Vengeance Is Mine (24 page)

“Shoma! Shoma! Naaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” With a dreadful roar, a shock wave violently swept across the sky. Rentaro screamed into the sky until his throat was ragged.

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.

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.

The somewhat musical cry of a cuckoo could be heard. It was 5 p.m., and the sunset was dazzling. Kazumitsu Tendo was accompanied by his secretary, Kazumi Shiina, walking quickly to leave the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and hurrying to his destination.

The moment they stepped outside, they were met with a stuffy heat that wrapped around their whole bodies, and he suddenly wanted to call a limousine like he usually did, but that was something that he just couldn’t do today, he told himself.

It was then that he realized that his Armani necktie was crooked and he fixed it with an irritated hand. It was an error his normal self would never have made. He had been like this since the morning, and he couldn’t even put his mind to his work.

He couldn’t bear the sweat anymore and took off his suit jacket, looking up in the direction of the faraway Monolith, where on a sunny day, he should have been able to see a corner of it. However, even though the weather was nice today, there was no sign of the Monolith.

That was to be expected. The collapsed Monolith 32 was currently only restored to about six hundred meters tall, and it would still be
some time before it would be completely restored to its original 1,618 meters.

It had been two weeks since the incident, and summer had returned to Tokyo Area. When the ashes from the Monolith had covered the sky and the temperature had dropped suddenly, he had mistakenly yearned for summer, but now that the hot weather had returned like he had wanted, it felt like an extension of reality and made him irritated.

No
, he shook his head. Unusual days were still continuing. At least, they were for Kazumitsu.

He felt a sharp pain in his stomach again due to stress. Such pain had been Kazumitsu’s companion since the day he received the report that Aldebaran was clinging onto Monolith 32. And the place where Kazumitsu and Shiina were going was a place with deep connections to that matter.

They changed trains and got off at Tokyo Area Outer District, District 37. The exit was deserted. It went without saying that once it became night in a few hours, it would be suicide to stay overnight here in this place full of abandoned buildings with no streetlights.

Kazumitsu and Shiina walked for a while until they stood in front of a dilapidated dojo. It was a one-story building with a high ceiling, and the house part was half-destroyed. On the sign hanging outside was written T
ENDO
S
TYLE
with free-flowing brushstrokes written by Sukekiyo Tendo, who was also a calligrapher.

The Tendo Style was originally a very insular school that was only passed down within the Tendo family, but there had been a few dojos that were open to outsiders, and this was one of those few.

Seeing the blasted edifice, Kazumitsu sighed. It might be over for the Tendo Style. Giving Shiina an order, he opened the half-collapsed door and stood in the doorway. He hesitated for a moment before deciding to enter with his shoes on.

And then, he opened the sliding door and saw her in the middle of the wide tatami-mat dojo, her murderous blade Yukikage sheathed and stuck into the ground. She had both hands folded on top of the hilt and was standing with her legs slightly apart.

She slowly raised her face. “Welcome, Brother Kazumitsu. Or should I call you vice minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism?”

“Kisara…” He never thought he would ever say his little sister’s name with such hatred.

The evening sun shone in slanted rays on her glossy, straight, jet-black hair, making it shine in contrast to her porcelain white skin. Kisara Tendo stood there with her thigh-high socks and black sailor-school uniform. That more than anything proved that this would be the location of a fight to the death.

At the side of the dojo wall was a familiar face he hadn’t seen in a while. “What, you brought children with you, Rentaro?” Kazumitsu said it malignantly, but Rentaro just continued to look nervous and did not answer. Next to him were two equally nervous-looking girls, one with pigtails and the other with blond hair. The girls were probably Rentaro’s and Kisara’s Initiators.

“Brother, did you refrain from telling anyone that you were coming here, as you promised?” Kisara asked him.

Kazumitsu shrugged his shoulders. “Thanks to that, I came on my own two feet without calling for a car. What about you? You brought what you promised, right?”

“Are you talking about this?” Saying that, she pulled out a bundle of papers from her chest and threw them at Kazumitsu’s feet.

He pretended to be calm, but inside, he wanted to groan. He had Shiina pick up the documents and took them, flipping through them one by one.

Unmistakable evidence was laid out in front of Kazumitsu. “Damn it, where in the world did you get this?”

Kisara scoffed and chuckled. “I just happened to find it.”

“There’s no way you could
find
it. This was all supposed to have been disposed of!”

“Even so, I found it. Even I still have some connections I trust that I can use.”

Kazumitsu was taken aback and glared at Kisara. “You little… You snuck into the Tendo vault, didn’t you?”

Kisara shrugged as she smiled. “Shall we continue with our discussion, Brother?”

Kazumitsu didn’t say anything.

“While we were fighting in the Third Kanto Battle, we kept thinking it was strange. How was Aldebaran able to cling to the Monolith if
it was no more than a Stage Four? At first, we thought it might have been because of where it was situated or because of a special ability Aldebaran had. However, after a while, we considered the idea that something could be wrong with Monolith 32 itself. And then after looking into it, just as expected, I found something strange. You were the one responsible for ordering Monolith 32 built at the end of the Great Gastrea War, weren’t you, Brother Kazumitsu?”

Kazumitsu still didn’t say anything.

Kisara narrowed her eyes like a cat cornering its prey, spread her arms sadistically, and continued. “Up until now, public works projects have used a general bidding system to prevent corruption and collusion, but because of that, it can be quite complicated. For construction projects like the Monoliths, where speed is more important than anything, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is responsible for gathering general contractors and directing the construction.

“It’s not like I have objections to this system in general. However, Brother, I cannot appreciate how you had filler materials mixed with Varanium in order to make the Monoliths more cheaply, using the leftover money to line your pockets.”

Kazumitsu gave a start, and his fist shook.

“Of course, the Varanium with filler materials in it had a lower degree of purity and gave off less of the magnetic field that Gastrea hate. Because of that, it’s possible that certain Gastrea can overcome the magnetic field of a weakened Monolith and cling to it.”

“Theoretically, that level of purity should have still been good enough! In reality, Monolith 32 stood for these past ten years, didn’t it?!”

“But it did not work against Aldebaran.”

Kazumitsu gulped.

Kisara lifted the corners of her mouth and smiled, concluding ruthlessly, “You were the one who created the trigger for the Gastrea Aldebaran to come and start the Third Kanto Battle, Brother Kazumitsu.”

Kazumitsu’s nails dug into his palm as he squeezed his fist, breaking the skin and allowing blood to well up. He wanted to shut this woman’s mouth up immediately. It was a feeling that was hard to get rid of.

“But isn’t it ironic? Even though citizens of Tokyo Area who didn’t win the lottery for shelter tickets couldn’t sleep at night and shook
with fear at the thought of being slaughtered by the Gastrea, because
you
are considered a VIP in this nation, you and your whole family received shelter tickets. So when we civil officers were desperately fighting for our lives, you were snug inside the shelter. What do you think the citizens of Tokyo Area would think if they knew this fact?”

“…Do you have copies of these documents?”

“No. That is the only copy.”

“Are you telling me to believe you?”

“I am believing that nonsense you spouted about how you didn’t tell anyone that you were going to come here today, so shouldn’t we call it a gentlemen’s agreement?”

Kazumitsu snorted. “I didn’t think my opponent in this fight to the death would be preaching to me about a gentlemen’s agreement.”

Kisara smiled back ruthlessly. “I don’t care, but I suppose I’ll at least ask: Why did you mix filler materials into the Varanium? Don’t you have more money than you know what to do with already?”

Kazumitsu snorted again. “Kisara, you don’t know anything. In order to be successful in life, more money is needed than you can imagine. Bosses have many different desires. Like wanting to hunt people with a rifle, or wanting to have a three-way with twin virgins, or wanting to star in a snuff film to kill someone. It takes an enormous amount of money to make the desires of bosses like that come true.”

A new expression crossed Kisara’s face. “Hearing you say it straight out like that disgusts me. You wanted money in order to make desires like
that
come true?”

“That’s right. And I used that money to make those bosses owe me. I was able to become the vice minister of LITT not just because I had the shield of Tendo behind me.”

Kisara’s eyes, which were narrowed with hatred, became even sharper. “Scum of the earth like you should have died during the first War.”

“Hah.” This time, Kazumitsu sneered. “You don’t know anything, Kisara. True villains do not die. They throw money around, and then while ‘Death’ is desperately picking it up, they make their escape.”

Kisara suddenly closed her eyes and then took her time opening them slowly. “Another reason to let you live is gone now. That is enough. Let us begin. Will the two witnesses please come forward?”

Kazumitsu pushed Shiina up. Apparently, Kisara’s witness was Rentaro. The two of them went between Kazumitsu and Kisara and stood facing each other. Shiina raised her right hand and swore first. “I, Kazumi Shiina, am a witness to this duel, and even if one side dies, I swear that I will not call the police or any other judicial authorities.”

After seeing Shiina’s oath, Kazumitsu and Kisara naturally turned their eyes toward Rentaro. Rentaro had a pained expression on his face as he slowly raised his right hand, but then he immediately shook his head.

“Wait a minute, you two! Let me ask one last thing. Do you really have to fight like this? Even I’m interested in a fight between two master initiates of the Tendo Style. But that should be done with wooden or bamboo swords. Not with real blades!”

“You’re talking too much, Rentaro!” hissed Kazumitsu. “If I don’t shut this woman’s mouth now, she’ll blab the truth. There’s no way I can allow her to live!”

“But Brother Kazumitsu—”

“Don’t call me your brother. If you’re on Kisara’s side, then you’re an enemy of Tendo. Rentaro, open your eyes. She’s tricking you. That woman is a monster!”

“Let me do it, Satomi,” said Kisara. “I’ve been waiting for ten years. I’ve finally cornered one of the people I need to kill to avenge Father’s and Mother’s deaths. My fight with this man is fated.”

Rentaro opened his mouth to argue, but in the end he just said, “Damn it,” and gritted his teeth. Finally, he raised his right arm and swore the oath. When he and Shiina finished the vows, they withdrew to the side of the walls, and only Kazumitsu and Kisara were left in the center of the wide dojo.

Kazumitsu gave directions to his secretary with a jerk of his chin. She pulled out a spear from one of the two spear bags and threw it at him. Kazumitsu caught it with one hand. The spear came up to around his chest. When he held the spear, energy seemed to flow into his body from it and fill him with breath. His former feelings came back—confidence welled up, making him feel like he could take over the world with just one spear.

Kisara shrugged scornfully. “Don’t tell me you’re really fighting with just a spear, Brother? I was sure that you would at least sneak in a gun…”

“Don’t be mistaken. I don’t need to rely on projectile weapons just to pierce
your
heart.”

Just then, Kazumitsu noticed Kisara’s ample chest shake and looked her up and down as if licking her. “Kisara, one of my bosses said he just slept with a dark-skinned girl kidnapped from one of the countries he passed through, and now he wants a pale girl. If I defeat you without killing you, can I pull off your arms and legs and give you to him?”

Kisara chuckled. “Sure. In exchange, if I defeat you without killing you, maybe I’ll feed you alive to some pigs.”

Kisara dropped her hips, narrowed her eyes, and took a stance with an expression of carnage. Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing Style, Nirvana Stance—the stance encompassed all the offense and defense of the Tendo Sword Drawing Styles by being in a state of constant change and existing freely in that state. “I’ve been waiting for this day for ten years. Taste the depth of my resentment and despair and die.”

Kazumitsu also took a stance. Tendo Martial Arts Divine Spear Style, Perfect Serenity Stance—the stance encompassed all the offense and defense of the Tendo Martial Arts Divine Spear Styles by abandoning all the cares in one’s heart and achieving a state of nothingness, leaving the heart clean and serene. “I’m glad, Kisara. Even if we had different mothers, I’m glad I can bond like this with my little sister. I’ll let you practice with me, so come at me.”

The atmosphere inside the dojo changed in an instant to one of tension.

“Tendo Martial Arts Sword Drawing Styles Master Initiate, Kisara Tendo.”

“Tendo Martial Arts Divine Spear Styles Master Initiate, Kazumitsu Tendo.”

After saying their names, they both jumped back a step and faced off. Seeing Kisara take an offensive position, the Virtuous Heart Stance, without a moment’s delay, Kazumitsu took a defensive position, the Iron Will Stance. When he did, Kisara flowed smoothly into the Nirvana Stance, and seeing that, Kazumitsu skillfully took the offensive position, Mythical Beasts Stance. It was Kisara’s turn to be on the receiving end, and she transitioned into the defensive Moonlit Heart Stance.