Black Bullet - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.6

6

The hot sunlight faded and night fell, but thick, damp air still wrapped around them. They passed by the receptionist at the university hospital and walked down the halls that smelled of medicine. Wearily, Rentaro looked next to him. “Sorry, Tina, I’m sure you’re tired, but just be patient for a little longer.”

“It’s fine. I’m just happy I can be with you, Big Brother.” Tina looked down once before raising her face again. “I thought I needed to meet Dr. Muroto soon, anyway. I was nervous meeting her alone, so having you with me is reassuring.”

“You know about Doc?”

“Yes, I heard about her from the Professor.” “The Professor” was probably Tina’s former Promoter, Ain Rand. Tina was originally paired with him. However, when she failed her mission, he readily abandoned her. Ever since then, there was no sign of Rand contacting Tina, but Rentaro wondered how Tina felt about that. Because of the subject matter, it was hard to find the right time to bring it up, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious.

“I have heard that she is no exception to the geniuses who are eccentric and hard to deal with,” said Tina.

“It’s nothing that simple, you know.”

“Huh?”

Passing by the demon monuments meant to keep people away, they carefully made their way down the damp, moldy stairs, careful not to miss a step. Its ominous atmosphere, like that of a haunted house, made unease creep up on Tina until she clung to Rentaro’s clothes. But before long, the sound of his shoes on the green ceramic floor tile echoed around the basement chamber. The uncertain light of the bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling lit the room only dimly. Scattered all over a table was a collection of gory horror movies, and on the shelves were Gastrea fetuses in formaldehyde. Complicated numerical equations covered the blackboard on the far side. Rentaro could see morgue drawers on the walls to the left and right.

Looking around the messy expanse, Rentaro did not find Sumire. It was so quiet his ears strained, and the only sound was the slight hum of the incandescent lightbulb. And there was the peaceful smell of death, too. “Hey, Doc, where are you?” Rentaro called out.

There was a slick sound, and then a ghost wearing a white lab coat appeared from the darkness behind Tina, already bending over her.

“Eeeeeeek!” Tina’s piercing screech sounded like that of a strange bird; she ran behind Rentaro’s back with lightning speed.

“B-big Brother. Wh-wh…! Wh-wh…! What is that?!”

“That’s Doc. But—” Rentaro followed Tina’s pointed finger and folded his arms.

Sumire was lying on the tiles after being shaken off by Tina and stayed there, twitching on the ground, showing no sign of getting up. Eventually, the woman turned a feeble expression on Rentaro and said, her voice cracking, “Do you…have something to eat, Rentaro?”

“Food?” Rentaro echoed lightly. But then a lightbulb went off in his head, and he slapped Tina’s back.

When they had left the Katagiri Civil Security Agency, Tina had already become fast friends with Yuzuki, and Yuzuki had given her a parting gift for it. Tina looked at Rentaro uncertainly, then took out the dried persimmons from the daypack on her back, fearfully walked forward and put them down, then hastily retreated.

Sumire snatched up the packet without looking at what was inside, then turned her back to them as she gulped it down greedily. Over the sound of the wrapper ripping, she complained, “What, dried persimmons?” and clicked her tongue without a trace of remorse.

Tina looked on in disbelief at Sumire, then shifted her gaze to Rentaro. “This is one of the greatest minds in the world?”

“Um……… Yeah, well.” Rentaro found himself unable to reply immediately.

When Sumire finally returned to her senses, she stood with a shout, spreading her arms benevolently as she walked toward them. “Oh my, you saved me. My gratitude, Rentaro. I almost died.”

“What happened?”

“Well, my stockpile of food ran out, and I was going to ask you to buy some more, but then I realized that I had lost my cell phone. It’s a sad story.”

“To collapse with hunger is something Kisara would do.”

Sumire waved her hand in front of her face. “Please don’t put me in the same group as that pauper. I have more money than I know what to do with. I just don’t go outside.”

“You come out of the basement for Enju’s regular checkups.”

“Oh yeah, that. I offer incense and prostrate myself, then sit in lotus position and meditate for twenty-four hours while reading the Koran before I can finally go outside for half a day.”

Rentaro was utterly stunned and highly disgusted. “Do you really hate going outside that much?”

“Of course. Think about it carefully. Outside is a world that stinks with the smell of gaudy women’s perfume mixed with the smell of old men’s body odor. That’s not something you can just endure. It makes me want to turn all the people other than myself into dust.”

“Am I included in that?”

“Just looking at your unfortunate face makes me depressed, so I immediately want you to turn to dust and I pray for it every three hours, but my prayers aren’t getting answered.”

It was then that Sumire seemed to notice Tina and raised her eyebrows. She leaned over and put her face close to Tina’s, only to stand up and gaze sadly at Rentaro. “Rentaro… You finally did it, huh? I’m going to tell you this at least—You’ll be in the slammer for a long time.”

“I didn’t kidnap her!”

“And she’s a blond little girl, huh? Have you been playing so many adult games that you’ve gone off the deep end?”

“That’s you!”

Tina looked stiff as she took a step forward. “My name is Tina Sprout, Dr. Muroto. I have heard a lot about you from the Professor.”

“Oh, so you’re the one who was with Ain… What did that idiot say about me?”

Tina hesitated a little and stole a glance at Rentaro. “He called you the biggest pervert of all time.”

“Hmph, the next time you see him, tell him this: Then you are the most stubborn person in the world.”

“So you and Ain Rand didn’t get along after all, Doc?” said Rentaro.

Sumire laughed and spread her arms. “Of course not. We’re such good friends that the minute I see his face, it makes me want to spit on it.”

It appeared to be an extremely dangerous relationship.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, huh, Tina? I’m Sumire. I know it’s sudden, but I love you. I want us to love each other in the dissecting room.”

Tina looked at Rentaro, on the verge of tears. “Big Brother, what is wrong with this person?”

Rentaro shook his head. “Doc doesn’t care if a corpse is male or female. She’ll take anything.”

“What?!”

Rentaro looked at Sumire exasperatedly. “Doc, someday, you’ll turn into a murderer just to procure a corpse.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that possibility. Thanks. What? I want to see your suffering face, so I’ll do that to Enju or Kisara first.” She laughed maniacally.

“When you say it, it doesn’t sound like a joke, so stop it!”

“Why don’t I wear a jacket made of human skin and dance around?”

“I’m telling you, that’s scary! Are you really a doctor?”

“Of course. I’ve read the Hippocratic oath, too. ‘First, I will abstain from fraud and corruption and abstain from doing harm to others. Second, even if asked and permissible, I will abstain from using medicine or conducting surgery to commit a crime.’ See?”

Rentaro was silent.

“In the first place, if I wanted to make a quick buck, I could just do the opposite of what that says. In that sense, it is a valuable document.”

Sumire stopped talking for a moment and smiled, looking at Tina. “By the way, Tina, has he teased you in a strange way? Like in a sexual way?”

Tina looked back angrily. “Big Brother would not do such a thing.”

“Oh? What do you think you know about Rentaro here? He’s groped young girls’ bottoms in passing a hundred times. He’s snuck into an elementary school and stolen stool and urine tests a thousand times. He’s the level of pervert that the Vatican wonders if he’s possessed by a demon, and they should either send an exorcist or worry over him every day.

“You should look in an English-Japanese dictionary. Next to the borrowed word tsunami is the word satomi. The definition should be ‘an uncommonly advanced political deviant.’ Speaking of grandmaster class perv, Satomi, he’s kind of famous around the world, and it’s said that for his supreme pervertedness, within thirty minutes of his death, he will be made into a saint as a real dynasty warrior of the yokozuna class.”

Tina paled and looked at Rentaro, stepping backward and shaking her head softly. “I had no idea you were such an important person. I have been very rude to you up until now…”

Why was Tina being so polite now?

“Hey, wait a minute, Doc! Stop messing around!” Why are you so passionate about obliterating my standing in society?

Sumire seemed satisfied after thoroughly making a fool of Rentaro and guffawed loudly, going to the cupboard and starting to make coffee as usual. Over the sound of the electric mill grinding, she urged them to sit, proclaiming, “You guys sit over there somewhere.”

Rentaro and Tina took a hard look at the equation that had overflowed from the board onto the wall as they sat down on the stools.

“Doc, what’s this?” Rentaro asked.

“A Millennium Prize problem called the Twin Prime Conjecture. It seemed interesting, so I tried solving it. I sent it to the International Congress of Mathematicians. If it’s correct, I’ll get some pocket money from this, too.”

“Really? I don’t really get it, but it’s pretty amazing.”

“Not really.” Just then, Sumire looked as if some realization had come to her and she glanced at Rentaro. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot—just yesterday or the day before, Shoma came to visit me.”

Reflexively, Rentaro pushed his seat back with a screech and stood up. “He did?! Why? What’s he doing these days, anyway?”

“Now, now, calm down. Here, have some coffee.”

The scent of coffee from the heat-resistant table drew him reluctantly back down.

“He was actually looking for you, but after I said you weren’t here, he left without hearing what I had to say. He still doesn’t talk much—or listen to what people have to say. He hasn’t changed.”

“Shoma was…” Rentaro put his hand on his chin, thinking.

A reserved voice interrupted from next to him. “Big Brother, who is this Shoma person?”

“Hmm? Oh, that’s right. There’s no way you’d know. Tina, have you heard from Kisara about the Tendo techniques I use?”

“The Tendo Style, wasn’t it? About how President Tendo is a master of its sword-drawing techniques, and that you have a shodan, the introductory level black belt ranking?”

Rentaro nodded once. “His name is Shoma Nagisawa. He’s my senior, a disciple who made it to eighth dan in the Tendo Martial Arts, and the leading disciple of the Tendo Style. Honestly, it’s kind of nostalgic…”

“Do you respect him?”

Rentaro looked at Tina, surprised. Putting his hand on his chin again, he put the pieces of his memory back together and tried putting it into words.

“I guess…you could call it that. He was so strong that I simply couldn’t beat him. Sukekiyo Tendo had his eye on Shoma for an assistant instructor, but one day, Shoma just quit the dojo out of the blue without saying why. I was really sad. More like, I felt betrayed… Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I probably did respect him.”

The conversation died with that, and in order to cover the silence, Rentaro sipped the strong, bitter coffee. What in the world did Shoma come looking for him for?

Tina looked apologetically at Sumire. “I have a favor to ask, Doctor.”

“What is it?”

“In regards to the maintenance of Shenfield—”

Sumire seemed to understand everything with that, and waved her hand in front of her face, looking annoyed. “Well, if Ain could do it, there’s no reason why I can’t. I have to do maintenance on Rentaro’s artificial arm, anyway. Adding one more person isn’t a problem.”

Tina gave a courteous bow, but she still seemed to have something to say. Sneaking a look at her profile, Rentaro tried his best to act calm as he said, “Tina, say everything you want to say. If you plan on staying at the Tendo Civil Security Agency from now on, then don’t hide anything from us.”

That seemed to do the trick, and Tina straightened and lifted her chin, looking at Rentaro and then Sumire one at a time. “I will have a pursuer coming after me soon.”

The atmosphere in the basement lab tensed.

Sumire crossed her arms and sat back deep in her chair, which creaked. “Ain?”

“Yes, Doc,” said Tina.

“But Tina, there doesn’t seem to be any movement from that Rand guy at all,” interjected Rentaro.

Tina shook her head. “I’m sure he’s just in a hurry. The Professor probably never thought that I would not commit suicide but would surrender to the enemy instead… But after he finishes getting ready, it’ll be a different story. The Professor likes loyalty and hates betrayal. Once the Professor hears that I am living peacefully in Tokyo Area, he will definitely come to eliminate me.”

“Wait a minute. If Rand were to try to eliminate you, how would he do it?”

Tina was one of the Cursed Children and a mechanized soldier of the American version of the New Humanity Creation Project, known as NEXT—an Initiator with unlimited potential. Her skill was real, and even Rentaro had been brought to his knees by its pressure once. To readily think of coming after someone like this would make this Rand guy an idiot who acted without thinking of the consequences. Unless…

“What if there are other Initiators who were made into NEXT soldiers?”

“Are there?!” At this, even Sumire paled, but Tina just nodded gravely.

“As far as I know, there are five. They are all a generation after me. I am the first Hybrid the Professor created…”

“Hybrid?”

“An Initiator who is one of the Cursed Children but has the abilities of a mechanized soldier at the same time. The Professor used family records he got illegally to form contracts with all the girls. And all the girls have combat abilities at least as good as mine, if not better.”

Tina paused then, looking Rentaro straight in the eye. “Rank 100, also known as ‘Giga Hedgehog,’ Ashley Springsteen. Rank 95, ‘Meteorfall’ Irene Spencer. Rank 88, ‘Fer-de-Lance’ Faye Kronmiller. Rank 70, ‘Blood Creek’ Louise Zelazny. And Rank 21, ‘Pluto’ Rita Salisbury. Among them, the leader, Rita, surpasses me in every way.”

There was no way to listen to this without shivering. Ain Rand’s passion in creating the ultimate warrior and his total insanity probably surpassed Sumire’s.

“I’m sure you know this already, but Initiators and Promoters ranked in the top 100 get nicknames out of respect and awe. I was also known as ‘Silent Killer’ in the past,” said Tina.

“‘Silent…Killer’…,” murmured Rentaro. If those girls were to band together and come at them, it was possible that Tokyo Area would sustain enough damage to be completely destroyed. And the leader had an IP Rank of 21… The current Rentaro didn’t stand a chance against her.

Looking sideways at Tina, he suddenly felt a pang in his heart. Tina may have been friends with those five girls. Rentaro suspected as much, looking at her melancholy profile.

Sumire’s eyes, which were half-covered by her bangs, narrowed sharply. “Tina, what are you thinking?”

“Shouldn’t I leave the Tendo Civil Security Agency after all? If I stay, I will just cause trouble for everyone.” Tina shook her head hard. “Tina Sprout died once already. I couldn’t stand to cause trouble to those who allowed me to live a second life—President Tendo, Enju, and Big Brother.”

After a brief moment, Rentaro’s and Sumire’s eyes met.

“Idiot,” said Rentaro.

“You’re not very smart, are you?” said Sumire at the same time.

“Huh?” Tina froze with her mouth open.

Going toward her, Rentaro put his hand on her head and tousled it hard. “Kisara, Enju, and I aren’t so weak that you need to worry about us! You’re just a kid. Don’t hold back.”

Sumire also pointed at Rentaro, grinning broadly.

“Tina, to give you a liberal translation of what Rentaro just said, it’s ‘You’re an important part of my plan to create a harem of little girls, so I won’t let you get away. Also little girls’ sides are delicious, lick, lick,’ so yeah, that’s what he meant.”

Tina gave Rentaro a pitying look. “Just what is the root of your attachment to ten-year-old girls?”

“Isn’t it obvious that they’re all lies Doc made up?!” Rentaro shouted.

Sumire held her stomach, laughing.

Rentaro glared at the woman. “Ah…damn it,” he sighed, scratching his head vigorously. “Hey, Tina. I have one question. You don’t hate the Tendo Civil Security Agency, do you?”

Tina shook her head so hard it looked like it would fall off.

“And it’s not that you don’t want to stay with us?”

She shook her head again.

Rentaro closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. “Then, there’s no problem. Kisara and I will figure out the hard stuff, so you should just go do your homework or something.”

Rentaro opened one eye to see how Tina was taking this. She still looked like she was about to object halfheartedly, squirming.

Rentaro put his hands on the girl’s shoulders and enunciated each syllable clearly: “Don’t worry. I will become stronger, too.”

That seemed to do the trick. Tina smiled, looking a little embarrassed, and then nodded obediently. After a moment, she bowed deeply, too. “If you would be so kind. Thank you for taking care of me.”

Rentaro exchanged a quick look with Sumire. It looked like they could relax for now. Jeez, she was a handful in a different way from Enju. Although that was part of what Rentaro loved about her.

Sumire spread her arms calmly. “Tina, sorry, but I need to talk about some grown-up stuff with Rentaro right now. Will you give us a minute?”

Seeing Tina’s eyes waver uneasily, Rentaro gave her a small nod. “Can you get back to Kisara’s place by yourself?” he asked her.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied. After exchanging a few more words, Tina bowed deeply once more at the door and then left the basement room without another look.

Rentaro watched her leave for a long time.

“She’s a good kid,” said Sumire.

“Yeah. Kisara took her in, and she has a good eye for people,” said Rentaro.

Sumire put her elbows on the desk and her chin in her hands, grinning. “You’re doing a good job of increasing the number of young girls around you.”

She had to make it sound so bad.

Sumire tapped the top of the desk with her index finger. “How’s it going, Rentaro, really? Do you feel any sexual charm from Enju or Tina?”

Rentaro said angrily, “Stop it. They’re only ten.”

“You’re just saying that for appearance’s sake.” Sumire was looking at him without moving. Apparently, it was a serious question.

Rentaro shifted his gaze brusquely and scratched the back of his head. “They’re cute. I do think that. And sometimes they’ll do something that makes my heart skip. Is that good enough for you?”

“I’m glad you’re being honest. By the way, Rentaro, do you know this fairy tale?”

Fairy tale?

Sumire recrossed her legs and tilted her head, staring at the ceiling with a faraway look in her eyes. “There once was a whale whose body was so big that he was alienated from his friends. After wandering around by himself for a while, he finally saw something he thought was another whale—a submarine—and fell in love.”

“A submarine?”

“That’s right. The submarine tried to chase the whale away, but the whale became completely attached to it and wouldn’t leave. The whale earnestly tried various approaches on the submarine.”

Rentaro didn’t say anything.

“And then finally, during the war, an enemy destroyer ship was seen. When the submarine tried to submerge, the whale protected the submarine from a depth charge with his life and died. The whole surface of the ocean was dyed red with the whale’s blood, but even so, the whale was happy that he could protect the one he loved.”

Rentaro paused. “Doc, what are you trying to say?”

“Rentaro, whales and submarines are different things. When they come together, there can’t be a happy ending.”

“Enju is human. She’s human, no different from you and me.”

“I know what you’re trying to say. But you should also understand that people who feel that way are in the minority. And maybe you shouldn’t support it so much.”

Rentaro shook his head slowly. “That’s impossible, Doc. I can’t think of a life without Enju and Tina anymore.”

“But they will fall like leaves one day. Rentaro, don’t chase after falling leaves. The lifespan of Cursed Children is bound by the shackles of the corrosion rate of their body, which they cannot be freed from.”

Rentaro gritted his teeth and looked away from Sumire. “Doc, it’s not that I’m running away. I will definitely talk to Enju about this. But please don’t pursue it right now. It’s not like I know how to bring it up with her, either.”

“It’s really the doctor’s job to tell them, though…”

“Please don’t. When she finds out, I will definitely be the one who told her.”

Sumire shrugged her shoulders. “Well, if that’s what you’ve decided, I won’t interfere. By the way, did you know, Rentaro, that Cursed Children can breed with normal humans?”

“Theoretically speaking, right?”

“No, it’s happened.”

“What…do you mean?”

“Do you know about the custom of child marriage? There are actually a lot of countries where girls get married when they’re still children.”

“No, but the law……” One way or another, all civilized nations should have had some sort of law forbidding the marriage of girls until their bodies were matured.

“What are you going on about? In the Middle East, in countries where rape crimes are rampant, girls lose their virginity just by walking outside. And generally, in those countries, no one will take a girl who’s damaged goods as a bride, so in order to prevent that from happening, parents will secretly marry their daughters off before they even understand what’s going on around them. And the Guinness World Record for youngest person to give birth is five years old. It’s not strange for one of the Cursed Children somewhere around the world to have already experienced giving birth.”

“But wouldn’t the Cursed Children fight back? No one would want that, right? To be married off to some weird guy before you know it?” Besides, the girls were part of the New Humanity, with powers that far surpassed those of regular humans. If they faced a situation they didn’t want to be in, they should have the power to break out of it with their own hands.

Sumire recrossed her legs in her chair. “Rentaro, do you know how elephants are trained?”

“Elephants? No…”

“When the elephants are still young, their legs are wrapped with a strong chain with the other end of the chain fixed to a stake. The young elephant will cry and go wild, but it won’t be able to break free. Eventually, that elephant gives up. And once it learns that it can’t get away, it’s all over. Even if it grows up to become an adult and gets stronger, if it has a thin hemp rope tied to its leg, it won’t try to move one step from that place.”

Rentaro suddenly looked at himself in the full-length mirror at one end of the basement room. A scary Rentaro, eyes narrowed, stared back at him. “Doc, what’re you trying to say…?”

“Try changing elephant for Cursed Children. Unfortunately, the story you thought up of the Cursed Children fighting for their own freedom is like the pipe dream of a child who doesn’t know the realities of the world yet. In countries where women already have low status, women are treated as trophies taken by victors of war, not as humans. Then, add the additional factor of Cursed Children to the list of things to be discriminated against. Those girls aren’t human anymore. They’re livestock. And even if they’re raped while being cut up, they don’t die easily. They’re pretty fun toys for perverts to play with.”

“Stop.”

“No, I won’t stop. I haven’t said anything until now, but I hate people like you who don’t face reality. Have you ever seen one of the Cursed Children cut up by blades and hung with a rope, rotting, with flies swarming around her at eight years old? How about the heroic expression twisted by agony of a six-year-old who had ruptured organs after being forced into sexual relations with a piglike man? There’s still more—”

Suddenly, the shrill sound of something shattering to pieces echoed around the basement room. There was a dull pain in Rentaro’s hand, and when he looked at it, he slowly realized that his left hand had moved on its own and broken the mirror he was looking at. Fragments were piercing his fist, and lines of blood dripped onto the tile that covered the ground.

“Stop! It’s making me sick!” he shouted.

“Rentaro, it’s not like you believe that the Children outside of Tokyo Area are living heavenly lives, right? Thinking that you can solve all their problems is arrogant. Even the strong acts of discrimination against the Children in Tokyo Area are happening because they’re supposed to happen. Everything has a reason and a consequence.”

Rentaro finally understood where Sumire was going with her charade. “Are you saying that foreign Initiators have it much worse, so it can’t be helped if Enju and Tina get dirty words thrown at them or are stepped on?”

“If you take the argument to the extreme, that’s exactly it. Since it’s you, you’re probably worrying about useless things and thinking about something stupid.”

“Let me say this, Doc. I hate people like you, who act so cold.”

“You are powerless, Rentaro. If you really want to change the world, then you shouldn’t have left the Tendo family, which controls the politics and economics of this country from behind the scenes.”

“I…” Was he wrong? The next words wouldn’t come out, and his breathing was quick and shallow. He shook his head once and closed his eyes, forcing his heart and breathing to calm, searching for Sumire’s meaning.

“Then, I will drive off the Gastrea from this world as a civil officer in the place of those politicians,” he said finally. “There’s no way there’s only one way to change the world, right? Tokyo Area is small. Without the civil officer guards, aircraft can’t fly, and because of the dangers of marine Gastrea, we can’t really swim in the ocean, either. I want to give Enju the freedom to look around at a wide world. Doc, I will reform the world for Enju’s sake. That’s why I’ll defeat them. Even all of the Stage Five Gastrea.”

Sumire was frozen, her mouth slightly open. But in a moment she looked up at the ceiling, slapped her forehead, and burst out laughing. “I see, so that’s how you took it. ‘All the Stage Five,’ huh? Well, I’ve lost. Leaving aside whether or not you can do it, that was well said, Rentaro.” Her laughing suddenly cut off and she sat back down in her chair, eyeing him with a smile on her face. “You’re different from me after all. You’re so bright, it’s blinding.”

“That’s not true. Doc, you’re—”

Sumire shook her head gently. “No, I’m no good. Once humans think they know something well, they start looking at only the useless stuff. I’m more suited to this dark basement, after all. I can’t walk under the light of the sun.”

Rentaro didn’t speak.

“Rentaro, do you know what the most beautiful thing in the universe is?”

“No… What is it?”

“From the Buddhist worldview, it’s said to be the flower of the sacred ren lotus. In other words, it’s you. Rentaro. Your soul is beautiful.”

Rentaro felt a knot in his chest and looked at Sumire, at a loss for words. Coming from Sumire’s roundabout personality, this could be said to be the greatest praise.

“Doc……”

Sumire stood and spread both arms. “As you are right now, it’s probably okay if I showed you that.”

There it is, he thought, and braced himself. In the first place, Rentaro did not come to Sumire’s lab today to watch Tina and the doctor meet each other.

With last month’s Seitenshi assassination case, he had defeated the sniper who had an ingenious plan and saved the Seitenshi. For his services, Rentaro had been promoted to IP Rank 300, and he had risen to a Level 5 top secret–information access key. He was far from the Level 12 access key that was given to those within the top ten IP Ranks, but even so, there might be details about his parents or the Gastrea War that he could find out with his newly opened levels of access, so he had entrusted his access key to Sumire and had her look into the details for him.

He guessed from Sumire’s sharp words until now that she was trying to prepare him for what she was about to show him; she always did things in such a roundabout way. Before he knew it, the palms of his hands started sweating, and he wiped them on the cuffs of his pants. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end.

Sumire pulled out a disc from the top of her desk and inserted it into her laptop. Pointing a remote control at the wall, she pushed a button and a screen Rentaro had seen before slid down, connecting wirelessly to the projector. It was probably what Sumire used for her hobby of watching movies. Sumire started to do something with her back turned toward him, and then snuck a glance at him and laughed with meaning. “I hesitate in uploading this information to the cloud. It’s that kind of information. There’s pretty shocking stuff in there, too.”

Rentaro held his breath and waited for Sumire to finish what she was doing.

“First, this.”

Suddenly, a picture was brought up on the screen. The large image was covered with small writing, and Rentaro squinted as he leaned over. It looked like it went back twenty years, counting back from the current year of 2031.

Rentaro read over it and scowled. The items from the year 2021, when the Gastrea War broke out, until the end of the war were mostly blacked out. Taking the mouse from Sumire, Rentaro clicked on the blacked-out parts and got an error sound accompanied by the message “Access Key Level Too Low.”

“Have you noticed, Rentaro?”

“Yeah…” Rentaro nodded as he glared at the chart. The chronological tables of recent history everyone, including Rentaro, studied at school did not have these black lines in them. This was because the items themselves were completely erased from public view.

In the history textbook used at Rentaro’s school, Magata High School, there were surprisingly few pages that touched on the Gastrea War. He had heard that the documents relating to it had been lost in the fires during a period of confusion during the war, and many of the data centers that housed servers had been destroyed, so there were no accurate records left. That was the reasoning given, anyway.

When he had first heard that, he had nodded in agreement. That was because ten years ago, in 2021, the world population, which was in a glorious spring and had grown to almost eight billion people, was slaughtered until less than ten percent were left.

However—

Rentaro glared at the blacked-out chronology once more and tapped his foot in irritation. The message “Access Key Level Too Low” meant that as long as he had the right access key, he could open the censored parts and see the truth. In other words, the public reason given by the government that documents had been destroyed during the Gastrea War was a flat-out lie. But why was the government hiding the details of the War? Or…what was under those black lines that was so bad it had to be hidden?

“Rentaro, look at this.” Sumire approached the screen, extending a pointer and indicating one side of the display.

When Rentaro looked closely and double-clicked the words to enlarge them, parts of the words that had been blacked out were revealed and turned red. Apparently, this was the information that could be revealed with a Level 5 access key.

He skimmed it and saw that most of it was the war history. There was the Gastrea Legion’s fight against the self-defense force in the Kanto Battle and the Second Kanto Battle, and the recent Fox-Hunting incident where Tokyo Area almost broke out in a Pandemic. There was also what was declared the most beautiful destruction in the world where poisonous butterfly scales caused group hallucinations in the Morphe Butterfly Incident, and the Kagetane Hiruko Terrorist Incident, which of course was hard for Rentaro to forget. All these names were still too fresh in his memory to be called nostalgic.

Jumping to the items on military affairs, the Stairway to Heaven Project and the New Humanity Creation Project—which were thought of by the general public as an urban legend—were both evidenced here as truly extant. Rentaro tried going to the detail screen of the New Humanity Creation Project, but there was nothing more than what Rentaro already knew written there. That was only to be expected, Rentaro thought, crossing his arms. If he wanted to know more about the New Humanity Creation Project, instead of fishing for information in documents, it would be faster to just ask the head of the Japan branch of the project, who was standing in front of him. He would get more details, too.

Rentaro input all the information into his brain at once and fell into a slightly excited state. He felt his pulse quicken.

“Rentaro, the problem is this.” The words were so small that if Sumire had not used the pointer, he would have almost missed reading them. There it was.

It was as if his spine was struck by lightning, and his eyes opened wide.

“On a certain day, in a certain month, in the year 2021, Seven Stars Village was annihilated.”

Rentaro’s body felt numb, and he couldn’t move an inch. His throat was dry. “Doc…is Seven Stars Village…?”

Sumire nodded gravely. Rentaro and Sumire both knew the name Seven Stars.

The Inheritance of the Seven Stars—It was hard to forget the key item of the Kagetane Hiruko Terrorist Incident that had rocked Rentaro’s fate. Rentaro had chased down the mastermind, Kikunojo Tendo, but not even he could figure out why the mysterious item was a catalyst that could call out the Zodiac Gastrea Scorpion.

The duralumin case the Inheritance of the Seven Stars was in contained a broken tricycle…

His instincts screamed to not get involved with this case. Rentaro was sure that once he knew the truth, he wouldn’t be able to run away and would be screaming until the end of the world. That almost certain premonition ran through the back of his head.

“Strangely, this is the only account of Seven Stars Village. Looking around on maps online, Seven Stars Village had been erased from all of them. It was hard to find this, you know.” Saying that, she threw a thick book of maps on the desk in front of Rentaro. It was dirty and faded from the sun and ragged with tears, but Rentaro could just barely make out the words Atlas of Japan 2020. This was a map of Japan from before the Gastrea War.

Rentaro turned the pages with shaking hands. Sumire had marked it with a tab, so he didn’t have to go through the trouble of looking for the exact spot.

It looked like Seven Stars Village was in the northern part of Old Nagano prefecture. It was somewhat near the boundary with Old Toyama prefecture, at the foot of the three-thousand-meter mountains that made up the Hida mountain range. Of course, not just Seven Stars Village, but all of Nagano prefecture had turned into Unexplored Territory long ago, so it was not possible to approach it sans preparation.

Anyway, Rentaro carved the location of Seven Stars Village deep into his heart.

“There’s one more thing. This one is a video. I acquired this in a remarkable way.” Sumire raised her head as she operated the laptop. “A government worker uploaded it by accident. Whoever it was noticed right away and deleted it, but it was still cached. The file was corrupted, but I used some software to restore it. Thanks to that, the video is rough. Normally, you would need a Level 10 access key to see this data.”

“Level 10?” If he remembered correctly, Level 10 was for those with an IP Rank in the top thirty. Rentaro now could barely dream of having an IP Rank of 30.

Sumire’s unusually serious eyes were staring at Rentaro. “This is the really bad one. Proceed with caution. This is the Ardi File.”

Ardi File?

Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Sumire double-clicked the mouse. Suddenly, the screen turned black, and there was sound like the breathing of a monster. The sound and video skipped and there was a loud noise artifact that repeated from the bad video quality, making the strange breathing seem even more eerie. He knew it was impossible, but Rentaro even felt like there was a nasty smell coming from the video.

It looked like it was recorded on something of handycam size, and the photographer was trembling terribly.

Rentaro licked his upper lip nervously and couldn’t decide if he wanted to stare at the screen so he wouldn’t miss a single word, or run away desperately out of the basement room the second he was given permission to. However, the video that was filled with noise suddenly became clear.

As soon as that happened, Rentaro’s whole body stiffened.

Some thing had been put on top of an operating table and was looking at him with its enlarged right eye. Its whole body was covered in bandages, and if it didn’t just barely retain a human shape, then Rentaro would not have been able to identify what it was.

Its left shoulder was gigantic, and its left arm was shriveled awkwardly as if the shoulder had stolen all its nutrients. There was a third leg at the crotch by its right thigh, and its sternum was enlarged. Even worse was its face. Only its completely red right eye was swollen, suppressing its left eye and nose and other organs, and drool dangled from its uneven yellow teeth, making a large stain on the sheets of the operating table. There were a large number of tubes going through its arms, legs, eyes, genitals, and everything, and the wiring on the operating table looked like a bundle of spaghetti.

Rentaro’s knees felt weak, and he put his hands on the table at once to stop himself from falling over, but when he put his hands on the table, glass test tubes were pushed off and fell to the ground, breaking one by one.

“Rentaro, are you all right?” Sumire approached him uneasily, giving gentle commands with her hands.

The back of his right eye throbbed with pain. He bore it and forced himself to look. Seeing the bulge of the chest, and not seeing the bulge of the male genitalia, Rentaro discovered that it was female.

He hadn’t noticed the words DEVIL VIRUS coming onto the screen. The monster was panting and staring at the person behind the camera with its red eye. The person behind the camera took a long shot of the monster from the front, as if it was their job, and then without warning, it was cut off.

It hadn’t even been a whole minute, had it? But to Rentaro, it had seemed like an eternity. Rentaro desperately rubbed his upper arms and just then became aware that he was holding back a feeling of nausea. “Doc, what was that…?”

Sumire shook her head silently. “I don’t know, either. But since it’s called Ardi File, that’s probably the Ardi.”

“Ardi……?”

Because the beast’s whole body was wrapped in bandages, he couldn’t see the color of its skin, let alone whether or not it was human. The only things on the screen were the operating table and the machines around it. Because of the bright white light shining down from something that looked like a halogen light, he had assumed it was an operating table, but he had immediately lost confidence in his abilities of perception given his reaction after.

“Ardi was likely a code name. Probably taken from Ardipithecus ramidus. Rentaro, have you ever heard of how our ancestors came from Africa?”

“No……,” Rentaro said. “By ‘we,’ do you mean the Japanese people?”

“No, not only Japanese people, but Americans and other Asians and Europeans, too. Ten years ago, the world was about to reach a population of eight billion, and it was said that mankind had branched out from a single woman born in Africa. This was seen in mitochondria, but it is only passed down through the female family line.”

“Only female… Does that have anything to do with why the Cursed Children are all female?”

“I don’t know. But the African woman who was the origin of the mitochondria was given the name Mitochondria Eve, based on the Bible. And getting back to the point, currently, the oldest fossil of mankind ever excavated is a 4.1-million-year-old ramidus ape-man, in other words, Ardi. Ardi does not equal Mitochondria Eve, but Ardi and Mitochondria Eve have both been called ‘mankind’s first woman’ before. But anyway, neither is scientifically the oldest.”

“‘Mankind’s first woman’…? Then, Doc, what was that?!” Rentaro pressed Sumire for an answer.

Sumire nodded. “That person’s eyes were red. That was probably the first ever infected, mankind’s first Gastrea.”

The strength left Rentaro’s entire body, and before he knew it, he had slouched down onto the stool. There was a mountain of things he shouldn’t have thought about. However, there was something he just had to ask Sumire before he forgot about it. “Doc, you saw the words Devil Virus on the bottom right, didn’t you? That’s the Gastrea virus, right?”

“Well, that makes sense if you think about it.”

“But why is it called the Devil’s Virus?”

This time, it was Sumire’s turn to tilt her head in question. “Probably because it acted like a devil?”

“Then, wouldn’t demon or Satan work, too? No, wait. That’s not right…” Rentaro put a hand to his chin as he gathered the questions lurking in his mind. “Why didn’t they tell the world about it as Devil Virus? How did we come to call it the Gastrea virus?”

Sumire didn’t seem to quite understand his question. “Does there need to be a reason? I think it’s common for names to change when they go into widespread use among the population.” She didn’t seem to have any doubts about the phrase Devil Virus.

The more Rentaro thought about it, the less he understood. What was happening? Why did something like this—

Rentaro’s cell phone buzzed. The name on the screen read Kisara.

“Satomi, did you see the news?” Her voice, however tense it was, still made a part of him feel unconsciously relieved; it blew away the otherworldly atmosphere that had wrapped itself around him. He felt like it had pulled him out of hell.

However, that was short-lived. “Satomi, it’s started,” she continued. “The Monolith’s bleaching has been spotted! It looks like it can’t be hidden any longer.”

Rentaro kept the phone on his ear and said in a low voice, “Doc, turn on the TV.”

Sumire quickly operated a nearby device and soon the picture from the TV was projected onto the large screen. There was no need to change the channel; all the stations were probably broadcasting the same breaking news.

The video was aerial footage from a news helicopter. The rotors were noisy, and the female reporter’s voice sounded far away, but there was no doubt about what she was trying to say.

From the close-up of Monolith 32, they could see what looked like stains of white mold all over the Monolith. The corrosion fluid injected by Gastrea Aldebaran had finally eaten away at the enormous barrier, enough so that it could be seen from afar.

The video changed again, this time to show recorded footage. Rentaro groaned involuntarily. A helicopter flying above the Unexplored Territory was recording the mass of Gastrea that had gathered in the dense forest. The black mountain of them that could be seen from between the trees were of varying shapes and sizes. Of course, they weren’t limited to land-dwelling units. Bird and insect aerial units that could fly could also be seen. It looked like there were already close to a thousand of them. Perhaps in response to the approaching news helicopter, the Gastrea on the ground looked up, and they roared together in a bone-chilling wail filled with resentment and hatred.

Then, suddenly, the recorded footage was interrupted, and it went back to the live broadcast. Abruptly, on the top half of the screen, an IN MEMORIAM reel came on with headshots and names. Apparently, the news crew that went to film the concentration of Gastrea had been unable to return.

“The people of Tokyo Area are in a state of panic. Everyone is waiting for the government to act as soon as possible.” Even though it hadn’t even begun yet, the captions on screen were already calling it the Third Kanto Battle.

Sumire hadn’t known what was going on, and she was frozen with her eyes wide.

Even after turning off the TV, the image of the gathering of Gastrea facing the sky and howling remained burned into Rentaro’s brain. Why are you coming for us? Do you really hate mankind that much? Rentaro slowly let out the breath he had been holding.

There were four days left until the Monolith collapsed. He needed to gather his force as soon as possible.