Against a Perfect Sniper (22 page)

Enju, was it you? Did you make this miracle happen?

This was a golden opportunity. His last chance. That’s right. He hadn’t lost yet.

I’m here bearing the hopes of Enju, Kisara, Sumire, Miori, and the Seitenshi.

There was a world he needed to return to.

There were people waiting for his return.

“It’s not over yet!!!!!”

He mustered the last of his strength. As blood streamed from his whole body, the puddle at his feet expanded rapidly. But, he didn’t care. He used the last of his strength to get into the Tendo Martial Arts Water and Sky Stance. He fired a leg cartridge and ignited the mobility thruster in his leg. Accelerating violently, he passed through the thermite blaze and jumped out in front of Tina. From Tina’s perspective, it looked as if Rentaro had jumped out of a curtain of hellfire at two thousand degrees Celsius.

“Raaaaaaagh!” he roared.

Going around the Shenfield that had come out to defend her, Rentaro stepped on Tina’s right leg with his boot and rammed into her with his shoulder.

Tendo Martial Arts Third Style, Number 9: Usarocho.

With a crack, Tina’s thin body was knocked away, and she let out a cry. When he rammed into her while stepping on her leg, it would be hard for her to absorb the shock, so if he got a good hit in, he could cause enough damage to turn her organs inside out.

Tina couldn’t help but totter a few steps forward.

Rentaro wasn’t one to pass up that chance.

“Tendo Martial Arts First Style, Number 15—”

With the sound of the explosion from a cartridge firing in his arm, he caught a fleeting glimpse of regret on Tina’s face.

“Oh n—,” she said.

“Unebi Koryuu!”
The uppercut with intense destructive power broke the dagger Tina had drawn to defend herself and exploded. Tina’s body was blown back easily, and it smashed concrete as it made the ceiling cave in.

“Tendo Martial Arts Second Style, Number 4—” Rentaro stretched his right leg straight out and kept it straight as he raised it overhead. Like a baseball pitcher’s special stance, his leg was at a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree angle with the bottom of his shoe facing the sky, and then became still.

Tina’s body became unstuck from the ceiling and fell down, powerlessly. Tina looked at him with weak eyes.

There were three consecutive blasts from his leg. The three empty golden shell casings spun as they were ejected, glittering as they reflected the swaying light of the flame.

The smell of gunpowder filled his nostrils.

In no time, all sound disappeared. The world was quiet and calm.

Rentaro closed his eyes.

“Inzen Jokahanameishi Burst!”

His heel came down in an axe kick like an iron hammer, hitting Tina cleanly. An extreme tremor shook the whole floor, and large parts of the floor caved in and fell through. The enormous energy of three shots of large-caliber cartridges blew Tina’s body away like sick leaves and then broke through the floor with a thunderous roar.

After a tremor so large it seemed like it would destroy the whole skyscraper, the noise finally stopped. Looking down, at the bottom of a hole that looked like a series of reflected mirrors, on a floor eight stories down, was Tina’s prone body. After going through eight floors, she had finally stopped, it seemed.

Tina was passed out at the center of the explosion, unable to continue fighting. The flames stretching up threw Rentaro’s long shadow
on the floor. Rentaro let out a breath quietly and continued to be alert as he took the Infinite Stance. Then, his vision swayed, and before he knew it, Rentaro was also lying spread-eagle on his back. His head was pounding, and he was dizzy and nauseated. Even now, his body felt like it would disintegrate.
I can’t believe I fought with this body
, he thought in utter amazement as he stared at the ceiling.

He closed in on a sniper from 1.5 kilometers away and crushed her in close combat. Considering that the by-the-book tactic to deal with a sniper was called a counter-snipe, where you sniped the sniper, it made him realize just how crazy his strategy was.

Rentaro got up, slightly annoyed that he had to, and putting one knee on the ground he put a hand on his knee and forced himself to his feet. He let out shallow, short breaths like a wounded animal. His whole body felt like a bundle of pain nerves. Just breathing in made his lungs hurt. Saliva mixed with dark red blood dripped from his mouth, and he spit blood on the ground. He wiped his mouth. This was no time for strong emotions. Rentaro still had something he had to do.

Putting his hand on the wall, he went down eight flights of stairs, where Tina was lying. Rentaro aimed his gun between Tina’s brows as he approached her. Tina’s clothes were tattered, and she had a number of broken bones. She had gotten a good hit from a Super-Varanium axe kick, so her body probably wouldn’t do what she wanted it to do for a while.

Tina wheezed, tilting just her head toward him, opening her eyes slightly to look at Rentaro. “Ren…taro… Please…finish me…off…”

Rentaro didn’t say anything. His eyes met Tina’s. His strong feelings of victory disappeared, and he didn’t feel angry or sad, either. The only thing left was emptiness.

Tina continued her disconnected groans. “My…body…is a mass of…technology… I cannot live…and be caught…by another country…”

Kill her.
If he did so, he would be able to completely remove the threat to the Seitenshi. Either way, if he handed her over to the police, he didn’t think an Initiator who attempted to assassinate a national ruler would be treated very well. Even more worrisome was what the man pulling her strings, Ain Rand, was after. Putting together what
Sumire had said, Rand didn’t think of humans as human. It wouldn’t be strange for a man like that to have ordered Tina to kill herself immediately after being defeated. If Rand found out that she had not chosen to die, then it was possible that Tina would be the next assassination target.

No matter what happened, Rentaro had a hard time seeing a bright future for Tina after she survived today.

Rentaro put strength into the finger on the trigger of his gun. Finally, he nodded once with resolve and closed his eyes. He put his gun away, helped Tina up, and supported her with his shoulder.

Tina’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Why…?”

“I didn’t fight because I wanted to kill you.” Rentaro kept his gaze in front of him and focused on the hospital beyond the wall. “Besides, you saved Enju… Thank you. I kept wanting to tell you that. I’ll make sure they don’t treat you badly!” Through his shoulder, he could feel Tina shaking, and then next to him, he heard the sound of small sobs leaking out. Rentaro tried to pretend not to notice as something hot and wet soaked his shoulder.

“I’ve lost everything. Even though all I had was my fighting ability, I lost, so now everything is gone.”

Rentaro didn’t say anything.

“Rentaro… I don’t know anything anymore. Why did things turn out this way…? What should I do…? I have no idea. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. My life keeps turning strange, so now I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do……”

“Don’t talk. It’ll make your injuries worse.” And then, Rentaro, supporting Tina with his shoulder, walked down the long flight of stairs, one step at a time. The first floor was a nest of explosives, as Rentaro had imagined, but luckily, they were not the type that exploded automatically when triggered by movement. They were all the remote control type, so since Tina was out of commission, it didn’t seem like they would be a problem.

When they left the moldy building, they were met with fresh air and moonlight. Rentaro lifted his face.

First, to the hospital.

“I’ll have you take responsibility for this.” Surprised, he looked next
to him and saw Tina smiling weakly with her eyes swollen from crying. “You defeated me, so I’ll have you take responsibility for that.”

Rentaro was taken aback for a moment, but he soon nodded cheerfully. “All right, I will.”

Suddenly, there was the sound of a gunshot, and Tina fell to her knees.

“Ah………” Tina looked in disbelief at the black hole that had opened up in her chest. The fresh blood leaking from the hole slowly soaked into her clothes. Tina moved her slightly gaping mouth a little, but couldn’t speak as she looked up at Rentaro, then tilted her head in embarrassment as she tried to smile.

A man approached them briskly, wearing a uniform cap with a white cape, shooting a Luger pistol. Fresh blood spouted from Tina’s throat, and she fell backward. Yasuwaki kicked Tina’s stomach hard, sending her body lightly into the air. It landed with a thump when it fell. The whole scene was like a bad joke.

“I can’t believe you’re having so much trouble with a little killer!” said Yasuwaki mockingly.

What’s he doing here…?
His brain numb, Rentaro tilted his head in confusion.

Yasuwaki looked in his direction, as if to answer his question. “I safely escorted the Lady Seitenshi to her conference. She is probably in the middle of talks right now. I need to get back before the conference ends, so I don’t have a lot of time. More importantly—” Yasuwaki stopped and grinned evilly. “What’s with that expression? I just disposed of a piece of trash for you. Why don’t you thank me for it?”

When Rentaro heard those words, rage pierced his spine, and his brain lit on fire. “I’ll kill you!” Just as he put his hand to his holster to draw his gun, there was a rustle and an attack from behind. Rentaro gasped as the air was squeezed from his lungs. He looked back and saw a friend of Yasuwaki’s, one of the Seitenshi’s personal guard, with a fist buried in his back. Panting, Rentaro smashed his attacker’s chin with a backward punch, but someone else held down his hips and kicked his legs out from under him. Just as he thought the ground was approaching, a strong force pushed his head down and slammed it into the ground.

A sharp pain shot through his arm, and looking back with effort, he saw that three other guards were on his back, pinning his arms back. Gritting his teeth so hard he thought he might crack a tooth, he groaned and flailed hard, but they didn’t loosen their hold at all. “Yasuwakiiiiiii! You
bastard
!”

Yasuwaki laughed. “This is exactly what it means to profit from someone else’s fight.”

Just then, Tina’s body curved, and she coughed up blood.

Tina! She’s alive!

After Yasuwaki looked at his own Luger pistol, he looked at Tina warily. “It really is hard to kill them without Varanium bullets.” Then, looking like he just thought of something, he smiled faintly at his friends. “Hey guys, wanna do a biology experiment? The topic is
How many shots does it take to kill a Red-Eye with lead bullets?
”

The other guards’ shoulders shook, and they started snickering.

Stepping over Tina’s prone body, Yasuwaki pulled the trigger of his gun a few times. Tina’s body danced, and fresh blood gushed out and got on Yasuwaki’s face. Tina’s legs became taut, and they kicked at the ground.

Rentaro yelled. “Stop it…! I’ll kill you, Yasuwakiiiiii! You bastard…! I’ll kill youuuuuu!”

Yasuwaki spread his hands and laughed maniacally. “That’s it! That’s the expression I wanted to see, Rentaro Satomi!” He kept laughing. Yasuwaki lifted the muzzle of his gun and aimed between Tina’s eyes. “It’s time for the finale!”

“That’s enough!”

The roar of the dignified voice made every person at the scene freeze.

Yasuwaki, his subordinate guards, and everyone else froze with their mouths gaping, holding their breaths and looking in the same direction.

“Lady Seitenshi……,” someone muttered.

Her beauty was like that of glittering stars, but her piercingly powerful eyes were like lightning. This authority of pure white wasn’t supposed to be here—but she was.

Yasuwaki let his gun drop and turned pale as he stepped back.

The binds on Rentaro loosened, and he stood up in a daze. Why was she here right now? Wasn’t she in the middle of a conference?

Yasuwaki seemed to have the same questions and started saying agitatedly, “Why in the world…?”

“I heard that you all were acting without permission, so I excused myself from the meeting with President Saitake to come here.”

“Impossible! I cannot believe you threw away a conference with the ruler of Osaka Area for the sake of a mere civsec officer!”

“To me, Satomi is not just a mere civsec officer. And I cannot overlook your violence any longer.”

The Seitenshi looked sideways at Rentaro. “Satomi, please tell me. You saved my life. What is it that you wish for in return?”

What
did
he want? He made a hard fist. It was obvious. “I want power! I want the power to protect the people I care about!”

The Seitenshi kept her eyes shut for a while. Finally, she opened her eyes and said resonantly, “Satomi, with power comes responsibility. You must not forget that when you swing your sword, it leaves blood behind it. With too much power, one becomes a tyrant, and with too much responsibility, one’s heart breaks. From the beginning of the universe, power and responsibility has never been balanced. But you must find that balance.” She paused. “Very well, I will give you that power.”

The dignified voice resonated in the night sky. “With my prerogative as ruler of Tokyo Area, I waive the written appointment of the IISO and hereby promote Rentaro Satomi from Rank 1,000 to Rank 300. Satomi’s top-secret information access key is now at Level 5, and his pseudo-rank has been promoted to first lieutenant. In other words, you are now one rank above Yasuwaki. Do you understand what that means?”

“Yes,” said Rentaro.

“Justice without power is not worth anything. Become stronger, Satomi, stronger than anyone.”

Rentaro raised his face quietly and the personal guards froze, with Yasuwaki losing all color in his face. Rentaro drew his XD gun and fired three times. One hit Yasuwaki’s right shoulder, the second hit his side, and the last blew off the thumb of his right hand from the joint.

“Arghhhhhhhhh!” Yasuwaki screamed.

Rentaro looked coldly sideways at the flustered guards who pointed their guns at him. “Who do you think you’re pointing your guns at?”

Surprised, the guards stopped moving.

Rentaro passed by them to stand in front of Yasuwaki, looking down at him. Yasuwaki shuddered, awestruck, and tried desperately to back away. “Ahhhhhh… D-don’t come near me… Don’t come near meeeeeee!”

Rentaro, with the full moon behind him, raised the muzzle of his gun and aimed at Yasuwaki. His heart was boiling like magma, but his voice was frozen at absolute zero.

“Get out of my sight, and never come near Tina again. If you refuse, I will shoot you to death here and now for refusing to obey orders from a superior officer.”