Free Vengeance Is Mine by Shiden Kanzaki Page A

people in my adjuvant. It’s probably an archerfish Gastrea.” Normally, archerfish were tropical fish that used their pointy, funnel-shaped mouths to shoot compressed water and bring down insects near the surface of the water. They only measured about twenty centimeters or so in length, but they could shoot up to 1.5 meters. “According to one of our Initiators, the enemy is a giant Gastrea about ten meters across in all directions, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much pressure that compressed mercury is being shot out at.”
    “I see…,” said Gado. “Well, anyway, we were calling the Gastrea that appeared suddenly yesterday
Gastrea X
, but after consulting with the Japanese National Security Council this morning, it was acknowledged to be as much of a threat as Aldebaran and was given the code name
Pleiades,
after the group of stars in the middle of the Taurus constellation.”
    “Pleiades…”
    Gado fished around in his breast pocket and pulled out two objects engraved with intricate designs. Rentaro could tell immediately that they were chess pieces, a king and a queen. “It’s true that, like you said, if we defeat Aldebaran, we’ll probably win this game. However, even if we try to defeat the king, the queen will definitely stand in our way. So in this game, we must defeat the queen in order to be victorious.”
    In chess, everyone knew without saying that the king was the most important piece in predicting the outcome of a game. And that the queen, who could move in all directions and had an unlimited range, was the supreme ruler of the battlefield. It was a perfectly fitting phrase.
    “But this isn’t chess, it’s
shogi
, right?”
    “Hmm?”
    “The opponent’s camp can use all the pieces that were defeated by the Gastrea virus. We’re the ones that are being made to play by the rules of chess.”
    Gado seemed to be holding back laughter as he shrugged his shoulders queerly. “That might well be the case.”
    “How many people were killed?”
    “It would be impossible to explain that in one sentence.” Gado took a sip of tea from the cup Asaka proffered, crossed his arms, and looked down. “When the battle started, the enemy numbered about two thousand. However, the seven thousand decisive self-defense soldiers were defeated, and though the Gastrea forces lost five hundred, in exchange, it looks like two thousand of the defeated self-defense force troops were infected with the Gastrea virus and turned into Gastrea, adding to Aldebaran’s numbers. Then, the expanded Gastrea troop of three thousand five hundred bodies came up against our five hundred pairs of civil officers, or a thousand people. The enemy lost nine hundred, but half of our pairs were killed as well—and sadly, it looks like a hundred of them were added to the enemy’s numbers.”
    “In other words, the current match up of fighting bodies is…”
    “Two thousand seven hundred Gastrea to our five hundred.”
    Rentaro was sure that wasn’t all. They had suffered more serious damage than the numbers made it appear. There were, of course, the injured, but also those ten-year-old girls who were dispirited from thetrauma of being suddenly thrown onto such a cruel battlefield. There were also many pairs whose combat power was less than half because one of the partners had been killed. Even if those who lost their partners formed impromptu unofficial pairs, they could not be expected to be in sync. It would be better to say that their actual numbers were about a third of what they had left, or a hundred and sixty-six people.
    “Those numbers are hopeless,” said Rentaro.
    “I have nothing to say in response to that…,” replied Gado. “On top of that, today we must give an even more painful ruling.”
    “What?” Slowly, the pressure from the gazes around Rentaro became even stronger, and he felt intense pressure from them.
    The corner of Gado’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Leader Satomi, do you know why you were