by <unknown>
The material was varanium. Although one could expect high mobility given the lightness in weight, there was a lack of reach, merely an outdated relic of the past.
"IP rank 550, Model Shark. I am Ritsu Urabe."
Ritsu introduced herself customarily and the girl responded politely.
In the next instant, Ritsu made an "Eh?" sound.
Tilting her head in puzzlement, thinking her opponent had not heard properly, the silver-haired girl lowered her center of gravity in a combat stance.
Then she stared straight at Ritsu.
"IP rank 77, Model Cheetah. My name is Yulia Kochenkova. I shall not hold back."
Part 6
Shoving his wallet into the taxi driver's hand without checking how much cash was in it, he rushed out of the car. The unexpectedly blinding sunlight greeted him, forcing him to squint.
The air was still very cold but the sun had already risen from the eastern sky.
The waves were making refreshing sounds as they broke. This scene was probably not going to change even a thousand years later.
Only a day had passed since he had last visited this floating prison, yet such a momentous change had taken place.
A slight stench of blood was mixed in the smell of the salty tide.
His body was filled with quiet tension.
After crossing the long trestle bridge, he could start seeing the backs of a large crowd that had gathered to watch as well as people who should be policemen.
Pushing through the human wall to reach the police tape, he was greeted by a frowning police officer who approached.
"Hey, this place is off-limits—"
Before the guy could finish, he fished out his CivSec license and tossed it over.
The elderly policeman caught it and instantly raised an eyebrow with an annoyed look.
"What's with trying to edge in on our turf? This ain't a Gastrea case this time."
"But it's very likely related that Initiators were involved. I do have the right to enter, all things said."
"Hmph."
The policeman pulled the tape with displeasure.
After he passed through the police tape and demanded to see the one in charge. The policeman raised his chin, said "follow me" and started to walk on his own.
Drawn by the noisy hustle and bustle, he swiveled his neck to look around.
This artificial island, normally inhabited only by prison guards, their family and the inmates, was now packed full of crime scene investigators, district police officers and mobile investigation teams. In a different setting, this level of activity would be like a joyous festival.
Beneath the crape myrtle's white flowers blooming next to the wall, seeds had flown in from who knew where. The almost blood-red petals of the red spider lily were also fluttering in the wind.
Blood was splattered in that area with human-shaped chalk outlines and countless bullet holes.
"...Does that outline belong to which side?"
"Who knows."
After entering the prison, the marks left behind by the gun fights were even more terrifying.
Suddenly, a Special Assault Team armed with bulletproof vests, assault rifles and light machine guns came head on and passed by.
Probably having spent the whole night subduing rioting inmates without a chance to sleep, their faces were filled with heavy fatigue.
Then immediately, they passed by prison guards who were urging cuffed inmates to walk faster. The inmates stopped in displeasure and complained something to the guards.
"Hey, hurry and keep up!"
He realized he had stopped unwittingly, only then did he chase up to the old policeman up ahead, finally reaching a main door where the sign Supervision and Control Room was hanging over.
There were signs of barricades set up previously. A battle had probably taken place here.
There was a human wall erected before the main door.
While saluting and approaching, crime scene investigation personnel dressed in work clothes looked in their direction before naturally parting to provide a path.
Then the collapsed girl was revealed.
"......"
From the standpoint of psychology, a person's attire symbolized how they wished to be perceived by the outside world.
Collapsed with her arms and legs spread out, the girl probably wanted people in the surroundings to think of her as someone rebellious.
Perhaps her dream was to become a rock star with tons of crazed fans while exposed to the nonstop flash of cameras.
If that were the case, then her wish could be said to have been actualized. However, the camera flashes directed towards her were that of criminal scene investigators, that was all.
The direct cause of death was shock caused by a tear through the abdomen.
Her innards had spilled out, splattering a bizarre flower-like pattern on the floor. As though ripped open by a ferocious beast, her wound was left exposed directly.
The girl's eyes remained opened wide in surprise. Until the very end, she must have failed to understand what had happened to her.
"The victim is Ritsu Urabe, an Initiator with an IP rank of 550."
He turned his head to see a plainclothes detective standing there, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt.
With a square face and half-grayed hair, wearing black-rimmed glasses, he gave off an intellectual impression like a scholar, but those thick eyebrows seemed to convey strong willpower.
"You are this place's...?"
"My name is Yoshitatsu Akutsu, a superintendent from the central office. In any case, I am the one in charge here."
Akutsu took out a pack of cigarettes from his chest pocket, placed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
"Stop smoking in a crime scene, okay?"
"Hmph, like anyone could stand this smell without covering it up with cigarette smoke—Hey, enough with the photos, take this one out too!"
He motioned to the investigators with his chin, just as they happened to finish drawing the chalk outline. Moving the body onto a stretcher, they covered it with a white cloth and transported it away.
Despite a different appearance, Superintendent Akutsu gave off vibes very similar to the familiar Inspector Tadashima. Both of them must surely be the type of person who stubbornly sticks to crime scenes from beginning to end without compromise.
Once this point was understood, it should be not be hard to handle this type of person.
"Is it really necessary to collect evidence at the scene?"
"How else will the crime be sentenced unless it's made clear who killed who?"
"Ahhh, I see."
Rentaro turned towards Akutsu.
"So the inmates' riot has been suppressed already?"
Closing his eyes, Akutsu breathed out white smoke from his nostrils.
"I suppose."
Rentaro was entirely stunned when he saw the news this morning.
Last night, the inmates of the floating prison had rioted. Three hundred and eighty convicts, in the middle of serving their sentences, had escaped.
Capturing prison guards and family members who lived on the artificial island who had not escaped in time for a total of a hundred and twenty hostages, they had occupied the island.
They had demanded a ransom as well as safe passage out of the Tokyo Area. Although they announced they would kill a hostage for every hour of delay, given the time frame they demanded, it was not enough to prepare the cash and escape channels.
Negotiations broke down. As the time limit passed, the inmates killed the first hostage.
The color of despair entered everyone's face at the scene.
"I'm impressed you guys subdued them in less than half a day."
"The SAT people are the amazing ones. In order to evade the naval mines, they sent scuba divers to land from the back of the island and seized the supervision and control room. Once all the tear gas in the prison had been activated, they used it as a signal to storm the place directly thro
ugh the front door.
Akutsu exhaled a puff of white smoke towards the air with an exhausted expression.
"Sigh, unfortunately, a number of hostages were ultimately sacrificed, but that was why things could resolve so quickly. Currently, the prison administration is in a dilemma over a shortage of sickbeds and punishment rooms."
"SAT casualties?"
"None, apparently."
Rentaro exclaimed, impressed from the bottom of his heart:
"As expected of professionals."
Akutsu glared viciously at him.
"Hey, what sarcasm are you spouting? Didn't a certain someone take out a whole SAT squad barehanded at the Magata Plaza Hotel? That's not something a human can accomplish at all, wouldn't you agree? —Mr. Hero of the Tokyo Area."
Just as Rentaro reached into his pocket, intending to take out his license, he took out his hand again.
"You recognize me?"
"Duh. I'll tell you this first, right now, there are probably a thousand people in the MPD who wants to take you out. Who asked you to make Superintendent-General Hitsuma and others in the top echelons fall from power? Right now, the human resources system is a total mess. I was just an inspector but suddenly got a rapid promotion to become acting section chief. I love hanging around crime scenes the most, I don't want to be some kind of section chief, okay!?"
"You might as well promote all the way up to become Superintendent-General."
Rentaro grinned mischievously. Feeling utterly annoyed, Akutsu waved his hand and said "Give me a break, don't jinx me."
Rentaro recalled proper matters.
"Is Andrei Litvintsev among the casualties in the quelled inmates?"
"No, he wasn't found. Although it's possible that he is still hiding on the island, my gut feeling begs to differ. According to testimony from other inmates, he was the first to disappear after a bunch of people left the prison..."
Akutsu opened his police notebook, putting it extremely close to his black-rimmed glasses.
"Apart from that, there were other inmates who witnessed a motor boat leaving the artificial island. Although this God forsaken place is paranoid enough to set up naval mines to prevent prisoners from escaping, they successfully escaped without tripping any of the mines. Those guys must have obtained ahead of time the route for evading the mines."
"Isn't that obvious? Those guys took over the control room as the first step, shutting down the security systems for preventing jail breaks. Just from this fact, you can tell they were fully prepared."
Akutsu scratched his head, feeling greatly troubled.
"Damn it, why did something like this happen right when full-scale war is about to break out against the Sendai Area?"
...Speaking of which, these two events did have connections behind them.
At this moment, Rentaro heard a drawn out "Excuse me—"
He looked back to see a young police officer touching the brim of his uniform hat uncomfortably.
"You are Mr. Rentaro Satomi, right? A woman is looking for you..."
Who the heck could it be? Rentaro felt agitated in his heart.
He totally had no time for this right now.
"Tell her I'm busy."
"I've already emphasized many times how unauthorized persons may not enter, but she's very stubborn. Also..."
The police officer hesitated a bit before saying:
"Although I couldn't see her face clearly under the hood, still, what an amazing beauty. I somehow get the feeling that she has this unusual air of nobility, making it hard to oppose her..."
Getting an ominous feeling, Rentaro felt his temples twitch.
He ran back at full speed to see someone in the crowd outside the police tape, waving vigorously at him and even jumping up and down.
"Mr. Satomi, it is I!"
Rentaro could not help but clutch his head and groan.
"Come over for a moment."
Lifting the police tape and pulling the girl by the hand, Rentaro brought her to a deserted place inside the premises of the artificial island prison.
"Why did you come running to this place!?"
The girl pulled her hood back to reveal skin like white porcelain while beautiful hair fell down, rivaling snow in color, shining brightly under the sunlight.
Indeed, she was precisely Seitenshi.
"Didn't you escape to my home to evade pursuers? You'll get discovered like this."
Clasping her hands together as though praying, Seitenshi closed her eyes.
"However, Mr. Satomi, you are clearly running all over the place in order to fulfill the job you are undertaking, yet I am hiding at home all the time unable to express anything at all. Besides, I wish to contribute some measure of meager assistance to you, Mr. Satomi. I was thinking this disguise would be flawless."
Seitenshi twirled around on the spot. Blown by the wind, her skirt fluttered like waves in the sea.
A pure-white shirtdress with an unbuttoned white jacket. White boots. That jacket even had a flimsy hood.
So beautiful.
Rentaro's agitation instantly vanished. He was defeated by this indescribable sight of beauty.
Rentaro thought back carefully. He had never seen her in any clothing apart from that formal dress.
Giving up personal space to become a 100% public figure, wearing that official formal dress at all times apart from in her sleep, it was probably a symbol of her selfless impartiality.
Although that outfit was taken off for the sake of disguising, Rentaro could not help but wonder at this time whether some sort of change had occurred in her mindset or was he overthinking things.
Seeing Rentaro's speechless reaction, Seitenshi lowered her head uneasily, then looked up at him vulnerably as though pleading.
"Does this attire not look good on me...?"
Rentaro turned his face away.
"I-If you want a disguise, don't go picking this kind of outfit that will make heads turn in ten men out of ten just by passing by."
Seitenshi's cheeks turned red. She bowed her head even lower.
"Seriously, Mr. Satomi... No way, could this be..."
Just as the mood was getting awkward, three male crime scene investigators were chatting and laughing while walking over from the opposite building. Seitenshi hastily pulled up her jacket's hood.
Rentaro sighed in relief.
Suddenly, Rentaro noticed Seitenshi looking at the investigators with eyes filled with tender affection.
"Despite the possibility of war breaking out after today, the police organization still continues to function normally. This is all thanks to the Honorable Kikunojyo's capable administration."
Rentaro followed her gaze.
"Not really. Disaster experts call this the 'normalcy bias.'"
Seitenshi widened her eyes and turned to stare at him.
"The 'normalcy bias'... Really?"
"That's right. Even when facing an abnormal situation, humans find it very hard to flip the 'this is abnormal, I must take immediate action' switch. Human minds are actually unexpectedly lazy. Plus the fact that if the surrounding people are calm, they feel 'very disgraceful' if they went into panic alone, so even if the fire has reached their feet, they still have trouble taking action."
"But I believe that the residents had a strong enough sense of criss during the Third Kantou Battle..."
"That's because everyone learned their lesson and knew about the extinction event that would come from a Monolith collapse. After all, the Gastrea War happened only a brief decade ago, with isolated outbreaks of infection happening sporadically, so residents have gotten used to that kind of evacuation at least.
"In contrast, the Japan's last participation in large-scale warfare between humans ended in 1945 with the Second World War. People who served as living history books have almost all died out. Most people cannot predict the future. It's possible they might even be thinking 'a war probably isn't as scary as an epidemic.'"
Seitenshi narrowed her eye
s sorrowfully.
"War clearly ought to be more terrifying than that instead..."
Rentaro crossed his arms.
"It's better to say that the Sendai Area has a bigger problem. That side is facing an extinction crisis more urgently than us. In desperation, who knows what that guy Inou's gonna do..."
At this moment, one of the crime scene investigation staff yelled "Hey, you guys!" and ran over to the three investigators who were chatting.
"Hurry and watch television, things have become very serious!"
The three investigators exchanged glances and finally nodded, running to follow the other guy.
Rentaro looked at Seitenshi. Gazing straight at him, she nodded.
"Let us go have a look too."
Entering the prison, Rentaro and Seitenshi followed those investigators to the cafeteria.
This spacious room had a flatscreen television out front with detectives and crime scene investigators surrounding it in a fan shape.
Under the tense atmosphere, everyone was staring at the screen with bated breath.
Rentaro tiptoed to peer at the screen from behind them.
Instantly, he felt a chill creep up his spine.
On the screen, a giant Gastrea resembling a centipede made the towering rock face in the background look like a miniature model. That thing had a reptilian face. The scythe-like pereiopods were too numerous to imagine how many there were.
That was precisely the King of Pestilence—Libra.
But what shocked Rentaro was not Libra's appearance but the translucent virus sacs cradled in its abdomen.
Bulging like balloons, those sacs containing deadly viruses were quivering slightly as though unable to wait for the time to be released.
Rentaro wiped the sweat seeping out from his palm onto his pants.
The scene changed on the television to what seemed to be a live broadcast of a press conference with Inou.
Just as predicted? Waving his fist violently in anger, Inou's enunciation was not very clear. After much effort, Rentaro finally understood he was saying: 'Unless the Tokyo Area makes Libra withdraw before 3am tomorrow morning, we will launch a full-scale attack on Libra and the Tokyo Area.'
