chapter3 · 056-ep56

Episode 56: About Black Gate

"About Black Gate."

Kanzaki said it while pinned to the ground.

"I'll spill it all."

Black Gate.

A name I'd never heard.

But the moment it came out, I felt like Kujō-san's eyes changed.

Kashiwazaki-san too lost the light air from earlier and quietly watched Kanzaki.

"Everything I know. Everything about the organization."

His right arm was destroyed, and Kujō-san had his left pinned down.

There was no way he could run anymore.

Yet Kanzaki was laughing.

He didn't intend to go down alone.

If he was going down, he'd take the organization with him.

That intention came across somehow.

"Black Gate is a group of Awakeners who weren't selected for the Awakener Development Program."

Kanzaki's voice echoed through the former materials yard.

"Guys who awakened but weren't picked by the country. Guys who wanna go into Gates but can't. They can't get training. They don't get equipment. Information comes to them last."

Kanzaki twisted his mouth.

"But they're still Awakeners. They have power. Yet nowhere to use it. No way to get stronger. Just because they fell outside the country's rules, they get left outside forever."

The people who hadn't been selected?

Was that really a thing?

I'd just assumed every person who awakened had the right to take part in the Program.

Or rather, I hadn't thought that far.

Since I was on the side that took part in the Awakener Development Program, I'd honestly never even imagined there were people excluded from it, much less what happened to them.

"Maybe they got a record, maybe their behavior used to be a little bad—there's lots of reasons. But throwing 'em out just for that seriously pisses me off."

The Awakener Development Program.

I was on the side that got in.

I took part in combat drills.

I accompanied an expedition.

I got to know Nanami-san, Takamiya-san, and the others.

But there were Awakeners who couldn't participate in it.

Awakeners who had been rejected.

Kanzaki was saying he couldn't stand that.

Listening only to that part, it wasn't incomprehensible.

The chosen side and the unchosen side.

If even their chance to grow stronger changed just from that, it was natural for resentment to arise.

But that didn't make what happened here forgivable.

They gathered the participants, took them into an unregistered Gate, and as a result put their lives in danger.

Having anger didn't make it okay. Absolutely not.

"Then what is Black Gate's goal?"

Kujō-san asked briefly.

"Destroy the system we have now."

Kanzaki answered at once.

"Stop the system where only selected Awakeners get developed. Stop the country hoarding Gates and letting only the people they like build experience. Crush the Awakener Development Program."

"Was that why you caused this incident?"

"Yeah."

Kanzaki looked up at Kujō-san.

"Awakeners in the Program get led into an unregistered Gate by Takatsuki. Footage remains of them walking deep in on their own and even doing work there. Throw in an accident too, and that's enough."

The image of the participants I'd seen inside, Segawa and the others, came to mind.

Apparently they had planned to pass it off as an accident and use it as it was.

"Right, Representative Mibu's little attendant?"

Takatsuki didn't look at Kanzaki.

"Don't know whether this guy agreed with Black Gate's ideas or figured he could use us. But he got connected to a big-shot politician who wants to stop the Awakener Development Program and brought the offer to Black Gate."

Kujō-san and Kashiwazaki-san looked at Takatsuki.

"He put out a job listing and took participants to an unregistered Gate we'd been using. Then he uses the footage to stir up outrage over the Awakener Development Program."

Kanzaki laughed.

"That was the deal, wasn't it?"

Takatsuki didn't answer.

"Hah. Staying quiet?"

Kanzaki's laughter echoed strangely.

"You think I'm the only one going down? Takatsuki. You too. Black Gate too. The people at the top, all of them are coming down with me. We're all finished now."

Then Takatsuki let out a small breath.

"...It's pointless."

"Huh?"

"It's pointless, Kanzaki-san."

Kanzaki's laughter stopped.

"What's pointless?"

"No matter what you say here, no matter what you tell the police, you will never reach Black Gate."

"What do you mean?"

"The base Black Gate used for this operation has already been vacated. The devices used for contact have likely been disposed of. The contacts we used until now will no longer connect."

"Hey."

Kanzaki's voice lowered.

"What the hell are you saying?"

"The instructions were to cut ties with the people on site as soon as this operation failed. No contact again, ever."

"...What?"

Kanzaki stared at Takatsuki for a while.

"Screw you."

Kanzaki tried to raise himself, but Kujō-san immediately pressed him back down.

"Then what are we?"

Takatsuki didn't answer.

"You're saying we were disposable pawns from the start?"

Kanzaki's voice grew louder.

"When did you find out?"

"...I was contacted just before."

"When?"

"Before the police arrived. That this site would be cut loose."

"You knew and kept your mouth shut?"

Takatsuki gave no answer.

"You bastard...!"

Kanzaki tried to grab at Takatsuki.

Kujō-san held down his left arm, and his right arm couldn't move properly.

Even so, he twisted his body, trying somehow to get closer to Takatsuki.

"Don't move."

Kujō-san's voice fell.

Kanzaki breathed hard and glared at Takatsuki.

"Piece of shit..."

Eventually, Kanzaki pressed his forehead to the ground and fell silent.

That didn't make me feel sorry for him.

Segawa and the first participant who got hit were badly injured.

It didn't erase what these guys had done.

But watching the man who had laughed about taking everyone down with him go silent didn't quite feel good either.

"Takatsuki Ryōsuke."

Kujō-san called his name.

Takatsuki raised his face.

"We will hear the details of what you just said later."

"...Understood."

It was just as Takatsuki nodded.

The sound of cars stopping came from outside the former materials yard.

The police looked toward the entrance.

A little later, Representative Mibu appeared at the warehouse entrance.

Mibu was right behind him.

"Representative Mibu."

A police officer near the entrance bowed his head.

Representative Mibu returned the greeting briefly.

Then as he walked in, the officers between them moved aside to open a path.

Kujō-san had told me the video I sent Mibu had reached Representative Mibu too.

But I hadn't expected him to come here in person.

And with Mibu too.

I almost called out to them, but the two walked straight to Takatsuki.

Representative Mibu looked at Takatsuki.

"Takatsuki."

He said the name once, then continued.

"Explain what this is about."