Purgatory Strider by Shiden Kanzaki

Author:Shiden Kanzaki [Kanzaki, Shiden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Yen On
Published: 2017-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

3

“Oh. Swordtail was defeated as well…?”

“Yes. It was absolutely deplorable.”

In a break room inside the Central Control Development Organization—the so-called “black building”—Hitsuma looked out the window toward the city, back turned to his conversational partner.

Yuga Mitsugi, watching his still-turned back, found himself confused. “I thought you’d be angrier than that,” he said.

“I am,” came the reply. “But before I gnash my teeth about it like a spoiled child, I wanted to think about how we’re going to get Rentaro Satomi’s head.”

Yuga was impressed, although he decided not to mention this. Hitsuma was not the most satisfying boss he had ever worked with, but even he had matured a bit throughout this ordeal.

“I suppose one reason is that we looked down on Hotaru Kouro’s powers. I couldn’t pinpoint what kind of Gastrea factor she had, but the way Swordtail described it, she literally came back from the dead. That, or her ability allows her to fake death, somehow, to throw her enemy off guard.”

“How do we deal with that?”

It’s about time you saw things my way, thought Yuga as he removed a rifle round from his pocket and rolled it across the table with a finger. The tip was black, the rest of the body a shiny brass. To Hitsuma, it looked like just another Varanium-tipped bullet. He turned around and scowled.

“That’s your big strategy? Hummingbird had a Varanium knife; Swordtail had Varanium-tipped ammo. Look what that got them—”

“Hang on a moment, Mr. Hitsuma,” Yuga said, raising a hand to interrupt. “The tip of this bullet contains enriched Varanium—metal that was melted down and concentrated. Upon impact, the Varanium inside bursts and spreads across the target’s body. It’s enough to kill any Gastrea up to Stage Three, as well as Initiators. It was a pain in the ass procuring these, lemme tell you.”

“Stage Three?”

“You’re familiar with that system, right? Targets you can kill with a normal Varanium weapon are classified as Stage One, and that covers most Gastrea and Initiators. If the target doesn’t fall into that field, then we go up to Stage Two and beyond. With Stage Two, the Varanium keeps them from regenerating their bodies. You can still kill them if you decapitate or dismember them, or if you set them on fire. Stage Three, though, those guys can grow back arms and stuff. It’s like being wounded causes their bodies’ cells to call out to one another.”

“Call out…?” Hitsuma said, eyebrows pressed farther down. Yuga grinned internally. It was exactly the response he’d expected.

“And Stage Four’s even crazier. It can regenerate itself even if most of its organs are toasted. To kill them, you have to blow them to dust. That’s the only way. That’s the stage Aldebaran was at. Then, with Stage Five, you can put them in deep freeze, in a vacuum, toss ’em into molten lava running at two thousand degrees…but as long as the environment’s right, they’ll regenerate. Like, from the molecular level on up. Right now, in the year 2031, there’s no physical way to kill them.

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