Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.2

2

Rentaro was still depressed as he took on the heavy responsibilities of Commander. He couldn’t even tell if he didn’t want to do it because he didn’t think he could, or because he didn’t think they could win, or if it was a combination of the two. Thinking to go back once to the hotel his adjuvant made camp in, he dragged his feet past what had once been a park and suddenly heard angry voices that made him raise his face.

Straining his eyes to look, he saw a crowd of civil officers off in the distance. There was so much murderous intent, it was as if someone had stirred up a hornet’s nest. He could see Tamaki, Yuzuki, Enju, and Shoma. And in the middle of the uproar was a conspicuously tall masked man and a girl wearing a black dress.

Oh no, Rentaro thought, starting to run. They had followed him and descended upon the civil officer frontline base. It looked like before they could find Rentaro, they had been found by other civil officers and had caused a commotion.

“Kagetane, Kohina!” Rentaro shouted.

The two of them noticed Rentaro, and Kagetane spread his arms benevolently. “There you are, my comrade. I was looking for you.”

Enju shot a look toward Rentaro, startled. “Rentaro! What does he mean, he was looking for you?”

“I’ll explain later, but he saved me.”

“Saved you?!” Enju’s voice cracked.

Just then, Kohina narrowed her eyes and stepped forward with flushed cheeks. “Enju, I missed you.” Drawing her black Varanium short swords, she licked a blade with her tongue. “Let’s cross swords, Enju. Okay?”

Just then, a shining thread wrapped around one of Kohina’s short swords and restrained its movement. Kohina stared in surprise.

“Wait a minute, you.” Stepping out to the front with her arms crossed and looking furious was none other than Yuzuki Katagiri. “You people are the enemy of all of us civil officers! Now that we know you’re alive, we can’t just let you leave.”

Kohina gave Yuzuki a bored sideways glance and then pulled the hem of Kagetane’s tailcoat. “Papa, these people are in the way. Can I kill them?”

Rentaro’s hair stood on end. If they went wild here, it would be trouble.

However, not even Kagetane would get into a brawl with this many civil officers, already surrounded on all sides. That was Rentaro’s way of figuring, anyway, but Kagetane betrayed his expectations and snapped his fingers. “Kohina, you can kill half of them.”

Raising clouds of dust, Kohina seemed to disappear, then appeared the next moment in front of Yuzuki’s eyes.

“Wha—?!”

“You know, you’re kind of strong, but—”

Yuzuki threw up her arm suddenly in defense, but Kohina’s short sword went past that to pierce Yuzuki’s side. Kohina continued on to ram her, knocking Yuzuki off her feet and then treading on the overturned Yuzuki’s abdomen with her feet.

Cracks radiated out on the ground, and there was the sound of air being squeezed out as Yuzuki spit blood. “Gah…!”

“It’s not over yet,” vowed Kohina.

An Initiator with an IP rank of 1,850 was defeated in seconds. However, there was no time to be surprised as two Initiators struck at Kohina from both sides.

Kohina spun with the speed of a tornado and slashed the stomach of the Initiator on the left and the tendon of the Initiator on the right and then kicked both to send them flying. The two of them pounded into the ground, outside of the crowd of people. She was amazingly strong.

“Let go of Yuzuki, you little—” Tamaki rushed out, pulling the trigger of a large revolver.

“It’s no use. Imaginary Gimmick!” A repulsion field spread out around Kagetane, who had stepped between them. The bullet Tamaki fired hit the dome-shaped field and ricocheted with a thunderous roar.

Tamaki’s gun shook in his hand. “Wh-what the hell… It was a bullet from a .454 Casull, you know!”

Kagetane chuckled. “Too bad!”

This is bad. At this rate… As Rentaro rushed out in a rage, he suddenly felt tremendous killing intent coming from somewhere.

“Please get out of the way,” said a low voice, and the civil officers stopped in their tracks. There was a commotion as the crowd parted, and a single Initiator walked toward them. She held two fully automatic Glock guns in her hands, and her platinum blond hair was half-ruffled. “Release Yuzuki this minute. I’m getting angry…”

“Tina!” said Rentaro.

Apparently comprehending her unusual presence, Kohina took her foot off of Yuzuki. “Oh? You look strong. What’s your rank?”

Tina said her rank quietly in a voice only Kohina could hear.

The instant she heard it, Kohina’s eyes grew wide, and she muttered, “Interesting.” She turned to Kagetane. “Papa, I’m going to kill her! I’ll definitely kill her! Even if you tell me no, I’ll definitely kill her!” Kohina abandoned the sword that had been wrapped in thread and pulled out a new one from her waist, crossing her swords and lowering her hips.

At the same time, two Shenfields spilled out of Tina’s sleeves and danced in the air.

“You’re not a close-combat Initiator, are you?” said Kohina.

“What if I’m not?” Tina replied.

“You can’t win. Not someone like you.”

Tina looked momentarily confused but then soon shook her head. “What a joke.”

“Then why don’t we give it a try?”

The murderous intent and fighting spirit clashed, turning the air explosive.

Shoot, Rentaro thought. Even if he ran out himself, there was no way he could stop them. However, he didn’t expect a second intruder to appear just then. He heard the ringing of a sword departing its sheath and saw skirts fluttering gently.

“That’s enough.” Kisara suddenly appeared between Kagetane and Kohina and flipped her long hair. She had an eye patch protecting the left eye she’d damaged in the recent fight. “If you insist on continuing this, I will intervene in the fight.”

Kagetane drew his gun from its holster and pointed it at Kisara’s brow. “Oh dear, lovely Miss President. Do you remember me?”

“Yes, of course. It’s been a while, Kagetane Hiruko.”

Kagetane held his mask as he chuckled. “But your joke makes me laugh. You will intervene in the fight? What of it? I am the one who will destroy the world. No one can stop me.”

Just as Kagetane put his finger on the trigger of his Beretta, Kohina suddenly realized something, and the color drained from her face as she screamed. “Papa, no! She’s the most dangerous out of everyone here!”

Kagetane looked at Kohina in disbelief and then returned his gaze to Kisara.

Kagetane held his weapon at the ready, and Kisara had her hand similarly on her scabbard. Invisible sparks flung between the two.

Rentaro didn’t know how Kagetane judged Kisara’s strength, but surprisingly, Kagetane was the one to back off first. Kohina even looked regretfully at Enju and Tina and sheathed her short swords.

Rentaro didn’t understand what had happened. Even though Kohina had been even more eager to challenge Tina after learning her rank, she panicked the instant Kisara said she was going to intervene…

Wait a minute. Does that mean—

“My friend.” His train of thought broken, Rentaro looked up to see Kagetane smiling softly as he held his mask. “I wanted to test the strength of your adjuvant. Sorry.” He chuckled.

Rentaro didn’t say anything as he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. After encountering Kagetane in the forest and somehow or other working together to defeat Pleiades, Rentaro thought that maybe even someone like Kagetane could change his ways for the better. However, in the end, even as Tokyo Area was on the brink of destruction from the approaching Aldebaran, this pair was more concerned with pissing contests.

After glaring at Kagetane silently, Rentaro exchanged glances with Tamaki and nodded once. Tamaki lent a shoulder to his little sister, Yuzuki, and hurriedly took her to the relief squad. In the end, neither Enju nor Rentaro, nor the white-coated Shoma, had found an opportunity to join the fight.

Hmm? Rentaro felt like something was off and looked around him, realizing that there was an Initiator he hadn’t seen this whole time. Casually looking around him, he walked to where Shoma was.

“Shoma, bro, where’s Midori?”

A startled nervousness spread on the faces of the members of the adjuvant, and Rentaro felt uncomfortable at that baffling answer. “Enju, did…did something happen?”

Enju looked down, not meeting Rentaro’s eyes.

“Satomi, there’s something I need to tell you.” Solemnly, Shoma opened his mouth slowly and spoke.

And then Rentaro understood why Enju had been silent.

“No way…”

Kisara shook her head gloomily. “Anyway, you should go see her. You’ll still make it. She was waiting for you to come.”