Some of the civil officers attending the meeting had initially felt a flicker of interest at the turn of events.
The government might issue another commission, offering a generous reward to whoever took that man down.
But then they saw him weave through the dense hail of bullets like a phantom, striking every target in rapid succession. The destruction he left behind instantly cooled their enthusiasm.
No amount of money mattered if they weren't alive to spend it.
His strength was simply terrifying.
His latest attacks were particularly horrifying. He still seemed to be firing the same handgun, but the new rounds were something else entirely.
Armored vehicles capable of withstanding antitank rifle fire melted before their eyes, turning to molten metal as though they offered less resistance to the heat than Styrofoam.
The people inside vanished into vapor the moment the brilliant flare engulfed them.
How could their own bodies possibly withstand that?
Huh?
Their pupils contracted as fighter jets appeared overhead.
A moment later, rockets and missiles streaked free, slicing through the air toward him.
None reached their target.
He shot them down before they could hit.
The man was a walking air-defense battery!
No, he was a war machine wearing human skin!
If those fighters hadn't been flying so high and so fast, he probably would have shot them down too.
What could possibly stop him?
An even larger concentration of firepower?
Were they going to start a war?
But after suffering losses like these, how could they simply stop attacking? How would the authorities explain themselves?
They had backed themselves into a corner.
"Rentaro! Are you okay?"
Aihara Enju immediately leaned over the boy who had just regained consciousness.
Rentaro hadn't been able to accept what Kisara was doing.
She hadn't personally attacked anyone, but she had brought the man here, and her attitude made it clear where she stood. She might as well have been doing it herself.
Unable to watch her become someone like that, he had tried to stop her.
Instead, she had struck him unconscious with the back of her blade.
"I'm fine."
Despite his reassurance, Satomi Rentaro was still in considerable pain.
It was the first time he had truly witnessed Kisara's strength.
She was terrifyingly powerful.
Just then, an official approached and handed him a phone.
He raised it to his ear and heard the Seitenshi's voice. She had a request: she wanted him to give the phone to Kisara so they could speak.
He immediately got up and took the elevator downstairs.
The devastation in the ground-floor lobby made him draw a sharp breath.
How desperate had they become to unleash this much firepower indoors?
Then he stepped outside.
The destruction there left him speechless.
Now he understood why the Seitenshi had sounded so subdued.
"Enju?"
Rentaro noticed that she had brought someone with her.
It was the Initiator whose Promoter had been killed when Kagetane reflected his bullet.
Had Enju felt sorry for the girl now that she was alone and decided to bring her along?
He started to say something, then decided it could wait until they found Kisara.
She wasn't difficult to find. The two of them were walking away openly.
Government forces were still watching them along the way.
Rentaro hurried after them.
When he had closed to within about ten meters, an unnatural crack tore past his ear. His eardrum felt as though it might rupture, and a sharp pain sliced across his cheek, like the edge of a knife.
At the same instant, Kain, walking beside Kisara, abruptly lurched backward several meters.
It looked as though a sniper round had struck him.
Rentaro's face went pale with anger.
They had used him.
A government sniper had used his approach to conceal the shot, keeping Kain from noticing the attack until the last moment.
The troops surrounding the area immediately seized the opportunity.
Bullets poured in from every direction.
RPG rounds joined the barrage.
In an instant, both Kain and Kisara were swallowed by fire and black smoke.
The gunfire didn't stop.
A relentless storm of metal continued to rake the area, tearing through the flames and smoke.
"Lady Seitenshi! Is this what you sent me here for?"
Caught by the shock wave, Rentaro gritted his teeth and shouted into the phone.
"N-no! I..."
Her voice abruptly stopped.
Rentaro's attention shifted as screams erupted around them.
Two figures were moving through the soldiers.
Blood flew wherever they passed. Bodies collapsed in separate pieces, like stacks of blocks whose supports had been knocked away.
He could see them clearly now.
Kisara and Kain.
They had both escaped the barrage unscathed.
Now they were cutting down their attackers at a horrifying speed. It almost looked like a competition to see who could kill more.
The battle finally ended with several low, thunderous gunshots.
Kain had drawn his handgun again to destroy something in the distance.
Kisara sheathed her sword, its blade almost entirely free of blood, and walked toward Rentaro with the same smile she wore every day.
He could only stare bitterly.
Every person she had killed had been cut apart.
Yet she acted as though nothing unusual had happened.
To him, that could only mean she was heading further down an increasingly extreme path.
"What is it, Satomi? Ready for another beating? You're putting me in a difficult position here. You're still my employee, you know. If I cripple you, who's going to do the work? Besides, I might end up paying your medical bills. That would be a terrible deal."
Rentaro gave her a strained smile and held out the phone.
The Seitenshi was speaking again, asking to talk to Kisara.
"Hmm? Is there something you need, Your Excellency?"
"President Tendo, could I ask you to stop killing? If you have demands, we can discuss them."
Kisara laughed.
"Maybe that masked man wasn't being too harsh when he called you an incompetent head of state. Otherwise, why would you ask us to stop killing instead of asking the military to stop trying to kill us?"
"But clearly..."
"We attacked first? Is that what you were going to say?"
Kisara cut her off.
"We've been defending ourselves this entire time. Some of those soldiers are still alive, aren't they? The ones who didn't attack us."
Indeed, a number of police officers and soldiers had survived.
For the most part, they were the ones who had been too frightened to act.
Neither Kisara nor Kain had touched them.
Their position was simple: self-defense.
The Seitenshi fell silent.
"Or are you saying you're allowed to attack us, but we're not allowed to fight back? Is that how it works, Your Excellency?"
The sarcasm only deepened the silence on the other end.
"Well? Would you say this Seitenshi is even more naive and idealistic than the one in the story?"
Kisara turned to Kain as he joined her, curious to hear his assessment.
Which version was more hopelessly innocent, the Seitenshi from the work of fiction he had read, or the woman who actually existed?
"She'd make a suitable leader for a utopia."
That was Kain's answer, and his assessment of the Seitenshi.
It wasn't entirely mockery.
If a utopian world truly existed, she might well be the ideal person to lead it.
Unfortunately, the real world was no utopia.
Trying to govern an imperfect world through excessively idealistic beliefs might only bring about greater tragedy.
The Seitenshi simply didn't understand the reality she lived in.
(End of Chapter)
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