Chapter 7

Kohina kept her face down and grumbled softly to herself. “Enju, Enju, Enju… All right, I’ll remember. I am Model Mantis, Kohina Hiruko. In close combat, I am invincible.” Kohina changed completely and pulled on Kagetane’s sleeve with a sad expression. “Um, can I kill the rabbit? I’ll just leave her head, so can I kill her?” “How many times do I have to tell you, silly girl,” said Kagetane. “You may not.” “Aw, I hate you, Papa!” Kagetane said, “Oh, dear,” and fixed the placement of his silk hat, then turned back to Rentaro. “It looks like things have gotten complicated. Do you want to fight?” Rentaro kept an eye on Kagetane without letting his guard down and looked around. They were in a residential neighborhood, so if they fought here, there would be more meaningless victims. After biting his bottom lip hard, Rentaro lowered his gun. “Hurry up and say what you have to say, moron. I’m sleepy and still have to study for a quiz next week.” Kagetane snickered behind his mask and put his gun back in its holster, holding his arms wide open magnanimously with the moon as a backdrop. “Let me get straight to the point. Satomi, will you join me?” “What did you say?!” “For some reason, I’ve liked you ever since I first saw you. I thought it’d be a waste to kill you. If you join me, then I won’t.” “I’m still a civsec officer, you know.” “What of it? I am a former civsec officer myself. Unfortunately, there will soon be a wild storm that will bring Great Extinction to Tokyo Area. At the moment, I have some strong backup. If you become my ally, you can have money, women, power… I will give you anything you want.” Rentaro did not say a word. “Satomi, have you ever thought you wanted to change this unreasonable world? That the way Tokyo Area works is wrong? Have you ever thought that, even once?” Before he knew it, the image of the girl whose name he didn’t even know resurfaced from the back of his mind. Her head flew back in slow motion, and blood spurted from her forehead. The blood dripped slowly, getting absorbed by the ground. There was the girl, with her eyes refusing to accept what happened, the police officers whose mouths twisted in evil pleasure, and Rentaro, too cowardly to run out to save her because he was afraid he would be killed to keep his mouth shut. Seeing Rentaro’s hesitation, Kagetane pulled out a white cloth from his pocket and covered the ground, counting to three. When he pulled the cloth off, an attaché case appeared beneath it. “From what I hear, apparently, you are not doing very well economically.” Kagetane used his foot to slide the attaché case over to Rentaro. When the case stopped in front of Rentaro, the lid popped open. Inside, it was stuffed with stacks of bills. “This is just a small gift to express my feelings.” Rentaro stared at the stacks of bills without moving an inch. “I hear you make that Enju over there pretend to be human and have her go to school? Why would you do that? Those girls are the shape of the next generation of humans that have gone beyond the current Homo sapiens. The only ones left after the Great Extinction will be us, the strong. Join me, Rentaro Satomi.” Rentaro kicked the attaché case back with all his strength and shot it three times with his gun. The case jumped, and the bills were riddled with holes. Some of them floated out of the case like petals. Kagetane looked at the attaché case riddled with holes for a while. “You have made a grave mistake, Satomi.” “Mistake? If I made a mistake, it was that I didn’t kill you when I first met you, Kagetane Hiruko!” “Fool! Will you insist on completing your jobs till the end? No matter how hard you work for them, they will only keep betraying you.” Rentaro glared at Kagetane. Kagetane glared back at Rentaro. Rentaro wasn’t sure how long this went on, but after a while, they could hear the siren of the police car coming to investigate the gunshots. Kagetane sighed. “We will pick this up again later, Satomi. I don’t like doing things this way very much…but see what happens when you go to school tomorrow. You need to start looking at reality.” Throwing that last line at Rentaro, he took a big leap backward and melted into the darkness. Staring in the direction Kagetane disappeared, Rentaro asked Enju, “What do you think of his Initiator?” “She’s strong,” she said. “Frighteningly so.” “Can you beat her?” “I don’t know.” “I see…” The burden of Kagetane’s last words to him as they parted weighed down on Rentaro, and he couldn’t erase them from his memory. 2 “Is that true?” Rentaro stood as he squeezed his cell phone tightly. A number of his classmates who were idly chatting stopped in surprise and looked in his direction. Rentaro quickly lowered his voice. “I-I’ll be there immediately.” After folding his cell phone shut, he dashed out onto the school grounds and ran two buildings over to Magata Elementary School. Hastily taking off his shoes and putting on the visitor slippers at the entrance, he went to the staff room and grabbed Enju’s homeroom teacher, who was just about to head to the classroom. His face was pale and thin, and there were large circles under his eyes. He was shorter than Rentaro, but even though it wasn’t that hot, he kept dabbing his handkerchief on his forehead, and his eyeballs protruded like he was nervous. “Oh, you’re the guardian…” “What is going on? Is Enju really—?” Rentaro drew closer to him with a threatening look. Even though he knew that it was useless taking things out on her homeroom teacher, he couldn’t control his feelings. The man answered incoherently as he took quick glances at Rentaro. “Yes, the rumor that Aihara is one of the Cursed Children appeared from somewhere. At lunch, the…harassment…directed at her began.” “I can’t believe it… But…did Enju…deny it…?” The teacher looked down as he began to dab his forehead repeatedly with his handkerchief. That was better than any answer. “Satomi, you had Aihara attend this school without telling any of us that she was one of the Cursed Children.” “If I had told you beforehand, wouldn’t you all have just found a reason to refuse to admit her?” The teacher looked away from Rentaro and started wiping his mouth with his handkerchief again. “I had Aihara leave school early because of the shock. I have no right to ask this, but will you go be with her, Satomi?” Rentaro didn’t remember what path he took to go home. Unlocking the door, he entered the apartment panting, and a silent chill touched his skin. Enju was not there. She wasn’t anywhere. His whole body shook with chills, and even taking off his shoes seemed to take too long. He checked the bath and restroom and opened all the closets. She wasn’t there. He started to turn pale at the thought that maybe she hadn’t even made it home, but opening her clothes dresser, he saw traces that she had at least been there once. As Rentaro fell into a panic, he let out a deep breath and bent his knees, fumbling around in his pocket to call Enju’s cell phone. She seemed to have turned off her phone, so he sent her a few texts. He did not receive any response. Rentaro took deep breath after deep breath and told himself, It’s all right. This is Enju’s only home. Rentaro kept waiting. But in the end, Enju did not return home that day. 3 Rentaro opened his eyes slightly at the sound of a soft tapping in the distance. The first thing that came into the field of his blurry and hazy vision was the brown ceiling. The grain of the ceiling changed shape with a twist and turned into a person being chased by a boar. The person was fleeing desperately, but it looked like the boar would catch them soon. He woke up with a start, and turned his neck to look around the room. He was alone. Enju hadn’t changed her mind and come home. His stomach was heavy with disappointment, and a headache that seemed like it was lying in wait attacked, making him crouch where he stood. Looking out the window, the rain on the glass distorted the view. That was the source of the tapping earlier. His eyelids felt heavy and cramped, and he felt worse than when he went to sleep. He was nauseated now, too. Pulling the clock toward him to look at the time, he saw that it was seven a.m. It had only been about fifty minutes since he’d fallen asleep. Because he hadn’t eaten anything since the incident happened yesterday, his stomach was so empty that it hurt, but he didn’t feel like cooking for himself. With his hazy vision and his head feeling like it was full of mud, Rentaro crawled to the fridge and, finding a half-full milk container, drank it dry. It tasted like bitter, half-solidified saliva. He cracked open a raw egg on the side of the fridge and dumped what was inside into his mouth, then chewed some mustard greens and lettuce in desperation. His own actions shocked him, given that he was usually proud of the fact that he liked cooking. After he got to the point where he could move around, Rentaro started putting away Enju’s clothes, which were scattered around the living room. The previous day, Rentaro had taken all of the clothes Enju left behind out of the closet and slept with them around him. Unlike Rentaro, who was poor, Enju had a lot of clothes in the latest fashions. That was how he felt after spending the whole night with them. Which reminded him, whenever Enju bought new clothes, she would pose suggestively in front of Rentaro, asking him over and over, “Am I cute? Am I cute?” How had he answered her then? Rentaro picked up the syringe that had fallen in the crack by the dresser. Inside it was cobalt blue medicine in liquid form. Realizing that she hadn’t taken her medicine, he became very sad. Nothing would happen if she skipped it for a day or two, but if she didn’t take it for a while, the corrosion rate of her body would gradually rise. “Damn.” Rentaro threw the syringe on the floor and held his head in his hands. Pretty much every day, he took her to and from school, and when they came back to the apartment, Enju would be pestering him for food. She was critical of everything he made, which had motivated him to cook well. That life had been broken to pieces. Rentaro stood up and looked around the too-empty eight-tatami-mat room. What was he supposed to do now? He slapped his cheeks hard with both hands. It was obvious. He needed to do something. Taking off the uniform he wore every day, he took a shower, letting the hot rain strike his body and loosen his stiff muscles. After he got out of the shower, he felt a little more like himself. Putting on a fresh uniform and looking in the mirror, he saw that his cheeks were slightly hollow and that only his eyes were glittering, but he decided that it was good enough. Checking to make sure he still had a close-up picture of Enju’s face on his phone, Rentaro took his wallet and went outside. Suddenly wondering how much money he had left, he opened his wallet and laughed involuntarily. He would probably have to walk home, but he didn’t care. Rentaro jumped onto the train and got off at the last stop. Since it was early morning on a weekend, the entrance and exits were both empty. Raising his umbrella and looking into the distance to check where the Monoliths were, he walked unwaveringly toward the Outer District. It had already been ten years since the Monoliths had formed the boundary that separated humans from Gastrea. The Tokyo metropolis was the only place that had remained whole after the Great War. The neighboring Kanagawa, Chiba, and Saitama prefectures all had pieces cut off by the Monoliths. It had been nine years since the Tokyo metropolis absorbed the neighboring prefectures and became Tokyo Area, with its forty-three districts. The numbering system started from the middle of old Tokyo (the Seitenshi’s palace was in the First District), with the numbers increasing as one got closer to the border. The Outer District that Rentaro was heading toward was District 39 on the map. The Outer District referred to the border district connected to the Monolith, a no-man’s-land where no one wanted to live at the time. Slowly, there started being fewer and fewer people, and he started seeing strange things here and there. There were gigantic footprints that didn’t look human and chairs that had blood stuck to them that wouldn’t come off. Inside a four-wheel-drive vehicle with broken windows that had turned red as though rust bloomed on them grew a mysterious reddish-purple grass out of the space between the cushions, luxurious in its thickness. A message board created in response to the emergency was still covered with many layers of colorful papers after ten years. “Sho, this is Atsuko. If you’re safe, please contact me here.” “To Daiki Kato—I’m at your grandfather’s house.” “This is my number: xxxxx. Koji Aso.” “I’m looking for this boy.” There was a picture of a boy about five years old attached. “To Yoko. Dad and Fuyumi are fine…” The rest was scratched off and couldn’t be read. Rentaro had involuntarily started sweating uncomfortably. He felt like his necktie was tightening around his neck and loosened his collar. This was a message board created by people who had been separated during the war in order to reunite with loved ones. With transmission base stations destroyed, cell phones were nothing but pieces of trash. This was probably a region that had been caught up in the war. The traces of the Gastrea War that were left behind still seemed fresh. If he really wanted to remember the conditions from ten years ago, there were plenty of videos uploaded online, but there was no one who could watch them and feel happy about it. Once, a long time ago, Rentaro had watched a video called “Memento Mori,” and he remembered running to the sink afterward. The farther he went, the more he could see, because with the collapsed buildings and dilapidated homes, there were fewer things to obstruct his vision. In the midst of that were conspicuously large factories that looked like they had been newly built. They were facilities for geothermal, steam, water, wind, solar, and nuclear energy. Japan had always been surrounded on all sides by the ocean, so it had strong ocean winds. Besides that, it had about ten percent of the world’s volcanoes, so it could make use of their geothermal energy, and because of its complex terrain, there were many extreme rises and falls, so it had strong waterpower, as well. Now, in the year 2031, solar battery panels had made great advancements in conversion efficiency, and in forty-one districts, they were piloting a new Tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. It could be said that most of the energy for the center was produced in the Outer District. However— Rentaro looked at the pristine asphalt road compared to the ruined buildings and a bitter expression crossed his face. There were examples from other disasters, too, but when a disaster of this magnitude occurred, the first thing to do was restore roads to transport goods. The next thing was to start securing the all-important lifeline of water, and then to aim for enhancing food, clothing, and shelter. Why had restoration not moved forward if the roads had been paved so nicely? It was probably because the government had no intention of restoring the Outer District. There were currently three uses for the Outer District. First, it was a place to manage dangerous nuclear reactions, and second, it was a landfill for the trash created by those in the center of Tokyo Area. Finally, it was where they planted the genetically improved “miracle seed” that was expected to produce large harvests in a small amount of land. Fortunately, powdered concrete worked to lower the acidity of the soil. In other words, it was an abandoned area that was now a field for these three things. None of those three uses showed any consideration for the few residents who lived here. The Monoliths started to look very big. Surveying the area, it did not look like there were any people there, but Rentaro felt eyes looking at him from somewhere. It was probably not just his imagination. Rentaro gripped the handle of his umbrella hard. Other than the umbrella he was using, he had also brought a child’s umbrella with a Tenchu Girls character printed on it. The circumstances this time were more serious than Rentaro had thought. There was no way that it would be resolved easily, with Enju at Kisara’s or Sumire’s or a classmate’s house. If anything, it would make more sense for her to return to her hometown, the Outer District. Before he knew it, he had reached almost the innermost area. Rentaro relied on his memory to go to a single manhole, and knocked two, three times on the cover. Shortly after, the cover was lifted open with a heavy sound, and a lisping voice said, “What?” as a young girl showed her face. She was probably around seven years old, and she peered at Rentaro with a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes glowed red. “I’m looking for someone,” he said. “Can you help me?” “Are you the police? We have no intention of leaving, leaving, leaving.” “No, I’m not the police.” “Then, then, are you a sex offender?” “Huh? A sex offender? No…that’s wrong, too…” “Then, please leave.” The manhole cover shut with a clang, and Rentaro froze with his mouth still open. Returning to himself, he knocked again. “I hate persistent sex offenders,” said the girl. “Wait, wait, wait! Why are police and sex offenders the only two options you have prepared?!” said Rentaro hurriedly. “And why did you decide that I was a sex offender just now?!” “It was what I thought after seeing your face.” “You little…” “By the way, did you need something?” Keeping his irritation inside, Rentaro put down his umbrella and took out his civil officer license with his right hand and pulled up the picture of Enju saved on his phone with his left hand. “I’m a civil officer. I’m looking for this girl. Have you seen her?” The girl looked back and forth at the license and the picture and said, “Nope.” “I’d like to ask other people, too. Is there an adult around?” “That would be the Elder. I’ll go get him, so please wait inside.” “Uh, all right…” Pressured by the girl’s lilting speech, he went down the ramp and stood in the sewer. It was unexpectedly spacious inside and cleaner than he expected. However, the strong stink of many years of human wastewater had become ingrained in the walls and made his head hurt. But the girl seemed used to it and said, “Please wait here,” and bounced off into its depths. Rentaro looked at her departing back with complicated emotions. Manhole Children. Children who had become orphans after losing their parents and siblings during the war. As he started looking around after his eyes became used to the darkness, he could hear a clanging sound reverberating from inside a pipe, and a man appeared. He was short, and his hair was white, but his spine was straight. He wore glasses and gave the impression of being intellectual. He used a wooden cane with a rubber end, but he still looked too young to be an Elder. “I’m Rentaro Satomi,” said Rentaro. When he gave the man his civil officer business card, the man looked at it carefully and then said, “Aha,” nodding. “Are you the guy that strange girl from earlier called ‘Elder’?” “Ah, Elder is a nickname,” the man laughed. “I’m Matsuzaki. But I’m surprised, too. Maria said, ‘A guy who’s a police with his right hand and a sex offender with his left hand is here.’ I thought it was some kind of riddle.” The girl from earlier appeared to be called Maria. It would probably be hard to make her understand the difference between a police officer and a civil officer. “Excuse me, but what do you…?” Rentaro ventured. “Oh, I look after the children here.” Rentaro was silently moved. The man wasn’t homeless but probably lived here of his own accord. He couldn’t help looking a little shabby, but when he smiled, his gentleness shone through. Rentaro thought he must have once worked as some kind of educator. The man pushed up his glasses with his middle finger and looked into Rentaro’s eyes. “It’s warm in here compared to outside, isn’t it?” “Yeah, now that you mention it.” Rentaro had actually noticed when he entered. He thought the sewer would just block the wind and rain, but with this warmth, it would not be hard to live through the winter. “It’s because most of the drainage from the power plants is hot.” “Oh, that makes sense. But it’s easy to get sick with this sanitation environment…right?” After he said it, he thought it was probably rude and added the last part. But the man laughed loudly. “That’s not true. The girls are actually more resistant to this environment than us normal people, thanks to the Gastrea virus. Even in the past, when this area was flooded with Gastrea, the Gastrea didn’t come all the way to the sewers, so this is a pretty comfortable place to live.” Rentaro looked into the water pipe where the girl named Maria had disappeared. “So, is she one of the Cursed Children, too? She lifted that sixty-kilogram manhole cover like it was nothing.” “Did you notice? She still cannot control her emotions well. I hope that she will be able to leave here someday and live among normal people, but it’s problematic if her red eyes give her away, so she needs to at least learn to control her emotions.” The man looked like he was having fun twirling his cane as he explained. Rentaro thought about the girl called Maria. All of the Cursed Children were female. To begin with, all new lives in the womb are female for the first seven weeks. Then, the embryo’s sex is determined, and some become male. The Gastrea virus mutated the gene that determined the sex, so none of the Cursed Children became male. “Mr. Matsuzaki… Aren’t you one of the Stolen Generation?” Rentaro asked. “That doesn’t matter,” said the man. “When Gastrea invaded, unfortunately, the virus also infected children in the womb. The girls, the Innocent Generation, are victims.” “If only everyone thought like you…,” Rentaro sighed. “I completely agree with you.” “It can’t be helped. It’s not a grudge that will go away in ten years. Everyone has become overly sensitive to the word Gastrea, so it’s only natural that they would hate having children walking around town who carried the virus in their bodies.” Feeling comfortable with this unexpected sympathizer, Rentaro could have kept talking about this same subject, but then he remembered what he had come for. “Sorry, I’m in a hurry. Did this girl come here? Her name is Enju, Enju Aihara.” He showed the picture to Matsuzaki, who appeared to think a little before shaking his head. “Sorry, I don’t know.” Well, Rentaro hadn’t expected to find her this quickly. Of course, he wasn’t going to get discouraged over something like this. As Rentaro bowed to leave, for some reason, the cane stretched out to stop him. “Where will you go now?” Matsuzaki asked. “I’ll search all of District 39,” said Rentaro. “It’s her hometown. I’ll look for her until I find her.” “From the looks of it, you are a Promoter whose partner ran out on you.” Rentaro suddenly couldn’t speak, and his face looked frantic. That appeared to be enough to confirm Matsuzaki’s suspicions. “Does it have to be this girl?” Matsuzaki asked. “What…?” said Rentaro, unsure of what he meant. “When you take care of those girls, you naturally get to know them, but it’s not rare for civsec officer pairs to have personality conflicts. If a pair breaks up or if one person dies, you could contact the IISO to form a contract with a new Initiator. Your IP Rank will plummet, but at your age and with your record, it wouldn’t be hard for you to bring it back up again.” Rentaro inhaled and exhaled silently and closed his eyes. “I came looking for Enju, but not because I’m a Promoter or because she’s my Initiator. You’re a good guy, and I thank you for that. But let me say this—don’t act all high and mighty without knowing anything!” Matsuzaki widened his eyes in surprise and dropped his cane. Rentaro clicked his tongue, thinking that he’d done it now. He had trouble controlling his emotions when it came to these topics. “Sorry… I didn’t mean to yell. I’ll leave now. Bye.” Matsuzaki looked affectionately at Rentaro’s departing back and then turned around slowly, raising his voice into the darkness behind him. “You heard him. He’s a nice young man. Are you sure you want to let him leave like this, little lady?” 4 THE NEXT DAY. Rentaro was speechless as he hung up the phone. His arm fell limply and he did not recover from his shock for a while. Looking at his surroundings, he saw thin clouds like the previous day’s and cherry tree leaves that looked like they were about to be scattered in the strong wind. The sky looked like it might start crying any minute. Outside the school, Rentaro gave a start as he heard the warning bell, but his legs felt heavy and he didn’t feel like going to his classroom at all. During the break between first and second periods, he realized that he had to explain that Enju would be absent to her homeroom teacher, and went behind the school to call from his cell phone. The response he got was completely unexpected. Rentaro looked back at the school and went back and forth wondering if he should hurry back to his classroom or not, but in the end, he turned around and headed toward Magata Elementary School once more. He went to the staff room and met up with Enju’s homeroom teacher. The teacher’s face looked like he also did not understand what had happened. “Yes, Aihara is at school.” Rentaro searched his memory and only just realized regretfully that her schoolbag and a set of books had been taken out of their apartment. After he left the manhole the previous day, he’d searched District 39 until sunset, but he didn’t get any valuable information, and his feet dragged as he went back to the apartment. The teacher brought Rentaro to Class 4-3’s room. They peeked at the situation inside through the window of the sliding door in the back. There she was. Even though it was break time, she sat alone, looking down resolutely, her eyes staring at the desk, proof of her iron will. There was extra space between her desk and the others, and her classmates treated Enju as if she weren’t there. Rentaro’s heart broke at the pitiful sight. He wanted to yell at her to stop. But this was probably Enju’s way of fighting. He had no right to stop it. “Do you want to see her?” the teacher asked. He wanted to see her. He had a mountain of things he wanted to ask her when he did. As Rentaro squeezed his chest, he pulled out a syringe with the cap on from his breast pocket and handed it to the teacher. Inside was cobalt blue liquid medicine. “What’s this?” said the teacher. “It’s a special medicine…” Rentaro shook his head. “No, I’m not going to lie anymore. This is Gastrea corrosion-inhibiting medication. Please give it to her.” Saying just that, he turned his back on the teacher, who looked at him questioningly, and cast his body into the violent winds. Would Enju continue to attend school like this? Even knowing that she would only get hurt? Losing his will to return to his own classroom, Rentaro headed for the university hospital where Sumire was. He had been going to school every day for a while, but he realized with a bitter smile that he was starting to skip classes again. As he passed the demon-engraved ward-objects and entered the basement, Dr. Sumire was just coming out of the operating room. Taking off her green operating scrubs and mask and throwing them in the trash, she lifted the corners of her mouth and said, “Hey.” The queen of this basement room would always be here to welcome Rentaro with her strange smile no matter what, come hell or high water. “Doc, what were you doing?” Rentaro asked her. “I had some free time and couldn’t take it anymore, so I went to break up with Charlie. Unfortunately, he has been turned into small parts. Oh, while it was extremely stimulating, I feel a little sad because now I have to find a new lover tomorrow.” Rentaro looked at the double doors the fed-up doctor had come out of. The aromatics that were all over the room were only there to mask the intense odors coming out of the dissection room she called her “kitchen.” “It’s not much, but make yourself at home,” said Sumire. Rentaro stood in front of the bookshelves that covered the left wall of the room. She was a movie maniac, and she had everything crammed on the shelves. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was just the type of person who threw everything on her bookshelves, but next to The Tenth Dimension vs. the Eleventh Dimension: Settling String Theory!!!!, a book that looked like it was about quantum theory, was Forbidden Training 24 Hours: Karin’s Big Brother’s Pregnant Wife, an adult game. It was terrible. “You really are something else, Doc,” he said. “What, you just noticed?” she said. “Famous universities admit people based solely on their test scores, so they end up as nests of eccentrics.” Sumire laughed. “Don’t be jealous, silly boy. I’m a genius because my parents were both geniuses. That brings back memories. When I was young, Mother used to read Dante’s Inferno from his Divine Comedies to me as a bedtime story. This was all she read, and she read it over and over. The misery of a person who is sent to hell…” She laughed. “So your family’s been strange since your parents’ generation, huh?” “I’ll dissect you alive.” “No, please, not that!” “Oh yeah, by the way, the demon to scare people away out front has the face of the fallen angel, Lucifer, or should I say the demon king, Satan? It’s related to the Divine Comedies. It’s an unexpected foreshadowing, don’t you think?” “If I cared less, I’d be dead.” “Now, let’s see…what were we talking about again? ‘The word Erromango, that is the name of the island, Erromango, means “I’m human,” but don’t you think there’s some truth to how it sounds like erotic?’ Was that where we left off?” “Stop lying. We weren’t talking about that!” Rentaro was disgusted. Why didn’t anyone around him listen to what others had to say? “I was kidding, you stingy, inflexible boy. I can’t help but feel bad for your beloved Kisara.” “D-don’t say that!” “Oh, speaking of which, your patron came by earlier.” The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he looked uneasily from left to right. “She was here?” “Yeah, and she wasn’t happy. She said that since you never visit her in the student council room, she goes to your classroom to look for you, but you’re never there.” “It’s ’cause I always run away to avoid seeing her.” “Why are you doing that again? She’s the school idol, isn’t she?” “Well, she is kinda c-cute, but that’s just because no one knows what that woman is really like. If she got worked up, she would shoot up the school with a Magnum semiautomatic…” But, he thought as his voice trailed off, she was also the one who provided Rentaro the civsec officer with weapons and ammunition free of charge. It was the natural order of things for civil officers and weapon companies to work together. For example, the Bastard Sword, Mark IV Gibraltar used by Shogen Ikuma was from Escari, the company that supported him. By backing him and having him use their products and be a tester for their new products, they could say “Used by Shogen Ikuma!” in their marketing campaigns, so it was extremely natural for companies like that to be devoted to finding talented Initiators and Promoters. However— “In what part of me does she detect any promise?” Rentaro said. “You have such an unfortunate face that she probably just felt bad for you,” said Sumire. “That’s ridiculous…” Saying that, he suddenly remembered something and narrowed his shoulders. “Doc, sorry… I actually came today because I wanted some advice.” Putting on the long, white lab coat that hung over her chair, she pulled out a coffeepot and two heatproof beakers, saying “Hmm…” Filling the beakers to the brim with coffee, she slid Rentaro’s cup over to him, where it stopped in front of him. As the hot coffee flowed into his stomach, Rentaro could feel the knot in his chest swell. Rentaro told Sumire everything—about the girl who had been shot, Enju running away, and what he went through to find her. They arrived at a moment of silence. Sumire, with her chin in her hand, had a grave expression on her face that Rentaro had never seen before. Rentaro suddenly felt uneasy and massaged the palm of his hand. “D-doc?” “Hmm? Oh, sorry, I was thinking about what to make for dinner tonight,” said Sumire. “Hey, wait a minute!” “I stopped listening halfway through ’cause your worries are so normal that I was getting bored.” “Wh-what…?” Seeing Rentaro staring frozen at his beaker, Sumire pushed in to deal the final blow. “Hey, Rentaro, mankind will become extinct one day, you know. It could be in a few million years, when the whole Earth freezes over, or in the far future, when it is swallowed up by the expanding sun. Or the land with the Monoliths could be destroyed tomorrow, and Gastrea could surge in and kill everyone. “Wonderful movies, famous novels written by literary masters, beautiful buildings—all of them will fall into ruin and return to nothingness in the far future. Do you understand that? From the universe’s point of view, essentially, there is no reason for humans to be alive.” Seeing the maniacal smirk on Sumire’s face sent shivers down Rentaro’s spine. She seemed to be overcome by nihilism. “Hey, Rentaro, why do Gastrea have to be exterminated, anyway?” He was caught unawares and faltered for a moment. “You can’t say?” “No, wait,” said Rentaro, finding his tongue. “It’s because Gastrea are enemies of mankind who prey upon humans and rewrite their DNA, of course.” “In short, it’s because Gastrea are inconvenient organisms for humans to have around, right? But don’t you think mankind is a little too spoiled? They rest on their laurels, certain that they are the pinnacle of evolution and look down on other organisms, but that’s just because they can’t help but feel superior to other organisms based on the consciousness they’ve acquired. “But if you think about it carefully, it is our consciousness that is telling us that our consciousness is proof that we are advanced organisms. As long as humans are humans, there is no way to prove that objectively. For example, what about Gastrea? They have the godlike ability to interfere with an organism’s genes and redesign them, right? Couldn’t you say that that is an ability that surpasses our ‘consciousness’? It has died down in Japan, but around the world, there are a number of religions that consider the Gastrea sacred. That they are divine messengers who have appeared to purify this corrupt world.” “Really?” said Rentaro, surprised. “Why…?” Sumire continued. “Humans are using up all the resources and are the cause of the rapid destruction of the world. From the perspective of the spaceship Earth, if Gastrea controlled the world, they would probably be able to steer the ship a lot better. There is that saying that all life is fleeting. The idea that the Earth is just a temporary inn for all living creatures to stay. Aren’t we humans leaving the inn too messy? Wouldn’t it make sense for us to make the bed neatly before we pass it on to the next generation of governors?” Rentaro pretended to drink his coffee, lost in thought. “Isn’t that the same as the excuse of deep ecologists? With too much ecology, humans end up not being needed at all in the end. Even if there are people out there who affirm Gastrea, I can’t agree with them. Anyway, if they’re divine messengers, then what are the Cursed Children supposed to be?” “They are the most fit to be God’s substitutes as messengers between humans and Gastrea.” Before he knew it, he couldn’t take it any longer and stood up. “Enju is human. She is a human with her own personality and her own will! Nothing more, nothing less.” The coffee that spilled with his movement formed a stream that led to a small river that dripped off the edge of the desk and onto the floor. Sumire playfully spread her arms in approval. “That’s exactly right. See? You do understand.” “Oh.” She had set him up. When he realized that, he suddenly became embarrassed and collapsed into his chair. She purposefully said things that would rub him the wrong way. Everything she had been saying was to force him to honestly confess his feelings about Enju voluntarily. She had him completely by the nose. “Hey, Rentaro,” said Sumire. “At least you know who you are and where you came from. Enju doesn’t even have that.” “Huh?” said Rentaro, confused. “Most of the kids living in the Outer District were abandoned. Because those girls were born after we lost the war, they don’t know their parents’ faces, and all they’ve ever known is the small world of Tokyo Area. They’re being spurned by so many people without even knowing anything, being looked down upon with scorn. The first generation of those girls will soon be entering adolescence, and because of those origins, they will definitely agonize over the loss of their identity. It was my hope that you could be there to help lead Enju through that—you guys are family, right?” Rentaro’s mouth opened slightly and he felt shivers going down his spine. Just how far did she…? “Doc, I’m gonna go see Enju after all.” Sumire waved her hand limply and had no further intention of looking at him. As he left the university hospital, his cell phone buzzed. It was a call from an unknown number. “Hello, is this Satomi.” He knew who it was from the voice. “Yes, speaking.” “This is Aihara’s homeroom teacher. There has been an incident with Aihara… Can you come to the school immediately?” By the time Rentaro reached the school gates, panting, a small crowded had gathered. There was a donut-shaped wall of people surrounding two people who were having an argument. Three girls passed by Rentaro. “What’s going on?” “Remember that girl from Class 3? Apparently, she was a Gastrea virus carrier.” “No way! I think I touched her before. What should I do?” “I never liked her. She always acted like she was better than everyone else.” Feeling an uneasy sense of déjà vu, Rentaro felt like he was being suffocated and loosened his tie as he drew near to the ring of people. From where he was, he couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but he could hear the loud voices of two people. However, what was unfolding was decidedly one-sided. When someone who sounded like a boy yelled, the crowd around yelled encouragement, but when the girl yelled, all she got were cold, dead stares and a critical silence. When Rentaro realized that the person inside the circle was Enju Aihara, he felt like vomiting and covered his hand with his mouth. His worst fears had come true. As he started toward Enju again, he heard murmurs around him that made him sick. “There really were Red-Eyes around us. Why don’t the civsec officers exterminate them?” “Ugh. Her eyes glow red. I wish people like that wouldn’t come to school.” “Don’t come out of the Outer District ghetto.” Who do you think is protecting the peace of Tokyo Area?! Rentaro was overcome with the urge to run into the middle of the wall of people and send them all flying. But seeing their expressions, he had to put down his fist. Most of the people were onlookers or worthless gossips, but there were some pale faces who were seriously afraid that they would catch the Gastrea virus. If they had been educated properly, they would have known that unless they received a large amount of blood from the girl, they couldn’t get the virus from her. Rentaro had seen the boy who was arguing with Enju in her class picture before. His face and closely shaved head looked like it belonged to an energetic little leaguer, but right now, his face was flushed purplish-red, and he was pressing Enju for an answer with a shrill voice. “My dad had been drinking every day and hitting my mom ever since his leg was eaten by a Gastrea during the war! Because of all your killing, my family’s…!” Enju shook her head furiously. “No! That wasn’t me. I’m human!” “That’s disgusting, how you pretend to be human.” “I am human!” “Shut up, you monster!” “I am human!” “Are not!” Rentaro looked down, clenching his teeth. It was too hard to watch. This wasn’t a conversation anymore—she was just being unilaterally rejected. “No matter how hard you work for those guys, they will just keep betraying you.” This was exactly what Kagetane had told him would happen. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes. “Enju…” When Enju noticed him, her eyes opened wide, and she took a step back. “R-Rentaro…” Realizing that he was connected to Enju somehow, the wall of people parted, and an unpleasant silence descended. Rentaro tread firmly on the sand in the schoolyard with the bottoms of his shoes and walked slowly toward the center. The boy who was verbally attacking Enju faltered and said, “Wh-what do you want?” trying to act tough. Rentaro passed right by him and when he got to Enju, he hugged her silently. Rentaro closed his eyes and spoke slowly, punctuating each syllable. “Enju, let’s change schools.” In his arms, Enju’s body moved slightly. Enju’s cold body trembled as she drenched the shoulder of Rentaro’s uniform with her warm tears. “I…don’t want…to give up… I made so many friends, too…” “They’re not your friends anymore.” He heard Enju sniffling. “Is it all over for me? I can’t start over anymore?” “Yeah, it’s all over. It’ll take some more time before the world is ready to accept you.” “But we have to keep fighting?” Rentaro paused. “Yeah.” Rentaro wiped her tears with his fingertips and put a handkerchief over her face, letting her cry for a while. Finally, he let go of her and made her stand, smiling at her. “Now, at least leave with your head held high.” “But my bag is in the classroom.” “Does that stuff even matter anymore?” “N-no! You’re right!” Enju wiped her eyes on her sleeve and acted cheerful. That’s right, Enju. At that moment, Rentaro’s phone vibrated. He thought of ignoring it, but after seeing the name on the screen, he pushed the TALK button. “Satomi, I know where the source Gastrea’s hideout is,” said Kisara’s voice on the other end. “It’s in District 32.” “Kisara, I mean President…,” said Rentaro. “How did it get all the way to District 32?” “Listen to this. It looks like that Gastrea can fly.” He thought he heard wrong and shifted his phone to get a better grip. “The infected became a Model Spider, right? So the source Gastrea should also be a Model Spider. What do you mean a spider can fly?” “Just hurry and get to the hideout. The other civsec officers are also after the source Gastrea”—she gave a snort of triumph and continued—“but the Tendo Civil Security Agency will get there first. I have your location on the GPS, and I’ve contracted someone amazing, so chase down the Gastrea with them. In order to get them, I had to use my tuition for next semester. Which means if someone else gets the credit, I’ll have to drop out of school! Do you get it? So work hard and do your best.” “Ah, hey, wait, Kisara…?” Hearing the empty dial tone, Rentaro sighed and flipped his cell phone closed. What in the world did she mean by “I’ve contracted someone amazing”? At that moment, he could hear commotion mixed with screams in the schoolyard. Rentaro looked in the direction the crowd was pointing. Before long, he could see something that got bigger as it drew near. Finally, it was so close that voices couldn’t be heard over the thunderous roar of the rotors, and shock waves blew away the clouds of dust in the schoolyard. When Rentaro narrowed his eyes and looked up, the sky above him was dyed blue with the polished body of an aircraft. In the middle of the aircraft was the picture of a snake wrapped around a staff. It was the emblem of the god of medicine, Asclepius. Rentaro winced inwardly. Just like a rich girl. She did everything on a large scale. Looking dumbly into the sky, one of the teachers murmured, “Medevac helicopter…” 5 Shortly after the helicopter flew away, the streaks of rain suddenly got stronger, and it started raining heavily outside the window. Rentaro cupped his cheek nervously in his hand, squirming and checking the passenger seat over and over. Inside the helicopter, it was eerily silent compared to the wild weather outside. Enju was riding on the flap door in the back where a patient on a stretcher would normally be. Because of the wall between them, Rentaro, riding in the passenger seat, couldn’t see Enju, who was riding in the back. I should have ridden in the back with Enju. The more he looked at the Shakujii River rising in the rain, the more he thought so. If he had, then he could have used the time it took for them to get to their destination to talk with her a little more. Rentaro looked at the glowing GPS dot that Kisara had sent him. Because they couldn’t use the satellites in this rain, this was the position from ten minutes ago. It was highly likely that the Gastrea had already moved from this position. As they neared the Outer District, Rentaro could see the Monoliths blocking their way like a giant mountain range. It was still hard to believe that they were masses of Varanium. One probably had enough for hundreds of thousands of the Varanium bullets Rentaro used. Maybe more. “I wonder what that is?” said the pilot. Rentaro saw a flying object below them where the pilot was pointing. He rubbed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the window. About eighty meters in the air, he could see a flying object shaped like an arrowhead. At first, it looked to him like a kite flying in the sky. It looked like a white isosceles triangle floating above the forest. Beneath the isosceles triangle, he could just make out a shadow with eight long, thin legs. “A spider’s parachute…,” said Rentaro with realization. “Damn it, so that’s what it was. Please go after it, pilot.” “You know what that is?” asked the pilot. “Yeah,” Rentaro answered. “That’s the source Gastrea. Somewhere in South America, there is a small spider that weaves its nest into a parachute and uses it to ride hundreds of kilometers on the wind. Since it rides on the wind, it might be easier to understand if you think of it as a dandelion seed. Spider silk is basically a type of polymer, but that Gastrea was able to weave it into the shape of a kite…” Putting that much into words, he suddenly had a new thought, and his words trailed off. Why did it make it into an isosceles triangle then? Rentaro felt like he was missing something important. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head. “I see… It’s not a parachute, it’s a hang glider. If that’s the case, then it all makes sense. The front is tapered so that it can cut through the wind and give it lift. That’s also why there were no sightings of the source Gastrea. If that’s the case, then this is an amazing feat. Because there’s no mature spider in the world that possesses this ability.” In any case, he now knew why it wasn’t caught by any of the surveillance cameras around town. Outside of the Outer District, the surveillance cameras were meant to watch people from above, so it was normal for them to be pointing down. To capture a Gastrea gliding far above was completely removed from what they were supposed to be used for. This Gastrea probably dug its claws into the side of a building and climbed to the roof to fly off using the eddies of wind around high buildings. It was smart. “Wh-what should I do?” said the pilot uncertainly. “Lower our altitude and match its speed to follow it like this from above,” Rentaro ordered. Just then, there was the violent sound of an iron plate being punched through, and the aircraft lurched to the side. Rentaro hit his head on the glass a few times. “Oww…,” he said. “What the hell was that?” “The door in the back was broken open,” said the pilot. “That Initiator you brought did it.” “Enju? No way, we’re in midflight right now. What in the world is she trying to do…?” At that moment, Rentaro realized what Enju intended, and his blood froze. “Wait, Enju!” he shouted. By the time he yelled, it was too late. He could see Enju falling headfirst from a high altitude. Seeing Enju get smaller and smaller as she fell on a path following the law of gravity, Rentaro almost screamed. Aiming for the spider’s hang glider woven from spider silk, Enju crashed into it with the speed of a shooting star. For the Gastrea, it was a violent attack that came from its blind spot directly above it. Enju and the Gastrea fell tangled together into the forest that ran along the banks of the river.