Against a Perfect Sniper (6 page)

“I would rather bite off my tongue and die than make money off your company’s stocks!”

“Does that mean you won’t back down?”

“I’ll send you to the other world.”

Miori reached into her kimono sleeve and pulled out a government sidearm, a Swordfish, custom-made just for her, and then took a complicated stance with her iron fan in one hand and handgun in the other. “I don’t know about your Tendo style or whatever, but it’s just an improvised martial art that’s barely been around for a hundred years. I’ll make you bow to the Shiba style.”

Kisara took her sword-drawing stance and spoke in a cold voice. “Shut up, Miori. Save your sass for the hereafter.”

In the midst of this volatile situation, Enju was the only one who balled her fist and said, “Be careful, Miori! If you touch Kisara, she’ll suck up your boobs!” energetically cheering her on. It seemed like Enju was on Miori’s side.

For some reason, the fluorescent lightbulb that had just been changed flickered.

“Shiba Style Niten Kitcho—”

“Tendo Sword Drawing, First Style, Number 2—”

Rentaro realized that he was never getting his cleaning deposit back and was suddenly very depressed.

After being rocked in the luxurious limousine for about two hours, they finally reached their destination. Rentaro got out of the limousine and looked up at the enormous building in front of him as he listened to the clear cry of a skylark in the bushes. The informal conference would be taking place at a high-rise hotel eighty-six stories tall. Rentaro had heard that along with each area’s embassies, it was often used as a safe house for important persons.

Because countries around the world lost a lot of land to the Gastrea invasion after the Great Gastrea War, it had become necessary to build taller buildings in order to cram in the large numbers of people that remained. After the creation of real estate tax laws favorable to allowing buildings to stretch vertically, a number of high-rise buildings were built quickly as if in competition with one another. Tokyo Area was already dotted with buildings taller than the Tokyo Skytree.

“Rentaro, go and do your best on the job,” said Enju, waving at Rentaro from inside the limousine. Rentaro waved back and then followed behind the girl in white in front of him, the Seitenshi.

The Seitenshi’s white formalwear looked like a wedding dress and exposed a lot of her upper back. Rentaro could see her slender shoulders and a peek of her shoulder blades in addition to the light pink skin with its healthy blood circulation. Rentaro felt a little guilty and shifted his gaze, asking her curtly, “Did you have to leave Enju in the car? It would be safer if she was with us.”

“I cannot bring a child into a serious place like this.”

With no choice but to obey, Rentaro sighed inwardly.

The Seitenshi went through the rotating doors and informed the gorgeous front desk obviously meant for nobility of the reason for their visit. They were immediately received by the manager, who pressed a key courteously into the Seitenshi’s hand, deferential but stiff with nervousness. The Seitenshi gave a slight smile and thanked him, and the manager smiled a self-satisfied smile.

When they got on the elevator, the Seitenshi stuck the key into the keyhole and turned, and a button to the highest floor appeared that was not there before. He couldn’t get used to this feeling no matter how many times he rode these elevators—the feeling of being pushed down by slight pressure as the antique indicators counted the floors with a metallic clicking sound.

“Hey, do you really not know why Saitake wanted to have an informal conference?” Rentaro asked.

“Yes, I have no idea. That is to say”—the Seitenshi glanced at Rentaro for a moment—“I have never met President Saitake.”

Rentaro was surprised, but now that he thought about it, it made sense. After the Tokyo metropolitan area was renamed Tokyo Area and its forty-three wards, there had been a number of Seitenshis. The first Seitenshi, who rebuilt Tokyo after they lost the war and renamed Tokyo Area, died from sickness a little less than a year later, and the second Seitenshi took over. And now, the girl in front of him was the third Seitenshi, who had been a politician for only a year.

“Satomi, you are acquainted with President Saitake, are you not?”

“Yeah, well, when I was younger, right when I had been taken in by the Tendos, old man Kikunojo wanted to make me a politician
and took me around to different parties. I guess you could say I’m acquainted with Saitake. It was a long time ago, though.”

“I actually have a question for you. What kind of person did President Saitake seem like to you? Whenever I asked Kikunojo about Saitake, he became obviously ill-humored…”

“Adolf Hitler.”

“Huh?” The Seitenshi’s voice cracked, and she blinked with surprise, making a funny face that Rentaro had never seen before. As the Seitenshi turned her whole body to face him, she rubbed the corners of her eyes lightly. “I’m sorry, Satomi, I’ve been so busy with state affairs lately that I seem to be tired… Will you say that once more, please?”

“I said, he’s like Adolf Hitler.”

“That’s a joke, isn’t it?”

“I’m serious. Even you know that Saitake has had seventeen assassination attempts by Osaka Area citizens, right? Anyone would be angry at having such heavy taxes levied, but that guy doesn’t care. Anyway, Lady Seitenshi, the heads of Sapporo Area, Sendai Area, and Hakata Area are like that, too. Those first-generation guys are the real deal, the ones who rebuilt their areas from the devastation of the Great Gastrea War.

“You know how people say the shogun’s council of elders got younger after Perry’s black ships arrived? During times of peace, it doesn’t matter who is in charge of Japan, but when things get really bad, the ones who crawl up are the really capable and dangerous guys. All the area rulers are guys who can say nonsense like ‘I am the representative of all of Japan’ with a straight face. Saitake is the worst of them. Be careful.”

“I-I understand. I appreciate the warning.” The Seitenshi looked a little overwhelmed and nodded gravely.

Partway through, Rentaro had started talking as if to convince himself, as well. He lifted his gaze to glare at the highest floor. Even if this was unofficial, the other side wouldn’t be so dumb as to set a trap in the conference location, but anyway, Rentaro was thinking of how he could successfully complete his job.

The Seitenshi looked nervously at Rentaro. “Please do not leave my side.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Rentaro, a little insolently.

She looked put out, and stuck her index finger in his face. “Also, you have a short temper, so please keep yourself under control. If you hit Saitake and start a war between our areas, I won’t be able to bear it. Also, you must not use impolite phrases like ‘Shut up’ or ‘What the hell?’”

“Dang, I wouldn’t say stuff like that.”

The indicator finally stopped on the top floor, and the door opened gravely. Unexpectedly, the first thing they saw was the blue sky, and Rentaro’s stomach sank. The reinforced hexagonal glass that formed the half dome above them was transparent, and looking out from there, the world seemed to spread out forever. Instead of feeling like they were in a room of the hotel, it seemed like a set of office furniture was placed in a private room of the observation deck on the top floor of a high-rise building.

Standing by the side of the elevator, bowing deeply once while standing erect were Saitake’s guards. Brawny and muscular, it was obvious that they were extremely skilled. There was also a white-haired man with his back to them, sitting on a designer sofa and looking down at a six-page flexible paper display.

Rentaro knew who it was just by seeing his back. After a while, the man stood from the sofa and turned around. “A pleasure, Lady Seitenshi.” He seemed to notice Rentaro then, and the tone of his voice dropped suddenly. “And is that the boy taken in by the Tendo family?”

“You’re still alive? You should just die already, old man,” said Rentaro.

“Watch your mouth, civsec officer! You know where we are!” His voice roared like thunder, and next to Rentaro, the Seitenshi trembled in surprise.

The man looked majestic, with his mustache curled at an acute angle, and his beard and hair connecting to look like a lion’s mane. His eyes were sharp, and his tall height was clothed in a suit. He was supposed to be sixty-five this year, but he always seemed to be overflowing with energy, not seeming his age at all. He was Kikunojo Tendo’s rival and a cunning politician who had buried one political rival after another: Sougen Saitake.

“Rentaro, I have heard rumors about you. Tempted by that Tendo vixen and running away… You acted foolishly. Now, you are not a Tendo politician, you are a civsec officer at the same level as a worm
crawling in dirt. I will treat you as such, and you shouldn’t forget how low you are!”

Rentaro stuck his hands in his pockets and approached Saitake with dangerous eyes. “What the hell are you talking about, old man? Social status? Pedigree? If you can’t be satisfied in a conversation without those things to lift you up, then you should go back to Osaka Area and stay there! Whether or not I’m a Tendo, I’m me.” Rentaro closed in on Saitake until they were almost nose to nose and glared at him.

Unexpectedly, the one who relaxed his mouth and stepped back first was Saitake. Apparently, Rentaro had passed for now.

Looking at the Seitenshi, Rentaro saw that she had paled at the threats and stood holding her lace gloves.

Rentaro wanted to hide his face.
Come on, Lady Seitenshi. Stuff like this is just a warm-up.

Saitake jerked his chin. “Is that Buddha sculptor doing well, Rentaro?”

Buddha sculptor
surely referred to Kikunojo Tendo. Sougen Saitake’s rival, Kikunojo Tendo, separate from his role as a politician, had an unexpected side as a Buddhist sculptor, carving images of the Buddha from wood. Kikunojo, who had been made into the youngest living national treasure of Japan at age sixty-two, was required to raise a disciple after receiving the title.

When Rentaro’s thoughts reached that point, they dredged up bad memories, and he shook his head to get rid of them. “He hasn’t been carving much lately, ever since his incompetent disciple ran away.”

“What, do you regret what you did?”

Rentaro glared at Saitake, who was looking at Rentaro with unconcealed scorn. “Do you wanna fight, pal? You’ll look smarter if you keep your mouth shut a little, you know.”

The Seitenshi blinked her eyes in surprise. “Satomi, you…were Kikunojo’s disciple…?”

Apparently it was the first she had heard of it. “So what if I was?”

Rentaro said it so distastefully that the Seitenshi hurriedly covered her face and said, “It’s nothing…”

Saitake offered her a seat, and the Seitenshi sat down on the sofa on the other side of the glass table, and Rentaro stood behind her. Rentaro thought for sure that they would start political discussions now, but Saitake raised his gaze to look at Rentaro. “Rentaro, when
you defeated the Stage Five Gastrea, you used the railgun module, destroying it beyond repair in the process, didn’t you? Do you understand how important that was?”

“Huh?” said Rentaro.

“In war, according to Sun Tzu’s
Art of War
, whoever is in a position of higher ground wins. The army who shoots arrows from the top of a hill wins, the army who drops bombs on an enemy from above wins, the army who figures out the enemy’s position using a satellite wins—so then, what’s next? That railgun you destroyed was a next-generation weapon that was supposed to be transferred to the moon to shoot down Gastrea on the ground from the surface of the moon. And you…”

Rentaro frowned. “Wait a minute, old man. Even if you could get the railgun onto the moon, would you really just use it for Gastrea?”

Saitake scoffed with contempt. “Of course not, idiot. It’s just as you’re imagining. It’s a next-generation deterrent as part of the groundwork to push Japan into becoming a great world power.”

“Do you plan to threaten other countries with violence?” The Seitenshi couldn’t bear it any longer and interrupted.

However, Saitake just laughed slowly and stood up, spreading his arms wide in an exaggerated gesture. “Lady Seitenshi, you have no vision. We must be thinking of the world after we exterminate all the Gastrea. Japan should reign as one of the world superpowers. I’m sure you have noticed as well. Ten years ago, right before the major powers of the world stopped functioning, many things were taken away and destroyed by the Gastrea. And now, ten years later, whichever country recovers from this unprecedented disaster first will have the right to be the leader of future generations. And Japan should aim for that. This is my grand strategic design! If I must, I will eliminate every obstacle, every incompetent, and everyone who will not do as I say!”

Rentaro was at a loss for words. This could be taken as an implicit declaration of war against the heads of state of all the areas besides his own. There were many other heads of state who secretly plotted to get the drop on the other areas, but this man was probably the only one who would say it out loud.

Rentaro was stunned. He didn’t know where he should start in pointing out this man’s mistakes. The world’s mathematicians and
statisticians had calculated a devastating number for the likelihood that mankind would be able to exterminate all the Gastrea, and yet Saitake wanted to kill more people this late in the game.

If Sumire Muroto were here, she would have said with a triumphant look on her face, “Humans are foolish creatures who, when they get tired of peace, turn to war, and when they tire of war, they want peace.”

Saitake suddenly stamped his feet in anger. “And
you
—you turned the railgun into scrap iron by making it take too heavy a load. You deserve to die a thousand deaths.”

“Well, sorry. You should be glad I tested it for you. Besides, the wreckage is still there in the Unexplored Territory, so you should go and retrieve it if you want it so bad.”

“Hmph. But, well, given my flair for leadership, I wouldn’t mind allowing you the opportunity to make up for it—”

“Huh?”

Saitake sat down on the couch and leaned forward. “I heard you defeated a pair that formerly had an IP Rank of 134. Rentaro, a vulnerable city like Tokyo Area will be destroyed eventually. If you do not want to be a citizen of a ruined country in five years, come with me. Let’s take over nations together, you and I. To watch the creation of a new world together with a wineglass in one hand—I’m sure it will be a sight to see.”

The Seitenshi paled and started to stand, but Rentaro stopped her with just an arm. “What the hell? Go back to your own area!”

Saitake’s eyes blazed with spite, and he waved his arms as he frothed at the mouth. “I won’t give up. I will gather all those with power and make them part of my plan! My will is Japan’s will! Japan’s will is my will!”

The Seitenshi quietly put her hands in the lap of her dress and sat up straight. “President Saitake, may we move on to the matter at hand?”

Saitake looked dumbfounded as he clucked his tongue and waved his hand saying, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Two hours later, the first unofficial conference was over. The only thing to come of this conference was that the Seitenshi and Saitake both realized that they were incompatible, mortal enemies.

By the time they got in the limousine to go home, a thick curtain of darkness had fallen. Though Enju had spent a long time waiting in the car, she was now fast asleep on Rentaro’s lap, drooling and hanging off him.
Jeez, you’re a great guard
, he thought. Once the car reached the Seitenshi’s palace, the first day of their job would be successfully concluded. He knew he should be glad nothing major happened, but…

When he lifted his face, he saw the Seitenshi sitting prettily across from him with her hands folded neatly in her lap, looking out the window at the darkness outside with a slightly melancholy expression on her face.

“Don’t be so depressed,” Rentaro said.

The Seitenshi responded to Rentaro’s voice and slowly shifted her gaze. “I’m not depres—” Stopping midsentence, she quietly shook her head. “You’re right, I am a little… Generally speaking, I always believed that if I spoke sincerely, the person I was talking to would understand where I was coming from, no matter who it was, and I believe that even more now.”