Black Bullet, Vol. 1: Those Who Would Be Gods

by Shiden Kanzaki

  “Then…”

  “That’s why there are things I cannot forgive!”

  Rentaro kept his XD sighted on Kikunojo’s forehead as he looked at the man’s fiery eyes. He could not see any affectation in them at all. This man held in equal parts devotion to the Seitenshi and hatred for the Gastrea, and it was driving him mad.

  “I’m sure Kisara has also realized the truth,” said Rentaro.

  “I’m sure she has,” said Kikunojo. “But you have no proof. You can’t do anything.”

  Rentaro met Kikunojo’s eyes for a long time. When he finally moved his knee, Rentaro tucked the XD in his belt and turned on his heel.

  “What are you planning?” said Kikunojo. “If you don’t kill me now, you’ll regret it.”

  “I’m already regretting it, ’cause you’re Kisara’s greatest enemy,” said Rentaro.

  “What about you, Rentaro…?”

  “What?”

  When he turned around, Kikunojo had on a fierce expression with his wrinkles scrunched in the middle of his face. “What about you, Rentaro? Your arm and leg were eaten, and you lost Takaharu and Mafuyu, didn’t you? How can you forgive them? You don’t resent them?”

  “I do resent them! Tearing them apart from limb to limb wouldn’t be enough. I thought I would kill all the Gastrea and the Cursed Children with these hands!”

  “Then why?!”

  “Have you talked to even one of those girls? They cry at the smallest things, laugh, sulk—they’re filled with human warmth. You called them worms? I say they’re humans. I, Rentaro Satomi, believe in Enju Aihara!”

  “Rentaro… You…”

  Rentaro closed his eyes slowly. “You saved my life. You told me, ‘If you do not want to die, survive, Rentaro.’ So concise, and so very like you. At times when I closed both eyes in despair, I would remember these words, and they would help me push through. I remember every single day what happened that day ten years ago. Thank you… Good-bye, Father.”

  Rentaro left the house.

  “Hey, Rentaroooo! Over heeeeere!” Enju, dressed in a thin hospital gown, was hopping and yelling loudly enough to be heard throughout the district. A surprised old woman strained her back, a three-year-old girl peed her pants, and an old man’s dentures and wig were blown off at the same time.

  “A-at least be quiet inside a hospital, you dummy,” said Rentaro. “Do you know what the word manners means…?”

  Before he could finish, there was a thud as Enju thrust her face into his chest. “Rentaro, Rentaro, Rentaro! Big news! During the checkup, I got my body measurements, too, and my boobs got a little bigger! Aren’t you happy, Rentaro?”

  Looking at Enju proudly sticking out her flat chest, he almost let slip a “Huh, where?”

  “Don’t you think I should wear a brassiere soon?”

  “Y-yeah. Maybe in about five years?” Rentaro nonchalantly said something mean.

  “How was the ceremony thing? Were you praised? Did they say ‘Good job’? My checkup was so boring. I wanted to go see, too. Oh, that suit makes you look cool, Rentaro!” Enju’s eyes sparkled as she asked Rentaro question after question.

  “Enju, what were the results of the checkup?”

  Her eyes suddenly glittering, she made a victory sign as if saying, Listen to this! “Twenty-four point nine percent. It barely changed.”

  Rentaro almost involuntarily let out a groan, but he somehow swallowed it. “I… I see…”

  “Rentaro, I’m gonna change now, ’kay?”

  When Rentaro looked up, he saw the unusual sight of Sumire Muroto out of her basement room beckoning him. “I’m going to go hear what annoying things Doc has to say.”

  “Then I’ll wait for you at the park in front of the hospital.” Saying that, Enju raced down the hall. As Rentaro watched her leave, he went to the room where Sumire was waiting.

  In the park, there was nothing to block the sunlight, and it was a very comfortably warm day for April. Even though the peak of the cherry blossom season was over, the cherry trees squeezed out the last of their strength to bloom proudly. Rentaro and Enju strolled along a walking path that was scattered with flower petals every time the wind blew. The smell of sprouting plants filled his nostrils.

  “Oh ho, so our IP Rank went up that much?” said Enju.

  “Yeah,” said Rentaro. “They said it was the first time in history anyone went up that fast. We’ll get the official notification next week.”

  As Enju spotted an ice cream stand in the corner of the park, she said, “Can I buy some, Rentaro?”

  Thinking that they were expensive, Rentaro reluctantly opened his wallet and let out an involuntary groan. Even if their ranking went up, the inside of his wallet still continued to be as empty as ever.

  Rentaro sighed. Grabbing hold of the bill with a shaking hand, he slipped it into Enju’s hand. “This needs to cover this month’s living expenses, so use it wisely.”

  “I understand,” said Enju. “I should buy as much ice cream as I can with this, right?”

  “Why did you take it that way? Hey, wait! Enju!”

  Already not listening to the yelling Rentaro’s words, Enju ran away. Rentaro looked at her retreating back in shock.

  He smiled unwittingly. He was alive. He was hungry. What a wonderful thing.

  Enju didn’t know. In the peacefulness of Tokyo Area, she didn’t know that one more precious life had been sacrificed.

  After operating the railgun, Rentaro put Enju, deep asleep, gently onto the floor, and then slipped outside the facility. Looking at the sky, he saw that the night sky was slowly starting to grow lighter. Because of the high altitude, his breath had been white, and he’d kept rubbing his hands as he made his way down the bare rock.

  Once he was some distance away from the facility and looked back at the Stairway to Heaven, he could clearly see that the rail part where the projectile was accelerated was crushed. The rail was not strong enough to withstand the sudden acceleration of a projectile after all.

  As Rentaro walked, something he had been trying hard not to think about came back into his mind. Gastrea were very sensitive to loud noises. Depending on the Gastrea, there were some that would gather after hearing a sound a few kilometers away.

  During his fight to the death with Kagetane, and when he fired the railgun, thunderous roars should have echoed throughout the Unexplored Territory. However, in the end, his duel ended uninterrupted and the railgun’s firing sequence ended without being delayed. It was obviously a strange situation. Someone had stopped the large wave of Gastrea that should have surged toward them.

  Eventually, the smell of blood grew stronger. Rentaro went behind a large rock, and then he held his breath.

  In front of his eyes was the corpse of a giant Gastrea. The body, which was like a Komodo dragon that had been turned ten times as large as normal, was missing its front legs, and its lower jaw had been blown away.

  And that wasn’t the only corpse.

  There were Gastrea that looked like insects, Gastrea entwined with plantlike vines, snake types and frog types, and many others that had been changed so much that their origins were unclear. There were also many different shapes and sizes, from large Gastrea to small Gastrea, Stage One to Stage Four. What they all had in common was that the spark of life was gone from every Gastrea.

  Rentaro walked among the dead bodies. Finally, he saw a human leg with its shoe still on strewn casually on the ground. Near it was an empty magazine. A little farther, and he found the remains of a fully automatic shotgun that had been broken cleanly in two. Rentaro desperately held back a sob as he walked through the mountain of corpses. In deathly silence that almost made his ears hurt, all Rentaro could hear was his shoes stepping on the gravel.

  And then, he found her. Unfortunately, he found her.

  Rentaro shook his head gently. His voice felt like shaky, and his hands were clenched into fists. “Why…? Why didn’t you run? Didn’t you say you would run when you were at a disadvanta
ge?!”

  Kayo Senju, who was being propped up by a large rock, looked up at Rentaro with fading eyes. “I couldn’t…do that…”

  Her left arm and right leg were missing. Her white dress was stained with blood, and she had bite marks all over. Her injuries were healing unbelievably fast. Not only were they healing, but her missing arm and leg were regenerating, as well. But this was not a welcome situation at all.

  “Satomi…I’m…?” she started.

  Rentaro forced his pounding heart to calm down and said, “Your body’s corrosion rate is probably over fifty percent.”

  The Cursed Children were constantly taking massive doses of corrosion-inhibiting medication to control the Gastrea inside their bodies, but it still only inhibited and did not stop the corrosion completely. Because the girls carried the inhibiting gene, they did not turn into Gastrea immediately like normal people, but if they suddenly used a lot of their power, or if Gastrea bodily fluids got inside them, then their corrosion rate would slowly increase.

  And then, like a normal person, if their corrosion rate went above fifty percent, then the corrosion would start, and they would not be able to keep their human form any longer. There was nothing that current medical technologies could do to change that limit.

  Rentaro took his XD gun out and checked how many bullets he had left. He had exactly one Varanium bullet left in the chamber. Rentaro put the silencer on and aimed at her forehead. He knew what he had to do. Kayo Senju could not be saved. She had to die right here, right now.

  “Satomi, what happened to Shogen?” Kayo asked.

  “He’s fine,” said Rentaro.

  When their eyes met, she lowered her lashes in relief. “Satomi, please. Please let me die as a human.”

  His breath shook as he exhaled. It wasn’t because he was cold. The muzzle of the gun jumped around, and his aim was all over the place. Even though he was so close, there was a possibility that he would miss. What a joke.

  Suddenly, remembering the irreplaceable time they had spent together surrounded by firewood and talking, his heart was so filled with affection that it tore at his chest. Damn it, damn it!

  “Satomi, please, don’t cry…,” said Kayo.

  Rentaro ground his teeth so hard his molars felt like they would break, and he smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not crying. This isn’t my first time.”

  “You affirmed my existence. I didn’t want to let you die. That is why I tried hard. My heart is full of gratitude right now. Thank you, Satomi.”

  Rentaro had no words and could only shake his head left and right.

  Kayo continued. “Hey, Satomi, you don’t have many friends, do you?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re hopeless, so I’ll be your friend.”

  Rentaro’s and Kayo’s eyes met for a brief moment. “Yeah, it’s sad how few friends I have. Thanks.” His hand stopped shaking. His heart calmed.

  “You are my irreplaceable friend. I will never forget you.”

  He lifted his gun and aimed for the space between her eyebrows. Her eyes were not focused. Her voice was hoarse.

  “Satomi, after this… I imagine you will face many trials. If you lose your way and are lost in the darkness, follow the compass in your heart…to…to the light… Satom……save…this…world……”

  He pulled the trigger. The .40-caliber recoil made his arm kick back. There was the sound of a muffled gunshot, and a single empty casing was expelled. His slide stop came up and locked.

  The girl’s transformation stopped. There was an acrid smell in the back of his nose; he must have inhaled some gunsmoke. When he turned around at the sound of a helicopter, he could see the red sunrise shining in from beyond the faraway mountain range. Her fight was over. Another Initiator had died in battle, unseen.

  Enju looked like she was still having fun choosing her ice cream. Looking up, Rentaro slowly raised his palm to shade his eyes from the sun and thought as he squinted at the bright light of the sun. What are humans, anyway?

  They can speak, they walk on two legs, they wear clothes. But that didn’t prove that they were human. And humans only had at most twice as many genes as flies.

  Then, what are the Cursed Children?

  Sumire Muroto called them “God’s substitutes as messengers between humans and Gastrea.”

  The Seitenshi had said, “Those Initiator girls are possibilities.”

  Kikunojo Tendo called them “demons who will destroy the whole world.”

  Human beings once lived on the earth invincible, proud, and rejoicing that they were the prime of creation. However, that ended with the appearance of the Gastrea. It could be said that about ninety percent of the surviving humans in this degenerate world had latent prejudice against the Initiators.

  More and more children were abandoned because, with the contamination of their DNA, their paternity couldn’t be proven. Abandoned to the darkness before they could even open their eyes, they rubbed shoulders in a corner of Tokyo Area, children who just wanted to be loved.

  The girls faced unending prejudice and ceaseless enmity. Were they just a new classification of human beings?

  Rentaro closed his eyes quietly.

  Enju Aihara said, “I am human!”

  I will believe Enju.

  Those girls were the ones who’d broken through the human shell and gazed out over the world, looking down at mankind as it trod a path of destruction, humans killing each other over differences in race, religion, or language. The Cursed Children were a “new humanity” that could bring a new perspective.

  Kikunojo, who was so torn up by despair that he spit ill omens and cursed everything on earth, could have been Rentaro if he had not met Enju.

  Like Kisara Tendo, who could not live without her hemodialysis—

  Like Enju Aihara, who could not live without her dose of corrosion-inhibiting medication—

  —Rentaro Satomi surely could not live another second without Enju Aihara’s smile.

  Those girls were definitely not worms.

  “Rentaro, are you feeling unwell after all?” By the time he returned to himself, Enju was looking at him with mountains of ice cream in each hand.

  “N-no! Look, see? I’m so happy that our rank went up that I’m jumping.” He forced a laugh and ran up on a nearby bench and started to jump off.

  Enju’s eyes widened for a second at Rentaro’s strange behavior, but she soon burst into laughter. “Weirdo.”

  At that moment, the clear sound of something metal hitting the stone pavement stopped time. Rentaro looked back and forth at his own left arm and the ground, dumbfounded. On the ground were fragments of a bracelet. They had chrome silver-plating over an engraved design.

  That’s right. Enju had bought this for him. If he remembered correctly, it was a toy from a cartoon…

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s the bracelet that the Tenchu Girls wear. It’s proof that the forty-seven warriors are friends, and it cracks when a friend tricks another friend or lies to them, so they can tell when a friend is lying.”

  Rentaro exhaled with a shaking breath and stared at the fragments of the broken bracelet.

  ENJU AIHARA’S DIAGNOSIS CHART –

  PRIMARY PHYSICIAN, SUMIRE MUROTO

  • Enju Aihara has a Gastrea virus corrosion rate of 42.8%

  • An estimated 7.2% left until shape collapse

  • Comments from the physician—Extremely dangerous territory. To prevent the patient from being too shocked, I reported a lower number to her. According to regulations, notification of the patient is at the discretion of the Promoter.

  This part is written not in my capacity as a doctor, but is my advice as a friend:

  Don’t let her fight anymore, Rentaro.

  AFTERWORD

  Nice to meet you. My name is Shiden Kanzaki. To explain to those reading from the afterword, this book involves the tag battle of a protective high school hero and a ten-year-old Lolita heroine. I have written about this in oth
er places, too, but I had so many uninterrupted publishing offers that—

  Actually, this did not happen at all. Rather, I took my manuscript and said, “Please publish this, please publish this,” and rolled around on the floor of the Dengeki Bunko editorial department like a cute cat. Thus, I tricked Mr. Kurosaki into coming near me and grabbed hold of his leg firmly, which brings us to the present.

  REGARDING THE TITLE

  I didn’t think about it too hard and just put together a color I liked and the title of a movie I liked and got Black Memento. From the beginning, my editor disapproved of this title, but I was used to calling it that, so I waited it out in a war of attrition and schemed to publish it that way. But then he attacked directly with a phone call in the middle of the night. I realized that he really hated this title and was immediately reformed and settled on the current title.

  REGARDING THE DOUBLE GUNS

  The concept behind the double guns of a certain person that come up in the book are “the worst double guns in history.” To you double-gun lovers on the other side of the page reading just the afterword in the store, pretend you’ve been tricked for a second and try reading this book. I’m sure you will realize—little girl heaven, boobs galore, perverted guns, fake martial arts—there are many attractive elements prepared for you here as I await you who will never read it again.

  Now, let me be a little serious here. A hundred apologies and ten thousand thanks to the nice guy who found me, my editor, Mr. Kurosaki; the artist who drew the gorgeous pictures, Saki Ukai; the chief editor who helped me when I caused a certain problem; and everyone else who was involved in the creation of this book.

  Finally, to you, the reader who is using their precious time to read the afterword: Thank you very much. I am grateful for this meeting from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to the joy that I will receive when you, the reader, read this book. I pray that all of my readers will be blessed.