastrea.
Rentaro glanced behind him and spotted the camp lights of the self-defense force near Monolith 32 deep into the darkness. They were too far away; if the civil officer troops were really expected to be used as a decisive force, then they should have been deployed closer to the self-defense force. It was as if they were trying to keep bad blood at a distance, deploying the self-defense force and civil officer troops separately. But having the two forces a kilometer or two apart would be ineffective.
At this rate, even if the self-defense force wanted the support of the civil officer troops, in the time between the request for help and when the civil officers rushed to the scene, the battle would already be decided.
This was like the self-defense force was keeping the civil officer squads at a distance on purpose. Rentaro thought as much and then shook his head softly. They really were trying to keep them apart.
Across the country, civil officers were hated for the most part. From the police organizations’ perspective, civil officers were thorns in their sides, territory thieves who overstepped their jurisdictions and intruded on the scene. From the SDF’s perspective, civil officers ended up interfering with the duty of defending the country, which the SDF had taken on. It wasn’t surprising that they wouldn’t like civil officers in the slightest. In this scenario, COs were probably called the decisive backup in name only, but were really meant to do nothing. The SDF was most likely going to attempt a settlement without them.
It looked like Rentaro was not the only one to realize this. There were a considerable number of Promoters who looked disappointed after hearing Gado’s explanation. Gado himself realized as well, of course, and tried to pass on the information as calmly as possible, but he could not completely conceal his disappointment and resentment in the space between breaths.
After finishing a cursory explanation, Gado said with a glare, “Does anyone have any questions?”
Rentaro looked around him, but no one seemed to have any questions, so he raised his own hand.
Next to him, Kisara said, “Hey, Satomi!” and poked him with an elbow. Apparently, she was afraid that he would pick a fight.
“You over there,” said Gado. “You’re young, aren’t you? Who are you?”
“IP Rank 300, Rentaro Satomi,” said Rentaro.
There was a small stir from those around him.
“Oh, you’re the one…,” said Gado with realization. “I welcome you. I will take anyone who can lend their strength right now.”
“Hey, what did your explanation just now mean?” Rentaro asked.
Gado looked embarrassed at the directness of the question. “We have been ordered to prepare ourselves and stand by in the rear until we receive other orders from the self-defense force. That’s all.”
“Then, why don’t we just withdraw the troops to the Flame of Return ten kilometers away? If we’re there, we can use the natural fortress of the dilapidated buildings with a lot of places to hide, which would give us an advantage in guerilla warfare. Over here, it’s all open fields with too good a view. You know that we civil officers aren’t good at fighting on fields, right? Then—”
Gado cut him off. “I know what you want to say. However, if we fall back that far, we will not be able to respond to the self-defense force’s support request promptly.”
“Do you really believe something like that will come?”
Gado did not say anything, but his eyes flashed, and Rentaro and Gado glared at each other wordlessly. The commotion around them had gotten so rowdy that it was out of control. Suddenly, Gado seemed to remember something and started to speak, but he ignored Rentaro’s question and instead gave a quick rundown of the next day’s schedule, and then hurriedly left with his Initiator in tow.
After everyone returned in groups to their squad tents, Kisara put both hands on her hips as if to slow herself down, and when it apparently wasn’t enough, she opened her mouth angrily. “Jeez! You scared me. You did snap at him after all! Can you be in the presence of someone important without flaring up at them?”
Rentaro scratched his head hard. “It’s not like I snapped at him. I was just trying to resolve the doubt in my mind.”
Help came from an unexpected source. “I agree with Satomi,” said Shoma. “Something was off about Commander Gado. If Satomi hadn’t asked, I would have.”
“Wait, Shoma. Satomi is my employee. Will you please not spoil him?”
“But if I think about the self-defense force taking them all down, it seems kind of anticlimactic,” said Tamaki.
“It’s fine, isn’t it, Tamaki?” said Yuzuki. “It’d be fine if we got through this without anything happening. Because then everyone can go home safely.”
Listening to the Katagiri siblings talk, Rentaro mumbled, “I hope that’s the case…”
“What is it, boyo? There something you wanna say?” interjected Tamaki.
Rentaro shook his head hurriedly. “There wasn’t any deep meaning behind it or anything…”
Sensing that the air was growing dark between them, Kisara tried to smooth things over. “I know! Since we were actually able to form an adjuvant, wanna do something for good luck?”
The other seven looked at each other. No one had any objections.
Rentaro and the others went outside and took some branches from their allotment of firewood, making a pile and lighting the portable fuel. In no time, red flames stretched up and heat warmed their skin. They gazed at the tongues of fire for a while in silence, stealing fleeting glances at each other. The faces of those around the bonfire glowed red in the darkness, and from the treetops came the sound of late-summer insects. It was a strange and wondrous atmosphere.
What would happen to them from now on? Would they really be able to fight to the end without losing anyone?
Rentaro pulled his XD gun from his hip and raised it over his head, holding it aloft over the flames, and looked around him. “Everyone, thanks for being willing to help out someone like me. In the three days between the collapse of the Monolith and the arrival of the replacement Monolith, let’s fight through together with all our strength.”
“Jeez, you’re overreacting.” Smiling to hide her embarrassment, Kisara drew the Yukikage from her hip and crossed it above Rentaro’s XD.
“My life is yours, Big Brother. For your sake, I will do anything.” Tina lifted her sniper rifle and cross
ed it over Rentaro’s and Kisara’s.
“Jeez, Tina, you’re too serious. Just what’s so great about this perv?” Yuzuki grumbled, stretching her arm to cross the others.
“Hey, hey, hey, Rentaro Satomi. Be grateful for this strength I’m lending ya!” Tamaki added his Mateba.
“It’s a great responsibility, huh, Satomi?” Suppressing a chuckle, Shoma raised his Sig gun.
“I-I think Leader Satomi is a good leader!” Midori released her nails and lifted them up.
“Everyone…” Rentaro was at a loss for words for a moment.
Then, suddenly he felt something heavy on both shoulders and stumbled forward. Enju had jumped on Rentaro’s shoulders and sat so she was riding them. “We have gathered all these strong people. We will definitely win!” Enju lifted her small and graceful hand, and from eight directions, eight hearts crossed.
Enju smiled as she led the others in a cheer. “All right, everyone, let’s work hard together! Hey, hey—”
Enju’s voice seemed far from his ears as Rentaro thought. In the end, Rentaro was unable to get their last pair.
He was most worried that the Gastrea Aldebaran had appeared near the Monolith, which normal Gastrea would not go near; and that it had accomplished the feat of invading and withdrawing as it pleased.
There was also the problem of the corpses that had been cut down on the main street. It wasn’t Kisara. She hadn’t arrived yet at the time, and she had no reason to do something like that in the first place.
He had a mountain of vague worries. He also had a mountain of specific mysteries to concern himself with. However, he had to move forward. The huddle the eight of them were in dipped inwardly, and the next instant, it bounced up toward the sky.
“—Ho!!!” They chorused together.
The shouts of eight voices echoed through the night sky, and the smoke beacon celebrating the formation of their adjuvant rose high.
BLACK BULLET 3
CHAPTER 02
DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD BY FIRE
1
“It’s time. Stop.” Rentaro pushed the stopwatch, and groans of people relaxing could be heard here and there.
“Ahh.…”
“Whoa…”
Kisara clapped her hands. “Okay, pass your answer sheets to the front!”
The students of the outdoor classroom calmly passed their papers forward. The foremost student represented the others and handed the papers to Rentaro. He bundled the stiff, low-quality papers together on the crude table, put them in his bag, and then lifted his head.
“How was it?” he asked them.
He was met with reproaches of “I couldn’t do it!” and “It was hard!”
Kisara, who made the questions, looked conflicted, but after noticing the smiling Enju and prim Tina, it looked like at least a couple of them had passed.
Rentaro had checked the questions ahead of time, but multiplying two-digit numbers together looked to still be a little too hard for the children of the Outer District. Rentaro had known before he enrolled Enju, but it looked like he had no choice but to say that the children of the Outer District were at a lower academic level than normal ten-year-olds. However, that did not mean that the IQ of the children of the Outer District was lower.
In fact, Rentaro and Kisara were the ones who were surprised at how quickly they absorbed new information. Generally, grades were determined by the total value of three main parameters: memory, critical thinking to apply things memorized, and interest. Rentaro, who had a vast difference in his grades for biology and history even though they were both memorization subjects, was painfully aware that he could not underestimate the power of interest.
Like an Italian artist once said, eating against one’s will is injurious to health, and study without interest makes the memory retain nothing it takes in. Of course, the Outer District had few recreations, so to the girls, even studying seemed to be fun, and that was a big part of it. However, even though Rentaro had not known them for very long, he felt like outside of that, they also knew that studying was something that would be beneficial to their futures.
Rentaro tilted his head and squinted at the rays of sunlight shining down on them. Conversely, what about himself? His earliest memories were of burned fields after the Great Gastrea War, of collapsed homes and buildings, people crying and shouting, black smoke that stung his eyes, and the stink of decay.
After everything had been taken away from him, the empty Rentaro was able to stand again after being filled with hatred. Hatred became the fuel that drove his body, and it had provided temporary relief.
But in the end, that was nothing more than a stopgap measure. Eventually, he ran out of fuel, of course, and he came to see everything as meaningless, finally losing his ability to keep up his enthusiasm for study and dropping out of school. Even so, he had been praised as a prodigy and whatnot when he was young.
To Rentaro, the students in front of him were dazzling. He was sure these girls were the hope of Tokyo Area. Rentaro found this personal opinion an unyielding one, even if everyone else in the world chanted opposition. But Rentaro shook his head and pushed back the sentiment. He had other things to do at present. “Please pass these handouts around,” and distributed sheaves to the front row of pupils.
Once the handouts were passed around, the students looked at each other with unconcealed confusion. One student raised her hand nervously to speak for the class. “Mr. Rentaro, what does this ‘Future Dream’ mean…?”
Rentaro put both hands on his hips and exhaled through his nose. “It’s just as it says. Write about what you want to be in the future.”
The students looked like they were not quite satisfied with this explanation. Apparently, they had never done this kind of recreation before. This was supposed to be a break after the test, but he might have made them more confused instead.
Oh no. He looked up at the sky, scratching the back of his head. “Well, if you don’t want to do it, then—”
There were scritching sounds, and when he looked at the girls, they were already giving the papers their full attention, pencils moving intently.
So you will do it. Rentaro sighed as he looked at the students, and asked himself why they were spending the precious time they had left in the Outer District’s outdoor classroom.
There were less than three days left before the collapse of the Monolith.
Currently, Rentaro and the others were sleeping in the civil officer squad tent, and he and Kisara had told their high schools by phone that they would be taking a temporary absence. His homeroom teacher had accepted it silently and said, “Do your best,” with casual insistence.
Under Commander Gado, they had standard training in the morning, but it was all in the classroom, learning about simple formations and the different types and meanings of signal flares. Well, he thought, that was only natural. There was a limit to how much training they could do in the remaining three days, and they weren’t expecting something as organized as the SDF, which had been training for years, from civil officers who were “just a bunch of ruffians.” The fact that they had the whole afternoon off was further proof of how low the expectations were for them.
So Rentaro, Kisara, Enju, and Tina chose to spend the rest of their time in the outdoor classroom. It may have been that part of their hearts wanted that peace of mind. Rentaro had heard that routine work like this helped to lessen stress. He was sure that that was the reason why he was here, too.
Just then, Enju called out, “I’m finished!” and stood up, excitedly turning in the paper to Rentaro. It read: “My future dream is to become Rentaro’s wife and kiss him as much as I want every day.” Underneath the scrawl was a sketch of a strange-looking monster face with large googly eyes. Is this supposed to be me? he thought.
“You do something similar every day already, don’t you?” he said.
Enju laughed and locked her hands behind her back as she returned to her seat. “Then, I am happy every day.”
The remaining seventy percent were completely divided into two types. The first type believed that the mixed troops of the SDF and COs would be victorious and tried to maintain normal societal operations. The second type believed that the troops would lose.
The latter were escaping overseas, even selling off their household goods at low prices to scrape together enough money to buy the aircraft tickets that had suddenly jumped in price. Those that could not do even this were going around town crushed with despair, struggling to do whatever they could to forge or steal shelter spots.
Public order was disrupted mainly by the second type of people, and riots broke out as a result. Vigilante groups organized and strengthen patrols, but the current situation was that it was not nearly enough compared to the number of riots breaking out.
All of Tokyo Area was being torn apart by fear and worry. However, Rentaro thought their unease was justified.
A person’s mental state was able to stay calm because of ignorance. If people were able to count on their fingers the number of days until their deaths, they would not be able to sleep peacefully.
Whether they were aware of it or not, people expected each day to proceed according to plan. However, currently, the kind veil of ignorance had been lifted, and the truth had been exposed to all the residents of Tokyo Area. The truth said this: “Your lives will come abruptly to an end in three days, and it is possible that you will be eaten alive.”
The Destruction of the World by Fire Page 13