Sect. 002 THE IGNITER 1 What is a flame? What happens when an object combusts? In order to explain what happens during combustion, chemists in medieval Europe hypothesized an element they called “phlogiston.” It was thought all combustible material contained phlogiston, and when that material was heated, it would release the phlogiston in the form of fire and smoke. However, that hypothesis was discredited after experiments showed that when a material combusts, what is left over is slightly heavier than what was there before. Of course, now we know that combustion is a form of oxidation. Fire is the result of when heated materials mix with the air to form a flammable gas and oxidize in a chain reaction, releasing light and heat. In other words, oxygen is the key to the mystery that allows the beautiful and intense phenomenon of combustion to take place. Oxygen. O-x-y-g-e-n, oxygen. “Oxy…gen! ” sang a man, who goes by the name Ayato Suka, before spreading his arms wide and taking a deep breath. The oxygen particles from the air that were sucked in through Suka’s nostrils flowed down his bronchial tubes and into his lungs, where they then passed through his alveolar sacs and into his bloodstream. The murky blood from his veins was cleansed and regained its brilliance and beautiful red color before being sent off to the rest of his body. At the same time, tears gently flowed from under Suka’s closed eyes, tears of gratitude. The intensity of his gratitude sent shivers down his spine, and goose bumps rose all over his skin. Right now, in the mitochondria throughout Suka’s body, ATP was being synthesized through reactions with hydrogen and oxygen. This, too, was a form of combustion. Oxygen, in all its glory and with its infinite mercy, allows not just mankind, but all life, a peaceful and harmless form of combustion. It is for that reason, we must give our greatest thanks with every breath. But even so…you people never… Suka opened his eyes and looked down at the scene below him. He was standing on a small ledge, beyond the fence on the roof of a fifteen-story building, so the people walking on the street below looked like specks. On the road in front of the west entrance to Ikebukuro Station were long lines of taxis and private vehicles, and the wide walkways were filled with pedestrians. Inside of the engines of the cars crawling along the congested road, oxygen was sucked into the cylinders to be mixed with aerosol gasoline and forced into performing a meaningless combustion. The ugly chorus of exhaust sounded as if the oxygen particles were screaming out in anger. Not only that, but the oxygen breathed in by the people walking down below was also being wasted for stupid reasons. To supply the energy for their meaningless conversations and their meaningless movements, oxygen was being polluted and released as exhaust. But even so, they never give thanks… They don’t even think about the process at all. You don’t know. You don’t know how glorious, how terrifying, how dangerous oxygen is. “So I will show you,” Suka sang. The center of Suka’s right palm throbbed with heat, as if it were agreeing with him, supporting him, egging him on. Suka extended his right hand, curling his fingers as if he were gripping a clear ball about ten centimeters in diameter. He had never successfully tried gripping something of this size before, but this time would be different. In preparation for this moment he had spent a month camping in the mountains of Okutama, at harmony with its sweet and fresh oxygen. Moving his fingers, Suka focused on one of the people on the walkway far below. It was a young businessman wearing a gray suit. Perhaps he was waiting for someone, as he had stood on the edge of the walkway for about thirty minutes without moving. As he irritatingly messed about with his smartphone, he breathed out clouds of smoke. At his feet on the pavement, where a NO SMOKING sign was painted, more than ten cigarette butts had accumulated. As Suka watched on, the man had already put another cigarette in his mouth and was pulling out his lighter. “Oxy…gen…,” muttered Suka in a deep voice as he put strength into his grip. As if the imaginary clear ball Suka was “holding” had suddenly taken form, he felt a strong resistance pushing his fingers back. At the same time, the throbbing pulse coming from the thing inside his hand began to accelerate. With his joints starting to creak, Suka put all his strength and energy into his grip, and the imaginary ball slowly began to shrink. “O-oxy…!!” As sweat formed on Suka’s forehead and the veins in his hand rose to the surface, the imaginary ball shrank to about five centimeters in diameter, but an overwhelming hardness kept his fingers from contracting any further. Maybe this grip is more than I can handle, thought Suka, but if he couldn’t manage at least this much, he would never get the results he wanted. Through clenched teeth, Suka’s abnormal voice rushed out. “…gen!! Oxy-gen!!!” Leaning backward and pulling together all his strength, Suka was finally able to break through the invisible shell that was holding him back and grip his fingers together. Through the gaps in Suka’s fist, crimson beams of light shot forth. On the walkway down below, a sudden gust rushed by as people stumbled, pulling at their jackets and holding down their skirts, but that wind was merely a side effect. The young businessman Suka had focused on, not seeming to notice the gust, placed his thumb on the flint wheel of his lighter as he brought it to his face. The spark from the struck flint flew toward the oil-soaked wick. The resulting flame burned ferociously, leaping more than thirty centimeters into the air. The flame not only burned away the man’s cigarette but also engulfed his head and hair. “Gyaaahhh!!!” The man’s high-pitched screams could be heard even from where Suka stood, on the roof of that fifteen-floor building, and the screams from onlookers soon followed. The businessman with his head on fire collapsed onto the pavement and squirmed, trying to put out the flame, but no matter what he did, it would not weaken or dissipate. But of course. After all, that man was engulfed in a thick concentration of nearly 100 percent oxygen. With the power of the crimson sphere embedded in Suka’s right fist, he had pulled all the oxygen from the surrounding air and concentrated it in that one spot. Now, the pillar of fire had engulfed the businessman and had risen to a height of several meters. Leaves and garbage that had been pulled in by the gust of wind exploded as they instantly burned away, adding in a little extra flair. “Kuh… Ku-ha-ha-ha-ha,” chuckled Suka, unable to contain the laughter curdling deep within his throat. Did you see that? Have you finally learned just how frightening and beautiful oxygen is? In the midst of the flame, the businessman had stopped moving. His hands and feet melted and crumbled as he stood, and before long nothing remained but black carbonized ash. But still Suka would not release his grip. The flames heated the pavement until it glowed red, like lava. Who knows what the temperature had reached in the middle of that flame? But as long as there was material that could be oxidized, nothing would quell the intense anger of that oxygen. Worship the flame, the beautiful phenomenon of oxidation. Unable to run away, the idiotic onlookers had all fallen to their knees or collapsed. Of course, that was due to the fact the surrounding air was deprived of oxygen, but to Suka it looked as if they were bowing down in fear to the gigantic flame. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.” Suka’s thin body twisted as his shoulders shook with laughter. Suka’s power, which for a long time could only start a small flame, finally was able to burn away an entire human being. But this still wasn’t enough. It was not enough to cause the flames of Sodom that Suka needed in order to make humanity aware of its idiocy, aware of its wasteful synthesis of carbon dioxide from such a precious thing as oxygen. Suka needed to take hold of the oxygen in an even wider area. “Oxygen—! Oxygen—! ” he sang, finally releasing his grip. “Oxy-oxy-oxygen—! ” The skin in the center of Suka’s right palm was split, opened up like an eye slit revealing a glossy wet sphere the color of blood. As the wind settled down below, a section of the brick pavement was now like glass, exposed to temperatures more than one thousand degrees Celsius. In the center of that, a single irregular black stain was all that remained. 2 Minoru Utsugi stepped out of the taxi and stared blankly at the rows of trees on either side of the road. Adjusting his scarf, which had started to slip, he turned to his fellow passenger, who had just left the taxi herself. “…Is this the place?” he asked. “This is it,” said Yumiko Azu, nodding, with the hint of a mischievous smile as her glossy hair waved behind her. Yumiko hadn’t said a word since they’d left Yoshiki High School in Saitama City, Saitama, so Minoru thought she might have been upset, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Even so, Minoru didn’t have the composure needed to give much thought to Yumiko’s mood at the moment. After all, here he was, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s Industrial Safety and Health Department’s Specialized Forces Division, the SFD. Yet this place Minoru was suddenly taken to go see, supposedly the headquarters of a secret organization founded to protect mankind, was a wooded area not unlike Akigase Park, located near Minoru’s home in the Sakura district of Saitama. “…Where in Tokyo are we anyway?” asked Minoru in a low voice to Yumiko, his SFD senior, after waiting for the taxi, along with the sound of its electric motor, to leave. The taxi, which had picked Minoru up right outside of school, had spent nearly thirty minutes on the expressway connecting Saitama and the Tokyo metropolitan area, before making several turns after exiting, so Minoru, who had no experience with the area, had no idea where they were. “This is actually part of Shinjuku,” answered Yumiko before pointing a slender finger out toward the winter afternoon sky. “West Waseda Station on the Fukutoshin line is over there, and over this way is Waseda Station on the Tozai line. I suppose we’re about halfway between the two. By its address, headquarters is in Toyama 3-chome, Shinjuku,” Yumiko continued. “Shinjuku…” The first things that came to Minoru’s mind were the iconic twin towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Having seen those towers in photographs and on TV before, Minoru looked around to see if he could find them, but he couldn’t see anything past the trees. “Umm… So where is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building?” Minoru asked. Minoru thought he had asked a serious question, but after staring dumbstruck at him for a moment, Yumiko looked as if she was trying to hold back laughter. “There’s no way we’d be able to see that from here. The Metropolitan Government Building is on the west side of Shinjuku Station, and where we are is basically the northeastern tip of the district,” she finally answered. “Oh… All right, then,” muttered Minoru, nodding. Was that really such a stupid question? In Saitama at least, you can see the tall buildings in the urban center from anywhere along the Arakawa River…, Minoru thought to himself. “If there’s time later, why don’t you go walk around and familiarize yourself with the area?” Yumiko said, without offering to be a guide, and then lifted the backpack she was holding in her right hand and slung it over her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go,” said Yumiko before starting off in a brisk walk down the sidewalk that ran along the trees. It was Friday, December 13, exactly one week since Minoru had first encountered Yumiko at Akigase Park. Yumiko was wearing a black blazer, a gray pleated skirt, black tights, and mid-cut sneakers, just like she’d worn seven days before. Minoru couldn’t tell, however, whether she had the same high-powered stun baton or combat knife hidden away under her skirt as she did then. Having walked about ten meters ahead, Yumiko took a sudden left. When Minoru rushed to catch up to her, he saw an iron gate red with rust, which opened to a small path leading into the trees. After walking down that path for another ten seconds, crunching over leaves that had fallen over the asphalt, the path led to a wide square enclosure with trees on all sides. There, Minoru stopped dead in his tracks. What stood quietly before him was a boxy, old five-story apartment building. The outer wall of the building was concrete, and it looked like it had seen better days. About 30 percent of the building was covered in green moss, another 30 percent covered in vines, and the remaining 40 percent was dark from stains left over from the rain. Minoru guessed that there were four apartments per floor, making a total of twenty units in the five-story building. Looking up at the verandas above, there were even clothes and mats hanging out to dry. There was nothing that looked secret or base-like about it. Well, actually… I suppose that’s the point, thought Minoru before timidly turning to Yumiko. “So…does this mean there’s a high-tech secret base hidden underground?” he asked. “If you dug around here, all you’d find is a base for earthworms and pill bugs,” answered Yumiko curtly. She walked ahead toward the building, and Minoru hurriedly followed after her. When it comes to not looking the way you would expect, I suppose this building and Yumiko are the same. Who would expect this normal-looking girl in a school uniform to be hiding a stun baton, a large knife, and the ability to amplify acceleration? Not to mention the fact that she is the host of a “Jet Eye,” a black Third Eye… No, I need to stop. Don’t look. Don’t think. Don’t make any more memories. Minoru pulled his gaze away from Yumiko and stared at the ground beneath his feet. When one first starts learning about someone, those memories that form will demand to expand. Even more dangerous than wanting to know more about someone is how that emotion later translates into oneself wanting that person to know more about them. The reason I came here, as the host of a Jet Eye, was not to fight the Ruby Eyes, nor was it to protect the people who inevitably become their victims. It was in order for me to reach a world, which I have been searching for for so long, where no one would know who I am. That is the only reason I am cooperating with them. Minoru walked forward, tugging at the collar of his Chesterfield coat, which he had on over his school uniform. Yumiko wordlessly walked ahead into the entrance of the apartment building and pressed the button on an old-looking elevator positioned at the back of the first floor. The elevator opened slowly and reluctantly, as if there was something wrong with the joints in the door. The elevator was cramped and shook back and forth enough to make Minoru nervous several times as it went up. When Minoru looked at the area over the door, he could not find an inspection sticker. If that wasn’t enough, for some reason the fragrance drifting over from Yumiko’s hair as she stood diagonally in front of him made him feel even more nervous. Now that I think about it…I had PE fifth period. I probably smell sweaty. I bet that’s why she has her back turned to me, Minoru thought. He had just begun to consider activating his protective shell when the elevator finally reached the top floor. The doors rumbled open and Minoru followed Yumiko out, pausing to take a short breath, and looked at his surroundings. “Huh?!” Minoru gasped in surprise. The first reason for his surprise was that the elevator did not lead out into a hall but opened immediately into a room. The second reason was that the room was incredibly spacious. There was a long distance between the left and right walls, and it appeared as if all of the interior walls on the fifth floor had been knocked out to make way for a large single room. The room spanned about 30 meters from east to west and 80 meters from north to south, which would mean the room had an area of 240 square meters. Given that one tatami mat is 1.6 square meters, this was a 150 tatami mat–size room. The flooring was gray, and the walls and ceiling were bare concrete. Through the windows on the other side of the room, one could see the trees of the surrounding area glowing in the sunset. After pausing to look out those windows at a scene a person wouldn’t expect to find in Shinjuku, right in the center of Tokyo, Minoru looked again around the room. In a few words, Minoru thought the arrangement of the room was an incredible waste of the space. There was a large television and speaker set, a bookshelf that reached to the ceiling, a large sofa that could double as a bed, and a dining table that looked like it could seat ten people, all placed apart from one another, like lonely islands in the vastness of the room. Minoru thought that his own room was relatively empty compared to what is normal for a high school boy, but the feeling of emptiness in this vast room was like that of the Kalahari Desert. If he lived here, Minoru thought, he wouldn’t have to go to the banks of the Arakawa River to run; he could just run around inside this room. As he continued to drift off into thought, Yumiko seemed to have lost her patience. “I know that it’s shocking and all, but are you done?” she snapped. “Ah…y-yeah.” “Take off your shoes and change into these slippers.” Changing out of his sneakers as he was told, Minoru then followed Yumiko out into the large single room. Circling around the bookshelf, stepping over some cushions, and crossing in front of the TV, they walked fifteen meters to the western end of the room. This area alone looked fitting for a place called SFD Headquarters. There was a row of steel racks stuffed with computers, monitors, printers, scanners, drives, along with other mysterious instruments that Minoru didn’t know what they were used for. There was also an experiment table with sinks attached, the kind you might find in a middle school science room, and on top of it were several things made of both glass and metal. At the center of the table, looking into a large microscope, was…a child. There was no other way to put it. The young girl looked several years younger than Minoru. She couldn’t have been even in middle school yet. She looked like she was maybe in her fourth or fifth year of elementary school. She had two small braids hanging down to her back and round freckled cheeks. She was wearing the kind of T-shirt one would expect an elementary school girl to wear, with a whitish denim miniskirt. She had a name tag pinned to her chest with a safety pin and wore over her clothes a lab coat that looked like it reached to her ankles. “Oh? Hmm…,” the elementary school kid cutely mumbled. “Professor! Pro-fes-sor!!” called out Yumiko in a loud voice. Huh? Professor? You mean like the ones who teach at universities? thought Minoru confusedly, while Yumiko continued to raise her voice. “Professor, I brought him! Your new guinea pi— I mean, our new SFD member!” “Huh? Oh…I see,” said the girl, finally raising her head from the microscope. Still, this “professor” looked like any ordinary elementary school girl. She had pink cheeks and thick eyebrows and large eyes below them. Rather than wearing a lab coat and looking through a microscope, it would probably look more fitting for her to be running around outside in sportswear. The girl hopped off the round stool she was sitting on, trotted in between the experiment table and steel racks, and then looked up at Minoru. To Minoru, that gaze felt as if it were piercing through to his very soul, and he twitched unconsciously. As he stood there, Yumiko came and pushed Minoru from behind and entered the introduction phase. “Utsugi, this is the deputy chief and strategic commander of the SFD, Riri Isa,” Yumiko said. Deputy chief? Strategic commander? Riri…Isa? As Minoru stood there, confused, the girl’s name tag came clearly into view. In cute lettering, it said, “Fourth Year, Class Two, Riri Isa.” The only schools in Japan that have a fourth year are elementary schools, technical colleges, and four-year universities, but the latter two just couldn’t be possible. “And this is Minoru Utsugi, who we were talking about before. You know, the one you were really interested in,” Yumiko continued. “You didn’t have to add that, Yukko,” Riri said with a smirk, taking her right hand out of her lab coat pocket and extending it to Minoru. Minoru reflexively grasped her hand; it was small and soft. “I’m Isa, and I’m looking forward to working with you,” said Riri. “O-okay. Umm… I’m Minoru Utsugi. I’m looking forward to working with you, too,” replied Minoru. “All right! You can call me Deputy Isa, Riri, or Professor, like how Yukko does, or however else you want. In return, will you let me decide what to call you?” Riri asked. While confused, Minoru didn’t have any other options, so he nodded. “Perfect!” Riri smiled this time with a more innocent-looking smile, and after pulling her hand back, she tilted her head in thought. “Hmm… Utsugi… Ucchii… Tsugitsugi… Nope, we’re going to have to use your first name… Minomino, Mirumiru… Norucchi…,” Riri mumbled. “Huh?” Those couldn’t possibly be nickname candidates, could they? Minoru shivered in thought, when Yumiko put her hand on his shoulder. “Just accept it. I have to put up with the name Yukko after all. Professor really likes these sort of things, thinking about problems that have no answer,” said Yumiko. “Okay…?” replied Minoru. Riri, who meanwhile had been walking back and forth in front of the table, suddenly clapped her hands together. “I’ve got it! From now on, you will be called Mikkun!!” Surely it was just a coincidence, but the name was very similar to “Mii-kun,” the nickname Minoru’s relative Norie Yoshimizu had given him, so Minoru thought it could have been a lot worse, but just then Yumiko burst into laughter. “Well, you got a pretty cute nickname, didn’t you?! I suppose I’ll have to use it, too!” she laughed. “Please don’t,” said Minoru in a flat-out rejection. “I’m joking,” said Yumiko in a serious tone before heading off into the kitchen area. After this introduction phase was over and Yumiko had served coffee on the experiment table, the fourth-year elementary student deputy chief again openly looked Minoru over. “Hmm… I’ve already seen photographs, but after meeting you directly…I really am surprised. To think that you were the one who took out Biter all on your own,” said Riri in an awfully mature tone, but Minoru only shook his head. “I-I didn’t do it all by myself. When I fought Biter at the Saitama Super Arena, both Yumiko and DD were there,” argued Minoru. “You don’t have to be modest. Not only were we late, we weren’t able to help out at all. By the way, Professor, where did DD run off to?” asked Yumiko. “He’s apparently ‘sniffed’ another one out. He’s searching along with Oli-V,” answered Riri, stirring her cup of coffee full of milk and sugar. Hearing Riri’s answer, Yumiko’s eyebrows twitched. “Does that mean you’re the only one here today? What about Lindenberger?” Yumiko asked. “Absent as usual,” Riri replied. Who are Oli-V and Lindenberger? And anyway, just how many Jet Eyes are there in the…“Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare Industrial Safety and Health Department, Specialized Forces Division”? Does this “professor” sitting right in front of me also have a Third Eye somewhere inside of her? If so, what is her ability? Minoru began to feel dizzy. Maybe it was the flood of information he had received since coming to this apartment complex–turned-base or the number of questions that kept popping up inside his head. Since he usually lived by the motto “May today be no different than tomorrow,” he realized he was weak against changes in environment. He wanted to learn the things he needed to know, then hurry back to his home in Saitama and reset his brain. As if Riri had read Minoru’s thoughts, she brought the conversation back to the subject at hand. “Well, anyway, Mikkun. How much have you been told about the Third Eyes?” Riri asked. “U-umm…” Minoru straightened his posture and looked down at the black surface of the experiment table. “They are spheres about two centimeters in diameter that come from space and infect human hosts… We don’t know how many there are, but they come in two types: red ‘Ruby Eyes’ and black ‘Jet Eyes.’ The difference between them is that humans infected with Ruby Eyes are driven by a desire to kill other humans. Both types of Third Eyes give their human hosts mysterious powers. Like my shell or Yumiko’s acceleration.” “Hmm. You’ve been told most of what there is to know. If I were to add one thing, it would be that one of the aspects of the powers Third Eyes give their hosts is no longer that mysterious,” said Riri. “What?” asked Minoru, holding the coffee cup that he was about to sip in midair. “You’ve discovered how the power works?!” “Well…we haven’t gotten that far yet. While we can vaguely hypothesize what is happening, we still have no way of describing how,” answered Riri, shaking her head as she twisted one of her braids around her finger. “B-but that’s amazing! Just what is going on? What kind of power do Third Eyes possess?” asked Minoru, leaning forward. Riri raised a finger in front of her. “Simply put, they’re manipulating atoms and molecules. They’re using some unexplained power similar to telekinesis.” “Manipulating…atoms?” pondered Minoru aloud. “Exactly, and the effective range of that power is inversely related to the complexity of the atoms or molecules that are manipulated,” continued Riri. Riri then moved her right hand and passed Minoru a petri dish that was lying on the table. Inside was a shard of metal, about the size of a one-yen coin, which shined with a dull silver color Minoru was familiar with. “Ah… Th-this is…,” stuttered Minoru. “One of Biter’s teeth,” continued Riri, crossing her arms. “It’s incredible, really. There are molecules of iron and chromium organized in a nanoscale 3-D honeycomb structure within the normal hydroxylapatite crystal structure of the tooth, giving it an astonishing hardness of 2,500 on the Vickers scale.” “Excuse me, Professor. What is the hardness of a normal human tooth on the Vickers scale?” asked Yumiko. Upon hearing that question, the fourth-year elementary school girl smiled as if to say, “Great question,” before starting her explanation. “Our teeth are at most a hardness of four hundred. Extremely hard metal alloys such as tungsten carbide are about 1,700 and sapphire 2,300. Does that help you understand just how hard Biter’s teeth were? …Coincidentally, there is no way to reproduce the material in that tooth with any existing technology we have today. The melting point of chromium is about 1,900 degrees Celsius, but the melting point of hydroxylapatite is 1,670 degrees. If you tried to coat a tooth in chromium, the tooth would burn away. In other words, to create these teeth, Biter manipulated iron, chromium, and hydroxylapatite concurrently. Not only that, but I hear that he altered the bones and muscle structures around his jaw as well.” “Ah… Th-that’s correct,” Minoru said, thinking back to the time he fought the Ruby Eye, Biter, just four days before. “It was as if his mouth stretched out like that of a shark…” “Which means that he was able to alter the proteins, fats, calcium compounds, and other complex molecules that compose the human body at will. The Third Eyes who can alter human flesh like that generally can only use their powers on their own bodies,” explained Riri. “Ah… That’s why you mentioned earlier that the effective range of power is inversely related to the complexity of what it affects,” said Minoru, finding it strangely natural to speak to this elementary school girl in polite language. Riri nodded with the air of a professor before continuing. “Exactly. You’re catching on quick. To put it simply, the ‘effective range’ of Third Eye hosts who manipulate high molecular compounds made up of many atoms is short, but on the other hand, the simpler the molecules they manipulate, the longer the range of their power. If we split Third Eye powers into these two categories, Yukko’s ‘accelerator’ power, for example, would fall into the same category as Biter’s.” Yumiko, who had been listening, winced. “…Well, I mean, I am in a sense manipulating my entire body…but I don’t do anything like transform…,” she muttered. “Well, I bet if you tried, you could,” replied Riri with a smirk before continuing her explanation. “In Yukko’s case, she uses the acceleration generated from kicking off ground as leverage to throw all of the molecules in her body forward. “Therefore, according to the general rule, her power only affects her own body.” “She…throws her body?” repeated Minoru before turning to look at Yumiko. Yumiko in her black blazer sipped her coffee and pretended not to notice. Minoru had seen Yumiko, code name “Accelerator,” perform teleport-like dashes several times when they fought Biter, but he had thought her power was manipulating acceleration itself. Even when it was explained to him as her throwing all of the molecules that make up her body, he had trouble grasping the concept. As he tried his best to comprehend, furrowing his brow, Riri cut in unexpectedly. “It looks like Mikkun’s having trouble, so why don’t we show him an example of your power at work, Yukko?” Riri said. “What? Here?” said Yumiko, obviously against the idea, but Riri nodded, unaffected. “If he takes a look at what happens one more time, I’m sure he’ll understand in an instant,” she said. “Utsugi’s already seen me use my power several times, though,” Yumiko said but stood up from her chair. Prompted by Riri, Minoru stood up as well. “Mikkun, you should probably stand and watch from a distance… Over there will be fine,” said Riri. “O-okay.” As he was instructed, Minoru moved over near where the TV was, in the center of the south side of the giant room, which was about fifteen meters away from the experiment table along the west wall. It wouldn’t have felt like such a long distance outdoors, but indoors, Minoru felt as if he were very far away. “All right, let’s go! Watch closely now, Mikkun!” Riri called out. “I’m the one who’s doing the jumping, though,” said Yumiko, who took off her slippers, looking as if she had given up. Her two feet wrapped in black tights stepped lightly on the flooring as if she were testing its hardness. Yumiko lifted her arms out and behind her, perhaps to cut wind resistance, and put her right foot forward. But her foot didn’t touch the ground. As if it were being pulled by an invisible rubber sling, Yumiko’s body went hurtling forward at an incredible speed, hovering a few centimeters off the ground, flying past Minoru with a whoosh of wind. Minoru wasn’t able to follow Yumiko with his eyes as she landed on the other side of the room. It wasn’t that his eyes couldn’t keep up, but that after seeing Yumiko’s white blouse pressed strongly against her chest from the air pressure of the leap, the image burned into his brain and cut his train of thought. But wait, what happened to the blazer that she was just wearing? Minoru thought. Two seconds later, the answer was clear. “J-just what do you think you’re doing, Professor?!” squealed Yumiko, using her power to fly back to the west side of the room, where Riri was standing with a black blazer in her right hand and a mischievous smile on her face. Riri had probably grabbed the back of Yumiko’s blazer right before Yumiko dashed forward. Because Yumiko had lifted both her arms behind her, it must have easily come off and was left in Riri’s hand. “Give it back!” Yumiko took back her blazer as soon as she landed, but in her rush to put it back on, her hand got caught in the left sleeve and she was having trouble. Minoru looked away as he headed back to the experiment table. With both of her hands stuffed in her lab coat pockets, Riri smiled at Minoru. “So, do you understand now?” she asked. “Umm…” “Just what was it that you wanted me to understand by showing me that?” wondered Minoru before reaching the answer. If Yumiko’s power was as Minoru had originally thought and was the power to directly amplify acceleration, it should affect everything undergoing the original acceleration. However, just by Riri, who was by no means large, grabbing hold of Yumiko’s blazer, it easily came off and was left behind. In other words… “This means that…Yumiko’s power only works on her own body, and her clothing is just being pulled along?” asked Minoru. “Exactly!” exclaimed Riri with a snap of her fingers as she helped Yumiko put her blazer back on. “The polar opposite of those like Yukko and the Biter who use their powers to manipulate themselves are those like DD who use their power for remote sensing.”
Chapter 13
29 min read