“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.
4
The jet-black sky rumbled its displeasure in semiregular intervals as it unfurled heavy, sharp rain upon the world. The sound of water slowly running along the gutter on its way down sounded like the steady current of a swampy river, uniting with the drip-drip-drip of rain wriggling its way through a roof leak and onto the floor, forming a watery ensemble.
Rentaro took in the sound as he lay down in the sculpture studio. It was humid, but the temperature had gone down a fair chunk. In Rentaro’s mind, it certainly was more comfortable than the unrelenting heat he had to deal with over the past few days. Adjusting his position at all would send another billow of stone powder into the air, landing on him like dust, so he tried to remain as still as possible.
Lying there, unmoving, on the studio’s bare floor, in total darkness with the windows shut, made him feel like a dead man. If he lay flat on his back and rested his hands on his stomach—it was like practicing for his stint in a coffin.
He had promised Hotaru that he would spend all day recuperating.
Part of him wanted to get up and rip the lid off the Black Swan Project right this second. The spirit was all too willing, incredibly willing, but the flesh could no longer keep up. Consuming the calories he needed had made the thoughts he knew all too well rev back into motion, but not his body yet. Still, he couldn’t stop them. It was proving hard to forcibly shut down his thought process.
He marveled at it.
Part of the path to satori, the stage of enlightenment that was the ultimate goal of any Buddhist practitioner, involved training oneself to cast off all worthless thoughts from the mind.
He thought about that. But he also thought about Enju, who was bound to be paired with another Promoter sooner or later. As a civsec himself, he knew how difficult it would be to dissolve a pairing once it was set in stone. And once a Promoter was fully aware of the power within Enju, he’d never even think about letting her go.
It was hard to believe he hadn’t seen her once since that last awkward conversation in the city jail. He wanted to see her with all his heart.
She had to feel constricted by now; she must have taken the media at face value, including the news that Rentaro was dead. The entire rest of the story had been shut away, for all he knew.
How is Tina doing, though? Even if she was made to go up on the stand and get convicted of something, it wouldn’t happen that quickly. But between the judge, the prosecutor, her attorney, and even the jurors, it was hard to be optimistic. Being among the Cursed Children was hard to make up for.
If any semblance of human rights had been granted to Tina, then she was likely sitting in a corner of some jail cell, hands around her knees. A lifetime of being used and abused by corrupt adults… Rentaro couldn’t stand having his friends put to public shame any longer. He wanted to protect her from all the hardships life had handed her.
Then Rentaro realized he was deliberately trying not to think about Kisara.
No. I haven’t thought about anything. She was due to marry Hitsuma, and I’ve completely frozen all thought about her, postponing any conclusion for some unknown time in the future.
Things had gotten so bad for him because he had foolishly believed Hitsuma was a decent person. Because he left Kisara in his hands.
Then he felt the inner edges of his eyes grow warm. The tears accumulating on the outer edges crossed his cheeks.
I was wrong about everything.
How was he going to bow his head and say to her, Cancel the marriage and go back home? How, after he sent her away from the visitation room with all that vitriol? After he trampled all over her dignity?
There was a noise downstairs. Flustered, Rentaro wiped the tears from his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
After a moment, the nearby hinges creaked. Without turning his head, he could tell from the breathing that it was Hotaru.
“Rentaro, are you asleep?”
“…No, I’m up.”
He carefully sat up as Hotaru shook the rain from her chestnut-colored hair and wringed out the hem of her tank top. He could see Hotaru’s thin, bare, taut stomach. Her chest, drawn in the drape of the fabric over it, was visible through her undergarments.
Then, realizing she was being watched, Hotaru squatted down on the floor, hugging herself as she gave Rentaro a razor-sharp glare.
“Did you see me?”
Rentaro scratched the hair on the back of his head.
“Don’t be stupid. Why would seeing a naked kid make me happy?”
Hotaru let out a long, deep groan. It was followed by a short sigh as she shook her head. “Take off your clothes. I need to change your bandages and wipe your body down.”
She didn’t bother to listen for a response before nimbly reaching behind him and removing his button-down shirt, stepping up to the noble task of wiping down his back.
Rentaro let her, feeling the cold, wet cloth against his skin.
Tomorrow was probably going to be the final battle, but he couldn’t get the words to come out.
Somewhere along the line, Hotaru’s attitude toward him had brightened considerably. The disdainful hostility of their first encounter was far gone now.
“You’re wounded from head to toe.”
“Ah, that’s gotta be from the Third Kanto Battle. This is from the Seitenshi sniper, and I think Kagetane Hiruko put this one on me.”
He pointed each one out like a general marking armies on a map. None were easy victories for him. The memories of each one were etched into his mind.
Then, unexpectedly, he felt something soft and slightly warm pressed against his back. It made him arch his spine.
It took him a while to realize it was Hotaru’s cheek. “I’m sorry, Rentaro. I had the wrong idea about you.”
Silence arrived out of nowhere.
Being together with her, even for this short time, taught him that behind all that curt bluntness was a little girl, one just as delicate as any other.
This can’t go on…
Stealing a look at her from the side of his eyes, Rentaro made a decision in his heart.
“It’s fine. Let’s go to sleep.”
He flicked the switch on the flashlight before she could respond. Then he lay back and used his crossed arms as a pillow. He could feel Hotaru looking at him for a moment, as if trying to say something, but then he heard the rustling of her clothes as she laid herself against the floor beside him.
Squinting into the darkness, Rentaro could just barely make out the white of the ceiling above them. His body was dead tired, but there was no way he could sleep now.
There was no telling how long he gazed upward. By the time the arms under his head went numb, he heard Hotaru turning over in her sleep.
It was just about time. He quietly got up.
Reaching into his back pocket, he took out a pen and notepad he had surreptitiously bought at the convenience store along with the flashlight. He ripped out a page, then—as well as he could in the darkness—wrote a note. He doubted his penmanship was much to brag about in this state, but he left it by Hotaru’s side, quietly got to his feet, and tried to be as silent as possible with his footsteps.
Then he found himself illuminated.
He raised a hand to cover his eyes.
“…Where are you going?”
Hotaru’s voice was frigid.
“……”
There was nothing Rentaro could say. He silently returned Hotaru’s gaze. Noticing the paper next to her, she picked it up and scanned it.
“…What’s this about?” she said, sharpening her eyes and lowering the temperature of her voice even further. She usually spoke in an emotionless monotone, but now Rentaro could physically feel the anger. That was how in tune he was with her by this point.
“It’s just like I wrote it. We’re done, Hotaru. I wrote the whole procedure down. You go to the police and tell them I coerced you into cooperating with me. I don’t know how far our enemy’s infected the police, but you see Inspector Tadashima’s name on there? He’s at Magata Station. You can trust him.”
“Stop screwing with me!”
“I’m not screwing with you.”
“Are you running away from me?”
“I’m telling you to run away from me!”
He paused for a beat, breathing hard.
“…Hotaru, we’re just barely still at the point where you can turn back. Honestly, one step away from it… Listen, I’m glad you believed me when I said I didn’t kill him. I really am. Our enemy’s so huge, it’s got the police wrapped around its finger. Tomorrow’s fight is gonna be so, so much worse than today’s. And if you’re with me for it, you’re really gonna lose your life this time.”
He tried to drum up some intimidation, some coercion in his voice. But Hotaru’s response was beyond anything he could have anticipated.
“So you’re just going to go away? Like Kihachi did?”
“What?”
Hotaru’s face was despondent, her eyes blurred with tears.
“Kihachi did the same thing. He got all cold and distant with me one day. He started hiding lots of things. We kept working solo… I’d ask him, and he wouldn’t say anything. My birthday was coming up, and I begged him to at least spend that with me, and it turned into this huge argument… When I woke up the next morning, there was a note by my bedside. He said he was gonna get everything squared away before my birthday. And it was right after that. When the police called and told me Kihachi was dead.”
“That…”
It was an unimaginable thing to experience. Rentaro hesitated to give her some kind of halfhearted consolation.
“I still dream about what I should have done back then: That I was just pretending to sleep all along. That I followed Kihachi and shielded him from getting shot. That he kills the guy, and I apologize to him because I never had the chance the night before. That he holds me, and then he says in my ear, ‘We’re always gonna be together.’”
Hotaru shook her fists weakly.
“And then I wake up right there, every time. I’m in this bed that’s too big for me, and it makes me grit my teeth every time. I swore that I’d protect my partner this time. Please, Rentaro! I want to come with you! I need to know! What happened to Kihachi? Why did he have to come back home like that? If I can’t get revenge by being with you, I have to at least take a step toward my own future! Please, Rentaro!”
Their eyes locked and time seemed to stand still. Rentaro closed his own, then took a deep breath through his nostrils.
“All right, Hotaru. The hole that opened up in your heart after Suibara died… Let’s fill it in together.”
Hotaru’s face grew brighter as she understood. She opened her mouth to speak but only ended up biting her lip. She hung her head low and muttered a simple “Thanks” instead.
It was almost as if she were crying tears of joy as she extended her right hand.
“I’m glad I got paired with you, Rentaro.”
This must be the girl that exists deep down within her. Kinda cute when she smiles. Rentaro clasped his hand to hers. Her hand was unbelievably strong and steady for such a little girl, pulsating with warmth.
“So when’s your birthday, anyway? Is it that close?”
“Oh yeah…” Hotaru took out her cell phone.
“We’re right on time,” she said as she showed the backlit screen to Rentaro. The time was twelve a.m.—midnight. She flashed a mischievous smile. “My birthday’s today now. I’m ten years old.”
This was going too fast. Rentaro searched his mind for some sort of congratulatory message he could give her; he had never quite gotten used to that kind of thing. So he scratched his head instead.
But then, a malicious intent made itself known behind them. Rentaro turned around, hand already at the grip of his Beretta. Hotaru noticed a moment later, eyes turning crimson as she released her own powers.
“Rentaro, are you there?” she whispered.
“…Yeah,” he muttered back.
The sensation came from behind the door to the studio. Several sensations, in fact. But they didn’t come through the door. They stood there, perhaps struggling with something themselves. Maybe they lost interest; maybe they decided to call for reinforcements. He didn’t like it, but either way, holing up in the studio was no longer a good idea.
“Let’s go. Follow me.”
Signaling to his temporary partner, Rentaro readied his Beretta and tiptoed away.
The space they were squatting in was two stories high. It was far enough into the suburbs that the sound of battle wouldn’t be an immediate cause for someone to phone the authorities. The rainstorm that rankled Rentaro’s mind a few moments ago would help mute whatever happened as well.
Rentaro tiptoed behind a support column and went down the bare-concrete stairway. Taking a position adjacent to the front door, he dared a quick glance.
There were three figures, all standing there getting soaked by the rain. He strained to make them out through the beam of his MagLite, but when he finally did, his mind went blank. Before he knew it, he had forgotten about hiding, and exposed his body to the air.
“You guys… Why…?”
The three figures illuminated by the MagLite included a single tall man and two girls. The man wore a field jacket and a pair of amber sunglasses. The girl next to him was dressed fully in black, with a choker collar. The third, by comparison, was standing quietly, a girl in an armorlike exoskeleton.
Instinctively, Rentaro took a step beyond the building. The heavy rain immediately weighed down his clothes. He didn’t even notice.
Because he knew each one of them.
They had walked the line between life and death together; battle comrades who constantly covered for one another. They were each worth an entire battle squadron by themselves.
“I was certainly not expecting to run into you again so soon.”
The dignified voice belonged to Asaka Mibu, the girl in old-style armor. She took a step forward, her eternally closed eyes opened just a slit as she judged him with scorn. She was a warrior, one he had fought side by side with in the battle against Aldebaran. What was she doing here? She was unpaired… The IISO should have been taking care of her.
Asaka gave Rentaro another cold look, perhaps sensing his doubt.
“Thanks to the police pressuring the IISO, I am free from their control for the time being. I am ordered to dispatch a fiendish former civsec fleeing from the law after he committed cold-hearted murder.”
The tachi sword she used to wield had now been replaced with a unique type of twin-bladed sword. A relic of her former Promoter, no doubt. She had it unsheathed and readied.
“I was looking forward to the day we would meet each other,” she said. “But apparently the stars were not on our side after all. Prepare to die!”
Tamaki Katagiri, as if taking over for Asaka, similarly spat on the ground in Rentaro’s direction: “The cops sent us a job. Not only did you kill a guy and run away, you bastard, but you were involved in the Shiba massacre, and that highway shoot-out, too! I saw the evidence!”
Rentaro was speechless. If the police were involved, Hitsuma was very likely pulling the strings. There was no telling what kind o
f contrived evidence he showed them, but something about the atmosphere indicated he wasn’t talking his way out of this.
At the critical moment of the Third Kanto Battle, they had been laughing and crying with one another in turns. They had a friendship. And now Hitsuma had wrecked even that. Rentaro’s murderous rage at the thought of that man thickened.
But another part of his mind was quickly analyzing the difference in battle position between the two sides, and it was driving him to despair. He had been their adjuvant leader. He knew full well what they were capable of.
“Rentaro, are these guys your…?”
Hotaru appeared next to him, a look of anxiety on her face. Rentaro gave her a firm nod. There’s nothing to worry about. Just fight with me for now.
Asaka and Tamaki were livid; the trust they had built with Rentaro in the struggle against Aldebaran lay ruined. But there was one in the group that was not among their ranks. One with a conflicted look on her face.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” he asked.
It was Yuzuki Katagiri, her twin braids holding strong as she whisked her head back and forth. “Look at you. You’re a filthy mess…! There’s no way you can beat us! Please, just turn yourself in! I don’t want to fight!”
“Don’t taunt the prey. Catch it,” Rentaro threw back.
“Huh?” Yuzuki asked.
“I’m saying, enough with this farce. I’m not giving up.”
Across the way, Asaka’s and Tamaki’s expressions clouded; a look of disappointment crossed their eyes. Yuzuki, meanwhile, looked desperate as she took a step forward. “You…”
Rentaro raised his arms straight in front of him. His cybernetic one was out in all its glory.
Rentaro then deployed his mechanical eye. The pupil began to spin, creating a wave of geometric patterns.
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever gave you my full intro,” he said as he took the Tendo Martial Arts Water and Sky Stance and sized up his foes. “Give me a chance to before we start: I am Rentaro Satomi, of the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Eastern Force; 787th Mechanization Special Unit, of the New Humanity Creation Project. I am ready to begin when you are.”
Purgatory Strider Page 11