Black Bullet, Vol. 1: Those Who Would Be Gods (18 page)

“Hey now,” said Rentaro. “After we humans leave, the roads are more fragile than you think. Weeds start growing soon after, and then cracks develop, and when water gets in there and freezes and melts, the cracks start getting bigger and bigger. It’s not necessarily cracked because the government wasn’t doing its job.”

“I see. Then, let me correct myself. The Japan Highway Public Corporation is a good tax thief.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rentaro smiled wryly and looked up at the sky. Because there was a lot of oxygen, at least the air was fresh. They followed the road. When they got out of the fake tropical rain forest, they finally saw more familiar trees like dawn redwoods and maples. However, even though it was spring, the maple had red leaves, and the undergrowth showed signs of root rot and was a dark reddish brown, giving off a rank smell. When mankind one day beat the Gastrea, would they be able to find a way to restore the environment that had been destroyed this thoroughly?

“Enju, someone in our line of work said they saw a quetzal in the Unexplored Territory before,” said Rentaro.

“A quetzal?” said Enju.

“Yeah, the bird Osamu Tezuka’s
Phoenix
was modeled after, the legendary birds whose males are said to be the most beautiful birds in the world. Of course, there aren’t any in Japan, so I always thought he was lying, but with the ecosystem this messed up, I think it might actually be possible.”

“Rentaro, you really like animals, don’t you? Do you wish to see one?”

Rentaro pouted. “What, something wrong with that?”

“No, if you want to see one, then so do I. If they are so beautiful, then they will surely be delicious.”

“You want to eat one?! They’re legendary birds!”

Just then, there was a growl in the distance, and Rentaro reflexively turned off the light and crouched down. Removing the XD from his hip, he pulled out the one-touch mountable silencer, fixed it on the muzzle of the XD, and slowly approached the sound. He could hear the sound of a small stream in the distance. That sound grew louder
as they approached. Moving forward silently for about a minute, they slowly pushed their way through the thicket.

It was closer than Rentaro had expected. He was paralyzed for a moment before he rushed back and crouched in the thicket.

The first thing he saw was the thin pupils in the glowing yellow eyes. Its long, narrow snout was crammed full of teeth. From its head to its long tail, it was covered with a hard armorlike skin that glittered slimily. Placed as it was with only half of its body out of the river and with its thick skin, it looked like a heavy tank.

“It’s a gator,” said Rentaro. “A gavial…I think? But…” Its long, thin snout was definitely different from that of an alligator or crocodile. But Rentaro still felt uncertain about that conclusion. It wasn’t even worth being surprised at the body enlarged by the Gastrea virus, but it had five legs, and there were four extra eyes in places eyes would not normally be.

The Gastrea virus was not perfect. There had probably been some sort of error after the body was designed when the cells were dividing that made it turn into that. Perhaps it could be called God’s aesthetics, but most living things were created with symmetry. When that symmetry was altered, it was hard not to be revolted. The long, thin snout of the gavial had evolved into a shape suitable for catching fish, but, it was hard to believe that it subsisted entirely on river fish given the size of its body.

The creature had also noticed Rentaro. It still didn’t seem like it was about to attack, but it stared at Rentaro sideways. Cold sweat broke out on his palms.
What should I do? Fight it?
Rentaro dropped his gaze to his gun.

Currently, in order to allow the silencer to work at maximum efficiency, his gun was loaded with what were called “weak charges,” subsonic Varanium bullets that used less gunpowder and dropped the initial velocity to below the speed of sound. Thinking about the naturally tough gator skin being reinforced by the Gastrea virus, he thought that he if he aimed at its head, the cranium would probably stop the bullet.

Enju pulled at his sleeve and shook her head slightly with uneasy eyes. He knew that she was telling him to ignore it. That was the last straw. Rentaro held out his gun and stepped back slowly so as not to provoke the creature. He didn’t know what the five-legged gavial was
thinking, but it kept its eyes on him, watching his every move. As soon as he lost sight of it, he ran as fast as he could away from it. Once he got to a place he thought was safe, he let out a long breath. His heart was still hammering loudly in his chest. He suddenly felt cold and started shivering. He didn’t even have enough composure to laugh off his own cowardice.

“If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have started attacking, huh?” Enju said in an unhappy voice.

Rentaro couldn’t answer.

“Even though you are more fragile than I am, you desire too much to walk in front of me.”

Once he thought things through calmly, he realized that there were too many problems with his risk and ammunition management. Thinking about what might have happened if he had tried to defeat the creature like that made him shake his head. “Sorry. I’ll be more careful—”

However, before he could finish, the vibration of a low explosion ripped through the air. Rentaro knew immediately what had caused it and clicked his tongue. “That idiot! Some civil officer pair used explosives in the forest… Why did they have to do that?”

At that moment, although it wasn’t clear where they had been hiding, from inside the forest, a cloud of bats flew out all at once, calling shrilly and flying above Rentaro’s head as if going mad.

Rentaro broke out in a cold sweat. This was the worst thing that could have happened. The forest was going to wake up. Calamity soon appeared. With a thud, a low sound different from before could be felt beneath their feet. It was the rumble of large bodies treading on the ground. It reverberated in all directions, and Rentaro couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

Next was a low growl that echoed in his stomach and made him look hurriedly around him. He thought it was the growl of the gavial from earlier, but it was something more twisted and sinister.

Suddenly, Enju’s face paled, and she stared at a single point. “Rentaro… What’s that?”

Even when he looked in the direction Enju was looking, all he could see was a large shadow. Rentaro turned on the light and then almost dropped it in shock.

From deep within the canopy, a pair of large eyes were fixed on them. Its body was over six meters long. It had the fierce face characteristic of reptiles, with a long neck and a flickering red tongue. Small warts covered its face like boils, and Rentaro and Enju could smell the stink of rotting flesh on its breath wafting downwind toward them. Its body was green, and the bones of its arms had evolved to form wings, so it went without saying that it had mixed with some sort of bird Gastrea.

It looked like a fairy-tale dragon.

There was no doubt that this was a Stage Four Gastrea. It probably had a number of different bird and lizard species mixed in, but with its evolution progressed this far into the stages, it was hard to pinpoint exactly what the original animal was.

Just then, Rentaro noticed that there were what looked like remnants of cloth caught in the Gastrea’s fangs, and he let out an involuntary groan. With the government pushing through this operation without regard for material resources, he had known in the corner of his mind that there would be victims sacrificed, but he had blocked that out of his consciousness. Nevertheless, it bothered him.

The dragon started to kick the ground nervously with its right leg, as if it were a runner getting ready to start running before a race.

Keeping his eyes on it, Rentaro fished around in his pouch with shaking hands, but he soon realized that he didn’t have a weapon that could work against such a large creature. At that size, without a heavy machine gun or antitank rifle outfitted with Varanium bullets, he wouldn’t have a chance.

“Enju,” he said, “can you carry me and run?”

Enju showed her understanding with just her eyes.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the dragon, he put his arms around Enju’s shoulders. Because of the difference in their heights, he was practically leaning on her, but this was no time to worry about that. “Enju, if you can’t get away, leave me.”

“I cannot do that!” As she spoke, she kicked sideways with enough force to send them into the air. The cold wind hit Rentaro’s cheeks, and when he opened his eyes slightly against the pressure of the wind, they were already in midair. Enju had hopped. She had jumped almost twenty meters while carrying Rentaro on her back.

The cuffs of his clothes fluttered, and they stopped for one brief instant in midair. Right after that instant, they fell on the curve of a free fall, and the forest drew near with intense speed. Enju found a thick branch to land on with both legs on it and then leapt up again. This time, she made short jumps from branch to branch between trees that were about five meters apart, jumping faster than the eye could follow.

Rentaro clung pitifully to Enju. Every time Enju jumped, he was swung about by strong G’s and felt like he was about to fall off. Looking behind them, his eyes widened with shock. The fierce hunter was leaning forward in pursuit, trampling the trees in its way. The snapping sound of live trees being torn apart chased after them from behind. The pressure was more than he imagined, and it made him want to scream.

Rentaro fought against the pressure of the wind and opened his eyes narrowly to look behind them. But he realized one thing. Those wings probably didn’t function, or, like those of the giant pterosaurs of the past, had only limited functionality. If it could fly, then it would have followed them through the air. If it followed them on the ground, it would eventually hit its limit. It probably couldn’t breathe fire like the dragons in picture books, either. Convinced that they could get away, he made a fist.

But then, when he faced front again, he almost lost consciousness with despair. “Enju, it’s a cliff.”

A cliff rose perpendicularly in front of them, and it was about a hundred meters above the vast forest below it.

“Hang on tight, Rentaro!” said Enju.

“Hey, don’t tell me you’re gonna—?!”

Enju bent her knees low on the trunk she had just landed on and made a huge jump. Rentaro almost bit his tongue. The scenery passed by with amazing speed, and they leapt over the cliff and into the air. The strong wind whisked by, and Rentaro and Enju experienced a strange climbing sensation for an instant. Inertia and gravity cancelled each other out and they were completely still in midair.

Rentaro’s mouth gaped. There was forest as far as he could see. It was like a miniature scene. It was a moment when all his worries, thoughts, decisions, and past travels—nothing seemed to matter anymore. It
was the moment he realized his own insignificance. Looking in front of him, the yellow moon seemed closer than usual. Even though he knew what he was doing was foolish, he stretched out his hand to grab it. He gave a small laugh.

Just then, in the space between the forest and the moon, about ten kilometers away, he saw something strange and rubbed his eyes. A long man-made cylinder was stretching smoothly toward the sky. With just the silhouette, it was hard to gauge its size, but it looked to be about two kilometers in length.

I see. So that’s the Stairway to Heaven…?
At that moment, Rentaro felt an unpleasant drifting feeling, and the inertia disappeared and gravity pulled at his body. Rentaro felt like he was about to be torn away from Enju, who was carrying him, and clung on hurriedly. He gritted his teeth and concentrated on not screaming.

Enju was completely calm, and selecting two branches on the ground, she grabbed one as she fell. When the branch bent to its limit, Enju let go and grabbed the branch below it. Enju’s thin arms were overloaded, and there was a snapping sound. However, the force of their drop did not decrease, and the two fell like lightning bolts into the middle of the forest.

Countless leaves and branches scratched Rentaro’s cheeks, and fresh blood spurted out. Enju landed with both legs on a large rock, and shattered pieces of rock flew in all directions. Thrown by the force, the two of them rolled on the ground a few times before finally coming to a stop.

Holding back his body in a fit of coughing, Rentaro used his hands to push himself up and looked up at the cliff they had fallen from. Far up at the top of the cliff, the dragon looked frustrated at missing out on eating dessert and turned several times before letting out a howl and returning to the forest. Rentaro felt the strength leave his hands as exhaustion suddenly closed in on him in response. He almost collapsed as he let go of his focus.

After all that, Rentaro and Enju didn’t start moving again for another thirty minutes. Enju had hurt the joints in her body during the fall and needed some time to recover. Of course, compared to the weak Rentaro, her recovery time was amazingly fast.

He had been planning on walking in front and getting rid of anything suspicious, but he changed his mind and decided to have Enju help, too. He lectured her as they walked side by side. “You have to be careful of the antitank land mines, the spring-type land mines, the guided mines, and the unexploded cluster bombs. These were scattered by the retreating self-defense force during the Great Gastrea War and left behind, so occasionally civil officers doing jobs in the Unexplored Territory will get hurt.” He traced simple outlines of the shapes of the dangerous objects she should be careful of.

“I see,” said Enju. “But why did they do something that would mess up their own country so much during the war? Did they not realize that they would be the ones who would have to deal with it later?”

Enju made such a good point that Rentaro was caught off guard, and he pondered for a moment. “You’re right… Now that you mention it, that’s exactly right, but ten years ago, mankind was cornered and would do anything. Land mines and poison gas were just the tip of the iceberg. At the time, in order to survive, a bunch of inhumane things were allowed, so no one would’ve batted an eye at things like that.”