The Destruction of the World by Fire (16 page)

Kisara looked a little surprised but immediately turned bashful and smiled back at him. “Thank you, Satomi.”

Rentaro felt his cheeks grow hot and looked away. And then the second hand went around the dial four times, and the countdown began. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four—”

Rentaro felt a squeeze from the hand he was holding, and Kisara’s nails dug into his skin a little.

And then, the next moment, Japan entered the next day. Rentaro let out the breath he had been holding. The Milky Way still hung above them, unchanging.

There were two days left until the collapse of the Monolith.

After sleeping for two nights in a tent in District 40, Rentaro had gotten used to life there. However, Tina and Midori, who seemed more delicate, could not really stand the rugged floor of the tent and sleeping bags, and complained lightly.

Under Gado’s command, this morning they were making barbed wire and sandbags and setting concrete blocks normally used to stop tanks in the areas where they predicted Gastrea would enter. The remaining time was spent in the classroom reviewing what they went over the day before, and as a final top off they were given details about the punishments for disobeying orders directly from Gado himself.

Apparently, Gado was pretty nervous about the civil officers not being able to agree on a course of action, so he was trying to prevent that by implementing a harsh punishment.
Well, that was only natural
, Rentaro thought. Even if the civil officers were a bunch of show-offs, if just one person turned and ran when the Gastrea attacked, it would have an effect on everyone’s morale. If he was the commander, he would want to eliminate those rotten eggs who thought of themselves before everything else to the detriment of the group as soon as possible. He had no objections to Gado’s way of doing things.

After they were dismissed, Rentaro dropped off Enju, Tina, and Kisara at the outdoor classroom, changed trains, and got off at Magata City. Sadly, even though Rentaro had brought a tent with him, he had completely forgotten to bring a change of clothes and underwear. Enju had already run out of underwear and was currently renting Tina’s. Himself aside, as Enju’s guardian he couldn’t make her do something so crass.

Therefore, “Mr. Rentaro” was taking a day off today. When he got off at Magata City and started walking around, he immediately felt tension in the air and stopped. The first thing that met his eyes were the large amount of flyers covering the ground that looked like they had been blown over by the wind. Picking one up, he saw that there were conspiracy theories written on them, like “Don’t forgive the tyrannical government! The government had already decided all who would be evacuated to the shelters from the start!”

Now that he thought about it, it had been two days since he had been home to Magata City, but in those two days, the city had turned into this. Near the concourse, there was an old man with white
hair and a white beard, outfitted like someone homeless, standing on a wooden crate yelling in a high voice about the destruction of the world and the new hope that would come after that. Normally, no one would pay any attention to such incoherency, but Rentaro could see many cheering him on.

The bottoms of Rentaro’s shoes crunched as he walked through the shopping arcade in front of the station. Display windows had been destroyed and looted. A little while later, Rentaro passed a truck with looted goods on it and was shocked when he realized that the driver had a vigilante group armband around his arm. So even those who had previously maintained society had become accomplices to criminality. He had heard about it on the news, but the situation was worse than he had imagined.

There were few people walking around outside. Naturally, evacuation had already started for this block. It was easy to forget when in the Outer Districts, but right now, the whole city-state of Tokyo Area was in an emergency evacuation.

While he was thinking this, he reached his apartment. It was still peaceful around here, but it would probably be caught up in the looting soon. Thinking that, he stuffed necessities and consumables into his overnight bag, not letting his hand stop. When he finally lifted his swollen bag, he felt its weight at the base of his arm.

Standing at the entrance to lock the door, he gazed at the eight-tatami-mat room with a swell of emotion—it was possible that he wouldn’t return to this room again. But Rentaro brushed off the sentiment and pushed the sadly creaking door shut. He inserted the key and twisted the lock, shutting away the room and his memories. The next time he came, it would be to unlock it with Enju.

Putting the bag on his shoulder, he got on the train to head back to District 40. Even though there were not many people inside the train car, it was tense with the feeling of forcibly repressed panic. It was suffocating.

Looking for an escape for his eyes, he noticed a hanging advertisement near the roof. The headline of the handwritten ad said,
BLOOD RETRIBUTION AGAINST THE CURSED CHILDREN! LYNCHING IN DISTRICT 3!!!
The deterioration of public order had gathered in the easiest place for it to be vomited out.

The image of a certain girl recalled itself to his mind, and his heart skipped.
No way
. He shook his head, but the idea wouldn’t leave once it had taken root. Rentaro wasn’t able to contain himself, and stuck his hand in the closing door to get off the train.

Rentaro had gotten off at the District 9 station he had stopped by when he visited the Katagiri Civil Security Agency. Moving through the sparse pedestrians as he rushed out of the station, he pushed aside a couple and overtook an elderly walker as he strode with impatient steps. He couldn’t explain why he was in such a hurry, but he didn’t falter either.

Finally, he approached a five-road junction and climbed up the steps of a wide pedestrian bridge. She shouldn’t be here. That’s what he told himself over and over. She had promised.

He heard clamoring from above and felt murderous intent prickling on his skin; he could see a crowd of people. Panting, Rentaro dashed up the steps, and everything came into view. He saw a rush mat spread near the middle, and the metal bowl the girl had used was knocked over, with coins spilled out on the ground. There she was: Lying facedown on the ground was the caped girl. Around her was a band of grown adults. There were eight, in a wide range of ages from twenties to forties.

“What are you doing?!” Rentaro rushed over in front of the waif.

The fallen girl used her left had to try to push herself up with all her might and looked at Rentaro with her unseeing eyes. “That voice…are you that civil officer from before…?”

The girl had scratches all over her face, and the wound on her right arm that she was pushing down on had a spreading bloodstain that showed no sign of regenerating. Surprisingly, the girl’s smile did not go out even after all this.

“Damn it, what a disgusting brat!” Facing front, Rentaro saw that the oldest man in front of him was holding a Varanium switchblade
dripping with blood, his face twisted with hatred. It was a thin knife with a blade about twelve centimeters long; it was too short to fight off a Gastrea, so it was hard to think of what it could be used for other than to deliver a fatal wound to one of the Cursed Children.

The beggar girl shook her head, still bent over on the ground. “I’m sorry, Mr. Civil Officer. Even though I promised…I deserve what I got, but I, I just…”

“It’s fine. I get it. Don’t talk.”

Just then, the middle-aged man with the knife took a step forward out of rage. He had a wide forehead and was plump, with flesh sagging underneath his chin. If he smiled, he probably would have looked very kind. Rentaro was shocked that even someone who seemed good would commit an act of violence against a defenseless girl.

“Move!” the man yelled. “That girl mixed in with the rest of us with an innocent look on her face and attacked when she found a chance. She’s worse than the Gastrea! We have to eliminate the Cursed Children from the city!”

Rentaro knew the reason for the man’s thoughtless anger. In short, this crowd was scared. Ever since that news, they were afraid of the Cursed Children coming after them for revenge.

Rentaro closed his eyes and drew his XD gun from his belt. Then, lifting his arm, he fired one shot into the sky. The kickback roiled through his arm and the gun’s explosion roared into the sky. The agitated men stopped in surprise.

“I’m a civil officer.” Rentaro very calmly took his license out of his breast pocket and held it in front of the men. Quietly, he said, “Try taking one more step closer. Next time, I’ll shoot you.”

Facing the men, who were stirring nervously, Rentaro continued. “You’re not done yet?” The men snuck glances at one another for a while, but it was obvious that they had lost their spirit. The middle-aged man in front turned on his heel and spat, “The ones you civil officers are protecting are those brats after all, huh?”

The good-for-nothings snuck spiteful glances back at him and finally retreated like an ocean wave. As Rentaro looked around, the onlookers around them also hurriedly scattered.

Why was everyone afraid of them? Even though they were desperately protecting Tokyo Area, why were all the looks at them of spite or fear?

Outside, there were two thousand Gastrea. Inside, there were violent people who discriminated against them. Even though this was the time for the whole Area to come together as one…

“Excuse me…” Looking back, the girl was standing with a smile of gratitude mixed with remorse. Rentaro looked at the girl’s blood dripping onto the ground and silently took out a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his uniform, applying pressure to the wound as he bandaged it. The wounds that had not been applied by the Varanium knife were already on their way to healing naturally.

After the first-aid treatment was completed, she seemed to calm down somewhat, and the girl lifted her face gently, suddenly stretching out her hand toward him. Rentaro pulled away for a second, but she did not seem to mean him any harm, so he let her brush her hands over his face and shoulder.

“I remember your voice and face, Mr. Civil Officer.” The girl smiled more deeply and blushed. “You’re my type.”

“Idiot. You don’t have to thank me. Just get out of here right now. Try coming here again, and next time, I’ll be the one to hurt you! Got it?”

He meant to scold her, but the girl did not seem the least bit afraid. She just kept smiling and picking up money, rolling up her rush mat and putting it under her arm, thanking him over and over. “Please allow me to thank you one day when I have time.”

“Don’t come!”

The beggar girl waved her hand at the busy street as she left.

Rentaro pressed his temple with his left hand.
Damn it, does she really get it?
But he was glad he made it in the nick of time to save her. As he turned on his heel with that sense of satisfaction, something suddenly gave him the chills.

Behind him, there was nothing particularly out of the ordinary. The wind blew on Rentaro’s cheek and then blew away.

As he rode the train, he couldn’t get the eyes of the crowd out of his head.

A little while after he got back to the tent, Enju came back from the outdoor classroom along with Tina and Kisara. “I have returned!”

“How was school?” Rentaro asked.

Enju couldn’t contain her excitement and flapped her arms. “Today was fun, too. Kisara wasn’t popular at all.”

“Huh? Kisara?”

Tina looked confused. “Big Brother, you are very popular. When President Tendo said you were off today and that she would be teaching all day, there was a lot of booing…”

When he looked at the woman, she turned away in indignation. “Miss Kisara is not popular at all!” she parroted.

“Well…I like Miss Kisara?” he offered.

“Stop trying to console me.”

Then what am I supposed to say?

As Rentaro floundered, a voice interrupted them with, “Ma’am.” It was Tamaki. “While you were gone, a strange man came by and brought this—” He pulled out a sealed manila envelope from his chest.

“Oh, that was fast. They finished looking into it, huh?” Kisara gave Tamaki a curt “Thanks” and took the envelope, unsealing it carefully.

“Kisara, what is that?” Rentaro asked.

“Remember, Satomi? You said yesterday that maybe there was a problem with the Monolith, right? I got someone to look into it.”

Kisara twitched as she read over the few pages of materials in
the envelope. She crumpled the papers in her hand, and her fingers trembled and turned white.

Rentaro could tell something was strange. Wondering what was going on, he snuck a look at Kisara’s face—and he almost died from shock. “H-hey, Kisara…?”

“I’m going outside for a minute.”

“Hey!” Rentaro’s words were left behind as Kisara quickly turned and left.

He had no time to hesitate. Stumbling, Rentaro quickly pulled on his shoes and rushed outside the tent, looking around. He didn’t have to look for long to find Kisara walking in front of him, heading toward another party that was sitting around a campfire. Without saying a word, she threw the documents into the fire.

The people sitting around the campsite looked up in surprise, but their intruder walked away without a word after making sure the documents were aflame.

After it was obvious she wasn’t coming back, Rentaro ran to the fire pit, pushing the people around it out of the way. There it was. Without a moment’s hesitation, Rentaro stuck his right arm into the conflagration. He hadn’t thought to cut off the pain sensors in his arm, and he gritted his teeth in pain.

Even so, Rentaro’s arm remembered what it had to do. Sticking his arm into the depths of the brightly burning flames, when he finally passed his limit and had to pull his arm out, his smoking artificial arm was grasping a half-burned piece of paper.

“H-hey, what are you guys doing?” Ignoring the bewilderment of the neighboring party, Rentaro apologized silently to Kisara and unfolded the scrap of paper.

He groaned involuntarily and staggered a few steps.
What is this? Why…was this name…?
Rentaro followed Kisara’s back with his eyes, and seeing that she was far away, looked back at the scrap of paper that now sported blackened edges. It appeared to be the end of the document.

Kazumitsu Tendo. The grandson of Kikunojo Tendo and one of Kisara’s much older brothers. In the past, when Rentaro had lived in the Tendo residence, Kazumitsu had also still lived there, so Rentaro saw him many times.

Why was Kazumitsu’s name here?

It was hard to deduce the rest of the document’s contents from the excerpt. However—

Rentaro’s shoulders shook. In the back of his mind, he recalled the profile of Kisara’s face he had seen earlier in the tent. She had been sneering. She had on her revenge face, one that she would never show in front of the girls.

The wind was blowing strong the next morning, making the curtains of the tent flutter. The weather wasn’t bad, but the clouds drifting in the sky were passing by at great speeds.

“You’re going today, too?” Tamaki stood by the doorway to see them off, but he looked more solemn than usual.

“Yeah,” said Rentaro.

“Why do you still have to go to school at a time like this? I don’t get it,” said Yuzuki, furiously combing down her blond hair.

Next to her, Enju raised her hand energetically and answered, “It’s
because
it’s a time like this!”

“Huh?” Yuzuki sounded like she truly couldn’t understand.

Rentaro thought she had a point. He also wasn’t confident that he could explain his actions to other people.

From the adjacent two-person tent, there were the sounds of hurried morning preparations. When Rentaro went to wake its residents this morning, Kisara and Tina were both still sound asleep. The two of them seemed to have trouble falling asleep the night before and finally slept, but only when the sky was already turning light.

Rentaro looked up behind him and gazed at the bleached Monolith. There was one day left.

Gado had decided to let everyone have the whole day free. Apparently, because today was the last day, he intended for everyone to enjoy it. It was true that if they didn’t see their loved ones now, it was possible that they would never see each other in this world again.

And Rentaro naturally chose to spend his last free day as Mr. Rentaro. It was a strange feeling, though. At first, he had been forced to do it against his will, and he hadn’t planned on getting into it that much.

Tamaki looked at him with an even more dubious expression. “Won’t this just increase your regrets?”

“Maybe, but I need to at least say good-bye.”

“Well, as long as you get it, just make sure you don’t come back all gloomy.”

“What about you guys?”

This time, the Katagiri siblings looked at each other. Tamaki shrugged. “I guess I’ll eat something delicious to prepare for tomorrow and then go to sleep.”

“You guys don’t have anything else to do?”

“Our family and extended relatives were almost entirely killed by the Gastrea. There’s no one to say good-bye to.”

Rentaro regretted his question, and paused before his next question, considering it. “Did you guys become civil officers to get revenge on the Gastrea?”

Tamaki put both hands behind his head. “Hmm, I wonder. I don’t think about really tedious stuff like that.”

“But I can’t believe you can just not think about it—”

Tamaki cut him off. “The guys who bring grudges to fights with Gastrea are the ones who die early.”

Rentaro felt like he had suddenly been stabbed in the chest. Tamaki pushed up the bridge of his sunglasses with his middle finger, as if he didn’t want Rentaro to see his sharp eyes peaking out from over the top. “Well, if I had to say, I’d say I was fighting for someone’s smile. All right, my sweet, shall we go back to sleep to prepare for tomorrow?”

Yuzuki must have been sleepy, because she just nodded in agreement and somehow the two of them made it over to their sleeping bags.

Rentaro had mixed feelings after catching a glimpse of Tamaki’s expression, but he forced himself to switch gears. Sticking his head into the tent, he called out to Shoma, who was in the corner of the tent taking apart his gun and cleaning it. “What’ll you do today, Bro?”

Shoma shrugged and looked at Midori next to him. “We’re planning to start training in a little bit. ’Cause it’ll be problematic if my body doesn’t move when I need it to.”

Both the Katagiri siblings and Shoma pair had simple plans. Well, from their point of view, Rentaro and the others going to school without a care might have seemed like they were unaware of the looming danger.

But just then, Tina rushed out of the smaller tent and said with an apologetic expression, “Please go on ahead.” She followed it with a bow.

He gave an amicable wave to show he understood and guided Enju forward with a hand on the back of her shoulders. If they left now, even if they got there in the shortest amount of time, they would still be quite late.

And so, the last day started quietly.

Rentaro bought tickets for District 39, and they got on the train. On the trains between the Outer Districts early in the morning there were almost no passengers, and it wasn’t that hard to find a train car that was completely empty.

Turning their backs toward the orange sunlight shining from the east, they sat next to each other on the red velvet seats. As the train left the station, their bodies swayed and the hanging straps quivered. Finally, the train car accelerated slowly, and there was the rhythmical vibration of the train passing over the tracks. The shape of the shadows changed by the second, and moved from left to right.

Rentaro’s back, which had absorbed the morning sunlight, was nice and warm. It was hard to believe that today might be Tokyo Area’s last. Once tomorrow came, they would be fighting a decisive battle against two thousand Gastrea, led by Aldebaran, a force that would be unimaginably strong. It was sure to be a fierce battle unlike anything Rentaro and the others had ever experienced before; there was no guarantee that Rentaro or Enju would be alive to breathe after these next battles.

Because they both understood this implicitly, the early morning air seemed fraught with tension. Because of how short the time they had left was, even this casual time seemed like something irreplaceable, a halo that made the world sparkle.

“Enju, are you having fun at school?” Rentaro asked.

She narrowed her eyes and rubbed her head against Rentaro’s chest comfortably. The girl smelled sweet, like sunlight. “Yes, I am having so much fun. Thank you, Rentaro.”

“If you’re having fun, it’s because you’re working hard.”

Enju lifted her head and shook it, still clinging to Rentaro’s chest. “I know that you and Kisara secretly stayed up at night looking for the best school for me to attend while tapping on the calculator.”

Rentaro was taken aback. “You were watching?”

Seeing Enju smile wryly, Rentaro had mixed feelings. He didn’t really want a child to know about this kind of real-life cost-benefit analysis.

“I am grateful to you, Rentaro…,” said Enju. “And I guess I’m a little grateful to Kisara, too.”

Putting his arm around the pouting Enju, he hugged her to his chest. “It was worth the hard work, then.”

Enju’s upturned eyes blinked and wavered with unease as she looked at him. “Rentaro, is it not fun for you to be a teacher, after all?”

“Well…” Rentaro looked at the groups of ruins passing by the window. Most of the buildings had collapsed, and only the sky was vast. “I’m having fun.”

“What?”

Once he admitted it, he felt the worry lift from his chest. The next words he spoke came out pretty honestly. “No matter what started it, I’m having fun right now. It’s because of you, Enju. Thanks.”

At first Enju’s eyes widened, but then slowly her expression changed to a smile, and she hugged Rentaro’s arm, overcome with emotion.

Rentaro was about to protest, but seeing the charming expression on Enju’s face, he held his tongue and let her hold him. The sound of the train shunting along the rails and ties was softly buried in silence, and time passed peacefully.

Rentaro didn’t know how much time had passed when it was announced that the train had reached District 39, and he urged the reluctant Enju to get off. When they left the station, wind came from below that seemed to roll up and push at their backs. Walking with the girl on the already familiar streets in front of the station, their view was soon filled with ruined buildings.

As they walked, he collected his thoughts. Today’s classroom would probably also be full of kids from the Outer Districts. But since today might be the last day, he decided he’d talk about hope and happiness.