(L) Black Bullet(ブラック・ブレット) [Light Novel]

[Log]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

For what it's worth, I don't think that it would have been any less possible for you to simplify the dialogue any other way, considering the vocabulary level in this LN. If anything, these are as good as they come for brief summaries.

If anyone complains, just point out to them the level of word usage this series has, haha.

Once again, you have my utmost respect for kindling interest for this series.

What I meant is I could've shortened the summaries to provide the bare essence of the plot and focused more on character development moments.

For example the comical exchange between Sumire and Rentaro is sorta pointless to the grand scheme of the plot not to mention not really conveyed well summary form. I could've just said "Sumire joked around with Rentaro" instead of writing all that out. That way people don't have to waste time reading about things that aren't that important to the plot.

But then again, if people actually enjoy me summarizing comical skits, they're free to say it. If they feel that I'm pointing to much effort on a comical act whose humor I'm failing to convey they're also free to criticize.

This doesn't just apply to comical parts, people are free to tell me if they feel that I'm including to much detail in a uninteresting part or a part that doesn't contribute to the plot.

On a side note I can't really sympathize on the vocab level of the LN. I read the Chinese translation which did a excellent job of breaking everything down for me to the point where someone like me that lived in America for most of his life can understand very well what the book is trying to say.

Not to say that it isn't hard (I still had like 5% I didn't completely understand) but judging from your previous posts the original version must be a lot harder.

And yeah, once again thanks for the support.

Originally Posted by XFire

Thanks for the summary.

Kids are total assholes in most Japanese media, aren't they.

Spoiler for some spoilers:

I wouldn't really blame it on the kids so much as blame it on mob mentality and the adults that raised them.

Because as Rentaro and Sumire notes, the adults of the current generation experienced the full horrors of the gastrea. The immediate loss of their daily life must the harsh experience they experienced afterwards must have been really traumatizing and that kind of stressful thing often leads to anger and hatred.

And when they can't release that hatred on their tormentors they take it on the closest relative in which case is the cursed children.

Naturally that hatred past on to the next generation. Even Rentaro and Kisara was effected. Rentaro notes that before meeting Enju he was a lot more jaded about the cursed children. He even claims that if the him before have seen a cursed children acting out of line he would've taken a gun and took care of the problem himself (granted Rentaro's a extreme example, he did lose everything to the gastrea after all).

Anyways besides irrational hatred it's also sort of justified. The cursed children do have the potential to turn into Gastrea at any time and they are freakishly strong. Especially the abnormally strong one's like Enju can effortlessly intercept bullets from sniper rifles. Hell, the training simulation that Rentaro completed with only his eye released was noted to be unable to be done by 10 trained marines (or something like that). Enju is almost 4 times the strength of Rentaro with only his eye released (2300 vs 8600).

And there's still 100+ kids that are stronger, far stronger than Enju.

That kind of power in a kid's hand is as you might imagine uncomfortable to some people.

Plus the cursed children themselves don't make a positive image to society. Most of them are likely thieves to some extent and I won't be to surprised if a cursed children injured or even killed someone in self protection (in fact the killed part does become a large plot point in volume 3).

Not really their fault but when you compound all these factors up, it isn't really that surprising to see why the cursed children are seen in such a negative light.

[Hemisphere]

True enough, though most people end up taking summaries at face value; thank you for giving them those options.

Personally, I never really got the impression that moments like those are easily removable. Granted, they don't add much to the plot, but they do help give an insight into their characters' nature (and why they would say/do such things). That's just my personal take on it, though.

[blackwhite67]

Originally Posted by Log

What I meant is I could've shortened the summaries to provide the bare essence of the plot and focused more on character development moments.

For example the comical exchange between Sumire and Rentaro is sorta pointless to the grand scheme of the plot not to mention not really conveyed well summary form. I could've just said "Sumire joked around with Rentaro" instead of writing all that out. That way people don't have to waste time reading about things that aren't that important to the plot.

But then again, if people actually enjoy me summarizing comical skits, they're free to say it. If they feel that I'm pointing to much effort on a comical act whose humor I'm failing to convey they're also free to criticize.

This doesn't just apply to comical parts, people are free to tell me if they feel that I'm including to much detail in a uninteresting part or a part that doesn't contribute to the plot.

On a side note I can't really sympathize on the vocab level of the LN. I read the Chinese translation which did a excellent job of breaking everything down for me to the point where someone like me that lived in America for most of his life can understand very well what the book is trying to say.

Not to say that it isn't hard (I still had like 5% I didn't completely understand) but judging from your previous posts the original version must be a lot harder.

And yeah, once again thanks for the support.

I always find that the best parts of this series to be the little things. So yes I would very much appreciate it if you did translate them. Thank you for your hard work!

[zerodragon]

Originally Posted by Log

Yep.

Every notable character is a badass to some degree though.



I wouldn't really call Rentaro "jacked".

Again the people he faces are all monsters.

His abilities as it is, is around 150ish-200 in IP ranking (he beat higher ranking people than 150 but that's due to a combination of planning, luck and a lot of determination).

There are quite a few stronger then him.

So he's around where he's suppose to be.

Basically not weak enough to be useless but not strong enough to make challenges look easy.

Anyways about Enju.....

Spoiler for spoilers:

She isn't really hiding anything like Rentaro.

She has the standard gastrea package. Super strength, super speed, super durability and super regen.

However she takes the standard package far higher then most initiators. Her speed in particular is notable. She's a rabbit type so it should be higher then usual but it's high even for a rabbit type.

For an explanation for what I mean by "rabbit" type, basically each of the cursed child inherited a different aspect of the gastrea gene. Based on their type they gain special traits that reflect on the animal of that type.

Rabbit has high speed, dolphin are smarter (the 200 IQ girl I mentioned is a dolphin type), praying mantis type are good with swords (Kohina is a mantis type) the owl type is nocturnal and can see in the dark and so on and so forth.

Even for a rabbit type she's implied to be extremely fast as while as stronger than usual. She managed to kick away a sniper bullet that was going to hit Rentaro for example.

She's bad against machine guns however since she isn't adapt to dodging bullets that spray.

Her shoe's sole is made up of varium boasting her kicking power

She's hinted to be able to gain a power up in the near future.

According to Sumire since she reached the limits of her power she can't grow any stronger.

This applies to every one of the "gastrea children". They all well eventually reach a wall that prevents them from getting stronger.

However if by some rare chance they do get past that wall they gain a huge boast to power.

That boast in power is called "Field" (not really accurate translation but the best I can do).

It's very vague since the specifics aren't explained and no one with the "Field" showed up yet.

But it's apparently enough to stomp Rentaro and Enju if they were to ever fight someone with it.

Only top initiators unlocked it thus far.

Obviously Enju is eventually going to unlock it unless foreshadowing is wrong (it isn't).


Compared to all the initiators introduced so far only Tina (the sniper loli in volume 2) is stronger than her. And Tina has both the abilities of a mechanized soldier as well as gastrea.

If we compare her to pure gastreas children only Kohina can compare thus far.

Although against initiators with IP higher then 100 can likely beat her (Tina is 98).

Compared to Rentaro she's quite a bit stronger. Rentaro with his eye released but with his limbs sealed was able to score a 2200 on a training simulation that gives an accurate measurement for strength (for the record his strength without releasing anything is 100). According to him he can score 3 times the amount with his limbs unsealed. That's 6600. Enju on the other hand scored around 8000 (8600 iirc).

Enju thinks that she’s confident that she can beat Rentaro. She thinks that Rentaro has unbelievably strong offensive but lacks proper speed and durability to keep up with her. Her strategy if she were to ever fight Rentaro is to dodge every attack until Rentaro doesn’t have any shells left. And then go in for the kill.

Rentaro, on the other hand feels that he can beat Enju because she’s to overconfident and naïve.

Who knows how it would go if they actually went at it.

Anyways, in the Tendo company the strength ranking (without taking into account strategy and individual personality) goes Tina (yes she joined)>=Enju>=Kisara(her swordsmanship is broken)>=Rentaro (released).

define broken with kisara.

[Log]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

True enough, though most people end up taking summaries at face value; thank you for giving them those options.

Personally, I never really got the impression that moments like those are easily removable. Granted, they don't add much to the plot, but they do help give an insight into their characters' nature (and why they would say/do such things). That's just my personal take on it, though.

Yeah, I agree with you.

Which is why I included the comical dialogue thus far.

It also makes the summaries flow better in my head.

Originally Posted by blackwhite67

I always find that the best parts of this series to be the little things. So yes I would very much appreciate it if you did translate them. Thank you for your hard work!

Well then, if that's the case I'll stick with what I'm doing now.

The rest of chapter 2 is here.

Spoiler for volume 1 chapter 2 part 5:

Rentaro and Enju are sitting in the medical helicopter which is taking them to the GPS coordinate that Kisara sent them.

Once they get near that location they see a mysterious flying object that’s shaped like a kite with 8 legs sticking out of it.

The driver questions what that is and Rentaro after looking at it figured out that it’s the gastrea that they’ve been looking for.

Rentaro deduced that the model of that Gastrea is based on a certain type of spider in South America. That type can wove a web in the shape of a parachute that can lets them fly several hundred kilometers by borrowing the force of the wind in combination with the unique shape of their web.

After looking at the Gastrea more he further deduced that the kite shaped thing wasn’t actually a kite. It’s a glider where the very front of the glider is shaped in an acute angle. The angle allows it to break the wind therefore generating lifting force (take my explanation with a grain of salt here). He further expresses amazement at such a rare type of spider. He claims that even if one searched the world they cannot find a spider remotely similar to this one.

Rentaro further explains that, that’s how it was able to completely escape detection. Because most if not all the cameras are all positioned from up top to look into the city instead of out of it, making it easy for any gastrea that can fly to avoid detection. All it has to do is climb up a building where there isn’t any security camera and then fly away using the wind. That way it can avoid walking around the streets where it can be found with ease.

Rentaro finishes by expressing how smart it is.

The helicopter driver is confused on what to do and Rentaro commends him to drop speed and lower attitude as to keep up with the Gastrea.

As, Rentaro was giving this commend, the helicopter suddenly shook causing Rentaro to hit his head.

As Rentaro expresses annoyance at his injury and is wondering what had happened; the helicopter driver explains that his initiator had forced open the backdoor.

Rentaro quickly figured out what Enju is trying to do and turned back to stop her but it was too late.

He saw Enju jump out the back door and land on the gastrea causing the two to tumble to the ground.

In panic Rentaro hurries the driver to lower attitude and follow Enju. He sees a rope used for reaching ground and he quickly decides to use it.

As he lowers himself with the rope he quickly realized that in his hurry he made a fatal mistake. He misjudged both the wind and height. Due to the wind he’s thrown of the rope and onto the ground. He adjusts his posture to avoid a collision with his head that would’ve certainly killed him. His body met the ground instead and his conscious nearly got knocked out.

Quickly recovering his conscious he looked up and observed that his drop height was around 20 meters. 15 meters is usually considered the point where it gets life threatening for humans so he considered it a miracle that he made it out intact.

While holding his sides in pain Rentaro quickly rushed through the forest to where he hears fighting.

Once he gets there he witnesses Enju performing a flying kick on the spider Gastrea sending it flying 10 meters before it landed on the ground dead.

Rentaro approaches Enju who greets him and cheers at the fact that they got there first.

Rentaro berates Enju for being so reckless and asks if she’s alright.

She reveals that she injured her leg due to jumping down from such a distance.

Rentaro then goes to the dead gastrea’s body and pulls out the box containing the treasure alongside with handcuffs which Rentaro deduces likely came from the person that was guarding the box before, who handcuffed the box to his hand as a protective measure. To bad it didn't do him any good

As he thinks that the other civil security members likely should’ve came here by now and they can finally get this job done and over with he hears an unpleasant voice.

“You worked hard I see, Rentaro-kun” and at the same time he heard that voice he turned around in time to witness a mask and then a hand which grabbed his face and with incredible force sent him flying into a nearby trunk.

It’s Kagetone of course.

Enju quickly tried to rush to help Rentaro but is forced to dodge an attack by Kohina. They start engaging in a fight.

Kagetone comments that his boss is dirty and has ordered him to quickly finish of Rentaro and co and get the box.

Rentaro feels a chill in his spine and backs away with the box.

Seeing this Kagetone says that if Rentaro is hoping for back up to arrive he should give up hope. He killed all the nearby civil security members before coming here.

Noticing Kagetone’s bloody tuxedo Rentaro understands that stalling would be pointless.

He throws the box aside takes out his handgun and fires.

Unfortunately his bullets are met with the resistance of [Imaginary Gimmick] which deflects his bullets.

Not giving up he rushes in headfirst and uses a Tendo martial art skill (called fire something, something, something, yeah for some reason the author has a fetish for weird named attacks whose names I can’t decipher).

His fist is met with the force of [Imaginary Gimmick] and it………… doesn’t break.
In response to that Kagetone shoots him in the shoulder causing him to stumble and clutch his shoulder in pain.

Then Kagetone uses a skill [Maximum Pain] which is basically extending the force field of [Imaginary Gimmick] and using it to knock back and crush the opponent.

Rentaro is knocked back into a boulder and crushed by this technique. He can feel his muscles and bones being crushed by the force of [Maximum Pain].

After the attack stops, Rentaro thinks back to how his first encounter with Kagetone had those two police officers crushed into a wall and understands how that happened.

Rentaro understands at this point that the chances of victory are basically nonexistent. Enju had an injured leg against an opponent that was equal to her when she’s at her best. He himself is absolutely outmatched by Kagetone.

He forces himself to calm down and calculate the most reasonable chance of survival.

And then he quickly tells Enju to run away on her own.

At first she refuses but after Rentaro shots at the ground near her feet, and signals with his eyes to get help, she tearfully runs away.

Kohina wants to chase after Enju but Kagetone refuses and says that they must hurry or else, the social security force will gather here once again.

Kohina glared at Rentaro and disappeared from Rentaro’s sight. The next moment he found two shiny varium swords sticking out of his backside.

He forces himself to shot behind at Kohina (which she dodges). This aggravates his wounds further.

He runs away but his pace is very slow and once he runs into a rushing river he understands that there is no way for him to get away.

He turns around while apologizing to Kisara and Enju in his head to see Kagetone and Kohina.

Kagetone is pointing his gun at him and asks if he has any last words.

Rentaro tells Kagetone to go to hell.

Kagetone responds, “Goodnight”.

Rentaro then gets hit in the chest, leg and abdomen, falls into the river and gets washed away.

As he struggles to open his eyes he hears voices saying “you’ll be saved” and “it’ll be ok”.

He then sees a bone skinny female doctor.

Rentaro then turns his head to the side and almost screams. His eye is gouged out, his right hand and right foot are both fragmented.

But most surprisingly of all his firm is a lot more smaller and from that he understands that it was the him before.

The female doctor coldly looks at Rentaro and then places papers in front of him.

She then says, “Oh you’re Rentaro correct? I believe this is the first time we meet, and then we’re going to part immediately. In my left hand is your death certificate. 5 minutes latter I’ll sign and formalize this and then you’ll be eliminated from this world. In my right hand is a contract. A contract that can save your life, but in exchange you’ll have to give up everything else. What do you say? All you have to do is point with your left hand.” (This is too cumbersome to summarize so I just translated it)

Suddenly Kikunojyo Tendo’s voice resounded in Rentaro’s head, “If you don’t want to die live”.

The choice was clear. With great difficulty Rentaro pointed with his left hand.

The female doctor (Sumire) smiled in satisfaction and said “good boy”.

Then Rentaro fainted.

For those of you wondering why Rentaro doesn’t use his limbs + eye despite it being a desperate situation, I would assume that it’s because he didn’t get a chance.

Originally Posted by zerodragon

define broken with kisara.

Spoiler for kisara:

Due to her Tendo sword techniques she can effectively strike up to 10 meters with a swing. This technique made Tina (whose 98 on the rankings) shiver in fear.

She also has a technique that with one swing is able to cut a entire floor apart.

Upon seeing that technique Rentaro remarked that he can't think of a way to beat Kisara even when released.

Rentaro latter commented that Enju wasn't impossible for him to beat.

So yeah, her sword techniques are some pretty powerful stuff.

[XFire]

Originally Posted by Log

Yeah, I agree with you.

Which is why I included the comical dialogue thus far.

It also makes the summaries flow better in my head.



Well then, if that's the case I'll stick with what I'm doing now.

The rest of chapter 2 is here.

Spoiler for volume 1 chapter 2 part 5:

Rentaro and Enju are sitting in the medical helicopter which is taking them to the GPS coordinate that Kisara sent them.

Once they get near that location they see a mysterious flying object that’s shaped like a kite with 8 legs sticking out of it.

The driver questions what that is and Rentaro after looking at it figured out that it’s the gastrea that they’ve been looking for.

Rentaro deduced that the model of that Gastrea is based on a certain type of spider in South America. That type can wove a web in the shape of a parachute that can lets them fly several hundred kilometers by borrowing the force of the wind in combination with the unique shape of their web.

After looking at the Gastrea more he further deduced that the kite shaped thing wasn’t actually a kite. It’s a glider where the very front of the glider is shaped in an acute angle. The angle allows it to break the wind therefore generating lifting force (take my explanation with a grain of salt here). He further expresses amazement at such a rare type of spider. He claims that even if one searched the world they cannot find a spider remotely similar to this one.

Rentaro further explains that, that’s how it was able to completely escape detection. Because most if not all the cameras are all positioned from up top to look into the city instead of out of it, making it easy for any gastrea that can fly to avoid detection. All it has to do is climb up a building where there isn’t any security camera and then fly away using the wind. That way it can avoid walking around the streets where it can be found with ease.

Rentaro finishes by expressing how smart it is.

The helicopter driver is confused on what to do and Rentaro commends him to drop speed and lower attitude as to keep up with the Gastrea.

As, Rentaro was giving this commend, the helicopter suddenly shook causing Rentaro to hit his head.

As Rentaro expresses annoyance at his injury and is wondering what had happened; the helicopter driver explains that his initiator had forced open the backdoor.

Rentaro quickly figured out what Enju is trying to do and turned back to stop her but it was too late.

He saw Enju jump out the back door and land on the gastrea causing the two to tumble to the ground.

In panic Rentaro hurries the driver to lower attitude and follow Enju. He sees a rope used for reaching ground and he quickly decides to use it.

As he lowers himself with the rope he quickly realized that in his hurry he made a fatal mistake. He misjudged both the wind and height. Due to the wind he’s thrown of the rope and onto the ground. He adjusts his posture to avoid a collision with his head that would’ve certainly killed him. His body met the ground instead and his conscious nearly got knocked out.

Quickly recovering his conscious he looked up and observed that his drop height was around 20 meters. 15 meters is usually considered the point where it gets life threatening for humans so he considered it a miracle that he made it out intact.

While holding his sides in pain Rentaro quickly rushed through the forest to where he hears fighting.

Once he gets there he witnesses Enju performing a flying kick on the spider Gastrea sending it flying 10 meters before it landed on the ground dead.

Rentaro approaches Enju who greets him and cheers at the fact that they got there first.

Rentaro berates Enju for being so reckless and asks if she’s alright.

She reveals that she injured her leg due to jumping down from such a distance.

Rentaro then goes to the dead gastrea’s body and pulls out the box containing the treasure alongside with handcuffs which Rentaro deduces likely came from the person that was guarding the box before, who handcuffed the box to his hand as a protective measure. To bad it didn't do him any good

As he thinks that the other civil security members likely should’ve came here by now and they can finally get this job done and over with he hears an unpleasant voice.

“You worked hard I see, Rentaro-kun” and at the same time he heard that voice he turned around in time to witness a mask and then a hand which grabbed his face and with incredible force sent him flying into a nearby trunk.

It’s Kagetone of course.

Enju quickly tried to rush to help Rentaro but is forced to dodge an attack by Kohina. They start engaging in a fight.

Kagetone comments that his boss is dirty and has ordered him to quickly finish of Rentaro and co and get the box.

Rentaro feels a chill in his spine and backs away with the box.

Seeing this Kagetone says that if Rentaro is hoping for back up to arrive he should give up hope. He killed all the nearby civil security members before coming here.

Noticing Kagetone’s bloody tuxedo Rentaro understands that stalling would be pointless.

He throws the box aside takes out his handgun and fires.

Unfortunately his bullets are met with the resistance of [Imaginary Gimmick] which deflects his bullets.

Not giving up he rushes in headfirst and uses a Tendo martial art skill (called fire something, something, something, yeah for some reason the author has a fetish for weird named attacks whose names I can’t decipher).

His fist is met with the force of [Imaginary Gimmick] and it………… doesn’t break.
In response to that Kagetone shoots him in the shoulder causing him to stumble and clutch his shoulder in pain.

Then Kagetone uses a skill [Maximum Pain] which is basically extending the force field of [Imaginary Gimmick] and using it to knock back and crush the opponent.

Rentaro is knocked back into a boulder and crushed by this technique. He can feel his muscles and bones being crushed by the force of [Maximum Pain].

After the attack stops, Rentaro thinks back to how his first encounter with Kagetone had those two police officers crushed into a wall and understands how that happened.

Rentaro understands at this point that the chances of victory are basically nonexistent. Enju had an injured leg against an opponent that was equal to her when she’s at her best. He himself is absolutely outmatched by Kagetone.

He forces himself to calm down and calculate the most reasonable chance of survival.

And then he quickly tells Enju to run away on her own.

At first she refuses but after Rentaro shots at the ground near her feet, and signals with his eyes to get help, she tearfully runs away.

Kohina wants to chase after Enju but Kagetone refuses and says that they must hurry or else, the social security force will gather here once again.

Kohina glared at Rentaro and disappeared from Rentaro’s sight. The next moment he found two shiny varium swords sticking out of his backside.

He forces himself to shot behind at Kohina (which she dodges). This aggravates his wounds further.

He runs away but his pace is very slow and once he runs into a rushing river he understands that there is no way for him to get away.

He turns around while apologizing to Kisara and Enju in his head to see Kagetone and Kohina.

Kagetone is pointing his gun at him and asks if he has any last words.

Rentaro tells Kagetone to go to hell.

Kagetone responds, “Goodnight”.

Rentaro then gets hit in the chest, leg and abdomen, falls into the river and gets washed away.

As he struggles to open his eyes he hears voices saying “you’ll be saved” and “it’ll be ok”.

He then sees a bone skinny female doctor.

Rentaro then turns his head to the side and almost screams. His eye is gouged out, his right hand and right foot are both fragmented.

But most surprisingly of all his firm is a lot more smaller and from that he understands that it was the him before.

The female doctor coldly looks at Rentaro and then places papers in front of him.

She then says, “Oh you’re Rentaro correct? I believe this is the first time we meet, and then we’re going to part immediately. In my left hand is your death certificate. 5 minutes latter I’ll sign and formalize this and then you’ll be eliminated from this world. In my right hand is a contract. A contract that can save your life, but in exchange you’ll have to give up everything else. What do you say? All you have to do is point with your left hand.” (This is too cumbersome to summarize so I just translated it)

Suddenly Kikunojyo Tendo’s voice resounded in Rentaro’s head, “If you don’t want to die live”.

The choice was clear. With great difficulty Rentaro pointed with his left hand.

The female doctor (Sumire) smiled in satisfaction and said “good boy”.

Then Rentaro fainted.

For those of you wondering why Rentaro doesn’t use his limbs + eye despite it being a desperate situation, I would assume that it’s because he didn’t get a chance.

Spoiler for kisara:

Due to her Tendo sword techniques she can effectively strike up to 10 meters with a swing. This technique made Tina (whose 98 on the rankings) shiver in fear.

She also has a technique that with one swing is able to cut a entire floor apart.

Upon seeing that technique Rentaro remarked that he can't think of a way to beat Kisara even when released.

Rentaro latter commented that Enju wasn't impossible for him to beat.

So yeah, her sword techniques are some pretty powerful stuff.

Was the last part of your summary a flashback?

[Log]

Originally Posted by XFire

Was the last part of your summary a flashback?

Rentaro's dreaming.

[Hemisphere]

You gotta wonder just what the author has in store for Enju, considering how the volumes always end on that note.

It's just kind of depressing when you read about all the awesome things they do in each other's company; all the comedy bits, and them getting over whatever trials and tribulations come their way, only to be reminded of her impending mortality at the end of the volume.

It really fits with the whole mood and atmosphere the series has got going for it, though.

[ZeKeR]

I wonder what would happen if he had a gastraea infusion on his mech parts? what would happen?

[cutieteen97]

Originally Posted by ZeKeR

I wonder what would happen if he had a gastraea infusion on his mech parts? what would happen?

It would probably do nothing much because otherwise the gastrea could have made a building or something go crazy?

[Log]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

You gotta wonder just what the author has in store for Enju, considering how the volumes always end on that note.

It's just kind of depressing when you read about all the awesome things they do in each other's company; all the comedy bits, and them getting over whatever trials and tribulations come their way, only to be reminded of her impending mortality at the end of the volume.

It really fits with the whole mood and atmosphere the series has got going for it, though.

Spoiler for Enju:

The author just loves teasing us with that.

Although to be honest I won’t be too surprised if everyone (by everyone I mean the main characters) lived including Enju till the end.

I also won’t be too surprised if everyone died (I’ll only be a tiny bit surprised if Rentaro died considering his luck at avoiding death but I’m open to the possibility).

Black Bullet feels like one of those books where it can swing either way.

Originally Posted by ZeKeR

I wonder what would happen if he had a gastraea infusion on his mech parts? what would happen?

Nothing. His limbs and eye are made up of super varium and varium doesn’t react well with Gastrea.

Anyways chapter 3 part 1 is here.

Spoiler for volume 1 chapter 3 part 1:

The first thing Rentaro sees when he wakes up in the hospital is Kisara. He can’t help but think how beautiful she is.

He then calmly says, “Yo, Kisara-san”.

Upon seeing him woke up and start taking Kisara started crying in joy and responded, “Welcome back Rentaro-kun.”

After that they had a little back and forth talk and then Rentaro asked how long was he out for. Kisara responded that it was one day and 3 hours. She revealed that Rentaro underwent a big surgery and then expressed amazement at his will to live.

Rentaro checked his right eye, right leg and left eye to make sure they’re alright (the fact that it specifically said which body parts he checked up on is foreshadowing Rentaro’s other limbs being fake).

Rentaro then asks how they found him.

Kisara revealed that, they found out by the pistol he dropped when he landed inside the river. Based on the fact that the pistol dropped near the river, they concluded that Rentaro fell in the river and was washed downstream.

Kisara then commented that a lot went on while Rentaro was unconscious. She warned Rentaro that they might die. Or to be more exact, everyone in Tokyo area might die. She revealed that while Rentaro was out of it all the representatives of the civil security company gathered together to be told why the box is so important. As it turns out inside the box is a catalyst used for summoning a stage 5 gastrea.

Hearing that Rentaro broke out in cold sweat. It’s explained that a stage 5 Gastrea is the classification for the eleven gastrea that destroyed humanity and caused mass extinction 10 years ago.

Rentaro claimed that it’s impossible for a human to summon a stage 5 Gastrea.

But Kisara claimed that it’s possible and that’s why Seitenshi’s faction was so desperate in keeping it under wraps.

Rentaro expressed his distaste in his head for authority figures for hiding such info from them.

Kisara continued by saying how most of the representatives were very brave and also asking Rentaro what he thinks of Kagetone’s strength.

Rentaro says that Kagetone is very strong. At a level where a human can never reach.

Kisara revealed that she got info on Kagetone from Seitenshi. She explains that Kagetone is capable of a expulsion field capable of deflecting bullets from anti-tank rifles and even the iron ball of a construction crane and his initiator Kohina is a praying mantis type and once she gets hold of blade she can be considered invincible in melee. She reveals that due to the duo causing too much trouble, they were suspended but before that suspension their IP ranking was 134. She finishes by pointing out how lucky Rentaro is to be alive.

Rentaro expresses shock at such a high IP ranking and comments to himself that it’s no wonder they were so freakishly strong.

Both of them fall into silence until Kisara gently narrowed her eyes and tells Enju to come out.

Enju explodes out of the Rentaro’s blanket shocking Rentaro. As it turns out she had been hiding besides Rentaro the whole time.

Enju then randomly asks, Rentaro what’s so good about Kisara. Doesn’t she only have a chest? This question causes Kisara to let out a unpleasant expression.

Rentaro completely ignores her questions and tells her to not sleep by him.

Enju defiantly says that Rentaro can’t control where she sleeps causing Rentaro to stutter, “you, you” in frustration.

Kisara interrupts their comical gag and says to Rentaro that shouldn’t he have something to tell Enju.

Rentaro is reminded and apologizes to Enju for giving her this kind of order. Furthermore he says that he doesn’t deserve to be her guardian.

Enju clings to Rentaro and comments that Rentaro is indeed not guardian material since he’s to useless but she’s clearly being Tsundere here.

Suddenly Kisara’s phone started ringing breaking them out of their little moment.

Kisara picks up her phone says a couple words then throws it at Rentaro.

Rentaro catches it and is shocked at the voice at the other end of the phone.

It’s Seitenshi.

Rentaro asks her what she wants.

Seitenshi reveals that they’re currently going to chase after Kagetone. All the civil security company are currently joining this chase. She hopes that Rentaro can go along as well.

Rentaro wants to ask her something about Kagetone but Seitenshi cuts him off.

She reveals that after the war was over Kagetone escaped a government hospital (killing some staff in the process) and has been on the run. Since then by taking advantage of the post war chaos he changed his surname and joined the Civil Security company. The government has been hiding info on him since then.

Upon hearing that Rentaro clutched the phone so hard it can snap and asks her why didn’t they retaliate against Kagetone.

Seitenshi replies that the “human mechanization plan” is a nonexistent plan. Therefore mechanized soldiers are nonexistent soldiers. How can the government take action against such a person?

Rentaro is outraged at this reply and replies asking her if she understands how many people Kagetone killed, and blames them for allowing him to do such a thing. He then furiously declines quote on quote, “cleaning up their mess”.

Seitenshi calmly responds that if Rentaro doesn’t take action then everything he values will disappear.

Rentaro feebly shakes his head and asks, why him of all people.

Seitenshi replies that he should understand best. Only he could stop Kagetone.

Rentaro finally gives in but reminds Seitenshi that he isn’t doing it for them.

Seitenshi responds, “that’s fine. I wish you luck”, and Rentaro hangs up at this point and then throws the phone back at Kisara.

Due to throwing the phone he feels a sharp pain and looks around to see many complex machinery, and there’s also many needles sticking inside him.

He precedes to pull the needles of his body and after checking that he’s fine (due to advanced treatment) notices his school uniform and dresses up (Kisara blushes says “idiot” and turns away at this point).

After that, Kisara asks him if he can win.

Rentaro responds that he has to win.

Kisara tells him that he’s going to die.

Rentaro responds that he already prepared for that.

Rentaro then hears Kisara biting her lips and tells him how as long as they have Rentaro, Enju and herself they would continue on.

As Rentaro responds she cuts him off and says that since he already made up his mind she won’t continue pestering him. She then says that she herself will investigate something suspicious. As it turns out someone almost leaked news to the media about the stage 5 gastrea. Luckily Seitenshi reacted quickly and contained the media. She’ll try to investigate and see if there’s any clues in here.

Rentaro thinks to himself how suspicious this is. No one would benefit from the panic caused by this news so why would someone do such a thing?

Then Kisara commends him to win, beat Kagetone and Kohina and successfully prevent them from summoning a stage 5 gastrea.

Rentaro promises her that she’ll win.

[Hemisphere]

I don't think the author can just simply make a miracle to cure Enju's condition, though, particularly considering that each volume always ends with that foreshadowing. It's probably going to come true at some point; that or he's going to find out about it, and be a vital part of Rentarou's character development/denouement, most likely (and probably a huge source of drama).

[Log]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

I don't think the author can just simply make a miracle to cure Enju's condition, though, particularly considering that each volume always ends with that foreshadowing.

Spoiler for hmm...:

The way I see it, the most likely cure for Enju without resorting to deus ex machina on the author's part would be having the 4 sages work together. The 4 working alone already could produce superhuman soldiers and miracle medicines. The 4 working together can definitely come up with the cure for Enju if it comes down to it.

It would also sorta be ironic and heartwarming to have the 4 sages put aside their differences and come together to save a little girl when they couldn't do the same for humanity.

Granted I know the chances of that happening are practically null considering that one of them is already a confirmed douchebag and the other two likely are likely eccentric to some extent at the very least.

But hey who knows. There's still a lot of ground to cover and a cure can come somewhere along the line.

Especially considering that I doubt the gastrea is entirely natural given that it just popped out of nowhere.

Likely a biological weapon gotten out of control ala Prototype or something like that.

And when there's a man made biological weapon there's a man made biological cure.

It's probably going to come true at some point; that or he's going to find out about it, and be a vital part of Rentarou's character development/denouement, most likely (and probably gonna cause a huge source of drama).

Fixed.

Spoiler for speculations!:

And my personal speculation is that, people will eventually find out about Enju's Gastrea erosion rate reaching critical values and a hit will be put on Enju to prevent her from potentially turning into a Gastrea.

At that point Rentaro will abandon the civil security with Enju and go solo in hopes of finding a cure.

Tina and Kisara may or may not be coming with them.

This would fit in line with the tone of the series and also has the potential to develop the world more.

Another possiblity is that when Enju's gastrea reaches critical values Rentaro refuses to take her down at that point and as a result she becomes a extremely strong gastrea. After much drama and character development Rentaro chooses to fight her.

Would fit with the whole Enju vs Rentaro thing that's sorta foreshadowed in volume 2.

And I'll be disappointed if the author doesn't do a Cursed Children turned Gastrea villain at some point.

I can imagine something like a "awakened being" in Claymore happening in Black Bullet.

This is of course all baseless speculation.

As a cliched saying would go the possibilities are endless.

[Hemisphere]

Hmm. I can see something like that happening.

Spoiler:

Rentaro and Enju might be forced to go up against a Cursed Children turned Gastrea at one point (or might be forced to see one turn into a Gastrea right before their eyes), Enju becomes afraid at the prospect of the same thing happening to her/makes Rentaro promises to kill her should she turn into one, and then they find out about her time running out through some indirect means of some sort. Then it'll bring into question what Rentaro is really fighting for, and who he's fighting for, yadda yadda. Or something like that.

[waffler]

hmm i think rentaro likes kisara the most it says that he was shocked at how beatiful she was when he wake up

[ninryu]

Wait, the manga is drawn by Morino Hon?! I think I'm gonna follow both versions!

[Iggy_Pop]

@Log,

Spoiler for Ayn Rand and Tina:

Can you tell me about the relationship between Ayn Rand, one of the four sages and Tina?

[Log]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

Hmm. I can see something like that happening.

Spoiler:

Rentaro and Enju might be forced to go up against a Cursed Children turned Gastrea at one point (or might be forced to see one turn into a Gastrea right before their eyes), Enju becomes afraid at the prospect of the same thing happening to her/makes Rentaro promises to kill her should she turn into one, and then they find out about her time running out through some indirect means of some sort. Then it'll bring into question what Rentaro is really fighting for, and who he's fighting for, yadda yadda. Or something like that.

Spoiler for yep:

That sounds likely.

And you brought up a good point.

At some time soon Rentaro will likely be forced to choose between society’s needs and his own personal goals.

Well it’s predictable which side he’ll choose, it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll get there.

Originally Posted by waffler

hmm i think rentaro likes kisara the most it says that he was shocked at how beatiful she was when he wake up

Yep.

Like I said before Kisara is the one with the most chance of getting Rentaro.

Originally Posted by ninryu

Wait, the manga is drawn by Morino Hon?! I think I'm gonna follow both versions!

Good.

I suggest you (and everyone else) to follow both versions.

The manga's art is actually very good, and well it did add one or two unnecessary scenes it also added scenes that add to the emotional impact of the story.

I actually think that it's the best LN to manga adaption thus far.

And if nothing else the author draws an epic “fuck you” smirk for Rentaro.

Spoiler for Rentaro's "fuck you" smirk in Chinese:

Originally Posted by Iggy_Pop

@Log,

Spoiler for Ayn Rand and Tina:

Can you tell me about the relationship between Ayn Rand, one of the four sages and Tina?

Eh, I was under the impression that you read the original volumes considering how you twitted to the author.

Anyways…..

Spoiler for tina and ayn:

Tina is cursed children that Ayn took in and experimented on to turn into a hybrid soldier (someone with both the powers of the Gastrea and varium).

Ayn treats Tina like a powerful weapon that he’s extremely proud he created. He takes extreme pride in her combat abilities likely because he has a big part in developing it. Due to that he has a tendency to overestimate Tina’s chances of success in a mission. Beyond her combat abilities he doesn’t care for Tina. In fact he coldly commended Tina to commit suicide to prevent her bodies secrets to be studied by others should she fail her mission.

Tina doesn’t really like or dislike Ayn (it didn't say if she had any hard feelings for Ayn). I inferred that she only follows Ayn because she’s used to following his orders and it’s the only thing she knows in her short life. Once she lost to Rentaro it didn’t take a lot from Rentaro to make her turn to his side.

And now onto chapter 3 part 2.

Boy this one is long. Not to mention the dialogue between Rentaro and Sumire is troublesome to summarize so I translated a lot of it.

For reference to how long it is, most of my summaries clock up to around 1000 words.

This one is around 2500.

2.5 the size of my usual summaries for the different parts.

Part of it, is because it's just that long. Chapter 3 is composed of 50% of part 2.

Another reason is because it had lots of necessary details that I felt I couldn't exclude.

Anyways, enjoy!

Spoiler for black bullet volume 1 chapter 3 part 2:

9 PM.

Rentaro’s on a helicopter that’s going to drop him off at the Chibi Prefecture where Kagetone is lurking.


Since it’s an area outside the [monoliths] protection it’s a highly dangerous zone filled with gastrea. Not to mention Kagetone and Kohina are also there.

Rentaro reassures to himself that the chances of encountering Kagetone is low since there are many teams here and chances are someone ranked higher then Kagetone will take him out. (Summarizer’s note: This is just Rentaro reassuring himself. Given that it’s noted in a latter volume that Tokyo region is weak and the fact that Rentaro is considered the biggest chance to stop Kagetone one can infer that there’s no one ranked higher than 134 in the Tokyo region).

At this point Rentaro remembers back to his visit to Sumire. As it turns out when he visited Sumire before he went on his mission, Sumire handed him a bag filled with weapons of war. She revealed that it’s from Rentaro’s benefactor.

Rentaro is impressed with the weapons and thanks Miora in his head. He then equips the weapons. He tries jumping with the weapons and comments that the weight hasn’t visibly increased.

He thinks to himself that the daughter of Shibi corporations, Shiba Miori, really knows his style of keeping weight at a minimum well.

However Rentaro laments out loud that it’s troublesome that he has to thank “that women” now.

Sumire tells him that he should somehow repay Miori’s affection for him.

Then she throws him a couple of vials.

She tells him that, that’s a farewell gift that she made from her research of gastrea and that he should know what it is. She then comments that its best if he doesn’t use it at all, and if he died she would feel bad since no one else would visit her.

Rentaro is dumbfounded and doesn’t know how to express his thanks for her gift.

Sumire then gives some advice to Rentaro, she tells him that if he has to die, die beatiful.

“What”?

She ignores Rentaro’s “what” and continued. She says that it’s best if Rentaro froze to death but under these circumstances starving to death also isn’t bad. Once he died she would pour turpentine into his ass and then wrap him in alkali and take his body to dry.

Rentaro catches to what she’s getting at and responds exasperated, “You, you plan to turn me into a mummy when I die, and put me on display”.

She replies, “Nice ability to understand. Don’t worry, in honor of your memory, I’ll be sure to wrap Kisara’s panties onto your head and then hang you at the most conspicuous place in this university. Ha, ha, ha”.

“I decided that if I ever die I’m going to die by jumping on a grenade and blow myself into pieces”.

Rentaro gloomily notes to himself that he can’t let himself die recklessly now.

“Rentaro, can I make one more suggestion?”

Rentaro prepares himself for more bad jokes at his expense. He thinks to himself that he’s not going to be tricked again.

However contrary to Rentaro’s expectations Sumire responded seriously, “10 years ago, once gastrea started evicting humans, my world changed dramatically. Barren land filled with corpses, rivers filled with blood, death was everywhere, even if I used a thousand words I doubt I can accurately describe that hell. But even so, this doesn’t excuse what I did to you, it is unforgivable”. (No I don’t know what she did to him. It might be turning him into a mechanized soldier but given that it saved his life I doubt it’s that. Likely something else that’s going to be revealed latter).

Sumire then started clutching the pendent at her chest. Rentaro understands that, that pendant contains the photo of her dead lover.

Sumire continues, “What I did to you was unforgivable”.

Rentaro hesitates before replying, “Doctor…….from the very beginning I didn’t hate you”.

Sumire was silent for a moment.

Rentaro starts leaving but upon noticing a western painting, he puts on a thumb and says, “I’ll BE BACK” in english. (He’s referencing the terminator’s favorite line, “I’ll be back”).

Sumire doesn’t get the reference causing Rentaro to embarrassingly say it again.

After hearing it again Sumire bursts out laughing. She comments that Rentaro makes a piss poor actor and that if the original actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) were to hear him he would die.

Rentaro feels his sleeve being pulled and is bought out of his flashback by Enju.

Rentaro and Enju talk around a bit. Enju asks him what helicopter it is and Rentaro tells her. And then she comments that isn’t that type the junk that was brought down in that one movie she borrowed from Sumire. She then asks Rentaro if this one will fall down to.

Her silly analysis of the helicopter causes the driver (who obviously had pride in this helicopter) to turn around and swear at her.

Rentaro was about to berate Enju for being so rude but upon seeing how gloomy she is, he reminds himself that she’s just a 10 year old. She must be trying to lighten the mood.

Rentaro then asks her if she has anything else to ask.

She then asks Rentaro about the helicopters modifications.

Rentaro reveals that the helicopter has been designed to lower sound as much as possible causing Enju to question why would sound be lowered.

Rentaro informs her that since many gastrea’s are asleep at night, it’s best for lowered sound as to not wake them given most gastrea has sensitive senses. If an especially loud sound were to happen, not only would the nocturnal gastrea be informed but it would also wake up the sleeping gastrea. That’s also why the guns he got from Miori are all equipped with silencers.

Enju then ask what is a stage 5 gastrea.

Rentaro reveals that each gastrea usually have 4 stages. With each progression of stage the gastrea’s skin will harden, they’ll get bigger and they’ll gain more and more genetic traits from other creatures.

They usually stop at stage 4 but ten years ago from nowhere stage 5 appeared. Not only are they large enough to make stage 4 gastrea look like insects but their skin is also incredibly dense to support their massive size.

Enju asks, that shouldn’t they be stopped by [monolith] but Rentaro responds that stage 5 gastrea aren’t affected by the electric magnetic field from varium.

Hearing this Enju instantly paled and understood what the problem is. If they aren’t affected by varium they can easily get around humanities last line of defense.

Rentaro further says that, a stage 5 gastrea will likely first destroy the [monoliths]. At this point all the gastreas can now go in leading to absolute destruction of the Tokyo area. It even happened in Africa and the middle east before. That’s why they have to stop Kagetone.

Enju asks how many stage 5 gastrea are there.

Rentaro revealed that there’s 11 and miraculously 2 of them have been defeated (it’s revealed at a latter volume that the 2 that are defeated were due to the no. 1 and no. 2 initiators).

Just as Rentaro finishes his explanation the driver calls them and says they’re here.

Rentaro and Enju get off and sees a tropical forest all around them.

However this forest has been infected by Gastrea and as a result there’s lots of weird vegetation. Not only that but there’s strange sounds everywhere.

Both Rentaro and Enju are freaked out and Rentaro decides to head to a nearby abandoned city reasoning that no one in the right mind will stay in the forest for too long, so Kagetone has to be hiding in the city somewhere.

They proceed to walk on a highway while talking and joking around with each other.

Suddenly Rentaro hears a creepy sound and goes to investigate. After pushing aside many shrubs and branches he reaches a clearing and stops.

It’s an alligator type gastrea. It has a unsymmetrical body with 5 legs instead of the usual 4, 4 eyes and a huge frame.

Rentaro was about to take out his guns and attack the gastrea but Enju pulled at his sleeves and signaled to Rentaro for them to back away. Understanding that Enju sensed that they aren’t going to be attacked and trusting Enju’s judgment, Rentaro quickly backed away while keeping his eyes on the gastrea.

Once they got out of sight of the gastrea they broke out in a run.

After they’re safe from the alligator gastrea Enju expressed displeasure at Rentaro’s recklessness, telling him that he should’ve stayed behind Enju since he’s the fragile one here.

As Rentaro was about to apologize to Enju a massive explosion rips through the forest.

Rentaro swore at whoever used the explosion commented what idiots they are, to use an explosion in a gastrea covered place.

In an instant the forest wake up.

Bats started flying out at every angle and both Enju and Rentaro heard a roar.

At first Rentaro thought it was the alligator gastrea but it sounded deeper and distorted.

Enju noticed something and asked Rentaro what it is causing Rentaro to shine his flashlight at the direction Enju is pointing to.

What awaited him is a dragon.

Or rather a dragon shaped gastrea.

At more than 6 meters tall, it obviously was born from a combination of several bird and lizard genes. Rentaro noticed a piece of cloth hanging from its mouth and moaned to himself that someone from the team sent here has already died to it.

Rentaro then deduced that it’s a stage 4 Gastrea based on its height and design. He also thought to himself that unless he had a machine gun or an anti-tank rifle filled with varium bullets he had no chance of competing with this gastrea.

The Gastrea started to take a running position similar to a professional runner.

At this point Rentaro asked Enju if she can carry him while running.

Understanding Rentaro’s intentions Enju carried him and put him on her back. Due to the height difference it looks awkward like Rentaro is leaning on her.

Rentaro commended Enju, that if he’s a burden just throw him down and run but Enju responded that she can’t do that.

Then Enju took off, jumping 12 meters with one leap.

Enju jumped up to a branch and started jumping from branch to branch at a speed the naked eye can’t keep up with.

Rentaro looked back to check up on the dragon gastrea and much to his horror discovered that it was keeping up with him.

Rentaro noted that it wasn’t using its wings indicating that the wings were either just for show or they played a use under limited circumstances.

Unfortunately at this point, Enju and Rentaro reached a 100 meter cliff.

Enju told Rentaro to hold on and before Rentaro can react she jumped off the cliff.

Unbelievable strong winds whipped at Rentaro, but luckily due to the strong winds, it canceled gravity out and the two floated there for a moment due to inertia.

Rentaro couldn’t help but stare at the scene of the forest before looking at the moon. Even though he knew it was stupid he couldn’t help but try to seize the moon. Then he noticed a 2 km tall object that’s about 10 km away. That’s the “Heaven’s ladder” (not sure if translated accurate, anyways it’s latter explained what it is).

Before Rentaro can comment any further, the force of wind stopped and as a result they started falling again.

Rentaro held on tightly to Enju who tried to grab a branch to stop their fall but due to the force of their fall failed and continued falling.

Luckily through grabbing the branch it slowed down their force enough, that they didn’t die when they hit the ground.

At the cliff the dragon gastrea remorsefully glared down at them before turning away. Apparently it didn’t want to jump down the cliff just to catch them.

After the dragon left, the duo took 30 minutes to recover from injuries (Enju in particular damaged her joints but healed quickly due to Gastrea regen).

Once they started walking again, Rentaro warned Enju to be careful where she stepped. The cluster mines from the Gastrea war are still present.

Enju complained that, the mines are harming the country itself instead of helping it.

Rentaro responds that it’s just proof of how desperate humans were driven to by the gastrea.

Enju smiles and tells him not to worry since, she’s here to protect him.

Rentaro sarcastically tells her that thanks to her he’s no longer afraid of the jumping machine at the playground.

Enju who doesn’t understand sarcasm, responded back, that it’s all thanks to her causing Rentaro to sign.

Enju then comments that since coming here she feels more excited.

Rentaro thinks to himself, of course that’s the case. Although the effects are minimal, the [monolith] still affected the cursed children.

Therefore once they got out of it, they would enter a stage of excitement and wounds would regenerate faster.

As they continued walking on, the two came across a small stone cottage with light spilling out of it.

Rentaro’s instantly on alert, and wandered if they found Kagetone.

Rentaro decided to approach from the rear while Enju approach from the front door.

He burst into the cottage and shouted, “don’t move”. At the same time his handgun pointed at the target, he also found a shotgun pointing at his face in turn

The one pointing the gun at Rentaro is panting and after looking over her carefully, Rentaro recognized her as Ikuma Shougun’s (the guy that wields a big sword and has a facemask) initiator.

Enju had sneaked up on her and threatened that if she doesn’t drop the shotgun her face will be kicked off.

However, Rentaro quickly dropped his handgun and told Enju that, that she isn’t a enenmy.

He then faced the injured girl and asked if she remembers him. They had met at the minister of defense meeting.

She replies yes, she does remember him.

He tells her, that he’s going to help her bandage her wounds.

Enju jealously cuts in, asking Rentaro who she is and what’s his relationship with her.

Rentaro tells her that she’s Ikuma Shogun’s initiator.

[blackwhite67]

Originally Posted by Log

Spoiler for yep:

That sounds likely.

And you brought up a good point.

At some time soon Rentaro will likely be forced to choose between society’s needs and his own personal goals.

Well it’s predictable which side he’ll choose, it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll get there.

Yep.

Like I said before Kisara is the one with the most chance of getting Rentaro.



Good.

I suggest you (and everyone else) to follow both versions.

The manga's art is actually very good, and well it did add one or two unnecessary scenes it also added scenes that add to the emotional impact of the story.

I actually think that it's the best LN to manga adaption thus far.

And if nothing else the author draws an epic “fuck you” smirk for Rentaro.

Spoiler for Rentaro's "fuck you" smirk in Chinese:

Eh, I was under the impression that you read the original volumes considering how you twitted to the author.

Anyways…..

Spoiler for tina and ayn:

Tina is cursed children that Ayn took in and experimented on to turn into a hybrid soldier (someone with both the powers of the Gastrea and varium).

Ayn treats Tina like a powerful weapon that he’s extremely proud he created. He takes extreme pride in her combat abilities likely because he has a big part in developing it. Due to that he has a tendency to overestimate Tina’s chances of success in a mission. Beyond her combat abilities he doesn’t care for Tina. In fact he coldly commended Tina to commit suicide to prevent her bodies secrets to be studied by others should she fail her mission.

Tina doesn’t really like or dislike Ayn (it didn't say if she had any hard feelings for Ayn). I inferred that she only follows Ayn because she’s used to following his orders and it’s the only thing she knows in her short life. Once she lost to Rentaro it didn’t take a lot from Rentaro to make her turn to his side.

And now onto chapter 3 part 2.

Boy this one is long. Not to mention the dialogue between Rentaro and Sumire is troublesome to summarize so I translated a lot of it.

For reference to how long it is, most of my summaries clock up to around 1000 words.

This one is around 2500.

2.5 the size of my usual summaries for the different parts.

Part of it, is because it's just that long. Chapter 3 is composed of 50% of part 2.

Another reason is because it had lots of necessary details that I felt I couldn't exclude.

Anyways, enjoy!

Spoiler for black bullet volume 1 chapter 3 part 2:

9 PM.

Rentaro’s on a helicopter that’s going to drop him off at the Chibi Prefecture where Kagetone is lurking.


Since it’s an area outside the [monoliths] protection it’s a highly dangerous zone filled with gastrea. Not to mention Kagetone and Kohina are also there.

Rentaro reassures to himself that the chances of encountering Kagetone is low since there are many teams here and chances are someone ranked higher then Kagetone will take him out. (Summarizer’s note: This is just Rentaro reassuring himself. Given that it’s noted in a latter volume that Tokyo region is weak and the fact that Rentaro is considered the biggest chance to stop Kagetone one can infer that there’s no one ranked higher than 134 in the Tokyo region).

At this point Rentaro remembers back to his visit to Sumire. As it turns out when he visited Sumire before he went on his mission, Sumire handed him a bag filled with weapons of war. She revealed that it’s from Rentaro’s benefactor.

Rentaro is impressed with the weapons and thanks Miora in his head. He then equips the weapons. He tries jumping with the weapons and comments that the weight hasn’t visibly increased.

He thinks to himself that the daughter of Shibi corporations, Shiba Miori, really knows his style of keeping weight at a minimum well.

However Rentaro laments out loud that it’s troublesome that he has to thank “that women” now.

Sumire tells him that he should somehow repay Miori’s affection for him.

Then she throws him a couple of vials.

She tells him that, that’s a farewell gift that she made from her research of gastrea and that he should know what it is. She then comments that its best if he doesn’t use it at all, and if he died she would feel bad since no one else would visit her.

Rentaro is dumbfounded and doesn’t know how to express his thanks for her gift.

Sumire then gives some advice to Rentaro, she tells him that if he has to die, die beatiful.

“What”?

She ignores Rentaro’s “what” and continued. She says that it’s best if Rentaro froze to death but under these circumstances starving to death also isn’t bad. Once he died she would pour turpentine into his ass and then wrap him in alkali and take his body to dry.

Rentaro catches to what she’s getting at and responds exasperated, “You, you plan to turn me into a mummy when I die, and put me on display”.

She replies, “Nice ability to understand. Don’t worry, in honor of your memory, I’ll be sure to wrap Kisara’s panties onto your head and then hang you at the most conspicuous place in this university. Ha, ha, ha”.

“I decided that if I ever die I’m going to die by jumping on a grenade and blow myself into pieces”.

Rentaro gloomily notes to himself that he can’t let himself die recklessly now.

“Rentaro, can I make one more suggestion?”

Rentaro prepares himself for more bad jokes at his expense. He thinks to himself that he’s not going to be tricked again.

However contrary to Rentaro’s expectations Sumire responded seriously, “10 years ago, once gastrea started evicting humans, my world changed dramatically. Barren land filled with corpses, rivers filled with blood, death was everywhere, even if I used a thousand words I doubt I can accurately describe that hell. But even so, this doesn’t excuse what I did to you, it is unforgivable”. (No I don’t know what she did to him. It might be turning him into a mechanized soldier but given that it saved his life I doubt it’s that. Likely something else that’s going to be revealed latter).

Sumire then started clutching the pendent at her chest. Rentaro understands that, that pendant contains the photo of her dead lover.

Sumire continues, “What I did to you was unforgivable”.

Rentaro hesitates before replying, “Doctor…….from the very beginning I didn’t hate you”.

Sumire was silent for a moment.

Rentaro starts leaving but upon noticing a western painting, he puts on a thumb and says, “I’ll BE BACK” in english. (He’s referencing the terminator’s favorite line, “I’ll be back”).

Sumire doesn’t get the reference causing Rentaro to embarrassingly say it again.

After hearing it again Sumire bursts out laughing. She comments that Rentaro makes a piss poor actor and that if the original actor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) were to hear him he would die.

Rentaro feels his sleeve being pulled and is bought out of his flashback by Enju.

Rentaro and Enju talk around a bit. Enju asks him what helicopter it is and Rentaro tells her. And then she comments that isn’t that type the junk that was brought down in that one movie she borrowed from Sumire. She then asks Rentaro if this one will fall down to.

Her silly analysis of the helicopter causes the driver (who obviously had pride in this helicopter) to turn around and swear at her.

Rentaro was about to berate Enju for being so rude but upon seeing how gloomy she is, he reminds himself that she’s just a 10 year old. She must be trying to lighten the mood.

Rentaro then asks her if she has anything else to ask.

She then asks Rentaro about the helicopters modifications.

Rentaro reveals that the helicopter has been designed to lower sound as much as possible causing Enju to question why would sound be lowered.

Rentaro informs her that since many gastrea’s are asleep at night, it’s best for lowered sound as to not wake them given most gastrea has sensitive senses. If an especially loud sound were to happen, not only would the nocturnal gastrea be informed but it would also wake up the sleeping gastrea. That’s also why the guns he got from Miori are all equipped with silencers.

Enju then ask what is a stage 5 gastrea.

Rentaro reveals that each gastrea usually have 4 stages. With each progression of stage the gastrea’s skin will harden, they’ll get bigger and they’ll gain more and more genetic traits from other creatures.

They usually stop at stage 4 but ten years ago from nowhere stage 5 appeared. Not only are they large enough to make stage 4 gastrea look like insects but their skin is also incredibly dense to support their massive size.

Enju asks, that shouldn’t they be stopped by [monolith] but Rentaro responds that stage 5 gastrea aren’t affected by the electric magnetic field from varium.

Hearing this Enju instantly paled and understood what the problem is. If they aren’t affected by varium they can easily get around humanities last line of defense.

Rentaro further says that, a stage 5 gastrea will likely first destroy the [monoliths]. At this point all the gastreas can now go in leading to absolute destruction of the Tokyo area. It even happened in Africa and the middle east before. That’s why they have to stop Kagetone.

Enju asks how many stage 5 gastrea are there.

Rentaro revealed that there’s 11 and miraculously 2 of them have been defeated (it’s revealed at a latter volume that the 2 that are defeated were due to the no. 1 and no. 2 initiators).

Just as Rentaro finishes his explanation the driver calls them and says they’re here.

Rentaro and Enju get off and sees a tropical forest all around them.

However this forest has been infected by Gastrea and as a result there’s lots of weird vegetation. Not only that but there’s strange sounds everywhere.

Both Rentaro and Enju are freaked out and Rentaro decides to head to a nearby abandoned city reasoning that no one in the right mind will stay in the forest for too long, so Kagetone has to be hiding in the city somewhere.

They proceed to walk on a highway while talking and joking around with each other.

Suddenly Rentaro hears a creepy sound and goes to investigate. After pushing aside many shrubs and branches he reaches a clearing and stops.

It’s an alligator type gastrea. It has a unsymmetrical body with 5 legs instead of the usual 4, 4 eyes and a huge frame.

Rentaro was about to take out his guns and attack the gastrea but Enju pulled at his sleeves and signaled to Rentaro for them to back away. Understanding that Enju sensed that they aren’t going to be attacked and trusting Enju’s judgment, Rentaro quickly backed away while keeping his eyes on the gastrea.

Once they got out of sight of the gastrea they broke out in a run.

After they’re safe from the alligator gastrea Enju expressed displeasure at Rentaro’s recklessness, telling him that he should’ve stayed behind Enju since he’s the fragile one here.

As Rentaro was about to apologize to Enju a massive explosion rips through the forest.

Rentaro swore at whoever used the explosion commented what idiots they are, to use an explosion in a gastrea covered place.

In an instant the forest wake up.

Bats started flying out at every angle and both Enju and Rentaro heard a roar.

At first Rentaro thought it was the alligator gastrea but it sounded deeper and distorted.

Enju noticed something and asked Rentaro what it is causing Rentaro to shine his flashlight at the direction Enju is pointing to.

What awaited him is a dragon.

Or rather a dragon shaped gastrea.

At more than 6 meters tall, it obviously was born from a combination of several bird and lizard genes. Rentaro noticed a piece of cloth hanging from its mouth and moaned to himself that someone from the team sent here has already died to it.

Rentaro then deduced that it’s a stage 4 Gastrea based on its height and design. He also thought to himself that unless he had a machine gun or an anti-tank rifle filled with varium bullets he had no chance of competing with this gastrea.

The Gastrea started to take a running position similar to a professional runner.

At this point Rentaro asked Enju if she can carry him while running.

Understanding Rentaro’s intentions Enju carried him and put him on her back. Due to the height difference it looks awkward like Rentaro is leaning on her.

Rentaro commended Enju, that if he’s a burden just throw him down and run but Enju responded that she can’t do that.

Then Enju took off, jumping 12 meters with one leap.

Enju jumped up to a branch and started jumping from branch to branch at a speed the naked eye can’t keep up with.

Rentaro looked back to check up on the dragon gastrea and much to his horror discovered that it was keeping up with him.

Rentaro noted that it wasn’t using its wings indicating that the wings were either just for show or they played a use under limited circumstances.

Unfortunately at this point, Enju and Rentaro reached a 100 meter cliff.

Enju told Rentaro to hold on and before Rentaro can react she jumped off the cliff.

Unbelievable strong winds whipped at Rentaro, but luckily due to the strong winds, it canceled gravity out and the two floated there for a moment due to inertia.

Rentaro couldn’t help but stare at the scene of the forest before looking at the moon. Even though he knew it was stupid he couldn’t help but try to seize the moon. Then he noticed a 2 km tall object that’s about 10 km away. That’s the “Heaven’s ladder” (not sure if translated accurate, anyways it’s latter explained what it is).

Before Rentaro can comment any further, the force of wind stopped and as a result they started falling again.

Rentaro held on tightly to Enju who tried to grab a branch to stop their fall but due to the force of their fall failed and continued falling.

Luckily through grabbing the branch it slowed down their force enough, that they didn’t die when they hit the ground.

At the cliff the dragon gastrea remorsefully glared down at them before turning away. Apparently it didn’t want to jump down the cliff just to catch them.

After the dragon left, the duo took 30 minutes to recover from injuries (Enju in particular damaged her joints but healed quickly due to Gastrea regen).

Once they started walking again, Rentaro warned Enju to be careful where she stepped. The cluster mines from the Gastrea war are still present.

Enju complained that, the mines are harming the country itself instead of helping it.

Rentaro responds that it’s just proof of how desperate humans were driven to by the gastrea.

Enju smiles and tells him not to worry since, she’s here to protect him.

Rentaro sarcastically tells her that thanks to her he’s no longer afraid of the jumping machine at the playground.

Enju who doesn’t understand sarcasm, responded back, that it’s all thanks to her causing Rentaro to sign.

Enju then comments that since coming here she feels more excited.

Rentaro thinks to himself, of course that’s the case. Although the effects are minimal, the [monolith] still affected the cursed children.

Therefore once they got out of it, they would enter a stage of excitement and wounds would regenerate faster.

As they continued walking on, the two came across a small stone cottage with light spilling out of it.

Rentaro’s instantly on alert, and wandered if they found Kagetone.

Rentaro decided to approach from the rear while Enju approach from the front door.

He burst into the cottage and shouted, “don’t move”. At the same time his handgun pointed at the target, he also found a shotgun pointing at his face in turn

The one pointing the gun at Rentaro is panting and after looking over her carefully, Rentaro recognized her as Ikuma Shougun’s (the guy that wields a big sword and has a facemask) initiator.

Enju had sneaked up on her and threatened that if she doesn’t drop the shotgun her face will be kicked off.

However, Rentaro quickly dropped his handgun and told Enju that, that she isn’t a enenmy.

He then faced the injured girl and asked if she remembers him. They had met at the minister of defense meeting.

She replies yes, she does remember him.

He tells her, that he’s going to help her bandage her wounds.

Enju jealously cuts in, asking Rentaro who she is and what’s his relationship with her.

Rentaro tells her that she’s Ikuma Shogun’s initiator.

Thanks for translating the dialogue with Sumire. That was some pretty crucial character development there.

[Iggy_Pop]

Eh, I was under the impression that you read the original volumes considering how you twitted to the author.

Anyways…..

Spoiler for tina and ayn:

Tina is cursed children that Ayn took in and experimented on to turn into a hybrid soldier (someone with both the powers of the Gastrea and varium).

Ayn treats Tina like a powerful weapon that he’s extremely proud he created. He takes extreme pride in her combat abilities likely because he has a big part in developing it. Due to that he has a tendency to overestimate Tina’s chances of success in a mission. Beyond her combat abilities he doesn’t care for Tina. In fact he coldly commended Tina to commit suicide to prevent her bodies secrets to be studied by others should she fail her mission.

Tina doesn’t really like or dislike Ayn (it didn't say if she had any hard feelings for Ayn). I inferred that she only follows Ayn because she’s used to following his orders and it’s the only thing she knows in her short life. Once she lost to Rentaro it didn’t take a lot from Rentaro to make her turn to his side.

I could only read very little from the original volumes, due to my very bad understanding of Japanese. I also read some spoilers and wiki, so I know a little bit, but not much. BTW, is it true that in vol. 4,

Spoiler for Kisara:

Kisara manage to kill her brother and gained more info about the death of her parents?