The campfires he saw from afar grew steadily bigger, and the half-dilapidated school appeared slowly out of the darkness. After a quick, silent bow to the two guards standing in front of the campfires there to burn away the summer insects, they entered the school building.
From the direction the messenger was leading him, Rentaro surmised that Gado and the others were using the staff room as their temporary headquarters. From the light spilling out beyond the room, it looked as though they’d given top priority to acquiring electricity. Once Rentaro was delivered, Gado’s messenger bowed shortly and left.
Rentaro knocked on the door and waited until he was given verbal permission to enter. At the voice, he slid open the door.
Having grown used to the darkness, the brightness inside dazzled
his eyes. The extra steel tables in the staff room were pushed to the corner, and Gado and the twelve or so members of his adjuvant sat around a U-shaped table. In the center was a single, high-backed chair. Everyone around the table was wearing exoskeletons that looked like traditional Japanese armor, and the heat they emitted made the room feel cramped. It was as if they were about to start an inquiry.
Rentaro licked his upper lip and told himself to be careful. From the tense atmosphere and hostile gazes, Rentaro guessed that they weren’t about to talk about something fun.
“Sit down,” urged the bald Gado, with his goatee and red armor, from the seat at the head of the table. Cautiously, Rentaro did as he was told.
But Rentaro’s eyes widened the moment he faced front and focused on Gado. Trying desperately to stifle his uneasiness inside, Rentaro nervously raised his arm and pointed at Gado. “You’re…”
“Yeah, it happened when I fought Him.” There was nothing below Gado’s left thigh. It looked like it had been cut off, stitched up, and covered with a bandage. The bandage was covered with a dark stain of blood.
“By
him
, you mean…Aldebaran?” That instant, it was as if he had said an abominable name, and Gado’s team covered their faces in agitation.
The rumor was true then, after all. In yesterday’s battle, there was a scream of agony that echoed right before the civil officers were completely wiped out, and then the Gastrea suddenly retreated. Rentaro and the other regulars hadn’t been told the details, but it was a badly kept secret that Gado and his partner had fought Aldebaran, and that their fight had ended in a draw.
What was baffling about the situation was that Gado had gone into hiding with no explanation after that, but seeing the sorry state he was in now, Rentaro understood why. It was beyond the level of a badge of honor. If Gado showed himself to the civil officer troops the way he looked now, they couldn’t avoid a drop in morale.
Gado seemed to notice Rentaro’s silence and showed his white teeth with a sinister challenge, slapping his left knee. “You know, this leg wasn’t stolen from me. I gave it to that damn Gastrea.”
“Nagamasa, sir, please do not push yourself.” The quiet Initiator
wearing a sky blue exoskeleton, Asaka Mibu, bravely waited upon him, trying to replace his leg.
But Gado waved her away, annoyed, and looked at Rentaro. “What was Hidehiko like in the end?”
“He fought gallantly, sir,” Rentaro answered.
Gado sighed deeply. “I was the one who forced him to give up being an artist and become a civil officer… If I had known this would happen, I would have let him do as he liked.”
Rentaro looked at the faces of everyone gathered there. “Did you fight against Aldebaran with everyone here?”
“No, Asaka and I were the only ones who made it past the enemy’s close battle formation. The enemy did a good job leading us by the nose with its splendid movements. Ironically, even though we can understand words, the enemy was a much better commander.”
“What if there was a rational explanation for why the enemy could command troops?”
“What do you mean?”
“Gado. Aldebaran’s base is probably a bee Gastrea.”
This time, all of Gado’s adjuvant stirred with astonishment, and Gado looked dubious. “What are you talking about…?”
“Gado, do you know why the self-defense force that had an easy victory during the Second Kanto Battle was beaten so quickly this time in the Third Kanto Battle? Also, when you wounded Aldebaran, the surrounding Gastrea immediately formed a wall around it to protect it and retreated. Isn’t that strange if you think about it?”
Gado rubbed his bald head and tilted it. “Get to the point. Are you saying you found the answer?”
“Pheromones.”
“Pheromones…? Are you talking about those things that come out of your body to attract the opposite sex?”
“Those are sex pheromones. What made them all gather immediately to protect Aldebaran were probably swarm pheromones. It is said that swarm pheromones are what command a school of fish in the water to make them seem like one giant fish. There are also alarm pheromones, pheromones to tell friend from foe, pheromones to change moods, trail pheromones, and other different kinds. Over one thousand, six hundred have been identified.
“Aldebaran manipulated mole Gastrea to efficiently stop weapons like tanks and automatic cannons from underground, and had dragonfly Gastrea drop others for a surprise attack to break through the rear. From the timing to everything else, it’s too perfect. Aldebaran is probably able to use known and unknown pheromones to command the Gastrea.
“Pheromones have no taste or smell, so normal humans definitely cannot sense them, and if Aldebaran can use pheromones so dexterously, then it has to be a bee or some other kind of similar Gastrea. Gado, you saw Aldebaran, right? Did you see degenerated wings or a stinger somewhere on its body?”
Gado, lost in thought, didn’t answer as he put a hand on his chin.
It looked like Rentaro had hit the nail on the head. “Do you understand what this means? It means if we take down the head, Aldebaran, the whole swarm will fall apart. Gastrea working alone won’t have a leader anymore and can be easily routed. If we continue to get rid of them, they will suffer an upset before long. There’s no need to chase after them. Eventually, the replacement Monolith will arrive. We’ll win.”
However, even after listening to Rentaro’s plan for victory, Gado remained silent with his arms crossed. Eventually, he put his elbow on top of the desk and put his chin on his hand, looking at Rentaro listlessly. “Your opinion was very helpful. Then, I will share with you a piece of information that you don’t know. About none other than Aldebaran—”
“Commander!” A member of the adjuvant stood up with a screech of his chair. It was a middle-aged man whose face looked oddly similar to Gado’s. He had been part of Gado’s son Hidehiko’s adjuvant. It was possible that all the members of Gado’s adjuvant were his own blood relatives. “I must oppose this! If that is leaked, there will be a fatal drop in morale. You have no obligation to tell a mere soldier!”
Gado shook his head. “It’s not a problem. Leader Satomi’s IP rank is 300. He has the highest rank out of everyone in the troop besides me. He has the right to know. If there’s trouble from it, I will be held responsible.” Saying that, Gado looked back at Rentaro and said gravely, “Leader Satomi, Aldebaran is an immortal Gastrea. There’s no way to kill it.”
“Huh?” Rentaro responded stupidly. He thought he must have heard wrong. However, that faint hope was crushed to smithereens the next moment.
“I will say it again, Leader Satomi. Aldebaran is an immortal Gastrea. Last night, I got in close to him, ready to cross swords and cut off his head. With this,” Gado said as he had Asaka go get the weapon leaning against the wall.
The weapon Asaka reverently brought back was a giant weapon about as big as she was. Two black blades came from the hilt. It was a special sword called a twin sword.
“My sword split open the Gastrea’s head, no mistake, and pierced its chest with its next stroke. I definitely felt like I had done damage to its brain and heart, but that thing didn’t fall, and the next instant, its wounds started to heal, albeit slowly. I was extremely confused and left myself open. Thanks to that, my leg was eaten, and now look at me.”
“No way. That’s impossible…,” Rentaro said. Gastrea only had two vital spots—the brain and the heart. These two areas were supposed to be virtually impossible to regenerate, and other than stabbing these areas and defeating them, using Varanium weapons that inhibit regeneration to inflict damage was the main tactic used when fighting against Gastrea.
Gado’s sword, with its twin obsidian edges, was without a doubt made of Varanium. Damage to the brain and heart, plus the fact that these attacks were made by the regeneration-inhibiting Varanium, should have made triply sure to give Aldebaran a prompt death. To be able to heal wounds like that was extremely unusual.
Gado shrugged his shoulders. “Gastrea cells repair and regenerate telomeres, so they never die of old age. In other words, rather than being immortal, it would be more accurate to say Aldebaran will not age or die.”
Will not age or die…
The back of Rentaro’s mind was numb, and he did not know what to say. The darkness of despair pushed in and enveloped Rentaro from all sides. He had thought that Aldebaran’s ability was just the Varanium corrosion liquid and using pheromones to completely control a troop of Gastrea, but he had been jumping to conclusions thinking he knew the truth behind the ghost.
There had been one more ability.
Something that was the capability of the Stage Five Taurus’s right hand, the Stage Four Gastrea Aldebaran.
“Why—” Rentaro said, gasping. “Why, Gado? Aldebaran has been sighted numerous times in the past. Why hadn’t anyone realized that it had this ability until now?!”
“I’m sure there are various reasons for it, but one is that we were probably all too caught up with how strong the Taurus troops were,” said Gado. “Until a year ago, when the girl of unknown citizenship and name called the world’s strongest Initiator came and unexpectedly killed Taurus, many cities were completely annihilated when trying to stop their advance. Most countries did not survive to bring home intel.”
Gado took the teacup Asaka held out to him, gulped the contents in one go, and leaned forward with a rustle of his armor, looking at Rentaro with belligerent eyes. “Besides, this isn’t the only trump card the Aldebaran troops have. Leader Satomi, you’ve heard of the Spear of Light that many civil officers are talking about, haven’t you?”
“That Gastrea that can shoot high-pressure mercury from five kilometers away?”
Gado widened his eyes in surprise. “High-pressure mercury? It’s shooting mercury?”
Rentaro nodded quietly. “I have a lot of excellent people in my adjuvant. It’s probably an archerfish Gastrea.” Normally, archerfish were tropical fish that used their pointy, funnel-shaped mouths to shoot compressed water and bring down insects near the surface of the water. They only measured about twenty centimeters or so in length, but they could shoot up to 1.5 meters. “According to one of our Initiators, the enemy is a giant Gastrea about ten meters across in all directions, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much pressure that compressed mercury is being shot out at.”
“I see…,” said Gado. “Well, anyway, we were calling the Gastrea that appeared suddenly yesterday
Gastrea X
, but after consulting with the Japanese National Security Council this morning, it was acknowledged to be as much of a threat as Aldebaran and was given the code name
Pleiades,
after the group of stars in the middle of the Taurus constellation.”
“Pleiades…”
Gado fished around in his breast pocket and pulled out two objects engraved with intricate designs. Rentaro could tell immediately that they were chess pieces, a king and a queen. “It’s true that, like you said, if we defeat Aldebaran, we’ll probably win this game. However, even if we try to defeat the king, the queen will definitely stand in our way. So in this game, we must defeat the queen in order to be victorious.”
In chess, everyone knew without saying that the king was the most important piece in predicting the outcome of a game. And that the queen, who could move in all directions and had an unlimited range, was the supreme ruler of the battlefield. It was a perfectly fitting phrase.
“But this isn’t chess, it’s
shogi
, right?”
“Hmm?”
“The opponent’s camp can use all the pieces that were defeated by the Gastrea virus. We’re the ones that are being made to play by the rules of chess.”
Gado seemed to be holding back laughter as he shrugged his shoulders queerly. “That might well be the case.”
“How many people were killed?”
“It would be impossible to explain that in one sentence.” Gado took a sip of tea from the cup Asaka proffered, crossed his arms, and looked down. “When the battle started, the enemy numbered about two thousand. However, the seven thousand decisive self-defense soldiers were defeated, and though the Gastrea forces lost five hundred, in exchange, it looks like two thousand of the defeated self-defense force troops were infected with the Gastrea virus and turned into Gastrea, adding to Aldebaran’s numbers. Then, the expanded Gastrea troop of three thousand five hundred bodies came up against our five hundred pairs of civil officers, or a thousand people. The enemy lost nine hundred, but half of our pairs were killed as well—and sadly, it looks like a hundred of them were added to the enemy’s numbers.”
“In other words, the current match up of fighting bodies is…”
“Two thousand seven hundred Gastrea to our five hundred.”
Rentaro was sure that wasn’t all. They had suffered more serious damage than the numbers made it appear. There were, of course, the injured, but also those ten-year-old girls who were dispirited from the
trauma of being suddenly thrown onto such a cruel battlefield. There were also many pairs whose combat power was less than half because one of the partners had been killed. Even if those who lost their partners formed impromptu unofficial pairs, they could not be expected to be in sync. It would be better to say that their actual numbers were about a third of what they had left, or a hundred and sixty-six people.