Black Bullet:Volumen1 Prólogo
Prologue – The Defeat
At the corner of a cracked road, a boy was sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees, looking at the people who were passing by.
A narrow road that had become muddy because of rain was surprisingly full of people – some were walking by, others were sitting on the ground and shouting as if drunk.
Even while straining his eyes he couldn't see rationed goods being passed around, instead he saw aged people who survived their hunger by nibbling at the dug up tree roots. They had protruded eyes and unusually swollen throats. Judging from his own experience, the boy understood that the majority of those people who were eating nothing but tree bark, would die from a disease in the near future, but he couldn't face up to such a reality.
A man was walking around selling biscuits broken into small pieces at an exorbitant price; his pockets were bulging with ten thousand yen bills that were nothing but pieces of paper. However, it seemed this emaciated man was the one who wanted food the most.
Right behind him, near an improvised checkpoint, was a large crowd of people holding placards and screaming. It can't be seen from here, but there was no doubt that these placards had "Let us live!" written on them.
All of these people had left their household belongings and their homes and evacuated here, to Tokyo. But even Tokyo didn't have enough capacity to accommodate the refugees coming here from all over the country.
There was more than enough free space, but the tents were set up so close to each other as if they were huddling together. It was obvious that the most effective place to take cover from the wind and rain were the buildings, but one would be really brave to live in half-destroyed buildings and department stores that could collapse at any time.
The scene resembled the end of the world, and one might have thought such a thing would happen only in the movies, but that was exactly what this boy contemplated at the moment.
What all these people had in common were their deathly pale faces marked with despair and apprehension of an uncertain future.
A large number of people, who had refused to lead such miserable lives, had died in dignity long ago by taking their own lives.
No one would probably believe him if he told them that this place was once the suburbs of the capital.
All of a sudden, terrible languor assailed his body and his consciousness dimmed.
This boy was also uncertain of what to do from now on as he didn't have a place to return to.
Great numbers of people died every day and the war situation unilaterally became worse.
The corpses were piled up and burnt; although recently everyone became stingy over fuel, so the bodies were buried in mass graves.
There was not a single day without the smell of burning flesh and the odor of decomposing bodies.
This boy was certainly a lucky one. He appreciated the help in organizing the funeral, and though he was trying to concentrate on this only thought, the grief continued to weigh down on his heart for some time.
He closed his eyes and the first thing that came back to him was an ordinary but monotonous low voice.
The boy was sitting in the front row in a room resounding with sutra chanting voices, the singing of cicadas and the distant sound of wind bells.
In front of a monk, who was chanting the name of Buddha, two coffins were placed. Just past them were a great number of floral tributes and a little further there were the photographs of the deceased depicting their smiling faces.
The boy felt pain in his stomach as if it was twisted. He tightly clenched his fists and trembled all over. Though he was trying to endure the pain, the tears started dripping from the tip of his nose and soon his trousers were wet.
Just a week ago, the area this boy lived in was invaded by "Gastrea" and had become the site of a fierce battle.
While the flames of missile jet engines and mortars colored the sky bright red, the father thrust his stubbornly resisting son onto the night train, leaving him in the care of his friends in Tokyo. Right before the doors of the train closed, he said with a serious face, "Your mother and I will join you soon". They were turned into small charcoals.
A mass funeral.
Though he understood the meaning of those two mere words, he had been receiving an explanation of it for hours.
At first, unable to believe it, he had grabbed the charcoal that he had received. Since it was just a lump of charcoal, it crumbled in his hand with unbelievable ease, turning into small pieces and falling out of his hand.
The boy opened and closed his pitch black hand, trying to join together the explanation he was given and the reality, but without luck.
He just couldn't believe that several days ago these cinders were his mother and father. The cinders couldn't laugh or sleep by his side or make delicious meals.
When he came to his senses, he grabbed the monk reading sutra, kicked the lid off the coffin and went berserk. He displayed an empty coffin to the people attending the funeral and screamed several times: "My parents are not dead!" He slammed through black-and-white striped curtains and ran outside. On the second day after he left the huge mansion of the man taking care of him, he drifted to a makeshift tent of the refugees.
However, he didn't have a ration ticket and no one showed any mercy and gave him nothing to eat. There was no other choice but to chew tree roots and sip grass sap; that's why before long he got explosive diarrhea and food poisoning, becoming dehydrated.
Not long ago, he had started experiencing giddiness from standing up too fast and contraction of his visual field.
He wasn't able to stand up, so he just sat helplessly on the street with his back against the wall.
When he looked in front of him with his bleary eyes, the only thing he could see were a great number of legs. The legs of many thousands of loitering refugees were passing in front of his eyes.
Thin legs, walking legs, legs of children, men and women.
His mouth was absolutely empty and dried up. He stretched his hands and with all his might cried for help in a feeble voice, but no one stopped.
A tear flowed down his cheek.
He didn't want to go back to that house—— to the house of Tendo.
To his new parents and his many brothers and a sister whom he'd met just a week ago. He didn't have the self-confidence that he would be able to live side by side with them.
But it's all right. Strange, when he thought like that, the fear of death grew weaker.
Even the children understood that this was the end of this country.
Eighty percent of its territory was invaded by Gastrea – the land, the water, the air. The Self Defense Force had also suffered catastrophic losses. An incredible number of people were killed.
If he'd died right here, right now he wouldn't suffer much pain.
But—— the boy was scratching the ground with all his strength.
Even if there was the slightest chance he could survive here, he would devote the rest of his life to finding his parents. Those cinders couldn't be his parents. If he manages to stay alive, he would definitely search for them in every corner of the world.
Suddenly a prolonged rumbling roar echoed throughout the neighborhood. The people wandering through the streets stopped and tilted their heads. One man who quickly assessed the situation climbed up the church belfry and with a fierce look rang the bell.
The boy slowly lifted his gaze towards the sky and saw a large shadow flying over the mountain ridge. When everyone realized that it was a giant flying creature, the camp descended into madness.
Screaming, pushing and shoving each other, trampling down old women and children – everyone started running randomly, trying to be at least one more step away from this creature.
Stuck in a clouded state, the boy continued to stare at the sky with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was hungry and dehydrated, thus unable to take even one step.
Several seconds later, something else flew over of the mountains, this time some kind of machine.
It was a support fighter of the Self Defense Force.
The pursuit fighter, causing intense jet sounds, and the giant creature trying to break away from it, as if in a dance, performed acrobatic maneuvers in the air. Ten years ago, such a scene could only be seen on TV.
The fighter finally seized an opportunity and launched an air-to-air missile. A sparrow missile, its jet engine flaring, rammed into the side of the creature who was trying to evade, and caused a flame flower to bloom in the sky.
With one of its wings torn off, the giant creature let out a long scream in the air. Upon seeing this, the crowd stopped and raised a cheer.
But the next moment the cheers changed into screams.
"It's coming here!——"
The falling creature changed its trajectory, and the boy's field of vision started expanding.
The shout and roar became twice as loud as before, and one could hear nothing but the scream.
When the creature touched the surface of the ground, it shook with a violent tremor, and people in the crowd fell down one after another with screams. Like a plane trying to land on a runway, this mysterious creature adjusted its trajectory, but it couldn't easily counterbalance the impact produced by its weight. With a deafening sound, it made a hard landing and started moving towards here, mowing down the buildings and makeshift tents in its way.
"I'll be smashed", thought the boy and tightly shut his eyes.
There was a choke-inducing earthly smell, and someone was heavily breathing, but it wasn't the boy.
Alive...
He slightly opened his eyes and right before him—— was the head of this flying creature, close enough to touch it.
"Gast...rea."
The boy murmured unknowingly.
About forty meters in length, it looked like a bird since it had reddish wings like those of a big ancient dragon. But it also had these deep red eyes, protruded out in half circles, sparkling like a crystal. They seemed similar to the compound eyes of a dragonfly.
It was a result of a double-factor cross between a bird and an insect.
A great amount of black blood was running down its sharp beak and a red light was visible inside its painful-looking swollen chest.
Thanks to him... no, because of him.
As if reacting to the boy's hatred, the Gastrea mustered all its strength and raised the upper part of its body. A long thread of blood dripped down to the ground. The monster opened its beak wide and gave a piercing scream right before the boy's eyes.
The blood mixed with drool sprayed all over his face. The wind from beast's stinky breath played with boy's hair. The monster's body shook and a scream started coming out from its throat.
"I'm done", thought the boy and curled up.
At that very moment, he was pulled by his hand with a tremendous force, barely escaping the Gastrea's sharp beak.
"M-mister."
Though this man had reached an age of sixty, he had a sturdy physique and a towering stature.
He was the one who was taking care of this boy – the head of the Tendo family, Kikunojyo Tendo.
He came here looking for me? To such a place?
While the boy, a bit confused, was thinking whether it'd be a good idea to thank the man, the riot police finally arrived and surrounded the barely breathing Gastrea, aiming guns at it.
Without looking in the boy's direction, the person who saved his life announced:
"If you don't want to die, then live, Rentaro."
At a sign from the commanding officer, empty cartridges began to dance in midair and dry gun shots echoed in the sky.
In eleven months, the people of Japan conceded defeat. After that the "Monoliths", that provided autonomous defense, were built all over the country.
For the sake of Japan's survival, as a "temporary measure" the major world powers isolated the country, enclosing it with Monoliths.
More than half of Japan's territory was invaded, and a great number of people were dead and a dozen times more had gone missing.
And so, in 2021 Mankind was defeated by the Gastrea.
Ten years passed...
| Back to Illustrations | Return to Main Page | Forward to Chapter 1 |
