Black Bullet - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.12

12

A heavy silence flooded the Tendo Civil Security Agency, the sole tenant on the third floor of the Happy Building. Kisara Tendo, in her usual black school uniform, sat at her wide ebony desk without saying a word.

The clock ticking away the seconds sounded abnormally hollow to her ears. In her mind, she pictured the second hand beating against a fully inflated balloon, ready to burst at any minute. Instinctively, it felt like once the hand inevitably popped the balloon, it would all be over for her.

It hadn’t been long since someone claiming to be an IISO agent appeared at her door, taking the reluctant Enju and all but dragging her out of the office. He said Rentaro had voluntarily surrendered his civsec license to the Seitenshi, which officially made Enju IISO property.

That was just too ridiculous to be true. Kisara had a front-row seat to Rentaro’s behavior around Enju, and if anything, she thought he was a little too attached to her. Even if they knew they were doomed to be pulled apart, there’s no way he’d so readily toss out his civsec license like that.

Something else must have happened at the palace.

But another voice in her mind wondered about that.

“Please don’t come back. I don’t want to see your face again. That’s all there is to it.”

Why did he have to be so curt with her? Kisara still couldn’t figure that out, but if that was the moment when Rentaro changed his whole outlook on life, then maybe he really would abandon hope for Enju and obediently hand over the license.

She felt her heart throb. It made her sick to her stomach. Enju was gone, Tina was gone, and Rentaro was gone. Why bother running this firm, then…?

Just then, her cell phone rang. She used the third movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 as her ringtone. Reluctantly, she picked it up.

“Kisara, it’s me; you gotta help me.”

“Satomi?” She jumped out of her seat. Looking at the screen, she saw the call came from a public phone.

“Wait, what…what happened to you?!”

She could hear the hesitancy in his voice from the other side of the call.

“—I don’t have time to explain. Things have changed. I need you to help me.”

“Things have changed? What…?”

“Listen. First floor café lounge, Magata Plaza Hotel, eight thirty. Can you do that? I’ll tell you everything there.”

Kisara glanced at the wall clock. That was only half an hour from now.

Rentaro grunted. She could hear police sirens faintly over the connection.

“’Kay, see you there, Kisara.”

“Whoa, wait a—”

The sound of him hanging up seemed to linger in the air for a few seconds. She had no idea what she just experienced. Rentaro couldn’t have been released, on bail or otherwise. His custody period was extended because the prosecutor convinced the court that he might try tampering with evidence. That he contacted her from the outside meant he was out on his own initiative. Kisara couldn’t think of too many legal ways he could’ve done that.

“Oh, no…”

“Sorry, but I can’t let you go anywhere.”

Turning around at the unexpected voice, Kisara was shocked to find a handsome, bespectacled man leaning against the wall by the entrance.

“Mr. Hitsuma! Why are you here?”

“That was a call from Satomi, wasn’t it?”

“N-no.”

The harried denial made Hitsuma mournfully shake his head. “I don’t know if you heard yet, but he flipped over the transport vehicle he was in and escaped with a girl we believe is his accomplice.”

“His accomplice? …Who?”

“I don’t know. We’re investigating.”

Hitsuma spread his arms as he approached Kisara, the smell of his pomade flying into her nostrils. “Ms. Tendo,” he said, “as someone in the business of Gastrea extermination, I’m sure you know how important the initial hours of the investigation are in solving a crime. Unfortunately, he’s already gone past a certain point. If you know where he is, would you mind telling me? I still have authority over this, so I can be gentle with him.”

“But you…”

Hitsuma’s arms were extending out, attempting to embrace her shaking body. Kisara took a step back and pushed Hitsuma’s chest away. He looked at her quizzically, like a hurt puppy.

“Do you like him?”

“No…I don’t. He’s an idiot, he’s useless as an employee, he’s chronically poor, he treats Miori like she’s some kind of goddess, he pays zero attention to me, he never calls unless I call him first…”

Kisara ran out of things to say. She turned away from Hitsuma, head hung low, then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“If he was innocent and wanted to earn justice for himself, he could’ve proved his innocence in a court of law. He might be innocent, for all I know. Maybe it was a false arrest. Maybe the police messed up the investigation.

“But even if they did, I can’t really approve of him crashing a police vehicle and sending three innocent men to the hospital. Ms. Tendo, if you really want what’s best for Satomi right now, you know what you should do, right? Tokyo Area’s not that big of a place. He can’t run from us forever. Sooner or later, we’ll find him. But you’re the only one who can keep him from adding any more charges to his record.”

“Please don’t come back. I don’t want to see your face again. That’s all there is to it.” Kisara shook her head from shoulder to shoulder. “I just don’t know. I don’t know what Satomi’s thinking, I don’t… I don’t know anything. I did before, but now, I just don’t.”

Before she knew it, Kisara felt a hand raising her chin, dragging her face toward Hitsuma’s friendly grin.

“Well, you can just leave the rest to me. I promise I won’t treat him badly. Where is he?”

Kisara hesitated. Hitsuma decided to keep pushing.

“You don’t want to see it all end with an officer shooting him down, do you?”

“N-no,” a startled Kisara said.

“Okay. So you know what you should do, right, Ms. Tendo? Just think about what’s the best thing you can do for Satomi right now. Take your time.”

After excusing himself from the Tendo Civil Security Agency office, Hitsuma went down the stairs and stood in front of the building. The blissfully unconcerned face from before was a thing of the past. He was close to losing his temper, ready to kick the first thing that came into sight—an empty can, a small dog, anything.

Hitsuma took out his cell phone and tapped a number in his call history. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Hey, how’s the reception on the bug you put in Kisara Tendo’s cell phone?”

“Loud and clear. But I’m sure Rentaro Satomi’s moved on from his previous call location. She promised she’d meet him at the café on the first floor of the Magata Plaza Hotel. We’ll have some people there.”

“Pfft.”

“Something wrong, sir?”

“Kisara Tendo… She didn’t disclose anything to me.”

“Are you doubting our technology, sir?” The man on the other end of the line didn’t understand what he meant. “Whether she cooperated with you or not, we’ve got all the intel we need—”

“—No. Not that. I was testing her. I wanted to see whether she’d testify against Rentaro Satomi or not. But she kept mum. Right up to the end.”

“It’s nothing that’s compromising our mission, sir.”

“No…it’s not.” Hitsuma shook his head, trying to put his mind back on track. “Do we know where the memory card is yet? What about Hotaru Kouro’s whereabouts?”

“Nothing on either front yet.”

“This is getting messier than I thought it’d be.”

He had a mountain of issues to deal with. The only way to deal with them was to tackle them head-on, one by one. Let’s start with Rentaro Satomi.

“I’ll tell the police about this later. We got thirty minutes.”

“What are the higher-ups telling you?”

“Feh. My father told me that Lady Seitenshi ordered him not to be killed. Maybe the rumors about her having some kind of special feelings for the guy were true after all.”

“Well, that sure makes me jealous. What are you planning to do, then? I’m assuming you don’t want him unhurt.”

Hitsuma snickered to himself. “Don’t be stupid, Nest. We have no idea how much Suibara told him. I don’t care anymore. Rub him out. We’re using Dark Stalker for this job.”