“But that’s why it’s worth doing.”
Rentaro looked up at the sky and exhaled deeply.
“Have you calmed down a little?”
“Yeah, thanks, Kisara.”
Kisara teased, “I’m actually a pretty devoted woman, you know.”
“How’s Tina?”
“She’s fine. She’s calmed down.”
“Then, what about you…?”
“I’m fine, too.”
“I see…” If that’s what she said, then he was probably supposed to ignore the slight shaking in her nasally voice. Still, the anger that was budding inside him was like a banked fire, burning brightly at a high temperature. But right now, he would not think about the absurdity of it. He had to aim that spearhead at Aldebaran.
Rentaro felt optimistic as he looked out over the Outer Districts. “Then, I’ll go back soon to see how Enju’s doing.”
After Kisara gave herself some time to think, she was sure to say, “Got it.” But she stopped in the middle of those words, and the Kisara at the other end of the line shook violently, and he could hear her gasping breaths.
“Hey, Kisara—”
“It’s begun, Satomi.”
Rentaro frowned. But before he could say another word, the woman on the other end of the phone spoke again. “Look at the Monolith.”
Rentaro raised his gaze from the ground. A ripple of shock went from the top of his head to the tips of his toes.
First, a corner of the rectangle collapsed. But that immediately led to the next collapse. The large body of the cracked Monolith finally couldn’t stand up against the Varanium corrosion fluid and let out a scream, and then nothing could stop the chain reaction.
From where Rentaro was, he couldn’t hear the sound of the collapse, but that made the shriek of the Monolith even clearer. Abruptly, the whole bleached Monolith became fatally cracked, and the Monolith looked like it was shrugging its shoulders as it completely disintegrated. Chills shot down Rentaro’s spine.
The collapsing structure looked like time-lapse photography, falling from its base with fragments peeling off. It would crash to the ground in no time. There was a roar, and Rentaro was suddenly hit with a rumbling from the ground—a shock wave—making Rentaro raise his arms and grit his teeth. The intense vibration shook Rentaro from his feet to his guts, and the shock wave blew away the surrounding debris, rotting signs, and sheet metal.
When Rentaro looked up again, he saw the sky covered with a cloud of dust and fine particles. “No way…”
There was no way. There should have been one more day before the collapse. Wasn’t that what the precise calculations done by the Seitenshi’s office said?
Rentaro’s clothes flapped in a sudden gust of wind, and at the same he had a sudden realization: “The wind…”
Currently, in the year 2031, it was still hard to completely predict the weather, and they could not accurately predict the chaotic air currents. The people at the Japanese National Security Council had read the flow of wind wrong.
It was starting. The Third Kanto Battle was starting—and not when they were planning.
“Satomi!” Kisara yelled.
“I know!” Rentaro hung up and fixed his eyes on the Monolith once more, running toward the battlefield.
July 12, 2031 at 3:16 p.m. This moment in time was the start of what would be remembered in history as Tokyo Area’s worst war, the Third Kanto Battle.
AFTERWORD
When trying to accomplish something, I do not think it is futile to calculate how much effort it will take to arrive at the end. And most goals can be calculated with the equation: Talent × Environment × Effort. For example, if you assume that there is a value of a thousand required to reach the goal, then someone who has a ten in talent and environment, and a ten in effort, will be able to accomplish their goal (pass the bar exam, write a song using Vocaloid software, become an author, etc.) because 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000. What I realized using this equation was you can’t use inferior talent or environment as an excuse to abandon effort.
There are many people who brag about how they have no talent and then abandon effort, but I personally think that’s not how it works. I think people who were not blessed in the areas of talent or environment need to put in a hundred times the effort of a genius or someone privileged. Even if the values of their talent and environment variables are only one, it is entirely possible to reach the goal with a thousand in effort. I often say that I’m a failure, but even so, I believe my strong desire to create the best is the only thing that determines the quality. I believed that, and I kept believing and believing until I was working so hard that I spit blood and continued to move forward and finally became an author, and I am somehow able to continue being an author.
When I met the author who wrote the cover review for this book, Reki Kawahara, and told him how excellent I thought his composition and writing, he shook his head furiously, denying it. It may sound presumptuous, but because I am also an author, no matter how humble the other person is, I can feel the mastery achieved after oozing blood by reading between the lines. I wanted to write about how happy I was that the review was written by someone who was a hard worker like me.
Everyone should also bless hard work. If you have a heart that earnestly believes and pushes forward, I’m sure your dreams will come true.
This time, too, I owe a lot to my managing editor, Mr. Kurosaki, the illustrator Saki Ukai who makes the main character look excessively cool, Reki Kawahara who wrote the review for the cover, and everyone else who was involved in the book, including everyone at the editorial department. Thank you all.
Finally, to my dear readers: In the next volume, we will start on the story of that person who was inserted occasionally in the subplot up until now. I hope you will look forward to the next volume as well. Thank you very much for buying this book. I pray that all of my readers will be blessed.
Shiden Kanzaki
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Copyright
BLACK BULLET, Volume 3
SHIDEN KANZAKI
Cover art by Saki Ukai
Translation by Nita Lieu
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
BLACK BULLET, Volume 3
©SHIDEN KANZAKI 2012
All rights reserved.
Edited by ASCII MEDIA WORKS
First published in Japan in 2012 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.
English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2016 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Yen On
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Yen On is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
First ebook edition: April 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-34497-5
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The Destruction of the World by Fire Page 18
