Black Bullet - Volume 4 - Chapter 5.2

2

Someone was rocking his body as they cried. Warm drops of water fell on his cheeks, his forehead, and his mouth and flowed down into his throat. It was salty.

And then he realized: Oh, I’m alive.

Opening his eyes slightly, he was able to see the silhouette even more clearly. It was a girl with pigtails that looked like bunny ears. Regretfully, he thought that even though he hadn’t wanted to make her cry anymore, he had done it again.

His cheeks were slapped, and his slowly sinking consciousness rose to the surface again. His eyes focused, and the coordinates of his consciousness became even more distinct. He vaguely noticed that the sky behind him was growing bright. Apparently, it was almost dawn.

“En…ju…”

Enju took a sharp breath. She didn’t speak. Her mouth turned down at the corners, and she seemed determined not to cry anymore, but it twisted her face into a strange expression. Her eyes were wet, her mouth opened and closed silently, but then suddenly, she pulled her head back, and of all things, she started head butting him over and over.

There was a sound that brought him back to reality, and he saw stars. “Gahhhh! I-idiot… What’re you doing, you ten-year-old baby?” He pushed the top half of his body up with momentum and then scowled at the pain that came with that movement.

After checking his own body, he wasn’t surprised. Of course, his artificial limbs were gone, and his whole body was covered with burns and injuries, and his cloak and uniform were both scorched. He didn’t have a mirror, so he didn’t know, but his face was probably also black with soot.

Enju glared at him with resentment as she rubbed her forehead, which also must’ve hurt. “I had too many things to complain about to express in words, so I head butted you without thinking.”

“Don’t head butt me.”

“I have about a thousand things to say to you. First of all—” Enju looked like she wanted to argue vehemently more, but Rentaro held down her arm and looked around.

“Enju, sorry. I’ll listen to that later. What happened with the war? Sorry, but can I lean on your shoulder? I can’t stand on my own.”

Enju made a face that showed how she thought about that, but then she did take his shoulder silently as she stood up. With Enju’s help, he climbed to the top of the small hill. Apparently, it was the highest hill in the area, and nothing blocked his view in any direction. The world spread out at Rentaro’s feet.

“What is this…?”

Where Aldebaran had been, there was a giant crater, still smoldering and sending up white smoke, with the bottom completely red, like lava. Aldebaran had been exterminated without a trace. So had Shoma Nagisawa…

“Enju, what about the remaining Gastrea? Did we defeat them…?”

“Yup. The movements of the Gastrea went strange after that explosion, and each one became really easy to kill. Most of them ran outside of the Monolith, though.”

Just then, there were shouts behind his back, and he turned to look.

“Big Brother!”

“Satomi!”

He saw Tina and Kisara running toward them. Following their voices, the civil officers in the area looking for survivors gathered.

Tamaki and Yuzuki were also safe. Asaka was sorrowful at losing yet another Promoter. The splatters of blood on Kagetane’s and Kohina’s clothes from their victims told of their impressive war results.

But, as if they already knew that Shoma was no longer of this world, starting with Kisara, none of the members of his adjuvant seemed to want to meet his eyes.

“Is this all? Is this all that’s left?” In contrast to the nine members of Rentaro’s party who survived, he could only see six others here and there. When they had started Operation Rapier Thrust, they had attacked with a hundred or so civil officers at the same time. And now, there were only fifteen left. Had he let the rest die?

Just then, he felt light at his back and turned around, and he saw bands of the first light of day peek out from between the clouds in the eastern sky as the azure heavens were slowly dyed with the colors of the dawn.

The faint beauty of the deep navy sky being dyed light blue shook him; the beauty of nature in the infinite gradation swallowed him up. It had been four days since the thick clouds from the bleached Monolith had covered the sky and they had seen the sun.

However, what the sun’s rays exposed in broad daylight was not a warm paradise. There were mountains of corpses of large and small Gastrea, and between them were remains of civil officers so damaged that it was hard to tell what their original shape was. There were streams of blood here and there that joined to form a small river.

Spilled guts had rolled on the ground and were covered in mud, and gray matter had mixed together with it, turning the surface of the ground pink. The eyes the flies swarmed around could no longer see. The stink of burnt flesh and hair spread and permeated into the survivors’ skin. It would be hard to get that smell out. Rentaro didn’t think it would go away for some time, no matter how many times he bathed.

That supremely appalling scene spread as far as the eye could see. This was what had become of the heroes who fought to defeat the Gastrea. This was the fate of those fools who had been tempted by the name of protecting Tokyo Area and had ended up being tossed into the pit of hell.

Rentaro Satomi had tried to make a heaven of this hell where the Gastrea walked. Even so, what was this scene that spread before his eyes? How could he say for sure that what he did wasn’t just to cross over hell with another hell?

If you kill one person, you’re a murderer. If you kill a hundred, you’re a hero. If you kill everything, then apparently, you’re a god.

Rentaro was not a god.

But he wasn’t human, or a murderer, either.

Rentaro had become a hero by accident. He had become a symbol. He had become hope for others. When he had been called a hero after the Kagetane Hiruko incident, it hadn’t really sunk in, but now he understood.

I see… So Rentaro Satomi is a hero.

He was sure that the mountains of corpses and river of blood were a living hell that the clowns called heroes would have to see for the rest of their lives.

Rentaro could feel Enju’s warmth next to him. When he went back to the agency, Kisara and Tina would come out to meet him.

Then what was this desolation blowing through the hole in his heart? Why did his heart feel like it was going to rip apart with loneliness even when he was surrounded by the smiles of so many of his friends?

He was sure that he would spend more nights coughing up blood and sleepless with fear as he pursued the truth. That’s why he was sure the truth would not make him happy. When he saw the Ardi File in Sumire’s lab, he was even more certain.

However, it wasn’t like he could just stop. If he surrendered here, what would come of the prayers of Kayo Senju, who passed away leaving her future to Rentaro, or the wishes of Midori Fuse, or the hope of Shoma Nagisawa? In order to make sure their deaths were not in vain, he did not have the option of stepping down now.

Just then, he suddenly heard noise in the air behind him and turned to see helicopters coming toward them. They had probably requisitioned all the helicopters in Tokyo Area. The helicopters had reinforced nets of rectangular blocks of Varanium hanging from them.

The amazing number of helicopters flying toward them in formation covered the sky as they flew over the heads of Rentaro and the others, heading toward the remains of the mountain of ash left by the collapsed Monolith. They would probably work through the day and night to construct the Monolith.

Rentaro squinted again at the light of dawn. From now on, how many valleys of tears would he cross? How many fields and hills of despair? And what lay in store for him beyond them?

Only God knew.

REPORT OF THE THIRD KANTO BATTLE

The accumulated damage of Tokyo Area from the successive battles against the Gastrea Scorpion at the end of April 2031 and the Gastrea Aldebaran in July of the same year are as follows:

Tokyo Area Ground Self-Defense Force—attenuation loss of 83%.

Tokyo Area Maritime Self-Defense Force—attenuation loss of 45%.

Tokyo Area Air Self-Defense Force—attenuation loss of 95%.

Tokyo Area officially registered civil security officer pairs—attenuation loss of 43%.

Adjuvant members with tremendous battle results received the following promotions in rank:

Takami Katagiri and Yuzuki Katagiri pair—promoted from IP rank 1,850 to 1,000.

Kisara Tendo and Tina Sprout pair—promoted from IP rank 9,200 to 3,500.

Rentaro Satomi and Enju Aihara pair—promoted from IP rank 300 to 200.

Initiator Asaka Mibu is currently under the care of the International Initiator Supervision Organization, due to the death of her Promoter.

Kagetane Hiruko and Kohina Hiruko, who were thought to have participated in the battle, disappeared immediately after the incident. Their whereabouts are unknown.

End report.

Tokyo Area decided that it would be difficult to protect their country on their own and invited strong civil officers from overseas by promising priority access to Varanium supplies. Tokyo Area became the first model case of a nation reversing their presumed fate of mass extinction after the collapse of a Monolith.